A single mother with four children is now in jail after she was arrested by San Andres police personnel during a buy-bust operation last Sunday evening, Sept. 22, 2024.
Operatives led by officer-in-charge Capt. Francis T. Tabo I and law enforcers from the Catanduanes Provincial Intelligence Unit (CATPIU) nabbed the 40-year-old woman at 6 PM after she handed over to the undercover police office a sachet of suspected shabu in exchange for P500 right in front of her rented house.
A reliable source identified the suspect as one Lodel Flores, which the police said had previously surrendered as a drug user during Oplan Tokhang in 2016 during the Duterte administration and underwent a drug rehabilitation program.
A criminal charge for violation of Section 5 of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 is set to be filed this week against her.
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Still in limbo is the status of elected University Student Council (USC) President Virgilio S. Cortado Jr., who last Sept. 17, 2024 issued a memorandum to the CatSU Board of Regents and other university officials and offices that he was assuming office effective said date.
He cited as basis his official proclamation by the COMELEC on March 11 and the oath administered to him by Virac Mayor Samuel Laynes last August 11.
“Thousands of students of the Catanduanes State University, through a legitimate and fair electoral process, have entrusted the undersigned with the responsibility to voice their concerns, protect their interests, and lead the student body,” he said in the letter. “To deny the undersigned of this mandate is to deny them their voice, their choice, and their fundamental right to representation.”
In reaction, the administration announced on its Facebook page that the Board of Regents has yet to decide on the issue of whether Cortado is qualified or not to sit as USC President and as Student Regent.
It claimed that the oathtaking before the Virac mayor is “not sanctioned” by the Board of Regents which is the highest policy and governing body of the University.
“We have no idea under what authority the Mayor has given such oath and the validity of such action of the Mayor affecting the operations of the University which has been formed with its own Charter, independent of the Local Government Unit, through the act of Congress, thereby granting the same the force and effect of a Law,” CatSU stated.
It did not disclose if the honorable Regents has passed specific rules and regulations governing the oathtaking of officers of student councils, student body organizations and even Parents-Teachers Associations considering that even the present administration, or the PTA for that matter, has been inviting elective officials including a Bato councilor to administer oaths.
Under Sec. 7 of RA 10229, the BOR has among its powers and duties the promulgation of “rules and regulations not contrary to law” as may be necessary to carry out the purposes and functions of the university.
But does this power to promulgate rules and regulations include the right to investigate the qualifications of a duly elected USC officer, five months after the duly constituted COMELEC deemed Cortado qualified and subsequently proclaimed him winner?
Is the board even allowed to nullify the Cortado’s victory, and essentially the votes of 4,696 students, on the basis of a disqualification case brought before it way after the proclamation of winners?
Is the administration’s action of preventing Cortado from assuming office as USC President and as Student Regent already in violation of the Charter provision mandating that the term of office of the president of the federation of student councils, as well as that of the alumni and faculty representatives, “shall be coterminous with their respective terms of office, as set forth in their respective constitutions and by laws?”
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TOMMY: Teacher, would you punish me for something I didn’t do?
TEACHER: Of course, not!
TOMMY: Good, because I didn’t do my homework.