NEWS
TRENDS
September 5, 2007
Presidential
office moves to stop Senate probe
 Executive
Secretary Eduardo Ermita last week said that Malacañang,
the presidential office, will invoke Executive Order No. 464 to
stop the Senate from investigating anew the “Hello, Garci”
tapes controversy. The tapes allegedly contained damaging conversations
showing the commission of fraud in the 2004 presidential elections.
The
Senate has re-opened the “Hello, Garci” wiretapping
scandal after Sen. Panfilo Lacson introduced Vidal Doble, a military
intelligence agent, as a new witness to the case.
Some
constitutionalists say that EO 464, issued by President Arroyo in
2006, only protects executive officials from scrutiny on the Senate’s
“question hour,” but not from investigations in aid
of legislation.
Arroyo-China
scam exposed
 Apparently
in a bid to detract controversial government deals, President Arroyo
last week said that educating drop-outs through an internet project
is “too expensive.”
Arroyo’s
statement came after the government’s cyber education project,
which will be financed through loans from China, drew flak over
the secrecy and overpricing of the project.
The
President earlier issued a similar turn-around statement when the
controversy on the multimillion dollar broad band deal with ZTE
Corporation, another Chinese company, broke out.
Certain
officials, including Benjamin Abalos, chair of the Commission on
Elections, face possible investigations over the alleged scam.
High
court acts for the surfacing of Burgos, UP studes
 Making
good on its promise to act on the worsening extrajudicial killings
in the country, the Supreme Court last week began drafting new directives
to compel the military to act on extrajudicial cases.
Among
its moves is to invoke the writ of amparo (Spanish word for protection)
which strips the military of issuing denials in order to avoid attending
hearings.
On
the other hand, the writ of habeas data, or the right to truth,
will compel the military and other government agencies to release
relevant information about victims of enforced disappearances.
The
two new directives are considered crucial in the separate cases
of Jonas Burgos and the two university students whose recent disappearance
were linked to the military.
7.5
percent growth debunked
The
independent socio-economic research institute IBON Foundation last
week said the 7.5 percent growth rate of the Philippine economy
as claimed by government is largely due to the unsustainable election-related
spending in the first quarter of 2007.
IBON
said that election-related spending can be seen in the increases
on local government allotments and miscellaneous spending. Local
government allotments increased by Php21 billion or by 27 percent
during the first semester this year, while miscellaneous spending
ballooned by P308.5 billion in the first semester of 2007, which
is P56.5 billion or 22 percent more than the spending in same period
in 2006.
Government
consumption as a whole grew by 13.5 percent or four times the 3.3
percent growth in the same period last year.
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