May 30, 2012 Edition

After a trial that lasted 44 days and spanned a total of four months, the historic impeachment trial of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona came to an end yesterday. 20 out of 23 Senators, more than the required 16 votes or 2/3 of the Senate, voted to convict Corona. Corona will immediately be removed from office, as Presiding Officer Juan Ponce Enrile has sent a letter to the Supreme Court informing them about the verdict which is immediately executory. Corona is the first Philippine magistrate to be impeached and convicted, and his trial is the first of its kind to be concluded in Philippine history.

More details on Rappler

Justices of the Supreme Court, on break and not expected to to resume work until June 19, are holding a special en banc session today Wednesday, May 30, following yesterday’s impeachment court decision to remove Chief Justice Renato Corona from office. Yesterday’s decision rendered the position of SC Chief Justice immediately vacant. It is unclear as of the moment what the agenda of the meeting is, but it is expected that the SC justices will tackle Corona’s removal from office.

Read more on Rappler

Almost a dozen countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom and France, have announced that they would be expelling Syrian diplomats from their countries in response to the Houla massacre that took the lives of 108 people last Friday. A United Nations report says most of those killed were summarily executed. Another UN official said that it is “clear” that Syrian government forces were involved in the massacre. The Syrian government denies being behind the killings and insists terrorists carried them out. UN and Arab League’s special envoy Kofi Annan has met with Syrian President Bashal al-Assad in Damascus, but prospects of Syria adopting Annan’s 6-point peace plan remain bleak.

Read more on CNN

As expected, Mitt Romney secured the Republic presidential nomination after taking the state of Texas today (Tuesday night in the United States) and securing the required 1,114 delegates. His win, however, was overshadowed by a statement made by Romney supporter Donald Trump about the President Barack Obama’s birthplace. The issue is an old one, but Trump insisted anew that there still are lingering doubts if whether or not Obama is a natural born US citizen and eligible to be president. This criticism prompted the Obama campaign to hit back at Romney, saying the Republican nominee was lacking in “moral leadership”.  

Full story on Rappler

Read also in Time

The contrast between the views of the country’s two most influential businessmen on the impact of the historic impeachment trial against a Supreme Court chief justice is interesting. Manuel V. Pangilinan, who leads the top power, telecommunications, infrastructure, and mining firms in the country, said on May 29 that this political event is momentous for the country, but foreign and local investors are more concerned about the integrity of the impeachment process. On the other hand, Ramon S. Ang, who manages the country’s largest conglomerate, San Miguel Corp., shrugged off the trial as having no influence on their or their foreign partners’ investment decisions. The two have experienced seeing their corporate issues go all the way to the Supreme Court. Each also has former magistrates sitting in their corporate boards.

Read and watch the views of Manuel V. Pangilinan on Rappler

Read and watch Ramon S. Ang’s on Rappler

Newly elected Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has arrived in Bangkok on the first stop of her historic world tour. This is the first time Suu Kyi has left Myanmar since being put under house arrest in 1988. While in Thailand, Suu Kyi is scheduled to attend the World Economic Forum on East Asia where she will speak next Friday. After a quick stop back in Myanmar, Suu Kyi also plans to travel to Europe in June, including a trip to Oslo, Norway to formally accept the Nobel Peace Prize that she had won 21 years ago.

Read more on The Guardian

As developed countries in the west are inundated with credit rating downgrades, the Philippines seems to face a rosier future as it inches closer towards investment grade status. One of the influential international debt watcher, Moody’s Investor Service, on May 29 revised its rating outlook for the Philippines to “positive” from “stable,” citing continued improvement in the country’s fiscal position. This revised outlook means the formal credit ratings upgrade is likely soon. Moody’s rates the Philippines’ foreign and local currency bonds two notches below investment grade, the same as Standard & Poor’s rating. Another ratings agency, Fitch Ratings, rates the Philippines one notch below investment grade. A better rating would translate to lower borrowings costs for the Philippines as investors are less likely to command high interest rates on debts to compensate for the risk of default.

Read more on Rappler

15 people were reported killed and about 200 others injured after a 5.8-magnitude earthquake hit northern Italy Tuesday, May 29. This is the second major earthquake to hit this region in Italy in the last two weeks. A 6.0-magnitude earthquake took the lives of 7 people when it struck on the same region last May 21. Eyewitness reports on Twitter claim that the town of Cavezzo in Modena province, the town closest to the epicenter of the quake, was about 70% destroyed.  A spokesperson for the Modena government says as many as 12,000 people could be displaced by the successive quakes.

Read more on CNN

For the first time in her career, Serena Williams has gone out of a Grand Slam event in the first round. Currently number 5 in the world, Williams lost to French player Virginie Razzano during Tuesday’s first round. Razzano is 106 places below Williams in the world rankings and that was pretty clear at the start of the match. Williams had taken the first set 6-4 and was leading the second set 5-1 when Razzano made a comeback finish of the second set with a win and taking the last set convincingly 6-3. In a post game interview, William’s expressed disappointment for the loss. “I’m not happy by no means, I just always think things could be worse,” she said. William’s previous worst exit was in the 2nd round of the Australian Open 14 years ago.

Read more on ESPN

After much fanfare, the Samsung Galaxy S3 has finally been released in 28 countries, including the Philippines, with rollouts expected to reach 145 countries in the next two months. The Galaxy S3’s impressive feature list includes a 4.8-inch display, an 8 megapixel camera, and a quad-core processor. But how does it stack up against the iPhone 4S? Does it live up to all the hype created leading up to its launch?

Find out on The Verge