It's your weekly compendium of foolishness and corruption in the Philippine government.
A village chief from Cabadbaran City in Agusan del Norte was killed in a shooting incident Wednesday afternoon, police said.
Nelson Gulay Mata, 49, barangay chairman of Bayabas, went out to buy cigarettes when a gunman onboard a motorcycle appeared and shot him, police said.
Police said Mata bore gunshot wounds on his chest, causing his instantaneous death.
Motorcycle assassins strike again!
A municipal councilor was shot dead by unidentified motorcycle-riding gunmen along the national highway here on Thursday afternoon, police said.
“Manhunt had been launched,” said Maj. Julhamin Asdani, Sultan Kudarat municipal police office chief, after the murder of Jordan Abdulrahman Ibrahim, chairperson of Barangay Pilar, South Upi, Maguindanao and concurrent president of the Association of Barangay Chairpersons (ABC) of South Upi.
Ibrahim, 37, who sits as an ex-officio member of Sangguniang Bayan of South Upi, died on the spot from multiple gunshot wounds.
Police said the victim and his wife had a stopover at a roadside fruit stand in Barangay Dalumangcob, Sultan Kudarat at past 3 p.m. when attacked.
“They were sitting beside the fruit stand when the suspects on a motorbike arrived and opened fire on Ibrahim using a .45-caliber pistol,” Asdani told reporters, adding that the victim’s wife was unharmed.
Ibrahim, also known in the upland town of South Upi as “Jordan Campong,” survived an ambush last year in his hometown.
Well he didn't survive the second attempt on his life.
Operatives of the Philippine National Police-Aviation Security Group (ASG) on Thursday arrested a Bureau of Immigration (BI) officer and his cohorts at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) for allegedly extorting P60,000 from a budget airline.
The suspects wanted to collect hush money from the airline for allegedly mounting a “colorum” or an unauthorized special flight.
So what airline was making an unauthorized flight? How would that have gotten past the air traffic controllers?
A policeman was shot dead during a heated argument with a member of the Civilian Armed Force Geographical Unit inside a videoke bar at Barangay Digumased in Dinapigue town, Isabela province on Thursday evening.
Investigators said Cpl. Freddie Marcos, Dinapigue police intelligence officer, and suspect Jarwin Marticio were drinking in separate tables when they quarreled over who would sing first.
Captain Clarence Labasan, Dinapigue police chief, said Marticio went out of the bar to get his 9mm pistol and returned to confront Marcos.
The suspect then fired at Marcos, who suffered a bullet wound in the chest and died while being taken to a hospital.
Absolutely stupid. Cops aren't allowed to hang out in videoke bars either.
The Sandiganbayan Third Division has affirmed its decision convicting former San Isidro Mayor Requillo Samuya of Bohol of graft for purchasing several kilograms of soil activator through direct contracting back in 2004.
Samuya is facing the conviction for violating Section 3(e) of Republic Act No. 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act with Akame Marketing International representative Edilbero Apostol.
The two of them entered into a contract for the purchase of 812.5 kgs. of NBEM-21 Microaid Activator for P975,000. However, they did not comply with the mandatory public bidding and did not take the necessary steps for the conduct of direct contracting.
Conviction for fertiliser scam upheld.
The Sandiganbayan has accepted the voluntary 90-day preventive suspension over graft and malversation charges of the mayor of Shariff Saydona Mustapha town in Maguindanao.
Ampatuan’s graft and malversation cases stemmed from an anomalous purchase of agricultural products including of fertilizers, palay, and corn worth P98.24 million from Tamoni Enterprises in 2009, back when he was still Maguindanao governor.
“In his subject motion, accused-movant Ampatuan avers that he is willing to be preventively suspended from holding public office,” the resolution penned by division chair and Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang said.
Another case of graft over fertilizers.
Three soldiers, including two officials, were killed in a shooting incident inside the headquarters of the Army's 9th Field Artillery Battalion (9FAB) in the province of Sulu, an official said Saturday.
Encinas identified the fatalities as Maj. Rael Gabot, the executive officer of 9FAB; 1st Lieutenant Ryan Lamoste, Civil-Military Operations (CMO) officer of 9FAB; and Cpl. Jack Indap.
Police investigation showed that prior to the incident, Lamoste confronted Indap when the CMO officer saw the latter pounding the chest of Private Ralph Patongao, a duty steward at the officers’ mess hall.
A heated argument ensued between Lamoste and Indap when the CMO officer reportedly ordered the latter to be relieved from his post after admitting he was drunk.
Further investigation showed that when Gabot was about to intervene, they were fired upon by Indap using his service firearm, an R4A3 rifle attached with M-203 Grenade Launcher.
2Lt. Clint John Cenita, who heads a unit of the Army’s 41st Infantry Battalion, shot Indap after the latter refused to surrender.
A drunken solider kills two soldiers and then is killed himself when he refuses to surrender.
A retired policeman was shot to death by a gunman, with four other companions on board three motorcycles, at Brgy. Ajong in Sibulan, Negros Oriental on Saturday morning.
The victim, Rodrigo Tanador Soldevillo, 46, was also a suspect in the killing of the San Jose deputy chief of police four days ago, provincial police director Col. Julian Entoma said.
Initial police investigation showed that at 9:50 a.m., Soldevillo and two companions were sitting on a bench in front of his “sari-sari” store when five unidentified suspects riding on three motorcycles arrived.
One of the suspects approached the retired policeman and shot him several times. The suspects immediately fled the crime scene.
Entoma said Soldevillo was supposed to be the subject of a search warrant concerning the death of San Jose deputy chief of police, Police Executive Master Sgt. Roldan Esmajer, 47.
Esmajer was gunned down last Tuesday night on the national highway in San Jose while on his way to the police station.
Entoma said police investigation showed a possible personal grudge between Esmajer and Soldevillo, allegedly over “dishonest” practice involving fighting cocks.
He said Soldevillo had “many enemies” in cockfighting.
A retired policeman who was the prime suspect in last week's assassination of the San Jose deputy chief of police was shot by motorcycle assassins. Apparently all this killing is over cockfighting!
A policeman died after his gun accidentally went off at about 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 1, in Barangay San Juan, Palompon town, Leyte.
Police Staff Sergeant Maverick Clitar, 30, was inside his house when the incident happened.
Clitar was hit on his left cheek.
Investigators believed that his firearm suddenly went off.
Not the first time a cop has accidentally shot himself.
The Cebu Provincial Prosecutor indicted Dumanjug Vice Mayor Erwin “Wado” Gica and companions in a serious illegal detention case filed by the man that Gica has accused of trying to kill him two days prior to the May 13, 2019 midterm elections.
Hector Quirante, a resident from the town’s Barangay Ilaya, filed the complaint against Gica, his elder brother and incumbent town Mayor Efren Guntrano Gica, Darwin Castro, Gino Do and Raymond Lañojan along with charges for violation of the Commission on Election’s (Comelec) gun ban, grave coercion, planting of evidence and serious physical injuries.
Quirante, a campaign staff of then mayoralty candidate Cesar Baricuatro, alleged that on May 11, 2019, the group of then councilor and vice mayoral candidate Gica blocked his way while traversing the barangay road of Kantangkas on board his motorcycle on his way home to Barangay Ilaya.
He accused Gica of beating him and pointing a gun at him before ordering his “bodyguards,” whom he accused of carrying long firearms, to bring him aboard their vehicle and take him to their headquarters at the Gicas’ residence in Barangay Sima.
He said that it was in the vehicle where he allegedly saw Castro and Lañojan. Do allegedly beat him up anew while they were at the house of the Gicas.
Quirante said the beatings resulted to his injuries, which uprooted his front tooth and cracked another tooth. The cracked tooth had to be extracted.
Quirante added that Mayor Gica was at the campaign headquarters when he was brought in and Gica allegedly told him: “Giingnan tika nga ayaw pag-apil og pulitika. Ah! Ikaw, kay gahi ka og ulo, naa ra na nimo!
(I told you not to get involved in politics. Ah, you are hard-headed, it’s up to you.)
Quirante also said that it was at the headquarters where he was handcuffed, and was allegedly made to hold a gun before he was turned over to the police and booked under a citizen’s arrest.
But in his counter-affidavit, Vice Mayor Gica said Quirante tried to shoot him after trying to overtake them with his motorcycle while traversing the road of Barangay Kantangkas on his way to Barangay Poblacion.
He said he was with Lañojan, Castro and Do in their vehicle.
Gica said he ordered Castro, who was driving the vehicle, to stop.
The sudden stop, he claimed, surprised Quirante making him fall off his motorcycle and getting injured in the process.
However, Gica admitted that there was a scuffle between his men and Quirante until they “successfully wrestled” a .38 revolver from him and brought him to the police station by “citizen’s arrest.”
He denied that they brought Quirante first to his residence before going to the police station in Barangay Poblacion.
“Taking all the circumstances together, the only logical conclusion is that it is inconceivable for complainant (Quirante) to point a gun to respondent Erwin, although not ruling out the possibility that he had a firearm with him,” Rivas wrote on the grave coercion, serious physical injuries and serious illegal detention portion of the resolution.
Philippine politics is a sordid and nasty affair.
He said the practice of sending erring cops to Mindanao is now being addressed by the PNP leadership through its aggressive internal cleansing.
“With the aggressive internal cleansing initiated by our Chief PNP, Gen. Archie Francisco Gamboa, for instance, the PNP leadership is making sure that if you commit offenses, you have nowhere else to go, but be meted with appropriate punishments as quickly as possible. So the challenge now is to fill Mindanao with both the toughest and the brightest policemen in order to sustain what the President has started to achieve a long-overdue Filipino dream of peaceful and progressive Mindanao,” he added.
The PNP has been treating Mindanao as a gulag for erring cops for so long that everyone there is a scalawag. Well, many of them at least. Now they have to station good cops in that no-man's land.
A police officer was killed, while three others were arrested in a series of anti-illegal drug operations in Nabua, Camarines Sur on Monday evening.
Colonel Roderico Roy Jr., director of the Camarines Sur police, said Patrolman Domingo Cabañez Jr., 39, of Barangay La Anunsacion, Iriga City, allegedly sold “shabu” (crystal meth) to an undercover police in Barangay Topas Proper at at11:43 p.m.
Upon sensing that he was transacting with the police, Cabañez allegedly drew his caliber .38 revolver, forcing authorities to shoot back.
Cop selling drugs to an undercover cop gets killed in a shootout.
Anti-narcotics operatives arrested two South Cotabato government employees in a buy-bust operation on Wednesday inside the provincial motorpool in Koronadal City.
Kath Abad, public information officer of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)-Region 12, identified the suspects as Renante Anas, 36, and Joemel Cabrera, 39, both assigned at the South Cotabato Provincial Engineering Office (PEO).
In a report released Thursday morning, Abad said the two sold a sachet of suspected shabu worth PHP500 to a PDEA agent who posed as a buyer around 10:30 a.m. inside the government compound along Waling-Waling Street in Barangay Zone IV.
Government employees selling drugs.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the local police arrested a village chief for allegedly selling illegal drugs in Barangay Bangcas, Hinunangan town, southern Leyte on Thursday, February 6.
Ramilo Gambito, 41, was arrested after handing over a sachet of shabu to a poseur-buyer.
Recovered from his possession were nine more sachets of shabu with an estimated value of P12,000.
A village chief, barangay captain, selling drugs!
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Archie Gamboa has ordered the relief of the director of Police Regional Office Central Visayas and the reassignment of other police officials.
In an order signed Thursday, Gamboa removed Brig. Gen. Valeriano Templo De Leon as Central Visayas police director and reassigned him to the Office of the Chief PNP (OCPNP) in Camp Crame, Quezon City.
De Leon will be replaced by Brig. Gen. Albert Ignatius Dacoco Ferro as the Central Visayas police director.
Gamboa likewise relieved Acting Bulacan Provincial Police Director Col. Emma Libunao and Deputy Director for Operations of the Highway Patrol Group (HPG) Col. Gil Francis Gorobia Tria, and reassigned to OCPNP.
Banac told INQUIRER.net in phone interview that De Leon, Libunao, and Tria are “found to be lacking in performance” in terms of their campaign against illegal drugs, illegal gambling, internal cleansing against rogue cops, as well as their compliance to policies such as no golfing during duty hours.
Slacker police chiefs? Sounds that way!
The Sandiganbayan has found former Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT 3) general manager Al Vitangcol III guilty of charges arising from anomalies in the grant of a 2012 interim maintenance contract worth PHP350 million to the firm Philippine Trans Rail Management and Services Corp. (PH Trams), where his uncle-in-law was a key official.
In its 45-page decision dated January 31 penned by Associate Justice Bernelito R. Fernandez, the anti-graft court's Third Division sentenced Vitangcol and PH Trams incorporator Arturo Soriano to up to eight years imprisonment as well as disqualification from public office for violation of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and RA 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act.
The court held that Vitangcol "exhibited evident bad faith in not disclosing the material of his relationship" to Soriano.
Both uncle and nephew have been sentenced up to eight years imprisonment for not disclosing their relationship when the contract was granted.
At least 67 police personnel who are rendering unauthorized security detail to politicians as well as businessmen in the province were recalled on Tuesday.
Col. Emma Libunao, acting director of the Bulacan Police Provincial Office, said the move is in compliance with the directive of Brig. Gen. Rhodel Sermonia, director of Police Regional Office-3 (PRO-3).
Sermonia issued a directive regarding the implementation of the “One Strike Policy” under Memorandum Circular No. 2019-006 or the Revised Guidelines and Procedures Governing Availment of Protective Security to Government Officials, Diplomats and Private Individuals Authorized to be Given Protection.
Libunao said anyone found violating the memorandum circular will be immediately relieved and meted with the appropriate administrative sanction.
She said the memorandum circular allows police personnel to be assigned as bodyguard to the provincial police chief but only for emergency reasons.
So who authorized the unauthorized authorization of these PNP officers as body guards for politicians and businessmen!?
The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) defended the use of confidential funds for surveillance amid allegations such activities went beyond its mandate.
In a statement, the DICT said on Wednesday that the confidential expense, of which P300 million had been spent in 2019, was for the “lawful monitoring and surveillance of systems and networks” in line with its functions that include cybersecurity.
Its spending on surveillance through its confidential fund was brought to light by Eliseo Rio Jr., the undersecretary who offered to resign last week over a lack of transparency in the DICT.
Rio said it was not the mandate of the DICT to conduct intelligence and surveillance work.
The DITC issued the statement even as former Sen. Gregorio Honasan II, information and communications technology secretary, remained mum days after Rio questioned the disbursement of intelligence funds.
This is a growing scandal. One to keep an eye on. The DICT is engaging in intelligence and surveillance work for which it is not authorized. Just who are they spying on? Foes of the Détente administration?
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