I
N
S
I
D
E
FOR THE WORLD’S WATERWAYS. A volunteer holds discarded plastic waste, including straws, as she participates in International Coastal Cleanup Day along Baseco Beach in Manila on September 21, 2024. AFP
BELMONTE AMONG FORBES’ 50 SUSTAINABILITY LEADERS NEWS | A3
20 .00
IN MET R MANILAO
VOL. XXXVIII • NO. 219 • 3 SECTIONS 12 PAGES SEPTEMBER 22, 2024
MARCOS APPOINTS ANDRES AS ERC CHAIRPERSON NEWS | A2
www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com
NO ABUSES, FAVORITISM IN MARCOS GOV’T—RODY SAYS ADMINISTRATION RUNNING ‘IN A REGULAR WAY’ By Cherrie Anne Villahermosa
F
ORMER President Rodrigo Duterte said he has not seen abuses or favoritism under the Marcos administration, noting that he has no criticism of governance policies at this point. “Marcos doesn’t have abuses. For as long as he maintains this attitude, it’s okay,” Duterte said during Friday night’s assembly of PDP-Laban in Davao City. “I think that I can live with him. I can bend with him...For as long as the government is running in a regular way, we have no problem,”
he added. Duterte said he has not reached a tipping point where he would criticize Mr. Marcos. “I don’t have any qualms against Marcos for me to speak out and say, ‘Mr. President, I do not agree with you. Mr. President, you are wrong. And Mr. President, you stop
because that will not benefit the country.’ I have not reached that point,” the former President said. His daughter, however, recently severed ties with the President following her resignation from the Marcos Cabinet as Education Secretary. Vice President Sara Duterte, amid a House hearing on alleged misuse by her office of millions of pesos in funds for socio-economic programs, vowed to “never again” team up with the Marcoses following their falling out. “We were not friends to begin with. We just knew each other because we became running mates. Prior to that we were not talking to each other,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Duterte patriarch expressed confidence in the strength of the PDP-Laban in the 2025 midterm elections in the face of a possible showdown with the administration’s Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas. “All the parties are there (at Bagong Pilipinas) and all those parties will dissolve at the end of Marcos’ term. While we at PDP, we have already been tested. That’s the truth,” he said. PDP-Laban on Friday officially nominated Senators Bong Go and Ronald dela Rosa as well as actor Philip Salvador as its senatorial bets for the 2025 polls. Go and Dela Rosa are both up for reelection.
PAOCC TRACES YANG, GUO TIES TO CHINESE SYNDICATE WEB By Charles Dantes and Maricel Cruz The brother of an adviser of former President Rodrigo Duterte allegedly has links to dismissed Bamban Mayor Alice Guo during the height of POGO operations in Tarlac, Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) chief Gilbert Cruz said. Yang Jian Xin, who also uses the alias Antonio Lim and Tony
Yang, was arrested Thursday evening at NAIA Terminal 3. “We are looking at transactions which show they (Tony Yang and Guo) have links. It is not just one or two (coincidental) transactions,” Cruz said. Tony Yang is the older brother Michael Yang, Duterte’s ex-adviser who has been linked to allegedly illegal POGO activities and drug operations, as well as to the Pharmally scandal involving
allegedly overpriced COVID-19 medical supplies sold to the government during Duterte’s term. The elder Yang is also suspected of being involved in smuggling drugs and facilitating illegal POGOs in Cagayan de Oro City, as well as in Bamban, Tarlac, and Porac, Pampanga. Meanwhile, the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) told legislators it has frozen the assets of Guo amounting to P816.9
million. AMLC lawyer Adrian Arpon said the assets include bank accounts, corporation shares, real properties and personal properties, such as motor vehicles and a helicopter. He said 88 principal bank accounts and 90 related accounts were targeted by the freeze order. “The total peso equivalent that was frozen was more than P199 million,” he said.
LENI CRITICIZED FOR HOUR-LONG MEETING WITH VP SARA IN NAGA FORMER Vice President Leni Robredo was criticized for meeting with Vice President Sara Duterte for an hour in Naga City on Friday. In a post on X, former senator Antonio Trillanes IV said it was a“wrong” move on Robredo’s part to accept Duterte’s request for a meeting. He reminded Robredo about how Duterte was rude to their ally, Senator Risa Hontiveros. “Ma’am Leni, we even want VP Sara impeached. She was rude to Senator Risa. Why did you meet with her? Are you siding with her?”he said. “However you looked at it, that meeting was wrong,”Trillanes added. Robredo’s former spokesman Barry Gutierrez said the visit was “personal and not political.” “VP Leni was informed of the visit only minutes before when she was told that VP Sara was already on the way. The visit lasted for about an hour,” he said. In a separate statement, the OVP said it was Duterte’s first time to experience the Peñafrancia fiesta as per the invitation of a Bicolano friend. “The same friend also arranged a casual meeting with former Vice President Leni Robredo. During her stay in Naga, Vice President Duterte visited several prominent Bicol personalities and heard mass with ordinary Bicolanos. She neither looked desperate nor distressed,”the OVP said. On Saturday, Robredo was also visited by Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos and Senator Bong Revilla. “During the Peñafrancia, there are no political colors. Everyone is politically neutral. Everyone who visits for ‘Ina’ is welcome here with us. Ever since my husband became mayor in 1988, it had always been like this. Every time a guest goes to Naga with the intent of visiting ‘Ina,’ he or she is very much welcome here,” Robredo said.
4 TROPICAL CYCLONES, ‘HABAGAT’ LEAVE 25 DEAD—NDRRMC By Rex Espiritu
FESTIVE MOOD. With less than 100 days before Christmas, shoppers troop to Dapitan Arcade in Quezon City to buy affordable holiday decors. Manny Palmero
@mnlstandardph
@ManilaStandardPH
THE National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said the death toll climbed to 25 due to the tropical cyclones Ferdie, Gener, Helen, and Igme and the enhanced southwest monsoon or “habagat” as of Saturday. In its situational report, the NDRRMC said 10 fatalities were recorded in Mimaropa, five in Western Visayas, two in Central Visayas, four in Zamboanga Peninsula, and four in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). Additionally, 13 individuals were
@manilastandard @ManilaStandardYT
reported injured (three confirmed and 10 pending validation), while eight were reported missing (six confirmed and two pending validation). A total of 1,449,333 people, or 387,755 families, have been affected. Of these, 5,783 families, totaling 23,512 individuals, sought shelter in 199 evacuation centers. Meanwhile, 2,345 houses were damaged, with 349 completely destroyed, mainly in the Western Visayas. Agricultural losses are estimated at P600.83 million, while infrastructure damage is around P22.57 million.
@ManilaStandardYT
A total of seven municipalities have since declared a state of calamity. Tropical Depression Igme exited the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) early Saturday. Ferdie left PAR on September 14, while Gener and Helen exited on September 18. The cyclones intensified the southwest monsoon, resulting in widespread rainfall. Four dams in Luzon – Ambuklao and Binga in Benguet; Magat which is located between Ifugao and Isabela; and Ipo in Bulacan – already opened gates and released water, the state weather bureau said.
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 •09173382170 / 85646229