Issuu

twitter.com/ MlaStandard

facebook.com/ ManilaStandardPH

instagram.com/ manilastandard

manilastandard.net

Missed your copy of Manila Standard? Call or text our Circulation Hotline at 0917-8848655 or email: circulation@manilastandard.net For advertisement: email: advertise@manilastandard.net • 85646229

Stargazers see dazzling solar eclipse PROFESSIONAL astronomers and amateur cosmologists across the southern Pacific donned protective glasses Thursday to witness a solar eclipse as the moon blocked out the sun for about a minute, in some cases totally. In the Philippines, astronomy enthusiasts, students, teachers, and ordinary Filipinos braved the scorching midday heat to witness a partial solar eclipse that lasted for over two hours. Next page

VOL. XXXVII • NO. 64 • 3 SECTIONS 12 PAGES • P20 • FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 2023 • www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com

CRESCENT. A view of the partial solar eclipse seen from United Nations Avenue in Manila on Thursday. Norman Cruz

PBBM approves ‘SPF’ for poor Social Protection Floor cements programs for most vulnerable Pinoys By Vince Lopez

RESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has approved a Social Protection Floor (SPF) that institutionalizes existing programs that help the most vulnerable Filipinos, Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said Thursday. "The Social Protection Floor refers to a nationally defined set of basic social security guarantees that aim to prevent or alleviate poverty vulnerability and social exclusion. These guarantees provide protection to individuals and families in times of need," said Balisacan, who is also director-general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA). "The guarantees should ensure that, at a minimum, everyone in need has access to essential health care and basic social services. These guarantees work together to provide effective access to goods and services that are defined as necessary at the national level," he said. The SPF health guarantees cover the entire life cycle: maternity care, children, active age and older persons, Balisacan said. The NEDA chief said the approval of

GUN SAFETY DRILL.

As part of the US-Philippines Balikatan military exercises, Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) personnel undertake Gun Safety and Firearm Familiarization Training in Barangay Labangal, General Santos City on Thursday with the US Marines Special Operations Team 8114, Alpha Company, First Raider Battalion. PCG Photo

Teves: Two in gov’t want me dead By Maricel V. Cruz and Macon Ramos-Araneta

Rep. Arnolfo Teves

FUGITIVE congressman Arnolfo Teves Jr. on Thursday said two top government officials are plotting to have him killed. Facing murder charges and tagged as the mastermind behind the assassination of Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo, Teves has been abroad and has refused to Next page

CPP confirms death of Tiamzons By Charles Dantes THE Communist Party of the Philippines confirmed Thursday the deaths of its high-ranking officials Benito Tiamzon, Wilma Austria-Tiamzon, and eight others—a group the party called the Catbalogan 10—during a firefight in Samar last year. The Tiamzon couple were convicted in 2020 for kidnapping and serious

Benito Tiamzon

Bantag sends surrender feelers By Rey E. Requejo JUSTICE Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla revealed Thursday that fugitive from justice Gerald Bantag, former Bureau of Corrections (Bucor) director general, who was ordered arrested by two trial courts on murder charges, has sent surrender feelers. Remulla stressed Bantag’s intention to surrender was confided to him by his colleague in the Cabinet several days

Gerald Bantag

PH formally marks Eid’l Fitr on Saturday MUSLIMS in the Philippines will mark Saturday, April 22, as Eid’l Fitr or the end of Ramadan, even as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has already declared today, Friday, as a holiday to observe the feast day of the holy month. The Bangsamoro Darul-Ifta’ in the Philippines, which serves as the Islamic Advisory Council of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), declared Saturday as the end

of Ramadan as the crescent moon was not sighted on Thursday, April 20, according to Shiek Abuhuraira Udasan, the Grand Mufti of the Bangsamoro region. This developed as the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Thursday reminded employers in the private sector to pay their employees double should they render work on Friday as the country joins the Muslim community around the Next page world to celebrate Eid'l Fitr.

Marcos inks new tariffs under RCEP deal TARIFFS on many imported goods will go down by June 2 under the terms of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual said Thursday. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will sign an executive order on the new tariff schemes, Pascual added. The draft EO was among the measures approved by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) board, which Marcos chairs.

Pascual said the order will be the basis for the Bureau of Customs to issue an administrative order to be distributed to all ports to allow preferential tariffs on imports from RCEP member countries. Pascual allayed concerns that cheap imports will push out local agricultural products. He said the draft EO will also maintain current preferential tariffs on about 98.1 percent of the 1,718 agricultural tariff lines and 82.7 percent of the 8,102

tariff lines. "Out of the 1,685 agricultural tariff lines retained at current rates, 1,426 tariff lines are maintained at 0 while 154 tariff lines will remain in their respective most favored nation rates and excluded from any tariff concessions," he said. Agricultural tariffs on 105 lines, he said, which are in the sensitive and highly sensitive list will be "generally lower than MFN (most-favored nation) rates in the Next page 20th year of RCEP."

Agencies deny getting hit by big data breach

Romualdez meets McCarthy, eyes ramped-up PH-US multilateral ties

By Charles Dantes and Maricel V. Cruz

HOUSE Speaker Martin G. Romualdez on Thursday reported on the historic and fruitful meeting he had with his United States counterpart, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (Republican, California). “Our meeting proved fruitful as the Philippine delegation managed to im-

A REPORT surfaced Tuesday that more than 1.2 million records of non-passwordprotected databases from the Philippine National Police employee records were leaked in a data breach. Jeremiah Fowler, a cybersecurity researcher, said based on his research, the records were related to individuals who were employed or applied for work in law enforcement. A total of 1.2 million records were exposed in the database, which has an overall size of 817.54 gigabytes. Next page

Calamity state in Occ. Mindoro over no power By Joel E. Zurbano THE province of Occidental Mindoro has been placed under a state of calamity due to its worsening electricity crisis. Local officials made the declaration so that emergency or calamityfunds can be used to address the crisis affecting the education of its students, and the health and livelihood of residents in the province for more than a month. Governor Eduardo Gadiano wrote to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to act on Next page

By Maricel V. Cruz

press on Speaker McCarthy the need for the legislative representatives of the two countries to ramp up discussions on how to further boost US-Philippine relations,” Romualdez said. Romualdez also vowed that Congress, particularly the House of Representatives, will continue helping the Marcos administration Next page

SPEAKERS MEET. Philippines

Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez and US Speaker Kevin McCarthy share a tight handshake at the latter's US Capitol office in Washington D.C. late Wednesday night. Also with them were PH House Majority Leader Manuel Jose "Mannix" M. Dalipe, Deputy Speaker Aurelio "Dong" Gonzales Jr., and Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel "Babe" del Gallego Romualdez (left photo). Ryan Ponce Pacpaco