Maniolas

By Julie M. Aurelio |Philippine Daily Inquirer 4:29 pm | Sunday, July 20th, 2014 INQUIRER FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency arrested last week a Dutch national suspected of managing a drug den in Butuan City, along with seven of his “customers.” Robert Stoffelen, 51, was collared at a boarding house he ran in Barangay (village) Holy Redeemer in Butuan City on basis of a search warrant issued by a local court. PDEA director general Arturo Cacdac Jr. said the foreigner was suspected of using his boarding house as an illegal drugs den. Arrested with Stoffelen last Thursday at around 11:50 a.m. were his “customers” Sallie Villahermosa, 35; Rey Roco, 32; Alfie Semogan; Joseph Tucang; 21; Ryan Calub, 21; Renwek Pecasales, 2; and Susan Pugahan, 28; all residents of Butuan City. Cacdac said Stoffelen would be charged for maintaining a drug den, possessing illegal drugs and drug paraphernalia under Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. The seven others would be charged separately for being drug den patrons under the same law, the PDEA official stressed. The PDEA Regional Office 13 Special Enforcement Team led by director Erwin Ogario and the Butuan City police searched Stoffelen’s boarding house on suspicion that it was being used by illegal drug users as a hideout and den.  The operation was covered by a search warrant issued by Butuan City Regional Trial Court Branch 1 Judge Eduardo Casals. The seven Filipinos arrested were inside the drug Read More …

MANILA, Philippines — The Court of Appeals has ordered the Bureau of Immigration to proceed with the deportation of a British cannabis seed trader facing charges for money laundering and narcotics trafficking in Maine, United States. The appellate court’s Special 7th Division, however, directed that Gypsy Nirvana be deported straight to the United Kingdom and ordered the BI to make sure that his flight home would not stop in or pass through the US. The court, in an 11-page decision dated June 25 and released last week, denied Nirvana’s plea to stop his deportation, saying his lawyers should have first appealed to the justice secretary and the Office of the President before seeking judicial intervention. However, despite the validity of the deportation proceedings, the appeals justices said they took cognizance of Nirvana’s refusal to set foot on US soil for “fear of his life and/or safety.” “Expediency cannot justify a resort to procedural shortcuts. The end does not justify the means. A meritorious case cannot overshadow the condition that the means employed to pursue it must be in keeping with the rules,” the court said in the decision written by Justice Agnes Reyes-Carpio. The other division members, Justices Marie Gonzales-Sison and Priscilla Baltazar-Padilla, concurred in the ruling. The justices adopted what they called a “solomonic decision” by ordering the BI to book him on a flight straight to the UK, or on one that would not make a stopover in US territory. “[H]umanitarian consideration and due regard to the feelings Read More …

HONEST WORK AND CRITICAL THINKING Mathematics teacher Joseph Ocol, who made a name for himself in the Philippines as an anticorruption crusader, now helps African-American students in west Chicago beat drugs and crime through a unique chess program. Already, some of his young players have won state- and US-wide medals. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO He was a marked man when he migrated to the United States 15 years ago.  Joseph Ocol, once a top planning  executive of the Clark Development Corp. (CDC), had been placed on  the government’s Witness Protection Program for  blowing the whistle on what appeared to be a multibillion-peso election fund-raising scam in the agency tasked to transform a former  US military air base into an industrial complex and economic zone. For those who still remember, Ocol had recounted in Senate public hearings how representatives of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority and CDC delivered millions of pesos stashed in envelopes to the campaign manager of the then ruling Lakas-NUCD party ostensibly to fund the presidential campaign of Jose de Venecia in the 1998  elections.  He claimed that those funds had come from contractors, who were forcibly milked by government officials, resulting in substandard infrastructure and cost escalations for what was then a big Centennial Exposition project. But after the hoopla of congressional hearings, it seemed the case—like many corruption and bribery cases in the Philippines—did not prosper and was soon forgotten.  That left Ocol out of work.  The witness program’s P4,000 monthly allowance could not sustain his family’s Read More …

By Nestor Corrales |INQUIRER.net 5:19 pm | Saturday, July 19th, 2014 Department of Foreign Affairs building INQUIRER FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines—Amid Israel’s air attacks on Gaza Strip, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has implemented a  mandatory evacuation for Filipinos. “In view of the threats to security posed by the Israel-Hamas conflict to Filipinos in the Gaza Strip, the Department of Foreign Affairs has raised Alert Level 4 (Mandatory Repatriation) in Gaza,” DFA said in statement on Saturday. Meanwhile, alert level 2 (restriction phase) was  raised in areas in Israel within 15 kilometers from the border with Gaza, while alert level 1 (precautionary phase) remains raised in the West Bank and in the rest of Israel. The agency said the Philippine embassies in Cairo, Tel Aviv, and Amman are ready to repatriate Filipinos from Gaza in coordination with concerned authorities of Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the United Nations and other international organizations operating in Gaza. It said the DFA continues to closely monitor developments and called for the cessation of hostilities to prevent further loss of innocent lives. RELATED STORIES Alert level 3 raised, voluntary repatriation of Filipinos in Gaza Strip urged Alerts raised in Kenya, Gaza Follow Us Other Stories: PH urges nations to unite to determine those responsible for ‘brutal act’ on MH17 Troops search for seized Germans ‘Tragedy after tragedy’ makes airline ‘toxic’ Filipino-Indon family also dead Recent Stories: Complete stories on our Digital Edition newsstand for tablets, netbooks and mobile phones; 14-issue free trial. About to Read More …

Associated Press 7:31 am | Saturday, July 19th, 2014 MANILA, Philippines—Two German tourists who have been missing for three months had been abducted by Abu Sayyaf militants and were being held “unharmed” by the al-Qaida-linked gunmen in the jungle in Sulu, security officials said Thursday. Lt. Gen. Rustico Guerrero, commander of the military’s Western Mindanao Command, said the government has ordered troops to locate the Germans in Sulu province and ensure their safe recovery, but he declined to say what the military intends to do. “The latest is that they’re unharmed,” Guerrero told the Associated Press (AP). German officials have declined to comment on the reported abductions. Stefan Okonek and his female companion, Henrike Dielen, were taken at gunpoint from a yacht between Sabah and Palawan in April and then taken by boat to Sulu, where the Abu Sayyaf has held other hostages, four military and police officials separately told AP. A police general said the Germans were seen once by some villagers while washing up in a mountain stream, guarded by their captors. RELATED STORY 2 German tourists reported missing Follow Us Other Stories: ‘Tragedy after tragedy’ makes airline ‘toxic’ Filipino-Indon family also dead Who is to blame? Crash investigators face struggle Thailand supports PH’s call for peaceful resolution of South China Sea rows Recent Stories: Complete stories on our Digital Edition newsstand for tablets, netbooks and mobile phones; 14-issue free trial. About to step out? Get breaking alerts on your mobile.phone. Text ON INQ BREAKING to 4467, for Read More …