Alleba Politics

Now that controversial former COMELEC Commissioner Virgilio “Garci” Garcilliano has re-surfaced, what then?

For months, investigations on the alleged presidential election fraud centered on the so-called “Hello Garci” tapes and trying to find Garci so he could clear things up. We wanted (and still want) to know if Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo did cheat her way to the presidency. To what extent was the cheating? Who was involved? Was the Filipino people’s money corrupted to secure a victory?

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Yesterday, the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) reported that Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said that the so-called “brain drain” in the country is a mere perception. Sto. Tomas stated that the allegation that the country’s health care industry is heavily suffering from brain drain is not based on “hard facts.”

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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is said to be gloating that RA 9337 or Reformed VAT is yielding “positive” results for the country’s economy. Fuel prices are down, the peso is up. I must concede that the economy is looking good.

But are the lives of Filipinos doing better??? I doubt it. Read the rest of this entry »

These past few days, there have been so much talk and discussion about how Julius Babao was accused by no less than Pres. Arroyo of posting bail for alleged terrorist Dawud Santos.

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Yesterday, November 4, 2005, the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) handed a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ). The said TRO ordered PCIJ to remove a post (dated August 14, 2005) on their blog regarding Jonathan Tiongco (Sec. Mike Defensor’s “audio expert”). The TRO was served upon the request of Tiongco’s wife, Rona, who alleged that the said post was intruding on her family’s privacy. Prior to the serving of the TRO by the QC RTC, the Supreme Court already denied a similar request from Jonathan Tiongco himself. The TRO is effective for 20 days, during which PCIJ is banned from posting or commenting or doing such actions regarding the blog entry in question.

To say that this will have massive repercussions for bloggers everywhere is an understatement.

I do believe that the TRO is a violation of one’s right to freedom of speech. The last time I checked, the Philippines is a democratic country and every citizen could say, write whatever they want to as long as it’s true. Yes, there are limitations to that right but I don’t think that the PCIJ entry crossed the line.

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Today, November 4, 2005, was declared a holiday by Pres. Arroyo. Today is supposedly Id-al-Fitr, the last day of the Ramadan of our Muslim brothers. (It actually occurred about two nights ago.) Ramadan, simply put, is similar to the Christian Holy Week.

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