P1-trillion budget crucial to country’s economic growth, says Bunye

The Senate today gears up for a busy week as it prepares for the final deliberation - and possibly approval - of the Juvenile Justice bill, a measure that seeks to address the plight of minors languishing in prisons for adults.

The Supreme Court has reminded officials and employees of the judiciary to be role models in the faithful observance of the constitutional mandate that "public office is a public trust" as it ordered one of its employees fined P2,000 for habitual absenteeism.

As regular session resumes today, the House of Representatives has vowed to pass, before it goes on a Christmas break next month, several priority measures, including the proposed P1.05-trillion national budget for 2006.

The proceedings of the "People’s Court" formally known as the Citizens’ Congress for Truth and Accountability (CCTA) starting tomorrow at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, would show the judgment of the people, said former Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr., presiding officer of the congress, adding that its aim is to clarify the impeachment charges against President Arroyo with "no hidden agenda."

Taking action before she loses her trusted ally, President Arroyo ordered an investigation into the "malicious and false" reports on the alleged government surveillance of former President Fidel V. Ramos for his alleged links to coup plots.

DAVAO CITY – What ails Philippine basic education — notably the teaching of its tool subjects of English, science and mathematics to over 18 million school children — which appears to have remained in a bad state for the past many years?

Buses, jeepneys, taxis, FX vans, the Light Rail Transit and Metro Rail Transit will operate in full force today to cope with the big number of passengers when about 18 million workers and students who just finished their semestral break report for work and go back to school after an almost one-week holiday arising from the observance of Halloween last Monday, Oct. 31, All Saints’ Day last Tuesday, Nov. 1, and the Feast of Eid’l Fitr, marking the end of the Muslims’ Ramadan fasting season last Friday, Nov. 4.

A Catholic Church official yesterday expressed sadness over the fact that a democratic country like the Philippines had to resort to a "people’s court" to search for the truth.