vilma santos a la sarah palin?

sabi sa newsbreak governor vilma santos is being sold as RP’s sarah palin:

People in Lakas and the camp of Batangas Gov. Vilma Santos Recto who have been selling since last year the idea of the former actress being the administration’s vice presidential bet for 2010 have found a very good reason to float the idea again.

Following Republican John McCain’s choice of a woman governor as his running mate for the November elections in the US, spin-meisters here have started comparing the popular Governor Vi to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. (The idea first made it to the front page of a broadsheet over the weekend).

The administration believes that a Palin-type VP bet can compensate for the pathetic survey performance of its prospective standard bearer. . . “

hmm. a blind item from newsbreak. wazzup wazzup? sinong prospective standard bearer ng administrasyon ito na pathetic ang standing sa surveys of presidentiables?

aha. check out this abante report of a june survey:

. . . resulta ng isinagawang survey ng Issues and Advocacy Center nitong nakalipas na Hunyo 16-20 sa may 1,200 respondent sa National Capital Region (NCR), Luzon at Vizayas.

Nanatiling nangunguna si Vice President Noli de Castro na nakuha ng 18%; Senator Franciz ‘Chiz’ Escudero, 16%; Senator Manny Villar, dating Presidente Joseph Estrada at Senator Loren Legarda, na nag-tie sa 13%; Senator Mar Roxas, 8%; Sen. Panfilo Lacson, 3%; MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando at Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, 3%; Senator Richard Gordon, Interior Sec. Ronaldo Puno, Former Rep. Prospero Pichay at Defense Sec. Gilbert Teodoro, 1%.”

newsbreak can’t be referring to noli de castro, nor i bet to mmda chairman bayani fernando or interior sec. ronaldo puno.  i bet it’s referring to defense secretary gilbert teodoro, na medyo high-profile since the resumption of military offensives vs. milf insurgents. sey ni julius fortuna sa manila times:

Mindanao crisis propelling Gilbert Teodoro Jr.

Some sectors within the Lakas party seem to be impressed with the leadership style of Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr. As a result, this former representative of Tarlac is being discussed in party caucuses of the Lakas party as a possible candidate for President in 2010.

I am not sure if this is just intended to float an idea. But no less than Lakas Executive Director Ray Requero said that the defense secretary’s strong leadership and managerial skills impress many. These two virtues, according to Roquero, are the party’s top criteria for choosing its presidential candidate.

Teodoro has taken a high profile in the management of the Mindanao crisis that followed the debate over the memorandum of agreement. “With his unblinking response to the crisis in Mindanao, he is proving that he can handle any difficult situation,” Roquero said. “For a while, I had thought of Gilbert as a liberal, given to legalisms. The Mindanao problem has shown the tough side of this bar topnotcher.”

But if Teodoro is drafted in 2010, he will haveto first clarify his previous membership in the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC). This is the party that brought him to power as three-term representative of Tarlac. All throughout his stint in Congress, he was head of the NPC that tilted the balance between the majority and minority.

One possible solution to his dilemma would be to forge a Lakas-NPC Alliance in the runup to 2010. That alliance may be hard to arrange at the moment because many NPC in the House and the Senate are aligned with the opposition while some are with the administration. But somebody said that politics is the art of the possible.”

we can be sure that a lot of wheeling-and-dealing is going on among administration parties to unite behind a common candidate in 2010, which is the only way they can defeat a fragmented opposition. manolo was just saying in today’s inquirer:

. . . if the efforts to form a super-party by the Ramos-De Venecia Wing of the Lakas-CMD by means of a coalition with the Nacionalistas and, possibly, the Nationalist People’s Coalition are true, then surely the usual suspects know this will be more palatable to the public than the Frankenstein-like stitching together of Lakas and Kampi could ever possibly be. Such a reconfiguration would inevitably result in some of those presently in power finding themselves out of it: think of Speaker Prospero Nograles, and the old fuddy-duddies in the President’s Cabinet.”

which means baka me pag-asa pa si teodoro? — i remember him from that time when he co-sponsored the failed impeachment of chief justice hilario davide. i remember being intrigued by the audacity of the act, tipong wow, how dare these brats. a power move if i ever saw one. maybe there’s something there? maybe, if he could break out of his uncle’s shadow.

in any case, kapanipaniwala that governor vi is being wooed left and right by administration presidentiables.   vilma santos is YES magazine’s 7th top celebrity endorser, said to be “worth no less than P10 million per tri-media campaign.”  [kris aquino is 1st, sharon cuneta is 2nd, kc concepcion and marian rivera are tied at 3rd, aga muhlach is 4th, piolo pascual 5th, judy ann santos 6th — of “20 stars who earn P1M to P20M because you buy what they say.” October issue]

of course the star governor endorser is playing coy and saying that she’s not thinking about it, which may be true. she leaves the thinking to husband mentor ex-senator nedachief vatman ralph recto, who is himself running again for senator in 2010.

fair ba ang comparison of vi with sarah palin? all fluff, no substance? i’m not sure.

i remember when vi was not so conservative and conventional. when she was much younger and lived a deliciously wicked life, changing lovers now and then, kakainggit. she thought nothing of breaking rules and defying social mores that didn’t work for her, and she got away with it. buhay pa ba ang vilmang yon?

here are excerpts from julie bonifacio’s pep interview with vilma santos soon after bayani fernando asked her to be his runningmate. mostly she defends ralph’s vat bill. too bad she wasn’t asked where she stands on the reproductive health bill, the censorship bill, the foreign debt, the war in mindanao, charter change, at kung anoano pa. or maybe she wouldn’t have answered such questions anyway, siguro itatanong pa kasi kay ralph who would surely try for something politically and religiously “correct” a la gloria gloria hallelujah. hay.

on the vice-presidency:

“. . . Ang dami ko pang dapat gawin dito sa Batangas. I’m not entertaining it . . . Ang concentration ko ngayon talaga focused sa Batangas. Wala ka namang magagawa ng dalawang taon lang, e. Alam mo ang ibig kong sabihin? Three years ang term mo as a governor, pero on the third, ‘yan naman hindi ka na napapakinabangan dahil nag-uumpisa na ulit ng kampanyahan ‘yan.”

on bong revilla asking if she’s running because if she is then he won’t:

“Sweet naman niya. Thank you naman kay Bong. Pero, ah…he can plan his political career. He can plan it, if he really wants to run, then go ahead. Wala naman siyang dapat i-worry sa akin.”

on being governor:

“So far, so good. Awa naman ng Panginoon maganda yung koleksyon….maganda ang aming local revenues collection. Solid ang programa ko. Wala pa akong isang taon, nalibot ko na ang buong Batangas. Lahat ng 34 na bayan…

So far I’m getting the full cooperation of my Sangguniang Panglalawigan. ‘Yan ang pinaka-mahirap kasi, e. ‘Pag hindi mo kasama ang iyong Sangguniang Panglalawigan, mahihirapan ka being the executive. Kasi lahat ‘yan dadaan sa Sanggunian mo, e. . .

Ah, I think, diyan medyo nahihirapan si Ano… si Father [Eddie] Panlilio, am I right?” Father Panlilio is the elected Pampanga governor. “But I’m very thankful even yung mga mayor na hindi ko naging kasama noon, they’re been very, very supportive.”

on jueteng:

“Wala namang pagkakataon na walang bumatikos sa akin maski nung mayor pa ako. Dito pinagbibintangan ako ng jueteng-jueteng. God knows, first month ko pa lang dito, sa lahat ng buong bayan nagpalabas na ako ng sulat saying na I am not encouraging any form of gambling, including jueteng.

“And then, may mga lumalabas diyan na may share daw ako, may kotse? I mean, you know me better than that. Pero ang point ko, ang jueteng is a perennial problem. Nung araw pa ng mga ninuno ‘yan. Ngayon, kung ako ang pag-iisipan ninyo, hindi ako jueteng lord. Hindi kayo namumroblema doon, pero tulungan ninyo ako dahil hindi ko ito kayang mag-isa.

“Kayong mga sector diyan, like kapulisan, tulungan ninyo ako. Pati kina Archbishop [Ramon Arguelles, Lipa archbishop], humihingi ako ng tulong. Sabihin ninyo sa homily ninyo, huwag tumaya ang mga tao. You get me? Kasi habang nandiyan ‘yan, ‘yan ang gagawin niya. But for me na sasabihin ko na lang, laging kokontrahin…paano ko makokontra ang 1.3 million na population?

“But, ako lang, mapapatunayan ko sa inyo, I’m not encouraging it. Walang sugal na pupuwede sa akin. Pero I cannot do this alone. Ayaw ninyo, bantayan ninyo. E, Diyos ko, paano ko mababantayan? Tulungan ninyo ako. . .

“Kung yun ang iko-concentrate ko dahil tintira ninyo ako diyan, e, teka muna, excuse me. Hindi lang jueteng ang problemna. Mas maraming gutom dito at uunahin ko yun. At uunahin ko na masiguro na maganda ang kinabukasan sa edukasyon ng mga bata.”

on ralph, neda, vat:

Natuwa ako, of course. But, he’ll be running again in 2010. That’s his forte. Alam ninyo ano…hindi naman niya pinagsisisihan [being appointed NEDA director]. Kung kakausapin mo, iniinterbyu sa mga radyo ang mga ekonomista na sina Winnie Monsod, how they explain V.A.T. [Value Added Tax], ang nagsi-save sa atin ngayon V.A.T., pati yung itinaas ng value ng piso, lahat ‘yan.

“Pinapaliwanag lang sa kanila kasi sinasabi nila si Ralph …ginawa yun for the country, e. Ginawa niya yun kung paano makakatulong sa bansang ito sa pamamagitan nitong V.A.T. Pero yung proseso o polisiya ng pagpapa-implement niyan hindi na naman niya hawak. But we have extra money for our national government na ang intensyon nito nung una, pandagdag na budget, pandagdag-eskweala, kalye, hospital.

“Napaka-negative na niya. Tinanong ko nga siya, nagsisisi ka ba dahil sa VAT issue? Sabi niya, ‘No, no regrets.’ Kung mangyayari ulit yun sa atin at alam ko yan ang makaka-save sa bansa natin, ganun pa rin ang desisyon kong gagawin kahit hindi nila ako iboto. Yun ang sinabi niya, I respect that.

“Now that he’s with NEDA, yeah, okey sa akin. Kung makakatulong, bakit hindi? I trust Ralph, e. Kasi kung maganda ang tingin nila sa akin, maganda ang ginagawa ko, maganda ang ginawa ko sa Lipa, maganda ngayon ang mga plano sa Batangas, he’s my mentor. Siya ang nagga-guide. Siya ang gumawa ng matrix ko.

“Kung nagpunta kayo dito nung first six months ko, makikita ninyo sa blackboard, siya lahat ang gumawa. Bakit ito ang dapat? Magkano ang budget dito? Nasa blackboard para alam ko kung saan ako pupunta. Without Ralph din, paano ko gagawin lahat ‘yan?

“E, unang-una hindi naman ako politiko. Pinag-aralan ko, yes, pero ang expertise, hindi ko alam kung saan ko kukunin yun. Kaya ngayon, napakadali naman sa akin. Dito sa Batangas, hindi pa dumarating yung krisis natin, alam na namin kaya nakaka-prepare kami.”

hmm. scary. as scary as sarah the hockey-mom. as scary as ralph the vatman.

of intellectual doldrums & filipino voices

in a speech on publishing in the regional languages that poet professor Ricky de Ungria delivered in cebu’s academic publishing fair last july, he dared point out, bully for him, what ails the intellectual life of the filipino, which i dare say is true for mainstream media and the blogosphere as well.

“I refer not only to the appalling lack of criticism or critical frameworks by which standards of quality, excellence in craftsmanship, good judgment and taste are defined and observed in the production and appreciation of works.

. . . . for good or ill, our country appears to be a place where everybody is or wants to be an artist and no one wants to be a critic. A good ninety percent or more of the literary books published are creative works; the rest, on a good year, would be critical work.

. . . . this is an unhappy situation: for without the rigor and passion of critical thought that puts up certain standards of excellence in literary productions and points at directions that our many literatures could take, all we will have would be back-patting and mutually admiring literary coteries producing more of the same year after year, contest after contest.

. . . . the fact that of the total number of higher academic institutions wehave in the country, only three or four regularly make it to the lower rungs of the top universities in the world should tell us something about the state of affairs in our education sector.

Would it be too much to conclude from these that there is no viable intellectual or artistic climate in our country where ideas come freely and are grist for the mill of the mind- except for the political that passes off as an activity of the mind?

Would it be too much to put down as a corollary that we don’t have an intellectual climate, nor can we bear to support one simply because we have lost the passion for truth because truth has turned out to be manipulable and changeable and undependable?

Or perhaps because we have not shaken off our feudal cast of mind and psyche that inhibits us from critiquing the ideas of the “elder statesmen” in our fields as a result of a kind misplaced measure of deference or respect for elders, and that allows us to accept conveniently their word as “law” so we don’t have to bother with it anymore as we go on quietly with our own desperate lives?

. . . . year after year, we hold conferences and workshops on the state of this or that industry in the country, and we end up hearing more or less the same old things being said as if anew.

. . . . There being no such thing as an intellectual climate in the country, there is little knowledge production going on at all. If we can’t even get our facts down pat, how do we even presume to advance to the next step of knowledge creation?

When we debate, we debate with persons and not ideas. Disagreements take on the unhappy form of personal affronts and become desultory and, in some instances, life-threatening. Then again, how can we be assured that the knowledge produced so far is legitimate, given that much of the valuable information about us is in the hands and shelves of foreign funding agencies and foreign scholars?

. . . . If, as with the fate of colonized countries, the colonial language remains the main means of intellectual discourse and knowledge creation, …in our particular case there still appears to be no decent intellectual discourse and knowledge creation in English, or our version of it, even in Manila, and still lesser, though emergent (the word “inchoate” came to mind) discourse has come about in Filipino. . . .”

CUT to the blogosphere’s filipino voices, a political group blog offering news, politics, and social commentary, that’s been getting raves from a circle of political bloggers and their followers/commenters but where the discourse is quite, well, “inchoate” comes to mind, just because freedom of expression is the only value and critical thinking stops short of seriously discussing and crafting options and solutions that could contribute to knowledge production and nation-building.

to my mind fv is just an extension of manolo quezon’s blog, featuring as it does mostly bloggers cited now and then by mlq3 in his daily dose, but nothing more: no unifying thread, no consensus on anything, no attempt at synthesis to sift the grain from the chaff, writer blogger as well as reader/commenter left on his/her own, sink or swim, ang pikon, talo. good job :-(

in a recent manifesto (better late than never?) founder Nick cites James Surowiecki‘s “Wisdom of the Crowds” to justify fv’s free-wheeling style:

Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations, is about the aggregation of information in groups, resulting in decisions that, he argues, are often better than could have been made by any single member of the group.

The book presents numerous case studies and anecdotes to illustrate its argument, and touches on several fields, primarily economics and psychology. The opening anecdote relates Francis Galton’s surprise that the crowd at a county fair accurately guessed the weight of an ox when their individual guesses were averaged (the average was closer to the ox’s true butchered weight than the estimates of most crowd members, and also closer than any of the separate estimates made by cattle experts).

The book relates to diverse collections of independently-deciding individuals, rather than crowd psychology as traditionally understood. Its central thesis, that a diverse collection of independently-deciding individuals is likely to make certain types of decisions and predictions better than individuals or even experts, draws many parallels with statistical sampling, but there is little overt discussion of statistics in the book.”

interesting nga, if it’s true.  and if it applies to all kinds of decision-making.  and if it works in the third world as well.  and if it actually applies to filipino voices, where no one is keeping track of anything, no one is doing any “averaging” of any opinions on any issues, so how can anyone, writer blogger or reader/commenter, know that/what the group is contributing to anyone’s decision-making, if any?

but wait, here’s more from nick himself:

Here is something, if even on the concept alone, that can help us understand the usefulness of how groups can contribute to a better understanding and a better result in terms of decision making, and in our case, maybe in terms of our views and analysis on issues of great importance.

The wisdom of the crowd can only work, if each individual contributes independently of one another. To rely, solely on others’ views and opinions can not only turn this theory upside-down, but can inevitably lead to what could be termed as “The Stupidity of The crowd”. The stupidity of the crowd, in my opinion lies when individuals cease to think independently of one another. If we can isolate the views and opinions of individuals, then we have a better shot at arriving at a better outcome.”

oh my.  ano daw?  independent thinking and endless debate lead to wisdom? relying on the views of others leads to stupidity?  clearly fv’s nick needs a crash course on dialectics.

In classical philosophy, dialectic (Greek: διαλεκτική) is controversy: the exchange of arguments and counter-arguments respectively advocating propositions (theses) and counter-propositions(antitheses). The outcome of the exercise might not simply be the refutation of one of the relevant points of view, but a synthesis or combination of the opposing assertions, or at least a qualitative transformation in the direction of the dialogue.”

keywords: “qualitative transformation in the direction of the dialogue.”  until he gets it, he should stop with the intellectual pretensions muna because, really, buking na buking that he’s in way over his head.

september 22

manolo quezon is right. it’s good to see that we’ve stopped thinking of september 21 as martial law day. it’s good to see rin that the debate has moved on.

the question now is: so which day did marcos’ military rule begin — september 22, the day he signed proclamation 1081? or september 23, the day we woke up to martial law?

going by the numbers and how martial law turned out, no question about it, september 22 is the day to mark.

in numerology 22 is the most powerful of all numbers, the master builder, combines vision with action. . .

It is unlimited, yet disciplined. Itsees the archetype, and brings it down to earth in some material form. It has big ideas, great plans, idealism, leadership, and enormous self-confidence. If not practical, the 22s waste their potential . . . can easily shrink from its own ambition, causing difficult interior pressures . . . It must work toward the realization of goals that are larger than personal ambition.”

in astrology 22 is associated with the planet pluto — yeah i know, it’s been demoted to dwarf — in turn associated with revolutionary change, upheaval, transformation — which is what martial rule was all about in the mind of marcos, except that personal ambition was larger than national goals, and it ended as suddenly as it began, which is so 22.

take note.  the military rebellion that triggered off the edsa event that ousted marcos commenced also on a 22. but lacking vision, the military action was overtaken by people power the very next day, and that’s another number, another story altogether.

double entry, double-dealing

if he is telling the truth, i do not for the life of me understand why senate president manny villar doesn’t simply answer the questions that have been thrown at him regarding that c-5 extension.

kung totoong wala siyang ginawa / ginagawa na mali o labag sa batas, dapat ay siya mismo ang nagtatanggol sa sarili at hindi ang mga kaalyado niya sa senado, e.g., alan peter cayetano at joker arroyo, na sobrang offended that lacson dares accuse the senate president and the senate of corruption. wtf. as if senators were saints.

napapaghalata tuloy na merong itinatago si villar, malamang tungkol sa right-of-way, malamang conflict-of-interrest, and that he’d really rather not have it investigated or made public because it would put him in a bad light, perhaps bad enough to lose him a shot at the presidency.  i’m sure he’d like nothing better than the ceasefire that kiko pangilinan is asking for. i suppose this is kiko’s way of being an independent, stop the shooting?

but really, lacson is right, why should the opposition oblige? wala namang executive privilege si villar. he is as accountable as any senator, as any public servant. too bad for him that the timing is terrible vis a vis his 2010 ambition, but such is life.

kung walang ping lacson on the scene, there would have been another, on similar mode, to call villar to account. just as, even if he hadn’t climbed that stage, he would have bumped and cut his forehead anyway, and, lacson exposey or not, he would have been on public exhibit after, with that white white tape by his eyebrow, looking dazed, natauhan kaya?

pana-panahon lang yan, ika nga.  maybe it’s time to cut, and cut cleanly? as in, tell all, turn state witness, lol, wouldn’t that be fun! for a change.