Pulse Asia: More Pinoys don't want Arroyo

Amid fresh allegations of corruption and bribery, President Arroyo suffered the highest disapproval performance ratings among the country’s top five public officials, the result of the latest Pulse Asia survey said Wednesday.

Pulse Asia said Mrs. Arroyo’s disapproval rating was 39 percent while only 30 percent of the 1,200 respondents approved her performance. Thirty-one percent, meanwhile, were undecided.

“The President scores the same overall approval rating in July and October 2007 while there are only marginal movements in overall indecision and disapproval ratings during this period (-5 and +5 percentage points, respectively),” Pulse Asia said.

Respondents from Metro Manila were the most critical of the President, with 51 percent giving her failing marks. The lowest disapproval rating was recorded in the Visayas.

(Click ABS-CBN News for the rest.)

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House committee junks impeach complaint in 43-1 vote

The House Committee on Justice on Wednesday dismissed the impeachment complaint filed by lawyer Roberto Pulido against President Arroyo in a hearing snubbed by members of the opposition.

Voting 43-1, the committee declared the complaint insufficient in substance. House justice committee chairman Quezon City 3rd District Rep. Matias Defensor declared, "... the complaint is hereby dismissed."

The lone vote for the complaint's sufficiency in substance was cast by Laguna 4th District Rep. Edgar San Luis, the endorser of the Pulido complaint.

(More at Impeach rap.)

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NBI's antiterror unit disputes theory Akbar was bomb target

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Wednesday disputed the theory that Basilan Rep. Wahab Akbar was the target of the bomb attack on the Batasan Pambansa Complex in Quezon City last Tuesday night as it took note that the device used in the blast appeared to be of the antivehicle type.

“It was apparent that [the blast] was directional but it was premature to say that Representative Akbar was the target or it could be that it happened that he was just there," Romulo Asis, chief of the NBI Anti-Terrorism Division, said.

"As of now we are still determining if it was just co-incidence or not that [the lawmaker] was there," Asis added.

Asis said the NBI bomb experts and chemists have gathered fragments from the blast site.

(Click GMA News for the rest.)

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ALL these news items look seemingly unrelated, but in truth, they only point to one thing.

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I find it strange that right after the bomb blast at the Batasan, the Presidentita's text brigade was actively spewing out political statements attacking congressmen, especially Speaker Joe "Mickey Mouse" de Venecia. So can you blame me for my paranoia about this government? Methinks, someone is trying to scare congressmen and senators, especially of the opposition variety into submission.

Then check out this text from cell. no. 0906-6224-3584: "Initial findings show dat bomb target was Cong. Wahab Akbar. Congressmen shud leave deir political feud n their district n not n halls f Congres. Pity d innocents"

The text echoes the same spin of National Security adviser Norberto Gonzales to the unfortunate event. I suppose by "innocents" the text brigade of Presidentita is referring to her and her Palace cohorts, and not the bomb blast victims.