published (PGMA) Prisoner Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s mugshot here

there are conflicting reports on whether these mugshots are authentic or not.  DILG chief robredo says they are not but the latest news, also printed here puts the police saying they are authentic.

we are posting the disclaimers and the pictures here for the readers to decide.

as far as we are concerened, we think the mugshots from mugshots.com and the PDI are real for the simple reason that arroyo obviously posed for the pictures. one needs to pose for the pictures to get the full shot and the 2 profiles of left and right, these cannot be photoshopped.

mugshots.com claims the mugshots were released in the internet and they got got hold of it, posted  the pictures first, then PDI posted the pictures when PDI got them from another source. a PDI article on the mugshots also confirm that they saw the pics from the website first.

with all these disclaimers aside, if these are authentic pictures, that means someone from the court or police leaked the photos. robredo might be saying they are not real because he needs to answer to the court for having someone from the police leak it to the internet.

enjoy the mugshots just the same.

 

 

 

source: http://mugshots.com/Current-Events/Gloria-Arroyo.html

 

posted 3:22 pm, November 22, 2010

Arroyo mugshots genuine, say cop, court execsBy
Miko Morelos
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines-The clerk of court of the Pasay Regional Trial Court Branch 112 has authenticated the mug shots of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that appeared on the front page of the INQUIRER and posted on inquirer.net onTuesday.

In a radio interview, clerk of court Joel Pelicano said the photos he viewed via inquirer.net, the national newspaper’s online edition, were “almost the same” as the ones the police submitted to the sala of Branch 112 presiding Judge Jesus Mupas on Monday morning.

He said the only difference was the text below the INQUIRER photos, which contained the case reference number.

Television news reports also quoted Southern Police District officer in charge Senior Supt. Jaime Bucayu as saying the mugshots used in the Inquirer were authentic.

Bucayu however said the source of the leak was unknown.

source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/98461/arroyo-mugshots-genuine-say-cop-court-execs

here is another disclaimer, this one is posted at 3 pm, November 22, 2011.

Arroyo mugshots on Internet authentic – police
(The Philippine Star) Updated November 22, 2011 11:41 AM

MANILA, Philippines – A police official today confirmed that the mugshots of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo circulating on the Internet are authentic.

Senior Superintendent James Bucayu, acting chief of the Southern Police District (SPD), said that their investigator confirmed to him that the mugshots provided to them by the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and those posted bywww.mugshots.com are the same.

source: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=750833&publicationSubCategoryId=63

DISCLAIMER, posted morning of November 22, 2011:

Robredo: Arroyo mug shots in Inquirer not real
PATERNO ESMAQUEL II, GMA News
11/22/2011 | 10:00 AM

Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo on Tuesday said the pictures published on the Philippine Daily Inquirer were not the real mug shots of detained former President and incumbent Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“[I] just clarified that they are not [the] real mug shots after verifying with the [Criminal Investigation and Detection Group],” Robredo told GMA News Online when asked to confirm his statement that the photos were fake.

source: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/239245/nation/robredo-arroyo-mug-shots-in-inquirer-not-real

Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as she appears in a composite of mugshots taken by the police in her hospital room in St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City in connection with her being charged with the nonbailable crime of election…

that neck brace looks wicked. the straps and metal rings look very intimidating. we can only imagine how much discomfort the patient feels on that brace. it’s also amazing the the p-atient manages to look good in this picture.

the above mugshots also appeared at http://www.mugshots.com/

These photographs are believed to be the ORIGINAL and AUTHENTIC most sought-after arrest mugshots of CGMA (Gloria Arroyo).

DISCLAIMER: On November 20th 2011, the two side-view photographs above appeared on the internet on a number of social sites. These photographs are believed to be the authentic official arrest mugshots of CGMA taken in a hospital when CGMA was on a recliner (description below). Please note, no guarantee of authenticity is made therein.

UPDATE NOV. 21st 2011: Frontal mugshot has been added. It was sent to us from a highly reliable source in the Philippines.

SECOND UPDATE NOV 21 2011: After our release of these mugshot photographs, The Philippine Daily Inquirer published the same mugshot photographs, writes full article (link below).

source : http://www.inquirer.net/

arroyo is the second ex philippine president who has a mugshot. the first one was erap estrada who was eventually convicted of the crime of plunder  but was given a presidential pardon ironically by  president arroyo.

PGMA, prisoner gloria macapagal arroyo arrested! view mug shot here!

protestor

 

 

the term PGMA has just taken a new meaning – Prisoner Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

media and the publick must be going nuts right about now waiting for the release of the mugshot of gloria macapagal arroyo. she was arrested yestyerday at the st luke’s hospital and the police have schedule the finger printing and mug shot today. as of this writing, the police are already at the hospital and everyone one is waiting for the mug shot.

Gloria Arroyo now under arrest

Warrant served in her suite at St. Luke’s Medical Center

Seventeen months after stepping down from the presidency, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Friday was served an arrest warrant for alleged electoral sabotage.

The Pampanga representative, once dubbed the “Iron Lady of Asia,” was in bed at a 16th-floor suite of St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City, wearing a hospital gown and a neck brace. The serving of the warrant capped a day of swift and unexpected developments.

Senior Supt. James Bucayu of the Southern Police District (SPD) led a battery of policemen in black berets and blue uniforms in serving the warrant. He said Arroyo was calm and had anticipated their arrival, even offered them a smile, and waived her right to hear a reading of her rights by Senior Supt. Joel Coronel.

The warrant was served at 6:30 p.m., or two hours after it was issued by Judge Jesus Mupas of Pasay City Regional Trial Court Branch 112 for the nonbailable offense.

The officers were led from Arroyo’s room to the suite’s receiving area, where former fiscal Jose Flaminiano received the warrant and took over the details of the arrest.

“Under the direction of Police Director Alan Purisima, we have served the arrest warrant on former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo,” Bucayu said in an impromptu press conference held 20 minutes after officially putting the lawmaker, who has a bone ailment, under hospital arrest.

“She was conscious and in a reclining position on her bed when we served the warrant. It was very visible that she was sick. But she smiled at us. Perhaps she had expected us already,” he said. “She expected it; she was not sad. She looked like she just woke up. Not like [at the airport on Tuesday night], when she was nearly crushed. She was just nodding and smiling.”

Due to Arroyo’s frail condition, police will conduct the “booking”—the standard taking of mug shots and fingerprints—Saturday at 9 a.m. in her hospital room, Bucayu said.

“Depending on her condition, to be determined by government doctors, we will transfer [her] to the custody of the SPD on Monday,” he said, adding that four guards had been stationed outside Arroyo’s suite and another team at the main entrance of the hospital.

read more : http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/96621/gloria-arroyo-now-under-arrest

corruption is the number 1 issue in the 2010 philippine election

tv ad endorsers & celebs – who has the kiss of death and kiss of victory?

this is a country where most tv ads  use celebrities in their ads. the advertising industry has used celebrities as the winning formula in their ads. if that is true for mass consumer products like sanitary napkins to vitamins, why not for presidentiables? after all presidentiables are really not very different from mass consumer  products.

who among the celebrities have the kiss of death on presidentiables and how has the kiss of victory among them?

2010 election: aquino landslide win, teodoro hail mary pass, villar collapse and estrada to win the election?

the villarroyo development puts many new things into the table now. there used to be only 1 item on the table – a close election between villar and aquino and estrada as the dark horse.

with the new developments on the arroyo’s secret candidate in villar on top of the teodoro being their candidate, we now see new things on the table:

• villar collapse – we have seen what arroyo’s kiss of death did to gilbert teodoro – super glued to fourth place from survey to survey, unable to get up to even a double digit rating in the polls. if the villarroyo charge sticks, we can see a transfer of arroyo’s kiss of death on villar. that is IF the kiss of death is transferable to others.
• teodoro on a hail mary pass – we are totally confounded by teodoro. he did not see any of this coming? now he is left out in the open all by himself. in this whole thing, teodoro is the most abused by his mentors. teodoro decided to leave NPC to join lakas-kampi-cmd to fulfil his presidential ambitions. his party did not welcome him with open arms. they didn’t want him to be their standard bearer. from the very beginning they were vocal on that. this rejection by his own party was also shown in the fact that none of the big time lakas candidates wanted to be his vice presidential mate.  fast forward to a few weeks ago we hear his campaign complaining on lack of funding from the party. a few days ago he quits as chair of his party apparently because he got to know that arroyo supports villar. all of these, teodoro did not see coming? really? well, he will now be pushed to most probably do a hail mary pass – completely remove himself from the grip of the arroyos and start attacking the them. that we think can get him back into the election.
• estrada a clear possibility –  these developments is good news for estrada. recent SWS poll show estrada gained from villar when villar got hit by the C-5 corruption issue. a collapse by villar can mean, if the recent developments in the polls continue to hold, estrada gaining in the polls which can make him a true contender in this election. however, there is so much irony here — villar collapsing on a corruption issue for erap to gain who is a  convicted criminal of a crime of plunder, a corruption verdict of the highest order for public officials.
• aquino poised for a landslide win – only aquino gets the good news on this one. aquino has been on a single minded positioning of anti-corruption. by sheer luck, the recent developments gives the election to aquino on a silver platter, setting him up for a possible landslide win in the election.  with his closest rival, villar to be enshrined with being supported by the mother of all corruption, the arroyos, this leaves aquino untainted, clean and without blemish. it can be a wake up call for voters, specially for villar supporters.

if there is anything to be learned in this whole episode, it is this – it’s a fluid election. unfortunately and i say this with a tinge of shame and embarrassment  the election being fluid is not being caused by a debate of changing national issues but by the stuff of telenovela twists and turns. very pinoy. hay naku….

are the ingredients of a gilbert teodoro presidency already in place?

these are the things that have happened in the past weeks:

• automated election failure – this has been on a roller coaster ride – from it being done to it will not be done to it will not be done to it will be done and back. we are all confused on this one. we seem to get a different prognosis almost every 4 days as somebody discovers a new kink, then denied or all of a sudden fixed by the COMELEC. the confusion even comes from the COMELEC itself. there has been a never ending laundry list of issues – from machines, to delivery dates, ballot design, ballot printing, teachers training to almost everything and anything that concerns it. what we are being told here at the very least is that it is not dependable and there are many things that can go wrong. we have been given a preview of what might be pointed out as what caused the problem after the election.
• overstated number of registered voters, multiple registrations – the most recent is the number of voters registered – they are inflated due to multiple registrations by the same person. the numbers are so staggering that they can change the election results in a close election which it appears it will be.
• power supply and brownouts – this is another that is on a roller coaster ride.  months ago we were told there will be no problem with brownouts during the election, we have enough power supply, el nino happened and that took us to being told it will be no problem still to there is a problem, then rotating brownouts to no rotating brownouts then back. do we have enough power supply or not? we don’t know. we might, we might not have., just like the number of times they have changed their pronouncements on rotating brownouts in metro manila.
• appointment of new AFP chief –  this one seem to be both controversial and expected. controversial as some deserving generals have been bypassed by the appointment of the new AFP chief. expected as the newly appointed AFP chief is a known to be an avid supporter of the president. the president is the adapted member of the PMA class of the  new AFP chief. also, many of the officers coming from this class have been appointed to key military positions.
• appointment of new supreme court chief justice –  just yesterday, the supreme court has ruled that arroyo can appoint the next SC chief even though there has been a precedent where it was not allowed by the SC and the constitution clearly states it in actuality and intent that it is not allowed.
• gilbert teodoro, lakas-kampi-cmd standard bearer suspicious’ drop in ad spending – teodoro has been suffering in all major nationwide polls so far since last year until the latest. the most that teodoro could do is in the 5% to 7% range and always on the 4th place while there have been aggressive movements among the top 3. aquino’s ratings are falling while villar has been moving up and now statistically tied with aquino. estrada has been moving up who is on third. teodoro’s ratings are stagnant despite ad spending that was the 2nd highest to villar’s top spending. (read: presidentiables spend P2B on advertising. top spenders – villar 1st, teodoro 2nd and aquino 3rd) performance in the polls is so poor that officers of his own political party  have expressed their anxiety on it with some already anticipating a teodoro loss in the election (read: teodoro set to lose election – teodoro’s own LAKAS-KAMPI-CMD party. giving up on teodoro too soon?). with that performance, we find it alarming, also confused that teodoro during the last month media spending tracking had spent practically nothing in tv ads at a mere P64T only. this a most unusual thing to do. you are down at the polls, you do not cut on advertising, you do the opposite – you increase in ad spending. the main candidates, villar, aquino and estrada have sustained  ad spending.

putting all the above together, this is a possible scenario, courtesy of  oliver stone a famous hollywood  director for conspiracy theory movies : the comelec will declare the major candidates villar, aquino and estrada as disqualified from the election due to violating the law on election ad spending, declaring the 4th placer, gilbert teodoro as winner.

that comelec decision is well protected with the chief justice of the supreme court appointed by arroyo and the AFP  chief  protecting arroyo.

Asked why he thought Teodoro spent almost zero for TV ads in the first weeks of the campaign, Cadiz surmised that the Lakas-Kampi standard-bearer was playing on the safe side of the law.

“He is a lawyer; he knows the campaign limit spending, so he just wants to comply…so he’ll not be charged with any offense. But we don’t know what his campaign strategy is,” Cadiz said.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20100304-256616/Teodoro-lowest-spender-of-political-ads

the other components like the automated election problems, the brownouts and the overstated number of voters are options that may be availed of. these in themselves are there to already create doubts on the election.

someone call oliver stone, quick!

teodoro set to lose election – teodoro’s own LAKAS-KAMPI-CMD party. giving up on teodoro too soon?

there is something happening within the LAKAS-KAMPI-CMD political party to which gilbert teodoro belongs to –  we are reading noise in the newspapers about several officials of the party openly talking to the press about their discontent and worries on the candidacy of gilbert teodoro. they all seem to be in agreement that teodoro is doing very poorly in this election, that there are things he is doing that is not helping his candidacy and the unsaid words that teodoro is set to lose the 2010 presidential election.

first was senator zubiri’s pronouncement that the opposition is poised to win the 2010 election because teodoro’s campaign never really took off.  he also said this:

“People want change. That is the effect of nine years (in power). That is understandable,” he said in Filipino.

that sounds very much like saying the people are very much tired of president arroyo’s administration and the people can’t wait for her to step down for the new president to take over. it also means teodoro is very much associated with arroyo that the people see the prospect of teodoro being president as just a continuation of arroyo’s presidency.

then there is the statement from another LAKAS-KAMPI-CMD party official who said the party is set to hold an emergency executive committee  meeting in march if teodoro’s ratings fail to improve.

that says the executive committee recognize that teodoro’s campaign is suffering now, unable to get itself out of the bottom in the polls. they are worried of a downward spiral and the emergency meeting is meant to arrest this decline.

just recently, another officer of teodoro’s party has talked to the press also saying teodoro’s advertising campaign, the airplane campaign has failed and is to blame for teodoro’s inability to bring his ratings up from the grave. this officer is LAKAS-KAMPI-CMD vice president prospero pichay.

we find that amusing. pichay ran for senator in the last senatorial election and based on media data, he was the top spender in advertising during that election. as we all know now, pichay lost that election.

we find it ironic that this man who spent the most ad money in the last election but failed to win is making such a comment on teodoro’s tv advertising. it is obvious that not being elected despite being the highest spender in that election means pichay lost the election due to bad advertising. did pichay use his advertising smarts that he ddisplayed in the last election to asssess teodoro’s ad campaign?

the common denominators among these three lakas officials are – teodoro is losing the election and his efforts are not helping him if not wrong.

we are shocked that these supposed officials of the party are even talking to the press about their misgivings and teodoro’s failures as a presidential candidate.  for the sake of teodoro, will they not be better off not talking to the press about these things, keep them hush-hush, hold the meeting and change things.  the key there is not talk to the press.

telling these things to the press can be very demoralizing for teodoro’s few supporters to read. we are ssaying they are few based on the poll results where he got at best 5%. teodoro’s supporters already know their candidate is doing poorly in the polls but to read it in the newspapers as said by party officials is a real killer.

we also wonder if the cracks are showing within the ruling party. this is not the first time it has happened. this already happened from the very beginning of the party’s so called process in selecting their standard bearer.

during that time we heard a lot of officers and members of the party openly criticizing party officials for taking a long time to name their standard bearer. there were also loud talks on who they want the party to select as standard bearer and teodoro’s name was not being mentioned during that time.

with all of these happening to gilbert teodoro’s party, we ask the question – with friends and partymates like these, who needs friends and political opponents?

pulse asia survey: aquino and villar big time on trust, teodoro suffers, same as estrada

perhaps to have manny villar and noynoy aquino’s trust ratings to be high and dominant is not surprising, they are after all the front runners in the 2010 election. we do not think one can be a front runner in the presidentiables poll if your trust ratings are low. there is no surprise in villar and aquino’s ratings.

what is surprising is when you look down at the other presidentiables.

erap estrada’s trust ratings are as low as gilbert teodoro’s and estrada’s trust ratings are as high as teodoro’s.

• estrada trust rating at  33% vs teodoro’s distrust rating at 32%
• estrada’s distrust rating at 37% vs teodoro’s distrust rating at 31% (there is significant difference here)

we are surprised by it as we did not think estrada and teodoro would be seen by the respondents as anything similar to each other. erap estrada may have a string of  nationally elected position like the presidency to his name but he is a convicted criminal, the crime of plunder whose liberty was made possible only through a presidential pardon by president arroyo. Teodoro may not have had a nationally elected position to his name and may not be as well known as estrada, he is very much a clean politician versus estrada. we thought they were black and white in character and credentials, getting the same kind of ratings on trust and distrust is very surprising.

now we wonder that perhaps teodoro’s low trust and high distrust rating that is practically the same as the convicted criminal estrada may be due to his close association with president arroyo. arroyo’s trust and distrust ratings are also disastrously embarrassing with a measly 11% trust and a huge 68% of distrust. we did not expect that arroyo’s kiss of death on teodoro will go this far.

comparing the frontrunner’s trust and distrust ratings to those of estrada and specially teodoro is another matter of strong interest for us.

aquino and villar’s trust ratings are double in size compared to teodoro’s and estrada while the front runner’s distrust ratings are almost only 1/3 of teodoro’s and estrada’s. this may indicate the front runners are way ahead in this election and the laggard’s group has a lot of catching up to do.

3QTR SWS survey: net satisfaction of arroyo drops further

The Third Quarter 2009 Social Weather Survey, conducted from September 18-21, 2009, found 30% of adults satisfied and 50% dissatisfied with the overall performance of the National Administration, for a poor net satisfaction rating of -20 (% satisfied minus % dissatisfied).

The latest net satisfaction ratings of the National Administration is 9 points lower than the -11 in June 2009. It has been poor for three consecutive quarters since February 2009, when it was at -19 [Chart 1, Table 1].

SWS also polls the public on the performance of the National Administration on specific issues. Of the 14 issues tested in the September 2009 survey, the public rated the National Administration as good on one issue, moderate on 5 issues, neutral on 5 issues, and poor on 3 issues [Table 2].

The National Administration scored a good net satisfaction rating of +31 on the issue of Protecting the public from the outbreak of diseases.

http://www.sws.org.ph/

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo To Run For Congress – taped interview dzRB

arroyo as a citizen of this country has the right for congress, pero ang KAPAL NG MUKHA!

Arroyo to run for Congress
By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez

MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE) President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will run for a congressional seat in her home province in Pampanga, according to the government-run dzRB.

When asked about her political plans for 2010, she said in a taped interview with dzRB to be aired later in the afternoon, “I will file.”

Arroyo, who served nine years in office, becomes the first Philippine president who will seek a lower position as a member of the House of Representatives after her term ends.

Arroyo is expected file her certificate of candidacy before the deadline tomorrow, December 1.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20091130-239344/Arroyo-to-run-for-Congress

arroyo quits as LAKAS-Kampi chair – will arroyo’s “kiss of death” on gilbert teodoro disappear with it?

no, we do not think so. but that is what they want to achieve here – arroyo will resign as LAKAS-KAMPI-CMD chair to get some trappings of independence for teodoro to remove arroyo’s “kiss of death” on gilbert teodoro’s presidential run.

most of the admin senatorial candidates lost in the last election mainly on the basis of the strong association of these candidates with arroyo. most of the opposition in that election won even senator trillanes who was in jail on coup d’etat charges, trillanes was unable to campaign and had penny advertising funds but he won the senate seat just on the basis of his attempt to unseat arroyo from power.

teodoro is presently down in the dumps in the survey, with a measly 4% while the dominant front runner, noynoy aquino is at 60%. teodoro’s poor performance is seen by many as due to arroyo’s kiss of death, among other reasons. arroyo is the most unpopular president of the country and suffer with no trust among the population.

arroyo giving up chair in favor of teodoro is nothing but a cosmetic application. it is already too late, people already associate teodoro with arroyo. and besides, there is really no escaping it.

we expect more spin from malacanang on this matter and most specially those coming from the teodoro campaign to drum up the idea of independence and the cutting of ties from arroyo. how will they do it? and will it work?

Arroyo to quit as Lakas-Kampi chair

---

abs-cbnNEWS.com | 11/07/2009 5:11 PM

MANILA – President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will be resigning as national chair of the ruling party, Lakas-Kampi-CMD, and will be turning over the party leadership to its standard-bearer Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., Malacañang announced on Saturday.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said Mrs. Arroyo has “stated her desire” to turn over the party leadership to Teodoro. He said the President “wanted to pass the torch to the younger generation.”

Not quitting Lakas-Kampi

Secretary Gabby Claudio, Mrs. Arroyo’s adviser on political affairs, meanwhile, clarified that Mrs. Arroyo is not resigning from the ruling coalition party.

“President Arroyo is not quitting the administration party. She is merely turning over its chairmanship to Secretary Gibo Teodoro in keeping with the party tradition,” he said.

sec. alberto romulo supports aquino – a major blow to LAKAS-KAMPI and teodoro

Romulo favors Aquino
But Malacañang tells execs: ‘Toe the line’

By Christian V. Esguerra, Leila Salaverria, Inquirer Southern Luzon
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:48:00 09/22/2009

MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang Monday served notice to its troops to “toe the line” after Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo—one of its most senior Cabinet officials—broadly indicated his support for Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, the Liberal Party’s standard-bearer in the 2010 presidential election.

News that Romulo was favoring the senator came the same day that another administration official—Commissioner Jaime Jacob of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC)—announced he was resigning his post in order to support the presidential bid of the late former President Corazon Aquino’s only son.

Jacob’s resignation was the latest sign of cracks in the facade of administration unity and came just two months before the official start of the campaign for the May 2010 national elections.

Romulo was in London accompanying no less than President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself in her three-nation foreign trip when he indicated in an interview with an ABS-CBN correspondent where his heart lay.

“In 2007, I voted for Noynoy Aquino [for senator], so my ties with the Aquino family have been deep and lasting,” Romulo said in the interview. “I’ve always been with Tita Cory and voted for the Aquinos.”

Asked if he would support Noynoy, Romulo answered: “I have voted for the Aquinos all the time.”

read in full here: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20090922-226363/Romulo-favors-Aquino

 

romulo declaring he is supporting noynoy aquino and not gilbert teodoro, LAKAS-KAMPI and admin presidential candidate is a major blow and embarrassment to the administration and teodoro’s candidacy.

it is not as much as number of votes as romulo is not a politician nor do we think he has a political base but it is a huge psychological and morale disaster for the administration party. romulo is a senior official of the arroyo administration.

what makes this more telling is that he is not the only one who is moving away from the administration and ruling party.

vice president noli de castro was the first major political figure who did that. de castro though he ran as an independent during the election is still part of the arroyo administration.

he was courted ardently by arroyo herself to be the standard bearer of the party, so much as saying he is the anointed one, but de castro declined to be part of it.

add to that the fact that de castro has been consistently one of the leaders in the presidentiable polls making him the most viable candidate among admin/ruling party affiliated presidentiables. that underscores the magnitude of de castro’s refusal to join the ruling party.

another arroyo administration official, Commissioner Jaime Jacob of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) has announced his resignation from his post to campaign for aquino.

for these defections, if you can call it that, to the aquino camp is happening too soon. the campaign period has not even began yet with many blanks still open among the political parties. these things usually occur towards the end of the campaign period.

for it to occur this early is definitely bad news for the ruling/admin party. it is starting too early and can create a snow-ball effect. more admin officials and ruling party members might follow romulo and jacob’s lead and that will mean the admin/ruling party’s campaign for the presidency might collapse even before it starts or right after it starts.

philippine politicians are known to shift their alliances to the team that has the most likelihood of winning regardless of stand or principles. the shift might be seen by them as a major crack and a significant weakness giving the ruling/admin party as the losing political party.

if this happens, the ruling and admin party is again another inch moved towards the margins of philippine political life.