News Roundup 04 September 2022
Sep 04, 2022 • 6 min Read
Palace: Marcos Jr. aware of Mary Jane Veloso case | PHILSTAR.COM – The Department of Foreign Affairs will take the lead on any talks on the case of Mary Jane Veloso, the migrant Filipino worker in prison in Indonesia on a drug conviction, administration officials said Sunday. President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is in Jakarta for a state visit and Veloso’s parents have appealed to the government to seek executive clemency for her after more than a decade behind bars. Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles and Migrant Workers Secretary Susan “Toots” Ople stressed at a media briefing in Jakarta that the Veloso case is a sensitive matter and that they cannot comment on it beyond saying that Marcos is aware of the issue. “By agreement, it will be the DFA that will be taking the lead,” Ople said, saying the department has the institutional memory on the case and because of the “importance of speaking with one voice on a case that has such very sensitive dimensions as the case of Mary Jane Veloso.” She said that the matter has been brought to Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo. “I’m sure that he will be, at the appropriate time, open to saying more about this,” Ople also said. She added that although the Philippines can pursue the diplomatic track on the case, Filipinos can also turn to the “divine track” and to pray that Veloso will be allowed to come home. “We proceed with deliberation if we proceed at all,” Cruz-Angeles said. “I’m not saying we’re proceeding with anything, but the president is aware of the issue but beyond that we cannot discuss.” Veloso was convicted and sentenced to death over heroin found sewn into the lining of her luggage in April 2010. Her execution was stayed in 2015 after the Philippines argued that she could testify in human trafficking cases against her recruiters, whom she said were behind the drug smuggling scheme.
Makabayan bloc: Why P2.3-billion budget for OVP? | INQUIRER.NET – Lawmakers from the progressive Makabayan bloc are intent on questioning the P2.3-billion budget that Vice President Sara Duterte’s office is seeking from Congress for next year. As they put it on Saturday, it will be the first time in history that the constitutional successor to the President will have such huge “pork” at her disposal. The proposed 2023 budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) — more than triple the P702 million received by the agency this year under former Vice President Leni Robredo — includes P500 million in confidential funds and P2.2 billion for “good governance engagements and social service projects.” At an online forum, Kabataan Rep. Raoul Danniel Manuel described Duterte’s allocation as a “vice presidential pork that we will not let slide.” Former ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio said it was the first time that any public official apart from the chief executive would be given such enormous funding. “This is unprecedented in our history. No public official, aside from the president, has been given a discretionary pork barrel this huge,” he said at the same forum. “This has to be scrutinized, and the Makabayan bloc is ready to make suggestions as to which programs will benefit more from these funds,” Tinio said. In a landmark ruling in 2013, the Supreme Court defined pork barrel as “lump-sum, discretionary funds primarily intended for local projects, and utilized through the respective participation of the legislative and executive branches of government, including its members.” The tribunal struck down all iterations of pork, including “all informal practices of similar import and effect, which the court similarly deems to be acts of grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction.” Reached for comment on the Makabayan bloc’s plan, OVP spokesperson Reynold Munsayac said the office would look into their concerns.
Pope Francis to beatify ‘Smiling’ John Paul I | INQUIRER.NET – Thousands of people are expected to gather in St Peter’s Square on Sunday as Pope Francis presides over the beatification of John Paul I, the so-called “Smiling Pope” who led the Catholic Church for just 33 days before dying in contested circumstances. John Paul I, the son of a bricklayer from the Dolomite mountains and a particularly warm and pastoral figure, was elected pope on August 26, 1978, at the age of 65. He died just 33 days later, on September 28, 1978, of a heart attack, making him the shortest serving pontiff in modern church history. His death sparked intense speculation as to the cause, from suicide — he seemed reluctant to take on the position of pope — to murder, allegedly by those who opposed his plans to reform the church, particularly the powerful Vatican bank. Many have since discounted this and biographer Christophe Henning said the swirling rumours can be explained by the sudden nature of his death and the “calamitous communication” by the Vatican at the time. No autopsy was conducted to determine the cause of death, and the Vatican issued inconsistent and false information about what happened. For example, his lifeless body — sitting in bed, his reading glasses on his nose and typewritten documents in his hand — was found by a nun. However, the Vatican did not want to acknowledge the presence of a woman in his bedroom, so said his secretary found him. “For me it does not seem that there is really a doubt” about his death by natural causes, particularly given “we know that he was in fragile health”, Henning told AFP. The Vatican announced in October 2021 that it had recognised a miracle attributed to John Paul I, allowing him to become beatified, a process when a person becomes “blessed” and the final step before becoming a saint. The miracle was the sudden healing of a gravely ill 11-year-old girl in Buenos Aires in 2011, after a local priest prayed to the late pontiff. Under the rules of the Catholic Church, in most cases a second miracle needs to be recognised before someone can be made a saint. Born on October 17, 1912, in the northern Italian town of Canale d’Agordo, John Paul I rose to become Patriarch of Venice, Cardinal and then head of the Catholic Church. The last Italian pope, he was seen as a man of consensus, of humility and simplicity and a strong sense of pastoral duty. “Open to dialogue and listening, he gave priority to pastoral visits and direct contact with the faithful,” the Vatican said in a beatification brochure. He defended the church’s opposition to abortion and contraception while also seeking to reform its governance. Sister Margherita Marin, who helped John Paul I in the papal apartments, recalled a man who was “friendly to everyone”. “He knew how to treat his colleagues with a lot of respect,” she told a Vatican press conference on Friday.
