Category: Philippines Daily Inquirer

Government troops, acting on community tip-offs, unearthed a cache of firearms and explosives believed to belong to remnants of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Barangay Cogon, Carigara, Leyte, on Sunday.

Soldiers from the 93rd Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army, in coordination with the Philippine National Police’s Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO), discovered the hidden stockpile at Sitio Eraya, Zone 3.

According to Lt. Col. Celeste Frank Sayson, commander of the 93IB, the recovery was made possible through the ‘active vigilance’ of residents who relayed information to authorities.

The arms cache was traced to the dismantled Platoon 2, IC-LEVOX of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) under the Eastern Visayas Regional Party Committee.

Items recovered included an M16 rifle, a hand grenade, 118 live rounds of 5.56mm ammunition, three short magazines, an empty shell, two improvised blasting caps, subversive documents, a Lenovo tablet, five kilograms of rice, assorted clothing, medical supplies, and a backpack.

Brig. Gen. Noel Vestuir, commander of the 802nd Infantry Brigade, lauded the cooperation of Carigara residents in the government’s anti-insurgency campaign.

‘We commend the troops of the 93IB and the PNP for their swift action on the information provided by the community. The cooperation of the people is vital in putting an end to the crimes being perpetrated by the remaining NPA members in Carigara,’ Vestuir said in a statement.

He also renewed his call for the remaining NPA members in Leyte to lay down their arms and avail themselves of government programs designed to help former rebels reintegrate into society.

The latest discovery follows a clash in the same barangay in June 2025 that left three IC-LEVOX members dead, including Juanito Sellesa, alias ‘Tibor,’ a ranking member of the Eastern Visayas Regional Party Committee

Some senators are now reluctant or a bit ‘allergic’ to the term ‘insertion’ in the budget, which has become associated with questionable flood control projects.

Sen. JV Ejercito reiterated during Monday’s hearing of the subcommittee on finance that there was nothing improper with lawmakers proposing amendments after deliberating on the proposed budget of a government agency.

‘Maybe it’s just not being understood because of the issues. Now, some people have become afraid-whenever they hear ‘amendment’ or ‘insertion,’ they think it’s something bad. But not all amendments or insertions are bad, because if they improve, enhance, or supplement effective programs, then they are very important. And that’s part of our job-to make sure we function better,’ he said during the hearing.

‘We’ve become somewhat allergic to the word ‘insertion,” Ejercito later added, noting that it is through legislative interventions or amendments that legislators could help improve an agency’s programs.

Meanwhile, Sen. Loren Legarda rued how the Senate ‘has been unfairly brutalized’ because of amendments in the budget, also referred to as ‘insertions.’

But she noted government agencies are the ones seeking additional funding whenever they present their budget proposal to Congress.

Take the case of the Department of Transportation (DOTr), which asked the Senate during Monday’s hearing to realign some items in its budget to other locally funded projects.

At the start of the hearing, Acting DOTr Secretary Giovanni Lopez appealed to senators to reconsider their budget, as the ‘bulk’ of the agency’s capital outlay for infrastructure is for railway projects.

Lopez then said that, as ‘part of a department initiative,’ the DOTr was requesting some ‘reallocation or realignment’ that it deems important and necessary to fund other locally funded projects.

‘I’m glad that Secretary Lopez mentioned that because in the past days, including today, the Senate has been unfairly brutalized regarding proposed amendments, which were called insertions,’ Legarda said.

However, she said, she has yet to see an agency that does not request additional allocations during budget season.

‘When the Senate adds (funding), we’re judged, and people will say we are already amending, which is our constitutional duty. But for those who perhaps do not understand or are unaware of the process, they call it an ‘insertion.’ So we’re caught in a bind,’ Legarda said. ‘That’s not an insertion-that is a carefully studied amendment by the Senate, and that is part of the Senate’s duty,’ she further said. /das/abc

Pageant fandom went abuzz with reports that global music icon Ricky Martin has followed recently-proclaimed Mister International Kirk Bondad on Instagram. But the winner from the Philippines revealed that it was him who followed the star just recently.

Responding to INQUIRER Entertainment’s question about Martin, the German-Filipino model and content creator said the Puerto Rican superstar has been following him way before the fans took note.

‘I just started following him back. Actually I was at the airport and I realized I don’t follow him,’ Bondad said at his homecoming press conference at the Holiday Inn Express at the Newport Complex in Pasay City on Monday evening, Sept. 29.

‘I know he started following me a little bit over a year ago, and we chatted a little bit. So it’s only now that people happen to get notice of that. And honestly I’m very surprised about that,’ he said.

Internet sleuths uncovered Bondad’s social media credentials after he topped the 17th Mister International contest in Bangkok, Thailand, on Sept. 25, revealing Martin’s connection to the pageant king.

‘I checked him out, and he’s super into fitness, so who knows maybe one day we will hang out and workout, or something. It’s funny, definitely something that I did not expect to get viral after this competition,’ he shared.

INQUIRER Entertainment also asked Bondad about his chemistry with second runner-up Choi Seung Ho from Korea, something many pageant fans noticed, leading to many shipping them, branding them #KirkSeung.

‘Alphabetically speaking, we have been always near each other at the placing of rehearsals or whatever, because ‘P’ and ‘K’ are close to each other in alphabetical order. So it was just naturally inclined that we will spend more time together,’ Bondad explained.

He also shared that the Korean delegate was only one of the few delegates who frequented the gym like he did, so it came out naturally for the two of them to bond further during workouts.

Bondad’s Indonesian roommate Oliver Prasetyo also formed the 2025 Mister International ‘F4’ with the two of them plus Choi and Thailand’s Kanapol Treesongkiat. ‘At that time I didn’t know what it means. But it meant a lot, and it also got viral. So automatically we were also doing content. So we were just naturally, organically building chemistry more,’ he said.

The new king also said he is open to doing a BL (boys’ love) project with Choi, after the Korean actor responded positively to fans’ clamor for a collaboration between the two hunks.

But Bondad said he is also pushing for Choi to fly to the Philippines and work with him. ‘Because Bench is the official sponsor for Mister Korea International, so I want them to bring Seung Ho here and do some shooting with me, because I know there is a lot of demand, and we wanna please them,’ he said.

Bondad is the second delegate fielded by the Mister Pilipinas Worldwide organization to bring home an international title. Last year, Dom Corilla posted the Philippines’ first-ever Mister Global victory. /edv

Maynard Ngu, the billionaire behind Cherry Mobile now linked to the anomalous flood control projects, has resigned from his post as independent director at Altus Property Ventures Inc.

In a regulatory filing on Tuesday, Altus said its board of directors had accepted Ngu’s resignation effective Monday, Sept. 29.

The company noted Ngu had resigned ‘due to personal reasons.’

His departure comes just days after former Public Works Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo linked Ngu to the billion-peso flood control scandal.

According to Bernardo, he had allegedly funneled through Ngu P160 million of kickbacks supposedly meant for Sen. Francis Escudero.

Ngu, who is currently Malacañang’s special envoy to China for trade and investment, served as Altus’ independent director since 2019.

A Mandaluyong court has ordered the arrest of former police Col. Royina Garma and retired police officer Edilberto Leonardo on nonbailable charges of murder and frustrated murder in connection with the 2020 killing of former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) board secretary Wesley Barayuga.

The warrant of arrest issued by the Mandaluyong City Regional Trial Court Branch 279 on Sept. 13 directed authorities to arrest Garma, Leonardo, as well as Jeremy Causapin, Santie Mendoza, and Nelson Mariano.

Barayuga, a former police brigadier general and a lawyer, was gunned down in broad daylight on July 30, 2020, by a motorcycle-riding gunman in Mandaluyong while on his way home. His driver survived the attack.

Alleged masterminds

Garma and Leonardo were tagged by Mendoza as the alleged masterminds behind the killing of Barayuga.

During House inquiries into extrajudicial killings and the bloody antinarcotics campaign of the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte, Mendoza, a member of the PNP Drug Enforcement Group, testified that between October 2019 and July 2020, Leonardo-then chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Davao-contacted him several times about a ‘special operation’ targeting Barayuga, allegedly for his involvement in illegal drugs.

Mendoza said he understood ‘special operation’ to mean an order to kill and claimed Leonardo told him the directive came from Garma.

He added that he felt coerced into joining the plot because Garma and Leonardo had the strong backing of Duterte and were his seniors at the Philippine National Police Academy.

Both Garma and Leonardo denied Mendoza’s allegations, insisting they had never met him prior to his testimony at the House hearing.

In October 2024, the National Bureau of Investigation ordered the revival of the cold case into Barayuga’s July 2020 ambush-slay.

Potential witness

Garma, who was appointed general manager of the PCSO by Duterte following her retirement from police service, had separately revealed in the House hearings that the Duterte administration implemented a ‘Davao template’ reward system for police officers tasked to carry out killings in its signature ‘war on drugs.’

She was also implicated in the killing of three convicted Chinese drug lords at the Davao prison in 2016, when she was still in the police force.

She applied for asylum in the United States, but the application was denied, and she was deported earlier this month from Los Angeles.

Shortly after her deportation, she traveled to Malaysia to meet with representatives of the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a potential witness in the crimes against humanity case against Duterte.

NBI chief Jaime Santiago told the Inquirer on Monday that Garma was still in Malaysia.

Department of Justice spokesperson Jose Dominic Clavano IV said the government could now move to have her passport canceled, since ‘local processes have to take precedence.’ For his part, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said he believed the arrest warrant against Garma would not affect her possible testimony before the ICC. -with a report from Inquirer Research INQ

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Sen. Mark Villar on Tuesday called for ‘well-thought-out, coordinated, and contextualized’ infrastructure projects that specifically respond to the needs of the Filipino people and the country.

During the hearing of the Senate committee on public works, which he chaired, Villar said the Philippines needs projects that promote connectivity, are people-centered, and are sustainable.

‘The past ‘Build, Build, Build’ program was an example of how impactful infrastructure projects are. It illustrates how high-impact projects promote overall development by stimulating economic growth, promoting tourism, and, most importantly, future-proofing our country,’ he said.

‘Ultimately, this Senate committee seeks to collaborate, complement, and cooperate with the national government agencies’ priority public works and legislative agenda,’ Villar added.

He urged the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to present its plans for people-centric, sustainable, and disaster-resilient infrastructure. ‘We sincerely want to have quality infrastructure that will truly last long and withstand natural disasters,’ he said.

Villar also asked the DPWH to provide the Senate panel with a concise but comprehensive and transparent briefing on the department’s current situation.

Likewise, he inquired about how the agency plans to respond to the people’s demands, ‘not just on basic infrastructure and flood control issues, but on the holistic infrastructure and public works agenda.’