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DUTERTE RENEWS CALL FOR ALL-OUT WAR VS. REDS
By Joyce Pangco Pañares and MJ Blancaflor PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday ordered an all-out-war against the Communist Party of the PhilippinesNew Peoples’ Army, six months after declaring a permanent termination of peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front. “I am ordering an all-out-war against the NPA. If I can, I will end the insurgency Next page
VOL. XXXIII • NO. 209 • 3 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P18 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2019 • www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com
Poe, Tugade lock horns over Palace bid for ‘emergency powers’ By Macon Ramos-Araneta
SC Justice files report on VP poll protest
INSISTING that the Transport depart department could do many things it wanted to do without emergency powers being granted to the President, Senator Grace Poe clashed with the agency’s head Ar Arthur Tugade on the issue. “There are alternative modes of procurement that is allowed under existing laws. There are things that no longer need emergency powpow ers. Our trains do not need
By Rey E. Requejo THE Supreme Court, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, disclosed on Tuesday that Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa has submitted his report on the results of the examination of ballots on the three pilot provinces cited by former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in his electoral protest against Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo. In a press conference, SC Public Information Office Chief Brian Keith Hosaka said Caguioa submitted the report on the results of the revision of the ballots on Monday, but clarified that PET has yet to act on it. Turn to A3
emergency powers to acquire,” said Poe, head of the Senate committee on public services that is conducting a Senate inquiry on the need to grant emergency powers to President Rodrigo Duterte. Duterte on Tuesday said he will no longer seek emergency powers to address the traffic problem. He ordered the Highway Patrol Group to accompany ambulances amid reports that patients die as vehicles get stuck in the perpetual traffic jams in Metro Manila. Tugade has maintained the need for emergency powers Next page
THOUGHTS MISMATCH. Senator Grace Poe (left) and Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade (right) are on a collision course Tuesday during a Senate hearing after the latter maintained the need for emergency powers to address Metro Manila’s worsening traffic gridlock (backdrop). Poe argued the DoTr could do many things it wanted to do without emergency powers. Ey Acasio and Manny Palmero
Hospital pass for sale bared Convicts cough up P200K to P2m for temporary relief—Lacson By Macon Ramos-Araneta ONEYED and influential convicts can feign illness and cough up as much as P2 million to temporarily evade prison life in the New Bilibid Prison Hospital, as long as they also pay P30,000 a day for board and lodging, senators said Tuesday.
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The usual “buyers” of the costly “hospital pass” are convicted drug lords who buy their way out of their detention cell to continue their illicit drug operations with impunity from a hospital ward, Senator Panfilo Lacson said. In an interview, Lacson said his office
got reports that to be admitted or confined in the NBP Hospital, prisoners have to pay from P200,000 to P2 million. The hospital admission was reportedly made possible even for prisoners were not sick in exchange for bribes. Next page
Ombudsman boots out 3 more in BuCor By Rio N. Araja and Rey E. Requejo THE Office of the Ombudsman on Tuesday suspended three more Bureau of Corrections officials for the release of heinous crime convicts, bringing the total to 30. Ombudsman Samuel Martires ordered the Department of Justice to immediately place Frederic Anthony Santos, BuCor’s Legal Division chief; Correctional Officer III Joel Nalva, and Supt. Maria Fe Marquez under six-month preventive suspension without pay. Marquez signed an Aug. 16 order for the early release of three convicts in the 1997 abduction, rape and murder of sister Marijoy and Jacqueline Chiong in Cebu. In a Sept. 2 Senate hearing, Marquez said she received a special order designating her as one of the duty generals to have “full blanket authority to perform Turn to A3
DISTRESSING SCENE. With the reported death of some pigs due to the suspected deadly African Swine Fever in Rizal, meat vendors in some areas in Quezon City are complaining that their profit from pork products has been affected by the disease. Manny Palmero
Consumers, pork traders uneasy amid ASF scare By Macon Ramos-Araneta SOME uneasiness has been raised by a consumer advocacy group and the Department of Health following reports that blood samples from pigs that died
in Rizal have tested positive for African Swine Fever or ASF. The advocacy group Laban Konsyumer Inc. on Tuesday said the reports might cause pork prices to drop amid fears arising from the disease.
Mosquito trials raise hopes for anti-dengue cure
HUNDREDS dead in the Philippines; a threefold increase of cases in Vietnam; hospitals overrun in Malaysia, Myanmar and Cambodia—dengue is ravaging Southeast Asia this year due in part to rising temperatures and low immunity to new strains. Diabetes can now be considered an epidemic case in the country, with about seven-million Filipinos suffering from the disease, according to the Philippine Society of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism.
DENGUE STRAIN. Photo, taken on Aug. 21, shows field officer Luu Quoc
But one group of scientists is rolling out trials to
Hung from the non-government organization World Mosquito Program holding breed dengue-resistant bugs in a bid to tackle one of the world’s leading mosquito-borne illnesses, raising a bag of mosquitoes in the southern Vietnamese city of Nha Trang. Dengue is ravaging Southeast Asia this year due in part to rising temperatures and low hopes the untreatable disease can finally be beaten. immunity to new strains. AFP Next page
In a related development, the Department of Health advised the public to cook pork thoroughly to avoid getting sick, amid confirmation the ASF had reached Philippine shores.
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Mar, Leila told to explain role in GCTA mess
By Rio N. Araja THE Ombudsman has asked former Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II and former Justice secretary and now Senator Leila de Lima why they failed to exclude persons convicted of heinous crimes when they drafted the rules for the early release of prisoners under the Good Conduct Time Allowance Law. In a letter dated Sept. 6, Ombudsman Samuel Martires asked Roxas and De Lima to submit their written explanations within three days on why the implementing rules and regulations they drafted did not include the exclusions in Section 1 of Republic Act 10592 or the GCTA Law. At least 1,914 heinous crime convicts have been granted early freedom since 2014—and the government is now trying to round them up. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice said it welcomed any aggrieved party to sue the government before any competent court for its interpretation and implementation of the GCTA Law. “The government will welcome any challenge by an interested party in a court of law, so that a definitive and final interpretation of RA 10592 could be promulgated for everyone’s guidance,” Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said, in a text message to reporters. Guevarra noted that since the controversy erupted following reports of the planned and later aborted early release of convicted rapist and murderer Next page
Faeldon falls out of Palace favor; Dela Rosa willing to be slapped By MJ Blancaflor and Macon Ramos-Araneta PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte said he is no longer keen on reappointing sacked Bureau of Corrections chief Nicanor Faeldon to another post, while Senator Ronald dela Rosa said he is willing to be slapped repeatedly in public if it is shown that he was involved in corruption when he headed the bureau. In an interview with GMA News Monday night, the President said he does not see Faeldon, a former military
man, as a dishonest official. “He has had enough of controversies in the last few years. But I don’t believe he is dishonest,” Duterte said. The President fired Faeldon Sept. 4 over the scandal involving the early release of heinous crime convicts due to ambiguous interpretations on the Good Conduct Time Allowance Law. He said Faeldon disobeyed his orders not to release the heinous crime convicts over supposed good conduct. Next page