It's your weekly compendium of foolishness and corruption and murder in Philippine politics.
A precinct commander in Pasay City was relieved from his post after two of his men were caught receiving alleged protection money from a bus operator, Brig. Gen. Debold Sinas, acting director of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), said Thursday.
Sinas identified the relieved officer as Capt. Mark Oyad, commander of the Pasay City Police Community Precinct 7, and the two arrested policemen as Cpl. Reynald Pallangeo Macwes and Cpl. Jimuel Ilagan Bernal, who were in their service uniforms and aboard a patrol car during the entrapment.
In a press briefing at the Kamuning Police Station in Quezon City, Sinas said the entrapment procedure stemmed from a report that Macwes and Bernal were collecting P500 to P1,000 per trip from bus and van operators – depending on the size of their vehicles – in order to continue their operations in terminals within the Malibay area.
Sinas said the complainant, a bus operator, was summoned September 28 by Oyad in his office to inform the businessman that the daily collection will be fixed at P1,000 for every trip of buses and vans.
Sinas said the complainant disagreed, displeasing Oyad, who then threatened the complainant that he will be arrested for drug charges if he will not accede to the new scheme.
The bus operator, however, decided to report the incident to higher authorities. Sinas said personnel of the Philippine National Police-Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (IMEG) and the Intelligence Group (IG) then conducted surveillance on the suspects.
From this it appears that the bus drivers were going along with this scheme until they fixed the fee too high for one driver! One reason corruption continues is because people allow it to happen and do not report it right away.
Clarin Mayor David Navarro was about to board a plane at the Mactan Cebu International Airport around 4 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 24, when he was arrested by police.
He was accused of beating up masseur John Duenas who was assigned to massage the mayor in the absence of masseuse.
Security camera footage obtained by police showed Navarro punching Duenas in the stomach.
Duenas said when a masseuse was assigned to the mayor, Navarro asked that she massage his private parts.
None of these charges matter anymore because now this mayor is dead. Assassinated like any mayor in the Philippines.
The mayor of Clarin, Misamis Occidental was killed in an ambush while on his way to the prosecutor’s office for inquest proceeding in Cebu City on Friday, police said.
The incident happened as the police convoy was traversing M. Velez Street at about 2 p.m., according to an initial report from Cebu City police.
Citing a witness’ account, local media reports said a white van approached the convoy of the mayor. The witness said about four masked men then opened fire at the police vehicle multiple times.
Witnesses said the suspects also pulled the mayor from the patrol car and was shot to death by at least four assailants.
What good are the police if they let this happen? Why did they not fire back? Why was there no shootout? Why did they let the assassins get away? What a coincidence that he happened to be on the narcolist as well. The same mayor was also allegedly the leader of a robber group.
Clarin Mayor David Navarro and Dante Navarro, the leader of the Alferez Robbery Group based in Ozamiz City, were one and the same person, according to the information fed by the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) to the local police.
The robbery that struck four jewelry shops and a money changer at the J Centre Mall in Mandaue City on Oct. 19 was traced to the Alferez Group.
True or not that is still no excuse for the man being assassinated while in the custody of the PNP!
THE Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) has found sufficient evidence that will pin down those responsible for the alleged technical smuggling of billions of pesos worth of steel billets and stainless steel by unscrupulous importers and brokers in collusion with corrupt personnel of the Bureau of Customs (BoC).
“[Our investigation is] ongoing and we found prima facie evidence to launch a deeper probe,” PACC Commissioner Manuelito Luna told The Manila Times on Sunday.
“There appears to be undervaluation in the import declarations.” according to Luna, PACC commissioner in charge of the probe.
“This is industry-wide. We are auditing at present 4 to 5 steel companies but there will be more as we go on,” Maronilla added.
Proliferation sub-standard steel across the country has been documented by concerned groups.
It was found out that the sub-standard steel was being used in various constructions such as rebuilding of collapsed residential and commercial buildings in the typhoon-devastated provinces of Leyte and Samar.
BOC personnel not only help smuggle drugs and cars into the country but also steel. A very diversified portfolio.
Pat. Jun Utto, assigned to the Regional Mobile Force Battalion of the National Capital Region Police Office, was alighting a jeepney at about 2:30 p.m. Sunday when his 9mm pistol accidentally fired, hitting his right knee, a report from Pasay City Police said on Monday.
What if a passenger on the jeepney and accidentally been shot?
The Philippines is carrying out an inventory of infrastructure projects under its ambitious six-year, P8.2 trillion “Build, Build, Build” program to come up with a more realistic list of projects.
Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia told Reuters the government was “trimming” the list of 75 flagship projects it had promised to deliver or at least start and “substituting with others more economically feasible and doable.”
But its plan has hit snags, the most recent of which is the delay in the approval of this year’s budget, forcing economic managers to trim their growth target for this year to 6% to 7% from 7% to 8%.
Pernia said the government has struck three long-bridge projects costing P161 billion off the original list because they are “not economically viable” and tough to build because the technology is not yet available.
The government has to revise its Build Build Build program because it was unrealistic, not ecumenically viable, and the technology needed to build some projects is lacking! It's like the Duterte administration implemented these projects without thinking about how to actually carry them through to completion.
“The agencies have to catch up on their spending so that we can hit our growth target. The reenactment of the budget was regrettable but as the data has shown, the targets set are still attainable so we must sustain the momentum,” Angara, who chairs the Senate’s finance committee, said in a statement.
There is still time to catch up on spending, which would benefit especially the poor, Angara said.
“It’s not just infrastructure but also on the delivery of social services that have faced delays,” he said. “We should do everything to make sure our people don’t feel shortchanged by the government.”
The low budget utilization by key government departments could also undermine the Duterte administration’s ambitious P8.4-trillion “Build, Build, Build” program to construct 75 major infrastructure projects, including railways, roads, bridges and airports in six years.
But the program remains “illusory” because the public works and transportation departments have not implemented many of these projects, according to former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cielito Habito.
Underspending is a perennial problem in the Philippine bureaucracy. That the budget was passed very late only serves to worsen the problem.
The President claimed Navarro, who met with him two weeks before he was shot dead, was his supporter during the last elections.
Duterte claimed “somebody is out to get him,” referring to Navarro.
(That’s why I said, “What did the PNP do? Maybe they were the ones who killed him?” They were the ones near him).
Duterte said he wanted the probe to be fair so he preferred the police out of the investigation.
(Anyway, it is still being investigated. It’s being investigated by the NBI. I prefer the NBI because the police were there when it happened. To make it really fair, I’d like the PNP to terminate their investigation and hand it to the NBI whatever documents and/or proof or evidence that they have in their hands).
The entire nation "knows" the PNP did it. The hard thing will be getting the evidence to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt.
(Not all policemen are, mind you. By and large, the police are good. There are really just some scalawags in the police force, especially those who have been punished before and those who have cases. I will tell General Año, ‘Dismiss them’).
How many times will Duterte issue such an order?
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte claimed he will give Vice President Leni Robredo powers over all anti-drug activities for 6 months, smarting from her criticism of his crackdown on illegal drugs.
Duterte, speaking to new government officials on Monday, October 28, said he had instructed Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea to send Robredo a letter.
"As a matter of fact, I'm sending a letter to her through Secretary Medialdea. I will surrender my powers to enforce the law, ibigay ko sa Vice President, ibigay ko sa kanya ng 6 months," said Duterte. (I will give it to the Vice President, I'll give it to her for 6 months.)
It's not clear if the President is serious about the proposal or if he was only using it as a sarcastic jab against Robredo.
Actually it is pretty clear that he is just being sarcastic. Legally he could not surrender his executive powers and if he could no way would he do it. But why is he mad? Robredo said the drug war has failed and there are more drugs and addicts in the country now. This is the exact same thing Duterte said a few months ago!
President Rodrigo Duterte thinks Congress should abolish the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission (PRRC), saying the famous river is already "clean" anyway.
"If Congress is listening, abolish niyo 'yan (abolish it). There is nothing to clean in the Pasig River. It is already clean," he said on Monday, October 28, at the oath-taking of new government officials in Malacañang.
But in his succeeding sentences, he appeared to say the opposite – that it is impossible to keep Metro Manila's famous river clean so it would be useless to pore funds into it.
"That is the state of the art ng Pasig, unless we require every building, not only along the river but everybody who has the waste going down in a sewage or sewerage, walang mangyari (nothing will happen)," said Duterte.
"We're wasting time, you're paying people for nothing. They cannot do anything," he added, saying the funds allocated for the PRRC are better spent on "rice and medicine."
But in 2018, the PRRC was recognized for successful efforts to bring Pasig River back to life. The commission accepted the first Asia RiverPrize Award, handed by the International River Foundation (IRF).
The IRF lauded the PRRC for removing almost 22 million kilos of solid waste from the river from 1999 to 2017 and the relocation of over 18,000 families living along waterways.
Remember when Duterte was all gung-ho about cleaning up Manila Bay and shut down Boracay for six months to clean it up? So what's the real deal here? The Pasig River is gradually getting cleaner and to abolish the PRRC would only reverse nearly 20 years of hard work.
The chief of the Northern Mindanao police has been relieved just five months after his appointment due to grave misconduct.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) relieved PBGen. Rafael Santiago after receiving his six-month suspension order from Malacañang dated October 21.
“Sayang din [It’s a shame.] He's a very good performer but we have to implement the suspension order for six months,” PNP Officer-in-Charge PLtGen. Archie Gamboa said Tuesday.
Santiago is Gamboa's “mistah” or classmate at the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1986.
He will retire in May 2020.
After the major reshuffle in the PNP, a white paper circulated stating that Gamboa practices the “bata-bata” or patronage system, which is why Santiago managed to allegedly keep his post as regional director despite a pending suspension.
Well that's too bad for him but not an uncommon practice.
Days after lamenting delays in resolving his poll protest, the camp of Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos said it wants more time to comment on the results of the recount as required by the Supreme Court.
In an October 23 motion, Marcos' lawyers asked the court to defer a standing deadline to respond to the results of the recount of votes for the vice presidential race in three provinces.
"Protestant Marcos is constrained to request this honorable tribunal to allow him to photocopy the said report/s to enable him to comply with the directive of this honorable tribunal to file his comment thereon," read the manifestation filed by the losing bet.
Marcos named 15 authorized representatives to photocopy the materials. He also asked the court to deduct all the expenses for his request from the cash deposit he paid in 2017, referring to a ₱66-million feecollected by the PET to fund the poll recount. Robredo was billed ₱15 millionfor her counter-protest.
"Considering that the photocopying of the reports has yet to commence, protestant Marcos is likewise constrained to move for the deferment of his deadline to submit his comments on the said report/s on the revision and the appreciation of votes until the requested photocopying of the documents reports is granted and completed," he added.
Now Marcos wants to defer the protest resolution again so he can photocopy all the documents. Any little trick to drag it out as long as possible.
A government forest ranger was shot by an unidentified assailant in Nueva Ecija on Friday, October 25, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
Citing reports, the DENR in a statement on Monday, October 28, said Ronaldo Corpuz, who was assigned to the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, was "shot multiple times by an unidentified assailant while he was closing the gate of their house at around 7:35 pm on October 25."
According to the DENR, days before his death, Corpuz and a Bantay Gubat team conducted a surveillance operation against timber poaching and illegal transport of forest products in Rizal, Nueva Ecija.
A forest ranger shot dead at his own house after surveilling illegal timber packing operations.
Policewomen should be given the chance to hold sensitive positions in the Philippine National Police (PNP), as they are less likely to get involved in corruption unlike their male counterparts, PNP officer-in-charge Lt. Gen. Archie Francisco Gamboa said on Monday.
Asked what makes policewomen different from their male counterparts, Gamboa said women are less susceptible to corruption.
“Sinasabi nila mahirap i-bribe ang babae (They say women are hard to bribe),” he said in an interview with “The Chiefs” on Cignal TV’s One News.
But he clarified he did not mean to insinuate that policemen were prone to corruption. He said it only appears that women are more difficult to bribe. Females comprise only about 10 percent of the 191,000-strong police force.
He also said that based on his observation, women are more meticulous and diligent in their work than men, who tend to be sloppy.
But policemen are prone to corruption and it's not because they are men, it's because of the position they are in as police officers. Since this is all "based on his observation" it's certainly not scientific or reliable.
Lacson said the Constitution as well as prevailing jurisprudence allowed Congress to delegate to the Chief Executive the power of the state to take over the operation of public utilities.
“However, the President has to declare an emergency, and if Congress delegates that power to him, the government must be ready to compensate whatever losses the private concessionaire/s would incur during the period of the government takeover,” the senator said.
Why does Duterte always think this is they way to solve the nation's problems? He might as well just get it over and declare a dictatorship.
In a press conference on Wednesday, October 30, Garcia held the records of drivers with over 100 violations, saying there are over a thousand of them. These drivers settle their violations by paying the fines. When asked if they’re still plying the roads, Garcia answered affirmatively.
Some traffic violations carry a penalty of license suspension after the third offense. However, Garcia said it had been hard to apprehend these drivers due to the lack of coordination between local government units and the Land Transportation Office.
He mentioned cases such as one driver who had 533 violations since getting a license, and another who had 20 violations in 2019 alone.
Is it really that hard for the LTO to take these people's licenses? Even then I doubt that will stop them driving. It's not like there are PNP officers patrolling the roads 24/7.
Dante Hernal, chief of Barangay Salvacion and Association of Barangay Captains president of Balud, and a certain June Ibañez of Barangay Tonga were killed when they engaged police operatives in a firefight at 8:25 p.m. in Barangay Mapitogo, Maj. Maria Luisa Calubaquib, Bicol police spokesperson, said.
Calubaquib, quoting a report, said policemen were on their way back to their station after conducting an anti-gambling operation when the group of Hernal, armed with high powered firearms, alighted from their pickup van and a motorcycle and fired at them. The police operatives returned fire, hitting and killing Hernal and Ibañez.
Police probers are still investigating if the victims were members of a gambling syndicate operating in the said town, Calubaquib said.
If the police were on top of whatever is happening in town then they should know if the barangay captain who tried to kill them was running a gambling syndicate. Sounds rather likely that is the case.
The Sandiganbayan has sentenced an Agusan del Norte mayor and his police chief to several prison terms for their involvement in the violent dispersal of a 2006 antimining rally that led to serious injuries among those present.
The antigraft court’s Seventh Division found Tubay, Agusan del Norte, Mayor Fidel Garcia and police chief Benny Esparagoza guilty of three counts of slight physical injuries and of violating the Public Assembly Act and provisions of the law on peaceful meetings.
The court’s 84-page decision said Garcia and Esparagoza were also guilty of grave coercion, which carries a prison term of two years, four months and one day, and an individual fine of P6,000.
The rally attended by about 50 was organized by antimining advocates who were calling attention to the waste generated by a local mining company. Police used a water cannon mounted on a fire truck to disperse ralliers, causing injuries to eight of them.
The antigraft court said that while the ralliers had no permit from the Office of the Mayor, there was actually no need for one since the rally was held on private property.
The court also noted that since the rally was not characterized by “violence or acts of destruction,” there was no need for the authorities to use a water cannon to disperse it.
The mayor and police chief sprayed protestors with a water cannon to disperse the protest but it turned out the protest was completely lawful. Now these two will be spending two years in prison.
Two former high-ranking officers of the Philippine Navy have been convicted by the Sandiganbayan for malversation for failing to liquidate funds of the Naval Education and Training Center (NETC) in 2006.
In its decision last Oct. 25, the Second Division said former Rear Adm. Constancio Jardiniano Jr. and Lt. Cmdr. Manuel Gimena — commander and special disbursing officer of NETC, respectively — failed to return P83,934 out of the P343,297 worth of cash advances used to buy equipment like medicines, food, and auto supplies.
These two officers failed to return cash advances they took to spend on supplies and now they will be facing two years in prison.
Anti-narcotic agents arrested three rogue cops during a drug buy-bust operation in Parang, Maguindanao on Oct. 30.
Juvenal Azurin, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency–Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA-BARMM), identified those arrested as Patrolman Sandiali Mangundacan Manalao, Staff Sgt. Fahmi Bangon Como, and Master Sgt. Monjel Nassal Aradais, all of the police force in Marantao, Lanao del Sur.
The three were nabbed while transacting with a poseur-buyer in Barangay Nituan of Parang town around 8:30 a.m.
Seized from the suspects were 50 grams of suspect shabu with an estimated street value of PHP340,000; mobile phones, an M16 rifle, five handguns of various calibers, vehicle license plates, and a red Toyota Innova vehicle used in illegal transactions.
Hopefully they toss these cops in jail and don't simply recycle them!
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