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More questions than answers EDITORIAL 03/30/2011

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

More questions than answers

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
03/30/2011
Sen. Ping Lacson’s return, after being on the lam for some 14 months, raised more questions than answers, along with his clamming up on how he successfully kept himself hidden for so long, as well as airing his gripes against the Noynoy administration on his claim that it did not helping him find “justice” as he claims he was a victim of injustice.

The questions remain, considering the fact that the Department of Foreign Affairs had canceled both his passports — diplomatic and regular — plus the fact that he was, or so it was being said by the Justice department (DoJ) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) that he was placed on the red list of the Interpol..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110330com1.html

Curiouser and curiouser FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 03/30/2011

Curiouser and curiouser

FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
03/30/2011
Immigration officers, reports stated, were quoted as saying that Ping Lacson returned to the country through a Cebu international airport from Hong Kong, and presented travel documents.

It was also reported that Lacson was not spotted by anyone, as he was not recognized and that there was no fuss that occurred in relation to his return.

The Department of Foreign Affairs, thorugh its spokesman, yesterday said that they had checked on the reported travel documents, saying that the DFA had checked with the consulates in Xiamen, Macao and Hong Kong, and was informed that the said consulates did not issue any travel documents to Lacson, although it was also stated by the foreign office that under the passport law, any Filipino can be issued travel documents for his return to his homeland..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110330com2.html

Japan steel city’s ‘last geisha’ defies tsunami focus 03/30/2011

Japan steel city’s ‘last geisha’ defies tsunami

focus

03/30/2011
KAMAISHI — Tsuyako Ito, the last working geisha in the Japanese steel city of Kamaishi, is no stranger to disaster — having survived devastating US air raids in World War II and three major tsunamis.

“But this tsunami was the worst of all,” the 84-year-old said of the monster wave that engulfed towns such as Kamaishi, along Japan’s eastern coast on March 11.

The tsunami struck as Ito was preparing to go to sing and play the traditional three-stringed shamisen for guests at a luxury restaurant.

The wave gutted her house, sweeping away all the prized tools of her profession..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110330com3.html

Japan fumbled C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S Jonathan De la Cruz 03/30/2011

Japan fumbled

C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S
Jonathan De la Cruz
03/30/2011
Lost in the din of frantic global efforts to ease the immense pain on the Japanese people of the natural disasters which struck the country two weeks ago, is the possibility of yet another disaster, this time entirely man made, which may visit not just Japan but the world as well. It is the increasingly unsolvable problems visiting the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) which may be better buried in tons of concrete rather than be activated at all. Properly executed, that final solution will put all concerns about the plant’s integrity to rest and ease whatever apprehensions of radioactive risks which may spread even beyond Japanese shores. To think that the Japanese are supposed to have such a rigorous and no nonsense safety consciousness! It appears from the record that they were uncharacteristically lax on this plant. They fumbled.

No less than the government funded Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization (Jnesco) has certified that the plant whose first of six reactors was commissioned 30 years ago in 1971 had the “highest rate of accidents of any big Japanese nuclear power plants for the period 2005-2009.” On Nov. 28, 2008, Tepco reported that “water oozed from the casing of two vales in the plant’s hydraulic system” while on April 3, 2009, “irregularities were found with the control rods at the facility’s No. 3 reactor.”.... MORE
SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110330com4.html

Militia fears over new Afghan police force focus 03/30/2011 KABUL — A contr

Militia fears over new Afghan police force

focus

03/30/2011
KABUL — A controversial US-backed scheme to arm Afghan villagers against the Taliban could backfire and eventually lead to a new generation of warlords, say policy experts who fear an upsurge in militias.

The creation of the Afghan Local Police (ALP) is a key part of the American military’s counter-insurgency strategy as the US prepares to start withdrawing its 90,000 troops from Afghanistan this summer.

With local forces due to take over security in parts of the country within months in preparation for the planned departure of foreign troops by the end of 2014, urgent efforts are under way to bolster the local police.

The United States has described the ALP as a temporary solution to a chronic shortage of police officers in many parts of the country, exacerbated by the Taliban’s repeated targeting of would-be recruits..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110330com5.html

A perfect crime HE SAYS Aldrin Cardon 03/30/2011

A perfect crime

HE SAYS
Aldrin Cardon
03/30/2011
There is such a thing. A resource person in a documentary on the assassination of the martyred Ninoy Aquino claimed it was, and so there is.

I caught a glimpse of his statement during a cable channel’s lead up programming for last February’s 25th anniversary of the first Edsa revolt. It was both troubling and baffling.
But with the Ninoy assassination remaining unsolved to this day, with his wife Cory having had the chance to dig deeper into uncovering the truth behind it, there is reason to believe that his Aug. 21, 1983 murder is a perfect crime, indeed.

Even his son, President Noynoy, does not seem to have inclination to continue on with the search for the brain(s) of his father’s murder..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110330com6.html

Transgressions SHE SAYS Dinah S. Ventura 03/30/2011

Transgressions

SHE SAYS
Dinah S. Ventura
03/30/2011
People do get away with murder. What else can one conclude after all the criminal activities, including high-profile murders, that never saw justice in this country?

“I hope the truth will finally come out and iyung malagot, malagot,” Sen. Panfilo Lacson told media when he resurfaced after 14 months in hiding. Senator Lacson decided to turn invisible after an arrest warrant was issued against him as the alleged brains behind the murders of publicist Salvador Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000.
Dacer’s daughters filed the case against Lacson, believing that he had motive. The courts deemed the case had “probable cause,” and state witness Cesar Mancao made a statement — different from his previous ones — linking Lacson to the murders.

Lacson would have none of it. Blaming “political persecution by the former Arroyo government,” Lacson did an Elvis and “left the building,” so to speak. No one could find him — he was like a phantom that outwitted, outsmarted and, apparently would have outlasted them all..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110330com7.html

RP’s China consulates: No travel papers issued to Ping By Michaela P. del Callar and Aytch S. de la Cruz 03/30/2011

NOYNOY WANTS DACER-CORBITO TWIN SLAYS REINVESTIGATED

RP’s China consulates: No travel papers issued to Ping

By Michaela P. del Callar and Aytch S. de la Cruz 03/30/2011

A big mystery over the travel documents earlier believed to have been issued officially to Sen. Panfilo Lacson for his return to the country is unfolding.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) yesterday said the travel documents used by Lacson to enter the country after more than a year in hiding abroad to evade arrest were not issued by its consulates in Macau, Xiamen and Hong Kong.

It has been speculated that Lacson has not been travelling to many countries, but has stayed in mainland China all the time he had been in hiding, in a claimed safehouse of a close friend and supporter of the then fugitive senator, which may be the reason the DFA mentioned Xiamen.

Macao is too tiny a place for a well-known Filipino senator to be Lacson’s choice. There are too many Filipinos in Macao as there are in the former crown colony..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110330hed1.html

Detention order on Ligot lifted; new witness surfaces By Ayen Infante 03/30/2011

Detention order on Ligot lifted; new witness surfaces

By Ayen Infante 03/30/2011

The Ligot couple went through another grilling yesterday over their involvement in the massive corruption in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) before Senate investigators freed former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) comptroller Lt. Gen. Jacinto Ligot from detention as a new witness stepped up yesterday to back up instances of shady transactions in the military.

Ligot was ordered detained and stayed in Senate custody for five days after being cited in contempt over his and his wife Erlinda’s evasive replies during the inquiries being held by the Senate.

Ligot was finally allowed to go home after members of the blue ribbon committee made a resolution to release Ligot but only after being warned by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada “never to repeat his actions last Thursday” which obviously provoked senators to detain him..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110330hed2.html

Nation sues for miracle on 3 Filipinos execution 03/30/2011

Nation sues for miracle on 3 Filipinos execution

03/30/2011
The nation turned to praying for a miracle as special masses were held yesterday to save three Filipinos, who government officials said, remain unaware they are scheduled to be executed in China today.

Convicted drug traffickers Ramon Credo, 42, Sally Villanueva, 32, and Elizabeth Batain, 38, are due to be put to death after Chinese authorities rejected Philippine government appeals for clemency.

The government has heavily lobbied Chinese authorities in recent months to spare the lives of the trio, including sending Vice President Jejomar Binay to Beijing on a mercy mission.

But the government said last week after Chinese authorities set the date for the executions and that all avenues had been exhausted, and it respected the outcome of China’s judicial system..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110330hed5.html

Radiation from Japan detected in RP 03/30/2011

Radiation from Japan detected in RP

03/30/2011
Small amounts of radiation from Japan’s da-maged nuclear plant have been detected in the Philip-pines, the government said yesterday, while emphasizing the traces posed no danger to humans.

“We have detected the isotopes, but we would like to ask the public not to panic,” Tina Cerbolis, a spokesman for the Phi-lippine Nuclear Research Institute, said. Stressing
that very tiny amounts of radiation in the air were detected.

The institute released an advisory notice Tuesday saying the radiation was from Japan’s nuclear power plant at Fukushima, which has been leaking since being damaged by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110330hed6.html

Somali pirates hold Pinoy sailor among 29 crewmen as hostage By Michaela P. del Callar 03/30/2011

Somali pirates hold Pinoy sailor among 29 crewmen as hostage

By Michaela P. del Callar 03/30/2011

A Filipino sailor was among the 29 crewmen of a Kuwait-owned oil tanker who were taken hostage by ransom-seeking Somali pirates last Monday, a European Union Naval Force report said.

This latest incident brings to 138 the total number of Filipino sailors being held in Somalia.

MV ZIRKU, which was on its way to Singapore from Bashayer, Sudan, was pirated approximately 250 nautical miles southeast of Salalah in the eastern part of the Gulf of Aden..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110330nat5.html

Marcos not fit for hero’s burial — Lagman By Gerry Baldo 03/30/2011

Marcos not fit for hero’s burial — Lagman

By Gerry Baldo 03/30/2011

The proposal that late President Ferdinand Marcos should now be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani from its air-conditioned crypt in Batac, Ilocos Norte is not justifiable as the recent hero’s burial accorded to Gen. Angelo Reyes.

According to House Minority Leader and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, invoking the recent hero’s burial of Reyes the same to that of Marcos, “constitutes a grave historical amnesia and a contemporary aberration.”

“Contrary to the contention of Sen. Antonio Trillanes, there is no parity between Marcos and Reyes, and the country has moved on without bestowing hero’s honors to the late dictator by transferring his remains from Batac, Ilocos Norte to the Libingan ng mga Bayani,” Lagman said yesterday, citing factors that differentiate the two military figures..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110330nat1.html

‘Willing-Willie’ TV show host hit for child abuse 03/30/2011

‘Willing-Willie’ TV show host hit for child abuse

03/30/2011
One of the Philippines’ most popular and controversial TV personalities has reluctantly apologized after making a six-year-old boy cry on his show by forcing him to simulate a striptease.

The government accused Willie Revillame and the TV5 network on which his show appears of child abuse over the incident, which also caused uproar on the Internet with one Facebook critic labelling him a “national jerk.”

“The sequence shows the boy gyrating in a distasteful manner,” Social Welfare Minister Corazon Soliman said in a statement on Monday.

“Putting pressure on children to do acts such as mimicking adult sexy dances, in exchange for a certain amount of money, and at the expense of being laughed at and ridiculed by hundreds of people, clearly traumatizes the child.”.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110330met1.html

SC orders inspection of leaking oil pipeline By Benjamin B. Pulta 03/30/2011

SC orders inspection of leaking oil pipeline

By Benjamin B. Pulta 03/30/2011

An ocular inspection of the leaking 117-kilometer pipeline operated by the Lopez-controlled First Philippine Industrial Corp. (FPIC) which contaminated a portion of Makati City has been ordered by the Supreme Court (SC).

Speaking to reporters in Baguio City, court administrator and SC spokesman Jose Midas Marquez yesterday said the high court has ordered the inspection to verify claim of West Tower residents that two more leaks have developed in the pipeline.

The case also upheld the decision of Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr. to remand the case to the Court of Appeals (CA).

“The court will conduct an ocular inspection on April 15, 9 a.m. at Capinpin and Del Pilar streets from allegations of the president of the West Towers Homeowners Association that there were more leaks. After that a report will be submitted and the case will be remanded to the Court of Appeals,” Marquez told reporters..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110330met4.html

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