Daily News Highlights – October 8, 2015 Edition

The United Nations (UN) Working Group on Arbitrary Detention released its opinion on Wednesday, October 7, that the detention of former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo “violates international law” and is “arbitrary on a number of grounds.” It also recommends that Arroyo, who is facing plunder charges, be accorded “with an enforceable right to compensation” for having been deprived of her liberty. The complaint was filed by international lawyer Amal Alamuddin Clooney in February 2015, on behalf of the former Philippine president and now Pampanga representative, who is suffering from “multilevel cervical spondylosis” or the wearing of the bones. 

Read the full story on Rappler.

An Italian national who owns a pizza restaurant in Dipolog City in the southern Philippines was kidnapped by unidentified men on October 7. Rolando del Torchio is a former missionary priest from the Vatican’s Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions. In 1988, he was assigned in Muslim-dominated Sibuco town, Zamboanga del Norte. He stayed there until 1996 and then moved to Dipolog and worked with a non-governmental organization that helped farmers.

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Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said the United States gives the Philippines “significant” military aid, but warned that nobody is stopping China from asserting its claim over the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea). “It is disconcerting that nobody is stopping them,” he said of China in an interview with the international magazine Foreign Policy. “That is why we are doing our best to address these challenges…. As a last resort, we had to go to international arbitration, which is where we are now.” The Philippines awaits an initial ruling on the historic case it filed against China. At the same time, China is conducting reclamation activities that have built artificial islands that now add up to around a third of Manila City, the Philippines’ capital.

Read the full story on Rappler.

In his first public appearance since announcing his 2016 campaign, Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr said his family name will help him vie for the Philippines’ second highest position. He said widespread allegations of corruption and human rights abuse during his father’s regime are not election issues. “Many cases have been brought to court here and in the US. But if you talk to people, they are not concerned about that. Filipinos are concerned about their lives today. They want answers: ‘Why are there drugs in our streets? Why is the crime rate going up at an alarming rate? Why is the educational sector miserable? Why is distribution of wealth not happening? Why is the government not doing anything?’” He added: “This is what people are worried about, and that’s what I will address.”

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After coming under fire over a controversial lewd performance at a lawmaker’s birthday party last week, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Francis Tolentino urged the Liberal Party (LP) to exclude him from the party’s senatorial lineup for the 2016 polls. He drew the condemnation of women’s groups and fellow LP members for allegedly hiring the dance group Playgirls to perform at the birthday party of Laguna Representative Benjamin Agarao. In the controversial performance, the girls gyrated and twerked onstage with male audience members after the oath taking of new party members. Tolentino denied that he brought the girls to the event, and later issued an apology over the incident. In 2013, he hired the group for the congressional campaign of his brother.

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Former Senator Joker Arroyo died on October 5 in the United States of a still undisclosed cause. He was 88. Arroyo, a human rights lawyer under the Marcos dictatorship, served as executive secretary of President Corazon Aquino from 1986 to 1987. He became a Makati representative for 9 years, and a senator for 12 years. 

Read the full story on Rappler.

Read here the tributes of senators and former senators to Arroyo.

John Ashe, a former president of the United Nations General Assembly, has been charged with taking $1.3 million in bribes from Chinese businessmen, partly to push for a real estate project in Macau, court documents showed. He allegedly took bribes in exchange for backing a proposed UN conference center in Macau promoted by Chinese developer Ng Lap Seng. Ng, a wealthy real estate mogul, was arrested and jailed in New York last month for smuggling more than $4.5 million in cash into the United States over a two-year period.

Read the full story on Rappler World.

The Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), an international humanitarian-aid organization, demanded the opening of an international fact-finding investigation into a deadly American air strike on a hospital it was running in the Afghan city of Kunduz. “We cannot rely on an internal military investigation,” MSF chief Joanne Liu said. “This was not just an attack on our hospital, it was an attack on the Geneva Conventions. This cannot be tolerated.” Commanding General John Campbell acknowledged that the air strike in Kunduz, which killed 22 people, including 12 MSF staff, had been a tragic error.

Read the full story on Rappler World.

Malaysia’s 9 state sultans have issued a rare joint statement expressing concern over a corruption scandal swirling around Prime Minister Najib Razak and calling for a swift and transparent investigation. The statement adds to mounting pressure on Najib, who is facing calls to explain huge missing sums at a state-owned company he founded as well as nearly $700 million in mysterious transfers to his personal bank accounts. The revered sultans called for stalled Malaysian investigations to be revived and “appropriate stern action” to be taken.

Read the full story on Rappler World.

Night clubs in Jakarta, Indonesia, might start having curfews should a proposal be approved this week to limit to midnight the opening hours of the entertainment establishments. The chairman of the Regional Legislation (Balegda) Regional Representatives Council (DPRD) of Jakarta, M. Taufik, said he is preparing a draft regulation to revise regulation due to rampant drug trafficking in nightclubs in Jakarta. Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama previously shut down Stadium, a discotheque in Hayam Wuruk, West Jakarta, which is suspected to be a go-to for drug transactions. Currently, nightclubs in the capital are allowed to stay open until 3 am.

Read the full story on Rappler World.