Rappler Newscast | September 06, 2012

Today on Rappler.

• The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines is not likely to help find a compromise Reproductive Health bill.
• President Aquino supports the RH bill, but his own party remains divided.
• Former first gentleman Arroyo wants Chief Justice Sereno to inhibit from his case in the Supreme Court.

Story 1: CBCP ‘UNLIKELY’ TO HELP AMEND RH BILL
An official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines says bishops are not likely to participate in a proposed Technical Working Group to draft a compromise RH bill in the House of Representatives.
CBCP official Fr. Melvin Castro says Catholic bishops will not compromise their principles.
He says the Reproductive Health bill is “beyond redemption.”
He adds, “Our position is to reject the RH bill in its entirety.”
But RH bill advocates say the Church should not have been invited in the first place.
Public health analyst Marilen Dañguilan says the Church only promotes natural family planning and will not compromise its stand against contraceptives.
Filipino Freethinkers says the group should “include representatives from other faiths and non-believers” if it will include the CBCP.
In its tweet, the group adds, “If the technical working group can’t contain representatives of all faiths and non-believers, then be secular and don’t privilege the Catholic Church over others’ beliefs.”

Story 2: LIBERAL PARTY DIVIDED OVER RH BILL
President Aquino supports the Reproductive Health bill, but his own political party can’t seem to come together to support his stand.
Like other members of the House majority coalition, the Liberal Party is divided.
House majority leader Neptali Gonzales says he hopes Aquino issues a stronger marching order because it may be the only way to break the impasse.
But LP secretary general Jun Abaya says it’s difficult for Aquino to push harder because it involves religious beliefs.

NEPTALI GONZALES II, HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER: In my stint as floor leader, this is the first time I’ve seen a bill na divided talaga ang members of the House. Ang magkakalaban sa floor ay members ng majority coalition. Ang kalaban mo sa parliamentary tactics ay members ng LP.

JUN ABAYA, LP SECRETARY GENERAL: Feeling ko dinadahan-dahan din ni President. Hindi naman parang impeachment to. There are non-political issues involved. He has been very careful. In the Liberal Party, it has always been consensual. We assess the environment.

The lower House temporarily shelved the RH bill to prioritize the passage of the government’s 2-trillion peso budget.
Gonzales says there’s still time to pass the RH bill until December as long as House members can draft a compromise bill acceptable to all stakeholders.

Story 3: ARROYO TO SERENO: INHIBIT FROM MY CASE
Former first gentleman ‘Mike’ Arroyo wants Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno to inhibit from his case questioning the validity of a Department of Justice travel ban.
In 2011, the DOJ barred Mr Arroyo and his wife, former president Gloria Arroyo, from leaving the country.
The Supreme Court has yet to rule on the matter.
In a motion for prohibition, Arroyo says Sereno showed “propensity for voting in favor of the administration.”
He cites her votes in the following cases: The Truth Commission formed in 2010 to probe former President Arroyo; Sereno’s dissenting vote in the issuance of a temporary restraining order sought by then Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez; the issuance of a TRO sought by the Arroyo couple; her dissenting vote on a TRO that stopped the disclosure of former Chief Justice Renato Corona’s dollar accounts; Sereno’s vote for the release of Court documents in Corona’s impeachment trial, and her vote favoring a higher valuation for the Cojuangcos in the distribution of the Hacienda Luisita to farmers.

Story 4: SAN ROQUE DAM OUT OF DANGER FROM PHILEX LEAK
Environment Secretary Ramon Paje says waste leak from Philex Mining’s Padcal mine in Benguet will not reach the San Roque Dam in Pangasinan.
The dam is the source of the power and irrigation needs of Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija and Tarlac.
Paje says the silt from the tailings pond that threatened to reach the dam was trapped in the reservoir’s dead storage.
Incessant rains weakened the tailings pond, causing the leak.

Story 5: WEEKLY REST, BETTER CONDITIONS FOR DOMESTIC HELPERS
The House of Representatives passes the Domestic Workers’ Act or the “Kasambahay” bill.
The bill tries to set new labor standards for about 2 million domestic helpers in the country.
It provides them with a package of benefits including increases in minimum wages and regular employment benefits including 13th month pay, 14-day paid vacation, and maternity or paternity leave.
The bill seeks to comply with international standards adopted by the International Labor Organization.
The ILO says the Philippines is the second signatory to the Convention 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers.

Story 6: DAMARILLO: PH CAN LEAD SOFTWARE INDUSTRY IN ASEAN
Morphlabs CEO and co-founder Winston Damarillo is in the Philippines for the “Hack2Hatch” entrepreneurship camp.
He talks about the rich Filipino IT talent and how the country is ready to become a software industry leader in the ASEAN market.

WINSTON DAMARILLO, CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, MORPHLABS: The educational system needs to be fixed. The other thing that we need to work on is actually an entrepreneurial ecosystem. We need to have an ecosystem that starts with idea makers, combination of idea and execution, financing that makes execution reality and companies, like, conglomerates that will basically scale those ideas into industries. The Filipinos are regarded as better technologists than most of our partners in ASEAN. We have a BPO sector that has driven our market from a non-existent industry 10 years ago to a market leader now even beating India call center. And now we’re number one globally. What we need to do is step that up, we need to move to the next sector – non -voice BPO to software and eventually to building products.

Story 7: THE wRap: YOUR WORLD IN ONE READ
Former US president Bill Clinton formally nominates Barack Obama for president at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER US PRESIDENT: I want to nominate a man cool on the outside but burning for America on the inside. A man who believes we can build a new American Dream economy driven by innovation and creativity, education and cooperation. A man who had the good sense to marry Michelle Obama.

Her speech was the highlight of the first night of the DNC, which reached nearly 4 million more viewers than the RNC on television, according to Nielsen.
Now Obama faces off with Republican candidate Mitt Romney. At this stage, it’s unclear who has the upper hand.

At number 7, President Aquino’s Executive Order No. 79 is a compromise which seems to leave neither side happy.
Shortly after it was signed, new investors announced delays in new projects.
Why? The EO stops the grant of new mining contracts until legislative action on the Mining Act’s revenue sharing scheme provision.
The catch: it’s unclear exactly when that will happen.
Philex Mining Corp., the country’s biggest gold producer, quietly announced that the start of production at its gold-copper Silangan project in Surigao del Norte has been moved later to 2017.
This follows an announcement by Swiss global Miner Xstrata and local partner Sagittarius Mines Inc that its target for commercial operations at its Tampakan mine in South Cotabato is delayed from 2016 to 2018.

And at number 8, The September 12 expected launch of Apple’s iPhone5 has its competitors unveiling potential challengers one week ahead.
Microsoft and Nokia join together to launch their smartphone arsenal with two new Lumia handsets powered by Windows 8 software.
Later in the day, Motorola Mobility, bought by Internet giant Google a year ago in a $12.5 billion deal, launches three powerful Android smartphones, RAZR M, RAZR HD and RAZR HAXX HD.

As the US Open heats up, crowd favorites from the men’s tournament crash out one by one.
American Andy Roddick bids goodbye to tennis, after losing to seventh-seeded Argentinian Juan Martin Del Potro.
Last week, he announced his retirement after 12 years in the sport, saying this would be his last tournament.
Roddick is the last American man to win a Grand Slam event, when he won the US Open in 2003.
Meanwhile, Swiss legend and world number one Roger Federer’s dream to become the first man in over 8 decades to win 6 US Opens was cut short by Czech Tomas Berdych.
Sixth-seeded Berdych downs Federer in 4 sets handing the 17-time Grand Slam winner his earliest exit from the tournament in 9 years.
Federer won his 7th Wimbledon title earlier in June.

Story 8: #SINOTTO: SOTTO TRANSLATED KENNEDY SPEECH?
Senate Majority Leader Tito Sotto does it again… this time, copying words and ideas of Robert Kennedy.  
Except this time, he translated English to Filipino.
In Mid-August, Sotto plagiarized an American blogger for the first part of his speech against the Reproductive Health bill.
On Wednesday, Sotto delivered the final part of his speech.
Moments after, Twitter user Michel Eldiy accuses Sotto of using parts of a speech by Kennedy in Filipino.
The discovery goes viral on Twitter, where users coin the term “#Sinotto.”
Social media users take famous quotes, translate them into Filipino, and attribute them to the senator.
Twitter user Miguel Lizada translates a line from Karen Carpenter’s Close to You: Bakit lumalabas ang mga ibon tuwing nandiyan ka? – Karen CarpenSotto.
Leiron Martija cites a famous quote from Star Wars and attributes it to Sotto: Luke. Ako Tatay mo. – Darth Sotto
Sotto denies he plagiarized asking, “Can Kennedy speak Filipino?”
Sotto says he doesn’t know where the text of his speech came from, but says he used them because the ideas were good.
Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr describes the plagiarism issue as a “storm in a teacup” that should not concern the Senate.
He doubts if Sotto committed plagiarism by translating parts of Kennedy’s speech.
Marcos says some phrases have entered the general lexicon of the English language and no longer need attribution.

– Rappler.com