Fire Chief Supt. Jose E. Collado, deputy chief for administration of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), was erroneously identified in yesterday’s editorial and editorial cartoon as chief of the BFP.

The Bureau of Fire Protection, an agency under the Department of Interior and Local Government, is headed by Fire Director Rogelio F. Asignado.

The Bulletin regrets the error and apologizes to its readers, to Asignado, and Collado.

The BFP celebrated its 15th anniversary yesterday, Aug. 2, with Albay Rep. Joey Salceda as guest and keynote speaker.

Salceda promised the BFP that he will help increase its budget for its operations, to make the agency more effective in its fire prevention and firefighting mandate. (Yul Malicse)

First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo challenged critics yesterday to prove their allegations that Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Administrator Marianito Roque and former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn "Joc Joc" Bolante were appointed to help cheat in the 2004 elections.

"Prove your malicious hallucinations or see you in court," Mr. Arroyo said.

The Office of the First Gentleman, in a press statement, said that Mr. Arroyo stressed that he will not take anything less than a public apology from his critics should they fail to produce evidence of their latest tirade against the First Gentleman.

It said that Mr. Arroyo never had any hand in the appointments of Roque and Bolante.

"It is of public record that government appointees go through a selection committee prior to their assumption of office. And the First Gentleman, as a private citizen, definitely does not have any control or influence whatsoever with this committee," it said.

It said that since critics talk of cheating in the 2004 elections, "We challenge them to present their evidence immediately, and we mean immediately, in public. They had better have specifics, i.e. names, dates, places, facts, and figures, or else they will have to redeem the First Gentleman’s name in a more appropriate forum other than media."

It emphasized that the First Gentleman does not, and had never meddled, in governance. "That is why we also ask them to present, apart from his evidence, the source or sources of this latest lie should they have the stomach to use the passe excuse that his accusation was just relayed to them."

The Office of the Ombudsman dismissed from the service yesterday a labor arbiter after he was caught in the act of receiving bribe money in an entrapment operation.

Ombudsman Ma. Merceditas Gutierrez ordered the dismissal of Amado Marquez Solamo, labor arbiter of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) in Cagayan de Oro City, for dishonesty and grave misconduct.

In her 42-page decision, Gutierrez said there is substantial evidence to establish that Solamo committed the acts he was charged with.

Records showed that Solamo’s case stemmed from a complaint filed with the NLRC by a certain Zenon Cloma, a driver of the Davao City Ice Plant, against his employer, the MB Guinez Enterprises (MBGE), which operates two ice plants in Davao Oriental and Davao City.

It was the MBGE which filed the complaint against Solamo before the Office of the Ombudsman, alleging that the arbiter promised to dismiss the labor case against them in exchange for R20,000.

Solamo allegedly even bragged that he ruled in favor of the company’s former workers in an earlier case because the firm’s management did not bother to contact him.

The company then sought the help of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) which planned and conducted the entrapment operation that led to the arbiter’s arrest.

Gutierrez ordered the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) to immediately implement the dismissal order. (Jun Ramirez)