• 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

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The Daily Tribune

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Luisita farm workers welcome SC decision, call on Aquino to respect ruling

Tuesday, April 24, 2012


Luisita farm workers welcome SC decision, call on Aquino to respect ruling

By RONALYN V. OLEA

Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Farm workers of the Hacienda Luisita lauded the Supreme Court final decision affirming the distribution of 4,916 hectares of Hacienda Luisita land to the original 4,296 original farm-worker beneficiaries.

In a unanimous vote, the high court upheld its ruling of November 22 last year on the half-century-old land dispute. Since the 50s, the 6,443-hectare sugar plantation has been controlled by the family of President Benigno Cojuangco Aquino III. The Supreme Court ruling, if and when it got implemented, would start transferring that control to the farm-workers.

“We are happy and sad at the same time. This is the fruit of our long, arduous struggle. We dedicate this victory to the martyrs of Hacienda Luisita and to all our supporters,” Rodel Mesa, secretary general of Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (Uma) and one of the beneficiaries, told Bulatlat.com in a phone interview.

Mesa was remembering the seven farm workers killed during the violent dispersal on November 16, 2004, in what is known now as the Hacienda Luisita massacre. Seven others, including supporters, were slain in the aftermath of the massacre.

“This victory is long overdue. Lives should not have been sacrificed if only the Cojuangco-Aquinos had returned our land to us many years ago,” Mesa said. He joined the hundreds of farm workers who went to Baguio City to await the high court decision.

In 1957, the Cojuangcos purchased the Hacienda Luisita through a loan from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and Central Bank with the condition that the land would be distributed to the farmworkers after ten years. But the Cojuangco-Aquinos never gave up control of the vast sugar estate in the decades that followed.

“The Supreme Court decision is a big leap forward for the Luisita farmworkers and the Filipino peasantry’s life-and-death struggle for genuine agrarian reform,” said Randall Echanis, deputy secretary general of the Kilusang MAgbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), in a statement. “Their victory will inspire other farmers to pursue with the struggle,” Echanis said..... MORE

SourceBulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/04/24/luisita-farm-workers-welcome-sc-decision-call-on-aquino-to-respect-ruling/

Economy falls to Noynoying EDITORIAL 04/24/2012

Economy falls to Noynoying

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
04/24/2012
Just recently, the administration of Noynoy has been abuzz with claims that, with his pursuit of the so-called straight path and instituting radical reforms in the government to eradicate graft, the Philippines will be on the speedway to join the developed world.

It even brandished a supposed sweet spot in 2018 when the majority of the population would be of working age, a period that economic officials said is propitious since most countries that had crossed this point in their population experienced momentous growth.

Such dream scenarios are now proving to be all talk and mere wishful thinking as even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects the economy under the watch Noynoy to miss the boat in the new wave of an Asian economic boom..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120424com1.html

New US spy service targets China and Iran

New US spy service targets China and Iran


China and Iran are the high-priority targets for a new spy service created by the Pentagon. The Defense Clandestine Service is aimed at ramping up spying operations overseas, and suggests a shift in national threat assessment.

The plan approved by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta last week will see hundreds of case officers working alongside the CIA.

The military and civilian spy agencies will increasingly focus on similar threats.

The large military build up in China is likely to be one of the main targets for the new agency. Iran, Al-Qaeda in Africa, and North Korea’s nuclear programme are also on the priority list..... MORE

SourceRT.com

URL: http://rt.com/news/pentagon-service-clandestine-defense-817/

Ron Paul attacks CISPA in urgent call to oppose 'Big Brother' bill (w/ AUDIO)



Ron Paul attacks CISPA in urgent call to oppose 'Big Brother' bill (AUDIO)

Imagine having government-approved employees embedded at Facebook, complete with federal security clearances, serving as conduits for secret information about their American customers.

That’s not a hypothetical — those words are a verbatim excerpt from concerned GOP presidential hopeful, Congressman Ron Paul. The Republican representative from Texas asks Americans to consider that draconian dilemma before it becomes a reality. It will all be possible under a new bill slated for discussion on Capitol Hill this week.

The legislation in question is CISPA — the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act — and the United States Congress is expected to meet in Washington, DC this week to propose advancing the bill all the way to the White House..... MORE

SourceRT.com

URL: http://rt.com/usa/news/ron-paul-against-cispa-753/

Sudan declared war on our country - South Sudan president

Sudan declared war on our country - South Sudan president


The president of South Sudan says attacks by the North amount to a declaration of war on his country. Khartoum and Juba, which became independent last year, remain embroiled in a conflict over sharing oil profits and establishing frontiers.

The president of newly independent South Sudan who's on a visit to Beijing has told China's president that attacks by rival Sudan amount to a declaration of war on his country.

Salva Kiir has meet Hu Jintao while lobbying for economic and diplomatic support..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://rt.com/news/south-sudan-war-oil-842/

Still on Joseph Ejercito Estrada NO HOLDS BARRED Armida Siguion-Reyna 04/24/2012

Still on Joseph Ejercito Estrada

NO HOLDS BARRED
Armida Siguion-Reyna
04/24/2012
There’s an entirely enjoyable 75-page last section of the coffee table book “Erap, Destiny & Legacy,” Jackie Ejercito Lopez lovingly put together as a birthday gift for her father. It includes Erap’s own “Random Thoughts, at 75,” Renato Constantino Jr.’s “Random thoughts on a not so random man,” Pilarica Marcelo Ejercito’s “Random thoughts of an older sister,” and Loi Pimentel Ejercito’s “Random thoughts regarding the birthday boy.”

I’d always thought the man to be a mama’s pet, but no. As his sister Pil says: “Joseph was a Papa’s boy, through and through. There were times I thought he was annoying Mama on purpose. But, Papa? Hardly. Almost never. With Papa, Joseph always made an effort to please.”

I’m cutting out some paragraphs for lack of space, but here you can still easily see how tenderly the former president pays tribute to his father, as told to Bibeth Orteza:.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120424com4.html

Expect Noy war if Hacienda loses INSIDE CONGRESS Charlie Manalo 04/24/2012

Expect Noy war if Hacienda loses

INSIDE CONGRESS
Charlie Manalo
04/24/2012
Last Dec. 16, four days after 188 members of the House of Representatives blindly affixed their signatures to the impeachment complaint against Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Renato Corona, the Tribune came out with an exclusive story exposing the agenda behind such move, which was obviously Palace-initiated.

In that story, the Tribune bared that the plot was allegedly hatched in a meeting among the elderly members of the Cojuangco family in their ancestral home after the high court declared illegal the stock distribution option they had employed in their vast sugar estate, the Hacienda Luisita, to avoid being covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Incidentally, both the CARP and the SDO were first implemented during the incumbency of the late President, Cory Cojuangco-Aquino..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120424com5.html

SC finalizes ruling on Luisita case 04/24/2012

SC finalizes ruling on Luisita case

04/24/2012
A final decision on the legal dispute over Hacienda Luisita, the vast sugar plantation in Tarlac province owned by President Aquino’s family, may be known today as the high tribunal is set to decide on the motion for reconsideration filed by Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI).

Court Administrator Midas Marquez has earlier said the SC’s decision may be announced immediately after the magistrates’ regular en banc session in Baguio City.

The high court is also set to decide whether it will uphold its decision allowing the distribution of the 4,915.75-hectare Hacienda Luisita to its more than 6,000 farmer-beneficiaries..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20120424hea5.html

Gov’t hurries to US side, seeks advice on China row By Rocky G. Nazareno 04/24/2012

Gov’t hurries to US side, seeks advice on China row

By Rocky G. Nazareno 04/24/2012

It would not be any of the regional groupings of which the Philippines is a member that would have the first crack at being consulted by the Philippines over an increasingly tense territorial dispute with China but consultation will be with the United States, its key military ally.

While calling on its co-members in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to make a stand on China’s increasingly aggressive stance in the region, its neighbors have been criticizing the Philippines for being too reliant on the United States in resolving regional issues.

The government said yesterday it would officially take its concerns to the US.

The Philippines and China have been locked in a standoff over competing claims to the Scarborough Shoal, a small group of islands in the South China Sea, for more than two weeks with both sides stationing vessels there..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20120424hea6.html

Use parliamentary channels to resolve carborough row with China — solon 04/24/2012

Use parliamentary channels to resolve Scarborough row with China — solon

04/24/2012
Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño yesterday called on the leadership of both Houses of Congress to use the international parliamentary arena as part of a “diplomatic full court press” against China on the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal issue.

“I am calling on Speaker Sonny Belmonte and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile to use our international parliamentary networks in support of the Philippine position. As standing members of the Asian Parliamentary Association and the Inter Parliamentary Union we should use these venues to gather international support for our sovereign claim over Panatag Shoal,” said Casiño.

He said he will personally write parliamentarians in other countries to express concern or support for the Philippine position..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20120424nat2.html

De Lima downplays clipping of powers By Benjamin B. Pulta 04/24/2012

De Lima downplays clipping of powers

By Benjamin B. Pulta 04/24/2012

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima is downplaying the effect of a recent agreement clipping her agency’s authority to investigate plunder and graft charges against government officials.

De Lima clarified that there was no clipping of power of the Department of Justice (DoJ) in the recent memorandum of agreement (MoA) she signed with Ombudsman Conchita Carpio — Morales.

“The DoJ simply confirmed and upheld, in a duly executed MoA with the Ombudman, the latter’s primary jurisdiction over plunder and graft cases involving high-ranking government officials. Indeed, the PI and prosecution of graft cases falling under the original and exclusive jurisdiction of the Sandiganbayan properly belongs to the Ombudsman,” she said..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20120424nat1.html

Demolition in Paraaque takes one life, 36 injured 04/24/2012

Demolition in Paranaque takes one life, 36 injured

04/24/2012
One resident was reported killed on Monday as a housing demolition on Monday turned violent with police using tear gas on residents who in turn hurled rocks and other objects at them.

Paraaque City Mayor Florencio Bernabe Jr. said authorities were still verifying the identity of the fatality.

The lone fatality was found beside the center island of Sucat Road. His head was crushed.
Reports said 36 persons were injured, and several were arrested..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20120424met1.html

PNP scored for failure to arrest high-profile criminals By Gerry Baldo 04/24/2012

PNP scored for failure to arrest high-profile criminals

By Gerry Baldo 04/24/2012

The Philippine National Police (PNP) is under fire for its failure to arrest high-profile criminals including retired Army general Jovito Palparan; former Palawan Gov. Joel Reyes and his brother Coron Mayor Mario Reyes; and Dinagat Islands Rep. Ruben Ecleo Jr.

According to Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop, a former police general, the PNP lacks focus in dealing with the four figitives of the law. Acop said that the leadership of the PNP should double its efforts in running after the fugitives.

He said that the continued freedom of the criminals is a serious slap on the face of President Aquino and PNP Chief Director General Nicanor Bartolome..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20120424met3.html

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