News Roundup 12 May 2022
May 12, 2022 • 6 min Read
Robredo to attend Jillian’s graduation in New York; eyes auction to raise funds for projects | INQUIRER.NET – Vice President Leni Rorbedo will be heading to New York this weekend to attend her daughter Jillian’s graduation. “Magpapaalam po ako sa inyo kasi paalis ako this weekend, pupunta po ako sa graduation ni Jillian,” Robredo said before she ended her first Facebook live stream since the release of the partial and unofficial count of the Commission on Elections (Comelec). Jillian is pursuing a biomolecular science degree at New York University under a full scholarship. Robredo said she will be “gone for about a week.” “Time off with my girls,” she added. “Pagbalik ko… kasama niyo ulit ako, ang term ko naman ends June 30, so nagra-wrap up lang kami ng mga campaign stuff, OVP stuff,” Robredo added. During the livestream, which lasted for one and half hours, Robredo can be seen in a room overflowing with gifts she received during her campaign rallies. She said she could not manage to keep all of them, given her lack of space in her residence. She then broached the idea of gifting them back to campaign volunteers as a “souvenir” or auctioning some of them off to raise funds for projects. Her livestream came two days after she assured Filipinos that she would accept whatever would be the final results of the 2022 presidential race. She had also urged her supporters to do the same. Robredo said this during a thanksgiving Mass in Naga City on Tuesday, her first public appearance since the start of the counting of partial and unofficial results of the May 9 polls, which showed her chief rival former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. leading the presidential race.
Duterte says he wants to kill 3 or 5 drug lords before stepping down | INQUIRER.NET – President Rodrigo Duterte said he wants to kill three or five drug lords before he steps down from office in June. Duterte, known for his administration’s bloody war against drugs, reiterated that his successor should continue the program. “Siguro bago ako mag-alis makatapos lang tayo ng mga tatlo o limang drug lords. Gusto ko patayin. Ayoko ng buhay,” he said during his taped address to the nation aired Thursday. (Before I leave, let’s finish three or five drug lords. I want to kill them. I do not want them alive.) He urged government workers to fight those involved in illegal drugs. “We, I would tell my co-workers in government, we have to gamble. We have to fight them at kung mag-fight man tayo, patayin na lang ninyo (and when we fight, just kill them),” said Duterte. Duterte likewise said that he will not apologize for the drug crackdown, saying “it has to be a war.” Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency data showed that as of February 28, a total of 6,235 individuals have been killed in the war against illegal drugs.
Review of De Lima cases a good first step for new admin, analyst says | PHILSTAR.COM – A review of cases against Sen. Leila de Lima in light of withdrawn testimony on her alleged involvement in the drug trade would be a good step forward for the next administration, which will likely be led by presumptive president Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., a political analyst said. De Lima has been detained at Camp Crame for five years over drug cases she has insisted are made up and motivated by politics. One of the prosecution witnesses in a case against her has recanted earlier testimony. “I was wondering if… the new administration can take on and start to review and kung talagang wala namang basehan, malaking ano iyon, magandang goodwill iyon (if there’s no basis for the allegations, it’s a show of goodwill),” UP Political Science professor Jean Encinas Franco said in an interview with OneNews.PH on Wednesday evening. She added that reviewing the outgoing senator’s case would be a “step forward” for Marcos, Jr., who is leading in the presidential race with a wide margin of 31.10 million votes against second-placer Vice President Leni Robredo who was 14.82 million votes. Late last month, convicted drug lord Kerwin Espinosa retracted statements made against De Lima at Senate hearings in 2016. In a counter-affidavit, he claimed he was “only coerced, pressured, intimated, and seriously threatened by the police” into doing so. Prosecutor General Benedicto Malcontento earlier said Espinosa’s recantation will have no effect on their case against De Lima since he is not a prosecution witness. Shortly after, former Bureau of Corrections Officer-in-charge Rafael Ragos, also the Justice department’s star witnesses in one case against De Lima, recanted allegations that he delivered money to the lawmaker, claiming that he was threatened with detention if he did not execute affidavits implicating De Lima and her former aide Ronnie Dayan.
Hontiveros on future of opposition: We have to survive; we intend to stay | PHILSTAR.COM – Sen. Risa Hontiveros, the lone opposition candidate likely to be elected to the Senate, said on Thursday that the minority bloc at the Senate must survive, noting that their presence is a crucial part of a working democracy. Re-electionist Hontiveros, who has the backing of opposition coalition 1Sambayan, entered the lower end of the so-called “Magic 12”, with 15.27 million votes, based on partial results from the Comelec Transparency Server. “We have to survive. Hindi yan gusto lang namin. (It’s not just because we want to) It’s a fundamental requirement of a working democracy,” she said in an interview with ANC’s “Rundown” on Thursday, after she was asked about the future of the opposition. She explained that the opposition is there to air its disagreements with the administration, and represent the voice of citizens. She added that they have always strived to contribute their fair share to the policies and programs benefitting Filipinos. “Long game ang pagbubuo ng ating bansa. Long game yung pagmamature ng ating heavily-contested democracy. And [as] the opposition, we intend to stay in this long and very serious game,” Hontiveros said. The term “contested democracy”, she said, came from her colleague and political activist Nathan Quimpo. (Nation-building is a long game. Maturing our heavily-contested democracy is a long game. And as the opposition, we intend to stay in this long and very serious game.) If the final tally reflects the partial results, she will be surrounded by allies of President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration as well as by bets endorsed by the “UniTeam” slate of presumptive president Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr., and likely vice president Sara Duterte-Carpio. Congress is meant to be a check on the executive but a supermajority of administration allies in both houses meant little debate on President Rodrigo Duterte’s favored policies and legislation. Under the Duterte administration, the Senate majority dwindled to four members, one of whom was in detention.
