Day: July 6, 2009

From the office of Sen. Trillanes:

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV supported the public clamor for an election in 2010 by saying change under the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is ‘not possible.’

“Any illusions of change are simply not possible under the administration of GMA,” he said in a published annual report.

According to the same report, Trillanes was ranked sixth in the Senate for his 285 total bills on several advocacies as poverty alleviation, national defense and security, affordable and accessible health care and education, and environmental protection in only his second year in office.

He stressed good governance and civil service reforms as priorities by proposing heavier penalties against violations by contractors and subcontractors in public works projects and the public officials involved.

“We should fight against the alarming propensity of this administration to punish whistleblowers of anomalous transactions instead of the perpetrators, most of whom are part of government themselves,” Trillanes said.

He also addressed issues among the youth and women sectors with bills that would subject private schools to stricter government regulation against tuition hikes, and include PhilHealth coverage for diagnostic services for breast and cervical cancer.

This year Trillanes authored and coauthored seven bills and resolutions that were passed into law, including the Archipelagic Baselines Law (original bill included Scarborough Shoal within the baselines) and Salary Standardization Law 3.

Six of his bills have already been passed in the Senate, counting one that would fix the terms of the Armed Forces of the Philippines chief and major service commanders.

Admitting limitations as a legislator due to his imprisonment, Trillanes vowed to serve the country in other ways.

“I continue to be a voice of defiance against a regime that is reputed as the most corrupt in our nation’s history. This, I can honestly say, is my small contribution to our people’s incessant struggle for change,” he said.

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by Yvonne T. Chua
VERA Files

Unliquidated cash advances of national government agencies and local government units have ballooned to P10 billion, prompting the Commission on Audit to restore the pre-audit of select government transactions starting next month.

The COA said it was restoring the practice of pre-audit in a bid to check what it described as the “rising incidents of irregular, illegal, wasteful and anomalous” releases of public money and disposal of government property.

The pre-audit, which scrutinizes transactions before funds are released and recorded in the government’s books, was discontinued in 1995. It was entrusted to internal auditors who are employees of the agency they examine. COA auditors were restricted to post-audit work.

Click here (VERA Files) for the complete article.

The first text message I got yesterday morning was from a friend who forwarded a report from his friend in Cotabato City about a bomb that exploded in front of the Immaculate Concepcion Cathedral in that city.

News reports later said that four were killed while some 50 people were injured. Three of the fatalities were identified namely Ruby Ramirez, 43, of Philippine Trade, Barangay Bulalo in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, and owner of the lechon house where the bomb was planted; Prince Salem Cang Diaz, grand son of Patricio Diaz, former editor-in-chief of The Mindanao Cross, a local paper based in Cotabato City; Paulo Kahar.

Presidential Adviser for Mindanao Jess Dureza said “This is not an isolated case” referring to a series of bombings the past weeks. He called yesterday’s grim incident “murderous act of insanity” and “cowardly act of treachery and violence.”

On June 29, an improvised device exploded by a roadside in Maguindanao, killing two men having coffee in a nearby coffee shop and wounding eight others. On June 20, two grenades exploded at a fiesta celebration in Maasim, Sarangani, killing one person and hurting 32 others.

In Quezon City, on June 28, an improvised device went off at the Office of the Ombudsman compound. The next day, a package containing an improvised explosive was found on the grounds of the Department of Agriculture.

Dureza said that the bomb fragments in yesterday’s explosion were similar to those that found in the recent bombings, an indication that they were the handiwork of the same group of people.

Who could that group of people be?

AFP Spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner points to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) saying explosion in populated areas is an act of terrorism and bears the signature of the SOG (special operations group) ng MILF.”

There are also talk that it’s the handiwork of a faction in the Arroyo administration that wants to wrest control of the government before she fades away or immobilized for one reason or another.

This is problem if you have a leader distrusted by the majority of the population. People are ready to people the most abominable plan attributed to Arroyo because she has a track record of committing dastardly acts never before dared by other presidents, not even Ferdinand Marcos.

Who would ever believe that she could attempt the large scale and brazen subversion of the will of the people in the 2004 elections, from the diversion of public funds to her campaign kitty, to vote buying, to tampering of elections results using the military, to the manufacturing of fake election returns that were substituted to the genuine ERs stored in the Batasan secured by the Philippine National Police Special Action Force.

But she did it. The crime did not stop there because the cover-up continued with buying off members of the House of Representatives to kill the impeachment complaints against her and paying off military officials who cooperated in the cheating with promotions and cushy government positions upon retirement, and giving Comelec officials lucrative government business contracts as payoffs.

It’s easy for many of the Filipino people to believe that Gloria Arroyo will do anything to stay in power including creating mayhem.

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