President Arroyo’s sycophants, errrgh spokesmen-cum-mind readers are finally admitting that her endorsement may be a ‘kiss of death’ for the administration’s chosen presidential bet.

But they are, of course, not blaming Mrs. Arroyo herself but the news media “negative attitude” toward Pres. Arroyo and how public mistrust for her is rubbing off on Defesence Secretary Gilbert ‘Gibo’ Teodoro.

They even add, for good measure (to better confuse the public), that while her term as president ends next year she’ll stave off riding into the political sunset by trying her hand at running for vice president, playing second fiddle to Teodoro!!!

Cheeky huh?

The statements:

Pampanga first district Rep. Carmelo Lazatin:

She said she felt she was not contributing positively to the candidacy of Teodoro so it would be better for her to resign and give way to younger leaders. Mrs. Arroyo lamented the negative attitude of the media towards her, which she thought was adversely affecting the chances of Teodoro in the presidential elections. She said she wanted younger leaders to take over (the Lakas-Kampi-CMD).

Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez:

Mrs. Arroyo  may run for vice president in 2010 to push for “fiscal reforms and crucial legislation. Arroyo would be an “asset” to anyone who would become president.

Atty. Romulo Macalintal:

We know that Dec. 1 is the deadline (of the filing of the certificates of candidacy) so people will know by Dec. 1 whether she will run or not.

The people will not be surprised anymore if she will run so I think let’s wait for the situation to unfold.

It’s not that she’s undecided, but it has not entered her mind whether she’ll be running or would be running in the forthcoming political exercise.

There is no legal obstacle if in case Mrs. Arroyo decides to seek public office again.

She told me that she has not said anything about running but these are all opinions of some critics.

So go ahead guys, keep on shuffling your cards and peering into your myopic crystal balls.

Ingratiate yourselves to Mrs. Arroyo.

Not to worry.

Filipinos already hate you anyway.

What is it with our leaders?

It is a cultural or quite simply corrupted moral fiber that as they are oblivious to the hopelessness and homelessness of Filipinos they build and build, or acquire and acquire extra ‘abodes’ grossly disproportionate to their personal needs and offensive, if not oppressive in impact to the national psyche.

I am, of course referring to the Marcoses $1.8-M Lindermere Estate, Erap Estrada’s Wack Wack ‘Boracay’ Mansion (for his mistress) and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s newly-exposed, newly-built bungalow on Calle Cucu, Barangay San Nicolas, Primer 1 in Lubao.

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/06/nyregion/9-years-on-market-marcos-estate-is-sold.html?pagewanted=all

What business do we have anyway, they say, given how:

the Lindenmere was supposedly bought by the Marcoses using their gold zillions;

Erap probably got his from either jueteng bribes or box office winnings;

while the Arroyo’s are at least claiming the not-opulent-looking Lubao digs (no one has seen it’s interiors) “is owned by Eva Development Corporation on a  lot is the Diosdado Macapagal Foundation  and was built as a part of a museum for former President Diosdado Macapagal, Mrs. Arroyo’s late father.”

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/11/05/09/lawyer-denies-arroyo-owns-new-lubao-house

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/regions/11/06/09/armed-man-arroyo-house-lubao-psg

Hey, President Arroyo’s lawyer even asserts it was ok for the gun-toting PSG man who tried to prevent an ABS-CBN news crew for filming the bungalow to lie:

Atty. Romulo Macalintal (Arroyo’s election lawyer):

Iyong tanong na bakit sinabi ng armed man na siya ang may-ari ng bahay. Well, I think siguro part ng training ‘yan ng security (Your question why the armed man claimed he owns the house. Well, I think it’s part of their security training),

Never mind even that the Arroyo bungalow is “where the President stays to rest whenever she goes on her quite frequent Pampanga sorties widely thought to be part of the scheme for her to run for Congress in 2010 en route to becoming House Speaker.

So those of us ordinary mortals should just mind our own business and discard the immense disgust that we feel.

As Estrada himself once told his detractors, “maging Presidente muna kayo!”

Of course history also teaches us what the revelations of the Lindenmere Estate and the Boracay Mansion likely helped trigger.

I hate ending the week with a rant.

But what a crock of sh’t if this?: The government of the day huffing and puffing yet again that will  do a full court press against unlicensed firearms, with the Commission on Elections even declaring “a total gun ban” during the election period.”

Who are you jokers kidding???

The only time when people, for a moment, thought the law against illegal possession of firearms was something to be feared was when action star Robin Padilla served time for the crime.

But beyond that, and the occasional conviction of nobodies, the law has large been ignored.

A total gun ban?

Tell that to the thousands of Moro rebels and the gun-toting private armies of the political warlords in Mindanao.

One realizes that we don’t only have a mis-governed society but large tracts of our land are ungoverned and lawless.

Red flags are being raised anew about next year’s all-important elections failing.

Sen. Chiz Escudero, one of the leading presiudential contenders, is seriously worried about  the Commission on elections has all but consigned its constitutional mandate to manage the elections to its Venezuelan partner-provider Smartmatic, with the production and delivery of contracted precinct-level voting machines falling behind schedule.

IT businessman Joey de Venecia:

While the Aboitiz company 2Go is one of the biggest delivery companies in the country, it only covers about 80 percent of the Philippines.

To assign the task to smaller companies is a very risky undertaking. A distribution glitch at this late stage does not bode well for the May 2010 elections.

Obviously, there is already a problem in guaranteeing that all precincts nationwide will be getting the voting machines on time. The cancellation of the Smartmatic-Aboitiz contract tells us that something has been amiss from the beginning. I hate to say I told you so, but the Comelec is clearly not fully prepared for such a huge undertaking as full automation.

We cannot afford to use the May 2010 presidential elections as a test case. Instead, we should just computerize the elections in Metro Manila, and if all goes well, fully automate the barangay elections later next year.

Sen. Richard Gordon:

Alam ko merong mga nagpaplano.Mga congressman bababalitaan ko, wag na raw gamitin muna. I-postmuna muna yung automated election.

Lalu tayo dapat matakot dun. Pero di kami sa Senado papayag na ipagpaliban ang automated elections. (There are those who are planning to sabotage the 2010 elections. There are congressmen, I hear, who want the automated elections postponed . That is fearsome. But we in the Senate will not agree to a postponement of the automated elections.)

Sen. Gordon is, of course, referring to known election fraud operators like Virgillo Garcillano and Lintang Bedol and how ‘command vote’ areas like Mindanao’s Lanao provinces are regularly the source of dagdag-bawas fake election tallies.

The editorial graphic by artist Carlo Barrameda captures the danger:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3170&id=100000189816174&ref=mf#/photo.php?pid=81602&id=100000189816174

The easy route would be to wave away these warnings as baseless, banking only on the COMELEC’s wholesale assurances.

But taking that attitude is downright irresponsible, if not grossly moronic.

We just don’t have enough fingers to cross or Hail Mary’s to toss to the heavens.

Don’t look now but alarm bells are sounding over the abrupt resignation of Bureau of Internal Revenue chief Sixto Esquivias IV in the wake of what wagging tngous described as a “shouting match” with his boss, Finance Secretary Gary Teves.

The humble Mr. Esquivias is trying to avoid washing washing dirty linen in public but insaiders in the tax agency are saying his tiff with Sec. Teves erupted over the move to detach the BIR’s Large Taxpayers Service (LTS) and put it directly under the control of Mr. Narciso Santiago Jr.

Santiago, a known cockfighting aficionado, is the husband of voluble Sen. Miriam Defensor  and occupies the quite nebulous post of presidential assistant on revenue generation.

Senator Miriam is running for re-election next year as a guest candidate in the ticket of come-backing former president Joseph ‘Erap Estrada.

The suspicions are that the LTS which has authority to forge compromise deals with delinquent large taxpayers (those with tx payables of PhP 1-M and up) could be used for under the table political fund-raising activities.

Here’s how a story about the troubles at the BIR went:

MANILA, OCTOBER 5, 2009 (MALAYA) BY DENNIS GADIL – What’s in the Large Taxpayers Service (LTS) unit of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) that drives Miriam Defensor Santiago hell-bent in having it transferred under the supervision of her husband Narciso Santiago Jr., presidential adviser on revenue enhancement (PARE).
Sen. Santiago, chair of the Senate economics chair and Senate finance sub-chair, was fuming mad last week at Internal Revenue Commissioner Sixto Esquivias IV for refusing to turn over the LTS to her husband.
The LTS monitors and analyzes the tax payments of the Top 1,000 corporations and persons with a net worth of P300 million who pay an annual income tax of at least P1 million.
The LTS accounts for more than half of the BIR’s annual collection. This year, it is assigned 60 percent of the assigned goal of P798.5 billion.
At the budget hearing of the BIR, the woman senator said Esquivias has been ignoring Administrative Order 236 issued six months ago by President Arroyo which provides for the transfer of the LTS.
“What is your problem Mr. BIR Commissioner? What is your interest in the large taxpayers unit?” Sen. Santiago shouted at Esquivias.
Sen. Santiago said that in her presence, Arroyo reminded Esquivias to turn over the LTS to her husband during the President’s last visit to New York.
The senator recalled that Esquivias was overheard telling the President that Narciso as PARE should concentrate on companies and persons not covered by the LTS.
She said Esquivias also threatened to resign if the f the LTS was taken away from him.
“How dare you talk back to President that way? You know that the President has the absolute authority and control over this,” Santiago said.
The senator hinted that the BIR chief was refusing to turn over the LTS because he was going to use it for his fund-raising campaign in next year’s elections.
“You’re so possessive of the large taxpayers unit. Are you going to use it for your campaign?” Santiago asked.
“No, I’m not running for public office,” Esquivias said.
Santiago herself has declared she will seek re-election in May.
The BIR chief said he did not immediately implement AO 236 because he felt that “giving away” the LTS would be tantamount to abdicating his duties.
He, nevertheless, said he was in the process of making the turnover after recently receiving the go-ahead signal from Finance Secretary Margarito Teves.
Santiago said the turnover would just be an “internal procedure” and, thus, would not violate the mandate of Esquivias’ office.
She said the BIR should be abolished, saying it should be renamed as the “Bureau of Unexplained Wealth” because of many cases filed against revenue personnel who have allegedly amassed questionable wealth.
During the budget hearing, Esquivias was sandwiched between Teves and Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales, who both appeared unsympathetic to the former’s travails.
Esquivias, at the end of Santiago’s outburst, promised to make the turnover “right away.”
Sought for comment after the hearing, Esquivias said he was “depressed” as he has not been so embarrassed in his entire life.
Narciso, an Estrada administration interior undersecretary, was named PARE by Arroyo in 2004 but took office only in 2005. He was given the vague general mandate of helping the government’s two top revenue generators, the BIR and the Bureau of Customs, improve their collections.
In May this year, the President issued AO 236 expanding the PARE’s powers by authorizing him to run after suspected big-time tax evaders which are under the LTS.
“With the concurrence of the Secretary of Finance, he may initiate the filing of appropriate action, if warranted, against persons liable for the violation of pertinent laws, rules and regulations in relation to the Large Taxpayers Units,” the AO said.
Narciso’s office was given a P10 million budget.
BIR insiders regarded Narciso’s appointment as redundant and was meant to undermine Esquivias, who was said at that time to be on the verge of being sacked for failing to meet revenue targets.
In defending the order, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita earlier said AO 263 should be taken “positively” since it is simply aimed at aiding the BIR in running after erring taxpayers.
“It’s not that the presidential adviser on revenue enhancement has taken over the job of BIR. Precisely, that is the very purpose of his job, for enhancement of revenue collection. The PARE has direct contact with the President, and that will somehow show that there’s an effort for us to collect the taxes,” Ermita said.
The BIR has created six groups to monitor major industries covered by the LTS: manufacturing, banking and other financial intermediaries, insurance, real estate and trading, utilities and transportation, and other services.
Last August, Sen. Santiago said in her Senate Resolution 1266 that her economics committee would hold public hearings on alleged anomalies in the collection of taxes by the LTS unit.
Santiago said she would summon the top 20 large taxpayers to a hearing to shed light on charges of inefficiency and corruption in the LTS.

http://www.newsflash.org/2004/02/be/be004183.htm

The tired phrase is only two things in life are certain, death and taxes.
But no one deserves to be screwed while already paying his taxes, right?

It’s going to be a Villar-Legarda tandem in next year’s elections with the Nacionalista Party forging a tactical alliance with the Nationalist People’s Coalition.

Multiple sources confirmed this information to At Midfield this afternoon, with the ticket’s announcement “now being readied with include a proclamation gathering to list the full senatorial slate of the NP-NPC combine.”

My sources said “the event planners of NP standard bearer  Villar wants to properly project the ticket as the alternative choice of voters against the perceived front-running tandem of SENATORS Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas.”

“NPC’s decision to finally link up with the NP was forced upon it by the surprise break-away last week of Sen. Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero that left the NPC without a viable presidential standard bearer,” my sources explained.

Another source meanwhile said it had long been known that Sen. Legarda “was actively exploring talks to team up with either Sen. Villar and even Lakas-KAMPI-CMD standard bearer Gilbert Teodoro while insisting she was committed to pair with Sen. Escudero.”

“Her machinations have now borne fruit with Ms. Legarda fully shedding her posturing as being part of the political opposition against the highly unpopular Arroyo regime,” my sources told me.

“The Villar-Legarda ticket also shows Legarda’s party, the NPC of tycoon Eduardo ‘Danding’ Cojuangco revealing its true stripes as a traditional political party imbued not with a reformist agenda but one of ready accommodation with whomsoever protects its politically-sensitive business concerns.”

Party ‘power politics’, and the politics of compromise, that’s all this is, with the ugly underpinning of politics of convenience.

Money, money, money.

Postscript:

ABS-CBN’s Ricly Carandang last night filed a report on TV Patrol on the impending announcement by Sen. Villar of his “selected” running mate.

The report had the Nacionalista Party president and standard bearer giving only broad hints:

Authorities are putting on a united face in foreswearing any ransom payment to buy the freedom of kidnapped Columban missionary priest Michael Sinnott who’s been in the hands of  Moro malefactors since October 11.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde:

We will do everything to ensure his safe release. We will, however, stick to the international policy of paying no ransom. Our security forces, in coordination with local crisis management committee is in charge of the situation.

Western Mindanao Command chief Maj. Gen. Ben Dolorfino:

There is no such thing as Abu Jayad that exists in the Abu Sayyaf Group. It is obvious that the kidnappers are using a fictitious identity to mislead operating troops.

Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iniguez, chair of the CBCP committee on public affairs:

That’s the policy of the government. It should stand by that policy so that (the kidnappers) would no longer be emulated.

I’ve really resisted commenting on this, balancing the need to let authorities do their thing and not second guessing the imperatives of governance (which the Malacanang tenants wield) and acceptance of the fact that caving in to ransom demands ultimately lead to more abductions.

But are we going to just sit on our hands while the government remain unable to assert its authority???

Don’t we also ‘encourage’ crime by failing at even the basic demands of law and order.

You have the interminable KFRs (kidnaps-for-ransom) down south, and here in the city you have motorcycle-riding, trigger-happy gunmen ambushing ordinary families in vans!

Whatever happened to the sworn duty of government to keep us safe and secure in our persons!!!

Failing at it’s task, government even resorts to castigating the news media for airing the ‘proof-of-life’ video of Father Sinnot as “helping the abductors gain publicity.”

What is woefully apparent yet again, given their need for replenished ‘operating funds,’ the Moro bandits have resumed their KFR cottage industry while the ever usreful tag of “rogue elements of the MILF”  being appended to the abductors with the MILF being portrayed as “helping in the negotiations”.

In truth, and in practice, the MILF has been the long-time puppeteer playing all of us for fools!!!

1st Update:

Authorities made a show this week of given a no-progress update on Fr. Sinnott’s condition except to denounce what most of us know already: that supposed rogue members of the MILF are holding the Columban priest and that “the local crisis committee is considering all options to end the month-long abduction including a military rescue.”

That’s the official line, that’s now coupled with the reality that the intended resumption of GRP-MILF peace talks will remain just a pipe dream so long as Fr. Sinnott is in captivity.

(Associated Press photo)

The only comforting aspect has been that the ‘proof of life video’ of the missiionary showed him in better than expected physical health even as we all worry that his health may not hold up given his advanced age.

The MILF for its part is huffing that Manila it is “unfair” for Manila to link Sinnott’s abduction to the peace talks.

Who are these guys fooling???

2nd Update:

The MILF has all but confirmed that one of its ground commanders is behind the abduction of Reverend Sinnott.

But the MILF’s ‘peace negotiator’ is digging in.

MILF chief peace negotiator Mohagher Iqbal:

It’s complicated. He (Aloy Al Asree, a commander of more than 3,000 men) might be arrested if he shows up at the (government) crisis management committee.

How mush more mocking will Manila take before it decides to rescue the 79-year olf. Columban missionar, one wonders???

This ‘Undas’ weekend was mentally liberating with the ceasefire in political news, the typhoon watch, and quiet reflections about our departed loved ones.

Back to reality.

I’ve been chewing on Sen. Chiz Escudero’s maverick move of de-chaining himself from the dictates of big party politics while maintaining his resolve to gun for the land’s highest elective office.

The tradpols have been left in a tizzy, asking why Chiz moved the way he did, eschewing the comfort of having a national political machinery behind him, complete with all the appurtenances of a robust network of poll watchers, an array of political incumbents in Congress and at the LGUs, the muscle that from a traditional mindset all but guarantees a successful political run.

But does that ‘thought box’ really hold?

Methinks not.

Seasoned political analyst Jonathan Dela Cruz of Malaya writes:

While a lot of reports, commentators and analysts have taken to highlight the question of funding as the root cause of the Bicol solon’s departure there was something in the choice of words and the delivery of his bombshell which point to other, possibly more basic considerations. Not that funding or loyal and steady party support are inconsequential. Not at all. In fact, as the campaign comes to town, these two factors’ role will be magnified beyond recognition.

Not even the Obama campaign which was touted as the most unorthodox, out-of-the-box change and people politics campaign was spared from such basic requirements. Obama battled it out within the Democratic Party, enlisted millions to the institution and in the end outspent his closest primary rival, then Sen. Hillary Clinton, almost two-to-one and nailed down his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, by outspending him at every turn which ultimately made him the biggest election spender of all time. And these millions did not come only from the ordinary folks who contributed through his array of web based funding operations but from the high and mighty who control America’s lifelines, many of whom decided to walk away from their traditional roots in the Republican Party to Obama’s Democrats.

Jonathan Dela Cruz goes on to observe:

What shook the campaigns and, of course, Chiz’ most rabid supporters was his heavily laced rhetoric against what he called baggage in every presidential run and the almost condemnatory manner by which he denounced such baggage.
Never mind the suddenness of his decision. He was running on “change” alright. But why do so and burn your bridges as well?

These and a lot of other questions raced through people’s minds after the event at Club Filipino. What prompted Chiz to say goodbye to all? His chief political adviser, Lito Banayo, summarized in his last column in Malaya thus: “For change to be genuine and meaningful, the tired, old buzzwords and catch phrases ring empty. At a time when public despair and despondency threaten to break up the polity, new solutions and fresh ideas, this amorphously defined cry for Pagbabago (change) needed positing. And solutions offered had to go beyond motherhood statements..”
He continued: “The young Escudero saw how ‘people power’ so soon after its proud birth was compromised in the shoals of the return of traditional politics.

People power never brought power to the people. It was exploited by the powerful and wealthy few to bring them more power and more wealth. For the people to feel that to them belongs the power to a sovereign and democratic nation, then what must be practiced is ‘people politics,’ in present practice nothing else but power politics in the guise of party politics. In a time of continuing blight, with 65 percent of the population young but hopeless, reaching out for one’s North Star must be done without mental reservation or emotional qualm..”

The youthful solon has chosen to tread a new, unbeaten path by unburdening himself of all that Philippine politics — under normal, martial law and even people power times — has conditioned our people to take.

Contrary to the popular belief that he poured his frustration on NPC and its founder, SMC chairman Danding Cojuangco, Chiz actually took a dig at all those who are now busily arraying their ammunition and firepower in the most traditional and sly of ways in the run up to 2010. That includes the icon’s son, Sen. Noynoy Aquino, whom he referred to as haciendero and his partymates in the Liberal Party who have taken on the mantle of “change” only to hug and go after all the power brokers, the holier-than-thou crowd and the old liners in a bid to breeze their way into 2010 with the same old people power mantras. The baggage which Chiz referred to is not exclusive to his old party but endemic in all others who are now vying for the people’s votes.

But if I catch his drift and that of Banayo and the rest who showed up at Club Flipino, what they were more incensed about is “hypocritical politics.” The politics of double speak, of hiding behind legacies and empty rhetoric, using every chord string to play with people’s emotions only to retire to their old haunts and wine, dine and compromise the people’s interests yet again. People Power misused many times over. Which is why I suppose he used Bagong Pagbabago not just Pagbabago as his battle cry.
No to traditional politics and all the baggage it brings. No to business-as-usual and all the bondage that provides. And no to hypocritical politics and all the heartaches that it will surely bring. We will soon see how the youthful Senator Chiz’s challenge resonates with a public which has been, unfortunately, inured to such promises.

Another resonant perspective is that of
Jesse L. Bacon,writing in the Tribune last October 30:

Bacon asserted:

It’s not entirely true that a big political party can always make its bets win, prefacing his piece by citing the historical record:

When the late Speaker Ramon Mitra Jr. ran for the presidency in 1992, he had the backing of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino, the biggest and strongest political party at that time. It had the machinery and the funds needed to run a well-oiled campaign. It practically had a complete slate up to the last councilor in the remotest towns in the country either in the north, south, east or west.
The results of the election that year proved beyond reasonable doubt that Mitra’s party was the most well-organized, well-funded and well-managed for it produced the most number of municipal and city mayors, including their councilors, the most number of governors, including their provincial board members, the most number of congressmen and senators elected. Unfortunately, the party failed to have Mitra and his running mate, Marcelo Fernan, win in that election.
Lesson learned? It’s not entirely true that a big political party can always make its bets win.
In the same elections, business tycoon Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco, also threw his hat in the presidential race. He hastily set-up his own party, the Nationalist People’s Coalition, and single-handedly bankrolled his candidacy as well as that of his other candidates in various positions. Admittedly, his presidential run was one of the well-oiled among the six aspirants in the 1992 polls. But Cojuangco, despite his money and machine, also did not win.
Miriam Defensor Santiago, who was not yet even a senator at that time, also took a crack at the presidency in that election. She put up her own political party and tried but failed to have a complete slate for senators, congressmen, governors and mayors on account of the fact that she was running her campaign on a shoe-string budget. Miraculously, however, she fared well during the run-up to the 1992 presidential elections. She had a neck and neck battle during the canvassing against then President Aquino’s anointed candidate, Fidel Ramos.

Bacon most succinctly notes:

If Sen. Chiz Escudero had this historical facts in mind when he decided to sever his ties with the party he belonged to for 11 years, then he is on the right track. And if he had in mind the Obama experience of raising his own campaign funds from the most ordinary American so he will not to be totally beholden to party interests, he is on the right track even more.

This is the kind of mindset the country needs at this crucial point in our nation’s political history where wheeling and dealing by various interest groups with our elective officials have become the order of the day.

Escudero’s thoughts are very salvific or liberating. Go on and wage that battle for true and real change, Chiz.#

Let me loop off this scan on the MSM by noting the comments of foremost Noynoy Aquino supporter Conrad De Quiros.

His take today on what Sen. Escudero did:

…what he has done to stake his claim is pretty startling. He is either a high-stakes gambler or a man transformed. To go against patron, that’s been done before. But to go against patron without sheltering under another, that hasn’t. To go against one’s party, that’s been done before.

But to go against parties in general, that hasn’t.
Time will tell if Chiz will be true to his word, or has the fortitude for its consequences. But whether he does so or not, he’s done us the no small favor of drawing attention to a plague that’s been ravaging our shores far more bitterly than the recent typhoons. Even if he himself doesn’t greatly enlighten on the subject. (Emphasis mine.)

That is the tyranny of parties.
Is he right to say parties shackle, blindfold and gag?

That is a very tricky question. My answer to it is: Yes, in this country they do. But that is only because we have no real political parties, except the Communist Party and Kapatiran. Those are the only political organizations that compel loyalty from its members on the basis of principle. The rest compel loyalty only on the basis of a strong patron, normally the president.

That was so even before martial law, when there were only two parties, the Liberal and the Nacionalista. The ease with which people transferred parties testified to the lack of hold of the parties on their members beyond their ability to advance personal ambitions. Indeed, the ease with which Ramon Magsaysay and Ferdinand Marcos transferred from Liberal to Nacionalista in the last two minutes to become its standard-bearer testifies to those parties being little more than fitful alliances or temporary (in)conveniences.

Local parties act as fetters, shackles, or yokes because they are run by powerful central figures who are bigger than the parties and whose word is law. You are Gibo, Arroyo’s wishes will be your commands. You are Chiz, Danding’s wishes will be your commands. Villar and Erap of course are their own parties, or dictators. If People Power hadn’t arisen like Lazarus with Cory’s death, the LP would have been the same.
In other countries, you don’t join political parties unless you believe in its principles, be it social democracy, Christian democracy, liberalism, socialism, or Utopia. In other countries, you don’t leave political parties just because your standard-bearer lost the elections. In other countries, the party’s will is not dictation, it is consensus.

How to end the tyranny of parties in our own unique, specific, perverse circumstances? Chiz’s stated solution is to abandon them. There is another, and that is to start building real ones.

Neither is easy, which is a humongous understatement. But the latter, for all its epic strenuousness, seems to me the more inevitable, or inescapable, one. It’s not just that abandoning parties seems suicidal, though there’s that too. It’s also that it can subvert the very thing it means to achieve. Look at the way Chiz phrases it: “I just want to run as me, as Chiz Escudero.” That is not without its virtues. But that is not without its vices too, chief of them reinforcing personality politics, which is the essence of the tyranny.

Building real parties, the kind whose members share beliefs, principles and convictions and hold on to them for dear (political) life isn’t easy. But in these days of miracle and wonder, where one candidate at least is managing to run a genuine people’s campaign, one that is not shackled, blindfolded and gagged, one that is not dependent on, well, dictation, you never know.

http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20091101-233492/The-candidate-formerly-known-as-Dandings

From the mainstream pundits I go to my mailbox:

A reader of At Midfield writes:

This will be a daunting job considering that majority of our voters are still bound by loyalty to a person, to a political party and to the root of all evil, money. However, I am convinced that the good senator has all the good intentions to do what is best for our beloved country and wishing him well.

Another view:

Alam namin dito na nagsimula na ang mga demolition job laban kay Chiz. Sana huwag
magbago ang kaniyang paninindigang tunay na inspirasyon ng mga kabataan.

Most insightful is this feedback:

Perhaps Chiz believes that it is party politics, which has really gotten in the way of good governance. He perhaps chafed at the “powers brokers…  inside the NPC and has recognized their desire for power (not necessarily self-preservation) runs contraire to what is currently needed by the country.

Almost everyone has seen that these political parties (LAKAS, NPC, etc.) have miserably failed the citizenry during the past two decades. We no longer have any statesmen, but politicians at every level of government (yes, including the barangay level).

We’ve witnessed how various members of different parties ally with GMA’s Lakas-KAMPI-CMD to trounce the justifiable impeachment of the current Ombudsman without consultation or consideration for the minority party’s views.

We have seen this play out in the House as they discard their own party’s mission statements, and proceeded to shove GMA’s agenda down the minority’s throat without any thought of what’s best for the country.

The message I is that Chiz Escudero is igniting new hope among our countrymen.

Across the spectrum, thinking Filipinos are saying that there is, indeed, a need for new change: Bagong Pagbabago.

I agree.

And 2010 could be the occasion.

Fast and furious.

This was how typhoon Santi crossed Metro Manila and the southern section of Luzon Saturday, allowing most of us to quietly commune with our departed relatives, with considerably lesser damage to life and property than storms Ondoy and Pepeng.

As disaster response officials put the initial death toll at 14 dead and four missing (plus 116,00 forced to flee their homes in Quezon, Laguna, Cavite and Batangas) we can surely thank God for tempering’s Santi’s rage.

Here’s a montage of stills from by CNN  video showing how furious Santi’s winds were:

The images indeed tell the story of how Santi carried out a quick and dirty visit… toppling power poles like match sticks and blowing down homes made of light material.

About 1.6 million or 35 percent of the 4.6 million registered customers of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) remained without power as of 10 a.m. Saturday.

The tenet “better safe than sorry” surely ruled in Metro Manila as authorities suspended the operations of the mass tgransit for several hours and giant tarpaulin billboards were rolled down rather than risk being torn down by the winds of Santi.

Have we learned the lessons from Ondoy and Pepeng?
Maybe.

But we shouldn’t go back to our uncaring ways just yet.

Lot more homework we need to catch up on.

Thank you. Lord.

Philippine Star photos)

It may likely be chalked up as pre-Halloween stunt by mischief makers, the pre-dawn explosion that rocked the environs of Quezon’s City Katipunan Avenue/Ateneo where the improvised explosive device wrecked a Honda Civic.

But wait.

Was the target just the innocently parked or was it the privately-owned One Burgundy Plaza condominium?

That condo was in the news just last July, one of three places where curious explosions also took place just as rumors where swirling in Metro Manila about an anti-government “destabilization” plot linked to restive elements in the uniformed services.

Last night before this writer went to bed little past 8 p.m. a curious message which I ignored had come about a new ‘activity you should watch’.

Hours later this:

The first explosion occurred at One Burgundy Plaza, a residential condomium along Katipunan Avenue and across Ateneo de Manila University, at around 2 a.m.
Radio dzMM reported that the explosion came from a bag left behind a parked red Honda Civic with plate number WFY 927, owned by Allan Valencia, 22.
Aimer Gaduran, a security guard working at the said building, said he saw the bag behind the car. When he checked it, smoke suddenly came out of the bag. He immediately ran away. Moments later the bag exploded.
Valencia’s car was damaged in the incident, and the explosion was strong enough to knock out glass windows from the 3rd floor of the building, dzMM reported. Other vehicles in the area, however, were undamaged.
The explosion was strong enough to be heard at least 2 blocks away from the building, the report said.
Around the same time of the incident in Quezon City on Friday dawn, a second explosion occurred at Unionbank Plaza along Meralco Avenue in Ortigas Center, radio dzMM reported.
Initial findings by operatives from the Eastern Police District (EPD) said that the explosion at the Unionbank Plaza was caused by a pillbox, causing minor damage to the building’s plant boxes.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/metro-manila/10/29/09/bomb-explodes-qc-building

The address shot out of the page along with the recollection that One Burgundy Plaza is where the family of Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo once occupied a penthouse suite.

Last June, the same condominium had a bomb scare. A “suspicious package” was found by the security guard near an electric post adjacent to One Burgundy Plaza.

I blogged about that here:

http://atmidfield.com/2009/07/01/testing-public-sanity-raising-martial-law-fears/

So was today’s pre-dawn bombing a Halloween act of cruel mischief-doers or was it something else?

I’m putting my ears close to the ground and making some calls.

1st Update:

Police are now saying the two blasts were just the handiwork of warring youth gangs:

Metro police chief Director Roberto Rosales said the two explosions “were meant only to sow fear among rival fraternities and gangs.” He also assured the public that the blasts “were not in any way related to any destabilization attempt against the Arroyo” administration.
He noted that nobody was hurt in the twin explosions, though a silver Honda Civic (WFY-927) was damaged in the Quezon City blast.
Reports reaching Rosales stated that the explosion near the Burgundy Plaza building along Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City was a result of a fraternity war while the blast in front of the Union Bank Plaza building along Meralco Avenue in Ortigas Center was part of a gang war.
Rosales urged the public not to panic as the National Capital Region Police Office is on top of the peace and order in Metro Manila despite the fact that the NCRPO is in the thick of security preparations for typhoon “Santi” and the observance of All Saints’ Day on Sunday.

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=519008&publicationSubCategoryId=65

I hope the police findings  hold.