OFFBEAT MAIL

Enrile notes lack of prosecutors’ trial savvy Despite the tantrums made by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago on the Senate floor, Wednesday's resumption of the impeachment trial against Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona had at least made a headway after a private prosecutor succeeded in convincing the Impeachment Court to allow the commissioner from the Bureau of Internal Revenue to take the witness stand. But this didn't happen in a flash as even the Impeachment Court's presiding officer--Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile --and the defense team were adamant against the idea of the prosecution team's move to present and cross examine Revenue Commissioner Kim Jacinto Henares as the first witness of the prosecution. Private prosecutor Atty. Arthur Lim had insisted, after consulting with his colleagues and reaffirming the defense team and the presiding officer that the questioning will not delve outside articles 2.2 and 2.3 of the Impeachment complaint ...

Government now free to sell shares to San Miguel costing P83.7B I don't think it would be appropriate for the national government to tap for infrastructure spending even a portion of the P83.7 billion coco levy funds that could be raised should any interested bidder is able to buy the 24 percent government shares from SMC . Since this huge sums of money is owned by the millions of coconut farmers nationwide, perhaps, what the government can do is to invest the money somewhere (without any hanky panky ) through a conduit of their choice and then issue dividends to the farmers on a yearly basis or whatever options had been agreed upon among themselves. Perhaps, part of the money could also be used to set up a copra buying stations and processing mills in most copra-producing provinces in the country. In this way, the coconut farmers will not become victims of middle men who buy the copra at a lower price and sell the same at a much higher price in the markets. ...