News in Pictures: November 2, 2024
POLITICS OF REMEMBRANCE
Two wreaths (inset) from President Marcos are sent to the Aquino family’s mausoleum at Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque City on All Saints’ Day. The President has made it his custom to honor the rival family of the Marcoses time and again—beginning in 2009 when he led his family in visiting the wake of the late President Corazon Aquino.
But along with these conciliatory gestures, Mr. Marcos also continues to uphold his father and namesake as a hero whose presidency had also done the country good—in contrast to his dictatorial rule which the Aquinos had opposed.
At the Heroes’ Cemetery (above), where he was finally able to have his father buried in 2016, Mr. Marcos, accompanied by his mother Imelda, urged Filipinos to continue his father’s good work and fulfill his wish that they leave their “selfish, corrupt and derelict ways.”
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. with his mother former First lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos visits the tomb of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr., and offers a solemn mass for the late President at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City on November 1, 2024. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ/INQUIRER
Two wreaths of white flowers from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. were placed inside the Aquino family’s mausoleum at the Manila Memorial Park in Paranaque City on All Saint’s Day, November 1, 2024. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA/INQUIRER
CULTURE AS CASUALTY
Books, artworks, archival materials and other items of cultural value are left scattered on Oct. 28 at Savage Mind, three days after Severe Tropical Storm “Kristine” (international name: Trami) left the country.
The popular bookshop in Naga City also became a casualty of the storm, with floodwaters damaging first-edition Filipiniana books and other rare items. Kristian Sendon Cordero, owner of Savage Mind, estimated the damage at P20 million.
The bookshop, founded in 2018, is a popular establishment among artists in Bicol and has hosted events celebrating the region’s art and culture.
SOAKED Widespread flooding in Naga City damaged books valuable artifacts, artworks, sketches and archival materials from Savage Mind, Bicol’s only independent bookstore at the height of Severe Tropical Storm “Kristine” (international name: Trami) last week —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
CLASH OVER LAND
Residents on Wednesday leave their homes at Barangay Kilanan in Pagalungan town, Maguindanao del Sur, following a firefight that afternoon between the groups of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) commanders Datu Alonto Sultan and Ikot Dandua.
The clash, which led to 14 people killed, prompted soldiers of the Army’s 90th Infantry Battalion to rush to Kilanan to secure the villagers. The respective clans of Sultan and Dandua have been caught in a dispute over 290 hectares of farmland in Kilanan, with Dandua’s clan challenging the claim of the Sultans that they have the title to the property and have been tilling the land.
The outbreak of violence comes amid the ongoing decommissioning of the MILF and efforts by the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to entice investors.
POGO CRACKDOWN
Authorities on Thursday raid a business process outsourcing (BPO) complex in Bataan province also suspected to be a Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) hub. The Malolos Regional Trial Court issued a search warrant on the 1.5-hectare property in Barangay Padang, Bagac town, after establishing probable cause that the alleged Pogo was also engaged in human trafficking.
Hundreds of Filipinos and foreigners, mostly Chinese, were arrested by agents of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police.
Two days earlier, the National Bureau of Investigation raided a Pogo hub in Parañaque and arrested 18 Chinese nationals. President Marcos, in his State of the Nation Address in July, announced a ban on all Pogos and a phaseout of their operations by the end of the year.
