Plastic bags are just a part of plastic pollution, Senator Legarda

Senator Loren Legarda filed Senate Bill 1368 which intends to reduce plastic waste produced by plastic bags.

On the surface of it, it seems consistent with the Senator's green advocacies, but it doesn't seem to touch on the fact that plastic bags account for just part of the problem of plastic pollution.

Plastics are everywhere.

There are plastic bottles, plastic sachets, pouches, etcetera that all end up littering the planet and leaching toxins into the environment.

We urge Senator Legarda to expand this proposed legislation to cover ALL plastic packaging and help deter plastic pollution.

The Philippines contributes to the giant plastic gyre in the north pacific and it should do its part in helping curb the growth of this menace.

REFUSE PLASTIC.

Vote for a VET

Just today, I read that the administration is supporting Gilbert Teodoro as its Presidential bet for 2010.

Surveys have Noli De Castro in the lead followed by others like Loren Legarda, Chiz Escudero and Erap.

It seems powerful and moneyed forces are trying to make up our minds for us.

Perhaps, apart from values, our choice of who we will vote for as President reflects how we see our country and the situation we are in.

When we vote, we are not voting just for ourselves, we are voting for someone who will do what is right for the common good. We are in dire straits.

In two or three years, we will begin to feel the real effect of the global financial crisis.

Corruption is everywhere. Crime is being perpetrated in broad daylight. Both the corrupt and the criminal are unafraid of law enforcers and judges. They know they can get away with it and this makes them bolder, more brazen.

Disasters. We get hit by 20 typhoons, at the very least, every year. Yet every year, we see nothing being done to stop the cycle of disaster and poverty. The same people who got hit by a typhoons last year are the same people who will get hit by typhoons this year. Those whose possessions got swept away by floods will the same ones whose possession will get swept away by floods this year. Fire? Where else but in the Philippines does the declaration of a Fire Month result in more fires than in any other time of the year.

Our people are either unemployed or trying to make ends meet with a job they are overqualified for. But that's nothing new and what is new is the ends to which desperation brings our countrymen. Afghanistan. Iraq. Name a place where there is a very high risk of getting killed, you'll find Filipinos working there.

Our education system is in shambles and it has been that way since time immemorial.

And those who are tired of this ought not to get sick as well. If you're poor, just waiting for treatment and medicines will bring you closer to the grave.

So, who do you vote for as President given these circumstances?

Young guns like Chiz Escudero and Gilbert Teodoro?

TV personalities like Noli De Castro and Loren Legarda? How about Manny Villar?

How about Mar Roxas or former President Joseph Estrada?

Or are you going to think and look for someone who has actual experience in lifing people out of desparate situations?

Do you think you need someone who has a track record for following through every commitment he has made?

Do you think we need someone with a clear vision for what ought to be done for this country at a time of crisis?

His name is Dick Gordon.

He turned Olongapo from Sin City to Model City.

He turned Subic from wasteland into a haven for tourism and investment.

He turned Philippine tourism from a lackluster department to the brightest beacon in the economy, with 2 million foreign tourists coming to the Philippines in 2003 from a low of just 900,000 in 2000.

As Senator, he authored, pushed for the enactment, and implementation of RA 9369 or the amended AUTOMATION LAW. This is the reason why we will have automated elections in 2010, no more hello garci. He now heads the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.

In his committee report on the P732 Million Fertilizer Fund Scam he implicated President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, recommended plunder charges against Bolante and others, and filed 7 bills to plug up loop holes in the laws exploited by the group he referred to as a pack of wolves.

If you want the country to get through these dire straits, look for someone who knows how to navigate treacherous waters and who knows where to go.

In 2010, don't look for a good candidate. Look for a good leader. That's Dick Gordon.

Making change happen since 1971.

Better jobs in the Philippines through tourism very soon

In the 2010 Presidential elections, we can expect candidates to come up with all sorts of motherhood vision statements as well as platforms and plans.  Or put it in another way, they'll tell everybody about their general and specific election promises.  

One stupid arguement I got into was whether a motherhood vision statement was worse than a platform and plan, whether a general promise was worse than a specific promise.  I don't know if there was a debate, but both general and specific promises are worthless if they remain promises and can be seeds for uprisings of all sorts if they're broken.

However, there is one point I salvaged from the morass of almost pointless arguements and it is this, specific promises can be accounted for and general promises are most likely fulfilled by tricking it out with all sorts of semantics.

I think what is really worth discussing is not whether a motherhood vision statement is better or worse than a platform and a plan, but how to figure out which candidate can be believed.

Obama mouthed motherhood vision statements, one was "Hope" (not his brand of cigarettes) and "Change" (not barya or a bunch of coins).  But he also spoke about a lot of specific directions that his administration, if voted into office, would take like cutting the outsourcing of jobs in the US, coming up with a bail out plan for the US financial system, getting the US out of Iraq, and others.

Most Presidential candidates in the Philippines will most likely have general and specific promises on what they will do.  I will make a prediction about what those general and specific promises will be like.  They will center around claims of having solutions to the perennial problems of the Philippines.  They will center around so-called gut issues or issues that have to do with the provision of basic necessities.  Why?  Because these are the concerns of more than 80 percent of the voters in the Philippines because most of them are poor or think of themselves as poor.

These problems or issues are:

1. Poverty and the problems arising from poverty.

2. Education.

3. Unemployment and increasing under employment.

4. Agriculture or the country's capacity to produce its own food at an affordable cost.

5. Crime.

In addition to these problems and issues are higher level issues, if you can call it that:

1. Climate change.  Which is the spiffier term for enviromental preservation or conservation.

2. Corruption.

3. Disaster prevention and mitigation.  This is now being connected to climate change.

4. Charter change and other modes of political reform.

5. Population control or population management.  Can you tell the difference?

I don't know how many will vote for a Presidential candidate on the sole basis of better crafted general or specific promises.  

Ideally, if this were true, I'd probably hear our neighborhood's designated street sweeper (and he doesn't have a blog but drinks Bilog -- slang for gin) tell me that he is rooting for a candidate because of his or her stand on a move to legislate a minimum wage increase.  This would be a big step for somebody who just asks everybody for money whether he sweeps their street or not.  He'll probably vote for anyone who buys him his next drink, that is, if he is actually a registered voter and wakes up on election day to cast his vote.

Besides, it ain't a competition on who can come up with the best thesis for solving everything that ails the Philippines.  Not that it shouldn't be.

I still think that Filipinos choose who they will vote for as President based on likeability.

If the 'Hello Garci' tapes didn't surface, perhaps we would have reason to say that this isn't true.  Because then, there would be no doubt that more people voted for someone they didn't like as a person and less people voted for a beloved action star whom everybody in the Philippines grew up watching in movies.

And this is the problem that Mar Roxas, Manuel Villar, Loren Legarda and yes, Dick Gordon will all have to overcome.  Ordinary people wouldn't find them as likeable as, say, Piolo Pascual, Manny Pacquiao, or my favorite actor, Tom Hanks.

If you had been listening to Mar Roxas in the Senate's hearing on the Legacy financial scam, you would have probably heard him say, "Tignan niyo ang mga mukhang ito, ang mga mukhang inargabiyado ninyo.  Kaya, ito ang sasabihin ko sa inyo, hindi ko kayo titigilan."  All words delivered to the effect that he was championing the cause of people who had been taken advantage of.

Who wouldn't like a guy like that?  Besides, even when I was still working FOR him, I really found him to be very likeable.  He's a great guy, really goes out of his way to see how you're doing and will even swap jokes with you.

The whole hearing seemed to be climaxing to the designed effect of showing Mar as a champion of the poor.  That was, after of course, one of the people he had hauled into the hearing missed her line and instead of saying that she had made claims to the Securities and Exchange Commission, had blurted out that she filed claims with the Comelec.  Was it all scripted or what?  That really ruined the whole thing for me.

It was a good thing Mar didn't say, "Putang Ina ka Celso!"  as he did when he said "Putangina! Ano ba naman ito!?" at a rally against charter change in the Makati Business District. 

Manny Villar has a similar gimmick and it is most often seen in the TV commercial of him holding a duck.  Loren Legarda recently had a commercial pitching for 'Pagbabago' and for a few seconds, I thought it was another pitch for Lucida.

Dick Gordon, however, is pursuing likeability too but his approach is kind of traditional in a sense.  He kinda thinks that if he does his job well and does something that will do people good, people will like him.  He also kinda thinks that fulfilling promises and doing what you say is a likeable trait.

When he ran for the Senate in 2004, he promised to improve the country's tourism industry and just recently, the Senate and the House of Representatives approved the final version of the Tourism Act of 2008 -- a law which he authored. 

Here's an article in Manila Times which explains some of the aspects of the Tourism Act.

Monday, March 09, 2009

Govt, private sector, Senate boost tourism 

By Francis Earl A. Cueto, Correspondent 

WITH tourism taking center stage in the Arroyo Administration, Sen. Richard Gordon said he expects the government to use this untapped sector to prop up Philippine economy amid the global financial crisis.

Gordon said tourism as the biggest industry in the world could be the principal growth engine to pull up the country’s economy.

Gordon said such is now possible with the expected signing of the Tourism Act next week, which he sponsored in the Senate.

He said: “This measure will definitely boost domestic tourism as it will provide the necessary infrastructures to invigorate local productivity. An increased productivity means more jobs for the people and more revenues for the government.”

Gordon said the Tourism Act would provide changes for putting in place the necessary regulations and infrastructure, which will make tourism more competitive in the international market.

As it happened, the World Economic Forum has downgraded the Philippines’ global ranking on competitiveness in travel and tourism to 86th in 2008 from 81st in the previous year. In its Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2008, World Economic Forum reported that the country scored 3.73 points among 133 countries in the world.

But Robert Lim Joseph, chairman emeritus of National Association of Independent Travel Agencies (Naitas), said the country could bounce back, adding that the global economic crunch has opened an opportunity to boost domestic tourism. He cited the price war for the lowest fare among local air carriers and the discounts offered by hotels that make travel very affordable to ordinary Filipinos.

Moreover, Mrs. Arroyo in Boracay recently stated that the Philippine tourism industry would withstand the global economic crisis as evidenced by tourist arrivals in the country’s key destinations in the first month of 2009.

At a tour of Shangri-La’s Boracay Resort & Spa before a Cabinet meeting on tourism development in the region, the President said the government would continue to spend more on tourism improvement.

Gordon, on the other hand, said the Tourism Act, once signed, provides for the creation of the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority and Tourism Economic Zones. It grants investor’s perks such as a six-year tax holiday, extendable as needed, and a 5-percent tax on gross income.

However, he said the new law would promote community tourism in lieu of domestic tourism, where residents preserve, protect and promote tourism spots in their localities and are friendly and helpful to tourists and travelers.

Echoing the ideas of Naitas such as the multi-school gathering of tourism students in Letran, Gordon said now is the time to develop the culture of tourism.

He said it did not have to be costly and grand as it involves keeping the streets safe and clean for all, not just tourists. An example, he said, would be picking up litters in the streets.

As the Tourism Act aims to generate ideas from the bottom to the national level, the senator said it would empower local communities to participate in a tourism master plan.

On the private sector side, Joseph said the government could give tax rebates to citizens who patronize local tourism and to tour and travel establishment that cooperate with the government in this program.

At the same time, the government can help by building new and improving old roads and bridges in various localities.

Joseph said local tourism at the village level would create jobs and mitigate the massive unemployment that is expected to result from the economic crisis.

He said this way, Philippine tourism and travel sectors will not only survive but will be in stronger position to exploit the rebound in global travel once the recession is over.

Obama in the Philippines

I missed the live TV coverage of President Barack Obama's Inauguration last night.

After waiting around two hours for it (switching between CNN, Fox, and BBC), I found myself fighting vainly against what would become the irresistible pull of sleep.

I snored through the first black US President's inaugural address and now have to content myself with just reading the text of his speech.

It is a great speech and from the snippets being replayed on TV news, I can gather a sense of how truly thrilling his delivery was.

The question now on my mind is what this historic US Presidency will mean for the Philippines.

Being great at mimicking or aping whatever fad there is in the US, I am sure our own politicians will present us with their INNER OBAMA and certainly, they will find a way to make the masa lap it up or at least, make it seem that they are lapping it up.

Will the Philippine Presidential Elections in 2010 be like a talent show where the winner will be the candidate who can come up with the best imitation of Obama?

It was a joke then and still is now, but Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay referred to himself as the first Black Filipino Presidential candidate. He refered to himself as Jejoma and the joke got a few laughs before people got tired of it.

Other politicians who are eyeing the Philippine Presidency are trying to project an Obama-like image, with some blatantly claiming to represent change. From the top of my head I can cite at least Loren Legarda and her pagbabago TV Ad, Mar Roxas and his Oras na campaign (Our time has come), and perhaps even Chiz Escudero.

Survey frontrunners Vice President Noli de Castro and Senator Manny Villar haven't associated themselves or their looming candidacies with the message of change. De Castro is or was largely seen in TV ads hawking Pag-IBIG Fund (though it was unnecessary to spend tens of millions of pesos sourced from contributions of members on a tri-media campaign just to have his face all over the country). Villar crows about helping OFWs (about a few dozen out of the 8 million Filipinos that have sought employment abroad).

Bayani Fernando, the pink loving MMDA Chairman, was last seen on TV hanging on the barong sleeves of Former President Fidel Ramos. As to what this signifies is something that I have yet to decifer.

Former President Joseph Estrada is still peddling the idea of running again for the Presidency and it seems that this is gaining some traction in the surveys.

Given the way things are, I doubt if we will have a President like Obama with the way a great number of our people think about how the political game ought to be played.

Politics in the Philippines, for the most part, is not based on values or ideals but opportunism -- which some times is brazen and sometimes is well camouflaged as a sincere bid to help people out.

If there was someone among our politicians who is truly like Obama, I doubt if people will vote for him.

Filipinos in the Philippines love having it easy and having their way (even if it is the wrong way) about things. Filipinos here will vote for a politician depending on what they can get from the politician whether it's a few hundred pesos for voting for them or a job after they are elected or a fat government contract.

(More later, I have to give my kid a bath)

Supreme Court Chief Justice Puno as Philippine President?

Thank God he nixed it.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno turned down an offer to be a Presidential Candidate in 2010 and said that he would be content to be the catalyst for the creation of a "moral force" movement to help solve the country's problems rather than seek the presidency in next year’s elections.

Yesterday, Senator Panfilo Lacson was on DZMM saying that he would gladly step aside and abandon any Presidential ambition he had if Puno would run for the Presidency in 2010.

Puno, thanked Lacson for his endorsement but said:

"I don't want to be pretentious. I will be happy if I will just be a catalyst of this movement. I am willing to be one of the foot soldiers. But perhaps it may not be appropriate to take leadership while I am in the government acting as Chief Justice."

Fine, except for his use of the word 'pretentious' instead of the more correct 'presumptious'.

Nevertheless, what he said may be indicative of the Supreme Court Chief Justice's view of what will be best for the national interest. Perhaps he knows that it takes more than morality to lead a country as morality can always be questioned. Also, if you want strict morality in government, you'd be in the same basket as Islamic fundamentalist states -- think Afghanistan before the US invasion.

Perhaps, also, he saw through the political gimmick pawned and pumped through the media by Senator Lacson. After all, it was Lacson who donned the image of Mr. Clean when he ran against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo after refusing to relinquish his Presidential bid in favor of supporting actor Fernando Poe Jr. The ploy (if it is a ploy) would have been aimed at making people remember what Lacson stands for -- anti-corruption, an end to criminality, etcetera.

This comes at the beginning of the year before the 2010 elections when Presidential Candidates (declared and undeclared) are now all trying to place themselves in the minds of people.

If the SWS survey results on choices for Presidential Candidates are to be believed, Lacson is fifth (with 14 percent drafting him as they choice for President) from pole position which is currently owned by Vice President Noli De Castro. Coming in second and third were Senators Loren Legarda and Manny Villar with 28 percent and 27 percent, respectively, followed by Senators Francis Escudero (19 percent), former President Joseph Estrada (11 percent), and Sen. Mar Roxas (10 percent).

Going back to Puno and the idea of a moral Presidency, Cory Aquino was the moral choice in governance, but the years that followed her rise to power proved that mere morality will not cure all that ails our government. It takes so much more.

We've had moral choices offered to us too in the 2004 elections. When Lacson ran in 2004, there were other moral choices including Raul Roco and Eddie Villanueva. The immoral choice was Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the popular choice was Fernando Poe Jr., and the insane choice was Eddie Gil.

But were these choices really choices? Did they represent real options and real directions for governance?

I am not saying that morality has no place in politics, the romantic ideal of a benevolent and powerful leader still appeals to me. However, morality ALONE does not make for effective political leadership.

If you asked me, I'd rather go for a candidate with a track record for being a builder of new beginnings rather than one with an image of a destroyer or preserver of a status quo. I'd go for a candidate with a clear plan, a vision, for the country's future.

That's Dick Gordon.

Sure, he isn't in the surveys and the Pedestrian Observer may chide me -- as he or she already has for comparing Gordon with Obama.

Was it a story in the Bible or a often quoted phrase that says he who can be trusted with a portion, can be trusted with the whole.

Gordon began his political career as a Constitutional Convention delegate in 1971, the youngest ever to be elected. He had no political backing (which should have come from his mother, Amelia Gordon) and no funds, but he won and became the youngest delegate.

He didn't run for his own sake. He was actually part of the generation that led the First Quarter Storm and in the Con-Con, he opposed a term extension for then President Ferdinand Marcos. This was apart from introducing the idea of the Philippines sharing control over the US Naval base in Subic, which in those times was considered visionary.

He became Mayor of Olongapo and everybody knows about how his small town became a model for city governance. If New York City had Rudolf Giulliani, the Philippines had Richard 'Dick' Gordon in the very real sense of transforming a filthy and crime infested town into a model city that had color code jeepneys, effective neighborhood anti-crime patrols, a garbage collection and segregation system that was the first in the country, a good samaritan program where all the rich citizens of Olongapo generously gave to the needy, and other city programs that were emulated all over the country.

He became Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Chairman. When he was put in charge of Subic, it was a wasteland with almost nothing in it. After a couple of years of hard work with no guarantees, he turned the former Naval base into what then President Ramos called a new engine for growth and a magnet for investment in industry and tourism.

He became Tourism Secretary with no promotion budget and all sorts of negative news about the Philippines. Instead of saying 'Kawawa naman tayo', he shouted 'Wow Philippines' in almost every major tourism marketing event there was and brought in a whopping 2 million tourists a year by the end of 2003-- straight up from less than 1 million a year in 2001.

Right now, he is a Senator who is known for a couple of important things --

He is the father of Automated Elections in 2010. He virtually dragged his colleagues at the Senate to amend the existing Automated Elections law to make it work and dragged a couple more people in the Comelec to make sure we will no longer have Hello Garci in 2010. He is working to make sure that every body's vote will be counted in the coming elections.

He is also the author of the Text for Change bill, a proposed law that will get 10 to 50 centavos out of every peso earned by Smart, Globe, and Sun and pour these funds into public education. At the current P 2 Billion text messages a day, this will generate as much as P70 Billion in funds that will be added to the budget for public education. This means an end to classroom and teacher shortages, better books, science and computer laboratories in all public schools, higher teacher salaries, free food all year round for students, free medical and dental services, and to top it all off, scholarships for 100,000 college students -- 10,000 of which will be sent abroad to study in Ivy League Universities.

Former Batangas Gov. Leviste convicted on homicide raps

The conviction of former Batangas Governor Antonio Leviste on homicide charges comes just a few weeks after Mayor Nasser Pangandaman Jr. et al were charged by Delfin Dela Paz et al for the mauling incident at the Valley Golf and Country Club.

There is no real relation between the two stories except that both involve local government executives who figured in a violent incident and both claimed that they were defending themselves.

The verdict handed down today by Judge Elmo Alameda of Branch 50 of the Makati City regional trial court meted Leviste with a jail term of from 6 to 12 years and ordered him to pay P100,000 in damages. The former Batangas Governor claimed that he killed his aide Rafael Delas Alas in self-defense during an argument on Jan. 12, 2007, at his office at the LPL Tower in Legaspi Village, Makati City.

He could have gone scot-free on the grounds of self-defense, except for the fact that one bullet would have been enough to stop an attack and he shot his former aide five times. Another point which made the self-defense a bit harder to buy into was that it was not proven that Leviste's aide had fired a gun at him.

The gun purportedly used by Delas Alas was never submitted for ballistics examination, nor was the victim subjected to a paraffin test to prove that he had fired back.

More to the point, photos of Delas Alas body showed that he was sitting behind a desk. Forensic evidence is silent on whether he was shot while he was seated behind his desk or if his attacker was standing up.

What was the trajectory of the bullet? How far away from the victim was the attacker? The answers are simply missing.

The decision on Leviste's case will not have any bearing on the case lodged against Mayor Nasser Pangandaman, who like the Leviste claims self-defense. But then again, the decision on Leviste somehow illustrates what self-defense is and is not.

Shooting a man five times is not self-defense, especially if the one claiming self-defense cannot prove that he was being attacked.

Parrying or blocking a blow from someone wielding a golf umbrella is self-defense. Six men beating up one old man is not self-defense, it is an act of revenge.

Anyway, as a result of the verdict, Leviste will be taken to the Makati City Jail -- having been out on bail during the whole time that the case against him was being heard. His lawyer has appealed for a 15 day extension of his bail, citing humanitarian grounds.

In contrast, truck and bus drivers who kill people due to reckless imprudence often have to stay in jail while their cases are being heard because they don't have money hire a good lawyer and post bail.

Leviste has little to fear about going to the Makati City Jail. It is perhaps a relatively cleaner prison compared to the notorious New Bilibid Prison. Certainly, a rich and influential man like Leviste will be able to pay for a lot of privileges that ordinary prisoners do not have.

Perhaps Congressman Romeo Jalosjos, Mayor Antonio Sanchez, and Claudio Teehankee Jr. can give Leviste a couple of insider tips. Maybe, even former President Joseph Estrada (who was convicted of plunder) can tell Leviste how to get a Presidential pardon.

As long as we are talking about politics, let me mention that when news about Leviste shooting Delas Alas broke out, one of the first people asked to comment on the incident was Senator Loren Legarda -- who was then running for Senator after her failed attempt at the Vice Presidency in 2004.

I don't remember if I heard Legarda speaking on a live interview on AM radio, but I remember her presaging her comment with an admission that she had been estranged from Leviste for quite some time -- distancing herself from her husband who was also her major political and financial benefactor.

Perhaps it was sound judgement, from a political standpoint. Perhaps her heart bled and her eyes teared up just like St. Peter when he realized that he had denied Jesus Christ three times. Who knows?

Pinoy Biz is now Pinoy Buzz

Laurence a. k. a. Words for Moolah, Angry Manileno, and Pinoy Media Insider drove home a very good point about my blog's title.

My blog, as it is now, doesn't having anything to do about business in the strict sense of the term and this may be misleading people, thwarting return visits.

Several things confirm this.

Both my bravenet and webstats motigo counters indicate that less than 25 percent of my visitors return to my blog.

The reports from Google Analytics were better at explaining this because it indicated that a fair amount of visitors bounced or clicked away when I posted the articles about blogging for money. The visitors that did stay and read a couple of pages were the ones that had to do with current news (the Pangandaman-Dela Paz Valley Golf Club Brawl).

So, considering my friend's opinion and looking at the data, I've decided to change my blog's title while keeping the URL for the meantime.

The content, as it has been for the past couple of days, will be about my own quirky views about Philippine politics and the media that covers it.

Malacanang scraps EO 464, Philippine Senate nixes Supreme Court proposal on Neri

I got a serious case of the the flue just as I decided to wield my Laptop of Justice in the Court of Public Opinion. This should explain why I haven't actually blogged directly from the Senate as promised. Ha-ha!

Two major things have happened in the past couple of days. First, Malacanang has scrapped Executive Order 464 which bars government officials from the Executive Branch from testifying in legislative inquires. Second, the Philippine Senate has rejected the Supreme Court's compromise solution that would have allowed former National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director General Romulo Neri to resume his Senate testimony on the National Broadband Network (NBN) deal with China’s ZTE Corp.

Finally, the search for truth has been unfettered or so it would seem if you had half a brain.

In the Philippine Daily Inquirer article on the revocation of EO 464, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said that President Arroyo revoked the order because "she also seeks truth and justice."

“The President listens to the people. It is in the best interest of everybody to heal our present conflict…so [she] issued the order revoking [EO 464] immediately,” Bunye told Palace reporters.

“The President agrees [to the] search for truth. The fight against corruption is a pillar of this administration,” he pointed out.

Really?! The President is also seeking truth and justice too? Awww! Come on Mr. Bunye! You're making it seem that the truth is so hard to get at. Only a lawyer could ever think that finding truth and justice could be a complicated matter -- perhaps, it is because that the lawyers of Malacanang would want the President to tell the truth but at the same time not be held accountable for the truth.

This suggests that in Malacanang, not only does the left hand not know what the right hand is doing, it laughably suggests that President Gloria doesn't even know what both of her hands are doing! She is far too much of a politician to credibly feign sincerity in searching for the truth. The real kicker here is that if she wanted to know the truth, all she really had to do was to squeeze the First Gentleman by the nuts and ask if he really had anything to do with the NBN controversy. (Comically, perhaps the Big Boy would shout in excruciating pain and say "But Gloria, you were in on it from the get go! You know every thing about it from the start. This is Abalos' payback for orchestrating the 'Hello Garci' fiasco that won the Presidency for you.")

This suggests an acute kind of neurosis, a multiple personality disorder in the highest office of the land, where they have hidden themselves so far from the truth that the only way to get to it is to travel to another planet entirely.

Malacanang cannot claim to be fighting against corruption unless it is fighting against itself or is engaged in a Mafia style rubout of inferior corruption syndicates so it can monopolize corruption -- which, by the way, was what the Marcoses did.

It seems unlikely that any truth or credible findings will turn up if President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has herself or any of her minions investigated for corruption. In Japan and other nations whose leaders have a higher sense of honor, leaders faced with grave evidence of corruption either resign or commit suicide or both. Will we see that in the Philippines?

In any case, the investigation at the Senate will plod on as usual as Senators continue to ask the same questions over and over and over and over. Senator Loren Legarda, for one, had stepped in during a hearing and asked questions that were already asked by previous Senators. For a former broadcast journalist, she doesn't seem to be too keen on the practice of monitoring and keeping abreast with the latest developments before opening her mouth.

But anyway, what we are really hoping to hear from Neri are exactly the answers to the questions he refuses to answer. What we want to find out from him is whether President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo told him to approve the NBN deal despite having told her that Abalos had offered him a bribe of P200 Million. What we want to find out from Neri is if he knows that the President herself would benefit from kickbacks, whether directly or indirectly.

This is as much as I can blog right now, gotta make that trip to the senate. I will certainly blog some more later, so keep checking for updates on this blog.

NBN investigation tops Pinoy karaoke music charts

Political observers looking at the Philippine situation right now might as well gauge how seriously affected the country is by the Senate investigation into the anomalous NBN ZTE just by listening to the songs being sung by national figures and politicians.

Perhaps this can give birth to the rise of a blockbuster musicale of epidemic proportions.

During his first appearance at the Senate NBN investigations, Engr. Jun Lozada was memorably quoted as saying he had been given instructions by former NEDA Secretary Romulo Neri to 'moderate their greed' or moderate the greed of Benjamin Abalos and Joey De Venecia. Senate Press Corps reporters were quite inventive in singing the popular phrase 'moderate their greed' to the tune of Billy Ray Cyrus' popular line dance song 'Achy Breaky Heart'.

Last week, while Lozada was at the Senate telling how he was forced by law enforcers to take a tour of Laguna after he arrived from Hongkong, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo broke out into song with no less than Richard Carpenter on the keyboards.

The President, who even as Undersecretary at the DTI, was known for her singing prowess sang the refrain of “I Have You” -- one of the more memorable Carpenters songs. She went solo with the memorable refrain: “Sometimes/ When I’m almost to surrender/ Then I stop/ And I remember/ I have you/ To save my day.”

She says that the song was dedicated to the First Gentleman. Really?

Over the weekend, on Sunday, Lozada was at a Catholic mass in La Salle Greenhills together with EDSA 86 icons former President Corazon Aquino et al and together they sang one of the favorite songs of sandal clad patriots, 'Ang Bayan Kong Pilipinas' with lyrics penned by Jose Corazon de Jesus Melody by Constancio de Guzman. With fists clenched and arms raised, they sang 'Ang bayan kong Pilipinas, Lupain ng ginto't bulaklak, Pag-ibig ang sa kanyang palad, Nag-alay ng ganda't dilag. At sa kanyang yumi at ganda, Dayuhan ay nahalina, Bayan ko, binihag ka, Nasadlak sa dusa. Ibon mang may layang lumipad, Kulungin mo at umiiyak, Bayan pa kayang sakdal dilag, Ang di magnasang makaalpas! Pilipinas kong minumutya, Pugad ng luha ko't dalita Aking adhika, Makita kang sakdal laya!'

I don't know when this song was first sung but there are some references to it being sung by nationalists in the thousands of struggles and uprisings Filipinos had to fight in order to gain freedom. I remember hearing Freddie Aguilar singing this song in the heady days after the assasination of former Senator Ninoy Aquino, I was just in Grade 7 then. (Having heard it sung again under current circumstances sends shivers through my very core.)

Anyway, one sentiment in the song refers to the Philippines being pillaged by foreigners. If you think about it and maybe loosely apply the idea to the NBN deal mess, you can probably say that Abalos et al are selling off our people to penury through the NBN loan. It is, apparently, no longer necessary to attack and subdue a nation through military might in order to compel it to give up its resources to the invading country. All you have to do is to bribe Filipino government officials and they'll hand over the lives of 80 million Filipinos to you.

The other day, one her former Tourism Secretary and now Senator Richard Gordon raised a poignant point with regard to the NBN investigation.

Gordon said "We want something to happen in this investigation and I am afraid that we are headed towards nowhere again." and reminded everyone that other investigations launched in the Senate had gone nowhere quickly, even after making recommendations to prosecute people involved in other anomalies.

Senator Gordon could have also burst out into song (and he has a pretty good singing voice), this time with a Diana Ross classic, the Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To?) composed by M. Masser and G. Goffin. The first two stanzas may as well be dedicated to the Filipino people, 'Do you know where you're going to?/ Do you like the things that life is showing you /Where are you going to?/ Do you know...?/ Do you get/ What you're hoping for/ When you look behind you/ There's no open door/ What are you hoping for?/ Do you know...?'

Which brings me to the point of this latest entry in my blog and allow me to address my countrymen in Tagalog.

Mga Kabayan, saan ba tayo patungo nito?

Ayoko nang pumunta sa EDSA ulit, kabayan. Tama na iyong original na EDSA nung 1986. Nung ikalawang beses nating ginawa ito, eh klarong klaro na mali ang pinaupo natin -- mas masahol pa dun sa pinatalsik natin.

Heto ako ngayon kabayan, nagsimula na akong mag-proseso ng papeles para sa Seaman's Book ko at nagdesisyon na akong sumampa ng barko bilang Broadcast Operator sa isang cruise ship. Wala na akong makitang pag-asa para umasenso sa sarili kong bayan.

Kapag natuloy ako, walong buwan akong mawawala sa piling ng kaisa-isa kong anak. Walong buwan sa buhay ng anak ko ang ipapagpalit ko sa dolyares na kikitain ko. Mukhang wala na yata akong ibang pagpipilian kasi, sa tingin ko, kung gusto natin ng pagbabago eh dapat ngayon pa lang lumilitaw na ang magagandang options.

Tignan mo na lang ang mga pangalan na lumilitaw bilang Presidentiable sa 2010, ayon sa pinakahuling survey ng SWS.

"Thirty percent of Filipino adults named Vice-President Noli de Castro, 27% named Senate President Manuel Villar Jr., 23% named Senator Loren Legarda, and 20% named Senator Manuel Roxas II as recommended successors to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, according to the November 30 - December 3, 2007 Social Weather Survey which asked for up to three names they recommend."

Okay lang sana kung parang pagpapatakbo ng isang palabas sa TV ang pagpapatakbo sa bansa. Ano ba ang alam ni Ka Noli sa pagiging Pangulo? Mayroon ba tayong nakitang batayan o track record niya bilang isang government executive? Nag-iisip kaya ang 1,200 na tinanong para sa survey na ito? Malamang, hindi.

Sige, kung hindi okay si Noli, paano naman kaya si Villar? Sinasabi niyang yumaman siya sa Sipag at Tiyaga, ang nakalimutan niyang mabanggit eh iyong parte na yumaman siya sa Sipag at Tiyaga ng ibang tao. Tandaan niyo sana na si Villar ang nagpasa ng impeachment case laban kay Estrada nuong 2001 bilang House Speaker. Nuong 2007 bilang Senate President, siya naman ang humingi na patawarin na si Estrada - kahit pa convicted si Estrada sa salang plunder at ni isang araw ay hindi nakatikim ng buhay kulungan. Tapos nitong 2008, umikot pa sila ni Estrada sa Bataan para ibandera ang kanilang mistulang samahan.

Hindi ba, ayaw natin sa balimbing at higit sa lahat, ayaw natin ng oportunista? Anong paninindigan ang pinapakita ni Villar? Sunod lang ng sunod sa agos ang mamang iyan at kapag ganyan ang naging Presidente natin, ang papanigan niya ay hindi iyong mga kababayan natin -- ang papanigan niya ay ang interes ng mga malalakas, mayayaman at may kapangyarihan. Sabihin na natin ang tutoo, maraming pumapanig kay Villar kasi may nakukuhang grasya at ang grasya na ito ay galing sa kabang bayan -- galing sa bulsa ng taong kinakaltasan ng witholding tax, sa taong nagbabayad ng EVAT, at sa lahat ng taong nagbibigay ng pera sa pamahalaan sa pamamagitan ng samu't saring mga sinisingil sa bawat transaction.

Ano ba alam ni Villar sa pagpapalakad ng bansa? Senado nga eh walang direksyon at walang prayoridad. Basta may magandang sakyan na isyu, yun ang pagtutuonan.

Eto namang si Loren Loren Sinta... Ewan. Halo halo na ang pronounciation (hindi malaman kung British o American), mali-mali pa ang mga idiomatic expressions... Umiyak nuong impeachment laban kay Estrada, tumakbo na katambal si FPJ, at kelan lang nasabing babasbasan naman ni Presidente Gloria para sa 2010. Tingin ko, bopols din ito pag naupo bilang Presidente.

Si Mar Roxas naman na hindi talaga namamalengke sa tutuong buhay, kwelang kwela talaga. Iyon lang. Gaya naman din ni Villar, parang hipong tulog at tinatangay lang ng agos. Dating DTI Secretary ni Erap, tapos nung nawala si Erap eh naging DTI Secretary naman ni Gloria. Tumakbo bilang Senador, ka-linya ni Gloria. Tapos, nung makapwesto na bilang Senador, binanatan na si Gloria at nagdeklara na miyembro na siya ng oposisyon dahil sa 'Hello Garci'... Hello, Mr. Palengke, huwag mong sabihin na wala kang alam tungkol sa 'Hello Garci' nung mga panahong nangangampanya kayo ng Ma'am mo na si Gloria. Iyong tinatawag na integrity, ginagawa at pinapakita iyan sa oras na nakita mong may pagkakamaling naganap sa kapaligiran mo.

I know a lot about integrity because I have suffered for it countless of times in my youth and there are many instances in my life today that I have stood up for what is right and what is true.

Dalawa lang ang itinuro sa akin ng buhay:

Una, ang huwag magsinungaling at tratuhin ng patas ang lahat ng makakasalamuha ko.

Ikalawa, ang manindigan ng walang takot o pag-aalala sa sarili para sa tama at para sa katotohanan.

O siya, kabayan. Hanggang dito muna. Sana lagi mong tignan ang blog ko kasi magiging madalas na ang pagsulat ko dito. Sana mag-comment ka din at para maramdaman ko na hindi ako nag-iisa.

All the President's ASS men

Updated

"Ako lang yata ang VIP na nagpapahatid sa Pasig na dinala sa Los Banos."
-- Jun Lozada, answering Sen. Loren Legarda on whether or not he believed he was abducted, 5:35PM February 11, 2008

Let's call this day at the Senate, "The President's Ass Men", not to be vulgar but to highlight the role played by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's men in what appears to be an attempt to cover up and deny an abduction try on former Philippine Forest Corporation CEO Jun Lozada -- allegedly in an attempt to silence him before he testifies at the Senate on the ZTE NBN Scam.

Covering ASS, as well as perhaps, taking it in the ASS (as in being the President and the First Gentlemen's whipping boys or girls), seems to be a qualification for being a General or Secretary these days.

I switched on ANC just in time to catch Senator Mar Roxas and Senator Juan Ponce Enrile having a heated discussion over how the NBN investigation at the senate was being handled. Roxas was apparently miffed at Enrile's comment that some of the questions raised by Roxas et al were a waste of time. Taas tuloy ang kilay ni Tide, este, Mr. Palengke.

I guess the verbal wrangling had been started off by Senator Joker Arroyo's manifestation telling Senate Blue Ribbon Committee Chairman Alan Peter Cayetano that the job of the committee chairman was to ensure the orderly flow of the proceedings and not to take part in questioning the witness or resource person, which in this case was Lozada.

In anycase, right now, most of the discussion today is centered on finding out whether Lozada was abducted or not.

All of the President's men had been denying that they had abducted Lozada, while Lozada maintains that he had been taken against his will upon arrival at the NAIA.

While this may be a serious transgression on the part of the state, it is also the lesser issue at hand. Senators against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo may concentrating on this issue because, unlike the allegations of plunder made by Lozada against the First Gentleman and ex-COMELEC Chairman Benjamin Abalos, the allegation of being kidnapped by agents of the state has actual physical evidence and a paper trail.

Lozada seems to be livid at the repeated denials of the minions of Malacanang that no abduction try was ever committed.

In anycase, the whole thing is just dragging on.

----

I would be perfectly willing to file a taxpayer's lawsuit against Abalos et al. Will anyone else join me?