by Victor Reyes
Col. Roberto Caldeo is the third soldier to commit suicide apparently from stress or trauma over a bloody assault on an Abu Sayyaf stronghold in Basilan in 2000.
This was disclosed yesterday by officers who were also involved in “Final Option,” an operation to rescue a priest and dozens of teachers and students taken hostage by the Abu Sayyaf.
Gloria Arroyo is set to go to the United States for a state visit on June 24 to 25.
Aside from meeting President George W. Bush, Arroyo is also scheduled to address the US-Asean Business Council.
The talk is that Arroyo will witness the signing into law of the Veterans Benefits Enhancement Act by Bush.
(I was not able to get photos in today’s hearing. I just asked for these photos from a relative of one of the detainees. Both photos were taken after the hearing. The first photo shows the Tanay-bound officers. In the second photo are officers detained at the ISAFP facility in Camp Aguinaldo.)
by Victor Reyes
Malaya
Officers linked to the alleged power grab attempt in February 2006 yesterday gave Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., who is due to retire from the
service in two weeks, a failing grade as the military chief for close to two years.
“No one has brought more shame to the institution,” former Scout Ranger chief Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim said of Esperon in a handwritten statement issued at the sidelines of a court martial hearing against the accused officers inside Camp Aguinaldo.
There are two items in the April 23, 2008 letter of Sen. Miriam Santiago, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,to House Speaker Prospero Nograles unsettling.
The first one is her saying that she was shelving Senate Bill 1467 and House Bill 1202 defining the country’s archipelagic baselines “”Pursuant to President Arroyo’s directive.” The other one is her furnishing a copy of her letter the Chinese Ambassador Song Tao.
Santiago is known as “an administration senator”. It’s not surprising for her to toe the administration line. But she is a member of the Legislative Department, co-equal with the Executive and Judicial branches of government. Senators are not supposed to get orders from the executive department, even from the president.
By Julie M. Aurelio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
An opposition senator on Thursday told a Makati City court that the so-called Oakwood mutiny in 2003 cannot qualify as a coup d’etat, especially if compared to the 1987 and 1989 coup attempts.
Testifying for the defense, Biazon said there was no attack, even as the members of the so-called Magdalo group of rebel soldiers seized the Oakwood luxury apartments in the Makati financial district, said lawyer Ernesto Francisco, who represents eight of the 22 junior officers accused of leading the mutiny.
Nagkandarapa ang mga guwardiya sa Malacañang noong Martes nang biglang nagprotesta ang mga magsasaka sa harap ng gate ng Malacañang sa pamamagitan ng mga nakasulat na mensahe sa kanilang katawan.
Mahigpit kasi ang security sa paligid ng Malacañang. Parang pier na nga ang Malacañang sa dami ng cargo vans na nakaharang doon. Takot sa taumbayan si Gloria. Bigla tuloy nag- red alert sa paligid ng Malacañang.
It seems Esperon does not have the defense portfolio in the bag yet. Sources said Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro is resisting being moved like a piece in chess to another post (Justice?) just to accommodate Esperon. Is this declaration of willingness to talk about “Hello Garci” a veiled threat to the mastermind and beneficiary of the 2004 election fraud?
By Joel Guinto
Inquirer.net
Armed Forces chief General Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said he is willing to testify at legislative inquiries into the so-called “Hello Garci” election fraud scandal after he retires, but only if the proceedings are “reasonable.”
In our discussion of the current rice crisis, Commodore (ret) Rex Robles tells us of the three legs of the national security tripod: food, fuel, fertilizer.
We are now burdened with the rising prices of food and fuel. Here comes the information of a looming fertilizer shortage.
The info was shared with us by a businessman who subscribes to assessments of a Hongkong-based risk consultancy firm.
Bakit ba kailangan pumila ang mahihirap ng anim na oras para makabili ng dalawa o tatlong kilong bigas?
Hindi ito makatarungan at gusto alamin ng Senado ang ugat ng krisis sa bigas. Ngunit ayaw ng Malacañang. Hindi lang ‘yun. Ang mga senador pa ngayon ang may kasalanan sa krisis ng bigas. Sabi ni Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol, “”Tigilan na nila. Tumulong naman sila. Stop investigating, start helping…Namemerwisyo na ang Senado.
“Pag tumulong sila, wala nang price crisis… Kaso ginugulo nila… Wala na ba silang pagtingin sa bayan?”
by Sara O. Siguion-Reyna
(This article appeared in the Learning Section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer today. Sara is the daughter of filmmaker Carlitos Siguion-Reyna and movie/TV scriptwriter and actress Bibeth Orteza.)
I grew up on Mama’s stories of the anti-Marcos days and her activities: running in her clogs to flee truncheon-wielding Metrocom soldiers, bringing home the red flag of the Diliman Commune after a Makibaka march (she wanted it draped on the window, my grandmother turned it into a pillowcase) and, after Sept. 21, 1972, distributing underground newspapers, attending underground political discussions, doing this and that in the name of democracy.
Papa, light years away from his own “awakening,” got arrested one night for violating curfew. He would not tell the arresting policemen that he was the defense minister’s nephew, so he and his friends weeded the vacant lots of Camp Crame.