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SC clarifies ban on lower court appointments stands By Benjamin B. Pulta 03/31/2010

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

SC clarifies ban on lower court appointments stands


By Benjamin B. Pulta
03/31/2010

The Supreme Court (SC) sought to restrain President Arroyo from appointing anyone to the judiciary on the lower court level following a Malacañang aide’s claim that the high court, in its ruling vesting Arroyo with the authority to appoint the next Chief Justice, with the scheduled retirement on May 17, by issuing a strong clarification on the issue.

New lower court judges cannot be named by the Palace during the election period ban on midnight appointments, SC spokesman Midas Marquez insisted yesterday.

Justice Secretary Alberto Agra earlier said that the President can appoint trial court judges despite a ban on midnight appointments. Agra cited that this was the logical result of a recent controversial ruling allowing her to name the next chief justice.... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100331hed5.html

Erap: Fake opposition bets to be shunned by voters

Erap: Fake opposition bets to be shunned by voters


By Gerry Baldo

03/31/2010

Former President Joseph Estrada, Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) standard bearer, stepped up his call on voters yesterday to distinguish between the real and pseudo-opposition parties when they vote on May 10.

Estrada, in a rare pitch to establish his pro-poor stance that Nacionalista Party presidential bet Sen. Manny Villar is trying to copy along with his orange party color said the image that Villar is trying to project is as fallacious as his advertisements.

He said the irony is that Villar needed to spend billions of pesos to project an image that is pro-poor.

“He had spent billions of pesos in television advertisements to project his image as pro-poor. He used his mother, his brother to creat. I don’t know if people would believe him,” Estrada said.

Estrada also lambasted Villar for claiming that his party is part of the political opposition.

“How can Villar be in the opposition, who banged the gavel in Congress to railroad my impeachment?”, Estrada asked. Villar was the Speaker when the Articles of Impeachment against Estrada was transmitted to the Senate with Villar and his allies claiming a majority in the House to approve Estrada’s impeachment without a hearing in the chamber.... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100331hed4.html

Opening wide the cheating doors EDITORIAL 03/31/2010

Opening wide the cheating doors



EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
03/31/2010

All signs of electronic election fraud that is to be committed in May are present, yet the Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioners continue to cast a blind eye on this.

Nothing, but nothing, is being done to cleanse the voters’ list of double and multiple registrants, a sure fire sign that ballots will be padded, especially as the ballots being printed are based on the number of voters, a sizable number of whom are double, multiple and dead voters.

It is hardly any secret to these commissioners that there exists the “Big Four” consisting of leaders of the poll cheating syndicate, that is known to the Comelec personnel to be at the top of the padding of votes. Yet the commissioners haven’t done anything to put a stop to this cheating syndicate. Why, when they have the power to throw the book at these executives who are said to be gang leaders?
.... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100331com1.html

Change? FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 03/31/2010

Change?



FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
03/31/2010

The Liberal Party (LP) and its presidential bet, Sen. Noynoy Aquino, have been humming the tune of change, which they promise to bring once in power and position.

Aquino and his LP are, what one may call the candidate of, for and by the elite civil society. Notice that their campaign spiel never adverts to the poor in society, but that is mainly because the elite don’t bother about the poor. It is always their interests, first and foremost that have to be served.
Their spiel is that they will eliminate corruption. They will not steal, and they will bring about change in government..... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100331com2.html

Hotels, shopping malls come to South Africa’s changing Soweto FEATURE 03/31/2010

Hotels, shopping malls come to South Africa’s changing Soweto



FEATURE

03/31/2010

SOWETO — Giant black-and-white photos of a young Nelson Mandela smile across the broad halls of a four-star star hotel, looking over the dusty street market where he once hid from apartheid police.

This is the new Soweto, a mix of upper-crust comforts and urban grit, where shopping malls and landscaped parks have sprung up among some of South Africa’s most important landmarks of the struggle against white-minority rule.
It’s a side of Johannesburg that residents hope World Cup visitors will venture out to see, where one third of the city’s 3.8 million people live.

“In the past, you would be ashamed of saying you come from Soweto — first of all because it was associated with crime... shantytowns and poverty. But now it has improved,” said Frans Malotle, a 48-year-old businessman.... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100331com3.html

Reflections HE SAYS Aldrin Cardon 03/31/2010

Reflections



HE SAYS
Aldrin Cardon
03/31/2010

He was lean and tall. I remember he sported very long locks any shampoo commercial model would envy. And he did not wear shoes, preferring leather sandals, instead, like Jesus did in those grainy movies I saw whenever the Lenten Season came near, which also meant shortened programming times for the only five television channels in existence, mostly government-owned or had Marcos cronies in their boards. It was at the height of martial law.

The hippie look was his protest against the prevailing order.

But since he was a priest, he could easily get away with it, able to stay away from the mean scissors of some over-eager Metrocom barbers, who wanted every male Filipino to sport the Aguinaldo crew cut and make them look like caricature versions of the man in the five peso bill... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100331com4.html


Ruminations SHE SAYS Dinah S. Ventura 03/31/2010

Ruminations



SHE SAYS
Dinah S. Ventura
03/31/2010

Palm Sunday saw me in the annual family Pabasa, which has lived on in my husband’s family for three generations or so. It was held at my parents-in-law’s home in Quezon City, and began in the wee hours of the morning of March 28.

A number of relatives, I learned, had come all the way from the United States to attend the Pabasa, a tradition they had been missing in all their years living away from the Philippines. I suppose they had been missing more than just the annual Lenten practice; the event is a family reunion in a way, with relatives near and far finding the time to come over, bringing treats like native delicacies and lend their voices to the Pabasa.

That day, my father-in-law’s cousin, Baba Jasmin of the Department of Tourism, brought in a caterer that dished out a lavish Filipino lunch of lechon, kare-kare, chicken and pork adobo, rellenong bangus, kakanin and various fresh fruits including green mangoes to whet everyone’s appetite. Sago’t gulaman flowed like water into thirsty throats that sang the words of the story of Jesus, his life and his sufferings.... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100331com5.html

Singapore a key transit hub for wildlife smuggling FEATURE 03/31/2010

Singapore a key transit hub for wildlife smuggling



FEATURE

03/31/2010

SINGAPORE — Midori the iguana sits on a platform contemplating his snack of fresh fruit. He is one of the lucky ones, rescued and nursed back to health in Singapore, a major hub for wildlife trafficking.

Three months ago the huge and notoriously touchy 1.5-meter (five-foot) adult male was brought into the non-profit Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES) rescue center in bad shape.
Director Anbarasi Boopal said Midori had mouth ulcers and excreted a razor blade on his first day at the sanctuary..... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100331com6.html

ElBaradei takes Egypt reform campaign to the street focus 03/31/2010

ElBaradei takes Egypt reform campaign to the street



focus

03/31/2010

CAIRO — Egypt’s most high-profile dissident, former UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei, has taken his reformist campaign to the street with a whirlwind of encounters with Muslim worshippers, Christian activists and film stars.

The 67-year-old former diplomat attended Friday prayers at Cairo’s historic Al-Hussein mosque after going for a walkabout in a nearby working-class neighborhood as eager passers-by scrambled to shake his hand.

Two days later, the former UN atomic watchdog chief held talks with a group of Coptic Christian activists before meeting with a dozen celebrities at his home. Pictures of the events ran on the front pages of all independent newspapers.... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100331com7.html

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