by Tessa Jamandre VERA Files AS Muslims all over the world end their monthlong prayer and fasting on Monday, their brothers who have been displaced…
Making life worth living.
Category: Peace and Order
Lacson not interested; denies participation
by Norman Bordadora, Michael Lim Ubac
Philippine Daily Inquirer
The daughters of Salvador “Bubby” Dacer will accept Sen. Panfilo Lacson as a state witness if he provides information identifying the mastermind of the abduction and murder of the publicist and his driver in November 2000.
This was disclosed to the Philippine Daily Inquirer by Demetrio Custodio, the lawyer of Dacer’s daughters, who filed a murder complaint against Lacson after former Senior Supt. Cezar Mancao’s earlier testimony that he had heard the then Philippine National Police chief issue the order to kill Dacer.
“We are willing to accept any witness who will lead us to the killer. If it’s [Lacson], it would be okay,” Custodio said. “We are hoping that he can provide us usable information. The last time [he took the Senate floor], it wasn’t quite definite.”
But Lacson is not interested.
by Tina Santos
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Former Senior Supt. Cezar Mancao II Thursday testified at the Manila Regional Trial Court that he was offered financial support and relocation abroad by an official of the Arroyo administration in exchange for fabricated statements against Sen. Panfilo Lacson in connection with the Dacer-Corbito double murder case.
Mancao made the claim during the same hearing where Judge Myra Garcia Fernandez affirmed a Supreme Court decision dated Oct. 5, 2005, ordering the dropping of former Supt. Glenn Dumlao—also an ex-member of the now-defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF)—from the list of accused in the case in order to become a witness.
As has been the practice in Judge Fernandez’s court, journalists were barred from covering the hearing on her orders.
Privilege speech by Sen. Panfilo Lacson
In Greek drama, masks were useful devices that allow the actor to play several different characters.
In the Philippine political drama, nothing much differs.
Mr. President, distinguished colleagues. Today, I rise on a matter of
personal and collective privilege.
The great American writer Elbert Green Hubbard once wrote:
If you work for a man, in heaven’s name work for him…. If you must
vilify, condemn, and eternally disparage, resign your position, and
when you are OUTSIDE, DAMN TO YOUR HEART’S CONTENT, but as long as you are part of the institution do not condemn it. If you do that, you are loosening the tendrils that are holding you to that institution, and at the first high wind that comes along, you will be uprooted and blown away, and will probably never know the reason why.
I hope you will understand why it has taken me this long to unburden
myself of the truth I carry.
In the latest tragedy in Basilan where more than 40 lost their lives, 22 of them members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and one from the Philippine National Police, the public’s heart goes out for the soldiers and the police.
But they are angry at Gloria Arroyo, the fake commander-in-chief.
Read and feel the rage of the people:
Grabe itong nangyari sa ating mga sundalo sa Tipo-tipo, Basilan.
Ayon sa mga report, sobra 40 ang patay sa engkwentro ng pwersa ng pamahalaan at magkasanib na Abu Sayaff at MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) noong Miyerkules sa Basilan.
Sabi ng military na sa 23 na patay sa kanila, 19 ay Marines, tatlo ay Army (Scout Rangers) at ang isa ay pulis. Ang ibang patay ay sa panig ng Abu Sayaff at MILF.
Sunod na sunod ang bombahan nitong mga nakaraang araw. Noong Martes lang, dalawang lugar ang binomba: sa Jolo, Sulu at sa Iligan, Lanao del Norte.
Noong Linggo, sa Cotabato City sa litsunan sa tapat ng simbahan.
Maraming namatay at madadagdagan pa ang bilang habang sinusulat ito dahil marami sa mga nasugatan ay grabe ang kalagayan.
Update: More than two hours after the blast, another bomb went off in Iligan City, Lanao del Norte province around 10:40 a.m.
Police said the blast took place at the corner of Sabayle Street and Cabili avenue, in front of a lending firm. An Army jeep which was passing by the area, was hit in the explosion. At least six civilians have been reported injured in the incident.-ABS-CBN online
Update: Maj. Gen. Juancho Sabban, commander of Task Force Comet. said he believes the bombing in Cotabato City on Sunday and today’s blast in Jolo are unrelated. He points to the Abu Sayyaf as suspects in today’s blast as a diversionary tactic because of their intensified pursuit operations.
The suspect in last Sunday’s bombing is the MILF.
6 dead, scores wounded in Jolo blast
abs-cbnNEWS.com
Six people were killed and more than 40 others were wounded in a bomb attack in the predominantly Muslim town of Jolo in Sulu province, Tuesday morning.
Sulu-based military spokesman Lt. Col. Edgard Arevalo said an improvised explosive device exploded between a gasoline refilling station and a hardware store along Sanchez street in downtown Jolo around 7:50 a.m.
by Carolyn O. Arguillas MindaNews DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/05 July) – Archbishop Orlando Quevedo was finishing his homily on priests and prophecy at around 8:40 a.m.…