CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK m o n d ay : a p r i l 4 , 2 0 1 6
A5
NEWS
editorial@thestandard.com.ph
Romualdez presses for return of ‘power buns’ By Christine F. Herrera SENATORIAL candidate Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez over the weekend vowed to bring back the power bread “Nutribun” that sustained hungerstricken “Yolanda” victims at the height of the crisis. At the Saturday Forum @ Anabels, Romualdez said his cousin, Ilocos Norte Rep. Aimee Marcos made possible the distribution of the nutritious Nutribun to augment the delayed and lack of distribution of relief goods in Tacloban. Nutribun, made of whole wheat, was popularized during the Marcos years when schoolchildren were being given a big piece of the bun for breakfast to fight malnutrition. “There is no debate that Nutribun is nutritious and helped fight malnutrition and made our schoolchil-
dren intelligent,” Romualdez said. “We will bring back Nutribun in all schools nationwide.” He said the return of the Nutribun is one of his advocacies to institutionalize the feeding program to bring back “malasakit” especially to the schoolchildren belonging to the poorest of the poor. Romualdez said he would see to it that once he got elected to the Senate, he would push for the expansion of the controversial Conditional Cash Transfer program and tap the P700 billion in savings to fund the feeding program and free schooling for the indigents. Opposition United Nationalist Alliance standardbearer Vice President Jejomar Binay also vowed to utilize the government’s budget to fund programs for the poor with the number of Filipinos languishing in poverty up at 26 million under an “underspending government.”
On PWD law. Senatorial candidate and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez admires the courage of 2010 La Salle bar
exam bombing victim and candidate for councilor Raissa Laurel during their meeting at the proclamation rally of Partido Magdiwang in San Juan City. Laurel who lost both legs thanks Romualdez for shepherding the passage of the PWD Law. At left is Senator JV Ejercito. Ver NOVeNO
De Lima nemesis’ deportation upheld By rey e. requejo
The Court of Appeals has affirmed a Manila City court’s decision declaring as valid the deportation order against former Basketball Association of the Philippines Secretary-General Graham Chua Lim.
Winning their hearts and minds. Movie-TV actress Heart Evangelista poses for a photograph with a
motorcyclist as she campaigns for her husband, vice presidential candidate Francis Escudero in Cartimar, Pasay City.
Disqualify-Poe petitions up at SC By rey e. requejo
THE Supreme Court is expected to deliberate this week the motions for reconsideration filed by the Commission on Elections and other respondents seeking a reversal of its March 8 decision declaring Senator Grace Poe qualified to run for president in the May 9 election. A Court insider revealed that the MRs of the Comelec and the four petitioners who sought the disquali-
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
fication of Poe at the Comelec have been included in the agenda of the justices when they hold their first summer en banc session in Baguio City on Tuesday. The SC magistrates are expected to resolve the appeals of the movants to reconsider their 9-6 ruling that the Comelec committed grave abuse of discretion in disqualifying the senator for material misrepresentation over her citizenship and residency issues.
Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno earlier said the high court considers Poe’s cases and other election related cases a “priority” considering there is just about a month left before the May 9 polls. In its 56-page motion for reconsideration, the Comelec asked the SC to reconsider the March 8 decision and instead affirm its disqualification of the senator for material misrepresentation in her Certificate of Candidacy.
In a 16-page decision penned by Associate Justice Eduardo B. Peralta Jr., the CA’s 4th Division ruled that the Manila Regional Trial Court is correct when it held that the Bureau of Immigration and former Justice Secretary Leila de Lima did not commit grave abuse of discretion when it ordered his deportation and inclusion in the bureau’s blacklist. The CA stressed that “no reversible error committed” by the trial court when it sustained the BI and De Lima’s order. It cited the finding that Lim is a Chinese citizen as he himself admitted in his bid to be naturalized as a Filipino, as well as the ruling of the Supreme Court on the same matter. “Certainly, the Supreme Court resolution already denied his pleas for review of the finding that he is an undesirable alien. Therefore, as things stand, he is an undesirable alien who should be removed from the Philippines,” the appellate court ruled. The CA added that the claim of statelessness “was a mere ploy to avoid deportation.” On questioning De Lima’s
authority to review the deportation order, the appellate court pointed out that De Lima was only enforcing the deportation order which has become final. Lim was born on Feb.7, 1957 in the Philippines to Chinese parents How Ang Lim and Mary Lim Chua. In 1992, he married Filipina Racquel P. Lim, also the petitioner in this case. In 2003, a complaint for deportation was filed against Lim, saying he was posing as a Filipino while undergoing naturalization proceedings. The BI then charged him as an undesirable alien under Commonwealth Act 613 and the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940 for misrepresenting himself as a Filipino citizen and securing a Philippine passport. That same year, the Department of Foreign Affairs informed the Immigration Bureau that Lim’s passport has been cancelled due to his Chinese citizenship. Two years later, the BI learned that Lim was a Taiwanese citizen. Lim filed a motion for reconsideration which was denied by the BI. He then took his case to the Office of the President who upheld the BI’s ruling. Lim’s case reached the Supreme Court, but it was summarily dismissed. On Dec. 7, 2009, Lim was arrested by virtue of a warrant for deportation. In 2010, he filed a petition that he be released on bail invoking his statelessness pointing out an alleged communication between a certain Nenita V. Mendoza and Mr. Wang ChiaChi, Senior Advisor of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office allegedly declared Taiwan is not in a position to accept him.