News Roundup 07 July 2022
Jul 07, 2022 • 4 min Read
Farmers arrested at Hacienda Tinang ‘bungkalan’ want prosecutor axed | PHILSTAR.COM – Some of the farmers arrested at a land cultivation activity in June at Hacienda Tinang in Concepcion, Tarlac are asking the Department of Justice to fire the province’s acting prosecutor, accusing her of grave and serious misconduct, gross ignorance of the law, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service. In separate complaints filed Thursday before the DOJ, farmers said Mila Mae Montefalco, acting provincial prosecutor of Tarlac, conducted inquest proceedings “in an unreasonable, unfair, oppressive or discriminatory manner.” “During the inquest proceedings, Prosecutor Montefalco asked questions to all those who were arrested in a manner which shows her bias against us. Her questions were intended not to elicit facts, but to incriminate us of whatever crimes we were charged,” they said. They claimed that Montefalco had already concluded that they were guilty of the charges against them and even asked journalists covering the land cultivation activity why they did not prevent it from happening. The farmers, who are land reform beneficiaries, conducted a land cultivation activity or “bungkalan” in June “to prevent the illegal sales, transfers, and conversion” of the land that they own. Police, however, arrested 83 farmers, artists and journalists for this and filed several complaints against them, including malicious mischief and illegal assembly charges. Ultimately, Capas Municipal Trial Court junked the charges as it ruled it did not have any jurisdiction over what is ultimately an agrarian dispute, which the Department of Agrarian Reform has jurisdiction over. This, the farmers who lodged a complaint against Montefalco said, should have been recognized by the prosecutor, but instead she supposedly stated that she was once a lawyer for the DAR, knew what a land dispute case was and refused to refer the case to the department. “Her deliberate refusal to refer the cases to the DAR and to file information to the courts against us … betrays her gross and utter ignorance of the law and the Rules of Procedure or gross ignorance thereof, showing clear bias in favor of the complainants,” the farmers said. They said that Montefalco’s refusal to refer the case to the DAR led to their three-day detention in cramped cells until they were released on bail. The farmers also accused Montefalco of not providing their lawyer a copy of the police’s complaint, leaving them clueless as to what crimes they were being accused of. “That all told, Prosecutor Montefalco failed in her function as prosecutor,” they said. Pending investigation, the farmers are asking the DOJ to impose on Montefalco a preventive suspension on her without pay and benefits.
Suspect in grisly killing of missing woman in Bulacan arrested | INQUIRER.NET – Police arrested on Thursday the suspect in the gruesome killing of a 24-year-old woman who was initially reported missing. Col. Charlie Cabradilla, Bulacan police director, said they were already interrogating the suspect, who was identified as Darwin de Jesus, also known as “Darwin Hernandez,” a resident of Barangay Tabang. Guiguinto police arrested the suspect inside his mother’s house in Tabang around 3:45 p.m. Barangay Chairman Darsee Alvarez of Ilang-ilang said he received information that De Jesus was hiding in that house. De Jesus was tagged as the prime suspect in killing Princess Dianne Dayor, also a resident of Tabang, based on witnesses’ accounts. The body of Dayor, who worked at a shoe company in Pulilan town, was found by village officials and residents near a creek on the boundary of Barangay Tikay and Tabang in Guiguinto. Dayor was on her way to work around 5:30 a.m. on July 2 when the suspect robbed and strangled her to death.
DOTr chief names lawyer Karen Lim as OTS officer-in-charge | INQUIRER.NET – The Department of Transportation (DOTr) on Thursday announced the appointment of lawyer Karen Lim as the officer-in-charge of the department’s Office for Transportation Security (OTS). Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista appointed Lim through Special Order No. 2022-116 dated last Friday, July 1. According to the department, Lim is expected to “perform and discharge the functions and responsibilities as OIC of the OTS until July 31, 2022 or until a replacement has been appointed or designated, whichever comes first.” Lim has previously served as the OIC of the OTS Legal Service, the agency’s in-house legal arm, which has rendered advice, comments and opinion on laws and rules affecting DOTr operations. Aside from her, lawyer Romeo Vera Cruz was also named as one of the officers-in-charge under the department.
