Philippine Senator Guingona’s mom hurt in NPA attack (tags)
Guingona, mother of Sen. Teofisto “TG” Guingona III, was returning with a six-member escort from a town fiesta in Alatagan when they were “ambushed” by the rebels
FAILURE OF ELECTIONS IN THE OFFING? (tags)
The Armed Forces of the Philippines has started fielding more than 7,300 soldiers in Metro Manila even as it declared 10 cities in the capital region as election “hotspots.” These with news filtering to PESANTE NEWS that politicians are arming their forces and deliberately ignoring the gun ban. PESANTE NEWS also learned that the airport are packed with supporters of candidates from LA who are trying to get out of Manila due to the situation. The situation turned to the worst when 78,000 PCOS machines cocked out and and there was a call for manual elections to the COMELEC. PGMA's lawyers have formally called for a postponement of elections for the next two weeks.
MORONG 43 RETURNED BY THE POLICE BACK TO THE ARMY CAMP (tags)
The PESANTE NEWS learned today that the PNP refuses to house ‘Morong 38’ . They were asked to return to Camp Capinpin, Tanay. Rizal. In line with an order issued by a Morong, Rizal court, 38 members of the so-called “Morong 43” group of health workers were brought to Camp Crame on board a Philippine Army bus Friday morning. About half an hour later, the Philippine National Police (PNP) promptly sent them back to the military’s Camp Capinpin in Rizal, saying it had no room for them in its crowded detention facility.
LACSON MUST FACE THE MUSIC--ATTY.VALERA (tags)
The US-based lawyer of Dacer-Corbito murder case star witness Cezar Mancao today lauded the arrest order against Senator Panfilo Lacson but urged the government to focus on the bigger conspiracy and expand indictments on all suspects identified in Mancao’s testimony. “This is good for our justice system and to the families of Bubby Dacer and Emmanuel Corbito,” lawyer Arnedo Valera said in a statement. He urged Lacson to surface and submit himself to the Philippine justice process.
PESANTE CONDEMNS SOUTHERN TAGALOG ACTIVIST CRACKDOWN (tags)
The Philippine Peasant Support Network (Pesante)-USA condemns in the strongest terms what the Southern Tagalog peasant activist crackdown and witch hunt under the US-Arroyo fascist regime. This is how Pesante-USA, a human rights, Filipino peasant advocacy and environmental organization in Los Angeles and Southern Tagalog activists described what would come next after farmer leader Rogelio Galit was arrested Monday evening at Barangay Kaong, Silang, Cavite on murder charges filed at the regional trial court in Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro. Pesante-USA learned through media sources that around 15 armed men in civilian clothes arrested Galit, an officer of the Katipunan ng mga Samahang Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan and spokesperson of the Katipunan ng mga Magbubukid sa Kabite, said his wife Patricia who witnessed the arrest at their house.
MILF given one week to surrender ambushers (tags)
---THE Armed Forces on Wednesday gave the Moro Islamic Liberation Front seven days to surrender its fighters that took part in a bloody battle with Marines in Basilan last week. Another Marine battalion will be deployed to the island province, which is also a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf. The Armed Forces Public Information chief, Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro, said the additional battalion will beef up troops going after Moro rebels who ambushed a group of Marines in Tipo-Tipo town.
PHILIPPINES: ON ELECTION DAY , GMA CHEATING MACHINE OPERATES (tags)
The US-Arroyo regime cheating and repressive machinery for the May 14 national elections is all systems go. To counter the evil machinations of the US-Arroyo regime, the Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines (AJLPP) reiterates it call for the Filipino people to be vigilant and fight with all their might against legalized vote buying, wholesale cheating and brazen violence in this May 14 elections. At the rate it is acting, the US-Arroyo regime is sure to surpass the much hated Marcos regime its brazenness and fascist terrorist acts. AJLPP also expresses its deepest concern over the escalating violence and the propaganda in “rationalizing” its cheating activities “ in the elections. More than 100 armed incidents have been reported since the election season started late February 2007 in the Philippines. The AJLPP compiled the latest updates from the Philippines:
MILF: AFP hawks ruining peace deal (tags)
Muslim MILF leader Hadji Murad on Thursday accused “hawkish” Philippine officials of trying to sabotage peace talks. Moro Islamic Liberation Front Chairman Murad Ebrahim welcomed President Arroyo’s move this week to rein in military units operating in rebel-held areas in Mindanao to salvage the talks but said some officials were undermining these efforts.
RP Accepts US offer to help solve killings (tags)
The Philippines police will accept technical assistance from the United States to help solve a wave of political murders targeting mostly leftist dissidents, a senior police official said Wednesday. Malacañang, however, was more guarded on the issue. Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita told reporters the government wants to be “more deliberate.” Ermita said Philippine and US officials are “in contact with each other” but that no decision has been made. A special United Nations Human Rights Commission rapporteur last week alleged that that some in the Armed Forces—one of the most powerful institutions in the country—were behind the unsolved killings, which human-rights groups have said numbered in the hundreds since 2001.
Philippine Armed Forces target: 5 communist reb fronts (tags)
Reports from Northern Command Camp Aquino, said, five communist guerrilla fronts in four regions where the New People’s Army has first taken root since its founding in 1969 are targeted for dismantling this year, the Army’s Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) chief said on Thursday.
NPA GUERILLAS STRIKE AGAIN IN MINDANAO (tags)
Undetermined number of heavily armed New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas attacked an Army detachment in Barangay Camanza, Asuncion, Davao del Norte, sketchy reports reaching the area command and operation center of the Eastern Mindanao Command (EastMincom) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said on Sunday.
2 activists, 1 media man killed in 3 hours (tags)
THE latest wave of activist and media killings on Monday hit three regions, including Metro Manila, within a span of three hours, claiming three lives. The first killing happened about 6 a.m. at a bus terminal in Zone 2, Bulan town in Sorsogon, where Rei Mon Guran, a 21-year-old 2nd-year political science student was gunned down. Guran was the local spokesman for the League of Filipino Students and a student of Aquinas University of Legazpi City. In the Cordillera region, the Bayanmuna Kalinga chapter chairman, Dr. Constancio Claver, and his wife Alice Claver, a coordinator for the same group, were ambushed about 7 a.m. Monday by heavily armed men in a black Delica van. The attack killed Claver’s wife, who died while undergoing treatment at the Kalinga Provincial Hospital. She suffered bullet wounds in the head and neck. In Metro Manila Tanod tabloid photojournalist Vic Melendres was gunned down about 8:45 a.m. near his home inside the Gozun Compound in Letre, Malabon, while on his way to work.