“Senator Legarda filed a bill precisely seeking to increase the salaries and upgrade the positions of teachers and she also co-authored a resolution seeking the same for uniformed military personnel and civilian employees of the Department of National Defense.”
by Ducky Paredes
It is just 114 days to Election Day. Expect the black propaganda practitioners to be working overtime. Time was when black propaganda – news bits, mostly rumors – that tend to destroy public perception of the intended victim was tough to do. One had to feed the toxic lie to a newsman-friend or a columnist or a friendly broadcaster who would then do a blind item that would clearly show up the bad side of the targeted individual. Or, a white paper would be put together listing all the awful things the intended victim did.
The problem then was that there would be a paper trail and the black prop would eventually be discovered.
These days, all one needs is a cell phone with a prepaid sim (subscriber identity module) card or, better yet, several. Then, there is the e-mail. Anyone can create e-mail addresses and send off e-mails to just about anyone using yahoo, g-mail, hotmail or any other service where one can be anonymous.
These days, if you receive a text message from someone you do not know telling you something awful or even just slightly bad about any of the candidates, know that you are being sold a black prop lie. The fact that it was sent to you tells you that someone wants you to dwell on the matter as a way of convincing you to not vote for the candidate and, even worse, to forward the same message to your friends, (Sometimes, items are clever enough to be shared even when they are clearly black propaganda.)
Valenzuela City Rep. Rex Gatchalian, NPC spokesman tells us of text messages from anonymous sources saying that Senator Legarda filed a bill seeking to reduce the salaries of public school teachers and military personnel. What? Are we to now believe that Loren is not a politician? Only a non-politico would do anything of that sort!
Says Rex: “Nothing could be farther from the truth. On the contrary, Senator Legarda filed a bill precisely seeking to increase the salaries and upgrade the positions of teachers and she also co-authored a resolution seeking the same for uniformed military personnel and civilian employees of the Department of National Defense.”
According to Gatchalian, Loren filed Senate Bill No. 1611, entitled “An Act Upgrading the Minimum Salary Grade Level of Teachers from Salary Grade 10 to 19.”
In fact, Loren was one of the authors and co-signors of Senate Resolution No. 26, entitled “Joint Resolution Authorizing the President of the Philippines to modify the position classification system of civilian personnel and the base pay schedule of the military and uniformed personnel in the government, and to implement the same initially effective July 1, 2009, and for other purposes.”
Rex goes on: “This is on the record and is known to everybody who has followed up Loren’s activities in the Senate. Apparently those who are disseminating this manifestly false information are desperate that Senator Legarda is bound to win the vice presidential race. This disinformation is a disservice to our electorate who deserve to be told the truth.”
Gatchalian points out that in budget deliberations Loren had always pushed for increases in salaries and benefits of government employees, especially teachers and health workers, and military personnel.
Loren has special concern for members of the military. She has a degree in National Security Administration from the National Defense College of the Philippines, graduating at the top of her class. She is also a reserve officer in the Armed Forces of the Philippines, with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Rex Gatchalian explains: “Senator Legarda has always demonstrated her compassion and concern for the rank-and-file employees of government, including civilian, military and police, teachers and health workers, because she believes that they are usually overworked and underpaid, considering the continuing rise in the cost of living.
“In her two terms in the Senate, Loren has filed bills and supported legislation that would improve the economic security and future of our public servants, and ensure for them a decent standard of living, She also supported and pushed for larger appropriations in the budget for increase of salaries and benefits for government employees and officials.”
See, Rex, black prop can sometimes bring the one NPC-NP bet some good. Imagine if that black prop item did not exist, how else could you talk me into writing about what Loren has been doing for the downtrodden teachers, soldiers, police and other government employees?
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Of the more than 80,000 PCOS (Precinct Count Optical Scan) machines, not ten percent have been delivered from China; none have been properly tested yet and the teachers who are to man the precincts have yet to be trained on how to handle the machines.
We read that the National Power Corp. (Napocor) will need at least P6 billion to make sure that there is adequate power supply on Election Day; otherwise, the PCOS machines will not work.
Froilan Tampinco, Napocor president says that he has submitted his contingency plan with the Comelec and Comelec was satisfied that Napocor has a plan in place that will require megawatts of mobile capacities that can be moved from one area to another to make sure that any problem in any area can be addressed.
Comelec told Napocor that it will also invest in batteries to ensure that computers can work. But, apart from the computers, Comelec still needed sufficient power supply for the counting machines.
“We need to make sure that the electricity we generate is wheeled properly,” says Tampinco.
Apparently, the extra preparedness does not come cheap. Napocor needs P6 billion to pull off an adequate electricity supply on Election Day. That plus the more than P6 billion for the lease of the PCOS machines and whatever extra we will have to pay for the leased precinct-level PCOS machines that will be lost and destroyed (by fire, bullets or accident) will assure us of the most expensive elections we have ever had, which may not even turn out as well as planned. In fact, it could be turn out to be a monumental snafu – “system normal, all f—ed up.”
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My uncle (brother of my mother), Eriberto Misa, Jr., World War 2 veteran, Bataan Death March survivor, Con-con delegate, Lumber Executive, Director of the Bureau of Prisons, Ateneo Ozanam awardee, died in Davao early Monday morning. He is survived by his wife, Regina Maxey, and children Thirdy, Reggie, Boots, Ram, George, Stan, Meg, Jessie, Ciay, Don and Francis and lots of grandchildren and great-grandchildren,
The pious reader is asked to remember Tito Bert in their prayers.
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hvp 01.04.10
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