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A taste of Philippine justice EDITORIAL 08/28/2011

Sunday, August 28, 2011

A taste of Philippine justice

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
08/28/2011
Libel cases are usual fares for newspapers for solely doing its bare function of writing stories as they are. The daily grind is to gather stories up to deadline hour and then write these faithfully the way an event happened or that of the story related to the reporter.
The Tribune is a magnet for libel cases since it never wavered on printing stories as they are, no embellishment, no fear, no favor.
One of the more influential names in the country recently became the subject of a story printed in The Tribune merely quoting the content of government documents recommending his arrest and the complaint of the individual that sought a legal remedy on him that law enforcers were not acting to implement an order for his detention.
The result was one libel case filed in multiple courts that was clearly intended to harass the newspaper’s editors. Of the eight or so different court venues for the libel case about five were dismissed owing to grounds having to do with no-jurisdiction as well as multiplicity of suits, which would be no different from multiple forum shopping..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110828com1.html

A slap on their faces FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 08/28/2011

A slap on their faces

FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
08/28/2011
A kind of a message seems to have been sent by the Court of Appeals (CA) to the Senate, as well as to the House of Representatives when it granted the habeas corpus plea of petitioner, Rollie del Rosario, husband of then detained former LTA Inc. bookkeeper, Rowena del Rosario, a day after the Senate freed her from detention.

The CA could have easily dropped the habeas plea, since the detention issue was already moot, but the court didn’t. Instead, the court granted the habeas plea, which gives the impression that this grant was a message for any future abusive action on the Senate’s power to immediately order the arrest and detention of any invited guest as resource person, or “witness” merely because that resource person fails to give the answers senators want to hear, which answer senators wanted would prove their “case” against whoever they accuse of whatever crime..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110828com2.html

Rhino bloodbath surges on S. Africa’s private reserves FEATURE 08/28/2011

Rhino bloodbath surges on S. Africa’s private reserves

FEATURE

08/28/2011
TOUWS RIVER — The giant rhino slumps to the ground with haunting cries as it fights for its life, a bloodied, fleshy pulp in the place where poachers sawed off its horn.

The critically injured male is one of the latest victims in South Africa’s rhino bloodbath, which is surging on privately owned reserves as criminal syndicates target easier prey for the Asian black market.

“I’m at war,” exhausted owner Searl Derman told AFP before heading out again with a veterinarian to try to treat the highly stressed animal.

It’s an expensive battle: Derman has racked up bills for tracking helicopters, vets and 24-hour anti-poaching measures, but is competing with hunters who are chasing horns that fetch half-a-million dollars a kilo..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110828com3.html

Another big-time BoC scam; billions lost N.O . N.O.N.S.E.N.S.E Jacinto 08/28/2011

Another big-time BoC scam; billions lost

N.O . N.O.N.S.E.N.S.E
Jacinto
08/28/2011
More than 2,000 containers disappeared on its way to the Port of Batangas, with government losing billions in forgone revenues, we had written earlier. But there is again talk that another 1,470 containers have again been diverted from MICP to fake warehouses with government losing several more billions.

How can this happen right under the very noses of the Commissioner of Customs and his officials? How could they release these 1,470 container vans filled with resins with an estimated value per container of P3 million without paying a single centavo as tax and duty to the government? It is mind boggling how Customs officials can conspire to perpetrate this very big scam.

The scam allgedly occurred when 1,470 container vans loaded with resins were transferred to the Port of Manila from MICP but were diverted by the consignee in connivance with Customs officials to fake and fictitious bonded warehouses instead of arriving at the port of destination which is the Port of Manila. The 1,470 containers loaded with valuable and highly dutiable goods were allegedly all consigned to only one company, Xurich Corp., which must be filthy rich to import an estimated P5 billion worth of resins. Can you believe that this Xurich Corp. is allegedly a fake one, and yet the BoC headed by Angelito Alvarez was able to accredit the said corporation as an Industry-Specific Bonded Warehouse (ICBW) despite the absence of a mayor’s and business permit being submitted to the BoC. Talk is that the address presented to the BoC which is Unit 206 Joncor Bldg. at 1362 A. Mabini St. Ermita, Manila, turned out to be fictitious as the existing occupant of the said address is a travel agency and not a bonded warehouse, which was what Xurich claimed. It’s non-existence at Joncor building was certified by the building administrator stating that no Xurich Corp. ever occupied any room in the building in the last 15 years. Who could be behind this Xurich as its capitalist?.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110828com5.html

‘WOW Philippines’ JUST remembering VIEWPOINTS Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz 08/28/2011

‘WOW Philippines’ JUST remembering

VIEWPOINTS
Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz
08/28/2011
Just asking
So brief but many intriguing possibilities it said. So plain but pleasant thoughts it evoked. So plain but big wonders it caused. This was the combined precious and loaded message that “Wow Philippines!” very well delivered and so long remembered. Foreign tourist came. Foreign income increased. And everybody was happy: The tourists themselves. The Tourist Agencies and Organizations. The Tourist Industry in general. The Tourist guides and many others, included.

Just asking

A new administration came. A new tourism leadership emerged. A new tourism come-on was invented. The former proverb “Wow Philippines!” was nonchalantly shelved. A supposedly new and better tourism slogan was invented: “Pilipinas Kay Ganda” — or something the like. Certain perplexing questions came to fore: Was the invention in effect inspired by foreign consultants? Did the invention simply copy some tourism figures from this or that country? Is it true that so much expenses were incurred from the making to the launching of the invention?.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110828com6.html

Pleasure of Noy, displeasure of the people TABLETS OF STONE Larry Faraon, OP 08/28/2011

Pleasure of Noy, displeasure of the people

TABLETS OF STONE
Larry Faraon, OP
08/28/2011
The most recent victim of the rumored internal great divide in Malacañang is Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB) official Nelson Laluces. Rumor mills are rife over a Laluces fiasco involving the approval of the sale and transfer of franchise of BLTB Co. (a bus company) to Del Monte Bus Co. owned by Narciso Morales, who was said to be a distant relative of Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa. Recently, from his hot seat, Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim also bailed out and tendered his resignation over rumors of under-performance, since it has been a year now and it seems that he is still groping in the dark over his post.

He started off with the infamous tourism campaign Pilipinas Kay Ganda. And in one presidential spur of the fast tongue P-Noy lashed out on him as one of those secretaries who regularly brings him “headaches.”

A little far back, a bejeweled “Cory original,” former Transportation and Communications Secretary Jose Ping de Jesus resigned over the rumored telecommunications row between Globe and Smart and amid the DoTC’s deliberations on whether to raise the fares of the Light and Metro Rail Transit (LRT/MRT) systems. Retired General Ernesto Diokno of the Bureau of Corrections, also a certified Cory general came next over a rumored coddling of convicted murderer, former Batangas Gov. Antonio Leviste..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110828com7.html

Wikileaks: Power dynasties at work in Meralco battle 08/28/2011

ARROYOS, ABOITIZES VS LOPEZES

Wikileaks: Power dynasties at work in Meralco battle

08/28/2011
The United States subscribed to the view that dynastic families that included the Arroyos, the Aboitizes and the Lopezes, waging a protracted war against each other was behind the bitter board room struggle between the Lopez family and the state pension fund Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) for control of dominant electricity distributor Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) toward the end of the previous administration of President Gloria Arroyo, leaked cables from the US Embassy showed.

The cable which was among some 3,071 communications of the US diplomatic post in Manila released the other day by whistle-blower site Wikileaks said “the conflict, which some analysts see as a feud between the Arroyo and Lopez families, has eroded the appearance of stability that Philippine economic managers want to project, and may give foreign investors qualms about the Philippine power sector.”

The US Embassy viewed the struggle for control of Meralco as highlighting the role of prominent families in business and government and creates uncertainty that could damage efforts to attract investors.

“Lack of additional investment into the power sector will almost certainly leave Filipino consumers more vulnerable to power disruptions,” it noted..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110828hed1.html

RP gov’t hesitates on recognizing Libyan rebels 08/28/2011

RP gov’t hesitates on recognizing Libyan rebels

08/28/2011
Malacañang yesterday said it was hesitant about recognizing Libya’s rebels, with the welfare of some 1,600 Filipino workers in the north African country still its foremost concern.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the government was monitoring the situation in Libya as the regime of longtime leader Moammar Kadhafi collapses in the wake of a series of rebel victories.

“What is important for us in the Philippines is the protection of our own Filipino workers. That is our primary consideration now (over) whether or not to recognize Libya’s (National Transitional Council, or NTC),” he told reporters.

On Wednesday, the Libyan Embassy in the Philippines defected to the rebels’ side, raising the red, black and green flag of the anti-Kadhafi forces..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110828hed4.html

Private employee working on Aug. 29, 30 will receive 200% pay — DoLE 08/28/2011

Private employee working on Aug. 29, 30 will receive 200% pay — DoLE

08/28/2011
The Department of Labor an Employment (DoLE) yesterday said that private workers who will report for work on Aug. 29 and 30, which was declared as non-working holidays are entitled to 200 percent pay.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said August 29 is a regular holiday by virtue of Proclamation No. 84 that President Aquino issued on Dec. 20, 2010, while August 30 is also regular holiday by virtue of Proclamation No. 234 in celebration of the Eid’l Fitr.

“The purpose of the celebration of National Heroes Day is to accord fullest honors to the greatness, first of all, of our heroes who offered their sweat, blood, and lives so we may attain our freedoms, and second, to the resiliency of ordinary Filipinos who continue to love their country and endeavor to live honorable lives that honor our heroes and our countrymen,” the labor chief said.

“On the other hand, we share our brothers and sisters, the Muslim Filipinos, in their celebration of Eid’l Fitr, or the Feast of Ramadhan, which falls on August 30,” Baldoz said..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110828nat2.html

Climate change mitigation will benefit farmers, regenerate environment, says Angara By Charlie V. Manalo 08/28/2011

Climate change mitigation will benefit farmers, regenerate environment, says Angara

By Charlie V. Manalo 08/28/2011
The government, in cooperation with the global community, must come up with a long-term blueprint for programs that would mitigate the impact of climate change on man and the environment, Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara said yesterday.

“Disasters like floods, droughts, forest fires and the increase in tropical cyclone have caused too much lives and material losses amounting to billions of pesos,” Angara said, adding in pursuing carbon finance in the forestry sector, the role of government cannot be underestimated.

Referring to a document by the Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department (CPBRD), Angara strongly endorsed that the Philippines seriously consider mitigating climate change through the so-called “carbon sequestration” which refers to the capture and storage of carbon.

Plants, especially trees or forests, are effective natural means (by photosynthesis) of converting carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using sunlight..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110828met2.html

‘Koko’ prods Comelec lawyer to follow example of Zubiri By Angie M. Rosales

‘Koko’ prods Comelec lawyer to follow example of Zubiri

By Angie M. Rosales 08/28/2011

“Do a Zubiri!”

This was the call made by Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III yesterday to a lawyer at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) who was appointed as law department chief despite his being dragged in the P700-million ballot secrecy folder scam last year.

Pimentel urged lawyer Allen Francis Abaya to turn down the appointment and spare the poll body from further condemnation even as he bared plans of filing a resolution in the upper chamber to probe his reported “re-appointment” after having been suspended for six months.

Abaya, along with six other Comelec officials, was meted the suspension for approving the alleged highly overpriced ballot folders that were supposed to be used during the May 10, 2010 presidential elections.

“As a victim of electoral fraud myself, I am extremely wary of election officials whose record has been tainted in any way by involvement in election irregularities,” the senator said..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110828met1.html

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