GaddafiIn the light of the United Nations Security Council’s strong action Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Al-Gaddafi, former House Speaker Jose de Venecia’s letter to the beleaguered strongman seems an exercise in futility and just a boast of his international connections.jdv
The 15-nation UN Security U.N. Security Council Saturday unanimously imposed travel bans and froze the assets of Gaddafi, members of his family and inner circle as he continued to crack down on escalating protests against his 42-year authoritarian rule.
More than a thousand have already been killed and more blood is expected to spill on the streets of Tripoli, where Gaddafi is expected to hold firm as long as he could. He won’t do a Hosni Mubarak. He had warned, “At the suitable time, we will open the arms depot so all Libyans and tribes become armed, so that Libya becomes red with fire.”
My sanggumay. Still a beauty but not so fragrant anymore.Habang nagkakantahan at nasasayawan sina Pangulong Aquino sa EDSAnoong Biyernes sa kanilang pagdiwang ng 25 taong anibersayo ng People Power, ako ay nakikinig sa kunsiyerto ng mga palaka.
Tuloy-tuloy hanggang lampas ng hatinggabi ang kunsiyerto ng mga palaka. Minsan may nagso-solo,pagkatapos pumapasok na parang background music. Ang galing. Talo si Ogie Alcasid at ang kanyang mga all-stars performers sa EDSA.
Sobra isang linggo na ako sa aming baryo sa Guisijan sa Antique at talaga namang nakaka-relax ang sariwang hangin, sariwang isda at sariwang gulay.
Nasubukan nyo na ba ang masaheng alon? ‘Yan ang nangyari sa akin noong isang linggo. Pinaghahampas kami ng alon. Masaya kaya lang masakit sa katawan.
Hindi masyadong damdam ng mga kapitbahay namin dito and selebrasyon ng EDSA1. Natutuwa lang ang mga bata dahil wala silang pasok kaya naligo kami sa dagat. Nang gabi nga nasalubong ko ang aming kapitbahay at sinabi niya makikinood daw siya kanyang katabing bahay ng “Willing-Willie.” Mukhang mas mabenta ang Willing-Willie kaysa EDSA1 na palabas.
A soldier reads Malaya's account of Day One of People Power Revolution. Photo by Joe Galvez. I’m reprinting here the recollection of Lourdes “Chuchay” Fernandez, Malaya’s editor-in-chief at the time of the 1986 People Power, which she did for VERA Files and Yahoo. Chuchay is now editor-in-chief of Business Mirror.
The 1986 People Power is most memorable for us in Malaya, whose owners, Jose Burgos Sr and his son, Joe Burgos, Jr.,editors and columnists were imprisoned three years earlier when their other newspaper, WE Forum, which was padlocked, ran the Marcos fake medals story.
I was home resting the day then Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile and Philippine Constaburary Chief Fidel Ramos launched their “People’s revolution” having come from a gruelling and emotion-laden coverage of the funeral of former Antique Governor Evelio Javier. I had to cut short my rest and cover what turned out to be one of the Filipinos’ greatest moments.
Here’s Chuchay’s Edsa1 recollection:
“EDSA, from my perspective as then editor-in-chief of the “Mosquito Press” pioneer Ang Pahayagang Malaya of Joe Burgos Jr., broke in the early afternoon of Feb. 22, 1986 when I received a phone call from Malaya’s Malacanang reporter, Butch Fernandez, who said he had heard the distinct “ting-ting-ting” of the teletype machine that receives wire-agency news feed at the Palace press room, indicating an urgent, big development.
We are commemorating the 1986 People Power revolution, many refer to as EDSA 1.
If we refer to EDSA I and EDSA 2 as a gathering of people on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, that long stretch of road from Pasay City to Caloocan City, I would agree that’s accurate. Then we should also call the assembly of masses in the last days of April 2001 that culminated in the assault of Malacanang on May 1, 2001 EDSA 3. The crowd in April 2001 was definitely bigger than the civil society groups that ousted an elected president, Joseph Estrada, in Jan 2001 and installed in Malacanang Gloria Arroyo that turned out to be worse than Estrada in corruption and perversion of the law.
Whistleblower Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada could be the perfect example of how, in this country, people like him who dare spill the beans on wrongdoing get punished, not rewarded. It is a practice that he said must change under the administration of President Benigno Aquino III.
Three years after he faced the Senate as star witness exposing the corruption-ridden contract for a national broadband network, Lozada still faces a slew of lawsuits while the people he has accused of making millions of pesos in commissions have mostly escaped sanctions.
“Masigasig sila sa kakahabol sa kaso ko, eh (They’re determined to pursue the cases against me),” said Lozada, who still faces a P19.5-million malversation case related to the jathropa project of the Philippine Forest Corp. which he used to head. He also faces a graft case allegedly for the anomalous purchase of motor vehicles, fencing materials and other equipment worth P15 million.
I’m trying hard to understand why reason seem to have left the Aquino government in the case of the Filipinos who are in China’s death row for drug trafficking.
Aquino sent Vice President Jejomar Binay to Beijing last week to appeal to the leadership to spare the lives of Ramon Credo, 42, Sally Villanueva, 32, and Elizabeth Batain, 38, who were scheduled to be executed by lethal injection today.
The three were sentenced to death for smuggling 4 kilograms to 6.8 kilograms of heroin to in 2008. They were originally five but diplomatic sources said further investigations showed that the two had minor roles in the drug syndicate than the three.
The removal of Alberto Romulo as foreign secretary (to be replaced by former Ambassador to the U.S. Albert del Rosario), the first cabinet change in the nine-month old Aquino administration, is supposed to signal long-delayed reforms in the Department of Foreign Affairs. It is dampened, however, by reports that Romulo would be named the country’s permanent representative to the United Nations.
President Aquino is not confirming Romulo’s UN assignment. All he said was, “Bert Romulo is not a stranger to me. So, he still has contributions that he can make. It’s always the details that tie us up.”
The UN job is one of the positions being floated to be Romulo’s “golden parachute”, a term used in the corporate world of a clause in an executive’s contract specifying that he would be receiving large benefits in the event that employment is terminated or the company is sold.
There is no such thing as a golden parachute for government officials but they are entitled to the usual retirement benefits.
Following statement was sent by Sen. Panfilo Lacson. I have verified it to be his statement.
No welcome, no send off
When I took over the helm of the Philippine National Police in November 1999,I was told that there was P40M per year in “commander’s reserve” at the exclusive disposal of the C,PNP. I was never interested. I instructed my Director for Comptrollership, then Police Director, now Congressman Romeo Acop of Antipolo City to treat that reserved fund as part and parcel of the general fund for personnel welfare and other operational activities of the command.
The monthly gas allowance for the C, PNP was equivalent to the consumption of 50 vehicles or more even if allowed to run 24 hours a day. Mindful of complaints that police cars often ran out of gas, I ordered the excess allowance downloaded to front line units.
I was likewise presented with a high limit credit card with the information that I could swipe it both for personal and official purposes. Again, I asked my office administrative officer, then Chief Insp. Asper Cabula to return the credit card with clear instructions not to activate it.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Romulo has cleared his office at the Department of Foreign Affairs, a source said. A Malacanang source said former Ambassador to the…
There’s a saying in Tagalog “umiikot ang puwit” which means jittery; feeling uneasy and nervous.
The decision of the Supreme Court allowing the House of Representatives to proceed with the impeachment proceeding against Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez should make not only Gutierrez nervous but her patrons, the former occupants of Malacañang.
The Supreme Court justices are supposed not to be influenced by public opinion but they would not be human not to be affected by the public outrage over the plea bargain agreement entered into by the Ombudsman with former military comptroller Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia.
