June 12, 2014 Edition

On the 116th Philippine Independence Day rites on June 12, President Benigno Aquino III drew parallels to the anger of Filipinos about the injustice they suffered during Spanish rule to public furor over the misuse of public funds and said lessons learned from the past will ensure justice this time around. Aquino said the discrimination experienced by Filipinos during Spanish colonization emphasized the need to follow a fair process in serving justice for all – including those accused of pocketing development funds or their “pork barrel” in the biggest corruption scandal in recent Philippine history. The President led the Independence Day celebration in Naga City to commemorate the Quince Martires – the 15 martyrs from Bicol whose deaths contributed to the freedom of Camarines Sur from colonizers.

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Check our fast facts on Philippine Independence on Rappler.

On the second day of a four-day Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, co-chairs British Foreign Secretary William Hague and UN Special Envoy Angelina Jolie launch an International Protocol to increase prosecutions for sexual violence in conflict. Compiled over about a year by hundreds of international experts, the International Protocol, the first of its kind, sets guidelines and best practices on the investigation of sex crimes and how to collect evidence. Jolie and Hague called on governments around the world to adopt the Protocol and pledge to implement it. It is hoped that the protocol will help end “the culture of impunity” that allows an overwhelming majority of perpetrators of sexual violence in conflict to get away with their crimes.

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Anti-graft court Sandiganbayan will be determining on Friday, June 13, which divisions will be handling the cases in relation to the illegal diversion of millions in development funds to fake non-governmental organizations (NGOs). This sets the stage for a legal process that will likely result in the arrest of 3 Philippine senators. It was the Supreme Court (SC) that gave the go-ahead for the raffle, saying the process should continue even if there are pending cases related to the scandal that have been lodged with the High Court. The Ombudsman has asked the SC to create a special division that will hear the plunder cases. Pending the justices’ decision on this, they said the anti-graft court should nonetheless proceed with the case raffle to determine which division will be handling plunder suits involving the biggest corruption scandal in the country’s recent history.

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He first appeared in a photo with the alleged architect of the pork barrel scam, Janet Lim Napoles, which prompted a Supreme Court probe on him. Then his name appears among the numerous files of principal whistleblower Benhur Luy. The results of the SC probe on Sandiganbayan Justice Gregory Ong are expected to be made public soon but the investigations might have excluded Luy’s digital files. The Luy files showed Ong’s name under “disbursements” dated November 10, 2004, at about the same time that Ong’s division in the anti-graft court was hearing a graft case involving Napoles and her family. Ong later acquitted Napoles.

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I’ve done nothing wrong. I’m no thief. In a privilege speech June 11, Senator Jinggoy Estrada, who is facing plunder charges before the Sandiganbayan along with two other senators, lambasted Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales for what he deemed was a hasty and irresponsible filing of the cases against them. He said the Ombudsman has doomed his chances of getting a fair trial. “I am very sure that what the Ombudsman really wants is not speedy trial but a speedy convicting court,” Estrada said. The senator was most critical of Morales’ decision to deny his request for copies of counter-affidavits of the other respondents in the case. “I would have accepted this had the Ombudsman not used these very same documents I requested, and which they refused to give, against me,” he added.

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The Commission on Higher Education approved the tuition increase in 116 more private colleges and universities for school year 2014-2015. This brings the total number of schools with approved increases to 287. The nationwide average of tuition increase is at 8.13% or P35.66 ($0.81) per unit. About 64 schools in Metro Manila will increase their tuition with an average per unit cost of 6% or P66.24 ($1.51). In Central Luzon, 26 schools will increase an average per unit of 9.3% or P39.42 ($0.90), while 25 schools in Calabarzon will increase with an average per unit of 7.35% or P51.04 ($1.17).

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Google announced plans to buy the satellite group Skybox Imaging for $500 million, in a move to improve mapping and other services using geospatial data. Skybox said in a blog post that the goal of the 5-year-old firm was “to revolutionize access to information about the changes happening across the surface of the Earth.” Google said the satellites will keep its maps accurate with up-to-date imagery. In December, Skybox released the first high-resolution, high-definition video of Earth taken by a commercial remote sensing satellite, with images of Tokyo, Bangkok, Baltimore, Las Vegas, and Aleppo, Syria.

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Ground staff at Rio de Janeiro’s 3 airports plan to stage a 24-hour partial strike June 12, the day Brazil hosts the opening match of the World Cup. The workers vowed to maintain 80% service, but the strike will nevertheless raise fears of delays as thousands of football fans descend on the city around the opening match in Sao Paulo and first game in Rio on Sunday, June 15. In London, the Sunday Times reported that millions of dollars in bribes were paid to help Qatar secure hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup. This prompted a former chairman of England’s Football Association to say FIFA, the football world governing body, acts like a “mafia family.” He added that FIFA has “a decades-long tradition of bribes, bungs and corruption.”

Read the full story on the strike on Rappler.

Read the full story on the mafia tag on Rappler.

Check the FIFA schedule on Rappler.

The San Antonio Spurs can move within one win of their fifth NBA title with a victory over reigning champion Miami in game 4 of the NBA Finals on Friday, June 13. San Antonio handed the Heat its first home loss of the playoffs, shooting a stunning 76% in the first half to win game three 111-92 on June 11 and take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven championship series. The Spurs are the first team since 1989 to return to the finals after losing a game seven in the finals the year before. Spurs veteran Tim Duncan said that if they have to win Friday they must stay with their game plan and not give the ball away, as they did in game one at San Antonio when they made 22 turnovers.

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It’s fairly new in the Philippines. Some of you might have already downloaded those apps and taken a taxi ride or two as result. In Europe, however, private cab apps such as Uber have become so popular it is stirring unrest – among traditional taxi drivers. Taxi drivers brought parts of London, Paris, Berlin and other European cities to a standstill on June 11, as they protested against new private cab apps  which have shaken up the industry. The main issue is license: old-time cab drivers say the successful San Francisco-based start-up operates without a license in the cities where they’re accessed, unlike traditional cab drivers who go through training and screening. Uber was undeterred, saying the striking drivers belonged to the “Dark Ages.”

Read the full story on Rappler and on The Daily Beast.