Three title holders meet for first time By Nickie Wang
SHARED STAGE. Pia Wurtzbach, Miss Universe 2015, shares the stage with the two other Filipina women to ever win the prestigious pageant— Gloria Diaz (1969) and Margie Moran (1973)—a rarefied meeting of cross-generational beauty at a dinner at the luxury casino and hotel Okada Manila in Parañaque City Saturday night.
FOR the first time, reigning Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach was photographed with former titleholders Gloria Diaz (1969) and Margie Moran (1973) on Saturday night. Their meeting took place at a dinner party at the Okada Manila, a luxury casino and hotel complex in Parañaque City. The event, a runup to the 65th Miss Universe pageant to be held on Jan. 30, was also attended by the 86 Miss Universe candidates. “For me, they’re still the country’s iconic beauties. I hope I did them proud,” Wurtzbach told reporters. Diaz was the first Filipino to win the Miss Universe crown in 1969 in Miami Beach, Florida. Moran followed four years later, winning in 1973 when the annual pageant was staged in Athens. No other Filipino beauty queen was able to win the title until Wurtzbach ended the Philippines’ 42-year drought when she won the title in 2015. But Wurtzbach’s win was marred by controversies. Pageant host Steve Harvey announced the wrong winner, and the crowd later watched in heartbreak and horror as the crown was removed from the head of Colombia’s Ariadna Gutierrez, the first runnerup, and placed on Wurtbach’s on live television. A few days after the pageant, former Miss Universe owner and now United States president Donald Trump suggested to the two to be named co-winners, something they rejected. Next page
Drug watch list goes regional INTERIOR and Local Government Secretary Ismael Sueno gave the go signal for the “drug watch list” to be handed over to the regional directors of the Philippine National Police (PNP) during a meeting Friday. During the meeting, Sueno encouraged the participants, composed of local government heads and PNP regional direc-
DoJ presses for SAF 44 case update PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the Justice Department to update him on the status of the January 2015 Mamasapano debacle in which 44 police commandoes were killed in a botched covert operation under the previous administration, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said Sunday. The case of direct assault with murder has been filed against 88 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and private armed groups that led to the death of 44 members of the Special Action Force and international terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan. Charged for direct assault with murder are five commanders: Abdulrahman Abdulrakman Upan, Rakman, Refy Guiaman, Anife and Haumves alias Haves, operation commander of the 105th MILF Base Command and 83 others. Aguirre said as of December, the Cotabato court had ordered the prosecution to submit additional documents, including the birth certificates of the accused. Next page
tors, to keep their firm resolve in the fight against illegal drugs and confirmed that the list be furnished to the regional directors and be disseminated to local chief executives upon request. “The controversial list containing the names of the local government executives, officials and civilians alike, who are Next page
VOL. XXX • NO. 345 • 4 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P18 • MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 2017 • www.thestandard.com.ph • editorial@thestandard.com.ph
Dela Rosa stays; Du30 bucks critics Chief gets tall order to go after rogue cops By Rey E. Requejo, John Paolo Bencito and Macon Ramos-Araneta
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RESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday brushed aside calls for Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa to resign over the murder of a Korean kidnap victim inside police headquarters at Camp Crame.
“He stays there. Bato has my complete trust and confidence,” Duterte said, referring to Dela Rosa by his nickname. In an interview with GMA News, Duterte
said he has ordered Dela Rosa to prosecute the rogue policemen who kidnapped then strangled Hanjin executive Jee Ick Joo inside Camp Crame in October 2016.
“He must identify those policemen who are into this kind of activity,” Duterte said. “And I can assure you, everybody [involved] will be prosecuted.” Duterte’s expression of confidence came after Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said some policemen involved in criminal cases and placed under PNP custody have gone missing. One of these, Aguirre said, was PO1 Jonjie Manon-og of the Highway Patrol Group, who was accused of killing motorist John dela Riarte in July 2016. “The HPG received a copy of the arrest
Next page PNP Chief Ronald dela Rosa
Sin tax cost, gains weighed By Macon Ramos-Araneta and Rio N. Araja HEALTH benefits and the government’s revenue generation should be the main considerations of the sin tax law, Senator Panfilo Lacson said on Sunday. He said the Sin Tax Reform Act, which provides for a shift to a unitary instead of a two-tiered tax system for tobacco products, should be allowed to take its course. “Whatever will benefit the health sector as well as the government’s revenue generation, I would support,” Lacson said. “Initially, I’d rather allow the present law to take its course; that is, to allow the automatic shift to [a unitary tax system], monitor and review the implications before taking any legislative intervention, but most importantly prevent leakages in
the sin tax collections.” Lacson made his statement even as Rep. Joselito Atienza on Sunday blamed the past Congress for failing to protect local tobacco industry and called on the Senate to quickly pass the proposed law amending the Sin Tax Reform Act. Atienza said several laws had been passed that only served the interests of the makers of imported cigarettes. He said the Philippines’ tobacco farmers were on the brink of extinction. “I hope that our good senators will also do their part to protect the tobacco farmers from unfair business practices,” Atienza said. Lacson said the unitary tax system was so far proving to be responsive to increasing revenue, reducing the consumption Next page
PUTTING IN ORDER. A caretaker of People Power Monument along Edsa in Quezon City installs 44 pieces of the tricolors
and displays the pictures of the fallen Special Action Force in preparation for the 2nd anniversary of the Mamasapano clash in Maguindanao. Manny Palmero
Trump pays homage to CIA, snipes at media ON HIS first full day as president, Donald Trump made a pilgrimage to the CIA’s Virginia headquarters to demonstrate his support for the intelligence community but spent much of his time delivering a rambling speech where he talked mostly about himself—boasting about the size of the crowd at his inauguration, the number of times he’s been on the cover of Time magazine and how he feels like a 30-yearold, or perhaps a 39-year-old, physically.
When he did talk about the spy agencies several times during Saturday’s speech, it was to offer unqualified praise, saying he loves the intelligence community and that the news media invented the entire feud. “There’s nobody I respect more,” he said. “I am with you 1,000 percent.” Standing in front of the CIA Memorial Wall, engraved with stars representing fallen employees, Trump went even fur-
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ther, saying he was sure most of the 400 people in the room had voted for him. “We’re all on the same wavelength,” he said. He blamed previous administrations for holding the intelligence community back from defeating Islamic State and finishing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. ”Maybe sometimes you haven’t gotten the backing you wanted,” he said. ”You’re going to get so much backing.” Next page
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SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE. A vendor displays her lucky fruits, which include oranges which look like the sun and, Chinese old hands say, is aligned with the yang (positive) principle, a highly auspicious symbol of abundance and happiness in the runup to the Chinese New Year on Jan. 28. Norman Cruz
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