Life in PNoy’s Enchanted Kingdom

I went to register at the Quezon City Comelec office this evening. Sobrang dami ng tao. And to think meron nang separate areas for the different districts of Quezon City.

There were not enough forms and not enough biometrics machines. So ayun nagsisigawan na ang mga taong nakapila mula umaga pa.

Magulo ang queuing. Kasi walang “take a number”.

The long wait would have been a little more bearable kung may numbers. That would have given everyone an indication of how long they would have to wait. Those with very high numbers could go have a snack or maybe even see a movie muna. But making life easy is not what bureaucracies are all about.

Buti na lang may kakilala ako sa loob.

If you were in my place what would you do?

On jueteng:

“I’m not tolerating it but I”m for the legalization of jueteng…until we can find alternative jobs for the people. “If you stop illegal gambling they might go to drugs.”

If Erap becomes president the entire country will go to drugs. Anything to stay numb for six looong years.

Dean de la Paz of Business Mirror takes a look at Gloria’s accomplishments.

Arroyo’s chicken-ranch economy
Through the Looking Glass/Business Mirror

OF Gloria Arroyo’s political promises, on the same credibility level as those on December 30, 2002, that lied about ambitions, eradicating poverty within a decade is another for the books.
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Chiz Escudero said he left his political party, NPC, because

Ako’y lumisan dahil naniniwala po ako na mas matatanaw ko ang dapat kong gawin at dapat gampanan kaugnay sa darating na halalan. Di bilang miyembro, kundi ako lamang po, bilang ako

Una, sino man po ang nagpapaplanong tumakbo bilang pangulo, dapat wala pong partidong kinabibilangan –NPC, LP , NP, Lakas o ano pa man. Ang dapat na partidong kinabibilangan ng sino mang nagpaplanong tumakbo, dapat po Pilipinas. At lahat ng mga kapartido niya, dapat lahat din ng Pilipino.

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My column in Business Mirror is about Erap.

Banking on stupidity and forgetfulness
Business Mirror / Dispatches from the Enchanted Kingdom
28 Oct 2009

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on.—George W. Bush, Washington, DC, March 31, 2001

LAST week a rheumy-eyed, wheezing and bulol (stuttering) Joseph Ejercito “Erap” Estrada swore to his loyalists that he was going to run for president again—for their sake, of course.

“This is the last performance of my life and I will not fail you…. Sumusumpa ako, si Joseph Ejercito Estrada, na lalahok ako sa susunod na halalan upang muling maglingkod sa masang Pilipino bilang pangulo ng Pilipinas [I, Joseph Ejercito Estrada, swear to run in the coming elections so I can serve the masses again, as president of the Philippines.]”

Estrada spoke for about 40 minutes. Struggled was more like it. He looked weak, weary and unfocused. I was afraid he would not finish his speech.

But Erap, 72, debunked concerns about his health, claiming he felt like he was only 40. Well, he looks 40 going on 90 if you ask me.

Is there no one among his different families, no one among his friends, cohorts and political advisers who will dare tell him the stress of campaigning could kill him?

Erap played the victim at the Tondo rally.
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So Oliver Lozano went to the Comelec and filed a premature disqualification case against Erap.

What is the meaning of this?

Well, if Erap is allowed to run for reelection then Gloria can too, as long as she is not the incumbent when she does it. The centenarian FVR can also run again.

If the Comelec or the SC allow Erap to run then they would in effect amend the Constitution through interpretation, just like what happened on the ruling on the Mining Act which amended the constitutional provision on effective ownership of natural resources.

Whenever Lozano files a case, Gloria smiles.

The Never Ending Movie

Scene 1 Take 1

Director (1998) - “ACTION!”

Erap (slurring) “This will be my last performance…”

Director (2001) “CUT!”

Scene 1 Take 2 (2009)

Director “ACTION!”

Erap (more slurred) “This will be my last performance…”

Abangan….

I don’t know what to make of this piece of news from the Comelec.

Commission on Elections Law Department head Ferdinand Rafanan advised losing candidates

“Forget election protests, You cannot win against the machine.”

“You cannot win election protests this time, You will be fighting against the machine. You cannot do that.”

“Sino ang mga kalaban mo noon? Ang mga teachers, or ang mga election officers, kasi nandaya sila, kaya nilang gawin yun. Pero [with the automated counting machines], pag na program mo na yun, pag na testing mo na siya, ano pa ang laban mo dun?”

“We need to shift the battle from post-election to pre-election, when you file petitions for disqualification.”

What happens if there is cheating? Rafanan is only looking at the counting part. He is not looking at cheating in the voting process.

I’ve heard that lawyers are in the dark because automation has rendered inapplicable many provisions of the Election Law.

Sino kaya ang matutuwa sa balitang ito?

I thought it strange that a meeting between US Embassy officials and the MILF leadership went uncommented on. The only other comment on the meeting came from Gemma Cruz Araneta’s column in one of the other dailies. The absence of commentary specially at a time when there is a clamor not only to review but also to abrogate the Visiting Forces Agreement surprised me. Hence this article.

Who’s sleeping with the enemy?
Business Mirror/ Dispatches from the Enchanted Kingdom
21 October, 2009

Last weekend Leslie Bassett, the US Embassy’s charge d’affaires, met with the top officials of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The meeting raises several questions.

Did the American Embassy ask the Arroyo administration for permission to meet with the MILF leadership?

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Malacañang have not said anything. Military commanders in the area did not know that a meeting would take place.

Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer, chief of the Eastern Mindanao Command, said the Americans simply requested him to provide security for their “routine familiarization visit.”

Lt. Col. Jonathan Ponce, spokesman for the Sixth Infantry Division that provided escorts for the Americans, was also clueless.

“We learned afterward from intelligence reports about the meeting. We learned that they discussed development projects and probably also the peace process.”

Now I don’t know about you but I think the US Embassy and, for that matter, all embassies, have an obligation to ask the host government for permission before sitting down with secessionists.

If the meeting was secret and held without the Arroyo administration’s permission, then the US Embassy not only breached diplomatic protocol—it also committed a subversive act.

Who initiated the meeting?

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Blogger Schumey over at The Philippine Experience projects what a Manny Villar presidency will be like based on what the crook does in his kingdom of Las Pinas.

Schumey wrote:

Subdivisions in Las Piñas not owned by the Villars are celebrating. The reason, they are now freed from Villar’s water company with the entry of Maynilad. Unfortunately for the people who live in Camella, they will have to continue paying for high water rates. Villar refused to allow Maynilad to service his subdivisions. Maynilad’s rates are way below what Villar’s water company charges its subscribers. He clearly does know how to put his interests above that of the public.

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