It's your weekly compendium of foolishness and corruption and murder in Philippine politics.
All talk. No action. Huge amounts of drugs continue to be imported into the country and not a single person has been held accountable. Not a single person.
Mayor Salcedo is not included in the original search warrants which were going to be enforced by the police team. But she was arrested after police found firearms in the house she shared with her husband, former mayor Neptali “Tali” Salcedo Sr. The former mayor was one of the main subjects of the warrants, but he was not there.
Bulalacao said the Salcedos were allegedly involved in illegal drug trade, gun-for-hire activities, gunrunning (trafficking of contraband firearms), and hiring private armed groups that operate in northern Iloilo province and nearby towns of Capiz province.
Those are incredible charges. Sounds more like what is happening in Mindanao than elsewhere.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Saturday said penalties should be imposed not on all nuisance candidates, but only those who have repeatedly made a mockery of the elections.
This man is A LITERAL COMEDIAN!!!!!! His very existence as President of the Senate makes a mockery of the elections and the Senate. Same with boxer Manny Pacquiao!!!
An Aug. 6 letter from Customs Deputy Commissioner Ricardo Quinto to Lapeña indicated that the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) had been working together since May on an intelligence operation regarding the possible importation of illegal drugs from Malaysia, Vietnam, Hong Kong and China.
Customs Deputy Collector Ma. Lourdes Mangaoang said the letter contradicted Lapeña’s earlier statement that the BOC could have halted the release from the MICT of the four magnetic lifters if it had received “timely” information from the PDEA.
Collusion between drug smugglers and the highest officials in the BOC would not be unheard of.
The bill provides that if the politicians transfer to another political party one year after their election and one year before the scheduled next poll, their elective office will be forfeited, Tugna said.
He said the measure will give “stability” in the political landscape and ensure the continuity of government policies and programs.
“Napakaganda talagang batas ito [because] it will bring stability to the country, kasi kapag hindi palipat-lipat, maipagpapatuloy ‘yung ideology ng mga partido,” he said.
Covered by the bill are all political parties duly registered with the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Tugna said under the bill, the politicians can change their political party during the second year of their term.
Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, one of the authors of the bill. said the measure aims to give importance to party ideals and policy agenda rather than political pragmatism and survival.
“Our history tells us that political parties in the Philippines are normally used only as political vehicles to win an election. Hence, most political aspirants change political parties for convenience, rather than conviction. This only shows the lack of ideology commitment to the members of a party because they choose parties based on the rise and fall of the tide of opportunity,” she said.
She said “turncoatism” should never be encouraged nor tolerated since it only distorts the concept of word of honor and dignity of a leader.”
This is an interesting bill in light of all those politicians who jumped ship to PDP-Laban after Duterte won the election. It's also interesting that the authors of these bills see political parties and partisanship as a source of stability as well as ensuring continuity of government policies and programs since with so many parties the Philippine political system is fractured and not much unity prevails in police ideals. But as Arroyo rightly points out there is a lack of ideology and commitment to party amongst Filipino politicians as evidenced by the many politicians who switched to PDP-Laban recently. I would say this is just a strong case for the abolition of political parties altogether.
Blood started to spill following the circus-like start of the election season with a candidate for councilor in Nueva Ecija becoming what could be the first exhibit of the violence that defines many Philippine political contests.
The candidate for councilor in San Antonio town, Nueva Ecija was gunned down in front of his house on Friday, eight days after he filed his certificate of candidacy (COC).
Jose Alan Joson, 42, could be the first fatality of an election season that was likely to spill more blood as election day draws near.
Joson was conversing with neighbors around 4:25 p.m. at the village of Hulo when a man riding a motorcycle came by and shot him multiple times before speeding off, according to Chief Insp. Marlon Cudal, San Antonio police chief.
Blood started to spill, likely to spill more blood, even the caption on the photo reads FIRTS BLOOD! Sadly this all normal in the Philippines.
“As far as we’re concerned, the case is strong, the evidence is strong that he did not comply with the requirements of the law in connection with getting amnesty,” Panelo, speaking in a mix English and Filipino, said in a interview with AM station Radyo Inquirer. “So we are confident the ruling of the court will be favoring the government.”
“We have introduced evidence, and the evidence of the other side is weak,” he said. “So let’s just wait for the court’s decision.”
“[T]he Court finds and so holds that Trillanes did file his amnesty application in the prescribed form in which he also admitted guilt for his participation in the Oakwood Mutiny, among others, and in which he further recanted all previous statements that he may have made contrary to said admission,” the ruling read.
Soriano said that “the prosecution failed to sufficiently establish its claim that Trillanes did not file an official application form for amnesty.”
Prosecution argued that Lt. Col. Thea Joan Andrade of the Department of National Defense said that there were no records of Trillanes’ amnesty application, which meant that the senator did not apply for amnesty.
But Soriano held: “The non-submission herein does not indicate that he did not apply because it is the DND Ad Hoc Committee which was tasked to receive and process the applications and determine whether or not the applicants applied for amnesty.”
The Palace was wrong. But they will file a motion for reconsideration. By any means necessary to get Triallnes.
Malacañang supports the call of House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for the Philippine Senate to withdraw from the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) over its “interference” in the country’s judicial and political processes.
“I support the call of Speaker Arroyo,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a Palace briefing, adding that this is the official stand of Malacañang.
“Ever since that’s been the stand of the President. We’ve been hearing him making speeches in the same tone,” he added.
Arroyo’s proposal came after the IPU raised concern over the alleged human rights violations against opposition Senators Leila de Lima and Antonio Trillanes IV, two of President Rodrigo Duterte’s fiercest critics.
The Philippines ought to withdraw from every international body. What good have they done for any country? If Duterte wants to have an independent foreign policy then nothing less than full isolationism will do.
The National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) said on Tuesday that it would file formal complaints against two policemen found to be illegally moonlighting as escorts for a Korean national after one of them sideswiped a taxi cab.
At the same time, NCRPO chief, Director Guillermo Eleazar, announced an investigation into allegations that some travel agencies were offering police escorts to foreigners who wanted to avoid being caught in heavy traffic.
“We received information that motorcycle riders trained by the Philippine National Police are part of advertisements promoting local destinations,” Eleazar said in an interview.
The two policemen, however, were not hired by one of these travel agencies, he added.
It seems the raise given to all PNP officers was not enough.
In a statement on Tuesday, Facebook said a total of 95 pages and 39 accounts were “encouraging people to visit low quality websites that contain little substantive content and are full of disruptive ads.”
“These pages ranged from political to entertainment content, but all were sharing links to the same advertising click farms off Facebook,” it said.
At least one of the pages had 4.8 million followers, it added.
The pages include names like Duterte Media, Duterte sa Pagbabago BUKAS, DDS, Duterte Phenomenon and DU30 Trending News.
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the spam violations did not necessarily reflect the behavior of majority of the President’s supporters, who were often vocal on social media.
“Facebook has had its own rules and regulations. If they’re implementing that, then that’s their own rule,” he said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
“If the concern is there will be no more avenues, there are so many avenues. We have Twitter, Instagram and many others where advocates can express themselves in support of this administration,” Panelo said.
What people miss here is that this is not necessarily about fake news. This about Facebook pages wanting you to visit websites which will spam you with advertising and possibly put a virus on your computer. Any website where you must share the link or take a survey before you can read the story is a spam website. Like this:
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| Dutertenewsportal dot com |
Not only is this website full of fake news and it's almost impossible to visit even with adblockers on. The Palace's response, "We have Twitter, Instagram, etc" is practically an admission that these pages are part of their troll army.
Other prominent candidates who have filed disqualification cases against their rivals are Quezon City vice mayoralty bet Gian Carlo Sotto, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Isabela Rep. Antonio Albano.
Amazing. These candidates don't want competition so they are filing to have them disqualified!
President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the arrest of Bureau of Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service officer Jimmy Guban, who has been linked to the smuggling of shabu in the country.
Good to see at least one person of no count will be held accountable for the importation of 6.8 billion pesos worth of shabu. Also Duterte is going to need a warrant for that.
Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) chief Eduardo Año has ordered the immediate relief of the head of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) overt the alleged "oral sex punishment" and hazing imposed by senior cadets on underclassmen.
Citing initial reports, the DILG said an upperclassman ordered two cadets to perform oral sex on each other as punishment for allegedly committing violations.
What does the PNPA director have to do with this? Why punish him?
According to the United Nations, there are five seats open for the council’s Asia-Pacific region. There are 47 seats in total which are distributed to five regional divisions. Only 18 seats are open for this year’s council elections.
For the Asia-Pacific region, there were five candidates in consideration this year—Bahrain, Bangladesh, Fiji, India and the Philippines.
This means that the Philippines was voted onto the UNHRC not because the UN agrees with Duterte's drug war but because the Philippines was among the only candidates up for considerations. 5 seats. 5 candidates. There was no competition. It means the Palace grossly misled the nation last week when they said the election of the Philippines to the UNHRC was a vindication of the Duterte administration's policies.
He is right. It's a culture of corruption and not limited to one man. Same goes for all branches and bureaucracies of the government.
According to Aquino, PDEA made a recomputation after weighing the empty lifters found in General Mariano Alvarez town in Cavite and comparing it to the initial weight declared in importation documents.
"Ang lumalabas sa aming pagtitimbang...lumabas doon [na diperensya] is 1,618 kilos. Kung i-multiply mo 'yun ng P6.8 million bawat kilo, it would turn out to be P11 billion worth of illegal drugs," Aquino said.
(What came out from our reweighing...it showed a difference of 1,618 kilos. If you multiply that by P6.8 million per kilo, it would turn out to be P11 billion worth of illegal drugs.)
They keep changing the information. What next?
An unidentified gunman shot dead a former village chairman in a remote village here on Monday.
Senior Insp. Maximino Gerodias, municipal police chief, said Badawe Ameril, 58, former village chairman of Barangay Manggay, was watching a billiard game at around 1 p.m. when a gunman approached from behind and shot him in the head.
“He died on the spot,” Gerodias said.
Relatives said Ameril was heading home from a midday prayer at a nearby mosque when he decided to drop by the billiard hall where a tournament was taking place.
Another assassinated politician.
Gonzales said the village official was taking a bath at about 7:40 a.m. at a water pump just outside his house in Purok 4, Barangay Rubber when shot by four motorcycle-riding gunmen.
Assassinated while taking a bath!
Aquino said he was interviewed by a reporter of an international media network who told him that no country has ever won the fight against illegal drugs.
“I told him that I think the Philippines can. This international media laughed at me, and I told him that maybe the Philippines is the first country that would win the war on drugs,” he said in a news forum.
Aquino said the PDEA remains unfazed in fighting drug syndicates, even if it is just a “small agency” in the government.
“I am still positive that despite all these, kung hindi ko man mahinto ay malaking porsyento ang nabawas ko sa paglaganap ng illegal na droga sa ating bansa,” he said.
(I am still positive that despite all these, even if I fail to stop the illegal drug trade, I have slashed a big percentage on the spread of illegal drugs in the country.)
Everyone is laughing at Aquino! Talk about delusional! He says we can win the fight against illegal drugs even as he admitted 11 billion pesos worth of drugs made its way into the country!
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