Tag Archives: Aquino

[In the Web] Aquino vs. Arroyo: This time it’s personal

Posted on by dars0357

Manila Standard Today - In this Tuesday Nov. 8, 2011 photo, former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, wearing a head and neck brace, sits down for an interview with a local reporter at her residence in suburban Quezon city, northeast of Manila, Philippines.

By Edwin Espejo

The pathetic standoff at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) involving former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Philippine immigration officials Tuesday evening only highlighted how far contradiction among the country’s privileged elite can go – a bitter clash that could plunge the country into a constitutional crisis.

And both camps – the Arroyos and President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino – have only themselves to blame.

Legally, there is nothing that would and should bar the besieged former president from leaving the country in the absence of a proper court order.

There is an executive order, ironically issued by the former president herself, however, that places a person under a watch list and whose flight outside the country may be stopped by the immigration officials.  It is an executive edict that is now being questioned before the highest court of the land by the Arroyos.

The Arroyos have sought and were granted a temporary restraining order by the Supreme Court that, in effect, barred the Aquino government from preventing Arroyo to travel abroad.

The Aquino government, however, believes it has a case against the former President and is morally obliged to perform its duty of preventing a potential fugitive from justice from leaving the country.

As it now appears, the Aquino government is taking the risk of being cited in direct contempt by the Supreme Court for what the current president believes is his moral obligation.

The NAIA standoff however is not just mere legal and political issues between two of the country’s powerful political clans, it also has personal undertones to it.

During several attempts to impeach President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo when she was still the president, the Aquinos – at least the Cojuangco side of the president’s family – were among the leaders of the movement that sought her resignation.  President Nonoy Aquino’s late mother Corazon, also a former president, went to great lengths to apologize to former President Joseph Estrada for joining the protest movement that led to the ouster of the latter.

Corazon Aquino played a major role in the installation of Arroyo as president of the republic in the aftermath of Estarda’s impeachment.

Ironically, it is Corazon Aquino, and to some extent her son, who also were among the first to drop Arroyo as an ally and called for her resignation due to corruption and widespread electoral fraud in 2004.

It is a falling out that left Arroyo enraged.  Under her watch, the vast Hacienda Luisita property of the Cojuangcos was declared subject to the coverage of the land reform program.

Aquino in turn has not gotten over the fact that the Arroyos pulled all the plugs during the 2010 presidential elections in which the current president won convincingly on an anti-corruption platform.

Both the former and current presidents share the same place in the history of Philippine politics.

 

Read full story at http://asiancorrespondent.com/69673/between-aquino-and-arroyo-it%E2%80%99s-personal-now/

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[In the Web] We’re on it, Malacanang on killings

Posted on by dars0357

MALACANANG presidential office on Saturday reassured the United States the Aquino administration is acting to solve extra-legal killings, especially of journalists.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda stressed this after US Ambassador to the Philippines Harry Thomas Jr. said the US will still withhold a part of assistance to the military over the matter.

Lacierda said on radio this weekend government has been addressing the killings in the country, especially with regard to reporters.

He said President Benigno Aquino III himself would call the attention of Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima when he hears of an extra-legal killing.

Earlier, Thomas said the US Congress will continue to withhold a part of US assistance to the Armed Forces of the Philippines until the government meets conditions on solving and prosecuting cases of unexplained killings.

News reports said Thomas informed human rights advocates in the country about the withholding of such US aid to the Philippines during a roundtable discussion at the US Embassy last Oct. 21.

 

Read full article at http://www.cathnewsphil.com/2011/11/07/were-on-it-malacanang-on-killings/.

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[Reflection] Demanding for Justice

Posted on by dars0357

Portrait of disappeared Redemptorist priest, Fr. Rudy Romano

Where is Fr. Rudy Romano?

This was the same question asked by the families, friends and colleagues of the Redemptorist priest, Fr. Rudy Romano when he was abducted by armed men in Barangay Labangon, Cebu City exactly 26 years ago on July 11. After more than two decades and five administrations, this question is yet to be answered and his disappearance remains a mystery until now.

I got to know the disappearance case of Fr. Rudy when I joined the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) as a member of its Secretariat in 2007. His name was one of the documented cases of the thousands of Filipino Desaparecidos during Martial law.

Desaparecido is a Spanish term which refers to a victim of enforced disappearance which occurs when a person is deprived of liberty in any forms by the agents of the state followed by the refusal to disclose information of the fate and whereabouts of the victim which in effect put the person outside the protection of the law.

For the younger generations, his name and those of others may not anymore ring a bell. But for those who have valiantly fought against the late dictator, he was considered a martyr. For whatever democratic space and freedom that we have now, we owe it to Fr. Rudy and those who selfishly sacrificed their lives for the good of all.

Remembering them will not be enough. But demanding justice for them is not only deserving but already long overdue.

With another Aquino holding the rein of sovereign power, we can’t but expect his government to finally put closure to the disappearance of Fr. Rudy and all other victims of human rights violations in country. It is a responsibility he inherited from past administrations. This, he owes to the nation.

Unless truth is established and justice is rendered to all victims, Pnoy’s matuwid na daan will only be an empty promise.