This military group saves taxpayers money

Tuesday, November 18, 2008, PDI, pageA3
By: Jocelyn R. Uy

AMID THE FINANCIAL SCANDALS SET OFF
by colleagues in the armed services, a group of
naval; officers with an eye for detail an a
reputations for grit is prudently weeding out
beneficiaries from the long list of military
pensioners who no longer deserve to be there.
In the first three months of the year alone,
the Armed Forces of the Philippines was able
to save over P120 million in taxpayer money
after some 4,100 beneficiaries were removed from
the pension rolls.
At the same time, legitimate pensioners
have started receiving their monthly
payments on time, a sign the government may be
slowly making a dent on its backlong of
pension arrears totaling P14.5 billion since 2000.
All this is thanks to the Philippine Navy's
Capt. Cornelio de la Cruz Jr., Lt. Commander
Brendo Casaclang, Commander Antonio Cantoria
and Lt. Maynard Cabungkal, the core group from
the AFP Finance Center that introduced the
plan in November last year that is effectively
cleansing the military pension rolls.
For the achievement, all four were accorded
the Outstanding Achievement Medal by the
Department of National Defense at Camp
Aguinaldo during the DND's 69th founding anniversary
last week.
"A pension is taxpayer money so we have
to do our part in making sure it ends up with
the rightful beneficiaries. This is the
hard-earned money of our soldiers too," said
De La Cruz, chief of the AFP Finance Center, in an
interview with the INQUIRER.
The pensions range from P4,800 to more
than P31,000 a month, depending on one's rank.
Initially the project entailed poring long
hours over lists of deceased soldiers buried
in the Libingan ng mga Bayani, cross-checking
these with records of the Philippine
Veterans Affairs Office and National Statistics Office,
said De La Cruz.
The operation also required them to scrutinize
marriage contracts and birth certificates
to make sure pensioners' widows and widowers had
not remarried and children receiving a pension were under 21.
The group sometimes went the extra
mile, setting off to pensioners' homes to
personally verify their eligibility.
Along the way, there were assurances the
project was going to work.
Inspecting the voluminous death records
on one occasion, they found out one beneficiary
had long been dead but money continued to be
deposited into his account until this grew to over P100,000.
The discovery allowed them to retrieve
the money, said De La Cruz.
The group also temporarily shifted the
mode of paying out the pensions from
automated teller machines to checks which had
to be personally claimed by the pensioners.
This way the beneficiaries' qualifications
could be thoroughly checked.
Once a pensioner had claimed his check,
he would receive the succeeding ones via ATM.
"When you put out the best carrots in
town, all the rabbits will come to you, so we
have to carefully validate them," said De La Cruz.
A military person should be at least 56
years old and have rendered at least 10
years of service in order to receive a
pension, said De La Cruz.
When a pensioners dies, the spouse
continues to receive the pension until he or she
remarries. Their children below 21 years of
age are legitimate beneficiaries.
The records of 70 percent of the 106,000
military pensioners across the country have
been validated, Casaclang said. The cleansing
group has been traveling from one
province to another since last year. Work now
awaits them in northern Luzon, they said.

4 Sundalong nasawi sa Basilan clash pinarangalan

Abante, Thursday, 20 August 2009

By: Jojo de Guzman

L1NGAYEN, Pangasinan - Panalangin at pagkilala
ang ipinagkaloob ng Sangguniang Panlalawigan sa
4 na sundalong Pangasinense na kasama sa 23
sundalong nasawi sa madugong bakbakan sa pagitan
ng puwersa ng pamahalaan at mga bandidong
Abu Sayyaf noong Agosto 5 sa Tipo-tipo, Basilan.
Sa pamumuno ni Vice Governor Marlyn
Primicias-Agabas, pinagtibay ang resolusyon na
kumikilala sa kabayanihan nina First Lieutenant
Dhel Jhun Evanghelista ng 3rd Light Reaction Company,
Private First Class Richie Estrada, Sergeant
Aguedo Casiano at Sergeant Johnny Corpuz ng
Philippine Marines.
Nabatid na nagtapos si Evangelista bilang
cum laude sa Philippine Military Academy Class
2006 at siya ay tubong Bgy. Estanza, Lingayen,
mula naman si Casiano sa Bgy. Balsa, Agno
samantalang si Corpuz ay mula sa bayan ng Mangatarem.
Si Estrada na nagdiwang sana ng kanyang kaarawan
noong Agosto 14, ay napaulat na nilaslas pa ang leeg nito.

7 suspected MNLF rebels killed in clash with Marines on Palawan island

Manila Bulletin, Thursday, 20 August 2009

By: Elena Aben

Seven members of a Moro separatist
group that occupied an island
vil1agein Palawan were killed and two
others were captured, while a Marine
soldier was wounded when fighting
erupted between the armed men and
the military yesterday morning.
Navy spokesman Lt. Col. Edgard
Arevalo said a report from the ground
commander of the fleet-marine operations
team, Lt. Col. Yuri Pesigan,
stated that seven bodies of suspected
Moro National Liberation Front
(MNLF) members had been retrieved by the military.
He said that firearms were also
seized from the marauders. These
included two Garand rifles, an M-14
rifle, an M-79 grenade launcher and
two caliber .45 pistols. A kris was also
confiscated.
Initial report from the field stated
that among those kil1ed was Abdullah
Abdurajak, alias "Pa Guro", the leader
of the armed men. The military, however,
said this information has yet to
be verified.
Arevalo said two more suspected
MNLF were captured in the running
gun battle. A wounded Marine, grazed
by bullet near his eye, was airlifted to
a hospital in Rio Tuba in the southern
tip of mainland Palawan.
"Pesigan and Commander Alberto
Cruz of Naval Task Group 41.5, and
members of the local police, with orders
coming from Commodore Orwen
Cortez, the Commander Naval Forces
West, endeavor to get all the MNLF
members before sundown to prevent
their possible escape," Arevalo said.
The Navy spokesman earlier said a report sent by Cortez to Navy Flag
officer-in-command Vice Admiral Ferdinand
Golez,showed Pesigan decided
to attack the armed men Tuesday
afternoon after a military ultimatum
for them to surrender lapsed.
The men were holed up in a mosque
in Sitio Marabon, Mantangule in Balabac
town.
Abdurajak and his followers arrived
in the village island on Saturday
and terrorized residents, who were
forced to evacuate to a nearby island.
Local government officials tried to
persuade the armed men to surrender
through peaceful negotiations.
On Tuesday,a surrender feeler was
sent by Abdurajak to authorities.
However,Arevalo said Abdurajak's
group failed to surrender before sundown
on Tuesday, the ultimatum given
by Pesigan to Haji Sukarno Jamal,
the rebels' emissary. This prompted
the Navy Special Operations Group
and teams from the Marine Battalion
Landing Team 8 to launch the assault
on midnight of August 18.(With a report
from Nonoy E. Lacson)

It's Isabela's turn to fete honor guards

Philippine Daily Inquirer,Thursday, 20 August 2009

By: Villamor Visaya Jr

lLAGAN, ISABEIA-TWO OF
the four honor guards who stood
by the casket of former President
Corazon Aquino during her
nine-hour funeral procession on
Aug. 5 returned to their native
Isabela on Monday to the praise
of local officials and their
province mates.
In a program at the provincial
capitol here, local officials led
by Gov. Maria Gracia Cielo
Padaca gave P02 Danilo Malab
Jr. and Pfc Antonio Cadiente
P20,OOO each, plaques of recognition,
copies of resolutions of commendation from the
provincial board and various tokens.
"For their extraordinary
feat ... these two Isabela residents
are worthy of the
awards and cash incentives,"
Padaca said.
Malab is a native of Echague
town while Cadiente hails from
Aurora town.
Residents who witnessed
the program here on Monday
gathered around Malab and
Cadiente to shake their hands
and have their photographs taken with them. Local students
serenaded them with
folk songs.
The honor guards also signed
the Isabela government's condolence
book for the Aquino
family.
Malab, Cadiente and their
relatives later shared lunch
with Padaca and other Isabela
officiaIs.
"We are overwhelmed by
these awards and assistance.
We are very lucky," Malab
said.
Malab said he could not explain how he and the three other
honor guards managed to
stay motionless for almost nine
hours despite suffering from leg
cramps and having no toilet
breaks, food and water.
He and Cadiente, however,
said seeing the huge number of
people who gathered along the
more than 22-km funeral procession
route to pay their last
respects to Aquino helped take
away the exhaustion and discomfort
they felt that day.