ellen tordesillas – Page 229 – Making life worth living.

The perils of exposing anomalies

Published by Ellen on November 12, 2009

It’s very difficult for me to accept the recommendation of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee chaired by Sen. Richard Gordon to include Jose “Joey” de Venecia III and Rodolfo Lozada, Jr. among those who should be charged in connection with anomalous $329 million contract to build a national broadband network in the country with the Chinese firm ZTE Corp.

The recommendation to impeach Gloria Arroyo is fine. Although I’m sure Gordon knows that recommendation will just stay as recommendation given the time constraints. It’s also good that Mike Arroyo was not spared.
But why charge Joey de Venecia and Jun Lozada? Gordon said Joey cannot be considered a whistleblower because, “There were many times in this scandal that he could have blown the whistle but did not. He only started complaining when he did not get his way.”

So what if he did it when he didn’t win the contract? Did that make the information he gave useless? It maybe a case of sour grapping but the bottom line is because he squealed we learned how the Arroyos, through former Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos, tried to make Filipino taxpayers pay $200 million (P9.2 billion) more than the real cost of the project.

Does Hillary’s lecture on corruption apply also to the Philippines?

Published by Ellen on November 12, 2009

This is the part in the press conference of US State Secretary Hillary Clinton today that caught my attention. The presscon was held at the Goldberg mansion at the Malacañang compound. Although she said this in reference to Afghanistan, it could very well apply to the Philippines.

Question: Concerns re large troops in Afghanistan given concerns about corruption in Karzai government; talk about concerns of corruption and if they play role in determination of us war in Afghanistan?

Clinton: I continue to loath to share any advice received by the President in the course of his review. Its been an extremely thorough and thoughtful process and i will continue to honor the right of the President to hear from any of his government members or those outside government and to add that to the process of his decision making.

On the separate question with respect to corruption, lack of transparency, poor governance, absence of the rule of law, the concerns expressed not only by US but by others including PM Gordon Brown and many of our allies are ones that i share.

Gloria’s money dance

Published by Ellen on November 12, 2009

This is fun: Forwarded by Jawo

Preview sa mangyayari kina Arroyo at mga alagad

Published by Ellen on November 11, 2009

Hindi daw maintindihan ni dating Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos kung bakit siya isinama sa pinakakasuhan ng Senado kaugnay sa ma-anomalyang kontrata para sa pagpatayo ng telecommunication network sa Pilipinas (national Broadband Network) na gagawin sana ng ZTE, isang kumpanya sa China.

“Bakit? Nakasuhan na kami. Ano pa ang gusto nila?,” tanong daw ni Abalos. Ini-imagine ko lang na kuntodo paawa effect pa itong si Abalos.

Ano ang gusto ng mga tao? Makulong ka kasama ang iyong mga amo na si Gloria at Mike Arroyo.
Mabuti naman at isinama si Gloria Arroyo sa rekomendasyun ng Blue Ribbon Committee na pinamumunuan ni Sen. Richard Gordon ngayon sa kanilang mga rekomendasyun na kakasuhan at i-impeach.

Senate report: impeach GMA; charge Mike re ZTE report

Published by Ellen on November 11, 2009

Even whistleblowers don’t escape Gordon fire

by JP Lopez
Malaya

President Arroyo committed an impeachable offense, that of culpable violation of the Constitution, when she did not stop the corruption that attended the negotiations for the overpriced $329 million national broadband network project with the Chinese firm Zhong Xing Telecommunications Equipment, the Senate Blue Ribbon committee said in its draft report.

“There’s a culpable violation of the Constitution. Why did she not stop these people from committing crimes?” committee chair Sen. Richard Gordon said in a press conference.

Gordon routed the 127-page report among senators yesterday.

Etta writes Noynoy on Hacienda Luisita

Published by Ellen on November 10, 2009

Five years ago, at this time, tension filled the air at the Cojuangco family-owned Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac as workers staged a strike against the Stock Distribution Option that the Cojuangcos implemented to evade the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, which was supposedly the centerpiece of the People Power-propelled Cory Aquino government.

Aquino promised to put Hacienda Luisita under the land reform, but in 1989, instead of having the land distributed, Aquino implemented the Stock Distribution Option (SDO) program under which the 5,000 farm workers were given shares of stock in the company instead of individual titles to the hacienda land.

On the second week of November 2004, Hacienda Luisita sought the help of the Arroyo government, which gladly sent members of the Philippine national Police complete with armored vehicle carrier. Hostilities between the strikers and the police escalated. On November 16, the police fired at the strikers. Seven were killed on the spot , 72 were badly injured, 27 sustained gun shot wounds, and 110 were arrested by the police. That became known as the Hacienda Luisita massacre.

Seven more persons involved in the Hacienda Luisita case were later killed in separate incidents.
Last Sunday, Former Sectoral Representative Loretta Ann Rosales, Akbayan chair emeritus, wrote Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, III, the Liberal Party presidential candidate on the Hacienda Luisita issue.

Noynoy: vblog will focus on issues instead of personality

Published by Ellen on November 10, 2009

Starting today up to Nov. 27, 2009, the daily activities of Sen. Noynoy Aquino, Liberal Party presidential candidate,can be seen in capsule, in a video blog in his website:www.noynoy.ph.

Speaking from his residence in Times street via video satellite with reporters assembled at the office of Campaigns and Grey, an advertising and public relations firm, Aquino admits to being not so New Media- savvy but said “he is a student by nature.”

Concerned Citizens Movement questions deviations in Smartmatic-TIM-Comelec contract

Published by Ellen on November 9, 2009

The Concerned Citizens movement today filed a Supplemental Motion for reconsideration from a decision of the Supreme Court upholding the legality of the COMELEC- Smartmatic Automated Election Systems.
In a 25 page motion, CCM singled out two new grounds both of which arose from “supervening events” since the High Court dismissed the CCM Petition against the COMELEC. The grounds alleged by CCM are as follows:

I. Comelec/Smatmatic will not be able to comply with the July 10, 2009 because of their failure to provide telecommunication facilities –both satellite and land-based- that will assure one hundred per cent communications coverage at all times during the conduct of the 2010 general elections as stated in the contract.

2. Smartmatic resorted to subcontracting to manufacture the Precinct Count Optical Scan machines in question, first to JARL-Tech, and now, to a Chinese company known as Quisdi, violates not only the Comelec’s own bidding rules but also Republic Act 9184, the government’s New Procurement Act.

Mga artista sa pulitika

Published by Ellen on November 9, 2009

Kinukuha pala ng Lakas-Kampi si Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. na bise president para sa kanilang presidential candidate na si Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro.

Ini-report ng Philippine Star na sabi daw ni Revilla, handa raw siya na maging bise kay Teodoro kung makukuha niya ang ng basbas ng kanyang ama na si dating Senador Ramon Revilla Sr.

Sabi sa Star, “Unang binalak ni Bong na tumakbong bise presidente ngunit nang ma-stroke ang nakatatandang Revilla ay hiniling nito sa anak na muling na lamang kumandidatong senador para sa kanyang ikalawang termino.

Sabi pa ng Star, “Ngunit muling nabuhay ang posibleng pagtakbo muli ni (Bong) Revilla bilang bise presidente nang mawalan ng running mate si Teodoro, napipisil na presidential candidate ng administrasyon.”

Nawalan kasi ng VP si Teodoro nang biglang umatras sa planong pagtakbong pangalawang pangulo si Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno. Naisip yata nina Arroyo na mas makatulong si Puno sa kanyang kandidato kung sa DILG si Puno kasi kontrolado pa rin niya ang local governments.

Mabuting kumbinasyun itong Teodoro-Revilla. Kasi di ba ang campaign slogan ni Teodoro ay “Galing at Talino”. Balanse na ang tiket nila.

Noynoy: caught in-between

Published by Ellen on November 8, 2009

Last week, there were talks that former President Joseph Estrada and the Liberal Party presidential candidate Noynoy Aquino were meeting again.

I’m using the word “again” because the two met last Sept. 28, two days after typhoon “Ondoy” turned many areas in Metro Manila into an ocean and battered thousands of families.

The Sept. 28 meeting, held at the Estrada residence on Polk Street in Greenhills, San Juan, was widely reported. Reports said Aquino was accompanied by his sisters while Sen. Jinggoy Estrada joined in the dinner/meeting.

Reports said they talked about “uniting the opposition” or fielding a common senatorial slate.

But then, three weeks after that meeting Estrada launched his presidential bid for 2010 in Tondo. So much about “unity.”

Last week, ABS-CBN quoted Estrada as saying that it’s the Aquino camp that is asking for a meeting. I asked an insider in the Aquino camp and they denied this quoting Noynoy as saying, “I did not ask for a meeting” with Erap.

A source said even without a second Erap-Noynoy meeting , there are negotiations for the inclusion of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada in the LP ticket.

ellen tordesillas Posts