By GERMELINA LACORTE
Davao Today
DAVAO CITY—Davao City’s first woman mayor and the youngest to have been elected to the post finally took her oath of office Monday morning, switching role with her father, the incoming vice mayor, and ushering in another era of the Duterte’s unquestioned rule in the city.
Vowing to be “useful and to serve the country at all times,” …

POLITICS   Progressive groups will launch a new wave of protest actions against Charter Change in April, calling on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to address the country’s economic crisis instead of prioritizing amendments to the Constitution.

POLITICS   Majority of Filipinos do not favor amendments to the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution, according to the latest nationwide survey conducted by research group IBON Foundation, Inc.

PRESS FREEDOM   Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. also proposed “that any person who has already been accorded the right to reply by the mass media over an objectionable story or commentary could not sue for libel anymore over the same item.”

House Resolution 737, which Speaker Prospero Nograles is reportedly maneuvering to have approved at the Lower House, is both politically deplorable and economically destructive.
Pushing for the approval of HR 737 betrays how the administration is rushing to force the legal process of charter change (Cha-cha), to beat the 2010 deadline when Pres. Arroyo�s term ends. It is politically deplorable because, …

Speaker Prospero Nograles was again criticized by agrarian reform advocates for delaying the plenary deliberations for House Bill No. 4077 or the CARP Extension with Reforms bill.
RCM vowed to continue its campaign for CARP extension with reforms saying that the farmers have already started the �Lupang Hinirang, Lupang Hinarang� campaign which include marches, educational fora and signature gathering to apprise …

SONNY AFRICA   Cha-cha proponents argue that removing the Constitution’s nationalist provisions is key to reviving foreign investment flows into the country. Yet this is a weak argument for an effort that is also about President Arroyo’s extension in power beyond 2010.

Bayan said that it opposes the Nograles resolution on the grounds that it seeks to keep alive moves to change the constitution and because the specific proposal is �anti-Filipino�.

The fears expressed by many sectors barely three months ago, when a coup installed Senator Juan Ponce Enrile as Senate President, were not unfounded. Multi-sectoral group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) today said that the sudden turnaround of Enrile on the issue of Charter change (Cha-cha) has further bared the grand scheme of Malaca�ang to perpetuate Mrs. Gloria Arroyo to power.
Enrile …