Day: April 25, 2022

With about two weeks to go before the presidential election in the Philippines, the race has turned into a rematch between Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr., son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, and current Vice President Leni Robredo.

Robredo narrowly defeated Marcos in the 2016 vice presidential race. Marcos claimed election fraud and later launched a protest before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal. A partial recount showed Robredo’s votes increased and after four years of legal drama, the case was dismissed.

Six years after that failed campaign, Marcos, whose father was ousted for massive corruption and human rights abuses in a people’s revolution in 1986, is the presidential front-runner in the May 9 elections.

But Robredo, a human rights lawyer and the leader of the opposition to President Rodrigo Duterte, is offering a serious challenge.

In a survey taken in March and released in early April, the younger Marcos is still seen leading with 56 points, although his number went down by four points from the previous survey. Robredo’s numbers, meanwhile, enjoyed a big jump – rising nine points to 24.

The survey asked for the respondents’ first choice of presidential and vice presidential candidates. The same survey also indicated that Marcos’ running mate, Sara Duterte, daughter of President Rodrigo Duterte, is the leading vice presidential candidate at 56 points.

Robredo’s camp attributes her gain in the survey to the hard work of her supporters campaigning for her.

The gap between the two is still wide, but political analysts believe a lot can happen before the May elections and that Marcos should not be complacent.

Aries Arugay, political science professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman, said Robredo currently has momentum and can still pull off a repeat of her come-from-behind victory in the 2016 polls.

“The possibility is still there because our assumption is, if we base on the Pulse [Asia] survey, that’s already stale. That was taken more than a month ago,” Arugay told VOA.

Arugay said that the surveys now validate the groundswell of support for Robredo in massive campaign rallies, but this momentum must be maintained until the end of the campaign period.

“If more people can be convinced that Vice President Leni Robredo has a fighting chance, there will be a bandwagon [effect],” he said. “The voting culture of Filipinos is that they must perceive that their vote is important and can be counted.”

Robredo’s momentum is observed in her jam-packed rallies across the country. Her army of supporters has also been conducting an aggressive house-to-house campaign to convince more people to vote for her.

Marcos’s popularity is based on the nostalgia of alleged prosperity and the “golden age” of Filipino society during his father’s dictatorship in the 1980s. Political observers and disinformation researchers say his campaign is buoyed by a massive disinformation and propaganda network.

A study of news outlet VERA Files, a Facebook fact-checking partner in the Philippines, showed Marcos gained from “misleading” posts on social media while Robredo is the biggest disinformation victim.

In 2019, Meta took down a network of Facebook pages and groups linked to President Rodrigo Duterte and Senator Imee Marcos for allegedly disseminating false information.

As it becomes clearer that the May polls could boil down to Marcos and Robredo, other presidential candidates have said they will not back out of the race.

Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, world boxing champion and Senator Manny Pacquiao, Senator Panfilo Lacson and former Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales have rejected attempts to make them withdraw from the race despite their low numbers in surveys.

Moreno ranks far third in opinion polls with eight points, while other presidential candidates fall well behind him.

Source: Voice of America

Malaysia’s top diplomat has revealed he’s had contact with the Burmese shadow government, the first ASEAN country to acknowledge such an interaction, as activists lambasted the bloc on the anniversary of its failed five-point plan to restore democracy in Myanmar.

Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah was responding Sunday to an open letter from a Southeast Asian parliamentarians’ group to the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. In it, they urged the bloc to “immediately and publicly meet with the NUG” – Myanmar’s parallel, civilian National Unity Government.

“I have informally met [through virtual conference] the NUG Myanmar foreign minister and the NUCC chairman before the last ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat. Let’s meet and discuss,” Saifuddin said via Twitter, referring to a ministerial retreat that took place in a hybrid format in mid-February after being postponed from an earlier scheduled date amid reports of differences among member-states.

Myanmar’s National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) includes representatives of the NUG, civil society groups, ethnic armed organizations, and civil disobedience groups.

In the tweet, Saifuddin tagged the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), the group that sent the open letter on Sunday, the anniversary of the day when Southeast Asian leaders and the Burmese junta chief, agreed during an emergency summit to a so-called Five-Point Consensus for action on post-coup Myanmar.

Last October, Malaysia’s outspoken foreign minister had said he would open talks with the NUG if the Burmese junta kept stonewalling in cooperating with ASEAN’s conflict resolution efforts.

RFA contacted the foreign ministry of Cambodia, this year’s ASEAN chair, for comment but did not immediately hear back.

Meanwhile, Bo Hla Tint, the NUG’s special representative to ASEAN, questioned the Southeast Asian bloc’s seriousness in solving the Myanmar crisis.

“They have failed to implement, during the past year, the basic point of the ASEAN Common Agreements – to end the violence. And then, they failed to comply with the second point – systematic distribution of humanitarian aid,” he told RFA.

“I’d say the ASEAN leadership does not take seriously the policy or framework set down by the ASEAN leadership itself, if the leaders do not take any effective action [against the junta].”

‘A five-point failure’

In Malaysia, two analysts praised Saifuddin for breaking from ASEAN and initiating separate action.

“Malaysia takes lead on call to review ASEAN’s approach to Myanmar (after a year of failed ASEAN five-point consensus), acknowledging informal meetings with NUG Myanmar,” Bridget Welsh, a political analyst with the University of Nottingham Malaysia, tweeted.

Another analyst, Aizat Khairi, a senior lecturer at Universiti Kuala Lumpur, agreed.

“Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah’s reaction to the APHR open letter is something refreshing,” he told BenarNews.

The five-point agreement reached between ASEAN’s leaders and Burmese military chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing on April 24 last year included an end to violence, the provision of humanitarian assistance, an ASEAN envoy’s appointment, all-party dialogue, and mediation by the envoy.

ASEAN has not succeeded in implementing any of these points, said Joshua Kurlantzick, senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington think-tank.

“I think there is no doubt every part of [the consensus] has failed, and with Cambodia as the chair and the junta increasingly backed by China, there is no way the consensus will succeed, or that ASEAN will do anything at all serious about Myanmar,” Kurlantzick told BenarNews.

“Suspend Myanmar from ASEAN until a return to democratic rule. … But ASEAN won’t do that.”

He was referring to Beijing’s support for Naypyidaw at international forums, including at the United Nations, since Min Aung Hlaing toppled the elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government on Feb. 1, 2021.

Under ASEAN’s long-standing policy that its 10 members take all decisions collectively through consensus, if one member-state opposes a proposed move, it is shelved. And not every ASEAN member is on board with stricter action against Myanmar other than barring junta representatives from attending top ASEAN meetings, analysts have noted.

A “five-point failure” is what the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M), a group of independent international experts, calls ASEAN’s consensus.

“The junta has not held to a single point of the five-point consensus. The agreement has failed and a change of course from ASEAN is needed,” SAC-M member Marzuki Darusman said in a statement issued Friday.

In fact, since joining the consensus, Min Aung Hlaing has escalated the military’s attack on the people of Myanmar, and continued to target and detain political opponents, SAC-M said. Nearly 1,800 people, mostly pro-democracy protesters, have been killed by Burmese security forces, since the coup.

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WASHINGTON DC 25 APRIL 2022 – Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel G. Romualdez hosted a diplomatic reception on 19 April at the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C. to celebrate the robust relations between the Philippines and the United States and the conclusion of the agreements on the Subic Bay shipyard, as well as welcome the Philippine delegation to the 2022 World Bank and IMF Spring Meetings.

In his welcome remarks, Ambassador Romualdez underscored the importance of the completion of the agreements on the Subic Bay shipyard for the Philippine economy and the deepening of ties between the Philippines and the United States.

“The completion of the Subic Bay shipyard will redound to benefits for the country, bring jobs to the local communities, increase economic activity, and at the same fortify our strategic security measures. Working with the United States on this project will help ensure that we are able to protect our interests not only for our country but the whole region,” Ambassador Romualdez said.

He also expressed his appreciation to Philippine and U.S. government officials, as well as to officials of Cerberus Capital Management, for their support and efforts that led to the conclusion of the agreements.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Locsin said “with less than two months left to the Duterte administration, there is no better finale to all the work done to strengthen our ties with the United States than to see the ink on the paper of the biggest public-private partnership in the 75-year history of Philippine-US relations.” He also underscored the role played by Ambassador Romualdez to finalize the project from start to finish.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III also expressed his appreciation to Philippine and U.S. government officials and Cerberus in initiating and completing the deal. He said that while the project was met with challenges in the early stages, these were overcome through the support of all sides.

U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro underscored the robust security and military cooperation between the Philippines and the United States as long-time treaty allies. He also highlighted the people-to-people ties between the two countries which have kept the relations rich and strong over the years.

Mr. Steve Feinberg, Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Cerberus Capital Management, expressed his appreciation to the Philippine and U.S. governments for their invaluable support in ensuring the conclusion of the agreements.

Source: Republic of Philippines Department Of Foreign Affairs

ATHENS 25 April 2022 – The Philippine Embassy in Athens conducted a consular outreach mission in Larnaca, Cyprus on 16 to 17 April 2022. This is its third consular mission for the year. A total of 149 of consular services were provided to the Filipinos in Cyprus.

Ballots for the upcoming Philippine national elections were also claimed by registered voters who did not provide an address when they registered as overseas voters.

The Philippine Overseas and Labor Office (POLO) and Overseas Welfare Workers Administration (OWWA) in Greece joined the consular mission. POLO verified 79 individual contracts, 16 agency hired and one job order while OWWA processed 231 memberships and released COVID-19 assistance to 92 persons.

The Embassy’s team was assisted by volunteers from Obreras and Overseas Filipino Volunteers in Cyprus over two days.

Larnaca is one of the world’s most ancient continuously inhabited cities in the world. Its history dates back 4,000 years. Over the centuries, the city has played host to the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Ottomans and also the British.

Source: Republic of Philippines Department Of Foreign Affairs

NEW DELHI– Relations between the Philippines and India gained further momentum after a bilateral meeting between Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr. and Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar at the Hyderabad House on 24 April 2022 in New Delhi.

Secretary Locsin is in an official visit to India from 23 to 26 April 2022 to meet with Minister Jaishankar and participate in the 7th Edition of the Raisina Dialogue, India’s premier conference on geopolitics and geo-economics, which was first organized in 2016 and is committed to addressing the most challenging issues facing the global community. Secretary Locsin joins 15 other ministers and high-level officials from other countries in the Dialogue.

In their meeting, the two officials discussed important progress in various bilateral cooperative activities since their February 2022 meeting, and also looked into new areas of cooperation in cybersecurity and science and technology. The two Ministers also exchanged views on regional and international developments, particularly on the Ukraine crisis, the situation in Myanmar, and the South China Sea issue.

“When we met in February, you said that the Philippines is a ‘natural partner for India’s Act East Policy’. We too, see India as a natural partner for navigating our increasingly complex regional and global security situation,” Secretary Locsin said.

“The Philippines and India are two of Asia’s largest and most vibrant democracies. We share a common aspiration for an international order based on liberty, the rule of law, and commitment to socio-economic development,” he added.

Announced in November 2014, India’s “Act East” policy refers to its diplomatic efforts to promote strategic, economic and cultural relations with the Asia-Pacific region at various levels, based on culture, commerce, connectivity, and capacity building (4Cs). It is an expansion of the “Look East” policy, which was an effort to cultivate extensive strategic and economic relations with Southeast Asian nations towards strengthening India’s standing as a regional power.

Recognizing the Philippines’ and India’s common interests in maritime security and safety, and maritime environmental protection, as well as their support for a rules-based international order, Secretary Locsin and Minister Jaishankar explored the possibility of establishing a maritime dialogue forum this year.

After the meeting, Secretary Locsin and Minister Jaishankar witnessed the signing of the Agreement on Cooperation and Mutual Assistance on Customs Matters, which aims to strengthen, promote and develop cooperation and mutual assistance on customs matters between the two countries. The Agreement was signed by Ambassador Ramon S. Bagatsing Jr. and Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs Chairman Vivek Johri for the Philippine and Indian sides, respectively.

Earlier, another agreement between the Philippines and India was signed, the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Ayurveda and other Traditional Systems of Medicine by the Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care (PITAHC) of the Department of Health (DOH) and the Indian Institute of Ayurveda (NIA) on 20 April 2022 at the sidelines of the Global AYUSH Innovation and Investment Summit in Gujarat, India, and was witnessed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In 2019, trade between the Philippines and India reached a high of USD 2.4 billion, with exports to India reaching USD 545.5 million, while imports were estimated at USD 1.83 billion. The figures slightly dipped in 2020 and the first three quarters of 2021 to USD 2.19 billion and USD 2.17 billion, respectively, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Top Philippine exports to India include nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery, and mechanical appliance; electrical machinery and equipment; natural or cultured pearls and precious or semi-precious stones and metals; copper; and lead. Meanwhile, top imports from India are mineral fuels and oils; vehicles; pharmaceutical products, iron and steel; and meat.

There are approximately 1,300 Filipinos working and residing in India, while there are more than 120,000 Indian nationals in the Philippines.

Source: Republic of Philippines Department Of Foreign Affairs