062118 - Las Vegas Edition

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LAS VEGAS

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w w w. a s i a n Volume 29 - No. 23 • 2 Sections – 16 Pages

.com T H E F I L I P I N O –A M E R I C A N C O M M U N I T Y N E W S PA P E R

JUNE 21-27, 2018

Also published in LOS ANGELES, ORANGE COUNTY/INLAND EMPIRE, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, NEW YORK/NEW JERSEY

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Ombudsman indicts Aquino over DAP weeks before retirement The Office of the Ombudsman has indicted former President Benigno Aquino III in connection with the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program of his government. Philstar.com photo by Geremy Pintolo

USA

DATELINE PH embassy defends Independence Day party at Trump hotel FROM THE AJPRESS NEWS TEAM ACROSS AMERICA

THE decision to hold the 120th Philippine Independence Day celebration at the Trump International Hotel was defended by the Philippine embassy in Washington on Tuesday, June 19. In a statement, the embassy said, “Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez deemed it fitting to hold the Philippine Embassy’s 120th Philippine Independence Day celebration at the Trump International Hotel, an elegant and historic venue in Washington, D.C.” The event, according to the embassy, provided an opportunity to celebrate both this milestone year for the Philippines and its close friendship with the United States. “The Philippine Embassy will continue to deepen its ties with the U.S. As a foreign mission, the Philippine Embassy does not get involved in the domestic issues of the host country,” it said.

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Trump signs executive order to keep migrant families together President reverses highly criticized practice in his ‘zero-tolerance policy’ AFTER weeks of heart-rendering coverage of children being separated from their parents at the border, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday, June 20 to remove that practice from standard border protection procedure. Trump previously argued that he had no authority to stop the separations, but after receiving intense rebuke from Americans across the political spectrum --- as well as international religious and political figures --- he officially reversed the practice which his own administration implemented earlier this year as a part of a “zero-tolerance” immigration policy. Per the executive order, the Trump administration orders border patrol agents to “maintain family unity, including by de-

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MANILA — Accusing the former president of encroaching on the powers of Congress, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales on Wednesday, June 20, found probable cause to indict Benigno Aquino III for usurpation of legislative powers over the implementation of the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program. In a press release, the Office of the Ombudsman said that it found “probable cause” to indict Aquino for the issuance of National Budget Circular 541, which authorized the P72-billion DAP. The former president is yet to comment on this indictment. In a resolution dated May 22, 2018 and approved by Morales on June 14, a special panel of prosecutors

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DFA ANNIVERSARY. President Rodrigo Roa Duterte is accompanied by Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano upon his arrival at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Building in Pasay City for the 120th Anniversary celebration of DFA on Monday, June 18. Malacañang photo by Valerie Escalera

Palace: ‘Anti-tambay’ order won’t lead to martial law declaration by RITCHEL

MENDIOLA AJPress

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte’s “anti-tambay” order will not lead to a declaration of nationwide martial law, Malacañang assured on Tuesday, June 19. At a press briefing in Cotabato City, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said, “the president’s statement [was] very clear that ‘martial law in the entire Philippines [would] become very According to the PNP, individuals who were arrested violated local complicated.’” Roque also added that “He ordinances such as curfew, drinking in public places or streets, being half-naked in the streets, and smoking in public. Philstar.com photo has absolutely no intentions

right now unless there would be reasons to do so.” The assurance was made due to concerns about the president’s directive to round up loiterers and potential troublemakers in the streets being a prelude to martial law. Earlier, National Capital Region Police Office director Chief Superintendent Guillermo Eleazar reported that a total of 5,575 “tambays” were arrested from 5 a.m. of Wednesday, June 13 to 5 a.m. of Friday, June 18 — most of them by the Eastern Police District with 1,805.

These individuals, according to Eleazar, violated local ordinances such as curfew, drinking in public places or streets, being half-naked in the streets, and smoking in public. The directive against “tambays” was issued by Duterte on Wednesday evening last week. It was met with criticism, however, pointing out that it might be used to justify illegal detention and arrests. Akbayan party-list Representative Tom Villarin said that it was “martial law redux.” ■

Duterte insists peace talks should be in PH by RITCHEL

MENDIOLA AJPress

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte, on Tuesday, June 19, insisted that peace talks should be in the Philippines despite exiled Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison saying that talks would be doomed if they would be held in Manila. “Why should I talk outside? I’m talking about our country, my country, their country and they want to take over, overthrow government. And why do we have to talk [about] the f***ing thing outside?” Duterte said at the 81st anniversary of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) in Pasay City.

According to Sison, the peace negotiations would collapse if the president would dictate the venue of the resumption of the peace negotiations. Talks were usually held in Norway, the third-party facilitator in the peace negotiations between the government and the communist rebels. Criticizing the president’s choice of venue, Sison said that it would be easy for the government to conduct “surveillance and control” among communist rebels joining the talks. Former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno Duterte, for his part, assured Sison that he would guarantee the safety of the exiled leader while he is in the Philippines.

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DOJ lets Sister Fox keep missionary visa by PATRICIA LOURDES Philstar.com

VIRAY

by EDU

PUNAY Philstar.com

MANILA — She gets to stay in the Philippines after all… for now. Australian nun Patricia Fox, whose condemnation of human rights abuses had angered President Duterte and led to her daylong detention two months ago, may continue her missionary work in the country, based on an order issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ). In a resolution, the DOJ o n Monday, June 18, voided the order of the Bureau of ImmigraAustralian nun Patricia Fox comes out of her home in Quezon City after the tion (BI) in April revoking the 71Department of Justice reversed a directive of the Bureau of Immigration year-old nun’s missionary visa that downgraded her missionary visa to a tourist visa. Philstar.com photo by Michael Varcas

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Philstar.com photo

PH Supreme Court rules with finality: Sereno is out by JOMAR

CANLAS ManilaTimes.net

THE Supreme Court (SC) has ruled with finality to remove Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno from her post via quo warranto, according to its spokesman. In a short press briefing on Tuesday, June 19, Theodore Te read the high tribunal ruling that voted 8-6 in denying Sereno’s motion for reconsideration against the quo warranto petition that was the basis for her ouster. In an en banc session, the high court said that the arguments Sereno raised were “rehashed” and “discussed exhaustively” and therefore “saw no reason” why it should reverse its ruling on May 11. The eight justices who voted to oust Sereno were Noel Tijam, who

drafted the resolution; Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Francis Jardeleza, Samuel Martires, Andres Reyes and Alexander Gesmundo. “Wherefore, respondent’s Ad Cautelam Motion for Reconsideration is Denied with Finality for lack of merit. No further pleadings shall be entertained. Let entry of judgment be made immediately,” a source told the Times, quoting the draft resolution. The dissenters were Justices Antonio Carpio, Presbitero Velasco Jr. , Mariano Del Castillo, Marvic Leonen, Estela PerlasBernabe, and Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa. In its May 11 decision, the high tribunal said Sereno, an impeachable official under the 1987

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