PBBM wants poll reforms pushed

By Vince Lopez and Macon Ramos-Araneta

PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to immediately act on the several electoral reforms proposed during the preparatory consultations with various stakeholders.

“It is encouraging to know that prior to this summit, the preparatory consultations with various stakeholders in the public and private sectors were conducted nationwide,” the President said during hisspeech at the first-ever 2023 National Election Summit at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza in Pasay City.

Guns...

From A1

He said unverified reports said the raids were in connection with unlicensed firearms purportedly belonging to Teves. However, he said all firearms of the lawmaker were properly surrendered to proper precincts in accordance with the implementing rules and regulations on licensing and possession of firearms.

"Most of them were surrendered a month ago, I believe. The rest were surrendered recently," he said.

On Thursday, suspects in the killing of Degamo tagged “Cong Teves” as the mastermind behind the assassination.

The suspects said the person who hired them financed and served as themastermind behind the group that carried out the attack on Degamo. Eight other people died in the attack.

Rep. Teves is also facing three murder charges for his alleged involvement in the killing of Negros Oriental Board Member Miguel Dungog and two others in 2019.

The Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and Special Action Force, together with the 11th Infantry Battalion of the Philip-

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From A1 saying the killing was a homicide and not murder. It was a ruling described as a slap on the face of Aquino’s family, as it came a day shy of the second anniversary of the mayor's killing.

In the Adiong case, Macalbo was arrested based on the warrants of arrest for charges of murder and frustrated murder, issued by the Regional Trial Court Branch 10 of the 12th Judicial Region based in Marawi City.

PRO BAR included in its report the confiscated items recovered from the suspects—one Colt M16 rifle with serial number 9061355, one grenade, one Colt M16 magazine loaded with eight pieces of ammunition, and one rifle grenade.

China...

From A1 and several other nations have competing claims.

Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, including the Spratlys, ignoring an international ruling that its claims have no legal basis.

In the past decade, it has ripped up thousands of hectares of reef inthe archipelago to create militarized islands with runways, ports, and radar systems.

To assert its claims, hundreds of Chinese coastguards and othervessels patrol the waters, swarming reefs, harassing and attacking fishing and other boats.

They also try to expel non-Chinese planes from the airspace overhead.

"You have entered (the water around) a Chinese reef and constituted asecurity threat. To avoid misunderstanding, leave immediately," the Chinese radio operator said, in one of seven messages issued inChinese and English as the coastguard plane flew over a Philippine-occupied island and shoal.

The Philippine pilot responded that they were flying within his country's territory.

'Bullying behavior'

During the four-hour flight in the

P1.20...

From A1 pine Army, reported finding several firearms, ammunition, and a hand grenade in their raids. They had licenses, which needed verification.

Meanwhile, the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said its customers would experience higher rates this month by P0.5453 per kWh, bringing the overall rate for a typical household to P11.4348 per kWh from P10.8895 per kWh in February.

Meralco said for residential customers consuming 200 kWh, the adjustment is equivalent to an increase of around P109 in their total electricity bill.

The increase is lower than previously forecast by Meralco of P0.62 perkWh but it would have been higher had the company decided not to defer the collection of a portion of the generation charge amounting to P0.40 per kWh for a total cost of P1.1 billion.

“From these pre-summit meetings, it has come to the attention that several reforms in the election process must be made,” he said.

“And given these findings, let us take these matters seriously as the outputs obtained from these activities are indisputably significant.

The Negros Oriental Police Office also announced on Friday that all permits to carry firearms outside of residence in the province have been suspended, with the exemption of the police, military, and other law enforcement agencies performing official duties.

This was connected to the hunt for the suspects in the assassination of Degamo.

Remulla said the criminal complaint against Teves in connection with the killings in 2019 would undergo due process.

"I think that a lot of other people are coming out with information about past cases but we have to process them properly. We have to look at the evidence. We have to look at the statements. We will look at them one by one,” he said.

He noted that it is mere speculation for now that the 2019 killings are related to online cockfighting.

Remulla recalled Degamo visiting him while his electoral protest was still pending.

“He was already complaining about the violence in Negros, but it was a general statement. There were no specifics,”

The trio of suspects are now under the custody of Kalilangan Municipal Police Station for documentation and proper disposition.

Aquino was shot at least 21 times in Barangay Lonoy on March 8 in whatwas described as an ambush, with his son, Mark, linking the incident to politics.

Police had initially described the incident as a shootout.

The policemen were allowed to bail for P120,000 each, as ordered in a resolution by Calbayog City RTC Branch 31 judge Maricar Lucero.

"It's so painful. It is insulting and infuriating. For our family, it is a big insult that we are grieving, while the accused are rejoicing," Mark told TeleRadyo in an interview.

The Aquino family's legal counsel, lawyer Alma Uy, said the NationalBureau of Investigation filed murder raps, which

Cessna Caravan, Philippine Coast Guard personnel identified nearly 20 Chinese vessels, including what they described as "maritime militia" boats, in waters around some of the nine islands and reefs occupied by the Philippines.

Seventeen boats reported by the Philippine Coast Guard to be Chinese maritime militia were also spotted near Sabina Shoal, which is claimed by Manila.

Fifteen Chinese boats were seen in the vicinity of Thitu (Pag-Asa), the largest Philippine-occupied island, which lies about 430 kilometers (267 miles) from the major Philippine island of Palawan and more than 900 kilometers from China's nearest major landmass of Hainan island.

The Philippine Coast Guard said that was down from 42 the previous week.

A Chinese navy ship was 15 kilometers from the island, while a coastguard vessel was half that distance away, according to estimates provided by the Philippine Coast Guard.

At Second Thomas Shoal, where Philippine marines are stationed in a derelict navy ship grounded to assert Manila's territorial claim in the waters, a Chinese coastguard vessel was about 11 kilometers away, the Philippine authorities said.

AFP (See full story online at manilastandard.net)

"At the end of the day, we have to help our consumers manage the cost, so we really had to find a way to make it easy for them somehow to make the overall cost of electricity less painful for them," Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said.

Meralco's generation charge went up by P0.4636 to P7.3790 from P6.9154 per kWh the previous month due to higher supply costs, higher spot prices, and the impact of the San Miguel Corp. replacement contract.

“This month’s generation charge increase would have been significantly higher, but we took the initiative to cushion the impact in the bills of our customers by coordinating with some of our suppliers to defer collection of portions of their generation costs,” the head of Meralco’s regulatory management office, Jose Ronald Valles, said.

We must act on it decisively and enforce concrete measures to turn our plans into reality,” President Marcos added. This developed as Sen. Win Gatchalian urged the Comelec to quickly resolve election disqualification cases, including cases of nuisance candidates, in order not to compromise the integrity and safety of the electoral process. Gatchalian filed Senate Bill No. 1061, or An Act Providing an Additional Ground for Cancelling the Certificate of Candidacy of a Nuisance Candidate and Making the Acts of Nuisance Candidate an Election Offense. The bill would amend Sections 69, he said. Teves has denied that he and his brother, Henry Pryde, whom Degamo unseated, had something to do with the governor’s slay. the Department of Justice recommended.

Teves has yet to return from his personal trip to the United States, which was supposed to end March 9, according to the travel clearance he received from the House of Representatives.

Speaker Martin G. Romualdez on Friday advised Teves to return and face the allegations against him.

"I advise Representative Arnie Teves to come back to the country assoon as possible," Romualdez said as the House rejected his request for an extension to his expired travel clearance.

House Secretary General Reginald Velasco said the request was rejected because it lacked details, such as the country he was going to.

Meanwhile, the Department of National Defense and Armed Forces of the Philippines on Friday said a joint task force was deployed in Negros Oriental to tighten security and reinforce the hot pursuit operation against the remaining suspects involved in the fatal attack on Degamo.

In a press briefing, AFP Chief Gen.

But Judge Lucero said the policemen should face homicide raps,claiming that Aquino fought back against those firing the shots, according to Uy.

"In the ruling, the judge said Mayor Aquino fought back, which mitigated treachery. There is no longer any treachery because he was able to fight back, but it disregarded the fact that Mayor Aquino only fought because his driver was already dead, his security was wounded, and they were shot first," Uy told Teleradyo.

"The two were already dead and he was the only one left so he shot back out of self-defense in desperation to save himself," she added.

A PNP Information Office statement earlier said "the group of Mayor Aquino was alleged to have initiated the shootout when his close-in security fired at the unmarked vehicle of the IMEG-PDEU

‘EDCA...

From A1

$24-million (P1.32 billion) airstrip extension and rehabilitation project will break ground at the Basa Air Base in Pampanga— one of the existing EDCA sites in the country—on March 20.

In a GMA News interview with anchor Vicky Morales, Carlson said the airstrip extension is one of the biggest among the projects worth over $80 million (P4.4 billion) at the Philippine military facilities that US forces may access under the defense agreement.

"I can announce today that we are going to do a groundbreaking this month. On March 20th, we’re going to invite our US Secretary of the Air Force to do a groundbreaking on a $24-million project that will extend the Basa airstrip and rehabilitate that," Carlson said last night.

The envoy said the project was to make sure that the airstrip would be "useful so that when planes land they’re not negatively affected."

"Right now, a part of that airstrip is not usable because of the state of disrepair," Carlson said.

The Chinese Embassy made its statement after US Department of State Undersecretary Victoria Nuland claimed that the four additionalmilitary sites in the Philippines, to which American forces would

Valles said the deferred costs reduced this month’s generation ratesby P0.40 per kWh and will be billed on a staggered basis over the next two months or in April and May billing months, as coordinated with the Energy Regulatory Commission.

Meralco head of utility economics

Lawrence Fernandez said the deferred charges will be collected in the next two months without interest.

Fernandez said Meralco cannot say whether power rates will go up next month amid the deferred charges as there are other factors to consider.

"We cannot say if there would be an increase even with the P0.20 amortization," he said.

Fernandez said another distribution refund will be completed by May, which is equivalent to about P0.87 for residential customers.

261 (CC) and 264 of Batas Pambansa Blg. 881, otherwise known as the Omnibus Election Code of the Philippines.

The senator said the move could also potentially diffuse politicaltensions and deter bitter political conflicts in the country, citing the case of slain Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo.

The Comelec proclaimed Degamo as the winner of the 2022 Negros Oriental gubernatorial race in October last year, after the poll body transferred to him the votes obtained by the candidate “Ruel G. Degamo,” who was declared a nuisance candidate four months after the elections. (See full story online at manilastandard.net) group that was traveling in the same direction along the road." have access under the EDCA, would not only help address security concerns in the region but also bring economic opportunities and jobs to their host communities.

Andres Centino said two brigades and six battalions of the Philippine Army were installed in the area with the addition of a 50-man light reaction company from Cotabato to track the suspects at large.

Centino said the troops were already stationed in the region—threebattalions in northern Negros, and another three in the southern part of the island.

At the same time, the AFP called for transition programs for its discharged personnel who have “dangerous skills that could be used for crimes.” Three of the suspects arrested for Degamo’s murder were former soldiers.

"We have taught these people the skill that is very dangerous if usedin crimes or in lawlessness. So I think it is also our responsibility to make sure this skill sets that they have learned will not be used against our own people," AFP spokesperson Col. Medel Aguilar told the ANC news channel.

The assassination of Degamo shocked the whole country as fully-armedmen charged into the residence of the governor before opening fire on Degamo, who was handing out assistance to poor families.

The killing of Degamo is part of a growing number of attacks on local elective officials since the start of 2023.

The PNP said its personnel involved in the shooting are from theIntegrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group, and Provincial DrugEnforcement Unit, who were conducting Red Teaming inspection in the area.

Samar 1st District Rep. Edgar Mary Sarmiento refuted the police report. He said the police were already waiting for Aquino's vehicle at Laboyao Bridge in Barangay Lonoy, Calbayog City before the shooting incident at 5:30 p.m.

The Aquino camp immediately filed a motion against the decisionallowing the policemen to post bail, as well as a motion for inhibition against Lucero.

"The judge inhibited yesterday, so a different judge would rule on the motion for consideration. The accused cannot post bail yet," Uy said.

Nuland also allegedly questioned how many of China’s promises had been converted to jobs and climate investments that benefited the Philippine people.

“Economy and trade cannot flourish without a peaceful and stable regional environment," the Chinese Embassy in Manila said in its statement.

It said some Americans claim that the four additional EDCA militarysites would bring economic opportunities and jobs to their host communities yet discredit ChinaPhilippines economic cooperation at the same time.

“Such remarks are in total ignorance of the Philippine people’s pursuit of peace, cooperation, and development as well as China-Philippines helping each other in developing the economy, improving people’s livelihood, and increasing employment,” the embassy lamented.

“Creating economic opportunities and jobs through military cooperation is tantamount to quenching thirst with poison and gouging flesh toheal wounds. Such cooperation will seriously endanger regional peace and stability and drag the Philippines into the abyss of geopolitical strife and damage its economic development at the end of the day,” it said. (See full story online at manilastandard.net)

6 persons...

From A1

“That’s why… the more paramount mandate of the PAO is to serve as counsel for poor litigants so the process will continue,” he added. On Feb. 28, the body of Salilig was found in a shallow grave in Imus, Cavite, 10 days after he was reported missing.

Police authorities have filed complaints for violation of the Anti-Hazing Law against six persons linked to the hazing death.

Meanwhile, the mother of another hazing victim of the Tau Gamma Phi fraternity sought the help of the PAO.

At a media briefing, PAO chief Persida Acosta presented MarycarhRabutazo, 42,