Faces of the News: August 18, 2024
Jimmy Guban
The House of Representatives’ “quad comm” formed to investigate criminal activities during the Duterte administration found a bombshell witness in former Customs intelligence officer Jimmy Guban, who named former Presidential economic adviser Michael Yang, Davao Rep. Paolo Duterte, and Vice President Sara Duterte’s husband Mans Carpio, as the real owners of the controversial P11-billion shabu shipment that slipped through the Bureau of Customs in 2018.
Wearing a bulletproof vest and flanked by security detail, Guban admitted to lying before the Senate blue ribbon committee that investigated the issue and supposedly wrongly implicating former police colonel Eduardo Acierto as the mastermind instead because he feared for his life. But now “I am seeking for truth and justice,” he told the panel. “I would like to be part of the investigation…to shed light on the proliferation of illegal drugs.” Also implicated in his new testimony are former National Irrigation Authority administrator Benny Antiporda and Presidential Task Force for Media Security chief Paul Gutierrez, whom he specifically said had threatened him while he was in detention at the Senate to “never name Mans, Pulong, or Michael Yang.” The former president’s son, Antiporda and Gutierrez have all denied his allegations, while quadcomm co-chair and Surigao Del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers said that they will have to “wait and see” whether Guban’s allegations could help the quad comm uncover their goal: whether drug money was being used to corrupt government officials.—Krixia Subingsubing
Vico Sotto
Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto got his first taste of a graft case brought by a private citizen before the Office of the Ombudsman. The complaint, dated Aug. 7 but made public only last week, accused the 35-year-old local executive of graft, violation of the code of conduct for public officials, grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service and serious dishonesty for allegedly extending a 100-percent tax discount to Pasig-based telecommunications firm Converge ICT Solutions, Inc.
Complainant Ethelmart Cruz, a Pasig resident, said the company “misdeclared” the actual size of its office space and workforce for “tax purposes.” Converge was supposed to pay in 2022 tax dues worth a total of P5.1 million, including surcharges and interest, but Sotto’s office supposedly wiped this out. As if the graft case was not enough, he also had to confront on Monday a group opposing the construction of the new P9.6-billion city hall. He spoke with them candidly and found out that some were from other cities. Sotto, who is in his second straight term in office, called the recent protests against him as “dirty tactics.”—Kathleen de Villa
Paetongtarn Shinawatra
The influential Shinawatra clan made another comeback on Friday when the youngest child of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra was elected prime minister. The ascension of Paetongtarn Shinawatra appeared both sudden and unexpected after Thailand’s judiciary dismissed her ally Srettha Thavisin as prime minister amid a continuing struggle among the country’s opposing parties.
At 37, Paetongtarn became Thailand’s youngest premier and only the second female to take the top government post after her aunt Yingluck. When she joined politics in 2021 under the Pheu Thai party, Paetongtarn said that she was “not yet ready.” But circumstances—and Thaksin’s influence—forced her into walking a “minefield”. While insisting that she is not the “shadow” of her father, the young premier has shown “no signs she has carved her own niche with ideas that would distinguish her policies from those endorsed by her party or her father,” according to the Associated Press. And amid claims that she was being used by pro-monarchy parties to keep the reformist Move Forward party at bay, Paetongtarn says she will strive to help struggling Thailand go forward.
Dottie Ardina
With the Philippines producing its best performance ever in the Olympics thanks in large part to Carlos Yulo’s double-gold feat in gymnastics, there’s good reason to take positive strides in some silver linings. Among them are the near-medal finish of Bianca Pagdanganan in women’s golf when she came one stroke shy of a bronze and settled for fourth and Dottie Ardina placing 13th overall.
Their strong performances, however, came despite having to hit the links without their official uniforms at the Paris Games, a controversy that dampened their respective campaigns. It was Ardina who shed light on the issue when a video eventually posted by her mother on social media showed her having to tape up a patch of the Philippine flag in order to meet Olympic requirements. Ardina later expressed dismay over the absence of the prescribed attire, which the National Golf Association of the Philippines, the country’s national federation for golf, said was held up in French customs.—Jonas Terrado
Arsenio Balisacan
The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan came under fire following his remarks about the government’s yardstick of food poverty threshold. During the Senate hearing on the 2025 national budget on August 13, Balisacan said that the monthly food threshold for a family of five is P9,581, which breaks down to approximately P64 a day per person. Various sectors and officials slammed Neda’s statement, with some calling it “infuriating and insulting”.
However, Balisacan admitted that the figure is outdated, having been established over a decade ago. He clarified that Neda did not decide on the contents of the food basket. Balisacan explained that the calculation was based on food items recommended by the Department of Health and the Food and Nutrition Research Institute. On Thursday, Balisacan clarified the “recent misconceptions” surrounding the food and poverty thresholds stating that these metrics are used to assess the country’s growth and effectiveness of the government’s policies. Furthermore, Balisacan emphasized that these figures were never meant to represent budgets for a decent standard of living. They do not dictate how much a family should spend on food, nor do they suggest what an ideal household budget should be.—Mariedel Irish U. Catilogo
