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Hacienda Luisita farmers rejoice but still vigilant over SC decision

Sunday, November 27, 2011

 Hacienda Luisita farmers rejoice but still vigilant over SC decision

“Now that the SC has decided in favor of Luisita farmers and farm workers, the burden of implementation is with the President’s family the Cojuangco-Aquinos and the Department of Agrarian Reform.” – Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Felix Nacpil Jr., 39, along with some 40 farm workers, left Hacienda Luisita early morning to get a copy of the Supreme Court (SC) decision, Nov. 24.

On board two jeepneys, they arrived at the SC at around 9 a.m.They waited until noon to get hold of a 56-page resolution penned by Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco on the motion for reconsideration filed by their group Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Hacienda Luisita (Ambala).

Voting 14-0, the high court granted their petition and unanimously ordered the distribution of 4,916 hectares of Hacienda Luisita lands to the original 4,296 original farmworker beneficiaries (FWBs). It modified its July 5, 2011 ruling ordering the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to hold a referendum to let the Luisita farmers choose between owning shares of stocks in Hacienda Luisita Inc. or getting portions of the more than 6,000-hectare estate..... MORE

SourceBulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/11/25/hacienda-luisita-farmers-rejoice-but-vigilant-over-sc-decision/

Moral and honest? FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 11/27/2011

Moral and honest?

FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
11/27/2011
For one who claims to have divested all his shares in Hacienda Luisita, Noynoy certainly continues to look after the interests of the Cojuangco-Aquinos, with his latest spiel stating that the landlords, all of whom belong to his clan, must be justly compensated.

The claim today of course is that Noynoy really has no personal interest in the hacienda, having divested all his shares as the law states.

But this divestment of Hacienda Luisita shares claim is truly opaque, from the time of the Cory Aquino presidency to today, under the son’s presidency.

It was claimed, in 1987, when the Cory Constitution was in place and with a new Congress elected, that Cory had already divested her hacienda shares..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111127com2.html

Outsourcing stems Philippines labor exodus focus 11/27/2011

Outsourcing stems Philippines labor exodus

focus

11/27/2011
MANILA — Malaysia-based computer whiz Arlene Teodoro packed his bags and flew home to the Philippines this year, going against the tide in an impoverished country that sends millions of workers abroad.

Forced to leave his family and friends in 2008 in search of a decent job overseas, the 35-year-old bachelor says he is back for good because his skills are suddenly in big demand amid a business process outsourcing boom.

“Nothing compares to being back in the Philippines,” said Teodoro, part of a 30-strong computer science class at a Manila university in the early 1990s, most of whose members also went overseas to find work.

“When I was working abroad I’d use up all my vacation leaves to attend family events and reconnect with my family.”.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111127com3.html

Hungry Americans Occupy Turkey Giveaway (w/ Video)




Hungry Americans Occupy Turkey Giveaway

 Many Americans enjoyed a hearty Thanksgiving meal, but unfortunately many others are going hungry this holiday season. Nowhere in the US is the problem worse than in Los Angeles, where 10 thousand people camped out this week for a free turkey dinner.

­It is difficult for Lisa Jones to plan beyond tomorrow.

“Lost my house, lost my business. Now I’m just kinda surviving,”  said Jones as she waited in line for a free turkey in South Los Angeles.

She struggles to make it through the day. The mother of three is worried about her oldest son, who is fighting the war in Afghanistan. She is also among the millions of Americans who go hungry every day..... MORE

SourceRT.com

URL: http://rt.com/usa/news/hungry-turkey-jones-people-259/

US AMD dilemma: Big dollar or world peace?



US AMD dilemma: Big dollar or world peace?

Russia’s President Medvedev sent a sharp warning this week to Western powers over the planned NATO missile shield in Europe. He said if the plans go ahead without guarantees of Russia's safety, Moscow would deploy missiles of its own.

­Years of negotiations over the proposed shield, which America wants to place in Turkey and in former Warsaw Pact countries on Russia’s western border, have been deadlocked over the US refusal to agree to Russian participation in the project.

America says the anti-missile shield is aimed at protecting Europe from so-called rogue states like North Korea and Iran, but Russia sees it as a threat to its own national security..... MORE

SourceRT.com

URL: http://rt.com/news/us-missile-russia-dilemma-301/

Solon declares war on MWSS, Manila Water and Maynilad BLURBAL THRUSTS Louie Logarta 11/27/2011

Solon declares war on MWSS, Manila Water and Maynilad

BLURBAL THRUSTS
Louie Logarta
11/27/2011
It would seem that whenever the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) happens to be featured in the newspapers, somehow it is for the wrong reasons.

Just the other week, a pro-administration lawmaker wrote to the Commission on Audit (CoA) to get them to look into the books of the agency as well as its two private concessionaires in Metro Manila — meaning the Lopez-owned Maynilad Water Services and the Manila Water Co. which is controlled by the Ayalas — claiming there were serious abuses and irregularities in the way they were operating which were disadvantageous both to the government and their millions of consumers.

In her letter to the CoA, Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy of the Bagong Henerasyon party-list group indicated she had received information that both Maynilad and Manila Water were manipulating their respective concession contracts which resulted in excessive and onerous rates being charged to consumers as well as illegal, extravagant and unconscionable public expenditure and use of government property that were clearly unbeneficial to the interests of the state..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111127com4.html

Workers imprisoned for exercise of union rights

Who says lady justice is blindfolded and does not favor anyone? While Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo remains “detained” at the St. Luke’s Hospital, two Karnation workers died in jail and 18 were imprisoned for three years for having conducted a strike.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Who is the biggest criminal of them all?
Former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo can grow more ill and burrow deeper into a luxurious hospital arrest while public pressure mounts to charge her for electoral fraud, plunder and gross human rights violations.

But the working people, if charged in court even with trumped up charges, face immediate arrest and years of imprisonment, difficulties in getting court approval for bail and in mustering enough money for it, and continued threat of imprisonment while their case drags on in court for alleged acts committed during a labor dispute that have also been “criminalized.” This, at least, is the example provided by the ongoing saga of the “Karnation 20” workers, based on the appeals for help aired on their behalf by the non-government Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR).

As if these were not horrible enough, the labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno railed this week against the call of the Employers’ Confederation of the Philippine (ECOP) to decriminalize employers’ violations of minimum wage laws. The labor group describes this as “clearly callous and anti-worker.”

In an interview with BusinessMirror last week, ECOP president Edgardo Lacson opposed bills in the House of Representatives seeking to legislate a longer prison term for employers who violate the country’s wage laws, saying the government should do the opposite and decriminalize such violations. Lacson was reacting to House Bills 942, 1817, 1889, and 2884 authored by Reps. Reynaldo Umali, Emmeline Aglipay, Ben Evardone and Joseph Victor Ejercito, respectively, which seek to extend the penalty of two-year imprisonment to four years for such crimes.

Non-payment of minimum wages in the Philippines is one of the most rampant and persistent violations committed by employers based on the labor department’s survey. But few, if any employer on record, had been jailed for this..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/11/25/workers-imprisoned-for-exercise-of-union-rights/

Bipolar II disorder VIEWPOINTS Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz 11/27/2011

Bipolar II disorder

VIEWPOINTS
Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz
11/27/2011
In layman’s language, it can be said that a “bipolar disorder” has reference to a transit from one extreme adverse behavioral pattern to another opposite extreme errant behavior, i.e., from one pole to another in terms of contradictory and excessive change in thoughts, feelings and actions (bipolar). In fact, psychiatry speaks of bipolar disorders.

The abnormality is expressed in the plural whereas there are in effect two species of inordinate action and reaction manifestations (disorders). In fact, it is quite revealing that the malady is in the sphere of the so-called “mood disorders” in terms of afflictions in disposition and pursuant conduct. Thus it is that there is “Bipolar I” and “Bipolar II” disorders.

Specifically in conjunction with Bipolar II disorder, it appears to be the interchanging mood and consequent behavior from the so called “Hypomanic” situation to the “depressive” condition. In other words — as amateurs in behavioral science understand by reading the pertinent entries in AMA DMN-IV 4th education:.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111127com7.html

Caught in the crossfire TABLETS OF STONE Larry Faraon, OP 11/27/2011

Caught in the crossfire

TABLETS OF STONE
Larry Faraon, OP
11/27/2011
With the monumental decision on the Hacienda Luisita case, the obvious perception is that even the most noble of advocacies such as land redistribution and ownership program was being “caught in the crossfire” between warring feudal lords of the Supreme Court (SC) and Malacañang Palace. Indeed, timing is always interesting. They can deny it to death, but it would seem that the decision upholding the right of the sugar farmers over the portions of land in the huge Cojuangco estate in Tarlac comes just in time when the SC needed leverage and ballistics to get back at the Executive Branch over its disregard of the former’s temporary restraining order (TRO) against the watch list order (WLO) of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo a week ago.

Of course, the farmers and their supporters are gleeful. I still remember clearly when my two spinster aunts would clash over anything. They would try to outdo each other in giving me coins and chocolates, of course, always to my advantage and gain!

We just hope that the magistrates were acting objectively on the “merits” of the case instead of going along with the speed by which the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Commision on Elections (Comelec) concocted the electoral sabotage charges against Arroyo. Of course, the Hacienda Luisita case had been pending almost buried six feet below the ground of the SC’s pile of unresolved files. But since timing is always interesting, it is always convenient to resurrect some “messiah” in condemning and punishing the violators of the law. It would even look like the SC was daring P-Noy to disregard its decision a second time around!.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111127com6.html

Somali pirates free ship with 15 Pinoy sailors By Virgilio J. Bugaoisan 11/27/2011

Somali pirates free ship with 15 Pinoy sailors

By Virgilio J. Bugaoisan 11/27/2011
An Italian merchant ship along with its 21 crew members — 15 Filipinos and six Italians — seized in April in the Arabian Sea near Oman by Somali pirates has been freed, Italian news media yesterday reported.

The 225-meter Rosalia D’Amato — owned by Naples-based shipper Perseveranza — had been sailing from Brazil to Iran with a cargo of soybeans and came under fire from its attackers when it was taken on April 21.

La Repubblica daily reported that the ship was currently on its way to “a safe area” and said a ransom had been paid.

Pirates had initially demanded $22 million to free the ship..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20111127hed5.html

Erap forgives GMA for 2001 power grab, plans to visit her By Gerry Baldo 11/27/2011

Erap forgives GMA for 2001 power grab, plans to visit her

By Gerry Baldo 11/27/2011

Former President Joseph Estrada has already forgiven former President Arroyo who was his vice president when she was installed as president by an elite-backed people power revolt that ousted Estrada in 2001 and even indicated plans to visit Mrs. Arroyo.

But Estrada said Mrs. Arroyo, now a representative of Pampanga’s 2nd District, should still be held accountable for her sins against the Filipino people.

Estrada, in a television interview yesterday, said that Mrs. Arroyo had wronged the Filipino masses who had wallowed in poverty during her nine years in office.

“Madali akong magpatawad eh (I am easy to forgive),” Estrada said..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20111127hed2.html

Luisita land valuation up to SC — Palace By Virgilio J. Bugaoisan 11/27/2011

Luisita land valuation up to SC — Palace

By Virgilio J. Bugaoisan 11/27/2011

After President Aquino insisted that the government should give just compensation to his relatives who own Hacienda Luisita, Malacañang yesterday said the value of the sugar estate which would be parceled for farmer-beneficiaries of the agrarian reform would have to be determined by the Supreme Court (SC).

In an interview over state-owned Radyo ng Bayan, deputy presidential spokesman Abigail Valte said although Aquino has been vocal in asserting compensation for the Luisita owners, that amount that would be deemed “just” would be established by the high tribunal.

“The executive branch is not the one to give the valuation of the land. That is a function of the court. It is not something within our control or something for us to decide,” she stressed..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20111127hed4.html

Bill seeks probe of athletes’ poor showing in Indonesia filed 11/27/2011

Bill seeks probe of athletes’ poor showing in Indonesia filed

11/27/2011
Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III has filed a resolution asking the Senate committee on games, amusements and sports to conduct an inquiry into the “problems which caused the below-par performance of the Philippines vis-à-vis the projected output of the Philippine Sports Commission” in the 26th Southeast Asian Games held recently in Jakarta, Indonesia.

“This is not a witch-hunt. We want to get to the bottom of the debacle by taking a close look at the whole sports situation, from the selection of athletes to training processes and funding of sports associations, for instance, not finger-pointing and blaming individuals,” Pimentel said.

Pimentel said that “despite the great efforts exerted by our brave Filipino athletes,” the Philippines was overtaken in the bi-annual competition by other countries, including Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore, which finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th, respectively..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20111127nat2.html

Different Filipino styles of driving 11/27/2011

Different Filipino styles of driving

11/27/2011
The Filipino art of driving differs in styles from defensive driving to reckless drivers who break traffic rules and got away with it.

Reckless driving is the number one culprit in road accidents in the country, which could have been avoided had the drivers observed simple traffic regulations.

The most common violations are beating the red light, over-speeding and overtaking.

Other causes of road accidents are drunk driving, mechanical defects, using cellular phones while driving, road defects, overloading and sudden turn, left or right or U-turn without first stopping to see if there are no incoming vehicles..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20111127nat7.html

AFP chief of staff to relinquish top military post ahead of his retirement By Mario J. Mallari 11/27/2011

AFP chief of staff to relinquish top military post ahead of his retirement

By Mario J. Mallari 11/27/2011
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Gen. Eduardo Oban Jr. will relinquish the top military post one day ahead of his mandatory retirement on Dec. 13, dousing speculations of his possible extension in the active military service.

At a press briefing yesterday, AFP spokesman Col. Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos Jr. said there is change of command ceremonies scheduled on Dec. 12 at Camp Aguinaldo.

“General Oban will retire 13th of December, the change of command ceremony will be held Dec. 12, a day before his birthday,” Burgos said.

Burgos added Oban had concluded his farewell visits to his counterparts in Brunei and Malaysia and is scheduled to do final round of visitations to major camps throughout the country to ensure continuity of his plans and programs for the 125,000-strong organization..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20111127met2.html

‘JV’ wants Mikey Arroyo’s businesses investigated By Gerry Baldo 11/27/2011

‘JV’ wants Mikey Arroyo’s businesses investigated

By Gerry Baldo 11/27/2011

The tax evasion case now pending against Ang Galing Pinoy Rep. Mikey Arroyo and his spouse may only be a tip of an iceberg, San Juan Rep. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito said yesterday.

Ejercito added there are other transactions that have been contracted by the party-list representative which may not be above-board during the presidency of his mother.

Ejercito said there are reports that Mikey had entered into some business deals during the time of his mother since the ouster of his father, former President Joseph Estrada, in 2001.

Ejercito refused to give details on the transactions even as he urged the Aquino government to investigate the “businesses” of the lawmaker..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20111127met1.html

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