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Church leaders join efforts to bring Palparan to justice

Friday, January 13, 2012

Church leaders join efforts to bring Palparan to justice


“We are watching very closely. The present administration must demonstrate that the Philippines has turned the page and a new chapter where freedom and justice prevail has begun.” – Beaconsfield United Church of Canada
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat.com
MANILA –Church leaders have called on their faithful to help in hunting down retired Army Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr.
Palparan, charged with kidnapping and serious illegal detention in connection with the disappearance of the two missing University of the Philippines (UP) students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan, remains in hiding after a court ordered his arrest last Dec. 20. A P1-million bounty has been offered for information leading to Palparan’s arrest.
Speaking in a press conference, Bishop Reuel Norman Marigza, general secretary of the United Church of Christ of the Philippines (UCCP) said their Church has also experienced the anguish of losing pastors and lay leaders in Palparan’s ‘gruesome litany of death.’
Marigza cited the killing of Isaias MananoRev. Edison Lapuz and the disappearance of Pastor Andy Pawican and blamed the ‘not-so-mysterious death squads that shadowed Palparan wherever and whenever he was assigned.
Manano, son of a UCCP pastor and the local church’s youth leader, was gunned down on April 28, 2004 in Calapan City, Mindoro Oriental. At that time, Palparan was assigned in the province as then commanding officer of the 204th Infantry Battalion.
Church leaders call on their faithful to help hunt down retired Army Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr.(Photo by Ronalyn V. Olea/ bulatlat.com)
Lapuz, meanwhile, was killed by motorcycle-riding men on May 12, 2005 in San Isidro, Leyte. Palparan was then the commanding officer of the 8th Infantry Division, which covers Eastern Visayas.
On May 21, 2006, Pawican, then assigned at the UCCP outreach congregation in Pantabangan, Nueva Ecija, was taken by soldiers of the 48th Infantry Battalion for questioning. He was killed. His months-old daughter, who was with him the day he was taken, was returned with his blood on her dress. At that time, Palparan was the commanding officer of the Philippine Army’s 7th Infantry Division based in Fort Magsaysay in Laur, Nueva Ecija.
In the same vein, Rev. Fr. Lorenzo Anievas of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente and governor general of the National Priest Organization, related how their members became victims of violence perpetrated by state agents.
Anievas cited the killing of Fr. William Tadena and Supreme Bishop Alberto Ramento, both of whom were staunch supporters of Hacienda Luisita farm workers.
“If they can kill leaders of the Church, what else could they do to ordinary people who only fight for land, jobs and the right to a decent life?” Anievas said..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/01/13/church-leaders-join-efforts-to-bring-palparan-to-justice/

Groundless EDITORIAL 01/12/2012

Groundless

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge

01/12/2012
Slowly but surely, it is being discovered by the public that the impeachment move against Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Renato Corona is nothing more than an insidious ploy by Noynoy, his yellow mob and his prostitutes in the House of Representatives, to embarrass, harass, demonize the CJ to force his resignation.

From the start, it was evident that the impeachment proceedings were railroaded, and no doubt, this was quickly signed without as much as reading the complaint, by 188 congressmen, most of whom were bribed by the Malcaang tenant, who has been moving heaven and earth to oust Corona and replace him with Justice Antonio Carpio, with the end view of getting the landmark Hacienda Luisita ruling overturned with the entry of a Noynoy-appointed CJ.

All that demonizing by Noynoy and his allies is hardly being done for any claimed transparency or reform in the Judiciary, but only to serve his, and his familys haciendas interests as well as his control over the high court..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120112com1.html

Feds hide data on domestic use of drones

Feds hide data on domestic use of drones


The domestic use of stealth drones to survey America from the skies is no joke. The Department of Homeland Security has acknowledged that the US government has used the planes on the home front for years, but why and how is largely unknown.
An advocacy group aims to change that. 
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit based out of San Francisco, California, filed a Freedom of Information Act request back in April to learn more about domestic drone use in America. Eight months later, the Department of Transportation (and its subdivision that deals directly with domestic drones, the Federal Aviation Administration), has failed to follow through.... MORE

Source:  RT.com

URL: http://rt.com/usa/news/domestic-drone-why-us-655/

Class war coming to America

Class war coming to America


Never mind the budding war between America and Iran. A skirmish could be coming a lot closer to home and it might even be as centrally located as your own city. In only two years, tensions have grown greatly between the upper and lower classes.
The results from a recent survey out of the Pew Research Center reveal that 66 percent of the adults studied believe that there are either “very strong” or “strong” conflicts existing between America’s elite and impoverished, a statistic that has skyrocketed in recent years. Between 2009 and 20011, the proportion of those that sense conflicts exist as such between the class groups grew by 19 percentage points. While less than half of Americans fearing a fight brewing at the dawn of the Obama administration, today two-out-of-three Americans feel that there is a strong conflict between both extremes of society..... MORE

Source:  RT.com

URL: http://rt.com/usa/news/class-war-america-inequality-645/

‘Aquino hypocritical in blaming, pushing away Pantukan landslide victims’


‘Aquino hypocritical in blaming, pushing away Pantukan landslide victims



Small-scale mining is not the only cause, and is not even the biggest cause, of the destruction of Pantukan’s erstwhile forest lands… large-scale commercial logging operations since the 50s and large-scale mining operations of the past 30 years have massively denuded the mountains of Compostela Valley.”

By MARYA SALAMAT

Bulatlat.com
MANILA — In the immediate aftermath of a landslide that had killed 36 (with unidentified number still declared as missing) in the gold-rich Pantukan, Compostela Valley, vultures have swooped down on the unearthed dead and their families. Armed with high-powered rifles, they are forcibly implementing the Aquino government’s order to drive the surviving small-scale miners and their families away from the rich mining area.
President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III has done an Arroyo and blamed the small-scale miners and victims for “dangerous mining.” On countless occasions, he has also previously expressed preference for large-scale, foreign mining companies. But his immediately issued order to have the said rich mining area vacated by the poor, supposedly for their safety, would only benefit more the large mining companies who have been operating in the area and raring to dig into the lands, according to various critics.
The mountainous area of Pantukan town is host not only to small-scale miners who eke out a living by digging small tunnels in search of gold and copper, but, in recent years, also to various large-scale mining companies who have reportedly been pushing the workers and operators of small-scale mines away from the area, long before the January 5 tragedy.

Residents, rescue workers and miners from nearby companies dig on mud, rocks and debris that buried a poor mining community in Pantukan, Compostela Valley, killing at least 36 people. (Photo by Karlos Manlupig / bulatlat.com)
Operating in Pantukan are large mining firms such as the Nationwide Development Corporation (NADECOR) and the Napnapan Mineral Resources Inc. that have been carrying out large-scale operations within a government concession of more than 4,900 hectares.
The US-owned Russel Mining and Minerals Inc. (an affiliate of the US global mining company St. Augustine) has also been operating a 4,000-hectare concession in the areas of Lumanggang, Chogdan, Gumayan, Biasung, Panganasun and Diat, also in Pantukan.
Russell Mining reportedly maintains a big number of armed personnel in Mindanao to protect its exploration area and the Americans who run its $30-million investments over the 792 million tons of gold and copper deposits.
To secure Russell Mining and other big large-scale mining firms, the 10th Infantry Division-Philippine Army-Armed Forces of the Philippines also reportedly stationed its 71st Infantry Battalion in Pantukan.
Xstrata, one of the three biggest mining corporations operating in the Philippines, is reportedly aiming also to operate an open pit mining in four provinces of Mindanao, according to the environmentalist group Kalikasan-PNE.
The Compostela Valley mountains are considered to be among the biggest repositories of untapped gold and copper ore.?
Hypocritical, despicable treatment of small-scale miners

Malacañang described the Pantukan tragedy as “totally unacceptable.” But it is actually the Aquino government that’s being blamed by many for the tragedy.
“The US-Aquino regime has shamelessly caused the January 5 Pantukan landslides. The tragedy has put to the fore the disastrous policy of the US-Aquino regime that favors large-scale mining like that of US-owned Russell Mining, and the dislocation of small-scale miners in the area,” said Anvil Guinto, spokesperson of the New People’s Army operating in Southern Mindanao.

"Small-scale mining is not the only cause, and is not even the biggest cause, of the destruction of Pantukan’s erstwhile forest lands… large-scale commercial logging operations since the 50s and large-scale mining operations of the past 30 years have massively denuded the mountains of Compostela Valley.”..... MORE

SourceBulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/01/12/aquino-%E2%80%98hypocritical%E2%80%99-in-blaming-and-pushing-away-pantukan-landslide-victims/

FoI: “Folly of Information” VIEWPOINTS Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz 01/12/2012

FoI: “Folly of Information”

VIEWPOINTS
Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz
01/12/2012
Ignorance is bliss. Knowledge is dangerous. The less people know, the better for their own comfort and peace of mind. The more secrets are kept by their government, the more tranquil are the citizens. Such erratic principles and convictions can be considered as the composite premise of the new “Folly of Information” legislative agendum.

In other words, make the government all-knowing. Keep the people altogether dumb and naive. Let their government do the worrying, attend to everything, resolve anything. What people do not know, cannot hurt them. Let their government have full charge of running their country, and thereby free them from thinking and acting out of their individual selves and tiny personal worlds..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120112com6.html

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