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.