Philippine Daily Inquirer News

A group of Philippine opposition senators has sought a public inquiry into the navy’s 15.7 billion peso ($310 million) acquisition of a frigate from a South Korean firm, after media said the president’s closest aide had meddled in the deal. President Rodrigo Duterte is furious at media reports that his longtime special assistant, Christopher “Bong” Go, had intervened to help a South Korean sub-contractor win the right to install a combat management system on the two missile-capable vessels, which are due for delivery in 2020. Go has denied any wrongdoing. The frigate issue cost former navy chief Vice Admiral Ronald Joseph Mercado his job last month.

According to a report from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Korean shipbuilding firm Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Phils Inc., which has been plagued by work site deaths and injuries, has rejected the offer of the Occupational Safety and Health Center (OSHC) to provide more safety training to its thousands of workers, the head of OSHC said Monday, December 1, 2008. (Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer)