Piercing Pens

From Prof. Danilo Arao of the UP College of Mass Communication via Bryanton Post:

This press statement released on March 20 (Tuesday) was signed by 18 faculty members of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication (UP CMC) led by Dean
Elena Pernia. For verification, please call the UP CMC Department of Journalism at 920-6852.

The undersigned faculty members of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication (UP CMC) condemn in the strongest possible terms the filing of multiple murder charges against Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo which resulted in his arrest and detention last March 16.

That the charges were filed during the election season is already questionable, especially since
Ocampo’s Bayan Muna Partylist group is running for representation in the House of Representatives and has been repeatedly accused by the powers-that-be as a communist front. The situation is preposterous as the crimes he allegedly committed happened more than
two decades ago while he was in detention. (more…)

Text messages protesting Manila Police’s plan to transfer Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo to Leyte woke me up this morning. One message said Ocampo’s wife, retired UP journalism Prof. Carolina Malay, was asking their friends to gather in front of the Manila Police District building where her husband was detained. Other text messages were invitations to a forum in defense of Ka Satur. (more…)

Just received a text message from Karapatan: Carlito Getrosa, 48, a Bayan Muna member in North Cotabato, was shot on the head by a masked assailant using .45 pistol last March 11, around 8:30PM at his residence in Midpapan. He was wearing a Bayan Muna shirt when he was shot in front of his relatives. The perpetrators fled.

NUJP Alert

It was 2:45 this morning, according to guards of nearby buildings, when a speeding motorcycle slowed down in front of the dxCC radio station in Cagayan de Oro City and the lone rider threw a Molotov bomb at the station. (more…)

Ang Kapatiran or Alliance for Common Good, a lesser-known political party that promotes “politics of virtue” and “politics of duty”, appears to be popular in cyberspace. Its website was not functioning properly when I visited it yesterday. Today, it reports that it has “experienced a surge in members wanting to register, and have run into problems with our new website.” (more…)

(March 13, 2007 update: While blog-hopping, i found this March 7 entry by The Purple Phoenix, and I was amused to find we noticed the same things, except for the Gringo part which I missed.)

Some observations in connection with the latest SWS survey:

• Kiko Pangilinan benefitted from the publicity generated by his then unclear status in the so-called Genuine Opposition. And of course, he is Sharon Cuneta’s husband. (I can’t help wondering if James Yap–if he decides to run for the Senate–will also rank high because of Kris Aquino.)
• Alan Peter Cayetano is on the fourth place. The publicity generated by the First Gentleman’s attacks on him must have helped.
• Francis Escudero is on the 6th-7th place. If only he were able to get Bamboo as endorser…
• Michael Defensor is on the 15th place. Does this mean Boy Abunda isn’t an effective campaign ad director?
• Migs Zubiri ranked 17th. I thought Boom Tarat Tarat could land him a Senate post!
• Richard Gomez and Cesar Montano are outside the Magic 12. It seems like the people prefer to see them in the movies than in the Senate.
• Prospero Pichay and Antonio Trillanes IV are both in the 22 to 24th place. And to think you see Pichay’s face almost every ten minutes on TV! Partida pa yan because Trillanes is in prison.

(more…)