THE Commission on Human Rights in its resolution of the issue of the warrant-less arrest of up to 50 media persons who covered the Nov. 29 police siege of Peninsula Manila hotel tried to strike a balance in the clash of press freedom of journalists covering public disturbances and the duty of police to maintain [...]

FRIDAY’S Supreme Court hearing on the petitions seeking to declare unconstitutional the suspended memorandum of agreement (MOA) on the establishment of a Bangsamoro homeland saw the government struggling to define the creature that it sought to set up in Mindanao.
At the hearing, the MOA changed colors as quickly as a chameleon making its way through [...]

APPARENTLY without any trace of embarrassment, Jesus Santos, a member of the Government Service Insurance (GSIS) board of trustees, admitted having called up Camilo Sabio, chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), to ask support for the GSIS campaign to end the Lopez family’s “mismanagement” of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).
This admission was [...]

THE explosion in the face of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo following the revelation of the contents of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on establishment of an expanded Bangsamoro homeland is still too fresh for Sen. Joker Arroyo to ignore.
Before he could brush off the fallout, Arroyo has come forward to propose the suspension of the Supreme [...]

THE Supreme Court’s suspension of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) on the establishment of an expanded Bangsamoro ancestral home has delayed the signing of the deal.
Within three weeks of the high court’s issuance of a temporary restraining order, the MOA—dismissed by acclaimed constitutionalist Fr. Joaquin Bernas as a mere “piece of paper”—has sparked the resumption [...]

THE government officially celebrated the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Benigno Aquino Jr. on Monday with the unveiling of the bronze bust of Aquino at the recently opened Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
The memorial ceremony at the airport’s departure hall led by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo turned out to be not a [...]

THE Supreme Court hearings on the alleged bribery attempt on Court of Appeals Justice Jose Sabio Jr. on the case of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) against Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) have so far been revealing with regard to two important aspects. The hearings demonstrate a high level of impartiality and rigor of scrutiny [...]

PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo seized the state luncheon for visiting Swiss President Pascal Couchepin on Monday to spring a surprise on the Filipino people by calling for a shift to a federal system of government as a way out of the impasse over the stymied agreement seeking the establishment of an expanded Bangsamoro homeland in Mindanao.
“We [...]

WHEN the Supreme Court stopped the signing on Aug. 5 of the draft agreement seeking to establish an expanded Bangsamoro homeland, Mohagher Iqbal, chief negotiator of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, said that the last-minute cancellation made it clear to the international community that “the Philippine government does not possess the capability of entering into [...]

THE Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) establishing the expanded Bangsamoro homeland sketches a map that defines the partition of the Philippines for the first time in its history.
The map presents a grotesque territorial truncation of the Republic. It adds to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) territory twice the size of the original area. The [...]