CHIEF SCOUT. President Rodrigo Duterte meets up with young scouts Monday in Malacañang, after gracing the Baden Powell Day or Founder’s Day of Boy Scouts. where he said he would protect the young generation of Filipinos from becoming victims of illegal drugs and urged them to eventually enter the Reserve Officers Training Corps in college. (Story below) John Paolo Bencito
32 BI men quit; DoJ wary By Rey E. Requejo and Joel E. Zurbano
VOL. XXXI • NO. 53 • 4 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P18 • TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 2017 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@thestandard.com.ph
THE mass resignation of immigration personnel at the airport because of unpaid overtime could compromise national security, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said Monday.
Aguirre said 32 immigration personnel have already resigned, and 50 others have filed a leave of absence for six months to look for other jobs. The lack of Immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport has led to long lines at immigration counters Next page
NDF asked: War or peace? Corruption charge smear job—Sueno By John Paolo Bencito and Rio N. Araja
of his undersecretaries. Sueno said he believed the attacks were initiated by John INTERIOR Secretary Ismael Castriciones, Jesus V. Hinlo and Sueno said Monday someone Emily Padilla. wanted him He claimed out of his dethat they made partment as the move after he denied the he clipped their allegations powers at the Inof corruption terior Department and abuse of following a redelpower in a egation of authorconfidential ity that he issued letter to Presilast week. dent Rodrigo “It appears Duterte that that from the was reportedly very start, they drafted and want[ed] my head sent by three DILG Secretary Ismael Sueno Next page
Graft raps vs printing officials By Sara Susanne D. Fabunan THE key executives of APOProductivity Unit or APO-PU, a state-owned printing company, may face graft charges for allegedly entering into a partnership agreement with a private corporation without authorization. The Philippine Association of Free Labor Unions, the group that requested to reduce the price of a passport to P650, said Monday it was poised to file graft charges against APO-PU’s key executives after presidential chief legal counsel Salvador Panelo recommended to dump the joint venture APO-United Graphic Expression Corp. or APO-UGEC. “Clearly, this JVA [joint-venture agreement] had no basis whatsoever because at the time of its signing, the DFA had not yet appointed APO-PU as the government’s official printer of the passports. That appointment eventually came on Oct. 5, 2015 when the DFA and APOPU concluded a memorandum of agreement on the e-passport Next page
Duterte sets 4 conditions of truce with Reds By John Paolo Bencito and Sandy Araneta
P
RESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte told communist rebels Sunday that they must accept his four conditions for a bilateral ceasefire or risk going to war with the government again. “I am occupying a position with a burden of getting this country back to peace. That is a mission but there is a condition attached to it,” the President said in an interview in Cagayan de Oro City Sunday. “The four… I gave them. Otherwise, I would be telling the Filipino people we will just have to fight. Until kingdom come,” he said. Duterte earlier laid out the four
conditions as: 1) an end to the rebels’ “revolutionary tax”; 2) the release of all prisoners held by the communists; 3) non-recognition of the communists’ territorial claims; and 4) a signed and binding ceasefire agreement. Duterte said he still wanted peace with the rebels. “Just give me other enemies, not my countrymen,” he said. The National Democratic Front
said they are open to the President’s four conditions, but insisted that other issues regarding the bilateral ceasefire should be discussed, including the eight-kilometer buffer zone between combatants, the role of the monitoring committee, and the definition of what constitutes hostile actions. “This cannot be rushed and requires extensive discussions,” said NDF senior adviser Luis Jalandoni, who said there was goodwill on both sides. On Monday, the President acknowledged that the peace talks may have encountered some problems because of the four conditions he set. “We are having talks in The Netherlands,” he said. “They have not made any progress because I have some conditions to
impose before we go back.” Bello said both sides would seek common ground amid a rocky start. He added that forging a ceasefire agreement is not about giving in or giving up, but about giving all for peace. Duterte recently junked the immediate signing of a bilateral ceasefire agreement with the Communist Party of the PhilippinesNational Democratic Front unless the rebel group agrees to halt its collection of revolutionary taxes and to release all prisoners being held by the New People’s Army. He also said government negotiators should come up with a signed document with the communists “establishing the parameters of the peace talks” and there Next page
Alvarez urges Aguirre: Void Tadeco land deal By Christine F. Herrera, Rey E. Requejo and Maricel V. Cruz HOUSE Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez has urged Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre III to immediately declare as null and void the joint venture agreement entered into between a company owned by Davao del Norte Rep. Antonio Floirendo
Jr. and the Bureau of Corrections for being “grossly disadvantageous to the government.” In a letter datSan Miguel Corporation and its ed March 30, president Ramon S. Ang said there 2107, a copy was no offer of P1 billion to man- of which was age a banana plantation inside the obtained by Manila Davao penal colony, contrary to a the report that came out in the Manila Standard, AlStandard. varez said “With due respect to all parties BuCor had concerned, Mr. Ang, along with the no authority rest of San Miguel Corporation, is to enter into unaware of this supposed offer, and has nothing to do with this particular a contract involving 5,308 issue,” SMC said in a statement. of SMC said it is not engaged in the hectares in business of managing banana planta- farmland Davao tions and has never had any interest the in doing so. Penal Colony Next page
BENCHMARK OF ADMISSIBILITY. Forensic experts from the National Bureau of Investigation arrange the
seized firearms and P120 million worth of shabu during the news conference Monday at NBI headquarters. The NBI said agents arrested two suspects Edris Macabalop and Arvin Zapanta after a two-day stakeout in Manila’s Tondo district. Norman Cruz
Lacson: Let court decide on Noy’s Kidapawan role
‘I’ll kill if only to end the drug menace’
SENATOR Panfilo Lacson on Monday said that only the courts have the authority to decide on the liability of former President Benigno Aquino III over the Kidapawan massacre last year. “There is only one duly constituted authority that can mete
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte told children on Monday he will kill to protect them from the drug menace. In a Boy Scout uniform and speaking for the first time as the new Chief Scout of the Boys Scouts of the Philippines, Duterte told his audience—some of them
out any form of penalty against anybody found violating the laws of the land, and that is a court of law of the Republic of the Philippines,” Lacson said. “Anybody else is unauthorized and therefore illegal…Hence, Next page
By John Paolo Bencito and Sandy Araneta
as young as four years old—that he really killed people and would not hesitate to do so particularly if young people were at risk. “You know, those who are sitting right there will be the President in the future. If you won’t be President, you’ll be adults here because you will protect the next generation of Filipinos.” Duterte made his statement even
as the National Bureau of Investigation on Monday filed charges against two men who were arrested over the weekend in a drug bust in Tondo, Manila, that led to the seizure of P120 million worth of illegal drugs and a cache of firearms. The agency said follow-up operations were still being conducted to determine the identity of the mastermind. Next page