ASPAUCULE

Monsod: Negros solons pro-land owners

By MARTY GO
ABS-CBN Bacolod Former Commission on Elections chairman Christian Monsod on Wednesday scored Negros congressmen for allegedly being pro-land owners after they rejected the passage of a bill extending the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program .
"I'm not surprised because Negros congressmen or most of them anyway, have always been against CARP because I think most of them belong to the land owner class and they still have not absorbed the fact that the right to land is God-given," said Monsod, chairman of the Philippine Agrarian Reform for Unity and National Development.
Monsod is strongly pushing for the extension of CARP since there are still many undistributed lands in some provinces in the country.
President Arroyo has signed the bill, which is still pending at the House of Representatives, as urgent.
The CARP will expire on June 10, three days before the House goes on recess.
Monsod is also calling for strong reforms in the program once it is extended.
"The lands that have not been distributed, many of them are by large "hacienderos", who have managed to resist and circumvent agrarian reform," he said.
Monsod added that farmers seeking for their part of the estaes had been violently threatened and harassed by the government.

Wall Street sees light at end of tunnel

Agence France-Presse
NEW YORK - Wall Street is clawing its way back from a dismal start to the year as confidence grows about the prospects of a US economic recovery without a calamitous downturn.
The past week saw solid gains for the main indexes, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1.9 percent to finish Friday at 12,986.80.
The Standard & Poor's 500 broad-market rallied 2.7 percent to 1,425.35 while the tech-dominated Nasdaq composite vaulted 3.4 percent for the week to 2,528.85.
The Dow blue-chip index is now lower by just 2.1 percent for the year, having recouped most losses from the first quarter. The S&P is down 2.9 percent and the Nasdaq off 4.6 percent.
"We remain impressed by stock market action," said Al Goldman, chief market strategist at Wachovia Securities.
"Bad news is no longer killing the market, and bits of good news are well received," he added.
"Sooner or later investors realize that the economy will eventually turn back up and the current supposed 'insurmountable problems' will be surmounted. This is called 'looking beyond the valley to the peaks ahead,' and that's the market phase we continue to believe we are in."
Economic data remain mixed.
US homebuilding showed a surprisingly strong jump in April, with starts rising 8.2 percent in April from March to an annual rate of 1.032 million units.
Inflation data showed prices generally in check, but consumer confidence fell further, suggesting spending may remain weak despite a massive tax rebate program as part of the government's 168-billion-dollar economic stimulus.
Linda Deussel at Federated Investors said the US economy appears to have weathered the housing and credit crisis, which would be positive for stocks.
"If we're right, and the worst of the credit crisis is behind us, we think the key issue is the nature of the current economic slowdown, and the potential for leakage into non-financial sectors," she said.
She said the US economy "will skirt recession," as a result of aggressive Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts and more than 100 billion dollars in tax rebates.
"We're no longer near the abyss, as systemic risk appears to have abated," she said.
"From here, the big question is how much further stocks can run, and whether this is the time to buy financial stocks."
Michael Hanson, economist at Lehman Brothers, said it may be too soon to bank on a strong recovery. He noted a sharp drop in automobile sales, which affects the manufacturing sector and suggests consumers are hurting.
The 0.2 percent drop in retail sales "likely reflects tighter consumer lending and higher fuel prices that in coming months may spill over into other expenditure categories," Hanson said.
Hanson added that the tax rebates will provide only a temporary boost to spending, mainly in the third quarter.
"Once the transitory income gain from the rebates has passed, consumption should revert to a lower level, producing a technical pullback in the growth rate for fourth quarter," he said.
"With home prices not expected to bottom until the end of 2009, the wealth effect from housing also will likely continue to exert a negative influence on consumers over time."
In the coming week, investors get a light menu of economic data but will focus on minutes to be released from the Federal Reserve's April 29-30 monetary policy meeting for clues on the central bank's next move on interest rates.
Also on tap are reports on the producer price index -- a gauge of inflation at the wholesale level -- and existing home sales for April.
Bonds dipped in the past week. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond increased to 3.850 percent from 3.767 percent week earlier and that on the 30-year bond rose to 4.579 percent against 4.524 percent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

Small Batangas town moves to relive history

By ATTY. VICTOR REYES
The Philippine Star SAN NICOLAS, Batangas �“ This small town is a fifth-class municipality located along Taal Lake where Pansipit River runs from Balayan Bay to Taal Lake. Its immediate proximity to Taal Volcano earned it the title "gateway to Taal Volcano" and a larger area of the volcano island is made part of the town.
But although the town of San Nicolas was made into a municipality only in 1955, San Nicolas was originally the site of the old town of Taal, which was established in 1570 under Frey Agustin Albuquerque, barely 50 years after the arrival of the Spaniards in the Philippines. Hence, San Nicolas was always referred to as the Lumang Taal.
The first Taal Church was built in San Nicolas in 1575 by Frey Diego de Espinar but was destroyed in 1754 due to the eruption of Taal Volcano, which also led to the transfer of the town to its new and present site.
Through the initiative of the parish priest of San Nicolas, Fr. Glenn Cantos, the ruins of the old Taal Church in San Nicolas were again cleared and refurbished. The ruins, which were for a long time unnoticed by tourists and even by the residents, reveal a relatively big church and one of the first churches built in the Philippines by the Spaniards.
A parish heritage commission was organized to plan out activities to revive and develop the ruins and remind the residents of the old glory that the area enjoyed even before the coming of the Spaniards.
Two years ago, a team from the University of the Philippines Archaeological Studies Program, with the assistance of the Archaeology Division of the National Museum and funded by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, conducted a survey and excavation of the area, and discovered artifacts, showing an advanced community even before the coming of the Spaniards and the existence of trade with other Asian countries.
Historical accounts show that Pansipit River was then the only access by water from China Sea to the other parts of Batangas through Taal Lake, and the area of San Nicolas, located at its mouth, became a center of trade.
Last March 30, the parish relived the old glory of Taal in its old site, namely San Nicolas, by putting up a cross at the altar portion of the ruins, primarily to again sanctify the place and to remind the residents of San Nicolas of the glory of its ancient past.

Fr. Bernas: Public has right to know Spratlys accord

Constitutional law expert Fr. Joaquin Bernas on Wednesday said the government should release the Spratlys project agreement among the Philippines, China, and Vietnam following reports that the trilateral pact is unconstitutional. Bernas, Dean of the Ateneo de Manila Law School and one of the authors of the 1987 Constitution, said Article 3, Section 7 of the 1987 charter states that the public has the right to information on matters of public interest. "I believe this is a matter of public interest so the information about this has to be made public," he told radio dzMM. Bernas disagreed with Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol who said Wednesday that the government cannot reveal the full details of the agreement since it was agreed with China and Vietnam that the agreement must be kept confidential. "They cannot agree to hide from the people a matter of such public interest because there are constitutional issues involved in this," he said. Based on a copy he received via e-mail, the Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking agreement signed March 14, 2005 covers about 20,000 square kilometers of land and water, which could intrude into the Philippines' exclusive economic zone. He said the agreement allowed a Chinese company to conduct a seismic survey of natural resources in Philippine territory. It also included a provision which says that if petroleum is found in the area, the President may enter into financial and technical assistance with foreign corporations subject to the limitation imposed by Congress. They must also report to Congress within 30 days. "It seems to me that this is exploration, with financial and technical assistance of Chinese. Its covered by the Constitution. And whatever the agreement, its the President who enters into the agreement, according to the constitution, not anybody else,'" Bernas said. "So there are very serious questions here and I dont know the clear answer." A report by Barry Wain in the Far Eastern Economic Review earlier revealed that the Philippines might have weakened its claim on the Spratly group of islands when President Arroyo agreed to the JMSU, which was signed by the national oil companies of the Philippines, China, and Vietnam. The 3-year JMSU provides for “joint acquisition of seismic data in order to assess the petroleum resource potential” of the area covered in the study, according to a press statement on the Philippine National Oil Co. -Exploration Corp. website. The PNOC-EC said the tripartite agreement “covers an area of 142,886 kilometers west of Palawan.” It took effect July 2005. ASK THE SUPREME COURT Bernas said any Filipino taxpayer could file a petition for mandamus before the Supreme Court if the administration refuses to release the full agreement in public. If a mandamus petition is granted, the government would have to disclose the information and agreements affected by public interest. He also said Congress could also use its oversight function to get a copy of the JMSU from Malaca�±ang. Former Philippine National Oil Corp. President Eduardo Manalac and former House Speaker Jose de Venecia earlier challenged the government to release the map that would show where the search for oil and gas was conducted in the disputed South China Sea. Both officials said said the public disclosure of the map would help determine if the agreement among the three countries violated the Philippine Constitution or any law. Both asserted that the JMSU, signed in March 2005, was above board. The PNOC-EC has refused to disclose the map, citing a confidentiality agreement among the three countries. Manalac said it was better for the three countries to share in the oil or gas finds than to just let these energy resources stay untapped. He said the Philippines does not have the millions of dollars needed for oil exploration. If oil or gas is found, he said the Philippine government only has to ensure the 60% government share in royalties from the income of the project. He said Philippine law allows 100% foreign ownership in oil exploration, but it must be 60%-40% sharing in favor of government in the royalties. Manalac said it would be good if the JMSU is taken to its next step�”drilling for oil or gas�”since the money invested in the seismic survey would be put to waste if the project is not pursued. In this next stage, the Philippines would have to come up with a production-sharing service contract. China and Vietnam each has its own law to follow in the next stage of the project. Manalac said the initial results of the seismic survey were “very encouraging”. They showed “potential prospects” for oil or gas drilling. TOO CLOSE TO PALAWAN An /Newsbreak report earlier revealed that energy officials were aware as early as 2004 that the bilateral agreement they signed with China to explore the Spratlys for oil deposits covered an area that was within Philippine waters and should not have been allowed. The tacit admission was made when they decided half a year later to revise the map annexed to the JMSU, according to interviews with government officials privy to the agreement. Last Friday, the Department of Energy presented a map that showed how clearly the area covered by the Philippines joint seismic survey with China and Vietnam is within the Philippines 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone . abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak was shown the map presented to select members of the Cabinet led by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita. The map, a revision of the one annexed to the pact with China, showed that the survey area still encroaches on the Philippines waters, and therefore violated local and international laws. The new map served as the annex to the tripartite JMSU pact that was signed on March 14, 2005, which by then already included Vietnam. The original map, which was annexed to the bilateral pact between the Philippines and China signed half a year earlier, showed a survey area closer to Philippine territory. It was revised after a Cabinet official pointed out in 2004 that the original location targeted by the JMSU with China was “too close” to Palawan. The revised map moved the 142,886-square-kilometer seismic survey area farther from Palawan toward the southwest. The new map shows that the new location is now slightly below the Malampaya exploration site, based on another map published earlier by the Philippine National Oil Corporation , which signed the JMSU pact on behalf of the DOE. The map that PNOC made public in 2005 did not show the lines of the Philippines EEZ. ENCROACHMENT Still, the new survey area encroaches on Philippine waters, according to legal experts. With a line showing where 200 nautical miles from the Philippine territorial lines end on the new map, it was established that, still, around 80 percent of the 142,886-square kilometer area of the joint marine seismic undertaking is within Philippine waters. The 200-nautical-mile EEZ was delineated by the Philippines under Presidential Decree 1599 of President Ferdinand Marcos and is acknowledged by the international community under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea . Legal and science experts Newsbreak consulted said that it doesnt matter if the survey area was moved a little farther from the original location; it still violated both local and international laws. Worse, agreeing to the area covered by the JMSU, the Philippines derogated its sovereign rights over the area. They said that allowing China and Vietnam to operate within this EEZ effectively acknowledged that the area, already belonging to the Philippines, is disputed. “The bottom line is, we have weakened our case because we are saying that the area is not exclusively ours,” said a legal expert formerly with the Cabinet. The Philippines is a claimant to a group of islands in the Spratlys. Its EEZ shows it as the country nearest the disputed area.

Three Filipino seafarers die in Shanghai due to gas poisoning

Carbon dioxide poisoning claimed the lives of three Filipino seamen and injured 10 others following a gas leak accident in a shipping yard in Shanghai China.
The fatalities were identified by a Philippine official as Heracleof Casas, 44, Ferdinand Armendares, 40, and Rex Villaruz, 37.
"Philippine Consulate General in Shanghai acting head of post Aileen Mendiola-Rau reported that three Filipino seamen died of carbon dioxide poisoning last May 22 in aftermath of accidental gas leak at the Chongming Dadong Shipping Yard in Shanghai, China," Foreign Affairs spokesman Claro Cristobal said in a text message sent to .
Cristobal said the names of the injured victims have yet to be determined.
The 10 reportedly rushed to the scene of the accident to try to save their colleagues. However, they themselves were injured and were immediately brought to the Chongming Hospital for treatment.
The Foreign Affairs spokesman said all 13 Filipino seamen were crewmembers of the Panama-registered MV Hakone.