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Maria Ozawa eyes new career, says PHL is new home See Page 7
WWW.USASIANPOST.COM
Vol. 5 No. 14
A BALITA MEDIA PUBLICATION Wednesday - Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2015- Jan. 5, 2016
LOS ANGELES
Escudero: Comelec ‘bullying’ Poe MANILA, Dec 24 (Mabuhay) – Senator Francis Escudero accused the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday of “bullying” Senator Grace Poe after the poll body decided to disqualify her from the 2016 presidential race.
“Sen. Grace Poe (left) has been nothing but honest, candid, forthright and open with respect to her citizenship, nationality and residency to the Filipino people. She has answered every question with candor and honesty both before the Comelec and before the Filipino people. How dare they say that she ‘deliberately attempted to mislead the electorate.” – Sen. Chiz Escudero (right)
“The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is both wrong and unfair and a bully,” Escudero, Poe’s running mate, said in a statement, reacting to the Comelec en banc’s decision to cancel Poe’s certificate of candidacy over her citizenship and residency. “Sen. Grace Poe has been nothing but honest, candid, forthright and open with respect to her citizenship, nationality and residency to the Filipino people. She has answered every question with candor and honesty both before the Comelec and before the Filipino people. How dare they say that she ‘deliberately attempted to mislead the electorate,” he said. On the contrary, Escudero said, it was the Comelec that was “misleading the electorate and bullying” Poe by “pretending to be an independent Commission when they have actually been acting as
Sen. Poe’s inquisitor and persecutor, and plain and simple bullying her.” He then enumerated how Poe was allegedly being bullied by the poll body. First, Escudero said, the Comelec acted with dispatch on four disqualification cases against Poe even before the candidate who claimed his name was “Lucifer.” Second, they refused to consolidate the four cases, which are all the same except for the names of the petitioners, “if only to require Poe to answer/appear in the two divisions of the Comelec and be disqualified, not only once but twice, and a third time by the en banc following what appears to be a well written script or play.” And third, he said, by working “overtime” in order for the en banc to disqualify Poe a day before See BULLYING, page 12
Poe failed citizenship, residency requirements, but didn’t intend to mislead voters MANILA, Dec 24 (Mabuhay) – Commission on Elections chair Andres Bautista was a dissenting vote in both en banc resolutions which junked Sen. Grace Poe’s appeals to reverse division rulings cancelling her certificate of candidacy for president. Bautista, the lone member of the en banc who is not part of either division, said he did not believe Poe had a deliberate intent to mislead the public by declaring in her COC that she is a natural-
born Filipino and that she meets the 10-year residency requirement. This runs contrary to the opinion of the majority of the en banc, who voted to say the senator had such intent. Five commissioners in both cases voted to grant a total of four petitions that seek to take Poe out of the 2016 presidential race on the grounds of citizenship and residency. While he voted in dissent, BauSee POE FAILED, page 12
Santa absent this year in typhoon-hit PHL By Cecil Morella
San Jose, Philippines | AFP | Friday 12/25/2015 – Wading through knee-deep floods, 12-year-old Joana Yambao pushes her infant sister in a black wash basin along the surface of the filthy water in a typhoon-hit Philippine village where residents have little to celebrate this Christmas. Under sunny skies, their mother sweeps mud from the floor of her grocery shop in San Jose, one of scores of villages and towns still submerged and struggling to recover after being battered this month by Typhoon Melor. The storm killed 45 people and left thousands without food, water or urgent medical care. “We’re just taking in the sights. I doubt Santa Claus will come tonight. The water’s too high,” Yambao told AFP. Instead of gathering by the Christmas tree to open gifts and eat a traditional meal of meat, cheese and sweets, hundreds of people in San Jose stood in flood waters with their own wash basins to wait for food aid at the Catholic church. Residents of the village, home to about 5,000 people, have seen seasonal flooding before, but elderly villagers said it was the first time they had seen it during Christmas.
Bangko Sentral asks Pinoys to be vigilant against fake peso bills MANILA, Dec 25 (Mabuhay) – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is asking consumers to be vigilant against counterfeit money this holiday season. In an advisory, the central bank said fraudsters are now extracting the windowed security thread (WST) from genuine banknotes See FAKE PESO, page 12
WB loans PHL $500-M to fight natural disasters
M a n i l a , P h i l i p pines | AFP | Wednesday 12/23/2015 – The World Bank approved a $500 million loan Wednesday to help the Philippines deal with natural disasters. It can access the new credit line following “a state of calamity” declared by the president, the World Bank said in a statement. On average, more than 1,000 lives are lost every year in the Philippines, with typhoons accounting for the majority of deaths See WB LOANS, page 12
President Benigno S. Aquino III checks out photos exhibited at the lobby of the municipal building showing the damage caused by Typhoon Nona in Northern Samar. A briefing Wednesday (December 23) was held at the Catarman Municipal Hall on the effects and damage of Typhoon Nona. The President then led the distribution of relief goods to affected families. (MNS photo)
Aquino ‘shocked’ by the passing of esteemed Inquirer editor-in-chief MANILA, Dec 25 (Mabuhay) – President Benigno S. Aquino III counts himself among the many politicians “shocked” and saddened by the unexpected passing of veteran journalist and longtime Philippine Daily Inquirer editorin-chief Letty Jimenez Magsanoc. “My thoughts and prayers are with her family and all her colleagues in the Philippine Daily Inquirer at this time of profound sadness and loss,” President Aquino said in a statement released by the Palace at 12:42 a.m., Friday, December 25. President Aquino acknowledged Magsanoc as “a source of strength,” a thought which he said is shared
by “all Filipinos of goodwill who love freedom, democracy, and good governance.” “One always knew that with her, the truth was the benchmark of a journalist’s efforts; and that in all that she did, there was no higher cause than the country’s welfare and that of our people,” President Aquino said. “She always spoke to me frankly, and yet with deep understanding,” he added. President Aquino commiserated with the family, friends, and colleagues of Magsanoc as they would be letting this year’s Christmas pass in deep sorrow. See EDITOR, page 12