News Roundup 22 August 2022
Aug 22, 2022 • 6 min Read
What the Philippines can learn from China’s reaction to Pelosi’s Taiwan visit | PHILSTAR.COM – After seeing how China reacted to visits to Taiwan by US officials over the past weeks, analysts point out that the Philippines should prepare to build its capacity and form strategic alliances to defend its territories. Professor Herman Kraft, political science department chair at the University of the Philippines, noted that China’s playbook “is based on gray zones and short-term gains that [change] conditions on the ground in preparation for the next short-term objective.” “Our lesson here should be to be more active [in] matching the Chinese presence, and asserting our own positions,” Kraft said. “Ceding ground to China by claiming that we are not capable of winning a war against them falls into the trap of looking at the issue from the Chinese perspective.” Beijing conducted its biggest-ever military exercises around Taiwan after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the self-governing island earlier this month. China had warned that her visit “seriously harms” its territorial integrity and said there would be consequences for Washington. Pelosi was the highest-ranked elected US official to visit Taiwan in over two decades as Washington recently has been trying to build a strategic partnership with the democratic island. Both the United States and the Philippines maintain a “One China” policy, which recognizes only one Chinese government. However, Beijing said Pelosi’s recent visit sends a wrong signal to separatist forces. Stratbase-ADR Institute president Victor Andres Manhit said Manila could learn from how China “will continue their aggressive behavior on what they define as their territory.” “Their playbook is based on the idea of projecting strength without firing bullets so that means they will always project that they can bully you and we need to accept that as the game that China is playing in the region,” Manhit said.
Fact check: SC voided military tribunal’s conviction of civilian Ninoy Aquino | PHILSTAR.COM – Social media chatter painting former Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. as a convicted criminal who therefore supposedly deserved death came on the national holiday commemorating his assassination. CLAIM: Former Sen. Ninoy Aquino Jr. was a convicted criminal and his assassination at the then-Manila International Airport, later renamed to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, was simply the government’s implementation of his death sentence. RATING: This is false. FACTS: While a military tribunal declared Aquino a criminal, the Supreme Court has said that a military commission does not have the jurisdiction to do so in the presence of functioning courts, thereby rendering the supposed conviction null and void. Pro-administration Facebook accounts — mostly unnamed and faceless profiles claiming to represent pro-government groups — came out with the new narrative on Ninoy Aquino Day. “From the vantage point of the Establishment during that time, it was just punishment for any interloper,” Facebook accout TPL3, which has over 16,000 followers, said in a post. “Especially, when the said interloper was already tried and convicted for the crimes involving murder, illegal possession of firearms, and treason and was actually sentenced to die by musketry in the first place. So, Ninoy getting shot on the tarmac that day saved the Government bullets, that the firing squad would have used on him had they been the one to carry out his sentence.” Another Facebook page claiming to be the Malaysia chapter of the Partido Federal Ng Pilipinas International Affairs, supposedly made up of overseas Filipino workers supportive of Marcos, cited a 1977 article by the Washington Post and amplified the claim that Aquino was convicted by a military tribunal in Manila of charges of subversion, murder and illegal possession of firearms. Facebook user “Cocky Rocky,” whose page has 37,000 followers, pointed out that the Plaza Miranda bombing’s 51st year and Ninoy’s 39th death anniversary are commemorated concurrently as he called them “two of the most dastardly political plots to incriminate President Marcos.” “As the historical distortionists celebrate a convicted criminal tomorrow, let us all keep in mind that Marcos was exonerated of the bombing,” he wrote. During the bloody Martial Law regime of the ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., Aquino, a vocal critic of the Marcos administration, was imprisoned for about eight years. In the eyes of the state, Aquino was indeed convicted: Once the writ of habeas corpus was suspended, he was among the first people arrested on charges of subversion, illegal possession of firearms, and murder. Prosecutors with the military tribunal claimed that he was a ranking member of the communist party, accusing him of funding communist rebels and subversives, and organizing violent anti-government demonstrations. On November 25, 1977, the tribunal came out with its decision: Aquino, 44 at the time, was supposedly guilty of those charges and was sentenced to death by firing squad. But the Supreme Court years later overturned that conviction, pointed out, as Aquino himself did, that a military tribunal created by the dictator Marcos could not legally try him. In G.R. No. L-54558 May 22, 1987, the Supreme Court called it a “fundamental question of whether or not a military tribunal has the jurisdiction to try civilians while the civil courts are open and functioning.” It agreed with the view that “military commissions or tribunals have no jurisdiction to try civilians for alleged offenses when the civil courts are open and functioning.” The High Court also said that the then-president and dictator “denied to Aquino the very self-same right to due process and judicial process” that he invoked in claiming himself President of the Philippines.
‘Florita’ maintains strength, six more areas now under Signal No. 2 | INQUIRER.NET – Tropical Storm “Florita” maintained its strength as it moved westward, placing six more areas under Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal No. 2, said the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa). According to Pagasa in its latest tropical cyclone bulletin, Florita was last located 155 kilometers (kms) east of Casiguran, Aurora with maximum sustained winds of 75 kms per hour (kph) and gustiness of up to 90 kph. Pagasa said Florita was moving west-southwestward at 15 kph and may likely make a landfall in the vicinity of east coast of Isabela or east coast of Cagayan on Tuesday morning. “Florita may further intensify into a severe tropical storm prior to its landfall,” said Pagasa. Because of this, heavy to intense rains with at times torrential rains, will prevail on Tuesday over Cagayan, Isabela, Batanes, Cordillera Administrative Region, as well as Ilocos Region. Meanwhile, moderate to heavy with at times intense rains will prevail over Aurora, Zambales, and Batanes. On the other hand, light to moderate with heavy rains will be experienced over Southern Luzon and Western Visayas.
