by Luz Rimban VERA Files PHNOM PENH—In a village 15 kilometers south of this city, tourists from all over the world arrive every day to…
Making life worth living.
Month: March 2009
Huwag magkamaling pumunta dito sa Pilipinas itong si Chip Tsao at babalatan siyang buhay.
Itong si Chip Tsao na taga Hongkong ay sumulat sa isang Hongkong magazine at galit na galit siya sa mga Pilipino dahil kini-claim ng Pilipinas ang ilang isla sa South China Sea. Sa pag-iisip kasi ng China, sila ang may-ari ng buong South China Sea.
Maliban sa Pilipinas at China, apat pa ng bansa ang nagsasabing sila ang may-ari ng ilang isla diyan sa South China Sea katulad ng Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei at Taiwan (na sinasabi ng China na probinsiya lang nila.)
Okay lang ang may mga claim na hindi magkatugma. Pwedeng pag-usapan ng maayos. Ang hindi okay ay ang panlalait na ginawa nitong si Tsao.
By Tess Bacalla VERA Files RANGOON, Myanmar—Let it not be said that the month of March went by without the outside world taking a moment…
Related article in Inquirer: Directed by Mikey
Mikey Arroyo, son of Gloria and Mike Arroyo, who represents the second district of Pampanga in the House of Representatives, must really take all Filipinos to be stupid.
He thinks we could not see through the deception in the still- to- be filed resolution of Camarines Sur Representative Luis Villafuerte “calling upon all members of Congress to convene for the purpose of considering proposals to amend or revise the Constitution, upon a vote of three-fourths of all the members of Congress.”
In all his interviews about his having approached former Speaker Jose de Venecia, together with Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, for help in getting more signatures for the Villafuerte resolution, Arroyo keeps on saying that nowhere in the resolution does it state that his mother’s term will be extended. He says that if they succeed in having the resolution passed and upheld by the Supreme Court, charter change will be after 2010.
She has been president of the country for eight years, two months and four days. No one other than Ferdinand Marcos has presided over the nation’s continuing misery longer than Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, daughter of the man Marcos defeated in the elections of 1965.
In her first three years, five months and nine days of the term to which Joseph Ejercito Estrada was elected in 1998, she survived several crises of corruption. First was the IMPSA sovereign guarantee extended by her through a Department of Justice opinion, where seven million dollars allegedly changed hands under the table. Two million dollars of such unexplained monies were traced to a Swiss bank by Swiss federal authorities. The money trail was furnished the Office of the President. The Ombudsman slept for years on the case. Finally, last year the Ombudsman filed a case against the then Secretary of Justice, a case that the Sandiganbayan, protective of “due process” for the accused, dismissed. Clearly the Ombudsman filed a case meant to be lost.
She was accused by Pacifico Marcelo of wanting to take over his telecoms company, 55 percent or so of it, in exchange for upholding his franchise. Her own Assumption friend and palace confidante, who came from a family of honest genes, was appalled at the display of power for corruption so early. But Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was protected in the Senate by Joker Arroyo. Marcelo fled on a slow boat to China. The Assumption friend died of illness later.
Hindi lang pala mga retired na guro at mga vendors ang naloko ni Celso de los Angeles at ng kanyang Legacy Group of companies.
Ang educational plan ng 15,000 na anak ng sundalo at pulis pala ay napurnada na rin. At ang malungkot pa nito, marami sa mga sundalo ay walang kamalay-malay na wala na pala ang inaasahan nilang educational plan para sa kanilang mga anak.
Nabulgar lang ito noong isang araw ng mag-anunsyo si Fe Barin ng Securities and Exchange Commission na para raw tulong sa mga nabiktima ni de los Angeles, magpapalabas ang SEC ng pera para pambayad ng tuition ng mga planholders sa darating na pasukan. Sinabi niya ang Scholarship Plans Phils. Inc., ang isa sa mga kumpanya ni de los Angeles.
Do we deserve this?
The war at home
by Chip Tsao
HK Magazine
The Russians sank a Hong Kong freighter last month, killing the seven Chinese seamen on board. We can live with that—Lenin and Stalin were once the ideological mentors of all Chinese people. The Japanese planted a flag on Diàoyú Island. That’s no big problem—we Hong Kong Chinese love Japanese cartoons, Hello Kitty, and shopping in Shinjuku, let alone our round-the-clock obsession with karaoke.
But hold on—even the Filipinos? Manila has just claimed sovereignty over the scattered rocks in the South China Sea called the Spratly Islands, complete with a blatant threat from its congress to send gunboats to the South China Sea to defend the islands from China if necessary. This is beyond reproach. The reason: there are more than 130,000 Filipina maids working as $3,580-a-month cheap labor in Hong Kong. As a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter.
by Atty. Ernesto B. Francisco, Jr.
This latest move of the Office of the Ombudsman to spare First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo and other individuals prominently mentioned in the World Bank reports from preliminary investigation and from the risk – no matter how remote – of being charged before the Sandiganbayan, coupled with the ploy of passing on its job of investigating them to the National Bureau of Investigation (“NBI”), is totally disgusting and sickening. This is too much. This also proves that the Ombudsman really takes 80 million Filipinos for fools.
The Ombudsman just announced that preliminary investigation would be conducted against 17 ranking Department of Public Works and Highways (“DPWH”) officials for charges of graft, grave misconduct, dishonesty, neglect of duty, among others, in connection with the collusive bid-rigging of World Bank-assisted road projects. In a newspaper report,[2] the Ombudsman was quoted as saying that “it uncovered an ‘indication of collusion’ between officials and private contractors.” It was further reported that Malacañang Palace “welcomed the Ombudsman’s recommendation to file charges against the DPWH officials.”
But the questions that right away struck the readers were: how about First Gentleman Mike Arroyo? Why wasn’t he included in the preliminary investigation? How about contractor Eduardo De Luna and the alleged arrangers Boy Belleza and Augusto “Tito” Miranda? Weren’t they all mentioned in the World Bank reports which were the basis for the Ombudsman investigation?
Click on each of the pictures to view them enlarged.
At the court martial hearing of the 28 officers accused of mutiny for a February 2006 non-event last Feb. 26, it was agreed that the next hearing would be on March 10, 2009.
A day before March 10, the lawyers of the accused were notified that the hearing would be on March 20. No explanation was given why the agreed hearing on March 10 would not push through.
March 20 came and all the lawyers and the accused (except for two officers) were present at the Daza Park hall in Camp Aguinaldo. But there were only three members of the panel who would be hearing the case: Maj. Gen. Jogy Fojas, Commodore Ramon Punzalan and law member Col. Marian Aleido, when there should at least be four of them to constitute a quorum. One member was out of the country. Even the trial judge advocate could not explain the absence of the other members of the panel.
When I talked to Capt. Candy Rivas this afternoon, she was laughing and we talked of finally having our long-planned dinner, now that she expects to be released from her three year detention.
She didn’t sound like someone who had just been convicted.
Candy was convicted this morning of “Conduct unbecoming of an officer and gentleman” for harboring and concealing Capt. Nicanor Faeldon who had escaped from his prison cell in Fort Bonifacio in December 2005.” The punishment is dismissal from military service.