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A torture video was watched by millions of televiewers last night on ABS-CBN with a suspect of a hold-up naked and being physically abused by police officers in a community police station in Manila.

The secretary of the Justice Department and former Commission on Human Rights chief strongly condemned the action of police officers saying,

“There is no place in our society for the sickening practice that is torture.  There is no place within our law enforcement agencies for individuals capable of engaging in something so utterly worthy of universal condemnation.”

The police officers were seen torturing a naked man while other police officers were caught in the video not doing anything.  The victim eventually was reported dead with the police officers saying that the man fought back.

As of this moment, Chief Superintendent Rodolfo Magtibay of the Manila Police District has already relieved all the policemen suspected to be involved in the torture and are already investigated.

On the otherhand, police top honcho General Jesus Versoza called the action of the police officers disgusting and has already ordered the creation of Task Force Asuncion to investigate on the matter.

“Such actions do not have any place in an organization that espouses respect for human rights.  Any form of brutality and abuse of authority by PNP personnel will not be tolerated and will be dealt with swiftly and decisively according to our own disciplinary rules and internal policy.”

Watch Video here on ABS-CBN report:

Here is another video of young snatchers tortured by police officers and even made to kiss each other!

I hope this police officer will also suffer the same fate, his balls tied to rope that is being held by Jojo Veloso all night long!

The culture of torture still lives among many police officers and this is really brutality at its most heinous form.

What is your reaction to this torture of a hold-up suspect under the hands of police officers and the culture of torture among some police officers in order to solve a case? What should be done in order to stop cases like this one?

President Noynoy “P-Noy” Aquino has launched his own website as President of the Republic of the Philippines today as announced by Presidential Communications Office for Operations Secretary Herminio Coloma.  The website will feature all the events and announcements about President Noy Aquino: speeches, photos, videos, and whereabouts.

It is also connected to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Friendster and Multiply.

This website of Pres. Aquino said Secretary Coloma serves as a feedback mechanism of the government that will allow people to interact with the administration.  A special page on this website is that people can actually post their comments, suggestions or reactions to different issues that they may want the President to address.

The website url is @ www.president.gov.ph.

Check out the screenshot of the website:

What do you think of this website of the President?  Do you think that the feedback mechanism on this site will be effective?

A comprehensive agreement between the Hacienda Luisita management and farmers has been reached said the representatives of both camps and the spokesperson of the Palace despite the petition of farmers still hanging on a balance at the Supreme Court.

The controversial agreement to settle the decades-old dispute on one of the largest agricultural estate in the Philippines included on the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) is being assailed by other farmers and beneficiaries saying that it pre-empts the Supreme Court into resolving the issue of the stock distribution that the Hacienda Luisita management gave to farmers instead of giving the lands.  More so, the present machinations of the management is seen as deceptive as they only opt to give more than 1,000 hectares of land plus cash instead of distributing to farmers the more than 4,000 hectares already designated by the Department of Agrarian Reform for distribution to farmer-beneficiaries.

In all these, Pres. Noynoy Aquino who owns more than 1% shares to the company owned by his relatives has been aversive into dealing the cause of the farmers head-on.  His spokesperson Atty. Edwin Lacierda said that the President is not keen on involving himself to the issue in order not to be accused of using his power especially that the issue right now is already in the Supreme Court for resolution, but is happy that an agreement is reached and is underway between the two parties.

The issue of agrarian reform is one of strongest issues hurled against him during the campaign and promised that Hacienda Luisita will be distributed to beneficiaries in five years during his term if elected.  That promise sounded lame and hallow yet people gave him the vote of confidence.  Now that he is already the President, Noynoy Aquino is still washing his hands on the issue that should have been resolved decades ago during his mother’s term.  Noynoy Aquino is surely playing the role of Pontius Pilate on this.

While he is resolved and uses all his powers as President of the country on his fight for graft and corruption and stopping the financial leakages in the government, he is on the one hand seen as very lame on advancing the welfare of the farmers that had basically fattened the pockets of his family.

It is unfortunate that Noynoy Aquino is hiding under the skirt of fear so as not to be accused of peddling his power as President into a case that from the very beginning has undermined the welfare of the farmers toiling Hacienda Luisita.  I wonder why should the President be afraid of being accused of using the powers of his office on advancing the welfare and giving justice to the very people he should defend?  Isn’t it primarily his work as President to use everything at his disposal to advance the welfare of the marginalized, particularly the farmers on the issue of Hacienda Luisita?

Noynoy Aquino is just washing his hands while his family is crucifying the farmers for decades now.  The management of Hacienda Luisita trades Barabas with cash and 1,000-plus hectares on the agreement over the rights of farmers of owning the more than 4,000 hectares of the estate.  Noynoy Aquino and his advisers know very well that the farmers do not deserve this ploy to short change the beneficiaries yet he opts to play the Pontius Pilate for his family.

Bishop Pabillo of the Archdiocese of Manila is right when he said that Pres. Aquino was voted on the platform and now is working of leading the country to the straight and right path.  Such platform raises then the issue of Hacienda as his ultimate test:  to choose the country and the people over his family’s welfare and influence.

Pres. Aquino still has the time choose:  be the Pontius Pilate or the Simon of Cyrene of the farmers.

Image from Hambule

A neophyte lawmaker in the 15 Congress of the Philippines is filing a bill that seeks to police government employees on using social networking sites in government offices and government corporations, in particular Facebook and Twitter.

Rep. Romero Quimbo of Marikina filed House Resolution No. 184 that aims to regulate the use of social networking sites on government offices.  Rep. Quimbo said that there is need to “impose regulations on the use of government internet facilities to access social networking sites in their respective offices.”  If this becomes a law, government agencies will be required to submit their respective cyber use regulations that will be part of each agency’s documents to be included during budget deliberations.
Rep. Quimbo recognized though the power of social networking sites especially for information dissemination but with a government that is facing a record-high budget deficit, the unabated use of these sites he said “adversely affects their productivity and the quality of service they provide.”  Further, the lawmaker said,

“The government stands to lose an estimated P103,158,000 every month for electricity expenses alone if all the estimated 900,000 government employees use government computers for at least two hours of unauthorized online social networking activities.”

It was already posted here before that the provincial government of Quezon has already ordered their employees not to use social networking site and surf the internet fearing that it will cause negative impacts on employee productivity.  Yet it was uncovered that the very reason of the “ban” was because the provincial government got too lazy on paying their electricity bills that already amounted to P20 million, and the ban on web use is just actually a ploy for cost-cutting measures.

Philippines ranks on top ten countries social networking sites users.

Do you agree that the use of social networking sites in government be highly regulated?

Image from Blog CDN

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Rep. Manny Pacquiao of Saranggani is really the most popular lawmaker in the present 15^th Congress of Philippines.  After receiving applause for asking his bickering colleagues to move on (well, I am not pretty sure if he was applauded for what he said or simply because he is popular), the boxing champ is in a middle of a hullabaloo for being married to another woman.

The website of the House of Representatives shows that Rep. Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao is married to a certain Elizabeth B. Salvacion instead of Jinky Pacquiao.  It also erroneously listed the boxing champ’s birth date as May 28, 1942 making the most senior lawmaker and the only senior citizen in the Lower Congress.  But of course, no one can still ever beat Sen. Juan Ponce “Immortal” Enrile.  LOL!

After the media discovered the erroneous entries, the Secretary General of the House Marilyn Yap said,

“The secretary general’s office has not released any data on the personal information submitted by members of the House of Representatives for website posting.  We are looking into the matter…We always double check our data…because it is unfair to Rep. Pacquiao and his family and the people of Saranggani.”

Manny Pacquiao shared his sentiment over the website glitch in a jest saying, “I am now 68?  I should be weak and feeble by now.”

I just hope that Manny will not receive a knock out punch out of the probing of Jinkee of who Elizabeth Salvacion really is…LOL!

And after knowing that Manny is already 68 years old, Floyd Chicken Mayweather will surely at last say yes to fight the pound-for-pound king.

Smoking may soon not be too relaxing at all to those who are used to ease out tensions from their system with a few puff as the government is bent on increasing cigarette tax.

The Department of Health (DOH) two days ago announced that the government is to increase taxes on cigarette by P4.50 per stick which easily makes a box of cigarette cost tobacco-lovers P90.  If approved, a stick of cigarette will cost around P5.50 – P7.50 for those who cannot afford to buy by pack.

This proposed increase on cigarette tax will hit an estimated 17.3 million Filipino smokers including our very own President Aquino.

So far, this is just a proposal that came up during the meeting of government health workers with the representatives of the Framework Convention Alliance Philippines (FCAP), an anti-tobacco advocacy group aimed at reducing the number of Filipino who are into smoking and at the same help the government increase tax collection amidst the P300-billion budget deficit.

The proposal elicited mix reactions from tobacco lovers but majority seems to air out the thought that such an initiative will surely make many Filipino smokers think twice before buying a stick and puffing as majority of smokers in the country are on the poverty line.

Off to you folks especially to all those who smoke; do you agree with the proposed increase on cigarette tax that would make a pack of cigarette cost around P90?