It's your weekly compendium of foolishness and corruption and murder in Philippine politics.
Duterte said he weighed in on the issue, saying honesty as an election issue would depend if telling the truth would bring good or would just create trouble.
“It depends. It depends. If you’re hanging by the thread, of what good use would it be, if it’ll just create trouble,” he said in an ambush interview at the sidelines of the 122nd Philippine Army Anniversary in Taguig, City.
“There are things left unsaid and there are things which you can answer correctly. Okay?” he added.
Yes, sometimes telling the truth creates trouble because it reveals what a scoundrel you really are.
Puerto Princesa City Mayor Lucilo Bayron could face graft and grave misconduct charges after a complaint was filed against him at the Office of the Ombudsman.
Citing a Commission on Audit (COA) report, a certain Mansueto Fuentes called on the Ombudsman to investigate numerous irregularities in Bayron’s use of public funds.
Efforts to get the side of Bayron for the last two days have been futile.
In a 38-page complaint filed at the Office of the Ombudsman on March 12, Fuentes said that based on a December 2017 COA report, COA regional director Ma. Corazon S. Gomez found 28 instances of major violations of COA rules and circulars by the city government.
Citing the same COA report, Fuentes said Bayron, as mayor, invested P1.7 million in time deposits instead of using the amount for programs and projects.
Another P2.5 million in loans were acquired “without proper debt management policies” and a total of P147.8 million in infrastructure projects under the Kalsada Program was spent in violation of the government procurement law.
The COA report also enumerated other discrepancies in Puerto Princesa’s finances, including at least P107 million in unliquidated cash advances to city officials and a cash deficit of P129 million.
Hundreds of millions of pesos misspent by city government? I'm shocked I tell you. Shocked!
NBI Director Dante Gierran named the suspects as Reynaldo Lojuco, Revenue Officer 2 assigned at BIR’s office in Plaridel, Bulacan; Sheila Marie Santiago; and Kim Cariño. They were collared for allegedly extorting money from a man with pending tax cases.
According to NBI, the arrest of the suspects stemmed from a complaint against Lojuco, who allegedly asked money from the complainant in exchange for the suppression of his tax case, which was previously provisionally dismissed by Caloocan Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 50.
Lojuco allegedly threatened the complainant that he will revive the latter’s tax case should he fail to pay him P300,000.
NBI said Lojuco allegedly further demanded the same amount for the complainant’s other three cases pending before BIR.
The complainant negotiated that the amount be paid in three monthly payments to which Lojuco agreed.
This taxman wanted P1.2 million in bribes!
A policeman was arrested in an entrapment operation in Camp Crame for allegedly receiving cash in exchange for expediting the processing of identification cards of 32 security guards.
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Oscar Albayalde announced on Monday the arrest of Senior Inspector Gerry Manuel Revecho, assigned at the ID Production Section of the Supervisory Office for Security and Investigation Agencies (SOSIA).
According to Albayalde, an entrapment was set against Revecho by agents of the PNP Counter-Intelligence Task Force, Civil Security Group, and Intelligence Group inside the SOSIA office on Friday (March 22).
Albayalde said Revecho received P20,000 in marked cash from a CITF agent who posed as a representative of a security agency. The money was reportedly for expediting the processing of the identification cards of the security guards.
The word entrapment is thrown around often when speaking of PNP operations and surely that is wrong.
Entrapment is when the cops set someone up to commit a crime they would not normally commit and the practice is illegal. What is meant in the above PNP operation is just a standard trap.
The Commission on Audit (COA) has denied the appeal of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) to reconsider its earlier notice of disallowance covering some P8.1 million in meal allowances granted to MWSS officials in 2012 and 2014.
In a notice of disallowance dated June 30, 2014, the COA said the MWSS payment of meal allowances were P8,173,730 in excess of the approved amount.
According to the decision, the MWSS petition for review was submitted 362 days after the original notice of disallowance.
“Based on the foregoing, petitioners had already exhausted the reglementary period of six months or 180 days to file the petition for review,” the decision said.
P8 million in meal allowances is a lot of money.
Amid accusations by a former New People’s Army (NPA) rebel claiming Moises Padilla Vice Mayor Ella Garcia-Yulo is linked with the rebel group and previously ordered killings in the town, the Moises Padilla municipal police have filed murder charges against the detained town official.
Based on documents provided by police, the charges were filed last week before the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor in Bacolod City.
Also included in the charges were Adrian Villaflor and Moreto Flores, both of whom are residents of Barangay Quintin Remo in the said town.
In the complaint affidavit filed by former NPA rebel Jully Opiar, he claimed Garcia-Yulo ordered the killing of Magdaleno Grande in January 2016 after reportedly receiving word he had informed Moises Padilla Mayor Magdaleno Peña about her security aides being involved with illegal drugs, which eventually resulted in their termination from service.
He also claimed the vice mayor was a member of the NPA’s “Kangaroo Court” and used the rebels as her “muscle and personal goons” in order to add the names to the NPA’s “hitlist.”
A Vice Mayor allegedly linked to the NPA and accused of a murder from 2016.
“Things have worsened. My policemen are at the brink of surrendering,” he said in a speech on Sunday night during the campaign rally of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-laban) in Cagayan de Oro.
“You can see the headlines — every day billions worth of drugs are entering the country. Look at the main screen and the crawler, the running news at the bottom. It’s always about drugs, drugs, and drugs,” he added.
“Don’t believe that it’s one billion. The next day there will be another one-point-three billion. That’s just an excuse. That’s a bait,” he said.
“Actually there are other billions coming in. The Philippines is contiguous, island for island. There are seven thousand islands. Just choose where you want to land,” he added.
“In the end, we will be like Mexico. We will be controlled by drug cartels. The Sinaloa has already entered the country and that is why drugs are being thrown in the Pacific. The same is happening in the West,” he said.
Obviously the drug war has not stopped drugs. Billions worth of shabu keep coming into the country and the PDEA acknowledges China is a major source. Will Duterte ever stop coddling the Chinese?
The Philippines is bent on filing a diplomatic protest if it is proven that the Chinese Coast Guard is driving away Filipino fishermen from Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal in the West Philippine Sea, presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said on Monday.
“They have to show proof that’s being done now [again]. If that is being done, certainly we will protest. We will not allow our countrymen to be subjected to that kind of harassment,” he said.
He added: “If there was a negotiation, there was an agreement not to touch them (fishermen). And then one incident, two incidents violate this agreement, then we have to tell them (Chinese) and they will have to correct it.”
Let's get real here. Even if there were video and audio showing the Chinese navy driving away and shooting at and even killing Filipino fisherman this administration would throw up its hands and say, "What can we do!?"
An official of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) admitted that the investigation on the 46 politicians implicated in the illegal drug trade could be affected by the release of their names to the public.
DILG Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III agreed when asked over The Chiefs on Cignal TV’s One News if the investigation on the criminal aspect could be derailed as the politicians involved will be more careful with their activities after President Duterte named them in public.
“Lumalabas na ganun (Looks that way),” Densing said in the interview aired on Monday.
According to Densing, Duterte’s decision to name the narco politicians in public is to guide voters in the midterm polls.
“The elections are coming and because we have a narco list, the people would need to know,” he said.
He said the President was willing to take the risk in naming the politicians in public, hoping that he can influence the voters.
“We can at least reduce the number of narco politicians in local government. I think the President saw that,” Densing said.
Despite admitting that the release of this list will directly affect any investigations into these politicians Densing still defends the manoeuvre by saying it could "reduce the number of narco politicians in local government." That assumes all these men are up for reelection and that the people have read the list. It also ignores the fact that the best way to get these men out of politics is to file cases and arrest them.
On Monday, Panelo said the appointment of Santiago to the ICC in 2011 should be considered void because the Philippines was never officially a member of the international body.
Panelo, however, said the Philippine government need not pull out former law dean Raul Pangalangan from the ICC as the Philippines was never under ICC jurisdiction.
This narrative that the Philippines was never a member of the ICC is very bizarre but is in keeping with other the same tactics used against Supreme Court Chief Justice Sereno whose appointment was declared invalid and against Sen. Trillanes whose amnesty Duterte declared void "ab initio."
Apart from being a possible debt trap, Africa said the ODA made it too easy for China to declare the loan in default and declare “all the principal of and accrued interest … immediately due and payable.”
According to the agreement released by the Department of Finance, the loan is governed by Chinese laws and any disputes will be settled in the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre.
Africa said that under the agreement, the Philippines “waives any immunity on the grounds of sovereignty” and may give up natural and strategic resources to China in case it defaulted on the loan.
The construction of the dam also comes at the price of the lives, lands and livelihood of indigenous peoples, according to members of the Dumagat tribe.
Senators on Tuesday expressed concern over the country’s loan agreement with China for an irrigation project in which the Duterte administration used “patrimonial assets” as collateral that could be seized by Beijing if the government defaulted on its payments.
Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio last week raised the alarm over what he described as lopsided provisions in the $62-million loan agreement to build the Chico River Pump Irrigation Project, including the arbitration of any dispute by China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission in Beijing.
Carpio warned that in case of a default in the payment of the loan, China could seize the gas-rich Recto (Reed) Bank in the West Philippine Sea as a “patrimonial asset” or an asset “dedicated to commercial use” by the Philippine government.
Duterte is very fixated on getting loans from China to build these projects yet all of these loans have terms which are unfavourable to the Philippines.
"Iyong Koreano na pinatay sa Crame. ‘Yan si Acierto, pati si Fajardo (That Korean who was killed in Camp Crame, Acierto and Fajardo), they were the ones who killed that Korean," he said.
The President said Acierto is also behind the import and distribution of about 1,000 pieces of AK-47 units to communist New People's Army (NPA) rebels.
He said Acierto was "dismissed from PNP (Philippine National Police) effective Aug. 14, 2016 due to (the) procurement of AK-47 rifle(s), which eventually landed in the possession of the New People’s Army."
"He (Acierto) was the guy na nag-import ng AK-47 -- 1,000 something pieces. Tapos idineliver niya sa New People’s Army (He was the guy who imported AK-47s – 1,000 something pieces. Then he delivered them to the NPA)," Duterte said in his speech during the distribution of grants to beneficiaries of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
“Actually, sa ngayon walang feedback sa amin na he (Acierto) was directly or indirectly involved. I think that part is still under investigation, although na-identify kasi kaagad kung sino ‘yung mga directly involved gaya nina Colonel Dumlao who are in jail actually,” Albayalde told reporters at Camp Crame. He was referring to Lt. Col. Rafael Dumlao III, who is currently detained at the PNP Custodial Center.
(Actually, as of now there is no feedback to us that he was directly or indirectly involved. I think that part is still under investigation, although those directly involved were immediately identified like Colonel Dumlao, who are in jail actually.)
“‘Yung participation niya kung meron man, hindi pa ma-identify until now. ‘Yun nga after that kasi na-dismiss siya from the service,” the PNP chief said.
(His participation, if there’s any, has not been identified until now. It’s because after that he was dismissed from the service.)
Acierto was dismissed from the police force in August 2018 following an order from the Office of the Ombudsman over the anomalous issuance of AK-47 rifles during the Aquino administration.
Acierto claims many of the men Duterte surrounds himself with are involved in drugs. Specifically he has named Michael Yang, a Chinese envoy, as being involved in the drug trade. Now Duterte is attempting to silence Acierto and sully his name by outright lying about him.
A local official charged with illegal guns.
Another local barnagay official shot. Attempted assassination?
In Ibaan town, Emiliano Barte, village captain of Barangay San Agustin, was arrested for illegal possession of firearms around 11 a.m. Wednesday.
Police said Barte was the leader of the so-called Barte Criminal Gang which was being linked to Ibaan mayor Juan Toreja.
Toreja, who has earlier denied the accusations and announced that he was no longer running for the May elections, was among the local chief executives named by President Duterte as involved in the illegal drugs trade.
A local official nabbed for illegal gun possession who is also the leader of a criminal gang with ties to the mayor who is on Duterte's narco list. Interesting.
President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday said he had ordered the re-arrest of the teen suspect in the killing of 16-year-old Christine Lee Silawan, whose body was mutilated and whose face was skinned down to her skull.
In his speech during PDP-Laban campaign rally in Koronadal City, South Cotabato, the President said he called the prosecutor who ordered the 17-year-old suspect’s release.
“Sabi ko: I-recall mo yung desisyon. Have the guy re-arrested,” the President said.
[I said: Recall the decision. Have the guy re-arrested.]
On Friday, the Lapu-Lapu City Prosecutor’s Office ordered the release of the teenage suspect from the social welfare department’s custody because the arrest made by the National Bureau of Investigation was invalid since it was done without a warrant.
“Di ako papayag ganunin ang bata. Binalatan mo ang bata. Mahuli ka ilang days, tapos palayain? Imposible ang hot pursuit na 24 hours lang. Six days, it’s still hot pursuit,” he added.
[I won’t allow the child to be treated that way. He skinned the child. It took a few days to arrest him and then he’s released. It’s impossible to have a hot pursuit in just 24 hours. Six days, it’s still hot pursuit.]
A phone call from President Rodrigo Duterte will not influence the course of the preliminary investigation being conducted by the panel of prosecutors of the Lapu-lapu City Prosecutors Office on the murder case lodged against the 17-year-old suspect in the murder of Christine Lee Silawan.
City Prosecutor Ruso Zaragosa admitted that he was questioned by the President in a phone conversation on why he ordered the release of the suspect last Friday, March 22.
“Gipasabot nako nganong ingon ana among decision nga wala mo-fall sa hot pursuit ang pagdakop sa bata. Convinced ra siya but naa pud siyay gisulti nga basin masulod ra sa hot pursuit [ang pagdakop]. Mura ra mig nag estorya, nag discuss,” Zaragosa said.
(I explained why we came up with the decision that the arrest of the boy did not fall under the principle of hot pursuit. He was convinced but he also mentioned that perhaps the arrest could still fall under hot pursuit. We just talked and discussed about the case.)
N
o matter which story is true, that Duterte ordered the arrest or that Duterte and the City Prosecutor only talked it over and came to some rational conclusion, the fact is that the President ordering
the arrest
of anyone is out of line and should
not
be tolerated but of course every one will tolerate it. There
is also the fact of the PNP bungling this case by arresting the man without a warrant thus allowing the main suspect to go free
which is ridiculous. Doubtful this girl and her family will ever see justice but who knows?
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