Category: aquino admin

calling out purisima #mamasapano

is purisima back from saipan?  according to reports, he left friday, jan 30, to attend some conference of masons.  while the nation grieved.  let’s hope he means to come back, and to come clean.  the sooner the better.  sabi nga ni gary granada sa facebook wall niya, it’s time to play the truth card or there’s no moving on toward peace.

Playing the peace card

to help the nation cope with vengeful anger and improving the chances of a bloodless closure, who would say no to that? But all the peace cards in the world are useless without the cathartic truth card. And for that, we need to locate square one.

The subject concerning our favorite imperialist’s involvement is a matter of course, no real mystery there. On the other hand, debating over historical contexts, while indispensable in the long haul and should be a continuing national habit, may be too elaborate to be of some relief to our collective grief at this juncture.

But how it happened that a suspended general figured at the helm of the command chain is a good place to begin. As expected, expecting truth to come from Mr. Aquino is an absolute dead end. Tuwid na memory nga wala, tuwid na daan pa kaya. If PNoy could now not seem to recount his buddy’s involvement, surely Purisima has some way of remembering what Purisima did.

We may not agree on many counts, but on this one the country is pretty much in unison: Purisima must be compelled to tell all if also to help keep public outrage from turning unconstructive. He owes it especially to the families of the dutiful lawmen whom he and the President himself apparently helped get killed.

one people, one probe #mamasapano

MANILA – An expert sees problems with the many investigating bodies formed to shed light on the bloody Mamasapano clash last Sunday which left 44 elite cops and 18 Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fighters dead.

Julkipli Wadi, dean of the University of the Philippines (UP) Institute of Islamic Studies, said the several bodies tasked to investigate the deadly clash must be able to come up with coherent reports.

… ”Ang napansin ko eh tila dumadami ang mga bodies na kine-create para mag-imbestiga. Maliban sa board of inquiry, meron pang MILF na may sarili nilang investigation, meron pang truth commission,” Wadi told dzMM.

”Ang problema eh paano kung iba-iba ang mga findings? Sino ang paniniwalaan?” 

divide-and-rule ba, as usual, ang strategy?  but we are already so divided — mamasapano only added to the cracks in our brittle sense of “nation”.

let us heed prof. wadi’s warning.  too many probes is problematic.  we, the people of the philippines, should demand that the findings of the PNP board of inquiry, the MILF’s special investigative commission, the International Monitoring Team’s and the Commission on Human Rights’ independent investigations be submitted to an independent Truth Commission whose sole mandate would be to satisfy the people’s thirst for the truth re the mamasapano debacle.  one people, one truth.

the senate’s peace, reconciliation and unification committee chair tg guingona has nominated hilario davide sr., reynato puno, and wigberto tanada to head or compose such a truth commission.  i would add the names of carol pagaduan araullo, joey ayala, and prof. wadi himself.  let them put their heads together, ferret out the incontrovertible truths, so the people may know who are criminally responsible for the 64 dead.  the sooner the better.  until then, all talk of peace is just talk.

Why Senate should not allow the redefinition of savings and change the meaning of ‘errata’

By Leonor Magtolis Briones 

Last Monday, November 17, 2014 a number of interesting events happened in the Senate. In the morning, a necrological service was held for the much-loved Senator Juan Flavier. Two other related events took place: the referral to the Committee on Finance of the General Appropriations Bill (House Bill 4968) and a briefing by Social Watch Philippines on why the Senate should not allow the redefinition of savings and change the meaning of the word “errata.”

Read on…

P83 billion unused for coconut-industry poverty alleviation

By Rigoberto Tiglao

It could be another case, as worse as its lead-footed release of funds for Yolanda-devastated areas, of the Aquino Administration’s criminal inefficiency and sluggishness in undertaking real reform programs. Or there may be a worse explanation.

Since September 2012 – two years ago – the Supreme Court finally ended nearly two decades of litigation and ruled that the P82.8 billion that originated from the so-called coco-levy imposed during the 1970s by the strongman Marcos were absolutely government funds that could be used only for the coconut industry.

Read on…