When I was looking for a free web host, I found what appeared to be a good deal — IP Data Zone It gives 100 MB free space, no ads and very easy to apply. Some users warned that it was too good to be true. And since it is based in China, some users were quite wary.
I put my Bangsamoro/Moroland webpages there. For some months it was working well. But now, it has gone kaput. First, they announced in the forum, without informing users, that the addresses had been changed. And now, they announced that they changed servers.
I cannot even access my sites. Oh well, for those who are looking for free webhosts — don’t bother with IP Data Zone.
Anyway, my sites are still OK at 0moola.com I found another no-ads free host, so I am building new sites there.
Lim’s video saved Arroyo — source
Angry junior AFP officers wanted to storm Palace
“Gloria-Garcillano” Tapes
President Gloria Arroyo’s downfall would probably be caused by tapes — audio or video. The so-called Garci tapes which allegedly contain conversation between Pres. Arroyo and Commission on Elections member Garcilliano during an election period are quite damning. The conversations in that tape show clearly the horrible state of affairs in Philippine elections. The tapes prove that elections in the Philippines are rigged.
Why Ms. Arroyo is still president of the land boggles the imagination. She had lost her moral authority to rule, according to critics like former Senator Rene Saguisag. Yet in February, she even proclaimed a State of Emergency and gave the police wide powers.
Today, the headlines are about a video tape of Major General Danilo Lim. Ms. Arroyo claimed that she proclaimed a State of Emergency last February because of a coup plot.
A few days ago, a video tape of Gen. Lim where he announced his “withdrawal of support” for Ms. Arroyo’s government. But the video was never shown to the public — until a few days ago.
The video of a ranking general, with a wide following in the Armed Forces, asking the President to resign because of election cheating and corruption, can have many ramifications.
The Arroyo supporters are claiming that the President was correct in proclaiming the State of Emergency (PP1017). Absolutely. But this means that her supporters and many people will expect that General Lim and his co-officers ahould be punished.
But then, the people would also expect that Ms. Arroyo should answer the charges hurled by the General. Democracy is not a one-way affair.
And of course, most of the military would tend to side with Gen Lim and his co-accused, who all seem to be be-medalled and highly respected among the soldiers.
Video or Audio tapes may or may not be admissible in court. One former government offical, former MTRCB chair and UP professor Dr. Nicanor Tiongson knows that there is only one way to deal with tapes — destroy them
As Dean of the UP College of Mass Communication, Tiongson ordered that tapes of the meeting of the College Executive Board be erased when one board member, chair of the Journalism Department requested for the tapes. (See letter)
When told about it, the UP President did not find anything wrong with the idea. After all, nobody could request for taped recordings of the UP Board of Regents meetings. And the published minutes had been carefully selected and censored by the UP President.
For UP, the powers-that-be there continue to destroy the standards of excellence built and maintained by generations of UP students, faculty and alumni.
If the leaders of UP, the supposed bastion of freedom and excellence in the country, erase tapes, support discrimination, choose a foreigner over a citizen, choose faculty because of friendship and not merit, commit graft and corruption (Ombudsman found a former Chancellor guilty of wrongdoing), what can we expect from politicians?
Thank God for the people who leaked to the public the Garci and Lim tapes. At least we get to know a bit how the powers that be truly behave.
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Below is a letter from the Chair of the Journalism Dept to the Dean of the College of Mass Communication, University of the Philippines asking for the tapes of the proceedings of 2 Execom meetings: In answer to this letter, Dean Tiongson had the tapes erased.
24 June 2005
Nicanor G. Tiongson, PhD Dean
College of Mass Communication UP Diliman, Q.C.
Cc: Dr. Emeriinda Roman, UP President
Dr. Sergio Cao, Chancellor. UP Diliman
Dr. _, AVP for Academic Affairs, former CAPC member
Prof. _, VC for Student Affairs, former CAPC member
CAPC
UPFI Faculty
Journalism Dept. faculty
Dear Dr. Tiongson,
I have received your letter regarding my request for the audio cassette tapes of two CAPC meetings at which I was a participant. I am afraid your reasoning is faulty and will not stand in any court of law nor in any bar of public opinion.
For your enlightenment and education, minutes of meetings are merely abbreviated versions of the actual proceedings. An abbreviated version - whether in the form of minutes or a secretary’s certificate or directors’ /trustees’ resolution or the like - acquires credibility and therefore validity only where all the participants to the actual proceedings unanimously stamp the same with the legitimacy of their attestation to the effect that the same is a true, faithful and accurate record of the actual proceedings. It is the audio cassette tapes that are the physical repository of the arguments, positions and decision actually voiced during the meetings. Accordingly, your statement that “(T)he official memorial of any meeting of the CAPC is the corresponding minutes…” will hold water if and only if there are no protests to the contrary. Where a participant questions the accuracy of the minutes of a meeting, the only reliable basis for determining whether such minutes are accurate or not - in the scholarly and scientific sense - will naturally be the physical repository thereof, i.e , the audio cassette tapes. After all, the accurate recording of what transpires during official meetings - as basis for abbreviated versions (such as minutes, certificates or resolutions) - is precisely the reason why these meetings are tape-recorded in the first place. Otherwise, why record at all?
At the May 11, 2005 CAPC meeting, I asked for the audio cassette tape-recording of the Feb. 14, 2005 meeting because as I said during that May 11,2005 meeting, the duly issued minutes of the said February 14, 2005 meeting did not accurately reflect the proceedings that actually transpired. I also asked that I be furnished a copy of the minutes for that 11 May meeting, at which you and the others voted to do something that is against University rules (under a BOR ruling); i.e., to hire somebody who was disqualified due to the up-or-out rule of the BOR. The body did not object to my request.
On the following day, May 12, I followed my verbal request with a written one addressed to the College Secretary. I even sent eight blank tapes so as not to inconvenience her.
On May 26, in your meeting with the Journalism Department faculty, you stated that the May 11 meeting was “the last straw’ leading to your decision not to renew my appointment as Chair of the department. As your version of what happened during the May 11 CAPC meeting was very different from what actually transpired, I asked you then and there at that May 26, 2005 Journalism department meeting - at least four (4) times - to produce the audio cassette tapes of the proceedings during that said meeting as these tapes would certainly settle if your version had any basis.
On 30 May 2005, I reiterated the foregoing request for the said audio cassette tapes in a letter to you with copies furnished to UPFI DAPC and Journalism Department faculty members as they, too, have the right to know what truly transpired in the May 11 meeting.
You state as your second reason that the “the tape recording of a meeting of the CAPC is meant solely for the purpose of aiding the secretary of the CAPC in the preparation of the minutes. Moreover, the tapes used by the secretary of the CAPC are recycled every so often to economize.” Please be advised that the tape recording of a meeting that is official is, naturally, likewise official - simply because, with prior knowledge and consent of the meeting’s participants, these tapes as they are literally described, record the acts of the participants - scientifically and accurately. If, as already discussed, an abbreviated version of any proceeding cannot ever officially substitute for a scientific record thereof without the unanimous consent of all participants, then with more reason is it absurd for you to gratuitously assert that the secretary of the CAPC has the power and authority to unilaterally produce an abbreviated version. No one, much less a mere secretary of a meeting, can legitimately substitute his or her own abbreviated version of any official proceeding without the imprimatur of all who witnessed and participated in that official proceeding. Therefore please be warned that you are obliged to preserve these official tape recordings for further official purposes, specially as I have lodged the present complaint. Any attempt on your part to destroy, tamper or conceal these tapes will be construed as suppression and/or fabrication of evidence.
I have asked for copies of the tapes as early as May 11. I sent blank tapes so the secretary will not spend a single centavo for them. The May 26 meeting already proved that- memory of the CAPC members alone will not suffice. The taped records of our 26 May meeting clearly show that you and I have different versions of what truly transpired during the May 11 meeting. The only way to stop lies from spreading is to produce the tapes for all and sundry to hear and judge for themselves. The only logical reason for your innuendo that you can validly destroy the tapes (upon the flimsy pretext of recycling) is your fear of the Truth and your fear that others will learn the Truth. And the Truth is recorded only in the tapes.
May I now please be furnished with copies of these tapes as well as a copy of the May 11 minutes? Thank you.
Very respectfully yours,
signed ____
