Teves Jr. moves for dismissal of criminal charges over killing of Degamo, 9 others

By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

THE Department of Justice

(DOJ) has already submitted for resolution the preliminary investigation into multiple murder charges filed against suspended Negros Oriental 3rd District Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr. in connection with the killing of Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo and nine others last March 4.

FFW urges lawmakers to hasten passage of pending wage hike bill

By Patrick V. Miguel

FOLLOWING the P40 wage hike that took effect on Sunday, labor group Federation of Free Workers (FFW) called on Congress for the passage a pending legislative measure to increase minimum wage by P150.

W ith the recent Pulse Asia nationwide survey indicating 97 percent of respondents in favor of the P150 increase of minimum wage, Senate President Juan Miguel “Migz” F. Zubiri assured that the Senate will make a “stand” with the issue.

L ast May, the Senate labor panel approved “on principle” a proposal for a P150 minimum wage hike.

The FFW urges Congress to fast track the P150 daily wage hike across the nation and appeals to other regions to promptly enact their regional wage orders,” the labor group said in a statement.

O ther labor organizations reacted to the P40 wage hike, filing an appeal on July 3 to increase the minimum wage hike.

T he National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) has yet to resolve the appeal, but is expected to resolve it within 60 days from the filing date.

A Filipino family requires a monthly income of P42,000 to lead a decent life, said former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and National Economic and Development Authority Director General Ernesto Pernia in 2018.

PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said his next State of the Nation Address (SONA) will be “very simple” and would cover updates on the commitments he made last year.

Marcos made the pronouncement in an interview with reporters after witnessing the signing of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) on the establishment of Kadiwa ng Pangulo in local government units (LGU) nationwide in the City of San Fernando in Pampanga on Monday.

“It’s just a performance report for Filipinos to see if the many pro-

I n an interview after the preliminary investigation conducted on Monday, lawyer Andrei Bon Tagum, counsel of Degamo’s widow and Pamplona Mayor Janice Degamo, said Teves opted to file a motion to dismiss the case instead of a counteraffidavit to refute the charges.

“ They just submitted a motion to dismiss, questioning the jurisdiction of the panel of prosecutors.

It is prejudicial to the general rule that a motion to dismiss is not allowed. They should have submitted a counter-affidavit,” Tagum said.

S ince Teves’s camp did not submit a counter-affidavit, the case is now submitted for resolution on the basis of evidence submitted by the National Bureau of Investiga - tion (NBI) and on the affidavits of several witnesses, including the extrajudicial confessions executed by some of the suspects despite their recent recantations.

In his 26-page motion to dismiss filed through lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, Teves argued that the case against him should be dismissed due to lack of evidence to support a finding of probable cause.

Teves said the extrajudicial statements of the 10 accused implicating Teves in the Degamo slay case has been rendered worthless following their recantations.

He noted that the accused executed their affidavits without assistance of counsels of their own choice.

“Conversely, their respective affidavits of recantation were prepared with the assistance of counsels of their own choice, subscribed and sworn by them before the special panel in compliance with the strict requirement… of the Rules of Court,” Teves said.

W ith the recantations of the other suspects, Teves insisted that there is no more evidence that would link him in the Degamo slay case.

“ Here, the extrajudicial admissions themselves have already been recanted and no other pieces of evidence, direct or circumstantial, is extant to corroborate the same extrajudicial confessions on the alleged conspiracy and the participation of Teves Jr.,” the motion stated.

“ Therefore, the recanted confessions of the 10 suspects, which was the sole evidence against Teves Jr., have no probative value and are

By Lenie Lectura @llectura

nouncements and words, which were made [in the last SONA], have any significance [for them],” Marcos said.

T he Chief Executive said he is still preoccupied in completing his SONA speech and that he has yet to decide on what to wear for the event.

“I want to explain to people that we have made significant progress. We can see the difference now, not only in terms of how the systems work, how the government works. It is also how we are seen or judged in the international community. That’s equally important,” Marcos said. inadmissible as evidence against him,” it added. are exempted because the circular cannot be retroactive.

The President is set to deliver his secondSONAonMonday,July24,2023.

Days prior to the event, Marcos was still busy initiating some of the projects and commitments he made during his SONA last year.

Topacio earlier denied that his client had a hand in the recantations of the other suspects.

A side from the Degamo murder case, Teves is also facing preliminary investigation before the DOJ for multiple murder charges in connection with the 2019 killing of former Negros Oriental Board Member Miguel Dungog and two others, as well as complaints of illegal possession of firearms.

Teves, who has denied any involvement in the Degamo killing, has yet to return to the country since he left last February 28 to undergo stem cell treatment in the United States, citing alleged threats to his life.

OIL firms will implement a hefty fuel price increase this week.

T hey said in separate advisories that gasoline prices will go up by P1.90 per liter, diesel by P1.80 per liter, and kerosene by P2.10 per liter.

The upward adjustment will take effect for Shell, Caltex, Petron, Total, Unioil, PT&T, Phoenix, and Seaoil at 6 a.m. July 18, Tuesday.

Cleanfuel, meanwhile, will implement the increase at 4:01 p.m.

O ther oil firms are expected to make similar announcements during the day.

The price hikes are due to Russia’s announcement that it is cutting oil production in a bid to support prices.

L ast week, oil companies implemented a decrease of P0.20/liter for gasoline. The price of diesel and kerosene went up by P0.75/liter and P0.50/liter, respectively. These price adjustments resulted in a year-to-date net decrease of P2.95/liter for diesel and P5.50/liter for kerosene.

Gasoline, on the other hand, has a net increase of P5.65/liter.

Oil firms adjust their pump prices every week to reflect movements in the world oil market. Lenie Lectura

By Rene Acosta @reneacostaBM

THE commitment of the US to boost the country’s defense capability is inching towards its implementation as officials from both sides wrapped up a three-day meeting where an assistance roadmap has been initially drawn.

The meeting last week between the two countries has provided the impetus for the realization of the US assistance, especially in the areas of interoperability and capability, according to military public affairs office chief Lt. col. Enrico Gil Ileto.

I leto said members from both sides met for the Philippines and US Security Sector Assistance Roadmap (PH-US SSAR) Working Group Workshop where US military aid for the country has been initially identified and discussed.

I leto did not say the proposals and recommendations that were made by the working group, whose meeting was wrapped up by the presence of Kidd Manville, country director for the Office of the US Secretary of Defense and Major Gen. Jeffrey Hechanova, the

Armed Forces of the Philippines

(AFP) Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Brig. Gen. Leo Edward Caranto, assistant deputy chief of staff for logistics.

Th e three-day workshop held in the country was spawned by the agreements made during the 2+2 Ministerial Meeting by then Department of National Defense Officer-in-Charge Carlito Galvez Jr. and Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III and US State Secretary Anthony Blinken held last April 11 in Washington, DC.

D uring the inaugural ministerial meeting, the US and the Philippines agreed to develop a long-term plan to address the AFP’s defense capability requirements and to further enhance joint interoperability between the US and the Philippines under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT).

Currently, the Philippines and the US are holding two bilateral military training in Luzon and Visayas involving their Air Force and Marine forces, with American troops utilizing some of their state-of-the-art assets and equipment in the war games.

A mong the said activities was his inspection of the site of the Clark Multi-Specialty Medical Center (CMSMC) in Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga last Monday and the expected signing of the law creating the Maharlika Investment Fund on July 18, 2023.

ENERGY and consumer advocacy groups on Monday filed a petition against the Department of Energy (DOE) for allegedly exempting the power supply agreements (PSAs) forged in Mindanao from the conduct of competitive auction.

Samuel P. Medenilla

PHL, US outline security, defense aid road map in SSAR workshop

S eparately, the Philippine Navy will also start today its naval training with the Australian Navy, while the Philippine Army (PA) is holding an exercise with the Indonesian Army in Manado, Indonesia.

The PA has just concluded in Central Luzon its Salaknib exercise with the US Army in the Pacific (USARPAC).

A ccording to Ileto, the US SSAR with partner countries usually involves the provision of support, training and assistance in order to strengthen their security sectors, including defense forces.

“ This partnership aims to promote stability, build capacity and enhance the effectiveness of the partner country’s security forces,” he said.

I leto said the recommendations made during the PH-US SSAR working group meeting would be deliberated, refined and approved by the Mutual Defense Board—Security Engagement Board (MDB-SEB) co-chaired by the AFP chief of staff and the commander of the US-Indo Pacific Command.

The next MDB-SEB meeting is scheduled to take place in September in Manila.

T he groups, in a statement, said they filed before the Court of Appeals (CA) a petition for certiorari seeking to overturn the agency’s directive that exempted PSAs executed before June 30, 2015 from the competitive selection process (CSP).

A s of press time, the DOE said it was still verifying if it issued a circular on CSP exemption.

L ed by the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) representatives Ka Leody de Guzman and Luke Espiritu, the petitioners said that under Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA), power distribution utilities have the obligation to supply electricity in the least cost manner to its consumers.

Ayon sa EPIRA, ang batas na gumagabay sa industriya ng kuryente, dapat lahat ng kontrata o PSA ng kuryente ay dumaan sa proseso ng least cost, o pinakamababang halaga. Hindi kasalanan ng mga mamamayan na kahit noong 2001 pa ipinasa ang EPIRA, noong 2015 lang nagkaroon ng regulasyon ang DOE,” said de Guzman in the statement.

T he groups said it took several years before the DOE issued the CSP circular.

P ower for People Coalition convenor Gerry Arances questioned DOE’s alleged failure to carry out its mandate.

“At the center of the discussion is a DOE circular laying out the CSP. The DOE then said that PSAs submitted to the ERC [Energy Regulatory Commission] before June 30, 2015, when the circular took effect,

B ut there is no retroactivity involved—the law took effect in 2001 and the DOE failed to follow it. Why is it giving a free pass to all these Mindanao PSAs, causing so much unnecessary suffering for Mindanaonons over high power rates? Furthermore, there are other issuances from the ERC prior to this circular which mandated all PSAs undergo the CSP,” said Arances. Espiritu, who is also the legal counsel of P4P, stressed that PSAs that underwent CSP resulted in cheaper power rates compared to negotiated power deals.

The whole point of a PSA is to get a stable supply that insulates consumers as much as possible from high prices. The contracts that did not undergo CSP locked Mindanao consumers into years of exorbitant electricity prices.

The fact that these rates are even higher than WESM [Wholesale Electricity Spot Market] illustrates how preposterously expensive they are. Almost all these PSAs were signed with coal power plants and deprived consumers of the benefit of renewable energy. Hydroelectric power in Mindanao is cheaper by P11 per kilowatt hour, but it was not even considered,” said Espiritu. D e Guzman urged the CA to take urgent corrective action, given the number of years since these PSAs took effect. “Masyadong matagal nang pinabayaan kumita ang mga malalaking kumpanya ng kuryente sa paraan na hindi alinsunod sa batas at interes ng mga mamamayan. Umaasa kami na makikita ng CA ang hustisya sa aming petisyon at ipagkaloob ito sa lalong madaling panahon para maipamalas sa lahat na hindi gatasan ang mga gumagamit ng kuryente. Isang serbisyo publiko ang kuryente, at dapat una lagi ang interes ng tao sa pagpapalakad ng industriya ,” said de Guzman.