Archive for December, 2011

Mapayapa at masaganang bagong taon!

Sana natuto tayo sa mga nangyari sa iiwanan nating taon. Sana magiging mapayapa at masagana hindi lamamang sa taong 2012, kasama na rin ang susunod na mga taon! Let’s start the year right by not touching firecrackers. If you can make a blast with the use of the good old bamboo cannon, the better.

December 31, 2011  Tags: ,   Posted in: General  6 Comments

The ‘thief in the night’ gets caught

Finally, Gloria Arroyo will be made accountable for the anomalous NBN/ZTE deal. The Ombudsman yesterday charged Gloria Arroyo, her husband Mike Arroyo, and two other officials of her government – former Commission on Elections Benjamin Abalos and former Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza, for violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (R.A. 3019). [...]

December 29, 2011  Tags: ,   Posted in: Gloria Arroyo and family, Graft and corruption, Malaya  21 Comments

Ombudsman files graft charges vs Arroyo; to be raffled Jan.2

From abs-cbnNEWS.com The graft charges filed by the Ombudsman against former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo before the Sandiganbayan will be raffled off next week. “The Office of the Ombudsman has requested a special raffle today but it was disapproved by the presiding judge. Instead, it was rescheduled for January 2, Monday,” said Sandiganbayan spokesperson Renato [...]

December 29, 2011  Tags: ,   Posted in: Gloria Arroyo and family, Graft and corruption, NBN/ZTE  16 Comments

Aquino to strengthen legal team

It’s good that President Aquino finally saw the need to make changes in his legal team. With a stronger legal team, he need not resort to making us believe it is good governance to bend the law to make Gloria Arroyo accountable for the crimes she committed against the Filipino people. In an interview with [...]

December 28, 2011  Tags:   Posted in: Justice, Malaya  16 Comments

Making Christmas meaningful

I was talking with Mindanao-based photo-journalist Erwin Mascariñas, who brought us heart-rending images of the tragedy wrought by storm Sendong in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, the other day and telling him that I felt awkward greeting him “Merry Christmas” when I know that he is surrounded by grief and suffering. Erwin was not spared [...]

December 26, 2011  Tags:   Posted in: Disaster, Malaya  5 Comments

May we all have a blessed and meaningful Christmas!

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

December 24, 2011  Tags:   Posted in: General  10 Comments

Surviving Sendong

BY Erwin Mascariñas, VERA Files CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Floodwaters brought by storm “Sendong” swept Cagayan de Oro and Iligan city and other parts of Central Mindanao while people were sleeping Friday night last week. Power went out. In the darkness of the night, people panicked as they tried to flee from the rampaging [...]

December 23, 2011  Tags:   Posted in: Disaster  One Comment

An appeal for our media colleagues battered by typhoon ‘Sendong’

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) appeals to colleagues and the public to extend help to media workers including NUJP members who have been ravaged by typhoon “Sendong.” Hundreds have died and many more have been left homeless and dispossessed due to the calamity that struck the cities of Iligan, Cagayan de [...]

December 22, 2011   Posted in: Disaster, Media  2 Comments

Time for reckoning for Palparan

I remember that speech to be most obscene. In her sixth State-of-the-Nation address on July 24, 2006, Gloria Arroyo, amidst cries of parents of University of the Philippines Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño and relatives of Manuel Merino, a farmer, Gloria Arroyo lavished praises on one of the most feared and hated generals – then [...]

December 22, 2011  Tags:   Posted in: Human Rights, Malaya, Military  22 Comments

Sendong’s dead dumped in garbage landfill site

Text and photos by Froilan Gallardo, Mindanews I am a professional photojournalist and I am not in a habit of showing bloated bodies unless there is a compelling reason. This is an exception. The city government of Cagayan de Oro transferred 30 bodies from Bollozos Funeral Homes in Barangay Bulua to the garbage landfill in [...]

December 19, 2011  Tags: ,   Posted in: Disaster  21 Comments