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April 22, Earth Day!

2010-04-21T19:34:00.000-07:00

Earth Day is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment. It was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in held on April 22, 1970. Earth Day is celebrated in spring in the Northern Hemisphere and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Many communities celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of activities focused on environmental issues. The first Earth Week originated in Philadelphia in 1970 (starting April 16 and culminating on Earth Day, April 22.) Earth Day Network, a group that wishes to become the coordinator of Earth Day globally, asserts that Earth Day is now observed on April 22 on virtually every country on Earth. World Environment Day, celebrated on June 5 in a different nation every year, is the principal United Nations environmental observance.

Your support enables Earth Day Network to power the environmental movement and ensure a healthy and sustainable planet for all of us.

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It's final: GMA can pick next Supreme Court chief

2010-04-21T08:18:00.000-07:00

MANILA, Philippines - President Arroyo’s power to name the next chief justice was affirmed by the Supreme Court (SC), which ruled with finality on the case yesterday.
Nine justices voted to uphold their March 17 decision that the constitutional ban on midnight appointments does not apply to the SC.
Holding session in Baguio City, Associate Justices Lucas Bersamin, Jose Perez, Roberto Abad, Martin Villarama, Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Arturo Brion, Diosdado Peralta, Jose Mendoza and Mariano del Castillo dismissed the arguments raised in the motions for reconsideration of various groups.
Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales dissented, while Chief Justice Reynato Puno and senior Justices Renato Corona and Antonio Carpio did not take part in the voting.
At Malacañang, deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar said the SC ruling will pave the way for the appointment of Puno’s successor after he retires on May 17.
Deputy presidential spokesman Rogelio Peyuan said Mrs. Arroyo would do what she deems is in the best interest of the country.
“If this is what is required of the President then she would do this especially since this was not her determination but this is what was contained in the decision of our Supreme Court,” he said in Filipino.
Jose Midas Marquez, court administrator and SC spokesman, said the majority of justices believe that the basic issues raised in the motions for reconsideration have been passed upon in the original decision.
“Given the background and rationale for the prohibition in Section 15, Article VII, we have no doubt that the Constitutional Commission confined the prohibition to appointments made in the executive department,” read the SC decision.
“The framers did not need to extend the prohibition to appointments in the judiciary, because their establishment of the JBC and their subjecting the nomination and screening of candidates for judicial positions to the unhurried and deliberate prior process of the JBC ensured that there would no longer be midnight appointments to the judiciary.”
However, the justices failed to come up with a doctrinal ruling on whether the exemption to the midnight
appointment ban applies only to the SC or to the entire judiciary, Marquez said.
Justices Antonio Eduardo Nachura and Presbitero Velasco voted to grant the motions for reconsideration on the ground that the decision was premature.
Justice Carpio-Morales believed that Mrs. Arroyo cannot name the next chief justice based on the constitutional ban on midnight appointments.
Three resolutions were issued by the Court yesterday: one by Justice Bersamin, who penned the decision; another by Justice Brion, who concurred with the majority decision, but with a qualification; and the last one by Justice Carpio-Morales, who reiterated her dissent.
It was exactly the same voting as in the consolidated petitions of the Philippine Constitution Association and lawyers Arturo de Castro and Estelito Mendoza.
There was no majority vote as to the validity of the 1998 decision of the Court to void the appointments of Judges Mateo Valenzuela and Placido Vallarta to the regional trial courts for violating the constitutional ban on appointments during the election period.
The SC again gave weight to the government’s position that appointments in the SC cannot be considered midnight because of the nomination process in the Judicial and Bar Council.
It also agreed with the Office of the Solicitor
General that the JBC does not have the power to withhold its list from the President.

by: Edu Punay

Source: PhilStar
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Technorati claim token : 4D5VJD4JCYR9

Ampatuans go for Noynoy

2010-04-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

It was a family reunion of sorts for the Ampatuans following their transfer to Camp Bagong Diwa.
Ampatuan Jr., principal accused in the mass murder, was joined by his father Andal Sr. and former ARMM governor Zaldy at the jail.
The three Ampatuans arranged for a news conference inside the jail.
Journalists were expecting the three Ampatuans to comment on the developments surrounding the charges against them but to their surprise, their statements turned political.
“The whole Ampatuan family is supporting Noynoy,” Andal Jr. told reporters in Filipino declaring their
support for Liberal Party (LP) presidential candidate Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.
Andal Jr. added the family is also supporting the candidacy of LP vice presidential bet Sen. Manuel Roxas II.
“This is our decision. We will support Sen. Noynoy since we see from him that he would change the system and obtain justice under his government,” Andal Jr. said.
The Ampatuan patriarch, for his part, issued a statement criticizing Nacionalista Party (NP) presidential bet Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. and other candidates for blaming them for the massacre.
“It really hurts us that Sen. Manny Villar and other politicians are accusing our family over the murders. We are innocent and we should not be used for any political propaganda,” Andal Sr. said.
The former Maguindanao governor though did not identify the other candidates and the political parties accusing them. “The family will not support them,” he warned.
Andal Sr. appealed to candidates not to use the family for their political agenda and just allow the courts to decide on their fate.
Aquino, on the other hand, said he was not seeking any endorsement from the Ampatuans.
“We never talked to him (Andal Jr.), and we are not seeking his endorsement,” Aquino said.
He said the “endorsement” of the Ampatuans came as a surprise. “Is that a joke?” Aquino asked.
“In fact, we have been victims of cheating in Maguindanao in May 2007,” he said.
The LP also branded as “a sick joke,” the endorsement of the Ampatuans.
“If this was a way for the Ampatuans to instantly repay the Arroyo regime for the legally questionable and suspect and undue haste by which two of their kin had been set free, it was a crude and reprehensible stunt,” said LP campaign manager Florencio Abad.
Abad also debunked reports that Roxas also sought the support of the Ampatuans.
He said the mention of Roxas during the press conference of the Ampatuans inside the jail could be part of a mind-conditioning scheme by other vice presidential candidates lagging in the surveys. - With Rhodina Villanueva, Delon Porcalla, Aurea Calica, Reinir Padua, Jigger Jerusalem

Source: Philstar

Self-rated poverty hits record low of 43%

2010-04-19T17:19:00.000-07:00

MANILA, Philippines - The number of Filipino families who consider themselves poor dropped to its lowest level since 1987, according to a latest survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

The SWS pre-election survey, conducted from March 19 to 22, found that 43 percent or about 8.1 million families rate themselves as “mahirap” or poor, matching the record-low self-rated poverty recorded in March 1987.

On the other hand, the number of Filipino households who consider themselves as food-poor hit a new record-low of 31 percent or about 5.9 million.

The previous record-low self-rated food poverty was 35 percent in June 2004.

The SWS survey also showed that the proportion of families experiencing involuntary hunger declined by three points from 24 percent in December to 21.2 percent or an estimated four million families in March.

“The latest hunger rate was three points below the record-high incidence of 24 percent in December 2009, but still far above the 1998-2010 average of 13.4 percent,” the SWS said.

SWS said the measure of hunger refers to involuntary suffering because the respondents answer a survey question that specifies hunger due to lack of anything to eat.

“The reason why self-rated poverty is relatively low and at the same time hunger is relatively high is because living standards have dropped so low that many families do not rate themselves as poor even if they suffered from hunger recently,” the SWS explained.

The polling firm said that out of the estimated four million households reporting hunger in March 2010, only 2.6 million rated themselves as poor.

“A significant 1.4 million who suffered from hunger did not rate themselves as poor,” the pollster said.

“In March 2010, both poverty and food-poverty thresholds continue to be sluggish despite considerable inflation, indicating falling living standards or ‘belt-tightening,’” it said.

Overall hunger fell by almost 10 points in Metro Manila, from 27 percent (estimated 665,000 families) in December to 17.3 percent (estimated 432,000 families) in March.

It also declined by almost seven points in the Visayas, from 27.9 percent (estimated one million families) to 21.2 percent (estimated 800,000 families).

It hardly changed in Min-danao, from 24.5 percent to 24 percent (estimated one million families), and in balance Luzon, from 21.2 percent to 20.9 percent (estimated 1.7 million families).

Compared to December 2009, the median poverty thresholds for poor households stayed at P12,000 in Metro Manila, P8,000 in balance Luzon, and P6,000 in Mindanao.

It declined by P1,000 in the Visayas to P6,000. These amounts have already been surpassed in the past in those areas, the SWS said.

Source: PhilStar

Another ONE

2010-04-19T17:16:00.000-07:00

Hi! This is my personal blog but then this would be also a news update blog about different hot topics now here in our country, especially the very first Automated Election 2010!