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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