It's your weekly compendium of foolishness and corruption and murder in Philippine politics.
A neophyte party-list congressman was briefly held by airport security for allegedly making a bomb joke at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 2.
Association of Philippine Electric Cooperatives (APEC) Representative Sergio Dagooc cracked the bomb joke while he was checking in for a flight to Cagayan on Thursday afternoon, July 25, according to Philippine National Police (PNP) Aviation Station 2 chief Police Major Querico Tomotorgo.
In a phone interview with Rappler on Friday, July 26, Tomotorgo said Dagooc arrived at NAIA at about 2:30 pm on Thursday and checked in at the Philippine Airlines (PAL) counter, where his hand carry bag was weighed.
PAL passenger service agent Pearl May Lansang pointed out that the congressman’s hand carry baggage weighed 11 kilograms, exceeding the 7-kilogram maximum weight allowed for that type of luggage.
Lansang suggested that Dagooc check in his baggage, then asked the congressman what was inside his bag. This was when Dagooc joked that his bag supposedly contained a bomb.
(Ms Lansang asked what's inside his bag, Congressman Dagooc said it contained clothes. So Ma'am Lansang asked a follow-up question, 'Other than that, what else is inside?' So that's when the congressman said, 'Bomb.' He said it in Tagalog.)
Tomotorgo, however, said Dagooc’s lawyer later arrived and invokedSection 11, Article VI of the 1987 Constitution, which says no lawmaker may be arrested for committing offenses punishable by not more than 6 years while Congress is in session.
Tomotorgo said this was why Dagooc was released from airport security custody on Thursday night. But the police aviation station chief said PAL would still file a case against the APEC congressman.
What an idiot.
After backtracking his earlier statement that President Rodrigo Duterte “vetoed” the Security of Tenure Bill, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo finally confirmed that the Chief Executive turned down the proposed law.
“Security Tenure Bill (was) vetoed by the President,” Panelo told reporters Friday.
On Thursday night, Panelo confirmed in a text message that Duterte vetoed the bill.
But less than an hour after he sent the message to Palace reporters, he retracted it and said: “Security Tenure Bill not yet vetoed. PRRD still studying the pros and cons. Sorry about the error. We will know tomorrow for sure.”
There is so much miscommunication at the Palace.
"I have today ordered the closure, the stoppage of all gaming schemes sa... whatever nature, however done, that got the franchises to do from the PCSO. The ground is massive corruption involving all, pati the courts who repeatedly issued injunctions to paralyze government and to allow corruption to thrive," he said in a speech on social media.
What is exactly the corruption? He does not say. Of course the question arises of how he can legally shut down legal gambling run by the government while plenty of illegal gambling operated by the Chinese continues in the country.
Manila mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso gave a barangay chairman until Monday to explain after the latter allegedly pointed a gun at a civilian.
Moreno said the barangay chairman allegedly pointed a gun at a civilian because of a feud caused by a parking space.
Moreno pointed out that the barangay chairman should have called the police instead of taking the law into his hands.
A feud over a parking space is enough to kill someone in the Philippines.
“Once Congress revives the death penalty, these police crooks will surely brandish the death penalty as the Sword of Damocles to hang over the heads of their potential victims of kidnapping, extortion and evidence-planting,” the former Manila mayor said in a statement.
“There are many corrupt officers everywhere. In fact, no less than President Duterte himself at one point tagged the police as ‘rotten to the core’ and reckoned that four out of every 10 officers are engaged in all sorts of criminal activities,” Atienza said.
“Abuses are guaranteed to inflame once twisted officers have the ‘deathtrap’ at their disposal. They will have a heyday shaking people down with false or fabricated evidence,” he said.
People still don't trust the cops. Can you blame them? The PNP is not trustworthy.
A former mayor, his cousin as well as a councilor and a village chief were killed in two separate shooting incidents in Negros Oriental on Saturday morning, July 27.
Police identified the victims as Edsel Enardecido, 60, a former mayor of Ayungon town, and his cousin, Leo, 45; Canlaon City Councilor Bobby Jalandoni and Ernesto Posadas, Panubigan village chief in Canlaon.
Three LGU's killed in one morning. How many more will be killed in Negros?
The Department of Justice has ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to probe the graft and corruption practices in the Bureau of Customs, as alleged by President Rodrigo Duterte himself during his fourth State of the Nation Address.
In a July 26 department order signed by Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, the NBI was told to immediately build a case, and file appropriate charges if evidence warrants, against alleged corrupt Customs personnel.
Corruption, corruption, blah, blah, blah. What exactly are they investigating? Duterte always casts a wide net but never gives any specifics. Sure we all know the BOC is corrupt. That is how drugs keep making their way into the country. But without a specific case to investigate there is nothing to see here.
The Commission on Audit (COA) has found more than 200 beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) who appeared to have received doles twice from 2016 to 2018.
The COA conducted duplicate tests on nine sample payrolls of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and found 209 names that received at least P3.57 million in benefits.
“The existence of double names in the system connotes double payment to beneficiaries, which amount should have been given to other poor families,” the commission said.
Double payments. Could be ghost payments. Lots of corruption in this hand out program.
“In an unprecedented feat, I used archaic law and jurisprudence known as quo warranto to topple Atty. Maria Lourdes Sereno from her perch as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court,” he told lawyers and staff of the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) gathered in Parañaque for their 118th founding anniversary, based on a recording recently provided to ABS-CBN News by one of the attendees to the event.
“This landmark case is my legacy to our jurisprudence and also to our beloved guest of honor,” Calida said, referring to Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin who attended the celebration.
OSG Calida admits that his legacy is going after Duterte's enemies using any means necessary even archaic laws. Duterte himself even previously admitted Calida took the ouster of Sereno personally. Now we are to believe that is hand in the complaint against Robredo et al. is merely the duty of his office? But with over a million cases backlogged in his office what has Calida really done for the people?
In 2017, the OSG received 1,330,931 million cases, a number unheard of at least since 2008, according to audit reports of the agency which showed the OSG has dealt with only around 300,000 cases before 2017.
Due to an expansion of the office, as mandated by Republic Act 9417 enacted in 2016, the OSG also increased its productivity such that it has resolved more than 600,000 cases in 2017 and 2018. But due to the big backlog, their balance by the end of 2018 is still at 1,069,856.
Despite this backlog "the people's tribune" seems to have don't not very much for the people. When Trillanes decided to investigate government contracts given to his family's security firm Calida decided his amnesty was void and had his dismissed coup case brought back to life. No doubt Calida will go hard after Robredo and when the dust finally settles we will learn that it was all him as it was with Sereno.
Even if the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has yet to receive a written order from Malacañang, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año has maintained that the suspension of all Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) gaming activities nationwide is deemed legal.
According to Año, President Rodrigo Duterte has confirmed to him the closure order against outlets of PCSO’s Small Town Lottery (STL), Peryahan ng Bayan, Keno, and Lotto, among others, during their visit to quake-stricken Batanes on Sunday.
“Sa ngayon ang aking opisina ay wala pang natatanggap mula sa Malacañang, but ‘yong declaration ng closure, which I confirmed to the President yesterday when we were in Batanes,” he said in a press conference after meeting Metro Manila mayors on Monday.
Asked if arrests could also be made by the department even without the written directive from the President, Año said Duterte’s words are enough.
“Yes, being the Chief Executive, that is enough,” he added.
Duterte's word is law.
A pharmaceutical company owned by the family of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III earned millions of pesos from several government contracts from the Department of Health (DOH) for the supply of medicines in public hospitals, official documents obtained by the Inquirer and shared by Sen. Panfilo Lacson showed.
Lacson said two of the supply contracts bagged by Doctors Pharmaceuticals Inc. (DPI) lasted until October 2017, when Duque was appointed health chief for the second time.
Duque’s appointment was an apparent breach of the law prohibiting conflict of interest among public officials.
Reached by the Inquirer on Sunday night, the health secretary said he had nothing to do with DPI’s contract from April to October 2017 because he assumed office on Nov 6, 2017.
Duque is stinking with corruption but Duterte continues to keep him on. He was DOH secretary back in 2005 and said he divested his portion of DPI. He also claims that DPI has been in existence since the 90's and has been bidding on projects before he was appointed. But that only makes things more darkened with corruption. Why did GMA appoint him in the first place? His family firm having contracts with the government could be the reason why too many medicines were bought and are now expiring.
The lack of warehouses specialized for storing drugs and medicines contributed to the delayed distribution of medications and commodities procured by the government, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said.
“Ang naging problema nga yo’ng warehousing capacity. That’s from the national to the regional to the local. In fact, pati Central [Office] natin. Kaya nagpahanap tayo ng additional warehouses,” Duque said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel on Monday.
“But you know the warehouses for drugs and medicines are not as simple as saying; O, warehouse ‘yan. It has to be climate controlled, otherwise the efficacy of the medicines will go down,” he added.
An annual Commission on Audit (COA) report said that P367.1-million worth of medicines already nearing its expiration dates have yet to be distributed by the DOH.
If this is not outright corruption it is outright incompetence. He admits they bought medicines they could not even properly store. There is no excuse for such incompetence.
President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed the brother of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III as the administrator of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), INQUIRER.net has learned.
Gonzalo Duque took his oath as PCA chief before Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea on Monday morning.
In a text message to reporters, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo confirmed Gonzalo’s appointment.
Francisco and Gonzalo are both facing graft and plunder complaints before the Office of the Ombudsman.
The health secretary is being accused of committing plunder for allowing the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) office in Pangasinan to rent a property belonging to his family. The Department of Health chief was then PhilHealth’s ex-officio chair as secretary of the health agency.
Duterte is so against corruption he appoints corrupt men to his cabinet and keeps them on!
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde on Tuesday warned that stiff sanctions will be imposed on police officers protecting illegal numbers game operations, especially jueteng, or neglecting the crackdown against illegal gambling in their areas of jurisdiction.
Albayalde reminded his subordinates of the one strike policy of the PNP, wherein personnel may be relieved from their posts.
This is nothing less than an admission that the PNP remains full of corrupt officers.
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde said Tuesday he will direct PNP regional units to demolish all police offices that were built along sidewalks and have become obstruction to people.
Why are there PNP offices built on the sidewalk? Only in the Philippines.
Police arrested four village chairmen, a village councilor, and 42 others for playing ‘dado,’ an illegal dice betting game, inside a cockpit arena at Ubbog-Lipcan village in Bangued town, Abra on Tuesday afternoon.
Police identified the Bangued village heads as Amado Briones Acosta, 58, of Zone 2 village; Carmelo Briones Acosta, 63, of Zone 1; and Alberto Barras Bigornia, 52, of Zone 7.
The two Acostas are brothers of Bangued Vice Mayor Mila Acosta-Valera.
Policemen seized P14,650 cash bets, dices, table, chips, clay pot, and other gambling paraphernalia.
‘Dado’ uses a pair of dice where bets are placed on the combinations of black and red.
Police Maj. Grace Marron, spokesperson of the Abra police, said the illegal gambling operations are conducted every Tuesday and Thursday inside the cockpit arena.
It seems the PNP have known about this illegal gambling for quite a while since they knew the times and place. Why arrest them now? Did someone not pay?
“We’re always open to anything that will benefit the Filipino people. We’re not closed to any suggestion,” Panelo told reporters in Malacañang.
But Panelo said Garin’s call “has to be discussed thoroughly, extensively.”’
“[W]e need experts to support any call for the return of Dengvaxia,” he noted.
If the Palace allows dengevaxia to be used once again after the large scale disinformation campaign that would be...typical actually. Flip-flopping is kind of a hallmark of he Duterte administration.
The provincial police director of Negros Oriental has been relieved of his duties in relation to the recent killings in the province.
Philippine National Police (PNP) Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac on Wednesday confirmed that Negros Oriental Police Provincial Director Col. Raul Tacaca has been relieved from his duties.
In a statement, Banac said that Tacaca’s relief from his position “will give way to an impartial probe on possible lapses by his administration in light of several high profile killings in the province for the past several days.”
Tacaca’s relief comes after the fatal shootings in the province over the past few days of 14 people including a former mayor and a councilor.
Nice window dressing but it won't stop the killings.
"Franchise holders and operators of lotto outlets may now resume with their operations. The lifting of the suspension of lotto operations takes effect immediately," presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a message to reporters.
Other gaming operations managed by the PCSO with franchises, licenses or permits such as Small-Town Lottery (STL), Keno, and Peryahan ng Bayan (PNB), however, “shall remain suspended pending the investigation of illegal activities and corrupt practices related thereto until the Office of the President evaluates the results of said probe.”
“As per the advice of Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea, the suspension of lotto operations has been ordered lifted by the President,” Panelo said.
Medialdea said investigators found no anomalies in the conduct of lotto operations, “its sanctity remained untainted and proper regulatory rules followed.”
Why lift the ban on only the lotto when Duterte says the entire PCSO is corrupt?
Bureau of Customs (BOC) Commissioner Rey Guerrero and other bureau officials are now facing graft complaints before the Office of the Ombudsman for the alleged illegal appointment of personnel.
In the complaint filed by a certain Joana Marie Gonzales on Thursday, Guerrero and Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence Raniel Ramiro were accused of allowing BOC Risk Management Office (RMO) Chief George Patrick Avila to assume duties in February 2019 even without official documents or appointment.
Seems petty in comparison to all the other corruption within the BOC.
One of these novel legal theories, as Drilon pointed out, was this statement by Tolentino: “There is no restriction on either the form or substance of international agreements.”
“Following this proposition, can the President of the Republic enter into an oral or even a written agreement ceding the island of Panay, even if it is contrary to Article I of our Constitution on national territory?” Drilon asked.
“If there is no restriction as to form, can multilateral agreements be in the form of an oral agreement? I cannot imagine the difficulty of enforcing a verbal multilateral agreement,” he went on. “Can we enter into an agreement that is in conflict with the Constitution, despite the latter being an internal law of fundamental importance if we say there’s no restriction as to the substance of the verbal agreement?”
Drilon also cited Tolentino’s “forceful assertion that matters of foreign policy are within the exclusive and absolute power of the President.”
Tolentino is bending and contorting to defend what is essentially indefensible, Duterte's oral agreement with Chinese President Xi allowing Chinese fishermen to fish in Philippines' EEZ.
President Rodrigo Duterte has signed the franchise for the operation of Solar Para sa Bayan Corporation (SPB), a renewable energy distribution firm owned by 25-year-old Leandro Leviste, son of former senator and now Antique Rep. Loren Legarda.
Based on its website, SPB “is a Filipino social enterprise which aims to serve Filipino communities with cheap, clean, reliable 24/7 electricity.”
Based on RA 11357, SPB was granted “a nonexclusive franchise to construct, install, establish, operate and maintain” solar-powered facilities to provide renewable energy to areas without electricity or underserved nationwide.
Some people think the issue here is that the company has been granted a super franchise and will dominate the market, pushing out competition. The real issue is that another company owned by a politician's family member is unduly benefitting from the government.
The Commission on Audit (COA) has ordered the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) to sanction several higher education institutions for failing to liquidate a total of P793.25 million in Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) funds.
The UP system has yet to liquidate P462.351 million, while MSU has P236.486 million in unliquidated balances, according to data from CHEd.
According to the COA, the CHEd central office received DAP funds from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) from 2011 to 2013, which were then transferred to state universities and colleges (SUCs), to fund three specific programs.
The COA data showed that the DPWH funds were meant for infrastructure and facilities upgrade, while the PIDS funds were allocated for grants-in-aid for research and development and extension.
The DSWD funds were for students’ grants-in-aid program for poverty alleviation.
“The CHEd central office, based on its guidelines for DAP-funded projects … is responsible [for] monitoring the implementation of the projects while the recipient SUCs shall submit regularly the status and liquidation reports required in the [memorandum of agreement,]” the COA said.
All of the above-mentioned projects were completed by March 2016, according to the COA. However, of the total P917.31 million in DAP funds, only P124.060 million or 13.52 percent has been settled by the recipient SUCs, resulting in an unliquidated balance of P793.25 million, as of December 2018.
The projects are finished but the universities which received the money have failed to return what went unspent. Maybe they spent it on other things and don't have it anymore?
The assistant warden of the Quezon City Jail Annex was shot dead by unidentified motorcycle-riding gunmen in Parañaque City Thursday morning.
Police said the victim was identified as Jail Sr. Insp. Robert Barquez, 47, of Las Piñas City.
Barquez was driving his Mitsubishi Expander along Doña Soledad Avenue in Barangay Don Bosco when two men on board a motorcycle approached and shot him at around 11 a.m.
Reports said Barquez died on the spot while the perpetrators fled to an unknown direction.
Another government official shot dead by motorcycle assassins.
A village official in Bobon town, Northern Samar was shot dead by a still unidentified perpetrator Thursday afternoon (Aug. 1).
Reports reaching the Police Regional Office in Eastern Visayas based in Palo town, Leyte, identified the victim as Joselito Sayde, 49, barangay chair of Santander, Bobon.
The victim suffered bullet wounds in the head and at the backfired by the still unidentified perpetrator on board a motorcycle at 1:35 p.m. at Sitio Lomibtong, Barangay San Isidro, Bobon.
Another village official assassinated by a motorcycle killer.
Agents of the Philippine National Police-Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (PNP-IMEG) arrested on Thursday a police officer and a traffic enforcer for allegedly extorting cash from truck drivers entering Dasmariñas Village in Makati City.
The PNP-IMEG identified the suspects as Patrolman John Lagao Felix, assigned as mobile patrol officer at the Makati City Police Station 2; and traffic enforcer Jason Parcon.
A report from IMEG said the suspects were arrested after allegedly receiving P600 from a complainant during an entrapment operation along Palm Avenue at around 5:45 a.m.
According to the police, the entrapment operation stemmed from the complaint of truck operator Silverio Samson who said the suspects were demanding P100 a day from drivers of each truck that enters the Dasmariñas Village.
We are not told how long this extortion scheme had been going on but it must have been for quite a while.
Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Junard “Ahong” Chan issued a stern warning to all barangay officials: Collect uncollected garbage within 24 hours or face charges.
Chan made the order after he received complaints from residents through social media.
(I’m ordering our Solid Waste, CENRO (City Environment and Natural Resources Office) and Environmental and Sanitation Committee to check the area and identify the barangays that didn’t collect their garbage.)
If there's one thing social media is for it's airing out your garbage!
“Our military should conduct an investigation. We don’t know whether they are just tourists or just interested in taking pictures or whether they are spies,” Carpio said during the fellowship meeting of the Philippine Bar Association in Makati City.
Malacañang on Thursday expressed concern over the influx of Chinese nationals in the country, backing National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon, Jr.’s claim that the staggering spike in the number of Chinese workers in the country is a “security threat.”
“Yes (we are) worried. Kasi nga masyadong marami, may influx na magtataka ka kung paano sila nakakapasok? So hindi lang worry sa number, may worry pa kung paano sila nakakapasok,” Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a Palace briefing.
The country’s top security adviser, in a press briefing Wednesday, also said he was concerned with whether or not immigration and labor laws are being followed by Chinese nationals.
“We want more tourists but there is still another side of the coin, so to say. So we must not let our guards down,” Esperon said.
Malacañang supports Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.’s proposal to put an end on visa-upon-arrival privilege for foreigners in view of the unusual influx of Chinese nationals in the country.
In 2017, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) started issuing visas to Chinese nationals on their arrival in the Philippines to draw more tourists from China.
The number of Chinese nationals in the Philippines has noticeably increased with the majority of them working for the Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogo). But despite the economic country’s gains, there has been a mounting fear that Chinese workers are taking jobs, evading taxes and committing crimes.
The problem of the influx of Chinese nationals is entirely Duterte's making. In order to attract more tourists the BI dropped the visa requirement for Chinese nationals which has directly resulted in more Chinese making their way to the Philippines to work in illegal gambling centres. A whole host of problems has followed in the wake of this disastrous policy and now the country is reaping the fruits of this ill-conceived policy.
