BROADSHEETS 

PHIL. DAILY INQUIRER -- Whistle-blower ties Arroyo to fund scam

PHILIPPINE STAR -- Government mulls EO freezing fuel prices 

MANILA BULLETIN -- No Holy Week truce

DAILY TRIBUNE -- Military officer blasts AFP graft ‘snitches’

TABLOIDS

PEOPLE’S JOURNAL -- Holy Week alert

ABANTE -- Palasyo: May naghuhudas sa oil price!

PILIPINO STAR NGAYON -- AFP alerto vs terror attack  

PEOPLE'S TONIGHT -- PDEA nabs 6 for drugs

 

ISSUES MONITORING

On Congress

Come clean this time, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima told Sen. Panfilo Lacson yesterday, saying the Dacer family is willing to drop a petition against Lacson with the Supreme Court (SC) if a planned Department of Justice (DoJ) reinvestigation of the double murder case of publicist Salvador Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito will exonerate him. De Lima called on embattled Palace ally Lacson’s cooperation with government investigators in the reinvestigation of the decade-old murder case. De Lima pointed out the DoJ’s reinvestigation would not weaken but rather consolidate the petition filed by the Dacer family with the SC. (Philstar)

On oil prices

The government may resort to an “extreme legal measure” to cushion the effects of steadily rising oil prices – the issuance of an executive order banning further hikes, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said yesterday. “Talking about possibilities, there’s always such a possibility of coming up with an executive order freezing the oil prices. If it comes to that, it will basically and primarily be an executive decision or action,” De Lima told The STAR. She said the previous Arroyo administration had resorted to freezing oil price increases in 2009, through Executive Order 839.(Philstar)

On Arroyo

Former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo kept her silence in the face of former President Joseph Estrada’s voicing of a wish that she be made to pay for making Filipinos suffer during her nine-year administration. Arroyo’s spokesperson Ma. Elena Bautista-Horn said they would rather pray for good health for Estrada who celebrated his 74th birthday last Tuesday. “We continue to pray for him (Estrada) and our country this Lenten season. We wish the former president many more birthdays and a blessed Easter to all,” Bautista-Horn said.(Philstar)

On summer

The temperature in northern Tuguegarao City reached 39.5 degrees Celsius last Tuesday, higher by .5 degrees than the highest recorded temperature in the area last year at the height of the El Niño phenomenon. The temperature is also the hottest recorded so far in the country this year, and came a day after hailstorms hit some parts of the region, including this landlocked province. Tuguegarao, the capital of Cagayan, Luzon’s northernmost mainland province, is the holder of the hottest temperature ever recorded in the country at 42 degrees Celsius in the 1950s.  (Philstar)

On Lenten 

President Aquino exhorted Filipinos yesterday to remember God’s deep love for His children in making sacrifices coupled with hard work for the majority of the people, saying Calvary and Herod could be overcome with these virtues. “As long as we equal hard work with prayers, as long as we carry our nation together, as long as we focus on the welfare of the majority more than ourselves, no Calvary, no Herod can stop us from achieving the changes we aspire for,” the President said in his Lenten message. King Herod was a ruler of Jerusalem at a time when Jesus was born. He ordered the killing of all male infants as a prophecy was made that the son of God was born and would be a threat to his position as king.(Philstar)

On fertilizer scam

The Office of the Ombudsman has given clearance to an agriculture official they have recommended to be charged with plunder in 2009, or five years after the P728-million fertilizer fund scam was filed in 2004. A copy of a document obtained by The STAR showed that Gumersindo Lasam – whom the Ombudsman wants indicted – was given a clearance in May 2009, upon the request of Ms. Josephine Tuliao of Lingkod Bayan awards.(Philstar)

On airports

The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) is planning to purchase body scanners, which cost at least P10 million per unit, to be installed in four airport terminals in Metro Manila in order to detect the presence of illegal drugs inside the body of a person, particularly in the stomach and genitals. Speaking in yesterday’s “Balitaan sa Aloha Hotel” in Roxas Blvd., Manila, MIAA General Manager Jose Angel Honrado cited the need for the airports to cope with the changing times as illicit drug operations go “high-tech.” To avoid being detected, drug syndicate members now conceal the illegal stuff inside their body by swallowing the drug capsules or inserting these in cavities of the drug mules, instead of hiding them in baggage.(Philstar)

On OFWs

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) warned the government yesterday that the hiring of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) is likely to decline in the coming months due to the continuing political unrest in the Middle East and Libya. Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said they expect fewer Filipino workers to be deployed in the second quarter of the year because of ongoing crises in the Middle East and Libya. “We don’t see an immediate solution to the Middle East crisis and because of this foreign employers are expected to hold back on hiring workers for a while,” Baldoz disclosed.(Philstar)