Fifty eight percent of Filipinos in Mindanao believed that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo cheated in the 2004 presidential elections, a survey conducted by Pulse Asia in Mindanao in December last year showed. The same survey released to media Friday showed that 70 percent of those polled believed that because of recurring allegations of election fraud, the credibility of the balloting process in Mindanao was at a record low. [read on]

The Philippine Star today reported that AFP Chief of Staff  Gen. Hermogenes Esperon’s tour of duty has been extended. It could mean bad news or good news. Bad news for his critics especially the ‘jailed’ Magdalo officers as well as those who were implicated in the failed coup attempt last February 2006.  Well, good news to those who are loyal to him as well as to those who bow their heads before GMA.

Esperon is just one of the Garci generals believed to be involved in the alleged massive cheating during the 2004 presidential elections. His fellow generals have been criticizing and have been asking him to tell the truth.  The alleged involvement of the generals in the cheating is just one of the spark plugs of the outcry of the jailed generals and junior military officers — among them was then LtSg. Antonio Trillanes III, now a senator.

Many analysis and news stories are already out today on the looming downfall of the US Economy. Many say that it’ll be a hard landing. It’s just a like a Humpty Dumpty who fell from the wall.

It’s one of the reasons why US needs to go to war; its economy mainly depend on war. So as the US economy goes down, it’ll surely bring down anyone else that depends on them. They say: “The higher you build, the harder you fall.”

Why the Dollar Bubble is about to Burst
Steve Masterson / London - 24 May, 2006

Currently almost all oil buying and selling is in US-dollars through exchanges in London and New York. It is not accidental they are both US-owned. The Wall Street crash in 1929 sparked off global depression andWorld War II. During that war the US supplied provisions and munitions to all its allies, refusing currency and demanding gold payments in exchange.

This news made me laugh… What a sad news for porn lovers in China as well as in other parts of the globe who loves the open porn sites.

China shut down 44,000 porn sites in 2007

BEIJING - China shut down 44,000 Web sites and arrested 868 people for Internet pornography last year, state media said Wednesday.  China’s Public Security Ministry launched a crackdown on Internet pornography last year, saying it had ”perverted China’s young minds.” Nearly 2,000 people involved in Internet pornography activities also were penalized, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Yesterday, a news report says there is a drop of extrajudicial killings in the country, according to the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Read full report here

But then as I opened the news websites this morning, I was stunned by the report on the killing of an Oblate priest in Tawi-tawi. I can’t remember if  I already met him. But guess, we’ve met somewhere else — could be in a peace forum or something.

Oblate priest killed in Tawi-tawi

DAVAO CI TY (MindaNews/15 January) – A Catholic priest of the Oblates of the Mary Immaculate (OMI) congregation was killed at around 8:30 tonight in Tabawan Island, Tawi-tawi province, “in an apparent kidnapping attempt,” Father Ramon Bernabe, OMI Provincial  said. Fr. Jesus Reynaldo A. Roda, director of the Notre Dame of Tabawan and head of the mission station there for the last ten years  “was praying in the chapel, as he used to do every night, when armed men barged in and tried to take him. He struggled and resisted being taken away, and explicitly said that he preferred to be killed right there and then. A witness said that he was beaten and then shot dead. The armed men also took some valuables from his office before fleeing, taking with them also a male teacher of Notre Dame of Tabawan who happened to be there,” Bernabe said in an e-mailed letter to fellow Oblates and friends.(Mindanews)

Yet another outcry from the former internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Central Mindanao. On Monday, thousands of people coming from different areas in Mindanao gathered in Cotabato City and urged both the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to resume the stalled negotiations.

There was never a good war or a bad peace - Benjamin Franklin

How long shall we wait? Why is it always stalled whenever some major breakthroughs are reached? Personally, I believe that the ‘hawks’ in the government have dipped their fingers on the peace process.  Many wants to live in peace but some want to live in an ‘atmosphere of war.’ War is business, war produce generals.

“We hate war!” - Cotabato peace rally participants
COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/07 January) — An outpouring of frustration and anger marked today’s peace rally at the city plaza here where thousands of people converged to push the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) into resuming their talks and eventually signing a peace agreement. “I am tired of war,” said Bai Misceria Malasalagat who arrived here from Pagalungan, Maguindanao this morning on board a caravan of about 23 trucks. “We have been bakwits (evacuees) for 20 years already.” They are afraid, she said, that in case the talks would collapse, “there will be fighting again and we will suffer.”

Early this morning, I’ve heard again a radio commentator blurting on the dismantling of Task Force Davao. There is no finality yet on this report. Even TF Davao commander Col. Alan Luga has already said that the fate of TF Davao remains on the hands of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. Continue Reading »