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Search for truth goes on EDITORIAL Click to enlarge 02/10/2011

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Search for truth goes on

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
02/10/2011
There is obviously a concerted effort from certain sectors to exploit the suicide of former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff (CoS) Angelo Reyes, with the aim of getting the congressional hearings, both in the Senate and the House of Representatives, to grind to a halt, or at least to keep these hearings behind closed doors.
It must be asked then: Why do some sectors — especially military groups — want congressional hearings on the massive corruption in the AFP to end? Is it because more of the corrupt activities from retired and even active generals and colonels and other less senior officers would be exposed? But that would make corruption thrive, not eliminated.
It is being claimed by Reyes’ mistahs and friends that Reyes was a victim of trial by publicity and a victim of democracy and justice applied erroneously. But others have been treated such in other congressional hearings, and none of these same sectors complained about those linked to allegations of anomalies of being victims of democracy and justice applied wrongly. And many of those who have gone through the congressional wringer didn’t kill themselves over such allegations..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110210com1.html

Indecisive leadership FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 02/10/2011

Indecisive leadership

FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
02/10/2011
Malacañang is suddenly singing a different tune on the Reproductive Health (RH) bill. It now says that Noynoy never ever pushed this controversial bill, even during the presidential campaign period.

Seven months in the presidential office, and the lies come easily off the lips of the Malacañang tenant, through his spokesmen.

Deputy presidential spokesman Abigail Valte claimed that even when Noynoy was just a presidential candidate, he wanted responsible parenthood as he believes decisions over the size of families are best left to parents.

“There’s that misconception that the President was pushing the RH bill entirely during the campaign. We have always been very consistent that his stand was always for responsible parenthood,” Valte said.

Yet not too long ago, Noynoy stated that among the priority bills he would be sending to Congress was the Responsible Parenthood (RP) bill, which would be deemed urgent. This was claimed by him and his spokesmen after the reported dialogs he held with the bishops..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110210com2.html

Lynch mobs batter Indonesia’s tolerant image focus 02/10/2011

Lynch mobs batter Indonesia’s tolerant image

focus

02/10/2011
JAKARTA — Mobs screaming “God is greatest” as they stone people to death; mobs calling for death to blasphemers and burning churches; mobs beating liberals in the capital’s thoroughfares: these are not scenes from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, but Indonesia, a so-called model of pluralism.

US President Barack Obama adopted the obligatory tone of visiting Western politicians when he lauded mainly Muslim Indonesia’s “spirit of religious tolerance” during a visit to Jakarta in November.

But three months later his ambassador, Scot Marciel, was forced this week to issue a statement deploring religious violence and encouraging President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to uphold the rule of law in the ostensibly secular state.

Indonesia’s cherished image as a “moderate” Muslim-majority nation has taken a battering at the hands of mobs of angry Muslims who slaughtered three members of a minority sect on Sunday and set fire to two churches on Tuesday..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110210com3.html

Alvarez’s confusing order BLURBAL THRUSTS Louie Logarta 02/10/2011

Alvarez’s confusing order

BLURBAL THRUSTS
Louie Logarta
02/10/2011
Marikina City Rep. Marcelino Teodoro is like a modern-day Don Quixote jousting with windmills that he can never hope to upend no matter how hard he strives.

The lawmaker is naively pushing the approval of a proposed bill that would oblige the multi-millionaire owners of shopping malls, hotels, etc. throughout the country to stop collecting parking fees from customers patronizing their respective establishments.

In the pro-people measure, Teodoro said he merely wants to lessen the expenses of urban shoppers by obliging the rich businessmen who own these shopping malls and hotels to give free parking to their clientele because it is only right and proper to do so.

Well, here’s wishing good luck to Representative Teodoro. He will need all the luck in the world for his free parking bill to clear the legislature with flying colors because ranged against him are several in the Forbes magazine list of richest Filipinos in the Philippines..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110210com4.html

Pointers on clerical discipline-2 VIEWPOINTS Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz 02/10/2011

Pointers on clerical discipline-2

VIEWPOINTS
Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz
02/10/2011
Hereunder are some plain and simple pointers that could explain and/or clarify certain basic questions and issues about the Catholic Clergy – especially in conjunction with their discipline as far the Church herself is concerned as represented by her legitimate ecclesiastical authorities:

a.There is an essential difference between the priest and his clerical state although it is standard that the two realities remain together in one and the same man, while separable in fact they remain.

b.Once ordained a priest, a man remains a priest always, now and forever. That is why in reality and truth, there is no such thing as an “Ex-priest” in the whole wide world.

c.As a matter of course, a priest embraces the clerical state that spells out all his major and minor obligations such as praying the Breviary, obeying his Bishop and observing celibacy through a life of continence – in addition to living a life of virtues in general..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110210com5.html

Mexico’s wealthiest city struggles with new violence FEATURE 02/10/2011

Mexico’s wealthiest city struggles with new violence

FEATURE

02/10/2011
MONTERREY — Inhabitants of Mexico’s wealthiest city of Monterrey once feared Mexico City for its notorious crime, but some have now moved there to escape an explosion of violence at home.

Grenade attacks on police, bystanders killed in shootouts, and “narcoblockades” — when drug gang members steal cars to block roads — shook the industrial hub and its northern state of Nuevo Leon last year, where total murders rose 300 percent to 828, with more than 500 blamed on drug violence.
Violence hit new levels this January, when 20 police were killed.

“We had an assassination, execution or murder every six hours,” Eloy Cantu, senator for Nuevo Leon, told AFP.

Authorities blame a spillover from neighboring Tamaulipas state, where a turf war between the Gulf cartel and its former hitmen the Zetas has spread fear and forced entire populations out of villages..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110210com6.html

South Sudan preserves past to forge a proud future focus 02/10/2011

South Sudan preserves past to forge a proud future

focus

02/10/2011
JUBA — Yellowing papers, nibbled by termites and dumped on piles waist high, crowd the sweltering-hot giant tent: The raw documents that make up the history of the world’s newest nation to be.

As south Sudan prepares for full independence, due on July 9 after last month’s referendum that saw almost 99 percent of the mostly African Christian south vote to break from historical domination by the Arab-Muslim north, work is going on to preserve its past.

“It is a major task, but it is so important to preserve these documents before it is too late,” said archivist Youssef Fulgensio Onyalla, tasked with heading the rescue work by the southern government.

Jumbled scraps of papers in Arabic and English lie alongside political assessments from the 1920s, traditional shields and spears, and century-old hand-drawn maps of regions newly explored by British colonial administrators: a muddled treasure trove for historians piecing together the past of a long-troubled land..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110210com7.html

DoJ to probe ‘big fish’ behind Garcia By Benjamin B. Pulta 02/10/2011

CIMATU RETURNS, DENIES GETTING P80-M SEND-OFF GIFT

DoJ to probe ‘big fish’ behind Garcia

By Benjamin B. Pulta 02/10/2011

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has vowed to look into the claim of retired Commodore Rex Robles that a “bigger personality” is involved in the corruption scandal in the military.

Speaking to reporters, De Lima yesterday said the agency might look into the insinuation of Robles that retired Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) comptroller Carlos Garcia’s protector used the charges against former AFP Chief of Staff Angelo Reyes to divert the public’s attention from his plea bargain agreement in the Sandiganbayan.

“This is the best time to dig deeper into that,” the Justice chief said. “We can’t just waste what Heidi Mendoza and Col. George Rabusa are doing. We don’t see any indication that they were telling lies.” “I don’t think Malacañang knows (about it) at this point. As far as I’m concerned, the Palace is not aware of the involvement of other personalities in this controversy apart from those already named in inquiries in the Senate and the House,” she claimed.

The justice chief said the statement of Robles is welcome at the Palace, which is expecting more witnesses to testify on similar anomalies to surface..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110210hed1.html

Palace says no withdrawal of RH support despite exclusion from priority bills 02/10/2011 By Aytch S. de la Cruz

Palace says no withdrawal of RH support despite exclusion from priority bills

02/10/2011
By Aytch S. de la Cruz
President Aquino’s decision to drop the Responsible Parenthood (RP) bill from his list of priority legislative agenda for the first Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) he would convene is not an act of betrayal to the women’s groups, Malacañang implied yesterday.

Addressing the disappointed women’s groups, deputy presidential spokesman Abigail Valte clarified that Aquino is not backtracking from his position on his five-pronged RP bill but that he has merely postponed its endorsement pending the conclusions of the State’s ongoing dialogs with Church leaders.

Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines (DSWP) has decried Aquino’s perceived preferential treatment to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) since it is the only sector being consulted on the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill while the women’s groups were apparently being marginalized by his government.

DSWP claimed that it has requested an audience with the members of the Aquino administration to address its concerns over RH issues but Valte said she would have to confirm first if indeed a request was sent to the Office of the President..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110210hed2.html

Malacañang assures JFC vs regulatory risks, no commitment on court orders 02/10/2011

Malacañang assures JFC vs regulatory risks, no commitment on court orders

02/10/2011
Malacañang yesterday declined to give any commitment to potential long-term foreign investors that they will be given immunity from judicial risks when they start doing business under the Aquino administration out of courtesy to the judiciary which is a separate and co-equal branch of government.

Deputy presidential spokesman Abigail Valte issued this statement in response to the appeals made by the Joint Foreign Chambers (JFC) which sought clear assurance from the government that it would be protected against regulatory, judicial and legislative risks.

According to a report, the JFC was also asking the current administration to immediately resolve disputes that marred projects which would have been successful under the previous build-operate-transfer (BOT) system such as the controversial Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 (NAIA-3).

Valte explained what they can only guarantee to potential investors is their protection against regulatory risks so that as much as possible the similar issue on the NAIA-3 will not happen under the Aquino administration insofar as its public-private partnership (PPP) program is concerned..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110210hed3.html

Taiwan demands apology; Noy won’t budge By Michaela P. del Callar 02/10/2011

Taiwan demands apology; Noy won’t budge

By Michaela P. del Callar 02/10/2011

Taiwan yesterday challenged the Philippine government to “show goodwill and exert extra efforts” to repair its damaged ties with Taipei for the “inhumane” deportation of 14 Taiwanese, who were suspected of committing fraud, to China.

Angered by Manila’s action, Lee Chuan-tung, Taipei’s de facto ambassador to the Philippines, was recalled by Taipei over the incident.

“I will leave next week,” Lee announced at a press conference but declined to elaborate how the event would impact on its relations with Manila.

Lee said Taiwan is demanding an apology from the government of President Aquino for the wrongful deportation of the Taiwanese and for denying them due process..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110210hed4.html

DFA seen accessory to UN funds scandal By Charlie Manalo 02/10/2011

DFA seen accessory to UN funds scandal

By Charlie Manalo 02/10/2011
The misuse of United Nations (UN) funds intended for Filipino peacekeeping soldiers has been going on for some time with the government, specifically the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), that knows about it and addressed it by not confronting the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Instead, the DFA withheld the funds from the AFP, authorities separately confirmed yesterday.

An official of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) also indicated the DFA was part of those on whom to blame for the misuse of the funds since the agency violated Executive Order 388 when they gave UN funds directly to the AFP.

DBM official Maria Soledad Soloiras told a hearing conducted by the House committee on national defense both the AFP and the DFA violated the directive on the annual donations amounting to $53 million from the United Nations from 1997 to 2009 which should have been deposited to the National Treasury
defense both the AFP and the DFA violated the directive on the annual donations amounting to $53 million from the United Nations from 1997 to 2009 which should have been deposited to the National Treasury instead of the AFP.

“The reimbursements from UN should be deposited to the treasury since it forms part of the receipts of the government with the Executive Order (EO No.) 338,” Soloiras said..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/

Proposed budget cuts for AFP opposed By Gerry Baldo 02/10/2011

Proposed budget cuts for AFP opposed

By Gerry Baldo 02/10/2011

The funding problems in the Armed Forces of the Philippines is not going to be solved by cutting its budget, members of the House minority bloc said yesterday.

According to House deputy minority leader Danilo Suarez said the end result of budget cuts would adversely affect the operations of the military particularly the lowly soldier.

“Deductions should be a no-no,” Suarez said yesterday during the minority bloc’s weekly press briefing.

Suarez was reacting to a move by the Department of Budget and Management to cut the personnel funding of the armed forces by 20 percent following allegations of massive funds misuse..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110210nat1.html

Reyes offered military honors By Mario J. Mallari 02/10/2011

Reyes offered military honors

By Mario J. Mallari 02/10/2011

The Armed Forces of the Philippines leadership is now closely coordinating with the family of the late former AFP chief of staff and Defense chief Gen. Angelo Reyes for the military honors offered to them, including a possible burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Fort Bonifacio.

At a press briefing, AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta Jr. said that AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Ricardo David Jr. has tasked AFP deputy chief of staff for operations (J3) Maj. Gen. Emmanuel Bautista to coordinate with the family of Reyes.

“The Armed Forces is in-touch and is in coordination with the immediate family of the late Gen. Angelo Reyes and we have presented to them the possibilities of providing them ceremony particulars and we are awaiting their decision,” said Mabanta.

Mabanta said that among the honors offered to Reyes as former AFP and Defense chief are battalion arrival and departure honors, round the clock vigil guards, military-type necrological services, a 19-gun salute, flower drop using helicopters and three sets of pall bearers..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110210nat2.html

Bayan seeks resumption of AFP corruption hearings By Pat C. Santos 02/10/2011

Bayan seeks resumption of AFP corruption hearings

By Pat C. Santos 02/10/2011

The militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) yesterday supported calls for the continuation of the public hearings on corruption in the AFP even after the death of former AFP Chief of Staff Angelo Reyes.

“The issue is already beyond Angelo Reyes. There has to be accountability from our institutions. The Senate and lower house must be allowed to do their jobs. They are performing this task of investigating because other institutions in the past such as the Ombudsman, and even the Office of the President, failed to do their jobs,” said Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr.

“There will be a period of grieving for those concerned. After this, the investigation must be pursued. There are those AFP officials who have yet to explain their role in the systemic corruption in the AFP,” he added.

Bayan said that with the revelation that former President Gloria Arroyo called Angelo Reyes days before his death, the former commander-in-chief should also be included in the probe. News reports say that Arroyo called Reyes and asked about his plans regarding the corruption probe. The former President also asked who the classmate of Sen. Antonio Trillanes who brought Reyes’ letter to the senator..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110210nat5.html

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