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MARTIAL LAW AN OPTION—DU30 By John Paolo Bencito

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte said Martial Law remains an option to quash the protracted rebellion and spread of narco-money funding terrorism. “I am not a fan of martial law. I’m a lawyer. The people are afraid of Martial Law. But if ever, Martial Law is a conti-

nency to meet widespread violence,” Duterte said in a dinner with reporters. “Mindanao is in a state of rebellion. If you go south, there is no guarantee that you can go there to TawiTawi,” he added. Last month, the President said it was not possible for him to declare Martial Law even as he admitted that

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Ombudsman rebuked Leila: No one can force me to quit By Macon Ramos-Araneta AMID renewed calls for her resignation after she admitted having an affair with her married driver-bodyguard, Senator Leila de Lima stood ﬁrm Wednesday, saying, “No one can force me to resign.” “So that’s it, they’re feasting again on me. That’s what they like. Basta, resignation is a personal decision,” De Lima said. The beleaguered senator said she would simply ignore the calls for her to step down, and said her accusers should be the ones to resign for using the entire government machinery to go after her. “They have no qualms about

doing all these things like using the resources of the executive department... [and] they are all focused on me,” De Lima said. “What kind of standards are these?” She accused the President’s men of harassing, coercing and blackmailing witnesses to testify against her on allegations that she accepted drug money from crime lords detained at the New Bilibid Prison when she was Justice secretary. On Tuesday, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo urged De Lima to resign after she admitted on national TV to having an affair with her driver-bodyguard Next page

‘Capture Dayan alive to tell all on De Lima’ By John Paolo Bencito, Maricel V. Cruz and Sara Susanne Fabunan PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte wants Senator Leila de Lima’s exlover Ronnie Dayan alive to bolster the cases to be ﬁled against her, saying that her admission to an affair is not enough to implicate her in the

illegal drug trade. “It’s a long shot. The guy is not here, you can’t ﬁnd him and get his statement. He also can’t answer for himself. But I hope he’s alive he’s a vital witness against De Lima,” Duterte told reporters Wednesday. Dayan went into hiding in August, after President Rodrigo Next page

Solons: Carpio, Clemente silent on narco-pols By John Paolo Bencito and Maricel V. Cruz

USTICE Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II and several lawmakers assailed Ombudsman Conchita Morales and her team of prosecutors for not investigating so-called “narcopoliticians” and allowing the drug situation to worsen in the country.

OMBUDSMAN CONCHITA CARPIO-MORALES

Aguirre specifically demanded that Morales explain why she refuses to investigate Senator Leila de Lima for her alleged involvement in drug trafficking despite the testimonial evidence that has recently emerged against her. Lawmakers, on the other hand, criticized Morales for her “deafening silence” on other narco-politicians, like the late Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa, while maintaining an inordinate interest in pursuing “lesser” charges against other officials. The lawmakers said Espinosa

had already executed a sworn statement implicating, aside from De Lima, congressmen, police officials and other officials as being protectors of his son Kerwin Espinosa, said to be the biggest drug lord in the Eastern Visayas region. And yet, Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Paul Elmer Clemente did not even bother to ask for a copy of Espinosa’s affidavit until the mayor was slain inside a jailhouse in Baybay City, Leyte. Clemente did not even investigate allegations that relief assistance for “Yolanda” victims were

being stockpiled by local officials and not being distributed to victims, the lawmakers added. “After the congressional hearings, many witnesses, including two [National Bureau of Investigation] officers and other officials, said that [De Lima] and Ronnie Dayan received money in two instances worth P5 million each inside her Parañaque house,” Aguirre told Palace reporters. “But to the Ombudsman, these are still insufficient. I don’t know why she is saying that these are

mere allegations,” Aguirre said. Instead, Morales, who like De Lima was an appointee of former President Benigno Aquino III, said that her ofﬁce will not exercise their motu propio power to investigate De Lima. “It’s not going to happen,” Morales said. “All of these are only allegations. There is really no lead would prompt us to initiate our investigation.” But Aguirre questioned Morales’ motives for ignoring the testimonial evidence against De Lima. Next page

Noy to blame for FM burial uproar—Rody

Explain outages, Cusi orders producers

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte says Corazon Aquino and her son Benigno Aquino III have only themselves to blame for failing to bar the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos from getting buried at the Heroes’ Cemetery. He said he would not change his decision to have Marcos buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani unless he received a court order stopping him from doing so despite his detractors. “It’s simple, he [was] a President and a soldier and on both counts,” Duterte told reporters Tuesday night. “They [had] long been in power when Marcos was deposed. It [was] a long time coming. Why didn’t they ﬁx these things?” Duterte made his statement even as human rights activists

THE Energy Department on Wednesday ordered the power producers and other stakeholders to explain the cause of the tripping of eight power plants that caused the brownouts Tuesday night. “There was an outage [Tuesday night]. The plants simultaneously went off and that caused disturbance on the grid. We lost around 2,400 megawatts,” Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi told reporters. He said parts of the franchise area of Manila Electric Co., the country’s biggest power distributor, were affected by the

on Wednesday denounced his statement that the issue on Marcos’ burial was merely a “ﬁght between two families.” “The Aquinos were not the only victims of Martial Law, nor are they the ones leading the condemnation of a hero’s burial for the late dictator,” said Sanlakas Secretary-General Lawyer Aaron Pedrosa. “The President cannot simply reduce the issue to a clash of political clans, especially if he is aware of the injustices and crimes committed by the Marcos dictatorship.” Pedrosa said under Marcos’ rule, 3,240 people were killed, more than 70,000 were imprisoned, 34,000 were tortured and 254 disappeared. Next page

‘Trust Trump’s judgment’ PEOPLE can expect fewer curses from President Rodrigo Duterte against the United States, after he declared that he can get along with President-elect Donald Trump. “Oh I’m sure. We have no ﬁght. I can always be a friend to anybody, especially to a president, chief executive of another country,” Duterte told reporters Tuesday. Unlike US President Barack Next page

MEMORIAL RITE. TV host-author Cory Quirino (not in picture), granddaughter of President Elpidio Quirino, leads the laying Wednesday of a wreath at her grandfather’s statue on Quirino Ave. corner Roxas Blvd. during the 126th birth anniversary of the lawyer-politician, the sixth President of the Philippines from 1948 to 1953. Norman Cruz

Speaker wants 3 Transport execs fired SPEAKER Pantaleon Alvarez on Wednesday sought the ouster of three undersecretaries of Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade for allegedly sleeping on the job. He also slammed the Transport Department for delaying the bidding of priority projects so that those could be included in negotiated contracts that need

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not be open to scrutiny. Alvarez, in a radio interview, expressed dismay over what he called the dismal performance of Transportation ofﬁcials. He also accused them of having vested interests as they had previously served in companies that had direct stakes in infrastructure projects for the transportation sector.

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“With all these people at the [Transport Department], these undersecretaries who have their own vested interests, I am sure they will negotiate these contracts,” Alvarez said. Asked to name the Transportation officials who should be fired by the President immediately, Alvarez identified them

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SERVICE AFTER SHOCKS. Members of the Filipino community help clear damage Wednesday from a house in Waiau town, 80 kms to the south of Kaikoura as New Zealand tries to recover from a devastating earthquake that swallowed roads, twisted railway lines and left towns and cities smashed and deserted. AFP

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