By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star The controversies that have arisen from the Supreme Court’s consecutive rulings on the unconstitutionality of the PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund of legislators) and the DAP (Disbursement Acceleration Program of P-Noy) continue to sizzle. The government has sought to have the rulings reversed by…
Category: Commentary
Impending showdown
By BENJIE OLIVEROS Bulatlat perspective Two major events would be happening next week. On August 25 in the morning there would be a mass petition signing for the People’s Initiative against the pork barrel. This is a noble and bold effort to put a stop to the practice of the government of creating pork barrel…
Top 5 quotes from Palparan’s arraignment
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO Bulatlat.com At around 9:30 a.m., silence swept over the court room. A group of men, most of them burly, came in. Behind them was a seemingly frail-looking man, a shadow of the stoic general I have seen only in news reports – it was retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan. And…
Palparan prosecution: A step to check impunity
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star Finally retired Army Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr. — tagged as “the Butcher” for his long record of human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances of political activists, human rights defenders, and innocent civilians – will be brought to court to answer…
Gaza on my mind
By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo Streetwise | BusinessWorld Apocalyptic. That is the word used by those who saw Tacloban in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) to describe the devastation wrought on the city and its inhabitants. That was the image captured in countless photographs and videos beamed to the world that stirred…
The Palparan fallacy
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld Promoted to major general by then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Jovito Palparan echoed in 2009 her declaration that she wanted Republic Act 1700, the Anti-Subversion Act, “revived,” although the proper word should have been “exhumed,” RA 1700 having been long dead. Then-President Fidel Ramos signed Republic Act…
10 Things to Know About the World’s Longest Communist Revolution
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com 1. The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) was reestablished on December 26, 1968 in Alaminos, Pangasinan. Its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), was formed on March 29, 1969 in Capas, Tarlac. The revolutionary alliance, National Democratic Front (NDF), was founded on April 24, 1973. The CPP-NPA-NDF view…
Impunity or justice?
By BENJIE OLIVEROS Bulatlat perspective It is ironic that retired Army Gen. Jovito Palparan, who is called “The Butcher” by human rights groups for the trail of blood he left wherever he was assigned, is now saying that he did not surrender because he fears for his life. And the Aquino government, after arresting him…
A sleight-of-hand budget
By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo Streetwise | BusinessWorld The State of the Nation speech of President Benigno S. Aquino III (BSA) has been lauded as “statesmanlike” in that he did not continue his broadside against the Supreme Court over its Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) decision. In fact, he studiously avoided giving the impression that he is continuing…
The National Police’s grammar of deception
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld If eight out of 145 crimes have been solved, and in most cases no thanks to you, should you be crowing about it? Eight out of 145 is about 3% of the total cases of journalists and media workers killed in this country, but the Philippine National…
State workers protest against DAP, new taxes
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star They’re vexed, and justly they protest. After President Aquino warned of a clash between the executive and the judiciary— vehemently defending his Disbursement Acceleration Program and assailing the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling declaring it unconstitutional — court employees publicly protested to defend judicial independence.…