to DOJ chief designate Leila de Lima – it is the constitution and the law, stupid

we celebrate noynoy aquino’s choice as DOJ chief in Leila de Lima. this woman knows her laws and has more balls than all the men in arroyo’s cabinet members have.

in her new role, we hope de lima will remember her true role – defender of the constitution and laws of the country, nothing more and nothing more. she serves the people in doing that job.

we are saying that as we have seen the various DOJ chiefs under arroyo forgetting what their job is.  under arroyo, the DOJ chief lawyered only for gloria macapagal arroyo, the person and the president, not for the country, not for the people and certainly not for the constitution and our laws.

we hope de lima will return DOJ  to its rightful place.

Rights chief to head DoJ

De Lima’s job: Pursue big grafters

MANILA, Philippines—A woman is poised to take on the toughest portfolio in the Cabinet of President-elect Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.

Leila de Lima, the outspoken chair of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), met with Aquino at his Times Street residence shortly before 2 p.m. Tuesday and left an hour later.

“He offered the position, I accepted. He will make the announcement,” De Lima told reporters after the meeting. She did not specify the position but it is widely assumed to be that of the justice secretary.

She said she would have to resign from the CHR where she is in the second year of a 7-year term.

The feisty legal eagle rose to prominence as a tough-talking election lawyer for the Genuine Opposition in 2007. She was appointed CHR chair when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was parrying criticism for the record number of extrajudicial killings in her term.

Aquino had earlier told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that the justice portfolio was very crucial in his fight against corruption. He said his justice secretary would serve as his attack dog in pushing corruption cases against the First Family and its allies, crime syndicates, drug lords and smugglers.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100623-277073/Rights-chief-to-head-DoJ

noynoy aquino oath taking – new politics, new governance

the inauguration of the new president, noynoy aquino , his first day in office defines further what the aquino administration is all about. aquino will dispense with the traditional parade and for something new, 100 T volunteers who helped aquino get elected will deliver an “oath to change”.

these are not the only new components of the aquino’s oath taking – a major new component is he will not take his oath from the supreme court chief justice renato corona but instead take his out from upreme Court Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales. corona is the poster boy of gloria macapagal arroyo’s midnight appointment binge while morales is the lone sc justice who gave a dissenting opinion on the SC ruling allowing corona to get arroyo’s midnight appointment.

these othe two changes announced today is a refreshing change and a very welcome one. these changes signal a diferent kind of presidency that the country needs – one that i practical and very much in touch with the reality of the philippines, a country that is facing great challenges economically. we are a country that needs to save as much money as we can given the  economic growth challenges we face, the high deficit he will inherit from arroyo and the high debt.

aside from the money saving aspect, it also sends a signal that this presidency is much less about itself but of the people. the parade’s purpose is to pay tribute to aquino, to celebrate the beginning of his presidency but canceling the parade says it is not that at all, it is about the people selecting a new leader.

the other component  of aquino volunteers administering an “oath to change”  completes that picture.  aquino started on his quest for the presidency from a public clamor to run, launched his campaign on a pro-people, people-supported campaign and won the election on the same basis. the oath by the volunteers tells us the people promising to continually support aquino, saying aquino’s power come from the people and that the change that aquino will bring to the country will be complimented  by change from the people themselves.

all of the above is a stark and refreshing change from the previous arroyo administration where it seemed to have been obsessed on doing thins its way regardless of what the people say, want and don’t want. the arroyo administration has been faulted for being blind, deaf and mute on the needs of the people. it was governing the country in its own terms and for its own benefit, not the people.

it is those reasons that most of  the people cannot wait for arroyo to leave office. their disappointment on the arroyo administration has been expressed time and again on surveys after surveys and in the recent election where  aquino’;s candidate, gilbert teodoro never had a chance at winning  the election, remaining fourth in the surveys till election time.

a change in the presidency.. a change in the people. the change the country needs.

No parade for Aquino on June 30 inaugural
By TJ Burgonio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:16:00 06/20/2010

TO SAVE ON COSTS, PRESIDENT-ELECT BENIGNO “Noynoy” Aquino III will break tradition and do away with the parade at his June 30 inaugural.

“Since the first regular inauguration in 1935, this is probably the only one without the inaugural parade,” historian Manuel Quezon III told the Inquirer Saturday on the phone. “He (Aquino) wants to save money, and because from his point of view, it’s really unnecessary.”

Aquino will take his oath as the Philippines’ 15th President and deliver his speech at high noon on June 30 at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila, in keeping with pre-martial law tradition.

So far, three Asian leaders—East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak—have confirmed attendance at the inaugural, a foreign affairs official said.

“But we expect a number of foreign ministers and special envoys to attend,” said the official, who asked not to be named for lack of authority to speak for the inaugural committee.

Their attendance “indicates solidarity and friendship” with us, the official said.

Secretary Ricardo Saludo, deputy spokesperson of President Macapagal-Arroyo, agreed, saying: “That’s a vote of confidence.”

Ramos-Horta is a friend of Aquino’s family. He was the only head of state who flew to the country in August 2009 to attend the wake and funeral of Aquino’s mother, former President Corazon Aquino.

Thailand and Malaysia have been “longtime” partners of the Philippines in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, aside from Malaysia’s role as a facilitator in the government’s negotiations with secessionist Moro rebels, officials said.

Innovation: Oath of change

In the past, an inaugural parade preceded the singing of the national anthem, the invocation, the oath-taking and the address of the incoming President.

While Aquino is dropping the parade, his inaugural team has introduced a novelty: The volunteer groups that helped in his campaign would deliver an “oath to change” at the Quirino Grandstand in response to his address.

“That’s an innovation,” said Quezon, the spokesperson for the inaugural, and also Inquirer columnist and host of ANC’s “The Explainer.”

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100620-276542/No-parade-for-Aquino-on-June-30-inaugural

final results – aquino gets 15.2M, 42.1% of votes

president noynoy aquino’s campaign promises

we are posting here  the campaign promises that noynoy aquino has made during the campaign period.  we intend to go back to the list to see how he is doing against these promise.

• A SOCIAL CONTRACT WITH THE FILIPINO PEOPLE : THE PLATFORM OF SENATOR BENIGNO “NOYNOY” S. AQUINO III
• Noynoy Aquino – the problem solver we can trust
• presidentiables stand on how they will generate jobs
• presidentiables stand on improving philippine education
• on nuclear energy : aquino, de los reyes, madrigal & perlas no to nukes; gordon, teodoro, villanueva and villar yes to nukes
• presidentiables stand on population growth
• presidentiables stand on cha-cha and arroyo as speaker

Nick Perlas is my candidate but Noynoy Aquino is my President

First of all, I would like to thank and congratulate 2010 Presidentiables Blog for giving me a chance to be part of this blog. There were heated exchanges during the campaign period but of course that is part of what election and politics is. Wawam had to be congratulated for his blog and I hope that in 2013 we will see another one of this kind. I also hope that this blog will continue and this time MONITOR THE PERFORMANCE OF THE WINNERS.

Now on with the article which I originally posted at The Delano Observer.

I would like to agree and borrow this quote from Carlo Angelo Vargas, “Nick is my cadidate but now Aquino is my president,” this statement calls for healing and seeing beyond the difference of election and serving for our country.

I would also like to say that I have the same view. With all honesty I do not like Noynoy Aquino. As I have said in my blog, “Pagod Ka Na Bang Maging si Juan?” he is not the best choice for president but the people have spoken and they choose him.

Noynoy Aquino has a very mediocre track record as a legislator and he fails compare to his parents but we should still give him the benefit of the doubt. We should not wait and ensure that we prove our suspicions true and that he commits every mistake possible.

What we should do is really find ways to help him as our new president. Let us remember that if he fails, it is not only him that will suffer but it is the whole country that will be affected.

Again I would like to quote Carlo, “Nick is my candidate but now, Aquino is my president. As my president, I will support him when he is right, and hold him accountable when he is wrong.”

I am a Filipino, I am Maharlika and I am for the best interest of our country and our people.

is kris, president noynoy’s sister a liability or an asset?

no, we have not forgotten kris aquino’s stament on national tv that she will leave the country should noynoy win the presidency. (read here, and post your commments : should kris aquino make good her promise to leave the country should noynoy win the election?)

noynoy is set to be proclained president very soon. have we changed our mind on kris aquino? we did ran a poll on kris here where we asked if kris is an asset or a liability to the aquino campaign, read here : is kris aquino a liability or an asset to the noynoy aquino campaign? .

for now, we want to ask you this one:

video where kris said she will leave the country if noynoy is elected:

read other posts:

• is kris aquino a liability or an asset to the noynoy aquino campaign? <— look at the poll results here
• gary olivar, malacanang spokesperson 5 thumbs down on kris aquino’s tears, will hurt teodoro
• the kris aquino drama – to leave The Buzz TV show?
• should noynoy aquino be happy or sad that he has kris aquino as a sister?
• for the sake of the philippines – ban annabelle rama from tv and the country!

89% of count – updated partial unofficial tally for president

source: http://www.gmanews.tv/eleksyon2010/nationalcount

no question, noynoy aquino’s win in this election is a landslide win.

manny villar shows class, first to concede to aquino, others follow

we thought  manny villar showed class and character in being the first to concede the election to noynoy aquino, the presidentiable who has a commanding lead in the elections. aside from the action of conceding, we thought he gave an excellent concession speech with words of encouragement to the winner, mea culpa, personal touch and words of support and reconciliation with his opponents.

to us manny villar had his ratings go up.

4 presidential bets concede defeat

 INQUIRER.net, Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 11:12:00 05/11/2010

MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE 2) A day after the election, four presidential candidates conceded to Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, currently the frontrunner in the political race that saw over 40 million Filipinos vote electronically for the first time for their leaders in the national and local levels.

Senators Manuel Villar and Richard Gordon, former defense secretary Gilbert Teodoro, and JC de los Reyes of Kapatiran Party issued separate statements giving notice that they were dropping out of the contest and expressed their support for Aquino who was expected to be proclaimed the next president.

Villar and Gordon said that “the people have spoken” and congratulated Aquino on his impending victory.

“Nagpasya na ang mga mamamayang Pilipino. Malinaw na sa kabila ng ating pagpupunyagi, hindi tayo nabiyayayaan ng tagumpay sa halalan noong Lunes [The Filipino people have decided. It is clear that despite our efforts, we were not blessed to win in Monday’s elections],” Villar said, reading a prepared statement before members of the media in his headquarters at the Starmall in Mandaluyong early Tuesday.

reconcile eddie villanueva’s election loss and the failed prophecy of a win

this blog has been very lucky to get a lot of bro. eddie’s supporters. we appreciate their very active and very intense participation in the discussion in this blog. we have seen aspects of their beliefs and their religion in ways that were new to us and the learnings well received.

the discussions are very high in volume and the debates even more intense and we have followed them to some degree. we now like to put things in perspective, to get it to reach into it’s natural conclusion.

we like to ask bro.eddie’s supporters and others to put the discussion to a close with this thread. we are asking everyone to give your reactions and thoughts.

to start off, we like to pose some lead points or questions.  this is an initial list, we will be adding as we go along.

• what does it mean now that bro. eddie will lose this election
• there was a prophecy made that bro. eddie will be president and this was supposed to happen now
• does the prophecy still hold now that we know the results of this election
• why did the prophecy did not fulfill itself?
• what does the failure of bro. eddie’s bid to win do to your faith?
• to your religion?
• how do you feel about this?

here is  a reaction from sean:

WHEN PROPHECY FAILS AND FAITH PERSIST
(by Lorne L. Dawson of Department of Sociology University of Waterloo)

I cant help but to “use” this same title to describe what happened; as the result of this historic election continue to shed its lights of reality.
It seems that the reality was “set-in” against the irrational faith-based, wishful thinking, unscientific, boastful, (even a “mythical” treat of sending people to hell!!! because of not supporting ECV) by the supporters of ECV.

If any one will have an interest to read the study conducted by the sociologist i have mentioned above…he/she will understand how the “same acts and response” A CERTAIN GROUP or cult will do if a prophecy FAILED. (I AM QUITE sure that the “apologetic response will be the SAME” just as describe by the numerous studies conducted by sociologist and psychologist on the religious groups studied on the title above)

Its a good thing to study RELIGION’S historicity and avoid its poisonous stings..

to end my message..

“The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality”. – George Bernard Shaw

and

“Religion is regarded by the COMMON people as true, by the WISE as false, and by the rulers as useful”. – Seneca the Younger ( It is quite applicable in the Philippines!!)

TEMET NOSCE!!!

from a small voice of mine against the vast religious ocean of my beloved country…

Thank you Mr.wawam

Sean

//

 

why will gilbert teodoro lose this election?

a lot has been written in this blog on why gilbert teodoro will lose this election. across the time frame of the campaign period factors that will make teodoro lose the election has been identified in this blog.

this will provide the key points:

• arroyo’s kiss of death on teodoro we think is the biggest factor for teodoro’s loss. everyone knew and that included teodoro himself , his political party lakas-kampi-cmd and arroyo herself knew that. we saw arroyo’s kiss of death in action during the last senatorial election where most of the admin senatorial candidates lost and almost all the opposition candidates won. the sentiments and scenario that was operating then is still present in this election and in fact even more intense than before – based on polls, the people failed arroyo on her performance as president,  trust rating have been negative and people see arroyo as most corrupt next to ferdinand marcos. romulo neri called arroyo “evil”, the people agrees with that sentiment. they all knew arroyo is a problem so much so that arroyo has distanced herself from teodoro, hardly saying anything about teodoro, did not campaign for him and did not even have a picture taken with teodoro.
• teodoro is an unknown. before his proclamation as standard bearer of the admin party, people hardly knew teodoro. he was a congressman in his hometown for some time but he had no national constituency to speak of. all he had was two years of chief of the defense portfolio which was not at all enough for him to gain national prominence or even some  name identification.
• although he had spent a lot of money on his ads, at some point second highest spender, that did not help him as we think his ads were ill-conceived, was fatally flawed on the ad strategy and the execution faulty.  teodoro spent most of his advertising money on his “resume tv ads” which was too basic and had no power to persuade.
• we think the teodoro campaign knew teodoro had no national standing that is why they launched those ads. that was fine but they stayed on it too long. all the ads did was create brand awareness while they should have moved to a more persuasive and meaty ads.
• teodoro’s “ego trip” tv ads, telling the voters he has “galing at talino” were not at all persuasive to the voters. people wanted to know what he will do for the country, not his resume, harvard education and being pilot included. these things simply did not ring a bell among the voters.
• the executions of his ads were also flawed as they appeared to be too elitist while  most of the voters come from the poor. would the poor who comprise most of the voters be able to relate to teodoro for being a pilot? will they be able to appreciate he knows how to fly a plane? we did not think so.  the teodoro campaign was thinking and doing these ads for themselves, not for the voters. we suspect the ads were feel good ads but feel good for themselves and not the voters or target audience.
• the teodoro campaign and that includes teodoro himself were perpetually in denial in this campaign from start to finish. we think they knew things were not going right in their campaign even from the very start but they did not seem to want to accept the problems and even much less did not want to do something about it. all they did was they kept telling themselves everything was doing well, nothing was wrong and nothing can go wrong even though they knew what was actually happening was the exact opposite. sadly, we think this is the exact same attitude and problem of the arroyo and her administration for themselves and specially in the way they governed the country.
• teodoro even failed in showing his ”galing at talino” during the onody and pepeng floods and the maguindanao massacre. the ondoy and pepeng floods was a dream come true for any presidential candidate. teodoro was handed in a large silver platter the opportunity to perform and demonstrate to the people he had what it takes to be president. he among everyone else had the best opportunity to make something out of it – he was the admin, a cabinet secretary and the DND to which he was chief was actually in charge of disaster coordination’s. he failed in hos duties, his mandate and as a candidate. had he performed well during the floods, he would have won the election by a landslide.
• teodoro’s campaign never really took off.  the campaign had failings from the very beginning and almost in every step of the way as the it progressed. we will remember teodoro’s  campaign on the basis of the failings of the campaign that occurred from time to time rather than success points.   
• lakas-kampi-cmd, teodoro’s political party is a failed political party.  we do not think lakas-kampi-cmd was any help to teodoro. we are not even sure if the party wanted to help him at all.  we think the rumor that the party lost interest on teodoro was not a rumor but the truth.

looking at teodoro’s results and what he had done during the campaign and if you were an alien looking in, you would have not guessed that teodoro belonged to the dominant political party in the country.

teodoro lost this election from day 1.  

~~~~ mindscape landmark ~~~~
carlo arvisu

why will richard gordon lose this election?

on theory, richard gordon is a good candidate for the presidency. he is a known achiever with an excellent and highly impressive success credentials from his work at olangapo city, the rehabilitation of subic bay and his work as tourism secretary. he has no  corruption or any other scandal baggage that pulls him down or that others can use against him. in fact none of that appeared during the election. or perhaps his opponents did not find the need to bother with gordon.

and that is where the problem of gordon’s candidacy lie – nobody wants to bother with him. it is in many ways the reason why he will lose this election.

gordon is a smart man. he speaks very well, he knows the issues and offers interesting solutions to problems he sees. but he has no audience for these things. very few listens to him.

why will gordon lose this election?

• he started late in the campaign. it felt like he did not tell anyone he was planning on running for the president in this election. this is an election that started very early, by the time he announced his candidacy, his competitors, villar, aquino and estrada in particular were already way ahead of him in getting the people to form a support based for themselves.
• gordon has no constituency. he is an elected senator but he may have lost that political base through the years and as how it is in politics, voters who voted for a candidate as a senator does not automatically translate to a vote when the same candidate runs for the presidency. the criteria changes and the thinking process applied by the voters is re-invented.
• gordon is very much a lone wolf. gordon may have a very loud howl compared to some of the presidentiables and the his peers at the senate but he does not belong to a pack. he operates too much on his own and that is an automatic weakness for someone who is running for president.
• gordon has an obnoxious personality. he sounds smart all the time but over and above that, he comes off as obnoxious and a real ass hole. that is a turn off among many voters across all demographics and most specially for the bulk of the voters, the CDE. a minimum requirement for this set of voters is a likable personality if not a charming one.
• he had very little funds for his advertising and other marketing and communication efforts. aside from the historical value of this election, this one will also go down in history as one of the most expensive. manny villar started his campaign and spending many centuries ago, way ahead of everyone else. not having funds is a definite killer in this election.  we live in a world if mixed media and communication channels. funds is a prerequisite for success.

these are things that gordon should have realized as he was making his decision to run for president. too bad with all his smarts and eloquence he failed to see them.

~~~mindscape landmark~~~
carlo arvisu

COMELEC website is down, precinct finder overwhelmed by hits, telephone numbers given

Comelec website down, hotlines announced

abs-cbnNEWS.com

Posted at 05/10/2010 9:23 AM | Updated as of 05/10/2010 9:25 AM

MANILA, Philippines – Due to the unexpected number of hits on Election Day, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) website has become unavailable for voters and the general public, as of posting time.

“Unfortunately, there are too many people visiting the website now. Obviously, the service is not accessible as we want it to be,” Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said in an interview on ANC Monday morning.

“Traffic to visit the Comelec website was more than what we had anticipated. We doubled the bandwidth. Unfortunately, things happen so we’re taking remedial steps to still allow people to check on the precincts,” he added.

Larrazabal, chairman of the poll automation steering committee, announced that the precinct finder on the Comelec website will be taken out.

Those who want to find their precincts may call the information technology (IT) department of the Comelec. The hotlines are

• 527-0841
• 527-2773
• 527-2772
• 527-0822
• 526-7769
• 526-7770

The Comelec commissioner noted that the bandwidth of the poll body’s website was increased to 10 megabits per second (Mbps) from 5 Mbps.

As for the election results, Larrazabal said the Comelec will release the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) later in the day.

source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/05/10/10/comelec-website-down-hotlines-announced