ABANDONED CONTRABAND. Police officers inspect some 300 master cases of assorted smuggled cigarettes worth P3.1 million on Sunday (Sept. 4, 2022) in an open warehouse at the port in Barangay Buansa, Indanan town, Sulu province. No one was arrested as the owner of the contraband abandoned the cargo upon sensing the arrival of the policemen. (Photo courtesy of Area Police Command-Western Mindanao) ZAMBOANGA CITY - Authorities have arrested four persons and seized some PHP3.2 million worth of smuggled cigarettes in two separate anti-smuggling operations in Sulu and this city, a top police official said Monday. Col. Richard Verceles, operations chief of the Area Police Command-Western Mindanao, said no one was arrested on the first confiscation of smuggled cigarettes around 5:15 p.m. Sunday at the port in Barangay Buansa in Indanan town, Sulu province. Verceles said policemen from Indanan Municipal Police Station rushed to the port in Barangay Buansa upon receiving information on the presen
MANILA - The Sandiganbayan has acquitted two former senior officials of the Ombudsman accused of tampering official documents in 2013. In a decision dated Aug. 26, the anti-graft court acquitted former Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon Mark Jalandoni and Assistant Ombudsman Nennette De Padua on multiple counts of removal, concealment, or destruction of documents. The 2013 charges stemmed from an internal probe ordered by former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales following reports that the accused concealed documents already signed by then Acting Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro and ready for release. The prosecution claimed the accused covered Casimiro's name and signature in documents with a patch of paper bearing his name. This made it appear that Jalandoni, and not Casimiro, was the official authorized to issue and withheld the release of the documents. Jalandoni joined the Office of the Ombudsman as assistant ombudsman in 2006 during the time of former Ombudsman Ma. Merceditas Gutierrez. He
SHABU SEIZED. A police operative conducts an inventory of the PHP1.394-million worth of suspected shabu seized during a buy-bust in Barangay Alijis, Bacolod City on Thursday (July 28, 2022). The arrested suspect was identified as Ramon Descutido Vertudes Jr., 31.(Photo courtesy of Bacolod City Police Office, Police Station 8) BACOLOD CITY - A resident of this city yielded PHP1.394 million worth of suspected shabu in a police buy-bust in Barangay Alijis here on Thursday. The suspect was identified as Ramon Descutido Vertudes Jr., 31, according to a report from the Philippine National Police Drug Enforcement Group (PDEG) Special Operations Unit-Western Visayas (SOU-6). Vertudes was arrested after selling a certain amount of the prohibited substance to an undercover policeman at his residence at past 12 a.m. Operatives also found in his possession about 250 grams of suspected shabu with an estimated value of PHP1.394 million. The suspect, detained at the Police Station 8 of Bacolod City P
(File photo) MANILA - A bill providing monthly subsidy to persons with disabilities (PWDs) has been filed at the House of Representatives. ACT-CIS Representatives Edvic Yap, Jocelyn Tulfo, and Jeffrey Soriano jointly filed House Bill No. 1754, which mandates the Department Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to give eligible indigent PWDs a monthly subsidy amounting to PHP1,000 to augment his or her daily subsistence. The bill was filed on Monday and was released to the media on Tuesday. Yap stressed the need for a more comprehensive, inclusive, and adequate support for PWDs to enable them to overcome the social barriers deterring them from having better life conditions. "PWDs are still at a disadvantage in several facets of the society. Many PWDs find themselves burdened with expensive medical bills and other costs they constantly strive to afford. They experience disproportionately high poverty rates as they have additional expenditures related to their disability which depend
DRUG DEN DISMANTLED. Ernesto Salibay (3rd from right), a suspected owner of a drug den, is arrested with his visitor in a raid on Friday afternoon (July 8, 2022) in Purok Alang Alang, Barangay Ipil, Surigao City. The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Caraga Region said a total of PHP1,001,000 worth of illegal drugs were seized in four separate operations conducted in different areas in the region from July 4 to 8. (Photo courtesy of PDEA-13) BUTUAN CITY - Four separate operations conducted by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Caraga Region (PDEA-13) early this July have led to the confiscation of an estimated 146 grams of illegal drugs worth PHP1,001,000. The series of operations conducted on July 4, 5, 6, and 8 also resulted in the dismantling of two suspected drug dens and the arrest of eight suspects and one considered at large. Dindo Abellanosa of the information office of PDEA-13 on Saturday said the buy-bust on Friday afternoon in Purok Alang Alang, Barangay I