Piercing Pens

The people have spoken, loudly and clearly. They have put their trust on Noynoy Aquino.

Now, it’s our turn to say, ala-Bunye: Let’s move on.

(Image from Noynoy Aquino’s Flickr)

On the 40th day of the Ampatuan Massacre, a journalists’ organization announced the creation of a fund to help address the needs of the families of the victims.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said the finances to be raised by the Justice Fund will be used in projects such as:

маси
• a trauma counseling program for the families and members of local media community
• Mindanao media practitioners’ trainings on risk awareness and safety, election reporting, and reporting on culturally and politically sensitive places
• litigation support
• public awareness campaigns
• documentation of other incidents of harassment and attacks on the press in Mindanao.

Gov. Grace Padaca listens to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's speech during the International Women's Day celebration on March 6, 2009 at Malacanang's Heroes' Hall. (Edited from original by Edwin Paril/OPS-NIB)

The Commission on Elections has reportedly declared former Gov. Benjamin Dy as winner of the 2007 gubernatorial race in Isabela and ordered Gov. Grace Padaca to immediately vacate the provincial capitol. Comelec announced the decision on the recount petition days after it unseated Bulacan Gov. Joselito Mendoza. Both Padaca and Mendoza are members of the Liberal Party.
(more…)

We are reposting AGHAM’s urgent appeal for support for the victims of typhoon Pepeng in Cordillera and Central Luzon.

(more…)

Corazon C. Aquino (1933-1999)

“She was the only true queen our people have ever had, and she was queen because we knew she truly held our hearts in the greatness and the gentleness of her own.” – Catalino Arevalo, SJ

Photo from RebelPixel.com

Ignacio Bunye ended his term as press secretary last June 16 with a rendition of his favorite song, “My Way.” But he left an unfinished business.

In June 2005, Bunye “revealed” a supposed plot of the opposition to “destabilize” the Arroyo government. Here’s INQUIRER.net’s account:

Preempting the political opposition, Bunye on June 6, 2005 played two CDs of supposed telephone conversations between Arroyo and then election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, about an alleged attempt to rig the May 2004 elections, which came to be known as the “Hello Garci” tapes.

Bunye told the nation then that he had evidence that the President’s alleged wiretapped conversation[s] with Garcillano were a fabrication, because the conversation was actually between Arroyo and a certain political aide named “Gary.”

(more…)

Sorry for the lack of updates and for being offline the past days. We’re really swamped with work — office stuff and personal things to attend to. We also had to fix a malware issue that placed us on Google’s restricted sites.

We were unable to write about a number of events including the death of Rep. Crispin Beltran, Comelec Commissioner Romeo Brawner, and actor Rudy Fernandez, the dismissal of Joc-joc Bolante’s appeal for asylum in the US, and the kidnapping of Ces Drilon and her crew. We’ll be back to “regular programming” soon.