ellen tordesillas – Page 215 – Making life worth living.

Midnight deal sa MILF?

Published by Ellen on February 1, 2010

Mukhang may niluluto na namang isang midnight deal itong administrasyong Arroyo. Ito ang kasunduan sa Moro Islamic Liberation Front na magkakaroon sila ng sariling nilang bansa sa ilalim ng Pilipinas.

Sariling bansa sa loob ng bansang Pilipinas? Hindi tama dahil kung magkaroon ng Bangsamoro substate, ay parang nagtanggal ka ng parte ng Pilipinas at binigay sa MILF.

Di ba yan ang ginawa ni Gloria Arroyo noong isang taon sa kamuntik lang matuloy na MOA-AD (Memorandum of Agreement-Ancestral Domain) na ipinabasura ng Supreme Court dahil labag ito sa Constitution?

Nagkita noong isang linggo ang GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) panel at ang MILF sa Kuala Lumpur at nagpalitan sila ng oputline ng kanilang proposal. Sabi ni Presidential Peace Adviser Annabelle Abaya na 17 pages daw ang sa kanila at 31 pages naman daw ang sa MILF.

Aquino lead over Villar down to 7% in latest SWS poll

Published by Ellen on February 1, 2010

Highlights of SWS survey conducted last Jan. 21 -24 commissioned by Businessworld:

• Aquino lead over Villar down to 7 per cent
• Roxas widens lead over Legarda by 21 points; Binay improves numbers
• Revilla,Estrada, Cayetano, Defensor-Santiago post early lead in Senate race

Villar gains ground versus Aquino … while Erap stays in third

Liberal Party standard-bearer Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” C. Aquino III remains the top pick among the 10 presidential aspirants green-lighted by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) but the Nationalista Party’s (NP) Sen. Manuel “Manny” B. Villar appears to be fast catching up.

With the campaign period yet to officially start, a new BusinessWorld-Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey found 42% of respondents saying they would vote for Mr. Aquino, four points down from the 46% who said so in an early December poll that was also commissioned by this newspaper.

Over the period Mr. Villar, Mr. Aquino’s top challenger, picked up eight points to secure the nod of 35%, up from 27%.

Sen. Trillanes’ position on ethics case of Sen. Manny Villar

Published by Ellen on February 1, 2010

1. This is NOT my fight and this should not be the people’s fight as well. Our fight should be with Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and we should not be distracted from this. She’s about to appoint a new AFP Chief of Staff and a new Chief Justice in March. These appointments and how they will be done (particularly for the CJ) would be indicators of whether she has plans of stepping down or not. Aside from these, the prospect of the failure of elections scenario is still up in the air. In short, anything that deflects attention from her is playing according to her script. We must always remain vigilant and must never underestimate her.

2. It is a graft case and not an ethics case. Bulk of the evidence presented dealt with acts committed as early 1999 when Sen. Villar was still a congressman and during his first term as Senator. I believe that ethics cases should only cover acts committed after the mandate was given which, in this case, is 2007. With that, the only evidence left would be the double insertion in the General Appropriations Act (GAA). The problem is, the draft of the GAA was approved and presented to the plenary by the Finance Committee which was then headed by Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile. Said GAA was later on approved by the majority in the Senate. Therefore, assuming there were double insertions, it was the responsibility of Sen. Enrile’s staff to scrutinize the GAA and correct all anomalies and typo errors before being approved by Sen. Enrile. When it was approved by Sen. Enrile and presented to the plenary, it now became the responsibility of each Senator to scrutinize it again before approving it. Therefore, all those who voted for the approval of the GAA became equally liable for that double insertion.

Choose well

Published by Ellen on January 31, 2010

Former Defense Secretary Avelino “Nonong” Cruz was not one of the speakers in last Friday’s forum of the “The Powers of the Presidency: Preventing Misuse and Abuse” but he was asked to say something when the issue of the Ampatuans’ private armies came up inthe question and answer portion.

Cruz gave a two- word advice for the coming May elections: “Choose well”. He said it will go a long way in instituting reforms in governance if we have a president that will lead by example.

He, of course, didn’t ask to vote for the presidential candidate he is advising: the Liberal Party’s Benigno Aquino III.

Karina Constantino-David, former chair of the Civil Service Commission, also stressed the importance of choosing a president with integrity because she said, “in the final analysis it is the character of the President, his/her honest dedication to public service and not just to power that will speall the difference between decency and judiciousness on the one hand and mis-use and abuse on the other.”

Ang 20% ng mga senior citizens

Published by Ellen on January 30, 2010

Kumambyo na ngayon ang Malacañang at pipirmahan na raw ni Gloria Arroyo ang batas na nagbibigay ne exemption sa mga senior citizens sa 12 per cent na Value Added Tax. Pipirmahan na raw ni Arroyo ang btas sa susunod na linggo.

Noong Miyerkoles kasi ng ipinasa ng Kongreso ang batas, sinabi ni Deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar na baka raw i-veto ni Arroyo ang batas dahil mga P54.4 million raw ang mawawala sa pamahalaan.

Dios mio, naman walang patawad itong administrasyon ni Arroyo sa huthuthutan. Pati ba naman ang mga matatanda, hindi na pinapalampas. Ano ba naman ang P54.4 milyon sa P1.54 TRILYON (“T”yan ha, hindi Bilyon or Milyon) na kanilang budget.

Trial and error mark automated election field tests

Published by Ellen on January 30, 2010

by Mario Ignacio VERA Files The Commission on Elections held field tests in Taguig and Pateros Friday to try out the automated voting machines to…

It’s politics, not ethics

Published by Ellen on January 29, 2010

This is another view on the C-5 controvery:

by Rene B. Azurin
BusinessWorld

More credibility, probably, would attach to the Senate committee report on its so-called “investigations” into the C-5 road project controversy if senators — most politicos, actually — were not widely perceived as being distinctly unshy, brazen even, about using their considerable power to influence government decisions on public works and procurement. That said, I would certainly give great weight to the C-5 allegations being leveled at Senator Villar if I were satisfied that they were true. I am not.

On an issue precisely of ethics, objective observers must wonder how senators — like presidential candidate Aquino’s Liberal Party partymate Mr. Pangilinan — can first affix their signatures to one resolution clearing Mr. Villar and then about-face 180 degrees to affix their signatures to another one censuring him, just because “it’s the party stand.” Well, that, at least, is an explicit admission of how “honorable” senators define ethics.

Although Mr. Villar has actually already made a point-by-point rebuttal in the Senate itself of the charges of “ethical misconduct” against him and has clearly taken pains to make available to the public — through media — documents supporting his answers to each allegation, he is, alas, simply not media’s darling. Thus, media outfits whose bias for his rivals is obvious to observers constantly detail the allegations against him in their stories on the controversy and formulaically just include his denials but not his specific answers to the allegations. Such is life in these politico- and elite-dominated islands.

Bikers pedal vs cervical cancer

Published by Ellen on January 28, 2010

There’s no letting up for “Tour of Hope” bikers in informing the public that there is a way to defeat cervical cancer.

If last Wednesday’s launch is to be an indication of this year’s Tour of Hope, participants are in for an exciting, enjoyable, meaningful cycling event once again come March.

Tour of Hope is a cycling event which aims to increase awareness of cervical cancer premised on the belief that being informed is being armed and empowered to fight the disease which is the second most common cancer worldwide (first is breast cancer).

This year’s Tour of Hope which has adopted the theme “Fighting Cervical cancer in Full Circle” will traverse Tarlac, Dagupan, La Union, Dagupan and Baguio on March 20 to 24.

‘Ganito kami noon, ganito pa rin kami ngayon’

Published by Ellen on January 27, 2010

Malaya editorial

Our favorite “pa-pogi” guy in government, Arthur Yap of the Department of Agriculture, is at it again. In the face of soaring prices of sugar, he directed the National Food Authority to make available 150,000 kilos to poor families through NFA’s “Tindahan Natin” outlets in Metro Manila.

The volume of 150,000 kilos translates into 150 tons of sugar. At an estimated nationwide consumption of 6,000 tons a day, the volume the NFA has been directed to inject into a market represents 2.5 percent of consumption. The volume will last about half an hour assuming people buy sugar round the clock during a 24-hour day.

(And, yes, we know that in doing the pencil-pushing exercise above we might be accused of intentional misrepresentation. The 150,000-kilo infusion is limited to Metro Manila, hence, we should not have used the nationwide consumption figure as the denominator. But we deliberately did so to show the silliness of Yap’s announcement given the obvious gap in demand and supply situation.)

Tunay na kulay

Published by Ellen on January 27, 2010

Kahit na pangit ang nangyayari ngayon sa Senado, mabuti na rin dahil lumalabas ang tunay na kulay ng marami sa kanila.

Kung hindi sila nagbabangayan, di hindi sana natin nalaman ang mga behind the scenes na ginawa ni Sen. Manny Villar katulad ng pakiki-usap kay Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile na parang ang dating daw ay nag-aalok ng tulong kapalit ang favorable na report tungkol sa C-5 road extension na proyekto.

Nalulungkot lang ako sa nangyari kay Sen. Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. na malaki rin naman ang kontribusyon sa ating demokrasya sa kanyang paglaban sa diktaturang Marcos.

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