Focus
Will the Magdalos’ saga finally end?
By ELLEN TORDESILLAS and TESSA JAMANDRE
(Conclusion)
HUNDREDS of junior officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines who took over the Oakwood Hotel in 2003 in a mutiny against military corruption continue to face the consequences of their actions, with lives derailed and careers destroyed.
Most of them spent years in jail, were physically and mentally tortured, and endured the betrayal and humiliation from a government they had rebelled against. But they are now trying to rebuild lives and careers outside the military.
“We may not have suffered as much as our tormentors wished us to but to this day we are suffering the consequences of what we have done: lost opportunities, destroyed careers, broken friendships and homes, and the ‘rebel’ stigma,” said former Air Force 1Lt Francisco Ashley Acedillo, one of the accused and Magdalo spokesman, now the group’s chairman.
Ampatuan Jr. pleads not guilty to massacre of 57th victim
By TESSA JAMANDRE
HEARINGS on the Maguindanao massacre resumed Wednesday, the first under the Aquino government, with former Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. and 16 other suspects pleading not guilty to the murder of the 57th victim, UNTV journalist Victor Nunez.
Ampatuan, the alleged mastermind, and the other suspects, mostly police officers, were each asked in Filipino and entered their pleas separately.
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Unfinished business: Coup and mutiny cases
By ELLEN TORDESILLAS and TESSA JAMANDRE
(First of two parts)
THE stockades at Camps Crame and Aguinaldo in Quezon City and the Marines headquarters in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig that once held scores of soldiers accused of rising up against the government are now empty except for three prisoners—a senator, the Armed Forces’ most bemedalled officer and a Marine captain who was a fugitive until a fortnight ago.
Their lives put on hold as their cases drag on before civilian and military courts, these three prisoners are stark reminders of a restive military that rebelled against its former commander in chief, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and represent government’s unfinished business with senior and junior military officers.
Each of the three stockades has a lone occupant.
Antonio Trillanes IV, a former Navy lieutenant senior grade and a civilian since his election to the Senate in 2007, remains in jail at the Phlippine National Police headquarters at Camp Crame, waiting for a Makati court to resolve coup d’etat charges filed against him and 21 other members of the “Magdalo” group. They were charged for laying siege on Makati’s Oakwood Hotel exactly seven years ago yesterday (July 27), on the eve of Arroyo’s third State of the Nation Address, to protest what they said were Malacanang-sanctioned irregularities in the military.
President Benigno Aquino III’s State of the Nation Address
STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS
PRESIDENT BENIGNO AQUINO III
July 26, 2010, Batasan Pambansa Complex, Quezon City
(English translation below)
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte; Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile; Vice President Jejomar Binay; Chief Justice Renato Corona; Former Presidents Fidel Valdez Ramos and Joseph Ejercito Estrada; members of the House of Representatives and the Senate; distinguished members of the diplomatic corps; my fellow workers in government;
Mga minamahal kong kababayan:
Sa bawat sandali po ng pamamahala ay nahaharap tayo sa isang sangandaan.
Sa isang banda po ay ang pagpili para sa ikabubuti ng taumbayan. Ang pagtanaw sa interes ng nakakarami; at pagkapit sa prinsipyo; at ang pagiging tapat sa sinumpaan nating tungkulin bilang lingkod-bayan. Ito po ang tuwid na daan.
Sa kabilang banda ay ang pag-una sa pansariling interes. Ang pagpapaalipin sa pulitikal na konsiderasyon, at pagsasakripisyo ng kapakanan ng taumbayan. Ito po ang baluktot na daan.
Matagal pong naligaw ang pamahalaan sa daang baluktot. Araw-araw po, lalong lumilinaw sa akin ang lawak ng problemang ating namana. Damang-dama ko ang bigat ng aking responsibilidad.
Sa unang tatlong linggo ng aming panunungkulan, marami po kaming natuklasan. Nais ko pong ipahayag sa inyo ang iilan lamang sa mga namana nating suliranin at ang ginagawa naming hakbang para lutasin ang mga ito.
Sulyap lamang po ito; hindi pa ito ang lahat ng problemang haharapin natin. Inilihim at sadyang iniligaw ang sambayanan sa totoong kalagayan ng ating bansa.
Enrile is Senate President; Belmonte, House Speaker in 15th Congress
THE 15th Congress opened today electing Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile of the Partido ng Masang Pilipino as senate president and Quezon City (4th district) Rep. Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. of the Liberal Party as speaker of the House of Representatives.
Enrile, dubbed as “unity” senate president, obtained 17 out of 20 votes of senators belonging to Liberal and Nacionalista Parties, including Sen. Manuel Villar, who ran for president in the last May elections and was investigated by the 14th Senate under Enrile for alleged overpricing on the C-5 road extension project.
Enrile defeated Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano of the NP who automatically becomes the Senate minority leader. Sen. Jinggoy Estrada was voted Senate President pro tempore . Sen. Vicente “Tito” Sotto III was majority floor leader and chairman of the Senate committee on rules.
Belmonte got 227 votes over Albay Rep. Edzel Lagman (Lakas-Lampi-CMD) who got only 29 votes. Lagman will share the position of House minority leader with Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez.
Lawyer says SC decision vs. comfort women riddled with plagiarized statements
By ELLEN TORDESILLAS
IN the sunset of their lives, 17 Malaya Lolas (Liberated Grandmothers) staged a rally Monday before the Supreme Court protesting the plagiarism in the decision that denied them remedy for the wartime savagery they suffered.
CenterLaw’s Harry Roque, counsel for 40 grandmothers who were forced to serve as “comfort women” to Japanese soldiers during the war, said what the Malaya Lolas got from the High Court was a “triple whammy.”
“They were denied legal remedy using sources that were plagiarized and twisted to support an unjust decision,” Roque said.
The April 28, 2010 SC decision penned by Associate Justice Mariano C. del Castillo said the court greatly sympathized with the cause of petitioners.
But it said, “ Regrettably, it is not within our power to order the Executive Department to take up the petitioners’ cause. Ours is only the power to urge and exhort the Executive Department to take up petitioners’ cause.”
Peace talks on hold as review proceeds
By TESSA JAMANDRE
THE Aquino government, in reviewing the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, will examine the terms of reference and roles of the third-country facilitator as well as state parties and international nongovernmental organizations before restarting talks.
Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles said while the government is still reconstituting its peace panel, the state parties will have to cease their activities in this regard except for the International Monitoring Team (IMT) composed of military and police contingents from Malaysia, Brunei, Libya and civilian experts from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
“The facilitator and the International Contact Group (ICG) definitely (will be reviewed) because until talks are restarted they are not active. Once we are ready, once our negotiating panels are set up, we will communicate so, but at the moment there is no official role of anyone there. The IMT is in place, but I understand EU and Norway have not brought in their people yet,” Deles told a forum of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines on Friday.
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Nueva Ecija village celebrates a festival of mud
By CARLOS MARQUEZ
Nueva Ecija Gold
ALIAGA, Nueva Ecija.—An entire village virtually turned sepia here last week as people clothed themselves in mud to celebrate the Feast of St. John the Baptist.
Unshod feet rushed from the barrio’s farthest points to the chapel patio—most wrapped in dried banana leaves and wild plants soaked in mud—where a 6 a.m. mass was to be held.
They call themselves Taong Putik (Mud People), a tradition observed in Bibiclat, a village 140 kilometers northwest of Manila with a population of about 50,000 of both Ilocano and Tagalog roots. Those taking part in the ritual believe their individual wishes would be realized, and a miracle would happen to heal their ailments.
Aquino’s health secretary supports sex ed, RH bill
By IBARRA C. MATEO
PRESIDENT Benigno S. Aquino’s appointee to the post of health secretary said Thursday he supports the teaching of sex education among Filipino students and the passage of a reproductive health bill.
In his first press conference, Dr. Enrique T. Ona said he sees no problem on “how or when” sex education should be taught.
Ona, 71, a famous kidney transplant surgeon, said the teaching of sex education should be done in a scientific manner or with a biological approach to the reproductive process.
President Benigno Aquino III’s inaugural address
ANG pagtayo ko rito ngayon ay patunay na kayo ang aking tunay na lakas. Hindi ko inakala na darating tayo sa puntong ito, na ako’y manunumpa sa harap ninyo bilang inyong Pangulo. Hindi ko pinangarap maging tagapagtaguyod ng pag-asa at tagapagmana ng mga suliranin ng ating bayan. (Note: The official English translation of his address is found below)
Ang layunin ko sa buhay ay simple lang: maging tapat sa aking mga magulang at sa bayan bilang isang marangal na anak, mabait na kuya, at mabuting mamamayan.
Nilabanan ng aking ama ang diktadurya at ibinuwis niya ang kanyang buhay para tubusin ang ating demokrasya. Inalay ng aking ina ang kanyang buhay upang pangalagaan ang demokrasyang ito. Ilalaan ko ang aking buhay para siguraduhin na ang ating demokrasya ay kapaki-pakinabang sa bawa’t isa. Namuhunan na po kami ng dugo at handang gawin itong muli kung kakailanganin.
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