Odds and Ends 1/22/10

Marlene Aguilar implicates Briton in Ebarle slay

MANILA, Philippines—If the mother of road rage suspect Jason Ivler is to be believed, Renato Ebarle Jr. was killed by mystery shrouded bodyguard to set up her son on orders from people who supposedly did not like what she has written in a book.

"There are powerful people who want me to stop writing what I know and they set up Jason with the help of my bodyguard, because Jason is my weakest link,'' Marlene Aguilar told the Inquirer in an interview.
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Really. Her book must be a rousing bestseller?? It's like saying the powerful atheists of this world are scheming big-time against me for my writing in this blog. Ho-ho.
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Police claim drop in crime due to gun ban

MANILA, Philippines—Director Roberto Rosales, chief of the National Capital Region Police Office, claimed Friday there has been a decrease in the incidence of crime and attributed it to the gun ban being enforced nationwide by the Commission on Elections and security forces in the runup to the May 10 national elections...

He did not cite any comparative crime figures, however, to back up his claim..
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Good job, but c'mon. Are you saying that a gun ban is the solution to decreasing crime?
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2 ex-finance execs seek dismissal of plunder raps

MANILA, Philippines – Two former finance employees are asking the Sandiganbayan to throw out the plunder charge filed against them over an alleged tax credit scam from 1994 to 1997 that allegedly deprived the government of more than P73 million in taxes...

But in their motion to quash, Magdaet and Asuncion said: “There is absolutely no finding that the accused public officers ‘amassed, accumulated or acquired’ any part of the alleged amount of P73 million.’”

“On the contrary, the resolution [of the Ombudsman] expressly stated that it was accused private persons, the ‘spouses Faustino and Gloria Chingkoe’ who ‘unjustly enriched themselves’ and not any of the accused public officers,” they said.
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Oh? P73 Million at any rate. No guns here.