Zambales, Philippines

Anti-smuggling operatives intercepted at the Subic Bay Freeport some 88 kilos of “pure” methamphetamine hydrochlodride (shabu) that can net up to P500 million in the streets.

Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group head Antonio Villar Jr said Wednesday that the shabu, seized from a locator Monday night, showed free ports are being used as transshipment points.

“Yung purity nito 99%, high grade. Pag recooked ito at pabababin ang purity kalahating bilyon ito sa street (This is 99% pure, this is high-grade. If it were recooked and diluted, it can easily fetch half a billion pesos in the streets),” Villar said in an interview on dzXL radio.

He said they are now looking for one Anton Ang, a locator at the Subic Bay Freeport. The shabu was found in Ang’s Mitsubishi Outlander vehicle Monday night.

Villar said his men became suspicious of Ang when he brought in boxes of “computer parts,” noting that Ang’s business was importing cigarettes and liquor.

GMANews.TV

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has provided assistance to about 1,200 families in Zambales during her visit to the town of Sta. Cruz in the province on May 23.

The President, who was accompanied by Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral and other Cabinet officials, awarded Emergency Shelter Assistance (ESA) worth P5,000 to 100 families whose houses were totally damaged by typhoon Cosme in Sta. Cruz.

Arroyo Watch: Sun.Star blog on President Arroyo

She also awarded 100 cash vouchers worth P1,000 each under the Cash for Work program (CSW). Each qualified family was given P1,000 worth of certificate in exchange of five-day work at P200 per day.

The assistance is part of the rehabilitation plan for the victims particularly those who were rendered homeless, said Zambales Governor Amor Deloso, who allotted financial assistance to 100 families under the ESA.

Under the program, each family with totally destroyed house received P5,000 as housing assistance.

Sun.Star Pampanga

THE Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority urged residents and workers at the Hanjin shipyard site in Subic to take extra precaution to avoid malaria.

Dr. Solomon Jacalne, SBMA deputy administrator for health and safety, said malaria is “endemic” in the area.

“The disease itself is caused by mosquito bites, so what residents and workers have to do is protect themselves from bites and rid their areas of stagnant pools of water where mosquitoes breed,” Jacalne said.by J.V.Antiporda

Journal Online

IBA, ZAMBALES – The Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group on Wednesday started preparing a case of falsification of public documents and fraud against a customs collector at the Subic Bay Freeport in connection with the alleged smuggling of 15 horses from Australia.

Undersecretary Antonio Villar Jr., PASG chief, said the complaint against Subic deputy collector Errol Albano would be filed before the Ombudsman next week. “He signed the documents,” he said.

Reached through his mobile phone, Albano said: “With due respect to the undersecretary, I think he is misinformed.”

“I did not sign any documents. I have no hand in the processing of documents with respect to entry or valuation. I have no participation,” Albano said.

Villar, as head of the antismuggling Task Force Subic, gave the order to prepare the case after he received on Wednesday a letter from the Australian Embassy, informing him that the imported race horses cost between $5,000 (P215,000) and $10,000 (P430,000) each. By Tonette Orejas

INQUIRER.net

The Zambales provincial government has stopped Korean shipbuilding firm Hanjin from recruiting local labor due to its refusal to bear the hospital or burial expenses of workers who figured in accidents or work-related illnesses at Hanjin.At least eight work-related deaths prompted Governor Amor Deloso on Wednesday to stop Hanjin from recruiting workers in the province.

“Every time a Hanjin worker dies, regardless of whether he or she is directly hired or subcontracted, the provincial government shoulders the medical or funeral expenses. That’s P50,000 for every case,” Deloso told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, parent company of INQUIRER.net.

“As a lawyer, I cannot file a case against Hanjin because it always passes the liability to the subcontractors. The subcontractors tell me, on the other hand, that it was Hanjin’s liability. What do you do?” he said. By Tonette Orejas

INQUIRER.net