Angelo bound to happen

It was bound to happen, the Filipino OFW captured in Iraq set to be beheaded by Iraqi dissidents. With GMA’s blind adherence to Bush’s unjustified war, I am mildly surprised it took this long for Iraqis to nab one Pinoy. In fact, GMA might be annoyed that a Korean was beheaded first before a Pinoy because GMA is second to none in licking GW’s ass.

This is got to be a tough one for GMA. But this may yet become her chance to finally be the hero that will unite the Filipino nation. This may be her last chance to finally win the hearts and minds of every Filipino. She should order the withdrawal of all Filipino troops in Iraq as demanded and denounce the war as not for the Filipinos to fight. That should be enough to merit the hostage’s release and earn for her the gratitude of the entire nation. She shall also be a hero to 75% of the world; she shall start an avalanche of public opinion against Bush. The rest of the world will follow and soon enough the Nobel Peace prize will be hers. That is something even Cory wasn’t able to do. With that singular achievement, I see the world at our feet and our internal problems will be easily solved. All that may be just wishful thinking if GMA runs true to form and be GMA.

Still on the elections

Still on the elections...It's been a month since we trooped to the polling precincts and still we don't know the winner. It's a sad testament to our ability to conduct honest elections, a gauge of mature democracy. The on-going COngressional canvass can be facilitated by the opposition stipulating to the authencity of all the COCs, except the 25 or so that they will contest. The majority should in turn allow the minority to open the 25 COCs' ERs and SOVs as they wish. This is all possible within the law and the adopted rules. If the majority is sure that they didn't manipulate the COCs then a respectable accounting firm can easily tally the ERs and the results should match the COCs. This is still doable within the June 30 deadline. The minority then should accept the results and life goes on. The majority's reluctance to even summon the SOVs and ERs, which should be there in the ballot boxes in the first place, gives the opposition a chance to cast doubts on the whole process. In the silly proceedings, it indeed seems that GMA and her lackeys are hiding something.

A pleasant surprise

It's a pleasant surprise that our economy grew more than expected. Analysts predicted a growth of above 4% but the economy actually grew by 6.2%. Government says the growth is fueled by increase in personal consumption expenditure brought by pre-election spending. Fine, understandable. Government-side spending for the election hasn't factored in yet in this growth. In fact, government spending growed slower in the first quarter. So it's not true that GMA spent a lot for the human billboards that disappeared right on the day after the election. The overly advertised government programs that GMA bandied about did not contribute significantly to this GDP growth, government says so. The government acknowledged, though, that the increase in government spending was for the printing of election paraphernalia and contractual services (and maybe the botched computerization). Moreover, centrifugal sugar exports grew by 60% this quarter. Last year, we actually filled our quota. With this growth in sugar export, we may have filled our quota this early. The traditional top export earners actually didn't post growth this time. Manufacturing is down. Our ability to sustain this growth(?) is doubtful.

The opposition says GMA spent a lot of government money for this election. The government, through its data, says it isn't so. Economic planners shoudn't be exactly happy with this growth. If government will not admit spending much during the first half of the year, it will be very hard to show that GDP will grow significantly by the 3rd quarter and by year-end. We have milked the data dry to show that GDP increased but not because of government spending.

Dagdag-bawas

Prof. Ben Lim wrote: "The SWS exit poll showed that 31.4% of NCR voters voted for GMA while only 22.9% voted for FPJ. GMA appears to be 4.4% ahead of FPJ. But NCR COCs showed that FPJ garnered 35.9% while GMA garnered only 27.3% or FPJ is 8.6% ahead of GMA. In Region XII the SWS exit poll showed that GMA garnered 45.8% while FPJ only 36.9%. But Region XII COCs showed GMA to have garnered only 25.4% while FPJ received a massive 44.7%. FPJ is 19.3 percent ahead."

Wow, does KNP's own quick count show the same pattern? Why does the press praise SWS quick count given these discrepancies?

The Today editorial hit it right again. The votes of those who conceded this early is prey for dagdag-bawas. It's Roco's right to concede, but he and everybody else should watch his votes and make sure it's not added to whom he has conceded.

A welcome respite

The Holy Week is indeed a welcome respite. The air is less polluted and the surroundings is less noisy because of the less traffic. We have less bad news and that's good news. Even the criminals rest, I suppose. But I fear this rest only winds the spring. By Easter Sunday, the bad news would uncoil. We'd have the candidates again foisting themselves on us. GMA would be refreshed and be at it again. I expect her to proclaim the MRT-2 to be her gift to the Filipino people, ala Erap. I hope she realizes that the only gift that matters is if she's out of Malacanang by July. Can't we have a Holy Week at least every quarter?!

Here's a suggestion to the opposition

All opposition presidential candidates run because they think that GMA should be replaced and that they will be better presidents and they can do much with the flowing campaign funds. All these reasons are true, but there will only be one winner. So i suggest that they pool all their resources and withdraw in favor of just one candidate. That candidate would be the one with the biggest chance to win, FPJ. It will then be just a one-on-one fight. The others who withdraw now will not be covered by the one year ban on appointments. They can be immediately appointed to cabinet positions in an FPJ presidency. Roco can retake his Education portfolio or the Justice department or the COA. Ping can return to the Senate or better still be a very effective DILG secretary. Eddie V. can work at the DSWD. We must remember that the whole point is we should not allow GMA to have another 6 years.

They lied to us

In Max Soliven's show, GMA finally admitted that the Jose Pidal accounts had campaign contributions for vice presidential campaign in 1998. That it's all private contributions not government funds, and that it was all right to use aliases when the accounts were opened, and that they closed them when she came to power, these are not the issues. All she's saying now does not hide the fact that they lied to us before.

Then Ping was right all along. Will GMA now admit Vicky Toh, the US homes and accounts, etc?

Ping should give way

I am sure Ping Lacson would be a nice Philippine president. He's tough. And appears to have that single-minded, purposeful attitude. Among all the candidates, he offers doable, sensible, practical solutions. He even has a timetable to effect his programs. GMA cannot claim to be our best, last hope. She doesn't seem to realize that she got us into this. But poor Ping! He cannot win. Not yet at this time, anyway. He still has too much baggage dragging him down. His ratings indicate that his base has not increased over the past months.

Why Ping still clings to the hope that he'll pole-vault over Roco, GMA, and FPJ to win in May reflects again his single-minded, purposeful attitude. But will somebody knock some sense into the guy. He can use that spirit come 2010. Meanwhile, all efforts should be directed to unseating GMA. Perhaps Ping can be a very good DILG secretary in an FPJ presidency. That should be a good vehicle for his own presidency later.

In his dogged effort to win, Ping is torpedoing FPJ's campaign. He has stopped his attacks against Jose Pidal and instead renewed his war against FPJ's group. GMA should be smiling these days, maybe she and Ping know something that we don't.

Why I am not voting for GMA part III.

I've been away for a while to help Vito review for his finals. Like I said in a previous post, FPJ should explain what he meant by his debt restructuring posturings. GMA pounced on this, but her plans are not any better. Which brings me to my earlier message - that we should not allow GMA to stay beyond May. We must remember that GMA did us in. She had the chance to turn things around but instead she brought us Jose Pidal, worsening conditions, and uneven governance. So, whom am I voting for? My premise is that Filipinos should elect anybody else but her. And the more candidates against her, the lesser the opposition's chances. That is why I am voting for the opposition candidate with the best chance of winning. FPJ is not necessarily the best candidate, but he has the best chance of beating GMA. So I am for FPJ.

Why we should not vote for GMA, part II

What she's been doing? GMA appointed to the Comelec 2 unknown/dubious characters. She put her law firm/lawyers to important offices. She reenacted the 2003 budget so she can freely use funds for the elections. She uses public officials (Manapat, Corpus, etc. come to mind) for political demolition and the government machinery for her campaign. The FPJ party may be composed Marcos-Erap cronies, but GMA is also wooing Marcos-Erap-Danding buddies. She's married to Jose Pidal and consorts with Nani Perez.

It's time to look for her replacement

GMA promises 6 more years of the 3 years that she already imposed upon us. Kaya pa ba ng Pilipinas yon? It's time to look for her replacement. Let's look at the other candidates one by one.

With GMA supposedly gaining on his early lead, FPJ now turns to some populist campaign lines like anti-globalization and debt restructuring. Maybe his handlers realize that they can't solely rely on his popularity, and that they must bare a semblance of a platform. But what's this? With his new campaign tack, FPJ will further distance himself with the lending powers and their campaign contributions. But this is really the right track for us. The debt burden is almost 3/4 of the budget. To get the international lending institutions' support, FPJ must impress upon them that he is not at all repudiating the onerous loans GMA incurred (1/4 of our total debt is because of GMA). He should ask for a relief (1-2 years) until we are better off.

to be continued.

Let's not fall for it

I cringe everytime I see GMA say she's still our best, last hope. Has our talent pool sunk this deep?, that she and her gang are still the best for us. Well, we can expect more of Jose Pidal, more of flip-flop management, broken promises, etc. Now she promises more jobs, more foreign investment, etc. Let's not fall for it. Remember, she's the one who promised lower power rates. She promised not to run in 2004. She promised to eradicate jueteng. To get rid of the Abu terror in 90 days, etc. Now, look at what happened to those promises. Maniniwala pa ba tayo sa kanya?

Why I am not voting for GMA

Why I am not voting for GMA, or why I urge you to vote for anybody but her:
1) She is supposedly with a PhD from where I, too, studied Economics, but the peso is at its lowest while our Asean neighbors are now recovering; 2) We have the highest power rates because of her EPIRA law; 3) Fuel prices zoomed to their highest; 4) She did not stop Jueteng, it even expanded operations; 5) We have well-dressed GNP (?accuracy, hmm), but at what cost to the budget deficit; 6) We are constantly downgraded by international rating firms, we are the 4th most corrupt in Asia; 7) Hypocrisy prevails in this kapalmuks government, uneven application of standards in all aspects of governance.