Vice President Jejomar Binay’s claims of immunity will face legal obstacles as constitutionalists say he is not immune from suit. Former Supreme Court justice and constitutionalist Vicente Mendoza said the Vice President does not enjoy immunity because the alleged corrupt acts he committed were done before he became vice president and because he is unlike the president who has “multifarious duties and powers”. Fr Joaquin Bernas SJ, one of the framers of the 1987 Constitution also said the Constitution “doesn’t say he is immune”. He earlier wrote that unlike the 1973 Constitution, the 1987 Constitution is not explicit on executive immunity.

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Hackers suspected to have originated from China have accessed the personal data of at least 4 million current and former US government employees. It was not immediately clear if President Barack Obama and other senior government officials or the intelligence community were affected by the data breach. The Washington Post reported that “intruders gained access to information that included employees’ Social Security numbers, job assignments, performance ratings and training information”. The hack was described as “the largest breach of federal employee data in recent years.”

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More details are on The Washington Post.

Related stories are on The New York Times and the BBC.

In a joint statement after their summit, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hit Chinese dredging in the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea), saying they share “serious concern” about “land reclamation and building of outposts” in the area. The statement called for a “peaceful settlement” of disputes based on law. Aquino has courted Japan, along with the US, to help serve as a counter-weight to China’s claims to almost the entire South China Sea, which is a vital shipping lane and which could host valuable oil and gas reserves.

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Back-pedaling after allies questioned the qualifications of Senator Grace Poe to seek higher office, the camp of 2016 front-runner Vice President Jejomar Binay said they will leave the issues they raised to the courts. In a news briefing on Thursday, June 4, the Vice President’s daughter and Makati Representative Abigail Binay said the citizenship and residency issues raised against Poe, who ranks second in presidential preferences for 2016, should be resolved only through the courts. She added that the Vice President will accept and respect a decision by Poe to seek the presidency. Neither should it be a source of any fight and bickering, she said.

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The tourism boom in world-famous Boracay Island may have led to a 70.5% decline in coral cover from 1988 to 2011. This was the finding of a study funded by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency and conducted from 2010 to 2015 by Filipino and Japanese tourists. Scientists found that the highest decrease in coral cover happened from 2008 to 2011, when tourist arrivals surged by 38.4%. The damage to coral reefs was attributed to unmonitored snorkeling and diving activities.

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Filipinos remain split on how the Philippines should resolve its dispute with China over territorial claims – through diplomacy or an arbitration case. A recent survey by Laylo Research Strategies said 53% of respondents prefer a diplomatic approach, while 47% indicated it is better for the Aquino administration to have “complained to the United Nations”, referring to the case brought by the Philippines against China before the Permanent Court of Arbitration based in The Hague. The survey had a margin of error of ±2.6% for the national level and ±6% for the regional level.

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Human-induced climate change threatens over 1,400 endangered species, a 2014 report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said. Animals that have specialized eating or breeding habits are particularly vulnerable. IUCN listed the 10 animals unlikely to survive a drastically-changed climate as the following: emperor penguin, giant panda, koala, North Atlantic right whale, clownfish, orangutan, ringed seals, pawikan, staghorn coral, and polar bear. The fate of these animals and the entire human race will depend on the climate change conference that will be held in Paris in December 2015. During this meeting, world leaders will try to forge a legally-binding plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to keep global temperatures from rising.

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Citing humanitarian reasons, members of the House of Representatives endorsed the house arrest petition of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, now representative of Pampanga province. Arroyo suffers from “multiple cervical spondylosis”, a bone condition. She is presently detained at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center over a P366-million plunder charge but she wants to be detained at her house in the exclusive La Vista subdivision in Quezon City or her provincial residence. The final decision over Arroyo’s petition rests with the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan.

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The Tuloy sa Don Bosco Foundation, an institution that caters to poor children and abandoned orphans has been offering holistic care to street children to allow them to successfully reintegrate back to society. Among the programs beneficiaries is Edmar Sumera, a former street child who has been selected for a summer program in London run by the Royal Ballet School in England. Tuloy founder and president Fr Rocky Evangelista said that beyond satisfied basic needs, it is also important for kids to learn about sports and the arts. Sumera said that in the future, when he has his own ballet school, he will get scholars and help them study for free.

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The Philippines will be relying on the strong performances of nearly 200 female athletes competing in Singapore at the 2015 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games. The country will seek to improve its 7^th place finish in the previous 2015 Games. Cynthia Carrion, the Philippines’ SEA Games deputy chief of mission, is confident the country can take home 50 gold medals due to the 459-strong athlete representation. In the last SEA Games in Myanmar, the Philippines sent 210 athletes who brought home 29 golds.

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