It's your weekly compendium of foolishness and corruption in the Philippine government.
Members of the Manila Police District (MPD) and city engineering office demolished yesterday illegal structures and other road obstructions in Barangay 650, Port Area in a move to flush out criminals.
The clearing operation was conducted days after a Manila Traffic and Parking Bureau (MTPB) employee was shot dead by two unidentified assailants along Railroad street.
Special Weapons and Tactics policemen and members of the Special Mayor’s Reaction Team headed by Maj. Rosalino Ibay Jr. barricaded the entry and exit points in the barangay while at least 200 men ripped down the illegal stalls and cleared the sidewalks of obstructions, including makeshift houses and stores selling bicycles at around 9 a.m.
Ibay said the operation aims to clear Port Area of obstructions and “retake the street occupied by the vendors.”
MTPB member Ronaldo Malonzo was texting in front of a store when he was gunned down on Sept. 6.
Malonzo was reportedly mistaken for a police asset.
An MTPB employee was assassinated after being mistaken for an informant. His assailants then run off and hide in the slums. The city responds by demolishing the slums which are actually illegal structures. Were these obstructions destroyed last year when Duterte demanded all LGUs clear such structures and then rebuilt or were they never torn down?
Police operatives nabbed on Thursday a former soldier and three alleged illegal drug suspects in separate police stings in three Bicol provinces, a police report said.
Maj. Maria Luisa Calubaquib, spokesperson of Police Regional Office-5 (Bicol), on Friday said in Sorsogon City, Robert Esta, 31, a former Army soldier, of Barangay Taysan, Legazpi City, was arrested for illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.
Police operatives, the report said, responded to information from residents that the suspect was sighted roaming around Barangay Pangpang with a .45-caliber pistol tucked in his waist.
The suspect was arrested and his handgun loaded with seven ammunition was seized after he failed to present a gun license and permit to carry firearms.
A former solider arrested for illegal possession of firearms.
Eighty-nine barangay captain were slapped with a six-month preventive suspension over anomalies in the implementation of the first tranche of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP), the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said Saturday.
In a statement, DILG Secretary Eduardo Año said the Office of the Ombudsman issued the preventive suspension order.
Año then directed municipal and city mayors to implement the order upon receipt. Likewise, he also directed DILG regional and field officers to ensure the implementation of the suspension orders.
According to the Office of the Ombudsman’s order dated Sept. 2, “the evidence on record shows that the guilt of these punong barangays is strong and the charges against them involve Serious Dishonesty, Grave Misconduct, Abuse of Authority and Conduct Prejudicial to the Best Interest of the Service which may warrant removal from the service.”
89 barangay captains preventively suspended due to SAP anomalies.
Two former police officers and their two companions were killed in am ambush in Palo, Leyte on Saturday afternoon.
Reports reaching the regional headquarters of the Philippine National Police (PNP) based in Palo said the two former police officers were on board a sports utility vehicle (SUV) when they were ambushed.
The victims were identified as retired police officers Dennis Monteza, 49 and Constantino Torre, 59; and their companions, Ian Pat Cabrido, 43 and Maritess Pami, 46.
Cabrido and Pami were live-in partners while Monteza was the security escort of Cabrido. Torre owned the SUV.
The local police said the victims were in Barangay Libertad when their vehicle was blocked. Three assailants promptly fired at the victims, who were declared dead on arrival at Leyte Provincial Hospital.
Major Jomen Collado, Palo police chief, said futher investigation is ongoing.
Collado said one of the fatalities, Cabrido, was allegedly involved in the illegal drugs trade.
“While our investigation is ongoing, we consider this as drug-related since Cabrido was a high-value target. He surrendered during the Oplan Tokhang,” Collado said.
Two retired cops hanging out with a known drug personality were assassinated along their drug buddy.
After President Rodrigo Duterte saw the photos of the muddy Olutanga-Alicia Road in Zamboanga Sibugay, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials immediately ordered the contractor to make immediate repairs, an official said Sunday.
Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said after the photos were taken by his agency and were posted on his Facebook page on Sept. 2, it caught the attention of Duterte, and immediately cracked the whip.
“With just one communication from the Office of the President addressed to DPWH road building equipment and machinery sprung into action, Piñol said.
He said portions of the highway where vehicles were stuck for days due to the deep mud were immediately repaired.
“Voila! In one week, it was completed,” he added.
LGU officials are so incompetent and inefficient that the president has to bark for anything to get done.
A village chief in Bangued, Abra was stabbed to death days after he was released from detention, police said.
A manhunt was launched against the five unidentified assailants who killed Claudio Bobias of Barangay Lingtan on Sunday night.
Bobias suffered multiple stab wounds during the attack in front of a store around 6 p.m.
The victim was taken to a hospital but was declared dead on arrival.
The investigators said the victim had been jailed for allegedly shooting a villager recently but was freed on bail.
A village chief out on bail for shooting someone was stabbed to death by five people.
The Commission on Audit (COA) has flagged the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) for P31.66 million worth of questionable financial transactions last year.
“One hundred DVs (disbursement vouchers) were found to be not supported with official receipts (ORs) as required by existing laws, thus casting doubt on the validity of the claims,” the COA said in its 2019 annual audit report on the PDEA.
State auditors said the transactions, which were the subject of the DVs, were supposedly made from October to Dec. 31, 2019.
The COA said that while the DVs were submitted for auditing, government auditors could not ascertain the validity of the supposed payments as there was no proof that the payees received the amounts.
Records showed that most of the PDEA’s transactions were made with various gasoline stations, information and communications technology providers, a telephone company, a courier service company, trade and marketing firms as well as industrial and general merchandise suppliers.
There were also supposed payments for water supply, catering, security as well as janitorial, laboratory and printing services.
P31.66 million transactions without official receipts to prove their validity.
The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the immediate dismissal of an Ilocos Sur judge from service due to irregularities in handing down decisions on marriage annulment cases before his court.
In a statement, the SC said it unanimously voted in finding Judge Raphiel F. Alzate, Acting Presiding Judge of both Cabugao, Ilocos Sur Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 24, and Bucay, Abra RTC Branch 58, guilty of gross ignorance of the law and gross misconduct.
The high court also forfeited all Alzate’s benefits except accrued leave benefits and was perpetually disqualified from public office.
The wife of the magistrate, lawyer Saniata Liwliwa G. Alzate will also be investigated on her alleged participation in the questioned decisions on the annulment of marriage cases issued by her husband.
Alzate’s dismissal stemmed from reports reaching the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) which conducted a judicial audit on Cabugao, Ilocos Sur RTC.
The OCA audit team confirmed reports that Judge Alzate was issuing decisions on nullity of marriage for financial considerations, a wanton disregard of the rules of procedures in the declaration of nullity of marriage cases.
Judge dismissed from service after being found guilty
of gross
misconduct
and gross
ignorance
of the law regarding his decision to annul marriages
.
Police officers should keep themselves in a professional and dignified manner when on duty or during inspections, the country's second-highest police official said on Monday.
In a Laging Handa public briefing, PNP deputy chief for administration, Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, said this reminder is now being carried out by various police commanders in the ground.
"Our different commanders on the ground always remind that, especially during inspections of police personnel," he said.
Eleazar's remarks came after PNP chief, Gen. Camilo Cascolan, said he will not allow public shaming of police personnel who were caught sleeping on duty during inspections by ranking police officials, a practice which was carried out by former PNP chief Oscar Albayalde.
The new PNP chief says he will no longer allow public shaming of cops caught sleeping on duty but cops are reminded to be professional during duty and during inspections. It's a shame that PNP officers have to be continually remind to act properly.
Despite its P4.5 billion in confidential and intelligence funds this year, Malacañang was “not aware” that a Chinese company that bagged the Sangley airport project had been blacklisted by the United States for its involvement in island building in the West Philippine Sea.
Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea made the admission on Monday during a House briefing on the proposed P8.2 billion budget of the Office of the President (OP) for 2021.
“I only read that in news articles. There has been no confirmation on the construction of Chinese bases,” Medialdea said when asked by Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdinand Gaite about the United States’ blacklisting of China Communications Construction Co. Ltd. (CCCC).
“We are not aware of specific companies as of now. That’s within the purview of the Department of Public Works and Highways,” Medialdea told the House body.
He also claimed ignorance when pressed by Gaite if he knew that CCCC had likewise been banned by the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) for “fraudulent practices.”
Medialdea’s comments, however, earned him a sharp rebuke from Gaite.
“The OP has P4.5 billion for confidential and intelligence funds, the purpose of which [are] to investigate matters on national security … We’re concerned that their sources are only news reports, considering they have the wherewithal, the resources and the funds to investigate these developments in the West Philippine Sea,” the Makabayan lawmaker said.
But according to Medialdea, the Philippines need not ban any company just because the United States did so.
“Let us give them due process. The government has an independent foreign policy,” he said to which Gaite retorted that it was not only the United States, but even multilateral agencies like the WB and the IMF.
Once again no one knows anything about anything and it's not their business to know anyway. More excuses that ring hollow.
Executives of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) were negligent in their duties in connection with the state insurer's interim reimbursement program, certain procurements, and accountability mechanisms, investigators revealed on Tuesday.
The Department of Justice-led task force ordered by President Rodrigo Duterte to investigate alleged corruption in PhilHealth has bared the key findings behind its recommendation to file criminal and administrative complaints against resigned PhilHealth chief Ricardo Morales and several other officials.
Task Force PhilHealth found irregularities in the three areas it focused its investigation on: the approval and implementation of the Interim Reimbursement Mechanism (IRM), the approval of budgets for the purchase of ICT equipment, and corporate policies that fail to hold accountable erring PhilHealth personnel and health care institutions (HCI) and professionals.
The task force concluded that “persons who are supposed to set the policies and operational guidelines for the management of PhilHealth – the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee – have not shown the due diligence required of them in the discharge of their duties," the DOJ said in a statement.
We all know PhilHealth is corrupt. The only thing new here is that charges will be fired against some officials. But not DOH Secretary Duque.
The Philippines' anti-graft court has ordered the forfeiture of P-9 million worth of properties owned by former Manila Vice Mayor Danilo Lacuna and his wife Melanie, after it was found to be "out of proportion" from their combined income.
The case stemmed from the complaint filed by the Office of the Ombudsman in 2006 which alleged that the couple had no personal financial capacity to buy the properties from 1998 to 2004.
In the decision of the Sandiganbayan 3rd Division, it said Lacuna earned P3.034 million from 1998 to 2004 as vice mayor, while his wife, who worked as an employee of Philippine National Bank, had total earnings of P8.669 million.
"This disproportion creates a disputable presumption that the properties acquired from 1998 to 2004 were unlawfully acquired," the court said in the decision penned by Associate Justice Bernelito Fernandez.
This is a case that is 14 years old which covers a time period at 22-16 years ago!
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