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VOL. XXXIII • NO. 243 • 3 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P18 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2019 • www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com
REVERENTIAL SALUTE. PNP chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde (second from right), and top police generals–Lt. Gen. Camilo Cascolan (right), Lt. Gen. Archie Gamboa (second from left), and Maj. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar (left)–execute a snappy salute during the flag-raising ceremony at Camp Crame Monday. Albayalde resigned Monday following allegations in a Senate hearing he intervened as a provincial chief in 2013 to prevent officers from being prosecuted for allegedly selling a huge quantity of illegal drugs. PNP Photo
DUTERTE TO ALBAYALDE: GO ON TERMINAL LEAVE
PNP chief gives up post • Senate won’t let him off the hook; • Gamboa is OIC
ASF-control measures set; protocol holds
By Macon Ramos-Araneta, Orlan L. Mauricio, Francisco Tuyay and Maricel V. Cruz
By Rio N. Araja
D
THE Philippines, hit recently by the dreaded African swine fever, has approved deflecting measures, including movement controls for pigs and pork products as well as surveillance on live hog transport, to check the spread of the frightening fever. Agriculture Secretary William Dar himself has said “We must step up our surveillance and monitoring of transport of live pigs as well as pork products.” This, after President Rodrigo Duterte and his Cabinet on Oct. 11 approved a
ESPITE his resignation, Philippine National Police chief Oscar Albayalde is not yet off the hook, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said Monday.
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Palace snipes at traffic critics By MJ Blancaflor THE President’s spokesman on Monday urged critics to send proposals to solve the traffic crisis in Metro Manila instead of nitpicking on the Duterte administration. At the same time, Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo rejected a lawmaker’s proposal to require public officials to take public transportation Next page
LAST CEREMONY. Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin (middle) attends Monday his last flag-raising ceremony at the Supreme Court, four days before he officially retires on Friday. Bersamin, from Abra and the 25th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, graduated from the University of the East College of Law in 1973, placed 9th in the 1973 bar exams with an average of 86.3 percent. Norman Cruz
Chief Justice bows out of office: No regrets By Rey E. Requejo “I HAVE faithfully served the people,” Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin said in a speech during his last flagraising ceremony at the Supreme Court on Monday, four days before he reaches the mandatory retirement age
of 70 on Oct. 18. As he bows out on Friday after 30 years in the judiciary serving in various capacities, including his 11-month stint as Chief Justice, Bersamin urged the Supreme Court’s officials and employees to remain loyal to the Constitution and to the rule of law.
“As that moment draws near, I experience a deep sense of personal satisfaction, no regrets,” Bersamin said and thanked his colleagues and the court employees for their support. Bersamin said he had “done everything within the bounds of the law” to Next page make his office accessible.
House delivers on Duterte agenda spite the hotly contested speakership race―and rumblings over the weekHOUSE leaders delivered President Rod- end that the term-sharing deal between rigo Duterte’s legislative agenda after House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and processing 220 measures in 20 session Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco days, House Majority Leader and Leyte would be scuttled. Rep. Martin Romualdez said Monday. Those measures, said Romualdez as They approved the measures deNext page
By Maricel V. Cruz
Three economists win Nobel Prize MOTHER’S EYES. A mother has her eyes keen as a health worker (right) administers polio vaccine on her child during a vaccination drive in Manila on Monday. The campaign aims to boost immunization coverage against the disease to all children five years old and below. The Philippines detected last month its first case of polio since 2001. AFP
STOCKHOLM—A trio of American economists on Monday won the Nobel Economics Prize for their work in the fight against poverty, including with new approaches in education and healthcare, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said. Next page
“His continued stay as PNP chief has become untenable. His resignation ahead of his mandatory retirement, however, will not in any way clear him from his liability, both administratively or criminally, in connection with the Pampanga ninja cops issue,” Drilon said, referring to allegations that Albayalde intervened to stop the dismissal of 13 of his policemen accused of keeping 160 kilos of shabu from a drug raid for resale. Albayalde, who took over the PNP in April 2018, was set to retire by Nov. 8 but announced his immediate resignation Monday at the flag ceremony in Camp Crame, his last days in office tainted by controversy. In an exclusive interview with ABSCBN News, Albayalde said stepping down was the “best decision to protect Next page
Locsin apologizes for Mao tweets By Rey E. Requejo FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. has apologized to Beijing for a series of tweets ridiculing the late Chairman Mao Zedong, revered as the founder of the socialist People’s Republic of China. “My profound apologies to the People’s Republic of China, the Communist Party responsible for its unprecedented achievements and Ambassador Zhao [Jianhua,] for using the Great Helmsman’s name in vain,” Locsin tweeted on Sunday. All this revisionism makes me—as the first defender of “Red China”— forget my admiration,” he added. Next page