Media in Manila should learn from Cebu media a thing or two on cooperation.
This I saw as participant in a forum “Challenges of New Media in Governance” sponsored by the Embassy of Canada, which was part of the activities in Cebu’s Press Freedom Week last week.
On its 12th year, this year’s Press Freedom Week had for its lead convenor Cebu Daily News, an affiliate of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. CDN Publisher Eileen Mangubat was on top of the activities with the active cooperation of all Cebu journalists. There was the eminent Juan L. Mercado, founding director of the Philippine Press Institute and who now writes columns for the Inquirer, CDN and Sun Star Cebu. We met Pachico A. Seares, editor-in-chief of Sun.Star Cebu, Valeriano “Bobit” Avila, who writes a column for The Freeman, and many more.
As Mangubat extolled, “Nowhere in the country can you see media competitors cooperating for a worthy project.”
It was an admirable example that they were setting for future journalists that are expected to come from mass communication students of UP Cebu, San Jose Recoletos, Cebu Institute of Technology, and St. Theresa’s College. Many of them enthusiastically participated in the different Press Freedom Week activities.
That was noted by Canadian Ambassador Peter Sutherland who spoke about the “admirable cooperation among competitors” in his keynote address in the activity, which is a special installment of the Marshall McLuhan Forum Series on Responsible Media.
The Canadian Embassy gathered three McLuhan Prize winners Yvonne Chua, professor of Journalism of the University of the Philippines and former training director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism; Armand Nocum of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and myself, for the forum.
Background on the McLuhan Prize named after acclaimed media guru Herbert Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian. Launched by the Embassy of Canada in 1997, the McLuhan Prize is awarded annually to a Filipino journalist who has published an outstanding piece of investigative reporting.
The screening and selection of the investigative reports is done by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility. The McLuhan Prize includes a trip to Canada where the winner speaks at the McLuhan Program for Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto and meets some members of Canadian media and academe as well as government officials.
Yvonne is a two-time McLuhan prize winner (2000 and 2005). Armand was the first winner in 1997. I got the award in 1999 for the report (with Sheila Coronel) “The Grandmother of All Scams” on the PEA-Amari scam which I did for PCIJ.
Ambassador Sutherland spoke about the relevance of McLuhan’s words, which have become part of our vocabulary like “the global village” which captured the ability of electronic media to unify the human race.
McLuhan, Sutherland said, was interested the impact of media on individuals and society and the McLuhan Prize for Investigative Journalism is Canada’s recognition of the importance of a strong and responsible media in good governance.
Yvonne’s historical presentation: “From Books to Blogs-Technology and Philippine Media in Times of Crisis” traced media’s role from the pre-Spanish colonial times to today’s blogging age, in the political development in the country. She related historical vignettes showing how much Filipinos value freedom and risk their lives to defend it.
She underscored the role of the alternative press during the Marcos repressive years. She said when Marcos closed down “We Forum,” Malaya’s predecessor in 1983, locked its printing press and jailed its publisher and columnists, he was not just suppressing the message. “He was also disabling the messenger.”
In my presentation, I said there’s no doubt that modern communication technology has made a great impact in the practice of journalism in the country but it does not necessarily mean that the Filipino public now is more informed than the Filipino public during the martial law years.
Cellphones were credited in the rapid gathering of people in Edsa Dos that ousted a legally elected but a perceived corrupt president. But EDSA One happened without cellphones, emails and faxes.
Today, in this age of astounding information and communication technology , an un-elected and corrupt president continues to rule the country.
I also said that all this amazing media technology is a boon to journalists. Under these challenging political times, aside from courage to uphold the truth, extra tools would certainly facilitate a journalist’s job of keeping the people informed. But like all tools, it’s only as good as how one uses it.
Armand, who now covers the justice beat, said technology has overtaken our legal system and even the Supreme Court is still in the stage of catching up.
Nini Cabaero of Sun Star Network Exchange, which manages the Sun.Star website, effectively used sound and color in her presentation “Community Newspapers and Technology: Country Cousins No More”.
As she approached the podium, the Sinulog sound was played. She showed an on-line letter by a Cebuano in the United States, relating how she felt she was “back home”, as she followed Sun.Star’s online coverage of the annual Sinulog festival.
JV Rufino, editor-in-chief of Inq7, the Inquirer’s online version, is a poster boy of modern media. The boyish JV oversees the number one website in the country which boasts of 30 million readers a month from all over the world.
JV said despite modern technology, content remains the more important element in newspaper publishing. “The more things change, the more things stay the same,” he said.
Here’s a note from Roby Alampay, executive director of Southeast Asian Press Alliance. Sorry for posting it only now. He sent it to my old e-mail address which I checked only now.
Dear friends,
As you are already aware, the Thai military has taken over the government of Thailand. Many Thais welcome the ouster of Thaksin, to be sure, and most people in Bangkok do seem genuinely thankful for the military action.
But the media environment has been especially vulnerable, unstable, and unpredictale the past week.
We are all OK, but would appreciate your helping us in getting the word out about the need to impress upon the military council the importance of keeping Thailand’s media free and independent in these abnormal times.
For updates on the situation, please do take time to visit the SEAPA blog at http://www.seapa.wordpress.com .
Meanwhile, here is a SEAPA op-ed that appeared today on The Nation.
Article pasted below. Link is here: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2006/09/23/opinion/opinion_30014428.php .
Please feel free to post/circulate. Thanks.
Roby
I hope Ellen that the Bansot will not take note of your praises of the cooperation in Cebu and give herself credit for it considering the fact that she has a communications center on that island as rumored!
I hope that the media in the Philippines will be free of those lipservers calling themselves journalists! Then and only then will we be able to see a glimpse of hope for a great Philippine nation!
The Cebu media is vibrant.
“One of the nicest things about being big is the luxury of thinking little”.
“The price of eternal vigilance is indifference”
“Why is it easy to acquire solutions of past problems and so difficult to solve current ones?”
Quatables Quotes of Herbert Marshall Mcluhan that still hold so true of the current situations just about anywhere.
McLuhan remains as relevant today as when he uttered those words.
This is a note from Roby Alampay, executive director of Bangkok-based Southeast Asian Press Alliance. Sorry for posting only now. SEAPA sent it to my old e-mail address which I opened only now.
Better late than never.
Dear friends,
As you are already aware, the Thai military has taken over the government of Thailand. Many Thais welcome the ouster of Thaksin, to be sure, and most people in Bangkok do seem genuinely thankful for the military action.
But the media environment has been especially vulnerable, unstable, and unpredictale the past week.
We are all OK, but would appreciate your helping us in getting the word out about the need to impress upon the military council the importance of keeping Thailand’s media free and independent in these abnormal times.
For updates on the situation, please do take time to visit the SEAPA blog at http://www.seapa.wordpress.com .
Meanwhile, here is a SEAPA op-ed that appeared today on The Nation.
Article pasted below. Link is here: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2006/09/23/opinion/opinion_30014428.php .
Please feel free to post/circulate. Thanks.
Roby
Hear that, fatso dorobo, gonggongzalez??
LEAVE the TRUE media alone!
Hindi kayang bayaran o takutin ang tunay na Mamamahayag!
Kung meron man dyang kayang-kaya mong bayaran at bigyan ng “rewards” gaya ng juicy posts abroad, no pude ser ka sa mga may prinsipyo at matinong Manunulat.
Kaya —shoo, fly, shoo!
Alis Dyan!
Ms. Ellen,
How true?
Totoo bang gloria country ang Cebu?
I wonder…..
I didn’t interact with politicians during that two-day visit. But I guess, that’s understandable because the political kingpins there are pro-Gloria.
journalism in the philippines is being made dirty by a few who use the might of pen in extorting money from criminal elites, drug lords, gambling lords and other forms of evil in our society. while others choose to be on the path of responsible apostles of mass media, they are being choked by corrupt politicians and their legion most notably the present occupants of malacanan palace. still lucky we have the likes of ellen, ninez, jb baylon and some who do not succumb to their threats. i admire them not because they are outrightly against the bogus administration but of their principled dedication to their profession. mabuhay kayo!!!!
China says Thai coup complicates U.N. secretary-general race
By Edith M. Lederer
ASSOCIATED PRESS
2:04 a.m. September 21, 2006
UNITED NATIONS – The coup that toppled Thailand’s prime minister complicates his deputy’s candidacy to be the next U.N. secretary-general, China’s U.N. ambassador said.
The race to succeed Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whose second five-year term ends Dec. 31, is one of the hottest behind-the-scenes issues at the U.N. General Assembly.
Thai Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai was the first candidate to enter the race, and he won backing from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations at last year’s General Assembly ministerial meeting. Surakiart was in New York with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra when the military launched a bloodless coup Tuesday. He flew to London with the former prime minister, and was due back in Thailand Thursday.
“The interim government has already said that they continue to back Dr. Surakiart as the secretary-general,” Sihasak Phuangketkeow, the Thai Foreign Ministry’s deputy permanent secretary said after a meeting on the sidelines of the General Assembly.
But China’s U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya said Wednesday that, “I think definitely the situation in Thailand makes this issue more complicated.”
Traditionally, the United Nation’s top job rotates every 10 years by region.
Africa – in theory – should have handed over the secretary-general’s spacious office to Asia on Jan. 1, 2002. But Annan was selected for a second term in 2001, in part because Asia could not agree on a candidate, giving Africa an unprecedented 15 years at the helm of the world body.
When Annan was elected, African and Asian nations agreed that the next secretary-general should be Asian, though U.S. Ambassador John Bolton has said the job should go to the best-qualified candidate.
There are currently seven candidates and more could emerge. The newest, Afghanistan’s former finance minister Ashraf Ghani, officially entered the race on Wednesday when he was nominated by President Hamid Karzai.
The Afghan government said Ghani, the chancellor of Kabul University who spent 10 years working in China, India and Russia for the World Bank, “is uniquely equipped” to lead the U.N. now, when imagination and leadership are needed to promote security and development.
In addition to Surakiart, he faces South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon; U.N. undersecretary-general for public affairs Shashi Tharoor of India; Jordan’s U.N. Ambassador Prince Zeid al Hussein; former U.N. disarmament chief Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka; and Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the only non-Asian.
In an informal, secret poll of the 15 Security Council members on Thursday – before Vike-Freiberga entered the race – South Korea’s Ban came in first followed by India’s Tharoor. Surakiat was third, with Jordan’s Zeid fourth and Dhanapala fifth.
Thailand’s Sihasak said “ASEAN has indicated that they continue to back Surakiart as the new secretary-general.”
“I think the strength of Dr. Surakiart is first of all his qualifications. Second Thailand, our country, has always played a moderating role in international affairs, a bridge builder,” he said.
© Copyright 2006 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20060921-0204-un-nextsecretary-general.html
Ellen,
Thanks for Roby Alampay’s report.
Extraordinary resemblance between Thaksin and RP’s immoral bansot in power even if Gloria uses her fatso husband to whip media into shape while Thaksin does it himself.
Given that birds of the same feather flock together (Thaksin, Gloria, Myanmar generals, corrupt leaders in the region), who knows? They might all end up hobnobbing with each other in hell, er in jail.
Seems Thaksin read the Thai nation’s overall body language badly and he paid for it; Gloria is also reading the Filipino nation’s body language very, very badly.
She seems to think that because of the general apathy, eg. people are not making “dumog” to Malacanang, not pelting her with bulok na itlog in public, middle class being thoroughly useless, etc., that she, the immoral bansot is accepted by the people.
She’s extremely lucky that most members of the nation’s new and oldish “middle” class are apathetic to the idea of losing their hard-earned class privileges (like being able to go wandering in shopping malls, dining out in those busy and horrendously noisy diners that the poor cannot afford to go to, partying in some night spots in big-named hotels, etc.). Anyway, Filipinos have a history of being apathetic – 4 centuries of Spanish domination and scallawaging in Pinas have whipped Filipinos into dog-like subservience to those who hold power.
Anywhere else, that kind of behaviour is called cowardice.
Extraordinary phenomenon, really!
But not to worry, at some point, luck does leave an evil person and when that happens, Gloria Macapal(gal)-Arroyo will be hanged from the highest lamp post by the same people who eat her words and who believe there’s no alternative to this corrupt, immoral bansot going by the title of president of the Philippines.
Ellen,
Off topic: I wonder what has become of the pension benefits that were supposed to be forthcoming and intended for the Filipino veterans of USAFFE?
France has just announced that members of French colonial forces who were not French citizens but who fought with France against German occupiers during WWII will now receive pension benefits equal to those paid to war veterans who were French nationals at the time.
I say it’s about bloody time and I’m glad that the injustice will be corrected in a week or two (according to the Minister for War Veterans and Former Combatants). Hundreds of millions of euros have been earmarked to pay the said veterans or their families.
Most of the beneficiaries will be ex veterans from North African colonies who joined the French defence forces during WWII and will include some 100,000 people coming from 20 countries!
This came as an offshoot to a film about the said veterans showing in Cannes. Jacques Chirac himself announced this good news!
Media played a fantastic, heroic part in correcting this form of injustice! Bravo!
Ellen,
In one of my posts following Gloria’s visit to Brussels, I warned that Gloria should not take the EU lightly.
Gloria is hoping for aid and trade boost from EU.
Here’s news that will dampen Gloria Macapal(gal)-Arroyo’s enthusiasm:
“Orange light
“Brussels has given Romania and Bulgaria a final warning on corruption
“The European Commission has dropped its threat to Romania and Bulgaria to postpone their entry into the European Union for a year, but has warned them that, unless they do much more to fight corruption, Brussels will freeze up to a quarter of all EU funds due to them.”
Obviously, we are talking of two acceding EU nations but EU has the same policy all over the world.
The EU is the largest aid donor in the world and will not balk at withdrawing aid to countries that are overtly corrupt.
EU has punished foreign leaders even from non-EU acceding nations, who were accused of wanton violation of human rights in their countries. Their assets in Europe were frozen.
If Filipinos step up the drum beat and expose the corruption and malfaissances of Gloria Macapal(gal)-Arroyo, the EU could very well slap her with sanctions and could freeze her assets in Europe (like Mike Arroyo’s or his family’s stashed assets in German banks!)
“Anyway, Filipinos have a history of being apathetic – 4 centuries of Spanish domination and scallawaging in Pinas have whipped Filipinos into dog-like subservience to those who hold power.”—Anna
You hit it right there, Anna. This is exactly what has happened to the Filipinos. This is also typical of the people in South America although over there, the struggle for freedom has been going on since after the end of WWII, and a lot many blood have been spilt for people there to be free and less subservient to the new oppressor under the guise of freedom and liberty.
Many years ago, I read a book written by a former Catholic nun from the USA who struggled with the oppressed peasants of Guatemala, and it inspired me to get involved and make good use of the blessings that God had kindly blessed me with. I became an instant activist.
The countries in South America were/are no different from what the Philippines is now, but what is happening now is that with the exposure of CIA covert operations there that brought more sufferings and pains to the people there, we now see the emergence of non-compromising leaders there, and they are proving to be achieving what they have promised to do for their respective country and peope like Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia, who are native Indians, in terms of services to the majority, the poor and the native Indians.
Chavez, we may well remember was almost removed from office by the middle class with tie-ups with Washington, but the brave native Venezuelans and the poor majority, who wanted him to fulfill his election promises, made sure to return him to power, and they did. Evo Morales is trying to do the same. Forgive me, but I could not help laughing when he berated Dubya at the UN in very flowery Spanish! As they say in Tagalog, “Bigay todo!”
I don’t know if such is possible in the Philippines, Anna, but I do hope and pray that they will eventually remove the bogus president and send her to jail with her husband, kins, cronies and friends who are in cahoot with her in perpetrating those crimes committed against the people of the Republic of the Philippines before she finally stamp the Philippines as her personal property and declared herself as queen!
Ang tayog ng pangarap ng ungas na ito sa totoo lang! Off with her head! PATALSIKIN NA, NOW NA!
Mula sa pahina 3 ng REMATE(Ang Diaryo ng Masa)
Lunes 25 Setyembre 2006
PLEBISITO IGIGIIT NGAYON NG ULAP
MAGPUPULONG ngayon sa Manila Hotel ang libo-libong opisyales at miyembro ng Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines para igiit ang kanilang kampanya para sa pagsasagawa ng plebisito para sa pagbabago ng sistema ng gobyerno mula bicameral presidential tungo sa unicameral parliamentary.
Pamumunuan ni Bohol Gov. at ULAP president Erico Aumentado at Manila Mayor Lito Atienza, pangulo ng Metro Manila Mayors League, ang special general assembly na magpapakita sa pagkakasundo at kaisahan sa pagitan ng local officials mula sa kabayanan at kalunsuran para sa kanilang krusada at panukalang direktang pagsusog sa 1987 Constitution.
Samantala, inupakan kahapon ng constitutional warriors ang oposisyon dahil sa pagpupumilit ng mga maling argumento laban sa Charter change na siyang pinakamadali at pinakamatipid na pagbabago sa pamamagitan ng people’s initiative.
Ayon kay Sigaw ng Bayan spokesman Raul Lambino, ilang ilitistang puwersa at “protectors of the status quo” ang nasa likod ng tusong pamamaraan para maliitin ang people’s initiative sa pamamagitan ng gawa gawang istorya at kasinungalingan pati na ang paggawa ng mga character assassination para lang mapagtakpan ang kanilang mga maling argumento laban sa suportadong pagkilos para mabago ang Konstitusyon.
Ginawa ni Lambino ang pahayag bilang sagot sa ulat na umano’y sinuhulan ang 6.3 milyong verified signatories sa people’s iniative gayundin ang bentang na ang panukalang pagpalit sa parliamentary system na ipinupursigi ng mga constitutional warriors ay bahagi ng plano ng Palasyo para “ma-legitimize” ang termino ng Pangulong Arroyo hanggang 2010.
“There’s nothing to legitimize in this constitutional exercise because the presidency of Mrs.Arroyo has long been settled her proclamation by Congress,” diin ni Lambino.
JOHNNY MAGALONA
Re: “MAGPUPULONG ngayon sa Manila Hotel ang libo-libong opisyales at miyembro ng Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines”
Surely, the money that will pay for the libo-libong opisyales, etc. for the singaw ng magpupulong, will come from the coffers that were filled by taxpapers; now, how about inviting the ordinary taxpayers who are not opisyales and miyembro ng whatever…?
The money will be spent in that forum because I can see how each of those “opisyales” attending the singaw will merely be tapping each other on the back for a “job well done” also known as hoodwinking the taong bayan.
Ah how money can blind and deafen Gloria’s hoods!
““There’s nothing to legitimize in this constitutional exercise …,” diin ni Lambino.”
Helloooo Lambino!
How about changing that into a more accurate and truthful statement: “There’s SOMEONE to legitimize in this constitutional exercise”?
Yuko,
That’s a good one: ““Bigay todo!””
People should do that! Sige, ibigay na kay Gloria lahat ng gusto niya magkatapos siyang ilibing ng buhay!
Ellen,
Europe’s media have been actively writing about General Musharraf’s memoir serialised in The Times and reckon, the contents will further embarrass the White House.
The latest news is that Musharaf reveals in his bool that ‘America paid us to hand over al-Qaeda suspects’.
Musharaf apprently receive a 6 figure fee for writing his memoirs (though not a lot by US standard).
I wonder when Gloria will be bold and courageous enough to tell the world if Bush licked her ears to go round to his way of thinking and surrender the AFP in Mindanao to US troops…
Anna,
Musharaf is a Moslem, and he must be trying to make amends so his fellow Moslems will not cut his head once he is removed from power and made responsible for the death of his fellow Moslems in Afghanistan even when he stood his ground against US order not to give shelter to the Talibans when the US attacked Afghanistan.
The Afghan refugees in Pakistan are better off at least than the Moslem refugees from Mindanao who are being persecuted by their own fellow Filipinos!
Yeah!
And he got to write a book about it with a huge fee to boot.
Now, what I’d really like to know from Gloria is when she’s gonna “confess”, like Musharaf if Bush licked her ears to do the same thing Musharaf did to his fellow Muslim kababayans?
“Liars when they speak the truth are not believed.”
-Aristotle
Does the Media in general doing enough to bring the truths out to public or most of them being used by the Gloria’s Administration to hide the truths? Over five years of illegitimate Gloria in Malacanang just proven to me the Philippines Media is a failure at best to educate the people of the Philippines. When we mention media in general, lets associate them with the truths. Especially the extra-judicial killings in the Philippines which should be everybody’s most concerned. We are all in the same boat, internationally, we are being judged as Pilipinos and not just the Media. As I see it, with their mega-voice, media has major role play in bringing about sanity to the Philippines.
Really Cebu Media is better than Manila Media , Manila should learn a thing or two with Cebu? Well, I read some of the Cebu’s newspapers, and it seems most of the writings came from Malacanang playbooks. And they seemed to adopt their first daughter illegitimate Gloria. No wonder Gloria would like to spen time in Cebu, when she’s certainly most welcome.
Be that as it may, justice must prevail. It’s the only thing now that really matter in a country like the Philippines. Job is not done until illegitimate Gloria is out of Malacanang. Manila and Cebu Medias, you’ve the list of crimes committed by illegitimate Gloria and her people against your own people and we demand the truths. It’s not too much to ask!
As I see it, the media are powerful than illegitimate Gloria.
The media played a major role in EDSA-2, why aren’t they as aggressive this time?
Using the same yardstick in EDSA-2, I am at a quandry as to where the other players of EDSA-2 are? Saying “we are tired already” is another way of saying, “I give up on the Philippines.” These people should be the ones to leave the country!
Nature abhors a vacuum, and currently this political impasse has created a vacuum in the Philippines. The country does not have a leader.
Something will have to give. For every day that Filipinos remain callous or indifferent to the poltical stalemate, the chances of the military getting involved becomes greater. The possibility of a fate worse than Thailand may beset the country. Gloria knows this. That’s why her solution is Cha-Cha.
The Pilipinos need to take back their country from illegitimate Gloria and the Arroyos. The country is much bigger than the Arroyos all combined together. And like I said, all we ask from both reporting areas of the Philippines, Cebu and Manila is to provide and protect the rights of the people and the integrity of the media. As far as I’m concerned, it’s not about Cebu vs Manila. We are all in the same team. That’s the Pilipinos, no matter what area one came from. That we shouldn’t distinguish between ethnic group from different areas, but a ONE PILIPINO NATION.
Thanks, Ms. Ellen…..
Maybe Cebu’s leaders are pro-gloria, kaya impression ng taga-ibang lugar, Solid-gloria nga sila. I bet marami ring taga-Cebu ang bukas ang isipan at maliwanag ang mga mata….
marami lalo ang ayaw sa sinungaling.
siguro, karamihan sa mga leaders sa cebu ay maka kaban ng bayan.
Corporate criminals Ebbers, Fastow pay stiff price
By Anna Driver
Reuters
Tuesday, September 26, 2006; 4:37 PM
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Two men at the heart of corporate greed scandals in America paid the price on Tuesday, as a judge sentenced former Enron Corp. executive Andrew Fastow to prison and Bernard Ebbers, once the chief executive of highflying WorldCom Inc. began serving a 25-year sentence.
The massive accounting scandals at both companies triggered bankruptcies, stoked investor outrage and ultimately led to the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance reforms.
“Today we see that the system is not completely broken,” Nell Minow, co-founder of governance firm the Corporate Library. “Every corporate director and every corporate manager must be feeling goosebumps and that should help every investor feel a little better.”
Fastow, 44, whose financial wizardry was exposed as fakery and theft in the Enron collapse, was sentenced to six years in prison in Houston by U.S. District Judge Ken Hoyt — four years less than provided for in his 2004 plea agreement.
Judge Hoyt cited Fastow’s cooperation with prosecutors, his desire to help victims suing to recover their losses and his visible remorse in imposing the lighter sentence.
Noting that the former chief financial officer of Enron forfeited more than $24 million along with another $5 million from friends and family, the judge imposed no fine and recommended a minimum security prison in Bastrop, Texas.
Fastow’s sentence is light in comparison to the amount of time former WorldCom chief Ebbers is sentenced to serve.
Ebbers, 65, convicted of orchestrating an $11 billion accounting fraud, reported to a medium-security federal prison in Oakdale, Louisiana to begin his 25-year sentence. The fraud pushed the company into bankruptcy — the largest ever.
As part of the fraud, WorldCom guaranteed $400 million in personal loans to Ebbers, who used the money to pay for a yacht, a sawmill and a sprawling Canadian cattle ranch. Ebbers did not repay the loans, forcing the company to sue to recover, according to accounts from his trial.
At a sentencing hearing in 2005, Judge Barbara Jones recommended Ebbers be sent to a minimum-security facility in Yazoo City, Mississippi. But the Bureau of Prisons is not bound by the judge’s recommendation.
Ebbers, known as a grandfatherly CEO who preferred cowboy boots to suits, transformed WorldCom into a telecommunications powerhouse through a string of takeovers.
He was convicted by a jury in March 2005 of nine counts of conspiracy, securities fraud and other crimes that led to the telecommunications company’s July 2002 bankruptcy.
He had remained free on bail while appealing his conviction and sentence, but in July the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed both.
Under federal rules, Ebbers would be required to serve about 85 percent of his sentence — meaning that he would not be released until 2028 at the earliest. He suffers from heart disease and his lawyers have said that amounts to a life term.
WorldCom emerged from bankruptcy as MCI Inc., which was later acquired by Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ.N). Ebbers agreed last year to forfeit almost all of his personal wealth in a settlement with WorldCom investors.
© Copyright 1996-2006 The Washington Post Company
Two HP Execs Reportedly Subpoenaed By U.S. House Panel
Kevin Hunsaker, HP’s chief ethics officer, and Anthony Gentilucci, the head of global investigations for HP, have been called in, says a source familiar with the investigation.
By Reuters
InformationWeek
Sep 25, 2006 04:52 PM
WASHINGTON – Two Hewlett-Packard Co. officials were subpoenaed to testify at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing Thursday on the company’s probe into boardroom leaks, a source familiar with the investigation said Monday.
The subcommittee on investigations has subpoenaed Kevin Hunsaker, HP’s chief ethics officer, and Anthony Gentilucci, the head of global investigations for HP, the source said on condition of anonymity.
Also subpoenaed was a private investigator, Ron DeLia, from Security Outsourcing Solutions, the source said, adding that DeLia may invoke his constitutional right not to testify for fear of incriminating himself.
DeLia and a spokesman for HP were not immediately available for comment.
Hunsaker and Gentilucci are expected to leave their jobs at the computer and printer manufacturer, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday.
HP has admitted that while trying to find who was leaking confidential information from board meetings, investigators obtained phone call records of HP board members, at least two company employees, and of journalists, without their knowledge by posing as those individuals.
The practice is often known as “pretexting.”
The House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations has spent the past seven months looking into data brokers and their use of pretexting to obtain consumers’ call records and other private information.
On Thursday, HP Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd, former Chairman Patricia Dunn, General Counsel Ann Baskins and other company officials are expected to testify to the panel about HP’s use of pretexting to investigate boardroom leaks.
Last week, Hurd said he approved an e-mail ruse to track down boardroom leaks, saying it was important to discover who gave confidential information to news reporters. He was appointed chairman of HP after the board asked Dunn to resign for her role in the scandal.
HP is now under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, California’s attorney general, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the House panel. (Additional reporting by Duncan Martell in San Francisco.)
By: Jeremy Pelofsky
Copyright 2006 Reuters.
* * * * * * *
Patricia Dunn – The child of a vaudeville actor and a showgirl in Las Vegas, Dunn, 52, worked as a freelance journalist after college before taking a temporary secretarial job at Wells Fargo & Co.
She was CEO of Barclays Global Investors before she resigned from that post in 2002 to battle breast cancer and melanoma. Dunn joined HP’s board in 1998 and became chairwoman in 2005, taking an active role in running the 11th largest company on the Fortune 500.
She oversaw the ouster of former HP CEO Carleton Fiorina in February 2005, and two months later introduced Hurd as Fiorina’s successor.
pretexting – is the act of creating and using an invented scenario (the pretext) to obtain information from a target, usually over the telephone. It is more than a simple lie, as it regularly involves some prior research and the use of pieces of known information (e.g., Birthday, Social Security Number, last bill amount) to establish legitimacy in the mind of the target.
The purpose is often to trick a business into disclosing customer information, and is used by private investigators to obtain telephone records, utility records, banking records and other information directly from junior company service representatives. The information can then be used to establish even greater legitimacy under tougher questioning with a manager (e.g., to make account changes, get specific balances, etc).
As most U.S. companies still authenticate a client by asking only for a Social Security Number, Birthday, or Mother’s maiden name — all of which are easily obtained from public records — the method is extremely effective and will likely continue to work well until a more stringent identification method is adopted.
and pretexting is also a common and usual practice in this bogus administration, right?
For a second, I thought Nelbar’s “Corporate criminals Ebbers, Fastow pay stiff price” was all about our local FATSO, Mike Jose Pidal Arroyo!
Hahahahah!
Mrivera:
Wala naman kasing makuha sa Cebu. Pati nga mais, the staple food there, is scarce now dahil ang concentration ay tourism. Pero ang daming jueteng lords doon!
From The Daily Tribune:
Osmeña proposes semestral break till Jan. to clear Cebu for Asean Summit
10/01/2006
CEBU CITY — Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña has proposed the extension of the semestral break in Cebu schools until January to decongest the city during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit (Asean) in December.
Osmeña said he would support such a plan if parents and students are amenable to it.
If the plan pushes through, the semestral break will start in late October this year and end in December. But since Christmas break also falls around this time, the break would be further extended until after the holidays.
Dr. Carolino Mordeno, Department of Education regional director, who is amenable to the idea, however, said that students still need to comply with the required 205 school days a year.
This could mean extending classes until April.
The proposal, he said, would also need approval form the national office.
Dr. Leonilo Oliva, Cebu City Schools superintendent, said the idea may be difficult to implement.
Oliva said he would not agree to the proposal if school days would be extended to April. He said it would be too hot to go to school and there are already summer classes scheduled to those who need makeup classes.
Osmeña said he found the idea appealing since this would decongest the city during the four-day ASEAN Summit.
“That’s the whole idea of my proposal for applying the holiday economics. No- sandwich-sandwich. Let’s put all the holidays together,” Osmeña said. PNA
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Ang East Asia Summit ay sa Metro Cebu din gaganapin sa darating na December.
Ellen, ang Guiakcapanilo aka Panay , kailan kaya magkakaroon ng summit dito?