Published February 12, 2021, 11:49 AM
ZAMBOANGA CITY (PNA) – Authorities killed a top wanted person in a shootout during a law enforcement operation in the Lanao del Sur town of Balabagan, officials said Thursday (Feb. 11).
Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan Jr., Western Mindanao Command (WestMinCom) chief, identified the slain suspect as Jayson Sampiano Deniega, who allegedly was also involved in multiple murder and extortion cases, aside from drug trafficking.
Vinluan said Deniega the province’s No. 5 most wanted person– resisted the police and military team sent to serve an arrest warrant around 10 a.m. Wednesday in Barangay Molimoc, Balabagan.
Lt. Col. Tino Maslan, Marine Battalion Landing Team-5 (MBLT-5) commander, said the shootout broke out when Deniega and his two cohorts opened fire, prompting the Marines and the police to return fire.
Published February 9, 2021, 12:18 PM
The Sandiganbayan has acquitted former mayor Edna V. Ogka Benito of Balabagan town in Lanao del Sur of her graft charges but three of her co-accused were convicted and sentenced to a jail term ranging from six to eight years each.
Sandiganbayan
(MANILA BULLETIN)
Convicted of violation of Section 3 (e) of Republic Act No. 3019, the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, were Municipal Assessor and acting Municipal Budget Officer Sultan Rascal Z. Arimao, Municipal Accountant Najib Alyhar Zacaria, and Assistant Treasurer and acting Municipal Treasurer Casangoan Marohom.
Graft violation under Section 3 (e) is when a public official “causes undue injury to any party, including the government, or giving any private party unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference in the discharge of his official administrative or judicial functions through manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence.”
BARMM Public Works Minister Eduard Uy Guerra
(Ministry of Finance, and Budget and Management-BARMM / MANILA BULLETIN)
In a statement sent to the Manila Bulletin, BARMM Public Works Minister Eduard Uy Guerra said “there were projects within the jurisdiction of the defunct (ARMM) that were left unfinished even after these were already fully paid.”
Guerra said the funds for some infrastructure projects have already been depleted even before the ARMM was officially turned over to BARMM in February 2019.
In 2017 alone, Guerra said, the ARMM “appeared to have overpaid projects by at least 26 percent when BARMM tried to match disbursed funds to actual physical accomplishments of projects for which the payments were made.”