Sharing with media the Pastor’s hurt feeling, Quiboloy’s spokesperson, Mike Abe, said the last face-to-face meeting of the two was at 3 a.m. of May 10, several hours after it became certain that Duterte had won the May 9 election. Duterte was interviewed at Quiboloy’s Sunshine Media Network International.
Abe said the two even shared a hug, before the winning presidential candidate left.
After that, Abe said Duterte has become inaccessible to the Pastor anymore.
By all means, Duterte should order a probe.
The term “lost Scarborough shoal” is debatable. Security officials deny that. Foreign affairs officials will not say that because that would be detrimental to the claim of the Philippines on the shoal which is included in the case filed by the Philippines against China before the Arbitral Court.
The reality, however, is that Filipino fishermen are denied access to the area around the shoal by three Chinese ships stationed there since June 2012.
How that situation came to be started on April 10, 2012 when BRP Gregorio del Pilar arrested eight Chinese boats with sizable quantities of endangered marine species, corals, live sharks and giant clams.
Chinese fishermen caught in Philippine waters is not an unusual happening – be it in Scarborough shoal in the northwestern side of the country or in the Spratlys, in the southwestern part of the country. When that happens, the fishermen are charged in court and the Chinese Embassy works for their release. The case is usually handled in the provincial and regional level.
The use of BRP Gregorio del Pilar, a warship, to arrest Chinese fishing vessels changed the atmosphere in the maritime row.
It’s only 45 days away when Rodrigo Duterte becomes the 16th president of the Republic of the Philippines.
If Duterte makes good his election promise, Gloria Arroyo, who has won another term as representative of the second district of Pampanga, can look forward to days of freedom very soon. She has been confined at the Veterans Memorial Hospital since 2011.
When he campaigned in Pampanga last Feb. 7, Duterte said, “If I am elected President, I will release her. Why? Because the evidence [against her] is weak. I know that. I am a lawyer.”
Duterte’s assessment of cases against Arroyo as “weak” is supported by the dismissal by the Ombudsman of the P200 million fertilizer scam case and the alleged illegal transfer of funds of Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to Philhealth.
PRESIDENTIAL race frontrunner Rodrigo Duterte, already facing a plunder case filed by Sen. Antonio Trillanes, has been slapped with yet another complaint, this time by disabillity groups and advocates.
Disability advocates Ranilo Sorongon and Liza Martinez charged the Davao City mayor before the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Friday of violating the law when he ridiculed persons with disabilities (PWDs) and senior citizens during a now infamous campaign sortie in the Visayas weeks ago.
“As PWDs advocating for respect of the rights of all PWDs, including older persons with disabilities (and) our inherent dignity, diversity and humanity, we are outraged and vehemently and unequivocably condemn, the disparaging comments of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte during his campaign sortie in Kalibo, Aklan,” the complainants said in a statement.
Update: Video of the BPI Faceoff by Luis Liwanag:
If you have to resort to lies in a conflict, it only indicates that you are not on the side of truth.
Although I seriously doubt if this latest controversy would bring him down from number one in the race, the issue would hound him even if he wins the presidency.
So far, his actions are that of a person twisting and digging himself in a quicksand.
When Trillanes IV first made his expose alleging that Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is not the poor and honest public servant that he presents himself to the public because he had more than P200 million in his BPI Julia Vargas branch account in 2014 which he did not include in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Networth (SALN), Duterte called the senator a “liar” and dismissed the bank account as a “fabrication.”
March 14, 2016 – Presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte and his running mate Alan Peter Cayetano signed a manifesto waiving their rights under the Bank Secrecy law.
In the manifesto, printed on a large piece of cardboard, they pledged “to open all our bank accounts in local and foreign currencies both here and abroad in the interest of transparency and accountability.”
April 27, Wednesday- The Philippine Daily Inquirer carried the expose of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who is running for vice president as an independent candidate and is carrying Grace Poe as his vice president, that Duterte, who is now the frontrunner in the presidential race, has at least P211 million in the bank in 2014 which he did not declare when he filed his Statement of Assets and Liabilities and Networth (SALN) in 2014.
“Pinatawag siya (he was asked to come),” the source said.
That is not surprising because the Marcos family has close ties with the Manalo family (The late Felix Manalo founded the INC) since the powerful days of the Marcoses in the 1960’s. In all the elections where Ferdinand Marcos was a candidate, the INC supported him.
In fact in the 1986 snap election, when the INC membership was deeply divided between the beleaguered Marcos and the popular Corazon Aquino, Eraño Manalo, then the executive minister of the church, stuck with Marcos.
The decision to go for Bongbong Marcos was not difficult for the INC leadership because aside from the family friendship, Marcos is leading the vice presidential race. Winnability is a major factor in the decision of the INC who to endorse.
In a close contest, which is what the May 9 elections is turning out to be, the INC vote is crucial.
Public ridicule is “making fun or contemptuous imitating or making mockery – in writing or in words, or in action” of PWDs because of their impairment.
The law is Republic Act 9422, an act amending the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons.
The law identifies two forms of vilifying PWDs: One, uttering slanderous and abusive statements against them. Two, an activity in public which incites hatred toward serious contempt for, or severe ridicule of PWDs.
Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s proposed solution to the South China territorial conflict would make a thrilling action-packed movie scene.
In a speech before travel executives at the MOA-SMX last Friday (and in all his rally speches) Duterte said, “I will ask the Navy to bring me to the nearest point in South China Sea that is tolerable to them and I will ride a jet ski. I’ll carry a flag and when I reach Spratlys, I will erect the Filipino flag. I will tell them, suntukan o barilan.”
The statement of United States Ambassador Philip Goldberg supporting the concern of Australian Ambassador Amanda Gorely of the trivialization of rape by presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte, reflects the concern of the international community about the strong possibility of a Duterte presidency.
The childish and reckless retort of Duterte, who is leading in the presidential race, daring the U.S and Australia to sever ties with the Philippines if he becomes president strengthened concerns that a Duterte presidency would be a disaster for the country.
The Pacific Strategies and Assessments, an international risk management and strategy development consulting firm, conveyed that concern in its April 18 assessment of the Philippine situation.
PSA noted Duterte’s bizarre ideas like retaking Chinese occupied features in the disputed Spratlys and reviving the steel industry “when demand for steel globally is at its lowest in decades. “