Category: Someone Else’s Windows

MALAYBALAY CITY  (MindaNews/01 May) — Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales was right in advising NBN-ZTE deal whistleblower Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada to follow the rule of law in the perjury case filed against him by former Presidential Chief of Staff Mike Defensor. Except that such advice rings hollow and hypocritical in light of other cases to which he and other supposed guardians of the rule of law have had turned a deaf ear and a blind eye. There’s no need to repeat widely held perceptions that the perjury case against Lozada bears the marks of Gonzales’ boss in Malacanang all over it.

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/1 Apr) – Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, as expected, did not admit before an inquiry conducted by the Commission on Human Rights that the summary killings of at least 800 suspected criminals in his turf since 1998 were state-sponsored. He even vowed to resign if an “iota of evidence” that he, the police, the military, or any local official had a hand in these incidents could be presented. The mayor, in effect, challenged doubters – including the CHR – to put up or shut up.

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/12 March) – “I’m ready to become president,” declared Senator Loren Legarda in a 30-minute press conference here on Tuesday. But, as she has been telling media on other occasions, she would announce her candidacy at the right time, whatever that means. 

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/07 February) — Media outlets in Bukidnon have aired Gov. Jose Ma.. R. Zubiri Jr.'s plan to run for vice governor in 2010.

Now on his third term, the former congressman and father of Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri is not about to hang his jersey and sit on the political equivalent of a bench. And with the rout of the Acosta family in the 2007 elections, nothing seems to stand along his way and that of his chosen successor, Vice Governor Alex Calingasan.

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/8 Jan) – Ours is one country prone to knee-jerk reactions every time the media set their eyes on issues that cast doubts on the efficacy of the system to address the same. The worse part is that such reactions often fail – or refuse – to hit the proverbial nail in the head. Take the case of the highly publicized drug case involving the “Alabang Boys” – Richard Brodett, Jorge Joseph, and Joseph Tecson – which has implicated some Department of Justice prosecutors as having had a hand in an alleged attempt to have the case dismissed. Reports of a multi-million-peso bribe offered to investigators and prosecutors also came out.

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/19 February) — How low would Malacañang stoop  just to garner majorities in the House and Senate in the midterm elections? Its choice of candidates for both chambers of Congress suggests a desperate bid to win the numbers game.

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/31 January) — The public is yet to see the full text of the report of the Melo Commission which was tasked to investigate the unabated extrajudicial killings of militant activists under the Arroyo administration. But based on its major findings made known to the media the Malacañang-created probe body is setting the stage for an eventual whitewash.