• 6 AUGUST - *1907 - Gen. Macario Sakay, one of the Filipino military leaders who had continued fighting the imperialist United States invaders eight years into the Ph...
    11 years ago

......................................................................................

The Daily Tribune

(Without Fear or Favor)

Specials:

Bulatlat.com

World Wildlife Fund for Nature-Philippines

The Philippines Matrix Project

National Artist for Literature Dr. Bienvenido Lumbera turned 80 years old

Thursday, April 12, 2012

 National Artist for Literature Dr. Bienvenido Lumbera turned 80 years old

On April 11, National Artist for Literature Dr. Bienvenido Lumbera turned 80 years old. Why is the man regarded as a giant in Philippine literature? What makes him outstanding as an artist? Bulatlat.com is reposting an article about Lumbera written in 2005..... MORE

SourceBulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/04/12/national-artist-for-literature-dr-bienvenido-lumbera-turned-80-years-old/

Who’s afraid of UNA? EDITORIAL Click to enlarge 04/12/2012

Who’s afraid of UNA?

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
04/12/2012
The Aquino-Liberal Party (LP) administration, that’s who is afraid of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), a newly formed political alliance of Vice President Jojo Binay and former President Joseph Estrada.

Despite Noynoy’s and the Liberal Party’s claim of their not being threatened by the Jojo-Erap UNA, it is clear they feel threatened by this new political body, with LP stalwarts even daring Binay to make his and UNA’s stand clear vis-a-vis their political stand toward the Aquino administration, with the clear inference of his being in opposition with the creation of UNA.

As the VP said, he has nothing to explain about UNA to the LP and the administration, which is the correct posture. UNA as a political body, is a completely separate political entity and has nothing to explain to another political body, which would be the LP and the administration of Noynoy Aquino..... MORE
SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120412com1.html

Libya: So it was all about oil after all!

 Libya: So it was all about oil after all!

Last year NATO countries bombed Libya, demanding “democracy” in the country. But now it’s clear it was all about oil and it’s not like the Americans and Brits are going to be democratic about it, and share those spoils equally with France and Italy.

So… oil giants Total from France and ENI from Italy are just going to have to wait in the sidelines while the hungry American and British big boys take their juicy oil slices first… ExxonMobil, Chevron, Texaco, BP, Shell…

It’s no surprise then to read in The Wall Street Journal that the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), together with the puppet Libyan “authorities” are launching “investigations” into both companies’ “financial irregularities” in their shady dealings during the forty-two years of Gaddafi’s power.  Now who would have imagined this!  An Italian oil company involved in kick-backs?   Corruption at the highest echelons of the French oil industry?!?   Tsk, tsk!!!  Unheard of…!    The US and UK would never do something like that!!   Just ask Enron, ask Halliburton, ask BP….... MORE
SourceRT.com

URL: http://rt.com/news/libya-all-about-oil-818/

Monsanto sued for poisoning farmers

Monsanto sued for poisoning farmers

A lawsuit filed this week claims that the Monsanto corporation, "motivated by a desire for unwarranted economic gain,” knowingly poisoned farmers that were pressured to use the company’s chemicals.

Farmers from Argentina claim that agricultural giant Monsanto, along with Philip Morris and other major American tobacco companies, asked them to use chemicals on their crops that caused “devastating birth defects.” The plaintiffs say that the corporations being included in the suit were aware of the implications but failed to warn the farmers, instead acting "by a desire for unwarranted economic gain and profit.”

In the suit, filed this week at New Castle County Court in the state of Delaware, Monsanto, Philip Morris and others are said to have "wrongfully caused the parental and infant plaintiffs to be exposed to those chemicals and substances which they both knew, or should have known, would cause the infant offspring of the parental plaintiffs to be born with devastating birth defects." ..... MORE

SourceRT.com

URL: http://rt.com/usa/news/monsanto-farmers-tobacco-use-809/

Syrian ceasefire deadline arrives – no violence reported

Syrian ceasefire deadline arrives – no violence reported


The deadline for Syria’s UN-brokered ceasefire aimed at curtailing the conflict has arrived with no immediate reports of violence. However, doubts have been voiced on the international stage whether the regime and the rebels can keep to the truce.

The Syrian government told UN-Arab League Envoy Kofi Annan that regime troops would cease fighting at 03:00 GMT on Thursday morning. UN spokesman Ahmad Fawsi says the Assad regime reserves “the right to respond proportionately to any attacks.”

As a test to Assad’s ceasefire the head of the opposition group the Syrian National Council, Burhan Ghalioun appealed to Syrians to “demonstrate and express themselves.”.... MORE
SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://rt.com/news/ceasefire-deadline-annan-assad-855/

Surveys VIEWPOINTS Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz 04/12/2012

Surveys

VIEWPOINTS
Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz
04/12/2012
The art of science of doing and interpreting surveys may be now already much developed and well-defined. That is why taking surveys about the appreciation or depreciation of people about this or that famous or infamous individual — not excluding the like or dislike of people about this soap, that soft drink and so on — has become not only common but also regular. At the same time however, there are certain factors that necessarily come to play in survey making and reading, keeping private or publishing the survey result openly — depending on its result plus the interest of its financier.\

First and foremost then, who is asking and paying for the survey? With the bare fact that surveys are not freely done, much less freely interpreted and released for wide publication — but dearly paid for by the interested party — the question about money cannot but come into play. And when money, a lot of money. changes hands, there cannot but be also a transactional deal that goes therewith — in line with the standard practice that “You get this if you do that,” or “You do that and you get this.”.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120412com6.html

8 activists nabbed in one week

8 activists nabbed in one week


“While the likes of Palparan and Reyes who have clear charges against them continue to roam freely, activists and ordinary people are being arrested and detained arbitrarily on trumped up criminal charges to conceal the political nature of their arrests and detention.” – Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Karapatan
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat.com

MANILA — Just before Holy Week, eight activists were arrested by state security forces in three separate incidents.

In a statement, human rights group Karapatan said the eight, including one minor, “have been slapped with trumped up criminal charges such as kidnapping, rebellion, illegal possession of firearms , robbery in band and terrorism.”

On March 28, five activists were arrested in Sta. Rosa town in Nueva Ecija. Those arrested were Efren Delalamon, Andres Ely, Carla Bautista, Ambrosio Ileto and Jan Michael Ileto. Three days later, on April 1, Renante Damara and Santiago Balleta were apprehended in Las Piñas, Metro Manila. On April 3, Christian Tuayon, secretary general of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Negros Occidental, was nabbed in Bacolod City.

“While the likes of Palparan and Reyes who have clear charges against them continue to roam freely, activists and ordinary people are being arrested and detained arbitrarily on trumped up criminal charges to conceal the political nature of their arrests and detention,” Karapatan chairwoman Marie Hilao-Enriquez, said in a statement, referring to two high-profile fugitives retired Gen. Jovito Palparan, Jr. and former Palawan Governor Joel Reyes..... MORE

SourceBulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/04/12/8-activists-nabbed-in-one-week/

Comelec ordered to comment on PCOS purchase plea By Benjamin B. Pulta 04/12/2012

Comelec ordered to comment on PCOS purchase plea

By Benjamin B. Pulta 04/12/2012

The Supreme Court (SC) has declined to immediately issue a restraining order on the suits questioning the decision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to enter into a P1.8-billion deal to purchase election computers alleged to be defective.

SC spokesman Midas Marquez, at a press briefing, yesterday explained the high tribunal instead issued a resolution directing the poll body and Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) to comment on the petition filed by the group of Davao City Archbishop Fernando Capalla seeking to stop the purchase of some 82,000 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.

The parties were given 10 days to comply with the order..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20120412hea5.html

RP warship in standoff with Chinese ships By Mario J. Mallari and Michaela P. del Callar 04/12/2012

NAVY FLAGSHIP FAILS TO SCARE OFF CHINA’S SURVEILLANCE VESSELS

RP warship in standoff with Chinese ships

By Mario J. Mallari and Michaela P. del Callar 04/12/2012

The Philippines’ biggest warship was locked in a standoff yesterday with two Chinese ships in the South China Sea, reigniting tensions in a decades-long dispute over the resource-rich waters.

But the country’s Navy’s flagship, BRP Gregorio del Pilar, failed to scare off the Chinese surveillance ships during a standoff along the disputed Scarborough Shoal, Panatag Shoal to the Philippines and Huangyan Island to China Tuesday.

The BRP Gregorio del Pilar was blocked by two Chinese maritime surveillance ships after the PN’s flagship caught eight Chinese fishing vessels with giant clams, live sharks, corals and other endangered marine species on Monday..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20120412hea1.html

3 killed, 16 wounded in IED explosion By Mario J. Mallari 04/12/2012

3 killed, 16 wounded in IED explosion

By Mario J. Mallari 04/12/2012

At least three people were killed while 16 others were wounded after an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded on a passenger bus in North Cotabato province yesterday.

Military Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom) spokesman Col. Leopoldo Galon said that a Rural Transit Bus with licensed plate numbers KVS-740 and body number 2922 had just reached the Carmen Bus Terminal in Poblacion, Carmen town at around 10:25 a.m. when the explosion happened.

Galon identified the three fatalities as Rona Mae Causing, 18, of Bukidnon; Gladzin Himpiso, 10, and Dima Causing, 62..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20120412nat5.html

QC gov’t to help DPWH in fast-tracking P570-million flyover project in 2 barangays Arlie O. Calalo 04/12/2012

QC gov’t to help DPWH in fast-tracking P570-million flyover project in 2 barangays

Arlie O. Calalo 04/12/2012
The Quezon City government has assured the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) of its help in facilitating the removal of the remaining structures built in Barangays Old Balara and Loyola Heights in connection with the latter’s P570-million flyover project in the area.

The Tribune was told that the 96 structures were said to be causing the delay in the completion of the multi-million-peso flyover project that is crossing the Commonwealth Avenue.

Mayor Herbert Bautista told members of the Quezon City Press Club that he had already instructed the concerned city officials to closely coordinate with the DPWH officials and the affected sector to ensure a speedy implementation of the plan..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20120412met2.html

‘JV’ supports move to arm MMDA traffic enforcers By Gerry Baldo 04/12/2012

‘JV’ supports move to arm MMDA traffic enforcers

By Gerry Baldo 04/12/2012
The move to arm traffic enforcers got the support of the House of Representatives following reports that some motorists and public utility drivers accosted for traffic violations had attempted to run over traffic enforcers.

According to San Juan Rep. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito, chairman of the House committee on Metro Manila development, the proposal should be passed by Congress to put more teeth to traffic regulations.

Ejercito, expressing alarm over reports that Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) traffic enforcer Jann Andrew Papa was almost run over by a sports utility van being driven by a certain Jojo Avila who was stopped for a traffic violation in Quezon City, that side arms would also help prevent and curb the rising criminalities..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20120412met1.html

Blog Archive