It wasn’t the best week for the Dutertes. Glaring disparities between Vice President Sara’s SALN and bank transaction records do not help in fending off her impending impeachment; her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, was confirmed for trial by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. A bad week, too, for their former ally and former House speaker Martin Romualdez: the Sandiganbayan issued a precautionary hold departure order against him.
That means he won’t be able to visit his opulent mansion in Spain anytime soon. Arguably a bad week as well for Finlayson’s squirrels, whose presence in Metro Manila and its environs didn’t seem to bother anyone until recently. Now, their numbers have grown large enough for the government to declare them undesirable aliens.
Whether it was a good week or bad in terms of the war in the Middle East is hard to tell — just about as hard as passing through the Strait of Hormuz, which at any moment may or may not be open to shipping. Read all about these stories: #5: What we know so far about Finlayson’s squirrels #4: Trump declares Iran ceasefire extension with peace talks in doubt + Iran shows off its control over strait after collapse of peace talks + Israel, Lebanon extend ceasefire as Trump seeks ‘best deal’ with Iran #3: Martin Romualdez barred from leaving PH over alleged corruption + Swipe at Marcos? Romualdez blames executive for budget corruption scandal + Romualdez accuses Remulla of bias, seeks to block Ombudsman from probing him #2: Sara Duterte’s P6.7-B bank transactions don’t match her SALN declarations + AMLC says Sara Duterte got P14.8M from Samuel Uy, tagged ‘drug lord’ by critics + Sara Duterte impeachment: Trillanes links VP’s family to ‘drug lord’ payouts #1: Duterte is going to trial, ICC confirms all charges + ICC denies Duterte appeal, clears way for possible trial TL;DR? Watch the video. – Rappler.com Presenter, producer: JC GotingaVideo editor, graphics artist: Franz Lawrence de CastroSupervising producer: Beth Frondoso