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More victims, including minors, report abuse by Quiboloy—PNP By Vince Lopez
VOL. XXXVIII • NO. 209• 3 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P20 •THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2024 •
MORE people have stepped forward to accuse detained televangelist Apollo Quiboloy of “abuse,” the Philippine National Police (PNP) disclosed on Wednesday. PNP spokesperson Police Colonel Jean Fajardo told reporters that a number
House eyes over P1-b cut in OVP budget for 2025
of the alleged victims, some minors, reported their ordeals while law enforcers were trying to flush out Quiboloy from his hiding place inside the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) compound in Davao City earlier this month. “During the police operation at the Next page
PHILHEALTH UPS ANEW HEMODIALYSIS RATE NEWS / A2
MERALCO PRICE HIKE TAKES EFFECT BUSINESS / B1
Cites 'glaring mismanagement,' COA-disallowed expenses VP Sara raising By Maricel Cruz and impeachment Rachelle Tonelada specter—solons
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HE House of Representatives is planning to slash by half the P2.03 billion budget of the Office of the Vice President for 2025.
Lawmakers noted the Commission on Audit has disallowed P73.2 million out of the P125 million in OVP intelligence funds that were used up in just 11 days in 2022. COA also flagged the Department of Education, which Vice President Sara Duterte previously headed, for building only 192 classrooms or 3 percent of its target of 6, 379 classrooms last year. ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro said lawmakers are planning to approve “more or less P1 billion” out of the P2.03billion proposed OVP budget for next year. “If the Vice President wants, she can request funds from various agencies, just like other vice presidents have done,” Castro said. “The real issue here is the glaring mismanagement of DepEd funds under her watch, where much-needed classrooms for our children were left unbuilt,” added House Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe. Dalipe called out the Vice President for resorting to “squid tactics”
By Maricel V. Cruz
Marcos honors late father on 107th birth anniversary A SON’S TRIBUTE. President Ferdinand R.
Marcos Jr. paid tribute to the memory of his father, former President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Daytoy Ti Bannawag Monument in Batac City, Ilocos Norte. (PCO)
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By Charles Dantes PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos paid tribute to his father and namesake, the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., during a wreath-laying ceremony at the Marcos Monument in Batac City, Ilocos Norte, on Wednesday. Next page
Hundreds flee as Kanlaon Volcano acts up SMOKE AND TREMORS.
Kanlaon Volcano sent hundreds packing from villages within its four-kilometer danger zone on Wednesday when it spewed smoke and triggered tremors which the volcanology institute says are signs of an imminent eruption. (Phivolcs screengrab)
By Caloy Lozada and Rio Araja HUNDREDS of people fled their homes in the Philippines on Wednesday after it spurted harmful gases, an official said, as experts warned of a potential eruption.
About 300 residents of villages within four kilometers (2.5 miles) of the Kanlaon volcano crater in the center of the country have been evacuated as a precaution, Canlaon City Mayor Jose Chubasco Cardenas told the Standard on Wednesday. At least 337 volcanic earthquakes were monitored Wednesday by the
WHERE there’s smoke, there’s fire. But in the case of the alleged impeachment plot against the Vice President, lawmakers said the only one talking about it is VP Sara Duterte herself. Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong advised Duterte to stop imagining things like a phantom impeachment threat and instead face issues involving her office such as the alleged mismanagement of millions of taxpayers’ money. “Very simple -- there is no truth to that impeachment plot,” Adiong said. Rep. Rodge Gutierrez of 1-Rider party-list added: “I have heard talks of impeachment but coming only from her. We don’t hear it here in Congress. I can guarantee that.” Duterte, in the third part of a recorded video interview released by her office to the media yesterday, accused Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro of pushing impeachment talks against her. “The impeachment is constantly being discussed openly in the House of Representatives...And at the center of these talks is France Castro,” the Vice President said. Duterte has repeatedly denied there was misuse of the confidential funds as well as of the budget of the Department of Education which she previously headed. “They are now trying to make a baNext page
Embattled Guo was ready to pay P1b bribe to end gov't probe, says Ping By Macon Ramos-Araneta INCUMBENT and former lawmakers agree that disgraced ex-mayor Alice Guo has no shortage of funds to use for bribing her way to freedom. On Wednesday, former senator Panfilo Lacson disclosed that when scrutiny of her identity and dealings was intensifying, Guo sought intermediaries to relay to authorities her offer of up to P1 billion in exchange for making her legal problems in the Philippines disappear.
Lacson said that Guo, also known as Guo Hua Ping, sought the assistance of a Chinese-Filipino businessman friend to reach out to persons within President Marcos’ inner circle regarding her bribe offer. The former senator noted that his Chinoy friend claimed to have contacts in the halls of power. “Alice Guo approached him/her… this was before she fled but when things were already getting tough and she was already laying low… she Next page
Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) in Mount Kanlaon over a 24-hour period amid its increased activity. “Based on experience and scientific explanations regarding volcanic eruptions, once the depth of the tremors reaches three kilometers, Next page
Speaker welcomes drop in rice prices in Metro markets By Maricel V. Cruz SPEAKER Martin G. Romualdez on Wednesday welcomed the decline in the prices of rice after confirming the availability of rice selling by as low as P42 per kilo during a visit to three key markets in Metro Manila Wednesday morning.
Romualdez visited Guadalupe Market in Makati, as well as the Farmers’ Market and Nepa Q-Mart in Quezon City upon the invitation of the Philippine Rice Industry Stakeholders’ Movement (PRISM), a large organization of rice traders, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Agriculture.
He attributed the drop in rice prices to the effective interventions made by the administration of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. to reduce the costs of the Filipino staple, stabilize the food supply, and protect consumers from price surges. “We saw that there is P45 per kilo, Next page
MARKET CHECK. Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez shakes the hand of a rice stall owner when he did the rounds of three Metro Manila public markets on Wednesday upon the invitation of Philippine Rice Industry Stakeholders’ Movement (PRISM). Norman Cruz