While we are ever grateful to the Lord Almighty for sparing Metro Manila from the typhoon, our hearts reach out to those who have been severely affected by the typhoon due to the weak infrastructure in their provinces and the unfortunate circumstance of being in the path of the typhoon. Condolences to the families who have lost their loved ones due to Typhoon Mina/Nanmadol.

Maybe our government has its reasons but I really do not understand why year after year, while it is the same areas that are hit by these typhoons – Cagayan, Bicol – the infrastructure in these areas remain ill-fitted and the residents remain ill-prepared for typhoons. Mina’s path is said to be similar to last year’s Typhoon Juan.

2 bridges in Baggao, Cagayan and the Tawi Bridge in Penablanca, Cagayan have collapsed. Authorities cannot tell the extent of the damage on the bridges because as yet the bridges have become submerged in water.

Yet Benito Ramos, Executive Director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said that as early as yesterday, residents had been prepared for the typhoon and evacuation efforts had started.

It’s a classic case of regret.

I wonder where the president is and what he’s doing about all this at this point in time. He better not be on vacation …

This was a first and some have criticized that it may not have been the wisest of moves as it puts the MILF on the stature of a head of state and may be interpreted as recognizing the MILF as a belligerent state; as it prevents the President from weighing in on the recommendations of the government peace panel as the discussions are now directly with him; as other terrorist, secessionist and insurgent groups may not want the same treatment, as proven today by the demand of the National Democratic Front that the President meet with them as well.

But Ochoa was unfazed by the criticisms, saying that Aquino would be willing to meet with the NDF as well. “Well if it would help, why not?” Ochoa replied when asked about said demand.

Another interesting point is that Ochoa confirmed that the idea for personally meeting with the MILF was Aquino’s himself. “It was the president’s idea himself,” Ochoa said. “This concern is personal to him. One legacy he would like to leave behind is the achievement of peace in Mindanao….The president wanted to express to the other side his own convictions about attaining peace and a little about how he wants it achieved. He has his own formula as to how to achieve peace in Mindanao. “

Ochoa said that part of Aquino’s formula as to how to achieve peace in Mindanao is involving the MILF in economic reforms. Ochoa said that the reason why Budget Secretary Butch Abad and Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima were present is that they wanted to be able to prove to the MILF that the MILF’s concerns had already been incorporated in the Aquino administration’s plans for economic reform in Mindanao.

I congratulate President Noynoy Aquino on his first year as president. I believe that he is on the right path as his administration first focused on restoring faith in government.

We need to give PNoy time in restoring faith in government because of the immeasurable and insurmountable acts of corruption of the past administration. In fact the last decade can be called the Lost Decade or the Stolen Decade in Philippine history because reports are glaring na hindi lang ang pagka-pangulo ko ang ninakaw; pati ang boto ng masang Pilipino nung 2004 ninakaw, ang Fertilizer Fund ninakaw, kung hindi napigilan ng Korte Suprema pati ang Mindanao muntik nang manakaw. And it isn’t just Mrs. Arroyo who is responsible for the Stolen Decade but all those who joined in the grand conspiracy to rob the nation and suppress the will of the Filipino people.

I also congratulate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales on her appointment as Ombudsman. I hope she will be instrumental in our quest to correct history.

But while we laud President Aquino’s anti-corruption programs, I also believe that nation-building must be simultaneous with and not subsequent to eliminating corruption. So while we are eliminating corruption, we should also be empowering our citizens through nation-building. I hope that in his second year, we see more results in the fields of peace and order, food security and social services, especially education.

On our part as citizens, let us just help PNoy; let that be our way of honoring the memory of President Cory. Mag-bayanihan tayo because as Filipinos we all have a role to play in nation-building. Gaya nga ng parati kong sinasabi, walang tutulong sa Pilipino kung hindi ang kapwa Pilipino.

(End)

Null votes out, proclamation next week
By Michael Lim Ubac, Kristine L. Alave
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:03:00 06/05/2010

MANILA, Philippines—The joint congressional canvassing committee and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said there will be a proclamation of the country’s next president and vice president next week, shutting the door on vice presidential candidate Sen. Manuel Roxas’ bid to have more than 2.5 million “null” votes for vice president manually counted.

“There is no reason not to proclaim both because as far as I know, there are no issues left to delay the proclamation of one or the other,” said Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who cochairs the joint canvassing committee with Speaker Prospero Nograles.

Enrile and other committee members have ruled out any further delay of the joint proclamation, which could take place as early as Tuesday, or Wednesday at the latest, thereby rejecting a proposal from Roxas’ lawyers to manually canvass even the 2.6 million null votes, plus 300,000 votes that were not tallied in the certificates of canvass (CoCs).

Enrile said he and other members of the committee saw no reason “so far” to delay the proclamation of the vice president.

“There’s no major problem about the canvassing for both president and vice president,” he said.

The Liberal Party (LP) believes that the close to three million uncounted votes will carry not just Sen. Benigno Aquino III but also his running mate, Roxas, to victory.

Comelec Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer said Roxas’ claim that three million votes in the vice presidential race were not counted in the May 10 automated elections will not stop the joint proclamation.

Not the proper venue

The issue should be raised before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) that hears election protest cases, “they cannot raise it to stop the proclamation of the president and vice president,” said Ferrer.

“They should file an election protest at the Presidential Electoral Tribunal. It’s not the proper topic at the canvassing. It’s not the proper venue,” he said.

Enrile said he did not foresee any “major problem” in the canvassing of the remaining five CoCs from Davao City (550,236 votes), Bacolod (205,282 votes), Mt. Province (74,791), Eastern Samar (more than 100,000) and Lanao del Sur (more than 500,000).

The joint congressional committee expects to finish the canvassing by Monday, then prepare a committee report for the whole Congress.

The legislature, sitting as the national board of canvassers in joint public session, is the only one empowered by the Constitution to proclaim the highest elective leaders in the land.

Enrile echoed a statement made by Nograles last Thursday that the committee would not consider the issue of the null votes that were not read by the PCOS (precinct count optical scan) machines.

File protest with PET

“Well, if there are three million null votes, it has to be taken up with the Presidential Electoral Tribunal. We cannot nullify any votes (and) we cannot include votes that are not presented to us for canvassing,” said Enrile.

Enrile, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri and Sen. Rodolfo Biazon urged the losing candidates to instead file an electoral protest with the PET, which has jurisdiction over fraud, cheating and other issues arising from the just-concluded elections.

Lawyers of other national candidates have proposed that the joint canvassing committee manually count the ballots one by one, particularly those cast in the vice presidential contest.

“In a canvassing process, you cannot open the ballots. Only the Presidential Electoral Tribunal can open the ballot boxes and go to the ballots. The canvassers do not go to the ballots,” said Enrile.

Issue of jurisdiction

Addressing questions on the reliability of electronically generated CoCs and the PCOS machines were “not the jurisdiction of the canvassing body nor of the Senate,” he said.

Claims about fraud or falsification of documents should all be taken up in an electoral protest, Enrile said.

But he noted that the remaining uncanvassed votes could still change the outcome of the vice presidential race.

Jejomar Binay was leading Roxas by less than a million votes when the canvassing adjourned last Thursday.

Last Thursday, the LP claimed that there were about 3 million votes that stand to be voided for various reasons.

About 2.6 million votes could be considered “null” by the Comelec due to overvoting or undershading, LP officials said.

Uncanvassed votes

Around 272,000 votes have yet to be included in the official CoCs, while 80,000 to 140,000 will come from the special elections held last Thursday in Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sarangani and Western Samar.

These as yet uncanvassed votes would make a difference in Roxas’ standing and give him an edge over Binay, the LP said.

But Ferrer said these are issues that should be discussed at the PET.

The Comelec cannot respond to Roxas’ claim as the poll body, acting as the national board of canvassers, only authenticates the certificates of canvass from the provinces and tallies the official results for the senatorial and party-list races, he said.

Asked if there was any basis to Roxas’ claims, Ferrer noted that null votes were not really a new feature of computerized elections. “They are entitled to that allegation,” he said.

In manual elections, there were null votes because the board of election inspectors could not read the names on the ballots. Some voters also wrote the names of the candidates for the wrong positions, Ferrer said.

Ferrer said the null votes in manual elections “may be higher” than the 3 million votes in the automated elections claimed by the Roxas camp.

No protest from Estrada

Deposed President Joseph Estrada will no longer contest the results of the presidential elections even as his party continues to study the many reports of election fraud, according to his spokesperson, Margaux Salcedo.

Salcedo said the ousted leader was “no longer inclined to file any protest. He will respect whatever final outcome is pronounced by the Joint Canvassing Committee in Congress.”

But she said Estrada’s party is studying the claims of electoral fraud from various candidates, “as well as the electronic results which we cannot seem to reconcile with ground reports.”

ABS-CBN television has reported that Estrada has offered his services to Aquino even as he has yet to concede victory to Aquino who leads him by more than five million votes in the ongoing official tally.

Salcedo said Estrada will not concede before the canvassing process ends.

‘Very close’ to Cory

But if Aquino is proclaimed as the country’s next president, “Estrada will take on the role of elderly statesman and would be glad to work with the next administration to pursue his unfinished propoor programs,” Salcedo said.

Salcedo said Aquino and Estrada can work together because they are both from the opposition.

She also claimed that Estrada had become “very close” to the late President Cory Aquino, Aquino’s mother, thus Estrada would find it easy to support the presumptive president-elect.

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Also:

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“We continue to study the many reports of electoral fraud from various candidates, both winners and losers, across the country, as well as the electronic results which we cannot seem to reconcile with ground reports. However, President Estrada is no longer inclined to file any protest. He will respect whatever final outcome is pronounced by the Joint Canvassing Committee in Congress,” Margaux Salcedo, spokesperson of Estrada said.

Estrada was earlier reported by an international correspondent of ABS-CBN to have offered his services to Aquino although he had not yet formally conceded. Salcedo clarified that Estrada will not concede prior to the final conclusion of canvassing by Congress. “Should Senator Aquino be proclaimed the next president, President Estrada will take on the role of elderly statesman and would be glad to work with the next administration to pursue his unfinished pro-poor programs. However, he will wait until the proclamation is made by Congress before engaging in any talks with Senator Aquino.”

Salcedo noted that Estrada and Aquino can very well work together because they are both from the Opposition. “In her final days, President Estrada also became very close to President Cory Aquino, especially after her public apology which meant a lot to him, so it will be easy for President Erap to support Senator Aquino in whatever capacity if he and when he is proclaimed,” Salcedo said.

Estrada is presently in London, even if canvassing has yet to be concluded, to attend the graduation rites of an acknowledged illegitimate daughter.

(End)

Although this is great weather, I cannot help but believe that this is an effect of alterations in world climate caused by damage to the environment – therefore not good. Now is the time to step up the urgency bar and think about what we in this country, no matter how small we are, can do to help save the earth. Of note would be Al Gore’s suggestions:

Al Gore presented four warning signs and ten suggestions at today’s Joint Climate Change Hearings. Here are his four top warning signs (his suggestions are below):

1. New evidence that’s come out shows that this may be worse than described. Arctic ice cap is melting more rapidly than predicted. Could disappear in summertime in 34 years. This problem is burning a hole at the top of the world.
2. Earth is shaking because of Greenland – glacial earthquakes – 1993 there were 7, 1999, 14, last year, 32.
3. Frozen methane in the tundra, billions of tons, 23 times more powerful than C02, need to turn the thermostat down before that melts.
4. Fires in the west, Russia, Australia (1000 year drought) correlates with warming temps and earlier spring.

Here are his ten suggestions:

1. Immediately freeze C02 emissions in US, reach 90% reductions by 2050.
2. Start using the tax code to reduce taxes on employment and make up the difference with pollution taxes. We’re discouraging work and encouraging the destruction of the planet. Carbon pollution not presently priced into the marketplace. Air and water are part of that, must be revenue neutral tax shift.
3. Portion of those revenues must be earmarked for lower income groups who will have a hard time making shift.
4. Strong global treaty. Kyoto has been demonized. Work for defacto compliance. We ought to move forward the starting date of the next treaty from 2012 to 2010 so whoever is sworn in in 2009 can use political mandate to work toward defacto compliance and then ratify a new, tougher treaty. Build more confidence with China, India to bring them to participate.
5. Congress should issue moratorium on any new coal plant not compliant with carbon capture
6. Like the initiative to build the Internet, this congress should develop an Electranet, a smart grid. A law that allows homeowners and businesspeople to put up their own generators, sell electricity into the grid without caps at a rate that is not determined by the utility, but as a tariff.
7. Raise CAFE standards, cars, coal and buildings.
8. Along with tax system and treaty, use regulatory power. Set a date for ban on incandescent light bulbs.
9. Buildings: pass a law – Connie Mae, carbon neutral mortgage association.
10. SEC should require disclosure of carbon emission in corporate reporting.

NOT BETRAYAL BUT BRAVERY

The Philippine Daily Inquirer, in its editorial on 26 December, called former President Corazon Aquino’s apology to former President Joseph Estrada for Edsa Dos, “a betrayal of the highest aspirations of the democracy she helped restore in 1986.” The harsh words come from the Inquirer’s belief that Mrs. Aquino “got it completely wrong”: the Inquirer maintains that Edsa Dos was not a mistake because it was “a direct political action triggered by evidence of grave presidential wrongdoing” in order to “(rid) the country’s highest office of the cancer of corruption” and later it was “(justified by) the Sandiganbayan decision finding Estrada guilty of two of four counts of plunder”.

But contrary to the Inquirer’s analysis, Mrs. Aquino does get it right.

It Isn’t About Mrs. Arroyo  – It’s About the Rule of Law

Edsa Dos was not a mistake because it brought us Mrs. Arroyo, on this point the Inquirer is right. Edsa Dos was a mistake because it disregarded the foundation on which our democracy stands: the rule of law. Mrs. Arroyo is merely the consequence that we suffer for having thwarted this pillar of democracy.

Edsa Dos was a mistake because it went beyond being an exercise of democracy; it was an abuse of our liberties and a failure of our commitment to democratic processes. Given that every people would desire a ruler with the utmost of morals, a democracy must nevertheless maintain a modicum of order: as John Adams put it, a democracy connotes a government of laws and not of men.

That is why Edsa Dos was a mistake. As Cecilia Munoz Palma, former Justice of the Supreme Court and Chairman of the 1986 Constitutional Commission so aptly stated re Edsa Dos: “The 1987 Constitution suffered … when the ongoing impeachment trial of President Joseph Estrada was unceremoniously disrupted and discontinued and the issues on hand were brought to the parliament of the streets. The Rule of Law was set aside and the Rule of Force prevailed.”

And democracies the world over observed that Edsa Dos was “an elitist backlash against a president who had overwhelmingly been elected by the poor. This time, it appears, ”people power” was used not to restore democracy but, momentarily, to supplant it.” (New York Times)

It Isn’t About Mr. Estrada – It’s About the Rule of Law

Neither does the Sandiganbayan ruling convicting former President Joseph Estrada of two counts of plunder justify the thwarting of constitutional processes in 2001. Remember that Mr. Estrada, unlike Mrs. Arroyo today, willingly subjected himself to the impeachment proceedings and was willing to step down had he been found guilty. But instead of following due process, due process was set aside. As the New York Times observed, “The popular uprising took place when it became clear that due process — his impeachment trial in the Senate — would not produce the result many people hoped for: his removal by constitutional means.” The Herald Times even warned of anarchy: “This only confirms the fragility of the political institutions in the Philippines and the likelihood that the streets will become a regular location for political action.”

President Aquino Gets It

Mrs. Aquino’s exact words of apology at the book launch of Congressman Jose de Venecia that has stirred all this controversy were: “I am one of those who plead guilty for the 2001 uprising. Lahat naman tayo nagkakamali. Patawarin mo na lang ako.(We all make mistakes. Please forgive me.)”

Her spokeswoman insists she was joking but at the same time concedes that the statement was sincere, confusing everyone in an attempt to alter the depth and gravity of the statement by the country’s living icon of democracy. The spokesman, to the chagrin of anti-Erap forces, could not take Mrs. Aquino’s words back.

Why? Because Mrs. Aquino knew what she was saying and can confidently stand by her statement. Because Mrs. Aquino was right and had the courage and humility to admit the errors of Edsa Dos.

And that is what what makes Mrs. Aquino a true icon of democracy. While in 2001 she joined the Edsa Dos forces, caught in the string of emotions of the day against then-President Estrada, today she has gained the wisdom to think further of the event and the courage and humility to admit that it was a mistake. Mrs. Aquino has been brave enough to admit that Edsa Dos was a failure of our democratic processes and unlike Edsa I, not an event in Philippine history that we can be proud of.

Mrs. Aquino did not betray the highest aspirations of the democracy she helped restore in 1986 when she apologized to Mr. Estrada for her participation in Edsa Dos. On the contrary, Mrs. Aquino is bravely continuing to fight for the highest aspirations of the democracy she helped restore in 1986: a democracy where constitutional processes are observed as the voice of the people is heard.

Over a decade later, the harsh realities of politics have taken the naivete of my youth away. Whereas I used to think that the ballot was the end all and be all of suffrage, now I know that the voice of the people can be muted by machinations of the powerful few. Whereas I used to believe that government was the saviour of the people, I have seen that there are times when it is the government that abuses the efforts and tramples on the hopes of the masses. Whereas I once thought that if you worked hard enough, nothing could get between you and your goals, now I know that there are men – and women – who will attempt to ruin your integrity through rumors and false accusations just to prevent you from moving forward and finding your dreams.

I saw these realities in the last election and, now being in the center of political action as spokesperson of former President Joseph Estrada, I am witness and sometimes even victim to these realities today. It would be easy to give up this life and go back to being a mere private citizen, to live oblivious to the mistakes of the current government. Some of us in the middle class can still afford to live that way. But foregoing vigilance would be tantamount to idly watching our country die. To stand silent on issues such as the ZTE-NBN scam, the Mindanao conflict or the rice crisis would be tantamount to witnessing the pillage of the nation and acquiescing to it.

Indeed, it is tiring to fight for the truth. It is frustrating to hear members of the incumbent government pay lip service to the people, with the audacity of resonating your ideals while in actuality stealing from the government coffers and tricking the masses. To see government signs that read “Ramdam ang Kaunlaran” when poverty levels and experiences of severe and involuntary hunger are at their worst. To hear speeches speaking of economic progress for the Philippines when the quality of life of our people has not improved and in fact has even worsened. To be unable to get to the bottom of the truth on the numerous anomalies of the incumbent administration because of the constant abuse of the concept of executive privilege.

But we cannot afford to be frustrated. Because at the end of the day, this is where we live. The Philippines is our country, the Filipinos our people. And we must do everything in our capacity, be it large or small, to protect the nation from those who abuse it. I am not going to fool myself into believing that I can change the world with my current job. I am but a small voice. But I believe there are many of us who see what is really going on with this Administration. And we will speak the truth. And, hopefully, together, we will be heard and somehow make a difference in the history of our nation.

The realities of today have sunk in but the idealisms of my youth remain. Core values, like love of country, have not changed. And so I continue to speak, I continue to write, as my small contribution to ensuring that our leaders remain dedicated not to themselves but to the nation.

I want to thank Mr. Joe Leuterio for giving me the avenue to do this; space to speak of my ideals and to speak of the truth. I hope that this column will serve as a platform to voice not only my dreams for the Filipino people, especially the Mindorenos, but to serve as a means by which the Mindorenos will express their dreams as well. And I hope that in my humble capacity as writer, I will be able to fulfill that dream of mine in my youth of making a difference.

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