Good day. Here are the stories for The Manila Times for Saturday, January 20, 2024.
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READ: Graft court clears Jinggoy of plunder
THE Sandiganbayan acquitted Sen. Jose "Jinggoy" Ejercito Estrada of plunder in the 2013 Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam masterminded by Janet Napoles. In a 396-page ruling, the graft court's Fifth Division acquitted Estrada of charges of pocketing 183 million pesos through Napoles. Named respondents with Estrada and Napoles were his former chief of staff, Pauline Therese Mary Labayen, and John Raymund de Asis, an aide of Napoles. Estrada was accused of amassing the 183 million pesos through different foundations created by Napoles from 2004 to 2012. The court said it failed to establish a conspiracy between Napoles and Estrada and that it was Napoles and Labayen who conspired to commit plunder.
READ: Sara flays signature campaign to amend charter
VICE President Sara Duterte on Friday said the efforts to amend the Constitution through a people's initiative are equivalent to vote buying by politicians. Proponents of the signature campaign want the Senate and House of Representatives to vote jointly as a constituent assembly on introducing amendments to the charter. In her first comments since the moves were publicized by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, Duterte said the signature campaign is being used to abuse poor Filipinos.
READ: 97% of Metro Manila PUVs consolidated
THE Office of Transportation Cooperatives (OTC) said 97 percent of public utility vehicles in Metro Manila have been consolidated as part of the PUV Modernization Program. O.T.C. Chairman Andy Ortega also said 76 percent of PUVs nationwide have consolidated. Citing numbers from the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, Ortega said around 191,000 P.U.V's in the country have a franchise, and 146,000 of them have consolidated. In the National Capital Region, 22,000 of the 41,000 P.U.V's with franchises registered for the modernization program in 2023, he said. Originally, the percentage was around 52 percent until the LTFRB made a recalculation, as out of the 22,000, 21,000 registered.
READ: MMDA questions report on Metro Manila traffic
THE Metropolitan Manila Development Authority took exception to the declaration by the TomTom Traffic Index, which ranked Metro Manila as having the worst traffic in the world. M.M.D.A. acting chairman Romando Artes, in a press briefing on Friday, questioned the methodologies used in measuring traffic.
BUSINESS: BoP surplus tops target at $3.7B
Over to business, the country's balance of payments hit a surplus in 2023, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported on Friday, rebounding from the shortfall posted a year earlier. The $3.7-billion result was well over the central bank's $1.1-billion projection and marked a significant turnaround from 2022's $7.3-billion deficit, which was also the highest since 2000.
SPORTS: Marcial flies to US to prepare for pro fight
In sports, Olympic boxer Eumir Marcial is flying to the United States to train for his first professional fight of the year, which will be held in the Philippines in March. In an Instagram post on Friday, Marcial said his upcoming professional fight in the country will serve as a buildup for the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris, France in July.
READ: Opinion and editorial
Antonio Contreras and Yen Makabenta are today's front page columnists. Contreras thinks that allowing foreign universities to operate in the country will not improve the educational system, while Makabenta claims the country is on the cusp of robust economic growth and change.
Today's editorial believes that early coal retirement aims could need a rethink. Read the full version in the paper's opinion section or listen to the Voice of the Times.
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