Faces of the News: May 05, 2024

Leandro Leviste

Now the second largest shareholder of ABS-CBN Corp. after the Lopez Group, Leandro Leviste said he hoped to help the employees of the broadcasting giant that once ruled the airwaves. Leviste last week bought an 8.5-percent ownership stake in the now off-air ABS-CBN for around P395.5 million, based on the company’s closing price on Friday. It was an interesting decision for the 31-year-old businessman, considering that his mother, Sen. Loren Legarda, once a prized ABS-CBN talent, abstained when the House of Representatives voted on the media company’s 2020 application for a franchise renewal. Leviste’s move expectedly raised eyebrows. Analysts, however, believe it was a “good opportunity” to diversify his business portfolio that includes SP New Energy Corp.—now headed by billionaire Manuel Pangilinan through Manila Electric Co. As of last year, ABS-CBN’s debt has swelled to P12.6 billion. The company’s liabilities have also ballooned to P12.8 billion (from P2.6 billion in 2022) as it continued to absorb losses from Sky Cable. —Meg J. Adonis

Vhong Navarro

Actor-TV host Vhong Navarro’s quest for vindication took 10 years, ending with the Taguig City Regional Trial Court (RTC) convicting four people—businessman Cedric Lee, former model Deniece Cornejo, Ferdinand Guerrero and Simeon Raz—of serious illegal detention and extortion, cases filed by Navarro in 2014 over an incident at Cornejo’s condo unit. In its May 2 decision, the  local court sent the convicts to a maximum prison term of 40 years and also ordered them to pay Navarro a total of P300,000 in damages. It was the conclusion of a legal battle that pitted Navarro’s narration of events—that he was entrapped and severely beaten at Cornejo’s place—against her claim that he raped her. Before the Taguig RTC trial, the charges and counter-charges took a long route that included the Department of Justice, the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court, the last dismissing Cornejo’s rape allegation for its inconsistencies and lack of evidence. Like the high tribunal, the Taguig court also didn’t buy her story. Of the four convicts, only Guerrero remains at large as of this writing. —Russel Loreto

Jay Tarriela

“Goliath … becoming more Goliath” was how Commodore Jay Tarriela, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, described China’s latest harassment of Philippine government vessels at Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal in the West Philippine Sea. Tarriela said China Coast Guard (CCG) ships, in trying to block the BRP Bagacay of the PCG and BRP Bankaw of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), used water cannons whose force could be “very fatal” if the people on board were directly hit. At a May 1 press briefing, he said the force was so strong that it deformed a railing and a canopy frame on the Bagacay. The water blasts also damaged the heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, electrical, navigation and radio systems of the BFAR vessel. Two days later, he said that while water cannons from CCG ships seem to be aiming for the communication and navigation systems of PCG and BFAR vessels, it seemed they were also targeting the Philippine flag hoisted on the Bagacay. If true, this “is really very painful for us as Filipinos.” —Nestor Corrales

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Pro-Palestine US students

On April 17, pro-Palestinian students in the United States set up the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” in New York City’s Columbia University to protest Israel’s military action in Gaza against the militant group Hamas. The Columbia Daily Spectator quoted the protesters as chanting “Free, Free Palestine” and “From the sea to the river, Palestine will live forever.” The police arrested the protesters, but the momentum they started later spread to about 130 colleges and universities in the weeks that followed, according to the BBC. More than 2,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators have been arrested for causing violence seen tinged with anti-Semitism. Reports said some protests had disrupted school exams and the schedule of some graduation rites. Mayor Eric Adams noted that many of those arrested in Columbia were not students but “outside agitators.” The protesters  mainly demand that schools divest from Israeli businesses that they accuse of supporting “genocide” in Gaza. But for pro-Israel groups, the slogan “From the river to the sea…” is itself a call to exterminate the Israeli people.

Jamal Murray

It’s understandable if the Los Angeles Lakers and its fandom have yet to recover from the pain of seeing their NBA season end once more at the hands of the Denver Nuggets. Adding insult to their injurious first- round exit was the latest heroics of Jamal Murray, whose running shot in Game 5 on April 30 secured a 4-1 series win for the Nuggets, as well as a trip to the Western Conference semifinals against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Denver advanced, 108-106, on Murray’s heroics, his second in the series after also knocking down a buzzer-beating shot in Game 2 on April 23. The Nuggets did not lead much per game in the series, where they had to overcome double-digit deficits to kick out LeBron James and the Lakers for the second straight season. Murray averaged 23.6 points, 4.6 rebounds and 7.2 assists. Denver now must stay consistent for they next playoffs foe: Anthony Edwards and an upstart Minnesota team, which earlier swept Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns in their own first-round duel. —Jonas Terrado