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Mar forgot to tell PNoy about BOI request

Published by Ellen on March 18, 2015

Police Director Benjamin Magalong, BOI-PNP head.

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas forgot to tell President Aquino of the request Police Director Benjamin Magalong to interview him before the Board of Inquiry on the Mamasapaano tragedy released their report last March 13, ABS-CBN reported.

Magalong said he met with Aquino in Malacañang on Tuesday together with Roxas and Philippine National Police Officer-in-Charge Leonardo Espina.

He said Roxas also apologized for failing to inform the President about the BOI’s request to interview him regarding the Mamasapano mission.

“Binanggit din niya syempre yung issue na bakit hindi ko siya na-interview. At in-explain ko rin sa kanya na, inamin din naman ni Secretary [Roxas] na talagang sa dami ng trabaho nakalimutan na mabanggit kay Presidente at dapat na-remind ko sila,” he said.

It will be recalled that Presidential Spokesperson scored the BOI for not getting the side of the President before issuing the report.

It was reported here Monday that Magalong asked Roxas last March 9 to relay their request to Aquino for an interview.

Poe to Aquino: Be a leader, tell the truth

Published by Ellen on March 17, 2015

Sen. Grace Poe reveals findings of Senate committee that investigated Mamasapano tragedy.

Reading President Aquino’s speech before the 2015 graduates of the Philippine Military Academy last Sunday, I got the impression that he is isolated from the real world outside Malacañang.

For how does one who has to suffer daily the monstrous Metro Manila traffic and the inefficiency of the MRT accept his painting of the country as a paradise and taking credit for this “accomplishment”: “At hindi naman sa pagbubuhat ng bangko, pero ngayon pa lang, masasabi nating higit na maganda ang kalagayan ng bansa kumpara sa ating dinatnan. Nilinis natin ang burukrasya, tinugis ang mga tiwali, pinasigla ang ekonomiya, at nagbukas tayo ng mga bagong pinto ng oportunidad para sa ating mga kababayan. (Not to be self-indulgent, but at this stage, we can truly say that our country’s situation is much better than we found it. We cleaned up the bureaucracy, pursued the corrupt, revitalized the economy, and opened new doors of opportunity for our countrymen.)”

BOI requested for interview with Aquino

Published by Ellen on March 15, 2015

It is not true that the Board of Inquiry did not try to get the side of President Aquino on the Jan. 25 Mamasapano tragedy that claimed 67 lives including 44 of the country’s elite police commandos, 18 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and five civilians, including an eight-year old girl.

DILG Secretary Mar Roxas accepts from PNP Board of Inquiry Chairman PDir Benjamin Magalong the copies of the report on the Mamasapano clash during the official turnover on Friday, March 13, 2015.

Last March 9, BOI head Police Director Benjamin Magalong told Interior Secretary Mar Roxas that they would like to interview the President and the latter promised to relay the request to Aquino.

This took place when Magalong requested Roxas for an extension to submit the report.

Magalong never got a notification from Roxas on Malacañang’s reply to his request. He submitted the BOI report last Friday.

Malacañang is not happy with the report of the BOI that investigated the Jan. 25 Mamasapano tragedy of which found that the Chain of Command in the Philippine National Police was violated and one of the culprits was President Aquino.

China’s latest expansion to deny PH access to Ayungin shoal

Published by Ellen on March 15, 2015

By Tessa Jamandre, Vera Files

China has created new artificial islets in two more reefs in the disputed South China Sea, which the Philippine military fears is meant to choke off its access to Ayungin shoal, where a crumbling Philippine Navy ship is beached.

Rep. Ashley Acedillo of the Magdalo Partylist

In an interview, former Air Force officer Rep. Francisco Acedillo, now partylist representative of the Magdalo party, shared the latest maritime surveillance photos showing how China’s land reclamation is expanding to cover all the seven reefs it occupies.

The latest reclamation work is being done on Mischief and Subi reefs, known to the Philippines as Panganiban and Zamora, which are fast catching up with the five other reefs where China had done reclamation work early last year.

Acedillo branded this move as “ graver danger to the country’s national security.”

The photos, taken at an altitude of 5,000 feet, show multi-storey buildings, deep harbors, and airstrips being constructed. Also sighted were cargo and supply vessels steadily hauling construction materials in reclaimed lands.

“I warn my colleagues in Congress and the Filipino people of an impending danger to our national security and it’s right at our doorstep, less than 50-kilometers away from our Ayungin Shoal and roughly 400-km away from Palawan,” Acedillo said.

Ano ang nangyari kay Mar Roxas?

Published by Ellen on March 14, 2015

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas. Photo by Edwin Bacasmas, PDI.

Sinabi ng Board of Inquiry ng Philippine National Police na siyang nag-imbestiga sa trahedya sa Mamasapano, Maguindanao noong Enero 25 na nilabag ni Pangulong Aquino ang chain of command.

Dahil doon nagkandaloko-loko ang operasyon. Umabot sa 67 na buhay ang nalagas kasama na doon ang 44 na miyembro ng SAF, 18 na miyembro ng Moro Islamic Liberation Front at 5 na sibilyan.

Sa halip na purihin ang BOI sa pamumuno ni Police Director Benjamin Magalong, hepe ng Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, inabswelto pa rin ni Interior Secretary Mar Roxas si Pangulong Aquino.

The Lantern festival crowd: showcase of Taiwanese’s admirable discipline

Published by Ellen on March 11, 2015

In the 30 or so minutes that I was in the midst of the teeming crowd in Wuri Railway Station in Taichung, Taiwan last Saturday, I gained insights about the Taiwanese and in way, in their relations with mainland China, more than what I have learned in my readings in the past.

Thousands and thousands of people of all ages – babies, children, elderly, even the handicapped, filled every inch of the train station. Organizers said there were 1.5 million visitors that night, a record attendance.

As I flowed with the crowd, I thought of the stampede in Shanghai last New year’s eve where 36 people died and for some fleeting moments, it was scary.

Wuri Railway Station in Taichung, at about 9 p.m. of Saturday, March 7, 2015. Part of the 1.5 million who came to visit the Lantern Festival.

But the amazing thing was,the crowd was moving orderly. There was no pushing or elbowing out each other. It was discipline at its most awesome.

The potent bite of the ‘Mosquito Press’

Published by Ellen on March 3, 2015

Congratulations to JL Burgos for bringing to the screen an important chapter in our history of struggle for press freedom.

“Portraits of Mosquito Press “documents the struggle for press freedom at the time when the country was still in the grip of the Marcos dictatorship.

“Mosquito Press” was Marcos’ belittling of the small, independent newspapers which he allowed to operate to give a semblance of press freedom under his autocratic rule.

The small, independent newspapers lead by We Forum, owned and edited by Jose Burgos, Jr., were called the “alternative press.” Alternative to the establishment press owned by Marcos cronies and relatives and toed the government line that Marcos was the savior of the Philippines.

We Forum was critical of Marcos. When asked by international media about issues raised in We Forum, Marcos dismissed it as nothing but the handiwork of the “mosquito press.” In effect, they are just mosquitos. Nothing that he cannot swat easily.

Later, Marcos would realize that mosquito bites can be potent.

Hilarious FB translations

Published by Ellen on February 26, 2015

Aside from the lively exchanges in Facebook (never mind the moronic posts- you have the choice to ignore them or better to unfriend the source), there’s a feature in this social media that is oftentimes hilarious, it makes FB surfing fun.

It’s the translation.

Like this translation of a post by business entrepreneur Jaime Gachitorena on a Lifestyle Inquirer article about the rumored father of Sen. Grace Poe (she was found abandoned in Jaro Metropolitan Cathedral in Iloilo): “ So Bongbong Marcos and Grace Poe are magkapatid?”

FB translation: “So Bongbong Mark and Grace Poe are brothers?

Mamasapano tragedy will be a factor in 2016 elections

Published by Ellen on February 24, 2015

Aquino meeting with families of SAF44. Feb. 18, 2015.

Don’t expect the truth about the Jan. 25 Mamasapano tragedy to come from President Aquino.

He had one whole month to tell the Filipino people about his role in the debacle that claimed the lives of 44 members of the Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police, 18 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and six civilians including an eight-year old girl who was hit in the crossfire.

He had three televised address on the armed operation that turned into a massacre – Jan. 28, three days after the tragedy; Jan. 30 necrological service at Camp Bagong Diwa, and Feb. 6 to announce his acceptance of the resignation of suspended Police Chief Alan Purisima.

Sarah

Published by Ellen on February 19, 2015

The tragedy in Mamasapano, Maguindanao claimed the lives of 44 of the country’s elite policemen, 18 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and some civilians.

One of those who died was an eight-year old girl named Sarah.

I learned about Sarah from Hussein Macarambon’s heart-rending post in Facebook:

“ At a forum organized by advocates of peace for Mindanao, the room started to get filled with a terrible feeling of sadness. Stories evoked tears when people who have followed the Mamasapano incident, on the ground or from afar, attempted to describe the pain and grief felt by many, especially the bereaved families of the 67 casualties- families of the 44 SAF troops, of the 5 civilians, and of the 18 MILF combatants.

“One of them lost the youngest victim, an eight-year old girl called Sarah. Her family was roused from sleep by the sound of bullets that had hit them. They survived. Sarah did not.

Continue readingSarah

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