News Briefs: Dec. 12, 2018

Sandiganbayan to let Imelda Marcos go straight to SC

The Sandiganbayan would let former first lady Imelda Marcos challenge her Nov. 9 graft conviction directly at the Supreme Court and skip the usual step of filing an appeal at the antigraft court first.

The court’s Fifth Division had “given due course” to the notice of appeal filed by Marcos on Dec. 5, reporters were informed on Tuesday.

This meant the court would soon hand over to the high court records of the cases which have been filed in 1991 and 1995.

Marcos did not explain why she chose to go straight to the high court for a review of her conviction which she described as “contrary to facts, law and jurisprudence.”

Marcos was sentenced to up to 77 years in prison for seven counts of graft. —Vince F. Nonato

Sereno asks youth: Influence elders on voting

Former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno on Monday asked young people to help their parents and grandparents make the right choices in the 2019 elections.

“Tell your parents: Don’t mess with the elections. Enough of corruption because you are not improving our lives,” Sereno told a forum during Baguio City’s observance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Sereno said young people should create memes with the message “Ma, Pa please think of us. Stop the evil. Stop the corruption. Let us all be honest.”

She added: “Keep repeating it. Let there be a wave of voices that will call on elders to do what is right. You know, they will come to their senses.” —Kimberlie Quitasol

Dengvaxia not making a comeback in PH, DOH says

The one-year suspension of the marketing license imposed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the controversial Dengvaxia vaccine will soon lapse, but the Department of Health (DOH) does not see the product getting a certificate of product registration (CPR) at all.

“The one year suspension of the Dengvaxia CPR is not yet lifted and I don’t see it being lifted anytime soon,” said Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo.

“Dengvaxia will not likely be making a comeback,” he added. —Tina G. Santos

SM launches book as tribute to ‘Kamagong’

The SM group will launch a book as a tribute to the late SM senior vice president for Engineering Design Department (EDD) and Security Affairs Antolin V. Paule, more popularly known as Kamagong, on Dec. 12 at the SMX Mall of Asia.

Aptly titled, “Kamagong: Antolin V. Paule (His Legacy and Lifetime Service with SM)”, the 260-page coffee table book is a gift of SM Prime Holdings chair Hans Sy to the Paule family to honor Kamagong who served SM from 1963 to 2018.

Paule died last Aug. 27. He was 82.

“He deserves to be honored with this legacy book and more in fact, as he has dedicated much of his life in service of SM,” Sy said.

The book was authored by Media Touchstone Ventures Inc. president Melandrew T. Velasco.