For the first time in the history of elections in the Philippines, it seems that debates among Presidential aspirants in the Philippines has gained currency among a large audience.  Both TV network giants, ABS-CBN and GMA7, have been pouring money into live debates among Presidential aspirants perhaps in response to a clamor from their audiences.

In the coming debate, Presidential candidate Manny Villar will be facing off Gilbert Teodoro and Dick Gordon. This will be the first time that Villar will be doing so. He had begged off from previous debates and some claim that he did so because leading rival Noynoy Aquino wouldn’t be joining.

Below is the official announcement from the Romulo Foundation:

Presidential Policy Debate Kicks Off Thursday, January 14 at AIM

The Carlos P. Romulo Foundation for Peace and Development is pleased to announce that the first comprehensive debate on domestic and foreign policy among presidential candidates in the May elections will take place on Thursday, January 14 at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM).

Sen. Richard Gordon, Sen. Manuel Villar and former Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro will participate in the two-hour forum. Two other candidates – former President Joseph Estrada and Sen. Benigno Aquino III – were invited to join the discussion as early as October last year, but they declined.

Organized by the Romulo Foundation in cooperation with ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) and AIM, the forum will focus on the broad theme of “Philippine Credibility and Competitiveness in the World”, and seek policy responses from the candidates on five main issues:

1.The Maguindanao massacre and the wider challenge of peace in the Philippine South – If elected President, what policies and programs will the candidate pursue to stop the problem of private armies, resolve the conflict in Mindanao and Sulu, and bring stability and development to the region?

2. Philippine foreign relations and international security – What significance does the candidate attach to Philippine relations with the world, what countries and regions are the most important, and should the nation be involved or not in the international struggle against terrorism?

3. Philippine economy and international economic relations – What policies will the candidate adopt to strengthen and grow the national economy, expand foreign trade and investments, and what importance does he attach to key economic organizations such as WTO, IMF, WB and APEC?

4. Migrant workers – What policies will the candidate adopt with respect to Filipino labor migration, the welfare of OFWs, Philippine relations with labor-receiving countries, and international conventions for the protection and rights of migrant workers?

5. Philippine competitiveness in the world – What specific policies and programs will the candidate adopt to reverse the erosion of Philippine international competitiveness in the world and address the problem of corruption?

“The primary purpose of the forum is to elicit from each candidate his specific policy ideas and solutions to major problems and challenges of national life today,” says Ambassador Roberto R. Romulo, Chairman of the CPR Foundation. “In this way, the forum will assist voters in reaching a decision on who to vote for.”

The forum will be moderated by Ricky Carandang of ANC. A question panel composed of Ambassador Rodolfo Severino, head of ASEAN Studies Center, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Philippine Star Editor/Columnist Amy Pamintuan, and CNN correspondent Jaime Floro Cruz will take turns in directing questions to the candidates.

Under the rules approved by the representatives of the candidates and the sponsoring organizations, the panel will question the candidates on the five main issues during the first hour of the forum. Each candidate will be given two minutes to state his position on each issue.

In the second segment, there will be an open forum participated in by both the question panel and the audience. Questions will be directed by them to the candidates individually.

In the final segment, the three candidates will each deliver a three-minute closing statement to sum up their policy positions and make their appeal to Filipino voters.

Organizers of the forum said the event will be attended by the business and diplomatic communities, the media and the general public. At least 20 ambassadors are expected to attend. Because of limited seats, interested parties are enjoined to reserve their seats early. Registration can be made via email: reyes@pfgc.ph or telephone 885-0921

The forum will be broadcast live by ANC on cable TV and ABS Studio 23 on terrestrial TV. “This will enable the Filipino citizenry all over the country to watch the event,” says Ambassador Romulo.

Let me tell you the story of how Pinoy Buzz came to be and how it is going to end.

For the past year, Pinoy Buzz (www.pinoybiz.blogspot.com) has gone from absolute obscurity to some level of regional recognition.

For a long while, I was at the bottom of the blog heap.  My blog was dormant and my stats were absolutely nothing compared to the stats I have today.  In December of 2008, I resolved to make www.pinoybiz.blogspot.com one of the more better known blogs in the Philippines.

I blogged persistently, like a mad man.  I actually started spending more time on my blog than on my work.

I didn’t have a mission when I first hatched the idea of being the number one blogger in the Philippines, a goal which I think I will never reach.  All I wanted to do, really, was to write about the things that, it seems, only I can see in the things that were happening all around me.

I was among the first to say that Bambee dela Paz was a fraud right in her own blog and that earned me a lot of scathing comments – including a blogger profile that insinuates that I am gay.  (I laugh everytime somebody mentions it.)

Like most bloggers in the Philippines, I enlisted my blog in almost all of the blogstorms that erupted over one thing or another.  There was the Terry Hatcher blogstorm, the kidnapping of 3 ICRC workers, Hayden Kho, Maui Taylor, Ondoy, etcetera.  The baseline of my stats rose from a hundred pageviews a day to around 500 to 700 pageviews a day – this is the reward of joining bandwagons, you get popular.

My wife, of course, hated the fact that I spend hours upon hours a day tending to my free hosted blog.  In order to appease her and show her that my efforts were actually making the money that we needed to raise our only child, I kept on updating her on my Google Adsense earnings – which I am not too proud to admit, had totaled to all of $70.00 which is more than I’ve actually spend on pre-paid broadband load. Of course, she snorted at the $70.00 and told me to spend more time on my real job, which at that time was to write press releases for Senator Richard Gordon.

I ignored her and passed her comment off as another one of those silly woman things that women tend to blurt out.

In my head I growled, “Ug! Ug! Me man! Me write blog and make millions of pesos through google adsense! Me show you! Ug! Ug! Silly woman! Make me coffee!”

The millions of pesos never materialized.  I got reprimanded several times at work for not turning in the press releases I was supposed to write.  But my blog, being freehosted as it was, finally started getting the stats I had only dreamt about when I decided to revive my dormant blog.

Then, out of the blue, Asian Correspondent contacted me and offered to hitch me up to their website in exchange for a certain amount of dollars a month.  I didn’t know the lingo back then, but apparently, I was being syndicated or rather my blog’s traffic was being bought.  I was even among a few renowned Filipino bloggers who were being invited to participate in Asian Correspondent.

I can’t tell you enough of how this bit of news elated me.  Suddenly, blogging glory – much better than winning the Philippine Blog Awards – was at hand.

Of course, in transferring my blog from blogger to Asian Correspondent, I lost quite a bit of traffic from my previous posts.  Thankfully, with a lot of work from the people of Asian Correspondent and a lot of blogging work from me, my stats started to come back.

I actually started blogging on Asian Correspondent by writing a lot of safe pieces which were restrained by the usual journalist ethics which most Filipino reporters IGNORE.  But, after weeks of doing blog entries that really didn’t get a rise out of me or any of my friends. I realized that I wasn’t being true to myself.

To be sure, there are certain top bloggers who claim to be following ethical journalism standards and some who claim to espouse noble causes.  None of them really lived up to their claims because they are all paid hacks – one way or the other.

Who was I kidding? 

I learned about ethical journalism not by being a journalist but by being the one who had to write rejoinders to the breach of ethics of some Filipino journalists. (If there is one worthy blog entry I will try to write, it is about the ABSOLUTE HYPOCRISY OF CERTAIN FILIPINO JOURNALISTS.  Just recently, Ampatuan got mauled by journalists who were campaigning to stop violence against journalists. WHAT THE F**K WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?)

Certain commenters point out that I am not an ethical journalist. To that, I say PAKSHET. What are you talking about? Ethical Filipino journalists are a rare breed, they are not the dominant specie in the Filipino media jungle and they are not very well known either.

As Bubby Dacer once said, “Everybody has a price.”  And he actually mentioned a couple of names which, oddly, corresponded with the names mentioned by other PR guys.

No.  I am not a Filipino Dyornalist.

I am a blogger. I make no claim to living up to standards of any sort.  I am one man with a laptop, internet access, and a blog.  I write as I please about the topics that interest me.  Even after accepting the deal to be part of Asian Correspondent, I still insist on the idea that I am accountable to no one but myself.

For the past few weeks, I went on a rampage against Noynoy Aquino and his minions. This was not because of some misguided and rabid hatred for a political figure.  This was because I lived through the years the fabled Cory Aquino administration and while we can credit her for the rise of Press Freedom, we cannot credit her for nation building. 

The Cory Aquino legacy is the road paved with good intentions but led us to perdition.  That legacy ought not to be repeated by anyone, much less Noynoy Aquino.

If I wasn’t clear about it in my previous entries on this blog, let me say it again:

Manny Villar, despite the C-5 scandal, is the lesser evil.  Dick Gordon, despite being unpopular, is the best choice over Gibo Teodoro who is a close second. JC delos Reyes is better off as a councilor in Olongapo, Brother Eddie Villanueva is better off tending to his ministry, and Nicanor Perlas is not worth the trouble.

I didn’t expect to be popular for one reason or another.  In fact, given the sentiments of most people, I expected to be less popular – even hated. 

It was not easy being on the receiving end of some of the stupidest comments on Earth – really, come on guys, do some thinking before you comment.

My behavior on the internet has been lambasted by a lot of people, my motives have been questioned, and my credibility has been thoroughly assailed.  If the internet were the UFC, I think I would be a bloody pulp by now – mostly blood, very little pulp with a lot of guts thrown in.

I may be notorious to some (especially among the pro-Noynoy legions out there) and I may be somewhat celebrated  – albeit, in certain  very small cliques who will disavow any association with me as soon as I post their real names.  But, that hardly matters to me.

What matters is that I see that Noynoy Aquino is unfit for the Philippine Presidency and what matters is that I can blog about it.

So, how is it going it end?  My stay with Asian Correspondent has hit a rough spot… a very rough spot.

Apparently, there was a deluge of complaints about my blog and Asian Correspondent has to take care of it reputation – which is understandable. I’ve made mistakes with previous entries and in light of the barrage of complaints from Noynoy cultists and others, I think the officers of Asian Correspondent has to make a decision that will be favorable to accomplishing their vision for their website.

I’ve asked them to reconsider their decision but I’m not really hoping for a change of mind.  I am, after all, pretty risky.  Then again, it’s usually the biggest risk that pays off the most.

So, yellow trolls, I guess you guys win… For now.

How can you lead the country

when you can’t even stand up on your own?

Apparently, saying that Noynoy Aquino inherited his dead mother’s fans and supporters is a bad thing and it drew a lot of interest — even from people I don’t know if I really talked with in real life but friended indiscriminately on Facebook.

Yep Bobby, Gordon’s nick name is Dick — get over it. And yeah, my wife’s fine and the kid is doing great after being a bit under the weather these past few days.

Any way, another person who thought that he should react to my blog entry on Noynoy inheriting his mother’s Facebook fans and supporters is Eric Pena.  He commented on my blog and introduced himself as an administrator of the Benigno “Noynoy” Simeon Aquino III (BSAIII).  He pointed certain facts that he asked me to issue a reaction to and here is my reaction.

Point one:

Eric asserts that:

1. The press release form Noy’s New Media Bureau did mention that it used advertisements (please read it again!). It isn’t using Google Ads (if you find one, please make a screen capture and post it on your blog).

I didn’t see the Noy Media Bureau’s press release as I am not on the mailing list of Noy’s Media Bureau.

Anyway, I found out about Noynoy’s feat of having the largest Facebook fan page among Presidential candidates through the Inquirer.

When I first read the Inquirer article “Aquino ahead of rivals in Facebook campaign” which was posted 18:41:00 01/02/2010 under the by-line of Michael Lim Ubac, it didn’t mention that advertising was put out for the BSAIII fan page.

A second story titled “Aquino leads rivals in Facebook face-off” was posted later on 23:49:00 01/02/2010 still under the by-line of Michael Lim-Ubac.  I don’t know if this was because Inquirer’s Editors thought that this was such an earth-shaking bit of news and so decided to ask Mike to write a second story.  Or, better yet, perhaps the editors decided to rework Mike’s original article and took it upon themselves to fashion a second one with essentially the same details. After all, it was already close to midnight on a Sunday and it’s the holidays for Christ’s sake! Have a heart!

Oddly enough, this morning, I checked the first story and found that it now mentioned that money had been spent on Facebook ads.  It now includes a paragraph saying, “Some supporters also donated a few dollars a day to widen their reach and advertise their support on the social network.”

Now, there are several ways in which this could happen.  The first is that I simply overlooked this sentence.  The second way is that the Philippine Daily Inquirer edited the online article and inserted the sentence.

I’d rather believe that I simply overlooked this short paragraph which somewhat downplays the role of Facebook ad buys in driving up the number of fans on the BSAIII Fanpage.  I can’t even entertain the notion that somebody got a hold of Mike or his editors in the Inquirer just to insert a paragraph “Some supporters also donated a few dollars a day to widen their reach and advertise their support on the social network.” 

I can’t even begin to imagine that the GREAT INQUIRER can be persuaded!

So, Eric, my apologies for overlooking this.  However, since you seem open to discussing the fact that money was spent to promote the BSAIII fan page through Facebook Ads, perhaps you can enlighten everybody as to:

How much money was spent on the Facebook Ads to promote the BSAIII fan page?

Of course, Eric or Noynoy’s media bureau can say that they don’t really know who bought the Facebook ads to promote the BSAIII fan page for them and don’t have the information.  If at all candidates are really supposed to pay a 5% tax on all campaign expenses, then this really makes it difficult for Comelec, the BIR, or whatever agency is to collect on the 5% owed to the government.  I wonder if Facebook is aware that they could be party to some manner of tax evasion.

Nevertheless, Comelec EID Director James Jimenez says that “All campaign expenditures need to be declared. Donations must be accepted formally by the candidate before they can be published. The publisher is bound by law to require a deed of donation and a formal acceptance.”

How many 80,000 additional fans signed up because of the Facebook Ad promoting the BSAIII fan page?

What I am getting at is whether the substantial rise in the number of people who signed up on the BSAIII fan page did so out of some level of political conviction or did so because everybody else was joining or if they were merely bored or curious.

Anyway, the Inquirer article notes:

The fan page amassed more than 80,000 new supporters in 20 days. After midnight, the 201,000 target was easily surpassed, further widening the gap between Aquino and his rivals by more than 50,000 supporters.

It remains to be seen, however, if online fans and supporters would translate into votes come election day.

All five candidates uploaded photoshop-edited pictures, but only Villar was smiling; the rest were in a pensive or serious mood.

This reminds me of the Anti-Chacha cause on Facebook which had more than 70,000 members.  It was quite active in calling people to join an anti-Cha-Cha rally in Makati and it actually convinced me to join the rally.  I’d say of the 70,000 members of the cause who were invited to join the rally, only about 1 to 5 percent actually came.

Point two:

Eric asserts that:

2. What multiple accounts are you saying? Please present proof!

Actually, it’s actually quite difficult to prove that a Facebook user actually made up several dummy Facebook Accounts and used these accounts to swell up the BSAIII Fan Page. 

Unless, of course, one actually pore through each and every member of the BSAIII Fan Page and tries to figure out if one account is a dummy or genuine.

Dummy accounts can actually be made very convincing.  However creating a lot of dummies in a short span of time cause the creator to create accounts that have sparse details, few friends, and very sparse activity or almost no other activity other than joining the BSAIII.  I know this for a fact because I made a lot of dummy accounts to boost the number of my mafia members in Mob Wars. 

Suffice it to say, I have more than one FB Account. In fact, a couple of my friends also have more than one Facebook account — nearly all of them are members of BSAIII and they have enlisted more than one account in the fan page just incase one of their accounts gets banned.

Perhaps it would be best if a member of the BSAIII Fan Page came out to admit that he or she actually made up as many as 20 dummy Facebook accounts. Who knows, maybe that person or those persons will make themselves known in the coming days.

However, just because one BSAIII fan page member did this, it doesn’t mean that scores of other BSAIII fan page members did the same thing under orders from the BSAIII fan page administrator.

The point is, the fact that dummy Facebook accounts can be made as easily as multiple e-mail addresses is already fair indication that the 211,000 members of the BSAIII fan page may not all be real people.

Like this guy:

I mean, if that were a really his face, I’d be very concerned.  Sorry for sounding mean, but I’d probably call an ambulance if I bumped into him in a dark alley.

Point three

Eric asserts that:

3. If you just check the Facebook page title, you’ll see it’s not the same Facebook page. The one you’re referring to is a Personal Page called “Benigno Noynoy Aquino III”. The Official Facebook Fan Page of Noynoy is called “Benigno “Noynoy” S. Aquino III. It even has a different profile picture (I wonder why you deleted the picture in your screen capture)

Furthermore, the Official FB page is a Fan Page. You know what that means? A Fan Page has no way of changing it’s name. Not even Facebook will change it for you. You can fact check it with Facebook. Or read complaints from users why they can’t change the page name: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=10381469571&topic=7227

Also, the site you’re referring to isn’t owned by the Noy New Media Team so it has no control over it. It is a personal site and we have no idea who owns it.

The Official Noy FB Fan Page was created in Sept 3, 2009. If I can post a screenshot here, I’ll show you a graph of how it started from zero fans.

The point IS whether fan pages purportedly created for Cory Aquino can or is being used to draw people to pages that openly campaign for Noynoy Aquino.  The point is whether or not Noynoy, having no real accomplishments of his own, are borrowing the accomplishments of his dead parents to prop up his bid for the Presidency.  The point is whether or not NOYNOY AQUINO IS ENGAGED IN NECROPOLITICS.

But before that, let me tell Master Facebook Pagemaker Eric that AS FAR AS FACEBOOK IS CONCERNED there is no distinction between a Personal Page and an Official Fan Page on Facebook.  There is just a Facebook Page and that’s it.

Is there actually an option that allows you to can get Facebook to distinguish a Personal Page from an Official Page, I’d like to know about it and find out if there are special options that you can get in an Official Fan Page that doesn’t come in a Personal Page.

Anyway, Eric is correct that the name of Fan pages cannot be changed.  So this means that the commenter who claimed that the Noynoy Aquino fan page (http://www.facebook.com/cory.aquino) was originally a Cory Aquino fan page is wrong.  Great, but that’s not really the point.

But, why does the “personal” Benigno Noynoy Aquino III (http://www.facebook.com/cory.aquino) have the Facebook username “cory.aquino”? 

Oh yeah, Eric, you conveniently don’t know who made it and can’t possibly tell me why the page has the cory.aquino username.  Convenient, very convenient.

“….the site you’re referring to isn’t owned by the Noy New Media Team so it has no control over it. It is a personal site and we have no idea who owns it.”

Then again, that doesn’t mean that the Benigno Noynoy Aquino III wasn’t able to harness the benefits of having the “cory.aquino” user name to amass 200,000 fans as claimed by my anonymous commenter.

Going back to my point, fan pages purportedly created for Cory Aquino can be and is being used to campaign for Noynoy Aquino.

Case in point is the Yellow Ribbon for President Cory Aquino with 68,268 fans and now carries a picture of Cory and Ninoy Aquino below which are the words “Ipagpapatuloy ko.”

Now, it can be argued that the words “ipapagpatuloy ko” (I will continue) are attributed to Cory Aquino, but then again, how can a dead woman continue anything? So, most likely, “ipapagpatuloy ko” is better attributed to Noynoy Aquino and is a rather subtle attempt at saying that Noynoy Aquino will continue the legacy of Cory and Ninoy — which ain’t all that great.

Judging from the wallposts, the Facebook page Yellow Ribbon for Cory Aquino is no longer a page devoted to the memory of Cory Aquino.  It is now a campaign page using the memory of Cory Aquino to get votes for Noynoy.

Just to provide some contrast, the Cory Aquino page which has 177,958 fans (which is oddly about 40,000 less than BSAIII), contains comments mostly about the memory of Cory Aquino.

I think the Cory Aquino page is a more genuine fan page because it drew fans not because it was being actively promoted, but because there was a genuine outpouring of affection and admiration for Cory Aquino during the time of her illness and death.

Now, owning the Facebook user name cory.aquino presents a distinct advantage, especially during the long weeks when people followed updates on her health, the day when she died, and the days when her funeral was shown on TV.

During that time, people were really looking for Cory Aquino on Facebook and so having cory.aquino as a username means drawing all the traffic for Facebook searches using the words “cory aquino”.

However, a visitor upon landing on a Facebook account/page/group that is different from the one he or she is searching for may lead to two things: The visitor may still go ahead and friend/join the account/page/group or go to a Facebook account/page/group.

But supposing that the http://www.facebook.com/cory.aquino were a Facebook account and this was actually a Cory Aquino Facebook account with the appropriate username, the account would then draw traffic and it would quickly reach its 5,000 friend limit.  Upon reaching this limit, the user controlling the Cory Aquino Facebook account could then post a status update recommending that those who want to friend Cory Aquino can just join a page — hmmm, like the BSAIII Official Fan Page.

I’ve heard of the phrase “failure to launch” (which refers to children who fail to live independently even after coming to age), but using your dead mother to gun for  the highest office in the land is a whole new level of pathetic.  If the meaning of the word pathetic had a rock bottom, you’d have to dig under that to get to the new level of pathetic I am talking about.

How can we expect Noynoy Aquino to lead the country when he can’t even stand up on his own accomplishments?

But before you actually believe this bit of deception, let me clue you in on how Noynoy Aquino’s arch-masters of hype actually came up with 211,000 Facebook fans and supporters.

1. They used Facebook ads and Google Ads.

2. They used multiple accounts.

3. They inherited fans from Cory Aquino!

Number three was revealed to me by a commenter and it provides a plausible explanation on how Noynoy Aquino amassed so many fans and supporters on Facebook.

The fans of the Cory Aquino Facebook account were used for the Noynoy Aquino Facebook account.

Go to http://www.facebook.com/cory.aquino?_fb_noscript=1 and see where it lands.

The Cory Facebook was created when they were asking for prayers in her last days in the hospital. When she was buried, there were already almost 200,000 fans. Tasteless talaga ito. Talk about honesty. Trapping people into your facebook site using your dead mother’s facebook site. Ewww!

I actually tried it out and here is the screen capture:

(Picture swapped out to show Cory Aquino/Noynoy FB Account)

Okay, so granting that Noynoy’s popular… The question everybody ought to ask is CAN HE LEAD?

In the digital race to get more “fans” and online “supporters,” Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III of the Liberal Party is ahead of the pack.

So far, on their official pages in the online social networking site, Aquino has 210,988 supporters; Sen. Manuel Villar (Nacionalista Party), 158,016 fans, plus 2,756 in two other Facebook public profiles; former Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro (Lakas-Kampi-CMD), 26,907 fans and 3,100 supporters; Sen. Richard Gordon (Bagumbayan), 2,894 supporters, and former President Joseph Estrada (Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino), 4,050 supporters.

Estrada has another Facebook account with 421 fans.

Sen. Jamby Madrigal (independent) has 201 fans, while the two youth group accounts of Olongapo Councilor JC de los Reyes (Ang Kapatiran) have 861 and 71 members.

– Philippine Daily Inquirer

What the report does not mention is that both Noynoy Aquino and Manny Villar have used Facebook ads as well as Google Ads to drive traffic to their respective fanpages and websites. 

Facebook ads usually appear on the sidebar of most Facebook accounts and they look something like this:

Perhaps the angle that Noynoy propagandists are trying to pander is that most of those who joined Noynoy’s fan page actually sought the fanpage out and enlisted themselves. Or that it is a reflection of a genuine ground swell of support.

It is very DECEPTIVE to claim that Noynoy Aquino and Manny Villar’s popularity on Facebook is the product of a genuine clamor.

But the simple truth is this BUYING ADS = TRAFFIC TO FANPAGE/WEBSITE = SIGN UPS AS FAN, FOLLOWER, OR SUBSCRIBER.

Friending absolute strangers on Facebook is pathetic enough, ADVERTISING JUST TO GET FRIENDS OR SUPPORTERS MAKES FOR AN EVEN SORRIER LOSER.

The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) is responsible for the recovery of ill-gotten wealth accumulated by former President Ferdinand E. Marcos, his immediate family, relatives, subordinates and close associates, whether located in the Philippines or abroad, including the takeover or sequestration of all business enterprises and entities owned or controlled by them, during his administration, directly or through nominees, by taking undue advantage of their public office and/or using their powers, authority, influence, connection or relationship.

- Department of Budget and Management

More than 20 years after its creation, the success of the PCGG in fulfilling its mandate seems to be plagued with a fair amount of doubt. 

To be sure, when the PCGG was created, there were those who scoffed at the idea that the PCGG could actually fulfill its mandate.  Those who were very well aware of how most disputes over the ownership of property had commented that the PCGG would be tied up with legal cases for decades and by then, the assets it was supposed to have recovered would have been greatly diminished in value or eaten up by the cost of litigation. Those who criticized the PCGG back then said that it was bound to fail to accomplish the more important part of its mandate, which was to return the ill gotten wealth supposedly stolen by the Marcoses back to the government’s coffers within Cory Aquino’s term as President.

Of course, back then, these people were either ignored or in some cases, eventually silenced – probably cowed by being branded as a Marcos loyalist, therefore a target for persecution.

In my mind, I tend to look at Cory Aquino’s creation of the PCGG not really as a means of recovering Marcos’ hidden wealth but as a way to economically cripple the Marcoses and their supporters.  Viewed this way, one could say that the PCGG had served its purpose and nothing more needed to be done.

One very telling indication that Noynoy Aquino will take on a hidden wealth recovery crusade was what he said during an interview after he declared his intention to seek the Presidency.

Justice. We talk about the hidden wealth of the Marcoses, with all due apologies to the innocent. It has been 23 years and there is still no closure to all of this. I don’t think justice is swift in this country, and as they say, justice delayed is justice denied.

This time around, if and when Noynoy Aquino becomes President, we can expect his government not to go after just the Marcoses but the Arroyos and their supporters.  As in Cory Aquino’s time, this will be hyped up as a quest for justice and a means of getting back ill-gotten wealth so that it can serve the people, but in the end, it will be encumbered by the same problems that the PCGG faced during Cory Aquino’s regime and perhaps fail in the same way.

However, the circumstances right now are vastly different from the circumstances during Cory’s time and Noynoy may find himself having to resort to “dictatorial means” to speed up the delivery of “justice”.

I am not at all fairly certain about how Noynoy Aquino will deal with opposition to whatever he is going to do to apply “political will” in order to deliver “swift justice”.  However, just basing it on how Noynoy’s propagandists and allies respond to criticisms of their candidate, I think the general approach would be to attack the people putting forward contradictory views and branding them as ‘paid hacks’ of the former administration – just like what Cory Aquino’s minions did to those who opposed her regimes actions, branding them as Marcos loyalists and allies of the deposed corrupt regime.

The article by Jose Montelibano in Inquirer dot Net may be a sign of things to come and certainly, it’s only a foretaste.

One wonders if Noynoy Aquino, in order to protect himself from critical members of the online community, will use the powers of the NTC to regulate or in effect, censor content on the internet.

If you haven’t noticed it yet, there are a lot of bloggers out there who are becoming openly critical about Noynoy Aquino and his campaign is hurting so much from this negative blogstorm that he has employed Google Ad buys to drive down all dissenting, negative content in Google search results.

A more powerful means of regulating the internet is already present in an NTC circular that requires content creators to register with the NTC.  I can’t seem to access the copy of that particular circular right now, however, here is a blog entry from Zaldy Dalisay written in January 2009 that describes it.

According to this document (I don’t know who the hell created this, he should be the first to pay when it’s implemented..lol) – http://portal.ntc.gov.ph:9081/wps/_mc/MC2009/electronic_games.html, this will be the fees:

a. Filing Fee : PhP 300.00

b. Annual Registration Fee: 6,000.00

c. Surcharge for late : 50% of the annual registration fee if application

filing of application is filed within six (6) months from date of expiry

for renewal 100% if filed after six (6) months from date of expiry

In that BS document, you’ll come up with a broad explanation of a “content developer” that includes blogging, commenting, posting pictures, uploading ringtones, and the likes, wherein the person doing it have to secure a license first. Imagine millions of Filipino youtube users, millions of friendster, myspace and facebook members lining up in the NTC office trying to secure a permit, that’s horrible and very unacceptable….lol

The ability to create content on the internet at will is a valuable tool in a democracy.  But requiring people to get a license first before one could join social networking sites like Facebook or start up a blog could effectively stifle discussions on the internet, at the very least. 

I don’t know if the circular has been revised to take out any ambiguity in its application, but it could be just as easily revised in order to come up with a more draconian policy which may include being locked out of your blog, twitter account, or Facebook account until you supply a license number from the NTC.

Recently, I’ve been on the receiving end of sage advice from people I do not know.  One advice that has been repeated mindlessly like a mantra is that writing about Noynoy Aquino’s epic fail as a Presidential candidate is in a way promoting him as a candidate.

Here’s one particularly bright nugget:

In effect, by writing so much material about the opponent of your candidate or the candidate you don’t particularly like, you end up burying your candidate.  For the most part this is why I think Noynoy is so successful, why Chiz is so visible, why Gibo is starting to pick up his vibe, and why Villar and Gordon are having their bits of turbulence.

The prescription is simple: write more about your candidate. Whenever you can, extol the positive virtues of your candidate, and gather as much positive press as you can about him or her.  You need to write, rewrite, and develop your content in such a way that you can rake in the readers, educate them, and convince them to vote for your candidate.  That begins and ends with:

Now, I am an idiot when it comes to SEO or online marketing, but from what I understand, it’s not just about visibility but also about the context in which your blog post or website page appears.  The context is usually a person searching for information on something in particular for reasons such as mere curiousity to finding information because they need to make a decision.

Supposing one wanted to make a decision about who to vote for as President in the Philippines in 2010 and didn’t know any of the websites that carried that list, how would that person look for information on who the Presidential candidates are?

One search on google they could make is to key in “philippine presidential candidates 2010″ and this would give them the following results:

Say, for example, I wanted to promote my candidate as a Presidential candidate, I’d probably gun for the top of the search results for the search “philippine presidential candidates 2010″ and attempt to populate the search results with as many favorable articles about my favored candidate.

If what the writer in the block quote was saying is true, then perhaps we should find a webpage or blog entry favorable to Noynoy Aquino. But, right now, that is not the case.

However, I think that people searching for information using Google are basically conditioned by traditional media – radio, tv, and newspapers.

So their search may be more specific and with the amount of hype being pumped about Noynoy Aquino, I think there is good reason to assume that most people would be using the search term “Noynoy Aquino”

Right now, a Google search for Noynoy Aquino comes back with results pointing to articles that are mostly favorable to the candidate and the unfavorable articles are buried in the 20s and 30s of the search result.

Anyway, people who believe that bad publicity is still publicity probably haven’t realized that this saying is more often applicable to entertainment celebrities and not people who are running for the Presidency of the Philippines.

I wonder what effect it would have on Noynoy Aquino if his name turned up in searches for warlord or warlordism?  Not that Noynoy Aquino is a warlord.

Anyway, I don’t think I won’t really know the answer, but for certain, articles like this tend to question the propaganda being put out.

Rather than merely engage in mudslinging or promoting a particular candidate, my purpose is to promote a culture of debate, a culture of critical examination where claims are tested and in the process, proven to be true or false.

One way of doing so is to reveal the flaws in the claims and positions.

Some claim that Noynoy Aquino deserves to be the next President of the Philippines. To examine this claim, we have to ask: What does it mean to deserve to be the next President of the Philippines? Deserving something assumes that there is a criteria or standard that one has to meet in order to obtain some reward.

What is the standard or criteria set for the Presidency? The Philippine Constitution merely states that one has to be able to read and write, be of a certain age, and be a natural born Filipino – that’s anybody.

But what criteria or standard should we have for a leader of a land that is beset with so many problems?

I think in choosing between Aquino, Villar, Gibo, or Gordon, it is very crucial to find out first what is the proper criteria for selecting a President of the Philippines.

In my view, that criteria should include:

– Relevant experience and accomplishment. Why? While it is true that past performance is no guarantee of future performance, it shows demonstrable proof of what one is capable of doing. One can even scrutinize if any of those experiences and accomplishments are worth considering as a plus or minus, a merit or demerit.

– Proficiency in planning and executing plans. Why? By looking into a person’s capability to plan, we gain insight into a person’s ability to engage in higher level thinking and perhaps “sincerity” in achieving the objectives he claims to want to achieve for the people. It also works as a way to hold that person accountable. By looking into how he or she has executed plans in the past, we find further evidence of his or her ability to lead people.

– Integrity. Rather than define it as being free from any allegation of corruption, I define it as staying true to one’s word despite all challenges and adversities.

Seven people died and scores were wounded when the police guarding Hacienda Luisita opened fire on the demonstrators gathered at the Hacienda.

Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwAaKs2hEIg

(Interesting references to Humpty Dumpty here.)

Rather than adopt a romanticized view of Philippine politics as a fight between good and evil or the pure and the corrupt, I try to look at it in terms of how accrues to one group or another.  Why? Because that is all what politics is about, power.

It’s all about who has it and who wants more of it. All claims of idealism and noble intentions are mere propaganda until one actually acquires and skillfully wields the power to make it happen.

It would be great, if like in the Lord of the Rings, one could blunder one’s way into acquiring power.  Such is the tale of Bilbo Baggins who found a ring of immense power but merely used it to enjoy a rather long life and accrue a certain amount of prestigue in his community.  It is arguable that Frodo Baggins actually wielded the power of the One ring to do anybody any good, he didn’t have the skill to use it and was actually frightened to wield its enormous power. If there was actually anybody worth praising in the whole Lord of the Rings saga, it would have been Golem — he was the one who actually destroyed the ring, the rest of the characters were too busy with their own struggles.

Those who are quite successful at accruing and wielding enormous power are often the deliberate and persistent sort, those who are almost obsessed with making detailed plans or schemes and executing these schemes perfectly down to the last detail.

Noynoy Aquino doesn’t strike me as that sort of person.  In the very few times that I had run into him at the Batasang Pambansa and at the Philippine Senate, he struck me as someone who is laid back and easy going.  He was actually one of the very few senators you can chat up while riding the elevator or walking through the hallway.

Proof of his human-ness, I guess, is the time when he burst out of his room on the fifth floor minutes before session was about to be called to order.  He was in such an apparent rush that he forgot to check his fly and his shirt tail was peeping through his zipper.  For some reason, this is one of the images that keeps replaying in my mind whenever his name comes up in a conversation.

As far as Noynoy Aquino’s quest for power is concerned, a lot of people have described it as coming out of the blue and landing with a lurch. It blazed the trail, and actually stole Pole Position from top survey contender Manny Villar, probably because Aquino was riding on the huge sympathy people had for him after his mother’s death.  Such sympathy had gotten people elected in the past, as in the case of Pia Cayetano who launched her political career after her father died of a liver disease.

Despite all the effort to make it seem like a well orchestrated move (as if one can really orchestrate the vagaries of the human condition, i.e., disease, death, and sympathy being harnessed to further political careers), signs of the Noynoy Aquino campaign faltering have begun to show and the cracks are becoming more evident as the days pass.

I don’t know how much planning had been made during the days immediately after Cory Aquino died, but I’d dread to think that the idea of launching Noynoy Aquino’s bid for the Presidency was deliberately and extensively plotted while Cory Aquino was suffering on her death bed or even before that. 

Anyway, in my mind, political plans of the magnitude of winning the Philippine Presidency aren’t so easily hatched and implemented.  Common interests have to be defined, agreements have to be made, alliances have to be validated, and sticky issues have to be sorted out.  Doing this in the Philippine context is an ordeal that not even the most popular contender can breeze through with, you either sort it out before the campaign starts or wait for the problems to crop up during the campaign and after the campaign — supposing the candidate wins.

Winning the Presidency, girls and boys, will always be about making deals.  Our history tells us that our culture is a transactional culture, I am not saying that this is right — I am saying that this is the way it is.

It would be great if you can actually make deals directly with each and every one of the 50 million Filipino voters — then atleast, the candidate can claim to actually represent the the interests of a definite number of people.  But in reality, Presidential candidates make deals with a very small cluster of individuals who may represent the interests of a number of other people.

Considering the deal making that must go on, the quest for power and the fight to keep power is what drives people to commit evil.

Just this morning, I found some information that points to the deal making that may be hurting Noynoy Aquino’s campaign.

First is this article from the Daily Tribune:

There are reports that within the Liberal Party (LP) camp that this early, a power struggle is rearing its ugly head among the supporters of presidential candidate Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino and vice presidential bet Manuel Roxas II.

That is the apparent reason that despite the lead, which, however, is being whittled away fast, of Noynoy in various surveys, the LP campaign seems heading nowhere.

A valid concern about the current LP infighting even before its candidates do win, presupposing that they do, what more conflicts are in the offing when Noynoy steps into Malacañang.

What is apparent in the developing rift between supporters of Noynoy supposedly led by former Sen. Franklin Drilon and the backers of Roxas led by former Education Secretary Florencio Abad is that both camps cannot wait to get their spoils from the victory they are perceiving to be already theirs.

That is apart from the other factions, such as the usual civil socialite-supporter s in one camp, with the Aquino-Cojuangco group working in the shadows.

It was Roxas who was initially groomed as party standard bearer — that was until former President Corazon Aquino, Noynoy’s mother, died.

The Roxas campaign which tried to run on the promise for an honest government as opposed to the corrupt administration of Gloria never found its wings as Roxas hogged the cellar of surveys on the presidency.

The LP then was faced with the problem of devising a more effective persona for Roxas to make him capture the imagination of the public which included squeezing dry his romantic affair with popular news anchor Korina Sanchez, now his wife.

The LP bet was ranged against the very liquid candidacy of Sen. Manuel Villar, the popular pull of former President Joseph Estrada and the then youth favorite Sen. Francis Escudero.

Roxas was getting the support mainly only from the civil socialites, who were, and still are, to blame for imposing the nine-year blight called Gloria Arroyo on the country, and a sprinkling of the Edsa I groups, including some Ayala Avenue businessmen and guess what? The former lawyers of Gloria Arroyo.

The death of Cory Aquino opened the way for an LP shortcut to Malacañang by taking advantage of public sympathy from her death. What happened next was almost too predictable, Noynoy would have to carry the flag for the LP and Roxas would slide down as Noynoy’s vice presidential running mate.

It did happen and in the process created two centers of power within the party. Noynoy was then built up by the civil socialites as the only logical choice in place of Gloria and quickly it seems the machinery that conspired to overthrow Estrada in 2001 was reactivated and Noynoy was immediately publicized to be on top of the surveys.

Floated initially, through the help of Yellow Army media, was a Social Weather Station survey showing Noynoy getting some 60 percent preference for the presidency. What the report on the survey tried to gloss over was the fact that the survey was undertaken in select regions in Luzon where the Aquinos have a sizable following.

Subsequent surveys showed that Noynoy still has the lead, thanks to the boost from the misleading SWS survey, but at far lower ratings.

The early lead of Noynoy, however, is being taken by the groups within the LP to be a sure indication of an Aquino administration in 2010.

Where Gloria will leave off with transactional politics by June next year, the LP seems to have taken over. Politicians perceived to be Gloria’s top butt lickers have jumped to the LP stable, thus creating another group within the party that will stop at nothing to maintain their hold on political power.

Thus, the LP is now divided into groups madly pulling at each other’s hair for being out of the circle of power for so long and those who are fighting to get an assurance that they will retain their hold on power.

That is happening even before the feuding Aquino forces step into Malacañang. Imagine when they do, hopefully not.

The public, if one goes by the suspect surveys, still appears to perceive Noynoy as a worthy alternative to Gloria, but the sentiment is far from him being a leader but an entitlement for being the son of two national figures who have been made larger than life by the same scheming Yellow civil socialites.

It seems that with a lot of help from his circle of power-hungry backers, Noynoy’s candidacy is heading for self-destruction.

And here’s another from New Philippine Revolution:

Reason for the implosion—GREED. Yep, Noynoy’s inner circle are acting like rapacious wolves salivating for this and that posts, confident that they belong to the right group and their bet is a sure winner. Their greed has definitely overtaken the Cause. It has muddled the real cause why Noynoy ran in the first place.

For example, I know for a fact how certain members of Noynoy’s group barred friends of Mar Roxas, some of them, senatoriable material, from being included in the Liberal party official senatorial slate. Reason? They don’t want Mar’s old circle of friends there, fearing a power struggle.

I know how some of them, members of Drilon’s team clashed with Abad’s.

Now, these internal clashes and talks about the slowly dwindling funds are affecting Noynoy Aquino’s campaign. These talks are spilling over the public sphere and causing demoralization to some.

And when these verified information reaches well-meaning people, true friends of Noynoy and they write about it, people like Montelibano and some fanatical Noynoy Yellow army members act like they’re the sages of old and probably felt they are doing good by branding everybody paid hacks.

Let me just say that I now fear what will happen to the government if Noynoy wins. At this early in the game, his close-in advisers are fucking things up, showing their greed and engaging in petty internal squabbles and power struggles.

Let me put on record that I am no paid anti-Noynoy writer. Check my background. I am not even an anti-Noynoy. Most of my friends are in the Liberal Party and I agree with what they are fighting for. Yet, I cannot say , for certain, if I am truly pro-Noynoy. I am pro-Filipino People and the reason why I write is simply to scratch my writer’s itch. And I care for Cory Aquino and Ninoy, parents of Noynoy, whom I revere and salute for what they did for the country. It does not follow, however, that I will blindly follow the son. What people ask of Noynoy is get your thing going by publishing your platform and let us discuss them before the people. Until now, however, no platform, no discussions.

I write to warn Noynoy to take a firm hold of the organization and exercise leadership, an enlightened one.Purge your organization of ravenous wolves and vultures. The “cretins” which Montelibano described in his article resides well within Noynoy’s circles. Be a man.

I don’t know exactly if the numbers will translate to influence that may be useful in the field of political campaigning, advertising, and public relations.  If at all, the influence of blogging (on whatever format) is already currently being documented and we will have a clearer idea of the influence of blogging in the Philippines in 2010.

Nevertheless, if one were to study the influence of blogging, I guess you’d have to take a look at the past year’s biggest blogstorms and in my mind, there are about five that stand out.  Here they are in no particular order:

The Bambee Dela Paz-Nasser Pangandaman Valley Golf Brawl

Hayden Kho-Katrina Halili sex tape scandal

Cory Aquino death

Wowowee host Willy Revillame badmouthing Cory Aquino’s funeral procession

Filipino indignation over Terry Hatcher, BBC Harry and Paul, Chip Tsao

Typhoon Ondoy

Noynoy Aquino running for President

Manny Pacquiao 7th division victory

Maguindanao Massacre

Ground Hog Day is actually a comic rendition of sorts about part of the concept of Karma.  The Hinduistic concept of Karma says that one continues to be reincarnated until he or she learns what he or she is supposed to learn.

IMDB describes Ground Hog Day’s plot: “Pittsburgh weather-man Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is sent on assignment to Punxatawney, where on Groundhog Day each year the locals have a tradition of consulting the groundhog to find out if spring is imminent or if they should prepare for 6 more weeks of winter. Phil despises the job and the town, and can’t wait to get it over with…. even though he has a soft spot for Rita (Andie MacDowell), the producer overseeing his broadcast. Phil’s dislike of Punxatawney, its people and its traditions is set to get a hell of a lot worse though…. as when he awakens the next morning he finds himself reliving the same day. And so it goes – every time Phil gets up, it’s still February 2nd and he seems destined to be stuck in the same day for the rest of eternity.”

Then again, if you revisit the last hundred years of Philippine history, you’d probably come away with the feeling that things haven’t changed substantially.

A great number of Filipinos remain poor and barely able to grasp higher concepts which would enable them to participate more fully in democratic processes.  The country’s economy and politics are still dominated by several dozen families. Moreover, I think we are still very much beholden to foreign interests and foreign policies even in our own country.

I think, every year that the Philippines enters into will essentially have the same elements:

1. A leader on whom everyone lays blame and various groups threaten to overthrow.

2. A preventable crisis of one sort or another. People being flooded out because of a typhoon, passenger ships capsizing or running aground, entire squatter colonies being razed to the ground by fire… Just look at the past year’s headlines screaming about disasters and you can bet with a fair amount of certainty that it’ll happen again.  The only good thing is that you can’t die twice from the same disaster.

3. Conflict.  There will always be war (I say war because it is war) in Mindanao.  There will always be war with the armed communist wing – who, some say, are actually funded by the pork barrels of leftist congressmen.  So, if I were you, I wouldn’t vote for Satur Ocampo or any of the left-leaning people in congress.

4. Someone getting murdered or assasinated and the perpetrators run scot-free or almost scot-free. Same thing for other heinous crimes – rape with murder, mass slaughter, stealing P50 billion ($1 billion) or more of government funds, trafficking illegal drugs, etc.

5. Corruption exposes against goverment officials that merely end up as fodder for publicity for so-called members of the opposition.

6. Talk about charter change which will be encumbered by opposition of all sorts.

7. An economic downturn.

8. Rising prices.

9. Indignation rallies for all of the above which, if it happens just before an election year, is sure to have some candidate or other.

Around eight years ago when I was still producing a newscast at a TV station, I had an argument with my wife (who happened to be a reporter in that TV station) over what story should have greater prominence in the line up.  I think, at that time, conflict was raging in Mindanao and while I knew developments regarding the ongoing conflict were a big story, I believed it should come up a little later in the newscast rather than form part of the headlines. 

She was sooo pissed and I argued quite loudly, saying “Well, point to a year where THERE WASN’T ONE KIND OF WAR OR ANOTHER IN MINDANAO ESPECIALLY WHEN CONGRESS IS DELIBERATING OVER THE ARMED FORCES OF THE PHILIPPINES’ BUDGET? It happens every year and the man bite dog angle IS if THIS YEAR’S BUDGET DELIBERATIONS DIDN’T COINCIDE WITH AN ONGOING WAR IN MINDANAO.”

Of course, the facts would hardly support my stand but heck, IT SOUNDED RIGHTEOUS!

I asked why these local politicians were supporting Noynoy Aquino for President and I learned that the local politicians were campaigning under the Noynoy Aquino banner because their political patron was supporting Noynoy Aquino. 

The political patron of the local politicians was supporting Noynoy Aquino because he figured that it would be better to side with the most likely winner of the electoral contest in 2010.  For some reasaon, the political patron thinks that he’ll more easily get Internal Revenue Allotment (National Government funds apportioned to governors and mayors) as well as PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Funds or PDAF) when Noynoy Aquino wins, particularly because he campaigned for Noynoy Aquino.

Moreover, one of the local politicians explained his decision to support Noynoy Aquino this way: “Uso kasi siya eh.” (He’s the in thing.)  This particular local politician also said that by associating himself with a popular national candidate like Noynoy Aquino, it would enhance his image among voters in Sta. Cruz, Marinduque.  Moreover, he pointed out that his parents actually went to EDSA and supported the leadership of Cory Aquino when the EDSA uprising installed her as President.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the real political culture of Filipinos — it is TRANSACTIONAL, it is HYPE driven.

To be “completely unbiased” simply means to see things without prejudice, external influences and having the ability to see things guided wholly on reason. To be completely unbiased is rather humanly impossible, however with a conscious effort we are able to at least strive to such a state.

Unbiased-ness doesn’t relate to self-contradiction persay, not unless you were confusing “biased” with personal opinion, which is indirectly related to biases in some instances, but not synonymous.

Unbiased-ness also doesn’t mean one can not stick to one’s own opinion, since one’s opinion can be guided by reason (which is independent from our basic personal sentiment) as opposed to an external influence such as prejudice, subjective experiences, etc.

The best thing to do is to check if you are indeed biased and wikipedia has a list of congnitive biases which you can look at here.

DJ Mojo Jojo, Magic 89.9

Surveys are useless to the Filipino voter

It seems we are being smothered by surveys, but are surveys of any real use or benefit to the actual voter?

As a voter, what you really need to base your decision on are the qualifications of the candidate and his/her platform of governance – if it is at all made available.

Surveys do not give out that sort of information.  Surveys just say that one candidate is popular at the particular time that a survey is conducted. 

Surveys are actually more useful for the candidate who must know how his or her campaign is doing.  Say, for example, the candidate’s survey drops significantly or increases dramatically, the survey data can be correlated with elements of the candidate’s campaign.  Through surveys, candidates can gain insight into what elements in his campaign are effective, ineffective, and counter-productive. 

If his survey improves or dips and it is traced to an element like a new political ad, then it should guide the candidate’s decision on whether or not to pour more money into advertising. 

Moreover, in cases where the candidate has a very good standing, publishing the results of very positive surveys gives the candidate a psychological advantage over his rivals who may have a lower ranking in the same survey. 

In a time of universal deceit,

telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.

- George Orwell

Surveys are propaganda tools

Newspaper headlines and first gaps screaming that a candidate has topped one survey or another doesn’t just provide publicity for the candidate, it is gives the candidate an opportunity to project himself as the most probable winner of the electoral contest. 

This, in effect, allows the candidate to claim victory long before the first ballot is actually cast.  By constantly hammering on the claim of being the frontrunner of every survey through the media, the candidate can condition the minds of voters into believing he or she is the “sure winner” in the electoral contest.  This helps create a bandwagon effect, which allows the candidate to tap the support of the less critically minded.

Choices are the hinges of destiny. 

~Attributed to both Edwin Markham and Pythagoras

My advice: BE INFORMED

The quality of any decision depends on how well informed you are. 

Perhaps it goes without saying that if you make a good decision, you’re bound to achieve good results. And in order to make a good decision, you  need to figure out what your options are and then get as much information about each of the options available to you.

My good friend Magic 89.9 DJ Mojo Jojo says, don’t vote for someone just because he or she is popular.  This is just like doing something because everybody else is doing it or joining a group just because everybody is joining.  That’s not deciding for yourself, that’s allowing others to decide for you.

As it applies to the election in 2010, it is your responsibility as a voter to get to know about each candidate.

Don’t just vote for someone because some personal circumstance that they went through tugged at your heart or because their TV commercial repeatedly tells you that they will help the poor or whatever.

You have to be critical about every candidate, find out if they are telling YOU the truth by reading as much as you can about each candidate and seeing if their actions are consistent with their words.

Get to know more about what their qualifications are, look into their track record as public servants, find out about what they intend to do once they are in office,  see if they’ve been involved in serious misdeeds in the past, and see if they can present a clear and credible plan for doing whatever they say they’ll do.

With an estimated 45,000 villagers cowering in fear over what seems to be an imminent volcanic eruption, Albay Governor Joey Salceda has called for clowns and actors. This comes after someone else, apparently, called for bingo games for evacuees.

Quoted in gmanews.tv, Salceda said “Ang mas kailangan po namin kahit mga clowns, artista, mga stress debriefers. Hindi ko kailangan ngayon ng bigas (What we need now are clowns, actors, stress debriefers. We don’t need rice these days),”

Yet another oddity in Manila Bulletin is Salceda’s declaration of Albay as an open city:

Albay Governor Joey Salceda on Tuesday declared the entire province an open city in order to maximize the distribution of relief goods and to convince thousands of displaced people to stay in evacuation centers with the looming major eruption of Mayon Volcano.

By “open city,” Salceda explained that all groups and personalities, including politicians, are welcomeany time to hold relief distribution and other programs for the evacuees without seeking approval from his office.

“We welcome anyone who would give something to evacuees. By declaring it, it means that everybody is welcome to help the evacuees,” said Salceda in an interview.

In my opinion, the Albay Governor is in need of stress debriefing himself and a round of detox.

Eric wrote:

Paul,

Under our present circumstance, if there is only one choice, who would you prefer, a President who has the:

A) Intellectual competence to do good things. or B) Moral will to do the right things.

To do good things and see them bear fruit to be enjoyed by the majority, one has to start doing the right things.

Otherwise, what is good will crumble under the weight of human selfishness, arrogance and greed.

It takes time and strength of character to establish a strong foundation where the institutions for good governance can blossom and responsible business for commerce can flourish, but once that is in place, doing good things–even great things–come easy.

Heck, you too Paul can become president under such conditions.

Here is my response:

Me, President? If you actually knew how I’d want to solve our country’s problems, the very thought of me becoming President of the Philippines would terrify you.

As to the choices you were asking me to pick from, I think that INTELLECTUAL COMPETENCE and MORAL WILL are not mutually exclusive or opposed.  They are both necessary elements in manifesting good.

To clarify my point, we have to go into a discussion of the nature of goodness.

Where does goodness reside?  Is it in the intent (MORAL WILL) or is it in the outward manifestation (PRODUCT OF COMPETENT EFFORT)? 

Can an outwardly good be manifested with evil intent?  Can good intent lead to the manifestation of something that is outwardly evil?

Something a theology professor and a philosophy teacher taught me is that in order to do good, both the intent (MORAL WILL) and outward manifestation (COMPETENCE) must be good.

It is clear to me that one must have good intent and the competence to carry out that good intent in order to manifest something which is truly good.

Good intent alone, without the competence to carry out that intent, may actually lead to harmful consequences.

Take the case of the good leader who wants to solve poverty but doesn’t have an understanding of why people are poor and doesn’t know anything about the nature of poor people.

If the good leader but incompetent leader may simply equate poverty to a lack of resources (money or capital), the leader’s solution may be to provide the poor with resources (money or capital). 

The poor, being poorly equipped to handle the sudden influx of resources soon finds it dissipated and they are poor again.  The leader may opt to provide the poor with resources again, but with the poor still poorly equipped to handle the resources, the same thing happens.  If the cycle is repeated, what is created  eventually is a culture of mendicancy and this is an evil consequence of what is basically an act carried out with good intent.

Of course, a good act can also be carried out with evil intent as in the case of those who intentionally create a culture of mendicancy.  This may be done so that the people, all being mendicants, are made helpless and subject to the whims and caprices of the leader.

Art from www.utakngtilapia.com

Noynoy running for president will deliver us back to the beginning of things, or thrust us back to the time where myth and history meet or the place where life and legend intersect. The time or place of the great fight between Good and Evil: Between Cory and Marcos, between Obama and Bush, between the Fellowship of the Ring

and the Eye of Mordor, between Luke Skywalker and the Evil Empire.

Use the Force, Noy.

— Conrado De Quiros

Art from www.utakngtilapia.com

- o0o -

FORMER SPEAKER NEWT GINGRICH ONCE gave a concise definition of a party platform in 1994 when he explained the difference between his proposed “Contract with America” and the Republican party platform. “A platform,” he said, “is what we believe.” In contrast, his proposed “management contract” was a 10-bill legislative agenda that he hoped voters would support in order to achieve the numbers required in Congress to pass them within 100 days of the session.

Senate President Manuel Villar Jr., interviewed by Ricky Carandang back when he was still shopping around for a vice-presidential candidate, shared an interesting opinion about party and coalition platforms. “Lahat kami iyan lang ang sasabihin,” he confided, to Carandang’s television audience, “lahat ng kandidato sasabihin iyan. We will say the same things … we will have the same platform.” He added, “for after all, a platform… dadalawang speechwriters lang iyan tatanungin ka. Anong gusto ninyo, 3-point agenda, 10-point agenda, 15-point agenda o 25-point agenda?”

…

There remains some confusion about what a platform is or supposed to contain. A “declaration of the principles upon which a person, a sect, or a party proposes to stand,” is one such definition; a document “stating the aims and principles of a political party” is another. Yet there are voters who want nothing less than either a full legislative agenda (which puts the cart before the horse, as a party or coalition standing for election cannot plan without knowing what its numbers—and therefore, what is realistic—will be after the elections) or a sneak peek into a budget (when, aside from the administration candidate, other candidates won’t know the real score of the budget or the state of the bureaucracy until it enters office, particularly since so much has been kept secret by the present dispensation). Still, there’s been a healthy interest in political platforms this time around, much more so than in 2004.

– Manuel Quezon III

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False competence…

5)      Competence

As his father Ninoy fought and died for the Filipino, as his mother President Cory loved and served the Filipino people well with grace and decency, I am confident that Senator Noynoy will also love and serve the Filipino in the same measure. And because of this love for our people, Senator Noynoy has the competence to build an honest and competent government for the Filipino people. By appointing honest and competent officials to every position in government, Senator Noynoy can build for our people an honest and competent government. Truth is, this is the kind of competence that we need from a leader, the competence to build an honest and a competent government for our people.  This kind of competence only comes from the heart, not from intelligence or skills. A famous Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu, said “In choosing a leader, the heart is the most important. Intelligence and skills come second only in importance.” In fact, US President Theodore Roosevelt warned that “Intelligence without morality is a great danger to society”.

- Alex Lacson

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These past months, I have been asking myself and speculating on the future of the Philippines after the 2010 elections. Will Noynoy win? Will we have a resurgence of elected reformists who will enter the scene with a “real change” agenda? But all I am seeing right now is that the prospect of getting rid of GMA in 2010 is almost frustratingly nil.

– Jim Paredes

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32.) Noynoy can deliver good results. In fact, even without trying, he has already delivered admirable results. Ito na nalang mapagkaisa mo ang 47% ng mga botante for your presidential bid is already a GREAT ACHIEVEMENT. No other candidate has ever achieved this feat sunce multi-party system started. Daang-daang libong volunteers ang sumusuporta sa kanya ngayon. If he can do this by being just a candidate, why doubt that he can do it when he is already a President?

- Hustisya

- o0o -

Ah basta! Noynoy ako! Kahit anong sabihin niyo, kahit anong gawin niyo, si Noynoy ang iboboto ko.  Wala kayong magagawa!

- Anonymous

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Noynoy Aquino for President in 2010 !!! Tanggalin ang Tiwali. Itama ang Mali.

- campaign slogan

In the Philippines, we normally serve a big feast on Christmas Eve and we call it ‘Noche Buena’.  It’s suppost to be a meal eaten right after going to the Midnight Mass or the last in a series of early morning masses called “Simbang Gabi” which also has an array of foods that are associated with it.

Anyway, here they are:

1. Marca de Pato Queso de Bola.  This is actually a cheese ball.  It is a sharp tasting, hard cheese shaped like a ball.

2. Excellente Pina Ham or Bone in Ham. Sweet, salty, and yummy.

3. Morcon. I think it’s actually a flank steak wrapped around a filling of chorizo bilbao, salted eggs, pickles, green peas, and ham.

4. Embutido. Ground chicken, spices, herbs, and raisins wrapped in pig gut lining.

5. Lengua. Ox tongue slow cooked in a creamy mushroom sauce.

6. Buko Salad. Shredded soft coconut meat, kaong, fruits coctail, sweet condensed milk

7. Antonio Pueo Chocolate.  Hot, thick, and sweet chocolate drink.

(This is in reaction to Jose Ma. Montelibano’s article on Inquirer Politics and all recent appeals directed at me to stop being critical of Noynoy Aquino,the most prominent one being Random Salt’s Open Letter to Dick Gordon.)

A number of lawyers who claim to be part of Noynoy Aquino‘s inner circle have said that there is hardly any need for them to hire an agency to do PR for Noynoy.  The news media come at him in droves and they say that they actually have to be fended off.

It was also said that there are hundreds, if not thousands of volunteers, ready to make Noynoy Aquino win.  The Noynoy volunteers, it was said would be available to do everything including, perhaps, populating the internet with social networking site users, bloggers, and commenters to propagate Noynoy’s message.

I am actually impressed by the fact that every time somebody writes something that is critical of Noynoy Aquino, there is almost always a storm of reactions defending him. 

However, there are some indications that most of the comments are coming from just a couple of IP addresses and one commenter was actually caught in another blog posting comments using different aliases.  There is even one commenter who was apparently smart enough to use some sort of anonymizer  service because the IP address recorded on the blog was traced to a company that leases out scores of IP address.  These guys know their stuff, I wonder how they can do this full time.

Be that as it may, I have no doubt that Noynoy is the most popular choice for President.  As I have said before, even The Center’s survey says that Noynoy Aquino is still in the lead – despite losing a couple of percentage points.

It reminds me of the time when Joseph Erap Estrada ran for President, the support for his candidacy was overwhelming to say the least. 

This time around, I don’t think my idol Conrado de Quiros will be writing a column similar to the column that he wrote against Erap.  If I am not mistaken, like Bart Simpson, he wrote over and over again that “Joseph Estrada is unfit to be President of the Philippines” or something like that.  Perhaps he’ll do the opposite and write that “Noynoy Aquino is fit for the Presidency” till he fills his column — I don’t know if it will help, but I don’t think it will be necessary.

When it was made clear that Joseph Estrada was running for President in 2010, articles started coming out about his sloth, his mediocre intellect, his chronic drunken carousing, his mistresses, and his gambling when he was Vice President which was caught by Edgar Bentain — who disappeared and is believed to have been killed.

The same is happening to Noynoy Aquino as the more critically minded are voicing their concerns and sometimes vehement objection to a looming Noynoy Aquino Presidency.  While some have done so in a “civil and moderate” manner, others opted for the more extreme route in characterizing the inadequacies of a Noynoy Aquino Presidency – some are funny and some are just downright nasty.

Anyway, given the supposed overwhelming number of people who are freely volunteering to campaign for Noynoy, there is a slant being fed that those who oppose Noynoy are only being paid to do so. 

Jose Ma. Montelibano in his opinion piece that basically brands all those who criticize Noynoy Aquino as being paid hacks:

The Hired Guns of Slant and Spin
December 17, 2009 22:07:00
Jose Ma. Montelibano
Philippine Daily Inquirer

It is hunting season, and there is only one target – Noynoy Aquino. It is unfortunate for him that he leads the pack, and it is a hungry pack. Combine hunger with money and power and you will be amazed to see how creative even in the dark ways. Thus, Noynoy has to steel his emotions and leave his mind clear. The further down the stretch it gets, the dirtier and sharper the darts will be aimed his way.

But if it is misfortune that makes him the primary and, often, the only target of black propaganda, it is greater misfortune to those who have to use their money and power to target Noynoy. They must be wishing with all their might that they instead be in Noynoy’s place and be the primary target of lies and slander. After all, the only reason why a good person like Noynoy whom nobody tried to hurt in all his years in Congress and the Senate I because he is the number one preference among Filipino voters.

From someone who did not earn any significant criticism, thanks largely to a lifestyle that did not merit criticism, Noynoy is suddenly vilified by known operators for pay in the Internet and less-than-respectable media practitioners. In the world of innuendoes and lies, the players surface during election period and then slink away after. Every so often, to defend the indefensible, like the Ampatuans whom a presidential spokesperson said Gloria would not just turn her back to, these paid hacks resurface to ply their trade.

The fear of players who work in the darkness of AC-DC media, tri-media and the Internet, is to be exposed to the bright light of the sun. For one, their daily lives and the company they keep cannot be the subject of scrutiny. Thus, they become the masters of deflection or distraction, better known as squid tactics. Their mastery is to point attention to their target and definitely not at themselves. If by their negligence they get exposed, you will be amazed at how many people have so many sad or ugly stories to tell about them. And you do not need to go far – just their neighborhood or their work place.

But, who is Jose Ma. Montelibano? Is he any relation to Jack Montelibano, the husband of Maria Montelibano who now heads the Media Bureau of Noynoy Aquino?

The implied threat here is that Montelibano and the rest of the Noynoy camp will destroy the reputations of those who write critically against Noynoy.  I have already been put on the receiving end of such attacks.

Anyway, as far as sticking it to Noynoy Aquino is concerned, there are a lot of people out there with more or less the same views as mine.  One wonders if Jose Ma. Montelibano can actually name names and point out who it is that is being paid to attack Noynoy.

As I’ve said before, it’s soo much fun making fun of Noynoy Aquino.  I wish I could take the credit for single handedly bringing about his downfall, but I am just one blogger among many bloggers who share the same view that Noynoy is unfit to lead the country.

Utak ng Tilapia, I think, is a frontrunner when it comes to really funny depictions of Noynoy Aquino’s inadequacies.  The picture below is an example of their work and is reproduced here with the permission of the creators.

Granted that this humor may not appeal to everyone, especially those in Noynoy’s cult of followers, its point is no less valid that the points raised in a more serious manner.

Atty. Jose C. Sison had this to say about the Noynoy-Mar tandem and bitch slaps all calims made by their camp that they are out to change the political landscape:

Comparing their public service record, the Gordon-Fernando tandem seems to have an edge over the Aquino-Roxas team. They also generate a lot more hope for that longed-for change in our government. And this is primarily because the Aquino-Roxas team and their handlers in the Liberal Party have also fallen into the trap of engaging in transactional politics, accepting turncoats and trapos into their fold just to ensure and clinch victory. This is not my assessment only. Several readers have posted on the internet the same kind of observation like the following:

“I agree with the article. If the politicians were sincere in their advocacy for change, they should have done so months before, out of principle. It seems they only jump ship when it is convenient, when they already see the surveys. Noynoy seems to be a trapo. He was holding a meeting with Erap at the height of typhoon Ondoy. He met with Chiz. He got mutineer Danny Lim in his senatorial slate. He was even open to meeting with the Marcoses who ironically had the decency to know the implication of a possible merger. But not Noynoy. The Hyatt 10, Cory’s Bulong Brigade, Kamag-Anak Inc are back in power. If Noynoy cannot control LP, what chances does he have in leading the country?” (Posted November 23, 2009 by a certain “selina_burnett’).

“It is indeed disappointing to see Noynoy and Mar accepting turncoats. The LP will be seen now as a party of trapos. Sad, quite sad. I would not be surprised if Noynoy’s popularity slides because of this” (Posted November 23, 2009 by “keener00196).

“How can Noynoy be the candidate who will lead change for the country when he has on his side all the old trapos and oligarchs who want to maintain the status quo? No transformation in our system of governance can happen as long as a leader is beholden to conflicting interests of the different groups supporting him” (Posted November 23, 2009 by nermd).

Before it is too late, Noynoy and Mar should revert back to principled politics and change their tactics. As another reader writes, “Noynoy honesty ang pinaglalaban natin. Huwag ka nang kumuha ng ibang LP converts. Ikaw at Mar lang panalo na tayo. Huwag ka nang kumuha ng iba na makakabawas sa boto mo dahil sa kanila, kayong dalawa lang panalo na tayo” (Posted by noynoyparapangulo November 23, 2009).

This is just a friendly reminder. While the correct choice is Gordon and Fernando because of their strong political will to transform our kind of governance, it appears to be an unwise choice at this time because only Noynoy and Mar, as shown by the surveys, are in a position to prevent the other leading contenders from winning the race and from further inflicting upon us more of the same kind of inept, inefficient and corrupt government. The element of trust in Aquino and Roxas to bring the necessary changes is still there. But if they continue with their backsliding ways, Gordon and Fenando may be the only good choice left for people to realize that longed-for change.

Patricia Evangelista, “Jesus in Yellow” which comments on the Haciend Luisita massacre by juxtaposing it with the Noynoy Aquino political ad.

In a nation where government responsibility has shifted to the media, and calls for aid are directed to newsroom desks instead of the hotlines of the National Disaster Coordinating Council, this sort of move isn’t particularly surprising. A united GMA7 and ABS-CBN may seem like the best of metaphors for a united nation, but it says very much about the sort of man Noynoy Aquino is. Flanked by stars, surrounded by celebrities, content to ride on the waving banner stamped with his parents’ faces. There is no message, other than that personality is king. There are no voices, not even his. His defenders say it’s not the time for campaign—and yet that video rolls on and on in prime time television. You are not alone, they say, but who stands with you? Anne Curtis? Ate Shawie? Marielle Rodriguez? Just recently, Noynoy promised to give up his share of Hacienda Luisita,and yet denies knowing of eviction notices to farmers even while the case sits in the Supreme Court. Laza continues to march in rallies, five years after a bullet ripped a good man away. Nothing has changed, the same songs, the same names, the same injustices.

They say the miracles are colored yellow now—the yellow of thick lengths of ribbon, the triumphant swags of bright flag, the inside edge of a flame on a bamboo torch held up to a camera lens, the same yellow of grass outside the gates of Hacienda Luisita, where a man named Jesus once walked with his father.

Manila Standard Columnist Emil Jurado also registered how he views Noynoy Aquino in “Noynoy’s supposed integrity”

 Noynoy’s lead, according to his supporters, is due to the fact that he is seen as a man of integrity, different from his opponents who are traditional politicians, some of whom have been involved in controversies and charged with graft and corruption.

I agree Noynoy is untainted. That’s because he did not do anything as congressman and senator. I do not agree, however, that it is synonymous to integrity.

Noynoy’s drum beaters always talk about the legacy of the late President Cory Aquino. But what legacy? Are they referring to the Hacienda Luisita and Mendiola massacres, the Kamaganak Inc. scams, the rampant smuggling of BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes at Customs by Mrs. Aquino’s relatives, the turnover on a silver platter of the Malampaya project to Shell because of her closeness to a Shell executive; the mothballing of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant which led to the 12-hour brownouts during the Ramos incumbency, and many more?

* * *

What this country needs is a President with enough experience and know-how. The challenges we face are daunting.

Certainly, anybody who claims he is “clean” is not good enough.

As I have been saying all along, the presidency is not a training ground for someone whose only qualification is that he is the son of famous parents.

Integrity is not enough. Our problems are too enormous and we need the leadership of somebody with experience and expertise.

Other bloggers have similarly posted their critiques of Noyny Aquino as a Presidential candidate:

Better Philippines

I have to hand it to Noynoy’s handlers. Aside from establishing Noynoy’s ownership of the ‘honesty’ brand, they also appear to have succeeded in positioning Noynoy as the solution to corruption.

    * Noynoy = Honesty = Anti-Corruption.

Of course there’s an even bigger equation at play here, which certainly works to the advantage of Noynoy and any other opposition candidate. It is this:

    * Corruption = President Gloria Arroyo.

Considering the above mentioned equations we arrive at this:

    * Noynoy = Anti-PGMA

And that my friends is how Noynoy is perceived by his supporters. Obviously, Noynoy’s handlers want to make sure their candidate will have the best chance of winning and at this point in time the anti-PGMA angle seems to be all that’s working for them.

While I can acknowledge the marketing wisdom here, I’m still of the opinion that an anti-PGMA stance is not enough. So, am I saying that being anti-PGMA is wrong? Of course not. Nor am I saying that we shouldn’t vote for Noynoy because he is against PGMA. What I’m saying is we shouldn’t vote for Noynoy or any other candidate who has nothing to offer but an  anti-PGMA stance.

———————

Well, there’s really much to be said about a candidate who chooses to be vague or silent about what he really stands for and plans to do for the country. From the time he was thrust into the limelight following the death of his mother, former president Cory Aquino, Noynoy has shown nothing but qualities that hardly qualify him as a leader but certainly make him popular with people who refuse to see beyond dramatic devices. For one he has been milking the “I’m not sure I’m the one but with the people’s support I can be” line for all it’s worth. Dear reader, Noynoy is just playing to your emotions. Don’t be fooled.

At the end of the day, what we’re really talking about here is the country’s future not some telenovela. With that in mind please know that what this country needs is a leader who has real plans and the right skill set to carry them out. If you want to see an end to corruption, hunger, poverty, crime, and everything else that ails the country, demand real solutions from Noynoy and all the other candidates. Let’s base our analysis of the candidates on their ideas and not their campaign slogans and gimmicks.

In Noynoy’s case, all this hoopla around his being honest is just a gimmick.

Get Real Philippines

The next challenge is to actually make use of what are really just the beginnings of a growing focus on platforms — where the ideas of politicians are presumably articulated. And how do we achieve that? Using the same method we have always used — hammering in the message into the thick skulls of The Pinoy Establishment (and by “establishment” I include the mindsets firmly established in the collective psyche of the land). One way to do this is to expose the empty rhetoric of what can still be considered to be Philippine “politics as usual” (or at least the part of it that constitutes the standard pitch or appeal to the average Filipino). The reason that politics as usual prevails is because there are no real issues relevant to the ordinary Filipino that underpins these “politics” — and this is what makes these politics “usual” — because we don’t work hard enough as responsible participants in a democracy to look under the shiny hood of mass appeal and clever marketing.

• What key concepts underpin the politics-as-usual of the moment? Here are some that readily come to mind:
• Winnability based on pedigree platforms;
• Anti-Arroyoism (or more generically, anti-incumbentism); ignores the fact that whoever sits in Malacanang seems not to make a difference to the lives of a big chunk of the Filipino population. Indeed, the whole debate around charter changed was framed around anti-incumbentism.
• Indignation over “corruption”. Is removal of corruption the real issue? For that matter what exactly does “removal of corruption” mean?
• “Good” vs “Evil”. Back in World War II, the “good” and the “evil” were quite easy to distinguish. In 21st Century Philippines, however, “good” depends on who says so — specially during the campaign period.
• “Hope”. Entire campaigns were built around some nebulous concept of “hope”. Hope in what exactly? The prevailing or triumph of “justice” and “conscience”? What exactly does that mean exactly?

That is what politics-as-usual means to me — an inability to move forward beyond the above meaningless platitudes to imagine a specific, more targetted, and clearer goal for our society; goals that are tangible and whose attainment can be measured. Enter the enemies of democratic maturity and the masters of the art of re-packaging the above concepts — the demagogues.

Bad Manners Gun Club

It is not only unavoidable that Noynoy Aquino will be the next President of the Philippines, it is necessary that he be elected, and by a landslide. In him lies the ultimate salvation of the country, not, as he in his unaccountable hubris believes, because he will be a good leader who will unify the people but because he will fail spectacularly.

Only when this country feels the sting of a shared and bitter error, only when it is brought to ruin as a result of the people’s lack of ambition, honesty, and courage will it have a chance at becoming a real democracy and a true sovereign nation. Like a willful child who will not relent from playing around the stove despite being warned of its danger, the Filipino people will not learn their lesson until they are burned.

I’ll keep trying to tell them to watch their fingers, of course, because to remain silent would be a disservice to the brighter, more thoughtful ones I occasionally encounter. But I no longer hope to change or deflect the catastrophic course this country is on; my only hope is that I and people like me can find enough of the bright and thoughtful who can be inspired to eventually re-float the ship of state after Captain Aquino drives it onto the shoals.

Smoke

But then, maybe a man like him has no choice but to consult the whisperings of the dead. Like Erap and FPJ before him, Noynoy has not proven that he is anything more than a celebrity. How is he qualified to lead on his own account, therefore? Heck, any decision he makes will be held up to the standard of his dead progenitors, and anyone who’s had a dead anything in the family tree knows that that’s a no-win situation.

Highly likely then, that we will end up with a president susceptible to oracular whisperings that will NOT come from his dead parents from people who will claim to be channeling them – priests, nuns, civil society types, do-gooders of every stripe, and grifters who know which buttons to push. Niiiiice.

Worse, he is a dynast who activates, quite easily, the sleeping serf in all of us. The magic of his name – evoked by even the noted blogger – is an artefact of that part of our psyche that hungers to be ruled by an offspring of the divine Grail Family. We believe on a deep, subconscious , and ineluctably romantic, level that the name carries with it the promise of greatness and that that greatness will be unleashed at the opportune time.

Maybe we need a leader who leads reluctantly, yet finds his place when greatness is thrust upon him.

No need for proof that he is great, therefore; and never mind the apparent mediocrity. All that matters is the faith that when comes our darkest hour, his will be the hand that will lead us out into the light. On this faith – and precious little else – will we stake the future of our country.

And so, if Noynoy does bring anything back to the Filipino people, it won’t be pride.

Maybe we just need someone who will give the Filipino people their national pride back, to be able to say that they FINALLY came together as one to swipe the table clear of the usual suspects and given themselves a fresh start, by choosing least evil of a hundred evils, who just might be the one they can all get behind in reforming the sorry state of government.

It will be the willingness to surrender reason to teary-eyed, chest-swelling, sentimental faith.

If these are the only qualities that commend Noynoy to the electorate, then I sincerely doubt that he will be worth the trouble.

We don’t need a feel-good messiah. We need someone with a vision for the country and a clear idea of what needs to be done to achieve that vision. Someone  with a set of goals, an understanding of where we are right now in terms of achieving those goals; an understanding of what needs to be done, and the determination to get things done. Will that be Noynoy Aquino?

From the looks of things, hardly.

Anti-Pinoy

The sad thing about Filipinos is that no matter how much other people try to tell them that they are deluded about their lives as they are with their candidates, they would still persist with their silly ideas. This is where Noynoy comes in.

Over the past few months, I cannot seem to get myself to understand why people, just like when they are watching soap operas, are in a daze with regard to this whole “Noynoy is our hero” or “Noynoy will be a good president because his parents are good people” crap. How on earth can you tell that he will bring change to this God-forsaken country when he himself is from a political dynasty? IS THAT EVEN CHANGE? People think that he can save the country from turmoil for the sake of his dead parents and that he has an amicable spirit. Like what my friend has told me, indeed, Noynoy is the emotional choice and his way of thinking is like that of Charles I who strongly advocated the Divine Right of Kings. Charles I’s way of thinking I can somehow understand because he lived in the 1600’s but Noynoy’s way of thinking is completely deluded and so are the people who support him.

Every time I ask people on why they vouch for Noynoy, all their answers are fantasy – just like telenovelas. Filipinos are full of dramas and it really angers me to a great extent. What’s even more disturbing is that even the middle and upper class of the society support him too for some reason I cannot and will never understand. I thought it was only the members of the lower classes who were fond of dramas. I do believe that now, it is fair to say that Filipinos are drama freaks, thinking that Noynoy is the right choice.

Let me just remind you people that like all trends, this Noynoy Aquino trend will fade away and you people will oust him when he’s not doing any good just like you ousted other presidents. When that happens, I will just laugh my ass of and say “I told you so.”

Mind-a-now

My reasons are not so complicated. I think Noynoy will not stand a chance against manipulators that surrounds him. His honesty will be no match to the flatterers and whisperers, whose only interest are to collar big contracts from the government.

His utterances  with regards to the structure and system of government, is not even motherhood statements eloquently articulated. I believe that base on the personality that advices him, the Philippines will have the same banana if ever by mistake he becomes the next president of this belleguered country.

My reasons are simple. I do not want another Cory in the making. I do not want a repeat of the Josip Istrada mestik.

One of my reasons; I want a candidate that would offer a new chance base on a fresh ideas, not base on criticism about the failure of other people. Every administration have been  pictured as the evil and criticism is no longer contributing a bit to national progress.

I am looking for real leaders and good managers.  And Noynoy don’t exhibit the leadership traits that I am looking for, and he have nothing to show of with regards to management skills.

During the senate hearing called by Senator Chiz Escudero today for the benefit of the just-recently-come-out-of-the-floorboards group called AESWatch (pronounced as ass watch), Smartmatic-TIM was called in to be ambushed and waylaid by the prime advocates of the OES system – a system rejected by the Comelec because it was proven to be an inferior Automated Election system.

Comelec itself was not spared from being needled over the supposed delayed delivery of the Smartmatic-TIM machines.

AESWatch basically rigged the hearing along the lines that basically led to a trap where the Comelec and Smartmatic would be told to answer issues where there were none.

Congressman Rufus Rodriguez had even gotten so passionate about the supposed failure of Smartmatic to deliver the voting machines until Congressman Teddy Boy Locsin said that there was “NO HARM, NO FOUL”.

Consider this:

COMELEC spokesman James Jimenez confirmed a “gentleman’s agreement” was forged between COMELEC and Smartmatic-TIM. Jimenez said this is why the COMELEC sees no reason, at this point, to hold the vendor liable for delivery delays.

“There is no election-related activity stalled attributable to the absence of the machines as of now. No major preparation has been affected. For example, mock elections and fields tests are scheduled to be conducted next year yet, we continue the relationship with Smartmatic-TIM and see no reason to impose sanctions or penalty charges at this point, as long as they are able to deliver all 82,200 machines in February,” Jimenez said.

Source: www.botomoto.com

Smartmatic TIM has until February to deliver all 82,000 machines and already going to begin doing so in tranches of more or less 10,000 – this minimizes the possibility of a substantial number of machines getting lost while being transported.

If Senator Escudero really wanted to find the culprit behind whatever imagined delay there was, he should have looked no further than CENPEG and CCM who needlessly filed a baseless petition with the Supreme Court through Harry Roque.  CENPEG and CCM is the leading force behind AES WATCH

The deliberation of this petition took TWO WHOLE MONTHS, preventing the Comelec from releasing funds and keeping Smartmatic-TIM from going into production/delivery mode.  As expected, Harry Roque’s CENPEG fueled petition was thrown out like a cheap wig and empty bottles of Xenical.

And now the same group (CENPEG and CCM) that delayed automated elections has gotten CHIZ ESCUDERO to GRILL SMARTMATIC over the imagined delays?!

Talk about desperate  measures in aid of grandstanding.

Interviewer: “Marunong ka bang magpalipad ng eroplano?”

Aplikante: “Abah! Siyempre naman!  Mayaman ako at marami akong eroplano! At hindi lang iyan, mas mayaman ang misis ko at mas marami siyang eroplano!”

—

May isang bagong airline na naglabas ng wanted ad para makakuha ng isang piloto at marami ang nag-apply.

Interviewer: “Marunong ka bang magpalipad ng eroplano?”

Aplikante: “Kung hindi mo alam, sasabihin ko sa iyo, nag-top ako sa licensure exam para sa lahat ng mga piloto sa buong bansa.”

Interviewer: “Magaling! Magaling! So, dahil siguro magaling ka nga eh, mahaba na ang experience mo sa pagpapalipad ng eroplano ano? Tama ba?”

Aplikante: “Well, nasabi ko na sa iyo na nag-top ako sa licensure exam para sa lahat ng piloto sa buong bansa diba?”

—

May isang bagong airline na naglabas ng wanted ad para makakuha ng isang piloto at marami ang nag-apply.

Interviewer: “Marunong ka bang magpalipad ng eroplano?”

Aplikante: “Ang nanay ko piloto.  Ang tatay ko piloto.  At hindi lang iyan, ang nanay at tatay ko ang pinakasikat at pinakamamahal na piloto sa buong bansa.  Mga heroes ang nanay at tatay ko. Nasa dugo ko ang maging piloto.”

Interviewer: “Ah! Okay ah! Kilala ko nga ang nanay at tatay mo.  O, so, marunong kang magpalipad ng eroplano?”

Aplikante: “Nasa dugo ko iyan!”

Interviewer: “Oo nga naman. Ano na ba ang experience mo sa pagpapalipad ng eroplano?”

Aplikante: “Hindi ba, nasabi ko na sa iyo na magaling na mga piloto ang nanay at tatay ko?”

—

May isang bagong airline na naglabas ng wanted ad para makakuha ng isang piloto at marami ang nag-apply.

Interviewer: “Marunong ka bang magpalipad ng eroplano?”

Aplikante: “Mr. Interviewer, hindi ako marunong magsinungaling at hindi ko ikakaila, hindi ako marunong magpalipad ng eroplano.”

Interviewer: “So, bakit ka nag-apply?”

Aplikante: “Sinamahan ko kasi iyong kaibigan ko dito na mag-apply bilang piloto, kaso sa huling sandali, bigla siyang nadiyahe.  So, ako na lang ang pinag-apply niya at tutal, nandito na rin ako, nag-apply na ako.”

Interviewer: “Ay nakuh! Ang kelangan ko iyong marunong magpalipad ng eroplano!”

Aplikante: “Kayo naman sir! EH DI TURUAN NIYO AKO KUNG PAANO MAGPALIPAD!”

“Doc,” sabi ni Rey,”grabe pala ang sakit ko, pwede mo ba akong gamutin?

Mukhang napaisip ng husto ang duktor. Matapos ang ilang minuto, heto ang sinabi niya:

“Ito na ang pinakamabigat na desisyon sa buhay ko. Maniwala man kayo o hindi, ginagawa ko ito para sa bayan, para sa inyo. I do this for unity in support of change. And if that means that somebody must make the sacrifice, it must be me. Ako na.”

Tumingin ito sa katabi niyang intern at heto ang sinabi niya:

“To you Ignoy, I say: I diagnosed this patient to prepare him for you. You must now be the one to do the surgical procedure.”

—-

Isang araw, nanikip ang dibdib at nahilo si Rey. Agad siyang sinugod sa ospital ng kanyang kaibigan. Pagdating sa ospital, nilapitan agad siya ng duktor at matapos magawan ng ilang test, sinabihan itong malubha ang karamdaman nito.

“Doc,” sabi ni Rey,”grabe pala ang sakit ko, kaya mo ba akong pagalingin?

“Magaling na duktor ang tatay ko.” sabi ng duktor.

“Oo doc, kilalang duktor ang tatay niyo.  Pero Doc, ang tanong ko po eh kung kaya niyo ba akong pagalingin?”

“Magaling na duktor ang nanay ko.” sabi ng duktor.

“Oo doc, kilalang duktor din ang tatay niyo, kagaya po ng nanay niyo.  Pero, ang tanong ko po, KAYO BA, kaya niyo ba akong pagalingin?” sabi ng iritadong pasyente.

“Aba! May duda ka yata! Kung magaling na duktor ang nanay at tatay ko, siyempre hindi ko sisirain ang maganda nilang pangalan!”

—

Isang araw, nanikip ang dibdib at nahilo si Rey.  Agad siyang sinugod sa ospital ng kanyang kaibigan.  Pagdating sa ospital, nilapitan agad siya ng duktor at matapos magawan ng ilang test, sinabihan itong malubha ang karamdaman nito.

“Doc,” sabi ni Rey,”grabe pala ang sakit ko, kaya mo ba akong pagalingin?

“Baka hindi mo alam, ako ang nag-top sa licensing exam sa batch ko!”

“Ang galing mo naman doc, pero ang tanong ko po eh kung kaya niyo ba akong pagalingin?”

“Baka hindi mo alam, napakatalino ko at ako ang may pinakamataas ang IQ dito sa buong ospital!”

“Doc, grabe talaga ang sakit ko, ikaw na nga ang nagsabi. Pero doc, kaya mo ba akong pagalingin?”

“Hindi mo ba na-gets? Ako ang top notcher sa medical licensure exam! Ako ang pinakamatalino sa ospital!”

—

Isang araw, nanikip ang dibdib at nahilo si Rey.  Agad siyang sinugod sa ospital ng kanyang kaibigan.  Pagdating sa ospital, nilapitan agad siya ng duktor at matapos magawan ng ilang test, sinabihan itong malubha ang karamdaman nito.

“Doc,” sabi ni Rey,”grabe pala ang sakit ko, kaya mo ba akong pagalingin?

“Dalawa lang iyan eh.  Una, ako ang pinakamayaman na doktor dito dahil ako ang may-ari ng ospital.  Ikalawa, mas mayaman ang asawa ko kasi mas marami siyang pag-aaring ospital!”

–

Isang araw, nanikip ang dibdib at nahilo si Rey.  Agad siyang sinugod sa ospital ng kanyang kaibigan.  Pagdating sa ospital, nilapitan agad siya ng duktor at matapos magawan ng ilang test, sinabihan itong malubha ang karamdaman nito.

“Doc,” sabi ni Rey,”grabe pala ang sakit ko, kaya mo ba akong pagalingin?

“Natanggal ako dati sa ospital na ito at nakulong.  Pero don’t worry, pinatawad na ako.”

—

Isang araw, nanikip ang dibdib at nahilo si Rey.  Agad siyang sinugod sa ospital ng kanyang kaibigan.  Pagdating sa ospital, nilapitan agad siya ng duktor at matapos magawan ng ilang test, sinabihan itong malubha ang karamdaman nito.

“Doc,” sabi ni Rey,”grabe pala ang sakit ko, kaya mo ba akong pagalingin?

“Maigi niyan, mag-retreat muna tayo.”

—

Isang araw, nanikip ang dibdib at nahilo si Rey.  Agad siyang sinugod sa ospital ng kanyang kaibigan.  Pagdating sa ospital, nilapitan agad siya ng duktor at matapos magawan ng ilang test, sinabihan itong malubha ang karamdaman nito.

“Doc,” sabi ni Rey,”grabe pala ang sakit ko, kaya mo ba akong pagalingin?

“Let’s give thanks to God.”

—

Isang araw, nanikip ang dibdib at nahilo si Rey.  Agad siyang sinugod sa ospital ng kanyang kaibigan.  Pagdating sa ospital, nilapitan agad siya ng duktor at matapos magawan ng ilang test, sinabihan itong malubha ang karamdaman nito.

“Doc,” sabi ni Rey,”grabe pala ang sakit ko, kaya mo ba akong pagalingin?

“Tangina! Ano ba ito!!!”

—

Isang araw, nanikip ang dibdib at nahilo si Rey.  Agad siyang sinugod sa ospital ng kanyang kaibigan.  Pagdating sa ospital, nilapitan agad siya ng duktor at matapos magawan ng ilang test, sinabihan itong malubha ang karamdaman nito.

“Doc,” sabi ni Rey,”grabe pala ang sakit ko, kaya mo ba akong pagalingin?

“Kakamatay lang ng nanay ko at matapos ng mahabang pagninilaynilay, masasabi ko: Pwede nang umasa!”

—

Isang araw, nanikip ang dibdib at nahilo si Rey.  Agad siyang sinugod sa ospital ng kanyang kaibigan.  Pagdating sa ospital, nilapitan agad siya ng duktor at matapos magawan ng ilang test, sinabihan itong malubha ang karamdaman nito.

“Doc,” sabi ni Rey,”grabe pala ang sakit ko, kaya mo ba akong pagalingin?

“Number 1 ako sa survey.”

—

Isang araw, nanikip ang dibdib at nahilo si Rey.  Agad siyang sinugod sa ospital ng kanyang kaibigan.  Pagdating sa ospital, nilapitan agad siya ng duktor at matapos magawan ng ilang test, sinabihan itong malubha ang karamdaman nito.

“Doc,” sabi ni Rey,”grabe pala ang sakit ko, kaya mo ba akong pagalingin?

“Honest ako at sincere.”

—

Isang araw, nanikip ang dibdib at nahilo si Rey.  Agad siyang sinugod sa ospital ng kanyang kaibigan.  Pagdating sa ospital, nilapitan agad siya ng duktor at matapos magawan ng ilang test, sinabihan itong malubha ang karamdaman nito.

“Doc,” sabi ni Rey,”grabe pala ang sakit ko, kaya mo ba akong pagalingin?

“May konsensya naman ako eh. Kokonsensyahin na lang kita. Humanda ka!“

—

Kapag malubha ang karamdaman mo at naghahanap ka ng duktor na magbibigay lunas sa karamdaman mo, ang pinaka-importanteng bagay na kailangan mong malaman ay kung ano ang karanasan ng duktor sa pagpapagaling ng mga karamdaman tulad ng karamdaman mo. Susuriin mo ng husto ang kanyang kakayanan sa pagpapagaling batay sa dami ng pasyente niyang napagaling na niya…

Walang kinalaman dito ang pagiging topnotcher, pagiging mayaman, pagiging sikat, pagiging honest at sincere.

This transcript is not complete as it does not have the answer of Gilbert Teodoro to the same question as I am still looking for it.  If you can point me to it, that would be great and if you could send me a transcript, that would even be better! I’ll update my post to put in Gibo’s response.

Villar didn’t come to Harapan, but if his camp can provide answers, that would be swell and that would be included to.

I have opted not to include the answers of Nick Perlas, Brother Eddie Villanueva, and JC Delos Reyes just to save time because I have to rush to work for a very early meeting with a supplier. My apologies for now. I’ll transcribe the answers of Perlas, Villanueva, and Delos Reyes later tonight or tomorrow.

I know that this comes rather late but hey, I don’t blog professionally and I passed up the chance to get out a transcript when HARAPAN first aired.  I actually have to work to keep my two year old kid supplied with milk, diapers, and Jollibee spaghetti.

Anyway, here are the answers of Dick Gordon and Noynoy Aquino.

Dick Gordon:

Nuong ako po ay naging mayor ng Olongapo, sinabi ko sa mga tao, what this country needs is not just a change of men, but a change in men.  Baguhin po natin ang kalooban ng bawat pilipino, i’d like to tell the Filipino what I’d like to identify what they are.

We must be a sincerely changed country and for that, dapat mamuno ang liderato by example.  From my family, to my political family, to my cabinet, all must live simply but work harder.

Importante ito sa ating bayan, sapagkat palagi nangangako tayo sa ating mga tao.

Of course kelangan natin ng mga priority, kelangan ng health (care) ng ating mga kabataan. 67 percent of our kids have intestinal helmintiasis, marami sa kanila 97 percent hindi nakakakuha ng dentista. We must put education and health as number one. (Referring to the Health and Education Acceleration Program or HEAP as articulated in Senate Bill 2402 which lays out a plan to upgrade health and education services for public school children in 5 years.)

Sapagkat kung walang education, nasa dilim ang pilipino. Poverty is an absence of choice, kelangan number one ang education hindi ang debt servicing.

And I will commit na lalabanan ko lahat yang world bank, iyang IMF and I will use my diplomatic skills na natutunan ko sa malayong lugar na makumbinsi ko sila na bigyan tayo ng debt moratorium para makakilos tayo sa ating mga gagawin.

Education must be number one, kelangan ang mga teachers ma-retrain, kelangan mataasan ang mga sweldo ng mga teacher.

Kelangan ma-promote kagaya ng UST. Unity Stability and Transformation. Importante yan.

Kelangan natin gawin ang lahat kelangan natin gawin to achieve the peace, kapayapaan sa mindanao.

I will make sure, ikalat natin ang negosyo sa Maynila, decongest Manila, put it in Subic Clark Manila iyong mga bagong infrastructure. Sa Southern Luzon hanggang dun sa Pangasinan, dapat ilipat natin ang mga negosyo at kumuha tayo ng negosyo sa ibang lugar. (Referring to 3-2-1 Economic and Infrastructure development plan articulated in SB 143.)

Sa Bisayas, it will be the beach capital of the Philippines, Tourism will be number one there. (Referring to Tourism Act of 2009 which was passed this year.  The law provides generous incentives for tourism business locators and the establishment of Tourism Enterprise Zones.)

Sa mindanao, it will be aqua culture it will be agriculture, it will be tourism.  And there will be peace in Mindanao.  Magkakaruon tayo ng kapayapaan.

Kelangan nasa puso natin ang pagbabago, iyan ang kelangan.

Noynoy Aquino:

Halos nagkakapareho ang dapat gawin at kung paano gagawin, ang problema wala pang nagsasabi kung nasaan ang pambayad ng lahat ng ito.

Itong taon na ito, mayruon tayong 300 Billion deficit, next year 270.  Ang gaganda naman ng mga programa pero paano natin popondohan.

Sa amin, sa first 100 days, pareho rin naman kung tutuusin. Job generation, bigyan ng kakayahan ang tatay pakainin, patrabahuin, paaralin, kalusugan, ang kanyang mga anak. Iyong health papasok tayo, yung pangalawa health susunod…

Pero tuloy ang judicial reform.  Hindi ho tayo seseryosohin kung sasabihin natin na lalabanan natin ang graft and corruption.

12 percent ang tax efficiency rate tapos ang nangyayari pa diyan eh walang hindi ginagamit ang poder ng BIR ng customs para mahinto ang smuggling.  Para mahuli ang nag-evade ng taxes na iyan.

Kelangan masigurado ang judiciary, kapag may ginawa kang kasalanan may tiyak kang kaparusahan. Tapos, imbentaryuhin natin ang lahat ng detalye ng lahat ng problema…

Maganda po iyong gagawa tayo ng infrastructure.

Iyong iminumungkahi ngayon sa aming initial budget deliberations, wala hong binabanggit for instance sa Southern Tagalog Region na magkakaruon ng highway.  Alam naman po natin kung gaano kakitid ang papunta dun.. ang produktong binabagsak sa Batangas papunta ng Maynila ay hirap na hirap na pagtra-traverse nung mga karsadang napaka-primitibo.

Imbentaryo specifically kung anong infrastructure.  Hindi ito iyong binibigay na nowhere to nowhere connecting roads, o iyong mga ro-ro ports na gawa na pero wala namang dumadaong.

Pero ang dulo po niyan, nung nakuha na natin ang pera, nagpakita tayo ng kasersyosohan sa pagpapatupad ng ating mga batas..

Bibigyan natin ang lahat ng oportunidad ang ating mga negosyo po, mga dayuhan at lokal ay may patag na pinaglalabanan kung saan mangingibabaw iyong pinakamagaling at pinaka-efficient.

Sa ganuong paraan ho, sa unang hundred days nga ho, matapos makuha iyong gastos, iyong imbentaryo,nanduon na po ang konkreto at detalyadong plano sa mga motherhood statements na parepareho naming sinasabi ngayong gabi.

I am not at liberty to discuss what Rain did to my friends right now.  But suffice it to say, it merited the NBI’s issuance of a subpoena and so, I’d say it’s a rather seriously wrong thing.

In the meantime, here is an interesting picture of a man taking a bath.  He looks similar to the person whom my friends at the Dona Victorina blog are looking for.

But here is what he really looks like.  Just try imagining him without his tongue sticking out as if he was being strangled.

e.

You may e-mail information to victorina.mail@gmail.com