Politics

All in the family: Ampatuans, Garcias, other reigning lords

Political dynasties are a product of a society riven by income inequalities and lack of opportunities for social and economic uplift of the majority of the people.

(Last of two parts)


By the Policy Study, Publication and Advocacy (PSPA)
Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG

MANILA — Widely believed to have ensured Gloria M. Arroyo’s victory in the 2004 rigged elections is Datu Andal Ampatuan, who is now said to be at the center of alleged cheating in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). The Ampatuan dynasty based in Maguindanao province is Arroyo’s present conduit in helping ensure her influence over the whole of Mindanao, which hosts many of the country’s grizzled but otherwise powerful political clans. Datu Andal used to be a member of the House until he became governor of Maguindanao in 2004, a post which he expects to retain this year.
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Philippines’s Arroyo gifts Pope with Santo Nino Dormido

ROME (via PLDT)—- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo gifted the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, with an image of the Santo Ni?o Dormido (sleeping Sto. Nino) when she paid her respects to his Holiness Monday at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican City.

The image of the sleeping Sto. Ni?o was made of elephant ivory and was handcrafted between the 1970s and 1980s. It?s “tapis” was of solid gold and has “tres potencies” and a waistband made of solid silver.
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Helping Hands. Members of the Philippine and US navies load food and supplies onto a truck for delivery to a Mindanao orphanage. The donation by the US military was part of the 13th annual bilateral maritime training exercise called Carat (Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training) that began last week in Zamboanga and Basilan. (Photo courtesy of the US Navy/US Embassy)

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