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In mob Noy trusts EDITORIAL 09/27/2011

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

In mob Noy trusts

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
09/27/2011
If he has not realized it yet, Noynoy and his yellow Palace cohorts’ efforts to divide the government with their arrogance have become so successful that the government is now on a straight path to a standstill.

The imperious attitude at the Palace is one where whatever comes out of it, an edict or a mere idea, should be deemed infallible and those complaining against these are given the right to cry out to their hearts content and to walk away after with no Palace concern.

The Senate and the judiciary are certainly the most recent victims of the Palace conceit.

The Senate recently issued a resolution recommending that Noy use his presidential privileges to order the suspension of the increases in toll rates and the fares of the mass rail transit systems.

The Palace ignored the resolution, replying that increases in the fares of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) and the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) systems will benefit the poor in the long run. Twisted logic it is, but since it came from what the Palace believes is Mt. Olympus, it must therefore be the right logic. This was how Noynoy’s mouthpieces presumably understand their statements..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110927com1.html

Promising president FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 09/27/2011

Promising president

FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
09/27/2011
Noynoy Aquino really goes big with his promises — despite already common knowledge that while he continues to give out promises, he somehow hardly delivers on his pledges — even before he ascended to Malacañang.

In Tokyo last Sunday, Noynoy told a group of overseas Filipino workers that when he leaves Malacañang in 2016, he will have left the Filipinos with a “much different Philippines” as his legacy, as he pledged to “catapult the country to unprecedented progress where Filipinos will no longer seek jobs abroad and instead work in the country with pride and contentment.”

He was quoted as saying to the crowd: “I have a simple goal. Create more jobs so you will no longer go abroad. What we want is a situation where you go abroad to work because it is your choice, not because you can’t find a job (in the Philippines). As long as you are one with me, you are my bosses, there’s no doubt that the Filipino race will triumph because of industry and talent. Our goals are within our reach.”

Noynoy even went as far as saying that “Before, they (governments and investors) would just snub us. Now, they would race to call on us because they know that we are rising with dignity and we ourselves are eager to effect changes.”.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110927com2.html

Uncertainty as Zimbabwe deadline for foreign handover looms focus 09/27/2011

Uncertainty as Zimbabwe deadline for foreign handover looms

focus

09/27/2011
HARARE — Foreign companies operating in Zimbabwe have until Sunday to hand in plans to sell majority stakes to local blacks, under a law that has alarmed investors, who are uncertain how the rules will work.
The government’s order for the transfer of 51-percent ownership has been called the final phase of “economic emancipation,” after controversial land reforms targeting white-owned farms a decade ago. But analysts are skeptical.
“There is no way the locals and the government have the money to buy shares in the companies. Everybody knows that,” Anthony Hawkins, a University of Zimbabwe economics professor, told AFP.
The indigenization drive could hurt the economy in the same way as the land reforms, which sparked an economic nose-dive after supporters of President Robert Mugabe violently seized white-owned farms, he warned..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110927com3.html

Unmask the cohorts NO HOLDS BARRED Armida Siguion-Reyna 09/27/2011

Unmask the cohorts

NO HOLDS BARRED
Armida Siguion-Reyna
09/27/2011
Media revelations on just how much the Arroyo administration stole boggle the mind. The thieves got away with it when they were entrenched, but did they really think the lid would stay tight on their pilferage? Fat chance, that.

As early as July 3, 2009, I wrote, here in this same space, that: “For at least 50 foreign trips and state visits, Mrs. Arroyo spent over P2 billion traipsing the globe from 2002-2007, P408.6 million in 2008, and P436 million for this year only half-way over.

“We remember when she flew to China while her husband was recovering from a heart procedure, and that was to witness the signing of the ZTE-NBN memorandum of agreement. That she went to the US during Typhoon ‘Frank’ in June of 2008 and a shipload of 600-plus passengers sank, hundreds of others killed in floods and landslides. We recall how once she had her entire family with her for a state visit to China, grandchildren and yayas included, how usually congressmen and spouses would be in the ‘official’ entourage to the US, Europe and to here and there, a senator or two. And still the usual staff that accompanies a head-of-state, the security men, and the media people.

“All the hangers-on say they paid out of their own pocket. We merely have their word and how good is their word, given the lying they’ve done? Lalaki ba nang ganyan kalaki ang gastos kung ang mga miron ay talagang nagkanya-kanyang bayad ng hotel at pamasahe?”.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110927com4.html

Poverty in the USA AN OUTSIDERS VIEW Ken Fuller 09/27/2011

Poverty in the USA

AN OUTSIDERS VIEW
Ken Fuller
09/27/2011
In 2010, a further 2.6 million Americans descended into poverty, bringing the total to 46.2 million, a peak not previously reached in the 52 years since the Census Bureau started compiling such statistics. The impoverished represent 15.1 percent of the population, a level last seen in 1993.

Those in “deep poverty,” defined as existing on less than half the amount determining the official poverty line, increased to 20.5 million. At 16.4 million, child poverty is the highest since 1962. And, as might be expected, those who are not white stand a greater chance of being poor, the poverty-rates being 27 percent for blacks, 26 percent for Hispanics, and 12.1 percent for Asians, compared to 9.9 percent for whites – but they’re all on the increase.

Needless to say, unemployment is largely responsible for this state of affairs, and last year a staggering 48 million people between the ages of 18 and 64 did not work a single week — an increase of 3 million in 2009. But things are also bad on the wages front, and average earnings for a full-time male worker, adjusted for inflation, were slightly lower than they were in 1973. Yes, 1973.

If you’re poor, things are bad even when times are “good.” For example, the report in the New York Times on Sept. 13 cited a researcher at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities who pointed out that “the period from 2001 to 2007 was the first recovery on record where the level of poverty was deeper, and median income of working-age people was lower, at the end than at the beginning.”.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110927com5.html

Where villains are heroes INSIDE CONGRESS charlie manalo 09/27/2011

Where villains are heroes

INSIDE CONGRESS
charlie manalo
09/27/2011
In its grand effort to mask its incompetency, the Aquino administration has embarked on an unrelenting crusade to pin down the previous administration for alleged anomalies it had committed during its incumbency.

Precisely, there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, the Aquino administration, for all its bravado, deserves a 21-gun salute. But only if it had been fair and objective in its quest for truth and justice.

For its opening salvo, it had launched an offensive against the previous administration using the infamous Pajero issue it allegedly donated to some members of the Catholic Church, which of course backfired on the administration.

Having lost miserably on the Pajero battle, Sen. Ping Lacson then opened fire, accusing the former First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo of effecting the sale of his family-owned second hand choppers passed off as brand new to the Philippine National Police..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110927com6.html

Noynoy gives ‘failed’ ARMM P40-B budget By Angie M. Rosales 09/27/2011

DESPITE PALACE CLAIMS OF MUSLIM REGION’S CORRUPTION

Noynoy gives ‘failed’ ARMM P40-B budget

By Angie M. Rosales 09/27/2011

Government’s attempt, after two decades of devolving some of the Executive’s power by instituting the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and with the current Malacañang tenant constantly saying that the ARMM has been proven to be a failure despite the infusion of almost P124 billion from the national budget in the last 20 years, money in the tens of billions will still be splashed by the current administration to the ARMM.

This admission was made yesterday by Sen. Franklin Drilon, the chairman of the Senate finance committee, as he disclosed that the Aquino government has provided nearly P40 billion in total allocation to ARMM, the highest in the history for the region.

“Our computation is that apart from the P12.4 billion presented under the NEP (national expenditure program), the ARMM also gets from the other national government agencies under the budget of DA (Department of Agriculture), and others, an amount equivalent to P11.5 billion. ARMM also gets an internal revenue allotment of P14.2 billion. There is the PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) or the allocation of the legislators for ARMM amuonting to P560 million. All in all, the NEP would call for an allocation of P38.7 billion to the ARMM,” Drilon said, citing the current budget at only P11.8 billion.
.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110927hed1.html

‘Pedring’ intensifies, thousands evacuated from path of typhoon By Mario J. Mallari 09/27/2011

‘Pedring’ intensifies, thousands evacuated from path of typhoon

By Mario J. Mallari 09/27/2011

Tropical storm “Pedring” yesterday intensified into a typhoon, prompting government weather forecasters to place several areas under storm signals, particularly in Bicol Region where more than 50,000 residents have already been evacuated as part of the preemptive actions by government authorities.

“Pedring” is expected to make landfall this morning along the vulnerable eastern edge of Luzon, then dump heavy rains hundreds of kilometers inland to areas including the National Capital Region.

Rafaelito Alejandro, Office of Civil Defense-Bicol director, said as of 1 p.m. yesterday a total of 7,491 families in Albay province, composed of 51,669 people have been evacuated to safer grounds due to the threat posed by the typhoon.

He said OCD-Bicol and other allied government agencies are continuously monitoring situation in flood- and landslide-prone areas in the region..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110927hed3.html

Stock market bleeds amid debt crisis in Europe By Danessa O. Rivera 09/27/2011

Stock market bleeds amid debt crisis in Europe

By Danessa O. Rivera 09/27/2011

The local stock market, which has been used to the familiar ground of breaking records since the start of the year, suffered a blood bath yesterday as the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) dropped a steep 164.74 points to close at 3,721.22, the lowest level for the year and erasing its gains since January.

The sharp drop in the bourse index, however, merely mirrored a downtrend in Asia where most markets tumbled amid the worsening debt crisis in Europe.

Anxious Asian traders fear European leaders will not be able to find a solution to the region’s debt crisis.

Accord Capital Equities Corp. analyst Justino Calaycay said the PSEi failed to keep a marginal gain at the market’s opening as a regional slump dragged shares lower amid elevated risks as an acceptable solution to the Greece crisis remained elusive..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110927hed2.html

MILF body drops Kato from ranks By Mario J. Mallari 09/27/2011

MILF body drops Kato from ranks

By Mario J. Mallari 09/27/2011

Efforts by the Council of Ulamas to bring back renegade commander Ameril Umbra Kato back to the folds of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and patch up differences with MILF Chairman Al Haj Murad has failed, prompting the MILF-Central Committee to officially drop Kato from its ranks.

MILF vice chairman for political affairs Ghadzali Jaafar said the two-week deadline given by the Ulamas to Kato to meet with Murad and return to the MILF ranks ended yesterday with negative results.

“He ignored the appeal of the ulamas for him to go back to the folds of the MILF and he stood firm and insisted on staying out of the MILF…officially, as far as the MILF is concerned, he is no longer an MILF (member),” Jaafar said.

Last Sept. 12, the Council of Ulama talked with Kato and tried to convince him to return to the MILF and patch up differences with Murad. The ulamas gave Kato two weeks to make a decision. However, the efforts proved futile..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110927nat1.html

Solon demands disclosure of Aquino trade, economic deals with China, US, Japan 09/27/2011

Solon demands disclosure of Aquino trade, economic deals with China, US, Japan

09/27/2011
Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano yesterday asked Malacañang to disclose to the public the various trade agreements and deals entered into by President Aquino during his recent visits to China, United States and from his ongoing trip to Japan.

In a statement, Mariano took note that in all of his trips, Aquino was accompanied by his economic advisers and local businessmen and that in his last three trips, the President and his official entourage have spent at least P70 million,

“The President is making rounds to top global economies to tell the world about his administration’s domestic and foreign policy thrusts, anti-corruption and good governance agenda. But in real terms, Aquino is announcing to the world that ‘the Philippines is open for business’ and enticing foreign investors to set up businesses in the country. Our local agriculture, domestic natural resources and Filipino workforce are at stake in all of the trade deals that the President entered into,” Mariano said..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110927nat4.html

Pichay loses appeal before CA By Benjamin B. Pulta 09/27/2011

Pichay loses appeal before CA

By Benjamin B. Pulta 09/27/2011

A ruling by the Court of Appeals (CA) has turned down the appeal of embattled Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) chairman and former Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay who is questioning his suspension by the Ombudsman.

In a four-page ruling, the appellate tribunal’s Second Division said Pichay’s motion for reconsideration is moot and academic because then acting Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro had already dismissed Pichay. The Office of the Ombudsman placed Pichay under a six-month preventive suspension for misusing LWUA funds in acquiring a troubled thrift bank in 2008.

The CA said ruling on the Ombudsman’s preventive suspension order against Pichay is “inconsequential” and does “not serve any useful purpose,” according to the appellate court.

“It bears to note that the Office of the Ombudsman has already adjudged petitioner guilty of the administrative charges against him and ordered his dismissal from the service, which decision is immediately executory even pending appeal,” according to the CA decision written by then CA Associate Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe, who was recently promoted to the Supreme Court..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110927met1.html

MMDA seeks court consent to order ad agencies to remove billboards By Pat C. Santos 09/27/2011

MMDA seeks court consent to order ad agencies to remove billboards

By Pat C. Santos 09/27/2011

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Francis Tolentino sought the consent of the court yesterday after it filed an urgent motion before Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 133 to order the advertising agencies to remove the billboards along Edsa and other national roads in the metropolis view of the possible onslaught of Typhoon “Pedring.”

On Sept. 1, Judge Elpidio Calis granted the petition of the Outdoor Advertising Association of the Philippines’ (OAAP) for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the MMDA’s anti-billboard campaign.
The TRO ordered the MMDA to stop the enforcement of its Memorandum Circular No. 10 Series of 2011 to regulate the display of advertising billboards along major roads and open spaces. The TRO lapsed on Sept. 22.

The motion was filed in deference to the current status quo agreed upon by MMDA and OAAP during the last court hearing held on Sept. 21..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110927met2.html

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