Raissa Robles

Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III tells why he’s not yet married at the age of 49

2009-11-16T21:31:00.005+08:00

It was an ambush interview and therefore the question – “Why are you still a bachelor?” – understandably caught him by surprise.

The Philippines has had only one wifeless president - Elpidio Quirino - but he was a widower grieving over his wife Alicia and three of his five children who were murdered by Japanese soldiers during the Battle of Manila in the Second World War.

Some politicians (and perhaps Sen. Noynoy himself) probably thought my question impertinent and an invasion of privacy. Let me explain. When Sen. Noynoy's name started popping up as a viable presidential candidate I started asking around and was surprised at some of the answers I got.

Some said they would NOT vote for him because he has never married and has never shouldered the responsibilities of raising a family. They argued that this shows he has shirked from taking on any responsibilities. Therefore, how could he be responsible for an entire nation.

Others even doubted his manhood because unlike Senator Mar Roxas he has never even sired anyone out of wedlock. The second point, I thought, was not relevant to the presidency.

But the first one certainly was.

And so I asked the senator why he has remained a bachelor all these years, in the presence of fellow journalist Dana Batnag of Jiji Press.

Sen. Aquino's answer was most unexpected.

To read the rest of the entry - please go to http://raissarobles.com

Pssssst, will President Barack Obama waltz with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo next year?

2009-11-13T11:03:00.001+08:00

In the same way that the late US President Richard Nixon once waltzed with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos?

This waltz, which culminated in Marcos' declaration of martial law, is detailed in the once top secret but now declassified presidential papers of Nixon.

Why rake up events of almost 40 years ago? Because those events are uncannily repeating themselves again today, such as the stubborn moves to change the constitution, the threat to impose martial law, and the bombings in Metro Manila.

And because the US government continues to act to this day as an overlord or superior of the Philippine government. Here's proof. Remember last year when the Philippine government was about to sign the controversial MOA-AD (Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain) with the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last year?

The US Ambassador, Kristie Kenney, was there to witness the signing which was scuttled by the Supreme Court.

TO READ THE REST, PLEASE GO TO - http://raissarobles.com

Thanks,
Raissa

I've transferred my blog to raissarobles.com and I hope you'll all join me there

2009-11-03T16:32:00.004+08:00

I'm a digitally-challenged person and so transferring to a Wordpress blog for me is like jumping into the deep end of the pool for the first time.

I'm the person my hubby would like to hide in the closet should his peers come around and start talking about the web, the internet and all sorts of electronic stuff. You see, he teaches online journalism at the International Institute of Journalism in Berlin.

He urged me to start a blog two years ago. I signed up for one but did not put up a site. Just looking at the Dashboard or command page of Wordpress made my head spin.

Then middle of this year I finally signed up for Facebook and Tweeter upon his prodding, then stumbled on Blogger and started blogging by trial and error. Lots of errors, but I learned.

And I met Japan-based Farah Trofeo on Facebook. She encouraged me to put up a Wordpress site. And so I took another look at Wordpress, with lots of help from Lynda.com tutorials.

I realized that my frustrations using Blogger could be addressed by Wordpress. For instance, I could upload documents as PDF files to back up what I say in my blogs. I could change the color and size of the text easily to emphasize certain parts of the entry.

This is my latest adventure into virgin land. I'm learning everyday and making mistakes everyday. Hope you'll all join me. - thanks, Raissa

Psssssst, Senator Chiz Escudero, is it true you've turned down ONE BILLION PESOS offered to you just to withdraw from the race?

2009-10-28T09:30:00.011+08:00

Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero has reportedly turned down ONE BILLION PESOS offered to him in exchange for withdrawing from the presidential race, two sources have just now told me separately. Wow.

I tried phoning his cell but he's not answering. I have no reason not to believe my two sources because both are highly reliable and IN THE LOOP.

I was told Senator Chiz will announce today at the earliest that he will push through with his candidacy but leave the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC) of businessman Eduardo Cojuangco. He has nothing to lose. He will look good and even if he loses, he is still a senator with a mandate till 2013.

The sources both said the NPC founder had forged an agreement to pair off NPC official, Senator Loren Legarda, with Senator Manuel Villar, chair of the Nacionalista Party who is running for president.

Doesn't this smack of an arranged marriage? They mentioned Senator Eduardo Angara as the marriage broker.

Anyway, Ms. Loren, who professes to be single right now, is the happy bride.

Wonder how much her dowry will cost Cojuangco who is still trying to wangle total control of San Miguel Corporation.

Pssssst, Uncle Eddie Ramos, please listen to your niece Lila

2009-10-27T12:00:00.007+08:00

Dear President Ramos,

By this time, you must have read the open letter of your niece, Lila, to you. It is now circulating on the net after she placed it in her blog (see http://lilashahani.blogspot.com/2009/10/open-letter-to-fvr.html).

She is one brave lady, I think, because she even placed her age (42) for all the world to see.

In case you haven't read it, I'm reprinting it below. Before you do so, I'd like to say that except for what happened with the Amari land deal and the Centennial Expo I thought you made one hell of a president.

And I will always recall with fondness the first time I saw you. It was the day after you and Juan Ponce Enrile, the defense minister then, had evaded your cousin, President Ferdinand Marcos' arrest. You and Eduardo Ermita were holed up in Camp Crame.I was one of the reporters who who went inside your office to interview you.

You were Mr. Cool, especially when you told the reporters very nonchalantly - Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd like you to go down now where you'll be safe because the tanks are coming.

You were ready to face the music. I like that in a leader. Now you're being asked to face the music again by your niece and millions of Filipinos here and abroad. Here's what she has to say:

___________________

14 October 2009
Dear Uncle Ed,

I was very relieved to hear that you were all safe and sound in the wake of
Ondoy and Pepeng. But how devastating that our people had to go through two such onslaughts (particularly in Pangasinan, Ilocos and Manila -- all of which remain very close to our hearts) one after the other! I hope and pray that the flooding eventually subsides and people are rehabilitated safely. And if Napocor and the San Roque people are in fact partially responsible for the terrible flooding in Pangasinan, I sincerely hope that they are made to face their day in court.

I thought I would write you because I’m concerned about some things that have been happening at home. I am not sure who you will endorse for president but I know that it will most likely tip the balance again, much in the way that your endorsements have done in the past. I have never felt the need to write you before, although I have always carefully observed your decisions through the years.

And I certainly had questions -- questions about human rights during the martial law years, military logging under the Marcos administration, the signing of IPP contracts after the power crisis (and the high cost of electricity for consumers), the San Roque dam, PEA/Amari, the Fort Bonifacio conversion/privatization program, the VFA, the Centennial celebration, the endorsement of Joe de V and the continued support of GMA until the bitter end. I was relieved to learn that you had been cleared of any wrongdoing in the PEA/Amari case, but always wondered whether your decision to endorse Joe de V (which was after all a party decision as well) was inextricably linked to it.

Why am I bringing all this up now? Only to say that, as your niece, I have had many questions about your decisions through the years, but none that ever made me feel the need to engage with you at length. To begin with, ours was not a particularly discursive relationship. More importantly, I always felt the need to give you the benefit of the doubt, and trusted that you had the best interests of the Filipino people at heart.

And there was certainly ample evidence that you had done tremendous things in your lifetime. Not only were you a hero of EDSA 1: you had had a brilliant military career and were arguably one of the best presidents the country has ever had. Winning by only a small margin, you turned what might have been a costly liability into the success of pluralism. With liberalization and deregulation during your term, FDI increased and the economy as a whole remained strong, even throughout the Asian financial crisis. In fact, privatization, revenue generation through a VAT on luxury goods and services, working with the communist and Muslim insurgency, and focusing on OFW rights (particularly in the case of Flor Contemplacion) -- were all hallmarks of your administration, and certainly the kind of decisions my Fletcher professors would have applauded. Indeed, the suggestions of corruption were minimal, seen in the context of all your positive contributions and in comparison with preceding and succeeding presidents. Without a doubt.

But I finally had to break my silence after having watched the Ondoy aftermath with horror, realizing that our government was as much to blame for the colossal loss of life and habitation in the country as was climate change. As an engineer, you know that the flooding was also due to poor civil engineering, urban planning and zoning; lack of waste management; lack of education and corruption.

The thought of your supporting Gibo (or even a Villar/Escudero tandem, for that matter, in the event that Gibo has become too unpopular since Ondoy) was finally enough to make me put pen to paper. Without a doubt, Gibo is “incomparably competent,” but then so were Joe de V and GMA, Uncle Ed -- and look what happened. I understand that you supported GMA because you wanted macroeconomic stability in the country above all, particularly in the apparent absence of any viable alternatives.

But I think the sweep of history speaks for itself: competent candidates with strong party affiliations are not necessarily going to be good leaders, nor will they necessarily be what the people want. Because they lack a certain basic honesty, and I suspect the people sense that. If Gibo were sincere, why would he stay with Lakas-CMD, particularly now that the merger with Kampi has been honored by the Supreme Court? Surely the ruling party has been discredited at this point, in view of everything GMA has done? There really is no need to enumerate anymore: I think, by now, we’re all pretty familiar with what those things are.

Even Obama was reluctant to have an audience with her, and overseas Filipinos continue to refuse to send money to the Ondoy victims through their embassies and consulates, so deep indeed is their distrust of the government! Moreover, his performance in the post-Ondoy relief effort has hardly been stellar, as you must have already noted. Gibo is also undoubtedly backed by Danding (despite the alleged rift), which suggests that the two things that very much impede progress in our country -- monopolies and oligarchy itself -- will ultimately remain unchanged. This is ostensibly the reason why many young people remain wary of Chiz/Loren or Villar/Escudero. As for Manny V, his meteoric rise to power is nothing short of impressive, to be sure, but his proclivity for engaging in back-room deals has certainly not gone unnoticed. In short, what we see in these candidates appears to be more of the same -- a position, I might add, we can no longer afford, and certainly not at this critical moment in our nation’s history.

Of course Erap’s decision to run will split up the opposition even further, which certainly strengthens the ruling party’s hand. But perhaps my biggest fear about Gibo (apart from the very real possibility that, in subtle ways, the ruling party might cheat) has to do with the fact that charter change appears to be imminent, in which case, if GMA runs for Congress in the meantime, it is not entirely inconceivable that she could become our next Prime Minister. To be sure, you would be granted the same type of soft power you’ve been granted during GMA’s administration, but is it really worth it in the end, Uncle Ed? Do you really want to go down in history as the guy who saved GMA after “Hello, Garci” and who continued to hand the country down to its unscrupulous elite from one administration to another? Isn’t the respect of the young -- and of history itself -- the most important thing, at the end of the day? In my humble opinion, the best way to refurbish the fading Eddie brand now is to do the right thing and heed the will of the people.

Noynoy, of course, is less than perfect: we all know that. His record is remarkable only in its lack of remarkable achievements, and he certainly isn’t a particularly brilliant thinker or charismatic speaker. But he has never been tainted by any suggestions of corruption and does not appear to have the propensity to throw his weight around. He is apparently thoughtful, respectful and humble, and we can only hope that his lineage will encourage him to sacrifice for the country the way his extraordinary parents did. Because of this inimitable heritage, he is now the one candidate with the potential to unite the opposition against the ruling party. For his part, Mar is no slouch, moreover, and the Liberal Party appears to have some progressive elements.

The point is: the people are clearly tired, not just of the “bickering,” as you say, but of the trapos themselves, and are willing to bet on someone who falls very far outside the standard mold (Noynoy is, if you will, a reluctant Cojuangco, something many respect and appreciate). At any rate, I sincerely hope you will consider my thoughts -- the thoughts of a young Filipina who loves her country immeasurably -- when you make your decision.

But none of this changes my love and respect for you, Uncle Ed. I’m just sorely disappointed and hope that, for once in my life, you might actually recognize that I'm old enough to make my own assessments. Nor does this mean that I’m not a “team player.” Because my definition of teamwork is not that you command the team and everyone is thereby obligated to obey you. Instead, team members should be able to have different view points, while still working together for the greater good of the collective whole. In fact, democratic exchange within the team can often enhance the quality of its collective decisions on the whole.

I sincerely hope that you place the country over any other considerations and choose the candidate who is really best for the country, and not in terms of who might further consolidate the tremendous power you already wield.

I hope you won’t be offended by what I have written (and hope you understand if I decide to include some of these ideas in my new blog) but, at 42, I think I’m finally entitled to my own opinion, Uncle Ed. You are after all the only father figure I have ever had (although you may not know it) and I’m writing you the way I would have written my own father, had I just been given a chance.

Please take care of yourself.

Love always,

Lil

Note:

1.) Three people deserve special mention in the writing of this letter: the first is my wonderful brother Chanda, who has unfailingly shared his very deep insights into the murky inner workings and internecine warfares in Philippine politics throughout. Chand also continued to stay in touch with me when no one else in the family seemed to want to talk to me after the letter had been written. The second is my good friend Jojo de Veyra, who criticized much of the draft and defended my uncle in a number of instances, forcing me to reformulate my own positions. Both the insights of Chanda and Jo led to a revision of my original PEA/Amari reference. And, finally, Sylvia Mayuga, another dear friend, who shared much of the heartache that followed the stony silence, continuing to encourage and support me regardless of whether or not I chose to send the letter and make it public. Jo and Sylvia never stopped bugging me to write something -- anything! -- because they apparently believed in my ability to do so. Jo even went out of his way to set up this blog, since I was clearly too inept to do it myself. ;-) To all three, I remain deeply grateful.

Pssssssst kababayan, Sen. Manny Villar told me comedian talk show host Willie Revillame is NOT the one

2009-10-23T09:32:00.004+08:00

First of all, forgive me for not writing on my blog for such a long time. I've been swamped with deadlines, the current one being a series of interviews of key presidential candidates for Asian Dragon magazine. I decided to take up this challenge because it would give me a chance to see the candidates up close. And also because the editor-in-chief is Lito Gutierrez, whom I once worked with in Business Day newspaper (now dead).

Little did I know that trying to obtain interviews with every single one of them would be so damned difficult. My hubby, journalist Alan, was right. Candidates would hardly give me their time of day mainly because they would rather talk with TV and appear on TV. Not print. And I guess they would rather have their sound bites, and not be possibly bitten so early in the campaign. Not that I bite. Anyway -

Finally, last week, I was able to complete five interviews. Those of Senator Noynoy Aquino and ex-President Joseph Estrada were both ambush interviews. The rest were sit-down interviews: Sen. Chiz Escudero, Sen. Manny Villar and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro.

Each one was a different personality. Each one had his charm as well as political baggage.

My initial conclusion – for the first time, the Filipino voter is presented with a wide variety of candidates.

What I would like to do later in this blog is to give you glimpses of the candidates, one of whom perhaps will be president next year.

I'm not going to say who to vote for.

I can only help by giving readers an INFORMED CHOICE.

Now, a word about Sen. Villar. Last week was the first time I was able to meet him. Years ago, Asiaweek magazine assigned me to interview him but he rejected my request through an assistant saying, “Alam ba yan ni Tony?” (Does Tony know?) He meant Tony Lopez, the chief reporter for Asiaweek.

Fine, I said. I wouldn't push it if he chooses who should interview him.

And so I was pessimistic that my interview with him would push through. But apparently, Lito Guierrez and Olivia Limpe-Aw, the Asian Dragon publisher were persistent. They collared him good.

Villar was a surprise to me. He made me wonder – what is the most important quality that a Philippine president should have? I won't elaborate on that now. I still have like three more articles to finish.

But I thought I'd share a tidbit now about him. When he was asked, “Is it true Willie (Revillame) will be your running mate?”

He replied - “No, ikaw naman, he's a friend. But of course I will not say he's not qualified to be fair with him. He's very popular because of Wowowee (a game show)."

He said Willie was going around with him and giving people joy while being acutely aware that many of his fans were poverty-stricken, homeless, penniless and out of school.

Sen. Villar is regarded as the closest rival of Estrada for the affection of the poor, according to Sen. Ernesto Maceda in a separate interview. Maceda is Estrada's key political strategist.

Sorry, have to go now.

Do wait for my blogs on the presidential candidates.

Pssssssst, Smartmatic, glad you wrote to “Dear Mrs. Ellen” asking to buy her services to push your brand of poll automation

2009-10-12T11:58:00.013+08:00

Veteran journalist Ellen Tordesillas found your letter (see below) , hiring her services, “strange” and insulting.

From the tenor of your letter, I'm sure Ellen was NOT the only journalist you wrote to. Which brings me to my point - that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) should deeply delve into your proposal.

Ellen, the woman named Samira Saba is real and she is Smartmatic’s Communications Manager based in Caracas, Venezuela. The press release below from Smartmatic Venezuela quotes Senora Saba:

In your Malaya column, Ellen, you called Smartmatic a “Dutch firm”. This is what Smartmatic has always wanted the Filipino public to believe. But in reality, it remains very much a Venezuelan firm, and merely uses the Netherlands as a convenient address. Here is the link to their board of directors - http://www.smartmatic.com/company/board-of-directors/

Also, if you recall, Smartmatic sent to the Senate inquiry their very handsome, gorgeous-looking telenovela-type company officers and not one of them was Dutch. All spoke with a heavy Latin American accent that makes listeners think they're romancing the English language.On the face of it, Smartmatic's proposal to Ellen (and most probably to other Filipino journalists) appears aboveboard. The company needs writers, and therefore they want to hire someone very credible like Ellen.

But there are some insinuations Senora Saba make about you, Ellen. For instance, Senora Saba states: "If you are interested in adding our organization as a regular client for your freelance writer services, we can define the extent and number of articles you could write monthly.”

Senora Saba presumes Ellen's body of writing is all paid for by regular clients of “your freelance writer services.” Tsk, tsk. She doesn't seem to know you could make a hell of a lot of money writing the very opposite of what you are publishing right now.

Senora Saba is also very helpful. She wants to hire Ellen to write about “Smartmatic technology in particular” and then adds that if Ellen agrees, “in this case, we would of course furnish appropriate materials to the required depth.”

Smartmatic wants Ellen to do PR work for them. Nothing wrong with PR. Trouble is, Senora Saba should have hired a PR agency, and not gone to Ellen.

Which makes me wonder what Smartmatic KNOWS and DOESN'T KNOW about how an automated election is supposed to work in a democracy. The Philippines, for all its flaws, prides itself as being run NOT IN THE WAY Hugo Chavez runs Venezuela, where Smartmatic has played a significant role legitimizing Chavez's authoritarian rule.

Over the past several days, I must confess, I have had arguments with certain people over how credible Smartmatic is in conducting a very crucial election for the Philippines next year.. It was impressed upon me very clearly by two people (whom I will not name except to say they are in the know) that Smartmatic would be crazy to smear its name and brand worldwide by conducting a fraudulent election here next year. The two added that if there is any cheating that would be done, it would not come from Smartmatic.

Another person, whom I talked to, said Smartmatic was not doing what it had originally agreed to do – that is, educate the stakeholders about its product. Stakeholders mean – the voters and those who will directly be in charge of the voting machines. The source did not mean PR either. But actual training for these various stakeholders on the ground down to the grassroots level. The source described the Smartmatic machines as “just like a fax machine” that transmits data electronically.

Now, Smartmatic's letter makes me wonder if the company knows how a democratic election is supposed to work. I mean, it's very basic. You don't hire journalists to do PR for you.

I know Filipino politicians do it all the time – hire working journalists to write PR pieces for them disguised as news. That's what Smartmatic wants Ellen to do.

That's not how the fourth estate – journalism – is supposed to work if it is to serve the public. Filipino readers have the right to know whether what they are reading as news was really gathered by the writer to the best of his or her ability and fairness of judgement and not because she was secretly hired by a third party.

Tell you what, Smartmatic, hire all the journalists in Manila and the provinces that you want. But publicly release the roster of your hired help. Fair for you, fair for the journalists who want to earn more, and fair for the reading public who read their write-ups.

Hasta luego, Samira.

_______________________________

Elen's Malaya column - October 12, 2009
Smartmatic’s insulting proposal

LAST Friday, I got this strange letter from a certain Samira Saba of Smartmatic, the Dutch firm that partnered with the local Total Information Management and won the P7.2 billion contract for the nationwide automation of the 2010 elections.

Here’s the letter:

Dear Mrs. Ellen

"My name is Samira Saba and I work at Smartmatic as the Marketing and Communications Manager (www.smartmatic.com).

"I have checked your blog and I find it quite interesting. I can see the articles published are responsible, and show that you as a rule strive to inform and educate your readers. For instance, the article "Rock the vote!"

"I would like to know if you have the time and the interest of writing some articles regarding the following subjects:

1) Election automation worldwide, and positive experiences in various countries.

2) Election automation in the Philippines, past and present.

3) Different technologies to automate an election. Perspectives and comparisons: shortcomings, advantages, political implications.

4) Smartmatic technology in particular (in this case, we would of course furnish appropriate materials to the required depth).

"If you are interested in adding our organization as a regular client for your freelance writer services, we can define the extent and number of articles you could write monthly. I will be glad to give you more details and answer the questions you may have.

"If your answer to the above is positive, then I would appreciate a quotation for your services, with a target of two articles published per month to begin with.

"I look forward to hearing from you the soonest."

It was signed by Ms. Saba.

I find the letter insulting. It smacks of bribery. I had to take several deep breaths and reminded myself that I should not write anything when I’m angry.

Saturday, I replied, asking her "What and where in my articles gave you the idea that my services are for sale?"

I’m still waiting for her reply.

Understanding why Manila drowned: Filipinos received little warning and almost no official help

2009-10-10T12:48:00.003+08:00

Understanding why Manila drowned
Filipinos received little warning and almost no official help
Raissa Robles
Updated on Oct 05, 2009
When the typhoons and catastrophic rain they carried hit the Philippines, many of the impoverished residents received little warning. Hundreds died, and in the grief-filled aftermath, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo pledged "never again", ordering the deployment of advanced Doppler radars capable of detecting the scale of potential rainfall.

That was 2004.

About five years after the devastation in Quezon that claimed 1,800 lives, the Doppler radars have yet to be constructed. Their continued absence is just one link in a tragic chain of events that culminated in the deaths of about 300 people in the Philippines just over a week ago and paralysed Manila, as 80 per cent of the capital city went under water. Rescue services seemed at a loss, incapable of dealing with an emergency that, at its peak, left tens of thousands of people stranded, waiting in vain for rescuers who never came.

It is a sequence of events that began with the failure to detect the huge amount of rain being carried by then Tropical Storm Ketsana. But as the situation worsened, warnings failed to reach those most in need, who were then forced to fend for themselves as the muddy waters rose, and the chain of command began to break down.

Dr Prisco Nilo, the head of the Philippine weather bureau (known as Pagasa), acknowledges that Doppler radars would have given forecasters a much better idea of what to expect before Ketsana dumped about 40cm of rain on Manila in nine hours on September 26.

Doppler radars - which have been installed by Hong Kong, Thailand and Taiwan, among other places - give real-time data on rainfall intensity in highly specific areas, said Nilo's deputy, Nathaniel Cruz. He said the Philippines' first Doppler would go online by year's end, in Zambales province, "to guard Metro Manila against future Ondoys", the local name for Ketsana.

But Nilo conceded that the radar's US-based manufacturer, Enterprise Electronics Corporation, "only said they'll try". In fact, he said, the 100 million peso (HK$16.5 million) contract states a delivery date in the middle of next year for two Dopplers - just before the typhoon season.

In all, eight Doppler radars are to be built, five of them taxpayer-funded and three paid for by the Japan International Co-operation Agency (Jica). In addition, two existing radars will be upgraded, which it is hoped will give the country 10 Dopplers by 2013.

Nilo said the failure to have Dopplers in place so long after the Quezon disaster was because "the budget process in the Philippines takes long and we also have to go through a bidding process". Critics of Arroyo have blamed the slow process on the government's skewed sense of priorities.

The weather bureau chief doesn't share such sentiments. Nilo said bureau staff referred to the new equipment as the "PGMA Dopplers" - after President Arroyo's initials - to give her credit for the initiative of purchasing the gear.

Yet even with sophisticated new radar in place, Cruz was reluctant to predict that a repeat of last week's disaster couldn't occur in the country. "Even if we say, `Manila should get ready', if `Pedro' does not listen to the news or the village leaders don't tell residents or residents refuse to leave, deaths will still happen," he said.

The suggestion that Manila residents themselves bore part of the blame for the extent of Ketsana's impact was first raised by Cruz'sboss. "Instead of just watching soap operas on TV, they should also watch the news," Nilo said on September 27, a day after the deluge.

Yet judging by Pagasa's weather bulletin issued on the eve of the storm, Ketsana would be a typical tropical storm, of which about 20 visit the Philippines each year.

Nilo was quoted by the Philippine Star newspaper on the day Ketsana struck saying "the storm will not cross Metro Manila ... [but the metropolis would experience] moderate to heavy rains". He said later that the forecast changed overnight - too late for the Star to change.

By September 26, Ketsana was drawing huge amounts of moisture from the southwest monsoon, causing the deluge over Metro Manila, he said. Pagasa would try to devise flood intensity warnings, he said, but added that this might not work all the time because "sometimes people respond only when they see the actual floodwaters, but then it might be too late".

In any event, none of the warnings reached Bagong Silangan village. Residents could not tune in to the news on the night of September 25 because of a power blackout, not uncommon in the Quezon City squatter village. Nor was there any newscast the next morning, even as the rain fell. And so Metro Manila - a city of 10 million residents crammed into 636 sq km - went about its usual business. Office and factory workers began their half-day at work, while families stayed home, or went shopping

In impoverished Bagong Silangan - the name of the official settlement camp for slum dwellers means "new birth" - residents were well aware of the dangers of flash flooding. Nine years ago, 300 residents were buried alive when an enormous mound of rubbish next to the settlement collapsed in heavy rain.

But with no warning of what was on the way, residents like Victoria Tutor and her six children simply decided to sit out the rain at home. They were all swept away in the torrent that surged through Bagong Silangan. Tutor and two of the children were rescued; of the other four, only the body of 16-year-old Vinaflor has been recovered.

As it became increasingly clear on September 26 that a major disaster was unfolding, the seeming lack of official action infuriated many locals.

Trapped residents cowering in the upper floors of their homes tried phoning the lead disaster agency, the National Disaster Co-ordinating Council, at the height of the storm. Most (including this reporter) were met with engaged signals or phones that rang unanswered.

By late on September 26, tens of thousands cowered on high points and awaited rescuers. Rescue boats were notable by their absence. Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro admitted that only one inflatable dinghy out of 13 he ordered made it to Marikina City - one of the worst-hit districts, where thousands awaited rescue.

There is some confusion about how many boats were pressed into action. Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner said that contrary to Teodoro's comments, 17 inflatable boats had been sent into action. But he conceded that not all were immediately put to their best use.

"These boats could not penetrate right away due to the strong currents," Brawner said. Ironically, traffic gridlock caused by flooded streets prevented the navy from sending more inflatable boats.

Brawner said that as a result of the experience, Teodoro had ordered the purchase of 50 more rubber boats.

Regardless of exactly how many boats were used, Marikina's mayor, Marides Fernando, maintains that by that Sunday morning, not a single boat had reached her inundated city.

While state agencies were paralysed, it fell on Manila's residents to take action themselves. Thousands simply waded, swam or paddled to higher ground.

The Manila Dragons dragon boat team used their traditional vessels and inflatable boats to pluck many people to safety. Team manager Romulo Valientes said the team, which has competed in Hong Kong and mainland China, had great difficulty paddling in waters filled with trash, dead rats, snakes, grease and diesel fuel.

Quezon City Judge Ralph Lee mounted his jet ski and rescued no fewer than 100 citizens. "I was so carried away by the very sad situation," he said.

On Tuesday, Arroyo met her cabinet for the first time since the rain began. Many people were still stranded. Two senior ministers complained that local and village executives simply disappeared during the disaster. "The city and municipal disaster centres are not functioning now," Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane told her.

Arroyo herself noted that the mayors of Cainta and Pasig cities were not answering her calls. And a senior executive from a private firm helping out in rescue efforts told the South China Morning Post that one colonel "nearly wept" at the height of the disaster because he had no one to co-ordinate with.

Armed Forces deputy chief of staff Lieutenant General Rodrigo Maclang reported to Arroyo that nearly 20,000 residents had been rescued by 2,000 soldiers and a thousand police officers. But in reality, many swam or walked out themselves, albeit guided by the rescuers. And the numbers represent a drop in a very muddy ocean - by mid-week, there were more than 300,000 people taking refuge in shelters across Manila.

Few doubt that another major storm will one day hit Manila and trigger flooding again, although perhaps not on such a grand scale as in Ketsana's case.

To avert a similar outcome, Teodoro has said he will position rescue equipment in advance and enforce the mandatory evacuations for children next time.

Lawmakers also promised to enact a long-pending comprehensive law on reducing disaster risk that includes a controversial proposal to regulate land use. Metro Manila Development Authority chairman Bayani Fernando has blamed the flooding on unregulated growth of gated communities that filled in natural waterways so that floodwaters had nowhere to drain.

But such pledges come too late for people such as Muelmar Magallanes, a heroic 18-year-old who saved 30 people in Bagong Silangan before he himself was engulfed and drowned. The greatest tragedy is that the efforts of people like Magallanes were required at all.

Psssssssst, Mrs. President, where are the doppler radars you promised 5 years ago?

2009-10-10T12:21:00.035+08:00

The newspaper I write for in Hong Kong gave me permission to share its editorial and my stories on Typhoon Ondoy International Code Name Ketsana). The pieces remain relevant since horrific typhoons continue to batter the Philippines and the unfulfilled promises recently contributed to needless deaths.

The editorial is entitled - Arroyo must make good on radar systems pledge. It was written by Peter Kammerer, SCMP's International Editor. Earlier I asked Ellen Tordesillas to post the editorial in her widely popular blog and she very kindly did it.

Below the editorial are my two stories on the storm -

1. The sidebar -'No one warned us,' says villager searching for her lost children

2. The main piece - Understanding why Manila drowned

My newspaper agreed to have these disseminated on my blog and Facebook, in the hope they will help do some good. Thank you for finding the time to read them - Raissa Robles, SCMP senior Manila correspondent

Arroyo must make good on radar systems pledge
Editorial of South China Morning Post
Oct. 5, 2009

A government’s priority is to protect the well-being of its people.
There is no better test of its commitment than when disaster strikes.
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration has, in
this regard, failed time and again. It did so spectacularly with
Tropical Storm Ketsana, again revealing how little it cares for its
constituents.

The Philippines is pounded by as many as 20 typhoons a year. Dozens,
sometimes hundreds, of people are killed and many millions of dollars
of damage is caused. Nature cannot be tamed, but in the case of severe weather events, technology means its wrath can be anticipated. Arroyo for the past five years has repeatedly promised to have advanced forecasting radar systems installed; politicking, corruption and government waste means they remain a pledge.

What happens when such systems are absent was demonstrated by Ketsana. (Ondoy)

Manila has not experienced as violent a downpour in 40 years. But in
the hours before the storm struck on the morning of September 26,
state weather forecasters were predicting only moderate to heavy rain.
No alert was issued and the city of 10 million was caught off-guard;
about 300 people were drowned by floodwaters and 300,000 made
homeless. Some parts of the city are still flooded.

The government’s failure extends beyond forecasting. Disaster response
mechanisms broke down. Emergency phones went unanswered. Rescue teams
had insufficient equipment and numbers. Citizens were forced to fend
for themselves.

Arroyo has promised, as she did after devastating storm-caused
landslides in 2004 and 2006, that there will not be a repeat. The
first two of up to 10 new weather radar systems could be in place by
the end of the year. Filipinos have learned not to hold their breath:
they have watched millions of dollars that could have bought such
systems several times over frittered away and Congressional debate
focused on seemingly more pressing matters like constitutional change.
But this time has to be different. Too many lives and livelihoods have
been needlessly lost and remain at risk.

No one warned us, says villager searching for her lost children
Raissa Robles
Updated on Oct 05, 2009
Victoria Tutor was beyond tears. She had just seen the body of her 16-year-old daughter, Vinaflor, and signed for the release of her remains.

That was Wednesday. Yesterday, there was still no sign of three of her other children who, like she and Vinaflor, had been swept away by rampaging waters caused by Tropical Storm Ketsana a week ago.
Her village, Bagong Silangan in Quezon City, was one of the hardest hit by the storm. Thirty-one bodies have been found, but a further 90, mostly children, are listed as missing.

Staff at Tajuna Funeral Home told Tutor they could only wrap Vinaflor's body in cloth since they had run out of coffins. She said village officials, not just the incessant rain, were to blame for the tragedy. They had received no warning. "There was none," she said. "I only knew there was rain but had not heard news about a coming storm."

Villagers were used to annual flooding brought by the rainy season, and normally just moved to higher ground when the water started flowing through, she said.

But on September 26, the floods came without warning. "We were inside the house and suddenly there was water. We went to the highest point in the village, and then the rushing waters met and we were forced to clamber onto rooftops."

The water rose higher than the roofs and at 11am she and her six children were swept away. Two were saved. The others - Via, 11, Biancaflor, five, and Jonren, three - have yet to be found. Tutor managed to remain afloat by holding onto a piece of wood for three hours before being pulled to safety. "I bumped into a bridge and people on the bridge threw me a rope," she said.

Her rescuers said Tutor was in Marikina City. Dazed and without money, she rested then started the long walk back to Bagong Silangan. Abandoned cars, buses and jeepneys jammed the roads. She arrived after an eight-hour trek in the dark.

Tutor sadly described her missing children in the desperate hope that someone would remember seeing them among the countless hordes of Manila.

Via was wearing a blouse with spaghetti straps and white pyjamas. Biancaflor was wearing a big white T-shirt, while Jonren was wearing a blue shirt and and has a scar above his right eyebrow. "Please help me find them," she said.

Understanding why Manila drowned
Filipinos received little warning and almost no official help
Raissa Robles
Updated on Oct 05, 2009
When the typhoons and catastrophic rain they carried hit the Philippines, many of the impoverished residents received little warning. Hundreds died, and in the grief-filled aftermath, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo pledged "never again", ordering the deployment of advanced Doppler radars capable of detecting the scale of potential rainfall.

That was 2004.

About five years after the devastation in Quezon that claimed 1,800 lives, the Doppler radars have yet to be constructed. Their continued absence is just one link in a tragic chain of events that culminated in the deaths of about 300 people in the Philippines just over a week ago and paralysed Manila, as 80 per cent of the capital city went under water. Rescue services seemed at a loss, incapable of dealing with an emergency that, at its peak, left tens of thousands of people stranded, waiting in vain for rescuers who never came.

It is a sequence of events that began with the failure to detect the huge amount of rain being carried by then Tropical Storm Ketsana. But as the situation worsened, warnings failed to reach those most in need, who were then forced to fend for themselves as the muddy waters rose, and the chain of command began to break down.

Dr Prisco Nilo, the head of the Philippine weather bureau (known as Pagasa), acknowledges that Doppler radars would have given forecasters a much better idea of what to expect before Ketsana dumped about 40cm of rain on Manila in nine hours on September 26.

Doppler radars - which have been installed by Hong Kong, Thailand and Taiwan, among other places - give real-time data on rainfall intensity in highly specific areas, said Nilo's deputy, Nathaniel Cruz. He said the Philippines' first Doppler would go online by year's end, in Zambales province, "to guard Metro Manila against future Ondoys", the local name for Ketsana.

But Nilo conceded that the radar's US-based manufacturer, Enterprise Electronics Corporation, "only said they'll try". In fact, he said, the 100 million peso (HK$16.5 million) contract states a delivery date in the middle of next year for two Dopplers - just before the typhoon season.

In all, eight Doppler radars are to be built, five of them taxpayer-funded and three paid for by the Japan International Co-operation Agency (Jica). In addition, two existing radars will be upgraded, which it is hoped will give the country 10 Dopplers by 2013.

Nilo said the failure to have Dopplers in place so long after the Quezon disaster was because "the budget process in the Philippines takes long and we also have to go through a bidding process". Critics of Arroyo have blamed the slow process on the government's skewed sense of priorities.

The weather bureau chief doesn't share such sentiments. Nilo said bureau staff referred to the new equipment as the "PGMA Dopplers" - after President Arroyo's initials - to give her credit for the initiative of purchasing the gear.

Yet even with sophisticated new radar in place, Cruz was reluctant to predict that a repeat of last week's disaster couldn't occur in the country. "Even if we say, `Manila should get ready', if `Pedro' does not listen to the news or the village leaders don't tell residents or residents refuse to leave, deaths will still happen," he said.

The suggestion that Manila residents themselves bore part of the blame for the extent of Ketsana's impact was first raised by Cruz'sboss. "Instead of just watching soap operas on TV, they should also watch the news," Nilo said on September 27, a day after the deluge.

Yet judging by Pagasa's weather bulletin issued on the eve of the storm, Ketsana would be a typical tropical storm, of which about 20 visit the Philippines each year.

Nilo was quoted by the Philippine Star newspaper on the day Ketsana struck saying "the storm will not cross Metro Manila ... [but the metropolis would experience] moderate to heavy rains". He said later that the forecast changed overnight - too late for the Star to change.

By September 26, Ketsana was drawing huge amounts of moisture from the southwest monsoon, causing the deluge over Metro Manila, he said. Pagasa would try to devise flood intensity warnings, he said, but added that this might not work all the time because "sometimes people respond only when they see the actual floodwaters, but then it might be too late".

In any event, none of the warnings reached Bagong Silangan village. Residents could not tune in to the news on the night of September 25 because of a power blackout, not uncommon in the Quezon City squatter village. Nor was there any newscast the next morning, even as the rain fell. And so Metro Manila - a city of 10 million residents crammed into 636 sq km - went about its usual business. Office and factory workers began their half-day at work, while families stayed home, or went shopping

In impoverished Bagong Silangan - the name of the official settlement camp for slum dwellers means "new birth" - residents were well aware of the dangers of flash flooding. Nine years ago, 300 residents were buried alive when an enormous mound of rubbish next to the settlement collapsed in heavy rain.

But with no warning of what was on the way, residents like Victoria Tutor and her six children simply decided to sit out the rain at home. They were all swept away in the torrent that surged through Bagong Silangan. Tutor and two of the children were rescued; of the other four, only the body of 16-year-old Vinaflor has been recovered.

As it became increasingly clear on September 26 that a major disaster was unfolding, the seeming lack of official action infuriated many locals.

Trapped residents cowering in the upper floors of their homes tried phoning the lead disaster agency, the National Disaster Co-ordinating Council, at the height of the storm. Most (including this reporter) were met with engaged signals or phones that rang unanswered.

By late on September 26, tens of thousands cowered on high points and awaited rescuers. Rescue boats were notable by their absence. Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro admitted that only one inflatable dinghy out of 13 he ordered made it to Marikina City - one of the worst-hit districts, where thousands awaited rescue.

There is some confusion about how many boats were pressed into action. Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner said that contrary to Teodoro's comments, 17 inflatable boats had been sent into action. But he conceded that not all were immediately put to their best use.

"These boats could not penetrate right away due to the strong currents," Brawner said. Ironically, traffic gridlock caused by flooded streets prevented the navy from sending more inflatable boats.

Brawner said that as a result of the experience, Teodoro had ordered the purchase of 50 more rubber boats.

Regardless of exactly how many boats were used, Marikina's mayor, Marides Fernando, maintains that by that Sunday morning, not a single boat had reached her inundated city.

While state agencies were paralysed, it fell on Manila's residents to take action themselves. Thousands simply waded, swam or paddled to higher ground.

The Manila Dragons dragon boat team used their traditional vessels and inflatable boats to pluck many people to safety. Team manager Romulo Valientes said the team, which has competed in Hong Kong and mainland China, had great difficulty paddling in waters filled with trash, dead rats, snakes, grease and diesel fuel.

Quezon City Judge Ralph Lee mounted his jet ski and rescued no fewer than 100 citizens. "I was so carried away by the very sad situation," he said.

On Tuesday, Arroyo met her cabinet for the first time since the rain began. Many people were still stranded. Two senior ministers complained that local and village executives simply disappeared during the disaster. "The city and municipal disaster centres are not functioning now," Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane told her.

Arroyo herself noted that the mayors of Cainta and Pasig cities were not answering her calls. And a senior executive from a private firm helping out in rescue efforts told the South China Morning Post that one colonel "nearly wept" at the height of the disaster because he had no one to co-ordinate with.

Armed Forces deputy chief of staff Lieutenant General Rodrigo Maclang reported to Arroyo that nearly 20,000 residents had been rescued by 2,000 soldiers and a thousand police officers. But in reality, many swam or walked out themselves, albeit guided by the rescuers. And the numbers represent a drop in a very muddy ocean - by mid-week, there were more than 300,000 people taking refuge in shelters across Manila.

Few doubt that another major storm will one day hit Manila and trigger flooding again, although perhaps not on such a grand scale as in Ketsana's case.

To avert a similar outcome, Teodoro has said he will position rescue equipment in advance and enforce the mandatory evacuations for children next time.

Lawmakers also promised to enact a long-pending comprehensive law on reducing disaster risk that includes a controversial proposal to regulate land use. Metro Manila Development Authority chairman Bayani Fernando has blamed the flooding on unregulated growth of gated communities that filled in natural waterways so that floodwaters had nowhere to drain.

But such pledges come too late for people such as Muelmar Magallanes, a heroic 18-year-old who saved 30 people in Bagong Silangan before he himself was engulfed and drowned. The greatest tragedy is that the efforts of people like Magallanes were required at all.

Pssssst, Mrs President, will you really order ALL typhoon relief packages seized or blocked if these are not coursed through your gov't?

2009-10-01T19:38:00.007+08:00

What if a middle income American family, touched by the tragedy caused by Typhoon Ondoy, addresses it to the Philippine typhoon victims?

Will the Bureau of Customs, as per your September 29 directive, really seize it as contraband goods because it is not addressed to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)?

How about if the package is addressed to the Philippine National Red Cross and not the DSWD, will it suffer the same fate?

I really, really find your September 29 directive curious. It knots up the selfless giving process in a lot of red tape, even if time is of the essence.

The fifth, six and seventh paragraphs of your directive especially stands out, where you say:

“Ikatlo, hindi sisingilan ng buwis o kukumpiskahan ng Bureau of Customs ang mga donasyon ng pagkain at kagamitan mula sa ibang bayan, basta't ito ay naka-consign sa DSWD.” (Third, the Bureau of Customs will not tax or confiscate donations of food and goods from other countries provided these are consigned to the DSWD.)

“Ikaapat, inaatasan ng DFA ang ating mga embahada at konsulado na padaliin ang paglabas ng mga dokumentong kailangan para sa pagpapadala ng mga donasyon mula sa abroad, basta't ito ay naka-address sa DSWD.” (Fourth, the Department of Foreign Affairs, our embassies and consulates have been directed to speed up the release of documents needed to send donations from abroad, provided these are addressed to the DSWD.)

“Ikalima, nakikiusap tayo sa mga remittance service na huwag munang sumingil ng transaction fees sa mga perang donasyon ni idinadaan sa kanila patungo sa DSWD. “ (Fifth, we are requesting the remittance services to waive transaction fees for money donations courses through them intended for the DSWD.)

These directives practically close all other avenues of goodwill and charity.
With this directive, you are telling everyone – ordinary people, the broadcast networks, non-government organizations, cause-oriented and political groups like Migrante, Bayan Muna and the Liberal Party - you can only give or solicit relief goods and money provided you turn them over to my government for distribution.

You want to centralize and control all donations.

Please tell us why so we can understand.

By the way, you should also whisper to the US Embassy and China to do the same and only course their donations of cash and goods through the DSWD, not the Red Cross. I'm sure they'll be pleased to comply.

FULL TEXT OF PRESIDENT ARROYO'S DIRECTIVE:
[to listen to video, go to - http://www.news.ops.gov.ph/multimedia.htm and click on September 29, 2009 webcast}

PGMA's Latest Directives
Bahay Pangarap, Malacañang Park
29 September 2009
Mga Kababayan maraming salamat sa inyong pinakikitang bukas palad at kagandahang loob sa ating mga nasalanta ng typhoon Ondoy.

Upang tiyakin ang patuloy at maayos na daloy ng tulong sa mga pinakanangangailangan,ipinapaalam natin sa lahat ang mga sumusunod na hakbangin ng inyong pamahalaan:

Una, nagtayo tayo ng price control task force upang pigilan at parusahan ang labis na pagtataas ng mga presyo ng gamot. Mahigpit na pinagbabawal ang ganitong pagsasamantala.

Ikalawa, huhulihin at paparusahan ang sinumang gumagawa ng pandaraya sa pagtanggap ng mga donasyong dumaraan sa bangko.

Ikatlo, hindi sisingilan ng buwis o kukumpiskahan ng Bureau of Customs ang mga donasyon ng pagkain at kagamitan mula sa ibang bayan, basta't ito ay naka-consign sa DSWD.

Ikaapat, inaatasan ng DFA ang ating mga embahada at konsulado na padaliin ang paglabas ng mga dokumentong kailangan para sa pagpapadala ng mga donasyon mula sa abroad, basta't ito ay naka-address sa DSWD.

Ikalima, nakikiusap tayo sa mga remittance service na huwag munang sumingil ng transaction fees sa mga perang donasyon ni idinadaan sa kanila patungo sa DSWD. Karapat-dapat lamang na padaliin ng pamahalaan ang paghatid ng tulong sa mga nasalanta, at bantayan ding mabuti na di sila pahihirapan pa. Ang sinumang nagtatangkang humadlang sa gawaing ito ay mahigpit nating parurusahan, kasama na ang pagpapakulong.

Maraming salamat muli sa lahat ng mga tumutulong.

URGENT, PLEASE HELP FIND THREE MISSING CHILDREN SWEPT AWAY BY FLASHFLOODS

2009-09-30T12:32:00.004+08:00

Anyone who knows the children's whereabouts, please call Beth Hizon at 0906-7138459.

Beth, who heads a woman's cooperative in the adjacent Barangay Lupang Pangako, Payatas, also told me they are in DIRE NEED OF DRINKING WATER since the water coming out of their Maynilad faucets is color orange.

Some 80 families displaced by the flood in Lupang Pangako also need rice. they can cook it themselves.

I have just personally talked to the mother of the missing children. She is Victoria Tutor of Barangay Bagong Silangan, Payatas.

The body of her fourth missing child, Vinaflor, 14, has just been found dead all the way in the area of Pasig City and brought to a funeral parlor near Bagong Silangan, which made her sign some kind of a promissory note before releasing the body.

The mother, Victoria, was herself swept away from a rooftop in Bagong Silangan, at the height of Typhoon Ondoy (international code name Ketsana) last Saturday morning but managed to stay afloat. She was rescued when she reached Marikina River.

These are the descriptions she gave me of her still missing children -

Via Tutor, 11 – last seen by her mother wearing a spaghetti strap blouse with the picture of a flower, white pajamas and red undies

Biancaflor Tutor, 5 – wearing a big white t-shirt, no undies

Johnren Tutor, 3 – wearing a blue t-shirt, has a scar on his right eyebrow

Last week I wrote that presidential son, Congressman Juan Miguel Arroyo, started his road to riches with the very modest sum of P50,000 in cash.

2009-09-11T10:34:00.020+08:00

Last week I wrote that presidential son, Congressman Juan Miguel Arroyo, started his road to riches with the very modest sum of P50,000 in cash.

Yesterday September 10, Newsbreak magazine published the same findings independently – and this I swear on national hero Jose Rizal's grave.

My Facebook and Twitter friend, former US Air Force pilot James Triguero, called my attention to Newsbreak's article entitled “Mikey's assets before getting elected: P50,000.” [See - http://newsbreak.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6750&Itemid=88889066]

It is written by Newsbreak assistant managing editor Miriam Grace “Gigi” Go. I had the privilege of working with her last May on an article on child trafficking, but not on this.

I based my data on the research I did in 2005. Unfortunately, I did not obtain a certified copy of his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) for 1993 and 1994. What Newsbreak did with its bigger resources, though, is that it managed to pull out Mikey's files, when he worked as an aide to his mother when she was a newly-elected senator, from deep within the bowels of the Senate bureaucracy.

If you look on the right side of each of the PDF files of Mikey's Statement of Assets and Liabilities (SALN), you will see a date and a signature in blue ink. That means these are CERTIFIED TRUE COPIES OF THE ORIGINAL FILES FOUND IN THE SENATE.

That means these files can be used in any court of law.

I know this because I also had the privilege of covering the Senate for Business Star, the Philippine Star's business newspaper from 1987 to 1989. I became familiar then with the way they do business in there.

Notice too that for Mikey's 1994 SALN covering the year 1993 his salary was only P7,370 pesos – and I'm assuming this is per month.

At that time, he didn't have a rich wife yet.

Many middle class Filipinos were earning the same amount at that time. What fantastic thing did they neglect to do to be able to be as fantastically wealthy as Mikey Arroyo?

This is nothing personal. I've met Mikey and during that first meeting in October 2000, he was the one who bounded up to me, all smiles, and firmly shook my hand saying, “Hi, I'm Mikey.”

I was charmed. I thought this young man would go far.

In 2005 at the height of the controversy when the newly-elected congressman was accused of receiving payoffs from illegal gambling (jueteng) lords, I sought him out for an interview. This time I extended my hand in greeting. He shook it hurriedly like I had H1N1 virus.

Instead of the cheerful young man I had earlier seen, his face looked very sad and wary. I felt sorry for him.

But I feel more sorry for the Filipino nation. When young men like Mikey Arroyo, with the advantages of name, family, and deep connections decide to run for public office I believe they should fall under the same scrutiny as all public officials.

Let me also bring up another point which I found highly interesting in the comments readers made about my piece on Mikey Arroyo.

Some thought I have this thing against graduates of Ateneo de Manila University since I'm from THE University of the Philippines Diliman. Nothing of that sort. I owe my writing career to a dear English professor at the Ateneo, Father Joseph Galdon. My best friend introduced me to this Bob Hope look alike and arranged for me to sit in his English composition classes FOR FREE.
Well, ok, in turn Fr. Galdon asked me to hand-hold one of their university scholars.

Strangely, I don't have a photo of Fr. Galdon but this picture of Bob Hope is the spitting image of him.

It was Fr. Galdon who taught me how to write fearlessly even such taboo subjects as sex. As one of my writing assignments he told me to write out a porn scene. He read it and then marked it “good”.

It was Ateneo that taught me the phrase which to this day I try to live by - “To give and not to count the cost.”

I'm just so sorry some Ateneo graduates do not seem to live by that motto and I have to write about them.

Don't worry, we in UP have the malevolent dictator Ferdinand Marcos to live down as well - from http://raissarobles.blogspot.com/

What kind of New York transport cost the Arroyo trip US$182,957.50 in just two days?

2009-09-08T14:28:00.001+08:00

A submarine?

A pre-Garci-tape time travel capsule?

From the breakdown provided by the Office of the President (see below), this amount spent for "transportation" is the biggest expense of the trip. And this is aside from the air fare of US$4,675 from Washington to the Big Apple.

Could luxe limos like the one pictured below cost that much, do you think? I hope the presidential palace reporters ask about this.

What does the item “Filipino community” expenses really mean? A hakot crowd? Filipino community expenses are apart from the US$42,500 spent on “representation” expenses in Washington. Notice, too, that “representation” disappears as an expense in New York.

Why bring a planeload of people to New York, the 8th most expensive city in the world according to the just-released Mercer's 2009 Worldwide Cost of Living survey? The retinue spent more in two days there ( US$396,099.00) than three days in Washington (US$371,855.98), which was the real object of the trip.

Two days at NY's Waldorf Astoria (US$94,576.93)

was costlier than three days at Willard Hotel (US$70,879.78).

Has the First Family been luxury hotel addicts all these years?
_____________________________________________________________________

July 29-August 5
Expenses of Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's stay in Washington and New York

Washington (3 days) ;/ New York (two days)
hotel US$70,879.78 / US$94,576.93
air fare US$2,508.70 / US$4,675.60
transportation US$82,824.00 / US$182,957.50
Filipino community US$79,720.22 / US$33,714.33
equipment rental US$8,775.00 / US45,909.00
Embassy expenses: /NEW YORK US$41,092.07
RP-US Friendship caucus US$5,178.42 / NONE IN NEW YORK
Stakeholders Tour US$7,164.66 / NONE IN NEW YORK
Secretariat supplies US$6,305.00 / US$14,173.57
representation US$42,500.00 / NONE IN NEW YORK
gratuities* US$66,000.00 ; US$59,000.00
______________ ______________

Total Washington - three days - US$371,855.98 (P48.47 per US$1)= P18,023,859.35
Total New York - two days - US396,099.00 (P48.47 per US$1) = P19,198.918.53

(NOTE: The *gratuities are the tips for services rendered by bellboys, hotel chamber maids, security convoy escorts and a butler that your taxes so generously paid for.)

To view the document, released by Susanna Vargas, the deputy executive secretary for administration and finance, which is the basis of this piece, please go to http://www.gmanews.tv/story/170245/arroyo-party-gave-away-p6m-in-tips-during-six-day-us-stay

Psssssssst again Mikey, do share how your assets grew from P50,000 to P156 million in just 16 years -

2009-09-01T09:47:00.024+08:00

Do tell, so fellow Filipinos can copy your technique. After all, you started with a modest investment base of only P50,000 which you declared as the total sum of your worldly goods back in 1993.

And also because I do so love your home in sunny California. As Ellen Tordesillas, Avigail Olarte , Yvonne Chua and Luz Rimban wrote in Vera Files, I could take a virtual tour of your home at 1655 Beach Park Boulevard, Foster City, California, which you listed in your 2008 Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) under "Business Interest and Other Financial Connections." You did not declare it as part of your "Personal and Other Properties".

Hmmmm, what's the diff?

Take the virtual tour of Mikey's lovely Beach Park home
I'm sad it's now on sale once more.

I took the virtual tour and the accompanying music almost lulled me to gentle sleep. You, too, can take the tour by going to: http://www.ewalk.com/tour.cgi?id=1655

Take a peek at Mikey's lovely bathroom, master bedroom, kitchen, living room. Take the virtual tour by clicking on the words “360 Scenes”, and then the words “Front View”, “Backyard”, “Living Room”, “Family Room and Kitchen” and “Master Bedroom” - and be transported to his world.

View at EasyCaptures.com

What a peaceful, restful home. So far from Manila's maddening media demanding to know how you could afford a million dollar home on a half a million peso yearly income as congressman.

And mainly because back in 1993, your declared assets were only worth P50,000 or the equivalent of US$1,024.59 (at current forex rate of P48.80 per US$1). Even that was a handsome sum for a young buck of 24 just out of college.

But hey, your mom had just won her first ever elective post as senator of the Philippine Republic in 1992. Rather than earn oodles of money growing your own company, you opted to serve the people by joining your mom's Senate staff. You were therefore required by law to submit your first ever SALN. I'm sure you took the filing seriously. Hence in 1993 you declared you had P50,000 pesos which you listed under the item - “cash on hand/cash in bank”.

Life was beautiful. You had no liabilities (utang).

Now let's jump to last year when your total assets (based on your December 2008 SALN) was listed at a whopping P150,253,644.95 (or US$3,078,968.13).

You're a dollar millionaire now. Wow. Gosh. How'd you do that?

Let's see now -
1993 – you worked with mom – P50,000 assets. Net worth same due to zero liabilities.

1994 – still worked with mom – P320,000 assets (of which P120,000 was cash and P200,000 personal effects,). Net worth also P320,000 because of zero liabilities.

Then your assets paper trail disappeared. You must have taken some time off. From 1996 to 1997, you studied Business Administration at the University of California in Berkeley, you once told me in a 2005 one-on-one interview.

The next time your SALN surfaced was in 2001 when you got elected provincial vice-governor of Pampanga.

You also tried breaking into the movie business, appearing in mostly bit or supporting roles and a few leading roles. By 2001, your P320,000 assets had grown to P5,721,787.29, broken down as follows:

P3,327,686.12 in cash
P2,144,101.17 in shares of stock
P250,000 worth of personal effects
With zero liabilities, your net worth was the same as your assets.

It took you only four years (excluding time off for Berkeley) for you to earn P5 million. Cool.

Now let's do a quick rundown of your total assets' amazing growth, all based on your available SALN:

1993 - P50,000 – zero liabilities
1994 – P320,000 – zero liabilities
2001 - P5,721,787.29 - zero liabilities
2002 - P5.003 million – zero liabilities
2004 - P76,531,403.96 – zero liabilities
2005 - P138,751,403.96 - P61.8 million liabilities
2006 - P167,971,403.96 – P78.4 million liabilities
2007 - P154,972,409.95 – P58,224,476.29 liabilities
2008 - P156,122,409.90 – P56,874,476.20 liabilities

The biggest jump in your assets (by roughly P71 million) was between 2002 and 2004 when you were Pampanga vice-governor.

Could it have been due to your budding movie career? But it wasn't that great, according to well-known entertainment columnist Ricky Lo who interviewed you in July 2003. He wrote afterwards: “As an actor, he’s tagged as a "TH" (as in Trying Hard) and critics of GMA (your mom) and her administration had a field day poking fun at Mikey and his mom (poor GMA!) when his starrer called Di Kita Ma-Reach finished at the tail end of the Metro Manila Film Festival three years ago.”

In 2002, you married your second cousin, Maria Angela. Perhaps she brought in the fortune?

Last year you listed her as board director in five companies owned and run by her family years before you two got married. These are:

H.M. Montenegro Co. Inc
Pacific Activated Carbon Co. Inc
Pacific Activated Carbon Co. Intl.
Titan Megatiles Industrial Corp
Titan Mega Bags Industrial Corp. .

A quick check with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows most of these companies are in bad shape.

H.M. Montenegro Co. Inc, also listed as H.M. Montenegro and Asso. Inc., is the holding company for eight family-owned firms.

Two of the companies earned modest amounts:
Titan Mega Bags Industrial Corporation's last financial statement was for the year 2000: listing P576 million in assets. But its net operating income before tax that year was a negative P5.55 million. “Other income” raised this to P24.3 million.

The last financial statement filed by Titan Megatiles Industrial Corp was for 2002 when it declared operational losses of P7.988 million. But earnings outside operations gave it a P6.48 million net income.

Pacific Activated Carbon Co., Inc earned a net income of P30.6 million in 2002.
Again between 2004 and 2005, your assets grew by some P62 million or from P76.5 million to P138.75 million.

In 2004 you got elected Pampanga congressman for the first time.

In 2005, according to Vera Files, you sold a condominium in California for US$900,000 – something that wasn't disclosed in your 2004 SALN.

The following year, California land records showed you transferring THE lovely Beach Park property in your wife's name. Lucky wife.

Below is a copy of the real estate details of Beach Front, courtesy of Manolo Quezon:

View at EasyCaptures.com

View at EasyCaptures.com
And so your conjugal assets kept growing
Let's assume this jump in assets was due to borrowings and not to kickbacks from the illegal gambling game jueteng - which you were accused of in 2005. Which you told me was a lie.

You said then: “When you are the incumbent president's son, many sectors want to see you fail rather than succeed. Oppositors to my mom, if they can't hit her they hit me.”

This week you attributed malice, ignorance and recklessness to Ellen, Yvonne,Avigail and Luz of Vera Files. You said they never called you but they said you refused to answer their mobile text messages and calls.

I've covered beats with Ellen and Yvonne and I know how they can be very persistent in nailing stories. In fact your mom, President Arroyo, held the same opinion back in October 2000 when she was being asked if she would pursue criminal charges against then President Joseph Estrada if he resigned.

She replied: “Right now I'm already hearing many suggestions about that. Neal Cruz has his suggestions. Ellen Tordesillas keeps asking me about that with very suggestive questions....So I'm listening to the consensus that's being formulated.”

Last year you declared debts worth P56,874,476.20
Let's just do some mental exercise. If we assume you had to pay 8% yearly interest on that, you would have to shell out P4.55 million in interest payments alone for that year. No problem. You had P51.6 million in cash.

Never mind if as a legislator you only earn P420,000 a year. Do tell how you managed to generate all that cash that has enabled you to afford your debt, build a mansion in La Vista, Quezon City, buy a million dollar property in California and still maintain a wealthy lifestyle.

I even heard one of your government-paid bodyguards has the job of making sure your Phillipe Patek watch isn't snatched from your wrist. I haven't verified that. Perhaps you could.

Is it like this one below?
But here's the thing, your parents declared in 2008 assets worth P171.843 million pesos after nearly a lifetime of working.

How did you manage to nearly equal their worth in just 15 years without ever being a corporate CEO? Yeah, you are the president of Mikey's Horseman Bar and Grill Inc starting 2006. That must be a lot of barbecue you grilled.

You've beaten all the odds. And so I wanna know. Please, please, I wanna know.

____________________

Brief bio of Congressman Juan Miguel Arroyo
Born: April 26, 1969
Education - Ateneo de Manila University all the way
1993-1995 mom's aide at her Senate office
1995 - starts showbiz career doing bit parts. By 1998, racked up 5 movies as second lead and one starring role
1996-1997 - studied Business Administration at University of California in Berkeley
2001-2004 - elected Vice Governor, Pampanga; sudden asset jump by P71 million
2002 - married Maria Angela Montenegro
2003 - Philippine Star entertainment columnist Ricky Lo said Mikey was "trying hard" as an actor
2004- to present - elected Congressman
2005 - accused of receiving jueteng payoffs but denies it; another asset jump
2006 - registered California Beach Boulevard property under wife's name
2008 - declared beach property as holdings of a California company where he claimed to own shares but didn't say how much

Convicted double murderer's brother is President Arroyo's next possible appointee to the Philippine Supreme Court

2009-08-29T17:35:00.023+08:00

At any other time, bar topnotcher lawyer Manuel “Dondi” Teehankee would have been a welcome addition to the Supreme Court. His name has just been submitted as one of the four applicants to fill a seat in that body.

But not this time, Dondi, not when you and your family owe the sitting president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, BIG TIME - namely, her highly controversial grant of executive clemency in October last year to your older brother, Claudio Junior, who was convicted of double murder.

Not when Arroyo is also a charter member of your family's Claudio Teehankee Memorial Foundation, which was named after your late esteemed father.

And not when Pres. Arroyo is also your sister's classmate and Arroyo calls your mom “Tita Pilar” and she remembers you as this cute "baby doll".

Do you recall that in 2001, your family foundation gave Pres. Arroyo the “rule of law” award. And from Arroyo's speech, which I am reprinting in full below, you can see how chummy she is with your family.

In one part of that speech, Pres. Arroyo fondly recalled the time when you were trundled off to Assumption College where your older sister studied:

"I STILL REMEMBER WHEN DONDI WAS A BABY, PRICY AND I WERE CLASSMATES AND SHE HAD HER BABY BROTHER DONDI AND WHEN HE WAS BROUGHT TO ASSUMPTION AND WE WERE ALL SAYING, "HI DONDI, HOW CUTE, HI DONDI," AND THEN ONE OF THE NUNS SAID, "OH HOW NICE HE SPEAKS SPANISH." BECAUSE DONDI, DONDE.

BUT I WAS VERY PROUD WHEN LATER ON THAT BABY THAT WE WERE ALL PLAYING WITH LIKE A DOLL BECAME NUMBER ONE IN THE BAR, AND NOW I AM DOUBLY PROUD THAT THIS BAR TOPNOTCHER -- WHOM I SAW WHEN HE WAS A BABY -- IS NOW HELPING ME CARRY OUT THE RULE OF LAW.”

In another part of her speech, Pres. Arroyo said:

"MY FATHER SAID, THE PRIMARY FUNCTION OF THE PRESIDENT IS NOT TO DISPENSE FAVORS BUT TO DISPENSE JUSTICE."

Eighteen years ago, your brother Claudio Jr. killed in cold blood Swedish-Filipino Maureen Hultman, 16, and Roland Chapman, 21, her American friend whose father worked at the US Embassy. He also shot and seriously wounded Jussi Leino, a Finn in his early 20s.

The three friends had gone out to celebrate Maureen's first pay check and the two young men were escorting her back to her home inside a gated community in Makati City when Claudio appeared from nowhere and demanded to know who they were and ask for their ID.

When Roland asked why, Claudio simply shot him dead. And then he forced Maureen, who had gone hysterical, to sit on the sidewalk beside Jussi. He shot Jussi in the face and Maureen in the forehead. But Jussi survived to testify.

Two other witnesses confirmed Jussi's testimony.

Claudio has never admitted to the killings and has never said sorry. During the trial, his lawyer even tried to pin the murder on Maureen's Swedish stepfather, Anders.

Claudio was found “guilty beyond reasonable doubt” and sentenced by the Supreme Court to one life term plus at least 16 years, and ordered to pay at least 12 million pesos in moral and exemplary damages and attorneys' fees. A life sentence usually means at least 20 years in jail, but this could have been cut by good behavior making Claudio eligible for release by 2011, according to Raul Gonzalez, Arroyo's justice secretary then and now her presidential legal counsel.

Arroyo, for reasons she has never shared with the Filipino people who had installed her president only three months before she gave this speech, suddenly commuted Claudio's sentence last year. At the time he was released, Claudio had not yet paid his civil liabilities to Roland's family and to Jussi. Only the Hultmans had been paid.

Dondi, the fingerprints of your family including your own were all over that presidential action. To defend your brother's sudden release, you even had to phone Manila radio stations all the way from Geneva where you were stationed as the Philippine permanent representative to the World Trade Organization, a post you also owed to Mrs Arroyo.

Given all these, can you be an impartial member of the Supreme Court?

Besides, an 84-page petition is still pending with the Supreme Court asking the body to nullify the clemency granted to your brother on grounds of “grave abuse of discretion”.

I address you as Dondi because once upon a time we happened to have been thrown together for nearly a month. I got to know you then and found you to be very smart – in the mind and in high-end fashion.

If you get appointed to the Supreme Court at this time, people will always say it's because Arroyo may want you to return the favor if, you know, she or her family should happen to have to petition the Supreme Court.

Newspapers are playing you up as the son of former Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee” who had died before your brother had committed the murders. What would your father do now, do you think, in your position?

_________________________

PGMA's Speech during the Presentation Ceremonies of the Rule of Law Award given by the Claudio Teehankee Foundation and the Center for the Rule of Law Ateneo Profession Schools Building, Rockwell, Makati City (April 18, 2001) (Source: page 53 in http://www.humanrights.gov.ph/docs/pgmahrspeeches.pdf)

THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
MY FELLOW AWARDEE, FILIPINO OF THE YEAR 2000 AND FILIPINO FOR ALL SEASONS, CHIEF JUSTICE HILARIO DAVIDE; MRS. DAVIDE; FR. NEBRES; FR. BERNAS; FORMER VICE PRESIDENT PELAEZ; FORMER SENATE PRESIDENT SALONGA; JUSTICE MUÑOZ-PALMA AND THE OTHER OFFICIALS; MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE CLAUDIO TEEHANKEE MEMORIAL FOUNDATION; THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE FOUNDATION -- AND I'M VERY PROUD THAT HE IS A MEMBER OF MY GOVERNMENT AS UNDERSECRETARY OF JUSTICE -- DONDI TEEHANKEE; MRS. BETH DAY ROMULO; DISTINGUISHED GUESTS; LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

I MUST ALSO GREET OF COURSE THE MEMBERS OF THE TEEHANKEE FAMILY NOT ONLY DONDI, BUT TITA PILAR AND MY CLASSMATE PRICY. THAT'S THE REASON WHY I BECAME A CHARTER MEMBER OF THE TEEHANKEE FOUNDATION BECAUSE OF PRICY, AND NOW WITH CHIEF JUSTICE AND I RECEIVING THIS AWARD, I COULDN'T HELP BUT WHISPER TO FR. BERNAS WHAT A HOMETOWN DECISION. BUT I'M VERY HONORED TO RECEIVE THIS AWARD ESPECIALLY BECAUSE I'M RECEIVING AN AWARD TOGETHER WITH CHIEF JUSTICE DAVIDE, AND THAT I AM RECEIVING AN AWARD IN MEMORY OF THE LATE CHIEF JUSTICE CLAUDIO TEEHANKEE.

THE LATE CHIEF JUSTICE TEEHANKEE SAID THAT "THE RULE OF LAW IS THE BASIS OF ANY CIVILIZED SOCIETY -- AND IT IS HERE -- A LAW THAT UPHOLDS HUMAN DIGNITY AND FREEDOM AND PROTECTS HUMAN RIGHTS." THIS IS THE ESSENCE OF OUR DEMOCRACY WITH A GOVERNMENT WHICH ACKNOWLEDGES THAT SOVEREIGNTY RESIDES IN THE PEOPLE. AND THIS PRINCIPLE OF SOVEREIGNTY RESIDING IN THE PEOPLE WAS THE PRINCIPLE THAT WAS INVOKED WHEN CHIEF JUSTICE DAVIDE SAID THAT HE WOULD ADMINISTER THE OATH OF OFFICE OF MY POSITION AS PRESIDENT ON THAT DAY JANUARY 20th. INDEED, NOTHING CAN BE MORE DEMORALIZING TO THE MASS OF THE PEOPLE THAN TO SEE PUBLIC OFFICIALS UNINHIBITED BY OLD, CONVENTIONAL PRACTICES BECAUSE THEY ARE LEFT DISCONCERTINGLY WITHOUT A CODE OF ETHICS TO GUIDE AND RESTRAIN THEM.

WE ARE ALL FAMILIAR WITH THE EVENTS THAT TRANSPIRED AT EDSA DOS. AND IF THERE IS ONE LESSON WHICH THE STORY OF PEOPLE POWER 2 HAS CLEARLY SHOWN, IT IS THAT THE PEOPLE HAVE GROWN ALERT IF NOT CRITICAL OF GOVERNMENT. PEOPLE EXPECT RESULTS AND GOOD BEHAVIOR AND CREDIBLE PERFORMANCE FROM GOVERNMENT.

THEY WILL NO LONGER SIMPLY SIT AND WATCH NEGLECT, INCOMPETENCE AND ABUSE FROM PUBLIC OFFICIALS. THEY WANT GOOD GOVERNANCE AND THEY DEMAND GOOD GOVERNANCE.

CHIEF JUSTICE TEEHANKEE SAID, "THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF JUSTICE NECESSARILY CONNOTE A RULE OF LAW AND NOT OF MEN." HIS ROLE IN EDSA 1 PREFIGURED THE ROLE OF CHIEF JUSTICE DAVIDE IN EDSA 2. IN THE CASE OF CHIEF JUSTICE TEEHANKEE, HE ADMINISTERED THE OATH OF OFFICE TO CORY AQUINO WHO WON IN THE ELECTIONS BUT WAS LOSING IN THE COUNTING, AND HE WAS CONVINCED TO ADMINISTER THE OATH -- AS WE'VE ALREADY HEARD FROM CHIEF JUSTICE PALMA BY HER REQUEST TO HIM. IN THE CASE OF CHIEF JUSTICE DAVIDE, IT WAS HE WHO SAID THAT HE WOULD ADMINISTER THE OATH OF OFFICE TO ME BECAUSE I AM THE CONSTITUTIONAL SUCCESSOR. AT THE TIME OF MARTIAL LAW THERE WAS NO CONSTITUTIONAL SUCCESSION BUT UNDER OUR PRESENT DEMOCRACY AND RULE OF LAW, THERE IS A CONSTITUTIONAL SUCCESSION.

CHIEF JUSTICE TEEHANKEE, IN RELATING THE EXPERIENCE OF EDSA 1986 SAID, "EDSA 1986 WAS INTENSE, BUT NOT VEHEMENT NOR VIOLENT. EDSA 1986 WAS PASSION EXQUISITE," HE SAID, "BUT IT WAS RATIONAL, EVEN DIVINE. THE BLIND HATRED OF A MOB OR MINDLESSNESS OF SENSELESS VIOLENCE CANNOT DUPLICATE THAT SPIRIT."

THAT WAS WHAT CHIEF JUSTICE TEEHANKEE SAID ABOUT EDSA 1986, BUT IF WE SEE EDSA 2000 THAT WAS THE WAY IT WAS AGAIN. THESE TWO DRAMATIC EVENTS SHOWED THAT THERE CAN BE A PEACEFUL TRANSFER OF POLITICAL POWER WITHOUT RESORTING TO VIOLENCE AND BLOODSHED. AND I ESPECIALLY APPRECIATE NOT ONLY CHIEF JUSTICE DAVIDE FOR DECIDING THAT HE MUST ADMINISTER MY OATH OF OFFICE ON THAT DAY BUT ALSO FOR BEING -- EVEN IF HE INHIBITED HIMSELF -- AN INSPIRATION FOR THE THREE SUPREME COURT RULINGS AFFIRMING THE LEGITIMACY OF MY PRESIDENCY. I THINK CHIEF JUSTICE DAVIDE AND I THANK THE OTHER JUSTICES FOR THAT RULING. IT WAS PROVIDENTIAL THAT CHIEF JUSTICE DAVIDE AND JUSTICE PANGANIBAN WOULD BE CONSTRAINED TO INHIBIT THEMSELVES, OTHERWISE THE VOTING WOULD HAVE BEEN 15-0 RATHER THAN 13-0.

BUT BECAUSE THEY HAD TO INHIBIT THEMSELVES, THEN IT WAS POETIC JUSTICE. 13-0 REMINDS US THAT IF THREE TIMES THE SUPREME COURT VOTED 13-0 PERHAPS ON MAY 14 THE REST OF THE PHILIPPINES WILL ALSO VOTE 13-0.

IN THE AFTERMATH OF EDSA 2, VOCIFEROUS CALLS FOR A QUICK ACTION WITH REGARD TO THE FORMER PRESIDENT CREATED SOMEWHAT THE PERCEPTION OF A LYNCH MOB DEMANDING VENGEFUL RETRIBUTION. NOT ONLY WERE THERE VOCIFEROUS IMPATIENT CALLS FOR DONDI AND HIS BOSS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE TO ACT MORE QUICKLY, THERE WERE ALSO THE SAME CALLS FOR THE SUPREME COURT TO DECIDE MORE QUICKLY. BUT THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ACTED IN ITS GOOD TIME, THE SUPREME COURT ACTED THREE TIMES IN ITS GOOD TIME AND WE ARE STILL CONTINUING WITH THE RULE OF LAW. PRUDENCE WOULD RATHER DICTATE THAT THE STEPS WE TAKE MUST BE CERTAIN AND DECISIVE RATHER THAN RASH AND VINDICTIVE. WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF HEALING. THE WOUNDS WE ARE NURSING NEED NOT BE GAPED OPEN EVEN FURTHER.

IN THE PROCESS OF HEALING AND RENEWING, WE MUST SHOW TO EVERYBODY, THAT NOBODY IS ABOVE THE LAW, AND THAT THE RULE OF LAW PUNISHES THOSE WHO VIOLATE THE LAWS OF THE LAND. THE CRIMINAL LIABILITIES OF AN INDIVIDUAL CANNOT BE COMPROMISED BY THE STATE. WE SHALL THEREFORE LET THE JUDICIAL PROCESS TAKE ITS COURSE IN THE CASE OF THE FORMER PRESIDENT.

THE RULE OF LAW IN OUR COUNTRY WILL REMAIN FIRM AND STRONG EVEN IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY AS IT DID IN THE ADVERSITY OF THE PAST THREE OR FOUR MONTHS.

AS LONG AS THE PEOPLE REMAIN AND BELIEVE IN THE CONSTITUTION AND THEIR SOVEREIGN POWER, THE RULE OF LAW AWARD SHALL BE GIVEN AND HANDED OUT TO PEOPLE WHO STAND BY IT AND CONTRIBUTE TO ITS STRENGTHENING. I AM VERY GRATEFUL AND HONORED THAT THE TEEHANKEE FOUNDATION RECOGNIZES THAT I STOOD BY THE RULE OF LAW AND, AS CHIEF JUSTICE DAVIDE SAID, IT WAS AN ACT OF COURAGE. AN ACT OF COURAGE NOT ONLY PHYSICAL COURAGE BUT MAYBE EVEN MORAL COURAGE BECAUSE I HAD GIVEN MY WORD THAT IN EXCHANGE FOR THE RESIGNATION OF PRESIDENT ESTRADA, I WOULD WAIT FIVE DAYS FOR A TRANSITION, BUT WHEN CHIEF JUSTICE DAVIDE, THROUGH JUSTICE PANGANIBAN'S ANNOUNCEMENT, SAID THAT I MUST NOW TAKE MY OATH, I WAS STILL HESITATING AND I TOLD THE REPORTERS, "WELL, THAT MEANS THAT I CAN TAKE MY OATH OF OFFICE ANYTIME AFTER JANUARY 20th 12 O'CLOCK" -- THAT WAS HOW I INITIALLY INTERPRETED IT.

BUT SENATE PRESIDENT SALONGA KEPT GETTING IN TOUCH WITH EVERYONE HE SAID, "NO, WHEN HE SAID YOU TAKE YOUR OATH OF OFFICE AT 12 NOON YOU MUST TAKE YOUR OATH OF OFFICE AT 12 NOON."

AND WHEN PRESIDENT AQUINO AND CARDINAL SIN AND SENATOR RAUL ROCO WERE ALL TELLING ME THAT AND GIVING ME ALL THE LEGAL AND THE PRACTICAL ARGUMENTS, I PRAYED ABOUT IT. AND AS I PRAYED ABOUT IT I GOT A CALL FROM MALACAÑANG FROM FORMER SECRETARY OF NATIONAL DEFENSE DE VILLA AND ALSO FORMER SENATOR ALBERTO ROMULO SAYING THAT THEY WERE QUIBBLING TOO MUCH ABOUT THE WORDING OF THE RESIGNATION LETTER. AND I SAID, "WELL, IF THEY WERE QUIBBLING TOO MUCH ABOUT THE WORDING OF THE RESIGNATION LETTER THEN I SHALL EXERCISE THE DAVIDE OPTION." AFTER THAT I PUT DOWN THE PHONE AND BECAUSE JUST BEFORE THAT PHONE CALL WAS MADE, PRESIDENT AQUINO WAS THE LAST ONE TELLING ME, "NO YOU SHOULD TAKE YOUR OATH OF OFFICE AT NOON." SO WHEN I PUT DOWN THE PHONE -- THIS WAS IN CARDINAL SIN'S PALACE -- I SAID, "TITA CORY, YOUR PRAYERS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED AND I'M TAKING MY OATH OF OFFICE AT NOON."

IT WAS THE LORD WHO MADE ME DECIDE BECAUSE BETWEEN THE ADVISE OF WISE MEN AND A WOMAN LIKE SENATE PRESIDENT SALONGA, PRESIDENT AQUINO AND SENATOR ROCO AND ALSO CARDINAL SIN, AND THE CONFUSION THAT WAS ENSUING IN MALACAÑANG AT THAT TIME, THE TWO EVENTS CONSPIRED TOGETHER AND THE LORD GAVE ME A MESSAGE THROUGH ALL OF THEM THAT I MUST TAKE THE OPTION THAT THE CHIEF JUSTICE WAS OFFERING AND WAS EVEN URGING FOR ME TO TAKE.

AND SO I'M VERY GRATEFUL INDEED AS CHIEF JUSTICE DAVIDE SAID, THE LORD DECIDED TO INTERVENE DIRECTLY ONCE AGAIN AT THIS MOMENT IN HISTORY. AND AS CHIEF JUSTICE TEEHANKEE SAID EDSA WAS DIVINE -- AND HE WAS SPEAKING NOT ONLY ABOUT EDSA 1 BUT HE WAS SPEAKING ALSO ABOUT EDSA 2 BECAUSE EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED WAS REALLY BECAUSE OF DIVING INTERVENTION AND THE LORD WAS THE ONE WHO ORCHESTRATED THE TIMING AND THE LORD WAS THE ONE WHO INSPIRED ALL OF US TO DO WHAT WE HAD TO DO. AND I BELIEVE THAT IT IS STILL THE LORD WHO INSPIRED THE 13 JUSTICES OF THE SUPREME COURT TO MAKE THEIR DECISION THREE TIMES IN A ROW.

AND SO I'M VERY GRATEFUL THAT YOU'RE ALL HERE TONIGHT IN ORDER TO CELEBRATE THE RULE OF LAW. THE RULE OF LAW MUST PREVAIL. IT MUST ALWAYS BE ABOVE THE WHIMS AND CAPRICES OF MEN. IT MUST APPLY TO EVERYBODY EQUALLY, THE RICH AND THE POOR ALIKE, THE HUMBLE AND THE POWERFUL. NOBODY IS ABOVE THE LAW, INCLUDING THOSE WHO IMAGINE THEMSELVES TO WALK THE CORRIDORS OF POWER.

PRESENTLY, IN FACT, IN THE KILOS BAYAN AFFAIR WHERE WE ALSO HONORED CHIEF JUSTICE DAVIDE, I SAID, "THERE SHOULD BE NO CORRIDORS OF POWER IN THEIR STEAD, THERE MUST ONLY BE HALLS OF PUBLIC SERVICE. AND THIS IS THE WAY IT MUST BE WITH PEOPLE POWER, THIS IS THE WAY IT MUST UNDER THE RULE OF LAW. I AM REMINDED OF THE WORDS OF MY LATE FATHER, PRESIDENT DIOSDADO MACAPAGAL.

AND I THANK FR. BERNAS FOR STARTING MY CITATION BY SAYING THAT I AM THE DAUGHTER OF A DISTINGUISHED PRESIDENT, PRESIDENT MACAPAGAL, MY INSPIRATION.

MY FATHER SAID, THE PRIMARY FUNCTION OF THE PRESIDENT IS NOT TO DISPENSE FAVORS BUT TO DISPENSE JUSTICE. THESE WORDS WERE SPOKEN 40 YEARS AGO, IT WAS THE FIRST SENTENCE OF HIS INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

WHEN I WAS GOING TO TAKE MY OATH I WANTED TO LOOK FOR MY FATHER'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS SO THAT I COULD QUOTE FROM IT AND PARAPHRASE IT. BUT THERE WAS VERY VERY LITTLE TIME BECAUSE IT WAS ONLY AT ABOUT 10 O'CLOCK THAT I DECIDED TO WRITE THE SUPREME COURT AND SAY THAT I AM NOW READY TO TAKE MY OATH. AND THEN I HAD TO GO BACK TO LINDEN SUITES -- IT WAS OUR SAFE HOUSE -- AND THAT GAVE ME JUST ENOUGH TIME TO WRITE OUT AN INAUGURAL ADDRESS AND CHANGE INTO A SUIT FROM THE JEANS THAT I WAS WEARING THAT MORNING SO THERE WAS NO TIME TO LOOK FOR MY FATHER'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. BUT SINCE THEN I HAVE HAD THE TIME, AND I LOOKED AT HIS ADDRESS AND THAT WAS HIS FIRST SENTENCE: THAT A PRESIDENT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO DISPENSE FAVORS BUT SUPPOSED TO DISPENSE JUSTICE; A PRESIDENT IS SUPPOSED TO CARRY OUT THE RULE OF LAW

WE SAW IN OUR RECENT HISTORY HOW A PRESIDENCY WAS DAMAGED, HOW A PRESIDENCY CAN BE DAMAGED IF JUSTICE IS NOT DISPENSED PROPERLY. THUS, THERE IS ONLY ONE DIRECTION IN THIS ADMINISTRATION REGARDING THE ENFORCEMENT OF LAW AND THE DISPENSATION OF JUSTICE TO THE PEOPLE: THAT IS THE DIRECTION IN FAVOR OF THE HIGHEST PUBLIC GOOD, FOR IT WAS THE HIGHEST PUBLIC GOOD THAT WAS INVOKED WHEN I WAS ALLOWED TO TAKE ME OATH OF OFFICE.

THE VISION IS A SPEEDY AND FAIR ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IN OUR COUNTRY. THIS ENTAILS A DETERMINED AND CONCERTED EFFORT TO PROSECUTE THOSE WHO VIOLATE OUR LAWS AND GIVE JUSTICE TO THOSE WHOSE RIGHTS ARE VIOLATED. THIS WE PLEDGE TO DO AND THIS WE SHALL UNDERTAKE.

I AM PROUD INDEED THAT DONDI IS THERE HELPING ME. I STILL REMEMBER WHEN DONDI WAS A BABY, PRICY AND I WERE CLASSMATES AND SHE HAD HER BABY BROTHER DONDI AND WHEN HE WAS BROUGHT TO ASSUMPTION AND WE WERE ALL SAYING, "HI DONDI, HOW CUTE, HI DONDI," AND THEN ONE OF THE NUNS SAID, "OH HOW NICE HE SPEAKS SPANISH." BECAUSE DONDI, DONDE.

BUT I WAS VERY PROUD WHEN LATER ON THAT BABY THAT WE WERE ALL PLAYING WITH LIKE A DOLL BECAME NUMBER ONE IN THE BAR, AND NOW I AM DOUBLY PROUD THAT THIS BAR TOPNOTCHER -- WHOM I SAW WHEN HE WAS A BABY -- IS NOW HELPING ME CARRY OUT THE RULE OF LAW.

TODAY, YOUR ROLE DONDI AND THE ROLE OF OTHER LAWYERS AND MEMBERS OF BENEFICIARIES OF THIS CENTER AS LEGAL LUMINARIES AND PROFESSIONALS HAVE BECOME MORE IMPORTANT AS THE INTRICACIES OF THE LEGAL PROCESS AFFECT SO MANY DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF EVERY CITIZEN'S LIFE.

YOUR ROLE IN ENSURING THAT OUR PUBLIC AGENCIES SERVE THE PUBLIC'S INTEREST IN AN EFFECTIVE AND EQUITABLE MANNER IS VITAL TO MAINTAINING THE RULE OF LAW IN OUR COUNTRY.

WHILE, I AM GREATLY HONORED TO RECEIVE THIS AWARD TONIGHT, I RECOGNIZE THAT THE REAL HEROES IN EDSA DOS ARE THE FILIPINO PEOPLE.

THUS, THIS AWARD REALLY BELONGS TO ALL OF US -- THE FILIPINO PEOPLE. I THEREFORE, ACCEPT THIS AWARD IN THEIR BEHALF , IN YOUR BEHALF AS A REPRESENTATION OF THIS NATION'S STRONG BELIEF AND ADHERENCE TO THE RULE OF LAW -- NEVER WAVERING, ALWAYS VIGILANT. THAT IS THE WAY WE DID IT IN EDSA 1, THAT IS THE WAY WE DID IT IN EDSA 2, THAT IS THE WAY WE DID IT WITH CHIEF JUSTICE TEEHANKEE, THAT IS THE WAY WE DID IT WITH CHIEF JUSTICE DAVIDE, THAT IS THE WAY WE WILL DO IT AS LONG AS THESE TWO GREAT MEN ARE THE INSPIRATION OF OUR PEOPLE AND OUR PUBLIC OFFICIALS.

THANK YOU FOR THIS AWARD AND CONGRATULATIONS TO MY FELLOW AWARDEE.

Why Noynoy for President makes better political sense for the Liberal Party

2009-08-27T17:41:00.016+08:00

Now that our politics have gone retro – with the son of Joaquin “Chino” Roces vowing to gather more than a million signatures to persuade the son of global democracy icon President Corazon Aquino to run for president – you might want to read exactly how Cory was drafted.

I am therefore reposting two articles written by veteran journalist-turned-peace advocate Paulynn “Meiling” Sicam during that amazing period when ordinary Filipinos stunned the dictator Ferdinand Marcos and themselves, and planted the seeds of people power. She gave her permission.

Of course circumstances are changed now. But the same dreams remain – a country NOT going to the dogs, a people NOT fleeing in droves to foreign lands.

I am not campaigning for Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III. But it makes better political sense for the Liberal Party to put him up as standard bearer for the following reasons:

1. With Senator Mar Roxas running, it is unlikely any of the non-administration-backed candidates would give way to him. And so they would split the votes the way Fernando Poe Junior and Sen. Panfilo Lacson split the votes in 2004.

2. Sen. Roxas has not been able to excite voters enough to propel him to the top of the heap. His coming marriage with ABS-CBN broadcaster Korina Sanchez could give him some points. But what makes Ms. Sanchez a good, feisty news commentator may not be necessarily what people are looking for in a First Lady.

3. With Sen. Aquino running for president, ex-Pres.Joseph Estrada may give way to him and back him. That's a lot of votes from the masses.

Don't you find it weird that it is Sen. Roxas wearing the yellow shirt while Senator Aquino, who is the most logical person to wear this color is not? Instead he is wearing black, the color of mourning.

Having said all these, Sen. Aquino knows people's expectations are sky high when it comes to him. It also comes at a great price. He would have to ask his clan to place the family-owned Hacienda Luisita under land reform.

He might also compromise his health, what with a bullet still lodged in his neck as a result of a coup attempt against his mother.

Unlike his mother, though, he will find it easier dealing with the military since he is likely to have the backing and loyalty of the supporters of detained officers Lt. Col. Ariel Querubin and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim, thanks to his mother's support for them.

Below are Meiling's articles that appeared in 1985.

Drafting a reluctant candidate
Cory, Don Chino and “our last chance to save democracy”
National Midweek November 6, 1985
By Paulynn P. Sicam

The lady has said she isn't for drafting but Don Chino Roces and company have gone ahead anyway and formed the Draft Cory Aquino for President Movement. Word has it that Cory actually received the old man icily the day before the launching of the movement and asked him not to go through with it. But Don Chino and company, the likes of self-proclaimed Unido and Liberal Party political mechanic Tony Gatmaitan, businessman Victor Sison, recording industry executive Danny Olivares, former Bureau of Fisheries executive Benny Bengzon, angry Air Force wife Lorna Verano Yap, hard-working concerned citizen Imelda Nicolas, and several others, undauntedly proclaimed their intention to gather one million signatures in an attempt to persuade Ninoy Aquino's widow to run or President.

“Our gathering here this afternoon could be a great moment in our history,” declared Don Chino at the National Press Club last October 15 [1985]. On the other hand, the press seemed to think it could be just another less than great beginning, one of those flights of fancy carried by balloons that burst before they can really take off.

The press sat there cynically questioning every idealistic argument put forth by Don Chino, who that afternoon, looked like Don Quixote de la Mancha fighting windmills. With no guarantee that his candidate for president would accept the draft, he spoke of her as the “healing, inspiring, unifying voice” that our country needs at this time, the sorrowing widow who he hopes “will shed her mother's garments for the battle tunic of a political warrior.”

“Cory Aquino is our only hope,” said the revered old man of the Parliament of the Streets. Thus, the movement he was launching.

Cory, he elaborated, incarnates the Aquino legacy “of blood, courage, integrity and martyrdom” bequeathed by Ninoy Aquino on that hot August afternoon in 1983.

Secondly, “only Cory can bind the factional wounds of the opposition, persuade them to close ranks, bestir them to march for the country, and rouse the Filipino people to feats of dignity, honor and courage.” Third, Cory's “moral stature” which, his group thinks, would make even “men of valor in the armed forces...recoil from desecrating and brutalizing the elections if she were a candidate.” Finally, Cory Aquino can bring to government “the best minds that the nation can offer in terms of dedication, sincerity and integrity, talent and patriotism.”

This, declared Roces gravely, “could be our last chance to save democracy in the Philippines. The darkness thickens and we have to move.”

Providing the counterpoint to Don Chino's emotional approach was Tony Gatmaitan who confessed that he sees in this Draft Cory Aquino for President Movement an “exciting opportunity” to measure the depth of the ordinary citizen's desire to have her as president. He and his group feel that it is there, an emotional conviction in many people's hearts that this quiet, unassuming widow is the only one among the oppositionists who has the moral leadership to unite the opposition and defeat Marcos in an election.

Should they succeed in generating one million signatures, and enough enthusiasm from the ordinary unorganized Filipinos to persuade Cory to run, Gatmaitan intends to represent the numbers to the political parties. This should be interesting, he said, his eyes twinkling at the idea: “people power” versus the machine. Indeed, for a political mechanic, it is an exciting proposition.

The idea of a Draft Cory Movement, observed a member of the foreign press, seems to stem from a feeling of frustration at the inability of the opposition to get its act together and present a unified stand versus the Marcos dictatorship.

True, in Don Chino's opening remarks, he referred to the disarray among traditional political parties, the bickering among the oppositionists, and the cacophony of voices wasted on trivial issues.

The movement is not only for the purpose of drafting Cory Aquino as a candidate for president, explained Secretary General Victor Sison, a soft-spoken heretofore non-political former Atenean. It is also to achieve unity among the opposition groups. And, he maintained, Cory is the person who can do this.

But what if the National Unification Council, of which Cory is a major force, selects another candidate other than Cory? What will CAPM and its one million signatories do?

Why, support that one candidate, said Chino Roces. There is no one person or party we are trying to put down, assured Sison. We are trying to get them to get their act together. And we believe only Cory can do this.

It was beginning to sound like a mantra. Only Cory can do it. Cory is our only hope. If only Cory would run. If only she were willing.

Tony Gatmaitan, chairman of the movement's finance committee said he thinks he can get P30 million in pledges before the end of the year for the idea of Cory as candidate. “If Cory is to be really the people's candidate, then the people should put their money where their mouth is.,” he said.

So far, after one month of quiet work, the CAPM people have gathered 18,000 signatures. What started as a small force in Quezon City now has chapters in the whole of Metro Manila and Rizal, Cavite, Laguna, Sorsogon, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Iloilo, Capiz, Davao Oriental and Quezon Province.

More chapters are expected to be set up as the movement snowballs and the grandest hopes of the organizers about Cory's acceptability to the Filipino people are confirmed.

Thus, concluded the CAPM, Cory will not possibly be able to turn down the draft. Meanwhile, expect to read and hear that urgent mantra for the next few months as Don Chino and company make good their promise to give all they've got to what they perceive is the last chance to save democracy in this land. (Paulynn P. Sicam has just come back from Stanford University where she was a journalism fellow.)

Cory Joins the Race
December 18, 1985
National Midweek
By Paulynn P. Sicam

When Cory Aquino announced her candidacy for the presidency last December 3, the audience inside the auditorium of the Mondragon Building in Makati broke into prolonged applause. Not a few wept tears of joy and relief. The waiting was finally over. Now her prodders could finally be called her followers. They could finally buckle down to work and get the show on the road.

The tension had been building up for more than a month. It began when Don Chino Roces, former publisher and everyone's favorite street parliamentarian , decided to form a citizen's movement that would urge Cory Aquino to run for president via one million signatures. Roces and his gang of idealists (who at the time seemed destined for failure) called Cory “our last hope for democracy.” investing her with a mantle of moral righteousness.

Cory reacted to the draft with something akin to hostility. She pleaded with the group to desist from what they were planning, and when her plea fell on Don Chino's deaf ears, she declared that she was not interested in the presidency and would have nothing to do with the Cory Aquino for President Movement (CAPM).

Finally, after some lonely days in the doghouse, Don Chino's persistence began to pay off. At a luncheon with the Sigma Delta Phi Sorority late in October, Cory gave two conditions that would make her decide to run if Don Chino and company could get one million signatures, and if the election was a snap election.

Meanwhile, she said, she would be praying and reflecting and seeking advice, both human and divine. She asked everyone to pray for her too and help her make the right decision. Every inquiry, every request for an interview was turned down as Cory went into partial seclusion searching her mind and her heart for answers.

The high premium she put on prayer and trust in God made Cory's quest for an answer, in the minds of many, seem as noble and as difficult as the search for the Holy Grail. It also created the impression that every act of many that met her conditions was really an act of divine intervention, telling Cory what to do next.

First came Marcos' announcement on American television last November 3 that he was calling a snap election. It did not matter that Marcos was succumbing to American pressure to hold early elections. It did not even matter that Marcos' rules were dubious. The call for snap elections fulfilled Cory's second condition. After that, the Cory Aquino for President Movement was unstoppable. Volunteers set up tables on street corners and in marketplaces, went into towns and barrios, seeking signatures who wanted Cory to run. From Aparri to Jolo, Chino Roces said, the signatures came in bunches – from three names to thousands sent via special air freight, or hand carried to the office by concerned citizens. By November 26, Chino Roces was borne on the shoulders of his fellow-volunteers as they counted the one millionth authentic signature of the nationwide campaign.

For people who have been used to the instant groundswells of support that the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan is so adept at producing when the need arises, 41 days seemed an awfully long time to gather one million signatures. So, six volunteers did nothing but go through sign-up sheets, eliminating questionable entries, (such as the names of Ferdinand Marcos, Imelda Marcos, Bongbong Marcos, Imee Marcos Manotoc, Tommy Manotoc and Irene Marcos Araneta), or a series of signatures seemingly done by one hand, and other such anomalies.

On November 27, Ninoy's birthday, Cory attended a rally in Tarlac where politicians and friends took turns extolling her virtues, and giving every reason why she should be the next president of the Philippines. Cory shook her head with every praise, every campaign pitch. But when her turn to speak came, she quoted Ninoy: “I will never be able to forgive myself if I have to live with the knowledge that I could have done something and I did not do anything.”

That was good enough for Cory-ites who clung to her every deliberate phrase. They knew her to be a careful speaker, not one to waste her words. She measured the weight and meaning of everything she said.

On December 1, one million two hundred thousand signatures were presented to Cory by a crowd of 15,000 at the Santo Domingo church after evening mass. Th sheets of paper, fastened in fat bulging folders tied with yellow ribbons, were blessed by a priest and received by Cory.

Cory was no longer cryptic at Santo Domingo Church. “I will announce my decision after Mr. Marcos signs Cabinet Bill No. 7,” she promised.”but I assure you, you will hear what you want to hear.”

And then the seemingly insecure non-politician came to the fore once again: “If I were a traditional politician, I would be very happy standing before you tonight. But I am not a traditional politician and so I am very nervous when I think of the difficult days that lie ahead.”

The following morning, Monday, December 2, the Sandiganbayan's verdict on the Aquino-Galman murder case was handed down. Innocent, said the three-man court of General Fabian Ver and 24 other officers and enlisted men of the Armed Forces, and one civilian. Debunking the findings of the Agrava Board that Aquino and Galman were both victims of a military conspiracy, the Sandiganbayan ruled that all 26 were not guilty of any crime because the military team that killed Galman did so in the performance of their duty. And, of course, Ninoy Aquino was killed by Galman.
Within an hour, Cory was facing the press and reiterating her stand holding Marcos responsible for the murder of her husband. “He is my number one suspect,” she declared, as she has always said since August 21, 1983.

But, speaking with tact and diplomacy, with an eye on being the future commander-in-chief, Cory wooed the military establishment. She said it was misguided elements who had a direct hand in the assassination of her husband; she was not prepared to condemn all 13,000 officers and the enlisted men of the AFP. In a direct message to the “decent elements” in the military she asked for help to get to the truth behind her husband's savage killing.

On Monday evening, the Batasang Pambansa passed Cabinet Bill No. 7 during its last session for 1985, paving the way for snap elections. Later that night, President Marcos signed the bill into law.

Tuesday morning, true to her word, Cory announced her intention to run for president of the Philippines.

“How Ninoy must be laughing!” was how Butz Aquino spoke of Cory's dilemma some weeks back when she prayed and sought advice on what to do about the snowballing draft. The position Ninoy had sought so avidly in 1972 was now being given to his wife on a silver platter. His wife, whom he had kept at home because that was where he believed a woman ought to stay. His wife, who had accepted Ninoy's chauvinist attitude toward women because she did not want to frustrate the kind of life her husband found fulfilling.

“Talk of poetic justice! Marcos wanted Ninoy out of the way, but Ninoy's spirit lives to haunt him forever,” said an ecstatic Makati matron.

It was a very difficult decision, said Justice Cecilia Munoz-Palma of Cory's announcement. “I could not have made that decision for her. She made it all by herself.” the justice confided that ever since she advised Ninoy to come home, she swore she would never again be part of other decisions in th future.

If Ninoy could only see Cory Now! The shy housewife who kept herself busy reading light fiction and doing bonsai in the year before martial law was now holding her own in discussions on US bases in the Philippines (out by 1991, if the global situation allows it); on the insurgency (home-grown, with no external help and therefore no external threat to the country); on General Ver's immediate reinstatement as Chief of Staff (if General Ver could not provide adequate security for one man, how can he secure 54 million Filipinos?) With candor and confidence, Cory revealed that she had been having daily talks with Doy laurel and that she had offered him the vice-presidency.

Was this the inexperienced political neophyte whom people feared would buckle under pressure and intimidation – this woman who was married to the ultimate politician for 28 years, who endured eight years as a political detainee's wife under th most difficult years of martial rule, who upon the killing of her husband stood up to the most awesome powers in the land and accused them of the murder of her husband, and who, today, against almost insurmountable odds, would pit herself against Marcos' machinery, machinations and resources, knowing full well the might of her opponent? Was this the woman whom some solicitous souls in the Opposition wanted to protect by keeping her out of the snap election?

“I can be very stubborn,” Cory has said of herself. And though she may seek advice from all and sundry, in the final analysis, she makes her own decisions. Yes, including this tremendous decision to run, preempting Doy Laurel with her early announcement , and leaving him little room to maneuver except around her.

Pssst, Congressman Mikey, President Obama ate in a hamburger joint

2009-08-19T17:20:00.032+08:00

For US President Barack Obama, eating in a hamburger joint DOES NOT AT ALL disrespect the presidency.

But President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's son, Congressman Mikey, said it would. In fact, he said, “You want your president to eat in McDonalds or some turo-turo (food stand)? I think there's more dignity in having your president and her cabinet members and members of the Lower House to eat in a decent restaurant.”

see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng7spMHEolE

Who is right, do you think? The leader of the mightiest nation on earth? Or the son of an accidental third world president?

Early this year on January 10, 2009, Mr Obama ate at Ben's Chili Bowl in Washington DC, the kind of joint that Congressman Mikey sneers at. Mr Obama was accompanied by the DC mayor.

Mr Obama personally ordered and wolfed down a Chili Half Smoke with fries, placed on waxed paper over a cheap red plastic basket (similar to what the local KFC uses).

So undignified, do you think.

In contrast, President Arroyo and her entourage of freeloading lawmakers ate at Bobby Van's Steakhouse.

Was it dignified for President Arroyo to eat at Bobby Van's only hours after she had brought out a large begging bowl at the White House Oval Office and pleaded with President Obama to release nearly a billion dollars worth of grants provided under the Millennium Challenge Account in order to fund her ANTI-POVERTY projects?

Initially, the Filipino public only knew that she and her entourage ate at Le Cirque, in New York which the presidential palace quickly explained away as a celebration of the First Couple's wedding anniversary.

But what was the excuse for eating their way first class in succeeding days at Bouley Restaurant

and Wolfgang Steakhouse?

Oops, silly me. I forgot.

Dignity.

Dignity is defined as “the quality or state of being worthy of esteem or respect.”

It isn't defined, as President Obama showed, by where or what you eat.

Can the smoking gun on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's sudden wealth gain be found here?

2009-08-18T13:29:00.005+08:00

The Philippine Stock Exchange released today a seemingly innocuous “Memo for Brokers” numbered 2009-0383, listing the results of its latest internal audit on broker-members, their violations and the penalties imposed - see http://www.pse.com.ph/html/NewsRoom/memos/2009/MEMO_2009-0383.pdf

ATR-Kim Eng, where President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's younger brother Diosdado Junior is a board director and the senior managing director, was found to have committed five violations from February 1, 2008 to January 31, 2009. This roughly covers the same period when President Arroyo's stock holdings showed a dramatic surge to P110.4 million, from P62.9 million in 2007.

Among the violations that ATR-Kim Eng committed was that “some officers/salesmen maintained joint accounts with their relatives.” In the interest of transparency and accountability in public governance, perhaps President Arroyo's brother could come forward and say whether he performed such a service for his ate (older sis).

Four other violations his firm committed were:
Failure to properly time stamp order tickets. Improper flagging of transactions for the account of officers/salesmen and of foreign client transactions. Failure to recognize monthly unrealized gain/loss on its marketable securities in its system-generated trial balance.

The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism claimed the Arroyo couple was reported to have used two other trading firms.

When the Arroyo couple's lawyers, Romulo Macalintal and Ruy Rondain, were recently asked how the First Couple's stock holdings grew, both told the media to go to the stock exchange and see for themselves.
Now is the right time to do that, with the exchange having released its latest audit - http://raissarobles.blogspot.com/

Congressman Romualdez may have to explain a US$1.5 million US property he bought at age 24

2009-08-12T17:00:00.006+08:00

Congressman Martin Romualdez, who allegedly picked up the US$20,000 tab for the Le Cirque dinner, may have some explaining to do about his own wealth.

At the age of 24 while still studying at Harvard University, how was he able to "purchase" a US$1.5 million house and lot in Dover, Massachusetts, USA? The acquisition is listed in his 2008 Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth, as posted by GMAnews.tv in
http://images.gmanews.tvpdf/RomualdezFerdinandMartinGSAL2008.pdf

Could this be part of the unexplained wealth that the Philippine government has been running after all these years? Romualdez said he bought the property in 1987, a year after his family was driven out of power. Romualdez is the son of Kokoy Romualdez, brother of former First Lady Imelda Marcos.

Which raises another curious point: while one branch of the political clan - namely his cousins Bong-Bong and Imee Marcos - were condoling with the family of the late President Corazon Aquino - another branch was wining and dining President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo whom the late Mrs Aquino said should resign. How sincere are the Marcos' children's overtures or is the clan just playing a double game?

The Quezon City government should buy Corazon Aquino's house and turn it into a museum

2009-08-12T12:43:00.003+08:00

The Quezon City government should buy Corazon Aquino's house and turn it into a museum which I believe would become a famous tourist spot, as world-famous as Anne Frank's house in the Netherlands.

I felt sad when I read today that President Corazon Aquino's house at No. 25 Times Street would be renovated by her family because, as the eldest son Senator Benigno Aquino III said, “it has many defects now” and renovation would help the family to move on.

I wish the QC government could come to an arrangement with the family to buy the house now, with perhaps an agreement that the family would continue to occupy it but preserve its basic elements. Instead of renaming Times Street to President Corazon Aquino Street. Please retain the name because it is also historically signifant – being named after the Manila Times, the newspaper which gave Senator Benigno Aquino Junior the break, which boosted his political career.

The purchase by the QC government headed by Mayor Feliciano Belmonte would have a special resonance. His wife, Betty Go-Belmonte, and President Aquino had a rare friendship that asked each other nothing except prayers. I know because Mrs Belmonte was once my boss at Philippine Star and I reported directly to her as a roving investigative reporter. She used to talk a lot about Mrs Aquino.

I hope the family would preserve President Aquino's room as it is now, not for sentimental reasons but to show the Filipino nation and the world – this is how a president lives and should live – simply and modestly. Her very lifestyle is an indictment of the nation's political class but sets an example for future generations.

I know this is asking a lot from the Aquino family. But how many Filipino families have produced two heroes and would be remembered a century from now?

I don't want the nation to move on from the example set by Mrs Aquino. And one way to do that is to preserve her room and her home for the generations to come - (From http://raissarobles.blogspot.com/)

Why rename Roxas Boulevard for Cory

2009-08-07T18:53:00.002+08:00

Senator Mar, let's just rename Roxas Boulevard as Cory Aquino Avenue

Ngayong araw sa ganap na 6:14 PM
Senator Mar Roxas has proposed renaming "portions" of Edsa as Cory Aquino Avenue. He is obviously riding on the late president's popularity in order to get elected president himself.

Let's tell him we object vehemently because Edsa is associated worldwide with the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution, and is recorded in world history as such.

Besides, why throw away an authentic hero? Using his scathing wit and pen, Epifanio de los Santos helped fight for our independence against Spain. He was with La Independencia, El Renacimiento and La Libertad newspapers. He helped build up the National Museum and National Library, where most of his valuable collection ended up.

Let's urge the good senator to instead make the supreme self-sacrifice and offer to rename Roxas Boulevard in honor of Cory Aquino. Roxas Boulevard is the nearest stretch of road to the Quirino Grandstand where "a million came for Cory" to protest the cheating in the 1986 snap elections.

Between Manuel Roxas and Epifanio de los Santos, the latter is more deserving to have a street named in his honor.

It was Roxas who enabled the United States to get a 99-year lease on vast tracts of land to use as military bases. He gave Americans the right to exploit Philippine natural resources, own land here and do business in sectors and industries reserved for Filipinos. Despite such generous accommodations our economy did not prosper.

I'm not even going to go into the fact that Manuel Roxas was accused of collaborating with the Japanese or that graft and corruption marred his presidency which lasted barely two years.

Sincerely,
Raissa Robles
Filipino

Noynoy, do the President's shoes fit or are they too big?

2009-08-06T11:48:00.002+08:00

Yesterday as soon as I got up I flicked on the radio to find out whether, as Philippine Star columnist Wilson Lee Flores had predicted to me, his former macroeconomics teacher Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would drop by Cory Aquino's wake.
She did and as I listened to the radio commentator describe the awkward event as “civil” with Cory Aquino's son even shaking the President's hand, something clicked in my mind.
I can't describe it, but while I don't have an internal compass for street directions I seem to have one for political news. When I heard that, I felt some kind of invisible power had passed from Mrs Arroyo to Senator Aquino in that brief handshake – like magic.
Mr Aquino had risen beyond his bitter feelings and made a statesman-like gesture, and had become bigger because of it.
I must confess it was the first time I seriously considered him as a possible contender for the 2010 presidency. Before, when I met him during a Liberal Party convention he seemed to melt into the hotel furniture. From what other reporters told me, he was a laid-back sort of fellow and was not at all hungry for political power, like his departed mother.
Considering the senator for the highest post seems to be a natural reaction after such a political death. Soon after his father Senator Benigno Aquino Junior was assassinated in 1983, people had flocked to the slain senator's younger brother, Agapito “Butz” Aquino. But Butz quickly begged off saying, “his shoes are too big to fill,” little realizing they would be remoulded two years later to fit his sister-in-law.
If I were a newbie reporter and Edsa People Power never happened I might even join the Noynoy bandwagon. What a romantic notion.
But I am no longer one. Whereas I used to go all goo-goo and gaga-eyed whenever I met someone who declared he or she would like to become President of the Philippines, not anymore.
I've met and talked to far too many men and women with that presidential twinkle in their eye: Jovito Salonga, Imelda Marcos, Raul Manglapus (+), Raul Roco (+), Eduardo Cojuangco, Juan Ponce Enrile, Eddie Villanueva, Heherson Alvarez, Ernesto Maceda, Edgardo Angara, Eli Pamatong, Aquilino Pimentel, Salvador Laurel (+) and a couple more whose names I don't now remember. And I've covered five presidential elections.
Through it all I've come to realize we Filipinos tend to regard elections like a race where the candidates are like the horses to bet on.
Perhaps our elections can be viewed another way – like a long and exhausting job interview with we, the people, as the employer, the decider.
When I first got my baby a yaya (caregiver), I drew up a list of qualities I wanted and weighed the applicants against this list. A president of a nation is equally important to me and so, permit me to share with you the qualities I'm looking for in the next president.

1. He/she must be a basically decent person, not necessarily always praying but not amoral.

2. He/She doesn't have to be a Harvard University graduate or very young or from a political clan.

3. He/She must be a reformist president with a decided bias for uplifting the plight of the majority of the people who are poor, but with the ability to convince the wealthy that this will widen the consumer base for their products. It cannot be business as usual. It cannot be trickle down.

4. He/She must have a profound ingratitude to his powerful and wealthy donors and his own class.

5. He/She must have a definite plan of concrete action from day one on the following – poverty, corruption, insurgency and Muslim unrest. When a candidate is asked for his to-do list and he answers, “Watch me” or “Trust me,” that's crap. Scratch him out.

6. At the same time, he/she must have the cunning of a dove, able to navigate his way through the political snake pit.

7. He/She must be skilled in conflict resolution.

8. He/she must be a leader, not just a manager. And must inspire the citizenry to initiate action on their own.

So far, I haven't seen a candidate who has these qualities. Do you, Noynoy?

People power is dead

2009-08-05T17:27:00.002+08:00

People power is dead, a close aide of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said eight days before the death of Corazon Aquino.

Presidential national security adviser Norberto Gonzales told the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines last July 23: “I don't think we can have another people power in the Philippines. For many, many years now we think the best tool for initiating change is through people power. When we analyze the participation of our people in rallies, I think the number of people participating are dwindling.”

LONG BEFORE OBAMA, THERE WAS CORY

2009-08-01T18:53:00.004+08:00

Long before ordinary Americans propelled Barack Obama to the presidency, 1.2 million Filipinos prodded citizen-housewife Corazon Aquino to challenge the might and power of a US-backed dictator.
I am reprinting two articles written by veteran writer Paulynn "Meiling” Sicam during that magical moment when Filipinos first flexed their power to choose a presidential candidate in just 40 days. Meiling graciously gave her permission. I am reprinting it in the hope that Filipinos would once more be inspired to find and draft the best qualified citizen to be the next president.

Drafting a reluctant candidate
Cory, Don Chino and “our last chance to save democracy”

National Midweek November 6, 1985
By Paulynn P. Sicam

The lady has said she isn't for drafting but Don Chino Roces and company have gone ahead anyway and formed the Draft Cory Aquino for President Movement. Word has it that Cory actually received the old man icily the day before the launching of the movement and asked him not to go through with it. But Don Chino and company, the likes of self-proclaimed Unido and Liberal Party political mechanic Tony Gatmaitan, businessman Victor Sison, recording industry executive Danny Olivares, former Bureau of Fisheries executive Benny Bengzon, angry Air Force wife Lorna Verano Yap, hard-working concerned citizen Imelda Nicolas, and several others, undauntedly proclaimed their intention to gather one million signatures in an attempt to persuade Ninoy Aquino's widow to run or President.
“Our gathering here this afternoon could be a great moment in our history,” declared Don Chino at the National Press Club last October 15 [1985]. On the other hand, the press seemed to think it could be just another less than great beginning, one of those flights of fancy carried by balloons that burst before they can really take off.
The press sat there cynically questioning every idealistic argument put forth by Don Chino, who that afternoon, looked like Don Quixote de la Mancha fighting windmills. With no guarantee that his candidate for president would accept the draft, he spoke of her as the “healing, inspiring, unifying voice” that our country needs at this time, the sorrowing widow who he hopes “will shed her mother's garments for the battle tunic of a political warrior.”
“Cory Aquino is our only hope,” said the revered old man of the Parliament of the Streets. Thus, the movement he was launching.
Cory, he elaborated, incarnates the Aquino legacy “of blood, courage, integrity and martyrdom” bequeathed by Ninoy Aquino on that hot August afternoon in 1983. Secondly, “only Cory can bind the factional wounds of the opposition, persuade them to close ranks, bestir them to march for the country, and rouse the Filipino people to feats of dignity, honor and courage.” Third, Cory's “moral stature” which, his group thinks, would make even “men of valor in the armed forces...recoil from desecrating and brutalizing the elections if she were a candidate.” Finally, Cory Aquino can bring to government “the best minds that the nation can offer in terms of dedication, sincerity and integrity, talent and patriotism.”
This, declared Roces gravely, “could be our last chance to save democracy in the Philippines. The darkness thickens and we have to move.”
Providing the counterpoint to Don Chino's emotional approach was Tony Gatmaitan who confessed that he sees in this Draft Cory Aquino for President Movement an “exciting opportunity” to measure the depth of the ordinary citizen's desire to have her as president. He and his group feel that it is there, an emotional conviction in many people's hearts that this quiet, unassuming widow is the only one among the oppositionists who has the moral leadership to unite the opposition and defeat Marcos in an election.
Should they succeed in generating one million signatures, and enough enthusiasm from the ordinary unorganized Filipinos to persuade Cory to run, Gatmaitan intends to represent the numbers to the political parties. This should be interesting, he said, his eyes twinkling at the idea: “people power” versus the machine. Indeed, for a political mechanic, it is an exciting proposition.
The idea of a Draft Cory Movement, observed a member of the foreign press, seems to stem from a feeling of frustration at the inability of the opposition to get its act together and present a unified stand versus the Marcos dictatorship.
True, in Don Chino's opening remarks, he referred to the disarray among traditional political parties, the bickering among the oppositionists, and the cacophony of voices wasted on trivial issues.
The movement is not only for the purpose of drafting Cory Aquino as a candidate for president, explained Secretary General Victor Sison, a soft-spoken heretofore non-political former Atenean. It is also to achieve unity among the opposition groups. And, he maintained, Cory is the person who can do this.
But what if the National Unification Council, of which Cory is a major force, selects another candidate other than Cory? What will CAPM and its one million signatories do?
Why, support that one candidate, said Chino Roces. There is no one person or party we are trying to put down, assured Sison. We are trying to get them to get their act together. And we believe only Cory can do this.
It was beginning to sound like a mantra. Only Cory can do it. Cory is our only hope. If only Cory would run. If only she were willing.
Tony Gatmaitan, chairman of the movement's finance committee said he thinks he can get P30 million in pledges before the end of the year for the idea of Cory as candidate. “If Cory is to be really the people's candidate, then the people should put their money where their mouth is.,” he said.
So far, after one month of quiet work, the CAPM people have gathered 18,000 signatures. What started as a small force in Quezon City now has chapters in the whole of Metro Manila and Rizal, Cavite, Laguna, Sorsogon, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Iloilo, Capiz, Davao Oriental and Quezon Province.
More chapters are expected to be set up as the movement snowballs and the grandest hopes of the organizers about Cory's acceptability to the Filipino people are confirmed.
Thus, concluded the CAPM, Cory will not possibly be able to turn down the draft. Meanwhile, expect to read and hear that urgent mantra for the next few months as Don Chino and company make good their promise to give all they've got to what they perceive is the last chance to save democracy in this land. (Paulynn P. Sicam has just come back from Stanford University where she was a journalism fellow.)

Cory Joins the Race
December 18, 1985
National Midweek
By Paulynn P. Sicam

When Cory Aquino announced her candidacy for the presidency last December 3, the audience inside the auditorium of the Mondragon Building in Makati broke into prolonged applause. Not a few wept tears of joy and relief. The waiting was finally over. Now her prodders could finally be called her followers. They could finally buckle down to work and get the show on the road.
The tension had been building up for more than a month. It began when Don Chino Roces, former publisher and everyone's favorite street parliamentarian , decided to form a citizen's movement that would urge Cory Aquino to run for president via one million signatures. Roces and his gang of idealists (who at the time seemed destined for failure) called Cory “our last hope for democracy.” investing her with a mantle of moral righteousness.
Cory reacted to the draft with something akin to hostility. She pleaded with the group to desist from what they were planning, and when her plea fell on Don Chino's deaf ears, she declared that she was not interested in the presidency and would have nothing to do with the Cory Aquino for President Movement (CAPM).
Finally, after some lonely days in the doghouse, Don Chino's persistence began to pay off. At a luncheon with the Sigma Delta Phi Sorority late in October, Cory gave two conditions that would make her decide to run if Don Chino and company could get one million signatures, and if the election was a snap election.
Meanwhile, she said, she would be praying and reflecting and seeking advice, both human and divine. She asked everyone to pray for her too and help her make the right decision. Every inquiry, every request for an interview was turned down as Cory went into partial seclusion searching her mind and her heart for answers.
The high premium she put on prayer and trust in God made Cory's quest for an answer, in the minds of many, seem as noble and as difficult as the search for the Holy Grail. It also created the impression that every act of many that met her conditions was really an act of divine intervention, telling Cory what to do next.
First came Marcos' announcement on American television last November 3 that he was calling a snap election. It did not matter that Marcos was succumbing to American pressure to hold early elections. It did not even matter that Marcos' rules were dubious. The call for snap elections fulfilled Cory's second condition. After that, the Cory Aquino for President Movement was unstoppable. Volunteers set up tables on street corners and in marketplaces, went into towns and barrios, seeking signatures who wanted Cory to run. From Aparri to Jolo, Chino Roces said, the signatures came in bunches – from three names to thousands sent via special air freight, or hand carried to the office by concerned citizens. By November 26, Chino Roces was borne on the shoulders of his fellow-volunteers as they counted the one millionth authentic signature of the nationwide campaign.
For people who have been used to the instant groundswells of support that the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan is so adept at producing when the need arises, 41 days seemed an awfully long time to gather one million signatures. So, six volunteers did nothing but go through sign-up sheets, eliminating questionable entries, (such as the names of Ferdinand Marcos, Imelda Marcos, Bongbong Marcos, Imee Marcos Manotoc, Tommy Manotoc and Irene Marcos Araneta), or a series of signatures seemingly done by one hand, and other such anomalies.
On November 27, Ninoy's birthday, Cory attended a rally in Tarlac where politicians and friends took turns extolling her virtues, and giving every reason why she should be the next president of the Philippines. Cory shook her head with every praise, every campaign pitch. But when her turn to speak came, she quoted Ninoy: “I will never be able to forgive myself if I have to live with the knowledge that I could have done something and I did not do anything.”
That was good enough for Cory-ites who clung to her every deliberate phrase. They knew her to be a careful speaker, not one to waste her words. She measured the weight and meaning of everything she said.
On December 1, one million two hundred thousand signatures were presented to Cory by a crowd of 15,000 at the Santo Domingo church after evening mass. Th sheets of paper, fastened in fat bulging folders tied with yellow ribbons, were blessed by a priest and received by Cory.
Cory was no longer cryptic at Santo Domingo Church. “I will announce my decision after Mr. Marcos signs Cabinet Bill No. 7,” she promised.”but I assure you, you will hear what you want to hear.”
And then the seemingly insecure non-politician came to the fore once again: “If I were a traditional politician, I would be very happy standing before you tonight. But I am not a traditional politician and so I am very nervous when I think of the difficult days that lie ahead.”
The following morning, Monday, December 2, the Sandiganbayan's verdict on the Aquino-Galman murder case was handed down. Innocent, said the three-man court of General Fabian Ver and 24 other officers and enlisted men of the Armed Forces, and one civilian. Debunking the findings of the Agrava Board that Aquino and Galman were both victims of a military conspiracy, the Sandiganbayan ruled that all 26 were not guilty of any crime because the military team that killed Galman did so in the performance of their duty. And, of course, Ninoy Aquino was killed by Galman.
Within an hour, Cory was facing the press and reiterating her stand holding Marcos responsible for the murder of her husband. “He is my number one suspect,” she declared, as she has always said since August 21, 1983.
But, speaking with tact and diplomacy, with an eye on being the future commander-in-chief, Cory wooed the military establishment. She said it was misguided elements who had a direct hand in the assassination of her husband; she was not prepared to condemn all 13,000 officers and the enlisted men of the AFP. In a direct message to the “decent elements” in the military she asked for help to get to the truth behind her husband's savage killing.
On Monday evening, the Batasang Pambansa passed Cabinet Bill No. 7 during its last session for 1985, paving the way for snap elections. Later that night, President Marcos signed the bill into law.
Tuesday morning, true to her word, Cory announced her intention to run for president of the Philippines.
“How Ninoy must be laughing!” was how Butz Aquino spoke of Cory's dilemma some weeks back when she prayed and sought advice on what to do about the snowballing draft. The position Ninoy had sought so avidly in 1972 was now being given to his wife on a silver platter. His wife, whom he had kept at home because that was where he believed a woman ought to stay. His wife, who had accepted Ninoy's chauvinist attitude toward women because she did not want to frustrate the kind of life her husband found fulfilling.
“Talk of poetic justice! Marcos wanted Ninoy out of the way, but Ninoy's spirit lives to haunt him forever,” said an ecstatic Makati matron.
It was a very difficult decision, said Justice Cecilia Munoz-Palma of Cory's announcement. “I could not have made that decision for her. She made it all by herself.” the justice confided that ever since she advised Ninoy to come home, she swore she would never again be part of other decisions in th future.
If Ninoy could only see Cory Now! The shy housewife who kept herself busy reading light fiction and doing bonsai in the year before martial law was now holding her own in discussions on US bases in the Philippines (out by 1991, if the global situation allows it); on the insurgency (home-grown, with no external help and therefore no external threat to the country); on General Ver's immediate reinstatement as Chief of Staff (if General Ver could not provide adequate security for one man, how can he secure 54 million Filipinos?) With candor and confidence, Cory revealed that she had been having daily talks with Doy laurel and that she had offered him the vice-presidency.
Was this the inexperienced political neophyte whom people feared would buckle under pressure and intimidation – this woman who was married to the ultimate politician for 28 years, who endured eight years as a political detainee's wife under th most difficult years of martial rule, who upon the killing of her husband stood up to the most awesome powers in the land and accused them of the murder of her husband, and who, today, against almost insurmountable odds, would pit herself against Marcos' machinery, machinations and resources, knowing full well the might of her opponent? Was this the woman whom some solicitous souls in the Opposition wanted to protect by keeping her out of the snap election?
“I can be very stubborn,” Cory has said of herself. And though she may seek advice from all and sundry, in the final analysis, she makes her own decisions. Yes, including this tremendous decision to run, preempting Doy Laurel with her early announcement , and leaving him little room to maneuver except around her.

I asked the President's national security adviser Norberto Gonzales why he once planted a bomb in a building which caused it to burn

2009-07-24T10:38:00.004+08:00

During yesterday's security briefing for the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines, I asked the President's national security adviser Norberto Gonzales why he once planted a bomb in a building which caused it to burn. And whether this could be considered an act of terrorism under present laws. He said he did it for a friend.

He replied, “We do not have bombs yet (then). It's probably more incendiary. It's ok with me. Those are in the past. Some of those I participated with are still living and they may not want it (known) .”

I then asked him – Would you consider, say under present laws, what you did is an act of terrorism? What disturbs me (is) how can we be assured that the government, namely you, is not part of any of the bombings now?

But he dodged the question and merely repeated it was all in the past and "I did it for a friend.”

The real security threat to President Arroyo is a grandma

2009-07-22T15:15:00.003+08:00

I smile whenever I hear that over 12,000 policemen and soldiers will physically secure President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and legislators this Monday when she delivers her State of the Nation address.
Because the real threat to their security in office is a grandmother lying on her sick bed, agonizing in pain from colon cancer.
Now some of you might be angry at me for bringing this up at such a delicate time. I believe Mrs Aquino would have it no other way. She herself has actually linked her personal pain with the country's current suffering.
On her sickbed, a month after surgery, she sent over a message during the June 10, 2009 rally to mark Independence Day. She could have just stayed silent and everyone would have understood.
But no, her grandson Kiko – symbolically representing the next generation – read out his lola's (grandma's) brief message saying: “Over the years, I have learned to endure pain and sadness.”
“But perhaps, there is nothing that causes me greater pain than to see our people betrayed again and again by those they have elected to lead and serve them. To those of us who fought long and hard to restore our democracy, the pain deepens at the thought that all our gains have so quickly been eroded.”
She lashed out at “the shameful abuses of the powerful that seek to destroy our sacred laws.”
Perhaps Mrs Arroyo's spin doctors might sniff that between housewife Aquino and the economist Arroyo, the latter has more accomplishments as president such as the highest GDP growth in decades.
Mrs Aquino did have her failings as president, such as a watered down agrarian reform law that benefited her family and her inability to wield the vast powers of a revolutionary government to reform democracy.
But one thing Mrs Aquino has done is to set a gold standard of behavior for the presidency. She has given the average Filipino the highly subversive notion that all Philippine presidents and politicians must be accountable to the people for their actions.
That idea, I believe, is the biggest security threat to the Arroyo administration.

Presidential palace goofs again

2009-07-08T18:52:00.000+08:00

The presidential palace goofed again today while still red-faced over the boo-boo it made on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's breast implants.
Today, close aides declared July 27 a “non-working holiday” to celebrate “Iglesia ni Cristo Day”. Hours later, they corrected this saying it was a special “working” holiday".
It's become a habit for Mrs Arroyo to grant “non-working holidays” with abundance. Last month she issued six such proclamations to the cities of Dipolog, Manila, Laoag, Sagay City (twice even) and Rizal province.
So why can't she use this presidential power for such a valued and powerful institution?
Someone must have realized that making July 27 a “non-working holiday” would blatantly violate the Constitution. July 27 happens to fall on the fourth Monday of July when the Constitution states: “The Congress shall convene once every year on the fourth Monday of July.”
Oops. They did it again.
I wonder why. And why no one bothered to check the calendar as part of CSW (complete staff work) which they take such special pride in. They must be cooking something really elaborate over there.

When the President's national security adviser is a self-confessed bomber

2009-07-01T16:01:00.000+08:00

When the President's national security adviser Norberto Gonzales starts talking about bombs we should all listen. You see, he is a self-confessed bomber himself.

I got introduced to Bert in 1987 when I started covering the rebel Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) of Nur Misuari. Through the years our source-reporter relationship blurred into something close to easy friendship.

That abruptly stopped after the presidential elections of 2004. Since then, he stopped taking my phone calls and answering my text messages.

The last time I interviewed him extensively was over a bombing – that of the Superferry just before the 2004 polls. He told me they could not find any evidence it was a terrorist undertaking because all evidence had sunk along with the ferry at sea. I believed him and duly reported that for South China Morning Post.

It was only over a year later, when the government and the military blamed the Superferry bombing on the Abu Sayyaf that I realized I was fooled by the national security adviser into believing the line that it was a kitchen fire that probably caused the explosion.

I now suspect the government had deliberately kept the terrorist angle under wraps because it might affect Mrs Arroyo's presidential reelection.

Last Monday when I read that an improvised device exploded at the Office of the Ombudsman, I waited to see what the national security adviser would say.

Today, after two more unexploded bombs were found, he told radio station DZXL the bombs were a “normal” occurrence.

"Alam mo pagka malapit [na] ang SONA lahat ng uri ng grupo...siguro, may mga grupong nag-iisip kumuha ng attention. Normal naman yan na nangyayari sa ganitong panahon [You know, when the State of the Nation Address of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo approaches, all kinds of groups think up ways to grab attention. This is normal during these times.]

What he did not disclose, and I feel he should have disclosed, was that he was once involved in a bombing himself.

He was with this clandestine group called the “Light a fire movement” which set off fires and bombs during the Marcos regime.

On several occasions he told me that he took part in bombing a government building inside the walled city of Intramuros in Manila. I'm not sure now whether it was the Commission on Elections building or some other building. But I recall him very clearly telling me that while they were planting the bomb, “we were pissing in our pants.” He laughed at his terror then.

I half-believed him then. But his fellow bomber, Ed Olaguer, has since corroborated his story and in fact mentions Bert by name in an interview with veteran Inquirer writer Eric Caruncho ( see http://homepage.mac.com/dolaguer/lightafire/Personal106.html) Ed Olaguer, who was arrested and convicted, has even written a book about this.

So when authorities now say they are looking at the “usual suspects”, they of course don't include the President's own national security adviser whom they consider to be above suspicion.

Dragging the Senate into a Constituent Assembly is easier than we think

2009-06-22T19:09:00.000+08:00

Dragging the Senate into a Constituent Assembly is easier than we think. I'm basing the following on my experience as a Senate reporter.

Imagine the following scene:

The third Monday of July which falls on the 27th is the first and only time of the year that Congress is required by the Constitution to convene jointly to listen to the President address the nation.

Nothing in the Constitution bars congressmen from also using the occasion for another purpose – like convening a Constituent Assembly.

After the senators and congressmen are jointly assembled, both the Senate President and the Speaker of the House announce the session open.

Then the President speaks.

Afterwards the Speaker bangs the gavel to announce the session adjourned. What if in the same sentence that he announces the adjournment he declares the Constituent Assembly open then just as quickly adds the Assembly would meet the following day. Then bangs the gavel.

This would merely take seconds.

Any objections or walkout by any of the senators could become useless by then. Because by then, the deed is done. They need not even attend any of the Assembly sessions because their presence would no longer be needed nor wanted.

If the Speaker does this, he could well create a justiciable controversy that could throw the entire issue onto the lap of the Commission on Elections and the Supreme Court.

Morals aside, this is a beautiful, brilliant and simple doable plan. I'm not suggesting they do this. Merely suspecting they might do it.

It's similar to what Speaker Manuel Villar did in the year 2000 when he suddenly declared then President Joseph Estrada impeached by the House and declared he was sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate just before banging the gavel.

Request for prayers for an honorary Filipina

2009-06-22T16:11:00.000+08:00

Abby Tan is a long-time Singapore journalist who has made Manila her home. She has been battling cancer for several years now.

Below is her latest e-mail:

Date: Thursday, June 18, 2009, 11:23 AM

Dear Friends and Supporters:

I started on the dendritic cell therapy on an experimental trial basis at the National Cancer Centre of Singapore on June 10. The day before I had my PET/CT scan to check the status of my breast cancer stage 4. The result was catastrophic.

The cancer blew back with a vengeance, in less than 3 months after I finished my 6 cycles of chemo and a new drug Avastin. The cancer has (1) recurred in the same spot where the original tumour was removed 2½ years ago; a lesion is growing and is giving me pain. (2) I've many more metastasis now compared to during the chemo treatment; they have grown even bigger in the bone and liver and some are new growths. In sum, I am worse off now compared to before I underwent chemotherapy for six months.

I looked around for anecdotal evidence if Avastin does work for others. I found that the several patients I know (also in stage 4) who used Avastin had the same results, i.e. NO results. Their cancer grew again back the moment they ended their treatment.

It seems like, in my layman understaning, Avastin has only the Baygon spray effect, i.e. as long as you spray, the mosquitoes die, the moment you stop spraying, the mozzies come back. So it has no added value to our cancer treamant when you are in stage 4..

At US$6,600 per dose per month, this is the most expensive repellent I know and its use has broken the bank accounts of all those who tried it.

It will take a few more days for my bewilderment and shock to subside. As my caring friends tell me, I must now focus on the future, on the dendritic therapy.

To the many people far and wide, some very close friends and some not even known to me, who donated money generously to my dendritic celll therapy fundraiser, I say a bigger "Thank You" to you for giving me hope, now that I realise I have a fall-back position.

I'm sure you're rooting for me even harder.

Hugs and lots of love. Abby

Why Manny Pacquiao would be barred from Congress by an Arroyo-backed Constitution

2009-06-12T20:01:00.000+08:00

By Raissa Robles

Whenever a people declare independence, the first thing they do is spell out their dreams and modes of behavior in a social contract.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would like to radically revise the social contract embedded in the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

Her proposed revisions would shut out World Boxing champion Manny Pacquiao from Congress along with the poor and marginalized sectors whose voices are now being heard through party list groups.

Her revisions were compiled four years ago when she commissioned 55 men and women to draft a new constitution using our tax money. This draft constitution made by her Constitutional Commission requires for the first time a college degree for all lawmakers, which Pacquiao doesn't have. It also abolishes the present party list system that was put there to broaden democratic participation.

The vice-chairman of Mrs Arroyo's Constitutional Commission is the same Victor Ortega who sponsored this June 2 House Resolution 1109 empowering the House to convene into a Constituent Assembly in order to amend the 1987 Constitution even without Senate participation.

Congressman Ortega chairs the Lower House committee on constitutional amendments and sponsored House Resolution 1109 on the chamber floor.

Thirty-eight years ago, Ortega was a delegate in the 1971 Constitutional Convention which provided the legal legs for Ferdinand Marcos' dictatorship.

If the Constituent Assembly is convened, Ortega can simply produce on the floor the draft Constitution that he helped prepare for President Arroyo in 2005.

I bought a copy of that draft which was published by Constitutional Commission chairman Jose Abueva in a book with a green cover.

I was appalled when I read it.

Key provisions that made the 1987 Constitution a remarkable document had been excised. The 47 framers of the 1987 charter had managed to insert sections that diluted the interests of the rich and powerful elite. Not that the framers were against them. They simply believed everyone else should have a more equitable share of the economic and political pie.

The framers therefore wrote in a section that is absent in both the two previous Constitutions of 1935 and 1973. In Article 12 on “National Economy and Patrimony”, the first section states that “the goals of the national economy are a more equitable distribution of opportunities, income, and wealth.”

Nowhere does this section state that the primary goal for the nation's economy is to achieve a record growth rate of 7% in gross domestic product, as what Mrs. Arroyo has been trumpeting as her achievement in the economic sphere.

Even as economic growth soared, the disparity in income and wealth has widened and economic opportunities are cornered by a select few.

The framers of the 1987 Constitution wanted certain sections to spell out in laborious detail the antidotes to correct what was terribly wrong in the country.

One of the problems they saw burdening the political system was the swarm of political dynasties. They therefore inserted in Article 2 on the “Declaration of Principles and State Policies” the following section: “The State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined by law.”

Since the Constitution was ratified 22 years ago, Congress has failed to do its constitutional duty by enacting a law against dynasties. We now have in fact a plague of dynasties across a wide political spectrum. A brother and sister are in the Senate. The Lower House has two brothers, an uncle and an aunt all together. In southern Philippines, members of one clan occupy elective posts from councilor to mayor to governor.

What's wrong with dynasties if they are all qualified and performing very well?

I'll share with you a family secret. When I was a child, my late aunt Renata Agudo, who married a judge named Manuel Agudo from Batanes, periodically approached my father who was her brother for a loan.

She said she needed money to run for Congress. She promised to repay it as soon as she won. She told my father in all honesty - “Sa Kongreso, hindi ka kailangang gumawa. Ang pera ang lumalapit sa yo.” (In Congress, you don't have to steal because money comes to you.)

Political dynasties monopolize this generous flow of money. Why not let others also have the same opportunity? Why should the same family corner it for decades?

When I was covering the Senate, Senator Vicente Paterno justified the pork barrel system as “the democratization of patronage.”

When relatives increasingly fill up elective posts, there is instead a concentration of patronage.

The heart of the Filipino social contract is in Article 2 of the Constitution containing the “Declaration of Principles and State Policies”.

Mrs. Arroyo's Commission proposed to trim the sections from the present 28 sections to only 13. Among the sections they proposed to excise were the following:

Section 8 banning nuclear weapons in Philippine territory

Section 9 enjoining the State to “promote a just and dynamic social order that will ensure the prosperity and independence of the nation and free the people from poverty through policies that provide adequate social services, promote full employment, a rising standard of living, and an improved quality of life for all.”

Section 13 recognizing “the vital role of the youth in nation-building”

Section 15 enjoining the State to protect the health of its people

Section 16 enjoining the State to “protect and advance the right of the people to a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature.”

Section 17 enjoining the State to “give priority to education, science and techn0logy, arts, culture and sports to foster patriotism and nationalism, accelerate social progress, and promote total human liberation and development.”

Section 19 enjoining the State to “develop a self-reliant and independent national economy effectively controlled by Filipinos.”

Section 20 recognizing “the indispensable role of the private sector” and enjoining the State to provide incentives and investments

Section 21 enjoining the State to “promote comprehensive rural development and agrarian reform”

Section 22 enjoining the State to promote indigenous people's rights

Section 23 encouraging NGOs that promote national welfare

Section 24 recognizing the vital role of communication and information in nation-building

Section 25 ensuring local government autonomy

Section 26 granting “equal access to opportunities for public service” and banning political dynasties “as may be defined by law”

And finally, Section 27 enjoining the State to maintain “honesty and integrity in the public service and take positive and effective measures against graft and corruption.”

All these sections were erased from the revised social contract that Mrs Arroyo tried to ram through a plebiscite that the Supreme Court ruled was fake.

Do you want that to happen again through a Constituent Assembly?

Just asking.

Starring Maaaaannyyyy "Pacman" Pacqiaoooo

2009-05-27T17:14:00.000+08:00

Nakita niyo na ba si Manny Pacquiao sa ibang mga starring role niya?
Pinadala sa akin ito ng isang kaibigan. Hindi niya alam kung sinong masugid na tagapaghanga ang gumawa. Kung sino man siya, maraming salamat sa konting katuwaan.

Panaginip ni GMA - mahalin parang Manny

Anak ni Pacman

Panaginip ng madla - magkaroon ng anak na Manny

Incredible Pacman

Hayden's Pacman

Monkey Pacquiao

Pac Sparrow

Lord of the Boxing Rings

"007" - ang mga titulong makakamit ni Manny

Coming soon - The political "X" Man

Sex and the President

2009-05-17T18:58:00.001+08:00

Sex and the President

(a personal essay )

By Raissa Robles

I didn’t mean to. It wasn’t even planned.

But that morning, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was positively glowing in a very becoming emerald green silk that I blurted out the question whether she still had time for sex.

And she blurted back – “Plenty.”

That single reply swept the world as far as Africa and touched off a firestorm of debate back home.

The question had popped out unbidden at the last moment like a thought from heaven. It was not on my list of questions for the President’s single, yearly meet with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (Focap) that October 2002.

But sometimes a journalist has to seize the moment. This was one of those times.

Barbara Mae Dacanay of Gulf News opened the forum by asking the President – the second female Philippine head of state - her beauty secret for looking younger than 55 and whether she still had time for her family.

The mother of three beamed: “I’ve never been overly concerned about my looks. Maybe God gave me genes to look young.”

“My father,” she said, referring to the country’s fifth post Second World War president, Diosdado Macapagal, “always used to tell me that for a public servant, the priority should be God first, then country, and the family should be last.”

Did she still have time for Jose Miguel her husband, Ellen Cruz of Tokyo Shimbun inquired.

“Well--the husband is in the family,” was her reply. “Sundays are my family days.”

Waiting behind Ellen, I whispered to her in wonder – “Does she still have time for sex?”

When it was my turn, I asked about the continued presence of American soldiers in the country and her position on the death penalty. Before I could ask my final prepared question, Focap president Gabby Tabunar of CBS News told me to keep it short and to the point.

That somehow plucked from my mind a different question altogether. In the silent ballroom packed with foreign diplomats, businessmen and journalists, I carefully prefaced my question saying, “I’m sure a lot of women are dying to ask you this question.”

“And since you are not a widow, they would like to ask you this question. You don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to, but a lot of women are dying to know – do you still have sex?”

A microsecond pause, she replied – “Plenty” – and gave a toothy smile. The cavernous room erupted in a howl.

Her smile broadened into a grin - “That’s going to be the headline.” The grin vanished as she implored, “please make foreign policy the headline.”

Later, several diplomats, a news bureau chief and fellow correspondents later asked me why I did not ask a follow-up question.

Since then, I have had this feeling that she has not forgiven me, not so much for asking that question but for causing her first major foreign policy speech, which she had so finely crafted, go to waste. All further interview requests have been met with silence.

I was publicly castigated by men mostly, who turned apoplectic over that question. By crusty, old male journalists squirming with discomfort and squeaky outrage over a question about sex in marriage, but who don’t bat an eyelash over male philandering.

It was not the proper venue, they said. That puzzled me. It was a press forum where guests knew the unwritten rule – all relevant questions were allowed.

It was not the proper question to ask a head of state, especially a female president. That set me thinking. When is a sex-related question asked of a politician merely lewd? When is it a political and therefore relevant question?

I had shamed the profession, they also said. I thought that curious. Colleagues had slammed me not for what I had written, but what I had asked in order to confirm with a primary source certain speculations.

A male newspaper editor personally scolded me, saying it practically sealed the victory of opposition Senator Panfilo Lacson over Mrs. Arroyo in the 2004 presidential race. No news sense, that one.

All these criticisms parted the waters and provided a moment of clarity - journalists were not the impartial arbiters but were as human as the president. And the most hilarious thing – the president did not mind nor get angry or outraged.

In a journalistic system as free for all as in this country, some questions are still taboo, perhaps because even media remain tinged with chauvinism and male arrogance.

Maybe journalists forgot they were brought into this world by their mothers, not by parcel post. And they live in a nation where four babies are born every minute – or nearly two million a year.

Criticisms and praise were divided along gender and age. Women, except for one elderly who claimed to be Malaysian, lauded the question and the reply. The alleged Malaysian phoned the very next day from a phone near my place to admonish me never to do it again.

President Arroyo was not spared. She was tweaked for not ignoring the question. Her reply, Catholic running priest Robert Reyes intoned, devalued her image of a “devout Catholic”. And he advised one of the most hardworking Philippine presidents to turn celibate like “us priests” because “celibacy makes us more productive.” I wonder why he spared her more laid-back predecessor, Joseph Estrada, that advice.

I think what this all boils down to is, females are not allowed to enjoy sex.

But whether President Arroyo does or not was not the real intent behind my question. From nearly day one of her presidency, opposition and even members of her ruling coalition had repeatedly told me that the First Couple was long estranged and leading separate lives. She was even romantically linked to another official.

My question was the sort only a female could ask another female. It had an underlying assumption only females understand - a wife usually stops intimacy with an estranged spouse.

If malicious gossip persisted and Mrs. Arroyo ran, her marriage would come under microscopic scrutiny. Political enemies would spread vicious rumors and publicly say if she cannot fix her marriage, what more the country.

While our macho society would vote into the highest office a philandering male, it expects married female politicians to be model wives and exacts the most impeccable behavior from them.

The state of Mrs. Arroyo’s marriage became political fodder the following year 2003 when Senator Lacson trotted out an eyewitness who implied that the First Gentleman was having an affair. The witness later recanted.

Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye put paid to the issue by quoting Mrs. Arroyo as saying that she was “married” to her country. By election year 2004, the issue was dead and buried.

As my Hong Kong newspaper, South China Morning Post, wrote in its October 13, 2002 editorial regarding my question – “Once the moralizing and the heated talk ebbs -- as it certainly will – Mrs. Arroyo may well find she has quietly snookered any opponent seeking to use malicious gossip come the next election, puncturing any potential for scandal. She has also shown herself to be human and a most modern leader.”

That question to Mrs. Arroyo was only my second sex-related question in 24 years of journalism.

The first was in 1992 aboard a flatbed truck on which Fidel Ramos was campaigning for president in Pampanga, along with the late governor Bren Guiao.

At the latter part of the interview, I asked him about persistent rumors linking him to socialite Rosemarie Arenas and about a son. Taking the unlit tobacco from his mouth, Mr. Ramos said she was just a “family friend” and those were just rumors.

Initially, the late Betty Go-Belmonte, majority owner of Philippine Star to whom I reported directly as investigative reporter, chided me for asking such a direct question. But she herself saw the political relevance – because the same rumors claimed Mrs. Arenas would serve as “the back door” to a Ramos presidency.

Mrs. Belmonte published the interview verbatim. Afterwards, she told me the Ramos couple was angry with her. Despite this, she said she would personally continue to support Mr. Ramos, whom the Holy Bible had identified to her as the “Joshua” who would win another battle of Jericho. Later I learned the very same issue was asked Mr. Ramos at a FOCAP forum.

That sex can affect the Philippine presidency and the fortunes of an entire nation was impressed on me early on as a newbie political reporter covering the Metro Manila Commission and its governor, First Lady Imelda Marcos, for Business Day newspaper.

Mrs. Marcos, according to my late lady boss Leticia Locsin - who was close to the former First Lady then - had deliberately listened to the tape of her husband President Ferdinand Marcos making love to the buxom Hollywood starlet Dovie Beams so she would learn to love him less. The incident had publicly humiliated and hurt her.

Later, a chastened Marcos could hardly turn down her requests for this or that post, other sources close to him told me.

Mrs. Marcos wanted to succeed her ailing husband. Instead, her exact opposite became the first female president - widow Corazon Aquino with her unpainted nails, ho-hum hairdo and shapeless dresses - everything that the well-coifed First Lady detested.

By a strange historical twist, a male head of state has twice been replaced by a woman following a bloodless, military-backed “people power” - Mrs. Aquino in 1986 and Mrs. Arroyo 15 years later in 2001.

In the first instance, the choice of the person’s gender or sex was deliberate. In the second, accidental.

Marketing man, William “Billy” Esposo, recalled how he helped position the brand “Cory” as the exact opposite of Marcos. He turned her being a housewife with no experience in government into a distinct advantage – she had no experience in stealing.

In the case of Mrs. Arroyo, she topped the senatorial race in 1995 by selling herself to voters as the look-alike of rags-to-fame actress Nora Aunor. Her resounding victory convinced her husband and mother, former First Lady Evangelina Macapagal, that she was presidential material.

The family turned to Mr. Esposo for help. He agreed, declined to be paid and told Mrs. Arroyo, “I believe you have the best chance of derailing” the actor Estrada.

His intuitive assessment then was: “She can appeal to the same crowd that goes for showbiz types because of the la Aunor thing that made her number one. Compared to Estrada, Gloria had credentials, had better qualifications, and being a woman provided a contrast that could somehow be beneficial.”

But his efforts and image building of her ran aground early on. The three heroes of people power declined to back her. Outgoing president Ramos preferred to endorse his province mate, House Speaker Jose de Venecia.

Catholic Archbishop of Manila Cardinal Jaime Sin made sexist remarks. “What would you do when there is a coup d’etat? Cry? I am not against women but with the problems of the country, like criminality, I think we should give the leadership to a man.”

The most revealing reaction, though, came from another woman - Mrs. Aquino. She declined to back Mrs. Arroyo despite the personal prodding of her brother Congressman Jose “Peping” Cojuangco, Philippine Star columnist Teodoro Benigno and Pastor “Boy” Saycon.

I asked three separate sources why. One quoted Mrs. Aquino as telling the three - “I find her too pragmatic. She will do anything to gain the presidency.”

Another quoted her as saying she’s “too pragmatic for her own good.”

A third, Mr. Esposo, confirmed hearing that was what transpired in the meeting. He also revealed that right before the three met with Mrs. Aquino, he had a private chat with the former president about the political situation, whether an Estrada victory meant a Marcos restoration, and “to feel out what she feels about Gloria.”

Mrs. Aquino’s only comment on the presidential hopeful was – “don’t you find her too pragmatic?”

It was this very trait that caused Esposo to quit the Arroyo campaign. His disillusionment started when Senator Arroyo paid a post-midnight visit to a jailed congressman who was on trial for raping an 11-year-old.

“We were shocked when she paid a visit to Romy Jalosjos. One of your (political) strengths is that you are a woman, Teddy (Benigno) and I were telling her. You are supposed to be very sensitive to women issues.”

One of Mrs. Arroyo’s justifications then was that the lawmaker was not yet convicted. When she became Vice-President and head of the Department of Social Welfare, however, Mrs. Arroyo suddenly became a champion of sexually abused children. She even joined a street protest to pressure Supreme Court to lift a six-month stay of execution on convicted child rapist Leo Echegaray. He was later put to death by lethal injection.

After Mrs. Arroyo won last year’s presidential race, her justice secretary hinted she would grant Jalosjos - who was serving two life terms – a presidential pardon. I can only surmise why Mrs. Arroyo treated both men differently. Was it because Echegaray was dirt poor, while Jalosjos has money and political clout? His clan had carried Mrs. Arroyo to victory in his bailiwick last year.

Her Jalosjos visit, Mr. Esposo claimed, showed that “she seems to have very loose moorings. To her, everything is expedient. That bothered me. These were insights of a character that given pressure and a bigger theater is going to be more pronounced.” The flaw was not gender-based, he added.

I have felt the same misgivings. Before becoming president, she had blamed the old “politics of personality and patronage…(as) a structural part of the problem of poverty” and championed “new politics”.

I thought new politics meant not fielding for office one’s own son, entrenched warlords or a newsreader whose main qualification was popularity. I was wrong.

Apparently aware of such criticisms, Mrs. Arroyo told a recent foreign investors’ forum: “But let me also be very clear, I’m also a realist.”

She has of course her own set of admirers. Cabinet officials swear by her work ethic and her deep concern for the nation’s welfare.

Rodney Ward, chairman for Asia of the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS), expressed optimism she would ultimately succeed just like Britain’s longest-serving and first woman prime minister.

“Margaret Thatcher was for a lot long time very unpopular when she was going through all these programs but ultimately ended up being very popular,” he told me. “By the time she came to the end of her reign, the good things had come through which initially were painful and had aroused deep hostility.”

“I am extremely impressed by her (Mrs. Arroyo’s) vision, leadership, commitment and dedication,” he said.

Too bad most Filipinos don’t feel the same way. Astro del Castillo, director of the Association of Securities Analysts, criticized her flip-flop on the current fiscal crisis: First she warned of an economic collapse, then suddenly pronounced the crisis over even before her proposed tax hikes were approved.

“She alarms but she doesn’t inspire,” he complained.

During this first year of her fresh six-year term is a palpable sense of a nation standing still, not moving forward. With the president running like a hamster on a toy plastic wheel.

Having said all these, I know the Philippines is not the easiest country to govern. It is doubly hard for a female president. I’ve asked men from various social strata how they rated Mrs. Arroyo. All remarked that she’s weak “because she’s a woman”.

Note - This was written in April 2005, before Mrs. Arroyo morphed into a high-grade steel butterfly.