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Moronic logic EDITORIAL 07/19/2011

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Moronic logic

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
07/19/2011
Proof that Noynoy and his mouthpieces accuse without evidence and without as much as a background check on a issue but load this with sarcasm, was much too evident in the way they handled the Marine colonel’s conditional call for a change of the Aquino government.

Noynoy’s mouthpiece Abigail Valte intimated that the brains behind the Marine official’s ouster call is former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo.

As she was quoted in reports, Valte, the resident Lady Gaga in Malacañang, sarcastically said that Col. Generoso Mariano “can start working full time for Rep. (Gloria) Arroyo after he retires, but not while he is still in active duty.”

What basis does Valte have in saying that Mariano can start working full time for Gloria? None, but this administration appears to think that it can accuse anyone without any evidence..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110719com1.html

More trial and conviction by publicity FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 07/19/2011

More trial and conviction by publicity

FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
07/19/2011
Almost everyone knows there was cheating during the 2004 presidential elections. Most everyone also knows that there was cheating during the 2007 elections. So was there cheating during the 2010 presidential elections.

Heck, even during the 2001 polls, there certainly was fraud, to ensure the loss of the then opposition led by Erap Estrada.

For that matter, electoral fraud had been committed long, long before, whether during Marcos’ time, Cory Aquino’s time (remember her then high-tech fraud in 1987 where there was that attempt to block out all the then opposition senatorial bets? Then too, there certainly was cheating in the 1992 presidential elections—and always with the cooperation of Namfrel.

Recall that the election 1992 “quick count” took so long to determine just who won the presidency and recall too, that the Cory Comelec relied solely on the “media count” where the Namfrel officials were working in the background, doing their usual dark play..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110719com2.html

Noah’s ‘real-life’ ark takes shape on Dutch river FEATURE 07/19/2011

Noah’s ‘real-life’ ark takes shape on Dutch river

FEATURE

07/19/2011
DORDRECHT — For three years, the quaint old city of Dordrecht has watched in amazement as a local businessman’s dream of building a real-life Noah’s ark, stocked with thousands of plastic animals, became a reality.

The enormous vessel stands at an abandoned quay on the Merwede River, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) south of Amsterdam. Here, Johan Huibers, 52, and a team of 50 dedicated employees put the final touches to what they believe is the only life-size wooden ark in existence.

“We want to tell people about God,” the deeply religious Dutchman told AFP when asked why he undertook the project. “We wanted to build something that can help explain the Bible in real terms.”

The plan is to open what Huibers, who is in construction, calls “a Bible museum” by the end of the year, but he will allow local residents in on a one-day sneak preview later this month..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110719com3.html

Freedom to know AN OUTSIDERS VIEW Ken Fuller 07/19/2011

Freedom to know

AN OUTSIDERS VIEW
Ken Fuller
07/19/2011
Aecent events in Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia give the distinct impression that commitment to freedom of assembly, expression and association, and to even the most banal norms of liberal democracy, are less firmly entrenched in the region than its leaders might claim.

In Singapore, British author Alan Shadrake (knowing neither him nor his writings, I have no interest to declare) was deported following five weeks in prison. His “crime” was contempt of court, having published a book critical of the city-state’s policy on executions.

In Thailand, Yingluck Shinawatra’s Puea Thai Party inflicted heavy defeat upon the Democrats. The former enjoys the support of the rural and urban poor, while the latter represents the interests of the well-heeled sections of society.

Rather than accepting their defeat with good grace, the Democrats have asked the Electoral Commission to dissolve Shinawatra’s party on the grounds that “banned” politicians were involved in its successful campaign. Should this move be successful, it will be the third time that a Shinawatra party has been dissolved..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110719com4.html

Boomerang VIEWPOINTS Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz 07/19/2011

Boomerang

VIEWPOINTS
Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz
07/19/2011
In its common understanding, a boomerang is a hard material which, when thrown away, makes the round and goes back to the thrower. And in its ordinary implication, a boomerang means something that backfires, that returns and causes a backlash. It is the same as spitting at heaven. The sputum simply falls back at the spatter.

This is exactly the picture and the reality when Malacañang and its cohorts recently attempted to undermine the CBCP that is their headache by strongly countering their amoral options and sinister designs. They want the CBCP to play blind, deaf and dumb about their corporate distorted and well funded legislative agenda.

The Sex Bill. The Divorce Bill. The same Sex Marriage Bill. Instead of dignifying human sexuality, they want it seen as but meat in the market. Instead of promoting and protecting the sanctity of families, they want these undermined, desecrated and eventually destroyed. And, instead of respecting natural law about men and women, they want this futilely abrogated..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110719com5.html

For real or for reel INSIDE CONGRESS Charlie Manalo 07/19/2011

For real or for reel

INSIDE CONGRESS
Charlie Manalo
07/19/2011
While Retired Col. Generoso Mariano display of bravado in “speaking out his mind” and calling for the overthrow of an incompetent Benigno Aquino administration is highly laudable, considering that he comes from within the military establishment from which Noy counts his support, it requires a comprehensive scrutiny before Mariano could even be counted as an addition to the ever-growing numbers of the disgruntled and discontented Filipinos on the Aquino regime.

For one, Mariano’s script contains so many loopholes which would make his call for Aquino’s overthrow too good to be true. Why did he come out when he was just a few days from retiring? Why did he leak his own video footage calling for the President’s ouster to the media when he is quite aware he will be held accountable for his actions?

And why wasn’t Mariano sanctioned for his actions? For openly calling for the overthrow of his Commander-in-Chief, all he got was a pat on the back, recalled to his barracks, relieved of his post which he was about to relinquish in just a matter of days. He wasn’t even charged..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110719com6.html

Filipinos fly flag in South China Sea focus 07/19/2011

Filipinos fly flag in South China Sea

focus

07/19/2011
PUERTO PRINCESA — For the few dozen Filipinos living on a remote speck of land in the South China Sea, each day is a battle against loneliness but also a love affair with nature.

Contact with the outside world is limited and comforts are few for the residents of “Freedom” town, which exists mainly to raise the Philippine flag and fend off the other claimants to the Spratly islands.

“People here just play billiards, ping-pong. We have no markets and no malls. You need a special mindset to stay here,” said Eugenio Bito-onon, 55, mayor of the town of Kalayaan, the Filipino word for freedom.

Bito-onon, who initially went to Kalayaan in 1997 to work as a town planner, said he learned to cope by playing guitar, watching videos and simply walking around the small islands surrounded by the purest blue ocean waters..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110719com7.html

FVR brokered PCSO lotto deal, says Morato By Angie M. Rosales 07/19/2011

FVR brokered PCSO lotto deal, says Morato

By Angie M. Rosales 07/19/2011
By Angie M. Rosales
The web of corruption spun from the lucrative lotto operations of the state-owned Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) has dragged the name of another former president, aside from former President Gloria Arroyo, with an alleged overpriced supply contract entered into by the agency having been supposedly brokered by former President Fidel V. Ramos.

This was revealed to Senate probers yesterday who learned that the overprice for the supply deal may have cost the government P13 billion.

Former PCSO general manager and director Manuel Morato admitted before the Senate blue ribbon committee that two losing bidders for the supply of lotto equipment, the contract for which was bagged by a Filipino-Malaysian firm, was eventually allowed to gain PCSO supply contracts by Ramos.

“I was told by (then) President Ramos to give to the losing bidder the contract for Visayas and Mindanao and the winning bidder, PGMC, be made to concentrate in Luzon only so (that the government will) not be accused of monopoly in the Philippines,” said Morato, adding that it was made through a request..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110719hed6.html

AFP probes Marine’s link to Gloria By Mario J. Mallari 07/19/2011

AFTER NOY’S CHARGE OF GMA AS BRAINS BEHIND OUSTER CALL

AFP probes Marine’s link to Gloria

By Mario J. Mallari 07/19/2011

With President Aquino’s spokesman accusing former President, Rep Gloria Arroyo of being behind the call for a change of government from a Marine colonel, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is now looking into the possible link of Col. Generoso Mariano to the camp of Arroyo as among the angles in the ongoing investigation against the Marine officer who called for a change of government.

At a press briefing, AFP spokesman Commodore Miguel Jose Rodriguez said the ongoing investigation on Mariano, who officially retired from the active service last Sunday, is open to all possible motives.

“That (possible link between Mariano and Arroyo’s camp), we still have to find out because that is the reason we are expediting this investigation. There are a lot of speculations coming from so many people,” said Rodriguez.
As of now, however, Rodriguez said the military has yet to establish any evidence to support the links between Mariano and the camp of the former commander in chief..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110719hed1.html

Asean wants to forge legally-binding code of conduct with China By Michaela P. del Callar 07/19/2011

Asean wants to forge legally-binding code of conduct with China

By Michaela P. del Callar 07/19/2011

Amid recent altercations in disputed South China Sea territories, Southeast Asian nations want to forge a stronger legally-binding code of conduct with China to prevent an escalation of the territorial disputes and cool off months-long tension in the disputed waters.

A draft communiqué to be issued by Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) ministers who are currently meeting in Bali, Indonesia call for the early conclusion of negotiations for a regional code of conduct before the leaders’ summit takes place in November.

“We have further commenced the discussion on a regional code of conduct (CoC) in the South China Sea by building upon the momentum of the 20th Anniversary of the Establishment of Asean-China Dialog Relations in 2011. We look forward to its finalization before the 19th Asean Summit and Related Summits,” according to the communiqué seen by the Tribune yesterday...... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110719nat2.html

Bulacan tree planting plan goes full steam 07/19/2011

Bulacan tree planting plan goes full steam

07/19/2011
The target one million trees by December of the Mangrove Tree-Planting Project in Obando, Bulacan is gaining full steam as it hit the 200,000 mangrove saplings mark planted already recently.

In sync with President Aquino’s Executive Order 26 or the National Greening Program being implemented by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) under the leadership of Secretary Ramon Paje, the Mangrove Tree-Planting Project in Obando was also a major component of the Marilao-Meycauayan-Obando River System (MMORS) clean-up drive.

Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Alvarado led the launching of the MMORS clean-up drive recently in an effort to eventually erase the name of the Bulacan river from the New York-based Blacksmith Institute’s list of 30 of the world’s dirtiest rivers and also as the province’s response to the Writ of Kalikasan and the Writ of Continuing Mandamus promulgated by the Supreme Court last year to rehabilitate the Manila Bay in general and the clean-up of all adjacent rivers in particular..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110719nat5.html

Ombudsman suspends Echiverri, 3 others over GSIS remittance scam By Arlie O. Calalo 07/19/2011

Ombudsman suspends Echiverri, 3 others over GSIS remittance scam

By Arlie O. Calalo 07/19/2011

The Office of the Acting Ombudsman yesterday placed under six-month preventive suspension against Caloocan City Mayor Enrico “Recom” Echiverri and three other city hall officials for alleged failure to remit some P38 million in employees’ contributions to the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

Also ordered suspended were City Treasurer Evelina Garma, City Budget Officer Jesusa Garcia and City Accountant Edna Centeno, according to lawyer Mary Rawnsle Lopez, spokesman of Acting Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro.

The preventive suspension stemmed from the complaint filed by Vice Mayor Edgar Erice who alleged that from July 1997 to December 2002 and from January 2007 until Dec. 31, 2010, the premium contributions comprising the personal shares of the employees and the city government shares were not remitted to the GSIS and remained unpaid as of Dec. 31, 2010.

In addition, the employees’ compensation shares from July 1997 to December 2004 and from January 2007 to December 2010 were not remitted to the GSIS, Lopez said..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110719met1.html

Alfredo Lim says Manila Zoo will stay in city 07/19/2011

Alfredo Lim says Manila Zoo will stay in city

07/19/2011
Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim declared yesterday that the Manila Zoo will stay and after making an assurance that all efforts are being exerted by the administrators and staff under Engineer Deng Manimbo to exert more efforts in upgrading the caring program of the animals housed inside the zoo.

Lim took exception to the calls of an organization for animal’s rights to shut down the zoo, with a demand for the animals there to be released in the wild.

According to him, the animals there are all domesticated and have adjusted fully to their present home and that bringing them to the wild would be greatly difficult for them.

“Magiging strangers in paradise lang sila dun dahil sanay na silang may nagpapakain sa kanila at nag-aalaga. Hindi biro ang pinakakain sa mga `yan,” Lim said..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110719met4.html

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