Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Comelec: Estrada can run for president in May

By Kristine L. Alave
INQUIRER.net, Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE 3) The Commission on Elections Second Division allowed on Wednesday former President Joseph Estrada to run for president in the May 2010 elections.

The second division issued the ruling dismissing the disqualification case filed by a certain Evelio Pormento.

In its ruling, the poll body’s second division said Estrada could not be covered by the constitutional ban on a President’s reelection because he is not an incumbent President intending to run for reelection.

The poll body added that Estrada, who was convicted of plunder in September 2007, was pardoned by President Macapagal-Arroyo a month after, and therefore, all his civil and political rights have been restored.

Estrada, who was present during the reading of the promulgation, hailed the ruling, saying it could boost his popularity ratings in surveys on presidential candidates. Estrada is currently running third in the public’s preference surveys behind Sen. Benigno Noynoy Aquino III, the front runner, and Sen. Manuel Villar.

"It is a victory of the Filipino people," Estrada said of the ruling.

Pormento, the lawyer who filed the disqualification case against Estrada, said he would appeal the Second Division ruling to the Comelec en banc. According to him, the spirit of the constitutional ban on presidents seeking reelection is "absolute." Pormento said he has also started preparing an appeal to the Supreme Court if the Comelec en banc would uphold the second division ruling.

Before the promulgation of the ruling, nuisance candidate Ely Pamatong created a scene by yelling at the Comelec commissioners, "I want to lead. Magnanakaw kayong lahat (You are all thieves!).

Comelec guards immediately detained Pamatong inside a Comelec office, and the Comelec held him for charges of indirect contempt.

Comelec officials said he would be brought to the Manila City jail and be detained there for 10 days.

(Comments: Sinasabi ko na nga ba. Hindi sa pinatawad na si Erap ni GMA kundi ang katotohanang nagnakaw nga ang taong ito sa kaban ng tao. Yan ang issue kaya hindi siya dapat tumakbo at hindi siya qualified na tumakobo dahil ex-convict na nga! Hanip talaga itong COMELEC. Magkano kaya ang binayad sa mga ito sa decidion nilang ito? Pinagtatawanan na tayo ng buong mundo, hindi pa rin natitinag ang pagkamanhid ng mga taga COMELEC. Again, itaga natin sa bato, kahit sino pa ang manalo sa election sa Mayo 2010, another 6 years of poverty, suffering and very bad image ito sa ating bansa). Kelan ka pa magigising ang matututo, Pilipino?

Monday, January 18, 2010

'P1.5-trillion budget laden with pork'

By Jess Diaz (The Philippine Star)

MANILA, Philippines - The Congress-approved version of the P1.541-trillion 2010 national budget is “laden with pork,” an official of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) involved in the review of the outlay said yesterday.
“It’s full of insertions made by senators and congressmen,” the official, who did not want to be named, told The STAR.

He said they would now make a detailed listing of congressional insertions, realignments, augmentations, and reductions.

Last Thursday, Gary Olivar, President Arroyo’s spokesman for economic issues, hinted that the President would slash the huge amount of “pork” in the budget.
He said Mrs. Arroyo is considering a veto on the P65-billion debt payment reduction that lawmakers have made and which they diverted to their pork barrel.
“She wants to continue exercising fiscal prudence and responsibility. She does not want to expand the budget deficit,” Olivar told a news forum in Quezon City.
“Because debt payments are automatically appropriated under the law, if you do not veto or reject the reduction in debt service funds, you will increase the deficit,” he said.

He added that the President has asked Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. to carefully review the final shape of the budget, particularly insertions made by lawmakers.

A bicameral conference committee chaired jointly by Senate finance committee chairman Edgardo Angara and his House counterpart Quirino Rep. Junie Cua drafted the final version of the budget. MalacaƱang received the two-inch thick 2010 appropriations bill last Wednesday, nearly a month after the Senate and the House approved the Angara-Cua committee report on Dec. 18.

It doesn’t usually take that long to print the budget document. What delayed the printing process was the job of hiding the lawmakers’ large pork barrel allocations all over the budget, which Cua’s staff was tasked to do. The staff closeted itself at the House’s Mitra building even during the Christmas holidays to finish embedding such allocations in the budgets of scores of agencies, primarily the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

The version that is presumably on Andaya’s desk now is vastly different from what the President submitted to Congress in August. The Angara-Cua panel reduced Mrs. Arroyo’s proposed debt payments by P65 billion to P276.2 billion and then farmed out the huge reduction to scores of agencies that hide pork barrel funds. Of the P65-billion cut, P30.3 billion was given to the DPWH, the agency where most lawmakers’ funds are hidden. The department’s budget jumped to P126.9 billion from P96.6 billion as proposed by the President.

Subsidies to state corporations were increased by P3.3 billion to P24.3 billion. Among the recipients is Angara’s two-year-old Aurora Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA), which received a huge P655-million augmentation. In her budget proposal, Mrs. Arroyo recommended only P145 million for ASEZA. The economic zone has barely taken off. Lawmakers also increased their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) by P3.9 billion to P10.9 billion.

‘Hidden’ pork

The PDAF is the source of money of senators and congressmen for their so-called “soft” projects such as medical, educational and livelihood assistance to constituents.

The fund is the only transparent pork barrel allocation in the budget in that it is so specified. Other pork barrel funds, intended for “hard” projects such as roads, are hidden in agency appropriations.

The public education sector received an additional P4.9 billion. The budget of the Department of Education was increased by P1.3 billion to P161.4 billion, while funds for the more than 100 state universities and colleges spread all over the country jumped by P2.8 billion to P22.4 billion.

During the House deliberations on Mrs. Arroyo’s budget proposal, Andaya said the President reduced the amount of money she proposed for DPWH for this year, compared to last year’s level, because the department still had tens of billions in backlog spending.

“There’s no use giving them additional money because they cannot spend it anyway,” he said.

He said unlike other appropriations, infrastructure funds are good for two years.
A congressman-supporter of Liberal Party presidential candidate Sen. Benigno Aquino III said Angara and Cua padded the DPWH budget with pork barrel allocations so that these funds would still be available to lawmakers in 2011 when a new president shall have taken over from Mrs. Arroyo.

“It is possible that Mrs. Arroyo will benefit from those funds if her successor will release them,” he said. The budget that MalacaƱang got from Congress last week is P400 million lower than Mrs. Arroyo’s proposal, but her allies did not cut her spending bill.

The P400 million represents the combined pork barrel funds for this year of Senators Panfilo Lacson and Jamby Madrigal, the only two lawmakers who do not avail themselves of their annual P200-million allocations. They make sure that their funds are deducted from the budget so they won’t be misused.

Presidency and Democracy Denied

Boys and girls,

I filed my presidential candidacy certificate last November 23, 2010, but was denied by COMELEC due to the absence of having a political party and the machinery to run my presidential campaign... in other words, they immediately judged me as a candidate with no money. Hmmm.. that might be true, but how on earth did they come to this decision since they really don't know who my backers are and how much money they might have? Secondly, out of the 99 who filed their CoCs, only 8 passed the Comelec's mighty arm of truth: that only clean, honest, moral candidates are eligible to run. Again, this might be true, BUT how come Erap was one of the 8?

Ang election ba sa atin ay para sa mayayaman na lang? At bakit lahat ng pinili ng Comelec ay taga Manila lahat? Hindi na ba tayo Pilipino kapag hindi tayo taga Manila?

I thought a lot of things have already changed in our country, and with the introduction of this computrized election process things already have changed in our political arena. I was wrong. It is the same even back in the time of President Marcos.

Even the likes of former Sen. Osmenia of Cebu did not passed the almighty "clean" and "honest" baromemters of the Comelec to run for public office.

Now, Sen. Pimentel is saying that the old "Hello Garci" boys, who orchestrated the whole 2004 election where GMA beat popular actor Fernando Poe, are now occupying higher offices at the Comelec. Prize of their "almighty hands" in manipulating the 2004 election? Now that they are STILL working at the Comelec and are even promoted to higher ranks, what kind of election are we facing this 2010?

Boys and girls, OFWs and immigrant Filipinos in Europe are now instigating a BOYCOTT in the coming election.

I have have started emailing my friends around the world since December 25, 2009 to BOYCOTT this useless election. If it is our right to cast our vote, it is also our God0given right NOT to cast our ballot. No one will put us behind bars if we do not participate in this already shadowy election process in May.

Join me and let us show to the corrupt Filipinos in the Philippines that this already-rigged election process is meaningless because it will not provide better food and jobs to our poverty-stricken masses.

This coming election is another BLOW to the country's fake democracy.

Join me and the other many thousands who are already sick and tired of Philippine corruption and traditional politics.

Yes, our Plan A (which is to run during the election and now denied) did not push through. So, we'll go to our Plan B (which is to cry foul and instigate a BOYCOTT to this election).

This is now became a CRUSADE for all Filipinos. Fight against corruptiom! Fight against TRAPOS! Fight against poverty and discrimination! Fight against Filipino indolence! Fight against political dynasty! Fight against human rights! Fight against equality and opportunity for all Filipinos! Fight against Filipinos who connive with corrupt Filipinos!

These are the real issues.