Category: General

Tribunal Verdict to be transmitted to the UN, ICJ and European Parliament

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – In a 13-page verdict read before about 300 people inside a church in this city March 25, the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) found both Philippine President Gloria M. Arroyo and U.S. President George W. Bush, Jr. and their respective governments as responsible for gross and systematic violations of human rights, economic plunder and transgression of the Filipino people’s sovereignty.

The verdict, read at the conclusion of the five-day second session on the Philippines by François Houtart, Session President, described the extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, massacres, torture and other atrocities allegedly committed by the Arroyo government as “crimes against humanity”. Such violations which the PPT said were in no way justified as “necessary measures against terrorism”, must be stopped immediately.

Why Arroyo wife sought protection

Keep off Arroyos’ case:court

By Michael Lim Ubac
Inquirer

At the center of the legal battle between spouses Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo and Alicia Arroyo is not only the custody of their child but also the wife’s expressed fear for her life.

Alicia, a former banker and stockbroker who was the first woman and the youngest chair of the Philippine Stock Exchange, sought protection from the Quezon City Regional Trial Court in response to her husband’s petition for joint custody of their 9-year old daughter.

Iggy Arroyo obtains gag order in custody case

By Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.
Inquirer

Representative Ignacio Arroyo has succeeded in getting a court order barring his estranged wife, Alicia “Aleli’’ Arroyo, and her lawyer, Lorna Kapunan, from further disclosing details of the couple’s fight for custody of their nine-year-old daughter.
Arroyo’s lawyers, who claimed that the public disclosure of what was supposed to be a private domestic affair was politically motivated, said that the court’s gag order covered not only details of the marital dispute but also Aleli’s knowledge of the Jose Pidal account.

In a hastily-called press conference at the First Gentleman’s LTA Building in Makati, Arroyo appeared calm and collect as he read a prepared statement with his lawyers and advisers nearby, hardly the picture of a man caught in the middle of this year’s most sensational marriage break-up.

There’s a whale of a difference between being hungry because you want to shed off your excess fat and being hungry because you have nothing to eat. If Gloria does not understand that, she should be hauled to the mental hospital. Click here on Malaya’s editorial.

President Arroyo yesterday said that if simply missing a meal would qualify as experiencing hunger, then she considers herself a victim of hunger.

“Kasi iyun naman ang question ng hunger, do you miss one meal during the last three months? Pati naman ako, I’ve missed one meal in the last three months,” she said in an interview after a roundtable discussion on education and social services.

Update on the Iggy and Alicia Arroyo case:A Quezon City court granted a 30-day temporary protection order to Alicia, wife of Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo while the custody battle over their nine-year-old daughter is ongoing, ABS-CBN News reported Thursday.
Click here.

Even as the public has yet to fully digest the alleged love affair of Mike Arroyo and Ma. Celia Suarez as revealed in www.disbarmikearroyo.blogspot.com, here comes Alicia Arroyo, wife of Rep. Ignacio Arroyo, threatening to spill the beans if she is pushed too far.

TV Patrol carried an interview with Lorna Kapunan, counsel of Alicia Arroyo, asking for police protection for her client in a child custody case with Iggy Arroyo.

It will be recalled that Iggy Arroyo owned up the “Jose Pidal” accounts which was suspected to be really belong to Mike Arroyo.

This is what you call adding insult to injury. You are wallowing in poverty that is not of your own making and you are told that you should not be extravagant! Wala na nga laman ang iyong tiyan at bulsa, sasabihin pa sa iyo, huwag magwaldas.

Ano ang iwawaldas ng mahihirap at nauubos na ni Gloria Arroyo at ng kanyang mga alagad and pera ng bayan?

It’s the height of insensitivity and stupidity!

Malaya’s report:

President Arroyo yesterday told the poor to spend their income on basic needs instead of luxuries so that their families would have enough to eat.

By Evangeline de Vera in Malaya:

Update: Satur to be transferred to Leyte sans SC order. Click here.

BAYAN Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo appeared yesterday at the Supreme Court to file a petition seeking to stop court proceedings in connection with the murder charge filed against him in connection with communist purging operations.

Immediately after the filing, Ocampo was served by Manila policemen an arrest warrant issued against him March 6 by a Leyte court.

Ocampo, who went into hiding after the arrest warrant was issued, was allegedly among those who ordered the killing of scores of suspected military deep penetration agents in Inopacan town in Leyte in the 80s.

This report by Jocelyn Montemayor in Malaya:

For reactions- Malacañang and opposition – to PERC survey, click here.

Foreign businessmen perceive the Philippines as the most corrupt economy in Asia, a survey conducted by the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) showed.

President Arroyo shrugged off the results of the survey that said the Philippines “has the distinction of being perceived in the worst light this year,” edging out perennial bottom dweller Indonesia.

The survey was conducted in January and February covering 1,476 foreign business executives from 13 countries and territories.

I just arrived from the province. I see that I have a lot of catching up to do. So many things have happened the past…