Pedestrian Observer GB: 4/1/09

"In societies where Robbing Hoods are treated like a celebrity it is but natural to expect political parties to act like a Mafia syndicate" Political Jaywalker "In a nation where corruption is endemic people tend to confuse due process with aiding and abetting criminals" Political Jaywalker "War doesn't determine who is right, war determines who is left" Bertrand Russell "You have just one flash flood of money, you keep your people poor. It's like a time bomb and it's scary" Philippine Lawmaker

Mike Defensor Blowing the Whistle Blower Jun Lozada with Arrest

In the land of cheats where lying is considered an art if you are in power, shameless onion-skinned partisan personalities close to the administration like the one dubbed as kupit Mike can get you in a lot of trouble.

The arrest of Jun Lozada over a “perjury” case filed by former Presidential Chief of Staff and senatorial candidate loser with emphasis on the later is vent on going after Jun Lozada all the way to the supreme court to clear his name. According to PDI Mike Defensor did not want Jun Lozada jailed but he is trying to fish out his refutation out of the toilet errrrr I meant for the sake of his family as he does not want his name to appear in the law books as a kidnapper.

Wrong logic I suppose because nothing in Lozada’s statement and allegations pointed to Mike Defensor as a kidnapper but his failed attempt to persuade the later that there was no abduction attempt.

How shallow can this guy get but then again that is how he sees the world around him or was it the world was supposed to revolve around him. No surprise there and of course we respect how others raised their children and just like the wife Julie who once had a spat with Leah Navarro over a general statement not intended or directed to her personally reacted in the same onion-skinned response complete with tantrum. Bravo Mike, keep it up and you are truly sending a lasting legacy of onion-skinned manurity errrr maturity lesson to your children.

Tantrum boy is desperately trying to project an image of a reasonable man who is willing to drop the sword of Damocles errr the charges if Jun Lozada retracts that particular statement on the allege failed kidnapping attempt. Sure, sounds easy alright but retracting even just that particular statement will mean Jun Lozada is a liar and therefore all his claims on the botched anomalous ZTE-NBN deal will be in question.

A travesty indeed as Leah Navarro of Black & White Movement aptly put it and the arrogance while he is off to Lost Wages errr Las Vegas his friend Jun Lozada is languishing in jail for telling the truth which in the cheating republic is considered perjury. With a friend like the one they dubbed as kupit Mike who needs an enemy. How sad that the justice system is easily perverted used as a tool to silence those who dare speak, an irreparable damage not just to their credibility but the justice system itself no one truly sees as a legitimate venue for true justice.

The irony of irony here is that while those mentioned as key player in the botched ZTE-NBN deal like former Comelec chairman goes around unscathed not even investigated for possession of ugly face errrr impropriety in court the whistle blower are the ones faced with numerous court cases all because one dares speak out the truth.

Let us just hope that Mike Defensor gets back in town minus the swine virus lest he infects others with a deadly disease but then again his onion-skinned sensitivity is more viral I suppose that has more deadly repercussions to those he infects with his perverted concept of what is just and true.

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PAO’s Persida Acosta Crazy say’s Raul Gonzalez

If you believe in the saying that it takes one to recognize one then would you agree with the injustice errr Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez when he says that PAO Chief Persida Acosta is crazy? The question that my poker “buddy” Lu Tong Mancau keeps on nagging me like someone on the verge of having a Boyet Fajardo moment at how public servants tries to grab the limelight at the expense of the tragic death of Trinidad Etong wife of Ted Failon and her family.

As usual Lu Tong Mancau is as confused as PAO Chief Persida Acosta’s eager beaver attitude as to what defines an indigent since he thinks he may need her help one of this days but having a second thought on having her on his side if Raul Gonzalez happens to be right. I don’t blame Lu Tong Mancau at his apprehension since what if she is crazy, then who wants to have a loony representing you? On the other hand the justice system in the Philippines is like a loony bin so it probably makes sense to have a crazy lawyer in a crazy environment. It seems that Persida Acosta was right and yet wrong because she is sticking her nose on cases that is not in her mandate based on the report from Inq7:

“I have already called Acosta. She was trying to argue it was within her authority. I’m issuing a formal memo... she’s crazy!” Gonzalez said.

“She is trying to defend somebody not in her mandate. That is a conflict of interest. She told me she was already consulting with medico-legal experts. That’s none of her business,” he said.

Acosta said that if Failon had a hand in the shooting, “why would the in-laws be at the hospital supporting him?”

“If there is no direct evidence, it would be unfair to arrest somebody whose spouse had [attempted] suicide,” she said.

On the one hand you have police investigators that seem to always look for a short cut power trippers thinking that having a badge is a license to act like Mafiosi Lieutenants instead of following the procedure of gathering the evidence first before arresting people as a suspect. There is a reason why one is presumed innocent until proven guilty and it is upon the investigators to do their duty diligently lest they accuse innocent people of crimes they were not liable. That is also why instead of labeling people as a suspect right away without or absence of compelling evidence they are considered as mere person of interest invited instead of arrested to shed light on the case if indeed a crime was committed. Then you have a Public Attorney chief who acts like a typical politician disguising as a knight in shining armor which is more of grandstanding for that elusive free sound byte since it is a high profile case when she is not even ruining errr running for elective position. Let the lawyer of Ted Failon handle the ridiculous handling of investigation by the policeman as he is not an indigent and can well afford to hire a battery of lawyers.

Of course it does not make sense why the maids took it upon themselves to clean the bathroom. On the other hand is it possible that they don’t know any better? Is it possible that since they believe it was suicide and not a crime in their confusion thought they are doing the family a favor by cleaning the scene of the violent death to spare their employers of seeing the gruesome evidence of Trinidad Arteche-Etong’s untimely demise?

Nothing make sense in this case and Ted Failon being a broadcaster with years of experience should know that he has to report the incident to the police but that in itself does not prove he is guilty. Ted Failon’s is in the list of Erap’s possible senatorial bets which I don’t think factors in his being a suspect or on this statement according to Senior Superintendent Elmo San Diego below:

Hindi porket high profile si Failon at critical siya sa QCPD...hindi totoong gumaganti kami kay Failon [Not because Failon is high profile and he has been critical of the QCPD, it is not true that we are taking our revenge on Failon]

Huh? Is that a slip of the tongue caught in his own stinking smell or what? Amazing how a senior police superintendent will even mention Ted Failon being critical of them when as a professional police agency these matters should not have come into the picture. Does it show their unprofessional demeanor or is this how subjective they conduct police work?

One thing that is troubling here is the way this case is handled by the abusive police using excessive force in arresting the relatives of Trinidad Arteche-Etong at a crucial time when they need to be with her for "obstruction of justice" is outright insensitive and dumb. A justice department with servant nation errrr public servants trying to steal the limelight from each other surely makes it difficult to determine if indeed they were about dispensing justice of trying to look good in the public's eye. The irony here is while these morons think that everyone is entitled to have their day in court you have a police agency that acts like a Gestapo parading “suspects” in the media and they think they are dispensing justice. My gut feel tells me it is a suicide and if this turns out to be accurate they are persecuting rather than prosecuting suspected individuals. What happens if they are found to be innocent which is most likely to happen then they are doing more irreparable harm to the family of the deceased and adding more grief and anguish to an already grieving family.

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Pedestrian Observer GB's Slideshow

The show of shows produced and compiled from previous post by the Political Jaywalker for your viewing pleasure or irritation depending on how you view the state of politics under the administration of the present cheating errrr seating president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.......

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Pedestrian Observer GB

Khamisa Sawadi, 75 yr. old widow meted 40 lashes by Religious Police in Saudi Arabia

It sure is hell to be a woman and a “foreigner” in Saudi Arabia where religious police acting on “citizen information” that the widow mingled with 2 young men who despite one of the men (Fahd al-Anzi) who is actually a nephew of her late husband and his wet nurse when he was a baby was supposedly not her “immediate relation” and deemed to have committed a crime against “sharia morality.”

There are prude people and there are morons who interpret morality in their demented ways that they are beyond help posing a danger to others in their barbaric disposition. The poor old woman Khamisa Sawadi being a widow just like all the women in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to travel alone or drive and with her 2 daughters who are married and living away from her how do they expect her to live? Do they expect the 72 virgins in heaven to drop her basic necessities like 5 loaves of bread that she asked her late husband nephew to buy for her to materialize out of the desert? The poor zap Fahd al-Anzi together with business partner Hadiyan bin Zein in doing a good deed for an old widow should have been given brownie points but not so according to the moronic religious foolish errr police who arrested the duo together with the widow finding them “guilty” of “immoral acts” sentenced to jail terms and lashes.

Khamisa Sawadi used to ask her neighbors to buy for her foods and basic necessities after her husband died, I wonder if these “citizen informant” who I supposed was one of her neighbors was not happy at seeing other people do the errands for her. Like a village idiot of the gossiper dirty minded type concocted and imputed malicious dirty sexual fantasies which the religious police of the same frame of dirty mind bought lock stock and barrel.

Now that is sick, jail term and 40 lashes is what she deserves according to the religious police and to further inflict their cruelty that is if she survives and not die after the lashing she is to be deported back to Syria even though her late husband is Saudi Arabian. What are these morons thinking or are they brain dead meting such harsh and horrible punishment the widow and the men don’t deserve. There is this image of a young woman 20 days after 50 lashing that is too graphic to post here tells you the kind of physical violence that are inflicted by these unthinking idiots so you can just imagine the fatal consequence it will do to a 75 year old woman.

I have always thought that the media in the Philippines is bad but this one tops them all and probably explains why religious police barbaric monstrosity thrives:

Girl gets a year in jail, 100 lashes for adultery

By Adnan Shabrawi

JEDDAH – A 23-year-old unmarried woman was awarded one-year prison term and 100 lashes for committing adultery and trying to abort the resultant fetus.

The District Court in Jeddah pronounced the verdict on Saturday after the girl confessed that she had a forced sexual intercourse with a man who had offered her a ride. The man, the girl confessed, took her to a rest house, east of Jeddah, where he and four of friends assaulted her all night long.

The girl claimed that she became pregnant soon after and went to King Fahd Hospital for Armed Forces in an attempt to carry out an abortion. She was eight weeks’ pregnant then, the hospital confirmed.

According to the ruling, the woman will be sent to a jail outside Jeddah to spend her time and will be lashed after delivery of her baby who will take the mother’s last name. – Okaz/SG

Awarded? What in the name of Osama Bin Laden’s cavorting 72 virgins was that all about? Oh geez, the lucky woman just got “awarded” the coveted lashing as if this is a bondage fetish guilty beyond reasonable doubt for confessing the “crime” of being raped.

At least not all the media people in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia thinks and write like this numb nut at Saudi Gazzete with the likes of Saudi journalist Bandar al-Ammar, in Al-Watan who felt the need to report the case "so everybody knows to what degree we have reached."

A saudi doctor and columnist also wrote in Al-Watan questioning the verdict against the widow Khamisa Sawadi and the 2 men based purely on suspicion are misusing religion to serve their interest.

The religious Police are a special police unit called the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice tasked at enforcing laws according to their own interpretation of Islamic laws. They patrol public places to make sure women are covered and not wearing make up, sexes don't mix, shops close five times a day for Muslim prayers and men go to the mosque to worship. Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islam prohibits men and women who are not immediate relatives from mingling and women from driving. The playing of music, dancing and many movies also are a concern for hard-liners who believe they violate religious and moral values.

On a positive note the Saudi king dismissed the chief of the religious police and a cleric who condoned killing of TV network owners that broadcast "immoral content," is this a sign of a shake-up signaling an effort to weaken the kingdom's hard-line Sunni Muslim establishment? Maybe it is but maybe not so if you want to do something to prevent the injustice, join the Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) international solidarity network and its allies in demanding that Saudi Arabia demonstrate its commitment to human rights and release Khamisa Sawadi, Fahd al-Anzi, and Hadiyan bin Zein and revoke the order of deportation by clicking here, cut, paste and email the letter to the Saudi authorities.

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Searching for Nilo Arado & Ma. Luisa Posa-Dominado

What would you do if you were Smart, Rich and Beautiful? You could have anything you want, be anything you want. If you had everything, would you give it all up just so you could stand up for what you believe in?

The Martial Law era was an awful time to live. You never knew what would happen to you and everyone else you know. Anyone could die at any given moment. The masses went hungry. The rich prospered, just as long as you were on the right list.

Someone needed to take a stand to end such atrocities. That someone needs to be bold, courageous and willing to give up everything, even their lives, for the sake of everyone else. There were a lot of people who took this stand. These were normal people who risked their lives because they have had just about enough of being tricked by some mad man posing as the president. These were people who wanted peace and justice for everyone. And one of these people was my mother.

In the stories they told me as a child my mother joined the cause through the persuasions of her brothers. She was still schooling at the time at USA where she got kicked out for her “extra- curricular activities”. I heard stories as a child about her escaping prison four times, about her dodging flanks of soldiers in the mountains, dodging bullets here and there. These captivated me, and I’ve always thought of my mom as somewhat of a hero.

My sister was born during these stories they told me were being played out. Heck, during her birth there were soldiers chasing after our mom. But I, you see, was born 7 years after the martial law. The country was almost back to normal. And I never got to witness what my mother did let alone grasp the concepts and the meanings of what she did.

As a kid she’d take me to her many offices. I never understood any of what they talked about, but I knew it’ll help lots of people in some off town or baranggay or something. She’d take me to lots of rallies and other places where they’d implement their projects. Not somewhere you’d usually take a kid to.

As a kid I have always understood what she and my father did. They’d always explain it to me and my sister but I’d never listen anyways. I have always known. And that’s why I never asked them to stop what they do. Even as I experience complications in my life and wishing that someday it would be normal, I still won’t ask her to stop. Because what they do is beautiful. The most beautiful thing any person could do. Self-sacrifice.

Now back to that last question. If you had everything, would you give it all up just so you could stand up for what you believe in? Well, my mom did. I could never have done what she did. I’m too much of a coward. But she, she has all the courage in the family. And she was my mom. And I had to share her with everyone else. But I never mind. Everyone else needed her.

But now, I am scared to think what would happen to those people who needed her help. The people who need her voice to speak out their pleas to those who should’ve heard them in the first place. Who would have the courage like her to give up their everything?

By: Tamara Posa Dominado

I love talking and hearing stories about Nanay. She has such an exciting life full of adventures that seem to come straight out of a fiction novel. The time she escaped through the roof of their stockade cell, repeating the same feat a few years later with a different set of cellmates. The time she gave birth while a platoon of soldiers were looking for her and even burned the paltera's hair. The time she escaped, was caught, gave a false name and had to deny her own grandmother. But when I think of her, I usually remember boring stuff, times we spent talking and eating, watching movies, doing something together, memories that would mean nothing to anyone besides me. Before listening to what my sister has written, please allow me to share some of these memories, so that you may have an idea how she is as a Nanay and how much we miss her.

Nanay is a teacher. Besides her Education degree, she has sufficient training with my cousins who visited her makeshift day care center in jail. When one of my cousins failed a subject in high school, she marched to the teacher and scolded her, saying that the red number was not a bad mark upon the student but speaks instead of the teacher's inadequacy. When I myself get into trouble in school or get a failing grade, I had to hold her back and give her a stern lecture about how she should trust me to handle my own problems. Although of course, the first word I scream when in pain is her name.

My mother is not a skilled cook. All I remember of her culinary repertoire is burnt rice and one perfect lunch a long long time ago when she fried the chicken very well. But maybe I learned from her all the practical knowledge I really do need. She did taught me about the solar system, first aid, bank transactions, grocery shopping and marketing tips, water conservation, how to clean the sewers without dirtying your hands, how to collect candle wax in a ball and use it to polish the floor of the jail cell, how to mend a broken friendship with pinipig ice cream, how to crochet, how to wrap your hair with a towel so it won't fall off your head, how to be stubborn and righteous, how to know your self-worth and not seek the constant approval of others...the list is endless.

In high school, my classmates refused to represent our section at the Lakan at Lakambini ng Hayskul contest. When asked, I said that I would be willing to "sacrifice my dignity" if my parents would allow me. Of course, I was confident that I already know their decision. And indeed, Nanay did not only refuse to give her permission, she also had the audacity to suggest to our class president the criteria of the ideal but non-existent contest she would have me join instead, a list that did not include beauty but only intelligence and hardwork. With that in mind, I sometimes could not help but think that my own mother thinks I look horrendous. She has jokingly told me and my sister that it's too bad one of her daughters is ugly, but she would not tell us which one.

When I was an only child and a brat spoiled by affluent relatives, my mother scolded me each and every day, or so I feel, due to my snobbish behavior and extravagant habits. She told me how people worked hard for each grain of rice I put in my mouth or negligently scatter on the floor or the table. Being unused to life in jail and to daily chores and to not doing everything one wants, I got mad at her for being mad at me. She then explained to me that people only scold those that they love and care for because they want their loved ones to be better persons and have better lives etc. etc. Now, years later, remembering this, I am entirely secure in the knowledge that I am the person that Nanay loves most in the whole wide world.

In my entire life, I only know of 3 occasions when Nanay was reduced to tears. The first one was when a dangerous fire was raging a few houses away from ours and my sister who was a toddler at that time was left at our house in the care of her yaya. Nanay was crying with abandon in the jeepney and she ran the couple of blocks home. Then there was the time when I took my sister for a walk around our grandparents' subdivision and Nanay had no idea where we were for several hours. She gave us an earful in Lola's bathroom and we were shocked when she suddenly sat on the toilet seat and burst into tears. The other time was when she lost our last baby sister or brother when Tamara was 3 years old. I cannot imagine how she cried when she miscarried the other 4 times before that.

Nanay was a mother not only to me and Tamara but also to my cousins and to all the people she has sheltered. Our home, our lives are filled with people who have felt abandoned and neglected, people suffering from nervous breakdown, youths who have run away from home, women who have been raped or beaten or probably both, pregnant women approaching single motherhood and even just imperfect people who seem to irritate everybody else. I admit that I sometimes question why it has to be my Nanay who needs to help everyone with their problems all of the time. But one time, she was telling me about a girl who has run away from home and was staying at our house, had a fight with her boyfriend outside the gate in full view and within hearing distance of all the neighbors, threatened to cut her hair and scared my aunt who thought she was trying to kill herself with the scissors. Nanay said that she only pitied the girl and wanted to hug her because all the girl really needed was a mother. When she told me this, I thought how lucky the world is to have this woman who wants to help those who need it most. And lately I've been thinking how lucky I am to have the best Nanay in the whole world simply because she's mine.

It's been 2 years since Nanay was abducted and several times I have been sorely tempted to write down all these wonderful and not so wonderful memories with her, to list down all the movies we've seen together, to fill in pages of everything she has ever said to me, to us, every little thing, lest I forget any of it. But writing it all down gives it such permanence and carries a sense of finality. It seems to manifest my fear that no more memories could be made, that we would never see her again, that I have given up hope...

However, I am hoping that in sharing this with you might make you see your own mother clearly, all the small and seemingly insignificant things she does for you that you might not appreciate much now but would attain a degree of significance only when she is no longer there.

By: May Wan Posa Dominado

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Mrs. B: A sit down dinner for the benefit of the families of the Desaparecidos

The Concerned Artist of the Philippines (CAP) will stage an event entitled Mrs. B on Saturday, April 18, 2009, 6-8 pm at Ten02 Bar (Sct. Ybardolaza cor. Timog Avenue, Q.C.). Pinky Amador will play the role of Mrs. Edith Burgos, who, up to this day, is still searching for her missing son, activist Jonas Burgos.

This also serves as a commemoration of the second year of Jonas' abduction. He was taken by a group of four unidentified men and a woman while eating inside a mall in Quezon City, April 28, 2007. To date, not a trace of Jonas was found.

Jonas was tagged by the military as a member of the New People's Army. The son of the late press freedom icon Jose Burgos, Jr, who, in his time, fought against the repressive regime of Ferdinand Marcos, Jonas chose a seemingly different yet closely related path. He continued his father's legacy of serving the country through teaching organic farming to farmers. Jonas is a member of Alyansang Magbubukid ng Bulacan.

On a personal note, meeting - and living - with the Burgoses only strengthened my belief that Jonas' disappearance is one of the most heinous crimes ever committed by the Arroyo administration. Tita Edith's kindness and warmth for me and my upcoming baby only heightened my admiration for her. I couldn't have imagined a woman of great kindness like Mrs. Burgos suffer the perverse and twisted reality of having your son abducted, disappearing without a trace. No one deserves this torture, not Tita Edith, or any of the mothers and fathers of the victims of this evil regime.

I do hope we can all come to Ten02 for this event. But more so, I hope that Jonas be found, and justice be served.

By: Angelica Carballo

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