POSSIBLE ICC PROBE A BLOW VS IMPUNITY IN 'DRUG WAR' KILLINGS — RIGHTS GROUPS

MANILA — A possible International Criminal Court probe into alleged crimes against humanity related to the government's "war on drugs" is a blow against impunity over killings during the Duterte administration, rights groups said Tuesday.

ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, whose term ends on Tuesday, announced Monday night that she has asked the court for permission to proceed with an investigation into alleged extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.

She said her office has ended its preliminary examination into the Philippines and found "there is a reasonable basis to believe that the crime against humanity of murder has been committed... in the context of the Government of the Philippines' 'war on drugs' campaign."

The Philippine government has repeatedly said the ICC has no jurisdiction over the allegations because the country has a functioning criminal justice system. It has withdrawn from the ICC and said, incorrectly, that the Philippines' ratification of the Rome Statute in 2011 was invalid because the treaty was not published in newspapers.

"Until now, President Rodrigo Duterte has callously worn his support for the government's deadly 'war on drugs' like a badge of honor," Param-Preet Singh, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement to media.

"His presumption of impunity for these crimes was dealt a blow today after a request by International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to open an investigation into possible crimes against humanity. If approved, it could bring victims and survivors closer to seeing those responsible for their suffering finally brought to justice," she also said.

Rights group Amnesty International called the development a "landmark step" towards justice for thousands killed in the "war on drugs," where a Department of Justice-led review found breaches in protocol and procedure.

"The ICC's intervention must end this cycle of impunity in the country and send a signal to the police and those with links to the police who continue to carry out or sanction these killings that they cannot escape being held accountable for the crimes they commit," Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International secretary general, said.

Rights group Karapatan, meanwhile, called the development a long-awaited step towards justice and accounatbility as well as "another damning indictment of the Duterte government’s murderous policies that have killed — and continue to kill — thousands of Filipinos with impunity."

DUTERTE: METRO MANILA PLUS STAYS UNDER GCQ WITH RESTRICTIONS

MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday said Metro Manila and surrounding Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal provinces—which government calls NCR Plus—would stay under general community quarantine (GCQ) with varying degrees of restrictions, until the end of June.

At the same time, the President said 21 areas would be under modified enhanced community quarantine from June 16 to 30, the second toughest lockdown level.

Duterte said the capital region and Bulacan will be under GCQ "with some restrictions" from June 16 to 30.

Meanwhile, Rizal, Laguna and Cavite will also be under GCQ, but "with heightened restrictions," during the same period, he said in a briefing.

Home to about 24 million people, NCR Plus was previously under GCQ "with restrictions".

Looser quarantine levels allow businesses to operate at higher capacity.

The congested capital region, an urban sprawl of 16 cities and a municipality, account for about two-thirds of the country's gross domestic product.

Extended coronavirus curbs will continue to hurt the Philippines' economy, which posted a record 9.6 percent slump last year.

DUTERTE HOLDS OFF VFA ABROGATION FOR ANOTHER 6 MONTHS

MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte has decided to extend the suspension of the abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement between Manila and Washington, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Monday, as Beijing's threat in the West Philippine Sea remains.

DFA Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said Duterte made the decision on the two-decade-old VFA in a meeting with him and Philippine ambassador to the US Jose Manuel "Babe" Romualdez.

"The President conveyed to us his decision to extend the suspension of the abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement by another 6 months while he studies and both sides further address his concerns regarding particular aspects of the agreement," DFA Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr said in a message posted on Twitter.

Locsin did not elaborate.

This is the third suspension of the abrogation since the Philippines announced it was pulling out of the VFA on February 2020.

MECQ AREAS TO BE PRIORITIZED IN COVID-19 VACCINATION - NOGRALES

MANILA - Areas under modified enhanced community quarantine, the second toughest lockdown level, will now be prioritized in the country's COVID-19 vaccination drive, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said Tuesday.

"'Yong mga naka-MECQ ay magkakaroon ng mas maraming doses ng bakuna dahil ipa-factor in na rin natin 'yong risk classification nila dahil ito ang mga area na mataas ang bilang ng COVID," he told Teleradyo.

This, after President Rodrigo Duterte authorized the deployment of more anti-coronavirus jabs to areas with increasing infections, he said. Nograles is also co-chairman of the government's pandemic task force.

Metro Manila and nearby provinces will stay under general community quarantine with varying degrees of restrictions in the second half of June.

The rest of the country will be under the least stringent quarantine level, modified GCQ.

The Visayas and Mindanao have been "showing faster increase" in the number of new COVID-19 cases, the Department of Health earlier said.

As of June 8, Mindanao logged 13,425 active COVID-19 cases, while Visayas recorded 9,725 new coronavirus patients, according to data from the DOH.

In Cagayan, the province has tallied at least 4 COVID-19 deaths daily.

Official figures showed the country has so far administered over 6.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, of which more than 1.8 million were fully vaccinated.

PHILIPPINES NEEDS P20 BILLION MORE IN COVID-19 VACCINE DRIVE: DOMINGUEZ

MANILA - An additional P20 billion will be needed if the Philippines decides to vaccinate teenagers or children aged 12 to 15 against COVID-19, Finance Sec. Carlos "Sonny" Domínguez III said Monday.

Dominguez said that once the Department of Health and the inter-agency COVID-19 task force (IATF) include the country's teen population of at least 15 million in the national inoculation program, there will be enough funds to cover it.

"We estimate that will cost another P20 billion, but we have enough reserves to cover that amount of money," he said in a taped public briefing.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier authorized the use of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for minors as young as 12 years old.

While the Pfizer jabs have been approved for minors, this age group has yet to be a priority in the Philippines' vaccination program, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told ABS-CBN News in a text message.

The DOH said it has been studying the efficacy of child-friendly COVID-19 vaccines that have been approved in the United States and other countries earlier this year.

CONVERGE TO BUILD P1 BILLION DATA CENTER IN CEBU

MANILA - Converge ICT Solutions Inc said Tuesday it will build a P1-billion data center in Cebu in preparation for the surge in demand from Visayas and Mindanao.

The pure fiber broadband provider has launched in Cebu and is continuously building its backbone for its "aggressive" expansion in the southern Philippines.

"This data center is quite important especially for the Visayas as the demand for digital services and data requirements are going up. We just bought a property in Mandaue where the site will be built," Converge CEO and Co-Founder Dennis Anthony Uy said.

Uy said construction would likely start within the year.

The facility will initially have 300 racks housed in a 6-storey building. It will also have a customer contact center, which would generate jobs for "thousands" of talents in the Visayas, the ISP said.

Converge built its own data center in 2016 which caters to the need of the National Capital Region.

The data center and its investment in domestic submarine cable network connected to Visayas and Mindanao, are part of its "multi-billion" peso investment in the Visayan region, Uy said.

Converge said it aims to connect 55 percent of residential homes in the country by 2025.

Alibaba group's digital technology and intelligence backbone Alibaba Cloud also announced its plan to build a data center in the Philippines.

DOF OPEN TO AMENDING TAX CODE FOR PRIVATE SCHOOLS

MANILA — The Department of Finance (DOF) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) support the amendment of a provision of the Tax Code pertaining to the tax treatment of private schools and hospitals, provided that no refunds will be made.

During the hearing of the House committee on ways and means yesterday, Finance Assistant Secretary Dakila Napao said the department supports legislation to clarify the language in the contested Section 27 (B) of the Tax Code to state that all proprietary educational institutions and non-profit hospitals shall continue to enjoy a 10 percent tax rate and will be eligible for temporary reduction of tax rate to one percent for the next three years.

However, it opposes a retroactive provision in the consolidated bill if it will mean that tax refunds will have to be made, citing the administrative problems this will cause the BIR.

It was agreed that Salceda’s House Bill No. 9596 would be used as the base bill when the measure is submitted for first reading at the opening of regular session in July.

Considering the inputs of stakeholders, regulators and lawmakers, the measure for consolidation proposes that all proprietary educational institutions and non-profit hospitals shall pay a tax of 10 percent on their taxable income.

However, beginning July 1, 2020 until June 30, 2023, the tax rate to be imposed shall be one percent.

The definition of “proprietary” was also added to mean “a private hospital or any private school established as a stock for profit corporation, or as a cooperative.”

It also states that “proprietary educational institutions as defined herein may avail of the preferential rate for their taxable income beginning taxable year 2012.”

PNP RAISES ALERT ON DIGITAL VOTE BUYING IN 2022

MANILA — Vote-buying schemes done via electronic money transfer methods is a trend that could be popular in the 2022 polls because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said yesterday.

PNP chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said police are bracing for possible challenges in detecting such schemes, considering the limited information that authorities can gather from electronic platforms and the amount of information companies are willing to preserve for authorities while protecting the privacy of their users.

“It’s not impossible for this to happen because of the wide use of cashless transactions amid the pandemic. People will really think of encouraging the public to sell their votes. Monitoring vote-buying activities in the 2022 elections will really be a great challenge to us but I assure the voting public that we will put in place safeguards against this practice,” he said in a statement.

While the PNP has slated dialogues with concerned agencies like the Commission on Elections to introduce mechanisms to counter vote-buying in electronic money transfer services, Eleazar said the organization will also bank on reports that the public can offer.

“We will build mechanisms to deal with this. But it will be a big help if we citizens, ourselves, will report these kinds of schemes to authorities. I urge the public to be vigilant and report to authorities if they have information on vote-buying done through online platforms,” he added, urging voters not to engage in such activities.

THE REST

========

GOVERNMENT URGED: BARE VACCINE DEALS, PRICES

MANILA — Senators are asking the Duterte administration to fully disclose supply contracts the Philippines has signed with COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers as well as how much the country has borrowed so far to pay for the jabs, not counting those procured by the private sector and local government units (LGUs).

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Sen. Panfilo Lacson yesterday renewed calls for transparency from the government ahead of the inquiry of the Senate committee of the whole to press for a full accounting of the P82.5 billion granted by Congress last year for vaccine procurement.

Today’s reconvening of the panel, chaired by Senate President Vicente Sotto III, was triggered by Malacañang’s request for an additional P25 billion this year, and another P55 billion in 2022, to purchase more vaccines despite the private sector and LGUs procuring additional doses, and the arrival of more donated serums from the World Health Organization-run COVAX Facility.

“I request (vaccine czar) Secretary (Carlito) Galvez and (Health) Secretary (Francisco) Duque III to send to us the supply agreements that were signed already. These are not confidential, these are public records,” Drilon told Teleradyo.

He said the government cannot invoke non-disclosure agreements in refusing to bare the contracts as taxpayers’ money was used to pay for the vaccines.

The Commission on Audit will audit the purchases eventually and so “they cannot hide it,” he said.

“Filipinos need to know that we have a steady supply of vaccines. (The vaccines are arriving slowly). They need to know the price of the vaccines, because, ultimately, it is the taxpayers that will pay for the vaccines. It is the public’s right to know,” Drilon said.

At a briefing, National Task Force against COVID-19 deputy chief implementer Vince Dizon said the administration is ready to release details of the budget for pandemic response.

ISKO ASKS FOR PATIENCE AMID VACCINE CONFUSION

MANILA — Manila Mayor Isko Moreno yesterday appealed for more patience from the public amid confusion in some of the city’s COVID-19 vaccination sites.

Moreno explained that the city government needs to implement cut-offs in the number of vaccine recipients due to limited supply.

“The vaccines coming in are not enough. That is why there is a cut-off to prevent the people from waiting for nothing. We have used the second doses to have them vaccinated,” he said.

“The people have choices on which vaccination sites to go to. These are posted regularly on Facebook,” Moreno added.

There are 22 vaccination facilities in Manila. Walk-in is allowed. Non-residents who work in the city can also get vaccinated.

Some residents complained that they lined up as early as 6 a.m. to receive COVID vaccines in malls, but they still ran out of slots.

“The problem is they all want to get vaccinated in malls,” Moreno said, adding that there are other inoculation sites in schools and district hospitals.

He noted that only 20 percent of the vaccinees come on the date of their scheduled slots.

Meanwhile, Moreno approved yesterday funding of P7.5 million for accident insurance of barangay officials.

At least 45,700 barangay officials and personnel, including tanod or watchmen, will get insurance benefits.

“They need this because they are deployed in the frontlines,” Moreno said.

Under the Government Service Insurance System proposal, each barangay official is entitled to receive accidental death compensation of P150,000, medical reimbursement of P15,000 and burial assistance worth P10,000.

LUZON TOURISTS REVIVE BORACAY TOURISM

MANILA — Tourists from Metro Manila and its surrounding provinces awakened Boracay from its summer stupor as visitor arrivals on the island reached 9,000 in the first two weeks of this month.

The Malay Tourism Office yesterday reported that a total of 9,066 visitors arrived in Boracay from June 1 to 13.

During the period, nine in every 10 visitors came from either Metro Manila or Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog.

Metro Manila registered close to two-thirds of the total arrivals with 5,772, followed by Southern Tagalog with 1,948 and Central Luzon, 614.

Western Visayas, where Boracay is located, accounted for 418 of the arrivals.

Airline companies benefited from the return of leisure trips to the island.

A total of 8,186 or more than 90 percent of the visitors booked a flight to Boracay.

Arrivals from June 1 to June 13 beat the combined figures recorded in April and May by nearly threefolds.

ENTERTAINMENT & LIFESTYLE

CHARLIE DIZON ON 'FAN GIRL' ON NETFLIX: 'BLESSED BEYOND WORDS'

MANILA -- Actress Charlie Dizon is grateful that her award-winning film "Fan Girl" will soon become available on Netflix.

Over the weekend, Dizon recalled the day she went to audition for the movie which also starred Paulo Avelino.

"Exactly 2 years ago, I auditioned for 'Fan Girl' and now it has made its way around the world and in a few days it will be streaming on Netflix. Blessed beyond words. Thank you, Lord," she wrote.

"Fan Girl," about "an infatuated fan finds an unexpected way to meet her celebrity crush and discovers a dark reality behind the facade of fame and her fantasy world," will start streaming on Netflix on June 17.

Directed by Antoinette Jadaone, it had its world premiere at the 33rd Tokyo International Film Festival last year. It reached wider audience when it was released as an entry to 2020 Metro Manila Film Festival.

Prior to her acclaimed performance in “Fan Girl,” Dizon was also seen in the Star Cinema film “Four Sisters Before the Wedding,” which is also streaming on Netflix.

Currently, Dizon is busy on her upcoming television series "Viral" with Joshua Garcia.

SPORTS

NBA SCORES JUNE 13

FINAL

1          2          3          4          T

2 Nets2-2          26        22        21        27        96

3 Bucks2-2       23        30        28        26        107

GAME 4: SERIES TIED 2-2, FISERV FORUM, MILWAUKEE, WI

SCORING LEADERS

K. Durant BKN

28 PTS 13 REB 5 AST

G. Antetokounmpo MIL

34 PTS 12 REB 3 AST

FINAL

1          2          3          4          T

2 Suns4-0         28        35        33        29        125

3 Nuggets0-4    22        33        28        35        118

GAME 4: PHO LEADS 4-0, BALL ARENA, DENVER, CO

SCORING LEADERS

C. Paul PHO

37 PTS 3 REB 7 AST

W. Barton DEN

25 PTS 5 REB 2 AST

INDICATORS

FOREX $1 = P 47.89

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

He who seeks to divorce toil from knowledge deprives knowledge of its most valuable property, the strengthening of the mind by exercise. - Lord Edward Bulwer Lytton