June 20, 2014 Edition

Opposition Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr surrendered to the Sandiganbayan, the Philippine anti-graft court, Friday morning, June 20, in connection with the plunder and graft charges he is facing. He, however, filed a petition with the court to allow him to post bail. The court ordered on the same day the arrest of Revilla, one of the 3 senators charged over the illegal diversion of millions of their discretionary funds to fake non-governmental organizations controlled by a woman who gave them kickbacks. Revilla, according to prosecutors pocketed the most among the senators at P242 million ($5.29 million). Revilla, who has not abandoned his ambition to seek the presidency in 2016, decried the “political persecution” waged against him by the Aquino administration. A day before his surrender, he stayed at the mansion of his father and namesake, a former senator who reportedly introduced him to the scam mastermind, in their home province south of Manila. Supporters kept vigil and accompanied him to Mass in the morning before he went to the Sandiganbayan. As of posting, the anti-graft court was hearing the motions of the two other senators charged with plunder, Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada and Juan Ponce Enrile.

Read Rappler’s exclusive on the senator’s wealth, his utilization of his pork barrel, and the political controversy he is embroiled in: Bong Revilla’s biggest battle.

Janet Lim Napoles, the woman believed to have engineered the plunder of Philippine lawmakers’ development funds over several administrations, was so awash with cash during the peak of her scam operations. Electronic files surrendered by her former aide who is now a state witness in the plunder cases filed against her and some lawmakers showed that at one point in 2009, one of the US dollar accounts in Napoles’ name held $100.23 million (about P4.41 billion). There were 8 other dollars accounts aside from this. Most of her dollar accounts were locked in bonds, time deposits, life insurance and financial investments, generating additional thousands of dollars in interest.This excludes the millions of pesos in deposits stashed in the accounts of fictitious non-governmental organizations which she allegedly set up as conduit for the pork barrel scheme. Napoles is facing plunder charges along with 3 senators and other government officials. She has been in detention for the kidnapping of Benhuy Luy, her former employee who revealed the scam. Her children, who were alleged involved in the scam, have been charged as well.

Read the Rappler exclusive here.

The 90-day window that the Philippine Constitution provides the chief executive to fill a vacancy in the anti-graft court has lapsed, but President Benigno Aquino III has yet to name a new justice. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court rebuffed the Malacañang Palace for even daring to return to the Judicial and Bar Council the shortlist that the President was supposedly not happy about. Court watchers say this could affect the plunder and graft trials of 3 senators and about 50 other government officials and private individuals. The vacancy is in the Sandiganbayan’s 5th division, which is hearing the cases against Senator Jinggoy Estrada. The special member that will reportedly be assigned there while there’s a vacancy is a justice from the 3rd division, which is hearing the cases against Senator Juan Ponce Enrile. “We do not read anything in the Constitution that authorizes the JBC, once it submits a list of recommendees, to revisit the same, even under changed circumstances,” Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno said in her letter to Executive Secretary Paquino Ochoa Jr. The JBC is the body solely tasked to vet nominees to Philippine courts.

Read here how the process was delayed since the names were submitted in February.

The extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has expanded its recruitment base for fighters to cover Southeast Asia, intelligence sources told Rappler. ISIS, the latest reincarnation of fighters from at least 2 al-Qaeda-linked groups, had returned from waging jihad in Syria to sow terror in Iraq, where they trace their roots, but not without bringing along foreign fighters, including those from the East Asia. According to sources, these recruits include about 200 Australians, 50 Indonesians, 20 Malaysians, at least 1 Filipino, and 1 Singaporean.

Read Rappler’s exclusive report.

United States President Barack Obama, after meeting with his top security officials, has approved sending up to 300 US advisors to train Iraqi forces to respond to the swift gains by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The insurgents have seized several key cities and threaten to advance on Baghdad. They have grabbed northern Iraq’s biggest city, Mosul, displaced hundreds of thousands of people, left an unknown number dead and alarmed Western nations who fear the establishment of a vast new “terror” haven. Obama, who based an entire political career on ending US involvement in Iraq, insisted however that the US was not sending troops to Iraq again. He warned Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Iran that promoting sectarianism would spell disaster.

Read the full story here.

China has sent off another oil rig into the South China, further increasing maritime tension with Vietnam, although authorities said the rig, which was set to arrive Friday, June 20, would be “within the coastal waters off China’s Hainan Island.” Relations between China and Vietnam have plummeted over the oil rig row, with Beijing saying that Vietnamese ships have rammed its vessels more than 1,500 times since early May. Vietnam, on the other hand, released footage showing a large Chinese ship near the rig chasing and ramming one of its fishing boats, which then sank. Hanoi has demanded that China withdraw the rig, which is in waters near the Paracel Islands claimed by Vietnam. The running dispute between the two countries has seen a wave of deadly anti-Chinese riots in Vietnam.

Read the full story here.

Singapore police is investigating an anonymous blog, which lists ways to target Filipinos and make them feel unwelcome in the city-state. The post, titled “Filipino infestation in Singapore – 5 point guide to showing displeasure without breaking the law” was published in May on a blog called “Blood Stained Singapore” and has since been taken down. The Philippine embassy in Singapore said it had requested officials to “carry out the necessary action in accordance with the laws of Singapore to make the author of this blog answerable.”

Read the full story here.

A former military chief confirmed that Prabowo Subianto, a former general now seeking the Indonesian presidency, unilaterally ordered the abduction of student activists between December 1997 and March 1998. Twenty-three student activists were kidnapped at the height of a movement to topple the 3-decade Suharto dictatorship and which succeeded in May 1998. Wiranto, who was armed forces chief when Prabowo was dismissed from the military, released a 4-page document that allegedly belies claims by Prabowo that he was acting on orders from higher-ups when he had the activists abducted. The document, however, states that Prabowo had ignored the military’s hierarchy and, on his own, ordered a team to kidnap the activists.

Read the full story here.

As football fans go gaga over ongoing World Cup matches, the Philippines seems to be not as enthusiastic as the rest of some 400 million TV audience worldwide. Or so we believed. Before basketball fever engulfed the nation – and before the younger generation thought it was the Azkals who first made Filipinos interested in football – the Philippines was in fact an Asian football powerhouse. The Philippine Football Federation dates as far back as 1907. As a Spanish colony, the Philippines had football as its primary sport. The first ever football tournament in Asia, the Far Eastern Games, was held in the country in 1913. We beat China for the championship with a scoreline of 2-1.

Read Rappler’s piece that looks back at the Philippines’ football history.

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What do real-life scenarios from hundreds of years ago have in common with today’s popular fantasy television series, Game of Thrones? A lot, it seems, if we are to go by a recent study of Neanderthals.New research on skulls from 430,000-year-old remains found in Spain suggests that big jaws were the first prominent feature of pre-Neanderthals. Their large mandibles could gnash meat, open wide, and be used like a tool or a third hand, helping them adapt to their eating needs in a harsh, cold environment. These indicated that they were engaged in vicious fight for survival and power among disparate kingdoms and clans. “We think that a Game of Thrones scenario probably describes hominin evolution in Eurasia and Africa in the Middle Pleistocene period,” lead researcher Juan-Luis Arsuaga from the Complutense University of Madrid told reporters, referring to George R.R. Martin’s novels that became the basis for the TV series.

Read the full story here.