Category: Politics

Presidente Rodrigo Duterte has verbally given a notice to the United States of America that the scheduled war games between the Philippines and the USA next month would be the last.

In his talk before the Filipino community here in Hanoi, Vietnam Wednesday evening, September 28, Duterte said that he would be establishing new alliances with other countries like China and Russian.

Duterte earlier said that the US has been undermining the Philippines as he blamed America for the plunging peso which he said is being manipulated.

“I will visit China. I will open the door for everyone. I will go to Russia. I’m serving notice now to the US. I will maintain the alliance but I will establish new alliances. I serve notice to you now that this will be the last joint military exercise with US,” said Duterte.

US and the Philippines has scheduled an annual Philippines Amphibious Landing Exercise (PHIBLEX) to be held from October 4 to 12 in multiple locations in Luzon, including Palawan.

It will be the first war games between the two treaty allies under the Duterte administration.

Approximately 1,400 US servicemen based in Okinawa and 500 Filipino soldiers will train “side-by-side to grow capabilities and better prepare to operate together during a natural disaster or armed conflict”.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. however clarified that what the President was referring to was the joint military exercise with other countries within the territorial waters but outside the 12-mile radius.

Yasay said President Duterte was not specifically referring to the Balikatan exercise.

A frustrated murder complaint was filed against self-confessed Davao Death Squad member Edgar Matobato by one of his victims in Digos City, Davao del Sur Friday, September 23.

The complainant, Abeto Salcedo Jr., positively identified Matobato as the gunman who shot him at close range as he was emerging from the DAR provincial office in Digos City last October 24, 2014.

“I could not be mistaken,” he said, adding that only his car’s window glass separated him from the gunman.

Salcedo sustained three bullets wounds that remained lodged inside his body to this day.

Salcedo, a retired adjudicator of the Department of Agrarian Reform in Southern Mindanao, was accompanied by a lawyer when he filed the frustrated murder complaint against Edgar Matobato at the city prosecutors office in Digos City this morning.

Assistant City Prosecutor Jehrameel Libre, who received Salcedo’s complaint, said they have 60 days to decide whether or not to pursue the case in court.

Matobato, who had admitted to being a gun for hire, said on Thursday upon questioning by Senator Tito Sotto, that he had no involvement in the Salcedo slay-try, saying he was under the Witness Protection Program at that time.