Couple found dead in Geylang hotel

A Bangladeshi man, 22, and Filipino woman, 33, were found dead in a room of a Geylang hotel late Sunday night, said the
police.

Both Md Summon Md Lutfar and Rezziln Lodia Vinegas were discovered with cuts on their bodies and were pronounced
dead at the scene by paramedics at about 11.50pm. Police received the call at 11.40pm.

The bodies were discovered by the receptionist of Summer Hotel, locat

ppppppped along Lorong 22 Geylang, who went up to the second-storey room after his calls for the couple to return the key went
unanswered, reported The New Paper.

According to the receptionist, Vinegas, who was naked with only a towel, was lying motionless on the bloodstained sheets
of the bed, while Md Sumon, a regular customer of the hotel, was also found motionless on the bathroom floor clad only in his
briefs.

The same paper reported that the victims were a couple who had been dating since late last year.

One of the man's colleagues, also his roommate, described Md Sumon as an easygoing chap who did not share much about his
personal life. He added that the deceased was one of the best English speakers among the company's 30 Bangladeshi workers,
according to TNP.

Vinegas worked as a maid for a family in a semi-detached house in Sennett estate.

On Tuesday morning, several R.I.P messages had been left on Vinegas' Facebook page, which was once filled with the active
user's musings on love.

A police spokesman said a knife with a 5cm-long blade was found at the scene, reported TNP.

Police told Yahoo! Singapore they suspected no foul play. They have classified the deaths as unnatural and investigations
are ongoing.
 Police execs axed over jail attack

KIDAPAWAN CITY – The police chief of Kidapawan City including his deputy were relieved Tuesday from their posts while
investigation on their culpability during the attack at the city jail last Sunday is ongoing.

Senior Superintendent Cornelio Salinas, provincial director of the North Cotabato police, said ordered relieved were city
police director Chino Mamburam and deputy chief Rolando Dillera.

The newly appointed chief of police in Kidapawan City isSuperintendent Reynante Cabico who is currently head of the
investigation and intelligence division of the Cotabato Provincial Police Office.

The turnover of command is set today, Wednesday, reports said.

Salinas was told that operatives of the Kidapawan City police were slow in responding to the attack at the city jail, even if
the policemen on duty heard the blasts and the ensuing gunfire.

The jail is just few meters away from the police station.

At the time of the incident, Mamburam was in General Santos City while Dillera was in his house.

The Police Regional Office (PRO) in Soccsksargen has created a group tasked to investigate the jail attack, including the
apparently sluggish response of the alert team of the Kidapawan City police during the assault.

Dillera, however, was quick in saying that he was at the blast site, few minutes after the attack.

"I arrived at the area. Provincial director (Cornelio) Salinas was just two minutes ahead of me. I came from home, got
wet by the rain, and was not feeling well at the time. Yet, I proceeded to the area because I know that was part of my
duty," Dillera said.

Dillera immediately ordered the dispatch of his men to areas believed to be the exit routes of the suspects.

The pursuit operations lasted until the wee hours of the morning, he said.

Despite the pursuits, Salinas said none among the attackers was arrested.

The exit routes were dark and the attackers were able to blend immediately with the residents at Barangay Nuangan and
Indangan in Kidapawan City, two of the areas the authorities considered as "haven of some armed lawless groups."

"Their tribes kept these men. The suspects had already blended with the people," Salinas said.

The Kidapawan City Peace and Order Council (CPOC), after an emergency meeting last Monday, recommended the
immediate transfer of Datukan Samad Lontoc, who is also known as Lastikman, and 15 other high-profile inmates at the
city jail.

In a resolution, the CPOC, led by Mayor Rodolfo Gantuangco, has sought the transfer of Lastikman to Bicutan jail in
Taguig, Metro Manila.

"The Bicutan jail is a more secured place. With the minimal number of jail guards assigned at the facility, it's imperative
that Lastikman and other high-profile inmates be transferred to another place," Gantuangco said.
At that time of the attack, the facility has only three jail guards manning the security, the mayor said.

Despite the number, the guards, with their gallantry or courage, were able to drive the attackers away from the facility,
Salinas said.

Gantuangco said copies of the resolution they passed last Monday would be submitted to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima
and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo.

"The request is so immediate. We hope the National Government, including the Supreme Court, heed to our call," the
mayor said.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Police nab suspect in UPLB student murder

A suspect in the murder a University of the Philippines-Los Baños (UPLB) student was arrested and is now in custody,
Laguna provincial police director Senior Superintendent Gilberto Cruz said Tuesday.

He was arrested Monday night somewhere in Laguna, the police official told GMA News Online in a phone interview.

Cruz declined to elaborate as the suspect is still being processed, saying all information regarding the case will be
updated.

The suspect was supposed to be a “lookout” in the robbery-murder incident early Sunday, according to a report on  GMA
News’ “24 Oras.”

Victim, Ray Bernard Peñaranda, a junior UPLB Agriculture student, was robbed and stabbed to death by two holdup men
— riding in tandem on a motorcycle — just outside the campus. The victim was on his way home from a dance rehearsal
of Youth for Christ, a Catholic organization.

\
 PNP to plant 10M trees

“ANG mga batang ngayon lang isinilang may hangin pa kayang matitikman? May mga puno pa
kaya silang aakyatin, may mga ilog pa kayang lalanguyan? Bakit ’di natin pag-isipan ang
nangyayari sa ating kapaligiran. Hindi na masama ang pag-unlad kung hindi nakakasira ng
kalikasan. Darating ang panahon mga ibong gala ay wala nang madadapuan. Masdan mo ang
mga punong dati ay kay tatag, ngayo’y namamatay dahil sa ‘ting kalokohan”

Those  are lines from “Masdan mo ang Kapaligiran”, an immortal song from the Filipino folk icon
“Asin” which is now being hummed by the Philippine National Police as it embarks on a massive
plan to plant 10 million trees across the country starting this month until February next year.

PNP chief, Director General Nicanor A. Bartolome said the noble program is aimed at ensuring
that the next generation will be able to see more sturdy trees. “Hindi man maabutan lahat ng
punong ito during our lifetime, ’yung pagtubo nito nang buo, para naman sa mga kabataan
natin,” he said.

Bartolome yesterday expressed optimism that their nationwide tree-planting program will help
prevent future environmental disasters which last year made the Philippines as country hardest
hit by natural calamities mostly blamed on wanton abuse of environment.

He cited the case of Police Officer 3 Randy de la Rea, a Cavite policeman who saved dozens of
lives after hauling them and his family to a sturdy mango tree at the height of the deadly
typhoon “Sendong” that devastated Iligan City last December 17. If that single mango treesaved
dozens of precious lives, the PNP chief said millions of trees to be planted by the police
nationwide would save more by preventing disasters like flashfloods.

Gen. Bartolome said that as part of their own contribution to mitigate the effects of climate
change in the country, they will start this month their plan to plant 10 million trees around the
Philippines until next year. He explained that if all 140,000 PNP members will plant 10 trees per
month for seven months that would easily translate to 9.8-million trees.

Bartolome said the project hopes to surpass the 10-million mark with the participation of
 MWSS, a milking cow – COA
The Commission on Audit (COA) has confirmed that the board of trustees of the Metropolitan
Waterworks and Sewerage System has made the state-owned firm a virtual milking cow as claimed by President Aquino
in his firsat State of the Nation Address (sona).

The 2008 annual audit report of MWSS showed that government auditors found at least nine
irregularities in the disbursement of funds, mostly expenditures covering unauthorized incentives and perks, including
expenses for executive medical check up for its officials and employees.

The government-run water agency was chaired by lawyer Oscar Garcia during that time while its administrator was
Lorenzo Jamora.

Gabriel Claudio, political adviser to former president now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, took
over as board chair last March, the MWSS board secretariat said.

The 2008 audit findings made by a team of COAS examiners showed that the corporate budgets of the
MWSS Corporate Office and the MWSS Regulatory Office, totaling P332.79 million and P176.80 million, respectively
were not reviewd and approved by Arroyo, through the Department of Budget and management, as required by existing
laws and regulations.

Government auditors said the P60-million MWSS Car Assistance Program was considered irregular
because it had no legal basis and was not approved by the President.

The consultants also received year-end financial assistance and educational assistance which are both
illegal, the examiners’ findings said.
 Darkness falls on Ampatuan mansions

DAVAO CITY—The bushes have grown thick outside the unfinished mansion of former Autonomous Region
in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan, one of the untouchable politicians until he and other family
members were arrested for the massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao on Nov. 23, 2009.

The mansion’s massive iron gates are blotted with rust, the blood-red color now pallid. Grasses have crept up
the giant beams of the thick high walls. Inside the compound, desolation prevails.

The mansion occupies an entire block in Juna Subdivision here, which can hold at least 150 low-cost

housing units. A contractor said the property could be worth at least P500 million.

At night, the property is dark and eerily silent “Look at that. Are you not scared? No one is there. Nobody but
ghosts,” a cab driver said when asked by the Inquirer to pass by the neighborhood one night.

Gone are the workers and guards. Although it was still under construction when the whole world was shocked
by the grisly massacre, the mansion stood out in the subdivision where some of Davao’s rich families live.

Just a few meters away is the house of former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., father of Zaldy.
Caretakers occupy the house. The iron gates are shut which to the neighborhood means peace.

“They are already gone. It’s peaceful here. Sometimes, a few people come, but not as many as before. And the
cars? No longer in a convoy,” one neighbor said.

“We have been sleeping well since they were gone. Gone are the people who display their wealth, as if it is
really theirs when we all know that it’s people’s money. Gone are the people who offend values and decency,”
another said.

Another mansion in Marfori Heights Subdivision also looks desolate since the massacre.

Monstrosities

For many, the mansions of the Ampatuans are monstrosities.

Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, whose wife and relatives were among the massacre victims, said the
mansions represented unexplained wealth and “of what kind of people [the Ampatuans] are.”

“The Ampatuans have a 2,000-hectare ranch. How were they able to accumulate that huge property?” he said.

In Buluan town in Maguindanao, Mangudadatu recently asked a visitor who used to live in Datu Unsay town in
Filipino: “Why did you leave? Why did your family leave? Are you victims, too?”

Land-grabbing

The visitor said many Muslims were forced to join the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) because of the
abuses of the Ampatuans.
“Why did Ombra Kato become a rebel? Because the land of his family was grabbed by the Ampatuans. And
Mando Tambungalan of Datu Piang? And Said Pakila Datu? These are just some of the victims,” Mangudadatu
said.

A top official in Davao City, who requested not to be named, said that the money used to build the Ampatuan
mansions in the city was “people’s money.”

“IRA (Internal Revenue Allotment) and the money of foreign donor agencies. Look, Maguindanao is the poorest
province in the Philippines and the question is—how can officials representing the poorest part of the country
possibly have these mansions?” he said.

Need for audit

Gabriela party-list Rep. Luz Ilagan said the “astronomical, scandalous and shameful wealth of the Ampatuans”
should be thoroughly investigated. “How they flaunt their wealth is urban legend in Mindanao,” she said.

Ilagan listed some questions that need to be asked: How can they be so rich in the midst of massive poverty in
Maguindanao? How was the budget

allotted for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao spent? Is there a Commission on Audit report on the
expenditures, considering that the Ampatuans occupied high government positions?

Mae Fe Templa of the human rights watchdog Barug Katungod Mindanao said the quest for justice for the
Ampatuan victims must include a scrutiny of the family’s wealth.

“Apparently, many lives were lost and human rights abused because of their greed. Blood was spilled as the
family accumulated wealth,” Templa said.

“The mansions of the Ampatuans reflect the extent of corruption in the country—use of guns, goons and gold
via state machinery,” she added.