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Author: Ellen

Void for vagueness

Published by Ellen on July 22, 2007

Adel Tamano, who gave the Genuine Opposition last election a good-looking image as its spokesman, must be a hit as a classroom teacher.

I saw him work wide-eyed students of UP Manila last Friday during a forum on the Human Security Act (R.A. 1372) organized by the UP Political Science Society.

Adel cited several reasons why R.A. 1372 is unconstitutional and one of these is the doctrine of “Void for Vagueness.” He said: “The definition of what constitutes terrorism is so broad and all-encompassing that the ordinary citizen would have no idea, hence no legal notice as required by our right to due process, of what specific acts constitute a violation of the law.”

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Esperon’s brand of justice

Published by Ellen on July 22, 2007

Here goes again Esperon threatening to railroad further the court martial proceedings against Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda et al by appointing a lower-ranking military official to try the accused officers.

Here’ Victor Reyes’ story in Malaya

Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said the unnecessary use of the peremptory challenge in the court martial of ex-Marine commandant Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda and company is just a ploy to delay the proceedings.

Last July 18, Miranda got rid of Lt. Gen. Alexander Yano, military tribunal president, by challenging him. His co-accused Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim then challenged Yano’s successor Maj. Gen. Raul Caballes and also got the latter to inhibit himself. Each of the accused is entitled to a peremptory challenge even without cause and any officer challenged would have to exclude himself from the proceedings.

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Opposition can set Senate agenda

Published by Ellen on July 22, 2007

Looks like the situation in the Senate has been salvaged for the Filipino people.

Despite the votes of administration senators that will make him retain the senate presidency, Manuel Villar is giving the major comittees to the opposition. The latest we heard is the important Blue Ribbon Committee will go to Alan Peter Cayetano.

Alan will make use of the position of General Counsel for the committee by appointing Adel Tamano, who competently served as spokesman for the Genuine Opposition.

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Trial turns into protest forum

Published by Ellen on July 19, 2007

Indeed, the all-powerful unseen hand has a way of spoiling the most calculated plans.

Just like what happened in the court martial hearing of the mutiny case against 28 Marine and Army officers involved in the Feb. 2006 aborted withdrawal of support from Gloria Arroyo.

If the reason for the holding the hearing a week ahead of the agreed schedule had something to do with rendering the accused irrelevant for whatever the government is planning in the coming days, the opposite was achieved because the hearing served as a forum for the Marines to express their sympathy to their fallen comrades and disgust for the inept manner that the military leadership is handling the situation.

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Gloria ‘jokes’ she will run for House

Published by Ellen on July 19, 2007

It’s a float. The scheming Gloria Arroyo is testing public reaction.

President Arroyo has once more revived the issue of Charter change with her remark yesterday that she might run for a congressional seat in Pampanga when her term ends in 2010.

Arroyo made the remark at the opening of the Luzon Urban Beltway infrastructure conference at the terminal lounge of the Subic Bay International Airport,

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See the world, feed on public trough

Published by Ellen on July 18, 2007

Read this story to see the dreadful kind of human beings we have as members of our House of Representatives.

by Peter Tabingo

Go globe-trotting on taxpayers’ money and get paid even without working.

With these and similar promises of the good life, senior members of the House of Representatives yesterday welcomed first-term members during the chamber’s orientation seminar.

Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. regaled his audience of some 80 neophyte and returning lawmakers with the announcement that since last year, each House member’s allowance for foreign travel has been pegged at P1 million.

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Ang legacy kuno ni Gloria Arroyo

Published by Ellen on July 18, 2007

Naiisip kaya ni Gloria Arroyo na alam ng buong bayan na siya ay mandaraya at sinungaling ng kanyang sabihin sa harapan ng mga negosyante na gusto niya maala-ala ang kanyang administrasyon na nag iwan ng “mas mabuting edukasyon”?

Sa conference ng Corporate Social Responsibility Expo 2007, ipinagyabang ni Arroyo na ang kanyang administrasyon daw ay nagbuhos ng maraming pera sa edukasyon kalakip ng kanyang programa sa pagpalago ng “human capital”.

Ang sarap pakinggan ng mga salita ni Arroyo. Kaya lang kapag siya ang nagsasalita, nawawala ang halaga.

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Court martial president ousted by peremptory challenge

Published by Ellen on July 18, 2007


by Victor Reyes
Malaya

CAMP CAPINPIN, Tanay, Rizal – Former Marine commandant Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda’s lawyer yesterday caused the expulsion of Lt. Gen. Alexander Yano by exercising peremptory challenge against the president of the general court martial that has been trying Miranda and 27 other military officers in the last eight months for last year’s failed power grab.

Under the military justice system, all accused in a court martial have the right to peremptorily challenge any member of the tribunal without cause, a move that automatically disqualifies the challenged member.

Yano, who is the head of the Southern Luzon Command, was forced to inhibit himself. He designated Maj. Gen. Raul Caballes to take over but Caballes was himself peremptorily challenged by another accused, former Scout Ranger Regiment commander Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim.

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