News Roundup 27 May 2022
May 27, 2022 • 5 min Read
‘Diplomatic push’ eyed for De Lima’s release as case reaches US Senate anew | INQUIRER.NET – A “diplomatic push” is being eyed for the release of Senator Leila De Lima as the case of her detention again surfaced in the United States Senate during a budget hearing. During Thursday’s U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs hearing on the budget request of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for next year, Senator Richard Durbin asked USAID Administrator Samantha Power if she is familiar with De Lima, who has been detained for five years. Power answered in the affirmative, recalling writing a piece on De Lima when the Philippine senator was listed in Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” in 2017. “She’s been imprisoned five years, [President Rodrigo] Duterte’s vengeance against her politically, now a new regime is on the way, is there anything more we can be doing to help her?” Durbin asked Power. In response, Power said that an incoming administration provides a “very good” opportunity for a “diplomatic push” for the release of the Philippine senator. “I think with a new government that itself wasn’t invested in the prior decision to arrest Madam De Lima, it seems like a very good occasion to make a diplomatic push and that I think the ones that are the most effective are executive and legislative branches together operating in unison. So we can follow up on that,” said Power, who also served as Washington’s top diplomat in the United Nations under the Obama administration. Durbin has repeatedly called for De Lima’s release together with other U.S. senators. In 2019, Durbin, together with Senator Patrick Leahy, introduced an amendment to a budget bill that would deny U.S. entry to any Philippine official involved in the “wrongful imprisonment” of De Lima.
Sent to prison, NBN-ZTE deal whistleblower has no regrets | INQUIRER.NET – Whistleblower Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada Jr., IT expert and former president and CEO of the state-owned Philippine Forest Corp. (PFC), has no regrets. The star witness in the inquiry into the controversial national broadband network (NBN) agreement between the Arroyo administration and China’s ZTE Corp. in 2007 said he was not sorry for “siding with the truth” even as the Supreme Court affirmed his and his brother Orlando’s graft conviction for a land deal involving the PFC. “My enemies made good with their threats that they will make me regret telling the truth,” Lozada said in a statement addressed to his family and friends and informing them “with sadness” that the high court had denied his appeal. “Yes, they succeeded in sending me to prison. But they will not succeed in making me regret my decision to side with the truth and the people. Hindi ko pinagsisisihan ang ginawa kong pagpanig sa katotohanan,” he said. He asked his family and friends to “accompany me with your prayers,” and thanked them for their support. It was Lozada who blew the whistle on the supposed cost-padding and bribery involved in the NBN-ZTE deal, which was to have resulted in a telecommunications network linking government offices nationwide. His testimony at a Senate inquiry in 2008, in which he tagged then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her husband as the “masterminds behind the NBN-ZTE crime,” led to the cancellation of the deal. He also testified that then Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos Sr. stood to gain a huge commission from the deal. Four years after his testimony, the Ombudsman filed graft charges against Lozada and his brother. In a ruling dated July 28, 2021, but made public only recently on its website, the Supreme Court denied the Lozada brothers’ petition for review of the Sandiganbayan decision finding them guilty of graft and sentencing them to six to 10 years imprisonment and perpetual disqualification from public office. In August 2016, the Sandiganbayan’s Fourth Division found Lozada guilty of one count of graft for awarding the lease contract of 6.599 hectares of public land under the PFC’s Lupang Hinirang Program to his brother Orlando without undergoing the regular application process. Orlando was likewise found guilty of graft. The Lupang Hinirang Program grants leasehold rights over idle public lands to qualified applicants. The antigraft court said Lozada awarded the land to Orlando, a consultant at the PFC, despite the latter’s not going through the usual application process of prequalification, auction and award.
Nearly 2 million COVID-19 jabs to expire by end-June — DOH | PHILSTAR.COM – Nearly two million COVID-19 vaccine doses will expire by the end of June, the Department of Health said Friday as the agency seeks to replace expiring jabs. “About almost two million [ang mag-e-expire] kung hindi magamit by end of June,” Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said. (About two million vaccine doses will expire if they are not used by the end of June.) Cabotaje said the DOH had submitted a demand forecast of 34 million vaccine doses to replace expired or near-expiring Sinovac, AstraZeneca, and Pfizer shots. According to the head of the National Vaccination Operations Center, the COVAX facility is considering replacing expiring COVID-19 vaccines procured by the government and private firms. The COVAX facility, backed by the World Health Organization and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, delivers COVID-19 vaccines to the world’s most vulnerable people. Over 69.1 million people in the Philippines have completed vaccination against COVID-19. The government targets to fully vaccinate 77 million individuals before President Rodrigo Duterte steps down on June 30. Cabotaje said the department is holding microplanning sessions to improve COVID-19 immunization drives in areas where vaccination rates remain low.
