Category: Philippine Star

The Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of the Duterte Youth party-list seeking to block the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from enforcing its decision to revoke the group’s registration.

In a resolution dated September 30, the high court rejected Duterte Youth’s request for a temporary restraining order (TRO), a writ of preliminary injunction, and a status quo ante order.

The court also did not give due course to the petition, effectively dismissing the group’s attempt to halt the Comelec ruling. Its plea for a special raffle was likewise denied.

However, the tribunal required the Comelec and private respondents Reeya Beatrice Magtalas, Abigail Aleli Tan, Raainah Punzalan, and Aunell Ross Angcos to file their comments within 10 days of receiving notice.

The Comelec’s Second Division first canceled Duterte Youth’s registration in a June 18, 2025 resolution, citing multiple violations of election law. The Comelec en banc later affirmed the decision on August 29, dismissing the group’s motion for reconsideration.

The Comelec ruled that the party-list’s registration was void from the beginning because it failed to publish its petition and hearing notice, a jurisdictional requirement under election rules.

On the same day the Supreme Court released its ruling, the Comelec en banc issued a separate resolution affirming the cancellation of Duterte Youth’s registration.

Grounds vs Duterte Youth. The Comelec cited several grounds for the disqualification, including:

The submission of ‘untruthful statements’ about the eligibility of nominees.

The mass withdrawal and substitution of nominees in 2019 that enabled former chair Ronald Cardema to attempt to assume a congressional seat despite being over the age limit for youth representation.

The poll body described these maneuvers as a ‘mockery’ of the party-list system.

It also said the group failed to demonstrate a genuine intent to represent the youth sector, pointing to Duterte Youth’s public calls for violence against activists and groups it branded as subversive – rhetoric the Comelec said goes beyond political discourse.

Additionally, the Comelec found the group had violated election laws through support it received from the National Youth Commission, which Cardema previously chaired.

Vacated seats, new proclamations. Following the cancelation, three House seats originally allocated to Duterte Youth were reassigned to other groups.

The Comelec proclaimed Abono, Ang Probinsyano, and Murang Kuryente party-lists as replacements.

In a separate development, the Gabriela Women’s Party – which placed 54th in the 2025 elections – gained an additional seat after the Comelec increased the number of party-list seats from 63 to 64 under a September 3 resolution.

The cancellation stemmed from a 2019 disqualification petition filed by four private citizens, whose arguments were upheld in Comelec’s 2025 ruling.

Founded in 2016 as Duty To Energize the Republic Through the Enlightenment of the Youth, Duterte Youth has been a staunch ally of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration and was long accused by critics of promoting a militarized brand of youth politics.

With a significant portion of subsidies allocated to the government’s irrigation projects, the funds granted by the Marcos administration to government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) decreased by over P1 billion in August.

According to the latest data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr), subsidies fell by 12 percent to P8.02 billion in August, from P9.1 billion in the same period last year.

The administration’s subsidies for major non-financial government corporations dipped by 25 percent to P4.53 billion from last year’s P6.03 billion.

About three-quarters of the P4.53 billion were allocated to the National Irrigation Administration, which received the bulk of P3.42 billion. This was followed by the National Food Authority with P750 million and the National Electrification Administration with P200 million.

Railway administrations such as the Light Rail Transit Authority and the Philippine National Railways received P74 million and P31 million, respectively. The National Power Corp. received P30 million for August, while the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System received P14 million.

No subsidies were given to the National Housing Authority during the period.

Meanwhile, subsidies for other government corporations increased by over three times, settling at P3.49 billion from P1.08 billion recorded in the same period last year. This represents an additional P2.41 billion in government support for August this year.

The Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. received the majority of the funding, amounting to P2.03 billion, followed by the state broadcaster, Intercontinental Broadcasting Corp. (IBC-13), with P337 million.

On Oct. 3, President Marcos signed into law the measure renewing the franchise of state-run IBC-13 for another 25 years. The renewed franchise grants the network continued authority to operate unless it is earlier revoked or cancelled by the government.

The government extends subsidies to GOCCs to cover operational expenses that their own revenues fall short of financing, ensuring uninterrupted service delivery and supporting activities that go beyond their self-generated income.

From January to August, the total subsidies declined by 19.3 percent to P70.25 billion. This indicates that the national government reduced its financial support to state-run firms by nearly P17 billion compared to last year’s P87.02 billion.

President Marcos wants his administration to be known for a railway renaissance, but Filipinos who commute daily to school and work are finding public transport in worse condition than ever.

Mobility advocate Alyssa Belda, 26, pedals her way to the University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman, Quezon City every day for work. However, on rainy days, she takes the jeepney to keep herself dry in the downpour.

It takes the same time – about half an hour – to reach UP, whether Belda powers her bike with her own legs or rides the jeepney.

Her commute is plagued by age-old problems: road closures, this time for the construction of the Metro Rail Transit Line 7 (MRT-7); vehicle congestion, in her case along Elliptical Road and the traffic bottleneck entering Commonwealth Avenue.

The jeepney can only do so much in squeezing past these gridlocks.

Data collected by local and foreign researchers show that it is becoming increasingly harder for Filipinos to commute around the metro.

Initial results from the Active Transport Strategic Master Plan (ATSMP) reported that walking is now the main mode of transport among Filipinos, ahead of tricycles and jeeps.

Like Belda, more and more commuters are willing to walk longer distances and take more time to reach their destination.

The ATSMP has found that Filipinos are fine with walking, as long as the distance is just about half a kilometer and takes around 15 minutes.

Funded by the Department of Transportation (DOTr), the ATSMP aims to develop the country’s national framework for active transport such as cycling

and walking. It seeks to propose designs and strategies for the development of bike lanes and pedestrian networks.

To date, the ATSMP has gathered the insights of more than 2,900 households, mostly from Manila, because it is considered one of the worst cities for traffic congestion.

Based on map developer TomTom’s Traffic Index, Manila has the 14th heaviest congestion level in the world among 501 cities. It would take at least 32 minutes and 10 seconds for a motorist to cover 10 kilometers of distance in Manila, nearly twice as long as in other cities in Southeast Asia.

Worse, Filipinos lose 127 hours, or over five days, yearly to Manila traffic, which has an impact on their productivity and, overall, on the economy.

Apart from the time lost stuck on the road, Filipinos are paying more whether they take public or private transport. This is part of the reason more commuters are choosing to walk or bike.

The ATSMP has pegged the average daily transport costs at P108 for public modes and P245 for private units based on the survey.

When computed, P108 translates to 16 percent of the minimum wage of P695 per day in Metro Manila. This means that Filipinos are spending more for transport just to be stuck on the road for half an hour if their destination is within 10 kilometers.

For Belda, UP is roughly five kilometers away from her home, so why is it taking her at least half an hour to get to it by jeep? She flags yet another problem: transport supply.

The Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department (CPBRD), the think tank of the House of Representatives, pinned this shortage on the government’s jeepney phaseout. The program requires operators to shift to modern jeeps, which cost at least P2.2 million each.

According to data from the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, the volume of jeeps in Metro Manila was reduced by half over 10 years to 95,659 in 2023, from 193,221 in 2013.

‘There is a marked decrease in the number of PUJs [public utility jeepneys] in the MMDA data in 2023 compared to 2013. This can be partly attributed to the phasing out of traditional PUJs in line with the ongoing Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program,’ the CPBRD said.

As commuting in the metro worsens, Acting Transportation Secretary Giovanni Lopez required his subordinates to take public transport at least once a week.

The order mandates DOTr officials to come up with a weekly report outlining their observations and recommendations on public transport based on their experience. The directive has so far led to small wins for commuters.

For instance, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board issued special permits to almost 300 buses to pass through NIA Road in Quezon City from Fairview and Sapang Palay in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan.

The permits authorize the buses to load and unload at NIA Road, making it easier for passengers, especially persons with disabilities and senior citizens, to transfer to the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3). Prior to this, they had to walk longer to reach MRT-3’s Kamuning Station.

Lopez also directed the review of the 3,972 permits issued to operators of public utility vehicles plying Commonwealth Avenue, as he himself struggled to find a bus when he commuted to work on a Monday morning in September.

Still, these quick, little fixes would fail to amount to the comfort that could be brought upon by the completion of big-ticket railways as promised by the President. However, rail projects in the metro are dealing with delays, pushing their completion by years.

The P68.2-billion MRT-7 of San Miguel Corp. is set to partially operate only by 2027, even as it began construction in 2016, demanding commuters in the Quezon City-Bulacan corridor to wait longer before they could ride on it.

The North-South Commuter Railway, costing P873.6 billion, will operate its first line by the end of 2027, but only between Valenzuela City and Malolos, Bulacan. The railway’s Clark segment is scheduled to open in the fourth quarter of 2028.

The worst delay still is for the P488.5-billion Metro Manila Subway Project, which will only be finished by 2032, as it had to contend with right-of-way conflicts in business districts like Ortigas and posh villages like White Plains.

For now, as unfortunate as this may sound, Belda and her fellow commuters are forced to settle for the public transport given to them, or they have to rely on their legs to reach their destination, because they have no one else to depend on but themselves.

College of St. Benilde bucked the absence of reigning MVP Allen Liwag for the second straight game as it repulsed Jose Rizal U, 73-65, to seize the solo Group B lead in NCAA Season 101 at the Filoil EcoOil Arena.

Raffy Celis and Justine Sanchez filled in the massive void left by Liwag (with flu-like symptoms) in propelling the Blazers to a third victory in four starts and straight to No. 1 in their bracket.

The Celis-Sanchez pair took turns in scoring the team’s final eight points with three minutes to go, quashing the last hope of the Heavy Bombers to turn things around.

Celis fired a game-high 20 points with five rebounds and four steals while Sanchez had 17 points, six rebounds and five assists.

‘We weathered the storm,’ said St. Benilde coach Charles Tiu.

JRU came into the showdown a few days after shell-shocking San Beda, 67-66.

In the other game, the Mapua Cardinals routed the San Sebastian Stags, 70-49, to improve to 3-1 and stay at No. 2 in Group A behind the Perpetual Help Altas.

The Stags slipped to 1-3.

It has been a smashing first week for the Philippine Basketball Association and its 50th season. So far, we’ve seen old faces in new uniforms, a new team getting its first win, and a singular player announcing his impending retirement. There are many great stories in the season so far, but three of them stand out.

After Titan Ultra registered its first win as a new franchise thanks to a career-high 41 points against the Meralco Bolts, The Beast fell to injury. This opened the door for the Converge FiberXers to get a whopping 37-point win Saturday night. That set a new standard for the franchise’s winning margin, also a new record for a debuting head coach, Pampanga Vice-Governor Delta Pineda. Moreover, Juan Gomez de Liaño tallied the first triple double by local rookie in his first game: 15 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists. It was also the first triple double by a rookie since Scottie Thompson of Barangay Ginebra nine years ago.

Gomez de Liaño is, of course, a proud product of the University of the Philippines who was the 2017 UAAP Rookie of the Year and a PBA D-League Most Valuable Player. After a season in the Japan B League, Juan became the first first Filipino to play professionally in Europe. He joined the BC Wolves in the winter of 2022, but unfortunately was playing the same position as one of their imports. After that, Juan spent two years in Korea before being drafted second overall by Converge.

Another story overlooked by the mainstream media is the return of former UE Red Warrior James Martinez to the league. In 2011, he was drafted by the Powerade Tigers, hoping for a long and fruitful career with the league. When the Tigers were bought out by GlobalPort, the following season, Martinez was released. Since then, he became a journeyman of sorts, making his mark in Thailand, Malaysia, and other southeast Asian countries, often for three to six months at a time. Even at age 38, James is still able to dominate in leagues overseas. He had a couple of chances to return, but they fell through. Martinez finally got his wish to return to the PBA 13 years later, ironically, with Titan Ultra, whose roots are from his original team.

‘I couldn’t believe it. I’m here to provide quality minutes,’ he says. ‘ I’m not young anymore, so I don’t expect heavy minutes. I want to be an inspiration to younger players. Do not give up on their dreams. If you just keep going, you will get there eventually.’

Lastly, of course, is the announcement of Rain or Shine veteran Gabe Norwood that he was retiring after this conference. The two-time PBA champion and 11-time All-Star played for the George Mason University Patriots team which made the US NCAA Final Four in 2006. He first came to the Philippines as a member of an Athletes in Action selection that played against schools like the University of the Philippines.

In 2007, the 6’6′ guard/forward was selected first overall by Rain or Shine, where he has played since. Norwood and Beau Belga are the only two players left from the Elasto Painters’ last PBA champion squad in 2016. Norwood also built his name with Gilas Pilipinas, and is known for his level-headedness and sportsmanship. We will be sad to see him go. But coaching is now calling.

What a colorful first week it’s been for the PBA.

National U wore down La Salle in the clutch, 82-78, and regained hold of pole position in the UAAP Season 88 men’s basketball tournament yesterday at the UST Quadricentennial Pavilion.

The Bulldogs uncorked a 27-17 run in the fourth to seize command but needed one last stand to repel the Green Archers’ own comeback attempt sans ace forward Mason Amos, who went down with a suspected knee injury.

In notching a second straight win since absorbing their lone scar so far against the title holder UP Fighting Maroons, the Bulldogs jacked up their slate to 5-1, breaking a tie with the Santo Tomas Tigers who have just handed erstwhile unbeaten Ateneo (4-2) its second straight defeat via triple overtime on Saturday.

It’s a tale of night and day for NU, which bled for only five wins last season with foreign student-athlete Mo Diassana from Mali limited to one game due to an injury.

With Omar John, the Bulldogs have tallied the same number of wins in the first round alone with a chance to surpass it against Ateneo.

Later in the night, reigning champion UP fended off Far Eastern U, 69-66, to notch its fourth straight win after a 0-2 flat start.

Harold Alarcon (15), Gani Stevens (14) and Reyland Torres (12) led the Maroons to the key win ahead of their highly anticipated match with the La Salle Archers Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The Cebu City Treasurer’s Office clarified that the Colon Night Market only collects an ‘arkabala’ fee of P50 daily, countering Councilor Pastor ‘Jun’ Alcover’s claim that the collection has been P6,000 in rental fee.

Cebu City Treasurer Emma Villarete confirmed to the media that, upon the request of the City Council to review the previous remittances from the Night Market under the management of the GASA sa Gugma Board, the Treasurer’s Office found that it only collected P50 per night per stall.

In line with the Council’s resolution seeking financial data, Villarete also discovered that neither the city nor the barangay was paying the electricity bills.

‘The only thing that we received with the Night Market before is only the Arkabala which is the P50 for the food and P30 for non-food (stalls),’ said Villarete.

This year, the dispute over GASA not being reconvened to manage the Night Market operations has been the subject of heated discussions in the Council, particularly by Councilor Pastor ‘Jun’ Alcover in his capacity as chairman of the committee on markets.

Recently, Villarete said they reached an agreement with the representatives of the vendors to acquire a special permit that will run from October 16 to December 31, this year. Before this agreement, she said they were only collecting the P50 arkabala, the same as in previous years.

In line with the issuance of the special permit, Villarete said vendors will now be required to pay P2,500 for the entire duration of the operation. This amount will serve as the city’s income from the activity. ‘Nga di’ lang pareha last year nga simple arkabala lang jud,’ said Villarete.

Villarete clarified that the arkabala is backed by a tax ordinance that serves as the daily rental fee for non-permanent vendors.

‘I don’t know what happened before ngano’ng wa’ jud sila mukuha og special permit, but now amo jud silang gi-request to get a special permit,’ said Villarete.

On the reports that Alcover allegedly received about a P6,000 monthly fee per stall being collected from Night Market vendors, Villarete clarified that she does not know such fees, as their office does not collect them.

‘Wala nako’y idea ana kay ang amoa is only on the operation of their business as to the area, kinsa ga-manage, kay buot hunahunaon ang Colon is a public road man,’ said Villarete.

It was reported that as the questions and concerns surrounding the Cebu City Colon Night Market continue to spark disagreement, Alcover lambasted Mayor Nestor Archival for refusing to temporarily suspend its operations, calling the decision unjustifiable and labeling the current setup as ‘syndicated.’

In a previous interview, Alcover lamented that he does not understand the mayor’s perspective, stressing that the latter might be misinformed.

Just days before Alcover’s remarks, Archival stated that he was not keen on granting the request to temporarily suspend the Night Market operations-not until the GASA sa Gugma Board convenes, as called for by the City Council.

Archival also expressed skepticism toward the GASA Board, citing reports that it had not been remitting stall rental fees to the city government in recent years.

Alcover, for his part, clarified that it is not the GASA Board’s responsibility to collect rental fees. According to him, as stated in the ordinance, the GASA Board should only serve as a policy-making body.

‘Mao’y muplano, muhan-ay sa unsa’y mga kalihokan sa ambulant vendors. So policy-making body, dili collector and GASA in the first place. Ang mangolekta ang City Treasurer,’ said Alcover.

He explained that the City Treasurer is the one responsible for collections through ‘arkabala,’ where each stall pays from P25 to P50 per day. Alcover, however, said that instead of focusing on GASA, the mayor should look into reports that the organizers of the Colon Night Market are collecting P6,000 in rental fees per stall.

Alcover added that the mayor, as stated in the ordinance, should serve as the chairman of the GASA Board and should investigate these alleged rental fees. According to him, the stalls being rented along the street are questionable since the space belongs to the government.

‘Nganong giparentahan man na nga space man na gobyerno, dalan man na, so possibly kung naa’y rental tingali kana ilang mga tent pananglitan … but as far sa space sa stall nga gibutangan, P6,000 ang bulan, kinsa may gadawat ana,’ said Alcover.

How can so many ghost flood control projects slip past the Commission on Audit?

The agency has attributed the proliferation of non-existent flood control projects to a shortage of personnel, especially in the Bulacan First District Engineering Office, now seen as the epicenter of the flood control corruption scandal.

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) office in Bulacan’s First District has been linked to several “ghost” or fraudulent flood control projects, which investigators say were part of an alleged kickback scheme involving several senators and House lawmakers.

During COA’s budget hearing at the Senate, Chairperson Gamaliel Cordoba said that staff shortages left the agency struggling to oversee local infrastructure projects.

‘When we checked on the ground, we noticed that we only have two auditors in the First District Engineering Office of Bulacan – the team leader and their assistant team leader,’ Cordoba said.

Those two auditors were reportedly responsible for 11 municipalities, three cities and eight Land Transportation Offices, a workload Cordoba described as far beyond reasonable capacity.

He added that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) had earlier cut 963 positions from COA nationwide. In Region 3 where Bulacan is, 136 COA jobs where removed.

COA admits lapses. Cordoba acknowledged that despite the shortage, the agency could have done more to flag suspicious projects earlier.

To remedy what happened in Bulacan’s First District, COA has since issued 21 fraud audit reports: Eight of these were forwarded to the Office of the Ombudsman, and 12 were transmitted to the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) for further investigation

The ICI has been spearheading the probe into 421 suspected ghost flood control projects across the country.

Allegations of collusion. Amid the ongoing scandal, COA Commissioner Mario Lipana has been accused of involvement in the scheme through alleged budget insertions in exchange for a cut later on.

Cordoba did not directly address the accusations but reiterated that the commission remains committed to transparency and cooperation with the ICI’s investigation.

Lipana is currently out of the country seeking medical treatment, COA officials said.

If Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano and his cohorts in the Senate minority wanted to rile the people even more, they couldn’t have done it better than by having Cayetano challenge Sen. Tito Sotto for the Senate presidency, at the same time that he was floating his supposedly heroic idea of having all elective officials resign because the public was fed up with them.

He had to know that that was exactly the kind of antic that made people throw up at the mention of certain names – a dubious pantheon of the corrupt, the bought and the compromised. But he did it anyway, employing his imagination to yank public attention away from the burning issue of the hour – the massive flood control scam and its ties to many lawmakers – in the direction of Mars, and the possibility of honest (never mind intelligent) politicians inhabiting that planet.

Why he did that is anyone’s guess, but mine would be that anything to stop the momentum building up at the Blue Ribbon committee under Sen. Ping Lacson was good for the minority, many of whom were increasingly being threatened by the exposure. If Cayetano had resigned first (and forthwith!) to provide proof positive of his noble intentions, the distraction would have been worth our time, but of course that was never part of the plan.

The plot to unseat Sotto – brazen and shameless in its purpose – was more credible and worrisome. It fizzled out, but remains potent, simmering just beneath the surface. Lacson’s resignation as BRC chair was probably a concession to forestall Sotto’s, but the situation in the Senate is so volatile that it can’t take much for the leadership to switch while we’re brushing our teeth.

All we seem to be waiting for is that point of utter desperation when the beleaguered, fighting for their political lives and possibly even their personal freedom, ignore all considerations of decency and public sensitivity, weasel their way back into the majority and deliver the Senate to its most famous watcher from the gallery: Vice President Sara Duterte, whose fate still hangs in the balance of an impeachment vote that has yet to happen.

That vote and its implications, let’s all remember, was what triggered all of this. Premised on rampant corruption within her office, her impeachment, had it passed the Senate, would have barred her from running for the presidency in 2028 (and, for PBBM, from the resurgent Dutertes wreaking retribution on their erstwhile allies). But this isn’t really just about Sara – it’s about all those other trapos who’ve cast their lot with her, whose fortunes depend on her absolution in the Senate and ascension to the Palace.

Former Senate president Chiz Escudero, who dragged his and the Senate’s feet in that process, has now dropped all pretensions to impartiality, calling the impeachment ‘unconstitutional’ in a speech that would only have pleased the Vice President, a title he himself might be auditioning for. He did his part well, with what many saw to be the ill-considered assistance of the Supreme Court, to freeze the impeachment complaint.

And there that matter sat, until PBBM – whether unwittingly or presciently – (and here we’ll go fast and loose with the idioms) shook the tree, opened a can of worms, threw mud at the wall and unleashed the kraken by exposing the trillion-peso infrastructure scandal now rocking the country. He might have done this to suggest a link between the alleged corruption in the VP’s office and even larger acts of plunder emanating from her father’s time in Malacañang, a deft political move. But reality overtook his imagination, and now the issue’s grown far beyond that into his own administration, his own responsibilities, his own accountability.

That said, and however we may have felt about him, PBBM has done us all a service by drawing the curtain on the systemic rot in our society and governance, for which he, Sara and their cohorts have all been culpable, directly or administratively. By doing so he rendered himself vulnerable as well, and the VP’s forces are now zeroing in on that vulnerability to deflect attention from their own predicament.

Thus the barrage of ‘Marcos resign!’ calls (as opposed to the Left’s ‘Marcos and Duterte resign!’), which has become shorthand for BBM out, Sara in. (It was on that key point that the rumored Sept. 21 coup plot reportedly first stumbled, with the plotters balking at the alternative.) It also explains the slew of professionally produced reels on Facebook and other social media calling for the military to depose the President – ironically, something so openly seditious that Digong Duterte’s NTF-ELCAC would have instantly pounced on them, but which BBM and his crew seem to be shrugging off, at least for now.

What tempts our imagination in this fraught situation – where public trust in our politicians and even in the courts is hitting critical lows, and where no clear and short path to change seems visible until 2028 – is the possibility of military intervention, whether by martial law or on its own volition. I’ve been assured by friends who know better that this military of ours today is much more professional in its mindset than its predecessors, and that it will abide by the Constitution. I sincerely hope they’re right, because if there’s anything that all the parties in this mess can probably agree on, it’s that boots in the streets won’t bring us any closer to a functioning democracy.

I’m reminded in this instance of one of my favorite literary quotations, from Mark Twain who said (in so many words) that ‘of course fact is stranger than fiction. Fiction, after all, has to make sense.’ If you had told me three years ago that we are now relying on a dictator’s son to save us from an even worse alternative, and in the process – if almost by accident – expose corruption so foul that we are back on EDSA demanding not regime change but the rule of law, I would have called you a lousy fictionist with a runaway imagination. Yet here we are.

The Police Highway Patrol Group seized smuggled cigarettes worth P25 million inside an abandoned delivery van in Basay town in Negros Oriental on Saturday.

In its report, the Negros Regional Highway Patrol Unit said the smuggled items were discovered after the RHPU responded to information that four delivery vans had been abandoned in Purok 6 in Barangay Nagbola-ao.

Lt. Edwin Santos, RHPU intelligence chief, said 500 large boxes, each containing P50,000 worth of cigarettes, were found in one of the abandoned vans.

Prior to the seizure, the operatives coordinated with the Bureau of Internal Revenue, which issued a mission order to conduct operations against violators of Republic Act 12022, or the Anti-Agricultural Sabotage Act.