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DENR defends LLDA on lake sharing
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources defended yesterday the decision of the Laguna Lake Development Authority to increase the share of commercial operators in Laguna de Bay, saying it was the local government units who recommended to President Marcos the modification in the sharing agreement as small fisherfolk could not meet the required supply of fish......»»
Philippines lodges strong protest with China over water cannon attack in disputed South China Sea
Manila [Philippines], March 25 (ANI): In the wake of accusation by the Philippines that the Chinese Coast Guard wounded three of its soldiers during a water cannon attack in the disputed South China Sea, Manila on Monday summoned Beijing's envoy to lodge its strong protest, Al Jazeera reported. The Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs, in a statement said that Manila conveyed its "strong protest against the aggressiv.....»»
Davao City rape cases drop
Davao City rape cases drop.....»»
Ex K-pop star Jung Joon Young released after 5-year rape, spycam sentence
Jung was found guilty of rape on two occasions in 2016 and of filming himself having intercourse with other women without their knowledge and sharing the footage without their consent......»»
AFP exec’s promotion bypassed after wife’s physical abuse accusation
An aspiring Armed Forces of the Philippines brigadier general accused of domestic abuse by his wife was bypassed by the Commission on Appointments yesterday.....»»
PSC turns to Marcos on compliance issue with world anti-doping body
The Philippine Sports Commission will seek no less than President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. help when it contests the non-compliance accusation of the World Anti-Doping Agency that has now been elevated to the Court of Arbitration for Sport for resolution......»»
Ivana Alawi may pa-cryptic post tungkol sa ‘false accusation’
ITO nga ba ang sagot ng Kapamilya actress na si Ivana Alawi sa mga akusasyong ibinabato sa kanya sa pagkaka-link sa isang politiko? Kamakailan kasi ay nauugnay ang pangalan nito sa TV and film producer at kasalukuyang alkalde ng Bacolod City Mayor na si Albee Benitez. May mga lumabas kasing chika na spotted sina Ivana.....»»
Ping blasts flip-flopping Vice President Sara accuser
Coming from a “flip-flopping witness,” the accusation of retired police officer Arturo Lascañas against Vice President Sara Duterte linking her to extrajudicial killings in Davao City lacks credibility and “cannot withstand the standards of a fair trial,” former senator Panfilo Lacson said yesterday......»»
Marcos, Romualdez lash out at Dutertes for ‘drug addict’ accusation
In a first, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has rebuked former President Rodrigo Duterte for publicly accusing him of taking illegal drugs, saying that the former leader is suffering from his use of the “highly addictive” Fentanyl drug......»»
South Africa Brings Genocide Accusation Against Israel at UN Court – The Daily Guardian
Title: South Africa Accuses Israel of Genocide in Gaza, Files Case at International Court of Justice In a significant turn of events, South Africa has.....»»
Citing extensive testing, Obiena camp insists pole vault star is clean amid doping accusation
The camp of Olympic pole vaulter EJ Obiena reiterated on Thursday that he has never doped, and that he has polygraph and even eye behavior-related lie detector test results to prove it......»»
Obiena cries foul over doping accusation
Asian pole vault king EJ Obiena slammed accusations made against him by the wife of a fellow competitor, who claimed the Filipino star is using performance-enhancing drugs......»»
Russia hand seen in poll victory of pro-Kremlin Slovak party
The foreign ministry of Slovakia on Monday accused Moscow of interfering in the just concluded parliamentary election won by a pro-Kremlin political party. “We consider such deliberately disseminated misinformation to be inadmissible interference by the Russian Federation in the electoral process in the Slovak Republic,” the ministry’s statement said. The ministry was referning to pre-election remarks by Moscow’s foreign intelligence service director claiming Slovakia’s pro-Ukraine centrist party were United States proxies. That party, Progressive Slovakia, finished second with 18 percent of the vote. Former prime minister Robert Fico’s Smer-SD topped the polls with 23 percent of votes to take 42 seats in the 150-member parliament. During the election campaign, the 59-year-old Fico vowed that North Atlantic Treaty Organization member Slovakia would not send “a single round of ammunition” to Ukraine and called for better ties with Russia. The foreign ministry on Monday summoned a Russian embassy official and called on Moscow to “stop disinformation activities aimed at Slovakia.” Moscow rejected the accusations of meddling, saying “we do not interfere in the domestic affairs of other countries and we do not engage in regime change.” The election meddling accusation comes as Slovakia’s liberal president Zuzana Caputova tasked Fico with forming a new government. WITH AFP The post Russia hand seen in poll victory of pro-Kremlin Slovak party appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Global trade’s call
The 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration award has proven to have a more significant value than favoring the Philippine position in the West Philippine Sea dispute as international law experts said it plugged the legal loopholes on the freedom of navigation. China insists on its historical claim to the West Philippine Sea, or WPS, but it never articulated the legal status of the sea areas within the “nine-dash line,” which lie beyond its territorial sea and exclusive economic zone, or EEZ, under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. “However, by laying ‘historic’ claim to all the WPS features (islands, rocks, and reefs) and referring to all these as islands entitled to EEZ and Legal Continental Shelf status, it has implicitly claimed sovereign jurisdiction over the entire sea area enclosed within the nine-dash line,” National Maritime Foundation of New Delhi Executive Director Gurpreet Khurana said. “Based on such assumed sovereign rights — though disputed by other claimant states — China has been curtailing freedom of navigation in these areas, particularly for warships,” Khurana added. He recalled that in the days leading to the international tribunal’s verdict on the China-Philippines arbitration, Beijing declared a “no sail zone” in the area of dispute during a major naval exercise from 4 to 11 July 2016. Initially, it was solely the United States that had been actively conducting naval operations to protect the international sea lanes, but Beijing’s increasing aggressiveness raised the threat level in the region. The WPS is one of the world’s most important shipping lanes. Ships carrying goods between markets in Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas transit through it. An estimated $5.3 trillion in trade passes through the sea annually. One country controlling the sea lane may require ships to circumnavigate it, which would involve considerable expense and delays in delivering goods. Thus, most nations have a direct stake in ensuring that freedom of navigation is respected in the WPS. Geopolitical analysts said the actions of China, mainly the setting up of infrastructure in the disputed maritime zone, have been the source of the escalation of threats of direct conflict. Beijing has accused the Philippines and the United States of scaling up the stakes in the disputed waters through provocative actions like the recent expansion of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement or EDCA. China, nonetheless, has left out the need to keep the lanes open to all nations, which is the paramount issue. The US has said it does not take a position on territorial disputes over features in the WPS. Its involvement concerns the illegal claims to the waters surrounding sea features and the illegal restrictions on navigation. Several states in the region have made excessive maritime claims that illegally limit the freedom of navigation. Washington said it conducts freedom of navigation operations in the WPS to protest these claims. China has accused the Philippines of being complicit with the US in the latter’s actions in the WPS, and when it comes down to the issues involved, the accusation could only be true. The Philippines joins other countries in ensuring that the sea passage remains open to all nations, and a single country’s control of the international waters should never be allowed. Despite Beijing’s oft-repeated claim that it adheres to UNCLOS, its actions in the WPS are inconsistent with the law. Just recently, it expanded its historic claim to a 10-dash line. As a responsible member of the international community, nations expect China to adhere to the international tribunal ruling. China respecting the arbitration award would not only contribute to peace and prosperity, it would be in the long-term interest of all, including that of the superpower. The post Global trade’s call appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Mexico says ex-diplomat accused of sex crimes arrested in Israel
Mexican writer and former diplomat Andres Roemer, who faces multiple accusations of sex crimes, has been arrested in Israel, Mexico's president said Monday. Roemer "will be extradited," Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said at his regular morning press conference. The allegations against Roemer, which number about 60 according to activists, began in February 2021 when the Mexican dancer Itzel Schnaas accused him of sexual assault. The 60-year-old former Mexican consul in San Francisco and goodwill ambassador to UNESCO "categorically" denied the first accusation. But he withdrew from social media in the face of mounting allegations that he had touched women inappropriately after meeting them on a work pretext. Mexico requested Roemer's extradition in June 2021. Its foreign ministry confirmed in a statement that Israeli police detained Roemer on Sunday "for extradition purposes, at the request of the Mexican Government." "Although there are no extradition treaties with the State of Israel, the arrest... was carried out based on the principle of reciprocity and international cooperation, based on the good bilateral relationship that exists in all areas between both countries," it said. The post Mexico says ex-diplomat accused of sex crimes arrested in Israel appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
U.S. backs probe on Sikh’s slay
An American official has supported a call by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for India to cooperate in the investigation of a Sikh leader’s assassination in Vancouver in June. “We want to see accountability. And it’s important that the investigation run its course and lead to that result,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in New York, where he was taking part in the United Nations General Assembly. “We would hope that our Indian friends would cooperate with that investigation as well,” Blinken said, referring to Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Nijjar, who was wanted in India for alleged terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder, was shot dead by two masked assailants. Blinken’s statement came four days after Trudeau linked Indian intelligence agents to the murder of the activist campaigning for the creation of a Sikh homeland called Khalistan. New Delhi insisted it had nothing to do with the killing, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “completely rejected” the accusation when earlier raised privately by Trudeau. Following Trudeau’s bombshell, Sikh leaders in Canada demanded justice for Nijjar’s killing. “We want a full investigation that brings to justice the people involved in this assassination, including those who pulled the trigger and the ones who plotted this assassination,” Harkirt Singh Dhadda, a lawyer and prominent member of the Sikh community in the Toronto area, said. Nijjar’s son also demanded the arrest of his father’s killers. “Hopefully, you can take this a step further and get specific individuals,” Balraj Singh Nijjar told reporters. Jaskaran Sandhu, co-founder of Baaz News, a website for the Sikh community, warned that “if the government doesn’t take a strong stance and send a strong message, all it declares to the world is that it’s open season on our citizens.” Jagmett Singh, the leader of the left-wing New Democratic Party and a Trudeau ally said Trudeau’s announcement confirms suspicions that India was interfering in the democratic rights of Canadians. Canada must also put an end to intelligence sharing with New Delhi, Sikh officials said. Since 2018, the two countries have established cooperation on counter-terrorism activities which commits them to financial, judicial and police cooperation — an agreement eyed warily by 770,000 Canadian Sikhs today. WITH AFP The post U.S. backs probe on Sikh’s slay appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Ukraine battles Russia in legal front
Ukraine was in the offensive against Russia on Tuesday in both battle and legal fronts claiming its forces broke enemy defense lines and telling the International Court of Justice that Moscow’s aggression is a threat to international law. Ukraine’s ground forces commander Oleksandr Syrskyi announced Monday they have broke through Russian defense line in the area of Bakhmut. Ukraine’s defence ministry also said Monday its troops had recaptured a total of seven square kilometers last week near Bakhmut and also along the southern front. The air force said it had brought down 18 out of 24 Russian attack drones over the Black Sea regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv overnight Sunday. Russia, however, said that with the strikes it had hit storage facilities for British Storm Shadow cruise missiles and ammunition with depleted uranium — a controversial weapon supplied by the United States to Kyiv. Twisting international law At the ICJ in The Hague, Netherlands, Ukraine’s lead speaker Anton Korynevych told the court, sitting just a few metres from his Russian opponents in the Peace Palace, that “Russia is not above the law. It must be held accountable,” for attacking Ukraine. “You have the power to declare that Russia’s actions are unlawful, that its continued abuses must stop, that your orders must be followed and that Russia must make reparations,” he told the judges. Korynevych said Russia’s use of the Genocide Convention to justify a war of conquest twists international law into a tool for human right abuses and destruction.” “Russia’s defiance is also an attack on this court’s authority. Every missile that Russia fires at our cities, it fires in defiance of this court,” he added. On Monday, Russia’s legal team argued that ICJ has no jurisdiction over the case. The team said that if Kyiv denies Moscow’s accusation of genocide of pro-Russian Ukrainians,”why is the court even considering a case under the Genocide Convention.” Thanking US Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky is in the United States on Monday to address the United Nations General Assembly in New York and meet with President Joe Biden. “I will thank the US for its leadership in supporting our struggle for freedom and independence,” Zelensky said on X, formerly Twitter. “I’m... pleased to announce that the M1 Abrams tanks that the United States had previously committed to will be entering Ukraine soon,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday at the opening of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Germany. The tanks are part of more than $43 billion in security assistance pledged by the US since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. WITH AFP The post Ukraine battles Russia in legal front appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Russia, Ukraine face off at UN court
A representative of Moscow told the International Court of Justice in The Hague on Monday that it lacks jurisdiction in ordering Russia to suspend its military offensive against Ukraine because Kyiv’s reason for it to issue the order is flawed. Gennady Kuzmin was sitting only meters from the Ukrainian delegation at the court in Peace Palace when he presented Russia’s argument and said that mere “statements” about genocide are not admissible under international law including the United Nations Genocide Convention. In March 2022, the ICJ ordered Russia to “immediately suspend” its military action as petitioned by Ukraine. The case stemmed from Kyiv’s suit disputing Russia’s accusation of bullying and genocide. Kyiv argued that Russia’s use of “genocide” as a pretext for the invasion of Ukraine went against the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. According to Russia, Ukraine’s argument falls outside the scope of the UNGC. Ukraine’s legal position is “hopelessly flawed” and “at odds with the longstanding jurisprudence” of the court, Kuzmin concluded. Ukraine will issue its response on Tuesday. More than 30 other countries — all Western allies of Ukraine — will also have the chance to make statements in support of Kyiv. The ICJ dismissed a bid by the United States to join the case. The court, created after World War II to deal with disputes between UN member states when they cannot resolve matters themselves, could take months to decide whether it has jurisdiction. Meanwhile, Ukraine said Monday its air defense systems had downed a swarm of Russian attack drones and nearly 20 cruise missiles in Russia’s latest aerial barrage overnight. “A total of 24 strike unmanned aerial vehicles were recorded around the Mykolaiv and Odesa regions. Eighteen attack drones were shot down by air defence units along the tracking route,” the Ukrainian air force said on social media, adding that: “All 17 missiles were shot down.” Russia said it repelled Ukrainian drone attacks over several parts of Crimea, outer Moscow and two border regions on Sunday. “Drones were intercepted over the western, southwestern, northwestern and eastern parts of the Crimean peninsula; Istra and Domodedovo districts of Moscow region, Belgorod and Voronezh regions,” Russia’s defense ministry said on Telegram in the round-up of Sunday’s attacks. WITH AFP The post Russia, Ukraine face off at UN court appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Food, meds reach Armenian enclave
Trucks carrying food and medicines entered Nagorno-Karabakh on Monday following a deal by Armenia and Azerbaijan to reopen two roads leading to the Armenian enclave. Armenian separatists and the government in Baku agreed to use the road in the Lachin corridor, the sole road linking the mountainous region with Armenia, and the Aghdam road which connects Nagorno-Karabakh with the rest of Azerbaijan. The “Simultaneous passage of the Red Cross cars was ensured” through the Lachin corridor and the Aghdam road, Hikmet Hajiyev, foreign policy advisor to Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said on social media. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it is bringing shipments of wheat flour and essential medical items to people in need via the Lachin Corridor and the Aghdam road. Nagorno-Karabakh residents “urgently need sustained relief through regular humanitarian shipments. This consensus has allowed our teams to resume this lifesaving work,” Ariane Bauer, ICRC’s regional director for Europe and Central Asia, said. Last year, Baku blocked the sole road linking the mountainous region with Armenia, the Lachin corridor policed by Russian peacekeepers. Armenia then accused Azerbaijan of fueling a humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku denied the accusation, saying that the separatist authorities had simply refused its proposal to simultaneously reopen both the Lachin corridor and the Aghdam road which connects Nagorno-Karabakh with the rest of Azerbaijan. The months-long crisis as well as Baku’s deployment of troops near Nagorno-Karabakh and along the border with Armenia have sparked fears of a fresh all-out conflict between the arch-foes who have fought two wars for control of the region. Six weeks of fighting ended in autumn 2020 with a Russian-brokered truce that saw Armenia cede swathes of territory it had controlled since the 1990s. The two sides have been unable to reach a lasting peace settlement despite mediation efforts by the European Union, United States and Russia. WITH AFP The post Food, meds reach Armenian enclave appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Red-tagged individuals create their own classification (1)
It is amusing to read about individuals or groups protesting about being tagged as New People’s Army or NPA supporters, or even communists themselves. At least one of them filed a civil suit for damages against two anchors of a program in SMNI for allegedly tagging him as a communist sympathizer and his mother as a closeted communist. Red-tagging has become a whipping boy of leftist organizations and their sympathizers. The dwindling number of left-leaning party-list representatives who survived the electoral debacle of their comrades have become the mouthpiece. They have been regularly and constantly attacking the government officials who described them as supporters of the communist rebels. This protesting sector of our society has described red-tagging as “the act of labeling individuals or groups as “communist fronts,” “communist terrorists,” or communist sympathizers.” They have likened such acts to “McCarthyism” in the 1950s in the United States. The American Heritage Dictionary defines McCarthyism as “1. The political practice of publicizing accusations of disloyalty or subversion with insufficient regard to evidence; and 2. The use of methods of investigation and accusation regarded as unfair, to suppress opposition.” McCarthyism is known as the “second Ref Scare” in the United States. It was an era of “political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals and a campaign spreading fear of alleged communist and Soviet influence on American institutions and Soviet espionage in the United States during the late 1940s through the 1950s.” Joseph McCarthy, a Wisconsin Senator, started what appeared to become a national witch-hunt in the United States in the late forties and early fifties. He rose to national prominence in the US after an alleged three-year undistinguishable stay in the US Senate, after delivering a speech in Congress where he claimed to have a list of “members of the communist party and members of a spy ring employed in the US State Department.” As a result of McCarty’s speech, congressional hearings were conducted by the U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities that led to the imprisonment of 10 Hollywood screenwriters and directors. Likewise, hundreds of their colleagues in the movie industry were placed on the “blacklist.” The so-called human rights groups in the Philippines claim that red-tagging is often done without evidence. A human rights alliance group, Karapatan, slammed the NTF-ELCAC for gaining “notoriety in the red-tagging, harassing and intimidating political activists and other government critics and for instigating mass surrenders of civilians alleged to be supporters of the revolutionary movement.” Karapatan alleged, “Many of the victims of NTF-ELCAC’s red-tagging campaigns had ended up arrested and detained on trump-up charges, while others have been killed by vigilante groups or in armed encounters staged by the military.” There is a whale of a difference between the red-baiting in the United States during the McCarthyism period and the so called red-tagging in the Philippines. For one, those who have been red-tagged, if they feel they have been unjustly classified as communist supporters or secret members of the NPA, can always resort to civil suits for damages, just like one of them did. Unlike the late Senator McCarty, the perceived violators of their human rights are not immune from lawsuits. McCarty was immune from being sued when he red-tagged suspected members of the communist party because he enjoyed parliamentary immunity when he delivered the red-tagging speech. The claim that those red-tagged by government officials led to their deaths is just a claim. The human rights groups have not produced any proof of that. As to those arrested and jailed, it only means there was probable cause for the crimes they have been charged with — hence, the courts issued warrants for their arrest. As to the claim of trump-up charges, there have been instances where the courts have dismissed those criminal cases filed against them because the prosecution failed to produce the quantum of proof required by law in court. They can seek judicial redress by filing malicious criminal prosecution against those who made up the false charges plus damages. (To be continued) The post Red-tagged individuals create their own classification (1) appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»