VOL. XXX NO. 52 3 Sections 32 Pages P18 TUESDAY : APRIL 5, 2016 www.thestandard.com.ph editorial@thestandard.com.ph
Roxas is least liked candidate, poll finds
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GOVT, ALLIES RUN TO SOCIAL MEDIA By John Paolo Bencito and Christine F. Herrera
ADMINISTRATION officials and their allies took to social media Monday to defend the use of lethal force to break up a protest in Kidapawan City last week that resulted in the death of three farmers, while President Benigno Aquino III maintained his silence four days after the bloody incident.
Protest. Members of the Anakpawis Party-list hold a protest action in front of Camp Crame along Edsa in Quezon City on Monday to condemn the dispersal of the farmers rallying in Kidapawan that left three dead and many others wounded. MANNY PALMERO
Pulse denies Digong claims
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Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte, who took a leave last year to campaign for the administration’s standard bearer Manuel Roxas II, said on her Facebook page that the incident appeared to be motivated, since the farmers took refuge at the Spottswood Methodist Center, which “also happens to be the headquarters of presidential aspirant Davao City Mayor Rodgrigo Duterte” in North Cotabato. The allegation dovetailed with North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Mendoza’s accusation that Duterte, who promised to donate rice to the starving farmers, was politicizing the strife in her province. Valte said leftists “like to pick on those who don’t share their beliefs and criticize their ways,” and that the administration only fault was “to try to bring some rational thought in this conversation.” Two days earlier, presidential spokesman also pointed the finger at Duterte. “Not so coincidentally, from the presidentiables, only Duterte issued the same leftist slant, that this is a massacre. Without even calling for an investigation and without even bothering to know who started it all, Duterte aped and mouthed the same leftist message. You do the math.” Next page
‘Yolanda’ victims to lose water by end-April By Christine F. Herrera MORE than two years after Super Typhoon “Yolanda” flattened Eastern Visayas, President Benigno Aquino III has ordered that water supply to relocation sites and bunkhouses be cut off by the end of this month, hampering efforts of the city government to get back on its feet, Tacloban City Mayor Alfred
Romualdez said Monday. At the Kapihan sa Manila Hotel, Romualdez said he vehemently opposed the directive to cut off the water supply. “After thousands of our people have transferred to the relocation sites and bunkhouses, for the past two years, they have yet to see a faucet. The water for cooking and drinking is still being ra-
tioned,” Romualdez said. “And now, they wanted to stop the water rationing. I strongly reject that. It’s like killing them all over again and the culprit would be water again, after thousands perished in floodwaters and seawater,” Romualdez said. “Our people have been traumatized enough. Enough already,” Romualdez Next page said.