From stressing that the Philippines “did not need” the United States to “survive as a nation,” President Rodrigo Duterte, through his foreign affairs secretary, is now citing “political and other developments in the region” to delay by at least six months the termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).
Martial law has been a part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s vocabulary since he assumed power in 2016, and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo appears to share this fascination.
The National Telecommunications Commission did a 180-degree turn when it issued a cease and desist order against media network ABS-CBN from continuing its broadcast operations beyond the expiration of its franchise on May 4.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has downplayed the Feb. 17 incident in which a Chinese warship aimed a radar gun on a Philippine navy ship within Philippine waters, contradicting an earlier statement of the military.
Aware of the limited number of testing kits for coronavirus disease (COVID-19), high government officials still hurried to have themselves tested even if they did not show any of the symptoms of infection. Hence, they earned public criticism for bypassing protocols and kept people asking who should undergo testing and who should heal at home.
President Rodrigo Duterte placed the entire Luzon island under an “enhanced community quarantine” on Monday as transmission of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continued to rise on the second day of a virtual lockdown of Metro Manila.
Senate passed on third and final reading Senate Bill 1083 or the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 to update the provisions of the Human Security Act.
Duterte, in his fourth State of the Nation Address in July 2019, categorically said he had “no wealthy friends.” Nor would he want to have any, he added.
Panelo's claim contradicts Duterte's statements in previous speeches and interviews.
Two Philippine senators disagreed on the adoption of the Senate resolution asking President Rodrigo Duterte to rethink the scrapping of VFA with the US.
