Government Harassing Journalists

 BY MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

Overheard by this Writer:

Putin wants to ban gas to Europe but wants to sell it to China, India, and the Philippines, said by a resource person at the German news outlet DW.

Trump just lifted out the ban for India to buy gas and crude from Russia, after Iran put deadly mines at the Strait for Hormuz to discourage oil tankers ingressing and egressing at the Gulf States like Saudi Arabia.

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War comes with a price tag. The US spent $3.7 billion in the first four days of bombing Iran.

In a huddle with President Fidel V. Ramos at Alaminos City when he invited me to join him for lunch after he scuba - dive there, I posed to him:

"Mr. President how much a day our government spent when we were fighting the Moro in Mindanao during the Secession War (1970 to 2001)?"

He retorted that the Philippines spent $1 to $2 million (P118 million a day in the present exchange rate.)

"War is very expensive we must sue for peace," the cigar chomping West Point Alumnus who fought in the Korean War ( like my Dad) told me.

Long-Term Impact of the Mindanao War where I grew up: The conflict cost the government a total of over P2 trillion (roughly $13.9 million in damages per year), according to data from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP).

Evacuation Costs: In some instances, the cost of managing evacuations alone reached P1 million a day.

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Harassment to journalists during the previous administration by its government lawyers would not prosper because that kind of Cyber Libel case against the correction of the word from "evation" to "evasion" by Rappler after six years was not republication.

Still the complainant was in "estoppel" through "prescription" after he did not sue the writer and the editor within one year after the publication of the article he thought adverse to him.

The actuation of the Office of the Solicitor General is laudable notwithstanding the Constitutional mandate of the Freedom of Expression that should stand tall.

This mandate would surely be upheld by the Court.

 

Karma ba iyong warrant of arrest ni former Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre -- the Boss of those Fiscals, er, Prosecutors -- sa International Criminal Court (ICC) sa Hague?

Pagnibiyahi na kayo doon Tata mabubulok na kayo doon dahil mga walang piyansa ang mga kaso ninyo