CHINESE PEOPLE LIBERATION ARMY NAVY PLAN 621 “China must immediately halt these unsafe actions and conduct themselves in professional manner by adhering to international law,” Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Western Command Vice Admiral Alberto Carlos Carlos said Philippine Navy (PN)’s BRP Benguet warned off and issued consecutive radio challenges to Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy PLAN 621 ship southwest of Pag-asa Island on Oct. 13,2023.
Chinese vessel reportedly shadowed Benguet at 80-yard distance and attempted to cross its bow with closest point of approach of 350 yards.
Incident happened between 1:40 to 5:04 in the afternoon., according to AFP Public Affairs Office chief Lt. Col. Enrico Gil Ileto.
AFP said BRP Benguet was en route to Rizal Reef Station for regular rotation and resupply or RoRe mission when incident happened.
PN crew cited violation of Collision Regulations (COLREG) in its radio challenges, and demanded Chinese vessel steer clear of Benguet.
Benguet received counter-response from PLAN 621 using their so-called and patently baseless “10-dash line” warning.
Carlos said Chinese Navy vessel made dangerous maneuvers seriously endangered safety if not lives of people at sea.
General Romeo Brawner Jr., chief of staff of AFP, strongly urges China to cease these dangerous maneuvers and aggressive actions on Philippine vessels.
Potential for collision and accident at sea further highlights urgency for China to uphold maritime safety standards.
“AFP remains committed to ensuring safety of its personnel during RoRe missions and asserts continue to adhere to rules-based international order,” said Brawner.
Philippines has continued to call on China to immediately stop its illegal activities in country’s maritime zones, AFP said.
“This is first time we are announcing this publicly, we will be using this new expression IGL from now on,” Inside Asian Gaming quoted Alejandro Tengco, Pagcor’s chief executive officer and chairman in its Oct. 11,2023 report said state gaming operator and regulator Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) may have solved controversies surrounding POGOs or Philippine offshore gaming operators through change in nomenclature and acronym.
Tengco had gone to a global gambling summit in world’s gambling capital Las Vegas, Nevada in US to announce change of label for offshore gaming industry and business in the Philippines.
Tengco had also chosen global gaming industry publication Inside Asian Gaming to break news on name and acronym change.
In exclusive interview at recently concluded Global Gaming Expo or G2E summit in Las Vegas, Tengco reported Pagcor will use term “IGL” or Internet Gaming Licensee for all offshore gaming companies that will be accredited or issued license to operate in the Philippines.
Tengco explained change comes with relicensing effort Pagcor had decreed for all erstwhile-known POGOs in the country.
In July, Pagcor issued “Internet Gaming License Regulations” supposedly revised previous “Offshore Gaming Regulations” in bid to tighten regulations in aftermath of various reported violations by POGO firms.
Reported issues, in turn, had drawn attention of senators who, in past few months, conducted numerous inquiries in aid of legislation over operations of POGOs.
Inquiries eventually led some senators to institute POGO ban in the country.
Tengco, in his interview, said Pagcor is expecting to come out with full list of newly licensed IGLs by end of this month.
Inside Asian Gaming recalled in previous interview with Tengco, Pagcor’s top executive said list of new relicensed POGOs will include web addresses of all legal online gaming websites.
“There will be 55 to 65 licenses issued and there will no longer be service provider licenses, it will just be an IGL license,” Tengco said.
Tengco, since his appointment to Pagcor top post last year, has remained inaccessible to local media and failed to set press conference to bare his agenda or provide transparency and updates on gaming regulator even as it supposedly tried to effect ambitious privatization of all Pagcor-operated casinos and transition to purely regulatory role.
“We need that money to pay our debts,” Bienvenido Berja Jr., whose son Kenneth Marvin was among victims of scam.
Victims of scam involving recruitment of police officers in Negros Occidental have appealed to suspects to return their money.
Suspects , identified as Donato Dumaguit, councilor of La Castellana town, and Mary June delos Santos, are facing 11 counts of large-scale estafa complaints before Provincial Prosecutor’s Office.
Dumaguit was tagged in alleged P15-million recruitment scam victimized 47 police aspirants, mostly residents of La Castellana.
Berja said paid P272,000 in cash to Dumaguit in exchange for promise his son could enter police service without hassle.
Berja denied Dumaguit’s claim he was one who asked suspect to facilitate entry of his son to Philippine National Police.
He said Dumaguit assured him that his son, who is criminology board passer, has better chances of getting into police service through suspect’s connections.
Berja pawned their property and borrowed money from relatives to raise money.
Aside from Berja, other complainants also expressed hope suspects would return their money.
“They need to submit SOCE,” Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Garcia said, referring to statement of contributions and expenditures campaign period set to begin on Oct. 19,2023, reminded candidates in barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) to abide by Comelec rules.
Garcia said BSKE candidates are allowed to spend only P5 per registered voter.
Garcia said P5 expenditure per voter is applicable during campaign period from Oct. 19 to 28.
“SOCE covers only campaign period…outside that date, it’s not covered by SOCE and can be considered illegal expenditure,” he added.
Garcia said candidates should also observe proper size of posters or campaign materials.
He reminded candidates to comply with prohibition against distribution of shirts, ballers, caps or anything of value.
Garcia advised supporters not to wear shirts with pictures of candidates to avoid their disqualification from elections.
Comelec will launch nationwide “Operation Baklas“ or removal or unlawful campaign materials from Oct. 20 to 27.
Poll body has filed more than 90 disqualification cases against BSKE candidates for premature campaigning and vote buying.
As these developed, Comelec appealed to police and military as well as its other partner agencies to ensure success of BSKE.
Garcia issued appeal during multisectoral peace assembly for BSKE at Camp Abendan in Zamboanga City, attended by officers of Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP) as well as by coast guard, firefighters, poll inspectors and other law enforcement agents.
He said no failure of election should be declared in any area in Zamboanga peninsula as well as in entire country because it would show PNP, AFP, coast guard, Bureau of Fire Protection, the Comelec and the Department of Education are not capable of doing their job.
Meanwhile, Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) has reactivated its election hotline for public school teachers who may encounter issues and concerns when fulfilling their duties for BSKE.
ACT chairman Vladimer Quetua said hotline would monitor situation of all teachers serving as board of election inspectors.
Hotline can be accessed through mobile numbers 0920 294 3041 and 0956 913 0778 or by email at act.hotline@gmail.com as well as through ACT’s Facebook page.
Hotline will also be tool for teachers in reporting issues regarding compensation and violation of Election Service Reform Act including their rights and safety, Quetua said.
“We are recanting our testimonies for several reasons with primordial objective to help you be set free together with your fellow co-accused in last case,” key witnesses Maj. Rodolfo Magleo and Sgt. Nonilo Arile in Leila de Lima’s last drug case are recanting their testimonies against detained former senator.
In letter addressed to De Lima dated Oct. 12,2023, Magleo and Arile wrote “we are recanting our testimonies because we are bothered by our conscience.”
De Lima’s lawyers, Boni Tacardon and Dino de Leon, told reporters Magleo personally handed letter to former senator earlier in court.
Magleo and Arile were scheduled to testify against De Lima before Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 206.
“We do not want you to be victims of mistrial…we will reveal in due time…we are assuring you that last drug case will be dismissed,” he added.
Five other witnesses will be recanting their testimonies against De Lima, Magleo said.
Court approved Magleo’s request to be transferred to New Bilibid Prison from Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm, effective today due to alleged threats to his safety.
“Text-to-voice transcription tools will not eliminate job of stenographers but will make them more efficient and reliable,” Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo said during open forum at SC’s meeting with development partners and stakeholders for Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations 2022-2027 SC plans to use voice-to-text software to transcribe court proceedings. Gesmundo gave assurance court stenographers will not become obsolete.
Gesmundo explained court stenographers will be trained and their skills will be “retooled” for them to be “more efficient and reliable” with use of artificial intelligence.
SC is also conducting pilot tests on using AI for legal research.
Learning machine, Gesmundo said, is currently learning different languages and accents in the country to be able to understand and transcribe court proceedings.
“It will be very lean group, most of them working level of course, President and officials of Department of Foreign Affairs and Department of Trade…but, of course, it will also include support group of President but it’s much, much smaller than previous months because trip is very short,” Assistant Secretary Daniel Espiritu of the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Office of ASEAN Affairs said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will participate in the first Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Oct. 20,2023, aimed at strengthening security, economic and socio-cultural cooperation between two regional organizations.
FMJ will be accompanied by “very lean” delegation, will depart Manila on Thursday, according to Espiritu.
While in Riyadh, FMJ is also expected to meet Filipino community and Saudi Arabian business leaders.
Among those who are joining FMJ in Riyadh are foreign affairs and trade officials.
One-day summit, will be held at Ritz Carlton Hotel, will focus on endorsement of framework of cooperation between ASEAN and GCC for 2024 and 2028, according to DFA official.
He said first ASEAN-GCC summit is important as it will set tone for forward movement of cooperation between two regional organizations.
Among areas of collaboration two regional organizations will discuss are counter-terrorism and transnational crime, anti-piracy as well as cooperation between GCC Chiefs of Police or GCCPOL and ASEAN Chiefs of Police or ASEANAPOL.
Founded in 1981, GCC is composed of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait.
Espiritu said there are around 2.2 million Filipinos in GCC member-countries.
He added FMJ would also attend roundtable meeting with Arab business leaders and Ministry of Investments of Saudi Arabia, details of which are still being finalized.
“I stand with House of Representatives…with all issues hurled against it, I expressed my full support and continued trust to my colleagues in Congress, under leadership of Speaker Martin Romualdez, and to all employees who continue to work, with or without sessions, to ensure government service is brought to every Filipino,” Davao de Oro Rep. Maria Carmen Zamora, vice chair of House committee on appropriations, posted support on her official Facebook page as she complimented chamber for its dedication to needs and welfare of people.
Zamora,expressed full support for leadership of Speaker Martin Romualdez in light of criticisms former president Rodrigo Duterte issued about realignment of his daughter’s confidential and intelligence funds.
Zamora is member of Lakas-CMD and Davao’s Hugpong ng Pagbabago party, Vice President Sara Duterte-Caarpio belongs. She also defended budget of Department of Education (DepEd) and Office of Vice President (OVP), both headed by Duterte, during House deliberations on 2024 national budget.
“Even if we are not perfect as institution, I know dedication of 19th Congress in swiftly passing priority bills, thus speeding up process of providing government service that would benefit many Filipinos… institution that is constantly criticized is same institution spearheads in ensuring needed infrastructure, schools, hospitals, roads, bridges are built as well as provide funds for various social services, scholarship, medical assistance and other programs,” post continued.
House recently realigned P1.23 billion in confidential funds, including OVP and DepEd, prompted ex-president Rodrigo Duterte to retaliate by saying chamber has hidden “pork barrel” and is most rotten institution in the country.
Zamora said in all her years of service, Congress has grown more accessible to ordinary people and that it is right for it to allocate needed funds for each congressional district. She is now on her fourth term, after serving three consecutive terms from 2010 to 2019.
“This is why I want my constituents in Davao de Oro’s first district to understand with all these issues, House of Representatives continues to work and strive to provide our promise of better life…this is why I call on everyone to, instead of mudslinging and criticizing, unite and rally behind New Philippines,” her post also read, referring to President Marcos’ Bagong Pilipinas campaign.
House leaders, in statement signed and released by House secretary-general Reginald Velasco, also defended institution from former president’s attacks, saying realignment of confidential funds was made for benefit of the nation.
“It is essential to understand decision was made for benefit of the nation and not as personal affront to any individual, including Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio,” they said in statement.
They added decision to realign confidential funds did not only affect OVP and DepEd alone, but also that of Departments of Agriculture, Foreign Affairs and Information and Communications Technology.
Statement also said leaders regretted Duterte cast aspersions against decisions of House leadership borne out of his “personal vendetta” and criticism is “disservice to diligent members of House of the People and very essence of our democratic process,. It is critical to remember that the ‘pork barrel’ system, which former president Duterte alluded to, has been deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court…our members are firmly committed to respecting and upholding this ruling…rather than making sweeping allegations in media, we advise former president, if he has tangible evidence of wrongdoing, to present it to appropriate authorities”
Deputy Majority Leader Franz Pumaren (Quezon City) also joined other House leaders in defending institution from the former president’s attacks.
“We, as lawmakers duly elected by our respective constituents to represent their interests, do not respond well to threats and intimidation…if his Rody Duterte allegations have bases, then he should go to proper channels and file charges, but to insinuate bodily harm or even murder of member of House, this has gone too far…we urge former president to be cautious and reasonable in his criticisms,..we implore good former president to seek path of peaceful resolution instead of engaging in making threats and intimidation…we should unite, not divides,” Pumaren said. .
Leaders of supermajority coalition, about 280 members of 311-man House, banded together to defend institution from Duterte’s humiliating tirades, primarily on allegations of corruption.
In joint statement, political party leaders lamented Duterte maligned “institution that for years supported many of his own legislative priorities.”
Duterte spoke ill of lower chamber in interview last week, defending his daughter Sara who refused to explain where her P125-million intelligence funds in 2022 went, after House leadership realigned P650 million of her confidential funds.
Older Duterte was member of 11th Congress or from 1998 to 2001, representing first district of Davao City. That Congress had impeached former president Joseph Estrada.
Rep. Zaldy Co (Ako Bicol party-list) also stood behind Romualdez, saying chamber “is on right side of history” under latter’s watch.
POLICE authorities are looking into death of fishpond caretaker when his motorized boat was hit by another boat in Alaminos River in Barangay San Miguel ,Alaminos City, Pangasinan.
Ilocos police identified fatality as Marcelo Carlit, 56, resident of Barangay Polo in Alaminos City.
Initial investigation showed Carlit and his companion Celzo Rancapero were on one of the boats when it was struck by boat manned by Bobby Bauzon, 56.
Carlit reportedly fell into river due to impact of collision.
Bauzon, who was unhurt, said he did not notice Carlit’s boat.
“We regret to inform public that official website of House of Representatives has been voluntarily taken offline once again…despite our security enhancements, we have detected suspicious and unusual activities necessitate further scrutiny,” House secretary general Reginald Velasco said websites of House of Representatives and Senate are apparently under cyber attack.
Lower chamber voluntarily took down its web portal after “suspicious and unusual activities” were detected, according to Velasco.
He said move is “precautionary measure to double-check and reinforce cybersecurity measures,” ensuring “vulnerabilities” have been addressed.
Velasco stressed primary concern is to “guarantee safety, integrity and reliability of our digital platform for citizens we serve.”
“We understand inconvenience this might cause and we ask for public understanding as we work diligently to address these concerns,” he said.
Velasco said House’s commitment to “transparency and open communication remains unwavering. We will provide updates as soon as we have more information.”
House website was taken down before 1 in the afternoon. yesterday.
Arnold de Castro, head of House IT team, said mitigation has been done on original port penetrated by hackers.
“While we were doing re-scanning, there were other backdoors hackers were exploiting to get into system, we opted to take it down until we harden system with securities…hopefully, if we can do this within the day, we can restore website later,” De Castro said.
De Castro said House website registered high number of “visitors” during period that it was open, but “it does not necessarily mean that they are hackers.”
URL congress.gov.ph received following message on its homepage “YOU’VE BEEN HACKED. YOU’VE BEEN HACKED. HAVE A NICE DAY.”
It was accompanied by a caricature of a laughing man and the message “HAPPY APRIL FULLZ KAHIT OCTOBER PALANG! HACKED BY 3MUSKETEERZ 15-October-2023 || 11:31:24 AM.”
Senate website received “spike of attacks” on same day House of Representatives’ web portal was defaced by hackers, Senate Secretary Renato Bantug Jr. confirmed.
“As soon as we learned of House of Representatives website hacking, our team went on alert and continuous monitoring…may perimeter and application firewall naman ang Senate but our tech team also made adjustments, per our IT, we recorded spike in attacks,” Bantug said.
Asked by reporters if there were attempts to hack Senate website in the past, Bantug said “in this age, hacking attempts are usual… really just spiked on Sunday.”
Mario Antonio Sulit, director of Senate Electronic Data Processing-Management Information System, said hacking attempts were traced to United States, Germany, Vietnam and some from Philippines.
Hackers may not be from those countries and were merely using virtual private network or mirroring, according to Sulit.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros filed resolution seeking inquiry into series of cyber attacks on websites of government offices.
Hackers recently attacked websites of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), Philippine Statistics Authority and Department of Science and Technology.
Cyber hackers uploaded PhilHealth data on dark web and demanded $300,000 or P17 million.
“Breach of personal information kept by government agencies endangers safety and security of people, leaving us even more vulnerable to increasingly nefarious schemes involving text message spams, online scams, phishing, financial fraud, extortion, blackmail and identity theft,” Hontiveros said.
She said police Anti-Cybercrime Group recorded 16,297 cybercrime cases in first quarter of 2023 alone.
“It also calls into question sufficiency of cybersecurity measures of government agencies handling information vital to national security…there is need to assess capacity of government to secure critical strategic infrastructure from cyberattacks and other potential threats,” Hontiveros added.
She said government has “inherent obligation” to ensure personal information and communications systems in private sector are secured and protected as provided under Republic Act 10173 or Data Privacy Law.
Authorities are pursuing leads to identify hackers or group responsible for cybersecurity attacks on government websites, according to officials of Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).
Lawyer Renato Paraiso, DICT spokesman and assistant secretary for legal affairs, said analysis of defacement posted on House website indicated involvement of local hackers.
Paraiso said DICT was also aware of hacker with handle or online name “DiabloX,” said to be claiming responsibility for hacking of House website.
During hearing of Senate committee on science and technology chaired by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, DICT official said hackings appeared to be organized.
DICT Undersecretary Jeffrey Ian Dee confirmed other government agencies were attacked by hackers, but did not identify government offices.
Dee requested for executive session, considering sensitivity of information.
“We are pursuing some leads…what I can say right now after Medusa ransomware attack is that other government agencies were also victimized…these are professional groups…if we are talking about recent spate of hackings after PhilHealth, we believe them to be local hackers and not just coincidence,” Dee concluded.
ISKUP! 