Lapu-Lapu Times: Politics

LET'S DO THE CHA-CHA - PART III

2006-03-29T00:15:00.000-08:00

The last couple of days, the Cebu press is very loud on the Cha-Cha issue.

The effort at gathering the signature petition last weekend was truly massive. By all accounts, it was just as busy nationwide. All told, the pro-charter change people got about 4 million voter signatures.

Next step: the signatures will be submitted to Comelec for verification. Comelec Chairman Abalos says they can certify the 5 million signatures as authentic in less than a month.

It's been more than a year and the Jose Pidal signature - one signature - has not been authenticated to everybody's satisfaction!

LET'S DO THE CHA-CHA - PART II

2006-03-25T23:22:00.000-08:00

[My apologies to the international audience - Cha-Cha refers to Charter Change, the government's effort to ammend the Constitution. For more on the issue, refer to my post below and a previous post - Mactanman]

Attempts at having the citizenry sign the petition to change the Constitution at the nationwide barangay assemblies this weekend caused quite a storm in the different news media today.

Feeble attempts of the weak minority at stopping this PGMA blitzkrieg were pitiful at best. Who can stop the "facilitators" from getting signatures for cash? Who can stop the dirt poor citizen from accepting rice, noodles and a can of sardines for one signature (Hey! That's one whole meal)?

The petition signatures will be on their way to Comelec faster than anyone can cry...foul!

LET'S DO THE CHA-CHA

2006-03-24T02:26:00.000-08:00

It's happening folks! (See previous post).

Tomorrow, there will be nationwide barangay assemblies, purportedly to see how the barangay is doing over the last 6 months, how are the programs doing, are the people statisfied with the barangay officials' performance, etc. Incidentally, an NGO is going nationwide collecting petition signatures to have a plebiscite for charter change.

The newswires have it that the hitters are being paid (God knows, by whom!) PhP 200 per 10 signatures.

Cheap bastard(s)! For the 5 million needed signatures, this will only cost God knows who...Php100BN.

MALACANANG AND THE SENATE - HEADLONG INTO A CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS

2006-02-09T20:40:00.000-08:00

Move over Ultra stampede news, here comes a big one.

Malacanang has just upped the ante on the EO 464 thing. The president is not giving permission to cabinet officers to appear at the Senate on Department budget hearings as well as the national budget hearings. Well then, who are going to testify about budgetary requirements? Some say that Malacanang has gone too far in clamping down the truth.

Where do we go from here? Headlong into a constitutional crisis, I believe.

The Supreme Court has to come out with a wise decision on the constitutionality of EO 464...and quickly! Or else, as we say in the streets, the shit will truly hit the fan.

"SMART PHILIPPINE POLITICIANS" AND THE DUMB FILIPINO MASA

2006-01-23T20:45:00.000-08:00

News of charter change has been dominating the media these days. The advisory council put together by PGMA to "advice" her on constitutional change came up with this brilliant idea - change the form of government to parliamentary this year and suspend all elections until 2010. There will be a new position, the Prime Minister. But, the president is retained and most of her powers are intact. They call this the French model.

The way the current administration is bullying everybody, it will railroad this through everything. The only real blocking possibility is the Senate. Which they will probably bully with a strong showing in the plebiscite.

This plebiscite thing in itself is brilliant. The whole premise is that the consultative commission went around the country and discovered an overwhelming clamor of the local government units for the change plus suspending the elections of 2007, thus the new catch word No-el.

No-el, as in, the local governors, board members, mayors, councilors, barangay officials will automatically get a new term without spending a single centavo.

Let's go back to the plebiscite and dissect it mathematically. If you take the City of Lapu-Lapu, it will take no less than 100 million pesos to get elected as mayor these days. That is for some 120,000 registered voters. The prospective mayoral candidate will need to buy only 2/3 of the registered voters to be really sure he/she gets elected. So that translates to Php1385 per vote (cheap, ha!).

Here is the national figure: total number of voters = 43.5 million. Now, let's say you want to be really sure and decide to buy 2/3 of that. This goes down to 29 million. Based on the regular Lapu-Lapu City price, this totals 40.1 trillion pesos - different government agencies and other "contributions" will cover this easily.

But wait, here is where the plebiscite thing gets to be brilliant. They don't have an opponent in this plebiscite except for meek little militant groups and a sissy "opposition". So, the price of 1 vote can be bargained down to a third - Php 461.66. The dumb Filipino will be happy with that.

The cheap bargain price for a YES vote on the plebiscite is only 2.3 trillion pesos. (The "fertilizer fund" of the lowly Department of Agriculture was already more than 2 billion pesos).

Whoever said "I would rather have a Philippines run like hell by Filipinos than a Philippines run like heaven by the Americans", I hope you turn over in your grave as many times as votes are sold and bought.

HOLIDAY SEASON 2005

2005-12-24T01:47:00.000-08:00

Lapu-Lapu Times wishes you
Happy Holidays!

PHILIPPINE POLITICS AND MORAL INDIGNATION

2005-12-15T00:48:00.000-08:00

Philippine politics is some game where moral indignation flies out the window.

Atty. Brillantes, lawyer for Ex-Senator Legarda, issued a preliminary report on their electoral protest before the PET. He has found fraudulent results in Lanao del Sur totaling more than 40,000 votes in favor of VP Noli de Castro in a typical dagdag-bawas fashion.

He was pressed on the end-game of the protest. His answer: see if the cheat votes are more than 800,000. And if it is, Legarda wins. Hurray!!

What has happened to moral indignation in this country!?

Memo to Atty. Brillantes (I hope the name is appropriate): 1 proven cheat vote says VP de Castro is a fraud. Don’t wait for the other 799,999. Trust me, Sir, there is a big difference between honest mistake and dishonest “mistake”.

THE FOX GUARDING THE CHICKEN COOP - PART II

2005-12-01T11:40:00.000-08:00

Atty. Merceditas Gutierrez has just been appointed Chief Ombudsman (Ombudswoman?).

Please refer to the post bellow (THE FOX GUARDING THE CHICKEN COOP). I missed one very important information: Atty. Gutierrez is PGMA's Chief Legal Officer.

Go figure!

BE CAREFUL OF WHAT YOU WISH FOR; YOU JUST MIGHT GET IT

2005-11-25T23:38:00.000-08:00

President Manuel L. Quezon, 1935: "I would rather have a Philippines run like hell by Filipinos than a Philippines run like heaven by the Americans!"

CADAVERIC SPASM

2005-11-22T21:21:00.000-08:00

Cadaveric spasm is a unique phenomenon where right before a violent death, the muscles go into spasm. This is most commonly manifested in the hand which goes into a tight clinch from the spasm. When one is holding something at that particular instant, he/she would be gripping it postmortem.

Therefore, if you find say, a gun under the hand of a dead body, and not clinched...it's planted!

THE FOX GUARDING THE CHICKEN COOP

2005-11-22T21:20:00.000-08:00

The Philippines in its attempt to grow and mature is at a crossroads now as we speak - selecting the next Ombudsman.

If I am not mistaken, the Ombudsman is to guard the citizenry from abuses, and graft and corruption in the government. So, what is wrong with this picture?

One of the big two hounding PGMA is graft and corruption
Seven out of the 8 candidates are either directly or indirectly associated with PGMA
The top choice, as reported in the press today, is one Atty. Merceditas Gutierrez, close to PGMA, has been appointed in a high government position before, and a classmate of FG.

Grow and mature? I say, back to the womb.

THE LAW OF ABSOLUTIVITY

2005-11-11T15:20:00.000-08:00

The Law of Absolutivity n. 1 the fact speaks for itself. 2 (latin version) res ipsa lequitor. 3 as opposed to theory of relativity.

Although the word never saw print anywhere, we used to use this all the time in our clinical discussions in residency training at King's County Hospital-State University of New York, Downstate in the early 70's. At the Trauma Service, we used to do cases after cases of hip pinning (to repair hip fractures mainly in the elderly). Ths service was literally run by us residents and the attending physicians/consultants would know about the cases only after surgery when we present them at the M&M (Moratility and Morbidity) Conference. To show that indeed we did a good job, we would show a post-operative picture showing the hip nail right in the middle of the neck and head of the thigh bone (femur). Sometimes, our attendings would catch us with a different view showing the nail outside the neck and head. We would argue in vain about how there is a whole set of films showing the nail in the right place. Then they would tell us the Law of Absolutivity as it applies to post-op hip nailing films: "If there is one frame showing the nail out of place, the whole set does not matter".

The Law of Absolutivity applies to everything else in life. Example: If there is a video frame that shows a person shooting point blank at a slumped, wounded and apparently motionless individual then the whole set of videos does not matter. A rubout is a rubout.

PHILIPPINE POLITICS AND CBCP

2005-11-09T20:54:00.000-08:00

Small headline yersterday: "Congressmen warns CBCP from meddling in politics". How times change! CBCP was most welcome when it said last July: "No, PGMA should not step down, but...".

Apparently, the incoming Head is His Excellency Archbishop Angel Lagdameo of Jaro (although I could not confirm this from CBCP Online, the official website). You do not have to know where the good Archibishop stands on things:

The two congressmen (allied with the administration) reminded him to observe separation of Church and State, and warned him to stay out of politics.
And, admonished him to punish any of his subordinate priests who meddle with politics.

Maybe..just maybe, Cardinal Sin will turn over once more in his grave (see related article, this page) and stay right side up.

PHILIPPINE POLITICS - TRUTH, THE #1 CASUALTY

2005-10-30T19:30:00.000-08:00

I was watching one of those talk shows on CNN yesterday and came across four men of the cloak being interviewed by the host, Ricky Carandang. One particular point that caught my attention was the host asking: "The church came out in one voice in EDSA 1986 and EDSA 2001. This time it is divided, why so? ". "In the military, the upper echelon generals are pro PGMA while you hear negative comments from the lower ranks. The church is similar. You hear anti PGMA sentiments expressed by the ground level priests while the bishops holding lofty positions at CBCP favor PGMA, why so?".

The whole discussion group struggled while beating around the bush without ever stating that:

Whereas in EDSA's I and II Cardinal Sin stepped forward and showed his conviction, there is none in the present church hierarchy with a strong back bone.
You follow all the legislative investigations on public record, money arrives at the general level.
It is on public record that church positions at the bishop level and above receive money from politicians in the guise of presidential handout or contribution from government agencies such as PAGCOR.

It's a shame that gown-up men, and men of the cloak at that, conveniently forget these things when the need for them to step forward arises. On this times of kalag-kalag, Cardinal Sin must be turning in his grave.

DESTABILIZATION - NOTICE TO WEBSTER: NEW DEFINITIONS

2005-10-27T21:43:00.000-07:00

de-sta-bi-li-za'tion n. (new definitions noted since July 2005...applies either way for pro or anti PGMA):

act of assassinating noisy protest leaders for the purpose of blaming the sitting administration
act of calling an investigation on alleged anomalous government contracts
act of asking for investigation of alleged protection of illegal gambling
act of going to mass in a church near the national seat of government
act of expressing opinion in the streets
act of asking for investigation of undocumented departure of witnesses
act of asking investigation into collusion with the electoral body
act of gathering evidence of electoral fraud
act of questioning military promotion
act of questioning civilian appointments
act of asking for investigation of possible fraudulent practices in government corporations
performing the constitutional act of impeaching a government official

In this heated atmosphere of political bickering, feel free to pick your definition(s) and accordingly revise your Webster Dictionary at home.

PHILIPPINE POLITICS - THE ROOT OF ALL EVILS

2005-10-19T14:15:00.000-07:00

Amidst all the turmoil today nobody has really gone back to the basic problem - the root of all evils.
I just put down my SunStar (Wednesday, October 19, 2005). TalkBack section on page A18 has an article by one Gary G. Ash. He says it all. "...This so-called democracy is a sham. People vote individuals to position of power and abuse. The vote is a commodity and sold to the highest bidder". THE VERY ROOT OF TODAY'S EVILS.
Until the people is mature enough to stop selling the vote at election time, things will only get worse (and yes, it can still!). This behavior only perpetuates people/families in power.
Speaking of people/families in power, whatever happened to the constitutional provision(s) prohibiting political dynasties???

LAUNCHING OF LAPU-LAPU TIMES

2005-10-02T21:59:00.000-07:00

Greetings, everyone!
For a modern crowded city of more than 265,000 souls, Lapu-Lapu's lack of a newspaper truly stands out. Other than the usual LOOSE gossip, nobody really knows what the actual day-to-day pulse of the city is. True, we have a section dedicated in one or two regional Cebu newspapers, but the items are inadequate and mostly deal with killings, drugs, robbery and rape.
We in Lapu-Lapu City ought to know more! So, let's try this venue.
Everybody is free to send comments ("news", opinion, etc.) on this blog, ON ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING PERTAINING TO POLITICS IN LAPU-LAPU. I will gladly post them subject to my privilege as editor.