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Please tell me it’s not true

Published by Ellen on October 3, 2010

Update on the IIRC, Oct. 6,2010:

President Aquino says he will release full Palace-IIRC report on Aug 23 hostage incident only after he marks his 100th day in his office this week.

A friend close to members of the Incident Investigation and Review Committee, that investigated the Aug. 23 tragedy where a dismissed policeman held hostage a busload of tourists from Hongkong resulting in the death of eight of them, called me up Saturday saying the information she got about the recommendation of the presidential panel tasked to review the IIRC recommendations was not good.

Gun buddy
She said her information is that Interior Undersecretary Rico E. Puno and recently retired Philippine National Police Chief Jesus Verzosa were “cleared” and Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim was cited only for “neglect of duty.”

If true, that would be a downgrading of the recommendations of IIRC that recommended the filing of administrative and criminal charges against Lim. The IIRC also recommended the filing of administrative charges against Puno and Verzosa and “that a preliminary investigation be conducted by the appropriate government agency for any possible criminal liability.”

I called several sources in Malacañang. Only one replied. He said our fears are “unfounded.”

I fervently hope he is right and that the information my friend got is false. We are closely watching how President Aquino will decide on the IIRC recommendations because it will show us the direction that his administration will take after a disappointing first 100 days.

Continue readingPlease tell me it’s not true

Tinimbang ngunit kulang

Published by Ellen on October 2, 2010

Sa Biyernes, Oktubre 8, isang daang araw na ang administrasyon ni Pangulong Benigno Aquino III.

Alam naman natin na maigsi naman ang isang daang araw para ayusin ang bansa lalo na sa siyam na taon na pang-aabuso at pagsalaula ni Gloria Arroyo ng mga institusyon pangdemokrasya katulad ng eleksyun at hustisya.

Ganun din sa larangan ng pang-ekonomiya. Sadlak tayo sa utang. Ang nagbubuhay sa atin ay ang padala ng ating mga kababayan sa ibang bansa. Pera na kabayaran ng kanilang dugo at pawis.

Kahit na wala namang umaasa na malutas ni PNoy ang problema ng bansa sa kanyang unang tatlong buwan, dapat nakikita na ng taumbayan ang direksyun na ating pinatutunguhan.

Pinangako ni PNoy noong kampanya na siya ay maging iba kaysa kay Arroyo. Sinabi rin niya na pananagutin niya si Arroyo sa kanyang perwisyo sa bayan.

Continue readingTinimbang ngunit kulang

Journo

Published by Ellen on October 2, 2010

There’s a new program in ABC 5, Tuesday 10 p.m :”Journo”. It’s produced by Che-Che Lazaro’s Probe TV team. It’s hosted by Luchi Cruz, who now heads the re-energization of ABC-5 under businessman Manny Pangilinan.

Two weeks ago, they interviewed me on what I wrote about President Aquino’s choice of people that would supposedly help him as he leads the Filipino people through “the matuwid na daan”. We took off from the jueteng issue.

Continue readingJourno

The cellist and the pianist

Published by Ellen on October 1, 2010

A major piano and cello event promises to take place on October 10 (next Sunday) 7:30 p.m. at the Philamlife Theater wih the first Manila team-up of Chinese-born Australian cellist Li-Wei Qin and Filipino pianist Albert Tiu in an evening of Beethoven, Chopin and Rachmaninoff sonatas.

Li-Wei is a silver medalist in the 11th Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and a first prize winner of the Naumburg Competition in New York while Cebu-born Albert Tiu is a first prize winner in the UNISA International Piano Competition in Pretoria, South Africa and a laureate of international piano competitions in Calgary, Santander and Helsinski. (Li Wei is the next season soloist of the Berlin Philharmonic to replace an ailing Misha Maisky.)

A product of the Juilliard School where he was honed by pianist Jerome Lowenthal, Tiu is also recipient of the 1998 Juilliard William Petscheck Award that led to an acclaimed recital at the Lincoln Center’s AliceTully Hall.

Another classic test of Tiu’s brilliant feast as a chamber musician is the release of the recent album “Beethoven: The Sonatas for Piano and Cello” where he shares equal billing with Li-Wei in what sounds like a breath-taking interpretation of the German master’s sonatas.

Continue readingThe cellist and the pianist

The ‘exquisitely balanced’ Asean-US statement

Published by Ellen on September 30, 2010

Against the backdrop of US State Secretary Hillary Clinton’s statement in Hanoi last July that it is in the “national interest” of the United States that freedom of navigation be maintained in the South China Sea, diplomatic observers were anticipating a strongly worded reference on that issue in the joint statement that would be released after the 2nd ASEAN-US held at the Waldorf Hotel in New York last Saturday.

The official statement simply said: “We re-affirmed the importance of regional peace and stability, maritime security, unimpeded commerce, and freedom of navigation, in accordance with relevant universally agreed principles of international law, including the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and other international maritime law, and the peaceful settlement of disputes.”

There was no mention of South China Sea!

Continue readingThe ‘exquisitely balanced’ Asean-US statement

Giving thanks for small blessings

Published by Ellen on September 28, 2010

Y0u have to admire these principled officers for keeping the faith, for looking at the glass as half-full, rather than half-empty, as they take calmly the latest setback in their mutiny case that had its origin in their resistance to the use by Gloria Arroyo of the military to thwart the will of the people in the 2004 elections.

Praying for an enlighted decision at the start of the hearing

Tuesday, the military court headed by Maj. Gen. Josue S. Gaverza Jr. released its much delayed decision on the motion of the accused to dismiss the case as the prosecution has not proven that the accused officers committed mutiny in February 2006.

Cleared of mutiny charges
The court granted the motion of seven officers, four from the Marines – Col. Orlando de Leon, Lt. Col. Custodio Parcon, Lt. Col. Achilles Segumalian and the only female officer among the accused Lt. Belinda Ferrer – and three from the Scout Rangers, namely Maj. Jose Leomar Doctolero, Capt. William Upano and Homer Estolas.

Continue readingGiving thanks for small blessings

Seven cleared of mutiny charges; Miranda, Lim, Querubin’s motion denied

Published by Ellen on September 28, 2010

by Victor Reyes
Malaya

A jmilitary tribunal yesterday cleared seven military officers of the charge of mutiny filed against them in connection with the alleged plot to overthrow the Arroyo administration in February 2006 but sustained the charge against nine other accused.

Cleared were Col. Orlando de Leon, Lt. Col. Marine Achilles Segumalian, Lt. Col. Custodo Parcon, and 1Lt. Belinda Ferrer of the Marines, and Maj. Leomar Jose Doctolero, Capt. William Victorino Upano, and 1Lt. Homer Estolas of the Army.

The seven, in a second motion for reconsideration for a finding of not guilty, said they did not violate Article of War 67 or mutiny.

The court presided by Maj. Gen. Josue Gaverza said it granted the motion “for being meritorious.”

It denied the motion of the nine others for “lack of merit.”

Continue readingSeven cleared of mutiny charges; Miranda, Lim, Querubin’s motion denied

Verzosa as ambassador to Russia?

Published by Ellen on September 26, 2010

Three days after the Aug. 23 hostage-taking fiasco that left eight tourists from Hongkong dead, the survivors were accompanied by Malacañang officials to the airport for their flight back home.

At that time, tempers were high in Hongkong against the bungling of the Philippine government that turned their compatriot’s holiday into a tragedy. The survivors and their relatives couldn’t help expressing their disgust over the post-tragedy attitude of the Aquino government. They wondered why nobody was taking responsibility. All that they were getting were excuses and justifications for the incompetence that was witnessed live by the whole world.

Despite statements of condolences, the impression that the survivors and their relatives got was, the Aquino government was not serious in making officials be accountable for the debacle. They cited the melamine scandal in China in 2008 when two persons found responsible for the contamination of the infant formula that caused the death of six babies and illness to thousands were executed.

That sentiment was relayed by a Malacañang official to officials involved in the debacle. The official said, then PNP Chief Jesus Verzosa replied, in his typical emotion-devoid manner of speaking, “Okay, I’ll let Magtibay go.”

Continue readingVerzosa as ambassador to Russia?