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Category: Magdalo

‘Oakwood’ and GMA Sona

Published by Ellen on July 26, 2009

PHILIPPINESJuly 27, six years ago was a Sunday, the day before the last Monday of July when the president delivers the State-of-the Nation’s address.

That was the day when some 300 soldiers took a stand against Gloria Arroyo’s misgovernance at the Oakwood Premier Hotel (now Ascott) in Makati.

The group didn’t have a name but a TV producer saw in the image of the sun in their red armbands a resemblance to the symbol of the Emilio Aguinaldo’s Magdalo faction in the revolutionary Katipunan. He called them “Magdalo” and the name stuck.

This year, July 27 is a Monday. As the Magdalo group marks six years of the ‘Oakwood incident’, Gloria Arroyo delivers her SONA, supposedly her last.

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Trillanes:incarcerated but productive

Published by Ellen on July 7, 2009

When the third session of the 14th Congress opens on July 27, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV may be able to be part of it from his detention cell in Camp Crame via the modern technology of teleconferencing.

This could be the start of the realization of the mandate that the Filipino people bestowed on him when they voted for him senator despite the fact that he was in detention and a thorn in Gloria Arroyo’s neck.

But despite his incarceration, or some say because of it, he has come out to be one of the most prolific members of the Senate having authored and co-authored a total of 285 bills and 21 resolutions in the first two years of his six-year term, mostly in line with his advocacies as poverty alleviation, national defense and security, affordable and accessible health care and education, and environmental protection.

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‘Change not possible under GMA’ – Trillanes

Published by Ellen on July 5, 2009

From the office of Sen. Trillanes:

antonio-trillanesSenator Antonio Trillanes IV supported the public clamor for an election in 2010 by saying change under the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is ‘not possible.’

“Any illusions of change are simply not possible under the administration of GMA,” he said in a published annual report.

According to the same report, Trillanes was ranked sixth in the Senate for his 285 total bills on several advocacies as poverty alleviation, national defense and security, affordable and accessible health care and education, and environmental protection in only his second year in office.

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Villar, Honasan, Trillanes, Lim at a wedding

Published by Ellen on June 20, 2009

villarsonnykim-gringo

by Tarra Quismundo
Philippine Daily Inquirer

A presidential aspirant, two military rebels elected senators and a jailed Army general hoping to follow suit: Could this foreshadow what is to come in 2010?

Known presidential hopeful Senator Manuel Villar, Senators Gregorio Honasan and Antonio Trillanes IV, and jailed Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim were seen in a rare gathering on Saturday, when they attended the wedding of Trillanes’ brother Jay.

And when someone joked they were together to hatch a plot as they posed together for pictures, Trillanes, the youngest of the group, answered with a smile: “May pinaplano para sa mabuti [We’re planning for something good].”

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Ang bagong direksyon ng Magdalo

Published by Ellen on April 29, 2009

Sa aking pag-uusap sa marami sa mga batang opisyal ng military na nakasama sa grupong Magdalo, nakikita ko and sinsero nilang pagmamahal sa bayan.

Napansin ko rin na malawak silang mag-isip at matatalino sila. Maari sigurong sabihin natin na nagkulang sila sa aspeto ng operasyon sa kanilang ginawang panindigan laban sa administrasyong Arroyo, ngunit handa silang magsakripisyo para sa ina-akala nilang tama.

Hindi naman lahat. Dahil mayroon din naman mga bumaligtad at mukhang namang ina-alagaan sila ng husto ng pamahalaang Arroyo.

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Tale of the absurd

Published by Ellen on April 28, 2009

When the story first came out last week about a group of Magdalo soldiers arrested while on a shooting training in Clark, I had a hunch paranoia got the better of government authorities again and that the activity might have something to do with job in war-torn foreign countries.

I had done some stories on private armies providing security for contractors servicing the United States military and their allies in Iraq and Afghanistan like Blackwater and DynCorp and I know that they have applied for permission to use some parts of the former US bases, Clark and Subic, for training their personnel.

Since the job was security in a hostile environment, those companies prefer applicants with military and police training. It was not a surprise to me the soldiers were Magdalo members.

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Convicted, dismissed and happy

Published by Ellen on March 26, 2009

rivas3 When I talked to Capt. Candy Rivas this afternoon, she was laughing and we talked of finally having our long-planned dinner, now that she expects to be released from her three year detention.

She didn’t sound like someone who had just been convicted.

Candy was convicted this morning of “Conduct unbecoming of an officer and gentleman” for harboring and concealing Capt. Nicanor Faeldon who had escaped from his prison cell in Fort Bonifacio in December 2005.” The punishment is dismissal from military service.

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