TAX LOSSES ON ALIENS UP By Vito Barcelo
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HE Bureau of Immigration has said it will no longer issue Special Working Permits and Provisional Working Permits to foreigners intending to work in the country— unless the company would submit the withholding tax of their foreign workers.
VOL. XXXIII • NO. 28 • 4 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P18 • SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 2019 • www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com
Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente issued the order after the Department of Finance reported that the government was losing at least P3 billion in tax revenues a month from foreign workers in the Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogo) industry who do not pay personal income taxes. Morente said the Bureau would now require foreign applicants to submit additional documents such Turn to A2
INDAY SARA HITS OUT AT LENI OVER 'HONESTY'
ENTERTAINMENT / D3
THE MANY ROLES
PATRICIA TUMULAK PLAYS
DESTINATIONS / D1
LUXURY IN LEGAZPI
WOMEN POWER.
Presidential daughter Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio (above) heckles Vice President Leni Robredo (left below) to bid farewell to her dreams of becoming the country’s chief executive, particularly when she insists one has to be honest to run for public office, underscoring that the latter’s honesty has been questioned since day one of her six-year term.
By Macon Ramos-Araneta PRESIDENTIAL daughter Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio on Saturday taunted Vice President Leni Robredo to just say goodbye to her dreams of becoming President if she insisted in saying one must be honest to run for public office. She lashed back at Robredo for commenting about honesty and integrity, noting that since the first day she assumed the vice presidency, her honesty had been questioned. “Since day one of her term as Vice President. She is not called fake VP for no reason,” said Carpio, who has been leading the campaign caravan of the 13 senatorial candidates endorsed by Hugpong ng Pagbabago. “She is facing an electoral protest for massive fraud during the 2016 elections,” she added. HNP is the regional party established by the Davao mayor who is being eyed as the strongest contender in the 2022 presidential elections. Turn to A2
PH-WIDE ALERT AS EL NIÑO SEARS NORTH LUZON, COTABATO WRITING ON THE WALL. An unidentified farm
hand looks forlorn while footslogging through his parched terraced land in the countryside during the weekend, with weathermen forewarning residents in many provinces in Luzon and Mindanao that 2019 may be the hottest year yet, spurred by El Niño and climate change, with temperature projected to hit over 40 degrees C, or 104 plus degrees F. twitter.com/ MlaStandard
WEATHERMEN have alerted residents of many areas in this archipelago republic—particularly in Northern Luzon and in Mindanao—on the effects of El Niño, with summer charging in this month. In North Cotabato, for instance, the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said the dry spell prevailing over the province has thus far damaged P477 million worth of agricultural crops. facebook.com/ ManilaStandardPH
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TESDA WHISTLEBLOWER GETS DEATH THREATS By Joel E. Zurbano
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HE whistleblower in the P1.4-billion graft case filed against 11 officials of Technical Education and Skills Development Authority claimed she is receiving death threats. In a statement, TESDA Specialist II Armina Flora Tayko-Villanueva said she sought the help of the Office of the President and law enforcement agencies after she received numerous threats via phone calls and text messages. On March 5, Villanueva filed before the Office of the Ombudsman the graft case accusing her colleagues of conspiracy to rig the procurement of special toolkits for TESDA scholars on behalf of their preferred contractor. The accused were Pilar de Leon, Imelda Ong, Luz Victoria Amponin, Maria Magdalena Butad, Renato Geron, Gaspar Gayona, Dante Navarro, Maria Clara Ignacio, Gracia dela Rama, Conrado Duque and Leonardo Pinac. Villanueva alleged the 11 officials violated Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices law for conspiring to rig the bidding for the procurement of P1.4 billion worth of starter toolkits on Special Training for Employment Program. The 11, former members of the TESDA bids and awards committee, were accused of having caused the delay of the awarding of the contract to the winning bidder, which Villanueva said was compliant with all regulatory requirements. The 11 invalidated the win of the bidder to cause a rebidding in favor of their long-standing contractor, ACMI, who lost during the first round of the procurement bids due to lack of competency and standing, Villanueva said. TESDA records show that most of the contracts entered into by the agency had ACMI as third party supplier. Some of these contracts involved procurement of vehicles, production of printed materials and several others. Villanueva tagged De Leon, chief of the TESDA administration office, as the mastermind behind what she described as the anomalous rebidding. On Jan. 25, Villanueva also lodged a formal administrative complaint against these officials before the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission.
SUMMER-READY.
A man arranges inflatable pools for sale along C3 Road in Caloocan City. Lino Santos
BILL LOWERING POWER PASS-ON CHARGES HAILED By Maricel V. Cruz AN ESTIMATED 16 million households stand to benefit from the bicameral conference committeeapproved “Murang Kuryente” bill, a measure which is envisioned to clear the huge debts of the National Power Corp. that is being charged to the monthly electric bill of consumers, a House official said on Saturday. Under the proposal, some P208 billion from the net government share of the Malampaya fund will be allocated to cover payment for the stranded contract costs and stranded debts of the NPC, said Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco, the chairman of the House Committee on Energy. Once implemented, Velasco said it will translate to a savings of P172 per household that consumes an average 200KwH per month. “This will lighten the burden of Filipinos from the high cost of electricity without hurting the government coffers,” he said. Stranded contract costs refer to the
excess of NPC’s contracted cost of refer to any unpaid financial obligaelectricity with independent power tions which have not been liquidated producers over the actual selling of by the proceeds from the sales and the output, while stranded debts privatization of NPC assets.
MONUMENT TO FAITH. Manila Archibishop Luis Antonio Tagle, Papal Nuncio Gabriele Caccia, former Supreme Court Justice Artemio Panganiban and GT Foundation”s Alfred Ty lead the launching of the Manila Cathedral coffee table book that documents the completion and restoration works done in the cathedral from 2012-2014. Norman Cruz
ONLINE TRAFFICKER CONVICTED By Ronald O. Reyes TACLOBAN CITY—A Calbayog City regional trial court has sentenced a 33-year-old mother to 15 years imprisonment after offering to stream live online the abuse of her young daughter. The mother, who was arrested last year, was sentenced to an additional one month jail term after she pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography materials. As part of a plea bargain, the suspect was meted out the sentence after confessing to the crime. “I was hurt when you took pictures of me naked. I felt guilty because I got separated from you for what happened,” the child told her mother in the vernacular during a reconciliatory meeting facilitated by a social worker and a local church pastor. “Forgive me for what I’ve done to you. I am ashamed of it. I hope you can forgive me, and we can be together again,” the mother said. The convicted child trafficker was also ordered to pay combined fines totaling P775,000. She was originally charged with qualified trafficking in persons, which bears the penalty of life imprisonment and a fine of not less than P2 million, according to the civil society group International Justice Mission. IJM, which partners with local authorities to rescue victims of violence, said: “This conviction through plea bargaining affirms that in holding Online Sexual Exploitation of Children (OSEC) perpetrators accountable, child protection should always be prioritized.”
6.0-MAGNITUDE QUAKE HITS E. MINDANAO A 6.0-MAGNITUDE earthquake struck at sea off the eastern part of the country late Friday, with no early reports of damage. The US Geological Survey and the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said the quake struck at 11:06 p.m., its epicenter about 41 kilometers north of Santa Monica in Surigao del Norte. Its depth was measured at 54 kilometers by the US agency, and the local quake monitors said in an advisory that it was not expected to have caused damage. The Philippines is part of the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches from quake-prone Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin. AFP
El Niño, a climate pattern that describes the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, is the “warm phase” of a larger phenomenon called the El NiñoSouthern Oscillation or ENSO, with such events occurring irregularly at two- to seven-year intervals. Climate analysts and weather forecasters say 2019 may be the hottest year yet, spurred by El Niño and climate change. Turn to A2
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