Good day. Here are the stories for The Manila Times for Wednesday, November 15, 2023.
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READ: Carpio backs building of shoal structures
FORMER Supreme Court senior associate justice Antonio Carpio backed the establishment of permanent structures in the West Philippine Sea to protect and preserve the country's marine resources. In a video interview with The Manila Times, Carpio maintained that the Ayungin Shoal is part of the Philippines' exclusive economic zone, and based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the country has the exclusive right to build structures there. He said putting up permanent structures in the contested areas would stop China from destroying the coral reefs.
READ: SC affirms dismissal of ill-gotten wealth case
THE Supreme Court has affirmed a Sandiganbayan decision dismissing the ill-gotten wealth case filed by the Philippine government against the estate of former president Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. and others. The high court's decision resolved the consolidated cases originating from the complaint for recovery and reconveyance of ill-gotten wealth filed by the Presidential Commission on Good Government before the Sandiganbayan.
READ: 'Israelis feel that the world is against them'
ISRAELI Ambassador to the Philippines Ilan Fluss said Israelis are insecure about their safety since they felt that the world is "against them" as their existence as a nation has been challenged repeatedly by groups seeking their destruction. Fluss made the remark Tuesday during a roundtable interview with The Manila Times Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dante "Klink" Ang 2nd. He stressed that Israel is "not occupying Gaza." The ambassador recalled the October 7 "terror attack" of Hamas militants against a farm settlement in Israel that caught the Jewish state by surprise. Fluss said that attack changed everything and led to the "murder" of 1,400 people — not just Israelis but also foreigners that included four Filipino workers.
READ: Comelec done paying BSKE poll workers
THE more than 640,000 election workers, mostly public school teachers, who served in the October 30 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections have all received their honoraria, the Commission on Elections said. Chairman George Erwin Garcia said on Tuesday that the Comelec had completed 100 percent of the disbursement of the nearly 7 billion pesos allotted for the honoraria of teachers who served as members of the electoral board, Department of Education supervising officers and DepEd support staff.
BUSINESS: Foreign investment approvals up 109.3%
Topping business, foreign investment approvals more than doubled in the third quarter, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported on Tuesday, surging by 109.3 percent to 27.30 billion from 13.05 billion pesos a year earlier. The investment pledges, the P.S.A. said, comprise those approved by the Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan, Board of Investments, Clark Development Corp., Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, Philippine Economic Zone Authority, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, and the Zamboanga City Special Economic Zone Authority. No foreign investment approvals were recorded during the period from the BoI-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Clark International Airport Corp., Poro Point Management Corp., and Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority.
SPORTS: Ateneo looks to complete Final Four cast
Over to sports, defending champions champ de Manila looks to complete the U.A.A.P. Season 86 men's basketball tournament Final Four cast when it sees action at the Mall of Asia Arena today. For the fourth-running Blue Eagles to clinch the last semi finals berth, they need to beat the University of the East Red Warriors in the curtain-raiser of a quadruple-header at 11 a.m., and hope that the fifth seed Adamson Soaring Falcons yield to the National University Bulldogs in the main event. Materialization of such scenarios would enable Ateneo to rise to 7-6 and shut the semis doors on Adamson, which would drop to 5-8 and thus would no longer be able to catch up to the former even if it wins its 14th and last game in the elimination round. A loss by the Blue Eagles and a win by the Soaring Falcons, however, would keep the the doors open not only for Adamson but also for the sixth seed UE to sneak into the Final Four with still two game days left after this one today.
READ: Opinion and editorial
Rigoberto Tiglao and Francisco Tatad are today's front page columnists. Tiglao looks into nine people being kidnapped in Muntinlupa City, while Tatad talks of the Marcos destabilization plot.
Today's editorial believes that the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority is undermining the country's energy security. Read the full version in the paper's opinion section or listen to the Voice of the Times.
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