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Pulse Asia’s Ulat ng Bayan: Binay still bet to beat in ’16

September 29, 2014September 29, 2014 mcmangahas Leave a comment

DESPITE big and grave allegations of kickbacks he supposedly pocketed from contracts awarded by Makati City where he served as mayor until Vice President Jejomar C. Binay remains the candidate to beat in the May 2016 presidential elections.

Or at least that is the freeze-frame picture as of the latest nationwide Ulat ng Bayan survey conducted by the creditable Pulse Asia Research, Inc. from Sept. 8 to 14, 2014.

The pollster said Binay continued to lead the presidential race with 31 percent of 1,200 respondents choosing him as their candidate. This is thrice more than the 10 percent to 13 score that four other individuals reported to be pining for the position, including the ruling Liberal Party’s frontrunner Manuel A. Roxas II.

Nine other supposed presidential hopefuls snared much lower scores.

Nearly one in three of the respondents listed Binay as their preferred candidate,

Roxas, Interior and Local Government secretary, got support from only 13 percent of the respondents.

On third slot is Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, 11 percent, followed by impeached president and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, 10 percent, and Senator Grace Poe, 10 percent, Pulse Asia reported.

The other public figures included in the pollster’s latest electoral probe each registered a negligible voter preference score of at most 5 percent. Only 2 percent of the respondents did not express support for any of the personalities.

Poe, however, emerged as the top choice for vice president, with 31 percent of respondents listing her as choice. She was followed by Senators Francis Escdero, 19 percent; Alan Peter Cayetano, 9 percent; Antonio Trillanes IV, 7 percent; and Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr., 6 percent.

Pulse Asia noted that In the first half of September 2014, the news headlines were dominated by, among other developments, “the ongoing Senate investigation into the reported overpriced Makati City Hall Building II, with witnesses claiming, among other things, that the bidding for the said project was rigged to favor Hillmarc’s Construction Corporation and that Vice-President Jejomar C. Binay received kickbacks from various Makati City projects while serving as its local chief executive.”

At the same time, Albay Governor Joey Salceda proposed to impeach Vice- Binay due to the charges of corruption raised against him, but this was “rejected by politicians allied with and critical of the current national administration.”

Other issues that hogged the headlines during the period were the decision of the House of Representatives to junk three impeachment complaints against President Benigno S. Aquino III, and the suspension for 90 days of Senator Juan Ponce Enrile as a result of the suspension order that the Sandiganbayan had issued against Enrile in July 2014.

In addition, the period also saw calls for the resignation of Philippine National Police Director General Alan Purisima amid “the increasing number of crimes involving policemen and President Aquino’s expression of trust in the beleaguered police official”; Binay’s statement that he would want Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) Company Chairperson Manuel V. Pangilinan to be his running mate in May 2016; and talks of a second term for Aquino.

As in previous Pulse Asia survey, the 1,200 respondents consisted of representative adults 18 years old and above. The survey has a ± 3 percent error margin at the 95 percent confidence level.

Pulse Asia undertakes Ulat ng Bayan surveys on its own without any party singularly commissioning the research effort.

Right of reply clause in FOI? House launches online poll

September 17, 2014September 17, 2014 mcmangahas Leave a comment

AN ONLINE tug ‘o war on pending right of reply bills has been launched by the House of Representatives.

The online poll posits this question: “A right of reply provision must be incorporated in the proposed FOI (Freedom of Information) statute.”

Agree? Disagree? Join the poll!

The poll was posted on the House’s website a fortnight ago.

As of this morning, Sept. 17, the “No” votes (225 respondents or 80.65 percent) have overwhelmed the “Yes” votes (46 respondents or 16.49 percent) at a significant 4:1 ratio.

Eight other respondents said they were as yet undecided.

The online poll states that while the proposed Freedom of Information (FOI) bill seeks to uphold the citizens’ right to access public spending records and other documents vested with public interest, “several lawmakers” still insist that the FOI bill “must” include a “right of reply” provision.

The poll adds that the right of reply provision will require mainstream news organizations to “allot airtime or print media space to aggrieved parties or to those claiming to be unjustly placed in a bad light by news stories.”

Powered by SimPoll v.1.0, the poll is open to the public. Only one vote is allowed for every IP address, however. The poll features a dynamically generated form that updates the number of total votes and a detailed results page. It also checks for repeat votes.

But the House Committee on Public Information, which is hearing separate pending bills on FOI and right of reply, seems to be the last to know about the online poll.

Atty. Norman Pelinio, supervising political affairs officer for legal affairs of Rep. Jorge Almonte, chair of the House Committee on Public Information, said as much.

Neither Almonte nor the Committee has initiated the poll, Pelinio told PCIJ. The poll, he said, might have been launched just for the purpose of gauging the public’s sentiment.

According to Pelinio, he and the Committee chair learned about the poll only after PCIJ called to ask about it on Monday. The poll has been running for two weeks now.

“As it stands, the right of reply is a separate bill from the FOI. We treat them separately unlike in the previous Congresses. The FOI bill and the Right of Reply bill have separate technical working groups,” he said.

The poll results, he added, “will have no bearing the current deliberation of the committee.”

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) has reiterated that a right of reply provision in the FOI bill is no different from the separate bill since this will send the same chilling effect on news coverage, which will discourage critical reporting.

NUJP, along with news organizations and media groups, “have vigorously fought against the Right of Reply bill before and even more, against its inclusion in the FOI bill.”

“We maintain that media have always recognized the right of reply as a legitimate right of citizens. However, including this as a provision in the FOI bill will be tantamount to prior restraint. It will subsume the media outlets’ editorial prerogative to decide which stories to print, broadcast or upload,” NUJP said in a statement.

The NUJP added that “a right of reply provision in the FOI bill will weaken public discourse, which is the foundation of any democratic society — a kind of society that the Aquino administration has been repeatedly claiming to be.”

“We enjoin all advocates of freedom of expression to go online and vote ‘NO’ so that once and for all, our lawmakers will realize that we will not sit idly by and let them impinge upon our constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of the press and of expression,’ the NUJP said. – Cong Corrales

Aquino sisters wanted Abad out; Hyatt 10 came to his rescue

August 7, 2014August 7, 2014 Ellen Leave a comment

The Aquino sisters attend the birthday party of Vice President Jojo Binay.

From our always reliable source : A few days after the Supreme Court declared parts of the Disbursement Accelerated Program or DAP unconstitutional last July 1, the three presidential sisters- Ballsy Cruz, Pinky Abellada, and Kris Aquino (Viel Dee didn’t join them) talked with the President to let go of Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad.

As we all know by now, DAP– the issue that has shaken the otherwise Teflon presidency of Benigno Aquino III–was the brainchild of Abad.

The Supreme Court’s vote was unanimous (13-0) stunning Malacañang who had thought it would be 7-6 in their favor.

At the time his sisters talked to him about Abad, Aquino had not issued any statement on DAP yet. The source said the President appeared convinced by his sisters.

Abad’s comrades in the cabinet were alarmed and they took action.

Social Services Secretary Dinky Soliman; Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima; Teresita Quintos Deles, presidential adviser on the Peace Process, and Mely Nicolas, chairperson of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (the core group of the 2005 Hyatt 10) went to Aquino and appealed for Abad’s retention.

But it was a loaded appeal because they told the President if he let go of Abad, they will all resign.

(ABS=CBN has a report that Deles denies forcing the President to retain Abad. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/08/08/14/hyatt-10-deny-forcing-pnoy-retain-abad)

The President gave in. On July 11, during the cabinet meeting on the 2015 budget, he announced that Abad will stay. “To accept his resignation is to assign to him a wrong. And I can’t accept the notion that doing right by our people is a wrong,” he said to the applause of members of his cabinet except Vice President Jejomar Binay, who is part of the cabinet as chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council.

The next day, July 12, Abad released a statement disclosing that he tendered his resignation July 10. On the President’s rejection of his resignation, Abad said: “Although I was wholly prepared to relinquish my post, I am grateful for the President’s expression of his continuing trust and confidence in my leadership of the Department. I have thus chosen to defer to his better judgment and stay.”

The presidential sisters attempt to influence the President’s decision on Abad brought to fore once again the great divide in Aquino’s political family.

It is known that the Aquino sisters are lukewarm to the Mar Roxas faction, where Abad belongs. In the 2010 elections, the sisters were with the Noy-Bi (Aquino-Binay) faction.

That’s why it’s not surprising that Kris Aquino likes the idea of his brother endorsing Binay in the 2016 presidential election to the horror of Liberal Party stalwarts, who, up to now, pin their hopes on Roxas.

That was another masterstroke that Binay did last Monday: announcing that he has received information that the ruling Liberal Party was considering adopting him to be its standard bearer in the 2016 elections. (The other masterstroke of Binay was infiltrating the Liberal Party campaign in 2010. In the same building where LP had their headquarters, there was a room distributing Noy-Bi campaign materials.)

Senate President Franklin Drilon, LP vice- chairman vehemently denied Binay’s claim. LP issued a statement underscoring that the party is against “corruption, patronage and self-serving ambition.” The unwritten message:Binay is the epitome of what they are fighting against.

But Kris Aquino said she and her sisters are open to Binay succeeding her brother: “Kami ng mga sister ko naman pinag-uusapan namin yan. Sinasabi namin puwede naman talagang magkaroon ng unity at puwedeng kung ano kasi hindi naman kami magkaaway. At kung ipagpapatuloy naman niya lahat ng nasimulan ni Noy, why not?(My sisters and I discussed this. We said it’s possible to have unity and we are not really fighting. If he (Binay) would continue what Noy has started, why not?),” she said in her TV show.

In a separate TV interview, she said:”I don’t make a secret of the fact that one of my closest friends is his (Binay’s) daughter Anne, and we pray together.”

The eldest sister, Ballsy agreed with Kris: “You know, he never said anything bad about my family at pati na rin sa ibang partido, kaya ako ay natutuwa na ganoon ang pakiramdam niya. Kung yun din naman ang kanyang hangarin, na maipagpatuloy ang mga nasimulan ni Noy , e di magaling. (…I’m happy that that’s how he feels. If that his desire, to continue what Noy has started, good.)”

I think if Roxas decides to push through with his presidential bid despite low popularity ratings, Aquino will be compelled to endorse him but he will not prevent his sisters, relatives and members of his cabinet like Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa to support Binay.

Under the Binay presidency, Aquino will be amply protected. He will not suffer the fate of Joseph Estrada and Gloria Arroyo.

Aquino will have his cake and eat it too. Some people are damn lucky.

Special elections registration for PWDs and Senior Citizens in Manila

May 29, 2014May 29, 2014 Ellen Leave a comment

On Sunday, June 1, the Commission on Elections will be holding a satellite registration for persons with disabilities (PWDs) and senior citizens of Manila to be held at the Central Section of Rizal Park, the registration will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

This is not only for voters registration. For those who have registered, they may also validate or update their registration.

Voters are to bring at least one valid ID.

This activity is an implementation of the 2013 Republic Act 10366 authorizing the Comelec to establish precincts assigned to accessible polling places exclusively for persons with disabilities and senior citizens based on the state policy ensuring “that persons with disabilities and senior citizens are able to exercise their right to political participation without discrimination or restrictions. “

The law states that “ the State shall design systems and procedures that will enable persons with disabilities and senior citizens to register and vote by themselves.”

R.A 10366 specifically mandates the Comelec in coordination with national government agencies and local government units, person with disability and senior citizen organizations, and other cause-oriented groups, to “conduct satellite and/or special registration for persons with disabilities and senior citizens in accessible places.”

Comelec also came out of a primer for Sunday’s activity:

Who can register?

At least 18 years old, resident of Manila not less than six months before elections, not yet registered. Bring valid ID.

Who should be validating their registration or doing biometrics capture?

Those who have registered but no or incomplete biometrics data. Bring valid ID.

What is Biometrics and why is this needed?

Biometrics data consist of digital photograph, fingerprint and signature of the voter captured using the Comelec registration machine.

If the voter has no or incomplete biometrics did not validate or undergo biometrics capture before Oct. 15, 2015, his or her earlier voter’s registration will be invalidated and cannot vote in the next election.

For you to know if you have biometrics data, you may coordinate with the Office of the Election Officer where you are registered or you may go to the Comelec website:www.comelec.gov.ph.

Those who have no biometrics are given notice by the Election Officer.

Who are being encouraged to update their records this Sunday?

Registered PWDs and Senior Citizens who did not indicate their type of disability and assistance they may require on Election Day.

In the updating the PWD or Senior Citizen may indicate if they want to vote in the Accessible Polling Place that the Comelec would be designating on Election Day.

How does one update?

Go to Comelec office or the Satellite Registration Center and fill up the Supplementary data Form. Bring valid ID.

In the Supplementary Form, check the type of assistance that you would need on Election Day. If you want to vote in the Accessible Polling Place, check on Yes box.

How about those who are unable to fill up the registration or other forms?

An Election Officer, or a relative, or anybody trusted by the PWD or Senior Citizen may assist her or him in filling up the Application for Registration form.

The Assistor should fill up three copies of the Certification /Attestation by Assistor on the lower part of the Supplementary Data Form.

For more information on Sunday’s satellite registration, please call Emma Masongsong and Leo Lim of the Comelec’s Education and Information Department can be reached at 525-9345.

This is just for Manila. Hopefully other cities and provinces would follow soon.

The Pichay lesson in political ads

April 17, 2013April 17, 2013 Ellen Leave a comment

Pichay’s ad in 2007 elections

Some are concerned that with the lifting by the Supreme Court of the airtime limits on political advertisements, we would be bombarded with all those propaganda in the next 30 days.

Less-moneyed candidates are worried that they would be drowned by those with money to burn. Independent senatorial candidate Teddy Casiño said the SC’s ruling favors wealthy candidates or those backed by the ruling elite.

“Ginawang parang unli text, unli call.The problem is its steep cost,” he said. TV ad rates, depending on the time slot, would not go below P250,000 for a 30 second ad. A candidate would need some P30 million for the remaining four weeks of the campaign.

” It is disgusting that the SC has decided against the Comelec’s effort to rein in expensive campaigns which poor or cash-strapped candidates like me cannot afford,” Casiño lamented.

One of the parodies of the ad.

The SC yesterday restored the old regulation of 120-minute limit for national candidates’ political ads over each TV station and 180 minutes over every radio station. For local candidates, the limit reverts to 50 minutes over each TV station and 90 minutes for each radio station.

The Comelec last January limited political ads national candidates to 120 minutes on all TV networks and 180 minutes for radio. For local bets, the limits were 60 minutes on TV and 90 minutes over radio.

I’m turned off by the lies and hypocrisy of many of the senatorial candidates’ TV ads. But I trust the Filipino viewers/voters. Although TV is till the number one source of information on elections, they don’t swallow hook line and sinker all that they see and hear on TV.

Proof is Prospero Pichay, Jr in the 2007 elections. Remember the ridiculously hilarious “Magtanim ng gulay sa Senado ” ad of Pichay? He was the biggest spender in the 2007 elections with P151 million.

From gulay to noodles

Oh well, he moved up from the bottom to no. 16. But the point is, TV viewers were not enticed to plant Pechay in the Senate. The joke was had the campaign period been extended, with more people turned off by his ads Pichay would have been pushed further down the list.

Contrast that to Antonio Trillanes IV , who was then in detention and whose ads appeared only in the last two weeks of the campaign, yet placed made it to the Magic 12. (He was number 11.)

I take the SC decision as re-distribution of wealth, a very much welcome feature of democracy. Let those who have so much wealth spend their money on TV ads. Let’s just hope that broadcast network share they money with their employees.

Christopher Boga, an engineer who is now a seaman wrote reacting to a previous column about people in our barrio in Guisijan, Laua-an, Antique voting for Trillanes as their way of thanking him for the P1 million allocation of his Priority Development Assistance Fund, popularly known as pork barrel to a farm-to-market road in their place.

Excerpts from Boga’s letter:

“Medyu natuwa ako dahil kahit papano ay merong nagkusang loob na tumulong sa paagpapaayos ng kalsada sa inyong barangay.

“Nakakalungkot pong isipin na sa kabila ng mga ipinagyayabang ng ating gobyerno na Farm to Market road project ay kailangan pa rin nating magmukhang pulubi sa panghihingi sa ating mga kagalang galang na pulitiko para lang maambunan ng kanilang pork barrel. At ang mas nakakalungkot isipin ay kung sino pa ang mga hindi taga roon sa ating lugar sa Panay ay sya pang may puso na mapagbigay katulad nalang po ni Sen. Trillanes.

“Umuwi po ako kasama ang aking buong pamilya noong pasko at napakaganda nga ng Iloilo city ngayon. Pero naalala ko noon pang mga nakaraang administrasyon wala silang ibang bukambibig kundi farm- to -market road.

“”Tuwing eleksyon hindi mawawala ang ganyang plataporma. Tuwang tuwa naman ang mga pobre nating mga magsasaka. Pero pagkatapos nilang ibenta ang kanilang mga boto, lupaypay na naman ang balikat dahil lista sa tubig lang lahat ng mga pangakong iyon.

“Nakakaawa tingnan ang mga batang estudyante na nagsisiksikan sa isang single na motorsiklo para lang makapasok dahil hindi madadaanan ng four-4 wheels ni tricycle man lang ang kanilang lugar. May batas tayo na naglilimita kung ilan lamang ang dapat isakay ng single na motorsiklo, bakit hindi tingnan ng ating mahal na pangulo mismo para mapagisip isip nya ang kanyang ipinangangalandakan? “

“ Sinikap nyang sa pamamagitan ng napakaliit na budget ng barangay at sa pamamagitan rin ng panghihingi sa matataas na pulitiko sa probinsya ng Iloilo ay mapasemento ang sira at madulas na daanan galing sa aming barangay papunta sa bukirin. Nakapasemento rin sya ng 20 metros, inuna muna nya ang pinakamahirap na daanan.Ang plano nya sana, kahit 20 metros kada taon kung matuloy tuloy iyon, siguro mabubuo rin ito. Subalit noong mga nakaraang eleksyon nakalimutan ng aking mga kabarangay ang kanyang mga ginawa dahil sa kakarampot na salapi. At dahil sa prinsipyo ng tatay ko, sa madaling salita, natalo sya. Ngunit sa kabila ng kanyang kabiguan, nandyan pa rin sya, tumutulong pa rin sa ikagaganda ng barangay. “

Boga, who is from Iloilo, related that his father was a barangay captain for 20 years.

“Hindi sya nagtanim ng sama ng loob, basta ang tanging laman ng puso nya ay makatulong. Kahit mawala man ang tatay ko, may mga iniwan naman syang kapaki-pakinabang na proyekto sa aming barangay. Ganyan ang tatay ko, hindi nagtapos kahit elementary school ngunit nasa puso nya ang maglingkod. May God bless him.”