News Roundup 10 August 2022
Aug 10, 2022 • 6 min Read
Farewell to FVR: Ming thanks nation for the love | INQUIRER.NET – Former President Fidel V. Ramos was accorded a state burial with full military honors at Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City on Tuesday, a somber ending to five days of tributes for the late war veteran, commander in chief, and statesman. In his home province of Pangasinan, the local government offered to help preserve Ramos’ ancestral home in Lingayen town and turn it into a museum showcasing memorabilia and other personal items that belonged to the country’s 12th president. “But [the decision] is still up to the family of the late president,” Gov. Ramon Guico III said. Ramos, who died of COVID-19 on July 31 at the age of 94, was the fourth leader to be buried at the cemetery for the country’s heroes and presidents, six years after the controversial 2016 private funeral for the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., whose government he had helped topple during the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution. Marcos Sr.’s namesake son, now the president, attended Tuesday’s rites, lending a note of irony over the ceremony as Ramos was laid to rest beside another former president, Elpidio Quirino. On Tuesday, Marcos stood beside Ramos’ widow, former first lady Amelita “Ming” Ramos, both watching solemnly as the urn was lowered before noon, in accordance with tradition. President Marcos; the Armed Forces chief, Lt. Gen. Bartolome Bacarro; and other military officers saluted Ramos as 21 guns were fired in his honor and the band played the ballad “Maalaala Mo Kaya,” one of the late president’s favorite songs. His casket had been carried by a caisson, or a hearse pulled by a white military jeep, while a low-flying Air Force helicopter dropped flowers during the funeral march to his grave. It was Ramos himself who had worked on his funeral arrangements, having personally inspected and identified the place that would become his grave at Libingan.
Ombudsman junks bribery case vs De Lima, Dayan | INQUIRER.NET –The Office of the Ombudsman has dropped the bribery case filed against former Sen. Leila de Lima and her former aide, Ronnie Dayan, as it found no probable cause for the accusation. The resolution ordering the dismissal of the case was dated July 22 but was released only on Tuesday, Aug. 9. The resolution said there were glaring inconsistencies in the testimonies provided by the complainant, the Special Investigation Team of the Office of the Ombudsman. De Lima was supposed to have received bribe money – collected by Dayan — from convicted drug dealer Kerwin Espinosa. The inconsistencies, the resolution said, “would prevent a reasonable mind from concluding that the respondents are probably guilty of the offenses charged against them.” The resolution noted that Espinosa testified that it was Dayan who got the money from him. However, government witness Marcelo Adorco, a prison inmate, said it was the De Lima who directly received the money. “According to Kerwin, he gave a total of P8 million [to] Dayan in behalf of de Lima on four different occasions. It is noteworthy that in all instances de Lima was never there and it was Dayan who received the money from Kerwin,” the ruling portion of the resolution, which was approved by Ombudsman Samuel Martires, reads. “However, in Adorco’s version of events Kerwin handed the money directly to de Lima when they had lunch at a Pasay restaurant,” it added. In this particular case, De Lima was said to have bribed Espinosa in exchange for security. De Lima back then was the Department of Justice (DOJ) secretary, under the administration of then-President Benigno Aquino III. Espinosa also stated that the P8 million supposed bribe was given in four installments. But Adorco said the whole sum was given during the lunch meeting. The resolution also sided with De Lima, who claimed that a supposed meeting in Baguio City with Espinosa was merely a chance encounter during the national campaign for the senatorial elections. “In the same vein, the circumstances surrounding Kerwin’s encounter with the respondents in Baguio is likewise littered with inconsistencies making it difficult to conclude that Kerwin and the respondents had planned to meet each other there,” the ruling stated. “Thus, it is more likely that what happened in Baguio between Kerwin and de Lima was a chance encounter since the latter was there to boost her senatorial candidacy. This is especially true since according to Ram-Jhon, Kerwin had instructed him to book a trip to Baguio to get away from the chaos of the preparation for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Metro Manila,” it added. Other questions raised were why Espinosa did not directly meet with De Lima and how it could be proven that Dayan was indeed her emissary. “Preliminary investigation also seeks to secure the innocent against hasty, malicious, and oppressive prosecution. Further, it aims to protect the innocent from an open and public accusation of a crime, from the trouble, expense, and anxiety of a public trial,” the resolution added. “After all, an acquittal from a manifestly baseless accusation can hardly be considered a situation where justice has triumphed,” it added.
Philippines cancels Russia helicopter deal over US sanctions | PHILSTAR.COM – The Philippines has scrapped an order for 16 Russian military helicopters, an official confirmed Wednesday, following reports former president Rodrigo Duterte decided to cancel it due to US sanctions on Moscow. Manila — a longtime Washington ally — agreed in November to pay 12.7 billion pesos ($228 million) for the Mi-17 helicopters, as it seeks to modernise its military hardware. The United States and its allies imposed wide-ranging sanctions on Moscow in the wake of its assault on Ukraine in February. They are aimed at cutting off Russia from the global financial system and choking off funds available to Moscow to finance the war. The Philippine defence department was “formalizing the termination” of the contract, spokesman Arsenio Andolong said Wednesday. Without mentioning US sanctions on Moscow, Andolong told AFP “changes in priorities necessitated by global political developments resulted in the cancellation of the project by the previous administration”. Delfin Lorenzana, who served as defence secretary under Duterte, said in March that the Philippines had paid a deposit for the transport helicopters before war erupted in Ukraine and the deal was “on track”. But last week Lorenzana, who now heads a different government agency, told local media that Duterte himself decided to cancel the deal in the waning days of his administration over the sanctions threat. “I don’t know if we can still get back the money since we were the ones who terminated the contract,” Lorenzana told reporters. Russian embassy officials in Manila could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Philippine ambassador to Washington Jose Romualdez recently told AFP the decision to cancel was triggered by “the Ukrainian war”. Romualdez said Manila was also wary of falling foul of a US law passed in 2017 that sanctions anyone doing business with Russia’s intelligence or defence sectors. The United States was offering “alternative helicopters to meet our needs”, he added.
