Manifestos for Political Reform:Those Above

There is an old lie that has been handed down from generation to generation since the time that the Spanish completely dominated the Philippines.

That lie basically tells us that change cannot happen unless "Those Above" decree it.

It used to be God, then it became the Church, and then it became anyone who could wield power by use of force or wealth.

Even the great Jose Rizal could not see change happening unless the power to do so was bestowed by "Those Above".

"Those Above" refer to people or a group of people who control everything in this country by virtue of their position in society as politicians and as controllers of vast stores of wealth.

Consequently, every quest and every struggle for change has been about seizing power from "Those Above". In seizing power, "Those above" are replaced but the situation remains basically the same. The old controllers of power and wealth are replaced by new controllers, yet the relations between "Those Above" and those who are subject to their power remain the same.

Ever and Echeverri, friends again?

Have you ever stepped out of the house then hear the fierce, crackle of thunder? You rush back in to get an umbrella and your rain gear. After rummaging through your closet and finding out that the only good umbrella left is a pink, foldable pocket umbrella, you step out again.

You don your rain gear and begin to unfold the pink umbrella, anticipating a downpour.

Ten minutes pass. You're standing just outside the door of your house. People stare at you and walk to the other side of the street. You look up and there're nothing but clouds the color of heavy, swirly inkwash. You sniff and smell the smell of water when it hits dry earth.

The first drops of rain fall with sudden ferocity and then just as suddenly, stop.

You begin to wonder what all the sudden commotion was about as you stand and stare in the warm, humid silence. Pretty much like a ball of dough still waiting to rise.

This is the Ever and Echeverri debacle told through a metaphor.

It is funny how some of us find a sense of morality (or even some semblance of it) in adverse situations. Suddenly, we're a victim of some evil and we're wailing to all to come to our aid. The thing is, some people are happy living with evil as long as they can get their way.

It's a dirty world my friend, especially after a five minute downpour. The filth that was homogenous dust have now turned into sticky, muddy pools that tend to cling to the soles of your feet.

When is the Philippines going to change?

It won't. Money changes hands, three weeks pass, and all is forgotten.

Or will it?

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.

Gordon's response to Bong Austero's column "Flash Gordon"

Blogger and Manila Standard Columnist Bong Austero previously wrote about Senator Richard Gordon not being a front runner in the surveys.

This pricked a reaction from Senator Gordon and so he wrote a letter to Austero.  The first thing he wanted to say was that he was thankful that Bong Austero had given him space in his column and how he appreciated that Austero was taking up an issue he was concerned with.  The second, was to take up the issue of why being a front runner in Presidential surveys is no big deal.

I've reposted Mr. Austero's column below:

Gordon's response

"Are we there yet?"

By Bong Austero

A couple of weeks back, I wrote about Senator Richard Gordon in this space. I wondered why the Senator was not a front-runner for the 2010 elections. I listed the man’s qualifications in terms of traits and track record and argued that a major test of our maturity as an electorate is choosing who should be in the shortlist of candidates for the 2010 elections. So while my column was about Gordon, it really was more about the sad state of the electoral system in our country.

The senator has written a rather long reply to my column, which I am sharing with my readers below. I would like to state for the record that I am not endorsing Gordon for the presidency. While he has indeed expressed interest in and availability for the highest post in the land, he has not openly launched his bid yet. I haven’t decided on whom to support, myself.

He says that he is still busy with his legislative work as chairman of the Blue Ribbon committee. We should note that this committee, under his watch, came out with a report on the fertilizer scam last week. That a Senate committee came out with something concrete after all those physical exertions and emotional hara kiri by our lawmakers during the hearings is a wonder in itself. That the report actually implicated the President and the Ombudsman and made specific recommendations as way of moving forward gives us some measure of hope, no matter how fleeting, that some things still work in this country.

Gordon is also heavily at work pushing for the automation of the 2010 elections. In a related development, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting and the National Movement for Free Elections have come out with full-page ads in some broadsheets asking for support for the project.

I have decided to lend space to the senator’s letter because I feel that he raised some insightful ideas about what the 2010 elections should be. Of course it can be argued that the senator’s letter drips heavily with undisguised political agenda; that is to be expected. I am not that naïve. But at least the man has not been putting out slick television ads that, quite frankly, are so gratuitously self-serving. If we want the 2010 elections to make a difference in the country, then we must make sure that our pool of candidates are not limited to those who have the means to build a cult following through magic tricks. What follows is Gordon’s reply to my column.

“Thank you for your article ‘Are we there yet?’ which appeared last Feb. 2. It is indeed humbling and flattering to find out that at least one more person of your stature believes that we should be considered as a possible presidential candidate for the 2010 elections.

“Apart from expressing my deep appreciation for what I take as a kind compliment and acknowledging the merits of your analysis, perhaps it would do well to point out that your entire column speaks more of what we ought to change in ourselves as a people in order to save our country from continuing on a downward spiral.

“Perhaps the crux is not so much that I am not a front-runner, but rather, in your own words, the real problem is that ‘we’re stuck in this rut where landing on top of surveys is seen as blanket substitute for qualification, where money is considered the ultimate advantage, where populist strategies win over the principled, etc.’”

“I wholeheartedly agree with you in sounding a call to the Filipino electorate to look beyond a candidate’s popularity, claims of fabulous financial girth, and demagoguery. While these attributes may make for an interesting and lucrative candidacy, they will certainly fail to solve what ails our country and, in the years after 2010, we will once again witness protests against whoever is the occupant of Malacañang.

“Therefore, the next election should be all about competence, integrity and reliability—not popularity, much less money or political machinery. The tragedy of our political history, of course, is that money had not always been able to buy electoral victory. Even our present political parties have become graveyard of real ideas and the birthplace of empty promises. Everybody talks about change. But who had stood for that message when nobody else would?

“I have yet to declare my candidacy as president for a number of reasons, the best ones are the many pressing legislative matters at the Senate, notably as Chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, and with our humanitarian work I lead in the Philippine National Red Cross. Nevertheless, while we have already expressed our interest in seeking a higher position, I have on top of my list the automation of the 2010 elections. We all need to see to it that the Commission on Elections would no longer have any excuse not to automate the country’s elections. We have proven it can be done in the last elections in Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and given the national political will, we can do it too in May 2010.

“The title of your particular column caught my attention. ‘Flash Gordon’, after all, was an old monicker given to me by people who believed in and supported my brand of leadership back when I was still Mayor of Olongapo.

“It brings me back to the time when I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with my townmates as we lifted ourselves out of the morass of criminality, corruption, literal filth, and hopelessness that was Olongapo before my term as mayor. It has also made me recall the time when 8,000 of my townmates and I volunteered to transform Subic into the tourism destination and industry haven that it is today.

“We also remember the monicker having regained some currency when we were promoting the country as tourism secretary and succeeded in bringing two million tourists to the Philippines a year despite the negative tide of publicity brought about by SARS, coups d’etat and whatever else was there.

“Right now, I am given to a fair amount of wondering: Will my track record as well as my current performance as senator be enough for people to consider me as their choice for president in 2010?

“I stubbornly believe that meritocracy is still attainable in this country. I still believe that if one works hard and becomes the best in what he does, he will be recognized and rewarded with the privilege of a greater responsibility. But regardless of how passionately I fight for my beliefs and demonstrate my willingness to sacrifice for what I believe is right, all I can do is offer myself and my service in humble gratitude to the nation and its people whom I hold dear. The Filipino people want a president who cares for ordinary people, who can be trusted and relied upon to make tough decisions. It is my ardent prayer that I measure up to their expectations.”

Bagumbayan Movement to be launched on April 27

My Presidential candidate for the 2010 Philippine National and Local Elections, Senator Richard 'Dick' Gordon made a big announcement yesterday at the Senate Press Office.

This is a transcript of that announcement.

Question: Are you running for President in 2010?

Answer:

I’m really considering running and maybe it’s time to announce it in the sense that on the 27^th of April we will have a big meeting of the Bagumbayan Movement at the Manila Hotel.

The Bagumbayan Movement will be represented from all provinces of the country and we will meet there in the Manila Hotel because ang Manila Hotel nasa Bagumbayan.

We will meet there on the day Lapu-Lapu repelled the colonial invader and we will meet in a place where Legaspi kicked Rajah Sulayman out and he created Bagumbayan, isang minimithing bayan na bago ang pag-uugali na may kakayahan, hindi natatakot sa malalaking tao, taglay ang tapang ni Lapu lapu at taglay ang talino at tapang ni Jose Rizal.

Question: Will you be announcing your candidacy on April 27?

Answer:

I do not know. Because I don’t believe na, ang nangyayari sa atin ngayon ay marami ng kumakampanya even if the law does not permit it.

The spirit of the law says you cannot campaign long before the election period.

Ang lumalabas ang pinapairal dito ay ang patapangan ng apog. I stand against the coarsening of the culture of our country.

Masyado ng matapang ang apog ng lahat. Nakikita natin ang corruption lumaganap na sa atin, sa SEC tinatamaan ngayon, tinatamaan lahat ang ating departamento, lahat ng bidding ng gobyerno naku-question.

So it’s time we change the paradigm. It’s time na magkaroon tayo ng Bagumbayan. Matagal ko na rin minimithi yan.

Nuong panahon ng kastila, lahat ng mga nag-aambisyon na magkaroon ng pagbabago sa ating bansa sa pamamagitan ng isang rebolusyon, pinaslang sila sa Bagumbayan. Sila Gomez, Burgos Zamora, Jose Rizal, dyan sila pinaslang. Hindi nila nakita ang Bagumbayan.

When you run for the presidency you’re asking for the trust of the entire country not only on your skill, not only on your experience, not only your integrity, but in your ability to motivate your people to take them into the promise land if you will, to take them into an era na bago na ang sitwasyon.

Hindi porke mayaman ka ikaw lang ang talagang mamamayagpag, na kung ikaw ay mahirap wala kang pag-asa.

Dapat sa isang Presidente, baguhin ang paradigm o ang tinatahak na landas ng ating bansa upang maging patas ang lahat.

Ayokong ikinakahon ang pag-iisip ng tao na porke ikaw ay mayaman panalo ka, o porke ikaw in-anoint ka ng presidente talo ka. Dapat may sarili tayong pag-iisip, yung boto natin pagpasok natin sa botohan atin yun, tayo ang magdedesiyon, mahalin natin ang boto na yan kahit pa sabihing matatalo yung kandidato mo, kung naniniwala ka doon sa kandidato mo, iboto mo yun.

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.

Blogger attacks the Vatican's stand on washing machines contributing most to women's lib

In writing this post, I would just like to register my vehement objection to the view that it was the washing machine that contributed most to women's emancipation.

A report from Agence France Presse that I found in Inquirer dot net said that the Vatican came out with a survey of some sort which solicited answers to the question: What contributed most to the emancipation of women?

People who responded to the article printed in Osservatore Romano gave out the usual answers that ranged from the contraceptive pill, legal abortion and being allowed to work outside the home. However, one reponse stood out and this was from someone who believed that the washing machine contributed most to women's liberation.

I sure hope that this does not reflect the official stand of the Roman Catholic Church, especially here in the Philippines!

Why?

Because, in the Philippines and in my homestead in particular, men do the laundry and ironing!

Here's the objectionable article.

Vatican: Washing machine liberated women

Agence
France-PresseFirst Posted 09:49:00 03/09/2009
Filed Under: Women

VATICAN CITY—The washing machine has had a greater liberating role for women than the pill, the official Vatican daily said in an International Women's Day commentary Sunday.

"The washing machine and the emancipation of women: put in the powder, close the lid and relax," said the headline on the article in Osservatore Romano.

"In the 20th century, what contributed most to the emancipation of western women?" questioned the article.

"The debate is still open. Some say it was the pill, others the liberalization of abortion, or being able to work outside the home. Others go even further: the washing machine," it added.

The long eulogy to the washing machine – for which the first rudimentary models appeared in the 18th century – highlighted "the sublime mystique to being able to 'change the sheets on the beds twice a week instead of once'," quoting the words of late American feminist Betty Friedan.

While the machines were at first unreliable, technology has developed so quickly that now there is "the image of the super woman, smiling, made up and radiant among the appliances of her house," wrote Osservatore.

Better Philippines???

Better Philippines was apparently too chickenshit to name me in this entry.  So I am reposting it here to say that I am the one being referred to in this entry in his blog.

"Lately, this friend of mine has been highlighting his boss’ success in getting several measures relevant to our election system legislated. Here is where my friend makes the big jump. Because of his association to this lawmaker, he now believes that he can rightfully say that he was a part of the “change” his boss worked so hard for. I can understand where he is coming from but is that really the case? I’m not sure. What I’m sure of is that he was rendering paid services to this lawmaker. Following his logic, would it then be safe to say that the lawmaker’s driver was also a part of change?"

To which I responded:

I work for a lawmaker who believes that even a lowly street sweeper, just by doing his or her job the best way possible, can rightfully claim to be part of change and he or she would be right.

A lot of people worked for the passage and implementation of RA 9369 or the Amended Automation Law.  That includes lawyers, writers, researchers, secretaries, executive assistants, clerks, political staff, interns, utility, security, waiters and yes, drivers.

Yes, these are people with salaries -- some sourced from the government and some sourced from political contributions.  

Yes, they were part of changing the way we will vote in 2010.

I certainly hope that you're not belittling anybody's contribution towards the enactment and implementation of RA 9369.  Or maybe you are but will not admit it and say "You missed my point..." which is some times another way of saying "You're too stupid and what I said is above you..."

Whatever it is, suit yourself. 

The fact that people get paid for the work they do doesn't necessarily diminish their participation in the results that are produced.

Another thing to consider is that the hundreds of people who worked for the passage and implementation of RA 9369 couldn't have been paid for the painful personal sacrifices they made.

How can you possibly compensate someone for the countless hours spent away from their families?  

How can you pay someone for losing nights of sleep?  

How can you pay someone for getting sick from too much work and despite the doctors' orders, still reports for work?  

How do you pay someone who, instead of living up their youth, has chosen the drudgery of long hours of work for a piece of legislation that he knows will work for everyone's interest?  

How can you pay someone who didn't get paid his salary at a time when he badly needed the money but went to work anyway?  

How do you pay someone who actually refuses to get paid and really volunteers for work?  

How can you pay someone who, despite their qualifications, chooses to work for government pay just because he or she believes in the lawmaker her or she is working for?

No matter how small a part these people played in getting RA 9369 enacted and implemented, they still played a part in change.  

They can tell it to the world and the lawmaker will openly credit them for it, that's the kind of leader he is.

Google Chrome is great

I've had Google Chrome installed on my laptop for some time now and so far, I've grown to like it more than Firefox.

I got the link for the Google Chrome download at Webstats Motigo.

Unlike other internet browsers, Google Chrome opens with thumbnails of the websites you've visited the most.  With Internet Explorer and Firefox, the only option you have is to assign what page it opens up to when you start it up.

This feature of Chrome is quite convenient for me as I normally open not only my e-mail but also log on to Facebook, Blogger, Inquirer.net, gmanew.tv, and a few other websites when I log on to the internet.

Another feature of Chrome which I found a bit magical is that I don't have to configure the browser's proxy settings when I change locations from home to my workplace.  With Firefox and Internet Explorer, I usually have to open up 'options' and tinker with the settings a bit so I can connect to the wi-fi at the office.

I have been visiting all sorts of websites using Chrome and I've had no problems viewing the pages I've visited so far.  There were a number of time that it did give me the option of 'killing' the page, but I think this has a lot more to do with the speed of my internet connection.  (I use a dial up connection at home and that's when I usually get the 'kill' message or 'DNS error'.)

The Chrome also has a neat option that allows you to report a broken link.

A friend at work, though, says that Google Chrome doesn't work well on his laptop.  I'm using Chrome on an old Neo (It's a relatively low priced laptop that I've had for around 2 years now.  It has an Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor at 1.6GHz 590 MHz, 504 of RAM, and that's just about all I can tell you based on what System tells me.)  My friend's laptop is on the higher end and so I don't know why he said that it Chrome runs slower on his laptop.

Solving Metro Manila traffic problems: Pedal power anyone?

Better Philippines poses this one question:

If I will be given a chance I will ask our candidates one simple question to test their creative thinking and to see if they really have what it takes to solve our country’s problems. My question will be: How do you plan to solve Metro Manila’s traffic problem?

Before we can even do away with the bane of most private motorists, which are jeeps and buses, we have to find alternative means of transportation for our people.

When fuel prices went beyond $100 per barrel last year and pump prices in the Philippines breached the P50.00 per liter level, Senator Richard Gordon began proposing a number of solutions that would not only reduce traffic but also help curb our country's demand for fossil fuels.

One solution, much to the staff's private consternation, was to get more people to use bicycles.

The kernel of the idea is, perhaps, if there are lesser vehicles on the road there will be lesser traffic.  Our streets will also be used more efficiently since more people can occupy the same space if they are on bicycles than if they are inside cars, jeeps, or buses.

I almost laughed because I suddenly remembered the story of Ariel Ureta (which he has already debunked) being made to bike around the CCP after he quipped, "Para sa pag-unlad ng bayan, bisikleta ang kailangan!" which spoofed one of Marcos' slogans.

Well, the idea ain't new but maybe it gained some currency again because of all the talk about global warming and climate change -- apart from the high price of gas and diesel.  More people using bicycles would reduce carbon emissions while slackening the demand for gas and diesel.

A bill was circulating in the US Congress for some time and it proposed incentives for people who ride bicycles to work.  In October last year, former President George Bush signed the Bicycle Commuter Benefits Act and the law provides:

The benefit -- up to $20 per month -- begins with the new year in 2009. Employers may reimburse employees, tax free, for "reasonable" expenses related to their bike commute, including equipment purchases, bike purchases, repairs, and storage if the bicycle is used as a "substantial part" of the commuter's trip to work for the month.

If the Philippine government would grant the same incentive, I am pretty sure a lot of Filipinos would risk the perils of riding a bike to work everyday for roughly a thousand pesos (the equivalent of $20) a month.  This, of course, is not to mention the amount of money they'll save from not having to pay fare.

Even without such an incentive, I think riding a bicycle to work already has a lot of benefits.

One benefit would perhaps be a healthier population because of the exercise this entails and also because less people will be using jeeps or Public Utility Vehicles (PUVs) that spew a lot of black smoke.  We'll all have a better chance of having healthier hearts and cleaner lungs.

If a lot of people who normally ride jeeps or buses to work begin using bicycles, there will also be a good reason to reduce the number PUVs on the road and this will lead to an improvement in traffic conditions because PUVs are often the cause of severe traffic congestion.

Then again, I tried imagining myself riding a bicycle to work and to tell you the truth, I couldn't.

Granting that bicycle lanes are created throughout the city and other safety measures are installed, riding a bicycle to work for me would entail a gruelling 20 kilometer round trip five days a week.  

And at this point, I haven't yet considered the amount of muscle I'd have to develop in order to push the pedal for two people.  This is because my wife will certainly insist on riding with me on the same bicycle because the place where she works is just 2 kilometers near my office.  And, add to this, I'd have to ride the bike up either the Quiapo Bridge, Ayala Bridge, or the Nagtahan Bridge -- all of which are kinda steep.

Apart from bicycle lanes, offices will have to install shower rooms and lockers.  Riding a bicycle to work in a tropical country will certainly entail a lot of sweating and who'd want to stay inside an airconditioned office where all the people smell of sour sweat?

(Next up, Hoofing it!)

We are all corrupt.

Senator Richard Gordon, in the Executive Summary of the Blue Ribbon Committee preliminary report on the alleged P728 Million Fertilizer Fund Scam.

"Let us not pretend that when the international media tags the Philippines as one of the most corrupt countries in the world, it's only the grafters among us who are under indictment. The label shames us all. 

"Nor is our problem only the way that others see us. Our people are coming dangerously close to believing that nothing can be done about corruption and greed in our country, that everyone's on the take, that it permeates all branches of government, and that working for a larger common good is impossible -- and that Senate Inquiries like ours will come to nothing.

"We can no longer be silent and callous witnesses to rampant acts of corruption and remain blase and unaffected by the many storms of scandals that continually pummel our body politic. We can no longer tolerate the practice of the the art of equivocation and pretense that breeds only suspicion and lies. Constant conflicts continue to sap our moral stamina and instrigate our cynicism. A significant number believe the worst: that we have a flawed socio-political culture where judges and justices toe the administration line, where military officials will always say yes to those in power to ensure future employment in government. Independence of thought, believe and judgement has become a rarity. Everyone is cowed by power, money, pelf, and influence.

"The Senate must not allow this public cynism to have the last word. But if we are to combat this culture of corruption and dispel this cynicism, we have to develop what one writer has called "a concept of enough." We must have to say that this menace must be stopped for the sake of our survival as a nation.

"Change cannot be done overnight, or from a single inquiry, or a piece of legislation. But we believe that every step we take in the fight for integrity in government is a step forward to better governance. We believe that when we succeed in one resolute action to stop graft, we could set off others to do the same. And sooner or later, the time will come when all these efforts will gather together to become an irressistable force that will shatter the wall of graft and corruption in our country."

Is there a Vision for a Better Philippines? (Part Two)

(Revised)

What is better?  Do we really know what is better or are we just priming ourselves up for an endless game of trumps-manship?

In the previous post I picked on Better Philippines for ribbing me for saying that it is important to present a vision of a better Philippines.  My contention being that it is as important to have an idea of a bigger picture as it is to paint the details.  His contention being that all so-called visions are basically the same and therefore, unimportant relative to the specific courses of action that candidates should put forward.

I think his point is much better expressed in "Reject those Motherhood Vision Statements" 

"Wouldn’t it be better if we, the voting public, judge our candidates for the specific solutions they plan to pursue to address our country’s problems? Wouldn’t it be wiser for us to hang our hopes on their clear-cut ideas rather than their general and sweeping statements? Wouldn’t we have a better chance of seeing real change in the near future by demanding real, doable courses of action from our candidates now?"

Just to illustrate the contrast in our opinions, let's take the Quezon City police shootout/summary execution last week.

Better Philippines came up suggestions which he believes are radical steps that may help improve the Philippine National Police..

1. Keep all police officers over the age of 40 away from field duty. Ask them to retire, dismiss them or assign them to office duties instead. Just keep them off the streets.
2. Replace the guns of police officers over the age of 40 with nightsticks or any other non-lethal weapon
   
3. Impose a higher educational requirement for would-be policemen
   
4. Require all police officers to undergo behavior modification.
   
5. Dismiss all discourteous and arrogant police officers.
   
6. Dismiss all police officers that have vices. Make having vices grounds for automatic dismissal
   
7. Require all police personnel to attend daily mass or any other equivalent religious ceremony
   

What does it all add up to?

You'd have a young police force on the streets with their older counterparts manning desks or pursuing alternative careers as personal security.  The younger police officers would have a higher level of education (and I would just assume that Better Philippines meant college educated or academy educated), have absolutely no vices, be courteous and respectful, regularly attend to religious rites, have regular visits to psychologists if needed, and carry a non-lethal weapons (which seems like an oxymoron, how can something non-lethal be considered a weapon?).

If reporters had cared to ask if this was being done, you would have heard the PNP Chief saying that these steps or actions are already in place.  Well, with the exceptions of:

• carrying non-lethal weapons

• policemen who are above 40 years old being taken out of field duty

Problem solved?  Do we then have a better Philippine National Police?  You tell me.

On the other hand, perhaps the Quezon City shootout is just the proverbial tip of the iceberg and is just among the many inter-related problems we have with law enforcement in this country.

Here is where Better Philippines and I differ:  Before looking at specific solutions, I'd want to look for a big picture or over-all idea for a better police organization.

What would a better Philippine National Police be like?

Perhaps, because we've had bad service from our police for as long as we can remember, we can no longer conceive of a better police organization.  Or can we?

Should we have more police patrolling our neighborhoods as well as busy areas in the city?  Should we demand that our police be able to arrive within 5 or 10 minutes when we call them on the phone for help? (I don't care too much about the old joke that says that as soon as a crime is committed in the Philippines, the police are there -- the punchline being that it is the police had actually committed the crime.)

Should we demand that our police be better trained in the proper way of apprehending criminals and also be more adept in gathering/preserving evidence?

Should they be better equipped?  Should they have non-lethal weapons as well as surveillance equipment, vehicles, computer systems, and what not?

Should we demand that the police in our area be subjected to rigorous performance evaluations?  Not only to test their knowledge and skills about their job but also to see their psychological fitness?

I'm sure there are other things we ought to look into, but the bottomline I guess is that it should all add up to this:

There ought to be a real reduction in crimes perpetrated and for the crimes that do get committed, there should be a certainty that the perpetrators will be caught.

That's the vision and that is the commitment we ought to demand from the PNP.  Of course, we'll need to ask them what they will need to do this and after that, we ought to pressure congress to enact a budget that will enable them to achieve their goals.

But supposing that we already gave the police everything that they said they needed to reduced crime and still nothing happens, what do we do next?

Perhaps, what we would need at this point is an effective way to make the Philippine National Police more accountable for not delivering on its commitment.

There is such a way and it is called the Peoples' Law Enforcement Board.

In the late 1980s, Dick Gordon (who was then still Mayor of Olongapo City) and Kate Gordon (who was then Congresswoman) sought and succeeded in incorporating the concept of a People's Law Enforcement Board (PLEB) in the PNP Law of 1991.  The PLEB's main function is to act  on civilian complaints against erring policemen and the establishment of PLEBs nationwide gives victims of police abuse and brutality a venue to seek redress.

The family and relatives of those slain in the Quezon City shootout/summar execution may make use of People’s Law Enforcement Board (PLEB) in Quezon City.

They can find it on the Ground Floor Legislative Wing of the Quezon City Hall.  They can look for Ms. Susan S. de Guzman, Executive Officer II or call 925-6045 local 257.  Other people that can be reached in Quezon City's PLEB are Mr. Jaime C. Bautista, Executive Officer I, whom you can call on 925-6045 local 257 or Mr. Renato DM. Recoco, Records Custodian for pending cases, 925-6045 local 257.

The Quezon City PLEB, as all PLEBs all over the country does, receives complaints; conducts investigations and hearings; decides on citizens’ complaints against erring PNP officers and members; and issues clearances to PNP officers and members.

 

Just how effective the Quezon City PLEB will be at addressing complaints against corrupt and abusive police will depend on how well citizens will use it or if they use it at all.  If the Quezon City PLEB is unresponsive or ineffective, complaints should be made to Mayor Sonny Belmonte.

Although the PLEB acts on complaints it receives, perhaps because of the QC shootout/summary execution, they can go out of their way and seek out the victims to ask if they have any intention of filing a complaint.

On another note, one wonders if anyone will use PLEBs to demand better performance from the Philippine National Police.

A Better Philippines

There is at least one group on Facebook and one website called "A Better Philippines".

If these are indications of a growing clamor to set things right in this country, perhaps there may be hope that things in this country can still be turned around.

On the surface, some may quickly put down these small efforts at changing our country and dismiss it as mere flights of fancy that will eventually go nowhere.

Then again, the Facebook group already has 6,819 members and its wall is very active.  A few politicians with Facebook accounts have already joined it but what is even more substantial is that most of the members are ordinary citizens.  These ordinary citizens are calling for support to save our decrepit education system, better public health care, an end to malnutrition, an end to war and crime, and all others.

However, I have yet to receive a message from them calling for people to take specific action on a particular issue.  Perhaps, they will and perhaps they won't.  Then again, may be it's just a soiree where people can yap about what to do without necessarily having to do anything.

The website "A Better Philippines" may stand a better chance.  It was put up by a friend whom I have known for the longest time and one whom I know to be quite sincere about trying to make things better in this country.  He is scrupulous about determining right from wrong and proposing solutions to problems that continue to confound us.

With three posts, Better Philippines seems to off to a good start.  But, where is it going?

It has yet to propose an over all idea of a Better Philippines.  I am pretty sure my friend just needs some time to get around to writing a post on this.  For now, I think he deserves some praise for his effort.

And finally, let me get down to the very reason why I wrote this post.

If you are looking for a Better Philippines, there is a movement that has been around In Real Life (IRL) for two years now.  It is called Bagumbayan - Volunteers for a New Philippines.

You may have heard of this group two years back when it came out in almost every news program on television as it demanded former Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos to implement the Amended Automated Election Law (RA 9369) during the 2007 elections.  Its members gathered together at Club Filipino together with other groups and held rallies in front of the Comelec Main Office in Intramuros.  And to prove to Abalos that the pilot phase of the Automated Election System could be implemented even in a short time, it held mock automated elections nationwide with the help of Botong Pinoy.

As of this moment, it is already conducting a campaign for voter's education and it has begun with 30,000 of its members all over the country.

As if things weren't busy enough, it is also currently engaged in a campaign to drum up support for HEAP or the Health and Education Acceleration Program bill.  This law proposes to take a small portion of the earnings of Smart, Globe, and Sun Cellular and put it into a fund which will be used to fill the gaps or inadequacies of our public education system.  The money will go to building classroons, hiring teachers and principals, providing a year round feeding program, and giving free dental and health care to children.

These are just two items in a list that Bagumbayan Volunteers for a New Philippines is doing.

In the coming days, I will be writing more and more about Bagumbayan.

For now, allow me to share with you Bagumbayan's Preamble:

Preamble

Today, as in the past, we Filipinos have been confronted with deep and sweeping political, economic, social, and moral crises; lack of sense for the common good; poor leadership and corruption in government; crime, lawlessness, and insurgency; poverty and constant struggle with the economy; 

deteriorating quality in education; inadequate access to health care; 

weakening of the family; and poor environmental protection.

All these conditions plus apathy, indifference, and demoralization, as well as fear, helplessness, and hopelessness, have inured us Filipinos who have become jaded as we continue to face the daily challenges before us.

Experience has taught us that the old ways and the old solutions will not work in bailing us out of these crises. To go down in disgust, discouragement, and defeat seems to be the only recourse.

However, we need to look at our problems afresh and we Filipinos must fix them, for only we can fix them, and set the course for a successful future. We have the power to shape our future and determine the destiny of our country. We must rid ourselves of ingrained habits, prejudices, cultural preferences, and our traditional way of doing things. We must refresh our consciousness if we are to rise to new levels in life. We need to do things, believe things, and think in new ways.

It is time for a new direction to bring our dream of 

a better life for ourselves and for our country into reality;

 a dream deeply rooted in the hope for a new Philippines, a Bagumbayan.

To all of us who share this dream, we must all courageously face the challenges of our times. Thus, in an act of union and cooperation, we declare:

First, that we must be RESPONSIBLE for ourselves, 

for our fellow Filipinos, and for our country. We must change our attitudes, and transform ourselves to become horizon-chasers with 

duty, dignity, and determination;

Second, that we can REINVENT GOVERNMENT 

to faithfully perform its prime duty to serve and protect the people;

Third, that we can fortify LAW AND ORDER 

through self-discipline, vigilance, and respect for the rule of law;

Fourth, that we can build a STRONG AND GROWING ECONOMY 

if we all work, save, and invest in order to prosper;

Fifth, that we must prioritize EDUCATION as 

the key to national development to compete 

and lead in the new global economy;

Sixth, that we must provide adequate access to HEALTH CARE 

for all our people, especially the needy;

Seventh, that we must create JOBS for our people, 

so that they will not need to seek their fortunes abroad, but rather devote their talents directly to their country and their families;

Eighth, that we must assist our people in securing decent HOMES to live in and LAND to work and build on, so they can be dignified and productive citizens;

Ninth, that we must strengthen and reinforce the FAMILY as the foundation of our nation to develop proper values and virtues in individuals and build solid character; 

and

Tenth, that we must protect and preserve the ENVIRONMENT for our posterity.

These are our ideals upon which we lay the foundation of our movement for change. We are the volunteers of a movement dedicated to 

transform the Philippines into a Bagumbayan, a new Philippines.

For shame, will it be Philippine politics as usual in 2010?

Perhaps, the only other thing that can save us at this point from Philippine politics as usual in 2010 is if the news media abandons its penchant for horse race chronologies and encourage more debate among the Presidential candidates about the difficult problems confronting our nation today.

Granted that the greatest problem we have or have had for as long as anyone can remember is poverty.

Let's ask Manny Villar how many people he has lifted out of poverty. Sure, we all love seeing him holding an obviously drugged duck as much as we loved seeing Mar Roxas holding bangus by the tail with his thumb and forefinger. But what of it? Is there any truth to his advertising? Does he really know the duck raiser he is seen with? Was the duck raiser given a talent fee?

Moreover, let's ask Villar, how many OFWs has he really helped out. Is it more than five? Ten? Twenty?

Let's ask why Mar Roxas raised a howl over cap and not other pre-need firms. Sure he is offering lawyers NOW, but what did he do then? Did he help out sans publicity?

How about Noli De Castro. What about him? Well, it's one thing to take credit for something you didn't do and another to use other people's money to brag about it.

Pag-IBIG Fund and the billions of pesos it has all belong to the people who contribute to it. Doesn't it sicken you to have this former TV broadcaster going around and claiming or insinuating to claim that he has made Pag-IBIG Fund perform better? Hello! That's largely the work of one Miro Quimbo, the President and CEO of Pag-IBIG Fund.

The other thing that perhaps will save us from Philippine politics as usual in 2010 has already commenced and it is the AUTOMATION of the 2010 POLLS.

This is more than just a claim of helping people in need. This not an advertisement. This is REAL CHANGE brought to you by the same man who brought you Olongapo City and Subic.

How many people has he helped?

In Olongapo alone, count the entire population from the time that he became mayor to the present.

In Subic? Their names are engraved in stone, all 8,000 volunteers who stood up to 'Preserve, Protect, and Prosper'. You can add another 80,000 for all those who got jobs when Gordon successfully made Subic into a major tourism and investment hub NOT JUST in the Philippines but in the WHOLE OF ASIA.

Tourism? By the end of his term as tourism secretary, he successfully brought in 2,000,000 tourists a year in 2003. Every foreign tourist coming to the Philippines supports the job of at least 10 Filipinos. Do the math.

As Philippine National Red Cross Chairman? He started out as a Red Cross volunteer when he was 17 and we have no way of listing down all the people he has helped. But just recently, he was able to build 15,000 homes in a span of three years for victims of several typhoons. Name a disaster and he has surely played some part in helping victims out.

Remember typhoon Frank? He was all over Iloilo and other other provinces, delivering high capacity water sanitation equipment, medicine, food, doctors, nurses, and a whole lot of other stuff people will need to survive.

If you want a list of all the disasters he has helped people out of, I can furnish you a list and its quite long. Just post you e-mail address in the comment section.

The question you really have to ask is this: Does this country need a great Presidential Candidate or a Great Leader?

If you want a Great candidate, any of the moneyed and popular aspirants will do.

If you want a Great Leader, there is only DICK GORDON.

Want out of ennui? Vote for Dick Gordon. Vote for Transformational Politics.

Ennui is a word meaning general lack of interest or boredom, or depression.
-- wikipedia

I am just soooo tired of everything.

I want to scream "Stop the WORLD! I want to get off!"

Yesterday, I updated my status on Facebook after hearing Mar Roxas give a number of reasons why the First Gentleman's presence in the Senate Hearing on the World Bank Scandal was not required.

I said that I wanted the First Gentleman there precisely to see if he'll get a heart attack.

It sounds cruel and inhuman, for sure.

Think of the repercussions if the First Gentleman sticks his tongue out and keels over dead on the floor of one of Senate's session halls.

We can count on all of our Senators to say that the First Gentleman was a good man and all the usual crap that gets said when somebody dies.

Then again, would it be so different if he keeled over on some Golf Course?

Same thing I guess.

The reason why I am suffering ennui is that for the past eight years, I've been on the receiving end of bad news about our President and the First Gentleman.

I think the real PR strategy here is to make it seem that corruption is the norm. The strategy is to inundate the people with so many stories about how corrupt the First Couple are so that everyone will go numb. Then the real rape will begin, if it hasn't commenced already.

Just how much money has already been stolen from the nation's coffers? No one knows.

Aren't you sick of this shit?

This is exactly what happens when you pick a President because of factors other than being qualified for the job. The three years before Gloria ran for President and the three years that Estrada spent as President should have been enough to convince people that neither Gloria nor Erap's Proxy deserved the votes they were getting or stealing.

This is exactly what happens when the media portrays a Presidential race as either a horse race or a boxing match. This is what happens when the purveyors of information, spew stories about popularity and wealth as basic determiners of who will win in 2010. This is what happens when people like John Nery says that the 2010 elections are all set!

I for one have already registered and I picked my candidate early.

He's not a front runner in Presidential surveys. He is not a billionaire. He doesn't have a party, well not yet.

But do you know what he's got?

He has a forty year track record proving that he can lead people from dire situations and bring them to deliverance. The first time he did that was in the 1980s, in Olongapo.

To prove that his accomplishment wasn't a fluke, he did it again with the Subic Naval Base -- a facility that was a wasteland when he got to manage it and this was a time when the entire Central Luzon region was struggling with the aftermath of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption.

And then, for a third time, he proved himself on a national scale with tourism. Before him, tourism was called a minor cabinet position and he proved that there was no such thing as a minor cabinet position.

When he became Secretary of Tourism, it didn't have a promotions budget and the country was besieged on all sides with negative publicity, tourists avoided the Philippines like a plague infested village. He worked his ass off, reversed the declining number of tourist arrivals, and at the end of his term as Tourism Secretary, he managed to get 2,000,000 tourists to come to the Philippines.

That is why you have your Boracay, your Panglao, your Donsol, your Cebu, your Intramuros, your Vigan, your Laguna, and other tourist destinations that make YOU PROUD TO BE A FILIPINO!

If you want CHANGE, this man is THE MAN.

REAL CHANGE ISN'T MERELY SOMETHING DIFFERENT, IT'S SOMETHING THAT IS COMPLETELY NEW.

Olongapo was a first. So was Subic. So was Wow Philippines.

And it isn't something that is MERELY NEW, CHANGE should represent a major departure towards something BETTER than whatever we had in the past.

That's why he pushed for and succeeded in getting the Comelec to FINALLY go through with Automated Elections in 2010.

That's why he pushed for and succeeded in getting the Tourism Law passed so that our economy will have another engine for economic growth -- better than OFW remittances and billion dollar investments that hardly create enough jobs.

Tourism is a future industry that will make it possible for our OFWs to find jobs in their HOME LAND, so at the end of a long day showing the foreigners how GREAT our land is and how GREAT we are as a people, he can come home to his wife and children!

That's why I say, vote for Dick Gordon.

In my book, all the other candidates are the same. Moneyed and popular, with nothing else to show or prove that they deserve to be the President of the Republic of the Philippines.

Search for the Lakas party standard bearer -- down to four!

The Lakas Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD) party gained prominence during the administration of former President Fidel Ramos. Some would argue that the party continues to hold influence today. Some would argue that, as with most parties whose highest leader is no longer in President, it has already faded and is now merely trying to show signs of life.

Becoming the standard bearer of Lakas CMD is by no means a small thing, certainly. But perhaps it will be more of a psychological advantage, more than anything.

Lakas shortlists 4 for standard bearer
By Christine Avendaño
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 19:32:00 02/01/2009

MANILA, Philippines -- As President Macapagal Arroyo’s allies in Lakas and Kampi move to merge for the 2010 elections, Lakas officials have narrowed down to four its choices for possible standard bearer in the 2010 presidential election.

The four are "all perceived to be presidentiables" and "included a lady," according to Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, who is also Lakas secretary general.

Zubiri declined to identify the four persons now in the Lakas shortlist for possible presidential candidate.

"We don’t want to expose our hand…it’s too early," Zubiri told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a phone interview on Sunday.

Aside from indicating that one of the four was a woman, he said one of them also was a "home-grown talent" and "maybe a dark horse."

Zubiri said that the four were chosen from a shortlist of 10 possible candidates by Lakas officials led by party emeritus chair, former President Fidel Ramos, during the party’s executive committee meeting held at the Holiday Inn Resort in Clark Field in Pampanga, last week.

President Arroyo attended the meeting but did not stay long enough to participate in the group’s discussion on the presidential shortlist, Zubiri said.

Indeed, he said President Arroyo "may take a backseat in the choice of the presidential candidate so that she could concentrate on her work, especially the crisis the country is facing."

"Once Lakas and Kampi get together, we can make our own decisions…and eventually we will present to the President the possible candidate," the senator said.

In the meeting last week, President Arroyo said the two parties should "fight side by side" in the 2010 elections and sought for the merger of Lakas Christian Muslim Democrats and the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi).

Ms Arroyo is both Lakas incumbent national chair and Kampi’s founder.

Prior to the Lakas executive committee meeting, Lakas members had been mentioning as possible presidential bet Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr., Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte, Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman Bayani Fernando, Senator Richard Gordon, and Vice President Noli de Castro.

Zubiri said the session where Lakas officials considered the party’s choices for standard bearer became a "free" discussion as "we got the sentiments of our colleagues."

"There were those who lobbied for their candidate and others who questioned these candidates," he said.

In the end, Zubiri said the four choices passed the four-point criteria that were set by presidential political adviser Gabriel Claudio in the party’s search for its standard bearer.

Among the criteria were the candidate’s “winnability” and if he or she would be able "to gel with party principles," Zubiri said.

Zubiri said that the four choices would undergo a "series of interviews and consultations" and described the process to be an "exciting" one as the party intended to follow the "US presidential style" in finally choosing its two final candidates.

He said that Lakas officials agreed they would have to pick its presidential bet before June.

"We may have a standard bearer by May," the Senate majority leader said.

The party had not talked about a possible vice presidential candidate as its final choice would "depend on who will be our standard bearer," Zubiri also said.

He reiterated that the 2010 presidential election would not be a battle between the administration and the opposition but a battle among "party-backed candidates," since several from the administration and opposition camps have been mulling running in 2010.

Asked whether the Lakas-Kampi merger would signal that the Arroyo administration had shelved Charter change for good, Zubiri said he could only speak for his party and that it was a "consensus" among leaders of Lakas that the presidential election in 2010 should push through.

He made it clear that Charter change was not in the agenda nor was it discussed during the party leaders’ meeting last week.

"My personal opinion is that the people are so ready for the 2010 presidential election…Otherwise, they would get angry if no election is held," Zubiri said.

Senator Richard Gordon's anti-corruption work doubles favorable ratings

My fellow Filipinos ought to demand more from their Presidential candidates than the proliferation of paid for TV and Radio Ads from sun up to sun down.

It is a good thing that there is some indication that people are beginning to favor Presidential candidates who demonstrate good performance in their current position. Is meritocracy gaining currency in the Philippines? I hope so.

In a poll conducted from Jan. 6-9, 2009 by The Issues and Advocacies Center (The Center), Senator Richard Gordon registered a two percent increase in voters’ preference for president as compared from the previous survey on October 2008.

The Center attributed the increased preference for Gordon’s Presidency to the hearings conducted by the Senate blue ribbon committee he chairs on the P728-million fertilizer fund scam, which he recently concluded after having obtained enough evidence to pin down key personalities involved in the allegedly anomalous project.

Ed Malay, a member of the World Association for Public Opinion Research, says that "The hearings into the celebrated P728-million fertilizer scam have also boosted the political stock of Senator Gordon.”

Gordon, who has not yet declared his Presidential candidacy, described the survey as indicative of what people are demanding from their leaders.

“I am glad and humbled that our people appreciate the work we do in the Senate. This modest gain however validates what the people demand from their leaders, that is to lead a no non-sense fight against graft and corruption.”

The independent survey firm explained that people are more likely to choose leaders who actually work on curbing corruption in the country, given that the present administration fared poorly on its fight against corruption.

Following the Senate revamp in November, Gordon immediately held his first hearing into the fertilizer project where his committee charged former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante for disobedience to summons and false testimony.

Gordon's colleagues at the Senate, most notably Senator Panfilo Lacson, spoke favorably of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee's performance under Gordon's chairmanship.

Gordon implemented a number of changes in the conduct of Blue Ribbon Committee hearing, among the most noticeable was the abandonement of the time limit imposed on Senators during questioning.

In the past, the time limit itself had sparked a number of arguments and stalled the proceedings. Gordon did away with the time limit to enable his colleagues to pursue their line of questioning to its conclusion, thereby making for more productive time as far as discovering facts or testing testimonies were concerned.

The hearings have also shined a spotlight on Gordon's ability to work well with all of his colleagues in the Senate.

During the Senate Christmas recess, Gordon summoned personalities who would be implicated by other witnesses. Threatened by the arrest orders issued by the panel to those who refused to obey summons, the witnesses surrendered one by one.

Last Jan. 26, Gordon temporarily concluded the probe with enough testimonial and documentary evidence and recommended to the Ombudsman the filing of plunder charges against Bolante and other alleged conspirators of the project.

Aside from his track record as a lawmaker, the Center noted that Gordon’s gain in the survey can also be attributed to what it called his “no-nonsense style of governance,” notably as Olongapo City mayor and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) chairman.

“Gordon is largely credited for the transformation and development of the SBMA as an investment destination. He is also credited for having transformed Olongapo into a model community,” the Center’s report stated.

As Olongapo mayor, Gordon implemented a public utility color code, traffic management and waste management system which earned the city national and international awards such as the UNESCO Cities for Peace representing Asia and the Pacific in 1997 and the Konrad Adenauer Local Medal of Excellence in 1999.

He is also largely credited for the development of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority when, in 1992, after the United States military left Subic Bay, Gordon led 8,000 volunteers to protect and preserve the $ 8-billion facility left by the US navy, and eventually transforming the place into a premier investment hub.