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Trillanes formalizes vice-presidential bid

Published by Ellen on October 5, 2015

Trillanes announces his vice-presidential bid

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV last Saturday declared his candidacy for vice-president in the May 2016 elections during the national convention of Samahang Magdalo at Amoranto Stadium in Quezon City last Saturday.

Although a member of the Nacionalista Party, Trillanes will be running as an independent candidate carrying Grace Poe as his presidential candidate.

Unlike in elections past (except in the 2010 elections when Jojo Binay staged an upset over early frontrunner Mar Roxas) when vice presidential contest was just a shadow of the presidential race and a bit boring, it looks like the VP race in 2016 will be as heated and as exciting as the presidential race.

The worst is yet to come for Binay

Published by Ellen on October 2, 2015

Vice President Jejomar Binay. Thanks to Inquirer for photo.

Pulse Asia’s latest poll on approval and trust ratings of top government officials showed Vice President Jejomar Binay suffering a huge minus 15 drop in performance and minus 18 in trust in the span of three months.

Approval of President Aquino’s performance remained the same at 54 percent in June 2015 and during last month’s survey (Sept. 8 to 14). The people’s trust for him registered a minimal decline, from 50 percent last June to 49 percent last month.

The performance and trust rating for Senate President Franklin Drilon, House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. and Supreme Court Justice Lourdes Sereno remained almost the same, moving only one or three percent.

The usefulness of election surveys

Published by Ellen on September 27, 2015

Surveys if conducted by professionals and executed with integrity are gauge of the sentiments of the people.

I have to stress “executed with integrity” because during election season, there are surveys and surveys. One has to check on the background of the survey firms, who commissioned the survey as well as the questions asked.

As Sen. Grace Poe said, thanking her supporters for their trust that put her as the frontrunner among presidential aspirants, “Surveys help us check if we’re on the right track.”

But she said, “We derive our inspiration from the needs and aspirations of our country, with or without surveys.”

Poe declared her presidential candidacy for the 2016 elections last Sept. 16. The next day, fellow senator who is also known as her mentor, Chiz Escudero, announced that he is Poe’s running mate.

Antonio Luna not assassinated? Puñeta

Published by Ellen on September 24, 2015

Aguinaldo descendant Emilio Joseph 'Jun' Abaya — Aguinaldo descendant Emilio Joseph ‘Jun’ Abaya

Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio “Jun” Abaya is a great grandson of Emilio Aguinaldo, considered as the First President of the Philippines (1899–1901).

Aguinaldo was head of the revolutionary forces that proclaimed Philippine independence from Spain on June 12, 1898 in Kawit, Cavite.

The current box office sensation is Jerrold Tarrog’s “Heneral Luna”, a movie about Gen. Antonio Luna, the disciplinarian and temperamental commander of the Philippine Revolutionary Forces.

Tarrog’s “Heneral Luna” was based on the book “The Rise and Fall of Antonio Luna” by retired University of the Philippines Professor Vivencio R. Jose.

Is there something more in Lim’s ‘China election sabotage expose’?

Published by Ellen on September 23, 2015

Comelec Commissioiner Christian Robert Lim

I really hope that Election Commissioner Christian Robert Lim’s allegation that China is out to sabotage the 2016 elections is just a burst of irresponsibility that has been in abundance in this administration.

What is more worrisome is if the sinister scenario that Lim raised is a camouflage for an operation just like what the operators of Gloria Arroyo did in the 2004 elections to ensure her “winning” the presidency against Fernando Poe, Jr.

Lim was one of the lawyers of the 2010 Aquino-Roxas team and it is well known that Mar Roxas, the Liberal Party’s presidential candidates in the 2016 elections, pushed for his appointment in the Commission on Elections.

At the budget hearing for the Comelec last week at the House of Representatives, Lim revealed they “have received intelligence reports that there may be an attempt to sabotage the elections by China… I feel personally that the biggest threat to the 2016 elections is China.”

Aquino, Del Rosario and Gazmin should watch ‘Heneral Luna’

Published by Ellen on September 20, 2015

I watched “Heneral Luna” last Friday at Southmall in Las Pinas and I witnessed something that re-affirmed my faith in the Filipino: after the screening the students in the audience clapped.

I should not be worrying much about the future of our country.

Actress, writer and director Bibeth Orteza, who is a member of the board of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board posted a suggested in Facebook: “I’m saying this in my individual capacity, not as a member of the MTRCB. If I were the producer of “Heneral Luna” I’d bring the film back to the MTRCB, seek a lower audience rating classification, and then bring it around the country for a school tour.”

Heneral Luna is rated R-13, which means only those age 13 and above can watch the movie. It must be because of the violent scene in the movie, which were essential to underscore the intensity of the power struggle at that time. I myself had to close my eyes in the murder scene.

Why did Aquino float the ‘baseless alternative truth’?

Published by Ellen on September 18, 2015

Aquino belies his own alternative truth in a Malacanang presentation.Photo by Lauro Montellano, Jr. / Malacanang Photo Bureau.

A week after he floated an “alternative version” to the killing of Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli “Marwan”bin Hir last January which also cost the lives of 63 people, 44 of them members of the elite Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police, President Aquino yesterday belied it saying it was “baseless.”

In a televised presentation, Aquino said: “It is clear from the presentation today: the SAF were there; we can no longer doubt that it was the SAF who took Marwan’s finger. This also means: All the other accounts about the alternative narrative are baseless, and consequently have no relevance.”

But it was he who floated what he now says are “baseless” alternative narrative.
He did it during a meeting with Inquirer editors and reporters last week.

‘War never an option’:Chinese officials

Published by Ellen on September 17, 2015

A ceremony is held before a Chinese naval fleet sets sail from a port in Sanya city of China's southernmost island province of Hainan on Dec. 26, 2008. — A ceremony is held before a Chinese naval fleet sets sail from a port in Sanya city of China’s southernmost island province of Hainan on Dec. 26, 2008.

Despite the fact that relations between China and the Philippines are bad, Chinese officials said “war is never an option” for China in resolving the territorial conflict in the South China Sea.

It is not in China’s interest to have an unstable South China Sea, said Tang Qi Fang of China Institute of International Studies based Beijing.

In a talk with members of Philippine media invited by China’s Foreign Ministry to mark the 40th year of diplomatic relations between the Philippines and China, Tang said if armed confrontation breaks out in the South China Sea, the loser will not be the Unites States. Not even the Philippines.

“It’s China,” Tang said adding that it’s because they have a lot of activities in the area.

‘Our hearts are connected’- Sulu king heir on PH-China relations

Published by Ellen on September 16, 2015

Portrait of Sulu East King Paduka Pahala

About two hours from Beijing by bullet train is the city of Dezhou in the province of Shandong.

In Dezhou, there’s Chinese-Muslim village, many of whose inhabitants trace their roots to the Sultan of Sulu.

They have concrete proof of that connection: the tomb of the 13th century Sultan of Sulu Paduka Pahala at the Decheng district of Dezhou.

The only mausoleum of a “foreign king” in China, it is the only burial place with a village in charge of guarding it.

Eh di wow

Published by Ellen on September 1, 2015

Monday morning, while commuters in Metro Manila were bracing for another day of agony with the already bad traffic situation made worse by the rally staged by the Iglesia ni Cristo, Eagle News PH, posted this breaking news:

“Official Statement of the Iglesia Ni Cristo, ending the 5-day peaceful assembly in victory”

There was a video of Iglesia Ni Cristo General Evangelist Bro. Bienvenido Santiago.

Below the video is this caption:

“MANILA, Philippines (4th UPDATE) – The Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) on Monday, August 31, ended their 5-day protest against the government’s supposed interference with internal church matters, saying they have reached an understanding with the Aquino administration.”

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