It's your weekly compendium of foolishness and corruption in the Philippine government.
A former policeman who had been accused of involvement in the killing of a police intern in 2016 was arrested on Wednesday (July 22) at Hinaplanon village here.
Maj. Rixell Torayno, chief of Iligan City police station 1, said the suspect, Creighen Padayhag, a resident of Tipanoy village, was caught in his apartment at Hinaplanon after more than two years of hiding.
Padayhag has an arrest warrant issued on Jan. 22, 2018 by Judge Leonor Quiṅones, of Iligan City Regional Trial Court Branch 6.
Torayno said Padayhag initially showed resistance when police arrived to serve the arrest warrant, but he eventually submitted to authorities after seeing former colleagues outside his apartment.
Padayhag was one of seven police officers accused of involvement in the shooting of 21-year old Rafshanie Amerol Azis in 2016.
PNP officer allegedly kills a colleague in 2016, a warrant is issued in 2018, and he is finally arrested in 2020. Was he really hiding out in his apartment for two years?
President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered an investigation into alleged irregularities in the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.’s procurement of an information technology system that reportedly caused a rift between some of the state insurance firm’s officials and its president and chief executive officer Ricardo Morales.
A meeting last Wednesday between Morales and his officials as well as some Cabinet secretaries saw some heated exchanges over the IT system and led to at least one PhilHealth official turning in his resignation letter on Thursday.
“We enjoined all parties, including Keith, to fully cooperate with Undersecretary Quitain so we can get to the truth,” Roque said.
“In this time of the (Covid-19) pandemic, the President will not tolerate corruption in an agency trusted by all to provide medical assistance to Filipinos,” Roque also said.
PhilHealth has continually been hit with allegations of corruption. This is row over procurement of the IT system is only the latest.
A police officer assigned at the Police Regional Office (PRO) 1 (Ilocos Region) was arrested for extortion in Pangasinan, the anti-scalawag unit of the Philippine National Police (PNP) said Friday.
In a media statement, Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (IMEG) chief, Brig. Gen. Ronald Lee said M/Sgt. Aurelio Pine, a member of the PRO 1 Regional Drug Enforcement Unit (RDEU), was arrested in an entrapment inside a hardware store in Barangay Pugaro in Balungao town on Thursday morning.
Lee said the operation was launched following a series of validation of complaints and intelligence reports regarding the extortion activities of Pine by joint teams of the IMEG Luzon Field Unit, PRO 1 Intelligence Division, and the Pangasinan Police Provincial Office.
Lee said the suspect was caught receiving PHP100,000 worth of boodle money topped by two marked PHP1,000 bills from the complainant.
He said they placed the suspect under surveillance after the owner of the hardware store Ricky Sanchez sought their help in apprehending the cop.
It turned out that the suspect contacted Sanchez and informed him that his name is included in the PRO1 list of known members of gun-for-hire and drug trafficking syndicates targeted for neutralization.
During their conversation, Pine told Sanchez he could remove his name on the list in exchange for PHP100,000.
The classic "PNP officer charged with extortion."
The police has launched a manhunt for two gunmen on a motorbike who shot dead a school head teacher in Pikit town, North Cotabato province on Thursday.
Capt. Mautin Pangandigan, Pikit town police chief, identified the slain school official as Abdullah Mamasaunda Hussain, a headteacher of the Dagadas Elementary School in Barangay Fort Pikit.
“The victim was walking home from the town’s public market to prepare for his lunch when unidentified gunmen on a motorbike opened fire at 10:45 a.m,” Pangandigan said in a report.
Hussain, 43, succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds in the head and body.
Recovered from the crime scene were empty shells for .45-caliber pistols, police said.
Pangandigan said the initial investigation showed that the victim has been receiving threats from unidentified men for a still unknown reason.
Teachers are government employees. They work for the DepEd. Why would someone want a teacher dead?
A video showing a police officer from Zamboanga City pinning down an alleged checkpoint violator has gone viral on social media, as netizens say it draws comparison to the controversial death of black American George Floyd.
In the video, the officer was seen forcing the suspect to lay on his back along the unspecified road, before the police officer eventually pinned him down on his neck and upper body using his left knee.
According to a statement from the Police Regional Office 9 (PRO-9), which has jurisdiction over the Zamboanga City Police, the officer involved was identified as P/ Maj. Jivertson Pelovello, station commander of Zamboanga City Police Station 7.
Pelovello has been relieved to ensure an impartial investigation, PRO-9 Regional Director Brig. Gen. Jesus Cambay Jr. said.
Cambay added that it is unfortunate that the officer had to resort to a “brutal application of unreasonable force” when the suspect appeared to be cooperative. However, he also noted that the video might have not captured the whole story that is why this case necessitates an investigation.
PNP officer caught on video pinning down a man and kneeling on his neck and upper body.
A proposed P2.1-billion information technology (IT) project of Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), supposedly designed to stem fraud and scams devised by some corrupt personnel, was itself fraught with irregularities, government auditors have found.
One component of the project flagged as “anomalous” by the Commission on Audit (COA) and PhilHealth’s resident auditors in three separate reports was the planned procurement of various equipment worth P734 million, which was not contained in the original budget proposal submitted by the state insurer.
In their report in May, one group of COA auditors discovered that the budget for five “ICT (information and communications technology) resources”—computers, scanners and other items—was overpriced by P98 million.
The internal auditors, who said that a “syndicate” was operating in the state-run corporation, found that some of the equipment and computer programs PhilHealth was planning to buy were highly overpriced.
An Adobe software, which cost P168,000 per unit, was listed as P21 million each in the proposed budget submitted by PhilHealth’s IT sector, a whopping 12,400-percent increase from its original price, the auditors said in their report also in May.
The price of items under “application servers and licenses” was increased to P40 million from its initial budget of P25 million, the internal auditors said.
Sources familiar with the reports said the allegedly irregular IT project was one of the reasons lawyer Thorrsson Montes Keith quit his post as PhilHealth antifraud officer. The project sparked a “shouting match” among PhilHealth executives during an online meeting on July 22, a day before Keith submitted his resignation letter.
Looks like Thorrson Montes Keith was right abbot corruption in PhilHealth.
A former policeman tagged as high-value individual and a fish merchant were arrested in separate anti-drug operations in the region, police said Monday.
Capt. Edwin Duco, Police Regional Office (PRO-9) spokesperson, identified the arrested suspects as Marlon Navarro Candidato, 38, and Nasrin Adelin Kahal, 19.
Duco said that Candidato, a former policeman, was arrested in a buy-bust operation around 5:33 p.m. Sunday in Barangay Miputak, Dipolog City, Zamboanga del Norte.
Candidato yielded some PHP34,000 worth of suspected shabu and PHP800 marked money, police said
Police said Candidato, who was then a member of the Zamboanga del Sur Provincial Mobile Force Company, was arrested in an anti-drug operation in 2015 but was released under plea bargaining agreement.
Ex-cop who was busted for drugs back in 2015 but served no time is arrested again for drugs. Turns out he is a high-value target.
The Commission on Audit (COA) has questioned the allotment of over P6.38 million for the “renovation” of toilets, including the installation of air conditioners, showers and water heaters, at the main building of the Department of National Defense (DND).
In a report released on July 24, state auditors cited the cost of improvements on the toilets at the basement, ground floor and third floor of the DND main building’s south wing inside Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.
“Based on the foregoing information, each male and female comfort room may cost up to P1,582,727.05, while each PWD (person with disability) comfort room may also cost up to P176,322.66, which in our view is deemed impractical and uneconomical, and considered unnecessary expenditures,” COA said.
Still, the DND defended the expenses, saying the main office is like “a second home [for the staff] which should encourage productivity and inspire creativity.”
It explained that its employees work 24-hour shifts while other staff members are obliged to stay in the premises for any contingencies.
The installation of air conditioners, it said, also improves indoor air quality and provides a “mold-free environment.”
“The department is trying to improve its facilities to catch up with the fast pace of modernization, to cope with [international] standards, and in consideration [of] all foreign and local dignitaries visiting the department,” the DND said.
The DND said it would submit a “legal justification’’ for the cost, as it cited a labor department regulation calling for quality and sanitary workplaces.
For state auditors, however, “the inclusion of hot/cold showers, moreso air conditioning units in comfort rooms, are undoubtedly unnecessary since most of the employees or the general public… consider [these] as luxuries or privileges in any common Filipino household.”
“It is beyond comprehension that an employee, especially one that is involved in defense and security, would elect to dawdle inside these common comfort rooms…for longer than necessary. If an employee is burdened with arduous tasks, that person could surely relax for a while in his desk, office, or outside of the same, but never in a comfort room.”
The DND spent too much on improving their toilet facilities and justifies it by saying many employees are in the building 24 hours a day. The COA says no one should be hanging out in the bathroom longer than necessary.
A former mayor of Flora, Apayao was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in the town of Flora on Tuesday night, police said Wednesday.
A report from the Police Regional Office Cordillera identified the victim as Richard de San Jose. Records from the Department of the Interior and Local Government showed that De San Jose was elected mayor of Flora town in 1998 and finished his term in 2001.
Police probers said De San Jose was having a drinking spree with his construction workers along Sampaguita Street in Poblacion West when the two armed men appeared and shot him at 9 p.m.
Ex-mayor assassinated while out drinks with some of his construction worker employees.
A barangay tanod was arrested after shabu was allgeedly found on him in Sampaloc, Manila the other day.
Terencio Palo, 27, a tanod at Barangay 422, Sampaloc, was nabbed by the Sampaloc Police Station 4 (PS-4) of the Manila Police District (MPD).
Police said before the arrest at 10:30 on Paltoc Street near the Philippine National Railways (PNR) in Sampaloc, their Station Drug Enforcement Unit (SDEU) received information that the suspect was carrying shabu and selling it.
Based on this, an anti-illegal drugs operation was carried out.
The suspect was nabbed and police confiscated from him half a gram of suspected shabu worth P2,000.
A barangay watchman was found with drugs.
The Philippines was the deadliest country in Asia for environmental and land activists in 2019, with at least 43 recorded deaths, according to an international watchdog.
In a report released Wednesday, Global Witness said that 20% of the 212 of the environmental activists defenders murdered last year were from the Philippines, making it the second most dangerous nation in the world behind Colombia and the first in Asia.
Farmers, indigenous leaders and government workers tasked with protecting the environment were among the victims.
In 2018, the Philippines had the highest number of recorded deaths—30—worldwide.
Looks like the Philippines has slipped a notch to second place. Maybe next year they can regain the crown.
The Police Regional Office (PRO) 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula) has already begun the termination proceeding against a police trainee accused of mauling his 16-year-old girlfriend, its top official said Monday.
Police trainee Joed Carba was immediately placed under administrative leave following his arrest after he allegedly mauled his 16-year-old girlfriend at the latter's apartment in Dipolog City, Zamboanga del Norte last July 22, PRO-9 Director, Brig. Gen. Jesus Cambay Jr., said.
Carba was undergoing on-the-job training or field training exercise (OJT/FTX) at the Zamboanga del Norte Police Provincial Office at the time of his arrest.
That's one less would-be abusive cop.
Operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) have arrested a barangay official in neighboring Dipolog City who is in President Rodrigo Duterte’s narco-list, an anti-narcotics agent said Wednesday.
PDEA-Zamboanga del Norte Agent Dharyll Iann Pasagad identified the suspect as Anthony Cadavedo, a councilor of Barangay Sicayab in Dipolog City
Backed by the local police, Pasagad said the buy-bust operation against Cadavedo around 6:10 p.m. Tuesday yielded two sachets of suspected shabu with a street value of PHP34,000.
What kind of ridiculous mugshot is this!??
Police are tracking down gunmen onboard a sports utility vehicle (SUV) who killed a village official of Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao on Tuesday morning.
Major Alexander Butuan, town police chief, identified the slain village official as Mahdi Simpal, the secretary of Barangay Malingao.
Butuan said the victim had just boarded his vehicle after buying medicine from a local pharmacy situated along the highway around 8 a.m. when fired upon by two gunmen onboard a black SUV without plate number.
“The victim died on the spot due to multiple gunshot wounds,” the police official said.
Barangay secretary shot dead.
The apprehension of traffickers with this amount of drugs takes “a lot of work and a lot of surveillance,” said PNP chief Gen. Archie Gamboa.
“You cannot just apprehend somebody ta’s ma-confiscate mo na iyong 50 grams,” he told ANC.
“Siguro maglalaro doon: 50 [grams] to 1 kilo—I think that’s enough na dapat i-impose ang death penalty,” he added.
(Perhaps it will range there: 50 grams to 1 kilo—I think that’s enough to impose the death penalty.)
Though the right to protest is protected by the Constitution, demonstrators should not enjoy the chartered independence of the University of the Philippines too much, the chief of the national police said on Wednesday.
Speaking in an interview aired over ANC, Police Gen. Archie Gamboa said that all arrests of protesters were due to violations of quarantine rules and had nothing to do with the controversial anti-terrorism law.
"You should police your own activities there, wag niyo masyadong i-exercise yung chartered independence niyo doon (do not exercise your chartered independence too much)," he said.
If you think only PNP Chief Gamboa would like to kill small time drug users and dealers as well as curtail the rights of those would seek redress of grievances from the government via protesting you better think again.
Police in Cebu province arrested on Wednesday, July 29, 2020, at least 58 individuals, including at least two barangay officials, for engaging in illegal cockfighting (tigbakay in Cebu province).
The Provincial Intelligence Unit of Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO-PIU) and the San Fernando Police Station raided at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday an illegal cockfighting arena in an isolated area of Barangay Tubod, San Fernando town.
Police Captain Efren Dela Cruz Diaz, chief of San Fernando Police Station, said they received reports from concerned citizens that cockfighting activities are being conducted there.
Based on initial police reports, at least two of the 58 individuals they apprehended turned out to be elected public officials. They were identified as Malou Dela Cerna Baringui-an, 43, a barangay councilor from Barangay Balungag, San Fernando, and Richard Mendez Alidon, 57, a barangay councilor from Barangay Tunghaan, Minglanilla.
“All of them, including the barangay officials, were caught in the act by our troops. Although some managed to flee the scene, including the owner of the cockpit arena identified as alias ‘Ubial’, most were arrested,” said Diaz in a mix of English and Tagalog.
Two barangay officials caught in the act of illegal cockfighting.
Former Dinagat Islands Rep. Ruben Ecleo Jr., the “supreme master” of cult group Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA), is now in police custody after he was arrested by the police in Pampanga.
Ecleo was presented to the media by Maj. Gen. Debold Sinas, director of the National Capital Region Police Office, in a press conference on Thursday.
In 2006, Ecleo was ordered arrested after the Sandiganbayan found him guilty of graft and corruption over the anomalous construction of a public market and municipal building, and the repair and rehabilitation of a building owned by his family’s cult when he was mayor of San Jose in Dinagat Islands from 1991 to 1994.
He was then sentenced to 31 years in jail for the crimes.
Later in 2012, he was sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of parricide over the death of his wife Alona Bacolod-Ecleo.
Alona was strangled to death at their home in Cebu City in January 2002. Her body was later found inside a garbage bag dumped in a ravine in Dalaguete town.
However, Ecleo was able to elude arrest for all these crimes.
Former Representative found guilty of graft and corruption as well as the murder of his wife was finally caught after eight years on the run.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro "Teddy Boy" Locsin Jr. committed another diplomatic faux pas on Twitter, inciting a foreign ministry to summon the Philippines' representative.
In a tweet on Monday, July 27, Locsin threatened the United States Embassy over its tweet mentioning Sabah as part of Malaysia.
"Sabah is not in Malaysia if you want to have anything to do with the Philippines," Locsin wrote, quoting the US Embassy's Twitter account that reported on a donation to Filipino repatriates who arrived in Zamboanga and Tawi Tawi from Sabah.
In doing so, Locsin not only publicly corrected the country's defense ally on an unofficial channel but also revived a dormant territorial and historical claim of the Philippines over the Malaysian state in the northern part of Borneo.
Malaysian Foreign Affairs Minister Hishammuddin Hussein responded to Locsin's tweet, calling it an "irresponsible statement that affects bilateral ties."
"[The Malaysia Ministry of Foreign Affairs will summon the Philippines Ambassador on Monday to explain. Sabah is, and will always be, part of Malaysia," Hussein's tweet reads.
DFA Secretary Teddy Locsin tweeted that Sabah belongs to the Philippines thus correcting a tweet from the US Embassy. In doing so he did publicly what should have been done through proper diplomatic channels and he proved the ire of Malaysia who said they will be summoning the Philippine ambassador to explain. But rather than apologize or go through the proper channels Teddy dug in his heels and continued to tweet that Sabah belongs to the Philippines and that he would summon the Malaysian ambassador.
In an escalation of a Twitter row, Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Thursday said he would summon the Malaysian ambassador in Manila over comments the latter's foreign minister made on his tweet that "Sabah is not in Malaysia."
Adding even more fuel to the fire the Palace says they stand by Sec. Locsin and his tweet.
Roque backed Locsin, saying the Philippines obtained Sabah from Brunei as a gift for helping put down a rebellion on Borneo Island.
However, he also recognized the country’s conflicting claims with Malaysia, which believes that Sabah was ceded to them. The Philippines claims Sabah was only leased, not ceded, to the British North Borneo Co.
Despite this unresolved territorial dispute, Roque said the Philippines and Malaysia continue to enjoy “friendly” bilateral ties in recent years.
“You know this unresolved territorial dispute has been dormant. It has not affected our friendly bilateral relations and I think we will definitely maintain this friendly bilateral relations despite and in spite of this unresolved dispute,” he said.
He acknowledged that there may not be a resolution to the territorial dispute in the near future, but noted that it will not affect the long-established bilateral ties between the two countries.
Will this row affect diplomatic relations and bilateral ties? Probably not but this unnecessary headache could all have been prevented had Teddy Locsin not sent such an irresponsible tweet but gone through the proper diplomatic channels instead.
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