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Abuse of power EDITORIAL 08/24/2011

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Abuse of power

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
08/24/2011
Cutting to the chase, the Senate has displayed the arrogance and abuse of power by detaining an invited — not even summoned — resource person on the strength of its members’ belief that Rowena del Rosario, a former bookkeeper of LTA Inc., a firm owned by the Arroyos, was lying before the Senate blue ribbon committee. The intention is to detain indefinitely — or until she is forced to answer senators’ questions the way they want them answered, which is for her to state that (a) former First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo is the owner of the controversial pre-owned helicopters, two of which were sold as brand new to the Philippine National Police; and (b) that Mike Arroyo bought and not just leased the choppers from Lion Air Inc., apart from his usinh his influence to get the used choppers sold to the PNP as brand new.

Yet in a courtroom hearing, even if the witness, under oath, testifies, whether true or perjured, is not ordered arrested and detained indefinitely for lying, merely because the judge and the prosecutor believe that the witness lied. Besides, a witness can always choose to remain silent and is constitutionally guaranteed not to incriminate himself..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110824com1.html

Washing his hands off responsibility FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 08/24/2011

Washing his hands off responsibility

FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
08/24/2011
Noynoy, to this day, refuses to apologize to the Hong Kong hostage victims and their relatives, saying that an apology connotes that the state did these Hong Kongers grievous harm when it was just one man and not the state that did them harm.

Said Noynoy to reporters: “We deeply regret what has transpired. An apology connotes that the state did them grievous harm. I don’t think that is correct. This was the act of one man, the same token that some of our citizens have been affected elsewhere in the world, we do not blame the entire population. We know that there are criminal elements, there are mentally deranged individuals that pose a threat to anybody regardless of race or country of origin.”

Translated, what Noynoy really is saying that he, as President and Commander in Chief of all the country’s Armed Forces, refuses to accept any responsibility and accountability for the botched hostage crisis.

Despite the claim of Noynoy that the hostage-taking incident and the bloodbath that occurred on Aug. 23, 2010, was the act of just one deranged man and not an act of the state, he cannot deny the fact that while a crazed gunman did take these hostages, and did shoot at least eight hostages dead, he and his government botched the rescue operations, because the core of the issue is not that a single man acted in taking as hostage the Hong Kong tourists but that Noynoy and his government flubbed and failed to contain the crisis. The botched rescue operation is the proof of this..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110824com2.html

Romance rules Philippine literary charts FEATURE 08/24/2011

Romance rules Philippine literary charts

FEATURE

08/24/2011
MANILA — In the fantasy world created by Philippine publishing giant Precious Hearts Romances, the men are rich, sexual promiscuity and homosexuals are taboo, and the story always ends happily after 128 pages.

The ultra-cheap local versions of Mills and Boon novels are the country’s most popular books, making their authors champions of conservative Christian values and unlikely heroes in the battle to improve literacy among the poor.

“Some people say it’s trash, but at least they (the poor) read,” said Segundo Matias, the boss of Precious Hearts, which churns out 50 titles monthly to dominate a genre that has a readership estimated in the millions.
Priced at P37 (about 87 cents) and written in street-level Tagalog, the books emerged in the early 1980s when an economic crisis forced the importers of western “chick literature” paperbacks to seek out alternatives.

Matias told AFP from his Manila print shop that the local versions turned out to be far more popular, partly because they were faster-paced..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

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

Open season C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S Jonathan De la Cruz 08/24/2011

Open season

C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S
Jonathan De la Cruz
08/24/2011
If last Monday’s hearing on the PNP chopper deal is any indication, it’s open season at the Senate. And it’s ugly. The way Senators Ping Lacson and Teofisto Guingona boorishly coerced Rowena del Rosario, the former bookkeeper of LTA Inc. and Negros Occidental Rep. Iggy Arroyo, you’d think they are into hazing and not a congressional inquiry in aid of legislation. What legislation are they contemplating anyway to let them bear hard on Del Rosario to the point of detaining her at the upper chamber for “evasiveness” and “telling lies?” Only the duo can tell.
In any event, since when did answering the gentlemen’s questions properly if not straight forwardly amount to evasion? It may be true, as they claimed, that Del Rosario was not being straightforward since she did not answer things to their satisfaction but that does not qualify for evasiveness. Or even untruthfulness. She answered the questions didn’t she? Was she supposed to know what the gentlemen had in mind and repeat the same under oath in order to evade their wrath? I don’t think that kind of fate should befall any resource person. Even if that person is one the gentlemen have somewhat condemned as less-than-truthful for being the assistant of someone they find contemptible in the first place? That’s guilt-by-association and the last I heard there was nothing in the statutes to qualify that as a crime, especially in a congressional inquiry not a court of law..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110824com4.html

Frustrated African-Americans demand more from Obama focus 08/24/2011

Frustrated African-Americans demand more from Obama

focus

08/24/2011
WASHINGTON — African-American support for Barack Obama appears to be softening, because of a rocky economy that has hit US blacks especially hard, and a perception that the President has ignored the economic travails faced by this once rock-solid pillar of his political base.

A Gallup poll last week found Obama’s poll numbers in the African-American community down from its once stratospheric 95 percent approval early in his term, to a still-high, but notably lower 81 percent — tying his worst ever showing from earlier this year.

Observers say softening support for Obama is the result of a faltering economy that at 16 black percent unemployment — compared to about nine percent for the population at large — has hit the Africa American community especially hard.

“We’re totally frustrated,” said US Rep. Elijah Cummings, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, speaking Sunday on CNN television’s State of the Union program..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110824com7.html

GRP talks with MILF fails despite P5-million ‘sweetener’ By Virgilio J. Bugaoisan and Mario J. Mallari 08/24/2011

GRP talks with MILF fails despite P5-million ‘sweetener’

By Virgilio J. Bugaoisan and Mario J. Mallari 08/24/2011

After pocketing P5 million in a government check handed out by the government’s chief peace negotiator Dean Marvic Leonen, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front negotiating panel flatly rejected yesterday the government’s counter-proposal on how to resolve the conflict between the government and the MILF, ending the resumption of the peace talks a day ahead of the actual negotiation schedule.

Leonen made this admission in a video conference with the Malacañang media Tuesday despite the initial optimism expressed by President Aquino who went all the way to Tokyo to secretly meet with MILF Chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim purportedly to establish goodwill with the Moro secessionist group.

Leonen however refused to accept that this meant a failure of the Aquino government’s first formal negotiations with the MILF and insisted that the 22-page document containing the government position will still be submitted to the MILF Central Committee for further review despite the fact that everything in it was already rejected by the MILF peace panel headed Mohagher Iqbal..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110824hed3.html

Gunmen kill radio broadcaster in Negros Occidental By Gina Peralta-Elorde 08/24/2011

Gunmen kill radio broadcaster in Negros Occidental

By Gina Peralta-Elorde 08/24/2011

A blocktimer radio broadcaster was gunned down by two unidentified motorcycle-riding men while on his way home in Negros Occidental last Monday afternoon.

Niel “Lito” Jimena, 42, Radio Mindanao Network (RMN) blocktimer, was shot dead by two suspects aboard a motorcycle at Jacienda Teresa in Barangay 3 E.B. Magalona town around 5 p.m.

Based on investigation, Jimena was on his way home to Barangay Alicante when the two suspects who were tailing him shot him.

The victim sustained three gunshot wounds from a cal. 45 pistol on his back and two more on the left side of his body.

Jimena was rushed to the hospital but died immediately..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110824nat2.html

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