Skip to content

Category: 2010 elections

2010 clean elections for Filipinos, not for America

Published by Ellen on November 8, 2009

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said Gloria Arroyo is ready to reassure Hillary Clinton of clean elections in 2010.

There is something wrong here. The press secretary and spokesman of a president of one country assuring a cabinet member of another country that the elections in her country would be clean. In the first place, elections should be clean and credible. Not for the United States or other countries but for the Filipino people.

Elections is the engine that drives democracy. Through elections, the people choose their leaders. In the a presidential system like the Philippines, elections is supposed to be an equalizer because when a voter goes to polls. Rich or poor, young or old, highly-educated or illiterate, his vote is counted as one vote. That what it should be in a clean and credible election.

Continue reading2010 clean elections for Filipinos, not for America

Ano ang gagawin kay Gloria Arroyo?

Published by Ellen on November 7, 2009

The discussions in the previous post on this question of how the next president would handle Gloria Arroyo have been vibrant. However, I noticed that some quoted just a part of the answers which could be misleading.

For my column for Abante I got all the answers of the four presidential aspirants: Senators Manny Villar, Benigno Aquino III, Francis Escudero and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro.

Although Che-Che Lazaro didn’t ask exactly the same questions to all the interviewees, more or less, you have an idea of their stand or lack of stand.

***

Ang isang bagay na gusto ng marami nating kababayan marinig sa mga kandidato para pangulo ay kung ano ang kanilang gagawin kay Gloria Arroyo kung sila ang maupo sa Malacañang.

Continue readingAno ang gagawin kay Gloria Arroyo?

Agawan sa matatabang magagatasan

Published by Ellen on November 4, 2009

Noong Martes, nabulaga tayo sa balita na nag-resign ang hepe ng Bureau of Internal Revenue na si Sixto Esquivias IV na tinanggap naman kaagad ni Gloria Arroyo.

Ang nakakagulat kasi sa balita ay ang pag-amin ni Esquivas na hindi niya natupad ang target nilang koleksyun ng buwis. Kaya sa pakiramdam diya, bagsak ang performance grade niya.

Desente tao itong si Esquivas. Ang ibang opisyal ng gobyerno kahit palpak, kapit tuko pa rin. Tingnan mo si Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez. Nagkalat ang kurap sa gobyerno. Garapalan ang mga anomalya ng mga taga-Malacañang, wala nakukulong na malalaking isda.

Continue readingAgawan sa matatabang magagatasan

Joining Chiz odyssey

Published by Ellen on November 3, 2009

(This is Lito Banayo’s last column for Malaya as he would be Sen. Chiz Escudero’s campaign manager in the latter’s presidential bid in the 2010 elections.)

by Lito Banayo
Malaya

The surprise decision of Chiz Escudero to resign from the NPC was finalized in his mind and in his heart only on Tuesday morning, the day before he was expected to rally the troops at the Bahay ng Alumni of the University of the Philippines. A simple but emotionally rousing event had been planned to begin at 5:30 on Wednesday afternoon. After a quick lunch at his informal campaign headquarters, the cozy Taste of L.A. along Alejandro Roces St., conveniently two hundred meters away from his small townhouse unit in New Manila, the decision to resign was firmed up with heavy heart.

There was absolutely no rancour in his heart towards anyone in the party hierarchy. But clear positions and personal principles could not be viewed sceptically by the public because of present company. Present company are old and genuine friends — conscientious legislators with their constituents’ interest principal to them, with a loyal voter following brought about by years of good service. But in the larger view of the national interest at a time when public despair and despondency threaten to break the polity up, new solutions and fresh ideas, this amorphously defined cry for “Pagbabago” (Change), needed positing. And solutions offered had to go beyond motherhood statements, but specific stand on various policy issues.

Continue readingJoining Chiz odyssey

Saradong pag-iisip sa Comelec

Published by Ellen on November 2, 2009

Palagi sinasabi ng mga hindi sang-ayon sa ginawa ng Magdalo na sundalo sa Oakwood noong Hulyo 2003 at sa Manila Peninsula noong Nobiembre 2007 na kung ayaw mo ng palakad ng kasalukuyang administrasyon, tumakbo kayo sa eleksyun.

Ganun nga ang ginawa ni dating Ltsg Antonio Trillanes IV noong 2007 na eleksyun at laking gulat ng lahat na nanalo siya kahit hindi nakakulong siya at hindi siya gumastos ng malaki katulad ng marami sa sa kandidato ng administrasyun na natalo naman.

Talagang gusto ng mga dating sundalo na ito na makilahok sa pagpatakbo ng pamahalaan para maipatupad nila ang pagbabago na kanilang ninanasa para sa bayan kaya sila nag-apply ang kanilang grupo, ang Samahang Magdalo sa Commission on Elections para maisali sa partylist at makatakbo sa eleksyun ang kanilang mga kandidato.

Continue readingSaradong pag-iisip sa Comelec

Palparan, yes; Magdalo, no

Published by Ellen on October 30, 2009

Former Air Force 1st Lt Ashley Acedillo, Magdalo spokesman
Former Air Force 1st Lt Ashley Acedillo, Magdalo spokesman
The Comelec gave accreditation as partylist to dubious groups represented by people close to Malacañang yet they denied the application of Samahang Magdalo based on their paranoia and misconception of the group.

In denying the group’s accreditation, Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer said that “the principal founders of the Magdalo Para Sa Pagbabago Party remain unrepentant and that they still harbor the propensity to engage in another illegal adventure similar to the failed 2003 Oakwood Mutiny, should they again fail to achieve their goal — this time with the use of the political party that they are now applying for accreditation and which may very well be used by them to recruit and indoctrinate disciplined followers which may become their blind followers.”

The Magdalo group today assailed the denial of the application as party list as “unfair, defective, myopic and shortsighted”

Continue readingPalparan, yes; Magdalo, no

On his own

Published by Ellen on October 29, 2009

Chiz announcing his resignation from NPC
Chiz announcing his resignation from NPC
The decision of Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero to bolt from the Nationalist People’s Coalition, the party that nurtured his political career the past 11 years, has introduced a new moral element in the campaign.

It showed a young candidate, without the logistics – from family treasure chest or from business earnings or from government resources – to subsidize a national campaign which election experts say could cost P3 billion, daring to go direct to the people to bring his message of reforms in governance.

He gave three reasons in his speech but what interested me was the second:”Sinumang tatakbo o magiging Pangulo ng bansa, hindi pwedeng magawa ang mga dapat niyang gawin ng naka-kadena ang aking mga kamay at paa, naka-piring ang aking mga mata at may busal ang aking bibig. At lalong di dapat mag desisyon base sa dinidikta ng interes ng iisang grupo, partido o tao lamang. Kung gusto nating umunlad at guminhawa hindi na pwede ang dating gawi. Kung hindi… papaano niya halimbawa, isusulong ang pagpapanagot sa tiwali; pork barrel; ambassador; contractualization; bodyguard; oil deregulation law; Pagcor.

Continue readingOn his own