Barangay officials force 350 families near coasts to relocate
Juan claims 1st death
2 missing amid rains spawned by 'Juan'—Coast Guard
'Juan' hammers transmission lines
Typhoon Juan could damage up to 70% of paddy rice: NFA
NFA: Typhoon Juan to damage P1.53B worth of palay
Gov't keeps close watch over prices of agricultural goods
Palace declares work holiday in north Luzon govt offices
Aquino a no-show in disaster council meet
Pool calamity funds for disasters—DILG
RP to US: Please help with your Chinooks
PRC: 3,973 new certified public accountants
Suspects in post-bar exams violence identified
"The important thing is that we have already pinpointed them. That's all I can say. We cannot disclose further," De Lima said, adding that she already had the NBI's confidential report.
"Within the next few days, there will be a major breakthrough," De Lima said.
The NBI is the lead agency conducting the investigation. The Supreme Court also formed a committee headed by Associate Justice Martin Villarama Jr. to conduct a parallel probe of which the result will be submitted to Chief Justice Renato Corona.
De Lima said, the NBI findings have also been submitted to the high court committee.
Groups face-off on RH bill
By 61 percent: Gwen cuts budget for Greg's office
Of the P3 billion proposed annual budget of the Province of Cebu for next year, Vice Governor Gregorio Sanchez, Jr. will only get P18 million.
For helping him out in his first 100 days: Rama to give P10, 000 bonus to CH employees
For allegedly making his first 100 days in office a success, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama is planning to reward each city hall employees by granting them additional P10,000 bonus.
P5.4 million of P6 million intelligence-funds remain unused
Cebu City will have more or less P9 million in intelligence funds next year for the peace and order initiatives and confidential operations of the City Government in coordination with the police.
Anomalies drive Wagas to prevent poll winners from assuming - Quiño
Compostela Mayor-elect Joel Quiño believes that the alleged anomalies of the past administration may be the real reason why former mayor Ritchie Wagas tried so hard to prevent the new elected officials from assuming office.
In Lapu-Lapu City: LTO chief charged for gross dishonesty, falsification
Land Transportation Office (LTO) Lapu-Lapu City Chief Aurea Angcay is facing charges for falsification of official documents and gross dishonesty before the Ombudsman-Visayas.
Clamping ordinance: Traffic enforcers told not to spare government vehicles
The Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (CITOM) Board has ordered traffic enforcers not to spare government vehicles from clamping, especially if they are parked illegally and obstructing the flow of traffic.
PRO-7 honors cop, who shot it out with robbers
A medal of merit was awarded yesterday to Police Officer 3 Osorio Ramiso Jr. for his "single act of heroism" when he foiled a robbery of a lending firm in Barangay Sambag I a week ago by shooting it out with the fleeing robbers resulting to their eventual arrest.
Luigi to push for Consolacion cityhood, wants more districts
Sixth District Representative Luigi Quisumbing will be filing a bill that would make Consolacion into a city, but admitted that doing so involves a very long process starting with consultations and dialogues with stakeholders.
"Super bridge" will link Cebu, Bohol
Sixth district Rep. Luigi Quisumbing during a press conference yesterday said Bohol Rep. Erico Aumentado and Seventh District Rep. Arturo Radaza has asked him to co-author a bill requesting for a project study of a proposed super bridge that will link the two provinces.
Fate of ex-Pier 3 vendors hanging on a thread
The Cebu City Market Authority, Department of Public Works and Highways, and officials of Barangay Tinago are expected to discuss today the plight of vendors occupying Arellano Boulevard who will be affected by an impending road widening project.
Palace will not review truth body report
"There's no such process," said Executive Secretary Paquito N. Ochoa, when asked if the Palace will review the recommendations of the commission similar to the case of the Incident Investigation and Review Committee on the Aug. 23 hostage crisis.
The report was reviewed by a legal team composed of Mr. Ochoa and chief presidential legal counsel Eduardo de Mesa.
The truth body tasked to look into unresolved graft cases in the previous administration has started its work despite a pending Supreme Court (SC) case questioning its constitutionality.
During a briefing last Friday, the commission said it will start investigating 23 cases of alleged anomalies.
In the recent SC oral arguments, justices noted that the commission's output may be ignored by the Ombudsman and Sandiganbayan as its findings are merely recommendatory.
The minority bloc in the House of Representatives has questioned the constitutionality of Executive Order 1, which created the commission. The case is up for resolution.
DOJ pursues GMA plunder probe
The case is connection with the non-payment of capital gains tax amounting to P72 million for the sale of the old Iloilo Airport to Megaworld Corporation at a price of P1.2 billion. The complainant is Danilo Lihaylihay.
Arroyo, who now represents the second district of Pampanga in Congress, was not required to attend as per the advise of DOJ panel head Senior State Prosecutor Peter Ong during the previous hearing last October 6.
Romulo was represented by his counsel.
Teves, who was supposed to appear before the panel, was a no-show.
Ong announced during the hearing that a messenger handed him a letter from Teves Monday morning, but he refused to accept it and instructed the messenger to return in the afternoon and present the letter in the 2:00 pm hearing.
The letter, however, was received by the other prosecutors. Its content was mainly asking for the dismissal of charges against Teves.
The DOJ panel noted that the letter was not in the form of a counter-affidavit and as such, could not have any bearing on the proceedings.
Romulo's lawyer, meanwhile, asked that his client's name be withdrawn from the information sheet.
During the hearing, the panel sought clarification from Lihaylihay as to the nature of his complaint.
The panel brought to his attention a statement of Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares, which stated that the old Iloilo airport case is not even a tax case, especially that transactions like it are exempt from capital gains tax.
Lihaylihay insisted he had grounds to file the complaint. He was given up to October 28 to submit his reply affidavit.
Defense cites why GMA musn't testify in Neri case
The former President is not a mere "ordinary witness," since she is also being investigated in other venues with regard to the controversial deal, Mendoza said.
"The prosecution does not belie this fact. There is no question that movant Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is, for all intents and purposes, an 'accused' person, accused of illegal acts in connection with the NBN-ZTE deal. Her right to remain silent, in any venue, is absolute and this cannot be taken against her," he added.
He also debunked the prosecution's argument that Arroyo can't excuse herself from testifying since it is Neri who is the defendant in the case.
"Any person under investigation, custodial and otherwise" has the right to remain silent, he said.
Furthermore, Arroyo's right is anchored on the right to remain silent enshrined under Section 12, Article III of the Constitution. The prosecution has mistakenly argued against the "right to self-incrimination" under Section 17, Article III, he said.
"As long as the person under investigation is going to be questioned on matters that he or she is being investigated about, the right to remain silent is absolute, in any venue and on any instance," he said.
He also dismissed the statements from Acting Deputy Special Prosecutor John I.C. Turalba, who mentioned in open court that anything Arroyo will say while she is on the witness stand will not be used against her in other proceedings.
"(W)ith all due respect, the Honorable Prosecutor does not have the authority to grant the movant any immunity," Mendoza said.
Aquino stands by peace adviser amid quit calls
2 cops killed in Masbate ambush
Senate panel approves amnesty proclamation for soldiers
Nurse raped by lone perpetrator?
Nurse not gang-raped?
Six men cleared in nurse's rape mull raps vs cops
5 OFWs in Riyadh jailed for 'work stoppage'
Somali pirates release carrier with 21 Pinoy crew
SC justice: Ruling on plagiarism case to set a bad precedent
Sereno added that the ruling of the court's majority has caused "unimaginable problems" for the Philippine academe. She explained decisions on future cases of plagiarism committed by students will be based on the court's ruling that malicious intent must be present to constitute plagiarism.
"Unless reconsidered, this Court would unfortunately be remembered as the Court that made 'malicious intent' an indispensable element of plagiarism and that made computer-keying errors an exculpatory fact in charges of plagiarism, without clarifying whether its ruling applies only to situations of judicial decision-making or to other written intellectual activity," said Sereno.
"It will also weaken this Court's disciplinary authority ─ the essence of which proceeds from its moral authority ─ over the bench and bar. In a real sense, this Court has rendered tenuous its ability to positively educate and influence the future of intellectual and academic discourse," she added.
Sereno is the youngest member of the high tribunal and is the first appointee of President Benigno Aquino III, who assumed office June 30 this year, to the high court.
Majority's ruling
Ten of the Supreme Court's 15-member bench voted to clear Del Castillo.
Those who voted to absolve Del Castillo were Chief Justice Renato Corona, Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Eduardo Nachura, Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Arturo Brion, Lucas Bersamin, Roberto Abad, Martin Villarama Jr., Jose Perez, and Jose Mendoza.
Only Sereno and Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales dissented, with the latter joining in the former's dissenting opinion. Associate Justices Antonio Carpio and Diosdado Peralta did not participate in the voting because they were on official leave.
" It's not Microsoft Word's fault"
The sources from where Del Castillo allegedly borrowed without proper attribution were "A Fiduciary of Theory of Jus Cogens" by Evan Criddle and Evan Fox-Descent, "Breaking the Silence on Rape as an International Crime" by Mark Ellis, and "Enforcing Erga Omnes Obligations in International Law" by Christian Tams.
In the decision, the majority also said Del Castillo cannot be faulted because the attributions for the allegedly plagiarized material were merely "accidentally deleted" by the magistrate's court researcher.
The court also said it was not Del Castillo or his researcher's fault that Miscrosoft Word, the program used in writing the decision, cannot detect "copied" research material without the proper attributions.
"Microsoft Word program does not have a function that raises an alarm when original materials are cut up or pruned. The portions that remain simply blend in with the rest of the manuscript, adjusting the footnote number and removing any clue that what should stick together had just been severed," the Supreme Court said.
But the court's findings did not sit well with Sereno.
In her dissenting opinion, Sereno said there is no software that will input the quotation marks at the beginning and end of passages lifted verbatim. "Neither is there a built-in software alarm that sounds every time attribution marks or citations are deleted," she said.
Not hypocrites
Sereno likewise castigated her colleagues who said Del Castillo's critics were "hypocrites who believe that the courts should be as error-free as they themselves are."
For her, it is not hypocrisy to point out plagiarism in promoting honesty, especially in the judiciary.
"To conclude [it as hypocrisy] is to condemn wholesale all the academic thesis committees, student disciplinary tribunals and editorial boards who have made it their business to ensure that no plagiarism is tolerated in their institutions and industry," said Sereno.
Sereno: Plagiarism was committed
The magistrate then cited Section 184 of the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines, which provides that there is no infringement of copyright in the use of another's work "provided that the source and the name of the author, if appearing on the work, are mentioned."
Sereno said Del Castillo committed plagiarism because of the outright fact that the borrowed material were not properly attributed to their sources.
"Plagiarism thus does not consist solely of using the work of others in one's own work, but of the former in conjunction with the failure to attribute said work to its rightful owner and thereby, as in the case of written work, misrepresenting the work of another as one's own," she said.
She also said any claim of a lack of malicious intent does not "change the characterization of the act as plagiarism.
Sereno then urged Del Castillo to admit he committed plagiarism and to apologize to the foreign authors whose words he borrowed in his ruling. She also said the court should issue a corrected ruling on comfort women in the form of a "corrigendum."
$1: P43.235
$1: P43.235 (P43.17)
Euro 1: P60.3733
2 power transmission lines in Mindanao energized
Jollibee acquires Mang Inasal for P3-B
'Mang Inasal' CEO confirms P3B sale to Jollibee
Death toll from latest Vietnam floods 23: officials
Malaysian boat accident leaves 20 missing—report
10 dead, 3 missing in heavy Haiti rains
Benin floods kill 43—UN
NATO official: Bin Laden, deputy hiding in northwest Pakistan
Distracted Pacquiao fails to impress Arum
Pinay teen is Sudoku Asia Pacific champ again
Lea Salonga is new UN envoy vs hunger
Charice gets two standing ovations in US
Yeng, 6cyclemind vocalist sing 'Imortal' theme song
Judge stops Patrick dela Rosa's transfer to QC jail
RP bet to Ms Int'l composes own song
15 LGUs receive 'good housekeeping' award
Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo said the LGUs, which belongs to fourth to sixth class municipalities, will be awarded with P2 million each. They were picked based on their performance in governance, particularly in the areas of planning, fiscal management, transparency and accountability, and valuing performance monitoring.
LGUs qualified for the seal should also not have any "adverse" report from the Commission on Audit, which means they have complied with all the requirements of the commission, Robredo said.
LGUs who have been awarded with the seal of good housekeeping are qualified to avail of the Performance Challenge Fund (PCF), where they can acquire necessary funds for the development of their respective municipalities.
If awarded with the PCF, an LGU should use the money to implement its priority projects, which should be aligned with the national government's goal to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, Robredo said.
Robredo said the PCF is part of the agency's proposed P86.9 billion budget for 2011.
"By linking financial incentives to the LGUs own performance, the latter is motivated to perform better and deliver quality services to the people," he added.
The 15 LGU awardees are:
Anilao, Iloilo
Balete, Aklan
Balilihan, Bohol
Catigbian, Bohol
Clarin, Misamis Occidental
Damulog, Bukidnon
Datu Paglas, Maguindanao
Leon B. Postigo, Zamboanga del Norte
Mobo, Masbate
Naawan, Misamis Oriental
Pitogo, Quezon
San Agustin, Surigao del Sur
Santol, La Union
Sto. Domingo, Albay
Tampilisan, Zamboanga del Norte
No comments:
Post a Comment