News Roundup 07 January 2024
Jan 07, 2024 • 4 min Read
Acop wants no irregularity in PUV modernization: Not a whiff of corruption | INQUIRER.NET – MANILA, Philippines — A House committee is poised to look into the alleged anomalies and corruption regarding the government’s Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP) on Wednesday, Antipolo City Representative Romeo Acop has said.
Acop said he is currently in the process of securing the approval of House Committee on Transportation panel members to proceed with an investigation into the Department of Transportation’s (DOTr) PUVMP.
“We cannot allow corruption to take root in the implementation of the modernization program. If we are to proceed with the modernization of our PUVs, we must make sure there is not even a whiff of irregularity,” Acop, who is the chairman of the committee, said on Sunday.
The lawmaker’s statement comes following a directive from House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez to the transportation panel to ascertain if allegations of corruption in the PUVMP have bases.
“We are responding to the directive of Speaker Romualdez to investigate these very serious allegations. We will just get the consensus of members of the committee so we can start our hearings by Wednesday,” Acop said.
Full Story at: Acop: Let’s make sure no corruption in PUV modernization (inquirer.net)
Media group alarmed at PNP move vs rumor mills | INQUIRER.NET – MANILA, Philippines — Any attempts by the police to launch crackdowns on content creators they deemed behind moves to “destabilize” the Marcos administration should be a cause for public alarm, a media rights watchdog said on Saturday, fearing this may trample one’s freedom of speech.
Such an order by the Philippine National Police only presents itself as if it was an “arbiter of free expression” and should be viewed with alarm, according to the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR).
This was in response to Gen. Benjamin Acorda Jr., chief of the PNP, who ordered last week to hunt down content creators allegedly spreading disinformation across social media to “destabilize” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration.
The PNP said Acorda wants criminal complaints be filed against these content creators, whom they accused of peddling disinformation.
One example they cited was a YouTube channel that had content claiming that generals from the police and the military were allegedly joining forces to sign a manifesto asking the president to step down.
The YouTube channel being referred to is called “The General’s Opinion,” which, as of this writing, has 106,000 unverified subscribers and has video content containing rumors about the Marcos administration and videos about supposed rumblings within the administration’s circle.
Full Story at: Media group alarmed at PNP move vs rumor mills | Inquirer News
Taguig road rage: BI officer attacks cabbie | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — A Bureau of Immigration (BI) officer was arrested on Friday for reportedly punching a taxi driver in a road rage incident in Taguig.
Abumelhaq Linog, 41, was caught on closed-circuit television footage attacking taxi driver Celso delos Santos, 53, in front of a mall in Bonifacio Global City at around 5 p.m.
According to the Southern Police District (SPD), Linog and Delos Santos were driving along McKinley Parkway when the taxi driver allegedly cut into the lane of Delos Santos, who was driving a sport utility vehicle.
Linog had to quickly step on the brakes, causing his wife – who was in the front passenger seat – to nearly hit the dashboard, the SPD reported.
The BI officer got out of his vehicle and confronted Delos Santos.
Mall guards had tried to intervene, but Linog threw a container of juice at Delos Santos’ face, while Linog’s wife threw a bottle of water at the taxi driver, ABS-CBN reported.
Delos Santos said in Filipino that the suspect “must have thought I would attack his wife, so he punched me.”
Full Story at: Taguig road rage: BI officer attacks cabbie | Philstar.com
Villagers collect sardines swept by waves to Sarangani shores | PHILSTAR.COM – COTABATO CITY — A large volume of tiny sardines got swept by waves from the sea into beaches in Maasim town in Sarangani at dawn Sunday, a peculiar but normal phenomenon and for superstitious villagers, a sign of good tidings this year.
Barangay officials in Tinoto in Maasim town helped oversee the collection of what fishery experts called juvenile pelagic sardines for all to have enough shares, particularly their marginalized constituents.
The so-called beaching of fishes at shorelines is caused by sudden changes in sea temperature and wave directions and lack of planktons to feed on.
“This is a blessing from God. We are thankful to God for this,” a villager, Allan Gomez Dionaldo, 28, told reporters in Filipino.
He and his neighbors had collected at least five pails of tiny sardines each at the beach in Barangay Tinoto.
Full Story at: Villagers collect sardines swept by waves to Sarangani shores | Philstar.com
