Date taken : 11-14-2011
The TRUTH will set you FREE.
Saturday, January 6, 2007
Friday, January 5, 2007
Thursday, January 4, 2007
SCARIER
Theres The Rub
Scarier
By Conrado de Quiros
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:36:00 03/16/2011
Filed Under: Disasters (general), Nuclear power
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Antonio L. Buensuceso Jr.
Scarier
By Conrado de Quiros
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:36:00 03/16/2011
Filed Under: Disasters (general), Nuclear power
THE FIRST thing I found scarier than the earthquake itself, or even the devastation it wrought, was how we reacted to it.
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I read about how local drug stores made a killing in Betadine from people rushing to buy it. Even drug store employees themselves apparently bought some, "just to be sure," as one of them put it. The panic-buying was caused by a text message, presumably based on a BBC report, that said there would be radiation fallout from the explosions in Japan's nuclear facilities which would reach countries like the Philippines. Applying Betadine on the throat would help fight it off.
Well, first off, I don't know that you can stop hoaxes by prescribing penalties for it, however your sense of oppression makes it tempting. Finding the source is next to impossible. This is a country that can spread text messages with the speed of gossip, and the reliability of one. You can only appeal to the pranksters to rediscover some decency and stop being a nuisance if they cannot be a help. At the very least, it shows callousness in the face of tragedy, a capacity to make light of other people's sufferings. At the very most, it does a lot of harm: You never know what a panicked people can do, especially Filipinos.
Our levels of gullibility are particularly high in that respect. You have only to remember how we too started using gauze masks after Americans did in the wake of 9/11 with the anthrax scare. That one you can indict the Bush administration for, the systematic manufacturing of paranoia to gain support for the subsequent invasion of Iraq. If we can buy the notion that the world's terrorists can spread poison in our air—as though we aren't already doing quite a good job of it by ourselves, just look at Metro Manila's smog—we can buy the notion that Japan's nuclear irradiated air can blow all the way down to us.
The way we rush willy-nilly in the face of gossip, indeed the way some of us even think to push gallows humor to deathly lengths, I am profoundly thankful we never went nuclear despite the power outages we have experienced again and again, despite the power crisis that has loomed before us again and again. I am profoundly thankful the Westinghouse plant has been mothballed, though I still think we ought to make the Marcoses pay for that. Nuclear power is a power that can be as much a source of wholesale destruction as it can be a source of wholesale construction. It can as much scorch a country's earth beyond its darkest nightmare as meet its energy needs beyond its wildest dreams.
It is power that may be reposed only in the hands of the most capable governments, in the hands of the most disciplined people. Can you imagine the current nuclear crisis in Japan happening in a country other than Japan? As I write this, a third explosion has already rocked another nuclear plant, and radiation is leaking from Fukushima Dai-ichi's four reactors, which the prime minister himself has said could "impact on human health." Some 140,000 people have been told to stay indoors as Japan faces its worst nuclear catastrophe ever. You can see the fear and anxiety in the faces of the citizens. The only reason the world isn't being filled with dire apocalyptic warnings is that somehow it believes the Japanese government and people will see their way through it.
Can you imagine even a minor version of that happening here? The human disaster would be worse than the natural one.
The second thing I find scarier than the earthquake itself, or even the devastation it has left behind, is how the world has reacted to it.
So far most of the reports I have read have depicted the earthquake and tsunami it spawned as though it were just one of the natural disasters that befall humankind every now and then. Unfortunate, but they happen. I know you have to exercise every care and responsibility in treating events like this: Nothing is accomplished by wild doomsday theories that just panic the world. But I don't know why we can't also stop to take a serious view about the state of the planet.
Earthquakes do happen. But when they happen with the frequency and ferocity that they have been happening over the last decade, then it is time to look more deeply at what is causing them. When they happen moreover along with hurricanes and tornadoes across the United States, killer floods in India and China, droughts and frost where they have not happened before, then it is time to wonder if we have not pushed this planet to dire extremity.
Yes, we. The last time I looked at the global warming controversy, those opposed to the theory that it is being caused by carbon emissions were saying that, yes, we are on the brink of global warming, if we have not already slid into it, but it is not man-made, or not entirely so, it is something that happens to this planet every several epochs. Certainly, the contribution of carbon emissions to it is minimal. All we can do is mitigate its effects while still allowing countries to continue to produce at the scale that they do using the cheapest—and dirtiest—means to do so. The survival of the world's populations depends on it.
That is not unlike the tobacco lobby continuing to controvert the finding that tobacco causes cancer despite the preponderance of evidence it does. That debate should be over except that the tobacco companies have turned it into one where you get to dispel your doubts only once you get the Big C. The debate on carbon emissions should be over as well—or at least you would think the world would have decided by now to err on the side of caution—except that the detractors have turned into one where they are proven wrong only after the planet is past saving.
It doesn't get any scarier than that.
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Antonio L. Buensuceso Jr.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
THREE BAGS CAUSTIC
3 50-LB CAUSTIC BAGS PER BATCH
Date taken: 11-14-2012 2:15am
The TRUTH will set you FREE.Monday, January 1, 2007
Ex-first couple face unbailable poll rap
Ex-first couple face unbailable poll rap
Arroyos allegedly behind rigged ’07 vote
By Jerome Aning
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, may be detained without bail if the joint investigating panel of theDepartment of Justice and Commission on Elections (Comelec) finds probable cause that they masterminded the rigging of the 2007 senatorial polls in Maguindanao. Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. on Tuesday echoed Justice Secretary Leila de Lima’s declaration that the “direct knowledge” and “first-hand account” of former Maguindanao Administrator Norie Unas, the latest government witness on the 2007 election irregularities, would be a strong piece of testimony against the Arroyos.
The former first couple are facing a possible case of electoral sabotage, a heinous crime that is nonbailable and punishable by life imprisonment.
“There can be no other case. If you look at the magnitude of the votes involved, it is definitely tantamount to electoral sabotage,” Brillantes told reporters in an interview.
Both Brillantes and De Lima, who were election
Unas, a former senior aide of Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., submitted an affidavit on Monday to the joint panel claiming that shortly before the 2007 elections, he heard Arroyo ordering his boss to ensure a 12-0 sweep of administration candidates in the province and to commit fraud if necessary.
He said he later accompanied Ampatuan to Mike Arroyo’s office, where the two men allegedly discussed the cheating operations that would be undertaken.
New witness to back Unas
A new witness is to appear before the Senate to bolster Unas’ claim that the Arroyos were directly involved in the manipulation of election results in Maguindanao in 2007, Senator Panfilo Lacson said Tuesday.
According to Lacson, the witness was directly in contact with Malacañang while he and his fellow “election operators” were preparing fake election returns (ERs).
“He was part of the ‘special ops’ of Ampatuan,” the senator told reporters. “His contact is from Malacañang in producing fake ERs.”
For some reason, the witness has chosen to show up before the Senate committee on electoral reforms, and not the joint panel of the justice department and the Comelec.
“He wants it here [in the Senate]. Witnesses have their own preferences,” Lacson said, adding that the account of the new witness would corroborate Unas’ sworn statement.
“It will be detailed, including how they maneuvered the votes against opposition candidates, where they got the fake ERs, where they were transported,” the senator said.
He said the new witness had worked with Unas and would “detail how the fake ERs coming from the Comelec were transported to Bukidnon and later to Maguindanao.”
Electoral sabotage
Brillantes said the possible charge of electoral sabotage against Arroyo and her husband would also be boosted by the
He noted that there were at least 20,000 votes in every town in the province.
Republic Act No. 9369, or the Automated Election Systems Act of 2007, states that electoral sabotage is committed when a person tampers with votes involving a national office, when the tampering is done on an election document involving at least 5,000 votes, or when the total tampered votes exceed 10,000.
Brillantes also said Comelec lawyers were convincing the detained former Maguindanao Election Supervisor Lintang Bedol to provide more information on the alleged rigging of the 2007 polls.
“We are asking him to submit a supplemental affidavit since we believe he knows more than what he already stated,” Brillantes said.
Bedol had earlier claimed that municipal election officers were getting instructions from Unas during the 2007 polls. But Unas denied this, saying the poll officers had reported directly to Bedol, who was their superior.
Brillantes said Unas’ claim that Bedol had a direct hand in the ground operations was logical because the latter was the supervisor of the Comelec personnel.
Bedol is detained at the Philippine National Police’s custodial center in Camp Crame, where he is serving a six-month jail term meted on him by the Comelec for indirect contempt. He surrendered to authorities in July.
‘Strong’ evidence
In Malacañang, President Benigno Aquino III’s spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said it was up to the justice department to evaluate Unas’ testimony but expressed belief that the evidence against Arroyo was “very strong.”
“Mr. Unas is the first person to identify and testify and to have personal knowledge that then President Arroyo ordered a 12-0 [sweep] in the 2007 elections. That will have to be appreciated or evaluated by the Department of Justice,” Lacierda said at Tuesday’s news briefing.
“This is personal knowledge. Under the rules of evidence, personal knowledge is very strong evidence,” he said.
Lacierda took exception to the statement made by Arroyo’s legal spokesperson, lawyer Raul Lambino, that Unas could not be considered a credible witness.
“Perhaps Attorney Lambino needs to answer [the question] ‘Where were you when Mr. Unas heard the statement of [then] President Arroyo giving those orders to [then] Governor Andal Ampatuan’ instead of saying that he’s not credible because he was [part] of poll fraud,” Lacierda said.
He also said a number of the witnesses to the alleged poll fraud in 2004 and 2007 were Comelec officials.
“There was fear and apprehension at that time to come out,” Lacierda said. But now, he said, “they decided to come out and reveal what they know about those elections.” With reports from Christian V. Esguerra and Norman Bordadora
The TRUTH will set you FREE.
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