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SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2019
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No Andaya plea on Malampaya of the case that led it to file a suit in court. The Ombudsman earlier opposed Andaya’s plea for the Sandiganbayan to dismiss the graft and malversation charges filed against him in connection with the alleged P900-million Malampaya fund scam. In an opposition filed on April 10, Ombudsman prosecutors said Andaya’s motion for reconsideration should be denied as the plea was filed beyond the five-day period reglementary period stated under the Guidelines for Continuous Trial. Andaya earlier filed a motion to dismiss the cases but the anti-graft court denied his plea, prompting Andaya to
file a motion for reconsideration in late March. But even if Andaya filed the motion on time, the Ombudsman said it should still be dismissed “based on the merits.” In his motion for reconsideration, Andaya said the information containing the 97 counts each of graft and malversation through falsification filed against him are “fatally defective” as they failed to show how he participated in the scheme. The court, however, has already ruled on the validity of the charges, saying all matters on the alleged role of Andaya in the scheme are best presented during the trial, the Ombudsman said.
international community and the global audience. The Philippines is a sovereign state, undeserving of any intrusion by any country, under whatever disguised lofty principle it advances,” Panelo said. Duterte was widely criticized for his war on illegal drugs because thousands of drug suspects—including children— were killed during police operations. “The resolution demonstrates how the Western powers are scornful of our sovereign exercise of protecting our people from the scourge of prohibited drugs that threaten to destroy the fabric of our society. Their intrusive abuse is patent and condemnable. It smacks of politicization designed to force our free state to be subservient to their imagined superiority,” Panelo said. Panelo also questioned the validity of the resolution, claiming that most of the members of UNHRC were “not really convinced” about the need for an investigation. “The subject resolution not only was not unanimously adopted, but it didn’t even get a simple majority of the 47 countries. The voting is not decisive in its favor. Only 18 countries out of the 47 member-countries voted for the resolution. A simple majority would have been 24,” Panelo said. “This means that majority of the members are not really convinced of the resolution calling for the investigation of the so-called extrajudicial killings in our country,” he added. But a local human rights group said that an independent investigation on the human rights violations committed in the country is “long overdue.” “This is not a numbers game, as what this callous government tries to reason out. This systematic and state-perpe-
trated butchering of the Filipino people has reached international concern, and the clamor for change will only echo louder from here on,” Karapatan secretary-general Cristina Palabay said. “We reiterate that this is not an issue of sovereignty, but of accountability,” she added. The Commission on Human Rights in the Philippines also supported the UNHRC resolution and urged the government to allow and cooperate with a thorough, transparent and independent investigation into the alleged human rights abuses. “It must show both the international community and our own people that it is willing and able to hold perpetrators to account, to protect all human rights defenders, to stop the killings, and to end impunity,” the commission said in a statement. Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said if everything is aboveboard, the government has nothing to worry about. “Let’s project statesmanship and maturity as a country. Let’s keep an open mind, not shut doors to international bodies objectively looking into the issue,” Drilon said. “We will rise to the challenge and the challenge is to improve the human rights situation in the country,” he said. Instead of imputing malice on a legitimate action performed by highly respected organizations such as the UNHRC, Drilon said the government must be able to show strong resolve to address the issue. Senator Panfilo Lacson, on the other hand, said the Philippines can manage without the intervention of the UNHRC.
jailing of activists in China and Vietnam and the murder of reporters in Mexico. “If we act together we can shine a spotlight on abuses and impose a diplomatic price on those who would harm journalists or lock them up for doing their jobs,” he said. The London conference, co-hosted with Canada, brings together 60 ministers and around 1,500 journalists,
activists and academics from 100 different countries. The hosts are hoping for pledges about action to protect press freedom and cooperation between states on responding to specific cases. Britain and Canada want to create a group of “like-minded countries to lobby in unison where media freedom comes under attack,” Hunt told a press conference. AFP with PNA
not intended to attack the congressmen but a call to protect the Constitution. Congressmen, Gordon said, should not have involved the President in deciding who would be the next House Speaker. He said House members should have and keep their independence as an institution. “Why did they force the President to interfere? Whoever won there would follow the President. That’s classic compromise,” said Gordon. “Maybe they just want inner peace within their institution that’s why they let the President decide,” he added. He said the separation of powers should be respected so that there would be a system of checks and balances.
The three branches of the government, which are the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial, Gordon pointed out should not meddle with each other’s roles. “If I were a congressman, I would never ask the President to do that. But I would be very happy to see the termsharing succeed later,” said Gordon. The announcement about the termsharing came during the oathtaking ceremony of newly appointed officials in Malacañang on July 8. With this arrangement, Cayetano will serve 15 months of the 18th Congress, while Velasco will serve the remaining 21 months. Meanwhile, Romualdez will be the House majority leader.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, working with Facebook’s AI initiative, announced Thursday that their program defeated a group of top pros in six-player no-limit Texas hold ‘em. The program, Pluribus, and its big wins were described in the US journal Science. “Pluribus achieved superhuman performance at multi-player poker, which
is a recognized milestone in artificial intelligence and in game theory,” said Tuomas Sandholm, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon. Sandholm worked with Noam Brown, who is working at Facebook AI while completing his doctorate at the Pittsburgh-based university. “Thus far, superhuman AI milestones in strategic reasoning have been limited to two-party competition,” Sandholm said in a statement released by the school.
According to the creators of Pluribus, the technology could be used to solve a “wide variety of real-world problems” that, like in poker, involve actors who bluff, or hide key information. The program first defeated two major poker champions, Darren Elias and Chris Ferguson, who each played 5,000 hands against it. Pluribus then took on 13 pros in a separate experiment, five at a time. In a total of 10,000 hands, the program “emerged victorious,” researchers said. AFP
even if it is true. It’s like the story of the boy who cried wolf,” Lorenzana said in a message to reporters. In a related development: The Philippine National Police has cited the need for lawmakers to understand the need to support measures that will enhance its capability to secure the country against the threat of terrorism. PNP chief Oscar Albayalde said this after President Rodrigo Duterte asked the police and the military to be prepared for “dangerous times ahead”. Citing the case of the first suicide bombing perpetrated by a Filipino in
Sulu last June 28, the PNP chief said he had earlier warned Congress to prepare for these situations. “I have been telling that [scenario] to Congress that we really have to prepare for this. I think no less than the President said that there are dangerous times ahead it’s because he foresees these kinds of global terrorism will not end in few years time,” Albayalde told reporters on the sidelines of a gun show in Mandaluyong City. Earlier, the Armed Forces of the Philippines said it had yet to receive information regarding the Egyptian terror couple. PNA
By Maricel V. Cruz
F
ORMER Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. on Friday refused to enter any plea on 97 counts of graft and malversation of public funds, respectively, in connection with the P900-million Malampaya fund scam, saying he had a pending petition before the Supreme Court. Andaya’s action prompted the Sandiganbayan’s Third Division to enter a not guilty plea for him. In his petition for certiorari before the Supreme Court, Andaya accused government prosecutors of grave abuse of
discretion in filing the multiple criminal charges against him. Andaya’s a petition for certiorari came with a prayer for a temporary restraining order to stop the trial because of certain defects in the Ombudsman’s appreciation
Carpio,... From A1
Rody... From A1
Filipinos believe the government should assert the country’s right to disputed islands in the West Philippine Sea. At a forum Friday, Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario were particularly concerned over President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to set aside the July 12, 2016 decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that ruled in favor of the Philippines against China’s excessive claims in the South China Sea. “The claim that enforcing the arbitral award means going to war with China, a war the Philippines will surely lose, is utterly false claim, designed to intimidate the Filipino people to submit to the will of China,” Carpio said during a forum on the West Philippine Sea at the UP Bonifacio Global City Auditorium. The Integrated Bar of the Philippines on Friday also said it stood by its petition with the Supreme Court seeking to compel the government to protect the marine resources in the West Philippine Sea. The statement came as fishermen removed their names from the petition, saying they were being used for political reasons. This caused the Office of the Solicitor General to move to have the case dismissed. Del Rosario lamented that the government has done nothing to implement the arbitral award and instead it allowed China to deprive the Filipinos of what is theirs by continuing to shelve the tribunal’s decision. “We are still succumbing to threats of force including threat of war,” Del Rosario said, noting that “war is not even a good option for China” as its economy is heavily reliant on global trade.
community. Duterte said the countries criticizing him believed the claims of Senator Leila De Lima, a vocal critic of the President’s war on drugs. De Lima, while she was still Justice secretary in the previous Aquino administration, revealed that Duterte is behind a vigilante group murdering people involved in illegal drugs. “They believe hook line and sinker, that De Lima,” the President said. “I’m asking human rights people. Is it wrong to say, ‘If you destroy my country, I will kill you?’” Duterte said. In a statement, Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said the resolution proposed by Iceland before the UNHRC was “grotesquely one-sided” and “maliciously partisan.” “It reeks of nauseating politics completely devoid of respect for the sovereignty of our country, even as it is bereft of the gruesome realities of the drug menace in the country,” he said. His statement came after the UNHRC narrowly adopted the Iceland-proposed resolution to investigate the deaths related to the government’s campaign against illegal drugs. Eighteen member states backed the resolution while 14 opposed it. Fifteen abstained. The resolution requests the UNHRC to present a comprehensive report on the human rights situation in the Philippines amid the anti-narcotics crackdown. “Evidently, the resolution was designed to embarrass the Philippines before the
POGOs... From A1 Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente made the announcement following the joint memorandum circular on the Rules and Procedures Governing Foreign Nationals Intending to Work in the Philippines signed by Immigration, the Department of Labor and Employment and the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Senator Joel Villanueva said Friday POGOs were growing but they were actually less beneficial to the domestic economy. He said the POGOs were causing a lot of stress in the real estate market to the detriment of Filipino businesses and workers renting in the urban areas to be near their workplaces. “With the way developments in the industry are unfolding, we fear that we are becoming the sin city of China with very little benefit to Filipinos and our economy,” Villanueva said in a statement. The offshore gaming operations delivered P11.9 billion in revenues from 2016 to 2018 with P8 billion more expected in 2019, Domingo told the PhilAsian Gaming Expo, a three-day event billed as Asia’s largest gaming expo. Addressing POGO operators in the crowd, Domingo said: “We are offshore gaming operators in the Philippines. We are legal. We ensure fair play. We do not run away from losing bets and we are here to stay.” Vito Barcelo and Macon Ramos-Araneta
Rumors... From A1 Aside from causing undue alarm, the DND chief said the frequent release of such unverified reports have the tendency to make people skeptical and could make them ignore legitimate information on such matter. “It is unverified news like this that unduly alarm the public. The down side is that if this happens often enough na hindi naman totoo (that it is not true), time will come when the people become inured to the news and will not believe
Diplomatic... From A1 “We are currently reviewing the CCTV footage that captured the crime,” Birrey told Radio Station DXND. Hunt, who is battling Boris Johnson to become Britain’s next leader, raised the murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the
Duterte... From A1 for Speaker. “Nope. The chat was before the suggestion of the term-sharing,” he said. In recent days, the Chief Executive announced that Taguig-Pateros Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano would share a term with Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco as leaders of the lower chamber. In the Senate, Senator Richard J. Gordon branded as “clear compromise” the term-sharing for the Speakership at the House of Representatives as declared by Duterte. He clarified that his statement was
AI program... From A1
Swarm... From A1 A video posted by Yahoo through the In The Know channel showed the jellyfish, locally known as “baso-baso” (glass-like or cup-like), floating in clumps in shallow water. The exact location of the beach in Samar was not specified in the video, which was captured by an underwater drone as it glided through the swarms. The website Newsflare, which first showed the video, said the footage
IN BRIEF Recto: Specify works using road users' tax
THE proposed 2020 national budget must comply with the Road Board abolition law, which requires all projects funded by motor registration fees be specified in the annual General Appropriations Act, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said Friday. In a statement, Recto reminded the executive branch to make sure that next year’s spending bill will be in accordance with Republic Act 11239, which President Rodrigo Duterte signed last April 8. RA 11239 abolished the Road Board and decreed that all Motor Vehicle User’s Charge collections be remitted to the National Treasury and placed in a special account in the General Fund. Monies under the account will be “earmarked solely for the construction, upgrading, repair, and rehabilitation of roads, bridges, and road drainage to be included in the annual GAA,” states the law. “This is the very important sunshine provision in the law abolishing the Road Board. It means that projects funded by MVUC must be itemized and presented, in the interest of transparency, as MVUCfunded projects,” Recto said. “That’s the way to do it. Full disclosure. So that vehicle owners will know where the registration fees they have paid will go,” the senator added.
Sandigan suspends Cotabato governor
THE Sandiganbayan’s Sixth Division has imposed a 90-day suspension against Cotabato Gov. Nancy Catamco in connection with the fertilizer fund scam. In a seven-page decision, the anti-graft court said “Section 13 [of the anti-graft law] is so clear that there is hardly room for any extended court rationalization of the law.” “The law unequivocally mandates the suspension of a public official from office pending a criminal prosecution….. Such preventive suspension is mandatory, and there are no ifs and buts about it,” the Sandigan decision added. The court also ordered the Department of Interior and Local Government to enforce the suspension order. Catamco and her former husband, Pompey Perez, were accused of “conspiracy to defraud the municipal government of Poro with the anomalous purchase of P5 million worth of Vitacrop liquid organic fertilizer” in 2004. At the time, Catamco was not yet a public official and was going by the name Nancy Perez. Ombudsman prosecutors alleged that the transaction was irregular due to lack of public bidding and the supplier, Perzebros Co. represented by the Perezes, was ineligible, being barely two months old at the time of the transaction. Investigators also hinted at overpricing in the transaction, noting that Poro town was made to pay P1,500 per bottle of fertilizer when the actual price was supposedly only P408 per bottle, or an overprice of P1,092 per bottle. Maricel V. Cruz
Koko: Don't call separation 'divorce'
SENATOR Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel II said Friday he will support the approval of a law that would allow couples to separate as long as the separation was not called “divorce.” “If what we’re after is a remedy for a married couple with irreconcilable differences, let us look for this remedy,” Pimentel said. “But [let’s] give it another name. I would be open to that. For example, dissolution of marriage.” Pimentel, whose marriage to former Binibining Pilipinas-Universe Jewel May Lobaton was annulled last year, believes couples in failed marriages should have the legal means to regain happiness. The House of Representatives passed a divorce bill during the 17th Congress, but its counterpart bill in the Senate was left to die a natural death in committee. Even before the 17th Congress, several lawmakers had made similar attempts to approve a divorce bill during the 14th, 15th and 16th Congress, but all failed. As a result, Senator Risa Hontiveros filed another divorce proposal in the Senate saying spouses in failed marriages, particularly women, should be given all the chances to find true and meaningful relationships and build nurturing families. Hontiveros’ focus was on women trapped in abusive relationships, but she acknowledged her bill would meet stiff opposition as the other lawmakers had experienced when they filed divorce proposals starting in the 13th Congress in 2005. Hontiveros said a divorce law would give freedom to many Filipinos, allowing them to build new lives and show real respect for family and marriage. Macon Ramos-Araneta
was captured on July 4. It quoted the drone owner as saying: “We got out of the water when they started approaching the shore.” “I’m still trying to determine if this event is natural or anthropogenic,” the filmer, who was not identified, told Newsflare. Thimble jellyfish (Linuche unguiculata) is a tiny jellyfish with a straight-sided, flat-topped bell. They are the most common cause of sea bather’s eruption, which is a reaction caused by the injection of juvenile jellyfish nematocysts into human skin. Jimbo Gulle