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Victory? EDITORIAL 05/26/2011

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Victory?

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
05/26/2011
Pasay City’s Regional Trial Court (RTC) has ruled that the government must pay the Philippine International Air Terminal Corp. a fifth of what Piatco has been asking for, by way of expropriation payment.

The amount was more or less what the Aquino government wanted to pay Piatco, which is probably the reason it claimed a court victory — as the court ruled out additional Piatco payments of interest, among others.

The court junked Piatco’s claim of $846.42 million, which amount included inflation and interest. This was rejected by the RTC judge despite the recommendation of a special board of commissioners that Piatco should be paid $376.14 million..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110526com1.html

ARMM polls postponement bill useless FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 05/26/2011

ARMM polls postponement bill useless

FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
05/26/2011
Sen. Bongbong Marcos is said to be mulling archiving the Senate bill that calls for the postponement of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) elections.
The rule in the Senate is that Marcos, as chairman of his panel, and having five senators, can have the bill archived, and so it has to be archived.

However, this can still be revived by another set of five senators and floor discussions have to push through.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile was earlier quoted as saying that if Bongbong recommends against the postponement of the ARMM polls, “five senators will have it archived” but that five senators can also bring it out from the archives, after which the discussions go to the floor and the committee report can be amended..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110526com2.html

Little in Netanyahu speech to revive talks — analysts ANALYSIS 05/26/2011

Little in Netanyahu speech to revive talks — analysts

ANALYSIS

05/26/2011
WASHINGTON — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received 31 standing ovations from the US Congress, and yet he may have failed in his primary goal — averting a unilateral Palestinian bid for statehood.

Netanyahu went to Congress promising to lay out his vision for peace with the Palestinians amid pressure from the international community for a far-reaching Israel initiative that could resurrect the dormant peace process.

And while he offered concessions, some of them even significant for his hardline base, analysts said they were unlikely to satisfy the international community, let alone the Palestinians.

“He made peace with Congress (but) there’s no formula there for peace with the Palestinians,” veteran analyst Yossi Alpher told AFP..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110526com3.html

Ex-AFP officials as illegal mining coddlers BLURBAL THRUSTS Louie Logarta 05/26/2011

Ex-AFP officials as illegal mining coddlers

BLURBAL THRUSTS
Louie Logarta
05/26/2011
Sad to say, tobacco use in the Philippines is actually on the rise despite efforts to curb it. This much has been reportedly admitted by Dr. Armando Peruga, manager of the World Health Organization’s Tobacco Free Initiative Program.

Aggravating matters is the fact that cigarettes here in the Philippines can be bought dirt-cheap and piecemeal, at P1.00-P3.00 per stick, unlike in other Asean countries where purchases are on a per pack basis that go for up to three times the cost of local brands, which is why the Philippines, with an estimated 20 million people hooked on the habit, is among the top-ranked cigarette-consuming nations in the world.

To counter the “smoking epidemic” which the Philippines is going to have to contend with in the foreseeable future — thanks in great part to the efforts of the formidable tobacco lobby and the huge war chest it has to splurge and bribe its way around to get what it wants — the Department of Health has been pushing for the adoption of certain novel methods, as it were, to dampen demand for cigarettes in a bid to lessen the (as per WHO estimates) approximately 87, 000 Filipinos who die each year due to tobacco-related diseases like emphysema, cancer, heart attack, etc..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110526com4.html

Official admission VIEWPOINTS Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz 05/26/2011

Official admission

VIEWPOINTS
Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz
05/26/2011
Now it can be said with clarity and certainty. The once sanctimonious and pretentious national leadership together with its docile cohorts, now officially and openly admit their incapacity of undertaking socio-economic developmental ventures for the welfare of the Filipinos, for the redemption of the Philippines from poverty and misery. Their simplistic option and blatant decision is lessening the number of Filipinos to have a better Philippines.

Forgotten is the once proud and loud shout “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap”. Now the maxim sounds more like “Kung walang ipapanganak, walang mahirap.” The over-all message being now assiduously shouted by Malacañang is not only dismaying but also insulting. Population is the enemy. Filipinos are the culprit. The lesser they are, the better. Don’t allow them to be born. And the country becomes a paradise..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110526com5.html

Spain protests tap idealism, online people power focus 05/26/2011

Spain protests tap idealism, online people power

focus

05/26/2011
MADRID — Fired up with 60s-style idealism and fueled by online people power, the anti-crisis protesters who took Spain by storm hope they can be an example to the world.

There are plenty of Spaniards ready to help them, equally frustrated by political corruption, welfare cuts and the highest unemployment rate in the developed world.

When an electrical generator powering their tent city in central Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square ran out of fuel, protesters got an instant response to their Internet appeals for fuel.

Within hours they were able to restore power to the kitchen, daycare, press center and other facilities..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110526com6.html

US ‘left-behind parents’ seek help to get kids back FEATURE 05/26/2011

US ‘left-behind parents’ seek help to get kids back

FEATURE

05/26/2011
WASHINGTON — Eli is a little boy packs a powerful hug, but hasn’t given one to his mother for more than a year.

Eli last year was taken to Turkey by his father, completely blindsiding his mother, Sara Edwards, one of America’s “left-behind” parents.

On the eve of US National Missing Children’s Day, which the United States marked Wednesday, Edwards testified before US lawmakers, telling them in an airless room of her almost hopeless quest to get Eli back.
“Eli gives the most amazing bear hugs but I have not held him since March 4 last year when my husband took him to Turkey,” Edwards told a hearing of the House Subcommittee on on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights.

“Every day I wonder if he is thinking about me and missing his mother the same way I am thinking about him and missing him,” she said, repeatedly interrupting her testimony to quell tears..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110526com7.html

Piatco blasts RTC ruling, goes to CA 05/26/2011

DECISION IS ‘ONE ADDED TELLING BLOW ON RP INVESTMENTS’

Piatco blasts RTC ruling, goes to CA

05/26/2011
The controversy on the issue of just compensation is far from over.

Philippine International Air Terminal Corp. (Piatco), the consortium that built the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 (NAIA-3), slammed the ruling made by Judge Eugenio de la Cruz of Pasay Regional Trial Court’s Branch 117.

This decision was promulgated last May 23, 2011 ordering the government to pay Piatco a mere $175,787,245.10 for taking the NAIA-3 built with no less than $470 million of funds from private investors, including Fraport AG of Germany.

In a statement issued yesterday to the media, Piatco, through its vice president for legal and public affairs, lawyer Moises Padilla, said that Piatco’s total claim for just compensation is $846,428,946 to include attendant costs, interests, and adjustments to inflation..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110526hed1.html

Sotto to name drug firms behind RH lobby By Angie M. Rosales 05/26/2011

Sotto to name drug firms behind RH lobby

By Angie M. Rosales 05/26/2011

A senator bared yesterday a strong lobby backed by multinational drug companies and certain “personalities” that are working for the enactment of the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill saying that he will expose them in an appropriate time.

Sen. Vicente Sotto III said he will name the pharmaceutical companies and the personalities behind the lobby group on the RH bill.

”Yes, I will expose them, including the personalities behind the companies lobbying for that bill. I’m just completing the records. I don’t want to mention figures and names without supporting documents,” Sotto told the media before the afternoon session of the chamber..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110526hed6.html

Government stand on insurance policy for OFWs won’t lessen job hiring By Mina Diaz 05/26/2011

Government stand on insurance policy for OFWs won’t lessen job hiring

By Mina Diaz 05/26/2011

The claim of some recruitment industry leaders that Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia may lose their jobs on account of the government remaining firm of its stand for better welfare and protection of household service workers is totally without basis, Acting Labor Secretary Lourdes Trasmonte said yesterday.

This is the reaction of the DoLE regarding on the report that Saudi Arabian employers could be pressured by their government to stop hiring Filipinos or not renew existing contracts because of the alleged impasse between Saudi Arabia and the Philippines over the hiring of household service workers, Trasmonte said, adding that there is a “disconnect” between the two and therefore misreading the real situation.

“There is no ‘continuing disagreement’ as alleged by the report,” she said. “What is there is an agreement of the Saudi Arabia-Philippines Joint Technical Committee to meet regularly to discuss mutual concerns, including the welfare and protection of household service workers in the Kingdom,” Trasmonte said..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

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

Gov’t agents rescue 54 women from human smuggling syndicate By Michaela P. del Callar 05/26/2011

Gov’t agents rescue 54 women from human smuggling syndicate

By Michaela P. del Callar 05/26/2011

Some 54 women, including a 16-year-old girl, illegally recruited for housekeeping jobs in Qatar and Syria were “rescued” by Philippine authorities yesterday, preempting another case of human trafficking involving Filipinos into the Middle East.

Rescued victims, who were kept at a house in Singalong, Manila, claimed a Syrian national was behind the illegal recruitment operation, Vice President Jejomar Binay said. The women were recruited by different agents based in the Visayas and Mindanao.

“I am glad that we were able to prevent our kababayans from leaving our country and falling victim to illegal recruitment,” said Binay, concurrent Presidential Adviser on overseas of Filipino workers (OFW) affairs..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110526nat1.html

DENR clears HCPTI of environmental violations 05/26/2011

DENR clears HCPTI of environmental violations

05/26/2011
The Harbour Centre Port Terminal Inc. (HCPTI) has been cleared of any environmental violation on its handling of coal shipments at Harbour Centre in Manila after series of tests showed the quality of air and water around the area is within government standards.

This developed as the Manila City Council Ad Hoc Committee chaired by Councilor Joel Chua revealed in a report last May 18 that HCPTI was already granted an Environmental Compliance Certificate by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to handle and stockpile coal shipments in the vicinity of Harbour Centre.

The Ad Hoc Committee report also showed that HCPTI also submitted compliance reports from a private testing firm Aeronics Inc. which shows water and air tests within the vicinity of Harbour Centre were below the standard set by the government. The results of the tests were also included in HCPTI’s Permit to Operate..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110526met4.html

Trains of LRT Line 1 won’t pass several stations — LRTA 05/26/2011

Trains of LRT Line 1 won’t pass several stations — LRTA

05/26/2011
The Light Rail Transit Authority (LRT) announced yesterday that the LRT Line 1 will go on limited operations starting this Saturday to next Monday with its trains not passing through some stations so it can integrate the signaling system of its North Extension Project into its existing line.

The LRT Administration made the announcement in an advisory posted on its Web site.

In lieu of the missing train services, shuttle buses will be made available for commuters in areas affected by the limited operations.

“The Light Rail Transit Authority Line 1 will temporarily operate only from Baclaran to Blumentritt station starting May 28 to 30, 2011 to integrate the signalling system of the North Extension Project with the existing LRT Line 1 system to ensure a more efficient and safer rail service,” it said..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110526met3.html

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