Impunity in the City of Gentle People

Impunity in the City of Gentle People

“Here we have a political climate blanketed by fear and submission, and a system that promotes such.” Karapatan
By RITCHE T. SALGADO
Bulatlat.com
DUMAGUETE CITY — Around 4 o’clock in the afternoon of June 10, 2009, three gunshots echoed in a quiet street of Dumaguete City, a place reputed as the City of Gentle People.

In an instant, Fermin Lorico, 52, a farmer activist, was killed. He was on his way to a meeting after attending an otherwise successful anti-charter change rally in the city.

Lorico’s murder is just one of the many human rights cases in Negros Oriental that remains unsolved.
In 2009 alone, Karapatan recorded 95 cases of abuse, including five extrajudicial killings, four cases of torture, and 22 cases of various forms of harassment, among others. This does not include cases from previous years, which, up until today remains unsolved.

Karapatan is an independent human rights watchdog critical of government abuses, especially those committed by military personnel against the disadvantaged sectors of society like farmers and the urban poor.

The most recent case of abuse recorded by Karapatan against farmers in Negros Oriental was the burning of two houses in Sitio Avocado, Barangay Talalac, Sta. Catalina last June 2011. The people who responded to the incident were slapped with criminal charges that could land them in jail for six months and fined with up to 5,000 pesos ($ 115.45).

Task Force Lorico

The gruesome murder of Lorico in the heart of the city prompted then City Mayor Agustin Ramon M. Perdices to direct the city police into forming a task force. Two years after, Lorico’s family has yet to find justice.

Task Force Lorico boasted of an elite group of individuals coming from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, the Scene of the Crime Operatives, and investigation and intelligence personnel from the city and provincial headquarters of the Philippine National Police. But these were empty boasts as no arrests were made albeit leads that would point to any suspect to the killing.

P/Insp Philippedes Sillero, investigation officer of the Dumaguete City Police Office, confirmed this.
“I thought that case was already closed,” Sillero said when asked by Bulatlat.com for an update. He admitted that since he returned to the post last September he is no longer up to date on the case.
Sillero headed the investigation of the case in 2009 until late last year, when he was assigned to another post for promotion.

Juliet Ragay, a colleague of Lorico in the local farmers group Kaugmaon, questioned the sincerity of the Dumaguete police in solving the case.

Ragay currently chairs a local peasant women’s group called Babayeng Negrense Isulong ang Kalingkawasan (Banika-Amihan) and replaced Lorico as member of the board of trustees of the Central Visayas Farmers Development Center..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/11/23/impunity-in-the-city-of-gentle-people/

Occupy Wall Street's first fatality (VIDEO)

Occupy Wall Street's first fatality (VIDEO)

 A protester in Seattle, Washington aligned with Occupy Wall Street says that an assault from a cop last week has caused a miscarriage, which if true marks the first loss of life from police brutality since the demonstrations began two months ago.

Photographers were on hand November 15 to document 19-year-old Jennifer Fox being pepper-sprayed by police in Seattle while participating in an Occupy protest on the West Coast. Along with an assault on an 84-year-old activist, the incident involving Fox, then pregnant, was arguably not only the most disturbing scene out of the Occupy Seattle movement but out of the international demonstrations altogether. Less than a week later now, Fox says that she has suffered a miscarriage and according to her, doctors say that an attack from police is to blame.

"Everything was going okay until yesterday, when I started getting sick, cramps started, and I felt like I was going to pass out," Fox tells The Stranger out of Seattle..... MORE

Source:  RT.com

URL: http://rt.com/usa/news/occupy-miscarriage-fox-seattle-959/

Storm Watch: Arab Spring

 Storm Watch: Arab Spring
“Arab Springs” are not as spontaneous as the Western mainstream media would have us believe. Their behind-the-scenes instigators always get “a little help from their Global Power Elite mega-planning friends...”
­Isn’t it rather odd that after long decades of slumber, starting in early 2011 millions upon millions of Arabs throughout North Africa and the Middle East suddenly woke up, took to the streets, violently clashed with police and security forces, overthrew their governments and in one instance – Libya – managed to deliver their country to a perverse alliance of foreign terrorists, local thugs, CIA operatives and NATO bombers, eventually murdering their own exceptional leader, Muammar Gaddafi, live on global TV?

Question: just how spontaneous are these major social convulsions that lead to revolution, chaos, battles on streets and squares, thousands dead and injured, and the violent overthrow of entire governments?  To a certain degree they are, no doubt, spontaneous: people are growing weary of their national governments’ growing inability to resolve vital collective problems.  .... MORE

Source:  RT.com

URL: http://rt.com/news/arab-spring-western-help-025/

(s/ Video) Cluster bombs dropped on Libya funded by Spanish banks

Several major Spanish banks are reported to have been financing controversial arms-producing companies which have supplied cluster bombs to Libya.

­Annie Yumi Joh, an anti-war campaigner, told RT a Human Rights Watch report suggests the Instalaza SA Company supplied bombs used by the Libyan leader forces against his own people.

“Instalaza SA produced cluster bombs to be sold to Gaddafi in 2007. We had to figure out who exactly had granted loans to this company and we were surprised to find a number of Spanish banks, even small saving banks, that had provided loans to this company, which undoubtedly had been used to finance the production of cluster arms,” she explained..... MORE
Source:  RT.com

URL: http://rt.com/news/libya-spain-gaddafi-cluster-bomb/

Group formed to ensure Arroyo brought to court

Group formed to ensure Arroyo brought to court

“The Arroyos will not run out of cards to play as long as they have the numbers in the Supreme Court. So what really matters now, apart from sound legal tactics, is the political decisiveness of the Aquino administration.”

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO and RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — In anticipation of maneuvers by the Arroyo’s counsels to ensure that their client escapes accountability,various groups and personalities formed the Gloria Panagutin Movement (Hold Gloria Accountable Movement).

Sr. Mary John Mananzan, Pagbabago! co-chairperson and co-chair of the Association of Major Religious Superiors, veteran actress and writer Bibeth Orteza, whistleblower Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada, Edre Olalia of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), Bayan chairwoman Dr. Carol P. Araullo, Mrs. Edith Burgos and Pagbabago! convenor Fr. Joe Dizon came together and resolved to act to thwart the Arroyo camp’s maneuvers and to push the Aquino administration to file more cases against the former president.
The group called on the public to be vigilant on the Arroyo camp’s various maneuvers to escape accountability. The group joined a protest at the Supreme Court during Tuesday’s en banc session.

Benedictine sister Mananzan said the Supreme Court should not allow Arroyo to leave the country. “If she goes out of the country, it is certain she would not come back. She must be held accountable for her sins,” Mananzan said in her speech during a rally in front of the Supreme Court, Nov. 22.

“The Arroyo camp still has a hefty war chest and a reliable ally in the Supreme Court. We take vigilance as majority of the Supreme Court justices may still act according to political patronage. The Supreme Court could still give Arroyo a ticket out of jail and even out of the country,” said Dizon, Pagbabago! spokesman.
NUPL’s Olalia said while the Aquino administration has legal options in prosecuting the Arroyos, the latter could always go to the Supreme Court where they have the numbers.

“The Arroyos will not run out of cards to play as long as they have the numbers in the Supreme Court. So what really matters now, apart from sound legal tactics, is the political decisiveness of the Aquino administration,” he said.

Despite the downpour, activists hold a picket rally in front of the Supreme Court, Nov. 22, demanding the prosecution of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo(Photo by Ronalyn V. Olea / bulatlat.com)

“What we are facing now is a Supreme Court that boasts of upholding the rule of law. Is the right of an ordinary citizen to travel abroad the issue here? Can Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and husband Mike Arroyo be considered as ordinary citizens? If they are ordinary citizens, do you think the Supreme Court would prioritize the petitions they filed?” Carol Araullo, Bayan chairwoman, said.

Araullo pointed out that the watch list order was initiated by Arroyo’s Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez. “They did not question it. They did not consider reviewing it. At that time, they never thought they were violating the right of ordinary citizens to travel. But now that they are at the receiving end of what might be a questionable watch list order, they were too quick to file a petition for TRO (temporary restraining order).”

“Did you not notice how fast Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo got the TRO? Did you not notice that instead of waiting for the DOJ to receive the TRO order, the Supreme court spokesperson made the announcement over the radio and television very early in the morning? The repeatedly announced that the TRO was final and executory and that Arroyo can travel. Is this not enough proof of collusion? Even the conditions they gave, that Arroyo must deposit two million pesos. Two million? That’s only for her snack, right?”.... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/11/23/group-formed-to-ensure-arroyo-brought-to-court/

In Photos: 2nd anniversary of Ampatuan massacre marked with protests

 In Photos: 2nd anniversary of Ampatuan massacre marked with protests

MANILA – On the eve of the second anniversary of the Ampatuan massacre, members of the campus press and human rights groups called for an end to impunity.

The Ampatuan massacre on November 23, 2009 claimed the lives of 58 individuals, of whom 32 are journalists. One victim, Reynaldo Momay, photographer of Midland Review remains missing. Suspects are members of the Ampatuan clan, an influential political family inMaguindanao province.

At around 10 a.m., members of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) tied black ribbons along España avenue in Manila as a sign of mourning and injustice for the victims of the massacre.

“It has been two years since the Maguindanao massacre happened but still no justice,” said Antonio Perdigon, CEGP-National Capital Region chairman.

Photo by Bulatlat.com

Later in the afternoon, church people and members of cause-oriented groups gathered at the Boy Scout Circle in Quezon City and lit candles and lanterns bearing words “End Impunity”

“Seven hundred and thirty days have passed since the Maguindanao massacre, President Aquino is in power for more than 500 days, still the case is not yet resolved,” Nardy Sabino, secretary general of Promotion of Church People’s Response (PCPR), said.

“The killings continue under the new administration and one is the killing of Fr. Fausto “Pops” Tentorio who was shot ten times just to make sure that he is dead. The killings will continue if the counter-insurgency program Oplan Bayanihan will not be scrapped by the President,” Sabino added..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/11/23/back-story-a-look-back-at-arroyo%E2%80%99s-many-sins-and-why-she-should-pay/

GMA hit with massacre lawsuit 11/23/2011

GMA hit with massacre lawsuit

11/23/2011
Relatives of 57 people killed in the Philippines’ worst political massacre plan to sue then President Arroyo for arming and supporting the alleged murderers, their lawyer said yesterday.

The civil suit seeking P15 million ($345,000) in damages will force Arroyo to fight another tough legal battle, after police charged her last week with conspiring to rig the 2007 senatorial elections.

The lawyer for the victims’ relatives, Harry Roque, said the lawsuit would be filed at a Manila court on Tuesday afternoon, deliberately timed just ahead of Wednesday’s two-year anniversary of the massacre..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20111123hed4.html

Failed House support on Noy’s moves vs GMA, LP waters down resolution By Gerry Baldo and Charlie V. Manalo 11/23/2011

Failed House support on Noy’s moves vs GMA, LP waters down resolution

By Gerry Baldo and Charlie V. Manalo 11/23/2011

Former president, Rep. Gloria Arroyo, remains a force to reckon with under the Aquino administration as shown by a watered-down Resolution 1918 which expressed support for Pre-sident Aquino’s efforts to weed out corruption in government.

The earlier LP resolution was directly supporting the moves of Justice chief’s ban on Arroyo and lauding Aquino for his decision to place her under arrest, giving him a title of the only president who fights corruption.

According to House majority leader Neptali Gonzales II, the resolution was watered down to accommodate more members of Congress, including other political parties who may not want to sign an earlier resolution that expressed its support for what Justice Secretary Leila de Lima did in stopping Mrs. Arroyo.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20111123hed2.html

AFP accepts CPP challenge to probe 80 NPA surrenderers By Mario J. Mallari 11/23/2011

AFP accepts CPP challenge to probe 80 NPA surrenderers

By Mario J. Mallari 11/23/2011

Bring it on!
This was the reaction of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to the challenge posed by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) for the conduct of investigation regarding the recent surrender of 80 New People’s Army (NPA) rebels, 19 of them minors, to the military in Bukidnon.

AFP-Civil Relations Service (CRS) chief Maj. Gen. Eduardo del Rosario said indeed that government, non-government agencies and even international human rights groups and other concerned agencies should investigate the surrender of 80 NPA fighters to the Army’s 4th Infantry Division (ID) Monday last week.

“This mass surrender by the NPA Lumads must be investigated by the government, non-government organizations and even international human rights groups because of the involvement of 19 child combatants. (Its) a severe case of human rights violation grossly committed by the NPA in the province of Bukidnon,” Del Rosario said..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20111123nat3.html

GMA’s mugshots published in newspaper violation of her privacy — lawmaker By Angie M. Rosales and Gina Peralta-Elorde 11/23/2011

GMA’s mugshots published in newspaper violation of her privacy — lawmaker

By Angie M. Rosales and Gina Peralta-Elorde 11/23/2011

Publication by a broadsheet paper of Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo’s mug shot taken by the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) criminal investigation and detection group (CIDG), could be a violation of her personal “right to privacy,” warned Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago yesterday.

Although Santiago, a noted constitutionalist admitted that there is no constitutional right to privacy per se, jurisprudence by the the United States’ Supreme Court (SC), which often used as a basis by the country’s legal systems showed that such is among an individual’s basic rights.

“A mugshot is necessary to protect the public because it is necessary for the police or the military to put it on file just in case there is a need for identification by the investigators. It is another question whether a newspaper or a Web site can publish a mugshot,” she said in an interview with reporters..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20111123nat1.html

‘Bistek,’ other officials lead call for return of QC as country’s capital By Arlie O. Calalo 11/23/2011

‘Bistek,’ other officials lead call for return of QC as country’s capital

By Arlie O. Calalo 11/23/2011

No less than Quezon City Mayor Herbert “Bistek” Bautista is leading local officials in urging Congress to study and pass a law that will call for the return of the city as the country’s capital.

Separate interviews with local officials showed their unequivocal position on the proposal for members of the House of Representatives to re-study the move and eventually name the city anew as the country’s capital instead of Manila.

“Being the most populous and richest city in the country and having the largest land area in Metro Manila, our city must deserve to be the nation’s capital,” Bautista told members of the Quezon City Press Club.

Bautista’s campaign got the support from the members of the Sangguniang Panlunsod led by Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte as Councilor Francisco Calalay of District 1 filed a resolution aimed at convincing the lawmakers to study and pass a law for the purpose..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20111123met5.html

‘JV’ urges gov’t: Charge Mike, Mikey Arroyo, too By Gerry Baldo 11/23/2011

‘JV’ urges gov’t: Charge Mike, Mikey Arroyo, too

By Gerry Baldo 11/23/2011

The Aquino government should also file charges against Ang Galing Pinoy party-list Rep. Mikey Arroyo and his father, former First Gentleman Jose Mike Arroyo, for their alleged part in graft, plunder and human rights violations during the Arroyo regime.

According to San Juan Rep. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito, the Filipino people are still waiting for the government to file charges against the Arroyos.

“I hope the electoral sabotage will not be the last case filed against GMA. The people are still waiting for all the other charges to be filed in court against her,” Ejercito said yesterday..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20111123met1.html

Groups denounce left and right price hikes, propose relief measures and solutions

Groups denounce left and right price hikes, propose relief measures and solutions

In the light of the worsening hunger and poverty and given the already soaring prices of commodities, it is feared that the triple threats of price hikes may well turn out to be the “straw that will break the camel’s back,” said Lana Linaban, secretary-general of Gabriela.
By MARYA SALAMAT

MANILA – Protests marked almost every day of the past two weeks as drivers, workers, women, the urban poor, students and peasants launched different mass actions to oppose oil price hikes, another looming toll fee hike, a scheduled electricity rate hike and threat of a transport fare hike.

The Drivers and small operators affiliated with Pinagkaisang Samahan ng Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (PISTON) launched a noise barrage in Cubao, Quezon City last Tuesday to denounce the latest, almost P2 ($.05) hike in pump prices of oil. George San Mateo, national president of Piston, told Bulatlat.com that they are “not supporting the P2 ($0.05) jeepney fare hike petition submitted by other transport groups last Monday to the LTFRB.”

These transport groups that petitioned the LTFRB for fare hike include the Pasang Masda, Acto, LTOP, Altodap, and 1Utak. They cited the hike in prices of oil products as justification for their fare hike petition.
“These so-called transport leaders have lost the moral high ground to demand for a fare hike to ‘help’ the drivers,” said San Mateo.

“The leaders of these transport groups have allowed themselves to be used by the Big Three oil companies and President Benigno Aquino III when they turned their backs on our unity to launch a transport strike last Sept 19, to oppose the ceaseless oil overpricing and oil price hikes,” San Mateo said. In having allowed themselves to be used by the Big 3 and Aquino, they have “no moral high ground to ask for a fare hike,” said San Mateo.

San Mateo slammed the said fare hike petition, which is limited to just National Capital Region, Region 3 and Region 4, as “divisive and deceptive.”

“Majority of drivers all over the country are feeling the pinch of oil price hikes, especially since in other provinces such as in the Visayas and in Mindanao, diesel and gasoline sometimes cost P5 ($0.12) per liter more compared to the already overpriced rates in the National Capital Region,” San Mateo said.

Piston reiterated that the better relief for majority of drivers and commuters would still come from suspending the Value-Added Tax (VAT) imposition on oil, withdrawing the P9 ($0.21) overpricing and doing away with the oil deregulation law altogether. San Mateo dared the Aquino government to do these and provide relief to all drivers and Filipinos.

Proposed toll hike slammed

Last Friday, an alliance opposing toll fee hikes condemned the public consultation held by the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB). Tutol-Slex said the meeting is “a bull-headed attempt to ram the newly-proposed toll fee hikes down the peoples’ throat.”

Toll hikes are blamed as one of the causes of price hikes of commodities and transport. (Photo by Tudla Productions / bulatlat.com)

“What kind of a public consultation is this? The government officials in the TRB board of directors, who are supposed to uphold the public’s interest on this issue, did not attend. The stakeholders were not furnished with a copy of the petition for a toll hike, making it hard for us to prepare to refute pro-hike arguments,” said Sammy Malunes, TUTOL Hike spokesperson.

The contract between the government and the private corporations managing the expressways states that the corporations may increase toll fees every three years after holding public consultations on the proposal.
Ramon Te, councilor of the City of Caloocan and TUTOL Hike co-convener, warned against the “ill effects” of implementing another toll fee hike. He urged local government officials to speak up against the toll fee hikes, saying he is aware of how their constituents “are suffering from the increase in the prices of basic goods and services caused by the toll hikes.”... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/11/22/groups-denounce-left-and-right-price-hikes-propose-relief-measures-and-solutions/

The passion of famed botanist Leonard Co

The passion of famed botanist Leonard Co

Sidebar: Leonard Co remembered with tree-planting and re-launch of Common Medicinal Plants of Cordillera
MANILA – “A tree dies. A tree lives. The forest lives forever.” These words greet everyone who would view the photo exhibit put up in memory of botanist Leonard Co at UP Diliman’s Palma Hall. Leonard Co and two of his four companions were killed a year ago by the Philippine military in the forest of Kananga, Leyte while conducting field research. He was collecting plant specimens of endangered species.

The military claims that Co and two of his four companions were killed in a crossfire. But the surviving members of his team swore that there had been no crossfire because the Philippine Army was the only armed group present at the scene during the shooting. The Commission on Human Rights also reported in an evaluation of the physical evidences presented from the scene that the massacre victims did not die due to a crossfire.

Although a year has passed since then and plenty of hearings and a few field investigations have been conducted, those responsible for the death of Co and two of his four companions on that field research have yet to be held accountable for the crime, said the Justice for Leonard Co Movement. As such, on the first anniversary of his death, Co’s family and friends, students and colleagues and members of the Justice for Leonard Co Movement dubbed the activities they held as “a struggle against forgetting, a fight against injustice.”

Tributes 

Leonard Co spent much of his life in the company of plants and people wanting to get to know them better, for all its beneficial uses. From testimonies of those who had known him, worked with him, laughed with him, trekked the mountain and forest trails with him, ate with him and learned from and with him, it appeared that Leonard Co’s ceaseless study and documentation of Philippine plants had transcended the formal structure in the study of that field by the University of the Philippines’ Institute of Biology. Through the years the people comprising the institute had unconsciously given him space, respect and recognition.

Leonard Co with a flowering plant he identified and discovered (Photo courtesy of UP Institute of Biology / bulatlat.com)

“Leonard Co entered UP as botany freshman in the early 70s and never left,” said Dr Perry Ong, head of the Institute of Biology, UP Diliman. Leonard Co was the last graduate of the Bachelor of Science in Botany degree in the institute in 2008. He became a familiar figure, a resident almost, of UP’s Herbarium, which had been like home to him. “Wherever work takes him, at the end of the day, he always goes back to the Herbarium in UP Diliman, noted Dr. Ong.

Co was already an acclaimed master and an authority on Philippine plants when he finally acquired his diploma, which was just a formality, said his colleagues. To students, he was known as that generous Chinese in the Herbarium who would “cure you of plant blindness,” as Dr Ong described his infectious love of plants. He explained that Co and his friend Lagunzad could make you appreciate all the plants in the vicinity, even those you would ordinarily not notice.....MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/11/17/the-passion-of-famed-botanist-leonard-co/

Africa? Where is Africa?

 Africa? Where is Africa?

Correct, we might well ask because Africa is apparently invisible and has certainly been inaudible, looking on cowering in fear as a new wave of neo-colonialism is launched against her shores, by the same demons who sold Africans into slavery and stole her resources. As Mother Africa is raped, her sons look on like voyeurs.

Those of us who have worked hard behind the scenes telling the world about the real intentions of NATO, telling the world that there is a grand scheme and a pattern which began with Afghanistan not in 2001 after 9/11 but back in the 1990s when Mullah Omar refused to take a bribe from the USA giving US energy companies transportation rights of the fuel resources from Central Asia across his country. It continued with Iraq, the last piece in the puzzle securing Iran's western frontier for invasion.

For those who have any doubts at all, then google up Iran and US bases and tell me the Islamic Republic is not surrounded both on land and by sea. Tunisia and Egypt set the scene in preparation for Libya, as I said in this column and then, as Mother Africa was gang-raped by among the worst demonic scourge this planet has ever seen, what did Africa's sons do? Absolutely nothing at all..... MORE

Source:  Pravda

URL: http://english.pravda.ru/world/africa/21-11-2011/119692-africa_where-0/

‘CIA, MI6 and Mossad: Together against Syria’ (w/ VIDEO)

‘CIA, MI6 and Mossad: Together against Syria’

The West is doing its best to destabilize the situation in Syria, author and journalist Webster Tarpley told RT. According to him, civilians have to deal with death squads and blind terrorism, which is typical of the CIA.
­“What average Syrians of all ethnic groups say about this is that they are being shot at by snipers. 

People complained that there are terrorist snipers who are shooting at civilians, blind terrorism simply for the purpose of destabilizing the country. I would not call this civil war – it is a very misleading term. What you are dealing with here are death squads, you are dealing with terror commandos; this is a typical CIA method. In this case it’s a joint production of CIA, MI6, Mossad, it’s got money coming from Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emirates and Qatar,” he explained..... MORE

Source:  RT.com

URL: http://rt.com/news/syria-terrorism-cia-destabilization-863/

What people want NO HOLDS BARRED Armida Siguion-Reyna 11/22/2011

What people want

NO HOLDS BARRED

Armida Siguion-Reyna

11/22/2011
You must have heard about the one where President Erap sends a text message to the woman who put him in jail: “Belat, ako ang nasa Singapore.”

Or seen the one where her neck-brace’s headgear’s been altered to make her appear as if playing the immensely-popular word game on Eat Bulaga, “Pinoy Henyo” and she’s supposed to be guessing “Singapore” with various captions that not only show the average Pinoy’s skill with punning but especially his lack of respect for the former president.

It’s not the time to be funny, conservatives say. So what, if Mikey Arroyo was watching the premiere showing of a vampire movie in the US, when his mother was “treated without respect” — Elena Bautista-Horn’s words, not mine..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111122com4.html

Anti-population administration VIEWPOINTS Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz 11/22/2011

Anti-population administration

VIEWPOINTS

Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz

11/22/2011
Problem: There is pervasive poverty and consequent lack of food, shelter and clothing. There are more and more protests from more and more sectors of society. There is more and more criminality not only in the streets but also in private residences.

Cause: Population — according to the present administration. Solution: Do away with population, promote contraception, get rid of children — according to the same administration.

Annoyance: More mouths to feed, to clothe and to house, more people to complain and lament, more and more individuals registering their dissent and criticisms, all brought about by population..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111122com7.html

Days of the jackals AN OUTSIDERS VIEW Ken Fuller 11/22/2011

Days of the jackals

AN OUTSIDERS VIEW

Ken Fuller

11/22/2011
There is a scene in Guiseppe de Lampedusa’s 1958 novel The Leopard (brought to the screen five years later in a visually stunning film by Luchino Visconti) in which Don Fabrizio, the larger-than-life prince of Salina, meditates upon the decline of his aristocratic class and the rise of the bourgeoisie in a unified Italy as he gazes upon the squalid poverty of his Sicily. “We,” he muses, “were the leopards; the lions; those who’ll take our place will be little jackals, hyenas…”

These words came to mind as I watched the horrifying end of Moammer Kadhafi on the video that circled the globe in the days following Oct. 20. Leaving aside the question of whether Kadhafi qualified for the description of leopard or lion, there seems little doubt that those who have replaced him are jackals and hyenas.

In addition to their treatment of Kadhafi, they may be judged by their arbitrary arrest, and sometimes murder, of dark-skinned Libyans, their slaughter of those 267 of his supporters found in a mass grave in his home town of Sirte and, we can expect, further atrocities yet to be unveiled..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111122com5.html

Noy seeks Sokor’s help in upgrading military 11/22/2011

Noy seeks Sokor’s help in upgrading military

11/22/2011
Apart from the United States, President Aquino yesterday revealed that he also sought the assistance of South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak for a military upgrade but did not say whether this will come as a defense assistance agreement or through simple supply arrangement.

“On defense cooperation, I expressed to President Lee the interest of the Philippines to gain some specific defense articles, such as military-grade helicopters, boats and aircraft,” Aquino, who hosted the state visit of the foreign leader, told reporters.

“This is in consonance with the upgrading and modernization of the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines),” he added.

Lee did not disclose any response to.... MORE
Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20111122hed6.html