Piercing Pens

ABS-CBN News Channel and GMANews.tv report that Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and Brigadier Gen. Danilo Lim walked out of a court hearing in Makati and marched to the Peninsula Hotel where Vice President Teofisto Guingona joined them.

As of this writing, Trillanes Lim is reading a statement calling for the people’s solidarity in their call for Arroyo’s removal from the presidency.

7:20 pm update: Ellen Tordesillas on media arrests after the mutiny

Read additional info from the rebel soldiers at Sundalo Tagapagtanggol ng Pilipino.

Let’s hope the state security agents will not attempt to harm them. We don’t need dead heroes like Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, and Ninoy Aquino. We need living leaders like them.

SunStar reported that DENR Sec. Lito Atienza will not attend today’s Liberal Party elections at the Club Filipino. He reportedly said he was not invited, contrary to the supposed media announcements that members of his faction are welcome to the event.

The media announcements must be bola lang. Why should Lakas Pala members be invited to a Liberal Party meeting? They should just join Lakas and Kampi and form a new party called “Lakas Pala Kampi Kay Gloria”.

Banco de Oro, which bought Equitable PCI Bank this year, has already forwarded to the Sandiganbayan P215 million from the Erap Muslim Youth Foundation. The court earlier ordered the forfeiture of the foundation’s funds, which were sourced from ousted President Joseph Estrada’s jueteng collections.

Interviewed on television about the forfeiture of his assets, Estrada said he’s ready get jailed in Munti if proven guilty of violating anything in connection with this forfeiture issue.

Funny how he seems to have chosen to forget how he eventually gave in to the executive pardon offer that was so excitedly given to him by the Palace people. To think he had spent most of the past six years in his rest house and in a hospital. And now he’s saying that he’s ready to go to a real prison. Bagay nga sila ni Arroyo!

Weird thought on the explosion at the House of Representatives tonight: is this meant to divert the people’s attention from the administration congressmen’s bastardization of the impeachment process?

Could it be that the powerful will use this as an excuse to repress the people some more? GMANews.tv quoted Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros as saying: “We cannot help but fear that this would lead to the declaration of Martial Law or a state of emergency to give way to repressive acts. We caution the government against using the bombing to institute repressive measures.”

Or is blaming You-Know-Who getting for every tragedy in the country just becoming a bad habit?

It could also be a protest, ala-Light A Fire Movement, against the kakapalan of the bribees in Batasan.

De Venecia reportedly described the bombing as “a terror attack on the House.”

(more…)

When I heard the news about the killing of Atty. Alioden D. Dalaig of the Commission on Elections last Saturday, my first reaction was revulsion at how killers in the Philippines continue to be so brazen.

More than 800 activists and journalists have been killed since the start of the Arroyo administration in 2001. The killers have also targeted lawyers and judges–and now, even civil servants like Dalaig. As long as the culture of impunity remains, this series of violence will most likely not be broken.

(more…)