NPC means Press Freedom

PETTY WAR, PRETTY GIRLS

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Vol.IINo.70ISSN2094-4098 OCTOBER10-16,2011P15.00

After the Stay hungry, Dream

Stay foolish.
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Chapter III Defenses in Libel

Page 6

By BERTENI TOTO CATALUA CAUSING

all it a petty war of pretty girls at Customs directors office. This pretty executive secretary slapped another pretty woman, who is a contractual employee, in front of Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) Director Filomeno Vicencio inside his office last October 5. Was it over envy as to who should be the apple of the eye of Director Vicencio? The pretty contractual employee, May Beltran Escoto, said in her Complaint-affidavit for the Office of the Ombudsman that Jonna Cruz Mogueis slapped, mauled and defamed her after the former succeeded in getting the personal attention of Director Vicencio, who turned 65 a few days ago to be compelled by law to retire. In her complaint-affidavit, Escoto asserted that the acts of slapping, mauling and defaming her occurred right in front of Director Vicencio.

OVER P5,000 PER VAN SECRETS

as a result, Escoto is charging Mogueis for administrative violations of grave misconduct, dishonesty, oppression and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the public service. at the same time, she is also charging Mogueis for committing crimes of grave oral defamation, slander by deed, physical injuries and destruction to property. Escoto said that Mogueis, the executive secretary of Vicencio, has been shielding Vicencio from the former because the latter believed that the contractual employee would tell all about Escotos discovery that Mogueis has been asking for or receiving P5,000.00 for every container van in exchange for the signature of Vicencio lifting the alert order of imports. Vicencios jurisdiction covers the entire country. In the Port of Manila alone, it is said that 20,000 vans are coming in every week. If only 10 percent of them are placed in alert status, then it means 2,000 vans. If P5,000.00 each is given, it means that it is a whopping P10 million a week for Mogueis. What more can be gotten if there are other alerts from the ports in the rest of the country? additionally, Escoto also said in her complaint that Mogueis was preventing the former from coming close to Vicencio because the former may disclose that Mogueis was pilfering from the salaries of Vicencio. Escoto said Mogueis had been tasked by Vicencio to withdraw his salaries from the landbank branch at the Bureau of Customs. But later Escoto said that Mogueis asked her to accompany the latter in withdrawing the salary. Escoto said that the executive secretary would withdraw P45,000.00 from the bank as the salary of Vicencio. after arriving at their office, Escoto said that Mogueis would then ask her to be the one to hand over to Vicencio the salary envelope.

But when Escoto asked how much was the content of the envelope, Mogueis instructed her to tell Vicencio that the content was P38,000.00. Escoto even risked herself by admitting that for every work of giving the salary envelope and telling Vicencio that it contained P38,000.00 Mogueis gave her P1,000.00. Escoto said in her affidavit that she and fellow contractual employee Catherine Serrano were eased out of the directors office upon what she claimed as the machination of Mogueis. She said she wanted this issue to be brought to the attention of Vicencio so that she tried her best to reach out to Director Vicencio by means of a cellular phone. and when she succeeded, Escoto said Vicencio told her she can see him at his office. At 2:00 p.m. of October 5, Escoto said she and Catherine came to the office of the director, but there she found that Mogueis had been

Jonna Cruz Mogueis (above), together with a certain Elith, allegedly slapped and mauled May Beltran Escoto (below) right inside the office of Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) Director Filomeno Vicencio. A hard slap hit Escotos forehead where she felt a pointed object cut across from the left temple to the center.

blocking her from seeing Vicencio. The succeeding incident led to the slapping, mauling and defaming of Escoto by Mogueis and another employee named

ally happened, and these were narrated in a blowby-blow manner. Monsters at the door She said that she went In her affidavit, Es- to Vicencios office becoto gave up-to-the-min- cause he gave her a goute details of what actuTo page 2 Elith.

Only shadows of nature left in Ghost Region

My jobs plan if I were the President

HERNZ QUARRY
by HERNANI CUARE

PRIVILEGED SPITS
byBERTENIC.CAUSING

Rep. Amado Bagatsing wants UP-PGH syndicate grilled JERRYS BLOGS

byJERRYS.YAP

signal to come and have her Daily Time Records (DTR) signed by him. So she went there along with co-employee Serrano who had own concerns with regard to assignments. Before finally entering the room of Director Vicencio, we had to pass through the receiving room where Jonna Cruz Mogueis was holding office for being the executive secretary of Director Vicencio and where two other co-employees, named Elith and Baby, were also holding office, Escoto said. at the door of the receiving room, she said she was required by the doorman named Jollibee to fill up a visitors slip and they complied with. She said they were told by Jollibee to wait at the bench near the door, reasoning that Vicencio was still talking with another person. Escoto said she insisted to Jollibee she already talked to Vicencio and

PETTY WAR, PRETTY GIRLS

From page 1 the director already told her to come and see him for her DTR. But Jollibee said he would ask first the director, Escoto added. after that, she said that Jollibee closed the sliding glass door of the receiving room, which door was tainted with a brown color but transparent enough to see through the inside. Thereafter, she said Jollibee closed the door leaving them just beside the door. She said she saw Jollibee going to the table at the left of the door of the directors office and saw him talking to Mr. Jojo Concepcion, driver of Vicencio. She said she saw Jollibee that while he was talking to Concepcion he waived his right hand that was understood by her as telling her to wait. at this juncture, she said she noticed Digo, brother of Director Vicencio, sitting by the table at the right side of the door leading to the directors office. She said she also noticed Jonna sitting on her seat by the same table. Saving grace: the directors son after that, she said she sat on the bench beside the sliding door and after waiting for ten minutes, she saw Teej Vicencio, son of the director, coming out of the sliding door. When Teej saw her, she said he instructed Jollibee: Jollibee, si May at Catherine, papasukin mo kay director at magpapirma yan. She said Jolibee answered yes but the director was yet talking to another person. Then, she said Teej gave her a thumbs-up and he left. after three minutes, she said Digo called her and Catherine and told them: Tisay, pumasok ka na, tinawag ka na ni Director. she was stepping into the receiving room, she saw Jonna approaching her and saying: Akin na yang DTR mo, ako na magpapasok, ayaw na ni director na pumasok ka. To this, she said: Bakit, nagkausap na kami ni director at ako ang magpapapirma nito. She said Jonna shot back: Yun nga ang sabi nya, wag ka nang pumasok, ako na ang magpapirma, sumunod ka na lang sa office rules. Walang pinag-aralan. She said she felt embarrassed because it was heard by Catherine and Met by fire two more employees she named only as Elith and She said that while Baby who were sitting by a table where Concepcion was sitting while being talked to by Jollibee. I insisted that I should be the one who should have my DTR signed because I was already told by the director to come to him and have the same signed with me personally handling to him this DTR, said Escoto. Despite her insistence, she said Jonna ordered her and Catherine to sit on the two chairs where Concepcion was sitting, to which they complied with. While sitting, Escoto told Jonna: Ano ba problema mo, bat galit na galit ka, ayaw mo akong papasukin? Secretary ka lang naman dito. To this, she said Jonna replied: Basta sumunod ka na lang sa office rules ha! Akin na yan (referring to the DTR); She said she refused to give her DTR while Jonna told Jollibee: Jollibee, halika, kunin mo, ikaw na ang magpasok. I stood up and I insisted to go to the directors office but she blocked my way while saying: Hindi nga e!, Escoto said. Success and pain of entering the door at this juncture, she said she saw the director open the door and she pleaded to him: Sir, di ba po pinapunta nyo ako?; To this, she said the director replied: Oo, tara pumasok ka; at this time, she said Jonna who was standing right by her left side raised her right arm backwards and smashed the same on Escotos back, hitting the latter on the nape that caused her to nearly fall. Escoto said she then raised her left arm and moved it sideways to loosen from the grip of Jonnas fingers holding her hair. In the presence of the director, she said she said: Bat ka ba nananakit? Sir o, nanakit. To this, she said the director replied: Oo, nakita ko. She said she then stepped inside the di-

Vol. II No. 70

October10-16,2011

ISULONG MO KAIBIGAN, HUKOM NG MAMAMAYAN!

TUMINGIN ka sa langit, kaibigan. Ang kapal at itim ng ulap. Kung babagsak yan, babaha ng napakalaki, kayang talunin Ondoy man o Pepeng. Gumawa ka na ng paraan. Lumayo ka sa iyong kinatatayuan. Tumakbo ka sa matataas na lugar, doon ka maisasalba. Iyan ang ulap ng korapsyon, ulap ng pagnanakaw, ulap ng mga ninanakaw, ulap ng kawalan ng katarungan, ulap ng kasakiman, ulap ng pandaraya, ulap ng maitim na kapangyarihan. Lumisan ka kaibigan. Isalba mo ang iyong sarili. Hikayatin mo ang iyong kapitbahay, kaibigan at kamaganak. Umakyat kayo sa mataas na lugar, doon kayo lamahok sa galaw ng pagbabago. Lubog na ang ating bayan. Lubog na ang ating mamamayan. lubog na ang lahat sa atin. Pero nakakatawa pa rin ang mga buwaya. Magisip ka kung kaya pa ba, ang ating bayan maisalba? Akoy may dalang balita, balitang pwedeng magbangon sa atin mula sa putik ng baha, balitang siya lamang ang sagot sa ating mga suliranin, balitang unti-unting aayos sa ating lipunan, balitang siyang tanging lutas sa lahat ng ating suliranin. Iyon ay kung ating pakikinggan. Hinihikayat ko kayong pirmahan, itong petisyon para sa kinabukasan, petisyong magbabago ng Konstitusyon, petisyong magpapatayo ng Hukuman ng Mamamayan. Ito ay tinatawag na Trial Jury, ito ay buuin ng mga ordinaryong mamamayan, para hatulan ang nasasakdal kung may sala man, kahit sino pa man. ang mga ordinaryong mamamayan, ang tunay nilang lakas sa Trial Jury makikita, hindi matatakot kahit sa anong sakuna, hindi matatakot kahit sino pa sila. Ang Trial Jury na aking inaadhika, ay siyang buuin ng magbubukid man o magkakariton, jeepney driver o tricycle driver o padyak driver man, kung saan dala nila ang kapangyarihan, kapangyarihan ng buong sambayanan, laban sa mapang-api maging sino pa man. ang Trial Jury ay hahatulan, kahit si Mike o Mikey Arroyo man, hahatulan kahit si Ping Lacson, hahatulan kahit si Glorya, hahatulan kahit mayaman man, hahatulan kahit makapangyarihan man. Itong Trial Jury ay buuin ng mga tao, sa listahan ng mga botante sila magmumula, kukunin sila sa pamamagitan ng bunutan, itatago mukha nila at pangalan, para kapakanan nila at ng kanilang pamilya, ay mapapangalagaan, sa anumang pananakot at pananambang, ng mga akusadong may kapangyarihan o kayamanan. Panahon na kaibigan, ating ibangon ang ating bayan, mawala ang mga kurakot at pananakot, sa halip ang mga lingkod bayan ay matatakot, dahil sila ay mahahatulan, kung silay ay magpatuloy na mangungurakot. Panahon na isulong ang malaking pagbabago, para ang ating bayan ay magbabago. Isulong mo kaibigan, ang aking panawagan, na tayong lahat ay lalagda, sa isang petisyong isasabatas, ang pagtatayo ng Trial Jury sa Pilipinas. Idagdag mo pa riyan kaibigan, pagtatayo ng Grand Jury sa ating lipunan, para kunin mula sa kurakot na piskalya o prosekyutor o taga-usig ang kapangyarihan, ang kapangyarihan sa pagsasabi kung sino ang dapat kasuhan, at dinigin sa Hukuman ng Mamamayan. Ang Grand Jury kaibigan, buuin ng mga ordinaryo ring mamamayan, mula sa listahan ng botante sila bubunutin, kanilang pangalan at mukha ay babalutin, para hindi makilala ng sino mang kurakot at mayayaman, para hindi sila mabibili o matatakot maging sino pa man. ang Grand Jury ang syang maghahatol, ang maghahatol kung sino ang isasakdal, kahit sino pa man bastat may kasalanan, kasalananan sa bayan at mamamayan. At kung meron nang Grand Jury kaibigan, wala kang dapat pangangambahan, sa lahat ng hinahanap mong katarungan, para makasuhan ang sino na dapat kasuhan, maging si Joc-joc Bolante o Mike Arroyo man, maging si Mikey arroyo o nanay nya man, maging si Merceditas Gutierrez man. Isulong, mo kaibigan. Isulong mo ang Trial Jury, na siyang Hukuman ng Mamamayan. Isulong mo kaibigan. Isulong mo ang Grand Jury, na siyang hahatol na kasuhan at isasakdal ang dapat isasakdal, maging si Gloria arroyo man, maging si P-Noy man, maging sinuman. Isulong ang Trial Jury! Isulong ang Hukum ng Mamamayan! Isulong ang Grand Jury! Isulong ang Tagausing ng Mamamayan!

rectors room but while walking to the table of the director, she said Jonna shouted: Hindi ka marunong sumunod sa office rules. at this juncture, she said the director told them to stop and Jonna went out of office. She said that while Vicencio was signing the DTR in the presence of Ver lopez, a friend of Director Vicencio, she said: Sir, bakit ganoon, galit na galit sa akin si Jonna, ayaw akong papasukin? She said Vicencio answered: Hindi ko alam; Escoto said she insisted: Alamin nyo sir, boss kayo; She said the director told her: Sa totoo lang Tisay (my nickname), testigo si Ver, pinapapasok na kita. Tapos pumasok si Jonna at sabi, wag ka nang papasukin at kukunin na lang ni Jonna ang DTR mo. ayan si Ver, testigo. Di ba, Ver? She said Ver answered: Oo. To this she said: E bat ganoon sir, kayo ang boss, e secretary nyo lang sya?; She said Vicencio yielded: Sige, alamin ko. Then she said she asked: Sir, kaya lang pupunta ako rito di ba alam nyo naman na matagal ko na kayong gustong kausapin, ayaw nyo lang kaming kausapin. She said Vicencio re-

plied: Hindi, hindi ko alam. She said she then told the director: aalamin lang namin ang status namin ni Cathy (referring to Catherine Serrano). Ilang linggo na kaming walang allowance kay sir Vince. Ito na lang ang DTR ang inaasahan ko. May tatlo pa po akong anak na pinag-aaral. Di ba po, sabi ko sa inyo, okay lang kami dito. Bat nyo pa kami pinatapon sa kabila? To this, she said Vicencio replied: Hindi ko alam yan. Yung kay Vince, office ko pa rin yon. Sige ako ang bahala. Then she said she repeated her concern with Jonna: Sir, bakit po ba galit na galit sa akin si Jonna? To which, the director repeated he did know not about it. at this point, she said: alamin nyo, director kayo, ipatawag nyo po si Jonna, para habang andito ako, mapag-usapan natin. at this juncture, Escoto said that Vicencio motioned to go out to call Jonna in but Ver volunteered to be the one to do it. When Jonna came in, she said Ver went out and Jonna went directly to Director Vicencio and said: Sir, sinisiraan ako dito. Kung anu-ano ang mga sinasabi sa akin, To page 7

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RONALDO B. HERICO

Stay hungry. Stay foolish. -- Steve Jobs

I
STEVE JOBS COMMENCEMENT SPEECH AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY IN 2005
entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didnt interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting. It wasnt all romantic. I didnt have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5 deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple.I loved it. and much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example: Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didnt have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science cant capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. and we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. and since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later. My second story is about love and loss. I was lucky I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation the Macintosh a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. I really didnt know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest Ive ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. Thats it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots. I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him? They said: Of course. My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college. and 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents savings were being spent on my college tuition. after six months, I couldnt see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. and here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their

October10-16,2011

Vol. II No. 70

(NOTE: No one can tell his own story better than himself. So that the editor decided to post this moving and inspiring speech of the genius of Apple computer company,Steve Jobs, telling about three stories from his life. This is a tribute to this wonderful man sent by God to mankind.)
way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didnt even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was a l most certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is d o c t o r s code for pre-

slowly began to dawn on me I still loved what I did. The turn of events at apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. and so I decided to start over. I didnt see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of apples current

renaissance. and laurene and I have a wonderful family together. Im pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadnt been fired from apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Dont lose faith. Im convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. Youve got to find what you love. and that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you havent found it yet, keep looking. Dont settle. as with all matters of the heart, youll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Dont settle.

My third story is about death. When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: If you live each day as if it was your last, someday youll most certainly be right. It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today? and whenever the answer has been No for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that Ill be dead soon is the most important tool Ive ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best

pare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought youd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes. I lived with that diagnosis all day. later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and Im fine now. This was the closest Ive been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death To page 7

Vol. II No. 70

October10-16,2011

Jerrys Blogs Rep. Amado Bagatsing wants

By Jerry S. Yap
MEMBERS of the House of Representatives are mad because of a syndicate that siphoned off their funds at the Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH). Manila Rep. AMADO BAGATSING is pondering on calling for a congressional investigation to know how their funds were handled at the hospital. He wants to hear the explanation of the UP-PGH director and other ranking officials responsible for handling the hospitals finances. He is one of the congressmen who backed the financial allotment for the UPPGH, a hospital that extends medical assistance to Manilans. But what puzzled Bagatsing is the fact that when his office extended a guarantee letter to his constituent, the UP-PGH cashier told the patient that the UP-PGH has zero fund. He is wondering why the UP-PGH officials are not informing the Congress when the hospital fund was already on zero balance. Bagatsing wants to know where did the allotted the UP-PGH funds go and how the officials handled the hospital funds. How shall the congressmen know that the UP-PGH has zero funds when hospital officials are keeping their silence? How shall the hospital extend assistance to the poor patients when the UP-PGH has zero funds? Shall the hospital just drive away the poor patients because it has no assistance to extend?

UP-PGH syndicate grilled

BI Quadro De Jack hits Batangas!

drop his name for transactions at the Bureau of Customs. DepCom Danny lim said he will not think twice to file charges and send behind bars those who are using his name, especially in their quest for illegal collection from the brokers and importers. actually, DepCom lim has already made true his warning. Sonnabagan! last Friday, lim ordered the arrest of We hope that the Jeff Pan and Manny Congress will continCalvo for using his ue with its investiga- Namedroppers of Gen. name in trying to tion plan. The PGH is Danny Lim, beware! mulct money from one of the countrys brokers. best hospitals. The Customs IntelForget not the doctors who serve the ligence Czar, Depwarning of DepCom UP-PGH are mostly uty Commissioner lim: Never use his graduates of the UP DANILO LIM, name in illegal colCollege of Medicine warned those who lection!

(UPCM). The UPCM almost perfected the Top Ten record of the latest medical board exam. This proved that the best doctors of the country are now serving at the PGH. The earlier is the better it is to clear the fund issue. This is because the need for medical services cannot be postponed. Expect my support, CONGRESSMAN AMADO BaGaTSING.

has the signal of Mangrobang? alias Speedy will never launch While Immigration Intel agents are a shakedown on Indians in Batangas operating against City if nobody has Indians or Bombay who stayed illegally given him the goin Davao, the notori- signal! Has alias Speedy ous Bureau of Immigrations Quadro already reported the shakedown de Jack launched to Immigration a harassment opasst. Intel Chief eration in Batangas along with one alias JEROME GABISpeedy Gonzales. ONZA? Just asking! The Indians were caught by surprise. (The column is They asked themthe writers own selves if there was and it is not the an Indian shakedown in Batangas. official stand of Dyaryo Magdalo. Is the Indian shakedown the idea For any inquiry, of Immigration Intel you may email Chief Tonette Gaz- the author at jerryap888@yahoo. min Mangrobang? Has alias Speedy com.)

Only shadows of nature left in Ghost Region

MOUNTAIN peaks, slides and slopes, and planes of Caraga Region the dreamed mining capital and the second poorest region of the country next to the autonomous Region of Muslim Mindano are beauty for the lumads that they witnessed them as blessings without an end for the eternal living of the tribe. But Caragas mountains peaks disappeared. The slides collapsed. The slopes served as depository ducts of mine tailings with cyanide and mercury that rushed to farm irrigations, canals, rivers, and seas. Mine tailings turned brown all the greens on the mining sites, devastating the slides, the slopes, and farmlands on planes. Mine tailings shoved the fishes on rivers and seas. The fishermen shook their heads in disgrace. Once upon a time the mountains of Esperanza, Bayugan and Prosperidad were glittering with gold. The mountain areas in San luis and that of Tandag that connects to San Miguel and Tago, Surigao del Sur were covered with a virgin forest. The mountain areas of the municipalities of Tandag, Tago, Cagwait, Marihatag, San agustin and lianga in Surigao del Sur were heavy with gold, chromite, copper and coal. The Red Mountain was a high, towering mountain in the boundary of Surigao provinces. Now, all these mountains lost their peaks, their nakedness exposed like deserts of disasters. Looking back, some 1.2 million hectares of Caraga Region were within the watersheds that support the irrigation systems, livelihood, and source of household and industrial water for the rural and urban areas. Today, only traces of the watershed areas are left for the young Lumads, to remember that once upon a time

Hernz quarry
By Hernani Cuare
clean water flowed naturally to their farms and homes. Decades of mining wrought havoc to Caraga. In February 2006, the region was hit by floods that claimed 13 lives, P296 million damage to infrastructure, and P50,689,567.00 worth of crops washing away. In January of 2007, the floods drowned five men and left 193,347 persons or about 41,861 families homeless. In 2009, 68,696 persons were forced out of their homes when flash floods hit 341 barangays in 34 towns and four cities. The multinational corporations unceasingly prostituted Caraga without sharing a pint of gold, copper, nickel chromite, coal and other natural wealth that the lumads should have for themselves. Mining in Caraga started since preHispanic period. It went full scale only when the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 was passed during the presidency of Fidel Ramos. His Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan opened the country to multinational and transnational companies. The Mining act was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1998. But the High Tribunal overturned its own declaration and upheld the constitutionality of the said act in 2005 during the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-arroyo. The arroyo administration was tagged as spooky to the lumads. It was during her reign when troop deployment in Caraga Region was beefed up in two brigades (401st and 402nd Infantry Brigade) and six battalions (23rd, 29th, 30th, 36th, 58th and the Military Intelligence Battalion). The Reengineered Special Operations Team (RSOT) concentrated in communities believed to be strongholds of the communist movement due to the presence of peoples organizations and a strong and organized protest against the incursions of big mining companies. Majority of the residents of the region, especially those living in the mining areas, remain poor. This is so despite the rocketing profits that had been posted by the mining companies. Per record in 2009, to name one, the lepanto Mining reported a 92% increase in sales from its subsidiaries that include Manila Min-

ing Corporation. Oceanagold reported revenue that doubled to $217.2 million or 49% in 2008. Philex Mining reported revenues of P2.2 billion for the second quarter of 2009. Medusa Mining, owner of Philsaga, reported an earning of $57,252,098 in June 2009. Caraga or Region XIII (agusan del Norte, agusan del Sur, Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur and Dinagat Islands) is the administrative region of the Philippines on the northeastern portion of Mindanao. It was on February 25, 1995 when Caraga was created through Republic Act No. 7901. With its denuded mountains and extracted natural wealth, Caraga somewhat lives with the original meaning of its name derived from a Visayan term kalag, which means ghost or spirit. The man-made and natural disasters proved former Butu-

an City Rep. Charito Plaza wrong. She authored the Caraga Region Act by selling that Caraga is a land of the brave spirits ready to undertake whatever challenges that come its way. Last October 3, about 200 Communist rebels attacked three mining sites in the region and briefly took hostage the employees of Nickel Asias Taganito Mining before burning trucks, excavators and a guest house. The United States said that Philippines has untapped mineral wealth valued at more than $840 billion, on copper, gold and chromate deposits, easily making it among the largest in the world. The government of President Benigno Noynoy aquino III disclosed that it is aiming to see mining investments rise more than fourfold to $18 billion over the next five years.

October10-16,2011

Vol. II No. 70

My jobs plan if I were the President

IF I were the President, how will I create jobs that are more permanent at home for all? This question becomes life-and-death if all our overseas Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia are sent home due to the completion of its Saudization, a program aimed at making Saudis educated and skilled enough to do the works being done by millions of Filipinos now there. I even predict that the domestic workers posts would be filled in by KSA natives: our DHs would be displaced too, considering alone the move to ease out hiring of foreign maids. Now, it is a fact of life. There is no magic wand, no school, and no hardand-fast rule on how to resolve unemployment. So how could I create jobs for the Filipinos in order to employ all who are here and to those who come back because Saudi has stopped the hiring of foreigners? To answer this, let us begin from the basic idea. First, there is work when Pedro hires Juan to do an activity for Pedro. Why Pedro hired Juan? The answer is, Pedro needs the work of Juan. In other words, there is a need to have more persons like Pedro so that more individuals like Juan would be hired. But how to have more persons like Pedro? In all likelihood, Pedro needs the work of Juan because the work must have been necessary to Pedro. It may be a house that Juan is a carpenter. It may be a pair of shoes that Juan is a shoemaker. It may be a pair of pants that Juan is a tailor. Whatever would be that work that led Pedro to hire Juan, two things are certain: Pedro needs it and he has money to pay Juan. If Pedro does not need it, he will not hire Juan. If Pedro needs it but Pedro does not have money, he will not hire Juan. In other words, these two things must exist to ensure the Pedro hires Juan. Hence, as a basic principle of my job program, my Presidency will do the best it can to institute programs and projects that will trigger interest in almost all kinds of goods and services so that many will be encouraged to need those goods and services and will hire people to provide those goods and services. For example, my government may lead in super-massive campaign to entrench in the minds of the citizens why they should buy shoes, clothes, watches, hats, and other gadgets. My government may maintain massive promotion of the reasons why each citizen must visit at least three places, historical or tour sites, each year to spur employment of people to work at our tourist destinations. My government will massively campaign for the citizens to formulate the attitude of not hoarding money in banks but invest it by buying shares of stocks to encourage existing companies to think of expanding and hiring more people. This campaign is like creating a market event for something that does not exist. To make what I mean clearer, I am citing what apple has done. Long before the coming of cellular phones, no one needed them. But manufacturers of cellular phones succeeded in inducing people to like these gadgets. These developed a core of loyal consumers now embracing them as necessities to keep abreast and in touch with friends and loved ones, considering the feeling of happiness engaging another person in exchanges of jokes, exchanges of

Privileged spits
By Toto C. Causing
daily greetings of love and God and others. Now, because of cellular phone business, millions of people across the Globe are employed. Then apple came. Before it arrived through the genius of Steve Jobs, nobody needed any computer. But apple launched a marketing strategy coupled with product durability, efficiency and leadership in being user-friendly. It caused the effect of customers achieving their fantasies by their fingertips. These strategies of apple has developed a frenzied following among the people of the world to buy iPods, iPads, iPhones, iMac, and Mac air. Ironically, these attitudes among the people toward apples products are almost unbelievable to happen: its brands were priced thrice or more of the similar products being sold by other companies yet apple soared ahead in sales at times when the USa and the rest of the world have been experiencing hard economic times. For sure, even only addressing the aspect of developing interests in consumers to spend their monies for goods and services to result in hiring other people, and even without yet launching massive programs to empower those who love to buy but do not have sufficient cash in their pockets, my Presidency can reasonably expect that at least 25% of the population have sufficient money to do the buying and they alone can be sufficient to make the transactions move in super-dizzy paces. again, when transactions are by the millions a day, these will naturally give birth to separate sets of broad and complex consumer-seller relationships. Then how should I empower more people to have financial capacities to buy in order to make the buyers size ten folds or more? My presidency will push emergency laws in the Congress directed at encouraging lending to those who want to buy but have nothing in their pockets. One such law I would propose is to lower the legal limit for borrowing interest rates to 4% per year and set up government lenders to lend with the lowest possible interests in order to attract borrowings from those who want to buy but having insufficient cash sources. I will also certify to the Congress for a law that will give tax deductions to those private lenders who would risk lending their monies without collateral securities. as a protection for the borrowers, the law shall require credit limits and that those who would be allowed to take loans should only be those who have sound and stable repayment proposals. I would also ask the Congress to pass a law that gives lenders the right that they do not need to go to court to get payments but only to go to the employers and debtors of the lenders and present loan documents for them to get direct deductions from salaries or from these debtors. These empowered buyers whose population numbers more than the wealthy and the middle class will surely hire people for services and buy goods that in turn require workers to fabricate or make. Additionally, it will give massive birth to separate sets of broad and complex consumerseller relationships. I will also work for the removal or modifications of laws that create natural fears on whether to invest or not among the minds of the moneyed sector. Many wealthy persons prefer to put their monies in the bank and let it achieve a stagnant growth that can be given by the bank. They have natural resistance to invest because they see also uncertainties on top of fears. But if tens of thousands more of these potential investors would earn sufficient courage to invest, they will hire people by the millions. One major headache of businessmen is the minimum wage law that has become so high upon the theory advanced by labor sectors that the bar is high for their basic needs. So that I will work for the removal of minimum wage law and let the employers and employees set their own terms and wages based on sharing the balance after deducting from the gross sales the cost of raw materials, rentals, utilities and other necessities to produce goods or services. after determining the balance, the employees get 50% and the employer get 35% while the remaining 15% shall go to the government as income tax. I will also work for laws that drastically reduce income taxes from 32% to 15%. This I do because I recognize the psychological being that any man becomes more honest if he knows that tax to be paid by him would only be much lesser. So that all taxpayers honestly pay for the cost of taxes is minimal. Following this line, no one would cheat the taxes to be paid and that would mean more amounts of revenues I will push in the Congress the lowering of all income taxes to 10% or 15% of the total income of all, be it persons as individuals or corporations or partnerships or sole proprietorships. assuming we have

30 million working individuals and 5 million entities as juridical persons, and assuming the average tax payment for one year for each is P30,000, this will mean a revenue collection of P1.05 trillion. What may be lost in terms of collections due to the loss in percentage compared to the 32% income tax that we have now will be compensated more by the honesty that makes everybody happy to pay true taxes. add to this income of the government are the much bigger sales taxes that can be collected from every sale of goods or services. With the spurred economic activities because my Presidency managed to change the mindset of the buyers to become frenzied consumers like those people who queued like snakes in waiting for the opening of Apple stores to buy new apple products, and doing the same to sellers when acting as buyers for other goods and services, I can expect up to 500 million transactions occurring each day. If the government earns an average of P5 for every sale, this means that my government earns at least P2.5 billion a day from sales alone. If we multiply this by 365 days in a year, my government expects to earn P912.5 billion in one year from sales taxes alone. a total from the income taxes and sales taxes is about P2 trillion. So that sufficient money can go to my government even without expecting an income from Customs duties that run now at P300 billion a year despite widespread dishonesty among its ranks, income from fees charged by offices for licenses and fees, fees charged by the courts and quasijudicial bodies as docket fees, my administration will not suffer any deficit and to the contrary it will even end up in surplus or excess funds as against the budget of P1.8 trillion that we

have now. Having seen this as sufficient, I will then work for the Congress to abolish capital gains taxes on shares of stocks to encourage more buying and selling of stocks to make stock market exchange lively and full with capital on any given day. I would also work for the abolition of the 6% capital gains tax on sales of land and other real properties to encourage more selling of lands and discourage the Filipinos from getting too attached to the lands they own. I will also work for the establishment of Agriculture Stabilization Fund for the purpose of financing the buying of agricultural products at fair prices to prevent scheming traders from manipulating the buying price of grains, eggs and other animal produce and protect the farmers and producers of farm goods. I will also work for the establishment of agriculture aid to finance those who register to plow and raise animals for our food. I will also work for the establishment of a solid insurance fund to give funds to farmers if their crops or animals are wiped out by disasters. These programs will encourage those who are dropouts from schools to see good future in farming and animal husbandry. Of course, I will add with an inspirational message that Bill Gates became the richest in the world although he is a dropout from Harvard University, and that Steve Jobs who invented Macintosh computers, iPhone, iPad, iPod, and iMac is a college dropout. With these things I do if I were the President, I can see the beauty even without considering other aspects of possible sources of economic activities. Tell me my friend if my jobs formula is doable.

Vol. II No. 70

October10-16,2011

Simplified Libel Law in the Philippines

By BERTENI TOTO CATALUA CAUSING

Chapter III Defenses in Libel

and these are: (1) Defamation; (2) Identification; (3) Malice; and (4) Publication. Again, remember the word DIMP taught in Chapter II. If one of them is absent, there is no libel. If there is no publication there is no libel. If there is no defamation, there is no libel. If there is no malice, there is no libel. If there is no identification, there is no libel. The most important thing to remember, in writing articles for publication is to make sure any one of the elements is not present in what you will publish. a later chapter will expound on this. GIJUMO Theory This theory is a general defense that has the effect of a conclusion that there is no malice that can be presumed. GIJUMO is actually another acronym invented by the author to make recall easy. It stands for Good Intention and Justifiable Motive. Of course, how can one say there is malice to destroy anothers name when the intention is for the good and the motive is justifiable. And when there is no malice, we return to the first defense (lack of an element) to apply the law on libel. GIJUMO theory will be expounded in detail in succeeding chapter. Private communication When an article in question is actually a private communication addressed to a person other than the one that is the subject of criticism, and that the person to whom the letter is addressed has the moral or legal duty to act on the matters being brought up in the said private communication, there is no libel. Aside from the fact that this is clearly stated in the law on libel as an exemption to the presumption that there was malice, lack of malice is the effect of making the criticism a private matter between the author and the person who has the obligation to act on what is being written. This is because, the intention of writing is in accordance with a legal or moral or social duty as it is clearly an act of calling the attention of another person to examine the points raised and mete out sanctions so that an irregularity or an anomaly is arrested or corrected. Additionally, if malice were intended the author could have published it in newspapers or blogs, but he or she chose to do it quietly to avoid harm to the reputation of the person subject of the private communication. Qualified privileged communication Another defense in libel suits consists of assertions that the publications or the broadcasts are qualified privileged matters. This is called by jurisprudence as the doctrine of qualified privileged communications. If an article is a qualifiedly-privileged matter, it means that it cannot be presumed there was malice in the published article or broadcast utterances. Recall that the law on libel already puts it that there is always malice for every imputation that destroys anothers honor. This is what is called as presumed malice. If an article is proven as a qualifiedly-privileged matter, the presumed malice is removed and the one who filed a suit for libel must give a proof of malice, legally referred to by jurisprudence as actual malice if he wants to prove there was libel. Actual malice, in turn, is too difficult to prove. As will be discussed later, actual malice is defined as the act of publishing a defamatory imputation that is false or a lie and the one who published it knew before publishing that it is false, or an act of publishing a defamatory imputation or a claim that is false or a lie that the one who published it did not know it was false or a lie but he was so placed in a situation that it was somewhat foolish or stupid or unbelievable to believe in the claim or the imputation. The first class of actual malice is therefore what the author calls as the knowledge malice. The other class of actual malice is called by the author as the reckless malice. Notice that by being reckless it means that there was no intention and this should have not been classified as malice that basically means intention. The word reckless means more of negligence or lack of foresight. Actually, the author is protesting this reckless malice doctrine espoused by the Supreme Court of the US and of the Philippines. It is because it is contrary to nature and another principle of criminal law. The basic principle why an act is considered a crime per se is the consciousness in doing that act. If you are not conscious yet an act happened then it must be because you committed it by accident, recklessly or not. Any accident is called accident because the actor was not conscious that it happened. and if there was no consciousness, the actor did not have any intention to commit that act. And if there was no intention, then there is no malice because malice is defined as a conscious doing of a prohibited act. If the legal thinkers in the Highest Tribunal insist that recklessness must be a crime, then it must be a crime that is called criminal negligence where the penalties are drastically reduced to uselessness under Article 365 of the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines. Ergo, reckless disregard should be classified more as a form of criminal negligence, like reckless imprudence resulting in homicide as in a car accident, and not as a regular crime per se. Under a principle of Revised Penal Code, there are only two types of crimes as to the way an act is committed or done: dolo and culpa. By dolo, a latin word, it means there was an intention or malice to commit a crime. By culpa, a latin word again, it means that there was no intention or no malice to commit a crime. Under this situation, a crime happened because of accident by negligence. This classification as to the manner of commission is important because the penalty for a criminal negligence act is much, much lesser than the same act committed with intention as commanded by Article 365 of the Revised Penal Code. Nevertheless, included in the class of qualifiedlyprivileged matters are those articles that belong to the categories of Public Figures Doctrine and Fair Comments law. The Public Figures Doctrine is further subdivided into three classes: (a) publications involving public officers; (b) publications involving private persons who are notoriously or pervasively or popularly known in the community where publications occurred; and (c) publications involving private persons on issues that they voluntarily joined or started and that the subject matters of the publications are within these range of issues. Former Philippine Supreme Court Justice Josue Bellosillo spun off another qualifiedly-privileged communication class: commonly known as Fair Comments Doctrine. In writing his decision in art Borjal vs Court of appeals, G.R. No. 126466, January 14, 1999, Bellosillo wrote that any commentary on a public interest cannot be said to have malice if the comments were deduced fairly from the reasonable supposition of facts, even if these reasonable supposition turns out to be false later. although this idea is novel, the author is not comfortable with it because opinions are but opinions or an expression. Then, there is no such a thing as false opinion. Why? An opinion can only be correct or incorrect. Only a claim of facts can be false or true and actual malice is an intention to publish false facts and not wrong opinions. Absolutely privileged communication another defense, which is the strongest of all, is the doctrine of absolutely privileged communication. Under this doctrine, whatever damaging words published or broadcast cannot be used to convict the accused criminally or to adjudge against a defendant damage awards in a civil case. This is so because there is a law or a rule or a constitutional provision specifically saying these kinds of defamation cannot be a basis of any civil or criminal suit. One kind of absolutely privileged communication is a privileged speech of a senator or a member of the House of Representatives. It cannot be used as a basis To page 7

HIS book does not teach how to prosecute libel or how to make sure an accused or a defendant in a libel case is imprisoned or made to pay. This is because the author campaigns for a totally free press in the Philippines and elsewhere. Rather, the author expounds on all kinds of defenses available for every man or woman, journalist or not, so that he or she can have an ability to defend against libel suits. It is a vision of the author to see all Filipinos wellinformed of all the happenings or the goings on in the government and in the communities, so that they are intelligent in exercising their original powers or sovereignty. The citizens who are fully knowing will know how to vote intelligently, will know how to attack corrupt activities in their midst, will know that jury system is a much better kind of justice system than the present fiscal-judge affair that has nurtured impunity due to unfounded immunity the law breakers enjoy from judges and prosecutors who have remained fearful and bribable since the year 1901, will know that the brutal killing of people, including at least 33 journalists, in the unpopular Ampatuan massacre resulted from lack of will not existing in people acting on their power to judge and not the judge, will know if a criminal punishment is still necessary for libel, among others. This vision cannot be realized if the press is muzzled. If the writers hands are handcuffed they cannot write. If the broadcasters mouths are sealed they cannot talk. Under this situation nobody would tell the people the truth about incidents affecting them and the issues that developed from those facts. Now, the time needed to reach this vision can be accelerated if the liberty of expression is also exercised actively by proactive citizens. The non-journalists have the moral obligation to contribute to the society through blogs of articles and photos, postings of discovered anomalies or irregularities by anyone in Facebook, Multiply, WordPress, Blogspot, Youtube, U-stream, and other internet media. So to speak: EVERYBODY CAN BE A JOURNalIST. after all, the freedom of expression, of speech, and of the press is written in the constitution for all people, not only for journalists. And to hope for the press to grow healthy, like any plants, it needs a fertilizer of knowledge of how to keep and defend the right to press freedom and how to become truly free. This is always desirable. There is no doubt that to reach this vision, there is a need to urge the journalists and the rest of the citizens to dare or challenge any perceived wrongdoings, in calling for their vindication, solutions, and non-repetition, and demanding from any government officials to shape up and think they are only slaves of the people. There are many ways of how to encourage the attitude, habit, tradition, and culture among countrymen to become talkative about sensible and substantive matters affecting them. and one way to inspire courage among the journalists and citizens to exercise press freedom is to teach them how to defend themselves or how to avoid libel convictions. Following this premise, the discussion now proceeds to the discussion of all kinds of defenses available to all who love freedom in writing and speaking. Lack of an element The fundamental defense against libel suits is to make sure that at least one of the four elements of the crime is not present. This is what I said in the conclusion of Chapter II of this book. To understand this, let it be repeated that there are only four elements of libel

PETTY WAR, PRETTY GIRLS

October10-16,2011
sabi ni Marie (Escoto does not know who this Marie is). Hindi lang ako umiimik. To this, I reacted: anong sira? at sinong Marie? at this juncture, Escoto said Jonna repeated what she said: Sinisiraan ako nito Sir. Escoto said she answered: Ikaw na nga yung mapanira. Marami ka ngang kaaway. Alam nyo ba sir? Lahat dito sa office, kagalit nya. The slapping and mauling began Escoto said that as she was about to continue talking facing Vicencio, she was turning her head to the left when a hard slap hit her on the head, feeling that a pointed object cut across her forehead from the left temple to the center. She said her eyeglasses fell crashing to the tile floor to move and stop right beneath the table of Vicencio. Then, she said she saw Jonna launching new assault but she blocked it by her two hands to push the latter backwards. as I was pushing her hard away although my view was blurring as I had no more eyeglasses, Jonna grabbed my hair with her two hands, Escoto said. In my effort to loosen my hair from her grip, I pushed her harder backwards until her back hit the door of the directors office, she continued. Then, she said Jonna grabbed her collar and pushed her back, in the process her necklace broke into halves and fell on the tile floor. Being stronger and a little bigger than her, she said Jonna succeeded in pushing her until she fell to the sofa inside the office. While struggling, she said another person smashed a clenched fist on the back of her head and pulled her hair. Then, she said she heard this person at her back shouting and she recognized the voice as that of Eliths. Then, Escoto said she turned her head to the back and had her right hand push Elith away while her left hand was pushing Jonna away. Then, she said Elith kicked her repeatedly, hitting her on the back just above the waistline. at this point, she said she noticed many persons rushing over and pulled them away from each other. Then, she said she saw Maili in front of her and telling her: Tama na, Tisay. May sugat ka. She said: Hindi maam pinagtulungan nila ako e; But at the same time, she said that Jonna shouted at her: Walang pinag-aralan! at that point, she said Vicencio told her: Pasensya na, may sugat ka, ipagamot mo na yan. She said she refused to leave immediately because she was looking for her shoes, eyeglasses and necklace. She said Catherine handed to her the shoes, eyeglasses and the DTR. Thereafter, she said she left while telling Catherine: Catherine, yung DTR ko hawakan mo at ang necklace ko hanapin mo. Just outside, she met her common-law husband to whom she complained: Mahal, sinakatan nila ako, pinagtulungan nila ako. She said her husband told her to go directly to the police while he would go to the directors office to confront her attackers. She arrived at the Ospital ng Maynila about 3:30 p.m. of that day where she was examined, injected with anti-tetanus and the wounds were cleaned with Fight to the end Escoto vowed

Vol. II No. 70

Escoto showing the extent of her wound allegedly inflicted by Mogueis

betadine and bandaged. She said she was directed by the doctor to have a CT-scan due to the pulps on her head.

she will never stop until Jonna is removed from the Bureau of Customs. She stressed that people like Jonna are not fit for public service and must be cleared out if the government wants to that stop smuggling.

Stay hungry, stay foolish ...

From page 3 was a useful but purely intellectual concept: No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven dont want to die to get there. and yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. and that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is lifes change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. Your time is limited, so dont waste it living someone elses life. Dont be trapped by dogma which is living with the results of other peoples thinking. Dont let the noise of others opinions drown out your own inner voice. and most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. and I have always wished that for myself. and now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. Thank you all very much.

Chapter III: Defenses in Libel

From page 6 to charge him criminally or hold him civilly liable. Another absolutely privileged communication is a complaint or a petition or some other kinds of a pleading or a motion filed in courts or quasi-judicial bodies. all honor-damaging statements found in a complaint or a petition or a pleading or a motion cannot be used as a basis to hold the author criminally or civilly, as long as those statements are relevant to the issues at hand. This is a policy of the Supreme Court to encourage the complainants and defendants to tell the truth for better understanding of the issues and for coming to correct decisions. If there is a liability for stating defaming words in a complaint, then many will be afraid part of the court trying the libel suit involved. There are two kinds of lack of jurisdiction situations. The first kind is as to the venue of the court where a particular libelous statement should be filed in accordance with article 360 of the Revised Penal Code. When lack of jurisdiction is shown, the court cannot hear the case and it must dismiss the complaint. Otherwise, the decision of the court is null and void and has no effect. The second is lack of jurisdiction as to the subject matter. The second type simply means that the complaint is not actually a libel suit but something else. Maybe, the complaint is actually all about defamaLack of jurisdiction tion that is not published another very good de- so that it is but a slander or fense against libel suits is oral defamation. While the jurisdiction lack of jurisdiction on the to tell the truth and judgments based on things that are untrue are injustices in themselves. also, this policy is an invitation to the citizens not to just cry in silence but fight for the interest of keeping orderliness and justice. This is also in line with the policy of the Supreme Court to encourage all clients to tell the truth to their lawyers. To make sure that clients tell the truth, they are protected from divulging the clients secrets acquired in relation to the lawyerclient relationship. In the case of a client, he cannot be sued for libel just because he or she told his lawyer about allegations that destroy reputations. over libel is with the Regional Trial Court, oral defamation is within the province of the Metropolitan Trial Court or Municipal Trial Court or the Municipal Trial Court in Cities or the Municipal Circuit Trial Court. Prescri ption Prescription is a legal term for end of the time within which a libel complaint or case can be filed in court. article 1147 of the Civil Code of the Philippines specifically declares that civil libel suits can be filed only within one year. Beyond that period, it can no longer be acted upon. Article 90 of the Revised Penal Code, upon the other hand, states that a criminal complaint for libel may be filed only in one year. legally, this is called prescription of action.

NPC IS STILL DEFINED AS PRESS FREEDOM R

UMORS 59 years ago had it that a social club would tower over other professional groups that mastered their fields. Those rumors turned to dream. The dream became real. On October 29, 1952 the National Press Club of the Philippines, Inc. was born. Those were the days when reporters enjoyed the tak-tak-tak and voices in feasting tones. The NPC was founded to uphold the freedom of the press and maintain professionalism among journalists. It adopted the Walter Williams Journalists Creed, a journalistic code of ethics, as a standard of conduct for its members, which include both print and broadcast journalists. Yes, it was 59 years ago when the NPC spread its wings. It has become for others to see, lean on, and go to as the last bulwark when official repression and suppression would come lashing out. It was here that former NPC vice president Satur Ocampo escaped from the raiders sent by Marcos. It was here the left Zumel once spent some of his best times. In recognition of the role played by the NPC to the society, the Philippine Congress passed Republic Act No. 905 donating a 5,184.7-square-meter of land in the heart of Manila that is Intramuros. The parcel of lot is located on Magallanes Drive, beside Jones Bridge on the bank of Pasig River. The donation was implemented by then President Elpidio Quirino. Thanks to the pioneers. They must have been commanding a very high respect that the Congress relented into legislating just so they get their wish for a half-hectare land for their headquarters. We can see this respect when the newly-organized lawmaking body under the blessings of Americas independence grant on July 4, 1946 passed Republic Act No. 53, the law that protects journalists from compulsion to reveal their sources of news. Today, no matter how loud the present NPC members cry, no matter how hard they try to lobby, they could only wish for bills: like the libel decriminalization bill and the freedom of information bill. adding prestige, the NPC succeeded in constructing a towering fourstorey building on the donated lot. One of the modern and first earthquake-proof structures in the Philippines that time, the edifice was designed by the late Angel E. Nakpil and inaugurated in 1955 by then President Ramon Magsaysay. Its rock was first rocked when strongman Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law on September 21, 1972 by virtue of Proclamation No. 1081. That time, the NPC lived in deafening silence. The government seized newspapers, television and radio stations, and gagged the journalists. It spared those who did not show dissent. Until February 1986, the NPC played coy with Marcos. Journalists still managed to do their trade without offending the pleasure of the dictator. When Marcos was gone, the NPC thought he was the last breed to debase freedom o f speech, and of the press. It was wrong: Gloria Macapagal-arroyo rose to power in the most dubious way twice over, in 2001 and in 2004. The last saw the emergence of Hello Garci tape that detailed her voices talking to then election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano in a secret tone meant to engineer vote-counting fraud in a catastrophic proportion never heard before. leadership not founded on genuine faith will always be vulnerable to envy and distrust. Many rose to confront Gloria. Right after then National Bureau of Investigation deputy director Samuel Ong came

Vol. II No. 70

October10-16,2011

The rumors turned to dream and the dream became reality.

public with the CD of the recordings of the conversations between Gloria and Garci, Susan Roces spewed out the venom: You stole the Presidency, not once but twice! In almost all attempts of the shaky leadership to keep on, the press is always a victim. Thus, 30 local and foreign journalists were arrested by the police during the Oakwood mutiny that shook the leadership of Arroyo on July 27, 2003. It was so named because it was staged by 321 armed soldiers who called themselves Magdalo at the Oakwood Premier Ayala Center (now Ascott Makati) in Makati City. On November 29, 2007, the group of Senator antonio Trillanes marched from the Makati court trying his Oakwood rebellion case and seized Manila Peninsula Hotel. Many

media persons rushed in to cover the unfolding of a historic moment, to end up 50 or so of them hogtied, arrested and released later after the NPC through the voices of its then president Roy Mabasa expressed disgust to what had Glorias men done in trampling the press in an exceedingly disgusting and insulting manner. The NPC during the leadership of Roy Mabasa branded the arrests as unconstitutional and deplored their chilling effect.Eventually, the NPC won the case filed before the Commission on Human Rights. It was a victory in pronouncements only. CHRs recommendations to charge the police generals and others for the crimes committed against the press have not been implemented, until now. arroyo imposed a state of emergency on February 24, 2006. She did it as a solution to a coup attempt said to be led by then Scout Ranger Battalion Commander, then Gen. Danilo lim, who featured in the 1989 coup detat against Cory aquino and who now sits as the Deputy Director of Customs Intelligence after having been appointed by her son, P-Noy. Many calls for her resignation were reported by the journalists. again, the press became one of the victims. The NPC new breed of members wagged no tails. It slammed the proclamation and challenged its le-

By HERNZ CUARE

gality. The state of emergency eventually lost its urgency. Then there was another from Gloria. Concerting with his wife to silence the press, Jose Miguel Mike Arroyo filed libel charges against 45 journalists, a number unprecedented in the Philippine history, who met his ire because they wrote corruption stories involving the then First Family. Without fear, the NPC joined reporters, columnists, editors and publishers, and other press organizations in filing a class suit against Mike Arroyo on December 28, 2006. It was led by the group of National Union of Journalists of the Philippines. The class suit asked for P15 million in damages for the anxiety, loss of income and other inconveniences Mr. Arroyos libel suits caused. They also argued the libel cases sent chilling effects on press freedom. But then the ampatuan Massacre came to become as the gravest assault to press freedom. But the NPC tried its best to fight off. It never shirked from its pledge. On November 23, 2009, the NPC led by the president Benny antiporda spoke in tears, in outrage with eerie calls reverberating to demand justice that meant arrest of men closest to the heart of the person who had the primary obligation to order the arrest. When the smoke of confusion vanished, the Maguindanao Massacre blackened the day, confirming 33 journalists were killed in a single assault to press freedom. For the speedy delivery of justice to families of the slain massacre victims, the NPC asked the Supreme Court to create the Quezon City Regional Trial Court branch that was trying it as a special court handling only the ampatuan Massacre trial and nothing else. The NPC also filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to install a video monitor outside the court for all to see because that courtroom was small, which petition was an alternative if live coverage cannot be had. The Highest Court granted the petitions of the NPC. Then another event nearly debased the rectitude of the press. On August 23, 2010, the ethical standard in live reporting by the journalists came under siege. Nine Hong Kong nationals were killed in a hostage drama at the luneta Park when former police Senior Inspector Rolando del Rosario Mendoza commandeered the bus and took 25 people hos-

The concept of this theme, NPC @ 59: WE DEFINE, stands on the following ideas of what the NPC will do for one year from now: We Define is going in rhyme with Press at 59 and we will massively and continuously disseminate this to all media outlets, all our websites and blogsites, will issue one-page pamphlets on this defining what NPC will do for one year, will have this topic as the first to be discussed in all seminars that may be conducted for the whole year, will have this theme printed for all the letterheads of NPC to be used for the whole year and for all t-shirts that will be printed and issued for the whole year; all these efforts are geared at making this concept understood and absorbed as a pride by the members, and to convey a good impression upon the minds of the students of journalism and the community; We Define means NPC is taking the lead over all other press issues and over all press organizations in all matters that should be taken cognizance of by the NPC; We Define means NPC will define the responsible and fine practices of journalism in the country, including the definition of what should be the responsible way of working as a media man; We Define means NPC will exhort and will always remind all its members to abide by the ethics of the vocation or profession to set as examples to all other journalists; We Define means NPC will give guidance to all journalists on how to fight enemies of press freedom; We Define means NPC will take the lead in the fight for justice for all slain journalists with the end view of instilling fear in the mind of the enemies of press freedom that the law will catch them up even if they kill reporters and broadcasters; We Define means NPC will try its best to increase the trust of the public in the NPC and all practitioners of press freedom; We Define means NPC will instill a new culture of respect for all media persons, NPC members and non-members alike, from the courts, from the politicians, from the government offices, and, most importantly, from the people. unjust enrichment on the part of those who feel their egos or honor were assaulted although the fact of life shows that in most cases they have no honor at all. The story of the NPC from its beginning is storied. It has been a checker of darkness that has come too often to provide a complete contrast to gloriousness. The NPC proved it has survived even under extreme repression and suppression. The means employed may look unethical but it could be understood to be the best diligence it could do under the circumstances, still fitting the totalitarian idea espoused by populist philosopher John Stuart Mill. Indeed, the end justified the means. In the faces of these ups and downs, all uncertainties, all threats, and all chills, one assault after another came and died. But the NPC has remained standing, no matter how battered. Yet there is still comfort to make a political and social statement, that even in all aridity and disenchantment, one thing is arguable. The National Press Club is still defined as press freedom.

tage, including 22 Chinese nationals. The government and the public blamed the media as the root cause why the bloody incident occurred. They reasoned out that the live reports were monitored by the hostage taker on the TV inside the detained tourist bus. This gave a somewhat popular justification for the government to regulate media coverage in crisis situations. But the NPC opposed. Thanks God, the issue died down in a stalemate. Today, while the NPC is fighting for the passage of the Freedom of Information Bill and the decriminalization of libel, it is fighting against another bill, the Right of Reply Bill that seeks to compel the editors to publish the replies of any person, even a public officer, to any article and that the replies shall be published in the same space with the same length or aired in the same program with the same length of time. aside from the control of the substance of press freedom that the Right of Reply will cause, it also seeks to confiscate the media spaces for free. It is an