Thread For Our Next National Administration

[islander]

for the sake of our informed decision, here goes anything and hopefully everything about our potential national administrators in 2016...

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[islander]

Ronnie Juntilla Sevilla Jr., Facebook "No to Corruption", https://www.facebook.com/groups/1581742525370701/permalink/1641279026083717/

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[hubag bohol]

Angay baya pud magbitbit og school bag...







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[islander]

GET REAL

‘Inaapi’

By: Solita Collas-Monsod



July 4th, 2015
Philippine Daily Inquirer

The Binays of Makati are crying that they are being picked on (inaapi), especially by the Aquino administration (from the President down), and that all the charges against Binay pere and fils are only speculation (haka-haka), or are misleading (I don’t know the Filipino term for this), or complete lies (kasinungalingan), which means the legislature (the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee) and the Ombudsman are liars.

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[islander]

The strategy they have adopted seems to be two-pronged. One prong is denial—if they deny often enough, the Filipino people, or at least a sufficient number, will believe their story. The other is no direct confrontation—i.e., never put themselves in a position where they have to face their accusers directly—because they have spokespersons and lawyers behind whom they can hide.

Will their strategy be successful? Well, we will find out soon enough. The national and local elections in 2016 will provide us with a categorical answer.

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[islander]

In the meantime, let us look at the inaapi and the haka-haka and kasinungalingan issues one by one.

Inaapi. By the Aquino administration. If the Reader will recall, Binay is the first vice president who was given—at his request, mind you—an official residence: the Coconut Palace. Naturally the tourism and rental incomes from the Coconut Palace had to be given up, and, of course, it had to be refurbished to his specifications. Initial outlay was P50 million, and there were subsequent requests, which were also approved. Is that inaapi?

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[islander]

He was also given a Cabinet position. True, he wanted the Department of Interior and Local Government. Even then, he was already preparing for 2016 and everybody knew it, including the President. He was given housing, not dissimilar to Imelda Marcos’ Ministry of Human Settlements. Which gave him the opportunity to go all over the Philippines, awarding houses and lots for housing. I doubt whether he ever mentioned to the awardees that he was merely standing in for the President. He was also given responsibility over the overseas Filipino workers, and he made very sure that it was he, the Vice President, who was working single-handedly for them. This has to have given him tremendous advantages for 2016. Is that inaapi?

Moreover, he had a P200-million-a-year share of the pork barrel—until that was removed—which was given him by the legislature/President. I don’t know if his predecessor also had it, but I am certain that the Office of the Vice President’s budget was not reduced. Is that inaapi?

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[islander]

This is in direct contrast to how the Vice President treats potential opponents. Take the case of Vice Mayor Kid Peña, who is now acting mayor of Makati. I interviewed Peña for my TV show “Bawal ang Pasaway,” which will be aired on Monday. GMA TV’s policy is to give equal treatment, and suspended Mayor Junjun Binay was also invited. But following the BS (Binay Strategy), he asked his father’s spokesman (Rico Quicho) to agree to be interviewed. I am told, though, that he laughed when he was asked to appear in my show—so it might be a combination of fear and dislike. If the Reader posits that it is not the Vice President who is the mayor of Makati, I refer her to the videos that tend to show otherwise.

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[islander]

Acting Mayor Peña showed me the Office of the Mayor on the 21st floor of Makati City Hall (he had to ask whether he was allowed to go inside). The office gave me the impression that we were in Malacañang. The main office was huge—larger than a two-bedroom condo in Makati. There was another office, also large, where the mayor does his work. And then there was a bedroom with a queen-size or king-size bed and a lounging chair. Then there was a huge bathroom, and a huge kitchen, with dining space. And, of course, a palatial conference room. One could live there forever, if one were under siege.

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[islander]

So I asked to see the Office of the Vice Mayor. You must understand that Peña was the only opposition candidate in Makati who won, in 2010 when he was independent, and in 2013, as a Liberal Party member. It turns out that he was not given the Office of the Vice Mayor (as occupied by Ernesto Mercado); that was turned into the offices of the congresspersons of Makati (Abigail Binay and Monique Lagdameo). Anyway, a picture is worth a thousand words, and you will see the difference between the mayor’s office and where Vice Mayor/Acting Mayor Peña has been assigned for the past five years. Now that’s an example of inaapi.

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[islander]

When Mercado was vice mayor, the budget for the Office of the Vice Mayor for 2010 (the last half-year that Mercado was in office) was something like P204 million, including something like P60 million for capital expenditures. Did Peña get the same deal? Stupid question, right? The budget given him was P25 million (now P28 million), and no capital expenditures. Sino ang inaapi?

Apparently, Peña was not given any responsibility (or authority) by Mayor Binay. He said there had been no meaningful conversation (in fact, no conversation at all) between him and the mayor since 2010. It seems Peña was given no chance to show his worth to the people of Makati, because he was a possible contender in future mayoral elections.

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[islander]

Contrast that with President Aquino’s treatment of his Vice President. And you will know what “inaapi” really means when the Binays are the ones in position nationally.

Now we go to the haka-haka and kasinungalingan, words that the Binays have appended to the Senate hearings and to the Ombudsman’s findings. Except that I’ve run out of space. So we have to save those for some other time.

http://opinion.inquirer.net/

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[islander]

PUBLIC LIVES

Glimpses of Grace Poe’s political star


By: Randy David
@inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer
August 6th, 2015

Sen. Grace Poe finds herself pondering a question that materialized only after she topped the 2013 senatorial race. Should she seize the opportunity presented by her impressive ratings in preelection surveys and make herself available as a presidential contender in next year’s election?

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[islander]

Despite her initial reservations and modest appreciation of her limits, she inched closer to accepting a draft when no less than President Aquino himself began talking to her about the 2016 election. What was not clear in this political courtship, however, was whether she was being eyed for the presidency or for the vice presidency. It is reported that the President spent a good part of his conversations with her trying to establish the compatibilities and the differences in their perceptions of national problems and issues.

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[islander]

She was clearly flattered by the President’s attention. Indeed, she could be forgiven for presuming that P-Noy was choosing between her and Mar Roxas, the then presumptive presidential candidate of the Liberal Party. It was an impression that many people shared. Mar’s survey ratings appeared incurably weak, and voices within the administration coalition itself warned against an easy win by Jejomar Binay if the party could not offer a stronger candidate.

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[islander]

P-Noy has since proceeded to endorse Mar as his presidential candidate. In retrospect, P-Noy’s courtship of Grace had nothing to do with the presidency; it was all about getting her to run as Mar’s vice president. In that role, she could keep her wish to remain independent, unbound by any commitment to defend the administration’s record. But, for a presidential contender, P-Noy needed someone who not only believed in the administration’s program but also was prepared to defend it. For P-Noy, that person could be none other than Mar Roxas.

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[islander]

People tend to forget that Aquino and Roxas are stalwarts of the Liberal Party, one of the oldest surviving political groups in the country. As third-generation members of the nation’s political class, they consider themselves, for better or worse, loyal stewards of a venerable political tradition. They are rare specimens in a liquid political landscape where electability as indicated by surveys, rather than political affiliation, seems increasingly to count for everything.

It would have been unthinkable for the leaders of the Liberal Party, being the party in power, to adopt an outsider for the top position and, in so doing, cast aside one of their own. That would have rewarded mistrust and penalized loyalty. Roberto Michels, who wrote extensively about Europe’s earliest political parties, reminds us about what he calls a “salutary law” in politics.

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[islander]

“This law,” Michels wrote, “prescribes that men, in every enterprise requiring collective action, must submit their particular movements to the rule of the single will of a leader, and that, of the two possible attitudes, loyalty and mistrust, to be assumed toward that leader—to whom democracies must have recourse—the former is the only one that is constructive and generous.”

Mar Roxas projected only unwavering loyalty to the President, especially in the aftermath of the Mamasapano tragedy, when mistrust for the party leader appeared justified. Mar could not have acted the way he did solely out of personal friendship. His respectful action seemed to manifest a deep understanding of what was at stake at that point—namely, the entire program of government that bound him and P-Noy together as leaders of the ruling party. He took a lot of brickbats for this, and some say he missed a golden chance to project himself as his own man.

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[islander]

In contrast, Grace’s approval ratings seemed to rise with every critical comment she made that zeroed in on the President’s seeming inability to accept full responsibility for the debacle at Mamasapano. The public stance she took in the subsequent investigation of the incident affirmed for many not only her independent streak but also her readiness to call to task the nation’s powerful men. This is what accounts for her immense popularity today. We can’t seem to have enough of brave voices that feed our cynicism for those who rule us, just as we admire powerful individuals who have a feel for their power and are able to use it resolutely. On the other hand, we seem to reserve only grudging praise, if not contempt, for the quiet workers who plod on to make collective governance possible.

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[islander]

I am glad that Grace has the next two months to reflect before she declares herself a presidential candidate in 2016. She may realize that some politicians are prodding her to run not because they believe in her, but because they expect to run her government in case she wins. She may see how some groups are shrewdly using the threat of her candidacy in their negotiations with the ruling coalition. She may realize soon enough that these same people will not hesitate to dump her if they can cut a better deal with the other candidates.

It is what spells the difference between being a candidate of an established party and running as a lone ranger hoping to attract company along the way. While we don’t have strong political parties as they do in the United States and Europe, we do have enduring ties and loyalties on both sides of the political divide, which have lent some stability to our political system.

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[islander]

If Grace intends to make a difference in the nation’s political life, she has to assume a position of influence in an existing party, or build her own. One can rise in politics as an independent, but one cannot hope to shape politics in any significant way without a party.

* * *

[email protected]

http://opinion.inquirer.net/

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[islander]

long ago, something in me wished for grace. she provides freshness where stale political gimmicks exist. she embodies what national leadership should actually be--inspiring, untainted, trustworthy.

then pnoy proclaims roxas as the official liberal party candidate, aka administration candidate. (who cares about political parties here? they're just groupings of convenience devoid of ideology.) he may not be as inspiring, but he is relatively untainted and quite trustworthy.

if only grace accepts being vice-president to mar roxas meantime. if only she stops listening to the ambitious and, yes, untrustworthy chiz escudero, one of two senators who love their voices, who may end up as her political albatross. (i wholly agree with the stand of senator serge osmeña and some others as regards escudero.)   

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[islander]

if senator grace poe decides to run for president with senator chiz escudero as her vice, we can kiss our hopes goodbye. binay may make it.

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[islander]

GET REAL

‘At least he shares with us’

By: Solita Collas-Monsod



August 15th, 2015
Philippine Daily Inquirer

It seems the strongest argument used by supporters of Vice President Jejomar Binay when asked why they still want to vote for him in spite of his alleged corruption is: “Most politicians are corrupt anyway, and Binay at least shares with us.”

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[islander]

This, by the way, is mouthed not only by the economically marginalized but also by people in the upper echelons (I heard it from at least three people who can only be described as Very Wealthy) of society. Note that all of them, rich and poor alike, seem to take it as given that he is corrupt.

In any case, some anti-Binays are helpless to reply to the argument. After all, that most politicians are corrupt seems to be an accepted, unchanging fact. And the second part of the argument is “proven” by the birthday cakes, the cash gifts, the packages he gives to disaster-stricken Filipinos, even the trips abroad to “save” overseas Filipino workers, and the free uniforms, books and tuition of the schoolchildren in Makati.

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[islander]

“How can we answer that?” they ask.

OK, most politicians are corrupt. But isn’t that why we voted for P-Noy in the first place—because we were sick of corruption? Isn’t that why Manny Villar did not win—because the voters saw through his attempts to make himself sound poor (he was not; his dad was a government technocrat, and his mom had her fish stall, which was very profitable), and then saw how he appeared to have used his government position to build roads that ended up making his subdivisions more accessible and profitable?

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[islander]

No other administration has waged such a war against corruption. With such spectacular results. Let us count the ways: Three sitting senators and a couple of congressmen are in detention on corruption and plunder charges (nonbailable). Another set of legislators or former legislators are soon to be in the same position. A former director general of the Philippine National Police is also behind bars. A chief justice was impeached, convicted and removed from office. One ex-president is pining away, incarcerated in a hospital. And, of course, there is the case of the Vice President. We used to complain that no big fish have been caught in the fight against corruption. You can’t get any bigger than these fish.

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[islander]

Moreover, the pork barrel practice which had been one of the major sources of public corruption has been banned by the Supreme Court. And the Commission on Audit and the Office of the Ombudsman are now doing what the Constitution mandates them to do, and which somehow they failed to do before. Plus, Congress has finally passed the bill giving the Sandiganbayan more justices.

Aren’t these results spectacular? And if you doubt it, just look at the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) of Transparency International, an international civil society organization that measures corruption in the public sector of countries. At the time of the launch of this CPI in 1995, the Philippines measured 2.8 on a scale of 0 to 10, where zero was given to the most corrupt, and 10 was the cleanest. By 2005, that measure had gone DOWN to 2.5, and by 2010 it had slid further to 2.4. We were getting more corrupt. So in the 15-year period from 1995 to 2010, the Philippines was losing the corruption war. It was ranked 134th out of 178 countries in 2010; we were in the bottom 25 percent.

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[islander]

Well, in the latest (2014) CPI, we are now in the top half—85th out of 174 countries. Our CPI went from 24 (on a scale of 0 to 100) in 2010 to 36 in 2014. So nobody can deny that the Philippines has gained tremendously in its fight against corruption, measured against its own experience, and relative to other countries.

Have we stopped corruption? Of course not. But the message is loud and clear now:

Corrupt politicians beware: You are no longer above the law.

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[islander]

So we are in a good place, and we must consolidate our gains and go on. And voting into the highest office of the land a person who most everybody accepts as corrupt will bring us back to square one. That’s why, for the sake of the country, we cannot vote for sucha person.

As for the second part of the argument, that at least Binay “shares” with the poor, that does not necessarily follow. After all, Makati is a very rich city. What has been spent for cakes and cash gifts and free education are from the funds collected by Makati—and even some of this money is alleged to have been diverted. However, those luxurious houses and farm estates and the campaigns of a senator, a mayor and a congresswoman—his children—had to be funded. From the fruits of corruption?

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[islander]

By the way, the wealth of Makati has nothing to do with Binay. He used the wealth; he did not create it, as he claims. Look at the map of Makati. Take away the barangays San Lorenzo (which includes Legazpi Village), Bel-Air (including Salcedo Village), Urdaneta, Forbes, Dasmariñas and Magallanes: These were all conceptualized and implemented by the Ayalas.

These areas, six out of the 33 barangays of Makati, easily account for at least 60 percent of its revenues. I am told that not one single centavo of the revenues go toward maintaining these villages and business areas. They are reportedly the responsibility of the Ayalas and the residents. The money given to the barangays are from the national government’s Internal Revenue Allotment.

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[islander]

Binay’s claim to the authorship of Makati’s success counts among his biggest lies. Should we vote for a man whose claims to success appear to be based on lies and on corruption? God help our country if we do.

http://opinion.inquirer.net/

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[islander]

Ditch Escudero, Osmeña advises Poe

June 16th, 2015

Sen. Sergio Osmeña III on Monday said that Sen. Grace Poe should run for President next year as an independent candidate even as he advised her against teaming up with Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero.

“I think the best option (for her) is to run for President as an independent… so she will not be a captive of any political party,” said Osmeña, who has been running in elections as an independent candidate.

Osmeña said that Poe, who is fast emerging as a strong presidential contender, is “winnable” on her own and does not need the backing of political parties, which are just “political cliques” that are “fleeting and temporary alliances.”

Osmeña cited the case of the late Sen. Raul Roco and Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who both ran for President as independent candidates and received “formidable numbers of votes.”

Asked what he thought of a proposed Poe-Escudero tandem, Osmeña said that a “package deal” was not a good idea.

Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/698713/ditch-escudero-osmena-advises-poe#ixzz3inNmC7xu

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[islander]

IT’S ALL ABOUT ESCUDERO: THE FUTURE OF THE PHILIPPINES

by Joe America
July 12, 2015


[Photo credit: hatawtabloid]

It has became strikingly clear to me how things fit together regarding the future of the Philippines. It’s all about Senator Escudero.

Now Senator Escudero inadvertently got us into this mess by supporting Jejomar Binay over Mar Roxas for the vice presidency in 2010. We know how that went. It fed the ambition of the most ambitious man in the country and put him one step from the position he is drooling to acquire. I say “inadvertently” because I give Senator Escudero the benefit of the doubt. I imagine he had no idea how pervasive and perverse was the corruption in Makati. He thought Binay’s “style” was just politicians doing what they do, influencing others.

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[islander]

Now we have the ambitious Binay aiming for the presidency by waging a powerful and wily campaign to rope in the votes from the laboring poor. He is positioning himself as their hero, as a “man who is like them”, against “those corrupt and incompetent people in government”. He is playing the sympathy card about as skillfully and maliciously as it can be played...

Well, we may want to turn our heads and be ill at all this, but that is the reality of the presidential run for 2016. It seems like the Philippines has no ethical or legal or even moral recourse to stop a crook and liar from ascending to the presidency. The stopping must be done at the ballot box.

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[islander]

Now let’s shift to President Aquino and the meeting he will apparently call soon involving Secretary Roxas and Senators Poe and Escudero.

There are two positions open for discussion, the Presidency and the Vice Presidency. But there are three people in the room speaking with the President.

If we took Senator Escudero out of the picture, the solution is simple. Roxas for President and Poe for VP, where she can give Roxas a popular boost, gain experience and set herself up for the presidency in 2022.

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[islander]

That is easy. It is a relief. It solves the problem. The nation is in good hands for 12 more years.

But we are not talking about team players here.

So there is no relief. There is dysfunction and conflict and fighting. There is ego and greed and ambition. There is the all too traditional Filipino way...

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[islander]

 
Senator Escudero won’t take himself out of the picture. After all, he is a realist. He can’t make the presidency on his own. The polls show that with an exclamation point. So he needs some calculated stepping stones. One is to become Vice President under Poe, and then he can make the natural step into the presidency in 2022.


Businessman Bobby Ongpin and VP Bnay [Photo credit: Inquirer]

With that as our vision, we see how Poe is really just the vehicle for Escudero. Not a puppet, exactly, but she holds one of the stepping stones for Escudero. And it explains his presumptuous speaking on Poe’s behalf, giving the ever-panting lapdog journalists some nibbles to chew on.

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[islander]

Senator Poe appears unwilling to set Escudero aside because... well, frankly ... she does not have the strength to do that. He is her friend and confidant. Her adviser and spokesman. Her path to the campaign money through Ongpin and other businessmen. She would be all alone. And she does not have the knowledge or the confidence to stand for herself. She is as green as green can be, toting about her Escudero security blanket.

Thus, ironically enough, she defines herself as not ready for the Presidency. The presidency is the loneliest job in the nation. It is the place where important decisions must be made. And they can be made only by one person. That person must have the strength to do what is right. Not popular.

Alone.

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[islander]

But we have Escudero in the Poe picture. Always Escudero.

Escudero, Escudero, Escudero.

He can’t encourage Poe to fly free, can’t give her the strength to stand for herself. That would be suicide for his own ambitions. He needs to keep himself in the picture. In Poe’s arms, as it were.

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