Category: elections

Llamas exaggerates

This is what he said on Richard Heydarian‘s vlog a week ago, a day or so before the People’s Impeachment Movement (PIM) announced the signature drive.

Ronald Llamas. Nabalitaan ko lang na may mga grupo ng mga religious na balak mag-launch ng people’s impeachment movement. … Kung babagal-bagal ang senado, kung ayaw ng senado na mag-convene, kami ang magco-convene, a people’s impeachment, at itong mga articles of impeachment, mga complaints, paguusapan pa namin, kami na mismo, at baka magpapirma kami ng several million signatures. Dahil sabi ng senate president walang clamor … gagawa ng clamor ang mga religious … balita ko next week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY3Av300cnE&t=1830s 

Na-excite naman ako, LOL. I guess because it reminded of Chino Roces’s signature campaign in November ’85 to convince Cory to run for  president should Marcos call snap elections, and Chino and his peeps gathered 1.2M in less than a month — martial law pa noon! — and the rest is history.  I thought that PIM’s launch would signal the immediate start of signature-gathering in church patios and malls and street corners and online websites, as in forthwith, right away.

Alas. The “launch” on the eve of Ash Wednesday was simply an announcement of intent, and their self-imposed deadline for just one (not several) million signatures is June 8, Pentecost Sunday. June 8!!! By then, according to SP Chiz’s proposed calendar, the Senate would have convened as an impeachment court anyway, so what difference would a million sigs make?

Bakit walang urgency, kung “forthwith” ang ipinaglalaban? Anyare?

People were asking na, where do we go to sign? can we offer, volunteer, our spaces to help gather signatures? kailangan kaya may official I.D.s ang mga pipirma? at kung ano-ano pa. Sayang. It was a great idea.

I had imagined that even just a million signatures could be gathered by a well-organized team by the end of March, and the appeal could be for the Senate to convene as an impeachment court early in April, and then to suspend around the 25th, thus giving re-electionists the final two weeks before the May 12 elections to make their final pitches on the ground, and then to resume in June…

And then again, former Senate Prez Frank Drilon said yesterday on ANC’s Hot Copy with Karen Davila that he thinks the religious orgs are “barking at (sic) the wrong tree”. That the appeal should be addressed to PBBM, not SP Chiz.

Drilon. Senate President Escudero cannot start the trial UNLESS the president calls congress to a special session because (it is) the convening of a special session (that) will make the convening of the impeachment trial court compulsory. … But it cannot start today because there is no session. And therefore the remedy is for the president to call a special session. … He can say: I am calling a special session so the Senate can address its constitutional duty to convene an impeachment court. The discretion of the president to call a special session is ABSOLUTE.

Ang problema, while the president has said he is willing to call a special session, he will do so only if or when the Senate requests it, and the senators (except for Koko Pimentel and Risa Hontiveros) are adamant, as in, no way, busy sila sa kampanya. “Too much to ask” of Senators, say pa ni Cynthia Villar. I imagine that the president is on the same page — he dreams of a 12-0 win  — and will not be moved by a million, even several million, signatures?

So far, no update from Llamas on the signature drive — no response to Drilon’s advice — not even just to correct himself. Maybe the attitude is, matatabunan naman agad, no one’s keeping track, so he feels free to exaggerate, lalo na kung sa vlog lang naman. Ayos.

Korek si Bam… Ayos si Chiz…

It doesn’t surprise that Bam Aquino is being hit by both anti-DDS and anti-BBM peeps for saying he’s an Independent rather than Opposition, and that he doesn’t think the VP’s impeachment is an election issue. But I must say he makes a lot of sense.

BAM AQUINO. Galing akong Zamboanga, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac. Hindi siya issue nung mga kababayan natin. Ang issue ng mga kababayan natin yung pagkain, yung kakulangan ng tulong sa edukasyon, yung pagkalimitado ng mga trabaho, yung puwedeng makakuha ng ayuda na hindi binibigay nang patas….  Pag umiikot kami, yan yung binabanggit ng mga tao.

So palagay ko yang impeachment, mahalaga siya sa mga partido, mahalaga siya sa mga pulitiko.  Pero pagdating sa taongbayan, ang hinahanap pa rin nila, yung mga taong magtratrabaho para sa kanila, [on] issues na mahalaga sa kanilang pamilya at mahalaga sa kanilang pang araw-araw na buhay.

Pag umabot na tayo sa senate, we will be a judge, at siguro yung nararapat na gawin ay maging fair. Tingnan yung ebidensiya. Huwag kumiling sa kahit anong partido. At siguro nga maganda na may mga independent sa senado, ‘no? Kasi ang nangyayari, kapag may partido ka na, parang nag-judge ka na e, di ba. Pero yung independent, kaya talaga tingnan yung ebidensiya, kaya tingnan kung anong ipe-present ng prosecution at saka ng defense, at gagawa ng desisyon base lang sa ebidensiya, hindi base lang sa politika, o base lang sa kaibigan.

At aprub rin si James Matthew Miraflor, strategic information consultant at The Task Force for Global Health Inc. who sees it as a “smarting up”.

MIRAFLOR. Bam-Kiko as independent rather than opposition. Quimbos doing the Q thing. These liberal politicians (not necessarily from the Liberal Party) are only doing what it needs to survive in an electoral system that operates under patronage principles. It cannot be helped. They need resources from above to sustain their coalitions and machinery; else they lose to someone doing the exact same thing. Hence, they have to make sure that the incumbent coalition is not hostile to them while still keeping their base.

For me, it is a fresh sight to see these liberal politicians finally smarting up and doing what needs to be done to contest political power. This is unlike in the last decade when they were weighed down by a false sense of righteousness; as if they were no longer mere politicians but “statesmen” of some sort, unsullied by the grease of the machine.

Yes, smart to draw a line without being pa-righteous. Smart to eschew talk of impeachment when one might end up one of 24 judges. There are honestly creative ways for a third force to navigate a highly polarized political arena.

Gets ko naman where Sonny Trillanes is coming from, but no one is belittling the issue of impeachment. In fact, we all (except for some DDS) wish the Senate would hurry up — let the chips fall where they may — and it’s a relief to hear from Senate Prez Chiz Escudero, who’s not sleeping on the job naman pala: pre-trial concerns and requirements are being attended to with due diligence (the better to forestall future complaints), the Senate will convene as impeachment court once the 12 new senators have taken their oaths.

At least that’s what I gathered from his presscon this morning. Smart of him to speak and explain directly to the people via media, rather than engage in endless debates with legal luminaries who say the trial should start now na even if the Senate is on recess. Anyway, na sa Supreme Court na pati.

Although say rin ni Chiz, it will be the Solicitor General’s office that will respond to the Supremes’ request for comment to petitions, whether to compel the Senate to move ASAP or to direct the Senate to cease and desist.

Not that the Senate, if truly independent, can be compelled to do anything against its wishes. Especially not by a Supreme Court whose CJ and 12 Associate Justices are Duterte-appointed.  https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/incumbent-justices/

 

 

Kampanya 2025 kicks off

I find that I don’t have the patience to sit through senatoriables’ rallies and debates just because I’ve heard all these promises before, all unfulfillable except in nominal dabs and spurts as long as the System holds sway, a problem media does not care to address.

But I did check out PBBM‘s speech at his party’s campaign kick-off after being told na super-palabán, panay ang patamà sa mga Duterte re tokhang, Pharmally, atbp., and I can’t wait to hear from the Dutertes, who we know can give as good as they get. Surely they have as much on the Marcoses as the Marcoses have on them. Pa-anghang-an na lang ng banat. Let the voters decide.

Which reminds me of a Facebook post going around, tumawid na sa Viber, at pinadala sa akin ng kapatid via text. Bilib na bilib ang nag-post sa Marcos-Romualdez “lightning-fast, coordinated takedown” of Sara Duterte “that leaves no room for counterattacks.” Tipong political blitzkrieg daw at its finest. As though the battle were already won, the VP is done for. Tanong ng kapatid ko, totoo ba? Is it over for Sara?

Premature the hallelujah, methinks. Nothing is settled. Magaling din ang kampong Duterte, huwag maliitin o balewalain. Ang dami pang puwedeng mangyari. The Digongs aren’t going down without a fight, in and out of the impeachment court, whenever.

Kamakalawa lang, sinamapahan ng kasong graft ni dating Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez et al. si Speaker Martin Romualdez atbp. over alleged insertions in the 2025 budget. And VP Sara’s unequivocal denial that she threatened to assassinate BBM, the First Lady, and the Speaker tells me that her lawyers might stick to the “conditional” argument, as in, maybe share with the public what condition/s led her to give the kill order — when was that exactly? — that she told us about, that she now denies. What exactly was going on then behind the scenes?

Meanwhile, that Bam Aquino (#5) and Kiko Pangilinan (#51) are Independent and not Opposition makes sense. Opposition would mean vs. the incumbent only. Independent means vs. both Marcos & Duterte camps. Good of former VP Leni to endorse the two. Kailangan natin ng kakampi, other than Senator Risa, sa senado.

On the ground, we could start sounding out the voters around us — we all have our networks, small and large, private and public, whichever side they’re on — and we could start pushing for Bam and Kiko: bawasan ang mga artista, at tama na ang isang Tulfo isang Cayetano isang Villar! Kung may puwang pa, itulak rin natin sina | kina Ka Leody de Guzman (#21), Luke Espiritu (#25), at Heidi Mendoza (#45). Pakisingit, paki-insert. Baka sakaling makalusot. #LetsMakeSingit

#BagongPilipinasWalangPOGO

Caught some of Karen Davila‘s Hot Talk chat with Senate Majority Leader Francis Tolentino, the part about POGOs. Parang he tried to make it just about Alice Guo and her birth documents etc.  but Davila very deftly and deliberately got it back on track. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGAP4GoeX8w

KD. Alice Guo is no longer my issue. My issue really, the real issue, is POGO. It is illegal in China and yet it is legal in the Philippines. Why?

FT.  … There was a previous congressional imprimatur to authorize PAGCOR [to issue licenses] as part of a revenue- generation scheme for the government during the pandemic. … Regulation as total ban in consideration of social moral ills would have to be weighed.…

KD. Do you support a POGO ban, or are you for legalizing, regulating.…

FT. For a ban there has got to be a transition if we consider the thousands of locals that would be affected. I’m not talking of illegal Chinese but those [locals] displaced during the pandemic who were able to acquire work, college graduates from southern Tagalog and other areas… There has got to be a transition period… In the interim where do we place them, moving forward, how do we absorb them in the labor market. … I think the current idea of some of my colleagues is that it has to be phased in, perhaps two years, three years, before a total ban…. [wow such concern for some Pinoys, totoo ba?]

KD. How many Filipinos are really employed by legal POGOs?

FT.  … They run in the thousands…  BUT whether we’re talking of 10 thousand, 12 thousand, or even of 10 Filipinos, hindi naman tayo papayag na may sampung Pilipino na in these times hindi sa kanilang kagustuhan ay mawalan ng  hanapbuhay. May mga pamllya din po yun, kahit po yun lilima, lalo na ang mga kababayan ko sa Southern Tagalog, mga kababayan ko sa Cavite…. [yeah right]

KD.  …  BUT even if POGO is legalized, along with POGO comes human trafficking, prostitution. so we talk about giving Filipinos jobs, but that’s the return. So my question is, IS IT REALLY WORTH IT? There are many Asian countries that have already banned POGO, but not the Philipppines…

FT.  Ang ayaw ko lang ay mawalan ng trabaho ang ating mga kababayan…

Naku, G. Senador, di na bumebenta, lumang tugtugin na, yang ganyang justification: may mga Pinoy na mawawalan ng trabaho. Iyan na rin ang daing ng mga taga-Zambales at Pampanga nung isasara na ang US bases. But the good Senators of the 8th Congress agreed that the welfare of the whole, the common good, is more important than the welfare of the few.

Besides, the US bases and POGOs were bad ideas to begin with.

Tama si Karen. POGOs are not worth the taxes they generate for government, kahit magkano pa yan, dahil grabeng kriminalidad at korupsyon ang kaakibat.

Nakakagulat nga na walang urgency to ban POGOs outright, given well-founded fears of Chinese sleepers, spies, moles, and pasaways likely infiltrating and influencing our communities, politics, economics, the bureaucracy, government.

Finance Sec Ralph Recto aka VATman has said he has no objection to a ban but, like Tolentino, he doesn’t think it should be rushed.

Asked whether he would bring up the issue with the Marcos administration’s economic team, Recto said he planned to advise the group “at the appropriate time” within the year.

“Today, a lot of Pogos are not really Pogos. They are doing something else but we generalize and call on all the Pogos, so that must be studied carefully. I have to consult also with the Pagcor (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.) as to how much they are earning there,” he said. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1949500/recto-on-calls-to-ban-pogos-no-objection

Kapani-paniwala tuloy ang hinala ni Ronald Llamas, aktibistang RJ na dating political adviser ni PNoy, kung bakit patuloy ang suporta ng mga pulitiko sa POGO. Check out Politiskoop https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=7113295538776740

BAKÂ pinondohan ng POGO … POGO politics, POGO economics. Kaya tikom ang mga bibig. … Paratíng ang eleksyon. Sigurado ako, 100 percent, papasok ang POGO money.

Makes sense. Pinondohan malamang ng POGO noong 2022 elections. Popondahan muli sa 2025 at 2028?

In fairness to Congress, there are ban-POGO bills at committee level in both Houses.

February 2024 — The House Committee on Games and Amusement, chaired by Rep. Antonio Ferrer (Cavite, 6th District), on Monday approved House Bill (HB) 5082 and House Resolution (HR) 1197, measures that seek to ban Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) and declaring their operations illegal. https://www.congress.gov.ph/photojournal/zoom.php?photoid=5596&key=5082

September 2023 — The Senate committee on ways and means has recommended permanently banning Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (Pogos) in the country. Senator Win Gatchalian, chairman of the committee, said the recommendation was contained in Committee Report No. 136 filed at the Senate on Tuesday.

Ten senators signed the report.

Win Gatchalian
Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa
JV Ejercito
Pia Cayetano
Grace Poe
Raffy Tulfo
Risa Hontiveros
Loren Legarda
Joel Villanueva
Koko Pimentel
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1834185/senate-panel-recommends-ban-of-pogos-in-ph

Sana the 10 have not changed their minds.
And sana these 14 change theirs.

Chiz Escudero
Jinggoy Estrada
Francis Tolentino
Sonny Angara
Nancy Binay
Alan Peter Cayetano
Bong Bo
Lito Lapid
Imee Marcos
Robin Padilla
Bong Revilla
Cynthia Villar
Mark Villar
Migz Zubiri

BBM could take the initiative, announce it as urgent on SONA day, and spin it all he wants. I bet it’ll do wonders for his approval ratings.

Then again baka tabla lang, given the hymn & pledge order, but that’s another story.
#BagongPilipinasWalangPOGO