Merry-Go-Round: Floro L. Mercene
WELCOME to Ambassador Kristie Kenny. How are things in Pampanga, Ma’m?
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Dinky Soliman, descendant of Rajah Soliman of Manila, is quarreling with Gloria M. descendant of Lakandula of Tondo, nephew of the old Rajah.
It happens in the best of families.
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Now we have jueteng and small-time lottery. Jueteng is for the poor and STL is for the very poor.
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Acting Secretary Nasser C. Pangandaman of the Department of Land Reform received his baptism of fire when he ended a 16-year-old impasse on the stock distribution option bugging the Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac in favor of the hacienda workers.
Pangandaman’s decision to scrap the SDO is decried by critics as politically motivated but he is standing on his action as being based on the merits of the case.
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The issue of stock distribution option (SDO) as applied in Hacienda Luisista has been a fodder for critics of the agrarian reform program. The Department of Land Reform was accused of advancing the interest of big landowners instead of the farmers and the farmworkers.
The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) was seen as not being true to its mandate to redistribute assets. That was until September last year when DAR recommended to the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) the scrapping of the SDO.
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Exercising political will, DAR made a historic move when, after thorough investigation, it took steps to rectify what probably was a lingering injustice.
Last October 13, the PARC created an interagency task force led by the Deparment of Justice to review DAR’s recommendation. On December 14, the task force submitted its report to the PARC executive committee which became the basis for sustaining DAR’s recommendation.
During the December 20 meeting, PARC, sitting en banc, finally confirmed the scrapping of the SDO at Hacienda Luisita.
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The House is convening Congress as Con-Ass to push through with Cha-cha. Senate will not agree to a separate vote of the two chambers.
House wants to Cha-cha but Senate insists on doing the tango, as it takes two to tango.
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Malacañang will control multi-billion-peso advertising budget of all government agencies.
Good news for media that will cooperate but bad news for those who won’t.
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Malacañang launches drive for people’s initiative to amend the Constitution down to the barangay level. Miriam Defensor Santiago and Joker Arroyo say the move is illegal.
We’re all hot and raring for this. Let’s talk about the niceties later.
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Garcillano accused of using a fake passport. Malacañang claims it had nothing to do with it.
His tape was faked. His passport, too. We give up.
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Army general and 19 other officers face court martial for their involvement in coup attempts against the President.
Their civilian supporters are next on our sights.
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AFP Chief General Senga vows uncompromising compliance of the military to civilian authority.
Don’t allow the politicians to use you for cheating again.
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The military is the real destabilizer, according to Joker Arroyo. Senga naman.
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