Online monitors
Cover-up
CHEERS TO VERA Files for providing an analysis of government actions related to the return of former Department of Agriculture (DA) undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-joc” Bolante and the charges filed against him regarding the P 728-million fertilizer fund scam. VERA Files interviewed lawyer Raul Pangalangan and political analyst Felipe Miranda, both of whom said that the Arroyo administration was covering up the Bolante case (“Cover-up of Bolante case seen”, Nov. 10).
Bolante is the alleged implementor of the diversion of the P728-million fertilizer fund to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s 2004 campaign.
VERA Files also reviewed how the Office of the Ombudsman has been handling the case against Bolante and other DA officials on the alleged misuse of the fertilizer fund. They also looked at the documents on the hearing of Bolante’s U.S. asylum petition, which they said supported the experts’ claims of a cover-up by the Arroyo administration.
Quick-reading the complaint
CHEERS TO various online news organizations for posting an informative summary of the latest impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. The summary, prepared by Bayan Muna General Counsel Neri Javier Colmenares, lists both the complainants and the complaints against Arroyo, and explains each of the latter in detail.
Checking the judiciary
CHEERS TO abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak for monitoring developments in the judiciary.
Last Oct. 22, 23 and 26, abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak published a three-part report suggesting that the Supreme Court (SC) justices were being pressured by Malacanang to favorably decide cases involving President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. The report pointed out that the 13 Arroyo-appointed SC justices have mostly voted in her favor and that of the government.
Abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak also published a three-part report on corruption at the Court of Appeals, which PJR Reports noted in its October 2008 monitor.
Newsbreak is also a media partner of the SC Appointments Watch (SCAW) 2008-2009 project. Established in 2005, SCAW is a consortium of civil society groups calling for greater transparency in the appointment of SC justices.
Pesticide spraying
CHEERS TO VERA Files for an extensive report on the issues of agribusiness and public health. VERA Files did a two-part report on the pros and cons of aerial pesticide spraying in the farmlands of Davao City (“Davao City gov’t farmers push ban on aerial pesticide spraying” and “Davao aerial pesticide row tests LGU power,” Oct. 13 and 14). It provided both the views of those for and against it.
The report discussed the on-going legal battles: the local government ordinance banning the spraying, a Court of Appeals preliminary injunction allowing companies to resume the spraying, and the injunction’s being questioned before the Supreme Court.
The story also provided background on cases of controversial pesticide use and its context in a region dependent on the export of bananas. It also included a discussion on the effects of the pesticides on health and the reactions of the locals affected by the dispute.
Explaining Mindanao
CHEERS TO GMANews.TV for explaining the continued fighting in Mindanao despite several peace negotiations between the armed Moro groups and the government. The Oct. 15 article “Gov’t missteps; a decade of talks end in doomed domain” discussed the reasons behind the armed struggle of the Bangsamoro people. It cited the “annexation of Moroland to the Philippines in the Treaty of Paris in 1898” and the “imposition of confiscatory land laws and land grabbing” among the “foundational causes” of the problem.
The article also described the outcomes and circumstances of several peace negotiations entered into by the government, the Moro National Liberation Front, and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front from the Marcos administration until the present one.
Who can be pardoned?
CHEERS TO abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak for explaining the rules on the pardon of prisoners.
The Oct. 17 article “Rules for pardon exclude prisoners convicted of certain crimes” noted that the President may grant executive clemency regardless of any protests or conditions the criminal may violate in the 2006 Revised Rules and Regulations of the Board of Pardons and Parole (BPP). The report cited former President Joseph Estrada who has not spent a day in prison and the release of Claudio Teehankee Jr. as examples.
In the end, the aggrieved party must prove that the President committed grave abuse of discretion, the report said. The BPP, meanwhile, cannot do much since it is only a recommendatory body under the Office of the President.
But the report could have explained the difference between a pardon and executive clemency and not used them interchangeably.
Executive clemency is the authority vested on the president by Article 7 Section 19 of the 1987 Constitution. A pardon, like a commutation of sentence, reprieve, and parole, are the ways in which the President may exercise that power.
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