Jueteng redux? C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S Jonathan De la Cruz 09/15/2010

Jueteng redux?

C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S

Jonathan De la Cruz

09/15/2010
It is good that President Aquino has ordered the DILG, PNP and now the BIR to go hammer and tongs against jueteng operators. Probably jolted by the latest revelations that the operators of the illegal numbers game have found new padrinos in his administration P-Noy has vowed to unmask the perpetrators and bring them to justice. The inclusion of the BIR in the task group is a take on the Al Capone story which happened during the Depression years in the US. It is related that US authorities had a hard time taking hold of the Chicago mobster and letting their charges stick even as they had every reason to believe that Capone really had his hands on every illegal activity including illegal gambling and other racketeering operations. He was as slippery as an eel. So, they got him via tax evasion charges, took him into custody and sentenced him to life imprisonment. Let’s hope that the authorities will be able to do the same to the operators and their backers, in and out of government, soon enough.

Inaalat (on a losing streak) is how many observers are now describing the series of negative reports which have been coming the Aquino administration’s way lately. Just as the Luneta hostage carnage was fading in the public view aided somehow by P-Noy’s public statements and the Chinese government’s avowals of trust and comity, we have this latest jolt from anti-jueteng crusader Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz that two (or is it five) administration officials are getting millions of pesos in “payola” from the illegal numbers game. Cruz, who heads the Krusadang Bayan Laban sa Jueteng had earlier linked just two close P-Noy aides to the alleged payoffs but immediately corrected himself saying the number is more than that. He named five additional, mostly local, officials. If I were DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo and his deputy in charge of police affairs, Undersecretary Rico Puno,.... MORE
Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100915com4.html

Georgia’s mountain wilderness Georgia’s mountain wilderness FEATURE 09/15/2010

Georgia’s mountain wilderness

FEATURE

09/15/2010
MESTIA — High in the Caucasus Mountains, a wild landscape of glacier-capped peaks, forested valleys and villages huddled around medieval stone towers has been locked away for centuries.

But Georgia’s Upper Svaneti region — one of the highest and most remote settlements in Europe — is finally opening up to the outside world.

Home to only 14,000 persons, Upper Svaneti is a relic of Georgia’s ancient culture, a living museum where the locals speak a language that broke off from Georgian 3,000 years ago.

Getting to the regional capital Mestia, a village of 2,500 located 1,500 meters (5,000 feet) above sea level, currently involves a harrowing half-day drive along a rough road that winds around steep cliffs.

Now, in a bid to attract tourists and develop the region’s economy

, Georgia’s government has launched a major programme to improve transport links to Svaneti, spending millions of dollars (euros) to refurbish roads and this summer announcing plans for a new airport in Mestia..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100915com5.html

Missing his target HE SAYS Aldrin Cardon 09/15/2010

.Missing his target

HE SAYS

Aldrin Cardon

09/15/2010
It was, to say, picture perfect — that of President Aquino, his eyes squinting as he peered through the scope to check a high-powered rifle any gun lover — which, in case you don’t know it yet, includes our very own dear Chief Executive — would love to own.

The photograph was a great copy, they shared the headlines in many newspapers last week, at about the same time when another photograph, this time bearing the likeness of an elite police team, in a re-enactment of the fateful Aug. 23 hostage-taking incident at the Quirino Grandstand, where eight Hong Kong tourists were killed when an out-of-it-all dismissed police officer sealed his life for nothing but to send the country into an international embarrassment that would blot Noynoy’s first hundred days.

The two photographs, however, tell similar stories.

The first, that of the President inspecting a deadly hardware, could be so privileged to at least lay hands on a modern equipment his police and military forces could only dream of.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100915com6.html

Bulls-eye SHE SAYS Dinah S. Ventura 09/15/2010

Bulls-eye

SHE SAYS

Dinah S. Ventura

09/15/2010
President Aquino is no stranger to violence. His father, Benigno Sr., was assassinated on the airport tarmac. His mother’s term as president was peppered with a number of armed coups d’etat by rebel soldiers who wanted to grab power, and he took a bullet in his body to show for it.

Those violent years urged him to take up the gun and learn to shoot. And his aim, we discovered recently, is excellent.

Unfortunately, decisions made on Aug. 23, 2010 did not have the same perfect aim. In fact, it appeared that no one was aiming for anything specific that day, such as making it possible for the hostages to be let go by the disgruntled police officer, who had decided to take the law into his own hands. Rolando Mendoza wanted his job back, claiming he had been unfairly dismissed, and he took a busload of Hong Kong tourists hostage to ensure that he got what he wanted.

Throughout the 10 hours of heat, hot heads, high drama and hijinks, the world watched as the situation dragged for hours and rapidly disintegrated into a tragedy that took the lives of tourists who were about to leave for home that very night..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100915com7.html

SC stops Merci’s impeachment, 8-3 By Benjamin B. Pulta and Gerry Baldo 09/15/2010

House to defy high court’s status quo ante order 

SC stops Merci’s impeachment, 8-3

By Benjamin B. Pulta and Gerry Baldo
09/15/2010

Saved by the Supreme Court (SC) bell—at least for now.

A status quo ante order has been handed down by a polarized high court stopping the impeachment of controversial Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez.

In a two page resolution, the SC en banc through Assistant Clerk of Court Felipa Anama required parties “to observe the status quo prevailing before the issuance of the Sept. 1, 2010 and Sept. 7, 2010 resolutions of the House committee on justice.”

Two leaders of the House of Representatives said the House is going to ignore the order of the SC suspending the impeachment proceedings against Gutierrez even under pain of contempt.

Iloilo Rep. Neil Tupaz and Quezon Rep. Lorenzo Tañada III said the House committee on justice will continue with the impeachment proceedings despite the high court order, saying that the House, as a legislative body, is a co-equal body of government which is not under the judiciary..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100915hed1.html

SC rejects farmers’ bid to stop Luisita proceedings 09/15/2010

SC rejects farmers’ bid to stop Luisita proceedings
09/15/2010
Thousands of farmers working the Cojuangco family controlled Hacienda Luisita suffered a setback before the Supreme Court (SC) yesterday after the tribunal turned down the motion filed by Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Hacienda Luisita (Ambala) to scrap the ongoing mediation proceedings between the hacienda’s management and beneficiaries.

Retired SC Associate Justice Alicia Austria Martinez, who heads the three-man mediation panel created by the court to help both parties come up with an amicable settlement to end the decades long land dispute, said the magistrates denied Ambala’s petition during their regular en banc session held every Tuesday.

Aside from turning down the motion to suspend mediation proceedings, the court also asked the Ambala to participate in the arbitration proceedings.

Hacienda Luisita spokesman Tony Ligon told reporters that the mediation proceedings are scheduled to resume next Monday.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20100915nat1.html

Cruz: 8 dioceses also receive jueteng payola By Pat C. Santos and Angie M. Rosales 09/15/2010

Cruz: 8 dioceses also receive jueteng payola
By Pat C. Santos and Angie M. Rosales
09/15/2010

Presidential aides and buddies linked to millions of jueteng payoffs appear to be in good company of some payola-taking bishops, as Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz yesterday bared that eight dioceses in the country are recipients of jueteng payolas.

As this was bared, Sen. Miriam Santiago also scored Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) undersecretary Rico Puno, who has been given control and authority over the Philippine National Police (PNP) despite being under the DILG chief Jesse Robredo, saying that Puno’s withholding of the information on the “feelers” sent to him on jueteng payoffs by “emissaries” and friends was “improper” and questionable.

The senator stressed that the DILG appeared to have been remiss in taking appropriate action on these alleged overtures on jueteng payola to him.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile also questioned Puno’s statements saying that the DILG official should identify those alleged fixers or go-betweens who sought him out the past few months..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100915hed3.html

Judiciary budget up in Aquino, CJ meet 09/15/2010

Judiciary budget up in Aquino, CJ meet
09/15/2010
President Aquino yesterday said he will ask for a meeting with Chief Justice Renato Corona to iron out the demands of the judges for salary increases which, he said, had already been granted the judiciary unlike other departments that “suffered cuts.”

In a chance interview after witnessing the change of command between retired Philippine National Police Chief Gen. Jesus Verzosa and newly appointed PNP chief Gen. Raul Bacalzo at Camp Crame in Quezon City, the Chief Executive echoed his trusted budget and Management Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad in fending off the ongoing grumbling of the judiciary given the slashes in its budget allocation as specified in the 2011 proposed national budget.

Aquino justified the appropriations that his government has made in its proposed P1.614-trillion budget as he insinuated that the claims made by the judiciary that it has not experienced an increase in its budget was wrong because its members have been getting adjustments in their allowances since 2007.

“First of all, the judicial budget, I understand, for 2011 has been increased by about five percent. So it’s not correct to say that it wasn’t increased — there are a lot of other departments that sufferedthe cut for that matter,” Aquino told reporters..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100915hed4.html

Noy: Junior officers’ plaints vs new PNP chief ‘manufactured’ By Aytch S. de la Cruz 09/15/2010

Noy: Junior officers’ plaints vs new PNP chief ‘manufactured’
By Aytch S. de la Cruz
09/15/2010

Saying that the complaints against his chosen Philippine National Police (PNP) chief were “manufactured” by the junior officers in the police force, President Aquino admitted that he merely ignored these complaints, even to the point of not investigating these charges aired against PNP chief Director General Raul Bacalzo.

Aquino claimed that the complaints were clearly manufactured stating that it has always been a tradition not only in the police but also in the military that some officials would always bring into play issues against every succeeding chief.

The junior officers alleged that Bacalzo was a failure in addressing the issues of extra-judicial killings in the country, citing his purported zero achievements when he held the directorship of the PNP’s Task Force Usig.

They also claimed that Bacalzo has been receiving protection money from jueteng, the most common form of illegal gambling in the country. He has also been implicated in drug trafficking..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100915hed5.html

Ethics complaint against Lacson filed 09/15/2010

Ethics complaint against Lacson filed
09/15/2010
An anti-crime group yesterday filed a complaint against fugitive Sen. Panfilo Lacson before the Senate committee on ethics and privileges in connection with his departure from the country and continued absences from the upper chamber in the face of a standing warrant of arrest issued against him for the Dacer-Corbito double murder case.

In a 14-page complaint, the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) is asking the Senate panel to investigate the lawmaker for his failure to surrender himself to the proper authorities; fleeing the country to evade arrest; and his continued absence from the upper chamber’s sessions. 

The complainants said Lacson had “tainted the prestige of the Senate” and was “guilty of dereliction of duty.”

They added Lacson “may be guilty of violating Presidential Decree 1829 (obstruction of justice) and abandonment of office, which are both penal offenses.”.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100915hed6.html

New faces, same style EDITORIAL 09/14/2010

New faces, same style

EDITORIAL

Click to enlarge

09/14/2010
When such accusations of corruption, and naturally, jueteng, are aired, and with the fingers pointing to the presidential aides, the usual reply to such accusations is for the accuser to provide proof and substantiate the charges for the Palace to act on them.

Communications chief Sonny Coloma came out to state that retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz should show the Palace proof of his charges, adding that there are no sacred cows in the Aquino government.

That was pretty much the line of the Arroyo government, every time charges against Palace officials were aired.

It certainly looks like Aquino’s Malacañang is just a clone of Arroyo’s Malacañang, despite all those empty promises of change and reform in the new government, and the promise to eradicate corruption..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100914com1.html

Getting even? FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 09/14/2010

Getting even?

FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

09/14/2010
One of the promises of Noynoy Aquino, with reference to reforms in government institutions, was the strengthening of the judiciary — to ensure justice for all under his regime, or so he claimed.

Yet it is clear that such pledge is merely another empty promise made by him, as his budget for next year has ensured that the judicial branch of government does not even comprise of just one percent of the total budget some P1.6 trillion.

But in the case of the Social Welfare and Services Department, its budget zoomed to some 127 percent, with the bulk of the funds allocated to the cash transfer program, which theoretically will be giving the “poorest of the poor” some P1,400 monthly.

Everyone knows that this cash transfer program is nothing but a deep well of corruption, as it is almost impossible for Dinky Soliman’s agency to even pinpoint the poorest of the poor beneficiaries. Just who will be identifying them, if not the local executives. What guarantee is there that once identified, these beneficiaries would really be receiving them? Receipts? Signatures can be faked..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100914com2.html

US post in Afghan hamlet a ‘bullet magnet’ focus 09/14/2010

US post in Afghan hamlet a ‘bullet magnet’

focus

09/14/2010
CHAHAR QOLBAH — In Chahar Qolbah, a deserted hamlet on the edge of the village of Jelawar in southern Afghanistan, US paratroopers have taken over an old Taliban base and turned it into a forward combat post.

Patrol base Lugo, named after one of the soldiers’ comrades who was killed in action, is “a bullet magnet,” joked one of the men from Alpha Battery 1-320 of the 101st Airborne Division

The post is in the Arghandab Valley in the heart of Kandahar province — cradle and bastion of the Taliban insurgency.

Riddled with bullets and some of it in ruins, the building has been transformed into a fortified camp, with machine gun posts on the roof, sandbags, camouflage netting and sniper nests.

“When we moved in, we found weapons and underground medical facilities. They were treating their wounded here,” platoon commander Lt. George Babcock said as he showed the cellar..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100914com3.html

Honeymoon is over? NO HOLDS BARRED Armida Siguion-Reyna 09/14/2010

Honeymoon is over?

NO HOLDS BARRED

Armida Siguion-Reyna

09/14/2010
You read this on the 76th day that President Benigno Aquino III is in office, or 24 days to go before his honeymoon with all of us ends. How will he do after the traditional 100 days of harmony for the Chief Executive is over?

The stance of my paper is clear. Without fear or favor, said our masthead, from the time of Arroyo. Without fear or favor, still, in this presidency. And yet while I had declared observing a honeymoon with P-Noy, not once did I get an order, a request, or whatever, to go hit him. My editor respects my position, I likewise respect the paper’s clear-cut preference to stay on activist track — which is why I found Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda’s scare tactics and harangue against our reporter so disappointing. 

I make it clear I want Lacierda’s Boss to succeed. I didn’t vote for him, but how well he does in Malacañang is how well the country will do. For P-Noy to do well enough to stop rallyists of the left and right and center of the spectrum from pouring out into the streets again is what I really want to happen, as heck, I’m soon to turn 80, and my legs won’t anymore take to marching.

Barely after the elections, the Left announced “There’s no honeymoon. The total political exposition of, and opposition to Aquino, and the newly installed ruling Mafia in Malacañang is the top order of the day… a declaration of round-the-clock vigilance and just war against Mr. Aquino, who is no different to Mrs. Arroyo.”.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100914com4.html

Paymasters of the right AN OUTSIDERS VIEW Ken Fuller 09/14/2010

Paymasters of the right

AN OUTSIDERS VIEW

Ken Fuller

09/14/2010
Last month saw a large gathering in Washington as Glenn Beck, a right-wing rabble-rouser on the odious Fox channel, called a rally at the spot where Martin Luther King Jr. made his “I have a dream” speech 47 years earlier. Beck says it was mere coincidence that it was the anniversary of the King speech but that, when he realized it, he decided to use this as his theme. And he did, making the ludicrous claim that his Tea Party audience was heir to the civil rights movement.

Anyone listening to Beck for the first time might have come away with the impression that here was a man who believed that the solution to the USA’s problems lay in the embrace of God and constant prayer. Scoundrels often enlist God in their attempts to win a following for their dubious undertakings, and Beck threw in all the icons — not just God but the founding fathers, Abraham Lincoln, the Constitution, etc.

In reality, of course, Beck has a quite different agenda. Last year in the New York Times, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman called him “Exhibit A for the mainstreaming of right-wing extremism.”

The Beck agenda is pretty much the same of that of the Tea Party, a loosely-organized movement which takes its name from the event in 1773 when American colonists threw cases of tea, upon which the British government was demanding a tax, into Boston’s harbor. “No taxation without representation” was the cry. Current Tea Party adherents, though, seem to object to paying any tax intended to fund socially desirable projects like welfare — and, of course, “bailouts,” where they might be on stronger ground..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100914com5.html

India’s lost Buddhist university to rise from ashes FEATURE 09/14/2010

India’s lost Buddhist university to rise from ashes

FEATURE

09/14/2010
NEW DELHI — Indian academics have long dreamt of resurrecting Nalanda University, one of the world’s oldest seats of learning which has lain in ruins for 800 years since being razed by foreign invaders.

Now the chance of intellectual life returning to Nalanda has come one step closer after the parliament in New Delhi last month passed a bill approving plans to re-build the campus as a symbol of India’s global ambitions.

Historians believe that the university, in the eastern state of Bihar, once catered for 10,000 students and scholars from across Asia, studying subjects ranging from science and philosophy to literature and mathematics.

Founded in the third century, it gained an international reputation before being sacked by Turkic soldiers and its vast library burnt down in 1193 — when Oxford University was only just coming into existence.

Piles of red bricks and some marble carvings are all that remain at the site, 55 miles (90 kilometers) from Bihar’s state capital of Patna..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100914com6.html

Logging spells danger for Europe’s last primeval forest FEATURE 09/14/2010

Logging spells danger for Europe’s last primeval forest

FEATURE

09/14/2010
BIALOWIEZA — Deep in the forest, along a dirt road off-limits to tourists, the trunks of centuries-old fir trees lie waiting to be hauled to a sawmill — felled giants from Europe’s last primeval forest.

Further in, old oak and ash trunks wait to be turned into planks, furniture or matchsticks: proof, say ecologists, of illicit logging that is endangering the ancient Bialowieza forest in eastern Poland.

“Some of the trees have been cut down illegally by Poland’s National Forests service, in violation of European Union legislation,” contends Polish environmentalist Adam Bohdan, who with other campaigners has raised the alarm in Warsaw and Brussels.

State forestry officials deny any logging for commercial purposes in Bialowieza, saying only diseased or infested trees are being felled in the vast woodland area which is home to wild bison, lynx and wolves.

“We are also ecologists,” says Andrzej Antczak, head of the Bialowieza forest service. “We log only to protect the forest from bark beetles — insects that pose a grave danger to trees. We want to help nature defend itself and we do it according to Polish legislation,” he insists..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100914com7.html

Detractors name-dropping on payola—Noy By Aytch S. de la Cruz 09/14/2010

‘P2 million too cheap for jueteng payoffs’

Detractors name-dropping on payola—Noy

By Aytch S. de la Cruz
09/14/2010

Without even bothering to probe the allegations of jueteng payoffs to at least two presidential aides by Archbishop Oscar Cruz, President Aquino yesterday not only branded the P2 million monthly payola given to his officials as “cheap” but also dismissed these allegations, saying that his political detractors are behind this reports of the payola, while linking him and his officials through name-dropping.

The two officials earlier mentioned in the report may just be victims of name-dropping, Aquino told reporters in an ambush interview yesterday.

His spokesman, Edwin Lacierda, took another tack, challenging Cruz to “name names” for Malacañang to be spared from taking a “circuitous route of investigation” over the alleged jueteng payoffs to Aquino officials.

Lacierda, in a press conference, also mentioned that the first agency that should be concerned with on this accusation is the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) headed by the controversial Secretary Jesse Robredo.

Interviewed at the sidelines by Malacañang reporters following a mass oath-taking ceremony, Aquino intimated that the cropping up of this jueteng issue, tagging two of his officials, is the work of his detractors..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100914hed1.html

Embattled Ombudsman runs to SC to halt impeach move By Benjamin B. Pulta 09/14/2010

Embattled Ombudsman runs to SC to halt impeach move
By Benjamin B. Pulta
09/14/2010

Embattled Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez has petitioned the Supreme Court (SC) to stop the impeachment proceedings against her before the House of Representatives.

In a 60-page petition filed by her lawyer retired SC Justice Serafin Cuevas, Gutierrez sought the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the House committee on justice, headed by Iloilo Rep. Neil Tupas Jr.

SC Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez in a press briefing said the case may be raffled either today or tomorrow by the tribunal to determine the justice who will handle it.

Gutierrez also asked the high court to nullify the resolutions of the House committee finding the two impeachment complaints filed against her sufficient in form and substance as she described the proceedings before the legislature as an “arbitrary, capricious and whimsical exercise by the committee of its power to impeach.”

Two groups have filed separate impeachment complaints against Gutierrez for allegedly failing to act on the corruption and human rights violation cases filed against Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo accusing Gutierrez of culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100914hed2.html

Noynoy appoints Bacalzo as PNP chief, bane of junior officers By Aytch S. de la Cruz 09/14/2010

Noynoy appoints Bacalzo as PNP chief, bane of junior officers
By Aytch S. de la Cruz
09/14/2010

The warning previously transmitted by the junior officers of the Philippine National Police (PNP), which Malacañang merely branded as “speculative”, had completely fallen on the deaf ears of President Aquino III as he named PNP deputy director general for operations, Raul Bacalzo, as its next top official.

Bacalzo, a member of the Philippine Military Class 1977, edged out fellow nominees PNP deputy chief for administration Dir. Gen. Perfecto Palad and PNP chief for directorial staff Dir. Benjamin Belarmino.

Palad was considered by many as the most qualified for the position if the seniority rule and police hierarchy would be faithfully taken into consideration by the appointing authority that is Aquino — their Commander-in-Chief.

But for reasons that are yet to be disclosed, Aquino decided to pick Bacalzo as successor to outgoing PNP Chief Dir. Gen. Jesus Verzosa who is poised to go for an early retirement tomorrow, September 15..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20100914nat1.html

Truth body a go despite pending SC case — Davide 09/14/2010

Truth body a go despite pending SC case — Davide
09/14/2010
The Philippine Truth Commission will push through with its mission to investigate the allegations of corruption that were successfully fended off the Arroyo administration — unless the Supreme Court declares it unconstitutional, newly inducted PTC chairman and former SC Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. yesterday said.

Acording to Davide, the first thing his agency will do is to come up with the rules of procedure that will give direction toward successfully accomplishing their task which is to execute President Aquino’s maiden executive order (EO).

He also claimed that the petitions pending before the high court questioning the legality of EO 1 that created his office would not discourage them from executing their mandate of putting closure to the scandals of the previous government.

“It depends on what will be the decision of Supreme Court. If the court will decide that it is unconstitutional, then we will stop our work,” Davide said in a chance interview..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100914hed3.html

Sanctions mulled vs meddling mediamen in hostage taking By Benjamin B. Pulta 09/14/2010

Sanctions mulled vs meddling mediamen in hostage taking
By Benjamin B. Pulta
09/14/2010

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima yesterday said the inter-agency body investigating the bungled hostage rescue may consider recommending possible sanctions against individuals and organizations including mediamen.

“We are deliberating on that, on who are to be held accountable and the filing of appropriate charges. As to the extent of the recommendation in the report that is being discussed,” De Lima, also the chairman of the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC), confirmed when asked by reporters on the likelihood of possible charges against mediamen who may have interfered with law enforcers during the tense stand-off in front of the Quirino Grandstand in Manila’s Rizal Park last Aug. 23.

“Of course there will be an issue of press freedom but as you know it is not really an absolute right inasmuch as we recognize press freedom but there are restrictions on press freedom on the interest of public order,” she stressed.

“The department order between the DILG (Department of Interior and Local Government) and the DoJ (Department of Justice) includes the appropriate civil, criminal or administrative charges as may be warranted,” De Lima said.

Among the resource persons who testified before the IIRC during its five-day fact-finding investigation were Radio Mindanao Network spokesman Jake Maderazo, RMN reporter Michael Rogas,.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100914hed4.html

Solons unite behind probe on ‘juetengate’ By Angie M. Rosales 09/14/2010

Solons unite behind probe on ‘juetengate’
By Angie M. Rosales
09/14/2010

Opposition and administration senators yesterday moved for another round of the “Juetengate” scandal, following recent allegations by retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz on the resurgence of operations

of the illegal numbers game, which is being allegedly protected by certain influential personalities in the Aquino administration.

A number of them called on Aquino to fire those suspected to be beneficiaries of jueteng payoff.

Even before Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s resolution calling for an investigation into the fresh allegations could be read on the floor, the chairman of the blue ribbon committee and strong ally of Aquino, Sen. Teofisto “TG” Guingona III manifested the same.

He described as “shocking and disturbing facts” the former prelate’s allegations that those in receipt of payolas are trusted aides of President Aquino. “These bribery allegations and coddling of gambling lords not only undermine the President’s promised ‘tuwid na daan’ or good government but also destroys the very moral fabric of Philippine society.

“This allegation is a clear indication of malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance and a violation of their sworn duty to uphold the laws of the Republic,” Guingona said on the floor..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100914hed5.html

Senators warn Palace on judiciary cuts 09/14/2010

Senators warn Palace on judiciary cuts
09/14/2010
Senators yesterday cau-tioned Malacañang over the reported proposed cuts in the appropriation intended for the judiciary which is said to be only .78 percent of the entire P1.614 trillion national budget eyed for 2011.

They expressed alarm over the possibility of a “judicial revolt” as warned by the Supreme Court, should the imminent slash in the proposed 2011 budget for the judiciary be put in place.

Even those coming from the ranks of administration allies, stood against the planned cuts as they expressed belief that the legislated increase in judicial budgetary support was meant to help reduce the average case life by creating more courts and by filling up vacancies in the Judiciary.

According to court administrator and SC spokesman Jose Midas Marquez, the judiciary is asking for P27.1 billion appropriation but Malacañang has cut the proposal to only P14.3 billion.

“That should be given a second, hard look because it’s really injurious to the administration of justice, that you starve the judiciary of funds,” Sen. Edgardo Angara, former Senate finance committee chairman, said in an interview. “The judiciary right now is suffering from lack personnel as well as poor facilities for lack of funding. It’s true that we allocated some money coming out of the collection of the SC but that not sufficient because that’s used mostly for salary adjustment but the improvement of facilities, the building of new courts and salas, that’s critical,” he added..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100914hed6.html

Noynoy, Robredo and jueteng EDITORIAL 09/13/2010

Noynoy, Robredo and jueteng

EDITORIAL

Click to enlarge

09/13/2010
Archbishop Oscar Cruz knows what he’s talking about when it comes to government men receiving jueteng payola since he has been at it for more than nine years during the term of Gloria Arroyo.

Very intriguing was the token attention being given by Noynoy on the illegal numbers game and his apparent differences with Interior and Local Government Secretary or officer-in-charge (OIC) Jesse Robredo, who said earlier that Noynoy gave him an order to make his priority as Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) chief the eradication of jueteng.

Just a few days after this announcement from Robredo, Noynoy came up to state that his administration was not giving the fight against jueteng priority under his government.

Robredo is currently under heavy fire for largely his inaction on the hostage crisis with many calling for his head and Noynoy appears leaning on replacing him in the DILG post as Robredo’s name was not among those submitted to the Commission on Appointments (CA) and with the Palace giving statements lately that Robredo is only a secretary in an acting capacity..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100913com1.html

Walking the crooked path — again FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 09/13/2010

Walking the crooked path — again

FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

09/13/2010
Change isn’t forthcoming, despite a change in leadership and all those pious and righteous stances being taken by the new administration.

The old faces have been replaced by new faces, but the same old order of the crooked path certainly is alive and kicking — and right among the high ranking officials in Malacañang.

Try as they, in the Palace, may hypocritically speak of their treading the straight path, it is still the same old crooked path they tread and while they denounced the old powers that walked the crooked line, and accused them of having benefited from the jueteng payoffs, the new powers are walking the same crooked path and benefiting from the same crooked jueteng payola, even as they try to portray themselves with halos on their head.

The problem with portraying themselves as cleaner than clean is the fact that their crooked ways are found out anyway. People know what’s going on. People talk, and names are mentioned — especially in the case of jueteng payoffs, mainly because there has been for sometime an anti-jueteng network nationwide and the intelligence work is pretty good.

The only problem is that this information from the anti-jueteng network is never utilized by government and its officials, and is even immediately dismissed the work of the critics and political foes..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100913com2.html

Lifestyle monitors ferret out Philippine tax cheats FEATURE 09/13/2010

Lifestyle monitors ferret out Philippine tax cheats

FEATURE

09/13/2010
On slow days Philippine tax investigators say they comb through the obituary pages and stacks of sales invoices

. On other days they get lucky and get to track the infrequent Porsche or Ferrari.

The poorly paid accountants and lawyers are the unlikely shock troops of President Aquino’s anti-corruption campaign, exposing to public shame those accused of cheating the government out of billions of dollars in taxes.

Rewards are few and the threat to life and limb is ever-present, but the “Run Against Tax Evaders” team of the Bureau of Internal Revenue

(BIR) is fuelled by civic duty, said its chief prosecutor Claro Ortiz.

“It’s very exhausting and very dangerous because, you know, we tend to run after big names and big people. There is, of course some sort of risk,” he said.

His 28-member special team of lawyers is currently handling 155 cases, including that of a pawnbroker who imported a half million-dollar Lamborghini even though he had paid just $600 in taxes in the past 10 years.

A luxury car dealer is also in trouble for allegedly cheating the government out of P68.4 million ($1.52 million) in duties for a fleet of Lamborghini, Porsche, Mercedes Benz and Maserati imports..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100913com3.html

The DoF’s ‘Foolish-ima’ DIE HARD III Herman Tiu Laurel 09/13/2010

The DoF’s ‘Foolish-ima’

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

09/13/2010
As always, great horn-blowing accompanies the latest multi-billion peso borrowing announced by PeNoy Aquino’s Finance chief. Cesar Purisima clearly hopes this will drown out objective and critical analysis of the P44.1 billion in new loans added to the already enormous P4.6-trillion national government debt stock and our total debt of about P7 trillion. One headline even quotes the Hyatt 10 balik-secretary describing the oversubscribed issue as a “landslide vote of confidence,” the “first peso-denominated bond outside the country,” a “milestone,” and “the first time an Asian country conducted a float using its own currency.”

By real honest standards, however, forensic financial analyst Hero Vaswani of the Kilusang Makabansang Ekonomiya explains that there is nothing really great about it. If anything, that huge borrowing is merely evidence that the Philippine economy is unable to generate revenues, and that the government still has to borrow to finance its operations, despite claims of a 7.9-percent GDP growth.

A debt is a debt is a debt. Yet Purisima says the peso bond issuance “is the latest development in the (country’s) financing program in support of the government’s proactive management of external liabilities, particularly with respect to reducing its vulnerability to foreign currency risks.”

But isn’t it really just the foreign financial syndicates’ way of avoiding the volatility of the US dollar by tying up a debtor country to an exchange rate for the bond? So far, only the weak and unstable countries, such as Colombia in South America, have become suckers to this scheme of issuing local currency bonds.

National Treasurer Roberto Tan even supported the new peso bond debt, saying it would “enhance the government’s debt investor profile,” despite past examples of investor profiles given to countries such as Greece that have shown the scoring by the financial ratings agencies to be really meaningless.

Even as Purisima boasts that the peso bond issuance was oversubscribed 13 times, we ask: Isn’t this oversubscription just a symptom of the hard times in the western economies? The US is facing an on-going “low intensity depression” and its policymakers have already pumped trillions of dollars into the system, leading to desperation on where to park the overflowing financial assets.

Further, Vaswani explains that the US is lending at practically zero interest; which is why so-called “investors” have started to use this to buy Third World debt earning upwards of 5 percent. This reminds me of the “petrodollars” 40 years ago when US dollars overflowed after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries required oil to be traded only in that currency, as the Middle East crises (of created wars and oil embargoes) exploded oil prices from $15/bbl to almost $90/bbl (adjusted to 2008 dollar values. Trillions of US dollars then had to be recycled by finagling or forcing Third World countries to swallow a lot of un-payable loans.

Purisima is simply doing what all his predecessors have done: Increasing our debt; failing to raise revenues for government; and relying on new debts to finance the growing national budget with its increasing annual deficit-spending. The two months under the PeNoy administration has not brought about new ideas for generating greater revenues without imposing new taxes and other pains onto the public. Hence, the imbroglio over the value-added tax (VAT) on tollways, the raising of MRT fares, and now, the removal of the senior citizens’ VAT exemptions, which came out in the news just last Sept. 9.

Where then is the much-vaunted “anti-corruption dividend,” where savings from cleaning up waste from graft and corruption are supposed to make up for the deficits and fulfill the “no new taxes” pledge from PeNoy’s election campaign?

The plain truth is, the Philippines will never be able to break loose from the tightening strangle of the “debt trap” because every administration since the February 1986 elite counter-revolution (with the sole exception of Erap Estrada) had all been against the national economic development paradigm of Ferdinand Marcos.

After Cory Aquino took over, state revenues and the people’s wealth — as directed by the US State Department and Makati Business Club — were aggressively transferred to the oligarchy through trade liberalization (jumpstarted by Cory and Bobby Tañada’s removal of 3,000 items from tariff protection); privatization and deregulation of strategic industries and public utilities (Meralco, Petron, Napocor, etc.); and reversal of progressive income taxation through the institution of the regressive VAT system.

It went on through Fidel Ramos and peaked under Gloria Arroyo, where Big Business raked in P3 trillion in profits in just nine years!

To stop this bloodletting, the people must wrest power away from the oligarchy and put a genuinely democratic leadership in place. Unless PeNoy undergoes a miraculous transformation and becomes truly Pinoy — no longer for and of the US and the Makati Business Club — Filipinos will have to continue their search for genuine nationalist and patriotic leadership. It could be still by elections, if we can stop the future use of those Hocus-PCOS machines, or it can well be by other means, which may prove feasible when the time comes.

In the meantime, let’s continue to expose what the current Finance secretary is really doing in contracting all these new debts — whether in peso, dollar, euro, or yen. Debts in any currency are just the same old financial foolishness. Right, Mr. Foolish-ima?

(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Politics (and Economics) Today, Tuesday, 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m. on Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 21; visit our blogs, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http:hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)

(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Herman Tiu-Laurel)

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100913com4.html

That ‘insulting letter’ C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S Jonathan De la Cruz 09/13/2010

That ‘insulting letter’

C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S

Jonathan De la Cruz

09/13/2010
So, what were the contents of that “insulting letter” which P-Noy was supposed to have received from a “high official of the Hong Kong SAR?” Even as the Chief Executive himself noted that he may have erred in ever mentioning the same in his special press conference tackling the Luneta hostage crisis some days back and that it was not “very strongly worded” mentioning that “we were being told in very minute detail what we were supposed to do..” Although he has decided he “won’t fight back to prevent the conflict from getting worse.”

I think he owes it to the Filipino people to reveal the provenance of that letter and its contents. For if truth be told, that insult and that is how P-Noy felt about it, was not solely directed on his person but was actually a reproach on the nation. It was a derogation of the national honor. Whatever prompted that unnamed Hong Kong official to tell us in minutest detail what we should have done as P-Noy noted we do not deserve that kind of a missive.

True, that botched Luneta hostage rescue was a major, major blunder. It does not, however, represent by any means the best of who we really are. We have shown our capacity to stand up as a people and have actually been major contributors to the successes and strides of neo-states such as Hong Kong..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100913com5.html

New media HE SAYS Aldrin Cardon 09/13/2010

New media

HE SAYS

Aldrin Cardon

09/13/2010
I’ve lived in the years when television only come to life beginning at 7 a.m., anticipating its broadcast would be welcomed by a small nation which greets the day only at about the same time, and expire to bed at midnight, when television plays the national anthem (all few channels almost simultaneously), and then everything goes blank, to give way to just a million dots and the buzzing sound of static.

Radio was another matter. It had far reaching power than television, and its programs more economically viable that it lured audiences who were drawn to the great voices that would soon reveal their faces as stars of television, too.

But that was in another epoch, and since then, media had trudged through drastic, revolutionary changes that it could no longer stop itself, it is now awake 24/7 and the million dots and static confined only to the unoccupied wavelengths, or in a more digital sense, they are simply blue… and silent.

But the din that dwells in those images and sounds are no longer the same.

Free television competes with cable and digital networks; the Internet has become a savior and a pest; and the cheapest — if not totally free — entertainment, the radio tries to display a defiant gesture of indifference amid the invasion of other entertainment forms, like the iPod and the various China-made mp3 players, which would soon kill our music, like they did to our once insatiable desire for news and information..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100913com6.html

Media tussles SHE SAYS Dinah S. Ventura 09/13/2010

Media tussles

SHE SAYS

Dinah S. Ventura

09/13/2010
I hesitate to call a burgeoning conflict in media as “wars” and instead use the word “tussle.” For while there are days when encountering the so-called blogging community can really get to those of us who have worked for years in what is now tagged as “traditional media,” I feel that to pursue it would be a waste of time.

Why? I bet all those radio stations never imagined they would someday have to fight hard for their audiences, who now carry their preferred music with them at all times in those handy little MP3s and iPods. I bet television never accounted for cellphones and YouTube when it comes to instant content dissemination. And when it comes to print, the online sources are just as proliferate now as newspapers used to be.

Supporting this is an article in Bloomberg Businessweek (bloomberg.com) on Nov. 8, 2006, which says: “Despite a growing population, TV and radio audiences have been declining in the US. Movie ticket sales peaked in 2002, and magazine and newspaper circulations have been trending lower for half a decade, with revenue and earnings growth stagnating.”

In other words, there have been decreasing audiences for traditional media even as households with Internet access increased in the US. The same is happening now in Asia, where more and more homes are getting their own computers, and the youth become more tech-savvy than ever..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100913com7.html

RP, HK relations cracked due to ‘insulting’ letter By Angie M. Rosales 09/13/2010

SANTIAGO SAYS ISSUE SHOULD BE RAISED WITH CHINA 

RP, HK relations cracked due to ‘insulting’ letter

By Angie M. Rosales
09/13/2010

Diplomatic relations between the Philippines and Hong Kong have cracked and should be brought up with Chinese President Hu Jintao as a result of an insulting letter sent by a Hong Kong government official to President Aquino in the aftermath of the bloody outcome of the Rizal Park hostage crisis, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said yesterday.

Santiago, former chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, said the reported move by an official of China’s special administrative region is a breach of international protocols.

“The relationship of RP with the director of Hong Kong (Chief Executive Donald Tsang) is cracked. That should be brought up with the head of China,” she said in an interview with dzBB.

“If the President himself already said that he received an insulting letter, I have to take his word for it. We have to because he’s the President of the Philippines,” she said.

“If you’re getting insults, the issue will not be resolved by peaceful settlement,” she added.

“Under international laws

, when you insult a head of state or a president, it’s almost the same as insulting the people of that country,” she said.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100913hed1.html

Solon dares Noy to axe execs getting jueteng payola By Charlie V. Manalo 09/13/2010

Solon dares Noy to axe execs getting jueteng payola
By Charlie V. Manalo
09/13/2010

Reminding President Aquino of his campaign promise to rid the country of corrupt practices, a member of the minority in the House of Representatives yesterday dared Aquino to show political will and fire all those who may be involved in the multimillion-peso jueteng payola as exposed over the weekend by retired Bishop Oscar Cruz.

A lawmaker from Mindanao also insinuated that Congress might order a probe into Cruz’s allegations that two officials close to Aquino are receiving payolas from jueteng lords of up to P2 million a month.

In a telephone interview, Zambales Rep. Milagros Magsaysay told the Tribune that while it is rather unfortunate that the Aquino administration had to be dragged into issues such as the jueteng payola as it had just barely assumed office, the President must finally muster all his guts and show off strong leadership that the people who voted him into power had expected of him.

“It’s really saddening that with barely over two months in power, the Aquino administration has to be involved in issues such as this,” Magsaysay said. “With so many boo-boos since day one, the erroneous memorandum circulars, the questionable executive orders, the hostage-taking fiasco which is now proving to be his most biggest mistake as far as decision-making is concern, and now this jueteng payola involving people said to be close to him, his supporters and all the other people who have placed their trust in him, are slowly getting disillusioned with him.”

The other day, Cruz accused two of Aquino’s men of having been receiving monthly payolas of P2 million each from big-time operators of the illegal numbers game. Though refusing to name them, Cruz said he would be willing to name them soon in a proper forum..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100913hed2.html

Senate, House ready probes into P7.1-billion Pag-Ibig scam 09/13/2010

Senate, House ready probes into P7.1-billion Pag-Ibig scam
09/13/2010
Both chambers of Congress indicated yesterday interest in conducting an investigation into the alleged anomalous financial arrangement between the state agency Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-Ibig Fund) and private developer Globe Asiatique that received about P7.1 billion in Pag-Ibig loans for two of its housing projects.

Sen. Sergio Osmeña III said the Senate will dig deeper into the questionable deal while Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. said he is pushing a full-dress House inquiry into the issue.

The Pag-Ibig loans were supposedly obtained by non-existent borrowers to acquire property at Globe Asiatique’s Xevera projects in Mabalacat and Bacolor, both in Pampanga.

Osmeña, chairman of the Senate committee on banks, financial institutions and currencies, took to task the Pag-Ibig for the loan deals with Globe Asiatique.

“Yes, we will investigate this. This falls under the jurisdiction of the committee on banks,” he said, noting that the arrangement was a case of conflict of interest..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100913hed3.html

Lobbying continues as Noy keeps next PNP chief card ‘secret’ By Mario J. Mallari 09/13/2010

Lobbying continues as Noy keeps next PNP chief card ‘secret’
By Mario J. Mallari
09/13/2010

Barely two days before the scheduled early retirement of Philippine National Police

(PNP) chief Director General Jesus Verzosa, President Aquino has yet to an-nounce who will be the next chief of the 130,000-strong organi-zation, giving room to more speculations and bickering among the contenders.

Tribune sources from the PNP said the delay in the announcement of Verzosa’s replacement only works to the detriment of the entire orga-nization, noting recent cropping up of unsigned mani-festos allegedly coming from junior PNP officers.

“The President should have announced the chief PNP’s suc-cessor after approving his early retirement so that the organization will be spared by these speculations… the ranks do not understand why the delay on the announcement,” a mid-ranking police officer said.

Another officer also said the President should institutionalize the naming of top PNP official weeks or even months before the actual turnover to avoid bickering and lobbying among the contenders..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100913hed4.html

Lagman says Lacierda ‘blinded by propaganda’ 09/13/2010

Lagman says Lacierda ‘blinded by propaganda’
09/13/2010
An opposition leader in the House of Representatives yesterday slammed presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda for “trying to mislead the people” on the real issue over the Truth Commission as he belied Malacañang’s claims the opposition is terrified by undergoing investigation for alleged wrongdoings during the past administration.

House Minority Leader and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, in a statement, accused Lacierda of being “blinded by an obstinate desire for propaganda when he said that those who have committed no wrong should not be afraid of the Truth Commission.”

“Lacierda refuses to understand that the challenge against the commission is not because of fear but is motivated by the duty to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law,” Lagman stressed. “Neither is the commission being questioned to block the investigation and prosecution of officials of the Arroyo administration who can be brought before existing investigatory and prosecutorial agencies like the Department of Justice and the Ombudsman without inventing the Truth Commission.”

The lawmaker said the issue is not whether the commission is a toothless tiger for want of subpoena and coercive powers or a ferocious lion for having been granted quasi-judicial authority, but the body’s constitutional aberration.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100913hed5.html

Solon quizzes ‘conflict of interest’ in DILG exec’s appointment 09/13/2010

Solon quizzes ‘conflict of interest’ in DILG exec’s appointment
09/13/2010
Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago yesterday questioned the appointment of Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Under-secretary Rico Puno, saying his supervision of the Philippine National Police (PNP) constitutes a conflict of interest.

“He used to be an arms supplier in the PNP. And now, the PNP is under him. Isn’t that a clear case of conflict of interest?” the senator asked.

Santiago, in an interview with dzBB, also did not spare from her criticisms over the authorities’ mishandling of the Aug. 23 hostage-taking incident, outgoing PNP chief Director General Jesus Verzosa.

“He should have tendered his resignation that very night because of the principle of command responsibility,” she stressed.

The senator said Verzosa and several other police officials are facing a case before the Office of the Ombudsman over the so-called Euro generals scandal some two years ago, an incident where some ranking police officials were caught carrying large amount of money in Moscow.z.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100913hed6.html