SE ASIA BRACES FOR RETURNING ISIS FIGHTERS MANADO, Indonesia—Indonesia and Australia on Saturday called for stronger cooperation in counter-terrorism as the region braces for the return of foreign militants fighting in the Middle East. In a one-day gathering in North Sulawesi of six nations including Malaysia, the Philippines, New Zealand and Brunei, ministers discussed terrorism in Southeast Asia and fears over Islamic State unrest in the Philippines, where government forces are pitted against Is-
lamist gunmen holed up in Marawi City. “Global terrorism is that lethal threat to all of our societies and with the collapse of the caliphate in the Middle East, the return of foreign terrorist fighters to our region and the increasing prevalence of cross border terorism... [the threat] is becoming more severe, not less,” Australian Attorney-General George Brandis told a post-meeting press conference. Indonesian chief security minister Next page VOL. XXXI • NO. 167 • 4 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P18 • MONDAY, JULY 31, 2017 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@thestandard.com.ph
Mayor, 11 others killed in drug raid Wife among fatalities; Ozamis vice mayor nabbed By Florante S. Solmerin and Francisco Tuyay
T
HE mayor of Ozamiz City, tagged by the administration as a narco-politician, and his wife and relatives were shot dead in a police raid Sunday, the latest casualties in President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on illegal drugs.
Ozamiz Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog was identified by Duterte last year as among mayors involved in the illegal drug trade. Two other mayors he tagged were also killed last year. Parojinog was killed Sunday along with 11 others, including his wife Susan, other members of his clan and his bodyguards, in
DRUG WAR CASUALTIES.
a dawn raid on his home, police said. “Police were serving a search warrant when the security guards of the mayor fired at them so our policemen retaliated,” police regional spokesman Supt. Lemuel Gonda said. Police said the exchange of fire lasted almost two hours. Next page
Ozamis City Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog, whom President Duterte linked to the illegal drug trade, his wife and 10 other people died when his bodyguards allegedly exchanged fire with policemen who were serving a search warrant on Sunday. Lower panel shows a file photo of Vice Mayor Nova Princess Parojinog doing the ‘besobeso’ with National Police director general Ronald dela Rosa who paid a surprise visit to the Ozamis Police Station on Jan. 11, 2017 to check on the status of then city police chief Jovie Espenido. OZAMIS WEBSITE/GRAPHICS BY AFP
BIFF blamed for attack Rody’s critic wants leftists out of Cabinet Macon Ramoson governor’s chopper ByAraneta and John Paolo COTABATO CITY—Police and military forces are hunting down members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters who tried to shoot down a private chopper carrying Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Toto Mangudadatu and his brother Saturday, police said Sunday. Mangudadatu and his brother Mayor Freddie Mangudadatu of Mangudadatu town, Maguindanao, were aboard a helicopter piloted by Capt. Dennis Figueroa en route to the Army’s 6th Infantry Division headquarters for a speaking engagement when the shooting occurred over the town of Datu Salibo. They were all unharmed. ”We are hunting them down, we have intelligence information about the attackers,” Senior Supt. Agustin Tello, Maguindanao provincial police director, said.
Mangudadatu who was seated beside the pilot of the three-seat aircraft said a bullet almost hit his head. A bullet hole was found in the right window. The Maguindanao police were backed by members of the 40th Infantry Battalion. Tello said the gunmen fired at the chopper as it passed above Sitio Dagading, Barangay Tee, Datu Salibo town at 10 a.m. A day earlier, BIFF members who pledged allegiance to Islamic State, set off an improvised bomb that injured nine soldiers of the 40th IB in Raja Buayan, a few kilometers from Datu Salibo. Mangudadatu has been known for his hard stance against jihadists believed to be hiding in Maguindanao. Datu Salibo is a known bailiwick of the BIFF. PNA
Mission accomplished? PCGG has to go—Koko SENATE President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III said he is open to reviewing the reason for the continuous existence of the PCGG which is a single function agency. “It has been there with a single objective, which at this time, that has already been achieved,” said Pimentel. Malacañang has announced that it would transfer the remaining functions of the PCGG to the Department of Justice under the
proposed rightsizing bill, one of the legislation President Rodrigo Duterte wanted Congress to prioritize. The PCGG decried in a statement the plan to abolish their agency, saying they had effectively raised non-tax revenues. It claimed to have recovered at least P170 billion in cash over the course of 30 years with an overall budget of P2.9 billion for the same period. Next page
Bencito
SENATOR Antonio Trillanes IV on Sunday called on President Rodrigo Duterte to kick out leftist members of his Cabinet after he ordered the Armed Forces to go
after the communist New People’s Army. Trillanes, a stanch critic of the President, said he has received information from the military that hundreds of cadres from the Communist Party of the PhilippinesNPA are now officially employed in various government agencies.
He enumerated these government offices as the Department of Social Welfare and Development headed by Secretary Judy Taguiwalo, the Department of Agrarian Reform headed by Secretary Rafael Mariano, the Department of Labor and Employment headed by Secretary Silvestre Bello III,
the National Anti-Poverty Commission headed by Secretary Liza Maza and the Housing Urban Development Coordinating Council headed by retired military official Eduardo del Rosario. Taguiwalo, an activist who helped organized the militant Next page
Senate minority backs tax reforms By Macon R. Araneta
STORMY SUNDAY. A gaggle of churchgoers hold onto their umbrellas amid strong winds brought about by tropical storm ‘Huaning’ on Sunday. Ey Acasio
‘Huaning’ threatens Ilocos, Cordilleras ANOTHER storm entered the Philippine area of responsibility on Sunday following the exit of Typhoon “Gorio.” The weather bureau said tropical storm “Huaning” intensified slightly and accelerated while moving toward Taiwan. It was estimated 185 kilometers northwest of Basco, Batanes,
packing maximum sustained winds of 80 kilometers per hour near the center and gusting at up to 110 kph. It was forecast to move north at 24 kph and to affect Central and Northern Luzon. Batanes, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Apayao, Abra and northwestern Cagayan, including the Babuyan Group of Islands, were
placed under tropical cyclone warning signal no. 1. Several Manila-Taipei and Taipei-Manila flights were canceled on Sunday due to bad weather in Taipei. The rainfall to be brought by Huaning will be moderate to heavy within its 500-kilometer Next page diameter.
SENATE Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Sunday assured the passage in the Senate of President Rodrigo Duterte’s proposed tax reform package but said it will not be “full” as requested by the Chief Executive. He told dzBB radio that there are many things being studied in the tax package, and that it would not be allowed to pass in its present form. “The most that we are objecting is the tax on oil since it will adversely affect our small countrymen,” Drilon said. “If we are to impose the additional six-peso tax on oil, the prices of all commodities will increase.” Drilon said that while the government had been talking about lowering the income tax, the loss from it would be recouped from the added tax on fuel, gasoline and diesel. Next page