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Arming vigilantes will imperil Election 2022

Arming vigilantes will imperil Election 2022

by | Apr 10, 2023 | Gotcha

PNA photo of M-653 rifles

 

 

GOTCHA

written on July 2, 2021

 

 

Consider these facts and figures:

• Private armies numbered 3,779 and loose firearms 1.1 million in 2016, according to the Philippine National Police. (Source: House Bill 1133 filed by then-Rep. Gary Alejano)

• They were in nearly all the 1,959 political and administrative jurisdictions: 1,488 municipalities, 146 cities, 243 congressional districts, 81 provinces, and one autonomous region.

• Politicos maintained most of the private armed groups, ranging from two to dozens of thugs who intimidate election rivals and voters.

• Firearms included assault rifles, machine pistols and high-caliber handguns.

• Others were unlicensed personal bodyguards of business big shots, separate from legitimate private security-investigation agencies.

• Not included were former Moro separatists now at peace with the state but have yet to disarm. Also separately categorized were communist insurgents, Islamist terrorists, lost commands, bandits, rustlers, crime and vice syndicates.

• Police-military anti-crime drives prior to national-local elections in 2016 and 2019 dismantled only a few hundred private armies and recovered some firearms.

• The worst poll violence in recent world history was the massacre in 2009 of 57 political kinswomen and media men by the Ampatuan ruling clan in Maguindanao.

In light of these, President Rody Duterte’s plan to arm “anti-crime volunteers” needs rethinking. No number of civilians or type of weapons was detailed. It is dangerous nonetheless because indiscriminate. A gun in the hands of a wrong person is one too many, said Armed Forces Gen. Edilberto Adan of the previous administration’s Independent Commission Against Private Armies.

The aim of every President since 1986 has been to ensure honest, orderly, peaceful elections: HOPE. Dispersing guns to the wrong-minded and untrained will backfire on any anti-crime crusade, warned Senator Panfilo Lacson, a former PNP chief. Civilians can help combat street crimes. But the incidence has dropped due to pandemic lockdowns, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said. The PNP is capable enough to protect the people. Armed volunteers can turn into dangerous vigilantes, he added.

Predictably, political violence will resurge in the run-up to the May 2022 presidential-congressional-local balloting.

The number of loose firearms could have risen to 2.1 million in 2020, International Alert-Philippines monitored. How loose firearms proliferate is detailed in many PNP and AFP studies:

(1) Smuggling – Firearms are misdeclared as metal parts to evade import taxes and licenses. Caches are also sneaked through the porous southern borders.

(2) Recycling – Guns recovered from battlefields are distributed among rebel ranks, pocketed by uniformed servicemen, or black-marketed by either side.

(3) Illicit gunsmiths – Hot-selling brands and models are counterfeited in underground machine shops. Multiple outputs may share the same fake serial number or have none at all.

(4) Armory theft – Crooked officers filch firearms by the crates from the PNP, AFP or militia for sale to highest bidding politicos. Many such rifles and mortars were found in room-sized vaults of the Ampatuans.

(5) Expired licenses – Gun owners fail to renew registrations due to cumbersome neuropsychiatric, vision and drug exams; ballistics sampling; firing proficiency tests; and hefty fees. Much easier to falsify an affidavit of losing the gun to car thieves yet still get to keep it.

Private armies come in various disguises. Politicos falsely have them accredited as security agencies or gun clubs. The influential also have them integrated into military auxiliaries. Others abuse police-military escorts and protection. In 2013 a police general bent on disarming Lanao political warlords sued an Army colonel – his former military academy classmate – for lending two machineguns and several rifles to a re-electionist mayor on pretext of warding off Moro rebels.

Politics is big money. Politicos kill for it. Mercenaries hire themselves out during election season. Random arming of anti-crime volunteers will only add to private armies and loose firearms.

*      *      *

President Daisy Arce of the Capital Markets Integrity Corp. sent a rejoinder to Gotcha, 25 June 2021, “in relation to CMIC’s investigation of Venture Securities, Inc.”:

“Allow us to correct certain misconceptions you quoted Venture as alleging.

“CMIC is the independent audit, surveillance and compliance unit of the Philippine Stock Exchange. Its primary purpose in its Articles of Incorporation is to reinforce the confidence of the investing public through adoption, enforcement, implementation and interpretation of rules, guidelines and securities laws applicable to the operations and dealings of trading participants and other market participants of the PSE. Contrary to the allegation of Venture, CMIC is not ‘the moral guardian of the brokerage community’.

“CMIC’s regular examinations are based on a sampling methodology and specific audit parameters submitted to and approved by the SEC. The objective is to determine trading participants’ compliance with relevant securities laws. Thus, it is a compliance audit, not a fraud audit. While fraud may be detected in a compliance audit, the regular examinations by CMIC are not specifically conducted to uncover fraudulent transactions.

“In a decision dated 15 June 2021 SEC affirmed CMIC’s findings that Venture committed violations of securities laws. The breaches were committed within and by Venture itself.”

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

* * *

Catch “Sapol” radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., dwIZ (882-AM)

            “Gotcha: An Exposé on the Philippine Government” is available as e-book and paperback. Get a free copy of “Chapter 1: Beijing’s Bullying and Duplicity”. Simply subscribe to my newsletter HERE. Book orders also accepted there.

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

Aquino deaths presaged Aquino presidencies

Aquino deaths presaged Aquino presidencies

by | Apr 10, 2023 | Gotcha

Presidential Museum and Library PH Photo of Cory Aquino and Ninoy Aquino from Ninoy: Ideals & Ideologies 1932-1983

GOTCHA

written on June 11, 2021

 

Twice in history the death of an Aquino presaged an Aquino presidency. The 1983 assassination of democracy icon Ninoy Aquino led to a stolen presidential election and a civilian-military uprising that swept his widow Cory into Malacañang. The death of Cory in August 2009 galvanized public anger at another dirty, doubted administration and installed their son Noynoy to the highest office.

Behind the grief over the untimely passing of Noynoy yesterday is pondering. Will Filipinos be stirred a third time to reject an authoritarian clone? Will they choose another Aquino, if not an associated liberal democrat?

Filipinos are not “bobotantes,” as the snooty judge when their candidate loses. Voters strive to discern what kind of leader the campaign promiser will be. Oftentimes they choose the opposite of the Malacañang occupant.

In 1986 Filipinos, disgruntled with plunderous dictator Ferdinand Marcos, picked kindhearted housewife Cory. In 1992 they went for the more experienced action man Fidel Ramos. In 1998 they tried out popular actor Joseph Estrada. On to 2016, after Noynoy they opted for a tough-talking iconoclast.

The issues of Election 2022 are defined this early. In survey after survey, Filipinos oppose China’s sea incursions and want government to do something about it; meaning, no acquiescence to the aggressors. People need jobs, and deserve protection of domestic produce against unbridled smuggling and imports. They expect accomplishments, not mere hosannas from paid trolls. They crave for true education, aware that their college degrees qualify them only as nannies overseas. No amount of ordering them around, threatening them with arrest and cursing their God can change those aspirations.

*      *      *

Out of propriety tycoon Eusebio Tanco has declined reelection on July 2 to the Philippine Stock Exchange board. He wrote PSE chairman Jose Pardo last week to halt his automatic nomination as director, which he has been for 14 years. It came right after an SEC panel linked a stock brokerage that Tanco chairs, Ventures Securities Inc. (VSI), to the loss by another broker of P750 million in clients’ shares. Tanco was not himself faulted for a VSI client’s misdeeds. Still he felt that “recent events, which, unfortunately and unjustifiably have besmirched the reputation of VSI and its officers and employees, compel me out of delicadeza to decline the nomination.”

Pardo praised Tanco for “tak[ing] the moral high ground and not put at risk the reputation of an institution he holds in high esteem – the PSE. All the more admirable, because it was a decision he made without knowing the outcome of Nomelec’s (PSE Nominations and Elections Committee) decision. Truly a laudable and noble act.”

 

On June 11 the SEC panel suspended VSI’s broker-dealer license and penalized it P32 million. Allegedly VSI’s “acts and omissions indispensably contributed to, if they had not been the proximate cause of, the losses incurred by the clients of R&L Investments.” VSI is contesting the panel’s ruling.

The case of R&L employee Marlo Moron dragged VSI into the investigation. Findings are that Moron, acting as both trader and settlement clerk, in violation of SEC rules for brokerages, executed broker-to-broker trades. This indicated that Moron had R&L’s access code to use the Philippine Central Depository where PSE trades are sent for settlement. Moron also kept the books of accounts, a virtual one-man show in control of various aspects of brokerage operations, no checks and balance, the panel found. R&L was stripped of broker license and penalized P25 million.

Using the access code, Moron purportedly transferred shares of R&L clients to Julieto Sulapas. The fraudulent transfer took place exclusively within R&L, VSI asserted in defense. Thereafter Sulapas was endorsed to and became a client of VSI. No broker dealing with Sulapas’ shares would have known that those do not belong to him, VSI said.

This went on for seven years, 2012-2019, escaping the attention of the Capital Markets Integrity Corporation, the moral guardian of the brokerage community, VSI contended. Had the CMIC looked into brokerages, it would have noticed the anomalies, being better equipped to detect violations, VSI added.

Though not implicated, Tanco withdrew “in the best interest of the PSE. The Exchange, after all, is bigger than any individual broker, and it is my belief that all our efforts should be directed to the protection and preservation of [its] image. My only wish is for an acknowledgement that the real guilty parties will be called to account for this sorry state of affairs.”

 

 

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

 

 * * *

Condolences to her family on the demise of the venerable Nelia Teodoro Gonzalez, 97. She was indefatigable as University of the Philippines Regent, agribusiness and social entrepreneur, pioneer in modern poultry and feeds, exponent of cooperative and small farmer development, patron of music and arts, and fundraiser for various charities. She will forever be in Filipino memories.

 

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

* * *

Catch “Sapol” radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., dwIZ (882-AM)

            “Gotcha: An Exposé on the Philippine Government” is available as e-book and paperback. Get a free copy of “Chapter 1: Beijing’s Bullying and Duplicity”. Simply subscribe to my newsletter HERE. Book orders also accepted there.

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

Impact of grandma on family, society

Impact of grandma on family, society

by | Apr 5, 2023 | Gotcha

Tandang Sora, Melchora Aquino, the most famous Filipino lola in history – Shutterstock

GOTCHA

written on April 5, 2023

 

Mothers and grandmothers have always been around. Only two months ago were statistics crunched about them, thanks to the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research.

Grandparents now number 1.5 billion worldwide, up from 500 million in the 1960s, The Economist reported January. As a share of the population, they’ve risen from 17 to 20 percent. That’s from increasing lifespans and falling fertility. On average people today live up to 72, from 51 in the 1960s. Mothers used to have 5 children then, now 2.4.

Even if only in longevity, lolo and lola are able to catch up with apo. The ratio of grandparents to children under 15 years has jumped from 0.46 in 1960 to 0.8 today. Given this trend, there will be 2.1 billion grandparents by 2050. They will comprise 22 percent of humanity, slightly more than 15-year-olds and below.

The impact on humanity will be profound. Evidence shows that children do much better with the influence of grandparents, essentially grandmothers. The more grandparents doing “apo-stolic duty,” the more mothers doing work for pay.

Humans get most of their traits from their mothers and grandmothers. That’s genetics. The female chromosome is X and the male is Y. A fetus with XX chromosomes is female; XY is male. Half of the chromosomes is from the mother. Next generation is again XX for girl and XY for boy. Chromosomes from grandmother filter down.

Grandparents vary from country to country, The Economist said. They’re 20 percent of Bulgarians but only 10 percent of Burundians. Average age is 53 in Uganda and 72 in Japan.

Grandmothers everywhere are an extra pair of hands in caring for infants. With them at home, daughters with toddlers are able to work. In subsistence-farming Senegal, most children who survive to age 2 had grandmas living with them. In Mexico an abuela’s death reduces by 27 percent the chance of her daughter continuing to work, and slashes her earnings 53 percent. No effect on the employment rate of fathers.

Grandmothers’ importance goes beyond stats. Their cooking, doing school runs and reading to grandchildren light up homelife. If only there were more of them.

In Senegal where children below 15 outnumber grandparents 3.5 to 1, it’s common for granny to have 30 grandchildren and great grandchildren. Common too for her to lead them in discipline and house chores, all the way to religious pilgrimages, and instruction in traditional morals and religion.

 

By tradition Indian couples live with the husband’s parents. But despite the TV-movie stereotype of the overbearing mother-in-law, chores of child-rearing daughters-in-law are lightened. Same in China, Japan and Indonesia.

Philippine fertility fell from 2.7 children per woman in 2017 to 1.9 in 2022. The country is already below the replacement fertility level of 2.1. Rural Filipinas have slightly higher fertility of 2.2 children versus 1.7 for urbanized.

Hundreds of thousands of Filipino yayas enable Hong Kong, Singaporean and European mothers to work. A Middle Eastern joke is that if Filipina helpers all leave, GDP will drop.

There aren’t enough stats on Filipino lolas. But stories abound of their effect on grandchildren’s academics and artistry. They may not be updated on latest math principles and scientific discoveries. But lola’s caring makes the apo strive to excel.

That effect is most felt when we lose our mothers and grandmothers. We remember how we slept beside them or chat with them long hours. The scent of their bosom, strength of their arms and softness of their laps. Their cough, laughter, scolding, encouraging and storytelling style.

We lost Mommy on the eve of International Women’s Month. She left behind 13 apo and nine apo sa tuhod.

She was so independent, driving and living by herself to age 83. As a bachelorette soon after the War, she enlisted in the US Army and was assigned to drive a Macarthur Jeep in Okinawa. One time in the 80’s she disappeared from her townhouse for three days, and we had the PNP issue an all-points bulletin for her. On her return, she said she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a mastectomy by her lonesome.

Mommy came from a line of strong women. She was a radical in the 70’s, taking after her mom, a daughter of a Katipunan cavalry colonel. A women’s suffragist-aunt was the only female to speak before the all-male Philippine Assembly, then became the first female judge in the country and female justice in Asia. Other aunts were school principals and district superintendents. There were a smuggler and a jueteng lord-ess.

Mommy endured 43 years widowhood. She died in her sleep at 95, on the same day Daddy died. Kumbaga sinundo na niya siya, we sighed. Her female descendants, barely in their teens, will likely be as feisty.

Speaking of which, the song “There’s No One Quite Like Grandma,” topped the British charts in 1980. As you watch it on Youtube, https://tinyurl.com/grandma-we-love-you, it’s fun to know that those cherubic little singers are now grandparents too.

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

* * *

Catch “Sapol” radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., dwIZ (882-AM)

            “Gotcha: An Exposé on the Philippine Government” is available as e-book and paperback. Get a free copy of “Chapter 1: Beijing’s Bullying and Duplicity”. Simply subscribe to my newsletter HERE. Book orders also accepted there.

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

Deceptive: Comelec gave receiving logs, not transmission logs – Rio, Odoño

Deceptive: Comelec gave receiving logs, not transmission logs – Rio, Odoño

by | Mar 31, 2023 | Gotcha

Photos: Rio, left; Odoño as PMA cadet

GOTCHA

Retired general Eliseo Rio and colonel Leonardo Odoño are upset. Comelec handed them not the transmission logs but the reception logs of Election 2022 results.

“Deception!” they decried the act. Reception logs are records of what Comelec’s Transparency Server received then broadcast last May 9, 2022. Transmission logs are records of what 106,174 precincts’ vote counting machines individually sent to the TS.

Transmission and reception logs should match, said Rio, 78, and Odoño, 80. But they suspect that results were fabricated to project 20 million-plus votes within one hour from 7 p.m. precinct close. A winning trend was concocted for president and VP to condition the public mind.

Rio is one of the Truth & Transparency Trio with ex-commissioner Gus Lagman and Finance Executives Institute ex-president Franklin Ysaac. They petitioned the Supreme Court in November to compel Comelec and telcos Smart, Globe and Dito to release the transmission logs. Told by SC early March to reply within five days, Comelec sought one-month extension till Apr. 2.

On Wednesday, March 29, Odoño (PMA ’64) wrote Comelec Chairman George Garcia:

“Subject: Deception of the Filipino People by Comelec in the Matter of Transmission Logs.

“Mr. Chairman, you announced that Comelec will release the transmission logs we have been waiting for more than 200 days. That to my mind was an attempt to temper growing public impatience with Comelec’s withholding of proof of transmission of the questionable 20 million votes. I had the impression you were dissuading me from going on with my impeachment initiative against you and four commissioners by removing a possible impeachment ground.

“Replying to my March 10, 2023 final demand that Comelec provide the transmission logs in seven days, you on March 20 asked me to come to your office on March 23 and pick up the ‘transmission logs’.

“On March 23 Gen. Rio and I received in good faith the ‘transmission logs’. That night Gen. Rio started analyzing them. Only for him to find out yesterday, March 27, they were not transmission logs. They were reception logs put out by the Transparency Server, which supposedly received votes transmitted by precinct VCMs countrywide.

“We were expecting transmission data that were the basis of the ‘Accumulated VCM Transmissions’ graph that Comelec showed the public in an Oct. 18 forum. That graph showed that VCM transmissions peaked at the second hour after transmissions started. The Comelec spokesperson confirmed that ‘Second Hour Peak of VCM Transmissions’.

“Mr. Chairman, didn’t you deceive Gen. Rio, me and the public into believing that we were to get transmission logs last March 23, not anything else? If you did, and I believe you did, why?

 

“Please explain:

“(1) The graph you presented at the Ateneo University forum Oct. 18, from official Central Server results, showed that vote counts reached 12 million in the first hour then peaked in the second hour. The graph of your ’transmission logs’ received and put out by the unofficial TS quick results showed a peak of 20 million votes in the first hour.

“Saan po nanggaling ang eight-million vote difference? Hindi po kaya pre-loaded ‘yon? The two sets of data came from Comelec.

“(2) The reception logs showed the TS started to receive at 7:08 p.m. May 9. How could that have happened when printing eight copies of Election Returns and other administrative tasks that had to be completed before VCM transmissions took 30 minutes?

Katuwiran ng Comelec na pwede mabilang at ma-transmit sa TS ang 20 million votes in one hour kasi ‘yong ibang presinto raw nag-close ng voting before 7 p.m. ‘Di ba bawal ‘yon under our election law na kayo mismo ang nagpapatupad?

“Could these have resulted from software programming flaws as revealed by Namfrel, or mere typo errors as Comelec wanted us to believe? Why did Comelec ignore Namfrel’s warnings of cheating?

“We and the public demand to know if servers’ reception logs tally with VCM transmissions logs. The people hope Comelec comes clean.”

*      *      *

Excerpts from Rio, former secretary of Information-Communication Technology and AFP deputy for Research and Development:

“What we’ve been asking for since July 2022 are transmission logs – data transmitted by VCMs to the Transparency Server. What Comelec gave March 23 are reception logs, data the TS received from VCMs. We are precisely questioning these data received by the TS because of the unbelievable 20 million-plus votes at 8:02 p.m. May 9, just an hour after voting closed. And in that first hour, Comelec required that teacher-members of precinct electoral boards to first accomplish nine major tasks. Longest of those was to print eight copies of the precinct Election Returns before any VCM transmission.

“Comelec has the transmission logs. Those were the basis of the graph ‘Accumulated VCM Transmissions’ that Chairman Garcia presented Oct. 18. That graph showed that VCM transmissions peaked at the second hour after transmissions began, in stark contrast to the TS count that peaked at the first hour.”

*      *      *

Excerpts, Manifesto of Support, Philippine Military Academy graduates:

“We stand in solidarity with Cavalier Leonardo O. Odoño, a distinguished member of PMA Class 1964, in his quest for truth in alleged Election 2022 irregularities. We support his filing Articles of Impeachment in Congress against the Comelec chairman and four commissioners, and criminal/administrative cases before the Ombudsman against non-constitutional officials.

“Cav. Odoño, a patriot, is exercising his constitutional right of access to information of public concern under the Freedom of Information. We believe it is his duty to do so, and commend his courage and commitment to the truth.

“We urge Comelec to comply with Cav. Odoño’s request for the truth on the supposed 20 million votes. Public officials have responsibility to uphold the principle of transparency in governance, and accountability to the people. Denying Cav. Odoño’s right violates the Constitution, and undermines public trust and confidence in our electoral system.”

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

* * *

Catch “Sapol” radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., dwIZ (882-AM)

            “Gotcha: An Exposé on the Philippine Government” is available as e-book and paperback. Get a free copy of “Chapter 1: Beijing’s Bullying and Duplicity”. Simply subscribe to my newsletter HERE. Book orders also accepted there.

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

Comelec transmission logs show fraud in 2022 polls – Rio, Odoño

Comelec transmission logs show fraud in 2022 polls – Rio, Odoño

by | Mar 29, 2023 | Gotcha

Rio graphs the conflicting figures of the May 9 transmission server, Oct. 18 Comelec presentation, and Mar. 23 website posting

GOTCHA

written on March 29, 2023

 

Comelec finally gave retired colonel Leonardo Odoño (PMA ’64) transmission logs of Election 2022 precinct results. Chairman George Garcia released it Thursday, March 23, “to quell suspicion” of poll fraud.

But Odoño at once saw irregularities in the logs. As early as 7:08 to 7:10 p.m. of May 9, 332 distant precincts had transmitted results to Manila’s transparency server. By 7:17 p.m. there were 1,525,637 votes for president. Incredible, illegal.

Comelec General Instructions 10727 of Nov. 10, 2021 required all 106,174 precincts to close only at 7 p.m. Voters within 30 meters at that time were to be let in to cast ballots. In the unlikelihood that all registrants had voted earlier, precincts were to stay open till 7 for legitimate voters whose slots could’ve been used by fakes.

The three-man Board of Election Inspectors then announces closing. Party watchers and observers gather around the vote counting machine. The BEI performs nine tasks under Comelec General Instructions 10762 of Feb. 16, 2022. The first six consist of BEIs authenticating and keying passwords into the VCM, touching “Close Voting” on the screen and embedding PINs on the election result.

Longest is Task 7, printing eight copies of the Election Return. Containing the votes of all 348 candidates for national and local positions, plus 27 precinct information lines, each ER takes 2.51 minutes to print. Barring any paper snags and roll changing, all eight copies take 20.1 minutes.

Last two tasks: preparing electronic device and transmission to Smart, Globe or DITO. Total for all nine tasks: 32.1 minutes.

Odoño wants Comelec to demonstrate how precincts can transmit 8-17 minutes from closing.

By 8:02 p.m. last May 9 the transparency server showed 20,061,691 votes (38 percent of votes cast). Here’s another discrepancy. Transmission logs that Comelec gave Odoño and posted on its website March 24 state 20,676,855 votes at 8:02 p.m

Retired general Eliseo Rio has been disputing the physical impossibility of 20-million plus votes within an hour of closing. As information-communication technology secretary in 2019, he chaired the Comelec Advisory Committee for that year’s midterm election. Time-and-motion exercises showed that ERs trickled in the first two hours, peaked at one point, then dwindled.

But in May 2022 votes peaked within one hour. (Last December the three telcos’ portals crashed from a four-day deluge of 18 million subscribers trying to register SIMs.)

“A first in Philippine elections or elsewhere!” Rio says. Comelec records show that, in automated elections of 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019, votes peaked only after the second hour.

Last Oct. 18, Garcia publicized Comelec’s accumulated VCM logs showing votes peaking after the second hour, 9:30 p.m.

Another statistical infeasibility were presidential and VP standings, adds Rio, an electronic-electrical engineer and former AFP deputy for research and development. Presidential bet Marcos Jr. led with 60 percent of the votes as early as 7:17 and 8:02 p.m., till end of counting. Robredo stayed at 29 percent throughout; followed by Pacquiao, 5 percent; Moreno, 4 percent; Lacson, 2 percent. Was the transparency server conditioning the voters’ mind, Rio asks.

Same with VP candidate Duterte’s consistent lead, notes Rio. Moreover, Duterte had more votes than Marcos Jr., another first in Philippine balloting. Also, both Marcos Jr. and Duterte got higher votes than the top three senatorial winners, when it was always the other way around since 1946.

Rio, 78, believes the results were rigged. Smoking gun is Namfrel’s findings as far back as March 2022. The watchdog’s info-technologists led by (now chairman) Lito Averia spotted discrepancies between the VCM human-commanded source codes and computer-generated hash codes.

Twice they reported it to Commissioner Marlon Casquejo; twice no reply. Comelec merely posted the alibi of human typographical error by its multimillion-dollar system certification contractor Pro V&V. The hash codes to run the VCM on election day were probably changed after specialists reviewed the source codes, Namfrel concluded.

VCM tampering became possible because Comelec ignored Automated Election System Law provisions, computer expert Nelson Celis told this writer. (See https://tinyurl.com/Gotcha-18-May-2022) Once Philippine Computer Society president, Celis criticized the unreliable VCMs since first used in 2010. He was appointed to Comelec in October.

“Tuloy ang laban,” Odoño, 80, told Sapol-dwIZ Saturday. He plans impeachment complaints against the five commissioners who oversaw last May’s balloting: Garcia, Casquejo, Socorro Inting, Aimee Ferolino, Ray Bulay.

A growing number of Philippine Military Academy graduates support Odoño’s crusade for clean election. More than 125 retirees reportedly asked Comelec to heed his months-long plea for the transmission logs. Odoño gave the initial list of 70 generals and colonels:

Reynaldo Reyes ’64, Manuel Mariano ’62, Roberto Yap ’82, Tagumpay Jardiniano ’57, Guerrero Guzman ’65, Danny Abinoja ’74, Alexander Yano ’76, Guillermo Cunanan ’66, Leysander Ordenes ’88, Eugene Martinez ’88, Januario Caringal ’82, Raul Vinoya ’87, Michael Tome ’99, Ismael Villareal ’64, Niceto Festin ’59;

Arnold Mancita ’85, Romeo Meana ’62, Sacayo Ali Jr. ’91, Winston Arpon ’64, Gordon Descanzo ’82, Bonifacio de Castro ’79, Jose Gamos ’76, Augustus Paiso ’56, Edmund Tan ’80, Jet Velarmino ’82, Ulysses Abellera ’84, Rolando Acop ’86, Generoso Senga ’72, Mariano Santiago ’67, Manuel Domingo ’71;

Alejandro Camagay ’77, Virgilio Hernandez ’83, Ernesto Benitez Jr. ’82, Sergio Belleza ’66, Edgardo Ingking ’82, Noel delos Reyes ’82, Vergel Nacino ’81, Vic Buenaventura ’57, Plaridel Abaya ’59, Jaime Montanez ’82, Neri Caunte ’83, Rolando Malinao ’82, Roberto Santiago ’68, Salvador Manga Jr. ’77, Henry Rañola ’83;

Reynaldo Rivera ’71, Edwin Corvera ’79, David Santiago ’98, Romeo Pajarito ’82, Wilfredo Franco ’82, Edmundo Castellanes ’70, Ronie Pioquinto ’91, Roberto Lardizabal ’87, Ralph Mamauag ’90, Rufino Lopez Jr. ’74, Carlito Gamit ’74, Pio Domantay ’79, Matt Abinuman ’82, Sid Lapena ’73, Romeo Nebres ’82, Justo Manlongat ’69;

Rolando Rodriquez ’74, Rhodel Macasaet ’97, Dennis Acop ’83, Richard Brillantes Jr. ’69, Hector Tarrazona ’68, Edilberto Adan ’72, Roberto Aliggayu ’84, Carmelito Doria ’57, Victor Batac ’71.

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

* * *

Catch “Sapol” radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., dwIZ (882-AM)

            “Gotcha: An Exposé on the Philippine Government” is available as e-book and paperback. Get a free copy of “Chapter 1: Beijing’s Bullying and Duplicity”. Simply subscribe to my newsletter HERE. Book orders also accepted there.

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

Regulators abet sugar smuggling; P70 per kilo at Kadiwa too pricey

Regulators abet sugar smuggling; P70 per kilo at Kadiwa too pricey

by | Mar 22, 2023 | Gotcha

Sen. Hontiveros’ slide presentation Mar. 21 showed this photo from Digicast Negros

GOTCHA

This is a case for the Ombudsman.

Regulators are ordering Customs to release 6,500 tons of contraband refined sugar worth P650 million. They’re legitimizing the confiscated shipment with an antedated import permit.

Inducing public officials to commit crime and allowing themselves to be induced constitute graft and corruption. So does giving any private party any unwarranted benefit, advantage, or preference.

Agricultural smuggling of at least P1 million is economic sabotage, a non-bailable life-term offense. A combination or series of offenses of at least P50 million is plunder, also non-bailable with life imprisonment.

The Ombudsman is tasked to prosecute erring public officials. The office may investigate on its own or act on formal complaints.

The Sugar Regulatory Administration memo-ed Customs weeks ago to free the Thai sugar that arrived at Port of Batangas last Feb. 9. Customs Legal Director Yasmin Obillos-Mapa is evaluating the order, Asst. Commissioner Vincent Maronilla said yesterday.

The SRA board consists of Agriculture Senior Usec Domingo Panganiban, Administrator David John Thaddeus Alba, Planter’s Rep. Pablo Luis Azcona, and Miller’s Rep. Mitzi Mangwag. As secretary of Agriculture, President Bongbong Marcos Jr. is chairman.

Customs detained the sugar on Feb. 14, a day after Agriculture Asec James Layug alerted them. Owner: All Asian Countertrade Inc. of Michael Escaler.

It landed when no sugar imports were permitted. SRA’s Sugar Order No. 2 of Sep. 13, 2022 allowed deliveries only up to Nov. 15. Its Sugar Order No. 6 of Feb. 15, 2023 became effective Feb. 18. Five days were set till Feb. 23 to accept and evaluate import bids, then another five days till Feb. 28 to award winning importers.

Senator Risa Hontiveros exposed rigging. Panganiban admitted he personally chose three importers from a three-page list on Jan. 13. He invoked authority from Marcos Jr. and Executive Sec. Lucas Bersamin, both mum on the anomaly.

All Asian was allocated 240,000 tons for 2023. Granted 100,000 tons each were S&D Sucden of Ian Alvarado and Edison Lee Marketing of Edwin Lee.

Panganiban told SRA to include All Asian’s confiscated 6,500 tons in its 240,000-ton grant. Hontiveros denounced the “government-sponsored smuggling”.

Customs may soon free the 6,500 tons. “We act on the say-so of regulatory agencies like SRA,” Maronilla said.

* * *

Justifying Panganiban’s actions, his spokesman claims that the 6,500 tons should be released to avert sugar shortage.

False. Since November, Customs has seized 9,827 tons on prompting by Asec Layug as head of Inspectorate and Enforcement.

Customs and Layug must be congratulated, not contradicted, for catching smuggled sugar:

• Nov. 12, 953.4 tons, Manila International Container Port;
• Jan. 11, 137.9 tons, MICP;
• Jan. 14, 4,000 tons, Port of Batangas
• Feb. 6, 82.74 tons, MICP;
• Feb. 15, 110.32 tons, MICP;
• Feb. 16, 110.32 tons, MICP;
• Feb. 17, 82.74 tons, MICP;
• Feb. 17, 27.58 tons, MICP;
• Feb. 22, 110.32 tons, MICP;
• Feb. 28, 52 tons, MICP;
• Feb. 28, 78 tons, MICP;
• Mar. 2, 1,508 tons, Port of Subic;
• Mar. 7, 130 tons, MICP;
• Mar. 8, 78 tons, MICP;
• Mar. 8, 312 tons, MICP;
• Mar. 9, 468 tons, MICP;
• Mar. 10, 26 tons, MICP;
• Mar. 10, 338 tons, MICP;
• Mar. 11, 312 tons, MICP;
• Mar. 11, 130 tons, MICP;
• Mar. 15, 780 tons, Subic.

The issue is not supply but price. Hontiveros said industrial users begged Panganiban to import on their own but were directed to buy only from the three. They were quoted P85 per kilo.

Hontiveros called it profiteering. Thai wholesale price is P20-P25. Add shipping, insurance, handling, warehousing, 5-percent duty and standard margin of P8. Final price should be P61 per kilo.

The three’s markup is P32 a kilo – or P14 billion from 440,000 tons.

* * *

Malacañang announced that the 9,827 confiscated tons will be retailed in Kadiwa rolling stores at P70 a kilo.

That’s pricey for indigents that Kadiwa serves.

Government spent nothing for the contraband. If it lost anything at all, it’s the 5-percent duty on sugar that Customs valuates at P100,000 per ton or P100 per kilo. That 5-percent duty is P5 per kilo.

Therefore, Kadiwa should sell the sugar at P5 per kilo, the potential revenue that government lost. 

Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

* * *

Catch “Sapol” radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., dwIZ (882-AM)

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Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying

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