Duque becomes Colombia's president, promising to unite divided nation

BOGOTA - Colombia's President-elect Ivan Duque was sworn in to office on Tuesday, pledging to unite a divided nation behind his plan to toughen a peace accord with Marxist rebels and rekindle economic growth.

Right-wing Duque, who replaces Nobel Prize winner Juan Manuel Santos, faces significant challenges.

The economy remains weak, a new wave of drug trafficking gangs have moved into areas once controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas, and nearly a million Venezuelan migrants have crossed into Colombia looking for food and work.

The 42-year-old lawyer and former senator for the Democratic Center party won a decisive victory against a leftist opponent in June's election, promising to make adjustments to the domestically-controversial peace accord with the FARC, cut corporate taxes and redouble security efforts in certain areas.

"I want to govern Colombia with unbreakable values and principles, overcoming left and right divisions," Duque said in an address before dignitaries, after receiving the presidential sash in Bogota's Plaza Bolivar.

"I want to govern Colombia with the spirit of building, never of destroying."

Ongoing peace negotiations with National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels, the country's last remaining insurgent group, will be evaluated over the next 30 days, Duque said, adding that any process must be "credible" and based on an end to guerrilla criminal activity over a specified timeframe.

He said he will also send an anti-corruption bill to Congress and launch measures to reactivate the sluggish economy.

Duque is a protege of hardline ex-President Alvaro Uribe, a harsh critic of the peace agreement, whose father was killed by rebels.

Uribe, facing allegations of witness tampering and bribery that he has denied, is seen by many as the power behind the relatively inexperienced Duque.

But Duque, a father of three who worked at the Inter-American Development Bank before Uribe asked him to take a Senate seat in 2014, has already shown independence in some cabinet picks and in a softening of his anti-accord rhetoric.

The 2016 peace deal brought an end to the FARC's part in more than five decades of war which killed some 260,000, and saw thousands of rebels demobilize in return for amnesty.

And though its leadership will be tried for war crimes, Duque is angry they will not serve jail time before taking up 10 guaranteed congressional seats.

Colombia's youngest president of the modern era has not specified the changes he would make to the agreement, but anything more than cosmetic will be tough to get through a Congress which has broadly backed the deal.

Even so, alterations may help satisfy some detractors in a nation polarized by the deal.

Duque can count on continued support from the United States, said Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, in Bogota.

"He very much sees the fact that the peace process, while it happened and was historic, wasn't perfect and so now it needs to be tweaked a bit," she told journalists.

The prematurely gray-haired Duque has also said he plans to cut taxes and raise revenue from an evasion crackdown. He wants to relax the so-called fiscal rule, which obliges the government to reduce the budget deficit.

"In economic matters, mistakes have been made that we must never again repeat," said Duque. "A tax policy motivated by the expansion of spending has led us to having asphyxiating burdens that affect savings, investment, job formalization and productivity."

With Colombia's debt rated BBB- by S&P and BBB by Fitch, Duque will have a hard time satisfying credit rating agencies unless he is able to replace revenue lost from weaker international oil prices. 

(Reporting by Helen Murphy and Julia Symmes Cobb, Additional reporting by Nelson Bocanegra, Carlos Vargas and Luis Jaime Acosta, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Oprah for president? Fans urge White House run

LOS ANGELES - Oprah Winfrey fans lit up Twitter on Monday with calls for her to run for U.S. president after the entertainment star gave an inspiring "new day" speech at an awards show in support of those who have exposed sexual misconduct in Hollywood and beyond.

A surge of tweets carrying "#Oprahforpresident" and "#Oprah2020" hashtags followed her speech at the Golden Globes, where Winfrey became the first black woman to receive a lifetime achievement award on Sunday.

Winfrey, an actress, movie and television producer, and chief executive of her OWN cable channel, is actively thinking about a run, CNN reported on Monday, citing two of her close friends. CNN did not name the friends, who it said had spoken on condition of anonymity.

At least one emphasized that Winfrey had made no firm decision on a run.

Sunday's award ceremony honored Winfrey, 63, as a role model for women and a person who has promoted strong female characters.

"In a 9 minute speech, @Oprah was more presidential than the current occupant of the White House has been for an entire year," wrote Khary Penebaker, a member of the Democratic National Committee, on Twitter, referring to Republican President Donald Trump.

"That speech was everything. #timesup #oprahforpresident," tweeted Boston television personality Cassy Arsenault in one of many calls for Winfrey to run in the next U.S. presidential election, in November 2020.

Trump also powered his successful 2016 campaign on the back of his celebrity reputation from reality TV show "The Apprentice," as well as long-cultivated attention in New York newspapers.

In recent years, Winfrey has lent her star power to endorse Democratic presidential candidates: Barack Obama when he was seeking to become the first black U.S. president in 2008 and Hillary Clinton in her campaign against Trump in 2016.

In the past, Winfrey has said she is not interested in running for president, for example saying in a CBS interview in October when asked about the 2020 presidential election that, "There will be no running for office of any kind for me."

However, the Los Angeles Times quoted Stedman Graham, Winfrey's longtime partner in business and life, as saying on Sunday that "It's up to the people ... She would absolutely do it."

The awards show, Hollywood's first leading up to the Oscars, was dominated by a scandal that has seen dozens of powerful men in U.S. entertainment, politics and the media accused of sexual abuse or harassment.

Winfrey, who along with most of the show's other women attendees wore a black gown to show support for victims of sexual misconduct, was the first black woman to receive the annual Cecil B. DeMille award, joining the likes of Meryl Streep, Steven Spielberg, Barbra Streisand and Sophia Loren.

'NEW DAY' FOR GIRLS AND WOMEN

Winfrey used her speech to praise women who have shared their stories of sexual harassment and abuse, and to declare that "a new day is on the horizon" for girls and women.

"When that new day finally dawns it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure they become leaders that take us to the time where nobody has to say 'me too' again," Winfrey said, referring to the #MeToo social media movement raising awareness about sexual harassment.

Winfrey was raised in poverty by a single mother and went on to host the top-rated talk show "The Oprah Winfrey Show" for 25 years before ending it in 2011.

"I want to express gratitude to all the women who have endured years of abuse and assault because they, like my mother, had children to feed and bills to pay and dreams to pursue."

She produced and acted in the 2014 civil rights movie "Selma," and 2017's "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" and was Oscar nominated in 1986 for her role in "The Color Purple," which she later helped finance as Broadway musical.

Even after ending her daily talk show, her influence on popular culture remains strong.

Forbes last year estimated her net worth at $3 billion and placed her third on its list of the America's richest self-made women.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

'True, complete justice for all'

MANILA, Philippines - Reiterating that there must be justice first before reconciliation, President Aquino gave his “marching orders” to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima yesterday to “begin the process of providing true and complete justice for all.”

The President also announced that former chief justice Hilario Davide Jr. had agreed to head an independent Truth Commission tasked to investigate the unresolved anomalies of the Arroyo administration, particularly the botched $329-million broadband deal with China’s ZTE Corp.

De Lima was head of the Commission on Human Rights
before her appointment to the Department of Justice.

“We are pleased to share with you Davide’s acceptance of the challenge to form and lead a Truth Commission that would shed light on unresolved controversies,” Aquino said in Filipino in his 23-minute inaugural speech.

“Whoever commits misdeeds should face justice. We cannot continue having a system without accountability,” Aquino continued.

“To those who are talking about reconciliation, if they mean that they would like us to simply forget about the wrongs that they have committed in the past, we have this to say: There can be no reconciliation without justice,” he said.

“To those who have wronged me, I can forgive you and I have forgiven you already. To those who have wronged the people, I have no right to forget your transgressions. Turning a blind eye on misdeeds will breed more misdeeds),” he said to loud and long applause.

Vow of impartiality

Davide vowed to accomplish his job as Truth Commission head with objectivity and impartiality despite being the one who swore in Mrs. Arroyo as president in 2001.

“There is no such thing as loyalty to a party or to a person. It’s only loyalty to the institution,” Davide said in a brief interview.

“The nature of the work assigned to you will define exactly how you do it,” he said.

“He (Aquino) really believes that I can do something. I could really be very impartial and objective,” Davide said.

President Aquino wants the Truth Commission to be “collators of data, evidence, proof as to who committed what and what transgression of our laws was committed.”

It was Mr. Aquino’s mother who appointed Davide to the Supreme Court on Jan. 24, 1991.

In January 2006, he was Mrs. Arroyo’s senior presidential adviser on electoral reforms before his appointment as ambassador and permanent representative of the Philippines to the United Nations in New York City in February 2007.

He was elected vice chairman of the UN’s Economic and Social Council. He resigned last April 1 ostensibly to help in his son’s campaign for Cebu governor. His son lost the election.

Help from DOJ

The DOJ and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) are ready to extend help to the Truth Commission.

“It would be up to former chief justice Davide. The government will provide him with whatever he needs,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda told reporters in his first press briefing yesterday afternoon.

De Lima said DOJ prosecutors or NBI agents would be on hand to provide the former chief magistrate all the support he would need.

A memorandum order creating the Truth Commission is forthcoming, said Lacierda.

Lacierda also defended President Aquino’s appointment of Davide.

“The fact that President Aquino appointed him means that he believes in the integrity and impartiality of the former chief justice,” the spokesman stressed.

De Lima made the same pitch. “What is important is that there is already a commission.”

With regard to the possibility that Mrs. Arroyo, who is now a congresswoman representing the second district of Pampanga, would be investigated and charged, De Lima replied: “She has to answer the charges, and of course, due process will be followed.”

Wrong choice

Former President Joseph Estrada, meanwhile, said Davide was the wrong man to head the Truth Commission.

In an interview with radio station dzBB, Estrada said Davide might show bias for Mrs. Arroyo because it was she who appointed him to the UN.

“I disagree with one of his appointments, the appointment of Justice Davide. I think he is the wrong man for the post because he was responsible for placing GMA to power. He will be biased because having been appointed as UN ambassador was his great debt of gratitude to GMA,” Estrada said.

Estrada said Davide was also among those responsible for his ouster in 2001.

Vice President Jejomar Binay voiced his wish for Davide’s success. “God bless him. All the best,” Binay said. With Edu Punay and Jose Rodel Clapano


Source: Delon Porcalla (The Philippine Star)