US adds six China entities tied to balloon program to blacklist

THE US Commerce Department said Friday it has blacklisted six Chinese entities for supporting Beijing’s military modernization efforts, particularly relating to aerospace programs including airships and balloons.

The move came a day after US lawmakers unanimously denounced China’s use of a suspected spy balloon that flew over North America last week.

The balloon’s days-long flyover from Alaska to South Carolina captured the attention of regular Americans and officials, before the US military shot it down off the country’s east coast Saturday.

Companies added to the so-called Entity List are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization.

“The (People’s Republic of China’s)

FromtheFRONTPAGE

PH... and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Thursday, both leaders “expressed serious concern about the situation in the East and South China Seas and strongly opposed the actions including force or coercion that may increase tensions.”

“The two leaders also expressed concern for and strong opposition to economic coercion, and affirmed the importance of transparent, fair development finance,” Tokyo said in a press statement.

Both Mr. Marcos and Mr. Kishida have likewise agreed to strengthen Manila and Tokyo’s defense and security relations amid growing Chinese military pressure in the region.

Lawmakers have expressed openness to the proposed trilateral agreement, but said it has to be ratified by the Senate.

“This is nothing new as there had been a similar undertaking and the most recent of which was the Trilateral Cooperative Arrangement between Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, a regional commitment focused on measures to address maritime security threats and challenge,” said Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, chairman of the Senate defense and security committee.

Estrada said any agreement must “protect and promote our national interest.”

Sen. Francis Escudero said the planned tripartite agreement must

UN urges ceasefire in Syria after quake

THE United Nations rights chief called Friday for an immediate ceasefire in Syria to facilitate the delivery of aid to all victims of the region’s devastating earthquake.

“At this terrible time in Turkey and Syria, we call for urgent delivery of assistance to ALL in need,” the UN rights office said in a tweet.

“UN human rights chief Volker Turk calls for immediate ceasefire in Syria, and full respect for human rights and humanitarian law obligations so help can reach everyone,” it added.

The call came as rescue workers continued their search for survivors in the rubble of the 7.8 magnitude quake that hit Turkey and Syria on Monday, with the death toll approaching 24,000.

The UN security council will meet on Syria – likely early next week – according to Swiss envoy Pascale Baeriswyl, who initiated the meeting along with Brazil. The two non-permanent members are in charge of the Syria humanitarian file. AFP

Peru’s prexy seeks multiparty dialogue

PERUVIAN President Dina Boluarte on Friday called for a multiparty dialogue to help resolve her country’s political crisis, saying two months of sometimes deadly anti-government protests had left the nation a “fragile democracy.”

Then, at the end of the month, German Cardinal Gerhard Mueller published a book adding fuel to the fire. The former head of the Vatican’s powerful congregation for the doctrine of the faith denounced Francis’ “doctrinal confusion” and criticised the influence of a “magic circle” around him.

Mueller’s book caused consternation among some inside the Vatican.

“When you accept a cardinal’s cap, you agree to support and help the pope. Criticisms are made in private, not in public,” said one senior official in the Secretariat of State.

Pope Francis himself told reporters on his plane back from South Sudan last Sunday that his critics have “exploited” Benedict’s death to further their cause.

“And those who exploit such a good person, such a man of God... well I would say they are unethical people, they are people belonging to a party, not to the

Church,” he said.

Italian Vatican expert Marco Politi said Mueller’s book “is a new stage in the unstoppable escalation by the pope’s adversaries.”

“There is a civil war in the heart of the church which will continue until the last day of the papacy,” he told AFP.

The tensions come as the Catholic Church conducts a vast globalconsultation on its future, the “Synod on Synodality” launched by Pope Francis in 2021.

Designed to decentralize the governance of the church, it has revealedkey differences, with the German Catholic Church, for example, showing distinctly more appetite for reform than Rome.

Discussions include everything from the place of women in the churchto how to handle the scandal of child sex abuse, from whether priests should marry to how the Church welcomes LGBTQ believers. AFP

Boluarte became president on December 7, after her predecessor Pedro Castillo was impeached and arrested after attempting to dissolve Congress and rule by decree.

But since that day she has faced calls to resign by protesters also demanding fresh elections.

Demonstrations have at times turned violent and officials on Friday announced a new death, bringing the total number of people killed in clashes between security forces and protesters to 49. AFP

Turkey earthquake raises questions on building standards

THE apartments they once industriously spent so long saving up for, decorating and making comfortable now lie in a heap of rubble after a violent quake hit Turkey. New and old buildings, some constructed only six months ago, fell apart. Others flattened like concrete pancakes.

use of high-altitude balloons violates our sovereignty and threatens US national security,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan Estevez in a statement on Friday.

“Today’s action makes clear that entities that seek to harm US national security and sovereignty will be cut off from accessing US technologies,” he added.

The six companies include Beijing Nanjiang Aerospace Technology Co; China Electronics Technology Group Corporation 48th Research Institute; and Dongguan Lingkong Remote Sensing Technology Co.

The other three are Eagles Men Aviation Science and Technology Group Co.; Guangzhou Tian-Hai-Xiang Aviation Technology Co.; along with Shanxi Eagles Men Aviation Science and Technology Group Co. AFP be “formalized” in the form of a treaty that “should go through the process of ratification by the Senate as it involves not only the security of our country but the welfare and future of our people as well.”

“As the saying goes, ‘the devil is in the details’ and the more people look at and review it, the better for our country and people,” Escudero said.

Speaker Martin Romualdez, for his part, said the prospective Visiting Forces Agreement or similar pact between Manila and Tokyo is “a work in progress.”

“That’s ongoing...that’s what they call ‘a work in progress.’ So there’s always conversations along those lines. And lines of communications are very, very wide open especially after the visit,” said Romualdez, who is part of Mr. Marcos’ official delegation.

“We’re all in the same region and we’re all actually experiencing the same issues and concerns and the President always works multilaterally but that’s not without exception to having bilateral agreements, for instance, Philippines and Japan, or one that would somehow effect like a trilateral agreement.”

“When it comes to peace, stability, we all know these security arrangements are necessary because the stability in the region promotes prosperity, and that’s the bedrock of any strong economy,” Romualdez added.

SPEAKER... intended to help achieve the “Agenda for Prosperity” and the objectives of sustainable and inclusive growth through big-ticket infrastructure projects and other development programs of the government. According to Romualdez, the interest in the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund shown by the Japanese senior financial official is significant because he played a key role in setting up Indonesia’s own sovereign wealth fund known as INA or Indonesia Investment Authority.

Since its launch in February 2021 with an initial funding of $5 billion from the Indonesian government, INA has already raised more than $20 billion of coinvestments from other foreign parties by the end of 2022.

The Speaker said that according to the Japanese official, the growth prospect of the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund is “potentially higher” compared to INA.

“So that’s very good, that we’re getting support [for the Maharlika Investment Fund],” he said.

In December last year, the House approved the bill creating the Maharlika Investment Fund, with around 90 percent of the chamber’s members supporting the passage of the measure principally authored by Romualdez.

“Over 70 countries have it and the batting average is over 90 percent successful. It’s what they call international best practices to have one and that’s why we’re fortunate that we in Congress were able to pass it this fast,” the Speaker said. The Senate is currently deliberating on its own version of the Maharlika Investment Fund bill.

PBBM:... because it is "setting down the blueprint" for the two nations' relations as they lay out their recovery plans from the COVID-19 pandemic.

"They have supported our agriculture, they have supported our attempts at making the digitalization of the Philippines a more widespread phenomenon,” Mr. Marcos said.

One of the Japanese firms that sought to expand their operations in the Philippines is Marubeni Corp., a major integrated trading and investment business conglomerate.

Marubeni officials, led by chief executive officer Masumi Kakinoki, reaffirmed their partnership with the Philippines in a meeting with Mr. Marcos in Tokyo.

“In addition to the traditional generation system, we are very much committed to increase renewable energy like mini hydro, solar and wind project and we are discussing with your country, our local partner to develop such kind of new facilities,” Kakinoki told Mr. Marcos.

On Friday, Mr. Marcos also welcomed the plan of Japanese carmaker Toyota to bring back the Tamaraw model in the Philippine market.

In his meeting with Toyota executives, President Marcos said the Tamaraw has been a dependable utility transport for many years for Filipinos.

"Many of the Tamaraws you've recently built are still on the road," the chief executive told the officials of the Japanese carmaker, who described the Toyota Tamaraw as the company's "workhorse."

QUAKE... Tezcan,” the Philippine Embassy in Ankara said Saturday.

Information on the second fatality, on the other hand, has yet to be released.

For its part, the special team from the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority has started its rescue and retrieval mission in Turkey.

The MMDA Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team arrived in Sakarya Road in

The full extent of the damage is unknown from Monday’s 7.8-magnitude tremor and ceaseless aftershocks, which unleashed catastrophe in Turkey and Syria, killing more than 23,000 people.

Turkey’s death toll rises every day. In parallel, so has fury over why, in a country with multiple fault lines and a history of major jolts, building quality is so poor that buildings fall apart like paper.

Experts say Turkey has the regulations in place to prevent such a catastrophe. But they are only applied loosely by construction companies, the largest of which are often close to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Officials say 12,141 buildings were either destroyed or seriously damaged in Turkey.

Since the first quake was so huge, “damage was to be expected, but not the type of damage that you are seeing now”, said Mustafa Erdik, a professor at Istanbul-based Bogazici University. AFP

Adiyaman Province over the weekend, carrying a life locator machine that has the ability to detect if there is a person or object moving even 45-feet deep in the rubble.

Amid the destruction and death, survivors continue to emerge.

"Is the world there?" asked 70-yearold Menekse Tabak as she was pulled out from the rubble in the southern city of Kahramanmaras – the epicenter of Monday's 7.8-magnitude tremor – to applause and cries praising God, according to a video shared on state broadcaster TRT Haber.

In southern Hatay, a two-year-old girl was found alive 123 hours after the quake, reported the Hurriyet daily online, adding to numerous children saved long after the disaster, and a pregnant woman who was found on Friday.

Meanwhile, in southern Turkey, families clutched each other in grief at a cotton field that has been transformed into a cemetery, with an endless stream of bodies arriving for swift burial. AFP with Joel Zurbano

5 SOLDIERS... Support Battalion, shooting and killing four soldiers while they were sleeping and wounding two others.

The suspect was also killed by responding fellow soldiers, identified as Private Mark Anthony Aguined and Private 1st Class Joseph Estrada. 4th ID spokesperson Maj. Francisco Garello said that the suspect used an Army-issued M16 assault rifle.

“We assure the public that this is an isolated incident. This will not have any impact on our operations,” Garello said.