It's your weekly compendium of foolishness and corruption in the Philippine government.
The Police Regional Office (PRO) 10 (Northern Mindanao) on Friday issued an apology over an infographic posted by the Malaybalay City Police Station (MCPS) on its Facebook page claiming that the activists are supporters of terrorism.
Lt. Col. Mardy Hortillosa, PRO-10 spokesperson, said the regional police has already ordered the MCPS to delete the controversial post, which showed faces of activists holding placards calling for the junking of the Anti-Terror Law and not to shut down the ABS-CBN media network.
Hortillosa said the police office was also asked to explain why they made the infographic, which caused a stir among activist groups and prompted criticisms from community journalists.
"We have already issued a directive not to touch that issue since it's not under our power. We ask apology to ABS-CBN employees since we know how hard for them to think when they will settle for a living in the coming days. Airing grievances is not a crime. Doing something bad during the rally against the properties and individuals can be considered a crime. Again, our sincere apology to our friends from ABS-CBN and the whole media in general. We will always protect your press freedom," he told local reporters in an online interview.
The PNP are already doing exactly what those opposed to the anti-terror law said they would do which is tag activists and protesters as terrorists. This is not the first time this happened. Doubtful this will be the last time.
Maconacon town Vice Mayor Jolly Taberner was arrested along with two policemen and five others for alleged illegal gambling, authorities here said.
Police Brig. Gen. Crizaldo Nieves, Cagayan Valley regional police director, said Taberner and his companions were caught playing “mahjong” inside a house near the national highway in Barangay Balzain West here on Saturday afternoon.
Also arrested were police officers Christine Ruiz and Maconel Pascua, house owner Peter Laggui, and their companions who were identified as Pedro Baggay, Gerry Adducul, Grace Laggui, and Marlene Bautista.
Seized from them were mahjong sets and tables, a .45-caliber pistol with magazines and other paraphernalia.
The Vice Mayor and two cops arrested for illegal gambling.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Saturday confirmed that a sexual harassment complaint was filed against a former Filipino Ambassador to South Korea.
The agency did not identify the envoy but said the Philippine embassy in Seoul received the complaint in February when the latter was in Manila on official business.
The complaint was then referred to the DFA, which tasked its Committee on Decorum and Investigation (CODI) to look into the allegation.
A former ambassador charged with sexual harassment.
A perjury complaint was filed Monday against Assistant Secretary Melissa Avanceña-Aradanas of the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development over alleged false entries in her Career Executive Service (CES) Board application.
In an 11-page affidavit filed before the Office of the Ombudsman, youth group Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (SPARK) led by Alladin Panganiban accused Avanceña-Aradanas of lying in her CES Board application by failing to disclose that she was dismissed in her previous employment.
Complainant Panganiban was referring to the time Avanceña-Aradanas and her fellow commissioners in the Presidential Commission on the Urban Poor (PCUP) were fired by President Rodrigo Duterte in December 2017 over alleged excessive travel.
Panganiban argued that the firing of Avanceña-Aradanas in December 2017 violates the rules for CES Eligibility which requires that an applicant must has not been dismissed from the service for cause.
“This very public fact alone should have prompted the CES Board to decline the respondent’s candidature for CES eligibility and disallowed her from taking the written examination,” the complaint read.
Duterte appointed his mistress' cousin to a position in the PCUP from which she was dismissed in 2017 for excessive travel. She was reappointed to a new position in the government but apparently she should have been disqualified from the position because she was fired from her previous job. She also left this fact off her application.
The Commission on Audit has asked the Capitol to reflect the “correct and true account balances” and ensure the fair presentation of its accounts in its financial statements.
This as the state auditors noted that the Capitol’s “Cash in Bank-Local Currency, Current Account” included balances from a non-existing account and three closed bank accounts.
Those included of the closed and non-existent accounts resulted in an overstatement of P504,004.11 in the Cash in Bank-Local Currency, Current account for the year 2019.
The closed accounts are those maintained by Capitol-run hospitals.
Bad accounting from Capitol-run hospitals which are managed by the provincial government of Cebu. Maybe it's deliberate?
State auditors flagged down the decades-old 93-1 land swap deal between the provincial government and city government of Cebu.
The Commission on Audit (COA) called out the attention of the two local governments for proceeding with the land swap deal despite the absence of approval from the commission.
“We recommended that management (Capitol) require the persons responsible to explain why COA approval was not secured prior to the execution of the deeds of conveyance by way of donation relative to the subject properties,” stated COA in their 167-page report to the Capitol for the fiscal year 2019.
It can be recalled the previous administrations of the Capitol and the city government entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to formalize the swapping or exchange of several city-owned and Province-owned lots covered by 93-1.
The two local governments then sealed the deal by issuing the Deeds of Donation and Acceptance last August 2018.
Under the MOA, the province will transfer to the city government the ownership of the disputed residential lots along with a 1.5-hectare lot within the Department of Agriculture (DA) compound in Barangay Guadalupe, a 2,358-square-meter property along Gorordo Avenue in Barangay Lahug and a portion of a property in Barangay Capitol Site.
In earlier reports, the present administrations of the Cebu Provincial Government and Cebu City Government eyed to renegotiate the 93-1 land swap deal, saying that the process undertaken by their predecessors was “erroneous.”
The Capitol, in 1993, issued Provincial Ordinance No. 93-1 that directed 5,000 families to pay a monthly amortization for residing in province-owned lots in Cebu City. The Cebu City Government decided to intervene through a land swap deal after no payment was made to the province
The City of Cebu entered in an agreement with the provincial government to swap land in 1993 and the COA is just now flagging this agreement because it did not receive approval from the COA. Why did they wait so long?
A retired member of the Armed Forces of the Philippines was robbed and shot to death in Barangay Bolo, Roxas City, Capiz.
The 54-year-old Junifer Borda, a supervisor of a security agency, sustained gunshot wounds on the body, a police report showed.
According to Roxas City police station chief Lieutenant Colonel Ricardo Jomuad Jr., the shooting happened around 12:30 p.m. on July 20.
Borda was onboard his motorcycle going to the agency when two unidentified motorcycle riding-gunmen shot him from behind.
The suspects then took the P100,000 cash of the victim which was intended for the wages of the agency’s security guards.
Borda was rushed to a private hospital where the attending physician declared him “dead on arrival.”
According to Jomuad, they are considering inside job as a possible motive behind the incident.
“Maybe the suspects knew the victim was carrying a big amount of money and that he came from the bank,” said Jomuad. “We are now coordinating with the agency to help us possibly identify the suspects,” he added.
Retired AFP solider assassinated by unknown motorcycle men. Could be robbery. Could be more.
The Commission on Audit (COA) has asked the Cebu provincial government to deduct about P2.7 million from the remaining collectible of the contractor of a road concreting project in Tuburan town after it found that the contract price of the project was “excessive” by over 22 percent.
In its 2019 audit report for the province, COA said its Regional Technical Services unit rendered a report that the contract price of the concreting project of a portion of the Alegria-Kabangkalan Road Section in Tuburan which was pegged at P14,954,525.39 exceeded the agency’s computed cost which was only pegged at P12,177,474.33.
Under a circular that COA issued in 2012, the Commission defined “excessive expenditure” as those that are unreasonable or were incurred at an “immoderate quantity or exorbitant price” and exceeds the “usual or proper” cost.
According to COA, the program of works and estimates prepared by the Provincial Engineering Office was exceeded by 23.21 percent or byP2,825,526.66 compared to the COA computed cost, resulting in an overstated approved budget for the contract (ABC) of P14,999,999.99.
Following the audit observation, COA recommended for the Provincial Engineering Office to deduct P2,780,051.07 from the remaining receivable of the contractor to avoid disallowance in an audit.
As of January 2020, the project contractor has already received P12,099,418.60.
This means that instead of receiving the balance of P2,855,106.80 from the project, the contractor is now only entitled to receive the remaining balance of P75,055.73.
The COA has found that a road project funded by the Cebu provincial government was overpraise by 23% or almost P3 million. Luckily they caught the error in time before the sum was paid to the contractor. But why was it overpriced to begin with?
Law enforcement authorities arrested a government employee in the Davao del Sur town of Padada during a buy-bust operation on Tuesday, a police official said.
Captain Arnold Absin, Padada police station chief, identified the suspect as Allen Rey Guitguit Cabiad, 32, a resident of Barangay Harada Butai, Padada, who works as an administrative aide at the town's municipal engineering office.
Absin said Cabiad is listed as "number 4 high-value target" provincial-level drug personality, who was arrested by a combined team of the local and provincial police, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Barangay Tulogan, Padada town.
Cabiad yielded a sachet of suspected shabu worth PHP13,600, a .45-caliber pistol, and other pieces of evidence, police said.
High valued drug target who also worked for the government arrested in Davao Sur.
Another unprofessional and undiplomatic tweet from the nation's top diplomat directed toward Senator Pangilinan.
The police have launched an in-depth investigation to identify the riding in tandem gunmen behind the attempt to kill an elected government official in Zamboanga del Norte, an official said Wednesday.
Maj. Helen Galvez, Police Regional Office-9 (PRO-9) information officer, identified the victim as Estrella Asman Tayrus, 47, a councilor in Barangay Tinuyop, Leon Postigo town, Zamboanga del Norte, who was shot and wounded around 4 p.m. Tuesday in a hilly area in Sitio Pitogo, Barangay Delusom, in the town.
Galvez said an investigation showed that Tayrus was riding a motorcycle on the way home when shot by one of two men riding tandem on another motorcycle that tailed the victim and her companion.
Another attempted assassination of an LGU official.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Thursday said it had filed administrative complaints against the mayor and councilor of Sto. Tomas, Pangasinan for organizing a birthday party last May 6.
“DILG Secretary Eduardo M. Año said that two (2) cases have been referred to the Ombudsman, particularly against the mayor and a councilor in Sto. Tomas, Pangasinan, for holding a birthday celebration/mass gathering which violated social distancing and the prevailing curfew,” read the statement from DILG Public Information Office.
Charges finally filed against the mayor of Pangasinan and a city councilor for holding a birthday party in violation of the curfew and social distancing measures.
A village chief of Maasin City in Southern Leyte is facing charges after he was arrested by authorities in a drug bust on Wednesday, July 22.
Serafin Omega, Jr., chairman of Barangay Mantahan, was charged for violating the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, particularly the selling and possession of illegal drugs.
The suspect, considered a high-value target, was detained at the Maasin City Police Office’s lock-up cell.
A barangay captain was arrested for selling drugs. Turn out he was a high-value-target.
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