Archive for April, 2007
By Carlos H. Conde
International Herald Tribune
Published: April 29, 2007
MANILA: When Manny Pacquiao, a Filipino world super featherweight boxing champion, announced his decision to run for Congress in next month’s midterm elections, more than a few eyebrows were raised. Why would a man like him - someone who did not finish high school, who does not have any political experience and who, at 28, is at the peak of a multimillion-dollar career - do that?
Some analysts here say that question can be answered by another question: Who is Pacquiao up against?
He is facing Darlene Antonino Custodio, a petite U.S.-born politician who was one of the members of Congress that moved to impeach President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo last year.
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Posted on April 29, 2007, and filed under International Herald Tribune, Stories |
By Carlos H. Conde
International Herald Tribune
Published: April 26, 2007
DAVAO CITY, Philippines: By most accounts here, 9-year-old Grecil Buya was a bright and playful girl who often missed class because she liked to catch spiders.
She lived in a shack with her parents and three siblings, peasants in the province of Compostela Valley, the hotbed of the Communist insurgency in this part of the southern Philippines.
As far as the army is concerned, however, she was a child soldier who, on the morning of March 31, aimed an ArmaLite assault rifle at soldiers battling Communist guerrillas a few meters from her house. Moments later, Grecil lay dead on the ground, shot through the head.
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Posted on April 26, 2007, and filed under International Herald Tribune, Stories |
David Halberstam, 1934-2007
Posted on April 24, 2007, and filed under Other Stuff |
By Carlos H. Conde
International Herald Tribune
Published: April 22, 2007
MANILA: A comment made by the justice secretary of the Philippines that has been widely interpreted as blaming a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer for her own murder has caused an outcry here.
Raul Gonzalez, the secretary of the Department of Justice, told reporters on Thursday that Julia Campbell, a Peace Corps volunteer from Fairfax, Virginia, whose bludgeoned body was found on Wednesday, had been “a little irresponsible” for venturing out alone on a hike to a remote village in the northern Philippines on April 8.
“Why would she walk alone in this remote mountain?” Gonzalez told reporters on Thursday. “She was careless that she took a lonely walk in this deserted area.”
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Posted on April 22, 2007, and filed under International Herald Tribune, Stories |
By Carlos H. Conde
International Herald Tribune
The New York Times
Published: April 18, 2007
MANILA: A body suspected to be that of an American Peace Corps volunteer who had been missing since last week was found Wednesday in a mountainous province in the northern Philippines, officials said.
A Philippine Army spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Torres, said that officials at the site had confirmed that the remains were those of the volunteeer, Julia Campbell, from Fairfax, Virginia, The Associated Press reported.
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Posted on April 19, 2007, and filed under International Herald Tribune, Stories, The New York Times |
By JOHN ELIGON and CARLOS H. CONDE
The New York Times
Published: April 14, 2007
Manny Pacquiao, a championship super featherweight boxer, is largely known as a uniting force in his native Philippines. When he fights, it has been said, the streets clear, crime drops and people gather around their televisions.
Pacquiao will defend his W.B.C. international title Saturday night.
But when Pacquiao recently announced that he would run for a congressional seat in the district where he grew up, the move caused ambivalence: Many people, including fans, have questioned the decision. Pacquiao, 28, received his high school equivalency diploma this year in the Philippines, and some wonder what he would bring to office.
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Posted on April 17, 2007, and filed under Stories, The New York Times |
