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Dear Reader,
As expected, the impeachment move against Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte did not even reach first base at the House of Representatives. Duterte himself was abroad when the complaint against him was dismissed, hobnobbing with other leaders in Beijing for the Belt and Road summit.
But PH-US ties are still looking good. American soldiers held their first joint exercises with Filipino soldiers under the Duterte administration – in remote Aurora province, a typhoon belt – that focused on humanitarian relief.
And what lessons can we draw from the massive cyberattack that hit the world?
Here are the stories you shouldn’t miss this Tuesday.
On his last day in Beijing for the Belt and Road summit, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang to set a hopeful backdrop to the first bilateral talks between the two countries on the South China Sea, to be held on May 19 in southwestern China. The previous Aquino administration had frowned upon any bilteral dialogue with China on the dispute.
Despite the Duterte administration’s shift in foreign policy, officials deny the ongoing military exercises with the United States in the province of Aurora were downsized. Up to 2,600 American troops are in the Philippines for the Balikatan drills with more than 2,800 Filipino soldiers, which are focused on humanitarian relief – to accommodate Duterte’s aversion to attack exercises with the US.
The White House dismissed a report that US President Donald Trump shared classified information about a terror thread with Russian officials. The bombshell comes as Moscow’s alleged interference in last year’s US presidential election is back in the spotlight.
It was junked as swiftly as it was filed two months ago. The House committee on justice killed the impeachment complaint against President Duterte filed by opposition lawmaker and former mutineer Gary Alejano, ruling it was insufficient in form. The law only allows one impeachment complaint against a public official in a year.
Janet Lim Napoles was transferred to Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig in the early hours of Tuesday, May 16, after spending two years at a women’s prison. Her transfer was based on a court order that rejected her plea to be moved to a better facility, the National Bureau of Investigation.
Institutions and agencies have to avoid over-reliance on tech-enabled systems. Governments should report, not stockpile, software vulnerabilities. These are among the lessons we’ve learned from the massive cyberattack that hit the world last week.
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