Sona News

1st state-run university for Pampanga

Manila Bulletin - Wednesday, November 18

BACOLOR, Pampanga - The Senate approved on Monday the conversion of the Don Honorio Ventura College of Arts and Trades (DHVCAT), the oldest trade school in Asia, to Don Honorio Ventura Technological State University (DHVTSU), making it the first-ever state-run university in Pampanga.

The Senate's approval of Senate Bill 3306 will provide more funding and some fiscal and administrative benefits for DHVCAT as soon as President Gloria Arroyo signs the bill into law next month. More »

  • Anti-torture law signed

    Manila Bulletin - Saturday, November 14

    President Arroyo has signed the anti-torture bill into law as her government's commitment to safeguard and promote human rights, Malacañang said Friday.

    Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said the Anti-Torture Act of 2009 or Republic Act 9745 was signed on Tuesday, November 10. The law criminalizes acts of torture and provides stiffer penalties, ranging from arresto mayor to life imprisonment depending on the gravity of the offense.

    The law ''also makes liable any person who participated or cooperated in the commission of torture or who induces the commission, including members of the military and their immediate commanding officer or any government official who issued the order to commit the act.''

    ''This is a concrete demonstration of this administration's commitment to human rights,'' Remonde said.

    The signing of the law, which provides rehabilitation and compensation of not less than P10,000 to victims of torture and their families, is in compliance with the United Nations Convention Against Torture.

    Under the law, beating, food deprivation, electric shock, burning, blindfolding, threatening a person or his family with wrongful acts, solitary confinement, prolonged interrogation and shame infliction are among the forms of torture.

    Apart from the compensation fund, the victims of torture will be given institutional protection to have a prompt and impartial investigation and sufficient government protection and security against all forms of harassments.

    Under its refouler provision, the law provides that ''no person shall be expelled, returned or extradited to another state if there are substantial grounds to believe that such person shall be in danger of being subjected to torture.''

  • Luzon still under state of calamity despite oil freeze lift

    Manila Bulletin - Saturday, November 14

    SINGAPORE - Despite the lifting of price control on basic goods and oil products on Monday, the Arroyo government will keep the state of calamity in Luzon until rehabilitation works are finished, according to the country's trade chief.

    Trade Secretary Peter Favila said keeping the state of calamity in Luzon would assist local government units in their ''emergency purchases'' needed to recover from the tragedy left by killer typhoons last month.

    Favila sought to clarify the duration of the calamity declaration in Luzon after President Arroyo announced plans to drop price control on food items and oil goods on Monday.

  • P3-B road projects near completion

    Manila Bulletin - Friday, November 13

    DAVAO CITY - The P3-billion major infrastructure rehabilitation projects in this region are slated to reach completion by December, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) XI bared Friday.

    In a phone interview, DPWH public relations officer Agustin Dacumos reported two of President Arroyo's promises in her 2007's State of the Nation Address (SONA) would come to life as the rehabilitation of Talaingod-Bukidnon and Manay-Boston roads are now 95.43 percent complete.

    In a statement, DPWH XI Director Osop Ali said the 58-kilometer Talaingod-Bukidnon road would connect Davao del Norte's Talaingod municipality with Bukidnon's San Fernando town.

  • Time ripe for peace with Philippine Muslim rebels, says Clinton

    Manila Bulletin - Friday, November 13

    MANILA, November 13, 2009 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday the time was ripe for the Philippines to finally seal a peace deal with the country's largest Muslim separatist group and end a 30-year insurgency.

    On a trip to Manila, Clinton urged both sides to broker an agreement before the end of Philippine President Gloria Arroyo's term in June next year, warning that the negotiating environment could change under a new administration.

    ''The conditions for peace are ripe.

  • DoJ, DoE recommend lifting of oil price freeze

    Manila Bulletin - Thursday, November 12

    The joint task force on oil composed of the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Department of Energy (DoE) has recommended to lift the freeze order on fuel prices in Luzon.

    DoJ Secretary Agnes Devanadera announced last night that the task force had recommended to lift the freeze order after the National Disaster Coordinating Council lifted the state of calamity in Luzon.

    ''There is no need anymore for the oil price freeze,'' she said.

    Devanadera said the recommendation had been forwarded to President Arroyo who would make the final decision whether to lift Executive Order No. 839 which froze fuel prices to their levels as of October 15.

    Devanadera said the recommendation to lift the freeze order on fuel prices was formed after consultations with oil firms on the effects of the freeze order on their business operations and to the public, like the possible shortage in the supply of oil. (David Cagahastian)

  • Completion of P1.5-B road project on target

    Manila Bulletin - Wednesday, November 11

    BUTUAN CITY - The P1.5 billion major road construction project that will connect the Northern and Southern Mindanao regions is set to be completed this December.

    According to officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the 58-kilometer Talaingod, Davao del Norte (Southern Mindanao)-San Fernando, Bukidnon (Northern Mindanao) is now already 95.43 percent complete.

    The Talaingod-Bukidnon road project is part of President Arroyo's commitment in her State-of-the-Nation Address (SoNA), DPWH officials said.

    They said the contractors of the said project were specifically instructed to follow a 24-hour, seven days a week (24/7) work schedule to be able to meet the target deadlines.

    Engineers of the District Engineering Offices (DEOs) in Bukidnon and Davao del Norte were also directed to personally supervise the ground works to hit the timeline.

    They said that only a weather disturbance could derail the ongoing finishing touches.

  • Rebels survive US-backed crackdown in RP

    Manila Bulletin - Wednesday, November 11

    MANILA, November 11, 2009 (AFP) - The beheading of a kidnap victim is the latest proof that a small number of Islamic militants in the Philippines are defying a sustained US-backed military campaign to extinguish them, observers say.

    The grisly development this week came just ahead of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to the Southeast Asian nation, throwing the spotlight on joint efforts by Filipino and American forces to crush the Abu Sayyaf.

    ''The Abu Sayyaf are still well-entrenched in the jungle.

  • GMA signs 2 bills in Mactan

    Manila Bulletin - Tuesday, November 10

    MACTAN, Cebu - President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Tiesday signed into law two House Bills in Mactan, one of which created a new congressional district in Cebu and the other converting a state-run college into a university.

    Mrs.

  • Verify calamity status in Luzon, NDCC told

    Manila Bulletin - Tuesday, November 10

    President Arroyo Tuesday ordered an immediate assessment if Luzon is still under a state of calamity, several weeks after the onslaught of deadly storms that left more than a thousand people dead and hundreds of thousands homeless due to floods and landslides.

  • Government vows revenge after militants behead hostage

    Manila Bulletin - Monday, November 9

    ZAMBOANGA, Philippines, November 9, 2009 (AFP) - The Philippine government vowed Monday to take revenge against Al Qaeda-linked Islamic militants after they dumped the severed head of a kidnapped school principal at a petrol station.

    The head of Gabriel Canizares was found inside a bag at the petrol station on the restive southern island of Jolo at dawn, 22 days after he was abducted, but the rest of his body remained missing, local police said.

    The Abu Sayyaf had demanded a P2-million ($42,000) ransom for the release of Canizares, but authorities and his relatives refused to pay.

    President Gloria Arroyo's office said the Abu Sayyaf, blamed for the country's worst terrorist attacks and other beheadings of kidnap victims, was behind Canizares' murder, and vowed tough action against the militants.

    ''We shall make them pay for the enormity of this savagery,'' Arroyo's spokeswoman, Lorelei Fajardo, said in a statement.

    She said authorities were determined to ''put an end to the Abu Sayyaf group's heinous and inhumane atrocities''.

    Arroyo had ordered the military and police units operating on Jolo and other Abu Sayyaf strongholds in the southern Philippines into ''full swing'' in an effort to crush them, according to Fajardo and the military.

    ''A full-scale military and police manhunt has been launched to go after the criminals responsible for this barbaric act,'' armed forces chief General Victor Ibrado said, but he gave no details on how many troops were involved.

    Small numbers of US military forces have been in the southern Philippines for the past eight years to train local soldiers in how to fight the Abu Sayyaf, but the group has continued to cause major security problems.

    Dozens of Filipino soldiers as well as militants have been killed in clashes on Jolo and nearby islands over the past year alone.

    On September 29, two US soldiers and a Filipino marine were killed in a roadside bomb planted by the Abu Sayyaf in the Jolo town of Indanan.

    The murder of Canizares threw the spotlight on the Abu Sayyaf and the US military's efforts just three days before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was due to visit the Philippines.

    The Philippine government had previously said security issues would be discussed during Clinton's two-day trip.

    The Abu Sayyaf was set up in the 1990s allegedly with seed money from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, and is listed by the United States as a terrorist organisation.

    It has been blamed for many of the Philippines' worst terrorist attacks, including the bombing of a ferry in Manila Bay that claimed more than 100 lives in 2005, and the abduction of American tourists in 2001.

    One of those Americans was beheaded while another was killed in a military rescue.

    While the Abu Sayyaf wants to set up an independent Muslim homeland in the south of the Catholic Philippines, authorities also regard its members as bandits who engage in crimes such as kidnappings to raise money.

    The Philippine military says there are only 300-400 Abu Sayyaf militants, although the group enjoys strong local support from Muslim communities on Jolo and nearby islands.

  • Clinton, Arroyo to also tackle VFA - Bayan

    Philstar.com - Monday, November 9

    MANILA, Philippines - Militant group Bayan today claimed that the two-day meeting between President Arroyo and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this coming Thursday in Malacanang will also involve the Visiting Forces Agreeement and the Mutual Defense Treaty between the US and the Philippines.

  • Hillary coming to RP

    Manila Bulletin - Saturday, November 7

    WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday she will travel to the Philippines next week to "show solidarity" with the storm-battered nation, just after her visits to Singapore and Berlin.

    Clinton also announced she will join President Barack Obama during his visit to China from November 15-18, her second trip as chief diplomat to the country the Obama administration recognizes as a key global player.

    In a flurry of travel announcements this week, Clinton and her aides announced her tour of Europe and Asia, one that comes on top of a tour of Pakistan and the Middle East that only ended on Wednesday.

    "I'll be going to the Philippines, to show solidarity with our friends in the Philippines who have been battered by typhoons and have just suffered so much over the last weeks," Clinton said in a speech in Washington.

    Typhoon Mirinae ("Santi" in the Philippines) swept over the main island Luzon Saturday, dumping heavy rain and bringing strong winds just weeks after Tropical Storm Ketsana (Ondoy) and Typhoon Parma (Pepeng) left about 1,100 dead and tens of thousands homeless.

    During her visit to Manila from November 12-13, "the secretary will hold consultations with senior Filipino officials, highlighting the US-Philippines treaty alliance," Clinton's spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.

    Her trip starts with a stop in Berlin for official ceremonies on Monday to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

  • Arroyo to assure Hillary of clean 2010 polls during RP visit

    GMANews.TV - Saturday, November 7

    Malacañang welcomed Saturday a prospective lightning visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the country, saying it is further proof of robust relations between the Philippines and the United States.

  • Government accuses more rebels in Irish priest's kidnap

    Manila Bulletin - Saturday, November 7

    ZAMBOANGA, Philippines, November 6, 2009 (AFP) - The Philippines Friday named five more Muslim separatist leaders from the country's restive south as suspects in the abduction of an Irish priest.

    State prosecutors have now summoned six Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leaders on allegations they played a role in the October 11 abduction, national police chief Jesus Verzosa told a news conference here.

    They include Salip Aloy Al Asree, a MILF brigade commander, who was accused earlier this week by Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno of being behind the kidnapping of Father Michael Sinnott, a Roman Catholic missionary.

    The five MILF leaders named on Friday are Latip Jamad, Nasser Macabato, Imam Abubakar, Wanning Abdusalam and Saidamen Alik.

    Sinnott, 79, who has a history of heart problems, was kidnapped by six armed men in the southern city of Pagadian on Mindanao island.

    A video has been sent to authorities in the south, showing Sinnott speaking and demanding a $2-million ransom for his release.

    In Manila, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rafael Seguis told a news conference the government was preparing to resume peace talks.

    "In the next couple of weeks we'll have meetings with (the MILF) chair," said Seguis, adding that a preparatory meeting will be hosted by Malaysia.

    "As far as the MILF is concerned, we'd like to push (forward) in the next eight months and sign a comprehensive peace compact," said Annabelle Abaya, President Gloria Arroyo's chief peace adviser.

    Abaya said accusations of MILF involvement in Sinnott's kidnapping "may have hurt" the negotiations, but "we would like to give (the MILF)... the benefit of the doubt."

    The MILF could not be reached for comment Friday, but it has previously denied involvement in the kidnapping and warned that the accusations could affect the progress of the peace talks.

    Since 1978 the 12,000-strong MILF has been waging a rebellion for an independent Islamic state in the southern third of this mainly Catholic country.