It's your weekly compendium of foolishness and corruption in the Philippine government.
Armed with a guitar, and loads of flowers and heart-shaped balloons, a team of five police officers and five non-uniformed personnel roamed the town early Friday morning and tendered love songs.
“We would like to spread love and positive vibes,” said Captain Jessie J Silva Jr., President Quirino town police chief.
“We chose mothers to recognize the unconditional love that they have for their family and children,” Silva added.
Mothers were awakened by the songs rendered by police officers starting at 6 a.m. As they emerged from their homes to see who were singing, they were met with flowers and heart-shaped balloons.
Also, members of the Land Transportation Office in Koronadal surprised motorists along Alunan Avenue here with flowers and chocolates.
“Instead of checking on their vehicles’ documents, drivers’ licenses and issuing citation tickets, we gave them flowers, chocolates, and candies,” Koronadal City Traffic Law Enforcer team leader Movin Agal said.
“We propagate love so we get love in return,” Agal said in the vernacular.
Instead of giving violation tickets or temporary operator’s permit (TOP) to the drivers and motorists flagged down by cops on Cebu City’s streets, the Highway Patrol Group in Central Visayas (HPG-7) instead handed out chocolates and flowers during their regular checkpoint along V. Rama Avenue on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2020.
The HPG-7’s Valentine Day activity dubbed as “Gugma sa HPGnalang sa mga Motorista” was initiated by their head, Police Colonel Joel Pernito, who wanted to have a creative way of reminding the drivers and commuters about the rules and regulations for safe travel on roads and highways.
Police Captain Michael Gingoyon, provincial officer of HPG-7, said the activity was their way of expressing their love to the riding public, by reminding to follow the road rules through the small gifts they prepared.
(In line with our road safety awareness, we wanted to show that we also care for our motorists.)
One of the flagged down drivers was Nympha Pinote, of Barangay Mambaling, who was with her family to visit a private hospital in Fuente.
Pinote told reporters she was very nervous when she was told to stop by a Highway Patrol policeman, thinking she would get arrested as she was also not wearing her seatbelt when she rolled down the window of her car.
“Gikuyawan ko kay sukad-sukad wala pagyud ko madakpan (I was nervous because I thought they will arrest me. I was never arrested before),” said Pinote, who grinned when she found herself a recipient of the Valentine’s Day gift from the HPG-7 cops.
A student who was crossing the road while the HPG-7 performed their gimmick, also received some chocolate hearts.
This is stupid. That lady was clearly violating traffic laws by not wearing her traffic belt and was rightly scared to death when she was flagged over. But instead the cops gave her a big smile and chocolates. Why can't the cops do this EVERY day? If they can do stupid gimmicks on Valentine's Day then they sure as heck can enforce traffic laws and hand out tickets.
A police official will be facing charges for allegedly committing several abuses that included using a waiter's palm as ashtray while in a drinking session inside a restobar here Friday, an official said.
A report by the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office on Friday said Capt. Calvin Placer and two other companions were having a drink at Jakko's Grill along Regatta Boulevard when the series of abuses happened.
Maj. Evan Viñas, city police spokesperson, said Placer allegedly physically abused a waiter and the manager of the establishment located in Barangay Carmen.
Viñas said Placer allegedly pointed a gun at the waiter's stomach, punched him in the face, and even used his palm as ashtray.
He said the suspect singled out the waiter for allegedly not smiling at him.
The suspect also allegedly banged the restobar manager's head on the wall.
Viñas added Placer allegedly molested a female customer by holding her hand without her consent, insisted on asking for her phone number, and even followed her to the comfort room.
Upon learning that a customer has called the police, Viñas said Placer got out of the restobar and sped off where his car bumped a person riding a mountain bike in Carmen.
"The suspect and his companions started drinking at around 8 in the evening. The commotion happened five hours later," he added.
Aside from the administrative case that Placer will be facing, Viñas said the suspect may be charged with sexual assault, physical injury, grave threat, acts of lasciviousness, and reckless imprudence resulting in slight physical injury.
Five hours of drinking and this cop turned into a wild animal.
A policeman, who had gone absent without official leave (AWOL), was gunned down by four unidentified armed men along Circumferential Road in Barangay Villamonte here Saturday.
Slain was Pat. Eric Alcosaba of Barangay Mansilingan here.
He said Alcosaba was previously assigned at Police Station 7 and City Drug Enforcement Unit (CDEU) here before he was moved to Mindanao in 2017, wherein he went Awol.
Alcosaba, based on earlier reports, was among the five police officers who were named in the supplemental affidavit of top drug suspect Ricky Serenio in 2017, as allegedly receiving weekly protection money from the “Berya” drug group.
AWOL cop possibly involved in drugs shot dead by four assassins.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government has ordered local executives nationwide to clear roads of obstructions within 75 days, a second round of clearing in line with President Rodrigo Duterte's order to reclaim public roads.
The first round of street-clearing operations saw the demolition of structures like sheds and village outposts that had encroached onto the road.
"I direct all LGUs, especially barangays, to clear roads from obstruction with the same urgency and enthusiasm as when the president directed before," DILG Secretary Eduardo Año said.
How many times will they be re-issuing this order to clear all roads? The roads should be cleared without the need for an order from the DILG.
A retired police officer and incumbent councilor of Bayawan City, Negros Oriental was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Barangay Villareal at 10:40 a.m. on Tuesday, February 18.
Alex Tizon, 66, was driving his Isuzu Sportivo when two men aboard a motorcycle drove by his vehicle and shot him.
Based on their investigation, Enriquez said Tizon was supposed to buy medicines for his high blood pressure.
“The attack was well-planned (because the assailants knew where the victim was going),” Enriquez said.
Enriquez said investigators are looking into reports that an armed group was mad at Tizon for helping a family that the group harassed.
Another retired cop shot dead. But he was also a City Councilor
according to PNA so he is just another LGU official shot dead.
Officials within the Bureau of Immigration were called "traitors to the country," Monday, by Sen. Risa Hontiveros for operating of an alleged modus operandi to get foreign nationals in the Philippines in exchange for money.
Through the supposed "pastillas" scheme, officials within the agency ensure "seamless entry" of Chinese nationals into the country for a 10,000-peso "service fee."
Hontiveros said it was named after the milk-based candy after photos from a whistleblower exposed the said cash distributions.
"I asked why it's called pastillas. Before, there were no envelopes and that’s why they rolled it on a bond paper like a pastillas," she said in Filipino.
The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has relieved from their posts the terminal heads of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) while it investigates an alleged scheme in which Chinese nationals are escorted through the immigration process in exchange for a fee.
The NAIA terminal heads and the chief of the travel control and enforcement unit were relieved of duty upon orders of Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente "pending the results of the investigation," BI spokesperson Dana Sandoval said Tuesday.
At least NAIA is launching an investigation.
Barangay kagawad arrested on rape charges but details are scanty.
Malacanang on Tuesday came to the defense of former Bacolod City police chief, Lt. Col. Jovie Espenido following his inclusion in the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) narcolist, saying the controversial cop could be a victim of flawed intelligence gathering.
“Definitely marami siyang nasagasaan, kaya napag-initan nung mga involved (He has gone against a lot of people, that’s why he was implicated by those involved),” palace spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a press briefing.
Panelo said that even President Rodrigo Duterte is of the belief that Espenido could even be a victim of black propaganda in the drug war.
“Could be, because the President says that’s black propaganda, as far as he is concerned,” Panelo said when asked if Espenido was a “victim.”
“The President trusts him. It’s not unexpected that there may be some flaws in intelligence gathering. That happens. Sometimes they’re even intentional. You’re being fed with the wrong info coming from those who are against particular officer,” he added.
Espenido also thinks he could be the victim of flawed intelligence. But if that were true then these narco-lists aren;'t trustworthy at all. They are casting doubt on their own intel gathering abilities!
A police officer is now facing charges of robbery-extortion after he allegedly mulcted money from a relative of a drug suspect in Taguig City.
In a press briefing on Tuesday, National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief, Maj. Gen. Debold Sinas, identified the suspect as Cpl. Hadzmer Amer, who was assigned at the Taguig City station drug enforcement unit.
Based on the complaint, Amer demanded PHP35,000 in exchange for the dropping of the case filed against the complainant's partner, whom Sinas did not identify.
A PNP officer involved in extortion? Who would have thought such a thing could happen?
Two men posing as “habal-habal” drivers shot dead a village official in this city, a top police official said Tuesday.
Lt. Col. Ramel Hojilla, local police chief, identified the victim as Nasrullah Manibpel, a councilor in the upland village of Nuangan, this city.
Hojilla said Manibpel was about to go home after accomplishing administrative work at the village hall when he was fatally shot by the two gunmen at about 11 a.m. on Monday.
He said the two, who were riding a motorbike, were seen standing in front of the Nuangan barangay hall before the incident.
“One of the possible motives is a personal grudge,” Hojilla said, adding that police investigators were also looking at “rido” (blood feud) involving Manibpel’s family.
“He has no known enemies, he is a good man, he is a good leader, truly (a) public servant,” said one of Manibpel’s relatives who asked not to be named.
Another LGU official shot dead this time the motive might be a family feud.
A top official at the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) who had wanted to testify in the Senate on the alleged “freedom for sale” scheme at the New Bilibid Prison was shot dead Wednesday near the headquarters of the bureau in Muntinlupa City.
Police said two gunmen shot Frederic Santos dead at around 2 p.m. on board his Toyota Hilux pick-up in front of Southernside Montessori school in Barangay Poblacion.
They said Santos was about to fetch his daughter from school when the two men shot him point blank, and immediately left.
Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III told CNN Philippines that Santos was “ready to tell all” about the supposed anomalies surrounding the implementation of the expanded Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) policy under the Revised Penal Code before the Senate’s last hearing on the issue.
Santos, however, backed out, Sotto said.
The Office of the Ombudsman suspended Santos in September for six months after finding that he, along with 29 other officials of the bureau, “allowed the questionable release of prison convicts” in violation of the expanded GCTA policy.
Santos was suspended without pay for alleged grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty, and conduct "prejudicial to the best interest of the service.” These could have led to his dismissal from service.
He also confessed during a Senate investigation that convicts and wardens cover each other's backs by doing favors while behind bars.
He cited examples where prison guards would relent on the punishment that should be meted out to inmates caught using mobile phones or contraband items in their cell, opting for a settlement rather than filing a complaint against the prisoner in trouble.
It appears he talked too much. Exposed too much corruption. Now he is dead.
A former employee of Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) has filed a graft complaint against former and current PhilHealth officials for their alleged inaction on a scam involving the issuance of fake premium receipts to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
Complainant Ken Sarmiento, represented by lawyer Harry Roque, filed the complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman on Wednesday.
According to Sarmiento’s complaint, he has flagged officials of PhilHealth of hundreds of fake PhilHealth official receipts received from September 2015 until September 2018. At the time, Sarmiento was deployed at PhilHealth operations office in the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA).
He said he has filed 15 complaints before the Anti-Fraud Division of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and submitted another six complaints before the ad hoc committee created by PhilHealth.
Aside from that, Sarmiento also gathered six case folders of hiring agencies containing falsified official receipts.
He claimed that officials did not act on the complaints as this was “systematically suppressed by several high-ranking officers” of PhilHealth Head Office.
PhilHealth is one of themes corrupt bureaucracies in the Philippines. Messed up how this case is being pursued by a private citizen and not the NBI or DOJ.
In filing his resolution, the senator said it is “extremely important to review and evaluate the current set of laws and rules and regulations governing road safety vis-a-vis the prevention of illegal drugs in public transport, in order to shield the public from the snares of reckless, negligent, and errant driving.”
He said that there should be a probe into such accidents “for the purpose of recommending further remedial measures to ensure road safety, and end the proliferation of drug use in the country, particularly in the public transport sector.”
I can finish his investigation in once sentence: Have the PNP patrol the streets and highways and enforce all traffic laws as is their mandate!
Will the Senate’s plan to question the abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) before the Supreme Court offend the executive?
“It’s possible,” Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto told reporters when asked in an interview on Wednesday as he stressed that the upper chamber should assert its authority.
“We are a co-equal branch of government. I think we should assert our authority as well,” Recto said.
“Just like the executive is asserting their authority, we should not give up whatever powers we have insofar as check and balance is concerned,” he added.
“The Constitution gives us the authority to approve treaties ‘di ba (right)? It’s an inherent power of the Senate 2/3 vote. But the constitution is silent also when it comes to abrogating treaties. So we can test this in the Supreme Court,” he added.
“I support his [Sotto] position on making justiciable in the Supreme Court na linawin na ng Supreme Court yung kapangyarihan ng Senado pagdating sa abrogating treaties like this [to clarify the power of the Senate in abrogating treaties],” Recto further said.
Recto, on the other hand, said that while he is not against terminating the VFA, he says that the timing should be considered when deciding to scrap the same.
(It’s not that I’m against terminating the VFA, I’m just saying, there’s timing. There’s timing there, we need to prepare for it. If you want to the VFA, we need to be ready, it’s should not be in an abrupt manner).
The Senate is divided on this issue with some loyal to Duterte who are abstaining from signing on to the SC petition and some loyal to Duterte who are doing their best to not upset him by signing on to the SC petition.
The fate of the 356 police officers in the so-called “narcolist” will be decided upon soon as the Philippine National Police (PNP) prepares to submit its recommendation to President Rodrigo Duterte on March 5.
PNP chief Gen. Archie Gamboa said Wednesday that the adjudication process for the police officers has already started.
“We will be having a joint command conference with the President and the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) on March 5 and I intend to submit my recommendation on March 5,” he said.
“As a matter of fact, there’s an initial recommendation, but of course this will be contained in the final recommendation they (adjudicating units) are going to make,” he added.
How about filing cases where appropriate and letting the justice system do its work? Even if it is slow justice that would be the proper thing to do rather than let the President decide their fate.
Firing back at former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, Senator Bong Go said he is not afraid to face him and would even take him to his boss, who is Satan.
Go, President Rodrigo Duterte's closest aide, made the retort after Trillanes said the "bullies" in the administration would all scurry away when the president is no longer in power.
The senator said Trillanes is the real "Bikoy" and was the one behind the video linking Duterte to illegal drugs.
More political bickering between Triallanes and other politicians.
Police operatives arrested an active member of the Philippine Army for allegedly selling shabu inside a bar here early Wednesday.
Capt. Abdulsalam Mamalinta Jr., chief of the Pendatun police station, said Private First Class (Pfc) Abdillah Diao Ali, 22, was nabbed in a buy-bust around 12:35 a.m. at the YSP bar on Salazar Street in Barangay Dadiangas South.
Mamalinta said Ali, of Purok Maunlad in Barangay Apopong, was a member of the 2nd Indigenous Peoples smart company under the Army’s 10th Infantry Division.
Mamalinta said an undercover policeman managed to buy a sachet of suspected shabu worth PHP500 from the suspect.
He said they recovered from Ali’s possession another plastic sachet containing suspected shabu.
Solider selling shabu.
The Danao City Police are now looking for two suspects who shot dead a former school administrator early Thursday morning, February 20.
The victim was identified as Gregoretta Manto, 46, a resident of Barangay Bonifacio, Danao City, who worked before as a school administrator of the now-defunct Manto Memorial College Foundation.
Initial reports from the Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) stated that the crime happened around 5 a.m. along Rizal Street, Barangay Poblacion, Danao City in northeastern Cebu.
Police said several witnesses in the area pointed to a riding-in-tandem as the suspects behind Manto’s death.
Absolutely senseless. No one is safe from motorcycle assassins.
“This is a very substantial issue. Why? Because if the President is allowed to terminate without the concurrence of the Senate, theoretically, the President can terminate our participation in the UN, the President can terminate our Asean cooperation agreement, the President can terminate our (agreement under) WTO (World Trade Organization), these have major consequences,” Drilon said in an interview on ABS-CBN News Channel on Thursday.
“It (termination) should not be only unilateral act of the President but is a shared authority of both the president and Congress,” he pointed out.
How does no one else get this? Or do they understand and just don't care?
The provincial director of the Negros Oriental Provincial Police Office (NOPPO) will recommed to higher headquarters for the relief of the entire police force manning the Bayawan Police Station — its police chief and 56 policemen.
Police Colonel Julian Entoma, Negros Oriental Provincial Police Office (NOPPO) director, said in an interview on Thursday, February 20, 2020, the series of shooting incidents, which had remained unsolved, had prompted him to decide to recommend to the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) to relieve the policemen assigned to the Bayawan Police Station.
If there are so many unsolved killings with cops around just think how many there will be when they are gone.
“It’s not hard to see that elevating the shopping experience will go a long way to enhance the attractiveness of our tourist destinations all over the Philippines, whether it is our big cities or in our beautiful provinces,” DOT Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said in a statement Wednesday.
Puyat noted that shopping tourism is among the most common activities tourists do when visiting the country.
A frontline immigration officer on Thursday spilled the beans against current and past Bureau of Immigration (BI) officials whom he said were behind the corruption at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Appearing before the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality, Allison Chiong, who holds the position as Immigration Officer 1 since 2012, said he has “personally witnessed various illegal transactions over the years involving extortion money in exchange of unimpeded passage through the Philippines, whether leaving or entering the country.”
He said the money-making scheme was being led by airport immigration officials and involves at least 90 percent of immigration personnel.
In his affidavit read before the Senate panel, Chiong said immigration personnel started with the money-making scheme to offset lost earnings when the Department of Justice removed the overtime pay of all immigration officers in 2016.
To cope with the substantial deduction of their salaries, he said some immigration officers decided to offer “VIP services” to immigrants who are casino high-rollers, accepting PHP2,000 for each high-roller in exchange for the latter’s “convenient and seamless immigration.”
“President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has relieved all officials and employees of the Bureau of Immigration who are involved in the latest bribery scheme where they purportedly facilitate the entry into — and exit from — Philippine territory of foreigners working for Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators for an unauthorized fee,” Panelo said in a regular Palace media briefing.
Panelo said Duterte arrived at such decision after receiving reports about the unlawful activity and finding probable cause to relieved BI personnel linked to the bribery scheme.
He, however, was not privy as to how many BI officials and employees were relieved of their respective duties.
Another day, another scandal.
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