It's your weekly compendium of foolishness and corruption in the Philippine government.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1463450/ex-mayor-files-plunder-case-vs-bohol-gov |
A former mayor of Bohol has filed a plunder complaint against Bohol Gov. Arthur Yap and other provincial officials over alleged irregularities in various transactions.
In a 28-page complaint, Dan Neri Lim requested the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate and hold Bohol Gov. Arthur Yap and other provincial officials liable for violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Lawyer Nilo Ahat, the Bohol legal officer, said they had yet to receive a copy of the complaint.
“We won’t back down. We are ready to answer (the allegations) once we receive a hard copy of the complaint,” said Ahat.
For Yap, the complaint against him was a strategy to destroy his name.
“I am not surprised with that considering that the elections draw near. I will continue working for the people and face these challenges,” said Yap in a text message to the Inquirer.
Lim claimed that from Sept. 22 to 24, 2020, the Bohol provincial government and the Department of Tourism held the National Philippine Tourism Expo 2020 (Phitex2020).
To cover the live telecast and broadcasting of the entire event, the provincial government contracted the services of Active Events Equipment Rentals (AEER).
Based on the bidding documents, the contract was made through negotiated canvass and was awarded on Nov. 6, 2020 and released on Nov. 11, 2020, way after the conduct of the event.
“There was no contract yet when the provincial government used the services of the company,” Lim said.
Another controversy, Lim said, was the conduct of the Ube Festival in January 2021 when the provincial government, through its BAC, contracted the services of Ompoi Disco Mobile (ODM).
According to Lim, ODM was represented by the daughter-in-law of Larry Pamugas, a BAC member.
Lim said the provincial government also purchased commercial rice instead of buying it from local farmers to support the agricultural sector during the pandemic.
The former mayor said the provincial government of Bohol, through the Provincial Engineer’s Office, purchased fuel from Petrobest worth P5.5 million.
It was shown that the prices of fuel were pegged at P61.48 or P62.49 per liter, which were higher than the prevailing prices of P46 to P48 per liter.
The Commission on Audit or COA has asked the officials of Toledo City in western Cebu to submit justification on their travel and training expenses which were classified as ‘extravagant’ expenditures.
This after COA, in its 2020 Audit Report, noted that Toledo City spent a total of P2,245,560 in travel expenses to various destinations for conducting year-end activities amid the call of the national government for austerity measures due to the emergency health situation.
The travel expenses ‘undermined the importance of the city’s capability in promoting efficient and effective governance in mitigating, responding and recovering from the impact of covid-19.’
COA also recommended the city to stop charging the travel expenses of job orders and employees of other government agencies to the city.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1148164 |
Two long-time members of the PNP were arrested for selling drugs.Anti-drug operatives arrested two former policemen in separate buy-busts here late Friday night.
Lt. Clarezel Perez, city police office spokesperson, on Saturday identified the suspects as Genovevo Abapo alias “Totoy Bibo,” 47, of Rosario Village Barangay Lagao, and Elliver Cablitas, 55, of Doña Soledad Subdivision in Barangay Labangal.
She said Abapo was arrested around 11 p.m. on Tangile Street in Barangay Lagao after selling a sachet of suspected shabu worth PHP500 to an undercover operative.
In a subsequent search, Perez said the suspect also yielded another sachet of shabu worth PHP1,200.
Around 11:50 p.m., authorities arrested Cablitas in a follow-up operation at a portion of Doña Soledad Subdivision.
The suspect sold a sachet of suspected shabu worth PHP500 to a police officer who posed as a buyer.
“They are included on our watchlist and considered as high-value targets,” Perez told reporters.
She said their personnel subjected the former policemen to close surveillance for several weeks after their names came up as among the alleged contacts of several pushers arrested in recent anti-drug operations.
Investigators are looking at the possible connections of the two suspects, who both joined the police service in 1995.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1463641/cusi-charged-for-failure-to-stop-power-rate-hikes |
A consumer advocate group has filed charges against DOE Secretary Cusi for graft for failing to stop electricity rate hikes.The Power for People Coalition (P4P) and allied groups advocating consumer welfare on Friday filed with the Office of the Ombudsman a complaint against Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi for criminal and administrative liability for failing to stop electricity rate hikes while busy with party politics.
P4P, Sanlakas and Philippine Movement for Climate Justice argued that Cusi violated Republic Act No. 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. They accused Cusi of “grave misconduct and gross neglect of duty, inefficiency and incompetence in the performance of official duties and conduct prejudicial to the best interests of service in connection with the power rate hikes in recent months while he was embroiled in the PDP-Laban (Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan) leadership fight.”
In their 62-page complaint, the three groups asked that Cusi be suspended for six months while under investigation.
“For the past five years in his term in office, respondent Cusi did not issue significant policies to address the pressing power issues, in complete disregard of his mandate to ensure the reliability, quality and supply of electric power,” they said.
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| https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/390543/councilor-amores-i-did-not-declare-war-on-mayor-chans-administration |
Lapu-Lapu City Councilor Rico Amores has answered Mayor Junard Chan’s allegations against him, saying that he (Amores) did not declare war on the mayor and his administration.
Amores said that he had no capacity to go against the mayor and to declare war against him and his administration.
He said that if there was someone, who was declaring war, then it would be the mayor after the latter allegedly terminated all of Amores’ 11 job order and casual employees.
Amores also denied the mayor’s allegations that he caused the delay of the projects of the city administration, which were discussed during last week’s City Council session.
Amores was referring to Chan’s allegations that he posted on his Facebook page on Saturday, July 24, stating that the councilor had been blocking the mayor’s projects at the city council.
These included the implementation of the socialized housing program; the purchase of an airconditioning unit for Lapu-Lapu City Hospital (LLCH); preventing his representative, City Legal Officer Lawyer Eugene Espedido, to participate in the discussions at the city council; and declaring war against Chan’s administration.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1148395 |
A police officer was arrested for allegedly offering to facilitate the application of an aspiring policeman in exchange for a sum of money in Quezon City.
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar on Tuesday said the suspect M/Sgt. Edmund delos Reyes, was arrested by members of the Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (IMEG) in an entrapment operation inside a fast-food chain along Boni Serrano Ave. in Barangay Bagong Lipunan near Camp Crame on Monday night.
Eleazar said the suspect demanded from the victim PHP6,000 for her to be included in the final list of PNP recruits who will take their oath on July 30.
Brig. Gen. Flynn Dongbo, IMEG director, said the suspect was placed under arrest shortly after he received marked money from the complainant.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1148512 |
Local police authorities strongly believed that the ambush-slay of a village official Tuesday afternoon was triggered by a clan war.
Maj. Radzak Musa, local police chief, identified the fatality as Badawi Kusain, 45, the chairperson of Barangay Ambadao, this town.
Musa said Kusain had just attended the wedding of one of his sons at a restaurant in Barangay Poblacion, Shariff Aguak and was heading for home together with his nephew, Rasul Sindi, when gunmen ambushed them around 1:30 p.m. near the town’s rotunda.
He said Kusain succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds while Sindi escaped unscathed.
Investigation will continue after the grieving family completes the seven-day mourning, Musa said.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1466125/43-fired-for-pastillas-scam-back-from-suspension |
Not one of the dozens of immigration officers allegedly involved in the so-called “pastillas” scheme had been fired for corruption by President Rodrigo Duterte, contrary to his claim during his State of the Nation Address (Sona), Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said on Wednesday.
Corrupt Bureau of Immgration (BI) personnel have allegedly been pocketing an estimated P40 billion in grease money to facilitate the entry of thousands of Chinese nationals, many of them intending to work illegally in online gaming outfits in the country, since 2017.
The pastillas scheme, which was so called as the bribe money was rolled up in a manner that made it look like the popular Filipino milk-based candy, was exposed during Senate hearings led by Sen. Risa Hontiveros in February 2020.
“There were 43 personnel involved. I fired them all. I really dismissed them from the government,” Duterte reported to the nation on Monday.
Guevarra on Wednesday said the 43 BI agents that the president was referring to, along with 40 others, had already returned to work after a six-month suspension without pay.
“No, they were not fired or dismissed precisely because the investigation of their cases is still going on,” Guevarra told reporters in a Viber message.
“These BI personnel have returned to the main office, but most of them have not been given assignments while their cases remain pending,” he said.
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