TACLOBAN CITY- The anti-drug elements of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA-8) together with the Tacloban City Police Station 2 and its special drug enforcement unit (SDEU) arrested a newly-identified drug personality during a buy-bust operation conducted at the Jerucel Pension House located in Barangay 31, this city, on March 14 at around 9:10 pm.
The suspect was identified as Jethro Villamor, 27, single, construction worker and a resident of Brgy. 60-A Old Road Sagkahan, this city.
Purchased from the suspect was one piece heat-sealed transparent plastic sachet containing white crystalline substance, a suspected to be shabu worth P500.
Confiscated and recovered from the suspect’s possession were three pieces heat-sealed transparent plastic sachets containing shabu with an estimated total market value of P1500 placed on an empty box of a cigarette and one piece P500 bill used as a buy-bust money.
The suspect will be facing charges for violation of section 5 (sale of dangerous drugs) and section 11 (possession of dangerous drugs), Article II of RA 9165 and is now temporarily detained at Tacloban City Police Station custodial facility.
(RICA NIÑA FABILLAR, MA. ESTERLITA HERMANO, CHRISTINE CARDONA, LY-ANN LANIGAO, EVSU-Interns)
Construction worker arrested inside a lodging inn in a buy-bust operation
Mayor Sara Duterte pushes reelection bid of Sen. Villar
TACLOBAN CITY- More than 15,000 people graced the grand political rally of the Hugpong ng Pagbabago(HnP) here in the city held at its convention center on Tuesday (March 19) with the group’s campaign manager, presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte leading the event.
And during the more than three-hour rally, Mayor Duterte asked the big crowd to reelect Senator Cynthia Villar.
The presidential daughter said that Sen. Villar’s solid track record speaks for itself and the voters should not think twice in returning her back to the Senate.
Sen. Villar, based on the recent survey conducted by Pulse Asia, ranked second behind to another reelectionist senator, Grace Poe.
Duterte described Villar as a hardworking senator. She is the current chairperson of the Senate’s committees on agriculture and environment.
In her campaign speech, Sen. Villar said that people who will vote for her for another six-year term will not be short changed.
Villar is proud that in her six years stint in the Senate, she passed significant laws and provided projects for the people.
(LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)
Region’s lady cop serves as model in women’s rights struggle
Hailed as Mrs. Philippines Asia-Pacific Cosmopolitan 2019
SENIOR POLICE Officer 1 Mary Chris Camacho is a battered wife.
As she starts to consider her own welfare and safety, the 40-year-old police officer decides to leave her husband and singlehandedly raises their two sons.
After defying and surviving the domestic abuses, Camacho never looked back.
“My personal experience pushed me to assert my right as a woman of worth and that only then abuse and violence in the homes will end,” she said.
The police officer used her painful experience as a platform for her women’s rights advocacy when she represented Tacloban City during the recently-concluded Mrs. Philippines Asia 2019 in Manila.
Standing five feet and five inches tall, this feisty yet tender mother and police officer becomes the first married woman of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to join a national beauty pageant.
She brought the crown.
Having won the title of Mrs. Philippines Asia-Pacific Cosmopolitan 2019 on February 3, Camacho now serves as an inspiration to other women to rise above the various abuses in the society.
“Battered wives should never be afraid. We have Republic Act 9262 or Anti-Violence against Women and Children to fight abusive partners. We should pursue this,” Camacho, who entered the police force in 2005, said.
Despite being separated from her husband, Camacho finds the courage to pursue her role as a parent and police officer in her own way.
Her eldest son graduated in Information Technology while the other is soon to finish his degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management.
Camacho, who hails from Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur, said that women should be aware of their rights.
“We need to inform and disseminate to the people about this law, promoting the welfare of women from all walks of life,” she adds.
Formerly assigned at PNP-Crame based as a liaison officer for four years, Camacho is currently assigned at the logistics division of the Police Regional Office, Camp Ruperto Kangleon in Palo, Leyte.
Police Regional Director Dionardo Carlos said that the men and women in the regional police force “are one with the world in celebrating the International Women’s Month and International Women’s Day.”
“In this modern age, we respect and support every woman’s rights, aspirations, and battles toward gender equality, empowerment, decision-making and nation-building,” he said.
“Women are the epitome of change. They are the special species created by God as equal of man in all aspects, partners in all worthy endeavors,” the police regional director, as he lauded Camacho for successfully defying the odds.
Women law enforcers in Eastern Visayas are only 1,420 of the over 9,000 police force, but for Camacho, she believes that women are capable to fulfill what they want to achieve in life, may it be in the workplace or at home.
(RONALD O. REYES)
American lawyer to help alleged sex victims of a priest in Naval
TACLOBAN CITY- Alleged victims of sexual abuse by an American priests previously assigned in Naval town, Biliran province, may just get their justice through the help of an American lawyer.
On Tuesday (March 19), McDonald Worley, an American lawyer based in Houston, Texas, came to Naval to personally interview nine of the victims of Fr. Kenneth Bernard Pius Hendricks who stand accused of sexual molestation of ‘several’ young boys who mostly served as his altar boys.
Hendricks served as a missionary priest in Barangay Talustosan, Naval since 1988 and was arrested by members of the Homeland Security of the United States, together with the personnel of the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation, and local police on December 5, 2018 inside the St. Isidore the Worker Chapel in said village.
The 77-year old priest is currently detained at the Regional Special Operation Unit of the National Capital Region Police Office in Quezon City and stand accused for acts of lasciviousness and child abuse under Republic Act 7610, or the ‘Special Protection of Children against Abuse, Exploitation, and Discrimination Act.
Worley, in a press conference Wednesday (March 20), said that he is not after the criminal liability of Hendricks but on civil aspect, particularly on seeking compensation to his young victims who are now on their early to late 20’s.
“I have nothing to do with the criminal aspect of the case. I just handle the civil side. So, it’s basically (collecting) money that has to be paid to the victims,” Worley said.
According to him, he is not getting any money as legal service fees from the victims though he expect to receive a percentage of what possible financial rewards that the jury would award to the case that he expects to last at least for three years.
The civil case will be filed by Worley in Cincinnati, Ohio where Hendricks came from.
Hendricks is also facing a federal crime as an American citizen for engaging in illicit sexual acts in a foreign country.
Worley said that he was able to get to know the ‘horrible’ stories of the victims through an American friend who lives in Manila who has a friend from Naval.
“I am sad that this happened which should never happened. This is embarrassing to me as someone from America came here in the Philippines and did something like this,” he said, alluding to Hendricks.
According to him, he got a sick feeling when he was interviewing nine of the sexual abuse victims of Hendricks, calling them ‘brave’ for speaking out.
“You have to understand that it’s very embarrassing to come forward and say that this thing happened to them and you don’t like the world to know that and you just want to forget about it,” Worley said.
“So it’s really brave for them and say ‘hey, this happened to me and I will say something and do something about it so they will not happen again to somebody else,” he added.
The American lawyer said that the narrations of the victims, who were seven and 12 years old at that time they were reportedly sexually abused by Hendricks, would serve as testimonies that he would use to pin down the disgraced priest.
“It’s basically testimonies as evidence ‘here’s what happened to me, here’s what happened to him’. It’s all testimony,” he said.
He also urged other alleged victims of Hendricks to come out and speak to ensure that their case will be strengthened further.
“I hope that they will come forward. The more witnesses, the more it will help the case and maybe help stop from happening to someone else,” Worley said.
Hendricks reportedly sexually abused around 50 children luring them with food, money and promised of sending them to school.
Worley said that after gathering the needed evidences, he would then file the case against Hendricks, to include the church which sent him to the Philippines.
Hendricks was a Franciscan missionary from Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
But earlier, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati has denied that Hendricks belong to the archdiocese.
It said that the disgraced priest was ordained in the diocese of Naval and describing him as one of the 75 Franciscan missionaries who only received financial support from the Mission of Office of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
(RONALD O.REYES,JOEY A. GABIETA)
300 foreign tourists on board cruise ship visit Kalanggaman Island
PALOMPON, Leyte – For almost half a day, about 300 European tourists did nothing but enjoy the raw yet stunning beauty of the Kalanggaman Island, this town.
The foreign tourists, on board of MS Europa, a cruise ship owned and operated by a German company, Hapag-Lloyd, arrived at the famed island on Thursday(March 21)from their visit in Bohol.
“I’d been in this island for a couple of times. What we love in this place, aside from the beautiful white sand beach and the water, are the facilities that are basic needs of tourists like the toilets and dressing area,” Sacha Ritcher, MS Europa said.
For 10 hours, tourists ate barbeque and stroll the island’s sandbar, swim on its clear and clean water; do some snorkeling. Others simply had their sun bathing in the island.
And during their brief stay in Kalanggaman, they were entertained with folk dance performances like curacha and singkil by the students of the Palompon Institute of Technology and from the local government unit.
After Kalanggaman Island, MS Europa sailed to Boracay Island where they stayed for 10 hours before leaving for Hong Kong.
Tourism Regional Director Karina Rosa Tiopes said that they prefer small cruise ships like MS Europa visiting the island destinations of the region.
“This type of cruise ship is the most appropriate type for our tourist destinations because we don’t want our islands to be overwhelmed. They will only leave minimal footprint when they leave the island,” she said.
Tiopes added that only two cruise ships had informed their office of doing port call in the region, one was MS Europa 2 that also visited Kalanggaman last January.
“But this doesn’t mean that there are only two cruise ships for this year, because there are instances that we receive surprise call from cruise operators in Manila that there is a cruise ship coming to Eastern Visayas,” she added.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
Commercial vessel sinks off Guiuan town; 30 crews safe
CAMP RUPERTO KANGLEON, PALO, Leyte- A commercial fishing vessel with 30 crew members on board sunk off the waters of Guiuan town, Eastern Samar on Monday (March 18) morning.
Reports reaching the regional headquarters of the Philippine National Police (PNP), disclosed that at about 10 pm of said date, the Saint Anthony commercial vessel was about to anchor in Barangay Sulangan when it hit some corrals at the Inatraban Reef, about three nautical miles from Barangay Ngolos, also in Guiuan town.
The incident resulted to damage of the vessel’s bow which resulted for it to sunk.
Members of the Guiuan Municipal Police Station led by Police Chief Inspector Jerome B. Camacho went to the area and help the personnel of the Saint Anthony commercial vessel, said to be owned by Erlinda Cailim of Tacloban City.
All the 30 personnel were declared safe and unharm, report from the Guiuan Municipal Police Station under its chief of police, Chief Inspector Jerome Camacho. (PR)