News Roundup 05 May 2024
May 05, 2024 • 5 min Read
‘This charade must stop:’ DND denies backing ‘new model’ with China | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — The Department of National Defense has denied greenlighting a supposed “new model” between the Philippines and China as claimed by the Chinese Embassy on Saturday, describing the embassy’s statements as a “charade” that “must stop.”
In a statement on Sunday, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr. said that the DND was never a party to any deal struck between the Chinese embassy and the Philippine government that justifies the illegal presence of Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea.
“I would like to clearly state that any insinuation that the Department of National Defense is a party to any ‘new model’ is a devious machination of China through their Embassy in Manila, and it is curious that it comes right after their actions were condemned in the recent SQUAD meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii,” Teodoro said.
This comes after the Chinese Embassy claimed on Saturday that Beijing and Manila have come to a “consensus… to deescalate tensions in the South China Sea” through a new model approved by the Western Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
The Chinese Embassy said that the supposed “gentlemen’s agreement” or the “new model” was meant to be a confidence-building measure to avoid conflicts and had “nothing to do with each country’s sovereign positions.” However, the embassy did not state whether the agreement acknowledged the 2016 Hague ruling that favored the Philippines and invalidated China’s sweeping claims in nearly all of South China Sea.
The embassy said that the AFP WESCOM “made repeated confirmation that the ‘new model’ has been approved by all key officials in the Philippine chain of command,” including the DND secretary and the National Security Adviser.
Rebuffing China, Teodoro said that he had barred all contact between the DND and the Chinese Embassy since the courtesy call of Ambassador Huang Xilian since July 2023.
Full Story at: ‘This charade must stop:’ DND denies backing ‘new model’ with China | Philstar.com
COA: Remulla highest paid in Cabinet last year | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla took home the biggest paycheck among the Cabinet members of President Marcos in 2023, latest report of the Commission on Audit (COA) showed.
Based on the COA’s “2023 Report on Salaries and Allowances” or ROSA uploaded on its website on May 2, Remulla received a net pay of P7.08 million last year, his first full-year term in the Department of Justice (DOJ). This was an increase of P6.6 million or 1,283 percent from the P511,308.00 he received in 2022.
Though Remulla started his term as justice secretary in July 2022, the COA, in its 2022 ROSA, noted that he only received salaries and allowances for three months that year.
As for 2023, the COA’s breakdown showed that Remulla’s net pay was for 12 months as DOJ chief. This included P3.34 million in basic salary; P738,720 in allowances; P598,868 in bonuses, incentives and benefits; P354,000 in discretionary and extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses (EME); P24,000 in additional compensation and honorarium; plus P2.02 million from “prior year’s adjustment.”
Remulla took the top spot from Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno who was relegated to sixth place with a net pay of P4.94 million in 2023.
Full Story at: COA: Remulla highest paid in Cabinet last year | Philstar.com
China seen behind new WPS island-building | INQUIRER.NET – The piles of corals were a dead giveaway.
Filipino scientists on Saturday said there might be an ongoing artificial island-building in the waters close to Pag-asa in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) and a Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) official said they suspect the Chinese were behind it.
Also on Saturday, a Philippine maritime expert said the findings of the marine research team that surveyed the area could be used in another case to add to the arbitral tribunal ruling invalidating Beijing’s sweeping claims to the South China Sea.
Retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said former President Rodrigo Duterte waived the country’s sovereignty over Bajo de Masinloc [Panatag, or Scarborough, Shoal] in a “temporary special arrangement” with China in 2016, which was disclosed by the Chinese Embassy in Manila in a statement on May 2.
‘Degraded state’
Duterte also waived the right of poor Filipino fishermen to fish within the shoal’s lagoon, a traditional fishing ground recognized by the July 2016 arbitral award in the case brought by the Philippines to challenge China’s sweeping claims to nearly all of the South China Sea, he said in a statement on Saturday.
Under the alleged 2016 arrangement, Duterte also agreed to keep the Philippine Navy and the PCG from entering the waters within 22 kilometers (12 nautical miles) around the shoal and the airspace above, which is a virtual recognition that Panatag was Chinese territory.
Full Story at: China seen behind new WPS island-building (inquirer.net)
De Lima, 5 other PH women cited in fight for justice | INQUIRER.NET – In times when Filipino men fall silent and frozen in fear amid social injustice and repression, not a few Filipino women stand fearless to take up the cudgels for the nation. Six of them were given recognition for their dogged determination to fight for what is right in a recently launched anthology.
The book, “Six Filipino Women for Justice,” published by San Anselmo Press, tells us of the lives and courageous struggles of former Sen. Leila de Lima, former Vice President Leni Robredo, Rappler CEO and Nobel laureate Maria Ressa, Sen. Risa Hontiveros, former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, and activist nun and educator Sister Mary John Mananzan.
The book was planned after De Lima, one of the fiercest and most vocal critics of then President Rodrigo Duterte, was incarcerated in February 2017 on drug trafficking allegations.
In a letter to De Lima a year after her arrest, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas called her “the biggest symbol of what is wrong in our country.”
Full Story at: De Lima, 5 other PH women cited in fight for justice (inquirer.net)
