JOKE OF THE WEEK: Administration candidate Mar Roxas claimed that Vice President Jojo Binay cheated him in 2013. But, Mar did not say when and how.
I really don’t know what Mar is up to. Is he preparing for his claim that after the May 9 elections, he would also be cheated by whoever wins?
I say this since he is a sure loser to me.
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The Filipino people now realize, although late in coming—after three decades, to be sure —that Edsa 1, or the so-called People Power Revolution is not what many think it to be.
It was the breakaway military group led by then-Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and then-Col. Gringo Honasan, later on joined by then-PC/INP Chief Fidel V. Ramos, and backed by Reform the Armed Forces Movement that started everything. The late President Corazon Aquino was a mere beneficiary of this event.
Sadly, after three decades, corruption has become endemic. The son of Aquino is now in power, but the people continue to be poor and helpless.
I cannot but recall the “Dark Ages” of the late Cory Aquino administration after she mothballed the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant in an attempt to erase from the face of the earth everything that reminded her the Marcoses.
In the case of BS Aquino III, it’s an era of vindictiveness, incompetence, lack of sensitivity and compassion for the poor, and selective justice.
Thank God he is stepping down soon. But he has the temerity to ask us to allow his anointed one, former Secretary Manuel Roxas II, to continue his straight path. It’s not the Daang Matuwid, actually, but the road to perdition.
To me, the real tragedy of Edsa 1 is that the people who were not there at Edsa risking their lives are the one benefitting from it.
My gulay, when I see photos in newspapers raising their hands as we celebrate the so-called People Power Revolution, I want to puke.
The only ones I can say were true heroes of Edsa 1 are JPE, Honasan, the RAM members and former President Ramos.
In fact, I would say that we should stop celebrating Edsa 1 because it has become meaningless to the people who should have benefitted from it.
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BS Aquino III claims he has been able to reduce poverty by at least four million with his Conditional Cash Transfer program—a nice name for dole to the poor.
This is a program started by former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo not to solve poverty, but only to help the impoverished sector of the economy to be able to send their children to school and get help for health care.
The Aquino administration instead has made the CCT program, now called Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, a tool to eradicate poverty. But no less than the World Bank that lends the government funds to continue the program has said that the CCT is not intended to lift the people out of poverty, but to allow them to send their children to school and attend to their hospital needs. That’s why the numbers don’t add up.
Under the program, each family is entitled to P6,000 a year in medical assistance for pregnant mothers and another P3,000 in educational assistance for poor children. For the past five years of the BS Aquino III administration, the cost of the CCT program has ballooned to almost P63 billion ($1.3 billion) in the more than P3 trillion 2016 national budget.
In other words, contrary to the claims of BS Aquino III that he has done so much to reduce poverty by the CCT dole program, he was lying through his teeth.
Then again, the bigger problem is that we Filipinos are in effect made hostage to the government loans from the World Bank. Remember: Government still has to pay the loans.
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The Comelec claims, in answer to the petition of returning former Senator Richard Gordon, that the Comelec should comply with the provisions of the Automated Election Systems Law on the use of Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail to prevent cheating during the May 9 polls, that such will instead encourage vote-buying.
Fear of vote-buying is speculative, while the law mandates the issuance of an audit-trail receipt. In other words, what’s more important: compliance with the law or Comelec’s fears of vote-buying?
The people themselves, four out of 10 in fact, are already saying that there will be cheating in the coming polls. Thus, the Comelec is mandated to do everything possible to assure the people of a credible, clean and honest election.
We have already heard a lot about the cheating during the 2010 and 2013 elections. Thus, it’s imperative for the Comelec to comply with safeguards and remove the thought among the people that cheating will surely take place.
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There is one presidential candidate who I think should withdraw now, simply because she won’t make it. I am referring to Senator Miriam Santiago, who is the tailender in poll survey ratings.
Aside from this, she is a very sick woman, suffering Stage 4 cancer, and chronic fatigue syndrome that prevents her from attending Senate sessions.
Another candidate who does not have any chance of winning is vice presidential bet Antonio Trillanes, that pathetic figure.
I say these not because I don’t believe Miriam does not deserve to be president. It’s her health condition I am worried about. Note that even during the presidential debate she had to sit down on her chair.
In the case of Trillanes, I believe he will never make it not even in his wildest dreams. For the sake of his friends who contribute to his campaign, he should just withdraw.
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Supreme Court insiders tell me that the Supreme Court may come out with its decision on the disqualification cases of Mrs. Mary Grace Natividad Kelly Poe Llamanzares this coming Tuesday, March 1.
My inside sources say that there has been a delay on the promulgation of the decision on the Grace Poe case because Supreme Court Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno has been reportedly campaign in favor of Mrs. Llamanzares among the justices, even among those who are against her.
Just why the Chief Justice is so interested in favoring Mrs. Llamanzares is speculative. Some say she is afraid of being impeached if somebody else becomes president. Don’t ask me why.
