Pala-isip

Don't you just love Japanese game shows?

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer . THE PLEA bargain of retired Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia, former comptroller of the Armed Forces, reminds us once again of a perennial Philippine problem, namely, our weak institutions of public accountability. Time and again, we have relied on foreign investigators to do our work for us, and the moment they pass the ball to us, we drop it. Look at the historical record. Today, 24 years after Edsa 1, the Marcoses have not been held liable for any human rights violation by any Philippine court. So where instead did the victims file their class action suit? Before a Honolulu federal court which, in 1995, awarded $2 billion in damages to the victims of torture, summary executions and disappearances under the Marcos regime. And when the victims, now called Claimants 1081 (after Proclamation 1081 under which Marcos seized emergency powers in September 1972), tried to collect these damages against the Marcos assets in the Philippines, guess who stood in their ...

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer . MANILA, Philippines—A former mayor sentenced to more than 300 years in jail for rape and murder wants to join the December procession out of prison. Claiming he’s now eligible for either pardon or parole, ex-mayor Antonio Sanchez of Calauan, Laguna, contemplates a return to politics and a long vacation with his family, possibly including a pilgrimage to Israel. And apparently he’s still got the legs for it. “Look at my knees,” Sanchez said on Wednesday in Filipino in an interview with Radyo Inquirer at the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa City. “Yet they say my devotion to the Virgin Mary is just all drama.” He was showing off his knees, which he said had become dark-skinned and calloused after years of Marian devotion and praying the rosary—especially throughout his 18 years behind bars as one of the VIP inmates at the NBP. Sanchez was meted out seven life terms for the 1993 killings of University of the Philippines students and sweethearts ...

Would you pay $209,000 for a saucepan? This saucepan was one of the items displayed at the Moscow Millionaire Fair 2010. Photo source As you've probably guessed, you're not supposed to cook with this saucepan, it's for display only. Check out more pictures of The Millionaire Fair from RT.com

What if Joseph and Mary had Facebook during the birth of Jesus?

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer . The plea bargain that government prosecutors struck with the lawyers of ex-general Carlos Garcia last week is a legal abomination. It violates both the explicit letter of the law and the spirit that gives law life; it makes a mockery of the justice system at the very moment that system is under great stress; not least, it feeds the cynicism of the public, more and more of whom believe that Lady Justice is not blind. When the moneyed are haled to court, she only pretends to close her eyes. Garcia, whose sons were caught in the United States carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars in 2003 and whose wife admitted that their inexplicable family fortune came from bribes, stands (or rather, stood) accused of the non-bailable crime of plunder for accumulating over P300 million in personal wealth while he was still serving in the Armed Forces. Last Saturday, after negotiating a plea bargain and posting bail of P60,000, he walked out of prison. Technically...