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An ominous crack EDITORIAL 02/21/2011

Monday, February 21, 2011

An ominous crack

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
02/21/2011
The military corruption issue is turning out to be a major challenge for Noynoy Aquino and it may spell trouble if he addresses it incorrectly and lets it air in the open for too long.

The responses of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) alumni to the ongoing congressional investigations into revelations of widespread corruption in the military were cryptic. They talk of a wedge that now exists within the alumni organization which taken in another light are the brass of the military and police forces as a result of the investigations.

For generals to admit a rift within their ranks, the crack should already have grown too big for comfort.

The payola system in the military is as basic as the percentages of politicians in every publicly-funded project. It is considered a fringe benefit, and a good one for many, for climbing up the ladder in the uniformed organizations..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110221com1.html

Meaningless vows FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 02/21/2011

Meaningless vows

FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
02/21/2011
Malacañang is always quick to claim that it respects the separation of powers principle, but all that is just as quickly negated by what Noynoy vows to do, which really is not just discarding the principle but even openly taking on powers that are not his to have.

Last weekend, Noynoy vowed to hold the generals involved in the pabaon scandal in the military accountable. Fine as it goes, as he is Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) — except for the fact that many of these generals are already retired, which means military justice is not within the ambit of Noynoy and his Jago.

What this means is that if these retired officers’ acts are found to have probable cause to file a case of plunder or graft and corruption against these generals who were then chiefs of staff of the AFP, these cases must go through the Ombudsman, which also means that Noynoy should be hands-off if the separation of powers principle is being adhered to, as claimed by him and his student council government.

.Ah, but even in the case of the Ombudsman, who is disliked by Noynoy, he wants her impeached, and has even made sure the House of Representatives leadership knows he wants Merceditas Gutierrez impeached.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110221com2.html

Obama ‘warned of repercussions’ if Abbas goes to UN FEATURE 02/21/2011

Obama ‘warned of repercussions’ if Abbas goes to UN

FEATURE

02/21/2011
RAMALLAH — Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas defied on Friday US attempts to get him to abandon a UN Security Council vote against Israeli settlements after being threatened with repercussions if he did not, his aides said.

His office said he rejected a White House proposal to stop pushing for a formal resolution condemning settlements and accept instead a non-binding statement calling on Israel to freeze construction on land the Palestinians claim for a state.”

His response was given on Friday during a telephone call between the Palestinian leader and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the office said.

“There is no change in the Palestinian and Arab position about the proposal presented to the UN Security Council condemning Israeli settlement on Palestinian land,” it read..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110221com3.html

Obama ‘warned of repercussions’ if Abbas goes to UN FEATURE 02/21/2011

Obama ‘warned of repercussions’ if Abbas goes to UN

FEATURE

02/21/2011
RAMALLAH — Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas defied on Friday US attempts to get him to abandon a UN Security Council vote against Israeli settlements after being threatened with repercussions if he did not, his aides said.

His office said he rejected a White House proposal to stop pushing for a formal resolution condemning settlements and accept instead a non-binding statement calling on Israel to freeze construction on land the Palestinians claim for a state.”

His response was given on Friday during a telephone call between the Palestinian leader and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the office said.

“There is no change in the Palestinian and Arab position about the proposal presented to the UN Security Council condemning Israeli settlement on Palestinian land,” it read..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110221com3.html

Cracks C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S Jonathan De la Cruz 02/21/2011

Cracks

C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S
Jonathan De la Cruz
02/21/2011
Cracks are showing in the ongoing testimony of repentant “whistle-blower” George Rabusa. No less than Malacañang has asked Rabusa to explain the phantom $5 million UN fund reimbursement which he allegedly dipped his fingers into on the way to “producing,” as he calls it, billions of pesos for his bosses after the United Nations distanced itself from such a declaration. One notes that the UN has stated it never gave such an amount to the AFP and that any and all funding support it gives to any member country for whatever purpose is usually advised to that country’s foreign ministry and deposited to the national treasury. The UN statement added it does not deal with individual government agencies especially on matters such as that insinuated by Rabusa. Rather, almost always it deals with the foreign office. So, Rabusa better start working out his explanation on this one before he gets deeper into more contradictions as the congressional hearings drag on.

In last Friday’s hearing, for example, Rabusa got the shock of his life as four active officers and a recently retired one he accused as having committed or were party to irregularities during his time as AFP budget officer got back at him. Short of calling him a liar, these officers told the senators present that Rabusa’s account is contrary to what really happened..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110221com4.html

From US frying pan to US fire DIE HARD III Herman Tiu Laurel 02/21/2011

From US frying pan to US fire

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
02/21/2011
Many Yellow “PeNoys” like to draw parallels between what’s happening in Egypt and the Middle East, on the one hand, and the Philippines in 1986, on the other. What they don’t realize is that the similarities aren’t as happy and sanguine as they are forcing themselves to believe.

Hidden beneath the veneer of revelry and jubilation is the truth that many have learned over the years, succinctly depicted in a title of Michel Chossudovsky’s recent article, entitled, “Dictators” do not dictate, they obey orders.” We know that these Third World “dictators” only obey their superior dictator, the imperial United States of America. Whenever these authoritarian figures present any impulse of recalcitrance, the giant dictator simply puts its foot down, crushes these small tin-pot dictators, and sets up new ones.

The Western-dominated (if not controlled) international mainstream media and their local derivatives present only one side of the growing turmoil and, in particular, leaders such as Mubarak. Despite these efforts, Western media cannot hide the fact that these autocrats have mainly acted for and in behalf of the US for over a generation. However they try to present an image of US and Western consensus in supporting a transition to “democratic” politics in these countries today, such efforts are merely belied by what’s happening on the ground.

In Egypt, as in all the other US-dominated states in turmoil, the Establishment (or the status quo) is still in control. The Egyptian transition government, for instance, is still under the former general and intelligence chief Suleiman and the Egyptian Army. Of course, the evicted Mubarak now undergoes the obligatory demonization by the same Western media that lionized him for a quarter of a century. The usual snippets of Mubarak’s “billions of dollars stacked away in Switzerland” have become a very effective tool in focusing all the rage against just one man to divert popular fury from the real hegemonic dictator.

And since The Great Dictator’s puppet Mubarak had already outlived his usefulness, he had to go (so the argument goes). But was this the only reason? Webster Tarpley, a geopolitical analyst with a sterling record of accuracy and a wide network of intelligence sources, wrote on Feb. 18 an article entitled, “Mubarak toppled by CIA because he opposed US plans for war with Iran; US eyes seizure of Suez Canal; Was this the threat that forced Mubarak to quit?”

For the West to have effectively excluded China, Russia, and Iran access to that vital trade route, Mubarak may have already shown a limit to his submissiveness. After all, it clearly appeared when he refused exile despite Western media’s insinuations of such a fate for him.  Further, as he declared, “I’ll die in Egypt,” the West now seems to have obliged, as latest reports by the likes of CBS, BBC, and Al Jazeera (though still unconfirmed) say Mubarak is already in a coma. Could this be a psywar for an accession to exile?

Our own strongman Ferdinand Marcos was in many ways in the same position; yet he was not by any means as simplistic in his authoritarian rule as other tin-pot dictators proved. Marcos opened relations with socialist countries; achieved food self-sufficiency; and aspired for industrialization — all requisites of economic sovereignty and stable growth. He even attempted to establish a sovereign currency with his Bagong Lipunan notes — all these becoming too much for his US masters, so much so that he was forcibly abducted to Hawaii instead of being airlifted to Paoay as he wished.

Indonesia’s Suharto, meanwhile, was another US-sponsored dictator who was removed when the Indonesian state refused to give up East Timor, which the US had put under that nation’s care at the height of the Cold War, fearing communist takeover. As Indonesia developed a sense of sovereignty and even attempted to acquire the entire East German Navy (which the West adamantly objected to), the imperialist forces made sure that the nation’s permanent control of the East Timor oil shelf would not be realized.

As the Philippines has become the poster child for such managed transitions — it is only fitting to ask: “Transitions to what?” From strong one-man rule, isn’t it the case that the shift has only been toward greater control by the Western hegemonic dictatorship through financial totalitarianism?

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, research associate of the Center for Research on Globalization, traces all this to global capitalism in “Struggle for self-determination in the Arab world: The alliance between Arab dictators and global capital.” In it, he devotes a sub-section describing “Arab leaders as comprador elites serving foreign interests” which says: “…Class polarization has grown as the gap between the rich and the poor widens… The Arab people grasp the fact that their ruling class and governments are not only corrupt regimes, but also comprador elites, namely the local representatives of foreign corporations, governments, and interests… properly called parasite or parasitic elites, because they siphon off local wealth and resources on behalf of their neo-colonial masters. This structure of comprador elites prevails in Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Authority… almost all Arab finance ministers are affiliated to the major global banking institutions. All of them also strictly adhere to the Washington Consensus of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.” Exact duplicate copies of the Philippines
The 25th anniversary of the Yellow transition from Marcos — a leader who attempted to develop an economically self-sufficient and sovereign Philippine state — is merely reliving the degeneration of this country into a nation run to the ground by a parasitic comprador corporatocratic society, where poverty and hunger, economic retrogression and mendicancy, moral collapse and social decay have reached unprecedented proportions.

The Filipino people, the patriotic military cells, as well as the economic middle class that are all under threat of extinction must, as Nazemroaya says of the Arab peoples, “grasp the fact that their ruling class are not only corrupt but are parasites” that must be extinguished before genuine popular political and economic liberation can come.

(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; TNT with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on the “Sorry Yellow Movement” with Charito Planas, Prof. Rene Ofreneo, and Linggoy Alcuaz; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and watch or listen to our select radio and GNN shows)


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

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110221com5.html

Will we ever learn? SHE SAYS Dinah S. Ventura 02/21/2011

Will we ever learn?

SHE SAYS
Dinah S. Ventura
02/21/2011
Whenever we hear about fellow Filipinos getting convicted for crimes elsewhere in the world, it seems the whole country erupts in dismay. Government representatives rush over to try to help them, their families are sought for reactions, and virtual strangers stop to comment on how such a horrifying fate could befall a kababayan.

When we think of overseas Filipino workers, what comes to mind are the millions of brave Pinoys who venture out of the country to find better-paying jobs — any job. Although not all OFWs are driven out by poverty or dire need, it is true that a significant portion sacrifice plenty for a chance at a better life — if not for themselves, then for their children.

The relatively recent spate of news about “drug mules” — or that new way international drug syndicates have found to bring their illegal wares to different parts of the world — has shocked many of us. It was that story of a former OFW, who managed to escape the clutches of an international syndicate that wanted him to swallow a number of small tubes containing drugs so that he could “carry” it to their destination of choice, that opened our eyes to the danger and risk some unfortunate Pinoys had succumbed to.

And when news came out of the three OFWs in China sentenced to die by lethal injection, two supposedly today and one tomorrow, the reality of this evil cycle has left us bereft of the usual words. The three Pinoys — one man in his early 40s and two women in their 30s — had been caught with huge amounts of heroin in their possession at different airports in China on different occasions. The three were convicted separately in 2008, underwent an appeal process in 2009, but were finally meted the death sentence last year by the Supreme People’s Court of China. The Aquino government has been trying to save these OFWs’ lives since August last year, hoping that China would “soften its stand” because, after all, our country has not executed any of the Chinese nationalities that had been linked with drug trafficking here..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110221com7.html

A lesson for us HE SAYS Aldrin Cardon 02/21/2011

A lesson for us

HE SAYS
Aldrin Cardon
02/21/2011
A temporary reprieve was the best deal Vice President Jejomar Binay could get from the People’s Court of China, which delayed the execution of three Filipinos found guilty of smuggling in a large amount of high-value illegal drugs into the powerful socialist country.

He could not call it a victory, but a temporary stay of their execution by firing squads is better than none, knowing how China was steadfast in its previous decisions on similar cases, even if it involved equally powerful countries, like Great Britain, which recently lost one of its citizens to Chinese bullets for heroin smugglling.

That China would give in to a request by a small fry in world politics like the Philippines is a big deal enough, especially since China is very strict in the enforcement of its laws, from which it draws the power that made it rise to become a superpower that even the United States could not ignore, especially since the collapse of the Soviet Union, which initially tilted the balance of power to the west.

China quickly rose to fill in the vacuum left by the former Soviet Union on the other side of the scale, and being given notice somehow proves the Philippines as an important regional partner to China, despite recent irritants between the our country and theirs, including the death of eight Hong Kong nationals during the tourist bus siege in August last year..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110221com6.html

Noynoy tentative, naïve on execution 02/21/2011

HK ONLINE PUBLICATION: AQUINO CAN’T MAKE TOUGH DECISIONS

Noynoy tentative, naïve on execution

02/21/2011
President Aquino is again getting noticed for his lack of resolve in confronting issues facing his administration this time on his uncertain approach on the case of the three Filipinos up for execution in China as a result of drug offenses.

In an analysis titled “The Philippines’ Tentative President,” Hong Kong-based online publication Asia Sentinel called Aquino naive who surrendered Philippine democratic principles without getting anything in return in reference to his decision for a snub of the Nobel Prize award ceremony which included a peace award to a Chinese dissident.

“It had already been made clear by the government in Manila that its absence from the Nobel Prize award ceremony in Norway was due to its concern to gain favor with China and convince it to commute the death sentences. That just might have been a worthwhile trade off if there had actually been a trade. But a naïve Aquino surrendered Philippine democratic principles without getting anything in return. Its boycott of the Oslo ceremony was a fruitless gesture,” according to Asia Sentinel..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110221hed1.html

Noy asked to consider insiders to head CoA 02/21/2011

Noy asked to consider insiders to head CoA

02/21/2011
President Aquino should seriously consider picking among the ranks of the Commission on Audit (CoA) or a career official, instead of a political appointee, to replace outgoing Chairman Reynaldo Villar, senators yesterday said.

Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada and Senators Juan Miguel Zubiri and Alan Peter Cayetano were one in expressing this position in the light of the impending vacancy in the commission, the integrity of which was recently marred with alleged corrupt officials embroiled in the anomalies in the military.

While Estrada acknowledged the fact that it’s the prerogative of the Chief Executive to name Villar’s successor, the lawmaker expressed belief that there remains a number of honest, competent and credible employees of the commission worthy of assuming the post.

“It would still be preferable to have someone from within the agency, especially if that person is a career official with an untarnished record,” Estrada stressed..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110221hed2.html

Drilon sees Ombudsman cover-up in generals’ case By Angie M. Rosales 02/21/2011

Drilon sees Ombudsman cover-up in generals’ case

By Angie M. Rosales 02/21/2011

There’s a consistent pattern exhibited by the Ombudsman in covering up all the misdeeds of at least two retired generals and former military comptroller facing serious charges for alleged ill-gotten wealth, Sen. Franklin Drilon yesterday said.

“That’s how we view things right now, with their (Ombudsman’s) failure to file appropriate charges, is part of an overall cover-up plan. Whoever hatched that, we don’t know yet. But it’s clear that there is a consistent pattern of covering up all these misdeeds,” Drilon said, referring to the alleged amassing of government funds of former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) comptrollers Lt. Gen. Jacinto Ligot and his successor, Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia.

In an interview with dzBB, Drilon’s statements were also in support of the pronouncements made by President Aquino to put behind bars the Ombudsman’s special prosecutors involved in Garcia’s plea bargain agreement, viewed by many as against the interest of the government.

The Ombudsman’s perceived mishandling of the cases of the two retired generals was highlighted again during the Senate’s resumption of its investigation on the issue of corruption in the military last Friday after it was found out that the agency did not act when it was notified of the discovery of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) on questionable bank accounts, purportedly owned by Ligot, owing to the huge transactions made..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110221hed3.html

Meco head’s apology doesn’t bind gov’t — solon 02/21/2011 By Angie M. Rosales

Meco head’s apology doesn’t bind gov’t — solon

02/21/2011
By Angie M. Rosales
The recent apology issued by Manila Economic and Cultural Office (Meco) chairman Amado Perez to Taiwan for the arrest and deportation of 14 of its nationals to mainland China instead of Taiwan should not bind the government since it is not an official as Perez does not have any legal personality to issue an official apology, Sen. Franklin Drilon said yesterday.

Drilon noted that Meco is not a consular office of the country but a mere government-owned and controlled corporation (GOCC). Meco, nonetheless, is the de facto embassy of the country to Taiwan only that the government recognizes the one-China policy that considers Taiwan as a province of the mainland.

“He cannot bind the Philippines. He does not have the authority (to speak on behalf of the country) because he’s merely a chairman of the GOCC. He’s just like the chair of the MWSS (Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System), SSS (Social Security System), also GOCCs. He cannot bind the country,” he said.

The Taiwanese government reported the statement issued by Perez amid insistence of Malacañang on the propriety of the move on the deportation of the said individuals who allegedly swindled $20 million in an international scam targeting mainland Chinese..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110221hed4.html

Pinoys in Libya, Yemen, Bahrain warned to exercise caution amid unrest 02/21/2011

Pinoys in Libya, Yemen, Bahrain warned to exercise caution amid unrest

02/21/2011
Philippine embassies in Libya, Yemen and Bahrain have advised Filipinos in these countries to exercise caution as ongoing simultaneous protest actions may turn violent.

“The embassy has coordinated with the Filipinos in Benghazi, including a Filipino priest, who said that they are taking the necessary precautions in light of events there. They have advised the other community members to stay calm and to avoid areas in trouble,” Philippine Ambassador to Libya Alejandrino Vicente said.

Soldiers were deployed in the streets of Libya’s major city of Benghazi last Friday after a “day of anger” against the government.

Vicente said none of the some 26,000 Filipinos were affected during the incident..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110221hed5.html

Donaire stops Montiel, bags 2 titles By Arman Carandang 02/21/2011

KEY PUNCHES DELIVERED LATE IN SECOND ROUND

Donaire stops Montiel, bags 2 titles

By Arman Carandang 02/21/2011

No Filipino fighter has ever succeeded against Fernando Montiel — yes, this well-decorated Mexican fighter known for his agility and quick reflexes. Yesterday, though, Nonito Donaire ended that Mexican’s domination and he did it in the quickest possible fashion.

Sporting the same agility with more precision, Donaire readily got down to work to stop Montiel in the second round Saturday, to capture the World Boxing Council and World Boxing Organization bantamweight titles.

The good size crowd at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada was expecting a battle royale between these two fighters who were quite cautious at the onset of their scheduled 12-round fight.

What the fans saw instead was a Filipino fighter delivering the key punch — a devastating left to the head — that all but settled the issue..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110221hed6.html

Migrante asks Noynoy to evacuate 1,700 OFWs trapped in Libya 02/21/2011

Migrante asks Noynoy to evacuate 1,700 OFWs trapped in Libya

02/21/2011
Receiving a direct call from its affiliate in Libya, a Filipino migrant rights group yesterday said there are about 1,700 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who are trapped at the ongoing airport construction in Benghazi, Libya.

John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-Middle East regional director, said Gil Lebria, Migrante country coordinator in Libya, informed him about the request of the trapped OFWs to the Philippine government for an immediate evacuation as protest against the Libyan government is brewing.

Last Feb. 19, citing local reports, Libyan government forces fired on the protesters in the Eastern City of Benghazi, killing at least 15 persons and wounding many others when the government tried to suppress the protesters calling for an end of Moammar Gadhafi’s 42-year reign in Libya.

It was reported that Internet has been shut up and the only available form of communication is by telephone and cell phone, but is expected to be cut soon..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110221nat1.html

Skeletons found in Ampatuan properties 02/21/2011

Skeletons found in Ampatuan properties

02/21/2011
Investigators have found two apparent murder victims at properties owned by a Muslim clan accused of the Philippines’ worst political massacre, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said yesterday.

Forensics experts found the skeletons in shallow graves last Friday at a grassy field and a corn plantation owned by the Ampatuan family in southern Maguindanao province, De Lima said.

De Lima also said the two were believed to be past murder victims of the Ampatuan clan, which is also accused of carrying out the killings of 57 people in November 2009 in Maguindanao, a poor province they had controlled for a decade.

“We have information as to their identities but we are still validating them before we can announce (their names) officially,” De Lima told AFP..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110221nat2.html

Underdog pulls through again EDITORIAL 02/20/2011

Underdog pulls through again

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
02/20/2011
While many are not too hot about Vice President Jejomar Binay pursuing a reversal of a legal judgment in another country involving drug offenders, particularly since China was right in asserting its own strict laws against trafficking of illegal substances, it was a big surprise for Binay to have won a reprieve of the executions of three Filipinos starting tomorrow.

The stay in the execution gives the delegation led by Binay in China more time to negotiate with Chinese authorities who are nonetheless adamant about the enforcement of its laws.

The strict enforcement of laws is a necessity for a country with a population of more than 1 billion where chaos as a result of the inconsistency in the application of the law should have no room.

Binay’s team was a last-ditch attempt of the government to seek some form of judicial relief for the three Filipino death convicts after the Chinese ignored daily calls from Noynoy that spanned almost a week -- that is according to Malacañang..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110220com1.html

Easy street for Mar FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 02/20/2011

Easy street for Mar

FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
02/20/2011
Noynoy and his de facto president, defeated VP candidate Mar Roxas must have thought that, by sending VP Jojo Binay to China, he would have landed with a big, fat egg on his face.

After all, all reports, whether from the country or China, always stressed that there is nothing that can be done for the three Filipino drug mules who were slated to face the firing squad Monday.

That would have been a marked failure — especially in foreign relations — for Binay if he had come home with the cadavers of the three Filipinos.

While Binay did not succeed in getting the clemency he sought for the three Filipinos, he was able to get the Chinese officials even in the Supreme Court to bend a bit — and stay the execution for a later date, because executed they will have to be, since China would lose face and start bending their laws everytime foreign officials whose citizens are also so situated in China and its whole justice system will be derailed..... MORE 

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110220com2.html

Egypt dissidents eager to avoid ‘new pharaoh’ focus 02/20/2011

Egypt dissidents eager to avoid ‘new pharaoh’

focus

02/20/2011
CAIRO — Egypt’s uprising managed to decapitate an authoritarian system, but the regime’s arms stretch far and wide, leaving many anxious to avoid another “pharaoh” during a critical transition period.

The nationwide protests that erupted on Jan. 25 drove strongman Hosni Mubarak from power and saw a new military leadership assume what it says is temporary control over the Arab world’s most populous nation.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has vowed to pave the way for democracy in a transitional period of six months, leading to parliamentary and presidential elections following key constitutional changes.

But many have questioned whether six months is long enough and whether the proposed reforms go far enough in removing what the opposition describes as the “god-like” powers granted to the president..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110220com3.html

Split-level morality BLURBAL THRUSTS Louie Logarta 02/20/2011

Split-level morality

BLURBAL THRUSTS
Louie Logarta
02/20/2011
Cigarette companies are claiming that they are the most taxed industry in the country today with some P80 billion in excise taxes collected by the government from sales dating back to 2007 up to the present, apart from the obligatory income taxes they are already paying.

But this cannot be avoided, according to congressional economic planners, because the local tobacco industry is viewed as a convenient cash cow by government where they can easily source badly-needed revenues to finance equally badly-need development projects that would redound to the benefit of the populace.

Going by the results of Global Adult Tobacco Survey conducted by the World Health Organization last year, the estimated number of cigarette smokers in the Philippines among persons 15 years and above today was placed at around 17.3 million, each one consuming around 10 sticks daily. Further, the monthly average expenditure for manufactured cigarettes is P326.40. Men were estimated to consume 11.3 sticks daily, while women were pegged at about seven sticks, putting their monthly average cigarette expenses at P339.30 and P232.80 respectively..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110220com4.html

Self-incrimination or self-deprecation TABLETS OF STONE Larry Faraon, OP 02/20/2011

Self-incrimination or self-deprecation

TABLETS OF STONE
Larry Faraon, OP
02/20/2011
Sen. Gregorio Honasan comes to the rescue of his mistahs when he cautioned his peers in the Senate to moderate the manner of questioning and grilling of the resource persons at Senate hearings in view of the sad story of Secretary Angelo Reyes’s suicide. But is he attributing the sudden death of Angelo Reyes to the sudden barrage of unexpected humiliating spells at the Senate hearings where another younger mistah, Sen. Antonio Trillanes clobbered the late CoS with “You have no reputation to protect!” That obviously hurts!

But what exactly does he mean by that? How many resource persons in congressional hearings in the past have been “maltreated” and verbally abused but only one, to our knowledge, decided to hang his neck in the midst of it all. At least Jesus Christ hung on his cross totally humiliated then killed. But Judas in self-humiliation hanged himself in extreme guilt. Humiliation with guilt proves to be a fatal combination for Judas. Beware!.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110220com5.html

Rich Philippines VIEWPOINTS Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz 02/20/2011

Rich Philippines

VIEWPOINTS
Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz
02/20/2011
Now it can be said with both proper accounting and pursuant moral certitude that the Philippines is a rich country, and that the fact of poverty therein is caused by gross graft and flagrant corruption perpetrated and perpetuated precisely by its leaders — individuals holding public offices seemingly for public welfare. The shameful stealing and scandalous burglarizing of public funds being gradually revealed in but the AFP are not only depressing to people but also the downgrading of their government. Yes! Everybody is presumed innocent until proven guilty — before the court of law. But before the tribunal of public opinion, there are instances when certain individuals are presumed guilty until proven innocent!

If there is no much money in but one agency as the AFP, and with so much thereof going to private pockets and individual families, the legitimate question that comes to mind is how many agencies are there in the government, how much money is poured therein? And this is money coming not only from direct and indirect taxes paid by every Filipino citizen from birth to death, but also from many different foreign grants? In a nutshell, the Philippines must be rich in resources but the Filipinos are poor in fact. And the practically omnipresent poverty in the country has but graft and corruption as its well paired fundamental cause..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110220com6.html

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