Malaya – Page 58 – ellen tordesillas

IPU looks into Trillanes’ case

Published by Ellen on July 22, 2008

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is looking into the case of Senator Antonio F. Trillanes IV.

During the 122nd Session of the IPU’s Committee on Human Rights of Parliamentarians held last week in Geneva, Switzerland, the Committee heard the case filed by Senators Panfilo “Ping” Lacson and Ana Consuelo “Jamby” Madrigal last year in behalf of Senator Trillanes. In their
letter-complaint dated 25 March 2007, Lacson and Madrigal condemned the fact that the Philippine gvernment has been preventing Trillanes from attending Senate sessions and from performing his duties as a Senator despite being elected by more than 11 million voters and
despite of Senate Resolution urging the executive and the courts to allow Trillanes to serve and to attend Senate sessions.

It’s the economy, stupid

Published by Ellen on July 20, 2008

Executive Secretary is finding it hard to understand why the Filipino people do not like Gloria Arroyo despite her working so hard, traveling all over the country doling out crumbs from the billions of pesos that she rakes in from the citizenry.

Following the release of the SWS survey for the period June 27 to 30 where dissatisfaction over how Arroyo runs the country was reflected in an all-time low rating of -38 , Ermita said, “Of course people have to wonder why after the many things that she is doing for the well-being of our citizens that that should still be the perception.”

Disempowering the people

Published by Ellen on July 17, 2008

Once again, it is the words of the “Great Dissenter,” as Chief Justice Reynato Puno is called these days, that captured the real issue in the petition of Akbayan for full disclosure of the terms of JPEPA which the Supreme Court rejected in a 10-4 vote.

JPEPA stands for Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement which is awaiting ratification by the Senate.

In his dissenting opinion, Puno said: “We elevated the right to information to constitutional stature not without reason. In a democracy, debate – by the people directly or through their representatives in Congress – is a discussion of and by the informed and not an exchange of surpluses of ignorance.

Luzon also heavily damaged by Frank?

Published by Ellen on July 16, 2008

Malaya editorial:

The agriculture department has announced that it will soon launch a P70 million piglet dispersal and feed subsidy program for backyard hog growers hit by typhoon Frank. The program, DA said, is part of its efforts to rehabilitate farms and fishponds hit by the typhoon.

That’s the kind of short-gestating projects that the typhoon ravaged areas need to get back on their feet. After 90 days, a piglet reaches marketable size. The grower gets additional income. There’s more food to go around, easing the pressure of demand running after commodities in short supply.

Illusion of U.S support

Published by Ellen on July 13, 2008

Gloria Arroyo’s issuance of Executive Order 731 two weeks before her trip to the United States last month gives credence to talks that she was anticipating trouble that would be caused by soaring gas prices and she sought the support of U.S. President Bush in case she would have to resort to measures akin to martial law..

E.O. 731, issued June 7, 2008 but made public only last week is titled “Activating and Reorganizing the Energy Operations Board into the Energy Contingency Task Force Under the National Food and Energy Council”. It is based on the premise that “global clouds on the horizon are driving the cost of oil and food.”

The Air Force’s maddening silence

Published by Ellen on July 10, 2008

Losing a member of the family is hard enough to bear. But for a loved one to disappear in your life without you knowing where he is or if he is really dead, that’s unbearable.

Maria Fe Gerlie Mercado, wife of Capt. Gavino B. Mercado PMA Class ’99), one of the two Philippine Air Force pilots whose plane disappeared November 26 last year, has written Brig. Gen.Eduardo Oban Jr., wing commander of Basa Air Base, pouring out her grief over being kept in the dark of the fate of her husband and her co-pilot, Capt.Bonifacio Soriano III (PMA Class 2000)

Mrs. Mercado said Oban is the immediate superior of her husband.

Underwhelming credentials

Published by Ellen on July 9, 2008

Former Rep. Zenaida Ducut, from Lubao, Pampanga to be named chair of the Energy Regulatory Commission.

Malaya editorial:

A month back, we wrote: “When the replacement of (Energy Regulatory chair) Rodolfo Albano is named next month, we have one question to ask. How is the WACC calculated? If he could not provide an answer, thats it. Its bayad utang time, and to hell with power users.”

The background for that piece is the need for people at the ERC who must have an understanding of the complicated business of determining power rates based on cost of power generation, transmission and distribution plus some reasonable profit.

Scrap VAT

Published by Ellen on July 8, 2008

As the price of oil products continues to escalate, the proposal of Senator Mar Roxas not only makes sense; it’s imperative.

Gloria Arroyo wallowing in billions of pesos in “Katas ng Vat” while the rest of the Filipinos reel from spiraling prices is criminal. Balancing the budget should be done through more efficient revenue collection and not through this unjust value added tax that drives almost everybody into poverty.

Roxas is correct in debunking the argument of the administration that only the higher-middle class income groups and big business are affected by VAT. He said the fisherman buys gasoline for his motorized boat, the tricycle driver buys gasoline for his tricycle, the taxi driver buys gasoline to ply his route. These are poor people.

Plain and simple extortion

Published by Ellen on July 6, 2008

When news of the arrest of former assemblyman Homobono Adaza and four of his friends for “proposing to commit coup de’tat” broke out early afternoon last Wednesday, our reaction was of disbelief and concern.

If the Adaza report were a jigsaw puzzle, the pieces do not fit.

Although Adaza’s companions- Army Lt. Col. Oscarlito Mapalo, retired colonels Ernie Amboy (Army), and Cesar dela Peña (Marines) and retired Police Supt. Rafael Cardeño – at one time or another figured in some controversial activities while in the service, they are not known to have a following in the military.

The ghost of IMPSA

Published by Ellen on July 3, 2008

Pre-launch publicity for the book “Fight for the Filipino” by former vice-president Teofisto Guingona has underscored the portion about IMPSA, the Argentine power firm that acquired a sovereign guarantee by the Philippine government of the loan it was obtaining to rehabilitate and operate the 750-megawatt Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan (CBK) power complex in Laguna.

The sovereign guarantee for the $470 million project, embodied in an opinion issued by then Justice Secretary Hernani Perez, was granted on Gloria Arroyo’s fourth day in Malacañang. It was only the second day of Perez as justice secretary.

Category: Malaya