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No Sona, that EDITORIAL 07/28/2010

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

No Sona, that


EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
07/28/2010

AState of the Nation Address (Sona), it certainly wasn’t. Facts, they weren’t either, as no statistics to substantiate those claims were even presented.

Too much time was devoted to blasting away at the past; little time was spent on specific solutions to problems President Aquino claims to have inherited, and hardly none at all on where he and his government will be taking us in the next six years.

To this day, he says the Filipinos can dream again. But to dream again is more of a campaign promise that a presidential candidate latches on; not a spiel for a president delivering his maiden Sona. That state of Filipinos dreaming again that he speaks of should now be translated into reality under his presidency. We can’t keep on dreaming for the next six years.

Yet even as he tells the nation that.... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100728com1.html

Delayed revulsion FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 07/28/2010

Delayed revulsion


FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
07/28/2010
Funny that Noynoy Aquino blasted away at Gloria Arroyo’s way of getting the National Power Corp. (Napocor) in deeper debt by “forcing” the agency to lower power rates and enable her to get the presidential vote in 2004.

Funny, because Noynoy certainly knew about it even then, yet he never denounced it then.

Since he had known about this, especially as his uncle, Paul Aquino, was in the same government power business, and was in fact, into glorifying Gloria and her plan to lower Napocor rates during the 2004 campaign, why didn’t Noynoy even come up with a privilege speech in Congress and denounce this move which would make the Filipinos suffer? The media already brought this out, saying this was a clear political gimmick for which the Filipinos would be paying the debt through the nose for years and years. So why did he wait for six years, when he certainly had a forum to denounce this? Why bring this up and in his State of the Nation Address (Sona)? Ah, but in those days, he was a staunch ally of Gloria Arroyo, and as all her allies did, praised her, protected her, and covered up for her
.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100728com2.html

The tapadas: Latin America’s veil-clad women FEATURE 07/28/2010

The tapadas: Latin America’s veil-clad women


FEATURE

07/28/2010
LIMA — Europe’s heated debate over the Islamic hijab has revived memories in Peru of its own tapadas, women from Lima who in centuries past wore long skirts and a face-covering veil.

The saya, an overskirt worn tightly at the waist and raised slightly to show ankles, and the manto, a thick shawl that covered shoulders, head and much of the face, inspired painters and writers for three centuries. And they were once considered a distinctively national attire.

A legacy of the Moors, or Muslims, who fled persecution in Spain, “las tapadas Limenas” were especially common among the Spanish elite when they first arrived in Peru after the Spanish colonization in the 16th century.

The attire “was clearly intended to serve as a cover, to protect women’s virtue and ward off temptation,” explained Alicia del Aguila, a sociologist who has studied and written about the subject
.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100728com3.html

It’s just a dream MR. EXPOSE Amb. Ernesto Maceda 07/28/2010

It’s just a dream


MR. EXPOSE
Amb. Ernesto Maceda
07/28/2010
President Benigno Simeon Aquino’s first State of the Nation (Sona) message was in the opinion of majority of listeners disappointing to say the least. All sectors of society were expecting specific solutions to their problems.

The five instances of corruption cited did not achieve a shock and awe effect because they were not big enough nor detailed enough. In the matter of the NFA rice importations, he cited an importation of 900,000 metric tons in 2004 that had a 117,000/MT shortage and in 2007 an importation of 1.8 million MT when the reported shortage was only 588,000. He could have said that in nine years, the amount of importation in quantity and price paid kept increasing to a grand total of more than 12 million metric tons in eight years and bought at prices 50-100 percent above the prices reported by Bloomberg or the New York/Chicago Commodities Exchange.

In the matter of the Motor Vehicles Fund, he mentioned the misuse of more than 200 projects worth about P480 million. He did not mention the bigger Road Users tax of P54 billion. He did not mention the billions allocated for road guards and road signs. He could have cited the P1.5 billion of road guards for Nueva Ecija alone.... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100728com4.html

Hoping, but not counting C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S Jonathan De la Cruz 07/28/2010

Hoping, but not counting


C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S
Jonathan De la Cruz
07/28/2010
So, OK. What do we make out of P-Noy’s Sona? While many would have wanted to have the villains in their minds excoriated no end for the continued deterioration of our situation 24 years after Edsa l and, of course, the injection of their favorite mantras or themes in the 30 minute speech we got what was advised early on. Plain and simple detailing of the whys and wherefores and the hoped for., It was a plain recitation of where we are — a country in crisis, where the poor have gotten poorer, the rich richer and the middle class almost nowhere to be found and, as is now clear, suffering from a host of excesses. And then, a “wishing map” of where we hope to be six years hence. It was a hopeful (we can dream again.) speech but an auditing rulebook as well. It presented our situation as plainly as can be, although some say, not as factually as should have been. We are told, for example, that the MWSS “package” while problematic was not as graphic or even condemnable as some of the excesses in other GOCCs and GFIs. Or, worse, those which befell the PCGG sequestered assets. Maybe it was timed for what is now turning out to be more of a contrived water crisis in the Maynilad service area than earlier presented. Similarly, the “dreaming” part was more modest than what many had hoped for. No soaring rhetorics, no excessive hopes. Just plain and simple things. Which may be par for the course as the administration sorts out the place, so to speak, and spell out the solutions and directions it hopes to lead us to. Indeed, it may be too much to ask for more at this point. But we will be watching and counting..... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100728com5.html

Not as simple as that HE SAYS Aldrin Cardon 07/28/2010

Not as simple as that


HE SAYS
Aldrin Cardon
07/28/2010
To simplify, President Aquino wants it known that government is nearly bankrupt.
He wants it known that it no longer has money to move around, and that of Gloria Arroyo’s penchant for committing abuses, including what now appears as plunder of the 2010 funds with only half the year gone; that she has to receive blame if we fail to move an inch even if we all want to scoot toward progress, now that the diminutive, overly ambitious lady with big, deep pockets is gone.

No, she’s not exactly gone. She was in Hong Kong when Noynoy delivered his very first State of the Nation Address (Sona), which even Vice President Jejomar Binay, described as “simple, direct and truthful.”

Gloria’s flight denied the people of a spectacle, those of what would have been her reaction (or non-reaction) to P-Noy’s statement, especially when he revealed how her past government mismanaged all nine years which were wasted opportunities, or nine years of abandoned.... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100728com6.html

Simply amazing SHE SAYS Dinah S. Ventura 07/28/2010

Simply amazing


SHE SAYS
Dinah S. Ventura
07/28/2010
As expected, the first State of the Nation Address (Sona) of President Noynoy Aquino, given after three weeks in office, was met with mixed reactions, from the negative to the positive, and everything in between.
The business community is reportedly disappointed over the lack of reference to details that would be useful to the industry, such as taxes and stuff.
Militant groups were typically vocal about their opinion over the lack of specific plans for dealing with corruption and the corrupt, now that P-Noy had detailed some of the unsavory practices in the previous administration.
The Arroyos, meanwhile, said nothing said was new, and that they were “used to it,” meaning the allegations, I suppose..... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100728com7.html

Enrile defends Aquino's alleged failure to present road map July 28, 2010, 11:33am

Enrile defends Aquino's alleged failure to present road map

July 28, 2010, 11:33am
MANILA (PNA) – Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile on Tuesday defended President Benigno Aquino III's alleged failure to present a road map of his administration in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday.

Enrile said the program of the government will be shown by the budget message that the President will issue “because the budget is the policy and program of government.”

”He is just like a doctor, analyzing the body of the patient. If he will do prescription now, his prescription is the budget,” Enrile said in a media interview.


While defending the President, Enrile assured the Filipino people that he would not become an “errand boy” of Malacañang..... MORE

SourceThe Manila Bulletin

URL: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/269270/enrile-defends-aquinos-alleged-failure-present-road-map

Detained Col. Querubin freed July 28, 2010, 11:26am

Detained Col. Querubin freed

July 28, 2010, 11:26am
MANILA (PNA) — Armed Forces chief Lt. Gen. Ricardo David has given provisional liberty to detained Marine Col. Ariel Querubin, one of the leaders of the failed attempt to overthrow the administration of former President Arroyo more than four years ago.

In a radio interview, AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta said that the provisional liberty of Querubin, a recipient of the highest military decoration Medal of Valor, was approved Tuesday night by David.

Querubin was deemed retired from the military service after he ran but lost for senator in the May 10 elections. He is detained at Camp Aguinaldo, facing trial before a military tribunal for a charge of mutiny in connection with his group’s plot to march and subsequently withdraw their support from then President Arroyo in February 2006..... MORE

SourceThe Manila Bulletin

URL: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/269267/detained-col-querubin-freed

Police use Facebook in arrest of murder suspect July 28, 2010, 11:03am

Police use Facebook in arrest of murder suspect

July 28, 2010, 11:03am
 
 MANILA (AFP) – Philippine police on Wednesday said they used Facebook to track down a Filipino computer technician blamed for the gruesome murders of nine people, three of them foreigners.
 
The suspect, Mark Dizon, 28, was captured by police Tuesday in San Fernando City north of Manila after his father, fearful that his son would be killed in a gunbattle, arranged to meet him.

Dizon was initially identified by witnesses through his Facebook account, where police found out that a daughter of one of the victims was an ex-girlfriend.

"He had an account on Faceboook and two witnesses positively identified him," Senior Superintendent Danilo Bautista, chief of police of nearby Angeles city where the murders took place, told AFP..... MORE

SourceThe Manila Bulletin

URL: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/269263/police-use-facebook-arrest-murder-suspect

France declares war against al-Qaida July 28, 2010, 11:37am

France declares war against al-Qaida

July 28, 2010, 11:37am
PARIS (AP) – France has declared war on al-Qaida, and matched its fighting words with a first attack on a base camp of the terror network's North African branch, after the terror network killed a French aid worker it took hostage in April.

The declaration and attack marked a shift in strategy for France, usually discrete about its behind-the-scenes battle against terrorism.

"We are at war with al-Qaida," Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Tuesday, a day after President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the death of 78-year-old hostage Michel Germaneau.
The humanitarian worker had been abducted April 20 or 22 in Niger by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, and was later taken to Mali, officials said..... MORE

SourceThe Manila Bulletin

URL: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/269272/france-declares-war-against-alqaida

‘Tilapia’ gains popularity abroad July 27, 2010, 5:10pm

‘Tilapia’ gains popularity abroad

July 27, 2010, 5:10pm
PILI, Camarines Sur (PNA) — There are several good reasons why fishery authorities have been encouraging fishermen in Bicol Region or even in the whole country to raise more “tilapia” (scientific name – tilapia nituka) preferably through aquaculture.

Tilapia is now officially considered the Filipino poor man’s fish replacing “galungggong” (roundscad) and while most of its production in the Philippines is consumed locally, demand in the international market has been growing.

According to Dennis del Socorro, the regional director for Bicol of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) based here, said latest report of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association said that in the United States (US), tilapia has shown the biggest gains in popularity among seafood.... MORE

SourceThe Manila Bulletin

URL: http://www.mb.com.ph/node/269154/

Subic eyed as cruise ship destination By JONAS REYES July 27, 2010, 5:14pm

Subic eyed as cruise ship destination

By JONAS REYES
July 27, 2010, 5:14pm

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — This Freeport Zone might become the first stopover of cruise ship liners in the Philippines as the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) becomes a founding member of the Asian Cruise Terminals Association (ACTA), a newly-formed group that will provide a consolidated marketing platform for the cruise ship industry in Asia.

According to SBMA Administrator Armand Arreza, “The SBMA is the only founding member from the Philippines, thereby giving it a great opportunity to build a solid business network with ACTA-member countries.”

Arreza said that the member countries are composed of China, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Sri Lanka, and India.... MORE

SourceThe Manila Bulletin

URL: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/269156/subic-eyed-cruise-ship-destination

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