LYFESTYLE CHECK ON BI EXECUTIVES
The Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) will perform a Lifestyle check on all officials of the Bureau of Immigration following allegations on Multi-Million Peso Visa Scam. PACC Chairman Dante Jimenez said several BI Executives will be scrutinized for alleged unexplained wealth, lavish Lifestyle, Excessive assets, and other accumulated Ownership that are grossly disproportionate to their salary as Government Employees. The Commission has already received a List of Names of BI officials who allegedly committed graft and Corruption, saying the Investigation will be done discreetly but process to anyone who might be found culpable of wrongdoing.
If one had doubts that crimes against humanity are being committed in the conduct of the war against drugs, this will be dispelled with the stories of Djastin Lopez, Danilo Dacumos, and David John Jezeel “JJ” David. Their stories are memorialized in the Communication and Complaint filed by Rise Up for Life and for Rights, assisted by the National Union of People’s Lawyers, with the International Criminal Court. In my column last Saturday, I highlighted the significance of President Duterte’s admission that he is responsible for the EJKs going on in the Philippines. I also described two cases highlighted in the Rise Up complaint, that of Bernabe Sabangan and Salvador Locasia Jr, In this article, using the Rise Up document as a source, I examine cases where the police portray their victims as petty criminals in order to link drugs to criminality. As in the previous cases, the narratives are taken from the testimonies of the relatives and from police reports.............................
Rebranding Boracay into a normal tourist destination instead of a party island comparable to Ibiza or Majorca will be the government's priority with its reopening, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said Wednesday. "It won't really be a party place anymore. We want it to be as it is, more peaceful, and we want to promote sustainable tourism," Puyat said in an interview on ANC. Puyat believes the move will not affect Boracay's yearly income of $1 billion as tourist arrivals in the country during the island's months-long closure did not let up. "Tourism arrivals increased by 11.35 percent. That was a surprise for me because I thought it would dip because of the closure of Boracay," said Puyat, who thanked the private sector for diverting tourists to other Philippine destinations. She repeated President Rodrigo Duterte's policy of prohibiting casinos on the island, months after plans to build a $500-million integrated casino-resort on Boracay were shelved. "There will be no casinos on Boracay," Puyat said.