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Gov’t drops murder raps vs 2 Ampatuans 04/18/2010

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Gov’t drops murder raps vs 2 Ampatuans


04/18/2010

The Department of Justice (DoJ) yesterday said it will be dropping murder charges against two prominent members of the Ampatuan clan over the massacre of 57 persons last November.

Suspended Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan and former Maguindanao Vice Gov. Akmad Ampatuan were initially alleged to be two of the key planners of the election-linked killings in Maguindanao province but will be dropped from the list of those accused, Justice Secretary Alberto Agra said.
“I just issued the resolution. I have already instructed the prosecutors to amend the charges to drop them against Zaldy and Akmad,” Agra told Agence France Presse, although he said lawyers opposed to his decision could appeal in court.

The move was sure to provoke outrage among the relatives’ victims, who have repeatedly voiced concern that President Arroyo secretly intended to protect the Ampatuans because they were long-time political allies.

The prosecution in February charged that Zaldy, Akmad and other members of the Ampatuan clan conspired to murder a convoy of political rivals and journalists in Maguindanao on Nov. 23.... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100418hed1.html

Erap: No talks with Gibo 04/18/2010

Erap: No talks with Gibo


04/18/2010

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya — Former President Estrada yesterday denied reports of ongoing talks between him and former Defense Secretary and administration presidential candidate Gilbert Teodoro, regarding the latter’s possibility if giving up his candidacy in favor of the former President.

Estrada, however, said he was open to such talks with Teodoro should the latter decide to make such an offer.
But Estrada said reports of such talks already being conducted between his camp and Teodoro’s were “pure speculation.”

Estrada, meanwhile, said his camp was open to accepting anybody from the Lakas-Kampi-CMD who is willing to support and work for his advocacies.... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100418hed5.html


Secret candidates EDITORIAL 04/18/2010

Secret candidates



EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
04/18/2010

The Nacionalista Party (NP) and the Liberal Party (LP) are bashing each other’s head and accusing each other for being the silent partner of Gloria Arroyo because of the defections going to both camps and branding each standard bearer as either Villarroyo or Gloriaquino with each at the same time boasting that more of the former allies of Gloria are coming to them -- a sheer contradiction of logic.

As of the latest count from political observers, both are, however, equal recipients of the defectors from Gloria, which should make both parties pause to think why the allies of Gloria are choosing to be equally distributed within the two camps.

The Lakas-Kampi-CMD may be disintegrating but the alliance that Gloria has built over the years appears to be mutating in other parties as a means for life preservation to perhaps later pursue Gloria’s loftier goals.

As of last count, Villarroyo had 22 defectors while Gloriaquino had 20, giving them equal reasons to be tagged as the refuge of supposed deserters from Gloria’s camp.... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100418com1.html

Relax, but don’t enjoy it FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 04/18/2010

Relax, but don’t enjoy it



FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
04/18/2010

Failure of the automated polls in May, despite the denials of the poll body, is more probable than possible, what with an admitted 30 percent going manual, apart from the fact that the machines — all 83,000 of them — have hardly been tested. The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has not done this testing, as evidenced by the machine glitches in Hong Kong and probably elsewhere.
Still, if a failure of elections comes about, the nation will know of it in say, a maximum of five days, which would be roughly sometime on May 15, give and take a half day.

What is likely to come about? Another Edsa that is said being planned by the yellows? A military takeover that would again lead to a people power revolt that the yellows are hoping for, in order for their Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas to take over the reins of government and declare a revolutionary government?... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100418com2.html

Autism and marijuana ENQUIRY Demaree J. B. Raval 04/18/2010

Autism and marijuana



ENQUIRY
Demaree J. B. Raval
04/18/2010

The denigrators of presidential candidate Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino Jr. claim that he is autistic. Of course, they would; that’s their role in the current political exercise. But what is alarming is that the Liberal Party (LP) never made any real effort to convince the public that its standard bearer is not mentally-challenged.

Thus, in my column on Feb. 21, 2010 entitled “Those whom the gods wish to destroy,” I wrote: “It was methodical madness for the LP to make a limp denial of the autism issue and to give one columnist hell just because he had asked Noynoy if he felt alluded to. The autism issue will not die with the kind of answer that the LP has given; it could engender far worse and more personal issues that could irreparably hurt Noynoy’s campaign.”

Now comes the “Psychiatric Report” on Noynoy’s alleged mental disorder and use of marijuana.... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100418com3.html

My birthday boys NO HOLDS BARRED Armida Siguion-Reyna 04/18/2010

My birthday boys



NO HOLDS BARRED
Armida Siguion-Reyna
04/18/2010

Tomorrow is the birthday of the man I will vote president on May 10. Today marks the 89th year of the man I have been married to, for close to 60 years.

Two weeks before our wedding
, I had sung at the FEU Auditorium, then a popular venue for musicals. On the way back home, I was seated in front of the car between my husband-to-be and the driver, while Papa, Mama and my sister Irma were at the passengers’ seat in the back. Mama said “O papa’no iyan, hijo, ‘di hindi mo na papayagan si Mida na lumabas ulit sa opera pag mag-asawa na kayo?”

Seggy, or Sig to friends, and Nardy to family, answered: “A, hindi naman ho… sa opera at concerts puede, pero huwag naman sa mga Manila Opera house na kasama ng mga Pugo at Chichay.” I kept quiet, but as soon as we reached the house and got off the car, I took off my engagement ring and gave it back: “Wala nang wedding. You just told me that from hereon, you will dictate what I am to do — I cannot accept that.”... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100418com4.html

Loren, feminist, sucks up to chauvinists Dolphy, Willie Wow and Pacman BLURBAL THRUSTS Louie Logarta 04/18/2010

Loren, feminist, sucks up to chauvinists Dolphy, Willie Wow and Pacman



BLURBAL THRUSTS
Louie Logarta
04/18/2010

The Nacionalista Party’s vice presidential candidate Senator Loren Legarda has shamelessly embraced the high-maintenance celebrity endorsers whose services her multi-billionaire running mate Sen. Manny Villar had engaged in order to promote their candidacies in the May polls, despite their being alleged womanizers which goes against the very grain of her feminist ideals.
It must have been a really bitter pill for Legarda to swallow (after all hadn’t she gone to extra lengths in the past to project herself as a thoroughly modern woman who was only too willing to stand up and champion the rights of her fellow Filipinas against the male chauvinist bastards who would trample on them?) that she would have to cavort and rub elbows with such characters all in the name of politics because she wanted desperately to win the elections.

During the recent vice presidential forum of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), Legarda stuck out like a sore thumb as she was obliged to defend Villar’s choice of endorsers — comedian Dolphy, boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao and popular entertainment personality Willie Revillame who are all rumored to have been romantically involved with a string of beautiful women — against those who would criticize him even if she loathed doing so.... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100418com5.html

Age really matters TABLETS OF STONE Larry Faraon, OP 04/18/2010

Age really matters



TABLETS OF STONE
Larry Faraon, OP
04/18/2010

President Joseph Estrada is turning 73 tomorrow. Our birthday wish is a promise. If there is any quality that the Filipino people need today for a president, given the near chaotic situation of this country from all angles, sides and corners, it is that of maturity. And generally, maturity comes with age.

We need not list an evidential comparison of the personalities whose age didn’t matter in the performance of their jobs such as Nelson Mandela, Ronald Reagan or the present head of the 1.5 billion Catholics — Pope Benedict XVI to President Erap, since maturity could stand on the argument by itself.

Experience goes with age. The presidency is not a matter of “trying something new” or “changing of hands” to break monotony. Inexperience is what this country does not need at the moment when everything in the horizon is being downed to the drains. In biblical times, patriarchs ruled in a paternalistic mode in order to bring about God’s promise of founding and leading a chosen people toward the land of promise.... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100418com6.html

The Supreme Court of the Philippines VIEWPOINTS Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz 04/18/2010

The Supreme Court of the Philippines



VIEWPOINTS
Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz
04/18/2010

\"The Supreme Court shall have the following powers: Exercise original jurisdiction… over petitions for certiorari, prohibition, mandamus, quo warranto, and habeas corpus.” (Philippine Constitution: Article VII, Section 5,1)

With malice toward none, with good will toward all, and with but the welfare of the country in mind, it does not appear altogether baseless and wherefore senseless to say: One, that the Executive Department, especially in the national level, has practically become the biggest bane and ordeal of the country. 

Two, that the Legislative Department, particularly its Lower House is actually anything but admirable in constituency and gratifying in its value system and work ethic.

Three, that the Judicial Department, most specifically the Supreme Court, lately appears to become less eminent in its handling of certain cases — more concretely in conjunction with issues perceived intimately connected with the self-serving interest of Malacañang — symbolic of the Chief Executive..... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100418com7.html

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