It's your weekly compendium of foolishness and corruption in the Philippine government.
Typhoon “Ursula” (international name: Phanfone) swept through the Visayas on Christmas Eve, leaving Boracay Island with damaged houses and buildings, flooded communities and power outages that also led to fuel shortage due to the use of generator sets.
But Boracay, which relies heavily on tourism for its economy, is facing another problem as uncollected garbage starts to pile up on street corners, by the roadsides and in other areas on the resort island in Aklan province.
In a statement on Thursday, the municipal government of Malay, which includes the three villages on the island, said the typhoon “disrupted” the delivery of services of the local government.
“The LGU (local government unit) of Malay [has] already coordinated with different haulers in the municipality to augment the [collection] of waste and debris left by the typhoon. In addition, we have coordinated with capable establishments in the [town] to assist us as part of their social responsibility,” according to the statement.
Environment Undersecretary Benny Antiporda, who oversees local governments and solid waste management, appealed for understanding from residents and business owners in Boracay, saying the task force’s manpower was also severely affected by the storm.
In a press briefing on Wednesday, Antiporda said the delay in collection was “not because of the holidays, but because [the collectors] were victims of Ursula, too.”
He said that despite the lack of manpower, some haulers had already started mobilizing on Dec. 29, noting that Boracay’s Stations 1 and 3 had already been cleared of trash and debris.
“We were also unable to immediately clean up due to the shortage of trucks. Our trucks in Boracay that would have been used to haul trash were also inundated,” he said, adding that six trucks had been sent from Malay mainland to assist in clearing operations.
This is not the first time Boracay has been hit by a typhoon. So why is there not a proper plan in place to resume garbage collection immediately? Especially after the six months closure for rehab it seems dumb that LGUs would not have gone over and revamped their emergency plans.
Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) Secretary Emmanuel Piñol on Thursday responded to an allegation of a certain Renato Castro of Bulacan who accused him of swindling.
In his Facebook post on Thursday, Piñol said he appeared before Davao City Fiscal Shahruddin Roberto Sencio, Jr., along with his legal counsel, lawyer Israelito Torreon, to submit his answer to a claim that he swindled Castro of PHP100,000 last year.
"I have asked my lawyer to also prepare a counter-charge for the hassle and inconvenience this Castro has inflicted on me," he said.
In a complaint before the Bulacan Prosecutor's Office, Castro alleged that a certain "Emmanuel Piñol" who claimed that he was working for Senator Ronald dela Rosa asked him to shell out PHP1 million in exchange for a certain project.
The amount was later reduced to PHP100,000, which Castro alleged, was sent to a money remittance in Cebu City and claimed by a person who presented an ID card of "Emmanuel Piñol."
When the promised transaction did not materialize, Castro went to Assistant Prosecutor Ralph David So of Bulacan and accused "Emmanuel Piñol" of swindling.
"Prosecutor So filed the information accusing ‘Emmanuel Piñol’ of swindling and mailed a copy of the complaint and an order for me to respond.
Following the incident, Piñol recounted several instances where his name was dragged to swindling activities.
Piñol claims to be the victim of false allegations and that this is not the first time. Perhaps he was guilty previously but was simply not convicted due to faulty prosecution.
Supreme Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez on Thursday said his office is looking into reports that a Baguio City judge allegedly ordered the release of a taxi driver who figured in an altercation with a policeman.
"The OCA (Office of the Court Administrator) is already looking into this issue,” Marquez told reporters in connection with the incident involving an unnamed judge.
“We would like to get all available information before we require the concerned judge to comment," he added.
Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong earlier ordered an investigation into the incident including the supposed judge who, according to media reports, is a relative of the taxi owner.
Looks like
a case of favouritism based on relationship.
The Court of Appeals (CA) has said the re-election of a local government official facing charges of misconduct in his previous term can no longer be considered as a condonation of the act.
In a 14-page decision dated December 13, the appellate court, through Associate Justice Japar B. Dimaampao, dismissed a petition filed by Guagua, Pampanga Mayor Dante D. Torres questioning the charges filed against him before the Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon.
The case arose from a complaint filed by a certain Juan Pring alleging irregularities in the upgrade and rehabilitation of the Manuel P. Santiago Municipal Town Plaza, also known as the MPS Park.
The complainant said the project was overpriced and that no competitive public bidding was conducted for a sole contractor that was entertained.
Bidding was conducted a month before the completion of the project in June 2014 and was implemented without coordination with the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, despite monuments of important personalities in the area.
Charges of technical malversation were eventually filed by the Ombudsman against the mayor for applying to the MPS Park PHP2.76 million in municipal funds originally earmarked for other projects.
A separate charge for simple misconduct was likewise filed by the Ombudsman and ordered his suspension from office without pay for three months, prompting the mayor to appeal his case.
This
mayor hoped
to get out of these charges of malversation and irregularities
by saying his re-election condones
his behaviour. An absolutely
stupid defence
not only because
the SC threw out that doctrine
a few years ago but because
criminal
activity in public
officials
is never to be condoned even if the people knowingly vote him back into office.
A municipal employee was shot dead on his way home at 10:15 p.m. on Friday along the village road of Ambonao.
Gunmen riding a motorcycle attacked Edu Gabriano, a 42-year-old job-order employee, as he rode a motorcycle to his home in Barangay (village) Lasip.
Gabriano reportedly worked as a security aide of Mayor Joseph Bauzon.
A security aid for the mayor gunned down by motorcycle assassins.
An accused in the Maguindanao massacre case whose name appeared as both convicted and acquitted went to the Court of Appeals and asked for his immediate release.
Based on the 761-page decision by the QCRTC, a certain Superintendent (now Lieutenant Colonel based on the new police rank classification) Bahnarin Kamaong is among the 28 convicted for the death of 57 people including 31 journalists. He is meted with the penalty of reclusion perpetua without parole.
The convicted Kamaong is identified in the decision as the Regional Commander of the Philippine National Police’s Regional Mobile Group who offered his troop for the ambush.
However, the same ruling mentioned a certain Police Lieutenant Bahnarin Kamaong as one of those acquitted and ordered the immediate release.
In the original charge sheet filed by government prosecutors before the Quezon City Court, there is only one Bahnarin Kamaong as accused–the one with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra and Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon both said that it is a matter for the court to clarify.
Clearly the court messed up here by placing the man's name on both the convicted and the acquitted lists. It should be an easy matter to clear up by the court but don't count on it. The courts move very slowly. That is one reason why they are so backlogged with cases and why the SC is hiring 50 judges to roam the country.
Republic Act No. 11459 of the Judges-At-Large Act of 2019 created a total of 100 positions for RTC judges at large and 50 for MTC judges at large.
Under the law, judges at large shall have no permanent courts and may be assigned by the Supreme Court as acting or assisting judges in any regional trial court or municipal trial court “as public interest may require.”
Sen. Richard Gordon, who authored the bill in the Senate, cited in June last year some 160,000 cases pending in the country’s 1,200 city and municipal courts, and 640,000 more cases in 1,100 regional trial courts, as of 2017. Such clogged dockets were causing “great delay” in the disposition of cases, he added.
“The congestion of our courts’ dockets deprives the courts of time. Judges need time to study, analyze and research to come up with good, reasonable decisions that affect the quality of justice. There are not enough courts or judges to meet the demands of our countrymen,” Gordon said.
The senator also cited data from the SC’s Court Management Office which showed that as of Dec. 31, 2018, there were 528 vacancies in the city, municipal and regional trial courts.
Rather than hiring wandering judges the wise and proper thing to do would be to fill this 538 vacancies or else the dockets will get crowded again once they have been cleared.
The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has filed administrative charges against Ginatilan town in Cebu and nine other local government units (LGUs) in the country for failure to comply with the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte to clear the public roads of obstructions.
(They have zero clearings; failed everything. The passing score is 70, but their scores is 50. It is their responsibility to maintain the roads, sidewalks so these can be accessible to people and cars. Obstructions are one cause of traffic.)
Out of the 1, 534 cities and municipalities, 101 failed during the assessment, 15 of which earned the lowest score, the statement said.
The Mayor of Ginatilan says these charges are frustrating and unfair.
(I am frustrated. I no longer want to work because even if we followed their directives, this happened. The efforts of the town community was wasted.)
The mayor said the process left little chance for appeal from the LGUs and is an unfair treatment to those who improved after the assessment.
He also said that the DILG did not visit Ginatilan after the first assessment or after they submitted their explanation.
“We should have been given another chance,” he said.
https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/279181/ginatilan-mayor-dilgs-unclear-process-case-filed-are-frustrating
It will be left up to the court to decide.
Lt. Gen. Archie Gamboa, officer-in-charge of the Philippine National Police (PNP), made a proposal on Saturday for the purchase of speed guns to make it easier for law enforcers to be certain about the speed of vehicles so that they can catch those overspeeding motorists.
“How can you tell if [a motorist] is going 60 kilometers per hour? So we need a gadget for that,” he said in Filipino in an interview over AM radio station DZMM.
Gamboa pointed out that most road accidents had been caused by drivers going very fast.
“As we have seen in recent tragic incidents, vehicles lose their brakes. If they were going at 30 kilometers per hour, maybe the damaged would not be as big,” he said.
This should have been done long ago. It's a step in the right direction. A very tiny baby step.
The chief of the barangay tanod (village watchmen) in Lipa City in Batangas province turned himself in after admitting to shooting his fellow tanod, police said on Monday.
Gerry Marasigan, 42, also surrendered to the police a homemade gun, which he allegedly used to shoot the victim, Manolito Adaya, 41.
Lipa City police chief Lt. Col. Rotol Antonio Gabaisen Jr., in a phone interview, said the tanods in Barangay San Celestino were drinking on Sunday afternoon when the two began to argue.
Adaya walked away and went to his sister’s house in the same village, but Marasigan followed him on a motorcycle.
Marasigan then reportedly shot Adaya several times and even attempted to chase the victim, before he fled.
Not the first village watchmen to get into a rowdy drinking bout ending in a shooting. With a homemade gun no less!
The Court of Appeals has affirmed an Office of the Ombudsman ruling disqualifying former Makati City Mayor Jejomar "JunJun" Erwin Binay, Jr. from holding public office over an administrative case involving a school building.
The Ombudsman earlier found Binay guilty of serious dishonesty, grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the service in connection with the irregularities in the construction of the Makati Science High School (MSHS).
Aside from Binay, 12 other former employees of Makati City Hall were found guilty of the same offenses. Former Makati City Administrator Eleno Mendoza was also found administratively liable for simple misconduct and was meted the penalty of suspension of six months without pay.
Because Binay did not hold a proper bidding process for a school building he is now perpetually disqualified from holding political office.
Motorcycle-riding gunmen ambushed and killed the former vice governor of Sultan Kudarat on Tuesday.
Former Sultan Kudarat vice-governor Rolando “Rolly” Recinto was driving his Mitsubishi pick-up (LDF-237) heading for home from Tacurong City when shot by unidentified gunmen at past 2 p.m. along the national highway in Barangay Bilumin in Lambayong town.
Police rushed Recinto to a hospital in the city but he was declared dead on arrival, according to radio reports.
Recinto also served as mayor of Lambayong, where his son, Francis Eric Recinto, is the vice mayor.
Another former politician gunned down by motorcycle assassins.
Unknown assailants shot dead a police officer and wounded his wife in an ambush in Maribojoc town on Monday night.
Col. Jonathan Cabal, director of the Bohol Provincial Police Office, identified the victims as Cpl. Arnel Bayot and his wife Richelle.
Bayot, a resident of Barangay Tinangnan in Tubigon town, was a member of the Provincial Mobile Force Company based in Ubay town.
Cabal said the couple were on their way home aboard a Toyota Corolla going to Tubigon town at around 8 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 6, when they were ambushed at the national highway in Barangay Guiwanon, Maribojoc town.
Another cop shot dead by assailants. No word on motive or identity of killers. Interestingly his
father met the same fate.
A case of murder has been filed against Joselito Fernando, an Islamic convert from Zamboanga City, on Monday (Jan. 6), according to Col. Allen Rae Co, Baguio police chief.
Co said evidence suggested that Vidad had a grudge against Bedejim although police have yet to determine if it was personal or religious.
Muslim convert who happens to be a former soldier kills beloved Imam.
Citing data from the Philippine National Police Drug Enforcement Group (PDEG), Robredo said in her drug war report on Monday, that the approximate minimum consumption of shabu in the country per week is 3,000 kilograms, or about 156,000 kilograms a year.
But according to Aquino, the figures on the average drug consumption mentioned by the Vice President were only an estimate.
“Sabi ni Col. Caramat sa akin, that is a wild assumption. Hindi official figure ‘yan (Col. Caramat told me that is just a wild assumption. That’s not an official figure),” he said in an interview with DZMM, referring to Col. Romeo Caramat Jr., acting director of PDEG.
“Hindi tugma na magcocompare ka ng estimate versus factual data. Mali ‘yung comparison ng ating Vice President na ‘yun (It’s not appropriate to compare an estimate versus factual data),” added Aquino, who explained the ICAD holds no official data on the average consumption of prohibited drugs in the country.
He added that the estimate of PDEG was also too high.
Do the PNP, PDEA, ICAD, PDEG or any other group have accurate numbers on the drug problem or is everything just an estimate or a wild assumption? If the figures are not accurate at all then why is Robredo led to believe they are accurate?
Speaking before BFP personnel at the turnover-of-command ceremony for Chief Supt. Jose Embang Jr. as the new officer-in-charge, Año said it is high time that the uniformed personnel of the government put an end to the public’s negative perception of them.
“We must have what we call the moral courage, for it is very important—the moral courage to shun any form of corruption, to refuse any bribery attempt or any temptation. Just a simple refusal will lead you to a habit of an ideal public servant so you must possess that moral courage,” he said.
The BFP is an attached agency of the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
Even firefighters have to be warned not to be corrupt.
Two town mayors of this province maintained they did not violate the road-clearing policy of the national government after they were included in the list of local officials charged by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) for non-compliance.
The DILG has charged Mayors Helenio Abecia of Guinsiliban town and Joseph Uayan of Sagay in the administrative charges it filed against 10 other municipal mayors in the country.
In a statement on Sunday, DILG Secretary Eduardo Año said the local officials committed gross neglect of duty and grave misconduct for failing to comply with the government’s directive to clear roads of illegal structures and other obstructions in their jurisdiction within 60 days.
However, Abecia and Uayan insisted that they should not be charged as they have followed the order.
“We have not violated the order. We have implemented it. That’s why I was wondering why we have been charged by the DILG,” said Abecia in an interview Monday (Jan. 6)
Two of
the ten mayors
charged by the DILG for not cleaning
their roads say they are being unfairly targeted because they did clear the roads. It seems the DILG's guidelines were not clear. Perhaps therein lies the problem.
Two personnel of Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) Station 3 have been charged while undergoing investigation along with their superiors and colleagues for the escape of four detainees, including three arrested for illegal drugs, on Monday.
Duty jailer, S/Sgt. Eric Olverio and desk officer, Cpl. Orwayne Jade Nadado are facing a criminal case for infidelity in the custody of prisoners under Article 223, Section 1, Chapter 5 of the Revised Penal Code.
“They are directly responsible for the custody of the (detainees). (To post bail), that is their right, but I will make sure that there will be an airtight administrative case (against them),” Biñas said in a press conference.
“If negligence is proven on their part, they will be held liable for gross neglect of duty which is punishable by dismissal from the service. It is very unfortunate that one of them (Olverio) is retiring soon,” he added.
The four detainees, including high-value target Sunny Capa, 22; Ely Lawrence Sazon, 20; Michael Peñoso, 25; and Jeffrey Elangos, 38, escaped around 12:45 a.m. on Monday after cutting one of the steel bars surrounding the custodial facility, and passed through the back door.
What did they use to cut through the steel bars and how did they get that instrument? Sounds like they did have a little help whether from the cops charged or from friends outside.
Lieutenant Richard Gonzalez, Pitogo police chief, said Vecinte Bolusan Teofilo, a retired member of the Philippine National Police and resident of Pitogo town, was driving his passenger van when two men pretending to be passengers stopped him and shot him afterward.
Teofilo suffered three bullet wounds on his head, resulting in his immediate death.
Another retired cop shot dead by assassins.
“As far as the PNP is concerned, we will make sure na mabago yung perception ng public [to change public perception] by actions and by deeds,” he told reporters when asked about the recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) surveywhich showed that 78 percent of Filipinos believe that some police officers are “ninja cops” or engaged in drug recycling.
PNP spokesman Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac said that while they cannot stop the public from believing negative issues hounding police officers, the PNP will not be tolerating rogue police officers.
“Tinitiyak natin sa publiko na ganitong gawain ay hindi natin kinokonsinte upang tanggalin na ang ganitong illegal na gawain at maibalik ang tiwala ng mamamayan sa PNP. [We assure the public that these illegal acts will not be tolerated to remove errant policemen in PNP and to regain the public’s trust from PNP.],” Banac said in another interview with reporters.
This is the same old song and dance from the PNP. Remove the bad cops and try to change the public's perception.
Police and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) operatives in Negros Oriental have arrested a job order employee of the provincial government and seized from him some PHP200,000 worth of suspected shabu in a buy-bust operation here on Monday.
A report from the Negros Oriental Provincial Police Office (NOPPO) identified the suspect as Jason Olarte Mapili, 50, single, and a resident of Barangay Mangnao in this capital city.
Mapili is in the police’s watch list of suspected drug personalities, the NOPPO report said. He has been detailed at the Provincial Social Welfare Office for about seven years on a job order status.
A job order employee for seven years at the capital
and on the drug personality list. But
for how long? With all that shabu he was likely dealing. Who
was he dealing to?
In their respective memoranda filed on Dec. 19, 2019, Robredo cited the court’s own rules and argued that the protest should be dismissed since Marcos had failed to get more votes during the ballot revision and recount in the pilot provinces that he himself had chosen and that the recount actually added to her votes.
On the other hand, Marcos asked the Supreme Court acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal to annul the votes in the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao and Basilan due to alleged election violence, regardless of the test recount results.
Final plea means a final ruling should be handed down soon enough.
A sachet of suspected shabu was found inside an office at the barangay hall of Zapatera here late Monday night, January 6, 2020.
Barangay employees found the sachet inside an envelop in the office of suspended barangay captain (village chief) Francisco Benedicto at the end of a session at around 10 p.m.
Mysterious and lone bag of shabu found in office of suspended barangay chief. Who's could it be? The barangay chief was suspended on December 20, 2019.
“The Chief Executive is giving the water concessionaires the option of accepting the new contracts without any guarantee of not being criminally prosecuted together with those who conspired to craft the very onerous contracts which are void ab initio for violating the Constitution and the laws of the land,” Panelo said in a press briefing.
"It's like putting a gun on their heads," said Calixto Chikiamco, president of the Foundation for Economic Freedom.
He also warned that the "take it or leave it" contracts may have a negative impact on investments and the country's credit rating.
If the two firms refuse the new agreements, President Rodrigo Duterte said he would order the cancellation of their existing concessions and the "nationalization of water services" in their respective areas.
Chikiamco said this move would have a "reputational cost" for the country. If the concessionaires accept the new contracts, the impact on investments will be limited to deals involving public-private partnerships, he said.
"But if the outcome is cancellation and nationalization, that will have a negative impact across the board, all foreign investments," Chikiamco said in an interview with ANC.
"Any unilateral cancellation, abrogation will have a negative impact on credit rating," he added.
The capital's water security will also be affected by a government takeover of water distribution.
"We know already what happens whenever the government runs something, whether that's the MRT or even the old Nawasa."
Hey
that's the price of doing business under Duterte. Still no word about Arroyo and Ramos and their
hand in signing this "onerous" contract.
A former barangay official of Baloi town in Lanao del Norte was arrested past 3 p.m. Wednesday in an anti-drug buy bust here.
Maj. Allan Abalde, chief of Iligan City Police Station 5, identified the suspect as Jamil Solaiman Camid, 44, who is on the drug watchlist of the police and considered a high value target.
Camid was a former barangay councilor of Poblacion East in Baloi.
Another former village councillor busted for drugs.
POLICE arrested Dumanjug, Cebu Mayor Efren Guntrano “Gungun” Gica on Wednesday, January 8, 2020, for graft. He promptly posted bail and was released pending court hearing.
His arrest stemmed from a complaint filed against Gica before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas for graft and corruption after he hired Filipino singer Bamboo Mañalac during the town’s 2015 fiesta without undertaking a bidding.
The complaint was filed by former Dumanjug mayor Nelson Garcia, Gica’s long-time rival and critic.
This was not the first time Garcia’s anti-graft complaint against Gica had prospered.
In 2014, Gica was sacked as Dumanjug mayor after the anti-graft office found that he committed serious dishonesty and grave misconduct for tampering with a restaurant receipt amounting to P11,435 and bloating the amount to P21,435.
Gica appealed the matter before the Court of Appeals and was eventually reinstated as town mayor in 2019. He ran and won in the May 2019 elections.
What sense does it make to do a public bidding when hiring a singer? This is not the first time he has been accused of financial misconduct by his political rival.
The Sandiganbayan has suspended a former Cebu lawmaker and now Mandaue City councilor for 90 days in connection with her Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam cases.
In a resolution dated December 4, 2019 and released just recently, the court's 5th Division ordered Mandaue City Councilor Nerissa Soon-Ruiz's suspended as she faced proceedings for 17 counts of graft, 7 counts malversation of public funds and 10 counts of malversation of public funds through falsification.
She was charged for the supposed misuse of her PDAF from 2007 to 2009, when she was still a lawmaker.
Charged with misuse of PDAF money 13 years ago. An old case now coming to light.
A former congressman of Batangas province and 2 other unidentified persons were found dead, their bodies set on fire inside a vehicle in neighboring Tiaong, Quezon on Thursday.
Residents reported that the vehicle was burning in Barangay San Francisco before dawn. Authorities discovered the remains of former Batangas 2nd District Rep. Edgar Mendoza and two others inside after putting out the fire, police said.
A former Congressman and his driver were murdered and then set on fire.
A retired Philippine National Police (PNP) official was gunned down in an ambush incident in Calasiao, Pangasinan on Thursday.
In a phone interview with GMA News Online, Police Regional Office 1 spokesperson Police Lieutenant Colonel Crystal Peralta identified the victim as retired general Marlou Chan.
Citing initial reports, Peralta said the victim was inside his vehicle in Barangay Nalsiyaan around 2:50 p.m. when the ambush took place.
Ex-police chief dunned down by assassins.
Construction companies allot up to 35 percent of their budgets for infrastructure projects to pay off government officials and employees and prevent them from causing any further delays, a think tank said, citing confidential interviews with industry players.
In some cases, companies have had to compromise other parts of the construction— such as the quality of raw materials—in order to accommodate the additional cost and to keep the projects moving.
In a presentation on Wednesday, the Reid Foundation gave a breakdown of the expenses that construction firms spent on average in putting up new infrastructure both for the public and the private sector. All the commonly disclosed expenses were there such as raw materials and labor. But the breakdown shaded a part of the graph in an ominous black, which claimed 15 to 35 percent of the expenses were spent on “other costs of doing business.” These “other costs” referred to a company’s budget for corruption as small and big companies were left with no choice but to play along in an abusive cycle that rarely gets brought to light, let alone stopped. “This is the problem that we want to address but nobody wants to talk about,” said Ronilo Balbieran, Reid vice president for operations, at the 4th Philippine Construction Industry Congress.
Reid interviewed various stakeholders in the construction industry from October 2018 to March last year to make sure the figures were as precise as possible. Balbieran deferred from disclosing who they interviewed or how many companies they talked to.
Corruption is still the name of the game when it comes to constriction projects. The only losers are, as always, the public.
Gotta love the BEFORE and AFTER pictures in the first clean up story. Anyone else notice the top two pictures are not of the same place?
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