CA TO DECIDE ON ENVIRONMENT CHIEF’S FATE By Christine F. Herrera
VOL. XXXI • NO. 77 • 5 SECTIONS 24 PAGES • P18 • TUESDAY, MAY 2, 2017 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@thestandard.com.ph
ENVIRONMENT Secretary Regina Lopez will defend herself for the last time today before the Commission on Appointments, which must decide by Wednesday whether her appointment is confirmed or rejected. President Rodrigo Duterte had reappointed Lopez on an ad interim basis after the CA bypassed her twice. But new CA rules bar the reappointment of Cabinet secretaries who fail to gain confirmation three times. Previously, 23 groups, including displaced mine workers, scientists and lawmakers, had lobbied hard to get the CA to reject Lopez’s confirmation, saying she was unqualified for the post. The President’s own party, the PDP-Laban, on Monday said it would support the appointment of a law professor at De La Salle University, Mark Kristopher Tolentino, as Environment secretary if the CA rejects Lopez this week. Meanwhile, Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, whose district was host to Next page
Lopez scored for charcoal making plan By Christine F. Herrera
WELCOME ABOARD. President Rodrigo Duterte is given a tour of the People’s Liberation Army Navy Flagship Destroyer Chang Chun (inset) which is docked at the Sasa Port in Davao City on Monday for a goodwill visit to the Philippines, with which China established formal links in 1975. Accompanying the President are Armed Forces Chief Lt. Gen. Eduardo Año, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and Navy Commander Vice Admiral Ronald Mercado. Those who welcomed Duterte and his party were PLAN Commander Admiral Miao Hua, Task Group Destroyer Commander Rear Admiral Shen Hao and Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua. Malacañang Photo
ENVIRONMENT Secretary Regina Lopez has ordered the creation of a P9.4-billion backyard industry for charcoal making that would exclusively benefit the private company Biochar, which is owned by her trusted lieutenant Undersecretary Philip Camara, a Lopez critic said Monday. In DENR Administrative Order 2017-05, a copy of which was obtained by the Manila Standard, Lopez orders all regional offices, bureaus and attached agencies of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Next page
War games with China Duterte visits Chinese destroyer, says joint exercises possible By John Paolo Bencito
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RESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Monday visited Chinese warships docked in his hometown and raised the prospect of future joint exercises, highlighting his vow to improve ties with Beijing that soured over competing claims in the South China Sea.
Duterte made his visit a day after issuing a chairman’s statement on behalf of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations bloc that took a soft stance towards Chinese expansionism and islandbuilding in the waterway. Duterte praised the Chinese Navy’s flagship destroyer Chang Chun, which was docked at the Sasa Port in Davao City, as “very
impressive.” “It’s all carpeted inside. It’s like a hotel,” he said after being presented with a Chinese naval cap. “This is part of confidence-building and goodwill and to show we are friends and that is why I welcome them here,” Duterte said of the threevessel flotilla that arrived in Davao City on Mindanao on Sunday. Asked about possible joint exer-
cises between the Philippines and China, Duterte said “Yes, I said I agree. There can be joint exercises.” He suggested they be held in the Sulu Sea where Muslim extremist pirates have been active in recent months. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, however, said the joint war games “might take a while” as
Defense chief hits NPA over attacks
Trump aide defends invitation to Duterte By Sandy Araneta WASHINGTON—A top aide on Sunday defended President Donald Trump’s invitation to President Rodrigo Duterte to visit Washington, saying the need to rally Asian allies over North Korea overshadowed concerns about Duterte’s brutal war on drugs. On Saturday, the White House said Trump had invited Duterte in a “friendly” call in which the leaders discussed the Filipino President’s fight against drugs and the two countries’ alliance. The statement touched only lightly on Duterte’s brutal crackdown on crime, which has claimed thousands of lives and drawn international condemnation. But when White House chief of staff Reince Priebus was asked
Sunday why Trump was “honoring” Duterte with the White House invitation, he told ABC, “I’m not so sure it’s a matter of honoring this president.” “The issues facing us, developing out of North Korea, are so serious that we need cooperation at some level with as many partners in the area as we can get,” he said. That way, Priebus added, “if something does happen in North Korea, we have everyone in line backing up a plan of action that may need to be put together with our partners in the area.” Duterte had in the past regularly hit out at the United States, the Philippines’ one-time colonial ruler, for perceived hypocrisy over human rights. Last year he branded then US president Barack Obama a “son of a whore” for criticizing the drug war. Next page
By F. Pearl A. Gajunera THE New People’s Army’s unprovoked attacks on various Lapanday Food Corp. facilities in Davao City on April 29 emphasized the group’s terroristic inclinations, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Monday. He condemned the communists’ latest atrocities. “They just confirmed without a doubt their terrorist designation,” Lorenzana said. “They also confirmed my accusations that they are antiprogress, anti-development and anti-people.” In Tuguegarao City, Cagayan Valley Police Chief Eliseo Tam Rasco said the Maddela police chief in Quirino was relieved of
SWS: Fewer jobless in Q1 By John Paolo Bencito THE number of jobless Filipinos declined slightly in the first quarter from the fourth quarter last year, the polling firm Social Weather Stations said Monday. SWS said the survey, conducted among 1,200 respondents, showed that the number of jobless Filipinos went down to 22.9 percent or 10.4 million in the first quarter this year against 25.1 percent or 11.2 million in the last quarter of 2016. SWS revealed the results of its latest survey even as Senator Juan Edgardo Angara called on his colleagues in the Senate to cross party lines and approve his proposed measure that will give
employment to jobless workers in rural areas. He said his Senate Bill 947, “An Act Providing for Rural Employment Assistance Program and Appropriating Funds thereof,” or REAP, was now pending at the committee on social justice, welfare and rural development. He said the lack of significant economic growth in the rural areas was likely contributing to the rising unemployment rate in the countryside. “Many studies have shown that poverty in our country is most severe and widespread in the rural areas, where almost 80 percent of the poor population live,” Angara said. Among the jobless in the first Next page
these would need the concurrence of Congress for a possible visiting forces agreement. After his visit to the Chinese destroyer, the President said the repairs to the facilities on Philippineheld islands that are also claimed by China would continue, despite protests from Beijing. “That is part of our duty as naNext page tion,” he said.
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Hacienda Luisita lessees get warning By Rio N. Araja
PROTEST MARCH. Different militant groups in the country’s National Capital Region—where 15 million of
the nation’s 106-million people live—march with an effigy Monday along the often busy Quezon Boulevard underpass in the University Belt Area in Manila as they moved, under a scorching summer sun, closer to Liwasang Bonifacio by the Pasig River during the Labor Day protest. Norman Cruz
AGRARIAN Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano on Monday threatened to file charges against politicians, influential personalities and other individuals acting as aryendador or lessees of agrarian reform lands at the Hacienda Luisita for violation of the Agrarian Reform Law. Next page