News Roundup 28 November 2022
Nov 28, 2022 • 4 min Read
Pastors, lay leader accused of being rebels seek Supreme Court protection | PHILSTAR.COM – Two pastors and a lay leader of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines are asking the Supreme Court for protection, saying they fear for their life after troops of the 59th Infantry Battalion in Quezon and Batangas labeled them as supporters of communist rebels. Pastors Edwin and Julieta Egar and lay leader Ronald Ramos said officers and enlisted men of the 59th IB have accused them “despite the utter lack of evidence, to be giving aid to communist insurgents” for their work with marginalized communities in the southern Tagalog region. “Now, the Petitioners are living in fear wondering whether tomorrow will be their last,” petitioners, who said they have been subjected to military surveillance and have been receiving threatening text messages, said. “They have also yet to be able to return to their homes for fear that instead of presiding in a safe haven, they would be endangering themselves more by being open targets for the Respondents officers and enlisted personnel of the 59th IB.” In a 62-page petition, Ramos and Edgar Egar recounted how they were approached on October 31 by men who were introduced as personnel of the 59th IB. Petitioners said the men accused them of being members of the New People’s Army and tried to convince them to surrender to the government. Another attempt to convince them to surrender was made on November 1. Ramos said he also received text messages “telling him…that there was a malicious plan to plant evidence in his house to make it appear that he possessed firearms and explosives.” He said he was also told that there was a plan to kill him in a staged shootout. In the same petition, Julieta Egar said she had noticed strange men following her, including one who, on November 19 “kept on following her, and when she alighted at Alupay, the man even pretended to be selling buko pie.” “She asked around, and was told that nobody knew that man, that he is not usually there; and that nobody really sold buko pie in that location,” the petition also reads. Listed as respondents in the petition for Writ of Amparo are 59th IB commander Lt. Col. Ernesto Teneza Jr. and enlisted men of the batallion. Also named respondents were Lt. Gen. Bartolome Bacarro — armed forces chief — and Lt. Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. — commanding general of the Philippine Army — as well as Maj. Gen. Roberto Capulong.
Ninoy’s grandchildren: Fight vs disinformation starts with us | INQUIRER.NET – Marking the 90th birthday of the late former Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. on Sunday, the grandchildren of the martyred opposition leader said the fight against historical disinformation begins with them. Speaking on behalf of the family for the occasion, Francis Joseph “Kiko” Aquino Dee, one of Aquino’s eight grandchildren, said the first step in fighting disinformation was to admit their own “ignorance” about their grandfather’s role in history. Dee, whose mother is Victoria Elisa “Viel” Aquino-Dee, one of five children of the late senator and the late President Corazon “Cory” Aquino, said the family has made a project of sorting out “boxes upon boxes” of Ninoy’s personal effects from which they learned historical lessons. He said none of the grandchildren got to know Ninoy personally and learned about him only from stories of their parents, grandmother and uncle, the late President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, as well as from their teachers, public historians and the internet. “This is why days like Lolo Ninoy’s birthday and death anniversary can sometimes make me feel insecure: I’m his grandson, but there’s still so much I don’t know about him,” Dee said in a video posted on the social media account of the Ninoy and Cory Aquino Foundation. Ninoy’s assassination on Aug. 21, 1983, on the tarmac of the country’s main international airport, which was thereafter renamed after him, ultimately led to the downfall without bloodshed of the 20-year rule of his rival, Ferdinand Marcos, in February 1986. “This past year, people have been asking our family what the plan is to fight the disinformation about Lolo Ninoy, Lola Cory, Tito Noy, and our country’s shared story of democracy,” Dee said.
Oil firms roll back diesel, gasoline, kerosene prices | INQUIRER.NET – Pump prices of diesel will go down by P3.95 per liter starting Tuesday, Nov. 29, while those of kerosene and gasoline were slashed by P2.65 and P0.85 per liter, respectively. Local oil firms on Monday announced the following price adjustments for fuel products to be implemented starting Nov. 29:
Shell (6 a.m.)
Gasoline: -P0.85 per liter
Diesel: -P3.95 per liter
Kerosene: -P2.65 per liter
Petrogazz (6 a.m.)
Gasoline: -P0.85 per liter
Diesel: -P3.95 per liter
Cleanfuel (12:01 a.m.)
Gasoline: -P0.85 per liter
Diesel: -P3.95 per literThe price adjustments were based on the monitoring of the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) from Nov. 21 to 24. MOPS, the daily average of all trading transactions of petroleum products in the Singapore trading hub, serves as the benchmark used in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, in pricing fuel products.
