1.

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Friday expressed support for a proposed law
that would allow the sale of a motor vehicle to only those who have a proper parking area.
Emerson Carlos, MMDA assistant general manager for operations said the Proof of Parking Space Act
penned by Valenzuela Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian could help decongest the already crowded streets of Metro
Manila.
The volume of vehicles on the road can no longer be accommodated by our limited road network. However,
this should be compensated by an efficient comfortable and acceptable mass public transport system, said
Carlos.
Gatchalians Proof of Parking Space Act cites reports that car sales are expected to reach 300,000 units by
2015, on the back of a robust economy, a growing middle class and increased remittances from Filipinos
working abroad.
Traffic congestion in the capital is worsened by the idle vehicles parked on the sides of streets, hampering the
flow of automobile and foot traffic, said Gatchalian.
Citing official records, Gatchalian said as of end-September, total vehicle sales of Chamber of Automotive
Manufacturers of the Philippines, Inc. (CAMPI) members have already reached 169,727 units.
Nation ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1
CAMPI said if car sales hit 250,000 to 260,000 by the end of 2014, vehicle sales could reach 300,000 next year,
Gatchalian said, citing CAMPI figures.
In his House Bill 5098, Gatchalian wants to require buyers of brand new cars, whether individuals or
corporations, to execute a notarized affidavit indicating the availability of an existing parking space for the
vehicle to be bought.
Any financially able purchaser of a motor vehicle can be presumed to be able to provide a parking facility for
his vehicle, Gatchalian said in his bill.
Gatchalian said motor vehicle owners should be made responsible to provide a permanent parking space for
their own private vehicles, whether this is made an integral part of their house or building structure or a leased
facility.
The street is primarily intended for vehicular or foot traffic and should not be appropriated as personal
parking spaces for these vehicles, he said.
The bill also orders the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to make such affidavit a prerequisite in the
registration of vehicles. The LTO, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority and concerned local
government units are mandated to inspect the allotted parking spaces.
Car owners found making untrue claims will have their vehicle registration revoked and will be banned from
registering a motor vehicle under their name for three years. Violators will also be fined P50,000.
LTO personnel who allow the registration of vehicles despite knowing the falsity of the affidavit or without the
required document will be suspended for three months without pay.

Gatchalian said Singapore's experience - where vehicles are not allowed to be parked on public roads - could
serve as a template for the Philippines and for Metro Manila in particular.
Singapore serves as a model to the Philippines in terms of regulating vehicle traffic and protecting
pedestrian, Gatchalian said.

2. The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Friday expressed support for a proposed law
that would allow the sale of a motor vehicle to only those who have a proper parking area.
Emerson Carlos, MMDA assistant general manager for operations said the Proof of Parking Space Act
penned by Valenzuela Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian could help decongest the already crowded streets of Metro
Manila.
The volume of vehicles on the road can no longer be accommodated by our limited road network. However,
this should be compensated by an efficient comfortable and acceptable mass public transport system, said
Carlos.
Gatchalians Proof of Parking Space Act cites reports that car sales are expected to reach 300,000 units by
2015, on the back of a robust economy, a growing middle class and increased remittances from Filipinos
working abroad.
Traffic congestion in the capital is worsened by the idle vehicles parked on the sides of streets, hampering the
flow of automobile and foot traffic, said Gatchalian.
Citing official records, Gatchalian said as of end-September, total vehicle sales of Chamber of Automotive
Manufacturers of the Philippines, Inc. (CAMPI) members have already reached 169,727 units.
CAMPI said if car sales hit 250,000 to 260,000 by the end of 2014, vehicle sales could reach 300,000 next year,
Gatchalian said, citing CAMPI figures.
In his House Bill 5098, Gatchalian wants to require buyers of brand new cars, whether individuals or
corporations, to execute a notarized affidavit indicating the availability of an existing parking space for the
vehicle to be bought.
Any financially able purchaser of a motor vehicle can be presumed to be able to provide a parking facility for
his vehicle, Gatchalian said in his bill.
Gatchalian said motor vehicle owners should be made responsible to provide a permanent parking space for
their own private vehicles, whether this is made an integral part of their house or building structure or a leased
facility.
The street is primarily intended for vehicular or foot traffic and should not be appropriated as personal
parking spaces for these vehicles, he said.
The bill also orders the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to make such affidavit a prerequisite in the
registration of vehicles. The LTO, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority and concerned local
government units are mandated to inspect the allotted parking spaces.

Car owners found making untrue claims will have their vehicle registration revoked and will be banned from
registering a motor vehicle under their name for three years. Violators will also be fined P50,000.
LTO personnel who allow the registration of vehicles despite knowing the falsity of the affidavit or without the
required document will be suspended for three months without pay.
Gatchalian said Singapore's experience - where vehicles are not allowed to be parked on public roads - could
serve as a template for the Philippines and for Metro Manila in particular.
Singapore serves as a model to the Philippines in terms of regulating vehicle traffic and protecting
pedestrian, Gatchalian said.

3.
Tension arose at Thursdays resumption of the Senate investigation into the controversial Makati City Hall 2
parking building after two spokesmen of Vice President Jejomar Binay came uninvited and tried to speak at
the hearing.
Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano stopped lawyer JV Bautista when he took the microphone and
tried
to
make
a
statement
before
the
Senate
blue
ribbon
subcommittee.
Mr. Bautista, youre not a resource person. May I ask the Sergeant at arms to remove, said Cayetano,
who was interrupted by Navotas Representative Tobias Tiangco, who was also at the hearing room and
asked to be recognized by the subcommittee.
But the senator also stopped Tiangco.
Congressman is not also a resource person. They can write a committee but they cant gatecrash, Cayetano
said of Tiangco.
Hes a congressman, he knows the rules of the Senate and the House if you wish to write the
committeebut you cant just raise your hands and come when you are not a resource person said the
senator.
At this point, committee chairman, Senator Aquilino
proceeding.

Koko Pimentel III decided to suspend the

4.
The wife of Camarines Norte Gov. Edgardo Tallado and her companion Darleen Mitchell Francisco surfaced this
morning at a national morning show after being reported missing since Friday night.
Josie Tallado appeared with her lawyer Lorna Kapunan and friend Darleen on the early morning show
Umagang Kay Ganda.

She said she voluntarily left home after a fight with her husband. Josie Tallado revealed she saw compromising
photos of her husbands mistress. She also claimed she saw a sex video of her husband and his alleged
mistress.
Mrs. Tallado said she did not feel safe in their home or anywhere in the province anymore.
Wala akong kakampi sa Camarines Norte, she said, adding that she received threats from both the governor
and his alleged mistress.

5.
The authorities should pursue leads that businessman Antonio Tiu could be laundering money for Vice
President Jejomar Binay, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano said Friday.
Cayetano said the authorities should follow the paper trail of companies in the British Virgin Islands that he said
were infusing money into Tius companies in the Philippines.
Its emerging that Mr. Tiu is not only a dummy of the Binays. Theres a possibility that hes laundering money
for them, he told reporters after visiting inmates at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig.
Cayetano claimed that sums of money being circulated by Tiu came from companies in the British Virgin
Islands, and Binays lawyers had connections with these.
In an earlier hearing, he said Three Star Capital Ltd and Southern Field Ltd. invested in Greenergy Holdings Inc.
and AgriNurture Inc. (ANI), both owned by Tiu.
Tiu had also admitted that Black River Food Fund invested P1.3 billion in ANI in 2011.
Theres a paper trail, and we have other information that will come out soon, and other leads, Cayetano said.
The senator said that a current review of the financial records of Tiu and his companies by the Securities and
Exchange Commission, Philippine Stock Exchange, and the Bureau of Internal Revenue could help unravel this.
He said the Senate had earlier asked the Anti-Money Laundering Council to pursue the leads.
We cant ask them to reveal their investigation because this is confidential. But once they file a protection
order with the court, they can disclose this, he said.
But I have good information that the links are being made. Thats why the earlier the Binays come out, and
the earlier they explain, the investigation will be faster, he added.
In Thursdays hearing on Makatis allegedly overpriced carpark, the head of the Securities and Exchange
Commission said it had adverse findings regarding the financial disclosures of Sunchamps related companies,
including Greenergy Holdings Inc., Agri-nurture Inc. (ANI), Agrifortuna and Earthright Holdings Inc.
SEC Chair Teresita Herbosa said the agency was now reviewing and investigating the financial reports of the
publicly listed companies Greenergy and ANI to find if these were accurate.

We have found some adverse findings, or some incomplete disclosures. We will be issuing notices of
clarificatory conferences to company officers as well as the auditors, she told the Senate Blue Ribbon
subcommittee.
The inquiry has been expanded to cover allegations that Binay owned a P1.2-billion, 350-hectare farm estate in
Rosario town in Batangas province.
Binay has claimed leasing only nine hectares of the farm. Tiu, owner of the Sunchamp Real Estate Development
Corp., has come forward to claim ownership of a 150-hectare portion of the property.
Tiu had earlier claimed making a downpayment of P11 million on the property.
Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV confirmed that they were now validating confidential information on laundering
activities by Tiu.
Theres that and more. A lot of confidential information is being passed on to us, and were validating them,
he said in a text message. Were still gathering more evidence before wed come out in public about it.
At Thursdays hearing, Cayetano told Tiu that most of his companies, including ANI, had been incurring losses,
but appeared to be awash in cash.
When told that ANI incurred a loss of P800 million in one year, Tiu explained that this arose from a write-off of
non-cash assets, and was different from actual loss.
Im looking at the infusion of money, its all coming from you, Cayetano said. Money is also flowing in
companies that you own. Tiu shot back: Thats not true.
When pressed further, Tiu blurted out: Theres no doubt about the credibility of my foreign investors. He
said this was fully disclosed, saying he was majority owner of the companies.
Cayetano said this would be scrutinized in the next hearing.
So far, in my study, looking at your financial disclosures, the money that youre circulating comes from the
outside, the senator told Tiu.
Trillanes followed up and said that at the proper time, the committee would disclose the details of Tius
withdrawal of hundreds of millions of pesos from a bank in Quezon City. That will probably explain his money
laundering activities, he said.
6.
THE Makabayan bloc in the House led by Senior Deputy Minority Leader Neri Colmenares said Thursday it will
question the legality of the redefinition of savings before the Supreme Court because it allows the President to
impound funds and use them for other purposes.
The group insisted that the redefined savings would allow the President to treat the budget as one big porkbarrel fund.
Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, chairman of the House committee on appropriations, on Thursday admitted that
the House had redefined

savings to empower President Benigno Aquino III to impound and realign funds at mid-year and to conform
to the Supreme Court rulings on the partly-illegal Disbursement Acceleration Program to make the operations
of government departments and offices effective and practical.
Please note that the use and definition of savings as provided in the approved 2015 General Appropriations
Bill was amended in consideration to the constitutional provisions and latest SC rulings on the matter and
ensured that the same will be effective and practical for the operations of the government departments and
offices, Ungab said.
But Colmenares said the redefined savings in the P2.606 national budget for 2015 legalized the DAP, which had
been declared unlawful by the Supreme Court.
It creates a bigger pork barrel than Priority Development Assistance Funds and which only the President can
control and use for his own benefit, Colmenares told the panel Wednesday night when the House approved
198-18 with no abstentions the national budget. It was approved without cuts.
The Executive branch has clearly demonstrated how to disrespect and actually violate not only the
congressional power of the purse but even the Supreme Court decision on the unconstitutionality of the DAP,
Colmenares said.
By this, the 2015 National Budget has been reserved as a powerful tool for the President and his
administration to control and command patronage.
Ungab said Section 68 of the General Provisions of House Bill 4968 provided the definition of Savings,
referring to it as portions or balances of any programmed appropriations in this Act which have not been
released or obligated as a result of any of the following:
a) Discontinuance or abandonment of the program, activity or project (P/A/P) resulting from natural or manmade calamities which would render it not possible for the agency to implement the said P/A/P at any time
during the validity of the appropriations;
b) Non-commencement of the P/A/P for which the appropriations is released at the beginning of the year
unless the implementing agency shows that the P/A/P may still be undertaken or accomplished in FY 2015. For
this purpose, non-commencement shall refer to the inability of the agency or its duly authorized procurement
agent to obligate an allotment within the first semester of FY 2015;
c) Decreased cost resulting from improved efficiency during the implementation or after the completing by
agencies of their P/A/Ps to deliver the targets and services approved in this Act;
d) Difference between the approved budget for the contract and the contract/bid price.
Savings may likewise refer to available balances of appropriations arising from unused compensation and
related costs pertaining to : (i) unfilled, vacant or abolished positions; (ii) non-entitlement to allowance and
benefits; and (iii) leaves of absence without pay, Ungab said.
While Ungab said the 2015 budget was meant to propel inclusive growth, Colmenares said the budget was
not responsive to the needs of the people.
The real budget appropriates more funds for the improvement and expansion of the State Universities and
Colleges and fully supports the public education system, Colmenares said.

The real budget subsidizes public health services to tend to and accommodate more poor patients. It does
not strip hospitals of the needed funding to develop their equipment and improve their operations to render
service to more patients.
The 2015 budget, Colmenares said, prioritizes debt servicing and is oblivious to the hunger and destituteness
suffered by the majority of the Filipinos.
It appropriates a large chunk of the budget for the military, which the latter ironically utilizes against the
people and in violation of human rights and international humanitarian laws.
It gives dole-out programs like the Conditional Cash Transfers that develop a culture of mendicancy and
disempowers the people from being self-sufficient.
Worse, it is not responsive to the needs of the people because it is more a budget for the rich and powerful
a budget for the big landlords, big foreign investors and big business.
Colmenares said pockets of amorphous items in the budget, such as the Risk Management Program,
Conditional Cash Transfers, Grassroots Participatory Budget, PAMANA, and other lump sum funds in the
different departments or agencies were easy access to the corruption by public officials.

7.
Interstellar Time Cover Shoot
by Taboola
Jennifer Lawrences microwave was among her most memorable costars in last years American Hustle. And
now the appliance, and its place in the script, has gotten the filmmakers intosome legal trouble.
In a brief scene, Lawrences character tells her husband (Christian Bale) that microwaves make food less
nutritious, saying she read it in an article. Look, by Paul Brodeur. Brodeur has written about the hazards of
microwaves but never, he claims in a new lawsuit against Columbia Pictures and the other companies
behind Hustle, according to The Hollywood Reporter, that they leach the nutrition out of food.
This is not the scandal one might have expected to emerge fromAmerican Hustle, a film about the FBIs bribing
politicians during the ABSCAM sting operation that played it fast and loose with the facts, and indicated as
much in its opening disclaimer. But whileTHR implies that a libel case will be tough to carry across (the film
doesnt quite present its events as entirely true), it seems notable that while the names of historical players
(like disgraced Camden, N.J., Mayor Angelo Errichetti, portrayed by Jeremy Renner as Carmine Polito) get
changed, Brodeur is represented under his real name and career as a way of situating the film in the time
period.
The characters of American Hustle get their names changed, so as to avoid legal liability. But Brodeur, in Hustle,
is not a character, rather historical window dressing. Getting his work wrong, if the filmmakers did, feels like
getting a costuming detail thats slightly off. The intention was, it seems, less to malign or misrepresent than to
quickly dash off a reference that people who remembered Brodeurs anti-microwave activism would
understand one that seemed spiritually true even if the specifics werent quite there. This lawsuit gets to the

heart, perhaps, of why American Hustle didnt work the degree to which it was all references without much
thought behind them.
8.
Pangasinan mayor charged with graft for relocating school
By Eva Visperas (The Philippine Star) | Updated November 27, 2014
BAYAMBANG, Pangasinan, Philippines The battle for the transfer of the Bayambang Central School has
reached the Office of the Ombudsman with the filing of a complaint against the town mayor and a
businessman.
Filipina Alcantara, president of the Parent-Teachers Association, filed the complaint against Mayor Richard
Camacho and Willy Chua, the owner of the lot where the school was transferred.
Alcantara questioned the relocation of the school to Barangay Bical, which is 400 meters away from its original
location, without consultation with the parents, teachers and students.
The Sangguniang Bayan passed a resolution approving the transfer.
The power to transfer the location of schools rests with the DepEd (Department of Education). The power of
the mayor is limited to the construction, repair and maintenance of elementary school buildings and other
structures connected with public elementary school education, the complaint said.
It added that the transfer of the school under a land swap deal was grossly disadvantageous to the municipal
government because the old schools lot is valued at P620 million while Chuas lot is worth only P150,000.
In willfully and feloniously entering into an agreement with Mr. Willy Chua, Mayor Camacho bound
Bayambang into a forced transfer of location, the complaint stated.
Camacho could not be reached for comment.

9.

The Office of the Ombudsman on Wednesday sought the suspension from office of Budget Undersecretary
Mario Relampagos, three of his staff members and six other officials facing graft charges in connection with
the P10-billion pork barrel scam.
In a motion before the Sandiganbayans Third Division, state prosecutors said the accused were still in active
service despite the filing of criminal charges against them.
The prosecution said Section 13 of Republic Act No. 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, explicitly
stated that public officers facing criminal charges shall be suspended from office.

Citing a Supreme Court decision, it said the law unequivocally provides that the accused public official shall be
suspended from office while the criminal prosecution is pending in court.
The state prosecutors said that since the accused have been charged and arraigned under a valid information,
their suspension should proceed accordingly.
Besides Relampagos, also facing 15 counts of graft were three members of his staffRosario Nunez, Lalaine
Paule and Marilou Bare.
The four refused to enter a plea during their arraignment last week over the alleged funneling of more than
P345 million in the pork barrel, or priority development assistance fund, allotments of detained Sen. Juan
Ponce Enrile to the bogus foundations of suspected pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles.
The government prosecutors are also seeking the suspension of Marivic Jover, chief accountant of the
Technology Resource Center; Gondelina Amata, president of National Livelihood Development Corp., and four
of Amatas subordinatesEmmanuel Alexis Sevidal, Chita Jalandoni, Sofia Cruz and Gregoria
Buenaventura. Marlon Ramos
10.
The Manila city councilors and other officials who were behind the 2009 ordinance that allowed the continued
operation of the Pandacan oil depot should not go unpunished, now that the Supreme Court has ruled that
what they did was unconstitutional.
This was the position of a lawyer who led the petition against the ordinance, saying complaints would soon be
filed in the Office of the Ombudsman against Vice Mayor Isko Moreno, the presiding officer of the council, and
the local lawmakers who passed the measure reclassifying that area in Pandacan as a heavy industry zone to
allow the depot to remain.
I am very happy about the decision. It could not have gone the other way around because the position of the
City of Manila was skewed from the very beginning, bereft of logic and reason and legally weak, Cabigao said
Wednesday in an online interview.
Cabigao noted that once the Supreme Court ruling becomes final, his group would go after the politicians who
supported the measure.
The next thing to do is to file an administrative case against Vice Mayor Moreno and the rest of the councilors
who supported the unconstitutional ordinance. It is unconstitutional, therefore, it is illegal. The illegality of the
act was very evident from the very start and raises questions as to the motives of the councilors and the vice
mayor why they initiated an ordinance that is contrary to the welfare of the people, he said.
We would take them to the Ombudsman to make them accountable for their illegal act, to make them realize
that what they did would not go unpunished because it was an unprecedented irresponsible act of public
officials, he said.
Moreno not worried
Reached for comment, Moreno said he would rather focus on the challenges facing Pandacan residents than
worry about Cabigaos plans to sue him.

The Supreme Court decision was actually a victory for us because what we have always been after is the
safety of Manila residents, Moreno said. Now we have to prepare for future challenges, such as how to
redevelop that area. There are also informal settlers and disenfranchised employees who will need our help.
Cabigao is a nephew of the late Manila Vice Mayor Felicisimo Cabigao and a longtime resident in the area just
behind the depot. He is one of the leaders of the group Manileo Kontra Abuso which fought for the removal
of the depot for being a health and environmental hazard.
In 2006, Cabigao took the issue to The Hague in The Netherlands and filed a complaint pressuring Shell
Petroleum Corp., one of the oil companies using the depot, to leave the area.
Also on Wednesday, a group of Pandacan residents reiterated calls for the oil companies to keep their earlier
promises to dismantle their respective facilities in the depot.
Antonio Santos, president of the Pandacan-based Advocates for Environmental and Social Justice (AESJ),
recalled that Shell, Petron Corp. and Chevron Philippines had given their commitment that they would follow
what the law says about the depot.
They promised that they will relocate away from Pandacan but their huge tanks have not yet been
dismantled, Santos told the Inquirer. Chevron has not been using its facility since May, while Petrons tanks
are now empty. But why are the tanks still there? Why not start dismantling them?
3 weeks to dismantle a tank
The contractors explained that dismantling one tank alone can take about three weeks. So if Chevron, for
example, has stopped operating since May, there is no reason why it shouldnt start dismantling its tanks,
unless it has a hidden agenda, he said.
Every time we meet, the oil companies do not want to set a timetable for moving out of Pandacan. We have
submitted a proposed timetable, which would see the firms winding down operations from August to October
this year, and followed by the dismantling of the tanks from November to January next year. But they protest
that, saying they cant do it, Santos said.
Santos said this hardline stance should change with the Supreme Court decision, which called on the oil
companies to submit a comprehensive relocation plan and have it implemented within six months.
We will be monitoring them to make sure all parties will do their part of the deal, Santos said.
Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada on Wednesday noted that relocating (the tanks) within six months is doable.
We can extend the period for them to comply if they show strong evidence of (compliance), Estrada said.
But we can also think of sanctions for them if they fail to act.
On Tuesday, Supreme Court spokesperson Theodore Te announced that the high court, voting 10-2, upheld an
ordinance calling for the depots removal and enacted during the term of then mayor Lito Atienza in 2001.

11.

An eight-year-old girl drowned on Tuesday night in a water-filled hole intended for a septic tank at a bus
terminal in Cubao, Quezon City.
Police investigators have yet to rule out foul play in the death of Jasmine Longabela, a resident of Lantana
Street in Barangay Immaculate Conception, Cubao, due to the conflicting statements of her two playmates
who were with her when she drowned.
According to SPO1 Pascual Fabreag of the Quezon City Police Districts Criminal Investigation and Detection
Unit, Longabela drowned around 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday in a 5-foot-deep hole at least 5 feet wide and 10 feet
long inside the Partas bus terminal compound at the corner of Aurora Boulevard and Arayat Street in Cubao.
Security guards brought her to Quirino Memorial Medical Center but doctors declared the victim dead on
arrival. Fabreag said that one of the girls told investigators that they were playing inside the compound when a
man pushed the victim, causing her to fall into the water-filled hole.
The other girl, however, said that no one had pushed the victim and that she fell into the hole by accident.
According to Fabreag, the girls frequently played in the compound, making a game out of hiding from security
guards.
They may have been in the middle of that game when the victim slipped and accidentally fell in, he said as he
added that they would continue their investigation of the girls death.

12.
Officials running a local government facility in Manila that is supposed to shelter and nurture street children
have come under fire for acts of negligence and maltreatment so severe that shocked observers likened the
place to a concentration camp.
To stress just how bad things are at the Manila Reception and Action Center (RAC), welfare advocates wrote
City Hall for the third time last month. This time, they enclosed a photo of Frederico, one of the wards,
showing the naked boy lying on the pavement, reduced to skin and bones.
Fredericos appalling condition showed the kind of careor the lack of itthat children like him had been
receiving at the RAC, according to Catherine Scerri, deputy director of Bahay Tuluyan, a nongovernment
organization promoting childrens rights.
It was Scerri who took Fredericos photo on Oct. 12 during a visit to the center, which is located on Villegas
Street in Ermita, a five-minute walk from City Hall.
We dont know much about his identity, Scerri said of the boy, who had since been transferred to another
youth center with Bahay Tuluyans help. When examined up close, the emaciated child sported rashes and a
black eye, she recalled.
Based on the scant details she had gathered, Frederico was found abandoned in Paco and brought to the
center on March 8. After seven months, for reasons still unclear, the RAC staff members have yet to determine
his real name, age and address. They cited the lack of funds for medical treatment to explain the boys pitiful
state, she said.
Not child-friendly
It can definitely be described as a prison. (My colleagues) have compared it to a concentration camp. It is
supposed to rehabilitate street children but it is not a child-friendly place, Scerri told the Inquirer in an
interview on Thursday.

Operated by the Manila Social Welfare Department (MSWD), the RAC was established about 30 years ago as a
place where the police or village watchmen can bring child vagrants and beggars. It occupies a cluster of
buildings built in the 1930s.
In February, a month before Frederico arrived at the RAC, the Manila-based NGO sent the first of a series of
letters to Mayor Joseph Estrada and MSWD chief Shiela Marie Lacuna-Pangan, raising its concerns.
The letter, signed by BT Executive Director Lily Flordelis, called on the officials to improve the conditions at the
RACor just close the place down if they could not do it.
Aside from poor health and nutrition, violencebred by overcrowding and strained resourceshas been part
of the childrens daily diet of misery. Many children we have spoken to complained that they were physically
abused, assaulted and even tortured by the RAC staff, Flordelis said.
These incidents largely went unreported to higher authorities, she said. If ever documented in cases where the
victim had to undergo a medical examination, the resulting reports were very superficial because the
examination was done in the presence of the same officials who had beaten up the child, thereby inhibiting
(full) disclosure of the injuries.
Bullying tolerated
In the interview, Scerri also noted that bullying was apparently being tolerated at the center.
During an earlier visit, she said, she caught two boys carrying a younger boy by his wrists and ankles. I was
alarmed so I intervened after the workers there didnt do anything. When I talked to the young boy, who was
about 10 years old, he was terrified because he almost got beaten up.
Bahay Tuluyan also noted how RAC personnel had failed to notify the childrens parents and guardians weeks
or months after the minors arrived there.
Bucket for the boys
The center officials said the place can accommodate about 100 people, but on any given day there can be as
many 400 there. Recently I saw about 160 boys sharing a room just about five-by-six meters wide. They have
nothing in there but a bucketfor those who need to pee, Scerri said.
Sought for comment, Estrada said he had reprimanded the head of the MSWD (Pangan) and the RAC for
this.
They said they did not mean to neglect the child (Frederico) and that this is an isolated case. I have ordered
the MSWD to improve the treatment of children there. This wont be repeated. If it happens again, heads will
roll, the mayor, adding that he found the boys photo disturbing.
He vowed to pour in more funds for the center. Hopefully next year we can improve RAC and its facilities; we
expect (the city government) to be debt-free by then. We dont see a need to shut down RACs operations. The
services there will improve.
Pangan and RAC officials, led by acting chief Gloria Antonio, did not respond to Inquirer requests for an
interview.
Meeting with Erap, finally
Scerri said Estrada made the same pledge when she and other Bahay Tuluyan officers finally had a meeting
with him on Nov. 6 and 10. He promised us that there will be more funding and even new buildings (for the
center) in 2015.
We have been campaigning for improvements since 2008 but weve seen very little (progress). So we are
hoping the government will show sincerity. We want to see a clear action plan. A third meeting with Estrada is
set on Nov. 26.

As to Frederico, she said, we received news that hes already doing fine and has started to put on weight. But
there are still many things needed to be done for him. We still dont have a complete diagnosis of his
condition.
His case may be considered isolated, but we have strongly established that the problems at the RAC are
systemic. The children may actually be safer and more able to fend for themselves out in the streets than inside
the center, where they only end up traumatized.

13.

A traffic enforcer who was punched and dragged by the driver of a blue Mitsubishi Marshall said he pleaded for
his life after being dragged by the driver of the sports car without letting go.
Speaking to radio DZMM, traffic constable Jorbe Adriatico, 39, said he had just arrived at Quezon Avenue when
he noticed the blue Maserati coming from Araneta Avenue trying to make an illegal left turn.
He said he took out his cellphone and took a video of the sports car. The driver of the car, later identified as
Joseph Russell Ingco of Valencia Hills, Quezon City, then noticed him and immediately drove straight to
Araneta Avenue to make a u-turn.
He said the driver then drove near him and gave him the dirty finger.
Incensed, Adriatico said he took out his cellphone and told the driver: "Ulitin mo nga sa akin yung pag dirty
finger mo sa akin."
It was then that the driver grabbed his phone and his collar while driving the car away, effectively dragging
Adriatico with him.
"Hinablot niya ako. Kinaladkad na niya ako habang pinaandar niya yung sasakyan. Nasa gilid ako sa kaliwa
tumatakbo habang tumatakbo yung sasakyan, kalahati ng katawan nakapasok sa sasakyan. Dalawa sila.
Kinaladkad niya ako hanggang Pure Gold bandang Toyota sinapak niya ako dalawang beses.
"Habang nagpapatakbo siya, sinisigawan niya ako: 'P*tang ina, G*go ka.' Gumaganon siya, parang nanggigigil."
The traffic constable said Ingco had a passenger who told the driver to let Adriatico go. This was after they
noticed that another traffic enforcer was riding a motorcycle right behind them.
"Nung nasa Scout Chuatoco na kami, sabi nung kasama: 'Pare, pakawalan mo na siya. Maawa ka na. Ma
technical na tayo diyan.' Nakita kasi niya na nakabuntot yung kasamahan ko nakamotor," he said.
He said he also pleaded for his life because the driver said he would kill him.
"Sabi niya, 'Papatayin kita.' Inaawat na nga siya nung isang kasama niya pero ayaw niya paawat. Akala ko po
mamatay na ako," he said.
Adriatico said he refused to let go of the Maserati driver because he wanted his phone back.
He said the driver then removed his shirt so he could get away.
Adriatico was brought to the East Avenue Medical Center after the attack where doctors said he had a
fractured nose.
Police was able to identify Ingco based on the license obtained by police from the Land Transportation Office.
Ingco is one of two owners of Maserati sports cars in the country

14.

If Uber, a ride-sharing app, is not engaged in public transport services, why is it registered with the Securities
and Exchange Commission as a business entity?
This was the question posed by Jesus Bong Suntay, the president of the Philippine National Taxi Operators
Association, to Uber at a hearing for online applications used by private vehicles to render transport service
called by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) on Monday morning.
Also present were other taxi operators and representatives of online taxi apps GrabTaxi, EasyTaxi, Tripid,
Tripda and Uber. While GrabTaxi and EasyTaxi dispatch cabs with a franchise from the LTFRB, the others use
private vehicles, prompting the agency to call for a hearing to determine if they should also be subjected to
government regulation.
Uber lawyer Donemark Calimon insisted that Uber was not engaged in public transportation because it does
not own any of the vehicles or employs the drivers it partners with.
Ginez, meanwhile, asked those present to submit their position papers on the issue within 10 days.
15.
Farmer Silvestre Ravago showed how he would go to great lengths to obtain justice for his family's pet dog
brutally killed by a neighbor.
With just enough money and some packed food, Ravago, 65, boarded the bus from his hometown in Oas in
Albay province and traveled for 10 hours to Quezon City to seek help from the Philippine Animal Welfare
Society (PAWS).
"Ella is like one of my children. She sleeps with us," Ravago described his seven-year-old animal companion.
"I cannot just let what happened to her pass. Her killer should be punished," he said in Filipino.
The incident took place on the night of November 6, when a drunk neighbor approached and hacked Ella who
was guarding near the door.
Ravago, who was out of the house at the time, said his son saw the incident and tried to accost the intruder,
but the latter aimed the weapon at him.
The village watchmen (barangay tanods) tried to rescue the dog, but it died due to the wounds it sustained.
They also helped Ravago document the incident.
When Ravago went to the town's police station to file a complaint, he was told to go to PAWS in Quezon City
to file the case "because animals were not under their jurisdiction."
Saving enough funds to travel to Quezon City, Ravago went to the PAWS office on November 25 and sought
help.
He came prepared, bringing with him a barangay certification, an incident report, the photo of his dead dog
and identification cards.
Anna Cabrera, PAWS Executive Director, was at the office to assist Ravago.

Her group helped draft the affidavits for Ravago and wrote a letter to the police chief of Oas "so that they will
be better informed next time someone approaches them about animal crimes."
"Mang Besti (Ravago) says his youngest daughter still cannot stop crying when they talk about what happened
to Ella," Cabrera said.
"'It's difficult for me to look at that picture of Ella. We let her inside the house each night to sleep with us,'" she
quoted Ravago as saying.
Cabrera lamented that many people, including law enforcers, are still unaware of the Animal Welfare Act. And
even if they have heard of the law, some do not know what to do, including police officers.
She said that, for the past few months this year, there has been an increasing number of citizens directly
approaching PAWS for help in filing animal cruelty cases.
Cabrera said that the government agency tasked to implement the Animal Welfare Act is the Animal Welfare
Division under the Bureau of Animal Industry, but, most of the time, this agency refers people in need of help
to PAWS and other non-government organizations.
"While we were glad to assist Mr. Ravago, citizens must be able to file cases of animal cruelty wherever they
are, as the Animal Welfare Act is a national law," she said.
Cabrera also stressed that Republic Act 10631 or the Animal Welfare Act (which amended RA 8485) now has
more teeth in going after people involved in animal cruelty cases.
The amended law includes stiffer penalties for convicted animal offenders, criminalization of animal
abandonment resulting in death or suffering of animals, and deputization of animal welfare enforcement
officers from among non-government organizations, citizens groups, community organization and other
volunteers.
The newly-signed law increased the maximum fine of P5,000 and prison term of two years to a maximum
penalty of P250,000 and/or maximum imprisonment of up to three years if the offense is committed by any of
the following: syndicate, an offender who makes business out of cruelty to an animal, a public officer or
employee, or where at least three animals are involved.
16.
Health Secretary Enrique Ona, who is on leave, is under scrutiny for authorizing the use of a supposed
breakthrough drug for the treatment of malaria and dengue.
Documents obtained by the Inquirer showed acting Health Secretary Janette Garin has begun looking into
ActRx TriAct, a two-day regimen described on the website of a private firm that developed it as a new
breakthrough treatment for dengue.
Administered by spraying the contents under a patients tongue, the herbal-based treatment combines
artemether and artesunate, derivatives used to treat malaria, with berberine, a plant compound used in
traditional Chinese medicine.
Order suspended
Garin earlier suspended Onas Sept. 24 order allowing San Lazaro Hospital and four other government
hospitals to administer the treatment.
Other state-run hospitals that Ona reportedly authorized to administer ActRx TriAct were East Avenue Medical
Center, Dr. Jose Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center, Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center, Quirino
Memorial Medical Center and Jose B. Lingad Memorial Regional Hospital.

WHO warning
A Nov. 21 letter by Dr. Julie Hall, the World Health Organization (WHO) representative to the Philippines,
warned the Department of Health (DOH) against using Artemisinin combination treatment (ACT)the
mainstay of treatment for falciparium malaria saving thousands of lives each yearas a form of
monotherapy.
The loss of ACT as an effective treatment for malaria would therefore have a devastating effect impact on the
health of many people in malaria-endemic countries and threaten the recent progress on malaria control, Hall
wrote Garin, who had sought technical assistance and opinion in a Nov. 19 letter.
Development of resistance
The use of oral artemisinin monotherapy has been shown in a number of countries to have contributed
significantly to the development of resistance of falciparum malaria parasites to all forms of artemisinin.
Ona is on a monthlong leave of absence while preparing his explanation for authorizing the purchase in 2012
of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine 10 (PCV 10) instead of the supposedly more cost-efficient PCV 13. His leave
will expire on Nov. 28.
In the meantime, Garin has moved a number of health officials identified with Ona to their original posts.
Among them was Director Eric Tayag of the National Epidemiology Center who had been designated
assistant secretary under Ona.
Halls letter noted that a similar regimen was advertised by the manufacturer as a potential treatment for
malaria in the Philippines.
Coendemic
It should be noted that the WHO does not recommend the treatment of dengue with single or combined
derivatives of artemisinin, she wrote.
As in the Philippines, in some areas, malaria and dengue are coendemic, if the artemisinin regimen suggested
in the DO [department order] were to be used in those areas for dengue, resistance to malaria could emerge,
Hall said.
Dengue, a mosquito-borne disease like malaria, has claimed the lives of at least 1,680 people in more than
416,000 cases reported in the country over the past three years.
Last year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent a team to Rizal, Palawan province, to investigate a
reported death resulting from a malaria clinical trial.
Also under scrutiny was Preferred & Proven Therapies Inc., described as the exclusive Philippine distributor of
ActRx TriAct, and a supposed antimalaria drug that combined artemether + artesunate + berberine with
primaquinine.
Firm based in Clark
An Inquirer report on ActRx TriAct, dated Oct. 20, described Preferred & Proven Therapies Inc. as a firm
operating at the Clark Special Economic Zone in Pampanga province.

The report said the firm discovered the treatment after five years of testing in collaboration with ActRx
Foundation, an international humanitarian and medical research group based in North Palm Beach, Florida, in
the United States.
While the death of a 4-year-old girl seems to be not related to the drug, said the FDA report, medical
investigators wanted to stop the clinical trial as there was no FDA approval of the protocol.
The team recommended a dialogue with [Secretary] Ona to explain this trial. It also called for an
investigation of the ongoing trial on dengue using the same test drug at San Lazaro Hospital.
On July 3, 2013, then acting FDA Director Kenneth Hartigan-Go ordered the termination of the clinical trial and
any similar trial involving the same drug. He said data gathered from these trials are invalidated for drug
registration purposes.
Ona order
But on Sept. 24 the following year, Ona issued DO No. 2014-0161, integrating the ActRx TriAct treatment in the
standard of care in the management of dengue incidents in the Philippines.
Less than two months later, Garin suspended the order and gave the FDA and the Philippine Institute of
Traditional and Alternative Health Care (PITAHC) 15 days to recommend whether the program must
continue.
In a June 10 letter to the FDA, the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development said: The
combination of artemether and artesunate in a single-drug formulation for the treatment of dengue was not
scientifically justified since these compounds are proven therapies for malaria.
We should likewise be cautious in using these compounds for indications other than malaria since it might
induce resistance thereby jeopardizing our line of defense against malaria, wrote Dr. Jaime Montoya, the
councils executive director.
In his now suspended order, Ona said that in line with its mandate to protect public health and guarantee
public access to essential drugs, the DOHin collaboration with the PITAHC and the Department of Science
and Technology (DOST)shall make available and integrate the ActRx TriAct treatment into the national
health-care program for dengue.
He also called for the inclusion of ActRx TriAct in the Philippine National Drug Formulary, subject to the review
by the Formulary Executive Council in accordance with existing rules and regulations.
Remarkable success
Ona said that on March 15, Preferred & Proven Therapies Inc., ActRx Foundation and ActRx Operational
Group, together with the PITAHC and San Lazaro Hospital for Infectious Diseases medical research team,
presented a report showing the remarkable success of the clinical trials conducted at San Lazaro Hospital on
ActRx TriAct.
After its independent study, the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development of the DOST
likewise noted the remarkable results of ActRx TriAct and fully endorsed the implementation of a national
program using the said treatment, he said.

Ona quoted Montoya as saying that a review of the [ActRx TriAct] protocol shows that it is scientifically valid
and sound to be carried out in hospitals.
The health secretary said that currently, there is no specific treatment for dengue.
The standard of care administered to patients afflicted with dengue involves only maintenance of the
patients body fluid volume and relief of symptoms, he said.
Ona noted that dengue in the country had in recent years become an epidemic.
In 2012, there were 187,031 cases of dengue with 921 deaths, as reported by the National Epidemiology Center
of the DOH. In 2013, the DOH recorded 204,906 dengue cases and 660 deaths.
This year, some 24,900 cases have resulted in [at least] 100 deaths, or a ratio of one fatality for every 249
cases, Ona said.
17.
State auditors have found ghost employees in Taguig City.
The Commission on Audit (COA) has asked Taguig Mayor Lani Cayetano to account for more than P317.4 million
that the city government spent on salaries of its contractual employees, who seemed nowhere to be found.
The COA also noted the doubtful existence of medicines and medical, dental, laboratory and office supplies
in City Halls inventory amounting to nearly P102.3 million.
In its annual financial report for 2013, the COA noted several adverse findings in its audit of the financial
transactions of one of the richest cities in the country.
Cayetano is the wife of Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, one of the three senators leading the Senate inquiry into
corruption allegations against Vice President Jejomar Binay and his family.
Incidentally, Mayor Cayetano was charged with plunder and graft in the Office of the Ombudsman for alleged
irregularities in City Hall, among them the supposed hiring of almost 3,200 ghost employees.
State auditors also ordered the city government to distribute to village councils their share of revenue from
real property taxes and community tax certificates, or cedula, amounting to almost P337 million.
The Taguig City government on Wednesday declined to comment on the issues raised by the COA report.
Lito Laparan of the Public Information Office said the office had just downloaded the report from the COA
website and was in the process of reading it.
Laparan said a statement would be released today. As soon as we have the statement, we will inform you,
he told the Inquirer.

No payroll register

The COA said the absence of the payroll register and the specific places of assignment of the job order
personnel under the different programs of the city hinders its audit of the amount given to contractual
workers.
We have recommended the immediate submission by the Human Resource and Management Office of the
lists of job order personnel with their corresponding unit of assignments to facilitate the audit, the state
auditors said.
The results of the audit on the Taguig City government were contained in a 918-page report that COA
Commissioner Heidi Mendoza submitted to President Aquino on Sept. 25.
The report, a copy of which was obtained by the Inquirer, also included the annual audit reports of 79
provinces, 144 cities, 1,446 municipalities and 29,947 village councils nationwide.
Contractual get bonuses
Besides the missing payroll documents for its job order personnel, the state auditors also questioned the city
governments decision to hire contractual workers that cost Taguig nearly P487 million.
The auditors said the city government should have just created regular positions to allow it to source the
payroll money from its personal services expenditures.
The COA directed the city government to refund almost P39 million it released as bonuses to contractual
workers, saying the granting of such benefit violated a Department of Budget and Management (DBM)
circular.
Appropriate plantilla positions have not been created for the different offices of the city. Hence, contract of
service for contractual and job order personnel under the different development projects/programs was
charged to OMOE (other maintenance and operating expenses) account, it said.
To avoid employing casual workers, the COA said, the city government should prioritize the creation of an
appropriate organizational structure and plantilla positions for effective governance.
It said City Hall must also classify and record the salaries of contractual and job order personnel [under]
personal services accounts pursuant to the updated description of accounts in the New Government
Accounting System.
The agency asked the city government to stop paying incentive to the [contractual workers] without legal
basis to avoid audit disallowances and to cause the refund of the amount paid as performance incentive bonus
in 2013.
Consultancy fees
In addition, state auditors ordered City Hall to justify the hiring of consultants and questioned the propriety
of the payment of more than P18.43 million in consultancy fees after it failed to present documents for such
arrangement with private individuals.
We have recommended that [the city government] include the terms of reference in the consultancy
contracts and require the submission of their accomplishment reports to justify the necessity, propriety and
legality of the hiring of the consultants of the city, the COA said.

Missing medicines
As for missing medicines and medical laboratory supplies, the COA directed the city governments inventory
committee to carry out actual physical inventory/count of all drugs and medicines, medical, dental and
laboratory supplies and materials.
In coordination with the accounting office prepare a report on the expired drugs, medicines and medical
supplies together with discrepancy on the inventory of supplies and medicines, the COA said.
18.
A complaint for plunder has been filed against Taguig City Mayor Maria Laarni Lani Cayetano for allegedly
having over 3,000 ghost employees in 2012.
Based on the complaint filed Roderick Vera, one of the convenors of the Philippine Association for the
Advancement of Civil Liberties Inc., Cayetano allegedly hired 3,188 personnel to make it appear that aside from
the Taguigs plantilla or regular employees, Taguig had deployed 70 casual personnel per square kilometer or
assigned casual personnel per 202 residents or 1 city paid information technology professional for every 600
residents.
These employees, according to Vera, were paid based only on written daily time sheets instead of the regularly
used biometric machines.
The ineluctable conclusion is that the 3,188 personnel or a majority thereof, are ghost employees, with the
purported salaries of these ghost employees illegally used in the 2013 Elections where the respondents, the
husband of Cayetano, Sen. Cayetano and her brother-in-law, Lino Edgardo Cayetano, were all candidates, Vera
said.
The patent payments made to ghost employees, as borne out by the records, clearly show that respondent
Cayetano and the members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod of Taguig, conspired with one another to commit
the despicable act to the serious damage and prejudice of the government in the amount of P313,249 million
and should therefore be charged with plunder, it added.
Aside from Cayetano, named respondents in the complaint are members of the Sangguniang Panglungsod
Ronette Franco, Aurelio Paolo Bartolome, Gamaliel San Pedro, Milagros Valencia, Roderick Carlos Papa, Estela
Gasgonia, Baltazar Mariategue, Ricardo Jordan, Jaime Lagampa, Michelle Ann Gonzales, Carlito Ogalinola,
Erwin Manalili, Edwin Eron, Jeffrey Morales, Rodil Marcelino and Rommel Tanyag.
19.
The rape of a 6-year-old girl in an evacuation camp here is turning the spotlight on the continued suffering of
city residents who fled a terror attack and a government offensive last year and who, for still unexplained
reasons, languish in shelters with no power, potable water and food.
The story of the girls rape caught the attention of social workers after another child, an 11-year-old boy, was
tagged the culprit. The story took a new turn and led to the girls grandfather being the offender.
But for Dr. Marcy Carpizo, head of Western Mindanao State Universitys peace and human security program,
the rape of the child was just a symptom of a bigger problem in the evacuation center here, or Joaquin

F. Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex.

To liken the camp and its people to a can packed with sardines would be an understatement. People and
families who barely know each other are crammed into a space that has no ventilation, no running water,
barely any food and no privacy.
A lot of things can happen under these conditions, said Carpizo, who said people should be moved out of the
hellish situation that they are in inside the shelter.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), up to 40,000 people continue to depend on
humanitarian assistance nine months after the city came under siege during a terror attack by followers of
Moro leader Nur Misuari and the armed response of the government.
Many of these people, ICRC said, are in overcrowded evacuation centers while some live with relatives.
Pascal Mauchle, head of the ICRC delegation in the Philippines, said in an e-mail statement that he agreed with
experts who said that relocation was an answer to the evacuees suffering.
Mauchle, however, said the government should ensure that water and sanitation would first be made available
in places where evacuees would be moved to.
Many of the evacuees refuse to relocate for fear they could end up in a worse situation, like jumping out of the
frying pan and into the fire.
Ma. Socorro Rojas, city social welfare officer, told the Inquirer on Thursday that the raped girl had corrected
her earlier statement pointing to the boy as her rapist.
It turned out that the girls rapist was her own grandfather, a 60-year-old man who is also living in the
evacuation center.
The girls rape was discovered when she was taken to a hospital for tests due to recurring fever. It turned out
that the fever was a symptom of a sexually transmitted disease. Further tests showed that she was repeatedly
raped.
Authorities had taken the boy into custody but after the story was corrected, they instead took the
grandfather into custody. The man, though, was released after police said they were conducting further
investigation.
Rojas said other cases of sexual abuse had been documented in evacuation centers in the city.

20.

Janiya (not her real name) gave birth a week ago to a frail and weak baby boy while still recuperating from
serious burns and scalds that her husband had inflicted.
Janiyas only fault was that there was no food left when her husband arrived.

Unemployed and still in fear, Janiya admits shes having a hard time trying to rebuild her life with her other
children, as her husband had long gone into hiding. Police continue to search for him for what he did to her.
Senior Supt. Angelito Casimiro, acting city police chief, said Janiyas was only one of many cases of violence
against women and children occurring inside evacuation centers here.
Theres a high number of cases involving the abuse of women and we attribute this to congestion, said
Casimiro.
He said that to date, at least 123 complaints involving the abuse of women and children had been received by
police. All of the cases took place inside Joaquin F. Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex and areas near it, where
evacuees also converge.
The City Social Welfare and Development Office said it had recorded more cases, including the rape of women
and children.
Leonida Bayan, assistant social welfare officer, said that so far, her office had monitored 142 cases of violence
against women and children.
Shallom Pir Allian, program manager of Nisa Ul Haqq fi Bangsamoro (Women for Justice in the Bangsamoro),
said cases of violence against women and children in evacuation centers were not new.
We have documented several cases, even at the height of the evacuation during the war. We have rescued
women brutally abused by their partners and referred them to the Social Welfare Department. These genderbased [cases of] violence are repeatedly occurring among women IDPs (internally displaced persons, or
evacuees), Allian said.
Zenaida Arevalo, director of the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Western Mindanao, said
her office had documented two cases of incest.
A few days after Sept. 9 last year, when followers of Nur Misuari launched a terror attack on the city, an uncle
raped his niece; the most recent was the rape of a 3-year old girl.
The nongovernment organizations Nisa Ul Haqq fi Bangsamoro and Nonviolent Peace Force (NPF) expressed
grave concern over an increase in the number of cases of violence against women and children in evacuation
centers.
It is unacceptable and condemnable, Jasmin Teodoro, of NPF, told the Inquirer.
Jose Mari Reyes Information Specialist, a research team based in Metro Manila, conducted a survey from Feb.
19 to 24 among 899 female respondents in three evacuation sites and three transition sites, and revealed
disturbing findings.
Project IDP research analysts Robert Basilio said the survey was about the quality of life in the resettlement
sites, incidence of gender-based violence and the services they receive in the sites.
On gender-based cases, Basilio said physical, psychological and sexual abuses were alarmingly high at the
grandstand and at two transition sites in Tulungatung and Taluksangay.

These ranged from yelling, beating, kicking, rape, pulling of hair, throwing objects, humiliation, denying
opportunities, discrimination, constant criticism and nonsexual verbal abuse.
Weve asked respondents if they are aware [or have heard, seen or knew of gender-based violence] acts, and
survey results showed that 52 percent of the 899 respondents revealed that yelling is common, followed by
beating (33 percent), kicking (21 percent), rape (20 percent) and pulling of hair (19 percent), Basilio said.
Casimiro said only relocation and decongestion will solve these problems.
21.
Former Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) Chairman Camilo Sabio faces graft charges
before the Sandiganbayan for attempting to influence his brother, Court of Appeals (CA) Associate Justice Jose
Sabio, Jr. to help a litigant in a case pending before the CA.
In a joint resolution, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales found probable cause to indict Chairman Sabio for
two counts of violation of Anti Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (RA 3019) and for violation of Article 243 of the
Revised Penal Code (RPC).
The resolution pointed out that on May 30, 2008, Justice Sabio received a call from his brother informing him
that he had been named member of the CA division to which the Manila Electric Company Government-Service
Insurance System (MERALCO-GSIS)case had been raffled.
Chairman Sabio tried to convince his brother of the rightness of the stand of the GSIS and asked his brother
to help the GSIS, which represents the interest of the poor people.
Morales said the former PCGG head made the request to his justice-brother after receiving a call from then
GSIS Board Member Jesus Santos informing him that the MERALCO-GSIS case was already raffled to the
division of Justice Sabio.
She said Santos requested Chairman Sabios intercession to convince Justice Sabio to rule against the issuance
of Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) in favor of MERALCO.
22.

Lawyer Harry Roque has unveiled plans to file a complaint in the International Criminal Court (ICC) against
President Benigno Aquino IIIs perceived inaction on media killings, particularly on the Maguindanao Massacre.
Roque made this announcement after a videochat session on Thursday with University of California, Irvine
professor David Kaye, the United Nations (UN) special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right
to freedom of opinion and expression.
The videochat was held during Roques Public International Law class at the University of the Philippines
College of Law in Diliman, Quezon City, in commemoration of the fifth anniversary of the Maguindanao
Massacre.
Roque, also the chairman of the Center for International Law (CenterLaw), brought to the videochat session 12
of 15 families CenterLaw represents in the Maguindanao massacre case, to pose their questions to Kaye.

My class in public international law is currently drafting a complaint for crimes against humanity against
President Aquino on the basis of superior responsibility. He has failed to investigate, prosecute and punish the
perpetrators of extralegal killings particularly against journalists in this country, Roque announced, after the
videochat.
Of course, [Aquinos] defense is that he came out with Administrative Order 23 creating yet another task
force to address these extralegal killings. But that is not the discharge of obligation we expect. We want
convictions. And the one percent conviction rate for extralegal killings is unacceptable and proof that he is
criminally liable for crimes against humanity, Roque said.
Roque said the complaint will be filed by the end of the year.
The possibility of filing such a complaint for the Maguindanao Massacre was raised with Kaye during the
videochat session, to which Kaye admitted: Theres little doubt in my mind that the atrocity merits being
characterized as a crime against humanity. The scale and the motivation behind the murders really suggest that
it should be considered a crime against humanity.
23.
SC asked to stop purchase of new PCOS machines
The Supreme Court (SC) has been asked to stop the Commission on Elections (Comelec) scheduled purchase of
new voting machines. In a 19-page petition, former Assemblyman Homobono Adaza asked the Court for a
restraining order to stop the constitutional poll body from proceeding with the public bidding for the precinct
count optical scan (PCOS) machines scheduled next week.
Adaza also wants the high court to stop the original machines supplier, Smartmatic, from participating in any
public bidding for a new batch of PCOS machines. Adaza says the appropriation of billions of pesos to procure
additional PCOS machines, without first conducting an inventory and technical and forensic tests of the more
than 80,000 PCOS machines constitutes grave abuse of discretion and violates the provisions of the
Constitution.
Considering that many PCOS machines remain unaccounted for and considering further that the remaining
PCOS machines are now stored in a warehouse without any configuration facilities, there is no way to
determine how many are still usable or can still be repaired, the petitioner said.
Without making the inventorys desired tests, it is absolutely a grave abuse of power for respondent Comelec
to disburse billions of pesos and conduct public bidding for acquisition of voting machines which may not be
necessary
and
will
involve
wastage
of
billions
of
pesos,
he
added.
The feisty former lawmaker pointed out that Smartmatic should be not allowed to participate in the bidding
process for its glaring violations of election laws.
The inclusion of respondent Smartmatic in the Dec. 4, 2014 bidding shoud be enjoined as the same constitutes
grave abuse of discretion, Adaza said.
The Comelec has deferred to one week its vote on the award of the P1.2-billion contract to refurbish the 80,000
units of the PCOS for reuse in the 2016 national and local elections, it was learned yesterday.
Although Commissioner Lucenito Tagle said the poll body believes other companies are capable of doing the
repair and upgrade of the machines, a poll watchdog group expressed apprehension that the Comelec will
eventually decide on a negotiated deal with Smartmatic, the reseller of PCOS whose doubtful integrity and
reliability are central in efforts to blacklist the Venezuelan firm from taking part in any election-related
activities.

We deferred the en banc voting for one week, Tagle said, adding the Comelec is still awaiting some
documents before they decide on whether to adopt the extended warranty agreement with Smartmatic or
proceed with bidding out the contract.
We believe that others can do it, only we are still discussing whether we have to extend the warranty or
resort to bidding since a lot of people say that we have to undergo bidding. But we are weighing the
(options)...we may be too delayed if we hold biddings. Thats one factor, Tagle said.
The Comelecs own legal department is averse to the idea of an extended agreement or a negotiated deal with
Smartmatic.
In an opinion signed by Director Esmeralda Ladra, the legal department said It behooves us to ensure that this
Extension of Warranty for the repair and maintenance of PCOS machines, which is a clear example of direct
contracting or single source procurement, be made to undergo the tests of validity under R.A. 9184.
R.A. 9184 or the government procurement act mandates that all procurement shall be done through
competitive bidding. The same law allows alternative methods of procurement only in the highly exceptional
cases.
But the Citizens for Clean and Credible Elections (C3E) said the long bidding process is being made an excuse by
the Comelec to justify a negotiated deal with Smartmatic,
The concern about the delay in the bidding is rather disturbing. It is not surprising that it will be used as
convenient excuse for the Comelec to proceed with approving the extended warranty agreement which is
synonymous to a negotiated deal and direct contracting, C3E spokesman Dave Diwa said.
Besides, Diwa added, his group has already formally petitioned the poll body for the blacklisting of Smartmatic
on grounds of misrepresentation and violations of the automated election law.
It is therefore incumbent upon the Comelec to first act on our complaint before it could even proceed with
considering Smartmatic as a qualified service provider to refurbish the PCOS machines, Diwa said.
He added that his group is prepared to challenge any Comelec actions favoring Smartmatic.
C3E on Monday filed a petition with the Comelec seeking to blacklist Smartmatic from any election-related
bidding following belated admission from the foreign firm that it did not the automation technology it supplied
to the Comelec in the last elections. The group also said Smartmatic is guilty of misrepresentation when it
claimed that the Taiwanese manufacturer of PCOS machines, Taiwan-based Jarltech, was its subsidiary.
Smartmatic submitted Jarltechs ISO-9001 certification as part of the requirements for eligibility to bid, claiming
that they are a majority owner of Jarltech, while in fact they are merely subcontracting Jarltech for the
manufacture of the PCOS.
It was also uncovered that Smartmatic did not own the automated election technology that it provided to the
Comelec when it (Smartmatic) sued Dominion Voting Systems of Canada for failing to supply fully functional
technology (and) timely technical support It also held Dominion liable for its failure to deposit in escrow
the required source code for the software, and its manufacturing design.
Diwa said the lawsuit which Smartmatic filed in September 2012 in the Delaware chancery court was a clear
evidence and Smarmatics admission it did not own the automated voting technology that it provided to the
Comelec, a clear misrepresentation and violation of the terms of contract and election laws.
For the past two elections, weve been made fools by Smartmatic. We ask the Comelec to reconsider its
stance on the blacklisting of Smartmatic, he added.
Smartmatic is merely a reseller. It subcontracts several aspects of its Automated Election System to other
more capable suppliers and technology providers. The Comelec would be contracting again for the supply of
additional machines and refurbishment of used units a company which has never been an expert in automating
elections, Diwa said.
An interesting piece of information on the move of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters ruling
out
the
move
to
electronic
voting
in
elections
The report said: The days of voters lining up to use a pencil and paper to cast their ballot will continue, with a
federal
parliamentary
committee
ruling
out
a
move
to
electronic
voting.

The Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters in Australia has released an interim report which finds
there are too many risks associated with the move.
It said shifting to electronic voting for federal elections was not feasible before the next election or in the near
future without catastrophically compromising electoral integrity.
The committee found machine electronic voting was vulnerable to hacking and measures to mitigate that risk
would be costly and would still require voters to visit a polling booth.
The prospect of voters being able to cast their ballot on the internet also seems a long way off, with questions
about privacy for individual voters, security and potential coercion of voters.
Committee chairman Tony Smith said: In future it is likely, given the turbo-advances in technology, that a
system of online electronic voting could be delivered with acceptable safety and security.
But even when we reach that time, there should be considerations beyond the convenience it would offer.
Mr. Smith said technological convenience must be balanced against electoral integrity.
The committee report said the majority of countries continued to rely on paper-based voting and some that
have invested in electronic voting had since abandoned it.
The United States is also moving away from electronic voting with about 70 per cent of voters in the recent
mid-term elections casting a paper ballot.
The committee recommended some options for using more technology in the voting process, such as using an
electronically interconnected roll to allow names to be simultaneously crossed off at all polling booths, and
electronic scanning of ballot papers to allow an electronic count.
It found those measures would reduce the chance of people voting multiple times and would speed up the
counting of votes.

24.
China sought yesterday the unconditional release of nine Chinese fishermen convicted by a Palawan court of
poaching in the Hasa-Hasa (Half Moon) Shoal in the West Philippine Sea.
China firmly opposes that and urges the Philippine side to unconditionally release the Chinese fishing boat and
fishermen, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying during a press conference in Beijing.
Hua said China has indisputable sovereignty over the Spratly Islands and surrounding waters.
By arresting and detaining Chinese fishing boats and fishermen and making the judicial decision, Hua said the
Philippine side has seriously violated Chinas sovereignty and jurisdiction.
The Puerto Princesa City Regional Trial Court (RTC) last Monday convicted the nine Chinese fishermen of
poaching and taking hundreds of endangered giant sea turtles from Hasa-Hasa Shoal.
Judge Ambrosio de Luna of the Puerto Princesa RTC Branch 51 ordered the fishermen to pay a fine of $100,000
(P4.3 million) each for poaching in Philippine waters, plus P120,000 ($2,666) each for the illegal gathering of
sea turtles.
Headlines ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1
In May, the Philippine National Police (PNP) Maritime Command intercepted Qiongquionghai 09063 with 11
crewmembers near Hasa-Hasa Shoal, an area only 60 nautical miles from mainland Palawan but which is
included in Chinas claim to almost the entire South China Sea.
Meanwhile, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday that China has not responded to the
diplomatic protest lodged by the Philippines last Oct. 10 against Chinese reclamation on Kagitingan (Fiery
Cross) Reef in the West Philippine Sea.

Thats a reclamation work they are doing, Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said in a press briefing.
But the important thing is that we filed a diplomatic protest. We were not silent because in diplomacy,
sometimes being quiet means you acquiesce. So it is important we put on record we are protesting the activity
that China is doing there, he added.
He said the diplomatic protest was filed before the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting of
President Aquino and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
We would like to isolate and extract the South China Sea issue and deal with it separately while we promote
and strengthen our other areas of cooperation with China, particularly on trade and investment and tourism
and cultural exchanges, Jose said.
Satellite imagery obtained by London-based security group IHS Jane showed that in the past three months,
Chinese dredges have created a landmass that is almost the entire length of Fiery Cross Reef in the contest
Spratly Islands.
25.

A LAWMAKER on Wednesday has called on his colleagues to stop the hearings on the port- congestion issue,
saying the problem has been solved, and that government agencies are already working to address the issue.
Liberal Party Rep. Fernando Gonzales of Albay made this remark after Raul Santos, Philippine Ports Authority
(PPA) assistant general manager, reported to the House Committee on Transportation in a recent hearing that
congestion at the ports in Manila has started go down and that the utilization has eased up despite the
increasing volumes.
Congestion is dwindling and utilization has come to a manageable level, but we at the PPA continue to
coordinate with the Cabinet cluster on port congestion, Santos said.
Gonzalez, vice chairman of the transportation committee, said there is no congestion in the ports in the first
place.
Our ports have the capacity. It is operated well. The problem is that road capacity has not coped up with the
capacity of the ports, he added.
Gonzalez, who worked as a young stevedore in Legazpi port, was former operations manager of a local
stevedoring firm. He also worked overseas in the ports of Jeddah and Dammam in Saudi Arabia for 10 years
until
his
return
to
the
Philippines
in 1987.
He also likened the port to the human heart and the road network to arteries. Even if you have an extremely
powerful and strong heart, but if the arteries are clogged, what happens? Gonzalez said.
The next step is for the government to expand road infrastructure. The problem is not the port but the
limited roads that serve the port, he added.
26.

THE largest media conglomerate in the Philippines has filed a lawsuit before the US Federal District Court in
Florida against 18 pirate sites for damages of over $12 million.
For infringing copyrights and trademarks of ABS-CBNs TV shows and movies, the television and film giant
sued partnerships or unincorporated business associations, which operate through domain names registered
in the US and elsewhere.
Sued are entities with the following domain names, buhaypinoyofw.net; freepinoytvshows.net,
pinoylovetvshowreplay.com, hapeetube.biz, lovelytube.biz, pinoy-telebisyon.biz, pinoy-telebisyon.org,

lambingan.tk, movieserye.com, pinaytambayan.org, pinoy-ako.me, pinoymoviegallery.net, pinoytambayan.me,

pinoytelesine.com,
pinoytopmovies.com,
pinoytv.me,
projectcabbage.com,
tambayanofwtv.info,
telebesyon.com, telebyuwers.ph, telebyuwers.tv, teleseryereplay.com and yzreplay.com. Based on the
complaint, the defendants provide on-demand streaming performances of full-length versions of ABS-CBNs TV
shows and movies through their web sites.
In papers filed at the Florida court, ABS-CBN alleged that the defendants often display the latest content to
their servers within minutes or hours of the original broadcast in the Philippines. They control the organization
and presentation of the content by providing links to ABS-CBN shows, and promote and advertise the content
as ABS-CBNs through search engine optimization and meta tags, including the use of trademarks, then stream
the shows for users viewing through their web sites.
With the popularity of ABS-CBN films and TV shows, these sites drive significant traffic that enable them to
reap profits from advertising and other revenue. This is another phase in our relentless enforcement
campaign to identify and punish pirates whose sites have been reported to contain malware that can cause
substantial financial harm to innocent people who were just trying to view our shows and movies, ABS-CBN
Assistant Vice President for Global Anti-Piracy Elisha Lawrence said.
This latest lawsuit came on the heels of the police search and seizure in Victoria, Australia, at the home of Mary
Smith in the suburb of Barooga, New South Wales, in Australia where numerous pirated ABS-CBN DVDs, DVD
burners and hundreds of pirated ABS-CBN movies on computer hard drives were located. Recently, ABS-CBN
also received a $10-million judgment from the US Federal District Court in Oregon against Jeffrey Ashby for
damages from his infringing the copyrights and well-known trademarks of ABS-CBN by rebroadcasting ABSCBNs popular TV shows and movies on his pirate web sites.
Among
the
many
pirate
sites
watchfilipinomovies.com and pinoytalaga.com.

that

Ashby

owned

were watchfilipinotv.com,

We at ABS-CBN are committed to giving our viewers the best viewing experience for our content and
protecting the rights of the talented creative and production teams that work hard to deliver these shows and
films, said ABS-CBN Global COO Raffy Lopez. Online pirates undermine that, hence, we are determined to
discourage and stop them.
Share this:

27.

The court-installed mayor here was finally booted out from the municipal premises on Monday night after an
angry mob stormed the town hall in a violent confrontation with policemen.
Rommel David, who has been occupying the third floor of the municipal hall since October 28, was forced out
of the building by an angry mob of about 3,000 armed with sticks and stones as several shots were fired by
policemen. Glass panes were broken and debris littered the municipal premises as a result of the incident.
This developed after David refused to leave the town hall even after a ruling from the Commission on Elections
on November 12 that all decisions and issuances by Regional Trial Court Judge Agapito Laoagan Jr. relative to
Davids election protest beginning December 2013 were without legal basis as the dismissal of the same
election protest had become final and executory when David failed to make his appeal within five days after
receipt of the court decision.
David initially said he will wait an order from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG)
before leaving his post which led to a stand-off that resulted in the stoppage of normal government operations
here and nonpayment of salaries of workers.

However, even with the DILG order on Monday, David remained adamant. DILG regional officers served the
order on Monday which said Vice Mayor Genevieve Gin Linsao is the acting mayor since Mayor Miguel
Dors Rivilla is on a 60-day preventive suspension.
But at around 8 p.m. on Monday as the nightly prayer for peace ended, some 100 young men led the assault on
the town hall throwing rocks, stones and some pill boxes at the first and the third floors of the municipal hall
while shots were fired by some 30 policemen providing security to David.
When the smoke had cleared, the glass panes of the windows and main door of the town hall were broken and
spent shells from firearms of various calibers scattered inside the building.
Minutes later, it was announced that David was finally gone.
Councilor Ross Tayag said Supt. Salvador Destura, chief of police, will be held accountable for the violent
behavior of his policemen who acted as bodyguards of David instead of maintaining the peace and order and
diffusing the prevailing tension in the area.
28.

President Aquino on Tuesday reaffirmed his earlier inclination to rebid the stalled P35.42-billion CaviteLaguna Expressway
(Calax)
deal,
despite
givings aired by local and foreign trade groups after his pronouncement.

serious

mis-

We are obligated to get the best deal for our people, Mr. Aquino told reporters in an interview at the
Philippine Embassy, after attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum in Beijing.
President Aquino cited as significant the P8.4-billion difference between the winning bid of P11.65 billion
submitted by Team Orion of the Ayala-Aboitiz group and disqualified bidder San Miguel Corp.-Optimal
Infrastructure Development Inc.s (SMC-OIDI) P20.1-billion premium offer. He said the amount could be used to
fund the construction of government infrastructure, such as socialized housing.
Asked about the negative reactions from the concerned trade groups that a rebidding could
dampen investors confidence in future public-private partnerships projects, Mr. Aquino said he was willing to
take the criticisms, rather than be blamed by the people.
Mamimili na ako kung sino ang magagalit sa akin. Siguro maganda nang magalit sila, kaysa taongbayan, President Aquino said, acknowledging that business leaders have aired opposition to rebid the Calax
toll-road project, even as both the Ayala-Aboitiz group and the SMC-OIDI gave separate assurances they would
not
go
to
court
if
Mr.
Aquino
decides
to
go
ahead
with a rebid.
But while worried trade groups, including the Makati Business Club and the Joint Foreign Chambers, voiced
concerns over the backlash of the rebidding, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry opted to
support Mr. Aquinos inclination to rebid Calax, saying this would maximize economic benefits the state
would reap from the toll-road project, given the estimated P8.45 billion it would gain from a fresh auction.
Other business leaders also expressed opposition to the Calax rebidding plan, warning this could lead to higher
cost of the project, and consequently higher toll.
Despite the presidential backing, Malacaang officials earlier admitted to theBusinessMirror that the
Department of Public Works and Highways is yet to fix a date for the rebidding. Team Orion urged President
Aquino to carefully consider the implications of his decision.
We hope that a decision will be made soon, and remain hopeful that the President will carefully consider the
DPWH decision to award, Ayala Corp. Managing Director John Eric Francia said

29.

A witness who claimed he has been bothered by his conscience, helped the North Cotabato police locate and
arrest the suspect in the deadly Kabacan bombing on Nov. 16 that left one student dead and 16 others
wounded, police here said Wednesday.
Senior Supt. Danilo Peralta, North Cotabato police director, identified the suspect as Badrudin Abid of Purok
Krislam, Barangay Poblacion, Kabacan, North Cotabato.
Peralta said the suspect was arrested at a checkpoint in President Quirino, Sultan Kudarat province at 3 p.m.
Tuesday.
He said Abid was intercepted by North Cotabato police operatives after receiving a tip of his travel from
Kabacan to President Quirino at 3 p.m.
He did not resist arrest, Peralta said.
According to Peralta, Abid was positively identified by one of the witnesses as the one who planted the 60 mm
mortar on top of the overpass in Kabacan evening of Nov. 16.
The witness and the suspect were friends. His conscience forced him to turn himself as witness in the Kabacan
blast, Peralta said of the witness who led the police in the arrest. The witness will remain unidentified.
Peralta said Abid has long been involved in various crimes in North Cotabato and has a an existing warrant of
arrest for carnapping and robbery.
Peralta said Abids two accomplishes remained at large but pursuit operations were still on going.
Abid had been charged with murder and multiple frustrated murder. He is now detained at police provincial
office in Kidapawan City.
The Kabacan blast which came at about 7 p.m. on Nov. 16 left Monique Mantawil seriously wounded and
eventually died while being rushed to Davao City.
Mantawil was a development communication student of University of Southern Mindanao.
At least 16 others, 13 of whom were students, were wounded.
Peralta would not say whether Abid was involved in the Mlang bombing on Sunday or not. He said Abid is still
under investigation.

30.
In a bid to resuscitate the ailing rubber industry in the province and the entire region, in general, the
Zamboanga Sibugay Provincial Government approved three (3) ordinances that will improve and cleanse the
rubber industry from using spurious coagulants and stuffing by farmers and producers.
Speaking at the Rubber Quality Improvement Advocacy Seminar conducted by the Department of Trade and
Industry-9, Zamboanga Sibugay Provincial Chair on Agriculture Board Member Joel Ebol said starting December
8, all ordinances will be implemented, penalizing farmers, producers, and traders that will violate the same.
By December 8, we will start implementing or enacting ordinances and we will penalize those caught violating
it, Board Member Ebol said.
These ordinances are: 1) Creation of Zamboanga Sibugay Rubber Industry Board; 2) Prohibition of farmers and
producers from using earth materials and fruits as stuffing of rubber lumps; and 3) prohibition of traders and
processors in buying dirty or adulterated raw rubber products.

The said ordinances were passed in the wake of rampant adulteration of rubber products by farmers and
producers that has drastically affected the quality and prices of rubber in the region.
We approved an ordinance in March 2011 prohibiting our farmers and producers from using battery solution
as coagulant. But I am dismayed that some of our barangay officials supply battery solution to our famers. It is
painful to hear that public officials contribute to the degradation of our rubber, Ebol Lamented.
Ebol explained to all rubber stakeholders in his province that these ordinances are not aimed against the
farmers but a tool to help the industry stand up from its present situation and straighten all malpractices by
them.
Why are we doing this? Most of our farmers complain about our rubber industry deteriorating, but we never
asked ourselves what are we doing to improve the quality of our rubber? he pointed.
Ebol furthered that if rubber farmers and producers want to improve on their sales, they have to improve the
quality of their products first and quit blaming the government about the plight of the industry.
Let us help each other to uplift our industry. If we can improve our quality, then we can demand for higher
buying price in the market, Ebol stressed.
Ebol also asked all stakeholders to fully participate in the newly created Rubber Industry Board.
The creation of the Zamboanga Sibugay Rubber Board empowers different sectors as member of the board
that will formulate plans and regulations, and conduct researches that will greatly benefit the industry. We are
urging our farmers, traders, operators, and processors to participate in the rubber board, he said.
He also called on all participants to help them in the dissemination of information among their co-farmers and
other stakeholders on the ordinances approved to avoid future problems with the law.
Rubber traders and processors are also warned in buying dirty or adulterated raw rubber products. The
Provincial Government met with traders and processors in the province to discuss the said ordinance and
immediately threw their support by signing a pledge of commitment.
However, to avoid losses on the part of farmers, it was agreed that rubber products on standby be sold or
disposed first, and that succeeding production should adhere to ordinances issued.

31.
MABALACAT CITY -- Mayor Marino "Boking" Morales said he is contemplating on filing libel charges against the
mother of a woman who was shot dead in Barangay Mabiga last Sunday.
Morales said the accusation of Pyra Lucas, mother of Marian Lucas Gantan, that he is responsible for the killing
of her daughter is baseless.
"This is a baseless and serious accusation. Bagama't unfortunate ang nangyari sa anak niya, I will be compelled
to file a libel suit against her," Morales said.
The official added that he already asked his counsel, Lawyer Pepito Torres, to study issues and prepare the
charges against Lucas.
"Meron siyang nilabas sa CLTV 36, directly ako ang ina-accused niya e. Na ako daw ang responsible sa
pagkamatay ng kanyang anak," Morales said.
The mayor at the same asked the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Criminal Investigation and
Detection Group (CIDG) to conduct their own investigation for the speedy resolution of the case.
"As much as possible, I want this to be resolved quickly para naman ma-clear ako. It is unfair on my personal
being to be accused like that. Not only that but my family, constituents my friends my peers," he said.

Morales said that this is the first time that he was tagged as mastermind in a killing incident and his family is
greatly affected by the issue.
"Pinupuntahan ako ng mga anak ko, worried sila. Tinatanong nila kung bakit nagkaganoon. Ang sabi ko sa
kanila they have nothing to worry dahil kako my conscience is clear. God is my witness, wala tayong
ginagawang ganoong klaseng activity," Morales said.
Meanwhile, Board Member Crisostomo Garbo, who is reportedly eyeing the mayoralty seat and will oppose
Morales in the 2016 polls, said he believes that the mayor will not resort to violence.
Morales also revealed that some of his critics including former Pampanga Tourism Officer Ian Mejia and Former
Mabalacat Vice-Mayor Noel Castro have expressed their support.
"Tumawag din sa akin si Noel Castro. Nakalaban ko 'yan nung 2013. Marami tungkol sa issue na 'yan. Ang sabi
daw ni Pareng Noel hindi gagawin ni Pareng Boking 'yan," he said.
"'Yung lang ang consolation as of the moment. In fact even Ian Mejia, critic ko rin 'yan. Ang sabi nya hindi
magagawa 'yan ni mayor. Ganun din si Edgar Dizon, same statement," he added.
Gantan, 29, single of Number 143 Barangay Cacutud, this city, was shot dead by motorcycle-riding gunmen
along the busy national road in Barangay Mabiga Sunday night.
Upon Morales request, Vice-Mayor Christian Halili said the council has passed a resolution allocating P100,000
reward for anyone who may give information which will lead to the arrest of the suspects.
Superintendent Henry Flores, city police chief, said the victim was driving a White Hyundai Tuczon bearing
license plates TOH 442 towards the north direction when the gunmen onboard an unknown vehicle assaulted
her.
Gantan sustained three gunshot wounds on different parts of her body, according to Flores.
Lucas belongs to the newly-organized Mabalacat Citizens Union (MCU), which claims advocacy for
transparency and good governance in the local government.
Lucas, together with other MCU members, held a prayer rally at the chapel of Ninabel Subdivision in Barangay
Dau on Saturday, a day before her daughter was ambushed.
The group called on the people to fight alleged corruption and irregularities within the local government.
Lucas filed criminal and administrative charges against three leaders of Barangay Cacutud recently, police said.
Earlier, Lucas told newsmen that she was the real target of the gunmen and the victim was using the formers
car when she was attacked.
32.
My family is shaken by the brazenness of these men, Inquirer publisher Raul Pangalangan said, shaking his
head.
Those men gave his familywife Elizabeth, son Miguel Enrico, 21, daughter-in-law Trizha O. Pangalangan and
two granddaughters age 6 and 5 and their two nanniesa shock in a road rage incident in Quezon City on
Monday morning, he said.
Elizabeth, a law professor at the University of the Philippines, said she was sitting in the front passenger seat
beside her son in the family vehicle when the incident happened.
After learning the identities of the owners of the vehicles the men used, Elizabeth Pangalangan filed a
complaint in the National Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday against Bulacan Mayor Patrick Meneses and
his mother over the incident that she said left her family traumatized.
The complainant is also the director of the Institute of Human Rights at the UP Law Center.

Meneses is better known today as the partner of actress Ara Mina. He used to be with another actress, Aiko
Melendez.
NBI Director Virgilio Mendez said he had assigned a division to investigate the incident following the filing of
the complaint. I will assign a team to conduct an investigation based on the complaint, Mendez told the
Inquirer in an interview at his office on Wednesday.
Mendez said Meneses and his security men and those named in the complaint would be invited to give their
side of the incident.
The others named in the complaint were the mother of Meneses, Priscila, who is the listed owner of one of two
vehicles involved in the incident, a silver Innova with Plate No. ZEL 124; one Joel Pion; and several John Does.
Elizabeth said she filed a complaint because Meneses mother refused to identify the men in the two vehicles
that she and her family encountered on Congressional Avenue Extension on Monday morning. She said one of
the men pointed a gun at her and her family.
An initial police investigation showed that the man with a gun was from the Innova.
In a visit to the Inquirer on Tuesday night to talk to publisher Pangalangan, Priscila said her family owned the
Innova and the other vehicle involved in the incident, a Land Cruiser. She said, however, that she was not in
one of the vehicles and that no security men were traveling in them.
She said her son Patrick, mayor of Bulacan town, Bulacan province, should be spared because he was at the
municipal hall at the time of the incident.
She identified the driver of the Innova as Joel Pion.
She also denied that her son was on board the Land Cruiser when the incident happened. My son was not on
board the vehicle and the convoy was on a personal errand when the supposed encounter took place, she
said.
Priscila said the reported plate number of the Land Cruiser was wrong. It was not the plate number of our
Land Cruiser, she said.
In her complaint, Elizabeth said she and her family were traveling on Congressional Avenue Extension in their
vehicle, a Fortuner, on their way to Himlayang Pilipino on Monday morning when a big white Land Cruiser
with Plate No. PQS 904 moved into their lane to overtake them, nearly hitting their vehicle.
She said she told her 21-year-old son, who was driving the vehicle, to move to the other lane to avoid the
reckless Land Cruiser. With her in the vehicle were her daughter-in-law and two small grandchildren and their
nannies.
According to Land Transportation Office records, the Land Cruiser is registered to Mactan Construction Supply,
a company with offices on N. Domingo Street in San Juan City.
The Land Cruiser overtook the Pangalangans vehicle a second time and it was then that Elizabeth noticed the
silver Innova following and realized that it was an escort vehicle.
At that stage, I noticed that a silver Innova was following us closely. The Innova swerved into our lane and
almost forced us off the road and onto the sidewalk, she said.
The Innova drove alongside the Fortuner and a male passenger rolled down his window and began hurling
invectives at the UP professors son.
Then the front passenger window of the silver Innova opened and a man started shouting invectives at our
car and pointing his finger and repeatedly shouting invectives, Elizabeth said.
Cant you see that were escorting someone? P***** ina ninyo, Tumabi kayo, she quoted the man as saying.
The Innova then picked up speed and cut the path of the Fortuner. Then the man got off the Innova with a
drawn gun and pointed it at them, Elizabeth said.

Elizabeth said that when she saw the gun, she yelled at the man that she had children on board.
The man backed off and returned to his vehicle.
The Innova then sped off.

33.
An nine-hour hostage drama ended with the rescue of two teenage brothers and the arrest of of their father
who held them hostage in their house at Manggal Drive, Baliwasan yesterday.
The hostage situation started around 6 a.m. and was resolved eight hours after with policemen firing tear gas
on 40-year-old Nur Sakiram, the hostage taker, who had earlier hacked and seriously wounded his aunt.
Sakirams two sons ages 15 and 16 were rescued unharmed.
DZT gathered that Sakiram hacked Sarah Abdulsaid around 6 a.m. then went inside their house and locked the
door along with his two sons.
The incident was preceded by an altercation between Sakiram and Abdulsaid whom he accused of telling his
wife who is working in the Middle East some unpleasant things about him. Because of this, Sakiram confronted
Abdulsaid and hacked her several times using a sharp blade weapon called pira.
The aunt was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.
When Sakiram locked himself with the two sons inside their house, several persons came to negotiate and
plead him to release the two hostages and surrender. They included Mayor Beng Climaco Salazar, police
officials, relatives and a Muslim leader.
However Sakiram refused to surrender until around 3 p.m. when police mounted a rescue operation using tear
gas.
Police recovered the pira from Sakirams possession.
Charges have been readied against Sakiram.

34.

The Commission on Audit (COA) has directed the mayors of nine cities in Metro Manila to return to the
National Treasury more than P331.7 million in unused pork barrel funds released to them by several lawmakers.
In its annual financial report for 2013, the COA said about P1.106 billion from the graft-ridden Priority
Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) remained with various local governments more than a year after the
Supreme Court struck down the pork barrel as unconstitutional.
Strictly adhere to the pertinent provisions of the Supreme Court decision, the COA told the mayors in its 918page report, a copy of which was obtained by the Inquirer.
COA Commissioner Heidi Mendoza submitted the report to President Benigno Aquino III, Senate President
Franklin Drilon and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. on Sept. 25.
The COA said the audit report was prepared in the hope that it will serve as a useful and reliable tool for
crafting policies that would enhance local governance.
A meaningful audit would assure the public and taxpayers that the funds and other resources used for various
programs, projects and activities were expended and reported in accordance with laws, rules and regulations,
and that operational performance were achieved in an economic, efficient and effective manner, it said.
QC is tops

Of the 16 cities and one town in the National Capital Region, state auditors said Quezon City had the biggest
unspent pork barrel funds, with more than P142.8 million.
The report did not identify the lawmakers who channeled pork to Quezon City, whose mayor, Herbert Bautista,
is an ally of President Aquino.
The COA also demanded that the Quezon City officials account for close to P173.5 million in unused pork barrel,
which the city government distributed to various nongovernment organizations and peoples organizations.
Liquidation required
The COA said the Quezon City government should compel those organizations to liquidate the PDAF
transferred to them in accordance with the provisions of the subject [memorandum of agreements] entered
between them and the city.
It directed the city government to submit the required documents and written explanation for the deficiencies
found in the postaudit of vouchers for expenditures by the city, transfer of funds to those organizations and
liquidation of the PDAF.
Otherwise, the subject transactions will be suspended or disallowed in audit for noncompliance, the COA
said.
In addition, the COA ordered the city government to immediately submit the liquidation report for more than
P19 million it released to different government agencies.
The city administrator said the municipal government was ready to return the money.
Makati, too
The COA also directed Makati City Mayor Jejomar Erwin Junjun Binay to remit nearly P54.8 million of the city
governments unused PDAF to the state treasury.
We have recommended that the remaining PDAF be reverted to the unappropriated surplus of the general
fund through the account of the Bureau of Treasury, the COA said.
In the case of Las Pias City, the COA said the city government used more than P1 million in pork barrel it had
received for projects that were not among the programs that could be funded by the PDAF.
The city government also spent more than P5.8 million of the funds, but the items purchased were not
recorded, the COA said.
Las Pias
The COA ordered Las Pias Mayor Vergel Aguilar to turn over to the National Treasury the city governments
unspent PDAF amounting to about P47.84 million.
Jimmy Castillano, city public information officer, said the municipal government would issue a statement about
the COA report on Friday.
Other cities with unspent pork barrel funds are Manila (P31.868 million), Malabon (P4.183), Navotas (P18.499),
Pasig (P18.681 million) and Valenzuela (P1.491 million).
San Juan City was also ordered to return unspent pork barrel funds, but the report did not indicate the amount
the city needed to return to the national government.
Order to Estrada
Besides the unspent pork barrel funds, the COA also ordered Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada to remit P11.6
million in unused Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) funds. The Supreme Court declared the DAP
unconstitutional on July 1.
The COA said P236,000 of the amount was disbursed not for its intended purpose by the city government.

We also recommended that should the city receive funds from the national government or from other
sources with defined specific purpose, these should be utilized strictly in accordance with that purpose, the
COA said.
35.

An administration congressman has been ordered dismissed from service for conflict of interest after his two
schools were found to have collected from the city government at least P51 million for the tuition and other
fees of its scholars while he was still a member of the city council.
The Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas also found probable cause to file criminal charges against
Representative Rodrigo Abellanosa (BOPK, Cebu City south district), who is serving his first term in office, for
violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. BOPK is a local party allied with the ruling Liberal Party.
In a decision dated May 16 and approved by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, the Ombudsman-Visayas
found Abellanosa guilty of grave misconduct and ordered his dismissal from the service, the forfeiture of his
retirement benefits and his perpetual disqualification from government service.
The order would be endorsed to the House of Representatives or its committee on ethics for appropriate
action, the decision said.
Not yet final?
Abellanosa said the Ombudsmans order was not yet final since he had a pending motion for reconsideration.
Should his motion be denied, Abellanosa said he would explore other avenues.
The order stemmed from the complaint filed by Philip Banguiran in 2012 when Abellanosa was still a city
councilor.
In the complaint, Banguiran accused Abellanosa of conflict of interest after his two schoolsAsian College of
Technology (ACT) and Asian College of Technology International Education Foundation Inc. (Actief)became
accredited to accept scholars of the city government under the Cebu City Government College Scholarship
Program.
The program grants a city scholar P10,000 in tuition and other expenses per semester and P1,000 in monthly
allowance.
The program, however, requires scholars to enroll only in accredited schools.
Processes
Abellanosas schools acquired accreditation through separate resolutions by the city council, of which
Abellanosa was a member. They allowed the mayor to enter into two memorandums of agreement (MOA)
with Abellanosas schools, paving the way for their accreditation.
At the time the MOA took effect, Abellanosa was also president-trustee of ACT and Actief aside from being a
councilor.
The MOA also gave Abellanosas schools tax reprieves.
In his reply to the Ombudsman-Visayas, Abellanosa said he did not take part in deliberations in the city council
on the two resolutions that led to his schools accreditation.
He said he had no control over the mayor or the council or the operations of his schools.
But Ombudsman-Visayas investigators would not buy Abellanosas explanation. Conflict of interest is
obvious, said Jess Vincent dela Pena, graft investigation and prosecution officer who wrote the decision for
the Ombudsman-Visayas.

Dela Pena pointed to records showing that Abellanosa signed the two MOA with the city government on
behalf of his schools.
The congressmans schools have received at least P51 million for the scholarship program and is trying to
collect at least P120 million more.
Pecuniary interest
The respondent indirectly or directly has material or pecuniary interest in the scholarship program, Dela Pena
said in the decision. It said the implementation of the two MOA between Abellanosas schools and the city
government benefited the respondents schools.
Respondents exercise of dual positions has created conflict of interest which is prohibited by law, the
decision said. It is not an isolated incident, nor an error of judgment, it added.
Abellanosa had invoked the Aguinaldo Doctrine in the administrative complaint but Dela Pena said it would not
save the congressman.
Under the Aguinaldo Doctrine, a reelected public official is spared from administrative liability for acts
committed prior to his reelection.
Dela Penas decision said invoking the Aguinaldo Doctrine has no leg to stand on since Abellanosa had not
been reelected as councilor but was elected as congressman.
Abellanosas lawyers questioned the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman-Visayas, saying his case should have been
investigated by the House.
The congressman said he did not benefit from the scholarship program because his schools were nonstock
and nonprofit.