Bill filed to provide wider seats in jeepneys

A lawmaker filed last week a bill seeking to standardize seat spaces in jeepneys to avoid overloading and passengers’ discomfort.

House Bill 5850 will require jeepney manufacturers to provide a standard seating capacity of 357 millimeters or 14 inches per passenger.

Quezon City Rep. Winnie Castelo said this measurement is based on scientific studies on the average “anthropometric dimension of jeepney passengers,” particularly the hip area.

The proposed legislation also requires the Department of Transportation and Communications to issue appropriate guidelines, rules and regulations on the standard seat space, to be implemented by the Land Transportation Office.

Castelo, who also authored the controversial Anti-Planking Bill last year, said the country needs to provide national standards for assembly for customized local road vehicles to avoid passenger overloading and discomfort.

The bill will have to undergo committee and plenary deliberations and voting for it to be passed by the lower chamber.*GMA News

Catching of blue crabs to be regulated

The Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Iloilo approved last week an ordinance banning the catching of Gravid (berried) and undersized swimming blue crab, locally known as “kasag” in the entire province.

The ordinance, authored by Fifth District Board Member Jett Rojas, chair of the committee on aquatic resources, aims to help protect and conserve the declining stock and sustain the production level of blue crabs in the province.

The committee held two public hearings last year prior to the passage of the ordinance.

It was learned that fishermen catch volumes of blue crabs, including gravid and undersized ones, using very efficient gears resulting to declining catch and destruction of the species’ habitat like sea grasses.

The ordinance, known as Provincial Ordinance No. 2012-093, prohibits the catching or gathering of berried and undersized blue crabs with a carapace less than 11 centimeters or 4.6 inches and to use gill nets below 0.30 mm twine size, 4 knots, with 50 mesh depth and below.

Violators will be punished with an imprisonment from six months to one year and fine of P5,000 or both fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the court.

The ordinance also states that the provincial government, the municipality, peoples’ organizations and other certified NGOs/FARMCs shall formulate monitoring and evaluation guidelines and mechanism to carry out the provisions of the ordinance, provided, that these guidelines and mechanism shall be subject to review as may be deemed necessary by provincial council.

Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Sr. lauded the passage of the ordinance, which, he said, is a bold move in the protection of the province’s aquatic resources.*Capitol

Renew your gun license or else

By JENNIFER PONSARAN-RENDON

With more than 32,000 unlicensed guns that abound in the region, Police Regional office VI has called for a strengthened and renewed campaign against loose firearms.

Part of the strengthened drive involves a call for gun owners to renew the licenses of their firearms.

Records from the Firearm and Explosives Unit (FEU) of PRO-6 showed that 32,307 firearm licenses were not renewed.

The report showed that 28,978 expired licenses are for individual firearms and 3,329 for the juridical firearms.

Chief Supt. Cipriano Querol surmised that many of the gun owners may not have renewed their firearm licenses probably because they have lost the firearms or donated the same to other persons.

But there should be a report to support their allegations, he added.

PRO6 targets at least three percent of the total expired licenses for renewal every month.

But after the “soft campaign,” Querol said that they would launch continuous operations to arrest persons keeping unlicensed guns.

“More often than not, these loose firearms are being used in the perpetration of crimes and other illegal activities,” he said. As such, “the campaign against loose firearms is also our way of lessening crime incidents.”

Robbery and liquidation are the usual crimes involving loose guns.

It was gathered all police units in Western Visayas were already ordered to set up random checkpoint and chokepoint operations, apply for search warrants and conduct saturation drives to recover, confiscate and account loose firearms proliferating in the area.

It was gathered that FEU already reminded owners of firearms with expired licenses to renew the same.

Owners of firearms with expired licenses or loose firearms could be charged for violation of Presidential Decree 1866 as amended.

Last year, 334 cases for violation of gun law were filed against 542 suspects all over the region.

A total of 790 loose firearms were also confiscated and recovered. Of the number, 410 were home-made, 222 were low-powered and 158 were high-powered firearms.

Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office topped the accomplishment with 189 firearms.

Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) followed with 162; Bacolod City PO with 144; Aklan PPO with 80; Capiz PPO with 70; Iloilo City PO with 61; Antique PPO with 56; and Guimaras PPO, 6th Regional Public Safety Battalion, and the Regional Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Group with 12 each.*

After NBI exec, is Lima the next target?

After escaping an ambush in Manila Tuesday night, a National Bureau of Investigation official "advised" Justice Secretary Leila de Lima Wednesday to beef up her own security.

NBI deputy director Reynaldo Esmeralda said Tuesday night's attack could be related to the supposed death threats they had been receiving in past weeks.

"Nag-usap kami ni Secretary De Lima noong sa emergency room ako. Kako mag-beef up kayo ng security. Tingin ko ito ang banta na natatanggap natin," Esmeralda said in an interview on dzBB radio.

He noted De Lima already has many security personnel assigned to her, including those from the Presidential Security Group.

Last January, De Lima had said PSG personnel were assigned to her after she started receiving supposed death threats.

Esmeralda said he had received death threats in past weeks, prompting him to ride in different vehicles, but claimed he does not know who would want him dead.

On the other hand, he also hinted at threats to the members of the "panel."

But he did not say if this was the panel that probed the alleged extortion attempt on a Japanese national that led to the sacking of then NBI chief Magtanggol Gatdula, who had claimed that the findings on the case were biased and one-sided.

"De Lima herself hinted on dzBB radio Tuesday night she is not discounting the possibility of this theory.

"We cannot say at this point kung related, I'm saying may threat," she said.

Esmeralda narrated the ambush occurred while he was passing through Paco, Manila while heading for Makati City.

He said those behind the ambush used Baby Armalite rifles and took advantage of heavy traffic in the area to escape on a motorcycle.

Meanwhile, police are puzzled over the quick "cleanup" of the crime scene in the ambush of Esmeralda.

A report by radio dzBB's Manny Vargas said the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) National Capital Region unit wondered why the vehicles involved in the ambush as well as the shells were removed from the scene quickly.

The report quoted CIDG-NCR head Chief Inspector Carlo Manuel as saying that when his personnel arrived at the scene within an hour of the ambush, the scene was already "cleaned."

He said standard procedures should have had authorities preserve the crime scene so forensic evidence can be gathered.

Despite this, Manuel said they will coordinate with the NBI in investigating the ambush.

On the other hand, the camp of sacked NBI director Magtanggol Gatdula branded as "irresponsibile and unfair" insinuations that he had a hand in the ambush.

Gatdula's lawyer Abraham Espejo also voiced suspicions the incident had hints of an "ambush-me," according to a report by radio dzBB's Allan Gatus.

The report quoted Espejo as asking why the vehicle bearing Esmeralda was peppered with bullets, yet the official and two others escaped with relatively minor injuries.*GMA News