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.
CALIFORNIA, United States—Maybe P-Noy should lay off the New York hotdogs. It’s making him talk strange.
Consider what he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer when asked about his friend, Undersecretary Rico Puno, who’s in hot water over alleged links to gambling and his role in the bungled Luneta rescue.
“One thing we have to watch out for is if these people who have been with us when we were still in the harassed opposition and who joined us in our struggles…if all these people who are close to us are removed and replaced by those who are not as close, the next group could already be our enemies,” he said.
Now, that was one jumbled, scary statement. You can read it on so many levels, few of them flattering to the chief executive of the country.
For the Philippine President basically admitted that, despite what appeared to be a pretty hefty mandate, he’s really relying on a very small circle of people to do his job.
One good thing that can be said of the almost three-month old Aquino presidency is transparency.
Sometimes, too transparent to a fault but openness is still better than keeping people in the dark.
Aquino bungled big-time the Aug. 23 hostage crisis, wasted a lot of time trying to justify the bungling before finally doing something right: asking Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to head a panel that would investigate the fiasco.
Another correct decision was releasing the report to the public a few days after it was submitted to him. The release of the report to the Chinese Embassy ahead of releasing it to the Filipino public could have been handled better, of course. Also,he could have released the whole report including the recommendations.
Compare that to how Gloria Arroyo handled the “Hello Garci” scandal and the report of the Vice Admiral Mateo Mayuga who investigated the involvement of the military in the tampering of the results of the 20004 election in Arroyo’s favor. Up to this day, we have yet to see the full report although I’m not expecting much from it.
President Aquino today said he has ordered the review of the recommendations of the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC) to sanction 12 persons and three networks over the Aug. 23 hostage tragedy.
Statement of the Foreign Ministry of China, Sept. 21, 2010
On 20 September 2010, the Chinese Embassy in the Philippines has been given by the Philippine IIRC the First Report of the IIRC on the 23 August 2010 Rizal Park Hostage-taking Incident: Sequence of Events, Evaluation and Recommendations. Since it is a long report, the Chinese side does need time for a careful study. The initial reading indicates that the Philippine side takes a sincere and serious manner in handling with and looking into the incident, to which the Chinese side expresses its appreciation.
We hope that the Philippine side continues to handle with the aftermath in an appropriate manner, so as to console the souls of the victims and render comfort to the bereft families and injured Hong Kong compatriots. We also hope that the Philippine side takes effective measures to strengthen protection of the Chinese personnel in the Philippines and prevent the reoccurrence of similar tragedies. The Chinese side stands ready to work with the Philippine side to advance the bilateral relations in a sound and steady manner.
In a press conference, Aquino named the following who were cited by the IIRC for negligence or failure to follow manual:
* Then Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Jesus Verzosa;
* Then Manila Police District chief Rodolfo Magtibay, who served as ground commander;
* National Capital Region Police office chief Leocadio Santiago;
* Hostage negotiator Manila Superintendent Orlando Yebra;
* DILG Undersecretary Rico Puno;
* Chief Inspector Santiago Pascual, head of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team;
* Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez;
* Deputy Ombudsman Emilio Gonzalez III;
* TV5’s Erwin Tulfo;
* Radio Mo Nationwide’s (RMN) Michael Rogas;
* Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim
* Manila Vice-Mayor Isko Moreno
* 3 broadcast networks.
1. Unity of Command – The basic question is, who shall head this composite elite force: a PNP or AFP officer? Or would it be a set-up where both a PNP and AFP officer would be designated as “co-commanders” to accommodate the egos of these two institutions? In either case, we can see potential power struggles within such a composite unit. If there would be a single commander, cohesion would be a major problem because the reality on the ground is, AFP personnel don’t take it too well to be ordered around by a PNP officer and vice versa. There are vast differences in culture and training that cannot suddenly be expected to disappear just because they now belong to a common unit.
In the case of a “co-commandership” set-up similar to what PNoy did to the DILG and his Communications Group, professional rivalry would set in and the power struggle for authority, resources, training and even credit would even be more pronounced.
Filipinos have high hopes for President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, who took power two months ago with the largest margin of victory in two decades and an 85% approval rating. His popularity rested mostly on promises of good values and cleaner governance—promises his mother, democracy icon Cory Aquino, made too. Yet his first major test in office shows how early political compromises are exacerbating problems in the weak institutions he’s promised to reform.
On Aug. 23, a disgruntled former police officer took a tourist bus hostage and after a long stand-off, killed eight passengers, all Hong Kongers. The government’s response was an exercise in incompetence. In public hearings that began Friday, police and politicians admitted that untrained, ill-equipped forces were used while elite units were put on standby; that national leaders played no role in the crisis response despite foreigners’ involvement; and that ad hoc, unclear lines of communication between local politicians and local police complicated matters. To add insult to injury, the authorities in charge left the scene to eat in a nearby Chinese restaurant precisely when the killings began.
The incident sparked outrage in Hong Kong, where the government has called for an independent investigation and compensation for the victims’ families. But Mr. Aquino only belatedly realized the gravity of the situation. His first instinct was to blame the national media for covering the event live, a sentiment that citizens in the blogosphere and on Twitter quickly echoed. When the hearings did little to quell public anger on Friday—two weeks after the fiasco—he claimed responsibility “for everything that has transpired.”
By VERA Files When Malacanang submits to Congress for confirmation its list of Cabinet appointees, Interior and Local Governments Secretary Jesse Robredo, who is under…
President Aquino believed everything that Rico E. Puno, his shooting buddy that he appointed Interior Undersecretary for police matters, advised him during the Aug. 23 hostage crisis.
Rico E. Puno's photo from ABS-CBN onlinePuno, on the other hand, believed everything that the police and Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim told him about the hostage situation. Lim assured him they were in control of the situation and all their strategy was “to tire him out.”
Puno never set foot in the crisis command headquarters, if ever there was one.
Puno said there was no TV set at the Emerald restaurant which was supposedly Lim’s command center. They were just getting reports of police by cellphone.
The above were just few of the booboos committed by those in charge of the Aug 23 hostage crisis. Here’s ABS-CBN’s report:
A government panel on Friday uncovered a series of errors that could have led to the bloody ending of the August 23 hostage crisis that killed 8 Hong Kong tourists.
A Department of the Interior and Local Government official assigned to supervise the country’s police force noted several lapses in the handling of the hostage crisis including: lack of crowd control, lack of control of the media and lack of equipment for the police team assigned to assault the bus held the remaining 15 hostages.
Aquino owned up responsibility for hostage crisis fiasco
President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III on Friday took responsibility for “everything that has transpired” in the hostage crisis last week.
President Aquino said he actually has direct supervision of the Philippine National Police at the time since he had previously asked Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Jess Robredo to concentrate on something else.
Aquino explained that when he offered the DILG portfolio to Robredo, Robredo was asked to address concerns such as coming up with a comprehensive plan on delivering social services to and relocating informal settlers in coordination with the local governments. Aquino, who held the DILG in a concurrent capacity when he assumed office, had the direct control of the PNP.
“When I got him, I did tell him, that at this point in time, we’re trying to consolidate especially with our security forces, I will retain direct supervision on the PNP, until such time that he has addressed other concerns, specifically our promises to the informal sectors of our country,” Aquino told reporters.
Aquino said at the end of the day, he was responsible for everything that happened.
Learning the art of when and what to talk aboutWill somebody please tell President Aquino that he doesn’t have to answer all queries of reporters? That’s why he has a spokesperson.
Like the cancellation of the visits to Vietnam (Sept 13 to 14) and Indonesia (Sept. 14 to 15). Coming from him, the cancellation had a grating effect.
Aquino also said that he is pushing with his scheduled visit to the United States scheduled Sept 18 to 28.
“Canceled na yung trips, the first one will be America,” he said. He will be speaking at the United Nations and will be witnessing the signing of the Millenium Challange Corporation’s $434-million grant. Other activities have been lined up for him during his U.S visit.
By making the United States his first foreign visit, Aquino breaks the tradition among Southeast Asian leaders to take his first foreign visit to any of the fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
