VOL. XXXIV • NO. 233 • 2 SECTIONS 8 PAGES • P18 • SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 • www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com
REFLECTION OF LIFE. In this photo posted on Twitter, children jump from tomb to tomb as their parents wade through flood waters to visit to their departed loved ones inside a public cemetery in Pampanga on Saturday, about a week before the traditional All Saints Day and All Souls Day or ‘Undas’ holidays. Cemeteries and columbariums nationwide will be closed from October 29 to November 4 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. George Calvelo via ABS-CBN
DPWH probe ‘to spare no one’ Villar to focus on project engineers; PACC won’t name solons involved
P
UBLIC Works Secretary Mark Villar said Saturday no one would be spared from the investigation of the recently-created Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) task force to look into the alleged anomalies in the agency.
At the same time, Presidential AntiCorruption Commission (PACC) commissioner Greco Belgica said the agency would not name lawmakers under investigation for alleged involvement in corruption at the DPWH, saying this would “compromise” the probe. This, as Anakalusugan Party-list Rep. Mike Defensor challenged him to reveal those involved after he earlier bared that some lawmakers were in cahoots with
DPWH personnel in alleged corrupt practices. “I understand the plight of Mrs. Nasino and I extend my condolence to her. I take this opportunity to extend my condolence to her,” Peralta said. “We tried our best... and I hope Mrs. Nasino understands also the court and the others. That’s what really happened. There was no intention to delay it,” the Chief Justice added.
“I don’t want to do blind items or make a bulletin board or noise board of our investigation...if I were to say who is being investigated before the inquiry or who the suspects are, it’s like telling the suspect that I will arrest them and that will compromise the investigation,” Belgica told a news briefing. Belgica said the National Bureau of Investigation or Office of the Ombudsman would conduct the investigation, citing PACC’s limitations. The Public Works chief made the statement during an interview on Dobol B sa News TV to clarify the probe would only focus on those in lower levels after President Rodrigo Duterte said those occupying lower ranks in DPWH were likely to be involved in corruption. Villar created the task force, to be com-
posed of five officials, in a department order dated October 17 to be headed by DPWH Assistant Secretary Mel John Verzosa. Villar said the investigation would put greater focus on the project engineer levels, adding DPWH would release its findings “in the next month or so.” Senator Panfilo Lacson earlier said corruption was an “open secret” in the implementation of public works projects, “involving not only some corrupt officials of the department but some legislators as well.” Villar said the thrust of the investigation was to collect evidence, and inquire into all accusations so the officials would have “hard result.” He said DPWH was also coordinating with the PACC and Infrawatch as well as the internal affairs of concerned agencies. Recently, a Commission on Audit re-
port showed that DPWH had P100 billion worth of delayed and unimplemented projects in violation of procurement law and agreed contracts. In its 2019 annual audit report on DPWH, COA said these delayed and unimplemented projects reached P101 billion in 2019, lower than the 2018 figure of P118 billion. DPWH attributed the delayed implementation of projects to the delayed release of capital outlay allotments, which only started in June 2019 due to delayed approval of 2019 national budget law. Senators earlier flagged around P345.25billion in lump sum inserted in the DPWH’s proposed 2021 budget, with lawmakers and officials of the department said to be asking for “kickbacks” from contractors that win projects from the agency.
Peralta: High Court did not neglect Nasino; ‘no intention to delay’ petition rulings By Rey E. Requejo
‘CJ’ SPEAKS. Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta speaks to reporters via videochat on Friday to mark his first year as the top magistrate of the Supreme Court.
COVID-19 PH AT A GLANCE
(AS OF 4 PM OCT. 24)
367,819 TOTAL NUMBER OF CASES
THE Supreme Court did not neglect jailed activist Reina Mae Nasino, the mother of a three-month-old child whose death has been blamed on the courts, according to Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta. “We did not neglect her. We tried to help her,” Peralta said in a virtual press conference marking his first year in office as chief justice. Nasino lost her daughter, River, to pneumonia on October 9. The baby was separated from her mother on August 13 and died while under the care of her grandmother. She was laid to rest under heavy security last week. Baby River was born on July 1 while Reina was, and still is, under detention, facing illegal possession of firearms and explosives charges following her arrest in November 2019 as part of a massive crackdown against the Left and left-leaning groups. “We tried our best... and I hope Mrs. Nasino also understands the court and the others. There was no intention to delay it. There really are limitations,” Peralta stressed. The legal barriers started when Nasino and 21 other petitioners pleaded in April to
NEW
ACTIVE
6,934
19
313,112
442
ENTERTAINMENT / B3
DEATHS
RECOVERIES
NEW
NEW
pages—to argue varying positions on a number of issues that could be applied to political prisoners-petitioners, and whether the socalled Nelson Mandela Rules could apply in the country. Peralta revealed that he personally went out of his way to instruct the Manila regional trial court judges, through Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez, to act on Nasino’s separate pleas even before baby River died. However, the Nasino family, according to the Chief Justice, was not satisfied with Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 20 Judge Marivic Balisi-Umali’s orders and sought her inhibition.
Manila Judge Paulino Gallegos, who received Nasino’s re-raffled case, initially granted her a three-day furlough but cut it to three hours for each of two days, after jail authorities claimed they did not have enough personnel to escort the activist. When Nasino was allowed out of jail to bury her daughter, she was surrounded by dozens of armed guards. The Chief Justice extended his condolences to Nasino, who faces charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives and is on a 21-day quarantine after her brief time out of the Manila City Jail. Previously, Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, in his separate opinion on the SC decision on the Nasino case, suggested that the court come out with a writ of kalayaan to address prison congestion. Peralta said Leonen has yet to come up with a formal suggestion to the court. “But if there will be one, of course we have to study it and then organize a committee to study further the recommendation of Justice Marvic,” he said.
4 ‘PHENOMENAL’ WOMEN VIE FOR MS. UNIVERSE PH We can narrow down the top contenders in the Miss Universe Philippines beauty pageant to Miss Cavite, Miss Parañaque, Miss Bohol, and Miss Quezon City (pictured from left).
2,057 47,773
release sick, elderly and pregnant detainees vulnerable to contracting the coronavirus inside crowded jails. The activist had asked the high court to release her from jail when she was six months pregnant, fearing COVID-19, but she gave birth and was separated from her child before the SC announced its decision. All 15 SC magistrates voted on July 28 to treat the petition as a petition for bail or recognizance, leaving it to trial courts to determine if the petitioners are individually entitled to post bail. The high court, Peralta said, is not a trier of facts. However, the result of the SC vote was not actually announced by the Supreme Court Public Information Office until September 10, or more than a month after. Nasino’s lawyers did not receive a full copy of the decision until October 9—the same day River died. The main decision was only nine pages long, but eight magistrates issued separate opinions—collectively reaching almost 300
twitter.com/ MlaStandard
facebook.com/ ManilaStandardPH
S
manilastandard.net
Missed your copy of Manila Standard? Call or text our Circulation Hotline at 0917-8848655 or email: circulation@manilastandard.net