News Roundup 23 December 2022
Dec 23, 2022 • 5 min Read
Bantag backs COA audit amid corruption allegations – lawyer | PHILSTAR.COM – The lawyer of suspended Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) director general Gerald Bantag yesterday said that his client is “open” to a special audit by the Commission on Audit (COA) amid corruption allegations. In an interview aired over CNN Philippines yesterday, Rocky Balisong said that BuCor officer-in-charge Gregorio Catapang Jr. could go to the COA because it is the proper action for him. Balisong said they would be waiting for the copy of a filed complaint so they would know the details. Catapang earlier said they are eyeing to file plunder cases against Bantag and other BuCor officials after the former BuCor administration supposedly gave P1 billion to construct four buildings. The funds were already 95 percent withdrawn, but the buildings are only 60 percent built. Meanwhile, Balisong reiterated that his client will not go out of the country and just stay in the Philippines. The justice department had placed him and other suspects of the murder of radio broadcaster Percy Lapid (Percival Mabasa) under immigration lookout bulletin order. “It’s just a lookout. It’s very clear from the immigration lookout that it is not actually a hindrance for them to travel or go abroad if they wish to,” he said. “The question is, can they go out of the country? Why not, that is their constitutional right… (But,) no. He will just be here in the Philippines,” he added He said in jest that he is even asking Bantag to go to Hong Kong just to see whether or not they will be blocked at immigration. “But, they will not do that. That is not the purpose of the lookout. Yes, he will just stay here,” Balisong said.
Six indicted for kidnapping, serious illegal detention of sabungeros | PHILSTAR.COM – Kidnapping and serious illegal detention charges are set to be filed against six individuals for their involvement in the kidnapping of “sabungeros” (cockfighting players), the Department of Justice said Friday. A panel of prosecutors found probable cause to indict Julie Patidongan, Gleer Codilla, Mark Carlo Zabala, Virgilio Bayog, Johnry Consolacion and Roberto Matillano Jr. for six counts of kidnapping and serious illegal detention under Article 267 of the Revised Penal Code. According to the DOJ, the panel found that the six respondents “conspired in kidnapping and depriving the liberty” of victims John Claude Inonog, James Baccay, Marlon Baccay, Rondel Cristorum, Mark Joseph Velasco and Rowel Gomes. The victims left Tanay, Rizal at around 1 a.m. on January 13 to join a 6-cock stag derby in Manila Arena. They were forced to board a gray van at around 7:30 p.m. and were never seen again. The respondents denied the accusations, arguing that their individual participation in the disappearance of sabungeros was not specifically alleged and that witnesses have no personal knowledge of the crime. “The panel gave scant consideration to the defense of the respondents in light of the positive identification and credible testimonies of the complainants’ witnesses,” the DOJ said. Complainant Venancio Inonog, the father of one of the victims, testified his son informed him that they were forced to board a van against their will, and identified respondents Bayog, Consolacion and Matillano. A witness named Denmark Sinfuego said he saw the respondents capture victims Cristorum, Gomez, and Velasco. The DOJ said the information or charge sheet against these respondents will be filed before the Regional Trial Court of Manila City. The justice department earlier announced that it will file kidnapping and robbery charges against three Philippine National Police officers who were implicated in the abduction of sabungeros.
Broken promises: Saudi OFWs demand unpaid claims | INQUIRER.NET – Amid a pile of documents on the kitchen table, Jasmin Pascual became anxious as she studied each paper carefully, checking it against the list of requirements. As she has done this process many times, she prayed, “God, please, I hope we get it this time.” Pascual’s father, Carmelino, was one of 11,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) displaced from Saudi Arabia from 2015 to 2017 when an oil price crash hit the country, leaving the employers, mostly construction companies, unable to pay them for years’ worth of labor and other work benefits. In 2017, while still unpaid for six months and waiting for the money that never came, Carmelino died in Jeddah. The case of Carmelino Pascual and thousands of other OFWs was raised in a Nov. 18 meeting between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and President Marcos on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bangkok. The Saudi prince pledged P30.5 billion in payment for the claims of the displaced OFWs, including the late Pascual. But it wasn’t the first time the Saudi government made the pledge. In October 2021, former Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said his Saudi counterpart, then Labor Minister Ahmed al-Rajhi, offered to pay P4.6 billion for the claims of 11,000 OFWs by December 2021. This was in exchange for lifting the suspension on Arab recruitment agencies that were responsible for the deployment of the displaced OFWs. “But up to the time I left the department, they still weren’t paid, so the suspension remained,” Bello told the Inquirer. The suspension was lifted last September under President Marcos. Roy Ecraela, special assistant of the Department of Foreign Affairs Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs, said this was in exchange for adding more wage protection for the OFWs’ contracts. “We decided to go for what has already been agreed upon rather than do a deal breaker because if we insist on it (payment of claims), we might not get the other (deals) we have agreed to,” Ecraela said. But the Saudi Oger Pinoy Claimants (SOPC), a group of displaced OFWs, was not happy to hear this. Saudi Oger was one of the construction companies that left the workers unpaid. “Why would they lift the ban when that’s the only leverage we had?,” Joseph, one of the group’s committee members, told the Inquirer. In the past seven years, Joseph said his group had repeatedly received assurances and nothing more from their former employers and government officials to prevent them taking their gripes to the streets. “They always do that when we say we’re going to do a rally. They get worried of course, there’s more than 8,000 of us from Saudi Oger demanding this,” Joseph revealed. Claimants like Joseph expect to get paid by February next year, but he said: “If March comes and we still don’t get paid, we’ll push through with our Edsa Shrine (protest). We’re 8,000 from Saudi Oger alone, along with our families.”
