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Toward a lynching mob EDITORIAL 08/04/2011

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Toward a lynching mob

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
08/04/2011
Sen. Ping Lacson is out to get former First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo. He has been all over the airwaves saying that he has proof to pin down Mike, apart from proclaiming that the two witnesses who appeared before the Senate blue ribbon committee who testified that Mike is the real owner of two pre-owned helicopters passed off as new and sold to the Philippine National Police is true, as they have no reason to lie.

Apparently, the evidence Lacson says will pin down Mike are billings in the name of Arroyo himself on the maintenance check-ups for the choppers.

Unless stronger proof is presented, such as deeds of sale stating that Mike is the owner of the choppers or receipts of the money paid for such a purchase, as well as other documents, it will be very hard going to make the case against Mike Arroyo stick — at least on this controversial chopper business as it stands today.

Testimonies, even under oath, hardly carry weight, and Lacson should know it. After all, didn’t Lacson himself dismiss the testimony of his former aide, Cesar Mancao, regarding Lacson’s role in the murders of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito?.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110804com1.html

Class act FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 08/04/2011

Class act

FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
08/04/2011
Sen. Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri announced yesterday his resignation from the Senate in defense of his, and his family’s honor during a privilege speech.

What he did was a class act, and as pointed out by Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile, this was the first time in history that a senator had resigned from the Senate in defense of his honor.

And in announcing his resignation, Migz won over more supporters and, perception-wise, virtually erased too much doubt on those charges of his having cheated in the 2007 senatorial polls.

This to me, was a class act, because if he had asked the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) instead to no longer continue with the protest and as the rumors went, would cede his seat to his election rival, there would have been suspicions from the public that he had resigned, because he knew the fraud would be discovered and that he would have lost in the 2007 polls..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110804com2.html

Asia’s top women keep it in the family — for now focus 08/04/2011

Asia’s top women keep it in the family — for now

focus

08/04/2011
BANGKOK — Thailand’s first female prime minister will this week join a long list of Asian women leaders whose power stems from family ties, with analysts saying the trend is a mixed blessing for equality.

Political novice Yingluck Shinawatra went from virtual unknown to election victor in a matter of weeks after her brother, fugitive former leader Thaksin, endorsed her Puea Thai party’s candidacy, assuring voters she was his “clone.”

Her stellar rise, set to be formally completed this week, mirrors stories from across Asia, with a collection of women whose family names — and often the death of a male predecessor — propelled them to power.

The assassination of a husband saw Sri Lanka’s Sirimavo Bandaranaike become the world’s first female premier in 1960 and, more than two decades later, thrust Filipino housewife Corazon “Cory” Aquino into the limelight..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110804com3.html

Noy’s bloody anti-wang-wang drive INSIDE CONGRESS Charlie Manalo 08/04/2011

Noy’s bloody anti-wang-wang drive

INSIDE CONGRESS
Charlie Manalo
08/04/2011
It seems everyone in the Aquino administration has gone gaga over Noynoy’s anti-wang-wang campaign. Even if it has to cost a man his life.

Last Wednesday, a lawyer at the Development Bank of the Philippines hanged himself inside one of the rooms in a small hotel in Las Piñas after he was reported to falsely testify against the previous administration.

According to reports, DBP chairman Jose Nuñez coerced him to sign an affidavit which was intended to pin down the Arroyos for alleged irregular transactions. Forced to sign the document, Benjie later regretted having affixed his signature on the affidavit and eventually decided to take his own life, by hanging.

Nuñez himself admitted DBP is in the midst of an investigation and that Benjie would play an important role in the probe..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110804com5.html

Norway vows not to change after attacks, but fears it must focus 08/04/2011

Norway vows not to change after attacks, but fears it must

focus

08/04/2011
OSLO — Long considered one of the world’s safest and most peaceful countries, Norway is braced for changes to its traditionally open society after the deadly twin attacks on July 22.

Sweden was shaken by the assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme and later foreign minister Anna Lindh, Denmark has lived with a constant threat of attacks since the Mohammed cartoon crisis, and Finland has suffered two large-scale school shootings.

For a long time, it has seemed that Norway had avoided the fate of its neighbors, but when rightwing extremist Anders Behring Breivik on July 22 first bombed government offices in Oslo before going on a shooting rampage at a Labour Party youth camp, killing in all 77 persons, the Scandinavian country in turn shed its sheltered innocence.

“There will be a before and after July 22,” acknowledged Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who has created an independent commission to draw up a report on the lessons that must be learned from the massacre..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110804com6.html

Wang-wang VIEWPOINTS Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz 08/04/2011

Wang-wang

VIEWPOINTS
Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz
08/04/2011
It is not only according to the dictate of reason but also in due deference to the truth that which people say and do — especially so when it is no less than the highest public official in the land who speaks — should be well analyzed and duly understood. Otherwise, downright lies or deliberate duplicity could easily stand for reality.

This is about the then infamous and now famous “wang-wang” issue. Before, it had a rather shameful significance and shameful connotation. Now, all of a sudden, it was given a glorious meaning to the extent that it was made to stand for the supposed value-transformation of both public officials and private citizens. In other words, while “wang-wang” was then but a big excuse, now it is made a great symbol..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110804com7.html

Zubiri resigns; Palace ‘blackmail’ rap aired By Angie M. Rosales 08/04/2011

SOURCES POINT TO LLAMAS’ PRESSURE, THREATS; JPE LAUDS MIGZ FOR ‘MORAL COURAGE’

Zubiri resigns; Palace ‘blackmail’ rap aired

By Angie M. Rosales 08/04/2011

Just a month before the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) is slated to come to an end on his counter-protest case against lawyer Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel in a recount of the contested votes during the 2007 elections, Sen. Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri announced his resignation from the Senate membership.Zubiri’s decision to give up his elected position, whose legitimacy he continues to be defending for four years now, was prompted by renewed charges of supposed cheating in the elections following the recent surfacing of purported new witnesses in massive poll fraud operations.

Zubiri, in a class act of resigning, said he is doing so to defend his, and his family’s honor and integrity, as power and position and even money cannot be more important than integrity and honor.

The surfacing of the former Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and former election officer Lintang Bedol, apparently aggravated Zubiri’s predicament as Tribune sources disclosed that Zubiri was being subjected to intense pressure as well as threats from Malacañang for quite sometime now, dating back when he was strongly opposing the Palace-backed bill postponing the elections in the ARMM..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110804hed1.html

Noy admits DoJ-Comelec probe body won’t pin down GMA By Virgilio J. Bugaoisan 08/04/2011

Noy admits DoJ-Comelec probe body won’t pin down GMA

By Virgilio J. Bugaoisan 08/04/2011
The joint Commission on Elections (Comelec) and Department of Justice (DoJ) body formed to probe allegations of fraud in the recent past elections may have to dig deeper in the investigations it will undertake to unearth related cases in allegations of cheating in the 2004 elections after the five-year prescription period on that particular exercise had lapsed, President Aquino admitted yesterday, in turn, saying the body will not be able to pin down former President Arroyo on charges she cheated to steal another six-year term.

The body was formed specifically to look into charges that former President Arroyo stole the vote for the presidency in 2004 through orchestrated and massive cheating.

Aquino said since the prescription period of cases related to the 2004 election had lapsed, he has instructed the joint body to review the Mayuga report and follow up leads on other cases from the report of the body that conducted investigations into the alleged participation of members of the military in the cheating operations.

Aquino in an ambush interview branded the Mayuga report as tailored to comply with what the past administration wanted to see and hear as he cited some instances when the lines of questioning were being deliberately diverted to stop the resource persons from issuing compromising statements..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110804hed3.html

Jemaah Islamiyah group tagged in Cotabato blast — AFP By Mario J. Mallari 08/04/2011

Jemaah Islamiyah group tagged in Cotabato blast — AFP

By Mario J. Mallari 08/04/2011

The military has tagged the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) as responsible in the bombing in Cotabato City last Tuesday that killed two civilians and wounded nine others.

Army 6th Infantry Division (ID) spokesman Col. Prudencio Asto particularly pointed to trainees of JI-special operations group (SOG), led by Basit Usman.

“This is a handiwork of the group of students of Basit Usman, special operations group of the Jemaah Islamiyah,” Asto said.

The same group was tagged in the foiled bombing in Tacurong City last June. Police and military authorities recovered several improvised explosive devices (IEDs) composed of rounds for rocket-propelled grenades.
.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110804nat1.html

Noy anti-wang wang stance costs life of DBP exec 08/04/2011

Noy anti-wang wang stance costs life of DBP exec

08/04/2011
With almost all of the President’s men going “gaga” over his call for an end to the wang-wang culture of corruption, a high ranking official of a government-owned and controlled corporation (GOCC) tried to force one of his subordinates to sign an affidavit intended to pin down the previous administration for alleged irregular transactions resulting for his underling to commit suicide.

But President Aquino’s anti-wang-wang drive is limited to the anti-corruption drive against the previous administration, a Cabinet secretary allegedly tried to coerce his assistant secretary to sign a purchase order for computer sets without the benefit of a bidding, forcing the asec to resign from his post.

Last Wednesday, Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) lawyer Benjamin Pinpin hanged himself inside one of the rooms in one of the branches of Eurotel in Las Piñas after regretting he had signed the affidavit which would have linked the Arroyos in alleged irregular transactions the bank had entered into.

In his suicide note to his wife, Pinpin lamented he had signed the document which he described as the biggest mistake he had ever committed in his life..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110804nat3.html

De Lima’s close-in security nabbed for human trafficking By Benjamin B. Pulta 08/04/2011

De Lima’s close-in security nabbed for human trafficking

By Benjamin B. Pulta 08/04/2011

Criminal charges have been ordered by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima against VIP security personnel assigned to the Department of Justice (DoJ) caught for transporting 17 females from Bicol to Zamboanga.

De Lima who is the chairman of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking in Persons (IACAT) also ordered the immediate detention of the unnamed close-in security.

“We will be harsh on human trafficking syndicates who victimize our innocent women and we will be even much harsher on our own people engaging in such nefarious activities,” De Lima warned as she asked Zamboanga’s anti-human trafficking units to ensure that the security detail will not be able to escape so he can face the full weight of the law.

De Lima said she was saddened by the fact that the person involved belongs to the DoJ security family but angered because the security detail used his position and identification to traffic hapless would-be victims..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110804met1.html

BoC must explain disappearance of 2,000 container vans — solon By Charlie V. Manalo 08/04/2011

BoC must explain disappearance of 2,000 container vans — solon

By Charlie V. Manalo 08/04/2011
Zambales Rep. Ma. Milagros “Mitos” Magsaysay yesterday said the Bureau of Customs (BoC) should be held accountable for the almost 2,000 missing container vans which resulted in a loss of almost P3.6 billion in revenue for the government.

At a press briefing, Magsaysay said the BoC, through Commissioner Lito Alvarez, should be made to explain why 1,919 container vans did not make it to the Batangas port after they were transported from the Port of Manila and the Manila International Container Port (MICP).

“A stupendous anomaly on which the Aquino administration is ominously, albeit culpably silent, concerns 2,000 large container vans that supposedly just “vanished” into thin air and are now out of reach of our Bureau of Customs,” said Magsaysay reading a prepared statement..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110804met2.html

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