Manila Standard - 2016 September 2 - Friday

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‘Kill-Duterte’ plot revealed By Francisco Tuyay

VOL. XXX • NO. 202 • 4 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P18 • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2016 • www.thestandard.com.ph • editorial@thestandard.com.ph

Espinosa may testify vs senator, 29 others By John Paolo Bencito and Macon RamosAraneta MALACAÑANG on Thursday is considering the possibility of placing Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. under the Witness Protection Program (WPP) after he implicated a senator, congressmen and some officers of the Philippine National Police as the top 30 protectors of his son Kerwin’s narcotics business. In a press briefing, Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella said President Rodrigo Duterte was considering placing Espinosa under the WPP program of the Justice Department. On Wednesday, Espinosa said he was ready to publicly identify the government officials involved but he decided to postpone doing so because of the threats to his life. Albuera police director Chief Insp. Jovie Espinido said he saw the affidavit the mayor executed

POLICE seized P4.5 million worth of smuggled gun parts and accessories for high-powered firearms from two suspected smugglers in Bacolod City, who said the weapons were to be used to assassinate President Rodrigo Duterte. Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa identified the two suspects

Sayyaf to Du30: Prepare for war What you can dish out, I can do it 10 times—Rody By John Paolo Bencito and Florante S. Solmerin

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HE Abu Sayyaf taunted President Rodrigo Duterte Wednesday night, warning thousands of government troops he sent to hunt them down in Sulu to prepare for a “test of strength.”

“Starting September 1, the socalled soldiers of Duterte should be prepared for a test which will come from ASG forces,” Radullah Sahiron, Abu Sayyaf commander in Sulu, told the ABSCBN network. “If soldiers will not be the ones who will attack, the Abu Sayyaf will be the ones to launch tests against these forces to win Sulu by their terms,” he added. Duterte, who had ordered the military to crush the Abu Sayyaf in three to six months, admitted that the kidnap-for-ransom bandits could seek retribution, but said he was confident of winning the war with the whole military behind him. “We should be aware because we are hitting them hard,”

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‘Overpaid consultants outnumber NAPC staff’ SOME 155 consultants and 82 people under contract were paid more than P3.4 million a month over a nine-month period by the former chairman of the National Anti-Poverty Commission, Joel Rocamora, documents obtained by the Manila Standard showed. The number of workers was larger than the total organic internal staff hired during Rocamora’s tenure at the commission. NAPC Chairman Liza Maza had already terminated the services of Rocamora’s consultants Next page

WEATHER THE low-pressure area east of Batanes quickly developed into tropical storm “Enteng” on Thursday and is expected to enhance the southwest monsoon and draw rains in Northern Luzon, the state weather bureau reported. Enteng will cause moderate to heavy rain in Pangasinan, La Union and Benguet but is expected to exit the Philippine area of responsibility by Friday morning.

as Allan Taala and Wilford Palma, who admitted that their client had told them the guns would be used to kill the President. “One customer that planned to order several lower-end gun parts said [these] will be used for the assassination of Duterte,” Palma said when presented by Dela Rosa during a briefing at Camp Crame Thursday. Next page

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Rody ‘knew’ about Leila’s alleged ‘sex video’ series CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN. With September ushering in the ‘ber’ months, Yuletide, the season for gifts

and shopping in Christian areas of the country, as this scene in Barangay Sta. Teresita in Quezon City, starts to go in full swing—with monstrous traffic jams, growing credit card debts and many to-do lists starting to sweep the metropolis. Manny Palmero

Marcos SolGen: Let’s move on By Rey E. Requejo FORMER solicitor general Estelito Mendoza on Thursday urged those opposing the burial of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan Ng Mga Bayani to move on, just as Filipinos did after the atrocities committed by Japan during World War II. Mendoza, who was the chief state lawyer during the Marcos

administration, lamented how the Marcos critics can’t reconcile with his burial, when they had moved on from the atrocities of the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second World War. If the people remember the Martial Law years, the people should also remember what happened during World War II, he said. “The people today, especially

the youth, should remember who fought for us against the Japanese,” Mendoza said. “No one can deny that President Marcos was among the Filipino soldiers who marched in Bataan and were imprisoned during the Japanese occupation,” he added. Mendoza noted that Libingan ng mga Bayani is principally built for the soldiers and former President Marcos was a soldier. Next page

DAVAO CITY―President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday denied he owns a copy of the sex video of Senator Leila De Lima, but said he already knew about it even before it reached the social networking sites. He has tagged De Lima as a protector and coddler of drug lords when she was Justice secretary under the previous administration. De Lima on Thursday warned public officials against allowing themselves to be used in fabricating evidence against her to substantiate the charges she is involved in illegal drugs. She appealed to Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre and NBI Director Dante Gierran not to allow themselves to be used against her. She reminded them that it’s a crime to

DSWD draws flak

POLICE PROBE. PNP chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa and

CIDG chief P/Supt Roel Obusan present Wilford Palma, one of two major-league gun smuggling suspects—the other is Bryan Ta-ala, in hospital but under police custody—after P4.5 million worth of guns and gun parts were seized from them, purportedly to be sold to an unidentified client who would use them ‘to assassinate’ President Rodrigo Duterte, a claim the PNP is investigating. Manny Palmero

Gov in sex video suspended THE Ombudsman has suspended Camarines Norte Gov. Edgardo Tallado for six months for immorality over his nude photographs and a sex video showing him with his alleged mistress that went viral online in 2014. “Wherefore, judgment is rendered finding respondent Ed-

Duterte said in a speech in Davao City, referring to the Abu Sayyaf. “I expect retribution from them. But what you can dish out, I can do it 10 times better. I have the army, and I have airplanes.” Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said they would not take the Abu Sayyaf threats lightly, after the government lost 15 soldiers in a battle in Patikul, Sulu on Monday. “If threats like that are made, whether true or not, we take them seriously, especially coming from the ASG. They are a formidable opponent and judging from our casualties last Monday—they must not be taken lightly,” Lorenzana told the Manila Standard.

gardo Tallado administratively liable for disgraceful and immoral conduct for which he is meted the penalty of six months suspension and one day without pay,” the Ombudsman’s order said. Mary Rawnsley Lopez, the Ombudsman’s public information Next page

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P 13 /meal to feed a malnourished child

LAWMAKERS on Thursday ordered Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo to explain her department’s Memorandum 9 that was released in the wake of the Supreme Court decision declaring the Priority Development Assistance Fund or pork barrel fund unconstitutional. During the hearing on her department’s proposed budget for 2017, House Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas asked File photo shows a child taking his free meal at a feeding program in Baseco Compound. Taguiwalo about her recent pronouncement that the lawmakers themselves could directly provide financial assistance to their constituents instead of her TELEVISION host and comedian said Duterte does not like Hardepartment. Steve Harvey would not be em- vey, who mistakenly named first “If we will have to use our ceeing the Miss Universe beauty runner-up Miss Colombia Ariadown money, then we will be propageant this year that the Philip- na Gutierrez as the winner of the moting patronage politics, prepines will be hosting on Jan. 30 2015 beauty pageant instead of cisely why we have public funds next year if President Rodrigo Miss Philippines Pia Wurtzbach. to be given to the people,” FariDuterte had his way, an official “I don’t like him,” Teo quoted ñas told Taguiwalo at the House said Thursday. Duterte as saying. Next page Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo “Let me talk to the organizers.”

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manufacture evidence or false testimony. “I know they are good officials. Do not allow yourselves to be a party to any perjury or to subornation of perjury,” De Lima said. “Now if they will be doing those things, then I will make them answerable in some future time.” De Lima also asked if she was a “terrorist” or a “drug coddler” to deserve to be a victim of “wiretapping,” telling a Senate hearing that her cellphones were being tapped. “Is that the purpose why my cellphones are tapped now? I don’t expect anyone to answer that question, I’m just thinking aloud,” De Lima said. “Let us stop fooling each other because I am fond of watchNext page ing detective stories.”

P 16.70 /meal to feed an inmate

P 844 million cut in DSWD’s feeding program budget Source: Senator Ralph Recto

Fumbling Miss U host will miss Manila

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Teo said the Philippines would gain much from hosting next year’s Miss Universe beauty contest. “I’m sure that after the Miss Universe [beauty pageant], the Philippines will be in the world map,” Teo told reporters in Next page Malacañang.

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