BROADSHEETS 

PHIL. DAILY INQUIRER -- Aquino: Massacre trial should be aired live

PHILIPPINE STAR -- Cabinet 'lightweights' face tough CA grilling  

MANILA BULLETIN -- MMDA starts crackdown on erring buses

DAILY TRIBUNE -- Miriam threatens CA rejection of Noy men

TABLOIDS

PEOPLE’S JOURNAL -- Terror attack?

ABANTE -- 56 tinorture, nilagare

PILIPINO STAR NGAYON -- Media sinisi sa 'low rating' ni P-Noy 

PEOPLES TONIGHT -- Ampatuans not coddled by Gloria

ISSUES MONITORING

On Congress

The House committee on transportation is set to investigate the strike staged by bus companies last Monday that resulted in a “socio-economic disequilibrium,” an administration lawmaker said yesterday. President Aquino, meanwhile, warned yesterday that the government has all the right to revoke the franchises of bus operators who staged a transport strike timed with his arrival from Japan. Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo said the bus transport strike is “a recipe for anarchy. (Philstar)

On CA

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago threatened yesterday to “massacre” at least six Cabinet officials once they appear before the Commission on Appointments (CA). “I am going to massacre these people. I have the law on my side. I have the power,” Santiago said. She called the unnamed officials “smug, self-satisfied, non-elected appointees.” (Philstar)

On Maguindanao massacre

Almost half of the Philippines’ population is dissatisfied with the way the government is handling the pursuit of justice for the victims of the Nov. 23 Maguindanao massacre, the latest survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed. The SWS poll, conducted from Sept. 24 to 27, showed 47 percent of 1,200 respondents dissatisfied, while 35 percent is satisfied with the handling of the case against the Ampatuan clan, for a net satisfaction score of -12 or “poor.” In the December 2009 survey, the government received a net satisfaction score of neutral -2 (44 percent dissatisfied and 41 percent satisfied). (Philstar)

The Supreme Court (SC) rejected yesterday calls for live media coverage of the Maguindanao massacre trial. Prevailing jurisprudence bans the filming or recording of trials in court, according to SC spokesman Jose Midas Marquez. At Malacañang, President Aquino said he prefers that the trial be shown live on television for the people to know what had transpired. (Philstar)

On tourism

Tourism officials may have to drop the new “Pilipinas kay Ganda” tourism slogan after it drew widespread criticism and even ridicule a day after its launch. “At this time, the new slogan is just a concept and still under study. If the people, particularly the foreign market, won’t like it, we can pull it out,” Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim said yesterday. He said the Department of Tourism (DOT) decided to make the concept public at its “early stage” so that it could get early feedback. (Philstar)

On UP board

President Aquino named yesterday retired chief justice Reynato Puno to the Board of Regents of the University of the Philippines.  Also appointed to the state university’s highest policy-making body were scriptwriter Bibeth Orteza and cement magnate Magdaleno Albarracin Jr.  Co-chairs of the UP Board of Regents are Patricia Licuanan, who heads the Commission on Higher Education, and incumbent UP president Emerlinda Roman, the first woman president of the state university. (Philstar)

On security

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) claimed yesterday that the country deserves a better security rating from Maplecroft, an international risk advisory firm that has ranked the country No. 8 among 16 nations that have been tagged as extreme danger zones prone to terrorist attacks. Maplecroft’s terror risk index placed Somalia on top of the list, followed by Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestinian Occupied Territories, Colombia, Thailand, the Philippines, Yemen and Russia. “The country deserves a better rating,” said AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta, adding that Maplecroft should support its latest security rating with validated data. (Philstar)

On GOCCs

The House committee on good government intends to subpoena officers of government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) who are receiving scandalous amounts in salaries, allowances and bonuses. Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said yesterday he would ask the committee to summon Edgardo Garcia and Benedicto Ernesto Bitonio, chief operating officer and executive vice president, respectively, of the Development Bank of the Philippines, so they would be forced to attend the panel’s next hearing. He said Garcia and Bitonio snubbed last week’s initial hearing of the committee on his resolution seeking an inquiry into the huge compensation of GOCC officers. (Philstar)

On human rights

 President Aquino will support a bill that would again push for the compensation of human rights victims in the martial law regime of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who was the political opponent of his father, the slain Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. “I will be supporting that (compensating human rights victims),” he told Palace reporters in a chance interview. “I think when both Etta Rosales and I were Congress people, we were in support of their advocacies.” Rosales was his former colleague at the House of Representatives from party-list group Akbayan while Mr. Aquino was congressman of his home province Tarlac. He had since appointed Rosales chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights. (Philstar)

On amnesty

The House of Representatives is expected to send the amnesty proclamation for soldiers who rebelled against the Arroyo administration back to Malacañang with amendments.    During the second joint hearing on Proclamation 50 yesterday, the House committees on justice, and national defense and security maintained that admission of guilt and remorse for the political crime is prerequisite to granting amnesty. Proclamation 50, issued by President Aquino, grants amnesty to soldiers who took part in the July 2003 Oakwood mutiny in Makati City, the February 2006 standoff by Marines in Fort Bonifacio, and the siege of the Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati on Nov. 29, 2007. (Philstar)