by Nita Bautista VERA Files DASMARINAS, Cavite.—Sen. Manuel “Manny” Villar has found a tireless and winning campaigner in Willie Revillame, the popular television host of…
Making life worth living.
ellen tordesillas Posts
Nagpaplano ang mga tao at mga kumpanya na nasalanta ng bagyong “Ondoy” at “Pepeng” nitong mga nakaraang linggo na magsampa ng kaso sa mga opisyal ng pamahalaan at mga operator ng dam sa kanilang kapabayaan na nagdulot ng malaking hirap sa libo-libong mga mamamayan.
Sobra kasi ang dami ng tubig na ipinalabas ng Pantabangan at San Roque dam noong isang araw na siyang dahilan ng matinding baha sa Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija at karatig lalawigan.
Napakinggan ko ang interview ni Anthony Taberna kay Sen. Chiz Escudero sa DZMM. Taga Nueva Ecija si Anthony at si Chiz naman ay nasa Pangasinan noong linggo kasama si Grace Poe at tumulong sila sa mga nasalanta ng bagyong “Pepeng”. (Si Fernando Poe Jr ay taga-Pangasinan).
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.
Kahindik-hindik ang iniwan ng bagyong “Pepeng” lalo na sa La Trinidad, Benguet kung saan mga 150 na tao ang natabunan ng lupa sa landslide na nangyari dahil sa ilang araw na ulan na dala ng bagyong si “Pepeng.”
Sa Pangasinan naman hanggang Nueva Ecija, nagiging malaking rumaragasang ilog ang mga bayan. Maliban sa pagkasira ng mga bahay, sira na rin ang mga kabuhayan katulad ng pala-isdaan at palayan.
Sinabi sa isang report na yung isang pamilya, binalikan nila ang nabahang palayan na dapat sana ay aanihin na sana sa susunod na linggo. Nag-ani na rin sila kahit baha. Pagkatapos pinatuyo nila ang palay sa kawali at yun ang kanilang sinaing. Nakakabagbag damdamin.
Metro Manilans have not yet recovered from “Ondoy”, “Pepeng” battered other parts of Luzon and left more devastation
Pangasinan residents in ‘virtual ocean’
Baby’s body in sack moves mayor to cry
By Delmar Cariño, Vincent Cabreza, Frank Cimatu,
Inquirer Northern Luzon
Philippine Daily Inquirer
LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — Gazing at a mountainside that had collapsed, La Trinidad Mayor Artemio Galwan was moved to tears on seeing the ruins of houses swamped by mud.
The mayor’s eyes moistened, he bowed his head and uttered a prayer. On a normal day, the trolley would have been carrying vegetables from highland farms.
Galwan told the Philippine Daily Inquirer yesterday more than 20 houses were swept away by the mudslides that occurred on Thursday night, and he feared around 150 people might have been buried in the avalanche that hit his town.
“Kakaasi da piman [They are pitiful],” Galwan, who was supervising rescue operations, said as the first batch of bodies were brought in from the other side of the mountain.
“I really feel sad. It’s an entire village that was washed out,” he said.
Rescuers yesterday struggled through mud and pounding rain to clear mountain roads and retrieve scores of people dead from the landslides that buried villages and cut off towns in the rain-soaked Northern Luzon.
Reports from the regional Office of Civil Defense and the Cordillera police placed the death toll at 122. Estimates of the number of missing ran as high as 70.
The latest calamity brought the death toll to more than 450 from the Philippines’ worst flooding in 40 years after back-to-back storms started pounding Luzon, including Metro Manila, on September 26.
Rescuers buried
The Associated Press, quoting provincial officials, said more than 160 people were killed in the landslides in Benguet and Mountain Province.
by Abigail Kwok and TJ Burgonio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
City police director Chief Superintendent Elmo San Diego said in an interview that authorities recovered some 100 spent shells from M16 rifles in and outside Neri’s home at #28 Palali Street, Sta. Mesa Heights.
President Macapagal-Arroyo on Friday condemned the strafing of Secretary Romulo Neri’s home in Quezon City, and ordered the Philippine National Police to increase the number of his security men.
Gloria Arroyo appears to have turned truly insane as she counts the days to her exit on June 30. Is the declared policy of prolonging the nationwide state of emergency in the wake of the devastation of typhoon “Ondoy” her perverse way of exacting retribution on the people for hating and distrusting her?
A deliberate policy of prolonging an emergency does not make sense. After the initial declaration, national and local government units have been freed to release their calamity and contingency funds. Relief and rehabilitation work can now be bidded out without going through stringent requirements for the duration of the emergency. Assessment of damage and drawing up of appropriate rehabilitation programs can be done within 60 days, the duration of an emergency unless otherwise extended.
But all of 365 days and counting to get these things done? Truly it is the hopelessly incompetent who cannot the job fast enough. We have been saying for a long time that Gloria, for all her self-proclaimed expertise as a manager, is at core an incompetent. Many were dazzled in her early years by the image she projected of being a modernizing politician cum technocrat. We were among the few who saw through her posturing early on. And proven right later on.
Reminder to first-time voters and those who will be transferring voting places: please don’t wait until Oct. 31, last day of registration.
The Commission on Elections said they will not be extending the deadline because they have to finalize the voters’ list. Remember that the 2010 elections will be the first supposedly nationwide automated elections.
The Smartmatic/TIM computers that Comelec will be using (Precinct Count Optical Scan or PCOS) are precinct-specific so it’s important that the voters list is finalized early.
After you have voted, pray that the PCOS that contains your name does not get misdelivered to a wrong precinct, just like what happened to many bunches of ballots and ballot boxes in the past elections.
The Samahang Magdalo, Taguig chapter, will stage “Rock the Vote” tomorrow Saturday, with a core message of encouraging first-time voters to register. “If we desire genuine changes and reforms from crooked governance, we must begin these steps at making sure we are legitimate voters before the Comelec,” said Lt. (s.g.) James Layug, head of the Samahang Magdalo in the city that organized the concert.
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.
Ayun sa kolum ni Lito Banayo ngayon sa Malaya, pumayag na raw si Bise- Presidente Noli de Castro para magiging bise ni Sen. Manny Villar para sa 2010 eleksyun.
Maganda yun. Gumaganda na ang tambalan.
Sa administrasyon, Gilbert Teodoro-Ronnie Puno; sa mga hindi administrasyon (ayaw ko sabihing oposisyon dahil ang iba, hindi naman talaga laban kay Gloria Arroyo) nandiyan na ang Noynoy Aquino-Mar Roxas ng Liberal Party.
Si Chiz Escudero ng Nationalist People’s Coalition ay magiging 40 taong gulang na sa Sabado, Oct. 10. Ang plano, sa Lunes nya ipahayag ang kanyang kandidatura sa pagka-presidente. Hindi pa yata sigurado kung sino ang kanyang magiging bise presidente.