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PBBM CONSIDERS PH-INDONESIA BORDER TACK ON WPS ISSUE WITH CHINA By Vito Barcelo and Vince Lopez
VOL. XXXVI • NO. 204 • 3 SECTIONS 12 PAGES • P20 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2022 • www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com
PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is open to exploring the strategy used to settle a 2014 sea border issue with Indonesia to settle its longstanding maritime dispute with China in the West Philippine Sea (WPS). It was a “collaborative” strategy built on years of dialogue that led to a peaceful settlement between overlapping economic zone claims in the Mindanao and Celebes seas, the President noted.
“We should show it to the rest of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) as an example that it can be done as long as we talk,” he told reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday. “Well, I think it’s worthwhile to explore, at the very least,” Mr. Marcos added on the third and last day of his state visit to Indonesia – also his first as Chief Executive – before flying to Singapore on the same day. “It is one instance that this kind of Next page
Gov’t seeks pardon for Veloso DFA asks Jakarta for clemency for the OFW on death row for drug case By Vince Lopez
T
HE Marcos administration has appealed for executive clemency for Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipino worker who has been on death row for 12 years in Indonesia over drug-related charges, Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said in a video message Tuesday from Singapore.
$8b investment pledges from Indonesia visit—Palace PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has secured $8.484 billion worth of investment pledges from his state visit to Indonesia. Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said this covers $822 million in investments in textiles, garments, renewable energy, satellite gateway, wire global technology, and agrifood; $7 billion in infrastructure for unsolicited private-public partnerships such as a C-5 four-level elevated expressway; and $662 million for the supply of coal and fertilizer. She said the deals will generate at least 7,000 new jobs.
“Our Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo appealed for executive clemency for Ms. Mary Jane Veloso,” she said, following President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s three-day state visit in Indonesia. This is the third time that the Philippines has sought clemency for Veloso – first in 2010 and another in 2015. Manalo met with his counterpart, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, during the sidelines of Mr. Marcos’ state visit before he left for Singapore yesterday. “According to Minister Marsudi, they will file and refer our appeal to their Ministry of Justice,” Cruz-Angeles said. Veloso’s parents had earlier written to President Marcos, asking him to seek executive clemency for their daughter. In the letter, Cesar and his wife Celia said they were grateful that the Indonesian government suspended her execution, but would be “more thankful” if
HOPEFUL SPEECH. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. assures members of the Filipino community in Singapore that the gov-
ernment is working hard to attain economic rebound amid the pandemic. Before arriving in Singapore, Mr. Marcos came from a three-day state visit to Indonesia where Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo appealed for executive clemency for Mary Jane Veloso (inset), a Filipino worker who has been on death row for 12 years now over drug-related charges.
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Senate to push raps vs. people in sugar mess By Macon Ramos-Araneta
TRYING TO EXPLAIN.
After missing two consecutive hearings despite repeated invitations, Executive Secretary Victor Rodriguez appears before Senate Blue Ribbon Committee Tuesday, September 6, 2022 to clarify what transpired before the issuance of the controversial Sugar Order No. 4.
Contact tracing apps, databases eyed as sources of recent spate of spam texts By Maricel V. Cruz and Macon Ramos-Araneta
CHARGES will be filed against personalities involved in approving the controversial Sugar Order No. 4 once the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee releases the findings of its investigation on Thursday, Sept. 8, Sen. Francis Tolentino said yesterday. This came as Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez attended the Senate panel’s hearing on Tuesday morning after the Blue Ribbon committee voted to subpoena him to shed light on the sugar importation fiasco. Rodriguez also refuted the claim of the resigned Sugar Regulatory Administration officials that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had mentioned
A LAWMAKER on Tuesday took the government to task for allowing contact tracing for COVID-19 to be done using multiple apps and databases, a practice that could be behind data breaches that flooded mobile phone users with spam text messages that incorporated their names. Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, chairman of the House committee on ways and means, expressed dismay over the “carelessness” of the InterAgency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) to require contact tracing under multiple apps and databases, instead of using just one application with a single protecting data controller.
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SOAKED! A man cycles through a flooded street following heavy rain in Makati City, the country’s financial district, on September 6, 2022. AFP
IATF decision on Cebu City’s mask policy up By Willie Casas, Maricel V. Cruz and Rio N. Araja THE inter-agency task force responsible for setting policies on the country’s COVID-19 response could decide by the end of the week on proposals to relax the national mask mandate that Cebu City continued to defy. In an interview with CNN Philippines, Local Government Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. stressed the need to weigh things carefully as the country continues to battle the coronavirus pandemic. Abalos, as head of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), is a member of the Next page
House looking for ways to address agencies’ request for budget hike By Maricel V. Cruz THE House Committee on Appropriations on Tuesday said it is looking at more sources to accommodate government agencies’ requests for budget increases next year, as Speaker Martin G. Romualdez has committed to meet lawmakers’ self-imposed October 1 deadline to pass the national budget for 2023. At a press briefing, panel vice chair
and Marikina 2nd District Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo said one of the possible sources to accommodate budget increases is to identify departments with low absorptive capacities. Rep. Elizaldy Co of Ako-Bicol, who chairs the committee, said Quimbo has been especially methodical in reviewing the three-volume, 3,334-page National Expenditure Program for Fiscal Next page
PESO PLUMMETS TO NEW ALL-TIME LOW AT P57 VS. $1
AUG. INFLATION SOFTENS TO 6.3% FROM JULY’S 6.4%
BUSINESS / B4
BUSINESS / B4