Your weekly update of corruption, pettiness, and stupidity in Philippine politics.
THREE HAD been suspended or blacklisted, including one for submitting fake tax clearance certificates. One had its corporate registration revoked. The officers of four others are facing trial for alleged graft. Two have direct connections to politicians, some others had sealed deals via financial favors exchanged with certain politicians. All share a record of incomplete or bad projects, and unsatisfactory ratings in some project performance evaluations.
Contractors with checkered histories have emerged as the Top 10 winners of the biggest civil-works contracts awarded from July 2016 to December 2017 under President Rodrigo R. Duterte.
All the 10, however, are now facing investigation by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) “for various reasons,” according to DPWH Secretary Mark A. Villar. But while these contractors secured contracts with apparent speed, DPWH has been slow to complete its investigation into their alleged irregular conduct or poor performance.
Seven firms on the current list of Top 10 contractors under Duterte have had a long run of luck in terms of bagging contracts from the time of former President and now House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. They did not all make it, however, to Arroyo’s Top 10 list.
The luckiest of all the contractors would have to be Equi-Parco, which has retained its lock on the Top 10 list since Arroyo’s time, or from 17 years ago. Equi-Parco was the No. 2 top contractor under Arroyo, No. 1 under Aquino, and now No. 3 under Duterte.
The secret to its success derives apparently from its ownership. A Triple-A General Construction/General Engineering firm based out of Ambago town in Agusan del Norte, Equi-Parco is owned by the incumbent city mayor of Butuan, Ronnie Vicente C. Lagnada.
The No. 1 contractor in the Duterte era, St. Gerrard Construction General Contractor & Development Corp., had been suspended by DPWH under its former name St. Gerrard Construction.
An in-depth article about all the corrupt contractors the Duterte administration is employing for its Build x 3 program. But it's not just the Duterte administration. These contractors have been awarded big government projects under previous administrations as well. The well of corruption runs deep.
Duterte said his administration has been working to improve the ease of doing business in the Philippines, noting that the country needs investors’ money to fund basic services and provide the needs of its booming population.
“I give you this solemn commitment that if you are there, it will be business with ease. And as a matter fact, you do not have to travel from one place to another to get a permit or clearance or whatever, I will create a department just to receive your application,” the President said during the Philippines-Jordan Business Forum here.
“We will do the processing. We will give you a list, a shopping list of what to produce. If everything is in order, there is no need for you to follow it up. We will advise you that your papers have been approved and that you can start your business,” he added.
If the Philippines needs investors money to fund basic services then this country is in quite a deplorable state. A new department won't solve anything. It will create more red tape. How about changing the 40/60 rule and letting foreigners own their businesses 100%? How about listening to foreign businesses and not pushing with TRAIN 2? How about the agencies that already exist for this purpose do their jobs?
With no named sources or confirmation who knows if this is true? It could be true. I include it as something to come back to if it does prove true.
The policeman with a rank of Police Officer 1 (PO1) was among the 71 BCPO personnel who underwent a random drug test at the headquarters on July 18.
Personnel from 10 police stations and members of the City Drug Enforcement Unit (CDEU) submitted their urine samples for the test two months ago.
Meanwhile, Chief Inspector Sherlock Gabana, public information officer of BCPO, said the police officer, whose name was withheld, was disarmed and restricted after the results of the test came out.
Gabana said it depends on the policeman if he is willing to undergo a confirmatory test.
"He will undergo a due process, and will be facing administrative case for grave misconduct for his offense," he added.
Two months to get a reading on a urine test?? TWO MONTHS???
Serenas said these erring policemen were dismissed for various offenses but about 35 to 40 percent is related to illegal drug activities while the rest were charged for other criminal offenses.
Various offences? Probably extortion of some kind.
“In or about September 2017, my brother-in-law, Atty. Manases 'Mans' Carpio, showed me a teleradio video clip phone patch interview of the respondent with Leo Lastimosa of DYAB Cebu,” Duterte stated in the complaint-affidavit.
“Specifically, respondent indicted me and Atty. Carpio of ‘pangingikil’ against UBER in connection with its claimed franchise, and against ‘similar companies’ purportedly in conspiracy with LTFRB RD7 Director Ahmed Cuison,” he added, referring to then LTFRB regional director Ahmed Cuizon.
First Duterte revokes Trillanes' amnesty now his son files a libel suit. They are really going after him hard. Why wait a whole year to file a libel complaint? He had already filed a suit in December for Trillanes' accusing him of being involved in the P6.4 billion shabu shipment.
UNDERSECRETARY Martin Diño of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) confirmed on Wednesday, September 5, that Moises Padilla Vice Mayor Ella Garcia Yulo and her husband, Felix Mathias Segundo Yulo III, have sent surrender feelers.
The couple has two arrest warrants for illegal possession of explosives and illegal possession of firearm and ammunition issued by La Carlota City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 63 Judge Cyclamen Jison-Fernandez on August 20.
"The family approached me and I have personally talked to her brother. She is afraid of her safety, so definitely we will look after her safety,” Diño said.
He refused to reveal other details of the possible surrender of the vice mayor and her husband.
Garcia-Yulo's brother, Jose Marcelino Garcia, said they sought the help of Violence Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) and Diño because they doubt of the couple's safety here in the province. He refused to further elaborate.
He said what is important to the family now is the safety of the Yulo couple and that the charges against them are their secondary concern.
He also emphasized that the vice mayor and her husband did not evade arrest and that they are only concerned about their safety.
Sounds like these two are afraid of being whacked by motorcycle men. Can't blame them.
In the December 1989 bloody coup against then president Corazon Aquino, when rebels had already controlled Fort Bonifacio, headquarters of the Army and the Marines, it was the young Lieutenant Galvez who led a team that occupied Gate 2 of the camp to force senior army officers to board a Land Cruiser that brought them to a detention room instead of their offices.
This was after he joined fellow rebel Scout Rangers who held hostage key officers and commanded vital installations to control the camp.
Galvez later joined the Rangers in occupying posh hotels in Makati, prolonging the coup to 9 days.
Galvez would spend years in detention in Fort Bonifacio, along with some of his 1985 classmates at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) such as the current Army chief, Lieutenant General Rolando Bautista.
They were among those granted amnesty by President Fidel Ramos in 1996.
The report of the Davide Commission that investigated the coup recorded 99 dead, including 30 civilians, and 570 were wounded.
“Lives were lost; property was destroyed; the tourism industry suffered a very serious blow; and for several days the financial life of Metro Manila, and to a considerable extent of the entire country, was paralyzed,” the report reads.
How is this man the head of the AFP? It's astonishing really. A rebel and a mutineer is the head of the AFP and is charged with keeping the nation safe from threats foreign and domestic. I love how that report tosses in the bit about the tourism industry suffering a very serious blow! The government is very determined to make sure foreigners visit and spend lots and lots of money.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) is leading a campaign to shift to federalism through a revolutionary government that would upend the entire system of government, create what proponents said was a “People’s Council” and keep President Duterte in power until a new form of government was already in place.
Local Government Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III, main guest at the gathering, told the people that the DILG had been leading calls for a revolutionary government to be in place during the transition to a federal system.
Densing said that since electing delegates to a constitutional convention, which would draft a new federal constitution, was no longer possible because of the midterm elections next year, the DILG would vigorously pursue the declaration of a revolutionary government in the remaining two years of the Duterte administration.
“That’s what we’ve been pushing since last year,” Densing told the Inquirer in an interview during the event.
“What we are pushing now is the same concept as people’s government because we think that federalism will not happen if people will not intervene,” Densing said.
“People are allowed in the Constitution to push for a revolutionary government if they think that the existing government no longer serves their interest,” he added.
The crowd wore red shirts with the words “Federalism Now! thru RevGov in a democratic way!” as they assembled at the Capitol Gym in this city.
This is total insanity. The DILG is pushing the people to call for a revolutionary government to change the Philippines' political system to a federal system because the current system does not serve their interest. And they have been doing this since last year! Inadvertently the man is right! This government is most certainly not serving the peoples interests when the try to manipulate them this way. But the current government is led by Duterte. If a RevGov is called how could Duterte lead it when he is the head of the current government and the RevGov is called because the current government is useless!? It defies logic.
The call for a revolutionary government, or “RevGov,” “is the personal opinion of [Interior Undersecretary] Epimaco Densing III and not of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG),” acting Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said in a statement on Saturday.
Well if it's just this guy's opinion and not the official position of the DILG then they should fire Densing immediately for saying his opinion has been what the DILG has been pushing since last year.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday asked another regional trial court (RTC) in Makati City to reopen the rebellion case filed against Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV in connection with the 2007 Manila Peninsula hotel siege, order his rearrest and issue a hold departure order (HDO) against him.
In seeking an arrest warrant from a second court, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra denied that his office was engaged in “forum shopping.”
The Valenzuela RTC said the DOJ failed to raise new issues that would warrant a reversal of its April 2018 ruling on the case.
“We will question the trial court’s ruling before a superior court (Court of Appeals). We maintain that transport of illegal drugs is a distinct offense from illegal importation, which ends at the customs area,” he said.
He added that the illegal importation case pending at the Manila RTC was not affected by the Valenzuela RTC ruling.
Nine persons were charged before the Valenzuela RTC, including Chinese businessman Chen Julong, alias Richard Tan, and customs broker Mark Taguba.
Last April 23, Melicor granted the motion to dismiss filed by Chen, as well as the motion to dismiss and recall the warrant of arrest filed by Taguba and another customs broker, Teejay Marcellana.
The judge granted the motions on the ground of “forum shopping,” saying the cases before Valenzuela and Manila courts had the same set of suspects and used the same arguments.
The DOJ will do whatever it takes to get the outcome they desire even if it means illegal forum shopping.
Bohol Vice Gov. Dionisio Balite and Dr. Doloreich Dumaluan both claimed to be chairman of the PDP-Laban Bohol.
Balite said on Friday that his appointment as PDP-Laban provincial chair was signed by Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, national president of the ruling PDP-Laban, on Jan. 11.
But Dumaluan, a long-time member of the party, maintained that Balite’s appointment was void since there had been no party election since 2012.
“It has no effect. He was just appointed. He was not elected. I am the duly elected president of PDP-Laban Bohol,” said Dumaluan, who sits as the party’s deputy secretary general for Visayas.
“It’s fake. There is no such position as chairman. Being one rank higher than him, Balite should observe delicadeza, courtesy and decorum,” he added.
The troubles within PDP-Laban continue to fester.
“Bakit ko tinarget (Why did I target him)? Well I only have one word… Do not do unto others what you don’t want them to do to you,” he said in a press briefing in Davao City Saturday upon his return from trips to Israel and Jordan.
But later during the briefing, Duterte revoked what he just said, noting he did not really target Trillanes even though there were a lot of other soldiers who joined two failed mutinies in 2003 and 2007.
(I didn’t target him. Calida said something is wrong in the amnesty application.)
He flipped the script in the same speech. Interesting that he kept bring Calida into the forefront while Calida has remained mum on the whole issue. Perhaps that is in case the courts reverse his decree he can claim plausible deniability and Calida will take the fall.
Another local political busted for drugs.
Of all the countries this vaccine is used in only the Philippine is having huge problems. Care to guess why?
While Malacañang does everything it can to divert the issue of inflation,
even blaming the policies of Trump, the rest of the country remains concerned.
Outside of the political circus people are trying to come to terms with "Why" and "How to adjust" to the highest inflation rate in the ASEAN.
Some gift! To be dragged around by Duterte for a few days in the Middle East like the children of Israel followed Moses for 40 years in the desert. Now that this photo-op is over Dutere can send them all home still missing arms and legs. Maybe they would have preferred prosthetic limbs and therapy?
Another village official was shot dead in a police operation against drugs in Iloilo and Antique, bringing the death toll in the war on drugs in the two provinces in just 10 days to seven, or nearly one a day.
Perhaps Duterte was right when he said Iloilo is a home to many narco-politicians.
A former Barangay Councilor in Mandaue City and his brother were shot dead by still unidentified assailants on September 8, early morning.
Police identified the victims as Wendell Alilin, 39, and his brother Bryan who both succumbed to gunshot wounds on their body.
Senior Inspector Rodgen Fodutan, Chief of Jagobiao Police Station said that the victims were onboard a motorcycle when the assailants attacked them.
The assailants were likely also onboard a motorcycle when they killed these two men. Same modus operandi and in all these cases which continue to happen around the nation.
“Gaya ni Leni, she can never be a president. Puro dasal. T*** i** [Like Leni, she can never be a president. She just prays. Son of a b*tch],” the President said during a press conference in Davao City after arriving from his weeklong trip to Israel and Jordan last Saturday.
Leni prays while Duterte preys.
A police intelligence officer on President Duterte’s narco list was killed here Saturday night when he allegedly traded shots with fellow officers during an antidrug operation.
Things are going according to plan.
The “bukbok,” or weevil, found in rice given to residents of Loon town, Bohol province came from buffer stock of the provincial government, according to results of an investigation ordered by Gov. Edgar Chatto.
A two-page report on the investigation said the infested rice, part of the stock being kept by the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO), was released according to the provincial government’s “first in, first out” policy of distributing food aid.
Stocks that arrived first should be the first to be distributed, according to the policy.
Although the infested rice had been in the provincial government warehouse only since July, local officials were unaware that this had already been contaminated by weevils, the report said.
A lot more questions could be asked like the origin of the rice but these people shouldn't be so upset bukbok rice is safe to eat.
Millions of pesos worth of rice go to waste each day in the country, from leftover cooked rice in homes to thousands of sacks of rice stored at the warehouses of the National Food Authority (NFA).
Angelito Banayo, NFA Administrator, said we're swimming in rice, and it seems the pests termed "hanip" (mites) and "bukbok" (weevil) are having a feast too.
This article is from 2010! So don't think this problem with bukbok rice is a Duterte era problem.
Need I quote that 300 year old letter again? I think not! Another confirmation that Pinoy legal culture is filled with frivolous time wasting lawsuits.
Can the people wait that long for relief? Looks like they'll have to.
This typhoon strikes in two days! How will they stock up in two days!!!!!
Duterte claims he has audio proof in the form of telephone calls given to him by a foreign country sympathetic to the Philippines. He has said he is pushing to declassify these calls in order to show the country that there is indeed a plot to oust him.
Duterte said his critics such as communist leader Jose Maria Sison, the Magdalo group, and those who have been rejecting him since the May 2016 elections “have combined" in supposed destabilization efforts.
“I have the evidence. I have the conversation provided by a foreign country sympathetic to us. We don’t have that sophistication,” he said without naming his source.
“Any day now, I asked that it be declassified at ipakita nila sa lahat (that it be shown to everyone).”
This is not the first time that Duterte claimed that a foreign country has given him information about his critics.
The Philippine government is not able to wiretap the phones of suspected plotters or even drug dealers? Unbelievable. Is wiretapping so sophisticated a task that the Philippines, which is not a backwater when it comes to technology, cannot do something LEOs around the world do every single day? Then there is the issue of a foreign country spying on Philippine citizens and Duterte basically approving of that! A few months ago Duterte made the same claims about a foreign country wiretapping the phones of Loida Lewis and
he also threatened to release the transcripts which allegedly proved her collusion with the ICC to target Duterte. Nothing was ever released.
More prevarications from the Duterte administration. So they will act on damning info about Trillanes but intel about Abu Sayyaf in Bohol, intel about an impending attack in Marawi, and the continuing presence of ISIS they will ignore? Never forget that DND Sec Lorenzana said they ignored foreign intel reports. Again there is the fact that this alleged intel comes from a foreign government spying on Filipinos! That should not be tolerated if it is happening.
At least 11 mayors and 6 vice-mayors have been killed during the Duterte administration.
Sarona said most of the investigation findings lean towards the incident being an isolated case, but they still want to see if there is a connection or pattern in the incidents.
Sarona also said they will investigate whether a gun-for-hire syndicate is going around the provinces or regions.
There will be more dead mayors and other local officials. It's not Duterte, it's the Philippines.
The Office of the Ombudsman slapped this town’s mayor with a three-month preventive suspension while it is investigating him for alleged irregular reimbursement of P50,000 in hotel expenses incurred by his aides.
Irregular expenses. Another local politician suspended over what amounts to standard operating procedure amongst local officials.
The cash subsidies have been delayed by logistics problems and inclement weather, Lambino noted.
Include inefficient government in that list of reasons for delay.
"Everybody missed something because even the private sector estimates were off by quite a number of percentage points. Even the World Bank was not even able to predict the prices that we are experiencing now."
Do you know what that confession means? It means the Philippine economy is so messed up that it is entirely unpredictable even by the World Bank!
Five arrested, including a former employee of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for allegedly selling the land with a fake title in Tagaytay City in Cavite.
According to Elmer Decena, chief of Tagaytay City police, the Japanese investor and his Filipina business partner found that the title was false when they went to the Land Registration Authority in Manila to transfer the name of the document.
The victims have already paid P80 million. When asked for a P70 million balance, they reportedly filed a lawsuit against an entrapment operation in a cafe in Tagaytay.
Fake land titles, no land titles, the state of land ownership
in the Philippines is in total disarray and you can never be sure that you actually
own the property you think
you own.
Replacing the NFA Chief won't fix anything if he sticks to current polices.
As Michelle Ong tells us, more fund managers are flagging concerns about the peso's weakness, with one even betting it could fall past 55 to the dollar.
Don't worry the collapsing economy is just correcting itself. All these opinion about the peso falling further and further are just opinions and we should not take any heed to them
“Is it not important we determine the demand first? Because from what I can see right now, the strategy is proponent-driven, meaning what is being proposed by the proponents is what is being followed. But we cannot see what is best for the passengers,” he said.
“Of course the proponents will propose something that will maximize their profits, but what about the passengers?” he asked.
The DOTr said once the development of the four airports is completed, they would have a combined capacity of 247 million passengers, with 65 million for NAIA, 12 million for Clark, 100 million for Bulacan, and 70 million for Sangley.
How many other projects are being implemented with no regard to practicality? How many of these new airpots will lie dormant this defeating the purpose of their being built?
People we are reaching high school levels of silliness and feuding here. Ridiculous. What's next?
Here we are 5 years later and the corruptions involved with Yolanda are still being unearthed.
Naaresto ng National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) ang walo katao, kabilang isang barangay kagawad, nang salakayin ang isang saklaan sa Tondo, Maynila.
Nagpulasan pa ang ilan sa mga naglalaro nang salakayin noong Huwebes ng mga operatiba ng NBI Anti-Organized and Transnational Crimes Division ang pasugalang itinayo sa bangketa sa tapat lang ng isang barangay hall sa Tondo.
Kabilang sa mga nahuli ang kagawad na si Leonardo Munera at pito pang naglalaro at nagpapatakbo ng saklaan.
A barangay councillor and seven others were arrested for illegal gambling.
What will his platform be? Has Duterte told him yet?
The Philippine National Police (PNP) said on Wednesday that it was “taking seriously” President Rodrigo Duterte’s claim that critics, whom he did not name, were plotting his assassination, which would allegedly be carried out on Sept. 21, the 46th anniversary of the declaration of martial law by then-President Ferdinand Marcos.
Asked whether the President’s claims were based on police intelligence, the PNP chief, Dir. Gen. Oscar Albayalde, said only that it was a “serious accusation.”
“When the commander in chief speaks, we have to take everything seriously,” Albayalde told reporters on the sidelines of the groundbreaking of the new Marikina City Police Station.
“The President has unlimited access to information – not only from the PNP but also from other agencies,” he added,.
Just week or two ago
the Palace said there was no plot to assassinate Duterte. Now the PNP is taking seriously an assassination plot which involves as yet unnamed personalities. Does this mean Duterte has shown them the transcript or allowed them to listen to the tapped phone calls supplied to him by a foreign government?
Puyat said there will be a “soft opening” on October 26 this year but “with only major roads built.”
A soft opening? It's an island! How are the going to control the population? What measures will they take? I bet they will mess it up.
This is what extreme butt-kissing looks like.
The Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod excluded Councilor Claudio Puentevella from attending the session yesterday after he punched Councilor Dindo Ramos on the left cheek following an argument over the proposed construction work at the sanitary landfill in Barangay Felisa, Bacolod City.
Garbage politician punches colleague after argument about garbage.
The police last year busted the syndicate and recovered hundreds of vehicles that owners lent supposedly for a car rental business. Scam victims were, however, surprised when they learned that the vehicles were instead pawned to other people.
What kind of idiot lends their car to a car rental company so they can use it for their business? Sadly these people deserved the scam they got for such stupidity.
The police on Thursday will file murder charges against Trece Martires City Mayor Melandres de Sagun and three others in relation to the killing of vice mayor Alexander Lubigan and his driver, Romulo Guillemer.
The Cavite police will file two counts of murder and one count of frustrated homicide.
A source, who requested anonymity pending a press conference in Camp Crame, said the charges would be filed at the Department of Justice.
Lubigan was killed in a gun attack on July 7. His driver, Romulo Guillemer, also died of bullet wounds. Another aide survived the attack.
Lubigan was believed to have plans to run in the 2019 elections for mayor against de Sagun’s wife.
Petty politics and feuds lead to murder all the time in the Philippines.
