Manila Times

1. Korean actor Song Joong-ki welcomes second child — a daughter

   MANILA, Philippines — South Korean actor Song Joong Ki and wife, British actress Katy Louise Saunders, welcomed their second child in Rome, Italy.

   As South Korean entertainment site Soompi reported, the "Vincenzo" and "Descendants of the Sun" star shared the news on his fan cafe on Nov. 20.

   "I'm currently in Rome and it's been just over a year since I met my first child here. I'm incredibly grateful to announce that we've been blessed with another beautiful baby," Song said.

   "Our lovely princess was born healthy, and both my wife and our baby are doing well and resting," he added.

   Rome is the hometown of the British-Colombian Saunders while it was reported that the two first met in Italy in 2021.

   The couple got married in January 2023 and welcomed their first child, a son, in June of the same year.

   Song was married to Song Hye Kyo, his co-star in the popular K-drama "Descendants of the Sun" on Oct. 31, 2017 but divorced her after only 20 months on June 27, 2018.

2. Big business heeds President's call to avoid lavish Christmas parties

   MANILA, Philippines — Big business heeded the call of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to avoid lavish Christmas parties and instead give the money to their employees as additional incentives.

   "A lot of our member companies will give the money to their employees as an additional benefit rather than spend it on extravagant parties," said Sergio Ortiz-Luiz, president of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP).

   The ECOP, which has more than 600 members, is the umbrella organization and single voice for the entire business community on important national issues related to employment.

   But Ortiz-Luis said that the same could not be done by small establishments which comprised more than 90 percent of businesses in the country.

   Record shows that 99.6 percent of companies in the Philippines are micro, small and medium enterprises or MSME but they contribute 30 percent to the country's gross domestic product and 60 percent to job generation.

   The President's call to avoid lavish Christmas parties was in "solidarity" with victims of the string of typhoons that devastated the Bicol Region, Cordillera Administrative Region and Cagayan Valley Region, among others.

3. BBM breaks ground for world's largest solar, battery storage facility

   MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Thursday led the groundbreaking of the Meralco Terra (MTerra) Solar Project, considered as the largest integrated solar and battery storage facility in the world.

   In his speech in Gapan City, Nueva Ecija, Marcos said the landmark project would "put our country on the map as a leader in renewable energy."

   "With an investment of over P200 billion, this demonstrates confidence in the stakeholders in our nation's potential and our commitment to securing a stable, steady, reliable, and sustainable power supply," Marcos said.

   The President highlighted the importance of the solar project expected to power over two million households and reduce carbon emissions significantly once fully operationalized in three years.

   He said it would also address the growing demand for electricity and the Philippines' urgent need to transition to sustainable energy.

   "Once fully operational by 2027, this facility will deliver 3,500 megawatts peak of solar power to the Luzon grid, with 4,500 megawatt-hour battery energy storage," Marcos said.

   "This project will energize over 2 million households and reduce carbon emissions by more than 4.3 million metric tons annually. To put that into perspective, it is equivalent to removing 3 million gasoline-powered cars from our roads—decisive action towards helping address global warming and climate change," he added.

   The project spans 3,500 hectares across Nueva Ecija and Bulacan. Initially, it will be connected to the existing 500-kiloVolt (kV) Nagsaag-San Jose Transmission Line and later linked to the upcoming 500-kV Nagsaag-Marilao Transmission Line.

4. Marcos on clemency for Mary Jane Veloso: 'Everything is on the table'

   MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is open to granting clemency to Filipina death row inmate Mary Jane Veloso once she returns to the Philippines.

   "We will see. Hindi pa maliwanag kung ano ba talaga (It's not clear as to what it really is). This is the first time this has happened. So, everything is on the table," Marcos said in an ambush interview in Nueva Ecija when asked about the possible clemency for Veloso.

   Marcos said the Philippine government has been working on Veloso's case for years, noting that her sentence has been commuted from death to life imprisonment.

   "As I said, we have been working on this, all the previous presidents, not only me... It's been 10 years. What we have done is we were able to have her sentence commuted from death to life imprisonment," Marcos said.

   "Then what followed was that we were able to send her home. We will have to decide what will happen next," he added.

   On Wednesday, Marcos announced that Veloso was "coming home" after Indonesia agreed to the request to transfer her to the Philippines.

   The now 39-year-old mother of two was arrested and sentenced to death in Indonesia in 2010 for drug trafficking.

   She made headlines in 2015 when she was given a last minute reprieve from execution following a personal appeal by the late former president Benigno Aquino 3rd to the Indonesian government.

   Details of Veloso's return to the Philippines were still being finalized, but Philippine authorities hope that she may be able to go home in time for Christmas.

5. Easterlies prevail over Metro Manila, rest of PH

   MANILA, Philippines — As the northeast monsoon or "amihan" affects Batanes, easterly winds are over Metro Manila and the rest of the country, the state-run weather agency said on Thursday.

   Weather specialist Benison Estareja of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa ) told The Manila Times that they have not monitored any tropical cyclone or low pressure area entering or outside the Philippine Area of Responsibility.

   "It would be another generally fair weather in most parts of the country except for isolated rain showers or thunderstorms during late afternoon or at night," Estareja said.

   He said another weather system - shear line - has been affecting Babuyan Islands where cloudy skies with scattered rains and isolated thunderstorms would be likely.

   A shear line is where the hot and cold air converge, the state weather bureau said.

   Estareja reiterated that the easterlies - winds coming from the east and passing through the Pacific Ocean that carry humid and warm weather - will be bringing partly cloudy to overcast skies over the National Capital Region and the rest of the country within 24 hours.

6. 'Mary Jane is coming home'

   (UPDATE) MARY Jane Veloso, the overseas Filipino worker who has been on death row in Indonesia for over a decade, is coming home, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced Wednesday.

   In a statement, Marcos thanked Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and the Indonesian government for their "goodwill."

   "Mary Jane Veloso is coming home. Arrested in 2010 on drug trafficking charges and sentenced to death, Mary Jane's case has been a long and difficult journey," Marcos said.

   "After over a decade of diplomacy and consultations with the Indonesian government, we managed to delay her execution long enough to reach an agreement to finally bring her back to the Philippines," he added.

   Marcos said Veloso's story "resonates with many: a mother trapped by the grip of poverty, who made one desperate choice that altered the course of her life."

   "While she was held accountable under Indonesian law, she remains a victim of her circumstances," Marcos said.

   "This outcome is a reflection of the depth of our nation's partnership with Indonesia — united in a shared commitment to 'justice' and 'compassion.' Thank you, Indonesia. We look forward to welcoming Mary Jane home," he added.

   Veloso, now 39, has been on Indonesia's death row for a quarter of her life. She was arrested in 2010 after Indonesian authorities found 2.6 kg of heroin in her suitcase. She was later sentenced to death by firing squad.

   Veloso said she was unaware of the contents of her luggage as it was only given by her recruiters, identified as Julius Lacanilao and Maria Cristina Sergio.

   The mother-of-two's case sparked an uproar in the Philippines, with her family and supporters saying she was innocent and had been set up by an international drug syndicate.

   They maintained she was duped into signing up for a non-existent job abroad as a domestic worker and was not aware the suitcase her recruiter gave her contained hidden drugs.

   The Philippine government won a last-minute reprieve for Veloso in 2015 after a woman suspected of recruiting her was arrested and put on trial for human trafficking, for which Veloso was named as a prosecution witness.

   At a Palace press conference, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega said there was no written agreement yet between the Philippines and Indonesia regarding Veloso's repatriation.

   "If you mean a written agreement, there's no answer so far. But they are the ones who approached us to talk about this, so we're extremely confident that it will happen," de Vega said.

   "Certainly, our President must be privy [to] information which would explain his confidence. So let's just say that we're just going to fine-tune the details," he added.

   The DFA official also said that the Indonesian government did not ask anything in return for Veloso's transfer.

   "And the very fact that Miss Veloso is still alive this very day is a tribute to the work that our government has been doing for over a decade, but also to the warm ties of friendship and cooperation between the Philippines and Indonesia, and we are very grateful for this," he said.

   De Vega said Veloso would still be detained upon returning to the Philippines but was hoping she would be granted clemency.

   "There are two options: we will request, while she's here, for the official release from detention, from the Indonesian Criminal Procedure system, or another one [or] they will allow our President to issue the clemency on the basis that she's been here," he said.

   De Vega said the Philippine government was respecting Indonesia's jurisdiction over Veloso's case and was grateful that it had allowed her transfer to the Philippine prison.

   But the DFA official also said that it was going to be "a bonus" if Jakarta would allow President Marcos to issue the clemency.

   "The goal would be not just for her to be transferred but for the president to be able to issue clemency," he said.

   De Vega said that Veloso would be back in the country once the Indonesian government formally permitted her return.

   "When she gets here, she will not immediately be released. It means we will commit to detain her until such time that we have mutual agreement that she could be given clemency. But at least she would be here," de Vega said.

   "The bottom line, once she's here, we are at least assured that there'll be no death penalty; they do not issue the death penalty. We do not have the death penalty, and we would, under principles of international humanitarian law, have some right to refuse if Indonesians would request her back, but that's precisely a sign that they are not interested in executing Miss Veloso and we thank them for that," he added.

   Justice Department spokesman Mico Clavano said the National Bureau of Investigation would pick up Veloso upon her return to the country, and she would be detained at the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City.

   But he said that the legal custody of Veloso would remain with Indonesia even after her return to the Philippines.

   "The legal custody will remain with Indonesia because we are asked to respect their laws and jurisprudence. However, physical custody will be with the Philippines," Clavano said during the same Palace briefing.

   "However, the Indonesian government is aware that we do not have the death penalty here, which they also respect," he added.

   Indonesia's law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said President Prabowo Subianto had "approved the transfer of prisoner policy" on Veloso's case.

   He added that the transfer was likely to take place next month.

   Private lawyers of Veloso said they were "exultant" after receiving the news that she would be heading home.

   National Union of People's Lawyers chairman Edre Olalia thanked the migrant and church groups from the Philippines and Indonesia and those "who did not lose faith."

   "We express our appreciation to the Indonesian government for this exemplary act of goodwill," he said. "We acknowledge the initiative of the present Philippine authorities in pursuing this political and diplomatic arrangement."

   The group called on President Marcos to grant clemency to Veloso once she returned to the country.

   "Even as we continue to pray that Mary Jane will really step foot back in our homeland soon, we call on President Marcos to accord her immediate clemency on humanitarian grounds and as a matter of justice," Olalia's statement read.

   Migrante International, which also pushed for Veloso's freedom, welcomed the news and urged clemency for a victim of human trafficking.

   Former Bayan Muna representative Carlos Zarate also called on Marcos to extend a pardon to the OFW.

   "Mary Jane Veloso has suffered immensely for over a decade, a victim of a cruel system that exploits the vulnerable. It is high time for justice and compassion to prevail," he said.

   "Though with guarded optimism, we welcome the impending return of Mary Jane Veloso to the Philippines. But this is not over with her return though and the justice system here must work overtime so that she can immediately be freed, and those responsible for setting her up should be made fully accountable," Zarate added.

   Former senator Leila de Lima congratulated the Marcos administration for the return of Veloso, whose plight "traversed administrations."

   De Lima also mentioned that in 2015, during the administration of President Benigno Aquino III, the Department of Justice under her watch and the Department of Foreign Affairs worked on a last-minute reprieve for Veloso after a phone call between Aquino and then-Indonesian president Joko Widodo.

   "Congratulations to the [Marcos] administration for Mary Jane's impending return to the Philippines after years of waiting in Indonesia's death row. It's important to save even just one life because a single death is always one death too many," the former justice secretary said.

   Veloso's recruiters, Ma. Cristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilao, were sentenced to life imprisonment in 2020 for illegal recruitment charges filed by three other victims.

   RED MENDOZA, BERNADETTE E. TAMAYO

7. POGO hubs disguised as resorts, restaurants

   BANNED from operating by the end of the year, Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) are disguising themselves as resorts and restaurants to hide their illegal operations, Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said Wednesday.

   Remulla disclosed this when he attended his confirmation hearing before the Commission on Appointments (CA).

   Asked about the government campaign to shut down POGOs by the end of the year, he cited the raid in Lapu-Lapu City last August, where workers from the closed POGO hub in Porac, Pampanga, transferred.

   The National Bureau of Investigation director in Central Visayas (NBI-7), Rennan Augusto Oliva, said they acted upon reports that the hotel had become a POGO hub.

   Remulla said these POGOs obtained business permits from the local government.

   He said he would issue a memorandum circular to remind mayors of their duty to inspect business establishments.

   "Mayors should use their power to visit business establishments in their jurisdictions and close them if necessary... because they are responsible if something illegal slips through," he said.

   Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla. PHOTOS BY J. GERARD SEGUIA

   In an interview at the Senate, Remulla reiterated his promise that on Dec. 15, he would personally go and ensure that the POGO complex in Island Cove in Cavite Province, where he served as governor and held other positions, is closed.

   The Remulla family previously owned the large lot in Island Cove, where what is considered the largest POGO complex in the country was built.

   Earlier in the day, Sen. Risa Hontiveros flagged the "alarming trend" of emerging guerrilla scam operations, allegedly taking over POGOs during marathon plenary debates on the proposed 2025 funding of the Department of Information and Communications and Technology (DICT).

   She asked Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, who was speaking on behalf of DICT as the agency's budget sponsor, how they intend to address the supposed trend.

   "Following the welcome declaration of the President banning POGOs, our law enforcement officers have found an alarming trend that instead of using POGOs as regulatory cover, guerrilla scam operators are now emerging, perhaps even harder to detect. What can the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) do to address this?" Hontiveros asked.

   Gatchalian reported that the CICC has managed to apprehend 11 scam hubs, both legal and illegal, that are linked to these operations.

   "This is in cooperation with various law enforcement agencies such as the Philippine National Police (PNP) and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and they have the technology to also detect scam hubs in the country, and they also have a hotline that people can call this type of scamming operation," said Gatchalian.

   During the hearing, Remulla also clarified that no PNP general would be fired in his proposed reduction in the number of police generals as part of his plan to streamline the police force. He did not say, however, how this reduction would be achieved.

   He earlier said that there were too many police generals and that some of them were redundant, increasing the government's expenditure on pensions.

   Remulla wants to limit police generals to 25 but admits that it will be difficult to make it happen, so his new goal is to keep it at 100.

   He said in his study, he found that there were police generals who did not lead a unit and had no staff. Some were also not necessary.

   In the National Capital Region police office, he said that the chief was a one-star general, and his deputy was also a one-star general.

   He also said there were nine police generals in different area police commands with only three staff.

   Remulla said he would ask Congress for help to amend the Civil Service Law, which allows policemen to be eligible for promotion every three years, similar to the Armed Forces of the Philippines, where promotion is allowed every five years.

   He is also consulting the UP College of Public Administration to make recommendations, which he will submit to President Marcos and Congress for consideration.

   Remulla said the President supported his plans for the PNP.

8. Typhoons did P1B damage to schools

   DAMAGE to school buildings caused by multiple typhoons has reached about P1 billion in 10 regions, the Department of Education (DepEd) said Wednesday.

   In a radio interview, Education Undersecretary for Disaster Risk Reduction Service Revsee Escobedo said 110 out of 280 schools division offices were affected by typhoons Nica, Ofel and Pepito, with an initial count of 323 classrooms destroyed and 507 needing major repairs.

   Escobedo also said 209 schools were also being used as evacuation centers due to Pepito.

   The count does not include the damage caused by Severe Tropical Storm Kristine, where 16 regions were affected, equivalent to around P5 billion worth of damage to schools, infrastructure and facilities.

   The DepEd, Escobedo said, has a quick reaction fund for school disaster repairs worth P2.1 billion, but with the damage due to Kristine, they are looking to augment the fund from the Office of the President to cover the remaining cost of damage.

   Meanwhile, Escobedo said that aside from the Cordillera Administrative Region, which has lost 36 school days, the Ilocos and Cagayan Valley regions also lost 30 school days, followed by the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon) with 28 days and 23 school days for the Bicol Region. Metro Manila has lost 20 school days.

   He said there would be make-up classes in regions that have a high number of school days lost, with Bicol, Eastern Visayas and Cordillera regional directors committing to hold these classes.

   "Others would allot additional time. For example, in Kinder 1-3, instead of four hours in the classroom, they will just spend five ours to compensate for the lost school days. Other regional directors have decided that they will use the academic break of Nov. 25-29 for make-up classes," Escobedo said.

   He also said that Education Secretary Sonny Angara had ordered schools to intensify the alternative delivery mode of learning and enforce the dynamic learning program.

   Escobedo also said DepEd would revise Department Order 37 series of 2022 or the policies and guidelines on school cancellations or suspensions due to natural disasters to change how school classes are suspended, especially during a public storm warning Signal No. 1.

   "Signal No. 1 serves as a warning, and while it's only light rains and a bit sunny, classes are automatically suspended, which contributes to the school days lost, which could lead to learning loss," he said.

9. Regional defense chiefs meet

   VIENTIANE, Laos — Southeast Asian defense chiefs and representatives met in Laos on Wednesday for security talks at a time of increasing maritime disputes with China in the Asia-Pacific and as the transition to a new US president looms.

   US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was set to join the meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) defense ministers in Vientiane, where many will be looking for assurances before President-elect Donald Trump's return to power in January.

   Austin just wrapped up meetings in Australia with officials there and Japan's defense minister, where they pledged their support for Asean and their "serious concern about destabilizing actions in the East and South China Seas, including dangerous conduct by the People's Republic of China against the Philippines and other coastal state vessels."

   In addition to the United States, other nations attending the two-day Asean meetings include Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and China.

   Along with the Philippines, Asean member states Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei have competing claims with China in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost entirely as its own territory.

   Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos are the other Asean members.

   Opening the talks, Laotian Defense Minister Chansamone Chanyalath said he hoped for productive meetings that would "become a standard for us to continue Asean's cooperation in defense, including how to handle, thwart, and manage security threats in the present and in the future."

   As China has been more assertively pushing its claims in recent years, Asean members and Beijing have been negotiating a code of conduct to govern behavior in the sea, but progress has been slow.

   Officials have agreed to try to complete the code by 2026, but talks have been hampered by sticky issues, including disagreements over whether the pact should be binding.

   President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who has called for more urgency in the code of conduct negotiations, complained at the meeting of Asean leaders last month that his country "continues to be subject to harassment and intimidation" by China's actions, which he said violated international law.

   Chinese and Philippine vessels have clashed repeatedly this year, and Vietnam in October charged that Chinese forces assaulted its fishermen in disputed areas in the South China Sea.

   China has also sent patrol vessels to areas that Indonesia and Malaysia claim as exclusive economic zones.

   At the meeting of Asean leaders last month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington was "very concerned about China's increasingly dangerous and unlawful activities in the South China Sea which have injured people, harm vessels from Asean nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolutions of disputes."

   He pledged that the US would "continue to support freedom of navigation and freedom of overflight in the Indo-Pacific."

   In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said the US and other non-regional militaries present in the sea were the main sources of instability.

   "The increasing military deployment and activities in the South China Sea by the US and a few other non-regional countries, stoking confrontation and creating tensions, are the greatest source of instability for peace and stability in the South China Sea," Mao said.

   It is not yet clear how the incoming Trump administration will address the South China Sea situation.

   After Austin's meetings in Australia, the Defense Department said the US, Australia and Japan had agreed to expand joint drills and announced a defense consultation body among the three countries' forces to strengthen their cooperation.

10. SC voids Guanzon substitution

    (UPDATE) THE Supreme Court has granted the petition of the Duterte Youth Party-list group to declare as null and void a Commission on Elections (Comelec) resolution allowing the substitution of nominees of the group beyond the prescribed period.

    In a 131-page resolution, the Court en banc said the Comelec committed grave abuse of discretion and made permanent as well its earlier temporary restraining order, dated July 29, 2022.

    "Accordingly, the petition in G.R. No. 261123 is granted. Comelec Minute Resolution No. 22-0774, dated June 15, 2022, is declared null and void for having been issued with grave abuse of discretion insofar as it approved the substitution of the nominee's respondent P3PWD Party-list. The Court's temporary restraining order dated June 29, 2022, is made permanent," the Court said.

    "Respondent P3PWD Party-list is directed to submit additional nominees pursuant to Section 16 of Republic Act No. 7941 but is strictly enjoined from renominating for the duration of the Nineteenth Congress the nominees whose substitutions were declared null and void by this Decision, namely Ma. Rowena Amelia V. Guanzon, Rosalie J. Garcia, Cherrie Belmonte-Lim, Donnabel C. Tenorio, and Rodolfo B. Villar, Jr.," the ruling, penned by Associate Justice Ricardo Rosario, read.

    Duterte Youth Party-list Rep. Marie Cardema and her husband, Chairman Ronald Cardema, argued in their petition that the Comelec resolution approving the substitution was issued with grave abuse of discretion because it was submitted beyond the substitution deadlines of Nov. 15, 2021.

    The petitioners claimed that allowing the P3PWD substitution violated Comelec rules, Republic Act (RA) 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act), and RA 6713 (Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees).

    Records show that on Oct. 6, 2021, P3PWD submitted the names of its five nominees, which it substituted with a new set on Nov. 5, 2021. In Minute Resolution 21-13275, dated Nov. 24, 2021, the Comelec en banc approved the withdrawal with substitution of nominees of several registered party-lists, including P3PWD.

    On Dec. 29, 2021, the Comelec published online the final list of party-list candidates for the 2022 national and local elections, which included the P3PWD.

    P3PWD won a seat and was proclaimed on May 26, 2022, by the Comelec en banc sitting as the National Board of Canvassers. On the same day, it proclaimed its first nominee, Grace S. Yeneza, to sit as representative.

    In June, all nominees of the P3PWD resigned one after another for personal and other reasons. Yeneza resigned to take care of her cancer-stricken daughter.

    On June 14, 2022, P3PWD filed a new set of five nominees — former Comelec commissioner Ma. Rowena V. Guanzon was the top nominee. On June 15, 2022, the Comelec en banc promulgated Minute Resolution 22-0774 that granted the withdrawal of nominations of the previous nominees and gave due course to the new set of nominees led by Guanzon, who had retired a few months earlier and one of the sitting commissioners when the Commission approved the application for registration of the P3PWD Party-list.

    But the Supreme Court issued a decision temporarily stopping the Comelec from implementing its resolution, allowing Guanzon to substitute as No. 1 nominee of P3PWD Party-list, which stemmed from a petition filed by the Duterte Youth Party-list questioning the substitution of Guanzon as P3PWD nominee.

    The high court also dismissed the indirect contempt charges filed by the Duterte Youth, as well as the countercharge of Guanzon for lack of merit.

    "The power to punish for contempt serves to preserve the integrity and dignity of the Court and ensure the effectiveness of the administration of justice. However, as declared by Justice Malcolm, this power 'should be exercised on the preservative and not on the vindictive principle.' Only occasionally should the Court invoke its inherent power in order to retain that respect without which the administration of justice must falter or fail," the Court pointed out.

    The Supreme Court resolution was promulgated on Aug. 30, 2024, but was received only by the Comelec on Nov. 20.