Aquino: Crush NPA checkpoints

President vows action vs Guingona attackers , Marlon Ramos

President Aquino on Monday ordered the police and the military to dismantle New Peoples Army (NPA) checkpoints and protect politicians campaigning in areas controlled by the communist insurgents. Aquino issued the order two days after NPA guerrillas attacked and wounded Gingoog City Mayor Ruth de Lara Guingona, wife of former Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr., at a makeshift checkpoint in the hinterland village of Alatagan in Misamis Oriental province. The President, campaigning in Misamis Oriental with his senatorial candidates in Mays midterm electi ons, said he was saddened by the attack on Mayor Guingona, a member of the ruling Liberal Party. Aquino took time out from the campaign and visited the mayor at Capitol University Medical City (CUMC) in Cagayan de Oro City. He issued the order after the mayors son, Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, questioned the NPAs authority to set up checkpoints and enforce its will on a country that has only one government and governed by just one President. Accountability I pledge, within my power and abilities (as President), and in the name of the law, to exact accountability from those responsible for this, Aquino said in a speech during a rally in Jose Pelaez Roa Park in Balingasag, Misamis Oriental. Police said Mayor Guingona was returning from a village fiesta with a six-member escort when a group of about 50 NPA guerrillas attacked her entourage in the remote village of Alatagan in Barangay (village) Upper Kapitulangan, Gingoog City, late Saturday. Mayor Guingona, 78, survived a hail of bullets and grenade blasts, but two of her civilian bodyguards, who shielded her with their bodies, were killed. A policeman in her entourage and another civilian bodyguard were wounded. The rebels withdrew after a 10-minute exchange of fire with policemen in the mayors group. Mayor Guingona suffered bullet wounds in the arms and legs. She was also wounded by shrapnel from a grenade blast. Chief Supt. Catalino Rodriquez Jr., police chief for Northern Mindanao, said the police would bring criminal and war crimes charges against the NPA rebels who carried out the attack on the mayor. The militarys Human Rights Office said the communist rebels violated nine human rights laws as well as election rules. Stable condition Senator Guingona told reporters Monday that his mother was in stable condition after undergoing surgery at CUMC. A bullet shattered the bone in Mayor Guingonas right arm. Doctors removed the fragments and used metal to link the two ends of the arm bone, the senator said. The doctors also successfully extracted slugs from the mayors body, but the numerous shrapnel from the grenade blast would be removed later, the senator said. Dr. Jesus Jardin, CUMC medical director, said the mayor was recovering from the operation. Military pursuit Government security forces went after the NPA band that attacked Mayor Guingona. Maj. Gen. Ricardo Rainier Cruz, who took over the leadership of the military in Eastern Mindanao on Monday, said government troops caught up with and engaged the guerrillas in a place near the site where the mayor was attacked in Barangay Upper Kapitulangan. The NPA rebels were the same ones who ambushed Mayor Guingona. It was near the (ambush) site, Cruz said. There was no report of a body count, but Cruz said the security forces found matriel in the area. NPA permits Military and police officials called the attack on Mayor Guingona an ambush, but the NPA said its fighters were only forced to return fire when the mayors group tried to shoot its way through a roadblock the rebels had set up to enforce a prohibition on firearms in the area. The insurgents prohibit candidates from campaigning in areas under their control without permit, for which they must pay. The rebels also forbid candidates to bring armed bodyguards or carry firearms except if the weapons are for protection against bandits. But the candidates must have NPA gun permits, which they must also pay for. Dont pay Malacaang on Monday advised candidates in Mays midterm elections not to pay protection money to the NPA and instead seek help from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) if they are campaigning in rebel-infested areas. Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda told reporters that the Palace had ordered the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to explain why the NPA could freely set up checkpoints in areas the rebels supposedly controlled. Lacierda said the Armys 58th Infantry Battalion was spearheading an investigation into NPA checkpoints. Local candidates may report NPA checkpoints to the DILG and the military would take care of dismantling them, he said. Lacierda said Interior Secretary Mar Roxas had ordered the police to provide security to local candidates campaigning in areas influenced by the NPA. Security operations Lt. Gen. Allan Luga, AFP vice chief of staff, said the military would send one Army battalion to Misamis Oriental within the week to intensify security operations. Luga said two Army battalions were already in the province helping the police keep the peace during the campaign for the local elections. The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said it might include Gingoog City on the list of election hot spots after the attack on Mayor Guingona. Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes told reporters that the election watchdog may tag areas where NPA attacks occurred recently as areas of immediate concern.

He said seven more areas would be added to the 15 provinces the police had listed as areas of concern and election hot spots. NDF apologizes The National Democratic Front (NDF) in Mindanao apologized to the Guingonas for the injuries and deaths in Alatagan and promised to extend medical assistance to the civilians wounded and indemnify the families of those killed. But Jorge Madlos, a spokesman for the NDF, insisted that Mayor Guingonas group had failed to secure NPA permission to campaign and to comply with the NPA prohibition on the carrying of firearms in areas controlled by the guerrillas. Mayor Guingona is not a candidate, but her daughter Marie is running to take her place in Gingoog City Hall. Military and police officials said the mayor was not campaigning but was returning from a village fiesta when her group was attacked. Not ready to forgive Former Vice President Guingona said his family was not ready to forgive the NPA for the attack on his wife. Speaking at a news conference in Cagayan de Oro City on Monday, Guingona said it would take some time before his family could forgive the rebels for the assault on the Gingoog mayor, whom the family described as an elderly woman who was bowing out of public service. Guingona said his family was going through a harrowing experience and should be given time for healing. My heart is sorrowful and I am saddened very much by what happened, Guingona said. I thank God that my wife was able to survive. Senator Guingona called for a resumption of the peace negotiations between the government and the communist rebels. It is only when we have a genuine peace agreement that we can move forward, the senator said. He praised the military and the police for rescuing his mother, who was trapped inside her car and was recovered early on Sunday, seven hours after the attack. The mayor was found under the lifeless bodies of brothers Nestor and Bartolome Velasco, civilian aides who took the bullets to save their boss life. Bartolome Velasco had been the mayors driver-bodyguard for eight years. Nestor Velasco had been employed at the mayors office for just a month. Rosalie Velasco, sister of the two men, said Bartolome was hit several times. Nestor was hit once in the head. When I was told that the mayor was found under their bodies, I could not help but think about their promise to protect her, Rosalie said. Tome had always been saying he was ready to give up his life for the person who helped to feed his family, she said, referring to Bartolome by his nickname. The bodies of the brothers were taken to their parents home in Gingoog City Monday afternoon for the wake. Cristy Velasco, Bartolomes wife, could not look at the body of her slain husband. Instead of braving it, she called their daughter Cherry Mae and told her, [Child], go take a look at your father. Then, turning to the Inquirer, she said, I want justice for my husband.With reports from Bobby Lagsa and Cai Panlilio, Inquirer Mindanao

Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/395691/aquino-crush-npa-checkpoints#ixzz2RRwiwiKi Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook EARTH DAY DAMPER

PH has SE Asias lowest forest cover

Theres more sobering news on the state of the countrys environment, according to an environment official during Mondays celebration of Earth Day: The Philippines has the second-lowest forest cover in Southeast Asia and its biodiversity is among the most threatened in the world; despite the country having one of the most extensive coral reef areas in the world, only 2 percent of them remain in excellent condition. Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) officer-in-charge and Undersecretary Demetrio Ignacio made this assessment in his Earth Day address on Monday, even as he assured the public that the government was working to reverse the countrys environmental degradation. Our forests have dwindled in the past 100 years [from 30 million hectares] to only 7.2 million, or 24 percent of our land area, Ignacio said, adding that it has resulted in the country having the second-lowest forest cover in Southeast Asia. Our coastal and marine areas are equally problematic, the DENR official said. We have one of the most extensive coral reef areas in the world [but] 40 percent of these are in poor condition and only 2 percent are still in excellent condition. Ignacio noted that while the countrys biodiversity is considered one of the richest in the world, it is also among the most threatened. As for major urban centers, particularly Metro Manila, the official said air pollution was a common problem while bodies of water in these areas remained unfit for human activity. Ignacio said such environmental deterioration had resulted in a degraded ecosystem, poor health, scarcity in natural resources, poverty, unmitigated flooding, as well as death and destruction with the onset of climate change. On road to recovery Speaking at Earth Day rites at Quezon Memorial Circle, the environment official also apologized to the public for the governments inability to fully deliver on the Filipinos constitutional right to a balanced and healthful ecology, but added that [the country] was now on the road to recovering the environment we have lost.

Ignacio cited several measures being undertaken by the government to heal the environment, among them the total log ban in all natural forests and the national greening program, a reforestation effort aimed at planting 1.5 billion trees in 1.5 million ha within six years. We will plant more trees in six years than what we [have] planted the past 50 years, Ignacio said. If we do not do this, it will take us 240 years to reforest our country, he added. Carbon emissions Among the initiatives of the national greening program are the reduction of carbon emissions in the atmosphere, the absorption of runoff water and the distribution of geo-hazard maps to all communities to mitigate the loss of lives and property during extreme weather events triggered by climate change, Ignacio said. He added that such government initiatives had earned the country a high ranking as a strong environmental performer in the 2012 Environmental Performance Index Report of Yale and Columbia Universities. The Philippines ranked 42 out of 132 countries and outperformed South Korea, Australia, Singapore and the United States, Ignacio said. To highlight the theme, Earth Day Everyday, Everywhere for Everyone, the DENR and the Earth Day Network Philippines Inc. (EDNPI) yesterday launched the Mini(mize) Carbon Olympics among 32 high schools and 15 colleges and universities in the National Capital Region in a yearlong competition to showcase the best practices to reduce carbon emission. Sound practices The [schools] would basically be competing with themselves on improving existing environmentally sound p ractices as a way of addressing climate change, said EDNPI executive director Voltaire Alferez. During the activity set to start in June, the sch ools will be taught how to audit greenhouse gas emissions and their energy consumption, he added. Alferez said among these practices were energy efficiency measures that may be as simple as replacing incandescent bulbs with LED lights, as well as good solid waste management, greening initiatives and efforts to reduce energy consumption. Yesterday mornings Earth Day celebration officially started with a walk for nature activity participated in by hundreds of environmentalists, including government officials and members of nongovernmental organizations, who walked around the Elliptical Road before gathering at Quezon Memorial Circle for the ceremonies. Meanwhile, reelectionist senatorial candidate Sen. Loren Legarda promised to embark on an Oplan Linis operation immediately after the May 13 election, to remove and recycle her campaign materials all over the country. All over the country, all campaign plastics, tarpaulins, reusable calendars, pins and ballers, will be collected and recycled, the senator added. Legarda, a proponent of several environmental legislation, and chair of the Senate committee on climate change, called for the Earth Day-themed press conference to promote environmental protection as a gut issue. Environmental issues are hunger and food scarcity issues, she said, adding that the most victimized by climate injustice were the poor and marginalized. The senator also announced plans to furnish local government units with geo-hazard maps, and to legislate community-based disaster risk reduction and eco-tourism through the establishment of living ecological museums. With a report from Jaymee T. Gamil

Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/395725/ph-has-se-asias-lowest-forest-cover#ixzz2RRxJXNDh Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook

As Nancy Binay soars, Escudero slips; Legarda keeps No. 1

For the first time since the campaign began, political neophyte Nancy Binay, one of the biggest buyers of prime time TV ads, has broken into the third to fourth spot of the senatorial race, according to a survey conducted by Social Weather Stations on April 13-15. Results of the nationwide survey, first published in BusinessWorld, showed 49 percent of respondents supporting Binay of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA)two percentage points up from her rating in March. Nancy, daughter of Vice President Jejomar Binay, has been criticized for her lack of experience. Unlike her two siblings, a reelectionist mayor of Makati City and a reelectionist representative of the city, Nancy has not held any elective post. She is a UP BS Tourism graduate and a former personal assistant of her father. Binay, 39, was tied with former Las Pias Rep. Cynthia Villar (Nacionalista Party/Team PNoy), who also garnered 49 percent, two percentage points up from her rating last month. Both Binay and Villar, wife of former Senate President Manny Villar, dislodged Sen. Francis Chiz Escudero (Independent/Team PNoy), who has been hounded by controversies surrounding his girlfriend, actress Heart Evangelista. Escudero, who consistently placed second in SWS surveys from December to February, landed in fifth place with 47 percent, down one percentage point from his rating in March, in which he placed third or fourth. For its survey, SWS asked 1,800 registered voters nationwide the question, If the elections were held today, whom would you most probably vote for senator of the Philippines? Twelve seats in the 24-member Senate are at stake in the mid-term elections. Face-to-face interviews The noncommissioned survey used face-to-face interviews and had a margin of error of plus-or-minus two percentage points. A total of nine candidates of the administration-backed Team PNoy had a statistical chance of winning a Senate seat if elections were conducted less than a month before the elections, based on the survey results. Team PNoy is an alliance of candidates of the Liberal Party (LP), Nacionalista Party (NP), Nationalist Peoples Coalition (NP C), PDP Laban and Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP). Aside from Binay, three other UNA candidatesSan Juan City Rep. JV Ejercito, Cagayan Rep. Juan Ponce Enrile Jr. and Sen. Gringo Honasanmade it to the list of probable winners. Reelectionist Sen. Loren Legarda (NPC/Team PNoy), who consistently topped the poll since December, emerged in first place again with 59 percent, unchanged from her March rating. Trailing Legarda was Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano (NP/Team PNoy, 52 percent), who managed to secure his ranking despite a fivepercentage point drop from the March survey. Bam up to No. 6 Paolo Benigno Bam Aquino IV (LP/Team PNoy), first cousin of President Aquino, surged to sixth place with 44 percent, up two percentage points from the previous survey, in which he landed in 10th place. Sharing the seventh to eighth place were Sen. Koko Pimentel (PDP-Laban/Team PNoy) and Ejercito (UNA), who both garnered 43 percent. In ninth spot was Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Sonny Angara (LDP/Team PNoy, 42 percent), who rose from the 12th spot in the March survey, where he garnered 39 percent. Both in 10th to 11th spot were former Movie and Television Review and Classification Board chief Grace Poe (independent/Team PNoy), 39 percent) and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV (NP/Team PNoy, 39 percent). Rounding up the list of probable winners were UNA candidates Enrile and Honasan, who both got 37 percent, landing them in 12th to 13th place. Barely making it to the list were former Bukidnon Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri (UNA, 35 percent) and former Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr. (LP/Team PNoy, 35 percent), who both landed in 14th to 15th place. SWS said 45 percent of respondents chose a full slate of 12 candidates; 2 percent were either undecided or did not have an answer; and 4 percent had invalid ballots.Inquirer Research

Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/395721/as-nancy-binay-soars-escudero-slips-legarda-keeps-no-1#ixzz2RRxNtU5L Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook

Escudero on latest SWS survey: No excuses; it only means more hard work
By Redempto D. Anda, Cathy C. Yamsuan
Inquirer Southern Luzon, Philippine Daily Inquirer
2:08 am | Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013 7 711 227

Reelectionist Sen. Francis Escudero offered no excuses for his slide in the latest survey by Social Weather Stations that saw him landing in fifth place this month, down from first place in August last year. We accept the survey. You wont hear me making any excuses. This only means we need to work harder but I dont want to make survey analysis and reveal our next moves, Escudero said at a press conference in Puerto Princesa City on Monday. He went solo stomping in Puerto Princesa assisted by a small staff of supporters, doing radio program guesting and calling a press conference. I believe in surveys. They tell us what we need to do and to correct our mistakes if any, said Escudero, who is on the administrations Team PNoy slate. Precarious standing In Marawi City, Grace Poe, also a Team PNoy senatorial candidate, said the SWS report should remind her and fellow candidates that all of them have a very precarious standing in these surveys save for those in the top spot. We all have to pray and work harder, she said in a text message sent to reporters after attending a rally at the Lanao del Norte capitol gym on Monday. Obsession Team PNoy senatorial candidate Jamby Madrigal observed that the current batch of senatorial candidates appeared to have an obsession with survey results. In an impromptu news conference after the Marawi event, Madrigal dismissed the opinion polls as a mind -conditioning campaign mechanism, saying this was the reason she did not subscribe to such surveys. Madrigal pointed out that while she did not fare well in the surveys before the 2004 national elections, she ranked No. 4 in the official tabulation of Senate election results at the time. Risa Hontiveros, who is also a Team PNoy senatorial candidate, urged voters to continue waging the war against traditional politics. Work harder She acknowledged that the latest SWS report meant she needed to work harderto try mobilizing grassroots supporters to campaign for me and to ask them to help raise resources. Hontiveros noted that other candidates could rely on famous surnames and ready cash that pay for TV ads shown on prime time. We should be wary about candidates who do not wish to be scrutinized by the public and are hiding behind advertisements. The y might think that they are exempted from accountability, she said in an e-mailed statement. Aurora Rep. Sonny Angara, who is also on the Team PNoy senatorial ticket, took his rise in ranking as a sign that our tirele ss campaign to explain our advocacy for quality education and jobs generation is gaining traction. Angara said he was more inspired to double his campaign efforts in order to sustain his improvement in ranking until the elections on May 13. Black propaganda Angara warned the public against black propaganda that would try to dislodge Team PNoy candidates from the winners circle. With 21 days remaining in the campaign, I urge everyone to stop engaging in black propaganda and to focus instead on the candidates platform and stand on the pressing issues of the country, he said. Stop mining in Palawan In Puerto Princesa, Escudero reiterated his earlier support for the campaign to exclude Palawan from mining and promised to push for new measures that would provide alternative policies to mineral extraction. I was one of the first to sign the petition to stop mining in Palawan, along with Ms. Gina Lopez (of the ABS CBN Foundation), he said. The senator proposed that mining areas in the country be properly delineated and that certain areas, including Palawan, be excluded because of its rich biodiversity. Mining areas should not be a choice to be made by proponents. The government should tell mining companies where they should mine, and I believe Palawan should not be the place, he said. Securitize land Escudero also vowed to introduce a measure that would allow the government to securitize mineral lands. Under the concept, the government could borrow against untapped minerals at cheap rates and pay the loan in the future so that there would be no need to open the areas for actual mining, the senator said. Especially for rare earth minerals, we should study how we can maximize our benefit from them by, for example, allowing mini ng only when the companies agree to put in value added to their operations, he said.

Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/395717/escudero-on-latest-sws-survey-no-excuses-it-only-means-more-hardwork#ixzz2RRxS6dxl Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook

Jovito Salongas son laments LP snub

Steve Salonga, an independent candidate for governor of Rizal in next months elections, is pretty much on his own. He laments that the Liberal Party (LP) has abandoned him. Steves father, former Sen. Jovito Salonga, had been one of the leading lights of the party for over a half century. But at the age of 92, and suffering from Alzheimers disease, the elder Salonga is no longer there as the son takes on Rebecc a Nini Ynares, the LP candidate in the gubernatorial race in Rizal. How did this happen? Salonga, a 64-year-old lawyer, points to what he calls the reality of traditional and patronage politics. In principle, the LP should be against political dynasties and warlords, but on the ground, there are many compromises and alliances that work against this, according to Salonga. Rizal is a case in point, he says. Ynares is part of a family whose members hold five elective positions in the province. Tuwid na daan I am aware and understand why my own party did not endorse my candidacy. Maybe they think I am much of an idealist and the type who do not compromise, and maybe they think, the dynasties which idealists should be fighting are the ones with the more chances of winning. I get that and I understand that but my point is, that is not tuwid na daan (straight path), he told the Inquirer in a recent interview. Tuwid na daan may be true in the elective posts on the national level, but not on the local level, he said. Salonga was quick to say that he did not think President Aquino was aware of the compromises on the ground, but insisted that this was a reality he had to contend with in next months elections. The disturbing and aggressive alliances with dynasties, warlords and traditional politicians began during the 2010 e lections, he said. Salonga said at that time, his father questioned such deals but got nowhere. He said that his fathers letters and phone call s were ignored. He was very disappointed, said the son. Salonga explained that Aquinos tuwid na daan principle must be carried out down to the grass roots. I have stayed in the background during most of the elections in the country to know that alliances even with enemies and tho se with opposing views and principles are ingredients of victory. However, this is not the Liberal Party as we know it and this is not tuwid na daan. Roxas drive As early as October last year, Salonga said, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas has been telling party members that he is running for president in 2016. That is why in the balloting next month, Roxas expects victory on all fronts of his allies, whether LP or non-LP politicians, he said. Salonga said that in Rizal, Roxas made that announcement at Ynares Coliseum. Dont get me wrong. Mar Roxas, as my father put it in 2010, was the pref erred candidate for president at that time. Not that he disliked Noynoy. No. He just felt that Mar had reached a level of maturity then that made him fit to become president. But when my father saw the clamor for Noynoy, he did not oppose it and simply supported the direction taken by the Liberal Party, Salonga said. In the 2010 polling, Salonga ran for vice governor of Rizal and lost. Still, he said he was surprised that he got 400,000 plus votes although he barely received support from his own party. I am against a dynasty and the party that my father and I served through the years, the old Liberal Party, if I must say, stands on this principle of idealists against patronage and traditional politics of evil compromises, Salonga said. Victory or defeat, the younger Salonga said, he would be happy knowing that he did not make any compromises to the kind of principled leadership his father had taught him by example.

Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/395713/jovito-salongas-son-laments-lp-snub#ixzz2RRxUx78L Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook