Malaya (06.22.09)
“Manny Pacqujiao will definitely win a national election for party-list hands-down; so will Gloria Arroyo.”
by Ducky Paredes
I disagree with the insistence of former President and administration party leader that Gloria Aroyo clarify what she wsill do for 2010 – run for an office or sit out the election. Has Steady Eddie forgotten that in 2003, she declared in Baguio City that she would not be seeking re-election after her having deposed President Estrada and, as his vice president, taking over the presidency as the elected vice president.
What hapenned next?
Perhaps, Remos has forgotten that in 2004, after seeing that the initial entrants were pushovers like Senators Raul Roco and Panfilo Lacson and Evangelist Eddie Villanueva, she then delcared that she was making a run for the presidency. Later, when faced with the popularity of actor Fernando Poe, Jr., she then first tried to disqualify FPJ by tracing his roots to a Spanish grandfather.. Failing in that, the Supreme Court did her the favor of disallowing automated elections to give her a chance to cheat her way to victory.
Don’t tempt the fates, FVR. Just let her do what she wants at her own pace. As long as nothing happens in between – as, for instance, her taking over the country as dictator with the help of military officers that she has bought off or getting the constituent assembly idea passed by the legislature (both of which sound like a mission impossible ventures to me) — there will be very limited options for Gloria post-June 2010.
As to her running for congress, I have the same advice for her as I have for Manny Pacquiao: why face off with local politicians in a local political contest? The local boy just might give you a good fight and may even win against you; the better option is to run for congress under the Party-list system with the added bonus of Jinky and Donya Dionisia possibly winning as well. Manny Pacqujiao will definitely win a national election for party-list hands-down; so will Gloria Arroyo.
If you don’t believe this, look up the internet survey being run by a news organization’s blog on what Gloria should do in 2010 – run for an office or do nothing and disappear. Seventeen percent want her to run for office. That is a solid vote that will translate to victory for a party-list congressperson.
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Senators Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan, Antonio Trillanes IV, and Manuel Villar have expressed support for detained Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim’s plan to run for a seat in the Senate in 2010.
Why not? In fact, why not a whole pack of persons being voted into the Senate who will not be able to attend senate sessions? Then, perhaps, we would all realize how utterly pointless having a chamber full of what are highly popular icons who represent nothing except their own personal agendas and their propensity for using political power for their own interests and families.
The ones who will be unable to attend the sessions (since they will be in some jail under detention or serving a prison term) will contribute just as much as those who will be present and whose ticket to the Senate was from having had a sports or entertainment career or some other form of notoriety.
Perhaps, then, we will all come to realize that we need the Senate as much as we need a hole in the head; and, eventually, at some point in the future, we will vote to do away with this useless and very expensive anachronism.
My own grandfather, Delegate Jesus A. Paredes in the convention that passed the 1939 Constitution, batted for the Senate as against proponents for a one-chjamber parliament. He envisioned a Senate composed of the best minds in the country giving wise counsel to us all on how to navigate in world affairs and domestically. He saw a Senate that would chart our course to a future filled with promise and prosperity.
While the Senate in its initial years was made up of some of our best minds, it has become only the repository of the temporarily popular (during that election year) and those who are rich enough to buy up votes or buy the work of Garci-type operators who can deliver the votes for their candidates regardless of who the people actually voted for.
We would all be served well with the abolition of the Senate in its present form. Perhaps a Senate composed of one representative from each province would be a better one. Then, it would not need a national election to elect a senator; then, as in the US, to move up to the national political stage, a senator would actually have to first distinguish himself as someone with more than just a pretty face.
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What is this all about? According to a Reuters report from Tokyo, a holding company based in the United Kingdom will control 400,000 hectares of land in the northern Philippines for the next 50 years where it will plant coconut trees to produce biofuel for the Japanese market?
In an announcement in Tokyo coinciding with the visit to Japan of President Macapagal-Arroyo, the Pacific Bio-Fields Holdings Plc. president Salacnib Baterina, his company had reached an understanding to reforest idle lands in northern Luzon with coconut trees.
Bio-Energy NL is Pacific’s Philippine counterpart that manages land use and regeneration.
Baterina said the two sides agreed 60 percent of the coconut ethyl mester (CME), an essential component of bio-diesel, to be produced would be used in the Philippines and 40 percent would go to the Japanese market.
Pacific Bio-Fields, which aims to list on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market later this year, said on Thursday the agreement allows it “to use exclusively public land on the northern main island of Luzon for free over the next 50 years,” according to the Reuters report.
“It is the first time the Philippines’ government has allowed any local or foreign company to use land for a coconut oil-made bio-diesel project,” Yuji Taniguchi, head of the holding company with its main operations in Japan and the Philippines, told a group of reporters.
Why does the country spend so much money for the trips of our President to other countries when, upon arrival abroad, she will immediately sell the country down the nearest river.
Reforestation is not done with coconuts, bamboo, bananas and other trees not originally part of the original forest (and certainly not with a monocrop); as for planting coconuts forc whatever purpose, why the hecfk would we need someone else’s money for that when a venture like that – on government land – can certainly be run and financed locally by our own investors.
Why do we always cave in to foreigners? Is there no more nationalism in our blood stream? Is being nationalist now already politically incorrect?
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hvp 06.21.09)
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