Two Indonesian islands listed for sale online

ศาสตร์เกษตรดินปุ๋ย : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/asean-plus/30336485

  • Ajab Island//privatetravelonline
  • Tojo Una Una Island//privatetravelonline

Two Indonesian islands listed for sale online

ASEAN+ January 17, 2018 16:30

By The Jakarta Post
Asia News Network

Two of the country’s islands have been listed for sale on privateislandonline.com, an international property website managed by Ontario-based Private Island Inc. that specializes in island properties.

Ajab Island in Riau Islands Province and Tojo Una Una Island in Central Sulawesi have been listed on the website as of Tuesday.

According to the website, Ajab Island, only a 20-minute boat ride from tourist destination Bintan Island, is being offered for US$ 3.3 million (Rp 44 billion) under a freehold title.The island was described as an undeveloped 74.13-acre (30-hectare) property with a white sandy beach.

“Although Ajab Island, also known as Pulau Ajab, is not developed, development is permitted,” the website read.

The website listed Tojo Una Una Island, located only 10 minutes from the nearest island of Wakai, as “upon request” with a leasehold title.

It claimed that Tojo Una Una, which was described as an undeveloped island of more than 3,000 acres (1,200 hectares), was surrounded by pristine waters and coral reefs that were ideal for diving.

“This large 3000+ acre island has been in the family for over 120 years and is remote, but accessible enough to create the perfect tourism destination,” the website read.

“The island is also suitable for the ‘jabon wood industry’,” it added.

Malaysian superbiker killed in accident in Pattalung

ศาสตร์เกษตรดินปุ๋ย : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/asean-plus/30336476

Malaysian superbiker killed in accident in Pattalung

ASEAN+ January 17, 2018 14:33

2,555 Viewed

Phattalung – A Malaysian superbike rider was killed while his wife was seriously injured in an accident along the Petchakasem Highway between Hatyai and  Phattalung in southern Thailand on January 16.

In the 4pm incident (local time), Muhammad Arif Suhery, 34, died at the scene. His wife Nur Arissa Ruri Ahon, 34, was riding pillion, Bernama reported.

“They were in a convoy together with four friends on the way to Koh Samui in Surat Thani province when their machine collided with a vehicle that had suddenly stopped before a roadblock mounted by police,” said source from the Paborn police station here.

Muhammad Arif’s wife was sent o the Phattalung Hospital.

Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong jailed over protest

ศาสตร์เกษตรดินปุ๋ย : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/asean-plus/30336470

Pro-democracy activists Joshua Wong (C) and Raphael Wong (L) speak to the press before entering the High Court to hear their sentences on protest related charges in Hong Kong on January 17, 2018. // AFP PHOTO
Pro-democracy activists Joshua Wong (C) and Raphael Wong (L) speak to the press before entering the High Court to hear their sentences on protest related charges in Hong Kong on January 17, 2018. // AFP PHOTO

Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong jailed over protest

ASEAN+ January 17, 2018 12:49

By Agence France-Presse
Hong Kong

Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong was jailed for the second time Wednesday for his role in mass pro-democracy protests as concern grows that prison terms for young campaigners are shutting down debate in the semi-autonomous city as Beijing increases control.

Wong, 21, who became the face of the 2014 Umbrella Movement, was handed a three-month sentence on a contempt charge for obstructing clearance of a major protest encampment, to which he had pleaded guilty.

He was already on bail pending an appeal over a six-month sentence for another protest-related offence.

Judge Andrew Chan described Wong’s involvement in obstructing the clearance in 2014 as “deep and extensive” in his written judgement.

“He played a leading role on that day,” he added. “The only appropriate punishment for Mr Wong is immediate imprisonment.”

Fellow activist Raphael Wong was jailed for four months and 15 days over the same incident.

Chan denied both bail but defence lawyers pushed for him to reconsider his decision and were granted a further hearing Wednesday afternoon.

Meanwhile both activists were taken into custody by security guards.

“Our determination to fight for democracy will not change!” Raphael Wong shouted as he was led away.

Fourteen other defendants including leading activist Lester Shum were given suspended sentences on contempt charges.

Campaigners fear that the raft of cases against activists and the jail terms handed down to democracy leaders are discouraging young people from expressing their views and exercising their right to peaceful protest.

Freedom of speech and demonstration is protected by the city’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law.

‘No regrets’

Ahead of the hearing, Joshua Wong — who became the teenage face of the Umbrella Movement — said he had “no regrets” about his involvement.

“They can lock up our bodies but they can’t lock up our minds,” he told reporters.

Dozens of supporters gathered outside the High Court, chanting: “Civil disobedience, no fear!” and “I’m a Hong Konger, I want universal suffrage!”

They were countered by a small group of pro-Beijing protesters waving the national flag of China and supporting Hong Kong’s department of justice. They displayed a banner calling the activists “mobsters” and saying they must “pay the price” in jail.

The Umbrella Movement was an unprecedented rebuke to Beijing as tens of thousands of protesters brought parts of the city to a standstill demanding fully free leadership elections to replace a system where the chief executive is selected by a pro-Beijing committee.

They failed to win concessions and since then leading activists have been charged over their involvement.

Beijing has been further incensed by the emergence of some activists calling for independence for Hong Kong since the failure of the Umbrella Movement to win reform.

Wong’s party Demosisto wants self-determination for the city.

Hong Kong has been governed under a “one country, two systems” deal since 1997, when Britain handed the territory back to China.

The agreement allows citizens rights unseen on the mainland, including freedom of speech and a partially directly elected parliament, as well as an independent judiciary, but there are concerns those liberties are being eroded.

Wong was jailed for six months in August on unlawful assembly charges for involvement in the storming of a fenced-off government forecourt known as Civic Square in September 2014, which sparked the wider Umbrella Movement rallies.

Wong and fellow campaigners Nathan Law and Alex Chow were originally given non-custodial sentences by a lower court over that incident, but after the government’s intervention they were jailed by the Court of Appeal.

The government’s move was seen as further evidence of Beijing’s growing influence over Hong Kong.

Their appeal against their sentences is currently being considered by Hong Kong’s top court.

UN chief concerned about deal on return of Myanmar’s Rohingya

ศาสตร์เกษตรดินปุ๋ย : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/asean-plus/30336468

Rohingya Muslim refugees wait for food aid at Thankhali refugee camp in Bangladesh's Ukhia district on January 12, 2018. // AFP PHOTO
Rohingya Muslim refugees wait for food aid at Thankhali refugee camp in Bangladesh’s Ukhia district on January 12, 2018. // AFP PHOTO

UN chief concerned about deal on return of Myanmar’s Rohingya

ASEAN+ January 17, 2018 12:19

By Agence France-Presse
United Nations, United States

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday expressed concerns after Myanmar and Bangladesh reached a deal on the return of hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingyas that sidelined the UN refugee agency.

“We believe it would be very important to have UNHCR fully involved in the operation to guarantee that the operation abides by international standards,” Guterres told a press conference at UN headquarters.

The agreement, finalized in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw this week, sets a two-year deadline for the repatriation of the Rohingya.

Guterres, who served as UN high commissioner for refugees for 10 years, said the UN refugee agency was consulted about the agreement but is not a party to the deal as is usually the case for such repatriation plans.

The deal applies to approximately 750,000 Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh following two army crackdowns in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state in October 2016 and August last year.

Guterres said it was essential that the returns be voluntary and that the Rohingya are allowed to return to their original homes — not to camps.

“The worst would be to move these people from camps in Bangladesh to camps in Myanmar,” said Guterres who spoke to journalists after presenting his priorities for 2018 to the General Assembly.

UN member-states in December adopted a resolution condemning the violence in Rakhine state and requesting that Guterres appoint a special envoy for Myanmar.

The UN chief said he expects to make that appointment soon.

More than 650,000 Muslim Rohingya have fled the mainly Buddhist country since the military operation was launched in Rakhine state in late August.

Myanmar authorities insist the campaign is aimed at rooting out Rohingya militants who attacked police posts on August 25 but the United Nations has said the violence amounts to ethnic cleansing.

7 ethnic Rakhine killed as Myanmar police open fire at riot: official

ศาสตร์เกษตรดินปุ๋ย : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/asean-plus/30336464

This combination of handout photos created on December 18, 2017 courtesy of Human Rights Watch/DigitalGlobe shows an analysis of satellite imagery revealing new destruction of Rohingya villages during October and November 2017./AFP
This combination of handout photos created on December 18, 2017 courtesy of Human Rights Watch/DigitalGlobe shows an analysis of satellite imagery revealing new destruction of Rohingya villages during October and November 2017./AFP

7 ethnic Rakhine killed as Myanmar police open fire at riot: official

ASEAN+ January 17, 2018 11:41

By Agence France-Presse
Yangon

Myanmar police opened fire on a crowd of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists as they tried to seize a government office late Tuesday, in unrest that left seven dead and injured around a dozen more, police told AFP.

Several thousand Buddhist protesters had gathered for a ceremony in Mrauk U, an ancient temple complex that has so far remained unscathed by the military’s crackdown on the region’s minority Rohingya Muslim community.

It was not immediately clear why the rally descended into violence.

But the clashes came on the same day as a repatriation agreement was signed between Myanmar and Bangladesh to start the return of some 655,000 Rohingya refugees from squalid camps back over the border.

A police spokesman blamed the crowd for “starting the violence” after barging into a district administrative office and hoisting the Rakhine State flag.

“Security forces asked them to disperse and fired warning shots with rubber bullets… but they didn’t stop, so police had to use real bullets,” Myanmar police spokesman Colonel Myo Soe told AFP.

“Seven people were killed and 13 injured during last night’s violence in Mrauk U,” he said adding more than 20 police were wounded by sling shots and stones hurled by the crowd.

Mrauk U lies only a few dozen kilometres from the epicentre of violence that saw Rohingya driven in their hundreds of thousands into Bangladesh last August.

Rakhine state is bisected by divisions and communal hatreds.

Poor and marginalised, the ethnic Rakhine have a long-standing emnity with the Bamar-majority Burmese state.

Myanmar jade exports fetch nearly $300 million

ศาสตร์เกษตรดินปุ๋ย : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/asean-plus/30336390

Myanmar jade exports fetch nearly $300 million

ASEAN+ January 16, 2018 16:53

By Myanmar Eleven

Myanmar earned more than US$290 million (Bt9.27 billion) from jade exports up to the first week of this month in the country’s 2017-2018 fiscal year, which runs until September 30.

The previous fiscal year’s sales for the period were $404 million, said Khin Maung Lwin, assistant permanent secretary of the Ministry of Commerce.

However, sales at the most recent gems and jade emporium were not included in the latest tally, he said, adding, “Yet, the list has not come to us.”

The “54th Myanmar Gems and Jade Emporium” was held from August 2 to 11 last year, fetching sales of 6,561 jade lots including one of €12 million (Bt469 million), along with 326 lots of gems.

The country mines jade on a commercial scale in the Lonekhin and Hpakant regions, along with ruby in the Mogok and Mongshu regions and sapphire and other kinds of precious stones in Moetok.

Family feud casts cloud over Genting Group empire

ศาสตร์เกษตรดินปุ๋ย : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/asean-plus/30336383

  • This general view shows Kuala Lumpur’s skyline seen above low-level clouds from the hilltop holiday area of the Genting Highlands on December 2.//AFP

Family feud casts cloud over Genting Group empire

ASEAN+ January 16, 2018 15:55

By The Straits Times
Asia News Network

2,201 Viewed

KUALA LUMPUR: At the Gohtong Memorial Park, an exclusive cloud-shrouded hilltop family burial ground on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, resting plots have been earmarked for unborn clan members.

“My grandfather was illiterate, but he thought about everything,” said Joey Lim Keong Yew, the eldest grandson of the late Lim Goh Tong, founder of the international casino-based conglomerate Genting Group, whose remains occupy the prime spot in the memorial park.

“That he would want to have a legacy that would not include all of his family members is unthinkable,” the 39-year-old businessman told The Sunday Times.

The late Lim’s legacy is now at the centre of a bitter intergenerational court battle in Malaysia over ownership and the financial allocations to family members from the multi-billion-dollar global corporate empire.

The empire boasts assets such as Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore, casinos in the United States, luxury liners in Europe, ski resorts in China, plantation holdings in Malaysia and offshore oil and gas fields across South-east Asia.

Keong Yew, together with his younger brother Keong Hoe and sister Seok Leng, are suing their uncles – Genting chairman and chief executive Lim Kok Thay and Datuk Lim Chee Wah – over a family trust that their grandfather had created for their late father Lim Tee Keong, the eldest of the Genting patriarch’s six children.

The dispute over the trust, one of several created as corporate vehicles for the family inheritance, has spawned other legal battles.

They include challenges to the validity of a will Tee Keong allegedly prepared before he died and a thumb-printed power of attorney that the late matriarch of the Genting clan, Madam Lee Kim Hua, is claimed to have authorised for a token sum of RM10.

Separately, Kok Thay is facing a suit from his sister Lim Siew Kim over the beneficial interest in a block of Genting stock.

The family feud that began four years ago has far-reaching ramifications for the Genting Group, which has publicly listed entities in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Australia and the Nasdaq exchange in the US.

The unfolding courtroom drama is bringing into public glare the opaque ownership structures and elaborate trust entities that bind the domestic and international business holdings of one of Asia’s wealthiest and intensely private families.

Bankers and lawyers said the legal battle could lead to challenges to Kok Thay’s control over the Genting Group.

How the Genting patriarch divided the family inheritance among the trust entities is not known.

But the stakes are huge.

The Genting Group has a combined market capitalisation of more than RM135bil (S$45bil) and the family is estimated to control close to 45% of the group.

“This whole business with the courts is going to be very lengthy and messy,” said a senior partner of a Malaysian law firm, which has relations with the group going back many years.

Because of the group’s financial heft and its clout over professionals that offer services to Genting, the lawyer, like several bankers and investment analysts that track the group, refused to be identified for fear of being cut off from future business opportunities.

Kok Thay’s office referred requests for comment for this article to Mr Gerard Lim, the general manager of Kien Huat Realty, a family-controlled private investment vehicle that owns commanding stakes in the Genting Group.

Lim (no relation to the Genting Lim clan) declined to comment on grounds that the matter is before the courts.

The Genting Group is clearly aware that the deepening family dispute is causing investor skittishness.

In a statement to the Malaysian stock exchange late last year, Genting said that legal opinions obtained by the group show that the 65-year-old Kok Thay has “reasonable grounds” to believe that he has direct control of 42.62% of Genting shares through his direct holdings and control over private entities.

These include Kien Huat Realty and Parkview Management, which control the family’s holdings in the group through an elaborate and complex network of trust entities and nominee concerns.

The Genting empire that the late Lim Goh Tong built is easily one of corporate Malaysia’s most storied rags-to-riches sagas.

He left China’s Fujian province in 1937 at 19 to find work in Malaysia and was soon trading second-hand heavy machinery in the construction sector, a business that helped him secure the seed capital for his big gamble.

In the mid-1960s, he convinced the Malaysian government to award him rights to build a hilltop resort and a casino to attract locals and foreign tourists.

The hotel and casino opened its doors in 1971 and since then, the Lim empire has been raking in the profits.

The group has also broadened its horizons, venturing overseas through an aggressive investment strategy and forging collaborations with brand names such as Universal Studios, Twentieth Century Fox and Hard Rock Cafe.

But like many successful Asian business families, the touchy question of wealth distribution in Genting after Lim Goh Tong’s death in October 2007 is turning out to be both complex and ugly.

Trouble

Unlike his other siblings, who were more reserved, Tee Keong, the eldest of Lim Goh Tong’s six children, fancied himself as somewhat of a bon vivant, according to several Malaysian businessmen who knew him well.

He was given positions within the Genting Group, but the businesses he presided over did not perform well. He also became estranged from his first wife, left their family home and got involved with another woman, with whom he had two children.

In early 2003, Tee Keong was declared bankrupt due to his failure to repay debts of more than RM200mil owed to two stockbroking companies, including TA Securities, for losses he suffered in share trading.

The bankruptcy forced patriarch Lim Goh Tong to change a carefully designed inheritance structure he had created around a clutch of trust entities for each of his children and their families.

Each trust was controlled separately and, according to court documents reviewed by The Sunday Times, control of the entity known as the Tee Keong Family Trust was transferred to his brothers, Kok Thay and Chee Wah, after Tee Keong’s bankruptcy.

Despite the bankruptcy and the change in control of the trust entity, Tee Keong and his family were never deprived of the comforts they were long accustomed to.

His children received comfortable allowances during their studies overseas.

Tee Keong himself continued to live well and was regularly seen in public being driven by a chauffeur in a Bentley sedan bearing the number plate TK18, court documents claim.

Tee Keong was diagnosed with cancer in February 2014 and died two months later. From then on, the family affairs at the Genting household became contentious.

According to court documents, his sons Keong Yew and Keong Hoe discovered that they had been struck off the family trust and a will their father executed a month before he died also excluded them from any family inheritance.

The will, which named Kok Thay and Chee Wah as sole trustees, also assigned a collective 20 per cent interest to Keong Yew and Keong Hoe’s mother, Agnes Tan Bee Gaik, and their sister Seok Leng.

The remaining 80% was left to the son and daughter Tee Keong fathered with his mistress.

The will, which Keong Yew and Keong Hoe are claiming in court was executed under “suspicious circumstances”, is now at the heart of the clutch of court challenges over the Genting empire.

The brothers want the Malaysian courts to invalidate their father’s will, which they insist was executed without his knowledge because of the advanced stage of his terminal illness.

For their part, Kok Thay and Chee Wah have rejected the allegations and insisted in court affidavits that the claims made by the nephews are “highly irresponsible accusations”.

Probe into Jakarta stock exchange walkway collapse

ศาสตร์เกษตรดินปุ๋ย : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/asean-plus/30336378

Photo : AFP
Photo : AFP

Probe into Jakarta stock exchange walkway collapse

ASEAN+ January 16, 2018 15:22

Jakarta – Indonesian investigators were sifting through the rubble at Jakarta’s stock exchange complex Tuesday as they looked for clues to what caused a walkway collapse that left scores injured, including dozens of students.

    A mezzanine floor at the tower in the sprawling city’s business district crashed to the ground shortly before lunchtime Monday, injuring 73 people, police said. There were no deaths.

Dramatic CCTV footage showed a group of about 40 visiting students on a balcony section plunge as the floor gave way with a cascade of glass, metal and other material showering the ground floor where several others were walking.

National police spokesman Setyo Wasisto said the investigation team is hoping to gather crucial evidence by the end of Tuesday, though the results of the probe will not be known for several weeks.

Investigators will look at building material quality and the site’s structural integrity, said Mushanif Mukti, a top official at the Association of Construction Safety and Health Experts.

“It needs to be examined to see whether it is structural fatigue or it’s a weight issue,” he said.

Jakarta’s governor Anies Baswedan has ordered an inspection of the complex, which was last checked in May last year.

Officials have described the collapse as an accident and not the result of an explosion  the tower was bombed by Islamist militants in 2000.

“If they (investigators) are done today, everything can be cleaned up and the…scene can be reopened,” Wasisto told AFP.

“Some tenants are a bit cautious even though building management said it’s safe. They are also going to check the other mezzanine floor today.”

 

Broken bones

 

Most of the injuries were broken bones, Wasisto said, adding that none was lifethreatening.

“We have questioned a few witnesses…(including) security officers, students, friends of those injured and employees who work there. It’s ongoing,” he said.

A dozen people have so far been released from the hospital.

Enforcement of Indonesian safety standards can be spotty.

In October, a deadly blaze ripped through a fireworks factory on the outskirts of Jakarta, killing 48 workers in one of the country’s worst industrial accidents in recent memory.

Police said the fire was caused by sparks from welding equipment.

At the exchange, the damaged area remained closed off Tuesday but trading carried on as usual.

The bourse held a moment of silence to honour those injured.

After the accident, which happened in one of the two 1990sbuilt towers in the stock exchange complex, the lobby was filled with debris and toppledover plants near a Starbucks outlet.

Hundreds of panicked employees were evacuated from the building, which also houses the local office of the World Bank.

Television images showed chaotic scenes as victims were taken to hospital or lay on the ground outside the tower complex.//AFP

Thousands more evacuate as eruption of Mt. Mayon looms

ศาสตร์เกษตรดินปุ๋ย : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/asean-plus/30336377

Mayon volcano as of January 16, 2018, 8 am. Contributed photo by Vynce Opeña
Mayon volcano as of January 16, 2018, 8 am. Contributed photo by Vynce Opeña

Thousands more evacuate as eruption of Mt. Mayon looms

ASEAN+ January 16, 2018 15:07

By The Philippine Daily Inquirer
Asia News Network
Manila

As of Tuesday, January 16, a total of 5,318 families or 21,823 individuals have been affected in 25 barangays in the towns of Camalig, Guinobatan, Ligao City, Daraga, Tabaco City, and Malilipot in Albay and were staying in 18 evacuation centers, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said on Tuesday.

Mina Marasigan, NDRRMC spokesperson, said classes remain suspended in areas where classrooms have been used as evacuation centers.

Alert Level 3 is still in effect over Mayon Volcano, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said. This means “that it is currently in a relatively high level of unrest as magma is at the crater and hazardous eruption is possible within weeks or days.”

“A total of nine (9) episodes of tremor, four (4) of which accompanied short-duration lava fountaining, and 75 lava collapse events, corresponding to rockfall along the front and margins of advancing lava and short pyroclastic flows downriver of Miisi Gully within the permanent danger zone, were recorded by Mayon’s seismic network,” Phivolcs said.

Residents were advised to be vigilant, and to refrain from entering the six kilometer-radius permanent danger zone (PDZ); and seven-kilometer extended danger zone on the southern flanks of the mountain due to the danger of rock falls, landslides, and sudden explosions or dome collapse that may generate hazardous volcanic flows

Duterte has nothing to do with SEC ruling vs Rappler, says Palace

ศาสตร์เกษตรดินปุ๋ย : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/asean-plus/30336376

x

Duterte has nothing to do with SEC ruling vs Rappler, says Palace

ASEAN+ January 16, 2018 15:03

By The Philippine Daily Inquirer
Asia News Network

President Rodrigo Duterte has denied he had a hand on the controversial ruling of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revoking Rappler’s license for allegedly violating ownership rules.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Duterte called him “for the first time “on Monday night to relay that he had nothing to do with the SEC’s decision.

“Hindi tootoo ‘yan. Wala akong kinalaman diyan sa Rappler na ‘yan ha,” Roque quoted Duterte.

“The President has nothing to do with it. It’s by individuals who were not his appointees,” he added, citing that most of the officials of the SEC were appointees of former president Benigno Aquino III.

Rappler CEO Maria Ressa on Tuesday refuted the claim of the Duterte administration that it had nothing to do with the SEC ruling.

In a press briefing in Malacañang, Roque said Duterte “found it unfair” that Ressa was crying out for violation of press freedom.

“The President found it unfair for Maria Ressa to claim violation freedom of the press when according to him, Rappler has been very active [in] criticizing individuals for violating the Constitution and the laws of the land and it turns out it is by itself violating the Constitution,” he said.

The Palace official said the government has not suppressed press freedom against Rappler contrary to the allegations of the administration’s critics.

“We would like to deny first and foremost that the state has not infringed on freedom of the press of Rappler or any of its reporters. Truth is, the reporter of Rappler is still in our press briefing, she has not been prevented from exercising her profession as a journalist. None of the individuals behind Rappler will be prevented from performing their duties as journalist,” he said.

“There is no affront of freedom of the press because there is no censorship,” he added.

Roque said the ruling of SEC simply meant that “no one is exempt from complying from the laws of the land, even Rappler and even the media.”