Looking back at where they Started

At the height of all the Manny Pacquaio controversery, I can’t help but to take advantage of its popularity to prove a point.

Just like what everyone else said, after Pacquaio stopped Cotto in the 12th round of their historic fight the spotlight in the Philippines wasn’t on our new record-breaking, history-making, seven-title holding champion and his big win. No, it wasn’t. Instead, papers and websites were all filled with pictures and stories of Pacquaio’s recent mischief. Apparently, the boxing icon is rumoured to have an affair with another woman. Something very different from the God-fearing, good-guy image he shows before and after every match.

Career defining. Pacquaio shuts up England.

A sudden change of heart? Maybe. There have been a lot of cases like this that has happened in man’s history. And it always is the same story, a poor humble man rises to fame and suddenly becomes arrogant and spoiled. Usually, this is the point of which their fame starts to decline and they end up as nobodies and completely forgotten in the future. There was George Best who, although may be forever renowned in Manchester United and English football folklore, spent his life after football in pubs. He died following an alcoholism-related illness. Another boxing icon, Mike Tyson, could also be put into example. His usual match purse was at least $30 million, yet after his retirement he filed for bankruptcy, got involved in several crimes and committed adultery. These guys are just two examples of wasted legacies. Clearly, pride fuels the person to act so irresponsibly and so carelessly to a point when he/she forgets their limitations.

Looking back, Pacquaio’s journey started at fifteen when he was playing matches to earn a living at $1 a win. He is an offspring of a poor family, at an early age he experienced what it was like to live without a father. Now, he has risen to superstardom and earns a guaranteed purse of  at least $15 million each game and earns even more from PPV rights and other add-ons. And his salaries rocketed at a span of only five years, has all these wealth and fame made Pacquaio, uh, let’s say a little more confident?

With all due respect to our country’s best-known athelete, I am not dismissing him as a straight-out bad person. Of course, who could overlook all the generosity and goodwill he has done to help our countrymen? Just ask anyone from General Santos City, his hometown, about his generosity and they’ll tell you how they simply visit his house and come out Php100-1,000 richer! Not to mention, all of his contributions to various sports program. He manages a local basketball team and has a darts club. But the right things you’ve done can’t cover up for the wrong things that you do. And Pacquaio is learning that nowadays.

Sure, Pacquaio gives back to the people who tirelessly watch his every fight and chant his name all the time. But Manny also messes up at times, and the recent scandals – whether its for real or not – just proves that he does. And even if his own coach, Freddie Roach, is a witness to the mistakes he’s doing. Roach previously spoke of Pacquaio’s generosity, saying that the youngster has too much of it, and fears for his future. 

Today, Manny holds an amazing legacy, becoming the first boxer ever to hold seven titles in as many weight divisions. And his future in the sport, although nearing retirement, is bright. Pacquaio just needs to keep both of his feet on the ground and to look back and remember where he started.

Poll-Related Massacre

It isn’t even elections year, yet the hopefuls are hyping the elections enough to capture everyone’s attention. From their annoying campaign jingles to hearing their dubious (and sometimes ridiculous) platforms, these public-office aspirants make sure their names don’t even get forgotten with the candidates from Luzon being the most guilty ones. To them, popularity is key to success. Elsewhere however, in the lawless region of Maguindanao, a local politician is taking popularity to a whole new level. (Allegedly) This guy doesn’t believe it is in media that he can attain popularity, but he resorts to something else, massacre.

Heavily Armed: Despite tight security, elections in Mindanao continues to be marred with violence.

Residents of this war-torn Mindanao province are very much used to violence, most especially when elections are near. As a matter of fact, at the last national elections (senatorials 2007) Maguindanao registered the highest rate of violence. Yet, the fear is still there. Worried parents fear for their children’s future, education is not even on top of their concerns, what’s education by the way if you’re going to get killed anyways? The threat of death lurks in every corner of the land. There are Muslim rebels roaming freely as well as militia men of corrupt politicians asserting their employer’s supremacy, usually with violence. The military, who are obviously tasked to protect the civilians and enforce the law, find it difficult to do their duties with the kind of power they have in that place. And the equipment they get isn’t much of a help either.

It  has been peaceful for a while in this place, there had been no major conflict that happened here for months. That is a good thing, but this isn’t right. Something was bound to happen. Peace here isn’t and has never been normal.

And now there’s chaos.

Twenty-one people, of whom 13 were women, were abducted and were later found dead. Some of them were even beheaded. The group composed of journalists and politicians, all of them were allies of Vice Mayor Toto Mangudadatu, an aspiring governor. All fingers are pointed at his rival, Mayor Datu Unsay Ampatuan, as suspect.

The time of the crime, the instance, the fashion it happened, the victims, it all adds up. The crime is election related. Police have identified one of the victims as Mangudadatu’s wife. What’s worse is that Mangudadatu fears that more may be found dead as he revealed that there are more of his allies that have been abducted.

This incident dents our country’s elections record once more, and another issue for foreign groups to reconsider the aid  that they give to our government. The Maguindanao massacre is possibly the worst election-related crime and the worst incident of journalists being killed. And the sad thing here is that both records were made in one tragic event.

Today is a sad day for our country. Not only because a diabolical manslaughter has occured but also because our elections, our democracy, is turning more and more into a joke. And just a food for thought, were still four months away from the polls, and yet an atrocity of this calibre has already happened. What will happen next week then? Or next month? Or more importantly during the elections? The government are in the best position to secure a safe and fair election. Sure, they have failed so many times in the past but now is a golden opportunity to redeem themselves. Now is the best time to prove their commitment to fulfulling the dream of a peaceful election. They must ensure peace and fairness this time, and prevent another travesty of our judiciary and our elections from happening.

Political Football?

As the French progress to the World Cup Finals of 2010, one has to ponder if whether the former one-time tournament winners really deserved a spot in the biggest sports event in the world. After a controversial play-off win against a strong Republic of Ireland side the result is now highly contested. The person under the spotlight is France skipper Thierry Henry, whose handball eluded the booking it should’ve gotten, but there’s another question now: is it just a simple case of a player cheating to gain a favourable result? Or is something more massive involved here? Perhaps a case of dirty politics buying the result? There is no proof on that, let’s just hope the sport we all watch and love does not turn into something political.

France captain Thierry Henry(L) sits down with Ireland's Richard Dunne.

 

A string of poor results made fans think that maybe the 2010 FIFA World Cup would be without the likes of Thierry Henry, Franck Ribery or Nicolas Anelka. France, once a winner of the prestigious tournament, were pipped to the automatic qualification spot by Serbia, a small, soccermad nation. The mighty (or once-mighty) French had to settle for a spot in the play-offs.

This was a real test for their manager, Raymond Domenech. If the French didn’t qualify, it would be their first absence from the World Cup since 1994. That’s over fifteen years. It would be a massive disappointment for the French who are extremely passionate about the game. Other than the fact that they are without their legendary midfielder, Zinedine Zidane, the French would not have any other excuse if they did fail to qualify.

And so the draws were made, France was pitted to go against the Republic of Ireland, another soccermad nation. The Irish were in the right condition to pull an upset against France, they nearly secured automatic promotion by a near win against current World Cup holders, Italy, had it not been for a late equaliser the Irish players and fans would already be applying for visas to South Africa now.

The first leg was held in Belfast, despite dominating a greater amount of time the luck of the Irish ran out as a Nicolas Anelka strike broke Irish hearts, 1-0.

The Irish needed a greater amount of their luck at the second leg, as they had to beat the French on their home soil by two goals. The men in green had to pull off a miracle to get this one, and the fans watching were about to believe in it as their captain, Robbie Keane, scored one on the 34th minute. The score on aggregate were tied 1-1, both away goals. Extra time came and the Irish hearts were broken again when William Gallas headed home a goal.

At this point, the Irish felt a lot of things: sad, heartbroken, angry.

The nature of the goal seemed very controversial, France captain Thierry Henry used his hand to scoop the ball back to his foot and made the cross to William Gallas that gave France the goal. Irish players swiftly ran to the referee, protesting that the handball should be booked and the goal be disallowed. However, the referee waved off the protests and allowed the goal, angering the Irish fans and players.

The whistle blew for full time, as the joyous French celebrated qualification along with their manager, Raymond Domenech, the Irish were left dejected and dissappointed. After playing as if their lives were on the line they were to be denied a chance to play for the World Cup by an unfair handball.

Ireland captain Robbie Keane is just one of the players of the Irish squad that fought for World Cup qualification.

And the Irish yelled a familiar protest, “Politics!”. Although there are no real proofs, politics ruining the fairness of the game could be justified. The sport’s governing body, FIFA has been well-known to favor the elites. The play-off selections were already accounted for questioning as the small teams were pitted against the elite, big nations. Portugal were drawn with Bosnia-Herzegovina, for one. And then this game, France against the Republic of Ireland. 

FIFA’s European arm, UEFA, has been the confederation mostly tainted by politics. It’s decision to revoke Gibraltar Island’s application to join the confederation remains a mystery to most people today. If we all know our history, Gibraltar Island is a British military territory captured from Spain. And taking note of Spain’s influence in UEFA, the British island may have gotten an unfair ruling from the body.

Football should be football, and politics should be politics. A mix of the two could produce disastrous results. People often turn to sports to relieve them from the stress of politics, but if politics ruins their sport then whats left to turn to?

As for Ireland’s woes, let’s just hope that they learn to move on and train their next generation players for the 2014 World Cup. For France, let’s hope guilt takes the most out of them and would ruin their chance of a second title, that would only make it fair. And as for the World Cup, well let’s hope they won’t be playing political football during that time.

Remembering Ninoy’s Plight

Are you still worth dying for?

Undoubtedly the country’s father for democracy and one of the most brilliant minds the world has ever seen, Ninoy Aquino was just a simple public servant who envisioned a better life for the Filipino. He died as a result of his defiance to the corrupt, but as the saying goes: “No bullet can kill the spirit”.

Malacañang Globetrotters

President Arroyo usually brings with her the entire Cabinet

At a time when an energy crisis, swine flu and expensive airfares make world travel difficult, a team of globetrotters defy the odds and travel at a regular basis.

As President Arroyo reaches the twilight of her tenure as chief executive, she plans to take advantage of her remaining months by going on different trips. Most of them seem to be leisure, but as the Palace would always say it is indeed business. Her last trip, according to her spokespersons, netted $2 B worth of investments. It seems like its worth it, but how many times have we heard before of planned foreign investments that fail to employ even a single Filipino?

Yet her visits continue, bringing with her the usual entourage: which is 1/3 of the House of Representatives and 2/3 of her Palace staff. The globetrotters then stay in a five-star hotel and receive the finest accommodations. And instead of being paid for by the host countries when she makes official state visits, the amount is pulled out of a Filipino taxpayer’s pocket.

Definitely, a nation must be embodied by its leader during international events such as summits of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). But bringing with her such a huge entourage at a time when the economy is struggling to grow?

The president’s travel expenses must be within the budget allotted by law, and the budget allotted by law should be a surplus sum or should be pooled from lawmakers excess pork. In other words, the budget the President uses for her travel should be unimportant and should not be given priority. And when she does travel, she should review the entourage and evaluate everyone if that person is needed on the trip or not.

Attracting foreign investments is an impractical reason for a President to make such extravagant visits. Foreign investment came to countries like Taiwan and Vietname not because their Presidents making overseas trips but because of their success in making their countries economically-feasible and business friendly. Something President Arroyo’s administration failed to do in its nine-year tenure.

The Gonzalez Factor

Cesar Mancao, one of Gonzalez's successes

The Department of Justice (DOJ) secretary successfully brings Mancao home, and has Dumlao on his way back home. That’s a double score for Raul Gonzalez. And definitely would give him plus points to the President. But the most unexpected happened, Gonzalez announces his resignation as justice secretary and plans to run for congress in his hometown. Speculations arose, is he just seeking a better position (financially) or is there anything to do with the Dacer-Corbito double murder case especially since the prime suspect, Senator Panfilo Lacson announces his withdrawal from next year’s elections?

That idea gave all of us food for thought. A scary thought actually if the administration and the opposition would forge some kind of deal behind our backs and satisfy both greeds. At whose cost though? At Dacer and Corbito’s family, and all those seeking for justice.

Certainly, it is crucial for President Arroyo to remain in power, or at least be influential after next year’s elections with almost all of the presidentiables promising to get her for all corruption allegations. With Senator Lacson being her fiercest rival among the possible candidates, she’s going to have to find a way to ease her troubles.

For Senator Lacson however, the Dacer-Corbito double murder case is the one closest to pinning him as a criminal. Evading this case is vital. And the only one in position to get him off the hook, is President Arroyo.

Two great evils needing each other to watch their back. With Gonzalez officially out, it looks like they’re going to have it their way. But history would always repeat itself, Marcos was ill-fated to pass on his power to his children and Estrada’s habit for gambling failed to get financed by public funds. For me, whether this conspiracy is real or just a figment of imagination, it will never happen without the Filipinos having the final say on it.

Poll Automation

The winning machine from Smartmatic Consortium

The COMELEC ’s (Commission on Elections) dream of n automated election has finally come true, just yesterday actually as they formally awarded the P7.2 B contract to Smartmatic-Total Information Management Corportation. The deal may be a bargain to some regarding the amount approved earlier by Congress (P11.3 B), but what worries most is that the bargain may come at a price. If the poll machines would prove to be mediocre and would be an easy target for the corrupt to cement their spot in public office.

The dream of an automated poll came along with the new millenium, as Filipinos associated the arrival of modern time with modern technology. Congress paved the road for it, and the long wait seemed to have arrived last 2003 when COMELEC awarded the poll automation contract to Mega Pacific consortium. A budget was released that would pay for almost 2,000 machines at a cost of about P1.2 billion, the project was intended for the 2004 general elections. But a few months before the polls, the Supreme Court (SC) voided the deal citing irregularities in the COMELEC’s bidding guidelines. And in effect, all those who participated in the Mega Pacific contract were given graft charges.

This case is still under process and while the accused are still walking free, the purchased machines are rotting in where ever they are stored. So before we celebrate of having modern elections, we must first wait until the voting day itself to see if the billions of peso  were really worth it.

There are still many obstacles we need to hurdle though, one tough test for thewinning consortium is if they can deliver the machines in perfect(or at least P7.2 B worth) quality. The votes must be tallied accurately, without any glitches that could expose it to the risk of being hacked.

And even if they have already found the supplier, the COMELEC are not yet off the hook though. In fact, they are in a make or break situation. They need to distribute the machines to all of the voting precincts nationwide and educate the poll officers on how to operate the machines.

There are also some problems that would still hinder the new automation method to be successful. As votes can still be bought and voters intimidated. The COMELEC also need to cater problems regarding the machines if they persist.

All of these needs to be done in order to finally, after all these years, say we have a modern electoral process.

The Same Song with a Different Tune

Rallies like this are what stops lawmakers from extending President Arroyo's term...even if they want to.

After the death of the Charter Change, the Arroyo ass-kissing, opportunistic lawmakers went back to the drawing table and hatched a new idea. They wanted to fight for the same cause: cut the chains that restrain them from nurturing their greed, the Philippine Charter. That was what Cha-cha was for actually, now they’re using a new name: Con-ass or Constitutional Assembly.

Contrary to what every other critic would say, I don’t believe that the Con-ass is to extend President Arroyo’s or anyone else’s terms. That is virtually impossible with the number of Filipinos who want her out. They surely wouldn’t want their representative to extend her stay. They (the representatives) know that, Arroyo herself knows that. They’re too smart for that! What this Con-ass would is to give the greedy more teeth into the taxpayers’ money. The wealth of the country.

As it was earlier reported, Con-ass would give P20 M more pork to lawmakers. Think of what kind of advantage this would give the administration in their 2010 election bid. More money to campaign, advertise and the painful one, bribe.

The more an administration candidate would retain their spot in next year’s elections the more President Arroyo would continue her grasp on the nation. Just remember the Harry Potter series, Lord Voldemort was powerless and gone but his loyal servants stayed and brought him back to power. The Congress is already Arroyo-dominated, retain this and add more in the years to come and you’ve got an Arroyo Congress! Now all thats left is the Senate, even just 1/3 of that chamber would be enough to formally say that Arroyo stays as a president even if she will not run again.

What I’m saying here is that we shouldn’t aim our rants and rallies at one person (the President), because really…it’s just one person! We should zero in on where corruption is more rampant, the Congress and see what they’re doing. Because really, this Con-ass is just the same old ass-y song.

Mancao’s Return

It's all up to this guy: Cesar Mancao

After countless attempts to get him back following the reopening of the Dacer-Corbito double murder case, former Philippine Anti-Crime Commission (PACC) agent Cesar Mancao is finally coming back to the Philippines to testify in the said case.

His return may well sound superb especially to the family of Bubby Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito, but let’s ponder for a while—why now and not months back? Are we going to suffer another “jocjoc” and have a witness who is drained of all the intriguing facts he knows?

We were all eager to hear what Jocelyn Bolante had to say in the fertilizer fund scam, but the long wait was nothing. In the end, we had our hearts broken when Jocjoc said the phrase: “there is no fertilizer fund scam”. Where did the Php 728M fund go to? To fertilizers for farmers or for fertilizers to plant administration candidates into public office?

Mancao has a lot of things to consider before he decides to either lie or tell the truth: one is the family Dacer and Corbito left, one wrong move would make their deaths useless. And another thing is to expose the real “bad guys”. Both former president Joseph Estrada and Senatior Panfilo Lacson are linked to the case, and both seek a term in the highest office in the land. If they are criminals and are given the powers of a president, who knows what kind of chaos that would bring to the country.

So to Mr. Cesar Mancao, sir, testify not for a subpoena but for your country.

Security Breach: First Case of Swine Flu in the Philippines

A poster you should expect to see lately.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has just confirmed the Philippines’ first case of the dreaded Influenza A(H1N1) virus.

The victim is a ten-year old girl who just arrived with her family from the U.S. and Canada. Her identity, the hospital she is staying in and where the hospital is remains undisclosed as of press time.

The news came as such a big suprise as the RP government were so committed to keep the virus away from the country. Although the virus didn’t breed at home, and clearly isn’t a failure of the Heath Department, the government can still be blamed for not banning flights to and from flu-stricken countries.

Good news however is that the best -known counter against the flu, the TamiFlu, has been imported extensively.

Now the sight of face masks would be common in the Philippines as well.