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A pact with the devil EDITORIAL 11/09/2010

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

A pact with the devil

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
11/09/2010

The reported exodus of Lakas-Kampi-CMD members to the Nacionalista Party (NP) camp exposes the tenuous alliance supporting the campaign of Gloria Arroyo ally, Gilbert Teodoro.

It also being made to appear that a bandwagon effect is favoring Manuel Villar who seems to be at the moment the most financially capable among the opposition lot to launch a decent nationwide campaign down to the local levels.

The Lakas-Kampi-CMD does have a superior machinery than any other political force in the country at this time, but it is also imbibing the credibility and acceptability problem hounding Gloria.

The most recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed Gloria having a net satisfaction rating of negative 38, with two out of three respondents saying that they were dissatisfied with her performance..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20101109com1.html

Fighting the windmills of their mind EDITORIAL 11/09/2010

Fighting the windmills of their mind

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
11/09/2010
Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, who apparently is leading the fight against the Reproductive Health (RH) bill, was quoted as saying that this fight of the Church will be no different from the Edsa I revolt, where he intimated that Edsa I would not have resulted in the toppling of the dictatorship and the ascendancy of Cory Aquino to the presidency in 1986.

He is not being accurate and places too much importance in the Catholic Church’s role in a revolt.

But even if we grant the local institutional Church’s importance and influence in toppling governments, it can be said that this was mainly because at that time in 1986, the Church was one with the Filipinos in toppling the Marcos dictatorship. The issue then was political and not religious, even if the Church made Edsa out as a miracle and claimed that Cory Aquino was God’s anointed.

The issue on the RH bill has a heavy Catholic flavor and very little politics, if at all. Bishops and priests can argue all they want about the moral dimension of the issue of artificial contraception and the claimed pro-life stand that they have taken, but the truth is, pro-choice is hardly anti-life, apart from which, there is always that solid argument that which is legal is not necessarily moral and that which is moral is not necessarily legal.
.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20101109com2.html

The Senate speaks? FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 11/09/2010

The Senate speaks?

FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
11/09/2010
Frank Drilon, Liberal Party (LP) senator and finance committee chairman, speaks as though he is always speaking for the Senate, which is far from the truth.

Very recently, Drilon assured Noynoy Aquino that there will be no cuts in the P21-billion conditional cash transfer (CCT) program Malacañang has allocated in its proposed budget for Dinky Soliman’s Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). He also wondered why there is so much apprehension over the CCT program today, pointing out that this was a project of the Arroyo administration and that when this was proposed, there was no apprehension aired at all then.

The answer to this is simple. In the time of Gloria Arroyo, the CCT project did not have an allocation of P21 billion. Today, the CCT project under Soliman, who will be handling these funds, will have not just the big bucks all to her department and some, but also target some 3 to 4 million or so families, despite not having the infrastructure and safety nets set to ensure the success of the program.

As pointed out by Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo, Aquino’s CCT project targets are extremely difficult to implement, as it takes a long time to prepare the infrastructure and support systems, such as the health clinics, school buildings and other support systems, such as the training period especially for 4 million beneficiaries.
.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20101109com3.html

Priestly NO HOLDS BARRED Armida Siguion-Reyna 11/09/2010

Priestly

NO HOLDS BARRED
Armida Siguion-Reyna
11/09/2010
There’s another definition for them men in floor-length vestments, in the dictionary: A priest is also a tool, often resembling a blunt weapon, used for quickly killing fish, in the form of a heavy metal head attached to a metal or wooden stick. The name “priest” comes from the notion of administering the “last rites” to the fish.

Pamukpok, as we’d call it in the vernacular. How apropos, to the situation on hand, where they’re stopping at nothing to drive home their view that supporting the Reproductive Health Bill is equal to sin.

Almost fresh from threatening P-Noy with (a) excommunication, a threat they’ve since then denied, and (b) civil disobedience, another threat they’ve likewise denied as having “fully discussed” meaning, what, napag-usapan lang in passing, pero hindi pa napag-usapan ng husto? — now like martyrs they declare themselves “ready” to go to jail.

Thus said the priests, clergy and laypersons who attended the 17th Asia-Pacific Congress on Faith Life and Family, an international pro-life Catholic conference, at the Dusit Thani hotel in Makati City. Or at least according to the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines spokesperson, lawyer Jo Imbong.
Really, now..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20101109com5.html

Money never sleeps AN OUTSIDERS VIEW Ken Fuller 11/09/2010

Money never sleeps

AN OUTSIDERS VIEW
Ken Fuller
11/09/2010
Article XVI, Section 11 (1) of the Philippine Constitution of 1987 states: “The ownership and management of mass media shall be limited to citizens of the Philippines, or to corporations, cooperatives or associations, wholly-owned and managed by such citizens.”

Within a few days of his inauguration, President Aquino announced that he would form a commission to determine whether the Constitution should be changed and, indeed, whether “the people” were requesting this. Of course, powerful voices have for some time been calling for the nationalist economic provisions of the Constitution to be deleted, thus allowing greater foreign participation in the economy.

Filipinos, particularly those of a nationalist bent, should be particularly vigilant if the question of foreign ownership of the media comes up for discussion. With the media, the mere fact of ownership translates into influence — mass influence, the ability to distort the consciousness of a sizeable section of the population. An exaggeration? No — it’s happening elsewhere in the world.

A recent Paul Krugman column in the New York Times (“Fear and Favor,” Oct. 4) focuses on the influence of the Rupert Murdoch media empire in the USA. Tea Party activists, says Krugman, are unwitting extras in a remake of “Citizen Kane” in which the principal, rather than purchasing political office for himself like Orson Welles’ Kane, simply “puts politicians on his payroll.”.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20101109com6.html

Mangled arms, legs legacy of cluster bombs in Laos FEATURE 11/09/2010

Mangled arms, legs legacy of cluster bombs in Laos

FEATURE

11/09/2010
VIENTIANE — Novalee bounces up and down on his new artificial leg.
“Comfortable. Comfortable,” he says, smiling.

A cluster bomb blew off his real limb below the knee, leaving Novalee, 38, among the estimated tens of thousands of civilians around the world who have been killed or wounded by the weapons.

The Laotian Hmong man plans to tell his story at a conference that begins in the capital Vientiane on Tuesday. More than 1,000 government officials, charity workers, and survivors of the bombs will be aiming to speed up efforts to rid the world of cluster bombs.

Novalee lost his limb in 1992.

He had gone out to the rice fields of Bolikhamsay province when hunger hit and he decided to shoot a bird. He did not see the “bombie” that exploded at his feet.

As Novalee lay wounded for more than four hours, he thought he would die, he recalls through a translator at a local rehabilitation center.

Finally his father found him.

Novalee says he spent two-and-a-half years under the care of a village healer, and fashioned a homemade prosthesis out of bamboo..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20101109com7.html

Jordan Islamists could turn ‘tough’ outside parliament focus 11/09/2010

Jordan Islamists could turn ‘tough’ outside parliament

focus

11/09/2010
AMMAN — Jordan’s Islamist boycott of Tuesday’s general election means they may now resort to a tougher stance outside parliament, and this would pose a threat to stability in the kingdom, analysts said.

“The Islamists now might weigh the option of adopting a tough opposition which could cross or ignore some red lines” traditionally respected in their relationship with the state, Oreib Rintawi, director of the Al Quds Centre for Political Studies, told AFP.

“If this happens, we will see a new era in relations between the Islamists and the state, as well as extreme elements seeking to promote their ideology and type of opposition.”

A former official agreed with Rintawi.

“If the Islamists continue to boycott the legislature, they might seek to take underground action, and the country could ultimately face the risk of becoming unstable,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

But the government appeared confident, with Information Minister Ali Ayed saying he was “not worried at all about such a scenario.”.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20101109com8.html

Sollano: Metal damage, crater proof of mall explosives blast By Benjamin B. Pulta 11/09/2010

Sollano: Metal damage, crater proof of mall explosives blast

By Benjamin B. Pulta 11/09/2010

Retired Army bomb expert Col. Allan Sollano has formally submitted his sworn statement, claiming the Glorietta 2 explosion in Makati City on Oct. 19, 2007 that costthe lives of 11 persons was caused by a bomb attack.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said the family of the whistleblower should be placed under the Witness Protection Program (WPP).

“(Ret.) Col. Solano said he can take care of himself. He was trained for that but he is more concerned about his family. He fears for the safety of his family,” De Lima told reporters.

Sollano, retired since 2008, appeared before the prose-cution panel led by Senior State Prosecutor Peter Ong and issued a sworn five-page affidavit.

The former executive officer of the Philippine Army Explosive and Ordnance Division (Army EOD) and commanding officer of the Army EOD in the National Capital Region (NCR), claimed the visible effects of the explosion, confirmed by the plastic which tested positive for RDX, indicated that the explosion could only have been caused by a bomb..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20101109hed1.html

Noy losing luster due to failed promises By Gerry Baldo 11/09/2010

Noy losing luster due to failed promises

By Gerry Baldo 11/09/2010

President Aquino should start showing signs of his determination to fulfill his promise to the Filipino people of stamping out corruption in government or suffer the loss of public sup-port, legislators warned yesterday.

Despite his campaign pitch of leading the nation through a “straight path” and a vow to listen to public sentiment and even stating that Filipinos are his real boss, critics, however, have cited several instances of corruption allegations against his allies that Aquino had merely ignored.

Zambales Rep. Milagros “Mitos” Magsaysay, a stalwart of the Lakas-Kampi-Christian Muslim Democrats and Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares gave identitical views that Aquino may lose the support of the public if he fails to fulfill his campaign promise and listen to what the people are saying.

“Obama’s charisma and talking skills failed to uplift the Americans plight so will Noynoy if he continues to be complacent and stubborn in not listening to public views,” Magsaysay said.

Obama’s waning popularity was reflected in the recent US mid-term elections where the Democrats lost control of the House while their majority control of the Senate was greatly depleted..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20101109hed2.html

House railroads 2011 budget sans amendments By Gerry Baldo 11/09/2010

House railroads 2011 budget sans amendments

By Gerry Baldo 11/09/2010

The proposed P1.6-trillion national budget for 2011 was approved on third and final reading yesterday with a vote of 175 in favor and only 21 against, in an evident Majority railroading of the budget bill.

The minority bloc, led by Minority Leader and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, objected to the voting, saying that the copy of the final version had not yet been reviewed by his colleagues. He also said there was no urgency to vote on the bill immediately.

The budget bill approval was first on the agenda.

Davao del Sur Rep. Douglas Cagas pointed out that the 2011 budget they had voted on is the “exact replica” of the National Expenditure Program and did not incorporate any of the amendments, including capital outlay for state universities and colleges.

Bayan Party List Rep. Neri Colmenares also said that the budget had many lump-sum items, which he said contradict the zero-based budget claimed by the President and is not allocated according to need or capacity..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20101109hed3.html

Interpol issues ‘orange notice’ amid terror warning 11/09/2010

Interpol issues ‘orange notice’ amid terror warning

11/09/2010
The global police agency Interpol has issued an alert to help forces in its member-states spot disguised bombs of the kind al-Qaeda terror group sent last week to the United States using airmail parcel couriers.

The so-called “orange notice” contains photographs and technical details of the latest bombs, which were discovered and made safe at airports in Dubai and Britain after an intelligence warning.

Al-Qaeda’s Yemen-based branch, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), has claimed responsibility for sending the sophisticated devices, in which the explosive Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate (PETN) was
packed into printer cartridges and attached to timers.

“The information contained in this Orange Notice will allow police services and other law enforcement agencies to take all appropriate measures to identify potentially lethal devices,” Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20101109hed4.html

Noy’s RH position unchanged, but… By Aytch S. de la Cruz 11/09/2010

.Noy’s RH position unchanged, but…
By Aytch S. de la Cruz 11/09/2010

President Aquino’s policy on responsible parenthood as the focal point of the contentious Reproductive Health (RH) bill which the 15th Congress has been pushing, has not changed, even as Church leaders reportedly anticipate a “head-on collision” with his government just to have this measure junked.

At the same time however, Aquino, even as he said he was standing firm on his position on the RH bill, also claimed that if Congress passes the bill that will include something for which he stands against, and does not
follow his stated position, he will also be against the HR mission.

Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal recently came out with a statement comparing the bishops’ stand against the bill to the position they took during the People Power revolt in 1986 that led to the toppling of former President Ferdinand Marcos.

Vidal wielded the so-called significant contributions of the Church during the first Edsa revolt that led to the downfall of the Marcos dictatorship which indirectly reminded Aquino that the Church sector remains a force to reckon with.

Substantial developments to arrive at a peaceful settlement between the Church and the State on the controversial RH issues are yet to unfold as Aquino told reporters yesterday that his point person, Presidential Management Staff (PMS) director-general Julia Abad, is still trying to arrange his appointment with the officials from the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) for a bigger dialog.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20101109hed5.html

Makati oil leak’s exact location found 11/09/2010

Makati oil leak’s exact location found

11/09/2010
The source of the petroleum leak in Makati City was finally found, after four months since its discovery.
The First Philippine Industrial Corp. (FPIC) yesterday said it has located the source of the oil leak in its pipeline just two to three meters from where the Magallanes flyover footing is located.

FPIC officer-in-charge Anthony Mabasa said the company’s excavation crew found minute-sized cracks (smaller than a grain) clustered in one area on the portion of the pipeline. The pipeline leak was found along Bonifacio and Osmeña streets in Makati.

He added metal fatigue may have caused the cracks although he suspected that overloaded trucks put pressure on the pipeline.

“The pipeline was not designed for heavy vibration. We don’t want to be pointing accusing fingers. We just know there are many overloaded

trucks plying Metro Manila and it’s one of the causes of road destruction as well as the early deterioration of bridges and structures,” Mabasa told a press briefing..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20101109hed6.html

Five Armed Forces senior officers vying for WMC top post By Mario J. Mallari 11/09/2010

Five Armed Forces senior officers vying for WMC top post

By Mario J. Mallari 11/09/2010

Five senior officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) are vying for the Western Mindanao Command top post which will be vacated on Wednesday during the retirement of incumbent Wesmincom chief Lt. Gen. Ben Dolorfino.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said the AFP’s Board of Generals (BOG) has already submitted its shortlist which is now awaiting approval from the commander in chief President Aquino.

“The recommendation has been forwarded to the President…I don’t want to preempt the President,” said Gazmin, who is responsible in forwarding BOG recommendations to the President.

Wesmincom is among the coveted area commands in the AFP, having jurisdiction over the Abu Sayyaf-infested provinces of Basilan and Sulu.

Earlier, there were speculations that an Army officer would be tapped as Wesmincom chief following the pull out of the Marines from Basilan in favor of the Army’s Special Operations Command (Socom). The Wesmincom has been led by two Marine generals, Dolorfino, who is reaching the mandatory retirement age of 56 on Wednesday, and his predecessor retired Lt. Gen. Nelson Allaga..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20101109nat5.html

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