Philippines: Threat to show 'sex tape' of President Duterte's opponent

Liberal Party senators in the Philippines are rallying around their embattled colleague and former justice secretary, Leila de Lima, to voice their opposition to a plan to show an alleged sex tape of her in a committee hearing.

De Lima is accused of receiving millions in payoffs from drug syndicates in prison to fund her senatorial campaign. Her former driver, bodyguard and alleged lover, Ronnie Dayan, supposedly collected drug money for her at the New Bilibid Prison.

Dayan is yet to come out and dismiss the claims despite Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II's offer of immunity and safeguarding under the witness protection program earlier. Aguirre claims to be in possession of three sex videos of De Lima, who has endured a public fallout with President Rodrigo Duterte.

In a bid to link de Lima to the alleged proliferation of drugs inside the national penitentiary, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said he sees no problem with playing the footage in front of a televised inquiry conducting the probe. "Well for me, it's okay so that people will know if it's really true or not," he said on Wednesday (28 September). "Let's show it if needed as it would be the link as to whether the two have a personal relationship."

The proposal was decried by horrified politicians. "We vehemently oppose the plan of the House of Representatives to show the alleged videos as disrespectful, deplorable, and illegal," a joint statement by Senate President Pro-Tempore Franklin Drilon and Senators Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan and Paolo Benigno "Bam" Aquino IV said.

"Regardless of the authenticity of the alleged videos, viewing it is disrespectful to a sitting senator, to her person, and to the office she holds, and is violative of the law," they added.

Senator Grace Poe also questioned the legality of playing the alleged sex video as it would "violate the very law that Congress passed". An ally of De Lima, Risa Hontiveros described it as "misogynistic".

In a text message, Rappler cited Hontiveros as saying: "It is terrible. I don't see how the showing of fake sex videos will promote the interest of truth and justice. This is clearly a case of misogyny."

An exasperated De Lima hit out at the plan in a press conference. "Enough! Just arrest me! That's what you really want! Just put me in jail!" she said.

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Philippine Airlines revives proposal to fly Manila-Clark

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) plans to revive a proposal to fly between Manila and Clark as part of its strategy to develop Clark International Airport as a new hub this year.

PAL has submitted an application with Air Coordination Australia (ACA), a third party slot coordinator at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), three weeks ago but it was rejected due to unavailability of slots at the premier airport. NAIA can only handle a maximum of 40 air traffic movements per hour.

“One way of developing the market (Clark) is for us to operate between Clark and Manila. We filed for slots for Manila-Clark but were denied,” Jaime Bautista, PAL president and chief executive officer, told reporters in an interview at the sidelines of the contract signing betweenEasytrip Service Corp. and PAL.

PAL sees a market potential for the 20-minute flight from Manila to Clark, which may be key in increasing the traffic in Clark.

“If you really want to develop the market, there should be a flight between the two airports. It’s not too far. It’s a very short flight, but I’m sure there are passengers who are willing to take a shorter travel time and pay a little more as compared to road travel of three to four hours,” Bautista said.

He plans to refile the application with ACA and is optimistic to get slots for two flights a day, one in the morning and another in the evening.

“We’ll find another timing,” added Bautista.

PAL will start operating in Clark before the end of the year in compliance with the government’s directive to transfer some of its flights to decongest NAIA.

Initially, PAL will transfer some of its domestic and international flights or around five to 10 flights daily to Clark.

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) has prioritized to build connectivity between NAIA and Clark International Airport through rail and road to make it more viable for passengers to fly out of Clark to redistribute the traffic at NAIA, which currently handles 87 percent of all the country’s air traffic movement.

Due to congestion, passengers experience an average of 31 minutes to one hour delays for a flight from Manila and up to two hours for a flight coming back to Manila.

Aside from redistribution of traffic to other airports, DOTr together with the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines through a special power will carry out the immediate transfer of general aviation to Sangley Airport to decongest NAIA.

The government also plansto extend night operations of provincial airports by immediately procuring equipmentthrough direct contracting to make provincial airports night rated and decongest day operations in Manila.

The country has over 80 airports of which only 11 are international airports-all night rated, namely Laoag, Clark, Subic Bay, NAIA, Kalibo, Iloilo, Cebu, Puerto Princesa, Davao, Zamboanga and General Santos.

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Duterte asking if Filipinos 'patriotic enough' to support independent foreign policy in the Philippines

President Rodrigo Duterte's comments asking Filipinos to be ready to sacrifice is his way of rallying patriotic support for a shift to what he has described as an independent foreign policy, according to a Palace official.

Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella on Thursday clarified Duterte’s earlier statement telling Filipinos to “sacrifice a little” if the Philippines economic relationship with the United States changes.
“Given the fear, he was asking, would the Filipinos believe enough in the nation to set a course, to set an independent course in spite of economic difficulties if and when it should happen,” he said.

“He’s not saying it will but he said if and when it should happen, would we be willing enough? Would we be patriotic enough to stand behind the Philippines in declaring an independent foreign policy?” he added.

After inspecting a shabu laboratory in Arayat, Pampanga on Tuesday, Duterte reiterated his intention to forge stronger alliances with China and Russia.

“Why I’m asking the Filipino in the coming days kung totohanin talaga ng Amerika, I’m going to ask you to sacrifice a little bit. But by next year, I would have entered alliances with so many countries. I will have an alliance in the military, trade and commerce with China. I have talked to [Prime Minister Dmitry] Medvedev of Russia and we agreed that I will go there and we’ll talk about what, how they can help us here,” Duterte said.

Abella, however, noted that the Philippines' relationship with the US goes deeper than economics.
“It may be difficult and it may be challenging, but definitely the President sees it as something that will actually add to our well-being and prosperity as a nation,” Abella said. —JST, GMA News

- See more at: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/583256/news/nation/duterte-asking-if-filipinos-patriotic-enough-to-support-independent-foreign-policy-palace#sthash.NoPQnDXP.dpuf

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