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Good morning, Rappler readers!
When President Rodrigo Duterte says “immediately,” it means the following day – and so on Thursday, March 15, the day after he said he would want the Philippines to pull out from the Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court, the Philippines sent its withdrawal letter to the United Nations.
The ICC has started looking into whether it has jurisdiction on the complaint of crime against humanity filed in connection to the killing spree spurred by the Duterte administration’s bloody war on drugs. The court reminds the Philippine president that the Philippines is still obliged to cooperate in a probe that has already started before its withdrawal.
The ICC also says Judge Raul Pangalangan stays on despite the Philippines’ withdrawal.
Here the big stories you shouldn’t miss.
The Philippines on Thursday, March 15, formally transmitted its notice of withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC) to the office of the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General.
Ambassador Teodoro Locsin Jr, Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the UN, submitted the formal notice to the chef de cabinet of the UN Secretary-General, as Antonio Guterres was abroad at the time.
The one-page letter explains that the Philippines is withdrawing because of the supposedly politicized nature of human rights and insists the Philippines has a functioning justice system.
The Pasay prosecutor found merit in the complaint filed by the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption over Senator Antonion Trillanes IV’s privilege speech on October 3, 2017, accusing Duterte of having P2 billion worth of transactions in his bank account that were not reflected in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth.
The Pasay prosecutor, in a resolution, said Trillanes’ intention was clearly “to sow the seeds of sedition in the mind of the people,” and that the speech was “purely an attack” on the President and members of his family, and not made in aid of legislation.
The Commission on Higher Education, in an en banc meeting on February 13, decided to include the 78 local universties and colleges (LUCs) – those created by local laws – in the coverage of Republic Act 10931 or the free tuition law.
The commission will announce another batch of qualified LUCS before classes open next school year, 2019 to 2020.
Camarines Norte Governor Edgardo Tallado has been dismissed from office for grave misconduct effective Wednesday, March 14, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) in Bicol said.
In its January order, the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon said Tallado was liable for “grave misconduct,” which is punishable by dismissal from office, when he immediately reassumed his functions as governor even when he was still supposed to be serving a suspension order.
Vice Governor Jonah Pimentel has been installed as the new governor.
Nearly all of Mindanao’s southern coastlines were marked as under watch for coral bleaching, a global phenomenon lethal to reef ecosystems.
The Philippine Coral Bleaching Watch (PCBW) made the announcement on Wednesday, March 14, citing satellite data from the US government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The warning affects Tawi-Tawi, Sulu, Zamboanga, Davao Gulf, and Sarangani, all being part of the island region’s southern coastlines.
Rihanna on Thursday, March 15, denounced Snapchat after an advertisement made light of her beating by fellow pop star Chris Brown, sending the company’s share prices tumbling.
The social media platform – which counts 187 million users, especially young people drawn to its quickly vanishing posts – had featured an advertisement for “Would You Rather?” – a game app that asks sometimes provocative questions.
The commercial showed the two singers and asked Snapchat users whether they would rather “slap Rihanna” or “punch Chris Brown.”
Rihanna took to rival platform Instagram to denounce Snapchat: “You spent money to animate something that would intentionally bring shame to DV (domestic violence) victims and made a joke of it!!!!”
Shares in parent company Snap Inc. fell 3.64% on a largely stable day on Wall Street.
Facebook announced on Wednesday, March 14, it had removed the pages of far-right group Britain First and its two leaders for posting content “designed to incite animosity and hatred” against minorities.
The move comes just days after Britain First’s leader Paul Golding and deputy leader Jayda Fransen, who hit the headlines last year after her posts were retweeted by US President Donald Trump, were jailed for hate crimes.
In a blog post, Facebook said: “Content posted on the Britain First Facebook page and the pages of party leaders Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen has repeatedly broken our community standards.”
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