Access to ella’s blog here…

Please check out this blogsite.  It is the second put up as the first one was censored.   The story on the site will tell you.

All in all, a great scoop on how the government is treating the flood victims citizens.

http://gangbadoy.multiply.com/photos/hi-res/1M/1201

Please forward this link to fellow Filipinos so they can see how their leader is leading her cabinet during crisis.

Oh Lordy, Comelec’s Melo is a Melon!

The term MELON is used to describe cars or equipment that were bought but do not work as the buyers thought they would.  Instead of running in brand new condition, the MELON seems not to function as it is supposed to.  Everything appears to break down more often than not, and repeated runs to the shop cannot seem to correct it’s problematic performance.  There are some policies in the industry regarding real melons, the proper one being the supplier giving you a replacement brand new unit after admitting that they gave you a real Melon.

The relevance of my writing about melons is our very own Super Melon Comelec’s MELO.  Instead of his trying to understand and resolve the problems of people who want to register, especially for the first time, the Comelec, instead of helping the public, blames the people for waiting till today to register, for example.  And although it is apparent that many may be deprived of their RIGHT to vote, this Comelec  instead of finding a way to adjust the number of days for people to register, Melo gruffly and arrogantly berates the voters, old and new for being not able to register on time.  While all the while we thought we bought a new billion peso computerized voting system, (a doubtful purchase, for sure), this Commissioner seems to think that as election czar,   instead of SERVING the public, it is getting clear that Melo da Melon is instead trying, and obviously so, to not care whether Filipinos are DEPRIVED of their RIGHT to vote by using stupid reasons to blame them for the inability to register. People WANT to register. MELO da MELON, it seems, is trying to find ways to prevent Filipino voters from being given all the possible means to register. Why not extend registration a few more days? His answer, The people waited to register, so it’s their fault.  No, sir, Melon. There were just too many trying to register.  What’s up, Melon? Someone up there telling you to do a Garci but unlike Garci, he is sabotaging the elections this early by not making it possible for all qualified Filipinos to register so they can vote.  Melo, you will be labeled to be a Gloria-boy, another Garci, if you continue to NOT do what you can to allow the Filipino citizen register so that they can vote in the coming elections.  The Comelec workers I saw on TV news tonight had their daughters and nieces helping out to move the work of Comelec employees. Why don’t you ask the DepEd to send you more teachers, add more chairs, send more forms to help get more Filipinos registered.  This is a serious election Melo, and if I were you, I would think of how your fellow Filipino was not allowed to vote because YOU did NOT do what you could to facilitate registration. Instead of gruffly barking to the news correspondents that you are not moving the registration last day which you should try to do even if means moving heaven and earth.  If you can’t, then ask the Supreme Court to allow you to extend registration days but sir, please don’t cheat the Filipino out of his right to vote. You will go down in history as THAT Melon. The one and only who decided the fate of the elections months previous to that election day.  You know what your job is. Do it or suffer the wrath of Filipinos for generations to follow.  Believe me, Melon, we are really waiting for the chance to have a LEGAL President after so many years living under a pretender.

Theres The Rub by Conrado de Quiros “Plain honest truth for the Filipino to absorb”

Oct 2009

Theres The Rub
by Conrado de Quiros
from Philippine Daily Inquirer

Ronaldo Puno had some pretty hilarious things to say last week:

“A word on the euphoria … those things are not enough to win an election…. If you’re going to tell me if the same kind of mood of exuberance and opposition is going to be present eight months from now, I can tell you that from my entire experience, nothing has lasted that long.”

That is not the hilarious part. It is this: “The ‘Noynoy phenomenon’ holds the key to the success of the administration party because we have to deal with it and we have to deal with the root causes that any people feel about this government…. The first thing we need to try to do is to understand where this is all coming from, what is fueling this apparent discontent that has taken over the minds of, according to their surveys, 50 percent of our population.”

What are the root causes of the way this country feels about this government? Do you need research to find the answer to that? Do you have to consult the universities, the polling agencies, or the Delphi Oracle to divine the answer to that? Do you have to wrack your brains to dredge up the answer to that?

The root causes of the way this country feels about government are Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and people like Ronaldo Puno.

Puno, of course, is right: euphoria alone won’t win the presidency for anyone. But the “Noynoy phenomenon” is not just about euphoria. It is also about tyrannyphobia. Or a newfound unwillingness to tolerate tyranny that burst its banks with the death of Corazon Aquino. The outpouring of love for Corazon Aquino is matched only by the outpouring of hate for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Why has Noynoy become phenomenal? Simple: Because he is the opposite of Gloria. Or is seen as so. In the same way that Cory was the opposite of Marcos and Obama was the opposite of Bush.

I’ve always proposed that the one person Barack Obama needs most to thank for making him possible was George W. Bush. It was Bush who made Americans so desperate for change, even radical change—or especially radical change—they were willing to do what they had never done before, which was to bring either a woman or a black man to the White House. John McCain never figured in the equation. The real choice was between Obama and Hilary Clinton.

No Bush, no Obama. No Arroyo, no Noynoy.

I recall a riddle that was posed to me when I was a kid: “What makes light bright?” I answered variously, electricity, the bulb, the filament. Not at all, said the riddler. What makes light bright is—dark. I have not forgotten that Zen-like answer.

Its power is right there before our eyes. Euphoria alone won’t get anyone to the presidency. But euphoria and tyrannophobia will. The story line of light and dark, right and wrong, good and evil will. The one element pushing the other into stark relief, the dark making the light brighter, the wrong making the right stronger, the evil making the good an absolute necessity. And vice versa: The light making the dark blacker, the right making the wrong more reprehensible, the good making the evil an absolute necessity to stamp out. The one fuels the other, producing a spiraling vortex.

It doesn’t help Puno’s cause that he is there to remind people epically about what Noynoy is the opposite of. Like McCain, who was seen by the Americans as just an extension of Bush, Puno (forget Gibo—how can you take seriously anyone who gets zero in surveys?) is seen by Filipinos as an extension of Gloria. More here than there, Arroyo not having been counted out by Filipinos in the unfolding drama. It helps even less when Puno makes observations about what wins elections based on his experience. Because based on our experience with him, euphoria truly doesn’t win elections. Cheating does.

I most ardently wish Puno will appear more in public saying those things: He won’t just keep Noynoy’s ratings at the astronomical levels they are, he will push them further up.

That is the key to the “Noynoy phenomenon.” The people who say it’s too early to tell, the ratings may still fall forget one vital thing. Which is that these are no ordinary elections, a point I’ve been making again and again. One way to view this is that there have been elections in this country where the vote has been profoundly “ideological.” Another, and probably better, way to see this is that there have been elections in this country where what’s at stake was so profoundly life-and-death they went past the framework of elections.

Two of them easily come to mind. The first were the November elections of 1971. The event that preceded that was the Plaza Miranda bombing which was widely attributed to Marcos. When the smoke cleared after the senatorial elections, only one Nacionalista was left standing. The people almost universally voted Liberal, making the worst victim of the bombing, Jovito Salonga, a humongous No. 1 though he wasn’t around to campaign.

The second was the snap elections of February 1986. The results of those elections may be debated endlessly, but that those elections were more than elections—they were not defined by platforms, pa pogi appeals, electoral promises and the other paraphernalia of ordinary elections—may not.

Those were not elections, those were a fight between light and dark (brilliantly captured by Joe Con’s “Better to light a candle than curse the darkness”), truth and lies (as embodied today by Jun Lozada), right and wrong (they were a matter of fundamental justice).

So are today’s elections. The only thing that lies in Noynoy’s path to the presidency right now is the same thing that lay in the path of his mother to the presidency in the snap elections.

Ask Puno what it is. He was there, too.

Villar kicks off his campaign by taking advantage of refugees via food. packs.

How to buy votes with food... (photo by Ben Razon)

Gloria – FAMAS awardee?

Pretending that I look reverent. Naniniwala kaya sila?

There’s The Rub
Prayer
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20090907-223957/Prayer
By Conrado de Quiros
Philippine Daily Inquirer
09/07/2009

A couple or so weeks ago, I got an absolutely hilarious e-mail from abroad. It was two pictures put side by side. One was the picture of a dog—a beagle, I think, the kind with flaps for ears—eyes closed tightly, paws pressed together and perched on the side of a bed, looking upward and wearing an expression of intense devotion. The other was the picture of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo—a president she thinks, in nearly the exact same pose—kneeling on a pew, eyes closed, hands pressed tightly together, looking heavenward with an expression of intense piety. The pictures carried the caption, “Sino ang mas sincere?”
That was the first thing I thought of when I read Palace mouthpiece Anthony Golez’s comments on Noynoy Aquino’s decision to go on retreat. Well, maybe not the first, just the second. The first thing I thought of was, boy, they must be rattled by Noynoy’s unexpected, gift-of-grace, hulog-ng-langit, entry into the fray. I fervently hoped they would continue to bash him, and more and more stridently. Noynoy can’t do better than to have Malacañang harp on his being “walang alam” or variations thereof. All the early—and costly—campaigning by the other “presidentiables” won’t come close to being an effective endorsement. And this one’s free.

Do I look holier than her? After all, good TUTA naman ako.

Specifically, Golez said (I’ll leave his phrasing as is): “We respect whatever gimmickry, whatever ways on how he [Noynoy] can arrive at his decision. If that is part of his spiritual strategy, then I call it a strategy. Our leaders will always have forward planning … It’s how they plan.”
Which brings me back to why I thought of the pictures above. Because no one has made it more a point to have a photographer around when she gathers herself into a prayerful pose than Golez’s boss. That was the pose Arroyo struck with Corazon Aquino and Jaime Cardinal Sin when the other two were fighting Erap, kneeling on a pew between them, looking upward in supplication. That was the pose she struck after Ignacio Bunye sprung the “Hello Garci” tape on the public. And that was the pose she struck after Romulo Neri insisted that she had executive privilege not to divulge being the mastermind of NBN.
At least in Cory’s and Sin’s case, you know their faces were tilted in the right direction. Hell, at least in a beagle’s case, you know it is talking dog-talk with the Great Master in the Sky.
You get used to people using prayer as a gimmick, you’ll think everyone does it.
Noynoy and his family do not really need anybody to defend them from barks or yelps of this sort. The conduct of their lives is their own best defense. Cory herself was nuts about prayer, to a point that she became pilloried, or even caricatured, for it during her time and afterward. Was she vindicated in her belief in its power? The religious would probably say the proof is right there in her death, which gave life to the dead, or dying. The more secular would say the fundamental decency which underlay her spiritual outlook, which expressed itself in prayer, was the real power, which in the end shattered the walls of apathy like Joshua’s trumpets. Whatever the case, she did pray constantly, ardently, genuinely.
As does her family. The notion that one of them would use prayer as gimmick—well, I can only encourage Arroyo and the people who truly speak for her to rile the public even more with suggestions like this.
The reluctance of Noynoy to run is real. As is her family’s. I’ve caught a glimpse of it up close and personal. Noynoy’s sisters have remonstrated with him about it, pointing to the enormous sacrifices their family has already made; must they go through the wringer again? Surely they’ve already done enough, surely they too deserve some peace?
It’s the one thing that convinces me more than ever I have not made a mistake of reposing my hope for this country coming into its own on Noynoy. Think about it: Do you know any other family whose first instincts, whose natural reflexes, about one of their own running for president are not enthusiasm and expectation but fear and trepidation? And fear and trepidation not because they have a weak candidate who is likely to lose but because they have a strong one who is likely to win?
In other families, the preoccupation even now would be the division of spoils. “If you win, akin ang BIR ha.” Or a poor second and third, “Akin ang Customs/Immigration ha.” And those are for candidates whose chances of winning are about as strong as the chances of Hayden Kho finding true love. Though that is outside looking in; inside looking out, the candidates, or their partners, spouses or not, true love or not, always imagine they are virtual shoo-ins. This country is full of delusional people, or, what has become famous by now, the atat-na-atat to run.
Where else would you find a family whose natural reflexes are to see public office as a burden, as a responsibility, as a duty to serve the people that exacts a great toll upon those who are summoned to it? Where would you find a family whose first instincts are to treat the presidency with respect and circumspection, something to accept with humility and surrender, and not something to steal with InGlorious basterdness?
You get used to power being an invitation to abuse, you’ll think of regarding it as an awesome duty a gimmick.
I’m not a prayerful man myself, but I concede to its power. The kind at least where you talk to heaven with your heart and not with your gall. You can gauge the difference by its effects. You talk to heaven with your heart, you retreat only to advance. You talk to heaven with your gall, you advance only to retreat.
Whom the Gods wish to glorify, they first make suffer. Whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.
Or atat-na-atat to run.

Psssst again Mikey, do share how your assets grew from P50,000 to P156 million in just 16 years -

Tuesday, September 1, 2009         by Raissa Robles

Do tell, so fellow Filipinos can copy your technique. After all, you started with a modest investment base of only P50,000 which you declared as the total sum of your worldly goods back in 1993.

And also because I do so love your home in sunny California. As Ellen Tordesillas, Avigail Olarte , Yvonne Chua and Luz Rimban wrote in Vera Files, I could take a virtual tour of your home at 1655 Beach Park Boulevard, Foster City, California, which you listed in your 2008 Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) under “Business Interest and Other Financial Connections.” You did not declare it as part of your “Personal and Other Properties”.

Hmmmm, what’s the diff?

Take the virtual tour of Mikey’s lovely Beach Park home
I’m sad it’s now on sale once more.

I took the virtual tour and the accompanying music almost lulled me to gentle sleep. You, too, can take the tour by going to: http://www.ewalk.com/tour.cgi?id=1655

Take a peek at Mikey’s lovely bathroom, master bedroom, kitchen, living room. Take the virtual tour by clicking on the words “360 Scenes”, and then the words “Front View”, “Backyard”, “Living Room”, “Family Room and Kitchen” and “Master Bedroom” – and be transported to his world.

View at EasyCaptures.com

What a peaceful, restful home. So far from Manila’s maddening media demanding to know how you could afford a million dollar home on a half a million peso yearly income as congressman.

And mainly because back in 1993, your declared assets were only worth P50,000 or the equivalent of US$1,024.59 (at current forex rate of P48.80 per US$1). Even that was a handsome sum for a young buck of 24 just out of college.

But hey, your mom had just won her first ever elective post as senator of the Philippine Republic in 1992. Rather than earn oodles of money growing your own company, you opted to serve the people by joining your mom’s Senate staff. You were therefore required by law to submit your first ever SALN. I’m sure you took the filing seriously. Hence in 1993 you declared you had P50,000 pesos which you listed under the item – “cash on hand/cash in bank”.

Life was beautiful. You had no liabilities (utang).

Now let’s jump to last year when your total assets (based on your December 2008 SALN) was listed at a whopping P150,253,644.95 (or US$3,078,968.13).

You’re a dollar millionaire now. Wow. Gosh. How’d you do that?

Let’s see now -
1993 – you worked with mom – P50,000 assets. Net worth same due to zero liabilities.

1994 – still worked with mom – P320,000 assets (of which P120,000 was cash and P200,000 personal effects,). Net worth also P320,000 because of zero liabilities.

Then your assets paper trail disappeared. You must have taken some time off. From 1996 to 1997, you studied Business Administration at the University of California in Berkeley, you once told me in a 2005 one-on-one interview.

The next time your SALN surfaced was in 2001 when you got elected provincial vice-governor of Pampanga.

You also tried breaking into the movie business, appearing in mostly bit or supporting roles and a few leading roles. By 2001, your P320,000 assets had grown to P5,721,787.29, broken down as follows:

P3,327,686.12 in cash
P2,144,101.17 in shares of stock
P250,000 worth of personal effects
With zero liabilities, your net worth was the same as your assets.

It took you only four years (excluding time off for Berkeley) for you to earn P5 million. Cool.

Now let’s do a quick rundown of your total assets’ amazing growth, all based on your available SALN:

1993 – P50,000 – zero liabilities
1994 – P320,000 – zero liabilities
2001 – P5,721,787.29 – zero liabilities
2002 – P5.003 million – zero liabilities
2004 – P76,531,403.96 – zero liabilities
2005 – P138,751,403.96 – P61.8 million liabilities
2006 – P167,971,403.96 – P78.4 million liabilities
2007 – P154,972,409.95 – P58,224,476.29 liabilities
2008 – P156,122,409.90 – P56,874,476.20 liabilities

The biggest jump in your assets (by roughly P71 million) was between 2002 and 2004 when you were Pampanga vice-governor.

Could it have been due to your budding movie career? But it wasn’t that great, according to well-known entertainment columnist Ricky Lo who interviewed you in July 2003. He wrote afterwards: “As an actor, he’s tagged as a “TH” (as in Trying Hard) and critics of GMA (your mom) and her administration had a field day poking fun at Mikey and his mom (poor GMA!) when his starrer called Di Kita Ma-Reach finished at the tail end of the Metro Manila Film Festival three years ago.”

In 2002, you married your second cousin, Maria Angela. Perhaps she brought in the fortune?

Last year you listed her as board director in five companies owned and run by her family years before you two got married. These are:

H.M. Montenegro Co. Inc
Pacific Activated Carbon Co. Inc
Pacific Activated Carbon Co. Intl.
Titan Megatiles Industrial Corp
Titan Mega Bags Industrial Corp. .

A quick check with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows most of these companies are in bad shape.

H.M. Montenegro Co. Inc, also listed as H.M. Montenegro and Asso. Inc., is the holding company for eight family-owned firms.

Two of the companies earned modest amounts:
Titan Mega Bags Industrial Corporation’s last financial statement was for the year 2000: listing P576 million in assets. But its net operating income before tax that year was a negative P5.55 million. “Other income” raised this to P24.3 million.

The last financial statement filed by Titan Megatiles Industrial Corp was for 2002 when it declared operational losses of P7.988 million. But earnings outside operations gave it a P6.48 million net income.

Pacific Activated Carbon Co., Inc earned a net income of P30.6 million in 2002.
Again between 2004 and 2005, your assets grew by some P62 million or from P76.5 million to P138.75 million.

In 2004 you got elected Pampanga congressman for the first time.

In 2005, according to Vera Files, you sold a condominium in California for US$900,000 – something that wasn’t disclosed in your 2004 SALN.

The following year, California land records showed you transferring THE lovely Beach Park property in your wife’s name. Lucky wife.

Below is a copy of the real estate details of Beach Front, courtesy of Manolo Quezon:

View at EasyCaptures.com

View at EasyCaptures.com
And so your conjugal assets kept growing
Let’s assume this jump in assets was due to borrowings and not to kickbacks from the illegal gambling game jueteng – which you were accused of in 2005. Which you told me was a lie.

You said then: “When you are the incumbent president’s son, many sectors want to see you fail rather than succeed. Oppositors to my mom, if they can’t hit her they hit me.”

This week you attributed malice, ignorance and recklessness to Ellen, Yvonne,Avigail and Luz of Vera Files. You said they never called you but they said you refused to answer their mobile text messages and calls.

I’ve covered beats with Ellen and Yvonne and I know how they can be very persistent in nailing stories. In fact your mom, President Arroyo, held the same opinion back in October 2005 when she was being asked if she would pursue criminal charges against then President Joseph Estrada if he resigned.

She replied: “Right now I’m already hearing many suggestions about that. Neal Cruz has his suggestions. Ellen Tordesillas keeps asking me about that with very suggestive questions….So I’m listening to the consensus that’s being formulated.”

Last year you declared debts worth P56,874,476.20
Let’s just do some mental exercise. If we assume you had to pay 8% yearly interest on that, you would have to shell out P4.55 million in interest payments alone for that year. No problem. You had P51.6 million in cash.

Never mind if as a legislator you only earn P420,000 a year. Do tell how you managed to generate all that cash that has enabled you to afford your debt, build a mansion in La Vista, Quezon City, buy a million dollar property in California and still maintain a wealthy lifestyle.

I even heard one of your government-paid bodyguards has the job of making sure your Phillipe Patek watch isn’t snatched from your wrist. I haven’t verified that. Perhaps you could.

Is it like this one below?
But here’s the thing, your parents declared in 2008 assets worth P171.843 million pesos after nearly a lifetime of working.

How did you manage to nearly equal their worth in just 15 years without ever being a corporate CEO? Yeah, you are the president of Mikey’s Horseman Bar and Grill Inc starting 2006. That must be a lot of barbecue you grilled.

You’ve beaten all the odds. And so I wanna know. Please, please, I wanna know.

____________________

Brief bio of Congressman Juan Miguel Arroyo
Born: April 26, 1969
Education – Ateneo de Manila University all the way
1993-1995 mom’s aide at her Senate office
1995 – starts showbiz career doing bit parts. By 1998, racked up 5 movies as second lead and one starring role
1996-1997 - studied Business Administration at University of California in Berkeley
2001-2004 – elected Vice Governor, Pampanga; sudden asset jump by P71 million
2002 – married Maria Angela Montenegro
2003 – Philippine Star entertainment columnist Ricky Lo said Mikey was “trying hard” as an actor
2004- to present – elected Congressman
2005 - accused of receiving jueteng payoffs but denies it; another asset jump
2006 – registered California Beach Boulevard property under wife’s name
2008 – declared beach property as holdings of a California company where he claimed to own shares but didn’t say how much

Paalam, President Cory.

Salamat sa lahat na ginawa ninyo para sa Pilipinas.  Maraming Pilipino ay nagsamasama upang magbigay paalam sa inyo noon Agosto 5, 2009.

Farewell, President Cory.

Thank you for everything you have done for the country.  Many of us came together to bid you a last farewell, on August 5, 2009.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/gerry.kaimo?ref=nf

Gloria and OBAMA talked for exactly eight (8) minutes.Agenda: BS

Subject: Gloria and OBAMA talked for exactly eight (8) minutes; most Americans seem to know the truth about her, about her. Except for OBAMA? Then again, maybe not.

From The NELSON REPORT Washington DC

THE PHILIPPINES…the good news is that the unfortunate presidency of Ms. Macapagal-Arroyo does not have too much longer to run, given the scheduled May, 2010 election.

The bad news is that she’s done sufficient damage to linger on for years, and there are just enough machinations underway, as is usual in Manila, to keep folks worried about her plans, and/or the ability of a successor to improve the situation.

Specifically, she has been making what an informed Loyal Reader ruefully describes as “Putin-line noises”, a colorful short-hand way of noting talk she wants to fool with the constitution so as to retain power.

Sources agree that IF this starts to happen, warns one, “you can expect serious, probably explosive results in the streets.”

And even the the worst is avoided, experienced observers warn that “for the next 10 months, nothing useful is going to happen, and for American interests, the campaigning is likely to engender a ‘populist’ backlash on foreign investment, and US business interests.”

Perhaps with the above in mind, it doesn’t sound like President Obama felt much of his valuable time should be expended today, although Arroyo will meet with Sec. State Clinton, and A/S EAP Kurt Campbell in more detail tomorrow.

Here’s how the White House “press pool” reporter handled the photo-op portion of the “summit” just now:

“Pool was ushered into the Oval Office about 3:45 p.m. for statements by Obama and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines. The two leaders sat on flanking chairs in front of the fireplace.

Obama praised Arroyo for her efforts to fight terrorism, and her help in dealing with the problems of Burma and North Korea. He noted the Philippines is hosting a conference next year on nuclear non-proliferation.

‘We’re going to have a busy agenda together,’ Obama said.
He said the Philippines is a small country, but, to use a boxing metaphor, it ‘punches above its weight in the international arena.’

Arroyo thanked the U.S. for its ’soft power’ in helping the Philippines build roads, schools, and bridges. She said her country backs U.S. efforts in Burma and North Korea. Praised Obama’s plans to battle global warming, which threatens ‘disaster for our country.’ She thanked Obama for his ‘new engagement in our part of the world.’

A Philippine journalist asked each leader his or her impression of the other. Arroyo called Obama ‘cordial, warm, and welcoming.’

Obama joked, ‘I’m sure she thinks I’m much younger looking than she expected.’

Session lasted about 8 minutes.”

Another Radioman Killed in Surigao (GMA-TVNEWS)

NY-based media group condemns

Surigao radioman’s killing

07/28/2009 | 09:19 AM

A New York-based media watchdog group condemned Tuesday the killing of a Surigao-based radioman, even as it lamented the incident was just the latest in a string of journalist slayings this year.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Godofredo Linao’s killing shows police and government investigators are falling behind their promises to prosecute such killings.

“Godofredo Linao has become the latest victim in a string of recent journalist slayings in the Philippines this year. Police and government investigators are falling badly behind their stated intentions to prosecute these crimes,” said CPJ deputy director Robert Mahoney.

CPJ said Mindanao police must investigate the motive for the killing of Linao and pursue those responsible for it.

At least two unidentified men shot Linao in the back near the offices of Radyo Natin, where he worked as a commentator, in Surigao del Sur province.

Radyo Natin manager Mario Alviso said Linao had been summoned to Barabo town via a text message around 1 a.m. Monday.

Linao was about to board his motorcycle when the men fired at him four times, killing him on the spot, CPJ cited initial reports as saying.

Police said the motive for the attack was unclear as Linao also worked as a political spokesman, according to local and international reports.

Alviso said the commentator may have been targeted for his political broadcasts.

Task Force 211

Justice Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor, who chairs an agency looking into journalist murders, told CPJ in May that his group, Task Force 211, was committed to the “investigation, prosecution, and immediate resolution of media killings.”

On the other hand, CPJ noted the Philippines placed sixth on its 2009 Impunity Index, which ranks countries that fail to prosecute cases of journalists killed for their work.

“Four journalists were killed in the Philippines in June alone. Three of those were targeted for murder; CPJ has not confirmed the motive in those cases. A fourth was killed in crossfire. CPJ’s Global Campaign Against Impunity seeks justice in journalist murders in cooperation with local partners in the Philippines,” CPJ said.

Meanwhile, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will leave a legacy of bloodshed and repression on Philippine media.

“For the Philippine media, the Arroyo administration will be remembered for a legacy of bloodshed and repression, its acts of omission and commission nurturing the impunity with which the enemies of press freedom have operated,” NUJP said in a statement on its website.

It added that by the time Mrs. Arroyo steps down, her watch will have seen a death toll accounting for more than 60 percent of the journalists murdered since the supposed democratic restoration of 1986.

This was “almost twice” that under the 14-year Marcos dictatorship, NUJP said.

“Only in three cases have we seen convictions under her term, but only of the gunmen, none of the masterminds,” it added.

On the other hand, the NUJP said no administration has shown such open contempt and hostility toward media or been so cavalier with the constitutionally guaranteed rights to freedom of the press and of expression.

It cited then Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez’s quip that most of the slain journalists were either womanizers or involved in drunken revelry.

Also, it noted First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo’s making the then dying Dipolog broadcaster Klein Cantoneros an example of what befalls supposedly irresponsible media practitioners during a speech before the Negros Press Club.

The NUJP also said no government since the Marcos dictatorship has attempted a wholesale clampdown on the media as Mrs. Arroyo’s did during a he short-lived state of national emergency she declared in 2006.

“Not only did her storm troopers raid the (Daily) Tribune (newspaper in Manila) and tramp threateningly through the parking lots of the two major broadcast networks, (then) Cabinet Secretary Ricardo Saludo even had the temerity to threaten the takeover of a network that was interviewing live because it had allowed a military mutineer to say his piece,” the NUJP said.

Manila Pen siege

It also recalled the Manila Peninsula Hotel siege in Makati City in November 2007, where some 50 journalists were marched off to a police camp in the aftermath of the incident.

At the time, detained Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and his followers laid siege on the hotel.

The latest incident involved the brief detention of some 50 journalists covering the humanitarian crisis in central Mindanao by Army soldiers in Maguindanao province.

Also, the NUJP said it was under the Arroyo administration that security forces have openly branded media organizations as “enemies of the state.”

It said the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines did it in its infamous “Knowing the Enemy” PowerPoint presentation in 2005, and the Army’s 10th Infantry Division did it with its recently discovered order of battle.

The NUJP also stressed that despite the military’s assurances it will pull the “Knowing the Enemy” presentation, it has continued showing it in schools and urban poor communities in Metro Manila.

NUJP added Mrs. Arroyo did not lift a hand when her husband wielded the antiquated libel law like a bludgeon, filing multiple suits against 46 journalists “in what was a clear abuse of his powers and privileges.”

It said Mrs. Arroyo neither reined in House Speaker Prospero Nograles from using the same law to torment broadcaster Alex Adonis.

“Neither has she shown any inclination to exercise her influence over her congressional allies to stop them from further pushing the right of reply bill, which would place control of media content in the hands of politicians hungry for power and fame,” it said.

“This administration’s animosity toward freedom of the press and of free expression takes other forms as well, such as the censorship and prior restraint exercised by the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board in requiring public affairs programs to submit their tapes for review before these can be aired, or slapping ‘X’ ratings on films critical of government,” NUJP said.

Improve working, living conditions

It also said that under the Arroyo administration, no measure has been passed to improve the living and working conditions of journalists and media workers.

Most of them suffer low wages and lack of job security and benefits amid the growing risks of attacks and killings, especially in the provinces, it noted.

“If the Philippine media remain free, it is no thanks to this administration’s lip service professions of respect for the freedoms of the press and free expression but rather to the tenacity with which Filipino journalists have resisted all attempts to cow them into submission and silence,” it said.

“It is a tenacity that will see the independent Philippine media remain so on the very day Arroyo steps down from power and beyond,” it added. - GMANews.TV

GMA’S CRIME AGAINST THE NATION: by the HYATT 10

Statement of Hyatt 10
8 July 2009

GMA’S CRIME AGAINST THE NATION:
FROM SURVIVAL TO PERPETUATION—AT ALL COST

When we submitted our collective irrevocable resignation from the
 Cabinet on 8 July 2005, we were absolutely convinced that the expose 
on the “Garci tapes” had severely damaged beyond repair the 
credibility of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. And the “least
disruptive and painful option that can swiftly restore normalcy and
eventually bring us to prosperity” was for Mrs. Arroyo to voluntarily 
relinquish her office. Otherwise, the longer she insisted on staying
in office—at all cost—under a cloud of doubt and mistrust, the greater
the damage to the economy and to our political institutions. In the 
end, the poor would suffer the most.
It has been exactly four years since our resignation, and the serious
 concerns we expressed in our resignation statement have come to pass.
The truth remains suppressed and the lying continues: the Garci case
was never resolved, “executive privilege” became a convenient tool to 
frustrate truth-seekers, even the President’s health condition has 
become the subject of subterfuge. Corruption thrived and has continued
 unabated.  Its many faces—the First Couple and ZTE, Romy Neri,
CyberEd, Joc-Joc Bolante, swine scam, General Garcia, Euro-Generals,
DPWH bidding anomalies, and, lately, the noodles scam—have earned for
the Arroyo regime the dubious distinction of being among the most
 corrupt in the world. Even the killings of journalists, activists, and 
peasant and union leaders, despite stern warnings from international
 human rights watchdogs, and journalist and law associations, have not 
stopped and, worse, have persisted with impunity.
Amidst all of these, Mrs. Arroyo seems undeterred. Perhaps to escape
 all the criticisms for the sad and despicable state of the country,
 the President—the most peripatetic in history—has taken flight, with 
her usual coterie of politicians, family members, and hangers-on,
 wasting precious foreign exchange, while the fiscal deficit threatens 
to go haywire. As we speak, she may be scaling the pyramids of Egypt !
As the end of Mrs. Arroyo’s term fast approaches, a profound fear of
  having to account before our people for all the cheating, the lying,
the stealing, and the killings, not to mention, the neglect of the
 basic welfare of our people, especially the most vulnerable, has taken
hold of the President, her family, and their cabal. From mere
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            survival, the President is now consumed by schemes, however illegal or
unconstitutional, to perpetuate herself in power—indefinitely.
One track is in play: the subversion of the Constitution, or what
constitutionalist Fr. Joaquin G. Bernas calls “constitutional gang-
rape,” to enable her to retain her powers under a parliamentary set-up
  as Prime Minister.  Mrs. Arroyo’s lapdogs in the House have taken the 
first cha-cha step with the passage of House Resolution 1109, which 
seeks to convene Congress into a constituent assembly to pass upon 
amendments to the Constitution, even without the participation of the
 Senate.  Any time now, we expect the House to convene by its lonesome
self and trigger the filing of a “justiciable” case in the Arroyo-
appointee dominated Supreme Court. The hope is that a favorable
  judgment—that legally the House can convene by itself as a constituent 
assembly for as long as it secures the ¾ votes of all members of
 Congress—will give  pork-starved members of the House the legal 
justification to go along with the scheme, no matter how patently 
illegal.
But should the cha-cha train derail—and by the day, if many of the  
House members are to be believed, it is becoming an increasing
 possibility—the Arroyo regime has also put into play a more sinister 
plan: the declaration of a state-of-emergency.  The signs are 
dangerously evident: the mysterious bombings in Mindanao and Metro
Manila, which seem to follow the same pattern as previous but failed
 attempts; the militarization of the Cabinet and strategic offices in
 the bureaucracy; the accelerated promotion of Class ’78 generals—the
PMA batch purported to be loyal to the President—in strategic services 
and positions in the military, at the expense of officers belonging to
Class ’76 and ’77; the unprecedented increase in the armed personnel
of the PNP’s Metro Manila-based Special Action Force (SAF), which 
reportedly is now even better equipped than the military, which,
 because of rumblings and divisions within the ranks, has been rendered 
an unreliable ally of the regime.
And what about the only desirable option acceptable to our people—the
 scheduled May 2010 Presidential elections?  While Mrs. Arroyo herself
 and her minions have repeatedly assured us that there will be 
elections in 2010, their actions belie their claim. Even the election
automation project, which is supposed to ensure an orderly and fast
count, is now mired in controversy. Suspicions linger, with talks of
intervention by “big people in high places” to manipulate even the
 automated process, that automation is not yet a certainty.
What now? Lest we find ourselves once again fighting a repressive and 
kleptocratic authoritarian regime, we must be vigilant. We must expose
 and fight every move of the Arroyo regime to stay in power against our 
will and in violation of our Constitution. We call upon all those who
truly cherish our democratic way of life, no matter how imperfect it 
may be, including those in the military and the police, to stand up
 against those who seek to exploit the instability and confusion in our  
midst and impose their dictatorial will upon us. Let us all join hands—
with urgency and resolve—in ensuring that a clean, peaceful, orderly
and automated election does take place in May, 2010.
Finally, to the President and her cohorts, this challenge we throw:
Don’t push your luck. You have crossed the line too often enough. With 
impunity, you have exploited our people’s cynicism and apathy for your
 own narrow and selfish ends. As with all things,  this too will come 
to an end.  Of this, we are certain.
With God’s help, the Filipino people will put an end to this
 despicable Arroyo regime.

FLORENCIO B. ABAD
Former  Secretary
Department of
Education

EMILIA  T. BONCODIN
Former
Secretary
Department of Budget and
Management

TERESITA QUINTOS DELES
Office of the Presidential Adviser on
Peace Process

CESAR PURISIMA
Former Secretary
the  Department of Finance

IMELDA M. NICOLAS
Former  Secretary
National Anti-Poverty Commission

CORAZON JULIANO SOLIMAN
Former  Secretary
Department of Social Welfare
and  Development

ALBERTO LINA
Former Secretary
Bureau of
Customs

GUILLERMO PARAYNO
Bureau
of Internal Revenue

JUAN B SANTOS
Former
Secretary
Department of Trade and Industry

RENE  C. VILLA
Former Secretary
Department of Agrarian Reform