Tarangnan police collars murder suspect who eluded arrest for 19 years

BY NINFA B. QUIRANTE (PIA Samar)
April 5, 2008

CATBALOGAN CITY, Samar  –  The Philippine National Police (PNP) Samar Police Provincial Office (PPO) scored anew when it apprehended a wanted criminal.

In Wednesday’s press conference held at the Samar PPO, PNP Samar Provincial Director PSSupt. Asdali Idjah Abah presented to Catbalogan media, Mansueto Ricalde, 54 years old who is wanted for murder and has managed to elude arrest for 19 years.

Ricalde with a pending case CC# 1079 before RTC Branch 32 at Calbayog City is one of the Most Wanted Person in the region with a DILG reward of P15,000.

The arrest was effected by the Tarangnan Municipal Police Station led by Police Senior Inspector Severino Solis in Barangay Bahay, Tarangnan.

The suspect, Ricalde managed to evade arrest since 1989 when he allegedly murdered one Fernando Co.  Solis added that after the suspect committed the crime, his family fled to Manila.

Sometime in March, 2008, Tarangnan Police received an information that Ricalde was spotted in Barangay Bahay, Tarangnan.

Tarangnan PNP verified the report, secured a copy of the Arrest Warrant and on March 28, 2008 effected the arrest. Suspect according to the police did not resist.

Solis acknowledged the assistance of the Barangay Bahay Information Network (BIN) that fed them the whereabouts of Ricalde.

Suspect Ricalde would be turned over to the court for proper disposition.

Identity of carnapping suspect puzzles PNP

By NINFA B. QUIRANTE (PIA Samar)
April 4, 2008

CATBALOGAN CITY, Samar  –  The identity of a carnapping suspect seems to puzzle the Philippine National Police (PNP).

As Samar Police Provincial Office started to crack down on carnapping, it was able to neutralize a suspected carnapper (though unidentified yet) in Barangay Lacerdoni, Tarangnan, Samar on April 1, 2008.

Based on a spot report by the Samar PPO, the combined elements of Catbalogan City PNP and Samar PPO responded to the police assistance sought by one Pilar Totanes, manager of Cinemar Traders in Catbalogan City that a suspected carnapper was sighted in Barangay San Vicente, Catbalogan City.

Police closed in on the suspect who was on board the carnapped motorcycle operating as habal habal.

Team leader SPO4 Ely Tamayo urged the suspect to yield but instead drove off his motorcycle bumping one PO2 Pedrito Albat. The impact caused the suspect to fall to the ground; he then scampered off to elude arrest. The PNP team pursued him.

A member of the arresting team, PO2 Juanito Malabarbas managed to corner him, but the suspect engaged the officer in a scuffle. The PNP officer while about to be overpowered managed to fire his issued 9 MM pistol hitting the suspect.

The wounded suspect was brought to the Samar Provincial Hospital (SPH) but was pronounced dead on arrival (DOA).

As the PNP tried to sort out personal belongings that may yield to his identity, they recovered three community tax certificates bearing the names: Sanny Charles Labong, Norie Balasbas and Sonny Ladeza. Another document found was a baptismal certificate in the name of Marvin Gabiana and Cinemar raffle tickets.

Earlier, Maritess Mabignay from Barangay Casandig, Paranas reported that the motocycle she bought on installment from Cinemar traders was carnapped in Paranas and her husband Gerry Agrade was killed then.

Police found the chassis number of the lost motorcycle matching the one used by the suspect.

Nobody as of press time has claimed and identified the dead body of the carnapping and possible murder suspect.

DENR: We need to plant 2.5 M trees to lessen ill effects of gas and diesel fuel

By NINFA B. QUIRANTE (PIA Samar)
April 3, 2008

CATBALOGAN CITY, Samar  –  The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Regional Executive Director 08 Alfredo Pascual said that the country needs to plant 2.5 M trees to lessen ill effects of gas and diesel fuel.

During the Earth Day Caravan ‘lunch-drop’ at Catbalogan City Hall, Pascual lauded the LGUs of Catbalogan, Basey, Hinabangan and Calbayog as ardent supporters of environmental programs.

Pascual in his message said that they are trying to strengthen partnership with the LGUs as they are becoming active partners in preserving the remaining natural resources in the region.

He added that Region 08 is very lucky as it still enjoys the benefits of the remaining natural resources. The DENR official said he has been assigned to several regions and only in Eastern Visayas did he find rich and lush natural born trees untouched yet.

“In Ilocos, the climate is intolerable,” RED Pascual admitted.

He then talked of the ill effects of man’s activities that tend to degrade our environment. He said that we are burning so much fossil fuel that we need to plant ten trees to absorb the gas emitted by one vehicle alone.

He praised Catbalogan’s ‘pedicabs‘ that abound as not hazardous.

The DENR boss reiterated that we need to plant some 2.5 million trees a year to counteract the hazardous gasses emitted by the vehicles using fossil fuel.

He also cited that the government is now engaged in alternative fuel programs like propagating jatropha believed to generate alternative fuel that could not damage the environment.

If, he said, we do not join forces and seriously pursue activities to avert the hazardous gas emission, we may reach ‘the point of diminishing return’.

RED Pascual was joined by PENRO George Guillermo, PENRO Danny Javier, RD Letty Maceda of the Environment Division, RD Loreto Alburo of Mines and Geo-Sciences Bureau, RTD Ricardo Tomol of Forestry, RTD Ramon Unay of Lands and Catbalogan Mayor Tekwa Uy’s representative Art Gabon.

After a quick lunch and presscon, Earth Caravan moved on to Calbayog City, Allen and to San Fernando Pampanga where they will converge with the Luzon caravaners on April 4, 2008.

Samar bishop urges government to review and improve CARP

By NINFA B. QUIRANTE (PIA Samar)
March 31, 2008

CATBALOGAN CITY, Samar  –  Calbayog Bishop, Most Reverend Isabelo Abarquez, in his keynote address during the Samar Island Rural Congress on Saturday, urged the government to see to it that social justice programs like the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) be reviewed and improved through consultations, and properly implemented towards completion.

Speaking before some 100 participants from the three provinces of Samar, Abarquez said that the church has always been concerned with the inequitable distribution of the nation’s wealth and the endemic social justices.

He cited the pastoral statement “The Dignity of the Rural Poor – a Gospel Concern (January 28, 2007) where the CBCO summed up the social situation.

He added that it issued a call to hold a National Rural Congress to commemorate the same event in 1967.

The glaring reality unfolded, he added, that “the greater number of our poor in the rural areas” and that urban poverty is a consequence of rural poverty.

Bishop Abarquez quoted the CBCP statement that urges “to focus our attention on the greatest victim of our unjust economic order, the rural poor, and the diminishment of their dignity as people and citizens”.

He also cited that the CBCP pastoral statement noted that “the one big effort of the government at alleviating rural poverty has been its on-going comprehensive agrarian reform program.”

The bishop though admitted that there were deficiencies in the initial drafting of the law by what he labeled as – land-lord dominated congress.

But albeit all of these, the bishop genuinely suggested its full implementation after an extensive review.

He added that government and various sectors of society must engage through non-violent and genuinely democratic means – by first listening to the rural poor themselves, by decrying “the shameful ‘extra judicial’ killings of unarmed crusaders for justice and equality”, and by calling on government to act.

‘The responsibility to act,’ the Bishop further quoted the CBCP statement, “is just as much ours as those who have the official responsibility.”

After all, he said that demands for good governance, transparency and accountability are essential factors in the call for social transformation.

“The need for reform,” he said, “is not only for our national institutions but of our moral fiber as a people.”

The Bishop then said that may the Samar rural congress – goers be endowed with hope, with Christian hope to see the good things that can be done for the community.

The Samar Island Rural Congress assembled various sectors in the whole island of Samar to represent, women, farmers, fisherfolks, youth and the urban poor.

The congress held at the Cell.Com Hotel in Catbalogan City was sponsored by the Peace and Equity Foundation, Philippine Misereor Partnership - Eastern Visayas Cluster.

The group chose five representatives from their lot to attend the national congress in Manila on May 22, 2008.

NGO bares poor plight of Samareñas

By NINFA B. QUIRANTE (PIA Samar)
March 31, 2008

CATBALOGAN CITY, Samar  –  Katungod han Samareña Foundation Incorporated (KSFI), a non government organization (NGO) based in Samar’s capital town, bared the dismal condition of women in Samar province based on statistics.

In the initial meeting of Samar women stakeholders on March 26, 2008, KSFI enumerated women’s issues that seemed ignored by poor governance as cited.

According to national statistics, 23% of trafficked women come from Samar, it added that at least one of five prostitutes in the sex trade dens are Samareñas.

Another glaring reality mentioned is that for every 1000 live births, six women die in delivery. Samar, the data added, is one with the highest maternal mortality rates. It could be worse, KSFI averred, these are only reported cases and some of the cases might have not even been reported.

Infant mortality rate is also high, citing that in 2006 it recorded seven deaths. Again, it stressed that these cases are those reported only.

As to malnutrition, again, Samar province has 23% malnutrition rate, one of the highest malnutrition cases in the country.

KSFI stated that gender issues like poverty, warped values and poor governance are the root causes of the destitute situation the Samar women are in.

With the foregoing facts presented, KSFI aims to mobilize women and even men supporters to establish, re activate Samar Provincial Gender and Development (GAD) Council to push for mainstreaming gender issues and concerns into the development agenda of the province.

It also urges the LGUs to strictly adhere to the General Appropriations Act (GAA), NEDA and DILG Joint Circular Memorandum mandating the allocation of at least 5% of their budget to gender and development.

The women of Samar hope that the establishment of GAD Council will give a glimmer of hope to the destitute Samareña who wallows in poverty, neglect and even abuse.

DOH team confirms outbreak of typhoid fever in a coastal Samar barangay

By NINFA B. QUIRANTE (PIA Samar)
March 31, 2008

CATBALOGAN CITY, Samar  –  A team of physicians led by Dr. Enrique Tayag of the National Epidemiology Center of the Department of Health (DOH) confirmed that there was an outbreak of typhoid fever in Brgy. Alegria, Zumarraga, Samar.

The team of doctors accompanied by health authorities from Center for Health Development (CHD) 8 and from the Samar Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) sailed to the island town of Zumarraga to validate the earlier reports.

The team went to Zumarraga town, reachable by an hour of boat ride from Catbalogan proper; proceeded to the target barangay, another two-hour boat ride.

The team, in its findings, confirmed that there was an outbreak of Typhoid Fever on February 10, 2008 - March 15, 2008 as evidenced by one rectal swab and two blood cultures that yielded positive for Salmonella typhosa.

The findings further revealed that the source of the typhoid could be the water from an improved dug well.

Some 77% of the 13 samples from randomly selected households tested positive for coliform, including the sample collected from the source of the water supply, the report stated.

The team suspected that the steady rain which fell on the island during the month of January to February, which inundated the barangay resulted to the contamination of the water table by fecal coliforms.

The team considered that, since majority of the houses do not have sanitary toilets, the contamination of the water was inevitable.

Of the 135 identified typhoid cases, only 115 suspect typhoid cases met the case definition.

Thirty five cases claimed that they use their own sanitary toilets. Only 28% wash their hands without using soap before eating.

Some 99% of the suspected cases drink water with no water sanitation such as chlorination or boiling.

Only 32% of the households have sanitary toilets. Three sanitary toilets were found to be less than 25 meters away from the source of water.

To recall, Samar Provincial Hospital was swamped with 27 victims who exhibited symptoms of the dreaded typhoid from March 7-12, 2008. Some other victims opted to stay in their homes.

Marian Pantaleon, sentinel nurse said that while the number of cases seemed alarming, the Municipal Health Officer (MHO) of Zumarraga, Dr. Francis Langi immediately acted on the health problem.

The Barangay Council of Alegria declared in ‘a state of calamity’ and used the intended fund to purchase medicines for the victims.

As recommended by the visiting health the barangay is advised to assist residents to conduct household water treatment; to conduct a massive clean-up drive; create a committee to protect and monitor the safety of the existing improved dug well and conduct information campaign on water treatment to all residents.

It also recommended that rehabilitation of the spring water source be funded.

Meanwhile, the health team recommended to the RHU to set up or improve the surveillance system in all barangays.

Presently, no new cases have been found, the team reported.

I pity them, they were forced to admit they abducted me – Principe

Press Release
By DESAPARECIDOS
March 29, 2008

MANILA, Philippines  –  “The officers presented in this court are not my abductors,” National Democratic Front of the Philippines’ consultant Elizabeth Principe said to the 8th Special Division of the Court of Appeals (CA) for yesterday’s hearing of the Writ of Amparo filed for her and missing husband, and also an NDFP consultant Leo Velasco.

“Actually, I pity them because I know they were forced to admit something they were not involved of,” Principe continues.

Contradicting the statement made by Police Supt. Aunorio Agnila, SPO4 Cecilla Garcia, SPO2 Andy Palmiano and Major Edward Gomez of the Intelligence Service Group of the AFP, who claimed the arrest, Principe says that burly, muscular and lean men forced her inside a van on the day of November 28, 2007 after having her medical examination at P. Tuazon St., Cubao. She described her abductors as well built men, muscular and had no belly which does not fit to the characteristics of Agnila, Palmiano and Gomez. Principe even told the court that no policewoman was present in her alleged abduction.

Principe further tells the court that she was immediately blindfolded and handcuffed when pushed inside the van. She said that her abductors were going to cover her mouth when she started to ask questions like “Why are you abducting me?” and “Why are you doing this?” Principe said she bargained not to cover her mouth and she will stop questioning her abductors.

Principe said she was handcuffed and blindfolded for three straight days with loud music plugged in her ears which caused her severe headaches. She said she tried to put the earplugs away at one time but her guard tightened her blindfold that caused more pain to her head. She admitted to the court that during the time she was incommunicado she never answered interrogations because she wanted to have her lawyer present.

“Policewomen tried to hide my bruises on my wrist by holding them when I was presented in a press conference on December 01, 2007. And after the presscon, a man whispered to my ear while I’m blindfolded that “Makalaya ka o makatakas ka, patatayin kita” (I will kill you whether you go escape here or go free),” Principe narrates further.

Surprised by these statements, Justice Jose L. Sabio orders the court to summon the four who claimed to be Principe’s arresting officers to confront the allegations that they lied under oath. They expected to be in the next hearing scheduled in the morning of April 8, 2008.

“The AFP is trying to conceal the real identity of the perpetrators. They use fall-guys so that their operators in the field will not be revealed,” Principe said after the hearing.

Meanwhile, a support picket was held in front of the Court of Appeals in protest against the continuing detention of Ms. Elizabeth Principe and disappearance of her husband Leo Velasco. Organizations like Desaparecidos, SELDA and Hustisya came with posters saying ‘FREE ELIZABETH PRINCIPE AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS’ and “SURFACE LEO VELASCO AND ALL VICTIMS OF ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES.”

Taripnong and Lakbay Cagayan Valley, organizations advocating for the genuine development for Cagayan Valley also came in support for Principe. Beth was currently a medical health worker in Cagayan Valley before her arrest. These organizations freed two doves in front of the CA as a call to free this couple and all victims of political persecution and enforced disappearances.

Reference: Lorena Santos (0918-6615099/4342837)

DBM distributes first-ever Budget Operations Manual for Barangays

By RICKY J. BAUTISTA
March 29, 2008

BASEY, Samar  –  Fifteen years after the enactment of the Local Government Code of 1991 (R.A. 7160), the first-ever Budget Operations Manual for the country’s 42,000 barangays were finally introduced and distributed by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) early last week.

Budget officials said this new manual has outlines a clear procedure in connecting the plan to the budget and introduces to the barangay officials the concept of a policy-driven and output or performance-based barangay budget.

Early last week, Budget officials led by DBM Eastern Visayas Regional Director Imelda C. Laceras, Assistant Regional Director Edmund Talle, Senior Budget Management Specialist Aleli Hernandez, Leyte provincial budget officer Gina Hipe, Samar provincial budget officer Maximo D. Sison Jr., introduced and distributed the said manual in different seminars conducted for the same purpose throughout the region.

In one of her message, DBM RED Laceras said the first major part of the manual outlines guidelines on how to prepare an annual investment program (AIP) prior to budgeting and how to integrate the executive-legislative agenda (ELA) in the AIP.

"It also provides tools on how to determine and to estimate revenue both local and external sources and simplifies the budget process from preparation, authorization, review, to execution and accountability," Director Laceras said to the first batch of Basey barangay officials, who attended the said seminar on March 24-26, 2008 held at Jasmin Beach Resort, Marabut, Samar.

ARD Talle and Samar PBO Sison, who both impressively answered all the queries, during an open forum further explained and introduced to the participants the new easy-to-accomplish forms in each phase of the budget cycle.

"Actually, ang pinagkaiba lang nitong mga bagong porma sa manual, ay itong bago detalyado sya at madaling maintindihan… hindi sya complicated. Me mga new laws on procurement and accounting system at mga collective experiences ng mga budget officers na ini-incorporate ng DBM dito sa manual," PBO Sison stressed.

Budget authorities informed that this manual caters to the members of the Barangay Development Council, the Punong Barangays and the members of the Sangguniang Barangay, the Barangay Treasurers, Barangay Secretaries, Day Care Workers, Barangay Health and Nutrition Workers, Barangay Tanods, Purok Leaders, representatives of accredited private organizations, key informants like doctors, teachers, retired professionals residing in the barangay and the youth represented by the Sangguniang Kabataan.