• 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

......................................................................................

The Daily Tribune

(Without Fear or Favor)

Specials:

Bulatlat.com

World Wildlife Fund for Nature-Philippines

The Philippines Matrix Project

No choice but to reduce VAT EDITORIAL 04/18/2011

Monday, April 18, 2011

No choice but to reduce VAT

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
04/18/2011
“VAT-man” Sen. Ralph Recto came up with some intriguing computations regarding the tax bonanza that Noynoy is currently reaping from the rising price of crude oil in the world market.

Recto said that from the value added tax (VAT) tacked on fuel alone, the government must have earned already P9 billion in extra revenues from the time crude oil prices rose from $90 per barrel to $110 per barrel on a thumb rule of P1.56 million in extra earnings a day whenever the world market price of oil climbs by $1 per barrel..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110418com1.html

The day may come FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 04/18/2011

The day may come

FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
04/18/2011
Noynoy and his supporters, during the 2010 presidential elections, peddled hope, along with change, which could prove to be a dangerous thing for one who can’t deliver on his campaign promises.

That hopes were raised when Noynoy came into power and position, can hardly be denied, but as he has shown, in the past 10 months of his presidency, that he has no leadership quality, and has not done anything to bring about change, with the country and the nation at a standstill and directionless, that hope Noynoy sold to the voters during the elections is rapidly vanishing.

Filipinos today are said in a March survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS), that they are less optimistic today, with optimism having diminished greatly. Optimism and hope are synonymous..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110418com2.html

Want to save fuel? Go fly a kite FEATURE 04/18/2011

Want to save fuel? Go fly a kite

FEATURE

04/18/2011
THE NORTH SEA — The blue-hulled vessel would slip by unnoticed on most seas if not for the white kite, high above her prow, towing her to what its creators hope will be a bright, wind-efficient future.

The enormous kite, which looks like a paraglider, works in tandem with the ship’s engines, cutting back on fuel consumption, costs, and carbon footprint.

“Using kites you can harness more energy than with any other type of wind-powered equipment,” said German inventor Stephan Wrage, whose company SkySails is looking for lift-off on the back of worldwide efforts to boost renewable energy..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110418com3.html

Malacañang defends Marcos C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S Jonathan De la Cruz 04/18/2011

Malacañang defends Marcos

C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S
Jonathan De la Cruz
04/18/2011
Now, this is what being right and factual is all about. For all that P-Noy, his family and their advocates have said about former President Marcos and the martial law years, Malacañang has come out in defense of the inclusion of the former Chief Executive in the Armed Forces’ Hall of Heroes featuring the country’s 39 Medal of Valor awardees. All the awardees have been appropriately recognized in accordance with the rules and regimen of the military establishment. In Marcos’ case, his Medal of Valor was awarded on Oct. 16, 1958 by the late President Carlos Garcia for his exploits as a soldier and guerrilla commander in World War II. Thus, until the same is recalled or rescinded, no amount of shrill denunciations or revisionist interpretation from the usual suspects can pull him out of the elite roster. That the Palace recognized this practice and proceeded to so defend it at a time when it is being accused of being vindictive and self-righteous, is most welcome. It shows it can make the right decisions when the occasion warrants..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110418com4.html

Hope and renewal HE SAYS Aldrin Cardon 04/18/2011

Hope and renewal

HE SAYS
Aldrin Cardon
04/18/2011
Last I checked, Lent meant new hopes and the renewal of body, soul and spirit. Or at least achieving something closer to all these.

I always look forward to Easter, with the image of the Risen Christ always on top of my list of anything associated with religion of whatever kind.

A second life is always nice to look forward to, even for sinners who renew their faith, or even least for those who simply want to change for the better.

I applauded Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s long silence after she stepped down from the presidency, albeit hesitantly, after an extended reign of nine years, which from the start was marred by anomalies and controversies which would put the most evil film villains to shame..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110418com6.html

Reflection SHE SAYS Dinah S. Ventura 04/18/2011

Reflection

SHE SAYS
Dinah S. Ventura
04/18/2011
As the Catholic population observes the Holy Week this year, which culminates the religious season of Lent, we, Christians, will observe the traditions, including fasting, alms-giving and more than the usual amount of prayer this week.

This somber season, however, is also marked by some form of celebration even though “fasting” per se also means inhibiting ourselves from festivities. This is because family members get to go out of town together and have a summer break as many are given time off from work at this time.

For me, the Lenten season has a deeper meaning this year. Events of the recent past have forced me to reckon with faith and mortality. It seems death, indeed, can come too soon, and unexpectedly. Not only have I felt grief for the loss of some people within my sphere, but the disasters and tragedies that have taken so many lives have also affected me somehow..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110418com7.html

Jesus’ bane: Money changers DIE HARD III Herman Tiu Laurel 04/18/2011

Jesus’ bane: Money changers

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
04/18/2011
This week the nation remembers the suffering and death of the historic Jesus Christ under the Roman Empire and the money changers of the temples of his time. It reminds me of the present era of Imperia Americana, with its retinue of money masters, under which many nations have experienced untold suffering and slow death.

Globally and nationally, we are witnessing this continuing passion play of the yoke of imperial tyranny with the US’ 800 military bases across the globe, its Nato sidekicks, the IMF, and even social networks conjuring Twitter revolutions left and right, while the New Imperium refurbishes old puppet regimes with new versions. Undoubtedly, one such case is Egypt .

On infowars.com, Kurt Nimmo’s “Banksters Cook Up Economic Snake Oil for Egypt” describes Egypt in the aftermath of its so-called “people power” revolution (with “banksters” denoting the Shylocks of these times, the banker-gangsters). The writer cites an Agence France Presse report detailing that “the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the African Development Bank, and the Islamic Development Bank are pledging to have an ‘action plan’ outlined by the end of May… an effort that will lock the victims of the so-called Arab Spring into perpetual debt…”

Further, “The international bankers have agreed ‘to develop a joint action plan for aligning their investments toward a new vision to support the aspirations of citizens for inclusive and sustained growth,’” with the IMF at the forefront. However, according to Nimmo, what the reports do not say is that “prior to the so-called revolution, the globalists considered Egypt an ‘economic miracle’… in other words (it) followed orders and privatized…”

Back in the 1990s, Egypt privatized its state-owned industries and held fire sales that sank it into poverty. Such precedent, coupled with US food policies that pushed hunger massively higher everywhere beginning in the 2000s, accounts for why “The uprisings in Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and elsewhere in the Arab world are due in large part to escalating food prices — prices jacked up by bankster speculation.”

Explaining his view on why Mubarak was destabilized, Nimmo says, “In May of 2010, the Egyptian government (Mubarak) announced that the sale of state assets to investors had effectively ended.” A year later, the “Twitter revolution” transpired. “Soon after the CIA orchestrated revolution,” Nimmo adds, “the people of Egypt were subjected to military rule little different than the rule of the brutal dictator Mubarak.” This was exactly what I saw when I wrote “From US frying pan to US fire” months ago. Everyone would thus be better off to know that another kind of menace corollary to US imperialism, but one that goes largely unnoticed, is these banksters’ imperialism.

In several forums, analysts such as Robert Wenzel, Alex Newman, and Ellen Brown of the Economic Policy Journal, New American, and Global Research, respectively, expound on the first act of the Libyan rebel “Transitional Council” of organizing a new Central Bank. Newman notes “…the rebels’ seemingly odd decision to establish a new central bank to replace dictator Muammar Kadhafi’s state-owned monetary authority (as) possibly the first time in history that revolutionaries have taken time out from an ongoing life-and-death battle to create such an institution.”

Brown, meanwhile, cites a Russian source which I looked up that said, “Mummar Khaddafi became the main initiator of (the) idea of refusing (the) dollar and euro. He called (the) Arabian and African world to start (using) one new currency — golden dinar… (backed by a population of around 200 million)… uniting African countries into one powerful federative state… strongly approved by many Arabian countries and almost all African countries… last year (2010).”

To compare, after the 1986 Edsa I “People Power” revolt in the Philippines, one of the first acts of the Cory Aquino regime was to convene a handpicked constitutional commission that added — as one its first revisions — the word “independent” to qualify the Central Monetary Authority, which, contrary to present claims, was never in the 1973 Constitution — Section 14, Article XV of which read: “The National Assembly shall establish a central monetary authority…”

The Aquino regime then tampered with the Monetary Board and increased private sector representation to the detriment of government. Those two acts insulated the central bank, now known as Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), from accountability to and audit of government, making it subservient to private banking interests.

After 25 years, the Philippines only became poorer and poorer until it reached a new nadir under the present regime. Just imagine: “Gov’t stockpiling fuel,” a headline designed to save government’s face, trumpeting Aquino III’s declaration of building up a “strategic oil” reserve of (get this)… 50 liters, amid government’s recent oil subsidy embarrassment. But look how pitiful it is.

A 50-million liter fuel stockpile for 6.6-million registered vehicles won’t even last three hours of a given day with only a 5-liter ration per vehicle. That’s the “strategic” breath of PeNoy?! In Marcos’ time the fuel stocks were kept at 45-day levels.

Consider this other one: “5 soldiers hurt as chopper makes emergency landing in Rizal.” The report mentions “PAF spokesman Lt. Col. Miguel Okol in a dzBB interview (claiming that) the incident will not cripple the AFP’s fleet of Huey-type helicopters, saying it has ‘seven airworthy helicopters of different types.’” What?! Only seven? During Marcos’ time, it was over a hundred! Truly, everyone has gotten worse off under the world’s money masters.

Jesus was tried, suffered and died essentially under the hands of the money changers. They were the ones who took vengeance and called for his death after he chastised them at the temple. While they now go by the name of IMF-WB, with their enforcers — the Pontius Pilates of yore — today’s Barack Obama, the world is still very much under the power of these money masters. Let us reflect and be mindful of this throughout the Lenten Season and beyond.

(Tune in to 1098AM, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m., and Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m.; TNT with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “Money Masters and the Death of the Body?”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus select radio and GNN shows)
 
(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Herman Tiu-Laurel).


SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110418com5.html

Door still open for Joc-joc, Cito to turn state witnesses By Angie M. Rosales 04/18/2011

ONLY REQUIREMENT FOR THEM IS TO TELL TRUTH — SANTIAGO

Door still open for Joc-joc, Cito to turn state witnesses

By Angie M. Rosales 04/18/2011

Forrmer Agriculture Secretary Luis “Cito” Lorenzo and his undersecretary, Jocelyn “Joc-joc” Bolante, can still turn themselves as state witnesses despite the filing of plunder charges against them in connection with the P728-million fertilizer fund scam, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago yesterday said, adding that the two will only “have to tell the truth” should they opt to turn themselves state witnesses.

“They can still apply as state witnesses so that the charges against them can be dropped on condition that they will testify against their co-accused. We don’t observe any deadline in the application for a state witness. They only have to pinpoint among their colleagues the real culprit,” she said.

President Aquino, meanwhile, urged both Lorenzo and Bolante to exercise their best judgment on their current predicament. “It has been a long time since the event that led to the accusations against them but they can still reflect on what they ought to do,” Aquino added..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110418hed1.html

Citing lack of gov’t interest, Bernas gives up Piatco case By Benjamin B. Pulta 04/18/2011

Citing lack of gov’t interest, Bernas gives up Piatco case

By Benjamin B. Pulta 04/18/2011

A public interest lawyer will no longer pursue the case he filed against the officers of the German firm Fraport and its local partner the Philippine International Air Terminals Co. Inc. (Piatco) in connection with the anomalous construction of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) 3 Terminal, citing the reluctance of the government to prosecute the case.

Lawyer Jose Bernas told the Court of Appeals said it will be up to the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) and the Department of Justice (DoJ) to litigate the anti-trust case following the appellate court’s ruling that he has no legal standing to pursue the case without the conformity of public prosecutors.

Bernas complained that the government did not show the same interest it manifested in pursuing the same case before the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Singapore and the Washington-based International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110418hed2.html

Fukushima nuke plant to stabilize in 6-9 months — operator 04/18/2011

Fukushima nuke plant to stabilize in 6-9 months — operator

04/18/2011
TOKYO — The operator of Japan’s tsunami-hit nuclear plant yesterday said it aims to reduce radiation leaks within three months and to achieve a “cold shutdown” within six to nine months.

Japan’s embattled Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) offered the timeline more than five weeks after a giant quake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems at its six-reactor Fukushima Daiichi atomic power station.

Radiation has since leaked into the air, soil and sea from the coastal plant northeast of Tokyo, as emergency crews have doused overheating reactors and fuel rod pools to prevent full meltdowns of volatile fuel rods.
.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110418hed3.html

Enrile: Absence of anti-trust law frees PLDT-Digitel merger 04/18/2011

Enrile: Absence of anti-trust law frees PLDT-Digitel merger

04/18/2011
Dominant phone firm Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) did not violate any law with the merger with competitor Digital Telecommunications Inc. (Digitel), owner of the mobile phone brand Sun Cellular because of the absence of an anti-trust law in the country, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile yesterday said.

“We have an anti-trust law in the Revised Penal Code but it is a dead law,” Enrile explained. “Without a law, there’s no crime committed,” he added..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110418hed5.html

Binay asks Malacañang for P24M to repatriate 1,084 OFWs from Saudi 04/18/2011

Binay asks Malacañang for P24M to repatriate 1,084 OFWs from Saudi

04/18/2011
Vice President Jejomar Binay has requested Malacañang to release around P24 million to fund the immediate repatriation of 1,084 overstaying Filipinos in Saudi Arabia.

Binay said instead of paying 15 Riyals daily for every jailed Filipino at the Hajj Terminal, the government might as well send them back home.

“This creates a serious drain on the limited resources of the Philippine Embassy in Saudi,” he stressed.
In a letter to President Aquino, Binay asked for the release of the funds from the President social fund or any funding source to buy plane tickets for the Filipinos staying at the Hajj Terminal in Jeddah..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110418hed6.html

Actor killed, 5 hurt in van-truck collision By Mario J. Mallari 04/18/2011

Actor killed, 5 hurt in van-truck collision

By Mario J. Mallari 04/18/2011

A TV actor was killed while five others were injured when their van collided with a bus and a 10-wheeler truck along MacArthur Highway in Moncada town, Tarlac province shortly after midnight yesterday.

Quoting reports from the field, Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesman Chief Supt. Agrimero Cruz Jr. identified the lone fatality as Antonilo Joseph “AJ” Perez.

Injured were Christopher Bautista, driver of the Nissan Urvan with licensed plates PIG-630 registered to ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp., his passengers Cristina Ferrer, Edwin Pitilos, Gerardo Perez and Danylyn Dunga.

The fatality was also a passenger of the ABS-CBN van..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110418nat1.html

Why prices of sugar, corn are high? 04/18/2011

Why prices of sugar, corn are high?

04/18/2011
DAVAO CITY — Sugar supply has been declining worldwide not because more people are consuming more sugar. As global demand is now outpacing sugar supply and production worldwide, sugar prices have been rising to levels not seen since the historic highs of 1975 and 1982.

Since sugar and corn are now being used as raw materials for the production of ethanol — used to mix with gasoline to make clean “eco-fuel” — consumption of these two essential commodities is being diverted more and more for industrial use. As such, we’re likely to see less and less sugar supply available for consumers worldwide..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110418nat5.html

Blog Archive