Good day. Here are the stories for The Manila Times for Wednesday, November 6, 2024.
Today's episode is brought to you by Wilcon Depot, The Philippines' leading home improvement and construction supplies retailer—your Trusted Building Partner.
READ: Pinoys who set up child rapes hunted
THE Department of Justice (DoJ) announced on Tuesday plans to prosecute Filipinos who helped a French pedophile livestream the rape of hundreds of preteen girls in the Philippines. Bouhalem Bouchiba, 59 years old, a graphic artist who worked at the Pixar and Disney animation studios, was found guilty of directing the online abuse of preteen girls from his residence in France and sentenced to 25 years in jail. Bouchiba was accused of paying women in the Philippines between 2012 and 2021 to rape and sexually assault girls ages between 5 and 10 in front of a camera while he watched via livestream and issued instructions. He is charged with complicity in the repeated rape and sexual assault of minors. In addition, he is accused of complicity in repeated human trafficking of minors, possession of child pornography images, and of regularly consulting child pornography internet sites. On Tuesday, the DoJ said it was collaborating closely with the National Coordination Center Against Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children (Osaec) and the Women and Children Protection Center of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to fortify investigations and legal proceedings against those who facilitated Bouchiba's crimes.
READ: DepEd accountant got cash from VP
THE chief accountant of the Department of Education (DepEd) said she had received envelopes containing 25,000 pesos in cash over nine months in 2023 from Vice President Sara Duterte, when she was still the concurrent education secretary. The chief of the DepEd's Accounting Division, Rhunna Catalan, admitted receiving the cash at a hearing before the House Committee On Good Governance And Public Accountability when the panel's chairman, Manila Rep. Joel Chua, asked her if she also received envelopes from former DepEd assistant secretary Sunshine Charry Fajarda. Catalan volunteered that the amount was "minimal" — 25,000 pesos — and that she was told that this was an allowance that came from Duterte's personal funds, not confidential funds. Under questioning, Catalan admitted that Fajarda had asked her to sign a liquidation for the 112.5 million pesos in confidential funds of DepEd that were submitted to the Commission on Audit. She said she was not pressured but was requested "in a nice way" to sign the liquidation report.
READ: Pimentel seeks probe of Citem lease
SENATE Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III on Tuesday called for an investigation into a deal in which the government leased out a prime 4.9-hectare lot to a private organization of exporters for only 1,000 pesos a year starting in 1996. At a budget hearing, Pimentel questioned the 50-year deal between the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (Citem) and the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport), saying it was "grossly disadvantageous" to the government. He said the long-term lease contract was entered into or authorized by then Trade and Industry secretary Rizalino Navarro during the Estrada administration on Jan. 23, 1996. The lease covers a period of 50 years and is renewable for another 25 years at the option of the lessee, Philexport. Citem is a government-owned or -controlled corporation that is mandated to develop, nurture, and promote micro, small and medium enterprises, brands, designers, and manufacturers.
READ: Harris or Trump: Americans deliver verdict
American voters deliver their verdict Tuesday after an extraordinarily turbulent election that will either make Kamala Harris the first woman president in US history or deliver Donald Trump a comeback that sends shockwaves around the world. As polling stations open nationwide on Election Day, Democratic Vice President Harris and Republican former president Trump are dead even in the tightest and most volatile White House race of modern times. The bitter rivals spent their final day of the campaign frenziedly working to get their supporters out to the polls and trying to win over any last undecided voters in the swing states expected to decide the outcome. But despite a series of head-spinning twists in an unprecedented campaign — from Harris' dramatic entrance when President Joe Biden dropped out in July to Trump riding out two assassination attempts and a criminal conviction — nothing has broken the deadlock in the opinion polls.
BUSINESS: Inflation picks up to 2.3% in Oct
Headlining business, higher prices of key food items, particularly rice and transport costs, pushed inflation up in October, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Tuesday. Consumer price growth accelerated to 2.3 percent last month from 1.9 percent in September, hitting the median estimate in a Manila Times poll of economists and also falling within the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas' (BSP) 2.0- to 2.8-percent forecast. It was markedly lower than the year-earlier 4.9 percent and remained within the BSP's 2.0- to 4.0-percent target.
SPORTS: Ginebra, TNT clash for 3-2 series lead
Over to sports, the PBA Governors' Cup Finals series has been reduced to a best-of-three affair following Barangay Ginebra's victory on Sunday that sent the championship set to a 2-2 deadlock. But Barangay Ginebra coach Tim Cone cautioned his team at not getting too high on its back-to-back Finals victory, hoping the Gin Kings stay level-headed when they take on the Tropang Giga anew in Game 5 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. Game time is set at 7:30 p.m. With both teams coming off a two-day break, Cone expects players from both camps to be refreshed as they head to the series where the first team to win two games becomes the Governors' Cup champion.
READ: Opinion and editorial
Rigoberto Tiglao, Fr. Ranhilio Aquino and Francisco Tatad are today's front page columnists. Tiglao and Tatad give their thoughts on the US elections, while Fr. Aquino discusses the purpose of All Soul's Day.
Today's editorial asks if the COP climate summit outlived its usefulness. Read the full version in the paper's opinion section or listen to the Voice of the Times.
For more news and information, read The Manila Times on print, subscribe to its digital edition or log on to www.manilatimes.net. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and LinkedIn; and be part of our communities on Viber, Telegram, and Mastodon.