The Sandiganbayan has issued new warrants of arrest for former Dinagat Island Rep. Ruben Ecleo Jr. and two other local officials in connection with their graft convictions in 2006, after the first warrants were returned to the court unserved.
Surigao del Norte First District Rep. Francisco Matugas on Thursday defended Akbayan party-list Rep. Kaka Bag-ao’s designation as caretaker of Dinagat Islands.
Though some of her colleagues in the House of Representatives are branding it “patronage politics,” Akbayan Rep. Arlene “Kaka” Bag-ao on Wednesday defended her role as a conduit for funds for pork projects in Dinagat Island, saying any benefit it may have to her run for the district’s congressional seat next year was only “incidental.”
The budget department released close to P140 million in pork barrel to the province of Dinagat Islands last month or six months after its representative, fugitive cult leader Ruben Ecleo Jr., was stricken off the congressional roster.
The Mandaue City government is preparing to evict 400 delinquent public market stallholders for failure to sign their respective lease contracts.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has ordered police and special so-called “cracker teams” to intensify the manhunt for the “Big Five” fugitives even as she admitted that the trail for the country’s most-wanted fugitives had grown cold.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima will confer with authorities on Tuesday to find out their progress in the manhunt for the “big five” fugitives including retired Major Gen. Jovito Palparan and former Palawan governor Joel Reyes and his brother.
Dinagat’s legal status as a province may have been finally settled by the Supreme Court with finality, but the new province is bracing for a political showdown brewing among the members of its prominent political family—the Ecleos.
Lawyers who successfully prosecuted Ruben Ecleo for parricide want authorities to check on the medical practice of the doctor who recently said former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo needs urgent surgery abroad.
RAISING the reward money for the arrest of cult leader Ruben Ecleo Jr. is not enough.
FUGITIVE Ruben Ecleo Jr. is asking the court to give him a chance to appeal his parricide conviction.
Despite its success in arresting more than 14,000 wanted criminals during the first five months of 2012, the Philippine National Police (PNP) yesterday admitted that this accomplishment was being eclipsed by the PNP’s continued failure to account for the “Big 5” high-profile fugitives.
The Philippine National Police has been unable to pin down the “Big Five” due to their “resources” and “loyal supporters” who have been helping them evade the law, a PNP spokesman said Wednesday.
