No sense of pride and dignity EDITORIAL 09/21/2010

No sense of pride and dignity

EDITORIAL

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09/21/2010
Unbelievable!

Less than a hundred days into the presidential

office, and too many mistakes are being made by Noynoy Aquino and his boys in Malacañang, so much so that it is already glaringly evident that Noynoy just can’t hack the presidential job, as he remains clueless on almost everything, as well as his clear absence of leadership qualities.

Sen. Joker Arroyo likened the running the affairs of government by the Aquino administration as one run by a student council.

“The government is run like a student government,” he said, pointing out that executive officials, appear to be engaged in what he described as “hit or miss action” on pressing matters.

“Now, in running the affairs of the government, they should also think about how to be effective. Up to now people are waiting for policy directions, even we legislators are waiting. These are the problems. They should wake up. This is the reality of the situation. This is not a student government,” the senator said.

The truth is, a lot of Filipinos share this sentiment, as expressed by the senator. Well over 70 days in the presidential office, there has been no policy direction. The country and the Aquino government are aimlessly drifting at sea with a leaderless captain, not knowing what to do and how to get to land..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100921com1.html

Bowing to China FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 09/21/2010

Bowing to China

FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

09/21/2010
Stop speculating, says the Palace. Just wait for Noynoy to approve the release of the botched hostage rescue report.

That’s easy to say, but speculations were bound to rise, owing to the stupidity of the Palace occupant to take too long to have the report released to the public, made worse when Malacañang announced that the Chinese government takes first crack at the report, when it should be the Filipinos first.

And why shouldn’t there be speculations that the report is being crafted to please the Chinese government as Noynoy says that the panel report is merely recommendatory and that more legal studies are in the offing, apart from refusing to even inform the people just what the report contains?

As things stand today, the speculations have become reality, as Noynoy intimated that changes in the report are forthcoming.

It was a cock and bull story Malacañang wove about Noynoy not having finished reading the 83-page report, three days after its submission. And even worse is that reason his miscommunications officials had for the long delay, stating that Noynoy was reading the report during his “vacant” time..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100921com2.html

‘Master of blue jeans’ holds key to fashion riddle FEATURE 09/21/2010

‘Master of blue jeans’ holds key to fashion riddle

FEATURE

09/21/2010
PARIS — Workaday staple and fashion favorite, blue jeans have conquered the planet. But were they born in the textile mills of New Hampshire, on France’s southern coast or the looms of north Italy?

Art historians believe they have found a piece of the centuries-old puzzle in the work of a newly discovered 17th-century north Italian artist, dubbed the “Master of the Blue Jeans,” whose paintings went on show in Paris this week.

Running through his works like a leitmotif is an indigo blue fabric threaded with white, with rips revealing its structure, in the skirts of a peasant woman or the jacket of a beggar boy.

“The works are very attached to the detail of clothing — it was very rare for a painter to characterize the poor with such detail,” said curator Gerlinde Gruber, who helped to identify the anonymous artist’s works.

“And there is blue jean in every painting except one,” she said.

Other details in his work, such as a knotted white kerchief in a painting entitled Mother Sewing, enabled curators to locate the scenes in northern Italy, in the region of Venice.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100921com3.html

Dreaming NO HOLDS BARRED Armida Siguion-Reyna 09/21/2010

Dreaming

NO HOLDS BARRED

Armida Siguion-Reyna

09/21/2010
It’s the state I slip into, whenever our President leaves, whoever the President may be. I make-believe big and gung-ho and with so much optimism, that I invariably get what I want, my wish ko lang. So what, if it’s only in my fancy? The road to somewhere starts from nowhere.

I write this knowing that you shall read it on the anniversary of President Ferdinand Marcos’ declaration of martial law, where then there was censorship and yet understandably so. But I’m going ahead of what I want to say.

I write this knowing that our President Benigno Aquino is off to witness the signing of the $434 million Millennium Challenge Corp. grant in New York between Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima and a representative of the MCC, in its Web site described as “an innovative and independent US foreign-aid agency that is helping lead the fight against global poverty.” 

P-Noy gets to the city that doesn’t sleep Tuesday morning, plunges into meetings with US business leaders, and proceeds to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue, where he is to be met by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Together they watch the signing of the document aimed “to reduce poverty and spur economic development in the Philippines,” after which they listen to speeches from our Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo and his US ka-level, and then meet..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100921com4.html

Individualism and retribution AN OUTSIDERS VIEW Ken Fuller 09/21/2010

Individualism and retribution

AN OUTSIDERS VIEW

Ken Fuller

09/21/2010
Whenever I read something in the press to which I might respond in the future, this outsider will copy and paste the piece, saving it in my “Articles” file. (Is this a suicidal anomaly — a newspaper columnist who only reads newspapers on the Internet?) If the column is written fairly soon, it may have to take its place in a queue, behind pieces already awaiting the weekly e-mail to the Tribune. (And what a comfortable feeling it is to have several columns in reserve!)

Sometimes, a copied and pasted piece will, frankly, be forgotten, and by the time I remember it the topic will have become outdated. Then there is the odd occasion when I am struck by something another columnist has written but am unsure precisely what it’s saying to me. On these occasions — and this is one of them — the piece may lay in the file for a few weeks before I take another look at it.

On Aug. 4, Ma. Ceres Doyo had this to say in her Inquirer column: “A wicked smile forms on my lips and a nasty glint appears in my eyes whenever there’s news of car thieves and carjackers, and their ilk — lowlifes from hell — getting mowed down in a bloody gun battle with law enforcers. I feel like shouting, ‘And here’s a few more for your skulls, for the car you stole from me.’”... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100921com5.html

Khmer Rouge tribunal faces uphill struggle with second trial focus 09/21/2010

Khmer Rouge tribunal faces uphill struggle with second trial

focus

09/21/2010
PHNOM PENH — Three decades after their reign of terror, four Khmer Rouge leaders are finally set to go on trial, but the case poses a major challenge and has been described as “the most complex since Nuremberg.”

A UN-backed tribunal on Thursday indicted four former members of the regime for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in connection with the deaths of up to two million people between 1975 and 1979.

The accused, whose trial is expected to begin in early 2011, are “Brother Number Two” Nuon Chea, former foreign minister Ieng Sary, his wife and former social affairs minister Ieng Thirith and former head of state Khieu Samphan.

“Some people have said, and I believe they are right, that this is the most complex trial since the Nuremberg trials,” said outgoing co-investigating judge Marcel Lemonde, referring to the landmark Nazi trial after World War II.

The indictments set the stage for the second trial at the hybrid court — made up of Cambodian and international legal officials — following a landmark conviction in July that saw former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav sentenced to 30 years for overseeing the deaths of 15,000 men, women and children..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100921com6.html

Faded dreams for Mozambican labors in East Germany FEATURE 09/21/2010

Faded dreams for Mozambican labors in East Germany

FEATURE

09/21/2010
MAPUTO — A handful of tattered photos are all that remain of Mozambican Anacleto Amade’s two years in East Germany, where he worked in the 1980s under a labor scheme between the then-communist allies.

But his memories of friendships abroad and walking in the snow are scant comfort now. Like most of the 15,000 Mozambicans sent to work in East German factories, Amade said he has never been paid his full wages.

“When I see those pictures, the emotion is enormous, it is big. It is the size of the world. Because no one’s story is the same,” the 41-year-old said.

While in East Germany, the Mozambicans were paid only 40 percent of their salaries, they say. They were told the rest was sent to Mozambique for investment and pay-out upon their return.

But after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the labour pact ended and they were sent home to a nation that was still a Cold War proxy battlefield. They received only about $350 (270 euro) each.

The Mozambicans in East Germany worked in steel, construction, manufacturing and textiles industries from 1979.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100921com7.html

Legal eagles bid to defend Erap in US case Angie M. Rosales 09/21/2010

Legal eagles bid to defend Erap in US case
Angie M. Rosales
09/21/2010

Topnotch lawyers are volunteering to defend former President Joseph Estrada in a $120-million civil suit filed by the daughters of slain publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer before a California court last week against Estrada, fugitive Sen. Panfilo Lacson and five other accused, Estrada’s son, Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada said.

The young Estrada ex-pressed confidence that efforts to implicate his father on the kidnapping and killing more than a decade ago of Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito, will prove futile.

“There are a lot of topnotch lawyers who are offering their services for free. We are very confident that the case against (former) President Estrada will not prosper,” he told reporters in an interview yesterday.

The senator was reacting on reports on the filing of a $120-million civil suit that Dacer’s daughters had filed at a Northern District court in the State of California.

The former leader described this move as “absurd” adding that the filing of the case was a desperate act on the part of the Dacer siblings to continue to pin him down on the case.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100921hed2.html

Luisita standoff on, as framers, lawyer walk out By Benjamin B. Pulta 09/21/2010

Luisita standoff on, as framers, lawyer walk out
By Benjamin B. Pulta
09/21/2010

mediation talks are a hair’s breadth away from stalling in the Supreme Court-initiated mediation over the Cojuangco family owned Hacienda Luisita two weeks after it started.

At the end of its fourth conference

yesterday parties still could not come to terms on the options available to the management and farmers.

A lawyer representing a group of farmers walked out of the session. 

Lawyer Jobert Pahilga, who represents a faction of the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid ng Hacienda Luisita (Ambala), said his clients opted to withdraw their participation in the mediation proceed-ings in the belief that HLI is sticking to its stock distribution option (SDO) scheme to avoid distribution of the 6,453-hectare sugar estate in Tarlac.

Pahilga and his clients left the SC conference room 

in the middle of the closed-door discussions despite an order last week from the high court for them to continue participating in the mediation despite an earlier manifestation of lack of interest..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100921hed4.html

Gov’t caretaker unnecessary — Binay 09/21/2010

Gov’t caretaker unnecessary — Binay
09/21/2010
Vice President Jejomar Binay yesterday said he has no problem with President Aquino’s “no caretaker” policy for his one-week working visit to the United States.

“With all the available communications technology

, appointing a caretaker would be unnecessary since the President can constantly keep in touch with the Cabinet and key government officials,” he pointed out.

Aquino is addressing the United Nations

General Assembly and meeting with US President Barack Obama and counterparts from Southeast Asia as well as top US businessmen during his first overseas trip as President of the Republic.

Binay, in a state-ment, said for him “what is important is that the day-to-day business of govern-ment remains unin-terrupted.”

He added he has been instructed by Aquino to perform certain duties and that he will perform these as instructed.

Meanwhile, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. also yesterday advised Cabinet members that they may have to be on call “24/7” while Aquino is on a seven-day working visit to the US..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100921hed3.html

Noy won’t act on report; lawyers to study findings By Aytch S. dela Cruz 09/21/2010

Officials, mediamen, 3 TV networks named

Noy won’t act on report; lawyers to study findings

By Aytch S. dela Cruz
09/21/2010

Probability is high that President Aquino may not entirely uphold the recommendations presented to him by the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC) which he had tasked to probe the botched hostage rescue operations when a sacked police officer seized a tourist bus and killed eight foreigners last Aug. 23.

Aquino said he has ordered his Chief Presidential 

Legal Counsil Eduardo de Mesa and Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. to conduct a thorough review on the IIRC’s list of individuals and institutions it has found culpable in the police’s bungling of the crisis operations.

“It’s possible that I may subscribe to the entirety; I may add to the recommendations; I may diminish some of the actions. I repeat those are all recommendations — recommendatory. I will have to go into the details to explain that. But, again, the bottom line is, let us find the appropriate cases — be it criminal or administrative —supported by the facts and even if they’re winnable,” Aquino explained in a short press conference he held in Malacañang hours prior to his departure for the United States yesterday.

He stressed that there will be no decisions made until after he returns from his trip, and after the report has undergone study by Palace lawyers..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100921hed1.html

AFP warns of backlash for scrapping P1-B KBP By Mario J. Mallari 09/21/2010

AFP warns of backlash for scrapping P1-B KBP
By Mario J. Mallari
09/21/2010

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) yesterday warned of the backlash of the scrapping of the P1 billion a year Kalayaan sa Barangay Program (KBP) which is part of the holistic government approach against insurgency as it brings infrastructure projects to communist-infested areas throughout the country.

At a press briefing in Camp Aguinaldo, AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta Jr. cited the KBP’s positive impact to the government’s internal security operations (ISO) during the past years due to projects undertaken under the program.

Mabanta said the KBP was allotted with P3 billion since 2008 up to this year to fund road projects, construction of bridges and school buildings, and other necessary infrastructure in far-flung areas.

“There will be effect in insurgency effort in some areas… because part of the counter insurgency efforts is to show the people that progress goes into their areas, if this does not come we will be questioned,” said Mabanta as he explained that KBP projects are focused on rebel-infested areas apparently to deliver government services..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20100921nat3.html

DSWD asked to justify P30-B ‘Dinky doleouts’ 09/21/2010

DSWD asked to justify P30-B ‘Dinky doleouts’
09/21/2010
Members of the upper chamber have directed the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to justify the P30-billion increase in its budget next year, intended for the Aquino administration’s dole-out program.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman, during the Senate’s budget hearing, was told to present documents as to how the government intends to carry out the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program that is said to have caused the increase of the department’s appropriations for 2011 by 123 percent.

Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero joined those questioning what some of his colleagues noted as “lopsided” spending priorities of President Aquino in the proposed P1.6-trillion national budget for next year.

The lawmaker raised a howl over the cuts in the appropriations of 55 government hospitals across the country which will have a combined slash of over P1 billion.

For one, Escudero said, “overstretched hospitals” need cash transfers as much as poor do.

“Putting more beds, doctors and medicines in hospitals is as much as a pro-poor initiative as putting money in their pockets,” he added..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100921hed6.html