Disclosure: I am one of the trustees and writers of VERA Files, a group of veteran journalist who put out articles that take a deeper look at current issues.
Last Monday, VERA Files released a story, “PH offers Sabah to win Malaysia’s support for UN case vs China.”
The article said, “ The quid pro quo was contained in a note verbale the Department of Foreign Affairs handed to a representative of the Malaysian Embassy last week, a week after the visit of Malaysian Defense Minister Dato Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein.
“The note verbale, a copy of which was obtained by VERA Files, referred to the May 6, 2009 joint submission by Malaysia and Vietnam to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) in which Malaysia claimed an extended continental shelf (350 nautical miles from baseline) that was clearly projected from Sabah.
President Aquino at the PNPA 2015 commencement exercises.He couldn’t even mention the incident that he was asking the public for understanding.
In his speech at the commencement exercise of the Philippine National Police Academy’s Lakandula Class of 2015, the day after the nation marked the second month of the Mamasapano tragedy, President Aquino said, “Ikinalulungkot kong may mga pamilyang nawalan ng asawa, ama, kapatid, anak, dahil sa nangyari sa Mamasapano. Ikinalulungkot kong sa pagnanais kong bigyan ng espasyong magluksa ang mga makakakita, sa unang pagkakataon, ng nasawi nilang kaanak, ay may mga nag-isip na ako’y manhid at walang pakikiramay. Ang intensiyon ko noon ay makatulong sa paghilom. Ang gusto ko po sana, kapag may nagtanong ng “Ano ang nangyari? Bakit sila namatay? Ano na po ang mangyayari sa amin?” ay may dala na akong malinaw na sagot. Kung ang naging tugon ko sa mga katanungan ay “Hindi ko po alam,” paano ako makakatulong sa kanilang paghilom? Ikinalulungkot ko ring nadadamay ang ating usaping pangkapayapaan dahil sa sentimyentong naikakabit sa naging resulta ng Oplan Exodus. Sa bawat Pilipinong nabigo at nasaktan dahil sa mga pangyayaring kaugnay ng operasyong ito: Buong pagpapakumbaba kong hinihiling ang inyong pang-unawa. (It deeply saddens me that there are families who are now without a husband, a father, a brother, a son, because of what happened in Mamasapano. I am saddened by the fact that, despite my effort to give the families space to grieve, as they were to meet their fallen loved ones for the first time, some people found fault in this by calling me cruel or without regard for such loss. My intention was to help them heal. I wanted to have clear answers should I be asked, “What happened? Why did they die? What will happen to us now?” If my response was “I do not know,” how could I help hasten the healing? I am also saddened that our peace process has been affected by the sentiments connected to the result of Oplan Exodus. To every Filipino who has felt failure or has been hurt because of the events related to this operation: It is with the abiding humility that I ask for your deepest understanding.)”
OMG. I almost fell off my chair upon reading the text exchanges between President Aquino and his sister, Kris Aquino posted by journalist Cecil Morella in Facebook.
Yesterday afternoon, Kris Aquino posted in her Instagram account (withlovekrisaquino) her text exchanges with the President last Friday just to disprove rumors that PNoy collapsed.
Kris Aquino’s post: “I still keep hearing the utterly baseless & senseless story about my brother having collapsed Friday night… I am posting our text exchange from March 20, Friday w/ a time stamp of 9:34 PM. If you follow my IG account Thursday after A&A we traveled to Pradera in Lubao, on Friday I posted several pics from our Pampanga taping, on Sunday night on www.withlovekrisaquino.com I posted a TRAVEL LOVE entry complete w/ a timeline of our PRADERA EXPERIENCE. Yesterday, today & tomorrow you’ve watched & will still get to watch it on #krisandbimbysummertv on @kristvofficial_ig. Napakalinaw na SUPER OKAY si PNoy nung Friday because diba nakuha pa nyang pag trip-an & spoof how I talk.”
Documentary-Portraits of Mosquito PressCongratulations to JL Burgos for bringing to the screen an important chapter in our history of struggle for press freedom.
“Portraits of Mosquito Press “documents the struggle for press freedom at the time when the country was still in the grip of the Marcos dictatorship.
“Mosquito Press” was Marcos’ belittling of the small, independent newspapers which he allowed to operate to give a semblance of press freedom under his autocratic rule.
The small, independent newspapers lead by We Forum, owned and edited by Jose Burgos, Jr., were called the “alternative press.” Alternative to the establishment press owned by Marcos cronies and relatives and toed the government line that Marcos was the savior of the Philippines.
We Forum was critical of Marcos. When asked by international media about issues raised in We Forum, Marcos dismissed it as nothing but the handiwork of the “mosquito press.” In effect, they are just mosquitos. Nothing that he cannot swat easily.
Later, Marcos would realize that mosquito bites can be potent.
Aside from the lively exchanges in Facebook (never mind the moronic posts- you have the choice to ignore them or better to unfriend the source), there’s a feature in this social media that is oftentimes hilarious, it makes FB surfing fun.
It’s the translation.
Like this translation of a post by business entrepreneur Jaime Gachitorena on a Lifestyle Inquirer article about the rumored father of Sen. Grace Poe (she was found abandoned in Jaro Metropolitan Cathedral in Iloilo): “ So Bongbong Marcos and Grace Poe are magkapatid?”
FB translation: “So Bongbong Mark and Grace Poe are brothers?
The tragedy in Mamasapano, Maguindanao claimed the lives of 44 of the country’s elite policemen, 18 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and some civilians.
One of those who died was an eight-year old girl named Sarah.
I learned about Sarah from Hussein Macarambon’s heart-rending post in Facebook:
“ At a forum organized by advocates of peace for Mindanao, the room started to get filled with a terrible feeling of sadness. Stories evoked tears when people who have followed the Mamasapano incident, on the ground or from afar, attempted to describe the pain and grief felt by many, especially the bereaved families of the 67 casualties- families of the 44 SAF troops, of the 5 civilians, and of the 18 MILF combatants.
“One of them lost the youngest victim, an eight-year old girl called Sarah. Her family was roused from sleep by the sound of bullets that had hit them. They survived. Sarah did not.
Sen. Grace Poe chairs hearing on Mamasapano carnage.
It was President Aquino who informed Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Armed Forces Chief Gen. Gregorio Catapang and the rest of the presidential party in Zamboanga on the Mamasapano debacle on Jan. 25, a source close to Malacañang said.
That’s why in the hearings in the Senate and the House of Representatives the three and Lt. Gen. Rustico Guerrero, chief of Western Mindanao Command said they didn’t inform Aquino of the dawn carnage that left 44 members of the Special Action Force dead when they were with him throughout the day.
US-centric Filipinos may not be aware that the Philippines and Iran share a lot of common experiences-from rising from devastating natural calamities to political upheavals. Left photo:The 1979 Iranian revolution. Right: The 1986 Philippine People Power revolution
Foremost is the harnessing of people power against an extravagant and tyrannical regimes.
Many Filipinos like to think that we “invented” People Power with the ouster of President Ferdinand Marcos on Feb. 25, 1986 and inspired other countries in Eastern Europe, and much later Arab countries, to go out in the streets and overthrow tyrants.
But the Iranians did it seven years earlier than the EDSA People Power. On Feb. 11,1979 angry Iranians, mostly students, drove out the United States- supported Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.
A most painful task: Retrieving your dead comradesForty-four members of the Special Action Force, the elite group of the Philippine National Police, were killed by the rebel Muslim group the Aquino government has signed a peace agreement with. Yet, social media denizens are in an impassioned discussion over Philippine Miss Universe pageant candidate MJ Lastimosa’s “cake gown.”
Last Monday, Direk Joey Reyes posted this in his Facebook wall: “Dear Janet, Now you can be at ease. There is another woman more hated than you in the Philippines.Take care.”
Janet, of course, is Janet Napoles, the pork barrel queen through whom senators and congressmen robbed billions of the people’s money.
Thinking it was Social Services Secretary Dinky Soliman, who rounded up almost 500 destitute families in Pasay and Manila and brought them away from the sight of Pope Francis and the foreign press during the Papal visit two weeks ago, I commented, “Korek, Direk.”
Back to the streets Tibigar family after six days in a Batangas resort. Photo from ABS-CBN.President Aquino has not yet spoken on reports, confirmed by Social Services Secretary Dinky Soliman, about the government banishing 490 homeless persons to a Batangas resort during the five-day visit of Pope Francis.
But his deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said, “Wala naman hong ganoon. Parang insulto din sa bisita kapag sinabi mong ‘pag tinago niyo, hindi na niya malalaman’.Hindi naman natin din tinatago ang estado… Makikita naman ‘yan sa official statistics.”
Insulto talaga.
A journalist friend thinks it was not for Pope Francis that the government removed the destitute from Metro Manila’s streets. It was the foreign press that were coming to cover the Papal visit that they were more concerned about.
