Mediocrity, incompetence, disability VIEWPOINTS Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz 05/22/2011

Mediocrity, incompetence, disability

VIEWPOINTS

Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz

05/22/2011
In all human ventures — especially those affecting the good and welfare of others — there are basically three qualifying degrees pointing out the performance rating of one behind the said human agenda. In their descending order, they are thus customarily known: Mediocrity.
Incompetence. Disability. They are readily relevant and applicable to anybody heading a family, to somebody managing a business, and especially so to someone having a leadership position in a community and other human endeavors — with bigger or lesser social impact on others. It can be thus also said that as a matter of course, the respective opposites of the said negative traits are excellence, proficiency, adeptness.

Mediocrity is what characterizes leadership with but barely a passing mark. It is leadership that is neither here nor there, that is neither all good nor all bad. It barely delivers what is desired in the same way that it barely stops what is unwanted. Following are some of the words commonly used to describe the reality: Passable. Pedestrian. Inconsequential..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110522com5.html

Man returns to desolate Argentina town after flood FEATURE 05/22/2011

Man returns to desolate Argentina town after flood

FEATURE

05/22/2011
VILLA EPECUEN — In a town all but destroyed when its salt lake overflowed over three decades ago, the desolation is surreal: From silvery-white empty houses and hotels to trees, stark and dead; and one lonely man who calls this home.

Once a lake country spa town south of Buenos Aires, Epecuen is a lagoon with a salinity level only topped by the Dead Sea. For decades, tourists visited to take its waters believing they were good for one’s health.

Everything came crashing down in 1985 when a long period of heavy rains sent the lagoon bursting over its banks, and it swept over a busy small town.

“I had a bunch of cats and dogs, and they ran away a couple days before the flood and I never saw them again,” Norma Berg, 48, told AFP, recalling her childhood spent here, until the flood..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110522com6.html

La Vista cat killer BLURBAL THRUSTS Louie Logarta 05/22/2011

La Vista cat killer

BLURBAL THRUSTS

Louie Logarta

05/22/2011
The last “summer extravaganza” for Senate press corps members (there are supposed to be around 100 of them coming from the various print, radio and television outlets) that was held in the Liquid Pool and Lounge at the Manila Ocean Park, Luneta is said to have been one great, big flop.

Despite the great amount of time and effort expended by the media relations officers of some senators to ensure its success, the so-called press outing — which was originally designed to promote camaraderie and bonding among the numerous newsmen assigned to cover the Senate beat and thank them for their work during the previous session and also entice them to write more compassionate stories about the senators in the future — fizzled out because there were only about 15 reporters and photographers who turned up for the affair last May 6, a Friday. The said outing was scheduled only at the Luneta Ocean Park due to the assumption that the Merci Gutierrez impeachment trial would be pushing through, thus an out-of-town gimmick was ill-advised.

As told to us by some insiders, the latest bash, which lasted all of six interminable hours, totally paled in comparison to past summer outings that were usually overnight affairs organized by the staff of individual senators, where the Senate reporters could eat, drink and carouse to their hearts content, as if it were the last day of the world..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110522com4.html

Roxas has Chief of Staff post in bag, says Palace By Aytch S. de la Cruz 05/22/2011

Roxas has Chief of Staff post in bag, says Palace

By Aytch S. de la Cruz 05/22/2011

Former Sen. Manuel Roxas II has the Chief of Staff post in the bag and he is expected to assume his position holding an office inside Malacañang by the first week of June, deputy presidential spokesman Abigail Valte told reporters yesterday.

Valte said President Aquino will sign and release the Administrative Order (AO) restoring the defunct Office of the Presidential Chief of Staff to accommodate his losing running mate within two weeks.

The posting of Roxas as Chief of Staff has come under intense attack from both critics and allies of Aquino, saying the position is clearly a political accommodation since the current political setup makes the position redundant and that it is expected to heighten the friction among the different factions within the Palace.

Aquino met with Roxas last Friday but neither Valte nor presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda was able to provide reporters substantial details on what transpired during the meeting since it was private..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110522hed1.html

Palace remains evasive on calls to oust Diokno 05/22/2011

Palace remains evasive on calls to oust Diokno

05/22/2011
Malacañang remained ambiguous on the sanctions that may be imposed on Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director Ernesto Diokno despite mounting calls for his resignation over the reported special treatment extended by jail authorities to homicide convict and former Batangas Gov. Jose Antonio Leviste.

Deputy presidential spokesman Abigail Valte said Justice Secretary Leila de Lima is expected to submit her recommendations to President Aquino in the coming days and she advised the public and other government officials concerned to just wait until that document reaches Malacañang.

Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada called on BuCor director, retired Chief Supt. Ernesto Diokno, to immediately resign from his post amid the Leviste incident. He also sought a full investigation of the so-called “VIP (very important person) treatment” at the National Bilibid Prisons..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110522hed3.html

Migrant group pushes probe of Labor execs in Mideast 05/22/2011

Migrant group pushes probe of Labor execs in Mideast

05/22/2011
An alliance of overseas Filipino migrants group yesterday asked Congress to conduct an investigation into the alleged involvement of some members of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in the Middle East in human smuggling.

“These reports must be investigated, after gathering (pieces of) evidence, we hope it will lead to filing of appropriate charges against these erring overseas Labor officials,” John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator, in a statement, said.

The group urged Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz to file an administrative and appropriate criminal case against erring officials in Kuwait who are accused of accepting bribe from recruitment agents..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110522hed4.html

Bill seeks retraining, fixed salaries for bus drivers By Charlie V. Manalo 05/22/2011

Bill seeks retraining, fixed salaries for bus drivers

By Charlie V. Manalo 05/22/2011
In the wake of the spate of vehicular accidents in some of the country’s main thoroughfares involving buses, more lawmakers are proposing that bus drivers undergo retraining programs and be given a fixed monthly salary.

Yesterday, PBA Rep. Mark Aeron Sambar joined the list of lawmakers clamoring for the twin proposals as he filed House Bill 4459, saying the government should adopt urgent measures to prevent the unabated road accidents involving buses.

Under the bill to be known as the Competence Accreditation Program and Minimum Wage for Bus Drivers Act of 2011, drivers will get proper training and will be subjected to an accreditation program before being allowed to ply the streets.

“Bus drivers are notorious for reckless driving habits of swerving their way through busy traffic or careening through open highways,” Sambar said..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110522nat1.html

Binay: Businesses should take care of workers 05/22/2011

Binay: Businesses should take care of workers

05/22/2011
Vice President Jejomar Binay last Friday urged businessmen to take care of their workers by ensuring compliance with accepted wage and other labor standards.

“You must take care of your labor force. Labor is the creator of capital. Without labor, there will be no capital,” Binay said in a speech during the induction of officers and trustees of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the Marco Polo Hotel in Cebu City.

“Within President Aquino’s Labor Agenda, the issues of minimum wage, social protection, workplace safety, compliance of labor standards and security of tenure stand as concrete considerations. It is here where I ask that you consider devoting your efforts,” he said..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110522nat8.html

Lawmakers buck move banning tricycles, pedicabs from highways, major thoroughfares By Charlie V. Manalo 05/22/2011

Lawmakers buck move banning tricycles, pedicabs from highways, major thoroughfares

By Charlie V. Manalo 05/22/2011

Lawmakers yesterday called on the government to conduct studies and public consultation with the people, stakeholders and the local government units (LGUs) before initiating a ban on tricycles and pedicabs on highways and major thoroughfares to prevent road accidents.

ACT Rep. Dante Antonio Tinio said the move will dislocate thousands of tricycle and pedicab drivers who rely solely on plying the street as their source of income.

Tinio was reacting to the statement of Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo calling on local chief executives and members of the local legislative councils to ban tricycles and pedicabs from national roads..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110522met2.html

BI set to deport American wanted in Brazil for investment scam 05/22/2011

BI set to deport American wanted in Brazil for investment scam

05/22/2011
The Bureau of Immigration (BI) is set to deport next week an American wanted by Brazilian authorities for defrauding investors of millions of dollars in stock investment scam.

Immigration Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. instructed the bureau’s legal and investigation division to expedite the summary deportation proceedings against the suspect identified as William Preston Strong, 54.

Strong was arrested by operatives of BI Interpol Unit headed by Bernard Cruzata in a Boracay resort in Malay, Aklan last May 6. He is presently detained at the bureau’s detention facility in Bicutan, Taguig City pending issuance of a deportation order by the BI Board of Commissioners..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110522met4.html

All talk, no progress EDITORIAL 05/21/2011

All talk, no progress

EDITORIAL

Click to enlarge

05/21/2011
Improving the economy and bringing back investor confidence were among the sales pitches of Noynoy Aquino when he sought the presidency during last year’s elections.

He claimed then that, with the old regime out, and with him as president, investors would flock to the country, as the country would then be opened for business.

The result: Almost a year after assuming power, the competitiveness of the country in the world had slipped and it had remained the doormat in the Asia-Pacific.

The assessment was unanimous, Noynoy is all talk thus far and he has failed to translate lofty promises he made during the campaigns, and afterwards, into action..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110521com1.html

Blaming the columnists FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 05/21/2011

Blaming the columnists

FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

05/21/2011
Blame is now being placed on the columnist-critics of Noynoy, for his plunging ratings.

His mouthpieces said the “good news” of the Aquino administration is, in effect, being drowned out by these columnists who bring out the negative, instead of the positive aspects under the Noynoy presidency.

Looks like he and his propagandists are still into denial, because columnists critical of his government wouldn’t have any negatives to write about if, in the first place, Noynoy and his administration really have something to show for the claimed gains and reforms achieved by them.

It is not the columnists who come out with say, the global surveys that certainly show a very poor picture of the country and the government..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110521com2.html

Armed with stones, petrol bombs: Kurdish youth claim mission FEATURE 05/21/2011

Armed with stones, petrol bombs: Kurdish youth claim mission

FEATURE

05/21/2011
DIYARBAKIR — At the age of 15, Adem knows how to make a petrol bomb and can quickly turn a scarf into a balaclava — that’s the equipment he needs for his own warfare in Turkey’s 26-year Kurdish conflict.

The eighth-grader is one of thousands of Kurdish youths whose violent street protests have become a serious challenge to police, turning urban areas into a battlefield where banks are torched, public property is vandalized and many are injured, and sometimes killed.

“If the police have pepper gas, we have stones and Molotov cocktails,” Adem, clad in school uniform, said confidently in Diyarbakir, the largest city of the mainly Kurdish southeast and a hotbed of ethnic militancy.

“Sometimes you would make your own Molotov and sometimes someone would bring many and distribute them... We would dismantle the pavements, breaking them with a sledgehammer,” he said..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110521com3.html

Amnesty International hits Aquino government for lack of justice, continuing violations

 Amnesty International hits Aquino government for lack of justice, continuing violations

“Civilians continued to be killed as the military’s counter-insurgency plan failed to differentiate between civilians and members of the NPA [New People’s Army]. In some cases, the police or the military claimed that the deaths occurred during ‘legitimate encounters.’” Amnesty International.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – An international human rights organization lamented the unresolved cases of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings under the new Aquino administration.

In its world human rights report released May 13, Amnesty International (AI) stated: “More than 200 cases of enforced disappearances recorded in the last decade remained unresolved, as did at least 305 cases of extrajudicial execution (with some estimates ranging as high as 1,200). Almost no perpetrators of these crimes have been brought to justice.”

The group cited a report commissioned by the United States Agency for International Development and NGO the Asia Foundation that recorded 305 cases of extrajudicial executions with 390 victims from 2001 to 2010. “The same report stated that only one percent of reported cases resulted in a conviction, and that members of the armed forces were implicated in 20 percent of cases.”

AI also cited a report from the Commission on Human Rights in February 2010 saying it has recorded 777 cases of extrajudicial executions and 251 cases of enforced disappearance since 2001. AI noted that in September of the same year, human rights group Karapatan recorded 1,206 extrajudicial executions and 206 victims of enforced disappearance during the same period.

AI also noted that almost none of the victims’ families received reparations.

Civilian deaths

AI said there are at least 38 alleged political killings reported in 2010.

“Civilians continued to be killed as the military’s counter-insurgency plan failed to differentiate between civilians and members of the NPA [New People’s Army]. In some cases, the police or the military claimed that the deaths occurred during ‘legitimate encounters,’” AI said, citing the case of botanist Leonardo Co and two others..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/05/20/amnesty-international-hit-aquino-government-for-lack-of-justice-continuing-violations/

Bank employees also suffer from meager wages despite industry’s profitability

Bank employees also suffer from meager wages despite industry’s profitability
“We, bank employees, are victims of meager wages despite the fact that the banking industry is one of the most profitable in the country,” Raymund Acenia, president of the Hongkong Bank Independent Labor Union
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Bulatlat.com
 
MANILA — For banking employees, their airconditioned working areas, nice uniforms and, perhaps, the mere fact that they are working in a lucrative industry, do not mean that they do not share the same plight as any other rank and file employee or Filipino worker.

“We, bank employees, are victims of meager wages despite the fact that the banking industry is one of the most profitable in the country,” Raymund Acenia, president of the Hongkong Bank Independent Labor Union, a rank and file union at the Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corporation, said.
Acenia, in an interview with Bulatlat.com, said that their meager income as rank and file employees does not keep pace with the increasing prices of staple food, transportation costs, among others.

Mark Gonzales, president of the Planters Development Bank Employees Association, a rank and file union at the Planters Development Bank where he is a credit investigator for 15 years, half wishes he could file and approve his own loan. He added that most of their members are deeply in debt, which is “ironic because we are working where the money is concentrated.”

“Our salaries do not reflect the state of our company’s earnings, considering that the banking industry is one of the most profitable industries today,” Gonzales said.

For one, a national daily reported that last year (2010) was considered as the “banner year” for the Philippine banking industry as “universal and commercial banks yielded a significant rise in profits” with a combined net income amounting to $1.94 million last year, 31 percent higher than in 2009. One of the largest banks in the country, the Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. (Metro Bank) raked in a 39 percent growth in their net profit, which is equivalent to about $195 million. Other banks such as Union Bank and Philippine Savings Bank also declared an increase in their net income by 24 percent, or about $12.4 million, and 46 percent, or about $40.54 million, respectively.

There seems to be no end in sight yet for the continuing increasing profits of the banking industry as Nestor Espenilla Jr., deputy governor of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, said in a report.

Yet, banking employees such as Acenia and Gonzales could not help but wonder what the future holds for them as outsourcing and contractualization threats continue to loom, especially with the BSP Circular No. 268 and its succeeding circulars.

Outsourcing
 
The BSP Circular No. 268 lists the positions and functions that can be outsourced, as approved by the Monetary Board.

“No bank or any director, officer, employee, or agent thereof shall outsource inherent banking functions,” Section 2.1 of the said circular read. Subject to prior approval of the Monetary Board, however, “banks may outsource all information technology systems and processes.”.... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/05/20/bank-employees-also-suffer-from-meager-wages-despite-industrys-profitability/

Working people remember Ka Bel and his struggle for a P125 legislated wage hike

Working people remember Ka Bel and his struggle for a P125 legislated wage hike

Given the growing number of lawmakers supporting the legislation of a substantial wage hike, workers remembering Ka Bel today are hoping that finally, the bill which he first authored and filed may be enacted at last.

By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Today marks the third death anniversary of Crispin ‘Ka Bel’ Beltran, a staunch labor leader whose death called attention to his remaining as poor and pang-masa, despite having been a barong-clad party-list congressman for more than two terms.

His family and members of labor organizations announced they will hold a short program today at his commemorative bust at Plaza Miranda in Quiapo, Manila. After that they will hold a rally from Plaza Miranda to Mendiola Bridge (now Chino Roces) with other sectors to press their demand for the passage of the P125 ($2.90) wage hike bill. In the evening they will hold a film showing about the life of Ka Bel as well as a program giving him tribute at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani in Quezon City.

Roger Soluta, secretary-general of labor center KMU which Ka Bel chaired for years since the late 80s, said their vow to advance the people’s struggle for their basic rights and for a significant wage hike is, in their belief, the highest tribute they can give Ka Bel.

The P125 wage hike bill was first filed by Ka Bel in 2001 when he was a Bayan Muna party-list representative. He subsequently refiled the bill in the succeeding reopening of Congress since then. Today, ten years after its first filing and three years after Ka Bel’s death, it still remains a bill.

KMU’s Roger Soluta seen as “removing” the hindrances to substantial wage hike. (Photos by Randy Evangelista / bulatlat.com)

Removing barriers to legislating a wage hike

More than a week after the Aquino government through the regional wage boards started granting emergency cost-of-living allowances in lieu of a wage hike, the demand for a legislated substantial wage hike remains firm on the workers’ agenda. This week, the progressive labor center KMU picketed the offices of the labor department in Manila to condemn what they call as the department’s acting as “spokesperson” of the big capitalists. The KMU said DOLE demonstrated that when it defended the widely condemned P22 ($0.51) emergency COLA..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/05/20/working-people-remember-ka-bel-and-his-struggle-for-a-p125-legislated-wage-hike/

Satur C. Ocampo | Palparan’s comeuppance

Satur C. Ocampo | Palparan’s comeuppance

By Satur C. Ocampo


Remember Jovito Palparan Jr., the notorious Philippine Army officer tagged by militant political activists as “The Butcher”?

In 2007 the Melo Commission recommended Palparan’s investigation for extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and other human rights violations. Instead, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo personally presented him as a special guest and commended his exploits during her 2008 state-of-the-nation address, thus abetting his continued terror campaign till he retired as major general in 2009.

Now Palparan may soon be hailed to court to face criminal charges. Comeuppance at last!

Last Wednesday the mothers of the two former UP students, Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno, who were abducted and “disappeared” in 2006, filed a complaint at the Department of Justice against Palparan, two Army colonels and several others. The charges: rape, serious physical injuries, arbitrary detention, maltreatment of prisoners, grave threats, grave coercion, and violation of RA 7438 (on the rights of detained persons).

Sherlyn and Karen were abducted by armed men on June 26, 2006 in Hagonoy, Bulacan. Witnesses have identified their abductors as soldiers of the Army’s 56th Infantry Battalion in Norzagaray, Bulacan. They were detained and tortured in a camp in Limay, Bataan under the 24th IB. The 56th and 24th IBs were both under the 7th Infantry Division, then headed by Palparan.

Their mothers, Erlinda T. Cadapan and Concepcion E. Empeno, filed a petition for habeas corpus at the Supreme Court. The SC directed the Court of Appeals to hear the petitions. Initially the CA denied the petition in 2007, but on appeal in 2008 it reversed the ruling and ordered the military to release the two women.

Yet to this day they remain in limbo.

At least two factors can be credited for the recent positive turn of events.

1. The courageous and credible detailed testimony at the 2008 CA hearing of a young Bulacan farmer, Raymond Manalo. His testimony — which convinced the CA to reverse its 2007 ruling on the habeas corpus petition cited above — is the linchpin of the criminal case, backed up by the testimonies of seven other witnesses.

In that testimony Raymond cited the direct involvement of Palparan in the abduction, detention and torture of Sherlyn and Karen. In a separate testimony earlier in his own petition for the writ of amparo related to his abduction, he detailed Palparan’s direct role and those of his two trusted aides since the 1980s, MSgt. Donald Caigas and MSgt. Rizal Hilario..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/05/14/satur-c-ocampo-palparans-comeuppance/

Union of Government employees raise issue of discontinuance of housing loans with new GSIS leadership

Union of Government employees raise issue of discontinuance of housing loans with new GSIS leadership

“The GSIS and the rest of the government’s agencies concerned with providing socialized housing should look at this issue not in terms of profitability and return on investments, but as a service to the Filipino people.” – Gaite
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Bulatlat.com

In 2009, leaders and members of the Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (COURAGE ) and its affiliate unions were attacked with teargas and strong blasts from water cannons when they staged a protest in front of the Pasay main office of the Government Social Insurance Service (GSIS). The GSIS then was headed by Winston Garcia. On May 18 this year, they were welcomed with open arms by the new GSIS General Manager Robert Vergara in a dialogue inside the GSIS building itself.
COURAGE initially went to the GSIS to picket the said agency for what it alleged to be the agency’s “continuing failure to provide members with basic benefits such as housing and educational loans.” Ten minutes after the program started in front of the GSIS main gate, Vergara issued the invitation to a dialogue and the government employees accepted with alacrity.

The group led by its president Ferdinand Gaite is against the announcement the agency made recently that it will stop accepting housing loan applications after April 28. According to the GSIS, a growing number of borrowers failed to pay their dues and the GSIS is rethinking its policies when it comes to housing loans.

Government employees led by the Confederation for Unity,Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (COURAGE ) hold a protest in front of the main office of the Government Social Insurance Service (GSIS) against what they said was the mismanagement of the pension fund and the agency’s failure to provide members with efficient service and substantial benefits.”(Photos by Ina Alleco R. Silverio / bulatlat.com)

Gaite said the GSIS should reconsider its decision to stop the housing loan program because it is against the interest of low-income earning government employees .

“The right to own secure and decent housing continues to be denied majority of state workers. The issue of social housing is something the Aquino presidency continued to neglect, but now we hear that the GSIS is washing its hands of its responsibility to help us fulfill our humble dreams to own houses of our own,” he said.

Housing loans needed by small income earners

During the dialogue with Vergara, Gaite said that the GSIS should consider the societal and humanitarian implications of its decision to stop issuing housing loans. “The GSIS and the rest of the government’s agencies concerned with providing socialized housing should look at this issue not in terms of profitability and return on investments, but as a service to the Filipino people,” he said.

According to reports, some 1.4 million government employees are active GSIS members and the agency has around P11 billion (US$ 255.8 million) unpaid housing loans for 17,000 properties.

“The alleged P 11 billion the GSIS lost because of unpaid housing loans is, without doubt, small when compared to the money lost because of the various anomalous deals and questionable investments the previous GSIS Board of Trustees made,” he said..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/05/19/union-of-government-employees-raise-issue-of-discontinuance-of-housing-loans-with-new-gsis-leadership/

China defense exec, Oban, Gazmin to meet in private By Michaela P. del Callar and Mario J. Mallari 05/21/2011

AFTER CHINESE JET BUZZING INCIDENT

China defense exec, Oban, Gazmin to meet in private

By Michaela P. del Callar and Mario J. Mallari 05/21/2011

Amid fresh tensions between China and the Philippines after two recent close calls near a disputed group of islands, China’s top defense official is arriving in the country today for a five-day visit that includes a closed-door meeting with Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Gen. Eduardo Oban Jr. and a separate dialog with President Aquino.

The visit of Gen. Liang Guanglie, State Councilor and Minister of National Defense of the People’s Republic of China, “is expected to further advance China-Philippines friendly relations,” a Chinese Embassy statement said.

The Executive and the military, meanwhile, opted to keep their lips sealed over the recent
incident where two Chinese jet fighters reportedly buzzed two Philippine Air Force OV-10 bombers that are on a reconnaisance flight over the Philippine-occupied Reed Bank off Palawan..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110521hed1.html

Accommodate Roxas but let him pass thru CA — Angara By Angie M. Rosales 05/21/2011

Accommodate Roxas but let him pass thru CA — Angara

By Angie M. Rosales 05/21/2011

If President Aquino is intent on giving a Cabinet position to his defeated running mate, former Sen. Manuel Roxas II, it should be a post that will have to pass through the bicameral Commission on Appointments (CA), Sen. Edgardo Angara said yesterday.

Angara, incidentally, was the first to warn of the possibility of further divisiveness in the Aquino administration if Roxas is appointed chief of staff, an appointment that the Palace said does not need to go through the confirmation process of the powerful CA.

“I think he should be given a position. But if he was to be given a position with a vast authority, then, let it be a position that’s to be a subject for confirmation by the Senate and by the CA so that his authority and responsibility will be subjected to scrutiny and the position can be examined. That’s my point, really,” Angara said.

Earlier, Angara noted that the plan of Aquino to issue an administrative order creating the Office of the Chief of Staff for Roxas may only complicate the affairs of the administration rather than contribute to its output, paricularly with the level of “factionalism” among supporters of Aquino..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110521hed3.html

BSP execs deny Banco Filipino graft raps By Benjamin B. Pulta 05/21/2011

BSP execs deny Banco Filipino graft raps

By Benjamin B. Pulta 05/21/2011

Monetary regulators have formally denied the graft charges filed against them by officials of the
Banco Filipino Savings and Mortgage Bank in connection with the bank’s closure.

Officials of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) led by governor Amado Tetangco Jr., deputy governor Nestor Espenilla Jr., deputy governor and general counsel Juan de Zuniga Jr., and Monetary Board members Juanita Amatong, Alfredo Antonio, Ignacio Bunye and Peter Favila submitted their counter-affidavit to the DoJ panel chaired by Senior State Prosecutor Rosanne Balauag during hearing.

The seven officials said they did not violate Section 3 (e) of RA 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act) in ordering Banco Filipino’s closure after denying the grant of emergency loans needed by the bank under an emergency situation..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110521nat2.html

Use airport income, travel tax for NAIA makeover – solon By Charlie V. Manalo 05/21/2011

Use airport income, travel tax for NAIA makeover – solon

By Charlie V. Manalo 05/21/2011
A member of the House of Representatives yesterday asked that authorities running the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), which has been ranked by travelers as Asia’s worst airport, to utilize part of its P7.5 billion gross profit in 2009 and the P1.4 billion income in travel tax collection to finance an “emergency makeover” of the airport.

“Poverty can never be an excuse on why the NAIA continues to be beset by poor facilities because year in and year out it is turning in a tidy profit,” Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara said.

Angara made the comment after the Web site, “The Guide to Sleeping in Airports,” ranked the NAIA, particularly Terminal 1, which it described as a “bombed-out ruin” and a “cattle yard,” not only Asia’s worst but also the fifth worst in the world.

Angara said the Manila International Airport Authority, which operates the three NAIA terminals and the old domestic terminal, posted a before-tax net profit of P1.17 billion out of a gross income of P7.5 billion in 2009..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110521met1.html

Gang leader wanted for slay of Caloocan student nabbed, jailed By Arlie O. Calalo 05/21/2011

Gang leader wanted for slay of Caloocan student nabbed, jailed

By Arlie O. Calalo 05/21/2011

A dreaded gang leader who has been wanted for murdering a student more than a year ago was finally arrested last Thursday after a month-long surveillance of his hiding place in Caloocan City.

Behind bars is Paolo Terraza, 20, of Binangonan Street, Maypajo, Caloocan City.

The other alleged gang member, Reynard Simbillo, was the first to be arrested while their cohort, Robert Jay Trinidad, remains scot-free, Chief Insp. Cris Lleva, head of the district intelligence unit (DIU) of the Northern Police District (NPD), said.

This as NPD director Chief Supt. Antonio Decano praised Lleva and his men whose surveillance that lasted for over a month resulted in the arrest of Terraza who has been described in the police report as the dreaded gang leader in the community..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110521met4.html

Aquino urged to stop ‘special treatment’ afforded VIP prisoners By Gerry Baldo 05/21/2011

Aquino urged to stop ‘special treatment’ afforded VIP prisoners

By Gerry Baldo 05/21/2011

A lawmaker from Navotas yesterday called on the Aquino government to institute a thorough review of the country’s penal system in the light of the recent revelations that some prisoners are getting special treatment from officials of the Bureau of Corrections (Bucor).

According to Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco, the review should focus on how to stop the practice of allowing prisoners out without a court order.

“We have to find a way to stop this practice,” Tiangco said yesterday.

Tiangco also stressed officials of Bucor should be held accountable for their actions..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110521met2.html

Now it’s a P23-B CCT project EDITORIAL 05/20/2011

Now it’s a P23-B CCT project

EDITORIAL

Click to enlarge

05/20/2011
Noy’s favorite Cabinet secretary, Dinky Soliman, since she seems to have cornered the juiciest part of this year’s budget appeared to have gained more favors as the budget for the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program was quietly jacked up by P2 billion.

Giving her the benefit of the doubt, nevertheless, Dinky’s P2-billion extra fund went to the program grant presumably to boost the cash being distributed to the poor.

The problem seems to be in the fact that the beneficiaries remained at 2.3 million families that presupposes the program lacked the groundwork to really determine the amount that each of the poor families would get.

Also, her report to the House should have included the progress of the CCT program, particularly the percentage of the targeted families who were already reached since it would appear that most of the cash in the program had already been transferred, the reason for the extra budget and it is not even the middle of the year yet..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110520com1.html

System going to the dogs FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 05/20/2011

System going to the dogs

FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

05/20/2011
What is the system coming to, under the presidency of Noynoy Aquino?

The House of Representatives, which is dominated and even controlled by Noynoy and his allies, are not satisfied at all with having impeached the Ombudsman — who, however, denied the congressmen-prosecutors, their chance to grandstand through a Senate trial by resigning a few days before the trial was scheduled to start — are back into the impeachment mode, this time targeting a Supreme Court associate justice, Mariano del Castillo, on grounds that he had committed plagiarism as ponente in an SC ruling.

The House justice committee, by a vote of 10-11, found the complaint “sufficient in form.”.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110520com2.html

Mass graves spread fear through Mexican city focus 05/20/2011

Mass graves spread fear through Mexican city

focus

05/20/2011
DURANGO — The stench of death fills the air of Mexico’s northern city of Durango, where 218 bodies have been unearthed from six hidden graves in the past month.

Most of the bodies were dug out from under houses in a middle class neighborhood as residents watched in horror — and silence.

Known as the land of revolutionary hero Pancho Villa and as a backdrop for Western movies, Durango state, with its eponymous capital, has in recent years emerged as another landmark in Mexico’s brutal drug wars.

Authorities blamed some 900 deaths in the state in 2010 on rising drug violence, out of some 15,000 across the country, the latest in a tide of killings that has unfolded alongside a military crackdown on organized crime..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110520com3.html

In China, some new cities are ghost towns FEATURE 05/20/2011

In China, some new cities are ghost towns

FEATURE

05/20/2011
KANGBASHI — In China’s Inner Mongolia, Kangbashi district offers residents “new modern” living, with tree-lined streets, shiny apartment buildings, vast parklands, restaurants and even a motor racing track.

But seven years after construction workers broke ground on the arid plateau, most of the apartments appear empty and the wide streets are almost deserted — earning Kangbashi the tag of “ghost city.”

The new section of Ordos city on the edge of the Gobi desert was designed to accommodate about 300,000 people but residents say fewer than one-tenth of that number live in Kangbashi. Estate agents insist the number is much higher.

New districts like Kangbashi are springing up across China as the world’s second-largest economy undergoes an unprecedented urbanization process with hundreds of millions of people heading to fast-growing metropolitan areas.... MORE
Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110520com6.html

Asia’s ambitions for IMF top job remain elusive ANALYSIS 05/20/2011

Asia’s ambitions for IMF top job remain elusive

ANALYSIS

05/20/2011
SINGAPORE — When the topic of International Monetary Fund (IMF) succession was floated at an Asian financial summit in Hanoi earlier this month, the most popular name mentioned was not from the region at all.

With Asia’s emerging economies, particularly China and India, now the main driver of global growth, calls have been building for a review of the post-World War II consensus that sees an American head the World Bank and a European the IMF.

But in Vietnam, it was French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, attending an Asian Development Bank (ADB) meeting, who was being tipped to succeed her compatriot Dominique Strauss-Kahn, participants said.

Events have taken a dramatic turn with the stunning arrest in New York of Strauss-Kahn, who had been expected to give up his post as IMF managing director to make a run for the French presidency next year..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110520com7.html

A coup in the IMF? DIE HARD III Herman Tiu Laurel 05/20/2011

A coup in the IMF?

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

05/20/2011
Then the international cable channels first reported breaking news of International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s arrest for alleged sexual assault, my reaction must have been typical of most: Another powerful man caught in a scandalous bind; serves him right. The assumption of guilt was too easy, especially since the IMF and its bureaucrats have the image of being instrumentalities of financial and economic tyranny all over the world.
Then, I had a quick rethink and pulled the reins in, especially when Strauss-Kahn was denied bail and later placed in solitary confinement — virtually incommunicado.

This can look very much like the Monica Lewinsky affair, which prompted Bill Clinton’s bombing of Yugoslavia to divert attention, as well as Eliot Spitzer’s “soft assassination” to stop the then New York governor from completing investigations into finance executives’ and investment bankers’ shenanigans in the run-up to the 2008 Wall Street crash.

I may not have given the news of Strauss-Kahn’s arrest a second thought had it not been for a deeper suspicion that something was fishy. Many of those in the highest echelons of power have proclivities they help each other hide. The shit only hits the fan when something disrupts the harmony.

Strauss-Kahn, like Spitzer, is tackling issues involving the global financial mafia in the European financial crisis. A scandal like this could actually be symbolic of a significant policy rupture within the global power elite. I researched the matter and found two significant articles — the first by Mike Whitney entitled “IMF chief Strauss-Kahn caught in ‘honey trap’” and the second by Michael Bucci, “‘Soft assassinations’: Strauss-Kahn and Eliot Spitzer.”

Strauss-Kahn does have enemies in high places: He is the presumptive front-running candidate of the French Socialist Party, seen to have an edge over the rapidly sinking and unpopular French President Nicolas Sarkozy, caught in his stalemated Libya attack amid worsening domestic economic conditions and workers’ protests.

Sarkozy, known as the candidate of the global oligarchy, is very cozy with the US neo-conservatives who have been pushing the hawkish war agenda on the global stage. Under his watch, they have taken France into two African imbroglios (Libya and Côte d’Ivoire), all for their interlocking defense and oil industries.

At the same time, the Euro currency bloc is in the midst of massive financial and economic readjustments that have instituted traditional monetarist financial and economic measures painful to the working class but extremely beneficial to the banking cartel through multibillion bailouts.

Whitney sees Strauss-Kahn as beginning to redirect the IMF away from this traditional monetarist IMF policy, saying, “…if Strauss-Kahn was set up, then it was probably by members of the western bank(ing) coalition, that shadowy group of self-serving swine whose policies have kept the greater body of humanity in varying state(s) of poverty and desperation for the last two centuries. Strauss-Kahn had recently broke(n)-free from the ‘party line’ and was changing the direction of the IMF. His road to Damascus conversion was championed by progressive economist Joseph Stiglitz in a recent article titled ‘The IMF’s Switch in Time’… (that says) ‘The annual spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund was notable in marking the Fund’s effort to distance itself from its own long-standing tenets on capital controls and labor-market flexibility. It appears that a new IMF has gradually, and cautiously, emerged under the leadership of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.’”

Whitney sums up “Strauss-Kahn (as) trying to move the bank in a more positive direction, a direction that didn’t require that countries leave their economies open to the ravages of foreign capital that moves in swiftly — pushing up prices and creating bubbles — and departs just as fast, leaving behind the scourge of high unemployment, plunging demand, hobbled industries and deep recession. Strauss-Kahn had set out on a ‘kinder and gentler’ path, one that would not force foreign leaders to privatize their state-owned industries or crush their labor unions. Naturally, his actions were not warmly received by the bankers and corporatists who look to the IMF to provide legitimacy to their ongoing plunder of the rest of the world. These are the people who think that the current policies are ‘just fine’ because they produce the results they’re looking for, which is bigger profits for themselves and deeper poverty for everyone else.”

To conclude, Michael Bucci quotes French economist and socialist Jacques Attali: “The most likely outcome is that this case will stick… Even if he pleads not guilty, which he may be, he won’t be able to be (a) candidate for the Socialist primary for the presidency and he won’t be able to stay at the IMF.” Bucci then continues, “But farther behind the curtain might be found investment bankers and international financiers (the Spitzer “soft assassins”). While Messrs. Spitzer and Strauss-Kahn might share a common reprehensible lust, this group (the international financial mafia) represents the world’s top criminals. Like Al Capone and the Chicago mob, they continue to remain immune and prevail, while the audience is glued to sex, money and maids.”

What we are seeing may be an IMF coup in the form of a sex scandal. Reports have it that the detained IMF chief is already under suicide watch (a pretext for you know what). Let’s refocus on the real issues in this L’affaire Strauss-Kahn and wage a campaign to free him if we must. Most importantly, let’s redouble our efforts to rid this world of the menace that is the global financial mafia.

(Tune in to Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m., and Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)



(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Herman Tiu-Laurel)


Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110520com5.html

Soliman, Abad in House line of fire on CCT probe By Charlie V. Manalo 05/20/2011

P2B AUGMENTATION MAY BE ILLEGAL — LAGMAN

Soliman, Abad in House line of fire on CCT probe

By Charlie V. Manalo 05/20/2011

Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman and Budget Secretary Butch Abad may likely find themselves in hot water after House members bared their intention to hold an inquiry into the P2-billion additional budget allotted for the controversial conditional cash transfer (CCT) program bloating its appropriation this year to P23 billion.

In a phone interview, House Minority Leader Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said he would seek clarification from the House appropriations committee on how much was the amount exactly approved for the CCT.

“I would have to ask the appropriations committee on how much was the amount exactly approved for the CCT and how much has been spent so far and how is it being spent,” Lagman said. “We have to know these things as well as the basis for increasing the CCT budget by P2 billion.”.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110520hed1.html

De Lima ready for face-off with Lacson 05/20/2011

De Lima ready for face-off with Lacson

05/20/2011
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima is ready to face Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson and be grilled by the lawmaker when she submits herself for confirmation process before the powerful Commission on Appointments (CA).

“Of course I’d like to say that I’ll be ready always even if it’s not Lacson who will interrogate me in the CA.

“I don’t take things personally. I just want that my rights are also protected when I appear before proceedings like that. I’m sure that even a Justice secretary also has some rights,” she told Senate reporters during a chance interview yesterday.

Lacson has accused De lima of supposedly going after him and nailing him down in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110520hed3.html

Solon seeks probe of BIR’s delay in taxpayers’ tax refund claims By Angie M. Rosales 05/20/2011

Solon seeks probe of BIR’s delay in taxpayers’ tax refund claims

By Angie M. Rosales 05/20/2011

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV yesterday sought the conduct of an investigation on the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) over its alleged failure to act expeditiously on pending tax refund claims.

The neophyte lawmaker said his decision to file Resolution No. 474 was prompted by complaints on “inordinate delay of processing of tax refund applications.”

Trillanes said that in one newspaper, it said that it takes several months before a revenue officer is assigned to process a taxpayer’s refund claims and once a recommendation is made, it will go through a lengthy review processes.

The report also said that the BIR, in checking compliance of documentary requirements, conducts an audit on all internal revenue taxes of the taxpayer, not only on the particular tax for which a refund has been claimed and this, more often than not, leads to assessment of alleged deficiency on taxes..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110520nat2.html

130 political parties mum on Marcos burial 05/20/2011 None of the 130 political parties accredited by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has replied to Vice President Jejomar Binay’s survey letter seeking their official stand on whether or not former President Ferdinand Marcos should be given a hero’s burial. With a June deadline ahead, Binay, who was given the responsibility to decide on the matter, hopes to get their feedback, noting it is crucial to his recommendation to President Aquino. Binay said he “would still wait for the official stand of the political parties until this week.” A final decision on the Marcos burial issue will finally put to a close several years of debate on the request of the Marcos family for the remains of the late dictator to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

130 political parties mum on Marcos burial

05/20/2011
None of the 130 political parties accredited by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has replied to Vice President Jejomar Binay’s survey letter seeking their official stand on whether or not former President Ferdinand Marcos should be given a hero’s burial.

With a June deadline ahead, Binay, who was given the responsibility to decide on the matter, hopes to get their feedback, noting it is crucial to his recommendation to President Aquino.

Binay said he “would still wait for the official stand of the political parties until this week.”

A final decision on the Marcos burial issue will finally put to a close several years of debate on the request of the Marcos family for the remains of the late dictator to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110520nat7.html

Oathtaking of KKK-LP coalition M E T R O F I L E 05/20/2011

Oathtaking of KKK-LP coalition

M E T R O F I L E

05/20/2011
Right photo shows Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim greets Datumona Diamla Saripada Mamangcao (left), chairman of KKK-LP Coalition Lanao del Sur Chapter at the oathtaking of the KKK-LP Coalition at the Bulwagang Villegas, Manila City Hall.... MORE
Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110520met5.html

Customs exec says car smuggling in RP started during GMA’s term By Benjamin B. Pulta 05/20/2011

Customs exec says car smuggling in RP started during GMA’s term

By Benjamin B. Pulta 05/20/2011

A Customs official has blamed the past administration for the rampant car smuggling in the country.

The Bureau of Customs is reeling from an expose on the possible involvement of its officials in a highly organized international car theft smuggling ring focusing on luxury vehicles coming at a time when there is an acute failure to meet revenue targets.

Speaking to newsmen, Deputy Customs Commissioner Gregorio Chavez said his agency “is conducting a probe into smuggled cars and hopefully we can terminate the probe and file cases against the importers and Customs officials who may have colluded with the smugglers.”

Chavez clarified even before the assumption of Commissioner Angelito Alvarez a “warrant of seizure has already been issued by the Bureau of Customs.”.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110520met1.html

Manoling: QI sold EDITORIAL 05/19/2011

Manoling: QI sold

EDITORIAL

Click to enlarge

05/19/2011
The gritty former chairman of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), Manoling Morato, again made his presence felt recently, this time exposing what he believes are budding anomalies involving among the staunchest supporters of Noynoy.

This time around, however, Manoling gathered bloggers instead of members of the traditional media, likely as a result of his perception that major newspapers and broadcast outfits are protectors of the administration.

One of those in the interview related that Manoling gave an explosive insight into the backroom dealings among Noynoy’s circle of supporters, as he particularly trained his sight on the PCSO, which obviously he still has allies informing him of what is transpiring within the walls of the lotto and sweepstakes agency..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110519com1.html

Hypocrisy FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 05/19/2011

Hypocrisy

FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

05/19/2011
Having been slapped down — and rightly so — by the Catholic bishops whom he had threatened to charge with sedition on their call for civil disobedience, Noynoy, through his mouthpiece, has suddenly turned biblical.

As bishops likened Noynoy to King Herod, who ordered all first borns of Jews to be killed, owing to his stand in the Reproductive Health (RH) bill, there went Edwin Laceirda and his group, claiming that they were astounded by the bishops’ statements, which they described as “highly inflammatory.”

Despite the bishops not “behaving accordingly,” Noynoy claimed he preferred to give the bishops bread, instead of throwing stones at them.

As Laceirda put it: Noynoy had told him: “Let’s not throw stones. Let’s give them bread.”

As for the disagreements, he said: “we will respect them for that. We will not throw stones. We will continue to throw bread at them ... We will turn the other cheek, as what we’ve always done. The President is very respectful of the bishops. We expect men of faith to behave accordingly.”.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110519com2.html

Prospects for Japan firms clouded by quake focus 05/19/2011

Prospects for Japan firms clouded by quake

focus

05/19/2011
TOKYO — Some of Japan’s biggest firms remain unable to forecast their prospects for the coming months due to the impact of March’s massive earthquake, which is expected to plunge the economy into recession.

Automakers such as Toyota, electronics giants such as Sharp and airline All Nippon Airways skipped annual forecasts citing uncertainty over the scale of disruption that will also be seen in Japan’s first quarter GDP data Thursday.

“While the earthquake occurred late in the quarter, the contraction in activity after the earthquake will likely be enough to bring down the growth rate in Q1 deep into negative territory,” noted BNP Paribas’ chief Japan economist Ryutaro Kono.

The economy shrank an annualized 2.0 percent in the first three months of this year, economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires said, marking the second-straight quarterly contraction as production, exports and consumption tumble..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110519com3.html

Parasitic BCDA BLURBAL THRUSTS Louie Logarta 05/19/2011

Parasitic BCDA

BLURBAL THRUSTS

Louie Logarta

05/19/2011
Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez and Deputy Commissioner Gregorio Chavez have been slapped with libel, grave misconduct and abuse of authority raps by a Davao businessman in retaliation for a P5-billion smuggling charge that they had earlier lodged against him and Phoenix Petroleum Philippines.

The other week, Customs lawyers, upon the say so of Alvarez, filed a complaint with the Department of Justice against licensed broker Jorlan Cabanes and Phoenix for allegedly smuggling oil products from Thailand amounting to some P5.14 billion from June 2010 to April 2011.

Lawyers for Phoenix president and CEO Dennis Ang Uy, whom the BoC also included in the smuggling complaint, are said to be contemplating on the same course of action to protect their client’s good name and reputation..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110519com4.html

Power, entitlement fuel sexual misdeeds — experts focus 05/19/2011

Power, entitlement fuel sexual misdeeds — experts

focus

05/19/2011
WASHINGTON — The list is almost too long to name. One-time US presidential contender John Edwards. Israel’s former president Moshe Katsav. Golf superstar Tiger Woods.

IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn has joined a plethora of men at the pinnacle of power and the top of their game who have faced ruin thanks to a sex scandal.

Many of them manage to shake off the allegations, and Strauss-Kahn, the powerful head of the International Monetary Fund, has denied all charges of sexually assaulting a New York hotel maid.

But sexual pathology expert Sharon O’Hara says there are countless cases of men with an unquenchable appetite for sex who have let their compulsion for sexual conquest get the better of them..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110519com6.html

Army dogs wage war on illegal Palestinian workers FEATURE 05/19/2011

Army dogs wage war on illegal Palestinian workers

FEATURE

05/19/2011
RAMADIN — Palestinians desperate for work in Israel will go to extremes to sneak past the West Bank barrier, but now they face a new hurdle — army attack dogs sent to sniff them out.

Workers say the use of dogs to hunt down anyone trying to enter Israel illegally is a new phenomenon which has only been occurring for about two months.

But it is a development which has quickly spread fear and anger among the worker population living in the south Hebron Hills, one of the poorest areas in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The Israeli army readily admits to using dogs in its operations in the West Bank, but says they are only brought in as a way of protecting the sprawling separation barrier from Palestinian vandals looking to create openings which would allow “terrorists” to infiltrate Israel..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110519com8.html

RP least competitive in entire Asia-Pacific 05/19/2011

GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS RANKING SLIDES 2 NOTCHES

RP least competitive in entire Asia-Pacific

05/19/2011
Despite the frequent breast-beating of President Aquino about the economic gains under his administration and the reforms it supposedly introduced in the business sector, the Philippines was ranked the least competitive country in Asia-Pacific with its global ranking this year falling two notches to 41st place from last year’s 39th in the World Competitiveness Scoreboard.

The annual ranking of the Swiss-based International Institute for Management and Development (IMD) graded an Asian territory, Hong Kong, in a tie with the United States as being the most competitive this year.

In Asia, the Philippines was last among 13 countries ranked with a 63.291 out of a perfect 100 which was lower than that of Indonesia at 12th with a 64.61 score; India, 11th with a score of 70.649; Thailand, 10th with a score of 74.886, and Japan, 9th with a 75.214 score.

At the top of the rung were Hong Kong, first with a perfect 100; Singapore, second with 98.557; Taiwan, third with 92.011; Australia, fourth with 89.259; Malaysia, fifth with 84.12, and China, sixth with 81.1..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110519hed1.html

House eyes probe as Palace confirms hike in CCT budget By Charlie V. Manalo and Aytch de la Cruz 05/19/2011

House eyes probe as Palace confirms hike in CCT budget

By Charlie V. Manalo and Aytch de la Cruz 05/19/2011

A ranking member of the House opposition said the minority in the chamber may seek an inves-tigation into the alleged additional P2 billion infused into the contro-versial conditional cash transfer (CCT) program being implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

At a press briefing, House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman expressed surprise when informed that Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman, during her presentation before the House appropriations committee last Tuesday, admitted the CCT budget was raised from the originally-approved P21.19 billion to P23.39 billion. This despite the fact she did not raise the number of CCT beneficiaries pegged at 2.3 million families..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110519hed2.html

Roxas not to overshadow Binay’s functions—Palace By Aytch S. de la Cruz 05/19/2011

Roxas not to overshadow Binay’s functions—Palace

By Aytch S. de la Cruz 05/19/2011

Vice President Jejomar Binay already wears so many hats in President Aquino’s government, Malacañang said yesterday in an apparent bid to allay Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero’s concerns that former Sen. Mar Roxas might overshadow the elected second highest official of the land once he gets appointed as Presidential Chief of Staff.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda reminded everyone that Binay already heads the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council and acts as the President’s special adviser on overseas Filipino workers’ (OFWs) concerns as well.

Also, just recently, Binay was designated by Aquino to chair the Presidential Task Force Against Illegal
Recruitment which was reactivated only last May 6 by virtue of Executive Order 41 released by Malacañang..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110519nat1.html

Italy court acquits Pinay charged for drug smuggling By Michaela P. del Callar 05/19/2011

Italy court acquits Pinay charged for drug smuggling

By Michaela P. del Callar 05/19/2011

A Filipino woman, caught with close to 50 grams of metamphetamine, locally known as shabu, was acquitted of drug smuggling in Italy, the Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.

On May 4, the judge of the Civitavecchia Tribunal, on the strength of the evidence presented by the Philippine embassy-hired lawyer found the woman not guilty of drug charges. The Filipina was on house arrest during her trial which lasted seven months.

The 59-year-old was apprehended on Oct. 4, 2010 upon arrival at Italy’s Fiumicino Airport when authorities found 49.50 grams of shabu stashed inside a portable DVD player that she was asked to carry for a fellow overseas Filipino worker in Rome.

She was incarcerated at the Civitavecchia prison from the day of her arrest until her trial on Oct. 18 of the same year where she was granted house arrest for medical reasons..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110519nat2.html

Movie actor’s vehicle caught overspeeding on ‘Killer Highway’ 05/19/2011

Movie actor’s vehicle caught overspeeding on ‘Killer Highway’

05/19/2011
Movie and television star Richard Gutierrez reportedly berated traffic enforcers of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority who flagged down his vehicle for overspeeding on Commonwealth Avenue, also known as “Killer Highway,” in Quezon City.

Reports said the actor allegedly cursed and pointed fingers at some MMDA traffic officials who arrested his driver for overspeeding.

MMDA area supervisor Max Villa was quoted as saying, “Captain Barbell (Gutierrez) is hot-headed today, he showered MMDA officials with unkind words after his driver was caught overspeeding on Commonwealth Avenue.”

MMDA camera and speed radar guns located on Commonwealth Avenue recorded a 70-80 kilometer per hour speed in Gutierrez’s vehicle, the report said..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110519met2.html

‘Overloading’ blamed for frequent malfunctioning of LRT trains 05/19/2011

‘Overloading’ blamed for frequent malfunctioning of LRT trains

05/19/2011
Authorities of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) have blamed “overloading” for the frequent malfunctioning of their trains.

LRT Administration (LRTA) spokesman lawyer Hernando Cabrera said overloading causes LRT and Metro Rail Transit (MRT) trains to break down, especially during rush hours.

“Sa peak hour overloaded tayo... kaya ng sistema pero kung bugbog na bugbog na doon nasisira ang spare parts at components,” Cabrera said.

Last Wednesday, an LRT-2 train on C.M. Recto Avenue in Manila suffered an engine problem — an air leak — forcing train authorities to ask the passengers to get down the train..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110519met5.html

A free ride it wasn’t EDITORIAL 05/18/2011

A free ride it wasn’t

EDITORIAL

Click to enlarge

05/18/2011
It can’t be helped but notice the degree of urgency in Noynoy’s tour of the US aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson where practically the whole Aquino Cabinet was present.

Presidential spokesman Ricky Carandang said that the invitation to tour the carrier had been made a long time ago but it was only accepted fairly recently such as the exact moment when the US asked Noynoy and his wards to board the carrier last Friday.

Carandang, however, cannot deny that the invitation was so sudden that Noynoy did not even have time to cancel the courtesy call of boxing legend Manny Pacquiao who arrived from his US bout with Shane Mosley on the same day that the tour was suddenly on the agenda for the day of Noynoy.

The militants speculate that the whisking away of Noynoy to the US ship out in the high seas prior to the docking of the US battle fleet in Manila had something to do with the recent visit of US government officials at Subic Bay to explore the possibility of an interim base while a massive military installation is still being set up in Guam..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110518com1.html

Asking for more trouble FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 05/18/2011

Asking for more trouble

FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

05/18/2011
If the Noynoy administration, in the last 11 months, was already chaotic and much too rent with factionalism, expect a worsening situation in Malacañang with the formal entry of losing vice presidential candidate Mar Roxas as Noynoy’s chief of staff.

That will of course be denied by both warring factions in the Palace, as they have denied the power play that has been going on even before Noynoy assumed the presidency, but the reality is that Mar and his Liberal Party mates, having finally achieved power, are not about to give it up after Noynoy ends his term in 2016.

What is puzzling is the fact that even as Noynoy is aware of the existence of the two warring factions, that add to the ineffectiveness of his administration, he appears to be encouraging factionalism and chaos, as he opens up a new position in his Cabinet for Mar, as his chief of staff, a position moreover that is a superfluity, since there is already an executive secretary and certainly, there is no need for a chief of staff, since this would be a duplication of functions.

It has been stated by Malacañang that an administrative order (AO) creating the position of chief of staff for Mar would serve to clarify the different functions between the executive secretary and the chief of staff, but not even an AO is going to solve that kind of political problem..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110518com2.html

A ‘Tower of Babel’ entirely of books in Argentina FEATURE 05/18/2011

A ‘Tower of Babel’ entirely of books in Argentina

FEATURE

05/18/2011
BUENOS AIRES — Marta Minujin, Argentina’s most famous artist, is known for artwork that is both out-sized and outlandish.

Her latest creation might also be described as vertigo-inducing — a spiraling, 25-meter-tall tower meant to pay homage to the written word.

In the Plaza San Martin, in the heart of the Argentine capital, Minujin has erected her latest work — “The Tower of Babel” — built from 30,000 books, most of them donations from some 50 embassies.

“I don’t know why we have to have different languages,” she says, adding that she sees her mission as an artist as being to “unite all people.”.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110518com3.html