VOL. XXIX NO. 262 3 Sections 24 Pages P18 SUNDAY : NOVEMBER 1, 2015 www.thestandard.com.ph editorial@thestandard.com.ph
ZAMBO FIRE KILLS 6 KIDS, 9 MORE
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PALACE SMARTING FROM SOLONS’ RAP By Sara Susanne D. Fabunan
A PALACE official lashed out at opposition leaders on Saturday for saying that the Aquino administration lacks compassion for Filipinos who are the highest taxed people in Southeast Asia, but suffer sub-standard public services.
“They should never ever say that the government has no heart, that the government has no malasakit [compassion],” Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda said in an interview on government-run Radyo ng Bayan. “In the six years of our government, everything will be done to help those who are at the fringes of society,” he said, adding that opposition leaders are only making political appeals for votes in next year’s elections. Lacierda hit Senator Ferdinand Marcos
and his cousin Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez for claiming that the Aquino administration does not want to push a tax cut bill in Congress because they don’t care about the sufferings of Filipinos. Marcos, the son of former President Ferdinand Marcos, is running for vice president while Romualdez, the son of former Ambassador Benjamin Romualdez, is seeking his first term in the Senate. “Everybody is saying ‘I’m in favor of lowering this, I’m in favor of lowering that’ be-
cause it’s campaign season. Elections are already near,” Lacierda said. “But we are government. We have to be responsible. We recognize there’s a concern. We recognize that some people would like to lower the tax rates and we’re saying, ‘we’re all together in this,” he said. But the public should not expect a “Christmas gift” like a new tax rate cut law, as suggested by Marcos, because the government wants to review the tax law “comprehensively.” Next page
WE WILL REMEMBER. Relatives of victims of Typhoon ‘Yolanda’ in Tacloban City honored their beloved departed with votive candles on Oct. 31, almost two years after the disaster that killed around 7,000 people around the country, mostly from the Eastern Visayas region. AFP PHOTO
A GLIMPSE AT THE LIFE OF A ‘BUENA FAMILIA’
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LUMAD PROBERS TAGGED ‘LEFTIST COHORTS’ THE military accused a Catholic Church-backed International FactFinding Mission on the killing of indigenous people, called lumad, in Mindanao of being “leftist cohorts” who are out to muddle the lumad issue with propaganda against the government. “Our Philippine Senate has already conducted an inquiry in Sep-
tember on the issue which was fully supported by all stakeholders,” said Army spokesperson Col. Benjamin Hao. “After the hearing, our lawmakers were clarified on the lumad issue that were all distorted by the leftist organizations in the public,” he added. Hao said the Army has “valid
reasons to believe that these tourists are cohorts of the leftist organizations who just simply wanted to muddle the lumad issue with propaganda against the government.” Hao said they expected results of the IFFM’s unauthorized investigation will simply serve their leftist Next page cohorts.