4 suspects
in RCBC case identified
POLICE yesterday said they have already identified at least
four suspects in the May 16 robbery-slaying at the Rizal Commercial Banking
Corp. in Cabuyao, Laguna.
Senior Supt. Aaron Fidel, chief of Task Force RCBC, said
accounts by two sets of witnesses yielded the names of the four suspects, two of
whom were seen at the getaway vehicle and two inside the bank.
Fidel said they are still confirming if the four suspected
robbers slain by police last Wednesday and Thursday in Tanauan City, Batangas
were the same ones involved in the RCBC robbery, and cross-matching their
firearms with evidence left at the bank.
Fidel said Task Force RCBC is monitoring groups previously
involved in robberies to solve the case. He said a tracking team from Batangas
was surveilling one group when the members shot at them, triggering a firefight
that critically injured a policeman and killed one of suspected robbers. He said
policemen followed those who fled and engaged them in another shootout that
killed three other suspects and captured two others. - Victor Reyes
National Flag Day launched at
Quezon Memorial Monday
NATIONAL Flag Day will be launched in Quezon City on May 26.
Environment Secretary Lito Atienza who leads the Flag
Advocacy committee that has finalized the activities set for Monday, said Mayor
Feliciano Belmonte has accepted the choice of Quezon Memorial Circle as venue
for the launch. All government offices and business establishments within the
circle consisting of some 35 government structures, hospitals, medical centers,
schools, and around 40 commercial and business establishments near city hall
will take part in the program.
The program will start with the entry of colors of 30
government offices and institutions who are members of the June 12 National
Organizing Committee. Aside from Atienza and Belmonte, guest speakers include
Education Secretary Jesli Lapus, chair of the June 12 NOC, and PIA secretary
Conrado Limcaoco, chair of the June 12 publicity committee.
Tableaux will be mounted on the 10 symbols used by the
different movements against the Spanish colonizers, followed by chorale and
symphonic music and the release of flag color-symbols at program's end.
TFM appeals for CARP
extension
TASK Force Mapalad, the national federation of farmers and
peasants, yesterday invited senators opposed to the extension of the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program to visit TFM areas and see for themselves
how CARP has improved the farmer-beneficiaries' lives.
Jose Rodito Angeles, TFM president, said senators who contend
that any extension of CARP should focus only on support services and not on land
distribution are "grossly misinformed and were playing, wittingly or
unwittingly, into the hands of big landowners."
He said they are appealing to lawmakers who have obviously
swallowed the big landlords' line that CARP is a failure to look more deeply
into the program and consider the side of the farmers.
He said CARP should be extended beyond June 10, 2008 to make
sure that the remaining CARP backlog of 1.1 million hectares, consisting of
3,000 landholdings that were not distributed due to landowner resistance and
government's lack of political will, would be parceled out to farmer-beneficiaires.
- Randy Nobleza
Sandigan justice inhibits
from 3 cases vs Joey Marquez
ASSOCIATE Justice Gregory Ong, chairman of the Sandiganbayan
Fourth Division has voluntarily taken himself out from the trial of three graft
charges against comedian and former Parañaque City mayor Joey Maquez to
"safeguard the ideal of an impartial administration of justice, free from
suspicion of bias" and, he stressed, not on the basis of Marquez's motion for
his inhibition.
Marquez claimed prejudice and conflict of interest on the
part of Ong due to an earlier loan transaction between Ong's wife and Marquez's
former wife, actress Alma Moreno, an assertion that Ong dismissed as without
probative value and deserving scant consideration.
The three unresolved graft cases against Marquez and former
Parañaque purchasing officer Ofelia Caunan involve three supply contracts for
ammunitions with VMY Trading. Graft investigators said the first contract was
overpriced by P408,000.00; the second by P573,750.00; and the third by
P237,900.00.
Marquez had also sought Ong's inhibition, but was overruled,
in the five other cases of overpriced broomsticks (walis tingting) bought
without public bidding where he and Caunan were earlier convicted and given
maximum jail time of 50 years plus reimbursement of the Parañaque coffers of
P462,708, the amount of the overprice. - Peter J.G. Tabingo
CA denies Rizal's petition to
block Cuerpo's reinstatement
THE Court of Appeals denied the petition of the Rizal
provincial council (Sangguniang Panlalawigan) seeking to stop Malacañang from
reinstating Rodriguez, Rizal Mayor Pedro Cuerpo after the provincial council
handed him a six-month preventive suspension over his move to raise tipping fees
for users of his town's sanitary landfill.
The CA said petitioner through Rizal vice governor Frisco San
Juan failed to convince the court of any urgency in issuing a temporary
restraining order or a writ of injunction. San Juan sought the TRO while a
petition for certiorari was also pending resolution at the CA. The petition for
certiorari questioned Malacañang's April 18, 2008 stay order on Cuerpo's
suspension which effectively ordered his reinstatement as mayor.
Prior to the issuance of Malacañang's order, Cuerpo had
barricaded himself for 25 days inside his office, thwarting attempts by Vice
Mayor Jonas Cruz, as acting mayor, to move into the office. Cuerpo and his
supporters stormed the town hall last March 25 to protest the provincial
government's extension of his suspension from 60 days to six months, vowing not
to leave the municipal hall until Malacañang resolved his petition. -
Evangeline C. de Vera
PNA says current BSN
curriculum is enough
THE Philippine Nursing Association (PNA) also expressed
opposition against the Commission on Higher Education directive to add another
year to the four-year BS Nursing curriculum, one day after the Coordinating
Council of Private Educational Association (Cocopea), the largest consortium of
private colleges and universities in the Philippines, called the CHED directive
disastrous and urged suspension of its implementation.
PNA president Leah Paquiz said the current four-year
curriculum including two summer classes which can be counted as one year is
enough. She did, however, admit that nursing students need to persevere more in
their studies in view of the low passing rate in the nursing board exams.
Authorities said passing rates in nursing licensure exams in
previous years were even lower than 50 percent. The Professional Regulation
Commission said that of the total 132,636 examinees in 2007, only 60,194 passed.
CHED Memorandum Order (CMO) No. 5, issued May 14, 2008,
directs nursing schools throughout the country to adopt the new Policies and
Standards for Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) Program starting this school
year.
Cocopea earlier called for the suspension of CMO 5's
implementation, saying that CHED consulted no one about it; it will burden
nursing students with 28 additional units and 3 more summers; it will increase
required learning experience by 561 hours despite the difficulty of finding
suitable hospitals for RLE; and additional nursing subjects in the first two
years will replace General Education subjects.
CHED executive director William Medrano CHED is amenable to a compromise
where nursing schools ready to implement the program can do so this school year
while those who are not will have another year to do so. - Ashzel Hachero
