PNP to honor woman officer who beat off rebel attack

By DJ Yap

Philippine Daily Inquirer

 

Senior Inspector Charity Galvez recounting to reporters the attack by NPA rebels on her station last month. Contributed Photo

MANILA, Philippines—Long considered a bastion of machismo, the Philippine National Police  celebrates its 110th year on Monday by honoring a mother with more fire and heart than many of her testosterone-filled colleagues.

Senior Inspector Charity Galvez, chief of police of Trento town in Agusan Del Sur and a former schoolteacher, leads the honorees at the police service’s anniversary in the PNP headquarters at Camp Crame in Quezon City, officials said.

President Benigno Aquino will bestow on Galvez the PNP Medalya ng Katapangan (Bravery Medal) for her “conspicuous courage and gallantry in action” when she led a handful of her men in pushing back some 250 communist New People’s Army insurgents last July.

After making sure her baby and its nanny were safe, the 39-year-old policewoman and 30 of her men fought back and repelled the NPA dissidents, who went on a shooting and looting rampage.

When the hour-long  battle was over, two civilians lay dead and three others, including two lawmen, were wounded, officials said.

A resident of San Francisco town, also in Agusan del Sur, Galvez became Trento’s top cop after just over a year. She became a junior police officer through the PNP’s lateral entry program in 2008.

“I joined the force in the early 2000s after seven years of teaching at the Father Saturnino Urios University in Butuan. I also studied criminology while making my way in the service and passed the licensure examination and became a criminologist,” she said in an earlier Inquirer interview.

Galvez has one child with her husband, an employee of a water utility company in San Francisco.

Her achievement gives a new female face to the PNP, a traditionally male-dominated institution.

Only one in every 750 police is a woman out of the 140,000-strong police force, PNP spokesperson Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr. said.

“I am looking forward to the opportunity of personally extending my commendation to (Senior) Inspector Galvez and her men for the courageous defense of their town,” PNP Director General Raul M. Bacalzo said in an earlier statement.

Also expected to grace the event is Interior Secretary Jesse M. Robredo.

August 8 is celebrated as the anniversary of the police service in commemoration of the founding on August 8, 1901 of the defunct Philippine Constabulary, the forerunner of the PNP.

In 1991, the PNP was separated from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and became a civilian law enforcement agency under the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

Aside from Galvez, another Bravery Medal recipient is Chief Inspector Allan B. Umipig, chief of the District Intelligence Operation Unit of the Southern Police District, who figured in an encounter with armed robbers in Sucat, Parañaque City in June. Three suspects were killed in the incident.

President Aquino will also award posthumous promotions to the respective widows of Senior Police Officer 2 Ricky O. Agwit and SPO2 Jeff E. Domingo, both of the Ifugao provincial police office who perished in a landslide on a rescue mission at the height of Tropical Storm Juaning in the Cordilleras on July 27.

The two police officers will be promoted to SPO3 in recognition of their selfless sacrifice, officials said.

Aquino will also present the “Presidential Streamer Award” to the Police Regional Office- Cordillera as Police Regional Office of the Year.

Robredo will present the National Police Commission Streamer Award to the Headquarters Support Service as the National Administrative Support Unit of the Year.

The PNP’s elite squad, the Special Action Force, will be presented with the Chief PNP Streamer Award as the National Operational Support Unit of the Year.

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Palma leads ‘Garbo sa Sugbo’ awardees

By Carmel Loise Matus

Cebu Daily News

After serving barely seven months as the chief shepherd of the province’s Catholic flock, the award came as a surprise.

“I haven’t done a lot for Cebu,” said Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma after receiving an Award of Distinction and Medal of Merit in last night’s Governor’s Ball at the Capitol Social Hall.

It was the evening’s highest award in the annual Garbo sa Sugbo (Pride of Cebu) recognition marking Cebu province’s 442nd founding anniversary.

Six achievers were recognized as Garbo sa Sugbo awardees, including Ambassador Francisco Benedicto, who served in the consular corps for 25 years. He was cited for his contribution to international relations. Chester Cokaliong, founder and chief executive officer of Cokaliong Shipping Lines Inc., was recognized for entrepreneurship.

“(The award) becomes a pledge of commitment that as a church leader, I will try to do my utmost best to bring about renewal and development in the faith and also in the community,” Palma told reporters last night.

The Provincial Board (PB) passed a resolution during last Wednesday’s special session confirming the governor’s choice of special awardee.

It cited Palma’s recent election as the new president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines and his “preferential care for the poor and the underprivileged by actively attending to their concerns onrelocation sites and decent shelters for their families.”

Gloria Sevilla, considered “the Queen of Visayan Movies,” was honored as Garbo sa Sugbo awardee for the performing arts along with businesswoman-philanthropist Mariquita Salimbangon-Yeung, chairperson of the Cebu Beautification Movement Inc. who was recognized for humanitarian social service.

Suzette Ranillo, Gloria Sevilla’s daughter, handed a CD containing the 10 official soundtracks of her parents’ Visayan movies to Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale and Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama.

The municipality of San Francisco in Camotes Island was likewise honored after winning this year’s 2011 United Nations Sasakawa Award for Disaster Reduction. The town was represented by Mayor Alfredo Arquillano.

The Sasakawa Award “is a symbol of excellence and outstanding achievement in environmental inspiration and action,” said the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), which sponsors the prize. Msgr. Rodolfo Villanueva, a poet, novelist and composer, was a Garbo sa Sugbo awardee for music and literature.

Governor’s Citations were given to the Catmon Elementary School Volleyball Team-Girls for winning the gold medal in the Palarong Pambansa for three years and the Mandaue Children’s Choir for getting two gold medals during the recent international choir competition in Hong Kong.

A Garbo sa Sugbo billboard in front of the Capitol grounds was unveiled before the awarding ceremonies.

A five-minute grand fireworks display welcomed the guests and visitors last night.

Rep. Pablo John Garcia of Cebu’s 3rd district thanked the awardees for their “contributions” to the Cebuano community.

Bill seeks to grant tax perk to bike-commuting employees

By Maila Ager

INQUIRER.net 

MANILA, Philippines—A bill granting fiscal incentives to bicycle commuters has been filed in the Senate.

Senate Bill No. 2924, known as “An act granting incentives to encourage and promote commuting by bicycles or other non-motorized transport vehicles, and for other purposes,” will entitle employees who regularly and mainly use bicycles or other non-motorized transport vehicles as means of transport to and from their places of work to an annual tax deduction of P2,500 from their gross income.

“Expenses incurred by employers or schools in providing their employees or students, by way of benefits, bicycles and non-motorized transport vehicles, eligible equipment, and bike-friendly facilities shall be deductible in full from their gross income,” the bill states.

Bicycles and other non-motorized transport vehicles granted by employers to its managerial and supervisory employees in compliance will not also be taxable under the bill.

Senator Ferdinand “Bong-Bong” Marcos Jr. said he filed the bill to address the primordial problems of air pollution, traffic and road congestion, rising costs of gasoline and other commodities, personal health problems, and other related social issues.

“This bill seeks to introduce a world-renowned approach to solving the above primordial problems of our society: the promotion and re-invigoration, by way of fiscal incentives, of bicycle commuting on Philippine roads,” Marcos said in his explanatory note in the bill.

The proposed legislation, Marcos said, also seeks to “incentivize” bicycle use as a mode of daily transport, particularly the use by workers and students, in order to maintain the present

bicycle-commuting scene and also attract more bicycle users in the country.

“The specific targets are the employees and students who shall be the direct participants in the fiscal incentive program or system, as well as the employees, schools, companies and other institutions that shall provide the conditions for the system,” Marcos said.

“Riders and direct users are benefited by bicycle-related facilities and tax deduction incentives, while indirect participants are benefited also by way of tax deduction on expenses and corporate social responsibility programs,” he pointed out.

The noose tightens

By: Conrado de Quiros

Philippine Daily Inquirer

That was a very nice riposte Rafael Santiago made when told that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo dismissed his revelations as an “old story.” “Of course, it’s an old story,” he said, “because it was done six years ago. But you know, wala namang baho na hindi lumalabas (You can’t hide anything that stinks).”

It reminds you of what Gregoria de Jesus said when her husband, Andres Bonifacio, was brought to the hills and executed by former friends and allies. The truth will out. No matter how long it takes, no matter how deep it is buried, the truth will out.

Stink has a way of wafting into the public smell even after six years. And this one has a stench that cannot be covered. It might be an old story, but it is one that we are finally hearing from someone who actually witnessed it, who actually participated in it, who actually carried it out. It might as well be a story we are hearing for the first time.

Santiago’s story is that he and his team broke into the Batasan complex in early 2005 to substitute fake ballots, hidden in several Marlboro boxes, for the real ones. Their action was prompted by Susan Roces’ electoral protest and demand to have the votes recounted. To make sure that Arroyo would still win in a recount, government resorted to that move.

Government in particular took the form of then-PNP chief Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., Special Action Force director, Marcelino Franco, Comelec supervisor Roque Bello, his son El Bello, SAF chief of security in the Batasan, Ferdinand Ortega and several others who manufactured the fake ballots. Oppressed by guilt and driven by a need to set things right, Santiago has come out with his story.

What this does is to open the door to voiding the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo forthwith. This “Marlborogate”—and “Hello Garci”—constitutes grounds for doing so. Richard Nixon was impeached for far less, for merely covering up the break-in into Democratic Party headquarters by burglars funded by the Committee to Re-elect the President. This is falsifying election results. Santiago himself suggests the First Gentleman might have been its mastermind, though he won’t say that categorically as he himself has no direct proof of it.

Of course the involvement of Arroyo and husband in “Hello Garci” and “Marlborogate” has yet to be proven. But I don’t know how hard it can be to prove the authenticity of the “Hello Garci” tape—Arroyo cannot hide behind the “poisoned tree” argument, as several people have pointed out, because to claim wiretapping is to admit that one has been wiretapped, and Arroyo has refused to admit that to this day—and the means, opportunity and motive in the Batasan break-in.

To emphasize something of vital importance, the point is not to show that these duplicitous acts affected the results of the 2004 elections, thereby making Arroyo the winner of those elections. If so, then the argument—which you are almost certain to hear in the coming days—is that the Batasan break-in was a minor thing, a lapse of judgment and Arroyo might still have emerged winner even without it. That was the argument that came out in the wake of “Hello Garci.” It was just a lapse of judgment, and Arroyo might still have emerged winner even without it.

The point is to show that these are crimes. Talking to a “Comelec official” in the middle of counting is not a lapse of judgment, it is a crime. Breaking into the Batasan to replace real ballots with fake ones, notwithstanding that the elections took place nearly a year before, is not a lapse of judgment, it is a crime. People who commit crimes are not rewarded, they are punished. People who commit crimes are not sent to Malacañang, they are sent to Muntinlupa. People who commit crimes are not called ex-presidents, they are called current convicts. Of at least (near)-future ones.

While at this, the point as well is to prosecute—and jail them where they are found guilty—all those who participated in “Hello Garci” and “Marlborogate.” The Comelec officials in particular who participated and continue to participate in these crimes, the officials tasked with enforcing the will of the people, of guaranteeing the will of the people, of manifesting the will of the people. For so long has the Comelec been an object of lust of the greedy, the deceitful and the conniving for the rewards it brings in exchange for turning it into the opposite of what it is meant to be, of what it is meant to do. It’s time we brought integrity to a sacred office, it’s time we restored faith in a sacred trust, it’s time we allowed only the dutiful to carry out a sacred duty. It’s time we jailed the bastards who have been trashing that office all this time.

If we need to look closely at the effects of “Hello Garci” and “Marlborogate” on the results of the 2004 elections, it is only to see who should be proclaimed president in lieu of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. If belatedly, if posthumously, if well past due. That is most likely Fernando Poe Jr. His proclamation can come later, but we have enough right now to declare the position of president vacant from 2004 to 2010.

The truth will out. What goes around comes around. All those hoary platitudes have finally taken earthly shape. Arroyo’s own eagerness to jail a former president to prevent him from threatening her rule has come back to haunt. Erap was guilty only of stealing the cash, Arroyo is guilty of stealing the vote. Erap was guilty only of stealing women’s hearts, Arroyo is guilty of stealing a nation’s soul. She herself has set the precedent, the precedent for locking up a deposed but genuinely elected president. Can it be so hard to do the same thing, and needing only a small cell, to an undeposed but perfectly fake one?

The noose tightens.