Senator Richard Gordon, presidential candidate of the Bagumbayan party, struck another blow against traditional Philippine politics (I guess) this weekend when he urged the Commission on Elections to ban the distribution and use of sample ballots with pre-shaded candidates’ entries.
Senator Richard Gordon, presidential candidate of the Bagumbayan party, does not mince words. So when he says incumbent Senator Manuel Lapid deserves to be president more than Liberal Senator Benigno Aquino III, he means it.
Why he would say such a thing is another matter entirely. I mean, come on. Really?
Really?
I get that in politics, you sometimes have to get as many blows in as you can. Anything to get ahead and all that. But Lapid? Really?
Either Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo has been a Leftist sympathizer all along, or he just doesn’t give a damn anymore because when you’re the President’s son, victory is pretty much a sure thing.
The Makabayan Coalition, composed of eight progressive people’s organizations, has accused Arroyo and the party-list group of tricycle drivers and security guards that he claims to represent of plagiarism.
Allegedly, Arroyo’s Ang Galing Pinoy party-list copied militant party-list Bayan Muna’s constitution and by-laws pretty much to the letter. According to Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares, the basic documents that Ang Galing Pinoy submitted to the Commission on Elections were very lazily copy-pasted.
A statement on the Makabayan web sitesums it up thus:
Ang Galing Pinoy was found to have plagiarized the following from the Bayan Muna Constitution even copying the exact number of articles and sections:
(i) Bayan Muna’s 10 point program in its Constitution, including its vision of establishing a nationalist and democratic government.
(ii) A word for word copying of Bayan Muna’s organizational structure and membership principles, even copying Bayan Muna’s provisions on Intermediate Leading Bodies and Barangay chapters.
(iii) Ang Galing Pinoy also copied Bayan Muna’s Special Provisions on the formation of alliances and regional parties and even how to generate funding and resources.
“Rep. Arroyo’s group is so completely detached from the marginalized sectors that it doesn’t even know the issues and condition of the poor they have to copy Bayan Muna’s declaration of principles and even organizational structures,” says Colmenares.
While probably true, a more simple explanation presents itself: Mikey is an asshole.
(Thanks, FreeSince09)
Despite years of voters’ education and politicians’ claims about how much smarter the electorate has become, it still boils down to some 53% of respondents on a Social Weather Stations survey inclined to re-elect Senator Ramon Revilla Jr., scourge of pervy doctors and the Metro Manila Film Fest.
Senator Manuel Lapid, harbinger of doom, also got 26% of the votes of 2,100 respondents, whose main criterion for choosing senators is apparently that they do nothing. If elections were held today, Lapid could get the 10th of 12 contested Senate seats.
On the other hand, if elections were held today, there would be a failure of elections since the polling machines aren’t up yet. So, there’s that, at least.
The country’s fightingest senator says that she has been doing poorly on pre-election surveys because people might look for her on the ballot under ‘Santiago’ instead of  her preferred ‘Defensor-Santiago.’
Patriotic Filipinos might want to get behind Nacionalista member and Iloilo vice governor Rolex Suplico who is taking Liberal presidential candidate Sen. Beningo Aquino III to task for insulting the country’s intelligence.
Don’t get me wrong, Nacionalista senate candidate Atty. Adel Tamano is probably one of the sharper tools in the NP shed. He was able to do great things as president of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, and he’s smart enough to be Vicki Belo’s lawyer-slash-model.
Reading a tweet about Sen. Manny Villar and his security convoy going the wrong way down a one-way street yesterday made me realize something.
Senator Manuel Villar Jr is the president we deserve. Â Not the one we need, just what we deserve because if you really think about it, Manny Villar is us.
2007 was supposed to be the revenge of the opposition, what with seven candidates in the opposition (eight if you count Sen. Francis Pangilinan), trouncing the administration candidates very soundly.
The Liberal Party recently revealed its secret weapon in the fight against corruption, an acronym that cleverly serves as a way to (somehow) make it easier for voters to remember the LP candidates for senator.
The acronym, which the Inquirer says could be a “political masterstroke” (somehow) is SLAMAT LORRD, which sort of translates into Thank you, Lord if you’re as liberal with your spelling and pronunciation as you are with your economic ideology.
“That’s not just ‘salamat (thank you), Lord.’ It’s ‘salamat Lorrrd,” Senator Francis Pangilinan, LP spokesman, patiently explains to anyone who (somehow) doesn’t quite get it.
I see what you did there.
The acronym, Pangilinan says, came up during “a recent brainstorming session,” in between, I guess, discussions about poverty alleviation and public policy.
“We thought it up,” he tells reporters before exchanging knowing winks and high fives with party mates.
Oh, God…