Thank God it's Friday!

Friday List:

• There's a new blog called Bantay Impeachment 2.


• Conrad de Quiros slams the Black and White movement for "muddling things," and delivers this scathing remark:
  
  

  Dinky and company continue to say a mouthful about why Arroyo should resign -- or be impeached -- but they have yet to say because she stole the vote. I leave them to say why they cannot say that.

  
  Hala, lagot ka... Sumbong kita kay kuya Manuel, kuya Conrad.
  
  (Ay, alam na pala ito ni MLQ3.)
  
  to the citizen-impeachers naman, CDQ also gives this advice:
  
  

  I do wish, however, that the citizens-impeachers would emphasize one thing above all others. I do wish that the citizens-impeachers would put in black-and-white ahead of all items in their charge sheet one thing. That is the fact that Arroyo cheated in the elections. It is not that she has lost the public trust, it is not that she has become a dictator, it is not that she has caused the slaughter of the innocents or committed crimes against humanity. It is that she stole the vote, it is that she is not the rightful president, it is that she is ruling this country without the voters’ mandate.

  
  I agree. And like me, he's for new elections to replace the fake president:
  
  

  I do wish, as my one other caveat, that the citizens-impeachers would launch an accompanying campaign for snap elections. The one goes with the other. In the past, calls for the impeachment of Arroyo have run up against the question, trotted out by her supporters, “But whom do we replace her with?” A ridiculous question doubtless -- proposing as it does that anyone may seize the reins of government and keep them for as long as there is no immediate “alternative” -- but unfortunately one that has not fallen on deaf ears. Arroyo herself is the best argument for it, demonstrating as she does that removing a bad leader can produce worse. Noli de Castro is second.
  
  The answer is snap elections. It preempts or voids the question “But whom do we replace her with?” that’s bound to be raised again against impeachment. The answer to illegitimacy is legitimacy. The answer to a leader who did not win the elections is a President who won an election. The answer to who to replace Arroyo with is who the voters want to replace her with. That’s what democracy is. As I’ve argued repeatedly, the most obvious legal argument for snap elections rather than for succession is that the presidency isn’t being vacated by illness or incapacity, it has never been occupied. An impeachment initiative that says first and foremost that Arroyo stole the vote presumes that.



• Isabela mayor slain in QC ambush. The Manila Standard Today reports that the slain mayor was a communist sympathizer.
  
  PDI Editorial: Spreading Impunity


• Students and young people joins impeach bid against arroyo. Ask solons to "let the truth come out."
  
  In other news, three activist UP students were abducted on monday by armed men and remain missing up to now.
  
  

  THREE activist students from the University of the Philippines in Diliman were abducted Monday from their house in Bulacan and remain missing up to now, the League of Filipino Students (LFS) said yesterday.
  
  The LFS identified the students as Karen Empeño, Sherlyn Cadapan and Manuel Merino.
  
  LFS said that at around 2 a.m. Monday, six armed men wearing black bonnets pounded on the doors of the house where the three were residing, demanding that everyone step out.
  
  The armed men even threatened to destroy the doors just to force the residents to come out, LFS said.
  
  The men then bound Merino and forcibly brought out Empeño and Cadapan.
  
  Empeño is a BA Sociology student of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. She is a member of the LFS-UP Diliman. She went to Central Luzon to do research on the plight of farmers.
  
  Cadapan is an award-winning triathlete from the College of Human Kinetics (CHK). She served as CHK representative to the University Student Council of UP Diliman. She also became a community organizer for Anakbayan. She is a volunteer researcher for farmers in Central Luzon.

  
  I hope they don't end up getting the "Erap 5" treatment.


• "Nicole" likely victim of rape, says doctor.


• Ducky Paredes on Dennis Villa-Ignacio's meltdown.


• MTRCB suspends I-Witness show. More here from Rina Jimenez David on the MTRCB. (Bong, ito ang tunay na moralists, hindi yung mga taong kumontra sa pekeng pangulo mo.)
  


• Paredes on the insensitivity of some of our gov't officials to the Pinay rape victim's plight.


• The Arroyo's as a comedy team?


• PCIJ wins Jaime V Ongpin award for excellence in journalism. What story won that award? Eto siya:
  
  

  PCIJ broadcast director Luz Rimban’s story, “Running on taxpayer’s money,” won first prize in the investigative category in the non-daily division. Rimban’s investigation uncovered how billions in government funds were released as doleouts to local officials in the weeks before and during the campaign of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2004.

  
  Congrats, Luz.


• Ephraim Genuino, Mike Arroyo's boy, plans to turn Manila into a big gambling parlor. From Ernie Maceda:
  
  

  Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) Chairman Ephraim Genuino, the No. 1 protégé of First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, had planned to put up a Las Vegas- style gambling city at the reclamation area.
  
  But now, Genuino has expanded his plans to make the entire Metro Manila one huge gambling parlor.
  
  After putting up slot machines, Internet gambling and bingo parlors all over the landscape, Genuino has now issued instructions in a memo dated June 16 for all VIP clubs which used to be just slot machine parlors to add and set up six gaming tables on or about July 30. This translates to as much as 64 new casinos in Metro Manila.
  
  What is objectionable, according to Vice Mayor Danny Lacuna, is this new expansion has been awarded to a foreign-owned contractor on a 60-40 sharing basis which according to Lacuna is a sweetheart deal that violates the Pagcor charter.
  
  Malaysian whispers are very loud that out of the 60 percent share of the foreign operator, 20 percent is earmarked for the higher ups. Adding up the alleged take from the Subic, Marina Hyatt, Waterfront, Thunderbird, Pan Pacific and other big casinos, Pagcor oldtimers say we are talking multibillions here. Wow na Wow!
  
  By the way, will the P10 million a month share of Manila be doubled as requested? Has there been an audit as to how the city government spends the Pagcor windfall? Nothing that we know of.

  
  So bakit tahimik lang ang simbahan dito? Hindi ba nag-ingay sila noong inimbita ni Erap si Stanley Ho para i-expand ang gambling business niya.
  
  Anyway, balita ko napayagan na si Mr. Ho na magpatayo ng gambling business niya sa Pilipinas by the Arroyo gov't. Nag-complain ba si Archbishop Fernando "let's move on na" Capalla dito o yung CBCP tungkol dito?


• Manong Ernie asks: "The International Football Federation (FIFA) gives $200,000 yearly to the Philippine Football Federation. Where is the money going?


• Erap: GMA, not I, issued sovereign guarantee to IMPSA.
  
  

  It was the Arroyo government that issued a sovereign guarantee to the Argentine power firm Industrias Metalurgicas Pescarmona Sociedad Anonima (Impsa) for the rehabilitation of the Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan (CBK) power plant in Laguna, ousted President Joseph Estrada reiterated yesterday.
  
  And he had the evidence to prove this charge, as his camp made public copies of the Arroyo sovereign guarantee.
  
  Under the sovereign guarantee, the Philippine government absorbs all the losses and other dire consequences of the contract if Impsa defaults on the payments of its debts.
  
  Estrada, during a radio interview, maintained that had he signed the sovereign guarantee for the contract, then Justice Secretary Hernando Perez would not have issued a legal opinion on the matter.
  
  “If I had approved the guarantee, why would Secretary Perez still issue a legal opinion on the matter?” the now detained leader said.
  
  According to his spokesmen, lawyer Rufus Rodriguez and former Maguindanao Rep.
  
  Didagen Dilangalen, the sovereign guarantee was embodied in Perez’s legal opinion dated Jan. 24, 2001 just three days after then Vice President Gloria Arroyo took Malacañang from Etrada by force through the Jan. 21, power grab led by Mrs. Arroyo herself and a clutch of conspirators from the so-called civil society.



• Tigerhawk found loopholes in the "Great Firewall of China."


• Lots of stuff today about the NBA draft from Henry Abbott, the best basketball blogger, IMO. Check him out.


• Gilbert Arenas says he's willing to take a pay cut to help the Wizards upgrade it's roster, but the NBA and player's union forbid such moves.