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Calls De Venecia III a "drug addict".

By Delon Porcalla
MANILA – You want President Arroyo convicted? Do the spadework, and if possible, find a whistle-blower, prosecutors of convicted plunderer former president Joseph Estrada advised Arroyo critics.

Take it from the experts, who sent a popular ex-president to prison on a life sentence.

If there is one important thing the enemies of Mrs. Arroyo should learn, it is to stop organizing rallies, stop holding press conferences and avoid the limelight, if they really want her to suffer the same fate as the deposed president.

MANILA – Despite the outcry of protest from nurses in the United States and the Philippines over the alleged misrepresentation by the Sentosa recruitment agency, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (PORA) dismissed charges filed by 26 Filipino health professionals in New York “for utter lack of merit.”

The suit was dismissed even though Sen. Panfilo Lacson and Sen. Aquilino Pimentel delivered privilege speeches denouncing the Sentosa agency and calling for an investigation. Pimentel said this was the cse when then presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor called up POEA to intervene on behalf of Sentosa after NY Sen. Charles Schumer wrote Malacanang about the case last year.

WASHINGTON D.C. The United States will likely keep a military presence in the Philippines, at least until the end of the decade, a ranking Philippine official and recent developments indicated.

On Sept. 11, the Pentagon released a modified order to Global Contingency Services for a $6.25 million contract to support the operational needs of the US Joint Special Operations Task Force Philippines (JSOTF). The contract is scheduled for completion in April 2008.

MANILA – The planned coup against Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., which was supposed to take place last week, has fizzled out.

Sources in the House of Representatives told The STAR yesterday that the warning of Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora that the 24-member minority would support President Arroyo’s impeachment prompted Mrs. Arroyo’s allies to abandon their plan to unseat De Venecia.

WASHINGTON D.C. – Jose Cardinal Sanchez, a Filipino who is now Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Clergy, celebrated mass at the Crypt Church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception at 10:30 a.m. September 22.

This monthly devotional mass, which was attended by many Filipino Americans in the area, was organized and coordinated by Birhen ng Antipolo, USA, Inc., a non-profit religious organization recognized by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Cardinal Sanchez was born March 17, 1920 in Pandan town in the island-province of Catanduanes. He attended the seminary of the Holy Rosary in Naga City, obtained a doctorate in theology at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila and was ordained priest on May 12, 1946.

On February 5, 1968, he was elected titular bishop of Lezvi and Auxiliary Bishop of Caceres. He received Episcopal ordination on May 12, 1968. Four years later, he was named Co-Adjutor of the Bishop of Lucena whom he succeeded on September 1976.

MANILA – Founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines CPP Jose Maria Sison has described his 17-day solitary confinement at the Scheveningen prison in The Netherlands as “extremely painful and humiliating.”

In a statement he issued in Utrecht, the Netherlands after his release from jail September 13, Sison revealed that he was subjected to severe interrogation under overheated lamps for two to three hours every day during his more than two weeks of confinement.

“The ordeal is acute because I am innocent of the false and politically motivated charge leveled against me. . . . You cannot imagine how happy I am [to be released from prison]," the 68-year-old founder of the CPP said. But he said his experience in prison did not dampen his spirit but instead strengthened his resolve to obtain “national freedom, human rights, social justice and an enduring peace in the Philippines."

CANADA – The Philippine Labor Office in Canada has warned Filipino caregivers of unscrupulous recruiters who are using third countries as jump-off points to hire them in Canada and elsewhere. The Labor attach_ said two Filipino caregivers were recently subjected to abuses from their employer, with one facing deportation and another a court case. The two unnamed caregivers were working in Dubai and Hong Kong when they were enticed to leave their jobs and go to Canada.

WASHINGTON D.C. – The American Coalition of Filipino Veterans (ACFV) has sent an email to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo thanking her for “your fruitful Sept. 8 conversation with President Bush in Sydney, Australia.

Pat Ganio, ACFV president, said “On behalf of 4,000 members of our U.S.-based advocacy organization, we extend our deepest appreciation of your fruitful’ talk with Mr. Bush. “We are glad and grateful that you obtained a commitment from President Bush to support and sign into law the Filipino Veterans Equity pension bills," he said.
ACFV continued:

Are there practical benefits of prayer? Scientific investigations have demonstrated that grapes, corn seeds, and live cell cultures in laboratory flasks were responsive to the prayers of the faithful and that growth in size and numbers was the payoff.

The first piece of evidence came from the ceremony called “Prayers at the Partaking of the Grapes.” On August 19, 2007, I was a participant-observer at a Sunday service according to the mystical liturgy of the Orthodox Catholic Church of the East. St. Luke Serbian Orthodox Church of America in McLean, Virginia was the parish with a flock of about 100 souls led by Archpriest Milorad Milosevich.

MANILA - Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff General Hermogenes Esperon Jr. is open to the re-imposition of martial law, saying it will come in handy, especially in times of rebellion.

It might still come in handy. In other words, it’s for the national government to protect its citizens," Esperon told reporters Sept. 20, the eve of the 35th anniversary of the declaration of martial law.

“We will use it if there is a rebellion in the city,” he told reporters on the side of the Manila Overseas Press Club (MOPC) forum at the Intercontinental Hotel.