Faces of the News: September 22, 2024
Lloyd Christopher Lao
Lloyd Christopher Lao, a former undersecratary of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) implicated in the multibillion-peso COVID-19 supplies scandal, was arrested by police in Davao City on Sept. 18. The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police served the Sept. 12 arrest warrant issued by the Sandiganbayan antigraft on Lao in Davao City and brought him to its regional forensic unit office. He posted the P90,000 bail after being detained briefly. Lao and former Health Secretary Francisco Duque III were charged with violating the antigraft law by the Office of the Ombudsman in August over the alleged irregularities in the transfer of P41 billion from the Department of Health to the DBM-Procurement Service unit then headed by Lao to purchase COVID-19 medical supplies at the height of the pandemic. During the Duterte administration, Lao, along with health officials and officers of the company Pharmally, became the subject of a Senate blue ribbon committee investigation. —FRANCES MANGOSING
Raul Villanueva
Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) senior vice president Raul Villanueva stirred up a hornet’s nest during a congressional hearing where he said a former chief of the Philippine National Police was on the monthly payola of Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos). Villanueva’s shocking testimony during a Senate hearing on Sept. 17 appeared to corroborate what several senators had long suspected: The Pogos flourished in over the last several years thanks to the protection extended by corrupt law enforcement officials. There’s a catch, however, to Villanueva’s claim as he later admitted that it was based on still-unvalidated reports in the intelligence community. “I could not ascertain where the report came from. It’s just like rumors within the intelligence community,” said Villanueva, a retired Army intelligence officer. Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, the first PNP chief under the Duterte administration, challenged Villanueva to identify the former top cop who allegedly lined his pockets with illegal Pogo money. —MARLON RAMOS
Tomas Osmeña and Jed Mabilog
The two former mayors who fell out of former President Duterte’s good graces surfaced on Sept. 19 with more disturbing revelations about the past administration’s brutal war on drugs. Facing the House quad committee, Mabilog, who had returned from the United States where he had spent seven years in exile after being tagged as a narco-politician by Duterte in 2017, said he was advised not to return to the Philippines or else he would be forced to implicate his second cousin, opposition Sen. Franklin Drilon, and former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas. At the same House hearing, Osmeña showed lawmakers a 2018 report of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) saying its former general manager Royina Garma allegedly received a weekly bribe of P1 million from illegal gambling syndicates when she was still chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group’s Region 7 office. Osmeña said he had personally brought the report to Duterte’s attention but no action was taken. Instead, the former president gave Garma the plum PCSO post the following year.—KRIXIA SUBINGSUBING
Tony Yang
The brother of former Duterte economic adviser Michael Yang was arrested at Terminal 3 of Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Thursday night, carrying cash worth P1.4 million in different foreign currencies. Yang Jian Xin, who also uses the name Tony Yang and Antonio Lim for his businesses in the Philippines, was arrested by agents from the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission, with the assistance of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, for being an undesirable alien. The BI said Yang “faces a deportation case for undesirability and misrepresentation, after allegedly misrepresenting himself as a Filipino and falsifying information” regarding the Securities and Exchange Commission certification of Philippine Sanjia Corp. Yang, 54, is also being linked to the illegal activities of Philippine offshore and gaming operators (Pogos). His company, Philippine Sanjia Steel Corp., was set up in Cagayan de Oro in 2018, the same year a now-padlocked Pogo hub in Bamban, Tarlac, and another in Porac, Pampanga, were constructed. —Nestor Corrales
Cesar Chavez
Barely a year after he was named President Marcos’ assistant for strategic communications, multiawarded broadcast journalist, anchor and station executive Cesar Chavez was appointed chief of the Presidential Communications Office (PCO), the third to be given the post under the current administration. With the rank of secretary, Chavez replaced lawyer Cheloy Velicaria-Garafil who was recommended by the President to be the next chair of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office in Taiwan. Following his new appointment, Chavez said the PCO on his watch would play an active role in communicating issues related to the West Philippine Sea dispute, and in explaining the Marcos administration’s key decisions and direction beyond “mere bullets, PowerPoint presentations or sound bites.” But perhaps his first major test came last week, when he had to confirm reports that the English band Duran Duran performed at the President’s birthday party “at no cost to the government.’’ Chavez may be considered a veteran in the bureaucracy, having served in different appointive positions in past administrations since the Cory Aquino years. —JULIE M. AURELIO
