VOL. XXXI • NO. 80 • 4 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P18 • FRIDAY, MAY 5, 2017 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@thestandard.com.ph
TOP THREAT. Against the backdrop of resumed peace talks between government negotiators and communist rebels in Noordwijk aan Zee in
The Netherlands, the New People’s Army North Central Mindanao Command Guerrilla Front 6 display their firepower in a show of force, prompting yet again National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon (right) to declare the local communists remain the number one threat to the country’s democratic way of life. Bobby Lagsa
Reds still No. 1 threat—Esperon ‘Filipinos wouldn’t want their way of life’ Digong’s drug war up for UN review By Sandy Araneta A HUMAN rights group on Thursday urged the United Nations to denounce the Philippines’ brutal war on drugs that has killed more than 7,000 people when the country comes up for review on May 8 in Geneva. “The UN review of the Philippines is critical because of the sheer magnitude of the human rights calamity since President Duterte took office last year,” said Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’ has been nothing less than a murderous war on the poor,” Kine said. The Philippines will appear for the third cycle of the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review on May 8 in GeNext page neva.
By John Paolo Bencito
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ESPITE ongoing peace talks, the communists remain the number one internal threat to national security, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon said Thursday. Esperon said that while communism isn’t an outright threat, the ideology espoused by members of the Communist Party of the Philippines, National Democratic Front, and their armed wing the New People’s Army is “something that would not really be the way of life… that the Filipinos would want.” “So if the basis is [our] way of life, then I would say the Communist Party, the NPA, and the NDF would be the number one threat,” he added. In a statement Wednesday, Presidential Adviser on the Next page
Congress’ OK needed for PH-China war games By John Paolo Bencito A VISITING forces agreement would have to be ratified by Congress to allow Chinese forces to visit the country for joint war exercises, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon said Thursday. “In joint exercises, you must have a visiting forces agreement and probably, a treaty,” Esperon said in a Palace press briefing,
after President Rodrigo Duterte said he was open to holding joint exercises with the Chinese Navy, possibly in the Sulu Sea. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana earlier said if the government decides to conduct war games with China, a framework must first be developed. “If troops will go into our territory, either territorial waters or land, we might need a Visiting Forces Agreement,” he added.
He said naval exercises have two purposes: Training the troops and patrolling the South China Sea. Esperon said that the proposed war games between Filipino and Chinese troops will be beneficial for the country, despite the country’s overlapping claims in the other parts of the sea. He added that the Sulu Sea was where pirates have staged kidnappings. “If we have a military presence there, it will be good,” he said.
Rody: Gina’s ouster part of process Gambling By John Paolo Bencito PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday expressed disappointment over the Commission on Appointments removal of Regina Lopez as secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Duterte said that there are things that he cannot control but conceded that is how democracy works. “It’s a pity about Gina,” he said in Filipino in a speech before ortho-
pedic surgeons in Davao City. “I really like her passion. But you know how it is. This is democracy.’’ He also inferred heavy lobbying. “I can’t control everything. I want to but I share powers. And that is the process of checks and balances,” he added. “The President appoints, but the appointee undergoes the scrutiny of the Commission on Appointments.” Lopez was rejected by a vote of 16-8 by secret voting. Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella, meanwhile, said that
the stay order issued by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea on Lopez’s orders for affected mining companies to pay more than P2 million per hectare of land, will continue until Duterte appoints a new environment chief. Lopez became the second Cabinet secretary under the Duterte administration to be rejected by the commission. The first was Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr., who was turned down over questions about his Next page citizenship.
ERC chief has to go —Duterte
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lord puts NBI in spot By Rey E. Requejo JUSTICE Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Thursday ordered an investigation on five NBI agents who are the alleged protectors of gambling lord Charlie “Atong” Ang, who is being probed by Bureau of Internal Revenue for possible tax evasion. He said his office had received information that the five agents had long been Ang’s moles in the National Bureau of Investigation. “He has NBI agents protecting him, and I already know those agents,” Aguirre said. Next page
By John Paolo Bencito PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte said Thursday he will eventually sack suspended Energy Regulatory Commission chairman Jose Vicente Salazar. Duterte had suspended Salazar for 90 days even as Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi promised an impartial investigation of the corruption allegations against the ERC chief. “I have fired 96 to date. Mostly guys in regulatory bodies,” Duterte said in a speech before orthopedic surgeons in Davao City. “I have suspended Salazar because of corruption, and I will eventually remove him.” Duterte made his statement even as the left-leaning group
“For now, we don’t have joint patrols with any nation. What we simply have is a trilateral agreement with Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines to cover the Sulu Sea, primarily Tawi-Tawi.” On Thursday, Malacañang said that President Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping made a call for peace and stability in the region amid nuclear threats by North Korea which may disrupt Next page peace in the region.
Mighty tax case pretrial under way By Rey E. Requejo
SCORCHING SUMMER. Foreign and local tourists enjoy surfing at the Sabang beach in Baler, Aurora—fronting the vast Pacific Ocean—to parry off the rays of the blazing sun in what tourism officials say is the birthplace of surfing in the Philippine archipelago. Manny Palmero
THE Justice Department on Thursday started its preliminary investigation into the P9.56-billion tax evasion case against the owners and officials of Mighty Corp. for allegedly using counterfeit tax stamps on their cigarettes to evade paying taxes. Mighty Corp. owner Alexander Wongchuking submitted his counter-affidavit to the government prosecutors and denied the Next page