A kink in Baguio’s BIMP/ Ex-Ilocos vice mayor’s aide gets life for broadcaster’s slay

BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

BAGUIO CITY – About time. Councilors in a resolution have urged the executive department to consider making the Baguio in My Pocket (BIMP) registration optional to those who intend to enter and transact business at the City Hall.
    Councilor Arthur Allad-iw, main author of the resolution, said  abrupt implementation of the mandatory BIMP registration at City Hall is disadvantageous to a number of people, a report of  city council staff Jordan Habbiling said.
    Yours truly experienced it too. I went to city hall recently and opted not to enter when employees manning the entrance told us we needed to register first with the BIMP before we could enter. Seeing the long line and people griping,.
    They said we had to reveal personal information using the App. There could be a violation of the privacy law in this, I thought so I left. 
    Allad-iw, methinks understood the situation when he said inconveniences such as non-familiarity to technology and long queues at the registration area prevented people from entering City Hall resulting in non-completion of or delayed transactions.
    Our thought, but how about people who did not use Smart phones but analog like most seniors?
    Anyway, while recognizing the “noble” intention of the program, Allad-iw said residents who intend to enter City Hall should not be compelled to go through the registration process so as not to cause disruption in their transactions.
    Philip Puzon, chief-of-staff of the Mayor’s Office, told the council during regular session last week barangay officials in the city were urged to “embrace” the BIMP following the “successful” pilot project in Irisan which registered one third of its population October 2020.
    According to city executive officials, the BIMP is aimed at delivering frontline services to people using mobile application developed and introduced by Information Technology Business Solutions (IBTS).
    A memorandum of agreement between the city government and IBTS was reportedly signed in July 2020. Shouldn’t the bright guys at the executive department thoroughly studied the matter first or held a public hearing before implementing the BIMP?   
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Justice served. A former bodyguard of an ex-vice mayor of Bacarra, Ilocos Norte has been found guilty of the murder of radio broadcaster Jovelito Agustin in Laoag City in 2011.
    La Union Regional Trial Court Branch 27 Judge Romeo Agacita Jr. sentenced Leonardo Banaag Jr. to life imprisonment in a 15-page decision promulgated Tuesday.
    The court ordered Banaag to pay the victim’s surviving heirs P300,000 in civil indemnity.
    Banaag was sentenced to another six years in prison for attempted murder of Joseph Agustin, the broadcaster’s companion, who was wounded in the gun attack.
    Police said the convict was a former bodyguard of Pacifico Velasco, a former Bacarra town mayor, who was vice mayor at the time.
    Agustin, a broadcaster at dzJC, was shot dead by motorcycle-riding men on his way home in Barangay Barit.    
    He was known for criticizing local politicians for alleged corruption and ties to illegal gambling.
    According to Presidential Task Force on Media Security executive director Joel Egco, the verdict is the 50th conviction of a suspect in the killing of a journalist in the country.
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The Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) has allotted 10,187 square meters inside the Camp John Hay reservation for the transfer of several offices at the City Hall. City information officer Aileen Refuerzo said Tuesday a geotechnical investigation report on a portion of the 10,187-square meter property inside the Camp John Hay reservation, which is being managed by the John Hay Management Corporation (JHMC), a subsidiary of the BCDA. is being awaited to assure safety and stability of the soil.
    The report is part of the document in finalizing the agreement between the BCDA and the city government.
The area will host the Baguio Central Fire Station (BCFS) and Multi-Purpose Building, the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Building, and the Baguio Justice Hall.
    At present, the BCFS, EMS, and the Justice Hall occupy an area at the city hall compound, which the city government hopes to reclaim for the expansion of its services.
    At the second quarter of 2020, the city government started doing an inventory of the land it is utilizing and/or titled to the local government to maximize their utilization as plans for the construction of an annex building of the city hall was being discussed.
    Several offices under the local government are located in various parts of the city, making it difficult for clients to hop from one office to the other when processing a document. This will also decongest the main building, which is over a century old with areas at the current Justice Hall to be utilized for city offices.
    Mayor Benjamin Magalong earlier assured city officials that he will try to discuss with the BCDA the possibility of the agency apportioning an area for the possible transfer of the Justice Hall, fire office, EMS, and for the city’s multi-purpose building.
    It was learned that the BCDA is allowing the use of the area to the city government on usufructuary agreement.
The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) recommended an in-depth study of the property’s stability considering a report that the area moved during a typhoon that happened some years back.
    Earlier, the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) Cordillera said that they were also allotted an area within the reservation for their office.
    OCD-CAR currently rents an old house at first road Quezon Hill.  
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Candidates for the 2022 elections may have to find other means to reach and convince voters to vote for them.
This, considering the Commission on Elections says face-to-face campaigning could be prohibited for the 2022 elections due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
    Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said they were proceeding with election preparations and how to prevent the spread of the virus, adding there would be “a change in the campaigning landscape.”
    “Activities like giving out materials or going out or talking to people face-to-face for campaign purposes, that’s gonna change. Door-to-door campaigns might be prohibited,” Jimenez told ABS-CBN news.    
    While it is not yet official if such prohibition will be declared, Jimenez said, the Comelec would be coordinating with the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases on the matter.
    Meanwhile, Jimenez said extending the deadline of the voter registration beyond Sept. 30 was unlikely especially with the expected start of the filing of certificates of candidacy in October for the May 2022 national and local polls.
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Meanwhile, some seven million voters were deactivated by Comelec ahead of the 2022 national elections due to non-participation in two consecutive elections or other reasons, Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said Wednesday.
    “Under the Voter’s Registration Act, a registration may be deactivated if the voter fails to cast his ballot in two successive regular elections,” Guanzon said.
    She said those who had their accounts deleted or deactivated were those who did not vote for the last two consecutive elections, adding that “only 700,000 have returned to Comelec offices and registered again.”
    The Comelec said deactivation can also be done to those sentenced by a court to not less than one year in prison; persons who have committed crimes involving disloyalty to the government such as rebellion, sedition, violation of the anti-subversion and firearms laws, and those declared by a competent authority to be insane.
    The law states that a voter may be deactivated if his registration has been ordered excluded by the court and he has lost his Filipino citizenship.
    She said deactivated voters will only be allowed to participate in the next election after their application for reactivation is approved in the local Offices of Election Officers (OEO) during the voter registration.
    The Comelec said that at least 1,050,793 voters have registered for next year’s elections as of Jan. 7.