It's your weekly compendium of foolishness and corruption and murder in Philippine politics.
A policeman under investigation for alleged links to the illegal drug trade was killed in an ambush as he was driving his sport utility vehicle in Quezon City on Wednesday night.
Police Officer 3 Rufino Gabis, 47, was at a stoplight along Kalayaan Avenue in Barangay Malaya when two men on a motorcycle attacked him at around 8 p.m., probers said.
The backrider got off the motorcycle and fired shots through the driver’s side window of Gabis’ new Toyota Fortuner. Gabis died at the scene as the assailants sped away.
Chief Superintendent Joselito Esquivel, QCPD director, said Gabis was “relieved” from his post at the Kamuning police station months ago following “reports of impropriety.”
Esquivel added that there is no final report yet on Gabis’ alleged drug links.
This officer was relieved from duty months ago and the PNP still do not have a final report on his alleged drug links. Why not? Is someone preventing an investigation to be completed? Or is the PNP just that slow?
“Don’t kill the street pushers; arrest them. Make them lead you to the big-time suppliers, then finish the job by engaging those suppliers in a shootout,” said Lacson, a former PNP chief.
The law enforcers could then repeat the cycle by arresting another street pusher and finding his source of illegal drugs, he added.
"Finish the job by engaging those suppliers in a shootout"??? Is this Senator, a former PNP chief, really telling the PNP to actively engage suspects in a shootout and kill them? Yes he is. Is that not the essence of an EJK? To kill suspects? He also seems to forget that there have been no suppliers caught. Even Peter Lim is still on the run! It's all small time dealers and users who have been the casualties in the drug war.
Remember this?
So how is this legal:
Duterte led the distribution of 623 land ownership certificates to 484 agrarian reform beneficiaries for the 274 hectares of government-owned lots in Boracay and two towns in Aklan province.
Specifically, the government turned over 3.2 hectares to 45 beneficiaries belonging to the Boracay Ati Tribal Organization based in Barangay Manoc-Manoc in Malay, Aklan.The rest of the beneficiaries were from Barangay Kabulihan in Malay town, Barangay Nazareth in Buruanga, Aklan and Barangay Tagas in Tangalan, Aklan.
In his speech, Duterte reiterated that the beneficiaries could sell their lots to commercial developers once the 10-year prohibition on selling the property has lapsed.
Under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), the agrarian reform beneficiary cannot sell, mortgage and encumber his property during 10 years from award.
"In the meantime, till the land, make it productive and when the prohibition period is over, maybe your children can sell it and it would be million[s]. May mga Ati dito na yayaman balang araw," he said.
The CARP is also known as R.A. 6657 which was amended by R.A. 9700. Here is the text of the law on transferring or selling land under the CARP.
"SEC. 27. Transferability of Awarded Lands. - Lands acquired by beneficiaries under this Act or other agrarian reform laws shall not be sold, transferred or conveyed except through hereditary succession, or to the government, or to the LBP, or to other qualified beneficiaries through the DAR for a period of ten (10) years: Provided, however, That the children or the spouse of the transferor shall have a right to repurchase the land from the government or LBP within a period of two (2) years. Due notice of the availability of the land shall be given by the LBP to the BARC of the barangay where the land is situated. The PARCCOM, as herein provided, shall, in turn, be given due notice thereof by the BARC.
https://www.lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra2009/ra_9700_2009.html
Duterte is telling these people they can sell their lands after 10 years to commercial developers. But the wording of the law does not allow for that.
The Ilocos Norte lawmaker is sentenced to imprisonment of six years and one month to 11 years for each count of graft. She was also perpetually disqualified from public office.
She will undoubtedly appeal to the Supreme Court. It's hard to believe she will spend even a single day in prison.
Working for the Duterte administration is like walking through a revolving door.
“That’s right. I’m going to reward that policeman, any policeman who will kill his superior because the superior is into drugs. I will give you a prize and a trip to Hong Kong,” Duterte said in a speech in Malacañang during a “lecture” on drugs and militarization among Cabinet members.
(I think it is has nothing to do with it, because our effort since the creation of CITF has not changed until now.)
The CITF is the police unit tasked to run after erring officers.
“Wala namang pagbabago sa intensity ng aming police operations against sa tinatawag nating scalawags in uniform,” he also said.
(Nothing has changed in the intensity of our police operations against so-called scalawags in uniform.)
Mr. Duterte on Tuesday offered a trip to Hong Kong as reward to the policeman who killed Supt. Santiago Rapiz in a drug buy-bust in Dipolog City, Zamboanga del Norte.
Two days later, Cariaso was shot as he alighted his sports utility vehicle. Cariaso is said to be assigned at the PNP’s Internal Affairs Service (IAS) in Camp Crame. The PNP-IAS handles complaints against policemen.
Albayalde said policemen are “concerned” about the attack on Cariaso since it could be an indication that some senior officers in the PNP could still be involved in the illegal drugs trade.
Funny how Duterte's words are always stripped of their power by his subordinates. His words are either reduced to a joke or they are dismissed with a wave of the hand.
Is the new head of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) missing in action?
According to Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, recently installed BuCor chief Nicanor Faeldon “has not showed up or said anything.”
“I have no idea why. I have mentioned this fact to the Executive Secretary during the Cabinet meeting last Tuesday. He said he would mention it to the President,” Guevarra said Friday.
One of Duterte's most trusted men is MIA? Hope he is safe!
“Nagbirthday siya [Imee] kahapon e, bad timing nga [She had her birthday yesterday, it was bad timing].”
Sen. Cynthia Villar told DWIZ on Saturday, noting it was Imee Marcos’ birthday on Nov. 10, when former First Lady Imelda Marcos was found guilty of graft charges.
When asked if the conviction of Imelda affected Imee Marcos’ candidacy in the 2019 senate elections, Senator Cynthia Villar claimed: “Wala naman [It does not have an effect].”
Hahahahaha!!! Oh man! But guess what! Imelda skipped her court date and showed up at Imee's birthday party and pictures of that event circulated on social media angering a lot of people. So it turns out Imelda's conviction didn't put paper on the her daughter's birthday at all. Amazingly there are some who think Imelda should not pay the penalty for her crimes.
But placing Imelda, an octogenarian, behind bars would do the country no good, according to House Deputy Minority Leader Danilo Suarez.
Suarez, a Quezon representative, said the proposals to exempt Imelda from serving the 77-year jail term handed down by the antigraft court Sandiganbayan were reasonable considering her age.
“For us to have closure, don’t make this a big issue,” Suarez told reporters. “If you have her arrested, the issue will only become bigger.”
In the House of Representatives, Suarez said critics of the late dictator had done nothing but look for the wrong that Marcos had done.
“How about the good things they [Marcoses] had done?” the lawmaker said.
Suarez said the country would not move on if people would dig up the past.
It's a mentality like this, that people should not have to pay for their crimes or that making someone pay for their crimes means digging up and dwelling on the past and not moving on, that makes the political and legal culture in the Philippines such a nightmare of impunity. And this guy is a lawmaker!
In a radio interview, Igwas said he was forced to take a horse to work because Kidapawan Mayor Joseph Evangelista, in a memorandum, had stripped him of his service vehicle for allegedly refusing to support the mayor’s candidacy.
He was singled out, Igwas said, “because there were reports I was supporting another mayoral candidate,” Vice Mayor Bernardo Piñol Jr.
Igwas maintained he was “not supporting any politician because that is not allowed by law. As IPMR (representative), I’m supposed to be apolitical.”
On Oct. 28, Evangelista sent another memorandum to Igwas telling him to vacate his office because it would be converted into the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Indigenous Peoples (IP).
In a DXND radio interview, the mayor admitted ordering the recall of Igwas’ service vehicle and asking him to vacate his office, but stressed that there was “no politics” involved in those actions.
Citing a letter that Igwas wrote him in February, Evangelista said the IPMR actually asked for funds from the local government for his office’s renovation.
Igwas’ office, the mayor explained, will be turned into a livelihood training center for IP women and will be called Kidapawan City Tribal Hall and Training Center.
As for Igwas’ service vehicle, Evangelista said it was aging and needed repairs, hence it was recalled.
But Igwas said these were not the reasons given him when the vehicle was taken and he was evicted from his office.
“The vehicle was recalled [supposedly] for the use of the city engineering, and the office for the use of the deputy mayor for IP,” Igwas said. “I guess I was stripped of these because there are things I would not do, jobs I simply cannot do because these are not within my mandate.”
Does he have a bag on that horse or does it mess everywhere in town? Where does he tie up his horse when he gets to town?
He cited among the country’s diplomatic successes the handling of the West Philippine Sea dispute, mainly with China; the country’s reelection to the United Nations Human Rights Council despite some nations’ outcry against Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs; and the international cooperation to rehabilitate Marawi City.
Nothing in that list is a diplomatic success. China continues to ignore the 2016 UN ruling and to be aggressive in the WPS, the Philippines being elected to the UNCHR was due to
there being no one else and is not an affirmation of Duterte's policies, and international cooperation to rebuild Marawi is not necessarily a good thing. It's fine to accept the money donated from foreign nations for the purpose but to have a Chinese construction company lead the rebuilding instead of a Filipino company is only going to cause complications.
President Rodrigo Duterte warned that the national government would take over facilities of Palawan’s lone power distributor and bring in a foreign company if recurring outages did not end.
“On the extreme, maybe I will give you about toward the end of the year [to have] a new set-up that would provide enough energy so that it can operate and it can move,” the President said in a rambling hour-long speech at People’s Amphitheater in Mendoza Park.
“You have to upgrade your source of energy. If not, I will find one with funding — China has been itching to get hold of developments here,” Duterte said.
And Duterte is eager to give China any foothold in the Philippines they want.
Police chief Director General Oscar Albayalde on Monday said that they were looking into the links of some politicians to private armed groups (PAGs) in preparation for the 2019 midterm elections.
“We cannot divulge the name of those politicians, but we have intelligence information that needs to be confirmed and validated. Hindi lang natin basta-basta masabi ‘yung pangalan ng politko,” he said in a press briefing at Camp Crame.
Despite this, Albayalde noted that known PAGs, especially in Northern, Central, and Southern Luzon, had politicians as clients.
“Dun sa mga lugar na ‘yon, there are reports that they are being used especially during election time. Basically, ang information that we gather are mostly governors and mayors ‘yung mga candidates,” he said.
He cited a certain “Peralta group,” which he said had been used by some politicians in the past.
Politicians hiring armed groups. That's Philippine politics! The PNP says this every election though so nothing new here sadly.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) yesterday filed graft charges against former Customs commissioner and now Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) chief Isidro Lapeña over 105 shipping containers that are missing and believed to contain undervalued goods.
In the complaint filed before the Department of Justice, a copy of which was obtained by The STAR, NBI probers said Lapeña failed to issue a “special stop order” against the release of the undervalued items from the Asian Terminals Inc. (ATI).
Finally a big fish has been caught. But it's possible he could wiggle away.
Gatchalian on Tuesday noted an April Jobstreet Philippines survey which found that only 24 percent of local employers are willing to hire K-12 graduates.
In July, DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones said the agency will review the program after two years of its implementation. Initial results are expected to be released around February next year.
The K-12 program was only implemented two years ago so there is no way any real assessment can be made. They would have to wait at least twelve years or more to get a real assessment. That anyone is questioning K-12 schooling, which is a standard used worldwide, is an admission that the Philippines education system is subpar. In the Philippines employers, ALL EMPLOYERS, want college graduates. That includes McDonald's burger flippers and SM cashiers! And usually they all have the same worthless degree in tourism or hotel management.
Al-fred Concepcion, the vice mayor of Balaoan, La Union, and his security escort Mike Ulep were killed in a morning ambush in Barangay Cabuaan in his town on Wednesday, November 14.
His daughter, Mayor Aleli Concepcion, who was in their convoy, is being treated at Lorma Medical Center in San Fernando.
A father/daughter partnership ruling a small town. Scratch another chalk line for dead politician. Too common in the Philippines.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has filed graft and malversation charges against 24 local officials of Aklan, including the governor and vice governor, as well as the mayor and vice mayor of Malay town in connection with the alleged misuse of P84 million in Boracay funds.
In a complaint dated Oct. 22, a copy of which was obtained by The STAR yesterday, NBI Director Dante Gierran submitted to Ombudsman Samuel Martires the results of their investigation into the alleged misuse of millions of pesos in environmental and admission fees (EAF) collected from tourists entering Boracay.
The fund was supposed to be allocated for the preservation of the island. ?Investigation showed the local government of Malay used the EAF to fund other projects like the solid waste management program of the entire municipality, which is composed of 17 barangays.
The EAF was supposed to be used only for the waste management program for three barangays located in Boracay. ?“The purpose of the collection was for the sustenance of the island of Boracay. It was compromised and violated when the mayor, treasurer, vice mayor and members of the Sangguniang Bayan of Malay allocated the EAF for the entire municipality,” the complaint read.
Funds were misused by being spent on solid waste management?? That's a new one! At least they were using the money for something positive and not just lining their pockets.
Former Vice President Jejomar Binay on Wednesday said he wants a review of the power of Congress to conduct investigations, as he lamented that some inquiries touch on personal matters.
Section 21, Article VI of the 1987 Constitution states that the “Senate or the House of Representatives or any of its respective committees may conduct inquiries in aid of legislation in accordance with its duly published rules of procedures.”
Binay, who is seeking election as Makati City’s First District Representative in 2019, said that the phrase “in aid of legislation” is too general.
(I will convince my future colleagues in the Congress to review the investigation powers of Congress to determine its extent.)
(The phrase “in aid of legislation” is too broad. Sometimes, the subject matter becomes personal.)
If Binay gets elected he will hold and investigation into investigations conducted by Congress. Now that sounds good since the Senate has investigated crimes like the Ateno hazing incident. But the key here is him saying investigations can become too personal. He is certainly referring to himself.
The subcommittee earlier released its partial report on its investigation, which recommended the filing of plunder and other criminal charges against those involved in the alleged overpriced Makati City Hall 2 parking building.
In particular, the body recommended the filing of plunder and graft charges against Binay, who was the mayor of Makati City before he became Vice President.
Charges were filed against Binary and he and his family were even told by the COA to return P2.29 billion! Who would vote for this man? Why would the Comelec allow him to run?
The Philippines will remind China that it has a mutual defense treaty with the United States, a complication in the dynamics between Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries and China.
President Rodrigo Duterte, in an ambush interview with reporters before the start of the ASEAN-China Summit on Wednesday, said he will press for the conclusion of negotiations for a code of conduct (COC) in the disputed South China Sea during the meeting between Southeast Asian leaders and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Singapore.
The COC can dictate manners by which countries can deal with each other.
“It’s [mutual defense treaty] not been abrogated. It’s there and even I don’t know [if] it's the decision of the President, Congress, the Armed Forces,” he said.
“Yes, I will focus on the COC. Everything has been excellent between China and the rest of the ASEAN except for the fact that there’s friction between the western nations and China," he said.
Duterte then mentioned the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty between the Philippines and the US that obliges American troops to help defend the Philippines if it comes under attack.
"And I am worried and I expressed it last night because we have a defense treaty, mutual defense treaty with the US,” he added.
The President seemed to suggest that the Philippines may be in a bind if there are conflicts in the South China Sea or the West Philippine Sea, the name the Philippines calls that part of the ocean where it has claims.
“[If]…there’s some serious miscalculation can…you know and because of the treaty I'd like to [tell] China that is why at all cost we must have the COC. So you’re there, you’re in possession, you occupied it, then tell us what route shall we take and what kind of behavior do you want,” he said.
There is a lot going on here. It sounds like Duterte is worried China might do something stupid and the USA would take that as an opportunity to enforce the mutual defence treaty and attack China. It also sounds like Duterte would gladly abrogate this treaty if he could. Just more evidence of Duterte's love for China but what about when he is gone? Will his successor enforce the mutual defect treaty?
The daughter of President Rodrigo Duterte has raised the hands of rival mayoral candidates in Pasay City, prompting supporters of both Chet Cuneta and Emi Calixto-Rubiano to argue online as regards Sara Duterte's real choice.
This is stupid. She is hedging her bets by endorsing both candidates!
[It’s too extraordinary and it gives us a bad impression already. It is unfair when you portray an activity that does not happen in our organiztion.]
Albayalde said the PNP would write a letter listing the concerns of the police about the show to the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB)
But ABS-CBN said in a statement that the program was “purely fictitious,” as it had always stated in a disclaimer at the start of the show.
“FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano” assures the Philippine National Police (PNP) that the characters, places, and incidents in the program are purely fictitious as stated in the disclaimer aired at the start of the show every night,” ABS-CBN said.
This is funny because Bato praised Ang Probinsyano for being a good portrayal of the PNP and even met with Coco Martin. Also the PNP has a working relationship with the media to portray them in a good light. You can read about that relationship here. It's also funny because officers who rape, extort, and outright murder citizens is what really gives the public a bad impression of cops.
“I said China is already in possession. It’s now in their hands. So why do you have to create frictions, strong military activity that will prompt a response from China?” he said.
“I do not mind everybody going to war, except that the Philippines is just beside those islands. And if there’s a shooting there, my country will be the first to suffer. That is my only national interest there. Nothing else,” he said.
In a press briefing here, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. initially did not want to comment on Duterte’s remark because he was not present when the President issued the statement to reporters in an ambush interview.
But Locsin, who assumed his post as the country’s top diplomat in October, said the Philippines was not surrendering its claims to China in the West Philippine Sea.
“Absolutely not. I have repeatedly said not an inch, not an iota of sovereignty. That was my, I keep saying it, I said it also in the UN (United Nations),” he said in a press briefing here.
Teddy Boy is going to have to start coordinating with Duterte to make sure he says nothing to contradict Duterte.
Amazing to see the difference between the way the DOJ is taking a hands off approach with Lapeña and the PNP is hesitant to arrest Imelda should a warrant come with the way Trillanes was handled. There were officers stationed outside the Senate ready to arrest him at a moment's notice and the PNP even said they had a cell prepared for him! The DOJ venue shopped until they got the arrest warrant they wanted. Are there officers hanging around outside Imelda's house waiting to swoop in for the arrest? No. Is the DOJ actively pursing the NBI's recommendations against Lapeña? No.
Nice picture to accompany this article!
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