It's your weekly compendium of foolishness and corruption in the Philippine government.
The village chief of Fatima Dos, identified only as “Estil” by the DILG, was caught having sex with his treasurer during a video conference with other village officials regarding their COVID-19 response.
Village chief to be probed after probing his treasurer during a Zoom conference.
Police and military authorities have launched a manhunt against two men who shot dead a village councilman in Pikit, North Cotabato on Thursday.
Captain Mautin Pangandigan, Pikit town police chief, identified the slain village councilman as Hayrollah Bateg, 33, of Barangay Balakakan in Pikit town.
The victim succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds and was declared dead on arrival in the hospital.
Pangandigan said Bateg was driving his motorbike along the national highway in Barangay Dalingaoen when shot from behind by one of two motorcycle-riding attackers around noon.
“The killers appeared to have tailed Bateg as he was traveling from Barangay Balakakan passing by Barangay Dalingaoen and shot him from behind,” Pangandigan said.
Police investigators are initially eyeing personal grudge or “rido” (family feud) as a possible motive behind the attack. Found at the crime scene were empty shells for .45-caliber pistol. Witnesses said the gunmen fled toward the direction of Barangay Balakakan after the murder.
Another village councilor assassinated.
Sultan Kudarat Governor Suharto Mangudadatu has ordered a 45-day preventive suspension against Mayor Azel V. Mangudadatu of President Quirino town while the administrative charges against her remain pending before the provincial legislative body.
Mangudadatu's Administrative Order No. 40 dated Aug 25 was based on Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) Resolution No. 214 approved on Aug. 10, recommending to the office of the governor the 45-day suspension of Mayor Mangudadatu pending resolution of the administrative charges against her.
However, the mayor has filed a motion for reconsideration seeking to quash the suspension.
“My client (Azel Mangudadatu) stays as mayor, she is on top of the situation in her town,” the mayor's legal counsel, Israelito Torreon, said in a phone interview Thursday.
The SP resolution emanated from administrative charges filed by Pres. Quirino Vice Mayor Katrina Sandigan and Councilor Florante Tongco against Mangudadatu for misconduct in office, dereliction of duty, and abuse of authority.
The governor, for his part, explained that the suspension should not be seen as a punishment on the mayor, who is the wife of his first cousin, former Rep. Freddie Mangudadatu.
"It must be understood that the preventive suspension is not a penalty but a mere preliminary step in an administrative case," Gov. Mangudadatu said in the order.
Small town mayor has been preventively suspended by the governor because of administrative charges filed against her
The Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) filed an animal cruelty complaint against officials of the Manila City Pound for allegedly cramming 60 cats into a 2 x3 foot cage and subjecting the animals to starvation and dehydration.
In a Facebook post, PAWS further claimed that sick and injured cats and dogs in the pound were not provided veterinary treatment, including one severely disfigured dog missing the right half of its face.
"The number of diseased, dying, and dead animals the Complainants observed within the facility, as well as social media reports showing the empty cages of the Manila Pound shortly after the imposition of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) indicated that the animals were not euthanized but were left to die from neglect and disease 'perhaps to spare the City of the expense of having to euthanize them,'" the animal welfare group said.
The respondents will face charges of violation of the Animal Welfare Act or RA 8485 (as amended by RA 10136) as well as charges of grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service, as punished by the Revised Rules on Administrative Cases in the Civil Service (RRACCS).
PAWS Executive Director Anna Cabrera said they appealed to Manila Mayor Isko Moreno to help their group uphold the Animal Welfare Act.
Officials running the Manila City Pound charged with animal cruelty.
Cebu City Councilor Eduardo Rama Jr. is once again facing a complaint over alleged selling of donated chickens to the public — a month after he faced the City Council to explain that he was innocent and that the allegations against him were untrue.
A certain Jonel Saceda, a resident of Barangay Labangon, filed a complaint of malversation of public property against the councilor and Rona Lapiña, and accused them of selling the chickens.
Saceda is the second city resident, who filed a complaint against Rama. The first one were a group of Sambag I residents, who claimed to have been sold donated chickens and has written a letter to Mayor Edgardo Labella asking for an investigation on the matter.
A Cebu city councilor is charged with selling chickens to the public which were donated to the city. He denies the charges of course.
The Commission on Audit (COA) has flagged the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) for its undocumented travel expenses amounting to P1.16 million in 2019.
In its 2019 Annual Audit Report on OSG, state auditors said the P1.16-million expenses covered local and foreign travel which were either unliquidated or not supported by required documents — a violation of COA Circular No. 2012-001 and Presidential Decree (PD) No. 1445.
COA Circular 2012-001 states that expenses for local travel should be justified with certificate of appearance/attendance, as well as certification by the head of agency as to the absolute necessity of the expenses corresponding bills or receipts.
Likewise, the same COA circular also provides that expenses incurred for official travel which exceeded the prescribed rate per day cannot be justified by a certification or affidavit of loss and that such is not considered as an appropriate replacement for the required hotel/lodging bills and receipts.
“Audit of the liquidation reports of the 17 officers and employees granted with cash advances for local and foreign travels in 2019 totaling P1,169,121.61 showed that liquidation reports were not properly documented in violation of the above COA Circular and PD 1445,” state auditors said.
P1.6 million in undocumented travel expenses for the OSG in 2019.
The Police Regional Office in Soccsksargen (PRO-12) has launched an investigation into the reported protocol violations committed by a police official assigned in one of its support units who tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Brig. Gen. Michael John Dubria, PRO-12 director, told reporters here on Saturday afternoon that the concerned official did not undergo proper quarantine despite being considered as suspect Covid-19 case due to a recent travel in Metro Manila.
He said the latter, who holds the rank of major and assigned in a provincial field unit of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-12, was subjected to the required reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction testing last Aug. 20.
But he said the police official, who was confirmed positive of the disease on Aug. 27, had reported for duty and even attended a seminar at the regional headquarters in Barangay Tambler here last Aug. 24.
“This is against protocol. He should have stayed home or in quarantine since his test result was still pending then,” Dubria said.
PNP officer with the rank of major ignored quarantine protocols and did not isolate himself until receiving his test result.
President Rodrigo Duterte wants Bureau of Customs (BOC) chief Rey Leonardo Guerrero to “kill” those involved in illegal drugs, which he says continues to flow into the country through the corruption-hit agency.
“I told him straight: Drugs are still flowing inside the country through [the Bureau of] Customs. I wanted to say to him earlier: You asked for guns, didn’t you? I said: I approved the purchase of firearms and until now you have not killed even one. I told him: Shape up,” Duterte, speaking partly in Filipino, said in a taped speech aired Monday night.
He also warned Guerrero against trusting people who had been in the Bureau of Customs for a long time.
“It is [like when you are] new, when you are a babe in the forest, and you begin to rely on people who whisper: ‘Sir, we will help you in this.’ And when they gain your confidence, you become to rely on what they say until you believe that they are doing the right thing,” he said.
“So I told him: Drugs are still coming in. What I want is for you to kill. After all, I will back you up so you won’t go to prison. When it involves drugs, kill. That’s the deal,” he said.
Sound logic. They asked for guns, Duterte gave them, so why hasn't anyone been killed yet? Better drop some bodies and don't worry about prison because Duterte will back you up. Very Presidential.
Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo M. Año on Tuesday ordered the relief of all firefighters of the local Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) station from their posts for allegedly breaking quarantine protocols in the conduct of a despedida (farewell party) of an outgoing fire marshal in Batangas City.
“The BFP has also issued a show cause order against all the BFP personnel involved in the alleged mass gathering in violation of IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force) guidelines. The BFP IAS (Internal Affairs Service) and Regional Office 4A (Calabarzon) have also been directed to conduct a thorough investigation and submit its findings immediately to the DILG,” DILG spokesperson Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said in a media statement.
Malaya added that BFP chief Jose Embang Jr. has withdrawn the new assignment of Fire Chief Insp. Elaine Evangelista as chief of the Biñan Fire Station in Laguna.
"The DILG will not tolerate any violation of IATF guidelines among its uniformed personnel and will impose the appropriate penalties on all erring individuals if warranted by the evidence gathered and presented," he added.
Reports showed the party for Evangelista, outgoing Batangas City Fire Marshal, was held on August 21 in a hotel and restaurant in the area.
Photos of the event which surfaced online showed personnel of the Batangas City Fire Station were seen partying without wearing face masks and practicing safe physical distancing.
Local BFP personnel are fired en masse for holding a farewell party for a fire marshall and violating quarantine protocols. Hopefully there will be no fires in the meantime.
Agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA-BARMM) arrested the teacher, whose identity was withheld pending follow-up operations after she allegedly handed over a sachet of suspected shabu to an undercover agent at 8 p.m. in Barangay Bagua Mother here.
“The teacher and her husband were considered high-value targets and have been placed under surveillance for about a month before Monday night’s operation,” said Juvenal Azurin, PDEA-BARMM director.
Azurin said the suspect yielded some six grams of shabu with a street value of PHP40,000 and the marked money.
A teacher has been arrested for selling drugs. Both she and her husband were considered high-value targets.
A man was arrested after attacking Occidental Mindoro Governor Eduardo Gadiano with knives inside the official’s office in the provincial capitol in Mamburao town, Tuesday.
Gadiano identified the perpetrator as Adriane Gatdula, a resident of the province, although the governor said he was still clueless about the motive.
The incident happened around 10 am as Gadiano was attending to several concerns in his office.
He said there were a lot of people in his office when Gatdula stepped in and suddenly threw by “spinning” a knife at him.
The governor was able to dodge the knife, but the suspect drew out two more knives and attempted to stab him, Gadiano said.
“I blocked him with a chair. Then with another (government personnel), we pushed him back until he was cornered in the (office) bathroom,” he said.
Security personnel then arrived and whisked the official away to safety.
Gadiano believed the attacker “meant to kill me,” but said he had not heard of any threat to his life before the incident.
An attempted assassination of Occidental Mindoro Governor Eduardo Gadiano.
At least P1 billion worth of the vehicles and weapons purchased by the Philippine National Police (PNP) four years ago remain undelivered to this day, the Commission on Audit (COA) said.
In its annual audit report on PNP, state auditors discovered that of the P1.3 billion worth of funds that the PNP transferred to Philippine International Trading Corporation (PITC) in 2016 for the purchase of mobility, firearms and other equipment, only P311 million worth of equipment were delivered.
“This leaves P1.036 billion [of equipment] still undelivered for more than three years. The low delivery rate of 23.08% and undelivered equipment defeats the intention to which the PNP have engaged the services of PITC, that is, to facilitate the procurement process,” COA said.
“The remaining balance of P1,036,548,528.00 or 76.92 % which pertained to undelivered items such as utility trucks, automatic grenade launcher, light personnel carrier, etc. remained outstanding for more than three years, contrary to the objective mentioned in the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Procurement law,” COA added.
State auditors then recommended that the PNP headquarters require the Directorate for Logistics to demand the immediate delivery of all remaining equipment.
After four years only P311 million of P1.3 billion of equipment ordered by the PNP has been delivered.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has filed a complaint against 20 personnel of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) allegedly involved in the illegal airport escort service known as the “pastillas” racket catering mostly to Chinese nationals.
“Yes, at the Office of the Ombudsman yesterday,” NBI spokesperson Nick Suarez told INQUIRER.net in a text message on Wednesday when asked to confirm if a complaint has been filed against BI personnel tagged in the illegal scheme.
This scheme was uncovered back in February but only now have charges been filed against these personnel.
Sixteen cops assigned at the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) and an employee tested positive for illegal drug use, NCRPO chief Maj. Gen. Debold Sinas said on Thursday.
He said the random drug testing has been done to weed out drug-using police officers within their ranks.
16 PNP officers tested positive for drug use.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said yesterday Duterte also wants Cascolan, who has only two months to serve as PNP chief, to ensure that the police would always uphold the rule of law.
“To the PNP chief, of course, number one is to maintain… uphold integrity of the rule of law as far as the PNP is concerned,” Roque said.
“Number two, rid its ranks of corruption because that’s the reason why the President doubled the salary of the armed forces and military. And number three what is closest to his heart, sustain the gains of the drug war,” Roque said.
New PNP chief, same old mission. No way will he accomplish it in a mere two months.
Newly-appointed Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) chief Dante Gierran on Thursday expressed confidence that he will be able to address and resolve the alleged irregularities surrounding the state insurer in two years.
In a televised briefing, Gierran noted that he has the support of President Rodrigo Duterte along with his former colleagues in the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in solving the PhilHealth mess.
“Sigurado yan, kakayanin. Kakayanin ko talaga yan,” Gierran said when asked if he will be able to address the problem before the President ends his term in 2022.
(That’s for sure, I will try my best.)
“Firstly, I have the full support of the President no less. I have the support of Senator Bong Go. I have the support of my former colleagues at the National Bureau of Investigation which is one of the units that comprise the task force currently investigating the corruption within PhilHealth,” he went on.
He won't put an end to 25 years of endemic corruption by June 2022. But it such an assurances sounds good.
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