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The ninth week of Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial ended with an important question still hanging over the prosecution’s case: Where did the P15.54 million in the Department of Education’s confidential funds go, and who is responsible for claiming that the money paid for activities that the Philippine Army said it funded itself?
Mariza managed to buy a new barong for Darwin before he was placed in a casket. “Sabi ko hindi ko pasuotin ‘yung anak ko ng luma ‘kay last chance ko nang mabilihan siya ng damit,”
Over three days —the 17th, 18th and 19th days of the trial — the testimony from two ranking officials of the Office of the Vice President pointed to Duterte and her former security chief, Col. Raymund Dante Lachica, as the two people with the clearest knowledge of how the funds were handled and spent.
COMMENTARY:I am asking — I am telling — that we break it now, while the train is still approaching, on schedule, with a hundred lights visible to anyone willing to keep watch and stop the run and put a single honest hand on the lever.
COMMENTARY: This is why the debate over Castro’s words should not end with the observation that she said, “some teachers” rather than “all teachers.” Her defenders are correct about the literal distinction. Her critics are entitled to ask a different question: Why were teachers brought into this particular discussion at all?
Acosta’s testimony thus left the court with two competing questions: Duterte’s alleged authority to order the release of the money, and whether the person who received and supposedly implemented the confidential activities had the authority to handle the funds.
Despite the persistent defeatist propaganda being regurgitated by the treacherous talking heads and influencers of the Duterte camp, the Philippines is slowly emerging as a significant Southeast Asian military power. The only thing for the Philippines to do is for Filipinos to realize that we are not anymore the weak man of Asia.
In October 2017, Duterte’s Malacañang announced a P40B tax compromise settlement with Mighty Corporation. Who headed the compromise team with Mighty? It was the tax lawyer Kristine R. Ferrer, now of the Sara Duterte impeachment trial.
IBON executive director Sonny Africa:The upper-middle-class-income status isn’t holding true because, one, the Philippines is at the bottom one-third of the poorest countries in the world. Second, its GNI per capita of US$4, 850 is one-third of the global average of US$14, 244. Third, it doesn’t measure development because “economy is about the welfare of the people, not just economic growth.
COMMENTARY: It's high time for the president and our legislators to consider a Department of Maritime and Ocean Affairs built around the existing Presidential Office for Maritime Concerns. This would then become the lead agency for maritime security, maritime domain awareness, and compliance with UNCLOS and the 2016 Arbitral Award, and for the formulation of integrated maritime policies covering security, environment, fisheries, shipping, and ports.
