ang pikon, talo

an expat who might have voted for gibo if he were home for the elections, but kept track through twitter, reacts to the losing camp’s dismay:

Such disappointment and disenchantment among the Pinoy Twitterati post election: lack of transparency, a better way to do this, an uninformed masa, a broken democracy, yadda yadda. To be fair, they all seem to be trying their best not to be too overtly bitter. But to anyone who can read between the lines, these guys are kinda embarrassing themselves. Mostly because they wouldn’t be whistling this tune if their candidate had won, now would they? No, they’d be proud Pinoys, ready to stand tall behind our flag, to shout from their twitter stream that Pinoys rule and our democracy rocks!

Here’s the sad part, guys, you were right the first time. There was a distressing lack of transparency. The political system is so broken and fixing it would lead to a better way of doing this. The masses still think it’s a popularity contest (Good God, Erap?! Again?!).  None of that equals a working democracy.

But in your frustration and disappointment you’re forgetting that this is so goddamned much better than what we had in the 60’s and 70’s with Marcos. So much safer and productive than what we have even now in Maguindanao — where resistance, where providing a choice, where even thinkingof exercising a right to choose equals a shallow anonymous grave. You’re  failing to appreciate that with martial law just a few short decades ago, and the Ampatuan massacre only half a year ago, the recent relatively uneventful elections (absolutely boring, actually) *is* something to flood your social networks about.

So get your heads out of your asses and accept defeat with the same grace and composure that most of your candidates did. We’re nowhere near the Hollywood/West Wing ending a Gibo win would have us celebrate, but this has got to be considered progress pa rin.

oo nga naman.   and enough with threats of migrating, which is so self-centered.   raising your hopes so high, in the first place, was rather naive and unrealistic.

sa kabilang banda, there’s kris aquino who’s also pikon, kahit panalo, over the facebook page kris aquino’s despedida party (18k members and counting).   of course no one expects her to leave, not just yet anyway.   if anything, people expected her to do a miriam and say “i lied”, sabay halakhak.   but really, it’s a warning that she’ll be under close watch.   she would be wise to stay out of politics (though i’m not sure how if she is to continue helping out president noynoy) cos people will pounce pounce pounce every time she says the politically incorrect thing (as in, foot in her mouth stuff a la “katas ng hacienda luisita”) and so, yeah, a despedida may not be so farfetched, whether noynoy gets it or not.

noynoy’s sisters 4 binay???

totoo kaya itong inside story ni emil jurado, kolumnista ng manilastandardtoday?

Admittedly, the biggest surprise in the election is Makati Mayor Jojo Binay, who is almost sure of becoming the next vice president. Binay is likely to beat Liberal Party vice presidential bet Senator Mar Roxas.

While poll surveys had shown the surge of Binay overtaking Mar Roxas during the last two weeks of the campaign, nobody, including myself, expected Binay to lead the actual vice presidential race.

So why Binay? I was told that during the last stretch of the campaign, the “three Stygian sisters,” (like those in the movie “Clash of the Titans”) told Noynoy supporters to campaign hard for Binay instead of Mar.

The “Stygian sisters” were not comfortable with Mar being a vice president. They knew deep in their hearts that Noynoy would be overshadowed by Mar. Roxas has all the credentials and qualifications we can hope for. He has achieved many things. You cannot say this about Noynoy.

Aside from this, I was told by LP insiders that the “Stygians sisters” were also uncomfortable with the Aranetas and their money. The Aranetas later stopped the funding, which led to a confrontation between the Noynoy and Mar strategists. The confrontation was so intense that party insiders feared a breakup between Noynoy and Mar.

Recall that Noynoy went to the extent of saying that he would share up to 80 percent of his powers with Mar if they are both elected. That statement was taken by many as reckless and irresponsible, made only to please Mar and his followers. The bottom line is that the presidency has the sole responsibility and accountability in his administration. The buck stops at the desk of the president.

In any case, when Senator Chiz Escudero announced his “Noy-Bi” preference, the “Stygian sisters” and Noynoy strategists went all-out for Binay, junking Mar Roxas. The result is now what we see in the election results with Binay ahead of Mar in the latest count.

so i googled “kris for binay?” and got this instead:

“I only have good feelings for Mayor Binay – but my  vote is for MAR,” nakasaad sa Twitter ni Kris.

hmm.   baka naman she meant jejoMAR!!!   LOL

2010 Elections: Waiting for a happy ending

Tonyo Cruz

We Filipinos love happy endings and we’d like to see one at the end of 2010 election season.

But, so far, many appear not to be in a celebratory mood even after the Commission on Elections started announcing official results at the national level. Noynoy Aquino appears set to be the next president, capturing 40 percent of tallied votes, but he and his fans have not been triumphant in their statements.

Aquino’s foes led by Manny Villar (my candidate) have graciously accepted defeat and promptly congratulated him. Richard Gordon said Aquino scored a “spectacular victory”. Only Joseph Estrada is left fighting, so to speak, but no one cares.

Still, no party to celebrate the Aquino victory. Why?

There are many things to be happy about: The quick tallying of votes by the Comelec, the quick proclamation of winners in some local posts, the quick and gracious concession speeches made by Aquino’s foes.

These however don’t appear to be enough to make us happy.

We may not be happy may be because it was all too quick and we don’t know what exactly happened.

All throughout the day, there were PCOS machines malfunctioning, wrong ballots, dead persons on the voters list but living ones cannot be found, the inexplicable long lines, and the like. In some areas, the Comelec proposed that a failure of elections be declared. The small problems became so big that the Comelec had to extend voting until 7:00 pm.

Meanwhile, the operational and functinong PCOS machines apparently did their job, which is most probably the reason why theComelec has been able to quickly release official tallies.

Perhaps we are just cautious. The Aquino camp still awaits the results in the vice presidential race where rival Jejomar Binay is leadingperennial survey winner Mar Roxas. The senatorial race is still not over because the last two or three of the 12 winning candidates may still change. Media meawhile has been a bit remiss in reporting on the bulk of local races.

Or perhaps we are skeptical of the credibility of the results tallied by the Comelec? Maybe we still don’t want to celebrate because the Comelec (and Smartmatic-TIM) has long denied us adequate information and access on the automated election system (AES) from Day One so we would know for sure that each vote was properly counted so the results would be credible. Besides, the Comelec itself was/is not the paragon of credibility, with or without the AES.

It appears to me that the Comelec is trying but not succeeding in hypnotizing us into just accepting the super-fast release of tallies without giving us explanations on how it arrived at those figures, where the votes came from, etc. Precisely the same questions many have raised as the Comelec imposed this AES on us.

If we are to believe what has been happening since Comelec started to release results, we just had the “cleanest” and “most honest” elections. No news on how the Comelec addressed all the precinct-level problems #juanvote and mainstream media reported throughout the day. No news on private armies (i.e. Ampatuan) that were supposedly disbanded to unleash voters who are routinely harassed into voting for warlords. In the partylist race, which the Comelec bungled by accrediting and keeping the administration-instigated groups and personalities, we hear no meaningful or profoundly news. No news either on how and how soon the Election Day glitches were addressed, or how many were disenfranchised.

Maybe, that’s it: Filipinos wanted not just quick elections: We wanted quick and credible elections. And the Comelec has only been able to give us a quickie.

Definitely, that’s not a happy ending.

election eve

despite the surveys calling it a sure win for noynoy, the other camps continue to be really upbeat,each one thinking that their candidate still has a good chance of pulling off a surprise win from behind.   which is as it should be.   after all, marami diyang puwede pang magbago ang isip.   marami ring undecided pa at magde-decide lang pag kaharap na mismo ang balota at mga bilog na hugis itlog.

pero kung mababaw ang kaligayahan ko and i were wavering between noynoy and gibo, the miting de avances would have decided me.   caught gibo’s final sugod speech on channel 4 (thanks to a carlosceldran tweet) and he was, wow, sorta outstanding, looked and projected great, toweringly tall, high energy, and whether that was an extemporaneous or a memorized speech, the delivery was awesomely passionate and must have swayed undecideds some.   noynoy’s came later, aired on anc, and in comparison, he was okay lang, i guess because he was reading his speech (well at least for those moments that i turned to look at the tv screen).   no contest.   had to remind myself why i’m not voting for gibo — the VFA — which tells of a limited vision for country, forever chained to mighty america.   looks like it’s jamby’s platform for me pa rin.

as for surveys, i look forward to a presidential campaign na walang surveys.   it would be a totally different exercise.   until then, national artist f. sionil jose‘s  words apply:

Nothing is going to change…. I am 85. I have seen three generations of Filipino leaders fail. They have never been able to transcend themselves, neither their class nor their ethnicity.

Did you read The Economist obituary on her? (referring to Aquino). It said her greatness ended when she became president. Many people were angry. But for those of us who had eyes wide open, her rule was a disaster. She promised land reform. She didn’t do it. She restored the oligarchy. I never forgave her for that.

manila times columnist elmer ordonez is only a little hopeful, and only because of the few partylists that truly represent marginalized sectors.

This election, if it goes through on Monday, whether automated and/or manual, has no special appeal for me. As I wrote earlier, the outcome will be the installation of another faction of the landed oligarchy or that of the relatively new business rich—in power. All within the ruling class.

Opinions about contenders are generally based on survey results and anecdotal information. In the absence of other “scientific” indicators, it is easy to succumb to what may be called survey fetishism, a reliance on statistical counts conducted particularly by two outfits (SWS and Pulse Asia) that seem to have the allegiance of media and the general public.

An alternative survey, conducted by IBON Foundation, using the same tools learned in schools of economics like UP’s, has been red-baited out of circulation by stakeholders in SWS and Pulse Asia. And critics of the latter are called “ignorant” or “incompetent” about the arcana of what the late Dean Jose Encarnacion would call a “quasi-science.” As are all social sciences.

There are charges of “trending’’ and “bandwagon effect” because of the surveys, as people talk freely about “leading” or “front-running” candidates. I myself paid scant attention to those who are in the “cellar”—all of whom seem imbued with idealism, or practice new or nonpatronage politics. Can they look forward to a level playing field through electoral reform?

The winners will of course be known after May 10 but the social change that discerning voters hope for will not come about. Those elected will perpetuate themselves in office through the vast resources and the ideological/coercive agencies under their control—with cronies and “kamag-anaks” waiting in the wings. What else could be new?

….Is there hope for us in this election? Yes, some. For one, the party-lists that represent truly marginalized sectors—like Bayan Muna, Akbayan, Gabriela, Anakpawis and Kabataan are leading in the surveys and are assured of seats. New party-lists like ACT Teachers (unlike one that represents school owners), Agham (science for the poor), and Ang Ladlad (representing gays) are likely to win at least one seat each. These party-lists deserve support from voters turned off by traditional or oligarchic politics. At least they can provide a strong voice in Congress dominated by the establishment.

Satur Ocampo and Lisa Maza of the Makabayan Party had already served ten years as pro-poor party-list representatives in Congress (Bayan Muna and Gabriela) and are running as NP guest candidates to continue their advocacies in the Senate. I am confident they will acquit themselves creditably in their undertaking.

The senatorial lists of all parties include names who will work for the interests of the underprivileged and the dispossessed. I would include (besides Ocampo and Maza), Pia Cayetano, Mario Bautista, Susan Ople, Gwendolyn Pimentel, Adel Tamano, Alex Lacson, Danilo Lim, Teofisto Guingona III, and Sonia Roco in my ballot. A few more are already in the top twelve of the surveys. eaordonez2000@yahoo.com

my list : satur, liza, danny lim, miriam, jpe, lozada, pia, neric, adel, serge, guingona, and either toots or ruffy.