BROADSHEETS

PHIL. DAILY INQUIRER -- Garcia Deal Not Yet Final

MANILA BULLETIN -- Cha-Cha Nipped In The Bud

PHILIPPINE STAR -- No Cha-Cha No New Taxes

MANILA STANDARD -- Almendras, Purisima’s Confirmation Threatened

MANILA TIMES -- Tsinoy Kidnapping Rising

MALAYA -- Exit Carlos Garcia, Walking

DAILY TRIBUNE -- PNP To Noynoy: Not So Fast, Camps Donated, Not For Sale

TABLOIDS

PEOPLE’S JOURNAL -- Gov’t Can’t Sell Crame

ABANTE -- Chacha Nagliliyab

PILIPINO STAR NGAYON -- LTO Official Itinumba Ng Pulis

BALITA -- Reserba Ng Dolyar Lumalaki

PEOPLES TONIGHT -- Rocking Car Yields Couple In Will Sex!

BULGAR -- Babaeng Bus Drivers Aprub!

 

ISSUES MONITORING

On Congress

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. expressed support yesterday for the plan to abolish the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), saying it was long overdue. Belmonte issued the statement after PCGG chairman Andres Bautista bared plans over the weekend to abolish in two years the agency tasked to go after the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses. The House leader noted the PCGG “has been there for such a long time.” (Philstar-p2) 

On Presidency

President Aquino has named six new directors to the board of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA). The new directors are Benjamin Antonio III, Philip Camara, Ramon Sesdoyro, Norberto Sosa, Gerald Sam del Rosario and Francisco Licuanan. Antonio, Camara, Sesdoyro and Sosa will be representing the private sector, while Del Rosario and Licuanan will represent the business and investment sector. (Philstar-p6) 

On Charter Change

Malacañang would not propose Charter change (Cha-cha) and any new taxes to Congress as Cabinet members met yesterday to discuss priority measures to be presented at the forthcoming Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council meeting. But the Responsible Parenthood Bill, formerly the Reproductive Health Bill, now pending in Congress is among 30 legislative measures that the Cabinet would submit to President Aquino for approval, Presidential Communications Development Secretary Ricky Carandang said after the Cabinet workshop on the legislative proposals from the different departments. (Philstar-Banner) 

Pushing for Charter change (Cha-cha) is “not a priority” of the Aquino administration and not among the 25 measures that it wants to propose to Congress this year, Malacañang said yesterday Communications Secretary Ricky Carandang said no one in the Cabinet raised Cha-cha as one of the measures on the Palace list of priority bills. (PDI-p1) 

On Military Lands

Senators cautioned the Aquino administration yesterday on its plan to privatize camps Aguinaldo and Crame, which cover more than 200 hectares of prime land. Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said the government might run into legal trouble if it pushes through with the sale in haste. Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada, for his part, asked, “Where will they relocate the two camps? That will also entail expenses for the government.” (Philstar-p1) 

A ranking member of the House of Representatives yesterday opposed the government’s plan to sell Camp Aguinaldo and Camp Crame for commercial purposes and sought to declare these two camps as historical sites. Reacting to reports that the two camps, the site of the EDSA people power revolt in 1986, would be sold to commercial buyers, Rep. Herminigildo Mandanas (2nd dist., Batangas) said the camps were “symbols of Filipinos’ innate love for freedom and liberty.” (PDI-p2)

On Abadilla 5

After 14 years, a complaint of torture filed by the so-called Abadilla 5 against their arresting officers were finally acted upon by judicial authorities. The Office of the Ombudsman Monday recommended the filing of criminal charges against 15 policemen for allegedly torturing and violating the rights of five people who were convicted 11 years ago by Quezon City Judge Jaime Salazar for the June 13, 1996, murder of former Col. Rolando Abadilla, a dreaded intelligence officer during the Marcos regime. (PDI-p1) 

On Vizconde Massacre

Several hundred representatives of multisectoral groups on Monday launched a “People’s Movement for Justice (PMJ),” demanding that the Supreme Court reverse its acquittal of Hubert Webb et al. in the gruesome Vizconde massacre. Led by former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, the group in jogging pants and shorts gathered outside the Supreme Court as Chief Justice Renato Corona and the tribunal’s employees held the usual Monday morning flag-raising ceremony. (PDI-p1) 

On Gen Garcia

The Sandiganbayan Monday said that it had yet to affirm the plea bargain agreement between government prosecutors and former military comptroller Carlos Garcia, who is accused of plunder. “There is no approval yet,” Justice Teresita Diaz-Baldoz said at yeserday’s hearing. (PDI-Banner) 

On Kidnapping

Kidnap-for-ransom (KFR) cases have been on the rise again since last year wherein most of the victims were Chinese-Filipino, or Tsinoy, businessmen in southern Mindanao but the incidents do not appear on the crime statistics of the Philippine National Police (PNP). “There [has been] a marked increase in kidnap-for-ransom cases since last year but they don’t appear on [official] statistics because the Philippine National Police treat them as acts of terrorism, not kidnap-for-ransom cases,” crime fighter Teresita Ang See told The Manila Times on Monday. Ang See, the chairman of the Movement for Restoration of Peace and Order (MRPO) and a spokesman for the Citizens Action Against Crime (CAAC), was reacting to the kidnapping on Saturday of Eulogio Lim Yu, 56, a Chinese-Filipino hardware store owner, in Cotabato City. (Mla Times-Banner) 

On The Manila’s Finest

The Manila Police District (MPD) is still clueless on the whereabouts of one of its men who is accused of raping a vendor right inside MPD headquarters in December last year. But, according to the MPD spokesman, a massive manhunt for Antonio Bautista Jr. is continuing. Police chief Insp. Erwin Margarejo told The Manila Times during an interview on Monday, “We’re still gathering information about Bautista’s whereabouts.”  Margarejo admitted that as of press of time, they do not know where the suspected rapist is. (Mla Times-p1) 

On The Minorities

The United States government has apologized on behalf of former President Bill Clinton, for an aide who tried to kick out a Cordillera delegation from his Manila lecture last year because it included a young Igorot wearing a G-string. The apology was sent through the US Embassy in Manila on Dec. 14 and was received by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) on Jan. 4, said Vladimir Cayabas, administrator of a local school who sent the delegation to Clinton’s lecture at the Manila Hotel on Nov. 10. (PDI-p2) 

On The American Novelist

Great American novelist John Irving is in the Philippines—that may well have been Ilocos’ best kept secret last week. Irving, called the best storyteller of his time, has been in the country since the Christmas holidays, spending part of his time at the Filipino heritage resort Sitio Remedios in Currimao, Ilocos Norte. He also visited Palawan. He’s here on a private visit and leaves today. (PDI-p1)