News Roundup 26 August 2023
Aug 26, 2023 • 4 min Read
Farmers remind FIBA spectators of alleged Marcos ill-gotten wealth | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — Peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) appealed to the international community to “always remember” the alleged ill-gotten wealth of the Marcos family.
This call comes as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. participated in the opening of the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup.
Last Friday, Marcos backed Gilas Pilipinas in their game against the Dominican Republic, which ended 87-81 in favor of the latter.
“PH President Bongbong Marcos Jr. had the ‘most steals.’ And by that, we mean the whooping ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses — almost $680M or P36B in several Swiss bank deposits. Bongbong Marcos Jr., his family and their cronies have stolen from the Filipino people,” said KMP in a statement released on Saturday.
“While there is an emerging pattern of local courts dismissing the ill-gotten wealth cases against the Marcos family and their cronies, we want the world to remember and never forget how the Marcoses looted the Philippine coffers.”
Full Story at: Farmers remind FIBA spectators of alleged Marcos ill-gotten wealth | Philstar.com
Vegetable prices spike; tomatoes at P170 a kilo | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — Retail prices of vegetables continue to increase a month after the devastation from Super Typhoon Egay and enhanced monsoon rains in many areas in the country.
Tomato prices have reached as high as P170 per kilo after a slump in prices in April due to oversupply, when costs went down to as low as P3 per kilo.
Based on the monitoring of the Department of Agriculture (DA), the retail prices of tomatoes ranged between P60 and P100 per kilo on July 20, prior to the destruction of Egay.
Egay entered the Philippine area of responsibility on July 21.
On April 2 the DA confirmed that the farmgate price of tomatoes dropped to P3 to P5 per kilo amid the oversupply, particularly in Regions 2 and 3.
Aside from tomatoes, retail prices of most vegetables also went up.
Based on the latest monitoring of the DA, the retail prices of cabbage reached as high as P180 per kilo compared to P150 per kilo a month ago; Baguio beans, P210 per kilo compared to previous level of P120 per kilo; potatoes, P150 per kilo compared to the previous price of P140; pechay Baguio, P180 per kilo compared to P140 per kilo; sayote, P110 per kilo, compared to the previous P70 per kilo; bitter gourd, P160 per kilo compared to 120; pechay Tagalog, P140 per kilo compared to P100 per kilo and eggplant, P140 per kilo, compared to previous P120 per kilo.
On the other hand, the retail prices of rice recorded an increase of P11 per kilo compared to its previous level on July 20.
Full Story at: Vegetable prices spike; tomatoes at P170 a kilo | Philstar.com
Critics slam new travel policy as added burden | INQUIRER.NET – Migrant workers, a human rights group and lawmakers on Friday pressed the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (Iacat) to scrap its revised guidelines for Filipinos leaving the country which they said violated the Constitution.
They said the stricter measures will be ineffective in stopping human trafficking, which the Iacat said was the purpose of the regulations.
“These guidelines are violative of the constitutional right to travel and the right to privacy,” said Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, a former immigration chief.
The new guidelines will be implemented on Sept. 3.
Rodriguez said the stricter rules and additional requirements, such as proof of a traveler’s financial capacity, are “unreasonable” and would cause inconvenience to Filipino travelers and subject them to harassment and extortion by corrupt immigration officers and other airport personnel.
Iacat is allowing Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers to “exercise subjective judgment, whims and discretion” on outbound passengers, he said.
Rodriguez pointed out that even if Iacat crafted the revised guidelines to curb human trafficking, it is “unreasonable and unjustifiable” to subject all Filipino travelers to stricter rules.
“They are proposing to burn the whole house down to kill or catch a rat,” he said.
Full Story at: Critics slam new travel policy as added burden | Inquirer News
Bishop’s plea to Senate: Probe cyberhacking of church website | INQUIRER.NET – KIDAPAWAN CITY — Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo of the Kidapawan Diocese is appealing to the Senate to investigate the massive hacking of web pages and personal social media accounts of priests and other government and academic institutions across the country.
The prelate said the Kidapawan diocese’s website and social media accounts of several religious personalities, including himself, in Cotabato were hacked on August 20 and were still unrecovered as of Saturday, August 26.
Bagaforo reported that a check on the transparency section of the Kidapawan diocese’s Facebook account on Saturday morning indicated that the page is being managed from Pakistan.
The Kidapawan diocese’s Facebook page has been a source of religious news and information as well as live novena and Holy Masses. The bishop said hackers had since used these to undertake unauthorized solicitation of financial assistance from parishioners and even personal friends of the prelate here and abroad.
Full Story at: Bishop’s plea to Senate: Probe cyberhacking of church website | Inquirer News
