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5.3-magnitude quake rumbled through Metro
Palace orders cash budgeting in gov’t projects By MJ Blancaflor and Rio N. Araja
SHIFT TO SAFETY. Students of La Paz Elementary School in Makati wear hard hats provided by the city government as they spill into the street following Friday’s 5.3-magnitude earthquake. Evacuations were also conducted in all public schools in Makati for the temblor, which hit off the coast of Polilio Island in Burdeos, Quezon (inset) and was felt at Intensity 3 in Metro Manila.
By Macon Ramos-Araneta and Rio N. Araja
IN A bid to speed up the delivery of public services, Malacañang has ordered the adoption of a cash budgeting system which requires funds and projects to be spent and executed within the same fiscal year. Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, on behalf of President Rodrigo Duterte, signed Executive Order 91 on Sept. 9 that orders the government shift to a cash budgeting system. Under the previous system, contracts Next page
VOL. XXXIII • NO. 212 • 3 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P18 • SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2019 • www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com
Massive BuCor revamp up
AN EARTHQUAKE that struck in Quezon Province, east of the capital Manila, on Friday set buildings swaying and sent scores into the streets, but authorities said they did not expect any damage. The 5.3-magnitude jolt hit offshore near sparsely populated Polillo Island, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) from Manila, according to the US Geological Survey. Buildings in the capital were briefly evacuated and trains halted for at least an hour while crews looked for any damage as several smaller aftershocks rumbled through the ground. “This is a moderate-sized earthquake and we don’t expect damage so far based on the intensity reports that we received,” Renato Solidum, director Next page
By MJ Blancaflor and Macon Ramos-Araneta
AN ILLUSION?
The southbound stretch of Epifanio delos Santos Avenue near Kamuning in Quezon City is surprisingly traffic-free on Friday afternoon. Officials credited the Highway Patrol Group of the Philippine National Police for clearing the normally congested road. Manny Palmero
D
ECLARING that “everybody will have to go,” President Rodrigo Duterte announced a massive revamp in the Bureau of Corrections amid revelations of widespread corruption and gross incompetence in the management of the penal system.
“I will hit you not because the law was in limbo but because of corruption,” President Duterte said, addressing BuCor officials in a speech Thursday. The law in question was the Good Conduct Time Allowance Law that prison officials used as basis to free almost 2,000 inmates convicted of heinous crimes.
Ombudsman Samuel Martires earlier ordered 27 BuCor officials suspended for six months without pay as a result of the scandal. BuCor documents section chief Ramoncito Roque led the list of those suspended. Roque was accused by Yolanda Camilon of extorting P50,000 for the
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House pushes own GCTA probe By Rio N. Araja and Rey E. Requejo
THE House of Representatives wants a probe of its own into the controversies surrounding the Good Conduct Time Allowance Law and the early release of convicts of heinous crimes. Rizal Rep. Fidel Nograles said the investigation would help lawmakers amend the GCTA Law to remove con-
fusion and ambiguity and to establish standards for “good conduct” that will be used to shorten prison terms. Lawmakers, too, would need to address mismatching provisions in the Revised Penal Code and the GCTA, and provide a clear-cut definition of what constitutes a heinous crime. Nograles said people found guilty beyond reasonable doubt of heinous Next page
Brains in Jolo Church blast tagged ‘global terrorist’ THE US State Department has declared Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, the Abu Sayyaf leader tagged as the brains behind the Jolo Cathedral suicide bombing in January, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
This developed as the Islamic State, the terror group which the Abu Sayyaf has pledged allegiance to, has been using social media to lure out-of-school youth into becoming suicide bombers, a local analyst said Friday.
RAGING FLAME.
A firefighter extinguishes a fire in a forest at Rambutan village, in Ogan Ilir, South Sumatra province, on Thursday. Malaysia has stepped up pressure on neighboring Indonesia to tackle huge blazes tearing through its rainforests and smothering Southeast Asia —including the Philippines —in smog, as fires typically started to clear land for crops send diplomatic tensions soaring. AFP
INDONESIA’S FOREST FIRES RAGE; TOXIC SMOG BLANKETS SEA WITH fierce blazes raging in jungles from the Amazon to Indonesia, concerns are mounting about the impact as rainforests play a vital role in protecting the planet against global warming. The latest serious outbreak is in Indonesia, where smog-belching fires started to clear land for agriculture are burning out of control, blan-
keting the region in toxic smog. Why are rainforests important in fight against global warming? Mankind’s reliance on fossil fuels usually receives much of the blame for climate change but scientists say that deforestation has also played a big role.
Forests are natural buffers against climate change, as they suck greenhouse gas carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. But forests worldwide have been logged on an industrial-scale over the decades for timber and to make way for agricultural plantations. Turn to A3
In a statement released two days before the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, the United States gave the SDGT designation to Sawadjaan, “an identified coddler of foreign terrorists Next page
PH eyes US rocket launcher for WPS By Rey E. Requejo THE Philippines is in talks with the United States over the possible purchase of the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System, a multiple rocket launcher that could be used to defend the country’s assets in the West Philippine Sea, a Hong Kong-based newspaper said Friday.
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Vaping craze hits Pinoy youth A NATIONAL health survey in the Philippines has revealed that vaping has become increasingly popular among the youth. According to the 2018 National Nutrition Turn to A3