April 16, 2013 Edition

The Philippine coast guard said it had found 400 boxes of frozen scaly anteaters, or pangolins, in the cargo hold of a Chinese boat that ran aground Tubbataha, a protected marine sanctuary, last week. Wildlife officials have been informed of the surprising discovery, which could lead to more charges for the 12 Chinese men arrested on charges including poaching and bribery attempts on Filipino officials. The coast guard spokesman Lieutenant Commander Armand Balilo could not immediately say whether the pangolins were frozen alive, or had already been butchered as meat. A protected species, pangolins are widely hunted in parts of Asia for their meat, skin and scales. In China, they are known as a delicacy and are purported to have medicinal qualities. All 8 species of the insect-eating mammals are protected by international laws around the world.


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The “field trip” of 10 students of London School of Economics in Pyongyang, North Korea has turned into a he-said-he-said saga as journalism ethics, legal and diplomatic issues come to light. On one corner are the BBC News executives who did not heed the students’ plea not to air the Panorama documentary by undercover journalists who accompanied them to the trip while overtly filming in North Korea, which bans journalists. BBC says the documentary is crucial in understanding North Korea, one of the most secretive places in the world, but the students are disclaiming that they gave their consent to the embedded Panorama reporters.


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For the first time, 37 French ministers and Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault disclosed their personal wealth on April 15, in a move President Francois Hollande hopes will restore confidence in his scandal-hit Socialist government. With the economy stagnant, unemployment on the rise and the government slashing spending, senior officials admit the move is risky and could create resentment by unmasking several millionaire ministers. The move has sparked widespread debate in France, where personal finances are rarely discussed and — unlike in the United States where politicians often publish their tax returns — the wealth of public officials has long been considered private.


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Summer ice in the Antarctic is melting 10 times quicker than it was 600 years ago, with the most rapid melt occurring in the last 50 years, a joint Australian-British study showed. The research team drilled a 364-meter (1,194 feet) long ice core from James Ross Island in the continent’s north to measure past temperatures in the area. Visible layers in the ice core indicated periods when summer snow on the ice cap thawed and then refroze. By measuring the thickness of these melt layers, the scientists were able to examine how the history of melting compared with changes in temperature at the ice core site over the last 1,000 years. It helped scientists gain more accurate projections about the direct and indirect contribution of Antarctica’s ice shelves and glaciers to global sea level rise.


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The Supreme Court is tackling the constitutionality of the Mining Act again during its oral arguments on April 16, about 9 years since it gave its go signal to the measure allowing large scale foreign-owned mining operations to proceed. Among the top issues is the alleged inequitable sharing of wealth between the miner and the government — an issue that the Aquino government has been keen on addressing too. That’s the end goal of President Benigno Aquino III’s executive order issued in July 2012 that stopped the issuance of mining permits and urged lawmakers to review the sharing of wealth. The foreign owners of the mine in Tampakan, South Cotabato, the test case for the Supreme Court deliberation, have decided to postpone commercial operations as they await the political, legal, social, and other issues to simmer down.


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The gap between the P11 billion and P305 million bids of top Philippine conglomerates San Miguel Corp and Metro Pacific Investments Corp (MPIC) for the right to construct and operate a 9.97-kilometer partly elevated toll road between the Manila airport and the upcoming casino complex near Manila Bay baffles the mind. San Miguel’s winning bid is on top of the construction cost of the NAIA Expressway project and will be paid to the government in cash before June. The two have been going after several similar big-ticket infrastructure projects the government is auctioning off, such as the MRT-3 rail project and the Mactan-Cebu Airport expansion project. San Miguel has been diversifying away from its core food and drinks businesses since 2007, and has been aggressively vying for government contracts.


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The economic growth of the second largest economy in the world has slowed to 7.7% in the first quarter, raising fears among trade and other economic partners on impact to their own economy. The announcement of China’s growth rate came as a shock since this was lower than expectations. Many were actually expecting China to post at least 8% China and recover from its 7.8% growth in 2012, the slowest rate in 13 years. China has earlier said that their growth target for 2013 is at a conservative 7.5%. China attributed the slowdown to “the complicated and volatile economic environment at home and abroad.”


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All eyes were on North Korea on April 15, the 101st anniversary of the birth of founding father Kim Il-sung amid speculation that the North Korea will use Kim Il-sung’s birthday for a missile launch. Leader Kim Jong-un visited the mausoleum of his grandfather and his father Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang, and the streets of Pyongyang were adorned with flags and banners for the holiday, a red-letter day for one of the world’s most powerful cults of personality. But despite the apparent celebrations, South Korea, Japan and the US remained on high alert after North threatened to attack the allies’ bases in the region and as they believes North Korea’s test firing of an intermediate range missile could still be imminent. The US has ruled out holding any more “artificial talks” with the North.


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More celebrities figured in the Top 500 individual taxpayers in 2011, led by presidential sister and celebrity Kris Aquino who paid P50 million in income taxes, more than any of the owner and executive in the media outfits she appears in, the companies whose products she endorses, and even the country’s richest. Since 2010, when very few celebrities graced the top 20, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has been stepping up its name-and-shame campaign, which is meant to improve tax collections. While none of the respondents of tax complaints the BIR has filed before the Department of Justice has progressed in court, the Aquino administration is adamant on continuing filing tax cases against high-profile individuals to make good its no-new-taxes campaign promise.


Read more on the top individual taxpayers here
Read more on the top corporate taxpayers here

When US president Barack Obama went on national television to condemn the multiple blasts in Boston that killed 3 and injured over a hundred, he said the perpetrators would pay. He did not utter the word “terror. NBC News, citing officials, reported that police had found “multiple explosive devices” in Boston where the world’s oldest marathon was held on April 15, raising the possibility of a coordinated attack. The digital clock over the finish line read 4:09:44 when two explosions turned the 117th running of the city’s iconic marathon participated by 27,000 people into a horrific scene of carnage, sowing terror on a sunny spring afternoon. Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis says that at 2:50 pm Boston time (3:50 am Manila time) there were simultaneous explosions that occurred along the route of Boston Marathon finish line. The explosions occurred 50-100 yards apart.


View a video of the blast here
For blow by blow account, follow Rappler’s live blog
Read the list of Filipinos who took part in the marathon
All about Patriot’s Day and the Boston Marathon