Manila Standard - 2018 May 13 - Sunday

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KUWAIT WORK BAN LIFTED SOON—BELLO By Vito Barcelo VOL. XXXII • NO. 87 • 3 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P18 • SUNDAY, MAY 13, 2018 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@manilastandard.net

LABOR Secretary Silvestre Bello said the ban on the deployment of overseas Filipino workers would be lifted this week after the Philippines and Kuwait reached a deal that would provide more protection for thousands of Filipino workers, mostly household workers in the Gulf State. The Labor secretary said he had recommended to President Rodrigo Duterte the partial deployment of OFWs following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding that would ensure the protection and better labor conditions of Filipino workers there. The DoLE said those OFWs with existing contracts and those who had signed a contract but were affected by the deployment ban last February as ordered by the President could leave the country for Kuwait as soon as the President ordered the lifting of deployment ban. Under the MoU, Filipino workers will get seven hours of sleep, are well-fed, get to enjoy holidays and won’t have their passports confiscated by their employers. Turn to A2

AMNESTY FOR 27 MAUTE REMNANTS By Vito Barcelo LADY OF THE ABANDONED. Dancers perform during the Feast of the Our Lady of the Abandoned (Nuestra Senora de los Desamparados) Saturday in Santa Ana, Manila. A ‘Misa Mayor’ (high Mass) was celebrated in celebration of the Feast of the Our Lady of the Abandoned, followed hours later by a grand procession in the afternoon. Feast rites were also held at the Diocesan Shrine of the Our Lady of the Abandoned in Marikina City, where pilgrims lined up to venerate the miraculous canonically crowned image of the Blessed Mother. Norman Cruz

PALACE: SERENO CAN STILL FILE A MOTION

By Vito Barcelo and Sara Susanne Fabunan

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ALACAÑANG admitted that ousted Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno could still file a Motion for Reconsideration considering the slim margin of two votes that expelled the country’s top magistrate from her post through the quo warranto petition filed against her. Presidential Chief Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said that under the law, Sereno was entitled to file an MR, since the margin between those who voted in favor and against was only two votes.

"There is still a chance. There have been instances when the Supreme Court reversed itself," he said. "Considering the slim margin of the vote, only one Justice needs

Presidential Chief Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo

to change his mind and that will result in an even (7-7). So Justice Sereno still has a chance," Panelo added. Eight were in favor and six have opposed. Sereno's spokesman Carlo Cruz said the former chief magistrate would file a motion for reconsideration. At the Supreme Court, Associate Justice Alfredo Caguioa wrote in his dissenting opinion the Court had committed “seppuku—without honor” when it yielded to the “prodding” of the Solicitor General Jose Calida’s quo warranto petition to oust Sereno through a move that “sidestepped” the Constitution. Turn to A2

MOTHER’S DAY SPECIAL

FORMER PRESIDENT PAYS TRIBUTE TO HIS LATE MOM By Fidel V. Ramos

a homeland, and identity distinct from others, and a longing for our people to THROUGHOUT most of my life, I have prosper to be free. been trained and schooled to be an This clarion call to love our officer and a gentleman who motherland led to the birth regards and respects womof the Philippines as an inen as co-equals of men. dependent nation. The The Philippines is idea still keeps millions blessed to have a sociof expatriate Filipinos ety that puts premium and overseas workers on the Filipina as a across the globe atwarm, caring, sharing, tached enduringly, to and respected indithe land of their birth. vidual borne out by In a larger context, the strong regard for the globe is more inour mothers who are timately known as the main anchors of our Mother Earth. Environhomes and families. mentalist also refer to the With the first stirrings of earth as Mother Nature— nationhood kindled by Filiwhich has deeper meanings Angela pino propagandists in Madrid, that cherish roots, renewal, Valdez Ramos Spain in the last quarter of the continuity, sustainability and 19th century, the concept of Philippines survival. as our motherland became a rallying All these concepts are rooted on cry. the universal meaning of motherhood Motherland was, and still is, the term which intrinsically is our eternal umbilithat nurtures a sense of belonging to cal cord to the future. Turn to A2 twitter.com/ MlaStandard

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READY FOR MONDAY. Manila City Hall personnel transfer ballot boxes in the capital’s Sta. Cruz District in preparation for tomorrow’s barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections. The election shall elect the punong barangay and members of the SK in the country’s 42,044 barangays whose terms start on June 30, 2018. The SK elections will be the first since 2010. Norman Cruz

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte vowed to provide former members of the ISIS-Maute group with lands to till, shelter and livelihood assistance as long as they commit to peace. At least 27 members of the ISISMaute group who surrendered to the government and were presented to Duterte would also be granted amnesty as part of Duterte’s intention to solve rebellion and extremist movement in Mindanao by providing them decent living and income through farming. Talking to the members of the rebel group inside Kampo Ranao, the Chief Executive expressed intentions to give the members of the rebel group idle lands in Lanao del Sur, adding they could cultivate rubber tree and palm oil. In addition, Duterte told them he was willing to send them to Malaysia for them to see first hand how palm oil and rubber trees were being grown. The President, however, said the members of the ISIS-Maute group should be willing to talk peace and shun foreign ideologies such as that of the ISIS, which he said originated Turn to A2 from Arab countries.

DOG SHOOTS MAN IN IOWA WASHINGTON, United States—It’s often said that a dog biting a man isn’t news—so one canine companion apparently decided to up the ante. A 51-year-old man from the US state of Iowa says he was shot by his own dog while playing with the pet in his home, local media reported Friday. Richard Remme of Fort Dodge was encouraging his dog Balew, a cross between a pit bull and a Labrador, to jump on his lap as he lay on his sofa when the dog apparently flicked the safety catch off the 9mm pistol he was carrying in his belt. “I was lying on the couch, and we were horsing around, me and the dog. And I was tossing him off my lap, and he was jumping back on my lap,” he told The Messenger newspaper after being discharged from hospital. Turn to A2

PNP WARNS VS VOTE BUYING By Francisco Tuyay and Joel Zurbano AUTHORITIES projected this weekend an intense vote buying and even warned the potential proliferation of fake money during Monday’s barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections nationwide. In a radio interview, Philippine National Police Chief Oscar Alayalde said he was expecting local executives vy-

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ing for the elective post to engage in intense vote buying on the eve and the actual voting day. As Albayalde predicted such eventuality, other police officials were not discounting the proliferation of fake money during the election day, a strategy aimed to outmaneuver opponents for the elective post. Chief Supt Ma-o Aplasca, chief of the PNP Directorate for Operations, said Turn to A2

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