Manila Standard - 2016 September 28 - Wednesday

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US WON’T INTERFERE AS PH TURNS TO CHINA, RUSSIA By John Paolo Bencito

VOL. XXX • NO. 228 • 4 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P18 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2016 • www.thestandard.com.ph • editorial@thestandard.com.ph

THE US State Department said Tuesday that Washington will not interfere with President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to pursue alliances or partnerships with China and Russia, but said it would regard the Philippines as a strategic ally until they hear otherwise. “With regard to them pursuing alliances or partnerships with China and Russia, they’re a sovereign nation and we’re certainly not going to hold them back from pursuing closer relations

with either of those countries. And it’s not a zero-sum game,” US State Department deputy spokesperson Mark Toner said in a press briefing at Washington. “We believe that we can remain a close friend and partner with the Philippines. It’s one of our most enduring bilateral relationships within the Asia-Pacific region and it’s been a cornerstone of stability for 70 years. And again, we’re going to keep up that cooperation until we hear otherwise,” Next page he added.

Clinton, Trump in testy exchanges HILLARY Clinton and Donald Trump leveled sharp and personal charges and countercharges over trade, the US economy, race and foreign policy in their first face-toface debate, an event that put on display their starkly different personalities and visions of the nation’s future. From the first question posed by moderator Lester Holt, the debate devolved into an exchange of accusations and blame as Trump and Clinton reached into each

others’ past statements and records. On most policy issues they fell back on their standard campaign stances, offering no new proposals for how they would deal with the country’s challenges. The debate Monday night at Hofstra University in New York ended as it began with testy exchanges―and a few odd moments―between the candidates when Holt asked Trump about a comment he made that Clinton doesn’t present the im-

age of a president. “She doesn’t have the look, she doesn’t have the stamina,’’ Trump said, repeatedly questioning her vigor and endurance. “Well, as soon as he travels to 112 countries and negotiates a peace deal, a ceasefire, a release of dissidents, an opening of new opportunities in nations around the world or even spends 11 hours testifying in front of a congressional committee, he can talk to me

about stamina,” responded Clinton, who served as US secretary of state. Heading into the debate, staged 43 days from the Nov. 8 election, Trump and Clinton were tied at 46 percent in a head-to-head contest among likely voters, according to the latest Bloomberg Politics national poll. Trump, the Republican nominee, got 43 percent to Democrat Clinton’s 41 percent when third-party candidates Next page are included.

CHAOTIC CLASH. Republican Donald Trump’s freewheeling approach spins wildly out of control in the first presidential debate, forced on the defensive during a chaotic clash with Democrat Hillary Clinton (left) who had goaded him and pressed hard by moderator Lester Holt, with the Republican nominee angrily defending his record against charges of racism, sexism and tax avoidance for much of the 90-minute clash at Hofstra University, outside New York. (Story on C4). AFP

‘Drug money missing’ De Lima-led raid of NBP yields P300m, witness says By Rey E. Requejo

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USTICE Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Tuesday revealed that they have a new witness who can substantiate that P300 million was actually seized during the 2014 raid at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City, but only P1.6 million was reported.

REFORMATORY CENTER. President Rodrigo Duterte, accompanied by Pampanga Gov. Lilia Pineda, on Tuesday, visits the discovered mega

‘shabu’ laboratory in Arayat town, saying he will provide P25 to P50 million to the provincial government of Pampanga to transform the lab into a reformatory center. Malacañang Photo

Du30 apologizes to Espino, 2 other local officials By John Paolo Bencito PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte admitted Tuesday he made a mistake linking former Pangasinan governor Amado Espino Jr. and two other provincial officials to the illegal drug trade in

the New Bilibid Prison. Duterte said he found gaps in the intelligence information linking the incumbent Pangasinan representative Espino, provincial administrator Rafael Baraan and provincial board member Raul Sison to the drug operations in-

side the national penitentiary. “In so far as the drugs, I think that somehow we were negligent in counter-checking the first report. To Espino, Sison and the brother of Baraan, not the undersecretary [because he was really involved there], I

would like to apologize to you publicly,” Duterte said during a visit to a shabu laboratory in Arayat, Pampanga. “I’ll take the responsibility... When I commit mistake, it comes from the heart. I am very sorry.” Next page

Fed triggers peso fall THE peso fell to a seven-year low of 48.25 against the US dollar on Monday as a result of the impending increase in interest rates in the United States, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said Tuesday. He said President Rodrigo Duterte’s statements had nothing to do with the local unit’s decline as claimed by

market analysts. “The depreciation of the peso is no cause for concern. We’ve seen the peso going to P55 in the past,” Diokno said. “The depreciation of the peso is a result of the strengthening of the dollar more than the weakening of the peso. It has nothing to do with the PresiNext page dent’s statements.”

Animators: Digong’s nuts By Sara D. Fabunan TAIWANESE animators have portrayed President Rodrigo Duterte as a clown, a moron and someone who wants to be like North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un. Their 1:50-minute video, entitled “Philippines President Duterte is nuts,” portrays Duterte as a jumping clown and a triggerhappy murderer of 3,000 Filipinos who nevertheless bows be-

fore China and Russia. “Duterte comes from humble beginnings as a mayor who ordered liquidation squads to kill criminals and opponents in gangland-style assaults that left about 1,000 dead,” says an English subtitle of the narration. Duterte’s supporters see him as a hero or a “bad-ass macho action star,” but the news animation shows him leading the killing of drug suspects on the streets. Next page twitter.com/ MlaStandard

AGUIRRE

DE LIMA

“Ostensibly on paper, they said they only confiscated firearms and other contraband items and P1.6 million but in reality, according to the witness, they were able to get more than P300 million in cash from that particular raid,” Aguirre said without identifying the witness. Earlier reports said the raid, spearheaded by then Justice secretary and now Senator Leila de Lima, resulted in the confiscation of luxury items inside the detention cells of high-profile inmates at the NBP maximum security compound, as well as firearms, cellphones, signal boosters and P1.6 million in cash. This paved the way for the temporary transfer of 19 highprofile inmates to the detention facility of the National Bureau of Investigation in Manila. But Aguirre said the proceeds

from illegal drug transactions at the national penitentiary easily ran into the hundreds of millions of pesos, adding that 75 percent of all drug transactions in the country came from the NBP. At a House hearing on the proliferation of illegal drugs in the NBP, Philippine National Police deputy chief for operations Director Benjamin Magalong said De Lima had prevented the PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group from taking part in that raid. Magalong said his men and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency were supposed to be part of the raid, but it was eventually carried out only by the Bureau of Corrections and the PNP-National Capital Region Police Office then headed by Chief Supt. Marcelo Garbo, Next page

‘Evidence as fake as wig’ By Macon Ramos-Araneta

HIGH-POWERED FIREARMS. PNP chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa presents Tuesday high-powered firearms and suspects led by Unding Kenneth Isa (in brown jacket) believed to have supplied weapons to the Abu Sayyaf Group and ‘war lords’ in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Manny Palmero

Sayyaf arms supplier falls POLICE Chief Ronald dela Rosa said Tuesday they had busted a gang supplying the Abu Sayyaf and warlords in Mindanao with weapons, and that their base of operations was just beside Camp Crame following the arrest of the gang’s leader and four members. He presented gang leader Und-

facebook.com/ ManilaStandardPH

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ing Kenneth Isa and members Hja Risdimona Isa, Aljamer Akarab, Mandih, Hurbin Alhi Sahibul. He said the confiscated armaments were worth more than P6 million. Dela Rosa made his statement even as a military official said

thestandard.com.ph

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SENATOR Leila de Lima on Tuesday shot back at Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre, saying the evidence that he had against her was like his toupee— fake and only cosmetic. Aguirre this week said he would file criminal and administrative charges against De Lima over allegations that she used drug money to bankroll her senatorial bid. “There is nothing into it other than that. Nothing’s authentic,” De Lima said in a statement. “What is real however are the killings. What is tragic is that these killings continue unabated. And the criminals,

including these so-called vigilantes, are getting bolder; while the victims are getting younger,” also said De Lima who initiated a Senate investigation into the spate of extrajudicial killings under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte. De Lima was later ousted as chairman of the Senate jsutice and humarn rights committee, after she presented a self-confessed hitman who said Duterte was behind the killing of more than 1,000 criminals and political opponents when he was still mayor of Davao City. De Lima noted that 20,584 minors have reportedly been exploited into drug use and peddling. Next page

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