News Roundup 19 May 2021
May 19, 2021 • 4 min Read
Coronavirus cases in the Philippines climb to 1,159,071 | PHILSTAR.COM – The Department of Health on Wednesday recorded 4,700 additional COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 1,159,071.
- Active cases: 49,951 or 4.3% of the total
- Recoveries: 6,986, pushing total to 1,089,613
- Deaths: 136, bringing total to 19,507
Batangas court junks rap vs sari-sari store owner Asinas, earlier tagged as NPA intel chief | PHILSTAR.COM – A Batangas court has ordered the release of sari-sari store owner Lamberto Asinas, earlier tagged as an intelligence chief of the New People’s Army, as it quashed the search warrant, obtained “based on deliberate falsehood by police,” that led to his arrest in 2020. Batangas Regional Trial Court Branch 14 Presiding Judge Wilhelmina Go-Santiago granted the motion filed by Asinas’ counsels from the Public Interest Law Center asking it to quash the search warrant issued by a Laguna court, to suppress evidence and to declare seized items as illegal. “The jail warden of the Batangas Provincial Jail, Cuta, Batangas City is hereby directed to immediately release Lamberto Asinas from detention unless his further detention is warranted by some other lawful cause/s,” the ruling read. The Batangas court held: “There is no probable cause for the issuance of the subject search warrant due to the deliberate falsehood committed by applicant police officer and their alleged informant.” In resolving the motion to quash, the Batangas court said it found discrepancies in the testimony of Police Senior Master Sergeant Mediaviolo Alcantara, who applied for the search warrant. Witness Jojo Castillo also had no personal knowledge about the alleged possession of loose firearms of accused Asinas’ lawyers also raised that a barangay clearance form Brgy. Bunducan stated that Castillo is not a resident of the area, which was also backed by testimonies of the sitio. The court stressed Castillo’s allegation that he lives in Sitio Alas as near the house of the accused is crucial in the application, as it is through this that the applicant was able to establish probable cause for the issuance of the search warrant. “Without this crucial fact, that Castillo lives near the house of Asinas, that the whole case of the application for the issuance of the search warrant would have no factual basis to stand on,” it added. The court also said that while the police’s surveillance operation and the barangay performing their duty enjoy presumption of regularity, both can be controverted as did the barangay certificate and testimony from residents.
Trillanes: Duterte ‘weaving tales’ to mask ‘incompetence’ in stopping China’s incursions | INQUIRER.NET – President Rodrigo Duterte is “weaving tales” against the administration of Benigno Aquino III to mask “his incompetence” in stopping China’s incursions in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV said on Tuesday. Trillanes also slammed the claims made by former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile on Monday night at the Palace that questioned his back-channeling with China that supposedly led to the Philippines’ “losing ground” in Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal. Enrile had been invited to give his views on the matter, apparently as part of Malacañang’s efforts to counter criticism that the President is being soft on China. “[The President] tries to come up with this version of a story because he wants to divert [attention from] his incompetence for his failure to stop the occupation of areas in the [WPS],” Trillanes said. According to Trillanes, he was tasked by then President Aquino to do backdoor talks with China after the latter’s first choice, then Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, begged off for lack of time.
“As a former soldier, and this is the President giving me the mission, I obliged. The bottomline is that this task required the full trust of the principal, that the designated messenger will perform faithfully and protect the interests of the country,” he said.
Opposition senators call for withdrawal of Executive Order lowering tariff on rice imports | Manila Bulletin – Opposition senators led by Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon on Wednesday asked Malacañang to withdraw Executive Order 135 lowering tariff on rice imports from 40 and 50 percent to 35 percent. In Senate Resolution 726, the five lawmakers said there is “no reasonable and sufficient basis to reduce the tariff rates on rice and it will only cause more burden to our local rice farmers, further increase our import dependency, and cost the government millions in foregone revenues.” Aside from Drilon, the four other senators are Nancy Binay, Leila De Lima, Risa Hontiveros and Francis ‘’Kiko’’ Pangilinan, president of the 75-year-old Liberal Party (LP). They cited farmers’ groups, the Tariff Commission, and the Philippine Statistics Authority’s reports as bases for their resolution. The Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) questioned the basis of lowering tariffs on rice mainly because Agriculture Secretary William Dar had previously stated that there is an ample supply of rice in the Philippines following a record harvest in 2020. The FFF also said that the Philippines has been consistently importing from nine other countries, including the so-called most favored nations (MFN) of India and Pakistan, and more recently, China. Aside from dependence on importation, the government can lose a significant amount of revenue with lowering rice tariffs.
