23/01/2026

FRIDAY | JAN 23, 2026

7

Impeachment complaint filed against Philippine president

Trial of Tiananmen vigil organisers begins HONG KONG: A national security trial of three Hong Kong activists who organised annual Tiananmen vigils began yesterday, with the trio facing up to 10 years in prison. Hong Kong used to host yearly vigils to mark Beijing’s deadly crackdown on demonstrators in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, but those events have been banned since 2020. That year, Beijing imposed a national security law on the former British colony in the wake of huge, sometimes violent pro-democracy protests. The Tiananmen vigil organiser, known as the Hong Kong Alliance, shut down in 2021 after authorities arrested the three leaders on trial. The trio and the Alliance are charged with “incitement to subversion”, with the no-jury trial scheduled for 75 days. Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan have been behind bars since 2021 and pleaded not guilty at the start of the hearing. Albert Ho pleaded guilty. Simon Ng, a retiree in his 60s, said the Alliance’s vigils once reflected how the city’s political system was “fundamentally different from that of mainland China”, adding that the activists were “honourable” in supporting China’s democratisation. The Alliance had repeatedly called for the “end of one-party rule” in China, which prosecutors said amounted to subverting state power, according to a case document published on Wednesday. The prosecution will rely on company records, online material, clips of public speeches and evidence seized from the now-defunct Tiananmen museum operated by the group. Amnesty International yesterday said the trial is “not about national security. It is about rewriting history”. Human Rights Watch urged Hong Kong to drop all charges and release the activists. Hong Kong authorities said the prosecution is safeguarding human rights and is acting based on evidence. A three-judge panel earlier dismissed an application to quash the case by Chow, a barrister who represented herself yesterday and in previous hearings. “The court will not allow the trial to become, as (Chow) said, a tool for political suppression,“ the judges wrote in a preliminary ruling. The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China was founded in May 1989 to support protesters holding democracy and anti-corruption rallies in Beijing. The following month, China’s government sent tanks and soldiers to crush the movement on and around Tiananmen Square, a decision it has since heavily censored domestically. The Alliance spent the next three decades calling on Beijing to accept responsibility, free dissidents and embrace democratic reform. Its candlelight vigils in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park every June 4 routinely drew thousands. US-based Tiananmen survivor Zhou Fengsuo said he is “deeply concerned” for the defendants and the vigils used to be “a source of hope, justice (and) comfort”. “They represent the conscience of a free Hong Kong that was destroyed.“ Authorities last year barred overseas witnesses from testifying remotely in national security cases. In 2021, the Alliance refused to turn over details on group members and finances to Hong Kong’s national security police, a decision that sparked a criminal prosecution. Tang Ngok-kwan, a former Alliance member involved in that case, expressed hope that the trial would be a chance to revisit history. “By having a venue to debate China’s constitutional development, I hope the case will have an impact on the future.“ The trial follows last month’s conviction of media tycoon Jimmy Lai, which drew international condemnation. Lai was found guilty of conspiring to commit foreign collusion. The city’s chief justice responded to the Lai criticisms on Monday, saying judges deal “only with the law and evidence, not with any underlying matters of politics”. – AFP

o Case unlikely to go far as Congress packed with allies of Marcos, says specialist

The complaint is the second filed against Marcos this week, after a local lawyer brought a case citing last year’s arrest and transfer to the International Criminal Court of former president Rodrigo Duterte, as well as unproven allegations of drug abuse. Under the Philippine Constitution, any citizen can file an impeachment complaint provided it is endorsed by one of the more than 300 Congress members. Manila’s University of Santo Tomas Political Science Department chair Dennis Coronacion said the new complaint is unlikely to go far in a Congress packed with Marcos allies. “This has a very slim chance of getting the approval of the House Committee on Justice and (even less) so in the plenary because Marcos still enjoys the support of the House of Representatives members.” In 2024, a trio of complaints was filed against Vice-President Sara Duterte. The cases ultimately led to her impeachment early last year by the House of Representatives and an abortive Senate trial that saw the senior body send the case back. The country’s Supreme Court later tossed the case, ruling that it violated a constitutional provision against multiple impeachment proceedings within a single year. – AFP

official was not present to receive it herself. “Marcos institutionalised a mechanism to siphon over 545.6 billion pesos (RM37 billion) in flood control funds, directing them into the hands of favoured cronies and contractors, and converting public coffers into a private war chest for the 2025 (mid-term) elections,” said a summary of the filing seen by AFP. It also accuses Marcos of directly soliciting kickbacks, a charge that relies heavily on unproven allegations made by a former congressman who fled the country while under investigation. “Marcos’s involvement in the grand scheme of corruption makes impeachment necessary to hold him accountable. The people have been robbed repeatedly and systematically,” the summary said. Marcos has consistently stressed that he was the one who put the issue of ghost projects centre stage and taken credit for pushing investigations that have seen scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers implicated. However, complainant Liza Maza said she believes the moves were only intended to deflect blame. “We think the investigation he initiated is just a coverup. Because the truth is he is the head of this corruption.”

MANILA: Philippine civil society group members filed an impeachment complaint against President Ferdinand Marcos yesterday, accusing him of systematically bilking taxpayers out of billions of dollars for bogus flood control projects. Rage over so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects has been building for months in the archipelago country of 116 million, where entire towns were submerged in floodwaters driven by powerful typhoons in the past year. The filing, endorsed by the Makabayan bloc, a coalition of left-wing political parties, accuses Marcos of betraying public trust by packing the national budget with projects aimed at redirecting funds to allies. A copy of the complaint was filed at the House of Representatives Office of the Secretary-General “in accordance with House rules”, petitioners said yesterday, although the

Charles with Prabowo at Clarence House in London on Wednesday. – REUTERSPIC

Indonesia, UK boost green diplomacy JAKARTA: Indonesia has secured a

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and secured strategic cooperation in education and maritime. Teddy said Prabowo obtained a £4 billion (RM21.7 billion) maritime investment commitment from the UK, including cooperation in the construction of 1,582 fishing vessels to be produced and assembled in Indonesia. He said the countries agreed to strengthen cooperation in education, particularly in the establishment of 10 new universities in Indonesia, focusing on medical and science-based fields in Indonesia. – Bernama

“One of the key sites is Way Kambas National Park in Lampung, which is known as a centre for Sumatran elephant conservation.” He said conservation would also be undertaken on 90,000ha of land in the Peusangan area of Aceh, owned by Prabowo but handed to the government for environmental conservation. “Not all of it will be for elephant conservation. It will later be determined by the World Wide Fund for Nature which areas are for elephants and which are for other ecosystems.” Prabowo, who has been on a four-day working visit to the UK since Sunday, also met

commitment from the United Kingdom (UK) to support the restoration and rehabilitation of 57 national parks nationwide, reinforcing green diplomacy between the countries. Indonesian Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said the commitment was conveyed during a courtesy call by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto to King Charles III on Wednesday. Teddy said the support includes conservation efforts that have been implemented and are underway in several strategic areas.