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Pakistan shoots down 2 Indian fighter jets VOL. XXXIII • NO. 18 • 3 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P18 • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com
PNP, PDEA clash over cocaine find
Police mum on Colombian cartel’s role in PH By Francisco Tuyay
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HILIPPINE National Police chief Oscar Albayalde on Wednesday offered a different explanation as to the bricks of cocaine that washed ashore the eastern seaboard, directly contradicting an earlier statement of President Rodrigo Duterte and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency that the shipments confirmed the presence of the Colombian drug cartel in the country.
Albayalde said the bricks of cocaine that washed ashore the eastern seaboard may have drifted off from the waters of Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, after the vessel carrying them capsized while on the way to Australia. He noted that his counterpart from the Australian Federal Police had pointed to similar recoveries of cocaine bricks in the Solomon Islands in June and September last year. On Tuesday, however, PDEA chief Aaron Aquino
PROBE IN PROGRESS. Indian soldiers and Kashmiri onlookers stand near the ruins of an Indian Air Force helicopter after it crashed in Budgam district, on the outskirts of Srinagar on Wednesday. Officials say an investigation is ongoing, which came as Pakistan claimed to have shot down two Indian fighter jets in the divided and disputed Kashmir region. AFP ISLAMABAD—Pakistan said Wednesday it shot down two Indian warplanes in its airspace over disputed Kashmir, in a dramatic escalation of a confrontation that has ignited fears of an all-out conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbors. One Indian pilot was captured, a Pakistani military spokesman said, adding that one aircraft had fallen in Pakistani-held Kashmir, while the other fell on the Indian side of the
heavily militarized de facto border dividing the Himalayan territory. Indian sources confirmed Pakistani fighter jets had violated airspace over Indian Kashmir, but said they were forced back over the LoC, and there was no immediate response to the claim the planes had been shot down. The incident is the latest in a dangerous sequence of events between the two countries, whose ties have Next page
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Pranksters blamed for death theats By Nat Mariano and Macon Ramos-Araneta THE Palace on Wednesday said the death threats some Catholic bishops and priest have received could be the work of pranksters or anti-administration “trolls” bent on discrediting the government. In an interview on radio dzBB, Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said the threats, which Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle had informed the Next page
Labor protests envoy’s threat to deport OFWs SISTER’S SORROW. A wounded Syrian girl awaits rescue from under the rubble next to the body of her sister (hands protruding and seen below the wreckage) who did not survive the bombardment in Khan Sheikhun in the southern countryside of the rebel-held Idlib province Tuesday. The latest barrage killed two civilians, raising the civilian death toll to 42 since Feb. 9, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. AFP
By Vito Barcelo and Maricel V. Cruz
2.6-m kids unlisted—rights advocates
LABOR groups slammed the Chinese ambassador Wednesday for warning Manila against deporting illegal Chinese workers, saying Beijing would do the same to Filipinos working in China. The Partido Manggagawa and the Federation of Free Workers said that
By Rio N. Araja CHILD rights advocates on Wednesday expressed alarm over the 2.6-million unregistered Filipino children. At a news conference in Quezon City, Pauline de Guzman, Children Rights Net-
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Trump-Kim meet: Midday meal menu HANOI—US President Donald Trump says he’s looking forward to “a very big dinner” Wednesday with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. First, though, he’s got to get through lunch. Next page
work representative, blamed “poverty and geographical barriers” as two of the major reasons why many children could not have their births registered on time. Registration offices are too far away and the fee for birth registration is not affordable to the poor, she said. Next page
Groups seek moves to mitigate El Niño By Rio N. Araja
PROJECT OF THE CENTURY. Transportation officials have kicked off the construction of the first underground rail system in the Philippines, a 36-kilometer subway— with a train speed of 80 kilometers per hour—from Valenzuela City, the northern end of the metropolis, to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. The multi-billion-peso subway spans seven cities and towns and three business districts, with 15 stations. Story on B1
ADVOCATES of the movement for water security on Wednesday urged the government and the private sector to address the threat of El Niño. In a statement, Sonny Sioson, Central Luzon Rice Farmers Cooperatives chair-
person, said they have already been experiencing the impact of El Niño. “We in the private sector composed of business and civil society [groups] cannot delay. We must now unite and move with a sense of urgency to attain our elusive, important and long neglected water security,” he said. Next page