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VOL. XXXI • NO. 58 • 5 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P18 • SUNDAY, APRIL 9, 2017 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@thestandard.com.ph
RICE IMPORTS STIR CABINET CONFLICT By John Paolo Bencito
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NOTHER conflict in President Rodrigo Duterte’s Cabinet emerged on Saturday after a dismissed Malacañang executive claimed top agricultural officials are pretending there is a rice shortage to pave the way for a government-to-government importation that would be detrimental to Filipino farmers. Dismissed undersecretary Maia Chiara Halmen Valdez of the Office of the Cabinet Secretary accused Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol and NFA Administrator Jason
Aquino of simulating a rice shortage so they could push through with a government-to-government (G2G) importation deal. “In their desperate attempt to
convince the President to resort to G2G, the Agriculture Secretary, who has been meddling on the functions and affairs of the OCS, and the NFA administrator have made it appear as if there is a shortage of rice in the country, causing alarm and possible upward movement in the prices of commercial rice,” Valdez said in a statement. Valdez, who was sacked by Duterte last Wednesday for overturning Aquino’s denial of rice importation through private channels, accused Piñol of meddling in the affairs of the Office of the Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco, who chairs the National Food Authority Council.
“The DA’s function is to ensure that there be sufficient agricultural produce from our local farmers, but he probably does not know the meaning of his position, and has been excessively busy tinkering in other offices,” she said, referring to Piñol. “It is not for them to evaluate the rice stock of the country. It is a function given by law to the NFAC and the National Food Security Committee,” added Valdez, who was first appointed by former President Benigno Aquino III. Valdez claimed she was just implementing a decision of the NFA Council when she overturned Turn to A2
BUSINESS/ C2
AUSTRALIAN CEO PREDICTS FUTURE JOBS
GADGETS / D4
ASUS READY FOR THE BIG BOYS WITH ZENFONE3 ZOOM
SPORTS / C3
SAFC HOME OF RISING MIXED MARTIAL ARTS STARS QUAKE SCARE. Office workers evacuate their offices at the King’s Court complex in Makati City after the first two of three earthquakes struck off Batangas after 3 p.m. Saturday. AFP
JOMA WELL BUT ACHING TO BE NATIONAL ARTIST By John Paolo Bencito COMMUNIST Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison said on Saturday there is no need for him to return to the country before the successful conclusion of the ongoing peace talks unless he is conferred the state honor of
National Artist for Literature. The 78-year-old Sison, according to the National Democratic Front, is already on his way to full recovery after he was hospitalized in January, making him miss the third round of peace talks in Rome. “Sison, in fact, already at the stage of gaining strength after
three weeks of thoroughgoing diagnostics and medical treatment and one more week of recuperation in the hospital,” the NDF said after Duterte said he was concerned by Sison’s health. “Unlike in the third round held in Rome last January, where Sison skipped the closing ceremonies,
he was at every major event of the fourth round this April, including a reception at the residence of the Norwegian ambassador to The Netherlands,” it added. Sison himself said he would only consider returning to the Philippines “when there is a highly significant Turn to A2
THE SEVEN LAST WORDS OF JESUS ON THE CROSS
By Honor Blanco Cabie
HOSANNA. Vendors prepare palm fronds for sale ahead of Palm Sunday when Filipino Catholics recreate the rousing welcome that Jesus Christ received when he arrived in Jerusalem a few days before he was crucified more than 2,000 years ago. Lino Santos
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ON APRIL 14, 2017, Christians throughout predominantly Christian Philippines will once more mark that time when the Christ Jesus died on the Cross to redeem humanity, to save mankind from the original sin and promise life with the Lord beyond this earthly life. It will be a solemn celebration for Christians—from up in Batanes to those in Mindanao. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the Holy Bible have recorded that Jesus Christ was made fun of, was not believed and tortured in the
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praetorium; carried His cross up the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem to Calvary, nailed to the Cross, hung between two common criminals, and suffered an indescribable wrenching end. Some scholars and theologians suggest meditation on the Passion of Christ by reflecting on his Seven Words on the Cross or by a devotion known as the Way of the Cross. When religious pilgrimages to the Holy Land ended with military occupation of Jerusalem in the Middle Ages, a popular devotion known as the Way of the Cross arose during Lent retracing the Passion, Crucifixion, and Death of Jesus. Turn to A2
3 QUAKES SHAKE UP SATURDAY IN LUZON AT LEASt 10 earthquakes shook Batangas province, including two strong quakes that struck only two minutes apart on Saturday afternoon, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. The United States Geological Survey also detected the two strong quakes but differed on the location of the epicenter and the depth of the tectonic quakes. According to Phivolcs’ Seismological Observation and Earthquake Prediction Division, the two strong quakes were preceded by eight weaker ones that are deemed aftershocks of the magnitude-5.5 quake that struck Tingloy, Batangas last April 4. The first of the two latest tectonic quakes struck around 3:07 p.m. with a magnitude of 5.6 and originating at 13.75°N, 120.93°E, one kilometer Turn to A2 west of Mabini town.
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