NATIONAL NEWS
Maria Ressa flies to Oslo to receive Nobel Peace Prize
MANILA— Rappler executive Maria Ressa will personally claim her Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway after three courts allowed her travel there. On December 7, she was seen in a video on her way to her flight to Oslo. The Court of Appeals ruling, signed by Associate Justice Geraldine Fiel-Macaraig, said Ressa’s travel to Oslo is necessary and urgent as there is no option to receive the Nobel Peace Prize virtually. The Court of Tax Appeals also allowed Ressa’s travel. It added that the journalist
is not a flight risk. The CA ruled, however, that she must return to the Philippines first from Boston before leaving for Oslo. “The travel period shall be from Dec. 8, 2021 to Dec. 13, 2021 and only for the purpose of attending the Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony in Oslo, Norway, and participating in the events specifically mentioned in the attached confirmation and invitation letter,” the document read. The Court of Appeals also last month, just 10 days after the Nobel Peace Prize was announced, allowed Ressa to attend a month-long program at the Harvard University in Boston after previously denying her attempts to travel following her libel conviction. She was also allowed to visit her parents in Florida on Thanksgiving. The Solicitor-General had earlier opposed Ressa’s intent to go to Norway to claim the prestigious award, as the letter from the Norwegian Nobel Institute was only a “mere invitation.”
December 9-15, 2021
(From page 1) New... A group of voters from the Ilocos region filed before
the Commission on Elections (Comelec) yet another case that seeks to end the presidential run of the son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Calling themselves Pudno Nga Ilocano, the group cited the conviction of Marcos Jr. for tax evasion as grounds for his disqualification. In their petition submitted to the poll body on Tuesday, Dec. 7, the group cited the “successive convictions for four counts of non-filing of income tax return and non-payment of deficiency income tax” as the reason the former senator should be banned from running for president in next year’s election. The petitioners added that the acts of Marcos Jr. were tantamount to “a crime involving moral turpitude.” Political observers said the action tended to show that there were cracks in the so-called Solid North, comprised of Ilocano speaking provinces which Marcos Jr. had been counting on to help him succeed Rodrigo Duterte as president. Similar disqualification or cancellation of his Certificate of Candidacy cases had been filed against Marcos Jr. last week, but equally unexpected was one from members of the political party that first drafted him to run for president. Officers and members of the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) stated in their petition that Marcos Jr. could not be their official candidate because he was never a member of the party in the first place. The PFP petitioners were led by retired police general Abubakar Mangelen, who also serves as commissioner of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos. Their petition said Marcos Jr. had been issued a certificate of nomination and acceptance by other members of PFP without informing the majority of their members. As such, the COC issued by the Comelec to the candidate was deemed “unauthorized, unilateral, illegal, and improper.”
The PFP petition was filed at the same time as the one submitted by the party-list group Akbayan, which like Pudno Nga Ilocano also cited the candidate’s conviction for tax evasion. While the Marcos camp released a photocopy of a document stating that their candidate had already settled his tax obligations, a Quezon City court issued a statement saying that there was no proof that this was the case. Observers further noted that the document from the Marcos camp had erasures of certain sections. Marcos spokesman Victor Rodrigues said they respected the right “of every disillusioned group” to take whatever legal action they saw fit, adding that they also had the “right to be heard.” The latest cases brought to eight the number of petitions seeking to disqualify the 64-year-old Marcos Jr. The other cases were filed by victims of martial law. While his defenders say that Marcos Jr. was “too young” to be involved in the atrocities committed by his father’s regime, he was actually 28 years old at the time his family was ousted by a mass movement known as the People Power revolt in 1986. At least two of the cases, however, are likely to be dismissed as one was filed by an unknown person also surnamed Marcos, who insisted that he was the real presidential bet. The other claims that the real Marcos Jr. had already passed away and the PFP candidate was an impostor. Meanwhile, social media was abuzz early this week after a photo showing a huge crowd being addressed by Marcos Jr was found to be fake. An aerial shot showed a much smaller crowd at the event held in Nueva Ejija, indicating that the picture released to local media had been photoshopped. While trolls had shown photos of “Marcos followers” in red that were found to be fake as they were taken in foreign countries, the latest doctored photo was released to local media by the Marcos media bureau.
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