Iloilo Vice-Governor Rolex Suplico says he has a new witness willing to testify on the ZTE national broadband network corruption scandal. The witness is an acquaintance of Suplico, whom he claims only recently sought his advice on coming clean about what he knows of presidential involvement in the crooked ZTE deal. And what he knows is this: President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo made an undisclosed trip to the headquarters of ZTE Corporation in Shenzhen, China, for a meeting with its officials on Nov. 2, 2006, five months before she witnessed the signing of the national broadband network (NBN) contract, which she knew by then to be flawed and possibly illegal. Read the rest of this entry »

Hillary, as expected, won by a big, double-digit margin in West Virginia, 67% to 27%, but it might not make much of a difference. Obama just keeps rolling along, picking up one superdelegate after another, including many former Clinton backers.

The overwhelmingly white, working-class state (only 15% of the population have college degrees) came out for Clinton, who needs a big boost to stay in the race. Race emerged as an unusually salient factor.The number of white Democratic voters who said race had influenced their choices on Tuesday was among the highest recorded in voter surveys in the nomination fight. Two in 10 white West Virginia voters said race was an important factor in their votes. More than 8 in 10 who said it factored in their votes backed Mrs. Clinton, according to exit polls.

With Barack solidly ahead of Clinton in the delegate fight, the West Virginia results are unlikely to hurt his chances of winning the nomination. Read the rest of this entry »

But probably not.

It’s eerie just the same. Manolo Quezon wrote about the Mandate of Heaven in his column yesterday and, as if to illustrate the point, a 7.9-magnitude magnitude earthquake, as measured by the U.S. Geological Survey , hits Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, the most populous part of China, bordering the Tibetan region. Striking in mid-afternoon, it was felt across the country in Beijing, and as far away as Vietnam and Cambodia. At least 10,000 people have been killed, up to 5,000 of them in one county alone, Beichuan , about 50 km. from the epicenter. Many more have been killed and injured in other parts of the country.

At least two large schools, each with nearly 1,000 students, were reduced to rubble, trapping the children inside.

Rescue and relief efforts are ongoing, and the actual magnitude of the destruction has yet to be known.

As explained by MLQ III:

The ancient Chinese believed that the “mandate of Heaven” was revealed by tangible signs, such as flood or famine. Such misfortunes were indications that the legitimacy of a ruler was waning.

Read the rest of this entry »