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Mine owners slam Environment chief for ‘abuse of power’ By Christine F. Herrera
T DENR SECRETARY REGINA LOPEZ
HE 23 mining companies that were ordered shut down vowed Friday to seek a temporary restraining order and sue Environment Secretary Regina Lopez for graft and corruption and grave abuse of power.
The mine owners, who requested anonymity for fear of more reprisals from Lopez, said they were still trying to decide if they would file a class suit or individual complaints. Mine owners whose operations were not ordered closed expressed support for the 75 whose mineral production sharing agreements (MPSAs) were terminated. They said they feared that at the rate Lopez was arbitrarily shuttering mining operations, they could suffer the same fate soon.
The miners, members of the Philippine corruption charges because Lopez commitChamber of Mines, gathered at the Manila ted grave abuse of discretion by shutting Golf and Country Club to assess the situa- down their operations without due process. tion and discuss how to avert more casual“She did not care about the findings of ties from their ranks. the Mines and Geosciences Bureau that “We have decided to go to court. We are we were compliant. The MGB’s audit filing for a TRO, prohibiting Secretary Lo- report did not say anything about closing pez from enforcing the closure order with down the mine operations. She said she XPERIENCE•XCELLENCE•XCITEMENT the end in view of fighting it out until she did not care that the MGB’s recommendalifts the closure order,” said one owner of a tion was in contrast with hers and that the mining company. decision rests with her. She is close-minded. They said they were also filing graft and Next page
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VOL. XXXI • NO. 8 • 4 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P18 • SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2017 • www.thestandard.com.ph • editorial@thestandard.com.ph
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Leila slapped with 3 drug raps By Rey E. Requejo THE Justice Department has filed three criminal cases against Senator Leila de Lima before a Muntinlupa City regional trial court for her alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison. In three separate complaints, the Justice Department accused De Lima of violating the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, which penalizes the sale and trade of illegal drugs, and for violating Section 28 of RA 9165, which pertains to criminal liability of government officials and employees. In the first complaint, De Lima’s co-accused include her former lover and bodyguard Ronnie Dayan and Rafael Ragos, former director of the Bureau of Corrections and deputy director of intelligence of the National Bureau of Investigation. Next page
SENATOR LEILA DE LIMA
PH, Russia defense De Lima MOU in the offing lashes at By F. Pearl A. Gajunera DAVAO CITY―National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon said Thursday a Memorandum of Understanding on security cooperation between the Philippines and Russia was on the way. In a press conference in Davao City a day after the meeting of President Rodrigo Duterte and Russian Federation Secretary Nikolay P. Putrushev, Esperon said the MOU was expected to be signed when Duterte visit Russia.
The Philippines and Russia will ensure cooperation on the fields of security and intelligence, defense and the military, law enforcement, terrorism and transitional crimes, and in enforcing maritime laws and combating illegal drugs. “Although we talked a lot on the bilateral talks yesterday [Thursday], everything is put on hold until the MOU is signed, but certainly there are many things that we can do now even without the agreements,” Esperon said. Next page
4,076 bodies pile up amid raging drug war
WARM HOSPITALITY. President Rodrigo Duterte welcomes Thursday the Russian Federation Security
Council delegates led by Secretary Nikolay Patrushev at the Presidential Guest House in Panacan, Davao City for three days and bilateral meetings with the National Security Council of the Philippines.
SHADOWY assassins have killed scores of poor victims in the Philippines after President Rodrigo Duterte officially ordered police to withdraw from his deadly drug war, a rights monitor said Friday. Duterte pulled police from the crackdown on Jan. 31 after a brutal seven-month campaign that left 2,555 drug suspects dead at the hands of law enforcers, with 3,930 other people murdered in unexplained circumstances.
The latest police tally given to AFP on Friday showed there were 4,076 “murder cases under investigation” on Feb. 13. This was 146 more than the end of January, which rights groups said showed extrajudicial killings had slowed but were nevertheless continuing in the drug war. “The targets are still the same, as far as we are concerned: people linked to drugs and who live Next page
‘vindictive policy’ By Macon Ramos-Araneta and John Paolo Bencito SENATOR Leila de Lima on Friday said she has long prepared herself to be the first political prisoner under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte. De Lima said this was so because the criminal charges filed against her were politically motivated, and aimed at silencing her vocal opposition to the administration’s support of extrajudicial killings in its war on illegal drugs. “Perhaps my looming imprisonment based on false charges filed against me by the DoJ, while Janet Lim Napoles’s release is being supported by the Office of the Solicitor General, is the wakeup call that our country needs.” “Change has, indeed, come, and it has come to devour our sense of justice and morality— where right is turned to wrong, and wrong is made right,” she added. Next page
Du30 fires back, tags Trillanes bandit By John Paolo Bencito PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has called Senator Antonio Trillanes IV a bandit for using his office to secure fees from retainers. “It is known in the Senate that Trillanes uses his office to ask for retainers and that this has become a lucrative business for him,” Duterte said in a recorded statement sent to reporters on Thursday night.
He made the statement following Trillanes’ accusations that he amassed P211 million illegally, and that he had more than P2 billion in his bank accounts. He vowed to resign “immediately” should Trillanes succeed in proving that he had P2 billion. He played down the claims of the “ignorant” Trillanes as he defended his common-law wife and his daughter from his allegations, saying they had the means to make money on their own.
“If Trillanes can prove his allegation that I have amassed P2 billion illegally, or if that bank account under my name has a total deposit at one time of even just half a billion, I will resign as President immediately,” Duterte said. “This is actually an old and rehashed issue. I have answered this allegation before I became President. The people have already spoken. They have placed me in the office with 16 million Next page votes.”
Rise up vs Reds, Lorenzana urges people By Francisco Tuyay DEFENSE Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Friday urged the public to rise up against the New People’s Army whom he described as the true enemies of the people as a result of its extortion activities and terror attacks.
He made the call after communist rebels attacked a military convoy in Davao City, killing two soldiers and wounding 10 others. Two rebels were also killed. “They rely on treachery and guile to trick the innocent into joining their misguided cause
and killing those who oppose them, Lorenzana said. “I am one with the President in condemning the atrocities committed by the NPA and in rightfully labeling them as terrorists. I call on the Filipino people to rise up against these criminals and terrorists.” Next page
MINIKIN ARTWORK. Carlito Romanilla, 53, puts on the map his handmade teensy cars made from aluminum wires sold at prices ranging from P2,000 to P30,000 at his workshop in Manila’s Sta. Cruz district. Norman Cruz