Text by MARC JAYSON CAYABYAB, Photos and video by VINCENT GO

WHEN the pistol went off, three swimmers dived off the starting block and splashed into the water to best one another in the 50-meter freestyle competition.

The frontrunner was a teenage boy who swam with only an arm and a leg. Close behind him was another boy who had only one foot while the third swimmer was a girl with no arms.

>>Read More in PWD Files

Text by REYNARD MAGTOTO, Photos and Video by VINCENT GO

ROAD safety advocates launched on Sunday morning a websitein commemoration of the first year of the Decade of Action for Road Safety (DARS), which coincided with the first death anniversary of journalist Lourdes “Chit” Estella who died in a road accident a year ago.

The website www.dotcdars.com, a project of the Department of Transportation and Communications, was unveiled during a program at the Quezon City Memorial Circle that capped fun runs, walkathons and other activities around Metro Manila designed to raise awareness of DARS.

The site offers global road safety stories, special reports, safety issues and violations, community initiatives as well as blogs of road safety advocates in a bid to “extend that partnership to the rest of the Filipino community by providing a social context where we can all be connected to the decision making process and join hands in saving lives.”

It also features the Philippine Road Safety Action Plan that shows the latest data and development including the latest country initiatives presented last April 18-19 to the United Nations General Assembly.

The website is linked to local and international websites such as those of the DOTC, UN, World Health Organization and World Bank, and to social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Youtube.

Earlier in the day, about 500 people from the government and private sectors joined runs, bike-athons, a walkathon and a motorbike  caravan, all in the name of road safety, from Rizal Park, Antipolo City, Tiendesitasin Pasig, SM Fairview in Quezon City, the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman, Quezon City and Market!Marketfrom Taguig.

Participants came from the DOTC, Philippine National Red Cross, Metro Manila Development Authority, Families of other Road Victims and Survivors (FRVS),Global Road Safety Partnership, Safe Kids Philippines, Philippine National Police, Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, Manila Water, KaligtasanKalusuganKalikasan Revolution, Firefly Brigade, Motorcycle Federation, National Commuters Welfare Protection, Safety Organization of the Philippines and local government units, among others.

Estella’s husband Roland Simbulan, who heads the FRVS, stressed that road safety is everyone’s concern and “should be a right” because, he said, every time a person goes out, he or she risks not returning home alive.

Simbulan also challenged government agencies and law enforcers not only to “enforce” traffic rules and regulations but “to lead by example.”

Estella, a founding trustee of VERA Files and a journalism professor at UP-Diliman,was killed when a bus rammed into her taxi along Commonwealth avenue in Quezon City.

Assistant Transportation Secretary Dante M. Lantin, the national focal point of DARS said Estella’s death anniversary gave meaning to the commemoration of DARS and also gave reason to form the FRVS road support group.

The FRVS was formed in March after Simbulan attended a road safety forum at Camp Crameto serve as “a support group and at the same time an advocacy group for road safety, especially the enforcement of rules and regulations for road users.”

The Philippines is one of 100 countries that have committed to support DARS, which has set out to reduce deaths and injuries from road crashes by keeping the UN’s Five Pillars of Road Safety: Safer Roads, Safer Vehicles, Safer Road Users, Improved Road Safety Management and Post-Crash Care.

 (The author is a journalism student of the Bicol University who is writing for VERA Files as part of his internship.)

WHILE vegetables are packed with nutrients essential to the human body, not all are a hundred percent safe to eat.

Environment group Bangon Kalikasan warned that urban-grown vegetables may be contaminated with heavy metals which are detrimental to people’s health.

Joey Papa, Bangon Kalikasan president, said some of these vegetables are grown in the urban farm inside the Quezon City Memorial Circle, a project of the local government.

He said the group has “some reservations” in keeping a vegetable garden in such a heavily-polluted area. He observed that a person cannot even breathe properly in the said area.

“Maganda naman yung intensyon (The intention is good),” Papa said of the government’s efforts to encourage urban farming, although describing the approach as “quite problematic.”

What is alarming is that the vegetables absorb too much lead coming from gasoline emissions from the vehicles in the vicinity, he said in a phone interview.

Papa expressed concern for the health of those who have been receiving the vegetables harvested in said urban farm and given away for free.

Cristina Perez, development officer of  “The Joy of Urban Farming,” a project of  QC Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte, assured that urban-grown vegetables are produced through the use of organic fertilizer, which makes them safe to eat.

She said the vegetables harvested from the farm are given to excursionists who visit the 600-square meter farm to encourage them to plant even in the small pots in their backyard.

“Bukod sa meron ka nang maihahain sa hapag-kainan ay  nakakatulong ka pa sa environment kasi lumilinis ang hangin (Aside from having food on your platter, you are helping the environment because the air is cleaned),” Perez added.

Bert Mendoza, one of the project staff, said by giving away urban vegetables to excursionists will also enable them to make a comparison between crops produced by chemical-based fertilizers and those produced organically.

Papa suggested that to lessen the pollution in urban vegetable farms, there  should at least have a thick barrier of trees to protect the garden from stationary and mobile sources of pollution like factories and vehicles.

The city government, however, cleared an area in the QCMC of trees to make way for a carnival. Papa said since the city government has an urban farm project, it  could have developed the Circle to serve as a greenhouse.  “Sana yung mga puno hindi pinakialaman (I hope they leave the trees alone),” he said.

He said it would be a good idea for local government look for more reserved or “interior” places to convert into urban farms.

“Kung may makikitang ganoon, bakit hindi? (If the local government can find such a place, then why not?)” Rey Palacio, a Zero Waste Management and chemical safety campaigner from Eco Waste Coalition, said.

The Ecowaste Coalition, an environmental watchdog, earlier called for government action over the lead paint coating some playgrounds in Manila. Lead is a toxic metal and studies have shown that lead poisoning is particularly harmful to children as it causes damage to their brain and development. It could also contaminate vegetables in urban farms near the playgrounds or structures coated with lead paint.

He said  that even if the farm is moved to interior parts of the city, there is no guarantee that the vegetables will be totally free of lead.

He said  vegetables sold in the market are contaminated by pollutants in the urban air. Worse, he warned that formalin could have been sprayed on the vegetables to keep them fresh longer.

Palacio said the local government should take steps to lessen, if not eradicate the  contamination of vegetables in urban farms.

Palacio also said with pollution becoming a national concern, vegetables grown in urban farms are not the only ones that are contaminated. Vegetables in rural areas are also becoming exposed to dangerous chemicals.”When one burns plastic, chances are the crops in the nearby garden are affected,” he cautioned.

Palacio advised people to wash the vegetables with baking soda and water solution before cooking or eating in order to neutralize possible contaminants.

He said it is still best to grow vegetables in every individual’s backyard. This way the residents would know where their food is coming from.

Aside from solving the problems of malnutrition, he said backyard farming can also bring additional sources of income to families and barangays. If they reap a good harvest, they can sell these to their neighbors.

(The author is a journalism student of the University of the Philippines who is writing for VERA Files as part of her internship.)

By TESSA JAMANDRE

A YEAR after he swore allegiance to the flag after being granted amnesty for joining the Oakwood mutiny in 2003, former Marine Capt. Nicanor Faeldon is back.

On Friday, he will lead an armada of fishermen to make a stand in the Scarborough Shoal where a tense standoff between Chinese maritime ships and the Philippine Coast Guard continues.

Faeldon and former Annapolis cadet Manny Albuera will set sail to Bajo de Masinloc or Panatag Shoal, as the Philippines calls the shoal, along with fishermen from his hometown in Batanes to symbolically protest China’s claim over the shoal.

They also called on fishermen from Masinloc town in Zambales to join them to show China that the Filipinos are not afraid, especially “when we know it (the shoal) is ours.” Panatag Shoal is 124 nautical miles off the coast of Zambales.

Faeldon’s voyage initially will bring fishermen as close to Panatag Shoal as possible to exercise their right to fish, but the duration of their stay will depend on the situation on the ground, Kit Guerrero, spokesman for Faeldon, said.

He said Faeldon is also considering raising the Philippine flag on the shoal.

The former rebel soldier’s initiative came as Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario called on Filipinos to unite and make a patriotic stand to defend what belongs to the Philippines—even if it would entail sacrifice.

“We need to stand up even as we look for ways to solve the disputes peacefully… We need to take a position of patriotism that what is ours is ours,” Del Rosario said at the joint membership meeting of the Makati Business Club and Management Association of the Philippines Wednesday.

He added, “It’s possible that we may be tested. If we are tested, it’s possible that everyone will need to make a sacrifice.”

Of Faeldon’s voyage, Del Rosario later told VERA Files in an interview, “We may not have warships that can match China’s naval power, but we want to show a nation of Filipino people fighting for what is ours.”

As an offshoot of the standoff, China imposed a fishing ban that took effect midnight of May 16. It covers areas north of longitude 12 degrees in the South China Sea, Scarborough Shoal included.

The fishing ban is not new, but Philippine authorities said it is the first time Scarborough Shoal, or Huangyan island to the Chinese, was specified in the coverage.

Last year’s fishing ban covered areas in latitude 12 degrees north and westward from longitude 113 degrees east, no clear boundaries to the extent in the west and north.

Following China’s travel advisory that led to the cancellation of tours of Chinese tourists to the Philippines, intensified restriction on fruit exports from the Philippines and the fishing ban in Scarborough Shoal, Del Rosario said President Benigno Aquino III is already thinking of ways to help those who may be disadvantaged by the standoff.

“He is already thinking of the possibility of what kind of help to extend to those fishermen who had the freedom of fishing in the exclusive economic zone near the Bajo de Basinloc and who are now threatened by the circumstance,” he said.

On April 10, the Philippine Navy’s BRP Gregorio del Pilar (PF15) while on patrol found eight Chinese fishing boats with sizable quantities of endangered marine species, corals, live sharks and giant clams.

While the Department of Foreign Affairs said there was a clear violation of Philippine sovereignty, the Navy did not arrest the Chinese fishermen or seize their cargo. China subsequently sent maritime surveillance ships to the area that prevented the arrest of the Chinese fishermen, which ensued in the standoff.

The two countries have since exchanged a number of diplomatic protests, and are still consulting on possible ways to resolve the impasse.

As of Wednesday, there are 10 Chinese fishing boats against one Filipino fishing vessel, and three Chinese government ships against the two Philippine Coast Guard vessels in Scarborough Shoal.

The Philippines claims sovereign rights over the shoal that is well within its Exclusive Economic Zone as provided for by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Scarborough or Panatag Shoal is referred to as Bajo De Masinloc in the archipelagic baselines law where like the Kalayaan Island Group in the disputed Spratlys chain in the South China Sea is not enclosed in the straight baselines but rather treated as regime of islands of the Philippines.

China and the Philippines also have competing claims over the Spratlys chain of islands in the South China Sea along with Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

By ELIZABETH  LOLARGA

AFTER decades of doing editorial illustrations and cartoons. Dario Noche is setting his sights higher as a visual artist.

In his show at the Conspiracy Bar on Visayas Ave., Quezon City, he reminds viewers of the body of works he has come up with in his long years in journalism. He has roughly 40 black and white illustrations and 15 in color in the exhibit, including original artwork from his Asiaweek stint.

In his heyday, he designed or redesigned publications some of which are in the annals of journalism history: Initiatives in Population, Manila Women’s Wear, Moptop, the weekly magazine Oh!, What’s Up cultural magazine, Standard Express, Jingle magazine when it morphed into Twinkle and The Manila Standard Today.

His interest in the visual arts was stirred as a boy in the province walking home from school and stopping at a place for more than an hour to look at a man working on the billboards of a movie house.

Noche recalls, “In the olden days, movie promotion was done this way. I was greatly impressed. They were to me huge murals. I was hooked. From then on, every blank paper in the house became my canvas. There was no artist gene in the family; I was the first aberration.”

He started as an architecture student at Mapua Institute of Technology but realized he couldn’t bear the math and shifted to fine arts at Feati University where his professors were mostly from the old Manila Chronicle.

Liborio “Gat” Gatbonton liked Noche’s work and recommended him as illustrator at Philippines Free Press. Although still unfinished with college credits, he was accepted.

He rues, “It was THE magazine at that time. It may have been sudden for me, but I managed. I was in the midst of the cream of Philippine journalism: Teodoro Locsin Sr, Nick Joaquin, Greg Brillantes, Kerima Polotan, Napoleon Rama, Jose Lacaba, Lorna Kalaw, Ricky Lee, J. Ser Sahagun, Danny Dalena, Alex Ngo. Most of them were very considerate. I fitted in snugly.”

He continues, “It was a time of turmoil then, internationally and right in our place of work. An unsettled labor dispute gave birth to Nick Joaquin’s Asia-Philippines Leader magazine that readily trounced Free Press.  It was from this group of professionals that I inherited the bane that few managed to ingest: coffee, cigarette, and beer. With Nick around, beer was never lacking.”

His years in journalism have been instructive. He says, “I hated the drudgery, the nine to five inhibition of the work, the flying egos. But in no other place else was my intellectual hunger sated. I learned grammar while poring over heavily edited manuscripts that were handed to me for layout. Listening to editors’ informal discussions, you had not only a glimpse of them but also learned vast literary knowledge and secrets. All these rubbed off on me, and I’m forever grateful.”

He put aside a cherished dream to be a full-time painter. Now retired from journalism, he says, “I am psyching myself up to become a painter. Earning a living is still a paramount concern. Painting was always on the back burner. My stay in the paper made me realize I was in the wrong profession, but I must admit it wasn’t a complete waste of time.”

Today he joins sketching sessions to hone his grasp of the human anatomy. His intention is to specialize in historical painting or illustration.

He explains why he is concentrating on historical paintings as his niche, “I am a First Quarter Storm participant. This awakening profoundly affected my thinking.  Former Third World countries, now recently developed nations, achieved their economic status because they have a deep sense of nationhood, culture, traditions and values. These nurtured and propelled them to impossible achievements.”

Noche bewails that “our youth today don’t have that. They grew up with wrong goals and values. Our educational and cultural system is wanting or doesn’t have a clear goal. I gave up on the older generation to ever deliver us. Maybe I figured re-educating the youth or the few remaining open-minded elders through historical paintings or illustrations can help inculcate and waken the right values hidden in our past.”

His illustration skills were also honed during his Asiaweek and Straits Times years in the 1990s. After joining many group shows in photography, illustration, graphic design and painting, he will explore sculpture through bas reliefs of historical events.

To do all that, Noche at 62 practices what he calls “moderation, restraint, physical and mental activity. Occasionally, I do weights to stay trim. I walk the short distance going home or to the market.”

He quips, “I’ve seen too many decrepit old men and some few hardy old men. I know what I will be when my time comes.”

Senate photo

OMBUDSMAN Conchita Carpio-Morales said Tuesday her office may file a second impeachment case against Chief Justice Renato Corona should the magistrate be acquitted in the ongoing trial by the Senate.

“I don’t see any reason why there is no chance for me to file…if that is warranted,” the Ombudsman said when pressed by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago if she would exercise that power.

The Ombudsman Act vests in the Ombudsman disciplinary authority over all elected and appointive officials of government, except over officials who may be removed only by impeachment and over members of Congress and the judiciary. But his or her investigatory power is for the purpose of filing a verified complaint for impeachment.

Carpio-Morales, who was presented by the defense as a hostile witness, revealed in a Powerpoint presentation on Monday that Corona had about $12 million deposited in 82 bank accounts as of December 2011.

She said she based the figure on a 17-page document detailing Corona’s dollar deposit transactions furnished by the Anti-Money Laundering Council from whom she had sought help in probing charges of unexplained wealth filed by the group of former party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros.

Corona is being tried by the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, on allegations of betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution, including his supposed failure to fully disclose his assets in the annual Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth. There is a one-year ban on the filing of impeachment complaints.

Taking the witness stand again on Tuesday, Day 38 of the impeachment trial, Carpio-Morales was pointedly asked by Santiago if she would file a case on December, a year after the first impeachment case was filed by the House of Representatives, to which the Ombudsman answered yes.

“I must only abide by what the Ombudsman law provides,” she said.

She said it was also within the Ombudsman’s power to file civil forfeiture cases.

Santiago, however, assailed Carpio-Morales for acting “more powerful than the President” after obtaining confidential information from the AMLC on the chief justice’s dollar accounts in connection with the Ombudsman’s investigation.

Santiago said Carpio-Morales defied the rules set by law when told the AMLC to probe the alleged ill-gotten wealth of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

“Under the law, you have to go to a judge, you have to get an order from a judge to get the bank accounts… Di nya sinunod yun. At ipinipilit nya na may ganoon syang kapangyarihan (She didn’t follow that and insists that she is empowered to do so),” she said.

Santiago added, “Sa kanyang interpretation, walang limit ang kanyang powers. Ang sinasabi ko, ‘Of course not (Based on her interpretation, there is no limit to her powers. I say, ‘Of course not). Dahil magiging mas makapangyarihan pa sya sa Presidente o sa Senate President o sa Speaker of the House (Otherwise, she would be more powerful thatn the president, the Senate president or the Speaker of the House). She will be the most powerful person in the country!”

At one point, while questioning Carpio-Morales, Santiago lost her temper when the Ombudsman kept “arguing with the senator-judge” regarding her exercise of powers.

“You’re arguing with a senator-judge!” Santiago said.

“Mea culpa (my mistake),” Carpio-Morales quickly replied.

“Apology accepted,” Santiago said.

When asked about her heated exchange with the Ombudsman, Santiago revealed that the two of them are actually “friends” and are contemporaries from the University of the Philippines College of Law.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Carpio-Morales asserted that while the AMLC report may have been too technical for her, she understood it well before presenting it before the Senate impeachment court.

She was reacting to lead defense lawyer Serafin Cuevas’ insinuation that the 17-page AMLC report was “beyond her comprehension.”

“‘Beyond my competence yes, beyond my comprehension no,” a stern Carpio-Morales told Cuevas.

The Ombudsman admitted that she got the help of the Commission on Audit in interpreting some details of the AMLC report, but stressed that she was hands-on in preparing of the 25-slide PowerPoint presentation she showed the Senate on Monday.

“I asked (COA) to visualize (the information)…I was personally involved,” Carpio-Morales said.

Cuevas also asked Carpio-Morales whether she ascertained the accuracy and credibility of the AMLC report.

“Are the contents of that report are correct and in accordance with law? I wouldn’t know,” Carpio-Morales said, explaining it was beyond her means to verify the report.

But she added, “Again, I say the presumption is that they (AMLC) will provide me the right information.”

The prosecution’s Mario Bautista objected to Cuevas’ line of questioning and cited the Rules of Court that any report officially prepared by a government agency is ascertained as truthful and can be accepted as prima facie evidence.

Earlier, defense lawyer Jose Roy III said while he doesn’t question the authenticity of the AMLC report he doubts whether it gave the entire picture.

“I’m not sure, however, if what she presented is everything that AMLC reported. Secondly, this is obviously raw data. You’ve seen the documents; we cannot make heads or tails out of it. I’m sure when the Ombudsman received it, she didn’t know either,” he said.

When asked, however, whether the revelations of the Ombudsman was according to their plan, Roy said, “Did it go according to plan? Well, it went according to plan, but not ours.” 

The defense team admitted that they were caught off guard by the evidence presented by Carpio-Morales on Monday.

Defense team’s spokesperson Tranquil Salvador III also admitted that they weren’t expecting Carpio-Morales’s assertions in her presentation.

“Ang problema hindi namin sya na prisinta sa paraan na napaghandaan (The problem was we weren’t able to present it in the way we prepared it),” he said.

Roy asserted that the alleged 82 bank accounts owned by Corona was simply “mind-blogging” and couldn’t have been possible.

“Do you know of anyone with 82 bank accounts?” he said.

But what the defense was not surprised to find out, according to Roy, was how far the evidence against Corona would be unearthed, regardless if this was truthful or not.

“This case began without evidence,” Roy said. ”Now we are in a long fishing expedition to get evidence.”

Roy said defense lawyers met with Corona on the AMLC report “for a good part of the day” and the chief justice remains optimistic on how the trial is going on so far.

“When we parted ways he was in very high spirits,” Roy said adding that the magistrate is still keen on testifying before the Senate impeachment court “when the time is right.” 

Text and photos by SHIELA MAY ABALLA

THE first rain in the month of May is believed to be a blessing. That is why people of Gapan City considered the heavy downpour last May 1 as an additional blessing for their successful Tsinelas (Slipper) Festival celebrated that same day.

Gapan City, located at the southernmost part of Nueva Ecija in Central Luzon, is the next town from San Miguel, Bulacan going to the north. The name of the city originated from the word gapang or crawl because of the many crawling plants found there.

Aside from the production of rice, Gapan City is also popular for its production of slippers. The  annual Tsinelas Festival began in 2002 to mark the first anniversary of the cityhood of Gapan and to promote the slipper industry.

Gapan was the oldest town in Nueva Ecija before it was declared a city in August 25, 2001.

The Liwag family was the one of those who started the slipper industry in Gapan. Because of the good quality of the slippers they made, that product became popular. The number of slipper makers in the city  increased as the industry prospered.

Edgardo Tolentino, one of the people in charge of the event, said this year’s celebration of the  Tsinelas Festival was moved to coincide with the feast of the Divina Pastora or the Divine Shepherdess — the patron saint of the city, to attract devotees from neighboring towns.

Stalls of slippers already lined the city plaza one week before the day of the festival. It gave the people a lot of time to choose from the different slippers, with prices ranging from P50-P200 per pair depending on size and style.

The annual competition for the giant slipper of the town highlighted the festival. Fifteen giant slippers, seven-feet tall, competed for the title and the cash prize of P20,000.

“Di ko kasi sineseryoso nung una ‘yang pagsali diyan, basta may mai-represent lang ako, okay na (I wasn’t serious in joining the competition at first; as long as I have something to represent, it was okay),” Rolando Pascual, owner of Bagong Likha Footwear, said. “Nag-aabala rin ako, bakit hindi ko pa pagbutihin?(Since I spent time for it, so why not do my best)?”

Pascual, a slipper maker for more than 10 years now, won the first prize in this year’s competition. For three consecutive years (2006-2009), he won consolation prizes. Then he bagged third place in 2010, and second place last year.

“Kami, katulad noong mga nakaraang taon kapag nananalo kami, bumibili kami ng mga items na kailangan sa gawaan (We, like when we won in previous years, we buy items which we need for production),” Pascual said.

From the cash prizes he had won, he bought a cutter and a generator. He has not yet decided on what to buy this year.

Pascual said it took him three days to make his winning entry, spending P3,000 for materials. His expense was cheaper compared to the other contestants, who spent an average of P5,000.

A street dancing competition among students from the different barangays of the city was held the day before the festival. This was followed by a  parade participated in by devotees of the Divina Pastora. A replica of the patron saint and a child dressed as the Divina Pastora (identified as Mary Divine Lising) led the parade.

Then came floats that carried giant slippers, the city’s different bands, and pretty girls from various barangays. Some girls threw candies to the many people who braved the scorching heat of the sun to watch the annual parade.

The city mayor, vice mayor and other local officials were also seen walking in the parade. Celebrities like Diana Meneses and Enrique Gil joined the festival.

The giant slippers were displayed at the city hall after the parade.

Then heavy rains fell.

“Naisilong naman agad namin ‘yong mga tsinelas kaya maibebenta pa ‘yan (We were able to save the slippers from the rain immediately that is why we can still sell them),” Aiza Manson, a slipper vendor, said.

When the rain stopped, the slipper vendors opened their stalls again. They were open until midnight.

The slipper vendors are requesting the local government to provide a permanent location for  their stores.

The government plans to imitate the Tsinelas Avenue in Liliw, Laguna (the slipper capital of the Philippines). Tsinelas Avenue is a street where stalls of slippers can be found.

It also provides the vehicles that slipper vendors use in going to trade fairs in Manila.

Gapan City supplies slippers to Baclaran in Paranaque City, and to other provinces in northern and central Luzon like Aurora and Isabela.

 (The author is a journalism student of the University of the Philippines-Baguio, who is writing for VERA Files as part of her internship.)

The initial testimony of the Honorable Ombudsman is quite unfortunate, if not very malicious.

I don’t know how she came up with her own mathematical equation. She made a hodgepodge out of the accounts, making her numbers chaotic.

The number of accounts alone is at best ridiculous. Her PowerPoint diagram is a lantern of lies which only messed up her presentation, contrary to what some believe now as damning evidence.

Either she does not know what she is talking about, or is purposely misleading the impeachment court and the public.

Is she even privy to how the AMLC arrived at the bloated numbers? We will debunk all her bloated numbers.

And once she is proven wrong, I urge her to immediately resign from her post for allowing herself to be used by this administration and making a laughingstock of “government auditing.”

Indeed, this is another LRA hoax.

AS long as libel is a criminal offense, there remains a threat to freedom of expression,media practitioners declared as they marked Press Freedom Day.

 “I used to think that criminal libel is a necessary evil. It is the only weapon against frequent abuses of media. Unfortunately, this weapon has been variously abused by people in power,” Amado P. Macasaet, Philippine Press Institute (PPI) chairman-president and Malaya publisher, said in a forum at De La Salle University-Manila  last week.

Macasaet said he could never forget the 10 libel cases filed by former First Gentleman Mike Arroyo against him and 46 other journalists. “It was the worst example of how powerful people can threaten journalists with prison terms and fines we may not be able to pay in the event of final conviction,” he said.

Tina Malone, US embassy information officer, noted that when journalists around the world are threatened and jailed, they are being censored as well.

“The truth is replaced by fear, and all of us suffer,” she said.

What is problematic about the Philippine libel law is the premise that truth is not a complete defense. “Even if you are stating the truth, if they can prove that there is malice, you can still spend time in jail, which is ridiculous,” lawyer Harry Roque of the Center for International Law and the director of the Institute of International Legal Studies and Law Center of the University of the Philippines College of Law, said.

Roque cited the case of Alexis Adonis, a Davao-based broadcaster who was convicted of libel in 2007. This was for reading over his radio program an article from the tabloid Abante claiming that former Davao City Rep. Prospero Nograles (whose name was not mentioned by Adonis) was caught with his pants down while running away from the husband of  a woman he was  alleged to be with in a hotel room.

Adonis spent more than two years in prison.

“He had to spend time with criminals whom he exposed in his radio program,” Roque said. “And you could imagine how happy these characters were.”

The UNHRC asked the Philippine government to compensate Adonis for the time served in prison, and to take steps to prevent similar violations from occurring in the future, like reviewing the law on libel.

Earlier this year the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) declared that the  libel law in the Philippines is discordant with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, or freedom of expression.

Rowena C. Paraan, secretary-general of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), said the public must take practical actions in order to decriminalize libel.

She suggested a 10-step action plan, which includes educating media practitioners on libel and ethics, intensifying national and international campaigns, and using the social media for campaigning, among others.

According to Paraan, it is crucial to inform the public that freedom of expression is not for media practitioners alone, but for everyone.

Bloggers like JR Bustamante and Jane Uymatiao advocated the use of social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to push for the decriminalization of libel. They said simple hash tags can do a lot to pressure the politicians.

Almost all states in the United States have decriminalized libel. Unlike the Philippines, other countries treat libel only as a civil offense that is punishable by fine.

The Philippine libel law, which is embodied in Article 353-364 of the Revised Penal Code, classifies libel as a “crime against honor.” The punishment for libel is a minimum imprisonment of six months and one day and a fine ranging from P200 pesos to P6, 000.

The Philippine government said libel can be decriminalized but it has to be included in the entire Revised Penal Code revision project which, Roque said, will surely “take forever.” Thus,  journalists urged Congress to file a one-sentence law repealing the current libel law.

As observed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), threats against journalists are on the rise. As of December 2011, the Community to Protect Journalists reported that 179 journalists have been put behind bars around the world.

The Manila forum was held in partnership with the United States Embassy. Simultaneous forums were held in Cebu, Baguio, Bulacan and Cagayan de Oro to mark World Press Freedom Day.

(Eimor Santos and Reynard Magtoto are journalism students of the University of the Philippines and Bicol University, respectively, who are writing for VERA Files as part of their internship.)