| By Maricel E. Burgonio, Reporter The Government Service Insurance System will proceed against 20 of its employees suspected of tampering with its records. The filing of the cases next week before the Ombudsman signals the start of GSIS' stepped-up efforts to eliminate corruption in the agency, GSIS president Winston Garcia said Tuesday. Garcia's announcement was timed with the celebration of GSIS' 68th anniversary. | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| President Arroyo will take charge of government efforts to stamp out jueteng and will give those involved their marching orders in the next few days. The President's decision was apparently her response to the challenge of the opposition that she must lead the antijueteng campaign for it to be effective. | |
| | |
| | |
| The wage increase will be complemented by additional workers' benefits that are already under study, Malacañang said Tuesday. The President's spokesman and press secretary, Ignacio Bunye, said other options include raising the baseline figures for income brackets that would qualify for tax exemptions. | |
| | |
| | |
| The New People's Army on Tuesday rejected a ceasefire that they said the government was seeking as a precondition for the resumption of suspended peace talks. | |
| | |
| | |
| Rep. Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo of Pampanga has canceled his trip to the United States in order to defend himself from allegations of involvement in jueteng. | |
| | |
| | |
| 4th Dr. Jose P. Rizal Awards For Excellence | |
| Gems of History | |
| Would you believe that the first consul general of China to the Philippines, Tan Kang, was a Chinese mestizo? Tan, whose Spanish name was Engracio Palanca Tan Quien-sien, was assigned to the Philippines in 1899. His father was the famous Capitan Chino Carlos Palanca, and his mother was a Filipina. | |
Full Story>>METRO
| By Cheryl Arcibal and Anthony Vargas, Reporters AFTER weeks of delays, the Sandiganbayan on Tuesday finally ordered the arrest of Carlos Garcia, a retired major general, who is charged with four counts of plunder before the antigraft court. The court's order upheld the validity of the P303.2-million plunder case, which was filed against the retired officer on April 6, 2005. "From the evaluation of the . . . evidence submitted, the Court finds and so holds that probable cause exists for the issuance of a warrant of arrest against Maj. Gen. Carlos F. Garcia to answer the charge of plunder . . . " the 19-page resolution said. | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| A DEFIANT Bureau of Customs woman official staved off Commissioner Alberto Lina's order to transfer her to another office when she secured a 20-day restraining order from the Manila Regional Trial Court, The Manila Times was told on Tuesday. | |
| | |
| | |
| THE police are in a quandary over the missing head of a slain housewife in Taguig as investigators look at two possible motives in the murder case. Investigators had searched within 200 meters of the victim's home but failed to find the missing head of Hayda Napura, who was killed along with her husband Antonio, daughter Haidi and maid Tata Netis. | |
| | |
| | |
| THE Movie and Television Review and Classification Board chair, Conzolisa Laguardia, denied on Tuesday that she ordered the banning of all live talk shows on television. | |
| | |
| | |
| THE Court of Appeals on Tuesday ordered several financial institutions to freeze the remaining assets of Lt. Col. George Rabusa, former Armed Forces budget officer. | |
| By Analiza Q. Leyba And Bong Otadoy, Northern Luzon Bureau DAGUPAN CITY: Two people died while 23 others are confined at Region I Medical Center (RIMC) here Monday night after they ate spotted goby fish, gobious criniger, locally known as bunog or biya. Dr. Allan Laguardia and other physicians of RIMC said Gerald Ramos, 36, and Danilo Ramos, 38, both of Barangay Capantolan in Sual Pangasinan, died hours after eating the fish. | |
| VIGAN CITY: The Catholic See of Nueva Segovia has a new leader in Archbishop Ernesto Salgado, who replaced Archbishop Edmundo Abaya. Abaya retired from episcopal duties on his 75th birthday on January 19. | |
| LA TRINIDAD, Benguet: After two unsuccessful attempts, this capital town has broken the five-year record posted in the Guinness Book of World Records for the record title of largest fruit shortcake. | |
| BATANGAS CITY: Most of the friends and colleagues of Guiller Gamo, the Batangas provincial resident ombudsman who was killed Monday morning, believe that his murder may have been hatched by people who were adversely affected by some of the pro bono cases he handled. | |
| COTABATO CITY: The government is willing to change the Charter (Cha-cha) to achieve lasting peace in Mindanao but this must be done through constitutional means, according to the government's chief negotiator with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). | |
| CEBU CITY: Lifting the timberland classification of the Camotes group of islands and opposing the move to divide Cebu are among Ramon Durano's priorities when he fills the seat that his brother, Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano, vacated in Congress. | |
| ZAMBOANGA CITY: Despite the city government's continuing antidengue campaign, the number of cases continue to increase and health officials are alarmed that the number of dengue fever cases is already reaching "outbreak" proportions. | |
| By Darwin G. Amojelar, Researcher STIFF competition in the telecommunications and personal-care industries boosted media spending in the first quarter of the year, according to AC Nielsen. In its first quarter media spending report, the survey firm said total spending grew by 30 percent to P29.6 billion. Adspend in the same period last year amounted to P22.8 billion. | |
| FINANCE Secretary Cesar V. Purisima has called on the Social Security System (SSS) and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) to "give birth and nurture" a minority shareholders association. | |
| TWO companies controlled by the Ayala family, the Philippines' first telephone operator and the country's homegrown oil refiner topped a list of firms ranked in terms of sound corporate governance. | |
| THE Asian Development Bank has approved a loan aimed at helping the Philippines' housing sector dispose of its bad assets. The P1.6-billion loan made to a special purpose firm jointly owned by a government agency and a private firm will allow the acquisition of bad loans from the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. and resolve them. | |
| THE Board of Investments (BOI) has asked the Tariff Commission to grant a one-year tariff relief on the importation of frequently used spare and replacement truck parts. | |
| PROPOSED amendments to the implementing guidelines on the evaluation of the quality and efficiency of government contractors have been approved by the National Economic Development Authority's committee on infrastructure. | |
|
| |
| THE Department of Finance wants a 1-percent tariff imposed on imported products used for bioethanol as transport fuel, instead of the proposed exemption contained in a Senate bill. | |
|
| |
| VIRTUAL BUSINESS | |
| Finally, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has spoken and it doesn't like what Pacific Plans Inc. has been doing. The government corporate watchdog is accusing PPI of bad faith in dealing with it and with the Bureau of Internal Revenue. The SEC claims PPI submitted a different set of figures with the agency and with the BIR on the value of its investment in trust fund. The amount is P6.33 billion with the BIR and P8.311 billion with the SEC. | |
|
| |
| WHILE they posted lower profits last year, foreign banks operating in the Philippines have sustained their liquidity, strengthened their capitalization, and registered better asset quality, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Tuesday. | |
|
| |
| MEMBERS of nongovernment Greenpeace picketed the Philippine office of US-based Mirant, which the activists labeled as a toxic polluter and climate killer. Greenpeace is urging Congress to restart an inquiry on the toxic emission of coal-fired power generators in the country, after releasing a study recently. | |
|
| |
| PHILIPPINE share prices closed higher in heavy trade on Tuesday as investors continued to buy in response to gross-domestic-product data pointing to a resilient economy, dealers said. | |
|
| |
| SHANGHAI: China's booming economy is expected to grow by 9.1 percent year on year in the second quarter, state press said Tuesday, citing figures from the government think tank, the State Information Center. | |
| SHOWBIZ
| |
|
Brad Pitt wants to adopt an African orphan The Hollywood heartthrob Brad Pitt is said to be interested in adopting after meeting a group of disadvantaged and parentless children during a recent trip to Africa with alleged new love Angelina Jolie. | |
| THE hit animation series Kim Possible, Rollie Pollie Olie and Brandy & Mr. Whiskers just received top citations in the 32nd Daytime Emmy Awards. Marking the series' second Daytime Emmy, Rolie Polie Olie was victorious in the Outstanding Special Class Animated Program category. Honored with the award were series creator/executive producer William Joyce; executive producers Michael Hirsh, Scott Dyer and Corinne Kouper; supervising producers Guillaume Hellouin and Pamela Lehn; producers Susie Grondin, Eric Flaherty and Christophe Archambault; supervising director Mike Fallows; directors Ron Pitts and Bill Giggie; and writers Nadine Van Der Velde, Steve Sullivan, Alice Prodanou and Robin J. Stein. The series is produced by Nelvana Ltd. and televised daily in Disney Channel's learning-focused programming block, titled "Playhouse Disney." | |
| SHOWBITS | |
| KRIS AQUINO is not just doing very well as a TV host. She has practically joined the elite club of in demand endorsers whose members include Sharon Cuneta, Maricel Soriano and Aga Muhlach. | |
| FILMWATCH | |
| AND Starring Pancho Villa as Himself tells the true story of Pancho Villa (Antonio Banderas), specifically the movie star phase of his life, which happened concurrently with his revolutionary phase. | |
| SHOWING today at cinemas nationwide . . . | |
| The long and winding road to love Love in the 21st century is rarely straightforward. It's messy, complicated and filled with obstructions. It's a wonder love happens at all. A Lot Like Love, starring Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet, shows on the big screen the long and winding road most people must travel to find connection in today's chaotic world. | |
| EDITORIAL | |||||||
On May 17 Laguardia issued a memorandum requiring public-affairs programs, documentaries and broadcast editorials, among others, to be reviewed by the board. It was obvious censorship. Free discussions, public debates, interviews and broadcast editorials could not take place if the memo were carried out. | |||||||
| THE GLOBAL PINOY | |||||||
| Back in the mid-'80s I wrote and directed a movie for TV entitled, Maynila USA: Kapit Sa Patalim. It starred Jun Aristorenas as a new immigrant in San Francisco, wondering what he was doing in America, doing his own laundry, cooking his own meals, surviving on measly wages and living in a virtual rat hole. | |||||||
| BIG DEAL | |||||||
| At the start of the Senate's jueteng inquiry Monday, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada was beaming. And why shouldn't he? The witness that Archbishop Oscar Cruz brought in claimed to have knowledge that President Arroyo's elder son, Mikey, among others, had received money from numbers racketeers. | |||||||
| FROM THE NEWSROOM | |||||||
| BORN Popo Friedman in Sioux City, Iowa, popular US advice columnist Abigail "Abby" Van Buren has advised countless parents and individuals on how to "handle" their gay sons, daughters, relatives and friends. Abby enlightened them about the nature of homosexuality and its eccentricities. Here are some of her more amusing pieces of advice on homosexuality: | |||||||
| TOKYO: Japan's bureaucratic rank-and-file employees march in dark jackets and ties to government offices everyday, sweating their way through the country's sticky, sweltering summers. | |||||||
| 'The whole thing is a show' | |||||||
| HONG KONG: It looks like a real political campaign. The front-runner quits his job to stump full time. He sets up a campaign office. Newspapers fill their front pages with headlines about major figures endorsing him. | |||||||
|
| |||||||
| PARIS: Poet and politician, silver-haired statesman Domi-nique de Villepin captured the world's attention with an impassioned speech in 2003 supporting France's opposition to an invasion of Iraq. | |||||||
|
| |||||||
| LETTER | |||||||
| Overhaul the tuition system The good news is that the Commission on Higher Education has decided to correct a decade of monumental blunder of feigning helplessness toward skyrocketing school fees by issuing a new regulation on the imposition of tuition increases and miscellaneous fees. | |||||||
| By Joel Orellana, Reporter ALAMINOS CITY: For 2004 Tour Pilipinas champion Rhyan Tanguilig, now is not yet the time to press the panic button. So when Stage 6 of the Golden Tour 50@05 presented by Tanduay hits the road Wednesday, the PLDT team skipper will be biding his time, waiting for the right moment to pounce and wrest the overall lead from Colt 45's Warren Davadilla. | |
| TAKING the middle ground in a controversy, William "Butch" Ramirez, the Philippine Sports Commission officer in charge, on Tuesday said it would be best for the Philippine Olympic Committee and Basketball Association of the Philippines to settle their dispute amicably for the sake of national interest. | |
| RICARDO ADOLFO, one of five Filipino boxers in the 14th Summer Olympics in London, England will be buried at 3 p.m. Wednesday at the La Loma Cemetery in Manila. | |
| MONTAñA Pawnshop flirted with disaster but pulled its act together in time to dismantle Granny Goose Kornets, 64-58, on Tuesday in Game 1 of their semifinal showdown in the Philippine Basketball League Unity Cup at the JCSGO gym in Cubao. | |
| The Games and Amusements Board (GAB) has warned the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) that it is presently operating in violation of Philippine laws due to the refusal of league Commissioner Noli Eala to secure a GAB license for himself and for other PBA employees, and for refusing to submit for the approval of GAB the amendments to the PBA rules. | |
| LUKE WALTON, son of National Basketball Association great Bill Walton, will be in Manila from June 2 to 5 for the NBA Madness 2005 at the Araneta Coliseum, joining Dwight Howard of Orlando Magic and the Houston Rockets Power Dancers for the event. | |
| SAN ANTONIO: Even if the Phoenix Suns don't come all the way back and make the National Basketball Association Finals, they're guaranteed of having at least one good memory from the Western Conference finals. | |
| SIDELINE SLANTS | |
| MIAMI coach Stan Van Gundy has had it with the fans of the city known for its Bad Boys and Motor Mouths. I see where Maurice Cheeks is back to coach in Philadelphia, where they boo even funerals. Some players who had been there consider epitaphs saying, "All in all, I'd rather be here than in Philadelphia." | |
