July 23 - 29, 2012 Issue

Criminology grad’s raps junked

By Ralph John Mijares

To focus and review for the board examination without distractions—this was Joebert F. Sibug’s reaction after the criminal cases charged against him were dismissed by the Roxas City Prosecutor’s Office recently.

Sibug, a resident of Poblacion, Jamindan, Capiz faced charges of rape by a one Diana and theft and trespass of dwelling by Daisy Basiliano. Both complainants live in Malipayon Village, Roxas City. Sibug was graduated BS Criminology from Hercor College in 2012.

In three separate resolutions issued by the said office, cases were dismissed due to “failure to adduce evidence to support a prima facie case for the charges.”

According to Diana, Sibug raped her inside the house where she served as caretaker while she was drunk after having dinner with him and some of his friends last September 2, 2011. This happened just three hours after the two met and exchanged cellphone numbers at Hercor College Lawaan Campus.

Diana also claimed that hours after the incident, Basiliano’s jewelries amounting to P600,000 were lost after Sibug and one of his companions left the house.

One month later, Diana told Basiliano about the incidents due to “shame.”

On June 28, the rape charge was dismissed due to the failure of explanation behind the absence of both her and her legal counsel which the City Prosecutor’s Office considers as “lack of interest” in pursuing her complaint.

On July 17, theft and trespass to dwelling charges were trashed by the same office, in that “Diana is not a credible witness; her version of the incident is replete with inconsistencies and her actuations before, during, and after the incident is of the type which goes beyond common experience and observation.”

The reasons behind the verdict were the delay of telling the incident to her elders, she herself not filing a rape case despite she claimed such an incident on her affidavit, due to their belief that she has “permitted the respondent to have his way with her.”

“She acceded to all respondent’s demands upon her—she accepted his invitation to dinner, ate and drank what was offered to her, allowed her to be brought to her residence and permitted the respondent with his companion to enter the residence and gave free access to the computer.”

“The dismissal of these cases obviously shows that these were filed to harass and intimidate a helpless student whose liability could not be even shown by an iota of evidence except by the verbal declaration of the complainants who claim to have been victimized by him,” said Atty. Ferdinand E.V. Jomilla, legal counsel of Sibug and former teacher at Hercor College, now faculty member at the Filamer Christian University.

“I cannot bear to see one of my students whom I taught criminal law, criminal procedure and criminal evidence to go through this ordeal because of whimsical and capricious indictments with no basis at all,” Jomilla said.

 

Villar opens Sapian’s Talahong Festival

By Edalyn Acta

Sapian, Capiz—On July 23rd, former Cong. Cynthia Villar of Las Piñas City did the honors of formally declaring Tilibyugan and Talahong Festival of Sapian, Capiz open. Sapian will celebrate its municipal town and religious fiesta in from July 23–31, 2012.

No less than Sapian Mayor Arturo Orosco expressed elation over the presence of Villar, who was introduced by Dr. Evangeline Oñas-Orosco, Sapian’s First Lady, as the fiesta’s opening guest speaker. Villar and Mrs. Orosco are childhood friends and neighbors in Las Piñas City.

In a media interview, the three-term solon talked about how she transformed the Zapote River into one of the cleanest rivers in the country by ridding it of water hyacinth (water lily) which caused flooding during heavy rains. Villar also related how she in her previous official capacities converted the water lily stalks into products like plastic bags, slippers, baskets, among others, as livelihood for the residents.

According to Villar, such endeavor served as a sustainable livelihood program for riverbanks residents and their families. And to celebrate the project’s success, Las Piñas is holding a Water Lily Festival every July to further support the said livelihood program.

Among others, Villar said that Las Piñas City is also holding a Parol Festival every December; and one barangay in Sapian has been making parol or Christmas lanterns for the past 50 years. To boost the particular industry, they are holding the Parol Festival for the makers to improve their craft so that more people will patronize their products.

For Villar, her ultimate dream for the Las Piñas City residents is to give them sustainable livelihood that would ultimately improve their lives. While starting the river cleanup in Las Piñas in 2002, Villar saw that the residents’ indiscriminate throwing of garbage into the river caused the flood. Thinking that people could not seem to be dissuaded from this, Cong. Villar thought of converting garbage materials into products so that people would no longer throw into the waterway.

Villar said that Las Piñas also produces volumes of coconut husks, they thought of reusing them for rip-rapping purposes, which is 80 percent cheaper than cement. They have also converted other wastes into organic fertilizers and donated them to some provinces.

According to Villar, Las Piñas City produces 30 tons of organic fertilizer every month enough to fill 1,200 sacks. Plastic materials, on the other hand, are used as raw materials to make for hollow blocks and fiber. Villar stressed that when mixed with plastic wastes, hollow blocks are made harder. Villar also took pride that their riverbanks are also planted to citronella, a plant used to make citronella oil used in fighting dengue-causing mosquitoes.

Villar invited those who are interested to know more about their livelihood project to visit and observed and do the same.

Villar said she would run for senator in the 2016 election, possibly under the Nacionalista party, the Liberal Party of the National People’s Coalition. She and husband Manny Villar have been originally affiliated with NP.

Meanwhile, incumbent Rep. Mark Villar of Las Piñas City also served as guest speaker during the coronation night of the Fiesta Queen of Balasan, Iloilo on July 26.

Asked about his rating for President Benigno Aquino’s State of the Nation Address (SONA), Villar said he would give Aquino 8.5 over 10. Villar added that in one hour and a half, he was happy to listen because he saw that the President was sincere about what he said. He also believed that the President’s crusade to fight corruption will succeed.

Villar also said he will support his mother’s (Cynthia Villar) bid for senate in 2016, saying that his father (Sen. Manuel Villar) will be ending his term, so his mother will carry on his legacy.

The young lawmaker also takes pride in his accomplishments as Las Piñas City representative. Aside from continuing his mother’s livelihood program, Villar’s other project involves livelihood projects for the constituents on skilled work services like haircutting for men and manicure for women. They also host job markets every week in each barangay where they also issue free medicines. Villar has also passed a bill on cheaper medicines pending approval at the Congress.

Army, NDF claim over Tumandok ancestral land

Military’s presence in the ancestral land of Panay’s Tumandok or indigenous peoples (IP).

This was the dilemma cited by the National Democratic Front in Panay Island (NDF-Panay in its rejection of the localized peace talks proposed by the Philippine Army’s 3rd Infantry Division (3ID).

Currently a military reservation known as Camp Macario Peralta, Jr., the 33,310-hectare land is administered by the 3ID.

“If you want real peace, your first step would be to return the Tumandok land you land-grabbed and implement genuine land reform,” said NDF-Panay Spokesperson Edmundo Vencer in a statement.

But the 3ID is not about to give up the land.

While Maj. Gen. Jose Mabanta Jr., 3ID commander, even announced plans to develop this third largest military reservation in the country into an eco-tourism site, NDF-Panay’s Vencer scoffed at the idea, saying, and “as if he owns the land that the 3ID squats on.”

Mabanta, however, assured NDF-Panay that the Army is constantly reaching out to the IP to address not only their concern over their ancestral land but other matters as well.

“In line with efforts to facilitate the airing of concerns of the IP in Panay, several meetings have been done and more will be conducted in the future. “The local government units of Jamindan and Tapaz are also taking part in the dialogues,” he said. Sizeable parts of the military reservation are under the areas of the two municipalities.

“What is important is to reach a collective effort to facilitate and resolve the concerns of the IP,” Mabanta stressed.

The general also said the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) is actively protecting and promoting the well-being of the IPs in the military reservation “with due regard to their beliefs, customs, traditions and institutions.”

According to Vencer, Mabanta “conveniently brushed aside the fact that the government forcibly took the 33,310-hectare Tumandok ancestral land and has continually attempted to drive away the Tumandok, branding them as squatters on the land of their forefathers.”

He accused the general of “subscribing to the haciendero’s land-grabbing ways of the Cojuangcos in Hacienda Luisita, President Benigno Aquino III’s inheritance from his forebears who, until now, have not yet returned to the sons and daughters of the original peasant-owners the aforesaid 5,000 hectare land in Tarlac.”

Generations of Struggle

“Gen. Mabanta does not study the history of his own country well, much less the struggle of the Tumandok and the islands of Panay and Negros. The Tumandok have been fighting for their land since the time of the ‘Siao’ (Spanish colonizers),” Vencer said.

He added that three generations of Tumandok have been fighting for the return of Tumandok land “grabbed by the government for the Philippine Army in 1962 during Pres. Diosdado Macapagal’s regime. What Gen. Mabanta’s 3ID today attempts but fails to suppress is the continuous rise of grandparents, parents and grandchildren of the Tumandok against all previous and up to the current haciendero regime.”

Mabanta said that the 3ID’s 301st Brigade has indeed “saturated the hearts of the Tumandok” but in coordination with several government agencies, particularly the National Commission on Indigenous People.

“Our focus is to saturate with support all community-based peace and development efforts at all levels of government, especially for the IP of Panay. Peace and Development Teams (PDTs) deployed have always been at the forefront of securing and bringing peace and development where presence of the New People's Army is a concern,” Mabanta said.

According to Mabanta, the peasantry does not need to rise up against the government.

PDTs, with other concerned local government, government agencies and local chief executives are looking for answers to the challenges of daily living in order to contribute in sustaining community development initiatives through the construction of basic social infrastructure so that the basic needs of the people are addressed.”

DAR Capiz doubles effort to distribute ‘CARPable’ land

As of May 31 this year, some 61,027 hectares (cumulative) from an estimated 79,406 hectares of CARPable land in Capiz have been distributed to farmers under the Land Tenure Improvement (LTI) component of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) and CARP Extension with Reforms (CARPER).

According to Ms. Ma. Teresa Valencia, officer-in-charge of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Capiz, LTI seeks to secure the tenurial status of farmers and farm workers for the land that they till.

“We are doubly exerting our efforts toward the end of CARPER in 2014,” Valencia said.

Republic Act 9700 or the CARPER Law extends the implementation period of the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) for another five years or until year 2014.

As per DAR records, 36,291 farmer beneficiaries in Capiz have been registered by the Provincial Agrarian Reform Office (PARO) from the distributed land.

Aside from land distribution, the agency has delivered various support services like farm-to-market roads, bridges, irrigation, post-harvest facilities, rural electrification, potable water supply, school buildings, extension services, credit assistance and trainings.

Some 18 Agrarian Reform Communities (ARCs) have also been established across the province.