1. BALIKATAN EXERCISES/ ABU
SAYYAF/ MILF/NPA/AL-QAEDA
(Tribune, Page 1)
Former Armed Forces Chief of Staff
and now Sen. Rodolfo Biazon is not buying the explanation of Malacañang and the
military that the additional American troops whom the US government plans to
send to the Philippines would only be engaged in civic and social work.
..Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Gilbert Remulla also yesterday accused
the United States government of going against protocol by bypassing Foreign
Affairs Secretary Teofisto Guingona in connection with its request to deploy
additional troops in the country. Remulla said the request of the United States
was coursed through Malacañang, not through the Department of Foreign Affairs,
which is supposed to handle matters concerning the Balikatan exercises.
“Guingona is apparently being kept in the dark on matters concerning the
Balikatan 02-1 exercise,” the Cavite lawmaker said. Remulla charged that
Malacañang knows more about the plans of the United States than the DFA.
BALIKATAN TO BE EXPANDED (Today, Page 1) Unfazed by
criticisms from antiwar forces, the United States
is set to further expand the military exercises in the Asian region by
pooling military troops from 13 states to participate in the biggest war games
to be launched next month…At the house of Representatives, Laban Rep.
Gilbert Remulla of Cavite asked Vice-President and Foreign Affairs Secretary
Teofisto Guingona Jr. to ask President Arroyo to clarify his role in the
government. US EMBASSY DENIES TROOP REINFORCEMENT (Manila Standard,
Page 1) The United States embassy in the Philippines belied rumors it
has asked for the deployment of additional troops in the Philippines….Cavite
Rep. Gilbert Remulla questioned Vice-President and Foreign Affairs Secretary
Teofisto Guingona’s silence.
Macapagal sees nothing unusual in more US troops (Inquirer, Page 1) PRESIDENT Macapagal-Arroyo
on Monday said she saw nothing unusual in the requested deployment in Basilan of
additional American soldiers for the RP-US Balikatan 02-1. While pointing out
that the supposed request from the United States had yet to reach her desk, the
President said the deployment of 300 more US troops would be covered by "a
continuing arrangement" under the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement.
Mindanao wants more US troops (Manila Times, Page 1 )
Mindanao residents want to beef up
the US contingent in the Balikatan war games, defense and military officials
said yesterday. In an interview with reporters, Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes
admitted he and Balikatan co-directors, Brig. Gen. Emmanuel Teodosio and Brig.
Gen. Donald Wurster, were studying whether the addition of a battalion of
engineering troops, around 300 men, would violate the Terms of Reference
governing the exercises.
Slay plot on GIs uncovered
(Philippine Star, Banner)
Authorities tightened security in
Mindanao as the military uncovered plots to assassinate American soldiers
participating in an anti-terrorist training exercise with their Filipino
counterparts in Zamboanga City and nearby Basilan island. Lt. Gen. Roy Cimatu,
chief of the military’s Southern Command (Southcom) based in Zamboanga City,
met with officials of the joint exercise dubbed Balikatan 02-1, and discussed
security precautions to thwart any terrorist attacks on US forces.
(Philippine Star, Page 1)
President Arroyo rejected yesterday
a Lenten truce with the New People’s Army (NPA), but said the government had
already signed a ceasefire agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation front (MILF).
Speaking in her weekly radio program "Panawagan ng Pangulo" yesterday,
Mrs. Arroyo said the government does not deal with terrorist groups like the NPA.
"That is true because if we look at the situation right now all over the
world, isn’t it that the NPA has been declared as a terrorist group?" she
asked. ..Meanwhile, the MILF has posted on the Internet through its website,
www.morojihad.com, the vision of its leader, Hashim Salamat to regain the rights
of the Bangsamoro people to self-determination and to establish an Islamic state
in Mindanao. "(Salamat) is a strict abider of the Holy Qu’ran and Sunnah
of the Prophet, one of his visions is to regain the usurped Bangsamoro’s
rights to self-determination and to establish Islamic rule in the area,"
read a part of the message.
(Malaya, Page 1 )
Visiting FBI Director Robert
Mueller III yesterday said there was no indication of al Qaeda cells operating
in the Philippines and the United States wants to keep it that way.Mueller,
accompanied by US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone, briefed President Arroyo,
National Security Adviser Roilo Golez and presidential spokesperson Rigoberto
Tiglao on the US-led international campaign against global terrorism.Al-Qaeda
out to get nukes, US warns (Inquirer, Page 1) THE
UNITED States has alerted its allies to watch out for attempts by Osama bin
Laden's al-Qaeda network to produce weapons of mass destruction, the visiting US
Federal Bureau of Investigation director told reporters Monday. Robert Mueller
raised the concern in talks with President Macapagal-Arroyo and other officials.
He said evidence gathered in Afghanistan showed without doubt that the
Saudi-born Bin Laden and the al-Qaeda were trying to obtain biological, chemical
and nuclear weapons. RP bids to be FBI
Asian anti-terror hub (Manila Times, Page 1) THE
Philippines is offering to be the Asian base of operations of the US Fe-deral
Bureau of Investigation in the fight against terrorism. Justice Secretary
Hernando Perez yesterday said it was President Gloria Arroyo who wanted FBI
agents stationed in the country for anti-terrorism activities. Federal
agents to train Filipinos in intelligence work (Tribune, Page
1) onths after the Philippine government formally accepted
foreign military assistance under the guise of the Balikatan exercises, the
Arroyo administration has again received another round of support from the
United States, this time in the form of technical aid supposedly aimed at
strengthening the intelligence and judicial forces in the country. President
Arroyo’s acceptance of technical assistance from the US was sealed during her
luncheon meeting with Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert
Mueller in Malacañang yesterday. Mueller, according to National Security
Adviser Roilo Golez, is completing his world tour in connection with the United
States’ non-stop campaign against global terrorism.
(Manila Times, Banner)
ZAMBOANGA CITY — China and North
Korea are funding leftwing groups and mujahideen in Mindanao, a development
which could prompt the United States to widen the scope of the war games going
on in this city and Basilan. The expansion of Balikatan could in turn lead to an
all-out war in the Mindanao mainland, according to the analyst, Daniel Crawford.
Interviewed by The Manila Times, Crawford warned Philippine officials to “take
very seriously the alliance between communist and Moro rebels.”
(Manila Times, Page 2 )
ZAMBOANGA CITY — Even as Central
Mindanao officials brace for the possible outbreak of war on the mainland, the
Armed Forces is forging on with the planned “rehabilitation” of Camp
Abubakar, the sprawling former headquarters of the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front.
(Manila Times, Page 2 )
ZAMBOANGA CITY — Philippine and
US troops here are banking on the Vietnam War-era “hearts and minds”
strategy to make inroads into the Abu Sayyaf’s control of Basilan, where
rebels have run rings around 6,000-strong Armed Forces for nine months now. For
that to work, however, officials have to clamp down on the rebels’ go-vernment
contacts. Assets and donors play a key role in letting guerrillas skirt a
military cordon and dodge US troops and high-tech equipment.
(Philippine Star, Page 1 )
Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) Director Robert Mueller III said the US government is ready to extradite
to the Philippines Charlie "Atong" Ang and Yolanda Ricaforte, two of
ousted President Joseph Estrada’s co-accused in his plunder case at the
Sandiganbayan. Speaking to reporters at the US Embassy’s Seafront Restaurant
in Pasay City yesterday, Mueller said Ang and Ricaforte must be returned to the
country to face the charges filed against them in court. "We assure (Ang
and Ricaforte) will be rendered back to the Philippines," he said.
"Those who break the law should be brought to justice swiftly."
PNP
bars Estrada lawyers from visits;As Estrada blasts Jaime Sin for meddling in
government
(Tribune, Banner)
The security detail assigned to
guard deposed President Joseph Estrada yesterday barred his legal advisers and
media spokesmen from entering the detention premises and holding consultations
with Estrada, saying the security force at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center
has been ordered by Philippine National Police chief Leandro Mendoza not to
allow any lawyers, except those from the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), from
meeting and consulting with Estrada. Estrada, however, has already rejected the
PAO lawyers as well as the other court-appointed lawyers. Partido ng Masang
Pilipino spokesman lawyer Jesus Crispin Remulla, who also serves as an informal
legal adviser to Estrada, was barred from visiting Estrada yesterday.
(Philippine Star, Page 1 )
Erap says
high court turned into a political tool
(Malaya, Page 1)
Deposed President Joseph Estrada
has continued his assault on the Supreme Court (SC), accusing its members of
converting the tribunal into a political tool of the Arroyo administration.
Estrada claimed the first sign that the Supreme Court was playing politics was
when 12 of its magistrates went to EDSA on Jan. 20, 2001 and, in the company of
those demanding his ouster, proclaimed then Vice President Gloria Arroyo as new
president. "The justices’ trip to EDSA was a clear manifestation of their
political bias for Mrs. Arroyo," Estrada said.
(Philippine Star, Page 1 )
THE SOONER the poor stop dwelling
on the issue of Joseph Estrada, the faster will the country get out of the rut,
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said Monday in her weekly, nationally
broadcast radio interview. The President said progress would be attained much
easier if the poor would let "the laws and the courts" and "not
emotion or politics" rule in the resolution of Estrada's trial for plunder
and other crimes before the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court.
Court-named
lawyer seeks release of Erap ;Cites faults in the judicial system
(Malaya, Banner)
Rodolfo Jimenez, one of nine
court-appointed counsels for former President Joseph Estrada, yesterday called
for the release of the ousted leader pending rectification of what he said were
"faults" in the judicial system.Jimenez, in a seven-page motion,
questioned the legality and propriety of the designation by the Sandiganbayan
Special Division of four lawyers from the Public Attorney's Office (PAO) to
represent Estrada.The PAO, he noted, was under the Department of Justice, the
prosecuting arm of the state."To allow the appointment of PAO lawyers as
counsel de oficio for President Estrada would result in an anomalous and
scandalous spectacle of said president being defended by instrumentalities of
the very department of the state whose task is to send the accused to jail. With
all due respect, counsel would have no part in such a travesty,"Jimenez
said.
(Philippine Star,Page 2 )
Sen. Tessie Aquino-Oreta urged
feuding officials of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday to get
their act together so as not to disenfranchise young voters in the Sangguniang
Kabataan elections on July 15. Oreta pressed for the improvement of the working
relations of the Comelec officials after the poll body failed to get the needed
majority vote for the holding of a special registration for youths 15 to 18
years old.
(Inquirer, Page 2 )
(Manila Standard, Page 1)
(Malaya, Page 1)
IN THE END, the President stuck by
her men. The embattled Commission on Elections chair, Alfredo Benipayo, and two
other commissioners were re-appointed Monday, ending speculations that the
President would drop them to end the impasse in the poll body. The congressional
Commission on Appointments did not confirm the appointments of Benipayo,
Resurreccion Borra and Florentino Tuason – all Macapagal appointees –
ostensibly because of the infighting at the Comelec. Gloria reappoints CA rejects
(Tribune, Page 1 ) Never say die. This seems to be the
battlecry President Arroyo has adopted, specifically for five of her appointees
who until now are having a hard time passing the scrutiny of the powerful
Commission on Appointments (CA). The Chief Executive, in her weekly Monday radio
interview, disclosed her decision to reappoint two of her Cabinet members and
the three Commission on Elections (Comelec) officials, hoping the next time they
face the CA members they would finally succeed in bagging their confirmation.
4. THER TOP STORIES
(Inquirer, Banner )
FBI DEMAND MARK JIMENEZ'S HEAD
(Tribune, PAge 1)
THE HEAD of the US Federal Bureau
of Investigation, who arrived Sunday for an overnight visit, met Monday with
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and other officials to brief them on the
US-led global war on terrorism — and to press for extradition of Manila
Representative Mark Jimenez, who was indicted in Florida in 1999 for tax
evasion, mail fraud, and illegal contributions to the Democratic Party. "We
want Mr. Jimenez extradited expeditiously back to the US to face charges. The
extradition of Mr. Jimenez is important to us," FBI director Robert Mueller
told newsmen.
(Philippine Star, Page 7)
President Arroyo has ordered the
Philippine ambassador in Malaysia, Romeo Brillantes, to put up a temporary
"consular mission" in Sabah to take care of the gradual repatriation
of some 30,000 Filipinos being deported by Malaysian authorities as illegal
aliens. Mrs. Arroyo revealed yesterday she had been reassured by the Malaysian
government headed by Prime Minister Dr. Mohammad Mahatir that the subjects of
the ongoing deportation drive in Sabah were not overseas Filipino workers (OFWs)
who have the proper documents to work in Malaysia.
(Philippine Star, Page 6 )
DFA admits
'serious shortage' of passports
(Inquirer, Page1 )
The Department of Foreign Affairs
said yesterday the consulates in San Francisco and Los Angeles in California and
Hong Kong are experiencing a shortage in blank passport booklets, a predicament
suffered also by the Philippine Embassy in Saudi Arabia and the home office.
Foreign Affairs department spokesman Victoriano Lecaros said the home office has
asked embassies and consulates abroad the number of blank passports they have
received to determine the real situation.
(Philippine Star, Page3 )
The days of riding jeepneys and taxis will soon be over for
new Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) chairman Dario Rama. Rama said he
could no longer keep on riding jeepneys to work because this does not befit his
new office. "I have asked Malacañang to give at least a Toyota Revo for
each of the PAGC commissioners," he said. Graft buster can't afford a cell
phone (Inquirer, Page 3 )
THE GOVERNMENT'S new chief graft
buster cannot affor to buy a cellular phone, much less a car. Dario Rama, 62, a
former Commission on Elections commissioner, took a taxi to Malacañang Monday
for his swearing-in as chair of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission. Antonio
Bernardo, a former finance undersecretary, was also sworn in as Bureau of
Customs commissioner.
Arroyo
misled public in claims of land titles, completion of QC market
(Tribune, Page 1 )
President Arroyo has misled the
public when she announced that her administration was responsible for the
completion of the Commonwealth Market Mall (CMM) in Quezon City. She has also
been accused of having handed out to urban poor folk pieces of real estate that
do not belong to government, making them fake certificates. According to city
administrator Neil Lina, a private firm had funded the construction of the
market place and that it had been finished during the term of former Mayor
Ismael Mathay Jr.
(Tribune, Page 1 )
The four charges already filed
against those suspected of manipulating the price of BW Resources stocks more
than two years ago do not spell the end of the government’s probe on the
controversial scam. In fact, the government is still looking deeper into the
case to see if they can charge suspected stock manipulators with syndicated
estafa, a non-bailable offense. Assistant Chief State prosecutor Nilo Mariano,
who heads a five-man panel investigating the scam, said they are just waiting
for more evidence from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) before
filing a syndicated estafa charge against alleged stock manipulators, including
BW Resources principals and their accomplices.
(Philippine Star, Page7 )
Heady with praise from
international organizations, Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit reported that the
government posted a 101.7 percent immunization rate in the second round of the
Balik Patak Kontra Polio conducted last Mar. 2 to 8. "We are happy with the
results. It showed that we did things better in the second round," Dayrit
told Department of Health officials during a post-immunization meeting at the
Grand Boulevard Hotel in Manila yesterday.
(Malaya, Page 2)
The Commission on Audit (COA) unit
at the Department of Education is asking Secretary Raul Roco to justify a
P93,000 expenditure for a survey last year.Donelo Sescon, COA resident auditor,
asked Roco how the survey done by Pulse Asia Inc. "could have a bearing on
the official function of the Agency and its being beneficial to public
interest." Pending receipt of the justification, payment to Pulse Asia Inc.
of its P92,727.27 fee has been suspended. Deadline
nears for DepEd chief's new curriculum (Inquirer,Page 9 )
THE DEPARTMENT of Education is trying to beat a self-imposed June 2002 deadline
to train all 400,000 public school teachers so they could teach the
controversial "Basic Education Curriculum," which had been revised to
include only five learning areas: Filipino, English, science, mathematics and
Makabayan. Ironically, no public school teacher has yet been reached by the
training, as the DepEd had so far trained only the 16 regional directors and
their assistant directors, 145 superintendents and assistant superintendents.
(Inquirer, Page 1 )
THE SANDIGANBAYAN has forfeited in
favor of the government the shares owned by businessman Eduardo "Danding"
Cojuangco Jr. in the Manila Bulletin, which it declared part of the "Marcos
ill-gotten wealth." In its March 14 decision, the anti-graft court's fourth
division said the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) was the
"legal owner" of the shares. The PCGG has been contesting the
ownership of the shares in a civil case since 1987.
(Inquirer, Page2 )
IT'S final – former President
Fidel Ramos isn't running in 2004. And this is because his wife, the amiable
former first lady Amelita "Ming" Ramos, said so, according to Mr.
Ramos, who celebrated his 74th birthday Monday. "The final disapproval came
from Mrs. Ramos," said the former chief executive in jest, during a
nationally broadcast radio interview with President Macapagal-Arroyo.
President names another media aide
(Inquirer, Page 1 )
THERE is yet another layer on top
of the President's official and not-so-official media group: spokesperson
Rigoberto Tiglao, Press Secretary Noel Cabrera, Undersecretaries Bobby Capco,
Manuel Sanchez and Carmen Suva, and the President's "personal
publicist," Dante Ang. On Monday, President Macapagal-Arroyo created a new
media position – presidential assistant on media and ecclesiastical affairs
– for Conrado "Dodi" Limcaoco.