Security plans all set for Napoles arraignment on Monday - PNP

MANILA - Security measures are adequate in the high-risk mission of transporting to and from Fort Sto. Domingo in Laguna the alleged “pork-barrel queen,” Janet Lim-Napoles, for her arraignment Monday in a Makati City court, the Philippine National Police said on Sunday.

Napoles' arraignment on serious illegal detention charges filed by pork barrel scam whistleblower Benhur Luy will proceed after the Makati court threw out Napoles' motion to defer arraignment pending action on her petition for certiorari at the Court of Appeals.

Superintendent Wilben Mayor, PNP spokesman, said Sunday: “Units of the SAF (Special Action Force) in coordination [with] and support from NCRPO (National Capital Regional Police Office), HPG (Highway Patrol Group) and PRO4A (Police Regional Office 4-A) are tasked to provide security.”

Napoles, currently detained at a bungalow at the anti-terrorism police training camp in Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa City, will be transported to the sala of Judge Elmo Alameda at Branch 150 of the Makati RTC, where she will be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Monday. She will return to Laguna after that.

Benhur Luy, Napoles’ cousin and former bookkeeper of her transactions in the P10-billion pork-barrel scam, had accused the businesswoman of illegally detaining him for nearly four months starting December 2012 after she began suspecting he was setting up his own racket.

Funds sourced from lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocations were allegedly funneled into Napoles’ fake nongovernment organizations. According to Luy, 50 percent of the allocation for a project was pocketed by some lawmakers as their “commission” from Napoles.

Senators Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. and Jinggoy Estrada, Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile, some incumbent and former congressmen, incumbent and former government officials, and private individuals were charged last week with plunder and malversation of public funds by the Department of Justice at the Office of the Ombudsman.

Mayor did not give details on the route and time of Napoles's transport to , on ly saying the convoy must be at Alameda's sala in time for the 1:30 p.m. start of court proceedings.

Earlier, Senior Supt. Reuben Theodore Sindac, head of the PNP’s Public Information Office, said: “All security operations for this will be spearheaded by the PNP-SAF. Suffice it to say, all other information are sensitive operational data. Hence, they are classified. The SAF is testing all sorts of combinations based on all possible scenarios earlier discussed in yesterday’s (Friday’s) meeting.”

source: interaksyon.com

CA junks ex-'plastics king' Gatchalian's plea vs foreclosure of Manila property

MANILA, Philippines - The Court of Appeals (CA) has denied a petition for review filed by William Gatchalian, the businessman once known as the "plastics king" and father of Valenzuela City Mayor Sherwin Gatchalian, in his bid to avoid foreclosure on a 1,808-square-meter vacant property at the corner of M.H. del Pilar and A. Mabini Streets and Quirino Avenue, Manila.

In a 14-page ruling written by Associate Justice Hakim Abdulwahid, the CA's Sixth Division dismissed for lack of merit the petition filed by Gatchalian assailing several orders of Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 32 Presiding Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina denying his reliefs, thus paving the way for the Philippine National Bank (PNB) to take over the property.

Concurring with the ruling were Associate Justices Marlene Gonzales-Sison and Edwin Sorongon.

The case stemmed when the Plastic City Group of Companies owned by Gatchalian racked up over P500 million of bad debts.

Business tycoon Lucio Tan, who owns PNB, and Gatchalian, also a hotel magnate, are in a legal battle over the control of Plastic City.

In its ruling, the CA said that "the recovery of PNB's deficiency claim can only be allowed if there is a finding that the conduct of the foreclosure sale by the Ex-Officio Sheriff of the Manila RTC was proper."

In brief, the CA said that "the counterclaim it filed against petitioners being compulsory in nature, PNB is not required to pay docket fees."

Hence, the CA added that "public respondent (Judge Medina) was correct in denying the petitioners' motion for dismissal on the ground of non-payment of docket fees."

source: interaksyon.com

Willie Wins

MANILA, Philippines — The Court of Appeals has denied a motion to reconsider its 2011 decision that dismissed the P127-million copyright infringement case filed by ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. against television host Willie Revillame and TV 5.

In a resolution written by Associate Justice Japar Dimaampao, the CA said that ABS-CBN “failed to raise valid justification to warrant a modification or reversal of the pronouncements made in the assailed decision.” With its ruling, the CA made permanent the writ of preliminary injunction it had earlier issued that banned the proceedings before the Makati City regional trial court (RTC) in connection with the case. (Rey G. Panaligan)

source: mb.com.ph