Category: 2016 elections

Why doesn’t Roxas just pay fine for SOCE non-filing?

Ellen

Mar Roxas concedes. Photo by Luis Liwanag.

Mar Roxas concedes. Photo by Luis Liwanag.

Would it be a less stressful option for Mar Roxas, Liberal Party presidential candidate in the May 9, 2016 presidential election not to file at all a Statement of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCE)?

He didn’t win anyway so there’s no position that he would be prevented from assuming because he does not have the Certificate of Formal compliance that is issued by the Commission on Elections to those who have complied with the submission of their SOCEs.
What happened to ousted Laguna Governor Emilio Ramon “ER” Ejercito would not happen to him.

It will be recalled that Ejercito of Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino won over Edgar San Luis of the Liberal Party in the 2013 gubernatorial race in Laguna but he was removed from office in 2014 when Comelec upon the complaint of San Luis, determined that Ejercito exceeded expenditure limits in the 2013 elections. Ejercito’s TV ad expenses was one of the proofs Comelec had for his overspending.

The fine for non-filing of SOCE for presidential candidates is P30,000 for the first offense and for the second offense, P60,000. P30,000 is chicken feed for Roxas.

As of today, 12 days after the June 8 deadline (30 days after Election Day) set by Comelec for candidates in the May 9, 2016 elections, Roxas has not yet filed his SOCE.

LP filed its SOCE last June 14 even as Comelec granted its request for a 14- day extension for the filing of the SOCE. The PDP-Laban said it will question Comelec decision before the Supreme Court.

Affected by LP’s late filing are LP candidates who won in last May’s election including five LP senators led by former Senate President Frank Drilon, 115 congressmen and 39 governors.

Romulo Makalintal, lawyer of incoming vice president Leni Robredo is confident she will not be affected by the Liberal party’s late filing. Robredo filed her SOCE before the June 8 deadline. She reported having received P423 million contributions and P419 million in expenses.

Roxas’ campaign spokesman, Barry Gutierrez said the primary reason for their inability to meet the June 8 deadline was “the voluminous number of receipts that have to be scanned and attached to the document, in compliance with the rules and in the interest of complete transparency.”

Everybody knows that the spending limits set by the law is obsolete. The Omnibus Election Code imposes a spending limit of P10 per voter for presidential and vice presidential candidate, and P3 for other candidates, with political parties allowed to spend P5 per voter. In the 2016 elections, there were 54.4 million voters.

A former presidential candidate said one needs least P3 billion to wage a presidential campaign with TV ads eating some 80 percent of the expenses.

We imagine that a lot of accounting creativity were employed by all the candidates to be able to submit an Omnibus Election Code-compliant SOCE that would match and supported by what their respective parties submitted.Then the reports on contributions received should also match with what the contributors file with the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

A candidate runs the risk of perjury, which to my non-lawyer mind means making false statements under oath, if he is not careful in reconciling all the thousands and millions of pesos that he received and spent with what the law requires. Online legal blogs say the penalty for perjury is “ arresto mayor in its maximum period to prision correccional in its minimum period.”

For Roxas, why bother to file? Just pay the fine.

Panelo wants to be ambassador to London?

Ellen

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo with reporters in Davao, June 8, 2016. Photo from Charie Villa.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo with reporters in Davao, June 8, 2016. Photo from Charie Villa.

We are going to miss Atty. Salvador Panelo as presidential spokesperson.

Incoming president Rodrigo Duterte has a new spokesperson in the person for Ernie Abella, a former pastor.

In the announcement of Peter Laviña, spokesman for the Duterte transition team, of the latest cabinet appointments in his Facebook page, he did not say whether Panelo will also remain as spokesperson with the appointment of Abella.

Sources at the Department of Foreign Affairs, however, said they have been told that Panelo has expressed interest to be the Philippine ambassador to the United Kingdom, which is currently being held by Evan Ralph Garcia, a career officer.

Garcia, who had held the position of undersecretary for Policy, assumed the London post recently.

I can just imagine Panelo as ambassador to London in his ripped jeans and red jacket. Mawiwindang ang London diplomatic community!

The new spokesperson of Incoming President Rodrigo Duterte, Ernie Abella, in his first press conference, June 14, 2016. From from ABS-CBN.

The new spokesperson of Incoming President Rodrigo Duterte, Ernie Abella, in his first press conference, June 14, 2016. From from ABS-CBN.

The appointment of Abella as spokesperson was announced two days after Clarissa Oben Evangelista, posted in Facebook an incident involving Panelo parking illegally in front of a drugstore in Greenhills, San Juan and covering his car with a Duterte tarpaulin.
Panelo denied he violated parking regulations of the commercial area and gave his own version of the incident.

Of the new spokesperson, Laviña said Abella “is a preacher and writes a column in Davao. “

A 2013 online post described Abella as “the former head pastor of The Jesus Fellowship. He is now a social entrepreneur.”

Laviña said Abella “was one of the best writers to defend Duterte in social media during the black propaganda attacks during the election.”

One of the articles Abella wrote, “Would Duterte make a good president?” was reproduced by Andy Uyboco in the Sun Star Davao June 4, 2015 issue.

In that article, he revealed an incident in the past when Duterte saved him.

Excerpts from Abella’s article:

“ I was kidnapped in 1996. I was a pastor then. And I had just inherited a small sum from my parents and was looking for a piece of property. And the real estate dealers led me to this secluded place where 5 ethnic men held me for ransom. As fate would have it, my colleagues went to Mayor Rody. And in a classic response, he called for the MNLF commanders in the city warning them, “If anything happens to that pastor, I will capture 3 of your imams.” (as retold to me later). Within 24 hours, I was released.

“I tell this story, not because I am an unquestioning supporter but because I understand that in a society in search for itself, we need a firm hand until such a time we can make difficult decisions for ourselves. Duterte is not a Jeffersonian Democrat and neither was Lee Kuan Yew. But both shared a clear vision of the way things could be.

“I cannot tell you about the personal morality of Mayor Duterte. I can tell you what he has publicly done – he has turned a backwater city into a global benchmark. And if he had wanted to steal us blind he would have left traces by now. He is not that sophisticated. He is that rarity – a plainspoken man who wants the world to work for everyone. Therein lies his greatness. He is an ordinary man with ordinary dreams – the dream of a better life.

‘What makes him great is his willingness to defend your right to a fair share – your share of a decent life, a happy home and a peaceful nation. I would vote for a man like that. I would persuade others to do so. Ninoy died so we could have that kind of a life. Rody is the kind of a person who will make sure we do.”

He has a blog: ernieabella.org

Duterte spokesmen’s damage control statements add insult to injury

Ellen

To control the damage wrought by President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s verbal assault on media during his press conference Tuesday justifying the extra-judicial killing of journalists, Peter Laviña, spokesman for Duterte’s transition team said media, his principal’s remarks were “taken out of context, misinterpreted, and misunderstood.”

That is adding insult to injury. That is like saying media did not report accurately Duterte’s statements.

Same thing with Duterte’s spokesman and press secretary Salvador Panelo’s statement that GMA-7 reporter Mariz Umali “should be complimented” for the president-elect wolf-whistling or cat-calling at her when she asked a question.


Panelo said:”Mayor Duterte is a very kind, playful individual. Pag siya’y pumito, ibig sabihin he’s fond of you, ibig sabihin mahal ka niya, kaya ka binibiro. Hindi po isang pambabastos yun. On the contrary, the receiver of that should be complimented.”
Matutuwa dahil binastos ka?

Umali’s husband Raffy Tima, also a GMA-7 reporter is not amused and definitely he does not consider it a compliment.

In his Facebook post, Tima said, “Catcalling my wife is wrong in so many levels. I expected that from a Mayor Duterte. I know his reputation well enough not to be shocked by it, but that does not make it right. For someone who espouses leadership by example, catcalling anyone in a press conference with all cameras trained on him defies logic. Then again, that’s Mayor Duterte.”

But what hurt Tima more was the reaction of people in the room: “What appalled me even more was how some people in the room reacted. Most laughed, others made teasing noise and basically urged the mayor to dish some more! And he did. I do hope none of them were journalists because if they were, shame on them.”

Tima further said, “When you see or hear anyone say something wrong you do not encourage it, you do the opposite. Or in that particular instance at least, they should have kept quiet and in their silence gave the message that what the mayor did was wrong. Some jokes are funny and should be laughed at. But disrespecting women is definitely not one of them.”

Definitely.

In fact, Duterte’s very own city’s Women Development Code as embodied in Davao City’s Ordinance No. 5004 and Executive Order No. 24 considers “Cursing, whistling, or calling a woman in public with words having dirty connotations or implications which tend to ridicule, humiliate, or embarrass the woman such as ‘puta (prostitute),’ ‘boring,’ ‘peste (pest),’ etc” a form of sexual harassment.

Media groups have expressed alarm over Duterte’s statements saying most of the journalists killed were corrupt. He said a mouthful to amplify his stand that “You won’t be killed if you don’t do anything wrong… If you are a journalist who is doing what is right, nobody will touch you, especially if (what you write) us true.”

Thanks to Manila Bulletin

Thanks to Manila Bulletin

Duterte’s statement is not supported by the cases of slain journalists in the Philippines (176 since 1986). The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines cites “the murders of Edgar Damalerio of Pagadian City, Marlene Esperat of Tacurong City, and Gerry Ortega of Puerto Princesa City, and, of course, the most heinous of all, the November 23, 2009 Ampatuan massacre, of which 32 of the 58 victims were media workers, making it not only the worst case of electoral violence in recent Philippine history but the single deadliest attack on journalists ever.”

And even if some of those journalists were corrupt, killing them is not justifiable. There are many ways to fight media corruption – report them to their editors and publisher. File cases against them.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the Paris-based organization that promotes and defends the freedom to be informed and to inform others throughout the world, is appalled by the Philippine president-elect’s statements. “Not only are these statements unworthy of a president but they could also be regarded as violations of the law on defamation or even the law on inciting hatred and violence,” said Benjamin Ismaïl, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk.

RSF urged Philippine media to demand an apology from Duterte and “to boycott the Duterte administration’s news conferences until the media community gets a public apology.”

Duterte went ballistic on RSF’s call to boycott his presscpn. In a two-hour long presscon Thursday night, Duterte dared media to boycott him.”“Putang ina sinabi ko mga ugok, putang ina I can lose the presidency, my life, my honor. Just don’t fuck with me. Huwag niyo na akong takutin. Boycott, boycott, leche kayo, edi mag-boycott kayo!”

I don’t agree to a media boycott. That would be reneging on your responsibility to inform the public of happenings that affect them.
This is not the first time that a Philippine president has insulted media. In 2014, in his visit to Brussels, the outgoing president, Benigno Aquino III , in defending his administration’s disappointing human rights record said, “For instance, in the media killings, some who used to work in media died. Did they die because they were investigative journalists? Were they exercising their profession in a responsible manner, living up to journalistic ethics? Or did they perish because of other reasons?”

During Gloria Arroyo’s time, it was her husband, Mike Arroyo, who mouthed the same lines.

Whether the journalist’s killing was work related or not, that is murder. Murder is a crime.

A president is supposed to fight crime, not encourage it.

Duterte spokesmen’s damage control statements add insult to injury

Ellen

To control the damage wrought by President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s verbal assault on media during his press conference Tuesday justifying the extra-judicial killing of journalists, Peter Laviña, spokesman for Duterte’s transition team said media, his principal’s remarks were “taken out of context, misinterpreted, and misunderstood.”

That is adding insult to injury. That is like saying media did not report accurately Duterte’s statements.

Same thing with Duterte’s spokesman and press secretary Salvador Panelo’s statement that GMA-7 reporter Mariz Umali “should be complimented” for the president-elect wolf-whistling or cat-calling at her when she asked a question.


Panelo said:”Mayor Duterte is a very kind, playful individual. Pag siya’y pumito, ibig sabihin he’s fond of you, ibig sabihin mahal ka niya, kaya ka binibiro. Hindi po isang pambabastos yun. On the contrary, the receiver of that should be complimented.”
Matutuwa dahil binastos ka?

Umali’s husband Raffy Tima, also a GMA-7 reporter is not amused and definitely he does not consider it a compliment.

In his Facebook post, Tima said, “Catcalling my wife is wrong in so many levels. I expected that from a Mayor Duterte. I know his reputation well enough not to be shocked by it, but that does not make it right. For someone who espouses leadership by example, catcalling anyone in a press conference with all cameras trained on him defies logic. Then again, that’s Mayor Duterte.”

But what hurt Tima more was the reaction of people in the room: “What appalled me even more was how some people in the room reacted. Most laughed, others made teasing noise and basically urged the mayor to dish some more! And he did. I do hope none of them were journalists because if they were, shame on them.”

Tima further said, “When you see or hear anyone say something wrong you do not encourage it, you do the opposite. Or in that particular instance at least, they should have kept quiet and in their silence gave the message that what the mayor did was wrong. Some jokes are funny and should be laughed at. But disrespecting women is definitely not one of them.”

Definitely.

In fact, Duterte’s very own city’s Women Development Code as embodied in Davao City’s Ordinance No. 5004 and Executive Order No. 24 considers “Cursing, whistling, or calling a woman in public with words having dirty connotations or implications which tend to ridicule, humiliate, or embarrass the woman such as ‘puta (prostitute),’ ‘boring,’ ‘peste (pest),’ etc” a form of sexual harassment.

Media groups have expressed alarm over Duterte’s statements saying most of the journalists killed were corrupt. He said a mouthful to amplify his stand that “You won’t be killed if you don’t do anything wrong… If you are a journalist who is doing what is right, nobody will touch you, especially if (what you write) us true.”

Thanks to Manila Bulletin

Thanks to Manila Bulletin

Duterte’s statement is not supported by the cases of slain journalists in the Philippines (176 since 1986). The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines cites “the murders of Edgar Damalerio of Pagadian City, Marlene Esperat of Tacurong City, and Gerry Ortega of Puerto Princesa City, and, of course, the most heinous of all, the November 23, 2009 Ampatuan massacre, of which 32 of the 58 victims were media workers, making it not only the worst case of electoral violence in recent Philippine history but the single deadliest attack on journalists ever.”

And even if some of those journalists were corrupt, killing them is not justifiable. There are many ways to fight media corruption – report them to their editors and publisher. File cases against them.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the Paris-based organization that promotes and defends the freedom to be informed and to inform others throughout the world, is appalled by the Philippine president-elect’s statements. “Not only are these statements unworthy of a president but they could also be regarded as violations of the law on defamation or even the law on inciting hatred and violence,” said Benjamin Ismaïl, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk.

RSF urged Philippine media to demand an apology from Duterte and “to boycott the Duterte administration’s news conferences until the media community gets a public apology.”

Duterte went ballistic on RSF’s call to boycott his presscpn. In a two-hour long presscon Thursday night, Duterte dared media to boycott him.”“Putang ina sinabi ko mga ugok, putang ina I can lose the presidency, my life, my honor. Just don’t fuck with me. Huwag niyo na akong takutin. Boycott, boycott, leche kayo, edi mag-boycott kayo!”

I don’t agree to a media boycott. That would be reneging on your responsibility to inform the public of happenings that affect them.
This is not the first time that a Philippine president has insulted media. In 2014, in his visit to Brussels, the outgoing president, Benigno Aquino III , in defending his administration’s disappointing human rights record said, “For instance, in the media killings, some who used to work in media died. Did they die because they were investigative journalists? Were they exercising their profession in a responsible manner, living up to journalistic ethics? Or did they perish because of other reasons?”

During Gloria Arroyo’s time, it was her husband, Mike Arroyo, who mouthed the same lines.

Whether the journalist’s killing was work related or not, that is murder. Murder is a crime.

A president is supposed to fight crime, not encourage it.

Cayetano’s Leni remark shows he is not “in” in Duterte’s power group

Ellen

Signing of NP-PDP Laban alliance. Photo by Mindanews.

Signing of NP-PDP Laban alliance. Photo by Mindanews.

After Congress, acting as National Board of Canvassers, declared last Friday Rodrigo Duterte of PDP-Laban as winner in the presidential contest and Leni Robredo of the Liberal Party for the vice-presidential race in the May 9 elections, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, Duterte’s running mate, told media that a cabinet position awaits Robredo.

“Mayor Duterte is reviewing every day names and positions [in the Cabinet], and I think from Day 1 he has been thinking about what job can be given the Vice President-elect,” Cayenato said adding that the position to be given to Robredo would be “tailored to what we heard from her during the campaign that she would like to handle.”

Robredo had said during the campaign that she would be interested in a cabinet position that involved lifting the people from poverty.

The following day, in a press conference with Cayetano beside him (also in attendance was Peace Process Secretary Jesus Dureza and senator-elect Manny Pacquiao), Duterte said Robredo “never entered my mind,” in the forming of his cabinet.

“No, I don’t even know her! ..Why should I talk to her? I said I’ve not considered anything for her,” he said.

He said right now the names he has in mind are that of friends who helped him in his campaign. “I’m more worried about where I would place the friends na nagkautang ako ng loob,” he explained.

(In the presscon Tuesday after his meeting with those he has named to be part of his cabinet, he said he is not getting Robredo to be part of his cabinet because he doesn’t want to hurt Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, who lost in the vice-presidential race.
(Duterte said, the Marcoses supported him and he won in Ilocos Norte while he lost miserably in Bicol, Robredo’s turf. He also revealed that his father was a member of the cabinet of the late Ferdinand Marcos.)

In the March 29 presscon, while Duterte was denying what Cayetano said the day before, there was no hiding the embarrassment of the senator, who looked like a chastised schoolboy.

Where did Cayetano get the idea of Robredo’s appointment in the cabinet?

A review of Cayetano’s statement showed he based it on Duterte’s “earlier statements” saying that “ she’s welcome and that he will give a job to everyone who wants to work with him.”

It will be recalled that during the campaign, Duterte said if Robredo would not win he would make her “assistant president…..because she is beautiful“

This incident about the non-appointment of Robredo to the Duterte cabinet leads one to ask, “How “in” is Cayetano in the Duterte power circle?

Cayetano will be going back to the Senate as his legislative term is up to 2019. Duterte said he wants Cayetano to head the Department of Foreign Affairs and that his nominee Perfecto Yasay, Jr. will hold the position in an acting capacity, maybe until the one-year ban for losing candidates expires.

But is that the cabinet position that Cayetano desires, considering that he has higher political ambitions?

Also, sources said it‘s not true that Cayetano had something to do with the appointment of Mark Villar as secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways. It’s the support of Manny Villar of Duterte during the campaign that got Mark the position.
A source said the Villars went for Duterte-Marcos in the last election.

Three members of the Nacionalista Party – Ferdinand Marcos, Jr, who was number two in the VP race, Cayetano (third) and Antonio Trillanes IV (fourth)- who ran for vice –president in the last election.

A keen political observer suggested to us to take a close look at the photos and video of the signing of the NP-PDP alliance a few days after elections in Davao.He said, “Take note of Cayetano’s facial expression.”
Let me take a look.