ENTERTAINMENT / D3
VOL. XXXIII • NO. 94 • 4 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P18 • SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2019 • www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com
COMELEC: WINNERS' PROCLAMATION RESET
Rita Daniela
FUN TRIP WITH STRANGERS IN 'SUMMER SQUAD GOALS'
NARCO-POLS FAR FROM BEING CLEARED By Maricel V. Cruz AT LEAST 25 local officials on the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency’s drug list who won in the elections could no longer invoke the doctrine of condonation should they be charged by the PDEA for drug-related offenses. The local officials won although their names were made known by President Rodrigo Duterte and anti-illegal drugs authorities. The doctrine of condonation had been used by hundreds of elective officials who were charged in court but who won elections while their cases were pending resolution. Thus, the politicians on the narco-list can no longer invoke the doctrine of condonation to have charges that may be filed against them dropped. The election victory of 25 of the 46 politicians implicated in the drug trade Turn to A2
DOLE MULLS OVER RECALL OF ATTACHÉS
By Vito Barcelo
MUSEUM DAY. A young man is lost in thoughts while looking Saturday at the Spoliarium,
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SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2019
News
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DFA WARNS VS. ILLEGAL RECRUITERS
3 OFWS HOSTAGED IN LIBYA FREED By Joel E. Zurbano
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THE Department of Foreign Affairs has warned the public unscrupulous individuals who are operating a recruitment network in Pampanga and Pasay City in the Philippines, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Erbil in Iraq who are offering vacancies abroad for household service workers. The DFA issued the warning after eight more trafficking victims are secured by the Philippine Embassy in Baghdad last month. According to the official statements gathered by the DFA from trafficking victims from July 2018 to March 2019, the recruiters will usually offer jobs in Dubai, Turkey or European cities, promising applicants that their visas to these cities will be available during their transit in Iraq. Earlier this year, a trafficking victim detained at Basra Prison was finally released for deportation but only after three months of detention for visa violations. She came to Iraq using a Kurdistan visit visa which was not valid for her stay in Basra. Filipinos who are residing, working, or vacationing in Iraq are advised to take note that their Kurdistan visas will not be valid in Baghdad, Basra or other provinces in Iraq outside of the Kurdistan provinces of Erbil, Duhok and Sulaymaniyah. Filipinos who encounter job offers abroad especially vacancies for household service workers are reminded of the early warning signs of fraud namely: applicants are not provided copies of their visas to the intended destination; vague information regarding the nature and conditions of the work offered by the recruitment agency; applicants are not in control of their own identification documents such as IDs or passport, and are advised to claim to authorities that he or she is just a tourist visiting a particular city; the agency has no permanent address, and their agents do not reveal their full names and contact details; and applicants are told there is no Philippine Embassy in Iraq and they must coordinate with particular individuals in case of emergencies.
HREE Filipino civil engineers who have been freed on Friday following months of captivity in Libya have finally returned home.
RAISE BUYING PRICE FOR PALAY, NFA TOLD By Maricel V. Cruz A MILITANT legislator on Saturday urged the National Food Authority to raise its buying price for palay to P20 per kilo from the present P18 in drought-stricken areas. “We call on the government to control the farmgate price of palay in calamity areas, to protect the farmers from profiteering and exploitation of traders,” Anakpawis party-list Rep. Ariel Casilao said. Casilao said the extended dry spell has resulted in the destruction of at least P8 billion worth of crops.
He lamented that farmers have suffered enough from the impact of the dry spell and underpricing by private traders of palay harvests on calamity areas. “The government has reported dwindling farmgate price across the country falling as P18.87 per kilo this April, from P20.55 last year. Farmers reported depressed farmgate prices such as in Nueva Ecija P13 to P14 per kilo, Isabela at P16, Laguna at P14 to 15, and South Cotabato at P14 per kilo,” Casilao said. Forty-three local government units have already declared a state
of calamity because of the dry spell. “The government should also enforce control of the retail price of rice in calamity-stricken areas, to ease the impact of the loss of livelihood of farmers and other sectors relying on agriculture,” Casilao added. He said the retail price of rice should be at most P38 per kilo if based on the average farmgate price. “Why are we finding rice being sold at P40 and higher? Palay prices are already falling down, on top of the impact of the drought, and the government has yet to decisively act on the prices,” he said.
The freed hostages, whose n a m es we re w i t h h e l d by t h e Department of Foreign Affairs, arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Saturday morning on board Philippine Airlines Flight PR-0659. Manila International Airport Authority chief information officer Connie Bungag said the three were accompanied by Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates Hjayceelyn Quintana when they arrived at the airport. Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. welcomed the three engineers at the airport. “We are glad that we are able to bring them home alive and safe to their families. These Filipinos coming home to their families are living proof that the Department of Foreign Affairs will never leave a Filipino in danger behind,” he said. Locsin also thanked the United Arab Emirates and other countries for their “intensive efforts” that resulted in the release of the three Filipinos who were held hostage along with a South Korean colleague in July 2018. The DFA, through the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs, shouldered their airline tickets to Manila and provided them with cash assistance. The United Arab Emirates worked closely with the self-styled Libyan National Army led by commander Khalifa Hifter for the release of the four hostages. The four are civilian engineers who were working at a desalinization plant in Libya. The three Filipino engineers and their South Korean colleague were taken by armed men from the project site of the Great Man-Made River Project in the southern part of Libya on July 6, 2018. The four were initially airlifted to Abu Dhabi before being taken to their home countries.
CONGRESS WANTS NATIONAL BOAT THE House of Representatives wants the balangay, otherwise known as the Butuan Boat, to be declared as the national boat of the Philippines. House Bill No. 7070, authored by Reps. Lawrence Lemuel Fortun of Agusan del Norte and Ramon Durano IV of Cebu, has been approved on third and final reading. “The balangay, otherwise known as the Butuan Boat including all similar boats that may be discovered later elsewhere in the country, is hereby declared as the National Boat of the Philippines,” the bill stated. Fortun, vice chairman of the House committee on ecology, said the balangay was the first-ever wooden watercraft to be excavated in Southeast Asia, demonstrating early Fili-
pino boar-building genius and seamanship expertise during the pre-colonial times. He said the Butuan Boat, found only in the Philippines where a flotilla of such ancient boats exists, was used by Filipino ancestors to maintain trade relations with neighboring islands around the country and empire around Southeast Asia. This extensive use of the balangay for trade confirms that Filipino ancestors were actively involved in the robust commercial activities in Asia as early as the 10th and 11th centuries, he added Fortun said the balangay, from which the word barangay is derived, is a symbol of the Filipino community’s character of unity, cooperation, determination and resilience. Maricel V. Cruz
File photo shows a traditional Philippine wooden boat known as ‘balangay’ setting sail from Manila to China on April 28, 2018. AFP
MISSION TO MARS NEXT —TRUMP
WASHINGTON—On Dec. 11, 2017, US President Donald Trump signed a directive ordering NASA to prepare to return astronauts to the Moon “followed by human missions to Mars and other destinations.” The dates fixed by the space agency are 2024 for the Moon and Mars in 2033, but according to experts and industry insiders, reaching the Red Planet by then is highly improbable barring a Herculean effort on the scale of the Apollo program in the 1960s. “The Moon is the proving ground for our eventual mission to Mars,” NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said at a conference this week. “The Moon is our path to get to Mars in the fastest, safest way possible. That’s why we go to the Moon.” According to Robert Howard, who heads up the lab developing future space habitats at the legendary Johnson Space Center in Houston, the hurdles aren’t so much technical or scientific as much as a question of budget and political will. “A lot of people want us to have an Apollo moment, and have a president stand up like Kennedy and say, we’ve got to do it and the entire country comes together,” he said. AFP
ECO-FRIENDLY SCHOOL CLEANUP PUSHED
‘YOSI KADIRI’ IS BACK. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III (2nd from left) and Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez (2nd from right) do the ‘fist pose’ with the ‘Yosi Kadiri’ mascot in a joint press conference on sin tax at the Department of Finance office in Manila on May 17. PNA
ENVIRONMENTALIST group Eco- waste Coalition on Saturday urged participants in the Brigada Eskwela program to ensure the school cleanup, repair and renovation activities are done in an eco-friendly manner. Brigada Eskwela is an annual weeklong school maintenance activity initiated by the Department of Education to help ensure that public elementary and high schools nationwide will be ready in time for the school opening. Teachers, parents, pupils, civic groups, volunteer and even police and military personnel picked up brooms, paint brushes, washed walls and started cleaning the surroundings and classrooms in public schools nationwide. “We laud the yearly conduct of the DepEd-led Brigada Eskwela, which is an excellent expression of the timeless Filipino bayanihan spirit,” said Ecowaste
done in oil on canvas (4.22 m × 7.675 m) by Juan Luna of Badoc, Ilocos Norte. The painting, done in 1884, has bloody carcasses of slave gladiators being dragged away from the arena where they had entertained their Roman oppressors with their lives... stripped to satisfy the lewd contempt of their Roman persecutors with their honor....” This is among highlights of the 11th anniversary of the National Museum which coincides with International Museum Day, with officials saying more than a million have visited the museum since it opened to the public on May 18 last year. Norman Cruz
chemical safety campaignerThony Dizon. “As stakeholders partake in this outstanding voluntary effort, we urge them to avoid practices that tend to generate more trash and pollution such as mixed waste disposal, open burning and dumping, and the use of leaded paints and hazardous cleaning agents,” he added. The group also asked winning and losing candidates to “quietly” help in the program as a way of thanking the public for their support in the recently concluded midterm polls. “In lieu of post-election ‘thank you’ tarpaulins, we invite well-meaning politicians to join, without fanfare, school cleanup activities or donate Brigada Eskwela essentials such as brooms and broomsticks, dust pans, rags, soaps, buckets, non-mercury LED lamps, and lead-safe paints,” Dizon said.
The group offered the following eco-tips for the cleanup, which are also in line with government policies and regulations. • Observe the proper segregation of discards at source to facilitate their recycling or composting, and to minimize the volume of garbage for disposal; • Do not set trash on fire to prevent the generation of environmental pollutants such as fine particles, heavy metals and dioxins; • Compost biodegradable discards such as yard trimmings to produce natural fertilizer or soil enhancer for the school garden; • Clean up the school’s Materials Recovery Facility (MRF), also known as Ecology Center, including the containers or segregators for properlylabeled recyclable and compostable discards. Joel E. Zurbano
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LABOR Secretary Silvestre Bello III is considering the possibility of withdrawing Philippine labor attachés in Canada due to an escalating row over the tons of garbage dumped in the Philippines. The Labor secretary, who made the threat over a radio interview, however, said he was still studying the recall of labor attaches, if the relationship with Canada would not improve. “This is not just the issue over trash but the connection to the dignity of our country,” he said. “If it’s just trash, why doesn’t Canada just take it back? First of all, bringing the trash here is wrong. We are not a garbage dump. That’s not right.,” Bello said. Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin earlier ordered the recall of diplomats in Canada after the said country missed the May 15 deadline to retrieve the waste. Turn to A2
By Vito Barcelo
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HE Commission on Elections on Saturday said the proclamation of senatorial winners initially planned for today would not push through.
Frances Arabe, director of the COMELEC’s education and information department, made the announcement in a press conference where she said canvassing had yet to be completed, with 17 certificates of canvass still remaining. The remaining COCs are from Lanao del Sur; Isabela; Zamboanga del Norte; Zamboanga del Sur; Washington, DC; Japan; Saudi Arabia; Kuwait; Oslo; Abuja, Nigeria; Nairobi; and Tehran. The NBOC has so far canvassed 149 out of 167 certificates. “The scheduled announcement made yesterday will not facebook.com/ ManilaStandardPH
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push through [on Sunday]. We are not ready to proclaim yet so the schedule will be announced [later]. Depends if we will be able to finish all the COCs tomorrow,” she said. She added the Comelec had coordinated with the candidates leading the senatorial race. As of Friday night, senators Cynthia Villar and Grace Poe topped the COMELEC’s partial and official tally with 23,610,580 and 20,711,849 votes, respectively. Meanwhile, various militant group, led by Sanlakas and Partido Lakas ng Masa senatorial Turn to A2 manilastandard.net
FROM THE VATICAN. The secretariat presents the ballot box with its contents from Vatican City to the National Board of Canvassers. The canvassing of votes for senators and party-list groups is continuing, with COMELEC officials saying proclamation may happen between Sunday and Tuesday. Norman Cruz
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