By: Joy Apostol 1,916 people died because of illegal drugs, according to the Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Director General Ronald Dela Rosa in the second hearing of Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs on August 23.
PNP Chief Dela Rosa was questioned by the Senate President Pro-Tempore Fraklin Drillon because of what he said in the first hearing on August 22 (Monday), that 1,779 people died starting on July 1, 2016. However, in his presentation on August 23, it increased in 1,916 which means, 137 people have already died in the past 24 hours. PNP chief Dela Rosa explained that it only increased because of the updates they did, but not because 137 people died in the past 24 hours. However, in the calculation of Senate President Drillon, the average amount of death in a day because of drugs was 36 people, based on what PNP counted. On the other hand, PO2 Alipino Balo Jr. and PO1 Michael Tomas of Pasay Police Station faced hearing on August 23 at the Senate committee on justice, for the murder case of Japee Bertes and Renato Bertes that have been accused with using illegal drugs.
0 Comments
By: Joy Apostol Minority bloc in the House of Representatives declared to stop the Duterte administration in reducing of income tax, increasing the current 12% value-added tax to a maximum of 15%, and oil excise tax, in their Press Conference on August 22, for it will negatively affect the poor.
Akbayan Representative Tom Villarin said that he objects the government plan in increasing tax to reduce the personal and corporate income tax because ordinary citizens will be ones who’ll be affected the most. He also said that if they increase excise in oil tax, it will mean increase in the price of foods and other basic goods. Albay Representative Edcel Lagman said that reducing income tax will not be helpful to many, since a lot of workers are exempted from tax because of their minimal salary. If VAT exemption is removed and excise tax will increase, lot of citizen will suffer. Marikina City Representative Miro Quimbo enormously urged incoming Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno to inspect the said proposal. He strongly believes that before they increase VAT, they should first prioritize tax reduction of income taxes. By: Joy Apostol Sandiganbayan Fourth Division sentenced the whistleblower of ZTE_NBN deal scam Engr. Rodolfo Noel “Jun” Lozada with six to ten years imprisonment after being found guilty of graft in the Philippine forest Corporation (PFC) case.
In a 28 page decision read by the Clerk of Court of Sandiganbayan on August 23, apart from imprisonment, Jun Lozada is also no longer allowed to work in the government. His brother Jose Lozada was also sentenced six to ten years imprisonment. Back in 2008, Lozada illegally gave the lease contract of PFC’s 6.599 hectares of public land to his brother, when he was still the acting president and CEO of PFC, which violated Section 3-E of Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act or causing undue injury to the government. However, he was found not guilty in his case Section 3-H of anti-graft law or having a financial interest in the said transaction. Lozada also lamented that it was them who revealed the anomaly of the government, yet they were the ones convicted. He is the whistleblower in multi-million NBN-ZTE deal scam in linked with former President and currently Pampanga 2nd District Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. By: Patricia Baguio Baguio City officials asked the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to reopen Mt. Cabuyao, or more popularly known as La Presa to promote tourism in the region.
According to Julio Lopez, Provincial Environmental and Natural Resources officer, the DENR will need to further review the proposed resolution of Benguet officers and will only be modified by the Environment Secretary Regina Lopez. He also added that the decision of re-opening the site will depend on their national office’s orders. Mt. Cabuyao in Tuba became a famous tourist destination, because this is where the hit ABS-CBN teleserye ‘Forevermore’ was shot, but later on closed due to the court of Appeals’ Permanent Environmental Protection, which argued by the proponents, that the order does not include the tourists to visit the area. Former Tuba Mayor and now Board Member Florencio Bentrez said that the municipality can control the tourist. Furthermore, the city officials are hoping for the quick response of DENR because for the past months that La Presa has been closed, it slowly being forgotten by the tourists. By: Denise Go A total of 100 million Saudi riyals (approximately 1.2 billion pesos) was donated by Saudi King, Salman for the stranded foreign workers in the kingdom of Saudi wherein majority were Filipinos. The money is intended for their shelter, medicine, food, and airfare while authorities process their return papers. There are 11,000 Filipino workers who are currently stranded in Saudi Arabia due to the rapid decrease of world oil prices which brought their companies to close. Saudi Arabia holds the biggest number of Filipino workers at 1.2 million compared to the other countries in the world. Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III and Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. met with the Saudi Ambassador to Manila Abdullah al-Bussairy to facilitate the repatriation of the stranded Filipino workers in Saudi. Spokesperson Charles Jose of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said that the Saudi government has already waived the penalties of overstaying stranded foreign workers to give way for their immediate repatriation. An interagency team headed by Bello had already flown to Saudi Arabia on August 10 to extend humanitarian, legal and consular assistance for stranded Filipino workers. Despite the current situation, majority of the workers still refuses to leave as they await the payment of their back wages. By: Marie Paz Claveria More than 500 thousand users and pushers voluntarily surrendered nationwide since the beginning of the Duterte administration. This information is based from the data gathered by the Philippine National Police for the date July 1 to August 2. According to the PNP, 565,806 is the number of surrendered drug personalities and 5,418 is the total number of arrested drug suspects. Meanwhile, 402 drug personalities were killed through the anti-illegal drug operations of the police, but the number of suspected victims of extra judicial killings or the persons who are found dead is not yet included. By: Marie Paz Claveria
|
Categories |