AFP Award Medals to Torturers of Morong 43 (tags)
AJLPP NEWS sources learned today that Philippine Senators Pia Cayetano and Jamby Madrigal and other groups Tuesday cried foul over the awarding of Bronze Cross Medals to military officers involved in the controversial arrest and detention of 43 health workers attending a seminar in Morong, Rizal, early this month. “There’s something seriously wrong when a government institution commends its personnel for committing an illegal act,” said Cayetano in a statement.
GMA's Game of Musical Chairs in the AFP (tags)
PESANTE NEWS based in Los Angeles learned today through news sources in Manila that some questions are circulating at the AFP. Will there be a new face at the helm of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) by March or will President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo stick it out with current military chief Gen. Victor Ibrado? Ibrado is due to retire on March 10, the day before the election appointments ban takes effect. The president is barred from making new appointments two months before the elections and until the end of her term.
Gov’t-MILF clashes go on in Cotabato (tags)
Skirmishes between government security forces and a group of Moro rebels in Libungan town in North Cotabato continued Monday, spilling over into the next town. “The fighting involving soldiers and MILF rebels had been ongoing since Sunday and now it escalated into Pigcawayan. The rebels are led by Commander Umbra Kato. The rebels are harvesting the crops of Christian settlers,” North Cotabato Gov. Jesus Sacdalan said. But Eid Kabalu, MILF’s civil military affairs chief, told the Inquirer that they had not received reports that the fighting had escalated into the neighboring town.