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ELECTION BY THE NUMBERS
7,915
out of 42,000 barangays marked as hot spots
27
poll-related deaths VOL. XXXII • NO. 88 • 3 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P18 • MONDAY, MAY 14, 2018 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@manilastandard.net
671,168
Bishop warns faithful: Shun vote-buying
NCR
seats up for grabs
region with least hot spots at
26
20.63-m
By Rey E. Requejo
registered voters for SK
ON THE eve of barangay and youth elections, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas urged the faithful Sunday to reject vote buying as an attack on human dignity. “When they offer you money, they are putting a price tag on you. Get mad!” he said in a pastoral letter. “We are part of a bigger whole. Do not vote for your own sake. Vote thinking of the good of society. Remember
ARMM
region with most hot spots at
57.38-m
registered voters for barangay
1,415
SOURCES: COMELEC AND PNP
Sereno doomed by non-filing of SALN—insider EVEN if the Supreme Court had granted the plea of ousted Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno to dismiss the quo warranto petition against her, there is no way she would have survived an impeachment trial before the Senate, a Court insider said Sunday. “Granting that the Supreme Court dismissed the quo warranto petition against CJ Sereno, there is no way she can win an impeachment trial because the SC itself already found her of violating the Constitution for not filing the statement of assets, liabilities and networth [SALN],” the source said. Although the vote on the quo warranto petition was 8-6, a separate vote established that nine of the 14 justices found that Sereno had violated the Constitution by failing to file the proper SALNs. “This is a clearly a ground for her impeachment for committing a culpable Next page
WEATHER Weak La Niña shortens dry season THE rainy days are coming and they’re likely to start on the last week of May, the weather bureau said Sunday. The agency declared the beginning of the dry season on April 10, but on Sunday said the dry season will be shorter because of a weak La Niña, which is characterized by an unusually cool ocean surface temperatures in the Pacific. “The rainy days are coming, and the earliest start will be the last week of May,” forecaster Aldczar Aurelio said. He said the Samar provinces will experience scattered rain showers and thunderstorms, while Metro Manila and the rest of the country will experience thunderstorms in the afternoon or evening.
VICENTE LOOT
Next page
EUFRANIO ERIGUEL
Pre-poll violence: 4 die, mayor survives ambush By Francisco Tuyay
A
MAYOR accused of drug trafficking survived an ambush Sunday, four months after President Rodrigo Duterte publicly threatened to kill him, while at least four other people were killed in the run-up to Monday’s barangay elections.
Retired police chief superintendent as one of the so-called “narco-generals” Vicente Loot, a mayor in Cebu province, protecting the illegal drug trade. had been repeatedly named by Duterte Loot on Sunday was on a boat arriving
with his family at a port in the Cebu town of Daanbantayan when unidentified gunmen opened fire and wounded four people, police said. The mayor was unhurt. “We are looking at all possible motives and angles, including his being tagged in the narco-list, politics, or his previous work in the police force,” acting town police chief Senior Inspector Irish Dilem said. Loot told radio dzMM he was urging authorities to investigate the incident but refused to speculate on the motive. He denies links to drugs Duterte has launched an unprecedented war on drugs that has cost thousands of
lives. He first named Loot in 2016 as part of his so-called “drug list” of local officials, policemen and judges whom he accused of involvement in narcotics trafficking. Three other mayors on the list have since been shot dead, one of them while inside a jail cell. Duterte had lashed out at Loot as he questioned the source of the mayor’s wealth. In December 2017 he recounted a conversation he said he had with the official. “Did I not tell you during my meeting with [mayors], I told Loot, ‘You son of a Next page
JBC shortlist put to question By Rio N. Araja THE chairman of the House committee on justice warned Sunday that impeachable officials of the Judicial and Bar Council who shortlisted Maria Lourdes Sereno for the position of chief justice in 2012 could face impeachment complaint before the House of Representatives. Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, who chairs the panel, made this observation after the Supreme Court voted 8-6 granting the quo warranto petition of Solicitor General Jose Next page
POLL READY. Members of the Manila Police District Command get final instructions from their superiors on Sunday, May 13, 2018, in preparation for their deployment to polling precincts in Manila for the Barangay and SK elections on Monday, May 14, 2018. Photo below shows volunteers unloading ballot boxes at the Las Piñas City Hall. Norman Cruz
Angara, ex-Senate president, passes away at 83 MEGAWORLD MAKES HISTORY. Property giant Megaworld made another history in this year’s Philippines Property Awards when it emerged as the country’s ‘Best Developer’ for the third straight year during the Gala Night in Makati City Friday night. The Megaworld Group, which includes its subsidiaries Suntrust Properties Inc., Empire East Land Holdings Inc. and Global-Estate Resorts Inc. received numerous winner and highly commended awards from various categories. Receiving this year’s ‘Best Developer’ award were Lourdes T. Gutierrez-Alfonso, chief operating officer, Megaworld and Kevin L. Tan, senior vice president and head of Megaworld Lifestyle Malls, Megaworld.
Edgardo J. Angara
FORMER Senate president Edgardo Angara died of “an apparent heart attack” on Sunday, his son Senator Juan Edgardo Angara said. He was 83. “Sad to say my father[,] former Sen[ator] Edgardo Javier Angara[,] passed on from this life this morning at the age of 83, from an apparent heart attack,” the younger Angara said in a Twitter post. He said they were still arranging funeral ar-
rangements for his father. Angara, who served as senator from 1987 to 1995 and from 2001 to 2013, was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte as a special envoy to the European Union in May 2017. He ran for vice president in 1998 but lost to then senator Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Angara was President Joseph Estrada’s Agriculture secretary from 1999 to 2001 and an executive secretary in 2001. PNA