Hearing on Maguindanao massacre case reset

 
MANILA, Philippines — The hearing this Wednesday morning of the Maguindanao massacre case has been reset for next week as the court trying the case joined others in going on a holiday in support of impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona.

However, Private Prosecutor Nena Santos said the hearing was rescheduled to December 21 because the Office of the Court Administrator, headed by Supreme Court spokesman Midas Marquez, sent a “notice” for the court to go on holiday.

Quezon City Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes issued the order re-scheduling the hearing late on Tuesday afternoon. The hearing this morning was to be held at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig.
“It seems they have something for Corona…..I got a text from someone from the [Quezon City] court that they received a notice from the [Supreme Court] Court Administrator,” Santos said in an interview.
When asked how her clients felt about the postponement, Santos said: “It’s ok because there is an order from the Court Administrator to go on holiday in support of the chief justice.”

However, a Quezon City court official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak officially, denied that there was such an order from Marquez’s office.
“No. The court is doing this because the we support…..you know. And it’s not just [Judge Reyes] who is doing this but also the [other Judges] here [in Quezon City],” the official said.

He said the court was supposed to arraign today six accused in the massacre case — five policemen and one militiamen. Their arraignments have been reset to December 21.
International media groups and the families of the 57 victims of the massacre have previously criticized the slow pace of the trial.

Philippines Current Events 

4 suspected car thieves killed in shootout with cops in Antipolo

MANILA, Philippines — Four men believed to be car thieves were killed in an alleged shootout with police authorities in Antipolo City on Wednesday before dawn, a few hours after the car of a Korean national was stolen in a nearby town.
Senior Superintendent Manuel Prieto, Rizal police chief, said the firefight, which lasted for about four minutes, happened at a chokepoint on Blue Mountain Drive in Barangay (village) Sta. Cruz, Antipolo City around 2 a.m.
Three of the suspects died on the spot while one was rushed to the Amang Rodriguez Medical Center but was later pronounced dead on arrival.
The identities of the suspected car robbers remained unknown as of Wednesday morning.
Prior to the encounter, a Korean identified as Sang Gu Choi went to a police station in Taytay, Rizal, before midnight to report a robbery incident.

The Korean told the police his gray Chevrolet with plate number XBL-353 was taken from him at gunpoint by four armed men along Ortigas Extension in Barangay San Isidro in Taytay.
Prieto said immediately after the incident was reported, the police issued a flash alarm and ordered a dragnet operation to block all the possible exits of the robbers.

Two hours later, the robbers were cornered by a joint team from the Antipolo police, provincial police and the Highway Patrol Group at one chokepoint.
“Perhaps thinking there is no way to escape, the suspects opened fire which prompted our men to retaliate,” Prieto said.

No one was hurt on the side of the police while the stolen car was recovered and would soon be turned over to its Korean owner.

Philippines Current Events  

Anti-Corona public may result in Senate conviction–Palace exec

Chief Justice Renato Corona. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang believes adverse public opinion of Chief Justice Renato Corona will help convince senator-judges to convict the country’s highest magistrate of the impeachable offenses alleged against him by the House of Representatives.

“I think the senators will realize the strength of the impeachment complaint as well as the overwhelming support of the people against Corona,” said Secretary Ronald Llamas, President Benigno Aquino III’s adviser on political affairs.

“The mere fact that Corona’s trust ratings in the recent Pulse Asia survey were the lowest among key government officials shows that the people are convinced that his loyalty is only his former boss GMA [Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo] and not to the people,” Llamas said in a text message.

In a survey conducted from November 10 to November 23, Corona managed to only get a 29-percent trust rating from among 1,200 respondents nationwide.
“As representatives of the people, just like the almost 200 members of the house of representatives who impeached corona, I believe the Senate will side with the people who are overwhelmingly for the impeachment of Corona,” Llamas said.


Philippines Current Events 

LA Times editor steps down after 4 years

LOS ANGELES — Russ Stanton, who led the Los Angeles Times to three Pulitzer Prizes in the midst of massive staff layoffs, has stepped down as editor and executive vice president, the newspaper announced Tuesday.
No reason for his sudden departure was given. Stanton will be replaced on December 23 by Trinidad-born Davan Maharaj, who is the newspaper’s managing editor and has been with the Times for more than 20 years.
Neither Stanton nor the newspaper immediately indicated whether Stanton was fired or resigned. A statement from the newspaper did not provide a reason for the change or indicate Stanton’s future plans.

Stanton was known as a “clear and outspoken” advocate for the journalism profession, said Bryce Nelson, journalism professor at University of Southern California’s Annenberg School. His abrupt departure indicates that the Times is still undergoing financial tumult that led to the short-lived tenures of several of Stanton’s predecessors, Nelson said, noting that Stanton lasted longer than other editors immediately before him.

“There’s a lot of turmoil about revenue, the power of the online edition, the role of the print edition,” Nelson said. “This is going on in every American newsroom but it’s been especially anguished at the Times.”
Stanton, 52, joined the Times in 1997 as a business reporter in Orange County. During his four years as editor, the newspaper was among many faced with declining circulation and advertising revenue. Its newsroom staff shrank from more than 900 people to about 550 and its parent Tribune Co. is still working to emerge from bankruptcy protection.
At the same time, the paper expanded into digital realms and became a 24-hour operation with more than 17 million readers each month around the world, the paper said.
The Times won three Pulitzers under Stanton’s stewardship, including the coveted Public Service Award in 2011 for exposing a huge municipal scandal in the suburban city of Bell. In the wake of reports about city officials voting themselves exorbitant salaries, several stepped down and are facing criminal charges.

Maharaj, a 49-year-old Trinidad native, will become the paper’s 15th editor. He holds a political science degree from the University of Tennessee and a master’s degree in law from Yale, the newspaper said.
Maharaj has worked at the paper for 22 years in Orange and Los Angeles counties and in Africa. He was an assistant foreign editor and then business editor before becoming managing editor in 2008. “Living on Pennies,” his six-part series on poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, won the 2005 Ernie Pyle Award for Human Interest Writing.


Philippines Current Events 

Big promise is seen in 2 new breast cancer drugs

SAN ANTONIO — Breast cancer experts are cheering what could be some of the biggest advances in more than a decade: two new medicines that significantly delay the time until women with very advanced cases get worse.

In a large international study, an experimental drug from Genentech called pertuzumab held cancer at bay for a median of 18 months when given with standard treatment, versus 12 months for others given only the usual treatment. It also strongly appears to be improving survival, and follow-up is continuing to see if it does.

“You don’t see that very often. … It’s a spectacular result,” said one study leader, Dr. Sandra Swain, medical director of Washington Hospital Center’s cancer institute.
In a second study, another drug long used in organ transplants but not tried against breast cancer — everolimus, sold as Afinitor by Novartis AG — kept cancer in check for a median of 7 months in women whose disease was worsening despite treatment with hormone-blocking drugs. A comparison group that received only hormonal medicine had just a 3-month delay in disease progression.
Afinitor works in a novel way, seems “unusually effective” and sets a new standard of care, said Dr. Peter Ravdin, breast cancer chief at the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio. He has no role in the work or ties to drugmakers. Most patients have tumors like those in this study — their growth is fueled by estrogen.
Results were released Wednesday at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium and some were published online by the New England Journal of Medicine. They come a few weeks after federal approval was revoked for another Genentech drug, Avastin, that did not meaningfully help breast cancer patients. It still is sold for other tumor types.
The new drugs are some of the first major developments since Herceptin came out in 1998. It has become standard treatment for a certain type of breast cancer.

“These are powerful advances … an important step forward,” said Dr. Harold Burstein, a breast expert at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston who had no role in the studies.

A reality check: The new drugs are likely to be very expensive — up to $10,000 a month — and so far have not proved to be cures. Doctors hope they might be when given to women with early-stage cancers when cure is possible, rather than the very advanced cases treated in these studies.
Even short of a cure, about 40,000 U.S. women each year have cancer that spreads beyond the breast, and treatment can make a big difference in their lives.

Rachel Midgett is an example. The 39-year-old Houston woman has breast cancer that spread to multiple parts of her liver, yet she ran a half-marathon in Las Vegas on Sunday. She has had three scans since starting on Afinitor nine months ago, and “every time, my liver lesions keep shrinking,” she said.
“My quality of life has been wonderful. It’s amazing. I have my hair. … If you saw me you wouldn’t even know I have cancer.”
Genentech, part of the Switzerland-based Roche Group, applied Tuesday to the federal Food and Drug Administration for permission to sell pertuzumab (per-TOO-zoo-mab) as initial treatment for women like those in the study.
The drug targets cells that make too much of a protein called HER2 — about one of every four or five breast cancer cases.
Herceptin attacks the same target but in a different way, and the two medicines complement each other.
The study tested the combination in 808 women from Europe, North and South America and Asia and found a 6-month advantage in how long the cancer stayed stable. All women also received a chemotherapy drug, docetaxel.

“That’s a huge improvement” in such advanced cases, said study leader Dr. Jose Baselga, associate director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. He is a paid consultant for Roche.
So far, 165 deaths have occurred — 96 among the 406 women given Herceptin and chemo alone, and only 69 among the 402 women also given pertuzumab. Doctors won’t know whether the drug affects survival until there are more deaths.

The most common side effects were diarrhea, rash and low white blood cell counts, which often occur with cancer treatment. The dual treatment did not cause more heart problems — an issue with other
Herceptin combinations.
“We’re really pleased that there were no new safety signals” and that pertuzumab is so promising, said Dr. Sandra Horning, Genentech’s global development chief of cancer drugs.

Another study is testing pertuzumab in 3,800 women with early breast cancer. Genentech says it has not set a price for pertuzumab, but sells Herceptin for $4,500 a month to doctors, who mark it up and add fees to infuse it. Herceptin’s U.S. patent expires in 2019, so combination treatment might be more affordable once generic Herceptin is available.



Philippines Current Events 

SC to hear arguments on constitutionality of DoJ-Comelec panel

MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court will resume hearing the arguments on the constitutionality of the Department of Justice (DOJ)-Commission on Elections (COMELEC) panel that filed charges of electoral sabotage against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo before a local court.
Solicitor-General Jose Anselmo Cadiz will argue on behalf of the government.

Arroyo has been put under hospital arrest because of her health condition. he Pasay regional trial court Branch 112 where the case has been filed issued the warrant.
In a petition before the Supreme Court in November, former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo asked that “all the acts so far performed by Respondent JointCommittee, as well as all proceedings emanating and arising therefrom”, including the filing of the electoral sabotage case before the Pasay Court be declared null and void by the Supreme Court.

including the prosecution of the electoral sabotage case filed against his wife former President, now Pampanga Congresswoman Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

“It was evident that the Joint Committee intended to rig and railroad the preliminary investigation of the subject Electoral Sabotage Case to deprive herein Petitioner, and his co-respondents, of the right to secure effective relief from this Honorable Court, by unjustifiably precipitating the case and making inutile any injunctive relief that Petitioner may be able to secure,” the petition stated.

Respondents in the petition include Justice Secretary Leila De Lima and Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes as heads of the joint committee.


Local News in the Philippines

No handcuffs for Arroyo during transfer—Robredo, police

MANILA, Philippines — Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will not be handcuffed when she is transferred by authorities to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) on Friday, officials said on Thursday.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo said that he personally thought Arroyo would not be handcuffed for the transfer, a statement supported by National Capital Region Police Office spokesperson Senior Superintendent Dionardo Carlos.
Carlos said over a phone interview that “there is no need to handcuff the former president considering her current (medical) situation.”

Authorities however, remained mum on whether Arroyo would be transferred to the government-owned hospital via land or air transport on Friday.
Robredo however commented that there have been enough preparations for both modes of transport, further stating that authorities have thought through and finalized their security preparations to safely move Arroyo from St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City.

The police are likewise prepared for both modes of transport, Robredo explained, as they considered possible actions by both pro and anti-Arroyo groups once she is travelling.
“They had to consider what other modes of transport could be used,” said the DILG secretary.
Carlos said that every detail of their security plan has been ironed out during a short meeting Thursday morning with the concerned police units.
Arroyo has been under hospital arrest since November 18, for charges of electoral sabotage.


Local News in the Philippines 

Broadcaster survives slay try in Cagayan de Oro

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – Unidentified assailants shot and seriously wounded a broadcaster here on Thursday evening – one day after the observance of International Day Against Impunity – while he was driving home from work.

The National Union of the Philippines said Michael James Licuanan of Bombo Radyo Cagayan de Oro was nearing the Cogon market here around 9:30 p.m. when he was fired at by one of two men on a motorcycle.

The first shot missed Licuanan, an NUJP alert said, but caused him to crash his motorcycle.
One of the armed men got off and fired at the broadcaster, who was trying to escape, and hit him on the left buttock. The bullet exited through his abdomen, the NUJP report said.
“Both men were wearing full-face helmets and black jackets and had been tailing Licuanan,” the NUJP said.

According to information provided by the station’s security guard, the armed men had been seen outside the radio station hours before the incident.
Senior Inspector Elmer Robas, station commander of the Cogon Police Precinct, said despite being hit, Licuanan was able to run to a nearby fire station where he was able to ask for help.
Police sent to the area later recovered two empty shells fired from a .45 caliber pistol.
Licuanan was taken to a hospital where he underwent what an NUJP bulletin described as a successful operation.

Celso Maldecir, Bombo Radyo Cagayan de Oro City station manager, said Licuanan had been commenting and reporting on the arrest of a Sammy Yusop by Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) agents.
Yusop was arrested on the parking lot of a mall here after claiming a package of shabu sent through a popular courier company.
PDEA agents seized from him 1.5 kilograms of the illegal drugs with an estimated street value of  P15 million.


Licuanan was the ninth journalist attacked in the Philippines this year.
In Davao City, Jessie Casalda, NUJP-Davao region chair, said the risks faced by media practitioners in the country were a testament to the culture of impunity.

“This monster is cloaked by an inefficient and largely discriminatory justice system against the powerless. This monster feeds on a system that breeds warlords, who ride roughshod over the rights of ordinary people and would not hesitate to strike out at anyone who dares go against their wicked ways,” he said.

As natural consequence, NUJP said, any media practitioner who just does the job religiously becomes easy prey.

“While we are confronted with a low conviction rate of perpetrators of these journalist killings and attacks, we continue to see one colleague fallen after another, if not subjected to harassments of various forms – either receiving death threats, their radio stations or media offices attacked, their houses lobbed grenades, ambushed, if not, being unduly held by men in uniforms during coverage,” Casalda said. With reports from Orlando Dinoy, Inquirer Mindanao; Radyo Inquirer 990AM 

Local News in the Philippines

Toy gun used in robbing courier service of P130,000

MANILA, Philippines – Two men, one of them armed with what turned out to be a toy gun, robbed a remittance and money transfer station in Manila of more than P130,000 on Thursday evening, police said.

And, as if adding insult to injury after terrifying employees of the LBC branch at the J&T Building on Ramon Magsaysay Boulevard near Santol Street in Sta. Mesa, the robbers threw away the toy gun as the fled with their loot.

Senior Police Officer 2 William Gondranios of the Manila Police District theft and robbery section said that the robbery happened at around 8:30 p.m. Thursday, as customer associate Linder Mista, 38, was closing shop.

Gondranios said Mista was accosted by two men while he was locking the doors.  One of the men brandished what appeared to be a .45-caliber pistol and ordered the LBC employee to open the doors.
The other man stood watch as his companion ordered Mista to empty the drawers of cash and to place the money inside a bag.  After the drawers had been ransacked, the robbers fled and threw away the pistol, leaving behind the stunned employee who immediately reported the incident to the police.
Gondranios and other investigators of the MPD theft and robbery section later recovered the pistol, which turned out to be a toy pellet gun closely resembling a .45-caliber pistol.

Mista told investigators that he could have fought off the gun-toting man had he known it was a toy, pointing out that the pistol looked like the real thing.

The LBC branch in Manila was robbed a day after two knife-wielding men robbed another LBC branch at  the Robinsons Mall in Fairview, Quezon City, also at about closing time.

Local News in the  Philippines

Comelec files poll sabotage raps vs Arroyo

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections has filed charges of electoral sabotage against former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo,  a spokesman for the poll body said.
In a television interview Friday, James Jimenez said the case was filed before the Pasay City regional trial court.

Earlier in the day, the Comelec  voted 5-2 for the filing of electoral sabotage against Arroyo in relation to allegations of fraud in 2004 presidential elections.

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Philippines Current Events

Ship rams fishing boat; 1 killed

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines — One person was killed and several others were injured when a Manila-bound Superferry ship rammed a disabled fishing boat off Maasim, Sarangani, early Friday, police said.

Superintendent Edgar Cuanan, chief of the regional police’s maritime office in Central Mindanao, said the fishing boat had engine trouble and was dead in the water when it was hit by the Superferry.

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Philippines Current Events

House of Representatives divided, embattled

Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

The House of Representatives is the new arena in the battle over whether to allow former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to leave the country for medical treatment.
At least 50 Liberal Party (LP) members have signed a resolution in support of the decision of President Benigno Aquino III and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to stop Arroyo from leaving the country.

A separate statement from the Akbayan party-list group said the LP draft resolution supported the “extraordinary political will” shown by the Aquino administration in preventing Arroyo’s departure from the country.

Quoting portions from the draft, the group said the government’s move was “in line with President Aquino’s covenant with the Filipino people to be the nation’s first and most determined fighter of corruption.”
Deputy Speaker Lorenzo “Erin” Tañada III said the LP decided to consolidate its forces in response to a resolution filed by at least 30 opposition House members led by Minority Leader Edcel Lagman on Wednesday.

The resolution called for a House investigation of Department of Justice and Bureau of Immigration officials for defying a Nov. 15 Supreme Court ruling upholding Arroyo’s constitutional right to travel.
Talk of impeachment

“There has been talk from some quarters saying they are thinking of filing an impeachment complaint, thus, we need to consolidate our ranks, too,” Tañada said of Lagman’s announcement to file an impeachment complaint against Mr. Aquino for the Arroyo travel fiasco.
“This will show that the House stands with the President on this issue in the continuing pursuit of justice,” Tañada said.
Tañada said that the still unnumbered resolution was being circulated for more signatures and would be formally filed on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.
“It is an LP initiative although members of the (majority) coalition are welcome to sign it. Initially, 50 LP members have signed it but we expect more to join us. We are still refining the language of the resolution,” he said in an interview.

There are 84 LP members in the 285-member chamber.
It would be the second showdown between the majority and the minority in seeking congressional action with respect to the issue of the former President’s right to travel.
Fence-sitter
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said he would not sign a resolution.
“As a Speaker, I would like to represent all the various members of the coalition of the majority and not the Liberal Party. I guess eventually, they would like anybody to sign it but as for me really I’m as much the Speaker of the NPC (Nationalist People’s Coalition) and all the others parties,” Belmonte said.
Quimbo measure

Lagman has filed a bill seeking to give the courts exclusive jurisdiction over the issuance of hold-departure orders (HDOs) against individuals, obviously an attempt to strip the justice department the power to issue the same under DOJ Circular No. 41.
On Wednesday, however, Marikina Representative Romero “Miro” Quimbo countered Lagman’s move by filing a measure that seeks to give the secretary of justice the power to issue HDOs, watch-list orders and allow-departure orders to prevent any miscarriage of justice, protect national security, guard public safety and ensure public health.
Quimbo said his measure would not set aside any doubt on the power of the justice secretary to issue these orders particularly against individuals whose cases are not yet filed with the regular courts but are still going through a preliminary investigation.

“The recent drama that pitted legal minds against each other in a magnified debate over the appropriateness of the HDO issued against former President Gloria Arroyo has placed the nation under unnecessary stress and has needlessly encouraged the people to doubt the wisdom of the DOJ, the judiciary and the Supreme Court,” Quimbo said.

Ifugao Representative Teddy Brawner Baguilat Jr. said the resolution assured the people that the LP was behind the political decision to stop Arroyo’s flight.
Humanitarian reasons

Bishop Jose Romeo Lazo of San Jose in Antique province doesn’t share the position of the administration lawmakers.

Lazo said the government should allow the former President to travel abroad to seek medical treatment.
“I think they should abide by the Supreme Court decision and allow her to go for humanitarian reasons. Of course, there should be precautions but no case has been filed against her yet,” Lazo said in a telephone interview.

A human rights lawyers’ group does not think that the rights of Arroyo were violated when the justice department barred her from leaving the country.
License to flee

The National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) described the TRO issued by the Supreme Court on a DOJ hold-departure order as a “license to flee” for the former President and her husband.
“[Her] attempts to escape justice and frustrate efforts to prosecute her are  in plain view that nobody could have missed it. The minute she steps out of the country, the quest for justice will almost certainly fall apart,” the group said.

Lawyer Homobono Adaza, for his part, said De Lima was creating a dilemma for everybody.
The decision of the Supreme Court on the inclusion of Arroyo in the immigration bureau’s watch-list order, after all, was “final and executory,” Adaza, who was visiting a client, told reporters at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City. With reports from Kristine Felisse Mangunay and Jerome Aning in Manila; and Nestor Burgos Jr. and Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer Visayas

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Local News in the Philippines

Robredo: Who’ll cops obey, court or Palace?

Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo

Who will the police follow in the event that the Supreme Court calls on them to help implement its temporary restraining order (TRO) on the inclusion of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband in the watch list of the immigration bureau?

“The positions [of the executive and judicial branches on the issue of Arroyo’s plan to travel abroad] are not the same, so [it is important] to make sure there will be no chaos,” said Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, who was among the Cabinet members who saw off President Benigno Aquino III Thursday at Villamor Air Base in Pasay City. The President is attending the 19th Asean summit in Indonesia for the next three days but his instructions to the Cabinet is to maintain the peace. His predecessor’s failed attempt to leave the country on Tuesday night had sparked a crisis.

Robredo said the President had directed him and his colleagues to “ensure the peace if there are developments.” He cited the possibility of street protests and said authorities would make sure that the mass actions would be respected.

Robredo also said the Cabinet would monitor Friday’s special en banc session of the Supreme Court, which was called to allow the justices to deliberate on various petitions concerning the averted foreign trip of Arroyo, now a Pampanga representative.

“Maybe the most significant development will happen [Friday],” Robredo said.
Not wanting the police to be put on the spot in the ongoing row between the Supreme Court and the Department of Justice (DOJ), Robredo said he was seeking legal advice on the matter.

Despite the TRO issued by the high court at noon on Tuesday, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima had insisted that the watch-list order on Arroyo and her husband remained in effect. She ordered immigration and airport authorities to bar the couple from leaving, and directed the Philippine National Police to assist authorities in making sure that the watch-list order would be implemented.

Police in legal dilemma?
On Thursday, De Lima said Mr. Aquino had instructed the Cabinet members concerned to “assess the situation and come up with an appropriate plan of action, depending on the developments.”
“We do have a pending motion for reconsideration [at the high court], so my directive to the Bureau of Immigration stays. That is to prevent the Arroyos from leaving,” she told reporters.

Robredo said he wanted clarification in a situation in which the executive and judicial branches held divergent views on Arroyo’s plan to go abroad, ostensibly to seek medical treatment for her bone ailment.

He pointed out that the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the police were under the executive branch and were thus following its decisions, but that at the same time, the judiciary had issued a ruling on a matter now opposed by the executive.

“Because of their opposing positions, it’s also important that we take a stand that is according to the law,” Robredo said, noting that the police were normally sought to assist the clerk of court in serving court orders.
On the other hand, he said, the government could not afford to have the police entangled in a legal dilemma.

Robredo said that while his office was trying to get legal advice on the “high-profile” case involving the former President, there were past instances in which the police were confronted with problems in the course of assisting in the servicing of TROs.

But he observed that the TRO issued by the high court was not the usual one: “This is the only TRO that, instead of maintaining the status quo, changes [it].”
Robredo also said that lawyers at the DILG had been looking into the matter, and that he expected feedback from them in one or two days. He said the effort to seek legal advice was his own initiative and based on his “reading of the situation.”

Even at the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Summit in Bali, Indonesia, Mr. Aquino was hounded by the controversy over the decision of the executive branch to bar Arroyo from leaving despite the high court’s TRO.
‘Domestic concern’
One of the flurry of questions thrown by foreign journalists at Communications Secretary Ricky Carandang had to do with the “domestic concern” that forced Mr. Aquino to put off his Wednesday-afternoon departure for Bali to Thursday morning.

In response, Carandang reiterated his earlier explanation to Filipino journalists covering the summit: that the decision to bar Arroyo from leaving had to do with a technicality—the Supreme Court’s failure to serve a copy of its TRO on the justice department.

He said that Arroyo was facing an investigation on graft charges and had to seek permission to travel from the DOJ, which is authorized to issue hold-departure orders on persons with pending criminal cases.

“Under Philippine legal procedures, if you are facing an investigation you will need to seek permission before you leave the country. So we’ve applied a statute that has been enforced for many and we applied it in this case as well,” Carandang said in a briefing at the Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center.
Besides, he said, government doctors had determined that the treatment Arroyo would seek abroad for an ailment could be had in Manila.

“Therefore there was no need for her to leave,” he said, adding that the decision on whether to continue to bar Arroyo’s foreign travel lay with the DOJ, which had asserted that the high court’s order would not be final until it ruled on the government’s appeal.

Responding to constitutional experts’ views contradicting the DOJ stand, Carandang said: “Well, I don’t think all the constitutionalists will have that same view. I think what you’re seeing is a typical situation where you have a legal question, five lawyers and maybe six opinions. We don’t expect the legal community to agree all the time on the minutiae of the interpretation of laws.” With a report from TJ Burgonio in Indonesia

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Philippines Current Events

TRO issue moot if raps vs Arroyo filed

Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima. 

AFP/Philippine Daily Inquirer File Photos

Having locked horns with Malacañang yet again, the Supreme Court holds a special full-court session Friday to deliberate on various petitions concerning the question of whether former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo should be allowed to leave the country.
But the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the high court could become moot.

Philippine Daily Inquirer sources said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) might file a case of electoral fraud against Arroyo Friday.
In an informal press conference at the lobby of St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City, Arroyo spokesperson Elena Bautista-Horn also said they had  “received information” on the supposed plan of the joint panel of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Comelec to file a resolution of probable cause for electoral sabotage in connection with the alleged fraud in the 2007 elections.

Latest petition
The latest petition, filed Thursday, is from Arroyo herself, who is now asking the Supreme Court to stop Justice Secretary Leila de Lima from further blocking her foreign travel. Only on Tuesday, the high court issued a TRO on the inclusion of Arroyo and her husband in the immigration watch list.
Court observers said the special session could also be a showdown between the appointees of Arroyo and of President Benigno Aquino III to the high court. In issuing the TRO favoring Arroyo, the justices voted 8-5, with three of the President’s appointees opposing the majority decision.

De Lima’s petition
Jose Midas Marquez, the high court’s administrator and spokesperson, on Thursday told reporters that the 15-member chamber would also discuss the petition filed by De Lima seeking the lifting of the TRO, which allowed Arroyo to leave for purported medical treatment abroad.

But Marquez said the decision of Chief Justice Renato Corona to call for a special en banc session was not peculiar to Arroyo’s case. “This has been done numerous times before,” he said.
The justices are also to deliberate on the request of Arroyo’s lawyer, Estelito Mendoza, to move the November 22 schedule for oral arguments on Arroyo’s case to an earlier date, and De Lima’s supposed defiance of the high court’s TRO, Marquez said.

“The court is just monitoring what is happening and the pleadings that have been filed. The court is concerned, of course, about the compliance with its order,” Marquez said. “The court will address all these pending matters.”

De Lima said the DOJ would closely monitor the court proceedings and would oppose Mendoza’s request to reset the date of the oral arguments.

“We find that objectionable because we’re already pressed for time in filing our comment to the TRO. We practically have less than three days to comply with the order of the court,” she said. “The justices will not have reasonable time to go over our comment if the oral arguments will be held earlier.”
De Lima said while the government was hoping for a favorable decision on its motion for reconsideration, “we’re preparing for the worst-case scenario, which is a denial.”

“We’re still planning in the event that that will happen. We still have other options, but we can’t decide on it yet,” she said.

De Lima foiled the former First Couple’s attempt to fly out on Tuesday night, saying the watch-list order was still in effect because the justice department had yet to receive a copy of the TRO. She subsequently said they would continue to be barred from leaving until the high court had ruled on the government’s appeal.

‘Without a remedy’
Through her lawyer Mendoza, Arroyo on Thursday asked the high court in a 13-page urgent motion to direct De Lima and Immigration Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. to immediately implement the TRO.
Arroyo said De Lima’s actions in barring her from leaving the country were a “disregard” of the separation of powers of the three branches of the government.

“Under the circumstances, [Arroyo] is without any plain, speedy and adequate remedy but to ask the Court … to direct [the] respondents to cease and desist from preventing [her] … from leaving the country for her scheduled medical treatment abroad,” the petition said.

It said De Lima’s opposition to Arroyo’s travel “openly defied” the high court’s decision to lift the travel ban “in blatant disobedience of and resistance to a lawful order” of the tribunal.
The petition added: “In preventing [Arroyo] from leaving the country despite the TRO … the respondents are disregarding the core value of separation of powers among the coequal branches of the government and the principle of checks and balances which guarantee our basic freedoms.”

According to Mendoza, the “sad spectacle” of De Lima’s purported act of defiance showed how “the highest court of the land” was “being flouted and disregarded.”

“[W]ithout action for such an odious breach, then not only this high tribunal but the law itself stands in disrepute,” he said.

He also said moving Arroyo’s scheduled medical checkups to a later date would result in “irreparable harm and injury” to her.

Local News in the Philippines

Obama talks Bieber and beasts with Aussie students

CANBERRA—US President Barack Obama joked about Australia’s killer wildlife and said he would “say hi” to teen singing sensation Justin Bieber in a meeting with schoolchildren Thursday.
The president sat down with 18 pupils at Canberra’s Campbell High School after an address to the Australian parliament, greeting them with a bright “G’day” and taking questions from the teens, aged between 14 and 16.

Obama said that en route to the school, just five minutes from Parliament House, Prime Minister Julia Gillard had told him about the huge range of native Australian animals “that can kill you”.
“(There) seems to be a surplus of those here in Australia,” he joked to the children.

The vast island continent is known for its venomous spiders and snakes as well as deadly sharks and crocodiles.
A local firm has even offered Obama complimentary insurance against a crocodile attack for his two-hour tour later Thursday of tropical Darwin, which is Australia’s croc capital.
Obama, the father to two daughters aged 10 and 13, was met with screams of delight from the secondary school’s 670 students as his motorcade arrived.

He told the 18 Campbell pupils he was “always inspired when I meet with young people because you’re not stuck in some of the old stodgy ideas”, and shook hands with each one before settling into an armchair to take questions.

They discussed his plans for reforming the US education system, with a particular focus on helping impoverished students and lifting standards in mathematics and science.

Obama was then asked whether he had ever considered teaming up with a celebrity like pop star Justin Bieber to take his message to young people.

“I interact a lot with celebrities,” he said, explaining that a range of popular icons had supported his 2008 election campaign.


Local News in the Philippines

Arroyos will try to leave again today

MANILA, Philippines — Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel will try to leave the country again today, Friday, their legal spokesman Raul Lambino said.

Lambino said the Arroyos have booked a flight with Singapore Airlines for 5 p.m. but their flight would only depend on the former president’s health condition and the result of the Supreme Court en banc session which would tackle whether Arroyo should be allowed to travel abroad.

“Her BP [blood pressure] is now okay perhaps after having a good sleep and taking medicine,” Lambino said over the phone.
“It’s important for her to have the appointment [with the doctor] in Singapore. It’s a matter of exercising their constitutional right to travel,” he said.
He added that the government could not prevent the Arroyos from travelling based on a “fabricated case.”

“The DoJ has no choice but to comply with the resolution of the Supreme Court. What we are going to follow here is not just the Supreme Court but the supremacy of the Constitution,” he said.
Lambino said he left the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City around 2 a.m. Friday and that Arroyo still managed to walk up to him and say “hello.”

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Philippines Current Events

Palace brushes off impeach rap filed by Lozano

MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang is unfazed by the impeachment complaint filed by a known Marcos loyalist against President Benigno Aquino for the latter’s refusal to provide state honors for the burial of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

“The complaint is utterly baseless. Nothing further,” was the terse statement sent to reporters by deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte on the impeachment case filed by Oliver Lozano against Aquino.

Lozano the other day filed the complaint against Aquino before Congress, accusing the Chief Executive of betraying the public trust for refusing state honors for Marcos, who died in 1989.
Over a week ago,  Aquino told the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines that he would not sanction a hero’s burial for Marcos because doing so would be an injustice to the thousands of rights victims, and disrespect for those buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. This came months after Vice President Jejomar Binay’s recommendation that Marcos be buried in his hometown, Batac, Ilocos Norte, with military honors

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Local News in the Philippines

No mining in Arakan, says chamber

BEAUTIFUL ARAKAN This pastoral scene described in the PIME website as “somewhere in Arakan Valley” belies the reality of a fertile land right in the middle of an ethnic, religious and political “fault line.”

The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines on Wednesday said none of its members was operating in North Cotabato province and dismissed as “pure speculation” suggestions that Monday’s killing of an Italian missionary there was prompted by his antimining crusade.

“We are saddened by the senseless killing of Fr. Fausto Tentorio and condemn in the strongest terms this yet another act of violence against a man of God,” the chamber said in a statement.
However, it said that it did not have a member company operating in the province where Tentorio was killed and urged “duty of care and diligence” among those making pronouncements about the incident.
“We should all learn from the Ortega murder case in Palawan and reserve our comments until after a thorough investigation by the Department of Justice has been completed,” the chamber said. “Until then, all statements as to the reason behind this latest criminal act are pure speculation.”

Rush to judgment

Gerry Ortega, a radio commentator and environmentalist, was gunned down in January in a murder initially blamed on his campaign to preserve biodiversity in Palawan.
Subsequent investigations pointed to Ortega’s exposés on corruption in connection with the handling of royalty from the Malampaya natural gas project as a possible motive. The case remains under investigation.
The Mines and Geosciences Bureau said there were no mining permits or contracts in North Cotabato. It said there were 14 mining applications in the province before the bureau started cleansing mining applications late last year and that only two of these remained to be processed.
The bureau said Visayas Ore Phils. Inc., a subsidiary of Nihao Mineral Resources International Inc., did not have a pending application much less an operation in the province as suggested in initial media stories on the murder.

No permit 


“We have no activities in North Cotabato because we don’t have a permit in that area,” Nihao vice president Jose Francisco E. Miranda said in a phone interview. He said he had not heard that its subsidiary was being linked to the killing.

Chief Superintendent Lester O. Camba, head of the police task force handling the murder case, also said that there was no existing mining operations in the Arakan Valley, “even small-scale mining.”

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Local News in the Philippines

Something ‘fishy’: AFP hand suspect in Fr. Pops’ slay

Fr. Fausto Tentorio. Photo from PIME website

ARAKAN, North Cotabato—Residents and church workers said Fr. Fausto Tentorio had been under constant threat and there were signs indicating elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines were involved.
Weeks before the Italian missionary was gunned down on Monday by a lone assassin, his church compound had been under surveillance, according to Leoncio Lubiano, head of the parish formation and catechism.
Lubiano said that since August several fish carts were seen around the Church’s compound. The fish vendors claimed they were from Digos City in Davao del Sur province and just wanted to know what was in the church.
“Sometimes, they slept here at night. They were still around last week but on the day Father Fausto was killed, they were gone,” said Lubiano.
On October 14, soldiers belonging to the 57th Infantry Battalion were asking Basic Ecclesiastical Community leaders in the village of Badiangon if they had Tentorio’s mobile phone number.
The following day, after Tentorio said Mass in Barangay Dalag, police confiscated a sack full of long firearms aboard a motorcycle driven by a civilian, Lubiano said.

Tentorio was already out of the area when the firearms, including two M-16 rifles, were held. When the police detained the civilian and confiscated the firearms, a military officer—a certain Captain Espiritu—texted the police claiming ownership.
On the eve of the attack on the priest, two military vehicles called Kennedy were seen patrolling the church area.
Rebels accuse military
Lubiano said some soldiers were taking part in a community development program in a nearby school but did not respond when the assassin wearing a motorcycle helmet shot Tentorio, who sustained 10 bullet wounds.
Chief Superintendent Lester O. Camba, head of the police task force, said investigations were being conducted and could not say if the murder was prompted by Tentorio’s stand against mining, illegal logging or land grabbing of ancestral homelands.

“We have a lead and we are continuing to gather evidence,” Camba said. “We appeal to the public to forward only correct information and refrain from sending us mere speculation because we want to catch the real culprit,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a phone interview.

Spokespersons of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the communist National Democratic Front (NDF) said the military was involved in Tentorio’s killing.
“We have information from the ground that an armed group that the military created was behind the killing,” said MILF’s Mohagher Iqbal. He did not give details.
NDF spokesperson Rubi del Mundo said the Philippine Army’s 6th Infantry Division “masterminded, orchestrated and executed” the killing of the priest as part of its counterinsurgency operations.
Show proof
Colonel Leopoldo Galon Jr., spokesperson of the Eastern Mindanao Command, denied the allegation. “Let them prove this. We enjoin them to help us and the Philippine National Police gather all evidence to pinpoint this Godless murderer,” he told the Inquirer.
Church workers said Tentorio’s involvement in the struggle for Lumad rights also subjected them to military harassment.
Libunio recounted a raid on June 12, 2009, when soldiers in full battle gear went inside the church compound, looking for Tentorio.
That same day, Tentorio wrote a letter to Arakan Mayor Romulo Tapgos asking if it was normal for the military to enter private property without coordinating with its owner.

“I don’t have anything to hide and I assure the military they are welcome in our convent but I would appreciate it if they coordinate with me before scouring the church compound because I am the parish priest,” Tentorio wrote.

Harassment
Tentorio used to sit in the Municipal Peace and Order Council but the military asked the group to drop him after he became so vocal against the intensifying military operations purportedly against the New People’s Army (NPA) but were targeting Lumad communities.

Residents, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said on July 29, 2009, soldiers of the 57th Infantry Battalion arrived in the villages of Tumanding, Sto Nino, Ma. Caridad and Salasang, and set up camps in barangay halls, near the school, the church and health and daycare centers.
The soldiers stayed for 16 days, causing fear after they conducted a census and tagged members of the Lumad group Tikulpa as NPA guerrillas, the residents said. The soldiers reportedly also asked the civilians to help them in their operations.

Premature to accuse
Fr. Peter Geremia, another Italian priest, said it was still too early to accuse the NPA of involvement in the murder, pointing out the investigation had hardly moved.
“The hen making a lot of noise is laying an egg,” Geremia quoted an old Italian saying after he heard officials blaming the NPA for the death of Tentorio.
“Even during the time of Favali, they had the same pronouncement but it was proven the opposite,” he said, recalling how on April 11, 1985, a  paramilitary group led by Norberto Manero, killed Italian priest Fr. Tulio Favali in Tulunan, Cotabato province.

He said the killing of Tentorio, the third Italian missionary in the Philippines to be murdered, reminded him again of  Favali.
“They were saying the same things again,” said the Italian priest who has spent 39 years, in the Philippines. With reports from Jeoffrey Maitem and Nico Alconaba, Inquirer Mindanao; and Riza T. Olchondra in Manila

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Philippines Current Events 

NPA rebels burn Japanese firm’s equipment in Compostela Valley

TAGUM City, Philippines—In an attack reminiscent of the October 3 raid on three mining companies in Surigao del Norte, New People’s Army rebels struck again, this time in a compound of a banana-growing firm in Compostela Valley.

Around 4:20 a.m. on Thursday, some 25 rebels swooped on the compound of Japanese banana grower Sumitomo Fruits Corp. (Sumifru) in Barangay (village) Kapatagan in Laak town and burned some P5 million worth of heavy equipment and other vehicles, Major Jacob Obligado, commander of the 10th Infantry Battalion’s civil-military operations, said.

The damage that Thursday’s attack wrought on Sumifru might not be at the level of the damage suffered by the three mining companies in Claver, Surigao del Norte, but it showed that the NPA was standing by its warning against foreign-owned companies.
Before and after the raid in Claver, Jorge Madlos, National Democratic Front (NDF) spokesman for Mindanao, said foreign companies operating in Mindanao should be aware that they would be punished for their “abuses to the environment and the communities.”

Obligado said after disarming the company’s guards of three shotguns and four pistols, the rebels burned the equipment and some company vehicles in the Sumifru compound in Kapatagan.
He said the rebels later went to the Sumifru packing plant in nearby Barangay Ceboleda and burned a generator set.

“The suspects then commandeered an Elf cargo truck and used this as getaway vehicle when they fled,” he said.
Lieutenant Colonel Lyndon Paniza, 10th Infantry Division spokesman, said economic sabotage was the sole intent of the attack as the company reportedly refused to pay the so-called revolutionary tax to the rebels.
A similar statement was also issued by the military in the aftermath of the Claver raid.
But Madlos denied that money was the reason for NPA attacks on companies.

“The revolutionary movement shall continue to uphold and to carry our national policy of banning and dismantling large-scale mining, logging and agri-business companies with a track record of violating revolutionary policies,” Madlos said in a statement issued after the Claver raid.

“We will not take this incident sitting down,” Paniza said of Thursday’s attack in Compostela Valley.

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Philippines Current Events

2 bus drivers in journalist Chit Estella’s death to be arraigned November

MANILA, Philippines—A Quezon City court has set the arraignment in November of two bus drivers involved in the May 2011 road crash, which killed veteran journalist and professor Chit Estella.
This developed as Daniel Espinosa of the Universal Guiding Star Bus line posted bail early this week for his temporary liberty before Regional Trial Court Branch 83.
In a one-page order, pairing judge Severino de Castro Jr. scheduled for his arraignment and that of fellow driver Victor Ancheta to November 9 at 2 p.m.
Court staff said Espinosa personally appeared in court on Monday to post a P30,000 surety bond imposed upon him for his provisional freedom.
Ancheta, of Nova Bus, meanwhile, paid a reduced bail amount of P15,000 early this month as he was unable to come up with the full amount.
The court has withdrawn the August 8 arrest warrants against him and Espinosa for the charges of reckless imprudence resulting in damage to property with homicide for the death of Estella, whose full name was Lourdes Estella-Simbulan.
Earlier, presiding judge Ralph Lee ordered the arrest of the two bus drivers after agreeing with the findings of the Quezon City prosecutors’ office that there is probable cause to justify the issuance of the warrants.
Assistant city prosecutor Ronald Torrijos filed charges of reckless imprudence resulting in damage to property with homicide against the two for their liability in Estella’s death.
Estella died on the night of May 13 while riding a taxi on her way to a friends’ gathering at the U.P. Ayala Land Technohub along Commonwealth Ave.
Ancheta is the driver of the speeding Nova bus, which first sideswiped the taxi the journalist was riding in, while Espinosa’s bus rammed the taxi at its back a few seconds later.
Estella died of head injuries as she was pinned in the backseat of the mangled taxi driven by Vito Jagunos.

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Local News in the Philippines

PUP exec shot dead in Manila

MANILA, Philippines — The vice president for administration of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines in Sta. Mesa, Manila was shot dead Wednesday night, police said Thursday.

Lawyer Augustus Fernandez Cezar was aboard his Toyota Lite Ace van and on his way home when motorcycle-riding suspects shot him along Pureza Street near Ramon Magsaysay Boulevard in Sta. Mesa, Manila at around 10:15 p.m., said Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr., Philippine National Police spokesperson.

The victim died on the spot after suffering two gunshot wounds to his head, said Director Alan Purisima, chief of the National Capital Region Police Office.

Chief Superintendent Roberto Rongavilla, Manila Police District director, said that a bystander was also hit by a stray bullet and was rushed to a nearby hospital.

An investigation is underway to determine the identities and motive of the suspects, Cruz added.
Rongavilla said he has directed investigators to work on solving the case as soon as possible.






Local News in the Philippines

Llamas guns trigger Senate investigation

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago INQUIRER 

The controversy triggered by Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs Ronald Llamas’ cache of high-powered firearms may be a laughing matter to President Benigno Aquino III, but not to Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

Santiago on Wednesday filed a resolution asking the blue ribbon committee to investigate the “apparent anomalies” in the issuance of gun licenses and permits to carry firearms outside of residence by the Philippine National Police.

In Senate Resolution No. 622, Santiago said the committee investigation should focus on Llamas.
“Simply because he is presidential adviser, and merely on his say-so of alleged death threats, Llamas is not automatically entitled to the rare privilege of a permit to carry for such ostentatious and high-powered firearms as an AK-47 and an M-16,” she said in the resolution.

“Although Llamas has announced that he has fired his security guards, nonetheless, he should be held to account on the principle of command responsibility and the constitutional principle of modest living.”
The President, a shooting buddy of Llamas, on Tuesday made light of the controversy and joked about it before a gathering of local government officials in Pasay City.

“Maybe you are thinking Ronald Llamas is hiding. He’s present and accounted for,” Mr.  Aquino said.
Llamas later told reporters that the President, himself a gun enthusiast, was “in a joking mood” during the affair “and it also seemed I was teased a little about it.”


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Local News in the Philippines

Aquino: Raps vs Arroyo filed November

FACING FOREIGN MEDIA President Aquino answers questions from the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines during Wednesday’s forum at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Makati City. EDWIN BACASMAS

President Benigno Aquino III on Wednesday said charges would be filed next month against his predecessor, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, even as reports emerged that she was suffering from a “rare disease” and that she would seek medical treatment in Germany this month.

“[T]he latest information that I have is by November we will be filing charges,” the President said in reply to a question at a forum with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (Focap). He did not elaborate beyond saying that the details were “still being finalized.”
Pressed again on who would be charged next month, Mr. Aquino said: “You asked [about] my predecessor. So I said, ‘Yes, by November.’”

The ailing Arroyo, now the representative of Pampanga’s second district, is the subject of five plunder complaints filed in the Department of Justice (DOJ). She is afflicted with a condition called “hypoparathyroidism,” according to her husband, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo.

The couple are also implicated in the purported poll fraud in 2004 and 2007 that is being investigated by a joint committee of the DOJ and the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Plunder is a nonbailable offense. Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes has been quoted as saying that a prima facie finding in the poll fraud inquiry could result in the filing of charges of electoral sabotage, which is likewise nonbailable.

Mike Arroyo himself will be charged with graft this afternoon in connection with the secondhand helicopters sold as brand new to the Philippine National Police in 2009, Senator Panfilo Lacson said Wednesday.

Local News in the Philippines


 

Senate panel to file graft case vs Mike Arroyo in Ombudsman

MANILA, Philippines–The Senate blue ribbon committee has recommended the filing of a case against former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, two former government officials and 16  police officers for violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act over the allegedly anomalous purchase of second-hand helicopters in 2009.

To be charged along with Arroyo were former Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno and former Police chief Jesus Versoza.

The police officers charged were those involved in the approval of the contract with the  supplier, Manila Aerospace Products Trading Corp.

“This committee finds conspiracy among and between Mike Arroyo and the officers of the  Philippine National Police,”  Senator Teofisto  Guingona III, chairman of the committee, said when he presented the repor during a regular forum in the Senate on Thursday.

“With Mike Arroyo’s influence, a scheming conspiracy ensured that the supply contract will be signed and that despite the clear fact that the delivered helicopters were clearly used helicopters, these will nevertheless be accepted by the Philippine Nation Police,” Guingona added.

Arroyo allegedly owned the used choppers sold as brand new to the PNP. He denied the allegation.
Eleven senators signed the report: Guingona, Senators Panfilo Lacson,  Aquilino Pimentel  III, Sergio Osmena III,  Francis Pangilinan, Antionio  Trillanes  IV, Franklin Drlion, Frances “Chiz” Escudero, Pia Cayetano, and  Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada.

Guingona said Senator Alan Peter Cayetano also sent word that he would sign the report.
Though the report has yet to be presented in the plenary for either approval or rejection, Lacson, Guingona and Pimentel said they would take the case to the Ombudsman this Thursday noon.
Even without the  report,  Lacson said they have enough evidence to charge  those involved in court.
“We have more than enough evidence…incidental lang yung committee report,” said Lacson.

Local News in the Philippines

Ramon moves away but rains to continue over Luzon, Visayas—Pagasa

MANILA, Philippines – Parts of Luzon and Visayas will experience rains even as tropical depression “Ramon” continues to move away from the country, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said Thursday.

In its latest weather bulletin, Pagasa said that as of 10 a.m., Ramon was seen 195 kilometers west northwest of San Jose, Occidental Mindoro and has maintained its strength with maximum sustained winds of 55 kilometers per hour.

Ramon is expected to move northwest at 15 kph, Pagasa said.
Central and Southern Luzon and Western Visayas will have cloudy skies with scattered to widespread rains and thunderstorms which may trigger flashfloods and landslides, Pagasa said. Meanwhile, the rest of the country will experience mostly cloudy skies with scattered rains and thunderstorms, the state-run weather bureau said.

“Moderate to strong winds blowing from the northeast to northwest will prevail over Northern and Central Luzon and coming from the West to Southwest over Southern Luzon and Western Visayas. The coastal waters along these areas will be moderate to rough. Elsewhere, winds will be light to moderate blowing from the Southwest to South with slight to moderate seas,” Pagasa said.
Signal No. 1 remains raised over the Mindoro Provinces, Lubang Island, Northern Palawan and Batangas.

Storm signals elsewhere were lowered, Pagasa said. Residents in low-lying and mountainous areas where Signal No.1 was raised were advised to prepare for possible flashfloods and landslides.
“Estimated rainfall amount is from 5-25 millimeters per hour (moderate – heavy) within the 300 km diameter of the Tropical Depression,” Pagasa added.

By Friday morning, Ramon is expected to be 310 km west of Iba, Zambales and at 620 km west southwest of Laoag City by Saturday morning, Pagasa said.


Local News in the Philippines  

Aquino finally visits typhoon victims

President Noy visited places hard-hit by Typhoons “Pedring” and “Quiel” on Wednesday—but only after the floods had subsided and the rains had stopped.
One of the reporters who covered his tour of the devastated areas said P-Noy didn’t even get his shoes wet



Local News in the Philippines

2 killed in ambush in Maguindanao

MANILA, Philippines — Two people were killed and several others were hurt in an ambush in Maguindanao before dawn on Friday, a police official said.
Director Felicisimo Khu, head of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operations in Western Mindanao of the Philippine National Police, said that unidentified suspects opened fire at a jeepney at Labungan village in Datu Odin Sinsuat town near KM19 and the boundary of Upi town, killing two and wounding 15.
Khu said that authorities have been deployed to the area.
No other details are available as of posting time.

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Local News in the Philippines 

SM Pampanga shooting victims ‘brain dead’, says doctor

MANILA, Philippines – Two minors involved in a shooting incident inside a popular shopping mall in Pampanga Tuesday are both brain dead, a report on Radyo Inquirer 990AM said Wednesday.


Quoting Dr. Alfonso Danac, head of the emergency room of Jose B. Lingad Memorial Regional Hospital, the report said that the kin of the 13-year-old boy who attempted suicide after shooting his 17-year-old male friend in SM Pampanga, have decided to donate his cornea and kidneys once his life support system is shut off as per the family’s decision. (The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that the older victim was 16 years old)
Danac said he has yet to hear from the family of the 17-year-old, according to Radyo Inquirer.
The identities of the two have been withheld.

The incident happened between 11:45 and 11:50 a.m. Tuesday as the two walked out of the Congo Grill in Building 3 of SM shopping mall. No shopper was hurt, police said.
Superintendent Wilson Santos, police chief of Mexico town, said investigators found a suicide note in one of the pockets of the boy, a resident of Olongapo City.
“I’m willing to die together with [name of his friend],” the boy’s note said.

Another source, who read the note, said the boy also wrote: “I’m happy to kill you. No one else would own you.” The boy’s friend is a native of Bulacan. He was shot in the back of the head.

The families of the two boys, who arrived Tuesday evening, denied knowing anything about their relationship.
In a statement, SM management said it was cooperating with police in the investigation.

A separate radio report said Wednesday that SM Pampanga was doing its job of ensuring the safety of its shoppers but admitted that its metal detector failed to uncover the pistol used by the boy in the shooting. Karen Boncocan, Jamie Elona, INQUIRER.net





Philippines Current Events

Military turns over declassified martial law documents to CHR, civil society

Defense Secretary Voltaire T. Gazmin turns over to committee on human rights chairperson Loretta Ann P. Rosales declassified military documents on martial law in Camp Aguinaldo Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011 as House committee on human rights chairperson Rene L. Relampagos, (far left), and National Defense College of the Philippines President General Fermin De Leon, Jr., (far right) watch. MATIKAS SANTOS/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines – The Armed Forces of the Philippines turned over declassified documents of the martial law era to the Commission on Human Rights and other civil society groups in Camp Aguinaldo Wednesday.
Chairperson Loretta Ann P. Rosales received the documents in a ceremony commemorating the 39th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law by the late president Ferdinand Marcos.
Rosales said these documents would help to “reconcile and develop the healing process” between civil society groups and the military.
The documents will be preserved and made public so they could be studied by schools, legislators and survivors of the Martial Law Era.
Aside from Rosales, also present in the ceremony were Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Bohol Representative Rene Relampagos, House of Representatives chairman on the committee on human rights; Dr. Fermin de Leon, National Defense College of the Philippines president; Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates Chairman Teodoro de Mesa, and AFP deputy chief of staff Major General Anthony Alcantara.

Some of the declassified documents bearing the name of martyred senator Benigno S Aquino Jr. were turned over to Commission on Human Rights Chairperson Loretta Ann P. Rosales in commemoration of the 39th anniversary of the declaration on martial law. MATIKAS SANTOS/INQUIRER.net

De Leon has expressed appreciation and support for the turnover of the documents which he hoped would reverse the ill political effects of martial law.
Congressman Relampagos said these documents would teach the youngsters, who never experienced Martial Law, to “savor the freedom they now enjoy”.
The National Archives and the National Historical Commission, among others, will help in the preservation of these documents, Rosales said.

DECLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS. Some of the declassified documents bearing the name of martyred senator Benigno S Aquino Jr. were turned over to Commission on Human Rights Chairperson Loretta Ann P. Rosales in commemoration of the 39^th anniversary of the declaration on martial law. MATIKAS SANTOS/INQUIRER.net

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