Category: 1

Congresswoman Bernos will keep her post, at least for now

04/29/2012

So Bernos will keep her post after all. But looks like Luna is not throwing in the towel as she filed for motion for reconsideration.
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The House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) dismissed the election protest of former Congresswoman Cecilia Seares-Luna and decided in favor of incumbent Congressman Ma. Jocelyn Valera-Bernos of Abra on March 22 after a recount and revision of votes in protested precincts.

“Everyone should be sport and respect the decision of the HRET and work for the development of the province of Abra anyway there’s the next election to look up to,” said Atty. Estelita Cordero, Bernos’ legal counsel, in a press conference. READ MORE

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Midterm Elections near, along with Private Armies

04/21/2012

13 Comments

Old habits are hard to break. Private Armies are coming back. Or did they even leave?
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MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine National Police (PNP) is bracing for the resurgence of private armed groups as next year’s midterm election draws near.

In a command conference in Mindanao earlier this week, PNP chief Director General Nicanor Bartolome ordered top police officials to break up new mercenary groups working for politicians planning to run in the 2013 elections. READ MORE

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Joson Affidavit: Plunder Charge against the Lunas of Lagayan (PART 6 - LAST)

01/03/2012

90 Comments

THE LAST STRAW

173. Thirteen years – that’s how long I had been in the employ of the Lagayan municipality. All that time, I endured so many indignities and so much humiliation under the Lunas. But I always prayed that the Lunas would finally see the light and treat the municipal hall employees with respect. But everyone knew my vocal opposition to the continued failure by the Lunas to pay the municipal hall employees according to what the law provides.

174. It is perhaps because of this reason that when one day in the first week of May, someone sent a Resolution purportedly issued by the Sangguniang Bayan to the Secretary of Finance, with copy furnished to the Regional Director of the Bureau of Local Government Finance, asking the immediate transfer of our municipal treasurer, Mrs. Marissa G. Donato, and the appointment of a new treasurer from the regional office, the Lunas immediately pinpointed me as the culprit. The resolution carried all the necessary but apparently forged, signatures, including mine. Its reason for calling for a replacement for Mrs. Donato was betrayal of public trust and graft and corruption.

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Task Force Abra reaching out to Abrenians for cooperation

12/26/2011

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Happy Holidays to all members of this site. I am Robert Soriano, the Chief of the Task Force Abra and I wish to communicate with you thru this forum or privately. I know you are fed up with the peace and order situation in Abra. Part to be blamed is the law enforcement agencies which the PNP belongs.

120 Comments

Joson Affidavit: Plunder Charge against the Lunas of Lagayan (PART 5)

12/21/2011

38 Comments

HOW PUBLIC FUNDS ARE CONTROLLED BY THE LUNAS

134. Everytime Jendricks would do a project I would remind him and the treasurer that such a project always required legislative approval, since his proposed project was not part of Lagayan’s Annual Investment Plan (AIP) as well as its Medium Development Plan. Too, I would remind them that any project whose cost exceeds P50,000.00 requires a public bidding, pursuant to the new Government Procurement Act, RA 9184. I know this to be a fact as vice chair of the Municipal Bids and Awards Committee (BAC).

135. But he would have none of it; he’d insist on something that would allow him to immediately cash out on the project.

38 Comments

Corona Impeachment – An Act of Tyranny

12/20/2011

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By Atty. Cesar B. Bigornia, Ateneo Law ‘84

Impeachment is a fundamental constitutional power belonging to Congress to formally charge a serving government official with an impeachable offense. It is a safeguard against corruption and the ultimate check on abuse of power. By providing this power to Congress, the framers of the Constitution drew on a long tradition of democratic skepticism about leaders. These provisions ensure that leaders will serve the people only so long as they respect the law and their offices. In this sense, the power of impeachment stands ready to thwart tyranny.

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The Bersamin killing: Who really benefited from his death?

12/15/2011

72 Comments

The gunman and lookouts were caught on a photograph

By ARTHA KIRA PAREDES

BANGUED, Abra.—Five years ago today, the then highest-ranking politician of Abra province was shot dead outside a church in Quezon City in broad daylight, signaling the fall of one of Abra’s most prominent families and the rise of other political dynasties.

The killing also ushered in a period of intensified violence that has made the province one of the country’s most dangerous places, its capital Bangued the so-called “murder capital of the north.”

The slain politician was Rep. Luis Bersamin Jr., who was shot in the head after standing as one of the principal sponsors at his niece’s wedding at the Mount Carmel Church in New Manila on Dec. 16, 2006.

Charged and arrested for his murder was his erstwhile childhood friend and ally Vicente Valera, who has been behind bars since September 2009 and is facing trial at the Branch 94 of the Regional Trial Court in Quezon City. Valera has entered a plea of “not guilty.”

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Joson Affidavit: Plunder Charge against the Lunas of Lagayan (PART 4)

12/10/2011

22 Comments

The whimsicality of Lagayan politics

1. The 2010 elections came. We now have a new mayor – an 82 or 78-year old woman, depending on who’s saying what her age is. Here’s how it happened.

2. Cecilia Luna was now running for re-election to the House of Representatives. Jendricks was also up for re-election as mayor. His brother Cromwell, a resident of Bangued, Abra and a registered voter there, decided to transfer residency in Tineg so he could run for mayor there. Transferring of voter’s records for them is very easy as even local authorities in Abra are afraid of them because they are in power. Meanwhile in Bangued his brother Ryan was candidate for mayor too and in the town of Villaviciosa, Leonidas Seareas, Jr., Cecilia’s brother, was candidate for vice mayor.

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Joson Affidavit: Plunder Charge against the Lunas of Lagayan (PART 3)

12/03/2011

47 Comments

When my work as Lagayan’s MPDO began

27. I started working as Lagayan’s Municipal Planning and Development Officer in August 3, 1998 under then Mayor Cecilia Seares Luna. My parents, who were her political supporters, lobbied hard so I could land the job. Not that I had little faith in my own qualifications: I am a college graduate, with a degree in Business Administration which I earned in 1988 from the Divine Word College in Bangued, Abra.

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Joson Affidavit: Plunder Charge against the Lunas of Lagayan (PART 2)

11/12/2011

76 Comments

11. I also file a separate graft and corruption charge against incumbent 82-year old mayor Purificacion B. Paingan, for grave misconduct, dereliction of duty and gross negligence for allowing Jendricks S. Luna to take over the helm of the municipality and continue his plunder of the town coffers, this time, as a barangay captain who chairs the town’s Association of Barangay Captains (ABC). Mayor Paingan is a distant cousin of Cecilia Seareas Luna’s mother.

12. At the very least, Mayor Paingan is guilty of violating Art. 217 of the Revised Penal Code, which penalizes and defines technical malversation. Under the said provision of law, “[a]ny public officer who, by reason of the duties of his office, is accountable for public funds or property, shall appropriate the same or shall take or misappropriate or shall consent, through abandonment or negligence, shall permit any other person to take such public funds, or property, wholly or partially, or shall otherwise be guilty of the misappropriation or malversation of such funds or property.”