The November 29 Manila Peninsula incident showed the depth of the Filipinos’ apathy.
Many of us think that we can remain unaffected by Gloria Arroyo’s cheating, lying and stealing to remain in power as long as we go on with our daily toil. Read this Mouse’s story.
“A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.
Documents speak for themselves
The problem with lying is that once you start, it’s difficult to stop because you have to commit more lies to cover up the original lie.
And in the process of endless cover up, truth manages to come out.
That’s what happened to the unconfirmed Brig. Gen. Jonathan Martir (his appointment to brigadier general is “ad interim”).
Update: Hearing on confirmation of Martir’s promotion to brigadier general was deferred to January 2008.
Tomorrow, when the Commission on Appointments Defense Committee meets, on the agenda is the promotion of Col. Jonathan Martir to brigadier general.
Friday last week, Malaya’s editorial, “Toadies crawling out of the woodwork” was about Gloria Arroyo’s lapdogs in frenzied competition proving what they can do to be promoted to chief tuta. That’s why we have NCR police chief Geary Barias proudly bragging to reporters how he manhandled Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and other Magdalo officers after the Manila Peninsula standoff.
And of course, Martir didn’t want to be left behind. Malaya’s editorial said, “Martir pulled a macho stunt at the Pen. He manhandled Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and some members of the Magdalo group while they were lying face down on the floor with their hands cuffed. Asked by a member of the CA from the House why he did so, Martir answered that Trillanes and his companions “deserved it.”
His voice, hoarse and not yet fully recovered, Rene Saguisag’s eyes sparkled as he reminisced Dec. 7, 1982 when Marcos’ military raided the office of We Forum, the sister company of Malaya, and the subsequent legal battle for press freedom.
He shook his head sadly when the conversation touched on the Nov. 29, 2007 incident at the Manila Pen and the arrest and handcuffing of media who covered the crisis.
On the eve of his checkout from the Makati Medical Center where he was confined after surviving a vehicular accident (his wife, Dulce, died) last Nov. 8; we visited Rene to mark the 25th anniversary of the raid and closure of We Forum.
Classical music impresario Pablo Tariman gave Metro Manilans an early Christmas gift in the person of Alvaro Pierri, guitarist par excellence last Tuesday. On Saturday, he will be presenting Russian pianist Ilya Rashkovskiy at the Philamlife Theater on United Nation’s Avenue at 8 p.m.
Pierri’s performance was simply awesome, an exhilarating experience. Just what we needed in these troubled times. He started with Nicolo Paganini’s Grande Sonata, followed by Miguel Llobet’s Preludio y Mazurca, and Federico Moreno Torroba’s Sonatina.
For the second part of the program, he dispensed with William Walton’s Five Bagatelles that was in the program and instead did Two Pieces by Vila-Lobos.
by Raymond Africa
Malaya
Government has deferred its plan to transfer Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and other personalities accused in the Manila Peninsula hotel standoff to the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City.
They are now detained at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame. Prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco said the plan would have to wait until Makati RTC Judge Elmo Alameda comes out with a resolution on the charges of rebellion and inciting to rebellion filed against Trillanes and 35 others.
“We will defer any action or planned motion to transfer out of judicial courtesy,” Velasco said.
by Ashzel and Regina Bengco
Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno yesterday justified the police arrest of media men covering last week’s occupation by Magdalo officers and soldiers of the Manila Peninsula and warned they would be treated the same in future occasions if found “obstructing justice.”
Puno gave the warning during a dialogue at the Manila Peninsula with representatives of the media who have assailed the arrest and handcuffing of journalists covering the six-hour stand off between the Magdalo group led by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and security forces.
Puno said in future police operations, journalists who fail to comply with an order to leave a crime scene would be arrested and possibly handcuffed.
Former UP President Francisco “Dodong” Nemenzo, released last Saturday from two nights detention in Camp Crame, is waiting for a warrant of arrest that will put him back in prison with 34 others who were at the Manila Peninsula last Thursday with Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim.
Nemenzo is among those charged with rebellion, together with Trillanes, Lim, Vice President Teofisto Guingona, Bishop Julio Labayen, scriptwriter Bibeth Orteza, and a number of Magdalo officers.
I met Nemenzo last Tuesday at GMA-7 when we guested together in Jessica Soho’s “Hot Seat.” In that two-night stay in Camp Crame, Nemenzo was in the same cell with six others including Air Force Capt. Danny Orpiano, and lawyer JV Bautista. He said the officers seem to be in “high spirits” despite what happened.
President Arroyo on Saturday has approved a P1 million reward for the capture of a fugitive military officer involved in Thursday’s failed rebellion in Makati City.
According to information sent by the Philippine National Police (PNP) public information office Mrs. Arroyo approved the recommendation of PNP chief
Director General Avelino Razon Jr. for the offer of P1 million for information that will lead to the arrest of Marine Capt. Nicanor Faeldon.
Carmen Guerrero Nakpil never disappoints.
The second volume of her memoirs “Legends & Adventures” (post-war, 1946-1983) is as absorbing and engaging as the first, “Myself, Elsewhere” set in pre-war Manila.
Narrating her life as a journalist, Mrs. Nakpil gives a glimpse of the good old days of Philippine journalism: “What I enjoyed about my newspaper job was being in the thick of things. I did not grasp, until I became a journalist how cloistered, how impossibly recondite, my incarceration in Ermita had been.