It's your weekly compendium of foolishness and corruption in the Philippine government.
DFA Secretary Teddy Locsin acting like a fool in public.
A barangay councilman was gunned down outside the house of the mayor in Alburquerque town in Bohol last Thursday night.
Police identify the fatality as Wilfredo Plaza, a councillor of Barangay East Poblacion, Alburquerque.
Police Col. Jonathan Cabal, chief of the Bohol Provincial Police Office, said Plaza was supposed to visit Alburquerque Mayor Don Ritchie Buates when he was attacked past 7 p.m.
“The attack happened outside the mayor’s house. It looked like the perpetrators waited for the victim,” said Cabal.
Witnesses told police that the two assailants rode a motorcycle. The back rider got off when the victim arrived and repeatedly shot him with a .45 caliber pistol.
The victim suffered gunshot wounds in the chest, stomach, right foot and lower back. He was declared dead at the Ace Medical Center – Bohol in Tagbilaran City.
Another village councillor shot dead by motorcycle assassins.
Baliguian Vice Mayor Gani Esmali and two of his companions were shot dead in an ambush in Zamboanga del Norte Saturday morning.
Police said more or less five unknown gunmen attacked Esmali's vehicle upon reaching Sitio Barazon, Barangay Sta. Maria in Siocon town at 11:20 a.m.
Another local official shot dead by assassins.
Police on Saturday arrested a village councilor for alleged illegal possession of firearms in Guinayangan town in Quezon province.
Police reports said Hilario Laluon, 52, an incumbent councilor of Barangay (village) Tikay was arrested after policemen, armed with a search warrant, raided his house at around 7:30 a.m.
Police seized a caliber 22 rifle, a caliber .45 pistol with magazine and six bullets, and assorted ammunition. Police said the guns are unlicensed.
Another local official arrested for illegal firearms.
A senior state auditor of the Commission on Audit in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (COA-BARMM) was killed in a drive-by shooting incident here Friday.
Maj. Rustom Pastolero, Police Station 2 chief, identified the victim as Guiara Bagundang Akmad, 57, COA-BARMM’s supervising auditor assigned in the province of Maguindanao.
Pastolero said Akmad was with her husband in the vehicle when shot by one of two men riding in tandem in a motorcycle at about noon Friday while they were exiting from the Citymall car park along Avelina Street, Barangay Rosary Heights 7 here.
This lady, who was a COA employee for the BARMM, was assassinated in a mall parking lot.
Almost half of the country’s 190,000-strong police force are overweight and obese, Philippine National Police (PNP) officer-in-charge Lt. Gen. Archie Gamboa said yesterday.
He said only 102,600 police officers or 54 percent are at their ideal weight while nine percent or 17,100 are obese. The rest are overweight, he added.
The overweight and obese police officers face “consequences,” including not being promoted if they fail to slim down, according to Gamboa.
He said he aims to implement a rule that police officers cannot attend mandatory schooling courses, which are required for promotion, if they are overweight.
Gamboa said this consequence is meant to compel police officers to lead a healthy lifestyle.
Why not just form PT squads? Everyone can exercise together.
An eco-enforcer of the Mandaue City Environment and Natural Resources Office (MCenro) and his alleged supplier of illegal drugs were nabbed by police in a buy-bust operation in Barangays Tingub and Cubacub, Mandaue City at dawn today, January 12, 2020.
Arrested were Jennifer Seville, 40, his brother-in-law Julito Moca, 46, errand boy Archie Apor, 21, and their supplier of illegal drugs Francis Ranile, 39, according Police Major Hugo Rio Ipong, chief of the Canduman Police Station of the Mandaue City Police Office
In the Philippines Jennifer is a man's name.
A VILLAGE councilman was shot dead by six unidentified assailants on Saturday evening, January 11, 2020 at Purok Kasanag 1, Barangay 26, Bacolod City.
The fatality was identified as kagawad Romeo Canlas, 33, of Barangay 2.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Ariel Pico, spokesperson of Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO), said on Sunday, January 12, Canlas was having a drinking session along with his friends at about 9:25 p.m. Saturday at the compound of kagawad Rino Dellarna of Barangay 26 when six armed men stormed the area and fired at the victim several times.
“His friends were unharmed. He was the only target of the suspects. The suspects ordered them to drop to the ground and killed the victim,” Pico said.
It's the same old story. Man is having a few drinks with his pals when assassins show up and gun him down. Who hasn't had this happen to them?
President Rodrigo Duterte has already removed the police force’s procurement power upon getting information that the purchase was overpriced.
Duterte earlier disclosed that he called Interior Secretary Eduardo Año to be the procurement authority for the police force after he found out the PNP tried to buy radar speed guns for P950,000 per unit.
The President said the radar speed guns only cost the Davao city government P10,000 per unit, way cheaper than the ones procured by the PNP.
“He’s angry about it when he discovered it. He could not believe that the radar would cost that much. In Davao City, it cost them only P10,000,” Panelo said.
In light of this, Duterte warned other government agencies to stop corruption. He also expressed desire to establish a bureau of supply to take care of the government’s procurements just like what the Marcos administration had before.
A bureau of supply might not be a bad idea. Have everything centralised. The PNP will never be a clean organisation. But honestly a P10,000 radar gun? That is $200. Sounds too cheap.
Police Colonel Jonathan Abella, chief of the MCPO told CDN Digital that one of the reasons why they struggle in cutting the ties between detained suppliers of illegal drugs and their distributors is the limited access they have when it comes to extending their investigation inside the BJMP.
According to Abella, their intelligence monitoring is limited because of their failure to have the BJMP provide them with the names of alleged drug suppliers who are inside penal facilities and tagged as such by drug suspects that were apprehended during buy-bust operations.
The bigger problem, however, Abella said, lies in the verification of the information.
Abella said that they wanted to know from the BJMP the identity of the visitors of the detained drug lords since they are usually the ones tasked to relay information about drug transactions outside.
It goes without saying that cooperation amongst all PHL law enforcement organisations is required to fight the drug war. So why do the PDEA, PNP, NBI, BJMP, and every other organisation refuse to do this?
The three police officers who entered a nightclub here last year and created a scene were slapped with a two-month suspension.
Police Brigadier General Rene Pamuspusan, regional police director, confirmed having approved the suspension of Police Chief Master Sergeant Jose Dingal, Police Senior Master Sergeant Fernil Mark Mallorca and Police Staff Sergeant Ralph Mabuque.
The three were assigned at the Regional Personnel Headquarters Support Unit of the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) at the time they were found to have entered Club 88 Disco Pub and Restaurant on JM Basa Street, City Proper on June 25, 2019 and initially refused to pay for the P5,100 worth of food and drinks they ordered.
Five months or on Jan. 9, 2019 before the three policemen entered Club 88 Disco Pub and Restaurant, then Philippine National Police director general Oscar Albayalde reminded all cops that they were prohibited from drinking in karaoke bars, nightclubs, pubs and other public places.
They did not want to pay their tab. P5,100 for three people is pretty expensive. That is 1,700 per person! It's not clear if they entered in uniform or not.
For allegedly bringing her husband to a safety seminar using government money, an official of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) was slapped with a 90-day preventive suspension by the Sandiganbayan.
State prosecutors are accusing Escano of giving her husband, Alan, undue advantage when she brought him to the Basic Occupational Safety and Health Course for Construction Site Officers held at the Ritz Hotel from March 16 to 20, 2015 instead of a certain Renato Buhat, Jr.
Escano’s husband is not a MinDA employee, but the Ombudsman is alleging that Escano also used government funds to pay for her husband’s P6,000 registration fee as one of the delegates of the same safety and health course.
We all know that in the Philippines politics is a family business.
Sabio, 53, said he changed his mind about prosecuting the President for extrajudicial killings (EJKs) after he found that the political opposition had no moral ascendancy to accuse Duterte.
He also admitted that his turnaround was motivated partly by the “pittance” he allegedly received as payment from opposition figures for his services.
Sabio was accompanied to a lawyer’s office where he signed the statement by Duterte supporter and defeated senatorial candidate Lorenzo Gadon, who showed reporters excerpts of the document and photos of Sabio signing it.
Sabio told the ICC prosecutor that he refused to be used as a tool by Duterte’s critics led by former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, with whom he had a falling-out over the discredited “Bikoy” videos, and detained Sen. Leila de Lima.
“I would be given a pittance when they needed me for the political propaganda, and then later I would be told that there was no more budget due to financial constraints,”he said.
“The bottomline is I was disillusioned and disenchanted with the actions of Senator Trillanes, Senator De Lima, Father [Albert] Alejo, and the rest of the LP-led opposition in that Bikoy scandal,” Sabio told the Inquirer in a text message.
“They are using lies for their political agenda and I was almost dragged into that sedition case and charged with kidnapping because of them, so I realized they no longer had any moral upper hand and ascendancy against extrajudicial killings,” he added.
Again more backstabbing nonsense that obscures everything happening. What is happening? What is the truth here? That the ICC complaint is political propaganda based on zero facts and Sabio had a change of conscience? Or that Sabio is angry that he is owed money by Trillanes? Does he really think, or know, that the Liberal Party is behind the Bikoy videos? Whatever the case his withdrawing from the case will not have any bearing on the case at all.
A former mayor of Alburquerque town was arrested on Wednesday yet for illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.
Elpren Charles “Bobec” Tungol, 32, yielded an M-14 rifle and ammunition during a raid on his house at a village called East Poblacion in Albuquerque by police.
But an unlicensed caliber .45 pistol was found in Elpren’s possession. His father yielded no unlicensed firearm.
Cabal said Elpren was tagged as suspect in the killing of Wilfrido Plaza, a village councilor and trusted aide of incumbent Alburquerque Mayor Don Ritchie Buates.
Elpren posted bail but remained in jail for incomplete documents.
It's not clear if the Elpren has been charged with murder or if he merely a suspect.
Through an anti-criminality operation conducted at about 12:30 a.m. Thursday, police arrested Quirino Magbanua, a village watchman of Brgy. 45, Pasay City; and Joseph Burgos, an 18-year-old student.
Seized from the suspects were six small sachets containing suspected shabu, weighing about six grams and with a street value of about P40,800.
Another village watchman arrested for drugs.
It has been five months since Barangay Kalunasan was placed under a state of calamity due to the foul smell emanating from the septic tanks of the jail facilities located in the village.
But up until Wednesday, January 15, the inductor trucks with suctions pumps, which were supposed to be used to collect the wastes from the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) and Cebu City Jail, are yet to be purchased.
The Cebu City Council has allotted P19.5 million to find solutions to the foul smell emanating from the two detention centers.
In August 2019, Councilor Nestor Archival, chairman of the council’s Task Force Kalunasan, said a portion of the amount will be used to buy suction machines, septic trucks, and septic tanks to collect the human wastes from CPDRC and Cebu City Jail.
BAC chairperson Lawyer June Maratas, who appeared before the council, said the process took time because they could not bypass the bidding procedures or else they would violate the rules of the Commission on Audit (COA).
“The first bidding was a failure because no one bought bidding documents,” said Maratas.
The “failure” meant that the BAC would need to rebid the two trucks.
If the bidding is deemed as a failure again, the BAC may enter into negotiated procurement where the BAC seeks for distributors of the trucks and they will be able to negotiate the price.
With the extended delay, the City Council decided to hire third-party haulers to collect the wastes from the two prisons.
Lawyer John Jigo Dacua, head of the Department of Public Services (DPS), said they currently employ third party haulers to collect the wastes while the trucks are still not available.
Dacua said they can extend the contract for two months, or until March 2020, as funds are still available for the haulers.
On August 2019, the Council allotted P480,000 for immediate release to hire third-party haulers to collect the septic wastes.
The Council agreed to extend the contract for the waste hauling for the next two months and asked the BAC to update them not he purchase of the inductor trucks.
Archival said he hoped that the foul smell in Kalunasan would be resolved by March 2020.
A prime example of the red tape LGU's must go through to procure vehicles and other equipment. This situation raises a lot of other questions such as how filthy is that jail? In the meantime the people are forced to suffer breathing in the pestiferous miasma emanating from the jail.
The over 400 persons deprived of liberty (PDL) returnees who surrendered following President Rodrigo Duterte’s call because of the good conduct time allowance (GCTA) controversy will have to wait two more months to know if they are already entitled to release.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Wednesday the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) requested that they are given until March to process the remaining 400 plus PDL returnees due to lack of manpower.
“Sabi nila, they do not want to make any mistake again,” Guevarra said at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay Forum.
"They do not want to make any mistake again." The whole GCTA issue was a debacle from start to finish. From people being released who should not to the President telling all who had been released to surrender, even those who qualified, with no legal basis. The government messed up big time and as always it is the people who suffer the consequences.
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