News Roundup 28 September 2024
Sep 28, 2024 • 6 min Read
China conducts air, sea patrols near Scarborough Shoal | PHILSTAR.COM – BEIJING, China — Chinese naval and air forces conducted patrols around Scarborough Shoal in the West Philippine Sea on Saturday, after a slew of tense encounters with countries including the Philippines in the disputed waterway in recent months.
Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea, brushing off rival claims of several Southeast Asian countries, the Philippines among them, and an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.
Its claims include the waters around Scarborough Shoal — which Beijing seized from Manila in 2012 — where the Chinese military’s Southern Theater Command said Saturday it had held air and sea patrols.
Patrols of the area are typically conducted by the China Coast Guard.
The triangular chain of reefs and rocks is 240 kilometers (150 miles) west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and nearly 900 kilometers from the nearest major Chinese land mass of Hainan.
Beijing said the training activities around the shoal included “reconnaissance, early warning, and air-sea patrols”.
“Certain countries outside the region are stirring up trouble in the South China Sea, creating instability in the region,” the Southern Theater Command said in a statement.
“China holds indisputable sovereignty over Huangyan Island and its adjacent waters,” it added, using the Chinese name for Scarborough Shoal.
Tensions between China and the Philippines have flared in the past few months during a series of confrontations in the waters also around the contested Second Thomas Shoal and Sabina Shoal.
Full Story at: China conducts air, sea patrols near Scarborough Shoal | Philstar.com
Detained Chinese ‘spy’ tags Alice Guo as asset | PHILSTAR.COM – Dismissed mayor pleads not guilty to trafficking raps
MANILA, Philippines — A self-confessed Chinese spy has linked detained former Bamban mayor Alice Guo to China’s civilian intelligence, security and secret police agency.
She Zhijiang, a tycoon currently detained in Thailand, spoke exclusively with Al Jazeera in a documentary titled “She Zhijiang: Discarded Chinese spy or criminal mastermind?”
In the documentary, She claimed that he was an agent of China’s Ministry of State Security and that he was recruited in 2016 by a man he met in the Philippines.
She, who is fighting extradition to China over charges related to operating online gambling sites, said the man promised to “get rid” of the case against him in exchange for being a spy for the Chinese government.
Through a custodian, She gave Al Jazeera access to some files that supposedly prove his claim of being a Chinese spy.
Among the documents was a dossier about Guo Hua Ping, the supposed Chinese name of Alice Guo.
The dossier listed China as Guo’s place of birth and also identified her mother as a certain Lin Wen Yi, the same Chinese woman that has been brought up during Senate hearings regarding Guo’s identity.
It also listed Guo’s supposed address in China, which Al Jazeera found to be the address of the local office of the Chinese communist party.
Al Jazeera also spoke with residents in Fujian, who claimed that they recognize Guo as the daughter of Lin Wen Yi. The resident supposedly confirmed that she was born in the area and only left around 2002.
In the documentary, She admitted talking to Guo using his handler’s mobile phone when Guo supposedly asked for financial assistance to support her campaign.
She said he declined the request so as not to “offend the Philippine government.”
He had a message for Guo: “China cannot be trusted. The two of us dedicated our lives to China’s Ministry of State Security. Look at what happened to me. If you don’t want to be eliminated, you should tell the world the truth.”
She was arrested by Thai authorities following a red notice list issued by the Interpol. It was based on an arrest warrant issued in China.
She claimed that China wanted to silence him due to the extent of his knowledge related to its intelligence and spying activities.
“I was exposed to secrets about Chinese state security and Belt and Road projects… They will definitely kill me if I’m sent back to China,” he said.
During Senate hearings, Guo has repeatedly denied being a Chinese citizen and a Chinese spy and maintained that she is a Filipino.
Full Story at: Detained Chinese ‘spy’ tags Alice Guo as asset | Philstar.com
Sen. Imee Marcos on 2025 reelection bid: ‘I choose to stand alone’ | INQUIRER.NET – MANILA, Philippines — Senator Imee Marcos thanked her brother, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr., for including her in the administration’s senatorial slate for 2025 elections, but said she “chose to stand alone” so her brother “will no longer be put in a difficult position.”
In a statement on Saturday, Marcos thanked the president for including her in the alliance and for coming to her defense “despite the anger and extreme cruelty of some.”
“Many thanks also to NP [Nacionalista Party] and to all my allies who continue to support me, may your trust remain with me,” she also said.
However, the senator said she “choose to remain free and loyal—not to any group, but to every Filipino.”
Full Story at: Sen. Imee Marcos on 2025 reelection bid: ‘I choose to stand alone’ (inquirer.net)
Duterte drug war targeted enemies, solons say in Barayuga case | INQUIRER.NET – MANILA, Philippines—Testimonies from an active police official about the killing of former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) board secretary Wesley Barayuga provide further evidence that the drug war was used by the previous administration against its enemies, according to former and current lawmakers.
At the seventh hearing of the House of Representatives’ quad committee on Friday, Lanao del Sur 1st District Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong noted similarities between Barayuga’s killing and the branding of former Iloilo City Mayor Jed Mabilog as an alleged narco-politician. Adiong said both instances were efforts to target opponents of the past administration.
“This is a pattern that happened, that the drug war of the previous administration was used to link personalities who may not be allies or may not agree with policies, like what happened to the former mayor of Iloilo City, Mabilog,” Adiong said. “I think the committee has to dig deeper into this because the case of the war on drugs, based on the testimony of our witnesses, was used not to run after big drug pushers.”
“But it was also made a way to justify those who are not necessarily part or a friend to that administration, use that as a way to link them to the issue of illegal drugs, they were victimized, not only for assassination but even use that as a political assassination,” he added.
Adiong’s statement followed testimony from Lt. Col. Santie Mendoza, an active police official, who implicated two former police colonels — National Police Commission (Napolcom) Commissioner Edilberto Leonardo and former PCSO general manager Royina Garma — in Barayuga’s killing, which occurred in July 2020.
Full Story at: Duterte drug war targeted enemies, solons say in Barayuga case (inquirer.net)
