Author: Ellen

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.”

The highest-ranking Filipino -American in the White House resigns as the House of Representatives examines her ties with disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Bloomberg reports that Susan Bonzon Ralston, top aide of Karl Rove,White House political director, is resigning a week after a House Government Reform panel’s report documented her role in arranging tickets to sporting events for Rove from the lobbyist.

“She recognized that a protracted discussion of the matters in the House Government Reform Committee’s report would be a distraction to the White House, and she chose to step down,” assistant White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said. “We support her decision, and after a review of the report, we consider the matter closed.”

Malaya correspondent in Washington D.C. Jennie Ilustre reported the Fil-Am community is concerned that Ralston “might be used as a scapegoat.”

Police authorities said with the arrest of four suspects in the murder of Bishop Alberto Ramento of the Philippine Independent Church, the case is considered solved. Click here for Malaya story.

Ramento’s killing was a “plain and simple case of robbery with homicide, and not extrajudicial killing” as militant groups have alleged, said PNP chief Oscar Calderon.

But many find that difficult to accept.

(Retired Ambassador Reynaldo Arcilla writes a column for Malaya. This was his piece last Tuesday.)

Either Ms. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo wants to retire Foreign Secretary Alberto G. Romulo, or Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago desperately wants his job. Or both.

Last week, Santiago was reported to have said that Arroyo was amenable to nominating Romulo to the post of United Nations Secretary General. Incumbent Kofi Annan is vacating the post at the end of this year.

The report did not say whether or not Romulo was consulted on the matter, much less agreed to being nominated. He was in New York when Santiago made her statement.

(This news item by Jocelyn Montemayor appeared in the Oct. 3, 2006 issue of Malaya.)

THE libel suits filed by Jose Miguel Arroyo against at least 43 journalists might not prosper since the courts are likely to find him a public figure, presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor said yesterday.

“Di ba ang sabi ng mga rulings ng court, it’s so hard for a public official to file a libel case, di ba? Now I wouldn’t know how the courts would determine the First Gentleman’s but since may tainting ng pagiging public figure siya that is something that has to be determined by them,” Defensor said.

Defensor said Cabinet members as well as senators and congressmen are not that sensitive as far as libel cases are concerned since they are public figures.