Hontiveros: 3 firms in sugar smuggling

By Macon Ramos-Araneta

SEN. RISA Hontiveros has identified three companies in the shipment of 440,000 metric tons of imported sugar, which she branded as “smuggled” since the shipment was not covered by any sugar order.

The sugar imports arrived at the Batangas port on February 15, before Sugar Order (SO) No. 6 was signed.

“It is clear that this importation was not covered by SO No. 6 and is not even covered by the past sugar orders,” she said, adding that the shipment of imported sugar is thus “smuggled.”

PBBM names new appointees to key posts

PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has appointed Undersecretary Isidro Purisima as acting head of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity (OPAPRU), Malacañang said on Tuesday.

Purisima’s latest designation was announced by Malacañang Press Briefer Daphne Oseña- Paez in a Palace briefing.

Malacañang has yet to release additional details about Purisima’s appointment.

Purisima’s appointment came more than a month after Mr. Marcos named then OPAPRU Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. as the new head of the Department of National Defense. Prior to his new stint, Purisima served as Presidential Assistant for Local Conflict Transformation and Peace Sustainability.

Apart from Purisima, Mr. Marcos also promoted OPAPP chief of staff Wilben Mayor as the office’s Presidential Assistant 1, Oseña-Paez said. Also named were Gabriel Lagamayo as acting administrator of the National Dairy Authority (NDA) and member of the Dairy Industry Board.

The President also appointed Philippine Blue Cross Biotech Corporation CEO and president Benito Techico as the Special Envoy of the President to the People’s Republic of China for Trade, Investments, and Tourism last February 21.

Oseña-Paez also announced the appointment of Senando Santiago as acting general manager and chief executive officer of Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA), an attached agency of the Department of Environment Natural Resources tasked to promote and accelerate the growth of the Laguna Lake area and the surrounding provinces, cities and towns.

Mr. Marcos also appointed David Ero and Virgina Oroco as acting members of the Board of Directors of the Landbank of the Philippines, both representing the agrarian reform beneficiaries.

Emerico de Guzman and Rufino Margate Jr. were also tapped as members of the National Tripartite Industrial Peace council, both representing the employer sector, Oseña-Paez said. Vince Lopez

President: Faster internet for PH with fiber plan

By Vince Lopez

THE administration of President

Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is set to speed up the country’s Wi-Fi connectivity as it links up with Converge ICT Solutions, a telecommunication service provider in the Philippines that operates fiber optic broadband networks.

President Marcos met in Malacanang

Palace Tuesday with Converge founder and CEO Dennis Anthony Uy and proponent partner Thomas Pang Thieng Hwi, CEO and executive director of Keppel Telecommunications and Transportation Inc. on the plan.

The President was said to be elated upon hearing that the Philippines will soon have bigger bandwidth and faster internet connection.

“I just finished a meeting with the Converge group who have tied up with the Keppel group to put in a submarine fiber optic cable from the west coast of the United States; it will connect to the Philippines and it will also connect to Singapore and Indonesia and this will again give us bigger bandwidth,” Mr. Marcos said.

“This will give us a better communication system when it comes to all the online services that we are using globally.”

President Marcos said that the Bifrost Cable System Project, a joint undertaking of Converge and Keppel T’T, would include the Philippines in its fiber optic cable coming from the west coast of the United States.

“Our bandwidth will be increased and our internet speed will be much faster. This talk bears fruit when I went to Singapore, we talked about this and now they are applying and installing it, they will include the Philippines on their long fiber optic cables which will come from California, from the west coast of America up to the Philippines, up to Singapore and up until Indonesia.” the President said.

In a media briefing, Hontiveros named the companies as All Asian Countertrade, Sucden Philippines Inc. and Edison Lee Marketing Corporation. However, she did not name which among these sugar importers was flagged down earlier on another government sugar importation issue.

Hontiveros said that based on the information she got from producer organizations and independent sources, 260 20-foot containers imported by All-Asian Countertrade Inc. arrived in the country from Thailand on February 9.

According to Hontiveros, SO6 should have been signed first and once published, the award of allocation should be given to importers.

She said if the timeline will be followed, the imported sugar should arrive March 1, and that’s “not considering the transport time.”

The senator also showed a draft undated memorandum order which indicated that the importers are to be given allocations even before the issuance of the said sugar order. She also showed a letter signed by DA Usec. Domingo Panganiban upon the order of Executive Sec. Lucas Bersamin giving 240,000 metric tons allocation to All Asian Countertrade January 13.

She questioned if this letter was legitimate. “I hope it’s not because if this is true, this will be governmentsponsored smuggling,” she said.

She also decried the indiscriminate importation of sugar, noting that the

DOJ may allow prosecutors to work with police

By Rey E. Requejo

DEPARTMENT of Justice (DOJ)

Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla on Tuesday revealed that the DOJ is working on a rule that will allow prosecutors to work with police personnel, similar to a district attorney.

“We also have a case build-up rule that arranges for the prosecutors and the police to work together,” Remulla said, in an ambush interview.

According to him, they intend to make this similar to the district attorney system.

“The aim is similar to a DA system. It will be like a blue-collared job,” Remulla stressed.

“Because sometimes you need to go out of the office and really look at what is happening and talk to people, see the scene of the crime so you can be assured of the information that you will file,” he said.

Remulla reiterated that he wants to raise the evidence provided in court from probable cause to reasonable certainty of conviction. shipment of All Asian Countertrade entered the country through the Bureau of Custom’s VIP lane. The use of the VIP lane ensures that papers can be processed within just two weeks. Except in the case of a misdeclaration, she said the BOC should have known that the shipment was sugar, which being classified as “agricultural product,” cannot pass the super green lane. According to Hontiveros, she also has information that another shipment for All Asian Countertrade arrived this weekend. The shipment has remained inside a ship.

He said this will be discussed during his lunch meeting with Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo and other justices.

The Justice Secretary said he will also meet with the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Department of Health, and the Department of Social Welfare and Development on Friday regarding incestuous rape.

By Macon Ramos-Araneta

THE Department of Health (DOH) failed to give the exact cost of the millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines that were reportedly wasted.

During the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing, Dr. Ma. Joyce Ducusin, OIC-Director IV of the DOH Supply Chain Management Service, revealed 12.1 million doses of expired COVID-19 were reported by local government units (LGUs) and DOH Centers for Health Development (CHDs) in the regions.

Ducusin did not disclose the vaccine brands but clarified that the LGUs and CHDs failed to put the brands of the wasted vaccines in their reports.

The 12.1 million doses were included in the 44 million COVID-19 vaccines said to have been wasted and reportedly expired on December 2, 2022. In response to further questioning from senators, Ducusin enumerated the following wasted vaccines: 1.4 million doses-Sinovac;

11 million doses-Astrazeneca; 1.7 million doses- Gamaleya; 2.5 million doses-Pfizer for adults; 669,548 doses-Pfizer for pedia;

11 million doses-Moderna; 3.3 million

Comelec: Yamsuan 1st nominee of Bicol Saro

BRIAN Yamsuan is the first nominee of the Bico Saro party-list group.

In a certification dated February 17, 2023, the Commission on Elections recognized Yamsuan, former deputy secretary general of the House of Representatives, will represent the partylist group the lower house together with fellow Bicol Saro representative Nicolas Enciso VII. Yamsuan will serve for a term of three years or until June 30, 2025, said the Comelec Minute Resolution No. 23-0112.

The resolution was signed by seven Commissioners led by George Erwin Garcia and attested by the Commission’s exceutive director Teopisto Elnas Jr. Yamsuan represented the Lungsod Aasenso (LUNAS) partylist group in the last May 22 national elections. But the group failed to obtain the required two percent national votes cast under the party-list system to obtain at least one seat in Congress. Maricel V. Cruz

Gonzales bats for changes to media ownership

DEPUTY Speaker and Pampanga Rep. Aurelio Gonzales Jr. has proposed several amendments to the economic provisions of the Constitution, including one that would allow foreign investments in mass media.

Gonzales wants Section 11 of Article XVI on Mass Media to be rewritten to state: “The ownership of mass media shall be limited to citizens of the Philippines, or to corporations, cooperatives, associations, and entities organized under the laws of the Philippines at least sixty per centum of whose capital is owned by such citizens, provided that its management shall be exclusive only to citizens of the Philippines.” doses-Janssen; 1.3 million doses-Sinofarm; and 2.9 million doses-Sputnik.

Senator Francis Tolentino, chair of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, also inquired about the proper disposal of the expired doses of procured and donated COVID-19 vaccines, citing potential risks to public health and safety.

“Any discussions on this? What do we do with these? What do we do with these because environmentally, these might not be safe… how do you dispose? Susunugin, ibabaon sa lupa, itatapon sa Pacific Ocean?

SPECIAL GUEST.

Vice President Sara Duterte is flanked by League of Municipality of the Philippines (LMP) national president JB Bernos (left) of Lapaz, Abra and Luis Chavit Singson, LMP president emeritus during the LMP National Assembly held at the Manila Hotel yesterday. Joseph Muego

He said his proposed amendment “means that mass media will remain to be majorityowned and controlled and run exclusively by Filipinos, with foreign ownership to be limited to 40 percent.” Maricel V. Cruz

Two more solons vow support for Lakas-CMD

TWO more members of the House of Representatives on Tuesday afternoon joined Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (LakasCMD).

Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez, who is Lakas-CMD president, administered the oath to South Cotabato 2nd District Rep. Peter B. Miguel and Laguna 2nd District Rep. Ruth Mariano-Hernandez at the Speaker’s Office in Quezon City.

“It’s a great honor and pleasure to have all of you today (Tuesdsy) and it’s an auspicious day because you have joined Lakas-CMD. We thank you for coming and I am here personally to assure you that you have joined the right party,” Romualdez told the new Lakas-CMD members. Miguel and Mariano-Hernandez are the 69th and 70th House members, respectively, to join the party.

Other local government officials likewise took the oath before Romualdez together with Miguel and MarianoHernandez. Maricel V. Cruz