Archive for March 31st, 2007
Suspected robber kills soldier in Metro deployment
MANILA, Philippines – A soldier involved in the military’s community service projects in Metro Manila communities died after a suspected robber shot him in Manila’s Tondo district late Saturday afternoon, an official said.
Staff Sergeant Rowell Papaan was apprehending a suspected thief along Road 10 in the Del Pan area at around 4 p.m. when the suspect’s accomplice, who was riding a motorcycle, shot him, said Captain Eugenio Julio Osias, group commander of the military’s Civil Relations Service (CRS).
Both suspects then escaped.
Papaan was apparently unaware that a second suspect was in the vicinity, Osias said in a phone interview.
The soldier suffered a single gunshot wound in the back. Fellow soldiers brought him to the Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
“He [Papaan] was doing it as a citizen’s arrest,” Osias said.
The incident came hours after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo lauded soldiers for the “good job” that they were doing in Metro Manila.
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Troops ‘see Red’ in dot on woman’s face
MANILA, Philippines — A Tondo resident almost found herself in hot water because of an ink spot on her face.
The 42-year-old woman, who declined to give her name, said she got the small black dot on her face from a pen while playing with her nieces recently.
After this, the woman said, several soldiers, on separate occasions, asked her: “Why do you have that marking on your face?”
But she said they asked no further questions when she explained it was just ink.
“I didn’t know what the dot meant. I told them that we were just playing, my nieces put this on my face,” she said, a faint trace of ink spot still visible on her face when she talked to reporters covering a medical mission of the Armed Forces National Capital Region (NCRCom) in the Parola Compound on Saturday.
In the 1980s, when communist hit squads, more popularly known as Sparrow units, struck regularly in Metro Manila and other urban centers in the country, state security forces came out with the theory that the rebel assassins could be identified by dots tattooed on their faces, with the location of the dots designating a certain rank.
Despite her near run-in, the woman said she welcomed the deployment of the soldiers to her community.
“It’s quiet here now. There are no more snatchers and addicts,” she said.
Another elderly woman, who also asked not to be named, agreed, saying: “The soldiers have helped us a lot.”
The influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) have expressed concern over the deployment of troops to depressed Metro Manila communities.
Left-wing party list groups, which the military and government regularly label “fronts” of the communist rebel movement, have accused soldiers of campaigning against them.
The military has stood pat on the deployment, which it has admitted is part of its counterinsurgency campaign, despite recommendations by the CHR to pull the troops out.
Recently, Malacañang also suggested that the military consider a timeline for a troop pullout.
Armed Forces chief General Hermogenes Esperon Jr. has said a “very likely timetable” for the pullout would be before the May 14 elections, when the military is expected to complete its community projects.
Since November 2006, the NCRCom has dispatched nine-man teams to 26 poor communities in Manila, Quezon City, and Caloocan City.
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‘Keep up good work,’ Arroyo tells deployed Metro troops
MANILA, Philippines — President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Saturday gave what amounted to a stamp of approval for the controversial deployment of soldiers to depressed Metro Manila communities, the commander of the National Capital Region Command (NCRCom) said.
During a visit to troops at a detachment at the Baseco compound in Manila’s Tondo district, Major General Ben Mohammad Dolorfino said the Arroyo told him: “Congratulations and keep up the good work.”
Dolorfino said during their brief talk Arroyo made no mention of an earlier Palace suggestion to draw a timeline for the pullout of troops.
Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., and Army Chief Lieutenant General Romeo Tolentino accompanied the President on the visit.
Asked if he considered Arroyo’s visit a stamp of approval for the deployment, Dolorfino said: “Yes, that is the implication.”
After the President left, Ebdane, Esperon, and Tolentino inaugurated a public toilet that soldiers had built in nearby Isla Puting Bato.
The influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) have expressed concern over the deployment while left-wing party list groups accused the soldiers of campaigning against them.
The military has stood pat on the deployment, which it admitted was part of its counterinsurgency campaign after initially giving various, often contradictory, reasons for sending the soldiers to the poor communities.
Last Thursday, Esperon said a “very likely timetable” for the troop pullout would before the May 14 elections since their community service projects would be finished by then.
Since November 2006, the NCRCom has dispatched nine-man teams to 26 poor communities in Manila, Quezon City, and Caloocan City.
Also on Saturday, Dolorfino led a medical mission and dialogue with residents at the Rosauro Almario Elementary School in the Parola compound also in Tondo. This is the same community where the children taken hostage Wednesday live.
In his speech, Dolorfino said the military aims to cripple the communist insurgency by helping government’s efforts to alleviate poverty through such projects as medical missions and the construction of schools and public toilets.
“Using military force is not enough. The real solution is at the root of the problem — poverty,” he said.
“What we are doing is to make the CPP-NPA [Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army] irrelevant. If there are no problems in the communities, they will die a natural death,” he said.
The NPA, which is waging one of the longest and most resilient communist insurgencies in the world, marked its 38th founding anniversary Thursday.
Taking a swipe at the rebels , Dolorfino said: “They are offering false hopes, empty promises. We are presenting an alternative while they are cursing the darkness.”
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(Photos courtesy of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Public Information Office)
Remoto launches House bid in QC with pink ribbon drive
University professor up against Defensor, Pumaren
MANILA, Philippines — University professor, author and gender rights activist Danton Remoto has launched a “tie a pink ribbon” drive as part of his bid to represent Quezon City in Congress and, according to him, become the first openly gay lawmaker in Asia.
On Saturday morning, Remoto and his supporters tied pink ribbons on trees and posts at the Quezon City Memorial Circle. The night before, they tied pink ribbons along Katipunan Avenue, on which the Ateneo de Manila University, where Remoto teaches English, is located.
Remoto will be running against incumbent Representative Matias Defensor and basketball coach Franz Pumaren.
“It will be a good fight. Two alpha males against a gay,” Remoto said jokingly.
“That is our strategy in district seven, the pink color,” Remoto told INQUIRER.net, pointing out that pink is his signature color.
“In Nazi Germany, pink was a symbol of protest; gays were sent to the gas chamber just because they are homosexuals. Now, pink has become a symbol of liberation,” he said.
Remoto said he would also be putting out campaign posters showing him in his signature color, with rainbow-colored butterflies fluttering above his shoulders.
Remoto is running for Congress following two rebuffs from the Commission on Elections (Comelec), first in his bid to have his gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender party-list Ang Ladlad (The Coming Out) accredited, and then being disqualified from running for senator.
In both instances, the Comelec said Remote could not mount a nationwide campaign. The poll body also said Ang Ladlad could present no proof of nationwide membership.
Remoto said his district is “divided between the middle class and the urban poor.”
District seven includes the upscale Loyola Heights, White Plains, and La Vista areas as well as the depressed communities of Pansol village and the Cubao district.
Remoto said his campaign will focus on the poor communities since he believes he has a strong following among the middle class, especially the students, who are feeling a “new hunger for change.”
If elected, Remoto said he would push for “good public education:” one textbook per student, an Internet-ready computer in every classroom, and teacher training.
He said he would also push for the construction of more health centers and a law banning discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders.
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