ellen tordesillas – Page 96 – Making life worth living.

The Joy de los Reyes in the hearts and minds of friends

Published by Ellen on May 6, 2013

JOY, 59
By ALEX MAGNO,The Philippine Star

I first ran into Joy de los Reyes over four decades ago, when barricades rose and the streets were on fire. We were combatants, members of what were called “composite teams,” militants expected to hold the line against police charges to protect the main formation of demonstrators.

We became unlikely but fast friends. He was from the Samahan ng Demokratikong Kabataan (SDK) and I from the chauvinistic Kabataang Makabayan (KM). He emanated from the public schools of Aklan and I from a suburban Catholic school. He was always disorganized and I was an obsessive-compulsive, task-oriented bastard. Besides, he had such an unlikely name.

He was studying to become an engineer and I was supposed to become a lawyer. Neither of us lived up to our original plans. Joy fell in love with philosophy and I became immersed in political economy.

No need for Lacson to harm Mancao

Published by Ellen on May 6, 2013

On Nov. 16, 2011, there was a hearing of the Dacer-Corbito kidnapping and murder case. That was the day after Gloria Arroyo was blocked at the airport when she attempted to leave the country for Singapore.

A source who was at the courtroom said the prosecution’s witness, former Police Senior Superintendent Cezar Mancao II, was fidgety because his lawyer, Ferdinand Topacio, was not around.

Someone told Mancao, “Hindi na darating yun. Napuyat yun kagabi. (He won’t be coming. He is tired due to to last night’s incident.”

Topacio never made it to the court that day and the hearing was postponed. He was present in subsequent hearings.

Farewell, Joy

Published by Ellen on May 3, 2013

Joy Cortes Delos Reyes, the Editor-in-Chief of Malaya Business Insight passed away May 3, 2013. He was 59. His remains lie in estate at his…

Spin

Published by Ellen on May 3, 2013

Spin, in media lingo, is using information to support a particular bias or slant.

It’s not exactly false but some aspects of the truth may have been glossed over.

As the campaign for the 2013 elections heats up, spin doctors are becoming more creative that sometimes, I get startled by what I hear and read.

How to package a candidate

Published by Ellen on May 1, 2013

By Lucille Sodipe, VERA Files CEBU City–Just like any brand of shampoo, diaper, energy drink or deodorant, candidates need to be properly ‘packaged’ to become…

Crunch time

Published by Ellen on April 30, 2013

Team PNoy and UNA. Thanks to Philstar for photo.

With two more weeks to go before Election Day, candidates are moving heaven and earth to get that much coveted post.

Expect more black propaganda, vote buying, junkings and soul-selling. Senatorial candidates would be dealing individually with local politicians. The declaration of Albay Gov. Joey Salceda, head of the Liberal Party in Bicol, that he won’t be voting straight Team PNoy and include two candidates from the United Nationalist Alliance, will be replicated all over the country.

Salceda said that he will include UNA candidates JV Ejercito and Nancy Binay in his senatorial ticket.
Ejercito and Binay are only two of the UNA candidates in the Magic 12 in both Pulse Asia and SWS poll surveys, spoiling the exhortation of President Aquino for a straight Team PNoy victory.

The terror of the unheard voice

Published by Ellen on April 28, 2013

Yesterday, April 28, marked the 6th year that farmer-activist Jonas Burgos disappeared.

The Burgos family observed the day with renewed hope after new information surfaced early this month which strengthen the accusation that the military was behind the abduction of Jonas.

The information, which apparently came from the files of the military, included a picture of Jonas looking dazed with a large bandana around his neck, which was probably used to blindfold him.

Confronted with unpleasant reality, Aquino goes into denial mode

Published by Ellen on April 26, 2013

Modern-day Pieta. Not an unusual sight in Metro Manila's sidewalks and underpasses. — Modern-day Pieta. Not an unusual sight in Metro Manila’s sidewalks and underpasses.

Updated:Malacanang says PNoy not disparaging NSCB

President Aquino is discrediting the report of his own government agency- National Statistical Coordination Board which says the much-vaunted impressive economic growth has not trickled down to the teeming poor in the country.

The NSDB official release said: “Poverty incidence among population was estimated at 27.9 percent during the first semester of 2012. Comparing this with the 2006 and 2009 first semester figures estimated at 28.8 percent and 28.6 percent, respectively, poverty remained unchanged as the computed differences are not statistically significant.”

In simpler terms, life for the Filipino poor has not improved in the past six years.

Getting to know Trillanes at Bulong-Pulungan

Published by Ellen on April 23, 2013

Trillanes in Bulong-Pulungan with Manila Bulletin's Deedee Siytangco — Trillanes in Bulong-Pulungan with Manila Bulletin’s Dee-dee Siytangco

Bulong-Pulungan sa Sofitel yesterday was a getting-to-know Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV with journalists asking questions not often asked of the young senator who shot into the limelight in July 2003 when he and some 300 junior officers and soldiers made a stand against Gloria Arroyo in Oakwood Hotel in Makati.

Manila Bulletin’s Deedee Siytangco asked about the senator’s family life- wife Arlene and children, Seth and Thea.
Not many in the audience know that Arlene belonged to the first batch of female graduates of the Philippine Military Academy in 1997. She has resigned from military service and is now teaching at the National University.

Charo Yu, a supporter of Trillanes who helped arrange the senator’s guesting at the weekly media lunch forum, had to retrieve a photo of the senator and his wife from her cellphone to show Bulong regulars. “She’s pretty,” Deedee commented of Arlene.

In his desire for personal comfort,Brillantes insults foreign service

Published by Ellen on April 21, 2013

Wants a taxpayers' paid relaxation abroad. — Wants a taxpayers’ paid relaxation abroad.

Nakakahiya.

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes told reporters last week that he will ask President Aquino to name him ambassador to a country in Eastern Europe once he leaves the election body.

“I will wait to see the President so that I can ask him … My plan was to ask him, ‘Could you give me an ambassadorship instead so that I can rest. It’s so tiring in the Comelec,’” he was quoted by media to have said.
Brillantes named countries that he was eyeing: “Romania, Slovakia, or Hungary … where no Filipinos go.”

Two things are very wrong with what Brillantes wants:

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