Views from the columnists

   

Underhanded
FRONTLINE By Ninez Cacho-Olivares

When Andal Ampatuan Jr., the prime suspect in the Maguindanao massacre wore an orange band, the yellow media were quick to spot that and portrayed it negatively as an Ampatuan endorsement of the Nacionalista bet, Manny Villar, and just as quickly featured a comment made by Esmael Mangudadatu that Villar’s wife had met with Andal Sr. in Davao seeking the Ampatuan’s endorsement.

Even more quickly, there went Noynoy Aquino and his spokesman, Edwin Lacierda, tying up the Ampatuan endorsement of Villar his being Gloria Arroyo’s secret anointed.

Click Ninez Cacho-Olivares

Last straw
THERE’S THE RUB By Conrado de Quiros

“THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE IS SUPPOSED to be the sword and shield of law and order. We are deeply concerned that the resolution will all the more convince a long skeptical public that our criminal justice system is impotent when the accused are politically influential.”

The person who said this is not a member of the opposition, he is a member of the human race. He is opposed only to something that defiles our last vestige of humanity. He is also a member of the government’s prosecution service, specifically its head. He is Chief State Prosecutor Claro Arellano who led a walkout of state prosecutors to protest his boss Acting Justice Secretary Alberto Agra’s decision to drop the murder charges against Zaldy Ampatuan and company.

Click Conrado de Quiros

‘Stagnant status quo’ in Luisita
POLITICAL TIDBITS By Belinda Olivares-Cunanan

One of the most authoritative sources on Luisita is a GMA News.TV series written by Stephanie Dychiu and posted on the Internet on Jan. 20 this year. Its records indicate that Luisita was acquired from the Spanish group Tabacalera Inc., by the family of Jose Cojuangco Sr., Noynoy’s grandfather, in 1957, through a P5.9 million loan from the GSIS. To enable them to acquire its sister corporation, Central Azucarera de Tarlac, the Central Bank had to deposit part of the country’s international reserves with Manufacturer’s Trust Company in New York, from whom the family borrowed a 10-year $2.1 million loan. These instances showed the clout that rising political leader Ninoy Aquino, who had married Cojuangco daughter Cory, had with his ninong, President Ramon Magsaysay. RM and his successor, President Carlos P. Garcia, however, made it a condition for loan assistance that the Cojuangcos distribute its 6,435 hectares to bona fide sugar planters within 10 years, in accordance with land reform, and to barrio residents who were to pay in installments.

Click Belinda Olivares Cunanan

Is Zaldy Ampatuan’s release connected to ‘Villarroyo’?
AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR By William M. Esposo

Something wonderful happened in our country last Monday.

Led by Chief State Prosecutor Claro Arellano, the Department of Justice (DoJ) prosecutors stepped out of their offices and delivered a strong denouncement of Justice Secretary Alberto Agra’s dropping of the murder charges against ARMM (Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao) Governor Zaldy Ampatuan and Mayor Akmad Ampatuan.

Click William Esposo

A place called Savannah
By LITO BANAYO

I DO not know if you have come across a well-researched video documentary in the Net about a place called Savannah. It was put together through the efforts of Manuel Mejorada of Iloilo. This article is really Boy Mejorada’s work.

Boy shows how Manny Villar, through his Crown Communities, Inc., violated the law, circumvented regulations, sabotaged the country’s food security program, and undermined the agrarian reform program. It also shows that Villar, contrary to his claim that he will lift the poor from poverty, displaced farmer-beneficiaries of land reform from their only means of livelihood and caused them to drown in a sea of misery.

via LITO BANAYO.

Andal Jr. for Manny, er, Noynoy?
By DUCKY PAREDES

THE Arroyo administration must think so lowly of Pinoys that they actually think that they can pull the wool over everyone’s eyes. How else can one explain that in the same press conference where Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. says that he is innocent of the mass murder of close to 60 persons, he, also, by the way, announced (without anyone asking him) that he is fully endorsing the candidacies of Senator Noynoy Aquino III for President, Senator Mar Roxas for vice president and, and Risa Hontiveros for senator.

Click Ducky Paredes

Silence means consent
THE LONG VIEW By Manuel L. Quezon III

JUSTICE SECRETARY ALBERTO AGRA MAY HAVE calculated that after an initial outburst, the public would eventually turn its attention to things other than his letting off the hook two high officials from the Ampatuan clan, Zaldy and Akmad. After all, when rebellion charges against members of the clan were dismissed (showing how flimsy and indeed, purely tactical, the rebellion-as-justification for martial law in Maguindanao was) hardly anyone expressed surprise—or even dismay. Perhaps the Palace interpreted this as a sign of waning public interest in the Ampatuan Massacre.

Timing is everything in politics, which is why the Palace likes to release bad news—or engage in controversial acts—on weekends, when most people aren’t really tuned into the news. It is why the Palace had to let ARMM Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan off the hook, now, when its various candidates need all the help they can get, and not, say, after May 10.

Click Manolo Quezon