Army chief: There’s no Oplan ‘August Moon’

by Jonas Cabiles Soltes, Inquirer Southern Luzon (Philippine Daily Inquirer)

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100319-259540/Army-chief-Theres-no-Oplan-August-Moon

CAMP ELIAS ANGELES, PILI, Camarines Sur—Lt. Gen. Reynaldo Mapagu Thursday dismissed speculation that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was mobilizing loyal generals under a military operation called “August Moon” to extend her term.

“There is no such thing as Oplan August Moon,” said the newly appointed Army chief of Ms Arroyo’s purported plan to put members of his Philippine Military Academy Class of 1978 in key military and police positions to keep her in office.

“We do not talk about it in the camps. In fact, I was shocked when the issue came out,” Mapagu said during a visit here to award medals of merit and promote soldiers for outstanding duty in the counterinsurgency campaign in the Bicol region.

The appointments of Mapagu and that of Gen. Delfin Bangit as chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines have drawn criticism amid concern about preparations for the country’s first automated balloting on May 10 and the possibility of a failure of elections.

What’s there to question?

The two generals belong to PMA Class of 1978, which adopted Ms Arroyo as an honorary member. Another classmate, Rear Adm. Feliciano Angue, was likewise recently named chief of the National Capital Region Command.

Their promotions were made just before the constitutional ban on presidential appointments took effect on March 10 to last until the end of Ms Arroyo’s term in June.

NP bet says electricity situation not ‘desperate’

from Philippine Daily Inquirer

Link: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view/20100312-258286/NP-bet-says-electricity-situation-not--desperate

A SENATORIAL CANdidate of the Nacionalista Party said solutions are available to the shortage in electricity that Mindanao was suffering.

In a statement sent to the Inquirer on Thursday, Ramon Mitra III, NP senatorial candidate and former director of the then Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC), said the government should not act as if it was desperate in finding solutions to the power shortage.

“Nothing is in the desperate level and there are solutions waiting to be implemented,” he said in the statement.

“But the key word is implementation despite the time required for the solutions to take effect,” Mitra said. “The key is to implement them now, today, not a moment longer.”

He said the power problem would take time to solve.

“But it needs guts and political will to even talk about the details of the problems and the even more important details of the possible solutions which we have been waiting to be executed,” Mitra added.

Aquino, Villar rock to People Power politics

by Philip Tubeza, Michael Lim Ubac (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100226-255392/Aquino-Villar-rock-to-People-Power-politics

MANILA, Philippines—The top two rivals in the May presidential race hosted star-powered gatherings that ostensibly marked the anniversary of EDSA I but were suspiciously political.

One showered a packed coliseum with yellow confetti, the other drew orange-shirted followers to a mall for a rock concert.

Cheered by a crowd singing EDSA theme songs, Liberal Party presidential candidate Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III marked the 24th anniversary of the 1986 People Power Revolution at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City, promising to right the wrongs of the Arroyo presidency.

He said the Arroyo administration owed its mandate to a people power uprising yet it ended up in many ways worse than the Marcos dictatorship which the 1986 revolt had toppled.