There’s an attempt on the part of the Corystas and Yellow fanatics to create a bandwagon for the Liberal Party’s standard-bearer for the presidency, Senator Noynoy Aquino. They are trying to resurrect the Cory Magic.
They were all there when Noynoy announced his bid. Noynoy’s sisters, the nuns and priests who were advising him, the Liberal Party senators including Senator Mar Roxas, who has yet to announce his acceptance of Noynoy’s invitation to be his running mate. There were also members of the so-called Hyatt 10, who are salivating for power and aiming for some posts if (and that’s a big if) Noynoy becomes president. There were representatives of the Makati Business Club and just about everybody else who can flash the Laban sign and sing “Bayan Ko.”
Noynoy’s bid for the presidency is fueled merely by emotion. Track record, competence and qualification are set aside. There is even a movement for the collection of P1 to fund his campaign. Just how far this P1-drive can go on the grassroots level is illusory since the Liberal Party hardly has a nationwide presence. And time is working against Noynoy if he only starts working to get masa support now.
Santa Banana, that is the reality of Philippine politics. Noynoy’s followers must be dumb to believe that the Cory Magic is all it takes to be president.
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If you watch the ABS-CBN News Channel and read my favorite national broadsheet-tabloid as regularly as I do, you will notice that their news items are slanted to favor Noynoy.
This is understandable. The late President Cory Aquino gave Meralco and ABS-CBN back to the Lopezes after the Edsa Revolution. On the other hand, my favorite national broadsheet-tabloid is grateful to the Aquinos for that P47-million PNB loan it got under Cory and the 25-year lease the Prietos-Rufinos acquired for their Sunvar, Creekside, Mile Long prime property in Makati. This is the same property that the government now wants back.
Having been a journalist for more than half a century, I am disturbed by this betrayal of the mandate on media to be fair and truthful in reporting the news. These media organizations are now being used as tools to boost somebody’s bid for the presidency.
I agree that there’s no law against media outfits siding with somebody in an election campaign. In the US, the reputable New York Times and Washington Post always tend to favor the Democrats. But, my gulay, ABS-CBN of the Lopezes and my favorite broadsheet-tabloid are no longer reporting news! They are becoming propaganda vehicles!
I’ve never seen such heavy bias before.
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There are talks about a doomsday scenario in case there’s a failure of elections in 2010 with the yet-untried full automation of the polls.
These are all speculative, of course, but they make good topics for discussion in board rooms and coffee shops.
Some say that a failure of election is likely. The Comelec needs at least 160,000 encoders for some 80,000 clustered precincts nationwide. Add to this the fact that the Smartmatic machines are good only for 12 hours. There could be instances where the clustered precincts votes cannot be counted.
There are also fears that local politicians can always stop the counting of votes by the machines in precincts where they believe they are losing. These and many more possibilities hound full automation.
It’s actually fear of the unknown. We have become so used to the manual system.
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Granting without assuming that there would be failure of elections, what then?
Section 7, Article VII of the 1987 Constitution provides the chain of succession just in case a President fails to get elected.
The Senate president comes next, and then the Speaker of the House of Representatives. In the case of the Senate, Juan Ponce Enrile is up for re-election, which leaves the remaining 12 senators still in their three-year for a six-year term. But that doesn’t make a quorum of 12 senators.
Speaker Prospero Nograles is ineligible for re-election and so the House of Representatives would have no leader. In short, we would come to a situation where the chain of succession in case of a failure of election doesn’t exist. Santa Banana, what then?
This is where all those doomsday scenarios come in. Some say that the military would now come in and have a junta take over. Naturally, as Commander-in-Chief, President Arroyo will head that junta since under the Constitution, she’s still President until June 30, 2010.
In a scenario like this, there’s talk that the United States may intervene. Will the US affirm such a junta or will it not? That’s the big question. The presence of some 600 Americans in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi is a reality and makes speculations more interesting. American foreign policy is dependent on its own national interests. And US interests include control of the South China Sea.
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It is good to note that the synergy of Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes and Philippine National Oil Co. president Tony Cailao on behalf of the state-run PNOC has done wonders.
Since its chartered creation in 1973, the PNOC, to date, has remitted to the national government a total of P139 billion, P89 billion or 84 percent of which has been done in the last one and half years under Cailao’s presidency.
In 2007 alone PNOC remitted a total of P65 billion, contributing to the decrease of the budget deficit to P9.4 billion, the lowest ever in the previous 10 years. It eclipsed the lowest-deficit years of both the Ramos and Estrada administrations.
By year-end of 2009, the total contribution is seen at P156 billion with P106 billion or 68 percent realized under Cailao’s term. If the 40-percent stake of PNOC-Exploration Corp. is sold, the numbers would be P167 billion and P117 billion, respectively.
This places PNOC as the biggest government-owned and -controlled corporation contributor to the national government. It is a prominence gained only in the last one and a half years, with Reyes as chairman and Cailao as president.
For perspective, the P117-billion contribution of PNOC in the last one and a half years is equivalent to 15 percent of the government’s total revenues of P778 billion in 2008.
So it is sad to note that despite PNOC’s contributions to the national government, agency officials still practically have to beg Congress for budget approval.
Just why this anomaly has not been corrected is rather surprising. It’s a great injustice to PNOC.
This is something for “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.”
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I got a copy of City of Manila Ordinance 8187, which amended Ordinance 8119, where the Supreme Court ruled the transfer of the Pandacan oil depot to be done over five years. According to the Court, the presence of the depot posed a great danger to neighboring residents in case of violence or terrorism.
Ordinance 8187 now says that the Pandacan oil depot can stay on since it has amended the earlier ordinance that the area around the depot is a medium industrial zone and heavy industrial zone.
I went over the ordinance, and I’m surprised as it listed petroleum refineries and oil depots as “highly pollutive/ extremely hazardous industries.” Santa Banana, how can oil depots like that in Pandacan be allowed to continue even within a medium and industrial zone and heavy industrial zone when they are extremely dangerous and hazardous? That’s stupid to say the least!
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