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BUSINESS / B4
President: PH, China to continue talk on Malampaya to avert future issues
VOL. XXXVII • NO. 80 • 3 SECTIONS 12 PAGES • P20 • SATURDAY, MAY 6, 2023 • www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com
THE Philippine government will continue to talk and negotiate with China regarding the two countries’ claims and concerns on the Malampaya natural gas fields to avert future conflicts, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said on Thursday.
“The only way to resolve the issues that are outstanding is to once again keep talking and to come to a consensus to come to an agreement and to continue to negotiate,” President Marcos said during an event at the Center for Strategic and In-
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WHO: COVID-19 crisis over
But warns danger still exists, cautions countries not to let guard down
G
ENEVA, Switzerland—The Covid-19 pandemic, which for over three years has killed millions of people, wreaked economic havoc and deepened inequalities, no longer constitutes a global health emergency, the WHO said Friday. It is “with great hope that I declare Covid-19 over as a global health emergency”, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters, estimating that the pandemic had killed “at least 20 million” people -- nearly three times the under seven million deaths officially recorded. The move came after the WHO’s independent emergency committee on the Covid crisis agreed during its 15th meeting on Thursday that the crisis no longer merited the organisation’s highest level of alert. But, Tedros warned, the decision did not mean the danger was over, cautioning that the
BYE-BYE COVID? The coronavirus as seen under a microscope (left). Meanwhile, an Agence FrancePresse graphic shows the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Huanan Seafood Market, two locations in Wuhan, China, that continue to generate interest in the search for the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. AFP
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As China frets, PH-US defense pact cemented By Vince Lopez, Charles Dantes, Rey E. Requejo, Maricel V. Cruz
PBBM IN UK. As Britain prepares for the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. arrives in the United Kingdom on Friday with Speaker Martin Romualdez. While at Gatwick airport, the President met with its officials and a representative of the King, who toured him around the second busiest airport in the world. AFP with PCO photos
Charles crowned UK king today; PBBM tours London Gatwick airport LONDON—Britain’s first coronation in 70 years takes place on Saturday, with Charles III crowned king in an elaborate Christian ceremony steeped in solemn ritual and more than a mil-
lennium of history. The coronation, the first of a British king since 1937, is the religious confirmation of his accession after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, last
September. reception hosted by the king at BuckPresident Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ar- ingham Palace for visiting heads of rived at London’s Gatwick airport on state and VIPs. Friday with the First Family from the Mr. Marcos is also expected to meet United States, just in time to attend the Next page
King Charles, Queen Consort Camilla: crowning moment in long love story LONDON—After decades of devotion and 18 years of marriage, King Charles III will finally see his goal realized when his “darling wife” Queen Camilla is crowned at his side on Saturday.` She was the non-negotiable part of his life, despite their long relationship challenging Britain’s institutions and triggering strong public resistance. But at London’s Westminster Abbey, Camilla will be anointed and crowned
queen, in the presence of world leaders. Never truly in her element in the public eye, is the woman who lived for so long in the shadows worried about the global spotlight of the coronation?
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POISED FOR HIS BIG DAY.
Britain’s King Charles III waves from the car as he leaves Westminster Abbey, central London, on May 5 ahead of his coronation weekend. AFP
READY TO MARCH. The Philippines’ delegation to the 2023
Southeast Asian Games, led by Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham ‘Bambol’ Tolentino (left) and flag bearer Alyssa Valdez, prepares to march in the opening ceremonies in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Friday (full story on Sports, page C1).
PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Thursday he doesn’t feel alluded to by the latest statement of China opposing any interventions in the South China Sea after the Philippines and the United States announced new defense guidelines aimed at strengthening their alliance. “As a Filipino and representing the Philippines, I don’t feel alluded to. How can we --- how can anyone say that we are not a party to and [have no] interest in all these issues?” Marcos said in response to a question at a press conference in Washington D.C. “I think that kind of statement was directed more towards the United States than it was [toward] the Philippines,” he added as he wrapped up his five-day official visit to the US. The Philippines and the US have established bilateral defense guidelines to modernize the alliance “for a free and open Indo-Pacific region.” The guidelines “reaffirmed that an armed attack in the Pacific, including anywhere in the South China Sea, on either of their aircraft or armed forces – which includes their Coast Guards – would invoke mutual defense commitments under the 1951 PH-US Mutual Defense Treaty.”
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‘Countries must cooperate amid Taiwan tensions’ PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. emphasized the need to forge stronger alliances and continue “developing cooperation” with different countries to address rising tensions in Taiwan. In a conference hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, Marcos described
the situation on the island as “new,” which requires solutions to “also be new and that is why we are now formulating those partnerships between all the different countries.” “We are continuing to strengthen our cooperation and partnership with other countries, not just our neighboring
countries, but also countries that we rarely interact with because we didn’t see the need to establish partnerships,” Marcos said. He said the Philippines’ arrangements and alliances with other countries should be fixed so that they conNext page
Sandigan denies Marcos family petition on assets By Maricel V. Cruz
assets that were earlier declared by another government entity as illegally obMEMBERS of the Marcos family lost a tained. In a resolution promulgated on round at the Sandiganbayan, as the antigraft court denied, for lack of merit, Thursday, the Sandiganbayan’s Fourth their motion to reacquire properties and Division rejected the family’s plea to
reacquire several properties that were earlier seized by the Presidential Commission on Good Government. The petitioners named in the resolution were the Estate of Ferdinand E. Next page