From Crony to Destabilizer

PCIJ: 10 reasons to doubt the 2004 election results

Here's a summary:

1. Unusual jump in number of registered voters
2. Number of registered voters exceeds Comelec projections
3. Votes cast for all presidential candidates exceed actual voters
4. Number of actual voters exceeds number of registered voters
5. Too popular outside bailiwick
6. Zero vote for highly popular candidate
7. Votes for presidential candidate exceed votes for No. 1 senatorial candidate
8. Presidential candidate more popular than local candidate
9. Unusually high winning ratio
10. Padding and shaving

Now, go read the whole thing!

From the Tribune Editorial:

Borra said the cheats are those who wanted to win at all cost, from both the opposition and the administration.

Who then was proved as the candidate who wanted to win at all cost, if not Gloria Arroyo? It was she who had Virgilio Garcillano operate for her and in all those tapped conversations, there was not one conversation between Fernando Poe Jr., the opposition standard-bearer, nor even the opposition senatorial candidates.

Gloria was in the best position to cheat. She had the government resources, funds and machinery. The opposition was hardly in a position to massively rig the election results — and even during the congressional canvassing.

Then too, even when comparing the ERs and the CoC, whose votes were jacked up if not Gloria’s. Whose votes were subtracted, if not FPJ’s? And those artificial votes of Gloria were anywhere in the range of over 600,000 to 1.2 million — without even getting the Cebu and other provincial votes from the claimed Gloria bailiwicks. The cheating must have been in the scale of at least two million votes. But even on just one million votes, this should be massive enough by way of cheating.

This does not even include the fact that the Comelec, as a body, participated in pre-election fraud to benefit Gloria. Think of the deliberately messed up registration of voters in the opposition’s bailiwicks that was estimated to have disenfranchised some one million voters, at the very minimum; the clandestine printing of ERs and CoC — clandestine because Comelec had these forms printed in a non-registered printing press and done without informing the political parties and their representatives; the missing rolls of the security paper, along with the fact that Virgilio Garcillano could not have operated the cheating machine without other Comelec executives’ help. Could Garci have flown in and out of Mindanao, which is not his turf without the express consent of chairman Benjamin Abalos? One conversation between Gloria and Garci had Gloria telling Garci if he had already talked to Abalos for his Mindanao trip. Resolutions Gloria and Garci wanted were quickly done en banc, such as the postponement of the senatorial proclamations. Also, the focus of the cheating is just in Mindanao with Garci at the forefront. There are other areas where cheating was massive and these are areas of other Comelec commissioners.

Conrad de Quiros:

I SAW a couple of TV programs in which the panel representing the camp opposing Charter change exhorted the voters to defend their right to choose their leader. In a parliamentary system, they said, the voters will no longer directly choose their prime minister, only the members of Parliament will. Only in a presidential system do the voters directly vote for their president.

That is silly, and shows only what's wrong with Charter change in the first place. The real choice is not between a parliamentary system and a presidential system, it is between dictatorship and democracy. The real choice is not between directly voting for a president or voting indirectly for a prime minister, the real choice is between being able to vote or not being able to vote at all -- or what is but the same thing, between having one's vote counted and not having one's vote counted at all. The real choice is not which type of system responds more to the citizens' needs, it is which leaders the citizens want: those they voted for or those who are merely imposing themselves on them.

If you do not have elections where your votes are counted, it doesn't matter a hoot whether you have a presidential system or a parliamentary one. Neither is a democracy, both are a tyranny. Your voice will not be heard, your need will not be met. Ferdinand Marcos had a presidential and parliamentary system at the same time during martial law (he was both president and prime minister), which is what Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo also wants, and no one seriously asked then whether we were under a presidential or parliamentary system. Everyone knew we were under a dictatorship. Fake elections are as much a forcible wresting of power, or an outright coup, as martial law. You have fake elections, the only choice that presents itself to you is whether you are going to exert yourself to oust the usurper or be a damn fool and tolerate her.

Lest we forget, that is the root of the problem, for which Charter change is being touted as the answer. We have a crisis of government because, as the Marines and Navy have been saying for some time now (and they ought to know because they were ordered to do it), the current occupant of Malacañang rigged the elections in Muslim Mindanao. For saying which, they have been gagged generally and several of them have been court-martialed. We have a crisis of government because, as every Filipino knows, Arroyo called up then-election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano in the middle of the counting of ballots to demand that she win by a margin of at least one million votes. Which has since become the National Ringtone, "Hello, Garci."

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Helga is impressed with Thaksin's move.

PDI Editorial: Lost referendum

But Malacanang says Arroyo won't do a Thaksin raw.

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PCIJ: Pulse Asia: 54% of Pinoys don’t favor parliamentary system

More on the Palace Initiative from BnW.

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Ellen Tordesillas: From Crony to Destabilizer

You think all is well with Gloria Arroyo and her cronies? Listen to this:

A few weeks ago, a well-known businesswoman and Arroyo supporter went to Malacañang to complain about Mike Arroyo and brother Iggy muscling into her application for microfinancing with one of the government banks.

This lady, whose business interests span the world, naively nurtures the idea that Mike Arroyo is a liability to the upright and hardworking GMA. Our Malacañang source said the businesswoman was stunned when Arroyo dismissed her complaint with "That’s what the destabilizers say."

Later, when Malacañang invited the businesswoman to join the presidential party to Sorsogon, from where the latter hails, she declined saying that she had to be in New York because her daughter was appearing in a play.

Aghast about how fluid the classification of people in Malacañang, an observer wryly remarked, "From crony to destabilizer." Poor girl. She should have learned from former Fidel Ramos who started as savior, then to destabilizer, and now to "saling pusa."

The incident gives a preview of the fight over the spoils of war if Malacañang would succeed in changing the Constitution illegally and Arroyo becomes president and prime minister for life. There’s no way that Arroyo would relinquish power even after 2010. With the many crimes she has committed, she will go straight to jail the moment she is out of Malacañang.

Sino ito? Si Loida Nicolas Lewis?

MLQ3 has pretty much the same story in his earlier post on Apr 3:

This reminds me of a story, which a fellow journalist told a friend, who then told me, which I then confirmed with someone close to the person in the story. Recently, a prominent Fil-Am supporter of the President wanted to engage in a business opportunity here in the Philippines. The opportunity fell by the wayside because the President’s husband took advantage of the opportunity first. The Fil-Am concerned, upset over the First Gentleman’s alleged intervention, went directly to the President to complain to her that it was behavior like her husband’s that was reflecting badly on the administration. The President icily replied, “those criticizing my husband are destabilizers,” or words to that effect. The Fil-Am was shocked, and infuriated, and instead of accompanying the President on a provincial sortie, went back to the USA. A relative of the Fil-Am confirmed that something along the lines of the story did happen, but not in such a sensational manner.

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This is interesting...

Gloria freezes senators P340M-P560M funds

By Angie M. Rosales EXCLUSIVE

Nine members of 23-man Senate, particularly those who had joined calls for President Arroyo’s resignation in July last year, are paying the price for crossing her.

In apparent retaliation, Malacañang has put on hold the release of the senators’ funds to which they are entitled from Congress for their public projects.

Tribune sources in the Senate and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) yesterday said an estimated P360 million to P540 million in so-called pork barrel, or between P30 million and P60 million each for the senators’ “hard projects” are being withheld by the President.

Aside from these priority development funds (PDFs) contained in the 2005 General Appropriations Act that have been frozen, Malacañang is also holding on to similar funds from the 2004 GAA that should have been released to the senators.

The Tribune sources said Senate President Franklin Drilon, Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan, Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Senators Jamby Madrigal, Sergio Osmeña III, Rodolfo Biazon, Ramon Magsaysay Jr., Luisa “Loi” Ejercito-Estrada and Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada are among those whose PDFs have been withheld.

Pansin ko na wala ang pangalan ni Lacson diyan sa listahan. Because IIRC, the guy refuses to receive his pork barrel anymore.

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No basis for Gloria’s ‘emergency’: Senate
Joker: Objective was media control

A SENATE subcommittee which looked into the alleged media crackdown under Proclamation 1017 yesterday said no emergency situation existed when President Arroyo issued the proclamation on Feb. 24.

Proclamation 1017, which placed the country under a state of national emergency, was only an excuse to muzzle the media, said a report of the Senate subcommittee II of the committees on justice and human rights and on public services.

"There was really no emergency. The order was a pretext. Its objective was to control the media," Sen. Joker Arroyo, chair of subcommittee II, said in a press briefing explaining his committee’s findings.

Mrs. Arroyo, in issuing PP 1017, said a plot hatched by some members of the political opposition, Leftist groups and military "adventurists" to overthrow her government was to be carried out on Feb. 24 coinciding with mass protest actions for the 20th anniversary of the Edsa 1 "people power" revolt that ended the Marcos dictatorship.

The PNP took over the office of the Daily Tribune on Feb. 25.

Sen. Arroyo said it was fortunate that media stood its ground and effectively thwarted Malacañang’s "evil" designs.

"We’re fortunate it did not succeed," he said.

From PCIJ: Senate report backs free press; says the President is not the State

MINCING no words and scolding the President for what it called her “arrogance,” a Senate committee report “bewailed” moves by government to muzzle the media following the declaration of a state of national emergency.

“The President is not the State when it is mentioned in the Constitution,” Senate Committee Report No. 69, released yesterday, said. “But Malacanang, in the manner of Louis XIV equates the State as the President. Hence the unbridled disregard of constitutional limitations on the Presidency.”

Louis XIV, also known as the Sun King, was the 17th-century monarch who ruled France for 72 years. His rule typified the period of absolute monarchy in the second half of the 17th century, when kings ruled without being checked by other representative institutions.

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Resign, COMELEC execs urged

THE United Opposition (UNO) yesterday said Election Commissioner Resurreccion Borra should start packing his things along with fellow officials led by Chairman Benjamin Abalos for having failed to ensure clean and honest elections in 2004.

House minority leader Francis Escudero, UNO secretary general, said with Borra’s admission of cheating in the 2004 elections during a Senate hearing the other day, the Comelec should now tell the people what it did to stop cheating and hold accountable all parties involved, from both sides of the political fence.

More: Retired COMELEC Commish: No way can GMA beat FPJ in M’danao polls

Another Commission on Elections (Comelec) executive, recently retired Commissioner Mehol Sadain, is convinced that massive fraud marked the 2004 presidential elections, saying it was really impossible for President Arroyo to have won against opposition standard-bearer, the late Fernando Poe Jr. in Muslim Mindanao with such a wide lead yet, stressing that FPJ was extremely popular among the Muslims.

“I should know, being a Muslim. I cannot see how Mrs. Arroyo could win over FPJ in the Muslim provinces, he said, adding with Comelec Commissioner Ressurection Borra, concluding, on the basis of election documents presented before the Senate, that there was definitely electoral fraud committed, then Borra’s admission of this fraud is to be believed.

The documents shown were largely from the Mindanao areas where systems experts and analysts invited by the Senate, concluded that some 660,000 to 1.2 million votes from Mindanao were shaved from the President’s opponent and added on to her votes, apart from inflating further her votes with ghost entries.

Sadain retired last Feb. 2,2006, along with Commissioner Rufino Javier. They were, however, still with the Comelec during the 2004 polls.

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Violent dispersals as a result of CPR is the issue, SC told

During interpellation, SC justices asked questions leaning towards regulation of anti-government demonstrations.

Associate Justice Adolfo Azcuna cited a foreign research which found that mob behavior generally tended to attract more crowd and is generally "destructive."

Te said there had been no violent protest actions during the months prior to CPR, except during police dispersals. He noted that the government is equipped with all the resources with which to prevent violent mob protest actions.

Te said that CPR, which replaced the "maximum tolerance" policy of the government for the dispersal of anti-government rallies without permits as provided for in BP 880, is unconstitutional since it is not covered by any executive order or law that will make its implementation legal.

"The CPR policy is void because it is not a law, and it presupposes to amend a law. There is no executive order to cover its implementation, there has been no policy declaration issued by Malacañang. It is never published and its implementation was made only through a press release," he said.

yeah, I recall the two big anti-arroyo rallies sa makati (before CPR) na hindi naman violent. nanggaling lang ang violence nung ini-implement ng pulis ang CPR sa mga protesters.

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More analysis of the poll results from Ninez: So who says people power is on the wane?

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Pinoy Big Brother winner Keanna Reeves visits Batasan 5 "housemates"

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Tidbits from Manong Ernie:

Tidbits. Mayor Danilo Domingo of Malolos City is worried the approval of the Cha-cha initiative will not be accepted by the majority of Filipinos and will invite more protests...The jueteng investigations in the Senate may be resumed and will also tackle the Small Town Lottery (STL)...Another journalist, Orlando Mendoza, 58, editor of the Tarlac Patrol, was shot dead in Barangay Armeña, Tarlac City...A radio network owner told us he has been threatened with loss of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. ads if the network doesn’t clamp down on anti-GMA comments by its broadcasters... Taguig Rep. Allan Peter Cayetano placed 4th in the latest senatorial preferences survey of Pulse Asia released March 4. Loren Legarda was No. 1... Bulacan provincial board member Warlito Trinidad who was killed by NPAs in Sta. Cruz, Occidental Mindoro, was treasure-hunting there...Raul Concepcion, chairman of Consumer and Oil Price Watch, will file a petition before the Supreme Court questioning the legality of the GMA-sponsored people’s initiative... Why is the position of National Bureau of Investigation director still unfilled? Also, the position of Secretary of Education and three Comelec commissioners?...Gringo’s wife, Jane cannot understand why Col. Billy Bibit made such disparaging remarks against her husband, considering how they have helped the Bibits when they were down...At last week’s Sandiganbayan hearing, President Erap testified that Gov. Luis “Chavit” Singson had been accused of pocketing P1.4 billion of the tobacco excise fund under Republic Act (RA) 7171. Isn’t it time for Congress to review and revisit the purposes of RA 7171 to see if it has benefited tobacco farmers at all?...It’s April 5 and the Supreme Court still sits on the petition against Executive Order 464..

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