This holiday season has allowed me to do something I like doing a lot – and which costs very little.
I refer to my habit of going to a bookstore, and staying there for an hour or two, sometimes even three – while I browse the many books available, taking my own sweet time paring down the purchase options to one, or two, or three, sometimes even five books I would finally go home with.
And so, over the last five days I have visited the different branches of Fully Booked daily, and the National Book Store in Greenbelt 1 twice as well, as a result of which I now have seven books added to my list of “next to read” tomes.
Kung kailan nagsabi ng totoo itong si Lorelei Fajardo, saka siya natigbak.
Ayun sa balita, tinanggal si Fajardo dahil sa kanyang sinabi noong, Nov. 25, tatlong araw pagkatapos nangyari ang karumal-dumal na krimen sa Maguindanao kung saan 57 na tao ang namatay sa masaker na ang suspetsa ay kagagawan ng pamilyang Ampatuan.
Ito kasi ang sinabi ni Fajardo: “I don’t think the President’s friendship with the Ampatuans will be severed. Just because they’re in this situation doesn’t mean we will already turn our backs on them.” ( Sa isip ko, hindi masisira ang pagkakaibigan ng Pangulo sa mga Ampatuan. Porke’t nalagay sila sa ganitong sitwasyun, ay tatalikuran na sila.”)
The joint session of Congress on Proclamation 1959 declaring martial law in Maguindanao and suspension of writ of habeas corpus will be tomorrow, Wednesday starting at 4 p.m.
Representatives of both chambers of the Legislature agreed late last night on the rules of the joint session. Those rules will be approved in separate regular sessions today.
Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano said they expect the joint sessions to last two or three days because they will be inviting resource speakers. Among them, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, AFP Chief Victor Ibrado, PNP Chief Jesus Versoza, Justice Secetary Agnes Devanadera, Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales, and others.
The voting will be jointly, where it is expectred that the pro-martial law Arroyo allies will drown out the anti-martial legislators.
Last April, I attended a very informative lecture by Peruvian forensic anthropologist Jose Pablo Baraybar on investigating extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances.
Sponsored by the Center for International Law chaired by Harry Roque, the US Department of State and the American Bar Association, the seminar in General Santos City had prosecutors, members of the military and the Philippine National Police assigned in Mindanao as participants.
Baraybar, who has been called on by the Commission on Human Rights to help in the investigation of the Nov. 23 Maguindanao massacre, comes with impressive credentials and solid accomplishment: he helped secure the conviction of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori for his role in two cases of massacres in the 1990s.
It’s interesting how the Ampatuan clan’s political fortunes seem to be turning full circle—and how political camps that now call them “monsters” seem to have conveniently forgotten that they had something to do with how these “monsters” were bred to begin with.
Liberal Party presidential bet Aquino, sure that violence in Maguindanao would escalate due to “this administration’s inaction,” is demanding the suspension of Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. and other local officials found involved in the November 23 massacre of civilians.
Note from Fr. Eliseo “Jun” Mercado:
Datu Andal Sr. was the henchman of Marcos in Maganoy in 1986.. He also was de facto mayor… acting since he was the vice mayor and already appointed as OIC.
Cory removed him from Office!!! I was a witness to that!
The Chief of Police, another Ampatuan yet non political and decent by the name of Datu Mod Ampatuan was appointed by Cory as OIC! I was the one who recommemnded for Datu Modi. He is an Ampatuan so he could maintain order and rule of law being the modest and clean chief of police in the place.
But in the first election post Cory, Datu Andal, Sr was back in power… since he was and still is the undisputed power in Maganoy.
I was the parish priest of Maganoy at the time and NAMFREL chair of the Province.
We don’t know if the senator realizes that he is in effect calling on the Arroyo government to undo an action by his mother’s administration.
Etta Rosales, former partylist representative and now chair emeritus of Akbayan, has written another open letter (two weeks ago it was addressed to Liberal party presidential candidate Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III on the Hacienda Luisita issue) , this time to Nacionalista presidential candidate Manuel Villar, comrade in the fight against the Marcos dictatorship Satur Ocampo, and Marcos son Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr, representative of Ilocos Norte (2nd district).
Etta was writing this letter as chair of “Claimants 1081”, a group of victims of Marcos’ martial rule under Presidential Decree 1081.
This is the part in the press conference of US State Secretary Hillary Clinton today that caught my attention. The presscon was held at the Goldberg mansion at the Malacañang compound. Although she said this in reference to Afghanistan, it could very well apply to the Philippines.
Question: Concerns re large troops in Afghanistan given concerns about corruption in Karzai government; talk about concerns of corruption and if they play role in determination of us war in Afghanistan?
Clinton: I continue to loath to share any advice received by the President in the course of his review. Its been an extremely thorough and thoughtful process and i will continue to honor the right of the President to hear from any of his government members or those outside government and to add that to the process of his decision making.
On the separate question with respect to corruption, lack of transparency, poor governance, absence of the rule of law, the concerns expressed not only by US but by others including PM Gordon Brown and many of our allies are ones that i share.
Nov. 16, 2004Five years ago, at this time, tension filled the air at the Cojuangco family-owned Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac as workers staged a strike against the Stock Distribution Option that the Cojuangcos implemented to evade the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, which was supposedly the centerpiece of the People Power-propelled Cory Aquino government.
Aquino promised to put Hacienda Luisita under the land reform, but in 1989, instead of having the land distributed, Aquino implemented the Stock Distribution Option (SDO) program under which the 5,000 farm workers were given shares of stock in the company instead of individual titles to the hacienda land.
On the second week of November 2004, Hacienda Luisita sought the help of the Arroyo government, which gladly sent members of the Philippine national Police complete with armored vehicle carrier. Hostilities between the strikers and the police escalated. On November 16, the police fired at the strikers. Seven were killed on the spot , 72 were badly injured, 27 sustained gun shot wounds, and 110 were arrested by the police. That became known as the Hacienda Luisita massacre.
Seven more persons involved in the Hacienda Luisita case were later killed in separate incidents.
Last Sunday, Former Sectoral Representative Loretta Ann Rosales, Akbayan chair emeritus, wrote Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, III, the Liberal Party presidential candidate on the Hacienda Luisita issue.
by VERA Files Philippine Daily Inquirer If Filipinos are wondering how government officials and employees become millionaires overnight, buying expensive cars, moving to upscale homes,…
Philippine congressmen are the hardest working in the world.
Even if the legislative body will soon be on recess, most of its members have chosen to continue toiling and have decided to call a special session at MGM Las Vegas on Nov. 14.
A source of pride… the congressmen’s exemplary dedication makes paying taxes well worth it.
