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Noy, a danger to the country Written by Tribune Editorial

Wednesday, July 4, 2012


Noy, a danger to the country


Noynoy is really putting the country in serious harm’s way, what with his penchant for raising tensions with China, the latest being by running to the United States and announcing that he plans to ask the US to send spy planes to help the country in monitoring disputed areas in the South China Sea.

It is a really stupid move on Noynoy’s part, as even a moron can see that fires would be stoked again, when the best move, if a diplomatic solution is really being sought by the Noynoy administration, is not to create more tension between China and the Philippines.

The Palace, in defending the stupid move of Noynoy, claimed that the request for  P3C Orion spy planes from the US would be a way to enhance the country’s monitoring capabilities, with a presidential spokesman saying that the spy planes are merely for “monitoring and surveillance purposes.”

Spokesman Ricky Carandang was quoted as saying that the request for US spy planes should not be viewed by China as a form of aggression, and sought to downplay fears it could re-ignite tensions in the area.

“It is not inconsistent with our policy to de-escalate tensions in the area. First of all, it is only for surveillance and there is no armed component,” he said.....MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/commentary/editorial/item/1075-noy-a-danger-to-the-country

Dynastic moves Written by Ninez Cacho-Olivares

Dynastic moves

Let me put it this way: Would Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV, cousin to Noynoy,  have even been considered a senatorial candidate and stood a chance in running for the Senate seat  and being shortlisted by the administration party if he was not related to Noynoy, who sits in Malacañang?

For that matter, would the presidential sister, Kris Aquino, even think of running for the governorship in Tarlac, if she did not have Noynoy as her brother in Malacañang?

Let me put it another way: Would Noynoy even have stood a chance of becoming president of the republic if his mother, Cory Aquino, did not die when she did? For that matter, would Cory have become president if her husband, Ninoy, did not die the way he did and at the time when there was public hatred for the Marcos regime? And with Cory as president, would her brother-in-law Butz Aquino have become a senator of the republic?.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/commentary/item/1074-dynastic-moves

Dutch environmentalist killed in Pampanga

Dutch environmentalist killed in Pampanga



“The military forces in the area should be immediately investigated as there are several complaints and records of their involvement in human rights violations against anti-mining activists like Geertman.” – Kalikasan-PNE

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Bulatlat.com

MANILA — Outrage met reports that a Dutch environmental advocate based in the Philippines was killed early noon on July 3.
Willem Geertman, executive director of Alay Bayan Inc. (ABI), was shot and killed by unknown men in front of his office in Sto. Domingo, Angeles City Pampanga. As of this writing, human rights organizations in Central Luzon are securing more information on who was behind the killing and what the motives were.

ABI is a non-government organization that works on community-based and development-oriented responses in addressing the vulnerabilities stemming from poverty, powerlessness, environmental degradation and political abuse. Together with other environmental and civic organizations, Geertman and the ABI campaigned for disaster risk reduction and environmental concerns in Central Luzon.

Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) and the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) immediately expressed grief and demanded justice for the slain environmentalist.

Kalikasan-PNE national coordinator Clemente Bautista said Geertman was a very active advocate against large-scale mining in Pampanga and Zambales provinces.

“The military forces in the area should be immediately investigated as there are several complaints and records of their involvement in human rights violations against anti-mining activists like Geertman,” he said.
According to reports, Geertman first arrived in the Philippines 46 years ago as a Dutch missionary. He eventually devoted his life in community development and NGO work in Central Luzon. He was actively involved in land rights and environmental protection issues and concerns in the region, particularly forest protection in Aurora, Pampanga and Zambales against logging and mining.

Kalikasan-PNE said Geertman was the 17th environmental activist killed under the Aquino administration and sixth this year.

“The Aquino administration is inutile in stopping the cold-blooded murder of environmental workers. The Aquino administration’s record is bloodier than the previous Arroyo administration. Worse, it appears that President Benigno Aquino III is encouraging the perpetration of killings and human rights violations against environmental activists by defending destructive projects like large-scale mining and commercial logging. The administration also gave orders to military and paramilitary forces to give protection and serve as security forces of mining and logging companies,” Bautista said.

ABI, Kalikasan PNE and various human rights groups will immediately conduct, this week, a fact-finding mission on the incident.

For its part, Bayan slammed Geertman’s killing and demanded that investigations should be immediately launched to expose the circumstances surrounding his death. Bayan said it worked with Geertman on relief missions, particularly last year in Nueva Ecija and Aurora in the aftermath of Typhoon Pedring. Alay Bayan facilitated the relief mission of the Bayanihan Alay sa Sambayanan (BALSA) led by Bayan and allied groups.
Geertman is the second European NGO/Community worker killed under the Aquino regime, after the death of Fr. Pops Tentorio in Mindanao.

Harrasment against environmental journalists

In a related development, Kalikasan PNE also sounded the alarm over what it said was a harassment campaign against Mindanao environmental journalists.

Bautista said death threats are hounding reporters Edwin Iyo and Ben Serrano, and editor Herbie Gomez of the Mindanao-based Gold Star Daily for speaking the truth about illegal logging in Cagayan de Oro..... MORE

SourceBulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/07/03/dutch-environmentalist-killed-in-pampanga/

Geneva decisions on Syria already being distorted - Lavrov

Geneva decisions on Syria already being distorted - Lavrov


Russia regrets the Syrian opposition’s position on the Geneva conference, as well as that of some Western countries who wish to distort the agreements, FM Sergey Lavrov said.

"It seemed to us that the consensus reached in the final communique is an important step to consolidate the positions of all members of the international community, the participants in the conference and Syrian sides, on the positions of a peaceful settlement and the refusal to solve the problem in the military way," Lavrov told reporters on Tuesday.

"Unfortunately, some representatives of the Syrian opposition began to state that the Geneva decisions are unacceptable for them," the minister said..... MORE

SourceRT.com

URL: http://rt.com/politics/russia-us-syria-geneva-talks-282/

Twitter report: US leads government interference list

 Twitter report: US leads government interference list

The US is leading a list of governments which requested micro-blogging platform Twitter to provide user account information in the first half of 2012, says a Twitter Transparency Report.

­The company’s first report of its kind, which includes data from January 1, 2012, through to June 30, 2012, shows that 679 out of the 849 requests for user information came from the United States.

Japan is a distant second with 98 cases, and Britain and Canada have 11 each.

Every other listed nation made ten or fewer requests. .... MORE

SourceRT.com

URL: http://www.rt.com/news/twitter-report-usa-censorship-321/

Former Pantranco workers cry foul over government move to halt settlement

Former Pantranco workers cry foul over government move to halt settlement


The sale of Pantranco’s franchise could have made it possible for the former workers of Pantranco to receive their claims, but Transportation Sec. Mar Roxas stopped the sale.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – More than two decades after Pantranco, a Philippine government-owned bus company, shut down operations and locked out its employees, the government as their employer still has to pay them their commission, their earned separation pay and other labor benefits. Last week they came close to getting their settlement at last, but the Aquino government, through Transportation and Communications Secretary Mar Roxas, reportedly suspended the process that would have made it possible.

By now “the former workers of Pantranco are already senior citizens and many among them have died fighting for justice,” Elmer “Bong” Labog said in a statement yesterday. “After suffering so much injustice at the hands of the government, which happens to be their former employer, they are now being denied justice by the Aquino government,” Labog said..... MORE

SourceBulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/07/04/former-pantranco-workers-cry-foul-over-government-move-to-halt-settlement/

New take on 4Ps

New take on 4Ps

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) — the government’s flagship “human development program” — patterned after the Bolsa Programs in, among others, Mexico and Brazil, has taken a new meaning if we go by the latest assessment of the think tank IBON Foundation.

Instead of being the “poverty alleviation and empowerment program” that was started in 2007 under the Arroyo administration, 4Ps under P-Noy has, in the eyes of IBON and an increasing number of sectors, come to mean Perception, Promises, Propaganda and Pogi points, which  is a pity indeed.

For a time there, people did not really mind allocating government funds for such urgent intervention, especially since it was meant to tide over the most deprived and marginalized sectors for a limited period of time in exchange for actual participation in a monitored “education and health” alleviation program. But cynicism set in when the program’s funding rose geometrically under P-Noy from P6.609 billion for 777,505 beneficiaries in the last year of the previous.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/commentary/item/1058-new-take-on-4ps

Torrential rains flood Metro, kills 2 in mishap

Torrential rains flood Metro, kills 2 in mishap

  • Written by 
  • Wednesday, 04 July 2012
Two people were killed after a wall collapsed from heavy rains that pounded Metro Manila yesterday, bringing floods that have been worsened by garbage clogging the city’s sewers and drains, officials said.

Waist-deep floods swamped low-lying areas of Manila after a dam near the city overspilled and had to open its gates, swelling rivers downstream, Anna Orallo of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), said.

The capital recorded its first deaths from the weather early yesterday when two Valenzuela residents were crushed to death after a “stone wall beside their house collapsed because of the rain,” Orallo said.

Teams were deployed in the capital to provide help in case the flooding worsened, Metropolitan Manila Deve-lopment Authority (MMDA) Chairman Francis Tolentino said..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/headlines/item/1086-torrential-rains-flood-metro-kills-2-in-mishap

SC orders JBC: Reply to plea on composition of 8

SC orders JBC: Reply to plea on composition of 8

  • Written by 
  • Wednesday, 04 July 2012
De Lima insists she’s Noy’s best person for CJ job

The Supreme Court (SC) en banc yesterday ordered the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) to answer the petition questioning the composition of its members and the  voting powers of the congressional members in the JBC.

After an en banc deliberation, the SC directed the JBC to file its comment until Monday, July 9, after former Solicitor General Francisco Chavez questioned the composition of the JBC, in particular the two representatives from Congress, namely,  Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., chairman of the House justice committee, and Sen. Francis Escudero, head of the Senate committee on justice.

Aside from the JBC, both Escudero and Tupas were also asked by the SC to file their respective explanations whether or not each of them will have one full vote or only half vote each.

The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), whose chief, Francis Jardaleza, is also a nominee, was ordered to file its comment.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/headlines/item/1090-sc-orders-jbc-reply-to-plea-on-composition-of-8

Poll body gives Miriam ultimatum: File resignation before Oct. 5

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) appears bent on kicking out Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago from her Senate seat before her term ends as it informed  her to file her resignation letter before Oct. 5 if she decides to leave the Senate for her judgeship in the International  Criminal Court (ICC).

Santiago has been elected to the ICC court, but has not as yet been sworn in for the job.

She also stated earlier that the Comelec should not rush her into leaving her Senate seat, as her term ends in 2016, and not 2013.

But Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes said Santiago should file her resignation anytime before such date for the poll body to know if there will be a 13th slot for senator in the May 2013 polls.

There is no law that says a sitting senator, even if one decides to resign or dies, prior to a certain date, for the poll body to have a 13th slot for the Senate..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/headlines/item/1089-poll-body-gives-miriam-ultimatum-file-resignation-before-oct-5

Mining firm sues Zambales town mayor

Mining firm sues Zambales town mayor

A mining company earlier accused of cutting down trees without a permit and leveling a mountain in Zambales has accused Sta. Cruz town Mayor Luisito Marty of “corruption and conflict of interest” and for misleading the public on its alleged illegal activities in the area.

Lnl Archipelago Minerals Inc. (Lami) alleged that the mayor was trying to confuse the public, adding that the “mining activities” were actually port development activities. Lami claimed that it has secured a permit to clear its port site that sits on a 1.8-hectare private property and said there was no mountain on the same site.

In a letter sent to Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Ramon Paje dated June 27, Lami clarified that contrary to news reports, Marty’s protest was not against mining but actually against the port...... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/nation/item/1083-mining-firm-sues-zambales-town-mayor

Comelec to register 20M IPs

Comelec to register 20M IPs

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) today signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with  the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the National Commission on  Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), an attached government agency under the Office of the President, to ensure that an estimated 16 million to 20 million indigenous people are registered and qualified to vote in the May 2013 national and local elections.

The MoA was signed by Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes and all the commisioners, NCIP Chairman Zenaida Pawid and DILG Secretary Jessie Robredo.

The number of unregistered Indigenous Peoples (IP),  the NCIP claimed, was 16 million nationwide, while the Comelec placed it at around 20 million.

Brillantes said that with  the registration, the poll body may now determine the exact number of IPs qualified to vote..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/nation/item/1081-comelec-to-register-20m-ips

Military’s anti-coup unit deactivated, says Dellosa

The military’s primary anti-coup unit National Capital Region Command (NCRCom) will be downgraded to a joint task force upon the retirement of its incumbent chief Maj. Gen. Tristan Kison next week.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Gen. Jessie Dellosa, in a chance interview last Monday afternoon, said the decision to deactivate NCRCom and the creation of a joint task force is already final.

“Not actually abolition but it is downgrading,”  Dellosa said.

“That’s final. Actually, we are discussing now the structure once the NCRCom is downgraded from two or three-star general to only one-star general. So, meaning to say the headquarters would be smaller,”  Dellosa added.

Dellosa said the downgrading of the NCRCom will take effect upon the retirement of Kison on July 12 when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 56..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/metro-section/item/1061-military%E2%80%99s-anti-coup-unit-deactivated-says-dellosa

Solon goads Comelec: Open records of party-list groups

ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio yesterday urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to give the public freer access to records submitted by organizations wishing to participate in the 2013 party-list elections because as it is, their system is prone to corruption and abuse.

“The people can help Comelec weed out bogus party-lists, but they have to be armed with information which, right now, is mostly in the hands of Comelec. If these information are hidden from the public then bogus party-lists can slip into Congress more easily,” Tinio said.

The poll body earlier had vowed to rid the final list of organizations which do not legitimately represent marginalized sectors.  However, those who wish to aid in the purging are usually frustrated in the earliest stages since they cannot even get from Comelec copies of relevant records..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/metro-section/item/1062-solon-goads-comelec-open-records-of-party-list-groups

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