Illustrations by Rene Elevera
Chris Brown
With 90 hit singles tucked snugly under his belt, Grammy Award-winning singer Chris Brown has the seventh most number of hits on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.
But as familiar as he is with fame and fortune, the 29-year-old singer is just as accustomed to having felony and fraud charges filed against him.
He is banned from entering Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom because of his criminal record. Ten years ago, Brown had to hire a crisis management team after he turned himself in to police authorities following a violent scuffle with then-girlfriend Rihanna.
In 2014, the leadership of Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) sued the singer for fraud after he failed to appear in a New Year’s Eve show at the INC-owned Philippine Arena.
His latest run-in with the law involves the rape allegation of a woman he met in Paris on Jan. 15.
Although Brown was ultimately released without charges, he got into trouble anew for selling T-shirts with a message that mocks his accuser.
“This bitch lyin’,” the T-shirts say.
Ralph Recto
When it comes to the nation’s security, you can never be too careful.
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto raised the alarm over Beijing’s possible access to the Philippines’ security data through the China-assisted Safe Philippines Project.
It involves installing closed-circuit television cameras in public places in Metro Manila and Davao, with monitors from a central command center.
Recto was concerned about China International Telecommunication Construction Corp., the project partner, tapping Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. as an equipment supplier.
Several countries have already distanced themselves from Huawei over concerns that China was using it as a conduit to access sensitive networks.
Aside from seeking a probe on the deal, Recto led the Senate in blocking funding for the project through a provision in the 2019 budget bill that would disallow the use of government funds for any public video surveillance project whose suppliers are “considered serious risks to national security or interest.”
Children in conflict with the law
“Because the President wants it,” was Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s explanation for supporting a widely derided bill lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 15 years to 9.
But Arroyo was apparently prepared to compromise, given the mounting public uproar over the controversial measure driven by human rights and child welfare advocates.
The House on Wednesday passed the measure on second reading with a major amendment: From age 9, the proposed criminal threshold was raised to 12. Critics were not appeased.
“This is an immediate attack on children, the most vulnerable sector in our society,” Kabataan Rep. Sarah Elago said on Thursday.
Was the bill railroaded? Opposition lawmakers believe so.
The bill was approved by the House justice committee on Monday and put to a debate before the entire House for only two session days.
The next showdown happens next week when the House decides the measure on third reading, using individual voting this time.
Nicolas Maduro
Venezuela continues to slide into deeper turmoil as President Nicolas Maduro dug in and parried the attempts of the United States and its champion Juan Guaido to oust him from power.
Washington pressed the United Nations Security Council to discuss the Venezuelan crisis and drum up international support for Guaido.
But any move for a meaningful resolution would likely be met by a veto from Russia or China, which have thrown their support for Maduro.
The international stalemate returns the ball to the people of the South American nation, who have been suffering an economic crisis for more than eight years now.
The military declared on Friday that it would continue to support Maduro, who has showered the country’s top generals with perks and privileges.
But ordinary soldiers, like most Venezuelans, struggle to provide food for their families. Guaido has appealed to the country’s military to abandon President Maduro, promising him amnesty and safe passage out of the country.
James Harden
Everyone in the building knew who the Houston Rockets would go to.
So Danny Green led Toronto’s effort to slow James Harden down and thought they did a “decent job” on him.
Harden finished with 35 points against the Raptors and you’d have to frame it in context to understand why Toronto felt that it did a decent job.
Prior to that game, Harden had scored 261 points in five games, a whopping per-game average of 52 points.
So yeah, 35 was something Toronto could be proud of yielding.
Harden has been in the news a lot for his scoring efforts, torching the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden for 61 points — his career-high — and overtaking Wilt Chamberlain’s fourth-best streak of 30-point games.
Harden has 22 of those now, a scoring consistency that boggles even Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni, who said he has ran out of superlatives to describe the reigning NBA MVP.
The 29-year-old Harden also has the world’s eighth-largest sports contract worth $228,000,000.