MANILA — Urban poor group Kadamay and progressive organizations commemorated the 24th anniversary of People Power I not with glamorous and star-studded concerts but with a protest march.
http://bit.ly/91BDri
Sunday, February 28, 2010
BOC posts back-to-back record revenue collection
MANILA -- For the second time this year, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) recorded positive collection following a surplus on their collection in January.
http://bit.ly/aaVoM0
http://bit.ly/aaVoM0
Paper Hats, Wooden Swords
“At the age of 4, with paper hats and wooden swords, we’re all generals,” actor Peter Ustinov once said. “But some of us never outgrow it.”
Remember the four “Euro generals?” Moscow International Airport customs nabbed them and their wives, on Oct. 11, 2008. Silverio Alarcio, Jaime Caringal, Ismael Rafanan and Eliseo de la Paz, stashed P6.9 million worth of euros illegally. Will that fund their campaign for 2010 elective posts?
http://bit.ly/abTDjO
Cotabato solon calls women unsung heroines of the economy
MANILA -- A proposed redefinition of "work" in order to give more recognition to women has drawn the support of Cotabato Rep. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza, who described it as "fair, practical and necessary –- even a bit overdue."
http://bit.ly/d0yzsq
Friday, February 26, 2010
The Miracle of the Market
In preparation for two recent back-to-back blizzards, residents in the Washington, D.C., area emptied the shelves of neighborhood grocery stores. Notwithstanding the pre-blizzard panic buying, what’s interesting is that no one was freaking out about whether the stores would be adequately stocked after the blizzards.
http://bit.ly/c0QOGc
http://bit.ly/c0QOGc
Dirty Finger
Today’s ‘Viewpoint’ would have focused on the no-nonsense demographer Mercedes Concepcion. At the Philippine Population Conference, she and her colleagues, blistered Maguindanao’s “statistically impossible” 5.4 percent bolt in population. Most “newcomers” were 18 years old -- and new voters?
Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao's population sprinted by 3.7 percent. None of 19 Asian countries bloated like ARRM. Is this “voodoo demography’?, we wanted to ask.
We have today a glut of 10 presidential candidates. As in the 1992, 1998, and 2004 elections, the next President will get, at best, a plurality of votes, political scientist, Jose Abueva notes. Will ARRM phantom 18-year olds tip the scales?
Recent headlines postponed those questions. ”Military Defies SC Court on 43”, Inquirer’s banner read: “Despite a writ of habeas corpus, issued by the Supreme Court”, military and cops didn’t present 43 detained health workers.”
“We had “no time to coordinate security measures for the transfer”, Col. Aurelio Baladad claimed: Ha-ha-ha-ha. Excuse me. The gall and implausibility took your breath away.
Would a lowly colonel “dirty finger” a High Court order on his own? Were you born yesterday? “Inexcusable,” snapped presidential candidate Gilberto Teodoro.
Human Rights Commission probers, meanwhile, reported detaines were tortured. Military shilly-shallying “goes against ‘immediacy’, the very essence of habeas corpus, HRC chair Leila de Lima said. Belated presentation of detainees only adds insult to earlier “dirty finger” injury.
Worse, it sets “dangerous precedents”, Associate Justice Normandie Pizzaro fumed. “You’re the biggest armed group in the country. Produce the living bodies.” End of lecture?, asked Sun Star’s Frank Malilong. “Such insolence would have earned swift and severe sanctions from the Court in other jurisdictions.”
Was this the hoary “good-cop-bad-cop” drill?
AFP commander-in-chief. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo didn’t whimper. The writ, after all, is not like Pampanga’s jueteng. England’s Magna Carta enacted the privilege in 1215. It has become part and parcel of law in democratic countries.
“Follow court orders,” Gen. Victor Ibrado muttered. He didn’t phone that order to habeas corpus shredders at the 2nd Infantry Division. Instead, he stapled a “to-whom-it-may concern” address. Did the general wink?
The writ enables any person to break free from illegal detention. “(It) secures for every man here, alien or citizen, against anything that is not law,” Thomas Jefferson wrote.
Thus, habeas corpus has been a keystone in all our constitutions. Not so with North Korea and Iran. So, why do some AFP officers clone Pyongyang and Tehran?
Even the dictator Ferdinand Marcos dared not shaft publicly the writ. In 1972, 20 newsmen, detained under martial law, were hauled to the Supreme Court for habeas corpus hearings.
In a “Black Maria” prison van, we were wedged, between co-detainees Amando Doronila of Daily Mirror and Philippines News Service Manuel Almario. Cowed pedestrians wouldn’t lock eyes with us. “Are we contagious?,” Evening News Luis Beltran joked.
Ferried to the Court earlier were Joaquin Roces and Maximo Soliven of Manila Times, Teodoro Locsin Sr. and Napoleon Rama of Philippine Free Press. and other journalist-detainees. Senators Benigno Aquino, Jose Diokno, Ramon Mitra, plus constitutional delegates like Tito Guingona came in separate vans.
Despite threats, National Press Club president Eddie Monteclaro and others lodged habeas corpus petitions. Among our pro-bono lawyers were: Sen. Lorenzo Tanada, Sedfrey Ordonez and Joker Arroyo.
“You can’t trust most of them,” Joker Arroyo whispered, as the Marcos Court justices filed in. “But the writ may provide a shield, however thin.” He proved right on the button. Marcos selectively released detainees. His court dismissed the pleas as “moot and academic.’ (See GR No. L35546 to 35567.)
Marcos Supreme Court legitimized actions of the President, constitutional scholar Joaquin Bernas, SJ wrote. With suspension of habeas corpus, “claims of denial of a speedy trial were unavailing”. The writ’s suspension also spiked “the right to bail".
Before he could speak at the Manila International airport, an assassin cut down Benigno Aquino Jr. Today’s writ shredders should read his undelivered speech.
"It is most ironic, after martial law has allegedly been lifted, that the Supreme Court last April ruled it can no longer entertain petitions for habeas corpus for persons detained under a Presidential Commitment Order “, Ninoy wrote. “(This ) covers all so-called national security cases. And under present circumstances (that) can cover almost anything.”.
Since then, Filipinos chased the dictator into exile. Corazon Aquino fired supine Supreme Court justices. People Power restored suppressed rights, including habeas corpus..
Failing to learn from history, today’s military would shot craps with this critical human right. Will Commander-in-Chief Arroyo play along? Habeas corpus shredding would be added to her legacy. And that’s messy enough, as it is.
(Email: juanlmercado@gmail.com)
http://bit.ly/cYKqM6Thursday, February 25, 2010
I Have A Better Idea, Mr. President
President Obama has repeatedly challenged Americans who disagree with his approach to health reform to off their alternatives, most recently at his televised White House Health Reform Summit. "You got a better idea? Bring it on," he has said.
http://bit.ly/bqqwXo
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
APEC to hold Ministerial Meeting on Food Security
Hiroshima, JAPAN – While indicators suggest that the Asia-Pacific is recovering from the recent economic crisis, APEC is keeping an eye on food security.
http://bit.ly/diVOXw
Labor bucks GMA veto of OFW remittance tax abolition
MANILA -- The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) has assailed the Department of Finance (DOF) for asking President Macapagal-Arroyo to veto a provision in the proposed new Migrant Workers Act that exempts the money wired home by overseas Filipino laborers from the documentary stamp tax (DST).
"Malacañang should reject outright the DOF's foolish and contemptible request," said TUCP secretary-general and former Senator Ernesto Herrera.
http://bit.ly/d5xmjw
"Malacañang should reject outright the DOF's foolish and contemptible request," said TUCP secretary-general and former Senator Ernesto Herrera.
http://bit.ly/d5xmjw
Less Government in Business versus Reinventing Government
We have heard this line from the GOP more often than we care to be inundated by it ad nauseam—“More business in government means less government in business.” This is not only a well-known principle of American Conservatism but is an official credo of the US Chamber of Commerce. Basically, conservatism is equated to traditions and respect for them. But in America, it has always been an expression of business. Knowing this is to understand the movement.
http://bit.ly/cZxItT
http://bit.ly/cZxItT
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Villar says visit to Cebu Archbishop was not to seek endorsement but a blessing
CEBU CITY -- In a trip to this city on Feb. 20, Nacionalista Party (NP) standard-bearer Manuel L. Villar, Jr. met with Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal. But to dissuade perceptions of a political endorsement, both Vidal and Villar clarified that the meeting should not be misunderstood as an endorsement for the elections this May.
"It is enough that he prays for me and my mission," Villar said, after explaining to reporters that he did not seek an endorsement but a blessing and was there only because he considered Vidal as one of the highest spiritual leaders of the Catholic Church.
On the other hand, Cardinal Vidal said Villar visited "because he is an old friend ever since he became President of the Senate."
Earlier, Villar, together with his senatorial candidates Gilbert Remulla, Adel Tamano, Satus Ocampo, Liza Maza, Susan ople and Gwen Pimentel, visited the Opon Public Market in Lapu-Lapu City and a residential area in Barangay Suba. Vice Presidential candidate Loren Legarda, who was also with him in this campaign swing, flew back to Manila. Detained Col. Ariel Querubin, another NP senatorial candidate, was represented by his son, Martin.
CAPAL offers Scholarship and Paid Federal Internships
WASHINGTON D.C. -- The Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership (CAPAL) has announced its Scholarships and Paid Federal Internships for Summer 2010. Now on its 18th consecutive year, CAPAL will be awarding three scholarships and nine paid internships to college students who it identifies as future civic, community, or professional leaders. Applicants must have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher and will be evaluated on their demonstrated commitment to public service, leadership potential, and service to the Asian Pacific American community.
http://bit.ly/9TXA4V
News Analysis: The Gains and Promise of the People Power Uprising at Edsa
MANILA — The country is commemorating this week the 24th anniversary of Edsa People Power 1. Some would not bother celebrating the event because they feel that the country is no better off now.
http://bit.ly/cEmy7L
Philippines' RedFox exports computers to China
MANILA -- An improbable journey by a Filipino-owned PC manufacturer has led it to something that has never been done before: Export laptops to China, dubbed the world’s factory.
RedFox, which most Filipinos assume as a foreign PC brand, actually operates a manufacturing hub in Rosario, Cavite where laptops are assembled for sale in the domestic market and other countries such Taiwan, Singapore, and China.
http://bit.ly/di8I3i
Chuckle and Weep
(“Here are 'grammar booboos' that Pinoys commit,” a UP professor-friend emailed. “I wove in an election context – and laughed. Then, I factored in the crooks – and cried .” Here’s his letter. Chuckle and weep -- JLM)
"The sky's the langit,” gushed the rally emcee. "Well, well, well. Look do we have here!" As candidates clambered on stage, he added: “Let's give them a big hand of applause."
http://bit.ly/bhHime
Dry Well Scramble
“Dig the well before you get thirsty”. Did we heed this ancient Chinese axiom? Or did we twiddle thumbs over warnings that “El Nino” would empty reservoirs, sear farms and ration water?
http://bit.ly/b5ihro
The Price of Freedom
Next week, the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution will be replayed in the minds of many. There will be mixed reactions, of course. Some, like the youth who were too young then, or not yet born, there is little or nothing to be remembered. Others, like those from the extreme Left or rebels from the military, would remember lost opportunities. To many, though, EDSA One was a miracle called freedom, the liberation of a people from the clutches of dictatorship.
http://bit.ly/btaGLn
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Asian America's Brown Soup Thing premiers in Delray Beach Film Festival
DELRAY BEACH, FL – Enthusiastic fans around South Florida, and even several coming from as far as Philadelphia, finally get their chance to see the film that is breaking attendance records in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas.
http://bit.ly/d4MdGS
http://bit.ly/d4MdGS
Report: Immigrants are largely left out of federal health reform
NEW YORK -- Immigrants, both those residing lawfully in the United States and those who are undocumented, will continue to face major barriers to health coverage even if federal health care reform is enacted, according to a new study released today by New Yorkers for Accessible Health Coverage (NYFAHC) and the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC). Currently, noncitizens comprise 12 percent of New York State’s population but 29% of its uninsured population.
http://bit.ly/bOdvUZ
http://bit.ly/bOdvUZ
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Arrested health workers say they were tortured
ANTIPOLO CITY—This would be a test to the Anti-Torture Law of 2009: the Health Alliance for Democracy has revealed—the Morong 43 was heavily tortured, physically and mentally.
http://bit.ly/cMbdtM
Lady Solon wants AIDS fund probed
ANTIPOLO CITY — Iloilo (1st District) Rep. Janet Garin calls on the government to investigate the “health” of the AIDS fund as cases of the disease now reaching almost a pandemic proportions.
http://bit.ly/cylYcL
Monday, February 8, 2010
Cobbling Street Signs
“What would the Ten Commandments have looked like if Moses had run them through …Congress,” the late President Ronald Reagan once wondered.. Wonder no more. Listen instead to Rep. Mark Cojuangco.
”We’re only good at changing the names of streets and schools. These are what the House proudly claims as it’s accomplishments,“ the Pangasinan representative wailed . Congress adjourned Wednesday. “Crucial bills are left rotting…Shouldn’t we…finally vote and decide on them?”
Congressman Cojuangco underestimates his colleagues’s capacity – or appetites. They have more skills than just cobbling new signboards for streets and schools.
Congressmen are no slouch at burning tax money. They appropriated, for themselves P13-million pork barrel slabs each last year.. They’ll have more this election year. Watch when the final General Approriations Act surfaces..
At Malacanang’s behest, congressmen embedded P19.6 billion in “one-liners” into the Department of Public Works & Highways’ budget last year.. Another P11.6 billion was stashed into the Transport & Communication department budget. Buckle up for repeated plunder.
Led by the President and First Gentleman, 28 cash-flush congressmen sallied into New York's Le Cirque Restaurant and Vann’s Steakhouse. None has been held to account, despite Speaker Prospero Nograles' August 20 pledge : Each would foot the bill personally.
Congress has demonstrated it’s mettle as "Laundromat". Remember World Bank's probe into a major cartel that colluded in rigging bids for a $150-million national roads project?
After a four year probe, the Bank blacklisted seven firms. Three were Filipino companies: EC De Luna Construction Corp., CM Pancho Construction, and Cavite Ideal Construction.
In less than a week’s time, the House committee on public works and highways “cleared” the firms. The House probers were either whiz kids or crooks. Take your pick.
“Laundromat” patterns emerged in scams like Northrail, “Joc-Joc’s fertilizer , Macapagal Boulevard, etc. “It could be probably be shown by facts and figures, that there is no distinctly native …criminal class except Congress,” Mark Twain wrote in 1897.
The Lower House proved adept at derailing repeated impeachment bids, lodged against the President or allies, like Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez.
Farther back, pro-Joseph Estrada congressmen sprang Luzviminda Tancangco, over at the Commission on Elections. On a budget of P1.2 billion, she awarded a P6.5 billion contract for election IDs. This Voters’ Registration project disenfranchised thousands. Rep. Ronaldo Zamora and pro-Erap solons absented themselves on the crucial vote.
Presidential candidate Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro never refers to his quarter-backing Eduardo Cojuangco’s “Brat Pack” in impeaching Chief justice Hilario Davide.
The Davide court ruled that coconut levies were public funds, not crony loot. The court clipped Marcos booty in Swiss banks. Dogged resistance by citizens and church groups stopped the “Pack”. But not before “Gibo” & Co. dragged the country to the brink of a constitutional crisis.
Ombudsman Aniano Desierto was, the late Senator Lorenzo Tanada stressed, consumed only by Desierto’s interests. But “even emperors have straw sandalled relatives”, noted Viewpoint (Inquirer 10/20/05). “In history’s lottery, Merceditas Gutierrez was the First Gentleman’s classmate..”
A straw-sandalled Ombudsman squelched, or froze, key cases, depending on Palace interests, Philippine Human Development Report 2009 notes. These ranged from the Mega Pacific election computer case to World Bank’s crack down on highway bid collusion. In November, pro-Arroyo congressmen spiked, an impeachment charge, against Gutierrez.
Gutierrez term ends in 2012. She’ll be handed a slew of accusations when constitutional immunity for President Arroyo (and de-facto immunity for the First Gentleman) ends noon of June 30, 2010. Or will she still be Ombudsman?
“There's talk the Palace wants to replace Ombudsman Gutierrez”, Newsbreak’s Aries Rufo reports. That way, “the new appointee would have a fresh term of seven years.”
Is that how long the regime foresees the need “to cover its flanks”? What’s clear for now is “the Constitution protects aliens, drunks and congressmen,” as Will Rogers once joked.
The wreckage the 14th Congress left is patent. The Freedom of Information bill, for example, was “one step away from passage but the House of Representatives didn't deliver,” ABS-CBN Carmela Fonbuena reports.
FOI author Rep. Lorenzo Tañada III (Quezon) was pessimistic the House would ratify the report, when Congress convenes, as National Board of Canvassers, after the May elections.
Lower House's ratification would have taken no more than 30 seconds. If there was no objection, the floor leader could have declared it approved “But the House leadership failed Tanada,” Fonbuena added. “The session was immediately adjourned because of lack of quorum.”
“(Democracy) will endure until the day Congress discovers it can bribe the public with the public’s money,” Alexis de Tocqueville wrote. Has that day come?
(Email:juanlmercado@gmail.com )
http://bit.ly/9RbuzZFilipina worker in Haiti found in supermart rubble
Port-Au-Prince, HAITI - After three weeks of search and recovery efforts, the remains of Mary Grace Fabian, an overseas Filipino worker in Haiti, was pulled out of the collapsed Carribean Supermarket February 5, according to Lt. Colonerl Lope Dagoy, commander of the 10th Philippine peacekeeping contingent. A 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on January 12.
http://bit.ly/bV7lMb
http://bit.ly/bV7lMb
TUCP reports a decrease in Filipino nurses seeking US employment
MANILA - The number of Filipinos that sought to enter America’s nursing profession plunged by 26 percent in 2009, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) reported Sunday Feb. 7, 2010.
http://bit.ly/cf1G2T
Colleagues of arrested health workers to file Writ of Habeas Corpus to SC
MANILA -- Dr. Eleanor Jara, a general physician and currently the executive director of the CHD said that contrary to the claims of Col. Aurelio Baladad, commander of the 202nd IB-PA the abducted health and medical professionals were all volunteer of different non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and not by any means, connected with the communist rebels.
http://bit.ly/aNsRkr
Lacson A.K.A. "Joc-Joc"
No court tried, let alone convicted, Senator Panfilo Lacson of having Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force men rub out publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito.
http://bit.ly/asOba9
http://bit.ly/asOba9
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Lethal Cocktail
“"When the well dries up, even the fool saves water.” This axiom came to mind as forecasts of El Nino, searing the country, sent everyone scrambling . Well, almost everybody.
Of the country’s 126 cities, the most vulnerable to dry spells is Cebu. How will El Nino affect a city crammed with migrants, collapsing aquifers, salt contaminated wells and biologically dead rivers? City Hall couldn’t be bothered.
http://bit.ly/djCyrh
Of the country’s 126 cities, the most vulnerable to dry spells is Cebu. How will El Nino affect a city crammed with migrants, collapsing aquifers, salt contaminated wells and biologically dead rivers? City Hall couldn’t be bothered.
http://bit.ly/djCyrh
Roxas, Enriquez Address Worsening Human Rights Crisis in the Philippines
NEW YORK-- About 100 concerned New Yorkers gathered at the Martin Luther King Jr. Labor Center on Saturday, January 30, to listen to Melissa Roxas, the first US citizen under the Obama administration to be subjected to a gross human rights violation in the Philippines, and veteran Philippine human rights activist Marie Hilao-Enriquez, speak about the worsening human rights situation in the Philippines under the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration.
http://bit.ly/9qLxdd
http://bit.ly/9qLxdd
Mortgage Modification: Bank Bailout by Another Name?
The big talk in Washington these days is helping homeowners. Unfortunately, what passes for help to homeowners in the Capital might look more like handing out money to banks anywhere else. The basic story isfairly simple. Tens of million of homeowners are now underwater: they owe more in their mortgage than the value of their home. The reason is that they bought homes at bubble-inflated prices earlier in the decade. Economists and other policy wonks insisted that housing was a great buy, even as home prices got ever more out-of-line with economic fundamentals.
http://bit.ly/aWWZGC
http://bit.ly/aWWZGC
Filipinos support Dromm's Appointment to City Council Immigration Committee
NEW YORK CITY – Rain, wind, and cold weather did not hinder supporters from rallying behind Daniel Dromm at the Jewish Center in Jackson Heights. Dromm held a press conference to announce his latest position as the chair of the New York City Council Immigration Committee.
http://bit.ly/9vPOjx
Conservative Activism: Alliance of Rogues and Thieves
Conservative politicians tend to serve business interests, which they have done all these years, and businesspeople tend to be conservative because conservatism itself became a business, a source of profit for these people. Jack Abramoff once referred to them as political entrepreneurs. In its current form, it consisted of peddling right-wing grievances to birds of the same feathers. There was so much money to be made by helping outfits raise money for beleaguered conservatives who were neither beleaguered nor asked for monetary help. Because of their hatred for labor shared by many businessmen, there were anti-union charities and fake anti-union that the problem was to find ways to spend the money.
http://bit.ly/bzK20x
http://bit.ly/bzK20x
Monday, February 1, 2010
Local Jaycees chapter garners major awards
NEW YORK -- Oops…they did it again!
Determined to capture JCI New York State’s outstanding chapter of the year award anew, a local JCI chapter realized its dream during the state organization’s year-end convention in upstate Batavia January 23-25.
http://bit.ly/cMEUCX
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