Manila Standard - 2018 October 13 - Saturday

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DOMINGUEZ: WE GET PUNISHED FOR DOING THE RIGHT THING THE Philippines is “being punished” for managing its economy in the right way, given the effect of the tightening US monetary policy on the embattled emerging market, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said Thursday. Speaking to CNBC at the IMF and World Bank meetings in Bali, Dominguez said the US should consider that its actions “affect everybody.” “It affects the entire world, capital flows back to the US, and we’re trying

our darndest here, [but we’re] being punished for something we’re doing right,” Dominguez said. He was responding to the news that US President Donald Trump said the Fed had “gone crazy” in continuing to raise interest rates. The Philippine central bank in September raised rates for the fourth time in five months, and has signaled that it’s prepared to tighten monetary policy further to support its currency, if needed. Next page

VOL. XXXII • NO. 240 • 3 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P18 • SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2018 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@manilastandard.net

Rody won’t bare ‘narco’ bets Bakers’ Xmas treat: No price hikes for

‘pan de sal’

FILIPINOS won’t find relief from expensive rice and petroleum products anytime soon, but at least one basic commodity won’t contribute to the country’s crippling inflation. A group of bakers, mostly Pinoy Tasty and Pinoy Pandesal makers, announced Friday there will be no price increases for their baked goods this Christmas season. In a meeting with the Trade department, members of the Philippine Baking Industry Group made known their commitment to maintain the current price of P35 per loaf of Pinoy Tasty and P21.50 per 10-piece pack of Pinoy Pandesal until the holidays are over. Next page

By Maricel V. Cruz HOUSE leaders will study measures that call for the lifting of the excise tax on fuel, the chairman of the committee on ways and means said Friday. Nueva Ecija Rep. Estrellita Suansing said her panel will still need to consult with its members in deciding on a resolution filed by opposition congressmen, among others, suspending the excise tax increases on fuel and oil products in a bid to address the soaring prices of basic goods. “This has not been calendared yet and so the committee has yet to deliberate on the matter,” Suansing told the Manila Standard. She said the committee will come up

‘Trapo,’‘bongga,‘ new Oxford words THE Oxford English Dictionary has added a new word to its extensive list: trapo. “In Philippine English, a trapo is ‘a politician perceived as belonging to a conventional and corrupt ruling class’,” Oxford said in a statement. It cited the word as an example of the multilingualism of the Philippines,

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with a collegial decision that is beneficial for the public, at a proper time. Suansing made the statement in reponse to the clamor of administration senators for the suspension of a looming increase in the excise tax on fuel. The senators said this will ease the burden on consumers, who have been reeling from the continued increase in prices. Suansing said her committee will deliberate on House Joint Resolution 27 when Congress resumes session next month. Pending the collective decision of the House leadership on the matter, Suansing said the government has extended the much-needed assistance to the people to cushion the impact of skyrocketing Next page

‘Shrinking farms doom goals for rice sufficiency’ By Nat Mariano and Maricel V. Cruz

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Friday underscored the need to increase the country’s rice supply through unimpeded importation, maintaining that the Philippines will fail to achieve rice sufficiency due to narrowing farmlands. “The stomach comes first. So, the policy of the government is to keep the people... away from hunger,” he told reporters in Davao City as he arrived from his trip to the ASEAN Leaders’ Gathering in Bali, Indonesia. Next page

By Nat Mariano and Rio N. Araja

P

RESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Friday refused to release the names of suspected narco-politicians running in the 2019 midterm elections, even though the Department of the Interior and Local Government is doing so to the Commission on Elections.

He said it was not “a “good policy” for the government to disclose the names after the DILG recommended the disqualification of candidates in the drug list. “It’s not a good policy to telegraph your intention or what you know about the other fellow [politicians], especially in matters of breaking penal laws,” Duterte said in a press conference in Davao City Friday morning. DILG Assistant Secretary Jonathan Malaya said they would submit the list of politicians linked to drugs, corruption, and abuse of authority to the Comelec as the period of filing of the certificates of candidacies started on Wednesday. “The pronouncement of Secretary Eduardo Año is that we are going to release [the names of] all of those narco-politicians and we are also going to forward to the Commission on Elections all of those lists, the narco-politicians and those with cases for their proper disposition,” Malaya said in a Palace press briefing Friday.

By Othel V. Campos

Solons look into fuel excise tax freeze

DILG to submit list to Comelec for disqualification

Duterte confirms Locsin to replace Cayetano at DFA

The DILG previously called for the disqualification of politicians in the said drug list who plan to run in the upcoming elections. Senators Francis Pangilinan and Aquilino Pimentel III, on different sides of the political fence, both said disqualifying candidates based on the narco-list was illegal. The Comelec has scheduled a hearing on the DILG petition. Meanwhile, the poll watchdog group Legal Network for Truthful Elections said the DILG cannot recommend the disqualification of candidates. The executive director of the group, Ona Caritos, told a TV interview that the law says persons can only be disqualified based on a final judgement or conviction. The Palace had previously maintained, too, that a suspected narco-politician can only be disqualified if convicted with finality and that the accessory penalty for disqualification from public office has Next page been decreed by the court.

More election hopefuls file CoCs, Comelec sees many as ‘nuisance’ By Vito Barcelo, Macon RamosAraneta, and Nat Mariano SENATOR Nancy Binay led several incumbent lawmakers who filed their certificates of candidacy for the May 2019 elections on Friday, even as the Commission on Elections vowed to screen all possible nuisance candidates a week after the filing of CoCs ends on Tuesday, Oct. 17. Binay joined former police and prisons chief Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, lawyer Larry Gadon, and little-known bets Ricky Bacolod and Nid Anima as Senate hopefuls in the midterm elections. One prominent rumored Senate candidate, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, isn’t running—according to her father,

President Rodrigo Duterte, on Friday. “She won’t run as a senator, she won’t as a president. Believe in me. She’s too wise for that,” he said in a press briefing in Davao City upon his arrival from Bali, Indonesia. The President’s son, former Davao vice mayor Paolo Duterte, is instead running for congressman of Davao province’s first district. He filed his CoC together with Sara Duterte and brother-in-law Manases Carpio, the mayor’s husband. Another prominent bidder for a House seat is Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo, son of House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who is stepping down after three terms to take a break from politics “as agreed upon by their family and the party,” he said. Next page

By Nat Mariano, Macon RamosAraneta, Rey E. Requejo and Rio N. Araja PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte said Friday he has chosen Philippine Ambassador to the United Nations Teodoro “Boy” Locsin to replace Alan Peter Cayetano as Foreign Affairs secretary. He made the announcement during a press conference in Davao City upon his arrival from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Leaders’ Gathering in Bali, Indonesia. “He might not want to announce [his name]. I do not have his permission,” the President said, hesitating to name Locsin. He then instructed Special Assistant to the President Christopher Go to phone Locsin. Duterte’s top aide then nodded, implying it is all right to reveal Locsin’s name. Locsin took to Twitter to comment on Duterte’s statement. Next page

DELA ROSA

BINAY

ANIMA

GADON

BACOLOD

Carpio accepts nomination for CJ post, Del Castillo declines By Rey E. Requejo THE Supreme Court’s most senior Associate Justice, Antonio Carpio, on Friday formally accepted his automatic nomination for the most coveted post in the judiciary, which was left vacant following the compulsory retirement of Chief Justice Teresita J. Leonardo-Castro on Oct. 10.

The high court’s Public Information Office confirmed that Carpio accepted the nomination for the post of chief justice. “Confirmation that Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio has accepted his automatic nomination for CJ from his Judicial Staff head Atty. Maria Teresa Sibulo,” the PIO said in a text message to reporters. With Carpio’s joining the chief justice

race, it will now be a three-way fight among him and Associate Justices Diosdado M. Peralta and Lucas P. Bersamin who had also earlier accepted their automatic nominations. But this scenario will change if Associate Justice Estela M. Perlas-Bernabe also submits her acceptance of her automatic Next page nomination.