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Opposition to EDCA goes to SC today

Published by Ellen on May 25, 2014

Click here for the full text of the EDCA petition

Another petition filed by BAYAN and sectoral congressmen against EDCA:
Final Bayan PETITION EDCA SC

Today, various individuals and groups, appalled by the mockery of the Constitution and complete disregard of the historic Senate vote ending the U.S. bases era on Sept. 16, 1991 by the Aquino government, are filing with the Supreme Court today a petition to declare the recently-signed PH-US Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement as unconstitutional.

Former senators Rene Saguisag and Wigberto Tañada

Leading the petitioners are former Senators Rene Saguisag and Wigberto Tanada, two of the 12 who voted to kick the US Bases out in 1991. Steve Salonga, will be signing the petition for his father, former Senate President Jovito Salonga. (The other nine senators who voted to oust the U.S. bases were Agapito “Butz” Aquino, Joseph Estrada, Teofisto Guingona Jr, Sotero Laurel II, Ernesto Maceda Jr, Orlando Mercado, Aquilino Pimentel Jr, Victor Ziga, and Juan Ponce Enrile.)

‘Separate speculation from fact’- Luchi Cruz-Valdez

Published by Ellen on May 21, 2014

That was a strong statement that Luchi Cruz-Valdes, head of TV5’s news and public affairs department, unleashed against those who dragged her name in the Janet Napoles pork barrel scandal especially the Philippine Daily Inquirer who published the unverified information.

Luchi’s name was mentioned in Inquirer’s May 18 issue as one of the mediamen in the list of those who “received” cash gifts from Napoles through a certain Mon Arroyo,former television director.

The documents, Inquirer said, were contained in the hard disk given to them by the mother of Benhur Luy, one of the whistleblowers in the Napoles PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) scam, and Levi Baligod, former lawyer of Luy way back on April 27, 2013 when the two visited the Inquirer office.

Didal

Published by Ellen on May 18, 2014

Among working journalists, we have a term “didal.” That is used when a PR (press relations officer) pockets the money intended for a reporter.

So the PR’s principal- a government official, a businessman or anybody who is the subject of a news report – thinks that he has paid off the reporter, who doesn’t know that his name was used for a media payoff budget.

If a reporter finds out that his name was in the list and he didn’t get anything, we tease him, “Na didal ka.”

(Accepting money from a source for a story is unethical and is denounced in the practice of journalism. A reporter writes a story because he has discovered something that would be of interest and beneficial to the people and not because someone paid him to do it.

(The reality, however, is that there are PRs whose job should only be to facilitate access to his principal, who payoff media to promote his principal. This is a bad practice.)

We are told that these days the new term for “didal” is “bukol.”

We suspect that’s what happened to ABS-CBN’s Korina Sanchez and GMA 7’s Mike Enriquez.

An Inquirer report said according to the documents submitted by PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) scam whistleblower Benhur Luy, pork barrel queen Janet Napoles paid off a number of media personalities.

Differences in how PH and Vietnam deal with China’s aggressiveness

Published by Ellen on May 16, 2014

Water cannon fight between China and Vietnam in Paracels.

The current tension in the South China Sea triggered by China’s territorial assertiveness underscores the military weakness of the Philippines and the lack of direction of its foreign policy as against Vietnam’s focused moves backed up by a credible defense capacity.

There are three incidents or conflicts going on in South China Sea that have raised the tension to worrisome levels.

One of the incidents involves Vietnam against China over the latter’s setting up of an oil rig in the disputed Paracel islands, 220 kilometers from Vietnam’s shores.

Vetting the Napoles list

Published by Ellen on May 13, 2014

Secretary de Lima. Still vetting the list.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said she is still “vetting” the names of people in the list given to her by pork barrel queen Janet Napoles.

“You just have to trust me that I’m not gonna do that na isa-sanitize ko yung list. Pangako ko po yan sa taumbayan na hindi ko yan gagawin na isa-sanitize. Pangako ko rin sa taumbayan na gagawin ko yung mandato in a very responsible and prudent manner . Kaya kailangan munang magkaroon ng vetting,” De Lima was quoted to have said.

Malacañang supports De Lima’s non-disclosure of the Napoles list while she is still “vetting” the names in it.

Why Gloria Arroyo is not worried

Published by Ellen on May 11, 2014

Broadcaster Noli de Castro, former vice president, visited Gloria Arroyo.

A friend shared this tidbit about his meeting with Elena Bautista-Horn, a Gloria Arroyo loyalist, in a mall last year. He asked how they, referring to the Arroyo camp, were doing.

When Bautista-Horn replied, she looked unworried. “We survived three years. Three more years to go,” she said.
That was last year. Now, there are only two years and three weeks left of the Aquino administration.

Arroyo, despite her spinal and other ailments, has good reasons to look to the near future positively. Last week, the Ombudsman cleared her of involvement in the P728 million fertilizer fund scam.

The case was filed by former Solicitor General Frank Chavez, who passed away last year.

The case was about the misuse of funds for fertilizer to be distributed to the farmers. Investigation showed that through fake projects and ghost deliveries, money supposedly for the farmers went to the pockets of politicians and pork barrel operators. The notorious Jenny Napoles participated in that scam.

Bolkiah’s draconian decree violates ASEAN Declaration

Published by Ellen on May 8, 2014

Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah announces implementation of draconian Shariah Law.

Two years ago in Phnom Penh, Cambodia , Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and nine other Southeast Asian leaders signed the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration which provides that,“No person shall be subject to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

Last week, the Sultan of the oil-rich Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, announced the start of a new criminal code based on sharia law that will impose barbaric punishments like amputation and stoning for offenses that includes being gay and pregnant outside of marriage.

A Los Angeles Times news report said “Under the first phase, fines and jail terms were introduced Thursday for offenses that include failure to attend Friday prayers, indecent behavior and pregnancies outside of marriage.

EDCA: a mockery of the Constitution

Published by Ellen on May 6, 2014

From Dennis Garcia's FB wall — From Dennis Garcia’s FB wall

In the Facebook wall of Dennis Carcia, musician, advertising executive, painter and Abante columnist, there’s a picture of Obama signaling something with two fingers.

Dennis captioned it: “EDCA:I can summarize the agreement in two words- NO RENTAL. “

The post elicited a comment from Noy Dy-Liacco: “I can do it in one: FREE!

The banter is a spoof of the TV musical game show “Name the Tune.”

EDCA is Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, a document so detestable it makes a mockery of the Philippine Constitution and ridicules Philippine sovereignty.

How not to conduct an interview, Kris Aquino style

Published by Ellen on May 4, 2014

Kris Aquino talked about herself in interview with Andrew Garfield.

I’d like to thank Kris Aquino for giving me very good materials for our training of journalists.

Nothing beats her interviews with the stars of The Amazing Spider-Man2 for an example of “How not to conduct an interview.”

An interview is important when doing a story because that would enable the writer to present to the readers the person he would be writing about with first hand observations. Through well thought-out questions, he would be able to draw the interviewee to talk about his views which in the first place made him worthy to be interviewed.

Del Rosario engages in disinformation re coverage of MDT

Published by Ellen on May 1, 2014

Del Rosario: desperately clinging to Uncle Sam.

The day after U.S. President Barack Obama left Manila, Foreign Secretary Albert Del Rosario issued the following statement:

“Under the Mutual Defense Treaty, the United States will come to the assistance of the Philippines if our metropolitan territory is attacked or if our Armed Forces are attacked in the Pacific area.

“In 1999, in a diplomatic letter, the United States affirmed that the South China Sea is considered as part of the Pacific area.”

Del Rosario is pathetic. What is abhorrent about this is, he is resorting to disinformation. Either that or his geography is faulty: The Spratlys, the contested islands in the South China Sea, are not in the Pacific.

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