Of election winners and losers

Poe-Llamanzares, Legarda, Escudero

Glad to wake up that elections are over and that as far as the Social Weather Station (SWS) poll survey predictions of senatorial winners are concern, it is coming out realistically true.

But, just the same it is giving me the post-election blues knowing that, both in the national and local levels, there are winners that should have been losers and losers that should have been winners.

The misgiving one has about the election process really differs during the pre-election and post-election events.

At the time when the political parties start forming up their slate, ones concern is about the competency of the candidates.

We pose questions like:

It is fare for the electorate that somebody influential and in power could just thrust his son or daughter to be a candidate in the senate and expect them to win,not because of their capability and capacity to perform the job ably, but rather because of the ‘magical’ name of a Binay, Estrada and Enrile they carry?

Why has the party chosen someone to run for election or re-election, when he or she hasn’t done anything exceptional?

Is electing the notorious, the rich, the famous, the good-name recall, the new norm now for those crafting the laws of the land and leading the local and national governments, and to be educated and brilliant, with an outstanding track record, an exception to the rule?

Nancy Binay

We see Nancy Binay up there among the winners, who has now the gall to say that she wishes Risa Hontiveros would win so she can debate with her at the senate, when she knows very well that the latter could not make it. Note that Hontiveros was challenging Binay to a debate in the heat of their campaigns.

JV Ejercito Estrada, the son of Erap, made it, too, thanks for the name.

Not too lucky is Jack Enrile, the son of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who I don’t think has the astute mind of the father, and, therefore, not a big loss to the country.

But, you have Gringo Honasan holding tightly in the 12^th position joining Antonio Trillanes, both military renegades turned lawmakers, completing the list of winners in the senatorial race.

Lim, Estrada

In the local level, alas, we have Joseph “Erap” Estrada back in harness as Mayor of Manila. Only in the Philippines can you see a convicted plunderer turning the table against a well known crime-buster in the person of Alfredo Lim.

Having said the above, this brings me now to my post-election misgiving.

If we have winners that should have been losers and losers that should have been winners, it is simply because most Filipinos continue to be sentimental, subjective, and inane in choosing whom they want to be their leaders.

Look where Grace Poe-Llamanzares has landed in the senatorial race?

Her topping the race defied surveys and exceeded expectations. Not that she is incompetent because for sure she is better than Nancy Binay, but for a neophyte to clobber even the old reliable ones speak volumes of how we are as an electorate.The Poe name surely made a big difference.

Hontiveros, Magsaysay

Ramon Magsaysay Jr., a competent former senator, got lost in the shuffle.

And, look where Jinkee Pacquiao is heading, for crying out loud!

The way we vote in some areas sadly describes what has become of some us – losers.

More on Erap and his Manila mayoralty quest

Manila mayoralty candidate Joseph “Erap” Estrada

As if the Sandiganbayan’s (rough translation: People’s Advocate’s) decision against former president Joseph “Erap” Estrada was not enough for people to shun him if he runs again for any public office, after the court ruled him as guilty of plunder and sentenced him to reclusion perpetua, now comes another damning article that should awaken the Manila and suburbs electorate as to why they should repudiate Erap’s candidacy as Mayor of Manila.

To this day I wonder why Filipinos continue to believe that a person like Estrada has the moral ascendancy to hold public office even if he was booted out unceremoniously from the presidency and declared guilty of plunder, as charged.

That he was pardoned by former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is immaterial. It does not change what so ever the verdict. Most importantly, it won’t change who Estrada is as a person.

What I am sharing with you here is my rough translation of an article, Ibalik si Lim na Mayor ng Maynila, written by Atty.  Jay de Castro in his column, Magkaisa para sa bayan, which you can read in this link: http://www.journal.com.ph/index.php/opinion/48924-ibalik-si-lim-na-mayor-ng-maynila-erap:

Re-elect Lim as Mayor of Manila – Erap

“I could never forget Mayor Alfredo Lim. That is why, today, I am asking for your valued support for our friend, Mayor Fred Lim, as mayor in this coming election.

Mayor Fred Lim has already been tested here in Manila. He has a long experience. He is true to his obligations. He cannot be bought. He could not be bribed. He has principle, he has conviction, and he is not afraid! When he was serving as Mayor of Manila, never has his name been involved in any anomaly.

During Mayor Lim’s term, the law is for all. There is no rich, nor poor, everybody is treated equally. That is why for the future, for progress, and most of all for peace in the city of Manila, let us re-elect Fred Lim as Mayor in the city of Manila.”

What have been said above are all words of former President Joseph “Erap” Ejercito Estrada, when he endorsed the candidacy of Mayor Alfredo S. Lim as Mayor of Manila during the 2007 Manila mayoralty elections.

 In all of Erap’s pronouncements and beliefs in Lim, why has the direction of the wind changed and the former president is now challenging and attacking the good leader of Manila?

Do you know that the cause of this is due to garbage only? That’s the truth and that was admitted by Erap himself during his interviews on TV.

Last year Erap asked Mayor Lim for the contract of the collection of garbage for the whole city of Manila. This contract involves hundred of millions of pesos yearly.

When Lim told Erap that the hauling of the city garbage has been awarded already to a contractor and that there were still some months left in the contract, and that the contract is done by public bidding yearly, Erap got mad and said that in their city in San Juan, whomever the Mayor wants the contract to give, it goes, and it is followed.

Lim said that they are just following the law in Manila, and if Erap wants to get the contract of the garbage, that he should let his contractor participate in the bidding and if he could offer the lowest bid then the contract will be awarded to them.

Lim’s refusal did not sit well with Erap and for him to follow the laws on public bidding and this is why he decided to run against Lim so that he will win and will be 100% in control of the millions of pesos garbage contract and the other contracts made by the country’s capital.

So there you are and let’s stop fooling ourselves.

Let us stop recycling clowns, nincompoops, swelled heads, pretenders and corrupt operators for we only end up as the big losers.

 

‘Clean conscience’ or thick-faced Arroyo

The world knows now where former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is, but not before resolving an issue on whether or not she will be brought to her spruced up detention quarters at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC), from her plushy suite at the St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC), by air travel or by land.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) preferred air transfer for security reasons, but the family thought otherwise for safety reasons, due to the worsening weather condition in Metro Manila at the time, and the latter got their wish.

I am just amazed how Arroyo has become a magnet for controversy that even her transfer from one hospital to another, to continue her hospital arrest, has to be disputed.  If the bad weather was an omen to her destined gloomy fate, then it is only her undoing.

Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

Arroyo adulators, in the course of the ignominious event involving herself, have kept on harping that she deserves to be treated with respect, not as an individual who run the presidency, but because the office of the president has to be respected.

I have no quarrel with that. But, my question is: Has Arroyo showed respect for the office of the president?

It utterly seems that she has not or else why does she find herself buried in deep shit now if she honored the sanctity of the office?

No, she used it and abused it for political and personal gains. To put it bluntly, she corrupted it.

Yet, a day before her transfer of hospitals, in an exclusive interview with GMA News’ Arnoldo Clavio, Arroyo accused the Aquino administration of having prejudged her and engaging in demagoguery.

“What I can say is that I have peace of mind. My conscience is clean,” Arroyo said.

“My only objective was to serve. Now, I am already prejudged by the new administration. They are even using demagoguery to vilify me completely. Of course, if I am vilified, he would look competent,” she added.

In plain words what she was imputing is that President Benigno Aquino has done nothing but besmirch her reputation.

Look who is talking!

Arroyo’s face is her reputation, her dignity or prestige and that is the reason why many approved that she took over the presidency from the irresponsible Joseph “Erap” Estrada because she had the trust of the Filipino people.

But, who would ever think that after nearly a decade in power she would step down with some of the worst popularity ratings of any modern Philippine leader, largely because of the widespread belief she was an extremely corrupt president.

That belief has been affirmed as she is now being detained on electoral sabotage charges and perhaps an array of other charges later for corrupt acts she allegedly committed while in power, including plundering state coffers.

In that interview with Clavio, Arroyo was playing hardball and talking tough, but isn’t this mode only showing her thick face at the expense of the moral standards of the presidency?

No special treatment for Arroyo

 

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes

Comission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Sixto Brillantes has put his foot down emphasizing that former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo should be detained in a police detention facility and not in a private hospital nor in her residence, as soon as she is discharged from St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City.

Mrs. Arroyo is facing serious

charges of electoral sabotage before the Pasay City Regional Trial Court of Judge Jesus Mupas.

This is on top of the alleged corruption charges, human-rights violations and other alleged crimes against the Filipino people under her government.

So, why are some people, especially political allies of Arroyo and rah-rah friends, so agog about where Arroyo is to be imprisoned?

What makes Arroyo so special that she should be treated differently from other suspects charged with criminal offenses against the state and against humanity?

Do we still have to distinguish a high-end accused from the lowly one? What for?

It could never have been more aptly described than what President Benigno Aquino said of Arroyo and what she has gotten into: “Therefore, whether you are a garbage collector or a former President, or you’re a driver or a magistrate, once you have abused your positions and power, we will run after you and have you answerable to the public.”

Due process is not about according her a special consideration just because she was once the highest ranking official of the land. On the contrary, for abusing her authority and influence, for setting a bad example, for shaming the country and for pulling one over the Filipino people, the more that she should be treated with contempt, deserving for one who has done us wrong and took for granted our trust.

Arroyo never learned her lesson despite the ignominious crime committed by her predecessor, Joseph “Erap” Estrada. It is this indifference to Erap’s immoralities in governance that is hurting us most. Where we thought she had the intelligence to make a difference in this nation, she betrayed our trust and failed us.

Due process is, therefore, all about giving Arroyo the chance to defend herself and prove to all and sundry that all these accusations against her are wrong.

But, until then, let her be what she is now – a suspected criminal, and let her stay where all suspected criminals, regardless of status in life, stay – in a police designated detention facility.

House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman, who is in the forefront in the fight for house arrest for his disgraced benefactor, made a self-serving statement, saying, “House and hospital arrests are accepted detention measures in lieu of prison confinement, particularly during the pre-trial and pre-conviction phases of criminal prosecution.”

He cited foreign leaders and personalities, such as Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi, Chile’s Augusto Pinochet and even Galileo Galilei, who were once placed under house arrest.

What a poor and irresponsible comparison!

Why didn’t Lagman compare her erstwhile patron to the likes of former South Korean Presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae Woo, former Costa Rica President Rafael Fournier, former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, and former Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian?

Yes, why not, indeed?

 

From glory to disgrace

 

Arrest warrant for Gloria (inset) was served at St. Luke's Medical Center

Glory comes from the Latin word “Gloria”, which could mean fame or brilliance.

Perhaps, she was called Gloria for her parents thought that she was destined to be famous because of her brilliance and will continue to carry the torch of  righteousness to be passed on to her later by her illustrious father, Diosdado Macapagal, better known in those days as the poor man from Lubao, Pampanga, who became president of the country in 1962.

Gloria Macapagal, the diminutive daughter (barely five feet tall), was valedictorian of her high school class at Assumption Convent, was consistently on the Dean’s List in Georgetown University in Washington DC, where she was classmates with future US president Bill Clinton and graduated magna cum laude at Assumption College . She obtained a Master’s Degree in Economic from Ateneo de Manila University and a doctorate degree in Economic from the University of the Philippines.

If these are not astonishing achievements, I don’t know what is, and on top of this all, she got married into the rich and landed Visayan family of Jose Miguel Arroyo, a lawyer in his own right.

Macapagal-Arroyo began her professional career as a teacher in 1977 before joining the Philippine government in 1986, when President Corazon Aquino appointed her undersecretary of Trade and Industry.

She tried politics in 1992 by being a candidate for senator and won. She got re-elected in 1995 with nearly 16 million votes, the highest number of votes in Philippine history.

She took a liking and started immersing herself fully in politics, and got elected Vice President in 1998 with almost 13 million votes, the largest mandate in the history of presidential or vice presidential elections.

She was sworn in as the 14th President of the Philippines on 20 January 2001 by Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. after the Supreme Court unanimously declared the position of President vacant, the second woman to be swept into the Presidency by a peaceful People Power revolution (EDSA II).

This was at a time when the presidency in this country was put to test again as then president Joseph “Erap” Estrada faced a people’s uprising for alleged corrupt acts.

Since then Erap resented Gloria’s assumption to power as he felt he was deftly out-maneuvered, humiliated and overthrown by his vice president.

Estrada was subsequently charged with plunder, a non-bailable crime, before the Sandiganbayan.

The rest is history.

Gloria may have been destined for greatness, but what her father missed foreseeing is that his daughter was capable of being corrupt, hungry for power and devious – all these made worst by the collaboration of his equally double-dealing husband.

The list of scams the couple has been involved in is simply outrageous. It didn’t help that their sons, both elected to serve the people as congressmen, have created their mess of allegedly enriching themselves while in power.

Reports of bribery and irregular transaction wracked Macapagal-Arroyo’s presidency – from the controversial Macapagal boulevard, to the ZTEbroadband scam, to Pagcor’s P1.7 billion coffee breaks, to the Garci tapes, to the atrocious Maguindanao massacre and even to the overpriced helicopter scandal, etc.

The last and final straw, however, is the electoral fraud that the former president has allegedly committed when she conspired with a feared Maguindanao political warlord to rig the results of the 2007 senatorial elections.

Now the ax has finally dropped on Gloria after a warrant was issued for her arrest, followed by the disgraceful act of having her fingerprints and mug shot taken in her suite at the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City.

All these, even as a tug-of-war regarding the Supreme Court’s issuance of a temporary restraining order that would have allowed the Arroyos to travel and seek treatment abroad is being disputed between the executive and judiciary branches of government with Justice Secretary Leila de Lima caught in the middle.

Gloria’s arrest comes 18 months after Benigno Aquino III pledged in his campaign for the presidency that he will fight corruption and prosecute those responsible for it.

Talking about political will of the highest order! This is it and people are glad it is finally happening.

It is about time we start turning this country around and if it means going after abusive political leaders and irresponsible government officials, then so be it.

 

 

Election day: day of reckoning

The 2010 presidential and local elections is not only historic in the sense that this is the country’s first automated polls, but also for the fact that if voters will choose their presidential candidate wisely and objectively and not stupidly and subjectively, we will find ourselves at the dawn of better tomorrow.

We have been given the rare opportunity, like no other presidential contest in the past, an array of ‘presidentiables’ to choose from, all promising a change that will bring the people out of the woods and the country on the road to recovery.

For the old folks, especially the senior citizens, choosing the right man who could lead and turn this country around is a consoling factor. It brings solace to their remaining years, no matter how short it may be thereafter, that they are leaving behind a government that will care for the well-being of its people. This has been their wish as well as their dream all these years to, one day, experience a government free of scandals, scams and greed.

For the young ones, thank your stars that destiny has finally caught up in your time that a knight in shining armor has been voted to be the country’s leader to lift us from the morass of poverty and deprivation and change the country’s tarnished image to a highly respectable nation befitting the people that we are.

In retrospect, either Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino or former Defense Secretary Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro could make this country proud with its people standing to be benefitted.

God forbids it will not be the tandem of Sen. Manuel “Manny” Villar and Sen. Loren Legarda who will lead us into the 21^st century or it is like asking the earth to crack and swallow us. Both are opportunists and traditional politicians inside out who only have themselves to think about – always.

Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas as vice president will be a good compensating partner in governance with Noynoy Aquino. Mar’s education, training and experience are edifying factors in Noynoy’s administration.

Voting for ex-president Joseph “Erap” Estrada will be voting for the same shameful and disastrous presidency of old.

But, if Mayor Jejomar Binay wins as vice president instead of Mar Roxas, surely the people has spoken their minds, too, and just the same he is acceptable.

Good luck to all of us!

So mote it be.