by magnolia_eic | Aug 12, 2010 | Headlines, National News
NAMES and/or pictures of any politician or personality will no longer appear on billboards of DPWH infrastructure projects nationwide.
Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson said on Tuesday he is imposing a ban on the practice of putting the names or pictures of politicians on signboards of DPWH infrastructure projects nationwide.
Secretary Singson said that the revised DPWH Project Billboard is also in accordance with the instruction of President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III which ordering all government agencies not to use his name or image on government programs and projects.
President Aquino has ordered his Cabinet and heads of government agencies and Government Owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCCs) to refrain from associating the President’s personality and identity in their programs and projects and advised not to put up tarpaulins, billboards, and other propaganda materials bearing his name and image.
The DPWH has revised the implementing guidelines on DPWH signboard structures which should now only contain the name of the project and location, contractor, the date when it started, and the project’s completion. (PIA-Bohol)
by magnolia_eic | Aug 12, 2010 | Headlines, National News
PEACE negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will resume after Islam’s holy month of Ramadan.
In a news briefing, Presidential Spokesman Atty. Edwin Lacierda said President Benigno S. Aquino III is determined to pursue his programs for Mindanao, the most important of which is to end the decade-long hostilities in Southern Philippines.
Lacierda said the appointment of UP College of Law dean Marvic Leonen as chief negotiator in the peace talks with the secessionist rebels is a clear testament of the Aquino administration’s commitment to pursue the consultative peace process.
He said Leonen, together with Presidential Adviser for the Peace Process Secretary Teresita “Ging” Deles, will review past agreements and records of talks and documents entered by the previous administration with the MILF peace panel.
Covered by the review is the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) with the MILF.
Lacierda also echoed the President’s statement that the present government is committed to a consultative peace process by appointing credible personalities that truly understand the country’s history, diverse cultures and aspirations to head the government peace panel. (PIA-Bohol)
by magnolia_eic | Aug 12, 2010 | Health and Medicine, National News
WALA pay desisyon si Presidente Noynoy Aquino sa gitanyag ni Health Secretary Enrique Ona nga dugang P4.50 nga buhisan sa sigarilyo samtang wala pay opisyal nga panaghisgutay bahin niini matud pa sa tigpamaba sa Palasyo niadtong Martes.
Sa usa ka news briefing, si Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda ni ingon nga kinahanglan pa unang tun-an ni Finance secretary Cesar Purisima, kinsa maoy in-charge on tax matters.
Kon seryosohon sa Presidente, kinsa usa usab ka tigpanabako ang maong tanyag kay naghiapil man kini sa promotion sa public health, si Lacierda nagkanayon nga sa pagkakaron, wala pay policy decision kay wala pa nahisguti sa Malacañang ang maong tanyag.
Matud pa ni Lacierda nga mayo man ang maong tanyag kay nag promote kini sa public health, apan mo agi pa kini una ni Purisima.
Sa usa ka pagpakig-pulong sa Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines, si Ona ni ingon nga iyang suportahan ang laraw nga pagpahamtang og dugang buhis nga P4.50 kada stick, o P90 sa kada 20-cigarette pack. (PIA-Bohol)
by magnolia_eic | Aug 10, 2010 | Headlines, National News
Manila, Philippines – The Supreme Court (SC) was asked yesterday to nullify Executive Order 2 of President Aquino revoking the midnight appointees of former President Gloria Arroyo.
In separate petitions, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) director Eddie Tamondong and Department of Justice (DoJ) Assistant Secretary Jose Arturo de Castro, both of whom would be removed from their positions, prayed for to the Supreme Court
for the temporary stoppage of the implementation of the order.
EO 2 was signed by the President last July 30. The order covered 977 officials who were appointed on or before March 11, 2010 but assumed office after such date; or appointed during the 45-day ban on appointments took effect, prior to the May 10 Elections
Eddie Tamondong argues that he should not be included in the list of former President Gloria Arroyo’s midnight appointees because he was re-appointed last March 1, or 10 days before the ban on appointments took effect. He also argued further that the
Executive Order violates RA 7227 also known as the Bases Conversion and Development Act of 1992, which gives him a fixed term of six years, lapsing in March 2016. He said the order “demonstrates an arbitrary misuse executive of power.”
Tamondong, says the issue is not about keeping his job, of which he receives only P17,000 a month, but on the primacy of the law passed by Congress that is being run over by a presidential issuance.
Meanwhile, in de Castro’s petition, he claims that the order violates Art. III Section 1 of the constitution which prohibits “deprivation of persons of their property rights without just cause and compliance with the cardinal requirement of due process;” and Article IX
Section 2b of the Constitution which prohibits “deprivation of civil service employees of security of tenure and summarily dismissing them without just cause and without compliance with the requirement of due process.” He also added that Mr. Aquino usurped judicial power
in issuing the said order.
Click here for full article from Philippine Star
by magnolia_eic | Aug 7, 2010 | Headlines, National News
MALACAÑANG on Thursday stood pat on its issuance of Executive Order No. 2 revoking “midnight appointments” made by the previous administration saying these violated the “intent and spirit of the constitutional ban on midnight appointments.”
Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Eduardo De Mesa brushed aside former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s camp’s claim that E.O. No. 2 was unconstitutional because the appointments were made well before the ban took effect on March 10, 2010 or 45 days before the May 10 national elections.
In a press briefing in Malacañang on Thursday afternoon, De Mesa told reporters that the Supreme Court had, in several instances, already ruled on the issue when it nullified such appointments which took effect during the prohibition period as prescribed in the Constitution.
He explained that even though these so-called midnight appointments were made before March 10 or prior to the prohibition, the appointee was only able to assume office on the days when the ban had taken effect.
“The issue has been long settled by the SC itself when it prescribed that an appointment is a two-way process. It has to be accepted by the appointee and the appointee must take his oath (of office),” De Mesa said.
“So the SC has, in a very, very old case, already nullified appointments made during the prohibition period or which were not completed before the prohibition period,” he added.
Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said the former President’s camp opted to “literally” interpret the provision banning midnight appointments.
“Our position is to take the spirit behind the provision which is that those appointments were made in violation of the spirit of the Constitution,” Lacierda added.
“As what Sec. De Mesa said, it is a two-way process. You have to have offer and acceptance,” Lacierda said, adding, “It is basic in administrative law, and it has already been settled several times in the Supreme Court. (PIA-Bohol)
by magnolia_eic | Aug 7, 2010 | Headlines, National News
MALACAÑANG on Thursday said that the “worst is over” for the riding public affected by the ongoing dispute between the management and pilots of the Philippine Airlines and there’s no more need for government intervention in the problem.
Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda said during a Malacanang press briefing that PAL management on its own will implement a modified flight schedule that will normalize operations
Lacierda said that PAL has committed to submit to the Civil Aeronautics Board a revised flight schedule for all routes, thus assuring flights for the riding public.
“This will normalize the operations under a used flight frequency. Apparently PAL has come up with the modified schedule so as not to prejudice to riding public,” Lacierda said.
On the concerns of the PAL pilots about what they felt was the indiscriminate transfer of pilots to PAL sister firm, Air Philippines, that reportedly was affecting their security of tenure, Lacierda said that PAL management has promised not to transfer A320 pilots to its sister company.
Lacierda also said that PAL shall undertake dialogue with the remaining pilots.
Lacierda said that the government will no longer take part in the dialogues as he believes that the management and the pilots can mutually resolve the issues by themselves.
He added that the foremost concern of the government was the exodus of the pilots, but since PAL has already promised to modify its flight schedules, the government need not interfere anymore.
