As 3 more murder suspects in Degamo case recant testimonies

By Maricel V. Cruz, Rey Requejo, Charles Dantes, and Rio N. Araja

CONGRESS will decide next week what sanctions to impose on Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr., who has refused to return to the country to face murder charges, even as three suspects in the killing of Gov. Roel Degamo recanted their testimony identifying him as the mastermind behind the assassination.

The House committee on ethics is considering a call to expel Teves from the chamber for his failure to return to the country despite repeated calls for him to do so, but the panel’s recommendations must be approved by the House in plenary session Wednesday next week.

In addition, the panel, chaired by Rep. Felimon Espares of the NATCCO party-list group, may recommend to the Department of Foreign Affairs the cancellation of Teves’ official (red) passport.

Espares also revealed that his committee tried to reach Teves, urging him to come home before his suspension expired on May 22, and that Teves replied to their correspondence. Espares, however, declined to say how Teves replied.

Lakas-CMD swears in 19 new members

By Maricel V. Cruz

SPEAKER Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, president of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD), on Tuesday administered the oath to 19 new party members.

By Rey E. Requejo

and Othel

Campos

THE Supreme Court has declared Manila Water Co. and Maynilad Water Services Inc. as public utilities, which effectively bars them from including their corporate income taxes as part of their operating expenses.

“We rule that Manila Water and Maynilad are public utilities,” the Court said in a decision written by Associate Justice Marvic Leonen.

“A public utility is a business or service engaged in regularly supplying the public with some commodity or service of public consequence such as electricity, gas, water, transportation, telephone or

ES: Sugar imports aboveboard amid ‘very alarming’ tight supply

By Macon Ramos-Araneta

AGRICULTURE Senior Undersecre- tary Domingo Panganiban on Tuesday told a Senate hearing that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered the importation of sugar “through selected importers.”

But when pressed repeatedly by senators, Panganiban backtracked and clarified: “Let’s import. Yan lang ang sinabi sa akin (That’s only what he told me).”

Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who was present in the same hearing, told senators he was the one who approved the importation as the President was busy at a foreign trip at that time.

“There was guidance from the President. But I confirmed that I was the one who instructed Usec. Panganiban to proceed with the processing of the sugar order and to attend to this issue of importation,” said Bersamin.

In a news briefing after the hearing, Sen. Francis Tolentino noted that Panganiban already made the clarification, nomical Services Administration said Mawar was last spotted 2,285 kilometers east of Visayas at 3 p.m., packing maximum sustained winds of up to 185 kilometers per hour near the center and gusts of 230 kph. ABS-CBN says TeleRadyo channel to cease its operations by June 30

By Charles Dantes and Darwin G. Amojelar

MEDIA giant ABS-CBN Corp. on Tuesday announced that its long-running television channel TeleRadyo will cease its operations on June 30 – about three years after it lost its free-to-air and cable TV franchises when Congress turned down its renewal under the Duterte administration. telegraph service,” the Court said. The Court resolved the petition filed by former Bayan Muna party-list representatives Neri Colmenares and Carlos Zarate who assailed the inclusion by the Manila Water and Maynilad corporate income taxes in their re -

“We welcome our new members and we are happy that they affiliated themselves with Lakas-CMD, which has committed itself to support President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his Agenda for Prosperity and eight-point socioeconomic development roadmap,” Romualdez said.

“I hope we will have a fruitful engagement with those joining our ranks and of course with our existing members,” he added.

Party officials led by former President and Deputy

By Macon Ramos-Araneta

FIVE more police officers were cited for contempt on Tuesday at a Senate hearing on a suspicious P6.7 billion drug bust in Manila last year, leading the panel’s chairman, Senator Ronald dela Rosa to fall to his knees and beg cops to tell the truth.

“I am kneeling before you. Please speak. Pity the Philippines,” said Dela Rosa as he rose from his seat and knelt down.

Dela Rosa, who used to be a police chief, said he