• 6 AUGUST - *1907 - Gen. Macario Sakay, one of the Filipino military leaders who had continued fighting the imperialist United States invaders eight years into the Ph...
    11 years ago

......................................................................................

The Daily Tribune

(Without Fear or Favor)

Specials:

Bulatlat.com

World Wildlife Fund for Nature-Philippines

The Philippines Matrix Project

Deliberate fraud EDITORIAL 06/30/2010

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Deliberate fraud



EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
06/30/2010
It was fairly obvious that, from the start, there was the deliberate intent to commit electoral fraud and on a massive electronic scale.

The signs were there early enough: The insistence of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioners to ensure that Smartmatic would get the P7.3-billion contract for the automated system, to the point of even pressuring its local partner, TIM, to get the partnership sealed again; the hiding from the public, via the Congress, of the many changes in the terms and conditions of the contract; the extra 6,000 auto machines that were not utilized with their whereabouts undisclosed; refusal of the poll body to clean up the voters’ list; Comelec and Smartmatic’s disabling of all the security features; the insistence that the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines are “unhackable” and that no cheating can occur, while Smartmatic and
.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100630com1.html


No hitting the ground running FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 06/30/2010

No hitting the ground running



FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
06/30/2010
Noynoy Aquino yesterday announced the members of his Cabinet, many of whom were already guessed at by the media, including the positions they will be taking. There were some suprises, however.

Some come from the original Cory yellows, such as Ping de Jesus and Bert Romulo, as well as Voltaire Gazmin, the new Defense secretary; others came from Gloria’s Cabinet and identified with the Black and White Movement, such as Corazon “Dinky” Soliman and Ging Deles, the Hyatt 10 members, such as Cesar Purisima, who also gets to retain his Finance post he held along with the others who will be taking the same positions they held under the Gloria regime, plus presidential spokesman, Ed Lacierda. Still others are Noynoy’s friends and supporters.

There was of course, the inclusion of the Makati Business Club, in the person of Alberto Lim. Under an Aquino reign, can the MBC, the Lopezes and even Manny Pangilinan’s interests be far behind?
Noynoy apparently hasn’t made up his mind about who will head the Department of Interior and Local Government, as he said he will be taking over that post in a concurrent capacity — something that then President Joseph Estrada took on for a brief period, while his undersecretary, Ronnie Puno did the day to day work at the DILG.

It appears that Noynoy hasn’t quite decided to give the job to former Naga City Mayor Jessie Robredo, telling media that he is still choosing between two candidates, but making it clear that he is not giving this position to Vice President-elect Jojo Binay.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100630com2.html


Future looks sunny for Bangkok’s tuk-tuks FEATURE 06/30/2010

Future looks sunny for Bangkok’s tuk-tuks



FEATURE

06/30/2010
BANGKOK — Prapai Hemsuwan gunned the engine of his emerald green three-wheeler, sending it into a fit of rasping coughs and causing clouds of black smoke to belch into the air.
“Life would be meaningless without the tuk-tuk,” he said.

His beloved cart is one of nearly 8,000 auto rickshaws in Bangkok and their spluttering paroxysms — the “tuk-tuk” name came from the sound made by an early model — have become a key feature of city life.

But the brightly colored buggies, most of which run on gasoline or natural gas, are facing increasing competition from more modern and greener modes of transport, raising questions over their future.

A sort of motorbike crossed with a tricycle and a tin can, the open-sided buggy exposes its passengers to blasts of exhaust fumes during a white-knuckle ride down sweltering, traffic-choked streets.

Set against air-conditioned and often cheaper taxis, as well as Bangkok’s elevated sky train, the humble tuk-tuk looks like something of a relic.

But the creation of a new solar-powered model could see the three-wheelers accelerate into the 21st century.
The prototype cart is the brainchild of Air Marshal Morakot Charnsomruad, who hopes that his buggy could herald a cleaner, greener era on Bangkok’s congestion-choked streets.

“It will help clean up our country — everyone will want to drive it,” he told AFP.

Morakot, a former armament and science chief for the Thai Air Force, is already selling electric versions across the world through his Clean Fuel Energy Enterprise..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100630com3.html


Refreshingly informal MR. EXPOSE Amb. Ernesto Maceda 06/30/2010

Refreshingly informal



MR. EXPOSE
Amb. Ernesto Maceda
06/30/2010
President Noynoy Aquino’s presscon to announce his Cabinet was refreshing. Dressed informally in a black shirt, Noynoy handled questions well from a hungry media. There were a few surprises in the Cabinet positions announced, especially his decision to take over the DILG post himself.
Also surprising was the designation of former Chief Justice Hilario Davide Sr. as head of a Truth Commission to probe cases against GMA and other officials of her administration, including the ZTE-NBN project, fertilizer scam and road board/DPWH projects.

New names appointed were: Dr. Patricia Licuanan for Ched, Virgilio de los Reyes for Agrarian Reform, Dr. Enrique Ona for Health, Dr. Mario Montejo for DoST, Ramon Paje for DENR, Rosalinda Baldoz for DoLE, Eduardo de Mesa, Presidential Legal Counsel.

Also a surprise is the decision not to announce the appointment of Willie Parayno as Commissioner of Customs and no appointment for Nonong Cruz. Also the non-appointment of Hyatt 10 members Johnny Santos and Mely Nicolas. P-Noy confirmed the abolition of the position of Press Secretary. As expected, Maj. Gen. Ricardo David is the new Chief of Staff of AFP. This is the first time you have a father-daughter team in the Cabinet with DBM Secretary Butch Abad and daughter Julia Abad, new PMS chief.
Good luck Mr. and Mrs. Secretaries!... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100630com4.html


Plug gaps or scram C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S Jonathan De la Cruz 06/30/2010

Plug gaps or scram



C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S
Jonathan De la Cruz
06/30/2010
First off, we join the entire nation in wishing our top two elected leaders, President Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino (P.Noy for short) and Vice-President Jejomar “Jojo” Binay (V-Nay as his closest associates have come to call him), all the best as they enter into their six-year mandate to “serve our people in the best way they can.” As they carry the burden of bringing to fruition the “dreams and expectations” of 93 million Filipinos including the millions more overseas for a better future we can only add our prayers for their success and the hope that their term will usher in a new level of maturity and unity for the common good which has so far eluded us all these years. Mabuhay!
***
Here’s what Makati Rep.TeddyBoy Locsin Jr., the chairman of the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms said on the first automated elections in the country (and Asean as well?): “Lest it be overlooked, there was no failure of elections, contrary to the hysterical warnings of pundits and politicians. The closest the country came to failure of elections was the thoroughly inexcusable wrongly configured CF cards crisis days before May 10 — a case none of the doomsayers anticipated...” Then, obviously with an eye on the hanging issues and, yes, unspoken concerns raised, in and out of Congress, during its two and half weeks of inquiry into... the alleged fraud, manipulation and related malpractices during the May 10 elections,” he immediately noted the “fitful credibility” with which the technical provider Smartmatic-TIM explained crucial issues related to the system’s operation. He mentioned in particular the variations in the provider’s explanation of the “date-and-time” stamps showing voting done on various dates, i.e., April 27 and 28 in Manila, May 3, 4, and 5 in Muntinlupa, late May 10 up to May 11 in Makati and Biliran and May 12 in other areas. He then noted other gaps such as the potential misuse of the PCOS machines and the consolidated counting system (CCS) and the all encompassing “machines don’t cheat, people do and if some losers are whiners, then some winners are cheaters...”... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100630com5.html


Our future under Noy HE SAYS Aldrin Cardon 06/30/2010

Our future under Noy



HE SAYS
Aldrin Cardon
06/30/2010
The short ride from the Manila Hotel to the Quirino Grandstand would not be long enough to exchange smiles and handshakes. But the few minutes that they would share on the presidential limousine would best exemplify the parting of ways between President-elect Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino and outgoing President Gloria Arroyo.

There won’t be any serious talk between them, or so we were apprised by their respective camps, a rather unusual occurrence between the former allies who have benefited much from each other during the happier times of Edsa Dos, until Arroyo and her family figured in so many shady deals; and Cory — Noynoy’s mother — had publicly apologized to former President Estrada for her role in the Arroyo coup before her untimely death, which not a few claimed shot Noynoy up his new seat in Malacañang.

Arroyo may not even stay long enough to hear Noynoy’s speech, which we were told would center on his campaign issues against graft and corruption, and in cleansing government of scum, which came aplenty during Gloria’s nine-year reign.

Gloria will expectedly just go through the motions, following protocol that would not make her look bad, at least in the final day of her reign, by making herself available to provide adornment to Noynoy’s first official duty as president of the republic.

And then Gloria will have to make her own show in Congress, hoping to clinch its leadership if she wants to stay longer in politics. Or if she wants to stay free, as many are expecting Noynoy to deliver on his promise to investigate all her misdeeds.

Yes, Noynoy made that promise. And it is that same promise that created the wedge between Gloria and Noynoy that we expect them to share some awkward minutes together in the presidential limousine.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100630com6.html


Our future under Noy HE SAYS Aldrin Cardon 06/30/2010

Our future under Noy



HE SAYS
Aldrin Cardon
06/30/2010
The short ride from the Manila Hotel to the Quirino Grandstand would not be long enough to exchange smiles and handshakes. But the few minutes that they would share on the presidential limousine would best exemplify the parting of ways between President-elect Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino and outgoing President Gloria Arroyo.

There won’t be any serious talk between them, or so we were apprised by their respective camps, a rather unusual occurrence between the former allies who have benefited much from each other during the happier times of Edsa Dos, until Arroyo and her family figured in so many shady deals; and Cory — Noynoy’s mother — had publicly apologized to former President Estrada for her role in the Arroyo coup before her untimely death, which not a few claimed shot Noynoy up his new seat in Malacañang.

Arroyo may not even stay long enough to hear Noynoy’s speech, which we were told would center on his campaign issues against graft and corruption, and in cleansing government of scum, which came aplenty during Gloria’s nine-year reign.

Gloria will expectedly just go through the motions, following protocol that would not make her look bad, at least in the final day of her reign, by making herself available to provide adornment to Noynoy’s first official duty as president of the republic.... MORE

 SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100630com6.html

Transition SHE SAYS Dinah S. Ventura 06/30/2010

Transition



SHE SAYS
Dinah S. Ventura
06/30/2010
Are there discrepancies between outgoing President Gloria Arroyo’s proclaimed accomplishments and the actual realities that meet incoming President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino?

When President Arroyo gave her farewell speech last June 23, aired on state-run NBN 4 and sequestered television stations RPN 9 and IBC 13, she lauded the smooth transition of power through a “historic election” that enabled us to “declare winners in hours and days rather than weeks and months,” gave a brief overview of her administration’s accomplishments in the past nine years, urged the people to unite behind the new leadership and thanked everyone for giving her the honor of serving the nation.

In her speech, Arroyo said that her administration was able to achieve many of its goals and objectives, as well as carry the nation through “37 quarters of uninterrupted economic growth even against the headwinds of a major global recession.”

Under her watch, the country’s economy was reformed even though they had to “make unpopular choices such as raising taxes” along the way. It had to be done, she explained, simply because government needed “new money for more and better healthcare, education and job creation.”

As a result, she said, “Eighty-five percent of our people now have access to Philhealth insurance, over a hundred thousand classrooms have been built and nine million jobs have been created.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100630com7.html


Noynoy takes DILG post; Puno also eyed By Angie M. Rosales 06/30/2010

Only Cabinet slots filled; other executive office heads still blank

Noynoy takes DILG post; Puno also eyed


By Angie M. Rosales
06/30/2010

A day before he is sworn in as the 15th President of the Republic, Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino named the official members of his Cabinet, a mix of old and new Yellows, Gloria Arroyo blues turned yellows as well as long-time friends of the new president.

He named at least 25 of his Cabinet members, but kept the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) post for himself, saying that there are still two candidates from which to choose to head that department, without however, naming who the candidates are.

He admitted that Ronnie Puno, the former DILG chief, is under consideration for the DILG post under his administration.

No reason was also given by him on why former Naga City mayor, generally seen to head the DILG, was still being mulled as a Cabinet member, although he clearly ruled out Vice President Jejomar Binay as heading the DILG, saying that he never offered Binay that position.

The bulk of his Cabinet members was largely known, as their names have been reported and speculated upon. There were, however, some surprises, as these names just cropped up yesterday during the press conference Aquino held.

He said there were some old, and some new, adding that the “ bottom line is that these are the people who I believe have committed to the philosophy that the problems in this country are solvable. They have the energy and the
commitment to sacrifice, to do the necessary things that will effect the changes the people are aspiring for,” he said.
It appears that while his Cabinet has been organized, Aquino has yet to fill up many positions in the offices under the executive department, which are much more in numbers than the Cabinet positions.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100630hed1.html


No turning back from auto polls despite fraud — Melo 06/30/2010

By Aytch S. de la Cruz

No turning back from auto polls despite fraud — Melo


06/30/2010
Melo made the statement in response to the Locsin committee’s findings that a systematic form of cheating occurred in the last elections but affecting only the local level and not the national positions.

While admitting he has yet to read the committee report in full, Melo said he cannot entirely comprehend what Locsin is claiming considering that the Comelec only used a single type of ballot and a standard program installed in the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.

“The way I understand it (Locsin’s claims), the defects he’s talking about are not in the machines but in the process and the people involved. Now, when he said that the national elections are okay but there were problems at the local level, that’s difficult to understand because there is only one ballot and there is only one machine which reads it. You can’t say that there was cheating on this side and on the other side there was none,” Melo argued.

Melo expressed belief that the result of the automated elections last May would be the best argument to apply a similar system in the 2013 senatorial and local elections but he explained that the decision is left for the 15th Congress to make depending on its budget deliberation.

Melo added that he is also unsure if the services of technology provider, Smartmatic, that supplied the PCOS machines used in the last elections that were later on found out to be susceptible to elements of fraud, would be retained for future elections.

“It depends on what our advisers will tell us. If they will tell us that (it is safe for us to go on then we will use also the same PCOS machines,” he said.

Melo, nonetheless, said the Comelec is standing by its previous statements that the 2010 elections have been credible enough given the fact that the poll body was able to release results in an unprecedented speed and proclaim winners earlier than before. 

Saying it was too late for Locsin to point out the just concluded automated elections was marred with flaws, a militant lawmaker yesterday called on the incoming Congress to create a special commission to investigate the 2010 Automated Election System (AES).

Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño made the recommendation following the release of a report by the House committee on electoral reforms and suffrage saying that there were evidences of poll cheating especially in the local level.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100630hed2.html


Miriam: No five-star treatment for Noy’s inaugural 06/30/2010

Miriam: No five-star treatment for Noy’s inaugural


06/30/2010
The anticipated attendance of several heads of state and heads of government is not likely to take place in today’s inaugural ceremonies of President-elect Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino as most of those who have arrived in the country are foreign and trade ministers.

“If that is the case, then we are not being given, let us say, five-star treatment.

“In a rating system with five stars, sending a prime minister or deputy prime minister would rate only a three star. Therefore, we are only a three-star state,” Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said.

This was the assessment made by Santiago, Senate foreign relations committee chairman, when asked by reporters during a phone-patched interview on the manner by which some foreign governments are responding to the election of Aquino who initially was swarmed by a number of ambassadors in his residence on Times Street, Quezon City even while Congress was still in the middle of the canvassing proceedings.

“If this is, let’s say the inauguration of President Obama, they themselves should be going. Or if this will be the inauguration of the Japanese prime minister, the quality of the officials being sent will be higher than that, who are being sent to us. So these are standard Third World representation,” she said.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100630hed3.html


Gloria mirrors Filipinos in being Gloria mirrors Filipinos in being 06/30/2010

Gloria mirrors Filipinos in being Gloria mirrors Filipinos in being


06/30/2010

Gloria’s legendary temper became the hot topic at the Palace yesterday, the last day of President Arroyo’s nine-year reign as the 14th President of the Philippines.

Arroyo’s short fuse was often caught on camera and written about, which Arroyo’s spokesmen tried to rationalize during the final Palace press conference under the departing president.
Outgoing presidential spokesmen Ricardo Saludo argued that Arroyo’s display of impatience was not necessarily a sign of annoyance but reflects the “displeasure of the entire nation expressed only by the President” whenever government officials fail to deliver.
Saludo, who served as Arroyo’s Cabinet Secretary for eight years before being named head of the Civil Service Commission, said it has always been her nature to lose her temper whenever members of her Cabinet fail to meet deadlines but this is something that they have not taken against her and considered this as just one of her ways to motivate her officials.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100630hed4.html


Poll commission rejects public disclosure of folder case By Marie A. Surbano 06/30/2010

Poll commission rejects public disclosure of folder case


By Marie A. Surbano
06/30/2010

Poll commissioners are once again refusing to come clean with the public, as they have rejected the move to make the findings of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) panel that investigated the overpriced ballot secrecy folder issue.

All they offered to make the public was that the folders were overpriced which the public already knew.

The conclusion given by the panel was that the controversial ballot secrecy folder that was supposed to be used for the May 10 polls was “overpriced.”

This was the result of the more than one month investigation conducted by the three-man panel created by the Comelec last April after the en banc discovered that the folder cost P380 per piece or a total of P689 million for the 1.8 million folders.

But, apparently, the commissioners weren’t ready to accept the findings of their created panel, saying that they will be endorsing this instead to the Ombudsman for a more thorough investigation.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100630hed5.html


Noynoy not worried over Gonzales’ ‘shadow gov’t’ By Mario J. Mallari 06/30/2010

Noynoy not worried over Gonzales’ ‘shadow gov’t’


By Mario J. Mallari
06/30/2010

Incoming President Benigno Simeon Aquino III yesterday said he is not bothered at all on the stated plan of outgoing acting Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales to put up an opposition “shadow government” to act as a critic of the new administration.

In his first visit at the general headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in Camp Aguinaldo as the military establishment’s incoming Commander in Chief on Monday afternoon, Aquino said he does not even talk about Gonzales’ efforts to establish his own “shadow government.”

“I don’t talk about that. Like I said, if there’s anyone who would join him…Because shadow Cabinets in other countries, in my knowledge and understanding, is formed by the leader of the opposition. So the key leader of the opposition in parliamentary countries was elected, meaning he has a following, he has members,” Aquino said, mostly in Filipino.

“I assume there are some people who would follow Secretary Gonzales, and good luck to them. I hope they will be bored in the next six years,” he added.

Earlier, Gonzales said he is excited at the prospect of becoming a leader of the new opposition in the next administration even as he spoke of already working to form a “shadow Cabinet” or what he termed as a “government in waiting.”

Gonzales openly invited his predecessor at the Defense department, losing administration presidential candidate Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr., a cousin of Aquino, to join him in the opposition. He also said recently retired AFP chief, Gen. Delfin Bangit is welcome to join his shadow Cabinet.

Bangit, apparently hurt, last week took an early retirement after learning of Aquino’s publicly stated plan to not maintain him as military chief.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20100630nat3.html


Happy days are here again? FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 06/29/2010

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Happy days are here again?



FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
06/29/2010
Hey, hey, the old Arroyo gang is alive and well, under the new Aquino administration — if we are to go by the various choices for positions in the new executive branch of government, and the many known personalities who have been dropping in at incoming President Noynoy Aquino’s Times Street home.

The latest announcement — made not by Noynoy but by incumbent Foreign Affairs secretary — is that DFA’s Bert Romulo will be retained in the same post by the new Malacañang tenant. Romulo was quick to add that no definite time was given to him.

Of all people, Romulo should, or ought to know what protocol is all about, which means that he should have had Noynoy announce his appointment, rather than for him to pre-empt the new Malacañang tenant.

It is no secret that there were objections to Romulo’s retention at the DFA, but despite these, Noynoy and his sisters tapped Romulo for the same job he had been holding for six years, under Gloria Arroyo’s regime.
Apparently, for the Aquinos, yellow ties matter more than objections.

It also looks like Gloria’s Health secretary, Esperanza Cabral, will be retained, and there appears to be no objection on her becoming part of the Aquino government.

Cabral, at least, knew her place, refusing to inform media of Noynoy’s plan for her, saying Noynoy should make the announcement.

There were others seen getting into Times Street, such as old reliable Gloria ally, former Chief Justice and unconfirmed and resigned Philippine permanent ambassador to the United Nations, Hilario Davide Jr.

It looks like the very political Davide is again going to have a cushy post under the Noynoy government.

Alberto del Rosario was also seen, and will probably again be tapped by Noynoy for an ambassadorial post — or perhaps take up the same post again.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100629com2.html


The poor and the dead: Strange bedfellows in Philippines FEATURE 06/29/2010

The poor and the dead: Strange bedfellows in Philippines



FEATURE

06/29/2010
MANILA — Emmalyn Ramos’ home has spectacular views of the Philippine capital’s skyline, if you don’t mind the human bones scattered outside her door.

The poor and the dead have little choice but to mingle together in a graveyard in the northern Manila port district of Navotas, one of the world’s most densely populated areas behind only a few Indian cities.

“We would like to live elsewhere,” Ramos, a 20-year-old pregnant, unwed mother of two, told AFP as she fed her children inside a shanty made of plastic sheets, bamboo and bits of wood.

“But we were born here and we grew up here. I don’t think we will be able to get out of here.”

Ramos’ tent is one of several pitched precariously atop a row of concrete tombs, themselves piled five-high, like shipping containers, at the crowded Navotas Municipal Cemetery.

Ramos and her extended family of 12, plus her jobless boyfriend, are one of about 600 families in the cemetery compound, a community ironically called Bagong Silang (Newborn).

The residents of the cemetery sleep, cook, eat, bathe, and wash clothes atop the tombs, and life can look grisly for an outsider.

There are no toilets or running water, garbage piles up among the tombs and the area is infested with cockroaches that particularly like to parade across the tombs at night.

Due to a lack of space in the cemetery, old bodies have to be eventually removed from the tombs and smelly, damp bones are scattered throughout the cemetery or in sacks that have been dumped on tombstones.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100629com3.html


Brother Armin opposed MR. EXPOSE Amb. Ernesto Maceda 06/29/2010

Brother Armin opposed



MR. EXPOSE
Amb. Ernesto Maceda
06/29/2010
The appointment to the Department of Education top post of Brother Armin Luistro, De La Salle University president, premiere leader of the Black and White Movement, and provider of sanctuary to ZTE-NBN star witness Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada comes as no surprise since his name has been among the first floated for a Cabinet job. But the first surprising opposition came from the DepEd’s employees association who asked Brother Armin to resign from his religious position citing a potential conflict of interest.

Certain questions must necessarily be asked:
1) Are we going against the Constitutional provision on separation of church and state?
2) Will Brother Armin’s appointment encourage more ambitious religious leaders to be active in partisan causes in the future? Is that good?
3) Considering that his background is purely and fully in private education, will he be able to adjust to understand the different culture in the public school system? Recall the failure of Fr. Ed “Among” Panlilio as governor of Pampanga.
4) How will he deal with congressmen and other politicians whose support he needs to get more funds for the programs of DepEd?
5) Will the syndicates at DepEd run rings around a novice in government and continue their money making contracts? They flourished during the incumbency of Brother Andrew Gonzales as DepEd secretary.
6) Will he be able to stand up to the demands of ACT, Courage, DepEdea and other activist teacher/employee organizations?
7) Will he be able to solve the perennial classrooms, teachers, school desks and textbooks shortage?
8) Will he be able to arrest the decline in the quality of education in the country? Will he add pre-school and grade 7 to the elementary schools as they have in La Salle?
9) What will be his stand on sex education? Will he scrap it as reported?... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100629com4.html


Mayor Binay NO HOLDS BARRED Armida Siguion-Reyna 06/29/2010

Mayor Binay



NO HOLDS BARRED
Armida Siguion-Reyna
06/29/2010
Which of them? This perhaps is what will be asked, years from now, whenever there’s reference to the name and the office. Jejomar, Elenita, or Jejomar Erwin? Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr. took his oath of office as mayor of Makati City before Sen. Chiz Escudero yesterday, with his family, official guests and so much of onlookers and gawkers squeezed into the 21st floor Mayor’s office at the City Hall that prompted someone to quip, “Bakit noong kampanya ang konti namin, ngayon biglang ang dami na?”

In August of last year the young Binay lost his wife Kenelly after giving birth to a baby girl, in a rare post-birth complication known as placenta accreta, where the placenta is too deeply attached to the uterus and severe hemorrhage follows attempts to cut it free. By his own admission, he has had a harrowing year. He was all of a sudden single father of four, grieving and overnight thrust into running for the office his father was to vacate. But during his oathtaking, Junjun Binay looked recovered well enough with his four children — two on the mayor’s table, the eldest Alexi beaming in between Lolo Jojo and Lola Ellen, and the baby Maria Kenelly carried by Tita Annie — and if he missed his wife he kept it to his heart. The rites proceeded as scheduled and he declared himself at the full disposal of his city, as “punong-lungsod.” It’s a no-brainer, why he chose the senator to administer his oath. He has explained that, “Sen. Chiz Escudero’s endorsement was instrumental in the winning of the family in the recent elections. During the proclamation night, he was there with us and we want to thank him.” But more than simply the endorsement, the warmth between Escudero and the Binays spoke of deeper family ties. I am told that while waiting for Makati 2nd district Rep.-elect Abby Binay to come in for the picture, Escudero loudly ribbed, “Where is the late Congresswoman Binay?” To which Abby riposted, “Hoy, hindi ako ang mag-o-oathtaking, okay lang na late ako!” JunJun Binay won with 125,664 votes over former political ally Vice-Mayor Ernesto Mercado who got 80,151 votes. That it was an acrimonious fight is an understatement; I recall an incident where nagbatuhan pa raw ng mangga ang mga followers nila and sure, there was a word-war of word-wars, a flurry of press, text and even Facebook releases such as those that had the Mercado camp proudly proclaiming the lead in an SWS survey, which the SWS quickly denied, and a political rally where Mercado supposedly presented four empty coffins purportedly reserved for the Binays, and so on and so forth. Most Makati barangay chairmen also took Mercado’s side. They voted for the father and kesyo also campaigned for him as Vice-President, but did not want the son as mayor for reasons such as “He’s too young,” “Ano ang alam niya?” with the rabidly anti-Jojo going, “Tatay niya rin ang magpapatakbo ng city hall.” Five of Junjun’s councilors won in the first district and only one in the second, while his vice-mayor candidate, singer Rico Puno, lost to Kid Peña. Wags scoff “nahirapan ang taong magtiwala kay Junjun.” A laughable assertion, if you ask me. A winning margin of 45,513 votes cannot be “nahirapan magtiwala.” I look at it simply as a “check-and-balance vote.” Vice-President-elect Jojo says his namesake is ready to govern and effectively, too, “since in his growing years, he witnessed how I led the city,” considering Junjun was at 15, Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) official, or youth representative in the City Council, and from there went on to serve as councilor of the city’s first district. ... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100629com5.html


Blog Archive