COMELEC BALKS AT ARROYO HOUSE ARREST
COMMISSION on Elections ( Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. on Wednesday continued to oppose a motion by former President and now Rep. Gloria Arroyo of Pampanga province to be placed under house arrest. Brillantes, however, said it will be up to Pasay judge Jesus Mupas if he will grant Mrs. Arroyo’s request for house arrest. “It’s all up to the judge. Everything is up to the judge if she will be allowed to be placed under house arrest. As prosecutors, it is our job to oppose to avoid any showing of special treatment,” he said. The former chief executive is under hospital arrest at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center ( VMMC) for charges of electoral sabotage at the Pasay City Regional Trial Court ( RTC) Branch 112.
TERROR SURGE LEVELS UP IRAQ ALERT
THE Department of Foreign Affairs ( DFA) on Wednesday raised crisis alert level 3 in Iraq because of the “higher- than- expected” surge in terrorist and sectarian violence in the war- torn country after the withdrawal of United States troops there late last year. Under alert level 3, voluntary repatriation of Filipinos from the country is activated. The cost of repatriating the Filipinos will be shouldered by the Philippine government. In a statement, the Foreign Affairs department said that the alert level covers all regions of Iraq except the northern Autonomous Region of Kurdistan, which has been relatively peaceful. Kurdistan sits near the country’s border with Turkey. According to the statement, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario “has given marching orders to the Philippine embassy in Baghdad to contact and urge all remaining overseas Filipino workers [ OFWS] in the country, to avail of the DFA’S repatriation offer.”
KEEP COINS IN CIRCULATION, CONSUMERS TOLD
THE significant cost incurred by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in coin production prompted a Quezon City councilor to file a resolution asking the city’s consumers and business entrepreneurs to support the BSP’S re-circulation coin program. In resolution PR 2011-126, City Councilor Allan Benedict Reyes (3rd Dist.) said that the BSP noted that coins are not being efficiently circulated in the country. Under the circumstance the BSP said producing coins would translate into a sizeable expense stressing that the intrinsic value of the coin is more expensive than its nominal value especially for lowerdenominated coins like the one, five and 10 centavo coins. Reyes said that the public can spare the government of unnecessary expenses if business enterprises and the consumers can by keeping the coins in circulation.
243 WANTED PERSONS CAUGHT IN JANUARY
THE Philippine National Police’s (PNP) Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) has apprehended more than 200 wanted persons, including 56 who were facing criminal charges for heinous crimes, in January 2012 alone. CIDG chief Director Samuel Pagdilao Jr. said among the 243 arrested were two members of the al Qaeda-linked bandit group Abu Sayyaf, namely Sonny Bakim Barahim alias Abu Ismael and Harun Jaljalis alias Abu Indal, both from Basilan. Among the other high profile wanted persons arrested last month: * Ceferino Atienza, alias Dimas, leader of the Dimas Gun for Hire Group who is wanted for the murder of a councilman in Sto Tomas, Batangas in 2009; * Rodel Ledesma, leader of a kidnapping for ransom group responsible for the abduction of a businessman in Imus, Cavite.