Baywalk Gloriagate Roundup

Now this is getting silly: Raul Gonzalez said that Soliman's walk in the park violated 3 laws and punishable by up to 12 years in jail.

More: Palace says Dinky meant to provoke

Tribune Edit on the Baywalk incident: Now we have thought police

Ninez comments.

Neal Cruz: GMA and friends also took a stroll at Baywalk

Rina Jimenez David:

IS wearing a black t-shirt considered a "subversive" act these days? If a group of people should choose to take a sunset stroll along Baywalk, should they be arrested for illegal assembly?

Malaya: "The pattern is obvious. When a government has lost the debate, it resorts to repression."

Cory: “I really want to go. Just be there for me when it’s my turn to be arrested.”

She sat silent now with Soliman, Romano and their lawyers in the fiscal’s office, without tradpols old and young to garble her message – Citizen Cory wearing yellow over black in another martial law moment. She had said her piece as former President of the Republic, offering to take custody of the arrestees until investigation could proceed on a weekday, at a more, shall we say, normal hour. Say what you will, recent Cory bashers - this widow, mother and citizen did no less for two people at a crucial moment than she did for a nation when over a million signatures begged her to help them topple a tyrant.

Twenty years later, she listened to Dinky Soliman assure her on the phone that there was no need for her rush over; the lawyers had arrived. Her reply, “I really want to go. Just be there for me when it’s my turn to be arrested.”

From Sylvia Mayuga's article "Not Quite a Rally"

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JB Baylon loved the "V for Vendetta" movie. I liked it too. It's better than the Wachowski brother's previous overrated project Matrix Reloaded and Revolution and more watchable than the other movie versions of Alan Moore's graphic novels like the "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" and "From Hell."

I also hope some local distributors would bring the movie "Good night and good luck" to the big screen too.

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Gloria allies call FVR an economic saboteur

PRESIDENT Arroyo’s allies at the House yesterday accused former President Fidel V. Ramos of "economic sabotage," saying his statement that Arroyo’s claimed stability is illusory might have adverse effects on the economy.

Ramos on Thursday belittled Malacañang’s effort to resolve the restiveness in the Armed Forces, saying what the Palace has done so far was to impose "temporary and artificial stability."

He said the "stability" in place will not be able to withstand "extra-ordinary" pressures similar to the standoff at the Marines headquarters in Makati last month.

Rep. Antonio Cerilles (NPC, Zamboanga del Sur) said Ramos’ statements could drive away foreign investors "who are closely watching political developments in the country."

"I would like to think that statements like these amount to economic sabotage because it might have a negative impact on our economy. It might send a wrong signal to foreign investors and the international community," said Cerilles, a deputy majority leader.

A source in the Lakas-CMD party, of which Ramos is chairman emeritus, said Ramos’ attacks were prompted by the party’s junking of his proposal for Arroyo to cut short her term to 2007 to pave the way for a shift to parliamentary government.

The source said Ramos felt "betrayed" when the party members through Speaker Jose de Venecia’s unanimously scrapped his proposal.

The Ramos proposal, the source said, was the deal struck with Arroyo in exchange for his "rescue" of her amid the calls for her resignation over the "Hello Garci" scandal last July.

More from Ignacio Bunye's reaction to Ramos' statements here.

Ducky Paredes:

That Eddie Ramos can be critical of the government and the government brushes off what the former president is saying is indicative of the reality that Ramos no longer really counts. FVR is a spent force. He speaks but no one listens anymore – not the soldiers, not the politicians and not anyone in a position of power.

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Helga, I believe Betsy's Page also had problems like the one you had with Blogspot. Mas worse pa ang nangyari sa kanya..

UPDATE: Betsy Newmark: "I seem to exist again."

I seem to exist again. It's been a long, strange trip. On Tuesday, my blog disappeared completely and my dashboard page on Blogger showed that my blog did not exist. It was Kafkaesque. I didn't feel any different, but, apparently, my four years of blogging had vanished with just a few traces left in Google Cache.

As I was beginning to think that I had been singled out by a cruel universe, I heard that other blogs had had their identities erased: Viking Pundit, Stolen Thunder, and Fausta. As we commiserated with each other in the virtual limbo in which we now existed, we also sent many plaintive emails to Blogger asking what had happened. We got form letters back telling us to look for an answer on their useless help page and that they would look into this. It was impossible to hear from any human being. Their status page kept telling us that they had, at one time, had server problems, but had now fixed those already. Everything was hunky-dory in Bloggerland.

Then I found out that someone named Sam had hijacked my URL and set up a blog with nothing on it except my name. The plot thickened. Angrier emails to Blogger went off.

So, what would you do if you had a blog problem and weren't getting any help from Blogger? Exactly.

I reached out to my friends in the blogosphere to tell them what happened to me. And they responded by putting up posts telling of my plight. I am so grateful to Michelle Malkin, Glenn Reynolds, The Anchoress, Kim at Musing Minds, Lorie Byrd, The Sensible Mom, Joanne Jacobs, Don Singleton, Ed Driscoll, Enlighten NJ, and, of course, my husband, for publicizing my plight. Duane at The Forest for the Trees even set up a special Helping Betsy blog to recover my template. Wow. I'm sure I'm forgetting some of my other blogbuddies who put up posts to help me. And, check out the post at Political Humor telling the alternate history of the blogheist. I can laugh about it now. This is a good sign.

I got dozens and dozens of emails from people all over expressing their dismay at the blognapping and offering help. All sorts of bloggers offered me the opportunity to guest blog and/or to help me start up a new blog. It was wonderful and helped to assuage the depression I was feeling. Thank you so much for all your messages. I really appreciate all the warm fuzzies that you guys sent me.

Then, today, I got a message from Blogger saying that they had recovered my blog and that somehow I had gotten caught up in some massive “automated spam prevention system" action that had thought that my blog was spam. Huh?! Then, the kicker was that they weren't yet ready to give me back my URL but would try to negotiate with the blogjacker who had put up a false Betsy Page using my URL. Huh?! The guy had just appropriated my URL yesterday and they had to ask him pretty please to give it back? Fortunately, after about five hours, they decided that, since all the content and comments had been deleted on the fake Betsy page, that they would kindly restore my URL to me. Thank you.

The concert "Never Again! Concert for Freedom" at the UP Sunken Gardens was a huge success. Congrats to Conrad de Quiros and all those who participated in it.

Raul Gonzales is thinking of dropping the rape charges against some US marines

Tribune Editorial: "It was not plain coincidence that a popular mall was raided almost at the same time that an opposition senator linked Gloria’s husband not only to smuggling lords but also gambling lords."

Why we are where we are today, from Randy David:

The impeachment of the incumbent president, Joseph Estrada, was then in progress. Administration and opposition were locked in debate. The public avidly watched and commented on every outcome of the televised proceedings. On a crucial vote concerning the admissibility of a piece of evidence, the proceedings were disrupted by the walkout of the prosecution. The walkout triggered a mass demonstration at the Edsa Shrine, demanding the ouster of Estrada. On the second day of this public demonstration, the AFP chief of staff and the commanders of the armed services climbed the stage to manifest their withdrawal of allegiance to the incumbent president. This was a mutiny by the nation's soldiers, a political act that patently violated the Constitution.

Estrada refused to resign. Citing the possibility of public unrest in the face of the stalemate, the Supreme Court decided to come to the Edsa Shrine and swear in Vice President Macapagal-Arroyo as president, without prejudice to a challenge being filed later. Indeed, at least two petitions were subsequently filed before the Supreme Court. In both instances, the high court ruled that Ms Arroyo's succession to the presidency was valid. But no matter how one looks at it, the Supreme Court compromised its autonomy when it collectively took part in a political event whose constitutional validity it would later rule upon.

Still, legitimacy is what people will accept. While a big segment of the population manifested their rejection of Ms Arroyo in May 2001, the AFP stood by her. The outcome of that year's senatorial election confirmed the split in the public's loyalties.

These events overtaxed our young institutions. The political instability they spawned might have been put to rest if Ms Arroyo had not run in the 2004 presidential race. Her decision to be a candidate, even while she enjoyed the full powers of the presidency, overburdened the bureaucracy. The first casualty was the Commission on Elections, which she packed with appointees hardly known for their probity and independence. Then there were the government agencies that became the funnel for the massive public funds used to finance high-profile Arroyo projects during the election campaign. The one institution that bore the brunt of excessive politics was the AFP itself. The price of this is the military fragmentation we have today.

The way out of this rut, if there be any, is the activation of the remaining institutional processes in order to prevent the monopolization of power by Ms Arroyo and her group. The courts are crucial here. Their failure to act with dispatch only encourages Ms Arroyo to resort to coercion to solve her legitimacy problem, and the opposition to employ extra-constitutional means to dislodge her government.

Read the whole thing. Related article from Ninez here.

International watchdog seeks end to ‘harassment’ of RP media

Mediamen no longer welcome at Malacañang?