Day: July 29, 2024

MANILA: The Supreme Court (SC) ruled to allow the Sandiganbayan to continue hearing the case against Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile in connection with alleged irregularities in the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) two decades ago. “The prosecution should be allowed to present evidence at its discretion and in compliance with the law and regulations,” the Court said in a news release Monday. In 2014, the Ombudsman charged Enrile, his chief of staff Jessica Lucila Reyes, businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles, Ronald John Lim and John Raymund de Asis with plunder in relation to Enrile’s PDAF transactions between 2004

MANILA: The confidential and intelligence funds of government agencies for the proposed 2025 budget are lower by 16 percent – from PHP12.3 billion for 2024 to just PHP10.286 billion next year, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said Monday. ‘We just limit it in the departments and agencies na nangangailangan talaga ng confidential at (intelligence) funds (that really needs confidential and intelligence funds),’ Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman told reporters in a press conference in explaining the decrease. According to a 2015 DBM-Commission on Audit (COA) Joint Circular, confidential expenses pertain to surveillance activities in civilian government agencies, while intelligence

LINGAYEN: The provincial government of La Union recorded an initial estimate of PHP41 million damage to agriculture, PHP17 million to infrastructure, and PHP1.96 million to tourism due to the southwest monsoon enhanced by Super Typhoon Carina. In a report on Monday, Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office chief Aureliano Rulloda III said all local government units reported losses in high-value crops, agri-infrastructures, rice and fisheries. On infrastructure, he said the damage was mostly on roads and river slopes, farm-to-market, provincial and municipal roads. The damage to infrastructure was in Burgos, Naguilian, Caba, Bagulin, Bauang, Bacnotan towns, and San Fernando

ANKARA: The first training session for triathletes at the Paris Olympics was canceled on Sunday due to pollution in the River Seine, organizers said. Following a meeting to discuss the water quality and subsequent tests, a joint decision was made by Paris 2024 and World Triathlon to cancel the swimming part of the triathlon orientation. The River Seine, which had been declared clean enough for swimming in tests conducted in mid-July, still posed concerns regarding its suitability for competition. “Paris 2024 and World Triathlon reiterate that the priority is the health of the athletes,” the statement read. “The analysis carried

MANILA: The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Monday said it has activated programs to assist other agencies in containing the oil spill from the sunken M/T Terra Nova off the coast of Limay, Bataan. In a statement, Environment Secretary Maria Antonio Yulo-Loyzaga said a survey of the site of the sunken vessel has already been completed as weather conditions improved last week. Yulo-Loyzaga said the DENR, particularly its Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), has implemented necessary measures to determine the extent of the oil spill’s effects. ‘Ang EMB po ang in charge dito sa water quality at air