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October 22, 2015
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The Manila Times
PNP officials face graft
raps over gun scam
by REINA TOLENTINO reporter
T
he Office of the Ombudsman has filed
graft charges against several police
officials allegedly involved in the
anomalous issuance of firearm licenses for
AK47 rifles from August 2011 to April 2013.
Charged at the Sandiganbayan
were Chief Superintendent Raul
Petrasanta, Director Gil Meneses of
the Civil Security Group, Director
Napoleon Estilles of the Firearms
and Explosives Office (FEO), Chief
Superintendents Tomas Rentoy 3rd
and Regino Catiis, Senior Superin-
tendents Eduardo Acierto and Allan
Parreño, Supt. Nelson Bautista,
Chief Inspector Ricardo Zapata Jr.,
Chief Inspector Ricky Sumalde,
Senior Police Officers 1 Eric Tan,
Randy De Sesto, and some nonuniformed personnel.
The Ombudsman said the re-
n lpa from a1
‘Lando’
Thirteen villages in San Luis are still
flooded up to seven feet deep while 15
villages in Arayat were also under water
up to eight feet high.
A total of 81 barangay in Pampanga are
still flooded.
Weather outlook
The LPA was last tracked 120 kilometers
southeast of Basco, Batanes, Aldczar
Aurelio of the Philippine Atmospheric
Geophysical and Astronomical Services
Administration said.
It may also dissipate within the next 24
hours, he added.
A tail-end of a cold front, however, is
affecting extreme northern Luzon.
Cloudy skies with light to moderate
rains and isolated thunderstorms will be
experienced over the regions of Ilocos,
Cordillera and Cagayan Valley.
Partly cloudy to cloudy skies with
isolated thunderstorms will prevail over
Metro Manila and the rest of the country.
Palace denies politicking
Malacañang also on Wednesday dismissed
claims that there was politics involved in the
distribution of relief goods to typhoon victims.
Palace spokesman Edwin Lacierda
was responding to Baler (Aurora) Mayor
Nelianto Bihasa, who reportedly claimed
that he did not receive relief goods from
the administration’s 2016 candidates.
spondents “conspired in facilitating,
processing and approving the applications for firearm licenses of Caraga,
Isla Security Agency (Isla), Claver
Mineral Development Corporation
and JTC Mineral Mining Corporation
despite incomplete or falsified applications and supporting documents.”
“Most of the firearms were also
released immediately even when
some of the requests for their
withdrawal from storage were not
signed by the requester,” it said.
Investigators said Caraga was
issued firearms licenses even if
its license to operate had expired.
Caraga’s applications were also
processed “without verifying the
Lacierda pointed out that the relief goods
distributed by Liberal Party (LP) presidential
candidate Manuel “Mar” Roxas 2nd and his
running mate, Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo, were meant for the typhoon victims
in Baler, not for their mayor.
Roxas and Robredo visited Baler on
Tuesday.
“What is more important here? Is it to
give the relief goods to the mayor or give
the relief goods directly to the people,”
Lacierda said in a briefing.
He noted that the Liberal Party media
bureau released a photograph proving that
Baler residents did receive relief goods
from the LP candidates.
“Mayor Bihasa should clarify his statement if the relief goods did not pass through
him because that’s not our problem. What
is more important to us is the welfare of the
people,” Lacierda said in Filipino.
“It is the people who should get the
relief goods, not Mayor Bihasa.”
Bihasa is a member of the PDP-Laban.
“PDP-Laban is a coalition partner of the
administration. Why does he have to add
political color to something that should
not concern politics?” Lacierda said.
Meanwhile, he maintained that the Aquino administration would help typhoon-hit
areas regardless of political affiliation.
President Benigno Aquino 3rd is expected
to visit Baler on Thursday to distribute relief
goods to those affected by Typhoon Lando.
Voter registration
The Commission on Elections (Comelec)
is studying the possibility of extending the
voter registration period in areas affected
number of firearms already issued
to it, which resulted in the issuance of licenses beyond the limit
allowed by regulation.”
“[T]he public respondents failed
to act in accordance with their
respective duties in processing the
questioned firearms license applications,” Ombudsman Conchita
Carpio-Morales said. She also said
“that their acts/and or omissions
demonstrate that they are guilty of
gross inexcusable negligence and
evident bad faith.”
The Ombudsman filed 28
counts of graft against the respondents. A bail of P30,000 was
recommended for each count.
by the typhoon.
“Given Typhoon Lando, we will look
into it and we will see whether it merits
a special extension only for regions that
were affected... We are looking into that
possibility of extending only for these
regions,” said Comelec Chairman Andres
Bautista in a news briefing on Tuesday.
He also noted that there were some local Comelec offices that suspended voter
registrations because of the storm.
“We are talking about Regions 1, and 3.
The state of their offices before Lando, they
are already in a bad state,” Bautista said.
The poll body chief said they would be
asking feedback from their Regional Election Directors (REDs) in Ilocos Region,
Cagayan Valley and Central Luzon regarding the need to extend voter registration.
He added that they were not considering
an extension of the registration for the rest
of the country.
The ongoing nationwide registration is
set to end on October 31.
Agri damage
The cost of damage to agriculture and infrastructure in areas devastated by Typhoon
Lando in Central Luzon has soared to P5.86
billion, according to the RDRRMC.
It said of the total amount, agriculture suffered the biggest loss of about P5.63 billion.
Damage to roads, bridges and other
infrastructure was pegged at P229 million.
The agricultural losses covered rice,
corn, high-value crops, fisheries and
livestock in the region’s seven provinces,
namely Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva
Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales.
The palay sector incurred the
biggest damage.
It was P4.44 billion, according to initial reports but soared
to P5.12 billion. This was followed by high-value crops from
an initial report of P207.82
million to P461 million.
Damage to corn was pegged
at P27 million, livestock at
P17.93 million and fisheries,
P2.46 million.
Nueva Ecija was the hardest hit province in the region
with damage to agriculture
estimated at P3.56 billion while
damage to infrastructure was
pegged at P48 million.
The rice sector in Nueva Ecija
was heavily affected with an
estimated loss of P3.47 billion,
followed by high-value crops at
P65.92 million, corn (P14 million), livestock (P3.66 million)
and fisheries (P106,340).
Pangasinan
The number of people killed in
Pangasinan has risen to seven as
6/55 JACKPOT PRIZE: P34,859,892
02
07
08
14
6/45 JACKPOT PRIZE: P13,624,820
17
18
28
34
24
44
36
37
Tiangco brothers
unopposed in Navotas
Navotas City Mayor John Reynald
Tiangco and his brother Rep. Tobias
“Toby” Tiangco are literally winners in
next year’s elections because they will
be running unopposed.
John Reynald and Toby are in their
third and last terms as mayor and
congressman, respectively.
Rep. Tiangco is the president of the
United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), the
party of Vice President Jejomar Binay.
Jayne Banayad, chief of Navotas
City Government’s Public Information
Office (PIO), said Mayor Tiangco will
continue his projects in education,
health, livelihood, housing, and
peace and order.
NELSON BADILLA
MMDA to impose truck
ban during APEC meet
The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will be
implementing a temporary modified
truck ban during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit.
The scheme will be implemented along the south truck route
from November 17 to November
20 from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
This will complement the
the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and
Management Office (PDRRMO) validated a
report sent through a text message that four
people, two of them infants, drowned while
crossing a river in Sitio Barukong, Barangay
Garita, Bani on Tuesday.
Six others were reported injured while
2,301 families comprising 8,661 individuals were evacuated from 46 barangay in
15 affected municipalities because of the
wrath of Lando, which raged across the
province from October 18 to 19.
Reported by the PDRRMC to the provincial
board, the evacuation was Pangasinan’s basis
in declaring a state of calamity for the whole
province on Tuesday in a special session.
The declaration of state of calamity will
enable the province and its 44 towns and
cities to access 30 percent of their five
percent calamity fund to be used as quick
response fund, without the need for them
to also declare their own state of calamity.
The PDRRMO member agencies were still
conducting search and rescue operations for
isolated individuals and families in 24 other
barangay of Bugallon, Aguilar, Labrador,
Infanta, Mabini and Mangatarem affected by
flash foods as of Wednesda, but sought the
military’s help because of the big number
of people to be rescued.
Gov. Amado Espino Jr., who directed
operations at the PDRRMO tactical operations center, clarified that the flash floods
came from accumulated rain water in the
mountains that cascaded, not from swelling of adjacent rivers.
The four drowning victims are Cristina Veloria, 58; Sixto Veloria, 59; Susana Cabana,
3; and Trisha Cabana, 1 year old, who were
on board an outrigger (banca) that capsized.
Another infant, Jan Kerby Capena, died
after their house was pinned down by a tree
that fell in Barangay Ilog Malino in Bolinao.
The two others are Mauro Nuerong,
75, of Barangay Pampano, Mangatarem,
who was pinned down by a santol tree,
according to a report received by PDRRMO
from the Department of Interior and Local
Government; and Regina Sabangan, 80, of
Barangay Bongato, Bayambang, who suffered acute head injury when he tripped
while walking on slippery ground and
banged her head.
The injured were Alejandro Castillo, 57;
of Buayaen, Bayambang; Ariel Capena,
47,parents of Jan Kerby, of Ilog Malino,
Bolinao; Ismeralda Capena, 57, of Ilog
Malino, Bolinao; Ernesto Tenoso, 32, of
Pantal, Manaoag; Roderick Macasieb, 35,
of Pantal, Manaoag; and Gregorio de Guzman, 35, of Agno, Tayug.
The PDRRMO listed 68 other barangay
that were flooded in nine towns, namely
Bautista, Basista, Labrador, San Fabian,
Tayug, Calasiao, Santa Barbara, Rosales
and Bayambang.
As of Wednesday, evacuation was still continuing as floodwaters were rising in Santa
Barbara, Calasiao and Dagupan City because
of continuous swelling of the Sinocalan River.
total closure of both lanes of
Roxas Boulevard.
“This will assure the efficient
mobility of the APEC delegates
in our major thoroughfares, especially in Manila, Pasay and Makati
areas where the summit’s major
events will take place,” Emerson
Carlos, MMDA officer-in-charge,
said. RITCHIE A. HORARIO
Residents of Barangay Bued, Quesban
and other areas in Calasiao blamed the rising flood in their villages to a washed out
dike in Barangay Alibago, Santa Barbara.
San Roque Dam is spilling water downstream of the Agno River from its four gates
that were opened at one-half meter each or
two meters with an estimated discharge of
587 cubic meters per second in anticipation
of heavy inflow from upstream.
All national roads and other major thoroughfares in Pangasinan are still passable
except the Mangatarem national road from
barangay Talogtog to Bugtong Bunao,
Mabini-Burgos road, Caranglaan section;
and the Urdaneta-Barangay PinmaludpodCalasiao road, which is not passable by
all vehicles; and the Urdaneta-BarangayInamotan-Manaoag road (light vehicles).
The Central Pangasinan Electric Cooperative (Cenpelco) has restored power to
at least 40 to 50 percent of its household
consumers as it targets full restoration in
all its service areas by Friday.
Rod Corpuz, Cenpelco general manager,
said the National Grid Corporation of the
Philippines (NGCP) started restoration
of its sub-stations on Monday after the
typhoon toppled its lines.
Corpuz said at least 200 poles needed to
be transferred as the lines were damaged
by trees while some poles were leaning or
totally collapsed.
Bulacan
Residents of Calumpit (Bulacan) are moving their vehicles and valuables to higher
ground as “backfloods” coming from
Nueva Ecija and Pampanga began to flow
back to the town and nearby Hagonoy.
Calumpit and Hagonoy are known as the
perennial catch basins of “backfloods” everytime a strong typhoon hits Central Luzon.
As early 2 a.m. Wednesday, the floods
began submerging villages in this coastal
town, according to Provincial Disaster
Risk Reduction and Management Council
(PDRRMC) officer Liz Mungcal.
“The first report was that the floods were
up to leg high but after two hours, it went
up to knee deep, then up to the waist now
in Barangay Santo Nino,” Mungcal said.
She added that Gov. Wilhelmino SyAlvarado has ordered deployment of
rescue teams to help stranded residents
and move them to safer ground.
As of 9 a.m., at least 27 villages were
already submerged under 2 to 4 feet of
rising flood waters, Mungcal said.
Two villages in Hagonoy--Santo Niño
and San Juan--were also submerged under
two feet of rising floods.
Portions of Macarthur Highway, particularly from Barangay Iba-o-Este, were closed
to vehicular traffic because of rising floods.
Mungcal said Calumpit Mayor Jesse de
Jesus has requested the Manila Electric
Co. to cut off power in the flood-stricken
villages. With PNA
Almost a
millionaire
Quezon City policemen
haul Normil Bolong to jail
after his arrest for stealing
P2.4 million from a BPI
Automated Teller Machine
on Wednesday. Photo by
Miguel de Guzman
Business
Times
THURSDAY October 22, 2015
t Shanghai 3.06% s Singapore 0.22%
s
Seoul 0.18% s Tokyo 1.91%
s Jakar ta 0.42%
RBAP: Building
resiliency in
agriculture
t Hong Kong 0.32%
»B2
b
1
t Bangkok 0.15%
p e so - d o l l a r r at e : P 4 6 . 4 7 to $ 1 p h sto c ks : u p 0 . 4 5 p e r c e n t at 7 , 0 9 2 . 9 0 p o i n ts
WB: Financial literacy crucial
Peso falls
to P46.47
per dollar ‘The problem is more on the implementation side’
The peso stayed at two-week
low against the greenback on
Thursday, tracking regional
weakness amid better-thanexpected US housing data.
The currency weakened
to P46.47 to $1, losing 26
centavos from its P46.21
close on Tuesday. Wednesday’s finish was the weakest
since October 5, when the
peso slid to P46.48 to $1.
“ T h e p e s o wa s we a k e r
as other Asian currencies
we r e we a k e r. [ T h e ] c u r rency seems to be on track
to retest the P46.50-P46.70
levels,” Banco de Oro chief
market strategist Jonathan
Ravelas said.
We i g h i n g o n r e g i o n a l
currencies was data showing US housing starts up
6.5 percent to 1.206 million units in September,
surpassing expectations
of 1.142 million. Building
permits issued, however,
dropped by 5 percent to
1.103 million.
The local currency
opened at P46.35 to $1
on the Philippine Dealing
System (PDS) before trading between P46.33 and
P46.49.
Total volume transacted rose
to P1.101 billion from $712
million in the previous session.
MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO
By MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO
reporter
P
romoting financial literacy is
crucial in the Philippines, the World
Bank said on Wednesday, noting
that many Filipinos experience money
problems and that access to formal
institutions such as banks remain low.
In particular, 23 million adult
Filipinos or 55 percent reported
that their households run out of
money for food and other necessary items, a World Bank official
said during a briefing on its “En-
hancing Financial Capability and
Inclusion in the Philippines - A
Demand-side Assessment” survey.
Another finding was that half
of some 20 million Filipinos who
claimed to be saving money do not
have bank accounts.
The most commonly reported
obstacles to owning bank accounts were:
• not having enough money
(20 percent);
• lack of need for an account
(18 percent);
• lack of trust (17 percent);
• distance (16 percent);
• l a c k o f d o c u m e n t s ( 10
percent);
•“the bank doesn’t treat people
well” (9 percent); and
• high cost (9 percent).
Nataliya Mylenko, World Bank
senior financial sector specialist
Climate change fund launched
LOCAL government units and
community organizations may
soon access the P1-billion People’s
Survival Fund (PSF) for climate
change adaptation projects, the
Department of Finance (DOF) announced on Wednesday.
Created under Republic Act (RA)
10174, the PSF is envisioned to
enable the government to address
problems related to climate change.
The fund is intended for adaptation activities that cover land
and water resources management,
agriculture and fisheries, and
health, the DOF said, noting it
guarantees the risk insurance of
farmers, agricultural workers and
other stakeholders.
It will also be used to establish
regional centers and information
networks and strengthen existing
ones to support climate change
adaptation initiatives and projects
like forecasting and early warning
systems against, preventive measures, planning, preparedness and
management of impacts, including
contingency planning for droughts
and floods.
RA 10174 mandates the creation
of a board for strategic guidance
in managing and using the fund.
Headed by the Finance secretary, the board members will
include the vice chairperson of
the Climate Change Commission, Budget and Management
secretary, National Economic and
Development Authority director
general, Interior and Local Government secretary, chairperson
of the Philippine Commission
on Women, representatives from
the academe and scientific community, business sector, and
non-government organizations. “At present, the PSF board is finalizing details for the implementation of the fund,” the Finance
Department said
It said a call for proposal will
be available in the coming days
and requests for applications can
be sent to psf@climate.gov.ph.
“The Climate Change OfficeClimate Change Commission,
as secretariat to the PSF board, is
tasked to receive and pre-assess the
äFund launched B2
who supervised the survey, said an
overriding factor was the difficulty
in accessing financial services.
“Some of the constraints are
from documentary requirements
of financial institutions. The
Bangko Sental ng Pilipinas issued regulations to relax these
requirement but the financial
institutions do not implement
those regulations,” she said.
“The regulatory environment is
actually conducive but the problem is more on the implementation side. The reason why financial
institutions to not do it very often
is it all boils down to profit and
the cost of serving, especially in
remote areas. So the physical presence is quite difficult for them to
get into,” she added.
Mylenko said this indicated the
need to develop financial products
such as microdeposits that meet
the needs of consumers, particularly the lower-income groups.
“This suggests that there are significant opportunities for expanding financial inclusion among
low- and lower-income groups in
the Philippines,” she said.
“The bigger picture is basically
how do you move from cash to a
äLiteracy B2
n kritz from a1
Still a nuclear non-starter
All of this makes nuclear power,
at least under present circumstances, a poor fit for the Philippines, in
spite of its critical need to develop
more electric generating capacity
for the future. Nevertheless, the
Philippines has a nuclear plant,
one that has never operated as
such but could be brought to
operating condition. Whether it
should be is a question whose
answer has eluded the country for
more than 30 years.
According to the National Power Corporation (Napocor), which
is responsible for the plant, the
BNPP did at one time actually produce electricity, contrary to what is
ROUGH
TRADE
BEN KRITZ
commonly believed; during nonnuclear tests of its steam generation systems in the mid-1980s, the
plant was able to generate about
5 MW of electricity. The plant had
undergone year-long operating
testing in 1983-1984, and had
satisfactorily passed two IAEA
technical inspections in 1984 and
1985, after a number of defects
(which were largely typical of any
äKritz B4