TASK FORCE EYED TO QUELL VIOLENCE, TERROR ACTS THE Department of Justice is considering creating a special task force that will investigate individuals who may be linked to “lawless or terrorist acts” in areas where government recently sent troops to quell violence, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Saturday. The justice chief made the statement a day after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the deployment of additional troops to Bicol, Samar and Negros provinces to suppress “lawless violence.” According to Guevarra, his department is called upon to probe and prosecute those who might be arrested for criminal acts. In a related development, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said more troops might be Turn to A2
VOL. XXXII • NO. 283 • 4 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P18 • SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2018 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@manilastandard.net WW
DESTINATIONS/ D1
BIG-TIME OIL PRICE TH CUT 7 IN A ROW
NO WORRIES WHEN IN MELBOURNE
ZESTFUL DISPLAY.
By Alena Mae S. Flores
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2018
News
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SPACE SHUTTLE TO LAND ON MARS MONDAY
AMAZING SHOW. Ayala Land’s largest sustainable estate, Nuvali, kicks off its annual immersive light and sound show in partnership with The Walt Disney Company Philippines. The show will run every 30 minutes from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Nuvali football field. Teddy Pelaez
GOV’T ADOPTS LONG-TERM MM PLAN By Joel E. Zurbano THE government has presented a long-term development program designed to transform Metro Manila into a highly competitive East Asian metropolis. The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority came up with the ambitious program dubbed “Regional Development Plan for the National Capital Region 2017-2022” which will serve as the region’s framework in socioeconomic development for the next four years. “This is a milestone activity for Metro Manila. We celebrate the completion of a regional development plan for NCR, our own contribution in support of the Philippine Development Plan of the current administration of our President,” said MMDA chairman Danilo Lim. The plan, Lim said, “identifi es basic baseline and target indicators that will serve as basis for monitoring the planned implementation and consequently measure NCR’s contribution to making an inclusive, connected and a resilient metropolis in support of Ambisyon Natin 2024.” “Let us use this plan to direct our policy decisions as well as our programs and project development interventions to ensure consistency with the PDP’s strategic framework,” the MMDA chief said. Adoracion Navarro, undersecretary for Regional Development of the National Economic and Development Authority, underscored the roles of concerned government agencies, local government units as members of the Metro Manila Council, and stakeholders as partners in national development.
ANDAYA: SALARY HIKE TO PUSH THROUGH
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OUSE Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. assured government civilian and military personnel on Saturday that their salary hike will push through even if next year’s budget may be reenacted for at least two weeks to a month. “The fate of the 2019 national budget will have no impact on the scheduled round of pay hikes next year for government personnel, civilian and military,” Andaya said in a statement. “It will go on as programmed, even in the event of a slight delay in the signing into law of the 2019 budget,” he said. The salary hike, Andaya said, “will be included in the first paycheck of the year which will be released on Jan. 15.” “The claim that the programmed salary hike is dependent on the budget is fake news,” the solon said, adding that there are separate laws covering the salary hikes of civilian and military government employ-
ees regardless of the passage of the General Appropriations Act. The government has allotted P121.7 billion in next year’s proposed national budget for the salary increases of state civilian and military personnel. Andaya said P51.7 billion of the P121.7 billion allotment is for the fourth and final tranche of the Salary Standardization Law IV covering civilian employees. The remaining P70 billion, will be “for second installment of the law raising the base pay of soldiers, policemen, jail and fire officers, and coast guards.” Earlier, Senate Majority Leader Miguel Zubiri warned the proposed
P3.757-trillion budget for 2019 may not be approved before Congress goes on Christmas break. Because of this, Zubiri said, there will be a reenacted budget for two weeks to a month. He said the earliest that senators could begin deliberations would be on Nov. 28. But even if the Senate passes the budget on third and final reading by Dec. 12, Zubiri said, the bicameral conference committee would still have to be convened to reconcile disagreeing provisions of the House and Senate versions. Malacañang, however, said it remained optimistic the proposed 2019 national budget will be passed on time despite delays in the House of Representatives. “The House knows that this is the budget proposal of the Palace. And so, they will have to do their job. If there are questions on the budget, they will raise them and we will respond to them,” Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said.
FAKE CIGARETTES SEIZED
THE Bureau of Internal Revenue seized more than half a million packs of cigarettes bearing fake BIR stamps. In an interview with GMA News TV, Sonny Advincula, head of the BIR strike team, said some of the cigarette packs bore labels of a manufacturer that was not registered with the BIR. “They labeled these as ‘Belmont,’ which is not a registered manufacturer,” he said. The strike team conducted two raids—one on a house in Barangay Sto. Domingo in Quezon City Friday evening and another on a house on Cabatuan St. in Caloocan City early Saturday dawn. Advincula said the team confiscated 600 boxes or
300,000 packs of fake cigarettes with either fake BIR stamps or bearing no stamps at all from the first house. The second raid bore 500 boxes or 250,000 packs fake cigarettes with fake BIR stamps. Each BIR stamp costs P35. This means for the first house, the owner of the cigarettes should pay BIR P105 million, including penalty, while the owner of the fake products in the second house owes the government P87.5 million for the stamps. “We will issue the owners a letter notice immediately. They should reply within 15 days. And then we will file a case with the Department of Justice if the evidence so warrant,” Advincula said.
TAMPA, United States—A spacecraft that cost nearly a billion dollars is on course to make a perilous landing Monday on Mars, if it can survive a highspeed approach and the scorching heat of entering the Red Planet’s atmosphere, a process NASA has nicknamed“six and a half minutes of terror.” “There is very little room for things to go wrong,” said Rob Grover, head of the entry, descent and landing team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. If successful, the entry, descent and landing of the Mars InSight—designed to be the first mission to listen to the interior of another planet and reveal how rocky planets formed—will add another success to NASA’s record when it comes to sending spacecraft to Mars. So far, the United States is the only nation to have made it there, and only NASA’s unmanned Curiosity robotic rover is still tooling around on the surface. But if it fails, it certainly won’t be the first. Of 43 other international attempts to send orbiters, probes, landers or rovers to Mars, 25 have not made it. Either they crashed into the surface, missed their planned orbit, or disappeared after launch. Countdown to Mars There will not be any live video streaming of Mars Insight’s approach on Monday, and signals will be transmitted back to Earth on an eight-minute delay. Nor can mission managers intervene if anything goes awry.The entire landing sequence is all pre-programmed into the on-board flight computer. Here’s what to expect: • At 11:40 am Pacific time (1940 GMT), the spacecraft separates from the cruise stage that carried it to Mars. A minute later, the spacecraft makes a turn to orient itself for atmospheric entry. • At 1947 GMT, the spacecraft is hurtling through space at a speed of 12,300 miles per hour (19,800 kilometers per hour) as it begins to enter Mars’ atmosphere. • Two minutes later, friction with the atmosphere raises the heat shield temperature to its peak of 2,700 Fahrenheit (1,500 Celsius). This intense heat could cause temporary dropouts in radio signals. • At 1951 GMT, the parachutes deploy. Fifteen seconds later, the heat shield separates from the spacecraft. Ten seconds on, the lander’s three legs deploy to get ready for touchdown. • At 1952 GMT, a radar activates to sense the distance to the ground. • At 1953 GMT, the first radar signal is expected, followed 20 seconds later by the spacecraft’s separation from the back shell and parachute. Then, the descent engines, known as retrorockets, begin to fire. InSight’s speed slows drastically, from 17 mph to a constant five mph (27 kph to eight kph) for its soft landing. • Touchdown is expected at 1954 GMT. • The first “beep” from the spacecraft’s X-band radio—indicating whether InSight survived the landing —is scheduled for 2001 GMT. • The first image from the surface of Mars is expected at 2004 GMT. However, it’s possible this image may not arrive until Tuesday. AFP
PARTY-LIST RAFFLE ON DEC. 5 THE Commission on Elections has set on Dec. 5 the raffle to determine the order of the listing of party-list groups, organizations or coalitions on the official ballots for the 2019 national and local polls. Those whose registrations are final and were able to file their manifestations of intent to participate in the party-list elections on or before May 2 will be included in the raffle. Raffle participants will also be composed of existing party-list groups, organizations or coalitions whose registration and accreditation were canceled by the Commission but were able to secure a status quo ante order from the Supreme Court. The poll body said those whose petitions for registration were denied by Comelec but were able to secure a mandatory injunction from the SC will also be included in the raffle. The draw will also include those whose registration and accreditation are still pending
with the poll body by raffle date, as well as those whose petitions for registration were denied by the Commission but have pending motions for reconsideration as of raffle date. “Party-list groups, organizations or coalitions who fail or neglect to send a representative with a written authority under oath during the raffle shall be considered to have waived their right to participate,” the poll body added. Earlier, the Comelec released the tentative list of party-list bets with 124 duly-registered groups, 33 with pending motions for reconsideration, five with pending petitions for registration, and 23 others. In the 2013 elections, the poll body implemented the raffle system to determine the order of listing of party-list groups in the official ballots. The system was adopted to avoid party-list groups from jostling for names that start with the first letter of the alphabet or number since the list used to be alphabetized. PNA
DOUBLE TIME.
Construction employees work on a bridge that will connect Plaza Mexico to Binondo in Manila. Norman Cruz
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“We will decrease the prices of gasoline by P1.10 per liter and diesel by P2.20 per liter effective noon of 24 November 2018,” Phoenix said in its advisory late Friday. Other oil players are expected to implement a similar price cut. Unioil Philippines, for its part, said consumers should expect fuel prices to rollback
again this coming week. “Diesel should decrease by P2.30-P2.40 per liter while gasoline should decrease by P1.10 to P1.20 per liter. Load up accordingly,” Unioil said. In New York, oil prices slumped Friday (Saturday in Manila) to lows not seen since last year as concerns over high crude supplies and Turn to A2
BREAD MAKER RAISES PRICES, SKIRTS DTI TAG TRADE Secretary Ramon Lopez said Saturday the increase in prices of the expensive bread brands, particularly the Gardenia, was not covered by the agency’s suggested retail prices or SRP. He explained the bread owners requested an increase of from P1 to P2 after they held off their price increases in the past few months. Lopez was making the explanation in an interview over Super Radyo dzBB, beamed nationwide, where he said Gardenia did not increase its prices when everybody else did. Lopez said the more costly bread brands were “programmed” to increase their prices after two to three months after the recent price hike in goods and commodities. Inflation or the rate of increase in the prices of goods and services clocked in at 6.2 percent during the third quarter of 2018, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Friday.
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IL player Phoenix Petroleum Philippines led the seventh round of oil price rollback this week by announcing a price cut of as much as P2.20 per liter starting noon Saturday.
The City Government of San Juan in Metro Manila is gifting San Juaneños with a jazzy Christmas Display at the Plaza in front of the City Hall building in Pinaglabanan this Yuletide. Mayor Guia Gomez graced the event and treated 300 children from the city’s day care centers to the inaugural show, the launching of the erstwhile holiday attraction that used to dot the Greenhills Shopping Center. Manny Palmero
SEAFARER’S DAUGHTER AIMS FOR PH’S 2ND
MISS SUPRANATIONAL CROWN
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