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
‘Mawar’ now a super typhoon, may enter PH by Friday, says PAGASA THE weather disturbance outside the Philippine area of responsibility, with international name “Mawar,” intensified into a super typhoon on Tuesday, the state weather bureau said. In its 4 p.m. bulletin, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astro-
nomical Services Administration said Mawar was last spotted 2,285 kilometers east of Visayas at 3 p.m., packing maximum sustained winds of up to 185 kilometers per hour near the center and gusts of 230 kph. Next page
VOL. XXXVII • NO. 98 • 3 SECTIONS 12 PAGES • P20 • WEDNESDAY, MAY 24, 2023 • www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com
New sanctions vs. Teves eyed
As 3 more murder suspects in Degamo case recant testimonies By Maricel V. Cruz, Rey Requejo, Charles Dantes, and Rio N. Araja
PH’S OLDEST POLITICAL PRISONER. Activists held a protest in
C
front of the Supreme Court on Tuesday, May 23, 2023 in Manila, urging magistrates to hasten the promulgation of the Writ of Kalayaan to decongest jails and pave the way for the release of the elderly and the sick, including the country’s oldest political prisoner, 83-yearold Gerardo Dela Peña. Norman Cruz
ONGRESS will decide next week what sanctions to impose on Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr., who has refused to return to the country to face murder charges, even as three suspects in the killing of Gov. Roel Degamo recanted their testimony identifying him as the mastermind behind the assassination. The House committee on ethics is considering a call to expel Teves from the chamber for his failure to return to the country despite repeated calls for him to do so, but the panel’s recommendations must be approved by the House in plenary session Wednesday next week. In addition, the panel, chaired by Rep. Felimon Espares of the NATCCO party-list group, may recommend to the Department of Foreign Affairs the cancellation of Teves’ official (red) passport. Espares also revealed that his committee tried to reach Teves, urging him to come home before his suspension expired on May 22, and that Teves replied to their correspondence. Espares, however, declined to say how Teves replied. Next page
Lakas-CMD swears in 19 new members By Maricel V. Cruz
telegraph service,” the Court said. The Court resolved the petition filed by former Bayan Muna party-list representatives Neri Colmenares and Carlos Zarate who assailed the inclusion by the Manila Water and Maynilad corporate income taxes in their re-
SPEAKER Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, president of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD), on Tuesday administered the oath to 19 new party members. “We welcome our new members and we are happy that they affiliated themselves with Lakas-CMD, which has committed itself to support President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his Agenda for Prosperity and eight-point socioeconomic development roadmap,” Romualdez said. “I hope we will have a fruitful engagement with those joining our ranks and of course with our existing members,” he added. Party officials led by former President and Deputy
Next page
Next page
SC: Maynilad, Manila Water can’t pass taxes to consumers By Rey E. Requejo and Othel Campos THE Supreme Court has declared Manila Water Co. and Maynilad Water Services Inc. as public utilities, which effectively bars them from including their corporate income taxes as part of their operating expenses.
“We rule that Manila Water and Maynilad are public utilities,” the Court said in a decision written by Associate Justice Marvic Leonen. “A public utility is a business or service engaged in regularly supplying the public with some commodity or service of public consequence such as electricity, gas, water, transportation, telephone or
ES: Sugar imports aboveboard amid ‘very alarming’ tight supply By Macon Ramos-Araneta AGRICULTURE Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban on Tuesday told a Senate hearing that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered the importation of sugar “through selected importers.” But when pressed repeatedly by senators, Panganiban backtracked and clarified: “Let’s import. Yan lang ang sinabi sa akin (That’s only what he told me).” Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who was present in the same hearing,
told senators he was the one who approved the importation as the President was busy at a foreign trip at that time. “There was guidance from the President. But I confirmed that I was the one who instructed Usec. Panganiban to proceed with the processing of the sugar order and to attend to this issue of importation,” said Bersamin. In a news briefing after the hearing, Sen. Francis Tolentino noted that Panganiban already made the clarification, Next page
SUGAR PROBE.
Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban (right) is joined by NEDA DirectorGeneral Arsenio Balisacan and Executive Secretart Lucas Bersamin (left) during a Senate probe on the sugar importation order. Lino Santos
ABS-CBN says TeleRadyo channel to cease its operations by June 30 cease its operations on June 30 – about By Charles Dantes three years after it lost its free-to-air and Darwin G. Amojelar and cable TV franchises when ConMEDIA giant ABS-CBN Corp. on gress turned down its renewal under the Tuesday announced that its long-run- Duterte administration. ning television channel TeleRadyo will Next page
BIGGEST POLITICAL PARTY IN CONGRESS. Speaker Martin Romualdez is joined by former President and Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in swearing in new members of Lakas-CMD. Ver Noveno
5 more cops held in contempt over drug mess By Macon Ramos-Araneta FIVE more police officers were cited for contempt on Tuesday at a Senate hearing on a suspicious P6.7 billion drug bust in Manila last year, leading the panel’s chairman, Senator Ronald dela Rosa to fall to his knees and beg cops to tell the truth. “I am kneeling before you. Please speak. Pity the Philippines,” said Dela Rosa as he rose from his seat and knelt down. Dela Rosa, who used to be a police chief, said he
humbled himself so that the policemen would tell the truth about the drug bust, led by then Master Sgt. Rodolfo Mayo Jr., in which 42 of the 990 kilos seized went missing. Mayo, who has been detained at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig after being cited for contempt, has been accused of being behind a cover-up that involves other police officials as well. Dela Rosa’s committee cited in contempt five other policemen: National Capital Region Drug Enforcement Next page
Rody as anti-drug czar? Sen. Go floats idea to PNP By Macon Ramos-Araneta FORMER President Rodrigo Duterte as the anti-drug czar? Senator Christopher “Bong” Go, Duterte’s erstwhile longtime assistant, broached the idea to Philippine Nation-
al Police Chief Gen. Benjamin Acorda Jr. on Tuesday during a Senate hearing on the multimillion-peso shabu drug haul last year. “If ever.... it’s the prerogative of the President (Ferdinand Marcos Jr.), the appointing authority, if ever, can former
President Duterte help in case he will be designated as drug czar?” Go asked Acorda in the hearing chaired by Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa – the police chief in the previous administration. Acorda said he did not know if he Next page