De Lima to Alvarez - Stop judging me

Sen. Leila De Lima on Monday told House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez to stop judging her character, her first reaction to the revelation to the public that the House leader has an extramarital affair.

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In a dispatch from Camp Crame, where she is detained on drug charges for her alleged involvement in the illegal drugs trade, De Lima said that she did not want to rub it in despite persistent requests for her comments on the controversy Alvarez has become mired in.

De Lima said that her only message for the speaker, one of her most vocal critics, was for him to stop perpetuating lies about her alleged connection to the trade of illegal narcotics in the country.

“I just have this message for the Speaker - Please stop judging me on my 'true character'. You don’t know me,” she said, adding that if he wanted to know her, the speaker should ask people who really knew her character.

“Just ask please people who do. So please desist from perpetuating the lies about my alleged drug links. The people who truly know me will tell you it’s an absolute nonsense,” the detained senator wrote.

Alvarez has been one of the most vocal and fiercest critics of De Lima.

In one congressional hearing into the senator’s alleged involvement in the illegal drugs trade at the New Bilibid Prison, Alvarez defended fellow representatives after they were severely criticized for asking Ronnie Dayan, the senator’s former driver and lover, highly personal questions about their relationship.

The speaker said in defending his colleagues last year: ““Yung pagka-babae, ito ang tanong ko sa kanila: Bakit hindi nila kinonsider yung asawa ni Ronnie Dayan? Babae yun! Sa tingin ko siya yung agrabyado dito. Yung paggamit ng mga subordinates mo, di ba sexual harassment yun?”

It was however recently revealed that Alvarez himself is involved in an extramarital relationship after he filed a corruption charge against Davao Del Norte Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr.

It has been alleged that the complaint was filed because of an altercation last year between the two congressmen’s girlfriends. Alvarez has denied that this is the reason for his complaint.

The speaker has since admitted to having a girlfriend and to siring eight children by different relationships.

“Hindi na po, hindi na po. Ganito kasi yun para hindi na kayo mahirapan. Noong first marriage ko, meron kaming dalawang anak. Sa second, apat tapos meron pa, dalawa,” he explained in a radio interview last week.

De Lima said that she “courteously” denied to comment on the travails of the speaker, saying that it was not right to rub the issues in.

“I don’t feel right rubbing it in even as I note that many people esp. netizens have been boisterously expressing their thoughts on this scandal. I also note there is righteous indignation,” she said.

Her message for the speaker was: “I pray for the Speaker's peace of mind.”

Source : PhilStar

Kiko hit for raising criminal liability age

President Duterte yesterday slammed Sen. Francis Pangilinan for crafting a law raising the age of criminal responsibility from 9 to 15, a piece of legislation that he claimed has produced “people who are of criminal mind.”

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Duterte said the amendments to the Juvenile Justice System and Welfare Act introduced by Pangilinan allowed wrongdoers to get away with their misdeeds.

“When you reach 15, whatever you do, you kill, you rape women, whatever the crime, robbery with homicide or robbery with rape and homicide, whatever your crime is, when your mother arrives, they will just give you to her. Just one day,” the President said.

“You will see them in EDSA. They keep coming back. Now they have grown up, we have produced people who are of criminal minds. And that is why it is hard to stop the drug problem now.”

He said the problem with Pangilinan was that he was too much in a hurry.

“He passed that law – that was 15 years ago – we produced about five, six generations of people who committed crimes and were released on the same day, irrespective of the gravity of the offense,” he added.

Under the law, a child below 15 years old at the time of the commission of a crime shall be exempt from criminal liability. The offender, however, will undergo government-designed intervention program.

Critics of the law claimed that drug syndicates are taking advantage of this by using children as couriers. Duterte’s allies are now pushing for a bill that will bring back the age of criminal liability to 9.

Source : PhilStar

How many lawmakers are without affairs? - Rody defends Alvarez

MANILA, Philippines - Amid threats of disbarment over his extramarital affairs, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez has found a defender in President Duterte.

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“Ilan ang lawmakers na may dalawa, tatlong babae (How many lawmakers have two, three women)?” the President asked yesterday. “Lahat kami wala nang ranggo pag ganon. Sino ba’ng walang kaligayahan (We will all lose our positions if that’s the case. Who has no source of joy)?”

He also accused Alvarez’s critics of hypocrisy, claiming that even priests, who are supposed to be celibate, have girlfriends.

This developed as administration lawmakers yesterday urged Alvarez and Davao del Norte Rep. Antonio “Tonyboy” Floirendo Jr. to settle their quarrel so as not to derail Duterte’s legislative agenda.

Alvarez last week accused Floirendo’s Tagum Agricultural Development Co. (Tadeco), a banana exporting company, of having an anomalous
contract with the government. But reports said their feud stemmed from an altercation between the Speaker’s mistress and Floirendo’s live-in partner.

Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo of the second district called on lawmakers to “exert all efforts to patch up the differences between the two influential figures in the House of Representatives so as not to derail the legislative agenda of the President.”

Rep. Alfred Vargas of Quezon City’s fifth district reminded that lawmakers “still have so much to do” so they should not lose sight of their mandate and set aside personal differences.

Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers believes that Alvarez and Floirendo will eventually bury the hatchet.

“In my view, it will be resolved sooner than we think. You know, guys are just like that,” Barbers said. “Personally, I don’t think this issue will divide the House and derail the legislative agenda.”

Alvarez: Tonyboy must explain lopsided deal first

But Alvarez is apparently hell-bent on pursuing the House probe he initiated and the graft charges he filed against Floirendo, his former best friend.

“Ipaliwanag niya muna itong ma-anomalyang transaction niya sa gobyerno. Iyang friendship madali na lang iyan (He should explain first his anomalous transaction with the government. The friendship is easy),” he said.

“My friendship with him ends where my loyalty to my country begins,” he added.

Under the 25-year joint venture agreement that is expected to lapse in 2028, Tadeco has committed to give the Bureau Corrections (BuCor) P26.541 million per year or a lease rate of P5,000 per hectare for the 5,308 hectares in Davao Prison and Penal Farm.

Tadeco also pegged the government’s share from Tadeco’s banana exports at P1.3258 per box or just 0.22 percent of a box of bananas with an average price of P600 per box in the market.

The pro-Duterte watchdog group Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) backed the House probe initiated by Alvarez as well as the graft charges he filed before the Office of the Ombudsman against Floirendo’s Tadeco.

VACC founding chair Dante Jimenez said the terms on land rentals and profit share signed between Tadeco and the Davao penal colony in May 2003 were “grossly disadvantageous to the government.”

Jimenez said the national government should be getting at least P1 billion in rent and P900 million in profit share annually from Tadeco over its joint venture agreement with BuCor over the long-term lease of 5,308 hectares in Davao penal colony.

He said similar developed agricultural lands will fetch as much as P200,000 per hectare. In Tadeco’s case, it should be paying the government up P1.061 billion per year.

“With an en estimated annual sales of 30 million boxes per year, the government would only be getting P40.584 million annually versus Tadeco’s annual revenues of P18 billion,” he added.

Alvarez also wants the 5,308.36 hectares in the penal farm to be open for bidding to interested parties.

“It should be opened up for bidding so other groups or companies could also bid for it to ensure that government earns much more than what it is getting now from the Floirendos,” Alvarez told The STAR in a phone interview yesterday.

He said the Floirendos could also participate in the bidding if it pushes through as one of the interested parties.

Alvarez has refused to acknowledge Floirendo’s offer for them to settle their differences like “real gentlemen” following reports that their feud stemmed from an altercation between the Speaker’s mistress and Floirendo’s live-in partner.

“It was not his statement, it was the statement of his public relations staff. If they want that issue (altercation between their mistresses), let’s talk about it on a separate venue, perhaps in a parlor. I don’t want to dignify it because the government is not benefitting from it,” he said.

He also responded to the query from the public as to why he is seeking a House probe on Tadeco’s joint venture agreement with the Bureau of Corrections and Davao penal colony after more than a decade had passed.

“Why only now? Because they have been hiding that contract for a long time,” he said.

In an earlier statement, Floirendo said he has not committed any wrongdoing.

Source: PhilStar

UN body to Phl - Stop death penalty revival

MANILA, Philippines - A monitoring body of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) has called on the Philippine government to junk the proposal to reinstate the death penalty in the country and abide by its international commitments.

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In a letter to Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Maria Teresa Almojuela, Human Rights Committee (HRC) chairman Yuji Iwasawa reminded the Philippines that it is a party to the Second Optional Protocol of the ICCPR that prohibits the imposition of capital punishment.

“The committee is currently in session in Geneva. It expresses grave concern at information it has received about the passage of a bill through the House of Congress to reintroduce death penalty, for drug related offenses, in the Philippines,” read the letter dated March 27.

“It understands that the Senate will consider this bill soon,” it added.

The letter was also addressed to Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III.

Iwasawa said he regrets the recent development in the Philippines and urged the government to desist from ultimately passing the measure.

“On behalf of the committee, I call on (the Philippines) to take its obligations under the ICCPR and the Second Optional Protocol seriously and refrain from taking retrogressive measures, which would only undermine human rights progress to date,” he said.

Last month, the House of Representatives passed on third reading the bill that imposes the death penalty on drug related offenses.

In an earlier statement, UN special rapporteurs Agnes Callamard and Nils Melzer expressed concern over the passage of the proposal at the House of Representatives.

“If approved, the bill will set the Philippines starkly against the global trend towards abolition and would entail a violation of the country’s obligations under international law,” they said.

Callamard is the special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, while Melzer is the special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

They reminded the Philippines of its obligation under the second optional protocol of the ICCPR.

“Not only was the treaty ratified and widely advertised, but state authorities have also expressly confirmed on numerous occasions its validity and binding nature on the Philippines, without raising any concerns over the procedure through which it had been ratified,” the rapporteurs said.

Source : PhilStar

Leila slams Rodys mockery of European Parliament

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Leila de Lima slammed President Duterte’s calling the European Parliament members “naïve” for demanding her immediate release, asserting that its members – and even a silent majority of Filipinos – know that she is a victim of political persecution by the administration and the Chief Executive himself.

“No, Mr. President. They’re not naïve at all. Those European Parliament members calling for my immediate release and describing the charges against me as fabricated, spurious and invented know what they’re talking about,” De Lima responded through a statement from detention at Camp Crame.

Earlier this week, the President said that he pitied the members of the European Parliament for their naivete and went on to call them rotten.

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He scoffed at how they described her as a political prisoner and for portraying him as a villain.

De Lima said that the members of the European Parliament “know a case of political persecution when they see one.”

“While ostensibly, the charges against me are criminal offenses – drug trafficking – and not a political one, the same are completely bogus, as they are anchored on coerced, false testimonies, courtesy of your wicked lieutenants and operators,” De Lima said.

“They saw how you unleashed your arsenal of foul means, including invectives and misogynistic attacks, against me. That yours is a deep-seated personal vendetta is too transparent that only the blind and the dumb would fail to see,” she added.

De Lima said that the European parliamentarians would not risk their reputations and that of their political parties unless they were convinced about her innocence.

“They know the truth, Mr. President. They don’t buy your lies about me. So do a silent majority of your people,” she said.

Meanwhile, Sen. Risa Hontiveros took a shot at the President’s assistant communications secretary Marie Banaag for defending Duterte’s catcalling.

During an event commemorating Women’s Month at Malacañang, Banaag said that the President’s catcalling was generally relative and all depended on who would be hurt by it.

Hontiveros, a staunch advocate of women’s rights, corrected Banaag, saying that catcalling is not at all relative.

“It’s harassment. All forms of catcalling are wrong: unsolicited sexual advances and symptoms of male entitlement,” Hontiveros said.

Source : PhilStar

Magdalo using Rody to further Senate ambition — Palace

MANILA, Philippines -  Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella yesterday accused Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Rep. Gary Alejano of riding on the popularity of President Duterte to secure a senatorial seat for the party-list Magdalo in the midterm elections in 2019.

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Abella expressed suspicion that Alejano will be fielded by Magdalo to replace Trillanes, who is on his last term at the Senate.

“Well, I would see first before I talk about that. You know, the other thing that all this noise is being created for example by the Magdalo representative, it seems to be, you know, it seems to be orchestrated in a sense of apparently, he’s also wanting to run for senator in place of Trillanes,” Abella said.

The Palace lashed out at Alejano after he filed an impeachment complaint against President Duterte for encouraging summary killings in the government’s war on drugs and for allowing China’s incursion in the West Philippine Sea.

Abella refused to dignify further Alejano’s claims and Trillanes’ latest call for the President to simply file libel charges against him.

“In other words, what I’m saying is that hindi naman natin kailangan patulan lahat ng mga ganyan eh ’di ba (we do not have to dignify all such things),” he said.

Source : PhilStar

Duterte hands off on allies quarrel

DAVAO CITY , Philippines  – President Duterte is keeping his hands off the war that has erupted between two of his staunch supporters.

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Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Davao del Norte Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr. told The STAR yesterday that the President had not talked to them since reports about their bitter feud blew up in public.

A source close to the President said Duterte had not called the two to a meeting to try to patch things up.

“Wala, walang ginawa si Presidente. Pinabayaan muna niya (Nothing, the President did nothing. He’s just letting them be),” the source said. “He is just leaving them alone.”

Palace officials also said yesterday that Duterte would rather have the two erstwhile close friends settle the matter between themselves.

“Let’s put it this way: this is a… personal matter between two men. And I think they should be – the Palace will allow them to settle it privately between themselves,” presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said yesterday.

With regard to allegations of Alvarez that Floirendo had used his position to secure favorable government deals for the family-owned Tagum Agricultural Development Corp. (Tadeco), Abella said it is best that formal charges are filed with the proper courts.

“It should be made formal. There should be due process regarding those things,” Abella pointed out.

Asked if Duterte or the Palace should interfere in the fight between the President’s two major allies, Abella said the executive branch opts not to meddle in the affairs of a co-equal branch.

“Interference, no. It is a matter that they should settle between themselves,” he said.

He also scoffed at criticism that the President had exhibited double standard with his hitting Sen. Leila de Lima’s supposed immorality, while remaining silent on his allies’ own indiscretions.

The President and his allies had repeatedly called De Lima immoral for having her driver as lover.

“I think it is not a question of being double standard. The fact remains that the relationship of the senator had something to do with the crime with which she has been accused of,” he said.

De Lima’s driver Ronnie Dayan allegedly collected protection money from convicts involved in an alleged drug trade inside the national penitentiary when she was still justice secretary.

The President himself is fond of joking about his indiscretions as well as those of his officials.

In his speech during a mass oath-taking ceremony at Malacañang last Thursday, Duterte even named some of his appointed officials and close allies who have extramarital affairs.

“I don’t think he is being gender specific. I think that’s framing it in a different – framing it differently,” Abella said, refusing to elaborate.

Asked about the Palace’s stand on extramarital affairs, Abella said the issue should be better left to the officials concerned. “I don’t think there is a specific statement regarding these matters. I think these matters are left mainly to personal morality,” he said.

 Women defend Rody

 In another briefing before the event marking Women’s Month at Malacañang, Justice Assistant Secretary Aimee Neri said Duterte never tolerated marital infidelity even when he was still city chief executive. She had worked with the President when he was mayor.

She pointed out Duterte has been pushing for the development and welfare of women, especially victims of abuse by their partners.

“If a person is legally married to another person, and having a paramour is not only illegal and immoral but it is unacceptable in our culture. The President himself even does not tolerate it,” she said in press briefing at the Women’s Month celebration at the Kalayaan grounds in Malacañang.

“Based on my experience, when he was mayor in Davao City, we handled many… cases in Davao City and majority of those cases are psychological cases, infidelity and all that. We have existing laws to prosecute,”  Neri said.

“This I can tell you. I want you to know that beyond those utterances, on what could have been misinterpreted words from him is a helping hand and a heart that cares,” Neri said.

Press Assistant Secretary Marie Banaag asked the public to have a forgiving heart when it comes to the President’s sexist remarks and catcalling.

“I don’t want to be defensive about all these, but for Women’s Month, if we can have a forgiving heart… we voted for a President, we did not vote for a priest. We did not vote for a saint. On my part as a women, catcalling is relative, depending on who is hurt,” Banaag added.

“We are not saying that everything a person says is right. For that again, I ask as women, let’s have a forgiving heart. We did not vote for a priest,” she said.

Department of the Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Emily Padilla said Duterte can have affairs because he is legally separated. 

“When we said extramarital affairs, the President is not married. He can afford to utter such remarks because he is not married,” Padilla said.

It was reportedly the quarrel between the girlfriends of Alvarez and Floirendo that fueled the animosity between the two lawmakers.

Alvarez suspected Floirendo of laying the groundwork for his ouster as Speaker and his replacement by former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

He has filed a case with the Office of the Ombudsman against Floirendo for possible irregularity in an agreement between Tadeco and the Bureau of Corrections, but maintained the quarrel between their girlfriends had nothing to do with his decision to file the case.

Source : PhilStar

Trillanes on Rody accounts - P2B not P200 M

MANILA, Philippines -  Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV yesterday corrected President Duterte with regard to the P200 million that he had allegedly stashed away in bank accounts.

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Trillanes said that what he claimed was not that the President had P200 million in his accounts, but rather over P2 billion, which Duterte never declared in his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).

“By the way, my allegation wasn’t P200 million but more than P2 billion in accumulated credits in your bank accounts,” Trillanes said.

“Just sign a waiver para magkaalaman na. Sinungaling ka (so that the truth will come out. You are a liar),” he added.

In speeches last Thursday, the President lashed out at the Philippine Daily Inquirer and ABS-CBN for their supposedly unfair reporting when it came to issues involving him.

He cited in particular the reports on Trillanes’ allegations that Duterte and his family members failed to disclose billions of pesos in bank transactions over a period of several years when he was still mayor of Davao City.

Duterte has denied the allegations but this has not satisfied Trillanes, who has repeatedly challenged him to sign a waiver on the secrecy of bank deposits so that the details of his bank accounts would be made public.

“Mr. President, if the media reports based on my allegations weren’t true, then why didn’t you just sue me for libel?” Trillanes said.

Trillanes has filed a complaint of plunder against the President before the Office of the Ombudsman while his colleague from the Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano has filed an impeachment complaint against Duterte before the House of Representatives.

Source : PhilStar

Duterte not against Philippine media

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang defended on Friday President Rodrigo Duterte’s diatribe against the media the previous day, clarifying that the president was not attacking Philippine media.

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Ernesto Abella, the presidential spokesman, defended Duterte a day after the president slammed two media entities for their alleged distortion of his statements.

“The president’s remarks on ABS-CBN Corporation and Philippine Daily Inquirer is a complaint against unfairness and are not attacks against Philippine journalism,” he said in a statement.

In a press briefing at the Palace, Abella said that Duterte was angered by what he perceived as an unfair framing of his statements that showed bias “leaning towards” malice. He pointed out as an example the reporting on the government’s war on drugs that made it appear as a war versus the poor.

Abella said: “For example, the way the war on drugs was framed as a war versus the poor. It seems to imply that he is actually focusing on a particular class which is hardly the point. But the way that particular media framed it insinuates a particular bias which leans towards malice.”

The spokesperson also said that the president had more serious matters to attend to than filing charges against media organizations that he perceived to be unfairly covering his presidency.

“I don’t think he will be filing a complaint, but I think what he complains about is a question of fairness in the sense that for example some matters are framed in a particular way that caricatures certain situations,” he said.

On Thursday, the president gave a blistering criticism of the newspaper Philippine Daily Inquirer and TV station ABS-CBN for their perceived unfair and twisted coverage of his pronouncements especially those relating to Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs.

“Tingnan mo yung Inquirer. Ang sinasabi ko sila ang may sabi na pinapatay ko raw ang mahihirap. Alam mo ang Inquirer kahapon, talagang ... Basura talaga yan pati yung eleksyon. ‘The poor will be killed.’ Tingnan mo kung mag-slant,” the president said in a speech.

He was also angered by their coverage of the alleged P200 million hidden wealth in his bank accounts during last year’s presidential campaign, saying that he would immediately step down if somebody would prove it.

Although the president recognized the adversarial nature of news entities, Abella said that the two media outfits’ caricature of Duterte as a “berserk strongman over a failed state” was “unfortunate.”

“The president’s statement is a call for media to be more fair and unbiased; after all, nations succeed when all sectors maintain objectivity and fairness as they collaborate in nation building,” he said.

Gina’s appointment not affected

Abella also clarified that although her family owns ABS-CBN, Gina Lopez’s reappointment as environment secretary would not be affected by the president’s criticism of the broadcast station.

Abella said Duterte knew how to separate issues and to be objective in addressing them.

“I think those are two separate matters. As far as we can see, he can be quite objective about these things. He is able to compartmentalize certain matters,” he said.

Abella, however, refused to say if Lopez’s reappointment should be expected, saying: “If the president sees fit, then he will.”

Source : PhilStar

Pangilinan defends press - Media strengthen democracy

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Francis Pangilinan on Friday defended Philippine press following invective-laced speeches of President Rodrigo Duterte against two news organizations, saying that presidents have come and gone but the media are still there.

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Pangilinan, president of the opposition Liberal Party (LP), said Philippine democracy was strengthened with the reporting and coverage of news outfits.

“Marami nang pangulo ng bansa ang nakipag-girian sa media. Wala na ang mga ito sa Malacañan ngunit nariyan pa rin ang media,” Pangilinan said. “Ang ating demokrasya at kalayaan ay mas higit na tumitibay kapag nariyan ang malayang pamamahayag.”

On Thursday, Duterte lambasted broadsheet Philippine Daily Inquirer and television station ABS-CBN for their alleged proclivity to lie and distort his pronouncements.

The chief executive used as examples their reporting of some of his statements on the war on drugs and his presidential campaign last year. The president was specifically angered by the newspaper’s alleged twisting and cherry-picking of his words to make it appear that his campaign against illegal drugs was a war on the poor.

“Alam mo kung maniwala kayo diyan sa mga [media], maraming ano diyan virulent ang ano... Lalo na yung mga istasyon...lalo yung ABS (ABS-CBN), Inquirer, natalo yung kandidato nila,” he said.

The president added: “Tingnan mo yung Inquirer. Ang sinasabi ko sila ang may sabi na pinapatay ko raw ang mahihirap. Alam mo ang Inquirer kahapon, talagang ... Basura talaga yan pati yung eleksyon. ‘The poor will be killed.’ Tingnan mo kung mag-slant.”

Duterte also denounced last year’s coverage of his campaign especially the reporting on the alleged P200 million in his bank accounts.

“Tell them to get a statement. Bakit ako magbigay sa kalaban ko? Is there really P200 million sa account ko, I will resign tomorrow. Yan ang hamon ko sa lahat. If my children get involved in corruption, I will gladly step down. Yan ang totoo,” he said

The Inquirer and the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) immediately issued statements debunking the president’s pronouncements.

According to the paper’s executive editor, Jose Ma. Nolasco, since its founding in 1985 it has been upholding the highest standards of excellence in journalism as shown by the awards and citations it has received over the years.

For NUJP, the president’s words showed little appreciation of democracy and governance as it called his latest statements a “brazen abuse of authority.”

ABS-CBN has not yet issued any statement as of press time.

Pangilinan said the president might be used to media reporting in Davao City and not to the critical coverage of the national press.

“Maaring hindi sanay ang pangulo sa mga batikos mula sa media dahil sa kanyang karanasan bilang Mayor ng Davao ng halos tatlong dekada ngunit iba ang usapan kapag buong bansa na ang ginagalawan niya,” the Senate minority member said.

Pangilinan declared: “Kasama sa ating demokrasya ang pambabatikos ng media.”

Source : PhilStar