MANILA –Health Secretary Dr. Paulyn Ubial on Monday assured that President Rodrigo Duterte is in good health.
“The President is healthy, but he has problems with migraine, Buerger’s disease, which is a result of smoking. I’m telling reporters that the President has health concerns, they are bothersome, but not critical,” said Ubial.
She noted that she is impressed with the President’s stamina, staying awake and alert during four to six hours of cabinet meetings, unlike some cabinet officials who almost get sleepy.
“That’s the picture of our president’s health. He is really very healthy. He has good stamina and level of energy. We are really very supportive of his over-all health and ability to lead the country,” she said.
President Duterte has recently undergone a medical check-up at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center after experiencing chest pain. According to the hospital’s doctors, his electrocardiogram (ECG) test results showed that there seemed to be nothing wrong with him. (PNA)
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PCSO is Back to its Old Corrupt Ways
PCSO’s recently released 2016 Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations for its Small Town Lottery (STL) game is a blatant sham. PCSO’s real intention is to allow existing STL operators cum jueteng lords to expand their STL-Jueteng operations nationwide. Yep, according to NBI and PNP, most of the existing STL operators are jueteng lords themselves who are just using their STL fronts as legal cover to protect their very lucrative jueteng operations.
Why? Because they do not have to pay taxes or government shares out of their jueteng operations which were exposed by former PCSO Chairman Maliksi to bring in about P103 billion annually for their operators. These are billions that will never go to building public hospitals and clinics and will never be used to cover the medical expenses of our poorest fellow Filipinos.
The 2016 STL IRR will create a new STL cartel controlled by the nation’s powerful illegal gambling lords because the provisions create an insurmountable obstacle to any new player in the business. They are only hospitable to the current STL licensees. Thus only the existing operators can qualify and eventually expand their operations.
There must be something very lucrative in this arrangement for PCSO’s policy-makers and management.
President Digong, please tell us that you really meant what you promised when you said “there will be zero (0) corruption in your administration.;;;;
Sana ay makita ni Pres Duterte ang mga corrupt sa Palasyo. If they are true to their publicly embraced campaign pledge of ZERO TOLERANCE to Corruption, President Duterte and Cabinet Secretary Evasco must act post-haste to cleanse Malacañang of the misfits who have been able to inadvertently slip in when they came to office.
The recent Ombudsman complaint of Anti-Trapo Movement has identified the more prominent of these misfits and reprobates as Executive Director Gloria Jumamil-Mercado; Executive Assistant Aaron James Veloso; Project Management Office Director Lt. Colonel Ranulfo Sevilla and Assistant Cabinet secretary and chief of staff Isabelita Moncano-Somozo.
The evidence proffered by ATM against this bunch is really damning. For instance, Gloria Jumamil-Mercado has been charged with falsification of public documents and usurpation of authority or official functions. She is said to have gone on several unauthorized foreign trips under the guise of official business, a practice that is done by abusive government officials and bureaucrats. Some official travels even had as purpose, “security-related official matters,” although this is not even in her line of work, responsibilities, profession, competence or expertise.
During her stint with the Development Academy of the Philippines, Mercado is said to have actively participated in irregularities as a member of the top leadership of that office. DAP’s management had been roundly censured by COA for excessive and unauthorized expenditures and its penchant for unnecessary luxury in its conduct of seminars and conferences. It is obvious that Mercado has brought to Malacañang her sense of entitlement and her fondness for official perks and luxury.
On the other hand, Executive Assistant Veloso can be faulted with having an extreme sense of self-aggrandizement when he appointed himself as the acting Cabinet Secretary from Sept. 28 to Sept. 30 last year when Secretary Evasco was on an official trip to Vietnam. You have to hand it to the guy, he really aims for the stars.
Lt. Colonel Sevilla is now hiding in his new safe haven in Malacañang while his fellow soldiers are humping out in the boondocks chasing Abu-Sayyaf, BIFF, ISIS and Maute Group Terrorists. The guy is obviously guilty of abandonment of duty. He should resign his military commission if he fancies the relative safety of a cozy and perk-filled civilian job.
As Chief of Staff, Isabelita Moncano-Somozo is the necessary co-conspirator to effect irregularities in that Malacañang office. Guess what, she co-conspired with them.
Duterte and Evasco must act swiftly to nip these irregularities right in the bud. Let’s be mindful – and warned – of the truism “A few rotten tomatoes will spoil the whole bunch.”
In the name of transparency and good governance, heads must roll….
Panawagan sa Pangulong Duterte upang sugpuin ang pagkakamali ng PCSO. PRRD recently issued EO 13 to finally bring order to the chaos wreaked by PAGCOR on the Online Gaming industry. It appears that PAGCOR is the biggest loser in this new Malacanang policy on gaming for the following reasons:
1. EO 13 does not expressly authorize PAGCOR to issue online gaming licenses. It is noteworthy that in the “whereas” clause on page 1, PAGCOR’s charter and scope of its authority is cited. It clearly does not include online gambling, and the limitations of its franchise wherein gambling activities must be strictly within the Philippine territory. Gambling activities in online gambling are done all over the world with the Philippine hub only serving as the “call center” coordinating and facilitating these games.
In short, the preambular clauses (the ‘Whereas’ clauses) clearly define the charter limits of each authority held by PAGCOR, Cagayan Economic Zone (CEZA), Aurora Pacific Economic Zone (APECO) and Authority of the Freeport of Bataan (AFAB), and the EO purports to clarify the extent of authority of these gambling operators.
That Online Gambling is not in PAGCOR’s authority is clear in the SC decision in G.R. No. 144463, Jaworski vs PAGCOR and SAGE, where it stated: “A legislative franchise is a special privilege granted by the state to corporations. It is a privilege of public concern which cannot be exercised at will and pleasure, but should be reserved for public control and administration, either by the government directly, or by public agents, under such conditions and regulations as the government may impose on them in the interest of the public. It is Congress that prescribes the conditions on which the grant of the franchise may be made. Thus the manner of granting the franchise, to whom it may be granted, the mode of conducting the business, the charter and the quality of the service to be rendered and the duty of the grantee to the public in exercising the franchise are almost always defined in clear and unequivocal language.”
Plainly, Online gambling is not provided in the PAGCOR gambling franchise “in clear and unequivocal language.”
SAGE had earlier tried to operate an internet0based gambling operation under license from PAGCOR. However, the SC censured PAGCOR saying, “PAGCOR cannot delegate its power in view of the legal principle of delegata potestas delegare non potest, inasmuch as there is nothing in the charter to show that it has been expressly authorized to do so.”
The SC concluded, “By the same token, SAGE has to obtain a separate legislative franchise and not ride on PAGCOR’s franchise if it were to legally operate on-line Internet gambling.”
In another case, G.R. No. 138298, Del Mar vs PAGCOR, the SC clarified: “Then and now, the intention was merely to grant PAGCOR a franchise to operate gambling casinos, no more, no less.” Clearly Online Gambling was never contemplated in PD 1869 (the PAGCOR charter), nor included in 2007 when Congress amended this PAGCOR charter…..
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