News Roundup 13 September 2022
Sep 13, 2022 • 4 min Read
Senate minority: Rodriguez ‘not blameless’ in sugar mess but no raps recommended | PHILSTAR.COM – In its separate report on the Senate Blue Ribbon committee’s investigation into an unauthorized sugar importation order, the chamber’s two-member minority bloc cleared key personalities involved in the fiasco from any administrative and criminal charges, including Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez whom they said is “not entirely blameless.” While the minority bloc, composed of Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III and Sen. Risa Hontiveros, found Rodriguez to be partly at fault for the botched sugar importation — mainly due to his admitted refusal to reply to queries by former Agriculture Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian — it did not recommend any charges against him. “We will not recommend charges against the executive secretary,” Pimentel told a news briefing partly in Filipino. “Actually, my staff and I discussed if there are violations of any criminal provisions. I said, ‘Let’s not look for any.’ Let this just be on their conscience.” Hontiveros said they are leaving the filing of any charges against Rodriguez over the sugar mess to law enforcement but stressed that he should be accountable “at least on the moral level.” The minority’s report counters the findings of the Blue Ribbon panel in its report signed by 14 of its 17 members, which recommended the filing of administrative and criminal charges, including graft and smuggling raps, against former Agriculture Undersecretary Sebastian, former Sugar Regulatory Administration administrator Hermenegildo Serafica, and SRA board members Roland Beltran and Aurelio Gerardo Valderrama Jr. Pimentel and Hontiveros said in their report that Sebastian, Serafica, Beltran and Valderrama acted in good faith and that the charges recommended against them by a majority of the senators lacked factual and legal basis. The two senators dismissed the recommended graft charges against the four as “mere surmise or conjecture” as there was no evidence which would point to who benefited or stood to benefit from the issuance of the controversial Sugar Order No. 4. The order would have allowed the importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar had it not been struck down by Malacañang for supposedly lacking the approval of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who also holds the agriculture portfolio.
LTO, Dermalog vow to fix sluggish online systems | INQUIRER.NET – The Land Transportation Office (LTO) and its IT provider Dermalog on Tuesday vowed to address the issues hounding its licensing and registration systems, which have caused a slowdown in transactions during the past weeks. In a joint statement, the two parties promised to resolve the problems experienced by the motoring public and improve business processes and customer service offered by the LTO. Dermalog also assured the public that it is exerting efforts to help the LTO in resolving the issues and make the processes even more responsive and adaptive. Dermalog commits to deploy its support staff in LTO offices and virtually to educate and assist the public in using LTMS public portal. “Asec. Teofilo Guadiz III and Dermalog agreed to support each other to improve customer experience and improve business processes with LTO’s LTMS. The convenience of the motoring public in using the LTMS and transacting with the LTO is what is important,” said Dermalog spokesperson Atty. Nikki de Vega in the statement. It can be recalled that Dermalog previously pointed to a “network issue” within the LTO as the cause of the slowdown of the Land Transportation Management Systems (LTMS), further noting that it may possibly be a sabotage. Meanwhile, the two parties also announced that it is already pursuing the activation of the Motor Vehicle Registration Information System (MVRIS), which both the LTO and Dermalog said could help in reducing the long lines in various LTO offices.
Over P53M cash, forfeited assets of ex-AFP Comptroller Garcia turned over to Treasury | INQUIRER.NET – The Office of the Ombudsman has turned over to the Bureau of Treasury over P53 million in cash and 11 Transfer Certificate of Titles (TCT) forfeited assets of former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Comptroller Carlos Garcia. Garcia was criminally charged with separate cases of plunder and money laundering for conspiring with co-accused, including family members, to amass alleged ill-gotten wealth in the form of funds, landholdings, and other real and personal properties in the aggregate amount of over P303.2 million. However, only Garcia was arraigned for both cases, eventually consolidated, to which he pleaded not guilty. In 2010, Garcia entered into a plea bargaining agreement with the Office of the Special Prosecutor, which was approved and signed by then Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez. As agreed, Garcia withdrew his plea of not guilty to the crime of plunder and offered to enter a guilty plea to the lesser offense of indirect bribery. He also offered to enter a plea of guilty to the lesser offense of facilitating money laundering as he withdrew his not guilty plea to the money laundering charges.
