Category: elections

binay vs. binay-campos (the abby road)

listened to abby binay-campos on karen davila’s headstart.  my smpathies go to jojo binay.

this is what dynasty has come to.  abby says she worked so hard to do all the things she has accomplished for the city of makati, so it’s unfair that she’s being asked not to run for re-election, as in, paano na ang projects niya, something about a subway and free wifi, e baka di na matuloy, sayang naman.

crazy, right?  para namang hindi niya kapatid ang ibig makabalik sa puwesto.  bakit hindi itutuloy ni junjun ang mga project na nasimulan na kung para sa ikauunlad at ikaliligaya ng makati?  iyan na nga mismo ang rationale, ang advantage, ng dynasty rule, di ba, yung built-in continuity ng leadership ng isang angkang nagkakaisa, with the good of their constituents in mind.  but wait.  heto naman si junjun, saying the same thing, gusto daw niya tapusin yung mga nasimulan niya na apparently ay hindi itinuloy ni abby.  eh iyon naman pala.

life was simpler back when dad jejomar aka jojo, the original mayor binay, went national and became veep: the lines were clearly drawn, it seemed to me.  jojo left the mayor’s seat to junjun, abby went to congress, and nancy made it to the senate.  hati-hating kapatid, kumbaga.  ang kaso, into his second term, sometime 2015, nakasuhan si junjun sa ombudsman at na-suspend; saglit nakaupong mayor si oppositionist vice mayor kid pena.  noong 2016 elections, di pa puwede si junjun, dinidinig pa ang kaso, so si abby ang tumakbo in his place.  kaysa mapunta sa iba, di ba.  syempre, as with any dynasty, keep.it.in.the.family ang mantra.

perfect timing naman dahil kaga-graduate ni abby sa congress (one of two makati seats), three terms na, so ang asawang si luis campos ang tumakbo in her place, na nanalo siyempre.  kumbaga, bonus na kay abby yung biglang run-for-mayor-and-win.  ang problema ngayon, she’s enjoying herself much too much (and we can guess why) and simply doesn’t want to give it up / back to junjun now that junjun wants city hall back.  she practically tells junjun to clear his name first (or something like that) before going back to public service.  in a statement, meron pang:

… when she took over as mayor two years ago, Makati was “in a state of neglect and disorder… worse, dirty politics and shameless political patronage had taken their toll on basic social services.”

teka.  the year before she took over was the year when acting mayor kid pena couldn’t get anything done because binay supporters in and out of city hall were forever blocking him on every front imaginable.  dirty politics din iyon at dirty politics pa rin ang namamayani sa makati (like everywhere else), or at least that’s the maugong na chismis.

and now here’s junjun on headstart.  hindi pala siya bilib sa subway project ni abby, cute and fancy, but is it viable?  AND he reinforced some chismis i’ve been getting from three different grapevines about abby’s hubby who’s running for re-election sa congress, nag-e-enjoy din, I suppose, and abby doesn’t have the heart to ask for her seat back, pero si junjun kayang-kaya niya?

OR the chismis goes, okay lang kay campos na bumalik sa congress si abby but he wants to run for mayor in abby’s place?  junjun does not say it in so many words but he certainly says a mouthful.

…my father doesn’t like him, may mga issues with him, may nga nagsasabi sa father ko na may sinasabi na hindi maganda tungkol sa family. … I’m sure he has his own ambitions. Isa yan sa naging isyu dun sa ground. Naging isyu yan… my brother in law. Meron siyang iba ring agenda eh.   Which is, hindi namin gusto ang agenda niya, it wont be good for the city.

and yet jojo in his wisom has refused to rule, or even just remind, that city hall is junjun’s, congress is abby’s – the husband is abby’s problem.  i’m still trying to figure out why.

sabi naman ni rene saguisag who was with jojo sa comelec.

The other day Mayor Abby Binay filed her CONA. The day before, JunJun, her brother, did. Normally, one may say that the Binays and the Estradas enjoy the paradise of pedigree, but not this time. How I wish they could find a way to reconcile, but a Prez Duterte, Mayor Duterte and Vice Mayor Duterte?  https://www.manilatimes.net/cream-rises-and-values-dip/453983/

hard to sympathize with either binay or binay-campos.  much easier to sympathize with the poor people of makati, and of davao, and poor people everywhere in this benighted land, who aren’t really being given a choice any longer, kept largely without options, caught in the cruel trap set by dynasties who mean to rule forever.

tony lopez rightly asks, what has been the impact of dynastic rule?

Is it a coincidence that the Philippines has one of the worst income equality ratios in the world, that it is the only major country that failed to solve its poverty after the entire world solved its poverty in 2015, that in ASEAN, it has the highest poverty incidence, the highest unemployment rate, the highest inflation rate, the highest interest rates, and the lowest level of foreign investments?

no coincidence.  more like cause and effect.  political dynasties enrich the dynasty at the expense of the masses.  at the expense of democracy.  which makes ours a poor and fake democracy.

Plebiscite for the blind

Manuel L. Quezon III

… Young or old, all are generally ignorant when it comes to constitutionally-related matters. Older people still expect to debate the topic, but venues for doing so are very fragmented as to eliminate the possibility of consensus. Younger people do not take it as given that such subjects ought to be debated. And young or old, in a nonpresidential election year, more are inclined to stay home on election day.

There is an old Spanish saying that describes our current situation best. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

andy’s endgame

wednesday morning he said he was resigning as comelec chief, effective end of the year.  medyo nagulat ako, sabay mabuti naman, he should have done it (as advised) two months ago, faced tish’s charges squarely, or better yet, settled with her, never mind defending the “integrity” of the 2016 elections.

wednesday afternoon he was impeached by congress anyway.  the plenary overturned the justice committee’s dismissal (insufficient form) of the complaint against him; many more reps signed it instead, along with the original 3, finding the charges serious and deserving of a senate trial.

nagulat uli ako, sabay salamat naman, let it be on record that he was impeached, never mind that he had promised to resign.  because that’s all it is, a promise to step down come dec 31.  but what if he doesn’t, say ni rep gwen garcia, what if he waffles and changes his mind about resigning?  indeed.  despite his sweeping denials of any wrongdoing, the comelec chief has lost some / a lot of, if not all, credibility.

Bautista said that he wanted to give the President time to choose a new Comelec chairman and effect a smooth transition.

At the same time, Bautista said that he has still a commitment to fulfill as chairperson of the Association of Asean Electoral Authorities in a scheduled meeting with his counterparts to be held in Cebu in December.

umm.  seeing as he is resigning under a cloud of shocking allegations, among them serious questions re the conduct of the 2016 elections, and seeing as he has been impeached by congress to boot, why would he still deserve to chair, and host, that ASEAN electoral authorities affair?

“Kung makahanap sila o kung gusto nila mas agahan yung aking pagbibitiw, walang problema basta lang maayos ang transition,” he said.

clearly andy would rather not step down until duterte has appointed a new comelec chief.  i suspect that there’s stuff he needs to formally turn over, such as contracts maybe that he has signed, maybe with the likes of smartmatic?  sabay dasal, or demand? that these be honored by the new chief?  or else, what?  this may have been the topic of conversation when andy met with executive sec medialdea oct 10.

interesting endgame.  the next move is the president’s.  the palace has already distanced  from the impeachment.  but not from the resignation.

KIT TATAD: In Bautista’s case, since he had already decided to resign, DU30 could simply supply the immediate effectivity of his resignation. This would render Bautista immediately vulnerable to criminal prosecution, in relation to various questionable transactions during the last presidential elections, and, in particular, his estranged wife Patricia’s allegation that he had amassed over P1 billion in unexplained and undisclosed wealth during said elections, which he hid in 35 separate bank accounts in a rural (thrift) bank.

But the more important point is that it would give DU30 a chance to name a new Comelec chair through whom he could either reform the electoral system or control it for his own ends. Given his autocratic bent and tendency to exploit every opportunity to extend his power, he could indeed use Bautista’s replacement for his own political ends; but given the huge outcry against our thoroughly corrupted automated electoral system, which has given us so many illegitimately elected officials in 2010, 2013 and 2016, he just might allow the reformist groups to put in their desired reforms for the 2019 and 2022 national elections.

who knows, duterte might still surprise us.  though it would be surprising as well if he allowed the impeachment to proceed.  say ni harvey keh in a public status sa fb:

To Comelec Chair Andy Bautista, some unsolicited advice: Now that our disgusting members of Congress decided to impeach you, I suggest you now withdraw your resignation letter. Tang Ina, ilaban na natin ito.

We only need 7 votes in the Senate to win this, lets push back and push hard to show this administration that it can’t mess with the Filipino people. #LabanAndy

a full-length impeachment trial, yung hindi mapuputol, yung wala nang resignation come dec 31, yes, please.  otherwise mabibitin masyado ang taong-bayan, and who knows where we might end up.

andy bautista wins? who loses?

interesting that it is pro-duterte peeps who are protesting, questioning, criticizing the dismissal of the impeachment complaint vs comelec chief andy bautista, yet it is also the pro-duterte majority in the house of reps justice committee that dismissed the complaint on mere technicalities re sufficiency in “form” because, you know, they have to be strict and follow the rules daw; and yet they refused to entertain a correction of the form (which is NOT disallowed) and at once dismissed the complaint even when the rules entertain a dismissal only upon a finding of insufficiency in “substance.”  check out rules of procedure in impeachment complaints, rule iii, section 4, 17th congress.

the big surprise, however, is representative edcel lagman, who is known to be an oppositionist — he is against the drug war, voted against the death penalty, martial law in mindanao, and the CHR budget cut — but who belongs to the super majority pala. he voted, too, to dismiss the case.

Opposition Rep. Edcel Lagman, one of those who supported the dismissal of the case against Bautista, said there is no rule allowing a complainant to amend his verification and his complaint.

He said the attempt of Paras and Topacio to present an amended verification “clearly shows that the original was defective.”

to think that rep. edcel is a member (for the majority) of the committee on suffrage and electoral reform.  is this a portent of things to come?  we will never know if our votes are being counted correctly?  we will always be under the thumb of the likes of bautista (and smartmatic and their cohorts in congress) whose integrity and love of country are under such heavy clouds of doubt?

the andy bautista issue is a unique one that divides the body politic along different lines from the drug war.

the dilawans, of course, are happy about the junked impeachment complaint.  it means that leni is safe.  imagine nga naman:  if, when, andy is impeached, who knows what evil magic a duterte-appointed comelec chief might wreak in aid of bongbong’s claim to the vp seat.  kahit pa sabihing nasa supreme court na ang kaso, we all know how the system works for ones who are powerful enough.

the duterte diehard supporters in congress, of course, are also happy about the junked impeachment complaint.  it means that andy owes them big, and it means that the very crucial plebiscite on charter change for term extensions and economic liberalization, not to speak of federalism, would happen under andy’s watch, with smartmatic pa rin kaya?

which is to say that the duterte camp is clearly divided.  baka wala pang memo from the palace?  or is this one issue on which they will remain divided.  right now it’s social media ka-DDS vs. the house of reps ka-DDS.  the lines are drawn, the battle is joined.

but wait, there’s hope.  rep harry roque says that the House plenary can still override the justice committee’s decision.  hmm.  kailan iyan?  automatic ba iyan, magaganap within a certain number of days?  or will it be the call of majority leader dear rudy fariñas who is said to be, like the dilawans, afraid that impeaching andy means that leni will likely be replaced by bongbong.  he is also said to be of the belief that if not impeached, andy will resign of his own accord.  magugulat naman ako masyado.

a plenary would be good.  and when the reps vote, dapat ay nominal voting, one by one, let the records show who is for what!  itigil na iyang hiding behind viva voce!

and just in case fariñas won’t do a plenary…  if he does, then just in case the plenary lets andy off the hook…  ngayon pa lang, i’m thinking civil disobedience.  why should we vote when we don’t trust the people behind the machines that will be counting our votes?  what if they held elections and nobody came?