WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump repeated his charge that predecessor Barack Obama had ordered a wiretap against him, rejecting rising calls from Republicans and Democrats to withdraw the charge and apologize.

Speaking at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Trump answered a question on the wiretap allegation by referring to the US National Security Agency’s reported tapping of Merkel’s phone several years ago.

“As far as wiretapping, I guess, by this past administration, at least we have something in common perhaps,” Trump said.

But Trump also said he did not endorse a Fox News claim that Britain’s GCHQ spy agency did the wiretapping for Obama — an allegation repeated by Trump’s spokesman Thursday, sparking a sharp rebuke from London.

“We said nothing” about the GCHQ claim, Trump told journalists.

“That was a statement made by a very talented lawyer on Fox. And so you shouldn’t be talking to me, you should be talking to Fox,” he said.

Fox News said it could not confirm the allegations.

“Fox News knows of no evidence of any kind that the now president of the United States was surveilled at any time in any way, full stop,” anchor Shepard Smith said, reading an official statement on-air.

Waiting for evidence

Trump has accused Obama of ordering wiretaps at his Trump Tower in New York, but two weeks after the extraordinary claim, he has not delivered any evidence.

The claim has led to investigations in Congress and by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but so far no one has provided any evidence to substantiate it.

Top Republicans and Democrats on the House and Senate Intelligence Committee have all said they have seen no evidence.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has remained quiet, however.

On Friday, the Justice Department said it had complied with requests from the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees in both houses of Congress for information related to surveillance during the 2016 election.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes confirmed Friday evening that the DOJ had “fully complied” with his panel’s request for information regarding potential surveillance of Trump or his circle during the presidential race. He did not elaborate on the details of the information.

The National Security Agency had partially met the committee’s request with plans to fully comply by end of next week, Nunes said, but “the committee still has not received information requested from the CIA and FBI… that is necessary to determine whether information collected on US persons was mishandled and leaked.”

On Monday, FBI Director James Comey is to testify before lawmakers on that and other issues relating to what US intelligence says was Russian interference in the election.

Trump first made the wiretapping accusation on March 4.

“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” he tweeted.

“Is it legal for a sitting President to be ‘wire tapping’ a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!” he continued, accusing Obama of crimes comparable to those of Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal.

Obama flatly rejected it, but the White House refusal to back down has kept the issue alive.

On Thursday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer defended his boss, citing news stories alleging wiretapping including the Fox News report.

That sparked a rebuke from GCHQ and calls from British officials.

The White House said Friday that Spicer “was simply pointing to public reports, not endorsing any specific story.” AFP

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WASHINGTON: Stark differences between President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on everything from trade to immigration were in full view during an icy first meeting at the White House.

In a frequently awkward joint press conference, Trump and Merkel showed little common ground as they addressed a host of thorny issues including NATO, defense spending and free trade deals.

For most of the 30 minutes in the East Room, Merkel was stony-faced as Trump ripped into Washington’s NATO allies for not paying for their “fair share” for transatlantic defense and demanded “fair and reciprocal trade” deals.

The veteran German chancellor had arrived at a snowy White House hoping to reverse a chill in relations after Trump’s incendiary election rhetoric.

The visit began cordially, with the pair shaking hands at the entrance of the White House.

But later, sitting side-by-side in the Oval Office, Merkel’s suggestion of another handshake went unheard or ignored by Trump — an awkward moment in what are usually highly scripted occasions.

There was never going to be an easy rapport between the cautious German chancellor and impulsive US president.

For years, Merkel — a trained physicist — had been president Barack Obama’s closest international partner, with the two sharing a strong rapport and a similar deliberative approach.

Before coming to office in January, Trump had set the tone by calling Merkel’s acceptance of refugees a “catastrophic mistake” and suggested she was “ruining Germany.”

In a similar vein, Merkel has sought to remind — some in the White House would say lecture — the real estate mogul about democratic values.

Comments like that have prompted some of Trump’s fiercest critics to declare Merkel the new “leader of the free world” — a moniker normally taken up by the occupant of the White House.

During the press conference, Merkel said “it’s much, much better to talk to one another and not about one another, and I think our conversation proved this.”

But even the lighter moments were tinged with tension.

Amid a furor over Trump’s unfounded allegations that he was wiretapped by Obama, the new president cracked a joke referring to past revelations that Merkel’s phone had also been bugged by his Democratic predecessor.

“As far as wiretapping, I guess, by this past administration, at least we have something in common perhaps,” he said.

Merkel appeared not to find the humor in what had been a major political scandal.

And neither side tried to make small talk about Trump’s own background.

His family hails from Kallstadt, a tidy village nestled in southwest Germany’s lush wine country. His grandparents left for America more than a century ago fleeing poverty and later, after a brief return, trouble with the law.

Voice of Europe

Although Trump has tempered his criticism of NATO and the personal attacks against European leaders, officials still fret that Trump has too closely embraced the nationalist ideology of key advisor Steve Bannon.

Bannon has championed trade protectionism and opposed the European Union and other multilateral institutions that underpin the world order.

Trump on Friday pledged to “respect historic institutions” but Bannon, also in the East Room, gave a chuckle as Merkel was asked whether she believed Trump had lied and treated the European Union disrespectfully.

Trump insisted he was not isolationist, saying: “I’m a free trader but also a fair trader.”

Merkel rejected Trump’s suggestion that individual European countries should negotiate free trade deals with the United States, rather than under existing EU-US negotiations.

“I hope we can come back to the table and talk about the agreement” between the EU and US, she said.

Trump departed Washington later Friday, arriving in Florida where he will spend the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate, accompanied by his youngest son Barron, wife Melania and the first lady’s parents. AFP

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BADEN-BADEN, Germany: Finance ministers and central bankers from top economies are battling Saturday to find common ground on world trade in the face of US President Donald Trump’s “Buy American” drive.

Ministers from G20 nations have gathered in the picturesque western German spa town of Baden Baden since Friday for a meeting clouded by fears of growing protectionism fuelled by Trump’s stance.

Trump, whose tough “America First” talk helped win him the presidency, has withdrawn the US from a trans-Pacific free trade pact and attacked export giants China and Germany.

That stance has grated with Washington’s partners, who are trying to persuade US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to hold fast to a long-standing G20 anti-protectionism commitment.

But talks have so far failed to produce a breakthrough for consensus on the issue, and the clock is ticking down to the close of the two-day session when a final statement is due to be published.

The separate issue of climate change has also become a sticking point, participants said, noting that the US delegation is reticent to sign up to previous pledges to help fund mitigation programmes.

French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said if no agreement could be found on both issues, that could be reflected in Friday’s final statement.

“Our heads of states are meeting in a few weeks. On subjects that are so important, it’s not up to the finance ministers to block or to walk back on the issue, there will not be any backsliding on such fundamental issues,” he said.

‘Backlash against globalization’

Carried to power on the back of a political storm over deindustrialisation in vast areas of the US, Trump vowed in his inauguration speech to “follow two simple rules: buy American and hire American.”

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) head Angel Gurria pointed to similar developments elsewhere, in a “backlash against globalisation” which is seeing growth and economic reforms stutter as populations grumble over inequality.

Governments should spread the proceeds of economic growth more widely to contain popular anger that risks further roiling the global economy, the rich nations’ club urged in a report presented at Friday’s G20 gathering.

Trump himself insisted at a tense Washington press conference Friday following his first meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that “I’m a free trader but also a fair trader”.

He also rejected a description of his policies as “isolationist.”

But the differences between the two were laid bare as Merkel took the opportunity to push back against Trump’s calls for individual trade deals with European countries, suggesting instead that the White House “come back to the table and talk” about a stalled US-European Union pact.

Germany has been found itself in the crosshairs of US criticism over its massive trade surplus.

Trump has also threatened to slap heavy taxes of up to 35 percent on German automaker BMW if it persisted in building a factory in Mexico.

On Thursday, following talks with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, Mnuchin said Washington had no desire to fight “trade wars” with other economic powers.

But there is a “desire to deal with where there is imbalance in certain trade relations. We have a means to address that,” Mnuchin said, referring to White House advisors’ belief that Chinese and German goods are priced too low in the US because their currencies are too weak against the dollar.

Climate clash

While trade has been the weightiest bone of contention at the finance ministers’ talks, climate change — which Trump once claimed was a Chinese hoax — puts the US equally at odds with its longtime partners.

A source close to the talks said US negotiators appear to be unable to commit to climate change-related wording in the final communique due to an absence of mandate from Washington.

On Thursday, Trump proposed to take the axe to environmental financing, slashing funds in his first national budget proposal for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by a third, as well as eliminate contributions linked to the UN climate change programs.

But EU economy commissioner Pierre Moscovici noted that “we are not here to talk about the domestic policy of this or that member state, we are here to talk about what we can do together”.

“It is essential that we affirm that common principles here so that the process can continue to advance,” he told Agence France-Presse. AFP

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WASHINGTON: A man who scaled a White House fence earlier this month traipsed the grounds of the executive residence for more than 16 minutes prior to his arrest, the US Secret Service said.

The trespasser breached the grounds while the president was in the Washington mansion just before midnight on March 10.

The individual managed to climb over an outer perimeter fence, scale a vehicle gate and hop another fence near the southeast corner of the White House’s East Wing before he was captured after his 16 minute-plus jaunt, according to the Secret Service statement.

Uniformed officers took the intruder — who CNN reported was identified in court records as Jonathan Tran, 26 — “into custody on the grounds without incident.”

“The Secret Service can confirm that at no time did the individual gain entry into the White House,” the statement said.

Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz dubbed the incident “a total and complete embarrassment.”

“(Homeland Security chief John) Kelly told me that this person was there on the ground for 17 minutes, went undetected, was able to get up next to the White House, hide behind a pillar, look through a window, rattle the door handle,” the lawmaker told CNN.

According to the Washington Post, Tran, who is from northern California, was carrying a backpack and two cans of mace.

If convicted he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, according to the paper.

Following the incident US President Donald Trump praised the Secret Service for a “fantastic job.”

The White House has seen a string of high-profile trespassing incidents in recent years.

In one notable 2014 incident, while Barack Obama was president, a disturbed Army veteran jumped the White House fence, sprinted across the lawn and entered the building with a knife in his pocket. AFP

AFP/CC

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THE Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) blasted President Rodrigo Duterte’s approval of a new labor order on contractualization that organized labor had rejected.

The militant group said Department Order (DO) 174 series of 2017, signed by Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd last week, legitimizes contractualization in the country.

“Workers are enraged that the President, who has so committedly promised to end contractualization, is now praising the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) order that further legitimizes and promotes it,” Jerome Adonis, the group’s secretary general, said.

KMU insisted that DO 174 is no different from previous DoLE guidelines that legitimized contractualization, as it merely reiterates provisions of Articles 106 to 109 of the Labor Code which KMU claimed legalized contractualization.

“Regulation is not prohibition. The DO 174 would not end but instead promote what it deems as legal forms of contractualization. Like (former President Benigno) Aquino’s DO 18-A, it merely teaches employers how to circumvent labor laws to make their contractual employment schemes legitimate,” Adonis said.

The labor group also belied Bello’s claim that the Labor department has no power to end contractualization.

“If the DoLE has the power to legalize and legitimize, it certainly also has the power to prohibit contractualization. But they did not and do not want to do that. Instead, the DoLE gives these flimsy excuses for their inutility and connivance with big businesses to promote contractualization,” Adonis said.

He added that Duterte’s approval of DO 174 proves that the administration has failed to deliver its promise to heed Filipino workers’ demand to end all forms of contractualization.

While the new order states that the secretary of Labor has no power to prohibit all forms of contractualization and fixed-term employment, it listed 11 “prohibited” practices, including contracting through an in-house agency and contracting work that is also done by regular employees.

It also calls for the strict regulation of “legal” contracting and subcontracting.

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A German human rights official has called on President Rodrigo Duterte to finally allow the visit of a United Nations special rapporteur to investigate extrajudicial executions in connection with the government’s “war on drugs” that had allegedly claimed nearly 8,000 lives.

Bärbel Kofler, federal government commissioner for human rights policy and humanitarian aid at the German Federal Foreign Office, was referring to Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur, whose planned visit to the country has been hampered by conditions laid down by no less than Duterte, such as a one-on-one debate with him.

“I call on the Government of the Philippines to withdraw the conditions it has set and that to date have prevented Ms. Callamard from conducting a country visit,” she said.

A visit by Callamard could help clear the debate over whether the killings were state sponsored. Duterte has denied the allegations, saying the killings were perpetrated by vigilantes and rival drug syndicates.

Kofler warned Duterte that Philippine exports to European Union (EU) member-countries might be compromised if the killings do not stop and if he signs a bill re-imposing the death penalty.

“In this regard, I welcome the clear statement made by EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström in Manila.
She underscored that trade incentives are not to be taken for granted, but that the EU also ties these to the observance of human rights standards,” said Kofler.

Kofler also called on the courts to give jailed Sen. Leila de Lima, a leading Duterte critic, a speedy trial for the drug trafficking charges filed against her.

The German official said de Lima must be able to exercise her mandate as senator as she is not yet convicted.

Death penalty

Kofler said she was deeply worried by the passage of the death penalty bill in the House of Representatives, as the Philippines is a signatory to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

“The Philippines has been considered a close partner of those who, like the Federal Government, reject this inhumane punishment under all circumstances,” she said.

“This situation is highly regrettable, particularly in view of the close cooperation between Germany and the Philippines in the United Nations, for example in the fight against human trafficking, as well as on poverty reduction and international climate policy,” she added.

Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, urged Duterte not to revive the death penalty and to allow an independent human rights probe of the war on drugs.

He said the European Parliament and UN criticism of the Philippines reflected growing international frustration and dismay at the Duterte government’s “steamrolling of the rule of law” in pursuit of its war on drugs.

“New Human Rights Watch research found that Philippines police have repeatedly carried out extrajudicial killings of drug suspects, and then falsely claimed self-defense. Masked gunmen taking part in killings appeared to be working closely with the police, casting doubt on government claims that most killings have been committed by vigilantes or rival drug gangs,” Kine said in a separate statement.

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PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte is flying to Burma today for a two-day official visit where he is expected to witness the signing of an agreement on food security with Myanmar.

Duterte is expected to meet with the local Filipino community in the capital Naypyidaw.

“President Duterte’s visit to Myanmar is significant in many respects. In particular, the discussion will include talks on improving trade and investment relations,” said Alex Chua, Philippine ambassador to the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.

Chua said the President was also scheduled to meet Myanmar’s first civilian president, U Htin Kyaw, to discuss the strengthening of bilateral relations between the Philippines and Myanmar.

He said the official visit, which will be from March 19 to 20, will coincide with the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of Philippines-Myanmar bilateral relations.

“Commemorative activities have been held beginning last year and the President’s visit to Myanmar this year is the culmination of the celebration of this milestone in our friendly relations with Myanmar,” he said.

During the visit, a memorandum of understanding on food security and agricultural cooperation will be signed by the two governments.

Aside from meeting President U Htin Kyaw, Duterte will also meet with Myanmar’s leaders, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and Commander in Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
Chua said Filipinos in Myanmar were anticipating the arrival of the President. Duterte won the overseas balloting in Myanmar, getting over 56 percent of the vote.

Duterte’s visit to Myanmar is part of the traditional introductory visits to neighbors in Southeast Asia by newly elected leaders. It will be followed by a visit to Thailand on March 20 to 22.

With the Philippines as chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) this year, Duterte’s Myanmar visit also “symbolizes the Philippines’ commitment to the shared aspiration and values of the coalition,” Chua said.

The Philippines is hosting the Asean meetings this year as the regional bloc celebrates its 50th anniversary.
Since the establishment of bilateral relations 60 years ago in 1956, the economic relations between the Philippines and Myanmar have grown significantly, Chua said.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that the Philippines’ top exports to Myanmar are medicaments for therapeutic or prophylactic uses, while the country’s major imports from Myanmar are agricultural products.

In 2016, the Philippines ranked as Myanmar’s 16th biggest investor. Philippine companies that have invested in Myanmar include United Pharma, Liwayway Corp., Asia Brewery, Splash Corp., Manila Water, ComWorks and Universal Robina Corp.

Last year saw the entry in Myanmar of Phinma Education, along with leading clothing brands Bench and Penshoppe.

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A couple looks at a wind energy farm in the town of Pililla in Rizal on Saturday. The Philippines is the largest producer of wind energy in Southeast Asia, with at least 400 megawatts of capacity. Wind capacity expected to quadruple in two to three years. PHOTO BY DJ DIOSINA

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THE impeachment complaint filed against President Rodrigo Duterte will end up in the dustbin as there is no solid evidence to back up its allegations, lawmakers declared on Saturday.

Davao City Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles said the allegations were “pure hearsay, as the complainant alleges facts which he learned from third persons or other sources, not sworn as witness to such facts.”

Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano filed the impeachment complaint on Thursday, citing thousands of supposedly drug-related killings, summary executions in Davao City when Duterte was city mayor, as well as alleged graft and corruption in Davao City Hall.

Deputy Minority Leader Harry Roque said the impeachment complaint is “bound to fail.”

“First, he cannot be held liable – meaning he cannot be impeached – for acts which happened before he became president,” the Kabayan party-list representative said in a statement.

“Second, as it stands at the moment, the President’s ties to the extralegal killings in connection with Oplan Tokhang is non-existent at worst and tenuous at best,” he said, referring to the “knock and plead” police operations in which authorities go to the homes of drug suspects to ask them to surrender. Many of the operations turned bloody as the suspects often fought back or resisted authorities.

Roque said the evidence gathered by the Center for International Law, which sued for and was successfully granted by the Supreme Court a Writ of Amparo against Tokhang agents, “suggests more work needs to be done to find a clear link between the police and the President.”

“We are confronted with a figure of 8,000 deaths from Tokhang; yet, how many of these have been properly documented so as to establish clear lines of culpability leading to the President?” he asked.

‘Haste makes waste’

Roque said Duterte’s opponents may have wasted the opportunity to constitutionally oust the President.

“This highlights the importance of case building. Remember that only one impeachment case may be filed against the President per year,” he said.

“In their hasty desire to bring down the President, they may have squandered this opportunity to do so. Haste makes waste,” he added.

Nograles for his part said newspaper articles and those published on websites “amount to hearsay evidence and are therefore not only inadmissible but without any probative value at all.”

“Congress cannot act on something that is based on a chismis [gossip],” Nograles said in a statement.
He described the filing of the impeachment complaint as a “fishing expedition.”

“This is not how due process works. If you have an allegation, you must back it up with evidence. Complaints based on hearsay and barbershop talks can never be used as basis for any complaint,” Nograles said.

The lawmaker agreed that Duterte cannot be impeached for alleged offenses supposedly committed before he became President.

“The offense must relate to his position as an impeachable official, where it has an effect on his efficiency to govern,” Nograles said.

The Constitution provides the House of Representatives exclusive power to initiate impeachment cases. Citizens may file complaints, provided that they get a lawmaker’s endorsement.

The House justice committee then votes on whether the complaint is sufficient in form and substance.

A vote of one-third of the House members is needed for the matter to proceed to the Senate which, under the Constitution, has the sole power to try and decide impeachment cases.

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HOUSE Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez’s threat to impeach Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo is “utterly irresponsible,” Robredo’s camp said on Saturday, as the Vice President denied claims she was behind the impeachment raps filed by the Magdalo party-list group against President Rodrigo Duterte last week.

OCCUPY ‘BORACAY’ A group of protesters led by actress Vivian Velez (third from left) storm the official residence of Vice President Maria Leonor ‘Leni’ Robredo in New Manila, Quezon City on Saturday to demand her impeachment or resignation. The residence now occupies the site of the infamous ‘Boracay’ mansion linked to ex-president Joseph Estrada. PHOTO BY MIKE DE JUAN

Talking to reporters in Naga City, Robredo said she was only able to read about Alvarez’s remarks on social media.

“It is difficult to comment because I do not know what his basis is. But the President repeated several times that he is sure that I am not part of any destabilization plot. If his (Alvarez’s) basis is the impeachment complaint filed by Magdalo, they themselves said that I was not part of that filing,” Robredo said.

Robredo’s spokeswoman, Georgina Hernandez, in a television interview on Friday noted that Alvarez had admitted that he still needed to consult his legal team before filing an impeachment complaint.

“And if that is the case, he is making such public statements without sufficient basis and it is purely speculation, really,” she said, adding that “We really think that such statements should not be taken seriously and these are really just empty threats and trying to mind-condition the public.”

Alvarez made the threat to impeach Robredo on Friday, claiming the Vice President betrayed public trust for maligning the country in a video message before a United Nations meeting on illegal drugs in Vienna, Austria last week.

In the video clip, Robredo spoke out against Duterte’s anti-drug war and the so-called “palit-ulo” scheme, wherein the police would take a member of the family of a drug suspect without a warrant if the suspect didn’t want to surrender.

Video ‘factual’

Robredo said her video message was “very factual.”

“That statement came from stories that were conveyed to our office. In fact, we tried to request for data from the DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government) and PNP (Philippine National Police) as early as January. But our letter was not answered. So we did not know where to turn to. The people who come to us seek protection, seek help. We cannot afford to do nothing,” she said.

Hernandez said: “There is nothing in the video that shows any sort of action as all of the statements on the video are based on facts coming from first-hand accounts of families, urban poor families who sought refuge by visiting personally the Office of the Vice President to share their experiences, as regards the various operations happening in relation to the government’s war on drugs.”

Robredo also denied Malacañang’s claim that the release of the video was timed to coincide with the filing of an impeachment complaint against Duterte last week, as part of a grand scheme to undermine the administration.

The Palace and Alvarez both claimed Robredo was behind the complaint as she would benefit the most from Duterte’s ouster. Robredo is Duterte’s constitutional successor.

“It is just a coincidence that it was released recently…because it would be used in a conference this March. But that was long ago. Long ago,” Robredo said.

Hernandez said those behind the United Nations anti-narcotics meeting made the request for a message from the Vice President last month, and the video message was sent to the organizers before the end of February.

“The decision as to when it will be shared and posted online depended solely on the schedule of the conference, which was beyond our control. We really see here based on facts and timelines, that there is no such coordination as to the filing of the impeachment case and the releasing of the video,” she added.

Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano on Thursday filed an impeachment complaint against President Duterte over thousands of supposedly drug-related killings, summary executions in Davao City when Duterte was city mayor, as well as alleged graft and corruption.

“As to the plan or the objective of the House speaker, we really could not tell at this point. But we see it is purely conditioning the mind of the public and also really trying to bring the credibility of the Vice President down as she continues to really focus on her work as Vice President, focusing on the real problems of our country including that of poverty alleviation,” Hernandez said.

‘Harmful lies’

The erstwhile ruling Liberal Party said on Saturday that accusations linking Robredo to supposed efforts to undermine the Duterte administration were “baseless, orchestrated lies” that could harm the country.

Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan reminded the administration that just recently, Duterte himself said Robredo was not involved in supposed destabilization efforts against him.

“The President’s allies should take this cue from him and refrain from sowing lies, as this is infecting the nation instead of uniting us,” Pangilinan, who is the LP president, said in a statement.

“They should stop destabilizing the administration and focus instead on the gargantuan tasks of delivering on its campaign promises such as end ‘endo’ and create jobs, finish the traffic nightmare and ease commuters’ lives, and stop corruption and move the country forward, among others,” Pangilinan added.

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MANILA has sought clarification from Beijing amid reports China was planning to build an environmental monitoring station on Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal, a Malacañang official said on Saturday.

“We are seeking information from Chinese authorities to clarify the accuracy of the report,” presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said in a text message.

Hainan Daily newspaper, quoting Sansha Communist Party Secretary Xiao Jie, has reported that China would begin preparatory work this year to build environmental monitoring stations on a number of islands, including Panatag Shoal.

This comes as the Philippines seeks a diplomatic solution with China to resolve a dispute over the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

Manila is not insisting on its rights over the contested waters despite an international arbitration tribunal ruling favoring the Philippines.

China seized Panatag Shoal in 2012 after a standoff with the Philippine Navy. It then denied Filipino fishermen access to the disputed area, forcing the previous Aquino administration to take legal action against Beijing.

The United Nations-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague invalidated China’s claims to the West Philippine Sea in July 2016, ruling that the Philippines has sovereign rights over Panatag Shoal and other areas within its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone. China refused to recognize the ruling.

Tensions eased when President Rodrigo Duterte visited China the same year, telling his counterparts that he was not yet ready to insist on the tribunal decision.

Recently, Chinese survey ships were monitored at the resource-rich Benham Rise, an area that is part of the Philippines’ extended continental shelf east of Luzon, for about three months.

The Chinese foreign ministry said the Philippines did not own Benham Rise but the Philippine government maintains that it “belongs to the Filipino people and the Philippines.”

On Friday, President Duterte met with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang in Davao City to unveil a new six-year development cooperation plan, but the two did not discuss the maritime dispute.

No monitoring

Also on Saturday, Malacañang denied that Chinese ships were in Benham Rise to monitor the alleged presence of US submarines in the country’s continental shelf.

Abella said the Philippine government does not allow Chinese vessels in Benham Rise to do such monitoring.
“We have not heard of such information,” Abella stressed as he reiterated Duterte’s previous statement that he does not want the Philippines to be caught in the conflict between the US and China.

“Be that as it may, the President will not allow that as he said in numerous occasions that he does not want the Philippines to be caught in the middle of a conflict between the United States and China,” the Palace official said.

Duterte had downplayed the presence of Chinese ships in Benham Rise, China sought permission to send its ships to the area.

The Palace official said the Philippines is duty-bound to protect its sovereign rights over the Benham Rise and can oversee and regulate the ships that pass through the area.

“Other countries can exercise innocent passage and territorial navigation. But they are disallowed to stay and establish any structure in the area… The Philippines has the responsibility to oversee and regulate the sailing ships of other countries that pass with the waters around Benham Rise,” Abella said.

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BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe issued a staunch joint defence of free trade Sunday, as the United States pushes towards greater protectionism.

“We want free and open markets,” Merkel said in a speech in Hanover, a day before the world’s biggest computer trade fair, CeBIT, kicks off in the central German city. The event is partnered with Japan this year.

“In these times of inter-connectedness, we want to link together our societies and work together in an equitable way. That’s what free trade is about,” she said.

She made no direct reference to US President Donald Trump, elected on a protectionist “America First” platform promising to slash trade deficits, but noted that the European Union and Japan are negotiating a free trade deal that may be reached this year.

“At a time when we are arguing a lot over free trade, open borders and democratic values, it’s a good sign that Japan and Germany are not arguing” over trade, she said.

Abe, who is in Hanover as part of a European tour, said that Japan “wants to be the champion upholding open systems alongside Germany”.

He said it was through connectedness that economies would grow, and called for a swift conclusion to the EU-Japan trade deal.

But he added: “We must not create conditions by which wealth becomes concentrated among only some people.”

At a fraught G20 meeting in the German spa town of Baden-Baden on Saturday, the US challenged long-standing global principles surrounding free trade, refusing to renew past anti-protectionist pledges and threatening to reopen negotiations on World Trade Organization deals.

Since taking office, Trump has withdrawn the US from a trans-Pacific free trade pact and attacked export giants China and Germany over their massive trade surpluses. AFP

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FORMER Senator Leticia Ramos- Shahani passed away early Monday at the age of 87.



Her daughter confirmed in a television interview that her mother died at 2:40 a.m. at the intensive care unit (ICU) of St. Luke’s Medical Center at Bonifacio Global City.



“Its difficult but you know all we want now is for my mom not to be in pain and that thought gives us a great deal of peace, that she is no longer in pain,” Lila said.



Ramos-Shahani, sister of former President Fidel V. Ramos, was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer two years ago.
 


She underwent chemotherapy and was doing fairly well but her health suddenly deteriorated in November last year.



The former senator ran in the 1987 national election and won. While in the Senate, she was the chairman of various committees like the committee on Foreign Affairs, committee on Education, Culture and Arts, committee on Agriculture . She was also a member of the Commission on Appointments (CA).



Shahani was a former Dean of the Graduate School of the Lyceum of the Philippines. She taught English Literature, French, Spanish, Comparative Literature, Humanities, Social Psychology and others. Jeff Antiporda

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WASHINGTON: The directors of the FBI and NSA are to give keenly awaited testimony before Congress Monday on what ties President Donald Trump may have with Russia and his explosive allegation that he was wiretapped by his predecessor Barack Obama.

Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey and Mike Rogers of the National Security Agency will speak publicly for the first time about two issues that have riveted the American public for weeks and further divided the country’s two ever-at-odds political parties.

The stakes for the tycoon-turned-world-leader could hardly be higher.

Comey will testify before the House Intelligence Committee at a hearing aimed at probing Russia’s interference in the 2016 election campaign. Rogers is also scheduled to testify.

Trump and his entourage’s possible ties with the Russia of President Vladimir Putin have been the subject of much speculation since before he was elected on November 8.

US intelligence agencies in January took the extraordinary step of stating publicly that they had concluded that hackers working for Russia broke into the email accounts of senior Democrats and released embarrassing ones with the aim of helping Trump defeat Hillary Clinton.

Even since then, the question of whether Trump and company were or are somehow in cahoots with Russia has dominated the national conversation.

A congressional panel so far has found no evidence that Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia, its chairman said Sunday.

Based on “everything I have up to this morning — no evidence of collusion,” by Trump’s team and Moscow, Representative Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told Fox News.

Moscow has denied involvement in the hacks, and Trump has denounced the tumult over alleged Russia connections as a “total witch hunt.”

Monday’s hearing was also expected to address a second explosive issue: Trump’s unsubstantiated accusations that the Obama administration wiretapped his phone at Trump Tower in New York during the campaign.

Trump on March 4 tweeted that Obama had “tapped” his phone — a charge that has consumed political debate in the US capital.

Obsessed with an unsubstantiated claim

Several congressional panels have launched investigations into Russia’s alleged interference, including the House and Senate intelligence committees, which have jurisdiction over the nation’s 17 intelligence agencies, and the House and Senate judiciary committees.

The FBI is also probing Russian interference in the election.

The question remains whether the agency has opened a criminal investigation into possible ties between Trump campaign aides and Russian officials.

Monday’s hearing promises to be a very public showdown between the FBI and lawmakers, with the national security world certain to watch whether Comey drops a political bombshell.

Members of Congress have expressed frustration over what they call the lack of cooperation from the FBI about Russia and Trump’s wiretap claim, which Obama and an array of other officials have flatly denied.

The issue of wiretapping first surfaced last month, when Trump’s national security adviser Michael Flynn was forced to resign after it was revealed he had misled top officials over his contacts with the Russian ambassador to Washington to discuss sanctions Obama had just announced against Russia over the election hacking.

Around the same time, The New York Times reported that US intelligence had intercepted calls showing that members of Trump’s campaign had repeated contacts with top Russian intelligence officials in the year preceding the election.

Nunes has said that the intelligence committee probe focuses in part on who revealed that Flynn had unreported private contacts with the Russians over the sanctions issue.

Adding to the intrigue, Trump’s attorney general Jeff Sessions recused himself from any Russia-related inquiries after it was learned that he had met twice with the Russian ambassador in the months before Trump took office, and had failed to disclose this during his confirmation hearing when asked a question about such contacts and speaking under oath.

Trump’s credibility takes a hit

Domestically, the controversy over the wiretapping claim has pulled attention away from Trump’s effort to push through other key items on his agenda, including the planned repeal of Obama’s healthcare law, tax reform and his controversial travel ban.

Critics say it has also debased the already coarse tone of political debate in Washington and eroded the president’s credibility at home and abroad.

Some of the fallout has been international in scope: The White House was forced to retract a charge repeated last week by its spokesman Sean Spicer suggesting that Britain’s intelligence services aided the Obama administration in the alleged wiretap. That claim has strained relations with America’s closest ally.

Still, as recently as Friday, Trump repeated the claim in an aside during a White House press conference with Angela Merkel.

“As far as wiretapping, I guess, by this past administration, at least we have something in common, perhaps,” Trump told the German chancellor, referring to a WikiLeaks report in 2015 that the US had monitored calls involving Merkel and her top aides for years. AFP

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PARIS: The man shot dead at Paris’s Orly airport after attacking a soldier was under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time, a judicial source said Sunday.

Investigators are still trying to understand what motivated Saturday’s assault by 39-year-old Ziyed Ben Belgacem, which led to a major security scare and the temporary closure of the capital’s second-busiest airport.

“Toxicology tests carried out on Sunday showed an alcohol level of 0.93 grams per litre in his blood, and the presence of cannabis and cocaine,” the source said.

Ben Belgacem’s father had insisted earlier Sunday that his son was “not a terrorist” and that his actions were caused by drink and drugs.

Ben Belgacem, who was born in France to Tunisian parents, grabbed a soldier on patrol at Orly’s southern terminal on Saturday morning. He put a gun to her head and seized her rifle, saying he wanted to “die for Allah”.

The attacker, who had also fired at police in a northern Paris suburb earlier that morning, was shot dead by two other soldiers after a scuffle.

Ben Belgacem’s father insisted his son — who had spent time in prison for armed robbery and drug-dealing — was not a extremist.

“My son was not a terrorist. He never prayed, and he drank,” the father, who was in shock and whose first name was not given, told Europe 1 radio.

Investigators were examining his telephone.

The attack at Orly comes with France still on high alert following a wave of jihadist attacks that have claimed more than 230 lives in two years.

The violence has made security a key issue in France’s two-round presidential election on April 23 and May 7.

Not on terror watchlist

Ben Belgacem’s brother and cousin were released Sunday after they, like the attacker’s father, were held for questioning. All three had approached police themselves on Saturday after the attack.

After spending Friday night in a bar with his cousin, Ben Belgacem was pulled over by police for speeding in the gritty northern Paris suburb of Garges-les-Gonesse, where he lived, just before 7:00 am.

He drew a gun and fired, slightly injuring one officer. Shortly after, he contacted his relatives to tell them he had “done something stupid”, they told police.

Ben Belgacem later appeared at the bar where he had been the previous night, firing more shots and stealing another car before continuing on to the airport.

He had been investigated in 2015 over suspicions he had radicalised while serving jail time, but his name did not feature on the list of those thought to pose a high risk.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said Ben Belgacem appeared to have become caught up in a “sort of headlong flight that became more and more destructive”.

Dozens of flights to and from Orly were cancelled during an hours-long shutdown after the incident, but by Sunday afternoon air traffic had returned to normal, a spokeswoman for the Paris airports authority said.

The shooting took place on the second day of a visit to Paris by Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate, which was unaffected.

‘I’ve screwed up’

Ben Belgacem’s father told Europe 1 his son had called him after the first police shooting “in a state of extreme agitation”.

“He said to me: ‘Daddy, please forgive me. I’ve screwed up with a police officer’.”

At the time of his death, Ben Belgacem was carrying a petrol can in his backpack, as well as 750 euros ($805) in cash, a copy of the Koran, a packet of cigarettes and a lighter.

A small amount of cocaine and a machete were found during a search of his home on Saturday.

Soldiers guarding key sites have been targeted in four attacks in the past two years but escaped with only minor injuries.

In mid-February, a machete-wielding Egyptian man attacked a soldier outside Paris’s Louvre museum, injuring him slightly, before being shot and wounded.

President Francois Hollande said Saturday his government was “determined to fight relentlessly against terrorism.” AFP

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SYDNEY: A fisherman whose body was pulled from the water Monday was likely killed by a large crocodile, police said, after his empty dinghy and speargun were found in northern Australia.

The 35-year-old was fishing alone off Innisfail, south of Cairns in Queensland state, and was reported missing on Sunday evening when the boat and floating speargun, which was pierced through a fish, were discovered.

An aerial and water search was launched with a body retrieved on Monday morning.

“Initial investigations suggest the man may have been taken by a crocodile,” Queensland police said, adding that they believe it was a four-meter (13-feet) beast.

“Wildlife officers from the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection are targeting the crocodile for removal.”

The Cairns Post reported an aggressive crocodile, thought to be the same one, attacked a police boat late Sunday in what Inspector Rhys Newton said was indicative of behavior when the reptile has killed recently or is protecting a food source.

It was the second blow in a month to the local spearfishing community after a man recently had his leg ripped off by a shark at nearby Hinchinbrook Island, the newspaper said.

The latest tragedy came only a day after a teenager escaped the jaws of a crocodile by punching it in the head during a late night swim in a river close to Innisfail.

The 18-year-old suffered extensive injuries to his left arm after being dared to jump in by his friends.

Australia is home to freshwater and saltwater crocodiles with the more feared “salties” growing up to seven meters long.

Saltwater crocodile numbers have exploded since they were declared a protected species in 1971, with recent attacks reigniting debate about controlling them.

They kill an average of two people each year in Australia. AFP

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WELLINGTON: A US diplomat has been expelled from New Zealand after Washington refused to waive diplomatic immunity so police investigating a serious crime could question him, officials said Monday.

Details of the alleged crime have not been revealed but local media reported the diplomat left the South Pacific nation last week suffering a broken nose and black eye.

Prime Minister Bill English labeled the US knock back on immunity regrettable and said he expected American authorities to carry out their own investigation.

“We expect all diplomats here to obey our law and if it’s broken we’d expect our police to investigate,” English told reporters.

“We regret that they didn’t give us a waiver on immunity but they didn’t and now it’s in the hands of their authorities.”

Earlier, Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said he was “disappointed” at the US refusal and in response had asked for the man at the center of the police investigation to be withdrawn from New Zealand.

He said Wellington’s ambassador in Washington had raised the issue with US officials.

Police said they were called to an incident in Lower Hutt, on Wellington’s outskirts, in the early hours of March 12, which “involved an individual from the US embassy in Wellington.”

By the time they arrived the person had left the scene and no arrests were made.

Attempts to further investigate hit a diplomatic brick wall, however police said they still regarded the case as active.

McCully said foreign affairs officials relayed a police request to waive immunity but their US counterparts refused.

Local media named the diplomat as Colin White and said he left Wellington with his wife and children.

TVNZ, which broke the story, reported that White was a technical attaché who had been working closely with New Zealand’s intelligence service, the GCSB.

A spokeswoman for the US embassy said they were “communicating with New Zealand authorities” on the issue.

“As a matter of policy, we do not comment on the specifics of matters under investigation,” she said in a statement.

“We take seriously any suggestion that our staff have fallen short of the high standards of conduct expected of US government personnel.”

McCully said the US had stated it always fully investigated all allegations involving its diplomatic staff.

Diplomatic immunity, formalized in the 1961 Vienna Convention, means foreign envoys are protected from local law enforcement in the country to which they are posted.

The most recent known case of it being invoked in New Zealand was in 2014, when Malaysian military attaché Mohammed Rizalman bin Ismail was accused of indecent assault.

It was eventually revoked and Rizalman was sentenced to nine months’ home detention after being found guilty in a Wellington court. AFP

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