Day: May 30, 2023

The camp of former senator Leila de Lima said Tuesday it will ask the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court (RTC) to disregard the motion for reconsideration (MR) filed by prosecutors asking for a second look on her acquittal. The MR is a ‘mere scrap of paper’ because the proceedings in the criminal case have already been concluded with finality with the judgment of acquittal, de Lima lawyer Boni Tacardon told reporters through Viber. “De Lima’s defense team will be filing a motion to expunge the MR,’ Tacardon said. ‘Nothing short of a Supreme Court decision reopening the case can vest the judge with jurisdiction anew to alter a judgment of acquittal which is final and executory immediately, hence unappealable, whether by MR with the trial court or appeal to a higher court.” The de Lima camp is awaiting a ruling on their request for bail in another Muntinlupa court trying the remaining charge — tolerating the drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City when she was still justice secretary. On May 12, the Muntinlupa RTC dropped the case of conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading against de Lima, related to her alleged involvement in shady deals at the NBP. After key witness and former Bureau of Corrections deputy director Rafael Ragos recanted his testimonies last year, presiding judge Joseph Alcantara of Branch 204 said reasonable doubt was cast on the guilt of the 63-year-old de Lima, who has been under detention since February 2017. ‘Under the circumstances of this case, the testimony of witness Ragos is necessary to sustain any possible conviction. Without his testimony, the crucial link to establish conspiracy is shrouded with reasonable doubt,” the court said. The prosecution claimed proceeds from the sale of illegal drugs were delivered to de Lima in two tranches of PHP5 million on Nov. 24 and Dec. 15, 2012. Ragos and intelligence agent Jovencio Ablen were initially presented as witnesses but the judge noted that only the former claimed knowledge of the supposed source of the money.

Source: Philippines News Agency

The Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) opened a bigger office to accommodate the growing number of members in Antique on Tuesday. The inauguration of the new office inside Robinsons Place mall in the municipality of San Jose de Buenavista was graced by Pag-IBIG Fund chief executive officer Marilene Acosta, deputy chief executive officer Alexander Hilario Aguilar and Board of Trustees’ Cornelio Aldon. Acosta said that currently, they have 15,000 members in the province since the branch opened in Dec. 2019. ‘The Pag-IBIG branch in Antique now targets to have 25,000 active members by December of this year,’ Acosta said in her message during the inauguration program. The agency used to occupy a smaller place at the mall’s one-stop-shop, just enough to accommodate four tables. The branch is now serving around 200 clients daily. Aguilar thanked the mall for providing a bigger space where employees and members could conveniently transact. Antique Governor Rhodora Cadiao, meantime, urged for a satellite office in Culasi to serve members in the northern part. ‘The opening of the new Pag-IBIG office is a positive change happening in our province,’ she said in her message. She said Antique members used to travel to Iloilo City for their transactions. Lester Mark Yee, managing director of the Esprutingkle Group of Companies employing 800 staff through its 116 branches nationwide, said the branch enabled them to remit the contributions of their workers in Antique. ‘The Pag-IBIG branch in Antique is helping the economy of the province because of the remittance,’ he said.

Source: Philippines News Agency

The dream headquarters of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is expected to be completed in 2026. NBI Director Medardo de Lemos led the groundbreaking on Tuesday at the old site at the corner of UN and Taft Avenues in Ermita, Manila, where the new PHP2.5 billion, 12-story headquarters will rise. The new NBI building will have three towers, a multilevel parking level lot, a dormitory for transient agents and employees, gymnasium, shooting range and forensic equipment laboratory. ‘We leave in the old building the treasure of our memories,’ said De Lemos. ‘Almost two generations of NBI agents and personnel and employees have been housed and stayed in this building.’ In 2019, the NBI headquarters was declared unfit by the Manila local government and employees relocated to the V-Tech Tower in Araneta Avenue, Quezon City. As early as 2015, the 49-year-old building was already condemned by the Department of Public Works and Highways. The new building to be built on the nearly 50,000-square-meter property ‘will give way to the coming of a more modern, better, and more comfortable working environment for all of us,’ De Lemos told the media. He said construction can now finally proceed ‘through our friends and supporters’ at the Senate and the House of Representatives. ‘We have dreamed of this for so many years and it was only last year that this dream would come into realization when they funded initially the project for PHP450 million,’ De Lemos said. The NBI will likewise construct a three-story building in Legazpi City, Albay that will also serve as training center for aspiring agents.

Source: Philippines News Agency

An entrapment operation resulted in the arrest of two persons illegally recruiting individuals for the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) in Isabela City, Basilan province, police said Tuesday. In a report to the Police Regional Office in the Zamboanga Peninsula, the Isabela City Police Station (ICPS) identified the arrested suspects as Yazier Tanji Balling, 32, and Rodel Alegre Lagayan, 44. The ICPS said the two were arrested around 7:15 p.m. Monday at a hotel in Barangay Binuangan, Isabela City. It said the suspects were arrested after they received a bundle of PHP90,000 boodle money topped with one genuine PHP1,000 used as marked money from an undercover PCG personnel who posed as an applicant. A team of PCG and police operatives launched the entrapment after receiving a report about the duo’s alleged illegal activity. The suspects were taken to the Isabela City Police Station for the filing of an estafa case or swindling, which is punishable under Article 315 of the Revised Penal Code. The PCG has advised applicants to report to the Coast Guard Human Resource Management Command or Coast Guard Intelligence Force should anyone approach them offering to hasten the process of their application papers in exchange for cash.

Source: Philippines News Agency