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VOL. XXXIII • NO. 168 • 3 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P20 • THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2019 • www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com
SHOW OF HANDS. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi (center) poses with Vietnam’s Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh (left) and Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin— representing two countries with which China has issues—and other foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations during the ASEAN-China Ministerial Meeting in Bangkok on Wednesday. Vietnam and the Philippines have both issues with China. AFP
PH files new protest vs. China Over swarming of 113 Chinese ships around Pag-asa Island By Rey E. Requejo, Francisco Tuyay and Macon Ramos-Araneta
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HE Philippines has filed a diplomatic protest over the swarming of more than 100 Chinese ships near Pag-asa Island in the West Philippine Sea, as a top defense official acknowledged that Beijing outsmarted Manila in the Scarborough Shoal when Filipino forces pulled back in the stand-off in 2012.
“Diplomatic protest fired off,” Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said on his Twitter account as he retweeted a news item about the country’s plan to protest the swarming of 113 Chinese fishing vessels around Pag-asa Island (Thitu). Earlier, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon said the swarming activity could be a “dry run” for a plan to block resupply missions to the Philippineheld island. The DFA chief did not mention when was the protest was filed, but insiders said
the Philippine government has expressed its serious concern “both in writing and in face-to-face talks” with Chinese officials in Manila and in Beijing. National security officials and groups pushing to assert the country’s maritime interests in the West Philippine Sea have expressed concern over the recurring presence of a Chinese flotilla near Pag-asa Island, an area in the Spratlys that China also claims. Early this year, more than 200 Chinese vessels were sighted in the area. China’s Next page
SWARMING CRITICIZED.
This file photo, taken on April 21, 2017, shows Chinese boats anchored near their claimed reef Subi, as seen from the Philippine claimed island of Thitu (Pagasa) during the visit of Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana to the island in the Spratlys. The Philippines criticized Wednesday a fresh ‘swarming’ of Chinese vessels near Thitu in the disputed South China Sea, which a top official said could be aimed at preventing Filipino control of the outcrop. AFP
Red Cross presses for three-step Lotto suspension lifted; STL, Keno still in limbo MJ Blancaflor, Rey E. solution to stop dengue outrbreak ByRequejo and Macon RamosBy Macon Ramos-Araneta and Maricel V. Cruz THE Philippine Red Cross considers dengue a national emergency after the Department of Health declared a national alert over rising infections, the organization’s chairman, Senator Richard Gordon, said Wednesday. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III earlier noted an 86-percent increase in the number of dengue cases recorded from January to July. Gordon said as a first step, the PRC will provide adequate safe blood, having sent 165 bags to five hospitals in Iloilo and four in Capiz. The blood is given free to dengue-stricken persons who cannot afford it. A second step is to provide air-conditioned emergency medical tents to relieve hospitals that are overflowing with dengue patients. He said tents were deployed in Iloilo, Capiz, and Aklan. The PRC has PREPARING FOR THE WORST. done this before, the latest of which The overcrowded Dr. Rafael Tumbokon was during the measles epidemic earMemorial Hospital in Kalibo, Aklan, full of lier this year. dengue patients—some 3,000 starting from A third step is to involve the comJanuary to the present with recorded 15 munity with PRC chapters mobilizing deaths. Provincial hospital officials say they are 143 volunteers to track down dengue preparing for the worst and peak of dengue cases in August. Revoli Cortez
Araneta
LOTTO operations of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office resumed Wednesday after the agency lost P250 million in revenues during a four-day suspension, but its small town lottery and other gaming schemes remained closed. Malacañang lifted the suspension of lotto operations Tuesday night, but other
games such as STL, Keno and Peryahan ng Bayan would remain suspended as part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign against corruption. Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission head Greco Belgica said a lifestyle check will be conducted on former and incumbent officials of PCSO, including members of its board of directors, amid corruption issues hounding the agency. “We will be conducting a lifestyle
check against all of them,” Belgica said. Duterte ordered the suspension of PCSO games in a video message Friday night due to alleged “massive corruption” in the agency, closing 30,000 lotto and other gaming outlets nationwide. In a statement, the PCSO said the Lotto 6/42, Mega Lotto 6/45, Super Lotto 6/49, Grand Lotto 6/55, Ultra Lotto 6/58, 6 Digit Game, 4 Digit Game, Suertres Lotto, and EZ2 Lotto will resume. Next page
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Carpio nominated for CJ post By Rey E. Requejo SUPREME Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio has been nominated for the chief justice position once again after being bypassed for the position three times in the past. Carpio has been automatically nominated to the post be vacated by Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin upon reaching mandatory retirement age of 70 on Oct. 18 as one of the five next most senior SC justices in line. Still, under the rules of the Judicial and Bar Council, which is tasked to screen nominees to judicial posts, Carpio’s nomination is subject to acceptance or refusal by the senior magistrates. Besides Carpio, also nominated for the
EDSA bus ban: Test run slated THE dry run of the provincial bus ban along EDSA has been moved to 4 a.m. of Aug. 7, Metro Manila Development Authority general manager Jojo Garcia said. Next page
top judicial post are Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta, Estela Perlas-Bernabe, Marvic Leonen and Benjamin Caguioa. Carpio, who is also retiring from the judiciary on Oct. 26 or just one week after Bersamin’s retirement, has yet to decide whether or not to accept the nomination. Carpio was bypassed for the chief justice post thrice. He was the most senior magistrate of the high court during a vacancy in the top judicial post and was nominated for chief justice three times, but was not appointed by the appointing authority. He was bypassed in the appointments to the highest post of then associate justice Renato Corona in 2010, ousted chief justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno in 2012 and Bersamin last year. Next page
LET THE GAMES RESUME. Bettors flock to a PCSO (left) outlet on Wednesday to place their bets after President Rodrigo Duterte lifted the suspension of lotto operations. At right, PCSO general manager announces the resumption of Lotto games as she launched ‘Ipaalam kay GM’ Facebook page at the main office of the PCSO in Mandaluyong City. Manny Palmero/Norman Cruz
Du30 son to join NUP; solons realign Labor blocks ‘endo’ revisions By Maricel V. Cruz By Vito Barcelo
THE labor group Trade Union Congress of the Philippines said it was not in favor of revising the vetoed and already watered-down Security-of-Tenure bill to tailor-fit the whims and caprices of business and employers. “There should be no sudden, drastic shift in current labor relations in order to prepare all for the SOT reform,” Next page
Fly in Rody’s ointment? A FLY that interrupted his speech was working under the orders of priests, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte joked Tuesday, as he launched a new verbal attack on the country’s influential Catholic Next page Church.
THE President’s son, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte, will join the the National Unity Party, fueling talks that he may gun for the speakership once the 15 months tenure of Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano expires. Marinduque Rep. Lord Alan Velasco is supposed to succeed Cayetano in the last 21 months of the 18th Congress under the term sharing agreement brokered by President Rodrigo Duterte. A source said the President’s son
would take his oath next week as member of the NUP, that used to be called Kabalikat ng Mamamayang Pilipino, that propelled President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to the presidency. Arroyo and Senate President Vicente Sotto III founded the party in the 1990s. Meanwhile, the leadership of the House of Representatives said it would equally distribute positions as well as committee chairmanships and memberships among its members from various political parties, a House official said. Next page
Filipino script stirs up debate WITH deliberate golden strokes, artist Taipan Lucero proudly brings an ancient script back to life, in the hope of promoting an endangered but contentious part of the Philippines’ heritage. Once confined to history classes, Next page