PGMA’s AO 275 empowers commission tasked to dismantle private armies
Tacloban City (December 29) — In her Administrative Order No. 275 signed on December 8, 2009, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo did not only directed the creation of an independent commission that would oversee the dismantling of private armies in Maguindanao and other hot spots in the country, but also provided the commission with duties to be the government’s sole voice on such issue.
The commission was also mandated to submit its action and policy recommendations to President Arroyo, including appropriate prosecution and legislative proposals aimed at eliminating the existence of private armies prior to the May 2010 elections.
“It is the policy of the State to maintain peace and order, protect life, liberty and property, and promote the general welfare so that all the Filipino people shall enjoy the blessings of democracy,” the Administrative Order stated.
“It is a declared policy of the administration to have peaceful elections,” it added.
The Chief Executive granted investigative powers to the commission, which include the power to summon witnesses, administer oaths, take testimony or evidence relevant to the investigation and to issue compulsory processes to produce documents, books, records, and other pertinent matters related to its function.
It would be recalled that President Arroyo ordered the creation of the commission to dismantle private armed groups, especially those related to political clans a day before she declared martial law in Maguindanao on December 4.
The commission, which is set to be headed by a retired justice, will give guidance to the Philippine National Police (PNP) in dismantling the private armies in Maguindanao and other hot spots, including Basilan, Sulu, Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Samar, Masbate, Nueva Ecija and Abra.
“The Department of Justice (DoJ) shall prioritize the prosecution of members and leaders of such private armed groups, with a view to their conviction at the soonest possible time,” AO 275 said.
The commission, which will have a Secretariat composed of technical and administrative personnel, is also authorized to deputize the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), PNP, DoJ and other law enforcement agencies to assist it in performing its duties.
Under the AO, the President also ordered various departments, bureaus, offices, agencies and other instrumentalities, including government-owned or controlled corporations to provide support and extend cooperation to the independent commission.
The creation of the anti-private army commission was prompted by last month’s massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao, described as the worst election-related violent incident in the country’s history.
The carnage was blamed on Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., who allegedly led his armed supporters that included policemen and civilian militia to ambush the convoy and eliminate his gubernatorial rival, Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu. (PIA 
Simple rites mark turnover of PNP 8 command
Tacloban City (December 29) — A simple but meaningful ceremony marks the turn over of command from Police Chief Superintendent Mario R. Sandiego to Police Chief Superintendent Rey Lanada on December 29 at the Police Regional Office 8 Multi Purpose Hall, Camp Ruperto Kangleon, Palo, Leyte.
The ceremony proper will start with an invocation by Regional Chaplain PSupt. Arnulfo Alcera Castillo and will be followed with the formal reading of termination and designation orders will be done by PSSupt. Jose Erwin Villacorte, Deputy for Records, Personnel and Management.
The well admired and unassuming outgoing regional director will then give his remarks and relinquishment of command, after which he is set to sign the relinquishment order.
Police Director Abner D. Cabalquinto, Director for Records, Personnel and Management, who is the Guest of honor and speaker, is also scheduled to present the Award to PCSupt Sandiego and turnover the symbol and saber to the incoming regional director.
The Incoming Regional Director will also give his remarks and introduce the Keynote Speaker.
Director Sandiego will always be remembered for his quiet, simple but determined style of managing situations which if not handled well would have turned into bigger conflicts.
He is a leader who always knows how to boost the morale of his men and making them feel they were the reason for the success in the PRO 8 undertaking. This way, he was able to build many leaders for the PNP.
His sincere and active participation in the Region Eight Administrators League causes, will be sorely missed. Just like his predecessor, Police Director Cabalquinto, he is also the Chairman for the Ways and Means of REAL.
Director Sandiego is currently the chairman, the first at that, of the Regional Administrators of the entire Visayas Island.
So long and God bless General Sandiego, the press will always remember you as a media-friendly PRO 8 Director. (PIA
December 29 is last day of voter registration
Tacloban City (December 29) — The Commission on Elections in Region 8 is ready to accept voters who are beating the deadline for registration at 5:00 o’clock in the afternoon of December 29.
Comelec Chairman Jose Melo earlier said that local offices had reported that there were not too many applications in the extended schedule.
“Based on reports, there are very few registrants,” Chairman Melo said. He doubted if the Comelec would get one million new voters in the last five days of registration.
Eligible new voters have to personally submit their application and present government identification cards to their local poll offices.
The extended registration, which was ordered by the Supreme Court based on the petition of the Kabataan party-list group, was scheduled Dec. 21-23 and Dec. 28-29.
The first schedule of registration started in December 2008 and ended Oct. 31.
Comelec officials said they pushed the deadline earlier to allow them to prepare the ballots for the automated elections in May. Each ballot is expected to contain 300 names for the various contests printed on both sides.
The last week of submission of voters’ applications in October saw long queues in local Comelec offices and rising tempers that pit impatient voters and weary poll workers.
Some offices even extended their office hours until late evening to accommodate eligible voters.
The Comelec chairman said he expected hordes of last-minute registrants at the Comelec offices of December 29 from 8:00 o’clock in the morning to 5:00 o’clock in the afternoon.
The Comelec said there are already some 49.2 million registered voters for the May 2010 national and local polls. The figure is higher than the 45 million voters that enlisted for the 2007 balloting. (PIA
DOH Capiz issues safety tips vs firecrackers
by A. Lumaque
Roxas City (28 December) — A representative of the Department of Health (DOH) in Capiz has warned Capiceños on the ill-effects of firecrackers in view of the upcoming New Year celebration.
Bucayan has also reiterated the common safety tips for firecracker users to avoid accidents.
“We must avoid picking up firecrackers that did not set off,” he stressed.
The DOH representative also said that revelers under the influence of liquor and those that eat sticky finger foods must refrain from using firecrackers.
A DOH website noted that “legal” firecrackers are no guarantee against injuries, adding that two of the five most harmful fireworks used in the 2008 festivities were permitted by regulators.
DOH data showed that the five most harmful firecrackers in last year’s revelry were the piccolo, kwitis, five-star, luces and home-made or altered firecrackers.
The data also revealed that the top 5 firecrackers causing “Blast Burn with Amputation” were home-made or altered firecrackers, 5-star, camara, rebentador, and whistle bomb.
The health department also noted that watusi or dancing firecracker which has long been considered as illegal has continued to sneak in the market and caused injuries last year. (PIA)
42 towns, cities in Central Visayas ink agreement for 4Ps program expansion
By Rachelle M. Nessia
Dumaguete City (10 December) — Mayors and governors in Central Visayas signed a memorandum of agreement with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for the implementation and expansion of the five-year poverty reduction program dubbed 4Ps or the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.
Region 7 has identified 42 towns for the program’s Set 3 implementation from the provinces of Bohol, Negros Oriental, Siquijor and Cebu.
In Negros Oriental, Bayawan City, Siaton and Sta. Catalina were added to the province’s existing 4P’s beneficiary areas in Ayungon, Bindoy, La Libertad, Vallehermoso, Tayasan, Jimalalud and Basay.
DSWD’s 4Ps program uses a poverty reduction scheme where cash grants are given to identified poor families upon compliance of certain conditions by the household beneficiary to be able to continue with the program.
To date, Region 7 has more than 23,000 beneficiaries for the seven towns in Negros Oriental and 10 barangays in Cebu since the program started in late 2008. (PIA/rmn)
DOST inaugurates new building
Larena, Siquijor (9 December) — The 2.2M worth building of the Department of Science and Technology at Baluarte St. Pagi, Siquijor, Siquijor is finally blessed and inaugurated on November 19, 2009.
The blessing was officiated by Monsignor Candelario “Larry” Catubig, parich priest of Siquijor.
Heads and representatives from the different local offices also witnessed the DOST’s momentous milestone.
In his welcome address, Provincial Director Mario dela Pena express heartfelt thanks to the Local Government of Siquijor through the Municipal Mayor, Hon. Richard C. Quezon for supporting the SB Resolution through the donation of lot to DOST for the building construction.
“I am very thankful to LGU-Siquijor and the government officials for believing our services and for the recognition of our efforts and existence in the province,” dela Pena humbly said.
De la Pena, also thanked Engr. Kenneth Patria for implementing the DOST building plan despite the meager budget of more or less 2M.
Dela Pena with other officers of DOST in Region 7, headed by its Regional Director Burt Llanto welcome their visitorss. (PIA)
Walk for peace to cap human rights week in Western Visayas
Iloilo City (9 December) — A multi-sectoral walk for peace will be held here, December 10 as one of the activities that will cap the local observance of National Human Rights Consciousness Week.
The activity and the entire celebration for that matter is spearheaded by the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Western Visayas. Presidential Assistant Raul N. Banias is also the Regional Peace Advisor and chair of the Regional KALAHI Convergence Group (RKCG).
The early morning walk will start off from two points – University of the Philippines in the Visayas and West Visayas State University – and converge at Freedom Grandstand here where a short program will be held.
Assistant Secretary Banias said the walk will be followed by a meeting of the members of the Regional KALAHI Convergence Group at Iloilo Grand Hotel.
The presentation of the Youth Agenda will be held later in the afternoon at the University of San Agustin. A concert for peace to be held at Freedom Grandstand will serve as the finale of the week-long event.
A series of lecture, orientation and fora on human rights was held in Iloilo and Capiz to mark the event in the region.
During an orientation on the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) held December 3 at Villa Sagrado here, Police Chief Supt. Lina Sarmiento pointed out that it is important that people should be aware of their basic rights.
Sarmiento, a member of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines Monitoring Committee involved in peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), said that while people may have heard about CARHRIHL they are not aware of its provisions and their relevance to them.
Although the CARHRIHL was intended for the particular peace talks, Sarmiento pointed out that there is a need for various sectors of society to be aware of the document as it contains basic human rights as well as vital provisions of the International Humanitarian Law in the context of both peace time and armed conflict.
The lady police official from the Philippine National Police (PNP) national office was invited by organizers to serve as resource person fore the orientation that was attended by members of the KALAHI convergence group, Task Force Kasangga, and other government agencies and institutions.
The CARHRIHL is the first item of the four substantive agenda of the formal peace talks between the Negotiating Panels of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). Both parties signed it on March 16, 1998.
The theme of this year’s human rights observance is “Respect for Human Rights: The Key to Democracy, Peace and Development.” (PIA 6-JSC)
NTC eyes per second rate for landline calls
Tacloban City (8 December) — Fresh from implementing the pulse per second charge for mobile phone calls on December 6, the National Telecommunications Commission is now eyeing at this new scheme on mobile to landline calls and vice versa.
The NTC is drafting a new circular which will mandate telecommunication companies to shift to this new unit of billing, the per six-second pulse, compared to per-minute charging for local exchange carriers (LEC) and wireless landline calls.
The six-second per pulse billing would hopefully avert the continued slowdown in usage of landline services whose rates are more expensive than those in the new scheme, NTC Region 8 Director Samuel Young said.
The NTC started to implement the six-second pulse billing for mobile phone calls on December 6.
The scheme charges a “flagdown” of P3 for the first two pulses. The flag down rate and the sum of the eight remaining pulses for the first minute should not exceed the prevailing rate.
Director Young said that with the new billing scheme, a cellphone to cellphone call will be much cheaper compared to a call from landline to cellphone and vice versa which would lessen traffic in landline. Landline to mobile call is charged at least P8 per minute.
Mobile calls are charged between P6 and P 7.50 per minute. With the new scheme, consumers would be charged that much for the first minute but will only pay for what it consumed for the succeeding six-second pulses
The succeeding pulse rates for the first minute is at 0.56 per pulse and 0.75 per pulse for the succeeding minutes.
The total bill for a 30-second voice call will only be P4.69 compared to the charge of P 7.50 under the old billing.
A call lasting for one minute and 30 seconds will be billed P 11.25 compared to P15 under the old scheme.
The pulse billing will be the default billing mode, which means subscribers need not dial or register to a certain number to use the new unit of billing.
The per-second billing on phone calls does not cover international call service. (PIA
Negros police to meet with manufacturers, dealers of firecrackers
Negros Occidental (8 December) — The Negros Occidental Provincial Police Office (NOPPO) has set a meeting with the manufacturers and dealers of firecrackers in the province to remind them of the provisions of Republic Act 7183 on the onset of the coming holidays.
Manufacturers, dealers, retailers as well as businessmen involved in the sale of pyrotechnics are to gather at the Camp Alfredo Montelibano to discuss RA 7183, an act regulating the sale, manufacture, distribution and use of firecrackers and other pyrotechnic devices.
NOPPO spokesman Police Chief Inspector Rico Santotome Jr stressed that NOPPO’s Special Operations Task Force will conduct an intensified campaign against banned firecrackers like “watusi” and piccolo in coordination with the Department of Health.
Meanwhile, DOH has strongly advised that there are no safe firecrackers or fireworks especially when allowed to be used by children.
“These devices are not toys and are very dangerous, especially in the hands of innocent children,” Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III said.
According to DOH, among the top 5 firecrackers that caused the most injuries last year are: 1. Piccolo, 2. Kwitis, 3. 5-sar, 4. Luces and 5. Home-made or altered firecrackers.
Topping the list is piccolo which is considered illegal watusi has also been long considered as illegal but has always been sneaked in to the market that usually fall into the hands of young children which causes either injuries or poisoning through ingestion.
Policemen in the province vowed to apprehend violators of RA 7183 who will be caught selling imported and oversized firecrackers like “super lolo”, “pla-pla” and big trianggulo.
NOPPO records show that 41 violators of the RA were apprehended in 2008. (PIA/EAD)
PGMA groundbreaks RP’s 1st biomass power plant, launches new RORO route in Aklan
by Venus G. Villanueva
Kalibo, Aklan (7 December) — President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo visited Aklan today to groundbreak the country’s first Biomass Power Plant and to launch the new RORO route from Aklan to Batangas via Odiongan, Romblon.
Arriving at the Kalibo International Airport (KIA) at 2:00 o’clock in the afternoon, the President and her party, along with Aklan officials, motored straight to Venturanza, Banga, Aklan for the broundbreaking ceremony of the project.
The ceremony was witnessd by Aklan officials led by Congressman Florencio T. Miraflores, Governor Carlito S. Marquez, Vice Governor Gabrielle C. Quimpo, SP officials and Banga LGU officials led by Acting mayor Melanio Rentillo, officials of ASEA One Power Corporation (AOPC), barangay constituents and the media.
Immediately after lowering the time capsule, Aklan governor Carlito Marquez welcomed President Arroyo to the activity and thanked her for the various developmental and social projects in Aklan from her administration like the President’s Bridge Program and the Pantawid Pampamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) which has already provided some P7 million cash assistance to qualified beneficiaries.
Paul Rodriguez, President of AOPC on the other hand, briefed PGMA on the various socio-economic benefits to be derived by the province and the community with the putting up of the biomass power plant. He also showed PGMA various samples of agricultural waste like hay and rice hull which will be used as fuel of the plant.
The BioMass Power Plant is owned by AOPC, a $30,000,000 (P1.44 billion) investment which aims to produce clean energy from indigenous agricultural and forest residues as primary feedstock such as rice straw, rice and coconut husks and woodchips. The power plant will be on a distributed and embedded system to prevent total blackout and reduce the cost of power generation. It will be equipped with highly-efficient boiler, turbine and generator set and electrostatic precipitator (ESP) to control ash emission.
From Venturanza, Banga, PGMA motored to Dumaguit, New Washington, Aklan. Along the way, the Presidential convoy was cheered by schoolchildren waving flaglets.
At the Dumaguit Port, the President was welcomed by New Wahington Mayor Edgar Peralta while Super Shuttle RORO Corp. Pres. Paul Rodriguez briefed her on the new RORO route.
The President also talked with two beneficiaries of the new RORO route – Edgar Sabino, a junk shop owner, and John Rey Biadnes, a crew of the Super Shuttle Ferry 2.
Sabino said the new RORO route will be a big help to his junk shop business, as he could deliver his products with less expenses and less people to pay which means big savings on his part.
The RORO route by the Super shuttle Ferry will have very cheap passenger fares ranging from P600 for the economy class and P800 for the tourist class. Passengers debarking in Odiongan, Romblon will only pay P450.00.
Besides from some more or less 354 passengers it could carry, it can also load 20 wheelers, 6 wheelers and 4 wheelers.
The new route will leave Dumaguit every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. (PIA)
