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February 15, 2021
The Filipina Comfort Women monument in the Manila Bay that was removed in 2018 and later disappeared. Kaisa
A two-metre-high bronze statue memorialising the Filipino women forced to become sex slaves by Japan ’s military during World War II has gone missing in Manila, underscoring the country’s challenges in balancing diplomatic relations with its largest source of development aid amid calls to hold Tokyo accountable for this wartime atrocity.
The “Filipina Comfort Women” monument was hurriedly dismantled by the Philippine government on April 28, 2018 ahead of the May 3 Asian Development Bank (ADB) annual summit that year.
President Rodrigo Duterte said the next day that while the monument was “freedom of expression … it is not the policy of government to antagonise other nations” and it should therefore be placed elsewhere.
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Handout/Presidential Photo/Simeon Celi
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has quashed attempts to investigate how members of his bodyguard received shots of a Chinese-developed coronavirus vaccine in September and October, when no vaccine had been approved or officially procured in the country to date.
An angry Duterte this week ordered Brig. Gen. Jesus Durante III, head of the Presidential Security Group (PSG), and members of the elite bodyguard to “stay put in the barracks” and ignore a summons to appear before a planned Senate inquiry into the matter.
“To Congress, do not tinker with the PSG. Don’t force my hand. I am not keen to have Durante testify,” Duterte said in a nationally televised cabinet meeting that went late into the evening on Monday.
Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte. - Malacanang Palace
MANILA (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN): The Senate will proceed with an inquiry into the government’s vaccination programme despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s threat of a “crisis” if the senators insist on questioning his military bodyguards about their inoculation with a candidate vaccine for Covid-19 that is not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The FDA, National Bureau of Investigation and Bureau of Customs are also proceeding with their investigation of the illegal entry into the Philippines of the vaccine developed by the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm and its unauthorised use to inoculate troops from the Presidential Security Group (PSG).