Month: October 2006

This is one musical event not to be missed.

Otoniel Gonzaga, the country’s foremost tenor, teams up with Asian diva Dulce and the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) in a yearend concert called “Christmas Spectacular & Immortal Arias” at the Philamlife Theater on December 9, 2006.

In the same concert, the MPO under the baton of Rodel Colmenar, will also accompany guest soprano Camille Lopez Molina and flutist Christopher Oracion, two-time first prize winner of the National Music Competition for Young Artists.

Fresh from his triumphant team-up with Lea Salonga early this year, Gonzaga, a winner of the Marian Anderson Voice Competition and the ARD International Voice Competition in Munich, will do a duet with Dulce, a grand prize winner of the Asian Singing Competition in Hong Kong.

Almost a week after North Korea announced that they had successfully tested a nuclear weapon, analyses by Wesyern scientists indicate that Kim Il Jong, North Korea’s leader was not exactly telling the truth.

They have have conducted a nuclear tests but apparently, it failed. “”The betting is that this was an attempt at a nuclear test that failed,” Associated Press quoted a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information. ”

“We don’t think they were trying to fake a nuclear test, but it may have been a nuclear fizzle an effort that failed,” the official added.

According to Benjamin Abalos, the next election will be clean with him and Esperon overseeing it.Ha!Ha!Ha!

COMELEC Chairman Benjamin Abalos yesterday said there would be no-repeat of the “Hello Garci” scandal in 2004 with the signing of a memorandum of agreement that would limit the role of the military in during elections.

“With the role of the military now well-defined…there’s going to be no Garci (controversy),” he said.

Sa “Strictly Politics” noong Martes ng gabi sa ANC (8 p.m.), sinabi ni Prof. Felipe Miranda ng Pulse Asia na humihingi si Gloria Arroyo ng kapahamakan (She is courting disaster) kung kakanselahin ang elections sa May 2007 para ipagpilitan ang Charter Change.

Sabi ni Prof. Miranda malaking bagay ang eleksyon sa mamamayan dahil yun lamang ang kanilang ideya ng partisipasyon sa pamahalaan. Maliban sa barangay kung saan magkakilala ang lahat at madali silang lumapit, ang pakiramdam nila napakataas at napakalayo ng national government. Tuwing eleksyon lamang sila pinapansin.

Paniwala nila sa tuwing eleksyon lamang sila binibigyan ng halaga at ayaw nilang alisin ang maliit na pagkakataon na yan.

Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez is back from her Swiss sojourn and wasted no time defending her decision to absolve Comelec officials led by Chairman Benjamin Abalos from responsibility in the anomalous P1.3 billion poll automation contract with Mega Pacific.

Photo below was taken during yesterday’s press conference. Beside her is Overall Deputy Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro who saw “no iota of evidence to show” that Comelec’s decision to award the contract to Mega Pacific “constitute manifest (sic) of partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence.”

North Korea that goes by the official name of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea announced today that it has successfully performed its first nuclear tests to the horror of the rest of the world.

“The field of scientific research in the DPRK successfully conducted an underground nuclear test under secure conditions on October 9, 2006, at a stirring time when all the people of the country are making a great leap forward in the building of a great, prosperous, powerful socialist nation,” North Korea’s official statement said.

If the nuclear test is confirmed, North Korea becomes the ninth nuclear state. The others are the Britain, China,France,India,Israel,Pakistan, Russia, and United States.

This Agence France-Presse report is from today’s issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

CAMP PENDLETON, California—A US Navy Fil-Am medic told a military court Friday how seven Marines dragged an Iraqi civilian from his home and shot him in cold blood before covering up the brutal slaying.

In dramatic testimony at the US Marine Corps base, Camp Pendleton, in southern California, Melson Bacos said he had watched in horror as 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad was bound and gagged before being gunned down.

Bacos, a Purple Heart recipient who is the son of immigrants from the Philippines and who was jailed for a year after a plea deal that saw him admit to kidnapping but cleared of murder, said the killing had arisen out of frustration at the reputed release of a “known terrorist.”