Author: Julian Alejandro

(PETA News Release)
July 26, 2006

Manila–People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Director Jason Baker will leave the Philippine capital on Wednesday for Amman, en route to Beirut, where he will lay the groundwork for an international rescue team to evacuate animals left stranded, hungry, and terrified after two weeks of Israeli strikes in Lebanon.

PETA offices around the world have been flooded with calls on behalf of desperate evacuees in the battle-scarred region who are being forced by their government officials to desert their dogs, cats, and other animal companions–often all they have left in their lives–when evacuating. Even elderly residents have chosen to suffer amid the rubble for days in order to safeguard animals who they consider to be members of their families.

Mrs. Gloria Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address yesterday sounded like a “miting de avance” speech.

While she admittedly reported on select aspects of our national life, such as economy (“22 consecutive quarters of growth”), information and communications technology (“Today international calls cost 6 cents a minute, down from 40 cents.”), and poverty (the number of poor families went down from 25%–because of a new computation, hehe), most of her speech dwelled on her promises and on-going projects.

Arroyo started her SONA by thanking her supporters in the government including her allies in congress and the military men who remained loyal to her. General Jovito Palparan–linked by activists to the extrajudicial killings in Central Luzon–almost blushed as he stood up after Arroyo mentioned him for his “struggle” against the enemies of the state. And in the same breath, Arroyo declared: “In the harshest possible terms I condemn political killings. We together stopped judicial executions with the abolition of the death penalty. We urge witnesses to come forward. Together we will stop extrajudicial executions.” Ironic, huh?

Mrs. Gloria Arroyo recently appointed a “Hello Garci” general as the new chief of staff of the Armed Forces and a bureaucrat-capitalist who voted to junk last year’s impeachment against her as secretary of education.

Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., who took over the post of AFP’s 35th chief of staff yesterday, was mentioned twice in the Hello Garci tapes. Meanwhile, former Tarlac Rep. Jesli Lapus, who now heads the education department, is a certified public accountant/businessman-turned-politican. He replaced Fe Hidalgo, a classrom teacher who rose to the ranks to become officer-in-charge of the department. Lapus’s appointment is opposed by the Department of Education union and the Alliance of Concerned Teachers.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines yesterday released a statement on various socio-political issues including the impeachment case against Gloria Arroyo, which they refused to endorse.

While they reiterated their denunciation of the killing of journalists and activists, their call for electoral reforms and their opposition to the so-called people’s initiative, the bishops said they “are not inclined at the present moment to favor the impeachment process as the means for establishing the truth.”

They said if the motivation behind the impeachment process is not genuine concern for the common good, it will only be an “unproductive political exercise,” that will only further dismay the people and deepen their negative perception of all politicians.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer features today an interview with Maricel Lopez Pagulayan, a Filipino-American who was Superman Return’s visual effects production supervisor.

Inquirer’s Hollywood columnist Ruben V. Nepales, in an article entitle “Fil-Am FX expert helps Superman fly” in his “Only in Hollywood” column, reports that Pagulayan was touched when she was told that Nepales contacted her because of the “unprecedented number of requests from readers” who must have noticed her Filipino name in Superman Return’s closing credits.

Manny “Pacman” Paquiao won today’s bout with Mexican boxer Oscar Larios. According to news reports Pacquaio won by a unanimous decision and retained the World Boxing Council International super featherweight title after beating his opponent.

This turnout means Pacquiao is richer byUS$1 million, and he will surely receive more requests for commercial endorsements. It’s good news for him, even if his bioflick reportedly did not do very well.

A quote from Prof. Luis Teodoro’s Vantage Point column today:

“The way things are going in Mrs. Arroyo’s Enchanted Kingdom, conviction of rape, murder, kidnapping and plunder means life imprisonment at most. But mere suspicion of being a reformist–or worse, a revolutionary– means a death sentence. This is bad enough. What’s worse is that Mrs. Arroyo implies that the Pope approves. “