AFP, PNP start security preparations for barangay, SK polls
In a statement released Sunday, newly installed PNP chief Director General Raul Bacalzo said he has already instructed the entire 135,000-strong police force to take on election duties as deputies of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
He said the PNP would also implement 45-day security operations nationwide for the elections.
Bacalzo tasked Police Director Benjamin Belarmino, PNP deputy chief for operations, as commander of Task Force HOPE 2010-Bravo, while the military has yet to pick its task force's commander.
"There is no definite date yet as to when the task force will be reactivated, as the AFP just met with Comelec officials last Friday," said AFP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta on Sunday.
Bacalzo said the police task force's primary responsibility will be to oversee and supervise all election security operations by lower units.
Mabanta said among the duties of the military's Task Force HOPE are conducting security operations against armed groups threatening the conduct of polls, and serving as escorts for the transportation of election paraphernalia.
Unlike the May 10 automated elections, the synchronized barangay and SK elections will be done manually.
In line with their security preparations, the PNP and AFP will put up Joint Security Coordinating Centers nationwide to ensure coordination in operations between the two forces against armed groups and other violators of related election laws.
There are over 40,000 barangays (villages) throughout the country.
Mabanta said they are considering the regions of western Mindanao, Davao, Masbate, Abra and Samar as among the possible hot spots for the barangay election, as these were previously declared election hot spots during the May 10 polls.
He, however, said they are not expecting much violence in the coming elections.
The campaign period for the barangay election starts on October 14 and ends on October 23.
The Comelec has already ordered the PNP and AFP to enforce a nationwide gun ban from September 25 to November 10, or 30 days before and 15 days after the synchronized barangay and SK elections.
City lawyers: Hiring barangay captain as city consultant not a violation
The city legal office says there is no violation of the prohibition on double compensation in the hiring of Labangon Barangay Captain Felix Abella as City Hall consultant.
In an opinion rendered by Atty. Carlo Vincent Gimena, Abella's consultancy services in the field of land and real property acquisition and management under the of-fice of the mayor does not fall under double compensation.
DepEd orders no homework during weekends
But with the new Department of Education (DepEd) memorandum, students will now have more free time to enjoy their weekends.
Education Secretary Bro. Armin Luistro ordered all public elementary school teachers to refrain from giving their students weekend assignments.
"Hindi lang naman sa classroom dapat matuto ang mga bata," explained Luistro.
The education secretary believes that children should spend more quality time with their families and play with their friends.
Jonah Granada, a mother of 2 elementary school students, welcomed the DepEd's memorandum.
She said she is happy because she will also have more time to rest.
"Lunes hanggang Huwebes tutok naman kami kaya dapat weekend, pahinga," she said.
Teachers however think otherwise.
"Kaming mga guro, trained kami, hindi namin sasadyaing pahirapan ang mga estuyante. Kailangan yung homework para hindi malimutan ang lesson," said TDC spokesperson Emmalyn Policarpio. (We're trained. It's not our task to make life difficult for students. They need the homework so they won't forget the lessons.)
According to the group, students should instead be taught discipline and time management so they can balance school work and family time.
In a separate interview with ANC, Alliance of Concerned Teachers secretary general France Castro understands the rationale behind the memorandum.
"We understand the intention [of the DepEd] that the families need more time for bonding. It's more worthwhile if the parent gets to teach the children," she said.
Parents will be able to supervise more the studies of their children, especially those in public schools, she said.
"With a bigger number of students in our classes, a teacher can't attend to all these students. We also need the help and support of parents," she added.
No more Florencio Urot Memorial National High School
The Florencio Urot Memorial National High School in Barangay Mabolo has been renamed to Mabolo National High School.
The City Council unanimously approved the ordinance seeking to change the name of the high school during its regular session last Friday.
The move to rename the school was first proposed by former councilor Nestor Archival, but was continued by Councilor Noel Eleuterio Wenceslao after Archival's term of office ended.
Archival pushed for the change of name after the Mabolo barangay council passed a resolution, saying the land on which the school stands is a reclaimed property that is part of the North Reclamation Area, contrary to the prevailing belief that the land was donated by the late former city councilor and acting mayor.
Mabolo barangay captain Reynaldo Ompoc said Urot was not a resident of Mabolo, but of the adjacent barangay of Carreta.
Ompoc said that since 1985 when the school was established in Mabolo, barangay constituents have not been able to foster any kind of attachment with the school whose name is unfamiliar to them.
In his proposed ordinance, Archival pointed out that the move to rename the school will not diminish the honor and memory of Urot, as he has already been honored by the city by naming a street at the North Reclamation Area after him.
Urot was councilor of Cebu City from 1941 up to 1971 and sat as acting mayor for 108 days after former mayor Eulogio Borres and his vice mayor at that time sought other elective positions, requiring them to resign before they could campaign.
As first councilor, Urot then became the acting mayor while then Councilor Jose Rodriguez also assumed as acting vice mayor.
Urot was born in Tabogon town in northern Cebu in 1904 and later became the town's police chief before he moved to Cebu City after earning his law degree.
No kids below 10 on motorbikes: Police get serious on helmets
This time it will be for real - the police will strictly implement Republic Act 10054 better known as the Helmet Law.
Drive against "colorum" vehicles intensified
The Land Transportation Office is strengthening its campaign against the so-called "colorum" vehicles.
Last week alone, the LTO has taken into custody 200 public utility vehicles, including nine buses owned by Vallacar Transit for various violations.
Vallacar Transit, the operator of Ceres bus lines, operates over a hundred bus units plying the northern and southern parts of Cebu.
The nine buses were seized for travelling out of line and for illegal transfer of plates, but were released eventually after the company paid a fine of at least P100,000.
Guadalupe fire victims to receive P2,500 each
Victims of the recent fire that left 90 families homeless in Barangay Guadalupe will receive P2,500 each in assistance from the barangay which will be charged against its calamity funds.
Barangay Captain Eugenio Faelnar said they are fast tracking the release of the assistance. He, however, said that they are yet to decide whether to give it in cash or in a form of building materials or other things they need while staying at the evacuation center.
The barangay placed the area under state of calamity immediately after the incident that razed 44 houses. Faelnar called for a special session to discuss the assistance they can extend to the victims.
This is the second time that the area was struck by fire.
Also during the incident, a member of the Verano Family, owner of a potion of the area, went to the barangay to ask assistance from the captain how they can evict these people occupying the lot without their permission.
Since the captain was in the fire scene during the time, the owner was not able to talk to Faelnar but the latter said they will send a formal communication requesting the owner to allow the victims to rebuild their houses while the city government is yet to look for a relocation site.
The Department of Social Welfare and Services of the city government has also started distributing meals to the victims for three days.
They will then distribute take home goods such as rice, canned goods, mosquito nets, pails, plate and utensils, among others. Victims will also receive building materials shortly.
Increase in lab fees at City Health defended
The Cebu City Council's committee on budget and finance sees nothing unjust, excessive nor confiscatory in the proposed ordinance to increase the laboratory and other fees for various services offered by the City Health Department.
The burial permit fee will be increased to P50 from P10, fee for exhumation of cadaver shall go up to P50 from P15, removal or burial of cadaver from P15 to P50, permit to cremate will be P200 from P50, entrance from other town and transfer to other town will be from P25 to P30.
Cemetery fee will be increased to P150 from P15. Health inspection fees for business establishments based on capital will now range from P50 to P200 from just P25 to P50.
The health certificate fees for handlers will be increased to P20 from P10.
Those who want to secure medical, dental and other hospital certificates will have to pay P50 instead of P10 while those who want to secure medical and physical ex-amination for employment must pay P50 instead of P30.
A new service of swab sample rapid analysis will cost P250.
Media urged to be stewards of truth
As the Cebu media celebrates Press Freedom Week, practitioners were told to be stewards of the truth.
New MCIAA board members to take oath today
Four newly-appointed board members of the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority will take their oath of office today before the secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communication in Manila.
DOTC undersecretary Aristotle Batuhan confirmed that Pericles Dakay, Francis Monera, Melanie Ng and Roger Lim will take their oath of office as private representatives to the MCIAA board.
Dakay, an engineer, is currently the vice chairman of Mactan Cebu Bridge Management Board. Monera is a former president of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and In-dustry. Ng, a businesswoman, is the president of Philippine Retailers Association-Cebu Chapter. While Lim is the president of Cebu Power Private Corporation and president and chief executive officer of East AsiaUtilities.
Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority is a creation of Republic Act 6958 otherwise known as its corporate charter. The MCIAA is a government-owned and controlled corporation and is an attached agency of the Department of Transportation and Communication. RA 6958 was approved on July 31, 1990 but the Authority started to operate on December 18, 1990.
The corporate powers of the Authority is exercised by and vested in a board of eleven members, which is composed of a chairman, a vice chairman and nine members.
The DOTC secretary and the MCIA general manager shall act as ex-officio chairman and vice chairman, respectively. The assistant secretary of the Air Transportation Office and the secretaries of the following executive departments or any undersecretary or assistant secretary designated by the respective secretaries shall be ex-officio members, to wit: the Department of Finance, the Department of Justice and the Department of Tourism.
In addition, four members recommended by the governor of the Province of Cebu shall be appointed by the President of the Philippines for a term of four years from the private sector.
The governor of the Province of Cebu or his duly authorized representative shall be the ninth member.
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AFP: Combining military, police elite forces not a good idea
'We are recommending that there is really no need to integrate all of these elite forces because they have their own specialization," Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta Jr. said over dzBB on Sunday.
He later clarified there was no formal recommendation given to the President so far. He said he was relaying the observations made based on initial discussions among the top brass.
Aquino to continue taking charge of government while in US
US court gives Erap, others 21 days on suit
Aside from Estrada and Lacson, also named as accused were former BW president and chief executive officer Dante Tan, former head and CEO of the Philippine Games and Amusement Corp. (PAGCOR) Reynaldo Butch Tenorio, former police Senior Supt. Michael Ray Aquino, former police Supt. Glenn Dumlao, and former Chief Inspector Vicente Arnado.
Last week, Carina Dacer, Sabrina Dacer-Reyes, Amparo Dacer-Henson and Emily Dacer-Hungerford filed their 19-page complaint asking for compensatory and punitive damages for the cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, torture and extrajudicial killing of their father. They demanded at least $20 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages.
The lawsuit was based on the Alien Tort Claims Act and the Torture Victim Protection Act. The said statutes allow US courts to hear cases of human rights abuses brought by foreign citizens against officials of a foreign government for conduct committed anywhere in the world.
The accused
Estrada had since denied ordering the abduction and murder of Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito, on Nov. 24, 2000. Reacting to news on the Dacer daughters' lawsuit, Estrada said he does not have the money to pay for the civil damages.
Lacson, for his part, went into hiding in January this year. At the time of the killings, Lacson headed the Philippine National Police and the now defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Task Force, the unit implicated that allegedly carried out the murders.
Tan had been missing since the aftermath of the BW stock manipulation scandal in 1999. Tenorio headed PAGCOR when Dacer and Corbito were killed.
Aquino, Arnado, and Dumlao were Lacson's subordinates at the PAOCTF. Aquino's extradition proceedings are ongoing in the US, while Arnado remains missing. Dumlao returned to the country in July 2009 and is among the witnesses in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case pending at a Manila court.
Court dates
United States Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero, who was assigned to preside over the case, set for Dec. 17, 2010 the "last day to meet and confer initial disclosures, early settlement, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and discovery plan."
Spero also set for Dec. 31, 2010 the last day to file "report, complete initial disclosures or objection, report and file Case Management Statement."
A case management conference will then be held in court on Jan. 7, 2011.
COA uncovers anomalies at Home Guaranty Corp
COA on Sunday, alleged that HGC has been suffering losses since 2002 due largely to mismanagement.
HGC is tasked to operate a credit guaranty program to support the government's housing programs. It is authorized to provide risk guarantees and fiscal incentives for housing credits extended by financing institutions.
It said that one of the reasons for incurring its huge losses is that HGC sold several properties below market prices. And even as the agency's coffers were bleeding, the management approved an early separation package for its employees, including a 2-month pay for each year of service. This amounted to more than P224 million.
The COA report on HGC will be the subject of a hearing to be conducted next week by the House of Representatives committee on housing.
Former HGC President, Gonzalo Benjamin Bongolan has refused to comment, saying he had already stepped down as head of the agency since July 31.
Vice President and Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council Chairman Jejomar Binay has asked HGC to respond to the COA report.
Manila Representative Amado Bagatsing said the COA report is just the "tip of the iceberg," and there has to be a deeper investigation into reports of irregularities committed by the former management of the HGC.
Bagatsing said Bongolan will be called to shed light on various issues highlighted by the COA report.
Both the lower house and the Senate are conducting probes of government owned and controlled corporations and government financial institutions accused of giving excessive salaries and bonuses to its top-level executives and employees.
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Troops seize NPA camp in Samar
Missionary couple's kidnapper gunned down
Western Mindanao Command chief Lt. Gen. Ben Dolorfino said a joint military and police force conducted "law enforcement operations" around 3:00 a.m. at the Lower Mangas village where Abdukarim Sali was found.
Sali, alias Benjamin Sali and Ben Raffy, has a standing warrant of arrest for his involvement in the kidnapping of 20 tourists from the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan, including Americal missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham.
Gracia was rescued in a military operation in Zamboanga del Norte a year after. Her husband was not lucky enough.
Sali supposedly resisted arrest, leading to a 10-minute clash with government troops.
The military was able to recover from him an M16 rifle, grenade launcher, ammunitions, and cell phones.
RP Coast Guard to get P1.6B for 2 new choppers
Fil-Am couple pleads guilty to Florida forced-labor charges
Manuel and Baldonado, owners of Quality Staffing Services Corp., a labor contracting service, "pleaded guilty to conspiring to hold 39 Filipino nationals in compelled service in country clubs and hotels in Southeast Florida," the US DOJ said in a release on its website.
"Manuel also pleaded guilty to making false statements in an application she filed with the US Department of Labor to obtain foreign labor certifications and visas under the federal H2B guest worker program," it added.
The DOJ cited court documents where Manuel and Baldonado conspired to "obtain a cheap, compliant, and readily available labor pool."
Court documents also showed the two defendants compelled the victims' labor and services through threats to have the workers arrested and deported, knowing the workers faced serious economic harm and possible incarceration for nonpayment of debts in the Philippines.
"After the victims arrived at the defendants' residence in Boca Raton, Fla., the defendants confiscated their passports; housed them in overcrowded, substandard conditions without adequate food or drinking water; put them to work at area country clubs and hotels for little or no pay; required them to remain in the defendants' service, unpaid when there was insufficient work; ordered them not to leave the premises without permission and an escort; and threatened to have the workers arrested and deported for complaining about these terms and conditions," the DOJ said.
"These defendants victimized vulnerable individuals for profit. Forced labor robs victims of their freedom and their dignity, and it will not be tolerated in this country," said Thomas Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division.
Wifredo Ferrer, US attorney for the Southern District of Florida, added that the Filipinos left their families and homeland in search of a better life.
Yet, he said the 39 Filipinos were subjected to a nightmare in the US.
"Each day, people leave behind their families and homelands in search of freedom and a better life in the United States. The individuals in this case were no different. They came here seeking a better life, but found their dream of freedom and a better life transformed into a real-life nightmare of servitude and fear. With today's guilty pleas, we come one step closer to punishing the defendants for their crimes," he said.
The case was investigated by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations, the US Department of Labor, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the US Department of State - Bureau of Diplomatic Security, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and the Florida Office of the Attorney General.
It is being prosecuted by trial attorney Susan French of the Civil Rights Division's Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit and Assistant US Attorney Shaniek Maynard, the Justice Department said.
Duped OFW in Jeddah forced to scavenge for food
Ortalla, however, said he never received any salary two months after he started working, prompting him to scavenge for food such as fruits just to get by.
When he could no longer bear his condition, Ortalla escaped from his employer and sought refuge at the Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah, where he has been staying for two months now. It is still unclear when he will be repatriated.
The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration meanwhile said Ortalla's case has been stalled following a two-week holiday in the Kingdom in light of the Ramadan. The agency added it has been unable to reach Ortalla's employer.
Ortalla is now seeking President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III's help to speed up his repatriation.
"Nananawagan ako sa mahal na Pangulong Noynoy Aquino na sana naman tulungan niyo kami na makauwi sa lalong madaling panahon (I am appealing to President Noynoy Aquino to help expedite my repatriation)," he said in a report on GMA News' "24 Oras" on Sunday.
He said he just wants to return to the Philippines to find a new a job and provide for his family.
OWWA representatives are set to meet with Ortalla's employer next week, hoping to resolve the worker's problem.
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Filipina wins in Harvard school elections
Merliza Makinano, formerly of the Philippines' Department of Labor and Employment, was elected as one of the five class representatives for the mid-careers, a class consisting of ministers, diplomats, and chief executive officers in the private sector and non-government organizations.
The only Southeast Asian in the group, Makinano said she feels "truly humbled" by her election.
Makinano is in Harvard for a year to take up her mid-career Master in Public Administration under the Edward S. Mason program. She is also a recipient of the Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program.
Before this victory in school politics, she has been a member of Institute for Multi-Track Democracy (Washington, DC since 2003), a fellow of the Armed Forces and Society (Chicago, USA since 2008), and a member of the International Visitors Program (IVP) - Alumni Foundation Inc. (Philippines, since 2003).
She is currently the recipient of the Ayala Scholarship and the Minnie Osmena Fellowship. She was also a fellow of the Transatlantic Forum on Migration and Integration of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
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