According to the police report, the senator presented a business card and asked, "What do you think about that?"
Bathroom sex -- or the possible attempt to obtain same -- is one thing. Abuse of power is another.
I myself care less about the content of the tapes themselves, and more about the Nixon-style cover-up that ensued. That’s enough basis to conclude the administration has lost its legitimacy.
The Philippine National Police (PNP), in a bid to fend off accusationsit played a part in the abduction of agriculturist Jonas Burgos nearly four months ago, yes-terday found itself in hotter water when an alleged com-munist rebel from whom one of the “witnesses” to the kidnapping had been taking “orders” turned out to be under military detention since the rebel’s arrest last year.
The PNP, through Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) chief Edgardo Doromal, the other day presented before the media the “witness,” Emerito Lipio, a self-confessed New People’s Army (NPA) guerrilla who claimed he has vital infor-mation on the abduction of Jonas.
During investigation, Lipio said he was getting orders from his leader based in Bulacan province, north of Manila, one “Delfin de Guzman.”
But it was learned that De Guzman has been in government custody since 2006.
More gross blunders from the military and the CIDG: Police witness Lirio was found not to be an NPA, but one of the disappeared, as he was identified by a jeepney group, Piston, as a legitimate transport leader who went missing in July 2006.
It was clear then that the military was lying all the while as the military had denied then that Lirio was not in the custody of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, but with his being surfaced by the police recently, it has been proved that the AFP had Lirio under its custody all the while.
The CIDG certainly knew this, too, but went along with the lie when the CIDG chief presented Lirio to the media, thus proving that the police chiefs as well as the military generals are more than willing to protect the criminals in the military to the point of their manufacturing witnesses and providing perjured testimony, which makes them lawbreakers.
This is not the first time either that the police and military have presented to the media alleged terrorist-bombers who were found to be recycled suspects. The Tribune some time ago, published a photo of the suspects presented by the PNP to the media, and identified them as also having been presented earlier by the same PNP as suspects in the bombings in other sites.
This recycling of suspects is usually being done by the cops and the military to claim that the cases have been resolved, and for them to be able to claim success in curbing terrorism, crimes and whatever else they want to claim.
Sometimes I think Amando Doronila is simply dying to prove the President can pull rabbits out of her hat. His column, today, Arroyo seizes the initiative, seems along the lines of his previous claim that the President had pulled a “breathaking” reclaiming of the political initiative after the May elections.
Instead of producing an issue around which the opposition senators would close ranks, the bid by Sen. Panfilo Lacson to revive the tape scandal has allowed the President to seize the initiative by shifting the issue to the economic argument, thereby painting the opposition senators as a bunch of obstructionists standing in the way of giving momentum to what she has claimed as the “highest level” of gross domestic product growth since 1991, based on the 2007 first quarter growth of 6.9 percent.
No State of the Nation Address (Sona) delivered by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the past seven years has devalued the intrinsic worth of the presidential word more than the one of July 23.
Sona 7 was so puffed up with the vision of a country transformed into a First World economy in 20 years that, on closer examination, it proved to be not worth the weight of the paper on which it was printed.
the picture we get is that the foundation upon which the Sona vision of a Philippine Shangri-La is built on two assumptions, both of them pies in the sky. The realization of the infrastructure program in 20 years depends on expected revenue collection. Sona 7 has offered a promise of an economic paradise in 20 years in exchange for domestic peace and the more immediate prospects of a coercive political environment in the remaining three years of the Arroyo presidency. This is an extremely one-sided tradeoff that gives little in terms of short-term economic benefits, at least through poverty alleviation, in exchange for the immediate curtailment of political liberties.
With the flick of a sorcerer’s wand, the President tried to shortchange the Filipino people by offering uncertain promises of prosperity in exchange for reducing their political liberties. This trade-off contradicts academic studies showing democratization is not incompatible with economic development. These studies are based on the development experience in Southeast Asia during three decades of re-democratization from the 1970s.
In this tradeoff, Sona 7 tried to turn the clock back to the era of the hard authoritarianism in Asia epitomized by Suharto in Indonesia, Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia and Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore. In 1972, Ferdinand Marcos tried to bring the Philippines in step with these prototypes as a latecomer in the Southeast Asian authoritarian club.
In Sona 7, Ms Arroyo tried to revive this Faustian bargain by offering a delusionary prosperity in exchange for reduced political liberties threatened by the launching of the Human Security Act days earlier.
The Sona slammed the door on the Supreme Court-convened summit recommendations calling on the President to order state security forces to halt the wave of extrajudicial executions. Although Congress gave a place of honor to Chief Justice Reynato Puno during the delivery of the Sona, the gesture turned into tokenism when the President acknowledged the summit’s resolutions with a mere paragraph in the compendious speech.
The reference bristled with contempt with this passage: “We fight terrorism. It threatens our sovereign democratic, compassionate and decent way of life. Therefore, in the fight against lawless violence, we must uphold these values. It is never right and always wrong to fight terror with terror.”
On human rights, she asked Congress to enact laws to “transform state response to political violence,” including laws to “impose harsher penalties for political killings,” and laws “reserving the harshest penalties for the rogue elements in the uniformed services who betray public trust.” This declaration shifts the onus to Congress to pass more laws, when the moment calls less for laws and more for emphatic action from the executive branch.
This washing of the hands offers little hope that the killings will stop. It underscores even more sharply the emptiness of the economic promise of the tradeoff dangled by the Sona.
Two farmers, Raymond Manalo and his brother Reynaldo, who escaped from their military captors two weeks ago, have disclosed that University of the Philippines (UP) coeds Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan are alive and that they had seen them at Camp Tacson, an Army camp at Limay, Bataan. The two farmers also claimed they have witnessed the torture of the two UP coeds.
Their statement corroborates earlier statements of Oscar Leuterio and Lourdes Rubrico, former military detainees.
This revelation makes a complete liar of Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr., Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., who used to be Philippine Army chief, Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino and Lt. Col. Rogelio Boac, who have continuously denied the two coeds were in military custody.
When the two women were abducted by a military detachment in Hagonoy, Bulacan, even then Malacañang chief of staff Michael Defensor denied they were taken by military men. GMA never ordered an investigation of their disappearance and even praised Palparan before a packed audience in her Sona speech last July 14, 2006.
The above-named military officials formally denied having the women in their custody in habeas corpus proceedings before the Court of Appeals (CA) which Palparan snubbed.
They are therefore guilty of contempt of the CA and those who appeared and testified are guilty of perjury. They should be correspondingly charged.
The lying in the case of the two UP coeds also destroys all credibility of GMA, Esperon and company on their denials of military involvement in the extra-judicial killings and abductions of more than 900 militants, the bigger number belonging to Bayan Muna and affiliated organizations.
The case of Empeño and Cadapan emphasizes the indifference, if not neglect, by all sectors — Malacañang, Congress, the Supreme Court (SC), the CA, the Commission on Human Rights, The Melo Commission, media groups and citizen watchdogs including lawyers organizations, for not giving all-out attention and priority to the obvious GMA administration’s policy of extra-judicial and extra-legal measures in the war against insurgency and terrorism.
The entire Empeño-Cadapan episode should be fully reviewed and revisited by all, to put a stop to these incidences once and for all.
Chief Justice Reynato Puno, who pledged to lead the fight against extra-judicial killings in the summit he organized, must seize this opportunity to make the military and executive officers involved account for their acts, besides immediately ordering the release of Karen and Sherlyn before they are terminated.
The case is pending with the SC.
I believe Dean Jorge Bocobo was the first to argue that the real story -and scandal- all along, boils down to a question: how could the President of the Philippines end up with a tapped phone?
If the “Hello, Garci” tapes had never surfaced, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would be firmly in charge, there would be, at best, a token opposition, and she wouldn’t be, today, the Richard Nixon of Philippine politics. But the tapes surfaced, and the country then, as now, must ask: Why does the chief victim of the wiretapping, the President, seem the least inclined to get to the bottom of the matter?
Obviously, the editors of both Manila Standard and People Asia are to blame for this Malu Fiasco. Since this thing blew up, neither publication has issued any kind of statement regarding this matter. Their indifference only shows and even justifies calls for boycotting them. They should not have waited for this fiasco to reach fever heights. They should have come out to clear their now tarnished names.
The tapes created a crisis of legitimacy for the Arroyo presidency that was not resolved by the May 2007 midterm elections, seen as a referendum on her administration. The poll results gave the administration’s ruling coalition an even more overwhelming majority in the House of Representatives and the opposition a slim majority in the Senate.
On June 7, Ms Arroyo gave a speech at the closing session of the outgoing 13th Congress, thanking its members for saving her from two impeachment attempts. More than that, she acknowledged the overwhelming victory of the coalition in the House and the local governments in the May election, the 25th since the seminal 1907 parliamentary election.
Ms Arroyo recognized only one overwhelming result -- that for the House and local government offices -- although the Senate election results were equally overwhelming. She said the House election results were a “continuing mandate of reform, unity, more work and less politics. We all have a mandate to look forward to and leave behind the contentious past.”
Annihilation
First posted 01:58:20 (Mla time) June 08, 2007
Amando Doronila
Inquirer
The impact of the overwhelming opposition sweep of the Senate election was so shocking to the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration that it took more than a week after the 8-2-2 result had firmed up to recover from the shock and to concede it had lost control of the Senate.
My prediction, if Erap is convicted, he will run! If acquitted, he will endorse a candidate from among Villar, Loren Legarda, Lacson, Jojo Binay and Chiz Escudero.
Why is Mar Roxas not on the list? Because the Liberal Party broke ranks with the opposition in the last days of the 2007 campaign.
There appears to be a sinister plot to isolate the LP - and Mar Roxas - from the opposition, which is perceived to be the winner - again - in the next elections.
SEN. Juan Ponce Enrile yesterday bolted the administration line rejecting a fresh inquiry into the "Hello, Garci" scandal by agreeing to a "conditional" Senate investigation on the wiretapping controversy.
Enrile said he would participate in the planned Senate inquiry as long as the opposition bloc will not present as evidence the recordings of wiretapped conversations between President Arroyo and former elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano during the 2004 elections.
On the eve of his proclamation as the 12th winning candidate for senator in the May elections, Juan Miguel Zubiri declared: “I just want to buckle down to work and redeem myself.”
I did not realize it then, but it seems that for the three-term congressman from Bukidnon, that declaration could only have been an either-or proposition. For him, work in the Senate and redemption must be mutually exclusive. That is to say, to keep working in the Senate, he has to do -- has in fact done -- the irredeemable thing. He has filed an absurd counter-protest against rival candidate Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III before the Senate Electoral Tribunal, or SET, contesting the results of a jaw-dropping 73,000 precincts. (That’s one-third of the entire country.)
I do not know if the SET will give his counter-protest due course; considering that Pimentel didn’t even have enough campaign funds to show more than a handful of TV spots featuring top celebrity endorser Angel Locsin, the claim that he cheated massively is preposterous.
But Zubiri does not need to prove his allegation of election fraud. All he needs to do is tie up the SET in an interminable recount. Pimentel, who believes he was cheated in 2,680 precincts in a total of seven provinces, is confident that the review of election returns he is contesting will be completed in half a year or so. Zubiri’s protest, on the other hand, would take years to resolve.
Redemption? More like a ruthless gaming of the system. The “Senator from Maguindanao” has cynically exploited the limitations of our election rules, to hold on to his job.
Yet the obvious NATIONAL SECURITY implications of the case have oddly never been a major concern of either the administration or the opposition. To this day, for example, there is no official explanation or even investigation by the Executive Department, of WHO made the Garci Recordings, WHY, HOW, WHEN and WHERE they were made. Yet no one seems to perturbed by the utterly stunning and uncontested fact that the COMMANDER IN CHIEF of the Armed Forces had been illegally eavesdropped upon, and her communications with ranking members of Philippine officialdom, both civilian and military, had been illegally recorded. This SILENCE or INDIFFERENCE to what should be regarded as an ALARMING BREACH in national security, is the most poignant indictment of the Arroyo political machinery's ultimate complicity and perhaps essential guilt in the production of those recordings.
THE MERE EXISTENCE of the Garci Recordings is to me PALPABLE EVIDENCE that a major breach in NATIONAL SECURITY occurred LONG BEFORE these conversations came to the knowledge of the general public, through members of the political Opposition like former Sen. Francisco Tatad and lawyer Alan Paguia, and indeed Ignacio Bunye.
CHINESE BLOG-SERVICE PROVIDERS AGREE TO "SELF-DISCIPLINE" -- or, in other words, to censor their users so the government doesn't have to.
SUSPENDED law professor Alan Paguia yesterday described the Supreme Court decision on Executive Order 464 as a "judicial swindle of the highest order," saying it provided a road map for Malaca?ang on how to go around congressional inquiries and exempted President Arroyo from answering questions about the "Hello Garci" wiretapped conversations on alleged cheating in the May 2004 elections.
Paguia, a former counsel of President Joseph Estrada, has been suspended from legal practice owing to statements made in public that the Supreme Court said undermined its integrity.
He said while the tribunal partially declared EO 464 as unconstitutional, a closer reading of the 64-page ruling shows "it was actually in defense of President Arroyo."
In defense of President Arroyo, administration Senators Joker Arroyo and Richard Gordon yesterday took a different tack in their refusal to have the controversial wiretapped conversations probed by the Senate, now saying this move by the political opposition is in aid of another impeachment complaint against Mrs. Arroyo, apart from reiterating their position that probing an illegal wiretap conversations may all land them in jail.
Yes, Esperon must think so low of the public that he didn’t have qualms in lying about the “basement” in the residence of the AFP chief of staff.
T/Sgt Vidal Doble, in a revival of the “Hello Garci” issue presented by Sen. Ping Lacson last Tuesday at the Senate, disclosed that he was fetched by Bishop Socrates Villegas from the San Carlos seminary, where he sought refuge with former NBI agent Samuel Ong, and brought to the official residence of then AFP Chief Efren Abu. There, he said, he saw his wife and children at the basement of the chief of staff’s residence.
“I am now occupying the quarters of Gen. Abu… and I must tell you that there is no basement in that quarters,” Esperon said.
I have been to the CS residence and I remember a portion that is lower than the main floor. I checked it out with a friend who had also been there and she said, “Yes, they call it basement. It has low ceiling and dark so you have to open the lights. That’s where the radio room is located. There’s also an area for the living quarters of aides and some close security of the chief of staff.”
Doble blows the whistle on Operation Lighthouse.
What’s your evidence?
Garci Tapes.
Oh you can’t use that. It’s against the law to use tapes of a wiretap as proof of wiretapping,
Reelectionist Sen. Panfilo Lacson yesterday filed graft charges against Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez before the Office of the Ombudsman for offering village officials in Iloilo P10,000 each in exchange for 12-0 sweep for administration senatorial candidates.
According to him, Gon-zalezs acts constitute the crime of attempted cor-ruption of public officials penalized under Article 212 in relation to Article 6 (Consummated, Frustrated and Attempted Felonies) of the Revised Penal Code.
Angered by the move of Genuine Opposition senatorial candidate, reelectionist Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson of filing graft and corruption charges against the Department of Justice secretary for his offering of a bribe of P10,000 each to Iloilo village chiefs in return for a Team Unity senatorial sweep on May 14, the DoJ chief, Raul Gonzalez, yesterday threatened to have Lacson extradited to the US to face spy charges, saying he has the documents from the US government to prove that the senator is the brains behind the spying activities done by American-Filipino Leandro Aragoncillo, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent and former Philippine police officer, Michael Ray Aquino, a former Lacson aide.
Reeling from the graft complaint filed against him for “vote-buying,” Gonzalez yesterday vowed to indict his accuser, Lacson, before a US court.
Sought for comment, an irate Gonzalez in a phone interview insisted he had evidence against Lacson on his alleged involvement in a spying case in the US against a former Lacson aide.
“I have that document (against Lacson) but I don’t want to talk to the Tribune about it,” Gonzalez said, but stated nevertheless that his office is eyeing the possibility of processing the extradition of Lacson to the United States.
The sadder truth is that we, migrant workers and non-migrant workers alike, are all part of this twisted culture of cracking jokes at the expense of others. Haven’t you laughed at and disseminated Erap jokes via SMS and e-mail? Don’t you watch Bubble Gang and guffawed at the impersonations of politicians and media personalities? Don’t you giggle at the local version of Candid Camera hosted by Michael V. which victimizes unwary people on the street, subjecting them to embarrassing and humiliating situations all for the sake of entertaining the show’s viewers? See, everything is funny until we find ourselves to be the subject of the jokes. Then, it isn’t so funny anymore. And, often, it is not easy to tell where the humor ends and the insult begins. Then, it becomes an emotional issue.
What amazes me that no one seems to realize that media is responsible for the workers’ reaction. Media spoiled and pampered them by building them up as modern-day heroes and they have gotten used to the title. So who is this woman with the gall to look down on them? She’s part of media too. Why isn’t she writing the way media has always written about these migrants? Thing is, there is a way to disagree with the sensational declaration that they are nothing less than heroes without making fun of them as persons. And not everyone is incapable of discerning between an obvious insult and one that has been sugarcoated to make it appear as humor. Under the circumstances, the reaction of the workers is understandable and the demand for an apology cannot be considered unreasonable.
What is truly mind-blowing is that non-OFW sectors of the Philippine blogging community are in on the act too and demanding far more than what levelheaded migrant workers are asking for. In the e-mail I received, and this was circulating among OFWs, the demand was for an apology. There was no name-calling such as what has been going around in Web logs posts and comment threads where Malu Fernandez is referred to as Miss Piggy, slut, fatso, oink oink... Some of the worst name-calling appear on Web logs that are not even written by migrants and they go as far as calling for her resignation, or for People Asia magazine and Manila Standard Today to fire her and issue public apologies. Otherwise, a boycott. These people want blood. Why? Sympathy? Or is it something else?
I tell you, there is nothing more useless and unreasonable as an angry, unthinking mob. And there is nothing more dangerous than a mob with an agendum—lest we forget, the Philippine blogging community is a medium too and hardly exempt from the mentality that anything goes if it translates to readership/audience.
But Doble said he was later surprised when he was picked up by Bishop Socrates Villegas and brought to Camp Aguinaldo to the quarters of former Chief of Staff General Efren Abu.
“I saw my two children and my wife detained in the basement of General Abu’s quarters. This is why I didn’t continue my exposé on the Garci tapes,” Doble said in Filipino.
“My family was kept in custody from June 2005 to April 2006. I was there from June 2005 until I was discharged in February 2007. I did not reenlist.”
Philippine bishop secures military intelligence man
MONDAY, JUNE 13, 2005 | RELIGION
MANILA, June 13 (PNA) – It took a military chopper to seek a man of the cloth in Balanga, Bataan.
Around 1:30 p.m. Monday, Bishop Socrates Villegas was able to "reunite" TSgt. Vidal Doble with his wife and two kids.
Until Villegas' arrival, military and police officials claimed that Doble was being "illegally detained" inside the San Carlos seminary in Makati City where whistle blower Samuel Ong had been holed up since Friday.
Going by Ong's pronouncements, Doble was the source of the taped conversation between President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Elections Commissioner Virgillo Garcillano purportedly suggesting operations to rig the May 2004 elections.
Policemen and military forces have surrounded the seminary complex after Doble's wife allegedly filed a complaint that her husband was being held against his will inside the compound.
"My name is Bishop Soc from Balanga. I come here to help you, trust me," came Villegas' words upon seeing a "distressed" Doble inside the complex.
In reply, Doble asked how his children were doing and moments later, was able to talk to his wife over the phone.
After a little while, Doble was whisked off along with Villegas to a waiting vehicle which would take them to Camp Aguinaldo and meet Armed Forces chief Gen. Efren Abu.
At a news conference, officials said Doble requested to take a rest before speaking to the media. Since when and how Doble entered the compound, officials would not disclose. Doble was being kept in an undisclosed safehouse.
"That is the subject of our investigation. As of now, Doble is not saying anything," said military deputy chief Lt. Gen. Edilberto Adan.
The Police Anti-Crime and Emergency Response (PACER) and the National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force (NAKTF) will investigate to determine who would be charged over the alleged "illegal detention," said Chief Supt. Leopoldo Bataoil, National Police spokesman.
Villegas said he did not ask Doble if he was being detained at the seminary. "I think that will be inconsiderate of me."
"When I saw him [Doble], I saw he was so, so distressed," Villegas said. "I just assured him that he's safe with me."
"You are now safe. I will answer for you," he added in Filipino.
When asked if people inside the seminary were preventing Doble from leaving, the bishop said: "None. I think he was allowed to move freely."
Earlier in the day, Ong and Bishop Teodoro Bacani disclosed that Doble was not held against his will. (PNA)
Manila Standard may be assessing where the noise is coming from. From the OFWs themselves or from people who may not like their political leanings?
As expected, she and like-minded individuals would rationalize that they are just 'being real'. Of course, such an excuse is self-serving because facing reality in its fullness would require admitting to themselves that they are grotesque specimens of humanity.
i’m not trying to defend fernandez, i think what she wrote about ofws was reprehensible. but like me, most of the commenters here don’t know her as a person (kg claims this is the first time she heard of her). how can these people judge her with such venom and putrid language? what does her looks, body size, clothing, make-up, etc. anything to do with her article, detestable though it may be?
blacks often call each other “nigger” and they just laugh it off. seldom do they take offense in that case, unlike when someone other than another black (whites, especially) do it wherein they would surely make a federal case out of it, if not resort to physical violence.
as a filipino herself, i see fernandez as trying to be self-deprecating - maybe even thinking that a good number of her own kind shares her observation. her fault lies in not realizing that she was committing the worst kind of political incorrectness - insult a class she thinks is lower than her’s.
What I found out after reading her key statements is she was just relaying observations the way she was seeing it. I didn’t even see any malice in the way she has expressed those observations and her feelings towards them. (Perhaps, she could have just keep it to herself so as not to be marked as a bigot. But then she is a writer.)
I agree with Manolo and that was my stand too when I joined the call of Nick to condemn the lady columnist and her article. As I have said, it is not the columnist who’s going to suffer when the paper loses revenues because of the boycott. The small workers would be the first in line when there is downsizing. There are also thousands of newspaper boys (never mind the distributors, they have other magazines to sell) who will be affected.
It’s not Malu’s bread and butter btw. She got a boutique.
Malacañang issued notice yesterday that the Senate cannot count on its cooperation in a planned inquiry on allegations top government and military officials have a hand in “feeding Filipino troops to the enemies” that led to death of 14 Marines in an encounter in Basilan, 10 of whom were beheaded and severely mutilated.
Instead, chief presidential legal counsel Sergio Apostol branded opposition Senators Rodolfo Biazon and Antonio Trillanes IV of fomenting destabilization in initiating the inquiry.
During a phone interview, Apostol said the Arroyo administration would surely invoke Executive Order (EO) 464 or Memorandum Circular (MC) 108 to prevent any government and military officials from attending the planned Senate investigation.
“Once Trillanes and Biazon start the inquiry in the Senate and come out with the names from the executive branch and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) leadership on the charges, EO 464 or MC 108 would be invoked,” Apostol said.
GO spokesman, nakaw-eksena kina Sen. Jinggoy at LT
AGAW-EKSENA ang Genuine Opposition spokesperson na si Adel Tamano sa last shooting day ng Metro Manila filmfest entry na Katas ng Saudi nu’ng Huwebes ng gabi.
Sabi nga ni Lorna Tolentino, leading lady ng bidang si Senator Jinggoy Estrada, tinalbugan silang lahat ni Adel dahil ito ang pinalibutan at tsinika ng showbiz press. Hehe!
Ito ang screen debut ng 36-year-old na si Adel, na gumaganap sa guest role bilang barangay chairman na maninita sa maingay na pagka-karaoke ni Sen. Jinggoy (as OFW Oca) at ng mga kaibigan, kabilang si Bayani Agbayani.
Nagtawanan ang lahat habang nagri-rehearse para sa isang take dahil mistulang on cue ring bumanat ang bagyong si Egay nang simulan nina Sen. Jinggoy ang pag-awit ng Remember Me ni Renz Verano.
Matinee idol na matinee idol ang dating ng GO spokesman kahit pa may asawa na’t dalawang anak na lalaki.
Maging ang director ng Katas ng Saudi na si Joey Reyes, pabirong nagsu-swoon sa kaguwapuhan nito.
Hindi man full-time ang showbiz career, promising naman ang entrance ni Adel dahil nakatakda rin siyang umapir sa isang proyekto ng GMA Films.
NARRATOR: We moved back into the heart of the Chavez crowds when all of a sudden the firing started.
[sirens]
NARRATOR: We couldn't tell where the shots were coming from, but people were being hit in the head.
[gunshots]
NARRATOR: Soon it became clear that we were being shot at by snipers. One in four Venezuelans carry hand guns and soon some of the Chavez supporters began to shoot back in the direction the sniper fire seemed to be coming from.
Just when you thought it couldn't get any more absurd, here comes an hour-long investigative report on HD Net with some disturbing new findings about the machinery of our "democracy"...check out the video of the first 12 minutes of this startling report at the link below...
It is painful to see lies and half-truths work their insidious way into the public discourse. When even an eminent columnist unsuspectingly accepts Senate President Manny Villar’s less-than-accurate version of events, about how he came to form the so-called “Manny coalition,” the pain becomes more acute.
In describing the new reality of floating majorities, the columnist took a look at the dynamics in the Senate and, perhaps distilling the content of many news stories published last week, wrote very much in passing: “An attempt by his fellow opposition senators to replace him prompted him to form his own majority.”
This, Villar’s version, is plain cock-and-bull.
There was, in fact, no opposition attempt to replace him as Senate president -- unless, of course, Villar saw the effort to draft Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. as a candidate, as tantamount to replacement.
The truth is, most of the senators in the opposition did not even hear from Villar. They found out that he had already reached a concordat with the administration senators the same way most of us did: through other sources. As one of them plaintively asked: “Why didn’t he talk to us?”
(Here’s hoping consumer groups monitor power rates to see if rate drops last as long as guaranteed: 10 month in Luzon, 18 months in Mindanao, visayas for 3 months, and at the biggest drop, 31 centavos per KWH, seems to me pure electioneering in the President’s bailiwick right there).
Lacson’s advisers said the opposition senator is amenable to sponsoring a bill granting amnesty to those accused of political crimes but they said they would have to be careful about its coverage including the cut-off date. They said JDV and Lacson may not have the same definition of “political crimes”.
The amnesty proposal is supposed to solve the political tension that has bedeviled the Arroyo administration since its start in 2001. Amnesty is an instrument of reconciliation as it erases the political crime of the accused even before conviction. It differs from pardon, which can be granted only after conviction.
Logically, those who would likely be included would be former President Estrada, son Sen. Jinggoy Estrada and lawyer Edward Serapio who are awaiting the Sandiganbayan decision on their plunder cases; the Magdalo soldiers who staged the so-called “Oakwood Mutiny” in July 2003 that includes Trillanes; and the 28 officers led by Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda involved in the alleged aborted withdrawal of support from Arroyo in February 2006.
De Venecia has not spelled out details of his amnesty proposal but sources told us the cut-off date, presumably at the time of the filing, would in effect protect Arroyo and her associates from being charged with plunder and other crimes once she is out of office. That means she would be automatically absolved of the crime of betrayal of public trust for cheating in the 2004 elections and for diverting millions and millions of pesos for the people to her election fund. Same thing will happen to her accomplices like former Agriculture Secretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” Bolante.
Sources said the amnesty proposal is actually designed for Arroyo. Estrada, Miranda and Trillanes et. al. would just be collateral beneficiaries.
Watchdogs to Senate: Probe poll chief, Bedol on fraud
Poll watchdogs yesterday expressed their dismay over the kid-glove treatment of Maguindanao provincial election supervisor and lawyer Lintang Bedol from the Com-mission on Elections commissioners and asked the Senate to probe not just Bedol but also Comelec chief Benjamin Abalos Sr. and other commissioners, pointing out that the Comelec en banc’s tap on the Bedol wrist manifests an alleged grand conspiracy to commit and hide wholesale electoral fraud.
The watchdog Kontra Daya scored the commission for threatening the media with the charge of electoral fraud, saying, “If anyone is guilty of electoral sabotage, it is Abalos himself and his patron in Malacañang. It is funny how the Comelec insists on punishing the media for allegedly manufacturing news when the cheat in Maguindanao polls has been freed, unleashed. Such threat is an affront to press freedom.”
Kontra Daya, in a statement, said: “The Comelec tried to make it appear that it is determined to punish Bedol. With the penalty it has imposed on Bedol, however, the Comelec has again become a laughingstock.”
The group called on the Senate to investigate the massive fraud in the recent elections. “We hope that the Senate will summon Abalos and Bedol and investigate their hand in the cheating. We are certain that only Miguel Zubiri, the Maguindanao Senator, will protest such a probe.”
Treading the line. While Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano bagged the chairmanship of the blue ribbon committee, he still has to tread a difficult line. The membership of the committee will be divided into 2 to 1 in favor of the administration-backed majority following the 16-8 proportion.
If the blue ribbon committee has 21 members including the chairman, you will have 14 members form the majority and seven form the minority. Any committee report must get a majority of the votes of the members before it can be submitted to the plenary.
“Before you go over these figures, please get your Meralco bill last June and July 2007. Just go to the first and third charges, generation and system loss, and let the figures speak for themselves. The Inquirer’s banner story last Sunday was captioned Meralco cuts rates by P0.43/kWh. Here are the facts cited therein: 1. generation charge will go down by P0.3786/kWh; 2. system loss charge will decline by P0.0508/kWh; 3. the July generation charge was P5.67/kWh; 4. the July System Loss Charge was P0.90/kWh; 5. the August generation charge will be down to P5.2978/kwh; 6. the August System Loss Charge will be down P0.8479/kWh; 7. Napocor rate fell by P0.45/kWh so its average rate is now P5.19/kWh, meaning it used to be P5.64/kWh; 8. Meralco’s IPP rates also went down by P0.31/kWh so its down to P4.03/kWh, meaning it used to be P4.34/kWh.
Our comments (pls. check the figures in your June and July billings): 1. The story failed to cite that the June generation rate was P4.42/kWh (pls. check your June billing) so the July rate of P5.67/kWh applied an INCREASE of P1.25/kWh. So, even if Meralco cuts down by P0.37/kWh here (P1.25 - 0.3786 = P0.8714/kWh), it will still enjoy an INCREASE of P0.8714/kWh IN THE GENERATION CHARGE in its August billing based on its June rate of P4.42/kWh; ERC gave Meralco a provisional increase of P0.26/kWh in the previous months so it is still (P0.8714 less P0.2692 = P0.60/kWh) P0.60/kWh higher. 2. The story also failed to cite the June system loss charge of P0.72/kWh (pls. check your June and July billings) so the July rate of P0.90/kWh (P0.72 + 0.18) applied an increase of P0.18/kWh. So, even if Meralco cuts down its system loss charge by P0.0508/kWh, it will still enjoy a P0.12/kwh INCREASE in the system loss charge in its August billing. The provisional increase in the system loss charge in the previous months was only P0.07/kWh. 3. Prior to the commercial operation of the wholesale electricity spot market in July 2006, the GENERATION CHARGE that appeared in our Meralco July billing was P5.21/kWh. The ERC-approved Napocor RATE rate then was P4.93/kwh. This only shows that Meralco IPP rates were higher than P5.21/kWh. 4. Using their own announced figures, let’s ADD the Napocor’s rate of P5.19/kWh and Meralco IPPs’ rate of P4.03/kWh and we will arrive at an average rate of P4.61/kWh. This should be then the GENERATION RATE Meralco should be charging us for August AND NOT the P5.27/kWh it announced. The rate given them by ERC prior to the restoration of the automatic recovery adjustment. ERC’s provisional approval on GENERATION adjustment recovery (power purchased) was P0.2692. Add this to the basic charge of P4.4296, we were charged then P4.69/kWh.
Now that we have allowed Meralco’s announced figures and the figures from our Meralco June and July 2007 bills to speak for themselves, let’s ask ourselves if this Meralco announced rate reduction is something to rejoice about? Let’s pray that Meralco may learn to put off falsehood so it may learn to tell the truth. Please forward this to your friends so the truth may come out. — Pete”
I texted Pangilinan for confirmation of his stand against Tamano and his reply was, “Let’s just wait for the decision of the chair on the matter. As ex-officio member of the Blue Ribbon committee, I will make my position known at the appropriate time.”
I texted him back: “But I understand you have already made known your desire to block Tamano’s appointment. Did this have something to do with incidents during the recent election campaign?
Pangilinan replied, “Will limit my comment to previous text for now.”
All those who want to reform the Philippine politics and economy should therefore strive to remove the nexus between politics and the economy. This policy reform objective could be achieved through measures including low and neutral tariff rates (to discourage smuggling as well as the incentive to make deals with Customs officials), the removal of the pork barrel system, opening up entry and exit of all businesses including utilities and telecommunications without having to acquire franchise from Congress, and lowering of corporate taxes coupled with the removal of fiscal incentives, among many others. The central idea is to prevent political motivations to encroach in people’s economic decisions, subject to certain limited criteria such as environmental regulations and national security.
We should adopt the concept that doing business or engaging in entrepreneurship is an inalienable right on par with our freedom of assembly and speech as well as of pursuit of happiness. That way mayors, governors, and bureaucrats will not have any power to put barriers against people’s entrepreneurial energies. You remove political intervention in economic decisions and you can see that “public service” will only attract two types of persons, either statesmen or masochists, and that will be for the good of the country.
Former Genuine Opposition spokesman Adel Tamano’s appointment as general counsel of the Senate blue ribbon committee was allegedly blocked by majority leader Francis Pangilinan at around the same time the latter was nominated by Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim to chair the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila.
Senate sources said the animosity between Pangilinan and Tamano which started during the campaign for the May elections was the reason for Pangilinan’s move. The source said the senator, who does not want to see Tamano in the Senate, went to Senate President Manuel Villar when he learned about Tamano’s impending appointment to the BRC.
It was Tamano who reportedly gave Pangilinan an ultimatum to attend the GO proclamation rally and its sorties if he wanted to be drafted into the GO senatorial lineup. Pangilinan stuck to his independent stance and was subsequently dropped from the opposition slate. He won his senatorial bid just the same.
A Phoenix-area home builder who says he is ending his company's $600,000 per year sponsorship agreement with the Phoenix Suns over "integrity issues" has accused coach Frank Johnson of having an affair with his estranged wife.
Greg Hancock, president of Hancock Communities, told the East Valley Tribune in a story published Friday that that his wife, Linda, and Johnson had an affair. Hancock said he and Johnson had been neighbors for six years.
Hancock did not say that the alleged affair was the reason he was severing ties with the Suns, but he told The Arizona Republic earlier in the week that he was discontinuing his payments because of "integrity issues."
Johnson released a statement through the Suns saying only that he and his wife, Amy, had been separated for a year.
The Suns lost a sponsor last week over integrity issues."
The East Valley (Ariz.) Tribune says at issue is an affair between coach Frank Johnson and the wife of the sponsor. Even if Phoenix- area homebuilder Greg Hancock did not specify the relationship as the reason.
Johnson said he and his wife, who have two teenage daughters, have been separated for a year. He did not address the affair. Linda Hancock's divorce lawyer did.
I don't think this has anything to do with Frank Johnson or the Phoenix Suns," attorney Brian Kelley said. This is about a divorce case and a wife who didn't choose to do what her husband demanded in terms of settling the divorce."
Hancock has five years left on a 10-year deal to pay the Suns $600,000 per year.
As far as the issue in the Tribune and Frank's statements, the Suns have no comment," Suns attorney Tom O'Malley said. That's an issue between those two gentlemen."
Using the word loosely.
When Alfred Hitchcock met with novelist Howard Fast (Spartacus) at Universal Studios in late 1966 to discuss a film (probably the unfilmed Kaleidoscope) and their daily round of discussions began. "My God, Howard!" Hitch exclaimed early on. "I've just seen Antonioni's Blowup. These Italian directors are a century ahead of me in terms with technique! What have I been doing all this time?" And with the uncharacteristic admission of the need for revaluation, Hitchcock continued to watch every film of 1966 in his private screening room.
"The great danger of confronting peak oil and global warming isn't that we will sit on our collective asses and do nothing while civilization collapses, but that we will plunge after "solutions" that will make our problems even worse. Like believing we can replace gasoline with ethanol, the much-hyped biofuel that we make from corn."
The Supreme Court on Wednesday disbarred lawyer Jose Emmanuel "Noli" Eala, commissioner of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), after the latter was found to have "immorally" maintained sexual relations with a married woman.
In a nine-page per curiam decision, the high tribunal set aside a resolution of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines board of governors dismissing a disbament case against Eala.
Instead, magistrates found that Eala, a married man himself, "showed disrespect for an institution held sacred by the law" and "betrayed his unfitness to be a lawyer."
Two members of the Philippine Basketball Association board Thursday said that morality is an issue as far as being commissioner of the PBA is concerned.
They were reacting to reports published Thursday about commissioner Noli Eala’s disbarment by the Supreme Court, which declared the former broadcaster guilty of adultery.
“Morality is an issue here because as commissioner, he [Eala] is effectively the face of all 10 PBA teams,” said the first board member, who requested that he not be identified.
“The leader of the PBA should have high integrity.”
SEN. Antonio Trillanes IV will remain in detention, and incommunicado, until Judge Oscar Pimentel's decision refusing him permission to go to work or set up an office in his cell is overturned by a superior court.
Pimentel justified his decision by citing the case of Romeo Jalosjos, who'd been convicted of statutory rape and reelected congressman, but was refused permission to attend sessions of the House of Representatives because the Supreme Court said he had to serve his sentence. In a word, Pimentel decided that an individual facing trial is on par with someone who has already been convicted of a crime.
But no one--not even Trillanes himself, to the best of my knowledge--is proposing that he be allowed to avoid punishment if he's convicted. He is not, at this point, a convict. He is a detainee.
What is the purpose of detention? It isn't punishment, it's to prevent escape, and to close off the possibility of someone accused of a crime evading justice.
Trillanes' lawyers had brought up a more appropriate legal precedent: the case involving the late Sen. Justiniano Montano. Facing multiple murder charges, arrested and denied bail, Montano was granted permission by the Supreme Court to attend Senate sessions anyway. The purpose of denying bail being to prevent the accused from fleeing, Montano's position as a senator made escaping justice impossible.
In contrast, that famous escape artist, Sen. Gregorio Honasan, was not only allowed to post bail so that he could campaign for election, but he subsequently received the delightful news that the charges against him would be dropped. Jalosjos, chairman emeritus of Kakusa, also became the beneficiary of a remarkable grant of executive clemency.
Honasan has, of course, been inclined, with his return to office, to preach the virtues of collaboration with the administration. Kakusa remains on the threshold of winning a seat in the House, and its chairman emeritus can reasonably be expected to preach a similarly accommodating political line.
It is therefore not a question of what you've done, but whom you support. Nothing is impossible, it seems--bail, the dropping of charges, executive clemency--if you publicly proclaim a, shall we say, flexible attitude toward the administration.
grd, about the only time i visited tordesilla’s blog, and became aware of it then, was when mlq3 referred to some excerpts of a supposed interview with mike arroyo concerning the latter’s activities during edsa dos. the pathetic woman was trying to show that the FG was actively involved in some acts of rebellion to oust erap and install his wife as president (charges which i refuted in this blog in debates with mlq3 and abe margallo, among others). i’m not questioning her right to set up a blog for a specific mission, i.e., to destroy the president and her family, and to provide an exclusive forum to those with similar proclivities. but for one who overtly advocates licentious exercise of free expression, banning bloggers and commenters for no other reason than that she doesn’t agree with them is the height of hypocrisy and pretension.
With the elections over and the apparent realignments in the Senate on who constitutes the majority (Manny, Alan and Chiz) and the minority (Loren, Ping, Noynoy and Sonny Trillanes IV), the public has become confused as to who are the “genuine” — meaning real and authentic —oppositionists and those who are mere opportunists. To help the voting public, which gave the GO an overwhelming mandate, overcome this confusion, some benchmarks must be given to determine who are truly with the opposition and who are not.
First, the following three broad issues will determine one’s true political leanings: (1) Corruption; (2) Charter change (Cha-cha); and (3) Human Rights or extra-judicial killings. Obviously, a senator who claims to be with the opposition but refuses to push a Senate investigation on Joc-Joc Bolante, “Hello Garci” and Jose Pidal, the top three corruption scandals according to our surveys during the elections, is not an authentic oppositionist. Similarly, a GO senator who supports Cha-cha prior to 2010, against the obvious sentiments of the Filipino majority, will be shown to be a phony. In the same vein, a GO senator who refuses to take the administration to task over its lousy human rights record should rightly be viewed as an administration hack.
It is your actions that determine your opposition status, not your press releases or comments to media. That said, the choice of Senate president, alone, cannot determine one’s status as opposition or administration.
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