At this time, when the wound created by the Aug. 23 tragedy has not healed as shown by the rejection by Beijing three times of request of a meeting by President Aquino with either the Chinese premier or the president, the Philippines does not want to ruffle further Chinese feelings.
Just to regain China’s favor, the Philippines has joined the boycott tomorrow of the awarding ceremony for Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo in Oslo, Norway.
I’m not surprised that the Supreme Court slammed President Aquino’s Truth Commission, 10-5.
I’m bothered, of course, that we have a Supreme Court, beholden to a person who held power illegally for nine years, plundered taxpayers money and destroyed democratic institutions.
But even if the Truth Commission were declared “constitutional”, I was not really optimistic that Gloria Arroyo would be held accountable because Aquino chose to head it former Supreme Court Hilario Davide, who is also beholden to Arroyo.
I also believe that even without the Truth Commission, Aquino can make Arroyo accountable for her crimes against the Filipino people. What is needed is political will and a brilliant and efficient team to implement that “will.”
I admired her for standing her ground with the recommendations of the Incident Investigation Review Committee even as President Aquino did not adopt them to protect persons close to him.
But I am disturbed by De Lima’s eagerly executing the assignment Gloria Arroyo had given to the Department of Justice which was to make sure that Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson is put behind bars. It’s implementation was not carried out when Lacson went underground towards the end of her term.
What crime has Lacson committed against the Filipino people that he should be behind bars? None.
But Lacson has exposed various government anomalies involving Arroyo and her husband Mike . While in power, the Arroyos were able to stall investigation of the scams which were leading to them.
The case of Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, who is the subject of an arrest order is gross injustice inflicted by Gloria Arroyo not only on the senator but on the Filipino people.
It cannot be denied that the many expose of Lacson contributed to the unpopularity of Arroyo which eventually caused her being sidelined from power today. It is therefore sad that Justice Secretary Leila de Lima is allowing herself and her office to perpetrate the injustice instead of reversing it.
The Lacson family has brought the plight of the beleaguered senator to the Filipino people with an open letter detailing the blatant inconsistencies in the prosecution’s so called “evidence” . The letter is signed by Romulo Lacson, Feliciano Lacson, Reynaldo Lacson,Juanito Lacson, Ma. Corazon Lacson-Magpayo,Ernani Lacson, and Ma. Cristina Lacson-Diaz.
Here’s the excerpts. For the full letter, click here A Christmas Wish Nov27AM Rey lacson:
“In every Filipino family, two things are most treasured: honor and home.
In the Philippines, if someone kills somebody, he can be charged with the crime of murder. If the criminal is smart and just makes his victim disappear from the face of the earth, he cannot be charged with any crime because there is no body to prove murder.
That’s why nobody has been charged for the disappearance of Jonas Burgos, activist –farmer and son of press freedom crusader Jose Burgos, Jr, since he was abducted by what appeared to be members of the military April 28, 2007. The same is true with the case of University of the Philippines students Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan who were picked up by members of the military from their boarding house while they were doing field work on June 26, 2006.
In the case of the six workers of Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines (PICOP) workers abducted on October 14, 2000 by members of the 62nd Infantry Battalion, 8th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army and remain disappeared up to this day, Corporal Rodrigo Billones has been convicted but of kidnapping and serious illegal detention. Despite strong evidence, he was not charged with enforced disappearance due to the absence of an anti-enforced disappearance law.
Update from ABS-CBN: Hong Kong will hold a public inquest into the Manila bus hijacking crisis which left eight Hong Kong tourists dead in August, a spokeswoman for the coroner’s court said Wednesday.
The inquest is scheduled to last 25 days starting from February 14, she told AFP, less than a month after Hong Kong police concluded their probe into the poorly-handled fiasco which dented relations between Manila and Hong Kong.
The announcement, made by Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda confirmed what had been talked about in the diplomatic circle : the Philippines had been told by China unofficially that they would not welcome the delegation as long as they don’t see anybody being made accountable for the tragedy that killed eight of their people.
Lacierda, who was supposed to be part of the delegation together with Vice President Jejomar Binay and Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo, said, “The Chinese foreign ministry could not schedule us.”
Update: Today at 2pm, photo-journalists will have their head shaved in front of the Department of Justice on Padre Faura st., to commemorate the darkest day not only in Philippine journalism one year ago.
Mangudadatu’s wife was supposed to file the certificate of candidacy of her husband against Ampatuan Jr for the position of governor.
From Ateneo School of Government:
From the Ateneo School of Government:To give way to the event in Maguindanao commemorating the Ampatuan Massacre where key policy actors will be attending, the public presentation of the PODER study on government response to election-related violence scheduled on 23 November 2010, 8:00am – 1:00pm, is postponed to a later date, which will soon be announced.
Fifty-seven bodies were recovered from the area which was turned into a mammoth graveyard by a backhoe that belonged to the provincial government. Of the 57, 31 were journalists, who were supposed to cover Mangudadatu’s filing of certificate of candidacy.
Fifty-eight actually were killed, 32 of them journalists. The body of Midland Review staff Reynaldo “Bebot” Momay , who was with the convoy, remains missing up to this day. Only his dentures were recovered from the killing site.
The pictures below once again prove what Abraham Lincoln said that ““You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.”
The Department of Tourism unveiled last Monday the Pilipinas Kay Ganda logo that would now be the Philippines’ symbol replacing Dick Gordon’s “Wow Philippines.”
Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim said in his speech during the launch that when they presented to President Aquino the logo,”He even gave his own inputs in terms of colors and other visual elements, which are now part of the brand..”
It turned out that what was bandied as a product of a four-month study and testing, which we imagine cost taxpayers a hefty sum, was a copy of Poland’s tourism logo.
(Thanks to Dennis Garcia for the above images.)
We are relieved to hear from Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim and his Undersecretary Vicente Romano that they are open to changes about their much-ridiculed “Pilipinas Kay Ganda” promotions thrust.
In his complaint relayed personally during the APEC summit to leaders of countries that issued a travel advisory warning their citizens about going to the Philippines, President Aquino mentioned about the November 15 launching of a new tourism logo.
Less than 24 hours after “Pilipinas kay Ganda” was previewed (it was not yet the launching, Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim stressed) the accompanying site – www.beautifulpilipinas.com- was taken off because they found out that there’s an existing porn website also using the key words “beautifulpilipinas.”
Why they didn’t find this out before the preview defies common sense.
(The photos posted here were sent to me by someone who was on the scene during the Aug. 23 hostage taking tragedy. It shows Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo on the scene although he was “out of the loop”. He was with Chinese Embassy representatives, Bai Tian, spokesperson and Li Qinfeng, in a light shirt, consul General.)
President Aquino made a hasty turn- around after he announced in a live TV interview Thursday that he was transferring Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo to the still to be created Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor.
He has to have a scapegoat and the most convenient for him now is media. He said media misunderstood what he said to Ted Failon. ““Mali ang pagkakaintindi,” he said.
Failon asked him what happens now to the three cabinet members who are in “acting” capacity since Congress will be resuming session soon and the Commission on Appointments would be able to deliberate on his appointees. This was his answer : “Sa DILG naman po, baka imando natin sa iba pang ahensya kung saka-sakali. Wala pa pong planong maliwanag. Si Sec. Robredo maganda po ang ginagawang trabaho ngayon pero meron po tayong gustong i-fast track na mga programa tulad sa informal settlers na talagang expertise ho niya.So baka magtayo tayo ng bagong grupo na talagang tutulong sa Presidential Commission on the Urban Poor at mga shelter agencies natin na mas focused and mas realizeable tulad noong sa Lupang Arenda, daang libo ang nasa danger.”