Bautista enters not guilty plea on P32-m

graft case

FORMER Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista and the ex-city administrator Aldrin Cuña on Thursday pleaded not guilty to graft charges initiated by the Ombudsman in connection with the alleged anomalous computerization project worth P32 million.

Bautista and Cuña entered their not guilty plea during their arraignment on the graft charges, accusing them of “partiality” in awarding the contract to Geodata Solutions for an Online Occupational Permitting and Tracking System despite the absence of a specific appropriation approved by the city council.

“Not guilty po tayo. [This is] politically motivated. The case was filed against me by the Quezon City government,” Bautista told reporters after the arraignment.

“I devoted myself to Quezon City for 34 years, and then because of politics, we have this [case],” Bautista lamented, referring to his rise from serving as the Sangguniang Kabataan councilor, vice mayor, and mayor until his term expired in 2019.

“I leave it up to you,” he said.

Cuña’s lawyer, Enrico Mira, Jr., tried to stay the arraignment by citing their filing of a motion to quash a day before.

The Sandiganbayan denied the motion, saying Cuña failed to serve the prosecution a copy of the pleading ahead of the arraignment date in violation of the rules.

“Section 13 of the Rules of Court is clear. The motion is denied outright,” Sandiganbayan Seventh Division chairperson and Associate Justice Theresa Gomez-Estoesta said.

The pre-trial conference then commenced, with both the prosecution and the defense agreeing to the existence, due execution and authenticity of documents related to the Geodata contract such as Bids and Awards Committee Resolution, Notice of Award, and delivery receipts among others.

9 human trafficking victims back

By Vito Barcelo

AT LEAST nine suspected human trafficking victims were repatriated after they were rescued from their abusive employers in Malaysia and Thailand, according to the Bureau of Immigration (BI).

The BI said the repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) arrived in two batches from Malaysia and Thailand at the Ninoy Aquino International. The group from Bangkok allegedly left the country as tourists sometime in the last quarter of 2022 and were promised customer service jobs with a pay ranging from P40,000 to P60,000.

“Like other cases of human trafficking in the Southeast Asian region, the victims were transported to Mae Sot City, Myanmar and forced to work in online love scams and crypto rackets while the others served as therapists in Malaysia” said BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco. The victims recounted how they had to endure physical torture for not meeting their quota. They were detained until they could pay ransom for their release.

“We always hear the stories of our repatriated kababayans - each story worse after the other. It is gut-wrenching hearing how they suffered. One of them shared how their parents had to sell their farm land to produce a largesum of money just to be given to those criminals.» the BI chief said.