***Three (3) Stories
Story no. 1
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Camille P. Balagtas
People's TONIGHT
August 16, 2002
Sens. Pimentel and Flavier bats for the retention of Presidential
Anti-Graft Commission
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Not everyone in the Senate supports the abolition of the
controversial Presidential Anti-Graft Commission created by an
executive order by no less than the President.
Senator Aquilino Pimentel, Jr., today batted for the retention of
the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC0 as the eyes and
ears and investigative body of Malacanang with regard to corrupt
practices in government.
If the PAGC is abolished as proposed by some quarters, Pimentel
said this will only make the grafters happy and leave the
President without a legal apparatus to effectively run after
these bureaucratic termites.
"This investigative body may have its uses for the President
in the gathering of information on questionable activities which
can later ripen into actual criminal proceedings,' he said.
Pimentel said it would be unfortunate if President Arroyo will bow
to pressure to dismantle the PAGC in the aftermath of the
resignation of Education Secretary Raul Roco who resented the
President's order to have graft complaint against him
investigated by the Commission.
"The President has expressed her intention to focus on the
campaign against corruption in addition to suppressing
criminality, so I supposed she will need that backup
system," he said.
Pimentel does not share the view that the three-man PAGC
duplicates the work of the Ombudsman.
He said while the PAGC is manily tasked with investigating
administrative complaints against presidential appointees, the
Ombudsman is mainly concerned with criminal cases involving all
public officials and employees.
He said there is no need to put more teeth to the PACG. "for
if we give too much powers to the PAGC, that may give rise to
what we not want, that is duplicating what the Ombudsman is
doing," he said.
The opposition lawmaker observed that nearly all presidents of
the republic have set up their own in-house body or agency to
clamp down on grafters.
He said if this mechanism had worked well under past presidents,
there is no reason why the same thing should not happen under
President Arroyo.
Pimentel said, however, that complaints against Cabinet members
and other presidential officials must be treated with utmost
discretion to avoid trial by publicity.
"Learning from her own experience from the Roco case, the
President will have to be more discreet in handling of the
investigation referred to that body," he said.
"Abuses may happen in any agency. But what is more important
is that the person in power must be restrained not only by laws
but by his own sense of propriety, of what is right or
wrong." Pimentel said.
Senator Juan Flavier insist that PAGC should remain and continue
its work.
Flavier said the Office of the Ombudsman are piled up with
numerous complaints against public official and a separate body
that will help them do the investigation is necessary.
"Napakaraming trabaho na di na magawa ng office of the
ombudsman. Palagay ko malaking tulong ang recommendasyon at
imbestigasyon isinasagawa ng PAGC." Flavier
explained.///camille p. balagtas
Story No. 2
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Camille P. Balagtas
People's TONIGHT
August 16, 2002
GOVERNMENT MUST PREPARE FOR LEADERLESS NPA REBELS IN RP
=======================================================
Senator Rodolfo G. Biazon today issued a strong warning to the
government that if the NPA will be leaderless following the
announced retirement of Jose Maria Sison, there is a possibility
that the rebel group will be fragmented with some of them
becoming Lost Commands pursuing non-revolutionary but criminal
activities.
"The government must anticipate this and prepare a new
program vis-à-vis the Communist insurgency to provide for this
possibility that would allow the members of the NPA to return to
normal lives."
"Jose Maria Sison's announced intention to retire is
actually an abandonment by him of a failed cause which is
Communism and a desertion of the revolutionaries who he led or
misled to live a life in the underground destroying their lives
while he was enjoying a life of luxury in the safe haven of the
Dutch city of Utrecht," Biazon said.
"Jose Maria Sison who espoused a Communist revolution has
ruined the lives of hundreds of thousands of Filipinos whether
civilians or soldiers and has caused untold destruction by
stunting the economic and social growth and development in many
rural areas all over the country."
"Jose Maria Sison must answer the question why he is now
abandoning his comrades."
"Is it because his same and comfortable lifestyle which is
being financed by revolutionary taxes is now being threatened due
to the cooperation of the government of the Netherlands to accede
to the request of US authorities to freeze his bank accounts with
a recommendation to the European Union to do the same?"
"The decent thing for Jose Maria Sison to do whose
comfortable life is now being threatened is to come back to the
country and lead the NPA revolutionaries to revert back to normal
lives by returning to the fold of the law," Biazon
concluded. ///Camille p. balagtas
Story No. 3
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Camille P. Balagtas
People's TONIGHT
August 16, 2002
"CORRECTSALARY DISTORTIONS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS" -SEN.
ORETA
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Opposition Senator Teresa Aquino Oreta threw her support Friday
behind the call by education supervisors for Government to
correct the salary distortions in public schools, nothing that
this should be among the first tasks of the next secretary of the
Department of Education (DepEd).
Oreta said the DepEd should now do its share in correcting
disparities in the salary and rank of public school officials
after she had already take the initiative of equalizing the
monthly pay of elementary and secondary school principals under
Republic Act No. 9155 or the Governance of Basic Education Act.
Authored by Oreta, RA 9155 corrected the injustice of elementary
school principals receiving lesser pay than their counterparts in
secondary schools by making their salaries more or less
equivalent to those received by principals in high schools.
Oreta noted that elementary school prinicipals, wo, in some
cases, even manage larger student populations than those in
secondary schools, deserve the same pay received by high school
principals because they hold the same rank and title.
"The Congress took the first step in correcting a
wrong," Oreta said. "Now, it is the turn of the
executive branch to do its part in continuing what we in the
Congress have started by looking into the plight of district
supervisors."
According to reports, the Philippine Association of Education
Supervisors (PAES) wants the Salary Standardization Law for
Principals reviews because their take-home pay is just a step
behind the salary received by elementary school principals.
The adjustment in the salaries of principals, according to PAES,
ahs led to a wage distortion, where the pay level of principals
is now equivalent to that of Education Supervisor I.
Oreta said that new legislation appears to be unnecessary in
correcting the wage distortion because the executive branch,
through the DepEd, can easily correct this at the central office
through budgetary allocations.
"We support this call by education supervisors and we hope
the next DepEd secretary will do something to correct this wage
distortion," Oreta said. ///Camille p. balagtas