Manila Standard - 2016 September 19 - Monday

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SOLONS DEMAND SAFEGUARDS VS ABUSE OF EXTRA POWERS

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VOL. XXX • NO. 219 • 4 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P18 • MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2016 • www.thestandard.com.ph • editorial@thestandard.com.ph

COMMEMORATION. A tourist walks past a mural on a flood-control dike in Guinobatan, Albay on Sunday in preparation for the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the destruction caused by Super Typhoon ‘Reming.’ Danny Pata

3 more hostages freed Indonesians, Norwegian savor freedom after ASG captivity By Francisco Tuyay and F. Pearl Gajunera

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FREE. MNLF

NORWEGIAN and three Indonesian seamen held hostage in Mindanao were turned over to a government envoy on Sunday after being freed by Abu Sayyaf bandits who had beheaded two captives earlier this year.

Chairman Nur Misuari speaks while freed Norwegian national Kjartan Sekkingstad listens during his turnover to government officials in Sulu on Sunday. AFP

Kjartan Sekkingstad and the Indonesians, who had been held by Abu Sayyaf militants, were handed over to envoy Jesus Dureza in the town of Indanan on Jolo island, said an Agence France-Presse reporter at the scene. The transfer took place at the heavily guarded camp of Muslim rebel leader Nur Misuari, whose group assisted in the release, according to the government. “I am happy to be alive and free,” Sekkingstad said as he was assured by President Rodrigo Duterte that the government will soon bring his captors to justice. Sekkingstad was abducted from a high-end tourist resort that he managed in September 2015, along with two Canadians who were later beheaded. It was still unclear if the three freed Indonesians were the same ones kidnapped by armed men off a fishing trawler in Malaysian waters in July. Next page

Hotelier’s kin hit smear drive, ‘love triangle’

UN told: Observe protocol

By Christine F. Herrera and Macon RamosAraneta

THE United Nations rapporteur team must follow protocol if they want to be invited to the Philippines and not course their invitation through the media, Malacañang said on Sunday. “The United Nations must go through the right process, the right protocol if they want to be invited and not through the media,” Communications Secretary Martin Andanar told dzRB radio. Earlier, Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay slammed the United Nations’ human rights rapporteurs for criticizing Manila’s war on illegal drugs, describing a report by them as “highly-irresponsible.” “The Duterte administration’s war on drugs, a very urgent and critical domestic matter, is being waged with firm adherence to our established human rights principles,” Yasay said. He said Duterte “has, time and again, declared his avowed purpose to pursue this war on drugs in accordance with the rule of law and full respect for human rights and has, in fact, urged Next page

THE family of slain hotelier Richard King has condemned the use of the businessman’s death in the Senate investigation of extrajudicial killings led by Senator Leila de Lima, House Deputy Minority Harry Roque said Sunday. Roque, who used to be counsel for King, said the family “is appalled by the gall of Senator Leila de Lima in dragging the death of

the Crown Regency owner in her attempt to smear the name of President Rodrigo Duterte.” “The family of Richard King has already undergone enough trauma with his death. They are now being subjected to undue emotion distress because of the vain desire of Senator De Lima to discredit the President,” Roque added. Roque also said the King family strongly denied the love triangle angle being peddled by De Lima’s witness, self-confessed Davao Death Squad member Edgar MaNext page tobato.

Solons demand safety nets on ‘extra powers’ FOUR lawmakers support emergency powers for President Rodrigo Duterte to fix the worsening traffic in Metro Manila and nearby provinces, but vowed to put in place safeguards to avoid abuses. Batangas Rep. Raneo Abu, one of the authors of a bill that would give emergency powers to the President, TUGADE

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THE Justice Department on Sunday expressed optimism that the recent meeting between President Rodrigo Duterte and Indonesian President Joko Widodo will further delay the execution of convicted drug courier Mary Jane Veloso after Widodo declared they will await the judgment on the case against her recruiters in the Philippines. Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said he believed Indonesia would not execute Veloso pending the resolution of the criminal case against her alleged recruiters Maria Cristina Sergio and her live-in partner Julius Lacanilao before a court in Nueva Ecija. “Their judicial process is waiting for the outcome of the case in the Nueva Ecija court,” Next page Aguirre said.

‘Oust Rody’ loose talk —Andanar

NARCO-LIST. President Rodrigo Duterte holds up a document in

By Rio N. Araja, Macon Ramos-Araneta and Christine F. Herrera

‘Indonesia defers move on Veloso’

Camp Melchor, Isabela, on Saturday that he said contained a list of the names of government officials and law enforcers involved in the illegal drug trade.

Lawmaker won’t inhibit from House probe of Leila THE head of the House committee on justice on Sunday said he will not inhibit himself from an investigation whose subject is Senator Leila de Lima’s alleged role in the illegal drugs trade inside and out-

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side the New Bilibid Prison when she was Justice secretary. Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, a former party mate of De Lima in the Liberal Party Next page

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte strongly believes that the “yellows,” led by former President Benigno Aquino III of the Liberal Party, are behind a plot to oust him from the presidency, but Communications Secretary Martin Andanar on Sunday said the plot was mere speculation. He also said the belief that self-confessed hitman Edgar Matobato is part of the move to discredit and impeach the President was also speculation. “There are many speculations. Perhaps the media can tell us your evidence that this [yellow] group is responsible for the chaos happening in the country now,” Andanar told dzRB radio. Senator Leila de Lima, head of the Senate’s justice committee, presented Matobato as a witness in last week’s hearings in which Matobato described the alleged summary executions in Davao City when Duterte was its mayor. Next page

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