President Noynoy was his usual whining self at his last State of the Nation Address when—for the nth time—he blamed his predecessor, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, for the ills of the past administration.
He sounded like a broken record.
For one who is known for his virility (ask his friend Gerry Acuzar), the President sounded like a wife who keeps nagging her husband for his past indiscretions.
The reason the country hasn’t moved forward is because our Chief Executive lives in the past.
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Former Sen. Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr. says there are “many circumstances in the killing of
(Ensign Phillip) Pestaño that show it was no suicide.”
That was his rebuttal, for the nth time, to my contention that the Navy men accused of murdering him are completely innocent.
Pestaño was found dead inside his cabin on the BRP Bacolod City in 1995 with a bullet wound in his head.
Pimentel, a counsel for the Pestaño family, has consistently been asserting that Wayne Hill, an American self-styled homicide expert, who says the young officer was murdered, was an expert witness.
This columnist has been saying that the testimony of Hill—a stand-up comedian, former ambulance driver and former police officer in a small town in the United States—can’t stand up to the findings of the National Bureau of Investigation, Manila Police District, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and private forensics expert Dr. Raquel Fortun.
Those agencies and Fortun say Ensign Pestaño committed suicide.
I hope Pimentel attends today’s bail petition hearing of the Navy men.
If only the former good senator, who is very perceptive, looks into the eyes of the accused, he will be convinced they are innocent.
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Two greats in their respective fields died this week, both a loss to their professions: Neal H. Cruz, journalist par excellence, and Gerardo “Gerry” Lazaro, one of the pillars of practical shooting as a sport.
Cruz, 85, was my colleague in the Inquirer who was aptly described by this newspaper as a veteran journalist and press freedom fighter.
He was a former managing editor of the martial law Daily Express, and editor and columnist of Evening News, The Manila Chronicle, the Philippine Daily Globe and The Daily Tribune.
He was a two-term president of the National Press Club during the martial law period.
Government officials who were the subject of criticisms in his Inquirer column probably cringed in their seats after reading his pieces.
On the other hand, Lazaro, 60, was the former president of the Philippine Sports Shooting Association, and who, until his death early on Tuesday, was the president of the Manila Rifle and Pistol Sports Club.
Cruz and Lazaro were both loved and are now missed—Neal by his fellow journalists, and Gerry by practical shooting competition enthusiasts.
Cruz and Lazaro had something in common: they were both soft-spoken but commanded respect from their colleagues for their outstanding leadership.
Gerry scolded me in private for mishandling my pistol during a practical shooting competition in Cebu City several years ago.
Neal and Gerry were examples of the injunction: speak softly but carry a big stick.