***THREE (3) STORIES***
Camille P. Balagtas
People's TONIGHT
August 7, 2002
JOMA SISON WAGING WAR AGAINST THE FILIPINO
PEOPLE
=================================================
The threat
issued by exiled communist leader Jose Maria Sison, calling on the new People's
Army (NPA) to attack the economic infrastructures of the country is a
declaration war not only against the government but against the very people
whom he claims to be fighting for.
Senator Rodolfo
Biazon lambasted Sison for urging the NPA's 128 guerrilla fronts to "go
into new kinds of special operations such as destroying electrical towers and
lines like during the final years of Marcos.
"This
response of these communist revolutionaries to the government's peace and order
campaign will hit not only the government alone, but more importantly the
masses especially because anytime the economy would collapse, it is the poor
who will be the first to suffer," Biazon said.
Biazon said
blowing up Napocor lines and other economic infrastructures would definitely
cause widespread sufferings among the workers and farmers because jobs will be
lost productivity in the rural areas will be affected.
He urged proper
government authorities to sit down and review the economic, political and
military policies, programs and strategies to negate these threats of the
communist revolutionaires.
"I
reiterate my call which is expressed in Senate Resolution no. 43 filed last
year, July 5, 2001 to convene the National Security Council so that the
government can make an accurate assessment of the last decade's internal
security operations and come up with a more appropriate and responsive resolution to our current insurgency
problems."
The Senator
reminded the communist leader the failure of communism in several countries as
he asked Sison to give a positive contribution for the country's welfare and
the Filipino people.
"Jose Maria Sison must accept the
fact that communism, which he is espousing, is already a failed political and
economic structure." The senator said.
Biazon
described Sison's declaration as a cowardly act and challenged the
communist leader to face the real challenge here in the country.
According to
Biazon, Sison can still contribute to the well-being or our people by helping
formulate political, economic and social reforms that could address the
problems of poverty, injustice, disease and ignorance.
"Maybe he
can do this better by running for an elective post in the government,"
Biazon concluded.
On a related
development, administration Senator Ramon Magsaysay said the President's
declaration of an "all out war" against communist triggering Joma
Sison's call on the NPA and its allies to launch attacks on all fronts, will
not prove to be beneficial to our ailing economy.
Magsaysay said past leadership have come
to terms with the fact that declaring an all out war against communist
insurgents was never the answer to peace and order problems in Philippines
situation, but peace negotiations, no matter how difficult.
Citing the
experience of his own father, the senator said: " President Magsaysay
himself pursued the path to peace through social justice and economic
opportunities for the common man, particularly those in the rural areas."
"It is high
time that our government show genuine efforts to pursue peace for the sake of
the country's poor whose lives the Arroyo administration vowed to uplift,"
Magsaysay added.///camille p. balagtas
Camille P. Balagtas
People's TONIGHT
August 7, 2002
US AID SHOULD BE MORE ON EQUIPMENT THAN ON
TRAINING
=====================================================
Senator Rodolfo
G. Biazon today recommended that the assistance from the United States
government to the Philippines would tremendously enhance the mutual interest in
the fight against terrorism and restoring the peace and order conditions in the
country, if this comes in the form of equipment badly needed by the AFP.
"The
training activities jointly participated by the RP and US Armed Forces are
already sufficient to upgrade the tactical and technological training needs of
the Armed Forces of the Philippines," Senator Biazon assessed.
"The
Philippine officers and men who were trained could already form into a group of
Trainors who could share their newly acquired skills and knowledge to the rest
of the AFP."
"In the
meantime, the Philippine government could hardly implement the AFP
Modernization Law because of a lack of material resources especially in the
allocation of funds for the purchase of necessary equipment."
"I am
asking for a discussion on the utilization of the US$ 150 million or P7.8
billion US assistance to the Philippine military.
Biazon proposed,
"This assistance should come in the form of basic but necessary equipment
such as tactical communications, helicopters, fast patrol boats and high tech
equipment such as night vision devices for infantries and night flying devices
for the Air Force that are multipliers to the available human resources of the
AFP."
Biazon caution,
"This aid should not be frittered away by acquiring equipment that are
only nice to have but which will not contribute to the actual combat operations
on the ground."
"The US
presence in the last Balikatan 02-1 joint military training exercises is well
appreciated, but I think the completion of the training may have already
reduced the values of these joint exercises."
"We should
shift our attention towards improving the material capability of the AFP,"
Biazon concluded. ///camille p. balagtas
Camille P. Balagtas
People's TONIGHT
August 7, 2002
CA SHOULD CONFIRM SEC. OPLE SOONEST
===================================
The Commission
on Appointments should immediately confirm the nomination exted by the
President to Sen. Blas F. Ople as the secretary of the department of foreign
affairs.
Sen. Ople
deserves the fast tracking of his confirmation as DFA secretary because he is
fully qualified for the position and also because he is entitled to
parliamentary courtesy by the members of the commission.
As a former
president of the Senate, Sen. Ople was the chair of the CA.
Any delay in the
confirmation of Sen. Ople as DFA secretary places him in a questionable positon
of having to discharge the duties of the secretary of a department without
having been confirmed by the Commission on Appointments.
The pertinent
part of Section 16 of Article VII of the Constitution states that "The
President shall nominate and, with the consent of the Commission on
Appointments, appoint the heads of the executive departments, xxx."
The
constitutional provision cited above has uniformly been interpreted to mean that
while congress is in session, the President may merely nominate, not appoint, a
secretary to head a department in her cabinet.
The person so
nominated who has not yet been approved by the Commission on Appointments may
discharge the duties of the office to which he had been nominated only at the
risk of violating the letter if not the spirit of the Constitution.
Sen. Ople should
be spared from that predicament.
"I,
therefore, call upon the Commission on Appointments to act posthaste, and
approve Sen. Ople's nomination to so that he can function fully as DFA
secretary and without any apprehension that whatever he is doing may be
questioned constitutionally," Pimentel added. //camille p. balagtas