Attend this and learn more about how to defend your rights and the rights of other Filipinos!
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Green tea is said to have health benefits, but jeez it smells fishy and tastes faintly of metal. I think it's the container, though. The teabags have been exposed to the air, and the jar they're in is quite close to the sink.
I drink tea not only because it tastes good (the fruit infusions, in particular. I also prefer black teas and Earl Grey), but because they smell good; so when the tea isn't fragrant, it kinda spoils the experience.
I wish I could attend one of those seminars on the ancient tea ceremonies, or study the various kinds of tea and how they're made.
I've noticed that there are more tea varieties being sold in the supermarkets, and many of the brands aren't that expensive so I've stopped going to The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf: one cup of tea there is equivalent to one box of tea bags!
I prefer loose leaf tea, though; but not may stores sell them here. Hindi uso,e. Mas teabags pa rin.
There's a tea store in Ayala than offers British High Tea for P450 a set -- tea, scones, cookies, sugar or honey. The tea things are dainty, fragile and beautiful. The tea is, well, not really different from what you could buy from Rustan's. Ang imoral ng presyo ng meryenda.
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Bribery, bribery, bribery. Ano ba yan! Ang dami talagang pera just floating around, and somehow (nooneenoneenooh)they end up in the pockets of local executives and politicians.
It's appalling how some try to justify accepting bribes by saying that the money will be used to serve their constituencies anyway. It's bribery, for crying out loud - and it's to cement the support and loyalty to a particular political party or executive and ensure that no moves to unseat them power will ever prosper.Kung talagang para sa mga constituents yun, then the money should've been released through the proper venues and channels -- channels that can be audited by the Commission on Audit; where there are records and complete receipts and documentation.
No wonder corruption prospers and thrives in the Philippines - officials find no wrong doing in giving and accepting bribes, and they disguise these bribers as 'financial assistance' and 'donations.' Nakakasuka.
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Celebrated my 32nd birthday at the old standby Bubba Gump's in Ayala with my mom and Kim. Gorged on shrimp and squid, and generally felt like I will not touch either seafood for at least six months.
Thank you to friends Walkie, Edre, Sonny Af, Sarah B, Nova, Alex Rem, Chi, Anya, Lisa, Ganni, Tin-Tin, Mau, Lyn, Noi, Jennifer, Yolly, Malou, Bam-Bam , Ms. Belle who remembered, called up or sent email or texts to greet me happy 32nd.
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Rereading the Lord of the Rings trilogy (I have really old copies, printed in 1969), and I still get the shingles over how brilliant it is, how imaginative, how creative, how beautiful. I want to move to Middle-Earth and get a mushroom house in Bag's End. I'll find work as a gardener and tend flowers and vegetables, or be a teacher.
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Report on Inquirer.net: GMA says her government has no tolerance for human rights violations.
Ang kapal!
“Investigations suggest links to both right and left -- to
communists, communist rebels as well as possibly elements of our own military.
The investigations of the national police's Task Force Usig have unearthed some interesting facts such as
23 cases of killings perpetrated by the NPA against their own men, the
discrepancy between the number of cases reported by the front organizations of
the communists and the numbers in the police files, and two cases where the
supposed victims were confirmed to be alive. It's disheartening to contemplate
that anyone upholding people's rights could engage in such deeds. I need to
absorb fully what it means.
“I do know this: I believe 99.9 percent of our military are
good, hard working and patriotic Filipinos. They do heroic things, like killing
terrorists in battle, putting their lives on the line every day to protect the
nation and make our homeland safer.”
- Pres.Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, January 31, 2007 Vin D’ Honneur, Malacanang
So kill activists to keep the peace. That's the policy of the Arroyo government.
Earlier this year, the Macapagal-Arroyo government filed 23
specific complaints of extrajudicial killings against the National Democratic
Front of the Philippines (NDFP) with the Joint Secretariat (JS) of the Joint
Monitoring Committee (JMC). All of these complaints have counterpart complaints which were previously filed
against the GRP and attributed to
government forces. The NDFP-MC released the results of a comparative study it
conducted on these cases through a book titled ‘The Lies of GRP Officials on
Extrajudicial Killings.’
T
he 23 complaint forms filed against the
NDFP were filed by the Judge Advocate General Service (JAGS) of the Armed
Forces of the Philippines /AFP (15); the Philippine National Police/ PNP,
seven; surviving victims (two) and a relative (one). The complaints filed by
one surviving victim and the relative of a victim are both unsigned, further
putting the credibility of the complaints in question.
Ten of the complaints against the NDFP contain only terse,
bare and formulaic descriptions such as ‘shot to death/summarily executed.’ In
the meantime, the remaining 13 complaints are completely lacking in description
of the purported incidents. Most of the
complaints (18) were filed with no
supporting documents, but in the five
others that had supporting documents, the investigation that was conducted
prior to the filing was not thorough or was obviously contrived to fit a
pre-existing theory. A total of 19 complaint forms lack sufficient data to even
qualify as valid complaints.
Neither were motives for the killings cited in 14 of the 23
complaints. In the nine cases where motives were cited, the reasons were either
patently false or purely speculative, such as in the case of Sotero Lamas. No
investigations were conducted to bolster 18 of the cases.
In one particular case against the NDFP , important information was deliberately withheld by
those who filed the complaint and no
follow-up was made.
In Case No. 22 on the victim Rev. Jemias Tinambacan, the
complaint against the NDFP conveniently omitted the fact that the victim’s wife
identified one of the assailants as a Philippine Army intelligence agent. This
fact was stated in the complaint filed against the GRP, wherein the wife, Malou
Tinambacan made positive identification as she herself survived the attack that
killed her husband.
Tinambacan, 49, was a
UCCP Pastor and Bayan Muna Misamis Occidental Provincial chairman. he was shot
and killed on May 9, 2006 in
Oroquieta
City
, Misamis Occidental.
In another complaint against the NDFP, victims Ricardo
Balauag, 61 years old and Bayan Muna Municipal Councilor, and Elena Mendiola,
54, Bayan Muna Regional Coordinator, Isabela Chapter were said to have been
shot by two unidentified men wearing ski-masks using M-16 and M-14 rifles. The
two were killed on May 10, 2006, 8:30 pm as they left the house of two farmer
friends. Mendiola’s two grandchildren were inside the car parked outside the
house when the incident happened, and they saw what transpired. The farmers immediately called the police, but
they only arrived at 12 midnight.
The police deliberately or not failed to get the testimonies
of the victims’ companions at the time of the incident, and instead relied on
the testimonies of two so-called voluntary witnesses who came forward much
later after the fact. The credibility of
the two witnesses went unchecked and their testimonies were allowed to go on record.
Subsequently, on May 31, 2006, the PNP said that two
suspects in the killings were charged. The two were said to have killed Balauag and Mendiola for ‘malversation and
mishandling of committee funds.’ No
clear and substantial proof to bolster this accusation was presented.
In the meantime, the comparative study show that the 23
complaints against the GRP by human rights organizations contain substantial
material and information that can be used by concerned bodies as important
leads on which they can base deeper investigations, and from there collect
evidence for the arrest, prosecution, trial and punishment of the perpetrators.
These complaints against the GRP include substantive supporting documents that put the burden of responsibility
for the extrajudicial killings on the GRP. The responsibility is either direct
through the involvement of the military or paramilitary units; or indirect
through inaction, belated or perfunctory
response, lack of investigation, inordinately delayed GRO judicial proceedings
and even cover-ups by GRP investigating agencies. In the cases wherein there is
direct involvement of military forces, there are also corroborating eyewitness accounts and strong circumstantial
evidence.
The background of the victims themselves, their
organizational affiliations and the public accusations personally made against
them by GRP officials constitute tangible and prima facie evidence of motive for the extrajudicial
killings. All of the victims were unarmed civilians, members of open and legal
organizations active in exposing an opposing the abuses and violations of the
Macapagal-Arroyo government , and these groups have also been at one time or
another been accused of being fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines
(CPP) or the New People’s Army (NPA). Some of the victims have also been confirmed to have been in the
military or the police Order of Battle,
such as Expedito Albarillo, Rommel Arcilla, Nestor Arinque, Teodoro Segui Jr.,
and Abe Sungit.
The pattern of the attacks, the description of the killers
and the means and method of the actual operations also point towards military
and paramilitary killings. In 12 cases, the killings were preceded by
surveillance, harassment, intimidation and threats against the victims. These
are incontrovertible evidence of motive, as well as opportunity and means which
are everything that the military and paramilitary have. The actual killings
were perpetrated by ski-masked and hooded gunmen in unmarked vehicles, using
.45 caliber or high-powered firearms such as M-14s an M-16s. The objective was
clearly to ensure the death of the targets, as indicated by the location of the
wounds.
In the final comparison of the complaints filed against the GRP and the NDFP, and their contents, the
NDFP-MC has determined that the complaints filed against the NDFP are
inherently weak and severely flawed, containing bare, unsubstantiated and
sweeping allegations. They are also characterized by glaring inconsistencies,
dubious and sloppy documentation, as well as contrived and fictional stories on
the alleged identities of perpetrators belonging to the revolutionary moment.
The obvious intent for the filing of the complaints is to undermine the issue
of the killings and blame the victims themselves for what they suffered. The
fact that GRP forces chose to file these cases all the more proves the attitude of impunity GRP forces have when it
comes to the killings; and confirm charges that the government is neither
sincere or determined to bring the perpetrators to justice. #
Attend this and learn more about how to defend your rights and the rights of other Filipinos!
Green tea is said to have health benefits, but jeez it smells fishy and tastes faintly of metal. I think it's the container, though. The teabags have been exposed to the air, and the jar they're in is quite close to the sink.
Natikman ko dalawang variety ng Philippine indigenous tea - "tsaang gubat" - da best ...grabe magpapawis.
Posted by: Johnny | October 20, 2007 05:56 PM