Category: Crime

Why Lucio Tan gets to keep his loot while Manny Pacquiao’s all remain frozen

November 28, 2013 benign0 107 Comments

On one hand, the issue surrounding the tax evasion case the Philippines’ Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is raising against boxing champ Manny Pacquiao is pretty straightforward. The BIR had given Pacquiao two years to submit the documents required of him specific among them are original tax returns from the United States’s Internal Revenue Service…

Crime, Government

President Noynoy Aquino cannot take credit for the abolition of pork barrel funds

November 20, 2013November 22, 2013 Ilda 95 Comments

Now that the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel funds has been declared illegal or unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, we are seeing a lot of politicians who are doing an about-face. Some members of Congress are now saying that they are happy with the decision because they have been for its abolition…

Crime, Government, Politics

Per R.A. 10121: PNoy may be criminally liable for veto of disaster preparedness budget in 2011

November 20, 2013 benign0 70 Comments

Noted constitutionalist and former president of the Ateneo de Manila University Fr Joaquin Bernas lauded the Supreme Court decision to ban pork which, he wrote, “restores the normal constitutional order of handling public money”. He cited the specific clause in the Constitution that clearly defines the limits of the power of any one government official…

Civics, Crime, Environment, Government

The Philippines’ long road to recovery after Yolanda: Are Filipinos up to the task?

November 19, 2013November 19, 2013 benign0 37 Comments

In the aftermath of the devastation wrought by Typhoon Yolanda (a.k.a. Haiyan) the hard question stares us squarely in the face: What’s next for a nation that, even in normal times, struggles to deliver the most basic services to the majority of its people?. According to recent reports, up to four million Filipinos are left…

Civics, Crime, Development, Economy, Environment, Government, Politics

Noynoy Treats the Philippines Like Stalag 13

November 15, 2013November 18, 2013 Gogs 23 Comments

For those of us with a certain vintage, there was this classic TV show that came out in the late 60’s called Hogan’s Heroes. It survived on syndication well after that time period. The reality of World War II or any war for that matter is ugly but American TV somehow has been…

Crime, Culture, Politics

Filipinos suffer economic sanctions because Philippine President Noynoy Aquino refuses to apologize to Hong Kong

November 10, 2013November 11, 2013 Ilda 123 Comments

Hong Kong has finally made good on their threat to impose economic sanctions on the Philippines and cancel the visa-free access for Filipinos three years after the deaths of eight Hong Kong nationals touring the Philippines back in 2010. Big deal, right? Judging by the number of Filipinos who reacted with outrage over the news,…

Crime, Government, Society

Is Janet Lim Napoles worth killing?

November 9, 2013 benign0 18 Comments

Murderous senators? That, according to Senator Miriam Santiago, is what alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles should really be worried about. Napoles told: Talk or die, screams the Inquirer.net headline. You wonder if this is a scene in the police interrogation room from an old 1970’s police drama, before the suspect “lawyer’s up”,…

Crime, Government, Politics

Does the government of President Noynoy Aquino govern? Or does it MERELY spin?

November 6, 2013 benign0 30 Comments

In a rare stroke of balance, “social news network” site Rappler published the scholarly work of eminent sociologist Nicole Curato, “a post-doctoral research fellow at the Center for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the Australian National University” according to the short bio included at the foot of her article The President as spin doctor….

Crime, Development, Government, Media, Politics