Category: Malaya

My cousins, the Orendains, have a small beach resort in Guimbal, Iloilo and it is in danger of being ruined by the oil spill coming from MT Solar I that sank in the waters off Guimaras.

My cousin, Dolly O. Escobar, whose daughters, Marla and Carla manage Sunrise Beach (about 30 minutes away from Iloilo City), has been texting everybody last week to pray that the government do something to solve the problems that are endangering lives of people in Guimaras and Negros Occidental.

Dolly said the fumes and smell of oil can already be felt in Guimbal. Needless to say, business is down. With the strong winds and waves, they fear that it’s a matter of time before oil reaches their shores. To prevent that, the people in Guimbal are making booms containing feathers and hair to prevent the oil from reaching their shores.

The latest in the case of former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc Joc” Bolante is that he could be requesting the United States government permission to invest there.

This is what Harry Roque, who filed an amicus brief in the US court opposing the Bolante’s petition for asylum, suspects based on yesterday’s report of ABS-CBN correspondent Ging Reyes who quoted Bolante’s immigration lawyer as saying that the fertilizer scam is “not germane to the immigration relief sought by him.”

Roque said: “This would imply that contrary to earlier reports and popular belief, Bolante may not be asking for asylum. Instead he may be asking for an adjustment of status because of an approved application for immigrant visa, which in any case could only be an investor’s visa.”

As we were writing this piece, news came in that another person identified with a progressive organization was killed in Surigao del Sur.

Reports said Hermie Marqueza, a member of local farmers group Kapunungan sa mga Mag-uuma sa Surigao, was killed inside his home in barangay Maitum in Tandag by unidentified gunmen armed with M-14 rifles Monday night.

That was hours after Gloria Arroyo announced in front of the monument of Ninoy Aquino in Intramuros the names of members of a commission that she has created to “conduct an independent probe on killing of media practitioners and militant activists” which has become a daily occurrence while she continues to hold on to her stolen presidency.

Gloria Arroyo must be feeling the noose tightening around her neck.

It showed in the statement her spokesman issued last Saturday threatening Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano “full retribution” if he did not retract his exposé that some “immediate members” of her family maintain a bank account in Hypo- und Vereinsbank in Munich.

Bunye demanded a public apology from Cayetano to which the young congressman from Taguig-Pateros replied: “You should be the one to apologize to the Filipino public for cheating, lying, and stealing.”

News item in Malaya today (Aug. 21, 2006)

TAGUIG-Pateros Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano yesterday. brushed aside Palace demands for an apology, saying it should instead be President Arroyo who should say sorry “for cheating, lying and stealing the (2004) elections.”

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye has demanded from Cayetano a “full and unconditional retraction” and a “public apology to the first family” after the latter accused the Arroyos of maintaining an account with a German bank.

Continue readingIt’s Arroyos who should apologize:Cayetano

A news item in today’s (Aug. 19, 2006) issue of Malaya.

by Wendell Vigilia

AN opposition congressman yesterday accused “immediate members” of the family of President Arroyo of hiding a multi-million dollar bank account in a German bank.

In a TV interview, Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano (NP, Taguig-Pateros) declined to identify the owners of the account but said it is inside one of the seven boxes of evidence that were not opened in the impeachment hearings at the House.

Continue readingArroyos’ illgotten wealth in Germany

It was only very recently that I learned that the lowly suka or vinegar can be used to detect cervical cancer.

Suka contains acetic acid which is what is being used in what I find a revolutionary approach to treating the disease that remains to be the No. 2 killer of Filipino women, next to breast cancer.

I’m sure I’m not the only one ignorant about the powers of acetic acid. And I learned about it only because I attended a forum “The Cervical Cancer Prevention Network program” two weeks ago at the Asian Hospital in Muntinlupa.

The hearings of Mike Arroyo’s libel suits against Malaya columnist Lito Banayo are bordering on the absurd. We can’t help but laugh.

But we laugh nervously because the absurdity stems from Mike Arroyo’s power tripping. And we know how dangerous power trippers are specially if they have at their disposal the armed forces and the police.

In the hearing last Aug. 8, Arroyo’s imposing presence was felt heavily not only at the RTC Manila sala of Judge Concepcion Alarcon-Vergara but also in the surrounding vicinity.

What more indignities would Joc Joc Bolante, former agriculture undersecretary, be willing to suffer to protect his friends and patrons, Gloria and Mike Arroyo?

Bolante, who has been under detention since July 7 at the San Pedro Detention Center in Los Angeles, has been granted his request to be transferred to the Chicago federal detention center because his family is based in Evanston, just outside Chicago. The Rotary International, where Bolante served as treasurer, is also in Evanston.

Bolante probably thought that Chicago would be friendlier to him than Los Angeles.

He is in for a big disappointment.

There is one area where Gloria can claim success and nobody would dispute it. And that’s in the export of Filipinos.

Today, more than eight million Filipinos are scattered all over the world, even as far as Equatorial Guinea in Africa, with the numbers increasing every day. The Commission on Overseas Filipinos said since January this year, at least 6,000 Filipinos have left as immigrants for an increase of 23.4 percent in the number of departing Filipinos. I don’t have the figures of contract workers but I can imagine the number is much more.

Many more want to leave. The latest survey by Pulse Asia conducted from June 24 to July 8 showed that Filipinos who spurn migration dropped by 15 percent from last year’s 52 per cent to 37 percent now.