Sandiganbayan issued an arrest warrant against Ferdinand Martin Romualdez on plunder charges. [1] The New York Times filed the warrant. [1] A warrant is not a conviction. Print probable cause. Do not print a guilty verdict.

Leave Tuesday's hospital detention to Tuesday. The court itself said issuance is not a determination of guilt. Print the warrant. Print not a conviction.

Print the warrant. Monday is not a Romualdez verdict. Presumption of innocence remains. Print probable cause as Monday's named hold. A plunder charge is still not a guilty finding. Print the warrant as still not a conviction. Print probable cause as still Monday's named Manila hold. Print the court as still not a guilty finding today. Print the warrant as still Monday's named hold.

Plunder charges in Manila politics arrive regularly and convict rarely. Probable cause is the court's lowest bar that still matters. Monday clears it and nothing more.

Lowest bars clear first; higher ones wait. Monday clears the first. Conviction waits uphill.

Uphill convictions wait; Monday cleared probable cause. Plunder charges convict rarely. Nothing more today.

Probable cause is the lowest bar that still matters. Monday clears it. Manila convicts plunder rarely.

Manila's anti-graft court put Ferdinand Martin Romualdez on paper for plunder. The New York Times carried a warrant, which is probable cause, not guilt. Sandiganbayan treated that paper as cause, not a verdict. Hospital detention, if it comes, is Tuesday's fact.
A warrant is paper, not a verdict. Sandiganbayan has not convicted. Tuesday's hospital watch is not a ruling.

A warrant is paper, not a verdict. Sandiganbayan has not convicted. Tuesday's hospital watch is not a ruling.

-- DAVID CHEN, Beijing