News Roundup 11 June 2022
Jun 11, 2022 • 3 min Read
PNP to enforce face mask rule in Cebu despite Garcia’s order | INQUIRER.NET – The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Saturday said it will continue to enforce the mandatory wearing of face masks in Cebu province despite the order of Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia to make its use in public areas voluntary. The PNP said it will continue to enforce the directive given by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). Interior Secretary Eduardo Año on Friday said the DILG “does not recognize” Garcia’s executive order as he ordered the PNP to “continue to confront, apprehend, and arrest, if necessary” all violators in Cebu of the minimum public health standards as ordered by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases. “DILG has already given a clear directive for concerned agencies and LGUs to continue implementing measures that impose observance to Minimum Public Health Standards under different Alert Levels,” the PNP said in a statement. “Thus, the PNP will continue to enforce the standing orders and directives against those violators of the facemask rule,” it added.
Robredo denounces arrest of over 90 farmers, advocates in Tarlac | INQUIRER.NET – Outgoing Vice President Leni Robredo has decried the mass arrest of over 90 agrarian reform beneficiaries and land reform advocates at Hacienda Tinang in Concepcion, Tarlac province. “Ilang bagay ang malinaw: Mapayapa ang naganap na pagtitipon. Walang ibang layunin ang mga magsasaka kundi ang magbigay ng maayos na pamumuhay sa kanilang mga pamilya. Pumunta roon ang kanilang mga tagasuporta upang makiisa at tumulong,” she said in a statement issued Saturday. Several things are clear here: the gathering was done peacefully. The farmers had no other intentions but to provide for their families. Their supporters were there to join and help them.) Robredo also amplified the call to properly resolve the issue without neglecting the rights of the arrested individuals. “Umaasa kaming igagalang ang kanilang karapatang pantao, itatrato sila bilang kapwa-Pilipinong may dignidad, at magkakaroon ng makatarungang resolusyon ang insidenteng ito sa lalong madaling panahon,” she stressed. (We expect that their rights will be respected, that they will be treated as fellow Filipinos with dignity, and that there will be a just resolution to this incident as soon as possible.) Various groups and advocates have likewise denounced the mass arrest, saying that the incident was a form of “harassment and intimidation” by police authorities.
Makati prosecutors junk sedition complaint vs Bohol journalist, two others | PHILSTAR.COM – Local prosecutors in Makati City junked the sedition complaint filed by outgoing Bohol Gov. Arthur Yap against three individuals, including an editor of The Bohol Chronicle. Yap earlier filed a complaint-affidavit against Makati-based businessman Emmanuel Ramasola, former Tagbilaran City Mayor Dan Neri Lim and The Bohol Chronicle associate editor and DYRD radio station manager Peter Dejaresco for allegedly conspiring with each other and “consistently publishing scurrilous libel” against Yap and other Bohol officials. Lim had filed investigation requests against Yap and provincial officials in Bohol with the Ombudsman, alleging they violated the anti-graft and corrupt practice act, government procurement act and committed plunder. Ramasola personally filed Lim’s requests at the Ombudsman’s office in Quezon City, and posted these on his Facebook account. Dejaresco also published the requests in The Bohol Chronicle and broadcasted the same in his radio stations DYRD. Yap also claimed that Ramasola’s Facebook posts and the news items of the investigation requests were “designed to feast on social media to invite hate, anger, discontent, resentment and disdain against him and other officials in the provincial government of Bohol.” In a 10-page resolution, the Makati City Prosecutor’s Office said Yap has “failed to establish probable cause to warrant the indictment of respondents for the crime of inciting to sedition.” Sedition refers to the act of encouraging rebellion against the government. The resolution explained that it did not find any evidence which shows that sedition was committed. It added that conspiracy was not established as Yap did not show concrete proof of conspiracy between the three individuals.
