Bombing in Sultan Kudarat. Tornado in Bacolod. Overseas voter turnout remains low, and the exercise might end up scrapped in the future.
As teachers prepare to do their duty, the Comelec claims it will release election results in record time, The military and police continue to be the focal point of press interest. AFP announces mission accomplished in Metro Manila’s slums: whether they were really just building toilets or were campaigning, is of course, up for debate. Talk of a conspiracy theory aside (and the usual denials that Ellen Tordesillas says are ineffective), Ricky Carandang reminds us that what could have been an institution and trust-building effort, to keep the military out of the elections, has basically been trashed. And that the military may be trying to exercise its own command vote:
An officer from the 2nd Infantry Brigade based in Southern Luzon said that on May 1st, the Commanding General of the Philippine Army met with leaders of the 2nd IB and ordered the officers to compel their men to vote straight for Team Unity adminstration senatorial candidates. The officer says he was present the next day when his commanding officer gathered them and gave the order. After the soldiers voted, the ballots were surrendered to the officer and checked for compliance. The officer I spoke to says the group complied with the order and voted straight for Team Unity and the Bantay partylist of retired general Jovito Palparan.
…For Team Unity candidates, the Command Vote makes sense. There are about 200,000 men and women enlisted in the AFP and theoretically, an order for all of them to vote Team Unity could spell the decisive difference for adminstration candidates within striking distance of the Magic 12. But its not a perfect solution. The 2006 Cruz memo prohibits the use of the military for partisan purposes… But whoever was behind the order apparently believes these are minor considerations. Cruz is long gone and remains in vacation mode, Abalos can be counted on to look the other way, and the soldiers can grumble all they want, but at the end of the day they’ll suck it in and go back to work.
An anonymous police officer suggests wiretapping equipment and technicians may be out of control;
Poring over party-list nominees is proving interesting, too:
Marilou Arroyo, sister of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo. Ang Kasangga is campaigning for her in Iloilo.
Folks, note that the scuttlebutt first broached here in July 2006 has proven accurate.
And Iglesia ni Cristo makes its endorsements.
In the punditocracy, my Arab News column for this week is Your Leader is Like You.
Manuel Buencamino has some choice words concerning Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales’ implied support for the administration. H. Marcos C. Mordeno is astonished that the opposition’s managed to retain public support. His views seem to similar to those in Inquirer Current, where John Nery says the candidates have helped reduce the potency of the midterms-as-referendum issue. Butch Dalisay seems to have a similar take on things. See, too, the views of Glenda Gloria and Julkipli Wadi.
Steven Rood has his own take, from a non-citizen’s point of view, posted in the Asia Foundation blog, on the elections (his is moderately hopeful).
Patricio Diaz says we have learned the importance of coalition politics in winning elections, but not in governing. He says we have to return to the two-party system.
In the blogosphere, A Nagueno in the Blogosphere gives an eyewitness account of last night’s Naga City rally in support of Jesse Robredo. He says candidate Sabas Mabulo pretty much confirmed the news I got regarding soldiers being sent in support of Dato Arroyo’s candidacy.
Yugatech says he doesn’t think he’s cut out for a reporter’s hectic lifestyle.
Mock election, fora, and survey fever: Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan on voters’ preferences, and University of Santo Tomas’ survey: see The Varsitarian report; Ateneo de Manila and UP jointly sponsor a forum: see The Guidon’s report; also in online fora, see kuro.ph and USTexters, and campaigning threads in philippinepolitics.net.
Bloggers of course are revealing, and discussing, their senatorial and other wish lists: Filipino Librarian wishes he could vote for Danton Remoto. Memories of Water, hit the jackpot, atomicgirl (who isn’t even a registered voter, but is flexing her citizenship muscles, I think such exercises are great), discuss deciding on which senatorial candidates to vote for.
A surprising amount of commentary concerning GMA7’s Isang Tanong senatorial shindig. My question to Victor Wood regarding charter change resulted in some interesting entries. katataspulong thinks Victor Wood embarrassed media; other views from T.I.N.A.ntholgies, from Mister Vader, Inexplicable, summer sa buhay ni je, more on the black rainbow of sorrow
Though the most thorough response to the program, I think, came from My Journey: My Life.
RG Cruz reproduces the transcript of an interview he conducted with Luli Arroyo, who seems to be poised to take on a more public role in the wake of her father’s illness. And here’s a snazzy use of our taxes: Presidential Close-in Photographer’s Office.
Technorati Tags: Blogging, elections, media, military, philippines, politics, president, Senate
bencard,
an honest question: what’s exactly wrong with being a leftie? or left of center? does everyone need to be on the right–which doesn’t necessarily mean it is to be on the side of the right? the dichotomy is as natural as the pair of hands or lobes in your brain.
is being leftist = communist? how myopic.
As I see it with “myopic” eyes,the Leftists/Communists are the most diabolical practitioners of the politics of hate, preying on the idealistic but largely gullible youth of our land to rise up against their lawful government. These ideologues thrive on poverty and misery to sustain their ideology, promoting lawlessness and chaos until general despair and hopelessness are achieved. By then, the country is ripe for their picking and the masses are primed for further exploitation.
At Edsa 1, they did not march to restore democracy or to get rid of Marcos, much less to make Cory president. These consequences were mere incidentals. They were there to sieze power out of the resulting chaos. Cory had to maintain a modus vivende with them to survive. The disastrous result? Just look at the Constitution with all its counterproductive provisions, and the present chaotic political system we now have. Why did you think there was a long series of coup d’etat attempts against Cory from the Right?
They were not there at Edsa 2 to oust Erap, in particular. They would have ousted any sitting president, reason or no reason. Much less were they there to promote GMA to the presidency, even though they knew that that would be the constitutional consequence of kicking out Erap. They thought, much to their chagrin, that GMA would be a push-over just like Cory and would give them a free reign in her presidency. The result? A never ending hate campaign, with no one in her family being spared, and destabilization, celebrating GMA’s failures and mourning her successes.
That, I think, is what is wrong with the Leftist/Communist.
inodoro ni emilie:
I think what is wrong with being a “leftie” is that the name has itself earned such a bad reputation. Admit it or not, “left” or “leftist” has become synonymous to communists, water cannons, rallies, activists, labor movements, women’s movements, joma sison, etc… The association to any of these scares the people.
I have a suggestion. Why not change the name to something that would make it more appealing to common tao, and rid of the unnecessary association? Why not call it, hmm… “SOUTHPAW?!” And the rightist, “ORTHODOX?!” (courtesy of Pac-mania hehehe).
I think that could spell a world of difference. 🙂
P.S. As a common tao, average, fresh graduate, I am not really exposed to the ideologist represented by these apparently opposing and, perhaps, incompatible groups. But honestly, somehow, reading comments from this blog since 4-5 days ago has been quite a learning experience. Well, this is saying… THANKS.
Bencard, talaga namang napunas na ng husto ang paraan ng mga arroyo sa iyo. Yung discripsyon mo sa sarili mo binabato mo sa iba.
Mita, mabuti na lang, you are there to corek my espeling. Better stik to espeling na lang. Baka diyan ang porte mo.
Bencard, nga pala, Ikaw ang pathetic.
Bencard, from what i remember, Anna de Brux did not respond to you in general because she felt you were not worth her time. I am more familiar with her ideology because, in a reaction to a comment i made in this blog, she once told me about the good that Margaret Thatcher did in the UK.
Anway, as to your rewriting of history, I was here during the Cory years and the ‘left’ vs ‘right’ in Cory’s government at that time was largely between Joker Arroyo/Teddy Boy Locsin, who represented the ‘left’ and Jaime Ongpin/Jobo Fernandez who represented the ‘right’. By that time, the national democrats have already been marginalized because of their boycott of the 1986 elections. Of course, there is no convincing you, because by your logic, even the coups launched by the rightists in the military were the fault of the left.
cvj, not worth her time? how did you know that? Now you are claiming to be a mind reader. are you married to her or something?
Bencard, to refresh your memory, after you said this…
Anna said this…
Oh my goodness me, this is unreal – I can’t believe the what I’m reading here by Gloria’s die hard supporters. Utterly delusional!
I admire the folks here who have the patience, the stamina to listen to or read such downright rubbish!
Mlq3, I’m outa here. – Anna de Brux October 7th, 2006 at 4:14 am
…and your replied with this…
So don’t be surprised that she does not respond to your comments.
cvj, but she came back after that, again and again to dish out some more of the same crap, didn’t she? I’m sure you don’t want me to quote her later posts like you did with her earlier ones.
Bencard, it’s always good to be reminded of Anna’s posts so go ahead and quote her. You can start with the one that talks about ‘horses wearing blinders’.
cvj: Who were the national democrats? Were the national democrats (nice catchy name) a UP Diliman student-activist group, or were they from the Catholic colleges?
UPn Student, circa 80’s, the ‘national democrats’ (natdems) was (is)used, among other things, to distinguish between the ‘social democrats'(socdems) and the ‘liberal democrats'(libdems). The Natdems are those who belong to Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) who advocated boycotting the elections in 1986. Crispin Beltran of KMU, JV Bautista of SANLAKAS, Satur Ocampo of Bayan-Muna and Etta Rosales (now of Akbayan) are representative of this group. Some of them are UP Students (just like you), but i think there are also those who come from Catholic schools.
cvj: thanks!
cvj, naaah. it’s not worth my time. besides, i thought she was talking about herself and you.
Question : How do you handle destructive criticism?
Answer : Make the critic ptove his point.
..
From: “How to Run A Successful Meeting In Half The Time”, Milo Frank