Maniolas

(Updated 1:36 p.m.) The Senate has summoned a telecommunication company to provide a copy of the Jan. 25 text messages between President Benigno Aquino III and resigned Philippine National Police chief Director General Alan Purisima. The office of Senate President Franklin Drilon said Tuesday that a subpoena addressed to Smart Communications president and chief executive officer Napoleon Nazareno was signed Friday. It was Senator Loren Legarda who requested that a full transcript of the text messages be sent to the Senate. “Not that I do not trust the sources of the text messages but I requested that the text messages from the telcos be subpoenaed,” she said during the hearing of the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs on February 23. Purisima earlier submitted to the Senate a copy of the text messages between him and the President on January 25, 2015, the day the Oplan Exodus operation to neutralize Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan and Filipino bomb-maker Basit Usman in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, was conducted. The said operation was carried out by the PNP-Special Action Force (SAF). Forty-four SAF commandos died after an hours-long gunfight with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. Confusion In a transcript of text messages read during the hearing, Purisima showed that he sent Aquino his first text message on the Mamasapano operation at 5:45 a.m.    The exchange of text messages showed an apparent confusion between Purisima and Aquino, as the resigned PNP chief disclosed before Read More …

People who attempted to commit suicide by shooting themselves usually use accidental firing of the weapon as excuse to cover up their act, Dr. Raquel Fortun said Tuesday, citing her experiences as a forensic pathologist. “From my experience, ‘yang ganyang senaryo ang madalas na ginagamit na excuse para sabihin na ang isang tao [ay] ‘di nagpakamatay,” Fortun said, in response to “News To Go” anchor Howie Severino’s question on whether it is common for gun owners to accidentally shoot themselves while cleaning their guns. “I have encountered that a lot na sasabihin hindi siya nagbaril sa sarili, ang nangyari, it was an accidental fire kasi naglilinis lang siya ng baril,” she added. The question was in relation to the claim of the family of Cavite Vice Governor Jolo Revilla that he accidentally shot himself on his right upper chest while he was cleaning his .40-caliber Glock pistol on Saturday morning inside their home in Ayala Alabang in Muntinlupa City. Though now in a stable condition, Revilla, son of detained Senator Ramon Bong Revilla Jr., remains at the intensive care unit of the Asian Hospital and Medical Center in Muntinlupa City following the incident. Safety procedures Fortun said that though it is hard to conclude right now on what really transpired during the incident, there were safety procedures that should have been observed by Revilla. “Common sense will tell you, and I’m sure the PNP (Philippine National Police) will agree kasi nagbibigay sila ng mga gun safety seminar… na kapag naglilinis Read More …

An 18-month-old girl was among the children allegedly sexually abused by an Australian man arrested in the Philippines last month, government investigators said Monday. Law enforcement officials are now hunting people overseas who apparently paid 51-year-old Gerard Peter Scully for the footage of the children being sexually abused, Manila’s National Bureau of Investigation said. “It was a video shown on the Internet, (of him) allegedly torturing the child physically and sexually,” NBI regional chief Angelito Magno said, referring to the young girl. Magno, whose unit originally arrested Scully on February 20 in the southern Philippines, said the infant’s parents apparently knew about the abuse, adding that the government’s Social Welfare Office was now caring for the child and her parents. He declined to give more information on the infant. Scully fled from Australia to the Philippines to escape fraud charges in 2011. The NBI has said he set up his cybersex operations in the impoverished southern Philippines, using offers of food and money to lure children into having sex with him and then selling the footage on the Internet. He faces human trafficking charges and could get life in jail if convicted. He is also being investigated for the suspected murder of a girl of about 12 years, whom he allegedly strangled and then buried under his rented house, said Basset Sarit, the executive officer of the NBI’s anti-human trafficking unit. Two other girls that he allegedly abused last year have said that they were forced by Scully to dig Read More …

Jolo Revilla in stable condition after gun accident. Cavite Vice Governor Jolo Revilla lies in the Intensive Care Unit of the Asian Hospital and Medical Center in Muntinlupa City on Monday, March 2. The son of detained Senator Ramon Bong Revilla Jr., Jolo accidentally shot himself on the upper right chest while reportedly cleaning a pistol on Saturday, February 28. Photo courtesy of Office of Sen. Bong Revilla The camp of Cavite Vice Gov. Jolo Revilla on Monday countered allegations that the local official tried to take his own life due to pressing personal and family problems. Lawyer Raymond Fortun, a spokesman for Revilla, denied that the vice governor tried to take his life because of his father Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr.’s detention on plunder charges. Fortun vouched for Revilla’s emotional strength to face the family’s issues.  He said Revilla could have made sure that he died from his gunshot wound. “Kung ang isang tao ay mayroon talagang intensyon na saktan ang sarili niya, ang gagawin po niya ay itututok yung baril mismo sa katawan niya e at yung anggulo po nito ay yung parte ng katawan na sabihin na natin na hindi mo na mararamdaman kasi patay ka na,” Fortun said on “24 Oras.” Another insinuation had Revilla trying to commit suicide due to problems with girlfriend, actress Jodi Sta. Maria, something that Fortun also denied. “Last Saturday evening all the way to the entire morning of Sunday nandun po si Ms. Jodi Sta. Maria at nagbabantay sa kanya. Read More …