BBM: PH WON’T REJOIN ICC

The Philippines has no intention of rejoining the International Criminal Court (ICC), President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Monday.

The decision came after Marcos met last week with the top lawyers and officials of his administration to discuss their strategy on the ICC’s investigation of alleged human rights violations in the Philippines during his predecessor’s bloody war on drugs.

Marcos said that he instructed the administration’s lawyers to study the procedure for responding to the investigation.

At the meeting last week were Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez, and former Palace spokesman Harry Roque.

“What we discussed during the meeting is what the ICC is saying that they will proceed with an investigation. But what we are saying is it is already being investigated here. The investigation is ongoing, so why would there be a need for it?” he said.

Last month, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan requested the resumption of the investigation into President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug campaign after it was put on hold following a deferral request from the Philippine government.

The ICC previously said it retains jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed while the country was still a member of the tribunal.

GOVERNMENT MEDIUM-TERM FISCAL PLAN OKAYED

The House of Representatives on Monday adopted House Concurrent Resolution 2, supporting President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s 2022-2028 Medium-Term Fiscal Framework.

The plan aims to attain short-term macro-fiscal stability while remaining supportive of the economic recovery and promoting medium-term fiscal sustainability.

Speaker Martin G. Romualdez, House Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe, and House Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan authored the resolution which aims to consolidate the National Government’s resources so that these are mobilized and utilized to gain the maximum benefit and high multiplier effects for the economy.

The fiscal framework shall be subject to review and updating in three years, or in 2025, prior to the 20th Congress, to reflect current economic conditions and developments, according to the resolution.

Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, the chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, hailed the approval of the resolution.

He said the proposed MTFF is a “step towards following international best practices on tax policymaking,” and a “codification of the Marcos administration’s covenant with the Filipino people on key economic and fiscal objectives.”

Salceda, who sponsored the measure on the House floor Monday, called it “a good way to set the tone for the upcoming budget discussions.”

PERIOD OF NATIONAL MOURNING DECLARED FOR FIDEL V. RAMOS

MANILA — President Marcos has declared 10 days of national mourning for former president Fidel Ramos, who died on Sunday reportedly due to complications from COVID-19.

Marcos declared July 31 to Aug. 9 as a period of national mourning for Ramos, the 12th president of the Philippines who led the country from 1992 to 1998.

“As provided for by law, the national flag shall be flown at half-mast from sunrise to sunset on all government buildings and installations throughout the Philippines and abroad for a period of 10 days,” Marcos’ proclamation, signed on July 31, read.

ABRA QUAKE’S DAMAGE TO INFRASTRUCTURE BREACHES P1 BILLION

MANILA — Over P1 billion worth of infrastructure was damaged in the magnitude-7.0 earthquake that struck Abra and felt across many parts of Luzon last week, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

The latest situation report from the NDRRMC released Tuesday pegged damage to 1,470 structures due to the quake at P1,252,288,371.81.

The Ilocos region, home to many heritage sites, incurred the brunt of the quake, with the area sustaining an estimated P651,519,209 in infrastructure damage.

The Cordillera Administrative Region, where Abra is located, recorded the second most damaged infrastructure with the NDRRMC estimating that P568,740,000 worth was affected.

The Cagayan Valley region came in far third with an estimated P32,029,162.81 in infrastructure damage.

Damage sustained from this earthquake still pales in comparison with the much more violent magnitude-7.8 tremor that struck Luzon in 1990, which left $369 million (around P8.75 billion at the time) in damage in its wake.

The NDRRMC also reported that 28,289 houses were partially damaged, while another 413 were totally destroyed. Most of these houses were located in the CAR.

A total of 404,370 people were affected by the quake, with 48,379 of them displaced from their homes and taking shelter inside evacuation centers or elsewhere.

US KILLS AL-QAEDA CHIEF IN KABUL DRONE STRIKE

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced Monday that the United States had killed Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of the world's most wanted terrorists and a mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, in a drone strike in Kabul.

In a somber televised address, Biden said he gave the final go-ahead for the high-precision strike that successfully targeted Zawahiri in the Afghan capital over the weekend.

"Justice has been delivered and this terrorist leader is no more," Biden said, adding that he hoped Zawahiri's death would bring "closure" to families of the 3,000 people killed in the United States on 9/11.

A senior administration official said Zawahiri was on the balcony of a house in Kabul when he was targeted with 2 Hellfire missiles, an hour after sunrise on July 31, and that there had been no US boots on the ground in Afghanistan.

"We are not aware of him ever leaving the safe house. We identified Zawahiri on multiple occasions for sustained periods of time on the balcony of where he was ultimately struck," the official said.

According to the official's account, the president gave his green light for the strike on July 25 -- as he was recovering in isolation from COVID-19. Biden said there were no civilian casualties in the operation.

UN CHIEF WARNS HUMANITY 'ONE MISCALCULATION AWAY FROM NUCLEAR ANNIHILATION'

UN head Antonio Guterres warned Monday that the world faced "a nuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War" and was just "one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation."

"We have been extraordinarily lucky so far. But luck is not a strategy. Nor is it a shield from geopolitical tensions boiling over into nuclear conflict," Guterres said at the start of a conference of countries belonging to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

"Today, humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation," he said, calling on nations to "put humanity on a new path towards a world free of nuclear weapons."

Guterres's comments came at the opening 10th review conference of the NPT, an international treaty that came into force in 1970 to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.

The meeting, held at the UN's headquarters in New York, has been postponed several times since 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will run until August 26.

Guterres said the conference was "a chance to strengthen" the treaty and "make it fit for the worrying world around us," citing Russia's war in Ukraine and tensions on the Korean peninsula and in the Middle East.

"Eliminating nuclear weapons is the only guarantee they will never be used," the secretary-general implored, adding that he would visit Hiroshima for the anniversary of the August 6, 1945 atomic bombing of the Japanese city by the United States.

DUTERTE WON'T ALLOW FOREIGN PROSECUTOR TO EXERCISE JURISDICTION OVER HIM: ROQUE

MANILA - Former President Rodrigo Duterte will not allow a foreign prosecutor to exercise jurisdiction over him, one of his counsels said Tuesday.

Former presidential spokesperson, lawyer Harry Roque said he met with Duterte Monday night along with former executive secretary Salvador Medialdea, and Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra among others at the Rizal Park Hotel.

"He (Duterte) has made his position very clear: Now that he is no longer president, he no longer has immunity from suit. All those who have grievances or complaints against him should file a criminal case before a Philippine prosecutor. If there's probable cause, he’s willing face them but before a Philippine court," Roque told ANC's Headstart.

"If he’s found guilty of violating Philippine International Humanitarian Law which states the crimes punishable under ICC (International Criminal Court) then he will face the consequences and will face time in a Philippine jail. Under no circumstance will he allow a foreign prosecutor, any foreign judge, court to exercise jurisdiction over him."

Should the ICC continue to insist jurisdiction, Roque said Duterte will seek a restraining order from the Philippine courts.

"He will go to Philippine courts for a restraining order, to restrain the Philippine police from serving warrant of arrest against him," he said.

"He will argue the Philippine courts are willing and able to prosecute these cases and therefore there’s no basis for foreign institutions to interfere and these are the consequences of a foreign country."

INDIA REPORTS ASIA'S FIRST POSSIBLE MONKEYPOX DEATH

Indian authorities reported Asia's first possible monkeypox fatality on Monday after the death of a man who recently returned from United Arab Emirates testing positive.

Kerala state's health ministry said tests on the 22-year-old "showed that the man had monkeypox".

Three monkeypox-related fatalities have so far been reported outside Africa in an outbreak that the World Health Organization has declared a global health emergency.

The Indian man died in Kerala on July 30 around a week after returning from the UAE and being taken to hospital.

It was unclear however whether monkeypox was the cause of death.

"The youth had no symptoms of monkeypox. He had been admitted to a hospital with symptoms of encephalitis and fatigue," the Indian Express daily quoted Kerala's health minister Veena George as saying on Sunday.

Twenty people identified as high risk of infection were being kept under observation, she added, including family members, friends who played football with the man and medical staff.

According to the WHO, more than 18,000 monkeypox cases have been detected throughout the world outside Africa since the beginning of May, most of them in Europe.

Spain last week recorded two monkeypox-related deaths and Brazil one.

MARCOS ALLAYS MONKEYPOX FEARS: ‘NOT AS SCARY AS COVID’

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday allayed fears of Filipinos on monkeypox, saying it is not as infectious as COVID-19.

“I want to be very clear that this is not COVID. This is not like COVID. Monkeypox is not as scary as COVID,” he said on the sidelines of the COVID-19 booster vaccination campaign launch in Pasig City.

The Department of Health likewise said there is no need to close the country’s borders after the first monkeypox case was confirmed in the country.

“Just like the direction of our present administration, we want to go to the phase where we can already go back to our work and in schools. Closing borders is not necessary,” DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said.

“Even the World Health Organization classified the risk of monkeypox as low to moderate. There is no need to close borders, no need for our trade to discontinue,” she added.

Marcos said the country now has no active monkeypox cases after the first patient has already recovered.

GARCIA GETS COMELEC JOB; BACARRO FOR AFP, AZURIN AT PNP, DE LEMOS AT NBI

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has appointed new heads of the Commission on Elections, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police, and the National Bureau of Investigation.

Marcos chose his former election lawyer, George Garcia, as Comelec chairman.

Garcia will replace Saidamen Pangarungan and will serve as head of the poll body until Feb. 2, 2029.

Pangarungan, Garcia, and Aimee Torrefranca-Neri were earlier appointed by then-President Rodrigo Duterte. Their ad interim appointments, however, were bypassed by the powerful Commission on Appointments.

“Under my watch, the Comelec will aim for meaningful reforms that will resolve issues identified by stakeholders and the voting public. These will include structural reforms that will strengthen good governance founded on accountability, transparency, and integrity,” Garcia said in a statement.

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PHILIPPINES DETECTS FIRST CASES OF OMICRON BA.2.75 SUBVARIANT

MANILA - The Philippines has detected its first 2 cases of the omicron BA.2.75 subvariant, the Department of Health said Tuesday.

The patients, both from Western Visayas, have recovered, according to Department of Health officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire. Their exposure and travel histories have yet to be verified, she said.

The subvariant, nicknamed "Centaurus" for its rapid spread, first emerged in India in May and has since spread to around 10 countries, including the United States, Britain, Germany and Australia.

VICE PRESIDENT SARA DUTERTE LEADS DEPED ‘BRIGADA ESKWELA’ LAUNCH IN CAVITE

MANILA — Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte yesterday led the kick-off ceremony for this year’s Brigada Eskwela in Imus, Cavite, as she admitted that the Department of Education (DepEd) is facing gargantuan challenges with the resumption of face-to-face classes and would need some P18 billion in funds to address the problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and other natural calamities to the education sector.

Speaking before DepEd employees, teachers, local leaders, parents and representatives of civil organizations, Duterte cited the continuing threats of the COVID pandemic, natural calamities such as flooding, typhoons and earthquakes, and the entry of monkeypox in the country as among the challenges that the agency is facing as school reopens later this month.

“We all know these problems and the other problems and challenges that the Department of Education and its partners are facing year in and year out... We are in a quicksand. While we have yet to address the destruction of a previous calamity, another calamity has hit us,” the Vice President said in English and Filipino.

“And we need more than P18 billion, excluding the P1.4 billion of damage from the Abra earthquake to get ourselves out of the quicksand of this year and last year. It does not include the things or the repairs that we have to do from 2016,” she added.

Citing the assessment of the DepEd’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Service (DRRMS), Duterte said more than 9,000 schools in Northern Luzon have been affected by the magnitude 7.3 earthquake that hit the region last Wednesday.

She added that based on the DRRMS’ assessment, the government would need P1.4 billion for the repair of 451 classrooms destroyed by the earthquake and the other 706 classrooms that sustained damage.

The Vice President, however, stressed that she is confident that the DepEd can overcome the challenges and mount a successful return of face-to-face classes.

PHILIPPINE RISE INCLUSION IN NIPAS SOUGHT

MANILA — Sen. Cynthia Villar wants the Philippine Rise included in the National Integrated Protected Areas System or NIPAS for easy monitoring and maintenance of its biodiversity and habitat.

The Philippine Rise, formerly known as Benham Rise, is located more than 500 kilometers east of Luzon.

Villar, chair of the committee on environment and natural resources, filed Senate Bill 519 or “an act declaring a portion of the Philippine Rise as a protected area with the category of Marine Resource Reserve under NIPAS.”

In May 2017, then president Rodrigo Duterte issued an executive order renaming Benham Rise to Philippine Rise.

The legislation, Villar said, would not only institutionalize and provide funds for the management of the Philippine Rise, but would also exercise sovereignty in the country’s territorial waters and marine resources.

The proposal seeks to ensure that measures crafted for this objective are well implemented.

A vast portion of the Philippine Rise including the Benham Bank Seamount is located within the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone.

Villar said data obtained from past expeditions supported the recognition of the Philippine Rise as an ecologically and biologically significant marine area.

The bill also provides that the Bureau of Aquatic Resources, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine Coast Guard and Philippine National Police Maritime Group should patrol the area to secure Filipino fishermen and enforce fisheries and conservation laws.

ENTERTAINMENT & LIFESTYLE

STEVE HARVEY MOMENT? CEBU'S NICOLE BORROMEO BAGS BINIBINING PILIPINAS INTERNATIONAL 2022

MANILA — "Is this a Pia Wurtzbach or a Steve Harvey moment?"

Many live and online viewers asked such as they had to wait for more than one minute to hear Cebu's Nicole Borromeo crowned as Binibining Pilipinas International 2022 at today's coronation night in Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.

Lights were dimmed for a moment while the audience had to wait for hosts, Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray and Miss Grand International 2016 1st runner-up Nicole Cordoves, to announce the last queen to be named. That final reveal reminded many netizens of Wurtzbach's unforgettable coronation as Miss Universe 2015 in the United States.

Borromeo's winning answer from the Top 12 round came from the question of actor Donny Pangilinan, who asked her to rate herself on a scale of 1 to 10 on how she is a responsible Filipino citizen.

"As a responsible Filipino citizen, I'd like to give myself a good eight, because I know that there's always room to improve. There's so much I don't know. But there's so much I'm willing to learn. And I hope to do that with you," Borromeo replied.

TRAILER: LOVI POE, JANINE GUTIERREZ SHOW CHEMISTRY IN 'SLEEP WITH ME'

MANILA — Lovi Poe and Janine Gutierrez portray a new couple who navigate their respective disabilities as well as their lingering issues from their past, in the full trailer of the upcoming series “Sleep With Me” released on Monday.

The nearly two-minute trailer shows the beginnings of the romance of Harry (Gutierrez), an overnight radio DJ who gives relationship advice, and Luna (Poe), a woman whose sleeping disorder only allows her to sleep during the day.

As their relationship deepens, Harry opens up about her insecurities over using a wheelchair, while Luna confides about her condition. Beyond their physical situations, Harry and Luna’s emotional baggage from their past also factor into their life together.

Written and directed by Samantha Lee, “Sleep With Me” recently won the Audience Award for Best Episodic at the 40th Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival.

The 6-part series, which marks the first acting project of Poe and Gutierrez together, is produced by iWantTFC and Project 8 Projects. It will premiere on iWantTFC on August 15.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, He must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear. – Thomas Jefferson