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Designated spokesperson for the implementation of Martial Law, Brigadier General Restituto Padilla in a press conference on Friday, May 26 at a hotel in Davao City. (Paulo C. Rizal/davaotoday.com)

DAVAO CITY, Philippines Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said teaching communism in the country is not bad.

Padilla told reporters during the Mindanao Hour press briefing in Malacaang on Friday that students in colleges learn about communism while books on the subject matter are not prohibited.

Now, it is not bad to teach communism per se because we in college learned about it. We read books about Marxism, Leninism, Socialism, and the like, Padilla said.

He added that learning communism and reading books on the subject matter is part of the liberal education that is being implemented in the Philippines.

But he also clarified that brainwashing of the young minds that is wrong and is not acceptable especially to the government.

But if you target very young minds, vulnerable minds and try to sway them to a certain kind of thinking, that is like brainwashing. Yun po ang mali dito, he pointed out.

Brainwashing of young children, aside from the lack of permits to operate is the reason why President Rodrigo Duterte wanted to get rid of lumad schools, Padilla said.

Sa murang edad, dapat ang binibigay mo na aral sa mga bata ay yung tama. Ano yung mga tama na yun: Fear of God, love of country, love of family, the appreciation of the correct values that you want your citizens to have, he said.

Such correct values, Padilla added, is not being taught in lumad schools.

And these schools are not teaching that. This is an issue that has been going on since before the election. And you know that Im sure of it. It was an issue that was escalated and it was exaggerated by many cause-oriented groups whose minds and line of thinking we cannot fathom because its so evil, Padilla said.

The government, particularly the military, has been accusing lumad schools of being established by the communist-led New Peoples Army, an allegation that has been denied by lumad school administrators and teachers.

In the same press briefing, Presidential Communications Office Assistant Secretary Marie Banaag also confirmed that there are left-leaning lumad schools that do not have the permit to operate as stipulated by the Department of Education.

Banaag identified the Alternative Learning Center for Agriculture and Livelihood Development, Inc. in CARAGA Region as one of them and refused to get the permit from the DepED.

There are three main groups of left-oriented indigenous people schools according to the Department of Education. These are the Alternative Learning Center for Agriculture and Livelihood Development, Inc. or the Alcadev; second, the Center for Lumad Advocacy and Services, Inc. or the Clans; and third, the Salugpungan Community Learning Center, she said.

She said CLANS was also given by DepED three months to comply with its requirements.

But the governments claim that lumad schools are operating without permits had already been countered by leaders, teachers, and support groups, as they presented documents from the DepED, particularly on Alternative Learning System and permits from local government units indicating that lumad schools are legally operating in Mindanao.

A day after Dutertes second State of the Nation Address, lumad leaders Jong Monzon, secretary general of PASAKA Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao and Eufemia Cullamat, spokesperson of Lumad group KASALO in CARAGA Region countered the claims of Duterte that lumad schools are being run by the NPAs.

Lumad schools, they emphasized, are established by lumad organizations and parents with the aim of providing education to children, especially in far-flung areas.

Monzon and Cullamat also decried the attacks and military harassments on lumad schools that were stepped up during the declaration of martial law in Mindanao.

They also urged Duterte to listen to the stories of lumad leaders, teachers, and students to comprehend deeply the real situation of lumad communities in Mindanao, as they expressed concern over the plan of the President to destroy their schools.

The President is being fed with wrong information as to the nature and purpose of the lumad schools in Mindanao by his top military advisers, they added. (davaotoday.com)

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AFP spokesman says teaching communism is OK, but | Davao Today - Davao Today

Humans of 2016, I cannot let go of you just like that this year, yet. I HAVE to talk to you about the single most important life skill that all of you must possess no matter where in the world you go and whatever in life you end up doing - The art of cleaning your toilet.

Especially unmarried boys, I know you are very busy wondering ki what the hell more you should do to get that girl in your life because you have tried everything that any human being can do and still the girl is not impressed. What to do yaar? They are like that only.

And especially unmarried ladies who know everything that the boy is doing to impress them and yet are feeling shy and not telling him means what to do again? Life is tough only. But its ok, this kind of small things will eventually sort themselves out. But what you really have to put in effort for is learning how to clean your toilet. Boss Im telling you, this will save your life many times and you will thank me later.

It will all happen in a flash. One moment you are thinking ki oh boss thank god, today is Sunday, means I dont have to move my bottoms even one millimeter haiya jolly and then next second your spouse will say those dreadful words - Today we are cleaning the toilet.

I have to tell you upfront that there are few things in life that have a better warning mechanism than this. Tsunami, earthquake, volcanic eruption, parents arriving when you are about to watch adult-only movies etc., for e.g. When these magic words are uttered in the house means there is no going back. You can try to wriggle out of it and all by saying 'Not today I am busy but you have to give satisfactory answer to the next question 'Doing what? Having failed to come up with a suitable 2-mark answer, you have to get going immediately.

Now, if you are having a lucky or a lazy background means all your life such kind of things like cleaning your toilet will be outsourced to a third party or insourced to a parent party because in your family when nobody trusts your non-core competency (eating, drinking, sleeping) itself then how will they trust you with core competency jobs like keeping the house clean etc? So now, you only have to get your hands dirty (no, stop thinking puns.)

So now I am going to guide you step-by-step on how to clean your toilet and thereby earn good name in the household.

First of all, you have to pour water all over the place. It is ok even if you pour water in the toilet. Avoid putting water on the walls because now you are being adhigaprasangi and nobody asked you to clean the walls.

The health-faucet (HF) is your friend. Make it your best friend. I know we all have love-hate relationship with health faucet, depending on the amount of psi it delivers on your back entrance at the most unexpected moment, but trust me, if you use it properly, it will make your life a lot easy. Use the HF to generously spray water all over the place. (Caution: This can get too much fun and distract you from your mission.)

So now you have have properly prepped the place. Excellent. Take a break. (But make sure nobody sees you taking the break.)

Now proceed to clear the entire area from having any obstructions, like bucket, mug, washing machine hose (those darn things are a menace) etc. Wait, this should have been done first, but its ok, just throw them out or place them on your head or something and keep the floor clear.

Next is the important part. You have to pick up a bottle of Harpic. Yes, that very same liquid they sell on TV when you are eating dinner and want to watch something decent. Take that bottle. Yes, you will be tempted to spend the next two hours admiring the ingenuity of the design of the bottle, but dont. Time is of the essence. You are competing against a pro here.

Remove the bottle cap and stick the nozzle of the bottle under the secret compartment in the WC. Secret compartment = where the water comes from.

Hold the bottle firmly in the middle section (bottles middle section), fill up your lungs to capacity, and squeeze the bottle firmly. Now depending on its mood (and the amount of liquid left inside) the bottle will dispense either a very-generous quantity (i.e. you will have a obese blue monster splattered on your WC) or just bubbled blue air. Eitherway something will come out of the bottle.

Next is the tricky part. You have to keep squeezing bottle and draw a circle around the WC with circumference equal to D (D is the inner-dia of the WC). This sounds more easy than it actually is. Heres what will happen. The Harpic bottle will suddenly make friends with the WC and refuse to move an inch. They dont meet often in your toilet and so they will want to spend some time together. Precisely at this moment, you will spot your spouse with her palm firmly planted on their forehead in disappointment and convince you to vacate the premises immediately. But dont. You are too far in this now to give up. You HAVE to stick to your guns and see this through. If the bottle gets stuck, just trace its path backwards and then go forward again. That will do the trick.

Question: How will you know if you have done the job right? Answer: You will now see many thin runny blue monsters racing towards the water in the WC and disappear into the abyss.

Next, take the cleaning brush. Pause. Ask yourself if this is the right brush. If your answer is yes, then you are wrong. Ask the spouse if that is the right brush. They will confirm your wrongness and tell you that this is a different brush to clean the wash basin. Put that brush down and pick up right brush.

Grip the brush tightly and attack. Go all out brushing all over the place. Under the secret compartment, under the toilet seat, inside the water, into the abyss (yuck, I know, but there is no time for sentiment right now), brush until you think you have done justice to all the abuse you have put this WC through.

Pause.

Think about your life choices. Realize that you have been a failure in everything you do. Bring out all the negativity in you and lay it out on top of the blue mess inside the WC. Contemplate for a moment. Look deep into the abyss of the WC that your life has become. Ok enough. Snap out to reality.

Hold your breath and pull down the flush. Watch it all get washed away and smile at your masterpiece. A spic and span WC. White and beautiful, returned to its original glory. Ready to be used and abused all over again.

Until the spouse comes and inspects it. And requests you to please not try this again and asks you to step out and says from next time, she will do it herself instead of letting you do such a shoddy job.

Back away from the area very carefully, slowly and (most important) silently. Go back to contemplating your choices and think about how you can have a better 2017.

May your new year be as sparkling and beautiful as a newly cleaned toilet.

Have a laughter filled 2017!

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The Local Tea Party

In light of what has happened in the Senate in the last week with ObamaCare repeal stalling or failing, its critically important that we elect more people who are going to go to Senate and keep their promises and champion the values that got them elected in the first place, Jenny Beth Martin, Chair of the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, told Breitbart News.

Brooks is running for the former senate seat of Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a special election in December. Then-Gov. Robert Bentley appointed Sen. Luther Strange to the seat in February, but Bentley resigned in April and was replaced by Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey who called a special election for the seat.

Brooks will face at least four other GOP candidates in the August 15 primary, including Strange, former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, State Rep. Ed Henry, and the Christian Coalitions Randy Brinson.

But Martin said her organization was impressed with past work they had done with Brooks, including his work to stop the Gang of Eight immigration bill.

We had worked in 2013 stopping Gang of Eight, thats when I got to know him. He helped us in that effort and he has proven over the years as we at Tea Party Patriots got to know him that he is a man of his word, he keeps his promises, and when he thinks it is necessary to vote differently, he is honest to us as to why, she said.

Calling the endorsement a very easy decision, she noted that while there are a number of Republican candidates running to fill Attorney General Jeff Sessions former Senate seat, the poll of supporters in Alabama resulted in a majority not just a plurality for Brooks.

Martin praised Brooks as a fighter for our values: personal freedom, economic freedom, and a debt free future. She added that the group is placing a particular focus in the race on ObamaCare repeal as well securing the southern border.

The endorsement of the nations largest Tea Party group will prove useful to Brooks, who has had to fend off attacks from sitting Sen. Luther Strange that Brooks is a latecomer to supporting Trump, having backed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in the primaries during which he attacked then-candidate Trump.

But Martin said that the Republican failure this week to repeal and replace ObamaCare highlights the importance of the race, as it gives voters a chance to send a much-needed principled conservative to Congress.

We are making this endorsement as Congressman Brooks has stood for freedom, hes stood with the House Freedom Caucus, and last nights vote in the Senate showed us we need more people willing to fight, she said. The whole process shows we need more people to cast a vote, but also to champion what we want to accomplish and thats what Mo Brooks would do.

The Alabama Republican Party primary will take place on August 15, with the special election taking place on December 12.

Martin said the organization will be having people from around the country call voters in the state to tell voters in the state about Brooks, and also to get out the vote. She said they are also organizing a volunteer-based door-to-door effort in the run up to the primary.

Adam Shaw is a Breitbart News politics reporter based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY

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EXCLUSIVE -- As Tea Party Patriots PAC Backs Mo Brooks in ... - Breitbart News

News accounts of Gov. John Hickenlooper's recent decision to accelerate renewable energy goals for Colorado and join the "U.S. Climate Alliance," aligning the state with international commitments President Obama made as part of his Paris climate pact, frequently missed the mark on a number of key points. So let me provide context that was missing from much of the coverage I saw.

One major Colorado newspaper, for instance, reported that Colorado was joining a "growing number of states" that were "committed to meeting or exceeding greenhouse gas reduction targets set in the international Paris climate treaty that President Donald Trump rejects." But that's wrong on three counts quite an achievement for a single sentence.

The president is not jettisoning legally binding commitments because the Paris accord is not a treaty. No matter what name is attached to it "accord," "agreement," "pact" or "deal" it has no constitutional, legal or political standing comparable to a treaty because it was never submitted to the U.S. Senate for ratification.

Why didn't President Obama seek Senate approval? Because, just like the Iran nuclear agreement he negotiated, his Paris pact had no hope of getting the two-thirds vote required for treaty ratification. The Constitution requires U.S. Senate ratification because the Founders did not trust executive branch politicians to unilaterally commit the American people to international agreements. Nothing in the Constitution allows states or governors to engage in foreign policy freelancing. The governor thus has no authority to make a commitment to an international agreement of any kind.

And how far is the governor willing to go in order to comply with the terms of a nullified non-treaty that a former president approved in irregular and unconstitutional fashion? Is he also going to monitor compliance by China and other pact participants, and attempt to impose sanctions if they fall short of benchmarks or get caught cheating? And what about the $3 billion in payments Obama committed the U.S. to make as part of the "deal"? Will Colorado and other "Climate Alliance" members be stepping up to make good on that commitment, using tax dollars?

Clearly, the governor has given too little thought to the legal, constitutional and practical implications of this proposal.

It's also wrong to suggest Colorado is one of a growing number of states joining an alliance that opposes the president on the Paris accord. Since June 8, when 13 states had joined, only one additional state joined Colorado. Moreover, not one additional state has joined since the Governor's July 11 statement. That rate of progress would make a snail envious.

It would be more accurate to say that 14 governors have joined that group, not 14 states, given the undemocratic way this "movement" has evolved. Like Obama with his pen and phone, Hickenlooper wants to commit the entire state to this without involving the people's representatives in the lawmaking branch of government. But there can be no revision for acceleration of Colorado's established greenhouse gas emission goals without the involvement of the state Legislature. I don't believe the governor can commit Colorado to the goals of the Paris accord while acting alone.

Hickenlooper repeatedly said he believes these measures will have little to no adverse impact on taxpayers, utility ratepayers or the state's business climate. He promises big benefits on all fronts all winners and no losers. All that's missing from this picture is a prospect of puppies and cotton candy for all.

The governor's attempt to unilaterally commit Colorado to the goals of the Paris pact isn't therefore just questionable, impractical and unwise. If he attempts to implement the plan without legislative approval, it is also unconstitutional, which could open the door to costly litigation that will forever taint whatever climate "legacy" he hopes this gambit will achieve.

The good news is that there is still time for the governor, who generally has shown a deliberative and collaborative approach on such central policy questions, to climb down from his high horse and reconsider this embarrassing misstep.

Kevin Grantham is president of the Colorado Senate and represents Senate District 2.

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Guest opinion: Governor's climate gambit reeks of Obama-style overreach - Glenwood Springs Post Independent

By Joseph Pisani

Associated Press

NEW YORK | A savings program put into place under President Barack Obama and designed to get more people to put away money for retirement is being killed by the Treasury Department, which said it is too costly to maintain.

The program, called myRA, was launched about two years ago for those who dont have access to a 401(k) or another retirement plan from their employer. The myRA accounts had no fees or minimum deposit, and were meant to appeal to low-income workers.

Unfortunately, there has been very little demand for the program, said U.S. Treasurer Jovita Carranza, in a release Friday. The cost to taxpayers cannot be justified by the assets in the program.

The Treasury Department said myRA savers had put away about $34 million since late 2015, and that the program cost taxpayers nearly $70 million. It would have cost $10 million a year to continue the program, the Treasury said.

About 30,000 accounts were opened, and 10,000 have no money in them. The average account holder has about $1,500 in their account, the Treasury said.

Participants received emails Friday requesting a stop on automatic deposits made to any myRA account.

The Treasury advised those with an account to transfer money to another retirement account, known as a Roth IRA, at a bank or brokerage firm. The accounts can also be cashed out, but those that do may have to pay tax penalties.

The Treasury said it doesnt have a deadline yet for when the accounts need to be closed. Accounts with a zero balance will be closed starting in September.

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Obama-era retirement savings program for workers gets the ax - Florida Times-Union