Justice and Rule of Law

Photo Gallery

Scenes from the Ampatuan trial

Photos from the petition for bail hearings of the principal accused in the November 23, 2009 Massacre in Ampatuan town, Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr.

Read more... | Posted Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

Defense asks Judge to inhibit self

by Justine Espina-Letargo

THE petition for bail of the principal accused in the November 23, 2009 Massacre in Ampatuan town, Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. took on a new twist Wednesday, February 10. The counsel for the defense, Atty. Philip Sigfrid Fortun, today filed a motion seeking Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 221 to inhibit herself from the proceedings.

Read more... | Posted Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

Sidebar

Detained but still running big-time

by Carolyn O. Arguillas, MindaNews

DAVAO CITY – Their leaders may be detained outside Maguindanao but they remain a clan to reckon with in Maguindanao, if we are to base it on the number of candidates running for election or reelection on May 10. The Ampatuans, Sinsuats, Sangkis, Mangudadatus, Pendatuns, Masturas, Midtimbangs, etc.. are fielding candidates for the May 10 polls but the Ampatuans have the highest number at 68, 50 of them carrying the same surname while the remaining 18 use Ampatuan as their middle name.

Read more... | Posted Monday, February 8th, 2010

All calm, resolute on day one of hearing of bail petition

by Justine Espina-Letargo

From Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes, to the lawyers of both the prosecution and the defense panels, down to the relatives of the victims of the November 23 massacre, all appeared resolute on the first day of what is expected to be a long, drawn-out trial of Mayor Andal Ampatuan, Jr. who currently faces 41 counts of murder. Save for the sound of cameras clicking, there was no noticeable tumult from the other side of the court, where several relatives of the massacre victims were seated as Ampatuan, clad in a red striped, short-sleeved shirt and denims entered the converted courtroom in PNP headquarters in Quezon City.

Read more... | Posted Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

PHOTO GALLERY

Journalists turn rallyists for Maguindanao massacre victims

by Karol Ilagan

ON the eve of the observance of International Human Rights Day (December 10), journalists and media workers took to the streets in Mendiola, a stone’s throw from the seat of political power that is Malacanang Palace, in rage and grief. Their common call: Justice for the 57 victims of the November 23 Maguindanao Massacre, that [...]

Read more... | Posted Thursday, December 10th, 2009

A fate worse than death:
Jailed for serial libel suits

by Rowena C. Paraan

MA. THERESA Briones thinks it’s bad enough that her father had to spend five years in jail – including two years with hardened criminals – because something he wrote offended someone. But now five libel cases are again hovering over her father’s head, and 22-year-old Theresa can’t help but cry.

Read more... | Posted Thursday, September 17th, 2009

Multiple requests for access to info
meet with flat denials

by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

THE PUBLIC’S right to information is enshrined in the Philippine Constitution, but the absence of an enabling law has apparently enabled various government agencies and officials – including Supreme Court justices – to violate this.

Some agencies do know and observe the Constitution’s guarantee of transparency, which is a prior condition to good governance. Far too many others, however, seem stuck in confidentiality mode and require prodding and coaxing to release documents. The most hostile, in fact, simply flatly deny or altogether ignore requests for public documents.

Read more... | Posted Monday, May 25th, 2009

Dispute over Hacienda Bacan

Mike Arroyo claim stalls land reform in Negros

by Annie Ruth C. Sabangan

GETTING the land — not landing in jail — was the hope Alexander Celis nurtured when he and other Negros farmers trekked recently to the Land Registration Authority (LRA) office in Quezon City. The main reason for their trip was merely to convince President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to speed up agrarian reform in a Negros sugar plantation being linked to her husband, First Gentleman Jose Miguel ‘Mike’ Arroyo.

The 35-year-old Celis says the 157-hectare Hacienda Bacan in Negros Occidental’s Guintubhan village in Isabela town was among the pieces of agricultural land owned by the Arroyo family. In 2001, the President promised to distribute this and other Arroyo landholdings to farmers under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Read more... | Posted Thursday, December 4th, 2008

Elusive justice

by Karol Anne M. Ilagan

WHEN THE Marinduque Council for Environmental Concerns (MACEC) received notice in 2007 that the case filed by the province of Marinduque against Placer Dome Inc. and Barrick Gold in the U.S. state of Nevada had been dismissed, MACEC executive secretary Miguel Magalang almost did not want to release the news.

“Baka bumagsak ang morale ng buong anti-mining movement (The whole anti-mining movement might lose its morale),” he explains.

Read more... | Posted Monday, November 3rd, 2008

Guilty! But special concessions for accused show flawed system

by Karen Tiongson-Mayrina

IT MAY take some time before the debates end in reaction to the much anticipated landmark ruling on the first criminal trial involving a former President of the Republic. On Wednesday, ousted president Joseph Ejercito Estrada was found guilty of plunder, but was acquitted on the perjury charge. His co-accused, son Jose ‘Jinggoy’ and lawyer [...]

Read more... | Posted Wednesday, September 12th, 2007

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