3,000 rally for Comelec move on Biñan

By Niña Catherine Calleja
Southern Luzon Bureau
Last updated 07:20am (Mla time) 06/13/2007

BIÑAN, LAGUNA—At least 3,000 supporters of incumbent Biñan vice mayor and leading mayoral candidate Marlyn Alonte gathered in the town plaza Monday night for a prayer rally and to call for a swift decision from the Commission on Elections on a petition to declare a failure of elections in the town filed by Alonte’s rival, son-in-law of the Comelec chair.

 

The canvassing was suspended on May 18 after candidate Jose Ruben Yatco, son-in-law of Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos, filed a petition alleging election fraud and seeking a Comelec ruling to declare the elections a failure.

 

Alonte, who is leading the mayoral race with 29,781 votes against Yatco’s 23,404 votes, according to the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, also filed a petition to lift the suspension order.

 

Yatco accused Alonte of rigging the elections while Alonte claimed Yatco was using his connection with Abalos to change the election results.

 

The Comelec has yet to decide.

 

Philip Piccio, campaign manager of Alonte, said the people were already anxious.

 

A week ago, Alonte, with her lawyers, filed a motion for Comelec to immediately resolve the case.

 

“If there is still no (Comelec) decision at the end of the month, we would go to the Supreme Court and ask them to compel the Comelec to immediately decide,” Piccio said.

 

He said, however, that if Comelec would decide to declare a failure of elections, they would also file a motion with the Supreme Court to lift the order.

 

“If the Comelec declares a poll failure, obviously it was railroaded. We know what is happening there,” he said.

 

Yatco’s spokesperson, lawyer Ding Concepcion, defended the delay.

 

“The commissioners have to study various cases like that in Maguindanao and the issue between (senatorial candidates) Koko Pimentel and Miguel Zubiri,” he said in a phone interview.

 

Reacting to the prayer rally, Concepcion said that Alonte’s supporters present in the rally were not representative of the 106,000 voters of Biñan.

RP vehicle makers launch prototype with all-new parts

By Ronnel Domingo
Inquirer
Last updated 07:49am (Mla time) 06/13/2007

MANILA, Philippines — A group of automotive parts makers is targeting fleet buyers in a bid to push its “national vehicle” project forward to commercial production following the launch of a prototype yesterday.

 

Eddie S. Jose, president of the Motor Vehicle Parts Manufacturers Association of the Philippines (MVPMAP), said his group would approach companies and even subdivisions in the first marketing salvo for what they dubbed the Philippine Utility Vehicle (PhUV).

 

“The PhUV needs positive feedback from (all fronts) to get it moving,” Jose said. “We need support from the government, financing institutions, assemblers and, of course, the buying public.”

 

Although the government had expressed support for the PhUV, Jose said the MVPMAP was talking with agencies, such as the Department of Trade and Industry, to muster the particular help the group needs.

 

“With increasing globalization and economic integration, especially in the region, incentives as packaged through the Investment Priorities Plan are no longer enough,” he said.

 

But he added that aside from government support for parts makers, assemblers and buyers, there was a host of other factors needed to bring the PhUV through.

 

“For one, low-cost retail financing must be available,” Jose said. “We are in talks with the Development Bank of the Philippines and the Landbank of the Philippines and their initial responses were positive.”

 

Jose said support from commercial banks were also needed to help entice institutional buyers as well as individuals to try the PhUV.

 

Price range

 

“We need to and we aim at maintaining a price range of P350,000 to P450,000 per unit,” Jose said. “We also target a modest sales volume of 30,000 units.”

 

He explained that both factors — the price range and the volume — were intended to counter the influx of used imported vehicles through the Subic Bay Freeport.

 

“That is how much a used import costs and our target sales volume is half the demand that these represent,” Jose said.

 

Also, he said the government could help promote the PhUV if a Supreme Court ruling that bans used imports coming in through Subic was strictly enforced.

 

“In turn, PhUV sales could help the local automotive industry reach its target of breaking the 100,000-unit mark, which is seen as the threshold that indicates sustained growth,” he added.

 

Jose also said the PhUV needed more support from local assemblers, especially those participating in the motor vehicle development program although two have enlisted in the effort, truck manufacturer Dreamco Automobile Co. and Francisco Motor Corp.

 

All-purpose 12-seater

 

Launched yesterday was a red 12-seat unit that looked like a cross between the Ford Fiera/Toyota Tamaraw type and the modern all-purpose vehicle/mini-van.

 

Dreamco president William Lee, whose firm supplied the drive train and other parts for the PhUV, said the vehicle was different from other locally designed and assembled vehicles in that the parts used were all brand-new and not “surplus” or second-hand.

 

Equipped with a 2.1-liter engine, 5-speed manual transmission and 15-inch wheels, the prototype is made up of 60 to 75 percent local content, according to Jose.

 

All nonlocal parts are sourced from China, including the engine which is original equipment manufacture and not refurbished, like those jeepney alternatives made in Cavite, Nueva Ecija and other parts of the country, he said.

Discrimination a two-way street

By Ramon Tulfo
Inquirer
Last updated 07:23am (Mla time) 06/12/2007

The Maguindanao public schools official who exposed the alleged election cheating in his province has been silenced forever.

 

Musa Dimasidsing, Maguindanao school district supervisor, was shot outside an Islamic school.

 

When Dimasidsing bravely denounced the election fraud, he was a dead man walking. He had wished for his own death.

 

In a closed society such as Maguindanao, where Muslims adhere to a code of silence when brother Muslims get entangled with the law, Dimasidsing was a standout.

 

* * *

 

Muslims complain of being discriminated against by their Christian brethren.

 

But the fact is they have brought the discrimination upon themselves since they want to be different from the rest of society. They treat Christians differently from their fellow Muslims.

 

A couple of years ago, Christian students and teachers, including a priest, were kidnapped in Basilan by the bandit group Abu Sayyaf.

 

Some of the captives who survived the ordeal said ordinary Muslims, who were not bandits, also maltreated them. Why? Because they were Christians.

 

The priest was later beheaded.

 

Of course, Muslims will accuse me of generalization.

 

But how cannot I not generalize in the face of the many facts I have before me? The example I cited is just one of many. I am from Mindanao and know the situation firsthand. Ask another non-Muslim from Mindanao and he will surely tell you the same thing.

 

* * *

 

Be prepared for what I’m about to tell you: With a few exceptions, non-Muslim women that the Abu Sayyaf and other Muslim bandit groups kidnapped were allegedly raped by their captors.

 

Even nuns were reportedly not spared. I heard one nun committed suicide after she was released by the bandits because she couldn’t bear the thought of having been violated.

 

Why did they do that to their women-captives? Because their captives were non-Muslims and, therefore, infidels.

 

Unless the ordinary Muslim mindset is changed, there will be animosity between Muslims and non-Muslims in this country and other parts of the world.

 

* * *

 

Let’s do forget the crap that Muslims act the way they do because they are discriminated against by society.

 

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

 

* * *

 

A middle-level official of the Department of Public Works and Highways reportedly spent P100 million to finance the campaigns of his two sons who ran for public office in the last election.

 

His two sons lost. The official said he spent only P15 million.

 

But even if he spent only that amount, where did he get the money since his monthly salary is not more than P40,000? By the way, this official allegedly frequents the casinos where he incurs heavy losses.

 

* * *

 

Many nursing candidates who took the board exams Sunday and yesterday complained of poor ventilation and unsanitary toilets at the exam venues.

 

“Sobrang init at mabaho ang CR (It’s so hot and the toilets stink),” said one examinee, expressing the sentiments of fellow examinees.

 

When they took review classes, this nurse-candidate said, they had air-conditioned classrooms.

 

If examinees for the Philippine Bar had comfortable venues, why can’t nursing candidates enjoy the same amenities?

 

The graft-ridden Professional Regulations Commission was obviously penny-pinching.

RP flag unfurled in 1898 to last only ‘our lifetime’

By Vincent Cabreza
Northern Luzon Bureau
Last updated 05:37am (Mla time) 06/13/2007

BAGUIO CITY — The flag believed by heirs of Emilio Aguinaldo to have been the one that was unfurled by the general in Kawit, Cavite, in 1898 still received no respect at Tuesday’s rites marking the nation’s 109th Independence Day.

 

Marching bands accompanying the city government’s Freedom Day parade loudly made their way down Session Road, but only a handful of people paid quiet homage to the tattered relic encased in glass at the Aguinaldo Museum on Happy Glen Loop here.

 

Emilio Aguinaldo Suntay III, the general’s great grandson, said he was glad that some people still managed to show up. The bad news, he said, was that the flag had only “our lifetime” — or 30-50 more years — to “live.”

 

Suntay said technicians and preservation specialists of various facilities, including the Washington-based Smithsonian Institution, had warned the family that there was no technology available to restore and preserve the flag in its present state.

 

He said the decay in the silk fabric had progressed beyond any known method for chemically or physically preserving it.

 

“Nothing lasts, anyway. And that goes double for fabric,” Suntay said.

 

Replica

 

Former Baguio Rep. Honorato Aquino, the lawyer of the Aguinaldo heirs, said the family might seek a second opinion from Japanese experts.

 

Meanwhile, Suntay said, the family would continue the procedures that scientists had required for preserving the flag, “for as long as it remains intact.”

 

The family is prepared for the flag’s inevitable decay, Suntay said.

 

He said this was why he and other family members had commissioned University of the Philippines experts to replicate the flag down to the silk fabric.

 

The replica was displayed here during the centennial of Philippine Independence in 1998.

 

The original flag was later framed and hung from the ceiling of the Baguio museum.

 

Protecting a symbol

 

The National Historical Institute has yet to authenticate the original flag despite years of probing. But it was responsible for wrapping the fragile relic in a metallic net to keep the fabric from shredding under its own weight.

 

The city government offered last year to help raise capital to preserve the flag, but Suntay said the Aguinaldo heirs decided to raise the funds themselves.

 

He said they had all been raised to follow a principle espoused by US President John F. Kennedy. “It doesn’t matter what the country can do for you, but what you can do for your country — and what we are doing is protecting this symbol,” he said.

 

Suntay said his grandmother, Cristina Aguinaldo Suntay, started the crusade when she inherited the flag, which the family had discovered under the general’s deathbed.

 

Distinctive colors

 

The original flag is distinctive because its sun bears a golden face paler than that in the contemporary flag that Baguio residents waved during Tuesday’s Freedom Day parade.

 

The section symbolizing peacetime is light blue, in contrast to the dark blue hue in the contemporary flag.

 

The phrase “Fuerzas Expedicionarias del Norte de Luzon” runs across one side of the flag, and the words “Libertad” and “Justicia” on the other side.

 

Lack of funds has forced the family to share the original flag’s glass casing with an authentic flag used by Gen. Gregorio del Pilar.

 

Suntay said the family had also managed to preserve a bloodstained flag used by Aguinaldo during the Philippine-Spanish War.

 

Most of Tuesday’s visitors to the museum belonged to the anthropology class of Danish teacher Lars Kjaerholm, who has been sending students to the Philippines for social immersion activities.

 

Baguio’s official representatives to the program were officials of Barangay Salud Mitra led by Barangay captain Nida Galace.

 

Suntay said he did not mind the seeming snub of the family’s precious relic.

 

His niece, Anna Suntay, attributed the low turnout of visitors to Malacañang’s earlier announcement that June 12 was a regular working day.

Mayor who gave zero votes to Poe gets Palace job

By Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.
Inquirer
Last updated 06:14am (Mla time) 06/13/2007

MANILA, Philippines — The 14th Congress is weeks away from convening and already the opposition is targeting for investigation a presidential body headed by a former Pangasinan mayor credited with giving the late Fernando Poe Jr. zero votes in the 2004 presidential election.

 

Sen. Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada Tuesday questioned President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s decision to allot an initial P50-million budget to the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG) which, he said, would perform the same tasks as the Bureau of Customs.

 

“Why waste P50 million on a task force to perform redundant functions?” asked Estrada. “What’s the use of Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales staying in his post if the PASG will do the work of the BOC (Bureau of Customs)?”

 

The PASG was formed on May 27 under Executive Order No. 624.

 

President’s brother

 

Estrada also wants to look into the link between the PASG head, former Sto. Tomas Mayor Antonio Villar Jr., and the President’s brother, Diosdado “Buboy” Macapagal Jr.

 

Estrada claimed Villar had the backing of Macapagal — purportedly the new Palace power broker in lieu of the President’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, who has been sidelined by a serious heart ailment.

 

“The infamous Kamag-anak Inc. of the Arroyo administration has again reared its ugly head with the appointment of Bebot Villar as PASG head, which was reportedly made at the behest of Buboy Macapagal,” said Estrada.

 

Venable contract

 

Estrada described Macapagal as a “quiet but smooth and sophisticated operator whose claim to fame is his involvement in the controversial Venable contract.”

 

Estrada was referring to a US lobby firm which became the focus of a Senate investigation over allegations that officials in the Arroyo administration had sought funds in the United States to bankroll its bid for a shift to a parliamentary form of government in the Philippines.

 

Villar, who reportedly worked as an agent of the Secret Service Division of the Bureau of Customs in Manila more than 15 years ago, was credited with helping blank Poe in his hometown to boost Ms Arroyo’s election in 2004.

 

Responding to Estrada’s claim, the PASG denied that Macapagal had made a pitch for Villar, saying the former mayor was directly appointed by the President.

 

Misinformed

 

The PASG said Estrada was “misinformed” about its role, which is to serve as a “check and balance and at the same time help the BOC run after smugglers.”

 

It said the P50-million budget was “reasonable” and was a “small amount compared to the expected increase of revenues” from the efforts of the PASG.

Malacanang Rites

GOLDEN HEART. President Arroyo congratulates US Peace Corps country director Carl Beck at the conferment of the Order of the Golden Heart on the agency and on slain Peace Corps volunteer Julia Campbell. US Ambassador Kristie Kenney (center) was among the guests at the rites in Malacañang. LYN RILLON