Category: General

Malacañang knows there’s no way they can prevent Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV from assuming his seat in the Senate. They want to save face by asking Trillanes to apologize to the bogus president. I can’t wait to hear Trillanes’ answer.

Trillanes may get off with slap on the wrist

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV might end up with just a slap on the wrist for leading hundreds of soldiers in the 2003 Oakwood mutiny — if he agrees to plead guilty to the charges and apologize to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

El Shaddai leader Bro. Mike Velarde and Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal have been informed that the Sandiganbayan has found former president Joseph Estrada guilty of the crime of plunder, DZMM reported Thursday.

In a report by DZMM correspondent Anthony Taberna, no less than President Arroyo talked to Velarde and Vidal about the anti-graft court’s verdict on Estrada’s plunder case.

According to DZMM sources, Mrs. Arroyo talked to Velarde before the May 14 elections and told him that she wanted the Estrada trial to end in a conviction.

From ABS-CBN online:

A former justice secretary on Tuesday said the government prosecutors should not have used as example the case of former Rep. Romeo Jalosjos in blocking Senator Antonio Trillanes IV’s request to fully perform his duties as an elected member of the Senate.

“Alam po ninyo iyong kaso ni Trillanes at iyong isang congressman ay mayroon pong pagkakaiba,” said Serafin Cuevas, also a former Supreme Court associate justice.

He said Jalosjos has been convicted of rape charges while Trillanes remains an accused and all the evidence against him have yet to be presented before the Makati City Regional Trial Court (RTC).

DoJ execs cite Jalosjos case to oppose Trillanes bid

By Leila Salaverria

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV cannot use the more than 11 million votes he received in the May elections to seek preferential treatment, like attending Senate sessions and setting up an office in his detention cell, Department of Justice prosecutors said Monday.

The prosecutors said they represented not only those who voted for Trillanes but also the more than 85 million Filipinos.

AFP link to leftist’s abduction ‘hearsay’

By Leila Salaverria, Christian V. Esguerra
Inquirer

His disappearance was senseless and one could not but be rent by the anguish of his wife as she searched in vain for him. But there isn’t a shred of evidence that would link the military or the police to his abduction.

With this, the Court of Appeals dismissed a habeas corpus petition filed by the wife of Leonardo Ancheta who had asked the court to order retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales and Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon to produce Ancheta.

by JP Lopez

Dr. Edita Burgos, mother of missing activist Jonas Burgos, yesterday accused AFP chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon of covering up for Army soldiers suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of her son almost two months ago.

“I accuse the Army of the crime of kidnapping my son Jonas… I strongly suspect that either or both of the commanding officers of the 56th Infantry Battalion, Lt. Col. Noel Clement and Lt. Col. Melquiades Feliciano, are participants in that crime,” Dr. Burgos, widow of press freedom icon and former Malaya publisher Jose “Joe” Burgos Jr., said at a press conference in Quezon City.

The following story simply underscores that money does not necessarily translate to happiness.Another issue here is, how did Iggy Arroyo acquire those assets in so short a time when before his brother got to Malacañang, he was said to be unable to pay his electric bills?

By Margaux Ortiz, Kristine L. Alave
Inquirer

The estranged wife of Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo has filed a petition for support and the dissolution of their conjugal property, accusing him of depleting their assets of close to P127 million “in a span of only one year” as shown in his latest statement of assets and liabilities (SAL).

Alicia “Aleli” Arroyo, accompanied by her lawyer Lorna Kapunan, filed the petition in the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Tuesday afternoon. The case will be raffled off to the court that would hear it Thursday, according to the court staff.

Related stories:

Comelec proceeds canvassing of Mindanao votes while Supreme waits for Zubiri’s side

Comelec orders arrest of Bedol

The Concerned Citizens Group and Kontra Daya led a motorcade in Manila yesterday to denounce the Commission on Elections countenouncing electoral fraud .

Former vice-president Teofisto Guingona Jr.; former Transportation Secretary Josie Lichauco,former Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman, Fr. Joe Dizon, and some 20 car riding rallyists held a motorcade from Liwasang Bonifacio to the Comelec office at the Palacio del Gobernador in Intramuros.

By DJ Yap

The lawyer of Jose Miguel Arroyo, the President’s husband, hopes to question in court Friday eight of the journalists who sued his client for millions of pesos in damages in a bid to have the class-action suit filed by media against his client dismissed.

Lawyer Ruy Alberto Rondain said Thursday the eight had been subpoenaed to appear in a Makati court as “hostile witnesses.”

“They will have to take the stand. If I’m successful, the class suit will be dismissed,” Rondain told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, parent company of INQUIRER.net, over the phone.

A journalists’ organization on Thursday took exception to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s appeal for media to help her in the last three years of her term, saying media’s “sole responsibility is to the people.”

Arroyo made her appeal Wednesday to executives of selected media outfits she invited to Malacañang.

“The media can help the government and the country reach a new plane of development, stability and reform by balanced reporting based on verified facts, constructive commentary on public issues, and editorial focus on news that matters to the lives and livelihood of ordinary Filipinos,” Arroyo told the media executives.