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VOL. XXXII • NO. 102 • 3 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P18 • MONDAY, MAY 28, 2018 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@manilastandard.net
COPIOUS CATCH. Literally a row of giant and abundant catch Sunday morning in the so-called tuna capital of the Philippines at the General Santos City fish port, the largest producer of sashimigrade tuna in the archipelagic country of 106-million people. Sonny Espiritu
Wage boards ordered to review workers’ pay
Ancajas retains world boxing title SPORTS A8
By Joyce Pangco Pañares, Alena Mae Flores, Maricel V. Cruz and Macon Ramos-Araneta
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ABOR Secretary Silvestre Bello III has ordered all wage boards to immediately start tripartite consultations to expedite possible pay hikes as oil prices were poised to continue their precipitous climb this week, further eroding the buying power of consumers.
A Japanese shade of green LIFE C1
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The Philippines has become the country with the fastest growing HIV epidemic in Asia and the Pacific. —United Nations report cited by the Senate in approving on third and final reading a bill seeking to reform the country’s 20-year-old legal framework and approach toward HIV/AIDS prevention
“With or without a petition [for wage increase], I gave an instruction to all our regional tripartite wage boards to study the impact of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion [TRAIN] Law and to study the economic situation in every region, on the basis of which they can already come up with their recommendation,” Bello said in a radio interview on Sunday.
“We have to be sensitive to the actual economic situation, especially the effect… [on] our workers,” he added. Bello said he has broached the possibility of giving subsidies to minimum wage earners in case a wage increase is disapproved, but admitted the proposal could cost the government at least P65 billion annually. Labor Undersecretary Jacinto
THE Department of Justice has ordered the suspension of three Pasay City prosecutors who allowed the release of an airport Customs officer and a couple arrested for allegedly smuggling in P6 million worth of gold jewelry. In an order dated May 21, acting Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra placed acting City Prosecutor Benjamin Lanto, Inquest Prosecutor Florencio dela Cruz Jr., and Associate Prosecution Attorney Clementine Villanueva under 60-day preventive suspension pending resolution
SEOUL—North and South Korea’s leaders held surprise talks on Saturday to get a historic summit between Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump back on track after a head-spinning series of twists and turns. The meeting is the latest remarkable diplomatic chapter in a roller coaster of developments on the Korean peninsula. Trump rattled the region on Thursday by cancelling his meeting with Kim, which had been due to take place in Singapore on June 12, citing “open hostility” from Pyongyang. But within 24 hours he reversed course saying it could still go ahead after productive talks were held with North Korean officials. Next page
KOREAN HUG. This picture taken on Saturday and
released by the Blue House via Dong-A Ilbo shows South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in (right) hugging North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after their second summit at the north side of the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, a day after US President Donald Trump threatened to abandon a summit with Pyongyang. AFP
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Justice bows to CoA on P621-m expense
SolGen: Kin’s deals went thru bidding
By Rey E. Requejo
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Two Koreas hold surprise talks after Trump turnaround
Three fiscals suspended over smuggle case
THE Justice department on Sunday vowed to fully comply with the recommendations made by the Commission on Audit for the proper disbursement of its funds. This was after the agency flagged the department’s undocumented fund transfers, payrolls and unauthorized bank accounts involving P621 million of its budget in its 2017 audit report. “The finance people at the DoJ undertake to comply with all the recommendations of the CoA and assure that all public
Paras said regional wage boards must expedite the consultations so that “they will be able to address the messy situation of our country today, especially the hardship that ordinary workers are facing.” “I believe that there shall be a substantial increase in the minimum wage for our workers to cope... with rising cost of living,
By Rey E. Requejo
Dengvaxia fund up to Senate scrutiny By Rio N. Araja and Macon Ramos-Araneta
for about 900,000 schoolchildren inoculated with the Dengvaxia vaccine shots even if their illnesses were not related to it. Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles, head of THE House of Representatives will transmit the P1.161-billion supplemental bud- the House committee on appropriations, Next page get to the Senate for the medical assistance
FACING a complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman, Solicitor General Jose Calida on Sunday denied any wrongdoing in the multi-million-peso contracts that his security agency won from several government agencies. The complaint, filed May 10 by a private citizen, Jocelyn Nisperos, said Calida violated the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials Next page