President Rodrigo Duterte signed an executive order prohibiting junkets of government officials and employees.
Under Executive Order (EO) no. 77, signed on March 15 but released to media on Friday, official local or foreign travels and assignments will only be allowed under very strict circumstances and these will have to be approved first by their head of office. 

Those traveling abroad will only be given pre-departure expenses not exceeding P3,500.  

Private individuals serving as consultants to government agencies and family members of government officials, except when diplomatic protocol or established international practices provide otherwise, will not be issued foreign travel authorities, and will not be entitled to allowances.  RALPH U. VILLANUEVA

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MIAMI: Serena Williams survived an “irresponsible” second set lapse on Friday to see off Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson 6-3, 1-6, 6-1 in her second-round opener of the WTA and ATP Miami Open.

“I wasn’t really happy with my performance,” admitted the 23-time Grand Slam champion, who is playing in just her third tournament of 2019 having lost in the Australian Open quarter-finals before retiring in the second set of her third-round match against Garbine Muguruza with a viral illness at Indian Wells last week.

“Had to take a lot of time off the last week,” she said. “It’s definitely not easy at all. But I’m through it. That’s that. I’ve just got to get my game back to where I know it can be.

“I told myself at the end of the second set that I could not lose this match.

“I knew that I could play a lot, lot, lot better. I just had to be better. At this point it was irresponsible to be playing the way I was playing in the second set.”

Williams, an eight time winner in Miami, was just relieved to make it through to the third round where she will meet China’s Wang Qiang who thrashed Britain’s Jo Konta, the 2017 Miami Open champion, 6-4 6-0.

The former world number one was certainly rusty in her first ever match against the 63rd-ranked Swede, despite starting strongly and easing into a first set lead.

Peterson, however, who lost in the first round in Indian Wells, produced some excellent tennis in the second and managed to break down Williams’s serve to take the match into a deciding set.

As the South Florida sun began to lower, Williams appeared to struggle with her ball toss.

“It was interesting, because first of all it was dark out there, which was really odd,” Williams said. “I wasn’t sure if there should be lights. The shadow was so intense it was actually dark.

“Then there was light, but only on my side. That was weird because I literally couldn’t see.

“But I need to just move on and really focus on playing better or not being in the tournament much longer.”

Williams, 37, is still seeking a first title since the birth of daughter Alexis Olympia.

She admitted it was sometimes hard to stay patient, although she believes returning to the top 10 after her extended maternity leave qualifies as “extremely successful.”

“It’s just a step at a time,” she said. “Just because my level of success is so much higher than what’s natural, I have to take these moments and say, ‘You’re doing great,’ encourage myself in a positive way so I can get that success that I want to have since coming back from the baby.” AFP

AFP/CC

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WASHINGTON, D.C.: Special counsel Robert Mueller on Friday submitted his long-awaited report into an explosive two-year investigation of Russian meddling in Donald Trump’s 2016 election — a probe the president denounces as a “witch hunt” and opponents say could fuel impeachment.

What the report says is confidential, but Attorney General Bill Barr wrote in a letter to Congress that he might be able to summarize its “principal conclusions” for Congress as early as this weekend.

The Mueller drama, filled with unprecedented allegations of collusion or even treason by a US president in league with Moscow, has dogged Trump since he took office following his surprise election defeat of Hillary Clinton.

Throughout, he has maintained that he is the victim of a “witch hunt,” while Democratic opponents, who won control of the lower house of Congress last year, say Trump has yet to adequately explain his links to Russia.

Mueller, a Vietnam war veteran and former FBI director, worked in near total secrecy for two years. With his mission as special counsel wrapping up, it is now up to Barr, appointed by Trump, to decide how much of the report to make public.

Public and political pressure for full disclosure is intense and Barr said he is “committed to as much transparency as possible.”

There was one key piece of information already confirmed by the justice department, however: Mueller is not recommending any further indictments.

Over the course of his probe, Mueller charged three-dozen individuals and entities, including 25 Russians and six former Trump aides.

But the news that no more indictments are planned means potentially vulnerable figures close to the president, including his son Donald Trump Jr and powerful son-in-law Jared Kushner, will likely rest easier this weekend.

Trump himself made no comment from his Mar-a-Lago golf club resort in Florida, while he awaited the report. His spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the White House now looks “forward to the process taking its course.”

Elaborate Russian meddling

Even before the report sees light, Mueller’s previous indictments and court filings have revealed much about the most shocking investigation of a presidential election in US history.

These court documents described sustained efforts by Moscow to influence the 2016 vote and disrupt the country’s democratic system.

Mueller described Russian government hackers and a social media troll farm working in a concerted effort to boost Trump over Clinton.

It was after seeing scores of unexplained contacts between the Trump campaign and Russians, that the FBI launched a probe into possible collusion. Trump then fired FBI chief James Comey and as a result the investigation was put in the hands of a special independent prosecutor — Mueller.

Avoiding any leaks to the media — a rare thing in Washington — Mueller’s crack team of lawyers brought charges against Trump associates Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, Michael Cohen, George Papadopoulos, and Roger Stone.

Five have been convicted of various crimes. Crucially, however, none have been charged with conspiracy to collude with the Russians.

Trump against ‘witch hunt’

That fact has formed the basis of Trump’s constant, loud assertions that “there was no collusion” and that he is the victim of a “hoax” run by Democrats.

In reality, legal experts say, Mueller may have dug up compromising material about Trump’s Russia links, but not enough to stand up in a court of law.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the issues will go away. Some could continue to be the subject of FBI counter-intelligence probes and some alleged crimes have already been picked up by regular federal prosecutors.

Among the many unanswered questions is the extent of Trump’s business dealings with Russia, which include a previously undisclosed bid to build a Trump tower in Moscow, with talks continuing through 2016.

But Trump may be able to declare he has been vindicated from the start in saying Mueller would not demonstrate collusion.

The president had been attacking Mueller on these grounds just hours before the report dropped.

“For two years we’ve gone through this nonsense, because there’s no collusion with Russia,” he said. “People will not stand for it.”

Mueller was also tasked with looking into whether Trump tried to obstruct justice by hampering the Russia probe. Trump had answer for that too.

“He (Trump) obstructed in fighting against the hoax. OK?” he said on Fox television.

Full disclosure battle

The battle will now rage over how much of the report can be seen and by whom.

Democrats called immediately for the contents to be released.

“It is imperative for Barr to make the full report public and provide its underlying documentation and findings to Congress,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement.

Jerry Nadler, Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which is to receive Barr’s summary, said: “Transparency and the public interest demand nothing less. The need for public faith in the rule of law must be the priority.”

The chairs of five other committees joined Nadler in a statement calling for the report to be released “without delay,” as well as the underlying evidence uncovered during the investigation.

Those calls were echoed by Democratic presidential hopefuls including Senator Elizabeth Warren who urged: “Attorney General Barr — release the Mueller report to the American public. Now.” AFP

AFP/CC

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SYDNEY: A “very destructive” category 4 cyclone slammed into Australia’s remote northern coast on Saturday, while a second, equally powerful storm bore down on the country’s west.

Cyclone Trevor, pushing a huge storm tide and packing winds of up to 250 kilometers per hour (150 mph), made landfall on the sparsely populated Northern Territory coast near the Gulf of Carpentaria town of Port McArthur, national broadcaster ABC reported.

The army and police had already evacuated most residents from communities in Trevor’s path, though a handful of locals remained behind, police told the ABC.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said Trevor was driving a “very dangerous storm tide” along coastal regions and that heavy rainfall was expected to cause flooding across wide areas of the Northern Territory and neighbouring Queensland.

Meanwhile another category 4 cyclone, Veronica, was bearing down on the more heavily populated mining region of Pilbara in Western Australia state, where it was expected to make landfall late Saturday or Sunday.

Jonathan Howe of the BOM said Veronica was expected to slow down as it approached the coast near the mining centre of Port Hedland, carrying up to a metre of rain for some areas and pushing a storm surge than could reach four metres (nine feet).

“We could see widespread inundation,” of the region, he said. AFP

AFP/CC

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WASHINGTON, D.C.: President Donald Trump on Friday abruptly announced the cancellation of sanctions imposed by his own Treasury Department to tighten international pressure on North Korea.

“It was announced today by the U.S. Treasury that additional large scale Sanctions would be added to those already existing Sanctions on North Korea. I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions!” Trump said in a tweet.

He appeared to be referring to measures unveiled Thursday that targeted two Chinese companies accused of helping North Korea to evade tight international sanctions meant to pressure Pyongyang into ending its nuclear weapons program.

But The Washington Post reported, citing Trump administration officials, that the president’s tweet referenced future sanctions that had not been announced and were scheduled for “the coming days.”

The Thursday sanctions were the first new sign of pressure since talks between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un broke down in Hanoi less than a month ago.

However, Trump, who has previously spoken of “love” for the totalitarian leader, appears to retain hope that his strong personal relationship will bear fruit.

“President Trump likes Chairman Kim and he doesn’t think these sanctions will be necessary,” the president’s spokeswoman, Sarah Sanders, said.

Adam Schiff, a Democrat who heads the intelligence committee in the House of Representatives, blasted Trump for cancelling sanctions “imposed only yesterday and championed by his own national security advisor, because he ‘loves’ Kim.”

“Foolish naivete is dangerous enough. Gross incompetence and disarray in the White House make it even worse,” Schiff tweeted.

On Thursday, Trump national security advisor John Bolton had tweeted that the sanctions were meant to put an end to “illicit shipping practices” by North Korea.

“Everyone should take notice and review their own activities to ensure they are not involved in North Korea’s sanctions evasion,” he said.

China complained, saying that it did enforce all UN resolutions and opposed “any country imposing unilateral sanctions and taking long-arm jurisdiction against any Chinese entity according to their own domestic laws.”

This was Trump’s second major, unexpected foreign policy announcement by Twitter in two days.

On Thursday, he sent a tweet reversing decades of US policy and pledged to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the hotly contested Golan Heights border area with Syria. AFP

AFP/CC

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Philippine boxing legend Manny Pacquiao took to social media to poll millions of fans on who they think should be his next opponent, having brushed off calls to hang up his gloves after turning 40.

“Who should I fight next?” the world’s only eight-division champion asked in a Twitter survey that drew 27,380 votes after five hours and listed Floyd Mayweather, Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia and Shawn Porter as the choices.

The poll, also linked to Pacquiao’s Facebook wall, has 18 more hours to run. It did not indicate how the voting had gone so far.

Pacquiao, who has 2.51 million followers on Twitter and 11.76 million on Facebook, is known to have been angling for a rematch with Mayweather, who beat the Filipino on points in the world’s richest prize fight in 2015.

Who should I fight next?

— Manny Pacquiao (@MannyPacquiao) March 23, 2019

Pacquiao’s decisive victory over American fighter Adrien Broner in January was supposed to have opened the door to that route. But the unbeaten Mayweather, officially retired, has been non-committal.

Many Facebook users urged Pacquiao, who has 61 wins including 39 knockouts against seven losses and two draws in a 24-year career, to fight Mayweather.

“Floyd of course then retire,” Carlos De Luna Lagunsad added.

But another fan urged the 40-year-old to face International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Errol Spence, who easily beat challenger Garcia in a match between two previously undefeated boxers on Saturday.

“Show this young guys why u r a living legend,” Meg Osh Tin Oniuqa said. AFP

AFP/CC

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The Philippines does not need the help of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to resolve its maritime dispute with China, Malacañang said on Saturday.

Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo made the statement as he claimed that the communication lodged against Chinese President Xi Jinping before the ICC for alleged crimes against humanity might not prosper.

“Former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales and former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario may have the right to file the complaint against Chinese President Xi Jing Ping before the ICC as individuals over a perceived violation committed against their country or their countrymen,” he said.

[However], we do not need the help or disturbance of a biased tribunal known to politically prosecute heads of state, the very reason why powerful countries like the United States, China, Russia, and Israel, to name only a few, have either withdrawn their membership as State Parties from the Rome Statute or declined to be members of the ICC,” he added.

Del Rosario and Carpio, on behalf of Filipino fishermen, filed a communication against Xi and other Chinese officials for their actions in the South China Sea that allegedly constitutes crimes against humanity.

“These acts of Chinese officials and nationals inflict food and livelihood deprivation to the inhabitants of the coastal States in the South China Sea, which therefore constitute ‘inhuman acts… intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health,'” the communication read.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who has engaged China “peacefully,” said the two former government officials were “entitled” to submit their complaint against Beijing.

He expressed confidence that the filing of the complaint against Xi would not strain the relations between the Philippines and Beijing.

“The Philippines is a democratic country and anybody can bring a suit against anybody but whether or not it would prosper, or whether or not we have the jurisdiction, that’s something else. Remember China is not a member of the ICC,” Duterte said on Thursday.

Panelo said Del Rosario and Carpio-Morales could have been motivated with “righteous indignation over the establishment of structures on some parts of the South China Sea which have been ruled to be rightfully belonging to us.”

“To their minds, the establishment of those structures endanger the environment as well as our fishermen,” he said.

Panelo, however, stressed that Del Rosario and Carpio-Morales were “not authorized to lodge a complaint against China at the ICC on behalf of the Philippines.”

“Whether or not the case will prosper is another matter. It could be dismissed because China is not a member of the ICC, so is the Philippines. The filing of the complaint may be a futile exercise. The ICC has no jurisdiction over China,” he added.

The Palace official also stressed that the Philippines and China were already engaged in a “diplomatic negotiation.”

“We reiterate that the Philippines under the Duterte Administration is engaged in a diplomatic negotiation, through a bilateral consultation mechanism, over the West Philippine Sea issue,” Panelo said.

“The critics and detractors will have a field day criticizing the President in the event the case is dismissed by the ICC for lack of jurisdiction. They can claim that it was a mistake for the Philippine government to withdraw its membership from the Rome Statute as the ICC can no longer serve as a venue to prosecute President Xi for an alleged commission of crime against humanity,” he added.

Negotiation

Former Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile also said he favors negotiation with China even if the Philippines has the right over some areas in the SCS (West Philippine Sea).

“We have a right that is given, not only given by a convention [and] agreed upon by the international community through the [United Nations], but also pronounced by an international arbitral body,” said Enrile, who is vying for a fifth term in the Senate in the May mid-term elections.

“But having that right, does that vest in you the capacity to exploit your right because somebody is claiming it too?” he asked.

Under present circumstances, Enrile believes that the Philippines may either enter into negotiation or conflict with China.

“In the game of nations, there are only two options that are available to us. Either we raise an army to match our competitor over that claim or we approach it through discussion, talking, negotiation,” the veteran lawmaker said.

“If we opt to fight China, we must have the money to raise an army, if at all. And even if we can raise that money, are we willing to sacrifice the blood and lives of our young people to fight a war that we may not be able to win? And even if we win, could it cause us ruin?” Enrile asked.

He said China acknowledges the Philippines’ privilege over the disputed area.

“On the other hand, if China wants to talk to us, and I think they’re willing to talk to us, which to me is an evidence of the fact that they recognize our right over the area, why don’t we talk to them and negotiate the problem?” he stressed.

The former Senate President, added that the Philippines does not have the money “to explore the presence of hydrocarbon fuel in that area or mineral resources.”

“Even if we have [those resources] there, if we cannot exploit it, what good is that deposit there? Apart from that, we can take advantage of the market of China,” Enrile said.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson also lauded del Rosario and Morales for taking action against China.

“It is a patriotic move on the part of former Ombudsman Morales and former DFA Secretary Del Rosario that deserves the support of every freedom loving Filipino whose duty is to protect and preserve our country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Lacson said in a statement.

CATHERINE S. VALENTE and JAVIER JOE ISMAEL

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BAGHOUZ, Syria: Kurdish-led forces pronounced the death of the Islamic State group’s nearly five-year-old “caliphate” Saturday after flushing out diehard jihadists from their very last bastion in eastern Syria.

Fighters of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces raised their yellow flag in Baghouz, the remote riverside village where diehard jihadists of a variety of nationalities made a desperate, dramatic last stand.

The SDF’s victory capped a painstaking six-month operation and will go down as a symbolic date in a war that changed the face of the region and spurred a spate of global terror attacks.

“Syrian Democratic Forces declare total elimination of so-called caliphate and 100 percent territorial defeat of ISIS,” spokesman Mustefa Bali said in a statement, using another acronym for IS.

The state proclaimed in mid-2014 by fugitive IS supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi started collapsing in 2017 when parallel offensives in Iraq and Syria wrested back its main hubs of Raqa and Mosul.

The nearly five years of fighting against the most brutal jihadist group in modern history left thousand-year-old cities in ruins and populations homeless.

The territory administered by the remnants of IS continued to shrink month after month and in September 2018 the SDF launched a final offensive on the last dregs of the “caliphate” in its Euphrates Valley strongholds.

Kurdish officers and aid groups were flummoxed by the number of people who had remained holed up in the last IS redoubt of Baghouz, a small village even few Syrians had ever heard of until this year.

Aid emergency

As SDF forces pummelled IS positions and US warplanes dropped huge payloads on the riverside village, tens of thousands of people fled over a rocky hill and trudged through the plains in biblical scenes.

For weeks, the ghostly figures of the caliphate’s last denizens hobbled out of the besieged village, famished, often wounded but sometimes still defiantly proclaiming their support for IS.

The Kurdish-led force and foreign intelligence screened more than 60,000 people since January, around 10 percent of them jihadists turning themselves in.

Most of the people evacuated from the smoldering ruins of Baghouz in recent days were relatives of IS members who now fill overcrowded camps further north in Syria’s Kurdish-controlled region.

The biggest of them, Al-Hol, is now struggling to host 74,000 people, including at least 25,000 school-aged children.

Among them are thousands of foreigners from France, Russia, Belgium and 40-plus countries that are in most cases unwilling to take them back.

“The needs are huge and the camp is overwhelmed,” Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross said Friday upon returning from a five-day visit to Syria.

While the SDF taking Baghouz marks the end of the IS “caliphate,” the jihadists still retain a presence in eastern Syria’s vast Badia desert.

They also have hideouts in parts of Iraq as well as sleeper cells capable of carrying out the kind of deadly guerrilla insurgency that accompanied the rise of the Islamic State group.

IS fighters who escaped the shrinking rump of the “caliphate” in time and reorganize their group are already re-establishing their former sanctuaries in Iraq, the Institute for the Study of War said.

Even the Pentagon has warned in a recent report that the absence of sustained counterterrorism pressure on IS would allow the jihadists to reclaim some territorial control within months. AFP

AFP/CC

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LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May tried to persuade MPs to back the EU divorce deal, seeking to build bridges after lashing out at lawmakers for their indecision on Brexit.

May wrote to all MPs on Friday to spell out the possible paths forward after European Union leaders granted a short delay to Britain’s departure date at this week’s EU summit.

However, the prime minister said she would not hold a third vote on the divorce deal next week if sufficient numbers do not switch sides in the coming days.

The premier faces daunting odds to persuade British lawmakers to support the plan—something they have already overwhelmingly rejected twice—by a new April 12 deadline agreed with the EU.

If May succeeds, Britain—which was staring at a cliff-edge deadline of March 29 for leaving the EU—will depart on May 22 under the terms of the withdrawal agreement struck with Brussels last year.

But if MPs cannot back the deal, then Britain can ask for another extension by April 12 or face a no-deal Brexit.

A further extension would require Britain to take part in European Parliament elections in May, despite having voted to leave the bloc three years ago.

Four options ahead

In her letter, May said she would only bring the divorce agreement before the House of Commons again if it looked like there was sufficient support to pass the deal.

She spelled out the four options ahead, the first to being to revoke Britain’s notice to leave the EU, “but that would betray the result of the referendum”, the second to leave with no deal on April 12 — which a majority of MPs have said they do not support, in a vote earlier this month.

“If it appears that there is sufficient support and the speaker permits it, we can bring the deal back next week and if it is approved we can leave on May 22,” she wrote.

But she said if there was not sufficient support or the house rejected it, Britain could ask for another extension and take part in the European Parliament elections, adding: “I strongly believe that… would be wrong”.

Speaking to reporters in Brussels on Friday at the close of the EU summit, EU Council President Donald Tusk said: “Until April 12, anything is possible.”

Brexit protesters were set to march in London on Saturday demanding a second referendum. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she would join.

“The EU’s decision to postpone things until at least April 12 has opened a window, and those of us who oppose Brexit must seize the chance it offers,” Sturgeon said, according to the Press Association.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the bloc’s leaders would need another summit with May to discuss how to proceed if MPs reject the agreement again.

That prospect increased on Friday after Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, which props up May’s government in parliament, accused the prime minister of “failure” at the EU summit.

“The government has been far too willing to capitulate,” Nigel Dodds, the DUP’s leader in the British parliament, said in a statement, adding that “nothing has changed as far as the withdrawal agreement is concerned.”

Frustration

May faces an immediate hurdle in the form of John Bercow, the speaker of parliament’s lower House of Commons.

He has said the agreement being voted on has to be on different terms from the ones MPs have already rejected.

There was also heightened speculation that May is increasingly open to a series of so-called “indicative votes” that could reveal the level of parliamentary support for other options.

Parliament has been deadlocked for months over Brexit, with lawmakers unable to decide how to implement the 2016 referendum vote to leave, reflecting bitter divisions in the kingdom as a whole.

In her letter, May rowed back from Wednesday night, when she made a statement lambasting MPs for failing to make their minds up on how they wanted to proceed on Brexit.

“I expressed my frustration with our failure to take a decision, but I know that many of you are frustrated too. You have a difficult job to do and it was not my intention to make it any more difficult,” she said.

The pound rose on news of the Brexit delay but is likely to remain volatile amid uncertainty over what path Britain will now take.

Stocks in London ended the day 2.0 percent lower.

As uncertainty continues to reign, more than 3.7 million people have signed an online petition calling on the government to cancel Brexit. AFP

AFP/CC

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We entered the so-called Bahay Pagasa, “House of Hope.” It turned out to be a children’s jail. We brought snacks and drinks to share with the young people in the cells. About 25 girls were crowded into one room. No air conditioning here, no electric fans either, so we brought some, but the rancid body smells pervaded the cells in the hot tropical heat.

There is a water shortage in the metropolis at this time. One of the children rescued by Preda Foundation from the cells told us later that they were only allowed washing or showering twice a week. This is a very big hardship for Filipinos living in overcrowded cells and who are normally fastidious about washing and showering and maintaining good personal hygiene. The steel bars of the gate and on the windows made it obvious to us it was a jail cell. There was no escape. The children were looked upon as youth offenders, seen and treated as criminals by the authorities.

The boys were taken out of their cells and brought into an open space to receive snacks and drinks. The staff were ashamed that we would see the overcrowding of children behind bars, without beds, without furniture in cramped cells. The staff can do little to change the situation. That is the decision of the city councils and the mayors in the 17 cities of Metro Manila.

These places are lock-up internment blocks without much hope for the youth detained here. They are like animals in cages. The youth over 15 years of age are held on remand. In the boys’ cell, I saw a very young child crying. I asked why he was in a cell with older youth. He was a small boy, about 10 years old. He was detained like a criminal with 30 or so boys 16 to 18 years old. He was terrified what they could do to him. Few agencies or politicians challenge such violations of child rights. We, at the Preda Foundation, and other child rights groups do and call for it to be changed.

The levels of aggression, frustration, anger and violence is high among the boys and girls in the confined space. There is no outlet. No basketball or exercise, little entertainment. What might happen to the small boy in the dark at night where sex abuse is common is horrific.

Those small boys rescued from places like these tell us of rape, sexual abuse, bad food, punishment, bullying and beatings. I told the social worker the little boy should be removed there as it is a serious violation of children’s rights. The staff seemed to think he would be okay. It was very frustrating.

The youth over 15 years of age have court cases usually for some petty misdemeanor, like sniffing industrial glue from a plastic bag that damages their brains. Others are in for drug abuse. They are lucky to be still alive; it’s better than being shot dead as a victim of the iron-fisted crackdown on drugs.

But minors under 15 must not be charged with a crime and should not be detained in jail cells and never with older boys or girls. It’s a violation of child rights that government, and all in society, is responsible for. They are supposedly committed to uphold and protect the children from such abusive conditions.

It is the direct result of corrupt government officials that rule for themselves and not for the welfare of the people. Super-rich dynastic families and clans rule the nation. The laws they make favor their interests and businesses and those of their children. Besides their own, children for them are of little importance.

We rescued John-Jo, 14 years old, from the youth detention center. He told us he was arrested for curfew violation. There are no government homes for the small street children that live on the streets and have no home where they can go. They sleep in doorways, under trees or in the back of parked jeepneys or buses.

They are the throwaway children, the unwanted and abused and rejected human flotsam of society. They run to the streets when they are beaten at home, rejected and scolded by their parents. There is little food, comfort or love for them in their families. They seek a better life with the other street children in similar circumstances. Then they are arrested, to add to their hardship.

Before taking John-Jo to the Preda Foundation Home for Boys for a new, happier life, we sought out his parents. We drove to a remote part of the city, walked along narrow alleys and found his father and elder brother living in a small box-sized shack with space for only two people to stand in. They were watching a small television.

John-Jo’s father asked why his boy had been arrested. Then after the Preda social worker explained that we were taking him out of the jail to a better life where he could go to school, he understood and embraced his son.

By May 15, the Philippine Senate will debate and vote on lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 15 years to 12 years. That will put many more children in detention centers where they will likely be beaten and abused. It criminalizes children and will be a descent into ignorance and ignominy.

Visit www.preda.org and click here: http://amzn.com/B07DXKX4SV and read the adventures of Ricky and Julie.

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There is nothing wrong with foreign borrowing for developmental projects. The P8 trillion or so funding requirement by the ambitious “Build, Build, Build“ program of the Duterte administration cannot be internally generated, even with the expanded revenue base. And even with bond float after bond float.

On top of the seemingly insatiable public appetite for government-issued bonds, the infrastructure build-up has to have a foreign borrowing component. Emerging economies normally borrow to pay for their developmental projects.

But as senatorial candidate Neri Colmenares had stressed, there should be options other than what he described as the “onerous” and “one-sided“ loans from China.

Exhibit A, Colmenares said in a recent exposé, was the estimated P3.2 billion loan borrowed for funding the Chico River Pump Irrigation Project in the Cordilleras.

“Can’t we have other funding sources than China?” asked Colmenares. That question was perfectly valid, given the carved-in-stone conditionalities of the Chico River Dam project, which are, indeed, onerous once compared with the conditions imposed on loans granted by Japan and the richer countries within the European Union. The conditions cited by Colmenares were:

— Guaranteed repayment (the state provides the guarantee)

— High interest rates

— Preference for Chinese contractors.

With those terms uncontested, the Chico project would go to China CAMC Engineering Co., with repayment set at 2 percent a year, which is higher than what ordinary savings accounts of Filipinos earn from the local banks. Some Shylocks-cum-banks even have time deposit rates of just about 2 percent a year. The 2 percent a year is not a concessional rate by any standard, given that China’s supposed magnanimity was implied in the Chico River Project deal. To be fair, it is also not as high as what China charges for loans granted to African and South American countries.

There will be other costs on top of the 2 percent a year rate. A commitment fee of 0.3 percent and a management fee of 0.3 percent will add up to the levies of the China loan for Chico. The levies will add up to almost 3 percent a year, which is just a little bit lower than the unsecured car loans given to car-hungry Filipinos by the local banks, which are seguristas by nature.

The almost 3 percent rate, the state guarantees, and the Chinese contractor are not the most worrisome and troubling terms of the Chico River Dam loan. It was what Colmenares described as the “patrimonial property“ clause of the loan terms. Should the Philippines fail to pay the loan, China has the right to grab a piece of Philippine property to get payment. This is a troubling thing, given the experience of countries that obtained loans from China and failed to make payment. One of these prostrate countries is Ecuador, which a few years back obtained — let this sink in — a loan to build a dam in a remote jungle area near a place called Reventador.

It should have been Colmenares’s follow-through story after the initial exposé. The Coca Codo Sinclair Dam project in remote Ecuador should have been the red flag on the perils of contracting dam loans from China with the “patrimonial property“ rights cause .

This is story of the Coca Codo Sinclair Dam project in the jungles of Ecuador, according to public and news accounts on the project.

The China-financed and China-constructed Ecuador hydroelectric dam was made operational two years ago amid very high and hopeful expectations.

“The giant dam in the jungle, financed and built by China, was supposed to christen Ecuador’s vast ambitions, solve its energy needs and help lift the small South American country out of poverty,” reportage from the New York Times said.

Today, the report said , “ thousands or cracks are splintering the dam’s machinery. Its reservoir is clogged with silt and trees. And the only time engineers tried to throttle up the facility completely, it shook violently and shorted out the national electricity grid.”

It is also interesting to know which Chinese financing institution supplied the $1.7 billion loan for the Ecuador Dam — China’s Export -Import Bank.

The hoped-for hydroelectric marvel is now a useless piece of architecture, and it has buried Ecuador deep in debt. Just two years after its opening.

So what did China do to get payment for the useless, multi-billion dollar dam project high up in the Ecuador jungles? China now gets 80 percent of the most valuable export of Ecuador — oil. The pressure to supply China with Ecuador oil is now so intense for the small country that it is digging deep into the Amazon just to supply China with oil — the environment as a collateral damage for a major loan folly.

This is the story that Colmenares should now tell. China is free to grab a crown jewel of Philippine patrimony should the Chico River Dam project fail to pay for itself and payment to China comes due. It can grab anything, from the Malampaya to the Benham Rise.

Because China can. Under the “patrimonial property” clause of the Chico River Dam project, failure to repay allows China to get a piece of Philippine patrimony as repayment.

And what if the Chico Dam project suffers the fate of Pantabangan Dam, where the spire of the old church shows up during the dry months, the season the dam is rendered inutile? It will be a failed project, and we are used to such kinds of failure.

But what is carved in stone is this: China will demand payment. And if the government fails to pay, China can just expropriate one of our crown jewels as repayment.

This fact is worth noting. All the government leaders who brokered and pushed for the Ecuador Dam project during the time of former President Rafael Correa are now in jail, for extortion, corruption and other forms of malevolence.

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FINALLY, the investigation into whether Russia meddled in the 2016 US presidential election and whether US President Donald Trump or his campaign colluded with Moscow to win the high-stakes race for the White House is over.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who spearheaded the months-long probe, submitted his report to US Attorney William Barr on Friday (Saturday in Manila). The report remains confidential, but the Washington press has widely reported that the Mueller report did not call for new indictments.

The Mueller investigation report is bound to be disclosed, or at least parts of it, to the public as President Trump himself had expressed willingness to release it.

It is also bound to disappoint and even upset the opposition Democrats, who have made no secret of their utter disdain for President Trump and his supposedly “White Nationalist” policy agenda. Freshmen Democratic legislators, who helped take over the US House of Representatives during the November 2018 midterm elections have, in fact, been itching to impeach Trump.

It is one thing to allege that Moscow tried to tip the US election in favor of Trump and his conservative Republican Party; it is another to say that the billionaire New York property mogul actively colluded with the agents of Russian leader Vladimir Putin to steal the vote from the doomed Democratic contender, Hillary Clinton.

There have been a few significant indictments. One of them was Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, caught lying to the US Congress about the Trump organization’s real estate venture in Moscow.

Long-time Trump adviser Roger Stone also lied about his contacts with Wikileaks, which, perhaps, cost Clinton the presidency by releasing a motherlode of emails ahead of the 2016 election.

Also indicted was Paul Manafort, the shady lobbyist who was convicted of fraud in connection with his Russian consultancy contracts. Filipinos might remember him as a lobbyist for the Marcos regime and a host of dictators.

Scandalous these wrongdoings might have been, these have no straightforward connections to the Oval Office, are hardly impeachable and are certainly not enough to secure a conviction in an impeachment trial.

The speaker of the US House of Representatives, San Francisco congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, has herself disengaged from impeachment moves, to the consternation of her rabidly anti-Trump caucus, as these are counterproductive, highly divisive and ultimately not in America’s best interest.

Russia’s meddling in the internal affairs of other countries is a serious issue that could, however, be easily dealt with through various mechanisms, such as sanctions.

There are more pressing problems that deserve Washington’s attention, among them the need to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, the Middle East peace process, the need to finish off the Islamic State, and the complex process of extricating Great Britain from the European Union.

These issues would be better resolved by engaging, not distracting, President Trump.

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Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founding chairman Nur Misuari is no longer capable of waging war because he has lost most of his men to other groups.

“They (MNLF) are still capable of creating trouble like what they did in the Zamboanga City siege. But war? Not anymore,” Lorenzana told reporters in a text message over the weekend.

He explained that Misuari no longer has manpower since most of the rebel leader’s men have “gravitated” to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), following the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL).

President Rodrigo Duterte had said that the MNLF leader threatened to wage war if the plan to shift to a federal system of government does not push through.

Lorenzana dismissed Misuari’s threat as mere “sound bites in an attempt to make himself be noticed.”

“But he is missing a great chance to be really relevant. He should accept the BARMM, work within it and lend his leadership, stature and expertise to make it succeed,” the Defense chief said.

“My guess [on his threat]? He’s bluffing,” he added. DEMPSEY REYES

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BANGKOK: Polls opened Sunday for the first Thai election since a 2014 coup, with a high turnout expected among a public who received a cryptic last-minute warning from the Thai king to support “good” leaders to prevent “chaos.”

All television stations repeated the rare statement by King Maha Vajiralongkorn moments before polls opened across the politically turbulent country.

Thailand is a constitutional monarchy and the palace is ostensibly above the political fray.

But the institution retains unassailable powers and is insulated from criticism by a harsh royal defamation law.

Sunday’s election pits a royalist junta and its allies against the election-winning machine of billionaire ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra and an unpredictable wave of millions of first-time voters.

The kingdom remains bitterly divided despite the ruling junta’s pledge to rescue it from a decade-long treadmill of protests and coups.

Politicians across the spectrum fear a stalemate has been booked-in by new election rules, written by the junta, which limit the chances of any single party emerging with a comfortable parliamentary majority.

After years of democratic denial, enthusiastic voters turned out across the country.

“People want to vote,” said businesswoman Apiyada Svarachorn at a Bangkok polling station, adding the public remains “split into two sides.”

“We don’t have the right to decide for ourselves for five years now,” added Wasa Anupant, a 28-year-old doctor.

“I’m very excited about this election.”

Royal message

The palace statement, unprecedented on an election eve in recent history, added further intrigue to a vote that has repeatedly threatened to tip into chaos before a single ballot was cast.

The statement reiterated comments by late king Bhumibol Adulyadej from 1969 calling for people to “support good people to govern the society and control the bad people” to prevent them from “creating chaos.”

Vajiralongkorn urged the public to “remember and be aware” of the remarks of his father, who died in 2016.

While there were no further clues as to who those “good people” might be, the phrase — “khon dee” in Thai — is habitually attached to royalist, establishment politicians.

The chief of the army — an institution which has carried out 12 coups in under 90 years and trails its partnership with the monarchy — welcomed the palace statement.

“It’s a good thing,” Apirat Kongsompong told reporters as he voted.

The king’s intervention is his second in less than two months.

Another royal command torpedoed the candidacy of his elder sister Princess Ubolratana for prime minister of a party linked to Thaksin, a divisive ex-premier toppled by a 2006 coup.

The party was later dissolved by a court.

Thaksin has lived in self-exile since 2008, but he looms large over Sunday’s election.

His affiliated parties have won every Thai election since 2001, drawing on huge loyalty from rural and urban poor.

On Friday Ubolratana was guest of honour at the glitzy Hong Kong wedding of Thaksin’s daughter — with photos of the tycoon and the princess hugging and smiling going viral.

Numbers game

The junta-party, which is proposing army chief turned premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha for civilian prime minister after the polls, is under intense pressure to avoid humiliation on Sunday in what is effectively a referendum on its popularity.

Prayut toppled the civilian government of Thaksin’s younger sister Yingluck in 2014, the twelfth coup in under a century.

The army and its allies in the Bangkok elite loathe the Shinawatras, accusing the clan of toxifying Thai politics and society with money, nepotism and graft.

The Shinawatras say they have simply recognised the economic and democratic aspirations of the majority of Thais.

This time the ruling junta has written new election rules aimed at curbing the number of seats big parties — specifically the Shinawatras’ main election vehicle Pheu Thai — can win.

Pheu Thai is expected to again sweep up the north and northeastern heartlands as it seeks to head an anti-junta coalition.

A 250-member junta-appointed senate and a new proportional system were meant to have manoeuvered Prayut and the junta party — Phalang Pracharat — into pole position.

With senate votes in hand, the party needs just 126 lower house seats to secure a parliamentary majority.

It can cross that line comfortably in alliance with smaller parties.

Pheu Thai, however, needs 376 lower house seats to command an overall majority — near impossible without complex tie-ups across pro-democracy factions.

“A deadlock is very likely,” political scientist Napisa Waitoolkiat of Naresuan University told Agence France-Presse.

Seven million millennials are eligible to vote for the first time — many enamoured by telegenic billionaire Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, a political newcomer whose anti-junta position and strong social media messaging has won fans for his Future Forward party.

Others with less clear cut loyalties could play a decisive role, including the Democrats led by former premier Abhisit Vejjajiva and coalition partner Bhumjaithai. AFP

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WASHINGTON, D.C.: Injury-nagged 2011 NBA Most Valuable Player Derrick Rose has undergone his latest operation, the Minnesota Timberwolves announced Saturday, saying he had arthroscopic surgery to remove right elbow bone chips.

Rose will be sidelined indefinitely but was already slated to miss the remainder of the regular season for the T-Wolves, who at 32-40 are one loss from being eliminated from playoff contention with 10 games remaining.

The 30-year-old point guard was a superstar playmaker for his hometown Chicago Bulls, but suffered a left knee injury in Chicago’s opening game of the 2012 NBA playoffs, missed the entire 2012-13 season and then suffered a right knee injury early in the 2013-14 campaign and missed most of that season as well.

Another knee injury followed and Rose was traded to New York in 2016, but in April 2017 suffered another left knee injury and underwent his fourth career knee surgery.

Rose played for Cleveland in the 2017-18 campaign before a trade to Utah, which released him. Rose signed with Minnesota and was reunited with ex-Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau. AFP

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