Authorities said 810 barangays in Cebu Province are affected by illegal drugs this year.
That
is more than 75 percent of the province’s 1,066 barangays, according to
the data of the Cebu Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Office (CPADAO) and the
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency
The drug affectation rate this year, though, is lower compared to the 90 percent affection recorded in 2016.
Of
the 810 barangays, 14 are seriously affected by the drug problem, 403
are moderately affected and 393 are slightly affected, said CPADAO
executive director Ivy Meca.
She said 11 barangays are not
infested with illegal drugs. The regional oversight committee, led by
PDEA, also gave drug-cleared statuses to 245 barangays.
Meca presented her report during the year-end assessment of Capitol’s departments.
She said not a single drug-cleared barangay has been stripped of its status.
She
said they’ve been monitoring these barangays and the CPADAO points out
any mistake that these barangays need to correct to keep their status.
Source of news: SunStar Cebu
Photo Credit, Cebu Provincial Capitol Bldg.: cebu.gov.ph
(Editor's Note: This is a follow-up story on an earlier COA probe which came out in the leading dailies.)
The Department of the Interior and Local Government has cleared the
Manila City Government of the 27 “nonexistent” barangays in the city
that allegedly received real property tax shares amounting to P108.733
million after they were flagged by the Commission on Audit.
The investigation released by the DILG-Manila Field Office under Atty.
Rolynne Javier revealed that the barangays identified and questioned by
COA were actually existing with temporary barangay names and codes.
The DILG also said the fund of the so called “Barangay 10” which
received P365,000 in tax shares remains intact and has been deposited to
the City’s Trust Fund Account.
Interior department officials said, the City of Manila, which has 896
barangays recognized by their numerical numbers, were not yet officially
classified as such by the DILG.
Barangay numbers in Manila go from 1 to 905, including the dissolved barangays with sub-A markings.
Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada was relieved by the DILG report.
Saying he was pleased by the investigation, he added his administration
will not resort to any anomaly to pocket public funds.
Estrada said he will fulfill his promise to rid the city of its
financial liabilities and claimed that under his watch he will continue
to make the city debt-free.
Source of news: The Manila Standard
Photo credit, the Manila City Hall: Rappler
An estimated 2,349 Barangay Service Point Officers (BSPOs) are
holding a congress today at the Iloilo Sports Complex in Magsaysay
Village, La Paz, Iloilo City.
The congress’ theme is “BSPO, Malipayon nga Nagaserbisyo Boluntaryo.”
The 2,349 BSPOs are serving 1,721 barangays of the province.
According
to Provincial Population Office (PPO) head Ramon Yee, the congress is a
venue for BSPOs to exchange views, share best practices and strengthen
ties.
BSPOs help implement various programs of the provincial government,
and particularly the PPO. They gather demographic data every month such
as the population of the barangays, number of births and deaths, number
of overseas workers, etc.
BSPOs also help the PPO record the number of out-of-school youths, cases of teen pregnancies and deliveries.
According
to Yee, these data are valuable. Local governments can use them to plan
and implement programs and projects to address local concerns such as
poverty.
BSPOs do these as volunteers not receiving monthly compensation, said
Yee, thus it is only fitting that their volunteerism is recognized.
BSPOs
only receive honoraria from the barangays where they serve. Each
December, the provincial government releases cash allowance to them.
This year (next month) each of them are set to receive P4,000 each.
In today’s congress, they would be given materials to aid in their work such as notebooks, pens and staplers.
Source of news: Panay News
Barangay councils should make sure that their helpdesks
for abused women are functional, a social welfare official said.
“Abuses
against women continue. Barangay councils should be the first
responders,” said May Rago, information officer of the Department of
Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Western Visayas.
DSWD is leading an 18-day campaign to end violence against women (VAW) from Nov. 25 to Dec. 15.
Villages (barangays) in Western Visayas should ensure that their
desks for victims of Violence Against Women (VAW) are functional, a
social welfare official said here Friday.
"We have to acknowledge
that the occurrence of abuses against women continues to happen and the
barangay should be the first responder to victims,” May Rago,
Information Officer of the Department of Social Welfare and Development
(DSWD) 6 (Western Visayas), said in the light of the 18-day campaign to
end VAW in the country from Nov. 25 until December 15.
According
to Rago, the presence of VAW desks in villages is essential because it
provides opportunity for women victims to report the abuses.
“It
should be reported to prevent it because if it will not be reported,
your partner would think that it is normal and more likely, he will
repeat the violence,” she said.
Rago also encouraged women to seek
help from their local social welfare and development office and members
of the Philippine National Police.
She stressed that every abuse
against women is alarming and should not be tolerated because it is
against the right of the person.
The DSWD has established a
Regional Center for Women to provide protective and rehabilitative
services among women survivors of abuse and violence and help them
resolve their problems and restore their normal social functioning.
Located at New Lucena, Iloilo, the center caters to 21 women, nine of whom are survivors of VAW.
They
are provided with social, home life, educational, psychological,
health, entrepreneurial, recreational, developmental and spiritual
services.
Source of News: Philippine News Agency
Photo credit: YouTube
Barangay officials of two pre-dominantly Muslim communities in
Zamboanga City were questioned by members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod
over their respective resolutions petitioning for their inclusion in the
soon to be Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (BAR).
In the resolutions
of Barangays Busay and Landang Gua in Sacol Island, which lies a few
kilometers from the eastern coast of the city, majority of the two
villages’ officials purportedly ask the Commission on Elections to
include their barangays in the coming January 2019 plebiscite to ratify
the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL).
Their separate resolution has been filed with the central office of Comelec recently.
The
petitions immediately raised hackles of city residents because in three
previous plebiscites, they overwhelmingly rejected inclusion in the
Muslim autonomous government, and their general sentiments remain
unchanged despite the passage of the new BOL that would transform and
enlarge the present Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) into the
new BAR.
During the city council hearing held on Nov. 19, Antonio
Abdullah, barangay chairman of Busay, denied that he and his seven
councilors held a session last October 21, during which they approved
the purported resolution.
He and his councilmen added that their signatures in the document were forged.
On
the other hand, the councilors of Landang Gua admitted that they
affixed their signatures on the resolution when it was passed around.
They were, however, told that the document was a petition for the
construction of a water system and solar panels in their island
barangay.
During the public hearing, one of the barangay officials
lamented that their island is underserved in terms of these basic
utilities.
While village officials of Busay admitted to be
clueless where the resolution attributed to them originated, the
officials of Landang Gua said a certain Usman Isnani masterminded their
questionable petition.
Isnani, who was present in the hearing,
said he acted on behalf of his brother Ben, who was declared winner of
last year’s barangay elections by Comelec by virtue of an election
protest he had filed against the proclaimed winner Banjamin Abdullah,
who currently holds the office.
However, the latter in turn filed an appeal to the Comelec and no final resolution has been issued.
Under the BOL, local political units contiguous to any of its
enumerated territories may appeal to join the BAR through participation
in the January plebiscite.
BOL’s Article III, Section 2 (f)
states: “All other contiguous areas where a resolution of the local
government unit or a petition of at least ten percent (10%) of the
registered voters in the area seeks for their inclusion at least two (2)
months prior to the conduct of the ratification of this Organic Law. . .
The establishment of the territorial jurisdiction of the Bangsamoro
Autonomous Region shall take effect upon ratification of this Organic
Law by majority of the votes cast in the above- mentioned territorial
jurisdiction in a plebiscite conducted for the purpose: Provided, That
in all cases, the political units directly affected shall vote favorably
in the plebiscite, as provided in Section 3, Article XV of this Organic
Law.”
Article XV, Section 3 (f) states: “Any other contiguous
area where there is a resolution of the local government unit or a
petition of at least ten percent (10%) of the registered voters in the
local government unit asking for its inclusion at least two (2) months
prior to the conduct of the ratification of this Organic Law shall form
part of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region if the majority of the votes
cast in the political units directly affected shall be in favor of the
inclusion of the petitioning local government unit in the Bangsamoro
Autonomous Region.”
There is, however, no definition in the BOL
itself what consists a contiguous area, although there are offshore
measurements of its territorial waters.
The Sangguniang investigative public hearing was conducted by the Committee on Ordinance chaired by Councilor Cesar Jimenez.
Forged documents
Towards
the end of the four-hour session, he warned that those found
responsible for forging the resolutions could face criminal charges like
falsification of public documents.
When the report of the hearing
is accomplished, the SP will seek the aid of the city government’s
legal office for such action, he said.
After learning about the
existence of the barangays’ resolutions, the city hall issued a
statement stating that Mayor Beng Climaco “calls on all Zamboanguenos-
Christians, Muslims or Lumads - to stand united and strongly oppose any
move to dismember the territorial integrity of the city.”
"Zamboanga City should never form part nor be included in the Bangsamoro, now or ever,” she said in the statement.
Councilor
Jihan Edding said she believes the resolutions will not prosper in the
Comelec because of their infirmities and lack of supporting documentary
requirements like an SP resolution attesting them.
Zamboanga
City District I Rep. Celso Lobregat, a member of the Congressional
bicameral committee that gave the BOL its final form and enactment
approval, warned that if Comelec will act favorably on the barangays’
resolutions, then Zamboanga City will be included in the January
plebiscite to ratify the BOL despite that the law excluded the city from
its specified mandated territory.
The controversial resolutions,
however, seem to indicate that some Muslim residents of the city aspire
to become constituents of BAR.
Source of news and photo credit: Philippine News Agency
:
The Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC) had cleared former Apas
barangay captain Ramil Ayuman of the carnapping case filed by then
acting mayor Margarita Osmeña in 2016.
In his decision, MTCC
Judge Oscar Andrino said there was no sufficient evidence to convict
Ayuman, who later won as barangay councilor of Barangay Apas in the last
elections.
“Premises considered, judgment is hereby rendered,
finding the accused, Ramil V. Ayuman, not guilty of the crime of
violation of Art. 221, paragraph 2, of the Revised Penal Code for
failure of the prosecution to prove the guilt of said accused beyond
reasonable doubt,” a portion of the ruling read.
Ayuman and his
lawyers welcomed the decision. He is the second barangay captain next to
Aana Tabal of Barangay Tagba-o who the MTCC cleared for lack of
evidence.
“I thank the court for the favorable decision, although
I expected that the decision would be like this since there was no
malice involved in the first place,” said Ayuman on the delayed return
of the vehicle to City Hall in May 2016.
Ayuman, who is running
for Cebu City Councilor in next year’s elections, hopes the court will
also resolve his case against Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña who allegedly
used the Dodge car a businessman donated to the City.
My message to Mayor Tommy and Margot, to
the Ombudsman and the Office of the President is for them to hasten the
resolution on the Dodge Charger which was a clear violation since the
mayor accepted it from the businessman,” said Ayuman.
Osmeña’s
case against Ayuman stemmed from the latter’s delay in returning the
City’s vehicle on May 24, 2016, when the Department of General Services
had an inventory of all City Government vehicles.
Ayuman returned the vehicle on May 31, 2016 after he received the memorandum the mayor sent.
In March 2017, the fiscal filed the case at the MTCC and Ayuman pleaded not guilty on April 27, 2017.
Source of news: SunStar Cebu
Photo credit: Philippine Star
Designated information officers in their respective barangays
gathered on Nov. 15 for a communicators writeshop/training under the
E-Power Mo campaign of the Department of Energy (DOE).
The city has 70 barangays, and each barangay sent a kagawad or the
punong barangay himself to be the barangay information officer (BIO),
while some personnel for city offices were also present to represent
their heads.
Invited speakers were from the Southern Leyte Electric Cooperative (SOLECO) who were tapped in behalf of the DOE.
In the morning, several topics were thoroughly discussed by the
SOLECO personnel, including power-saving tips, know your cooperative,
and patronage credit, among others, while some technical matters were
also raised during the open forum.
BIOs then went on a writeshop in the afternoon, so they can practice
writing news stories about developments that happened in their
barangays, or from the topics Soleco personnel earlier discussed.
This was the second gathering of information officers of the city,
the first was last month, in which they were taught on writing a
one-sentence news lead.
This time they were taught basic tips other than lead sentence or
paragraph, such as the support lead, details, and backgrounder, to
complete a five or six-sentence news story, in a one sentence, one
paragraph format. (Marcelo M. Pedalino)
Source of news and photo: Philippine Information Agency.
