It's your weekly compendium of foolishness and corruption in the Philippine government.
Barely a month in the job, Police Col. Hector Grijaldo Jr. was axed as chief of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO).
In a statement, Central Visayas Police Regional Office Director Brig. Gen. Albert Ignatius Ferro said Grijaldo was relieved due to alleged misconduct.
Ferro said the alleged misconduct was caught on closed-circuit television, and the video has gone viral on social media.
In a video footage that circulated online, a man described as “CD (city director)” was seen arriving at a police station, and was later seen hitting a policeman in the head.
The video also showed another man disarming the policeman.
Grijaldo’s relief will pave the way for an impartial investigation, said Ferro.
This statement is not clear at all though the headline is straightforward. Elsewhere we learn:
Grijaldo was relieved effective April 9, 2020, after he was seen slapping an officer for not wearing his uniform. The incident was caught in a closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage.
https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/301496/pro-7-chief-on-relief-of-ccpo-chief-no-one-should-be-above-the-law
So the Chief slapped one his officers for not wearing a uniform and now he has been dismissed from his post.
Seven people, including a soldier and a former coast guard personnel, were arrested in separate anti-drug operations in the region amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) crisis, officials said Thursday.
Police identified the arrested suspects as Jeffrey Carlos Ismael, 30; Adzmie Tatong Ahmad, 24; Ali Sha Ran Tatong Hayudini, 25; Adzar Ramerez Seguente, 30; Abdel-Aziz Julkanain, 35; Oshe Bokingkito Arquiza, 37; and, Habir Ismael Adam, 36.
Hayudini is a member of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) assigned at the Edwin Andrews Air Base in this city while Julkanain is a member of the Philippine Cost Guard (PCG), who went on absence without official leave (AWOL), police said.
An airman and a former Coast Guard member who went AWOL busted for drugs.
A 56-year-old job-order- employee and close-in security of the vice mayor of Guihulngan City was shot dead by two unidentified motorcycle riding assailants around 6 p.m. of April 9, 2020 in Barangay Poblacion, Guihulngan City.
Belarmino Isolana, who is a close in security of Vice Mayor Ernesto Reyes, suffered gunshot wounds in the head and body and did not reach the hospital alive, said the police report.
Investigation showed that Isolana was walking along the national highway a few meters from his house in Roxas Street of the barangay when he was gunned down.
Could it be that the Vice Mayor is ultimately being targeted? Or is this unrelated to him?
A barangay captain of Dumanjug town in southern Cebu is among the 30 persons arrested for illegal cockfighting, “tigbakay”, in separate operations in the southern Cebu town and in Cebu City on March 22, 2020.
He is the second barangay captain from Dumanjug town to be arrested in the last three days for being engaged in illegal cockfighting.
Angeles Sanoy Cabases, 42, Kanguha barangay captain of Dumanjug town was arrested with two others, who were also at the cockfight.
This story is from March 23rd but I missed it. A barnagay captain involved in illegal cockfighting.
Harry Roque said Monday he will return as President Rodrigo Duterte's spokesperson just as the Philippines is in the middle of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Roque, who left the post in 2018, said he will return to work on Monday afternoon. He will get the rank of Secretary.
Salvador Panelo, who replaced Roque, meanwhile will remain as Duterte's chief legal counsel.
"I will be performing the same role as the President’s chief lawyer and issuing statements as such," Panelo said.
Asked why the sudden changes, Panelo said "the present crisis requires a new tack in messaging."
So Roque's return is for pure propaganda!
Officials of Barangay 129 in Caloocan who are allegedly involved in illegal cockfighting at the Manila North Cemetery, surrendered to authorities on Black Saturday, according to Caloocan Mayor Oscar Malapitan.
Earlier, Manila Mayor Isko Moreno and Malapitan appealed to the suspects — Barangay Chairman Brix John Reyes and Barangay Councilors Romulado Reyes and John Cris Domingo to yield to authorities.
Three barangay officials cockfighting in Manila North Cemetery.
President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday night said he would lift the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine once an antibody against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) would become available in the market.
“If there’s an available antibody in the market, and when I can see that it is being used, I will lift it. At least, if you get sick, we have antibodies to buy,” Duterte said in Filipino.
The President claimed that a giant pharmaceutical firm, which he refused to name, had already developed an antibody against COVID-19 that might come out in the market by May.
But the problem, according to Duterte, is that the Philippines is on the “last ladder’ of prioritization behind rich countries.
However, the President said the Philippines might be prioritized if China could develop its own antibody.
Surely he means vaccine and not antibody. They are two different things. The USDA is claiming that a vaccine is at least a year away. So what is he talking about which will be available by May? And is he really saying that he won't be lifting the quarantine until a vaccine is on the market? How long will this lockdown persist?
Malapitan has expressed concern over reports some emergency food packs from the city were being opened, with contents reduced, and repacked in the barangay.
"There are captains who make two food packs," INQUIRER.net said in a phone interview. “The intent may be pure or we don't know the reason.”
“Whatever the reason, I don't like it. What the city has to offer, is what people should receive, ”he said.
At the same time, Malapitan threatened to have the barangay captains in Caloocan City suspended and sued if they fail to distribute the much-needed food aid by the locked-down residents.
The city government has received numerous complaints from different villages who have yet to receive relief packs, he said.
Are barangay officials
tampering with
food packs?
Senators backed yesterday suggestions to sell some idle military properties to help fund programs to address the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and prop up the economy.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson, chairman of the Senate committee on national defense and security, said he supports President Duterte’s plan to look for idle government assets to raise funds.
“I agree with (the President) that all options should be considered because what is at stake is our people as well as the country’s survival,” Lacson said.
He said he was open to selling golf courses inside military camps to private developers and “other out-of-the-box ideas” as long as the physical security of military facilities will not be compromised.
Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, chairman of the committee on public order and security, said he was also supporting the sale of idle assets, including some military properties “as long as there is complete transparency in every transaction.”
Dela Rosa recalled the Ar-med Forces Modernization Program in the mid-1990s that was supposed to be funded by the sale of government assets but was delayed due to issues on the use of funds.
Opposition Rep. Edcel Lagman of Albay challenged Duterte over the weekend to sell sprawling military golf courses in prime locations as part of government efforts to raise billions to fund the stimulus package for a vast majority of the population.
“He (Duterte) could start by auctioning off the golf courses in Camp Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, Villamor Air Base and the Veterans Memorial Medical Center,” Lagman said.
One has to wonder why there are golf courses on AFP bases and how selling this land would be better than putting it to use for military purposes.
Two senators are filing a resolution calling for an inquiry on the status of the national ID system after its delayed implementation was blamed for the slow-paced distribution of the COVID-19 cash aid for some 18 million low-income families.
Prior to its approval, a P2 billion budget was already allocated for the national ID system under the 2018 budget of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the lead implementing agency of the program, the resolution noted.
The entire budget for the program amounts to P25 billion, it added.
“From 2018 to 2020 General Appropriations Act, a budget of Php 2 Billion has been allotted for the National ID System every year – totaling to only Php 6,096,329,000 budget allocation for three (3) years,” the resolution read.
But almost two years from its enactment into law and the approval of its implementing rules and regulation, the two senators pointed out that “there seems to be no significant headway on its implementation.”
P25 billion and two years later and the program has still not been implemented or made any progress towards being implemented.
Residents uploaded Facebook photos of well-stacked grocery packs as their way of thanking local leaders, and boasting of how their community was doing during the coronavirus-induced lockdown in Metro Manila.
But in a nearby city, the mayor was getting a beatdown in angry social media posts over delayed food rations and inadequate help during the COVID-19 crisis.
Some local governments have apparently performed better than others in response to a killer disease, which has posed the biggest challenge to the Philippines’ 29-year venture into local autonomy.
The pandemic has also exposed weaknesses in the country’s local government framework as shown in insufficient resources to deal with a crisis that requires massive aid for most of Luzon island’s 58 million residents kept in home quarantine.
And with President Rodrigo Duterte long pushing for federalism, government response to the health crisis, both in the local and national levels, is seen as a preview of what could lie ahead if the country jumps into this next stage of decentralization
Duterte’s handling of the health crisis has so far reflected a “governance schizophrenia,” said Yusingco, who cited the high-handed tone of the president’s proclamations while his inter-agency task force “recognizes the benefits of local autonomy.”
The president earlier told local governments to “stand down” following claims that some of them were implementing programs beyond the rules he had set.
“Good leaders would put a premium on cooperation and collaboration between the 2 levels of government rather than on intimidation and domination,” Yusingco said.
“So, to see this administration resort to the latter is disappointing especially since the president claims to be a champion of decentralization and federalism,” he added, noting that local government should have been given full responsibility to implement the quarantine.
Each LGU is handing the crisis more or less in their own way with varied results. At the same time the national government wants full obedience rather than innovation. It seems that there are problems in the Philippines with how both a centralized and a decentralized government would function.
The five local officials allegedly allowed mass gatherings; failed to strictly implement social distancing measures; prohibited the movement of cargo across their borders; refused entry into their localities of essential personnel as well as migrant workers already cleared and issued Department of Health certifications; and stopped the operation of industries vital to ensuring the country’s food security.
No word as to the identity of these five officials.
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