The Standard - 2015 June 24 - Wednesday

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RotaRy club of manila newspapeR of the yeaR 2015 VOL. XXIX NO. 124 3 Sections 32 Pages P18 WEDNESDay : JUNE 24, 2015 www.thestandard.com.ph editorial@thestandard.com.ph

‘binay wasn’t forced to quit’

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bi official fired over wang case By Christine F. Herrera and Rey E. Requejo

IMMIGRATION Commissioner Siegfred Mison has removed Eric Dimaculangan, the No. 4 man in the bureau, as secretary of the Board of Commissioners after he was suspected of conniving with other commissioners to gain the release of suspected Chinese crime lord Wang Bo.

Mison’s letter to Dimaculangan gave no reason for his removal as board secretary. Known in the bureau as “the little commissioner” due to his closeness to the powersthat-be, Dimaculangan retains his title as the bureau’s executive director, the No. 4 man in the hierarchy. Unimpeachable sources said Mison had lost confidence in Dimaculangan after he was tagged as the one behind an “orchestrated effort by LP [Liberal Party] boys” to prevent Wang from being deported to China. “Being the executive director, he was the bureau’s little commissioner just like Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa is ‘little president’ to the Palace. Dimaculangan is the bureau’s implementing arm. But he did not implement the

March 5summary deportation order against Wang Bo,” the source said. “Dimaculangan is also the board secretary of the Board of Commissioners headed by Mison and with Deputy Commissioners Gilberto Repizo and Abdullah Mangotara as members. Dimaculangan calendars the BOC’s meetings. He dictates on the agenda. And so on May 21, he scheduled the BOC meeting that produced the release order for Wang, completely reversing the summary deportation order,” the source said. “Dimaculangan is very close to the Palace. Eric and the President are text mates. They go out together. He is on the same level as Ochoa... Fired. This photo shows President in the innermost circle,” a Palace source told Noynoy Aquino in Malacanang Palace The Standard. Next page with Eric Dimaculangan.

New Binondo arch. This new Filipino-Chinese “friendship arch” near Jones Bridge that serves as the entrance of Manila’s Chinatown was inaugurated Tuesday. DaNNy Pata

PH airmen join orion spy flight

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Belmonte says he’s inclined to back Poe, not Roxas By Maricel V. Cruz HOUSE Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. said he will likely support the candidacy of Senator Grace Poe over that of the Liberal Party’s presumptive standard bearer, Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II in the 2016 presidential elections.

Between Poe and Roxas, Belmonte said, Poe was closer to his heart. But he added that he has not made up his mind as yet. “From a certain point of view, all of those running are good friends of mine and that’s why I have more or less kept away from this thing

up to this point, but we are really reaching a very decisive point [in October] and that’s pretty close,” he said. Belmonte also said he would favor a Roxas-Poe ticket next year, saying Roxas still had a chance to improve his survey rankings in the runup to the May 2016 elections.

He said Roxas placed third in the latests Social Weather Stations survey, behind Poe and Vice President Jejomar Binay, but ahead of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. Belmonte also said that the members of the Cabinet who are planning to run next year should Next page


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