Monthly Archives: August 2019

Government, International

Duterte Threatens Xi Jinping: I Will Bring Home All OFWs In Hong Kong

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MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – The Philippines is no match to China in as far as military might and resources are concerned, so a war between the two countries is not an option to resolve the terrotorial conflict in the West Philippine Sea.

But President Rodrigo  Duterte knows where the Philippines has an upper hand: Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in Hong Kong.

OFWs are in high demand in Hong Kong, with most Filipinos serving as domestic workers.  It is estimated that there are  230,000 OFWs in this Chinese territory.

When he meets with Xi Jinping sometime in the very near future, Duterte says he will finally discuss with the Chinese leader the issue of the West Philippine Sea and 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) ruling which favored the Philippines. 

“If China will continue to ignore the PCA award, I will order the immediate return of all OFWs  now in Hong Kong. I know this will cause a  huge void in Hong Kong’s economy, “ Duterte said.

Duterte added that if this will still not work, he will also order the deportation of all Chinese nationals now working in the Philippines, and shut down all Chinese-owned or Chinese-named restaurants in the country.

Is this goodbye to ChowKing, Kowloon, Ma Mon Luk and other eateries in Chinatown?

 

Media, Politics

SEC Ruling Is Out: Rappler Is A Political Organization, Not Media

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MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – The long-awaited ruling by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is finally out! It has ruled that Rappler is a political organization, not media.

It will be recalled that SEC previously revoked Rappler’s media license for violating the Constitutional provision that Philippine media must be 100% Filipino-owned. Foreign investors like Omidyar Network invested in Rappler, something that CEO Maria Ressa has persistently denied.

Rappler appealed the ruling to the Court of Appeals which all but denied the online news source’s arguments but asked SEC to review its earlier ruling.

In its review, SEC determined that Rappler is a political organization and as such is not covered by the Constitutional provision on media.

SEC said Rappler has been consistently involved in destabilization efforts against the Philippine government under President Rodrigo Duterte and self-promotion by Ressa. It has also been engaged in spreading fake news. All these  would classify Rappler as non-media, SEC said.

This is good news for Ressa since it will automatically drop charges against her for violation of the Constitution.

It doesn’t however free her from the other criminal charges on tax evasion and cyber libel.

 

 

Government, Politics, Social Media

Duterte To Sue Kris Aquino For Cyber Libel

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MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – “Don’t put words in my f*ckin mouth!”

With that statement, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte filed a cyber libel case against Queen of All Media Kris Aquino.

The case stemmed from an Instagram post by Aquino in which she thanked Duterte for ‘acknowledging’ that the late Ferdinand E. Marcos was responsible for her father, Ninoy Aquino’s death.

”When I said Cory Aquino lost her ‘husband in the hands of Mr. Marcos,’ I didn’t mean to say that he was responsible for the killing of Ninoy. What I meant was that Ninoy was killed during the time of Marcos. Big difference there.”

To this date, even after two Aquino administratios — Cory and Noynoy — the mastermind of Ninoy’s assassination remains a big question mark.

Kris has yet to respond to the cyber libel case filed by Duterte. She’s busy tying a yellow ribbon ‘round the old oak tree.