Category: Malaya

On his own

Published by Ellen on October 29, 2009

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.

Samahang Magdalo chooses Chiz

Published by Ellen on October 25, 2009

It was good to see those young military officers again assembled in one place, still speaking and yearning for reforms in government.

Their symbol, the sunburst, was everywhere. They wore it proud on their black shirts. It was also plastered on the walls of the UP Hostel where the Samahang Magdalo was holding its first national convention.

There were some 600 delegates representing 375 chapters all over the country.

ARMM: vote reservoir

Published by Ellen on October 22, 2009

Last Wednesday morning, the last day of our three-day seminar-workshop in Cagayan de Oro on “Preparing for the 2010 Election” organized by the Philippine Press Institute and supported by The Coca-Cola Export Corporation, Carol Arguillas and Froilan Gallardo of Mindanews, were nowhere to be seen.

The day before, Carol made a presentation on “Elections and Peace in Mindanao” which disturbed many of us.

We were told that Carol and Froilan had to leave for Marawi City in Lanao del Sur early morning because of the incident of grenade explosion Tuesday afternoon that killed three and injured about 20 persons. We saw Carol and Froilan in the afternoon looking weary, from the interviews they did with the injured and other witnesses to the explosion.

Exeunt

Published by Ellen on October 20, 2009

Please click image below to view enlarged photo.

You have to read the first two books of Carmen Guerrero-Nakpil’s trilogy to appreciate the last, “Exeunt”.

The first, which I think is the best of the three titles, is “Myself, Elsewhere” which tells of the genteel little Spanish and later American town of Ermita by Manila Bay where she was born and raised. It ended with the destruction of Manila in 1945.

The book won the National Book Award for autobiography in 2006.

Smartmatic’s indecent proposal

Published by Ellen on October 11, 2009

Last Friday, I got this strange letter from a certain Samira Saba of Smartmatic, the Dutch-Barbados-Venezuelan firm that partnered with the local Total Information Management and won the P7.2 billion contract for the nationwide automation of the 2010 elections.Here’s the letter:

Dear Mrs. Ellen,

My name is Samira Saba and I work at Smartmatic as the Marketing and Communications Manager (www.smartmatic.com).

I have checked your blog and I find it quite interesting. I can see the articles published are responsible, and show that you as a rule strive to inform and educate your readers. For instance, the article “Rock the vote!”

I would like to know if you have the time and the interest of writing some articles regarding the following subjects:

1) Election automation worldwide, and positive experiences in various countries.

2) Election automation in the Philippines, past and present.

3) Different technologies to automate an election. Perspectives and comparisons: shortcomings, advantages, political implications.

4) Smartmatic technology in particular (in this case, we would of course furnish appropriate materials to the required depth).

If you are interested in adding our organization as a regular client for your freelance writer services, we can define the extent and number of articles you could write monthly. I will be glad to give you more details and answer the questions you may have.

If your answer to the above is positive, then I would appreciate a quotation for your services, with a target of two articles published per month to begin with.

I look forward to hearing from you the soonest.

It was signed by Ms Saba.

I find the letter insulting. It smacks of bribery. I had to take several deep breaths and reminded myself that I should not write anything when I’m angry.

‘Twill be Manny-Noli

Published by Ellen on October 7, 2009

by Lito Banayo
Malaya

A highly reliable source informed this writer that over the weekend, Manuel Villar, presidential candidate of the Nacionalista Party, was able to seal a deal with incumbent vice-president, Noli de Castro, to seek re-election for another term, this time as the former’s running-mate.

For a while, Villar was having a difficult time getting a vice-presidential partner. He had banked on being able to convince his fellow senator, Francis Escudero, to agree to run with him as his vice-presidential candidate. But sometime in late August, Escudero gave short shrift to the possibility. He said that he could not “in conscience” join up with someone who, on the basis of what had been uncovered in the C-5 investigation in the Senate, does not represent “good governance.”

Villar then tried to get Sen. Pia Cayetano to agree to be his team-mate, but she thought better than to eschew sure re-election as senator (based on surveys) and risk the same for a one-on-one contest. Then, Cebuanos thought that their governor, Gwen Garcia, could be persuaded by Villar to run as his vice-president. There were talks about a Villar-Binay ticket, but the latter decided to cast his lot with Joseph Estrada. On Wednesday next week, unless another feng shui expert re-schedules it, the political marriage of Jojo of Makati and Erap of San Juan will be announced, to be rent asunder only by a Supreme Court decision, after Erap files his certificate of candidacy on or around November 30, and not before.

Finding missing loved ones

Published by Ellen on October 6, 2009

One of the heart-rending surviving- Ondoy stories I’ve read was Agence France Presse’s account of Rojanie Asuncion and her Alzheimer’s stricken mother, Flora Geronimo.

The story tells of Flora, only 69- years old, who went missing on Sept. 26 amid floods that swamped 80 percent of Metro Manila. Since Because of her condition, she was unable to tell rescuers her name, where she was from and how she got to the center in Marikina City.

For three days Rojanie, 37, her family members and friends searched for her mother “across the disaster zone, trudging through mud, climbing over debris and checking mud-streaked faces of survivors.”

Waterworld

Published by Ellen on September 27, 2009

Posted by Mimi de Jesus on You Tube.

This is what Gloria Arroyo said in her State of the Nation Address last July:

As a country in the path of typhoons and in the Pacific Rim of Fire, we must be prepared as the latest technology permits to anticipate natural calamities when that is possible; to extend immediate and effective relief when it is not; the mapping of flood-and-landslide-prone areas is almost complete. Early warning, forecasting and monitoring systems have been improved, with weather-tracking facilities in Subic, Tagaytay, Mactan, Mindanao, Pampanga.

We have worked on flood control infrastructure like those for Pinatubo, Agno, Laoag, and Abucay, which will pump the run off waters from Quezon City and Tondo flooding Sampaloc. This will help relieve hundreds of hectares in this old city of its age-old woe.

Patuloy naman yung sa CAMANAVA, dagdag sa Pinatubo, Iloilo, Pasig- Marikina, Bicol River Basin, at saka river basin ng Mindanao.

* * *

Seeing many areas in Metro Manila turned into an ocean, I remember the 1995 futuristic movie “Waterworld”.

How is democracy defended?

Published by Ellen on September 24, 2009

How does one defend democracy?

By aiding in the tampering of results of election so that your candidate will be declared winner even if she was not elected by the people? Or by joining the people who demand accountability from government officials who subverted the will of the people?

This is the question that face the panel trying the 28 officers accused of mutiny for something that did not happen in February 2006 after former AFP Chief Hermogenes Esperon claimed “defense of democracy” in his decision to incarcerate the officers even as he continues serve an unelected president.

I caught up with what happened during the court martial hearing last Wednesday through the VERA files video report.

Sheer opportunism

Published by Ellen on September 22, 2009

Update: Romulo wants to have his cake and eat it too.He says he will vote for Noynoy but will serve Gloria up to the “end and beyond.” Story in comments.

Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo’s disclosure that he will be supporting Sen. Noynoy Aquino for president is nothing but sheer opportunism unless he does something to stop Gloria Arroyo’s degradation of the foreign service.

Right now, he can oppose Arroyo’s midnight appointment of Foreign Undersecretary Esteban Conejos as ambassador the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva to replace Erlinda Basilio who will be retiring soon.

Arroyo has nine months left in her unelected presidency. As a political appointee, Esteban’s term is co-terminus with the appointing power. If he gets to assume the Geneva post in the next month or so, Esteban would only be serving for about seven months.