News Roundup 29 September 2023
Sep 29, 2023 • 4 min Read
Philippines vows to remove future barriers at Scarborough Shoal | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Coast Guard vowed Friday to “do whatever it takes” to remove any more floating barriers installed by China at a disputed reef in the South China Sea.
The remarks came after an aerial inspection of Scarborough Shoal on Thursday confirmed a 300 meter (328-yard) barrier that ignited the latest diplomatic row between Beijing and Manila had been taken away.
AFP journalists were on board a Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources’ plane as it flew over the Chinese-controlled reef and saw access to its shallow waters unblocked.
The floating barrier was found across the entrance to the shoal last week during a routine Philippine government resupply mission to Filipino fishermen.
In a special operation ordered by President Ferdinand Marcos, Philippine Coast Guard personnel cut a rope tethering the barrier to an anchor, allowing it to drift.
“In the next coming months, if ever that barrier will once again be in place, the Philippine Coast Guard will do whatever it takes for us to remove the barrier,” coast guard spokesman for the West Philippine Sea Jay Tarriela told reporters, as he sat next to the anchor seized during the mission.
Full Story at: Philippines vows to remove future barriers at Scarborough Shoal | Philstar.com
Makabayan bloc vows to keep watch on final look of ‘railroaded’ 2024 budget | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — After an eleventh-hour assurance from ranking House lawmakers to realign Vice President Sara Duterte’s confidential funds, the Makabayan bloc has vowed to scrutinize whether this and other suggested amendments would make it into the actual proposed budget.
The minority lawmakers stressed that the expedited passage of the national budget in the lower chamber — which was passed on second and final reading on the same day — effectively eroded the transparency of the budget process.
During a press conference Friday, Rep. Raoul Manuel (Kabataan Partylist) said that the version of the budget bill that House approved on final reading had yet to contain the actual amendments proposed by House leaders regarding Duterte’s confidential funds.
“Even if (House leaders) said they would realign the confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President and the DEpartment of Education to agencies involved in defending the West Philippine Sea, to be honest, these are still just words,” Manuel said in Filipino.
“What the House approved is the exact same proposal transmitted by Malacanang without any changes,” Manuel said, adding that this was the reason the Makabayan lawmakers refused to vote for the measure.
Full Story at: Makabayan bloc vows to keep watch on final look of ‘railroaded’ 2024 budget | Philstar.com
BI: Mother, daughter nabbed for smuggling P76 million cocaine | INQUIRER.NET – MANILA, Philippines — A Singaporean mother-daughter duo smuggling illegal drugs was intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said on Friday.
According to the BI, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) arrested Siti Aishah Binte Awang and Nur Alaviyah Binte Hanaffe on September 27 for smuggling P76,108,000 worth of cocaine that totaled more or less 14,360 grams.
The BI said that six cookie tin cans and five cylindrical chip cans containing 564 pellets of cocaine were discovered in the suspects’ luggage.
Full Story at: BI: Mother, daughter nabbed for smuggling P76 million cocaine | Inquirer News
Twists and turns of justifying secret OVP funds find murky legal basis in budget law | INQUIRER.NET – “Transparency is the way to fight graft and corruption. Where there is sunlight, there are few microbes. Where there is darkness, there are more microbes.”
These words were from the late senator Raul Roco, who coined the term “sunshine principle” to give a name to his idea about fighting corruption.
This also seems to be the principle that is pushing many to question the allocation of so-called confidential funds to various government offices, among the most controversial of which are the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education.
Deemed unnecessary, the OVP’s P500 million confidential funds this year was met with criticisms, but who would have thought that in the last few days of 2022, it had P125 million in secret funds, too?
Last year, the OVP was given P739 million, and as pointed out by lawyer Barry Gutierez on X (formerly Twitter), former Vice President Leni Robredo left behind P409 million, or 55.38 percent, of the OVP budget, when she stepped down on June 30, the same day Vice President Sara Duterte took office.
Less than two months later, Duterte requested for P403.46 million more “to ensure continuous operations of the OVP” and, according to her letter to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), P250 million of the amount is confidential funds, or those that are kept from the public’s eyes.
After over three months, the DBM released P221.424 million to the OVP. At least P96.424 million was intended for financial assistance, while the rest, or P125 million, which became confidential funds spent in only 19 days, was released for the “Good Governance Program.”
Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo, vice chairperson of the House Committee on Appropriations, however, said at the plenary debates on the Commission on Audit proposed budget for 2024 that the P125 million was spent in just 11 days, according to a report by the agency.
Full Story at: Twists and turns of justifying secret OVP funds find murky legal basis in budget law | Inquirer News
