PBBM: 2 ‘ninja cops’ out, over 30 left

By Vince Lopez

PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr., on the last day of his trip to the United States, on Thursday said there are more than 30 police officials under investigation for being so-called “ninja cops” for their suspected links to the illegal drug trade after two generals resigned.

“I asked for the resignation of all the police officers colonel up so that we can assess and see and study what the records are [to see] if they are part of the syndicate,” Mr. Marcos said.

He said his administration was not interested in “the small people that you only see in the slums... selling” or users, but high-ranking officials, who could be

CAAP shortens air traffic outage to 2 hours from 6

By Joel E. Zurbano

THE Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has decided to shorten the maintenance work period at Air Traffic Management Center (ATMC) from six hours to just two hours.

“CAAP would like to inform the public that there has been a change in the schedule for the ATMC Corrective Maintenance Activity that was previously announced to take place on May 17, 2023 from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m.,” said CAAP spokesperson Eric Apolonio.

“Based on careful process reviews and simulations, the maintenance activity will now be conducted in a shorter period of time on May 17, from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m.,” he added.

Major airlines earlier made some adjustments to flight schedules to give way for the said activities on the country’s Air Traffic Management System, which are being made to avoid a repeat of the infamous New Year’s Day shutdown.

The ATMC houses the Communications, Navigations, Surveillance / Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) system which manages and supervises the air traffic activities within the Philippine Flight Information Region (FIR).

The ATMS power supply upgrade will involve the installation of a bypass panel to provide seamless ATMS operation and the reconfiguration of the existing distribution panel to segregate ATM system A (voice) and ATM system B (data), resulting in the UPS and AVR serving as each other’s backup in case the other power supply encounters a problem.

Apolonio said CAAP is set to implement contingency procedures through direct coordination with adjacent Flight Information Regions (FIRs), which will help to minimize disruption to air traffic operations.

As China...

From A1

The Philippines and the US, the guidelines state, will expand cooperation on maritime security through but not limited to joint patrols.

Beijing expressed opposition to what it called meddling in the South China Sea to harm its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights.

Beijing also said the region should not be used as a “hunting ground.”

Marcos said the new United States-Philippines Bilateral Defense Guidelines, which chart their vision for alliance cooperation across all operational domains, will be responsive to the security challenges faced by both countries.

During a question-and-answer session at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, Marcos said “security and defense can no longer be isolated as one issue.”

“There are attendant and ancillary issues,” he said, citing economic issues. “We must be looking to adjust our relationship as we all are trying to adjust and to transform our economies.” police or other people in the government.

In a meeting at Pentagon on Wednesday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to bolstering the Philippines’ defense capabilities as the allies develop a Security Sector Assistance Roadmap to guide shared defense modernization investments over the next five to 10 years.

“So, they are the ones we are hunting down,” the President said.

Mr. Marcos said two of the Philippine National Police (PNP) officials who submitted their resignations were now removed from their posts.

He said more than 30 are still under investigation.

WHO:...

From A1 emergency status could be reinstated if the situation changes.

“The worst thing any country could do now is to use this news as a reason to let down its guard, to dismantle the systems it has built, or to send the message to its people that Covid-19 is nothing to worry about,” he said.

The UN health agency first declared the so-called public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) over the crisis on January 30, 2020.

That was just weeks after the mysterious new viral disease was first detected in China and when fewer than 100 cases and no deaths had been reported outside that country.

But it was only after Tedros described the worsening Covid situation as a pandemic on March 11, 2020, that many countries woke up to the danger.

By then, the SARS CoV-2 virus which causes the disease had already begun its deadly rampage around the globe.

Still struggling to understand what they were up against, countries

Charles...

From A1 with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as part of efforts to deepen Manila and London’s trade partnership, the Presidential Communications Office said.

The President’s trip, following his “productive” visit to the United States, is in response to the invitation provided by the United Kingdom to Mr. Marcos as relayed by UK Ambassador Laure Beaufils.

Before leaving Washington, the President said his family will land at Gatwick Airport, where he will take the opportunity to check on some “lessons learned” by local airport officials and apply them to improving the Philip-

King...

From A1

“Anyone would be anxious on an occasion of this sort of importance,” her son Tom Parker Bowles told The News Agents podcast.

“I’d be terrified if I had to sort of walk out wearing ancient robes,” the food writer said.

“She’s 75, it’s hard to do it. But she never complained.”

Parker Bowles said the couple were “doing amazingly”. His 74-year-old stepfather was a “good, kind, intelligent man who cares deeply about his roles”, he said.

Sandigan...

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Marcos Sr. represented by Imelda Marcos, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Irene Marcos-Araneta, and Constante Rubio, a close associate of the elder Marcos.

On August 5, 2022, Imelda and Irene Marcos filed an Omnibus Motion for the issuance of a Writ of

President:...

From A1 ternational Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC on Thursday (Friday in Manila).

“It is not an easy process, but the Malampaya fields are the natural gas fields that lie in our, within our baselines and within our exclusive economic zone, and that again is being questioned in certain cases, in certain

President Marcos said due process must be observed before erring officials are investigated and prosecuted. In a question-and-answer portion of his address at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC, Mr. Marcos acknowledged “abuses by certain elements in the government” under his predecessor’s war on drugs, which he said failed to stop syndicates from growing stronger.

Mr. Marcos said former President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-narcotics drive “focused very much on enforcement.” scrambled to respond, making it up as they went.

“Because of that, it could be said that there were abuses by certain elements in the government and that has caused some concern about the human rights situation,” Mr. Marcos said.

The pandemic today

And worldwide, the disease had as of May 3 officially claimed more than 6.9 million lives, and sickened more than 765 million others, according to WHO, which has said the true figures are likely far higher.

The UN health agency said last week that Covid deaths globally had plunged 95 percent since January, but the disease still killed 16,000 people worldwide last month alone.

Despite the lingering danger, the pandemic has faded from mind in many if not most countries.

Tedros warned Thursday that testing and tracing efforts have “declined significantly around the world, making it more difficult to track known variants and detect new ones”.

Vaccines, which were developed at record speed and began being rolled out by late 2020, remain effective at preventing severe disease and death, despite the parade of new and more infectious Covid variants that have appeared.

But while indisputably a towering scientific feat, the vaccines also laid pines’ major airports.

Much of the Anglican service at London’s Westminster Abbey -- which will also see Charles’s second wife Camilla crowned queen -- would be recognizable to the 74-year-old king’s forebears 1,000 years ago.

But there will also be a clear departure with the involvement of women bishops, minority faith leaders, and a more diverse and representative guest list of British society than the lords and ladies of old.

So too is the environmental theme at the ceremony, including vegan anointing oil and recycled ceremonial garb, reflecting Charles’s lifelong championing of sustainability and biodiversity.

Prime Minister Sunak on Friday called the event “a moment of enormous

However, the road to the coronation has not been easy.

Vilified In the 1990s, Camilla was the most hated woman in Britain, blamed by Princess Diana for the break-up of her own marriage to Charles. Diana nicknamed Camilla the “rottweiler”.

Charles and Diana’s younger son Prince Harry, now estranged from the monarchy, branded her a “villain” who played the long game to get the crown. But Charles never wavered in his devotion to her.

The couple first met in the 1970s. Close to aristocratic circles, Camilla Shand was relaxed in his company, areas by China, and we continue to negotiate with them,” he said.

Execution to transfer properties and assets seized by the PCGG back to their family. The antigraft court on January 25, 2023 resolved to deny their motion for writ of execution. The Marcoses then filed a motion to partially reconsider the denial on February 17. Twenty-three different properties and assets listed in the anti-graft court’s resolution.

“We continue to find a way --- the essential problem, the essential roadblock to that whole process has been very simple,” the Chief Executive added.

The Malampaya gas field is a deepwater gas-condensate reservoir, located offshore, 65 kilometers northwest of the island of Palawan. Its main benefits to the Philippines include reducing oil im-

Officially, 6,181 people were killed in Duterte’s “war on drugs” but rights groups say that up to 30,000 may have died, some innocent victims, and that corruption was rife among security forces that acted with impunity.

Mr. Marcos said that while he could not speak on behalf of Duterte or “what he had in mind,” he noted that illegal drugs remained the source of “much criminality in the Philippines.”

Drug syndicates, he added, grew “stronger, wealthier and more influential.” bare greed and gaping inequities, as wealthy countries horded the jabs, as poorer countries were left struggling for months to get hold of a single dose.

Mr. Marcos said he would focus on reeducation and dismantling drug rings.

“We have taken enforcement as far as we can. Now, it is time to look at actually going after dismantling these syndicates,” he said.

An antivax movement on steroids and massive misinformation campaigns over social media meanwhile turned vaccination into a charged political issue, leaving many with access to the jabs unwilling to take them.

The pandemic also exposed staggering inequality in access to healthcare and services, from the long lines of Brazilians waiting to fill oxygen canisters for loved ones gasping for air, to the funeral pyres that crammed New Delhi’s sidewalks and car parks as the bodies piled up in early 2021.

Even today, the emergence of new variants threatens to reignite the emergency.

Origins mystery national pride”.

Tedros has also warned of the ongoing impact of Long Covid, which provokes a long line of often severe and debilitating symptoms that can drag on for months or years.

This condition has been estimated to impact one in 10 people who contract Covid, suggesting that hundreds of millions of people could need longer-term care, he cautioned.

“It’s a demonstration of our country’s character, and it’s an opportunity for us to all look to the future and a spirit of service, hope, and unity,” he told Sky News.

Opposition

Not everyone is in the mood to celebrate, however. Republican opponents who want an elected head of state plan to protest on the day with signs declaring “Not my king”.

Younger people, too, say the coronation -- and the monarchy in general -leaves them cold, according to polling.

Further afield, Charles’s position looks increasingly tenuous as the hereditary monarch in 14 Commonwealth countries outside the UK. AFP amusing and reassuring the then-insecure prince.

However, while Charles went off to serve in the Royal Navy, Camilla fell for the playboy army officer Andrew Parker Bowles, tying the knot in 1973, leaving Charles feeling empty and devastated. Their marriage crumbled amid Parker Bowles’ extra-marital affairs.

In 1981, Charles wed Diana Spencer, the daughter of an earl, in what was branded a fairytale marriage. He was 32; she had just turned 20. Camilla was among the wedding guests.

Hopelessly mismatched, Charles and Diana soon drifted apart. Prince William was born in 1982 and Harry in 1984. AFP

The Marcoses based their motion on the supposed “illegal” transfers of these properties and assets to the PCGG “by virtue of compromise agreements and the lack of authority of the PCGG in entering into such contracts.”

“The court is not persuaded,” the resolution said.

In the resolution, the Fourth Division of the antigraft court argued that these properties and assets were illegally ob- ports, assuring a more stable supply of energy and a cleaner source of power, and meeting up to about 40 percent of Luzon’s energy requirements.

The President said the Chinese government has been claiming particular areas where the Malampaya fields are located but are already recognized by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) as part of the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines.