Learning the hard way
EDITORIAL |
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Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20101208com1.html
(Without Fear or Favor)
Specials:
EDITORIAL |
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Posted by Jesusa Bernardo at 10:24 PM 0 comments
FRONTLINE |
Ninez Cacho-Olivares |
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C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S |
Jonathan De la Cruz |
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focus |
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HE SAYS |
Aldrin Cardon |
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SHE SAYS |
Dinah S. Ventura |
Posted by Jesusa Bernardo at 10:10 PM 0 comments
SC strikes down truth body
By Benjamin B. Pulta
12/08/2010
The Supreme Court (SC) majority yesterday voted to declare unconstitutional President Aquino’s Executive Order No. 1 creating a truth commission which was tasked to investigate anomalies during the Arroyo administration.
“In a vote of 10 to 5, the court voted to declare unconstitutional EO 1 creating the Philippine Truth Commission of 2010,” acting SC public information chief Ma. Victoria Gleoresty Guerra said.
“The majority (ruled that EO 1) violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution inasmuch as it singles out investigation of graft and corrupt practices in the previous administration,” she added.
The Aquino administration through Solicitor General Jose Anselmo Cadiz earlier had claimed that extending the scope of investigations indefinitely beyond the Arroyo administration is unrealistic and, as such, a matter of practice an incumbent administration only looks into the dealings of the one which preceded it..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20101208hed1.html
Posted by Jesusa Bernardo at 10:49 AM 0 comments
Grumbling judges no different from protesting students — Palace
By Aytch de la Cruz
12/08/2010
The Palace mocked the wearing of black arm bands by justices throughout the country to protest the huge cuts in the budget for the judiciary and com-pared it with the mass actions of militant college students who are complaining about the slashed allocations for state universities and colleges.
Presidential spokes-man Edwin Lacierda also gave the same reply to protesting judges as the one it issued on pro-testing state-sponsored students.
“There were no cuts in the judiciary budget. This is similar to (argument raised on the issue of the) SUC (budget) that they (students) are claiming that we cut their budget. No, we did not cut the budget of the Supreme Court and other lower courts. Our budget is higher than in 2010,” he claimed.
But later on at the news conference, Lacierda confirmed that the government indeed sought to cut P8-billion out of the P24-billion budget proposed by the judiciary which is intended for personal services because, he said, the nation’s purse cannot afford to allocate that amount for the item..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20101208hed2.html
Posted by Jesusa Bernardo at 10:45 AM 0 comments
Malacañang rapped on Noy’s amnesty grant, but Senate approves it anyway
12/08/2010
Malacañang got the nod of the Senate on President Aquino’s grant of amnesty to more than 300 rebels, yesterday, but not without a tongue-lashing from some senators who took note of some legal and other technical issues that put to question the validity of Proclamation No. 75.
Concurrence with the amnesty proclamation, seen to pave the way for the release from the three-year detention of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, saw one of the original sponsors registering an “abstention” after having been named Monday by the Aquino administration as an alleged co-conspirator of the mutineers of the previous government.
Only 14 of the 17 sponsors, in the previous resolution in the Senate asking Malacañang to grant amnesty to rebel soldiers, concurred with Proclamation 75, while Sen. Joker Arroyo was the lone dissenter.
In a surprise move, Sen. Gregorio Honasan cast an abstention vote citing as reason the possible “conflict of interest” saying that he could eventually end up being a “beneficiary” of the amnesty..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20101208hed3.html
Posted by Jesusa Bernardo at 10:35 AM 0 comments
RP to buy military equipment from China
12/08/2010
The Philippines said Tuesday it was set to sign a “substantial” deal to buy military equipment from China, but insisted it should not impact on its close ties with the United States.
The logistics deal is to be signed by Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Gen. Ricardo David who left Tuesday for Beijing to meet with senior members of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
The visit is aimed at “building bridges of goodwill” and to boost defense relations between the Asian nations, Philippine military spokesman Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta said.
“It would formalize the very good relationship between our countries in terms of exchange of logistics, which the Philippines will be greatly benefiting from,” Mabanta told Agence France Presse..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20101208hed4.html
Posted by Jesusa Bernardo at 10:30 AM 0 comments
House electoral panel to ask Comelec for vital poll documents
By Gerry Baldo
12/08/2010
The House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms yesterday asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to submit at least 21 controversial poll documents that have been withheld from election watchdog groups.
Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga, committee chairman, however, said they cannot force the Comelec, as a constitutional body, to submit the documents to the committee despite the approval of a motion for the need to get those documents from the Comelec, despite a Supreme Court order for the Comelec to submit not just the source codes but also the pertinent documents.
“We cannot force them to submit those documents,” Barzaga said yesterday, despite the fact that the documents, from any agency of government, can be subpoened by Congress.
Among the documents being requested are: source code walkthrough plan; source code of the PCOS program; source code of the CCS programs; file formats of all data files used or produced by the PCOS program; file formats of all data files used or produced by the CCS program; public keys used by all the PCOS computers; -public keys used by all the CCS computers; user manual of the PCOS program, and user manual of the CCS program..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20101208hed5.html
Posted by Jesusa Bernardo at 10:28 AM 0 comments
Palace says Lacson mole should be DoJ’s lookout
By Aytch S. de la Cruz
12/08/2010
It behooves the Department of Justice (DoJ) to do something about possible leaks that one of its officials said were likely on the operations the government is supposedly conducting for the capture of fugitive Sen. Panfilo Lacson, the Palace indicated yesterday.
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the possibility of a Lacson mole in the government “should be a cause of concern” as he added that Justice Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III who raised of possibility of somebody leaking the government moves that allowed the senator to evade arrest must do something about it.
“If there is a concern, they should plug the leak. We have no knowledge where that leak is coming from. If the Undersecretary feels that there is some leakage of information then it behooves them to fix that leak and make sure that the efforts to secure Senator Ping Lacson should not be accompanied with leakages,” Lacierda said..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20101208hed6.html
Posted by Jesusa Bernardo at 10:25 AM 0 comments
Philippines skips Nobel rites for China dissident
By Michaela P. del Callar
12/08/2010
The Philippines is among the 19 countries skipping the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony for Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in Oslo, Norway on Friday.
According to the Nobel Committee, 44 embassies have indicated that they will be represented at the ceremony and 19 have declined their invitations “for various reasons.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Manila confirmed this but declined to state the reason for not sending a representative to the gala.
“We will not attend the event,” said Foreign Affairs spokesman Eduardo Malaya.
However, a senior Philippine diplomat said Manila decided not to attend the event to “avoid” diplomatic fracas with China.
The diplomat said the Philippines “do not want to further annoy China,” which has expressed great disappointment when President Aquino absolved his close aides and several personalities of any accountability and responsibility in the Aug. 23 Manila hostage tragedy that killed eight Hong Kong tourists in a bungled police rescue attempt..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20101208nat3.html
Posted by Jesusa Bernardo at 10:20 AM 0 comments
ONLY ONE BIDDER SHOWS UP
AFP declares bid for P3.2-B helicopters a failure
By Mario J. Mallari
12/08/2010
The long-stalled modernization program of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) hit another snag after the Department of National Defense (DND) declared as failure the bidding for the P3.2 billion worth of helicopters intended for the Air Force.
At a press conference in Camp Aguinaldo, DND spokesman Eduardo Batac said that Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin has approved the recommendation of the Board of Inquiry (BoI) to declare a failure of bidding for the Air Force’s attack helicopter acquisition project.
“This is pursuant to Section 41 (Reservation Clause) of RA 9184 and other related grounds. Under this, the head of the procuring entity reserves the right to declare a failure of bidding for any reasonable and justifiable ground where the award of the contract will not redound to the benefit of the government,” said Batac.
Batac also said that Gazmin also approved the recommendation of the board to temporarily defer further action on the acquisition of big-ticket items under the AFP Modernization Program, until these issues are presented and acted upon by the Government Policy and Procurement Board..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20101208nat1.html
Posted by Jesusa Bernardo at 10:14 AM 0 comments