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‘Drug war a grand crime cover’ FIVE LOCAL HOLIDAYS IN OCT. NEWS / A3
ISRAEL CONTINUES Quad Comm findings show Rody, cohorts benefitted from drug trade
TO POUND HEZBOLLAH WORLD / A6
VOL. XXXVIII • NO. 227• 3 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P20 •MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2024 •
COMMUTERS TO LTFRB: ENFORCEPAGASA DISCOUNTS
By Rio N. Araja
F PNP resurrecting probe Gov’treadies ORMER President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs allegedly served as a cover for a “grand criminal enterprise” and systemic corruption involving high-ranking government officials and international drug trafficking networks, the House Quad Committee said.
BUSINESS / B3
into PCSO official's slay
VOL. XXXVIII • NO. 302• 3 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P20 •SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2024 •
2ND IMPEACH VOTE P1.48b aidVSasYOON LOOMS / A6 'Julian'WORLD strengthens
THE government has readied P1.48 billion worth of aid for communities that may be hit hard by typhoon ‘Julian’ which PAGASA says could turn into a supertyphoon. As of 5:00 PM on Sunday, PAGASA raised Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal No. 3 over Batanes and the northeastern portion of Babuyan Islands. “’Julian’ is forecast to continue intensifying over the next 24-36 By Rio N.moves Arajatowards Batanes hours as it and/or Babuyan Islands. With the THE House lifted current trend Quad in its Committee intensification, its contempt order dismissed the possibility of against reaching super Bamban,category Tarlac mayor or typhoon is notAlice ruledGuo out,” Guo Hua Ping, Chinese businessPAGASA said in its advisory. man Tony Yangthe or Yang Jianxin, and Meanwhile, National DisasLucky 99 representative Caster RiskSouth Reduction and Managesandra Ong. (NDRRMC) said that ment Council The mega 13th a total of 1.9 panel, millionduring familyitsfood hearingworth late Thursday night other on ilpacks P1.48 billion, legalitems POGO activities, ordered their food worth P276 million, and release from detention. non-food items (NFIs) worth P919 Ong, were detained at theprepared Correctional million already by Institute for Women (CIW), faced the Department of Social Welfare contempt charges (DSWD). on October 23 for and Development failing submitmillion key documents reSometoP171 in standby garding her stake in Whirlwind Corfund is also available for utilization poration, whichincluding is linkedP123 to Lucky by the DSWD, milSouth 99, acan POGO hub based in Polion which be allotted as Quick rac, Pampanga. Response Fund (QRF) in the cenNext page tral office of the DSWD. In Batanes, the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) advised residents to secure their roofs and install window shutters as Typhoon Julian is expected to make landfall
Quad releases Speaker grateful for PMA Class '83 vote of confidence in Quad Comm Guo, Ong, Yang from detention
The House committee's senior vice chairperson, Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop, said the mega panel's initial By Rio N. Araja findings indicated that Duterte and his inner circle allegedly enabled and profited fromHE the drug trade they had pubPhilippine licly vowed to eliminate. National Police “The Quad Comm has started to uncover a grand criminal enterprise, and, (PNP) is reopening it would seem that at the center of it is its investigation into former President Duterte. This is truly hurtful because it seemsofwe were all the 2020 murder taken for a ride,” Acop said. Philippine Charity He said the Duterte administraSweepstakes Office tion’s most trusted officials wielded both the “purse and the sword” and (PCSO) board secretary weaponized these both for personal Wesley Barayuga. and political gain. “It is most unfortunate that the On Sunday, PNP Police sword was used to slit, Chief stab, and slash General Rommel Francisco Marthe very people it swore to protect and bil he was ordered thesaid Purse usedthe notreopening to benefit of the the cold but caseto after Republic line thewhistleblower pockets of the Police Lt. Col. Santieour Mendoza few. They drowned country told with the House Committee thatthis,” he drugs, andQuad they benefited from helped carry out the killing at the Acop added. behest of ex-PCSO manager Surigao del Nortegeneral Rep. Robert Ace Royina Garma. Barbers said Duterte's economic advisnarrated coner,Mendoza Michael Yang, “maybefore be one of the gressmen how Garma allegedly faNext page cilitated the PCSO official’s roadside assassination on July 30, 2020 by providing the necessary information about his schedule, details about his vehicle and the funding necessary to carry it out. The whistleblower also implicated incumbent National Police Commissioner Edilberto Leonardo in the planning of the murder. Barayuga was a retired police general and lawyer who supposedly By Caloy Lozada threatened to expose corruption withDantes inand the Charles PCSO shortly before he was shot dead in Mandaluyong City. (ProTHE Sangguniang Panlalawigan Garma, herselfinanNegros ex-police Lt. vincial Council) OccidenColonel, allegedly gained the topin tal has declared a state of calamity spot at the PCSO because her in-of the province following the of eruption Next page Kanlaon Volcano last Monday. In a special session on Friday, the council unanimously approved the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council’s (PDRRMC) recommendation for the declaration. This declaration authorizes the release of the province’s calamity funds,
T
NegOcc under calamity state after Kanlaon eruption
DOTr’s Bautista says online news report‘unfounded'
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A WEB OF CRIME? House leaders Aurelio Gonzales and David Suarez presented their this matrix during last QUAD MIXED EMOTIONS. Bar examinees, relatives andthe friends, top photo, Comm hearing which shows the operations of a criminal led the by fugitive Michael Yang, then of economic gather before syndicate the videoallegedly wall to hear announcement yesterday the 2024 adviser of former President Rodrigo Duterte, controlled the illegal activities the POGOs and was involved in the drug Barthat Exam results from Supreme Courtof Associate Justice Mario V. Lopez, Photos trade and extrajudicial killings. below show reactions of bar examinees after the results were flashed on the video screen and the top five bar passers. A total of 3,962 or 37.84 percent of 10,490 takers passed the examinations (Story on Page 2). Norman Cruz/ Supreme Court
Yang's lawyer mocks probers amid heated inquiry THE legal counsel of Chinese businessman Tony Yang sought to disparage lawmakers’ conclusions about his client’s supposedly sketchy past and his alleged ties with Philippine Overseas Gaming Operators (POGOs) and even organized crime. Lawyer Raymond Fortun questioned the House Quad Committee’s impartiality and its ability to pin Chinese national Yang down for ay wrongdoing in a real criminal court. “I am very interested in how they [Quad Comm members] can prove this criminal network in court. In Congress, lawmakers act as both prosecutor andSea—constitutes judge,” he said.a clear South China Yang, according who already admitted violation, to Ambassador having Philippine birth Antonio aM.fake Lagdameo, the Philipcertificate, is the Representative brother of Michael pines' Permanent to the Yang, a presidential United Nations in New York.economic “Bajo de Masinloc has always been an integral part of the territory of the Philippines. Only the Philippines, in the exercise of its sover-
adviser of former President Rodrigo Duterte. Fortun, a lawyer who often finds himself at the center high-profile cases, apparently sought to mock congressmen, calling their probe “unacceptable.” However, House members argued they did not come by their suspicions about Yang recklessly. On Friday, Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio Gonzales Jr. of Pampanga and Deputy Speaker David Suarez of Quezon presented a matrix showing Yang’s first appearance and his subsequent activities at the Quad Comm hearing. “We saw a pattern, and we tracked iteignty, to thehas topthe ofright theseto corporations... establish basewe stripped of its layers to get to lines, and theit breadth of the, territorial the and Bajo through it all, weinhave sea top around de Masinloc, line discovered and identified least two with the United Nations at Convention main in Lagdameo the issue on theactors Law or of players the Sea,” said during the UN General Assembly’s debate on Oceans and the Law of the Sea.
By Rex Espiritu
cent Trinidad told reporters that Manila troops did not monitor LEGACY any such activity, adding that BeiPROJECTS. jing’s statement was meant only Speaker Ferdinand Martin for its internal audience. G. Romualdez inspects “Our troops did notsiteobserve the construction any exercise, to underof thewe newhave Philippine stand thatCancer sometimes, China Center as well as is doing this the forMega theirHemodialysis internal audiLegacy at the ence, right? For Building them not to look Kidney and weak and National embarrassed,” Trinidad Transplant Institute said. compoundwarships in Quezon were Two Chinese City yesterday afternoon. monitored at a distance ranging The two legacy hospital from eightprojects to 14were nautical funded miles. One of these went up toof the 1,000 through the efforts yards at the MMCA site but evenHouse of Representatives. tually went away. “It was not Ver Noveno threatening, just normal,” accord-
PH asserts sovereignty over Bajo de Masinloc shoal in UN assembly By Rachelle Tonelada
BAJO de Masinloc remains an integral part of Philippine territory, and any action that undermines the rules-based international order—particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the binding 2016 Arbitral Award on the
BAUTISTA
By Darwin Amojelar TRANSPORTATION Secretary Jaime Bautista denied an online news report claiming that Malacañang was angry with the increase in airport fees without the approval of the Cabinet members. “The Bilyonaryo article is malicious and unfounded,” Bautista said in a Viber message, referring to the website that published the said story. “Bilyonaryo is inconsistent,” he added. Bilyonaryo reported online that “Bautista and his long-time protege in Philippine Airlines, Undersecretary for Aviation and Airports Bobby Lim, are at the center of the storm after it was Next page
Rice traders say import imbalance behind highUN prices PH lobbies
of illegal drugs and illegal activities associated with POGOs,” Suarez said in a mixture of Filipino and English. The solons explained how the matrix details Yang’s connections to other individuals involved in illicit activities, including the operations of illegal POGOs. Among the companies implicated are Brickhartz Technology Inc. and Xionwei Technology Co. Ltd., which are being linked to alleged kidnapping. The two firms supposedly have connections with the Baofu Compound in Bamban, Tarlac, which, in turn, can be directly traced to disgraced ex-mayor Alice Guo. During Friday’s Quad Comm hearing, lawmakers cited Tony Yang in contempt for “lying” to about his businesses and business partners. Next page
for Security TRADERS are pointing to the flawed Council seat guidelines of Executive Order (EO) By Othel V. Campos
62, which cut rice import duties from THE Philippine government 35 percent to 15 percent, for theon govSunday publicly for the Uniternment’s failurecalled to substantially bring eddown Nations toof give retail(UN) prices rice.it a seat on the UN Security Council, highlightLocal rice traders argued that the ing the country’s strong record measure has instead created and imbaldedication to market. upholding the rule of ances in the law. Philippine Rice Industry StakeholdForeign co-founder Affairs ersDepartment Movementof(PRISM) (DFA) Secretary Enrique Manalo Orlando Manuntag, a rice trader in hima self, speech deliveredthe at absence the UN of Genhighlighted limits eral in New Yorkvarieties said theunon Assembly the importation of rice Philippines der EO 62. continues to emphasize the “importance thethe “The devil liesofinupholding the details of rule of law and the integrity Next of the page multilateral system in the face of today’s global challenges.” Quoted by reports, Manalo also said: “The Philippines has consistently pursued peace, the sovereign equality of states, the rights and dignity of all persons.” He added that the country is also recognized as the “first Asian ReNext page
Navy spokes debunks China claim of military exercises in Scarborough shoal THE Philippine Navy debunked on Sunday the recent announcement by China that it conducted military exercises off Bajo de Masinloc, also known as Scarborough Shoal, in the West Philippine Sea (WPS). China reportedly made the announcement coinciding with the fourth Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity between the Philippines, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and the United States within Manila’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the regional waters over the weekend. Philippine Navy Spokesperson for WPS Rear Admiral Roy Vin-
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RICE-FOR-ALL. Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr. visited the KADIWA
ng Pangulo kiosk selling rice for P40/kilo under the Rice-for-All program, at Pasay City Public Market. The DA chief was accompanied by Mayor Imelda Calixto-Rubiano, Asec. Genevieve Guevarra, Asec. Joycel Panlilio, and Director Junibert de Sagun of Agriculture Marketing Assistance Service. Sec. Kiko also inspected the prices and supply of pork, chicken, beef, seafood, and fruits. The DA chief also reminded vendors to comply with the Price Tag Law and display NMIS certificates for meat products. Jay Morales
AWARD. More Pinoys worry about PH 2025 prospects
Hans Sy, Chairman of the Executive Committee of SM Prime Holdings, was honored by the Philippine Retailers Association (PRA) with its Outstanding Filipino Retailers Award for his visionary leadershiprate in retail THERE has beenPresident a significant decline respondents the development. country’s current (From left to right): PRA Director and Director of SM Retail Jorge T. Mendiola, PRA inVice optimism among Filipinos regarding state as strong, a sharp drop from 45% President and President and COO of Golden, ABC, Inc. (The Penshoppe Group) theAlice country’s state, direction, theCommittee same period year and T. Liu, SMcurrent Prime Holdings Chairman of theduring Executive Hanslast T. Sy, and economic prospects toward 2025, 36% last quarter. PRA President and Chairman of Quorum International, Inc. (Toby’s Sports) Roberto a new surveyand said. Additionally, 42% believe S. Claudio, PRA Director and President of Sportshouse Int’l. Leisure, Inc. andthe counThe PAHAYAG 2024 End ofAward the Marstry is on the right track, down from proponent of PRA OFR President’s C. Chua Year Survey also said that only 31% of Next page