Maniolas

Former Senator Panfilo Lacson’s list of personalities allegedly involved in the pork barrel scam may be incomplete, according to the lawyer of alleged scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles. In an interview Friday, lawyer Bruce Rivera said they are not worried that other individuals are claiming to have copies of the list that Napoles prepared. “At the end of the day, our list is what matters,” he told GMA News Online, adding they will release their list at the right time. “Ilabas nila kung may listahan sila. Pero kami we will wait for the announcement [from the government]. We cannot be bamboozled into releasing the list just because they say they have copies too,” he said. Rivera confirmed that Napoles’ husband Jaime had given Lacson a copy of the list. “Kung kakaunting pangalan ang nandoon tapos ilalabas nila, eh di nakakapagtaka iyon, ‘di ba?” he said. Another personality who claimed to have a copy of the list is Sandra Cam, who heads the Whistleblowers Association of the Philippines. “Not a sack race” Rivera lamented how other individuals meddling in the issue seemed to be “competing” with them in releasing the list to the public. “Hindi ito paunahan. Hindi unahan na parang sack race. Maglabas sila, okay lang sa amin,” he said. Rivera confirmed that Napoles, whom he was about to meet, has already finished preparing her sworn statement, including a supplemental one. “Tapos na ang affidavit. Pero pupunta na lang ako doon para ma-interview siya on some specifics,” he said without elaborating. Read More …

Despite a growing clamor for her to divulge Janet Lim-Nqpoles’ revelations about the P10-billion pork barrel fund scam, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima’s lips will remain sealed. “I won’t bow down to pressure from anyone or any group (challenging) that I make Napoles’ list public at this point,” De Lima told reporters in Manila on Friday. Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Francis Escudero, among other lawmakers, have already appealed for the release of Napoles’ supposed list of individuals involved in the multi-billion-peso controversy, that reportedly included Sen. Gringo Honasan as well as eight former and incumbent congressmen. Groups such as the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan have likewise posed the same challenge to De Lima to reveal the manes of persons on the list. Former Senator Panfilo Lacson earlier revealed that he, too, allegedly has a copy of Napoles’ list that was supposedly handed to him by the businesswoman’s husband, Jaime. Lacson claimed more than 100 people have been implicated. Like De Lima, Lacson had ignored calls to make public his copy of the list. Even Sandra Cam, president of the Whistlblowers Association of the Philippines, claims to be in possession of Napoles’ list, which she claimed included 16 senators, two Cabinet officials, and around 80 lawmakers from the House of Representatives. Cam warned De Lima she would reveal the contents of Napoles’ list if the Justice secretary would attempt to “sanitize” the list to exclude administration allies. On Friday, De Lima cast doubts on the authenticity of the supposed lists in Read More …

The government denied on Friday that it was unjustly restricting the access of the National Democratic Front to their leaders being detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center inside Camp Crame in Quezon City. In a statement, the government peace panel branded as “false” the assertion of Randall Echanis and Rafael Baylosis of the NDF that they were denied access to Communist Party of the Philippines leaders Benito and Wilma Tiamzon without explanation. It explained that the PNP duty officer on the day of the incident, April 13, told the two visitors that as a matter of standard operating procedure, they need at least one week to process visit requests. But it said Enchanis and Baylosis handed their request letter only on the said date and the PNP had to “regretfully” inform the two that their request cannot be granted. It said the two were then advised to reschedule their visit. “While visits are given the highest priority for immediate relatives, counsels, or their doctors, all others who do not fall under these categories have to undergo the usual scrutiny and process, which require an application submitted days in advance,” it said. And with the “distorted” information being disseminated by the NDF, the government panel said it is “constrained” from making its “usual ready endorsement” to the PNP relative to their request made through NDF Monitoring Committee for Human Rights secretariat head Issa Dumanjug Palo, for a rescheduled visit to the Tiamzons. Last March, authorities arrested the Tiamzons for Read More …

Passengers walk past a thermal scanner at the medical quarantine area at the arrival section of Manila’s International Airport in Paranaque, south of Manila, Philippines on Wednesday, April 16, 2014. AP FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines—Only four passengers from the Etihad Airlines flight carrying the Filipino nurse initially diagnosed with the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus (MERS-CoV) have yet to be contacted by the government, according to the Department of Health (DOH). “We’re now locating only four passengers,” Dr. Lyndon Lee Suy, manager of the DOH emerging infectious diseases program told a news briefing yesterday. The effort to keep the country free from MERS-CoV has so far cost the government more than P2 million, Suy said. But the amount is small considering the economic costs that would be incurred if a positive MERS-CoV case enters the country, he said. “We have thousands of OFWs coming home every day. We have to be vigilant always,” he said. The DOH and Task Force MERS-COV have been conducting contact tracing of all the 414 passengers on board the Etihad Airlines flight that carried the Filipino nurse initially diagnosed with MERS-CoV. Negative for virus The nurse tested positive for MERS-CoV while still in the United Arab Emirates. But two further tests done by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) here later found him negative for the virus. According to Lee Suy, the government has so far spent P2.07 million to test all the passengers of Etihad Flight 424, which arrived in Manila Read More …

By Norman BordadoraPhilippine Daily Inquirer 5:45 am | Friday, April 25th, 2014 MANILA, Philippines—Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano hopes US President Barack Obama will categorically state that the United States will defend the Philippines if it is attacked by China over disputed islands in the West Philippine Sea. In an interview with Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper ahead of his departure for a four-nation tour of the Asia-Pacific region that began on Wednesday, Obama said the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, being administered by Japan, fell within the scope of the US-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security, and an attack by China on Japan over those islands would invite a reaction from the United States. Speaking at a news forum on Thursday, Cayetano said he hoped Obama, whose tour of the region also takes in the Philippines, would categorically state that the United States is likewise obligated under its Mutual Defense Treaty with the Philippines. “In the case of Japan, they made it very clear that these islands are covered by the defense treaty. So that’s what the Philippines wants and that’s what the Filipinos need, I think, at this point in time—a very clear statement from the United States through their president saying that these islands, this area, is Philippine territory,” Cayetano said, referring to Panatag Shoal (Scarborough Shoal), Ayungin Shoal (Second Thomas Shoal) and other islands in the Spratly archipelago in the West Philippine Sea, the part of the South China Sea within the Philippines’ 327-kilometer Read More …