It’s not only Sen. Grace Poe who surged as shown in the results of Pulse Asia’s survey of the people’s pulse for the 2016 elections conducted two weeks ago.
Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said he is happy that his score increased by 150 percent! From four percent last March which put him in seventh place, he is now number four with 10 percent. He tied with former President and now Manila mayor Joseph Estrada.
That’s a classic example of looking at the glass half full.
By Vic Altiche
Known for her resonating vocals and commanding stage presence, Sweet has proven to be an ultimate performer having worked on and off stage for a number of prestigious theater companies such as TRUMPETS, 9Works Theatricals, and Tanghalang Pilipino where she started her theatrical career.
Aside from her impressive acting and musical theater credits, Sweet is also a revered voice coach and musical theater teacher having passed on her skills to the students of the University of Asia and the Pacific and currently, the Meridian International College (MINT) in McKinley.
The call of Liberal Party’s Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice for Sen. Grace Poe to be more transparent on the issue of her residency in the Philippines signals the drawing of the line between Poe and the Liberal Party’s presidential bet, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas.
Erice was quoted as saying that he believes that the lady senator, whose surging popularity makes her the frontrunner in the 2016 presidential elections, is a natural born Filipino citizen and should have no problem with the Constitutional requirement of citizenship for the presidency.
Erice said it’s in the requirement of a 10-year residency immediately preceding before the election that it’s not clear whether Poe is qualified or not. “”Si Senator Poe is a natural born Filipino, wala dapat mag-question doon. But I think Senator Grace should be more transparent as far as accusation she’s been using US passport 2006, 2007, 2009, according to former Senator Tatad,” the LP congressman said.
Erice sounded like United Nationalist Alliance interim president and Navotas City Rep. Toby Tiangco who first exposed the issue of Poe’s residency after the lady senator turned down Vice President Jejomar Binay’s offer for her to be his running mate.
His strategies reflect a good grasp of the factors involved in the political game.
He must therefore have sensed that things are not going right for him after three of the political personalities he mentioned he is eyeing to be a running mate in 2016 elections turned him down.
It gives the impression that no one wants to be associated with him.
Last month, Binay floated the idea of having Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte as running mate for the 2016 elections.
Duterte, who has stopped saying that he will kill the person behind the Duterte-for-president-movement and is now thinking of running for the highest post in the land, declined the offer.
The one that I was interested in was the information that the famous Taiwanese dimsum restaurant, Din Tai Fung, will soon be in Manila.
The other welcome announcement was the increase of flights between Taiwan and the Philippines.
These developments show that despite institutional diplomacy limitations, relations between the Philippines and Taiwan continues to improve.
Looking at the almost 300- year-old Philippine map by Fr. Pedro Murillo Velarde which businessman Mel Velarde acquired for P12 million in an auction in London last year, one can see that the Jesuit priest is a great storyteller.
The 1734 Murillo Velarde map shows more than just locations. It has two panels on both sides engraved with images depicting lifestyles and special features of places. One panel shows a farmer plowing the field not far from a river with crocodiles. It’s noted that in Zamboanga, there’s “Pozo de Agua Dulce.” In general it showed Filipinos enjoying a highly civilized society.
But the most significant feature of the Murillo Velarde map is a tiny spot off the shores of Nueva Castilla, which was then the name of Luzon labeled “Panacot.”
By Ellen T. Tordesillas,VERA Files
The Philippine government will be submitting to the Permanent Court for Arbitration in The Hague this week an almost 300-year-old map of the Philippines showing the disputed Scarborough Shoal being part of Philippine territory as far back as three centuries ago.
The map debunks the so-called nine-dash-line China has been using as proof of its claim over the South China Sea. It also locates Scarborough shoal, then known as “Panacot,” also called “Panatag” by Filipinos, off the shores of Luzon, then known as Nueva Castilla. Scarborough shoal has been a source of conflict between the Philippines and China.
The Jesuit priest Pedro Murillo Velarde had the map published in Manila in 1734. It surfaced in 2012 among the possessions of a British lord, who put it up for auction at Sotheby’s in London, where Filipino businessman Mel Velarde bid and got it for £170,500 ($266,869.46 or P12,014,463.09).
Filipinos, who loves election campaigns, should be able to identify with the movie especially when the mayor was trying to look down on his opponent who was a deaf dairy farmer.
The mayor condescendingly asked Paula, the farmer’s 16-year old daughter who can hear and speak, if they really think anyone will vote for a deaf person for mayor. The young girl replied: “Well, they did vote for an asshole.”
That was a good one.
In the 21st International Conference on the Future of Asia sponsored by Nikkei last Wednesday in Tokyo, Aquino was asked about the role of the United States in Asia in the midst of China’s maritime expansion, Aquino said American presence in Asia checks China’s expansionism. “Their presence becomes a factor that has to be contended with, with those who would perhaps push the envelopes as far as what the agreements entitle them to or not,” he said.
But he didn’t stop there.
Conducted two weeks ago (May 18 to 20) among 3,000 respondents, the Magdalo survey, just like what they did in their national survey last April,had two scenarios.
Scenario One had 10 candidates while Scenario Two had five candidates.
In both scenarios,Poe leads the contest.