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Last minute again

Published by Ellen on December 5, 2011

25mansion2 — Unfinished mansion of the Ampatuans

I hope doing things at the last minute is not SOP in the Aquino administration.

It happened in the case of Gloria Arroyo when it took them one year and five months to file a case against her and only when there was a possibility that she would flee the country to avoid accountability.

It happened again in the case of the frozen assets of former Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. and members of his family who are principal suspects in the massacre of 58 persons, 32 of them media workers, on Nov. 23, 2009 in Maguindanao.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines and the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists, Inc., in a statement, said that a week before the Dec. 2 expiry of the freeze order on the Ampatuan assets consisting of 597 bank accounts, 142 firearms, 132 motor vehicles, and 113 houses and lots, they called the attention of the Office of the Solicitor General and the Anti-Money Laundering Council about it.

Bakit hindi pa nasampahan ng kaso si Abalos?

Published by Ellen on December 3, 2011

Bakit ba hanggang ngayon ay hindi pa na-isampa ang kasong electoral sabotage laban kay dating Commission on Election chairman Benjamin Abalos na inirekomenda ng joint panel ng Department of Justice at Comelec?

Ito rin ang tanong ni Sen.Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III noong Biyernes.

From Inquirer:
Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. said the case against Abalos and other co-respondents of Arroyo would be filed next week, after Comelec lawyers are able to untangle some “procedural problems.”

“There is some sort of complication, but it is just procedural. But we are definitely filing against Abalos,” he said.
Noong Nob. 18, yung araw ng Biyernes na minadali ng pamahalaang Aquino ang kaso na electoral sabotage kay Gloria Arroyo, sinabi ni Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez, na kasama si Abalos at si Capt. Peter Reyes , isang intelleigence agent sa Armed Forces of the Philippines,ngunit sa Lunes na isasampa ang kaso laban sa kanya.

Freeze order on Ampatuan assets expires

Published by Ellen on December 2, 2011

Joint statement of the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists Inc. and the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines on the Expiry of the Freeze Order on the Assets of the Ampatuans
2 December 2011

Today, December 2, 2011, the six-month freeze order the Court of Appeals issued – on petition of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) – on the 597 bank accounts, 142 firearms, 132 motor vehicles, and 113 houses and lots in the names of 27 members of the Ampatuan clan and their associates expired.

We have also learned that it was only yesterday, December 1, when the AMLC filed through the Office of the Solicitor General, a petition for civil forfeiture with a prayer for a new freeze order with the Manila regional trial court. As of the close of office hours, we have not received confirmation from the OSG, the AMLC, or the trial court if the freeze order, or provisional asset protection order (PAPO), had been issued.

We view with great alarm the unwarranted delay and apparent lack of attention and negligence that the AMLC and the OSG had accorded this case.

It’s the President who wants me in Beijing: Domingo Lee

Published by Ellen on December 1, 2011

It doesn’t matter at all if Domingo Lee was not familiar with the terms “hard power” and “soft power” and other common terms in diplomacy during the Commission on Appointments deliberation on his appointment as ambassador to the People’s Republic of China.

He will be the Filipino people’s representative to China because President Aquino wants it.

The 77-year old Lee is the childhood friend of the President’s father, the late Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr.

In a lunch meeting with Lee last Monday, he related how he got to be chosen as ambassador to China after the disastrous stint of former Ambassador Francisco Benedicto, Gloria Arroyo’s appointee but was retained by Aquino upon the recommendation by former Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo.

Rizal’s Sibylla Cumana

Published by Ellen on November 30, 2011

A different kind of Rizal revealed.

On December 8, 6 p.m., the Paciano Rizal Family Heritage, Inc., and Cruz Publishing will launch the book Haec Est Sibylla Cumana at Auditorium 1 of the Ateneo Professional Schools on Rockwell Drive in Makati City.

Sybilla Cumana, we are told by the eminent Carmen Guerrero Nakpil, is a seeress and fortune teller in the Graeco-Roman culture.

What will be launched on Dec. 8 is an undisclosed and believed to be the last book written by the National Hero Jose Rizal.

Mrs. Nakpil wrote in the Publisher’s Note:”Jose Rizal continues to surprise us. An unexpected facet of Rizal’s persona has been revealed with this book. He was so humorous, playful and resourceful that he once invented and produced the material for a new parlor game using a character from the ancient Graeco-Roman culture of occult practices, the Sybilla Cumana, seeress and fortune teller.”

Trillanes: “Mla Pen happened for a higher reason that is still unfolding”

Published by Ellen on November 29, 2011

Some “survivors” of what media calls the Nov. 29, 2007 “Manila Peninsula siege” got together with Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV (no, not at the Manila Pen).

Yesterday’s reunion had an added significance in the sense that Trillanes, Brig. Gen. (ret.) Danny Lim and other members of the Magdalo, who dared take on Gloria Arroyo at the height of her power, are now free. Trillanes is serving his electoral mandate in the Senate and Lim is deputy commissioner of the Bureau of Customs.

And Arroyo, their jailer?

It is now being debated whether she should be granted her request for a house arrest or be confined at a government facility. She has been charged with electoral sabotage in the 2007 election, a crime punishable by a life sentence and bail is not recommended.

Woman in ‘Hello Garci’ was Gloria,Senate told

Published by Ellen on November 29, 2011

By Antonio de los Reyes and Victor Reyes
Malaya

LT. Col. Pedro Sumayo, former commander of the Military Intelligence Group 21 (MIG-21) which specializes in communications and surveillance, yesterday told a Senate investigating panel that he heard the voice of former president Gloria Arroyo in the raw copy of the “Hello Garci” wiretapped tapes, which he burned on orders of his superior.

Sumayo also told the Senate committees on blue ribbon and electoral reforms which are jointly investigating the alleged fraud during the 2004 and 2007 elections that he was given P900,000 several weeks before his testimony.

Sumayo said former T/Sgt. Vidal Doble Jr. presented to him the audio recordings after the 2004 elections.

He said he listened to a portion of a tape and heard a voice which he recognized as Arroyo’s.

A Galleon museum in Manila

Published by Ellen on November 27, 2011

Presentation of commemorative stamps — Postmaster general Josefina de la Cruz and Sen. Edgardo Angara presenting the Dia del Galleon commemorative stamps to First Lady of Mexico, Margarita Zavala.

There’s a plan to build a galleon museum in Manila that will not only make Filipinos appreciate Philippine historical ties with Latin America but in the words of Mexico’s First Lady Margarita Zavala, “ could serve as an intercultural and globalization research center which will further help in uniting us.”

Madam Zavala, wife of President Felipe Calderon of Mexico, was here on a two-day visit last week.

At the cultural gala in her honor hosted by Sen. Edgardo Angara held at the Philippine International Convention Center last Thursday, Zavala shared her excitement after reading Jose Rizal’s “Ultimo Adios.” “He wrote it in Spanish!,” she said underscoring the affinity of Mexico and the Philippines in the Spanish language.

She said to the mostly English-speaking audience, “”I know you speak in English but your heart is still in Spanish. “

Zavala, a lawyer and was a member of the Mexican parliament, also observed that Philippine handicrafts are very much similar to Mexican handicrafts. “I’m sure the reason for this similarity goes back to the Galleon,” she said.

Pang-apat na taon ng Mla Pen rebelyun: malaya na sina Trillanes at Lim, si Arroyo, nakakulong

Published by Ellen on November 27, 2011

a few minutes before end of seige — This was taken inside Rizal room, a few minutes before authorities started tear gassing the hotel.

Sa Martes,Nob. 29, ay pang-apat na taon makalipas ang tinatawag natin na “Manila Peninsula siege.”

Kinumusta ko sa aming abogado na si Romel Bagares ng Roque, Butuyan law office kung ano na ang nangyari sa aming isinampang kaso laban sa mga pulis at military na nanghuli sa amin (ang iba sa amin ay pinusasan) na inapela naming sa Court of Appeals. (Kinampihan kasi ni Makati RTC Judge Reynaldo Laigo ang mga pulis at military kahit na sinabi ng Commission on Human Rights na ang paghuli sa amin a”constitutes arbitrary arrest/detention in violation of human rights standards.”)

Related links:
http://www.ellentordesillas.com/2007/12/14/media-concerns-in-nov-29-incident/
http://www.ellentordesillas.com/2007/12/02/bibeth/
http://www.ellentordesillas.com/2007/11/30/hours-media-grit-in-the-manila-pen/
http://www.ellentordesillas.com/2007/12/14/maria-ressasposition-paper-on-media-at-the-pen/
http://www.ellentordesillas.com/2007/12/14/nhks-chairmaine-deogracias-on-manila-pen-incident/

Sinabi ni Romel, nandun pa rin sa CA ang aming kaso, natututulog.

Sana hindi na mag-apela ang mga kamag-anak ni Pnoy sa Hacienda Luisita

Published by Ellen on November 27, 2011

Children of Hacienda Luisita — Photo by Homer Teodoro

Ang desisyun ng Korte Suprema na ibalik ng mga may-ari ng Hacienda Luisita ang halos 5,000 na ektaryang taniman ng tubo sa Tarlac sa mga magsasaka sa 6,296 na magsasaka ay pagkakataon ni Pangulong Aquino na ituwid ang pagkakamali ng kanyang pamilya, kasama na ang kanyang inang si pangulong Cory Aquino.

Ang Hacienda Luisita ay pagmamay-ari ng pamilyang Cojuangco. Nasabi na ni Pangulong Aquino noon na maliit lang ang kanyang parte sa Hacienda at hindi siya ang nagde-dedisyun kungdi ang mga kapatid ng kanyang ina.

Update: Just compensation for HLI may reach P5 billion

The farmers, however, said the valuation should only be P50,000 per hectare provided under the 1989 stock distribution plan.

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