Author: Ellen

Davao City’s ‘ghost employees’ early funders of Duterte’s EJKs

Ellen


The House Quad Committee (Quadcom), which has uncovered gruesome information, in its investigation of extrajudicial killings (EJKs), is now into tracing the money trail that financed former president Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal war on drugs.

Quadcom co-chairs Reps. Bienvenido “Benny” Abante Jr. and Dan Fernandez said that the mega-panel composed of the Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order and Safety, Human Rights, and Public Accounts, will seek the assistance of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) in tracing the illicit transactions.

Former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office General Manager Royina Garma, who also played a major role in Duterte’s bloody program, had given information on the rewards system which was patterned to Davao drug war template that she helped implement when she was a Station Commander in one of the police stations in Davao.

It would also be helpful for the Quadcom to retrieve the interviews given by self-confessed Duterte Death Squad leader Arturo Lascañas and member Edgar Matobato.

Lascañas and Matobato’s affidavits on their role in Duterte’s drug war have already been submitted to the International Criminal Court currently investigating the former president’s crimes against humanity.

In VERA Files interview with Lascañas in April 2017, he said he was collecting P68,000 every month from the Davao City government as DDS member.

Needless to say, there is no such item as DDS in the city government’s payroll. They were “ghost” employees.

What they did was come up with 10 to 12 names that were listed as employees with salaries ranging from P5,000 to P7,000 a month.
Lascañas said only two or three names on the list were real people. “The rest is imbento na lang namin na pangalan (We invented the names of the rest). They got some of the names from the telephone directory yellow pages.

Matobato, a former member of the Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Unit in Davao said that he was on the city’s payroll as a member of the Civil Security Unit but only worked to kill individuals who he was told were “criminals.”

Aside from what he got as “ghost employee,” Lascañas said, he also received P50,000 every month from Duterte through Sonny Buenaventura, bringing his collection to P118,000. This was over and above his P38,000 monthly salary as an SPO3, he said.

The ghost employees practice was a regular feature during both father and daughter terms as Davao city mayor. Rodrigo Duterte terms covered from 2001 to 2010, then 2013 to 2016. Sara’s years were 2010 to 2013, and 2016 to 2022.

Flagged by COA

VERA Files had reported that the Commission on Audit (COA) has noticed the unusually large number of contractual workers of the Davao City government.

The COA had discovered that the salaries of some contractual or job-order employees in Davao City were being received by persons “other than those authorized payees” because the signatures in the receipts were different from those in the payroll.

This is the reason why Duterte hates COA. He lambasted COA in several of his speeches when he was president calling it “pure bullshit.”
The hiring of ghost employees was one of the charges in the impeachment complaint filed against the President by Magdalo Partylist Rep. Gary Alejano on March 16,2017 which did not prosper in the Duterte-controlled House of Representatives.

The failure of the impeachment complaint was cited by Alejano and former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV as reason why they had to go to the ICC(they were the first to do so) to make Duterte accountable for his crimes against humanity.

The audit report also formed the basis for the plunder case Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV filed against Duterte on May 5, 2016. It is still there doing a Mona Lisa (They just lie there, and they die there) under a Duterte-appointed Ombudsman.

This column was also carried by VERA Files and Canadian-Filipino.net

Families appeal to authorities: Return James and Felix to us

Ellen

It has been over a month since James Jazmines disappeared. It will be a month on Saturday in the case of Felix Salaveria, Jr.

No one disappears in the normal scheme of things in this world. Life’s cycle consists of birth, childhood, adulthood, old age, death. Some get to complete all the stages, some are not so lucky and skip some stages. But nowhere is there a stage when one simply disappears. Unless something drastic happened to disrupt that cycle as in the case of Jazmines and Salaveria.

The families of the two point to government agents as behind the dastardly act. Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said “The tell-tale signs of state involvement in the abductions of Jazmines and Salaveria are there.”

In their demand for the authorities to surface the two, they narrated that James attended Felix’s 66th birthday dinner with friends at a restaurant in Tabaco City, Albay, on August 23.

“After the celebration, James left on his bicycle and has not been seen since. Five days later, and after he had reported that James had gone missing, Felix was abducted. According to eyewitnesses, he was shoved into a silver van by men in plain clothes and later a group of uniformed policemen entered his home and removed personal belongings, including his cell phone and laptop. “

Karapatan has released CCTV footages obtained during a search mission last September 11-13, 2024 in Albay that showed the abduction by men in plain clothes of Salaveria Jr. near his home in Barangay Cobo, Tabaco City, Albay on the morning of August 28.

“An operation like this is highly organized and it was done in broad daylight, indicating the brazen character of the crime. The abduction of Jazmines and Salaveria bears these indicators which are similar to previous cases of such abductions committed by State forces. Several questions remain as the two remain missing, and this includes questions on State actors’ duty to investigate such incidents. So far, no government official has publicly spoken on their abduction,” Palabay said.

The families have launched a campaign to demand the authorities to investigate the abductions, return the two safely to their families and bring those responsible for their disappearances to justice.
Who are James Jazmines and Felix Salaveria Jr?

James is a 1978 graduate of the Philippine Science High School and a former BS Psychology student of the University of the Philippines in Diliman. He served as information officer of the League of Filipino Students from 1977 to the early 1980s. He later became the executive director of the Amado V. Hernandez Resource Center, a cultural institution, from 1984 to 1988. From 1988 to 1992, he served as information officer of the Kilusang Mayo Uno labor center.

Up to the mid-2000s, he was the information technology (IT) consultant of a development NGO and has been working freelance in the IT sector since then. He was known in his community as quiet and unassuming, but also a frequent biker.
Salaveria, a 1976 graduate of San Beda High School and a former sociology major at the University of the East in Manila, is a founding member and former president of Cycling Advocates (CYCAD), a group that promotes biking as a low-cost, healthy and non-polluting form of transportation. He is also a founding member of Tunay na Alyansa ng Bayan Alay sa mga Katutubo (Tabak) and Kabataan para sa Tribung Pilipino (Katribu), groups advocating for indigenous people’s rights. He was likewise a member of the staff of the now defunct Ethnic Studies and Development Center’s Minority Rights Advocacy Program.

In Bgy. Cobo, Tabaco City, Salaveria became known as an avid eco-waste management advocate who encouraged the proper disposal of waste. He coordinated with other groups based in Tabaco for alternative ways of transporting waste for conversion to compost for permaculture, and even donated a bike for this purpose. In addition to his waste disposal advocacy, he also maintained a small community garden in his residence. He was well-liked in his community both for his advocacies and for being a kind and helpful neighbor.

Palaybay said the state’s silence on the disappearance of the two contravenes Republic Act No. 10353, or the law against enforced disappearance that has been in existence since 2012.

Under RA 10353, state security forces are required to issue certifications on the whereabouts of a missing person. They are also required to disclose the location of all detention facilities and allow inspection by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR). State authorities responsible for enforced disappearance can be sentenced to life imprisonment.

The families said they are targeting 1,000.00 signatures in five days for their petition, which they will present to the president, Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos, Philippine National Police Chief Rommel Francisco Marbil and Armed Forces Chief Romeo Brawner Jr.

This column also appeared in VERA Files, Malaya Business Insight and Canadian-Fil.net

Can 3 high-ranking PNP officials get out of ICC ‘suspects’ list?

Ellen


What will the Philippine National Police (PNP) do with the three high-ranking officers who were named as suspects in the ongoing probe by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs?

The three are: Major General Romeo Caramat Jr., former chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and currently the acting area commander of Luzon; retired colonel Edilberto Leonardo, identified in the document as former commissioner of the National Police Commission (the Napolcom’s website still lists him as a commissioner); Brig. Gen. Eleazar Matta, identified by the ICC as former PNP chief intelligence officer (He is currently the director of the PNP-Drug Enforcement Group.).

The three police officers were named, together with Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa and former PNP chief Oscar Albayalde, in a four-page confidential document dated July 3, sent through the Philippine Embassy in The Hague and released to the media on July 25 by former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, one of the earliest complainants to the ICC against Duterte’s brutal drug war.

The document said: “Under Article 54 (1) a of the Rome Statute, the [Office of the Prosecutor) is obliged to conduct investigations which cover all the facts and evidence. This includes providing individuals under suspicion of crimes to provide their version of the events. In this context, the OTP has reasonable grounds to believe that the following retired and serving members of the Philippine National Police have committed crimes within the jurisdiction of the OTP. “

This is the first official ICC list of suspects ever reported on the investigation into alleged crimes against humanity committed under Duterte’s war on drugs, in which at least 20,000 persons were killed, according to human rights groups. The PNP, however, admits to only 6,000 individuals killed during police operations.
It has been almost a month since the ICC sent the document to the DFA and we can imagine that it has been delivered to the “suspects.”

The inclusion of the three active officers undermines the “new face” of the campaign against illegal drugs that Marcos touted in his second State of the Nation Address in July 2023.

He said then: “Unscrupulous law enforcers and others involved in the highly nefarious drug trade have been exposed. I will be accepting their resignations. In their stead, we will install individuals with unquestionable integrity, and who will be effective and trustworthy in handling the task of eliminating this dreaded and corrosive social curse.”
As head of the PNP’s drug enforcement group, Matta supposedly leads a different anti-illegal drugs strategy that does not include extermination of suspects.

Leonardo is still with Napolcom, which exercises “administrative control and operational supervision over the PNP, with the end in view of ensuring a highly capable, effective and credible police service”

Why is Duterte not on the list? Trillanes explained that the former president was already named when the ICC authorized prosecutor Karim Khan to proceed with the probe on Sept. 15, 2021.

The former senator further said the formal naming of the five former and current PNP officials in Duterte’s drug war probe puts them in the “blue notice” of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol).

Inclusion in the Interpol’s “blue notice” means that if and when the suspect travels outside the Philippines, he may be detained for questioning in connection with the ICC probe.

“They have a choice whether to cooperate or not,” Trillanes said.

Carramat, Leonardo and Matta still have that option.

There were earlier talks about Albayalde’s willingness to cooperate with the ICC but that turned out to be false. Dela Rosa, whose Facebook page showed him distributing foodstuff to victims of typhoon Carina on Thursday, shrugged off the ICC update: “”What’s new? My name was always mentioned since 2016.Seems like a broken record that keeps on repeating the same lines,” he told VERA Files by text.

As for Duterte, an arrest warrant will just be a matter of time.

This article was also carried by VERA Files

PH, China agree, disagree over breakthrough agreement

Ellen

A China Coast Guard vessel attempts to block a Philippine government vessel as the latter tries to enter the China Second Thomas Disputed Shoals (local name Ayungin Shoal) to orate Philippine troops and resupply provisions Saturday, March 29, 2014.(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

President Marcos was given a standing ovation (one of the three) when he reiterated his unyielding stand on the country’s ownership of West Philippine Sea.

But even as he tried to rally people behind a common adversary which is China, he talked of finding “ways to de-escalate tensions in contested areas “underscoring “proper diplomatic channels and mechanisms under the rules-based international order” to settle disputes.

Hours before the President made that declaration, Filipino and Chinese diplomats simultaneously announced the arrangement they agreed on for the rotation and resupply (RORE) to the Philippine Marines stationed at BRP Sierra Made on Ayungin shoal (international name: Second Thomas shoal and Chines name: Rén’ài Jiāo).

The three-paragraph statement of the Department of Foreign Affairs said “The Philippines and the People’s Republic of China have reached an understanding on the provisional arrangement for the resupply of daily necessities and rotation missions to the BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal.”

China’s five-paragraph announcement in a question- and -answer form gave more information. It insisted on China’s sovereignty over Ren’ai Jiao and reiterated its demand for the BRP Sierra Madre to be removed from Ayungin shoal.
These are the two most significant points:

“Second, between now and when the warship is towed away, should the Philippines need to send living necessities to the personnel living on the warship, China is willing to allow it in a humanitarian spirit if the Philippines informs China in advance and after on-site verification is conducted. China will monitor the entire resupply process.

“Third, if the Philippines were to send large amount of construction materials to the warship and attempt to build fixed facilities or permanent outpost, China will absolutely not accept it and will resolutely stop it in accordance with the law and regulations to uphold China’s sovereignty and the sanctity of the DOC.”

Immediately, DFA refuted China’s statement: “The spokesperson’s statement (therefore) regarding prior notification and on-site confirmation is inaccurate. “

It added that “the agreement was concluded with the clear understanding by both sides that it will not prejudice our respective national positions.”

The test of this breakthrough agreement is in its implementation. Let’s see.

This column was carried by Malaya Business Insight, VERA Files

The looming arrest of Duterte and the 2025 elections

Ellen
The main character and three of the supporting cast in the ICC trial of Duterte’s deadly war on drugs.

The looming issuance of arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for former president Rodrigo Duterte and his accomplices in his deadly war on drugs is expected to impact tremendously in the 2025 midterm and the 2028 presidential elections.
Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who was the first to bring Duterte’s crimes to the ICC way back in 2017, said the warrants of arrest could be served later this month or early July.

He said, according to his sources privy to the workings of the ICC, the serving of the arrest warrants will be done by batch. The former president will be the first one to be served.

The second batch would most likely include Vice President Sara Duterte and Sens. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa and Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go.

The third batch would likely be the police officials who led in the implementation of Duterte’s war on drugs that claimed the lives of some 30,000. (Government figures put those who were killed during police operations at 6,000.)

There were rumors last year about a possible cooperation of former PNP chief Oscar Albayalde with the ICC, but it turned out to be false.

Duterte and those involved in the war on drugs are subject of an investigation for crimes against humanity in the Philippines covering the period from Nov. 1, 2011 (when he was Davao City mayor) to March 16, 2019 (when the Philippines withdrew from the ICC).

Trillanes said the ICC investigators have completed their collection of evidence and are now set to issue warrants of arrest to ensure the participation of the accused in the trial.

Duterte has said several times that he will not submit to the ICC’s jurisdiction, ignorantly describing the international court as composed of “white people.”

His strategy for evading the inevitable serving of an arrest warrant has become pathetic, even laughable. In the beginning, he tried to be useful to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., with his loyalists Bong Go and Sen. Alan Cayetano suggesting that he be appointed special envoy to China, given his closeness to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

When that didn’t work, he resorted to putting pressure on Marcos using the objectionable Charter change issue. The public knows better. Charter change is a legitimate issue but Duterte, having advocated that previously, is not a credible rallying figure. This is best shown by the dwindling attendance in his rallies. Also, the prospect of having Sara Duterte — with her unexplained P125 million confidential fund and dismal performance as Education secretary — as president if Marcos is toppled before 2028 scares concerned citizens.

Dela Rosa is doing his own thing with his senseless investigation of the leak by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency of the president’s alleged drug use as exposed by Duterte.

In what is seen by many as a distraction to Duterte’s accountability in the bloody drug war, his son, Paolo, who is Davao City representative, has filed a resolution seeking a congressional investigation into the alleged extrajudicial killings in the country for the last 25 years.

Marcos has, so far, dangled the ICC sword, effectively confusing not only Duterte and his allies but also the public. The question on everybody’s mind: Will Marcos allow the arrest of Duterte and his accomplices by the ICC?

Trillanes said that scenario might not happen because he believes Duterte will flee to China for sanctuary. Remember, in August last year Duterte met with Xi in Beijing when he thought a warrant of arrest would be issued with the decision of the ICC to reject the Philippine government’s appeal to stop the investigation.

How about Sara? And Dela Rosa and Go, who are due for reelection in the 2025 elections?

Will the arrest, if it happens, gain them sympathy or lead to their political oblivion?

Abangan.