HK journalists, EDCA hearing, Ferguson protests | The wRap

Today on Rappler.

• The Bureau of Immigration lifts its ban on Hong Kong journalists.
• A Supreme Court justice says the Philippine-US defense deal will not guarantee aid.
• Protests in Ferguson, Missouri over the Grand Jury ruling erupt into violence.

BI LIFTS BAN ON FOREIGN JOURNALISTS

The Philippines’ Bureau of Immigration lifts the ban on 9 Hong Kong journalists. The decision comes two days after the Foreign Correspondents’ Association of the Philippines said the ban would send a “chilling effect” to journalists worldwide. The journalists were blacklisted after they aggressively questioned President Benigno Aquino at the 2013 APEC Summit in Bali, Indonesia over a hostage-taking in Manila in 2010. 8 Hong Kong residents died in that incident. The immigration bureau’s decision was based on a National Intelligence Coordinating Agency report that said the journalists were a “public safety threat.”

EDCA IS NO GUARANTEE US WILL AID PH IN WEST PH SEA – CARPIO

Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio says the defense deal between the US and the Philippines will not guarantee security. During the hearing on the defense deal Tuesday Carpio cites the 2012 incident in the Scarborough Shoal or Panatag where the US did not come to the aid of the Philippines when China took control of the shoal. Also present in the hearing is former senator Rene Saguisag, who says the deal should have been passed through the Senate.

RENE SAGUISAG, FORMER PHILIPPINE SENATOR: According to the constitution any treaty agreement must be concurred in by the Senate. The procedure is the thing eh. You have to do what you perceive to be the right thing, in the right way. Here, in the constitutional way.

PROTESTS OVER FERGUSON TURN VIOLENT

Protests in the United states in Ferguson, Missouri turn violent Tuesday after the grand jury ruled against the indictment of a white policeman who shot a black teen in Ferguson. Looting, gunshots and burning buildings are reported in the town where policeman Darren Wilson allegedly killed teenager Michael Brown. Protests continue to spread across the United States with people heading out to the streets from Seattle to Chicago to New York.

US DEFENSE SECRETARY HAGEL RESIGNS

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel submits his resignation Tuesday Manila time after pressure from the White House. Hagel’s resignation comes as the White House faces criticism over its handling of the ISIS or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria threat and its Afghanistan campaign. Hagel steps down after serving less than two years under President Barack Obama, but will stay until the US Senate confirms his replacement.

BARACK OBAMA HONORS MERYL STREEP WITH ‘LOVE’

US President Barack Obama confers on actress Meryl Streep a Presidential Medal of Freedom award, the highest civil honor in the United States. In his speech Obama says he is “in love” with Streep and there’s nothing her husband and his wife Michelle can do about it. Among other recipients of the award are musician Stevie Wonder, Chilean-American author Isabel Allende, journalist Tom Brokaw and composer Stephen Sondheim.

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