By Ducky Paredes
Malaya
Malaya
OBVIOUSLY, Vice President Jejomar Binay is still obsessed with his rival for the post of vice president he defeated in the 2010 elections. Binay agrees with the NPA’s Ka Jared that Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas missed an opportunity to see the real situation in Surigao del Notte when Roxas did not personally pick up the four police officers kidnapped and released by the New People’s Army in Barangay Hinimbangan.
Instead of entering Hinimbangan, Roxas waited in Kitcharao town, with PNP chief Alan Purisima, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, presidential peace adviser Teresita Deles and other officials of the GRP for the abducted police officers..
Ka Jared, the leader of the NPA guerrillas who released the police officers, said Roxas missed the chance to see the real situation of the residents, particularly the bad roads and the lack of healthcare, classrooms, and livelihood opportunities.
“Secretary Roxas was expected to be in Barangay Hinimbangan for the turnover of POWs (prisoners of war) but he’s nowhere to be found. We learned he was just waiting at Kitcharao Central Elementary School. If only he was here, he could have seen personally for himself the situation of the people here,” Ka Jared said. Or Ka Jared could have captured a defenseless cabinet secretary who would have been foolish enough to trust them
Barangay Hinimbangan is seven kilometers from Kitcharao Central Elementary School where Mar and the other officials waited for the abducted policemen to be bought out by the negotiators.
Roxas saw that it was too risky for him as a responsible cabinet official to meet the rebels in Hinimbangan especially when no policeman or soldier was allowed to escort the negotiators who took custody of the policemen from the rebels.
I am glad that Mar Roxas had the good sense to avoid being abducted and held for ransom by the enemy for doing a foolish and foolhardy stunt as Binay wished on him.
Binay was in Surigao at the same time as Roxas was. Binay giving out land titles to the landless, very far from Hinimbangan.
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A top Abu Sayyaf Group leader tagged in several bomb attacks was arrested by joint intelligence forces of the military and police in Parañaque City last week..
Khair Mundos, ASG financier and allegedly the middleman in the rebel group’s transaction with Al Qaeda terrorist network, was caught by the authorities at a house on A. Bonifacio street, Barangay San Dionisio.
Mundos was arrested after two months of surveillance by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and the Intelligence Security Forces of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP).
Police Director Benjamin Magalong, CIDG chief, said an arrest warrant was served on Mundos, 50, for multiple murder, multiple frustrated and multiple attempted murder charges.
Magalong said Mundos escaped from the Kidapawan Provincial Jail in 2007, rescued by his fellow ASG members.
Aside from the CIDG’s reward of P1.2 million in exchange of any information leading to his arrest, the Justice Department of the United States also had a bounty of $500,000 on Mundos.
Mundos will be temporarily detained at the National Capital Region CIDG headquarters in Camp Crame.
Police will bring Mundos to the court of origin in Kidapawan to return his arrest warrant.
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Hopefully, no one in Malacañang is seriously listening to calls to extend the term of President Benigno Aquino III. This cannot happen unless one throws the Constitution out the window.
Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda, a lawyer, apparently thinks they can still do this despite the clear constitutional provision against term extension or any re-election of a president.
Apparently, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas wishes that the President had a longer term. Atty. Lacierda says that “the President listens to the voice of his bosses (the people).”
“May mga sariling opinion may ibang nagsasabi ipagpatuloy. Kung ako ang tatanungin…the president is sensitive to the voice of his boss. So let’s just wait for that. ” The Attorney is talking silly. the only way a President can continue in office after his term is if he runs for vice president and kills the president or he conveniently dies or resigns. There is n o other way.
Lacierda said the calls for an additional or longer term were reflective of the performance of the administration.
“We’re very thankful of the support and expression of preference for another term. Maraming salamat po sa mga ganung klaseng sentimyento.
“And it is not only now…It has been ongoing because of the profound changes that have happened under this administration.».
Atty. Lacierda notes that the President has yet to consider a second term. Wrong. There is nothing to consider or discuss, The President has only one term. Period!
He also pointed out that the President had already expressed his position on charter change – that he has yet to be convinced that a change is needed.
Communication Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. on the other hand knows this. He says: “Unang-una po ay malinaw ang sinasabi sa ating Konstitusyon na ang bawat halal na Pangulo ay mayroon lamang iisang anim na taon na termino.
Kaya kahit na ano man po ang sabihin nila, ang Saligang Batas po natin ang iiral hinggil diyan.”
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