04/06/2026

THURSDAY | JUNE 4, 2026

7

Indonesia free meals agency office raided

Return to work, Marcos urges Senate MANILA: President Ferdinand Marcos Jr called on the Senate to “get back to work”, expressing disbelief that an impasse in the upper chamber has stalled urgent legislative duties ahead of a congressional break. The Senate has been paralysed by a widening divide between the majority and minority blocs after the latter called on Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano to resign. No plenary sessions have been held in the past two days after members of the majority skipped attendance. “It’s a very, very sad situation to have to watch. The country needs assistance. People need assistance. How can we provide that assistance without the proper legislation to back it up?” Marcos told reporters, saying the government was considering submitting a supplemental budget to combat rising energy prices. “These events that we have been witnessing have thrown the Senate and its leadership, the whole Senate, into disarray. It has discredited the leadership, and it has stopped the essential business of legislation in government,” said Marcos, in a rare intervention into legislative affairs. Cayetano’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a video on Facebook, he said the Senate has told the president’s office it was ready to take up priority Bills, but said the executive branch was not prepared. On calls for his resignation, he said if the minority bloc secured more support they could vote him out. The breakdown began last month when Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, reappeared after months out of public view to cast a decisive vote to install Cayetano as president of the chamber just as it was to receive an impeachment complaint against Vice-President Sara Duterte. Dela Rosa then slipped away on May 14, hours after chaos and gunfire erupted following an appeal for help. Cayetano is a close ally of the Duterte family. – Reuters Three migrants killed in drone blast BANGKOK: Three migrants from Myanmar have been killed and two wounded after a drone exploded in Thailand where they were working. Thai authorities received reports of the blast in Tak province, opposite Myanmar’s Karen state, on Tuesday afternoon and rushed to the scene, said local police chief Anusorn Dungkong. “Three people have died, all of them Myanmar migrant workers, and two others were injured,” he said. The drone struck a tree on the Thai side of the border before exploding, killing the labourers who worked on a nearby chilli farm, Anusorn said. The two injured people, also from Myanmar, were admitted to a local hospital. Myanmar’s armed forces have been fighting pro-democracy guerillas and powerful ethnic-minority armed groups since the military seized power in a 2021 coup. Myanmar’s borderlands are home to various ethnic-minority factions, many of which have battled the military for autonomy and control of lucrative natural resources since the country’s independence from Britain in 1948. Both the military and ethnic armies are known to use drones in battle, but it was not immediately clear which side had launched the drone that exploded in Thai territory. Karen rebel factions control much of the state and heavy fighting with the military on Tuesday sent scores of Myanmar people fleeing across the border into Thailand. – AFP

o Employees barred from entering premises

that fiscal deficit thresholds could be challenged. Prabowo has promised to forge ahead with the programme despite the concerns. The decision to remove Dadan followed an evaluation of the agency’s performance, State Secretariat Minister Prasetyo Hadi told reporters late on Tuesday. Dadan, an entomologist, will be replaced by his deputy, Nanik Sudaryati Deyang, who is a former journalist and was part of Prabowo’s campaigning team in the 2024 election. “There are issues relating to discipline in implementing governance, including discipline in maintaining food quality standards, that should have been established by the National Nutrition Agency,” Prasetyo said. The school meals programme has been linked to food poisoning cases that has affected at least 33,000 children as of April. – Reuters

a text message, but declined to comment on what investigators were investigating. The raid came just hours after Prabowo sacked the head of the agency, Dadan Hindayana, which an official said was linked to governance and food quality concerns. Two sources, requesting anonymity, told Reuters that AGO personnel raided the building at 2am Jakarta time (3am in Malaysia) yesterday. The building remained under lockdown in the morning and employees who were meant to report for duty were not allowed to enter the premises. Employees sitting outside the building said they were unsure of what was happening. One said the raid took place on the second floor of the building, where the agency’s top leadership sits. The free meals programme has come under close scrutiny since its launch in January last year, with investors chary of Prabowo’s big spending plans and worried

JAKARTA: Investigators from the office of Indonesia’s Attorney General raided the headquarters of the country’s National Nutrition Agency early yesterday, officials said, adding that the building of the agency spearheading President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship free meals programme was under lockdown. The programme was a key part of Prabowo’s campaign to win the presidency in 2024, and the government has budgeted at least US$15 billion (RM59.7 billion) for an ambitious bid to provide free meals to 83 million children and pregnant women across the archipelago. A spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) confirmed the raid to Reuters in

GOODWILL GESTURE ... Buddhist monks receiving alms from Thai civil servants during celebrations to mark the 48th birthday of Queen Suthida in Narathiwat yesterday. – AFPPIC

Royal pardon frees Thaksin BANGKOK: Former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is set to be released from the remainder of his prison sentence under a royal pardon, the country’s justice minister told reporters yesterday.

“Based on his qualifications, he appears to meet the criteria to receive the benefit of a royal pardon and release,”Winyat said. The 76-year-old billionaire returned to Thailand in August 2023 after 15 years of self imposed exile to serve an eight-year sentence for conflict of interest and abuse of power committed while he was prime minister from 2001 to 2006. He returned on the same day a party allied to him secured enough parliamentary support to form a government. Within hours of arriving at prison, however, Thaksin was transferred to a hospital, citing heart and chest-related ailments. His sentence was later reduced to one year by royal clemency, and he spent six months in hospital before being granted parole. Last year, the Supreme Court ordered Thaksin back to prison, ruling that his prolonged hospital stay was not fully justified and that the remainder of his sentence should be served in custody. – Reuters

Thaksin, who was released on parole last month after serving eight months in prison, had just over three months remaining on his one year sentence, which was due to expire in September. King Maha Vajiralongkorn granted pardons to selected prisoners to mark Queen Suthida’s birthday on June 3, the official Royal Gazette said late on Tuesday. When asked whether Thaksin was among those receiving the pardon, Justice Minister Rutthaphon Naowarat told reporters that he was, but said there were still some administrative procedures to be completed before he is formally released and allowed to remove his electronic ankle bracelet. Thaksin’s lawyer Winyat Chartmontri said he could not immediately confirm the decision.

Thaksin after his release on May 11. – AFPFILEPIC