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No hope of moving forward FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 07/24/2011

Sunday, July 24, 2011

No hope of moving forward

FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
07/24/2011
In 2000, an impeachment complaint against then President Joseph Estrada was filed at the House of Representatives, mainly by the anti-Estrada forces who were hungry for power and position.

In truth, the impeachment complaint was very defective both in form and in substance. The “evidence” attached to the complaint was composed of news clippings, mainly from the anti-Erap media that wanted him out of office.

The manner by which Estrada was impeached by the House was not only highly irregular, as the Speaker then rejected a plenary vote and instead segued from his prayer to the impeachment of Estrada and sent it immediately to the Senate for trial.

Even during the trial, it was clear that Estrada was being framed, and that no solid evidence was being presented by the House prosecution team. Even that unopened envelope that the anti-Erap forces insisted was the smoking gun, later proved to even establish the fact that Erap was not the owner of the acount, but Jaime Dichaves..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110724com2.html

Aquino, then and now EDITORIAL 07/24/2011

Aquino, then and now

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
07/24/2011
Noynoy appears to be following the worn-out formula of Cory, his mother, in pounding on the alleged sins of a past administration as if everything relies on this for the country to prosper.

In 1986, when Cory Aquino took over the presidency, the formula seemed to be then guaranteed to maintain public sympathy since she, anyway, was swept to power by ousting an overstaying president who was accused of emptying the public coffers and withheld the exercise of civil rights.

As a result, the country went down the drain, all because of her focus on destroying Marcos and everything that he had established, to the point of abolishing the Ministry of Energy which resulted in the country experiencing 12 hour daily blackouts.

Now, more than 20 years after, public perception about the Marcos regime is changing with many, particularly those who had lived through the Marcos’ 14-year martial rule, saying that life then was better, perhaps because his regime built more, while Cory’s destroyed more..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110724com1.html

Northern Niger battles with fall-out from Tuareg rebellion focus 07/24/2011

Northern Niger battles with fall-out from Tuareg rebellion

focus

07/24/2011
DABAGA — “The Tuareg rebellion has brought nothing good to our zone, and armed bandits and the Libyan conflict are pushing us further into poverty.”

Tchimaden Ahmed, a 36-year-old mother of eight from Dabaga, in northern Niger’s desert region, did not mince her words.

“We live like in the Middle Ages: no electricity, no telephone, not even a mill for our grain to relieve us from the drudgery,” she added, in the local Hausa language.

Dabaga lies some 50 kilometers (30 miles) — a white-knuckle, two-hour drive along the Air mountain range in a district that was once the heartland of the Tuareg rebellion..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110724com3.html

Why only now? N.O . N.O.N.S.E.N.S.E Jacinto 07/24/2011

Why only now?

N.O . N.O.N.S.E.N.S.E
Jacinto
07/24/2011
After Zaldy Ampatuan and his sidekick Lintang Bedol revealed that GMA cheated Fernando Poe Jr. in the 2004 presidential election, suddenly, so many people, including politicians, want to have a free ride on the issue. One politician would want to have the so-called cheating issue investigated by a congressional commission. One businessman is reported to have bankrolled the coming out of Zaldy and Bedol to spill the beans on the cheating just to please his Malacañang patron. And so many others too, getting in, either to enhance their own political situation or to ingratiate themselves to the Palace.

But where were they when FPJ mostly needed their help in 2004, specifically during the canvassing of votes at the Presidential Board of Canvassing? Where were they when a number of certificates of canvass needed to be shown and proven as fake and spurious at the said Board of Canvassing? There where only a handful of us who stood tall against the GMA mob who always outvoted us whenever we pinpointed a fake certificate of canvass and request the opening of the election returns for comparison..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110724com5.html

Chasing fuel at Malawi’s empty pumps stokes public anger FEATURE 07/24/2011

Chasing fuel at Malawi’s empty pumps stokes public anger

FEATURE

07/24/2011
LILONGWE — Deadly rioting in Malawi erupted largely due to discontent over chronic fuel shortages which have hobbled businesses and infuriated the population but drawn little sympathy from government.

Two days of unrest have left 18 people dead after protesters took to the streets accusing President Bingu wa Mutharika of mismanaging the economy and trampling on democratic rights.

Frustrated drivers queue at the slightest rumor that a tanker will arrive to offload petrol, which will be rationed and sold out within hours.

“Sometimes we are waiting for the whole day. We can stand in the queue until the end of the day,” said Lewis Kalimani, 37. “The last time I was waiting for almost 15 hours. (I’m) really, really tired and it’s very boring.”.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110724com7.html

Reverse mode VIEWPOINTS Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz 07/24/2011

Reverse mode

VIEWPOINTS
Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz
07/24/2011
In more simple words, the “Reverse Mode” means going backward — not moving forward, not forging ahead for whatever reason. Translated into the sphere of governance, there is an ineffective or stagnant administration — for one or all of the following reasons on the part of the national leadership: One, there is fear in going ahead. Two, there is lack of “political will” to go onwards. Three, there is no competence to move forward.

In other words, Malacañang has become an expert in looking behind and in blaming the past. Reason: It is disabled from remedying the sad present, from building for the near future. So far, it indulges in empty rhetoric as the country is becoming progressively more a Third World Country, as the Filipinos are suffering from more want and misery — notwithstanding all statistics on paper to the contrary. This is the living reality of “reverse mode” adopted by the present government..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110724com6.html

Malacañang sure Sona in Tagalog but not on halting GMA bashing By Virgilio J. Bugaoisan 07/24/2011

Malacañang sure Sona in Tagalog but not on halting GMA bashing

By Virgilio J. Bugaoisan 07/24/2011

The Palace is definite about President Aquino delivering his second state of the nation address (Sona) tomorrow in the local tongue but is unsure if the President will oblige a bishop’s appeal for him to set aside Arroyo bashing for this historic event.

“I believe it will be in Tagalog. I’ve not seen the entire speech but from what I saw, it’s in Tagalog,” Deputy presidential spokesman Abigail Valte said.

Valte added that English translations of his speech will be made available however to the media and others who may need it shortly after his speech.

And while Valte is certain which language the President would use in his speech, she is unsure if the people would be spared of his Arroyo-bashing tirades which have become a common fare of all his speeches since he assumed office..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110724hed5.html

12 ‘Chinese’ held for harassing Noy’s brother-in-law 07/24/2011

12 ‘Chinese’ held for harassing Noy’s brother-in-law

07/24/2011
Aviation police yesterday detained a dozen airline passengers, said to be Chinese, after an alleged mid-flight scrap with a brother-in-law of President Aquino, officials said.

The suspects, described by police sources as Chinese citizens, flew to Cebu on a domestic flight that also carried Aquino’s elder sister Maria Elena “Ballsy” Cruz and her husband Eldon Cruz, airport manager Nigel Paul Villarete said.

Cebu airport police detained the suspects on the Cebu Pacific flight’s arrival from Manila after the pilot filed a complaint, the manager told reporters.

“We are monitoring the investigation,” Villarete added.

Police sources in Cebu said one of those under investigation grabbed the presidential-in-law’s neck to choke him when the latter asked the group to tone down their voices in mid-flight..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110724hed6.html

China’s Spratlys claim ‘baseless,’ spurred by hunger for oil — gov’t By Michaela P. del Callar 07/24/2011

DEL ROSARIO STEPS UP VERBAL OFFENSIVE

China’s Spratlys claim ‘baseless,’ spurred by hunger for oil — gov’t

By Michaela P. del Callar 07/24/2011

The government appeared to have stepped up its verbal offensive on China over a territorial dispute after Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto del Rosario said its aggressive actions in the South China Sea appear motivated by a hunger to exploit the area’s rich oil and gas resources while branding as “baseless” its so-called historical 9-dash claim over the entire Spratly Islands.

Del Rosario, who is in Indonesia attending an Asian security forum, said China’s action is a “threat to freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.”

Speaking on the sidelines of the forum, Del Rosario said China’s behavior in the disputed waters raised concerns about how it would treat its neighbors as it became more powerful.

“I think the wealth of the area in terms of hydrocarbon assets could stimulate an increased interest in the area,” Del Rosario said when asked why China had, according to the Philippines, become more aggressive..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110724hed1.html

Pinoys infected with HIV rise 63% in June 07/24/2011

Pinoys infected with HIV rise 63% in June

07/24/2011
A total of 178 new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cases were diagnosed in the Philippines in June, an increase of 63 percent compared to the 109 reported in the same month last year.

Citing National Epidemiology Center statistics, LPG/MA party-list Rep. Arnel Ty yesterday said the new infections brought to 1,016 the cumulative number of HIV cases reported in the first half of the year.

Ty said the National HIV and AIDS Registry, which began passive surveillance of the disease in 1984, now lists an aggregate of 7,031 cases, including 875 with advanced AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome).

He said 37 percent of those with full-blown AIDS, or 325 patients, have since died..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110724nat1.html

LGU dismantles excess fish cages in Lake Buhi 07/24/2011

LGU dismantles excess fish cages in Lake Buhi

07/24/2011
BUHI, Camarines Sur — The municipal government here has started dismantling some fish cages located along the delineated areas serving as navigational lanes and buffer zones in Lake Buhi.
The move is to provide more breathing space for fresh water species thriving in the lake, the home to the world’s smallest fish locally called “sinarapan.”
The local government also enforced a massive clean of its water and bed to prevent the re-occurrence of fish kills owing to pollution brought about by unconsumed fish feed sediments and garbage that have been proven vicious to the local fishery industry.
“We have so far dismantled about 13,000 fish cages that occupied as much as 70 percent of the 1,707-hectare body of water to bring back to full life this lake and save from extinction the sinarapan and all its other fishes such as native catfish, tilapia, dalag, irin-irin, burirawan and puyo, among other fishes,” Buhi Mayor Rey Lacoste said over the weekend..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110724nat4.html

2 killed, 4 hurt as drunken guards go on shooting binge By Arlie O. Calalo 07/24/2011

2 killed, 4 hurt as drunken guards go on shooting binge

By Arlie O. Calalo 07/24/2011

At least two persons were killed while four others were seriously wounded when residents and guards of a disputed huge property in Caloocan clashed early yesterday morning.

On orders of Northern Police District (NPD) director Chief Supt. Antonio Decano, the entire Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams from the four police stations in Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela (Camanava) area were dispatched to Pangarap Village, Barangay 182 to stop the violence there.

This as Mayor Enrico “Recom” Echiverri condemned the incident as he lamented that it could not have happened if cooler heads had intervened.

Echiverri asked the city police to conduct a thorough probe to get to the bottom of the incident..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110724met1.html

Airport personnel in ‘escort’ racket warned By Benjamin B. Pulta 07/24/2011

Airport personnel in ‘escort’ racket warned

By Benjamin B. Pulta 07/24/2011
Airport personnel who “escort” or facilitate the exit out of the country of victims of human trafficking syndicates will soon be sacked and charged, justice officials yesterday said.

Justice Undersecretary and Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking in Persons (IACAT) head Jose Vicente Salazar warned all airport officials and personnel who are in cahoots with human trafficking syndicates.

“We are very alarmed about reports of airport personnel facilitating the exit of mostly tourist workers who are most prone to exploitation by trafficking syndicates. We will implement a rigorous investigation and monitoring of those implicated in the reports, and definitely we will file cases against them as soon as we find probable cause,” he warned.

“The Department of Justice and IACAT will see to it that they will be sacked from their employment, taken to court and jailed for jeopardizing the lives of our countrymen who most oftentimes get abused on foreign shores, either ending up as drug mules or prostitutes,” Salazar said as he emphasized that Malacañang has taken interest in the status of the cases of government officials and employees involved in human trafficking..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110724met2.html

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