Part One of Five
Making life worth living.
Month: July 2010
By His Excellency Benigno S. Aquino III
President of the Philippines to the Congress of the Philippines
Session Hall of the House of Representatives
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte; Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile; Vice President Jejomar Binay; Chief Justice Renato Corona; Former Presidents Fidel Valdez Ramos and Joseph Ejercito Estrada; members of the House of Representatives and the Senate; distinguished members of the diplomatic corps; my fellow workers in government;
Mga minamahal kong kababayan:
Sa bawat sandali po ng pamamahala ay nahaharap tayo sa isang sangandaan.
Sa isang banda po ay ang pagpili para sa ikabubuti ng taumbayan. Ang pagtanaw sa interes ng nakakarami; ang pagkapit sa prinsipyo; at ang pagiging tapat sa sinumpaan nating tungkulin bilang lingkod-bayan. Ito po ang tuwid na daan.
Sa kabilang banda ay ang pag-una sa pansariling interes. Ang pagpapaalipin sa pulitikal na konsiderasyon, at pagsasakripisyo ng kapakanan ng taumbayan. Ito po ang baluktot na daan.
Matagal pong naligaw ang pamahalaan sa daang baluktot. Araw-araw po, lalong lumilinaw sa akin ang lawak ng problemang ating namana. Damang-dama ko ang bigat ng aking responsibilidad.
The 15th Congress opened today electing Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile of the Partido ng Masang Pilipino as senate president and Quezon City (4th district) Rep. Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. of the Liberal Party as speaker of the House of Representatives.
Enrile, dubbed as “unity” senate president, obtained 17 out of 20 votes of senators belonging to Liberal and Nacionalista Parties, including Sen. Manuel Villar, who ran for president in the last May elections and was investigated by the 14th Senate under Enrile for alleged overpricing on the C-5 road extension project.
Enrile defeated Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano of the NP who automatically becomes the Senate minority leader. Sen. Jinggoy Estrada was voted Senate President pro tempore . Sen. Vicente “Tito” Sotto III was majority floor leader and chairman of the Senate committee on rules.
Belmonte got 227 votes over Albay Rep. Edzel Lagman (Lakas-Lampi-CMD) who got only 29 votes. Lagman will share the position of House minority leader with Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez.
President Aquino promises a shocker in his first state of the nation address tomorrow.
Two of my Facebook friends can’t wait for it.
Reyna Elena said, ” I will watch, I will listen and will prepare to be shocked. This could be the day that he will reveal the real story behind the Kris Aquino and James Yap break-up.”
That is also what musician Dennis Garcia would be waiting for. He said, “If PNoy switches on the creative side of his brain full blast, he can make his SONA a rousing success… for starters… PNoy should reveal the real reason for the break-up of Kris & James.”
Tinanong si Chavit Singson, gubernador ng Ilocos Sur, kung dadalawin ni Gloria Arroyo ang kanyang anak na si Rep. Ronald Singson sa kulungan sa Hongkong at mariing niyang itinanggi.
At bakit hindi? Di ba magkakaibigan silang matalik? Di ba dapat ang magkakabibigan nagdadamayan? Lalo na kailangan ni Arroyo ang kakampi sa Kongreso. Kahit durugista ang kongresman ng unang distrito ng Ilocos Sur, kakampi pa rin niya yan.
Mahaba-haba yata ang bakasyon nina Arroyo sa Hongkong ngayon. Noong isang linggo pa silang umalis kasama ang kanyang asawang si Mike at ang isa nyang anak na congressman, si Dato.
Credit where credit is due: The photo came from the website “ispoops” (http://www.ispoops.com/photoblog/Mikey_the_Strict_Sekyu_2000/#2000) by Carlo Barrameda.
Sa daming batikos na ipinupukol sa kanila ukol sa kanilang pag-aprub kay dating Pampanga congressman Mikey Arroyo, anak ni Gloria Arroyo, na kinatawan ng mga tricycle driver at security guards, aroganteng sumagot si Ferrer na hindi naman daw marunong gumawa ng batas ang mga tricycle driver at security guards.
“Can you imagine a tricycle driver being able to draft a law?” insulto na tanong ni Ferrer.
Pinapatunayan ni Ferrer na kahit ang isang tao ay may diploma at may attorney pang kakabit sa pangalan niya maaring siyang manatiling mang-mang. Makitid ang pag-iisip.
Ding Gagelonia said the image is from the Ispoops website of Carlo Barrameda. Here’s the link:http://www.ispoops.com/photoblog/Mikey_the_Strict_Sekyu_2000/#2000
There’s another one, also funny: http://www.ispoops.com/photoblog/Mikey_the_Strict_Sekyu_2000/#1999
Bastusan ang ginawa ng Comelec sa batas na nagbibigay ng boses sa mga “marginalized” o mga sector hindi nabibigyan ng representasyon sa kongreso. Ginamit ni Mikey Arroyo at iba pang mga oportunista katulad ni dating Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes, upang maisulong ang kanilang walang pagkabusug sa kapangyarihan. Aprub naman ng Comelec.
The latest reshuffle in the military has Major General Arturo Ortiz taking over as commander of the Philippine Army.
Ortiz is an awardee of the Medal of Valor, the highest military award.
(Two medal of valor awardees- Marine Col. Ariel Querubin and Marine Lt. Vol. Custodio Parcon are among those facing charges of mutiny for allegedly planning to withdraw support from Gloria Arroyo in 2006 following the revelation in the “Hello Garci” tapes where the role of the military in election cheating was exposed.)
Brigadier General Roberto Morales will take over Ortiz’s post as commander of the AFP Special Operations Command. Colonel Aminkadra Undug will take over Morales’ former post as chief of the Army’s Special Forces Regiment.
I have my concerns about Undug (PMA Class’82). He was mentioned in the “Hello Garci” tapes by a certain “Boy” whom then Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano was talking with in their plan to kidnap Rashma Hali, an election officer in Tipo-tipo, Basilan who wanted to expose the manipulation of votes in favor of Arroyo.
by Ashzel Hachero
Malaya
A Makati court hearing the coup d’etat case of the Magdalo soldiers on Thursdya junked the bid of the group’s leader, detained Senator Antonio Trillanes IV to attend the opening session of the 15th Congress on Monday, July 26.
Update: Detained Senator Antonio Trillanes IV asked Judge Oscar Pimentel of the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 148 to reconsider his reconsider its decision prohibiting him from attending the opening of the Senate session on July 26.
“It will just be fore five hours,” Trillanes’ lawyer Reynaldo Robles said.
Robles argued that the SC ruling cited by the RTC was “not applicable” in the request for leave-from-detention. “(The SC ruling denied an) omnibus motion, which is a motion (for Trillanes to) attend Senate sessions and committee hearings,” he told GMANews.TV.
In a four page ruling, Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 148 Judge Oscar Pimentel Sr. sided with the prosecution’s arguments that Trillanes latest bid to leave his detention place to attend Senate sessions has no merit and this was even affirmed by the Supreme Court (SC).
“After due considerations of the pleadings and arguments filed by both parties, the Court is convinced to deny the Motion for leave filed by Senator Antonio F. Trillanes IV,” Pimentel said in his ruling dated July 15 but which was only released late Thursday afternoon.
Update: Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner Elias Yusoph has denied that he received money from local candidates in Lanao del Sur province before the May 10 elections as accused by a military official.
He also chided Brig. Gen. Ray Ardo, chief of the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade, for coming up with an accusation based on “rumors and hearsay.”
by Froilan Gallardo
Mindanews
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY— It was all about the huge amount of bribe money that corrupted election officials who issued orders to cluster polling precincts to favored politicians during the last elections in May, military officers and poll watchdog groups said.
“Politicians who lost a lot of money want to recoup their losses. That is the reason why Nuraldin was kidnapped,” said Brig. Gen. Ray Ardo, chief of the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade. “They want to be refunded,” he added.
At the center of the controversy that hounded the kidnapping of Nuraldin is his father Elias, the only Muslim commissioner in the Commission on Elections.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), in its luwaran.com website, said that “the kidnapping was a collective effort” of all losers in the election “to force him [Commissioner Yusoph] to refund the bribes given him during the elections” as it accused the election official of “[taking] money from all sides.”
There was no immediate comment from the elder Yusoph and his family about the accusation.
Seventeen grandmothers, in the sunset of their lives, staged a rally Monday before the Supreme Court protesting the plagiarism in the decision that denied them remedy for the wartime savagery they suffered.
Their counsel, CenterLaw’s Harry Roque, call the April 28, 2010 decision, the ”third siege of Mapanique”
The first siege was 66 years ago. In his blog, Roque narrated the horror that descended on Mapanique one day in November 1944:
“At dawn of November 23, 1944, Japanese troops descended on the town of Mapanique, Candaba, Pampanga. To the shock of the local inhabitants, Japanese troops gathered all the men and boys and proceeded to castrate many of them. After which, the men were forced to put their severed sexual organs in their mouths before they were burned to death en masse.
“The women and girls, on the other hand, were marched to what is known until today as ‘Bahay na Pula’ (red house) in San Ildenfonso, Bulacan. There, the women and girls were interred and repeatedly raped.