Considering that the government has intensified export of Filipino workers overseas because it cannot provide jobs for them, continuing to avoid going back in the Watch List is a consolation, however small because the ideal situation is that there should be jobs available for Filipinos in the country so that the father or mother, son or daughter does not need to be far away from his or her family in a strange environment just to earn a living.
Spreading false information is not funny at all. Worse, it is coming from official sources.
Last Sunday, Benito Ramos, executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, released to media the information that a Chinese vessel rammed a Philippine fishing boat, Axl John, last June 20 on the waters near Bolinao, Pangasinan.
Four of the eight fishermen aboard Axl John were rescued but one later died. Four are still missing.
How sure was Ramos that it was a Chinese vessel? He said that was according to the fishermen who saw the markings on the ship. Apparently the name was not written in Roman alphabet which Filipinos are familiar with.
Adverse weather situation provided a face-saving exit for both the Philippines and China in the more than two-month standoff over Scarborough shoal, also referred to as Panatag shoal or Bajo de Masinloc by Filipinos and Huangyan island by the Chinese.
President Aquino said there would be no need to send back Philippine ships to Scarborough shoal if no vessel from other countries would be seen during aerial reconnaissance that the Philippine Air Force would be regularly doing.
But before that, careful not to be seen as the one who blinked first, Filipino and Chinese officials issued statements that were both conciliatory and contradictory.
Pang 32-40 ang kanyang ranking. Sa mga 1,200 na tinanong, 56 percent ay kilala si Lozada. At 5.8 per cent sa mga tinanong ay boboto sa kanya.
Medyo malayo sa Magic 12 na kinabibilangan halos ng mga re-electionist o pangalan ng mga kilalang pulitiko. Ngunit pwede pa naman trabahuhin dahil may 11 na buwan pa bago eleksyun.
Kahit na isinama ang kanyang pangalan sa pagpipilian, hindi naman talaga kasi sa isip ng mga tao na tatakbo siya para Senado dahil wala naman siyang sinabing interesado siya.
Dati kasi, noong 2010, inisip niya noon tumakbo. Gusto niya noon independent kasama ang ilang kandidato na ayaw sumali sa tradisyunal na partido katulad ng Liberal Party at Nacionalista Party.
Kasama sa pagdasal para kay Dolphy ay ang panawagan ng marami niyang kaibigan at tagahanga na ibigay sa kanya ang National Artist Award o Orden ng Gawad Pambansang Alagad ng Sining, ang pinakamataas na pagkilala ng kontribusyon ng isang Pilipino sa larangan ng Sining na binibigay ng pamahalaan.
Wala namang tutol diyan dahil sang-ayon naman ang lahat sa kontribusyon ni Dolphy sa pagpasaya ng sambayanang Pilipino. Kaya lang may proseso ang National Artist award at hindi naman tama na i-short cut dahil lang sa delikado ngayon ang lagay ni Dolphy.
Sa tamang panahon, maaring ibigay yan ay Dolphy na walang bahid ng paboritismo at anomalya katulad ng nangyari noong panahon ni Gloria Arroyo para kay Carlos Caparas at kay Cecille Alvarez.
Former Energy Secretary Raphael “Popo” Lotilla wrote a letter the other day thanking friends who submitted his name to the Judicial and Bar Council, that will screen the nominations and submit to the Malacañang a short list (usually three names) from where the President will choose the next SC justice.
He was nominated by former economic managers and economists Roberto de Ocampo, Calixto Chikiamko, Gloria Tan Climaco, Bong Montes, Simon Paterno and Romeo Bernardo.
Yesterday, former Defense Secretary Gilbert “Gibo”Teodoro was nominated by Atty. Jose Mallari.
If Rizal were alive today, it is not farfetched that he would be in media.
I would imagine him writing stinging commentaries on the corrupt politicians and self-righteous civil society leaders the way he took on the hypocritical friars and cocky and incompetent Spanish colonial officers in his Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo.
I would imagine him an advocate of protecting our environment. As noted by an environmental organization EcoWaste Coalition, during his exile in Dapitan, Rizal did various projects such as the construction of an aqueduct that provided people with clean water, draining of swamps to avoid being breeding places of mosquitoes, use of coconut oil lamps to light up streets, beautification of the town plaza, and planting of trees in different parts of the town.
I would imagine him also writing about our state of education because the importance he puts in education was best expressed in his support for the women of Malolos who defied the wrath of Malolos parish priest Fr. Felipe Garcia, who forbade them to attend night school to study Spanish.
As of yesterday, reports said the Judicial and Bar Council, which screens nominees for positions in the Judiciary, for appointment by the President, has received 14 nominations for the position vacated by the recently convicted former Chief Justice Renato Corona.
The latest addition to the growing list are anti-graft crusader Frank Chavez and former Makati representative and writer/TV commentator Teodoro “Teddy Boy” Locsin Jr.
Chavez was nominated by Manuel Baviera of the Whistleblowers Association and Locsin was nominated by lawyer Brigido Dulay and ABAKADA party-list president Jonathan Dela Cruz.
The published names of nominees include Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza, Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares and women’s rights advocate Katrina Legarda,retired Judge Manuel Siayngco Jr.;University of the Philippines’ College of Law dean Raul Pangalangan, Ateneo de Manila University law school dean Cesar Villanueva, Inquirer columnist and former former Laguna Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Marianito Sasondoncillo, lawyer Nepomuceno Aparis,Rafael Morales, a managing partner of the Sycip, Salazar, Hernandez & Gatmaitan law firm.
This is a three-part series by VERA Files which we hope you will find useful as we monitor the selection of the next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
JBC partly to blame for problems in judiciary
(First of three parts)
The Judicial and Bar Council is now the focus of national attention as it begins the process of recommending a replacement for ousted Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona. The process, if done right, is expected to help restore public confidence in the High Tribunal.
Yet many in the legal profession and in the judiciary, as well as in civil society, say the JBC needs reforming, because it is partly responsible for the problems in the judiciary, exemplified by the rise and fall of Corona, a “midnight appointee” who was eventually impeached and convicted for violating the Constitution and betraying public trust.