Bohol Mirror

PARIS (AFP) – Armed robbers pulled off one of the world’s biggest jewellery heists at a famed Paris store, making off with 85 million euros (107 million dollars) in diamonds and valuables, officials said Friday.

A gang of four thieves — two of them disguised as women — on Thursday stole nearly all the jewels on display at the Harry Winston boutique just off the Champs-Elysees avenue, which attracts a wealthy international clientele.

The heist was well-planned, a source from the investigating team told AFP. The men knew the names of some of the shop’s employees and the location of some hidden storage cases for jewellery.

The robbers managed to elude the high-security surveillance system and burst into the boutique at 5:30 pm (1630 GMT), at the height of the holiday shopping season.

Brandishing weapons, they threatened some of the dozen employees and customers and herded them into a corner, while some of the staff suffered blows, according to investigators.

The US jeweller has reported losses to its insurer of 85 million euros, the Paris prosecutor’s office said, making it by far the biggest jewellery heist yet in France. Earlier estimates put the jewels’ value at 80 million euros.

Police said they were dealing with “major pros” who had meticulously planned their crime and knew the boutique’s lay-out well, suggesting it may have been an inside job.

The thieves, who apparently were French-speaking, stuffed brooches, rings, necklaces and other finery in bags and quickly left, without firing a shot. The whole operation lasted just 15 minutes.

No leads were ruled out including the possibility that the robbers may have connections in eastern Europe, where the loot could be sold, contrary to western Europe where such high-value stolen goods would be quickly detected.

Police described the eastern European market as a “new El Dorado for traffickers” trying to get rid of high-end stolen goods.

Investigators were Friday questioning customers, employees and pedestrians and studying surveillance camera tapes for clues, while Harry Winston’s head branch in New York said it was working closely with the French authorities.

“We are cooperating with the authorities in their investigation. Our first concern is the well-being of our employees,” the company said in a statement.

The Harry Winston store on Avenue Montaigne, which specialises in ultra-luxury jewellery, was hit by another heist in October last year when armed robbers stole an estimated 10 million euros worth of valuables.

An insurance company offered a 500,000-dollar reward for information leading to the thieves’ arrest but they were never found.

The Harry Winston jewellery chain has sold precious stones to royal families and lent them to film stars for events such as the Cannes film festival or the Oscars in Hollywood.

Belgium holds the record for the world’s biggest jewellery heist when diamonds worth 100 million euros or more were stolen on February 14, 2003 in Antwerp.

A 1.8-million euro necklace was stolen in June 2001 from the Alexandre Reza shop in Cannes on the French Riviera, followed a month later by a 3.8-million-euro heist at a Van Cleef and Arpels shop in the same city.

Among other notable robberies, three Paris shops were targeted in October 2001 by a conman posing as a rich Kuwaiti emir who managed to make off with 2.2 million euros in jewels.

A Boholano overseas Filipino worker (OFW) jailed for over seven months in Saudi Arabia for alleged grave infraction against the Islam faith was finally released and is home.

Roel Soliva Sebandal arrived at the Tagbilaran City airport yesterday morning but his wife Mylene and two-year-old son John Paolo are left in Riyadh.

Accompanied by his mother Lilia and a cousin, Sebandal rushed to the house of Rep. Edgar Chatto here to thank for the congressman’s assistance. They were accommodated by the solon’s wife, Pureza, because her husband had left earlier to meet some Bohol guests from Manila.

The migrant worker, a resident of Gallares Street here, vowed never to return to work in Riyadh or anywhere in Saudi Arabia.

He told some press people who chanced upon him at the solon’s residence that he had contracted phobia even in seeing a shadow of an Arab policeman. But there are “humane” Arab cops, too, the OFW quickly added.

Sebandal said he was falsely accused of stepping on a Koran, Islam’s bible, placed on the floor below the driver’s seat of his car.

The OFW, who is 35 years old, was teary-eyed in recounting how the Saudi policemen slapped him and banged his head on a hard table just for him to admit an offense against which he professed absolute innocence.

Like a brute, Sebandal was tortured in a bartolina for weeks until he was transferred to the main prison in Riyadh pending investigation, which lasted for months.

Meanwhile, his wife, who followed him to Riyadh together with their only child, managed to find a job as a physical therapist in a wellness club.

She worked to sustain her and son’s daily needs while her helpless husband languished in jail.

Sebandal was already about eight years abroad, working as an air-conditioning technician in Saudi Arabia.

The fateful day came on the 10th of April this year when he had his car washed in a shop, which workers were Bangladeshis, because he planned to sell it and buy a new one.

When the washing was over, Sebandal asked one shop helper for something to place on the wet front floor of his car. He was given a piece of paper.

He boarded his car, his feet stepping on the paper on the wet car floor when he was suddenly apprehended.

Sebandal was brought to a police station and was later told that the paper he had stepped on contained Islam teachings written in Arabic.

He was even accused of seriously committing an infraction against the Islam religion for tramping on the Koran book itself.

Fear of a most serious harm after being beaten had forced the Boholano migrant worker to sign a document in “admission” of the crime against the Arab faith.

While in the main jail—with an estimated 300 other helpless OFW prisoners—Sebandal managed to contact his mother here thru his wife who could only occasionally visit his jail.

Thus, the OFW”s mother sought assistance from Chatto’s office for all possible assistance leading to her son’s release from prison and return home.
Sebandal’s case was also raised to Vice Pres. Noli de Castro during the latter’s visit here on the Bohol Day, last July 22.

The OFW was assisted only by a private counsel, who is an Arab lawyer provided to him by his kind Saudi employer, in the early stage of the investigation. He had not yet contacted his mother by that time. His father has long died.

Meanwhile, Chatto linked with top officials of such agencies as the Philippine Embassy in Saudi, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and Department of Foreign Affairs (DOF).

Finally, Sebandal was suddenly notified he was to be released on November 17 this year.

He had not been convicted and sentenced for the alleged crime, but the OFW had already spent seven months and seven days behind bars.

The OFW had to have his old pants recycled and retailored into a bag so that he could place inside it his personal belongings in going directly to the Saudi airport en route to Manila from the Arab jail.

Sebandal flew from Saudi, where many Filipinos have found great financial comfort, to Manila without even shoes.

From the airport, he saw Chatto at Congress in Quezon City. The solon facilitated his free travel until reaching home.

Sebandal, who finished his vocational course at the Central Visayas State College of Agriculture, Forestry and Technology (CVSCAFT here in 1992, has hoped he can find a good job right in this country.

He promised to get his wife and son from the Arab land and reunite with them here “for better or worse.” (Ven rebo arigo)

Boholano overseas Filipino worker (OFW), jailed for stepping on Koran

In his presentation at the launching of the Transparency International’s Global Corruption Report (GCR) 2008: Corruption in the Water Sector, IBON Foundation Research Head Jose Enrique Africa cited two irrigation projects rigged with irregularities - the Casecnan Multipurpose Irrigation and Power Project (CMIPP) in Nueva Ecija and the Talibon Small Reservoir Irrigation Project in Bohol.

Said projects discussed in the Philippine case studies were presented by Africa to the GCR 2008.

Missing dam
The P199.4-million Talibon Small Reservoir Project (TSRP) in Talibon, Bohol was supposed to irrigate 1,000 hectares of land.

Africa said the project was conceived in 1987 and the provincial irrigation office at that time reportedly found it to be not viable. In any case, surveying and pre-engineering work started and bids were solicited in 1995. A private contractor, which submitted the lowest bid lost, allegedly upon the lobbying of a lawmaker. By 1998, the Bohol Provincial Irrigation Office requested authority to undertake the project.

Construction was supposed to finish in 1999 but until now, it remains incomplete. An investigation in 1995 by a local anti-corruption alliance found that although P119.1 million ($4,639,837 at the 1995 average exchange rate of $1=P25.669) had already been spent, there was still no sign of any reservoir, dam or irrigation. In 2006, the Senate initiated an investigation into the TSRP. But like the CMIPP, there was no conclusion. A case against local NIA officials was filed before the local office of the Ombudsman in 2004 but remains stalled to date.

Unresolved
Africa revealed that the controversies surrounding the two projects remain unresolved.

In 2002, the Senate had more than a dozen hearings regarding the CMIPP.

“Unfortunately, after all the hearings, the final report was never completed…Close connections to the president at that time were allegedly abused to keep the project. At the end of the day, there was no conclusion,” said Africa.

The CMIPP and the Senate inquiries regarding it were conducted during the term of President Fidel Ramos. Despite the anomalies, Africa said the project was pushed through on the strength of, among others, memorandums from Ramos in May 1993, which sought investors for the projects and in November 1994 to fast-track the approval process.

Renaud Meyer, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) country director, who attended the launching of the GCR 2008 expressed disbelief that Senate inquiries went to naught.

Africa said farmers are at the losing end.

He said that small farmers in Talibon, Bohol lost in three ways: the labor they contributed to the construction valued at P1.2 million ($46,748); the land they ‘voluntarily donated’ and the crops foregone to make way for the project’s canals and roads and for which they were never compensated; lastly, they still have no irrigation to speak of.

Africa said agriculture is important to the Philippine economy. The state of local agriculture, however, remains backward. The lack of irrigation aggravates the situation. Only 30 percent of the total agricultural land is irrigated.

He reaffirmed the fundamental characteristics of corruption presented by Priya Shah of the Water Integrity Network (WIN) - public officials have wide discretion and little accountability, weak enforcement mechanisms, and the benefits being greater than the risks of getting caught.

Quite clearly, our struggle against corruption is also a struggle for good government and a struggle for more meaningful political change.” (BY RONALYN OLEA-Bulatlat)

Global Corruption Report, Talibon dam

To compensate for the losses caused by corruption, Transparency International reports that an additional $45 billion would have to be invested over the next decade in order to reach the Millennium Development Goals, particularly increasing the access to safe water.

The Transparency International’s “Global Corruption Report (GCR) 2008: Corruption in the Water Sector” reveals corruption costs billions of dollars and hits poor the hardest.

Organized by IBON Foundation and Water Integrity Network (WIN), the East Asia forum launch of the TI report was held October 24 in Makati City. The GCR was previously launched in New York City, USA and in the Netherlands.

Priya Shah, assistant programme coordinator of the WIN, shared the highlights of the GCR 2008.

WIN is a network of individuals and organizations that are able and willing to support the cause of increasing Water Integrity. It has over 650 members in more than 50 countries.

Shah said corruption manifests in all of the areas of the water sector - water resources management, water and sanitation, water for food, and water for energy.

The GCR contains over 30 country reports.

According to the report, corruption jacks up the cost of water services between 10 to 30 percent globally each year.
Shah said that illegal payoffs increase the cost and lower the quality of public works projects by between 30 to 50 percent. Government monopolies inflate the prices for goods by as much as 15 to 20 percent as a result of illicit gains. Governments can pay prices inflated anywhere from 20 to 100 percent for expensive goods and services due to over-billing of procurement contracts.

Renaud Meyer, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) country director, said that more than US$1 trillion (US $1,000 billion) are paid in bribes every year, just over three percent of world income in 2002.

More than 70 percent of small and medium enterprises in transition economies perceive corruption as an impediment to their business, he added.

In Africa, $148 billion leaves the continent every year because of corruption.

Shah cited unchecked water pollution and overuse in China and Spain; embezzlement and bid-rigging in large infrastructure development projects in India, Lesotho; embezzlement of water budgets in Paraguay, distorted distribution of water points in Malawi, inflated costs of infrastructure in India; local water mafias control supply in Ecuador and Bangladesh; water jobs awarded through patronage or bribery in Mauritania; bribery and extortion in bill collection, repair works in Kenya and Zimbabwe.

She said that corruption in irrigation contracts makes up to 25 percent of the contract volume in India and there are distorted subsidies where largest farmers collect disproportionate share of earnings in Mexico and US.

Hydropower, said Shah, attracts US $50 to 60 billion annual investments. The report reveals distorted environmental impact assessments in India; embezzlement, bribery, bid-rigging in construction in Argentina and Paraguay; fraud and manipulation in resettlement and compensation programmes in China, Indonesia and Zambia.

To compensate for the losses caused by corruption, TI reports that an additional $45 billion would have to be invested over the next decade in order to reach the Millenium Development Goals, particularly increasing the access to safe water.

Shah identified the fundamental characteristics of corruption in the water sector. These are: public officials have wide discretion and little accountability; lack of checks and balances; weak enforcement mechanisms; the benefits of corruption are greater than the consequences of being caught and disciplined; and, demand for accountability for services is usually missing.

Meyer, of the UNDP, cited the human cost of the water crisis. He said that some 1.8 million children die each year as a result of diarrhea—which is 4,900 deaths a day. This is equivalent to the under-five population in London and New York combined. Deaths for diarrhea in 2004 were about six times greater than the average annual deaths in armed conflict for the 1990s.

He added that 443 million school days each year are lost to water-related illnesses.

Millions of women spend up to four hours a day collecting water. Almost 50 percent of all people in developing countries are suffering at any given time from a health problem caused by water and sanitation deficits, he said.

Meyer said anti-corruption strategies can help guarantee the right to water, ensure access to affordable and safe water services by the poor, help reduce the risks on the environment and provide energy security and help reduce the impacts of climate change and impending food crises.

Shah said there is a need to forge actor alliances as the stakes are high and to empower local communities.
(Bulatlat.com)

Billions of Dollars Costs, Corruption in Water, Global Corruption Report (GCR) 2008: Corruption in the, Hits Poor the Hardest, Millennium Development Goals