A military court will decide today on the plea—twice denied under the government of former President Gloria Arroyo—to exonerate 16 military officers facing mutiny charges for a supposed plot against her in 2006.
Update:
The court yesterday set another hearing on Sept. 24 for promulgation of this case. The hearing yesterday started with the court looking for the motions for reconsideration filed by the defense lawyers. Either the prosecution didn’t have them in their file or the panel didn’t get their copies. When the MRs were all found, the court asked the prosecution to make a comment within ten days from Sept. 9. Then they will issue the promulgation on Sept. 24.
This is the first time that the court martial proceedings will resume under the new commander-in-chief, Benigno Aquino III.
After two postponements, the court is finally expected to rule on the defense panel’s motion for reconsideration. The hearing was originally set for Aug. 27, then moved to Sept. 3. The last hearing was on May 21.
The motion asks the court to absolve the 16 officers of the charge of mutiny, which the court denied on Oct. 27, 2009. The accused appealed the decision, but their motion for reconsideration was denied just the same on March 2, 2010.
Filipinos have high hopes for President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, who took power two months ago with the largest margin of victory in two decades and an 85% approval rating. His popularity rested mostly on promises of good values and cleaner governance—promises his mother, democracy icon Cory Aquino, made too. Yet his first major test in office shows how early political compromises are exacerbating problems in the weak institutions he’s promised to reform.
On Aug. 23, a disgruntled former police officer took a tourist bus hostage and after a long stand-off, killed eight passengers, all Hong Kongers. The government’s response was an exercise in incompetence. In public hearings that began Friday, police and politicians admitted that untrained, ill-equipped forces were used while elite units were put on standby; that national leaders played no role in the crisis response despite foreigners’ involvement; and that ad hoc, unclear lines of communication between local politicians and local police complicated matters. To add insult to injury, the authorities in charge left the scene to eat in a nearby Chinese restaurant precisely when the killings began.
The incident sparked outrage in Hong Kong, where the government has called for an independent investigation and compensation for the victims’ families. But Mr. Aquino only belatedly realized the gravity of the situation. His first instinct was to blame the national media for covering the event live, a sentiment that citizens in the blogosphere and on Twitter quickly echoed. When the hearings did little to quell public anger on Friday—two weeks after the fiasco—he claimed responsibility “for everything that has transpired.”
VersozaDespite the Euro-generals scandal at the beginning of his term as chief of the Philippine National Police two years ago, Police Chief Jesus Versoza has been lucky and even re-invented himself from a Mike Arroyo man to Noynoy Aquino ally in the last May election.
Aquino confirms VERA Files story that he had differences with Robredo.
“There are various reasons kung bakit acting. In the case of Jesse, we had some differences during the campaign as to style. We want to make sure we can really work with each other well. It does no good to get him through the whole process of the CA only at the end of the day to find out that there might be difficulties in our working style, among others, our core philosophy, so we did agree na acting na muna,” Aquino said.
“May evaluation period, siguro check ang working style, after two months sigurado na tayo, we still have certain things discussed,” he added. “Dadalawang buwan pa lang kami nagkakasubukan kung talaga nga bang kaya naming mag-mesh.”
Talk in the power circles even said Versoza was slated to be the next secretary of interior and local government after Jesse Robredo has been eased out of the politically strategic department. That’s the reason why as early as last month he was sharing to media his thoughts about going to civilian life earlier than his December official retirement date.
Kahit na dalawang linggo na nakalipas ang trahedya sa Luneta, nakakapanghilakbot pa rin ang maririnig ang pinaka-kritikal na mga minuto kung saan nagwawala na ang hostage-taker na si dating Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza.
Pinatugtug kahapon sa hearing ng committee na nagi-imbestiga ng trahedya noong Agosto 23 ang mga huling minute ng trahedya sa testimonya nina Jake Maderazo, manager ng Radio Mindanao Network at ng kanilang reporter na si Michael Rogas.
Sana hindi na mangyayari ito ulit. Ang bigat sa dibdib at sa pag-iisip. Mabigat sa ating bayan.
Kung sabagay, kailangan siguro natin ito para mayugyug tayo, lalo pa ang ating mga opisyal, lalo pa si Pangulong Aquino na ayusin nila ang pagpalakad ng bayan.
Bakas sa mukha ng mag-asawang Fernando at Corazon Fortuna ang sakit at hinagpis ng magulang na naghahanap ng anak. Ganoon din ang mag-amang Pitarico Garcia at Pops Cabaltica.
Hinahanap nina Fernando at Corazon ang kanilang anak na babeng si Daryl, 23 taong gulang at estudyante sa Polytechnic University of the Philippines, na nawawala mula pa noong Marso 26 habang nagre-research tungkol sa kanyang thesis sa Zambales.
By VERA Files When Malacanang submits to Congress for confirmation its list of Cabinet appointees, Interior and Local Governments Secretary Jesse Robredo, who is under…
There is something amusing in the latest batch of appointments of President Aquino. Alex Magno; Ronald Llamas
Like in the high-paying positions of Board of Directors of the Development Bank of the Philippines. Gloria Arroyo defender and Philippine Star columnist Alex Magno is out. Ronald Llamas of Akbayan is in.
I don’t know if Llamas specifically asked for DBP because of Magno but the mere mention of the names of the two reminds me of their verbal wrestling many years ago.
Magno greeted Llamas: “Hello, the last of the socialist.”
Llamas replied: “Hello, the first of the opportunist.”
Dapat tumigil na itong si Elena Bautista-Horn sa pagyayabang na mas magaling ang pamahalaan ni Gloria Arroyo sa paghawak ng krisis kaysa sa kasulukuyang pamahalaan…
Sa imbestigayon na ginagawa ngayon ng Incident Investigation and Review Committee ng nangyari noong Agosto 23, mayroong mga nakakatawa na nangyari. Katulad nitong kwento ni Chief Inspector Romeo Salvador, ang deputy negotiator.
Sabi niya nahilo raw siya ng mga pasado na alas-dos kaya pumunta siya sa isang ambulansya na nakaparada malapit sa Command Post sa Rizal Park. Wala raw ammonia ang ambulansya. Ang binigay sa kanya ay ang Katinko. Yung ointment na Chinese medicine. Natawa ang mga miembro ng committee.
Aba, magaling ang katinko ha. Gamit ko rin yun kapag sumasakit ang aking ulo. Kung walang katinko, white flower. Palagi ako meron nyan sa bag ko.
President Aquino believed everything that Rico E. Puno, his shooting buddy that he appointed Interior Undersecretary for police matters, advised him during the Aug. 23 hostage crisis.
Rico E. Puno's photo from ABS-CBN onlinePuno, on the other hand, believed everything that the police and Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim told him about the hostage situation. Lim assured him they were in control of the situation and all their strategy was “to tire him out.”
Puno never set foot in the crisis command headquarters, if ever there was one.
Puno said there was no TV set at the Emerald restaurant which was supposedly Lim’s command center. They were just getting reports of police by cellphone.
The above were just few of the booboos committed by those in charge of the Aug 23 hostage crisis. Here’s ABS-CBN’s report:
A government panel on Friday uncovered a series of errors that could have led to the bloody ending of the August 23 hostage crisis that killed 8 Hong Kong tourists.
A Department of the Interior and Local Government official assigned to supervise the country’s police force noted several lapses in the handling of the hostage crisis including: lack of crowd control, lack of control of the media and lack of equipment for the police team assigned to assault the bus held the remaining 15 hostages.
Aquino owned up responsibility for hostage crisis fiasco
President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III on Friday took responsibility for “everything that has transpired” in the hostage crisis last week.
President Aquino said he actually has direct supervision of the Philippine National Police at the time since he had previously asked Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Jess Robredo to concentrate on something else.
Aquino explained that when he offered the DILG portfolio to Robredo, Robredo was asked to address concerns such as coming up with a comprehensive plan on delivering social services to and relocating informal settlers in coordination with the local governments. Aquino, who held the DILG in a concurrent capacity when he assumed office, had the direct control of the PNP.
“When I got him, I did tell him, that at this point in time, we’re trying to consolidate especially with our security forces, I will retain direct supervision on the PNP, until such time that he has addressed other concerns, specifically our promises to the informal sectors of our country,” Aquino told reporters.
Aquino said at the end of the day, he was responsible for everything that happened.
