News Roundup 29 February 2024
Feb 29, 2024 • 5 min Read
Marcos appoints Rogelio Quevedo as new PCGG commissioner | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has appointed to the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) former government corporate counsel Rogelio Quevedo — an information technology expert who previously questioned the results of the 2016 vice presidential elections.
The Presidential Communications Office on Thursday announced Quevedo as the new commissioner of a body whose main mandate is to recover the ill-gotten wealth plundered by Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and his family.
Before his appointment, Quevedo was part of the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC), which served as “a strong foundation to his subsequent appointment as Commissioner of the PCGG,” said Jesus Crispin Remulla, secretary of the Department of Justice, the parent agency of the PCGG.
In 2016, Quevedo called for an independent investigation of the results of the vice presidential elections where Marcos narrowly lost to former Vice President Leni Robredo, flagging what he said were concerning changes to the automated election system during the polls.
During a Kapihan sa Manila Hotel forum that year, Quevedo and political science professor Antonio Contreras said that Robredo may have benefited from the anomaly caused by the Smartmatic technician who allegedly tweaked the system’s hash code without authorization, according to media reports.
Commissioners of the PCGG not only identify and investigate the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth, but are also responsible for initiating court action and other remedies to recover these. In a 2021 report by the Commission on Audit, the body was flagged for its “laxity in the monitoring and recovery efforts” of ill-gotten assets.
Full Story at: Marcos appoints Rogelio Quevedo as new PCGG commissioner | Philstar.com
Red-tagger Badoy guilty of indirect contempt over red tagging of Manila judge | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court (SC) imposed a fine of P30,000 on Lorraine Badoy, former spokesperson of the government’s anti-communist insurgency agency, National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), after red-tagging a Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) judge.
In a 51-page decision by the high court’s En Banc, Badoy was found guilty of indirect contempt due to her multiple insults and a death threat on her Facebook page against Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar of Manila RTC Branch 19 after the judge denied the petition of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to proscribe the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) as terrorists.
On Sept. 21, 2022, Magdoza-Malagar denied the petition of the DOJ to proscribe the CPP-NPA as terrorists under the Human Security Act of 2007.
The Human Security Act was repealed by the highly-contested Anti-Terrorism Law in 2020. Both laws faced scrutiny from human rights groups and legal experts due to some overreaching powers given to some government agencies in the determination of individuals or organizations as terrorists.
In convicting Badoy, the high court said that her pronouncements claiming that Magdoza-Malagar has ties with the communist insurgency and had help from the CPP-NPA in crafting the decision threatened the impartiality of the judiciary.
“Contrary to respondent’s allegation, her posts made on Sept. 23, 2022 and Sept. 25, 2022 constitute ‘improper conduct tending, directly or indirectly, to impede, obstruct, or degrade the administration of justice’ — which equates to indirect contempt,” the court’s decision read.
“These statements constitute conduct that ‘tends to bring the authority of the court and the administration of law into disrepute or in some manner to impede the due administration of justice,’ it added.
Full Story at: Red-tagger Badoy guilty of indirect contempt over red tagging of Manila judge | Philstar.com
Comelec: Around 750,000 new registrants for 2025 elections | INQUIRER.NET – MANILA, Philippines — Commission of Elections (Comelec) Chairperson George Garcia said on Thursday that around 750,000 people have already registered for the 2025 midterm elections.
“As of yesterday (Wednesday), mga 750,000 na po yung napaparehistro natin na kababayan natin,” Garcia said in an ambush interview.
(As of Wednesday, around 750,000 Filipinos have already registered.)
The official also expressed surprise with the number of people that registered for the elections, because according to Garcia, compared to the previous years, only a few people registered in the first few days or weeks of the registration period.
“Actually po napaka-unusual niyan, talagang extraordinary at nagulat kami noong nakakaraang registration namin, mga unang araw, unang linggo hindi masyadong kinakagat, hindi masyadong pumupunta mga kababayan natin, pero sa kasalukuyan ay sobrang dami na po ang pumupunta na po sa mga registration sites,” he added.
(Actually, that’s unusual and extraordinary, and we were astonished because in the previous registrations, only a few people showed up in the first few days or weeks, but now, so many people are going to our registration sites.)
Full Story at: Comelec: Around 750,000 new registrants for 2025 elections (inquirer.net)
Man allegedly abducted in Batangas surrendered to military, police say | INQUIRER.NET – MANILA, Philippines — A police official said on Thursday that the 27-year-old man seen in a video allegedly being abducted in Batangas surrendered to the military in Sorsogon last February 23.
In a phone interview with INQUIRER.net, Santo Tomas police chief Lieutenant Colonel Rodel Ban-o identified the alleged kidnapping victim as Jose Marie Estiller.
Ban-o said they received a report about the purported abduction from the owner of the apartment Estiller and his sister were renting along Barangay San Pedro.
CCTV footage showed Estiller walking towards their unit when five armed men in civillian clothes suddenly took him, which also matched the apartment owner’s report.
Full Story at: Man allegedly abducted in Batangas surrendered to military—police (inquirer.net)
