News Roundup 15 November 2021
Nov 15, 2021 • 4 min Read
No retirement after all: President Duterte runs for senator | PHILSTAR.COM – President Rodrigo Duterte will make a bid for senator, revealing his candidacy at the last hour on Monday after saying just a month prior that he plans to retire from politics when his term ends. Duterte is substituting Mona Liza Visorde who withdrew her candidacy under the Pederalismo ng Dugong Dakilang Samahan party just moments prior. Duterte earlier said that he would not seek the vice presidency due to seeming opposition to it in surveys. Duterte’s long-time aide, Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go, originally filed to run as the administration PDP-Laban party’s vice-presidential bet but withdrew his candidacy on Saturday to substitute Grepor Belgica, who backed out as standard-bearer of PDDS. PDP-Laban is now without a standard-bearer and a vice president, following the withdrawal of candidacies of both Go and its chosen presidential bet Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa.
Pharmally’s Dargani siblings detained at Senate after Davao arrest | PHILSTAR.COM – Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. executives Mohit and Twinkle Dargani are now detained at the Senate and will remain there until they hand over key documents related to the firm’s government deals to the blue ribbon panel that cited them in contempt. The siblings were apprehended by Senate security in Davao City on Sunday afternoon as they were trying to flee “via an executive privately chartered flight to Malaysia,” reeelectionist Sen. Richard Gordon, blue ribbon chairman, said in a statement. He added that the Senate sergeant-at-arms team was “acting on a tip we received from a concerned citizen.” Gordon said Senate President Vicente Sotto III arranged for a private plane to fly the siblings back to Manila later that evening. The Darganis were able to speak to their lawyer on Sunday night, retired Gen. Rene Samonte — Senate sergeant-at-arms — told Philstar.com.”And the lawyer just asked to visit today, which is allowed within their rights of visitation.”
Who controls who? Parlade says Bong Go ‘controls’ decisions of President Duterte | INQUIRER.NET – Presidential aspirant and former counterinsurgency task force spokesperson retired Lt. Get Antonio Parlade Jr. claims that fellow aspirant Sen. Bong Go “controls the decision” of President Rodrigo Duterte. While he said he has no rift with Go, Parlade told reporters at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday that “I cannot align with (a) President Bong Go. I am sorry, kasama siya sa problema ng bayan natin (He’s part of the problem of our country).” “Wala akong rift kay Senator Bong Go. I don’t like the way he does things, including controlling the decisions of the president,” he said. Asked to cite an instance where Go controlled the decision of Duterte, Parlade said: “Ang dami. (There are many instances.) I don’t want to elaborate on that. You ask the AFP, you ask the Philippine Army,” Parlade said.
Drilon, Imee worried about budget cuts at DOST, nutrition and science high schools | Manila Bulletin – Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon on Monday, Nov. 15 expressed concern over the reduction made by Malacañang and the House of Representatives in the proposed 2022 budget of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and its attached agencies. In his interpellation during the hybrid marathon session today, Drilon asked why the DOST budget was reduced by P1.12 billion from P24.916 billion in 2021 to P23.793 billion for next year. He said the reductions were from agencies involved in research and development. “This is a little bit worrisome. I would like to suggest to the good vice chairman of the finance committee (Senator Joel Villanueva) to give this a good review and if merited, we should restore it (budget). We appeal to our colleagues to take a good look at the budget of this whole agency,” Drilon said. Drilon pointed out that the National Task Force to End Local Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) has a budget of P28 billion which is higher than what was allotted to DOST. There is still no definite Senate decision whether or not the reduction of NTF-ELCAC budget to P4 billion will not be changed as the Senate budget debate on the proposed 2022 P5 trillion national budget ends Friday. In a related development, Senator Imee Marcos, chairwoman of the Senate economic affairs committee, also cited the reduction made in the proposed budgets of the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) and the Philippine Science High School (PSHS).
