Malacañang denial

Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma issued a statement that President Aquino is not interested in a second term or an extension of his term. He said that President Aquino has not given serious thought to the proposal for term extension.

Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Mar Roxas has proposed the term extension of President Aquino in an ANC interview by Lynda Jumilla in her “Beyond Politics” program.

Senator Francis Escudero expressed his opinion that the President is not interested to stay longer in office.

Senators Koko Pimentel and Bam Aquino did not agree with Roxas’ idea.

Senate President Franklin Drilon, a close ally of the President, pointed out that an extension of the President’s term or allowing him to run for reelection requires Charter change (Cha-cha), which President Aquino has consistently opposed.

To settle the issue, President Aquino should personally issue a statement turning down Roxas’ proposal.

Senators Grace Poe and Nancy Binay also expressed the view that President Aquino would step down in 2016 and give way to a newly elected successor.

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Sisters support Binay

Kris Aquino and Ballsy Aquino-Cruz welcomed the proposal to adopt Vice President Jejomar Binay as a common candidate of the Liberal Party (LP) and United Nationalist Alliance (UNA).

Kris said in her TV show with Boy Abunda: “My sisters and I have been talking about it (LP adopting Binay), and we say that this can bring about unity as we’re not enemies. If he continues what Noy has started, why not?”

VP Binay issued a statement thanking the sisters for their support. Binay said he was humbled that the sisters saw him as someone who could continue the President’s good programs.

“I share their view that the welfare of our kababayan (countrymen) should always come first and should not be compromised by partisan politics,” Binay said.

President/Mayor Joseph Estrada said that Binay does not need an LP adoption to win. Erap said he will talk to Binay to confirm if he is really seeking an LP adoption as he is supporting him as the opposition’s candidate.

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Resolution to be filed

Liberal Party (LP) Congressman Edgar Erice announced he is filing a resolution to change the Constitution to allow President Aquino to run for a second term following calls made by certain sectors on social Media.

Iloilo Representative Gerry Treñas, another LP member, supported Erice’s proposal.

Senator Francis Escudero expressed opposition to Cha-cha saying there is no time for it.

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Bribery charges

Relatives of Ampatuan massacre are asking for an independent investigation of the charges of bribery. They also asked for the relief of Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III.

Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Leila de Lima ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to conduct an investigation of the bribery charges, which accused Usec Baraan and the panel of public prosecutors of being bribed by the Ampatuans.

In a related development, Atty. Sigfried Fortun and two other defense lawyers have withdrawn from the Ampatuan’s defense panel.

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David Tan charged

The NBI submitted a 45-page report to DOJ Secretray Leila de Lima recommending the filing of criminal charges against former National Food Authority (NFA) chief Angelito Banayo and rice trader Davidson Tan Bangayan, and ten others for rice smuggling.

Bangayan, who the NBI said is the same person identified as the rice smuggler David Tan, will be charged with violation of the Government Procurement Reform Act for bid fixing as well as violation of Article 186 of the revised penal code penalizing monopolies and restraint of trade.

Banayo, meanwhile, will be charged with Violation of the Anti Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

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Cut taxes

The World Bank (WB) Group is urging the Philippine government to reduce income-tax rates and then broaden the country’s tax base, by doing away with unwarranted incentives.

Dr. Karl Kendrick T. Chua, senior country economist of the World Bank Philippines, proposed that the personal income tax rate be reduced from a 32 percent cap to 25 percent. Chua also recommended that the government bring down the corporate tax rate to 25 percent from the current 30 percent.

This supports the proposals of Senator Sonny Angara, Marikina Representative Miro Quimbo, the Senate and House chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

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Probe PCOS

Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel, chairman of the Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms and People’s Participation, filed a resolution calling for a probe into the accuracy and integrity of the precint count optical scanner (PCOS) machines that were used in the 2013 local and senatorial elections.

Pimentel’s filing of a resolution came after allegations of electoral fraud were aired when a manual counting of votes in the clustered precincts of two barangays in General Tinio, Nueva Ecija “showed a big disparity’’ with official results produced by PCOS machines.

 It was found out that senatorial candidate Bro. Eduardo “Eddie” Villanueva had tallied more votes than those officially counted by the PCOS machines, getting 900 votes in the manual recount against the official Comelec tally of 781 votes or a disparity of 119 votes.

It has been charged previously that the votes for senators werepre-programmed under the alleged “60-30-10” scheme to ensure that certain favored candidates would land in the winning circle.