Isabela wins; Liberal Party loses

ENQUIRY
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Isabela wins; Liberal Party loses
Sunday, 12 20, 2009

The decision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) unseating Grace Padaca as governor of Isabela and declaring Benjamin Dy as winner in the May 2007 elections is a victory for the province of Isabela. Further, it exposes a basic weakness of the Liberal Party (LP) of which Padaca is a member: An arrogance so perverse it borders on hubris.

As the December chill sets in, nothing is more heartwarming to the electorate of an entire province than to have their true will in a given election established after a long drawn-out process of protest and counter-protest as mandated by law. While we may fault the Comelec for coming out a bit too late in the day with its decision, we should praise the members of that body (Commissioner Ferrer, most especially), nonetheless for standing pat on its decision and defending itself against the usual complaints of losers.

Among these complaints are the shrill voices condemning Ferrer, et al. as belonging to a mafia out to decapitate the LP. These unwarranted expressions of dissatisfaction are indicative of the arrogance of that emergent party that has suddenly acquired an exclusive franchise for honesty and victory.

This self-proclaimed honesty, however, would readily wilt into a whimper when ranged against the very processes observed before the Comelec in the protest of Dy against Padaca (and the counter-protest of the latter) which were conducted in public, with both sides adequately represented, nullifying any chance for the Comelec to favor one side over the other.

Recently, over a cup of coffee with Rep. Faustino Dy III of Isabela’s District 3, I was at the receiving end of the congressman’s dismay over what he calls the noisy bellyaching of some very influential people in the LP who refuse to acknowledge that the legal process has taken its natural course. Instead of serenely accepting the Comelec decision, these LP bigwigs, he said, are now trying to muddle the issue further by feeding the public unwarranted and misleading statements.

Dy gave me a glimpse how cheating was perpetrated in the 2007 gubernatorial election in Isabela. The Comelec, he said, found that Padaca’s margin of more than 17,000 was fraught with irregularities — there was massive cheating as shown by evidence presented during the election protest. In one precinct alone, the Comelec found out there were groups of ballots bearing the name of Grace Padaca but were clearly accomplished by only one person. In other cases, the ballots showed that insertions of the name “Grace” or “Padaca” — in the handwriting of apparently only two persons — were made in the space allotted for governor. Still, in other instances, ballots showed that inks of a different color from the rest of the entries in the ballot were used to write the name of Padaca in the space for governor. The Comelec had no choice but to invalidate these ballots. The revision of ballots was attended and attested to by lawyers of both Padaca and Benjamin Dy.

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Dy said that Comelec came to this decision when it found out that massive cheating was perpetrated in 13 towns — enough to prove allegations — as attested to by revisors. Padaca’s lead was easily cut down or overtaken after the Comelec noted these irregularities in the ballots that were initially counted in favor of Padaca. At the end of the recount, Benjamin Dy edged out Padaca by a margin of 1,051 votes.

“Let me point out further that our election protest was the right thing to do and is guaranteed by existing laws and the Constitution. The people of Isabela have the right to know what had transpired in the 2007 gubernatorial election in the province,” Dy said.

At the same time, the congressman issued an appeal to the people of Isabela to remain calm and await the results of Padaca’s appeal and Dy’s motion for execution pending appeal, respectively. “The fact that cheating did occur during the 2007 election in Isabela, particularly in the contested gubernatorial post as attested by the Comelec when it decided to unseat Grace Padaca as governor, is a testament that justice is finally served,” said Dy.

The leadership of the LP — now gloating as it does over the manufactured survey results for their presidential and vice presidential candidates in the May 2010 elections — should be more circumspect in dealing with the highly charged political atmosphere in the province of Isabela and weigh the evidence presented. Malicious and unverified charges from the LP will not help solve the problem, but will instead add fuel to the already volatile situation in that northern province.

It is as if the candidates of that party cannot and must not lose, because they do not cheat. It believes too much in the invincibility that it has painted for itself. Have they totally lost sight of the fact that electoral fraud is much too identified with the LP as well in past elections? The stolen presidency of Gloria Arroyo in 2004 would not have been possible had not the LP leaders played palsy-walsy with administration lackeys during the presidential canvass.

It is the height of irresponsibility and callousness for the LP to impute malice to the timing of the release by the Comelec of its resolution in the Dy-Padaca case. And to lump the Isabela decision with other prominent cases like those in Bulacan, Pampanga and Naga City is a great disservice to the legal processes that the Comelec had dutifully adhered to. The politicians who have been ordered to vacate their offices were not even members of the LP when they ran for the contested public offices. So, what “persecution” is the LP talking about?

Dy has some words for the sore losers: “We have kept our silence in the past despite being maligned by the very same people who now abhor the Comelec resolution. Benjamin Dy, for instance, has nothing to gain from this costly and strenuous electoral protest other than clearing his and our family’s name because he will not run as governor of the province in the coming 2010 elections.”

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Maguindanao 2004 revisited

ENQUIRY
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Maguindanao 2004 revisited
Sunday, 12 13, 2009

Media reports about the unearthing of election paraphernalia in Maguindanao sites controlled by the Ampatuans have exhumed ugly memories of what might have been. The repeated mention of municipalities in Maguindanao — familiar to us who fought for the opening of the ballot boxes in the May 2004 presidential and vice presidential elections — is a frightening reminder of the sinister operations that surrounded the stolen presidency for Gloria Arroyo.

Truth, said Winston Churchill, is so precious that it has to be protected by a bodyguard of lies. The manufactured votes in Maguindanao, in favor of Arroyo and Noli de Castro, replicated in many other provinces around the country — principally in vote-rich Cebu, Bohol, Pampanga and Iloilo — guaranteed the manufactured winning margins for Arroyo and Noli de Castro, thereby giving the lords in the Liberal Party and their partners-in-crime from Lakas-Kampi in the Philippine Congress the basis to proclaim Arroyo and De Castro stealthily at dawn on June 30, 2004.

Nationwide, had the elections been honest, the actual votes would have been as follows: FPJ: 6,255,705; Arroyo: 5,743,724; Legarda: 7,384,817; De Castro, 6,682,506.

Let us revisit pages 119-122 of the True Report (By the Minority) on the Canvassing of Votes for Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidates in the May 10, 2004, Elections. In Section 86 about Maguindanao the following observations were made:

1. The Committee (referring to Sen. Kiko Pangilinan, et al., Editor) denied the request of counsel for candidates FPJ and Legarda to present a Power Point slide show exposing the provincial CoC for Maguindanao as a product of fictitious and spurious votes coming from 11 municipalities, which had a 99.99 percent turnout, with all the votes going to candidate Arroyo and zero for FPJ.

2. In the municipality of Ampatuan (registered voters: 9,616; voter turnout: 27.67 percent) the manufactured election results were as follows: Arroyo got 9,321, or 100 percent of all the votes, while FPJ got zero!

3. In Datu Piang (registered voters: 17,688; voter turnout: 97.56 percent) Arroyo received 17,250, or 100 percent of all the votes, while FPJ, again, got an improbable zero!

4. In Shariff Aguak (registered voters: 22,854; voter turnout of 99.8 percent) Arroyo received 22,754 votes, or 99.98 percent, while Poe was mercifully given five votes or .02 percent!

5. In Datu Saudi Ampatuan (registered voters: 9,974; voter turnout: 94.67 percent) manufactured results for Arroyo was 8,944 votes and FPJ got only 15.

6. In Mamasapano (registered voters: 10,503, voter turnout: 98.14 percent) the voters gave Arroyo 10,192 votes, or 99.78 percent, and Poe 22 votes only.

7. In Datu Unsay (registered voters: 7,970; voter turnout: 99.69 percent), Arroyo received 7,905 votes, or 99.05 percent, while FPJ got a miserable 40 votes, or .05 percent!

8. In Datu Abdullah Sanki (registered voters: 6,866; voter turnout: 89.08 percent) Arroyo received 6,045 votes, or 99.02 percent, while FPJ received 60 votes.

9. In Talayan (registered voters: 7,114; voter turnout: 93.49 percent) Arroyo got 6,777 votes, or 97 percent, while Poe got a consuelo de bobo of 174 votes.

10. The pattern of voting had been true with Gindulungan, Buluan, Ampaglat. All of these had a voting percentage of at least 93 percent, and in all these places, candidate FPJ received very minimal votes.

11. The total alone for 11 towns in Maguindanao was 109,151 for Arroyo, and 1,471 for FPJ. In other words, in these 11 towns, Arroyo received 98.71 percent of the votes and FPJ received 1.29 percent.

12. There were no actual elections in many places in Maguindanao. In fact, petitions for the exclusion from canvass of the votes from many municipalities were filed on May 12, 2004 at 6:10 p.m., on the ground that no elections took place.

13. The following alterations and erasures were noted by counsel for candidate Villanueva: In precincts 118-A/123-B, under SOV/P No. 000708, Municipality of Datu Udin Sinsuat, Arroyo’s 57 votes became 67; In precinct 10-A the 120 votes of candidate Legarda shrank to 50; In precinct No. 1A in the Municipality of Barira, the 10 votes of Arroyo ballooned to 140.

14. Only 31 election returns, out of an expected 1,687, were turned over to the Senate by the Provincial Board of Canvassers of Maguindanao.

15. Congressman Dilangalen of Maguindanao confirmed that no elections took place in many municipalities, and that it was really improbable for any candidate to have gotten 100 percent of the votes in those municipalities even if elections really did take place. He said that he had many relatives in those places, especially Datu Piang, who were out and out for candidate FPJ; hence, a zero vote for FPJ was an impossibility.

16. A motion for the opening of the election returns for Maguindanao was flatly rejected by the Committee.

17. The foregoing observations, which cast doubt on the veracity of the votes indicated for the candidates; the continuing reservations and objections of counsel for FPJ and Legarda against a canvass because the authenticity of the canvass documents had not been proved, there being no submission by the Comelec of the security marks as basis for determination of authenticity; and, even if there was absolute lack of proper identification of the canvass documents — all were met by an infuriating and mechanical “Noted” by Committee Chairman Pangilinan of the Liberal Party, who allowed the canvass of the CoC for Maguindanao to merrily proceed.

During the national canvass in 2004, we were thwarted at every turn to have the ballot boxes opened and the election returns canvassed, to prove the lie of the manufactured CoCs. Such is the quality of truth in Philippine politics that, aside from burying it, it has to be protected by a vanguard of partisan lackeys and a horde of overlords with sufficient firearms to intimidate voters.

Now that ballot boxes and other election paraphernalia have been unearthed in Maguindanao, we dare the lords of the Liberal Party and Lakas-Kampi to have them opened, their contents inventoried, for the country to confirm the truth of what we were saying all along about the stolen presidency of Arroyo in 2004.

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GMA should not resign

ENQUIRY
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

GMA should not resign
Sunday, 12 06, 2009

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, she who stole the presidency not only once but twice, has filed her certificate of candidacy for the second district of Pampanga. There being no constitutional or legal basis for her to forfeit her seat as president while she continues to be a candidate for a congressional seat, Arroyo shall continue to be the president until noon of June 30, 2010, the call for her to resign notwithstanding.

If she resigns from the presidency, that would be very unbecoming of Arroyo.

It would be very unbecoming of her to heed the call of her erstwhile mentor and savior, former president Fidel Ramos, for her to resign out of delicadeza. When ever has there been a time that delicadeza been steeped in the genes of Arroyo? And, when oh when has Ramos been the credible geriatric to give such advice?

If she resigns from the presidency, that would be inconsistent with Arroyo’s reputation for clinging to her position no matter what.

Remember, Arroyo has a covenant with the people, guaranteed with the imprimatur of the Lord after she had an audience with the late Karol Józef Wojtyła and confirmed by a phone call from Garci. If she does resign despite being bound by such awesome indentures, what would that make of her? Surely, she’ll be branded as an ingrate by the political lords of Cebu, the warlords of Maguindanao and elsewhere, and lords of the Liberal Party and Lakas-Kampi, who guaranteed her hold at the presidency! It is not in the mould of Arroyo to defy the will of the Lord, her private priests and bishops and other earthly overlords.

If she resigns from the presidency, that will jeopardize her grand plan at staying in power beyond June 30, 2010.

Arroyo out of the presidency while she campaigns for a congressional seat would deprive her of her undue advantage over her opponents. One does not need a master’s degree in Economics to commit the stupidity of agreeing to a level playing field. After all, elections is all about gaining advantage over the rest.

Remember that Arroyo and her future cabal in the House of Representatives need to muster at least 127 seats in the House, to guarantee her the Speakership and God-knows-what she and her trapos — Housewipes, as I said in a past column— intend to do after that. If she resigns from the presidency now, she would be without the paid personnel and realigned resources to wage a nationwide campaign and orchestrate the candidacies of her future colleagues in the House.

An Arroyo out of the presidency between now and June 30, 2010, would be unthinkable, given the opportunities that still lie out there for the taking.

Between now and June 30, 2010 is a lot of time to make hay while the sun shines; rather, to make much more while the opportunity to make much more is there. Carpe Diem, said Horace. Who is the idiot who will resign from office just to let such happy and profitable days go by?

Between now and the day and hour when a new president shall assume office is a national budget waiting to be spent. Who is the idiot who will not care to realign its items to remedy some nationwide crisis, such as a nationwide loss of confidence, by foreswearing public service?

Many issues and many more scams will be unearthed. Who is the author of such issues or the orchestrator of such scams foolish enough to let accusers ride high, wide and handsome, instead of exerting a tight rein to make such issues and scams go unopposed, given the advantage that the powers of a public office provide?

Now, we have the Maguindanao experience at martial law. This is a dress rehearsal for something more sinister and more expansive, designed to rig the May 2010 elections. Who will declare that more expansive martial law if Arroyo resigns?

Once upon a time, elections were contests where decency was written all over — decent men and women fighting each other for the people’s support; decent supporters to bring in the votes, under decent rules. The last time I looked out my window, I saw neither trace nor shadow of decency in the landscape.

Given this absolute lack of decency, would anyone still believe that Arroyo would give up her seat in that Palace by the stinking river now that she has filed her certificate of candidacy for a position—albeit many steps removed from the presidency, but from a convenient fulcrum point where she can leverage herself to the position of Speaker of the House? And from there, only God knows where.

And speaking of where, the majority of the electorate still does not know where to go for instruction about the automated election systems.

Have they not heard Ferdinand Rafanan, chief of the Comelec law department, who said they are preparing for a "massive voters’ education" and "reach the remotest barangays."? "We will go down to the grassroots. It will not only be a show on television, every voter will be given opportunity to try how to shade ballots and how to cast a ballot," said Rafanan in a weekly Senate forum.

My television must be receiving broadcasts from outer space and my newspapers must be coming from a distant planet in some parallel universe. You see, up to now I have not watched a TV show or read any news about Rafanan’s assurances. All I hear is some strange music in my head with the following opening lyrics:

Is there anybody going to listen to my story
All about the girl who wants to stay
She’s the kind of girl who once said “Sorry”
And lives in a Palace up to this day…

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Sigma Rho’s sight lines

ENQUIRY
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Sigma Rho’s sight lines
Sunday, 11 29, 2009

The Sigma Rho Fraternity of the UP College of Law turns 70 today.

Formally recognized in 1939 by the University of the Philippines, the Sigma Rho is the fraternal organization of those associated for a common purpose and interest, united despite varied backgrounds and regardless of individual occupations, passions and tastes.

The Sigma Rho must have beckoned to the UP student at the verge of manhood with the promise of initiation ceremonies shrouded in mystery, the macho challenge of undergoing hazing, parties, living college life to the fullest, meeting sorority sisters in the Delta Lambda Sigma, and indulging in exuberant adventures that included the occasional “rumble” with groups out to make a name for themselves as having confronted the Sigma Rho.

And experience these promises the young Sigma Rhoan did. Sometimes in a degree that went a little too much that it could only be ascribed to the giddy energy and excitement of the young and the restless.

In the light of some news that have given fraternities an unsavory and dubious reputation in recent years, it would be downright hypocritical to declare that no Sigma Rhoan has ever been called to the carpet of the fraternity table for a violation of its values and ideals.

But the Sigma Rhoans - and they are a multitude - have never turned their backs at the golden opportunity to become gentlemen scholars and warriors, leaders in the community who excel in their academic studies and earn the respect of everyone. By and large, the members of the Sigma Rho have often been campus leaders, involved in student government, honor societies and other organizations. They are the students who have embraced the chance to become leaders of the country.

The Sigma Rho is not only a fraternity. It is a force.

Scan the political landscape. Sigma Rho members are everywhere – be it in the administration or in the opposition to it. Or in the legislature. Or in the judiciary.

Go to the military and the police. Or, on the other side of the fence, to groups which espouse an ideology against whom the military and the police are engaged in military and police action. Then look at those who sit at the negotiating tables. You will see Sigma Rhoans on either side and, as likely as not, in the middle.

Business and industry is not spared the presence of the Sigma Rhoans. They assume the forms of titans of property development, banking and insurance, transportation, telecommunications….

The arts, journalism, science and medicine, sports, and every conceivable field of activity have Sigma Rhoans for their achievers and leaders.

And go international. A Sigma Rhoan would in all probability be managing population, fighting poverty, handling climate change, waging war on corruption, or spreading the tenets of democratic governance.

For all these Sigma Rho stalwarts who have distinguished themselves — not only in the field of Rule of Law and Justice, where Sigma Rhoans abound — the fraternity has all the reasons not to exist aimlessly. Neither must it exist for petty, narrow and selfish reasons. It is meant to serve the nation and places beyond its borders.

The Sigma Rho does not exist as an instrument to further the selfish ambitions of glory-seeking individuals or as a channel of parvenus and glamour-hungry upstarts. These rogues are filtered out by Sigma Rho’s rigorous requirements for membership. Those who will soon leave the groves of academe are nurtured by an alumni council that sees to the observance of the hierarchy of loyalty and code of action of the fraternity.

The Sigma Rho is a fraternity of destiny. History has ordained it for leadership and infused it by reason of its inseparable antecedents with ideological, cultural, and political missions that will inevitably find cyclical fulfillment in time and space.

As an organization drawing its life from the Fatherland and recognition from UP, its missions must perforce be fundamentally intertwined with the warp and woof of the principles declared by the Constitution and enshrined by the University. Thus, the Sigma Rho possesses a basic commitment to the ideals and principles of liberalism, libertarianism, Filipinism, and culture.

By the inevitability of logical flow, it is the supreme duty of every Sigma Rhoan to forge the links that will ensure the continuum of the liberal, libertarian, Filipinistic, scholarly, and cultural traditions of the Fatherland and the University.

These are the ends toward which the Sigma Rho moves, to realize its implacable destiny and attain the perfection of its collective will and personality.

These are the lofty thoughts that have been inculcated in the mind of every Sigma Rhoan on the day he took his fraternal oath.

Tonight, the Sigma Rho will celebrate the end of its platinum year of existence, and its members will start counting the next equally successful 70 years of existence of a fraternity that has made its mark.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile ’52, currently embodying the success and resilience of the Sigma Rho, will deliver the State of the Sigma Rho at the fraternity ball tonight at the Sofitel Plaza Hotel. The May 2010 presidential elections will most likely take center stage, where Sigma Rhoans will be, as usual, the key players. Consider: Enrile will be on the side of former President Joseph Estrada; former Senate President Frank Drilon ’66, with Noynoy Aquino; former Congressman Rolex Suplico ’84, with Manny Villar; former Congressman Ruy Lopez ’81, with Gibo Teodoro; and, former Senate President Ed Angara ’52, president of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino which has already elected two presidents of the country since 1987, pushing the vice-presidential bid of Loren Legarda.

The movers and shakers of the land - enthused with the vivacity, the joie de vivre, the verve, the energy to head out to divergent terrains - will take stock of what happened and will plan again for the next engagement, always strong in will, to strive, to seek the right.

Seekers of the Right: that’s what Sigma Rhoans are, and that includes me (since 1971). Angara has never failed to remind his brothers: “As Seekers of the Right, you will never go far from leading and fighting for that kind of life if you put country above self, a virtue that is enshrined in our Hierarchy of Loyalty.”

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There’s a troubled country out there and the Sigma Rho can help find a balm for what ails it, and bolster its standing as a moral fraternity with all those who in the past and now have been in the service of the country.

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Comelec, take this seriously

ENQUIRY
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Comelec, take this seriously
Sunday, 11 22, 2009

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) could have a big problem in its hands, if these observations of Dan Pinto, a computer maniac — “mitidor” is how he describes himself — prove to be true:

On Oct. 28, 2009, Bev Harris, the board administrator of BlackBoxVoting.org, made this post: “Smartmatic used to be associated with Sequoia in some way, didn’t it? Does anyone know the current status? A Sequoia rep contacted me to complain that we had listed Sequoia as foreign-owned in our anti-trust complaint letter, but when I asked him who DOES own Sequoia, he never answered.”

Now, here’s a question Filipinos might want answered: Isn’t Smartmatic the other half of the joint venture that the Comelec chose to supply the automated election machines for next year’s polls? Smartmatic-TIM has recently said it would hire other logistics and transport firms to deliver the equipment and personnel needed for the May 2010 elections to the country’s various regions.

Note the emphasis on equipment and personnel. I fervently hope that among the automated election machines will not be ones from Sequoia Voting Systems, which have a yellow button at the back. With this particular equipment, all a hacker-voter has to do once inside the booth is kill some time pretending he is having difficulty in choosing his candidates. Then he would reach around the back of the machine where the yellow button is located. Now, here’s the scary part: What if the hacker is part of the personnel that’s supposed to administer the elections? What if it’s an insider? Then we’ll have no use for Garci substitutes, I guess. Anyone could be a Garci for any party he chooses!

Harris goes on to explain:

Anyone who can get at the yellow button can ruin the election. It takes no password, no computer knowledge, no equipment.

Sequoia agreed it could be done, but claimed it would be difficult to do unnoticed (they focused more on voters doing it than the idea of an insider doing it).

Additional steps should be considered, and Sequoia now has joined Diebold as a company that produces provably insecure voting systems that should be recalled. Both the WinEDS central tabulator deployed by Sequoia and the Sequoia touch-screens with the yellow buttons are insecure.

While it may be caught if extra votes are entered using the yellow button hack, which ones would be thrown out if there are too many?

Here is how the “Yellow Button Hack” is done:

1. Go to the back of the voting machine. Press and hold the yellow activate button (about 3 seconds). Release when the screen says “waiting for next voter.”

2. Press and hold the yellow button again until the screen says “change to manual activation?”

3. Touch the “Yes” button on the screen.

4. At that point there will be a message on the screen that says “Manual activate voting enabled” (this is just displayed briefly).

5. Next message will read “Waiting for the next voter” When you see that you touch the message that says “start voting” or “resume voting” located in the lower right of the screen The AVC Edge is now set up for poll worker activation mode.

Here is the sequence:

1. Once you’ve touched the start or resume the “waiting for next voter” appears.

2. Activate the ballot by pressing and releasing the yellow activate button

3. Activate the correct party for the voter and press the yellow activate button using the keypad on the display screen

4. Select the voter’s language if appropriate.

5. Vote. (Once the voter has completed voting and cast his ballot, prepare the Edge for the next voter. If the next voter is a regular voter repeat steps 1 and 4). You can now vote as many times as you want to.

Pinto had been badgering anyone who would care to listen or read, but he has been largely ignored. If his observations prove to be true, we could have mayhem in May 2010. In short, failure of elections. And who else would benefit from this? Your guess is as good as saying what is the obverse side of the P200 bill.

q q q

Aside from this nightmarish, although highly provable, scenario Pinto’s enthusiasm for a forthcoming novel by former SEC Commissioner Perfecto Yasay Jr. has been uncontrollably wild. Titled Terminal Four, the book is set in a time in the near future wherein the president of the country is (again!) a woman who, because she could not run anymore for a second term, starts to plan for a failure of the national elections for the senators, the vice president and the president so she could stay as holdover president or interim head of state.

I’m going to be a rotten spoiler if I divulge how this fictional lady president would pull off this self-inflicted coup, but I could give you a hint: The Comelec (in the story, that is) will be the hand that will hold the smoking gun.

Here’s a teaser from the novel. In this scene a very close adviser to the president assures her, despite her doubts, that the new automated system is bound to fail: “It will fail for the nationally elected positions, but you, Madam President, will have nothing to do with it. That is Comelec’s sole responsibility. The errors and malfunctions will be such that none of the candidates for president, vice president and senators can claim any clear victory... The real contest will likely be among the stronger opposition candidates. But our anticipated computerization failure will force a declaration of a failure of election for the national elective posts. And it will be impossible to hold special elections for these positions before June 30. The melee that ensues will seriously threaten the peace and stability of the nation.”

Messrs. Melo, et al., I urge you to be among the first to buy the book on its launching in December.

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Implosion

ENQUIRY
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Implosion
Sunday, 11 15, 2009

The run of Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Cojuangco Aquino III for the presidency is imploding, well before he has even filed his certificate of candidacy.

Noynoy and his handlers have touted the presidential contest for May, 2010 as a choice between good (Noynoy’s side) and evil (all others’).

The problem with this kind of labelling is that the one who insists on the dichotomy could never be sure his side is so pure and full of saints eternally and all others opposing him are devils, miscreants and sinners. From the time Noynoy announced his candidacy, when all the saints (presumably) were on his side, to his campaign entourage has been added the devils of Philippine politics. Politics is addition, that is a given in any presidential campaign, and you have to accept whoever wants to put in his twenty-five-centavos worth into your campaign. The Liberal Party has observed this policy of accretion to the hilt and without discernment, indiscriminately accepting into its fold many of the rejected devils, miscreants and sinners from the other political parties. Now, the good and evil dichotomy is is no longer valid, with Noynoy having to live and campaign with a full baggage of saints and sinners, each elbowing out the other to gain prominence in the campaign. The result? Confusion. One cannot make out the halo from the horns among the talking heads that surround Noynoy.

Noynoy and his handlers have latched on to the legacy of his famous parents as a campaign credential far too long. It would have sufficed to ride for a while on the crest of the Cory Magic to launch his candidacy, but he and his handlers have relied too much on it. And it would have sufficed to remind the Filipino people that they are worth dying for as did Ninoy say before he was killed in 1983. That would have been enough for a while, but his handlers keep repeating it as if the candidate Noynoy is the resurrection of the dead Ninoy. Noynoy and his handlers do not realize that euphoria is only fleeting, and that there comes a time when it is “gone to graveyards everyone,” as the song goes. And as the last strains of the song die in the wind, one has to proceed without the high-five-slap-happy euphoria and grapple with the realities on the ground.

The electorate are now looking into Noynoy’s own credentials because, after all, it will be Noynoy they will vote for, not Cory or Ninoy.

Noynoy has relied too much on the incompetence of his handlers. Noynoy is a good product to sell, but even a good product can get stale if not handled and merchandised the right way. So far, all the selling has been done to people already “sold” to the idea and need no further convincing. But what about the other buyers? Look at how they handled the SCTEX Interchange Scam bombshell of Congressman Boying Remulla. It has been six days since the Pandora’s Box of Noynoy’s immediate past was opened, yet there is no coherent and plausible explanation from the LP as to how Noynoy could not have been involved in such a scam. The simple denial from the LP that Noynoy did no such thing, or the limp assertion of Noynoy that it is pure black propaganda, will not placate the valid suspicion that Noynoy might not have clean hands after all. Something more concrete, something documented for his defense is what is expected. But it seems Noynoy and the LP are unprepared to handle crisis situations, and if they think that the SCTEX Interchange Scam is just the only one, they’ve got another think coming—a friend in the Nacionalista Party boasted to me that it is just the first in a series.

Noynoy has failed to put himself across as his own man. There is his celebrity sister whose skills at overselling a product rubs a great many people the wrong way. There is the scandalous use of resources of a media network to put Noynoy over for what he is really not. Then there is the campaign manager who, aside from making a half-assed promotion of Noynoy the candidate, also manages to project himself as if he were the one running.

And who is fending off those nasty text messages about Noynoy that I continue to receive even here in snowy and cold Central Asia? Is there anything that Noynoy’s supporters in the business sector can do to stop these messages?

Who is really the chef d’état-major of Noynoy’s campaign? Methinks ’tis a classic case of too many cooks spoiling the broth, or as my friend Reggie would say, too many crooks spoiling the soup. Noynoy, to continue with Reggie’s “malaphor,” should have set the main ingredients of his recipe; he should have personally chosen the condiments that should season his once-heady soupe du jour. The broth at Nonoy’s camp is slowly turning into a retch-inducing slop that only pigs would dearly love. It gives a whole new meaning to the expression, “feeding off the trough.”

Finally, whoever gave the go-signal for that infomercial that keeps running on your television set for three and a half minutes should lose his say in the Noynoy campaign. He never considered the consequences of that infomercial. Never mind if Marian Rivera, et al. were paid or not their fees for holding on to those faux torches of idealism that is passed from one entertainment talent to another; never mind Noynoy’s awkward gait — that validates Manong Ernie’s claim in his column in this paper? — against the balletic stride of Boy Abunda or the manly stance of James Yap; and never mind if a giant media network gave a 50% discount for its airing.

The infomercial does not send any substantive message that communicates the talents of Noynoy (that would qualify him as president), a message that could resonate long after its airing is finished. Rather, it presents Noynoy as the odd man in a sea of talents, or Noynoy as the recipient of a flaming torch — there goes again the association with Ninoy and Cory – that is extinguished everytime the infomercial ends. Reggie describes the infomercial, for lack of a more charitable term, as ampaw: too little substance and nothing in between. My other friend says it’s more like watching a dazzling fireworks show in the sky: too much sparkle and brilliance but too little warmth.

If the LP and its surrogates have mishandled the candidacy of Noynoy, they only have themselves to blame. Sayang.

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Gone too soon

ENQUIRY
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Gone too soon
Sunday, 11 08, 2009

The late Michael Jackson has a song entitled “Gone Too Soon,” which opens with the following lines: “Like a comet blazing across the evening sky, gone too soon.” It was dedicated by the self-proclaimed King of Pop to a very promising young man whose life was cut short by the scourge of AIDS.

The song and the lyrics could very well describe what has happened to young Sen. Chiz Escudero, who once upon a time figured prominently in the presidential race, but has since effectively dropped out of the race, even as he continues to tickle everyone with the possibility of a rebound by fighting a people’s campaign. Chiz has become the latest victim of recklessness that is wasted among... well, the young.

Chiz has gone too soon. The promise was there: He could wage a decent fight against the more moneyed, more experienced and much more senior pretenders to the seat currently occupied by Gloria Arroyo, with the help of his political party, the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC). Alas, the recklessness of this young man put out the fight in him too early in the race, and the legions of his adherents who had put their hopes on him are disappointed.

Everything there was in Chiz was his unabashed and unflinching idealism. That should be no problem. But he forgot all about the realities of politics.

Chiz would have none of the strictures of a political party. He opted out of the NPC. He never realized that one who wages battle against the giants in politics must have a political party behind him — a party that guarantees a machinery and network, the command votes and, most important, the money to oil the army of vote-getters and the voters. Above all, he will need allies in the legislature in order to govern effectively, and be able to deliver on his promises. Because of his idealism, Chiz will never have any of that.

Chiz now prefers the electorate to be his partymates, rather than Danding Cojuangco, Louie Villafuerte, Ompong Plaza, et al. Who will now bring the votes to Chiz? Even if Chiz teams up with Sen. Ping Lacson, who is also without a political party, there is no added value to his crusade for a party-less candidacy. Even if he wins, who will be his allies in the compromise-laden field of governance?

He detested his hand and foot being chained to a party. But that does not make of Chiz, having already bolted the NPC, a free man. He shall continue to be chained hand-and-foot to the people for whom he advocates. The electorate he professes to protect, say, for example, the farmers aching to have their piece of Hacienda Luisita, will press him to deliver (should he get elected), with no results in sight, given the adverse configuration of the legislature with its vested interests. This is not to say that Chiz should be faulted for embracing a lost cause, but it simply does not wash for a young man like Chiz to paint himself into a corner by breaking all possibilities of compromise with the well-entrenched politicians in the Congress of the Philippines, each beholden to their special interests. To the extent that he cannot deliver simply because he has donned the white cape of idealism and righteousness to fight those on the Dark Side, and that he cannot be dictated to, or that he will never compromise, Chiz will be a failure. So, who wants him to be president with that certain possibility?

Chiz wanted independence to act freely, to decide only for the common good, and to be effective at governing without resorting to compromises. If he were the president of Utopia, then that could be possible. But this is the Philippines, where, as president, you can appear to act freely, profess to decide for the common good, but can never govern effectively if one does not resort to compromises.

Chiz acted too precipitately, by not weighing the consequences of his declaration of freedom from a party that nurtured his political path for the past 11 years. He has done the unthinkable: Fighting the machinery that made him a member of the House of Representatives and a top ranking senator. My malaprop-spouting friend Reggie will probably call it as biting the hand that feeds the other dogs. I will not call Chiz an ingrate, but very close to that. I will not even refer to funding problem as the immediate cause of his departure from the NPC, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt that it was all pure idealism that drove him to decide to be gone too soon from the NPC.

He may look good for the moment, even gaining new adherents to his brand of politics, but for how long will that hold? When the reality creeps in that he cannot wage a decent fight in the presidential race, he will be left carrying the banner of his brand of politics with but a few idealists close behind.

Chiz never gave a thought to the possible reaction of the stalwarts in the NPC, they who expected him to carry the fight for the party as its standard bearer. What else will anyone expect from these former partymates? Certainly not their support for his candidacy. And what about Loren Legarda who had given way to Chiz, agreeing to slide down as his vice presidential candidate — they were a formidable tandem for a while — and now standing all alone, being peddled by her partymates in the NPC to team up with either Manny Villar or Gibo Teodoro?

“Gone too soon” closes with these lines: “Here one day, gone one night... gone too soon.” One moment, we thought we had a Chiz-Loren tandem; now, that is gone. One moment, we thought we had a Chiz Escudero who would go the distance in the presidential race; now that is an impossibility, Chiz having gone too soon, his blind idealism simply not cut out for the rough and tumble of Philippine politics. Sayang.

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Consistency is the dependable standard

ENQUIRY
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Consistency is the dependable standard
Sunday, 11 01, 2009

"Loren sticks to the opposition.” Nothing has made me more determined to give my support to the opposition than this online news as I count the end of my days in Bishkek.

Loren Legarda has always been in the opposition, and she should carry that label with pride as the campaign progresses. Then we have former President Joseph Estrada, Mayor Jojo Binay, and Sen. Chiz Escudero as the other bets of the Genuine Opposition. Many other candidates for president and vice president claim to be in the opposition today. Really? How genuine are their claims? The provenance of these claims can be traced to the elections of May 2004, when massive cheating installed a government that does not deserve to rule and to govern.

Anyone who helped install the government of Gloria — and I single out the Liberal Party, regardless of its subsequent breakaway from that government — does not deserve to get the support of the electorate, especially those sympathetic to the opposition, in May 2010.

The breakaway of the LP at the height of the Garci Controversy was never on principle. It was naked political ambition; crass opportunism, if you will. The party saw an opportunity to grab power from within, but was foiled. Since then, it has remained vociferous — through a smaller than half of its total membership, the bigger part having stuck it out with Gloria — against the government. But never for once has the LP admitted to its principal role in the commission of the ultimate crime of fraud against the Filipino people in May 2004.

The LP knew very well Gloria cheated her way to the presidency. And why would the LP not know? The party was there in the thick of the cheating, its leaders were simply noting our objections! Where was the LP when we were crying ourselves hoarse against the fraud? Its members would not even let us speak, or present the election returns to prove the lie of the manufactured certificates of canvass.

The leaders of the LP railroaded the national canvass, and even had the horrendous gall to proclaim Gloria as president at dawn.

Even before the elections, the senators belonging to the LP prevented the report of the Angara Committee establishing the Manapat forgeries on the birth certificate of then presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr. and the marriage certificate of FPJ’s parents. The LP employed all the tricks to derail the victory of FPJ and Loren in 2004.

It is presidential elections once again, and the LP now offers itself as the alternative to the worst government we have had, whose genesis is unmistakably the responsibility of that party. Pray, tell, how can the LP be the alternative if it is on the same side as Gloria’s?

The choices for 2010 should be limited to those who have been in the Genuine Opposition since 2004, who have consistently fought for truth, who have been the victims of the government installed by modern-day Sauls who were blinded by the light on the road to Malacañang.

The LP derides Estrada for allegedly not admitting to his mistakes that led to his conviction. Now let’s turn the tables and see what we have: A party that is proud of its role in the massive fraud in 2004, which inflicted on the nation a president like Gloria?

However much those in the Genuine Opposition may differ among themselves in their ambitions — with each one wanting to be president or vice-president — their consistency for the cause of truth should be the limiting standard. Only they can claim to be the standard bearers of the opposition.

Whoever was responsible for installing Gloria in 2004 — and I refer to those in the LP who went to bed with her, who prostituted themselves for political patronage, who enjoyed the power that went with being with the lying and the cheating and the stealing, then all too suddenly turned against Gloria — could be the worst politicians we will ever have. The nation does not deserve these opportunists to rule. They will change their color just as easily as they can shout “Garci!”

There is something appealing in politicians who stick to their principles. They are predictable and honest to everyone.

And there is something appalling in politicians who transfer their loyalties when ambitions can no longer be accommodated and sustained or when greed seeks a larger trough and a deeper (pork) barrel from which they must feed. They could sell you to the highest bidder, the keepers of the gold who make the rules — anytime and every time. Remember that time when the leaders of the LP trooped to Malacañang to reiterate their loyalty to Gloria, even offered a province as place of refuge for Her Majesty just in case the natives get too restive? And, all too suddenly, 48 hours later, they had set the motion for a coup against Gloria?

It is a queer cloak that the LP wears — reversible but black inside out. Whenever convenience dictates, the party reverses the cape and simply goes to the other end of its side of the political divide. It is still on the side of Gloria, only that they are fighting Gloria from within and under false colors.

It takes the likes of Loren, Erap, Chiz, and Jojo to stick to the opposition. They could be elbowing each other in order to become the president or vice president, but they are still together on the other side, all on the side of the Genuine Opposition. Somehow, it is sensible when this division in the political spectrum is seen in this light.

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This space has consistently written against the opportunism that the LP has perfected. Its candidates have no claim to be legitimate oppositionists. They have no claim to constancy. They stand only for opportunism and disloyalty. Look at Kiko Pangilinan, for example. Was it not only yesterday that he broke a gavel just to bring home the point that FPJ and Loren lost to Gloria and Noli? Now he is saying he belongs to the opposition!

The Filipino electorate will know better in 2010. They will choose from among the choices in the Genuine Opposition.


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Remembering to forget

ENQUIRY
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Remembering to forget
Sunday, 10 25, 2009

When I left for Kyrgyzstan last month, a friend of mine, Dan Pinto, gave me a copy of 60zens: Tips on Senior Citizenship. I told Dan he needed the book more than I did, since he’s already at that age where he deserves discounts on the basic necessities of his former wildly (mis)spent life. Nevertheless, he insisted on me taking it, saying it would keep my nights in Bishkek, the capital city, warm.

The past weeks have filled with me with nothing but icy gloom whenever I log on to the Internet and read about the miseries of people back home who have been hit by “Ondoy," “Pepeng” and “Ramil.” This is a tragedy of such proportions it makes a grown man cry.

So I turn to laughter to dry my tears. It is something we are good at when the chips are down or when we feel we’ve been handed the wrong end of the stick. From the time of the Japanese Occupation down to the Gloria Usurpation, we have employed humor and laughter to dull the edge of oppression and misery that have been inflicted on us, whether in the form of natural disasters or man-made catastrophes.

We have not lost that capacity for laughter, especially when the joke or the tragedy is on us. Very KhalilGibranesque. He once observed that one’s laughter is merely one’s sorrow unmasked, and that the very well from whence one’s sorrow rises is often filled by one’s tears.

Indeed, the book has provided a warm chuckle on nights as I sit in solitude in my UN quarters while a fierce, chilly wind blows outside. The author, who has had previously six serious books to his name, has taken an about-face in his usual themes and has come up with a volume that threatens to give those of Bob Ong (bestsellers among the younger generation) some stiff competition.

As its title suggests, the book is a humorous compendium of tips and verses about diversions, chores and joys in old age, in order that a senior citizen could avoid being retarded while being retired.

Somewhere in the book, Jun Balde says that he had wanted to write another book, entitled 1001 Things to Remember If You Have Alzheimer’s Disease. But how could one still remember if one already has the disease? Translated freely from the original Pilipino, here are the first 10 of Jun’s 1001 Things to Remember:

1. Your name, face and sex. It’s going to be a big problem if you can’t answer questions like “What is your name?” and Where do you live?” I recommend that you have your name tattooed on your palm. If your palm is big enough, include your address, telephone number and e-mail address. This way, you can easily see the important data about you. It is also important that you know your own face and sex. You might be horrified if suddenly you can’t recognize the man in the mirror whose hair and teeth you are combing and brushing, respectively. It’s going to be a big headache if you are no longer sure whether what you’re going to wear is an undershirt or a bra, a pair of briefs or a pair of panties, a condom or a tampon.

2. The name and face of your wife. It’s important that you know who your wife is. Except if you want some variety. But it’s doubly important that you know who is not your wife, in order that you may not come to any further aggravation and grief.

3. Where you stash your bankbook and other important documents. The more money you have — for instance, you are as wealthy as Jamby Madrigal’s aunt — the more important it is that you know where you have kept those papers hidden. All things considered, you won’t be kept hostage or be poisoned by ambitious relatives if they are certain that Alzheimer’s has not totally erased your memory.

4. Which floor in the parking building you parked your car in. List down this information on a small writing pad in your pocket. Dan once could not remember where he parked his car in the seven parking levels of the RCBC Tower, that he spent several hours on foot looking for it at each level.

5. The containers of the ingredients of your favorite recipe. Label the containers of your favorite condiments. It’s dangerous if you can no longer tell the difference among salt, sugar, baking soda, shabu and rat poison.

6. The proper storage for things. It’s going to be a disaster if you keep the telephone inside the freezer; and the book, in the oven. Equally catastrophic is if it’s lye that you pour into the wine decanter, or Vulcaseal that you apply on your toothbrush.

7. The pills that you take — lest you start gulping down Midol and Diatabs instead of the maintenance pills for your high blood pressure. And although the various pills that you’re taking are color-coded, you still need a reference chart — so you could know which is Viagra and which is Ecstasy.

8. Personal hygiene — especially when you start losing control of your bladder and bowels. It is also important that you know to which part of your anatomy you apply toilet paper, put a condom, or insert cotton buds.

9. The time of day. Don’t leave the house in the middle of the night and tell your folks that you’re going shopping or golfing. Except if there’s a Midnight Madness at Greenhills, or a night tournament at Intramuros.

10. The last thing you were doing. So that you could know what has to be done next. Like, after decapitating a chicken, are you going to cook or surrender to the police? Remember the story of the old geezer who found himself on a bed, beside a lady, and with his pants halfway down his knees? The poor man couldn’t decide whether to take off his pants or to put it on, or whether he had already done the dirty deed or was just starting to go at it!

Despite the biting cold here in Kyrgyzstan and the gloomy conditions in the Philippines, I am glad that I still receive heartwarming messages from my family and friends — one of them goes by the name of Loren Legarda — who tells me to hang on, finish my job in Kyrgyzstan and go back to the Philippines to help in whatever way I can. The situation is not entirely hopeless, and I’d be very willing to do my part. As long as, once in a while, we all could laugh about it.

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Primer for pols (2)

ENQUIRY
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Primer for pols (2)
Sunday, 10 04, 2009

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5.) Claim to be the lesser of two evils. Convince your targets that you are the least offensive, and therefore, the better, option when it comes to a choice between two devils. This technique involves a lot of false humility, coupled by an admission of your own shortcomings and all-too-human frailties, while tarring your opposite number with a much blacker brush that, by contrast, you appear to be a repentant sinner or a reformed miscreant. Heap the blame on the other pol and tell your targets he is responsible for all the social and economic ills of the community, from the degeneration of morals to overpopulation to rampant criminality. Tell them you — and nobody else — are one of the only option left for them. And that your horns are yet blunt and your tail is shorter than the other devil.

6.) Call ‘em names. Use language or words that carry a negative connotation when describing your opponent. Do your damnedest best to stoke the fires of prejudice among your targets by labeling the other pol with something that the public dislikes. Use sarcasm and ridicule, like what one Palace factotum did when he labeled the opposition as hysterical, pathetic and delusional men who see ghosts where there are none. Or what the leader of an NGO did when he described Gibo as a "certified Amboy who is obsessed with military treaties, bases and troops." A subtle variation of this technique is called "damning with faint praise" — expressing admiration for someone so unenthusiastically as to imply condemnation. Consider this favorite praise of Leina de Legazpi: the benevolent empress at the Palace by the stinking river.

7.) Zoom in on the enemy. Keep the issue simple by pointing an accusing finger on the enemy; it often reduces a complex situation to a clear-cut choice involving good and evil. Simplify a complex situation by presenting one specific group or person as the enemy. Nothing else perhaps best illustrates this maneuver than the current battlecry a presidentiable has adopted these days, which goes something like this: "It’s a battle between Good and Evil!" Neat and simple. No elaborations. And the people out there listening to you are supposed to know who exactly are the good pols, and who the evil ones are.

8.) Be one of the plain folks. Convince your public that your views reflect those of the common person and that these views are also working for the benefit of the common person. Invent jokes and anecdotes about how simple and down-to-earth you are. Your public will lap it up and love you for being the underdog. Dive right into the heart of the crowd and shake every available hand that reaches out for you, make goo-goo eyes at infants, eat with your bare hands, find a convenient occasion to sing your own version of "My Way," pedal away in a traysikad, wade into the rice paddies to plant rice while dressed in designer shirt and pants, dance the limbo rock and deliberately make a fool of yourself. The gimmicks are endless and limited only by the far reaches of your imagination. In short, show that you are not a punyeta but, instead, one who is "laking Marikina." Increase the illusion through imperfect diction, a pronounced accent, a deliberate stutter, and a more limited vocabulary. Gaffes such as these tend to convince the masa that you are sincere and spontaneous. Couple this technique with glittering generalities, and you’ll be in like Flynn. You will convince your public that your attitudes and lifestyle are similar to their own and therefore more valid.

9.) Have that hand raised. When you have filled your war chest with enough contributions from your backers — whom you will eventually pay back with behest loans and other forms of patronage — and the presses are ready to roll off your campaign paraphernalia, be sure that there is a picture of you, grinning from ear to ear, with your hand raised by a famous person, say, a world boxing champ, an actress, as a testimonial to your integrity and political acumen. In addition, throw in quotations and endorsements — in or out of context, whatever — which clearly connect this famous person with you. This is called "celebrity endorsement" and is very closely connected to the transfer technique, where an attempt is made to link or shift to you the traits of a person that everyone adulates wildly and without any reservations. Remember: Many an undeserving pol was elected to office in 1987 just because his hand was raised by Cory Aquino.

10.) Lay on the astroturf. AstroTurf is a brand name for artificial grass. This word has metamorphosed into "astroturfing," to describe a form of political or public relations campaigning that seeks to create the impression that a particular event is a spontaneous, unpremeditated reply to the "grassroots," the ordinary folks among the populace. If you are a pol seeking election or simply wishing to do a good deed to boost the image of your party, you can disguise your public action as an independent reaction to the plight of the grassroots. For example, you could arrange to be simply "just in the area" when you catch sight of a poor old man living in a clapboard shack, and then you take pity on him and offer to relocate him to some decent place, give him a job, and offer to send his children to school, all because of the milk of human kindness that generously pours out of your compassionate breast. Of course, there should be also an "accidental" photojournalist to record the event. That’s astroturfing for you. Or if you are returning from a visit to Saudi Arabia, you can come home with a batch of OFWs that had long been stranded at the airport in Jeddah, and present them to the public as one of the incidental but glorious accomplishments of what was supposed to be a trip to attract more investors to the country. You get the trophy and the grassroots get their 15 minutes of fame at the NAIA.

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Primer for pols (1)

ENQUIRY
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Primer for pols (1)
Monday, 09 28, 2009

I am somewhere in the mountains of Central Asia, feeling cold to the bone from the icy winds, while attending to an assignment with the UN that occasionally takes me out of the Philippines. As I write this, I am also experiencing an unusual surge of homesickness. I miss my pinakbet, my family and my granddaughter.

And I miss the antics and gimmicks of the politicians as they jockey into position in preparation for the 2010 elections. In the past, I had been a witness to this periodic national pastime, and had seen how candidates have filled the air with speeches and, vice versa, their speeches with airs. And it has never failed to amaze me that a considerable number of candidates have been elected because they have managed to fool the people most of the time by their speeches and public declarations. I will probably regret having written this column, but this is a primer of sorts for candidates who want to fool the people this time around, and in a perverse way, a warning to them that they cannot fool the people all of the time.

So, dear candidate, here goes:

1.) Assert yourself. You don’t even have to be aggressive in order to be assertive. All you have to do is make a low-key but exuberant or frisky statement and present it as a fact. Don’t worry if your statement is by all standards not necessarily true. Just bear in mind that your assertion does not need any explanation or supporting logical or empirical back-up. All you need is to imply that what you are spouting is God’s own solemn truth and nothing but. Be like that assistant secretary who asserted that the impending victory in the 2010 polls of the administration candidates is a given, a reality, an established fact. The target of this tactic is expected to agree to this claim without taking the bother of searching for additional information or underlying reasons to support the claim. When you make an assertion, however, be prepared for the ugly public reaction of being labeled as a purveyor of lies and falsehoods.

2.) "Get on our wagon." Appeal to the voter to follow a trend, to join in because a great many others are doing so as well. From cigarettes to fashion to politics, bandwagon propaganda has been effectively employed by deft practitioners of spin, as it tends to convince the subject that one side is the winning — or the better — side, because more people have joined it. In the case of election campaigns, the poor are duped into believing that since so many people have joined the bandwagon, victory is predestined and defeat is out of the question. Since the average person doesn’t want to be associated with a loser, he is compelled to join in. A newspaper (not The Daily Tribune) may have unwittingly or unwittingly created a bandwagon effect among the voters when it bannered that more solons (do politicians really deserve this noble appellation?) have joined the Noynoy-Mar camp. Never mind that these politicians might be actually rats deserting a sinking ship and do not wish to be sucked into the ensuing political maelstrom — what the rest of your targets out there are seeing is the spectacle of a seemingly discerning and righteous group of people who have weighed the pros and cons and have made the right decision. So why shouldn’t one not join them?

3.) Stack the cards in your favor. Present information that is positive to an idea or an accomplishment — and then omit information contrary to it. (Another term for this tactic is selective omission.) This tactic, indelicately called as mindf*ck by some practitioners, is extremely effective in convincing the public. For example, announce that a road project that you have successfully pushed through has greatly benefited the thousands of citizens whose homes and business establishments lie along the route, but forget to mention the millions of pesos you stand to gain because the development of that road project would benefit subsidiaries and friends that you control. Although the bulk of information that you divulge through this approach is true, make sure that it omits important information, especially when it is damaging to you. Tell them, for instance, that you have judiciously filed your statement of assets, liabilities and networth (SALN), but omit that item about the luxury apartment in California, USA, and anyway that one is the property of your rich wife. Just be sure you don’t have enemies out there who could blow you out of the water — or road, as the case may be — by exposing the whole unexpurgated truth.

4.) Hide behind glittering generalities. Make words such as democracy, honor, delicadeza, freedom and love of country parts of your active vocabulary. These are words pregnant with clear and definite denotations for everyone. In addition, these terms are linked to time-honored and highly valued concepts ingrained in the Filipino heart and mind since grade school. Use these words, therefore, as often as you could and wherever you could. You will be surprised that a great majority of the people will approve of you even without thinking, simply because of the highly charged concept that these terms evoke. For example, 37 years ago the Filipino nation was told that martial law had to be imposed "to preserve democracy," and the majority of the nation (more or less) agreed. The abstract idea of democracy had such a positive connotation because it was linked to a concept that Filipinos value, as opposed to the dark and frightening threat posed by leftists such as Jose Maria Sison and Company, and some politicians who had to be jailed for their views that undermined the social order.

(More next Sunday. Send your comments to djraval2001@yahoo.com)

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Seizing the day

ENQUIRY
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Seizing the day
Sunday, 09 06, 2009

The Roman poet-satirist and literary critic Horace in his "Odes," said it first: "Carpe diem!" meaning, seize the day. And down the ages, the exhortation has been repeated, to urge someone to make the most out of the present. Seizing the day is about deciding, by taking advantage of the circumstances prevailing.

Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino has been seizing each day since Aug. 1. At the wake of his mother, he showed extraordinary calm and admirable grace, even when he, instead of offering a cold shoulder or an icy silence, made perceived political adversaries, the President and the Marcos children among them, feel that their presence was welcome. That gesture alone perhaps endeared him to the rest of the nation.

Noynoy could have said a mouthful during the wake and at the interment services, and the public would not have minded. But he remained the most taciturn Aquino all throughout, even when the outcry for him to take up the mantle left by his martyred father and sainted mother was already rising to a fevered pitch. Perhaps if there ever was a hint for the public to guess where Noynoy’s thoughts for the future lay, it had to come from his sister Kris. At the interment services, Kris said that she and Noynoy were both in a position to continue the public service and advocacies of their deceased parents, and that she would support Noynoy in his future political endeavors. It was virtually saying that the future is now.

Noynoy remained tight-lipped. It had to take the determined efforts of partymates and well-meaning opinion writers to confront Manuel "Mar" Roxas about the inevitable: The clamor for Noynoy to run was snowballing, the surge was relentless, and Mar must now give way.

Mar’s candidacy was not progressing at the pace everyone expected it to. Despite five years of hard work and the resources thrown into his campaign, Mar could not simply put a headlock on his party’s anointment. He was languishing in the surveys, and had dropped to fifth in a field of eight two days before he and Noynoy had arrived at a solution to the dilemma confronting the Liberal Party (LP). Mar just could not get everyone to his side: Lito Atienza and his group was a thorn; Kiko Pangilinan, another partymate, could barely hide his condescension of Mar and his preference for Noynoy.

On the other hand, it would be naïve for someone to think that Noynoy didn’t see it coming, meaning the withdrawal of Mar in his favor. He just didn’t crow about it. The million signatures urging him to run had been collected in record time. Every pundit worth his fearless forecast was urging Noynoy to grab the opportunity. Many politicians of circumstance, quick to seize on a winner when they see one, were trooping to Times Street to convince Noynoy to saddle up and get on his high, dark horse. Another political party even went to the extent of offering its reformist organization to Noynoy just in case the LP turns a deaf ear to destiny’s call for Noynoy. It was 1986 all over again, and the country was in the grip of the "yellow fever."

The taciturn Noynoy must have calculated his moves — a masterful stroke, if you ask me --- right down to the day he heeded, albeit hesitantly, destiny’s call. He did not wait out the 40-day period of mourning. Another 10 days would have tilted the equation in favor of Mar. An indecision on his part would have exposed a weakness that would not sit well with those looking for a decisive leader.

Noynoy is now reaping it all without lifting a finger, without saying a word of encouragement for those who want him to run. Everyone wants to give way to him. Governors Panlilio and Padaca have no qualms about yielding to Noynoy; the reformists are very clear as to who their choice is. Atienza said as much: he is ready to bring over a big faction in the LP to support Noynoy. Pangilinan said the same thing.

Noynoy the undeclared candidate is getting endorsements from all over. Everyone else has said Noynoy could be the unifying factor for the opposition. Former President Joseph Estrada had this to say: "I have always held the highest regard and admiration for Noynoy’s parents, the late Senator Ninoy and President Cory, and believe that Noynoy is most qualified to seek the presidency." Jojo Binay agrees. And despite his mother’s dream for him to become president too, Bongbong Marcos is endorsing Noynoy.

Noynoy is presently on a spiritual retreat, to give a very serious focus to the future, to fortify his political stock, and to listen — not talk with, as you-know-who does in crucial moments — to God. He has not appeared atat na atat, has not rushed headlong into declaring his acceptance of the challenge to lead, but is, instead, treading the deliberate and enlightened path. This is the brand of leadership that he could very well bring to the country: spiritually moored, carefully deliberate and rationally enlightened.

Noynoy knows very well that the nation is desperate for a rallying point for recovery from the morass we are in. He will seize the day, by formally accepting the draft after the mourning period for Cory.

And all Kris has to do is to mount the stage and drape the country anew with yellow. Any further taunts of Malacañang that Noynoy prove that he is his own man is to invite boredom and a sense of déjà vu.

q q q

The nation will not forget what Mar did to pave the way for Noynoy’s candidacy. He, too, seized day when he put on the mantle of decency with his selfless act of statesmanship, his call for "Country Above Self." For sure, Mar will be rewarded in 2013. And that augurs well for the LP: Imagine a 12-year reign for the party.


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What if.....

ENQUIRY
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

What if.....
Sunday, 08 30, 2009

... the presidential and senatorial elections next year both turn out to be a failure, meaning, there is no president-elect, no vice president-elect, and no twelve senators-elect at noon of June 30, 2010? Who will assume the position of Acting President, pursuant to Section 7, Article VII of the Constitution?

A lot of people would probably say: The President of the Senate, of course. That’s what the Constitutiional provision on succession provides. Right?

Wrong. Keep in mind that Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile will be running for re-election. Now, imagine, if you will, the possible case of him being not re-elected or, if he is, of him being not officially proclaimed yet as senator-elect as of noontime of June 30, 2010. Who then can be the Acting President? There will be no Senate President as yet to serve as Acting President; in which case, the Speaker of the House of Representatives will have to serve as Acting President. Right?

Wrong again. The problem here in this intriguing scenario is that at noon of June 30, 2010, there will as yet be no Speaker to speak of. Speaker Prospero Nograles shall have already served out his third straight term as member of the House of Representatives.

What to do then when this interregnum - this gap between the reign of a monarch and the rule of a truly elected president - happens?

To find the solution, let us go back to the Senate. Can the twelve incumbent senators whose terms will be ending on June 30, 2013, elect from among themselves a Senate President, who will then serve as Acting President under the not-too farfetched scenario mentioned above?

Let us assume for a moment that, through some workings of the law or an obscure precedence, these twelve senators can validly elect from among themselves a Senate President. But what if they are unable or unwilling to vote for one, each one of them being interested in becoming Senate President who has a chance at being Acting President?

So let us go back to the House of Representatives. For sure, there will be a similar mad scramble among members of the House to be elected Speaker. After all, who does not want to be known in the footnotes of history as Acting President even for a week or two?

What if the House elects a Speaker ahead of the Senate electing a Senate President? Will the Speaker at this instance be the Acting President?

What if both Houses of Congress fail to elect a Speaker or a Senate President, respectively?

At present, there is no law that governs the possibility of a a failure of elections. There must be one, as the Constitution itself calls for the enactment of such a law. Incidentally, Senator Loren Legarda has filed a bill addressing this nightmarish situation.

000—000

What if former President Joseph Estrada files his certificate of candidacy by November 30, 2009 for the position of president?

As sure as night follows day, a petition for disqualification will be filed against Estrada in the Comelec, and it will go all the way to the Supreme Court.

But what if the petition for Estrada’s disqualification is thrown out, with the Supreme Court stating , as it did in the case against the late Fernando Poe, Jr., that “[t]he better policy approach is to let the people decide who will be the next president, for on political questions, this court may err but the sovereign people will not. To be sure, the Constitution did not grant to the unelected members of this court the right to elect in behalf of the people”? Estrada will then slug it out, of course, with the eight other candidates for president. In all probability, with his lock on 20 percent of the voters, he will be elected.

What if Estrada is sought to be disqualified on the basis of his promise, as part of his conditional pardon, that he will not seek any elective office? Would he be able to claim—and prove—that his waiver was made under duress and, therefore, not valid?

And what would happen if Estrada is disqualified? Who will take his place as candidate for president of the Partido ng Masang Pilipino? Loren Legarda? Jojo Binay? Chiz Escudero?

And in the event that the disqualification comes after the Commission on Elections has already printed the 45 million ballots for the automated elections, what a logisitical nightmare it must be!

000 --- 000

What if Noynoy Aquino finally says: “Yes, I will run for president.” Will Mar Roxas, who has said there is no turning back, graciously give way? After all, an Aquino–Roxas team would be a much stronger pairing than a Roxas-Aquino tandem.

What if Mar refuses to do a Doy Laurel and does not give way? Will the already fragmented Liberal Party split further into smithereens, and the nation will be treated to a reprise of 1992, when the loser in the convention of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino put up his own party to contest the presidency?

000---000

What if Chiz Escudero gets the nomination of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC). Will he strike a modus vivendi with the Arroyo Administration?

000---000

What if Kris Aquino aspires to be a senator of the land? The answer to this one is easy: She will surely win, and she will top the elections.

000---000

What if Lito Lapid runs for re-election as senator? Will the electorate, after six years, commit the same mistake they made in 2004?

000 ---000

What if President Gloria Arroyo runs for a congressional seat in Pampanga—and then loses? Which acacia tree along MacArthur Highway in Pampanga will be anointed on which to string the carcass of defeat?

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The RH factor

ENQUIRY
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

The RH factor
Wednesday, 08 26, 2009

Sen. Manuel Roxas II. despite the millions he has already poured into his traysikad infomercials, has yet to furiously pedal uphill to reach the top of the surveys.

It is not for want of highways and byways to traverse, so to speak. At every turn he has blown his horn against the Arroyo administration, mouthing expletives in the process and thus making himself the poster boy of those seething with anger against Gloria Arroyo and her minions who cannot seem to do anything right for the country.

Neither is it for want of paved (a)venues along which he could go free-wheeling at a dizzy speed. The Cheaper Medicines Law should have brought him closer to the consumers. When his traysikad ran over the Legacy conglomerate, the hundreds of thousands of those who were bilked of their dreams should have looked up to Roxas as their savior.

And neither is it for want of events that expose him to the warm and fuzzy embrace of public adulation. He was an ubiquitous presence in the deathwatch over former President Cory Aquino, and in the wake and funeral march that followed. And he even acted as traffic officer during the State of the Nation Address of President Gloria Arroyo.

So, what gives? Why the heck can’t Roxas seem to move up from first base to second if not third base now comfortably occupied by others less profligate in their resources in order to score a run in the presidential ball game?

On the other hand, Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino, a virtual rookie in the Liberal Party dugout before the death of Cory, appears to have been shoved into the playing field as designated hitter of team Liberal. This thunderous acclaim from both teammates and spectators, so to speak, has titillated the imagination of pundits who now see (to continue the baseball metaphor) that, according to the rules, the designated hitter — Noynoy — cannot be used for any other player but the pitcher — Mar Roxas in this instance.

Without much effort beyond the customary hard-to-get stance while weighing his options, Noynoy has suddenly become No. 1 in the batting order of his political party. His enormously popular sister Kris Aquino has not even said a word of endorsement, yet Noynoy appears to have gained the upper hand, relegating Mar to the vice-presidential slot. Just look at the media space alotted to the undeclared political path of Noynoy, urging him to run, and you get the feel that the pitcher has been rendered inutile by the designated hitter.

Our colleagues at the Kapihan sa Sulo call this phenomenon the "Reverse Hit," or the RH factor. They attribute this to the fate of Salvador Laurel in the run-up to the snap presidential elections in 1986. And they apply this to the sudden emergence of Cory from her reluctance to wage battle against Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.

Applied to Roxas, it simply means that the people do not go for those who try very hard to project themselves for what they are not; the effort at projection hits the people in the reverse. Translated into numbers, it means that for every voter convinced of the sincerity of Roxas in what he projects himself to be, two are hit the other way, repulsed by his efforts, and thereby look to other candidates. And as applied to Noynoy, it simply means that the people prefer those who are not too vociferous about their intentions; that people do not buy the hard-sell that is shoveled on them.

This is probably a reprise of the biblical adage that says those who humble themselves shall be exalted, and those who exalt themselves shall be humbled.

It does not help the cause of Roxas any that stalwarts of the LP like former Senate President Jovito Salonga proclaim their preference for a Mar-Noynoy tandem. These stalwarts comprise the minority, though they may have a more auidible voice but not necessarily a convincing one. But it is the numbers that always matter. The LP should dig deep into its nationwide membership, and see how they exactly feel. It is refreshing to hear other leaders of the LP — without indicating their preference of who should carry the LP banner — saying their party will go through the selection process. And when this presently fragmented party does, they should heed the words of Lito Atienza: "Only Noynoy can unite the LP."

The quest of Roxas for his party’s nomination is imploding. At this late stage where the filing of certificates of candidacy is just three months away, Roxas’s inability to equal or surpass, say, Estrada in the ratings game, despite the vast resources and efforts put in to achieve that goal, is making a lot of his supporters fidgety. Organized five years ago, the personal Roxas machinery has not reached even 50 percent of the provinces, cities and municipalities of the country. (I was in Ilocos Norte the other week, and I did not see, much less feel the palpable presence of a Roxas organization.)

Some say that Noynoy, similarly, does not have the same personal organization to rival that of Roxas’. But given the slow pace of the Roxas traysikad, which is now lumbering on the road with shaky gears, the magic of the Aquino name will capture within three months the critical mass of supporters that will propel the candidacy of Noynoy. Cory in 1986 had even a lesser time.

Not even the much hyped October wedding of Roxas to popular broadcaster Korina Sanchez will haul in the votes for Roxas. Expect the RH factor to work against him. He will invite only those who can be accommodated in church. How about the rest? There is nothing spontaneous about people’s presence in or around the church where a wedding is celebrated, but there is definitely something appalling and exploitative about repeated public discussion about the wedding, and it rubs people the wrong way.

Compare that to the spontaneous outpouring of support for the Aquinos at the deaths of Ninoy and Cory. Noynoy did not exploit it; neither did any member of his family. That is the same kind of outpouring that Noynoy will expect when he decides to run for president.


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The IBP story; another version (2)

ENQUIRY
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

The IBP story; another version (2)
Tuesday, 08 18, 2009

The following is a continuation of a paper circulated by concerned lawyers in reaction to the series of articles by former Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, himself a former chapter president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP):

"Upon receiving the protest from Soriano, executive vice president and member of the Board of Governors (BoG) Rogelio Vinluan asked Bautista to call for a special meeting, as required by the By-laws, to address the matter. Bautista refused.

"Instead, Bautista sent a letter to Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno requesting for a clarification with regard to the interpretation of the By-laws provision pertaining to the election of additional delegates. Urging the Chief Justice to issue a clarificatory order, Bautista argued that "additional delegates shall be elected only from the remaining duly elected officers."

"Bautista failed to mention that Loanzon and Laqui, while elected officers, still failed to get themselves elected as delegates. Furthermore, he requested the clarificatory order two days after he already ruled through an April 24 memorandum that additional delegates should be officers to qualify — sweeping aside the April 23 resolution issued by five members of the BoG. In effect, he was seeking clarification on an action that he had already undertaken. He also did not inform the Chief Justice that a protest has already been filed by Soriano to the BoG in accordance with the procedures stated in the By-laws.

"With Bautista’s refusal, five members of the BoG called for a special meeting on April 30, 2009 to address the election protests involving the following IBP regions: Western Visayas, Western Mindanao and the GMR.

"Failing to get a response from the Chief Justice, Bautista’s next course of action was to send a letter to the BoG complaining that "to conduct a special meeting on April 30, 2009 to hear and resolve the election protests would amount to gross disregard of the basic requirements of due process and fair play." Bautista also issued a memorandum directing Marohomsalic (Western Mindanao), Fortunato (Western Visayas), and Maramba (GMR) to file their response to the protest within 10 days of their receipt of the memo — a period not provided by the By-laws and is far longer than the time frame given for the protest itself to be filed. The By-laws clearly stated that an election protest has to be filed with BoG within two days and that the BoG has to act on the protest immediately.

"On April 30, the BoG met and nullified the Greater Manila Region (GMR) elections for governor held on April 25, 2009. The special election for the seat of the GMR governor was scheduled for May 4, 2009.

"In attendance during the May 4 special election were Abelardo Estrada, Bonifacio Barandon, Evergisto Escalon. Raymund Jorge Mercado and EVP Rogelio Vinluan. The assembly took place at the IBP National Office and was held in accordance with the By-laws which states that special meetings may be called by five members of the board.

"The special election was held despite scare tactics and false information being floated around to discourage delegates from attending. Maramba’s supporters boycotted the elections but a small group was holed up in the third floor, apparently keeping watch of the unfolding events.

"Bautista was also a no-show at the election, although he found time to hold a press conference in the morning to complain about the supposed lack of due process by the BoG in handling Soriano’s protest.

"Magsino made an appearance just moments before the election proceedings began and declared it illegal, stating that only the governor of the GMR (meaning himself) has the right to call for and conduct an election in the said region. This was despite the fact that the election was scheduled by the BoG. A study of the By-laws revealed that no such authority has been vested on any single governor from any region. It is the BoG, as a body, that schedules the elections and not any single governor.

"The special election was conducted by the BoG with EVP Vinluan presiding to ensure impartiality. Also present was Governor Raymund Jorge Mercado. Serving as observer for the election was Judge Guillermo Agloro. Vinluan as presiding officer noted Magsino’s position, and proceeded with the special election as ordered by the BOG.

"Soriano was elected GMR governor. Soriano obtained 15 votes — acquiring a clear majority of the 25 delegates from the five chapters of GMR eligible to cast a ballot. His opponent, Maramba, did not attend.

"Five days later, the elections for the position of executive vice president was held at the National Office of the IBP in Ortigas. Soriano garnered six votes from his fellow members of the incoming BoG. Present were Amador Tolentino Jr. (Southern Luzon), Jose Cabrera (Bicolandia), Erwin Fortunato (Western Visayas), Roland Inting (Eastern Visayas), Benjamin Lanto (Western Mindanao), who voted unanimously for Soriano (Greater Manila Region). Presiding over the election was EVP Vinluan. Also present were outgoing IBP Governors Estrada, Barandon, Escalon and Mercado.

"Across the IBP Board Room at the Office of the President, Bautista held his own elections and proclaimed Roan Libarios as executive vice president.

"As a result, cases were filed at the Supreme Court to resolve the matter.

"Here, though incomplete, the story must come to a halt. Like the unconditional trust of a child to his mother, there is an unwavering faith that once the black robes are donned, personal biases and affiliations are cast aside and the case is viewed with fresh, probing, and clear eyes for what it truly is — that matter must be resolved in accordance with the dictates of the law, guided by the irrepressible spirit of justice, and revealed by the intense luminosity of truth."


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