Friday last week, Marine Commandant Benjamin Dolorfino was at the Sierra Madre building in Camp Capinpin in Tanay where the court martial trial of the 28 officers accused of attempting to withdraw support from Gloria Arroyo was being held.
Dolorfino stayed behind the courtroom waiting for his turn to be called to sit as member of the court in case any one of the sitting members would be ejected by peremptory challenge of one of the accused.
Breaking news!
House Speaker Jose de Venecia, to save his speakership, agreed to inhibit from the impeachment complaint filed by Atty. Roel Pulido against Gloria Arroyo,
Deputy Speaker Raul del Mar of Cebu will endorse the complaint to the Justice Committee. That effectively immunizes Gloria Arroyo from any impeachment complaint for a year. Pulido’s impeachment complaint, which allegedly is the handiwork of Arroyo’s people including Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno, is considered so flimsy, it won’t prosper.
Update:
Esperon unremorseful of his illegal detention of 40 soldiers:On Thursday, Armed Forces Chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. indicated that the fate of the 40 enlisted men would depend on the outcome of the case against the 28 officers.
“Do you discharge the enlisted personnel when the officers have not yet even been arraigned? A good timing would be to arraign the officers first and decide what punishment would be fit for the offenses committed by the enlisted personnel, because they were simply led to doing it by some officers,” Esperon told reporters. click here for full story
Update: Escudero asks: why GMA’s interest in pushing Cyber Ed project?
Sa “Strictly Politics” noong Martes ng gabi, sinabi ni Rep. Teddy Locsin, na may palagay siya ang “impeach me” na sinumite ni Atty. Roel Pulido sa Kongreso noong Biyernes ay para talaga mabakunahan si Gloria Arroyo sa totoong impeachment complaint sa taong ito.
Hindi lang yun, sabi ni Locsin. Ito ay para masigurado rin nila na hindi na sila maaaring isabit sa mas malaking deal na Cyber-Education project. Ito ay nagkakahalaga ng $400 million, China na naman ang partner, at walang bidding rin.
Last Friday, towards the end of the court martial hearing on the 28 officers accused of attempting a coup in February 2006, Atty. Alex Avisado, lawyer of Army Capt. Isagani Criste reminded the court that almost a year of trial, the accused have not yet been provided a copy of the pre-trial advice signed by AFP Chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon.
Avisado said what they have is an unsigned copy of the PTA. Since it’s unsigned, it’s nothing. It’s merely a scrap of paper. There is no basis for charging and imprisoning the officers.
Update:Puno is named impeach brains
Atty. Pulido issued a statement saying Francis Ver is a total stranger to him. Full statement in comments.
From ABS-CBN online:
Lawyer Francis Ver who was tagged by an opposition solon as the “Malacañang operator” who offered him P2 million to endorse the latest impeachment complaint filed against President Arroyo has denied on Tuesday the allegation hurled against him through a privilege speech in the House of Representatives.
Ver, who just a few hours ago was the deputy secretary-general of Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (KAMPI), said he “might” have mentioned an amount of money while talking with Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran hours before an impeachment complaint was filed against President Arroyo.
Pumasok na sa pang-araw-araw na pananalita ng Pinoy ang salitang “toxic” na ang ibig sabihin ay nakakasama sa kalusugan ng isang tao.
Kapag inis ka sa isang tao o sa particular na isyu, ang sasabihin mo ay, “Huwag na natin pag-usapan yan. Toxic.” Ganyan ang usapang JPEPA (Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement) na tinatalakay ng Senado para ratipikahan, kung akala nila makakabuti sa bayan o ibasura kung akala naman nila ay toxic.
Maraming isyu ang nasa JPEPA. May mga ibibigay tayo sa Japan kapalit ng kanilang ibibigay na pabor sa atin. Ang ilan sa mga pabor na dinadawit ng Japan sa atin ay makapasok raw ang marami nating produkto sa Japan na tax free. Kapag tax free kasi, mura kaya makakapag-compete sa ibang produkto doon.
by Jocelyn Montemayor
Jose Miguel Arroyo, the President’s husband, may have been fit enough to take a 10-hour direct flight from Hong Kong to Europe, and even take in an occasional round of golf.
But his lawyer said yesterday Arroyo’s doctors are likely to disallow him from attending the resumption of the joint Senate investigation on the national broadband project on Oct. 25.
Arroyo’s lawyer, Ruy Rondain, said yesterday, “I doubt if he will go against the advice of his doctors.”
Following is Noel de la Fuente reaction to my column last Friday “Convenient diversion”:
Dear Ms. Tordesillas:
Thank you for understanding the outrage of Filipino-Americans over the racist remarks of Teri Hatcher in the TV show Desperate Housewives. For those who are not yet aware of this, here are the offensive remarks:
“. . . Mayer (Teri Hatcher) asked for the credentials of the gynecologist who examined
her . . . She said, `Can I check those diplomas ‘coz I just want to make sure they’re
not from some med school in the Philippines.'”
‘Abnormal times require extraordinary actions.
Last week journalist Jarius Bondoc wrote in his column in the Philippine Star some of the things that Romulo Neri, former chief of the National Economic and Development Authority, had told him in confidence about the controversial National Broadband Network-ZTE deal, the latest anomaly shaking the Gloria Arroyo’s shaky presidency.
It will be recalled that when Neri appeared before the Senate, he revealed the “Sec, may 200 ka dito” bomb that did in Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos. But when the trail reached the doorstep of Gloria Arroyo, he invoked “executive privilege” which is defined as in the Supreme Court ruling on EO 464 as “the right of the President and high-level executive branch officers to withhold information from Congress, the courts, and ultimately the public.”