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ellen tordesillas Posts

Tridentine mass soon to return?

I welcome the news that Pope Benedict XVI will soon be allowing Catholic churches to hold Tridentine masses.

A Washington Post report last Friday said:

“Pope Benedict XVI has drafted a document allowing wider use of the Tridentine Mass, the Latin rite that was largely replaced in the 1960s by Masses in English and other modern languages, a church official said yesterday.

Garbage in, garbage out

Galit si Sen. Richard Gordon kay Comelec Chairman Benjmain Abalos na kaagad sinabi na huli na para mag-computerize para sa May 2007 elections.

“Alam ko hindi siya interesado dito (poll automation bill) dahil gusto pa rin niyang gamitin ang kanilang lumang mga computer,” sabi ni Gordon na nagpapatungkol sa P1.3 billion na mga computer na binili ng Comelec sa Mega Pacific ngunit ngayon ay nabubulok lamang dahil sinabi ng Supreme Court na ilegal ang transaksyon .

Ipinasa ang ng Senado noong Huwebes ang poll automation bill sa pagpupurisge ni Gordon, chairman ng Senate committee on constitutional amendments. Inaasahan ni Gordon na ipasa na rin ng House of Representatives sa pangunguna ni Rep. Teddy Locsin ng kanilang bersyon para mapag-isa nila at mapirmahan sa susunod na buwan.

Otoniel Gonzaga teams up with Dulce

This is one musical event not to be missed.

gonzaga.jpgOtoniel Gonzaga, the country’s foremost tenor, teams up with Asian diva Dulce and the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) in a yearend concert called “Christmas Spectacular & Immortal Arias” at the Philamlife Theater on December 9, 2006.

In the same concert, the MPO under the baton of Rodel Colmenar, will also accompany guest soprano Camille Lopez Molina and flutist Christopher Oracion, two-time first prize winner of the National Music Competition for Young Artists.

Fresh from his triumphant team-up with Lea Salonga early this year, Gonzaga, a winner of the Marian Anderson Voice Competition and the ARD International Voice Competition in Munich, will do a duet with Dulce, a grand prize winner of the Asian Singing Competition in Hong Kong.

Nokor’s nuclear test: a fizzle?

Almost a week after North Korea announced that they had successfully tested a nuclear weapon, analyses by Wesyern scientists indicate that Kim Il Jong, North Korea’s leader was not exactly telling the truth.

They have have conducted a nuclear tests but apparently, it failed. “”The betting is that this was an attempt at a nuclear test that failed,” Associated Press quoted a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information. ”

“We don’t think they were trying to fake a nuclear test, but it may have been a nuclear fizzle an effort that failed,” the official added.

Abalos: ‘Garci’ a thing of the past with reduced poll role of military

According to Benjamin Abalos, the next election will be clean with him and Esperon overseeing it.Ha!Ha!Ha!

COMELEC Chairman Benjamin Abalos yesterday said there would be no-repeat of the “Hello Garci” scandal in 2004 with the signing of a memorandum of agreement that would limit the role of the military in during elections.

“With the role of the military now well-defined…there’s going to be no Garci (controversy),” he said.

Warning ni Prof. Miranda

Sa “Strictly Politics” noong Martes ng gabi sa ANC (8 p.m.), sinabi ni Prof. Felipe Miranda ng Pulse Asia na humihingi si Gloria Arroyo ng kapahamakan (She is courting disaster) kung kakanselahin ang elections sa May 2007 para ipagpilitan ang Charter Change.

Sabi ni Prof. Miranda malaking bagay ang eleksyon sa mamamayan dahil yun lamang ang kanilang ideya ng partisipasyon sa pamahalaan. Maliban sa barangay kung saan magkakilala ang lahat at madali silang lumapit, ang pakiramdam nila napakataas at napakalayo ng national government. Tuwing eleksyon lamang sila pinapansin.

Paniwala nila sa tuwing eleksyon lamang sila binibigyan ng halaga at ayaw nilang alisin ang maliit na pagkakataon na yan.

Arroyo’s delusion

The more Gloria Arroyo opens her mouth about North Korea, the more ridiculous she sounds.

Last Monday, she bested all Southeast Asian leaders in issuing a statement condemning North Korea’s nuclear test. Yesterday, she said North Korea’s nuclear test is a Damocles’ sword over Asia and underscored that the Philippines is “within striking distance” of a nuclear weapon fired from Pyongyang.

News reports said although it is widely believed that North Korea’s announcement of a successful nuclear test is true, the Hermit Kingdom has not yet developed a delivery system for its nuclear weapon.

Gutierrez back;chides critics

Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez is back from her Swiss sojourn and wasted no time defending her decision to absolve Comelec officials led by Chairman Benjamin Abalos from responsibility in the anomalous P1.3 billion poll automation contract with Mega Pacific.

Photo below was taken during yesterday’s press conference. Beside her is Overall Deputy Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro who saw “no iota of evidence to show” that Comelec’s decision to award the contract to Mega Pacific “constitute manifest (sic) of partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence.”

gutierrezcasimiro.jpg

North Korea joins nuclear club

North Korea that goes by the official name of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea announced today that it has successfully performed its first nuclear tests to the horror of the rest of the world.

“The field of scientific research in the DPRK successfully conducted an underground nuclear test under secure conditions on October 9, 2006, at a stirring time when all the people of the country are making a great leap forward in the building of a great, prosperous, powerful socialist nation,” North Korea’s official statement said.

If the nuclear test is confirmed, North Korea becomes the ninth nuclear state. The others are the Britain, China,France,India,Israel,Pakistan, Russia, and United States.

Raising level of shamelessness

The Ombudsman’s “brazen somersault,” in the words of the highly-respected Jovito Salonga, clearing all Comelec officials on the P1.3 billion poll automation deal shows how deeply enmeshed Gloria Arroyo is as she discards subtlety in the endless paybacks that she is and will be making just to continue holding on to her stolen power.

The “brazen somersault” that Salonga said did not refer to the Ombudsman’s departure from its June 28, 2006 report which recommended the indictment of Comelec officials and eight Mega Pacific (MPC) officers and that impeachment charges be filed against elections commissioner Resurreccion Borra.

That report was actually lame because it absolved other elections commissioners involved in the approval of the deal including Chairman Benjamin Abalos.