News Roundup 10 March 2023
Mar 10, 2023 • 4 min Read
Chinese security vessel orders Philippine plane carrying media to ‘leave’ | PHILSTAR.COM – OVER THE SPRATLY ISLANDS, Philippines — As a Philippine Coast Guard plane carrying journalists flew over the Spratly Islands in the hotly disputed South China Sea, a Chinese voice issued a stern command over the radio: “Leave immediately.”
The order came from a radio operator on a Chinese coast guard vessel 3,500 feet (1,066 metres) below — one of dozens of ships seen prowling the waters.
AFP was one of several media outlets given the rare opportunity on Thursday to fly over some of the dozens of tiny islands and reefs where the Philippines, China and several other nations have competing claims.
Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, including the Spratlys, ignoring an international ruling that its claims have no legal basis.
In the past decade, it has ripped up thousands of hectares of reef in the archipelago to create militarised islands with runways, ports and radar systems.
To assert its claims, hundreds of Chinese coast guard and maritime militia vessels patrol the waters, swarming reefs, harassing and attacking fishing and other boats.
Full Story at: Chinese security vessel orders Philippine plane carrying media to ‘leave’ | Philstar.com
Rep. Teves, tagged in Degamo slay, urged to return from travel, address allegations | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — House Speaker Martin Romualdez has called on Rep. Arnolfo Teves (Negros Oriental, 3rd District) to return to the Philippines after his travel clearance for a trip to the United States expired after March 9.
In a statement sent to reporters on Friday, Romualdez said that he advised Teves to “come back to the country as soon as possible.”
Romualdez said Teves’ travel authority for a personal trip has “expired effective today” and his continued stay outside the country is “no longer authorized by the House of Representatives.”
Teves was granted authority to travel to the United States from February 28 to March 9.
Full Story at: Rep. Teves, tagged in Degamo slay, urged to return from travel, address allegations | Philstar.com
Degamo slay planned since December | INQUIRER.NET – The plan to murder Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo was hatched as early as December last year, police investigators revealed Thursday.
In a press conference, Lt. Col. Gerard Ace Pelare, spokesperson for the Special Investigation Task Group Degamo, said one of the gunmen confessed that some of the 17 identified suspects gathered as early as December to study Degamo’s movements and their plan of attack.
“They were gathered, they were briefed in a particular place, in a safe house, so that when they have an opportune time, they will launch the attack,” he added, saying the hit men came from Visayas and Mindanao.
Degamo and eight others were gunned down by at least 12 men in military uniforms inside his family’s compound in Pamplona town on March 4 as he attended to his constituents. He and eight others later died while 16 others were injured.
Full Story at: Degamo slay planned since December | Inquirer News
Senate blue ribbon panel pressed to probe ‘more severe’ sugar fiasco | INQUIRER.NET – MANILA, Philippines — Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III has urged the chamber’s blue ribbon panel to probe a “more severe” sugar import mess hounding the Department of Agriculture (DA).
Compared to the sugar import fiasco that the DA and the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) was embroiled in August last year–which was likewise probed by the committee, Pimentel said the belated issuance of a sugar import order seemingly to justify the unauthorized entry of sugar shipments in the country holds heavier weight.
“Mas malala ito. It’s not only a lack of authority in issuing the sugar order. There is not even a sugar order and then, there are now some admin orders to release the sugar, which is not a sugar order. So maraming issues ito, sanga-sanga,” he told reporters in an online interview on Friday.
(This is more severe. It’s not only a lack of authority in issuing the order. There is not even a sugar order and then, there are now some admin orders to release the sugar, which is not a sugar order. So there are a lot of issues to unpack here.)
Pimentel pressed the DA and the Sugar Regulatory Administration, with President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. concurrently at the helm of both, to explain why the procedures were not followed.
Full Story at: Senate blue ribbon panel pressed to probe ‘more severe’ sugar fiasco | Inquirer News
