Plunder raps filed vs Napoles, three senators in pork scam

 News
Sep 162013
 
Plunder raps filed vs Napoles, three senators in pork scam

The Office of the Ombudsman received on Monday plunder raps against businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles and at least three senators said to have benefitted in the P10 billion pork barrel scam.  The accused lawmakers are Senators Ramon Revilla Jr., former Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile and former Senate President Pro-Tempore Jinggoy Estrada. The Department of Justice and the National Bureau of Investigation submitted the complaint around 3:30 p.m on Monday.  The pork barrel scam was allegedly led by Napoles, who turned fugitive after a court ordered her arrest over serious illegal detention of her employee and main scam whistleblower Benhur Luy. She surrendered two weeks later. Napoles was accused of being behind questionable NGOs that implemented ghost projects using pork funds, also known as the Priority Development Assistance Fund. The funds were supposedly siphoned to the pockets of Napoles and lawmakers. Luy in a Senate hearing said the division could reach up to 50-50.  Napoles is detained at Fort Santo Domingo in Laguna. —KG, GMA News

Senate OKs bill postponing upcoming SK polls

 News
Sep 162013
 
Senate OKs bill postponing upcoming SK polls

The Senate on Monday approved the bill postponing the Sangguniang Kabataan polls scheduled this October. Nineteen senators voted for the postponement. No one objected to the bill, but Senator Vicente Sotto III abstained. On Tuesday, Sept. 3, the Senate committee on local government said it will recommend the postponement of the upcoming Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections, scheduled this October after it had a hearing with after a hearing with officials from the Commission on Elections (Comelec), the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and local government officials.  The SK was created by the Local Government Code of 1991 to provide youth representation in government.  —KG, GMA News

Sotto: Enrile 'rushed' to hospital Saturday due to high blood pressure

 News
Sep 162013
 
Sotto: Enrile 'rushed' to hospital Saturday due to high blood pressure

Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile was “rushed to the hospital” on Saturday morning due to high blood pressure, Senator Vicente Sotto III said Monday. Sotto, however, did not say whether Enrile is still in the hospital as of posting time. Sotto also did not say which hospital his colleague was brought to. Enrile is one of the senators expected to face plunder raps before the Office of the Ombudsman, according to the National Bureau of Investigation. — Andreo Calonzo/RSJ, GMA News

Drilon: Senators can still report for work even while facing plunder raps

 News
Sep 162013
 
Drilon: Senators can still report for work even while facing plunder raps

Senators can still report for work and will not be automatically suspended even with a plunder complaint filed against them before the Office of the Ombudsman, Senate President Franklin Drilon said Monday. “They are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Remember, they are elected representatives,” Drilon said at a press briefing.  The Senate leader made this statement after the National Bureau of Investigation confrmed that Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Bong Revilla Jr. will be charged with plunder in connection with the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam. —KG, GMA News

House starts plenary debates on proposed 2014 national budget

 News
Sep 162013
 
House starts plenary debates on proposed 2014 national budget

The House of Representatives on Monday began plenary deliberations of the proposed P2.268-T national budget for 2014, with a focus on the integration of the former Priority Development Assistance Fund into several agencies’ budgets. In his sponsorship speech, chairman of the Appropriations Committee Rep. Isidro Ungab said they did not recommend any cuts on the proposed budget. Ungab then formally announced on the floor that the committee has proposed to scrap the PDAF as a lump sum allocation.  “Following the call for greater transparency and accountability in the operations of our government, the committee with the approval of the House leadership recommends the scrapping of the lump sum appropriation of P 25.24 B for PDAF,” Ungab said. Ungab also noted that Vice President Binay’s special allocation of P200 M will also be removed. “In addition, the amount of P200 M representing the PDAF of the Office of the Vice President will also be deleted,” he said. Ungab earlier told reporters that the P25.4 B amount will be realigned to different social service agencies, where lawmakers could make requests on behalf of their constituents.  Ungab, however, made it clear that the requests were not done deals, and that agencies have a right to refuse them. He then enjoined members of the House to pass the General Appropriations Bill or House Bill 2360 quickly. Bigger budget for VIsayas, Mindanao Meanwhile in an early interpolation, Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora questioned the significantly lower budgets of Visayas and Mindanao as compared to that of Read More …

Organization of Islamic Cooperation offers to help in ending Zamboanga City crisis

 News
Sep 152013
 
Organization of Islamic Cooperation offers to help in ending Zamboanga City crisis

FILE PHOTO ILIGAN CITY, Philippines – The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has offered to mediate in ending the standoff in Zamboanga City between Philippine government troops and forces loyal to Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founder Nur Misuari. The standoff entered its seventh day Sunday. “The OIC stands ready to offer all possible assistance to ease the tension and resume the peace process,” read a statement attributed to OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu. The OIC news release on the Zamboanga siege was posted on its website Saturday. “The Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is deeply disturbed by the reported resumption of violence that occurred in the city of Zamboanga and other places in Mindanao in Southern Philippines. He condemned the loss of innocent lives and called for calm and maximum restraint to avoid further bloodshed and to allow peaceful resolution to these incidents,” the news release stated. “The OIC strongly rejects all unlawful acts and expresses its deep concern at the shortcomings that occurred in the peace process which led to the resumption of violence and unlawful acts,” it added. The pan-Islamic body, the largest international organization outside of the United Nations, has played a key role in bringing peace in Mindanao since the 1970s. It brokered the negotiations between the Philippine government and the MNLF that led to the landmark 1976 Tripoli Agreement of Peace. This same pact was spelled out in details in the 1996 Final Peace Agreement (FPA). The negotiations for that peace Read More …

First in Asia: Philippine bananas to be sold in US

 News
Sep 142013
 
First in Asia: Philippine bananas to be sold in US

Photo from official account of Philippine Embassy in the United States. @philippinesusa. MANILA, Philippines – The first batch of fresh Philippine bananas has finally arrived in the United States, the Philippine Embassy in the US announced Sunday. A shipment of 7.047 metric tons of highland cavendish from Bukidnon arrived September 9 in California, making the Philippines the first Asian country to export bananas to the US. “With this shipment, we are hopeful that Philippine bananas would be able to find and satisfy a niche in the competitive US banana market,” said Philippine Ambassador Jose Cuisia Jr. The shipment came after eight years of negotiations with the US on quarantine and sanitation issues. “Philippine bananas are among the best in the world and there is opportunity to bring in the unique and special banana varieties like lakatan and latondan, which Filipinos in the US have long been craving for and which Americans can learn to love,” said Agriculture attaché Dr. Josyline Javelosa. Javelosa said the shipment, a first of an estimated 3,000 metric tons from Dole Philippines, was transferred to a ripening warehouse and will soon be available in the Los Angeles market. She said they are hoping that the new market will help the Philippine banana industry, especially Mindanao which is recovering from the onslaught of the recent typhoons. With the successful shipment, US joined other Philippine banana importers – Japan, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Korea, China, Singapore, the Middle East, Canada, Russia and Indonesia. Bananas are among the country’s dollar earners. Read More …

Info sought on Fil-Ams in alleged gunrunning

 News
Sep 142013
 
Info sought on Fil-Ams in alleged gunrunning

Two of three Maralit brothers pose with their high-powered firearms in these photos, copies of which were forwarded to the Inquirer from the US Attorney’s Office that have them and other pictures as evidence. Rex and Wilfredo Maralit who work for the New York Police Department and Customs Border Protection respectively were arrested separately in the US and charged with smuggling weapons to the Philippines. A third brother, Ariel, is in Manila and at large. PHOTOS FROM US ATTORNEY’S OFFICE MANILA, Philippines—The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has asked the United States government for documents on the importation of high-powered firearms into the Philippines allegedly by three Filipino-American brothers to determine if they had accomplices in the country. Fernandino Tuason, BOC Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service director, said he had asked the US Department of Homeland Security for copies of the shipping documents used by the Maralit brothers in their alleged international gun smuggling activities. “(The Americans will) be giving us shipping documents so we can get more information about their modus operandi,” Tuason said in an interview. “Up to now we have not seen any documents; it is just hearsay or news reports so we contacted our counterpart in the US. We will use these documents to backtrack and find out who their contacts are in the Philippines,” he said. Tuason said the BOC could go after the recipients of the firearms if it were proven that they did not pay import duties or failed to secure the necessary gun Read More …

Time to think Asean

 News
Sep 142013
 
Time to think Asean

JUNE TAGUIWALO (second from right, back row), with classmates from Chulalongkorn University. Contributed photo PHITSANULOK, Thailand–June Taguiwalo was born in a military camp in 1984. At that time, her mother, student activist (now university professor) Judy Taguiwalo, was incarcerated at Camp Crame for resisting the Marcos dictatorship. Now 29, June is in Thailand, taking her place among a young generation of students who are taking up new challenges in an increasingly globalized world. Artist Ryan Francis Reyes, 30, is another Filipino student in Thailand, which hosts scholars who are intent on extending their gaze from national to regional horizons–starting with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). Taguiwalo is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Thai Studies at Chulalongkorn University, the top university in Thailand under the Asean scholarship funded by the government of Thailand. A Geography graduate of the University of the Philippines, she is the only Filipino in the program at the moment. Prior to her Thai studies, she spent two years in Chiang Mai, as a nongovernment  organization (NGO) worker. “I’ve always been interested in Thailand. I think this was the first Asian country I ever visited. We seem so alike but so different at the same time. My interest grew more when I worked in Chiang Mai two years ago,”  she explains. Taguiwalo spent her growing up years in Canada while her mother was taking up a master’s degree. She also spent some time in the United States. RYAN REYES (third from right) with cultural Read More …

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