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SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 2017
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Russians give Duterte an impressive showing P RESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Friday expressed hope the Russians would visit more often after an anti-submarine warship, the Admiral Tributs, made port calls to here.
“Thank you very much. I hope you can come back more often,” Duterte told the ship’s Commander Artem Kolpaschikov and Russian Ambassador Igor Khovaev and other delegates who hosted his tour of the ship. Duterte was first shown Admiral Tributs’ 2 x 4-container launchers of Rastrub Rocket
Torpedo System, followed by a visit to the bow of the ship where he witnessed a demonstration of the ship’s missile weapons system and was shown various military hardware. Duterte also witnessed a demonstration by Russian diver soldiers and went up to the ship’s bridge where the Russian Navy demonstrated
its navigation system. On his way out, Duterte had fist bumps with Russian navy officials as he viewed the Russian Navy’s Ka-27 helicopter at the ship’s helideck. “It’s a sign of a fighting spirit,” Duterte said. The visit was only the third by Russian military vessels to the Philippines, according to the Navy’s Commodore Francisco Cabudao who led the welcoming ceremony for the Russian ships. The Russian Navy’s visit comes less than a month after Duterte sent his foreign and defense ministers to Moscow to discuss arms deals after a US
senator said he would block the sale of 26,000 assault rifles to the Philippines due to concerns about the rising death toll in Duterte’s war on drugs. Malacañang had earlier welcomed the pronouncements by Russian officials that Moscow was ready to help the Philippines enhance its military capabilities and cooperate in the advancement of the two countries’ common interests. “The goodwill visit by the Russian Navy will contribute to the strengthening of their friendship with the Philippine Navy,” presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said. John Paolo Bencito
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In a statement, Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said the Comelec en banc directed the IT Department to conduct its own investigation and coordinate closely with both the NBI and DoST. “The same unstinting cooperation was extended to the National Privacy Commission,” he said. “The Comelec’s actions in this regard have, in fact, been characterized by openness and the desire to allow the appropriate agencies, with the requisite technical skills to conduct objective investigations, to probe the incident,” the Comelec official said. The Comelec also pointed out that the NPC itself explicitly declared that the hacking of the Comelec website did not have any adverse effects on the elections of 2016. “This is, in no small part, due to the Comelec’s determination precisely to “ensure that any attempt to subvert the people’s will, no matter how sophisticated, will not succeed,” Jimenez said. He said that the hacking of computer systems is a modern global plague and it afflicts all—from the largest IT organizations in the most developed countries—both in government and in the private sector, to the individuals who only use the Internet in the most casual way. “Enhancing the voter experience was one of Comelec’s two cornerstones during the last May 2016 elections. Towards this end, in the face of this continuing threat which grows in sophistication with every passing day, the Comelec remains steadfast in its commitment to do the best it can to protect the private information of voters,” he added. The Palace, however, said the Comelec should explain what enabled hackers to gain access to the private information of millions of registered voters. “It is an issue that simply cannot be swept under the rug,” Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said in a statement. “We exhort Comelec [to] release a report of an investigation it conducted on the data leak, if any, to maintain the credibility of the constitutional body and uphold the integrity of the electoral process,” he said. “Let us put an end to election-related maneuverings and ensure that any attempt to subvert the people’s will, no matter how sophisticated, will not succeed,” he added. On Thursday, the NPC found the Comelec liable for violating the Data Privacy Act of 2012 and recommended the criminal prosecution of Bautista for “the worst recorded breach on a government-held personal database in the world” last March. In a decision, dated Dec. 28, the NPC underscored Bautista’s “lack of appreciation” of the principle that data protection is more than just implementation of security measures. “The willful and intentional disregard of his duties as head of agency, which he should know or ought to know, is tantamount to gross negligence,” the decision read.
PORT CALL. President Rodrigo Roa Duterte exits the 'Admiral Tributs,' one of the Russian Warships that have docked at Pier 15 of Port Area in Manila after his visit on Jan. 6, 2017. King Rodriguez
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“These allegations are not true,” said Asuncion. “I just would like you to know, sir that I will leave BuCor with a clear conscience and it is my wish for you to have the same pride and posture when your time as secretary of Justice ends,” Asuncion said in a resignation letter to Aguirre. Despite his decision, the BuCor official welcomed any investigation that will be conducted against him. When sought for comment, Aguirre denied that he ordered an investigation against Asuncion. “As of this moment, there is no pending investigation against Deputy Director Asuncion. We have just received a copy of his resignation but it is the Office of the President who will act on it,” Aguirre said, in a text message to reporters. Asuncion assumed office as
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he worked at the central bank from 1976 to 1995, and lawyer Fernando Perito accused Aquino, Senator Leila de Lima, Senator Franklin Drilon, Bangko Central Governor Amado Tetangco Jr., former Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II, and former Finance secretary Cesar Purisima of transferring gold bars worth billions of dollars to Thailand’s Centennial Energy Company Ltd. in 2014. They anchored their complaint on BSP Circular 49 Series of 2014 that allegedly authorized Centennial Energy Company Ltd. to produce and issue the “Limited States Dollars Currency” of $100 amounting to a total
BuCor officer-in-charge last July 19. He continued with the series of raids in the NBP, which resulted in the seizure of cash, drugs and firearms. Also on Friday, Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno told the Philippine National Police to hew closely to the rule of law, after allegations that police were using the drug war as an excuse to pursue personal veendettas. “I also prod PNP to ensure that [Oplan] Tokhang is not used or abused by policemen for their personal interests or some sort of vendetta against their enemies. Let us make sure that Tokhang is implemented for the sole purpose that it was conceived, and that is to round up drug personalities and other criminals,” Sueno said. Critics of the Duterte administration’s ‘knock and plead’ strategy stressed that although a suspect may quite possibly be guilty, they should not be condemned outright and get killed by the police on the excuse that they were evading law enforce-
ment. Communist rebels in December also accused government forces of going after activists under the guise of the President’s door-to-door campaign to flush out drug addicts. An international human rights watchdog on Friday scored the Duterte administration for making the act of extrajudicial killings “normal” in the face of its declared war on illegal drugs. “In the Philippines--which already ranks as the most dangerous country in Asia for [human rights defenders]-President Rodrigo Duterte normalized the act of extrajudicial killing in his war on drugs, lowering the political cost of murder and thus raising the risk to defenders whose work threatens powerful interests,” the international group Front Line Defenders said in its Annual Report on Human Rights Defenders at Risk in 2016. The group’s executive director, Andrew Anderson, demanded “an urgent and systematic
of $3 trillion. The money would be used to finance “humanitarian projects and for Asean countries.” The complainants attached a certification and the alleged BSP circular showing 3,500 metric tons of gold bars registered in the name of “Ferdinand E. Marcos” were taken out of the country and deposited in a foreign bank. De Lima, Roxas, Tetangco, Drilon and Purisima allegedly affixed their signatures on the certification. But a check with the official website of the BSP said there was no BSP Circular 49 issued in 2014. All circulars issued by the BSP had three-digit numbers, while Cantoria and Perito’s piece of evidence only appeared
on the Facebook pages of Kingdom Filipina Hacienda Sovereign Host Nation” and some news blogs. Section 50 of Republic Act 7655, the supposed basis for authorizing Centennial Energy to produce and issue the US dollars, was spurious since that was a 1993 law raising the minimum pay of household helpers. RA 7655 has only four sections and does not have 50 sections. On the other hand, RA 7735, which supposedly provided for the use of the dollars for humanitarian projects and for Asean countries, was a 1994 law providing for the establishment of a national high school in Barangay Poblacion in Mawab, Davao, to be known as Lorenzo S. Sarmiento Sr. National High School.
Kerwin:... “Whether this amount was actually used in the furtherance of her political ambitions is immaterial, as what is essential in this case is the fact that she made a demand for the money and she indeed received the same,” the complaint stated. “Also immaterial is whether or not she personally or directly received the so-called campaign contributions with her own hands, because Dayan, by his own separate and independent admission, confessed that he was acting for and in her behalf, with her blessing and according to her instructions when he did receive the money for her,” it added. Tacardon questioned the jurisdiction of the Justice Department panel. The senator, in an omnibus motion, argued that the Ombudsman has the jurisdiction over public officials like her. She also asked the panel to inhibit itself from handling the case. “If ever my motion will be denied, then we can take the necessary legal steps by preparing the counter-affidavit of Senator De Lima or raising the matter on appeal,” Tacardon told the panel. But the panel, led by Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Peter Ong, said that if Espinosa would no longer change his affidavit, there would no longer be any change to the case. “Then we will proceed to resolve the case,” Ong said. Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II earlier said Espinosa was accepted into the witness protection program in December and his department would seek his discharge as a state witness. De Lima on Friday called Aguirre the “high bishop of the Iglesia ni Duterte” and said she didn’t care for his prayers.
She was reacting to Aguirre’s statement that he would pray for De Lima’s “frailties” that caused her problems. “Your god is not my God,” said De Lima who also accused Aguirre of transforming the Justice Department into his very own personal persecution team, under “the baton of the lord god and master of the Iglesia ni Duterte.” “The DoJ has not reached such lows until Aguirre became its secretary,” De Lima said. Instead of praying for her, she said Aguirre should pray for his vanishing dignity. “It is the least of your frailties, after your lying and fabrications, your false witnesses, your incompetence as a public official, your threats and intimidation on my former staff, your absolute arrogance and patent abuse of your power as a public official,” said De Lima. She also suggested that Aguirre will be better off investigating the bribery allegations in one of her agencies involving his own fraternity brothers, rather than pursuing her with trumped-up charges. De Lima asserted that the Ombudsman, not the Justice Department, was the proper forum to hear the charges against her. “Mr. Aguirre, please be aware that indeed I am preparing to answer your fabricated charges before the proper forum, but not before kangaroo tribunals like the House and the DoJ panel over which the President holds sway and to whom he dictates his whims,” she said. Given Aguirre’s prejudgment of her case, she said she would never be accorded due process by the executive branch. “I do not need a mediocre lawyer like Aguirre telling me what I should be doing, when it appears he is not even capable of doing his own job as secretary of Justice,” she added.
response” from six countries, including the Philippines, for the killings of human rights defenders. “This report honors the hundreds of defenders killed in 2016. We mourn their loss and celebrate their lives and achievements. Each and every peaceful HRD killed is an outrage. The scale of the killings in Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and the Philippines is a bloody indictment of the governments concerned; it demands an urgent and systematic response,” Anderson said. The report released this week said that at least 31 human rights defenders (HRDs) in the Philippines were murdered in 2016. The group also reported 31 deaths in 2015. “By calling for the extrajudicial killing of those involved in the drug trade, President Duterte has helped create an environment where murder is being promoted as an acceptable method of dealing with certain problems,” the report read.
The group also raised the alarm over the President’s threats to kill human rights advocates in the Philippines for criticizing his war on the illegal drug menace. The group pointed out that the President’s threat “is liable to have a profound impact on the security of HRDs who are already at grave risk.” According to the group, many attacks in 2016 targeted indigenous or environmental rights HRDs in the Philippines who are opposed to extractive or polluting industries. The report singled out indigenous peoples’ rights defender Teresita Navacilla, who was shot dead by two unidentified armed men in Southern Mindanao. “The attack was alleged to have been perpetrated by soldiers assigned to secure a mining project that the [woman human rights defender] campaigned against on environmental grounds. There was no progress in the investigation into her murder,” the report said.
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points from 82 percent to 69 percent, while support remained high among Class D and E with 84 and 85 percent, respectively. The Palace welcomed Duterte’s high approval and trust ratings, attributing these to his achievements, particularly on the “campaign to rid society of drugs, crime and corruption.” “We are grateful for this continued show of public support and confidence [in] the President. The high approval and big trust speak volumes about our people’s appreciation of the President’s achievements, es-
pecially in his campaign to rid society of drugs, crime and corruption,” presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said in a statement. “People are now beginning to feel secure in their homes, in the streets, day and night as incidents of homicide, physical injury, rape, robbery, theft, and carnapping went down, according to PNP data.” “This new year the administration resolves to deliver his promise of safe and comfortable lives for all.” The 4th Quarter Ulat ng Bayan survey, conducted Dec. 6 to 11, has a ±3 percent margin of error at the 95 percent confidence level.
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Vitriolo allegedly failed to stop a diploma milling program and allowed the issuFrom A1 ance of diplomas for a physical education program under a suspended memorandum comply with the Ombudsman’s order dismissing agreement. Vitriolo. Despite his suspension, Vitriolo insisted that “We will comply with the order of the Office of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila could the Ombudsman,” Licuanan said in a statement. still issue the students’ transcripts to the graduThe Ombudsman on Thursday ordered Vitriolo ates of Master in Physical Education and Sports dismissed after finding him guilty of grave mis- and Certificate in Physical Education “based on conduct and gross neglect of duty. vested rights.”
right to due process, “the information obtained through the account reverts to, and maintains its confidentiality. In short, any and all information obtained therein by AMLC remains confidential, as if no examination or inquiry on the bank account or investments was undertaken. “The Supreme Court decision is a vindication on the part of the law firm. It also shows how the previous administration blatantly trampled upon the constitutional rights of private persons for the sake of persecuting its political opponents”, said lawyer Daniel Subido, a partner at the SPCMB Law Office.