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First Poland and Slovakia are sending more than a dozen fighter jets to Ukraine.

And protests in France expected to get worse as the government seeks to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

Good evening, I'm Tony Velasquez.

And I'm Vivian Gullia.

On our broadcast tonight, Philippine lawmaker Arnulfo Tevez Jr. is warned he's putting his innocence under doubt if he refuses to return and face criminal complaints against him.

The Negros Oriental congressman has a Monday deadline to come back from overseas after his request for a two-month leave of absence was denied.

Here's tonight's top story.

The camp of Negros Oriental 3rd district representative Arnulfo Tevez Jr. confirms his request for a two-month leave of absence was denied by House Speaker Martin Romualdez.

His legal counsel, Ferdinand Topacio, says they are planning to appeal the speaker's decision.

Romualdez has given Tevez until March 20th to come home and report for work.

Tevez, who is facing criminal complaints and is being linked to the death of Negros Oriental governor Roel de Gamo, is currently abroad.

In view of all the reckless accusations that he's guilty, that's one of his considerations.

And that's why he's hiding if he's not guilty.

No one is hiding the risks in his life.

Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remullo, for his part, refuses to accept the lawmakers' safety concerns as an excuse not to return to the Philippines.

There are no excuses for us. These are poor excuses not to face the charges.

And as in the legal maxims say, the action is flight is an indication of guilt.

In a TV interview, ACT Teachers Partylist Representative Franz Castro said,

Congressman Tevez Jr. may be extradited if he continues to reject calls for him to come home.

The House Committee on Ethics and Privileges is looking into Tevez's expired travel authority.

Meanwhile, Pamplona Mayor Janice de Gamo, the widow of the slain governor, says their legal battle will be tough, but she is confident they have a solid case.

She adds she will push for a Senate inquiry not only into her husband's murder, but also the series of violent attacks in Negros Oriental.

There has to be investigations done. I will see to it that we can get help from the Senate.

Senate inquiry, that has been something that has been requested for a long time. I hope we can get it now.

Senator Robin Padilla, who was once a fugitive, is also urging the lawmaker to return to the Philippines and face charges filed against him.

Padilla recalled how he once tried to evade the law after a warrant for his arrest was issued.

He was convicted for illegal possession of firearms in 1994 and sentenced to a maximum of 8 years in jail before being granted a presidential pardon.

Alam niyo ako, nangyari din sa akin yan, sa experience ko. Nung lumabas din yung aking warrant of arrest, nagpagulutin ako ng isa't kalahating buwan.

Umangkit pa nga ako ng bundok. Bago ko na-realize na kailangan akong harapin kung ano man yung kaso.

The oil leak from a sunken tanker reaches more areas in the Philippine province of Oriental Mindoro.

A senator urges affected local government units to collectively sue the company who owns the vessel.

Dennis Datu reports.

Oil traces from the sunken M2 Princess Empress have reached the shores of Balangay Navotas in the city of Calapan in Oriental Mindoro Thursday afternoon.

Residents immediately deployed improvised oil spill booms in the area, especially on the mouth of the river, to prevent the oil from reaching the mangroves and five fish sanctuaries.

The Philippine Coast Guard also extended assistance. Swimming in the sea was also prohibited, as well as drinking water from water pumps.

Residents like Luke can't help but worry about his shrimp farm.

Yun nga po, affected yung palisdaan namin kasi yun yung hanap buhay namin.

Kaya, affectado yun kasi yung tubig po na pumapasok sa palisdaan ay galing sa dagat.

Mayor Malu Murillo clarifies that fishing is still allowed, but strict monitoring will be done before the fish is allowed to be sold.

Ang advice ng BIFAR so far, pwede pa ngayon ulit ang mga isda, pero kailangang may monitoring team kami.

Para lahat ng mga huli nila ay tingnan muna namin kung may amoy.

In Pola, which is badly hit by the oil spill, residents continue to suffer from the loss of livelihood.

Fisherman Nardi, who used to earn at least a thousand pesos per day from fishing, now has zero income.

Residents are only relying on the relief goods distributed by government.

Some senators, including Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, provided 400 sacks of rice to the affected residents.

Gatchalian says the local government should file charges against the RDC Real Marine Services, the owner of the sunken vessel.

Ito dapat matignan mabuti kasi kung ganito ang sitwasyon, meron talagang criminal liability ang may-ari ng barko.

Senator Rizal Rontevero says maritime industry authority officials who allow the ship to operate despite it not being seaworthy should also be held liable.

Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Rimulya earlier said the sunken vessel was a scrap ship turned into an oil tanker.

Marina, meanwhile, is eyeing grounding all vessels owned by the shipping company.

The possibility of suspending the company, CPC, of the concerned company herein was already discussed and yes, it's going to be possible.

Pola Mayor Jennifer Cruz is frustrated as she thinks she is the only one who wants to pursue a case against the ship owner.

According to Governor Jumelito Delor, the provincial government must be united to ensure strong charges will be filed against the ship owners.

Day one pa lang decided na kami. Kasi although sabi ng gobernador kailangan one voice, one Oriental Mindoro, pero ang tagal, naghihintay ako eh.

Ang tagal kong naghihintay na kasuhan ah.

Ang prioridad ng pamahala ng panlalawigan ngayon ay paglilinis at ang pagbibigay ng kabuhayan sa mamamayan, hindi ako papayag na walang mananagot.

Meron crimen, may negligence, may biktima, dapat may managot.

Mayor Cruz also hopes that the owner of the 800,000 liters of industrial oil aboard Empty Princess Empress will soar pace soon.

Dennis Datu, ABS-CBN News, Oriental Mindoro.

Presidents displaced by a 2017 militant siege in the southern Philippine city of Marawi are set to vote in a Saturday plebiscite.

The electoral exercise will decide on the creation of two new villages in the areas where they had since resettled.

Bianca Daba reports.

The family of Abubakar Barahama has been living in temporary shelters in Sagunsongan village in Marawi City for over five years.

They are among the thousands who were displaced after ISIS-linked Maute Group seized Marawi City in 2017.

Ang weather dito sobrang labi kasi nasa mataas po na lugar. So far yung mga tao naman po dito very close to each other kasi naka-shelter kami so dikit-dikit po yung bahay namin.

According to the Paul Body, the increase of internally displaced persons or IDPs after the siege necessitated the creation of two new villages,

namely Datu Dalidigan from Sagunsongan village and Boganga II from Boganga village.

Nearly 1,500 residents are expected to cast their votes and decide if they agree on the creation of these villages.

The manual voting will be from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.

Kakapang tayo ay pumunta mismo sa ground zero kung saan doon ang galing yung mga kababayan natin because they are what we call as internally displaced individuals,

yung mga bakwits na naging dahilan kung bakit may dalawang barangay din sa Marawi City, ang biglang lumobo naman ang populasyon.

Ang barangay ay halos 700 at 1,600 ang boboto kaya inaasahan natin na bago matapos ang oras na matatapos ang pagboto ay halos nakaboto na rin naman yung majority ng mga kababayan natin.

Commission on Elections Chairman George Garcia and Paul Body commissioners flew to Marawi on Thursday to personally monitor the plebiscites.

Ito pong pagpunta natin dito kasama po ang ating mga kasamahan ng mga commissioners dito po sa Marawi City ay pagpapakita ng ating pagtitiwala sa katahimikan ng lugar.

Sana po ay huwag silang matatapos, huwag po silang magdalawang isip na bumoto bukas upang sila mismo magsabi kailangan bang hatiin o hindi yung dalawang barangay na yan.

In Marawi City's Ground Zero, new structures have been constructed including a park, a grand mosque and new roads among others.

But many houses destroyed by the war have yet to be rebuilt.

For those displaced like Abubakar, returning home is a challenge and money is a major problem.

It's kind of hard pa rin po kasi wala masyadong mga buildings at infrastructure so mahirap po umuwi doon.

When I say nababalik po doon sa Ground Zero parang it reminds me of yung trauma, yung nangyari na aksidente.

Even now po kasi hindi pa rin po ako makapaniwala na nangyari po doon yung nangyari ng Marawi situation.

In January, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appointed the new chairperson and members of the Marawi Compensation Board.

The board was created under Republic Act 11696 which provides compensation for the loss or destruction of properties and loss of lives during the 2017 siege.

Ako sila that within three months, pag ito ay maraka na at maibigay na po ang kondo,

makitimula na po silang mag-process ng modifications for the claims sa kanilang mga compensation.

The mayor of Marawi City believes creating new villages would augment services that authorities provide displaced families.

Sang-ayon po ako. Magkakaroon po kami ng sarili naming barangay.

Hindi na po kami magre-relay doon sa barangay sa Gunsunaga kasi po we will stand as independent na.

Advantages niya is if ever po for example na magkakaroon ng mga ayuda.

Bianca Dava, ABS-CBN News.

A Philippine drug war victim is cleared of direct assault for allegedly shooting at police officers in an anti-narcotics raid some seven years ago.

A March 3 ruling by a Quezon City court acquitted Efren Murillo for lack of evidence.

The decision released on Friday said there was no proof that Murillo fired at the police officers during a by-bus raid in the Payatas area.

Murillo lived to belie the police's claim of resisting arrest by playing dead after he was shot in the chest.

His four companions were all killed in the raid.

The court said a police officer who testified denied one of the cops Murillo allegedly shot at was in the area at the time of the operation.

It also said prosecutors failed to prove that Murillo owned the firearm he allegedly used.

The rare survivor of the drug campaign that has seen thousands killed welcomed the court's ruling.

Mr. Murillo's acquittal in this case is a beacon of light for those whose hopes have been dimmed and distorted by the quote-unquote Manlaban narrative.

So this decision is proof that in the end truth will still prevail.

Two persons are arrested for extorting 11 million pesos from Philippine Airlines.

One of them is a former consultant of the Philippine flag carrier.

Nico Bawa reports.

Former Philippine Airlines consultant Ben Sebastian and former Bureau of Customs official attorney John Tan

met in a hotel in Manila with the executive assistant of PAL chairman Lucio Tan.

Sebastian and Tan allegedly explained that PAL needed to pay 11 million pesos as facilitation money

to the BOC, BIR, and OSG to approve PAL's authority to release imported jet fuel.

The NBI, Anti-Organized and Transnational Crimes Division immediately arrested the two after receiving the cash.

According to PAL management, the two made threats as early as January that the jet fuel shipment would be blocked if they didn't pay.

Sebastian says he has been a friend and employee of Lucio Tan for 40 years.

He says he also worked as Tan's assistant and that he usually receives money from him as gifts.

He claims the 11 million was a gift.

The Bureau of Customs explained that attorney Tan has long retired from service and holds no position in the BOC.

Tan denies that he was an accomplice in the crime.

PAL's legal counsels and Lucio Tan's executive assistant Clive Cheong Kian attended the inquest proceedings

against the two suspects in the Manila prosecutor's office.

They declined to be interviewed.

In a statement, PAL management explained that they have been cooperating with the NBI in their complaint.

They clarified that they have no further information if there were other payments made to the two suspects.

They added that they have no further comments on the case since the investigation is ongoing.

The NBI has recommended cases of extortion and estafa for Sebastian and Tan.

Tan also faces a usurpation of authority complaint for allegedly misrepresenting himself as a customs official.

Nico Bawa, ABS-CBN News.

The Philippine Bureau of Investigation issues an apology to members of the media who were allegedly harassed by NBI operatives.

The operatives arrested two Chinese nationals for illegal drug possession in Pasay City at dawn Friday.

The reporters present were asked to sign the inventory of the seized illegal substances as part of the procedure in a drug bust.

But the reporters refused to sign the documents saying they only arrived at the scene after the operation and not during.

Irate NBI personnel confronted the reporters and even grabbed and took a picture of one media person's ID while calling another a homophobic slur.

In a press statement, the NBI apologized for their team's conduct.

The agency vowed to probe the matter.

Justice Secretary Crispin Remulia for his part asserts reporters should cooperate with authorities but only if they covered the whole operation.

Sa simulat sa pool dapat, you're part of the cooperative witness already sa simula pa lang ng operation.

You have no duty to testify if you were not really part of it.

Dapat, yung totoo lang, yun ang gagawin nyo.

Kaya most of the time, isasama kayo sa proseso.

Next in the news, the French President invokes special provisions to skip a parliamentary vote on a controversial pension bill.

The World Tonight returns after the break.

We're back on The World Tonight.

Two NATO member countries are sending fighter jets to Ukraine to help it fight back against Russian invaders.

Four jets are to be sent by Poland.

More than a dozen will come from Slovakia.

Poland has taken the lead in persuading NATO members to overcome their hesitation to provide Ukraine with heavy weaponry.

The move could put pressure on other member states to do the same.

Moscow belittled the donations.

It said these were but another example of NATO's increasingly direct involvement in the Ukraine conflict.

The White House says the U.S. has sufficient resources to support Ukraine through the end of this fiscal year.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said bipartisan congressional support for Ukraine continues.

That was done in a bipartisan way.

So of course we're going to continue to elevate whether any additional resources are needed based on the conditions that we're currently seeing on the ground.

The latest military aid package from the U.S. announced on March 3rd was worth $400 million.

Ukraine has received about $6 billion in Western aid so far this year.

The United Nations insists a Russian deal allowing Ukrainian grain export should be extended by 120 days.

Russia had said it would only allow a 60-day extension.

The agreement guarantees the safe exports of grain from several Ukrainian Black Sea ports until March 18th.

The deal was arranged by the U.N. and Turkey last July.

Within the context of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the agreement foresees a renewal of 120 days.

But in the present circumstances, the Secretary General and his team are focused in close contact with all of the parties on doing everything possible to ensure the continuity of the initiative.

Regarding the parallel memorandum of understanding focused on the export of Russian food and fertilizer,

Rebecca Greenspan, the head of UNCTAD and her team, as well as the Secretary General himself, have spared no effort to facilitate that trade.

Meaningful progress has been made, but it is true that some obstacles remain, notably with regard to payment systems.

Our efforts to overcome those obstacles will continue unabated.

North Korea confirms its Thursday missile test featured the Hwasong-17, the country's most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile.

Photographs released by state media show Kim Jong-un overseeing the launch accompanied by his daughter.

Pyongyang says the ICBM was fired in response to ongoing U.S.-South Korea military drills.

The launch came hours before South Korea's president flew to Tokyo for a summit that will tackle ways to counter Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

Turning the page on years of animosity, Yun Suk-yol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged to work together to counter regional security challenges.

An Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank kills four Palestinians. A teenager is among the dead.

Israeli police claimed two other fatalities were either planning terrorist actions or were involved in attacks on Israeli forces.

The raid happened in Jenin, an area in the West Bank that has seen intensified Israeli raids over the past year.

French riot police clashed with demonstrators on Thursday after President Emmanuel Macron overrides parliament to pass a controversial pension reform bill.

Authorities used tear gas against protesters in the northwest city of Nan as demonstrators hurled objects at police.

Protests were also reported in other cities including Paris.

The bill seeks to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. Anticipating that the measure will not get enough support in parliament,

Macron used a special procedure to push the bill through the National Assembly without a vote.

The government says passing the measure is essential to ensure the pension budget stays in the black.

But unions and other critics insist the bill isn't fair and unnecessary.

America's largest banks are injecting $30 billion in deposits to rescue First Republic Bank.

It is the latest U.S. lender to face a crisis of investor confidence following the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

Taking part in the rescue are Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.

The U.S. Fed and other financial regulators had earlier taken emergency measures to assure depositors of the two failed banks.

The lenders described their move as a reflection of their confidence in First Republic and in banks of all sizes.

The U.S. Treasury Chief Janet Yellen told the U.S. Senate Finance Committee that the emergency measures will not use taxpayers' money.

I can reassure the members of the committee that our banking system is sound

and that Americans can feel confident that their deposits will be there when they need them.

Importantly, no taxpayer money is being used or put at risk with this action.

Deposit protection is provided by the Deposit Insurance Fund which is funded by fees on banks.

Philippine shares closed the week higher as the rescue of an American bank calmed fears of a global banking crisis.

We have this report.

Global stocks rallied as investors cheered rescue deals for troubled First Republic Bank and Credit Suisse.

Investors now gauging the Fed's next policy move on March 22 on hopes it will ease up.

The Banko Sentral, meanwhile, decides its policy move on March 23.

For today, the PSC Index also rebounded strongly up 1% at 6469

but still failed to snap out of its losing streak now on its 7th weekly loss.

Luis Limlingan, Head of Sales at Regina Capital, says investors have no reason to be concerned about the local banking sector.

With the news that came out that there would be support from several banks such as the likes of JP Morgan,

I think this calmed the market as well.

In corporate news, PLDT subsidiaries Smart and Digital Mobile signed a sale and purchase agreement

unloading 1,012 telecommunications towers primarily in Luzon for over 12.1 billion pesos to Frontier Tower Associates Philippines.

The transaction brings the total number of towers monetized via sale and leaseback transactions to over 7,500

for a total consideration of more than 98 billion pesos.

Frontier is a subsidiary of KKR-backed Pinnacle Towers.

Upon completion of the transaction, Smart will lease back the towers for a period of 10 years at competitive terms as the anchor tenant.

The Lushutan Group says it has not yet received any communication from its councils regarding reports

the Supreme Court had ordered Tanduay Distillers to stop using the word Hinebra in its gin products

such as Hinebra Kapitan, upholding Hinebra San Miguel's trademark over the term.

The High Court reportedly ordered Tanduay to pay tempered damages of P300,000 and lawyer fees worth P200,000 to GSMI.

A turnaround for the Philippines' fiscal position.

The national government posted a P45.7 billion budget surplus in January, a reversal of its P23 billion deficit recorded in the same month last year.

Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno attributes the surplus to revenues outpacing spending.

Data show revenues climbed 25% in January year-on-year.

The Philippine Immigration Bureau is taking tighter precautions to prevent human trafficking, but one immigration officer may have taken it one step too far.

An irate traveler posted a now viral video in which she narrated how an immigration officer asked her to produce her yearbook photo as part of the screening process.

Marielle Charmaine Tantera said the officer also subjected her to a lengthy interview with irrelevant questions that resulted in her missing her flight to Israel.

The Immigration Bureau has apologized for the incident. It said the officer in question has since been transferred to its back-end offices.

And it also clarified that airline passengers are definitely not required to present their yearbook photos at the airport.

Perhaps he was interested in knowing the background of the person who went viral, but definitely this is not part of the regular questions of immigration officers.

We have initiated a review of the procedures at the airport.

Our final word tonight is a quote from Harlan Ellison. The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.

And that is the world tonight the 17th of March 2023. I'm Vivian Gulia.

I'm Tony Velasquez from the Philippines. Thank you.

Mabuhay!

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