Ang nakakagulat kasi sa balita ay ang pag-amin ni Esquivas na hindi niya natupad ang target nilang koleksyun ng buwis. Kaya sa pakiramdam diya, bagsak ang performance grade niya.
Desente tao itong si Esquivas. Ang ibang opisyal ng gobyerno kahit palpak, kapit tuko pa rin. Tingnan mo si Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez. Nagkalat ang kurap sa gobyerno. Garapalan ang mga anomalya ng mga taga-Malacañang, wala nakukulong na malalaking isda.
Sampal sa mukha ni Gloria Arroyo ang ginawa ni Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalila ng Bahrain na sa ABS-CBN Foundation binigay ang kanilang P25 milyon na donasyon para sa biktima ng bagyong Ondoy.
Nagmukhang tanga ang pamahalaan ni Arroyo sa turnover ng donasyon noong Biyernes. Biruin nyo sinamahan ni Amable Aguiluz V, Aguiluz, ang special envoy ni Arroyo sa Gulf Cooperation Council, ang sugo ng Bahrain Prime Minister na si Ambassador Yousif Adel Sater sa pagturn-over ng donasyun kay Gina Lopez, managing director ng ABS-CBN Foundation.
Kung matino ang pamahalaan ni Arroyo, dapat sa Malacañang ang turn-over ng donasyun.
Magta-tatlong linggo na mula ng hinagupit ni Ondoy ang Metro Manila ngunit marami pa rin ang mga lugar na lubog sa baha.
May natanggap kaming sulat galing kay Cornelio G. Padua, presidente ng Gemsville Homeowners Association sa Barangay Bucal Calamba, Laguna.
Sabi ni Ginoong Padua, “Karamihan sa amin ay mahigit sampung taon ng naninirahan dito sa Gemsville. Sa mahigit sampung taon na iyon ay hindi namin naranasan ang matinding pagbaha sa aming subdivision Subalit itong taon na ito kami po ay nakaranas ng matinding pagbaha na ang tubig ay putik na me kasamang mga bato.
by Regina Bengco, Gerard Naval and JP Lopez Malaya
Dagupan City — President Arroyo on Monday created a Special National Public-Private Sector Reconstruction Commission that will study the causes, costs and actions to be undertaken following the devastation by storm “Ondoy” and typhoon “Pepeng”.
Arroyo made the announcement at the Cabinet meeting here where the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) was also convened.
She said the Commission will undertake the rehabilitation plan, raise funds for reconstruction and oversee its implementation, serve as a clearing house for international assistance, and request the United Nations and the World Bank to coordinate an international pledging session.
Nagpaplano ang mga tao at mga kumpanya na nasalanta ng bagyong “Ondoy” at “Pepeng” nitong mga nakaraang linggo na magsampa ng kaso sa mga opisyal ng pamahalaan at mga operator ng dam sa kanilang kapabayaan na nagdulot ng malaking hirap sa libo-libong mga mamamayan.
Sobra kasi ang dami ng tubig na ipinalabas ng Pantabangan at San Roque dam noong isang araw na siyang dahilan ng matinding baha sa Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija at karatig lalawigan.
Napakinggan ko ang interview ni Anthony Taberna kay Sen. Chiz Escudero sa DZMM. Taga Nueva Ecija si Anthony at si Chiz naman ay nasa Pangasinan noong linggo kasama si Grace Poe at tumulong sila sa mga nasalanta ng bagyong “Pepeng”. (Si Fernando Poe Jr ay taga-Pangasinan).
Kahindik-hindik ang iniwan ng bagyong “Pepeng” lalo na sa La Trinidad, Benguet kung saan mga 150 na tao ang natabunan ng lupa sa landslide na nangyari dahil sa ilang araw na ulan na dala ng bagyong si “Pepeng.”
Sa Pangasinan naman hanggang Nueva Ecija, nagiging malaking rumaragasang ilog ang mga bayan. Maliban sa pagkasira ng mga bahay, sira na rin ang mga kabuhayan katulad ng pala-isdaan at palayan.
Sinabi sa isang report na yung isang pamilya, binalikan nila ang nabahang palayan na dapat sana ay aanihin na sana sa susunod na linggo. Nag-ani na rin sila kahit baha. Pagkatapos pinatuyo nila ang palay sa kawali at yun ang kanilang sinaing. Nakakabagbag damdamin.
By Delmar Cariño, Vincent Cabreza, Frank Cimatu,
Inquirer Northern Luzon
Philippine Daily Inquirer
LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — Gazing at a mountainside that had collapsed, La Trinidad Mayor Artemio Galwan was moved to tears on seeing the ruins of houses swamped by mud.
Photo from Philippine StarThen he asked what was inside the sack being carried by a trolley. He was told it contained the body of a baby. It was killed in the landslide that smashed into the community of Little Kibungan.
The mayor’s eyes moistened, he bowed his head and uttered a prayer. On a normal day, the trolley would have been carrying vegetables from highland farms.
Galwan told the Philippine Daily Inquirer yesterday more than 20 houses were swept away by the mudslides that occurred on Thursday night, and he feared around 150 people might have been buried in the avalanche that hit his town.
“Kakaasi da piman [They are pitiful],” Galwan, who was supervising rescue operations, said as the first batch of bodies were brought in from the other side of the mountain. From the InquirerEntire village gone
“I really feel sad. It’s an entire village that was washed out,” he said.
Rescuers yesterday struggled through mud and pounding rain to clear mountain roads and retrieve scores of people dead from the landslides that buried villages and cut off towns in the rain-soaked Northern Luzon.
Reports from the regional Office of Civil Defense and the Cordillera police placed the death toll at 122. Estimates of the number of missing ran as high as 70.
The latest calamity brought the death toll to more than 450 from the Philippines’ worst flooding in 40 years after back-to-back storms started pounding Luzon, including Metro Manila, on September 26.
Rescuers buried
The Associated Press, quoting provincial officials, said more than 160 people were killed in the landslides in Benguet and Mountain Province.
by Abigail Kwok and TJ Burgonio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Neri inspects bullet holes in his house. Photo from Philippine StarSocial Security Systems president Romulo Neri’s Quezon City home was peppered with bullets by armed men reportedly wearing fatigues and bonnets Friday morning, police said.
City police director Chief Superintendent Elmo San Diego said in an interview that authorities recovered some 100 spent shells from M16 rifles in and outside Neri’s home at #28 Palali Street, Sta. Mesa Heights.
President Macapagal-Arroyo on Friday condemned the strafing of Secretary Romulo Neri’s home in Quezon City, and ordered the Philippine National Police to increase the number of his security men.
Gloria Arroyo appears to have turned truly insane as she counts the days to her exit on June 30. Is the declared policy of prolonging the nationwide state of emergency in the wake of the devastation of typhoon “Ondoy” her perverse way of exacting retribution on the people for hating and distrusting her?
A deliberate policy of prolonging an emergency does not make sense. After the initial declaration, national and local government units have been freed to release their calamity and contingency funds. Relief and rehabilitation work can now be bidded out without going through stringent requirements for the duration of the emergency. Assessment of damage and drawing up of appropriate rehabilitation programs can be done within 60 days, the duration of an emergency unless otherwise extended.
But all of 365 days and counting to get these things done? Truly it is the hopelessly incompetent who cannot the job fast enough. We have been saying for a long time that Gloria, for all her self-proclaimed expertise as a manager, is at core an incompetent. Many were dazzled in her early years by the image she projected of being a modernizing politician cum technocrat. We were among the few who saw through her posturing early on. And proven right later on.
Reminder to first-time voters and those who will be transferring voting places: please don’t wait until Oct. 31, last day of registration.
The Commission on Elections said they will not be extending the deadline because they have to finalize the voters’ list. Remember that the 2010 elections will be the first supposedly nationwide automated elections.
The Smartmatic/TIM computers that Comelec will be using (Precinct Count Optical Scan or PCOS) are precinct-specific so it’s important that the voters list is finalized early.
After you have voted, pray that the PCOS that contains your name does not get misdelivered to a wrong precinct, just like what happened to many bunches of ballots and ballot boxes in the past elections.
The Samahang Magdalo, Taguig chapter, will stage “Rock the Vote” tomorrow Saturday, with a core message of encouraging first-time voters to register. “If we desire genuine changes and reforms from crooked governance, we must begin these steps at making sure we are legitimate voters before the Comelec,” said Lt. (s.g.) James Layug, head of the Samahang Magdalo in the city that organized the concert.
