Manila Standard - 2016 November 30 - Wednesday by Manila Standard

BEAR HUG STRATEGY.

President Rodrigo Duterte welcomes Moro National Liberation Front Chairman Nur Misuari, facing charges of rebellion and violation of the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide and Other Crimes Against Humanity in connection with the 2013 Zamboanga siege which killed more than 100 and 100,000 displaced, when the latter called on the former at Malacañang Monday.

VOL. XXX • NO. 291 • 4 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P18 • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2016 • www.thestandard.com.ph • editorial@thestandard.com.ph

Maute snipers hold back Army attackers MILITARY offensives against the Maute group, now on their fourth day at Butig town, Lanao Del Sur, have resulted in the death of 40 bandits and wounded 20 troopers. Armed Forces of the Philippines public affairs office chief Col. Edgard Arevalo said in a briefing Tuesday government forces continue to inch their way to the Maute group strongholds in Butig. However, the military advance is being held up by sniper fire and threats of improvised explosive device attacks by the bandit group, he added. Most of the military wounded are not serious and the patients are ambulatory, Arevalo said. The AFP offensive is headed by the 103rd Infantry Brigade, which is now reinforced by armor, artillery, and air units. Arevalo said the Maute group, which is concentrated in Barangays Sindig and Bayabao, is putting up a tough fight but he expressed confidence that the military will break the group’s resistance soon. Despite the intensified military offen-

sive in Butig, President Rodrigo Duterte said the government is not keen on waging war against the Maute terror group, and said he preferred to resolve the conﬂict through peaceful means. His remarks came even after receiving news that a presidential convoy—and advance team for his visit Wednesday--had been hit by an improvised bomb in Butig. “Let’s befriend them so there won’t be any conﬂict,” Duterte said. Duterte was expected to arrive in Marawi Tuesday evening to visit injured PSG members. It is not unusual for Duterte to extend the olive branch to lawless elements, saying it is pointless to wage war. “I can burn Jolo. I can burn Sulu, but what would it bring us?” Duterte said in his speech, referring to the strife-torn island in Mindanao. He also recently offered to hold talks with the Abu Sayyaf Group, even as security analysts said such a thing would be impossible. PNA

Du30 guards bombed UN draws ﬂak over ‘alarming warning’ 9 hurt as PSG convoy THE government criticized Tuesday as “irresponsible and alarming” a UN envoy’s warning that life sentences meted out to two former-Khmer Rouge leaders should serve as a warning to Manila over human rights abuses. Last week, a United Nationsbacked court in Cambodia upheld life sentences for crimes against humanity for two senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime, which was responsible for the death of up to two million Cam-

bodians from 1975-1979. David Scheffer, the UN secretary-general’s envoy to the tribunal, said leaders in countries such as the Philippines, as well as the Islamic State group, must take note of the verdict. “Mr. Scheffer’s remarks are irresponsible and alarming since these are directed at the leadership of a democratic country with a functioning criminal justice system,” the Philippine foreign ministry said in a rare statement.

“His remarks are unjustiﬁed and without basis.” President Rodrigo Duterte, 71, has drawn a wave of international criticism for his drug war that has left more than 4,800 people dead. The UN, the United States and the European Union have warned against alleged extrajudicial killings and a breakdown in the rule of law. Duterte won May elections by a landslide after vowing to kill 100,000 criminals and rid the

country of illegal drugs in six months. Since he took office in June, 1,900 have died in police operations and another 2,900 were killed in unexplained circumstances, according to official figures. After the verdict in Cambodia last week, Scheffer said the decision showed world leaders can be held accountable for atrocities. “Leaders in the Philippines or in South Sudan or in Sudan or in Next page

Commuters demand Transport chief’s ouster A GROUP of consumers and road users on Tuesday pressed for the resignation of Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade. The group said Undersecretary Noel Kintanar became a “sacriﬁcial lamb” when he decided to quit to ease the criticisms against the department’s ofﬁcials.

“We have likened this to a chess game where you sacriﬁce the rook to save the king. But it is the mastermind who must be removed,” said Road Users Protection Advocates chairman Ray Junia. “If there is anyone who should resign ﬁrst, that should be Tugade.

LAUR, Nueva Ecija--A Chinese philanthropist who donated P1.4 billion to build a Drug Abuse Treatment and Rehabilitation Center here on Tuesday expressed his admiration for President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs. ”An overseas Chinese in the Philippines, I fully support President Duterte’s admirable campaign [against illegal drugs],” Huang Ru-

lun, chairman of Century Golden Resources Group, said in his speech at the inauguration of the DATRC in Fort Magsaysay here. Huang made his statement even as Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Tuesday ordered newly-appointed Bureau of Corrections Director Benjamin De Los Santos to stop corruption at the agency and stop the illegal drug trade in the prisons including the New Bilibid Prison in Next page Muntinlupa City.

By John Paolo Bencito

ORT MAGSAYSAY—Nine soldiers were injured with two in critical condition after an improvised explosive device exploded at a presidential convoy at Marawi City. Army spokesperson Restituto Padilla said that a convoy of Presidential Security Group personnel, state television RTVM and local troop escorts who were supposed to do advance work ahead of President Rodrigo Duterte’s visit to Butig, Lanao del Sur on Wednesday were waylaid after unidentiﬁed gunmen ﬁred on the military convoy at Barangay Emie Punod in Marawi City at 10:30 a.m. Despite these threats, Duterte said he would push through with his visit Wednesday.

“There is trouble there in Mindanao, it’s within control but it’s a troublesome thing so I have to go there,” Duterte said in his speech during the inauguration of a drug rehabilitation facility here. “The advance party belonging to the Presidential Security Group was ambushed a while ago. They were hit by an IED. But I’m going there. I’m going there because—I am just simply going there,” he said. “The advice was to postpone. I said, ‘No, I will go there’ and if possible, take the same route.” Next page

Bomber’s sketch out; Manila tightens watch

Chinese donor unveils P1.4-b drug rehab center By Rey E. Requejo

attacked in Marawi

By Sandy Araneta and Rio Araja

CONTINUING PROTEST. Scores of survivors of the deadly Typhoon

‘Yolanda,’ which sliced through the Eastern Visayas region in November 2013, stage a protest rally Tuesday near the residence of former President Benigno Aquino III to demand accountability in regard to his administration’s alleged criminal neglect against the victims and alleged corruption of typhoon funds. Manny Palmero

THE Manila Police District has started augmenting the security around the United States Embassy in Manila following the discovery of an improvised bomb near the compound along Roxas Boulevard on Monday. Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa, who described the attempt to bomb the embassy as “an attempted act of terrorism,” Next page

An artist’s sketch of the suspect

Diokno quits House eyes ways to let Leila explain NHCP post as By Maricel V. Cruz and House should she refuse to an- ma’s denial of all the allegations Macon Ramos-Araneta swer will depend on the recom- hurled against her. “She should stop trying to fool mendation of the House commitprotest act SPEAKER Pantaleon Alvarez on tee on justice chaired by Oriental us.. it is her credibility that is at

DRUG REHAB FACILITY. President Rodrigo Duterte, in a helicopter

before he inaugurated Tuesday the 10,000-bed in-patients ‘mega’ drug abuse treatment and rehabilitation center at Fort Magsaysay in Laur, Nueva Ecija, to help address the rising drug menace in which some 4,000 suspected drug peddlers and users have been killed since July 1.

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THE head of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines resigned on Tuesday in protest against the burial of dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Heroes’ Cemetery. NHCP Chairwoman Maria Serena Diokno submitted her resignation to Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea and said it was a move toward the “right side of history.” Next page

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Tuesday said the House of Representatives will exhaust all means to compel Senator Leila de Lima to respond to the show-cause order ﬁled against her by the House committee on justice. “We will look at all the options at the same time,” Alvarez said in Filipino. “We won’t be choosing just one.” Alvarez said the action to be taken against De Lima by the

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Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali. If the committee recommends to have De Lima arrested, Alvarez said he would sign the arrest warrant against her. “We will know in 72 hours,” he said. Alvarez said the House will be forced to issue to an arrest warrant againt De Lima if she continuously ignores the subpeona issued. Alvarez also laughed off De Li-

stake. It is only now that I have met such a person, so quick to lie,” he added. He added that if De Lima had nothing to hide, she should not be worried about attending the House hearing. On Tuesday, House Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas of Ilocos Note and Umali served a showcause order to De Lima through Next page

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