5 infrastructure projects up for review – NEDA »Story on B1 HH
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TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2019
Eat less meat, says UN climate report First word
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OBSERVER YEN MAKABENTA
ITH the September UN climate summit in New York just a month away, the climate alarmists and proponents of climate apocalypse are stepping up their propaganda on climate change. äObserverA4
Gina Lopez, environmental activist without equal
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Trusted since 1898
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S A N C H E Z ’S B OTC H E D R E L E A S E
Justice dept eyes fraud S
BY JOMAR CANLAS
OME officials of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) may have committed fraud for including the name of former Calauan mayor Antonio Sanchez in the list of inmates who would be freed under Republic Act (RA) 10592, or the “Good Conduct Time Allowance” (GCTA) Law, according to the Department of Justice (DoJ).
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra has created a task force to review the implementation of the GCTA policy by the BuCor. “That possibility [of fraud] may actually come out dito sa review na gagawin namin ng (in our review of) BuCor guidelines and procedures,” Guevarra told The Manila Times. He said Corrections officials should have
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SCARRED
An aerial view of burnt areas of the Amazon rainforest, near Boca do Acre, Amazonas state, Brazil, in the Amazon basin. AFP PHOTO
ICARIN MY LINE D O OF SIGHT “Rick” Ramos — prolific writer, walking encyclopedia, civic-minded citizen and my friend—writes to say that Executive Secretary Salvador “Bingbong” Medialdea is an incompetent official.
RAMON T. TULFO
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China: Is ‘Asia for Asians’ security strategy working?
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I V E years ago, in May 2014, President Xi Jinping took the United States aback when, at a regional conference held in Shanghai, he proposed the idea of “Asia for Asians” where security matters were concerned. äChingA6
FRANK CHING
G7 pledges $22M for Amazon
What’s inside PNP OPEN TO DIALOGUE WITH NewsA2 STUDENT LEADERS 3 DEAD IN LAS PIÑAS STABBING INCIDENT
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PEREZ, BOLICK MAKE IT TO 12-MAN GILAS PILIPINAS
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REVERSALS, CONTRADICTIONS AND FLAWS
Catch mosquitoes, get rice MARIVELES, Bataan: An upland village here on Monday launched its unique program of catching mosquitoes with the use of cooking oil in exchange for rice to eradicate dengue. Village Chairman Marcialito “Al” Balan named the program “Dalawang-
Antonio ContrerasA4
RITA ATAYDE’S UNKNOWN BIG HEART
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daang lamok kapalit isang kilong bigas (200 mosquitoes in exchange for a kilo of rice).” He said the program is part of the campaign against dengue. “Unang-una pa rin ang paglilinis,
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HK police fire first gunshot, water cannon in clashes REACH US AT: E-mail: newsdesk@ manilatimes.net Tel. Nos.: 524-5664 to 67 Address: 2/F Sitio Grande, 409 A. Soriano Avenue, Intramuros, Manila 1002
HONG KONG: Police on Monday said they were forced to fire water cannon and a warning shot to fend off “extremely violent” demonstrators, as months of pro-democracy protests veer deeper into violence. Sunday’s clashes in the suburb of Tsuen Wan were some of the worst in 12 weeks of political unrest that rocked the city. As night fell, a group of officers were cornered by protesters armed with bricks and other weapons, Hong Kong police said in a statement.
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BIARRITZ, France: The G7 countries have agreed to release 20 million euros ($22 million) for the Amazon, most of which will be used to send firefighting aircraft, a source in the French presidency said. The club — comprising Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — has also agreed to support a medium-term reforestation plan, which will be unveiled at the United Nations in September, a presidential aide said. On the final day of the G7 summit, the agenda included discussions of the fires destroying chunks of the Amazon, a scenario that European leaders have described as an assault on the so-called green lungs of the world. Trump has been less vocal on the issue. He also stands out from the rest of the G7 leaders in his budding friendship with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a former army officer who has given freer rein to industrial farmers and loggers,
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OUT OF 75 FLAGSHIP PROJECTS
5 infrastructure projects subject to review – NEDA F IVE out of 75 infrastructure flagship projects of the Duterte administration will be reviewed due to concerns raised about them, with two of these facing possible removal, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA). In a status report sent to reporters late last week, NEDA said one of these
projects was the Metro Manila Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Phase 3 (Bonifacio
Global City/Ninoy Aquino International Airport), whose removal from the list of 75 projects was dependent upon the confirmation of the Department of Transportation (DoTr) and the Bases and Conversion Development Authority (BCDA). Another project that also faces possible delisting, depending on the DoTr’s
confirmation, is the Metro Manila BRT Line 2 (Edsa/Central), about which the NEDA received from the DoTr a letter dated Feb. 27, 2018 that cited the Asian Development Bank in saying “the project may not be appropriate and economically viable, citing highly technical difficulties and considerations.”
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Govt earns P160M from Mile Long – DoF THE 2.2-hectare Mile Long property in Makati City has generated P160 million in revenues for the government since 2017, the Department of Finance (DoF) reported. “Net income from Mile Long is almost P160 million for 2 years of operation at a 70 percent occupancy,” Gerard Chan, chief privatization officer of the DoF’s Privatization Management Office, said late last week. The government took over the property’s management from Sunvar Realty Development Corp. in August 2017. Mile Long is made up of several parcels of land between Pasong Tamo (Chino Roces) Ave. and Vito Cruz (Pablo Ocampo) St. Extension in Makati, with a total area of 125,607 square meters. Chan also said that the govern-
ment’s planned redevelopment of the prime property was still on the table. In fact, he added, the government had hired architect and urban planner Felino Palafox Jr. to prepare the masterplan for the redevelopment of Mile Long. “Palafox’s proposal is to develop it into [a] mixed-use, mixed residential and commercial property,” Chan said. He added that the redevelopment of the property will be divided into four phases. Chan said the government was also planning to build a transport hub in Mile Long, which will complement the Skyway and the planned Makati subway. Chan also highlighted that the redevelopment project will be implemented through a joint venture or public-private partnership
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AMLC extends whip in admin cases INDIVIDUAL officers, directors, and employees of persons or entities supervised by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) are now covered by its expanded rules on administrative cases. In a statement over the weekend, the AMLC announced it has issued the rules of procedure in administrative cases under Republic Act 9160, or the “Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001,” as amended, and its implementing rules and regulations, and guidelines and other issuances of the ALMC and the imposition of administrative sanctions (RPAC). AMLC said the adoption of the RPAC supersedes the rules on imposition of administrative sanctions (RIAS). “The RPAC is intended to apply to administrative cases for non-compliance with, or violations of the AMLA, as amended, and its implementing rules and regulations, and guidelines and issuances of the AMLC,” it explained. The RPAC covers not only administra-
tive cases against covered persons, but also those against individual officers, directors, and employees of the covered person. Covered persons were those supervised and/or regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Insurance Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission. It also include designated non-financial businesses and professions such as jewelry dealers; dealers in precious metals, and dealers in precious stones; company service providers; persons, including lawyers, accountants and other professionals; and casinos, including whose operations are internet-based and ship-based. “Unlike the RIAS, the RPAC identifies the type of covered person subject of administrative cases,” AMLC added. Meanwhile, the expanded AMLC rules imposes lower monetary sanctions against covered persons.
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NO WORRIES
A investor looks at screens showing stock market movements at a securities company in Beijing on Monday. Asian equity markets tanked and the yuan hit its lowest level in more than 11 years after US President Donald Trump ramped up his trade war with China by hiking tariffs on more than half-atrillion dollars worth of imports. AFP PHOTO
Legality viewed as relative in BF case Second of three parts
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HE charges that resulted in the arrest of one-time Banco Filipino (BF) director and former Foreign Affairs secretary Perfecto Yasay last week were originally filed in April 2011, based on alleged violations of the New Central Bank Act dating back to as early as 2003. The warrant for Yasay’s arrest was issued on March 8 of this year, meaning it took the authorities more than five months to finally execute it, against someone who should not be particularly hard to find. All of that of course simply encourages suspicions that sorting out the BF mess and applying the remedies prescribed by law is not really the point. BF depositors who never recovered all of their deposits certainly feel that way, and so to do BF’s former employees, many of them lost their life savings as well as their jobs when the bank was ordered closed in March 2011.
ROUGH TRADE BEN KRITZ The following article, originally titled, “MBC ‘Outraged’ at Court of Appeals for Doing Its Job,” was the second I wrote for my blog shortly after BF’s closure more than eight years ago. In the interest of saving space it has been shortened a bit here, but still illustrates the maddening ethical flexibility applied to the troubled bank’s case: “The Makati Business Club issued a statement on Wednesday expressing their ‘outrage’ over the recent decision of the Court of Appeals overruling the BSP’s closure of Banco Filipino. And why is the MBC outraged? “‘The decision appears to reward defiance of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, encourage undisciplined
business practice, and, worst, permit abuse of depositors’ trust and misuse of the people’s money,’ the MBC said. “And of course, since we all know the MBC is the go-to source for lessons in Constitutional law, they helpfully added, “‘…the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas was meant by the Constitution to be independent and the sole authority in such matters, free from court interference, except only in the case of grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction.’ “There are two parts to this story. One part is relevant, and one is not. The first is the legal case pitting BF against the BSP, in which the Court of Appeals found that the BSP did not accord the bank due process in ordering its closure — in other words, did not follow its own rules — and that BF was not in fact insolvent as the BSP had claimed. In its 50-page decision, the CA specifically said that the
BSP had committed a grave abuse of discretion, and therefore it was the responsibility of the court to check the central bank’s action in this particular case. In effect, the MBC is bitching about the Court of Appeals doing exactly what the MBC understands the court is supposed to do. “That’s the relevant part of the story. The BSP, of course, will appeal the ruling and it will be up to the Supreme Court to review and decide whether or not the Court of Appeals ruled properly or overstepped its Constitutional bounds. The second, irrelevant part of the story is the allegations and innuendo surrounding the bank and the Aguirre clan who controls it. The main argument made by the MBC echoes that aired by the [Aquino administration] last week: BF was engaged in dodgy business practices and was as a result a financially-unhealthy bank; therefore, even if it means
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