Achieving Happiness

"Mag-ingat ka!" - Journalist Ellen Tordesillas receives another death threat. Means that she’s really good at doing her job.
Was it funny or not - the supposedly racial slur made by Terri Hatcher’s character in ‘Desperate Housewives’ on not wanting a doctor who graduated from a Philippine med school?  Eto ang sagot ko dyan, mula sa Avenue Q:

"Everyone’s a little bit racist
Today.
So, everyone’s a little bit racist

Okay!
Ethnic jokes might be uncouth,
But you laugh because
They’re based on truth.
Don’t take them as
Personal attacks.
Everyone enjoys them -
So relax!

Everyone’s a little bit racist
It’s true.
But everyone is just about
As racist as you!
If we all could just admit
That we are racist a little bit,
And everyone stopped being
So PC
Maybe we could live in -
Harmony!"

Actually, I think its  outrageous and hypocritical that the government should make such a huge stink about this samantalang its been so inutile when it comes to helping the nurses who fell  victim to the Sentosa recruitment agency.  Ordinary Filipinos — especially our nursing professionals and their families, they have all the right to complain because they work hard, but the government? Utang na loob. What has it done to genuinely help the Pinoy nurses and doctors? Dito nga lang sa Pilipinas, the pay in the public hospitals is so low the staff have no second thoughts about leaving; can’t really blame them this however much I want to appeal to their sense of patriotism and love of fellow Filipinos.

Also, the scandal that surrounded the rigged nursing exams hasn’t been given a just and satisfying resolution (mauulit na naman ya-an). Predictable na ba, but really it’s the Philippine government who’s largely to blame for the negative reputation of Filipinos in other countries, the scandals and controversies, the extrajudicial killings, etc.

At ang walanghiyang Department of Labor and Employment, talagang binubugaw ang mga OFW. The export-labor policy of the government never included fighting for the rights of Filipino migrants and workers abroad. case in point: former DOLE secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas signed an agreement with the Saudi Arabian government that says the Philippine government allows the latter to adjust (a euphemism for cutting) wages of OFWs in the kingdom.

On the upcoming Pacquiao bout: does it make an awful excuse for a Filipino the way I don’t feel like cheering him on? Like, well, it wouldn’t be such a big deal if he lost? Okay, I even think it would serve him right to lose. Paano naman, sobrang yabang na niya, at isa pa, he lets the Arroyos ride on his victories and his over-all popularity (as a boxer, obviously — kasi knocked out siya kay Darlene Custodio nung May polls).

I suppose this is what really gets my goat, how he lets Macapagal-Arroyo use him for her own purposes. As a distraction from all the problems and the controversies that hound her corrupt and illegitimate presidency.

Wouldn’t it be cool if he won but says he will no longer be used as a mascot for Malacanang? E di naging Pacquiao fan ako ng di-oras! Kasi sa ngayon, gad, I think he’s been hit on the head far too many times.
—

Great news (or at least, pwede na rin kasi tuloy pa rin ang charges, hmph)! Dutch appellate court
upholds JMS  freedom

Taken from the ABS-CBN news site: The Dutch Court of Appeals has upheld a decision to release
Filipino communist leader Jose Maria Sison while he undergoes pretrial investigation,
ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau reported Wednesday.

The appellate court in the Hague favored the September 13 decision of a district
court to free Sison, rejecting the appeal by the public prosecutor to detain
the founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) pending
investigation.

The appellate court said, "The prosecution file lacks
enough concrete evidence to directly link Sison to the assassinations which is
needed to prosecute him as a perpetrator."

 The ruling, however, does not preclude Sison from being
prosecuted on murder charges. It only denied the prosecutor’s request to keep
someone in custody. It added that the public prosecutor’s office will be the
one to decide on whether or not to press charges.

 The report said the appellate court’s decision was expected
since prosecutors did not ask Sison to appear Wednesday before a panel of three
judges at the Palace of Justice.

What’s the current status of the peace talks? The answer will depend on whom is asked. It’s a very good development that there is continued interest in the talks — despite the Macapagal-Arroyo government’s declarations that there is no more need to talk kasi wala namang pag-uusapan.

In the wake of the military’s admission that it has failed (and how) to meet its target of moving sufficiently closer to putting an end to the insurgency, dapat tuunan na muli ng pansin ang kasalukuyang kalagayan ng usapang pangkapayapaan. Contrary to cynical beliefs that the peace talks count for nothing, they actually imply a lot for human rights and the country’s prospects for peace.

The formal meetings of the negotiating panels of the
Government of the Philippines (GRP) and the NDFP are postponed, but the NDFP
maintains that the peace negotiations are ongoing. The NDFP affirms that all agreements signed
with the
GRP remain binding and in effect. The Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC)
which was established in February 14, 2004 on the strength of the signing of
the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International
Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) between the two parties back in 1998 continues to
function. The same goes for the Reciprocal Working Committees (RWCs) on human
rights and international humanitarian law, and on social and economic affairs.
 Prior to the break in the formal meetings, there have been
several developments that compelled the NDFP to charge the GRP of negotiating
in bad faith.

 In July 7, 2004, upon learning that the entire Marcos
ill-gotten wealth held in escrow by the Philippine National Bank had been
transferred to the GRP treasury the previous March, the NDFP strongly
criticized and opposed the move. This was on the grounds that a significant
portion of the amount was supposed to be earmarked for the indemnification of
the human rights victims of the dictatorship, and that this was already agreed
upon in the Oslo I and II joint statements.

The NDFP also raised the issue of the release of the
political prisoners, the worsening and increasing number of violations of human
rights and international humanitarian law, and the GRP’s failure to resolve the
issue of the ‘terrorist’ listing of the
Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), New People’s Army (NPA) and the NDFP
Chief Political Consultant, Prof. Jose Ma. Sison. The NDFP considers these
issues as prejudicial questions that should be settled before formal
negotiations can resume.

 To further compound complications, the US State Department
released a new list of foreign terrorist organizations and individuals on
August 10, 2004. The list still included
the CPP, NPA and Prof. Sison. These two events prompted the NDFP negotiating
panel to postpone the formal talks that should have taken place on August 24.
The postponement was a move to give the GRP time to comply with its obligations
in accordance with The Hague Joint Declaration, the Joint Agreement on Safety
and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), CARHRIHL and Oslo Joint Statements I and
II.

 Instead of using the period of postponement to address the
prejudicial questions raised by the NDFP, the GRP on December 18, 2004 formally
suspended the formal talks in the negotiations. On August 4 the following year,
it also unilaterally suspended the JASIG. The so-called JASIG suspension
essentially put the peace negotiations in limbo. The NDFP maintains that the
JASIG remains valid and binding, and that the peace negotiations are ongoing
because neither of the negotiating parties has terminated the JASIG.

 For its part, the NDFP has done its best to break the
impasse and to ensure that the peace talks continue. The NDFP has also
submitted proposals for this purpose, among them are the paper titled
Responding to Prejudicial Questions, Accelerating Peace Negotiations through Informal Meetings
of Special Representatives of the Principals (June 2005); the 10-point Concise
Agreement for an Immediate Ceasefire (August 27, 2005); and the NDFP Package of
Proposals (November 2005).

Instead of meeting the efforts of the NDFP halfway, the GRP
virtually suspended the peace negotiations when, in February 2006, it filed
rebellion charges against Prof. Sison, NDFP Panel Chairman Luis Jalandoni; NDFP
Panel members Fidel Agcaoili and Juliet Sison; NDFP Panel consultants Vicente
Ladlad, Rafael Baylosis, and Randall Echanis,
among others. The GRP’s Department of Justice has also attacked the integrity
of the Joint Secretariat by identifying its office as the address of the
individuals it charged with rebellion.

 Prof. Sison has said that there are clear signs that
indicate the GRP’s lack of interest in the peace negotiations. He cited the
extrajudicial killings, abductions, torture, forced displacement of millions of
people and other human rights violations by the GRP military, police and death
squads.

 In the meantime, there have been numerous public declarations
by key cabinet officials such as Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, National
Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales and AFP chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes
Esperon taunting the NDFP to surrender and yield to a three-year ceasefire.
This is a clear violation of the Hague Joint Declaration wherein it was agreed
that ceasefires will be the fourth and last substantive agenda in the peace
negotiations.

 The NDFP also denounces how the GRP continues to spread the
lie that the NDFP is demanding that the former compel the United States and other
foreign governments remove the CPP, the NPA and Prof. Sison from the terrorist
list. There is no truth to this accusation. All the NDFP is seeking is, at the
minimum, both parties make a joint statement against the terrorist listing of
the aforementioned.

 As for recent political developments, the NDFP has taken a
strong stand opposing and condemning the anti-terrorism law.

 On February 8 this year, Congress voted 16-2 to approve the
Human Security Act, more commonly known as the anti-terrorism law. The
following day, February 9, the congressional bicameral committee adapted the
senate’s version in toto. By March 6,
2007, the anti-terrorism bill was signed into law.

 Advocates of the anti-terror law – mostly from the Armed
Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the National Security Council (NSC) and the
Department of National Defense (DND) – justify it as a means to effectively
fight against the scourge of terrorism. Analyzed within the context of the intensifying attacks of the government
against members of the political opposition including the legal and democratic
protest movement and the progressive party-lists, however, it is impossible not
to see through the more insidious motives. Prior to the ATA’s implementation on July 15, 2007, human rights group
KARAPATAN has documented 866 acts of extrajudicial killings and 200 enforced
disappearances. These shocking numbers
are feared to increase as the ATA gains ground and the law-enforcement agencies
implement it.

 The ant-terror law’s provisions on the prosecution of
organizations opposing the government also puts legal people’s organizations
and their civilian members in danger. The GRP has repeatedly charged a number
of legitimate people’s organizations as fronts for the CPP-NPA, and this too
can be used against the NDFP and to the detriment of the peace talks.

 In the meantime, the anti-terror law is also in open
violation of the CARHRIHL, wherein it is stated that essentially, the GRP shall not invoke repressive laws,
decrees and orders to circumvent or contravene the provisions of the agreement.

 Currently the NDFP-Monitoring Committee (MC) is busy
addressing the matter of the Macapagal-Arroyo government’s escalating
underhanded attacks against the leadership of the NDFP, which included the
arrest of NDFP chief political consultant Prof. Jose Ma. Sison.

Last August 28, the Dutch
police raided the office of the NDFP in The Netherlands, as well as the houses
of Luis Jalandoni and NDFP Panel member Coni Ledesma; Juliet de Lima; Danilo
Borjal, Political Consultant; Ruth de Leon, Head Panel Secretariat; and Aldo
Gonzalez and Joselito Baleva, volunteers in the NDFP International Information
Office. They were brusquely interrogated and forbidden from moving around their
homes while the rest of the premises were being ransacked. Ms. Ledesma was even taken to the police
station for questioning.

All computers, laptops, external disks, USB sticks, CDs,
diskettes, cameras and MP3s players were seized, along with voluminous
documents and papers including Mr. Jalandoni’s complete files on the GRP-NDFP
peace negotiations from 1986 to the end of 2004.

In the meantime, the room that Mr. Agcaoili uses whenever he
is in The Netherlands was also broken into, ransacked, and its contents
pillaged. Included in the confiscated
documents were the complete set of complaint forms submitted to the JMC against
the NDFP and the GRP, as well as written communications between the NDFP-MC and
the NDFP Joint Secretariat (JS), and documents of the NDFP-MC. A box of diskettes and CDs containing
documents pertaining to the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations and the work of the JMC
were also taken.

It goes without saying that the actions of the Dutch police
have greatly disrupted the operations of the NDFP-MC, and have caused great
inconvenience in our work, not to mention compromising efforts to secure
justice for the thousands of human rights victims who have placed their trust
in the mechanism of the NDFP-MC for the redress of their grievances.

All the seized digital files — computers, laptops, external
disks, diskettes, USB sticks, CDs, cameras and MP3s — documents and papers have no connection
whatsoever to the charge against Prof. Sison. Sison himself was released last September 13 after the Dutch District
Court in the Hague declared that there was no
sufficient and credible evidence connecting him to the alleged murders in the Philippines. It is the NDFP’s stand that the Dutch
prosecutor’s office went on a fishing expedition when it authorized the raids
of the NDFP office and the houses of the NDFP’s staff and volunteers.

 The searches and confiscations were conducted without the
residents being allowed to see the actual operations because they were made to
stay in one place. None of the police
showed any valid warrants. One warrant
did not even have a date. None contained
any specifications on what the police should look for. When they carted off their loot, the police
didn’t give a list of what they confiscated to the residents to make sure that
no materials would be planted or manufactured afterwards and then attributed to
the residents. These actions of the police violated the residents’ fundamental
rights to privacy, due process and against self-incrimination which are
universally recognized and accepted.

 To get directly to an
urgent point, the raid of the NDFP office and the houses of the staff and more
importantly, the arrest of Prof. Sison
have severe implications on the peace talks and all other efforts to bring
about a just and lasting peace in the Philippines. There was cold-blooded malice in the way the
raid was conducted and how Prof. Sison was arrested and consequently denied his
right to counsel.

 In the meantime, the campaign of political persecution
against Prof. Sison has not ceased. He spent almost three weeks in solitary
detention in the National Penitentiary in Scheveningen in the Hague before he was released on September
13 on trumped-up charges of orchestrating assassinations. The Dutch Justice
Ministry court that heard his case, however, declared that there was no sufficient evidence to connect
him to murders committed in the Philippines.

Despite this, the Dutch prosecutors have appealed to the Court of Appeals that
Prof. Sison be placed back in detention.

 Prof. Sison’s legal counsels appealed this decision last
September 26 on the grounds that the prosecutors failed to present any new
evidence, and that the prosecutors’ efforts to strengthen an otherwise very
weak case are futile.

It should be noted that the Supreme Court of the Philippines
itself in a landmark decision released on July 2, 2007 declared Prof. Sison
innocent of rebellion charges the same way that it said that the progressive
party-list lawmakers dubbed the Batasan 6 were not guilty of the same
accusations.

 The NDFP has already
filed charges against the GRP for the enforced disappearance of NDFP
Consultants and members. NDFP staff member Federico Intise and his wife Nelly
were abducted in General Santos City on October 26, 2006. NDFP consultant Cesar Batralo was taken in San Mateo, Rizal on December
21, 2006. Another NDFP consultant, Leo Velaso, was abducted in Cagayan de Oro
City on February 19, 2007.

 NDFP Panel Chairman Luis Jalandoni filed the formal
complaints in August 2007 before the United Nations Working Group on Enforced
and Involuntary Disappearances in Geneva
and the complaints are against Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as commander in
chief of the AFP. In April 2007, the
NDFP also filed complaints against the GRP in the same United Nations body for
the involuntary disappearances of NDFP consultant Rogelio Calubad and his son
Gabriel, and NDFP staff member Leopoldo Ancheta. The Calubads were abducted on
June 17, 2006 in Calauag, Quezon province, and Acheta on June 24 in Guiguinto,
Bulacan.

 All of these most lamentable incidents of abductions,
extrajudicial killings and the filing of false charges constitute serious
attacks on the integrity of the peace negotiations. The killings remain
unsolved as the Macapagal-Arroyo government refuses to scrap the military
operation Oplan Bantay Laya. No leads are forthcoming regarding the abducted
activists including the missing NDFP consultants. While it is true that Prof.
Sison has already been released, the trumped-up charges against him have not
been dismissed, and the Macapagal-Arroyo government continues its campaign of
political persecution against him and the NDFP. What all this implies for the
peace negotiations should be discussed in detail because they are grave and
potentially disastrous for the peace process.

 At the onset, the restoration of the files and documents of
the NDFP is an immediate concern and whatever action that can be done to
address will go a long way in clearing the clouded atmosphere that now
characterizes the peace negotiations between the GRP and the NDFP.

 There is much insight to be gained from studying the
publications that have been published and released by the NDFP through the
NDFP-MC in the JMC. The views and stands of the NDFP are all explained at
length and in depth in these publications, including Book 7 (The NDFP’s Defense
of the Rights of the Filipino Child), Book 8 (The GRP-NDFP Peace
Negotiations: Major Written Agreements
and Outstanding Issues), and Book 9 (A Comparative Study of Twenty-Three Cases
of Extrajudicial Killings Filed Against the GRP that the Macapagal-Arroyo
Regime is Attributing to the NDFP).

 There are also the various publications, reports and
statements issued by the Citizens’ Council on Truth and Accountability, Amnesty
International, Asian Human Rights Council, various chambers of Commerce,
Permanent People’s Tribunal, and the Human Rights Watch.

From reading these documents, you may be able to better
understand and trace the course that civil society can take in helping to push
the peace process forward.

It would also be most productive  to support other civil society initiatives
which have been reported in various fact-finding mission reports on the
killings, abductions, and other violations of the rights of activists, lawyers,
journalists, church people and others. In the wake of the discussions,
concerned sectors can determine the recommendations they can make, hopefully in
support of the peace process and all other efforts to uphold human rights in
the the Philippines.

All freedom-loving Filipinos are being called upon to support calls to put an end to the
extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and other human rights
violations. This means supporting and
even participating in independent and credible investigations in accordance
with the guidelines laid down by Amnesty International and other groups.

 People’s organizations, members of the media, Church formations and human rights advocates
should push for the holding of joint
investigations by the GRP and the NDFP, whether within or outside the frame of
the JMC. The GRP must also be compelled by public pressure to abide by all
existing agreements and resolve the prejudicial questions, and to convene the
JMC so it can do its work as provided for in the CARHRIHL and the Operational
Guidelines for the Work of the JMC.

The journey towards peace starts with a single step. Join
the many others who have begun to pave the way and support the peace negotiations.
#

Am grateful that the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s hearing on the NBN scam today was much tamer than yesterday’s. Otherwise wala na naman akong nagawang trabaho.
What made my day today is how Sen. Miriam Santiago is now eating crow for her ‘the Chinese created corruption for the rest of the world’ remark. Now she’s saying that she didn’t mean to be insulting. Holy crap, there really must be some truth to the allegations that she’s literally, clinically, insane.

I wasn’t able to finish my blog yesterday because, well, I had work; pero I did feel compelled to express my INDIGNATION and OUTRAGE that Romulo Neri shut his trap to protect PGMA. Hell, is he in love with GMA so he went to such lengths to protect her?! Wala na akong ibang maisip na dahilan. Everyone says he’s an incorruptible, credible guy; so what else could’ve prompted him to shut up, invoke EO 464 and essentially protect his superior and her husband?
Love, I’ve been told, makes fools of us all. Has it made Neri a traitor to the Filipino people and the truth?  Binata siya, hiwalay naman daw si Gloria  kay Mike, parehong may bigote si Neri at si Nani Perez, so…Maybe he’s hoping that in her time of need, GMA will turn to him and they’ll fall in love and live happily ever after.
(on hindsight, nakakangilabot ang ideya na in-love si Neri kay GMA. Ewe.)
There’s this text going around that goes: Ano ang nagpasikat kay Erap? Wristband. Ano ang nagpayaman kay Abalos? Broadband.  Ano ang magpapabagsak kay GMA? Husband.
You have to laugh.
–

The lunchtime conversation centered around animals. Started off with discussions about pets (I’ve had dogs, cats, a rabbit, turtles and hamsters), but soon after a colleague told a story about how he was bitten by a snake and survived. Then he said he had eaten snake. and turtles — the ones that lived in forests near streams, but never the ones that live near houses sa probinsya, because these turtles liked to dig under latrines and, well, I’ll leave that to your imagination. Then, soon enough, somebody else said that she’d tasted dolphin (outraged shrieks despite explanations that the dolphin had quite literally committed suicide by deliberately banging itself against sharp rocks and then beaching itself); and another said that sting ray flesh tasted like kalabaw.
Buti na lang tapos na ang lunch by the time the discussion veered towards the various animal-based delicacies in other cultures.
—

I have just learned that Jim Henson based the Swedish Chef on a real Swedish Chef in the 80s who fell apart on a daytime tv talkshow in the 80s. The poor guy got so nervous he blubbered, unable to speak either in English or Swedish. Mr. Henson reportedly called the guy, paid him 80$ for permission to base a muppet on his character. Hence the unintelligible but extremely funny Swedish Chef  ("Yorn desh born, der ritt de gitt der gue, Orn desh,
dee born desh, de umn børk! børk! børk!") was born.

–

Okay, Buddhist Monks are being shot at, their peaceful gatherings attacked. The most gentle, peaceful people taking to the streets. That takes the cake. Gad, Burma, move and expel the dictator! Over 700,000 protestors willing to risk their lives to finally kick out the junta.

–

Kadiri na talaga si Abalos. Sobrang kapal ng mukha. He says that he’s actually basking in the attention that he’s getting over the NBN controversy. Gad, if the man had even an ounce of delicadeza, he’d have resigned long before this entire mess blew up. But no, he sticks to his post like a wad of bubble gum mixed with shit sticks to the bottom of one’s sneakers. 

Gad, I wouldn’t be so surprised if he gets a heart attack: Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos looked like he just saw his favorite golf club reduced to a twisted mess of metal under a steam roller moving along a concrete pavement. CHEd chair Romulo Neri just said under oath that he was surprised when Abalos told him "Sec, may 200 ka dito." Nevermind if it’s P200, P200,000 or
P200 million, Neri said that he was shocked because it was so big. Clearly he understood it to be to a large sum, and when he told Pres. Arroyo, she told him don’t accept the money but approve the project.
Talk about the roof flying off!
—

Am writing this while paying attention to the senate investigations on the ZTE Corp contract telecast live over at ANC. It’s impossible to focus on my work today because, well, I just have to watch and hear the senate hearing — everyone here at the office is also riveted, and have been so since last week. Even yesterday’s wire-tapping investigations was like a soap opera what with Arlene Doble exposing the former ISAFP agent Vidal of being a serial womanizer and a good-for-nothing excuse for a human being.
I can’t believe am actually enjoying this.
Abalos really twinked. Involuntarily he took a deep breath — It think it’s already hit him how deep the trouble he’s in.
Okay, now Sen. Lacson is questioning Abalos about JDV III. He seems bent on denying everything. Just deny deny deny. But hell, kahit ano pang sabihin niya, what the heck was he doing getting himself involved with the ZTE Corporation and brokering a multi-million dollar government broadband contract? He’s the chairman of the Comelec!
—

All of his bluff and bluster is gone, his previous confidence wrung out of him. Abalos looks like he’s barely keeping himself up.

–

JDV III is being questioned. In contrast to  Abalos, he exudes confidence. He looks like he’s had a good night’s sleep, and his dreams were very kind to him. Who knows if he’s a good guy or not (nevermind his former drug habit and receding hairline which Luli Arroyo says must have affected his brain and prompted him to expose Abalos and her father the First Gentleman), but right now he’s a favorite of mine. For reasons strictly related to his testimony in the senate (and he’s a fluent and clear explainer as well).

—

Lacson is abrutal. He’s scary.He’s going after Abalos’ jugular, and Abalos for his part had just said that Neri lied under oath.

Abalos is now beginning to take on the look of a drowning cat who survived, but it’s still well aware that the dunking is still not over.

It’s Jinggoy’s turn.

Abalos is denying everything left and right. I think his game plan now is to simply deny everything and say that everyone else who says different is a freaking liar. Am starting to feel quite, quite sorry for him, but heck, this is what you get for orchestrating massive fraud in the 2004 and 2007 polls (harhar, karma. Maybe there really is something to that Hindu belief).

–

Si Miriam Defensor-Santiago nanggugulo na naman. She’s a real weirdo - agaw eksena talaga. I don’t know what the hell she’s saying — she says that the witnesses are all lying, but telling the truth as well. She should be prohibited from attending the senate investigations on important issues. She’s a complete whack-job. Why the hell she’s not in a strait-jacket is a mystery. Dinadaan lang siya sa lakas ng boses, utang na loob. For the most part, she’s a self-centered, self-righteous official who trusts no one’s word but her own.

The media probably continues to pay attention to her because she’s nakakaaliw. A good source of out-of-this-world quotes. She makes good copy the same way major traffic accidents make the headlines. She’s a walking, talking circus act, kulang na lang ang big red nose and the big hair. Gad, what I would give for a massive scandal to break out involving her — say, she gets caught having sex with a 19-year old male prostitute, or shoplifting from Rustan’s or any one of those high-end stores in Rockwell.

She’s now attacking the credibility of JDVIII as a businessman.She’s also made a hyper racist remark: China invented corruption (so all Chinese are inherently corrupt?!) She’s gone totally nuts, and on camera as well.

–
Kiko Pangilinan was firm and to-the-point in his questioning, but Neri invokes the Malacanang gag order. Pangilinan is determined to get to the bottom of Neri’s talks with the president regarding the bribery attempt and the ZTE contract.
—
It’s Loren Legarda’s turn now. She’s wearing pink. She’s questioning Abalos about whether not his functions as Comelec chair have anything to do with brokering business deals with foreign partners. Wala daw, sabi ni Abalos. The next logical questions hangs them unasked: kung wala, bakit ka nakikialam sa paglakad ng deal?

–

It’s pathetic how Abalos keeps saying that  JDVIII was the one who kept hounding him, following him around and dropping by Wack-Wack Golf and Country Club and the Comelec to pester him about the NBN contract.

JDVIII said that he’s not a member of Wack-Wack, and that there’s no way to enter the club if one is not a member without being invited by a member or better, an official of the club.

If Abalos didn’t want JDV III from following him, then he should have had him banned from Wack-Wack, or a restraining order, or ordered the guards at the door to lie whenever JDV III came knocking.

Joker Arroyo is now picking Neri apart about the latter’s endorsement of the broadband project. I don’t think Joker is doing such a good job of making clear what really transpired. But then again, he’s trying to determine the process of the how the NBN project was conceptualized and given shape to.

Ang nakakatawa, Joker doesn’t look at all knowledgeable about the technical aspect of consultations between government agencies when determining projects it will undertake, feasibility studies and financial reports and all that. Nagkakalat si Joker Arroyo! He doesn’t know what he’s talking about! Venturing into unknown and unfamiliar territory. It’s obvious he doesn’t know or understand the workings and functions of the NEDA.

Sen. Arroyo, what’s wrong with going over and expressing approval for a well-written and well-conceptualized project proposal? Especially it aims to bring down costs for the government?

—

Resumption of hearing. Sen. Enrile taking a crack at JDV3 and questioning him about communications between DOTC and Ernesto Garcia, colleague of JDV3. The title of the  House Speaker  JDV Jr. has been mentioned.

Is the son a little shaken? Enrile is reading deliberately slowly, and the letter is being admitted into record. The NEDA’s approval for the Orion/Amsterdam proposal is being  mentioned.

Enrile’s asking JDV3 whether the Speaker has any interest in the project, and why is the office of the Speaker has sent a letter on the NBN to the DOTC.

The North Rail Project has been mentioned — another mess of a project which was endorsed by the NBN, and another (daw, sabi ni Enrile) baby of Speaker de Venecia.

Hmmm, some of the heat will now be shifting to de Venecia I think.

Umeksena si Zubiri kasi daw lumalabas sa media na missing in action siya sa ZTE hearing. May skedyul daw siya (bakit defensive ang dating niya?)

Chiz Escudero after Joker’s fumbling attempts to redeem himself by asking why Joey’s name does not appear in any of the documents of Amsterdam holdings.

Chiz says its questionable why the ZTE contract has been kept under such close wraps.Ang NEDA daw ang head ng lahat ng deliberations dahil ODA ang contract.

(Chiz really talks like a robot — monotone ang boses niya e. High tone, low tone, high and low. Oh well. In his case, it doesn’t matter kasi may laman naman ang sinasabi niya.)

He’s now questioning NEDA and Neri’s authority to assist in the privatization of  the telecoms industry by entering deals with the foreign private sector and awarding contract. The NEDA and the DOTC and the DTI have endorsed the ZTE contract, and Chiz says that this questionable.

In this round, it’s the government itself that’s under fire for entering the contract of procurement. This is getting complicated now, malay ko ba sa proseso niyan! But what I understand is this, the NEDA — the executive too — overstepped their boundaries in getting involved with this project directly and instructing the DOTC to go along with it as well.

–I can’t keep this up. Am getting behind my work!

Abalos has lost his temper, but the very able chairman of the Blue Ribbon Committee Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano was able to calm him down AND make him realize the inconsistencies in his statements to the media and his current testimony re: JDV3 and their meetings, including the one in China.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel asks: may anak ka ba sa labas?
Abalos: That’s unfair to my wife and children.

That’s a very effective tactic ha, to shock the person, get him off-balanced with a personal question about a personal weakness and then quickly shift to resuming your original questions. Nagulantang na ang pobre, wala nang presence of mind, all semblance of calm and confidence shot to smithereens!

Suspended na.

–

And they’re. Zubiri again denies that he met with Abalos. Pimentel says hindi pa tapos ang isyu, pero ibang venue na lang daw para hindi mawala sa focus ang pinag-uusapan sa ZTE investigations.

Cayetano allows Madrigal to begin her questioning: interesting daw ang isang sinabi ni Abalos about raising money by waving a piece of paper.

Who is Abalos’ travel agent? Wala daw. Jamby asks hindi pa mahirap magtravel nang walang agent  considering you’ve gone abroad at least seven, eight times in the last year.

Jamby reads an account of the Speaker’s report that he heard the President speak with Abalos about the ZTE contract. Is Abalos saying that there was no such conversation? Is he willing to be the fall guy for the president? Nagtuturuan na kasi ang mga tao.

Abalos: Huh? What? Huh?! Duh?! Hindi ko na alam saan ako lalagay, your honor.

Jamby: Sa kangkungan. I sympathize with you kung ilalaglag ka na. (Ang taray ni madam! Jus me).

Sen. Honasan quizzing Neri on the NEDA processes. Most instructive. Sabi Gringo, Neri is the fulcrum of the investigations, and his credibility impacts on the outcome of the investigations.Ano kaya ang point niya?

Medyo nakakatawa ang quetsioning ni Sen. Bong Revilla. I couldn’t take it seriously. He has good fashion sense, though — pink polo shirt, gray necktie.

Pia Cayetano on the floor.  She strikes me as so much milk and water, then suddenly there’s steel. Sa wakas pinagsalita si Rolex Suplico, pero no your honor lang ang sagot. She’s called a roll call  of the witnesses, asking them if they’ve been investigated by Malacanang in its discreet efforts. Walang kahit isa sa kanila ang nakakaalam na may discreet investigations ang pangulo — wow, sobrang discreet talaga!

Pia wonders about the ZTE suspension. Para que? To throw the senate investigations off-kilter? She’s questioning Mendoza. Now the questioning has shifted to Neri: she’s confirming the dateline stated in Jarius Bondoc’s column and whether or not they’re based on reality. Paano nagawang bigyan ng gurantee ang approval ng NBN contract when so many requirements were still not met?

Ate Pia is allowed by younger brother Alan to ask: wala bang interpreters nung panahon ng negotiations over the contract?

Mendoza: Wala. technical staff ang bihasa sa english. (Whoah! Paano kung iba ang tina-translate? Iba pala dapat ang itsura ng deal, or maybe no deal would’ve been finalized at all dahil sa mga translations ng interpreter!!)

Somehow I am interested by Sen. Gordon’s line of questioning. He’s being plain mean and deliberately difficult in his cross-examination of Neri. As if kasalanan ni Neri na palpak ang priorities ng gobyerno (actually, kasalanan ng NEDA, ng Malacanang, ng mga ahensya nito, ng kongreso at mga trapo, at mga bulok na opisyales ng korte).

Change that - am interested. Ang taray din ni Gordon. Gad, I officially feel sorry for Abalos — Gordon made him a laughingstock. He made Abalos look like a doddering old fool. Photokina anyone?

Bastusan galore. A colleague here sez the middle class has made up its mind about Abalos- their representatives in the gallery are laughing themselves to stomachaches.

Sen. Pimentel calls for subpoena of Abalos flight records, Alan Cayetano asks for passport.

Sen.Mar Roxas’ turn, questioning Mendoza who looks relieved and grateful that he’s not Abalos. More inconsistencies - done deal na ba talaga ang deal with the ZTE o hindi? Ang gulo na nila,a. Lumalabas na hindi. BOT project? E bakit uutang from the national coffers? ODA ba? Where’s the money (napunta sa bulsa nina Abalos?).

Roxas coins "mahiwagang golf game" to refer to where and when the P200M bribery took place.

Faculty protest action at Asian Institute of Management

What: AIM Faculty Association press conference
announcing protest activities, Symposium on Academic Freedom, Tenure and the
Faculty Right to Organize

When: 8 am, Friday, September 28

Where: Main entrance (Paseo de Roxas, in front of Greenbelt Park) Asian Institute of Management, Makati City

 Background:

 In response to AIM management’s refusal to recognize the
faculty union and protest the harassment of its members and officers, the AIM
Faculty Association (AFA) is launching a campaign to protect its members and
assert its role in academic decision making. 

AFA has called for a press conference and a public symposium
on Academic Freedom, Tenure and the Faculty Right to Organize on FRIDAY, 8
a.m., September 28 at the AIM campus, across Greenbelt Square

 Right to organize

 AFA was formed in 2004 to protect its members from
arbitrariness by management and assert faculty role in the academic decision
making. The association immediately sought recognition but was rebuffed by
management saying that the AIM Board of Trustees “categorically objects to the
establishment of a union/collective bargaining unit for a number of philosophical,
economic and governance considerations.”

 AIM management harassed and discriminated against AFA
members who comprised more than a majority of all AIM faculty members. Two of
AFA’s founding members have been terminated despite having served more than the
three-year probationary period as defined by the Manual for Private Schools.

 Faculty and staff share in 70% of tuition fee increases 

Recently, Dr. Victor Limlingan and Prof. Noel Leyco, AFA
chairman and president, respectively were suspended for one year after their
lawyers wrote to the AIM governing boards regarding the unpaid share of faculty
and staff in 70% of the tuition fee increases as mandated by a PD 451 and
subsequently amended by RA 6728. AFA now estimates this amount at around P984
million.

 Dr. Limlingan joined AIM in 1973 while Prof. Leyco returned
from the US in 1993 to teach at AIM. Both are tenured professors who earned their advanced
degrees from Harvard University and enjoyed high student ratings in courses they
taught.

Prof. Leyco was also barred entry from the AIM campus by
management to stop him from sending emails regarding the AFA issues that
management considered as inappropriate distractions to AIM students.

 Prof. Leyco warns that if he is barred entry, they might
just as well hold a public demonstration in front of AIM instead of the
symposium inside the campus. He adds that “AIM management is seriously hurting
the image of the school before its social investors and the regional community
by violating the rights of the faculty members to organize and their right to seek
legal remedies for their legitimate issues. AIM management must engage all
sectors of the school, including its faculty.”

  Contact: Prof. Noel
Leyco, AFA President, email: afa@afa.ph, cell: 0927-251-6232 blogsite:
http://asianfacultyassoc.blogspot.com/

Second month and counting. This is an issue that will, hopefully, not go away. The controversy generated by the anomalous NBN contract with China’s ZTE Corp. has again exposed the deep-seated corruption of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration. This is not like the ‘Hello, Garci’ scam which was easily twisted and manipulated by Arroyo’s supporters as just a mistake and hence should be forgiven. This is corruption documented, signed and sealed, and there are witnesses whose credibility cannot be easily maligned or dismissed. The Senate should continue the investigations and then make recommendations - hopefully administrative and criminal charges against the officials and individuals involved. Need it be mentioned that they include the First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, and by inevitable extension, Pres, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Is there no ends to her infamy? PGMA is now asking CHEd secretary Romulo Neri to go with her to the US when she makes an official visit this Wednesday and ditch the senate inquiry. She’s really asking to be impeached, and it boggles the mind why she remains president after so many transgressions, scandals, and abuses, even if we don’t count the extrajudicial killings. The middle class is probably so freaked by the idea of having Noli de Castro for president, hence the grim hesitance to call for GMA’s impeachment, resignation and ouster.

It’s cool, though, how practically everyone is talking about this issue of the ZTE contract. I think that the media has done a very good good of making this issue easy to understand, digestible for the public, and hence, it generates interest and outrage. ‘Bulok at kurakot talaga ang gobyerno," as the driver of the jeepney I rode to morning said to his co-pilot after listening to a radio newsreport. "May utang na loob kasi si Arroyo kay Abalos."

In the meantime, GMA’s approval ratings have also gone down as a direct result of this latest controversy. No one is actually surprised.

It’s so frustrating and infuriating how projects that could do good for the Philippines and help push the economy forward will never really take off because of corruption in government. Everything gets twisted and corrupted and in the end, no one benefits but the unscrupulous crooks in the upper levels of the bureaucracy who broker the project contracts with foreign business partners.

It really isn’t as if any of the DOTC experts need to explain the benefits of the NBN project. Mapapakinabangan naman talaga iyan kung maayos ang kontrata at napag-aralan ng mabuti. At kung sa ilalim ng malinis na gobyerno pinapatupad ang poyekto.The problem is, taxpayers are being made to pay through the nose for a white elephant. And for Abalos’ trips to China’s brothels, the FG’s golf clubs, and God knows what else.

Presidential legal adviser bumbler Sergio Apostol says it will be up to the Supreme Court to decide on the legality and validity of the NBN contract. Gad, we sure hope that the SC doesn’t vacillate on this one and immediately declare the contract illegal and invalid. Baka naman gawin ng SC ang ginawa nito before on the issue of the EVAT — suspended it, and then after six months, gave its implementation the go signal.

TxtPower uploads new ringtone on ZTE controversy.

Agham, Agham Youth and Computer Programmers Union hold forum on same. Eggheads rule!

—

Pictures taken at the Palais de Wilson office of the UN
Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearance (UN WGEID).

 The Philippine NGO group of
Marie Enriquez, Susan Cruz
and Atty. Edre U. Olalia (Secretary General of
Karapatan, Bayan and Central Luzon-Karapatan and Karapatan Special Legal
Consultant on UN Mechanisms, respectively) joined the mother of Jonas Burgos,
Mrs. Edith Burgos, to
personally file and speak with Ms.Claudia De La Fuente,
Associate Human Rights Officer of the UN WGEID at the Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights.

Enriquez and Cruz briefed the
WGEID Officer about the
disappearances in the Philippines. They said that other serious
human rights violations that continue. They highlighted the case of
Sherryln Cadapan and Karen Empeno.

The WGEID will hold its 3rd
Session and take up its annual report on November 21-30, 2007 at the Palais de
Nations in Geneva.   On November 21-23, 2007,
family members, relatives and  representatives of those disappeared may have a
closed-door session with the WGEID upon arrangements by email.)

Ms. de la Fuente informed the
Philippine NGO delegation that the WGEID had made a request to have a country
visit to the  Philippines.
way back May 24, 2006 but the Philippine government has up to now not made any
reply one way or the other.

The group found this odd
considering that the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and
Lawyers, Mr. Leandro Despouy, through his senior human rights officer Valentin
Milano whom the group met in Geneva informed them    that the
Philippine government has granted their request for a country visit only a few
months after it submitted its request last September 2006. (No date has been
set yet though.)

Upon query by Olalia, De la
Fuente confirmed that under the mandate of the WGEID, the exhaustion of
domestic remedies does not apply. The case of Jonas remains pending before the
Court of Appeals.

The WGEID can also issue a
"reprisal letter" or prompt intervention as an interim measure in
case of any harassment to relatives or witnesses of the disappeared. Mrs.
Burgos narrated to the WGEID the surveillance and harassment she and her family
are experiencing.

De la Fuente, who comes from
Mexico, encouraged the Philippine group to submit the writ of amparo and
habeas`data that the Supreme Court will issue so that they can make their
comments in the same way the Mr. Martin Scheinin, Special Rapporteur on Human
Rights while Countering Terrorism submitted his views on the then pending bill
on anti-terrorism.

Finally, the WGEID informed
the group that the deadline for new information for pending complaints and for
filing new complaints is on October 1, 2007 so that they may be considered in
its November session.

 In a separate discussion afterwards, Atty.
Olalia also followed up, upon the authority of the NDFP-Monitoring Committee
and the NDFP Negotiating Panel, and in his separate capacity as legal
consultant thereto, the status of the complaints filed by the relatives and by
the Negotiating Panel for the
disappearances of its consultants, staff and unarmed civilians accompanying
them.

 While already admitted as
valid complaints and while they have been forwarded to the Philippine
government, no new development happened on the cases of Philip Limjoco (filed July 2006 and admitted
November 2006), Rogelio Calubad, Gabriel Calubad, Leopoldo Ancheta (all filed
May 2007 and admitted July 2007).

The complaints filed last
August 2007 of the disappearances of Federico Intise, Nelly Intise, Cesar
Batralo and Leo Velasco will be received by the WGEID and will be considered in
its November 2007 session where it will decide if they are to be admitted and
sent to the Philippine government.

–

Out of his secret garden somewhere in New Jersey comes your newest favorite super
hero!

 
It is I, Captain Vegetable
With my carrot, and my celery
Eating crunchy vegetables is good for me
And they’re good for you, so eat them too
For teeth so strong, your whole life long
Eat celery and carrots by the bunch

Three cheers for me, Captain Vegetable
Crunch, crunch, crunch!

My name is Andy
I love candy
And I eat it whenever I can
If it’s handy
Gimme some candy
It’s so good and sweet
The perfect treat
It’s such a thrill
To eat my fill
And gobble till there’s nothing on the plate
Candy is great, but wait!

Who are you, some kind of bad dream?

Do I look like a bad dream?

 It is I, Captain Vegetable
With my carrot, and my celery
Eating crunchy vegetables is good for me
And they’re good for you, so eat them too
For teeth so strong, your whole life long
Eat celery and carrots by the bunch
Three cheers for me, Captain Vegetable
Crunch, crunch, crunch!

 My name is Eddie
I love spaghetti
So I eat it whenever I can
If it’s ready
Gimme spaghetti
It’s a lovely thing
It looks like string
It’s such a thrill
To eat my fill
And gobble till there’s nothing on the plate
Spaghetti is great, but wait!

What are you? Are you some kind of weirdo?

Do I look like a weirdo?
It is I, your newest super hero
It is I, Captain Vegetable
With my carrot, and my celery
Eating crunchy vegetables is good for me
And they’re good for you, so eat them too
For teeth so strong, your whole life long
Eat celery and carrots by the bunch
Three cheers for me, Captain Vegetable

Gee, Captain Vegetable this is the best thing to come around
since meatballs!

Three cheers for Captain Vegetable!

Three cheers for me Captain Vegetable
Crunch crunch crunch!

Omigod suddenly I’m five years old, I’m remembering songs from Sesame Street, and it feels like only yesterday when I sat in front of the tv and sang along with the muppets and Gordon, Susan, Maria, Luis and David. Bizarre. There must be some truth to the allegation that the writers of Sesame Street in the 70s and 80s
smoked pot and used LSD because their work continues to stick in my brain. Hippie flashbacks. Psychedelic magic.
Like thousands of other Filipinos my generation, I learned to speak (and probably write) English from watching Sesame Street and Electric Company and there are no books that have made an impression as deep and lasting as certain episodes of Sesame Street, true true true. I remember Bumble Ardy’s Number Nine when I couldn’t remember how to multiple fractions back in fourth grade. My first appreciation of poetry came with my memorization of the Daddy Dear song.Gad.
I seriously believe that many of the childish notions and attitudes I have (and will never lose, I guess, despite Kim’s efforts to make me more adult -whatever the heck that means) are because I watched too much Sesame Street. Even now I watch it whenever I can. Mnamanahamanah! (Oops, that’s from the Muppet Show).
I wonder if there’s a study on the attitudes and personalities of kids who grew yp watching Sesame Street from babyhood? Like, whether there’s a corollary between childish behavior and a childhood spent watching Sesame Street. Kasi my sister, who’s older than I am, is much more childish than I am, and it’s often hard to get her to get serious whenever she gets all goofy. It’s also hard to get her to calm down when she’s sad, so she tries very hard to keep control of he emotions because once she lets go, she’s a real mess. It’s like trying to understand the Swedish Chef.
Maybe this isn’t so funny, but it says a lot: when our dad died in 2003, my sister refused to cry in public. She kept really quiet all throughout the wake, but just sat next to Papa’s coffin. When it was the final day and we were at the memorial park and all the relatives were weeping and I was bawling my eyes out, she still didn’t cry.   Instead, she waited till she and I got to the car and as soon as I closed the door as we sat in the backseat, she turned to me and asked in a tremulous voice "Are there no more people? Is it okay to cry yet?! I miss Papa!" and then wailed like a child.

My Papa used to sing the  Daddy Dear song to me.
—

D, D, D, D

Daddy dear, oh daddy dear
Do dogs have dreams, do ducks have ears?
Do dragons dance, why do gophers dig holes?
Do gophers dress up in their dirty clothes?

 D, D, D, D

Dogs dream of meat and their dreams are delicious
Ducks do have ears but they don’t do the dishes
Gophers dig holes to hide their candy bars
Dragons don’t dance and they don’t smoke cigars

 D, D, D, D

Daddy dear, oh daddy sweet

Do dandylions roar, do daisies have feet?
May I have a drink of water and a dish of tadpoles?
Daddy how deep is a doughnut hole?

D, D, D, D

If dandylions roar then your daddy is deaf
The daisies drank the water so the tadpoles left
Your eyes are droopy darling daughter and you’re dizzy in
the head
The toads are eating dinner so it’s time to go to bed

Little dolly go to bed

–

Imagine, I was watching Sesame Street all throughout martial law.

I have a cold and its annoying the hell out of me. I’m using up almost one roll of tissue paper a day, and have rubbed my nose raw.

–

My friend Mau practically considers Jose de Venecia III a hero for his fearless and eloquent expose on how First Gentleman Mike Arroyo told him to ‘back off, back off, back off, back off, back off!!!" on the controversial NBN contract with China’s ZTE Corp. I gave my assent - it’s the first time that I’ve had respect for  de Venecia, because goodness knows that I don’t have the slightest tinge of it for the Speaker.

Here’s hoping that he doesn’t back off at all, and sticks to his story all the way. His coming forward in some minute but important degree make up for some of the countless legislative sins his father has committed in the name of loyalty to Macapagal-Arroyo and his own bank accounts.

One couldn’t help but notice how calm, composed and ultimately confident JDV III was during the senate investigations. Quiet outrage?  I suppose it is always easy to give testimony when you’re telling the truth. He reminded me of Clarissa Ocampo.

It’s a genuine soap opera the way the Macapagal-Arroyo administration and its allies are trying to dismiss the investigations: denials, howls of protest and outrage, but no sane arguments to counter and lay to arrest the accusations that the entire process that the ZTE contract went through was anomalous and graft-ridden.

Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos has been reduced to saying that he doesn’t have the energy or the sexual prowess. In the meantime  Luli, Dato and Mikey Arroyo have taken to saying that their dad is sick (he’s sick, alright) so it’s so unfair that he’s being implicated again in yet another corruption controversy. Luli has also said that de Venecia III has a drug problem and hence his ‘lies’ about the First Gentleman. Boy, that must be one hell of drug problem because  JDV III’s butting heads with the presidential family, and risking the expulsion of his father the House Speaker from his cushy seat in congress.

It’s frustrating how the administration never sticks to the facts - discuss the damn contract, alright? There are already studies by academics and independent anti-corruption groups that the NBN contract is overpriced, would prove inefficient, and that there are much better proposals the Philippine government can entertain.
But then again, gad, what else can be expected from a corrupt administration? An illegitimate president, and her power-greedy family?

It’s so telling how leaders of the CBCP are saying that the Philippines is so helpless and hopeless when it comes to corruption because of how the ZTE contract was forged. They’re throwing in the towel on government officials, so, well, what next?

What next? However corrupt Erap Estrada was and no matter how addicted he was to gambling, gad, what are these sins compared to what GMA, her husband and her trusted officials have committed/continue to commit. The country’s going to hell in a handbasket because of tall their shenanigans. Kahit wala nang gawin ang oposisyon, the Macapagal-Arroyos and government officials like Abalos fuck up so blatantly that it’s almost like they’re begging to be impeached.
So what next?
The weather is vacillating between warm and chilly, but on the whole one could say that the climate is literally conducive to holding big rallies –the sort that fills both lanes of EDSA from Santol to Guadalupe, and then on to Ayala, Taft Avenue, Plaza Miranda and then Malacanang.
—

Here are some of the pictures of the KARAPATAN delegation at the Palais de
Nations for the 6th
Regular Session of the UN Human Rights
Council (UNHRC) are Ms. Marie Enriquez, Secretary General of Karapatan and Ms. Susan Cruz of Bayan and
Karapatan-Central
Luzon. With them are missing activist Jonas Burgos’ mother Mrs.
Editha Burgos and Special Legal Consultant of Karapatan for UN Mechanisms
Atty. Edre Olalia.

 They will be there until Sept 28. for various meetings with different UN rapporteurs, special representatives and NGOs, lobbying, filing of new complaints and communications and
follow-up of previous complaints filed
on extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture; and conduct/join parallel activities with other NGOs such as fora, pickets in embassies and consulates and
consultations.

JMS walks free!  (mabuti naman, kasi ang hirap mag-boycott ng lahat ng products ng Unilever, harharhar!) It’s like Christmas came early! This is such a huge relief! Five stars! Happy-happy-happy!

My mom and sister and I are going to watch ‘Avenue Q’ this evening in Makati, and only a few days back I wasn’t feeling so enthusiastic about it because, well, so many unhappy things happening all at once, but now! Now there’s a little sunshine coming through the thick black curtain of clouds and we can smile and laugh as we march the streets if only on this one day because a great and good man was released from unjust incarceration.

Gad, Norberto Gonzales is such a dope. He should do the world a favor and commit suicide. Now instead of admitting that he and Gloria celebrated much too early and admitting that the so-called evidence he provided the Dutch authorities is actually worth zilch, he’s saying that he has heard it from a very reliable source that the NPA has planned something big in Manila (what, a rock concert in the Araneta? They’re singing with the Black-eyed Peas? They’re sponsoring a cooking contest in Ortigas?).

Okay, okay, so maybe it won’t do good to be too happy because the battle is faaaaar from over and AFP and the National Security Council’s bloodthirst has yet to be slaked and Oplan Bantay Laya II is still in operation. But still! Emerald and cranberry fireworks! Play the Sesame Street Soundtrack full blast! I will go out and eat pistachio ice cream and sing while I walk and the rain is a blissful benediction. JMS is free, and on this day, we rejoice.

—

DISTRICT COURT OF THE HAGUE CRIMINAL LAW SECTION

Public Prosecutor’s Office number: 09.750006-06 
On 7 September 2007, the Public Prosecutor submitted  demand aiming at an order to be issued for detention of:  [the accused]
born in [place of birth] on [date of birth] currently held in the remand prison in The Hague (Unit 1).  The Court has examined the documents in this case. On 7 September 2007, the accused and his counsel, as well as the Public Prosecutor were heard in camera.

The accused was remanded in custody on the charges of participation of, alternatively incitement to the intentional and  premeditated murders of [R.K.] on 23 January 2003 (count 1),  [A.G.T.] and/or  [S.A.O.] on 26 September 2004 (count 3) as well as  the attempts to do so of [R.M.] and/or [E.R. y M.] on 23 January 2003  (count 2).

The Public Prosecution Service takes the point of view that prior to, and at the time of, the commission of these serious  offences, the accused was the chairman of the Communist Party of  the Philippines  (CPP) and the Central Committee (CC), being a party  body within the  CPP, as well as that within the party structure, the CC takes the decisions and that the accused, being the chairman of both the CPP and the CC, for that reason may be held criminally responsible for the offenses.

  With regard to the question to be answered primarily, to wit if there are grave presumptions as provided for in article 67, third paragraph of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Court considers the following. It is certain that the acts concerned were committed in the Philippines. In the opinion of the Court, it is clear from the investigation that the said acts related to disagreements within the CPP and that the decision to commit these offences was made within the party structure of the CPP, in which other persons and bodies were also involved. The question that will have to be answered is if, and if so, in what way, the accused was involved and may be considered as a co-perpetrator of these acts.

In order to assume participation in the commission of acts within the meaning of article 47 of the Penal Code, there  should be deliberate and close co-operation and a joint commission of the offence. The police files submitted to the court include many  indications for the point of view that the accused has been involved in the CC of the CPP and her military branch, the New People’s Army  (NPA). There are  also indications that the accused is still playing a leading role in the (underground) activities of the CC, the CPP and the NPA.

Without prejudice to the justified suspicion that the accused during the period described in the charges played a leading  role in the aforementioned organisations, the files nevertheless do not provide a sufficient basis for the suspicion that the accused,  while staying in the Netherlands, committed the offences he is charged with in deliberate and close co-operation with the perpetrators in the  Philippines.

For that reason, the Court considers that the grave presumptions with regard to participation in the commission of the murders are not  present. Neither can indications be found for the presence of grave presumptions with regard to incitement to these  offences. The statements of the widows and the marksmen, to which the Public Prosecution Service appeals, only refer to the fact  that they assume that the murders have been committed by order of the CC of the CPP and therefore an order originating from the accused being the chairman. However, that is insufficiently concrete to consider that grave presumptions are present.

  The grounds that have led to the remand in custody of the accused are not, in any case no longer, present in the opinion of the Court, so that the demand should be rejected and the remand in custody should be terminated with immediate effect.

DECISION :
The Court rejects the demand of the Public  Prosecutor and recommends
termination of the accused’s remand in custody.

MESSRS. POUSTOCHKINE LL.M., president, SCHAAF LL.M.  and STEENHUIS
LL.M., judges in the presence of MS KOK LL.M., clerk of the court,
pronounced this decision in camera in this Court on 13 September 2007.

–

(This was read by Professor Sison during a press conference at the reception/celebration prepared by his friends and supporters held the NDFP International Information Office in Utrecht, The Netherlands, today, Sept. 13. This is Professor Sison’s first public appearance after his release from detention this morning. The Free Joma Sison Campaign Committee has announced also that the campaign to defend Profesor Sison will continue.)

From: DEFEND

Statement on My Release from Detention
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
13 September 2007

Friends, Warmest greetings!

I am deeply pleased and thankful that the Rechtsbank has decided to release me from detention. You cannot imagine how happy I am. It is extremely painful and humiliating to be subjected to solitary confinement and tough interrogation under overheated lamps. The ordeal is acute because I am innocent of the false and politically-motivated charge leveled against me.

I have nothing to do with any murder. This is against my moral and political principles. I am a teacher by profession who loves the exchange of ideas towards common understanding and practical cooperation. I have long devoted myself to the advocacy of human rights and work for a just peace in the Philippines. I cannot go into the facts and arguments concerning my case. It is my lawyer Michiel Pestman who is competent to give you the information that you need.

Consequent to the release order of the Rechtsbank, I gain some confidence in the Dutch legal system. I have the opportunity to prove my innocence and continue to benefit from fair play. I feel somehow vindicated in choosing The Netherlands as my place of refuge from persecution in the Philippines. I also wish to thank the Dutch, Filipino and other peoples for their solidarity and support.

I will stay in the Netherlands with my wife and my two children who are already independent. I will conduct my legal defense and further clear my name. I will continue to exercise my freedom to speak and other democratic rights. I will continue to work for national freedom, human rights, social justice and an enduring, because just, peace in the Philippines.

I will continue to abide by the laws of the Dutch state and further develop solidarity with the Dutch people whose friendship and kindness I have enjoyed for more than 20 years. Thank you.#

Am partially blind as I type this, so there’s a perfectly reasonable excuse if there are more than the usual number of typographical errors in this entry. I had to get my glasses fixed because the right nose pad fell out. Everything looks blurry and sludgy around the edges right now, and I’m getting a slight headache, but I don’t have a choice but to forge on ahead because I dislike wasting time when
I’m at work.
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We’re all thinking of not coming here to work tomorrow when the Sandiganbayan lays down its decision on the plunder case against ousted president Joseph Ejercito Estrada. There’ll be at least 6,000 members of the PNP blocking the traffic tomorrow, and this is
what I’m mostly worried about and not so much the Erap supporters.
I feel more or less indifferent to what the Sandiganbayan will say about Estrada and whether it will decide to acquit or declare him guilty. It’s been six years, and in the interim Macapagal-Arroyo has been president and has driven all thoughts and feelings of anger or
disgust against Estrada out. Is he guilty? You bet he is; but gad, compared to Macapagal-Arroyo, he’s practically a saint — even if you count his many wives, the drinking and gambling habits he used to have, and his less than savory friendships with big-time gamblers and the business mafia.
I care more about Macapagal-Arroyo getting charged and arrested for massive civil, political and human rights violations and for severely compromising the economy, food security and the over-all national welfare by forging lopsided business and econ deals left and right with foreign corporations and promising them the earth, the sky, and  what’s over and under both within what constitutes Philippine territory.
I can’t wait for 2010 when her term is over and she can be criminally charged.
Back to Estrada — I remember enjoying the rallies and seeing, feeling how activists were being highly creative, driven to coming out with the most eye and ear-catching gimmicks to express protest against the erstwhile jueteng lord.
It was quite a different feeling from what I have now when I think of Macapagal-Arroyo — rallies against her are angry, and  I for one, in all earnestness want her  out of Malacanang and thrown behind bars at the soonest possible time for all of the anguish she has caused and continues to cause because of Oplan Bantay Laya I and II.
Now reading about the NBN contract with China’s ZTE Corp. and the 31 other economic/business deals her administration has forged with China and its business sector, I feel almost desperate: will there still be a country called the Philippines 20 years hence? Macapagal-Arroyo is literally leasing or selling millions of hectares of land and sea area to China, and only the stupidly optimistic will be able to say that some good will come out of this for the Philippines in the long run.

It’s a good thing that the Supreme Court laid down a TRO against the NBN deal, but for how long is the effect of this TRO? And as for the 31 other contracts, gad, will the SC lay down a similar decision on them as well?

I’ve been told that included in the 31 RP-China agreements is a business permit allowing China to export to the Philippines tons of relatively affordable dual-SIM phones and inexpensive laptops. At first glance that seems pretty cool; but when analyzed closely, gad, who needs cellphones and laptops when hundreds of thousands of farmers, fisherfolk and minorities will be stripped of their land, livelihood and sources of income, as well as driven out of their homes by Chinese corporations?

Then there’s the war in Mindanao, the plans for the full privatization of the electric and power industry, the increasing costs of living and the alarming rise in criminality.
It would be funny if it weren’t so infuriating. All these things are affecting even our plans of having children. Whenever either of us brings up the topic, we inevitably end up saying it’s not a good time because of the 1) human rights situation, and 2) the economic situation. I really want to get pregnant and have a baby already, but I often I am terrified by the mere thought of raising a child in this country, and lately,  Kim agrees.
We have agreed to adopt.
Wouldn’t t be funny  but at the same time quite useful and instructive  if obstetricians, pediatricians and family doctors in their consultations with  patients ever ask them about how the state of the nation affects their decisions for their families?  I mean, heck, how do you come up with a healthy, balanced diet for the family when everything is so expensive, including vitamin supplements?
Hmm, it’s not even true that Filipinos consult doctors all the time. It’s too expensive. Most Pinoys just drink lots of water and hope for the best; if they have money to spare, they buy paracetamol.
I feel like Adrian Monk - I worry about everything these days.
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It’s usefulness as a medium for quick information dissemination aside, it’s only now that am really appreciating youtube. For the most part this morning in between writing tasks I’ve been looking at old videos of songs by the Police, They Might Be Giants, China Crisis, 10,000 Maniacs, and the Cranberries. Actually, I wasn’t really watching the videos but just listening to the music while I wrote.

Even before I’d read Nick Horby’s ‘High Fidelity,’ I was already aware of how pop music served as markers distinguishing various chapters or episodes of my life, or as therapeutic instruments.  I listen to this song or that over and over and over whenever I feel  bad/sad/wounded/troubled or deliriously happy. The lines of certain songs, the melody of some others help to alter my emotions and my frame of mind and take me someplace else — either to the past  when I was not in pain or in grief; or to some hoped for future where I would not only be not in pain, but perhaps even doing quite, quite well.

I can’t even count the number of times I’ve survived terrible experiences by playing ‘I’m Free to Decide’ and ‘Don’t Analyze’ again and again. Dolores ‘O Riordan is my personal patron saint.