Pyramid scam suspect Rasuman brought to NBI head offices

Shortly after his arrest in Marawi City, Jachob "Coco" Rasuman, a businessman linked to a multimillion-peso pyramid investment scam, was brought to National Bureau of Investigation headquarters in Manila Tuesday night.

 

A flight bearing Rasuman arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, radio dzBB reported Wednesday.

 

From the NAIA, Rasuman was whisked off to NBI headquarters in Manila under heavy guard, the report said.

 

On Tuesday afternoon, Lanao del Sur police head Senior Superintendent Romel Magsalos said the NBI served an arrest warrant on Rasuman past 2 p.m.

 

Magsalos said Rasuman was taken into NBI custody. He did not give further details about the arrest, except that Rasuman was arrested at his house in Marawi City.

 

Also, Magsalos said they remain on full alert despite Rasuman's arrest, according to a report by dzBB's Divine Caraecle.

 

The report quoted Magsalos as saying they are drawing up plans to head off any violent reactions by victims of the scam, should Rasuman fail to reimburse them. — ELR, GMA News

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CBCP warns pro-RH bets of Catholic vote

MANILA, Philippines - An official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) urged yesterday the faithful to use the “Catholic vote” to choose pro-life candidates in the May 2013 senatorial and local elections.
Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles, former vice chairman of the CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Family and Life, said it is high time that Filipinos exercise their religious beliefs in rejecting candidates who are not following the Church’s teachings. 
“If there is a candidate who does not follow Church teachings, we should reject this candidate. We must use the Catholic vote and show them what the real Catholic is. There are fake Catholics here, they are the ones ruling in our country,” the prelate said in Filipino.
Proponents of the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill, including Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, believe there is no such thing as a “Catholic vote.”
“We can only stop ethnic cleansing, contraceptive mentality, immorality, increasing number of broken families, and promiscuity if we vote for candidates who love life,” Arguelles said.
Arguelles also said the “ethnic cleansing” being promoted by some officials can be countered via a Catholic vote.

“They are doing ethnic cleansing that’s why they are pushing (RH) bill in our country. They want to eliminate us,” the prelate said.
The RH bill, which promotes both the artificial and natural methods of family planning, is still pending in both houses of Congress.
Both the House of Representatives and the Senate are in their respective periods of amendment for the controversial RH bill. The CBCP earlier said it will endorse candidates who are pro-life.
In an interview with dzRB, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the State does not meddle in those kinds of things and they are not in a position to comment.
The Catholic Church has maintained a hardline stance to oppose the RH bill.
Last September, CPCP-Episcopal Commission on Family and Life chairman Antipolo Bishop Gabriel Reyes said that the Church remains firm in its stand that all the provisions in both Senate Bill 2865 and HB 4244 or the Reproductive Health and Responsible Parenthood Development bill are against natural moral law.
“We already gave the amendments to the congressman who are agreeing to the position of the Church. The amendments that we are going to give should not include provisions of the Senate bill and the Congress bill that are against natural moral law,” he said.
The Church, Reyes said, will not go into any compromise regarding the provisions.
Reyes said the country should not listen to what the United Nations dictates – which is to legalize abortion and control the country’s population.

A house divided

Arguelles also revealed that opposition to the controversial RH Health bill is the reason why several lawmakers have been skipping plenary sessions in the past days.
“They don’t want to vote against life. They don’t want the RH bill to be rammed down their and our throats, especially by foreign powers out to eliminate our nation and our race,” he said, adding that foreign powers and the rich people want to impose the RH bill to eliminate the poor and the weak.
“They pretend to think of the poor but they are against the poor,” Arguelles said.
“Let us open our eyes. The Philippines does not need this law. The enemies of our country do,” the prelate said.
Arguelles that said instead of allocating funds for RH Bill, the Philippine government should increase investment in the education sector and provide more jobs to Filipinos.
The RH bill has stalled at the House plenary for almost four months after the lower chamber decided to end debates on the proposed measure last August. The Senate has already begun introducing amendments to its version of the RH bill.
The Lower House, however, has failed to tackle amendments due to privilege speeches by lawmakers opposing the measure, and due to the lack of quorum.
Last week, the lower chamber adjourned for three straight days due to lack of quorum.

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BSP issues P50 bills with ASEAN logo

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) -- The Philippine central bank has issued for public circulation 50-peso commemorative bills bearing the ASEAN logo to promote greater awareness among the Filipinos as the Southeast Asian bloc prepares for one community in 2015, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said today.
The limited edition bills, numbering only 10 million pieces, commemorate this year's 45th founding anniversary of ASEAN, the department said.
"The issuance of the commemorative bills is a joint project of the DFA-ASEAN and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to generate greater public awareness of ASEAN in preparation for the ASEAN Community in 2015," the agency said.
ASEAN or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is composed of 10 member states, namely, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
In 1967, the Philippines became one of the five founding members of ASEAN, together with Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

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Sin taxes to boost health budget to at least P80B — Drilon

The health sector will get at least P80 billion for its budget next year with the Senate's passage of the sin tax reform bill, Sen. Franklin Drilon announced Wednesday.

"We have earmarked P2.3 billion for the health sector under the sin tax reform bill we approved last night, [so] the health sector will get at least P80 billion in 2013," Drilon said during his sponsorship speech on the proposed P2.006-trillion national budget for 2013.

On Tuesday, the Senate approved on third and final reading the sin tax reform bill, which seeks to generate almost P40 billion for the state on the first year of its implementation.

On Wednesday, Drilon said at least P23.4 billion of the revenue from sin taxes will be added to the P56.8-billion proposed 2013 budget of the Department of Health.

He explained that the P23.4 billion will go to the Universal Health Care Program, which will cover the "PhilHealth premium of workers in the informal sector, health facilities enhancement program, preventive and promotive health programs, and policy and regulation standard."

On Tuesday, the Senate also approved the insertion of provisions in the sin tax bill earmarking the following:

- P10 million to each of the 618 district hospitals operated by local government units for repair and upgrading of facilities and services;

- P100 million to each of the 16 regional hospitals and 22 medical centers for the same operational and physical upgrading;

- P750 million for the unemployment package of workers and farmers who will be displaced; and

- P250 million to job trainings for tobacco and alcohol workers who wish to start anew

The amendments were introduced by Senator Ralph Recto, who was replaced by Drilon as Senate ways and means committee chair.

2013 budget

But on Wednesday, Drilon said that no major amendments were introduced in the House-approved 2013 General Appropriations Bill.

He said the programmed funds will be maintained at the House bill level of P1,250,780,785,000.00 while the unprogrammed funds will also remain the same at P117,548,371,000.00.  He said the total of new appropriations will amount to P1,368,329,156,000.00.

According to Drilon, the biggest share of the budget (34.8 percent) will go to social services; 25.5 percent will go to economic services; 16.6 percent to debt-servicing; 17.3 percent to general public services; and 4.5 percent to defense.

He also said that the Department of Education will remain the agency with the highest budget allocation with P292.7 billion, an increase of 22.6 percent from P238.8 billion this year.

"A P54-billion increase in funding will help address shortages in education resources such as classrooms, teachers and textbooks. It will also support the department's K+12 program," he said.

Following the DepEd are:

Department of Public Works and Highways (DSWD)- P152.9 billion
Department of National Defense (DND) - P121.6 billion
Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) - P121.1 billion
Department of Agriculture (DA) - P74.1 billion
Department of Health (DOH) - P56.8 billion
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) - P56.2 billion
Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) - P37.1 billion
Department of Finance (DOF) - P33.2 billion
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) - P23.7 billion

Budget highlights

Drilon said that incremental funds will specifically be provided to the Bureau of Immigration for the purchase of five passport-reading machines, as well as additional funds for repairs and maintenance of the Anti-Money Laundering Program.

On the other hand, he said P500,000 will be realigned within the Commission on Elections for the purchase of a warehouse for the PCOS machines.

The senator also said that among the highlights of the amendments on the special provisions of the budget are:

- inclusion of “pre-disaster activities” in the utilization of the Quick Response Fund under the DND's Office of the Secretary and the Office of the Civil Defense;

- deletion of the special provision on “Funding Requirements for the filling of Unfilled Positions,” which violates the provision on fiscal autonomy of Constitutional Offices including the Judiciary, all of which are allowed by the Constitution to use their savings in any item of their respective appropriations;

- inclusion of national roads and bridges, as well as school buildings, among the infrastructure projects that may be funded under the hard allocation of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF);

- insertion of a new special provision earmarking P40 million for research projects on algae research and commercialization, precision farming, and smart agriculture;

- insertion of a new special provision earmarking another P40 million for research projects on disaster science and management, and responsible mining technologies;

- insertion of a new special provision providing P630 million to augment the Project Development and Monitoring Facility; and

- insertion of a new special provision earmarking P50 million for research projects and activities for cloud computing and software-as-a service.

Drilon said that his committee is also supporting the House proposal specifying that authorized deductions from an employee’s salary, emoluments or other benefits shall in no case reduce the employee’s monthly net take home pay to an amount lower than P5,000. — BM, GMA News

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Gov't confident of completing peace pact with MILF by Dec.

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Filipino dead, another missing in US oil rig blast

MANILA, Philippines—The body recovered in the waters near an oil platform that caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico belonged to one of two missing Filipino workers, the Philippine Embassy in Washington D.C. confirmed Sunday.
“We regret to announce that the body that was recovered near the accident scene a few hours ago belongs to one of our two missing kababayans,” Ambassador Jose L. Cuisia, Jr. said as he expressed his condolences to the family of the victim. “We continue to hope and pray that our other kababayan (compatriot) is still alive and would be recovered soon.”
The embassy said the identification was made by Grand Isle Shipyard Inc., the employer of the victim, shortly after the body was brought on shore. It declined to release names and expressed its condolences to the family of the dead worker.

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Aquino appeals for ASEAN cooperation to solve West PHL Sea disputes

President Benigno Aquino III appealed for regional cooperation to address territorial disputes in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) at the 21st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Cambodia on Sunday.

In his statement during the summit’s plenary session, Aquino urged the ASEAN member-states to implement the body’s six-point principles on the West Philippine Sea, which aim for the “early conclusion” of a regional code of conduct on the disputed region.

“I wish to reiterate the need for maritime security and cooperation in ensuring freedom of navigation, in combating piracy, and in maintaining peace and stability in our region. The ASEAN six-point principles on the South China Sea manifest our collective vision—a vision founded on the principle of centrality,” the President said during the first day of the ASEAN summit.

“My country supports its effective implementation which will highlight the fruits of constructive dialogue, strengthen our resolve and reaffirm our respect for international law such as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,” he added.

Earlier this year, Philippine forces engaged in a standoff with China over the disputed Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal in the West Philippine Sea. Both camps eventually pulled their ships out from the territory, but the Philippines lodged a diplomatic protest against China for the incident.

The Philippines and China are also both claiming portions of the Spratly Islands, a string of atolls and islands straddling vital shipping lanes in the West Philippine Sea.

China has been pushing for a bilateral approach to the territorial disputes over the West Philippine Sea, while the Philippines is standing pat on its position to involve its regional partners, such as the ASEAN, in coming up with a multilateral solution to the issue. — BM, GMA News

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