Tuesday, March 21, 2023
manilastandard.net
ADVERTISEMENT
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Others
    • Pets
    • Pop.Life
      • Newsmakers
      • Hangouts
      • A-Pop
      • Post Its
      • Performances
      • Malls & Bazaars
      • Hobbies & Collections
    • Technology
      • Gadgets
      • Computers
      • Business
      • Tech Plus
    • MS ON THE ROAD
      • Sedan
      • SUV
      • Truck
      • Bike
      • Accessories
      • Motoring Plus
      • Commuter’s Corner
    • Home & Design
      • Residential
      • Commercial
      • Construction
      • Interior
    • Spotlight
    • Gallery
      • Photos
      • Videos
    • Events
      • Seminars
      • Exhibits
      • Community
    • Biyahero
      • Travel Features
      • Travel Reels
      • Travel Logs
  • Advertise with Us
No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Others
    • Pets
    • Pop.Life
      • Newsmakers
      • Hangouts
      • A-Pop
      • Post Its
      • Performances
      • Malls & Bazaars
      • Hobbies & Collections
    • Technology
      • Gadgets
      • Computers
      • Business
      • Tech Plus
    • MS ON THE ROAD
      • Sedan
      • SUV
      • Truck
      • Bike
      • Accessories
      • Motoring Plus
      • Commuter’s Corner
    • Home & Design
      • Residential
      • Commercial
      • Construction
      • Interior
    • Spotlight
    • Gallery
      • Photos
      • Videos
    • Events
      • Seminars
      • Exhibits
      • Community
    • Biyahero
      • Travel Features
      • Travel Reels
      • Travel Logs
  • Advertise with Us
No Result
View All Result
manilastandard.net
No Result
View All Result
Home News Top Stories

No to state-backed killings, Palace insists

John Paolo BencitobyJohn Paolo Bencito
September 30, 2017, 12:01 am
in Top Stories
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Email

THERE are no state-sponsored killings in the Philippines, the Palace told the Senate Friday after seven pro-administration senators released their own resolution condemning the spate of deaths of minors in the government’s war on illegal drugs.

Reacting to the resolution, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said that several Senate committees themselves had concluded there were no state-sponsored killings.

“The Executive shares the expressed concern of the Senate on the recent spate of drug-related deaths and similarly condemns extrajudicial killings,” he added.

Abella said the Palace welcomes the Senate’s investigations and inquiries on erring police personnel, “as a manifestation of a freely functioning and democratic state mechanism.”

Seven administration senators—Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, Manny Pacquiao, Richard Gordon, Vicente Sotto III, Cynthia Villar, Juan Miguel Zubiri and Gregorio Honasan—filed Senate Resolution 518 “condemning in the strongest sense the extrajudicial killings,” after they were bashed on social media for not signing an earlier, similar resolution.

ADVERTISEMENT

The senators said the criticism was unjustified, since none of them had been asked to sign the earlier resolution.

Liberal Party president Senator Francis Pangilinan said Friday there was no attempt to exclude the pro-administration senators.

Pangilinan noted that before the resolution was filed on Monday and read on the Senate floor on Tuesday, his office made the document publicly accessible by posting it on the Senate website and also emailed it to the official addresses of Sotto, Gordon, Honasan, Villar, and Zubiri on Sept. 21.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella

He said Gordon even acknowledged the receipt of e-mail on the same day.

“This was done to inform them about the resolution and to show the number of signatures, and to ask them if they wanted to sponsor it,” Pangilinan said.

“Clearly there was no attempt to keep or withhold the resolution from the seven senators. The Senate rules were followed,” he added.

Except for Honasan, the six other senators complained they were criticized unfairly for being “Malacañang dogs in the Senate.”

They took their dismay to the Senafe floor and accused their colleagues of putting them in a “bad light” and destroying their names and reputation after they also became the subject of attacks on social media.

Villar said she igot the information that two senators– Paolo Benigo Aquino IV of the Liberal Party and Risa Hontiveros of Akbayan were out to destroy them, but she initially refused to believe this.

Villar said she would not have declined to sign the resolution if it were presented to her.

Sotto, too, insisted he never saw the resolution.

Also on Friday, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said one way to fight crime and keep communities safe is through “extra-judicial funding,” which will modernize courts and equip public attorneys and prosecutors with the resources that will reduce case backlogs and move the wheels of justice quickly.

Recto said “manpower and material” lack in the judiciary and in the Department of Justice should be addressed “if we want to bolster the rule of law, which is now being threatened by people and institutions tempted to embrace illegal means in seeking justice.”

He said the fast disposition of cases will also prevent congested jails from turning “into corporate headquarters of crime syndicates and as masteral schools for their members.”

“And because it now costs taxpayers about P82,000 to house, feed, and guard one inmate a year, a higher case resolution rate will result in huge savings which can be spent for social services,” he said.

He cited the backbreaking caseloads of Justice department prosecutors and public attorneys “as the best arguments on why their offices should be given a budgetary raise.”

“One prosecutor handles about 403 criminal cases. He or she attends to three court hearings a day, in addition to preliminary investigations, retrials, witness deposition, mediation, among others,” he said.

A public attorney, on the other hand, assists some 5,237 clients a year, and, at any given time, has 504 cases in court.

“All of them lack computers, paralegals, law books and comfortable offices. Most use their own computers and often use their own money to reproduce the briefs they have prepared,” Recto said.

While there are 1,657 vacant prosecutorial posts, and the present number of 1,668 Public Attorney’s Office lawyers is below the authorized ceiling. “There are no takers because of the low pay for the hard labor, and the only bonus one gets are ‘unli’ death threats,” Recto said.

Courts are not faring well either in their running battle against the lack of resources, Recto said.

“Courts literally grapple with mountains of paperwork. Far from being magisterial, many courthouses now have the look and smell of an old bodega de papel,” he said.

Macon Ramos-Araneta

Tags: Ernesto Abellaextrajudicial killingsminorsPalacePhilippinesSenatesenatorsState-sponsored killingswar on drugs
ADVERTISEMENT
John Paolo Bencito

John Paolo Bencito

Related Posts

Show up today, Teves told

byJoel E. Zurbanoand3 others
March 21, 2023, 1:20 am
0
8
Consider Bataan nuclear plant, Negros Rep. Teves urges BBM

Sanctions loom for Negros solon, but lawyer says ‘plot thickens’ The House of Representatives committee on ethics on Monday gave...

Read more

ROV arrives amid contrary PCG reports on oil spill

byCharles Dantesand2 others
March 21, 2023, 1:10 am
0
8
4 more sites for EDCA bases to be announced soon

The Japanese vessel Shin Nichi Maru carrying the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) capable of finding the MT Princess Empress, which...

Read more

Foreign firms a step closer to full ownership in PH as rules released

byJulito G. Radaand1 others
March 21, 2023, 1:05 am
0
8
Southwoods nails Seniors’ Fil golf crown

The National Economic and Development Authority released Monday the implementing rules and regulations of the amended Public Service Act that...

Read more

House lawmakers miffed as Senate zaps ‘Cha-cha’ hearing sans notice

byMaricel Cruzand1 others
March 21, 2023, 1:00 am
0
8
Senate okays P5-trillion budget unanimously

House leaders were dismayed Monday when the Senate postponed — at the last minute and without an explanation — a...

Read more

PH, China envoys in SCS dialog

byRey E. Requejo
March 21, 2023, 12:50 am
0
8
Southwoods nails Seniors’ Fil golf crown

Diplomats from the Philippines and China are scheduled to hold a series of consultation meetings in Manila this week to...

Read more

4 more sites for EDCA bases to be announced soon

byRey E. Requejoand1 others
March 21, 2023, 12:40 am
0
8
Southwoods nails Seniors’ Fil golf crown

The Philippines and the United States will soon announce the location of four additional military bases that American soldiers will...

Read more

Print Edition

View More

Recent Posts

  • Biggest in Southeast Asia
  • Show up today, Teves told
  • Oath of Office
  • ROV arrives amid contrary PCG reports on oil spill
  • Foreign firms a step closer to full ownership in PH as rules released
  • House lawmakers miffed as Senate zaps ‘Cha-cha’ hearing sans notice
  • PH, China envoys in SCS dialog
  • 4 more sites for EDCA bases to be announced soon

Advertisement

Latest News

House lawmakers miffed as Senate zaps ‘Cha-cha’ hearing sans notice

byMaricel Cruzand1 others
March 21, 2023, 1:00 am
0
8
Senate okays P5-trillion budget unanimously

House leaders were dismayed Monday when the Senate postponed — at the last minute and without an explanation — a...

Read more

PH, China envoys in SCS dialog

byRey E. Requejo
March 21, 2023, 12:50 am
0
8
Southwoods nails Seniors’ Fil golf crown

Diplomats from the Philippines and China are scheduled to hold a series of consultation meetings in Manila this week to...

Read more

4 more sites for EDCA bases to be announced soon

byRey E. Requejoand1 others
March 21, 2023, 12:40 am
0
8
Southwoods nails Seniors’ Fil golf crown

The Philippines and the United States will soon announce the location of four additional military bases that American soldiers will...

Read more

Kerosene leads oil price rollbacks

byAlena Mae S. Flores
March 21, 2023, 12:30 am
0
8
Medal of Valor

Oil firms slashed the price of kerosene by P2 per liter effective 6 a.m. today (Tuesday) to reflect the movement...

Read more

Russia, China ‘share many goals,’ Putin tells Xi

byAFP
March 21, 2023, 12:20 am
0
8
Death toll from Cambodia casino fire up to 25; rescuers scour site

Moscow—Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday told Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who arrived in Moscow earlier for his first visit...

Read more

Advertisement

ADVERTISEMENT
Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube

ABOUT US

Manila Standard

Manila Standard website (manilastandard.net), launched in August 2002, extends the newspaper’s reach beyond its traditional readers and makes its brand of Philippine news and opinion available to a much wider and geographically diverse readership here and overseas.

Digital Edition

In tone and content, the online edition mirrors the editorial thrust of the newspaper. While hewing to the traditional precepts of fairness and objectivity, MS believes the news of the day need not be staid, overly long or dry. Stories are succinct, readable and written in a lively style that has become a hallmark of the newspaper.

Download – Today’s Paper

Search

No Result
View All Result

6th Floor Universal Re Bldg., 106 Paseo De Roxas cor. Perea Street, Legaspi Village, 1226 Makati City Philippines

Trunklines: 832-5554, 832-5556, 832-5558

© 2021 Manila Standard - Designed and Developed by Neitiviti Studios.

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Pop.Life
    • Newsmakers
    • Hangouts
    • A-Pop
    • Post Its
    • Performances
    • Malls & Bazaars
    • Hobbies & Collections
  • Technology
    • Gadgets
    • Computers
    • Business
    • Tech Plus
  • MS ON THE ROAD
    • Sedan
    • SUV
    • Truck
    • Bike
    • Accessories
    • Motoring Plus
    • Commuter’s Corner
  • Home & Design
    • Residential
    • Commercial
    • Construction
    • Interior
  • Spotlight
  • Gallery
    • Photos
    • Videos
  • Events
    • Seminars
    • Exhibits
    • Community
  • Biyahero
    • Travel Features
    • Travel Reels
    • Travel Logs
  • Pets
  • Advertise with Us

© 2021 Manila Standard - Designed and Developed by Neitiviti Studios.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Install Manila Standard Web App

Install App