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Why are we really withdrawing from the VFA?

It’s a bit baffling when you think about it. By this is meant the 1998 Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), which the present Administration is stridently threatening to terminate. But how would walking away from that Agreement (actually two Agreements, the so-called VFA 1 and VFA 2 — the counterpart agreement) benefit the Philippines, even as a bargaining chip, is quite unclear.

It’s not the VFA that provides for our security arrangement with the US nor authorize US troops to conduct exercises within our territory. That’s the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT; specifically Article II: “In order more effectively to achieve the objective of this Treaty, the Parties separately and jointly by self-help and mutual aid will maintain and develop their individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack”) and the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA; also Article II: “joint and combined training activities”).

And the termination of the VFA does not end the MDT or the EDCA — the VFA merely supplements the MDT and the EDCA proceeds from the MDT.

Much has been made of the US treating the VFA as an “executive agreement.” But frankly, it is an executive agreement. If it weren’t for our Constitution, we would have treated the VFA the same way.

That we classify the VFA a treaty is because the Constitution’s Article XVIII.25 stated that having foreign “troops… in the Philippines” is only possible through a treaty concurred in by the Senate. That opaque provision was unfortunately interpreted by the Supreme Court as making no distinction between troops merely visiting or here on a more regular basis.

But in the end it doesn’t really matter: whether the agreement is a treaty or executive agreement (although the question is still to be decided by our Supreme Court), our Philippine president (just like the US president) should reasonably be able to take his country out of any international agreement without need of Senate concurrence.

Hence, what then is the VFA’s real import? Visa free entry? Article III.2 says that US “military personnel shall be exempt from passport and visa regulations upon entering and departing the Philippines.” Yet such is really pointless considering US citizens are visa exempt anyway for stays of 30 days or less. Furthermore, the EDCA Article X.3 allows for “implementing arrangements [that] may address additional details.”

The core provision is actually Article V:

“1.(a) Philippine authorities shall have jurisdiction over United States personnel with respect to offenses committed within the Philippines and punishable under the law of the Philippines.”

2.(a) Philippine authorities exercise exclusive jurisdiction over United States personnel with respect to offenses, including offenses relating to the security of the Philippines, punishable under the laws of the Philippines, but not under the laws of the United States.”

Thus, US servicemen violating Philippine laws are subject to Philippine criminal jurisdiction. That’s why the Daniel Smith and Joseph Pemberton cases were tried before Philippine courts.

But does removing the VFA change jurisdictional powers and relationships between the Philippines and the US? It does in the sense that it will make the matter more vulnerable to political factors and power equations.

If the VFA is terminated, general international law will kick in, which provides lesser jurisdictional power for the Philippines: US military servicemen will be considered foreign State officials who, if are present here with Philippine consent, have immunity for actions considered “acts of State.” Philippine criminal jurisdiction will arguably only apply outside US servicemen’s “functional immunity.”

University of Exeter’s Aurel Sari points out that visiting foreign military personnel are “representatives of their sending State, entitled to be treated as such as a matter of general international law.” Yet, here is a crucial point: without the VFA, general international law leaves the door open for “the existence of special considerations, such as the legitimacy of more extensive exemptions from local jurisdiction in more demanding operational environments.” (The Status of Armed Forces in Public International Law: Jurisdiction and Immunity, 2015)

Netherlands Defence Academy’s Joop Voetelink puts it another way: yes, there is “no exception for military personnel with respect to the rule that state officials enjoy immunity for acts performed in an official capacity.”

Yet, while conceding that “when an act is punishable under both sending state law and host state law the prescriptive jurisdiction of both the sending state and the host state is concurrent,” quite significantly Voetelink also proffers (like Sari) that even for matters outside “acts of State,” the sending State (in our discussion, the US) can still assert jurisdiction using “a hybrid form” of it, based on “active nationality and the protection principle.” (Status of Forces: Criminal Jurisdiction over Military Personnel Abroad, 2015; also, Status of Forces and Criminal Jurisdiction, 2013).

So again: what exactly is to be gained with the VFA’s termination? Considering, aside from the jurisdictional issues, that political, diplomatic, economic, and security complications may ensue, a clearer expressed rationale for Philippine withdrawal from the VFA surely is a necessity.

 

Jemy Gatdula is a Senior Fellow of the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations and a Philippine Judicial Academy law lecturer for constitutional philosophy and jurisprudence.

https://www.facebook.com/jigatdula/

Twitter @jemygatdula

Quadricula HOCUS II: history in art

“Art is long but life is short. In the long history of art, from the time man painted on the caves up to the present, this is the first time that art was created by two men in the manner of the HOCUS paintings,” historian-curator Gemma Cruz Araneta remarked.

The acronym HOCUS combines the names of intellectual lawyer-historian Saul Hofileña and artist-church conservator Guy Custodio. Mr. Custodio paints what is in Mr. Hofileña’s mind through the medium of oil on canvas.

Mr. Hofileña thinks of the images and brings old books that contain the images that he selects to the artist who “writes the story of each painting before paint hits the canvas,” Ms. Araneta explained.

The paintings are referred to as collaborative works. The two creators disagree. Mr. Hofileña and Mr. Custodio revealed that a collaborative work is one in which both artist who can paint and draw, create an artwork on one single canvas.

HOCUS is different.

Mr. Hofileña admits that he cannot draw a straight line even if his life depends on it. “He says, without batting an eyelid, that he is completely ignorant of drawing,” Ms. Araneta said.

There is a character, Anghel de Cuyacuy, the HOCUS angel who is depicted reading a book and sitting on a bench. Anghel tells the stories.

After the first exhibit HOCUS, Mr. Hofileña’s tormented visions of our colonial history have proliferated. Quadricula is the second HOCUS collection.

The Spanish Quadricula, the principal painting (oil on canvas, 3×5 ft.), is very interesting because it explains the layout of a pueblo or town.

The quadricula is the grid pattern used by the Spanish colonial government when they established a town that would attract the natives who were living in their own communities. The center is the plaza mayor and around it is the church and government offices. Intramuros is a fine example of the grid pattern.

In this painting, a conquistador and friar are shown laying out the grid pattern aided by angels bearing the symbols of Spanish conquest: the sash inscribed with the names of Legazpi, Salcedo, Goiti, and Lavesares who were the pillars of the conquest; the Crown, Sword and Sea lion; the uniquely Spanish letter “Ñ”: the emblems of the Franciscan, Jesuit, Recollect and Dominican Orders.

“The historical/satirical provocations presented by Quadricula cannot be understated. Quadricula (‘grid’ in Spanish) is part II of Hofileña and Custodio’s unique collaboration called HOCUS. Such provocations are there to tickle or stimulate us, while subverting our whole inherited colonial education. Quadricula launches us into a Rabelaisian walking tour (and hide-and-seek in Filipino carnivalesque) of the labyrinth of our colonial memory,” poet Marne L. Kilates commented.

“The synergy was extraordinary. It seemed like the ideas and thoughts of historian Saul Hofileña were directly transmitted to the hand of painter Guy Custodio when depicting a personality and a historical event. You can see the people and costumes. The style is clean and clear,” art collector and retired diplomat Deanna Ongpin-Recto remarked.

Ms. Araneta followed a historical timeline. “The conquest with the Cross and Sword, the point of cintacy or how the natives reacted to the conquest and new religion. There was confusion and subjugation.

“There are paintings about the eternal battle between Moros y Cristianos; forced labor, the KKK, death of Rizal and the Revolution,” she said.

Mr. Hofileña explained, “I am a historian, but I am still a lawyer. The HOCUS paintings are my evidence. Evidence is the means sanctioned by law to ascertain in judicial proceedings the truth regarding a matter of fact. There is documentary evidence which I used to give meaning to the HOCUS paintings.”

The painting Lashes in the name of God (oil on canvas, 3×5 ft.) shows a native woman tied to the communion rail of a church while a man lashes her back upon orders of a friar standing in the pulpit. Town folk are the witnesses who must learn the painful lesson.

During the colonial times, the lashing scene happened. The evidence is primary sources such as the account of French traveler Guillaume Le Gentil who visited the Philippines in the 17th century, and Englishman John Foreman who wrote a book about the Philippines. He said that the natives went to church out of custom or habit but they refused to go if they had no clean clothes to wear. They were lashed not only for missing Mass but also for being vain. The gobernadorcillos and village chiefs had to be seen in church on Sundays and holy days. The penalty would be heavy fines or lashing.

The Quadricula HOCUS II exhibit is definitely worth a visit. It is on view at Galleries 27 and 28 of the National Museum of Fine Arts. (It opened last September and will be on view until March). There are regular lectures by historians, heritage conservators, artists and scientists.

Six paintings are now on permanent exhibit. The rest will be distributed to other museums in the Philippines.

 

Maria Victoria Rufino is an artist, writer and businesswoman. She is president and executive producer of Maverick Productions.

mavrufino@gmail.com

Politicians as endorsers

Lately, we have been seeing more politicians, whether national or local, appearing on billboards and advertisements. The products and services that they push for may be straightforward but something doesn’t feel right. Are they supposed to do it? Is it legal or ethical for politicians to be endorsers?

Article VII, Section 13 of the Constitution states that “the President, Vice-President, the Members of the Cabinet, and their deputies or assistants shall not hold any other office or employment during their tenure,” or “directly or indirectly, practice any other profession, participate in any business, or be financially interested in any contract with, or in any franchise, or special privilege granted by the Government or any subdivision, agency, or instrumentality.”

Senators and mayors are not included in the enumeration and presumably can continue to be actors and boxers.

But there is another law prescribing a “Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees” that covers public officials who are elective and appointive officials, and employees, permanent or temporary, including military and police personnel, whether or not they receive compensation.

Senators and mayors are surely included in this definition. They are prohibited from having financial and material interest in any transaction requiring the approval of their office, or engaging in outside employment and other related activities. They cannot practice their profession unless authorized by the Constitution or law. They cannot “own, control, manage or accept employment as officer, employee, consultant, counsel, broker, agent, trustee or nominee in any private enterprise regulated, supervised or licensed by their office unless expressly allowed by law.”

Is acting as endorser unlawful or illegal?

Another prohibition is against the solicitation or acceptance of gifts “from any person in the course of their official duties or in connection with any operation being regulated by, or any transaction which may be affected by the functions of their office.”

Even if the politicians accept no compensation for his effort or appearance or waives it in favor of a charity, there is no doubt that he benefits from the free, public, and constant exposure. Save for a few of us, who would not want to see his face looming large along EDSA?

The bigger issue is if the business sought out the politician because it is operating in his city. Business permits are the domain of local executives and endorsing a product means that the endorser directly trusts the company to be good and or indirectly bestows upon it his approval as a compliant entity. He acts as an agent and is in fact an agent of the company.

If the company runs afoul of the law or does not follow regulations and the public official is mandated to act, it will be a clear case of conflict of interest.

But the unease we feel with politicians as endorses go beyond the impositions of law. An employee is expected to devote his working time and effort to his employer. A government official is an employee of the State and the commitment to public interest is primordial.

Using executive time and leveraging on the powers of their offices to do make up, train and fly, and be taped for many hours is not the efficient, effective, and economical use of a government resource. In fact, public employees must try to “discourage wrong perceptions of their roles as dispensers or peddlers of undue patronage.”

There is the call to simple living for public officials and employees and their families. Appearing in media, including social media with the consequent thousands followers and millions of likes, transforms the heart and soul and image of the public official as a servant to one as a celebrity and a star. And these types are not the ones who “lead modest lives appropriate to their positions and income.” Their calling is to be flamboyant and extravagant and, by such ways, increase their star power and earning power and more media mileage.

There will be excuses, justifications, and defenses for continuing such practices from the past. In the end, what is essential in the process is that politicians endorsing products, goods, and services are totally avoidable and unnecessary. There is no compelling reason to do it and one only has to say “no.” No need to be concerned with legal or ethical considerations; public office as a public trust is upheld. That is the standard for politicians in the 21st century.

Small weapons are the most potent in virus fight

MRJN/UNSPLASH

By David Fickling

HOW DO YOU turn a disease outbreak into an epidemic? The best way might be to mix infected people with the healthy for long periods in crowded conditions, and then move them around to new locations.

That’s worrying, because that more or less describes the situation of many people at the center of China’s coronavirus outbreak.

Yang Zhongyi, a 53-year-old woman in Wuhan with feverish symptoms, has been unable to get full-time admission to hospitals or testing in the city for two weeks but has been put on drips in unquarantined areas in four separate hospitals in the city, according to a Reuters report this week. It said she spends her days queuing for treatment.

Other reports of patients with suspicious conditions being bounced between healthcare facilities without admission and videos of overcrowded waiting areas paint a similar picture.

Hospitals are meant to be places where disease is cured — but they can also be where it’s most effectively propagated. That’s particularly the case with coronaviruses: The 2015 outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in South Korea took place almost entirely within healthcare settings, with just a handful of transmissions outside of hospitals. About a fifth of people who caught Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) worldwide were healthcare workers. That share rises further if you include patients who were infected in hospitals and clinics.

At present, Wuhan’s hospitals show many signs of being overwhelmed. All the 14 patients in an infectious disease ward at Wuhan Union Hospital were healthcare workers at the hospital itself, state-owned CGTN said in a recent video segment.

Halting the spread of disease depends crucially on the quality of disease prevention in hospitals, and there the evidence is decidedly mixed.

“The Chinese healthcare system is riddled with long wait lists, shortages, and poor equipment because of funding constraints,” Bingwei Sun of Jiangsu University wrote in a 2016 article in the American Journal of Infection Control. “Hospital wards have become breeding grounds for microbial pathogens, with increased risk of infection.”

Hand-washing with water and alcohol, air filtration to clean out airborne infections, and provision of triage centers to separate healthy from unhealthy people is critical to minimizing risks, according to Professor Anjali Joseph, a specialist in healthcare design at Clemson University School of Architecture in South Carolina.

“There should be emergency procedures in place to identify and isolate any potential cases so they don’t mix with healthy people,” she wrote by e-mail. “It is critical to contain this in the early stages.”

There are some positive signs. Meeting guidelines on hand-washing is generally pretty good in Hubei province, according to a 2017 study, with compliance rates of between 67% in public hospitals and 79% in private facilities. That’s well below 100%, but an improvement on levels of around 48% found in a 2015 study of eight US hospitals and the 24% found in an earlier study of one Hubei hospital. In videos circulating on social media, healthcare workers in public areas appear to all be wearing gowns and gloves to protect themselves, too.

Isolation and ventilation may be more of an issue, since it can’t be solved just by distributing hand sanitizers and gowns. In China, “most hospital wards have poor air quality and weak ventilation,” according to a 2016 study by Wenlong He, an academic at Tianjin Medical University.

Some 2,300 of the extra beds planned for Wuhan will be in two hospitals being built in the space of a fortnight on the outskirts of the city, modeled on the Xiaotangshan facility put up in Beijing during the 2003 SARS outbreak.

It’s possible that those structures will help. Designing a facility from scratch makes it easier to implement useful hygiene measures that don’t exist in normal hospitals, such as the segregated wings for staff and patients separated by disinfection areas that were built at Xiaotangshan.

Still, it’s well known in the construction industry that you can only finish major projects on tight deadlines if you cut corners — and it’s in those corners that the greatest risks of contamination lurk.

For all Xiaotangshan’s apparent success, SARS was already well into its normal seasonal decline by the time it was opened in early May of 2003. Each infection was producing an average of 0.5 new cases at that point, meaning the epidemic was dying out of its own accord, according to a 2008 study.

Wuhan’s new hospitals will be fighting this outbreak at its most intense. That’s a whole lot more challenging. Completing such a large project so quickly is an impressive feat of construction — but it’s in the small details of hygiene that this fight will be won.

 

BLOOMBERG OPINION

The big dirty secret of the world’s biggest companies

By Chris Bryant

LOTS OF companies talk a good game about cutting planet-heating greenhouse emissions but their disclosures and targets have tended to focus on the emissions over which they have direct control and which are easiest to measure. That’s fine in an industry such as cement, where the bulk of carbon pollution occurs during the production process. From an environmental perspective these direct, or “Scope 1,” emissions are the main problem caused by these particular companies.

But the approach falls down in companies working in oil, mining, carmaking, finance, and even fashion, because oftentimes most of their carbon footprint is contained in the products they sell or help finance — not their own operations.

An oil giant can boast all it likes about how it’s reduced gas flaring; if car drivers are still filling up with its gasoline, the planet will keep getting hotter. The same goes for an iron ore producer that touts how its mining trucks are incredibly fuel efficient but whose main product is the basis for steel production. Luxury goods suppliers may run the greenest workshops imaginable, but use fabrics and materials that are deeply damaging to the planet.

In the past, so-called “Scope 3” emissions — the pollution contained in products sold to customers or in goods and services purchased from suppliers — either weren’t calculated or were seen as someone else’s problem. Thanks to pressure from institutional investors and activists, plus leadership from a few enlightened chief executives, corporate attitudes about this subject are evolving fast. “Scope 3 is the elephant in the room,” Mark van Baal of investor advocacy group Follow This told the Norwegian oil major Equinor ASA’s annual meeting last year.

The new impetus is welcome because unless companies try to reduce the environmental damage of their products and purchasing decisions, efforts to limit catastrophic climate change will fail.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, the bosses of some of the world’s biggest oil producers debated setting targets for Scope 3 emissions, which typically make up about 90% of their carbon footprint. BP Plc’s new boss Bernard Looney is poised to abandon his predecessor Bob Dudley’s opposition to targeting customer emissions, according to Reuters. Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Repsol SA, and Total SA have already set Scope 3 targets.

In mining, Rio Tinto Plc argued it had “very limited control” over customer emissions but later bowed to pressure by promising to work with its customer (and China’s top steel producer) Baowu Steel Group on lowering the steel sector’s emissions. BHP Group Ltd. and Vale SA have gone further by promising to set goals for Scope 3 emissions. In BHP’s cases these are almost 40 times greater than its direct pollution.

The European Union’s new guidelines on climate reporting also recommend that large companies disclose customer and supplier emissions. Banks and insurers, whose direct emissions are typically pretty negligible, should focus on their counterparties’ emissions, the guidelines say. Unfortunately, this is not yet legally binding.

Reluctance to target this stuff is hardly surprising because the numbers can be huge. Volkswagen AG acknowledged last year that its vehicles are responsible for about 2% of all the Co2 produced by humans.*

Among the largest Scope 3 polluters are companies that the public probably don’t immediately think of as big climate sinners. It’s no surprise that Shell and Petrobras make the list, but I hadn’t thought about Cummins Inc., which sells truck engines and industrial power generators, Nexans SA, whose cables transport electricity and data, and Daikin Industries Ltd., which builds air-conditioning units.

I’m not knocking these companies; at least they’re disclosing these emissions and some are setting targets to reduce them. Cummins plans to reduce absolute lifetime emissions from newly sold products by 25% by 2030, for example.

Calculating the emissions from sold products is a pretty complicated exercise too. ThyssenKrupp AG’s massive Scope 3 emissions include those contained in the steel in the cars we drive around, the cement plants its factory construction unit helped build, and the elevators in office buildings. Daikin has to consider the probable lifespan of its air conditioners, their energy consumption and what kind of electricity they’re powered by, plus probable leakage rates of planet-heating refrigerants.

Fortunately there’s no shortage of organizations and methodologies to help compile these data. (Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg News and its parent Bloomberg LP, chairs the FSB Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures).

Regrettably, not all large manufacturers have seen the light through the smoke. The copious sustainability reports of some companies still don’t spell out the total emissions of the products they sell. Volvo AB told me there’s no globally harmonized standard on how to calculate and disclose Co2 from heavy duty trucks, but that it’s evaluating opportunities to report on this in future. Daimler AG, which wants a completely Co2 neutral truck fleet in key markets by 2039, plans to start disclosing Scope 3 emissions for trucks in its next sustainability report.**

You know something’s up when it takes a hedge fund to tell a company to clean up its act. The shortcomings in aircraft maker Airbus SE’s Scope 3 emissions reporting were highlighted in a critical letter late last year from Chris Hohn’s TCI Fund Management, the world’s most profitable activist fund.

Airbus and rival Boeing have committed to halving the aviation industry’s net emissions by 2050. It would help focus minds on that urgent task if they fully accounted for their own role in flight pollution.*** If Shell can do it, why not them?

 

BLOOMBERG OPINION

 

*Like other truck manufacturers, VW doesn’t report Scope 3 emissions for heavy trucks but made the estimate based on its market share and the truck sector’s contribution to global emissions (plus its carbon footprint from cars)

**It already does so for cars.

***Boeing’s environment report only counts Scope 3 emissions from business travel. Airbus has urged the aviation sector to develop a common methodology for Scope 3 emissions to aid consistency in reporting.

First virus strain case confirmed; DoH ‘on top’ of it

THE PHILIPPINES on Thursday confirmed its first case of a new coronavirus strain that has killed more than a hundred in China and sickened thousands.

A 38-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan City, where the deadly virus originated, was confirmed to be infected with the new strain, Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III said at a press briefing, citing lab results from Australia.

The woman consulted a doctor in a state hospital on Jan. 25 after experiencing mild cough, the Health chief said. “She is currently asymptomatic, which means she has no fever, and no other signs and symptoms suggesting illness at this point.”

The 2019 coronavirus strain comes from a family of viruses whose hosts show flu-like symptoms that can be either harmless or fatal. The new virus was said to have come from Wuhan City, Hubei Province in China and was transmitted from animals to humans.

Mr. Duque said 29 people had been investigated for the new virus strain, 18 of whom were in Metro Manila. Five have been discharged, while one died of pneumonia.

Rabindra Abeyasinghe, a World Health Organization representative, said at least 132 people have died, while more than 6,000 have been infected with the new virus strain.

Confirmed cases were recorded in Thailand, Japan, South Korea, United States, France, Taiwan and Vietnam, among others countries.

Mr. Duque said health authorities were working with the hospital where the patient was confined. “We are also implementing measures to protect the health staff providing care to this patient,” he added.

Mr. Duque said the agency “continues to guarantee the public that all necessary precautionary measures are being taken to halt the spread of the virus.”

“The DoH is on top of this evolving situation,” Mr. Duque said.

He said that travel from places in China other than Hubei province could be restricted.

Also yesterday, the Department of Foreign Affairs said it was counting on China to disclose the evacuation procedures undertaken by the US for its citizens there.

“China will tell us how the US evacuated its nationals.” Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr. said in a social media post on Wednesday evening.

The Foreign Affairs department earlier said it was readying flights to bring Filipino workers from Hubei home.

There are about 300 Filipinos in the Chinese province, half of them in Wuhan City, according to the Philippine Consulate General In Shanghai.

Japan earlier offered to help the Philippines screen the new coronavirus strain. A government research institute near the capital can only check for the presence of coronavirus, but cannot identify the specific strain.

The Bureau of Immigration has stopped issuing Philippine visas on demand to Chinese tourists at the Manila airport amid an outbreak in China.

The Civil Aeronautics Board has also suspended direct flights from Wuhan province, where the virus had originated. — Gillian M. Cortez

Philippines needs weightier reason to end VFA — lawmakers

By Charmaine A. Tadalan, Reporter
and Genshen L. Espedido

THE Philippines should end a visiting forces agreement with the US for reasons “weightier” than the cancelation of an administration senator’s visa, lawmakers said on Thursday.

“It should go beyond the denial of a US visa to a senator,” Senator Ralph G. Recto said in a statement, a day after President Rodrigo R. Duterte ordered Cabinet officials to “boycott” trips to the US.

“What if the US restores the visa of my good friend Senator Bato, are we then going to reverse course, and press the stop button to the revocation process which, per reports, has been started?,” Mr. Recto asked, referring to Senator Ronald M. dela Rosa.

The senator said the Philippines should end the VFA, which contains rules on the deployment of US troops and equipment for war games, because it is unfavorable to the national interest.

President Rodrigo R. Duterte has ordered government lawyers to expand their study of a plan to end the VFA. He asked the US government last week to reverse its decision to cancel Mr. de la Rosa’s US visa, giving it a month-long ultimatum.

Mr. dela Rosa, a political ally, last week said the US embassy had canceled his visa. Mr. Duterte’s former police chief led the government’s deadly war on drugs that has killed thousands before he became a senator.

He was also considered to be among those responsible for the detention of Senator Leila M. de Lima, a staunch critic of Mr. Duterte’s anti-illegal drug campaign.

Mr. Duterte also said he would skip the US-Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Nevada this March.

Senator Panfilo M. Lacson said Cabinet members should ask Mr. Duterte to reconsider his order because this might disadvantage the Philippines.

“An indefinite travel ban to the United States imposed on all members of the Cabinet could have adverse consequences on our country’s economy and security,” he said in a separate statement.

He also said the ban could the employment of Filipinos and the trade industry, considering that at least $10 billion worth of goods are exported to the US annually.

Zamboanga Sibugay Rep. Ann K. Hofer, who heads the House foreign affairs committee, said she hoped the Philippine-US ties would remain strong despite recent developments.

“The President is just being consistent with his earlier pronouncements,” she said in a mobile-phone message. “Maintaining partnerships is a two-way street. Inasmuch as the US stands by its policy, the President is also duty-bound to defend our dignity as a nation.”

Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra told reporters he had no plans to visit the US.

The presidential palace on Thursday said Mr. Duterte had been trying to cut Philippine reliance in the US.

“We as a country have to rely on our own resources,” his spokesman Salvador S. Panelo said at a briefing. “By relying mainly on one particular country, you lessen your capability, the moment that alliance with that country is terminated,” he said.

The VFA allows the US government to retain jurisdiction over American soldiers accused of committing crimes in the Philippines, unless the crimes are “of particular importance” to the Southeast Asian nation.

“President Duterte seems to be trivializing the issue to abrogate this onerous agreement,” Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani T. Zarate said at a briefing.

“We urge him to abrogate it for the right reasons, not because he was irked by the cancelation of Senator de la Rosa’s US visa,” he said.

The US Senate last year passed a resolution asking the Philippine government to release Ms. de Lima. It also sought to block the entry and freeze the US assets of officials behind drug-related killings and Ms. de Lima’s “wrongful detention.”

US President Donald Trump also signed into law last year the nation’s 2020 budget, which includes a clause allowing the US secretary of state to ban the entry of Philippine officials behind Ms. de Lima’s detention.

Ms. de Lima, a staunch critic of Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs, has been in jail since February 2017 for drug trafficking.

Gov’t has enough funds to contain virus, says Speaker

THE House of Representatives was ready to augment government funds to prevent the spread of a novel coronavirus strain that has killed hundreds in China, Speaker Alan Peter S. Cayetano said.

All programs under the P4.1-trillion national budget are priorities and can be augmented, he told reporters on Wednesday.

“Health is a priority, housing is a priority, education is a priority, the ‘Build, Build, Build’ program is a priority, so it is unavoidable that some may lack funds,” Mr. Cayetano said. “So long as it is part of the budget, it can be augmented,” he added.

The House Speaker decried the hesitation of some government officials to use their funds at the start of the year, fearing these might be exhausted.

He recalled telling state officials on Monday: “Don’t give us that mentality. Use your funds as needed.”

Mr. Cayetano said agencies involved in containing the spread of the new coronavirus strain should start using their funds since these “can be augmented.”

There is also a contingent fund worth P13 billion under the Office of the President, he said.

The lawmaker said the House could pass an additional budget “anytime” and was just awaiting the required certificate of availability from the Bureau of the Treasury. — Genshen L. Espedido

Recruiters of convicted Filipina drug mule found guilty in local court

A LOCAL court has convicted the recruiters of Mary Jane Veloso, who has been on death row in Indonesia since October 2010 after being found guilty for drug trafficking, on a separate illegal recruitment case involving three other victims.

Judge Anarica J. Castillo-Reyes of the Sto. Domingo Regional Trial Court Branch 88 sentenced recruiters Maria Cristina P. Sergio and Julius L. Lacanilao to life imprisonment and ordered them to pay a P2 million fine.

The judge ruled that the prosecution established elements for large scale illegal recruitment against the two, who had no license to draft for overseas employment.

The accused denied having a recruitment business and that they never made proposals of employment to the complainants.

“However, established in jurisprudence is the rule that denial is inherently weak defense and that the same cannot prevail over the positive testimonies of Prosecution witness,” the judge said in her decision.

The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), legal counsel of the three, cheered the decision saying justice has been served partially through the fellow victims of Ms. Veloso.

“Even if their case is distinct from Mary Jane’s, we believe that Sergio and Lacanilao’s conviction stands as a testament to Mary Jane’s story — that she was not a drug courier but an unwitting victim of the same illegal recruiters,” NUPL said in a statement.

“We look forward to the full achievement of justice when the other separate cases of Mary Jane against the same recruiters for human trafficking, simple illegal recruitment and estafa in the same court are resolved and she herself is ultimately and finally sent home free in time,” it added.

Ms. Veloso is set to take her testimony through deposition by written interrogatories against them.

The lawyers’ group also noted that the three other victims “were lucky enough not to have been transported abroad.”

Ms. Veloso was arrested upon her arrival in Yogyakarta, Indonesia for carrying 2.5 kilograms of heroin in her luggage.

She was sentenced to death and was scheduled for execution on April 29, 2015. A stay of execution was issued after her recruiters surrendered. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas

DoT wants to make Isabela a ‘top-of-mind’ eco-tourist destination

THE DEPARTMENT of Tourism (DoT) aims to make Isabela, the largest province in Luzon and considered the north’s rice granary, a primary eco-tourism destination with its natural attractions. In a statement, DoT Secretary Bernadette Fatima Romulo-Puyat, who will be attending the Bambanti Festival’s highlight activities yesterday (Jan. 30), said she wants to transform the province “from just an ‘emerging’ to a ‘top-of-mind’ tourist haven.” She cited such attractions as the rainforests in Sierra Madre and Palanan, the Sta. Rita Victoria Caves, and beaches and coves. Ms. Puyat will talk about the DoT’s plans for the province during the festival, which opened Jan. 27. Among the festival attractions are a display of giant decorated bambantis, the local word for scarecrow, and a wide array of agricultural products and crafts from the province’s 32 municipalities and two cities.

Apollo Petroleum Jelly Triathlon 2020 set for Feb. 23 at Subic Bay

APOLLO Petroleum Jelly is co-presenting the first leg of the highly anticipated Bike Run 2020 events, aptly named the Apollo Petroleum Jelly TRI 2020.

Happening this Feb. 23 at Subic Bay, this event will unite triathlon athletes from throughout the country for an exciting day of swimming, biking, and running.

The Apollo Petroleum Jelly TRI 2020 is a great venue for athletes put test their limits, to eventually break their boundaries and ultimately better themselves.

Apollo Petroleum Jelly TRI 2020 is the most sought-after opening race for the season as triathletes are eager to get out of off-season mode.

There will be two distances and five categories at the Apollo Petroleum Jelly TRI 2020.

The Sprint distance involves a 1.5Km swim, a 40Km bike ride, and a 10Km run, while the Standard distance will see triathletes taking on a 750m swim, a 20Km bike ride, and a 5Km run.

The categories include individual (Standard and Sprint) and relay (Standard Distance only), which have sub-categories, namely all-men, all-women, and mixed team.

P3B set for road infra, building projects in Cebu City’s northern part

AROUND P3 billion worth of road infrastructure projects for Cebu City’s northern part are set to be implemented this year, according to 1st District Representative Raul V. Del Mar. The biggest allocation at P1.3 billion will be spent for skyways and tunnels in the three most congested areas, which include Gorordo Avenue, Salinas Drive, Gov. Cuenco Avenue, and H. Cortes Street. Three other skyways — at the different junctions of Sergio Osmeña Boulevard, General Maxilom Avenue, and on P. del Rosario Street — have a budget of P635,971,000. Another P1 billion is set for the Barangay Lahug — Barangay Guadalupe diversion road; construction of the Cebu Technological University in Barangay Guba; the NextGen Hub, which will be used as a center for youth activities; and a second building for the D.V. Sotto Medical Center. The remaining fund covers road widening and improvement, and flood mitigation projects, among others. Mr. Del Mar said all the projects lined up are expected to be completed by 2022. — The Freeman

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