Jude Josue Sabio
He did the unthinkable, the kind that many thought would happen only after President Duterte steps down in 2022. The lawyer for confessed hit man Edgar Matobato filed a complaint against Mr. Duterte and 11 of his allies in the International Criminal Court in The Hague for crimes against humanity arising from the brutal crackdown on drugs. The mass murders must be stopped, he said, otherwise the killings would escalate to 72,000 by the time Mr. Duterte steps down in 2022 at the current rate of 1,000 killings a month. That the case has been filed amid preparations for Manila’s hosting of the 30th Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit did not go unnoticed by Malacañang. It’s meant to embarrass the President ahead of the Asean debut, presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said.
Albert del Rosario
Having fought tooth and nail for Philippine sovereignty against a neighbor’s incursions, the former foreign secretary keeps pushing the envelope. At a forum on Tuesday, he called on Asean to invoke the arbitral tribunal ruling in crafting a code of conduct in the South China Sea. The international arbitral tribunal last year ruled against China’s claims to nearly all of the sea and that it violated Philippine sovereign rights to its exclusive economic zone. A draft of the communiqué circulating days ahead of its issuance at the close of the summit on Saturday indicated that the Asean leaders were expected to adopt a subdued language on the conflict. President Duterte did not dispel any doubts about this. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, he said it was pointless to raise the tribunal ruling at the summit.
Aung San Suu Kyi
If there’s anything refreshing about the just concluded Asean summit, it was the arrival of Nobel Prize winner and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. Burma (Myanmar) has sent her as head of its delegation to the summit of Asean leaders. It’s her first visit to the Philippines, which has kept tabs on her struggle for democracy and rise to political power, and looked up to her like the country’s democracy icon, the late President Corazon Aquino. In 2008, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Davos, Switzerland, called on Asean to bring about the release of the then jailed opposition leader; Malaysia balked at this, saying Asean must abide by its policy of noninterference. Suu Kyi had been held under house arrest by Burma’s ruling military junta since 2003. Twelve years later, her National League for Democracy party rose to power.
Emmanuel Macron
His victory in the first round of France’s presidential elections has probably surprised some, having never before stood for election and having started his grassroots centrist movement 12 months ago. The former energy minister under outgoing Socialist President François Hollande topped Sunday’s first round, slightly ahead of the far right candidate Marine Le Pen. They will face off in the runoff on May 7 with Macron as the clear front-runner. It’s going to be a battle over France’s future, said Le Pen, who has spelled out a vision of France out of the European Union; Macron is pro-European. “For months and again today, I’ve heard the doubts, the anger and the fears of the French people. Their desire for change, too,” said the 39-year-old ex-investment banker. Politics aside, his marriage to his former school teacher has also fascinated France.
Ma. Cristina Nobleza
She married Renierlo Dongon. Nothing wrong with it except that she is a police officer and Dongon is a bomb expert, and a suspected Abu Sayyaf member at that. As details of their relationship unraveled, it turned out they were married in ceremonies officiated by Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, an international terrorist killed in the January 2015 Mamasapano debacle that also left 44 Special Action Force troopers dead. Nobleza and Dongon were arrested after a car chase by authorities. They drove past a checkpoint in Clarin, Bohol, set up after a series of skirmishes between soldiers and the Abu Sayaff bandits, prompting the chase. They were reportedly on their way to rescue bandits holed up in a cave in the area. In effect, she was sleeping with the enemy, PNP chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa concluded