ellen tordesillas – Page 294 – Making life worth living.

Small blessings

Published by Ellen on September 2, 2008

Maybe I should thank the Commission on Human Rights for saying that the arrest of journalists who covered Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim at the Manila Pen on Nov. 29, 2007 “constitutes arbitrary arrest/detention in violation of human rights standards.”

It’s definitely better than the dismissal of our class suit by NBI- agent- turned-judge Reynaldo Laigo of the Makati RTC who said that our arrest, handcuffing, and detention was “justified’ and even added that we were “so lucky” that the police didn’t initiate criminal charges against us.

With a leader who has no respect for the Constitution and disdains truth, CHR chair Leila de Lima gives me some hope. Maybe I should thank her for making the Commission say that “there have been violations of the human rights of liberty, security of person and freedom from arbitrary arrest of the complainants in the Manila Peninsula Siege.”

Politicians dip hand into Quedancor funds

Published by Ellen on September 2, 2008

Update: The VERA Files site is back. Note: The VERA Files website was hacked last night (Sept 1 ).We are still fixing the terrible damage…

Piggery naging cemetery

Published by Ellen on September 1, 2008

Ang panibagong report ng VERA Files ay tungkol sa Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corp. (Quedancor) na sinasabing bangko ng mahihirap.

Kaya talagang nakaka-ngitngit madiskubre na ginagatasan pala ito ng mga tauhan ni Gloria Arroyo. Talagang walang patawad. Isusubo na lang ng mahihirap, aagawin pa.

Ang isang kaso na ginawang showcase ng Verafiles ay yung kay Aura Drew Escanlar ng Iloilo City na ginamit ang kanyang pera para sa kanyang review sa nursing board examinations noong December of 2004 sa pagpatayo ng piggery o babuyan.

CHR: No basis in detaining journalists during Nov 29 standoff

Published by Ellen on September 1, 2008

The Commission on Human Rights said Monday there was no basis to justify the arrest and detention of several journalists during the Nov. 29, 2007 standoff at The Peninsula Manila hotel in Makati City.

In a news briefing, CHR chair Leila de Lima said some violations were committed during the arrest and processing of media personalities in the aftermath of the six-hour standoff between government forces and the group of Army Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and the Magdalo led by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV.

In one of its resolutions, the CHR recommended that the case be “referred to the Department of the Interior and Local Government and to the Philippine National Police for internal inquiry and for filing of proper administrative disciplinary cases and measures applied to proper persons.”

Quedancor swine program another fertilizer scam

Published by Ellen on September 1, 2008

Following is the first of a three-part series on Quedancor written by VERA Files.

by Diosa Labiste, Luz Rimban, and Yvonne Chua
VERA Files

(First of three parts)

ILOILO CITY— Aura Drew Escanlar was all set to take the nursing board examinations that December of 2004 when she decided instead to put up a piggery.

What changed her mind was an offer from the Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corp. (Quedancor). Called “the poor man’s financing institution,” the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) credit guarantee arm was giving out loans in the form of piglets and feeds, with a buy-back scheme that assured borrowers some income.

Escanlar then used her parents’ savings to build pigpens and buy piglets, and signed up for the Quedancor Swine Program (QSP). Less than a year later, Escanlar lost almost everything. The income from the buy-back scheme was always delayed, and the feeds came late or were not delivered at all. After 50 of her piglets died, Escanlar stormed the Quedancor regional office here. “You have turned my farm into a graveyard,” she told Quedancor employees.

Desperately saving Gloria Arroyo

Published by Ellen on August 31, 2008

Now that it’s becoming clear that the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is unconstitutional and could be grounds for the impeachment of the one who authorized it, Gloria Arroyo’s minions are scrambling to protect her saying she never saw the document that has now claimed more than 200 lives and rendered homeless more than 250,000 people.

At the final hearing of the Supreme Court on the MOA-AD, Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera said “The panel conveyed to me that the MOA was not submitted to the Office of the President..She never saw it, she was never shown a copy.”

Responsibilidad ni Arroyo

Published by Ellen on August 30, 2008

Kahapon ng umaga, inambus and tropa ng 11th Marine Batallion Landing Team sa Patikul, Sulu. Apat ang namatay at sampu ang nasugatan.

Sabi ni Marine Commandant Ben Dolorfino, mga bandidong Abu Sayyaf daw ang may kagagawan.

Sabi ni Navy Spokesman Edgardo Arevalo, papunta ang mga Marines sa Mt. Bayug sa Talipao ng paputukan sila ng mga armadong grupo. Pagkatapos ng barilan ng mga sampung minuto, umatras na rin ang mga armadong grupo.

4 Marines killed, 10 hurt in Sulu firefight

Published by Ellen on August 30, 2008

Breaking News:

By Joel Guinto
Inquirer.net

Four soldiers were killed while 10 others wounded when they were ambushed by suspected Muslim extremists in the southern island province of Sulu Saturday morning, the commandant of the Philippine Marine Corps said.

At 6:45 a.m., a convoy from the 11th Marine Battalion Landing Team was in the vicinity of Bonbon village in Patikul town when they were attacked by the gunmen, believed to be members of the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, Major General Ben Dolorfino said.

Grasping at (foreign) straws

Published by Ellen on August 28, 2008

Gloria Arroyo is leaving abroad this weekend, a source in Malacañang said.

She declined to tell me the destination but it couldn’t be to the United States because her next trip there will be next month. Arroyo is scheduled to leave for New York Sept. 22 to attend the United Nations General Assembly and the Clinton Global Initiative conference.

I’m told she will also be going to Seattle to attend a Fil-Am activity.

It is expected that Arroyo will again be accompanied by her usual coterie of junketing congressmen paid for by Filipino taxpayers. At this time economic difficulties and with the uneasy situation in Mindanao, another transatlantic trip for Arroyo reflects callousness.

Wala ng delikadesa

Published by Ellen on August 27, 2008

Nakakalungkot itong pinaka-latest na pangyayari sa gulo sa Court of Appeals sa away ng Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) at Manila Electric Company (Meralco).

Hindi ako nagtataka sa report ng mga suholan sa mataas na korte. Ngunit nalulungkot ako sa garapalan at kawalang delikadesa. At ang mga taong sangkot ay edukado at galing sa matitinong pamilya. Hindi naman nagugutom ngunit mukhang iba ang kanilang ideya ng mali at tama.

Nong Martes, nagbigay ng kanyang testimony si Camilo Sabio, chairman ng Presidential Commission on Good Government sa panel na binuo ng Supreme Court pa mag-imbestiga sa expose ng kanyang kapatid na si CA Justice Jose Sabio, Jr na inalok siya ng isang abogadong malapit sa pamilyang Lopez ng P10 million para paboran ang Meralco.

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