LIBRARY FOR INMATES REFURBISHED
To ease boredom from being away from their families, inmates of Las Piñas City jail find time in their learning and reading books on their renovated libraries. Las Pinas female dorm wardress Sr.

Insp. Stephanny Sotero reported that 81 female and 532 male inmates are using the facilities. The library was conceptualized in 2007 by City Judge Joselito DJ Vibandor who has been actively pushing for the project with the help of previous wardens. Located at the third floor of the establishment in the city hall compound, the facilities were renovated by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) to be more ideal as learning room and mini-library. It is also use for the Alternative Learning System (ALS) of the Department of Education.
Jing Villamente
 
HEIGHT REQUIREMENT FOR LAWMEN EASED
A person’s height won’t need to stand in the way of public service anymore. This developed after the House of Representatives ratified the Bicameral Conference Report on the Act Repealing the Minimum Height Requirement for applicants of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) or the PNP, BFP and BJMP Height Equity Act of 2012. Under the Height Equity Act, applicants to the PNP, BFP and BJMP who were conditionally appointed by the PNP, BFP and BJMP as uniformed personnel and were required but have not submitted their corresponding waiver for the height requirement, as well as whose appointments have been pending with the Civil Service Commission, are hereby deemed to have complied with such requirement. Under present laws, a male PNP, fire and jail officer has to be at least 1.62 meters (five-foot-three) tall while their female counterparts should be at least 1.57 meters (five-foot-one) tall.
Llanesca T. Panti

KASAMBAHAY MEASURE AWAITS ENACTMENT
THE measure that will ensure house helps a fix monthly minimum wage of P2,500 per month now rests in the hands of President Benigno Aquino 3rd after both houses of congress approved the long delayed Kasambahay bill. Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, concurrent Chairman of the Senate Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources Development and Congressional Oversight Committee on Labor and Employment, said that the panel agreed to set the base pay for domestic work thereby increasing those stipulated in the Labor Code. Currently, the minimum wage for domestic workers as stated in Article 143 of the Labor Code is pegged at P800 in Metro Manila and highly urbanized cities, P650 in other chartered cities and first-class municipalities, and P550 for other municipalities. During the bicameral conference Monday night the panel agreed to adopt a Senate provision on minimum wage for domestic workers which prescribes P2,500 monthly salary for those working in National Capital Region, P2,000 for those in chartered cities and first-class municipalities, and P1,500 for those in other municipalities.
Jefferson Antiporda

BACKHOE OPERATOR IN MASSACRE TRANSFERRED
 A Quezon City court has ordered the transfer of the backhoe operator— he dug the graves of the victims in the “Maguindanao Massacre’’—from Cotabato City to Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan Taguig City. In a commitment order, Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Quezon City Court Branch 221 ordered the warden of the Quezon City Jail-Annex at Camp Bagong Diwa to take custody of Bong Andal, who was arrested Saturday in North Cotabato. Andal, who is currently in the custody of the Regional Chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group—Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in Cotabato City, was committed to the QC Jail-Annex “for confinement and safe-keeping during the pendency” of the cases filed against him. He is among the 195 accused in the massacre that claimed the lives of 58 people, including 32 media practitioners.
Jing Villamente

ROBIN PADILLA BROTHER SENT TO JAIL
FOR pocketing a .45, the older brother of action star Robin Padilla received a maximum of four years behind bars after the Sandiganbayan found him guilty of malversation of public property. In a 31-page decision promulgated on Tuesday, the anti-graft court’s First Division threw Casimiro “Roy” Padilla, Jr. behind bars after the Office of the Ombudsman proved that he did not return the firearm issued to him when he was the governor of Camarines Norte province. The convicted Padilla stood charge for embezzling a .45 worth P7,000, one magazine worth P350 and seven rounds of ammunitions for the gun worth P112, which the Philippine National Police (PNP) originally owned.
John Constantine G. Cordon