Category: General

Numbers of political killings in the Philippines are increasing for a second year, with at least 51 killings in the first six months of 2006 compared to 66 collated by Amnesty International in the whole of 2005. The leadership of the armed insurgency has threatened to form retaliatory assassination squads, according to an Amnesty International report released yesterday.

The killings follow a pattern of unidentified men shooting leftist party members before escaping on motorcycle and have taken place in the context of an intensified counter-insurgency operation. The Philippine government has failed to protect individuals.

I caught up with the last 45 minutes of the televised impeachment proceedings at the House committee on Justice.

As expected, or rather as Malacañang instructed, administration solons turned deaf and blind to the truth, even if they were staring at it. They dismissed allegations of culpable violation of the constitution, betrayal of public trust, bribery, graft and corruption, obstruction of justice, crimes against humanity and many more as rehash.

They used such terms as “ukay-ukay” and “segunda mano”.

The photos below are from kilusan.net. I first saw them in The Bystander

Brad Pitt, and presumably Angelina Jolie, sleep in this bed made in Cebu by multi-awarded Filipino designer Kenneth Cobonpue.

I thank all those who share relevant articles from other publications. For better presentation, I’d like to put just a few paragraphs, then link it.…

Formal statement of Josie Lichauco, former secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communication, on the order of the Supreme Court to re-instate a case against her filed by Michael de Guzman of Philippine Agila Satellite Inc. which was dismissed by a lower court eight years ago.

At the beginning of the Arroyo administration in 2001, Lichauco, who was the teacher of Gloria Arroyo at the Assumption College in Makati, was offered the position of ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva.

Before her nomination was confirmed by the Commission on Appointments, she learned of the shenanigans of the unelected Arroyo presidency. She wrote GMA a stinging letter withdrawing from the Geneva job.”I’ve lost faith and respect in this presidency,”she said.

The British Department for Transport has issued advice to air passengers after a suspected plot to blow up planes was prevented:

Following this morning’s police action, security at all UK airports has been increased and additional security measures have been put in place for all flights.

With immediate effect, the following arrangements apply to all passengers starting their journey at a UK airport and to those transferring between flights at a UK airport.

In junking of the seven impeachment complaints against Gloria Arroyo, her allies in Congress have once again defied the Supreme Court by clearly misinterpreting the Court’s ruling in Francisco vs. House of Representatives, the Counsel for the Defense of Liberties (CODAL) said.

Codal’s statement:

Speech of former Senator Wigberto Tañada at a conference on “Implications of Liberalizing the Economic Provisions of the Constitution”, organized by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) last July 14.

Tañada is a lead convenor of the Fair Trade Alliance (FTA), a broad multisectoral coalition of formal and informal labor, industry, agricultural, non-governmental organizations, and youth pushing for trade and economic reforms.

Let me directly share with you three major points on the issue at hand.

One, amending the Constitution to make it responsive to the development requirements of a country is the sovereign right of the people. However, the present charter-change initiative has become controversial not only because the process being used is infirm but also because it is not clear if such initiative is truly in response to the development needs of the people or if it is merely a grand design to promote the narrow self-serving agenda of some politicians.

Gloria Arroyo’s bulldozer team wasted no time incrashing the seven impeachment complaints against her. Only one left. The one lodged by the Black and White Movement led by former social welfare secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman.

We have no illusions about the fate of the impeachment complaint in Arroyo-controlled Lower House.

But let us make known to them what we feel and what we expect of them.