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Negros sugarcane crop yields could fall due to Kanlaon ash

PHILSTAR FILE PHOTO

THE Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) said that the ash ejected during the Kanlaon Volcano eruption could affect sugarcane yields on Negros Island due to increase in the acidity of the soil.

“With the current results after the ash fall, if this is not washed out by rains, we will need soil rejuvenation in affected sugar lands to bring it back to the ideal state, and that is a long term (project),” SRA Administrator Pablo Luis S. Azcona said in a statement on Wednesday.

Tests in the area around the volcano yielded pH readings of 4.14 for the cane leaves and 5.06 for the soil. A pH reading of below 7 indicates acidity.

The reading of 6.48 pH last week, before the Monday eruption, “should have been ideal,” he said.

Citing a report, the SRA said that the more immediate impact of volcanic ash is physical damage to the leaves, reducing their capacity for photosynthesis, as well as disruption of the chemical makeup of the soil, which can all lead to reduced yields.

“It is too early to tell whether the volcanic ash will cause so much damage on crops as it has been raining on the affected places and so hopefully the acidity will be diluted,” Mr. Azcona said.

The SRA added that long-term effects on crops could include nutrient imbalance in the soil, compaction, erosion and chemical leaching.

“About 23,000 hectares in four sugar mill districts may have been affected by the volcanic eruption,” it said.

The SRA’s research and development arm had recommended the use of cover crops, irrigation by washing off plants and soil, and applying lime or organic matter to neutralize soil pH if ash fall continues.

The SRA had sampled cane fields in La Castellana, Moises Padilla, Pontevedra and La Carlota City, all in Negros Occidental. — Adrian H. Halili

BFAR: More LGUs to be enlisted in illegal fishing monitoring scheme

PHILIPPINE STAR/ MICHAEL VARCAS

THE Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) on Wednesday said it hopes to enroll more municipalities in the use of its Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing monitoring system.

“We have more than 900 coastal municipalities. Right now, ang gumagamit ay nasa 395 (current users are 395), so we are looking at expanding the number of local government units using (our system),” BFAR Chief Information Officer Nazario C. Briguera told reporters.

The IUU Fishing Index and Threat Assessment Tool (I-FIT) determines the vulnerability of communities to IUU fishing.

“The I-FIT data highlights a broader spectrum of the IUU fishing that is meant to serve as a benchmark in assessing the country’s exposure to IUU fishing, which should serve as the criterion for monitoring progress,” BFAR OIC Director Isidro M. Velayo, Jr. said.

Trade agreements, particularly with the European Union (EU), require the Philippines to observe international norms for labor rights, human rights, and illegal fishing, among others, making IUU monitoring a key component in keeping the Philippines eligible for trade privileges.

The BFAR also launched the Fisheries Sharing Hub on Investigation, Enforcement, Litigation, and Detection System (FishSHIELDS) which equips local enforcers digital tools to identify, prevent, and apprehend IUU fishing cases.

The monitoring system was developed in partnership with the US Agency for International Development.

Mr. Briguera said that the I-FIT platform will help diagnose the prevalence of IUU fishing in a particular area, while FishSHIELDS serves as the response system for illegal fishing reports.

“It does not need to be online; it can be offline. And then it will be received by fisheries personnel or law enforcers. From there, there will be coordination in the local government units (LGUs) for a real-time response,” he added. — Adrian H. Halili

Poverty reduction to require human capital investment — WB

PHILIPPINE STAR/EDD GUMBAN

THE GOVERNMENT must improve access to education and healthcare and invite more private sector participation in human capital investment to bring the Philippine poverty rate down to the single digits by 2028, the World Bank (WB) said.

“The country still faces challenges to ensure that the gains from robust economic growth are distributed evenly,” the bank reported in its Philippine Economic Update.

“Ensuring that the gains from long-term growth are sustained and distributed more evenly requires addressing gaps in connectivity (both digital and physical), access to basic services such as in health and education, and private sector participation,” the WB said.

The government of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. is hoping to cut the poverty rate to single-digit levels, to about 8% by the end of his term in 2028. This would be the equivalent to bringing nearly 14 million people out of poverty.

To reduce poverty, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort cited the need to boost productivity in agriculture, which accounts for nearly a quarter of the workforce.

“Increased mechanization, use of higher-yielding and resilient seed, use of the best global technology, more irrigation, cold storage, and other infrastructure to increase farmers’ incomes would help pull more people out of poverty,” he said via chat.

The Philippine Statistics Authority reported last year that farmers and fisherfolk were the poorest segments of society in 2021, with poverty rates of 30% and 30.6%, respectively.

Foreign direct investment could upgrade labor-heavy sectors like manufacturing and industries with foreign technology, Mr. Ricafort added.

He also cited education as the “best equalizer that helps/lifts more people from poverty.”

A Social Weather Stations conducted in March showed that nearly half (46%) of Filipinos considered themselves poor. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz

NGCP raises yellow alert anew over Luzon grid

JEROME CMG-UNSPLASH

THE Luzon grid was again placed on yellow alert on Wednesday amid continuing outages and limited output at some power plants, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said.

In an advisory early Wednesday, the NGCP raised the yellow alert over Luzon between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.

Peak demand was 13,535 megawatts (MW) against available capacity of 14,254 MW.

Some 15 power plants were classified as experiencing forced outages, with five running at derated capacity, leaving 1,765.6 MW unavailable to the grid.

The derated plants include coal-fired Masinloc 1 and Masinloc 2, as well as gas-fired Ilijan A.

The NGCP also said the Angat Main hydropower facility was unavailable due to low water levels while forced outages were declared at the Pagbilao 2 and San Lorenzo 50 plants.

A yellow is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grids’ contingency requirement.

The yellow alert for the Luzon grid was lifted by the NGCP at 1 p.m. on Wednesday.

“Early lifting of grid alert status is due to the decrease in forecast demand,” the grid operator said.

The Visayas and Mindanao grids were operating normally on Wednesday, the NGCP said.

Energy Undersecretary Rowena Cristina L. Guevara has noted the possibility of a red alert this week due to continuing elevated heat and forced outages at some power plants. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera

Grasping the intangible: A transfer pricing perspective

As new technology continues to reshape the global business landscape, the intangible assets created by them play a crucial part in the operations of multinational enterprises. Compared to tangible assets such as human resources or property that can be seen or touched, intangibles refer to ideas, know-how, or rights that can be transferred or used despite having no physical characteristics. These intangibles contribute to value creation and growth of companies, and provide a competitive advantage to improve and maintain their market position.

However, the reliance on intangibles to conduct business and generate profit has also led to new challenges for tax systems that were originally anchored on legal ownership and physical location. The lack of physical presence has resulted in complexities in determining where the income is generated and where it should be taxed. With the ongoing developments in the international tax system, understanding the nature of intangibles and the relevant transfer pricing (TP) considerations are important for both multinational companies and tax authorities alike.

INTANGIBLES IN THE CONTEXT OF TP
Intangible assets are defined as things that are neither physical nor financial assets, capable of being owned or controlled for use in commercial activities, and whose use or transfer would be compensated had it occurred between independent parties in comparable circumstances.

This definition from the OECD TP Guidelines does not solely rely on accounting or legal interpretations, which means that the existence of intangibles for TP purposes is not merely determined by whether it is recorded in the balance sheet or has legal protection. For instance, intellectual property such as patents and trademarks can be registered while know-how and trade secrets are commonly not registered nor disclosed in the financial statements for confidentiality purposes. Both examples are nonetheless considered intangibles from a TP perspective.

PHILIPPINE TP RULES ON INTANGIBLES
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) recognizes that related party transactions involving intangible assets are of a special nature, as described in Revenue Audit Memorandum Order (RAMO) No. 1-2019, or the Philippine TP Audit Guidelines.

Under the RAMO, intangible assets may be classified as manufacturing or marketing intangibles. Manufacturing intangibles are generally created through research and development, and the developer aims to be remunerated for its expenditure and to seek profit through the sale of goods, license agreements, or service contracts. Marketing intangibles, on the other hand, are created through the functions of marketing, distribution and post-sale services. These typically include trademarks, customer lists, distribution channels, a unique name, symbol or picture with important promotional value for the products or services, etc.

Chapter VI of the RAMO further identified five steps in testing controlled transactions involving intangibles:

1) Identify the existence of every intangible asset that makes a contribution to the success of the product in the market;

2) Identify the value of intangible assets and determine which parties contributed to the formation of the intangible assets;

3) Study whether there has been a transfer of intangible assets in the transaction;

4) Determine the arm’s length compensation for each intangible asset that is transferred; and

5) Determine the method that can be used in evaluating the arm’s length nature of transfer of intangible assets.

OWNERSHIP, TRANSFER, AND EVALUATION OF INTANGIBLES
After identifying its existence, another important consideration in analyzing intangibles is its ownership. In order to determine how the costs and benefits from these intangibles can be divided among related parties, it is crucial to know who the legal and economic owners are. However, according to the OECD, legal ownership of intangibles by itself does not automatically mean a company has the right to ultimately to retain the returns. Instead, those entities that contribute to the development, enhancement, maintenance, protection and exploitation of the intangibles should receive a corresponding arm’s length compensation.

A functional analysis is therefore essential to identify the economically significant activities and understand how the transferred intangibles interact with other functions, assets, and risks that comprise the business. Such analysis would also be able to explain whether or not there has been an actual transfer between parties.

The most common example of a transfer of an intangible is through licensing arrangements, wherein the company owning the rights over a technology or brand would license it to a related party and receive royalty payment in exchange. However, intangible asset transfers are not always as straightforward as they may seem, since multinational companies can restructure their operations depending on their needs. Sometimes, it may involve transfers of one or more intangibles that could not be separately evaluated.

Due to the special nature of intangibles, it may be difficult to determine the pricing at the time of the arrangement. This also raises challenging issues on comparability and on the selection of TP methods.

Intangibles mostly have unique characteristics which must be considered in conducting a comparability analysis, since the potential to generate future expected benefits could vary depending on the circumstances. Generally, any of the five OECD TP methods may be appropriate but it is most commonly useful to apply the Comparable Uncontrolled Price method and the Transactional Profit Split method. For instances when there are no reliable comparable transactions that can be identified, the use of valuation techniques may also be appropriate to estimate the arm’s length price.

Selecting the most appropriate TP method heavily relies on a functional analysis to determine how the returns derived from and the costs related to intangibles can be allocated between parties. In evaluating the transfer price, careful consideration must be done to ensure compliance both in domestic and international jurisdictions in which the multinational entities operate. With the currently evolving tax environment tied to the complexity of intangibles, multinational groups may find it prudent to review their strategies as early as possible and align them with the principles and guidance laid out in the Philippine TP regulations and the OECD Guidelines. Likewise, it is recommended that companies adopt a proactive stance in preparing robust documentation and analyses that will best serve as defense in the event of tax and TP disputes.

The views or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Isla Lipana & Co. The content is for general information purposes only, and should not be used as a substitute for specific advice.

 

Angelika Kristina Montejo is an assistant manager at the Transfer Pricing group of Isla Lipana & Co., the Philippine member firm of the PricewaterhouseCoopers global network.

angelika.kristina.montejo@pwc.com

Philippines told to work with ASEAN in resolving sea dispute with China

BRP SIERRA MADRE, a marooned transport ship which Philippine Marines live in as a military outpost, sits on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, part of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. — REUTERS

By John Victor D. Ordoñez, Reporter

THE PHILIPPINES should hold more dialogues with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on its sea dispute with China, according to the Senate president, who said diplomacy is still Manila’s best option to ease tensions.

“Our Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) should try to bring this issue to the ASEAN, which the Philippines is a part of,” Senate President Francis “Chiz” G. Escudero told reporters in Filipino on Wednesday.

Suing China before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague is always an option, he added.

“ASEAN is not known to be a political association, but this is still a forum to discuss whatever is happening in this part of the region,” Mr. Escudero said.

Tensions between the Philippines and China have worsened in the past year as Beijing continues to block resupply missions to Second Thomas Shoal, where Manila grounded a World War II-era ship in 1999 to assert its sovereignty.

China has issued a policy allowing its coast guard to detain people it deems trespassers in disputed areas.

Senators on Tuesday criticized China’s coast guard for seizing and dumping food and other supplies meant for a handful of Filipino soldiers at Second Thomas Shoal on May 19.

More than $3 trillion worth of trade passes yearly through the sea, which China claims almost in its entirety. A United Nations-backed tribunal in 2016 voided its claim for being illegal.

“I hope our country won’t hit back,” Mr. Escudero said. “No one wants any kind of war to break out in our region, especially if the battleground is our country.”

China’s new policy, which the Philippine Coast Guard said is illegal, allows its coast guard to detain foreigners it suspects of violating its exit-entry rules including in disputed areas of the South China Sea for up to 60 days without a trial.

Foreign vessels may be seized, and foreigners detained if they are accused of illegal entry and exit, of helping others “to illegally enter and exit the country,” and of “endangering national security and interests.”

“China is trying to flex its muscles in that area and uplift and alleviate its status economically as a major superpower,” Senate Majority Leader Francis N. Tolentino said in a statement.

“We now see an… increase in the horizontal gray zone tactics being used by China. I think the DFA should now focus not just on mere diplomatic protests but possible violations of international humanitarian laws,” he added.

China’s Foreign Ministry on Monday said the United States has played an “extremely dishonorable role” in backing Manila and using the South China Sea dispute to provoke relations between China and the region.

Beijing is willing to continue working with members of ASEAN including the Philippines to manage differences at sea and deepen sea-related cooperation, the agency said.

Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. last week delivered a keynote address at a security forum in Singapore, criticizing what he described as illegal, coercive and aggressive actions by “other actors” in the South China Sea — a censure of China, although he didn’t name the country.

At the end of last year, ASEAN foreign ministers issued a statement saying they were closely following recent tensions in the South China Sea and countries with claims over the waterway, vowing to push for peaceful solutions to the disputes.

In his visit to Manila in April, Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said Singapore and the Philippines would push for a code of conduct in the South China Sea to ease Chinese aggression in the waterway.

Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno L.P. Marsudi has said the Philippines and Indonesia have agreed to work together in crafting a code of conduct.

The ASEAN and China have been in talks as far back as 2002 to craft the code, with both sides seeking to fast-track the measure.

In November, Mr. Marcos said he had approached Malaysia and Vietnam to discuss crafting a code of conduct, citing limited progress in striking a broader regional pact with Beijing.

“Imminent war is another matter if that happens in our own land,” Mr. Escudero said. “I hope this heat will subside and the dialogue will still go through.”

NTC asked to take down X posts with adult content

JULIAN CHRIST-UNSPLASH

By Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio and Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza, Reporter

THE NATIONAL Telecommunications Commission (NTC) should take down posts on X with sexual content, a congressman said on Wednesday, after the social media platform released a policy allowing adult content.

“X and Elon Musk may not be aware of our laws on cybercrime, sexually explicit content and online sexual abuse and exploitation of children,” Party-list Rep. Angelica Natasha Co said in a statement. “Sexual content on X should be taken down upon proper petition to the NTC.”

X on Tuesday said it would allow users to post sexual content as long as it is clearly labeled as adult content.

The policy could make it easier for sex offenders to exploit unwitting Filipinos, Ms. Co said.

BusinessWorld got an automated reply from X after it sought comment using a generic X e-mail for media.

Adult content is “material depicting adult nudity or sexual behavior that is pornographic or intended to cause sexual arousal,” according to X. Adult content is restricted for children and adults who opt not to see it.

The social media platform also prohibits nonconsensual adult content and the exploitation of minors.

Under the Philippines’ Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, “any lascivious exhibition of sexual organs or sexual activity” may be punished with a prison term as long as 12 years.

“The implementors of the laws I cited should adjust and mount countermeasures to the policy of X and its effects,” Ms. Co said.

She said law enforcers should monitor X, which could be used as a platform to transact “illegal drugs… and other criminal activities.”

Also on Tuesday, Interior Secretary Benjamin D. Abalos, Jr. said the government is stepping up its fight against child sexual abuse with a plan to empower local officials in handling these cases.

The government will boost desks that deal with violence against women and children, he told a news briefing.

The country has been tagged as a global hotspot for child pornography.

Local governments would also conduct seminars and train people against online sexual abuse and exploitation of children, Mr. Abalos said. They would be asked to adopt a “template ordinance” against online child sexual abuse, he added.

Jose Dominic F. Clavano IV, spokesman of the Department of Justice, said tapping village leaders and social workers is among the government’s six pillars in the campaign against online child sexual abuse.

Another is aftercare services for victims, and these would all be operationalized through an executive order to be signed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., he told the same briefing.

Village officials, community workers, law enforcers, prosecutors and judges should all be aligned and well-informed about the process of monitoring and building cases against perpetrators, Mr. Clavano said, citing an order from the President.

Of the 214 case referrals from the Philippine Internet Crimes Against Children Center, 413 victims have been rescued in 98 operations. Eighty-eight suspects have been arrested.

At least 38 people were convicted from 2019 to 2024, Mr. Clavano said.

In 2022, one of 100 Filipino children were trafficked to produce child pornography, according to a report from the International Justice Mission, citing its study with the University of Nottingham Rights Lab.

Cases were largely driven by demand from the US, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Europe, it said.

It said governments, tech companies and financial institutions should work together to address the growing problem.

“There are statistics from all over the world, let’s say that maybe one out of 10 children undergoes abuse before the age of 18, and these children as they grow, they have to live with the trauma,” Mr. Clavano said.

Mr. Abalos ordered village officials to report complaints to the police.

Sex abuse cases should not be settled by village officers, he said, adding that negligent officials would be penalized. He added that his agency would push a policy penalizing consumers of child porn.

CDC pushed amid new COVID-19 variants

A PHILIPPINE senator on Wednesday pushed the creation of a Center for Disease Control (CDC) after the Health department detected cases of the FLiRT coronavirus variant and Omicron subvariants in the country this week.

“We are pushing for the establishment of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to strengthen our preparation to respond to crises such as pandemics and other illnesses,” Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian said in a statement.

The Department of Health (DoH) on Tuesday said it had detected a variant believed to have spurred COVID-19 infection waves in other countries including Singapore.

It has detected two cases of KP.2, 30 cases of JN.1, and two cases of JN.1.18, citing recent sequencing data from the University of the Philippines – Philippine Genome Center.

KP.2 and KP.3 variants, which are both descendants of JN.1, are nicknamed in other countries as “FLiRT” to describe amino acid changes in the COVID-19 virus spike protein.

Philippine regions were at low risk from COVID-19, it said in a statement, adding that the new variants under monitoring continue to be “clinically mild and manageable.”

Mr. Gatchalian earlier filed Senate Bill No. 1869, which seeks to create a Philippine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that will oversee and monitor public health threats and boost epidemiology research in the country.

It will also determine whether a public health emergency should be declared an epidemic.

The bill is pending on second reading at the Senate, while the House of Representatives passed its version in 2022.

Basil Rodriques, health advisor at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) East Asia and Pacific Regional Office has said the agency would boost the Philippines’ integration into global health surveillance systems. — John Victor D. Ordoñez

Ban POGOs to protect nat’l security — senator

PHILSTAR FILE PHOTO/ SENATE PRIB/JOSEPH VIDAL

A SENATOR urged President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. and his security advisers on Wednesday to ban Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), which she said could compromise national security due to links to international crime syndicates and spies.

“We hope that the National Security Council (NSC) as a body of the government with the highest mandate on national security to bring it (banning POGOs) to the President about POGOs being a national security threat,” Senator Ana Theresia N. Hontiveros-Baraquel, speaking in Filipino, told a media forum.

Earlier in the day, the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality held an executive session with government agencies, including the NSC on POGOs being linked to surveillance incidents and other crimes.

“The executive can take action on POGOs if the President himself calls for the ban,” the senator said.

She added that the Senate committee will continue working with the Anti-Money Laundering Council to discuss illegal revenue flows from POGOs.

In another development, the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) claimed that joint law enforcement agencies had raided the largest POGO company in Porac, Pampanga.

A total of 157 foreign nationals were rounded up, among them 126 Chinese, 23 Vietnamese, and four Malaysians, from the Lucky South 99 Outsourcing Incorporated.

“Lucky South 99 is by far the biggest facility in Pampanga with a reported total number of 46 buildings including villas and other structures, as well as a golf course,” PAOCC Spokesperson Winston John R. Casio said.

Twenty-nine Filipinos were also nabbed in the raid, along with a Burmese and a Korean.

The raid was prompted by information that a female foreign national was being sexually trafficked in the area and male foreign nationals were allegedly being tortured.

Judge Maria Belinda C. Rama of the Malolos Regional Trial Court Branch 14 issued the warrant for the raid last June 3 for violations of the Anti-Trafficking Act (RA 9208). 

The company was closed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) last September 2022 for illegal operations.

Around 40 workers were rescued then.

The Ombudsman on Monday ordered a six-month preventive suspension against Bamban Mayor Alice L. Guo, for failing to shutter POGOs in Tarlac, with her involvement in the operations also being in question.

Ms. Guo, through her lawyers, denied involvement in the gambling outfits’ crimes.

Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian earlier filed a resolution seeking to permanently ban POGOs in the country, saying many of these companies are still licensed by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) despite their links to crime. — John Victor D. Ordoñez and Chloe Mari A. Hufana

37 Chinese traders nabbed

PHILSTAR FILE PHOTO

THE BUREAU of Immigration (BI) on Tuesday arrested 37 Chinese nationals allegedly involved in illegal retailing by running grocery stores and restaurants inside the upscale Multinational Village in Parañaque City.

“We received credible information about foreign nationals engaging in illegal retail activities, and our team acted swiftly to address these violations,” Immigration Commissioner Norman G. Tansingco said in a statement on Wednesday.

He said deportation proceedings will be initiated against the 37 foreigners, of whom seven are women.

“The Bureau of Immigration will not tolerate illegal work practices and will continue to take necessary actions against those who violate our laws,” Mr. Tangsingco said. — Chloe Mari A. Hufana

June 17 declared a holiday

PHILIPPINE STAR/ MICHAEL VARCAS

PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. declared June 17, which falls on a Monday, a regular holiday for the observance of Eid’l Adha or the Muslims’ Feast of Sacrifice, according to a proclamation he signed on June 4.

More than six million of Filipinos were Muslim, according to a 2022 census by the state statistics agency.

In the Philippines, a regular holiday is a paid day off enforced on a national level where employees get 100% of their salary. Workers on duty during regular holidays are entitled to double pay. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza

Class suit vs drug war sought

PHILIPPINE STAR/ MICHAEL VARCAS

RELATIVES of victims killed during the previous administration’s war on drugs were encouraged by a Manila congressman to file a class suit against implementers of the anti-drug campaign.

“Convince the victims [or their surviving relatives]… to go to court as a class suit,” Manila Rep. Bienvenido M. Abante, Jr. said at Wednesday’s House of Representatives hearing on alleged extrajudicial killings (EJK) committed during the Duterte administration.

Human rights lawyer Jose Manuel Tadeo I. Diokno told the hearing that based on a 2017 year-end accomplishment report of the Office of the President, 20,322 Filipinos were killed in the anti-drugs campaign between July 1, 2016 and Nov. 27, 2017, a time when Rodrigo R. Duterte was president. 

“This is found in the 2017 year-end accomplishment report of the Office of the President and was cited in the resolution of the Supreme Court of April 3, 2018,” he told the hearing, noting that 3,967 of these people were killed during police operations while 16,355 were slain “by riding-in-tandem and other unknown persons.”

This is way above the almost 9,000 Filipinos reported killed in the war on drugs, based on the data of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Out of the thousands, only 52 cases have been investigated by the Department of Justice (DoJ) so far, said Mr. Diokno.

“Why is that there are no charges filed against him (Mr. Duterte) when he got out of being president,” Mr. Abante said. “He’s no longer president now. If he’s accountable, therefore he must be charged.” — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio

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