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Justice, De Lima style FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 06/29/2011

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Justice, De Lima style

FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
06/29/2011
Further destroying an acquitted person’s reputation just to make an old man who cries injustice over this person’s acquittal feel that he has finally getting justice for his murdered family is justice, Leila de Lima style, which is really an injustice.

It was evident, from the day she vowed to conduct a reinvestigation of the Vizconde murder case that she and her National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) were bent on proving the Supreme Court wrong in its ruling acquitting Hubert Webb, et al. and all that time, given that very short period before the 20-year proscription period lapses, which falls tomorrow, June 30, she and her NBI never went past Webb as the perpetrators of the crime..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110629com2.html

Libya bombing campaign enters 100th day focus 06/29/2011

Libya bombing campaign enters 100th day

focus

06/29/2011
BENGHAZI — Nato operations in Libya entered a 100th day on Monday with airstrikes having eased the siege of key rebel cities but with Moamer Kadhafi still in power and fears of a open war lingering.

Three months after French jets flew their first missions over eastern Libya, Nato is still pounding targets across the country in what has become a war fought on multiple fronts, but with few clear victories for either side.

As “Operation Unified Protector” approaches its 5,000 strike sortie, Nato is still hitting around 50 targets a day, mostly in or around Tripoli and Misrata in the west; Brega in the east; and the Nafusa Mountains to the south of the capital.

But the alliance’s early success in pushing Kadhafi’s forces outside striking distance of Benghazi and Misrata have not decisively tipped the balance in favour of the rebels..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110629com3.html

Cranking out ‘The Good News’ C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S Jonathan De la Cruz 06/29/2011

Cranking out ‘The Good News’

C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S
Jonathan De la Cruz
06/29/2011
There is something very, very wrong when a senior Palace official starts explaining what his or her boss, in this case P-Noy, actually meant after the nation went on a tailspin figuring out who are the two or three Cabinet members the Chief Executive dreads seeing (penitensiya or heavy burden is how he described them) for being “harbingers of bad news.” Even more problematic is when it is explained that P-Noy was in his usual “joking mode” when he uttered those words during the 114th anniversary of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). Did we ordinary folks hear that right? Joke lang?.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110629com4.html

Slum trap for Philippine focus 06/29/2011

Slum trap for Philippine

focus

06/29/2011
MANILA — Few things scare Philippine grandmother Maria Luisa Bernardo, who has dodged fires and fought off demolition crews in a tough Manila slum for more than half her life.
But one is the prospect of returning to her northern home province, where the 44-year-old mother-of-five and grandmother-of-six fears she and her extended family could starve to death.

“It’s beautiful in the province, there is no congestion,” said Bernardo, a high school graduate who is one of 30,000 informal settlers of North Triangle, one of Manila’s largest shantytowns.

“But without land to farm you end up going hungry. Here, at least, there’s an opportunity to earn a little money,” she told AFP while sitting on the floor of a shanty she shares with a son, his girlfriend, and their two babies...... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110629com5.html

Chavez lobs fresh fertilizer plunder raps against GMA By Benjamin B. Pulta 06/29/2011

Chavez lobs fresh fertilizer plunder raps against GMA

By Benjamin B. Pulta 06/29/2011

Another plunder complaint was filed yesterday by former Solicitor General Francisco Chavez against former President now Rep. Gloria Arroyo and nine others, this time for allegedly diverting more than P2.3 billion fertilizer fund to bankroll her presidential bid seven years ago.

This is the second plunder charge on the same fertilizer fund scam that Chavez has filed, also against Arroyo.
Arroyo spokesman Maite Defensor said they “will defer from making a statement until (they) have received a copy of the complaint.”

In a 31-page complaint filed with the Department of Justice (DoJ), Chavez said thaton Feb. 3, 2004 of exactly one week prior to the May 2004 national elections, then President Arroyo, authorized the disbursement of fertilizer funds in the amount of P728 million allegedly to cover the purchase of fertilizers as part of her “Ginintuang Masaganang Ani Program.”.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110629hed2.html

DoJ chief: No credible proof of Webb in crime scene By Pat C. Santos 06/29/2011

BUT STILL POINTS TO WEBB, ET AL. AS PERPETRATORS OF VIZCONDE MURDERS

DoJ chief: No credible proof of Webb in crime scene

By Pat C. Santos 06/29/2011

Despite admitting that there was no credible evidence placing Hubert Webb, who has already been acquitted with finality by the Supreme Court majority, in the crime scene, Justice Chief Leila de Lima and her task force, composed of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine National Police, broadly implied that Webb and company were the persons who raped and murdered the Vizconde family, saying that “material evidence” from a magnetic tape showed that Webb never left the country.

She and her team claimed that they had at least five witnesses who were not presented, and whose names were not stated. Instead, they were given aliases.

Based on the Bureau of Immigration magnetic reel tape which shows the data of the departure and arrival of airport passengers, Hubert Webb, principal suspect in the 1991 Vizconde massacre, did not leave the Philippines before, during and after the date the Vizcondes were murdered, De Lima and her NBI team claimed..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110629hed1.html

Workers call on Supreme Court to release decision on Luisita By Charlie V. Manalo 06/29/2011

Workers call on Supreme Court to release decision on Luisita

By Charlie V. Manalo 06/29/2011

Farm worker beneficiaries of the contested Hacienda Luisita sugar state appealed to the Supreme Court to release a decision and set the record straight to stop all speculations that the collegiate body had been siding with the Cojuango-Aquinos clan.

“Please don’t give us the benefit of a doubt that these allegations were true. Don’t give us the basis or suspect that the honorable justices of the Supreme Court are doing “behind the back” hearings to please the powers-that-be and sacrifice the interest of the people that they supposed to serve,“ said Rodel Mesa, secretary general of the farm workers-based Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA).

Mesa, a Hacienda Luisita farm worker himself, said that “for all its worth, we are ready to face the music.”

“Whether the decision would be in favor or not, we will carry the next phase of our struggle, it’s not the end of the road but it would be the beginning of our long and winding road for social justice. We are not stopping now,” Mesa said..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110629nat1.html

Bill to expand anti-human trafficking filed By Angie M. Rosales 06/29/2011

Bill to expand anti-human trafficking filed

By Angie M. Rosales 06/29/2011

Enactment of the proposed Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act in the Senate to ensure that government will be more deliberate in its efforts aimed at strengthening its policies against such illegal activities will be pursued following the United States government’s lifting of the Philippines on its watchlist.

Sen. Loren Legarda, chairperson of the Senate foreign relations committee, yesterday said the move by the American government is a recognition of the country’s efforts to meet the standards against human trafficking activities.

“I welcome the removal of the Philippines from the tier 2 watchlist in 2011 State Department Trafficking in Persons report by the US..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110629nat2.html

QC gov’t hires ‘colorum’ tricycle drivers, disabled to make school desks By Arlie O. Calalo 06/29/2011

QC gov’t hires ‘colorum’ tricycle drivers, disabled to make school desks

By Arlie O. Calalo 06/29/2011
Hundreds of “colorum” tricycle drivers who were apprehended a few months ago have found new sources of income after the Quezon City government hired them to make desks for the city’s public schools.

At present, the QC government still has a shortage of classroom desks and chairs in at least 96 public elementary and 46 high schools, according to Mayor Herbert Bautista.

But the mayor said the shortage can now be hugely minimized in the next few months after the Department of Environment and Natural Resources donated to the local government around 6,000 board feet of confiscated woods for the making of school desks and chairs..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110629met3.html

‘JV’ joins calls for probe into misuse of PCSO funds By Gerry Baldo 06/29/2011

‘JV’ joins calls for probe into misuse of PCSO funds

By Gerry Baldo 06/29/2011

A congressional probe into the alleged misuse of millions of pesos from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) during the time of former President Arroyo is mounting in the Lower House even as San Juan Rep. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito joined calls for an immediate investigation.

“There has to be some closure to these allegations which happened during the previous administration,” Ejercito said yesterday.

Ejercito maintained that several government agencies at the time of Mrs. Arroyo had figured in some form of anomalous disbursements and transactions involving millions of pesos.

According to Ejercito, among the agencies that should be investigated are the National Food Authority (NFA), Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) which was then headed by Winston Garcia..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110629met1.html

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