No dividing line EDITORIAL 04/28/2011

No dividing line

EDITORIAL

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04/28/2011
With several allies of Noynoy Aquino — coming from the executive, legislative and even local executives, once allies of Gloria Arroyo when she was in power and position — being charged by the Ombudsman’s office for plunder and graft, how would the Malacañang tenant handle this, especially since these complaints on the P728-million fertilizer fund scam will likely be elevated before the Sandiganbayan?

Already, Speaker Sonny Belmonte quickly reacted by claiming that Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez had these charges filed against certain congressmen in her bid to weaken the impeachment charges against her and he said he does not consider this move as retaliatory on her part.

Said he: “The members of the House are already out of this, since we have voted on it. I look at it as a move to defang one of the impeachment charges, which is related to the fertilizer scam,” adding that the fact that it took seven years after the 2004 fertilizer scam to come up with this charge “only proves that there was prolonged delay of action,” which is also a charge leveled against Merci by the House..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110428com1.html

No end to the cycle FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 04/28/2011

No end to the cycle

FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

04/28/2011
Plunder complaints against political foes are easy to file. Proving the charges, may, however be much more difficult.

Of course, everything connected to a political foe’s plunder charge can get him arrested, jailed and convicted by a court, no matter if such charges are not proven at all by the prosecutors ---- that is, if political influence is involved.

This was the case of former President Erap Estrada. It was clear that the plunder charge leveled against him by the then new Gloria Arroyo presidency had no basis and it was the anti-Erap mob, not the rule of law and due process that was at play, leading to his arrest and long detention.

He was also convicted by the Sandiganbayan, not on the merits of his case, but because of undue political influence. The justices who had heard his case and convicted him were all promoted to the high court as their reward for convicting Estrada..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110428com2.html

Desperate migrants threaten EU’s Schengen treaty focus 04/28/2011

Desperate migrants threaten EU’s Schengen treaty

focus

04/28/2011
BRUSSELS — After battling to maintain a united front through the euro crisis, Europe faces a new threat of its unity unravelling as thousands of desperate migrants test the EU’s ground-breaking Schengen treaty.

First signed in 1985 as a giant step toward European integration, the treaty opening passport-free travel to 400 million people in 25 nations is in the line of fire as divided EU nations squabble over how to deal with a sudden influx of migrants from Africa, notably Tunisia and Libya.

The issue will dominate a summit Tuesday in Rome between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian President Silvio Berlusconi, ahead of new EU proposals on Schengen due to be released May 4.

Italy has complained loudly for weeks of being left alone to cope with the arrival of some 30,000 migrants from North Africa since early this year, some fleeing the conflict in Libya, the majority economic refugees from Tunisia..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110428com3.html

A fox guarding the chicken coop BLURBAL THRUSTS Louie Logarta 04/28/2011

A fox guarding the chicken coop

BLURBAL THRUSTS

Louie Logarta

04/28/2011
Kagay-anons (as longtime residents of Cagayan de Oro City want to be called) aren’t exactly ecstatic over the scheduled opening early next year of the P8-billion Laguindingan International Airport in Northern Mindanao, primarily due to time, cost and distance considerations.

According to the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) which is supervising the construction work, the Laguindingan project — a joint undertaking of the Export-Import Bank of Korea, the Korean Economic Development Cooperation Fund and the Philippine government — is in the final stages of completion and could realistically be opened to the public in January 2012 to serve as the gateway to Southern Philippines.

The DoTC gushed that the LIA would provide safe, comfortable and reliable transportation facilities in the Cagayan de Oro-Iligan City corridor because of the modern passenger terminal, runway, taxiways, aprons, cargo terminal, control tower, maintenance and administration buildings and waste water treatment plant that have been constructed to make it conform to international standards, much unlike the P25-billion lemon Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 which has created so much headaches for the government..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110428com4.html

Love VIEWPOINTS Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz 04/28/2011

Love

VIEWPOINTS

Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz

04/28/2011
As faith is the virtue of belief in God and as hope is the virtue of confidence in God, love is the virtue of affection for God. Yes, they are called and known as the three “Theological Virtues” whereas their origin is God, their medium is God and their object is God. There is something else that makes the acquisition and retention of these virtues, distinct and extraordinary. This: It is only God who implants and nurtures them in the heart and mind of every man who receives and observes them — nothing less but something definitely more in the sphere of the supernatural and/or in the realm of the eternal. This is why the virtues of faith in, hope on and love of God bring about personal security and emotional strength, inward certitude and spiritual power to those who have them and live by them.

Theological love is the virtue through which people love God above everybody and everything else. To love God for His own self and to love others for the sake of God — this is the genuine theological virtue of love. Observing all the universal Ten Commandments given by God Himself to humanity as a whole — without exception— equals the real and concrete expression of the love of God. After all, the first three Commandments are about God Himself. And all the other seven Commandments are about loving others or neighbors. Let it be clearly said and duly noted that all men, women and children — especially those still in their mothers’ wombs — are the centerpieces of creation, the images of their Creator and wherefore the objects of his particular concern and the repositories of His special predilection..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110428com5.html

In tsunami-hit Japan, a mother finally finds closure FEATURE 04/28/2011

In tsunami-hit Japan, a mother finally finds closure

FEATURE

04/28/2011
ISHINOMAKI — Weeks after a tsunami crashed into her Japanese home town and took away her daughter, Takako Suzuki received the phone call she had long dreaded but finally come to hope for.

Police had found the remains of the 41-year-old woman, this AFP reporter’s sister, only a few hundred meters from the ruined family house in the fishing port of Ishinomaki, now a wasteland of mud and rubble.

In a sign of how agonizing searching for a loved one had been for Suzuki, 67, and for countless others here, a neighbor expressed relief at the news that the remains had been found, saying simply: “That’s good.”

The news brought a degree of closure for Suzuki after a painful search that had started after the March 11 quake, when snow fell on the town, and ended when cherry trees started to blossom above the rubble..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110428com6.html

Guantanamo files show inmates combative, depressed focus 04/28/2011

Guantanamo files show inmates combative, depressed

focus

04/28/2011
WASHINGTON — Vindictive, depressed or cooperative: the behavior of Guantanamo detainees, described in secret US documents released by Wikileaks, sheds light on conditions in the US military prison in Cuba.

“He went on three hunger strikes in the past, most recently in July 2005. The detainee was a major participant in the voluntary total fast of 2005-2006,” read a March 2006 entry in the file of detainee Yasser Al Zahrani.

The Saudi died months later when he committed suicide with two other detainees, according to US military officials.

Zahrani’s file reported that in July 2005 he “told a guard that he would use a knife to cut his stomach open, cut his face off, and then drink his blood, smiling and laughing as he said it.”.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110428com7.html

De Lima takes over GMA plunder rap By Benjamin B. Pulta and Aytch S. de la Cruz 04/28/2011

TAPS TRUTH BODY RECORDS TO PIN GLORIA

De Lima takes over GMA plunder rap

By Benjamin B. Pulta and Aytch S. de la Cruz 04/28/2011

Ensuring that former President and current Rep. Gloria Arroyo will be found guilty of plunder, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima will be taking on the case against her, saying that it is she who has jurisdiction over the Arroyo plunder case.

It is common knowledge that President Aquino is obssessed with seeing his predecessor charged and jailed for plunder.

De Lima added, however that there will be no undue interest from her office in going after the former president who was charged with plunder before the Department of Justice (DoJ) the other day by former solicitor general Francisco Chavez.

Anti-corruption cases against government officials, former and present, always land in the Ombudsman’s office for investigation, but De Lima yesterday said it is she who has co-jurisdiction over the case..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110428hed1.html

Erap: Gloria must be made accountable for past acts 04/28/2011

Erap: Gloria must be made accountable for past acts

04/28/2011
Former President Joseph Estrada yesterday maintained that his successor, former president and current Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo should be made accountable for her past actions and anomalies that surrounded her administration.

“There is the ZTE-NBN broadband deal. There is the fertilizer fund scam. And she cheated my friend, FPJ (Fernando “Ronnie” Poe, Jr.) of his electoral victory in 2004,” he said.

Estrada’s statement came amid the filing of former Solicitor-General Frank Chavez of a complaint for plunder before the Department of Justice (DoJ) against Arroyo, two of her former alter-egos and another high-ranking government official for the alleged misuse of Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) funds mainly for purposes of Arroyo’s reelection bid in the 2004 elections.

The 23-page complaint filed at the DoJ on Tuesday named former Arroyo executive secretary and former Foreign Affairs secretary Alberto Romulo, former Arroyo health secretary and current Civil Service Commission (CSC) Chairman Francisco Duque III, and former OWWA administrator Virgilio Angelo as co-respondents..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110428hed2.html

Aquino extradition now likely after US court ruling By Pat C. Santos 04/28/2011

Aquino extradition now likely after US court ruling

By Pat C. Santos 04/28/2011

Former Philippine National Police (PNP) intelligence officer Sr. Supt. Michael Ray Aquino’s extradition became imminent after the US Court of Appeals junked Aquino’s petition for a rehearing of his extradition case, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said yesterday.

Aquino is considered key in shedding light on the double-murder case of publicist Salvador Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito NBI Interpol division head Claro De Castro said the return of Aquino, who is now detained in Hudson County jail at New Jersey, has a bigger chance of happening based on the report his office received on the US appellate court’s ruling..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110428hed3.html

RP losing valuable resources in unprotected boundaries By Mario J. Mallari 04/28/2011

RP losing valuable resources in unprotected boundaries

By Mario J. Mallari 04/28/2011
The country is losing billions of pesos worth of natural resources, enough to fund an entire military, due to unprotected territorial boundaries, a ranking official of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said yesterday.

At a press briefing, Brig. Gen. Roy Deveraturda, chief of the AFP Modernization Program Management Office, said the military has no clear estimate of the loses due to poaching, illegal fishing, smuggling that happened in the country’s territorial waters but admitted it may run in billions of pesos.

“How do we know if we cannot really monitor but as we see it, it’s a lot…you cannot quantify, you can just make estimate. As I say in our informal talks, we are losing much if we count it, for example, in marine resources and we don’t benefit from it. Maybe if you sell it, it’s enough to buy you a new army, air force and navy,” Deveraturda said..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110428nat1.html

RP Embassy in Rome warns Filipinos of bogus job offers 04/28/2011

RP Embassy in Rome warns Filipinos of bogus job offers

04/28/2011
The Philippine Embassy in Rome yesterday warned prospective Filipino workers against bogus job offers for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of L’Aquila, an Italian city devastated by a strong quake in 2009.

In a report to the Department of Foreign Affairs, the embassy said the project proponent in the email represents itself as the “Ministry of Development, Public Works and Housing Reconstruction of Earthquake Affected Cities Program,” allegedly under the auspices of World Rehabilitation Program (WRP) and Italian Freedom Corps (IFC)..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110428nat8.html

Gov’t execs, priest file child abuse raps against Willing Willie host By Arlie O. Calalo 04/28/2011

Gov’t execs, priest file child abuse raps against Willing Willie host

By Arlie O. Calalo 04/28/2011
At least two government officials and running priest Fr. Robert Reyes have joined others as they filed yesterday another child abuse complaint against embattled television host Willie Revillame before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office.

Reyes, Department of Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman and Assistant Secretary for Luzon Parisya Taradji, officer in charge-executive director for the Council for the Welfare of Children, singled out Revillame in their complaint sparing business tycoon and TV5 owner Manny Pangilinan and its other executives.

“We only sued the TV host (in reference to Revillame). According to our legal services, the crime is just a single act of abuse,” Soliman told reporters as they emerged from the Prosecutor’s Office.

To get their acts together, the DSWD chief said she had met with other the non-government organizations and individual personalities who earlier filed separate complaints against Revillame..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110428met1.html

High court rules on Taguig elections dispute By Benjamin B. Pulta 04/28/2011

High court rules on Taguig elections dispute

By Benjamin B. Pulta 04/28/2011

A ruling by the Supreme Court (SC) has turned down the plea of Taguig Mayor Maria Laarni Cayetano to stop the recount and retrieval of ballots in the city.

In an 11-page resolution, the SC en banc through Associate Justice Antonio Eduardo Nachura ordered the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to proceed with dispatch the election protest filed by retired SC Justice Dante Tiñga in connection with the city’s mayoralty elections.

The high tribunal pointed out that it is the Comelec which should decide the election protest of Tinga against Cayetano since it is the court which has jurisdiction over the case.

“(T)he protest filed by private respondent (Tiñga) and the counter-protest filed by petitioner (Cayetano) remain pending before the Comelec, which should afford petitioner ample opportunity to ventilate her grievances. Thereafter, the Comele should decide these cases with dispatch..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110428met5.html

The time has come EDITORIAL 04/27/2011

The time has come

EDITORIAL

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04/27/2011
Catholic bishops and their priests in the Philippines should really let up on their demonization of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill that is now in the House of Representatives, and will, in all likelihood be passed by the Senate.

They can argue until they are blue in the face that human life must always be upheld, even when this particular issue has no bearing on the use of contraceptives that are, in reality, not abortifacients, since these prevent conception — which means no meeting of the sperm and the egg, and therefore, no fertilization and no conception, which means no human life has formed or has been destroyed..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110427com1.html

Asking for more trouble FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 04/27/2011

Asking for more trouble

FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

04/27/2011
Noynoy can forget about his public-private partnership (PPP) program and his claims of foreign investors flooding the Philippines in a bid for big ticket projects under his administration, not when he again proves to the world of big foreign business that he, like Gloria Arroyo before him, refuses to honor contracts that have already been approved by government.

To this day, Noynoy has not settled the compensation issue with the owners of NAIA 3 terminal, despite government’s expropriation of the airport terminal, even if his administration is violating the ruling of the Supreme Court (SC) that bans government from exercising ownership rights.

This incidentally, is the major reason foreign investments have been too slow in coming.

Yet Noynoy compounds this problem by unilaterally cancelling a project that had already been approved by two Justice secretaries, one of whom is his: The P18.7-billion contract with the Baggerwerken Decloedt en Zoon (BDC) firm for the dredging of Laguna Lake..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110427com2.html

Collaboration suspected in Afghan jail break ANALYSIS 04/27/2011

Collaboration suspected in Afghan jail break

ANALYSIS

04/27/2011
KABUL — The daring prison escape of nearly 500 Taliban through a tunnel that took months to dig could never have happened without Afghan officials turning a blind eye or actively collaborating, experts said.

Some went further, suggesting they may even have condoned the plot as a way of building bridges with the Taliban and furthering peace efforts by President Hamid Karzai’s government as Nato troops start withdrawing.

Either way, analysts agreed the operation at Kandahar prison was a major win for the Taliban at the start of the Afghan fighting season, which Western officials see as key to assessing how far a US-led troop surge has succeeded.

“This is a tremendous achievement for the Taliban because the Taliban were under heavy pressure in the greater Kandahar area... and now they have been able to free some high-profile commanders,” political analyst Haroun Mir said..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110427com3.html

Royal wedding sidelines Australia republic drive FEATURE 04/27/2011

Royal wedding sidelines Australia republic drive

FEATURE

04/27/2011
SYDNEY — Their views could not be further at odds, but the upcoming royal wedding has Australia’s royalists and republicans in rare and unlikely agreement — the monarchy is digging in Down under.

A former British penal colony famed for its boisterous irreverence, it is perhaps unsurprising that Australia is usually seen as the most republican of Queen Elizabeth II’s realms.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard is a staunch believer in replacing the British royal family with an Australian head of state once the queen dies.

And though Australians voted against ditching the royals in 1999 the republican movement has long argued it is a matter of when, not if..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110427com5.html

Pilipinas kay ganda! HE SAYS Aldrin Cardon 04/27/2011

Pilipinas kay ganda!

HE SAYS

Aldrin Cardon

04/27/2011
I should be in Boracay already when this column sees print.

I expect it to be a story different from my sojourn in Marinduque, where I had my taste of the Moriones festival last week.

The Holy Week was the highlight of the Moriones celebration. It was a well-covered event by some of the leading media companies, which have sent their crews, writers and photographers to capture the island-wide activities centered on the last few days of Christ. The Moriones is not limited to His life only, but also the characters which figured prominently in His trial but up to His crucifixion and resurrection.

To say that I was impressed by the elaborate costumes worn by the “Moryons,” those who acted as the Roman centurion soldiers who crucified Christ is an understatement. My experience stood out from all the summer vacations I had in the past. Marinduque offered the best opportunity for both body and soul to relax, and then some....... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110427com6.html

Tara na! SHE SAYS Dinah S. Ventura 04/27/2011

Tara na!

SHE SAYS

Dinah S. Ventura

04/27/2011
I have come to believe that Metro Manila is the best place to be during Holy Week, if you prefer peace and quiet. For someone who spends much of his or her time on weekdays in the office, and out with family or friends on weekends, one’s home can become the ideal place to hole in when everyone else is gone.

I never would have said this 10, even five years ago, when any long break meant travel, especially to the beach. I guess age has led me to prefer the quieter city when it’s time for Lenten reflection. With age comes experience, and I have had many years to enjoy summer and Lenten sojourns to different parts of the country. We used to love going to Zambales, where a friend’s family owned a beach house, but when they sold it years ago, we took to spending the break in Subic or anywhere else one could drive to. But with age, too, comes a desire for hassle-free, peaceful escapes, where one could truly commune with nature, or simply enjoy the comforts of one’s home. The crowded beaches now lend little appeal for me..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110427com7.html