• 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

Committee tasked to review oil prices meets with people’s organizations

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Committee tasked to review oil prices meets with people’s organizations


While progressive organizations welcomed the review, they expressed reservations about the independence of the committee, the quality of, and its hesitation to share, the data it would be getting, and the limits that it imposes on itself.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – A committee tasked to review oil prices and oil companies’ profits held this Monday a public consultation with leaders of peoples’ organizations and non-government institutions at the Department of Energy in Bonifacio Global City. Dubbed as an Independent Review Committee on oil prices and profits, led by Dr. Benjamin F. Diokno, the committee delineated their scope as “a study committee and not as an investigative body.”

The committee declined to differentiate itself from the Task Force composed of the justice and energy departments set up last year by President Benigno “Noynoy” C. Aquino, to go after the oil companies’ alleged overpricing. Until today, that task force has not yet released the results of its investigation, if this had pushed through.

Diokno told the media in a press briefing minutes before the public consultation that if charges were to be filed, it would be the decision or call of the Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of Justice (DOJ), and not of the study committee. “It is up to DOE to discuss the result of the study,” Diokno said.


Victor Abola and Benjamin Diokno of the review committee (Photo by Marya Salamat / bulatlat.com)
He explained that they are “not even going to recommend this or that,” instead, he said in Filipino that what they will study is if there were evidences or not of, say, overpricing, or of “excessive” profit taking.

Asked to explain the parameters they would use to gauge if profits are “excessive,” Diokno replied in Filipino that when investments are in “riskier” businesses (such as in oil), a higher rate of return may be allowed. If the profit rates of a company are well within the government’s prescribed rate of return on investment in the said industry, Diokno said “it is not anymore excessive.”

The study committee has a six-month time frame. It began late last January and it would submit the results of its study by July this year to the energy department, said Diokno. Their Monday consultation with leaders of peoples’ organizations is said to be their second public consultation; last week they reportedly consulted with the transport sector..... MORE

SourceBulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/04/03/committee-tasked-to-review-oil-prices-meets-with-people%E2%80%99s-organizations/

Even worse than SOPA: New CISPA cybersecurity bill will censor the Web



Even worse than SOPA: New CISPA cybersecurity bill will censor the Web


An onrush of condemnation and criticism kept the SOPA and PIPA acts from passing earlier this year, but US lawmakers have already authored another authoritarian bill that could give them free reign to creep the Web in the name of cybersecurity.

As congressmen in Washington consider how to handle the ongoing issue of cyberattacks, some legislators have lent their support to a new act that, if passed, would let the government pry into the personal correspondence of anyone of their choosing.

H.R. 3523, a piece of legislation dubbed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (or CISPA for short), has been created under the guise of being a necessary implement in America’s war against cyberattacks.... MORE
SourceRT.com

URL: http://rt.com/usa/news/cispa-bill-sopa-internet-175/

Anonymous fights Arizona censorship bill with 'butthurt form'

Anonymous fights Arizona censorship bill with 'butthurt form'

There’s a fine line between offensive and hilarious, and Arizona lawmakers aim to make that boundary legally protected. If House Bill 2549 passes, online harassment could become a criminal offense – but some hacktivists are there to help you rejoice.

Should Arizona Governor Jan Brewer sign off on House Bill 2549, using the Internet “with the intent to terrify, intimidate, threaten, harass, annoy or offend a person” would be prohibited by a state-wide legislation. Arizona has already approved one of the most overzealous immigration laws in the United States, so suggesting that HB 2549 will get Governor Brewer’s stamp of approval isn’t that much of a stretch. Should that be the case, though, an unofficial Anonymous Twitter account has you covered..... MORE

SourceRT.com

URL: http://rt.com/usa/news/arizona-butthurt-form-internet-158/

Chance SHE SAYS Dinah S. Ventura 04/04/2012

Chance

SHE SAYS
Dinah S. Ventura
04/04/2012
Monday, May 13, 2013 is more than a year away, but already politicians have started the ball rolling, including the President, apparently.

Of course, for many it’s a constant “rolling,” so to speak, as a political career must be grown and developed to the highest level.

When the time comes for Filipino voters to cast their ballots with names they believe will help bring about that long-awaited progress to our country, there will be the usual exercise of personalities built up and alliances defined and analyzed — who’s for the current administration and who’s not, who’s changed colors and who did not, and so on..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120404com7.html

Change? HE SAYS Aldrin Cardon 04/04/2012

Change?

HE SAYS
Aldrin Cardon
04/04/2012
In less than a month, President Noynoy Aquino has confirmed impressions that the path he has been charting all along is leading straight to yet another election in hopes of consolidating even more power.

This he would need in the last half of his term, when we can expect Noynoy to finally show the true color of his administration, one that not a few believe is not really geared toward the uplifting of the economic plight of the workers, land tillers and the poor — as most candidates promised to do had they obtained the votes during the 2010 campaign.

Greater power would give Noynoy an almost unhindered route to creating or strengthening policies that would further consolidate foreign capitalist and a choice domestic business’s stranglehold of the Philippine economy. This as the nation continues to gripe at the reality of a dive toward supplying the world with cheap labor and materials while remaining generally poor..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120404com6.html

Oust-Corona groups plot move at Roxas’ LP office 04/04/2012

WELL-FUNDED CAMPAIGN READIES ANTI-CJ PARAPHERNALIA

Oust-Corona groups plot move at Roxas’ LP office

04/04/2012
Groups sympathetic to President Aquino, which many call collectively as the yellow mob, met at the Liberal Party national headquarters at the BALAY Expo Centro Building last April 2 to plot out stepped-up efforts to pressure the resignation of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

The groups, led by the Corona Resign Movement (CORE) and the People Power for Reforms Volunteers (PPRV), will launch the stepped-up campaign since the situation at the impeachment court is becoming a concern for Aquino and his allies that Corona will be acquitted as the House prosecution team had largely bungled its case against the chief magistrate.

Aquino has been vocal about removing Corona from office even outside of the impeachment process..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20120404hea3.html

Zambo town mayor kidnapped By Mario J. Mallari 04/04/2012

Zambo town mayor kidnapped

By Mario J. Mallari 04/04/2012

A municipal mayor in Zamboanga del Norte was kidnapped by heavily armed men while having his dinner in Salug town on Monday night, prompting the military to dispatch two Army battalions to help local police in rescue operations.

Brig. Gen. Rainier Cruz, commander of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division (ID), said Salug Mayor Jeffery Lim was eating with some companions at around 7:20 p.m. in Barangay Poblacionwhen he was taken by about 10 fully armed men, some of whom wore police uniforms, and dragged the mayor to a yellow multi-cab van.
The armed men fled toward the coastal village of Caracol, where the van was burned, and they transferred to three motorized bancas.

Cruz said he has deployed elements of the 10th Infantry Battalion (IB) and the 44th IB to assist the local police in the massive rescue operations starting Monday night..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20120404nat1.html

Spratlys eyed as RP tourist destination By Mario J. Mallari and Gerry Baldo 04/04/2012

Spratlys eyed as RP tourist destination

By Mario J. Mallari and Gerry Baldo 04/04/2012

The construction of a beaching ramp in Pagasa Island, which is part of the disputed Kalayaan Islands Group (KIGs) or the Spratlys, is only the beginning of more development projects intended for the Philippine-occupied territory in the West Philippine Sea amidst protest from China.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin stressed the Philippines does not need to ask permission from any country in pursuing improvements in Pagasa Island, which is the seat of government of the municipality of Kalayaan under Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon.

“Pagasa is ours, we have a mayor there, we have the Philippine flag there why do we need to seek permission to any country when we have to fix something. If you do that, it means that you are doubting ownership. That is ours, we don’t have to ask permission from anyone,” said Gazmin..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20120404nat2.html

Miriam wants strict enforcement of law against cruelty to animals By Angie M. Rosales 04/04/2012

Miriam wants strict enforcement of law against cruelty to animals

By Angie M. Rosales 04/04/2012
Simultaneous with her filing of a bill seeking to give more teeth to the country’s law against cruelty to animals, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago moved for the conduct of inquiry in the light of incidents involving violations of animal rights law.

The incidents, she said, are a clear indication that Republic Act No. 8485 or the Animal Welfare Act, needs stricter enforcement in informing Filipinos of animal rights and the violations under the law.

The reinforcement and implementation of the law should be extended to traffic enforcers and other concerned government agencies to augment the efforts of the Philippine National Police and other concerned authorities, she said..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20120404met6.html

Singaporean human trafficker who victimized hundreds of Pinoys jailed

Singaporean human trafficker who victimized hundreds of Pinoys jailed

By Benjamin B. Pulta 04/04/2012

A Singaporean who facilitated the human trafficking of more than a hundred Filipinas abroad will finally be serving time behind bars for his crimes after a ruling by a Malaysian court, a Philippine government task force said yesterday.

In a statement, the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT), together with its non-government partner Blas F. Ople Policy Center, lauded the Malaysian court for ending the human trafficking operations of Singaporean Eugene Lim Beng Huat aka Alfred Lim.

The Sessions Court of Malaysia sentenced Lim to a total of six years imprisonment after finding him guilty on two counts of human trafficking of two Filipinas about four years ago..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20120404met4.html

Blog Archive