You are currently browsing the daily archive for March 4th, 2007.
Posted March 04, 2007 21:32:00(Mla Time)
Dona Pazzibugan
MANILA, Philippines–Learning from the “Hello Garci” scandal that marred the 2004 elections, the Genuine Opposition is putting up a “powerhouse” team of legal experts and poll practitioners to counter any cheating in the May 14 senatorial elections.
Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, a leader of the GO coalition, said most of the opposition funds and efforts were intended to bolster their anti-election fraud team.
“The priority of our expenses will go to anti-cheating,” he said.
“Our antifraud committee will be a powerhouse team,” GO campaign spokesperson Adel Tamano told the Philippine Daily Inquirer recently.
He said the team would be made up of retired justices, former Commission on Election officials and other legal experts.
Binay said the media’s vigilance would be a big help in preventing cheating.
He said candidates would also benefit from having copies of the election returns posted in public places.
“There are a lot of people with cell phones, so anyone with a cell phone can transmit that,” he said. “This is how we’ll cope with the lack of funding.”
Originally posted at www.inquirer.net
Posted March 04, 2007 21:29:00(Mla Time)
Alex Pal
DUMAGUETE CITY — Re-electionist Senator Edgardo Angara has said he does not think former president Joseph Estrada had anything to do with a supposedly derisive jingle that is the subject of an impending lawsuit from Angara’s lawyers.
In a press conference here Sunday, Angara said he continued to have “excellent relations” with the former president even if he had joined to the Team Unity slate of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The ASO jingle, set to the tune of the 1952 Bob Merrill song “How much is that Doggie in the Window,” purportedly refers to administration senatorial candidates Edgardo Angara, Vicente “Tito” Sotto III and Teresa “Tessie” Aquino-Oreta, former oppositionists who defected after they were left out of the Genuine Opposition slate.
The initials of the three politicians’ last names spell “ASO,” Filipino for dog, which is also used as a derogatory term for lackeys.
“As you know, I was the last Cabinet member to stay with him in Malaca?. Literally to the last second while everybody else had deserted him and I like to think that because I stayed on in Malaca? to the last minute, there was no bloodshed,” Angara said, Estrada’s ouster in 2001 by a military-backed, popular revolt.
He said that Estrada even wanted him to join the opposition ticket. “But I told him it might be too late because from the very beginning your colleagues have expended me from the lineup and I have accepted the invitation of President Arroyo to join the unity ticket.”
He said the ASO jingle was derogatory and under election laws, the Comelec could disqualify those who were behind it.
“We know who are behind it from the other side but my lawyer said don’t disclose their names yet,” he said.
Estrada went on record last week disowning authorship of the jingle. “I have never used the term ‘aso’ to refer to Sen. Edgardo Angara and former senators Vicente “Tito” Sotto III and Tessie Aquino Oreta,” Estrada said from his vacation estate in Tanay, Rizal, where he is in detained while facing corruption charges.
“My friendship with them goes beyond politics,” he said. “And I don’t dabble in such petty politics.”
Originally posted at www.inquirer.net
Posted March 04, 2007 21:23:00(Mla Time)
Carla Gomez
BAGO CITY — Former president Fidel Ramos called on this year’s senatorial candidates on Sunday to focus on issues important to the people instead of concentrating on making “pogi [cute] points.”
“I do not see any of the candidates for senator focusing on issues; instead it is all pa pogi,” Ramos said here on Sunday.
Ramos described today’s electorate as much younger and smarter and candidates should be able to address poverty, livelihood, environment and development concerns to get the votes of the more discerning voters.
“First priority should not be pa pogi or popularity, but it must be competence, performance potential and vision that must be proven by all candidates,” he said.
“In the coming elections the smarter candidates will do well to focus on people empowerment issues which carry a huge appeal for the masses,” he added.
He, however, refused to name those whom he would vote for. “I will decide on election day because right now it is too muddled,” said Ramos, who was in Bago City Sunday for the 20th death anniversary of Rafael Salas, who headed the United Nations Fund for Population Activities.
He said the focus should be on government and the people ensuring honest, orderly, peaceful elections “that are credible to the people and to the international community.”
Ramos also did not see anything new about the fact that some of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s former critics were with the administration slate while some of her erstwhile supporters were with the opposition.
He pointed out that when President Arroyo first came into the presidency in January 2001, “there were so many there supporting her, but at the turn of the hat in three or four months most of them were already opposed to her.”
Originally posted at www.inquirer.net
Posted March 04, 2007 20:49:00(Mla Time)
Dona Pazzibugan
BATANGAS CITY, Philippines— After overcoming the first hurdle in his candidacy, opposition senatorial candidate Tarlac Rep. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III is preparing for another legal battle, this time with his aunt, administration senatorial candiate Tessie Aquino-Oreta.
He wants “Aquino” votes to be counted in his favor, and not in his aunt’s favor.
He said his lawyers would file a petition on Monday before the Commission on Elections, asking for a ruling on the issue.
Aquino, a three-term congressman and son of former president Corazon Aquino and the late senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., is running for senator for the first time under the Genuine Opposition slate.
But he found himself running against his aunt, Oreta, his late father’s sister, who is seeking to make a Senate comeback under the administration’s Team Unity ticket.
Oreta won in 1998 under deposed president Joseph Estrada’s ticket, claiming both the “Oreta” and the “Aquino” votes since there was no other Aquino running for the Senate at the time.
If the question is not settled, votes for “Aquino” may be declared as stray votes as both Aquino and Oreta can lay claim to them.
Earlier, the Comelec declared among the “nuisance candidates” engineer Theodore Aquino, a distant cousin of Aquino’s, removing another contender for the “Aquino” vote.
In an interview during a sortie in Batangas on Sunday, Aquino said his legal team has prepared their case papers.
He said he believed a ruling from the Comelec counting the Aquino votes in his favor would in fact help both his and his aunt’s candidacies.
“It will help both our campaigns (because in that way) we can see that votes intended for each one will be recorded properly,” he told reporters.
He said aside from Aquino, votes for “Noynoy,” his sole registered nickname, would also be credited to him.
Aquino said the Comelec should clarify who would get credit for the Aquino votes “otherwise there is the possibility that other sectors will take advantage of it.”
Aquino is an official candidate of the Liberal Party faction under Senator Franklin Drilon, which has allied itself with the Genuine Opposition coalition.
His fellow LP candidate, reelectionist Sen. Francis Pangilinan, is running as an independent.
Originally posted at www.inquirer.net
Posted March 04, 2007 17:44:00(Mla Time)
Christian V. Esguerra
MANILA, Philippines — From now on, call him “Alan Cayetano.”
Genuine Opposition senatorial candidate Alan Peter Cayetano has decided to drop his second name in the wake of the Commission on Elections’ go-signal for the candidacy of a certain “Joselito Peter Cayetano.”
It was a strategic move for the outgoing Taguig-Pateros representative, noting that votes cast either as “Cayetano” or “Peter Cayetano” would be considered spoiled.
“That’s why I appeal to my supporters to please write Alan Cayetano in the ballots,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Sunday.
But he maintained that the adjustment in name did not mean that he was giving up on his bid to disqualify the other Cayetano for allegedly being a nuisance candidate.
The Comelec on Friday approved the candidacy of the other Cayetano of the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan, along with those of 36 other senatorial hopefuls.
Even if the Comelec refused to dismiss Joselito’s bid “moto propio” (on its own initiative) the lawmaker was hoping that the body would favor a parallel disqualification petition he had filed. A hearing is set at 10 a.m. on Wednesday.
“I have full faith that the Comelec will be impartial, will rule on the merits and see through this ploy,” he said in an statement sent by e-mail.
Cayetano was convinced that his namesake had been floated by the administration to spoil his candidacy.
A check by Cayetano’s staff in his namesake’s community supposedly showed that the other guy’s nickname was “Jojo,” not “Peter.”
The congressman said there was no truth to Cayetano’s claim that he was a marine engineer, and neither did the guy supposedly accept the nomination of the KBL.
Cayetano was not buying the Comelec’s argument that the other Cayetano could not be disqualified because he had been endorsed by a legitimate party like the KBL.
He maintained that the Comelec should have given more weight on the issue of one candidate spoiling another one’s bid by confusing voters.
He said the Comelec contention “sets a very dangerous precedent and, in fact, encourages parties to field namesakes to confuse voters for as long as they are endorsed by a party.”
Cayetano noted that Ilocos Sur Gov. Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos, KBL president, and other party officials had pointed out that the other Cayetano was not their official candidate.
Cayetano warned that the Comelec’s failure to disqualify his namesake would encourage other candidates to follow what he called the “Joselito formula” in spoiling someone else’s candidacy.
“A local candidate facing a possible defeat in the May polls could also field a namesake of his strongest rival to join the race and have him endorsed by a political party,” he said.
“All they have to do is to find someone who has the same surname of (a) GO congressional bet and tap a political party that would endorse him to escape the Comelec’s purge.”
Originally posted at www.inquirer.net
Posted March 04, 2007 16:48:00(Mla Time)
Jeffrey M. Tupas Dennis Jay Santos
DAVAO CITY, Philippines–Armed Forces Chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon denied allegations that soldiers deployed in Metro Manila and in some remote areas in the countryside have been campaigning against party-list groups alleged to have links with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
But he said that it was people, not the military, who did not want militant activists in their communities.
Esperon, who accompanied Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane in a visit to Mindanao on Saturday, said in a media conference that contrary to claims of party-list groups, the deployment of military troops in Metro Manila was actually part of the request of local government leaders to curb “drugs and to stop recruitment of groups always seen on the street.”
Esperon did not elaborate on his statement but stressed that the presence of troopers in the slum areas of Metro Manila and other parts of the country was actually appreciated and can never be interpreted as a move against party-list groups.
“If the soldiers are electioneering, then we have to look at it and conduct an investigation. What we have deployed in these areas were not even armed but soldiers who are involved in civic actions,” Esperon said.
But he said it was not the military who was resisting the presence of party-list groups in their communities.
“Ayaw na ng mga tao sa party-lists [The people do not want the party-lists],” he said.
He added that early this month, party-list groups were sent away by the residents of the villages that they entered apparently to campaign. This, he said, happened in the villages of Lupang Pangako in Payatas and Commonwealth in Quezon City.
Lt. Col. Bartolome Vicente Bacarro, military spokesperson, identified these groups as Bayan Muna and Gabriela.
“They [leaders of Bayan Muna and Gabriela] are just putting color into the presence of the military in these areas. We are not involved in electioneering but just part of the military’s program to safeguard these villages against lawless elements,” Bacarro said, adding that the military have deployed special operations personnel in areas where terrorists could possibly thrive.
Bacarro said the military will never be involved in electioneering because they know their roles.
“The military will never do anything that would be misconstrued as electioneering. The AFP would always be steadfast and nonpartisan…and if there is such an act, that would be investigated,” Bacarro said.
Rep. Liza Largoza Maza of the Gabriela Women’s Party, said the group’s officers and members had filed a complaint before the Comelec against Esperon, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales and Presidential Legal Consultant Sergio Apostol for electioneering or partisan political activities.
“This is long due. Secretary Gonzales and the AFP are acting as if they are above the law. We hold AFP Chief Hermogenes Esperon directly responsible for the illegal, terrorizing actions of his soldiers in communities where Gabriela Women’s Party members are present,” Masa said in a statement.
“We protest the red baiting against Gabriela Women’s Party by Secretary Norberto Gonzales, and the malicious advice of Presidential Legal Consultant Sergio Apostol egging the AFP to file cases of disqualification against our party,” Maza added.
Lawyer Alnie Foja, Gabriela Women’s Party’s legal counsel, said the respondents’ actions were in violation of the Omnibus Election Code sections 80, 261-E, 261-I, 261-M. “The respondents used the mandate and resources of government offices to engage in partisan political activity, in effect, campaigning against Gabriela Women’s Party,” Foja said.
Maza identified the areas as Riverside Unit 5, Nicasia and Waterhole in Quezon City where soldiers had been campaigning against Gabriela Women’s Party.
“These soldiers, in full battle gear, have violated the sanctity of homes, ingratiated themselves into the daily activities of said communities, usurped the common areas in the communities like the day care centers and barangay halls, and sowed intrigues against Gabriela Women’s Party, its coordinators and organizers,” Maza said.
“These military men took pictures of our members against their wishes, kept watch over their activities, and threatened them for being active in Gabriela and attending rallies organized by Gabriela. Our members were urged to cleanse their names from the soldier’s lists of the so-called enemies of the state by renouncing their affiliation from organizations like Gabriela,” Maza added.
Originally posted at www.inquirer.net
Posted March 04, 2007 15:08:00(Mla Time)
Alex Pal
DUMAGUETE CITY — A political gathering of Team Unity senatorial candidates was disrupted Saturday night when Negros Oriental Rep. Herminio Teves of the third district was rushed to hospital after he suddenly wobbled and vomited from what he would later call indigestion.
The gathering at the Bethel Guest House here, which was attended by about 200 barangay captains and elected local officials of the second district of Negros Oriental, was supposed to cap another hectic day of campaigning throughout the northern towns of the province.
The Team Unity candidates present were Mike Defensor, Edgardo Angara and Vic Magsaysay.
It was already after dinner and Magsaysay was done with his speech when Teves, 86, started shaking. Another congressman, Rep. Emilio Macias II of the second district, who is a physician, rushed to Teves’ aid and laid him on the floor, allowing Teves to vomit.
“I thought he had a stroke or a heart attack,” Macias later recounted, “his eyes were closed and his pulse was weak.”
Teves was rushed to the Holy Child Hospital where he was confined for the night.
Defensor, who gave a press conference here Sunday morning, recounted that after the political gathering, the Team Unity candidates paid Teves a visit at the hospital and found him to be in high spirits.
Defensor quoted Teves as having told Magsaysay, “I had an attack when you mentioned that your wife is a Visayan.” Defensor said Teves assured them what happened was just a simple case of indigestion.
“Okay na siya. We’re very happy,” Defensor said.
Teves’ daughter, Virginia Teves-Laurel, told a Dumaguete newsman that her father was already out of the hospital and was expected to host a party for the Team Unity candidates Sunday evening.
Teves, born in April 25, 1920, is the oldest member of the House of Representatives. He has been in Negros Oriental politics since 1969.
He is the father of Margarito Teves, also a former representative of the third district and the current finance secretary as well as president of the Land Bank of the Philippines.
Originally posted at www.inquirer.net
Posted March 04, 2007 09:06:00(Mla Time)
TACLOBAN CITY — Twenty people, including an Army sergeant, have been arrested in Eastern Visayas since the imposition of gun ban last Jan. 14.
Chief Supt. Eliseo de la Paz, police regional director, said that the arrest of these people proved that the law enforcers in the region are serious in their drive to check the proliferation of loose and unlicensed firearms.
“We don’t take into consideration the position of the person arrested. Otherwise, our campaign on gun ban related to the forthcoming elections would be a failure,” De la Paz said.
De la Paz identified the arrested Army sergeant as Segundo Sevillano, who was caught with a .45 caliber pistol at a checkpoint in Calbayog City last Jan. 14. The soldier failed to produce any document showing he was exempted from the gun ban, De la Paz said.
He said the soldier and the 19 gun ban violators — all civilians — have been charged with illegal possession of firearms, in violation of the Commission on Elections Resolution 7764.
Of the 20 people so far arrested for violation of the gun ban, nine are from Leyte province and 11 from Samar province, which the police identified as an area of concern in the May elections.
De la Paz said he expects the police to make more arrests, particularly in Samar, where guns are known to proliferate during elections.
Since the election season began, several killings have occurred in Samar province, including those of Daram Mayor Benito Astorga, who was gunned down last Jan.25, Councilor Vivencio Yantos of San Jose de Buan who was killed on Feb. 19. On Feb.6, Vice Mayor Francisco Langi Sr. of Motiong escaped an attempt on his life. Inquirer
Originally posted at www.inquirer.net
Posted March 04, 2007 08:59:00(Mla Time)
Nilda Gallo
OPPOSITION senatoriable Loren Legarda yesterday said she won’t withdraw her election protest against Vice President Noli de Castro.
Legarda, who was in Cebu upon the invitation of the Cebu City government, said her defeat in 2004 was “traumatic.”
She said she would not back down even if the recount would not be finished before the elections are over.
“I have shown that I can fight for a cause despite limited resources. I will not withdraw it. I will abide by the decision of the Supreme Court,” said Legarda.
She said that it was only in Cebu that de Castro had a lead over her. “That’s why I’m roaming Cebu,” she said.
Last Thursday, Legarda petitioned the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) of the Supreme Court to allow the Commission on Elections in Cebu to use the ballot boxes which were used in her election protest.
“It’s not true na walang magamit na ballot boxes,” Legarda said.
Earlier Comelec-7 officials expressed their concern that there may not be enough ballot boxes in Cebu for the May polls if the PET and the Comelec-Manila fail to give them back the ballot boxes.
The former senator also said she was confident that Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osme?a known ally of the administration party, was sincere in saying he would support her candidacy in the May polls.
“I don’t question his sincerity,” said Legarda during a press conference yesterday.
Osme?ad said earlier that he would campaign for Legarda in the May polls.
Legarda was invited by Cebu City officials for the awarding ceremony during the City Charter Day celebration last night.
“I am very honored that I was invited. Daghang salamat. It’s very precious (the invitation),” Legarda said.
A candidate for the Genuine Opposition, Legarda said she believed that the appointment of Senator Serge Osme?s their campaign manager would boost their campaign.
Legarda denied speculations that the opposition only wanted the Cebuano senator as leverage in their campaign in Cebu, being known as “Arroyo country.”
Legarda also expressed her support for an undivided Cebu. “Being a progressive province Cebu should remain as is,” she said.
She was quick to clarify, however, that her support for an undivided Cebu was her own view when she was told that former senator Sonny Osme?as supporting the Sugbuak bill.
Sonny also belongs to the opposition slate.
“We don’t have to be identical in our views on all issues,” she said.
Originally posted at www.inquirer.net
Posted March 04, 2007 08:27:00(Mla Time)
Sylvia L. Mayuga
MANILA, Philippines — And so it came to pass – the five-ring circus of the May 2004 Philippine presidential elections siring the wild masked ball of the May 2008 congressional and local elections. Again, 70% of election expenses will go to funhouse distorting mirrors called political advertisements, mocking both the Filipino voter’s natural intelligence and hungry stomach.
Beginning with the ruling party’s sole binding philosophy of surviving the dubious mandate of 2004, here are scandals aplenty, but strangely enough, no real surprises.
Behold its senatorial candidates – turncoats, party lackeys, and “winnable” movie stars of dubious political sanity and training in public service. (Cesar Montano, you’re a great actor with a first-rate filmography – why on earth did you sign up for this major casting mistake?)
This brings us to a Commission on Elections in the ruling party’s pocket, its chair Benjamin Abalos the smooth-talking survivor of the infamous Hello-Garci election followed by the P2 B-vote counting machine scandal. The same Garci now runs for a congressional seat in Bukidnon in thick carabao hide as the Comelec continues along its idiosyncratic course.
This past week, Abalos casually pronounced the third Aquino candidate, dual citizen Theodore “Kuya Ted” Macabulos-Aquino, unqualified to run for the Senate because of “non-residency in the Philippines.” Aquino counters that he’s a part-time resident and international engineering consultant in the Philippines. As such, he submitted his ownership papers for a condominium in Makati, cedulas, and Philippine Immigration stamps on his passport when he filed his candidacy.
Information technology does not seem to be the Comelec’s strong suit, but these claims can be checked on a website built by Fil-American “Friends of Kuya Ted.” They say they’re rallying to share the fate of the homeland with their education and future investments – and could have no better representative in Congress than Kuya Ted.
(Noynoy Aquino filed a case for the Comelec to classify him a “nuisance candidate.” Kuya Ted counters that he’s a distant cousin willing to give all questionable Aquino votes to Noynoy, should it come to that.)
Meanwhile a pattern emerges in the Comelec’s record on party list candidacies, a provision in the 1986 Constitution meant as an instrument of post-EDSA people empowerment. Power to grant or refuse party list accreditation in the Comelec under Abalos continues to be a henhouse door wide open to the wolf of trapo politics.
This Armida Siguion-Reyna illustrates in her column, noting the recent accreditation of an association of tricycle drivers called Biyaheng Pinoy – with one Arsenio Abalos, elder brother of the Comelec chair, as director and national council member. She asks, why has Ang Ladlad, (“The Laid Out” or “Out of the Closet”) which applied for accreditation “at the same time if not earlier,” been rejected twice?
Ang Ladlad is of course the first-ever Filipino Gay, Lesbian Bisexual and Trans-gender NGO cum political party, with students, intellectuals, and professionals in a stated nationwide membership of 16,000. Public curiosity has been pricked. For one, Miguel Antonio Lizada of the Sun-Star Davao wants to know if this rejection has “something to do with the fact that Ang Ladlad was leading in the race, next to Bayan Muna (Country First)?”
It is of course slightly different for Richard Gomez as a ruling party candidate for the Senate, another casting move for politics as showbiz. Blame the director for using Richard as nothing more than eye candy on the political stage. But blame Richard for seeing nothing wrong with running under the same pragmatic party that refused to accredit his cause-oriented NGO, Mamamayan Laban sa Droga (Citizens Against Drugs) – after he won as a party list candidate in the 2001 congressional race.
But what have we in the ranks of the opposition on the other side of this masked ball? There’s the real estate tycoon/ reelectionist senator Villar and his fellow reelectionist senator Pangilinan, both refusing to campaign on one platform with the “Genuine Opposition.” Does this have anything to do with the incarcerated ex-president Erap looming over them, moneybags ready to buy his freedom with a new dispensation?
Hardly over the trauma of the Hello Garci election of 2004, can the people prevent another vote-counting and canvassing fiasco in 2008? Such is public cynicism that the first sound of “boycott” emerged from a circle of former street parliamentarians the other night. The day before, it was a former Arroyo Cabinet member theorizing that creating confusion could precisely be a tactic of ruling party strategy – to turn off enough thinking voters from going to the polls at all, making it easier to manipulate results.
The mood is uncertainty. Not only are we confused about what the season’s candidates stand for besides themselves, we can only guess what’s behind their masks and try to remember where they really belong.
Armida Siguion-Reyna, sister of lifetime politician Juan Ponce Enrile, puts it well, “Our multi-party structure is no longer simply multi-party, but multi-multi party, with splinter groups further splintering. It’s as if national affairs are run by Partido Starbucks, with a branch in almost every kanto. It didn’t use to be like this.
“Our political landscape has been littered with turncoats, but at least in the older days one knew if a candidate was a former Liberal Party member who had skipped to the Nacionalista side.
Now you have to figure out how the former Liberal joined the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) , and then went with Lakas ng Bayan (Laban), to Lakas/National Union of Christian Democrats (Lakas/NUCD), then Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP), to LDP/Laban ng Masang Pilipino (LAMP), and finally the National People’s Coalition (NPC), if not the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (KAMPI). ”
Under the umbrellas of those acronyms, the names presently on offer with their mixed motives, crossover platforms, and eccentric fundamentalist platforms don’t even add up to an acceptable half dozen for the Senate, but strangest of all is how this chaos is turning out to be a learning place.
Another instinct is kicking in from somewhere between hope and history. My take is to forget “winnability” for the moment, and instead vote for time. What do I mean? Think of these elections as a live exercise in the power of ideas in minds free of the old fears and compulsions of traditional politics. Think of it as a gamble to get those new ideas, if not voted into power, at least heard nationwide for the first time.
Last week was about Noynoy Aquino’s coming of age as an aspiring Senator for a new generation of Filipino voters. This week, beyond his shock value as the first professed gay candidate for public office in Philippine history, it’s all about the eminent sense Danton Remoto makes behind that trademark swishiness.
Seen for what he is, this multi-awarded Filipino poet, Ateneo professor, and associate member of the Manila Critics Circle behind the National Book Awards bears his scholarship and solid reputation with the deceptive levity of true intelligence. He is also the last of his blood family to stubbornly remain in the country, all the rest (five successful engineers included) already in Diaspora. Here’s Danton Remoto, unedited.
On that shoestring campaign supported by students, OFWs, closet gay businessmen and professionals, schools and fellow artists in People Power 2007, Remoto continues to fight for accreditation as Ang Ladlad party list candidate in a deeply compromised Comelec.
A globalized gay world is watching our masked ball. So are the poor in the slums, the broken-backed teachers of the Philippine public school system, and the marginalized members of Ang Ladlad watching and learning from this “snowball’s chance in hell.” Its lessons are investments in the future.
Posted March 04, 2007 06:21:00(Mla Time)
Isagani Cruz
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections has ordered senatorial candidate Cesar Montano and a cable channel to explain why they should not be cited for contempt for airing last week a movie documentary hosted by Montano on the Edsa Revolution of 1986.
Such act is presumably violative of the Fair Election Act, which provides in its Sec. 6.8 that “no movie, cinematograph or documentary portrayed by an actor or media personality who is himself a candidate shall likewise be exhibited in a theater or any public forum during the campaign period.”
Violation of this or many other provision of the law is also a ground for disqualification of the erring candidate.
Montano is a well-known movie personality who is much admired for his talent as an actor and director. I would say he is head and shoulders above many of his colleagues in the industry as far as intellectual endowments are concerned. I have no objection to him as an entertainer because he adequately proves that entertainers as such are not per se unfit for public office. Nevertheless, I have to say that his exceptional qualifications do not exempt him from the operation of the law he may have violated.
As a member of the Supreme Court, I was the foremost opponent of a similar law that was sustained in 1992. Fortunately, my basic objections to it have been sustained with the adoption of the Fair Election Act that provides for more reasonable restrictions on the prohibition. Now, by implementing resolution of the Comelec, a registered candidate or political party seeking national elective office is given 120 minutes on TV and 180 minutes on radio for election propaganda. But subject to the above-quoted Sec. 6.8.
I suppose Montano will try to justify his questioned act by invoking freedom of expression. But that freedom, like all freedoms (except the freedom to believe as long as it is not externalized) is not absolute. As precious as this liberty is, it is subject to the police power for the promotion of the public welfare and the protection of private interests.
I believe that Sec. 6.8 of the Fair Election Act is valid. The obvious purpose of the prohibition is to equalize as much as possible the opportunities of the candidates in conducting their respective campaigns. Without it, entertainers would have the initial advantage over their rivals who are less known although better qualified than many of them.
Name recognition is important in political elections. A toilet comedian from TV has more prospects than an obscure but brilliant bar topnotcher. Bong Revilla would have topped the 2004 senatorial elections were it not for Mar Roxas who made himself better known as “Mr. Palengke” with his insistent commercials. If Lito Lapid had been allowed to gallop in theaters and open-air forums then, his horse could have outrun the two top contenders although its rider never finished high school.
In 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger won as governor of California because many voters recognized him as the movie actor with the big physique although they could not spell his name. Ronald Reagan beat incumbent President Jimmy Carter in 1980 because his fans remembered Ronnie as the cowboy from Hollywood who also starred in “Death Valley Days” on TV. There is no question that our own Dolphy could win any election here, but he prefers to stay in his own turf with his humble and pointed question, “Paano kung manalo ako?”
In my dissent in National Press Club v. Commission on Elections, 217 SCRA 1, I made the following remarks that may guide the government against unlawful further restrictions on the campaign activities of the current candidates:
“I realize only too well that the ideas that may be conveyed by the prohibited media advertisements would mostly be exaggerations or distortions or plain poppycock that may intrude upon our leisure hours if not also offend our intelligence and exhaust our patience. We may, indeed, be opening a Pandora’s Box. But these are unavoidable in the free society. As part of the larger picture, these impositions are only minor irritations that, placed in proper perspective, should not justify the withdrawal of the great and inalienable liberty that is the bedrock of this Republic. It is best to remember in this regard that freedom of expression exists not only for the thought that agrees with us, to paraphrase Justice Holmes, but also for the thought that we abhor.”
Let me commend the Commission on Elections for its apparent earnestness in the enforcement of the election laws as demonstrated by its current action against Montano and the cable company for their supposed violation of the Fair Election Act. I had earlier expressed distrust of its plan to punish the illegal pasting of election posters, but I would be sincerely happy if it could prove I was mistaken.
Originally posted at www.inquirer.net
Posted March 04, 2007 04:35:00(Mla Time)
DELFIN ALBANO, Isabela—The Dys and the Albanos, the two dominant political clans in Isabela, have joined forces in a bid to dislodge Gov. Maria Gracia Cielo Padaca in the May 14 elections.
Former Gov. Faustino Dy Jr., son of Isabela political patriarch Gov. Faustino Dy Sr. who ruled the province for 22 years, and Rep. Rodolfo Albano III announced on Friday their “unwritten agreement” to support each other in the elections.
Dy, whose gubernatorial bid is supported by the Nationalist People’s Coalition, on Friday attended the birthday celebration of Albano III, provincial chair of the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino. Both NPC and Kampi are members of the administration coalition.
Isabela Rep. Anthony Miranda, Kampi spokesperson and regional head, also attended the affair.
Padaca, however, shrugged off the alliance of the Dys and the Albanos.
“Ever since my partnership with Isabela Rep. Edwin Uy began even before 2004, our practice has always been to focus on our own plans, not on others’ [plans],” Padaca said in a text message to the Inquirer.
The gubernatorial fight here will be a reprise of the fight between Dy and Padaca in 2004. In that election, Padaca trounced Dy and ended the latter’s rule in the province.
The alliance between Dy and Albano bolstered reports here that the former governor would team up with Albano’s brother, Antonio “Tonypet” Albano, as his vice governor.
Representative Albano and Tonypet Albano are sons of Energy Regulatory Commission Chair Rodolfo Albano Jr.
Gamu Mayor Fernando Cumigad, Lakas-CMD Cagayan Valley secretary general, said the party expected the alliance of the Dys and the Albanos.
“We are not keen on supporting former Governor Dy. We are instead giving our support to Governor Padaca despite her being a member of the Liberal Party’s Drilon wing,” Cumigad said.
In Cagayan, poison letters and newspaper columns hitting politicians appeared in the province in the run-up to the May 14 elections.
A congressman, who is seeking reelection in the third district, lamented the use of malicious letters and a column in a Metro Manila-based tabloid to destroy his name.
The congressman denied allegations that he was supporting left-wing groups and that he was using his pork barrel to buy guns and bullets.
He called foul the tabloid column that featured an item that accused him of taking advantage of women joining beauty contests in his native Tuao town. Villamor Visaya Jr. and Estanislao Caldez, Inquirer Northern Luzon
Originally posted at www.inquirer.net
Posted March 04, 2007 03:32:00(Mla Time)
Volt Contreras
MANILA, Philippines — “That’s none of your business!’’ says a peeved First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, cueing the start of a 30-second political TV ad.
It features a brief footage of Arroyo snapping at Taguig Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano during the House committee hearing on the First Family’s alleged hidden wealth abroad. It also shows Cayetano insisting: “No, it is the business of the Filipino people!’’
Then the video clip morphs into an animated cartoon cum rock music video featuring the many faces of Cayetano.
The ad ends where it began—with Arroyo growling: “None of your business!’’ albeit only in a voice-over.
Of the political ads that have hit the airwaves in the runup to the May 14 polls, this one seems to be testing the already murky boundaries of election propaganda by showing the face—and carrying a sound bite—of the candidate’s “enemy.’’
Directed by Cayetano’s younger brother Lino and conceptualized by adman Greg Garcia, the ad started airing on the GMA network last Monday.
“We are not violating any rules of the Comelec; [the video] is actual news footage of the hearing,’’ Cayetano told the Inquirer yesterday, when told that his TV spot seemed to have pushed the envelope by using an unwilling party like Arroyo as a major character—unflatteringly depicted, at that—in the ad.
Public figure
Arroyo is neither a candidate in the May elections nor a public official in the strict sense, and has in fact been asserting his right to privacy in his public skirmishes with the opposition stalwart.
“He is a public figure and the video is neither false nor was it edited,’’ Cayetano maintained.
That particular clip, he said, captured a tense exchange during a House hearing last Feb. 6 in which he was “cross-examining’’ President Macapagal-Arroyo’s husband on the overseas bank accounts allegedly maintained by their family.
“This is not about pushing the limits [of what is allowed in campaign ads] but pushing the advocacy. It is about asking the people: ‘Is this the kind of government you want,’’’ Cayetano said.
Not libelous
“We will continue airing the ad. Getting me elected is only secondary here; the primary goal is to make the Arroyo government acknowledge and realize that it is accountable to the people,” he stressed.
Told about Cayetano’s ad, Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos Sr. said that “it’s allowable as long as it is not libelous’’ and it would not pin any “wrongdoing’’ on the party alluded to.
The Comelec chief said the GO candidate could “capitalize’’ on such video material within that limit.
‘Con-ass?’
In an interview last Thursday, Cayetano said that if elected to the Senate, he would resume his investigation of the Arroyo family’s “con-ass.’’
But con-ass, this time, would not stand for “Constituent assembly’’ (a mode by which the Arroyo administration and its House allies tried to amend the 1987 Constitution last year), but for “concealed assets,’’ Cayetano said with a smile.
He claimed to have in his possession documents that had not yet been made public, even during his previous House tussles with the First Gentleman, because the witnesses would only be willing to testify in an impeachment trial.
Impeachment
According to Cayetano, the Arroyo administration’s “style’’ has been to “box’’ critics like him in a venue wherein they cannot use legal tools, such as the Bank Secrecy Law, to reveal the alleged bank accounts of the First Family.
“They will take you out of the court: Basketball is the game but they will change it to volleyball. In impeachment proceedings, you can open an account, but not in a libel court or an ethics committee hearing.
“And witnesses like Clarissa Ocampo (the bank executive who was the star witness in the 2001 Estrada impeachment trial) will only come out in an impeachment court, not in an ethics case,” he explained.
Cayetano said he had been in contact with “very highly placed officials,” some still in Ms Arroyo’s camp, who had offered him evidence “with the agreement that it will be used if the impeachment pushes through.”
He added: “The group of the First Gentleman is doing everything [so] that I won’t win, because they know when I get to the Senate and get my hands on a committee … he will really have people like me to deal with.”
Originally posted at www.inquirer.net
Posted March 04, 2007 03:30:00(Mla Time)
Norman Bordadora
MANILA, Philippines — When his son, San Juan Mayor Joseph Victor Ejercito, bowed out of the Genuine Opposition’s senatorial slate, deposed President Joseph Estrada named two “principled oppositionists” as possible replacements.
One was Sonia Roco, widow of the late senator and presidential candidate Raul Roco. The other was lawyer Adel Abbas Tamano, a relative unknown.
Sonia Roco is now part of the GO ticket. But Tamano did not bite.
“To run for a national post is one thing. Winning it is another,” he told the Inquirer.
Tamano was not playing coy. He admitted to being driven—a trait that he said he inherited from his mother, civic leader Zorayda Abbas. But then he is also the son of a pragmatist, Mamintal Tamano, one of the last senators elected before Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law in 1972.
“It was actually my mom who pushed my dad to accept the draft when she learned that my father was being wooed by the Nacionalista Party to be one of its senatorial candidates,” Tamano said. “My dad, just give him a good book and he’ll survive.”
Today, the 36-year-old Tamano is one of the most visible talking heads in the media as GO’s campaign spokesperson.
“Perhaps this job will prepare me for whatever lies ahead for me in politics,” he said.
Wooed by 2 camps
Both the administration and the opposition had wooed Tamano to be the Muslim candidate in their respective slates.
He was a legal analyst for ABS-CBN, especially during the failed impeachment of President Macapagal-Arroyo.
He was also on the team of eminent lawyer Estelito Mendoza when the latter defended Estrada at the then President’s impeachment trial in 2000.
“The administration was more aggressive, promising funding and logistics. But I was not yet ready,” Tamano recalled.
“If I’m going to run, I want to make sure that I’m going to win. I didn’t want to be the token Muslim candidate, and the opposition respected that,” he said.
Tokenism
According to Tamano, the administration’s selection of the Sultan of Sulu, Jamalul Kiram, as its Muslim candidate showed tokenism and a lack of respect for Filipino Muslims.
“I [once] went to Sulu and asked people there what they thought of Kiram. You know what, they didn’t know him,” Tamano said, adding:
“If you really care for the Muslims, you’d pick a candidate who has a chance to win. If there’s none, you get one as early as two years before the election and develop him to [get him into the national consciousness].”
‘Easiest job’
With a resume that can easily upstage that of many of the current crop of senatorial candidates, Tamano accepted the job of campaign spokesperson, which he described as a breeze.
“We have saleable candidates. The issues are in our favor. [Being spokesperson for the GO slate] is the easiest job in the world,” he told the Inquirer just after the campaign period started last month.
Weeks later, and after Sen. Francis Pangilinan was dropped from the ticket and GO rallies were getting canceled in Iloilo and Antique, he still thinks so.
“It’s still the easiest job. We know the administration is trying to sabotage our campaign but at the end of the day, people will realize that the product we’re selling is the best product,” he said yesterday.
Family man
With his family background, superior education, good looks and lighthearted eloquence, Tamano could have himself mounted a decent run for a seat in the Senate.
He’s a family man, married to lawyer Rowena Kapunan, and with two children aged four and one. (At one time, the Inquirer called at 9 p.m. for a quick information fix and caught him giving an interview while trying to calm a crying child in the background.)
MA in law from Harvard
He has a master’s degree in law from Harvard University and another in public administration from the University of the Philippines. He got his law degree at the Ateneo Law School.
“I am the first Filipino Muslim to take up a master’s at the Harvard Law School,” Tamano said, but quickly added that he did not mean to brag.
He teaches constitutional law and legal writing at the Ateneo and Far Eastern University.
Teaching helps him connect and empathize with almost all sorts of people, he said.
As does growing up the son of a senator whose friends included some of the most brilliant legal minds in the country, but who also found himself jobless when martial law was declared.
Good name
“Before my dad died, he told me that he did not have much to leave me but a good name,” Tamano said.
“Jokingly, I said cash would be just fine. Now that I’m all grown up, I realize the value of that good name,” he said.
Tamano said that even during the times when they were comfortable, his father would make him take public transportation to school.
“We were taught the value of money,” he said.
But being a commuter did not give Tamano cause to be intimidated by the “high and mighty.”
“Growing up, I had the opportunity to meet people like Marcos and [the late Senators Lorenzo] Ta? and [Jose] Diokno,” he said. “They’d come over to visit my dad. So when I grew up and talked to them, I was not star-struck anymore.”
Tamano sees this as an advantage now that he’s the spokesperson of a coalition against the Arroyo administration, and good training for when he decides to make a run for the Senate.
He pointed out that Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago also went to Harvard, “but it was just for a short course.”
Edge in academics
“I went there for a master’s degree and on a scholarship from Harvard itself,” he said.
“They may have the edge in experience, but I think I have the edge academically. I think I’ll do well when I get to debate with the likes of Miriam,” he added.
With his present job of articulating other people’s thoughts and defending GO candidates when the occasion calls for it, Tamano may be well-honed for the challenge of debating the sharp, tart-tongued Santiago.
Originally posted at www.inquirer.net
Posted March 04, 2007 03:29:00(Mla Time)
Juliet Labog-Javellana
MANILA, Philippines — It looks like the May elections will not be just a bruising battle for the Senate between Team Unity and the Genuine Opposition but also a silent contest between the two good-looking campaign spokespersons deployed by each camp.
And Team Unity’s Joseph “Ace” Hotchkiss Durano knows he’s being compared to GO’s Adel Tamano—like himself an Ateneo law graduate—in more ways than one.
“People ask who is more handsome, so I say I have already conceded that Adel is the ‘crush ng bayan’ and I am just the ‘crush ng bahay.’ I’ll be content if only my wife has a crush on me,” the soft-spoken tourism secretary said, laughing.
His wife is Carmi Luzuriaga, with whom he has a son (AJ, 13 years old) and a daughter (Cara, 12).
Durano said Tamano’s appointment was good news to him: “I felt relieved that the other side picked a decent spokesperson. Adel is a good guy.”
Told that Tamano appeared to be more on the offensive, he said the man was “probably following the strategy of the opposition.”
If he’s sufficiently humble to concede to Tamano in the looks category, Durano is flattered when people marvel at his youth. At 36, he is the youngest member of the Arroyo Cabinet.
“Are you the [campaign] spokesman? You’re too young,” he recalled people asking him. “But they ask it in a flattering way.”
He said he had even taken to calling himself the “spokesboy.”
Durano said he was surprised when President Macapagal-Arroyo offered him the job: “They need a spokesperson. Are you willing to take on the responsibility?”
Like a good soldier, he accepted with question.
Patience is a virtue
According to Durano, patience is a virtue that can probably distinguish him from the competition.
He tries to be “Mr. Cool Guy” in keeping with his real persona and his job description.
“You know, in politics anything goes, so you have to have patience and tolerance. Right now, it’s like a boxing bout. We are fighting clean but our opponent is hitting us below the belt, so we just have to be patient and tolerant,” Durano said.
He said the opposition had been harping on “rehashed issues,” such as the “Hello Garci” election fraud scandal and the illegal numbers game “jueteng.”
“The opposition is saying the economic gains of the Arroyo administration are mere statistics, but the people know better,” he said.
Durano said his job was to bring about a “high-level” campaign by focusing the debate on Team Unity’s platform of government and avoiding mudslinging and muckraking.
“I know my responsibility is to advocate the platform of government of the administration ticket. I try not to be distracted and derailed,” Durano said.
Team Unity’s candidates are individually responsible for answering specific allegations against them, he said.
And he may have an ace up his sleeve—his being part of the Arroyo Cabinet the past three years.
“I’m supposed to be the most accessible guy to talk about our platform of government. I’m the guy you [in the media] can call at 6 a.m.,” he said.
Silent majority
Durano said the Arroyo administration’s “track record of performance and success” was a “value added” to Team Unity.
He cited a survey conducted by the administration showing that 60 percent comprised the “silent majority” that was not taking sides in the coming elections. He said 20 percent identified themselves as pro-administration, and another 20 percent as pro-opposition.
“It shows that the silent majority is not interested in mudslinging but in moving this country forward. So we are focusing on that,” he said.
Durano rejected the opposition’s claim that Ms Arroyo was a liability for Team Unity candidates. “We don’t see that. For me, that is a myth. In the provinces, the response of the people is the opposite [of what the opposition has been saying],” he said.
He also said Ms Arroyo had maintained a solid network of support in the provinces that would boost Team Unity’s aim of clinching a 12-0 victory.
No greenhorn
It is Durano’s first time to handle a political campaign, but he’s not exactly a political greenhorn.
He was the representative of the fifth district of vote-rich Cebu for three terms until 2004, when he cut his last term to serve in the Cabinet.
His father, Ramon Durano III, served for three terms as Cebu congressman and is now on his second term as mayor of Danao City.
In 2004, when he was waging his own battle for a third term in the House, Durano helped campaign for President Arroyo in his province and other parts of the Visayas, which delivered a huge margin over her closest rival, the late actor Fernando Poe Jr.
Durano completed his early schooling in Cebu City and obtained a bachelor of arts degree in Asian studies at the University of the Redlands in California.
He returned to the Philippines to study law at the Ateneo de Manila, where he also obtained a master’s degree in business administration. He became a member of the bar in 1998.
Youngest
After graduating from the Ateneo, Durano embarked on a political career, becoming the youngest member of the 11th Congress. He went on to win a second three-year term in 2001 and a final term in 2004.
In the 12th Congress, Durano chaired three House committees—public order and security, public works, and dangerous drugs.
He was a member of the group of young congressmen called the “Spice Boys,” together with Michael Defensor and Miguel Zubiri (now both Team Unity candidates).
Also during that time, he was named secretary general of the Nationalist People’s Coalition, the party founded by business tycoon Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco.
He is also an honorary member of Class 1979 of the Philippine Military Academy and a reserve lieutenant colonel in the Air Force.
More tourists
The President appointed Durano tourism secretary in August 2004; he was confirmed by the Commission on Appointments four months later.
Durano takes pride in his accomplishments in the three years that he has held the tourism portfolio.
“From a declining industry in 2004, we managed a 14.5 percent growth in tourist arrivals in 2005. This means we are outpacing the inbound [tourist arrival rate] of 7 percent in the Asia-Pacific and we are getting a big slice of the tourism pie [in the region].”
Originally posted at www.inquirer.net
Posted March 04, 2007 03:27:00(Mla Time)
Volt Contreras Dona Pazzibugan
MANILA, Philippines — Three weeks into the campaign, cohesion still seems to elude the Genuine Opposition senatorial ticket.
One of its candidates yesterday floated the possibility of his leaving the coalition if party mate Sen. Francis “Kiko’’ Pangilinan, a reluctant “guest candidate’’ whom GO elders later dropped from the 12-slot lineup, is replaced.
“I might also say goodbye if the agreement not to replace (Pangilinan) is not honored,’’ said Tarlac Rep. Benigno “Noynoy’’ Aquino III, who like Pangilinan belongs to the Liberal Party-Drilon wing.
Aquino’s remarks came a day after Sen. Franklin Drilon, president of the LP faction, publicly reminded the GO leadership of a supposed agreement that the GO machinery will carry only 11 names despite Pangilinan’s choice not to campaign with the pack.
“We (LP) went into the coalition with two representatives, I and Kiko,’’ Aquino said in a phone interview. “I don’t see myself campaigning for other candidates but not for my party mate.’’
Echoing Drilon’s earlier position that replacing Pangilinan would result in a 13th slot, Aquino said he could not reasonably campaign for 13 candidates for that would mean “junking’’ one of them.
Aquino, however, qualified his statement at one point in the interview.
He said that, “so far I’m comfortable’’ with the pronouncements made by GO leaders, namely, campaign manager JV Ejercito, spokesperson Adel Tamano and Makati City Mayor Jejomar “Jojo” Binay, that they had not considered replacing Pangilinan with another candidate.
Others also opposed
For Aquino, Pangilinan has proven himself worthy of being with the political opposition “in substance’’ when he joined the critics of the Arroyo administration on various issues, like the controversial Executive Order 464, Proclamation 1017 and the calibrated preemptive response policy.
“But in terms of style, I think it’s the prerogative of a candidate to choose how he wishes to conduct his campaign,’’ Aquino said, apparently referring to Pangilinan’s decision not to get on the GO bandwagon.
Other GO candidates also said they were against replacing Pangilinan since the issue might divert attention away from their own campaigns.
Reelectionist Sen. Panfilo Lacson and Sorsogon Rep. Francis Escudero said that if they had their way, they would not drop Pangilinan from the ticket.
Leave 12th slot open
Earlier, the two resented Pangilinan’s refusal to join other GO candidates in sorties, including their proclamation rally on Feb. 24.
Taguig Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano said it would be better if GO did not get a replacement candidate.
Sonia Roco, widow of the late Sen. Raul Roco, said she preferred to leave the 12th slot open to avoid another controversy.
“I hope things could be settled as soon as possible, and I believe this will happen,” Lacson told reporters in Filipino after GO’s motorcade from Sto. Tomas town to Lipa City in Batangas.
Don’t rock the boat
He said if it were up to him, he would not have dropped Pangilinan from the slate “because he was already adopted and we had already expressed our support.”
“But now that he has been dropped, I hope they do not get a replacement anymore. It will only rock the boat,” Lacson said.
“Eleven (candidates) will do. Things will only get complicated,” he added.
Escudero said that while he respected the decision of GO’s executive committee, he would personally continue to support Pangilinan.
Enough of controversies
Escudero said he was against adopting another candidate. “It’s not the right time. Saka mas maganda na onse. Kasi baka ma-onse pa kami, mabuti na kami naman ang mang onse,” he said in a play on the Filipino word for “11” (onse), which means falling for a trick.
“As a member of GO, I am duty-bound to respect the decision. But personally when I go around I say vote for Kiko,” he added.
“It will be best if GO will not replace him because … attention might be diverted from campaign issues,” said Cayetano.
Roco, who is running for public office for the first time, said she feared further controversy over a new adopted candidate would once more draw attention away from the rest of the candidates.
Roco and other GO candidates ex-senators John Osme?nd Nikki Coseteng showed up at a press conference in Lipa, along with a representative of former mutineer, ex-Navy Lt. Antonio Trillanes IV, who is campaigning from military detention.
Originally posted at www.inquirer.net
