Monday, January 19, 2025 - Top Philippine News | The Manila Bulletin Daily Rundown

Here's the top stories for January 19th. An impeachment complaint was filed against President Marcos on Monday at the House of Representatives, the first under his administration. The complaint was filed by private citizen and lawyer André de Hisous, and was endorsed by Pousong Pinoy Party list representative Jet Nisai on Monday morning. Three of the grounds were culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust, and graft and corruption. The complaint was received by House Secretary General Chaloy Garafel. Malakanyang said Marcos respects the filing of an impeachment against him. The presidential communications office said Marcos fully upholds the Constitution and remains confident in the strength of the country's democratic institutions. President Marcos announced on Monday, the discovery of a new natural gas reservoir east of the Malampaya field. Parking the country's first significant gas find in more than 10 years. Marcos, said the reservoir, known as Malampaya East 1 or MAE1, is estimated to contain around 98 billion cubic feet of gas in place, equivalent to nearly 14 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in a year. The president said it can supply electricity to more than 5.7 million households, 9,500 buildings, or nearly 200,000 schools for one year. He added that the discovery will help sustain Malampaya's contribution and reinforce the country's domestic gas supply for years to come. The National Bureau of Investigation filed a plunder complaint before the Department of Justice against former Department of Public Works and Highways Secretary Manuel Benoan as a co-respondent of Senator Jinguaya Strada over his alleged involvement in anomalous flood control projects. D.O.J., spokesperson Rafael Nicolom Martinez, confirmed the filing of charge against Benoan, who returned to the Philippines last Sunday, January 18th, from his foreign trip. Martinez said the D.O.J. has yet to form a panel of prosecutors which will conduct the preliminary investigation of the plunder charges. Thereafter he said that Benoan and Strada will be subpoenaed for the filing of their counter-affidavits. The Pagasa-Satana-Nokka-N, with international name Noca-N, has weakened into a tropical depression as it continued to move away from Luzon. Pagasa said on Monday, As of 5am, the center of tropical depression, Ahrda was located 380 km east of Kasagurin, Aurora. It was moving north-north-eastward at 10 km/h, with maximum sustained winds of 55 km/h near the center and gustiness of up to 70 km/h. Pagasa said Ahrda is expected to move generally north-eastward within the day before following a looping track over the sea east of Luzon. President Donald Trump said that he would charge a 10% import tax starting in February on goods from eight European nations because of their opposition to American control of Greenland. Trump said Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland would face the tariff. The rate would climb to 25% on June 1st if no deal was in place for the complete and total purchase of Greenland by the United States. Trump said he was using the tariffs as leverage to force talks with Denmark and other European countries over the status of Greenland. Trump has reportedly tried to use trade penalties to bend allies and rivals alike to his will.