IT WAS NO accident that it was the Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police that penetrated the Batasan Pambansa and stuffed the ballot boxes with fake election returns to make it look like Gloria Arroyo won the 2004 elections.
Established in 1983 initially to help combat insurgency and later to “destroy enemy forces that undermine the nation’s stability,” the police commandos are trained as a rapid deployment force and to “noiselessly operate in the shadows.”
WHEN Gloria Macapagal Arroyo delivers her eighth State of the Nation Address at the Batasang Pambansa session hall today, she will be standing close to where, three years ago, police commandos say they replaced genuine election returns (ERs) with fake ones in ballot boxes that were being readied for a recount of the 2004 presidential election.
The ER switching at the Batasan had been talked about and reported on since 2005, when Arroyo apologized to the nation for talking to an election official while the votes were being counted, in what has since been known as the “Hello, Garci” scandal.
WITH seven years to go, the Philippines is in danger of not meeting all the targets that have been set for countries to provide “Education for All” by 2015.
“Education for All by 2015 – Will we make it?”, a midterm review of progress across the six EFA goals released recently by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization or UNESCO, said the country is “at risk” of not achieving the goals on adult literacy andgender parity.
THE delivery of textbooks from the Department of Education in Manila to far-flung areas is usually a boring and mundane obligation.
But come July, select communities in remote areas will be welcoming the arrival of textbooks with celebrations resembling town fiestas, complete with dances and décor.
WHEN public high school sophomores get the new Social Studies textbook next week, they will be holding in their hands what could be a source of a diplomatic irritant:The book mentions Taiwan as a “country” separate from the People’s Republic of China, in violation of the one-China policy the Philippine government upholds.
SEN. Rodolfo Biazon suggested Wednesday that the Senate electoral reform committee investigate allegations that members of the Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police undertook the switching of 2004 election returns at the Batasan three years ago, Malaya reported today.
Sen. Richard Gordon, chair of the Senate electoral reform committee, was not available for comment.
PHILIPPINE National Police Chief Avelino Razon ordered yesterday Chief Superintendent Leocadio Santiago, director of the Special Action Force, to look into VERA Files two-part report that the elite police unit undertook the switching of 2004 election returns in the Batasan Pambansa.
Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, who is also president of the United Opposition, however, is wary about the investigation to be conducted by the PNP of its own unit.
MALACANANG issued today the following press release in reaction to a VERA Files report that several police commandos have confirmed their participation in the switching of election returns at the Batasan Pambansa in early 2005 to make it look like Gloria Arroyo won the 2004 elections:
“Don’t believe in the baseless allegation, but, instead, respect the decision of the Supreme Court.”
FORMER Cabinet members are asking Congress to pass immediately a law that would define the country's baseline in keeping with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS.
The Former Senior Government Officials (FSGO), in a statement issued on July 11, cited the need to enact a baseline law in view of the May 13, 2009 deadline set by UNCLOS for archipelagic states to deposit technical data to support their claims on their extended continental shelves.
The NSCB, which consolidates facts and figures from different government agencies, pointed to the consistent drop in the net enrolment ratio or participation rate at the elementary level from schoolyear 2002-03 to schoolyear 2006-07 as among the reasons for saying so.
FORMER Vice President Teofisto Guingona will launch tonight his book, “Fight for the Filipino,” in which he reveals the reasons for his disillusionment with and eventual breakaway from President Gloria Macapagal–Arroyo, including her supposed order to then Justice Secretary Hernando Perez to approve the $470 million controversial agreement with the Argentinian power firm IMPSA (Industrias Melaurgicas Pescarmona Socieda Anonima).
