Philippine Team Won Gold Medals in 2010 WRO

MANILA
The Philippine Team won for the country 2 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze and special awards in the 2010 World Robot Olympiad (WRO), besting teams from 22 countries across the globe, representing 56 members from different schools around the world. The two gold medals came from the open category for elementary and high school divisions.

In the elementary category, elementary pupils from the Grace Christian College took one gold medal; while high school students from Dr. Yanga's College in Bulacan took the other gold medal.

The Olympiad was held on 5 November 2010 at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City. [Full Report]

New Liberal Party Officers Elected

During its national executive council at the Gabaldon Hall of Club Filipino in San Juan City, the Liberal Party of the Philippines elected a new set of officers on 19 January 2011, with President Benigno Aquino III as the new party Chairman.

Cavite 1st District Representative Jose Emilio Abaya became the new secretary general, former Senator Mar Roxas II as the new President, and House Speaker Jose Belmonte Jr. as the new Vice Chairman.

President Manuel Roxas founded the Liberal Party of the Philippines in 1946 from the "Liberal Wing" of the old Nacionalista Party.

(Photo courtesy of Gil Nartea, Malacañang Photo Bureau)

Source:

Balita

Revilla Became New Lakas-Kampi-CMD President

MANILA

Behind closed doors at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Ortigas, 149 party members present elected Senator Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr. as new party president, taking over from 2010 standard bearer Gilberto Teodoro, who resigned from party presidency at the height of the campaign.

Also elected was House minority leader Edcel Lagman as chairman. Elected vice-chairmen were representatives Danilo Suarez, Simeon Datumanong, and Rolando Andaya. Rep. Jose Aquino III was secretary general.

Revilla confirmed that the party under his leadership will not be a problem to the present administration, even as he called for cooperation. 

Presently, the party is broken into three groups following the election of Senator Benigno Aquino III as Philippine President. Andaya heads a faction allied with House Speaker Sonny Belmonte who led some 40 Lakas congressmen to the Liberal Party after the presidential election.

Lagman heads the second faction that stayed in Lakas.

House Deputy Speaker Pablo Garcia led the third faction of Kampi originals who kept their distance from the Lakas originals. This faction, along with other personalities close to former First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, left Lakas to form the National Unity Party (NUP).

Sources

RG Cruz: "Lakas-KAMPI regroups, picks Bong Revilla as president," ABS-CBN News 24 February 2011

PBMA Divine Master Convicted of Graft

Ruben Ecleo Jr., Divine Master of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA) and Dinagat Islands Representative, faces arrest after the Sandiganbayan issued a warrant of arrest on 10 February 2011. The graft court made the decision final and executory after it dismissed his motion to recall the court resolution and teh warrant of arrest against him.

The Sandiganbayan convicted him of three graft cases in connection to three government-funded projects implemented in San Jose, a town in the island where he used to be mayor, that had been given to PBMA Builders as contractor.

Source

Sunnex: "Court: Ecleo's graft conviction final," Sun.Star News Exchange 21 February 2011

Mount Bulusan Scared Villagers Away

SORSOGON

In its 13th ash explosion since November 2010, Mount Bulusan finally chased about 1,200 villagers to safety on 21 February 2011 (Monday). The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Philvocs) had the area under Alert Level 1 since then. The steam-triggered explosion of ask and smoke occurred at 9:15 AM; the smoke shoting up to two kilometers towards teh blue sky. A four-km permanent danger zone around the volcano summit has been set to keep the people away.

Mount Bulusan is the fourth most active volcano in the Philippines after Mount Mayon (Albay), Mount Taal (Batangas), and Mount Pinatubo (Zambales). It is one of the country's 23 active volcanoes.

Source

Sunnex: "Hundreds flee after Bulusan blast," Sun.Star Network Exchange 21 February 2011

Donaire Snatched WBC, WBO Bantamweight Crowns in Round 2

Nonito "The Filipino Flash" Donaire (28) floored defending champion Fernando "Cochulito" Montiel (31) of Mexico in the second round, and snatched from the champion the crown for the World Boxing Council (WBC) and World Boxing Organization (WBO) bantamweight titles at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas on 20 February 2011 (Sunday), two minutes and 25 seconds in the round.

At the onset both fighters cautiously studied each other. Donaire landed a left hook in the opening seconds of round one.

Donaire took a right to the head from Montiel, then immediately countered with a devastating left to the head that sent the champion crumplling to the canvas. Montiel managed to rise up to continue, but Donaire rushed over to land a left and a right before referee Russess Mora stopped the fight.

The win was Donaire's 25th triumph in a row over the past decade.

VP Binay Obtained Stay of Execution

Vice President Jejomar Binay succeeded in obtaining a stay of execution on three drug mules sentenced to death on 20 and 21 February (Monday and Tuesday) after a 36-hour visit to China as he made last-ditch appeals to the Chinense officials in Beijing, including its supreme court chief justice.

After the meetings, China's Supreme Court informed the Philippines that it has decided to postpone the execution, "within the scope of Chinese law," indefinitely. The stay on the execution was the first time in the legal history of China, not even for its own citizen a stay had been made before.

Sources

DJ Yap: "Binay returns after obtaining stay of Filipinos' execution," The Philippine Daily Inquirer 19 February 2011

Looming AFP, PNP Personnel Crises

President Benigno S. Aquino III directed the budget department to look into the looming pension crisis in the AFP and PNP following the discovery that the number of the retired personnel would soon surpass active members.

Budget Secretary Florecio Abad said during the budget hearing in the Senate that the new government discovered that the estimated number of active military men is about 129,000 while the retired personnel is abut 126,000.

Source:

Victor Reyes, Jocelyn Montemayor: "AFP morale high, Aquino told," Malaya 17 February 2011

The 2001 Purchase of Lockheed C-130K CT Planes

Malou Mangahas of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalish shared her account on the circumstances surrounding the purchase of four, 30-year-old C-130K military transport and cargo planes from Lockheed Martin. Here's her story, posted in ABS-CBN News.com on 12 February 2011:

In 2001, for over two hours, I had interviewed Angie for a PCIJ story on the rushed, overpriced, and irregular purchase of four, 30-year-old C-130-K military transport and cargo planes and two sensor equipment for $41 million or P2.1 billion. The supplier was the world’s largest defense contractor, the U.S. firm Lockheed Martin.

The story had reached Angie’s doorstep because it was he, as Armed Forces chief of staff, who recommended the purchase, and approved the same weeks later, as Defense secretary, without public bidding. The purchase was enrolled for funding under the multi-billion-peso Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Modernization Program when it was not supposed to be there at all. The program did not include the purchase of C-130s but only aircraft with night-vision sensors.

To push it, the AFP crafted the contract with Lockheed Martin to cover the acquisition of C-130s retrofitted with night-vision sensors. As it turned out, Angie had merely signed on to a deal endorsed by two presidents, one of whom was said to be close to the lobbying contractor. The Department of Budget and Management did not approve the contract until months later. The Armed Forces had a bad habit then of awarding supply contracts that the service commands or headquarters would later suspend or rescind, then bid and award again, for reasons like product specs mismatched with unit requirements and the change of commanders.

Zamboanga City Distinguished Itself Against Human Trafficking

ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR

Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 14 Judge Reynerio Estacio sentenced today a labor trafficker to 20 years in prison and P1 million in fines. This fifth conviction since the passing to law Republic Act 9208, otherwise known as the Anti-Trafficking of Persons Law of 2003, made Zamboanga City the highest conviction rates of human traffickers, after it became the first city to convict a human trafficker in 2005.

Third Assistant City Prosecutor Darlene Pajarito handled all the these successful case convictions.  

Past Convictions

2005 December 5 RTC branch 16 judge Jesus Carbon Jr. hand two life imprisonments in a proceeding that concluded in a record period of five months.

2007 Again Judge Carbon handed out a life imprisonment with P1 million fine to the guilty accused. 

2008 Once again Judge Carbon metted 20 years of imprisonment with P1 million fine to the guilty accused.

2010 August 8 Judge Carbon made the 4th conviction, and the 19th in the country.

Sources

Bong Garcia: "Zamboanga tops in anti-trafficking campaign," SunStar Zamboanga 15 February 2011 

House to Proceed with Gutierrez Impeachment Hearings

Through a 7-5-2 voting, the Supreme Court ruled on 15 February 2011 that the House of Representatives Justice Committee may proceed with its hearings on the impeachment complaints against Ombudsman Chief Merceditas Gutierrez. It denied the petition of Gutierrez to stop the proceedings on the ground that the law allows only one impeachment complaint against the Ombudsman for a span of one year.

Consequently the High Court lifted the status quo ante it issued on the committee in deference to the Gutierrez argument last year.

On 22 July 2010, then Party-list Representative Riza Hontiveros-Baraquel of Akbayan. Freed military officer Danilo Lim and the parents of the late Navy Ensign Philip Pestano also filed their respective complaints for impeachment co-signed the Hontiveros-Baraquel complaint. They accused Guttierez of betraying the public trust and violating the Constituteion for the "dismal and unconscionably low" performance of her office in convicting public officials.

Secretary-general Renato Reyes of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) filed a second and separate impeachment complaints against Gutierrez on 3 August 2010 for her alleged failure to prosecute those behind the P728-million fertilizer fund scam. 

In the decision that Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales penned, the High Court ruled that: "The committee on justice acted on the two complaints, ruling on the sufficiency of form, and later of substance, at the same time... There is nothing in the Constitution that prohibits the consolidation of the first and second complaints since they were refererred... to the committee... at the same time." The committee received the referral on 11 August 2010.

THE VOTES

Decision DISMISSED

Concurred [7] AJ Antonio Carpio, AJ Conchita Carpio-Morales, AJ Maria Lourdes Sereno, AJ Roberto Abad, AJ Jose Mendoza, AJ Eduardo Nachura, and AJ Martin Villarama Jr.

Dissent [5] CJ Renato Corona, AJ Arturo Brion, AJ Lucas Bersamin, AJTeresita Leonardo-De Castro, and AJ Diosdado Peralta

Equivocal [2] AJ Mariano del Castillo (partial dissent), and AJ Jose Perez (partial dissent)

Inhibited [1] AJ Presbitero Velasco (did not join the deliberations)

GRANTING OF MOTION WITHOUT DELIBERATION

In her separate opinion supporting the ruling that allowed the House justice committee to resume with the impeachment proceedings against Gutierrez, Associate Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno disclosed that the order granting the motion of Gutierrez for certiorari on 13 September 2010 "was voted upon in the morning of Sept. 14, 2010, without the benefit of a genuinely informed debate." She said that "several members of the court" had not seen the copy of the Gutierrez petition when the tribunal acted favorably on it during their regular full court session that day.  

Carpio shared Sereno's observation, nothing that he, Sereno and Morales had requested more time to study the pleading. Gutierrez filed her petition at 9:01 a.m. on Sept. 13 but he saw a copy of the document only on the afternoon of the next day "after the en banc morning session of that day." And the petition consists of 60 pages, excluding the annexes.

The Court did not issue a resolution explaining its Sept. 14, 2010 ruling. What happened, SC spokesperson Midas Marquez simply held a news briefing to announce that Gutierrez had won a reprieve from the Court.

The attempt of the Supreme Court to shield Gutierrez was not the more obvious.

SUFFICIENT IN GROUNDS

In a vote of 41-12, the House Committee on Justice approved on 1 March 2011 the motion of the Deputy Speaker and Quezon Representative Lorenzo "Erin" Tañada III, declaring the first impeachment complaint that Hotiveros-Baraquel, Lim, and the Pestanos "sufficient in grounds."

House panel vice chairperson and Ilocos Norte Representative Rodolfo Farinas motioned for the second impeachment complaint from Reyes, which the committee members voted 42-12 declairing the complaint again sufficient in grounds.

VIEWS

Senator Francis Pangilinan: "We believe that impeachment is a matter that falls exclusively within the jurisdiction of Congress, and that the Supreme Court should never have intervened in the first place... That the SC realized its mistake is a welcome development. There was this growing perception that the Supreme Court was taking the cudgels for former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo whose administration has cases that have been gathering dust in the Ombudsman."

Associate Supreme Court Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno: "The issuance of the status quo ante order in this case was most unfortunate... I believed then, as I believe now, that the court... was overly intrusive with respect to a power that does not belong to it by restrainingh without hearing a coequal branch of government."

Sources

Marlong Ramos: "SC didn't debate Gutierrez's petition--Sereno," Philippine Daily Inquirer 28 February 2011
Virgil Lopez, Katrina Alvarez, Jonathan de Santos, Jill Beltran: "Ombudsman studies options on High Court decision," SunStar Network Exchange 15 February 2011

Public Bidding Saved DPWH P577M

With the removal of negotiated contracts as procurement policy at the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in July 2010, a month after the start of the Aquino administration, the government saved 577 million pesos, which could have been lost from the coffers. This came from 29 project contracts that the department brought into public bidding instead, and came out with much lower cost of works than the negotiated contracts entered into during the Arroyo administration.

In addition to that, 19 Japanese-funded flood control projects worth 934.1 million pesos were canceled. The previous DPWH leadership approved these projects without public bidding. In fact, the approval came even before the letter of authority from the Department of Budget Management was released.

Current secretary Rogelio Singson also ordered the rotation of the bids and awards committee among the third-ranking permanent officials in the central, regional and district engineering offices to keep the process in utmost integrity as it prevents these officials from getting too familiar with the contractors in their area. And only the secretary has the authority to approve any extension of contracts. No mention however if there will be random raffling of these committee among said officials.

Source

Joel Surbano: "Public Works saves P577m in new rules," Manila Standard Today 11 February 2011

Presidential Situation Room

Despite critics, the young Aquino government continue to surprise Filipinos with the nobel and positive moves it make. Fresh minds do bring fresh changes in government.

Less than four months after he issued Administrative Order Number 2 on 17 September 2010, the Presidential Situation Room (PSR) finally inaugurated on 10 February 2011 (Thursday), signalling its full operation as the nerve center of the government's response in times of crises. It centralizes information flows and assists in teh coordination of the different agencies tasked at dealing with crises.

Since its soft start in October 2010, PSR has produced 104 concise, accurate and insightful reports that have kept President Benigno Aquino III up to date on important events in the country.

During the inauguration, the President said that PSR will soon be equipped with centralized electronic connections with the key national security agencies, primarily the Armed Forces of the Philippiens, the Philippine National Police, the Office of Civil Defense, adn the Department of National Defense.

Sources

"Aquino opens Presidential Situation Room for effectrive response to crisis," Office of the President News Desk 10 February 2011

Ex-AFP Chief of Staff Committed Suicide

MANILA

Former Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Angelo Reyes was declared dead at 8:32 AM on 8 February 2011 (Tuesday) after he shot himself hours earlier at his mother's tomb at the Loyola Memorial Center (LMC) in Marikina. Doctors at the Quirino Memorial Medical Center (QMMC) in Quezon City said that Reyes sustained a self-inflicted gun-shot wound in his left-side chest.

The tragedy came at the heel of a subpoena that the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, that Senator Teofisto Guingona chaired, will be issued against him after he snubbed repeatedly the invitations of the committee to appear before it. Four members of the committee--Jinggoy Estrada, Francis Escudero, Miriam Defensor Santiago, and Antonio Trillanes IV--poised to cite him in contempt after he moved for their inhibition in the Senate inquiry and for saying he could not recall receiving money from then budget officer Rabusa.

Former J6 budget officer George Rabusa testified in the committee inquiry that Reyes received at least P50 million in takehome and other personal benefits, not authorized by law, when he was still chief of the military.

Reyes was chief of staff of AFP under deposed president Joseph Estrada. He was intrumental in the event when he withdrew support of Estrada at the height of the uprising in 2001. He became secretary of defense under Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo until 2003. Arroyo appointed him secretary of the interior and local government in 2004 until she transferred him secretary of the environment and natural resources in 2006. He succeeded Raphael Lotilla as secretary of energy in 2007 until he resigned in 2010 when the Aquino government received the mandate of the Filipinos.  

Sources

Jonathan de Santos: "Ex-defense chief confirmed dead," SunStar Network Exchange 8 February 2011

And BIFF Was Born

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