This was the result of the gun
inspection conducted this morning during the untaping of muzzles of
service firearms among Police Regional Office 8 (PRO8) personnel
wherein none of the taped muzzles showed signs of being tampered.
Police Regional Office 8 (PRO8)
director Police Chief Superintendent Elmer Ragadio Soria presided over
the activity at the regional headquarters and he expressed
satisfaction over the compliance of his men on the directive of the
Philippine National Police (PNP) regarding the use of guns on New
Year.
“A broken tape found upon inspection
could be an indication that the firearm was used during the holiday
revelry. This only indicates that none of the firearm holders
indiscriminately fired their guns in welcoming year 2013,” Soria said.
The regional director
earlier led his men in the annual sealing of gun muzzles last December
29, 2012.
“The 100% compliance to our
directive only showed the honesty and professionalism of our
policemen”, the top police official said, adding that similar
inspection was also conducted in city and provincial police offices
regionwide.
Soria earlier warned that
policemen who will fire their guns inappropriately will face both
criminal and administrative charges and can be dismissed from service
if found to had violated the gun policy.
Meanwhile, Soria ordered a
thorough investigation on the indiscriminate firing inside the V&G
Subdivision in Tacloban City during New Year celebration wherein stray
bullet pierced through the roof of one Elvira Cosca.
Cosca reported to the police
that while her family was welcoming the New Year, they heard a loud
noise from the roof and upon checking, they noticed a hole on their
ceiling and recovered a slug of unknown caliber under their sala set.
Soria assured that an
investigation is on-going on the matter as the recovered slug was
already brought to the Regional Crime Laboratory for ballistic
examination.
The regional director
earlier disclosed that no victim of stray bullet was reported to his
office as a result of New Year revelry.
In other parts of the
country, various sectors are calling for tougher laws and stricter gun
control following the death of 7-year old Stephanie Nicole Ella owing
to a stray bullet from a celebratory gunfire during the New Year
revelry in Caloocan City and the death of seven people and wounding of
6 others in a shooting rampage by drug-crazed gunman Ronald Bae in
Kawit, Cavite on Friday.
Leyte pours in anew
counterpart funds for Kalahi-CIDSS project
By Provincial Media
Relations Center
January 7, 2013
TACLOBAN CITY –
Before 2012 ended, the provincial government of Leyte released its
counterpart fund amounting to more or less P28 million for various
KALAHI-CIDSS projects identified by various municipalities in Leyte.
This as the provincial
government of Leyte under Gov. Mimietta Bagulaya assured continued
support to Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)’s
Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery
of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS), the national government’s
community-driven development (CDD) strategy to reduce poverty in the
countryside.
The latest download of
counterpart fund was in Alangalang, Leyte where businessman Dominic
Petilla represented Gov. Bagulaya in the distribution of the
provincial fund to barangays which identified mostly infrastructure as
their Kalahi-CIDSS sub-projects.
Kalahi-CIDSS’ counterpart
funding requirement sourced from the 20 percent development fund of
the municipal government also ensures that a significant proportion of
such fund is earmarked for the basic needs of poor communities, the
governor said.
Kalahi-CIDSS champions
participatory governance leading to improved lives. Community
participation is said to lower cost and improves construction quality
of projects.
In previous Kalahi-CIDSS
implementation in Leyte, major projects prioritized by communities
include water systems, roads, school buildings, barangay health
stations, and day-care centers, among others.
The project’s CDD approach,
which has been tested and proven effective in easing poverty in the
poorest provinces, seeks to empower ordinary citizens to directly
participate in local governance by identifying their own community
needs, planning, implementing and monitoring projects together to
address local poverty issues.
Martial law victims
scores Aquino government for its insincerity in going after the
Marcoses
By
SELDA
January 7, 2013
QUEZON CITY –
Members of the Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainee Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto
or SELDA criticized the Aquino government today for its lackadaisical
efforts in making the Marcoses accountable for their crimes against
the Filipinos and retrieving their ill-gotten wealth, as expressed in
Mr. Andres Bautista’s call to abolish the Philippine Commission on
Good Government (PCGG).
“The PCGG has long been
wrought with reports of corruption, as admitted by PCGG chair Andres
Bautista, but its failure in retrieving the remaining Marcoses’
ill-gotten wealth should not completely be the PCGG’s sole
accountability, government should also take responsibility over this,”
said Marie Hilao-Enriquez, SELDA chairperson.
“The administrations after
Marcos did not wield a strong political will to go after the
dictatorship and make it pay for the crimes against the people,
especially the plunder it committed. If these governments thought of
defending the people’s interests before their own, they should have
strengthened the PCGG, vested it with vast powers and allotted a
bigger budget to enable it to go after the Marcos billions and pursue
with earnest the cases against them.
What the administrations
after Marcos did was just to accommodate the Marcoses politically so
that the remaining members of the family were able to weild economic
and political power again and even taunt the sitting governments,
flaunt their plundered wealth and even try to clear their name.
Persons they appointed to the PCGG who should have earnestly went
after the Marcoses were allowed to taint their hands into the
corporations and ill-gotten wealth or were pressured to keep silent on
the compromises some of the administrations conducted with the Marcos
family, to the detriment of the majority of the people.
Selda also pointed to the
fact that the Filipinos especially martial law victims expect that the
President, whose parents they had worked and fought alongside with in
ousting a dictator, will earnestly pursue in going after the dictator
and his family to answer for their misdeeds against the Filipino
people. “It is disappointing that we have failed to see any results
nor concrete action from the government in going after the Marcoses,
whose greed, corruption and human rights violations we bitterly fought
for 14 long years, and now it chooses to close down an agency tasked
to do just this,” Enriquez declared, adding that PNoy is squandering
the chance to show that it is different from other governments.
Selda warned that despite
Malacanang’s declaration that it will not stop in going after the
Marcos ill-gotten wealth, it may use the enactment of the Marcos
Victims Compensation Bill as quid pro quo to the government’s failure
in tracking down and recovering the Marcos’ stolen millions.
“We victims of martial law
hope that Aquino has not fallen into the compromise trap with the
Marcoses, especially since this year is an election year and Bongbong
Marcos seems set to clear the Marcos name as he is set to run for the
presidency in 2016. Never again must the Filipino people allow a
Marcos or anyone planning to trample on our collective rights as a
people to do the same to us. Our fight for justice must be
conclusively fought to its end,” the human rights group ended.
Chiz sees no reason
to re-impose death penalty
By Office of Senator Chiz
Escudero
January 7, 2013
PASAY CITY – Senator Chiz
Escudero sees no reason to reinstate the death penalty, supporting
President Benigno Aquino’s position amid calls for its re-imposition
following a spate of gun-related incidents in the country.
“The death penalty will not
stop miscreants from carrying out their crimes. I have always said
that it is still the certainty of punishment, not its severity, that
will deter crimes,” Escudero said.
He chairs the Senate
Committee on Justice and Human Rights.
The senator, who voted to
remove the death penalty from the country’s statute books in 1990,
said strict implementation of the law, proper application of the
justice system, and protection by government law enforcement agents
carrying out the mandates of the law will deter crime.
“Even if the death penalty
is in place, criminals, especially the moneyed ones, will still find
creative ways to escape the arms of the law. The likes of Jovito
Palparan, charged with a non-bailable offense, the Reyes brothers of
Palawan accused as master minds in the death of a journalist and
environmental advocate, and Delfin Lee, said to have bilked thousands
of poor housing aspirants, where are they? They can afford to hire
good, expensive lawyers to keep them out of jail and outside the reach
of the law,” Escudero said.
While the senator
acknowledged that criminals have become emboldened to perpetuate
grisly crimes, it is still the certainty of punishment and not the
kind and nature of punishment that will deter the commission on
crimes.
“Let no one go above or
around the law. No sacred cows, apply the law to those who are guilty,
have been found guilty. We have to improve and perfect our country’s
criminal justice system, it should be strictly applied to make it
valid and credible” Escudero said.
PRO-8 vows
relentless efforts vs. wanted criminals in 2013
By RPCRD, Police Regional
Office 8
January 4, 2013
CAMP SEC. RUPERTO K.
KANGLEON, Palo, Leyte – The Police Regional Office 8
(PRO8) vowed relentless pursuit operations against criminals wanted by
law as its top official reported that the Regional Special Operation
Group (RSOG) scored anew in manhunt operations conducted in the cities
of Ormoc and Catbalogan recently.
“The RSOG accomplishments
should serve as a warning to lawless elements that the long arms of
the law always catches up with criminals wherever they may hide,”
Police Chief Superintendent Elmer Ragadio Soria, PRO8 Regional
Director said.
Soria added that for this
year, PRO8 will continue to account for wanted persons as he cited the
cooperation extended by Eastern Visayas communities to his men in the
arrest of undesirable personalities.
The Regional Director
informed that in the evening of January 2, an intelligence driven
operation paid-off when RSOG led by SPO4 Ananias Monteroso collared
Dionisio Sedon, Jr. alias Karing, 63, married, self-employed and
formerly residing in Brgy. Rama, an island village in Catbalogan City.
Sedon is ranked number 9
Most Wanted Person in Samar province’s capital Catbalogan City, and
was arrested in his hide-out in Purok 2, Brgy. Tongonan, Ormoc City.
The police team was armed
with an Alias Warrant of Arrest issued on June 21, 2011 by Acting
Presiding Judge Manuel F. Torrevillas, Jr. of the Regional Trial Court
Branch 27, 8th Judicial Region based in Catbalogan City for a murder
case that transpired sometime in 2010.
Judge Torrevillas did not
recommend any bailbond for the suspect’s temporary liberty in the
complaint docketed under Criminal Case number 7893.
Sedon was pinpointed by the
witnesses as the suspect in a brutal killing of his neighbor Mary Jane
Sarayan that transpired in the evening of July 9, 2010.
Police records showed that
the suspect stabbed Saraya from behind with a bladed weapon locally
known as “sipol and went immediately into hiding. He is presently
detained at Bureau of Jail Management and Penology jail facility in
Brgy Lagundi, Catbalogan City awaiting trial of his case.
Meanwhile, in Catbalogan
City, a 42-year old jobless man wanted for 13 long years for allegedly
raping a minor in the evening of March 20, 1999 in Brgy Old Mahayag
was also nabbed by RSOG.
Alejandro Mabansag alias
Anling, was arrested by a police team led by Police Inspector
Constantino Jabonete, Jr. in the evening of on December 21, 2012 in
the outskirts area of said village.
The suspect is facing rape
charges in accordance with Republic Act 7659 (Death Penalty Law) in
Criminal Case number 4799 at the sala of Judge Sinforiano A. Monsanto
of the Regional Trial Court Branch 27 also in Catbalogan City with no
bail recommended for his temporary liberty. He is temporarily detained
at Catbalogan lock-up cell for proper disposition.
Soria added that the manhunt
operations were also in response to the directive of new PNP Chief,
Police Director General Allan La Madrid Purisima to intensify the
implementation of Manhunt: Charlie, the PNP’s campaign to arrest
wanted persons.
CPP reextends
ceasefire to January 15 after belated GPH announcement
By Communist Party of the
Philippines
January 3, 2013
The Central Committee of the
Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today reextended its
ceasefire declaration to January 15 after the Aquino regime belatedly
announced yesterday its own suspension of military operations.
The CPP-CC issued the
following declaration:
The
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines hereby
declares to all commands and units of the New People's Army (NPA) and
the people's militias that the end of the ceasefire declared on
December 20 has been reextended to 2359H of January 15.
Specifics of the December 20 order will remain valid for the duration
of this order. This declaration overrides an earlier order by the CPP-CC
abbreviating the ceasefire to 2359H of January 2.
This
declaration is being issued upon recommendation of the National
Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) after being belatedly
informed of the formal order by the president of the Government of the
Republic of the Philippines (GPH) Benigno Aquino III extending the
suspension of offensive military and police operations of the Armed
Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police
(PNP).
According to the CPP, the
Aquino government did not promptly order the extension of its earlier
suspension of offensive military and police operations. As shown by
the facsimile of Aquino's order, the recommendation by the Secretary
of National Defense was forwarded only yesterday noon, two weeks after
the agreement was forged and a few hours after the CPP order
abbreviating the ceasefire was made public.
Over the past two weeks, the
GPH representatives refused to answer several communications seeking
compliance with the December 20 to January 15 synchronized temporary
ceasefire. The correspondences were sent by the NDFP Negotiating Panel
directly and through the Royal Norwegian Government third-party
facilitator.
"The CPP hopes that the
reextension of the ceasefire order will help push forward peace
negotiations between the GPH and the NDFP. The GPH, however, still has
a lot of work to do in terms of compliance and rectification of
violations of previous agreements, including the release of detained
peace consultants in accordance with the Joint Agreement on Safety and
Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and the release of more than 400 political
prisoners in compliance with the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect
for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law."
At the same time, the CPP
denounced the continued military operations of the AFP despite
Aquino's ceasefire order. "Aquino's ceasefire order has been reduced
to a meaningless piece of paper due to the AFP's continued offensive
military operations against the people and their revolutionary forces
in various parts of the country," said the CPP.
|
Police
Senior Superintendent Roel Acidre, Chief of PRO8
Police-Community Relations Division, supervising the loading of
relief goods for typhoon “Pablo” victims at PRO8 Caboboy
Multi-Purpose Gym. |
PRO8 provides
support to “Pablo” victims
By RPCRD, Police Regional
Office 8
January 3, 2013
CAMP RUPERTO K. KANGLEON,
Palo, Leyte – Policemen and Non-Uniformed Personnel of
Police Regional Office 8 (PRO8) poured in their resources to donate
relief goods to disaster stricken towns of Baganga, Cateel and Boston
in Davao Oriental.
The PRO8 coordinated with
the Office of the Civil Defense 8 (OCD8) and came up with relief goods
- 138 sacks of used clothing, 910 pieces of assorted canned goods, 36
bars of laundry soap, bath soaps, 2 sacks of rice, sanitary napkins,
assorted medicines and cash amounting to P108,000.00.
“As we observed in the news,
it’s a heartrending sight. We have to hasten the distribution of basic
supplies to towns flattened by the typhoon,” Police Chief
Superintendent Elmer Ragadio Soria, PRO 8 Regional Director said.
A disaster response team led
by Director Rey Gozon of the Office of Civil Defense left early
morning yesterday on board a DPWH service vehicle loaded with the
relief goods to assist in the Relief Operations and Information
Management from January 2 to 8.
Typhoon “Pablo” survivors
bypassed the Yuletide season as they hole up in evacuation centers and
continue to bury their dead, at least 1,067 have been confirmed, and
more than 800 still missing, about half of the number fishermen who
ventured out to sea before the 16th cyclone of the season struck and
now feared dead, reports from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and
Management Council (NDRRMC) said.
The council said the typhoon
affected 710,224 families composed of 6,203,826 people and rendered
300,000 people homeless.
Pablo (international name: “Bopha”)
slammed into eastern Mindanao on December 4 and wreak havoc with
monster winds gusting up to 200 kilometers per hour, causing flash
floods and landslides, flattening communities and banana plantations,
and prompting President Benigno Aquino to declare a state of national
calamity.
“We’re still lucky that even
tough Eastern Visayas was also hit by “Pablo”, the damage was only
minimal compared to the widespread devastation suffered by our
brothers in Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental,” Soria added.
The region was also hit by
typhoon “Quinta” last week while the Philippine Atmospheric,
Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) reported
that at 2:00 AM today, the Low Pressure Area (LPA) was estimated just
down under the region in the vicinity of Sta. Josefa, Agusan Del Sur
in CARAGA region.
“Our policemen, especially
members of Search and Rescue (SAR) teams would be available for
disaster response operations,” the police regional director assured.
