• 6 AUGUST - *1907 - Gen. Macario Sakay, one of the Filipino military leaders who had continued fighting the imperialist United States invaders eight years into the Ph...
    11 years ago

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Deal or no deal? EDITORIAL 03/31/2011

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Deal or no deal?

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
03/31/2011
Both Malacañang and Sen. Panfilo Lacson deny that there was a deal between them, after his arrest warrant was voided, and his freedom restored, for him to return home. Lacson also said in interviews, that even as he considers himself still an ally of Noynoy Aquino, this will no bearing on his vote on the Ombudsman’s case for trial in the Senate.

Yet Noynoy is known to make a move politically whenever he wants to have something under his control. Recall the time when his partymates wanted to get the Senate presidency, but were short of numbers. It was then that Noynoy suddenly wanted then detained Sen. Antonio Trillanes freed and able to join the Senate voting. In the end of course, the Senate presidency went to Juan Ponce-Enrile, while Noynoy came up with the amnesty decree..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110331com1.html

Wrong portrayal FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 03/31/2011

Wrong portrayal

FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
03/31/2011
There went the Palace again, after the execution of three drug mules in China, vowing to “break the chain of victimization,” and again laying full blame on the recruiters of these Filipino overseas workers while painting the OFWs condemned to jail and death in China and elsewhere as “sacrificial pawns.”

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said “we are resolved to ensure that the chain of victimization, as pushers entrap and destroy lives in pursuit of their trade, will be broken. Those who traffic in illegal drugs respect no laws, no boundaries, and have no scruples about destroying lives.”

That’s crap and playing up to the gallery while washing government’s hands off its own incompetence and gross inaction against corrupt government officers and officials who allow these OFWs to leave the country with smuggled drugs..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110331com2.html

Japan’s farmers battle nuclear scare FEATURE 03/31/2011

Japan’s farmers battle nuclear scare

FEATURE

03/31/2011
NIHONMATSU — Farmers are facing the bitter aftermath of Japan’s nuclear emergency, which could see crops left to rot over a vast swathe of the country’s agricultural heartland.

Growing national and international unease about the spread of radioactivity from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant has led to bans on the sale of produce from four prefectures.

Farmers working the soil in Fukushima say they are bracing for the economic impact of the boycott, which has seen their vegetables pulled from shelves nationwide and a host of countries halting imports..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110331com3.html

Philippine cottage industry VIEWPOINTS Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz 03/31/2011

Philippine cottage industry

VIEWPOINTS
Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz
03/31/2011
This is admittedly a sad insight, a pitiful perception. The country with all its arable lands, water resources plus abundant sun, has been long sincerely engaged in importing such a basic commodity as rice. On the other hand, its past and present governments have also perpetuated the exportation of Filipino workers as “OFW’s” — no matter really where and how — all over the globe. Hence, in the event that there is a nation in any part of the globe that has no Filipino workers of one kind or another — this is a big exception.

In other words, the government made the Filipino and Filipinas concerned as nothing more than a cottage industry. Oh, yes! For consolation, they are called “Bagong Bayani.” The fact however is that they are looked upon neither as “bago” nor as “bayani.” Reason: They constitute a long standing phenomenon and wherefore not in anyway “bago.” They are considered but as working cogs and profitable means, and therefore not “heroes” really. There is furthermore the despicable but illegal “drug mules” and treated accordingly..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110331com5.html

Neither Hamas nor Israel seem to want new war FEATURE 03/31/2011

Neither Hamas nor Israel seem to want new war

FEATURE

03/31/2011
GAZA CITY — The recent upturn in deadly clashes between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza has led some observers to speculate on a new war, but the truth seems to be that neither side wants one.

The tension is also seen as a message to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, led by President Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party, which is trying to build bridges with Hamas, who control the Gaza Strip.

Fatah has played no part in the latest fighting.

Indeed, Yasser Abed Rabbo, a key Abbas advisor, has charged that Israel and Hamas “invented a war” to stymy Abbas’s efforts to reconcile Fatah with its long-time rival..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110331com6.html

International Libya action breaks records for speed focus 03/31/2011

International Libya action breaks records for speed

focus

03/31/2011
WASHINGTON — The international response to the Libyan crisis has come at warp-like speed compared to past conflicts when military action was bogged down for months, even years, amid endless diplomatic drives.

This time it took just 32 days from the start of the uprising against Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi on Feb. 15 to March 19 when the United Nations passed a resolution allowing for air strikes against regime forces to protect civilians.

A week later and the 28 members of Nato had agreed to take over command of a no-fly zone over Libya, and are readying this week to take full command of the military operation.

“When you think about it, for an organization of 28 states, getting to consensus given where we were just a few days and weeks ago, we moved with extraordinary speed,” a senior US official said..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110331com7.html

Jesuits behaving badly BLURBAL THRUSTS Louie Logarta 03/31/2011

Jesuits behaving badly

BLURBAL THRUSTS
Louie Logarta
03/31/2011
St. Ignatius de Loyola must be squirming in his tomb at the Chiesa del Gesu in Rome over the way things have been faring out quite poorly these days for his beloved Society of Jesus, the priestly order he had founded in 1539, together with six close friends Francis Xavier, Diego Lainez, Alfonso Salmeron, Nicholas Bobadilla, Peter Faber and Simao Rodrigues.

In forming the Jesuit order, St. Ignatius, who was a Spanish knight in the employ of the Viceroy of Navarre until he was seriously injured in 1521 during the Battle of Pamplona, is said to have undergone a spiritual conversion while recuperating and soon after vowed to abandon his life as a soldier and devote himself entirely to the service of God, the Catholic Church and Pope Paul III.

Surely, the shenanigans the current crop of Jesuits is embroiled in were inconceivable to St. Ignatius and his companions who in 1534 had gathered in the crypt of the Church of Our Lady of the Martyrs in Montmarte and vowed themselves to the lifelong vocation of spreading the Faith as missionaries of the Pope and the Catholic Church..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110331com4.html

No straight path as RP Perc rating worsens By Charlie V. Manalo 03/31/2011

NOV. TO FEB. POLL: THIRD MOST CROOKED IN ASIA

No straight path as RP Perc rating worsens

By Charlie V. Manalo 03/31/2011

President Aquino was challenged yesterday to clearly define the direction of the supposed “daang matuwid” or straight path he had been crowing about after the latest survey of the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd. (Perc) showed the Philippines did not improve from its spot of being perceived the third most corrupt nation in Asia in a poll it held between last November and February, clearly within Aquino’s watch.

The Perc score on the Philippines even worsened from 8.25 last year to 8.9 on a scale with 10 as being the most corrupt.

Perc surveyed 1,370 expatriate executives in 11 Asian economies about how they perceived the regulatory environment in the countries or cities where they were working and the extent to which it affected their business..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110331hed1.html

Lacson may have used fake passport to travel—Miriam By Angie M. Rosales 03/31/2011

Lacson may have used fake passport to travel—Miriam

By Angie M. Rosales 03/31/2011
Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson could have used a fake passport or travel documents in traveling back to the country last week, after a year-long hiatus spent allegedly in various countries.

This was the assumption aired yesterday by his colleague, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, on the questionable travel documents used by Lacson that enabled him to return to the country via Hong Kong and arriving at Mactan, Cebu last Saturday.

But even under the possibility of the senator using fake travel documents, it will be difficult for government to go after the lawmaker for any supposed liability in the law and much more go after his alleged coddlers as challenged by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110331hed3.html

Senate exposes another unexplained Ligots’ wealth By Angie M. Rosales 03/31/2011

Senate exposes another unexplained Ligots’ wealth

By Angie M. Rosales 03/31/2011

More assets and properties of the Ligot couple, former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) comptroller Lt. Gen. (ret.) Jacinto Ligot and his wife Erlinda, were bared by Senate probers during Tuesday’s inquiry, including some tens of millions worth of bank instruments supposedly transferred under the name of some of their relatives and yet to be placed under a freeze order by the government.

During the continuation of the hearing by the blue ribbon committee headed by Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, what was earlier mentioned as farm land in Bukidnon which provides the source of income of the couple’s eldest son, appears to involve vast tracts of land, estimated to be around nine hectares..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110331hed5.html

Pinoy charged for smuggling, bid to export US drone By Michaela P. del Callar 03/31/2011

Pinoy charged for smuggling, bid to export US drone

By Michaela P. del Callar 03/31/2011
He thinks big while engaging in the smuggling racket.

A Filipino from Manila was charged in the United States for smuggling and attempting to export an unmanned military aircraft which he initially put up on sale through online auction store e-Bay, a report from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement  (ICE) agency said.

Henson Chua, 47, of Manila, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Tampa, Florida for violation of the Arms
Export Control Act and smuggling, following an investigation by the US ICE and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/

50% of Filipinos want hero’s burial for Marcos — poll 03/31/2011

50% of Filipinos want hero’s burial for Marcos — poll

03/31/2011
Half of the population in the Philippines want to give late dictator Ferdinand Marcos a belated hero’s burial, according to survey released last Wednesday.

Fifty percent of respondents said Marcos was “worthy to be buried in the heroes’ cemetery,” according to the respected Social Weather Stations research group, which undertook the nationwide survey.

But 49 percent said Marcos was unworthy of such honors while one percent did not answer, the research group said.

The survey of 1,200 adults, conducted this month, came amid growing pressure by the Marcos family and its allies to have the late President interred in a Manila cemetery normally reserved for military veterans and respected leaders..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110331nat1.html

QC gov’t orders closure of two private schools for violating Fire Code By Arlie O. Calalo 03/31/2011

QC gov’t orders closure of two private schools for violating Fire Code

By Arlie O. Calalo 03/31/2011
The Quezon City government has ordered the closure of two private schools for failing to comply with the requirements of the Fire Code of the Philippines despite several warnings.

Mayor Herbert “Bistek” Bautista told Tribune in a phone interview ordered closed were the Claret School, an exclusive school for boys in UP Village, and Blue Ridge Christian Academy in Murphy, Cubao after a regular meeting of the city’s peace and order council.

In a directive, the mayor instructed Bureau of Fire and Protection District fire marshal Senior Supt. Bobby Baruelo to immediately stop the operation of the private schools for defying orders..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110331met3.html

Mediamen hit US envoy’s security aides for rude acts By Mario J. Mallari 03/31/2011

Mediamen hit US envoy’s security aides for rude acts

By Mario J. Mallari 03/31/2011
Members of the media yesterday protested the “harassment” committed by the security teams of United States Ambassador Harry Thomas and of the Armed Forces of the Philippines-Medical Center (AFP-MC) during a chance interview inside the military facility.

A shoving incident between the security personnel and members of the Defense Press Corps (DPC), the group of media practitioners accredited by the Defense department and the AFP, happened while Thomas was accommodating some questions from the media after inaugurating a facility at the AFP Medical Center.

TV-5 cameraman Benjie Judan and his assistant Eddie Mendoza were pushed away from the US ambassador at the height of the interview..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune


URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110331met1.html

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