Gun-toting? File photo of Estrada and Binay on jeep with a
mounted cal. 50 machinegun replica..
Starving kidnappers
is the way to go: AFP
Abus holding Red Cross men running low on ammo
BY VICTOR REYES
TROOPS cordoning the Abu Sayyaf group holding three delegates
of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Sulu are focusing on cutting
off the bandits’ supply and reinforcement lines, the military said yesterday as
it disclosed the kidnappers are running low on ammunition.
The kidnappers, if deprived of logistics and reinforcement,
would not be able to sustain fights with troops and would eventually be forced
to release their captives, said Lt. Col. Edgard Arevalo, a Sulu-based military
spokesman on the hostage crisis.
Arevalo said troops have been blocking the delivery of
supplies to the kidnappers since a cordon was put up days after Italian Eugenio
Vagni, Swiss Andreas Notter and Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba were abducted on
January 15 in Patikul town.
Gov’t eyes
P10,000 a month subsidy for displaced workers
BY REGINA BENGCO
THE government will continue to give
subsidies to the poor and the hungry and is looking into
the possibility of providing a P10,000 monthly subsidy for
six months to 100,000 workers who will lose their jobs.
Planning Secretary Ralph Recto, in an
ambush interview after the Cabinet meeting in Sto. Tomas,
Pangasinan, said that "in the downturn, it makes perfect
sense" to subsidize displaced workers who have paid their
taxes and contributions to the Social Security System.
He said one cannot expect laid-off
microchips producers to become road maintenance workers,
"so they are better off with the insurance."
THE Gabriela women’s group, former Sen.
Leticia Ramos-Shahani, and University of the Philippines Prof.
Harry Roque yesterday asked the Supreme Court to look into the
veracity of the March 12 sworn affidavit of Subic rape victim
"Nicole" where she virtually cleared US serviceman Daniel Smith.
The petitioners also sought an investigation
on the alleged improper release of the Court of Appeals draft
ruling that acquitted Smith.
The CA draft was written by Justice Agustin
Dizon, who retired on June 27, 2008. It has not been promulgated
and the case had been raffled to another CA division.
