News Roundup 23 February 2024
Feb 23, 2024 • 4 min Read
Ex-VP Robredo open to running in 2025 elections — spokesperson | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — Former Vice President Leni Robredo remains open to running for a position in the 2025 elections alongside other candidates in the opposition slate, according to her spokesperson.
“She’s definitely thinking about it, and definitely ‘yung mga pahayag ng mga kaalyado tulad ni Sen. De Lima magiging konsiderasyon niya doon sa kanyang magiging desisyon for 2025 (definitely the statements of allies like Sen. De Lima will be considered in her decision for 2025),” lawyer Barry Gutierrez said in an interview with News5.
This comes after Liberal Party spokesperson and former senator Leila de Lima revealed in a forum by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) on Thursday that they are still in talks with Robredo’s camp about her plans for the 2025 elections.
During the FOCAP forum, De Lima said the Liberal Party will field three senatorial candidates as part of their opposition slate next year.
This includes former Sen. Francis Pangilinan, former Sen. Bam Aquino and human rights lawyer Chel Diokno.
Pangilinan is slated to be an official candidate of the LP, while Diokno and Aquino are not official LP members.
Robredo and Pangilinan ran for president and vice president, respectively, in the 2022 national elections. Both of them lost to current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte, who won by a landslide.
Full Story at: Ex-VP Robredo open to running in 2025 elections — spokesperson | Philstar.com
Teachers, academics join growing movement vs Charter change | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — A newly formed alliance of teachers and academics has branded the government’s Charter change campaign as a form of historical distortion, warning that efforts to tweak the fundamental law also aim to erase the memory of the years-long anti-Marcos struggle that birthed the country’s democratic cornerstone.
During a press conference on Friday, the Teachers, Education Workers, and Academics Against Charter Change (TEACH) described the Charter change campaign as an attempt to rewrite history and downplay the people’s struggle against authoritarian rule under the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., the president’s father.
The 1987 Constitution — a document widely regarded as the product of the anti-Marcos protests and a way to institutionalize checks on power — represents the “legacy of the fight against the Marcos dictatorship,” said Michael Pante, TEACH convenor.
“These unnecessary Chacha initiatives are a thinly veiled attempt at repudiating the spirit of EDSA to rehabilitate the Marcos name. This anti-Chacha campaign is part of our duty as teachers to preserve the memory of the anti-dictatorship struggle,” Pante said.
TEACH said in their unity statement that safeguarding the Charter from attempts to revise it will also safeguard the memory of people’s “anti-dictatorship struggle.”
Full Story at: Teachers, academics join growing movement vs Charter change | Philstar.com
PMA stand on medical marijuana bill ‘inaccurate,’ ‘unscientific’ – group | INQUIRER.NET – MANILA, Philippines — “Inaccurate” and “unscientific” were how advocates criticized the Philippine Medical Association’s (PMA) stand opposing the proposed law legalizing the medical use of cannabis.
Chuck Manansala, president of the Haraya Policy Center, disagreed with the PMA, which had said that the harmful effects of marijuana outweigh its supposed benefits.
“Its sweeping generalizations stand on inaccurate information and unscientific assumptions,” Manansala said in a statement.
On Feb. 7, the joint House committees on dangerous drugs and health approved an unnumbered substitute measure, which is a consolidation of 10 House bills that aims to make use of marijuana for medical use legal in the Philippines.
The bill seeks to create another bureaucratic layer, a Medical Cannabis Office under the Department of Health, to grant accreditation to doctors and other licenses for the medical use of marijuana.
However, the PMA, the umbrella group of nearly 100,000 physicians or a coalition of 21 medical organizations nationwide, asserted that the government has already put in place sufficient regulations for the compassionate use of marijuana. Hence, “there is no need for new legislation to access FDA [Food and Drug Administration] approved medical cannabis for specific indications.”
Full Story at: PMA stand on medical marijuana bill ‘unscientific’ – advocates (inquirer.net)
Gov’t forces, NPA rebels clash in Bohol town: 6 killed – military | INQUIRER.NET – (UPDATED: 12:30 p.m., February 23, 2024, to reflect the latest information from authorities.)
MANILA, Philippines — Five alleged communist rebels and a policeman were killed following a gun battle between government troops and suspected New People’s Army fighters in Bohol province’s Bilar town on Friday, the military said.
Army spokesperson Col. Louie Dema-ala told INQUIRER.net in a Viber message that the encounter in Sitio Matin-ao 2, Barangay Campagaoat, started at 6:45 a.m. It happened despite ongoing negotiations to resume peace between communist insurgents and the Philippine government.
Dema-ala said one of the five dead NPA members was identified as a certain Domingo Ompoc, allegedly the group’s Bohol Party Committee secretary.
The military official also said that another policeman was injured from the skirmish. He added that three high-powered and two low-powered firearms were recovered from the scene after the fighting.
Full Story at: Gov’t forces, NPA clash in Bohol town: 6 killed – military (inquirer.net)
