It's your weekly compendium of foolishness and corruption and murder in Philippine politics.
The village chief of Barangay San Pedro in Sta. Catalina, Negros Oriental was shot dead while two other women were wounded in a broad daylight shooting incident in that southern town on Thursday.
An initial police report from the Negros Oriental Provincial Police Office (NOPPO) identified the fatality as acting San Pedro village chief Samuel Ragay, and the two injured as Nimfa Herosa, the barangay treasurer, and Lorna Vingcoy.
Initial police investigation disclosed that three unidentified armed men barged into the barangay hall of San Pedro at around 10 a.m. and told the victims to drop to the floor, said Police Corporal Mark Anthony Dicdican of the Sta. Catalina police station.
He didn't even offer any resistance. He got on the floor and died like a dog.
There's a new drug lord in Western Visayas and President Rodrigo Duterte is sure that person will die soon.
President Duterte, who led the campaign of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan at the Bacolod City Government Center football field on Thursday night, April 11, claimed that someone has taken over the illegal drug operations in the region after the death of alleged Iloilo drug lord Melvin Odicta.
“Sino naghahawak dito? Bakit maraming ugok dito noon? Odicta. Sino nagpalit? Huwag ko munang sabihin. Patay rin ‘yan. ‘Yan ang sigurado,” he said.
(Who’s handling the operations here? Why were there many fools here before? Odicta. Who replaced Odicta? I won't say who yet. He will be dead, too. That’s for sure.)
According to the police, Odicta’s illegal drug operation covered the region, including Negros Occidental and its capital city, Bacolod.
A new drug lord? Sounds like the drug war is going just fine.
Police officials and personnel in Region 12 (Soccsksargen) who are facing charges and undergoing disciplinary proceedings have received a break for some “reflection.”
Brig. Gen. Eliseo Rasco, Police Regional Office 12 director, said they sent police personnel facing various charges to the Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Polomolok, South Cotabato to undergo a two-day recollection starting Friday.
Rasco said the spiritual enrichment activity or the PRO-12’s 2019 Lenten Recollection focuses on the theme, “Repentance, a Pathway to Forgiveness”.
“The participants are uniformed personnel who are facing pending administrative or criminal cases and those who have been embroiled in controversies,” he said in a statement.
The initiative is part of the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) spiritual uplifting program, which “aims to boost the morale of the PNP personnel in their approach to law enforcement,” the police official said.
Does Duterte know about this? Does he know PNP officers are on a retreat at a Catholic Church?
The Sandiganbayan’s First Division has convicted retired Lt. Gen. Jacinto Ligot, the former military comptroller, of perjury and sentenced him to six years in prison.
In a 74-page decision promulgated on Friday, the antigraft court found Ligot guilty on six counts for failing to declare P135 million of his properties in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs) from 1998 to 2003.
The tax evasion case stemmed from a 2011 Senate inquiry into allegations that Ligot and other former high-ranking AFP officials were involved in the multimillion “pabaon” (parting gift) funds misuse scandal.
Convicted of perjury for lying on his SALN but likely involved in a whole lot of corruption.
“I don’t care about criminals, the robbers and their kind – they can be killed like dogs,” the President said in Filipino.
“Each of us has our own tasks in this world. You defend criminals, I kill criminals,” Duterte said.
More tough trash talk from Duterte.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) yesterday transmitted to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) the complaints against 52 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officials who engaged in partisan politics.
According to DILG Undersecretary Epimaco Densing, the complaints came from concerned residents who reported that these officers involved themselves in the campaign for the May 13 midterm polls.
The 52 are part of the more than 700 complaints received by the DILG, he added. The rest are still being validated.
Comelec spokesman James Jimenez refused to comment on the complaints, but pointed out that the Comelec has “to wait for them to file verified complaints.”
“The documents brought to the Comelec are, in effect, merely letters which are not actually in the nature of verified complaints,” Jimenez pointed out.
That last highlighted part is very important. No complaints have been filed. Only letters have been sent. These people probably think writing a letter is enough and do not know the proper process to file a complaint which means no actual complaints will be filed and no village officials will be held accountable for their actions.
Bansalan Mayor Quirina Sarte refused to step down last week to serve a six-month suspension order for grave misconduct after she allegedly allowed a sports club to use the municipal gymnasium for free.
In its March 11 resolution, the Office of the Ombudsman suspended Sarte for violating Republic Act No. 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
But when the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) in Davao del Sur served Sarte’s suspension order on April 11, the mayor questioned the agency’s authority to enforce suspension orders during the election period.
The DILG installed Vice Mayor Edwin Reyes as acting mayor.
Sarte and Reyes are rivals for the town’s mayoral post in the May 13 elections.
This lady does not want to lose her position as mayor.
All five were earlier convicted of graft for their involvement in an overpriced construction project in Bacolod City in 1992, and were sentenced to a minimum of six years and one month imprisonment to a maximum of 10 years, and were perpetually disqualified from public office.
A nearly 20 year appeal!
A former mayor who was in President Rodrigo Duterte’s August 2016 list of personalities allegedly involved in illegal drugs and who went into hiding since late May 2017 as he was ordered arrested for alleged involvement in the Marawi siege, showed up at the rally of the Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipinas (PDP) Friday, was publicly acknowledged by senatorial bets but was intercepted by the military as he stepped out of the Dimaporo Gymnasium and brought to the headquarters of the 103rd Infantry Brigade.
The military said they did not arrest but merely “invited” former Marawi mayor Omar Solitario, who has been wanted since his name was listed in Arrest Orders 1 and 2 issued on May 29 and June 5, 2017 by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, the Martial Law administrator.
Solitario is one of nine candidates for mayor of the Islamic City of Marawi in the 2019 polls, running under the People’s Consultative Party.
MindaNews asked a government official-friend of Solitario if he was arrested. He said he verified and was told that Solitario “went there to drink coffee with the officers and gentlemen.”
“But he is still wanted, right?” MindaNews asked. Solitario’s friend replied “di na daw kuno” (not anymore).
Asked how he was cleared, the friend said he had no details but added that Solitario “is campaigning with so much ease in movement.”
“We just invited him for an interview,” Col. Romeo Brawner, 103rd Infantry Brigade commander, said in a text message Friday night in response to MindaNews’ query if Solitario was arrested.
Asked where Solitario was, Brawner told MindaNews he had been released. “We received orders to release him,” he said.
This is a very strange story. The man was wanted for involvement in drugs and the Marawi siege, is apprehended, and is subsequently released. How? Why? Likely Duterte gave the order to release him. Who else would have the authority to make such a decision?
"Effectively his previous statement earlier—when he said ‘do not touch our property and if you do any harm to our soldiers, we will respond in kind’—that effectively has already made a very strong assertion of sovereignty and statement relative to the arbitral ruling," presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said at a news conference.
Asked if the public should take it as the President invoking the arbitral ruling, Panelo said: "Exactly. Yes."
Panelo reiterated the Philippines' call for China to avoid any acts that will be considered as harassing Filipino fishermen in disputed waters or that "might provoke hostility and it can even affect the bilateral relations between two countries."
The Palace spokesman also said China should "respect" the arbitral ruling "although they do not believe in it."
"As we said earlier, as far as we are concerned there has been an arbitral ruling issued by a tribunal based on the law on the seas and accepted by international law. So we feel that we have a judgment, a judgment which has a stamp of permanence. It cannot be taken away from us," he said.
Given how he has downplayed the ruling in the past as well as lashes out against the UN and the ICC the fact that he would invoke this ruling is laughable.
A ranking military official yesterday revealed that they are closely monitoring four local government officials in Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental, who are allies of the New People’s Army.
Without mentioning names, Brig. Gen. Benedict Arevalo, 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, said yesterday that those government officials are not just supporting the NPA, but are allies of the rebel group.
“We have to see to it that they do not use the NPA rebels as their private armed group,” Arevalo said, as he reminded them of their pledge to support the government as elected officials.
Arevalo, who had revealed earlier that more than 30 officials in Negros Occidental are allegedly supporting the CPP-NPA, maintained that he will not release their names in public, stressing that he does not have immunity like President Rodrigo Duterte.
Ok so there are maybe 30 LG officials associated with communists but he won't release the names because he does not have immunity like the President? Does this mean Duterte can simply accuse anyone of anything and get away with it?
The Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) has expelled one of its coordinators in Central Luzon over alleged corruption, VACC president Arsenio “Boy” Evangelista announced on Tuesday.
He said the expulsion of Pyra Lucas was formalized through a resolution approved by the board on April 4.
VACC, he said, acted on the complaint of a couple whose son has a pending rape case in the Department of Justice.
Evangelista said he was also checking reports that Lucas had used a unit of the National Bureau of Investigation in an illegal quarrying activity.
Irony?
A group of Palawan fishermen and farmers on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court (SC) to order the government to enforce environmental laws in the Philippines' waters and exclusive economic zone.
They also sought the issuance of a writ of continuing mandamus requiring the government to perform acts mandated upon them by Philippine environmental laws.
Citing evidence submitted by the government to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the international arbitral court that ruled for the Philippines in 2016, the group alleged that Chinese fishermen and vessels have harvested endangered species and used cyanide and dynamite in Panatag and Ayungin Shoals, violating the Philippine Fisheries Code.
They also assailed Chinese construction activities in Panganiban Reef.
The environmental damage, they said, covers Masinloc, Zambales and Kalayaan, Palawan.
"The marine environment and resources in the abovementioned areas were damaged severely and extensively in spite of adequate Philippine laws to protect them," the petition stated.
"Clearly, the damage is brought upon by lack of enforcement of Philippine environment laws by respondents," it added.
Not only are the Chinese creeping steadily on Philippine territory in the WPS but they are also damaging the environment.
(You know, I still have friends from other countries. What you did not know is that you were being listened to while you are doing that. I’ll release that in a few days. It’s an intelligence report, not from us but from another country.)
This is not the first time Duterte has threatened people with foreign intelligence reports and likely won't be the last? It is also probably not true but if it is and he knows a foreign country is spying on the country and would wilfully use those reports to his advantage rather than call them out then that is just a a step shy from treason.
“Well, like America is there, they could have stopped China from the inception, but they did not,” Panelo said in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel on Wednesday.
How exactly could America have stopped China's activities in the WPS? Maybe the Philippines should not have raised the rent on Subic Bay and Clark military bases which is what caused the US to leave thus creating a void of which China could readily take advantage. The blame falls on the Philippines for not having a solid policy on the WPS and China and Duterte's inaction is only making things worse.
Three policemen were relieved after they were caught sleeping on the job in Sto. Tomas, Batangas City on Holy Wednesday.
Brig. Gen. Edward Carranza, director of the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) police, said he saw the three policemen just woke up at a police outpost near the National Shrine of Saint Padre Pio.
He also said he discovered the Community-Police Assistance Center (COMPAC), where the three police officers were stationed, messy.
You snooze, you lose...your job that is.
Guban, Fajardo, and Acierto, based on the complaint of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), are the “core conspirators” in trying to smuggling the shabu into the country.
Acierto earlier surfaced and linked President Rodrigo Duterte’s former adviser Michael Yan in the illegal drugs activity.
Aside from the three, also facing the same charges are Chan Yee Wah; Zhou Quan/Zhang Quan; consignees Vedasto Cabral Baraquel Jr. and his wife Maria Lagrimas Catipan of Vecaba Trading; and Emily Luquingan, the ex-wife of Hsu Chun Chung.
So now the guy who alleges one of Duterte's advisors is drug lord is charged with smuggling shabu in to the country. Neat.
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