BROADSHEETS

PHIL. DAILY INQUIRER -- P-Noy Slams High Court

PHILIPPINE STAR -- VFA Mutually Beneficial For Partnership, Says US

MANILA STANDARD -- Akbayan Wins P4B Gravy From Public Works Fund

MANILA TIMES -- SC Aids Corruption- Aquino

MALAYA -- Aquino Warns SC On EO 2 Freeze

DAILY TRIBUNE -- Noy Slams SC On ‘Midnight Hires’ Status Quo

TABLOIDS

PEOPLE’S JOURNAL -- Noy Blasts SC

ABANTE -- PNoy Sumabog Sa SC

PILIPINO STAR NGAYON -- 4 Nursing Studes Utas!

 

BALITA -- Napababayaan

PEOPLES TONIGHT -- Ward Raped Inside DSWD

BULGAR -- 16-Anyos Nireyp Sa DSWD

 

ISSUES MONITORING

On Congress

Congress has adjourned for a three-week break with none of the Cabinet members appointed by President Aquino being tackled by the Commission on Appointments (CA). Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said that the consideration of Aquino Cabinet members by the CA was deferred because of the appointees’ failure to submit the documents required by the commission. “They have not completed their papers. They are supposed to submit it, complete it within a certain time, but you check with the secretariat. When they submit, we have to publish it then there must be a public hearing,” Enrile said. (Philstar-p1) 

The House of Representatives will approve President Aquino’s proposed P1.645-trillion 2011 national budget today. “We will approve it tomorrow even if it takes us up to midnight or even up to early morning of Saturday,” Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II said yesterday. He said the House has to pass the budget before Congress goes on its first recess tomorrow. (Philstar-p3) 

The delay in the release of the Special Allotment Release Order (Saro) for the congressmen’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), more commonly referred to as pork barrel, is reportedly causing restlessness among the 278 members of the House of Represent-atives with many allegedly planning to stage a coup against Speaker Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte. This was claimed by a congressman who granted an interview on condition of anonymity. (Tribune-p1) 

On Presidency

Former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo is being told by her successor and former student, President Aquino, to practice “professionalism” after questioning Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman on the proposed P21-billion budget that his government intends to allocate to reinforce the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program. (Tribune-p1) 

Did President Aquino snub the Senate’s 94th anniversary celebration Wednesday night? The President sent his regrets, through his appointments secretary on his being unavailable for the said yearly event, in which he would have been the guest of honor, due to a prior commitment. (Tribune-p3)

On The Supreme Court

Stung by the Supreme Court order stopping his removal of a “midnight appointee” of his predecessor, President Benigno Aquino III  yesterday accused the tribunal of blocking his program of reform. Mr. Aquino used strong words in assailing the high court for granting the petition of Bai Omera Dianalan-Lucman of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF), which sought a stop to the implementation of his Executive Order No. 2 rescinding the last-minute appointments of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. (PDI-Banner) 

President Benigno Aquino 3rd on Thursday accused the Supreme Court (SC) of aiding corruption after it blocked his move to fire officials linked to millions of dollars’ worth of allegedly shady deals. 

He lashed at the 15-member High Court, a day after it issued a temporary injunction against his move to sack from the bureaucracy key allies of his predecessor and now lawmaker Gloria Arroyo, who he alleges to be corrupt. “This [High Tribunal] order has the potential to derail or even nullify our efforts to uncover and reverse ‘midnight’ deals, streamline the bureaucracy and implement reforms to bring back good governance,” President Aquino told a press conference. (Mla Times-Banner) 

President Aquino yesterday warned that the decision of the Supreme Court to stop the implementation of Executive Order No. 2 which nullified the midnight appointments by the previous administration might lead to "chaos and paralysis of the executive branch" and precipitate a clash between the executive and judicial branch. (Malaya-Banner) 

The Court of Appeals (CA) has put off action on the plea of embattled Sen. Panfilo Lacson who is asking the appellate court to stop a Manila court from enforcing the arrest warrant against him in connection with the kidnapping and murder of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito, a decade ago. The appellate court decided instead to hear first the comments of the Manila regional trial court (RTC) and the Dacer family on Lacson’s petition which sought  a review of the resolution finding the existence of probable cause to prosecute the lawmaker for murder. (Tribune-p1) 

On The Coup Plotters

The promulgation of the decision on the coup d’etat case against detained Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and other rebel soldiers involved in the July 2003 Oakwood mutiny will proceed as scheduled on Oct. 28 despite President Benigno Aquino III’s amnesty proclamation. This was disclosed yesterday by members of the staff of Judge Oscar Pimentel of Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 148 in the course of refusing a request from the Inquirer for an interview with the judge on the implication of Presidential Proclamation No. 50 on the case. (PDI-p1) 

The Department of National Defense (DND) will form a committee that would process the amnesty application of rebel soldiers. DND spokesman Eduardo Batac said the amnesty committee would be composed of defense and military officials including the Armed Forces Judge Advocate-General, and the Adjutant-General. (Philstar-p6)

Conviction by the lower courts of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV on coup charges, should he be found guilty, will be made meaningless by the issuance of the presidential proclamation granting him and other so-called mutineers amnesty. Senators noted this yesterday even as they have yet to conduct hearings on the filed resolution calling for the upper chamber’s concurrence to the said edict. (Tribune-p3) 

On The VFA

The US embassy said yesterday that it respects the Philippines’ decision to review the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), but emphasized that the defense pact is “mutually beneficial” and remains an important framework for partnership and cooperation between the two countries. “The VFA continues to provide an important framework for partnership and cooperation between our two militaries that is mutually beneficial. As guests in this country we fully respect Philippine sovereignty and maintain an ongoing dialogue with the government in all aspects of our relations,” US embassy spokesperson Rebecca Thompson said. (Philstar-p1) 

On The IIRC Report

President Aquino defended yesterday Malacañang’s review of results of the official probe on the Aug.23 Hostage crisis and said giving in to protests would be “a very flimsy reason to amend the courses of action we have decided upon.” “The only thing we can do is to explain exactly how the decision was arrived at, what were the limitations we have under our system of government and also our laws,” Aquino said at a press briefing. (Philstar-p1) 

The problem was that Deputy Ombudsman Emilio Gonzalez had refused to appear before the committee to give his side. Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez had declared that her office would not take part in the investigation, since it was an independent and co-equal institution. As a result, the committee, while inclined to believe that Mendoza spoke what he believed to be the truth, could go no further than make oblique references that Mendoza was a victim of extortion. (Philstar-p1) 

Filipinos are divided over the government’s handling of the Aug.23 Hostage crisis that left eight Hong Kong tourists dead, a recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed. The SWS poll, conducted from Sept. 24 to 27, found 41 percent of respondents dissatisfied with the way the government dealt with the crisis, while 36 percent said otherwise. The undecided accounted for 21 percent. (Philstar-p1) 

On Taxation

The Bureau of Customs yesterday filed with the justice department a P24.5-billion complaint against the local unit of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, accusing the company of evading import duties and taxes in what could be the country’s biggest smuggling case. “This criminal complaint should prove to everyone that President Aquino’s campaign against smuggling, corruption and other economic crimes respects no sacred cows,” Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez said at a press conference in the justice department. (PDI-p1) 

On Jueteng

None of the 24 tagged as jueteng lords by retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz and Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago responded yesterday to the Senate’s invitation for them to explain their side. Of the resource persons invited, only former Pampanga Gov. Ed Panlilio and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office general manager Ferdinand Rojas II showed up.  (Philstar-p1) 

On Amnesty

After Malacañang’s grant of amnesty to rebel soldiers linked to past military uprisings, the Catholic Church is now asking President Benigno Aquino 3rd to give similar attention to “common prisoners” languishing in jail. An official of the Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care (ECPPC) of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) on Thursday said that common prisoners are even more deserving of the amnesty grant than the mutineers from the Magdalo group of rebel officers and men, who tried but failed to topple then President Gloria Arroyo in 2003, 2006 and 2007. “I pray that amnesty and executive clemency, the power of the President, will be used particularly [in favor of] a lot of so-called common criminals who have languished and are still languishing in jail. There are many of them,” according to Rudy Diamante, the executive secretary of ECPPC-CBCP. (Mla Times-p1) 

On The ‘Business Agenda’

Businessmen belonging to the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) today will present to President Benigno Aquino 3rd a 10-point agenda that they believe would boost the country’s economic competitiveness. Also, PCCI members on Thursday said that restrictions in the Constitution and various laws concerning sectors such as media and labor should be softened. The chamber, meanwhile, said that the Aquino administration was making inroads in easing doing business in the country. It, however, pitched for striking a balance between adhering to the Constitution and laws and opening up the economy further. (Mla Times-p1)