It's your weekly compendium of foolishness and corruption in the Philippine government.
The mayor of Lumbaca Unayan in Lanao del Sur and two others were hurt after his vehicle was ambushed in Cagayan De Oro City on Wednesday morning, Police Regional Office X said.
Police said Mayor Somerado Guro was onboard a Toyota Hilux pick-up with his wife and some bodyguards, traversing along Zone 2, Iponan, when armed men riding a motorcycle fired shots at the car.
Also hurt in the incident were his wife Rohaifa and driver Ibrahim Gani while Abdul Rafi Guro, one of the mayor's staff, was luckily not hit, police said.
Another mayor shot at by motorcycle gunmen. He made it but his wife did not.
“The 301 barangay officials facing criminal cases as of June 2 is just the latest figure reported to the DILG, hence, people should expect the filing of more criminal cases in the coming days,” Interior Undersecretary and Spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said in a statement.
"Just the latest figure reported to the DILG." They say expect more to come.
Anger mounted in Metro Manila on Tuesday over lack of public transportation for workers allowed to return to their jobs after three months of quarantine, with senators calling the situation an emerging crisis and slamming transportation officials for their insensitivity and lack of foresight.
Jeepneys, UV Express vans, and most public utility buses remain prohibited, even though more businesses were allowed to resume operations.
Transport officials refused to allow jeepneys and UV Express vans to go back to their routes because these vehicles accept fare only in cash, which is the only way the majority of commuters—the low-income earners who don’t own smartphones—pay for their rides.
The ban on jeepneys and city buses backfired on the government’s economic reopening plan, with thousands of workers again failing to get to their jobs or begging for rides on Tuesday and transport officials not backing down.
“Three months under [quarantine] and still they have no clear plan in place. What happened to foresight? It’s good they have air-conditioned vehicles. Why don’t the DOTr officials try to commute from their homes to their offices?” Binay said.
“[The] DOTr knew that Metro Manila and the rest of the regions will soon be transitioning to the new normal. They knew that 30 percent of those in [Metro Manila] will start going to work by June 1— and then they will deploy trucks for free rides [that] compromise and breach all health protocols, particularly physical distancing,” she said.
Binay also criticized the ban on jeepneys, describing it as “unrealistic, anticommuter at antiworker.”
The government reopens the economy but bans jeepnies because they do not accept cashless payments. This leaves millions of people stranded and unable to get to their jobs unless they take the free truck ride provided by the DOTr. This truck ride breaches the social distancing protocols. It's caused a real mess and the MMDA blames it all on the commuters!
MMDA General Manager Jose Arturo Garcia said the people “seemed to have lost focus” that the new coronavirus that causes the severe respiratory disease COVID-19 was still around and could spread wider with the easing of restrictions on public transportation.
“They were focused on traveling even though they [knew], just as the Department of Transportation said, our first priority is health and safety,” Garcia said in a radio interview.
He cited the crowding of hordes of commuters along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City on Monday, with no one giving others a wide berth as they waited for rides that never came.
Garcia also mentioned the crowding on a truck that police deployed to ferry stranded commuters.
“When they saw the free rides, many commented on social media that commuters fought over these, they were on the road, there were no lines. They were each to his own and forgot that the priority is to stay safe from [the coronavirus],” Garcia said.
Ariel Inton, head of Lawyers for Commuters’ Safety and Protection, slammed Garcia’s remarks as insensitive, “assuming that people are stupid or stubborn.”
“The only reason they are outside is because we reopened so many businesses, and they would not have gone [out to go to work] if they [had not been] asked,” Inton said.
But they banned jeepneys, UV Express vans, and city buses that serve most of the routes through business districts in the metropolis because it would be difficult to implement the cashless fare system on these vehicles, making them risky for virus transmission.
But without these vehicles, low-income workers, the bulk of Metro Manila’s workforce, cannot go to work. Transport officials encourage the use of bicycles, but don’t say how people can ride bicycles under heavy rain during the rainy season, which is almost here.
What did they expect? And now the government is shuffling blame to the people!
After four months of probe, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) charged two policemen and two other unidentified suspects with murder and theft for the Jan. 19, 2020 shooting here of a son of former assemblyman Salvador “Buddy” Britanico and a call center agent.
The successive killings – just minutes apart – of 36-year-old businessman Delfin Britanico of La Paz district and 42-year-old call center agent and drug surrenderer Alain Muller of Jaro district were initially thought as separate incidents. The NBI, however, discovered they were related by circumstance.
Charged before the Department of Justice (DOJ) on May 29 were Police Corporal Jerry Villanueva assigned at the Regional Personnel Holding and Accounting Unit of the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) and Police Corporal Joseph Andrew Joven of the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO).
Joven had been AWOL (absent without official leave) since March 12 while Villanueva was immediately placed under restrictive custody at the PRO-6’s Regional Headquarters Support Unit right after the charges were filed by the NBI’s Death Investigation Division.
Two cops charged with the murder of the son of a former Assemblyman and a person involved with drugs who had surrendered.
A Pasig City policeman was arrested using a motorcycle that was seized October last year from an anti-drug operation.
In a press statement on Thursday, Brig. Gen. Ronald Lee, chief of the Integrity Monitoring Enforcement Group (IMEG), identified the suspect as Cpl. Esteven Mark Pandi, currently assigned at the Station Drug Enforcement Unit (SDEU) of Pasig City Police Station.
Pandi was caught using the motorcycle without a plate number and was arrested in a police operation along Evangelista St. in Barangay Santolan on Wednesday afternoon.
Lee said the motorcycle, a blue Yamaha NMAX, was confiscated from a drug personality during a buy-bust operation in the city on Oct. 4, 2019 — as clearly shown in the inventory of confiscated pieces of evidence.
Recovered from the suspect are one Colt .45-caliber pistol with one magazine and six live ammunitions with no pertinent documents, and one Beretta 9mm with two magazines and 20 live ammunitions.
The suspect is now under the custody of the PNP-IMEG for proper disposition and filing of appropriate charges.
This is not the first time a cop has stolen a motorcycle recovered in a drug bust operation.
The Pasay City government on Thursday directed the city police to investigate a police officer who is the subject of a viral video on Facebook for unholstering his handgun while evicting tenants inside a house.
“I immediately called Pasay Police chief, Col. Ericson Dilag, and directed him to investigate this matter and undertake necessary measures on the involved policeman if the evidence and facts would merit it,” City Mayor Emi Calixto-Rubiano said in a statement.
Rubiano said the recorded video showed an altercation between a family and the police officer, who is allegedly the landlord of a house in Barangay 145.
According to Pasay Public Information Office, the uploader of the video said the heated argument happened last April 12 but they managed to publish the video on Facebook this Wednesday.
The 2-minute controversial video showed the police officer, wearing his uniform and a face mask, as he allegedly slapped one of the tenants and shouted: “Ano ni-re-reklamo mo? (What are you complaining about?).”
The policeman also drew his firearm while taunting the tenants.
Now he is under investigation. What is he complaining about?
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