The MEDIA KILLED AWAY FROM THE KLIEG OF MEDIA

By Samira Gutoc , YMPN (25-31-Dec-2009) 

Belated Amun Jadid greetings!

While we remember the 31 journalists and media workers  killed during November 23, let us not forget the  local journalists in ARMM who are killed in the line of duty . Muslims who report about Muslim abuses. Ustadz Badruddin Abbas, co-anchor of Bobby Benito on local radio in Cotabato, was gunned down last  January 21 by unidentified men at Sinsuat Avenue, Cotabato City.  The case has not been resolved. Almost a  year later, the wife of Badruddin is still recovering  and is without support unlike other journalists whose cases are brought to the limelight. “Nabenta ng asawa niya ang multi-cab nila. Isang anak niya nag stop sa pag aaral kasi  umuwi sila sa province. Yung wife  niya lang ang nagfarm,” said Bobby Benito.

Christmas Day for me was lovely as I visited  a Lumad family in the upskirts of Davao with poet and Konsult Mindanao convenor Father Albert Alejo. JOJO had settled in the urban center with a small shoe repair stall . His sister had a sadder story to tell. Her husband had been killed by suspected communists. His son detained by authorities for being a cadre. Alejo inspired many indigenous peoples with the strength of his soothing voice for them to claim their ancestral rights. 

After the Italian Premier face-bashing, the Pope this time gets attacked.  At a Midnight Mass on  December 25 in Saint Peter’s Basilica,  25-year old lady Susanna Maiolo  leaped at  Pope Benedict XVI knocking him on the ground.   The 82-year old Pope was  unscathed.  Now that’s a miracle on Christmas Eve.

Women, women, women. Shall you be the saviours? While several women were killed during the November 23 infamy, women are also presiding the wheels of justice that would jail those responsible. A lady is also appointed as the Acting Governor of Maguindanao, Nariman Ambolodto. Ina made light of the burden cast on her shoulders. She mentioned the comparison between her and Acting Governor  ANDAL AMPATUAN.  While she is nicknamed INA, ANDAL is called AMA. While her car is white, Andal’s transport is black and other tidbits that endeared her to her listeners.

Thousands gathered around the cemetery bed of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to remember her death two years ago on December 27. Bhutto, the first woman to become prime minister of a Muslim country, was killed in a gun and suicide attack  after addressing an election rally in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near the capital Islamabad.
The deathly tsunami in Aceh , Indonesia five years ago was also recalled. While we faced ferry deaths of some 30 people in Cavite and Batangas  this 2009, almost 170,000 lives were lost in the Asian Tsunami, the world’s worst natural disaster.  Since then, Asian countries have invested   in improving siren systems, warning signals and ways to understand their  coastal communities.

The first European national to be executed in China in 58 years failed in his bid for clemency for drug smuggling. Londoner Akmal Shaikh, 53, was sentenced to death in December 2008 after arriving from Tajikistan in Urumqi with four kilograms of heroin. His case sparked condemnation from activists and launched a Facebook campaign . They believe his mental delusion should have spared him from execution.

AVATAR, the movie, breaks box-office beating Filipino movies lording during the ticket mills during the annual Metro Manila filmfest season.  The movie has a strong anti-war and timely pro-environment message. It is the story of an ex-marine who finds himself thrust into the hostilities on an alien planet filled with exotic life forms. An Avatar is one with a human mind but alien body. And I love their pointed eyes, chins, nose and ears.

Trash to Gas. The Quezon City-sponsored Payatas dumpsite-turned-power generation project may be able to provide sufficient gas for the community for the next 10 years. Methane gas produced by the decomposition of garbage deposited at the dumpsite are collected and converted into electricity  through the Pilot Methane Power Plant (Star).

The Department of Energy took renewable energy to greater heights by signing 90 billion worth of related projects with a BIG SHOW policy in the offing . BIG SHOW means B for biofuels, G for geothermal, S for Solar, H for Hydro , O for Ocean and W for Wind.

While tax on text and other tax bills have been shelved, 300 billion pesos of deficit was incurred in 2009 chides Quezon Rep.  Danilo Suarez blaming the House of Representatives for the failure in leadership.  

MILF peace panel technical official  Professor Habib  Macaayon is optimistic that the renewed peace talks with government will go somewhere despite the nearing change of administration. But one insider in the government peace office is not too keen on the sincerity of some of the officials manning the peace process. “It’s just talk to keep the Muslims not complaining ,” he says.

Tsk, tsk. Commission on Audit (COA) found anomalies worth over 30 million pesos within the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to include an overprice of as much 4000 % in some baking equipment for bakery training courses in TESDA training schools.

Robin Padilla and Nur Misuari have endorsed Adel TAMANO’s senatorial bid. No wonder, magkarelihiyon eh.
One congressman in the Western Mindanao islands is questioning why the current Cabinet of Acting Governor Ansaruddin Alonto Adiong is filled with Maranaos instead of being of mixed cultural groups?  During Zaldy Ampatuan’s time,  puro Maguindanaon; during Parouk Hussin’s and Nur Misuari’s time,  madaming Tausug; now it’s Maranao , MARANOW, haaay.

Congrats to long-time columnist ALI MACABALANG for being appointed as the new Information Chief in ARMM. He has a large task of arming residents with information in a society with a culture of silence when it comes to wrongdoing by their leaders.

Tension over racial profiling in the United States is being tested in debates over whether race should matter in security monitoring. Critics of racial profiling say that the case of 23-year-old Umar Faruk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian accused of trying to ignite explosives on a Northwest Airlines flight , showed the pitfalls of judging by appearance. Attorney General Eric Holder – the first African-American to hold th2e nation’s top law enforcement position – vowed last month to oppose racial profiling, recalling how police searched his car for weapons when he was a university student (AFP).

Pops and Martin rekindle for A ONE AMORE TIME, a concert on February 14 at SMX, Mall of Asia.

Fellow Young Moro Professional Dubai-based banking executive HASHIM GUINOMLA  won 150,000 pesos  as runner-up at the 2009 Worldwide Balikbayan bowling tournament held in Robinsons’ Place on December 28.

Senator Aquilino Pimentel is calling for the RELIEF of Commission on Elections (COMELEC) officials involved in the Hello GARCI scandal now appointed to  the election posts in the  ARMM . The Hello Garci boys  were allegedly involved in the massive dagdag bawas operations in the past elections. I received an email from journalist PATRICIO MANGUBAT on a Maranao “operator” within the current COMELEC administrative personnel in Manila who solicits money to help in the accreditation procedure of party-list groups. Expose them now!

Shiites observed ASHURA last December 27 remembering the seven-century martyrdom of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Imam Hussen who was killed in Karbala in Iraq in 680 AD.

Only a third of the 306 party-list groups that filed for candidacy in the 2010 elections can actually run, the COMELEC said.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is reminding taxpayers to pay their duties including the 500 peso registration fee for every separate and distinct establishment on or before January 31.
 
Congratulations to a sister in development Rohaniza Sumndad of the Asia-America Initiative who got hitched last December 28 in the non-traditional evening  setting at Mahogany Hills, Iligan City. It was intimate with a few visitors.