Seven activists jailed for 58 hours for doing a Rizal on Rizal’s commemoration

 Seven activists jailed for 58 hours for doing a Rizal on Rizal’s commemoration

“The fight for our right to free speech does not end with the release of the Calamba 7. These brave and selfless activists should never have been arrested and detained in the first place if the Aquino administration truly values the freedom of expression fought and died for by Filipino martyrs four decades ago.” – Kabataan Party-list
By CHRISTIAN RAY BUENDIA

Bulatlat.com
CALAMBA, LAGUNA – Michael Jayson Mozo received a most confounding gift for his 19th birthday: a comforting but uncertain freedom. Along with six other members of the so-called “Calamba 7”, he stepped out of the Calamba City police station at around 6:45 p.m. yesterday under an overcast sky to receive warm congratulations from supporters who were holding a vigil there since Sunday.

After a solidarity program held AT the Calamba City Hall, the seven activists, together with around 150 supporters from worker, peasant, student, women and urban poor sectors, marched from the city hall to Halang, Calamba City despite heavy rains to celebrate their release.

Released after 58 hours of detention, members of the Calamba 7 leads supporters in a march towards Halang, Calamba City for a propaganda action. (Photo by Jonelle Marin / Bulatlat.com)

Mozo, together with fellow Kabataan Partylist – University of the Philippines Los Baños members Ynik Ante, Bhen Aguihon, Ruffa Solano, and Catherine Gigantone and Anakpawis-Southern Tagalog members Joefrey Barreto and Rodel Badayos, was arrested last June 19 after the progressive groups conducted a lightning rally midway through President Benigno Aquino III’s speech commemorating Dr. Jose Rizal’s 150th birth anniversary at the Calamba City Hall.

The protestors criticized the administration of President Aquino, whose speech lauded Rizal’s commitment in correcting social injustices, for “neglecting the welfare of the youth and blatantly disregarding the education sector.”

“Nobody should be detained or put behind bars for decrying the crimes of this administration against the Filipino people. What we did isn’t wrong or disrespectful. We merely gave voice to the 7.93 million youth that cannot afford to go to school this year because of chronic poverty aggravated by the government’s anti-poor social and economic policies,” Mozo said.

The Calamba 7, who were detained for 58 hours, were freed after posting a reduced bail amounting to P12,000 ($278) for all of them. Although released for the meantime, the members of Calamba 7 may face six months to three years of prison time if convicted of charges of tumult and other public disorders under Art. 153 of the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines.

“Justice will not be served to the Calamba 7 until the court dismisses the trumped up charges filed against them,” John Paolo Bautista, Kabataan Partylist-Southern Tagalog coordinator, said.

Bautista said the militant youth group will be lobbying for an inquiry into the alleged illegal arrest and detention of the Calamba 7, and will elevate the campaign for the dismissal of the case to the national level.

“The fight for our right to free speech does not end with the release of the Calamba 7. These brave and selfless activists should never have been arrested and detained in the first place if the Aquino administration truly values the freedom of expression fought and died for by Filipino martyrs four decades ago,” he added.

Snowballing support 

Immediately after their arrest, the Calamba 7 were inundated with material and moral support from various groups and individuals.

Several individuals, student organizations and alliances in UP Los Baños, as well as progressive sectoral groups in the Southern Tagalog region have gathered food and cash donations for the detainees and have issued statements condemning the arrest and detention of the militants..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/06/23/7-activists-jailed-for-58hours-for-doing-a-rizal-on-rizal-commemoration/

SC: Military officials liable for abduction of UP students

Shortages in schools worsen with kindergarten program — ACT
“It’s good news but it [the decision] took so long. Unfortunately, the decisions of the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court have not resulted in the surfacing of the disappeared.” – Mrs. Concepcion Empeño, mother of missing UP student Karen Empeño

By RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Concepcion Empeño has been searching for her daughter Karen for almost five years. She, along with Erlinda Cadapan, mother of Sherlyn, went to military camps, hospitals, funeral parlors and the courts but failed to find her dearest Karen.

Karen and Sherlyn, both students of the University of the Philippines (UP), were abducted in Hagonoy, Bulacan together with Manuel Merino on June 26, 2006 at a farmer’s house. They remain missing to this day.
In a decision promulgated May 31, the Supreme Court en banc ordered the military, headed by Ret. Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr., to immediately release the two UP students and Merino from their detention. It affirmed the appellate court’s decision dated September 17, 2008 on the writ of amparo petition filed by the parents of the missing activists.

Mrs. Empeño received the news yesterday. “It’s good news but it [the decision] took so long. Unfortunately, the decisions of the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court have not resulted in the surfacing of the disappeared,” Mrs. Empeño said in a text message.

As early as July 17, 2006, parents of both activists filed a petition for the writ of habeas corpus at the Court of Appeals but the said petition was dismissed on March 29, 2007 on the basis of the military’s denial of custody over Sherlyn and Karen. On October 24 of the same year, Mrs. Empeno and Mrs. Cadapan filed a petition for a Writ of Amparo. The Court of Appeals then granted the said writ but the UP students remain missing.

‘Punish the perpetrators’ 

Human rights groups deemed that the recent SC decision will bolster the criminal complaint filed by Mrs. Empeño and Mrs. Cadapan in May. Charges of rape, serious physical injuries, arbitrary detention, maltreatment of prisoners, grave threats, grave coercion, violations, among others, were filed against Palparan, Lt. Col. Rogelio Boac of the 56th Infantry Battalion and Lt. Col. Felipe Anotado of the 24th Infantry Battalion, M/Sgt. Donald Caigas and M/Sgt. Rizal Hilario and several “John Does.”


“We hope that the perpetrators would be punished,” Mrs. Empeño said..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/06/21/sc-finds-military-officials-responsible-for-abduction-of-up-students/

Shortages in schools worsen with kindergarten program — ACT

Shortages in schools worsen with kindergarten program — ACT

 “The DepEd is trying to show that there is reform in the basic education system by implementing universal kindergarten. But the change is not for the better, the change is for the worse.” – France Castro of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers.
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Fe Ramirez, 43, is worried about her child’s situation in school. “There are 35 pupils in her kindergarten class and they have only one teacher. Their room is too small, it is congested and scorching hot. How can they concentrate on their lesson?” asked Ramirez. She said that the implementation of the Department of Education’s (DepEd) universal kindergarten is ill prepared and only puts their child’s learning at stake.

(Photo by Anne Marxe D. Umil / bulatlat.com)

Ramirez’s daughter, Roxanne, is four years old and one of the 800 kindergarten pupils at Corazon Aquino Elementary School in Batasan, Quezon City. According to DepEd, there are 1.93 million kindergarten pupils enrolled in public schools nationwide.

DepEd recently imposed the mandatory kindergarten for children as part of its K+12 basic education program, which adds two more years in basic education. Under the universal kindergarten program, all five-year old children are mandated to enter kindergarten in public schools before they enter Grade 1. Education Secretary Armin Luistro said that the public kindergarten program is part of the department’s Education For All campaign in a bid to meet the country’s Millennium Development Goal on education. DepEd, however, is apparently unprepared.

Huge shortages in public schools remain. According to the data of Gabriela Women’s Party, there is a shortage of 100,000 teachers, 152,000 classrooms, 13,000 school chairs, 95,000 textbooks and 13,000,000 water and sanitation facilities in public schools nationwide.

“If there is any change in the system of education under the new administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III, it is for the worse. Why? For decades, shortages in our basic education system were not acted upon by the previous administrations. They even left backlogs in shortages of teachers, classrooms, facilities, etc. The hasty implementation of the universal kindergarten in basic education does not answer this shortages, it worsened the problems instead,” said France Castro, secretary general of Alliance for Concerned Teachers (ACT) during an interview with Bulatlat.com.

ACT called DepEd’s implementation of universal kindergarten as a man-made disaster. True enough, Ramirez said, Roxanne’s first day in school was stressful. Ramirez witnessed the long queues entering the school premises; students were sweating because of the scorching heat and they had to compete for the limited chairs. “Pupils do not leave their chairs for fear of losing their seat. When a student stands up another will take his or her seat. Some are even sitting on the floor,” Ramirez told Bulatlat.com.

ACT said that the DepEd is fully aware that the total classroom shortage for school year 2011-2012 is around 150,000 classrooms. For the 1.93 million new kindergarten pupils alone, at a ratio of 1 teacher to 25 pupils per class on a desired single shift session, a total of 77,000 new classrooms are needed. But ACT said that the government intends to build only 18,000 new classrooms out of the 152,000 needed..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/06/18/shortages-this-school-year-have-become-worse-with-kindergarten-program-act/

US ready to arm RP amid China tension By Michaela P. del Callar 06/25/2011

US ready to arm RP amid China tension

By Michaela P. del Callar 06/25/2011
The United States will stand by the Philippines against any armed threat in the region amid heightened tensions in the disputed South China Sea, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday, adding that it is providing the country with affordable weaponry to counter attacks.

Describing its partnership with the Philippines as a “critical alliance,” Clinton stressed that the US will honor its obligations under the 60-year-old Mutual Defense Treaty with the country.

“I’m not going to discuss hypothetical events, but I want to underscore our commitment to the defense of the Philippines,” Clinton told a joint press conference in Washington with Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario.

The Philippines and Vietnam traded allegations with China for intruding in its claimed territories, reigniting tensions in the potentially gas and oil-rich region also claimed by Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110625hed2.html

Aquino gov’t leaderless, economic gains wasted By Charlie V. Manalo and Gil J. Bugaoisan 06/25/2011

PALACE HITS BACK, BLAMES GMA FOR RP PROBLEMS; SILENT ON ISSUES RAISED

Aquino gov’t leaderless, economic gains wasted

By Charlie V. Manalo and Gil J. Bugaoisan 06/25/2011

LUBAO, Pampanga – Former President, now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo yesterday lashed at the “fault-finding” administration of President Aquino for wasting the country’s economic gains brought about by the joint efforts of the previous administrations, saying that the rate of the country’s economy deceleration under the Aquino administration is clear proof the country economy is nearing critical level.

But Malacañang quickly blasted away at the former President, saying that she was using this press conference for media exposure and to divert public attention from her plunder charges, to the point of Arroyo not even attending the preliminary investigation held at the Department of Justice.

It was, however, noted that none of the issues raised by Arroyo was answered by the Palace aide.
In one of the rare times the former President faced the media, Arroyo said contrary to criticisms hurled against her by the Aquino administration, she has left behind a robust economy effected through 10 years of uninterrupted growth..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110625hed1.html

Sotto demands from DENR status report of major rivers By Angie M. Rosales 06/25/2011

Sotto demands from DENR status report of major rivers

By Angie M. Rosales 06/25/2011

Acting Senate President Vicente Sotto III yesterday demanded a status report on the country’s major river basins from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

As the metropolis was inundated once again by flood waters last Thursday due to incessant heavy rains brought about by typhoon Falcon, the majority leader said the DENR should make it known whether there are some areas that may be prone to experiencing the same calamity as that in Cotabato City.

Sotto, currently at the helm of the upper chamber since both Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada are currently out of the country, wanted a disclosure from DENR as to whether there remain other bodies of water or river system engulfed by Water lilies or water hyacinths as in the case of Rio Grande de Mindanao which caused massive flooding in Cotabato City..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110625nat8.html

Mayors defer implementation of vehicle tagging scheme By Pat C. Santos 06/25/2011

Mayors defer implementation of vehicle tagging scheme

By Pat C. Santos 06/25/2011

The Metro Manila Council (MMC) yesterday approved the deferment of the implementation of the vehicle tagging scheme for 90 days for all public utility vehicles, except city buses.

Chairman Francis Tolentino of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority said the decision was a result of previous consultations and dialogs with various transport groups as to the timeliness and viability of the tagging scheme.

Provincial bus operators formally requested the postponement of the vehicle tagging scheme which has been set for implementation on July 25, citing there is a pending proposal in Congress to utilize an electronic identification system for all PUVs which might conflict with the tagging scheme.

Meanwhile, various groups of city bus operators pledged their support to the scheduled implementation of the tagging scheme, especially those units plying Edsa, as they believe it would eventually curb the operations of “colorum” buses..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110625met1.html

3 US warships, 800 US troops to participate in Carat Exercises By Mario J. Mallari 06/25/2011

3 US warships, 800 US troops to participate in Carat Exercises

By Mario J. Mallari 06/25/2011

Three United States Navy warships and some 800 US servicemen are participating in next week’s 17th Coopration Afloat Readiness and Training (Carat) exercises with the Philippine Navy in Palawan amid
tension between the Philippines and China over the disputed Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) or the Spratlys.

The US Navy is sending guided-missile destroyers USS Chung-Hoon (DDG-93) and USS Howard (DDG-83), and the diving and salvage ship USNS Safeguard (T-ARS-50) to Puetro Princesa City on Tuesday for the opening of the 11-day 2011 US-RP Carat exercises.

In a statement, Lt. Commander Mike Morley said the three US warships are the US Navy’s centerpieces for the exercise, which features 11 days of training exchanges with the Philippine Navy, both ashore and at sea..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110625nat1.html

MILF sacks Kabalu as its spokesman By Mario J. Mallari 06/25/2011

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A disaster in Cotabato EDITORIAL 06/24/2011

A disaster in Cotabato

EDITORIAL

Click to enlarge

06/24/2011
Noynoy’s former high survey ratings are receding and his allies are starting to worry but not his several alternating Palace mouthpieces who still hold that those respondents expressing satisfaction on the administration remain in the majority.

What is striking about the survey results, however, is that these are going downhill continuously and at an increasing rate.

Moreover, in Metro Manila where the fate of presidents is made or unmade, Noy’s approval rating hangs in the balance at 57 percent in the latest Pulse Asia survey which means that those who are either undecided or the dissatisfied with his performance and the believers of Noy are almost even — if one goes by the surveys..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110624com1.html

Know nothing Noynoy FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 06/24/2011

Know nothing Noynoy

FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

06/24/2011
Incredible! Filipinos actually have a president who knows nothing, doesn’t and can’t even offer solutions to a flooding problem in Mindanao, which has been going on for weeks.

Expecting to be given a solution to their problems, which currently is the problem of constant flooding in Cotabato City, Noynoy says, “we are still studying it. All I wanted to see on my visit are the sites which are always flooded,” then adds: “You have to remember that I have only been one year in office.”

OMG! What a crass answer from a President of the Republic. All he wanted was a cheap photo op.

No wonder the local official, Cotabato Mayor Japal Guiani, came out to state that it shouldn’t matter whether a president has been president for six months or one year, this kind of problem has to have an immediate solution..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110624com2.html

The ‘Ruling Crass’ DIE HARD III Herman Tiu Laurel 06/24/2011

The ‘Ruling Crass’

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

06/24/2011
I can understand why the Santiago couple should be celebrating, and not just for staying married all these years as officially stated. Both have been through tragic trials that one wonders if the successes they are celebrating are indeed such great things in light of certain tragic events. The death of their youngest son by the barrel of a gun is still haunted by ugly rumors. It never helped that the case was closed after the waiver of the requisite legal and forensic requirements, just like many other unsolved celebrity deaths in this country. Then there is the case of the young secretary who was hurried off to the US after an alleged scandal in the private Quezon City offices of the couple, which reportedly cost a certain amount and a US visa for the dropping of charges.

Jun Santiago has been scandal-ridden for his alleged activities in the Bureau of Customs and in his favorite cockpits, as well as for a certain black Mercedes Benz believed to be sequestered.

Miriam Santiago, on the other hand, aside from her explosive temper and verbiage, is infamous for her promise to “jump headfirst from a helicopter in Luneta if Estrada gets removed from power,” which she later recanted by saying, “I lied,” followed with laughter. She also gets into verbal jousts with just about everyone, including an even feistier lady, Madame Dionisia Pacquiao, over the RH bill controversy. She has written books which have never made any mark in intellectual circles, such as her book Christianity vs Corruption, which is long on motherhood statements but completely devoid of political-economic analyses — a trademark of her vituperations on her every pet issue.

The Santiagos of Matino St. really have climbed the ladder of social status and opulence in this society which, if the Bureau of Internal Revenue really takes its “lifestyle checks” seriously, find little firm ground to stand on.

The Santiagos have done very well while their supposed constituencies have gotten poorer and poorer. But this isn’t any different from what other politicians, most of whom were invited to the celebration, have notched up as a record: Getting rich as the nation sinks deeper into poverty; blabbering endlessly in their respective legislative halls and passing oppressive laws such as the Electric Power Industry R(d)eform Act (Epira), eVAT, as well as onerous Build-Operate-Transfer measures; then hobnob with the oligarchs for whom they pass these to legalize their plunder; and then party even more while the middle classes and the masses, who suffer deepening penury, watch with stupefaction.

There’s also the picture of this oligarch congratulating the couple, grinning and smiling.

The whole caboodle of the “ruling personalities” at the wedding bash clearly has no shortage of such ironies.
There they were all together there — economic and political oligarchs alike. Even Gloria Arroyo, was rubbing elbows with her ilk and reveling in the splendor as a member of the ruling class.

Yet, all of them are mere unproductive “rentiers,” part of a “Ruling Crass” that use power and position to amass all they can, possessing only such values as greed, narcissism, and more greed. They haven’t even for a minute thought about where all the wealth they wallow in come from.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “There will never be enough of any one’s greed. There will always be enough for everyone’s needs.” If this country continues to nosedive into poverty, it is simply because this “Ruling Crass” prevails. Witnessing such a gathering of the greedy, anti-social, insensitive, pathological, hedonistically rich and infamous members of the socio-economic parasite class without expressing disgust might be mistaken for vicarious enjoyment, if not open endorsement. Thanks to those who voiced their disdain for this display of ultimate social phoniness. There is hope after all.

(Tune in to Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m., and Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “Crushing 24 million coconut farmers’ dependents”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives) .


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


Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110624com6.html

Chongqing, home of China’s ‘red’ revival focus 06/24/2011 CHONGQING — At the international airport in Chongqing in southwest China, travellers are greeted with a massive sign inviting them to “sing red songs” and spread the Communist party’s good word. Thirty-five years after the death of Mao Zedong, the revolutionary spirit is alive and thriving in this teeming province-sized mega-city, despite the more capitalist leanings adopted by the world’s second-largest economy. The old-school Maoist propaganda campaign includes sending officials to work in the countryside, red chorales at state-run firms, patriotic television shows and cutting sentences for anybody convicted of a crime if they have been involved in boosting “red” culture. For Chongqing’s older residents, the movement is tinged with nostalgia. Every afternoon, people gather at the square in front of the city’s Great Hall of the People for impromptu — and somewhat out-of-tune — singing sessions.

Chongqing, home of China’s ‘red’ revival

focus

06/24/2011
CHONGQING — At the international airport in Chongqing in southwest China, travellers are greeted with a massive sign inviting them to “sing red songs” and spread the Communist party’s good word.

Thirty-five years after the death of Mao Zedong, the revolutionary spirit is alive and thriving in this teeming province-sized mega-city, despite the more capitalist leanings adopted by the world’s second-largest economy.

The old-school Maoist propaganda campaign includes sending officials to work in the countryside, red chorales at state-run firms, patriotic television shows and cutting sentences for anybody convicted of a crime if they have been involved in boosting “red” culture.

For Chongqing’s older residents, the movement is tinged with nostalgia. Every afternoon, people gather at the square in front of the city’s Great Hall of the People for impromptu — and somewhat out-of-tune — singing sessions..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110624com7.html

What now, about Rizal? NO HOLDS BARRED Armida Siguion-Reyna 06/24/2011

What now, about Rizal?

NO HOLDS BARRED

Armida Siguion-Reyna

06/24/2011
Media to the left and right of us let out a flood of articles in connection with National Hero Jose Rizal’s 150th birth anniversary. He was all over the papers, on free and cable TV, discussed on radio, a giant statue of him was unveiled near his ancestral home in Laguna, by no less than the President, and, hey, not even the rains stopped people from going to his birthday picnic, on Facebook announced by an invite that read: “Imbitado ka sa 150th Birthday ko! Magpapa-picnic ako sa Fort Santiago, Intramuros, sa June 19, 6 p.m. Sa Linggo na!”

Never mind that the face on the invite wasn’t Rizal, but his classmate, Amado Carpio. It was an impressive gathering at the Walled City, with most attendees wearing Filipino costumes loaned out by organizers to those who had applied to borrow early enough, there was a program, good singing, and no, the weather just couldn’t dampen the enthusiasm, although had the sun been out there would have been more in the picnic.

Monday at the SM City Baguio, some 150 men from the ages of three to 70, attracted attention wearing the closest to the Rizal look as could be imagined, dark suits and top hats, while city officials spoke about Rizal’s student life and heroism, followed by a stage play, the opening of a Rizaliana exhibit and the showing of what I presumed to be the Gerry de Leon Noli Me Tangere, described in the write-up as “a film made in the 60s and preserved in its best form by the Philippine Historical Society.”.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110624com4.html

Noy’s ARMM polls delay move faces SC challenge By Angie M. Rosales, Aytch S. de la Cruz and Gerry Baldo 06/24/2011

Noy’s ARMM polls delay move faces SC challenge

By Angie M. Rosales, Aytch S. de la Cruz and Gerry Baldo 06/24/2011
The enactment of the law allowing the postponement of this year’s elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is poised to be challenged before the Supreme Court (SC), with no less than the original author of the organic law debating before the high tribunal the unconstitutionality of the legislation now awaiting signature of President Aquino.

Former Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr. yesterday bared the planned move, which he had committed to take, having been approached by some concerned members of the Muslim communities.

The postponement violates the character and the soul of the autonomy that has been granted to the autonomous region, Pimentel stressed.

He, however, said they will have to wait until Aquino affixes his signature to the said measure to take its effect as a law or wait for it to lapse into law on June 30 before they can file a petition before the SC..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110624hed3.html

Noy wants only good news from aides By Gil Bugaoisan and Angie M. Rosales 06/24/2011

NIXES 3 SECRETARIES WHO ALWAYS GIVE HIM ‘BAD NEWS’

Noy wants only good news from aides

By Gil Bugaoisan and Angie M. Rosales 06/24/2011

President Aquino may be far removed from the reality of numerous problems the country faces, and the reason nothing moves in Malacañang.

He yesterday bared in a speech of “two or three” of his Cabinet members who have brought him nothing but problems and “bad news,” saying that whenever they try to get an appointment with him, he is reluctant to give them his time and invariably wonders: “What bad news are they going to report to me again?”

Aquino made this pronouncement during the 113th anniversary rites of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), days after two polling firms simultaneously reported a drop in his satisfactory and trust rating.

Airing his exasperation over their performance, Aquino said the still unnamed Palace officials have not given any contribution to his administration and have instead caused him nothing but suffering due to the problems they present to him, upon his assumption to the presidency..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110624hed1.html

Jinggoy wants Noynoy to certify as urgent bill for maids’ wages By Angie M. Rosales 06/24/2011

Jinggoy wants Noynoy to certify as urgent bill for maids’ wages

By Angie M. Rosales 06/24/2011
Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada yesterday urged President Aquino to certify as urgent the bill seeking to increase mininum wage for household helpers or “kasambahay” along with additional benefits, saying that the measure is long overdue.

Estrada also twitted colleagues from the House of Representatives for apparently sitting on the bill, which has been pending in Congress for almost two decades now while the Senate’s version had been approved as early as December last year.

“President Aquino must certify this bill as urgent as the Philippines had already committed to the international community that it will be one of the first countries to ratify the Domestic Workers Convention of 2011.

Further, it is also our country as Chairman of the ILO (International Labor Organization) Committee on Domestic Workers that steered the passage of this measure. Otherwise, our policies would be perceived as inconsistent and hollow,” he said..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110624nat2.html

Appellate court discounts foul play in Balikatan interpreter’s death By Benjamin B. Pulta 06/24/2011

Appellate court discounts foul play in Balikatan interpreter’s death

By Benjamin B. Pulta 06/24/2011

A ruling by the Court of Appeals (CA) has turned down suits filed by the family and relatives of Gregan Cardeño, who was found dead a day after being hired as interpreter for the American military participating in Balikatan exercises in last year.

In a 16-page decision, the CA held that the petition filed by the Cardeños “lacks material details to sustain their cause of action” and noted that the Cardeño family failed to show proof that would contradict the findings of investigating officers that Cardeño actually committed suicide,

He was found dead on Feb. 2, 2010 inside his room at the Joint Special Operations Task Force of the Philippines headquarters in Marawi City. The Marawi City police and US troops reported that he committed suicide by hanging himself, but the Cardeño family believes he was a victim of heinous crime inside the barracks of the US troops..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110624nat3.html

Transparency in probe of rape inside PSG barracks urged By Angie M. Rosales 06/24/2011

Transparency in probe of rape inside PSG barracks urged

By Angie M. Rosales 06/24/2011
Sen. Pia Cayetano yesterday called on Malacañang to assure transparency in the handling of alleged rape incident that happened right inside the Presidential Security Group (PSG) barracks committed against a minor last Sunday night.

Cayetano, chairman of the committee on youth, women and family relations, also urged the Palace to accord full protection to the victim.

“Malacañang should closely monitor this case. It should accord full protection to the victim, who’s a minor, and ensure that all the perpetrators are unmasked and put behind bars..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110624met1.html

Loud sounds from videokes, karaokes within residential areas banned in Makati 06/24/2011

Loud sounds from videokes, karaokes within residential areas banned in Makati

06/24/2011
A new city ordinance passed by the Makati City Council has banned unreasonably loud sounds generated from videokes, karaokes and similar amplified audio devices within residential areas and along public streets in Makati.

Approved by Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay, City Ordinance No. 2011-019 also requires a permit to be issued by the barangay captain or an authorized representative for the regulated use of the devices in public streets or roadsides within his or her jurisdiction.

Binay said the ordinance seeks to protect residents and the general public from serious discomfort and health hazards posed by the unregulated use of videokes, karaokes and amplified sound systems within residences and on the streets. He noted that collapsible tents sheltering such audio devices and groups of people singing loudly till the wee hours of the morning were becoming a common sight on the streets of many barangays..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110624met4.html