News Roundup 04 August 2024
Aug 04, 2024 • 4 min Read
Philippines, Germany agree to broaden defense agreement | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines and Germany have agreed to deepen military cooperation, their defense ministers said on Sunday, as Manila pushes back after a series of confrontations with China.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and his Philippine counterpart Gilberto Teodoro met in Manila and pledged to sign a defense cooperation agreement by the end of the year.
Teodoro said the agreement would focus on “mutual understanding regarding capabilities, training (and) exchange of information”.
There have been escalating confrontations between Philippine and Chinese vessels in the disputed South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost entirely despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.
“We collaborate because we have a shared vision of respect for the United Nations Charter… and our desire to see a stable and peaceful Indo-Pacific,” Teodoro told a joint news conference with Pistorius in the Philippine capital.
They vowed to build “long-lasting relations” between their armed forces and flagged the possibility of Germany supplying military equipment to the Philippines.
Manila has been seeking to boost defence ties in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond in the face of China’s increasing confidence in asserting its claims over the South China Sea.
Pistorius is the first German defence minister to visit the Philippines.
Full Story at: Philippines, Germany agree to broaden defense agreement | Philstar.com
PCSO chief files defamation charges vs vlogger Maharlika | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) General Manager Mel Robles has filed defamation charges against vlogger Claire Contreras, also known as “Maharlika,” in a US court.
Robles stated that he and his wife filed charges of defamation, defamation per se and invasion of privacy against Contreras before the Central District Court of California. This action was taken due to what they described as a “daily barrage of vicious, unjustifiable, and blatantly false online attacks” on her YouTube channel “Boldyak TV.”
“For the longest time, we tried to keep our peace, fully aware that her accusations were nothing but sheer lies and fabrications—products of her vile imagination and hateful heart,” Robles said during a press conference in Quezon City on Sunday.
“We have now taken appropriate legal action against her. We have complete faith that the court of law will deliver the punishment she deserves, vindicating us and helping restore our tarnished name and honor,” he added.
Robles revealed that Contreras, who has 325,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel, made “untrue and outlandish” accusations against him, including allegations of “stealing money from the people, contract killing, and assisting terrorists” in over 20 separate videos.
Full Story at: PCSO chief files defamation charges vs vlogger Maharlika | Philstar.com
Carlos Yulo bags second gold medal, rules vault in Paris Olympics | INQUIRER.NET – The goal, for Team Philippines, was to better what was an astounding performance by the country in the Tokyo Olympics.
Carlos Yulo accomplished that all by himself.
Riding a strong first vault with a high difficulty score and then executing solidly in his second, Carlos Yulo won his second gold medal late Saturday evening after ruling the vault apparatus in the men’s artistic gymnastics competition of the Paris Olympics 2024.
It was Yulo’s second gold medal in the French capital, and that alone surpasses the Philippines’ Tokyo Olympics haul of one gold, two silvers and one bronze.
And with two boxers, Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas, already assured of bronze, the Philippines is guaranteed to fly home with its brightest Olympic showing in history.
Full Story at: Carlos Yulo bags second gold medal, rules vault in Paris Olympics (inquirer.net)
Police director finds ‘doctored’ police blotter in Davao City | INQUIRER.NET – DAVAO CITY — The misreporting of police blotters to sanitize Davao City’s real crime statistics was among the reasons for the reassignment of 19 police station commanders here, Police Brig. General Nicolas Torre III, director of Police Regional Office 11, said on Sunday.
Torre showed to reporters two books of police blotters that the blotter validation officer recovered from the Calinan police station shortly after he assumed office in June.
Both books of blotter, covering 2022 to 2023, appeared identical although some entries contained in the first book did not appear in the other.
Randomly skimming through the entries of one of the books, Torre read an entry on lost items last March 2, when a certain Jessica Galleros Jawa, 29, reported that her dark blue sling bag containing her wallet, debit card, and several IDs, was missing and believed to be stolen in Beep Plaza near Jollibee Calinan.
Instead of marking it as theft, the entry was reported only as a “lost item” and was marked “for recording purposes.”
“[They put there] ‘lost item,’ so that you don’t have to put that in the crime statistics pero kung binasa mo (but if you read it), it says, ‘it’s believed to be stolen inside Beep Plaza’ so, that’s theft. It’s not recorded so, peaceful pa rin ang Davao City. Dinoktor,” Torre said.
Full Story at: Police director finds ‘doctored’ police blotter in Davao City (inquirer.net)
