ARROYO CAMP BARES KILL PLOT; PINOY BIG BROTHER OFFERS REFUGE TO ARROYO

Elena Bautista-Horn, a spokesperson for Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, revealed on Wednesday a possible threat on the life of the former President.

According to Horn, a source from a certain government agency talked to them a few days ago and told them about a so-called operation “Put the Little Girl to Sleep,” being cooked allegedly by the Aquino administration.

“May mga nagsumbong na naman po sa amin na nasa administrasyon ngayon na may mga masamang balakin. Mayroon sila ngayong operation called ‘Put The Little Girl To Sleep.’ Ni-report na po sa amin ‘yan kaya kami ay nababahala kasi nakikita naman natin kung gaano ang insistence ni [Justice] Secretary [Leila] de Lima at [Comelec] Chairman [Sixto] Brillantes na ang dating Pangulo ay iligay sa government hospital,” said Horn.

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BIG BROTHER OFFERS REFUGE TO GOYANG

Reports have it that ‘Kuya’ of the ABS/CBN top-rated show Big Brother has offered former president Gloria refuge in the Big Brother house.

    Kuya is the voice in the show–the Philippine version of its US cousin–where contestants are locked up and monitored by hidden cameras.

    A source said the Big Brother house has CCTVs covering its every nook and cranny and would be an asset in government’s bid to monitor Gloria’s every move.
Gloria is a former president and should be accorded respect and comfort despite being accused of a crime, said the source.

ABA! OK TO! SIKAT AKO LALO!!!

Kuya and the occupants of the house would be more than willing to welcome Gloria, said the source.
    The source said lawyers of the former president should take a cue from Big Brother to ask the court to allow her to stay in the house while under arrest. JOKE ONLY !

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According to their source, Mrs. Arroyo should be careful in the food being served and the medications being administered to her.

Horn said they consider the source as highly reliable that they decided to share the information to the media.

“Alam rin po natin na lumabas sa column ni Mon Tulfo na sinabi daw po ni Secretary Butch Abad na kung pababa-biyahihen si Mrs. Arroyo eh mabuti na daw na barilin siya sa tarmac. So napagtatagpi-tagpi namin ang storya na talagang parang may agenda na hindi maganda para sa dating pangulo,” she said.

They are unsure though if they should ask for added security from the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Arroyo lawyers are also discussing if they should raise the matter at the Pasay Regional Trial Court (RTC) hearing.

The Pasay RTC Branch 112 will hear on Thursday the motion requesting hospital arrest for Mrs. Arroyo, who was charged and arrested last November 18 for electoral sabotage of the 2007 elections.

Abad calls allegations ‘absurd’

Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Butch Abad dismissed the allegations made by the Arroyo camp, calling it “absurd.”

“That is so absurd. Natatawa nga ako diyan eh. It’s a complete fabrication. It’s a sure sign of desperation. A futile scheme to distract people’s attention away from the serious charges of lying, cheating and stealing that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is currently trying to escape from,” Abad told ANC’s “Prime Time” on Wednesday.

Abad said the camp of Mrs. Arroyo has become “desperate” in trying to evade the charges against the former President.

“They’ve been trying all sorts of maneuvering and schemes, including lying to try and evade all these serious charges that people are waiting to her confront. To this day, they have not succeeded in confusing the people so now they are the ones who are confused,” Abad said.

“I think they ran out of medical and legal excuses to prevent Arroyo from being detained in a government hospital or any government facility where she belongs. That is the pure and simple reason,” he added.

Abad was mentioned by Ramon Tulfo in his November 21 column published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer as the one who allegedly said “Why don’t we just shoot her at the tarmac?” which recalls the assassination of Senator Ninoy Aquino at the airport tarmac in August 1983.

Tulfo wrote that Abad allegedly made the remark during a meeting President Benigno Aquino III had with his Cabinet to discuss the government’s actions on the plans of Mrs. Arroyo and her husband to leave the country.

Abad also described the article as absurd, saying “there is no point dignifying those statements.”

“We have better things to do at the DBM [Department of Budget and Management] than to pay attention to those absurdities,” he said.

Palace says it’s a complete fabrication

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda on Wednesday also denied the allegations made by Arroyo’s camp, saying it is a merely a plot to convince the public that hospital arrest is not suitable for the former President.

“This a product of small minds. It’s practically a complete fabrication. They have tried everything to pique sympathy from the public from crying in front of the media, to saying that the President has a life-threatening condition. Now they’re saying that her life is being threatened. So many lies have been thrown by her spokesperson to the public. The public is sick and tired of their lies. They don’t believe the camp of Arroyo anymore,” he told ANC.

Lacierda said the Aquino administration wants Mrs. Arroyo to face the charges of electoral sabotage filed against her.

“We want her to face the trial, we want her to be accountable. We do not want her to go the easy way out,” — with ANC

DURIAN POST NO. 87 – BUSINESS PAGE – SM, Abreeza-Ayala malls biggest investors in 2011

BUSINESS&TOURISM Page

IS SPONSORED BY

RDL PHARMACEUTICALS and

LDL REALTY

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

The P3.9 billion Abreeza-Ayala Mall of  the Ayala Land-Floirendo Group tandem, and the P2.3 billion SM City Lanang of the
SM Group are the two biggest investments in Davao City in 2011.
But the banner year for the city’s continuing surge as an investment haven could be 2012, with AboitizPower of the Aboitiz group starting next to build its $5 billion coal-fired power plant in Binugao in Toril district.
Records at the Davao City Tourism, Investment Promotions Office (DCTIPO) showed the two malls leading the pack of high-stake investments in the city this year mostly poured into property development and low-cost mass and high-end housing.
The Abreeza-Ayala Mall, a mixed-use complex of hotels and business centers, started building this year with its total budget planned out for project completion in the next three years. The mall stands on a sprawling 10-hectare lot on JP Laurel Avenue in Bajada, the city’s fastest growing business district.
At the northern tip of the seven-km JP Laurel Avenue is SM Lanang to rising on the former 40-hectare Lanang Golf and Country Club. Also to built in the property is the SMX Convention Center, the largest in Mindanao, that would add up more points to the city’s bid as Mindanao’s Convention City.
The SM and Abreeza-Ayala investments made up the bulk of the nearly P3 billion investments in 2011, said  DCTIPO head Jason C. Magnaye. Total investment in 2010 stood at P2.4 billion.
While investment figures this year surpassed old records, the P3 billion mark would be pushed aside when big-budget investments start building next year led by the AboitizPower coal plant and the 32-story Aeon Towers, Mindanao’s tallest, on JP Laurel Ave., and five other high-rise buildings.
Davao City’s continuing growth as Mindanao’s premier economic and business center has earned an 87th spot among 200 fastest growing cities in the world of the England-based City Mayors Foundation.

DURIAN POST NO. 87 – Davao City now in the Top 5 of richest cities in the Philippines

2011 budget soars to P5B mark

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

Total appropriations for year 2011 for the operation of the local government of Davao City has breached the P5 billion mark, making this premier city of Mindanao among the richest cities in the country.
With this year’s gargantuan budget,  Davao City is assured of landing in the top five richest cities in the country.
The Davao City Council has approved Suplemental Budget No. 2 amounting to P360 million. Middle of this year the legislative body also approved Supplemental Budget No. 1 in the amount of P619 million.
Added with the 2011 Annual Budget of P4.6 million, total budget for this year is P5.5 billion.
Budgetary appropriations by LGUs are based on projected fund sources and more or less echo the LGU’s actual revenues, which are derived from locally generated taxes and share from the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA). The IRA is the LGU’s share from taxes collected in their jurisdiction by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
Records of the National statistics Coordinating Board (NCCB) show that the top revenue earning cities in the country based on 2007-2008 revenues and appropriations were Quezon City – P9 billion; Makati City -  P 8 billion, Manila City – P7.4 billion, Pasig City – P4.4 billion,  Paranaque City -  P 3.3 billion.
Davao City was a breathe away from Paranaque City with  P3. 2 billion in annual revenues.
Other cities in the elite club of top ten richest cities are Cebu, Caloocan and Pasay, with Muntinlupa and Mandaluyong battling over the last slot.
Durian Post has no available records of appropriation and expenditures for the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 of the top-earning cities.
But statistically based on the 2007-2008 records against current figures, Davao City could dislodge fifth placer Paranaque  City from the Top 5, with the drastic upward trend in its annual revenues. For years, Davao City had been tailing Paranaque by a few hundred thousand pesos, but 2011 figures could make a big difference in its standing.
Based on its 2011 budgetary appropriations of P5.5 billion against the 2008 figures of P3.2 billion, Davao City’s revenue nearly doubled in just a matter of three years.
Complete figures on latest over-all standing of cities are yet to be released. The upgrading of cities and other LGUs are made every three years.
When the figures are out, we expect to be in the Top 5, said a source from City Hall asking anonymity who adds it was best that government figures should be out first before official statements are issued.
Davao City has consistently been in the Top 5 highest revenue earning cities in the country in the list of ‘Billionaire Cities’ of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) during the last five years.
The Department of Budget and Management said it would reduce shares of IRA for LGUs next share, with Davao City losing about P300 million. About half of its annual earnings come from IRA.
But while executives of other local LGUs break their heads on where to source funds in wake of the cuts, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte is not rattled.
While there may be bdgetary cuts in some projects and programs, she assured  the cuts would not dramatically shake up its financial capability to respond to people’s needs.

 

Davao City now in the Top 5 of richest cities in the Philippines

2011 budget soars to P5B mark

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

Total appropriations for year 2011 for the operation of the local government of Davao City has breached the P5 billion mark, making this premier city of Mindanao among the richest cities in the country.
With this year’s gargantuan budget,  Davao City is assured of landing in the top five richest cities in the country.
The Davao City Council has approved Suplemental Budget No. 2 amounting to P360 million. Middle of this year the legislative body also approved Supplemental Budget No. 1 in the amount of P619 million.
Added with the 2011 Annual Budget of P4.6 million, total budget for this year is P5.5 billion.
Budgetary appropriations by LGUs are based on projected fund sources and more or less echo the LGU’s actual revenues, which are derived from locally generated taxes and share from the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA). The IRA is the LGU’s share from taxes collected in their jurisdiction by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
Records of the National statistics Coordinating Board (NCCB) show that the top revenue earning cities in the country based on 2007-2008 revenues and appropriations were Quezon City – P9 billion; Makati City -  P 8 billion, Manila City – P7.4 billion, Pasig City – P4.4 billion,  Paranaque City -  P 3.3 billion.
Davao City was a breathe away from Paranaque City with  P3. 2 billion in annual revenues.
Other cities in the elite club of top ten richest cities are Cebu, Caloocan and Pasay, with Muntinlupa and Mandaluyong battling over the last slot.
Durian Post has no available records of appropriation and expenditures for the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 of the top-earning cities.
But statistically based on the 2007-2008 records against current figures, Davao City could dislodge fifth placer Paranaque  City from the Top 5, with the drastic upward trend in its annual revenues. For years, Davao City had been tailing Paranaque by a few hundred thousand pesos, but 2011 figures could make a big difference in its standing.
Based on its 2011 budgetary appropriations of P5.5 billion against the 2008 figures of P3.2 billion, Davao City’s revenue nearly doubled in just a matter of three years.
Complete figures on latest over-all standing of cities are yet to be released. The upgrading of cities and other LGUs are made every three years.
When the figures are out, we expect to be in the Top 5, said a source from City Hall asking anonymity who adds it was best that government figures should be out first before official statements are issued.
Davao City has consistently been in the Top 5 highest revenue earning cities in the country in the list of ‘Billionaire Cities’ of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) during the last five years.
The Department of Budget and Management said it would reduce shares of IRA for LGUs next share, with Davao City losing about P300 million. About half of its annual earnings come from IRA.
But while executives of other local LGUs break their heads on where to source funds in wake of the cuts, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte is not rattled.
While there may be bdgetary cuts in some projects and programs, she assured  the cuts would not dramatically shake up its financial capability to respond to people’s needs.

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CHAMPIONING BIODIVERSITY – SAGITTARIUS MINES INC (SMI) – DURIAN POST NO. 87

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OF DURIAN POST NO 87

IS SPONSORED BY

SAGITTARIUS MINES INC

Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI) is taking the lead in broadening ecological awareness as part of its efforts to preserve the rich ecosystem within its area of operations.
The environment has been a priority concern since we began work here,  said Butch Sebua, head of the SMI environment group. “Nothing preoccupies us more than to keep exploring ways of preserving the area’s biodiversity.”
As part of its comprehensive program, the environment group maintains an extensive plant nursery and conducts environmental monitoring and training.
SMI’s environmental program to protect biodiversity was magnified in a field seminar entitled “Biodiversity Awareness – Insects’ and Other Arthropods’ Role in the Ecosystem” for scholars, students and environmental managers.
Arthropods are jointed legged animals which play a crucial role in maintaining the balance of the ecosystem. Since most vital processes like pollination and decomposition involve arthropods such as millipedes, centipedes and other insects, Sebua said that they serve as good indicators of the health of a particular ecosystem.
According to experts, even if all the mammals, birds and reptiles were removed from the forest, the system would basically remain the same—with lush plants and trees.
But without all the arthropods, the system would collapse in record time.
Of the estimated 9-10 million animal species on earth, about 60% are arthropods.     Yet most environmental programs focus on larger-sized animals and plants and trees and neglect the smaller arthropods.
Elizabeth Heitzmann, a renowned expert on the breeding and commercial production of butterflies and moths (Lepidopteras) praised SMI’s biodiversity efforts. As a resource person during the seminar, Heitzmann described the various families of butterflies and moths and gave pointers on breeding these types of insects.
One of the highlights of the activity featured “night collecting.” Group members set up a bright light source behind a white cloth in a remote area of the forest.  This attracted various winged insect specimens which the participants picked and collected for further study.
Others used flashlights to search the undergrowth along forest trails for other non-winged species.
Some 500 specimens were collected, according to Sebua. These were of various types of arthropods, majority of which belong to the order of moths, butterflies, and beetles.
The specimens included a huge daytime butterfly from the Nymphalidae family, which participants deemed to have very good breeding potential. Cream white with black markings all around its wings, it has a wingspan of about 5-6 inches.
SMI’s environment group is exploring a tie up with the Notre Dame in Marbel University (NDMU) insect museum, in which specimens collected, identified and preserved by SMI would be donated to NDMU.
“We envision the NDMU insect museum evolving into a world-class collection that will be sought after and visited by recognized entomologists all over the world,” said Benjie Mabanta, a member of the London-based Phasmid Study Group and SMI’s consultant for its butterfly-breeding program. “It will specialize in collecting insects from Mindanao.”
NDMU’s Roger Tuburan who participated in the biodiversity seminar gladly welcomed SMI’s offer to upgrade their insect museum.     “It will ensure that our specimens will remain in good condition and will benefit a lot of our students in their understanding of the environment,” he said.
SMI has already engaged NDMU to conduct a one-year environmental study (2004-2005). With the study completed, the two partners are planning to expand the scope of the research for the next phase of their collaboration.
As part of its environmental program, SMI maintains a five-hectare plant nursery and ecological training area in Tampakan. The nursery now has seedlings of 71 varieties of fruit and forest trees and 43 plant species.
Deforestation has become a serious concern due to the continued practice of kaingin farming and firewood-gathering, said Rolando Doria, SMI overall project coordinator. “We are addressing this not only by replanting trees, but also by promoting environmental awareness in the communities and by creating alternative livelihood opportunities.”
SMI has also tapped community volunteers to help out in environmental monitoring.
Environmental teams have so far completed wet-season soil sampling and are regularly measuring marine sedimentation and flow rate in rivers in the area. Water recorders have been set up in Lawit, Taplan, Pulabato, and Bong S’bang.
In addition to preserving biodiversity in Tampakan, the environmental projects may create livelihood opportunities as well.
“Butterflies and other insects have a very lucrative export market,” Mabanta said. “If we can teach the community how to breed these insects, we can turn this into a really money-making income activity for the community.”
Some pupa sell for as high as US$5 each, while millipedes can sell as high as P1,000 a piece among collectors and butterfly houses in Europe and the US.
Avid Japanese butterfly collectors pay as much as P40,000 for rare species.
To pave the way for this potential livelihood track, SMI has filed its application for a collection/export permit with the regional office of the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB).
SMI’s environment group has started breeding several butterfly and moth species, including Actias philippinica or the Philippine luna  moth  which has never been bred before. They have also started cultivating the host plants, including 600 citrus seedlings, in the SMI plant nursery, to ensure the
availability of food for the breeding program. M.C. Altobano

Davao City councilor’s speech stirs up tutors over P500 stipend

inTOPNEWS PUBLISHED IN THE DURIAN POST NO. 87,

Nov 28-Dec. 04, 2011

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

Thank or blame Davao City councilor Melchor J. Quitain.
Quitain has stirred a hornet’s nest in the ranks of public school teachers in Davao City, following his privilege speech in the city council that unearthed an unimplemented city ordinance approved ten years ago granting P500 in monthly honorarium to the teachers.
If the ordinance is implemented and the public school teachers are paid retroactively, the local government’s coffers could suffer a financial diarrhea with public schools here having thousands of elementary and high teachers. The grant of allowance also covered non-teaching personnel.
Based on a rough estimate of 5,000 teachers and non-teaching personnel entitled to the P500 montlhy allowance, the city government must have to shell out a staggering total of P300 million to pay them off for the ten years that the ordinance has not been implemented.
But following the Quitain speech, teachers are rising up to collect.
We have long been demanding for the P500 monthly allowance, Gloria Arcenas said in a statement to media.
Arcenas is vice chairman for public school affairs of Magtutudlo ug Kawani sa Edukasyon sa Mindanao and the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (Kamkem-ACT).
In a council session recently, Quitain bared several city council ordinances that have not been implemented including the measure that granted the public school teachers the P500 allowance from the coffers of the local government.
Quitain was referring to City Ordinance Number 132-01, Series of 2001, or the “Ordinance Granting A Five Hundred Peso Monthly Allowance to Public Elementary and Secondary School Teachers and Non-Teaching Personnel subject to Certain Guidelines and Requirements.
It appears that the ordinance had remained a scrap of paper since its approval ten years ago, with the teachers’ persistent demand for its implementation unheeded.
Prior to Quitain’s privilege speech, KamKem-ACT had sought a meeting with Mayor Sara Duterte to follow up on the ordinance, said Kamkem-ACT chairman Elenito Escalante. He recalled that ten years ago teachers held mass actions to prod the city government to grant the public teachers the monthly honorarium. They conducted rallies at City Hall and the City Council when the ordinance slept without the teachers getting the honorarium.
This is an ordinance and we are now demanding that it be implemented, said Escalante, adding the financial assistance from the city government could help lowly-paid teachers cope up with hard times.

Overcrowding at Davao City government hospital due to poor billing system

inTOPNEWS PUBLISHED IN THE DURIAN POST NO. 87,

Nov 28-Dec. 04, 2011

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

 Lack of manpower and a poor billing system in the accounting department is one of primary reasons behind overcrowding of patients at the state-owned Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) in Davao City.
A source at the hospital told Durian Post ward patients in the hospital scheduled for release have to wait for an average one day before they get their billing from the accounting department.
This means that even if they had been given the discharge slip by the doctors they have to wait for another day for the billing from accounting, said the source, who begged anonymity, saying the issue is sensitive and known to hospital administrators.
It is the lack of personnel at the accounting that is behind late release of patients, said the source.
It appears that the poor billing system is not only resulting to overcrowding at the hospital.
At the Davao City Council, councilor Myrna Dalodo Ortiz said City Hall worries over late submission of billings by SMPC for cost of attending to indigent patients under the Lingap sa Mahirap Program of the local government.
Ortiz, chair of the council committee on finance, said SPMC should submit its billings on time to facilitate early payments.
She said City Hall has yet to pay SPMC’s collectibles in 2010 but could not because the hospital has not yet submitted documents.
Ortiz said there is danger funds for SMPC subsidy could be diverted to other projects, if the funds are not used.
Ortiz assailed the poor billing at the SPMC during deliberation on P360 million Supplemental Budget No. 2, which has a P40 million budget for the Lingap program. A P75 million budget has already been allocated for Lingap in the 2011 annual budget. RMB

Davao City officials impressed by Herhof technology

Two Davao City councilors sent to Germany to study a waste-to-energy plant has come back with good assessment of Herhof.
Herhof has offered to handle the city’s garbage and would build a state-of-the-art waste-to-energy plant here under a Build-To-Operate arrangement.
Davao City has an estimated 600 metric tons of garbage churned out daily by its 1.4 million population.
Mayor Sara Duterte and Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, the presiding officer of the city council, had allowed councilors Arnolfo Cabling and Marissa Salvador-Abella to go to Germany to observe the Herhof plant.
Abella and Cabling said they would make a formal report to the city council with their recommendation. The Herhof proposal needs the approval of the city council.
Abella chairs the committee on environment while Cabling is head of the committee on housing, rural and urban planning.
The herhof technology would greatly help our ecological solid waste management system, said Abella in her initial report to the council during a session recently.

‘Seized drugs not recycled’

ANTI-DRUG. Shabu and marijuana and an effigy of a drug pusher going up in smoke during the celebration of Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Week in Davao City. MORIE AGUILAR

    Drugs seized by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) are not recycled but destroyed.
Suspicions are that scalawag agents of PDEA filch confiscated drugs to be sold secretly.
They are destroyed, PDEA Regional Director Emerson Rosales said in giving the assurance the drugs do not land in dirty hands.
The aim of burning or destroying these confiscated dangerous drugs is to erase the notion and doubts from the public that there is recycling of dangerous drugs, said Provincial PDEA Officer Clodito Cañada.
Rosales nd Canada the burning of seized illegal drugs at the Provincial Capitol grounds of Davao del Norte recently.
A total of 32.9081 grams of methamphetamine or shabu worth P296,000 and 2,251.761 grams of marijuana amounting to P80,000 were torched as a culminating event of the province’s celebration of the Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Week.
The torching ceremony was joined by Vice Governor Victorio Suaybaguio Jr., Board Member Shirley Belen Aala, Judge Adlawan, Davao del Norte Provincial Police Office Director Police Senior Superintendent Edgardo Wycoco, RTC Judge Dorothy Gonzaga of Panabo City, Provincial PDEA Officer Clodito Cañada, Luntiang Paraiso Regional Drug Rehabilitation Center Director Gabriel Logronio and Dr. James Paul Dumdum of the Davao Regional Hospital.
Rosales said the fight against illegal drugs is gaining ground in the region due to  public support.
Rosales lauded the collaboration of other law enforcement agencies and the local government units in the anti-drug campaign. ROGER M. BALANZA

Bail for cop in radioman’s murder opposed

    The National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) is against a petition for bail by a policeman accused in the murder of Davao Oriental brodcaster Desiderio “Jessie” Camangyan, said Jessie Casalda, Davao Chapter chairman of the media group.

inTOPNEWS PUBLISHED IN THE DURIAN POST NO. 87,

Nov 28-Dec. 04, 2011

Police Officer 1 Dennis Jess Lumikid is the prime suspect in the  murder of Camangyan during a fiesta celebration in Manay, Davao Oriental on June 14, 2010.
Camangyan was holding a mike emceeing a program on a stage when shot several times in front of a crowd.
Casalda said there are many witnesses to Camangyan’s killing that could lead the court to junk the policeman’s petition to be granted bail.
But the NUJP chairman said Lumikid, like any other accused, has the right to file a petition for bail and the decision is up to the court.
The case is being handled by  Regional Trial Court Branch 14 Judge George Omelio Sr.