It's your weekly compendium of foolishness and corruption and murder in Philippine politics.
In a report by Chief Inspector Jude Bryan B. Maguddayao, acting police chief of Subic Municipal Police Station, the victim was identified as Bernard F. Madamba, 46 years old, former barangay kagawad and a tricycle driver, and resident of P-3, Brgy. Wawandue, Subic.
Madamba was driving his tricycle along the road of Sitio Cabangaan, Brgy. Cawag with 3 passengers around 5 pm Thursday when suddenly, a blue Toyota Innova with no plate number blocked their path.
The unidentified suspects alighted from their vehicle and fired two shots at Madamba.
Madamba's passengers, on the other hand, ran for cover and were unharmed.
Another cold and brutal killing.
A policeman assigned at the Laguna police headquarters in Sta. Cruz town was killed in an anti-drug operation on Friday morning.
Police Officer 3 Jennyson Soriano, 45, a resident of Pagsanjan town, had been involved in the narcotics trade, particularly in the fourth district of the province and acted either as “pusher or protector,” Laguna police director Sr. Supt. Eleazar Matta said.
“(Soriano was assigned) here in my headquarters as (part of the) base police,” Matta said in a text message.
Soriano also allegedly carried the alias “Sir” in the illegal drugs trade.
Another ironic and isolated incident of a PNP officer charged with upholding the law breaking it and making the PNP look bad. Good-bye to this singular bad egg.
After weeks of sleuthing, the Cebu City police busted two illegal gambling dens said to be frequented by “prominent” personalities, including politicians, in Cebu.
Caught in the act of engaging in high-stake poker games or attending to gamblers were a total of 23 persons during simultaneous raids at dawn of January 31 inside a wine shop in Barangay Kamputhaw and in a two-storey building in Barangay Guadalupe.
None of those arrested, however, were political figures in Cebu.
One would think "after weeks of sleuthing" the PNP would know the proper time to bust the joint and catch thebig fish swimming in this pond. But no.
Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, a member of the Senate panel on the budget conference committee, said on Thursday members of the House were actually getting P160 million, and not just P60 million, worth of projects in the spending bill approved by the House.
Lacson said the National Expenditure Program (NEP), which was prepared by the executive branch, had P100 million worth of projects embedded in it for every member of the House.
The allocation consisted of P70 million in “hard” projects, which usually refer to infrastructure projects, and P30 million in “soft” projects, which usually cover financial assistance programs.
Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo then added P60 million to the allocation for her colleagues, Lacson said.
Messed up if true but not surprising either. How is this problem still there and how has it increased when the budget has been discussed and debated for the past few weeks?
It's simple. The Hosue has their pork and the Senate has their pork. To each his oink! Year of the pig indeed!
The Department of the Interior and Local Government will issue show cause orders to 107 local government officials, including two mayors in Metro Manila, for their alleged failure to prevent the pollution of Manila Bay, DILG Undersecretary for barangay affairs Martin Diño said yesterday.
Diño said the local officials will be made to explain why they should not be held liable for failure to strictly enforced provisions of Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2001.
“We will also be filing administrative cases against them before the Office of the Ombudsman,” he said in a phone interview.
A law from 2001 and they are just now enforcing it? HA!
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has generated some P370-billion “pork” in 2017 and more in 2018, which could be used to “sway the outcome” of the May polls, House appropriations panel chair Rolando Andaya Jr. claimed Tuesday.
Andaya said he has documents to show that the DBM generated a total of P370 billion in savings in 2017, which is at the full disposal of Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokono.
“Documents in our possession show that for 2017, a total of P370 billion was generated in savings. This amount was at the full disposal of Secretary Diokno,” Andaya said in a statement.
“We also know that the amount for 2018 savings is higher. More than enough to sway the outcome of the 2019 elections, if he wants to,” he added.
The amount of pork people are being accused of hoarding for themselves keeps growing and growing. If these allegations are true and there is that much savings then that means there is no reason to borrow from China or raise excise taxes.
"Because it is coming out before the start of the campaign period then automatically it is considered as premature campaigning," Jimenez told ANC's "Beyond Politics."
"It's not illegal. It's not punishable by law. You might not like that it's being done, you might find it distasteful, but technically there is no violation of the law," he added.
Jimenez, however, clarified that once the campaign period starts on Feb. 12 for senatorial and party-list candidates, all campaign materials earlier posted would be considered in violation of the law.
"There's no way that can be legal once the campaign period starts," he said.
The Comelec's rules on premature campaigning are confusing. Right now all these tarps are fine but come February 12th they all become illegal? Why aren't they illegal now? Just make premature campaigning an offence that renders anyone's candidacy ineligible.
Two House of Representatives committees on Wednesday did not find former Bureau of Customs (BoC) Chief Isidro Lapeña liable in connection with the entry of billions of pesos worth of illegal drugs shipments to the country last year.
Does this mean the charges filed against Lapeña by the NBI are now moot and tossed out the window?
Found in the house of Eduardo Lopez Sr., 61, a resident of Barangay Aglao, were several unregistered firearms, including a .45-caliber Colt pistol, a .25-caliber pistol, and a gauge shotgun.
Police also recovered from Lopez’s possession more than 200 live ammunition.
The village official is facing charges for illegal possession of firearms and ammunition and violation of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) gun ban.
That is a nice weapons cache.
Chief Inspector Rolly Oranza, President Roxas Police chief, identified the victim as Robert Herbilla, 43, SB Secretary of the Local Government Unit and residence of Barangay Poblacion.
Oranza said that based on their investigation, at least four suspects barged inside the Herbilla's house and without saying a single word shot him several times.
Herbilla residence was raided by the police in December last year due to his alleged involvement to illegal drugs. He was arrested and was out on bail when shot.
Another local official assassinated but this situation is likely drug related.
“Chill out. New Chinese get in via ‘visas upon arrival’ strictly administered by Immigration (not DFA) and do not take jobs from Filipinos,” Locsin said in a tweet.
Locsin’s remark was contrary from Sen. Joel Villanueva’s findings which found that some 119,000 Chinese tourists were able to work in the Philippines by circumventing labor rules.
Again we have a bureaucrat spotting off his opinions which are at odds with another politician's findings. Remember when he tweeted that all the DFA's passport records were stolen which started a national panic and then he said he was wrong about that?
China has deployed as many as 95 ships near the Spratly Islands after the Philippines started construction projects on Pagasa Island, a report by a Washington-based think tank has indicated.
The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) of the US Center for Strategic and International Studies said the fleet included a mixture of fishing, law enforcement, and naval vessels in what has been called the "cabbage strategy."
AMTI used photo capture from satellite images to confirm the presence of the vessels.
China builds in the WPS and the Palace says its great and we should all be thankful but the Philippines attempts to build on their own territory in the WPS and China acts aggressive sending in all kinds of ships to form a blockade! Maybe the Philippines should be thankful they sent so many ships?
The mother of the 17-year-old boy killed in an alleged shootout with policemen in Rosales, Pangasinan last year filed murder charges at the Office of the Ombudsman on Thursday against the cops involved in the incident.
The Philippines' justice system really does need an overhaul. Mothers should not be filing murder raps against the police. Such charges should be the outcome of an investigation by the DA but there are no DA's in the Philippines.
The national budget debacle is pretty scandalous. It is February and a budget has still not been passed! There are two articles above about the the pork inserted in the budget but let's take a look at this series of article and the story they tell.
“Totoo yun, (That’s true)” Tinio told reporters amid the earlier pronouncement of Majority Leader and Cadiz Rep. Fredenil Castro that the P160-million allocation per congressman in the 2019 budget is “not pork.”
“We confirm na nandyan ang P160-million allocation per representative. Bahagi ito ng kabuuang pork barrel insertions ng Senate, House at Malacanang ng 2019 budget na nais nila i-approve bukas,” he said.
“Kung nararapat, at kung talagang maliwanag na pork, bakit hindi? Dapat i-veto (If it is necessary, and if it is clearly pork, why not? It should be vetoed),” Sotto said in an ambush interview.
“At this point hindi namin talaga alam kung alin ang pork at hindi. Alam lang namin sa Senate, ano yung mga institutional amendments (At this point, we really do not know which one is a pork [insertion] or not. As far as the Senate is concerned, we only know the institutional amendments),” he added.
Lawmakers would run to the Supreme Court to seek “clarification” should President Rodrigo Duterte decide to veto the “pork” funds allegedly inserted in the P3.757-trillion budget for 2019, a House leader said Wednesday.
“I am in full support of the call for the president to use his line-item veto power to remove all pork barrel insertions in the 2019 national budget,” Andaya said. “A veto message prepared by Sec. Diokno will surely perpetuate these unanswered issues, unfortunately with the president as unwitting victim.”
“The House panel will elevate the veto message to the Supreme Court to clarify, not to defy, the veto message. We need to know the clear implications of the line items to be vetoed,” the lawmaker added.
The story here is unbelievable. The Senate and the House are both admitting the existence of massive amounts of pork in the budget BUT they both want Duterte to line-item veto every instance of pork! They are passing the buck to the President instead of doing their jobs. Does Duterte have time to figure out which is which? Of course not. I bet these politicians are counting on there being so much noise that no one will figure out what is going on. The Senate is willing to pass the budget as is, pork and all, and let Duterte do their work for them. Amazing!
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