CBCP asks Filipino faithful for an act of mercy a day as PHL waits for Pope

 News
Jul 072014
 
CBCP asks Filipino faithful for an act of mercy a day as PHL waits for Pope

CBCP confirms Pope Francis’ visit in 2015. At the CBCP office in Manila on Monday, July 7, Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas (left), Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle (center) and Pasig Bishop Mylo Vergara brief members of the press on the planned visit of Pope Francis to the Philippines in January 2015. Pope Francis will visit the victims of Typhoon Yolanda in the Visayas. AFP/Jay Directo The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines on Monday called on the Filipino faithful to make one act of mercy each day to prepare for the visit of Pope Francis in early 2015. CBCP president and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas also encouraged priests to make themselves more available for the Sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession. “We encourage you our dear people to resolve to make an act of mercy every day,” Villegas said in a pastoral letter.  “When the Pope comes, he will bring with him the message of the mercy and compassion of God.  When he meets us, may he see in us a people touched by the mercy of God, living out the compassion of God, a people truly rich in mercy and compassion and grateful to those who have shown mercy to us especially after various calamities hit our country,” Villegas added. He said people can reach out to a lonely stranger, tell the story of Jesus to a child eager to understand and feel the love of God, advise a confused co-worker or “forgive someone who has wronged you.” Villegas Read More …

CBCP to issue no statement on Aquino’s impeachment over DAP

 News
Jul 072014
 
CBCP to issue no statement on Aquino’s impeachment over DAP

CBCP confirms Pope Francis’ visit in 2015. At the CBCP office in Manila on Monday, July 7, Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas (left), Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle (center) and Pasig Bishop Mylo Vergara brief members of the press on the planned visit of Pope Francis to the Philippines in January 2015. Pope Francis will visit the victims of Typhoon Yolanda in the Visayas. AFP/Jay Directo The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines won’t issue a statement as regards the impeachment proceedings against President Benigno Aquino III over the Disbursement Acceleration Program, parts of which have been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, the president of the CBCP, instead called on lawmakers to discern how to deal with the impeachment complaints filed against the Chief Executive. “With regards to the impeachment, let us return to our roles as bishops. As bishops, we are not social and political troublemakers. We are conscience trouble makers. So it is for us to form consciences so that political and social decisions will be made from the point of view of ethics and morality,” Villegas said on Monday. Villegas said it would be good for politicians to base their decisions on ethics and morality. “To answer the question, I will ask you: Will an impeachment process be helpful for the Philippines right now? Will an impeachment process be helpful in alleviating the situation of the poor right now? Will it contribute to reaching out to the children and to the youth Read More …

Janet Napoles asks CBCP to take her into custody

 News
Jul 072014
 
Janet Napoles asks CBCP to take her into custody

CBCP confirms Pope Francis’ visit in 2015. At the CBCP office in Manila on Monday, July 7, Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas (left), Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle (center) and Pasig Bishop Mylo Vergara brief members of the press on the planned visit of Pope Francis to the Philippines in January 2015. Pope Francis will visit the victims of Typhoon Yolanda in the Visayas. AFP/Jay Directo Alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles wants the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines to take her into custody, GMA News’ Balita Pilipinas said on Monday. According to the newscast, Napoles wrote a letter to the CBCP to make her appeal but the latter has yet to respond. Napoles’ lawyer Stephen David said his client believed that she would be safer with the clergy. Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, the president of the CBCP visited Napoles when she was confined at the Ospital ng Makati.  He did so upon the invitation of Napoles’ relatives.  Villegas asked Napoles to tell the whole truth as regards the scam. “The family of Mrs. Janet Napoles requested for prayers and blessings for fast recovery. As a priest I went there,” Villegas said. But the prelate said he reminded her that “the blessing [would] only give healing if she [told] the whole truth without being selective.” The businesswoman was known to be close to religious people as she held masses at her office in Discovery Suites and during special occassions at the mausoleum of her mother Magdalena Luy Read More …

DAP petitioners seek special audit, return of misused funds

 General
Jul 072014
 
DAP petitioners seek special audit, return of misused funds

Critics of the Aquino administration’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) on Monday urged the Commission on Audit (COA) to conduct a special audit on the controversial discretionary fund, which has been declared partly unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. At the same time, they also asked the COA to issue notices of disallowances so the funds found to have been illegally used could be returned to government coffers. According to the group, the notices of disallowance should put “priority on cross-border transfer of funds committed by the Executive branch.” The group is composed of Integrated Bar of the Philippines Executive Vice President Rose Reyes; IBP executive director Alice Vidal; Dante Jimenez and Bobot Dinio of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption; Jose Malvar Villegas; Bishop Reuben Abante, secretary general of “Biblemode; Greco Belgica; and lawyer Manuelito Luna. Last week, the high court sitting en banc had granted their earlier plea and declared some “acts and practices” under the DAP, National Budget Circular No. 541 that authorized DAP, and related issuances, as unconstitutional. “We call on the COA to immediately conduct a special audit on how the DAP funds were disbursed through the specific acts and practices cited as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court,” according to the group’s latest petition. The group said the report that would come out of the COA special report should be made public, similar to what has been done with its report on the Priority Development Assistance Fund or pork barrel funds last year. “Without such COA report, Read More …

PCG officer in Balintang shooting pleads not guilty

 News
Jul 072014
 
PCG officer in Balintang shooting pleads not guilty

By Tetch Torres-Tupas |INQUIRER.net 6:20 pm | Monday, July 7th, 2014 AFP FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines—A commanding officer of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Monday pleaded not guilty to the crime of homicide for the death of a Taiwanese fisherman in Balintang Channel in May last year. PCG Commanding Officer Arnold Enriquez dela Cruz pleaded not guilty to the killing of fisherman Hung Shih-cheng at the Batanes Regional Trial Court Branch 13. The court has set the preliminary conference of De la Cruz’s case on September 1 and 2 while his pre-trial has been scheduled to October 6 and 7, according to Asst. State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera. The court, however, deferred the arraignment of Cruz’ co-accused Seamen 1st Class (SN1) Edrando Aguila, Mhelvin Bendo II, Andy Golfo, Sunny Masangcay and Henry Solomon; SN2 Nicky Aurello; and Petty Officer 2 Richard Fernandez Corpuz due to their pending petition for review at the Department of Justice (DOJ) and a petition for a change of venue before the Supreme Court. Atty. Rodrigo Moreno said under the rules, there is an automatic suspension of the proceedings for 60 days if there is a pending motion. Last year, the PCG personnel were on board a vessel of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, patrolling off the coast of Balintang island when they intercepted the Taiwanese fishing vessel allegedly poaching. After a brief sea chase, they fired at the fishing vessel, killing the Taiwanese fisherman. The incident sparked tension between the Philippines and Taiwan. RELATED STORIES Read More …

China’s new territorial law could spell disaster – analyst

 News
Jul 072014
 
China’s new territorial law could spell disaster – analyst

MANILA, Philippines – China’s new territorial law could mean disaster if it is implemented in the encompassed territories in the nation’s nine-dash line. Defense analyst Rommel Banlaoi said that if China chooses to implement their new law in their claimed areas inside the dotted lines, which covers 80 percent of the South China Sea, the nation could use its military in enforcing the law. “It’s problematic since there are so many claimants in the disputed areas that the nine-dash line has surrounded,” Banlaoi said Monday at Camp Aguinaldo. According to a report from the South China Morning Post, China can use military force in its coastal territories near Hainan province where they suspect tourism facilities set up in the area are used for spying purposes. SCMP added the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress has enacted the Law of People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Military Installations, which would be implemented on August 1. Countries like the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Malaysia also lay claim to territories in the South China Sea. Banlaoi added the new law is to strengthen a previous one, of the same name, which was implemented in 1990. “With those small steps, it could really alter the status quo in the South China Sea,” Banlaoi said. Also, if Beijing implements the law in the South China Sea and the tension there escalates to military actions, not only would it affect the claimant-countries, it would also dent the “whole world.” “That’s the epicenter of Read More …

Gov’t, MILF to tackle Bangsamoro law in Malaysia

 General
Jul 072014
 
Gov’t, MILF to tackle Bangsamoro law in Malaysia

GPH panel chair Miriam Coronel-Ferrer. AFP FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines — With the filing of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) before Congress stalled, the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will meet again in Malaysia to discuss problems faced during Malacañang’s ongoing review. Government peace panel chairperson Miriam Coronel-Ferrer on Monday announced that the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) voted to elevate the matter to the peace panels “for clarification, discussion and resolution of issues that may have been affected by the proposed revisions in the proposed BBL.” “Together with the MILF Panel, Malaysian Facilitator Tengku Ghafar and the members of the International Contact Group, we will be meeting in Kuala Lumpur this week in a workshop that would thresh out the various substantive matters that have arisen from the BTC submission and the subsequent OP (Office of the President) review,” Ferrer said in a statement. She assured the public that there is “no backtracking on either side.” “If we are going through this difficulty now, it is because we want the next stages to be less difficult not only between the government and the MILF, but among all the institutions and actors that will be or have been playing a role in the process,” Ferrer added. The BBL, drafted by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, is supposed to pave the way for the creation of the Bangsamoro political entity, which will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). It was submitted to Malacañang on April 14 and Read More …

Evil genius? Palace brushes aside Joker’s tag on PNoy govt

 News
Jul 072014
 
Evil genius? Palace brushes aside Joker’s tag on PNoy govt

Malacañang on Monday brushed aside former Senator Joker Arroyo’s accusation that the disbursement acceleration program (DAP) showed how the Aquino administration is an “evil genius.” “With all due respect, we do not wish to dignify comments from Senator Arroyo,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said during a press briefing. Lacierda also shrugged off Arroyo’s dare to Aquino to discuss the DAP in his upcoming State of the Nation Address (SONA). “The President will choose to say what he wants to say in [the] SONA. Let’s just wait for the SONA,” the President’s spokesman said. In a radio interview on Sunday, Arroyo called the Aquino administration an “evil genius” for releasing DAP funds to agencies and lawmakers without authority to spend from Congress. Last Tuesday, the Supreme Court (SC) declared certain acts under the government’s DAP as unconstitutional, including the declaration of unobligated allotments as savings, the cross-border transfers of savings of the executive to other branches of government, and the funding of projects not stated in the national budget.    In September last year, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said P47 million in DAP funds were released to Arroyo’s office in 2013. Arroyo, however, denied receiving any allocations from the DAP.  In the radio interview, Arroyo also noted how past presidents, including President Aquino’s mom Corazon, never availed of the power to pool unused savings under the Administrative Code. Lacierda, however, maintained that this power is valid and legal. “The fact that one uses the law or not should not be a Read More …

Palace on DAP fiasco: Just a difference of opinion with SC

 News
Jul 072014
 
Palace on DAP fiasco: Just a difference of opinion with SC

President Benigno Aquino III didn’t receive bad advice from his legal advisers as regards his release of billons of pesos under the Disbursement Acceleration Program, parts of which the Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional, presidential spokesperson Secretary Edwin Lacierda told reporters on Monday. It just so happened that Malacañang had a difference of opinion with the Supreme Court as regards government savings, he added. “We have a divergence of opinions with the Supreme Court. We have our own way of looking at things. It just so happens…. This is not a question of whether you have a bad legal advice. It’s a question of the primacy of one institution over the other,” Lacierda said when asked if the Aquino received less than satisafactory legal advice from his advisers when DAP was conceptualized. “We have a number of cases that the Supreme Court has already found and agreed with us. There are other cases where the Supreme Court and the executive branch may differ. So it’s a question of how one looks at the law, not so much of whether the President has a bad legal team,” Lacierda said. Lacierda said the striking down of some of the President’s orders by the SC only shows “the primacy of one institution over the other.”  He said that while the executive branch was called upon to implement the country’s laws, the Suprfeme Court had the mandate to interpret said laws. He added that the administration could “showcase the positive effects” of the DAP. “The Read More …

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