No malaria outbreak in Antipolo, says health official

By Kristine L. Alave
Inquirer
Last updated 04:16am (Mla time) 06/19/2007

MANILA, Philippines – Antipolo City health officials yesterday said malaria cases in the area were “under control,” even though figures from the first half of the year almost doubled compared to the same period in 2006.

 

Dr. Iluminado Victoria, Rizal provincial health officer, said that from January to June this year, 340 cases of malaria have been reported in the province, with most of the patients coming from the mountain villages of San Juan and San Jose.

 

So far, there have been no casualties, he added.

 

Dr. Grace Alcantara, Antipolo City health chief, said there were 184 cases recorded in the first half of 2006.

 

Fumigation operations in San Jose and San Juan have been scheduled to reduce the number of malaria cases, Alcantara added. They are also closely monitoring Sitio Binayoyo in San Juan, where new cases have been reported.

 

Victoria, however, said that while the increase in the number of malaria patients was a bit alarming, the situation cannot be called an “outbreak” at this point.

 

He said malaria is “almost endemic” to the province, which means that it cannot be completely eradicated and that towns will experience a rise in cases at some point.

 

“If you ask me, it’s a bit alarming. But the situation is under control,” Victoria said in a phone interview.

 

Alcantara echoed his statement, noting that while the number of cases may have risen, health officials and facilities immediately treated patients to contain the spread of the disease.

 

She added that the city has weekly fumigation operations in closely-watched areas. Mosquito nets have also been distributed to residents, Alcantara said.

 

Victoria said the province is on alert for malaria and dengue, two diseases caused by mosquitoes that are active during the rainy season.

 

Rizal residents, he added, were told to inspect their houses for mosquito breeding grounds so these could be eliminated immediately upon detection.

 

Victoria said they expect more cases of malaria and dengue in the next few months, and advised residents to keep their surroundings clean to reduce the chances of contracting the diseases.

Jose Rizal honored today as environmentalist

By Amadis Ma. Guerrero
Inquirer
Last updated 04:02am (Mla time) 06/19/2007

MANILA, Philippines – On his 146th birth anniversary today, national hero Dr. Jose Rizal will be honored as an environmentalist by a multisectoral coalition, including the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Green Army, Mother Earth Philippines/Artists for the Environment, and the Archdiocese of Manila.

 

The ceremonies will take place at 9 a.m. at the Orchidarium at the Rizal Park in Manila. This is a sequel to “The Trees for Life” program launched on World Environment Day, June 5.

 

In addition to being novelist, poet, linguist, sculptor, physician, reformer, among other things, Rizal was an environmentalist at a time when concern for Mother Earth was not yet worldwide or even fashionable.

 

While in Heidelberg, Germany, Rizal sought out nature and took long walks through the forest. One of his famous poems (“A las Flores de Heidelberg”) was a tribute to the flowers of that city.

 

He also praised the local landscape to his European friends, describing it as “certainly richer and all its landscape variegated with brilliant colors …”

 

While in exile in Dapitan, Rizal planted trees and designed a water system for the community. “It was sustainable extraction of water,” says Liesl Lim, executive director of the Green Army.

 

“This is the first birthday celebration of Rizal as an environmentalist,” says Odette Alcantara of Mother Earth Philippines. The theme is “Jose Rizal the Environmentalist and the Youth of the Land.”

 

Some 2,700 seedlings will be distributed to school children. Alcantara expresses the hope that “they will plant, love and nurture the trees up to their full height, in line with what Rizal did in Dapitan on Day 1 of his exile.”

 

Under the “green” program, 20 million seedlings will be distributed all over the country until November.

 

Parents who want their children to receive the seedlings may get in touch with Lim (Tel. no. 3965029).

 

Nicole Quicho, daughter of environmental lawyer Jun Quicho, will interpret a classic dance titled “For Love of Mother Earth.”

 

Guests include novelist F. Sionil José, Rizal descendant Gemma Cruz Araneta, members of the diplomatic corps of the countries Rizal visited and students of the Philippine High School for the Arts and the Philippine Science High School.

Spare no one, Arroyo tells antismuggling boss

By Ramon Tulfo
Inquirer
Last updated 04:02am (Mla time) 06/19/2007

The police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) has been ordered off limits from the piers as the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Task Force (PASG) starts its work soon. The order came from President Macapagal-Arroyo.

 

The PASG is headed by Antonio Villar, former Pangasinan town mayor, who once worked as agent of the defunct Secret Service unit of the Bureau of Customs. Reports say some members of the CIDG are operating at the piers purportedly against smuggling, but customs sources say they’re protecting the big smugglers.

 

The President’s order to Villar is not to spare anyone in the antismuggling drive launched to raise customs duties and taxes. Tariff collection has gone down because of rampant smuggling. Among the biggest smugglers is a person who reportedly uses the name of Pampanga Rep. Mikey Arroyo, the President’s son. Mikey, however, has disowned the alleged smuggler, saying the man just happens to take care of his race horses.

 

According to my sources in the PASG, the President has ordered the arrest of a guy who reportedly namedrops a very influential person in smuggling activities. “Have him arrested if he uses our name,” GMA reportedly told Villar. The success or failure of the PASG rests on how far the President will support Villar.

 

* * *

 

I can believe the report that some military generals are tacitly supporting a campaign to kill persons they perceive to be enemies of the state. One general, according to the report, even openly discussed the assassination of militant activists in Luzon during a conference with his men.

 

I will go a step further: Some people in the police and military may even be thinking of killing journalists.
A friend told me a police regional director in Luzon warned him to stay away from me at the height of my misunderstanding with the President’s husband.

 

The police regional director supposedly told my friend I would be ambushed by some troops within the police and military. No wonder the Philippine National Police refused to issue me a permit to carry a gun at that time.

 

It’s a good thing the crisis is over, but I’m not letting my guard down.

Victim in Jalosjos rape case to get damage claim

Victim in Jalosjos rape case to get damage claim
By DJ Yap
Inquirer
Last updated 04:09am (Mla time) 06/19/2007

MANILA, Philippines – Ten years after former Zamboanga del Norte Rep. Romeo Jalosjos was convicted of raping an 11-year-old girl, the victim can finally claim the court-awarded damages of P800,000.

 

But she may have to wait a week or so, as the staff of a Makati court try to determine the proper protocol in the release of the manager’s check Jalosjos issued two months ago to indemnify the victim. The Inquirer learned that as early as April 27, Jalosjos’ lawyer, Cipriano Robielos III, manifested his client’s intention to pay the amount for civil indemnity and moral damages set by the court upon his conviction in 1997.

 

Jalosjos also issued a Landbank check in the victim’s name after the Supreme Court upheld his conviction, said Emil Ibañez, the clerk of Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 62. But Ibañez told the Inquirer yesterday that the check “should have been issued in the name of the office of the Clerk of Court, not the victim herself.”

 

He added that the court would clarify the matter with Jalosjos and arrange for the issuance of another check likely to be made available within the week to the victim who is reportedly out of the country.

 

The payment of damages coincides with Malacañang’s announcement last week that it would commute the two life terms of Jalosjos to a jail term of 16 years, three months and three days.

 

Yesterday, Protestant church leaders added their voice to the growing protest against President Macapagal-Arroyo’s decision.

 

“We also dare ask: What is special about a convicted child rapist such as Jalosjos who gets favors from Malacañang?” National Council for Churches in the Philippines secretary Sharon Rose Joy Duremdes said.

Fund lack threatens anti-drugs campaign

By Alcuin Papa
Inquirer
Last updated 07:31am (Mla time) 06/19/2007MANILA, Philippines — The country’s campaign against illegal drugs will grind to a halt if the government does not allocate funds for the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, a PDEA official said Monday.

Supt. Benjie Magalong, acting PDEA chief of staff, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that all personnel of the Philippine National Police and other law enforcement agencies serving in the PDEA would have to return to their mother units by July 4 if no funds were forthcoming.

This would leave the PDEA with a skeleton force, or only 55 agents, Magalong said. A total of 524 policemen are assigned to the PDEA. The 55 agents were recent graduates of the PDEA Academy but Magalong said the PDEA needed 1,900 agents to be fully functional.

“This will affect some of our ongoing operations against not only domestic drug syndicates but international groups as well,” he said.

The Department of Budget and Management has yet to release the PDEA budget of P600 million.

“If the drug syndicates find out, it will be a fiesta. All of this will have an adverse impact on our operations,” Magalong said.

He called on the government to act quickly to keep the PDEA going.

Republic Act No. 9165, which created the PDEA in 2002, mandates that the agency should be fully functional and organized with a full complement of agents from the PDEA Academy. Also, all personnel assigned to the PDEA would have five years to decide whether or not to join the agency full-time.

Nevertheless, Magalong said there were still “a few good men” in the agency.

“We will continue to function even after July 4. We have contingency plans to realign our budget and restructure some offices in the field. We will have to focus on and prioritize high profile targets,” he said.

He said the agency planned to recruit 600 agents in the next year and a half.

PNP to recall senatorial bets’ security details

By Thea Alberto
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 03:26pm (Mla time) 06/19/2007

MANILA, Philippines — As the election period draws to a close, policemen assigned to protect senatorial candidates will be recalled, Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Oscar Calderon said Tuesday.

With only one more senator-elect still to be proclaimed, Calderon said any threats against the candidates will likely have subsided, adding that the PNP would now need to focus on protecting newly elected officials as well as keeping more policemen in the streets.

 

“We have recalled PSPO [Police Security Protection Office] staff deployed in the field so we’ll have more policeman conducting investigation and conducting patrols,” said Calderon.

 

“There are no more threats [to the senatorial candidates] because these threats happen usually only during elections…and we also have to give the security [details] to newly elected government officials,” Calderon told reporters in Camp Crame.

The security details of the winning candidates, however, will be retained since the PNP is mandated to provide security to ranking public officials.

“To the winning senatorial candidates, that is our responsibility to secure these persons…we will still provide security when requested,” he said.

Among the candidates who earlier requested security details because of validated threats to their lives were Benigno Aquino III, Senators Panfilo Lacson, Ralph Recto, Francis Pangilinan and Manuel Villar, Michael Defensor, Prospero Pichay, Cesar Montano, and Ilocos Sur Governor Luis “Chavit” Singson, PSPO director, Chief Superintendent Romeo Hilomen, said earlier.

Aquino, Lacson, Villar, and Pangilinan have since been proclaimed.

Oliver North: Filipinos doing it right

By Alcuin Papa
Inquirer
Last updated 04:37am (Mla time) 06/19/2007

MANILA, Philippines — In the eyes of former American military officer Oliver North of Iran-Contra fame in the ’80s, the Philippine military is doing something right in the fight against global terrorism.

 

North, who now works for Fox News, paid a visit to Camp Crame national police headquarters in Quezon City on Monday to interview ranking police officers on the war against terrorism.

 

Initially, North refused to be interviewed by reporters, saying he had to get permission from his superiors. But the reporters continued to pepper him with questions.

 

He said he was in the country shooting a documentary on counterterrorism. When asked why he was focusing his documentary on the Philippines, a well-tanned North quipped, “Because you’re doing it right.”

 

Later, the 64-year-old former Marine lieutenant colonel gamely posed for pictures with journalists. He is also reportedly doing a documentary on “Operation Bojinka,” an al-Qaeda plan to bomb international airline flights. Many experts believed the plan was the template for the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.

 

North has been in the country the past two weeks doing special reports for Fox News, one of which was on the $10-million reward given recently by the US government to four informers. This led to the deaths of Abu Sayyaf leaders Khadaffy Janjalani and Abu Solaiman.

 

In his story posted on the Fox News website, North said the payout “may well mark the beginning of the end for the notorious Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG)…”

 

In the same article, North said the US and the Philippines were waging the war on terror “not simply as a military campaign against terrorists, but primarily as a battle for the hearts and minds of the people” and that this strategy is “paying big dividends.”

 

North “embedded” himself with US troops conducting joint training exercises in the country.

 

North writes of his coverage: “The ‘job’ for less than 160 US Special Operations personnel here at what they call ‘Advanced Operating Base 150’ is to ‘advise and assist’ the Filipinos in their fight against the ASG. For these Americans, who are from the most elite units in the US military and used to doing the fighting themselves, this is a very tough mission.”

 

The Philippine Constitution forbids US military troops from engaging in combat operations here.

 

North is a nationally syndicated columnist and host of “War Stories” on the Fox News Channel. He is also founder of Freedom Alliance, a foundation that provides scholarships to the children of military personnel killed in action.

 

North came to national prominence in 1986 when he was linked to the clandestine sale of antitank and antiaircraft weapons to Iran in order to generate funds to support the Nicaraguan Contra rebels in violation of US law.

 

North was said to have run a quasi-military intelligence and arms smuggling circuit that involved many countries, including the Philippines. Some reports alleged that then dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his chief of staff, Gen. Fabian Ver, provided the false end-user certificates that allowed the secret enterprise to divert arms wherever it wished, reportedly for huge black-bag payoffs.

 

Then US President Ronald Reagan, a friend of the Marcoses, had made a public pledge not to deal with Iran, where 52 members of the American diplomatic mission in Tehran had earlier been held hostage.

 

When the Iran-Contra scandal broke, Reagan fired North. Called to testify before a joint congressional committee in 1987, North defended his actions by stating that he believed in the goal of aiding the Contras, whom he saw as freedom fighters, and said that he viewed the Iran-Contra affair as a “neat idea.”

 

North, a Texan by birth, was tried before a grand jury and indicted on 16 felony counts for lying to Congress, obstructing justice and receiving kickbacks.

 

The charges against him were dismissed in 1991.

 

In 1994, he ran for a Senate seat in Virginia as a Republican but lost.

Esperon to invoke EO 464 vs Trillanes grilling

By Joel Guinto
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 03:24pm (Mla time) 06/19/2007

MANILA, Philippines — Even before senator-elect Antonio Trillanes IV gets a chance to grill him in legislative inquiries, Armed Forces chief of staff General Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said he would not show up for Senate hearings without a clearance from Malacañang.

 

Esperon said that as far as he knows, Executive Order (EO) 464 remains in effect even if the Supreme Court declared voided certain portions of it in a unanimous decision in April 2006.

 

The order banned government and military officials from testifying before congressional inquiries without the permission of the President. But the high court ruled that Malacañang could invoke “executive privilege” only for Cabinet officials and the chiefs of the military and the police, not lower-ranked officials.

 

“I said EO 464 is in effect, I’ll just have to follow the provisions of that,” Esperon told reporters in an interview. “It’s not one senator calling the chief of staff to the Senate for investigations, it should be [done through] an official communication to the executive department because that’s how it works. After all I have a chain of command to respect.”

 

Trillanes, who was proclaimed senator last Friday, has made known his intention to investigate the military’s alleged involvement in electoral fraud in the 2004 elections and the murders of activists.

 

Esperon was among four generals linked to the election fraud scandal after they were mentioned in purported wiretapped conversations of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and ex-elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.

 

Trillanes, a former Navy lieutenant, is detained at the Philippine Marine headquarters in Fort Bonifacio while being tried before civilian and military courts for his involvement in a failed mutiny on July 27, 2003.

 

On Monday, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, parent company of INQUIRER.net, reported that two generals would provide Trillanes with evidence for the planned investigations.

 

Esperon admitted having no idea yet who the two generals are. On Monday, his spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Bartolome Bacarro, said Esperon had ordered an investigation to verify the newspaper report.

 

“If they think they have documents or evidence, why don’t they bring them out so they can be investigated?” Esperon said. “I will assure that whatever investigations would be allowed, and where we will be allowed to appear, then we will oblige.”

Leftists in House to push ‘genuine agrarian reform law’

Leftists in House to push ‘genuine agrarian reform law’
By Tonette Orejas
Central Luzon Desk
Last updated 04:17pm (Mla time) 06/19/2007

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Philippines — Three leftist party-list groups elected to the 14th Congress will seek the passage of a “genuine land reform law” to replace the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (AFP) Malacañang wants extended, a militant farmers’ group said.

 

Danilo Ramos, secretary general of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or Peasant Movement of the Philippines) on Sunday said Anakpawis (Toiling Masses), Bayan Muna (People First) and Gabriela would help farmers lobby for the proposed law, which they want called the “Genuine Agrarian Reform Act.”

 

The proposed law seeks the “free distribution of lands to the tillers,” Ramos said.

 

KMP’s initiative has brought to two the efforts to produce an alternative law to the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (Republic Act 6657 or CARL).

 

Passed in 1988 with a 10-year lifespan, the CARL was extended for 10 more years, set to end in June 2008. But President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recently certified urgent a bill extending the CARL for another decade.

 

CARP’s total scope covers 8.065 million hectares.

 

Of these, the Department of Agrarian Reform was assigned to distribute 4.294 million hectares, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, 3.771 million hectares.

 

The Pambansang Katipunan ng Makabayang Magbubukid (PKMM or National Association of Patriotic Peasants) is also seeking the enactment of a “really comprehensive, genuine and just agrarian reform law” through a provincial rural congresses set to begin July.

 

Pablo Rosales, PKMM secretary general, said the new law should have none of the problems that beset CARP and its predecessor, Presidential Decree 27 of former strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

 

“The objective of redistributing lands to landless farmers is negated by the high price of buying a small piece of land. This nature and method of land acquisition by the intended beneficiaries is compounded by high cost of farm production, on one hand, and the low prices of the farmers’ produce, on the other hand,” Rosales said.

 

Ramos said the CARP was “biased for landlords.”

 

He said KMP’s studies showed that in the 19th year of the program, seven of 10 farmers still do not own the land they till. According to KMP’s estimate, there are 45 million landless farmers in the country.

 

“Since 1988 we have been saying that the CARP is a fake agrarian reform program geared to safeguard the concentration of land on the hands of a few and we have been proven correct in our analysis. Not only did landlords retain their lands they were able to expand, through outright land grabbing and land use conversion,” Ramos said.

 

The DAR reported it had spent P110.9 billion from 1988 to 2004 in distributing 3.5 million ha and providing support services to 1,614 agrarian reform communities.

JI, Abu Sayyaf to top terror list under Human Security Act

By Thea Alberto
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 04:22pm (Mla time) 06/19/2007

MANILA, Philippines — The Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and its local counterpart, the Abu Sayyaf, will top the list of terrorist organizations in the Philippines once the Human Security Act or the anti-terror law comes into effect in July.

 

“Everybody has been tagging them as terrorists…and they do conduct terroristic actions like bombings and kidnappings,” said Philippine National Police Director General Oscar Calderon Tuesday.

Police accuse the two groups of being behind several bombings in Central Mindanao.

 

The Abu Sayyaf engages in kidnappings of both local residents and foreigners, among them US missionaries Gracia and Martin Burnham, sometimes killing them. This year, for example, the Abu Sayyaf beheaded eight Filipino laborers.

 

The homegrown extremist group is also alleged to be coddling JI operatives.

 

But Calderon said the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army, (CPP-NPA), which has been waging armed struggle for more than three decades, has not been tagged a terror group, said Calderon.

“I would say they will have to meet [a] certain category to be called terrorists…they have a different structure,” said Calderon, noting that the anti-terror law is also based on the Revised Penal Code.

Calderon however said it would still be difficult to file charges against the JI or Abu Sayyaf under the Human Security Act because there “is no solid ground or basis for filing of charges” during the first year of the law’s implementation.

 

The anti-terror measure was signed into law by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on March 6.

The bill’s provisions allow, among others, the wiretapping of communications of terror suspects and the monitoring of their bank accounts. It also allows suspects’ detention even without court warrant for up to three days.

 

It also says any group espousing terrorism or resorting to terrorist acts to extract an unlawful demand from the government will be considered outlawed after the justice department successfully for their proscription before a trial court.

Membership in outlawed groups will also be considered a crime, according to the anti-terror law, although the measure does not cite any specific punishment. An offender can possibly be cited as an accessory or for conspiring to commit terrorism, which is punishable by up to 40 years’ imprisonment.