scaRRed_cat

SONA TRAFFIC SCHEME

2011-07-24T13:44:00.002+08:00

THE GRAPHIC PAGE comes from the House of Representatives. Do read if you have to pass areas near the Batasang Pambansa Complex. A safe and easy passage, friends!

AMPATUAN MASSACRE TRIAL LIVE COVERAGE GUIDELINES BASED ON DIALOGUE BETWEEN SC AND PETITIONERS

2011-06-23T12:52:00.009+08:00

Lawyer Romy Capulong said it best: The legal battle to have live coverage of the Ampatuan massacre trial is not just about media coverage; it is about access to justice. Now, the families of the victims (and the accused) can be spared the heavy burden of regular travel to Metro Manila to witness the trial. Hopefully, live coverage will also educate Filipinos on the law and the judicial process in this country.

It is true that many journalists gulped at reading the 15-page Supreme Court decision penned by (just retired) Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales. A cursory read does show daunting challenges. To keep this note brief, I shall not rehash the SC decision; please use the hyperlink.

But in a meeting convened by petitioners immediately after the promulgation, we agreed (on Atty. Capulong’s advice) to hold off filing any clarificatory motion and, instead, explore all avenues via dialogue with the Supreme Court. After all, it IS a unanimous decision; unprecedented and with positive repercussions for the administration of justice in this nation.

The petitioners, thus, proceeded on the presumption of good faith – a view that has been validated by swift (and very level-headed) action from the part of Court Administrator and spokesman, Justice Midas Marquez.

There are still a few issues that need to be clarified. But on the whole, discussions between petitioners and the SC have been very fruitful. Already, media entities are preparing their applications. These will be processed speedily, Marquez says, once the decision becomes final and executory. Hopefully, lawyers for the accused accept the decision. At least one counsel, for suspended ARMM governor Zaldy Ampatuan says they will not file a motion for reconsideration.

From my notes, here are the results of the dialogue between the SC and petitioners:

The SC starts trial live streaming next week on its website and will confer with media groups on improvements needed;

Networks with more than one TV channels can file as a single entity, listing down all platforms available for live coverage;

Networks with more than one channel can shift carriers of the live coverage, so long as there are no breaks, up until promulgation of verdict. (TV to website is not acceptable). Networks should inform viewers at all times where the live coverage can be accessed.

While the decision directs no breaks, unless sanctioned by the judge, news organizations may exercise their discretion should life-and-death and/or earth-shaking news erupt. (There is still the danger of cancellation of license for live coverage but we will have to trust the court’s appreciation of our good faith.)

While live coverage is on-going, crawlers about other news will be allowed, as well as SILENT windows about other events happening. No override of audio will be allowed while proceedings are on-going.

Live coverage on TV and the Web can have windows with graphics to provide viewers with context and greater clarity about proceedings (timelines, for example).

Media entities are allowed to use excerpts of the live coverage for their news reports, which can also occur during breaks.

Brief annotations before and after “scenes” are allowed, as is commentary so long as these are factual and do not violate the rules governing sub judice.

The SC will try its best to provide its own legal expert to annotate points of law. News entities can also have experts during their news breaks – again, subject to rules covering sub judice.

The SC will operate the lone camera in the courtroom, giving focus to the judge, witness on the stand and lawyers of both sides; mics will be provided all five.

The SC will ask lawyers to position themselves so that their profiles and not their backs are shown on-cam. (This is, of course, not binding and they won’t be penalized if, in the heat of the moment, they forget that fine point of coverage.)

The Court will decide on the blurring or blacking out of persons with seucity problems or of children. Justice Marquez is amenable to requesting the Court to provide media at the start of the day’s proceedings with a list covering all possibilities.

The SC will provide still photos of courtroom proceedings for the media, but these will just be higher-reso images of the same angle provided by the audio-visual camera. Photographers will be allowed opportunities for photos at the start and end of each day’s proceedings, on a first-come-first-served basis.

Reporters covering will be allowed to live tweet or post grabs on social networking sites, subject to sub judice rules. The SC will not hold the public’s comments against any media organization and will not monitor individuals. Website live chats covered by the same guideline: Journalists advised to be factual, the public free to comment.

Media entities not covering live can still grab from the SC live footage or purchase from networks doing live coverage and process these for news; the same, for other organizations interested in the proceedings – all subject to the same sub judice rules. They can still apply for recording but prority will be given those that cover live.

Radio stations (often stand-alone) can do live stream on their websites and use the same for their broadcast news packages. Any live coverage on radio will be covered by the SC rules for TV.

The SC will do its best to arrange for a viewing room where tech arrangements will also be set up to fulfill the decision’s mandate for the least disruption to trial proceedings.

Marquez foresees no deadline for applications. As the trial is expected to go on for years, media entities that pass for the moment on live coverage can apply at a latter time.

The petitions for live coverage were filed by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation, GMA Network, Inc., (ABC 5’s senior media officers signed as individuals) relatives of the victims, individual journalists from various media entities, and members of the academe. Government networks were not part of the petition but Presdent Benigno Aquino III has instructed NBN to undertake “gavel-to-gavel” live coverage of the trial.

(INDAY is head of Bayan Mo iPatrol Mo, ABS-CBN's citizen journalism arm. She formerly chaired the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines.)

Rape of PH seas continues due to culture of impunity

2011-06-07T19:02:00.014+08:00

(Photos by Yvette Lee)

The series of seizures of Philippine black coral and other threatened marine life should not come as a surprise. Half a decade ago, the problem was outright poaching by foreign vessels. That phenomenon continues: Late last month authorities apprehended 122 Vietnamese fishermen onboard vessels flying Philippine flags around Balabac, Palawan.

But poaching, with its potential for diplomatic fallout, can be a costly exercise. So four years ago, the biggest illegal extractors of Philippine marine life – and possibly the biggest consumer group, too – were already laying down the foundations for more cost-effective enterprises. Doing so required setting up layers of corruption.

Then…

I wrote an article published on Jan. 17, 2007 that not only tackled poaching, but also the arrangements being done to streamline the harvest and smuggling out of Philippine marine life. It led off:

China, host of the 2008 Olympics, has launched a campaign to highlight its “Green” side but Philippine environmentalists and government officials say poaching activities of its nationals veer toward “organized crime.”

“In Palawan, Tawi-Tawi, Jolo and Basilan, there are Chinese ‘tourists’ spending time in fishing villages, befriending locals and placing orders for endangered aquatic and land animals,” according to Lory Tan, World Wildlife Fund-Philippines executive director.

In between scouting for friendly locals to the actual trapping of wildlife and smuggling these out of the country, are several steps that require an intricate arrangement of “top to bottom” bribes, Tan (said)

And now…

Only last week, Tan (now vice president and chief executive of WWF Philippines) warned about the destruction of Philippine coral reefs.

He said 50 years of nonstop destructive commercial and poorly managed artisanal fishing has left only 5% in excellent condition. Only 1% remains “pristine.”

Another report cited destroyed reefs in an area five times the size of Metro Manila.

Whether you’re harvesting coral or just destroying them in the hunt for other marine life, it’s a lucrative business. The value of just one shipment, believed to have originated from the coast of Cotabato, was pegged at P35 million -- for 196 kilos of sea whips corals, 161 heads of preserved hawksbill and green turtles, 7,300 pieces of seashells and 21,169 pieces of black coral.

Another recent case in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu province, featured ready-to-export corals and shells, stocked in two shanties and bound for South Korea. Nathaniel Lucero, aquaculturist from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, said the recovered shells and coral are “all endangered species” – nobody is allowed to harvest, much less export, these.

(By the way, Black Coral isn’t always black. Diver and award-winning photographer Yvette Leem who shared the photo above of a live Black Coral Tree, says: “They come in different colors, white, orange (like this one), fluorescent yellow and green. It’s called black coral because when the stems and branches are exposed to the sun and dried, they become shiny especially after being polished,” Lee explains. True black coral is seldom seen in commercial quantities, having fallen victim to decades of pillage. Video clips of the seizures actually show sea fans, Lee adds. The most expensive coral is actually the red kind found in the Mediterranean area.)

Lip service

Back in 2006, scientists were already warning of the great pressures placed on our seas. An article by Katherine Adraneda noted that the World Bank viewed the Philippines as the world’s "center of marine biodiversity" because of its vast species of marine and coastal resources. But the WB report, "Philippine Environment Monitor 2005," also criticized the country for using its coastal resources "in a very inefficient manner”.

Elisea Gozun, former environment secretary and WB consultant, presented the report:

“Gozun said the country’s fishery resources are considered more heavily exploited than elsewhere in the world, and that the country has the most degraded reefs compared to five other Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia...

Plenty of lip service has been paid to marine conservation. Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, a diver, even ordered then environment secretary, Angelo Reyes, to convene a task force and come up with a national integrated coastal management plan.

And yet the same administration -- headed by a woman who liked being photographed with the fishes and the big blue sea -- ignored reports of big-scale poaching.

The Arroyo administration even blocked efforts by hard-working sea rangers to apprehend poachers and bring them to justice.

Angelique Songco, head of the Tubbataha Management Office, said that in several cases, Department of Justice Officials in the national capital relieved local prosecutors, replacing them with Manila-based fiscals. Or they ordered a reversal of findings. In one case, a judge halted proceedings mid-trial to allow a plea bargain by the suspects.

TOM lawyer, Gerthie Anda said: "It's the trend; they'll bargain down to the least serious crime, often with advice by government officials."

In one incident I also wrote about, the Department of Foreign Affairs actually tried to intercede for the poachers. (The DFA was then headed by former secretary Alberto Romulo, who was initially asked to stay on by President Benigno Aquino III.)

Bullying
The December, 26, 2006 story went this way:

They got caught red-handed with 800 live fish, including 300 of the endangered Mameng (Napoleon Wrasse), but 30 Chinese poachers apprehended on December 21 by rangers at the Tubbataha protected marine park, may yet get to walk if the Chinese government has its way.

Chinese diplomats have reportedly demanded the release of the crew, according to sources at the Department of Foreign Affairs. The Chinese, the sources said, even want the Navy to escort the 300-gross ton Hoi Wan out of the area.

The Tubbataha rangers’ appeals for a Navy ship to escort the vessels to Puerto Princesa were ignored. But an officer from the Chinese Embassy suddenly arrived in Puerto Princesa within 24 hours of the report.

An official of the DFA also reportedly called Puerto Princesa to defend the Chinese, calling the arrest irregular and claiming the vessel was merely passing through Philippine waters.

The reason for that became clear a few days later. I got hold of a copy of Chinese Ambassador Li Jinjun’s letter to Romulo, urging the Philippine official to “pay personal attention” to the case.

Li warned the case could jeopardize the attendance of Premier Wen Jiabao in an upcoming summit of Southeast Asian nations and their East Asian partners.

Ambassador Li Jinjun linked the case to a Philippine-China fishery cooperation agreement and the country’s relations with Hong Kong, where tens of thousands of Filipinos work as domestic help.

The envoy said the embassy was in close contact with the Department of Agriculture and the AFP Western Command. Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, the ambassador claimed, had promised “to resolve the issue as soon as possible” if the fishes were released

He urged Romulo to agree to the release of crew and their vessel before it was escorted to Puerto Princesa. “In that case, we are afraid that it may make the situation more complicated and delay the early resolution.”

(Yap did not deny the report or address the issue of Chinese pressure, except to say his office was coordinating with the rangers and WWF.)

Crime pays
Poaching, of course, was happening way before Mrs. Arroyo assumed power. From 1998 to 2006, rangers across the country arrested close to 600 Chinese nationals. There was only one conviction – for 17 poachers nabbed with 54 marine turtles in December 2005.

The crime carries a 12 to 20-year jail sentence. But by the first semester of 2006, President Arroyo had signed a pardon for the Chinese nationals.

At the time I was writing the article, lawyers and government officials were trying to persuade Manila to prevent 30 Chinese poachers from the Hoi Wan from leaving the country following their release from bail. They were definitely candidates for flight, having been caught with 2,000 fishes, compressor equipment, wet suits and ten sampans on their vessel.

We’re still being bullied in the seas around Palawan, but the rape of our wathttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifers has also become an efficient criminal enterprise in the years since the WWF warned of “buyers” doing the rounds of coastal towns.

The volume of the recent seizures indicates a long-running operation, complete with half-way warehouses and consolidation centers. That doesn’t happen overnight. In 2007, Tan was already talking about “local managers”.

Senate Environment Committee chairman, Juan Miguel Zubiri has identified financier of black coral-consignee Exequiel Navarro as Olivia Lim Li. He wants authorities to investigate whether Li and her cohorts have become recalcitrant despite previous criminal charges.

Officials had apparently intercepted in 2008 a similar shipment traced back to Li. So it’s not clear why Toto Suansing, Bureau of Customs Deputy Director, claimed: “First time nag-crop up ang name nito”?)

There is another urgent reason to get to the bottom of these coral and marine life smuggling. Years back, a senior National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) official told me that “impunity” could encourage involvement in other dangerous forms of smuggling.

“If they can carry fishes and other animals, they can carry drugs or even arms,” the NBI official warned.

The Philippines has a serious problem with narcotics and terrorism and the provinces cited by Tan are among the weakest links in the government’s law and order campaign. They are also among the poorest, together with some Eastern Visayas provinces where, “sailors on board a Chinese vessel en route to Hong Kong from South America dumped two tons of cocaine off the central Philippine seas in December 2009”. By July of the following year, more than 500 kilos of cocaine had been turned over by fishermen or seized from those attempting to exploit the bonanza.

Here’s the thing: If crime groups are free to harvest, collect and consolidate corals and marine life, what else have they been stuffing into those huge containers?

TUCP asks, Is Your School Free From Asbestos

2011-05-25T11:14:00.003+08:00

The Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP)has issued a warning in the wake of the Department of Education's 2011 launch of “Brigada, Balik-Eskwela,” the community-based project that aims to spruce up public schools before the start of classes next week.

A release by the trade union warned that the hundreds of thousands of volunteers and teachers joining "Brigada" nationwide could be at risk for "possible exposure to asbestos in old schools."

It asked the DepEd "to supplement its Brigada and or Balik-Eskwela program activities with extra pre-cautionary and safety measures to help people deal with the presence of asbestos and asbestos materials and products in the course of their cutting, sanding, scraping, dusting, renovating, and dismantling old classrooms and school-buildings.

"It is not the intent of this call to dampen or defeat the bayanihan-spirited 'Balik-Eskwela' program. We want this program to succeed but, in so doing, we wish everyone to be safe and protected against possible exposure to the deadly and highly-carcinogenic asbestos dust fibers," a statement by the group said.

It pointed out that asbestos dust fibers are also present in old school building materials, especially the ones built in the 1970s.

"When asbestos is disturbed, dust fibers become very friable. And when these invincible dusts are inhaled even in small amount, anyone exposed will likely suffer an incurable mesothelioma cancer and other cancers caused by inhaling asbestos dust fibers. It can take 10 to 40 years before the problem is realized.

"

**
For more information and interviews, contact: Alan A. Tanjusay, ALU Policy Advocacy Officer +63.920.669.9187, associatedlaborunions@gmail.com, +63.2.922.5575 local 122; TUCP-PGEA Compound Maharlika corner Masaya St., UP Village, Diliman, Quezon City.

NUJP STATEMENT ON CONTEMPT CHARGES (AMPATUAN MASSACRE)

2011-05-23T18:21:00.002+08:00

Defend the freedom of expression! Remain steadfast in seeking justice for
all victims of the Ampatuan massacre!

On April 12, 2011, a special division of the Court of Appeals (CA) issued a
resolution charging Rowena Paraan, secretary general of the National Union
of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), and Monet Salaysay, widow of
Ampatuan massacre victim Napoleon Salaysay, of contempt.

The five justices of the CA who issued the resolution accused the two
respondents of “foisting bias and corruption” against the court for their
statements quoted in a news article where they expressed concerns on the
slow pace of the case.

The two were also charged after they pointed out that Associate Justices
Danton Bueser and Marlene Gonzales-Sison did not inhibit themselves from
deliberations on the pending petition for release of former Autonomous
Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan, one of the principal
accused in the case.

Zaldy Ampatuan has a pending petition before the CA special division for the
court to uphold the April 17, 2010 order of former Department of Justice
Secretary Alberto Agra which cleared him from the massacre.

The two CA justices had earlier voluntarily inhibited themselves from a
similar petition filed by Andal Ampatuan Sr., the family patriarch accused
of ordering the killings.

The contempt charges are alarming and may have a chilling effect especially
on those at the forefront in the struggle to find justice for the victims
including the families of the victims and media organizations.

The charges will impact not only against Rowena Paraan and Monet Salaysay
but on the victims' families, media groups and other organizations and
individuals who remain vigilant against continued efforts of the
perpetuators and brains of the massacre to escape culpability.

Having said this, we will not be cowed into surrendering our right to free
expression for we cannot afford to be silent as we monitor the progress of a
case that is crucial not only because it involves the loss of so many of our
colleagues but even more important, because its outcome may well determine
whether we can continue to consider ourselves a democracy, a nation, a
people.

Many Filipinos are disappointed on how the Ampatuan massacre case has
proceeded a year and a half after 58 persons including 32 media workers were
murdered in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao on November 23, 2009.

A survey of the Social Weather Station conducted on May 4 to 7 showed that
more than half (51 percent) of the people are dissatisfied with how the
government is handling the case, up from 46 percent in November last year.

An overwhelming number of people (75 percent) believe the case is proceeding
"too slow," according to the survey.

More than ever, there is a need to remain vigilant on the conduct and
proceedings of the case amid continued reports of threats against the
victims' families and legal maneuvers of the accused.

We call on the special division of the CA to withdraw the order, uphold the
people's freedom of expression and heed the people's demand for a speedy and
impartial trial.

We urge the families of the victims, colleagues and friends to remain
steadfast in ensuring that justice will not be sabotaged.

National Union of Journalists of the Philippines
Tel.: (+632) 3767330
Mobile: 0927.920.3652
Email: nujphil@gmail.com

--
********************************************************************************************************************************
NATIONAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS OF THE PHILIPPINES
4/L FSS Bldg. # 89 Sct. Castor corner
Sct. Tuason Street (near T. Morato Ave),
Bgry. Laging Handa,
Quezon City, Philippines
Tel.: (+632) 3767330
Email: nujphil@gmail.com

JUSTICE FOR GERRY ORTEGA (4TH MONTH ANNIVERSARY)

2011-05-23T18:20:00.000+08:00

MEDIA ADVISORY BY GERRY ORTEGA'S DAUGHTER. DO SUPPORT THE FIGHT FOR JUSTICE.

My name is Mika Ortega, eldest daughter of Doc Gerry Ortega who was mercilessly gunned down while buying used clothing in an ukay-ukay store in Puerto Princesa. My father was a broadcaster, anti-corruption crusader and environmentalist.

Tomorrow (May 24) is the fourth month anniversary of his murder. We are still awaiting justice. We know it will be a long process, but we trust that the Department of Justice officials will be objective in their evaluation of evidence.

But we have to be vigilant.

Please join us tomorrow as we commemorate the senseless murder of my father. My mother, brother, Fr. Robert Reyes and Gen. Danny Lim will join us as we bike/walk from the Luneta Grandstand to the Department of Justice then the Senate of the Philipines. Below is the timetable of our activity.

8:45 am - Assembly in front of Quirino Grandstand

9:00 am - Depart for the Department of Justice (DOJ)

9:30 am - ETA at the DOJ
Quick Prayer in front of the DOJ, hopefully inside the compound to avoid causing traffic

9:50 am - Depart for the Senate of the Philippines

10:30 am - ETA Senate of the Philippines

Have letters to the Senate President, Sen. Teofisto Guingona and other Senators received by their respective offices.

11:00 am - Visit to Senate Press Office

Should you have questions, please email me back at this address or call/text me at 0917-5971002.

Thank you and good day.

I AM PRO-LIFE, THEREFORE I SUPPORT THE RH BIL

2011-05-11T18:17:00.006+08:00

(Photo from www.simplydivinechaos.com)

1) It allows people to choose the number or children they want to have. None or one – or a dozen. That's FREEDOM. That's RESPECT.

2) Not all medical professionals, not all people believe a sperm and egg touching equals life. Those who don't should be allowed options according to their light.

3) I believe those who wish to limit the number of their children do so not because of selfishness but because of love.

4) Life is not a game of Russian Roulette. Children need to be nurtured.

5) I am against abortion.

6) I believe education and access to different family methods WILL reduce cases of abortion.

7) The RH bill goes beyond just birth control.

8) I believe education will give kids the strength "to just say no."

9) We are a multi-cultural and multi-faith country. My faith is not a license to gag and bind everyone else.

10) The RH bill allows medical professionals to exercise their conscience. If God wanted us to be sheep, we would be bleating. He have us free will; we should trust Him more.

11) I do not think God thinks fealty to his Will (however you interpret this) includes playing blind as a woman bleeds her life away on the gurney.

Much as I support the RH bill, I know it barely skims the surface of a troubled sea. I can only hope that implementation will focus as much on RESPONSIBILITY as on rights.

Technical information will not be enough if power dynamics in a relationship are skewed. RH is not just about babies or STD. It is about people's ability to forge wise and free decisions in the realm of sexuality (which is not just about sex).

And in a sense, the Bishops are right. Raising even just two children could be an impossible task if a family is trapped in poverty and injustice. Those who push for the RH bill SHOULD NEVER forget the other factors needed for a full, productive and dignified life.

American Idol, Top 5: Lilith rules!

2011-05-05T20:52:00.004+08:00

“We want you to be you,” was the Zen-like advice dispensed a long time ago by, of all people, Randy Jackson. Whereupon the seers on the theater floor, in the studios and rehearsal halls, proceeded to give contradictory advice to the Idol wannabes.

Those who tried to please ended up floundering (Jacob, Pia, Haley and Lauren, even if the latter’s never made a trip to the bottom three.) The stubborn ones got adulation (and hate mail) as they proudly flew their banners – James, Scotty and Casey, who went out with a performance that ensures him a career in the jazz/blues field.

Tonight, the Top 5 had two chances to show who they are, what they genre they represent; though really now, with music mixed and matched through the decades, conventions have been broken all around. Zucchero sang with Pavarotti; Willie Nelson, Sting, Eric Clapton have jammed with everyone.

James Durbin has ranged wide, from heavy metal rock, to slow rock, to rock that almost feels like country, to anthems of rebellion and love. Whatever he’s done, whatever the stunt or the time period he chooses to lug onstage, Durbin’s real strength is not his high notes. It is the nakedness of his hunger, not just to win, but also to get love from his audience, his peers and everyone with a beating heart.

Tonight he shows that can be a scary thing. The passion that excites audiences can wreak havoc on artists. The downside of adulation is a deep, deep loneliness, especially for someone who is a big baby, handicapped in ways that have made him the butt of jokes, who early on confessed that it is music that takes him to a safe place. Now he is learning that music can also take away (for days and weeks) from the woman who gave him strength in the first place.

With his buddies gone, life bears heavy on James. He rocked “Closer to the Edge” but there was a strain in his tenor. And there were rough patches in “Without You.” But music history shows that it is never just the voice. Great artists have that but they are above all story-tellers able to show the millions that they sweat, they ache, they suffer – just like us. This James does in so emphatic a manner that we actually feel scared for him.

It is this – the capacity to bare heart and soul – that makes him so much more fascinating than the charming country crooner, Scotty.

Not that Scotty paled beside him tonight. In “Gone”, the young man threw caution to the wind and displayed all the tics and winsome awkwardness and zest – and charisma, and the kind of mad courage that separate him and James from the pack. He’s no devil, despite Steven Tyler’s effort to corrupt him; he’s a most charming, talented kid who loves the crowd and delights in pleasing them – as himself.

In “You Are Always in My Mind,” he reminds us of his uncanny ability to spin a song, to phrase it like a fine, fine actor so that we totally get the story and believe in the message. And again, Scotty shows that what he lacks in wit and smarts he more than makes up for with an intuitive genius that bores down to the core of a song.

Jacob Lusk is destined for ouster tomorrow. There was no rhyme or reason to his choices. “No Air” was indulgent and a disaster. While Jason’s funny moves in past weeks were fun, tonight they were embarrassing. He was a caricature.

You watch Sheryl Crow sing sweetly and then get Jacob whining and then eventually staging a tantrum! It is no way to get any baby of any gender. So he belted out the highest note ever, but a note is not a song.

Lauren Alaina, got some mojo back, and her stylist back in “Flat on the Floor.” She also shows potential as a great stylist. But she is just too young and tentative now, and that face just so blank, that once you open your eyes, it is hard to take her seriously – especially when she is singing “Unchained Melody.” It seemed inappropriate for 16 as she pretended adult passion – and Tyler’s unfortunate adjective, “ripe” didn’t help at all.

But Haley – aaaah, an angry Haley is a woman men from Siberia to the Africa would hunger for – and fear. The judges were unfair in the aftermath of “You and I” – after talking of risks!

And then she showed them with “House of the Rising Sun.” Fierce eyes, fierce vocals and moves that were collectively a giant finger up the you-know-whats of the judges. Rebellion has never been so exciting. If American parents suddenly find in the coming days their girls simmering with barely held contempt for the fairy tales unraveling all around them, they can thank Haley. Best of all, she refused to simper at the belated praise and came back with a sweet sarcasm that children of all ages can relate to.

Haley was the best. Jacob the worst. James will get over his slump and storm back stronger next week – or implode. I am betting it won’t be the later as his angel and BFF will be flying to his side.

IDOL 6: Interpretation is everything

2011-04-28T20:05:00.004+08:00

Jacob Lusk brings joy, style, and a lot of vamp into “Oh No Not My Baby.”

Jacob has taken Randy Jackson’s exhortation in the right spirit. While he stays clear of pained-diva territory, he lets his considerable quirkiness shine in a song that also flows along his moral path. If Jacob seems strangely joyful for a song that warns about infidelity, it’s because there is some kind of redemption at the end of this song. (Well, she/he marries him/her. After that is another story :))

Jacob makes a clever choice departing from the usual fire-and-brimstone theatrics or earnest paeans to brotherhood and understanding. He also brings his birthrights (Motown and jazz and soul) into play. Even the outfit says Jacob is finally playing Jacob – shades of blue and a yellow so bright and cheerful I expected Big Bird to come out of the woodwork. (James has drums; Jacob can have the bird.)

He doesn’t do outlandish faces; I think he’s permanently rid of them. He grooves; while scatting he even attempts some moves from Naima, all perfectly in the spirit of this song. But I am not America and they may still dump him at the bottom tomorrow. If that happens, what Jacob can take away from this is the knowledge that he might as well have great fun shaking those “tail feathers.”

Never believe Lauren Alaina when she says, “Where You Lead” (I will Follow).

How do you solve a problem like Lauren? A powerful, nuanced voice; emotional depth that ranges from A to B (with apologies to the late Bette Davis). Lauren’s idea of bold is shaking her shoulders and hips and flouncing like Daddy Nabokov’s brat.

She ain’t Ruth (whither though goest…), that’s for sure. Lauren’s idea of flexing her budding womanhood is dragging some poor guy up the stairs and then gesturing for him to sit like a tame puppy – and then leaving him there as she sashays around and flirts with the audience. Even when she returns, it takes some time before she remembers there is man-she-has-promised-to-follow.

And since when has she started to pick up the late Pia’s pageant gestures? Aw, Lauren, honey, I’d rather have you blowsy and inappropriately lush than transform into a corpse that sings. The whole thing leaves me cold, but then I’m not Steven Tyler.

Not content with having them individually fight for America’s votes, Idol producers have gotten into the habit of, well, letting individuality shine with more songs. Usually with partners. Does it work? Depends if there’s someone you can gel with.

Haley Reinhart & Casey Abrams lose their cool with “I Feel The Earth Move” I love Casey and Haley when they’re cutting loose. Their earlier duets was impressive, drawing on their biggest strengths. Tonight, they look like corny parents in a time warp, the kind of parents you and I would be ashamed of. Wedding-singer parents. This is corn, not cool.

Until it gets to 1:40. Then everything that follows is worth a standing ovation. Talented. Artistic. But still adolescents where full musicality is concerned. A few great seconds but the performance on a whole is schizophrenic mainly because these two have yet to settle who they really want to be.

Millions will come texting for Scotty McCreery’s “You’ve Got a Friend”.

He escaped landing in the bottom three last week -- his country base apparently voting on the basis of faith and ideological fealty rather than actual performance -- but youngster Scotty apparently took the judges’ criticism to heart.

I never really feared for him this week; Carole King may be “pop” but actually fits the mold of folk singer-songwriters, and that’s but a step away from country. Both are story-telling genres and this is Scotty’s strongest suit, when he’s not ruining it by trying to be arch. But he did take a risk with the iconic “You’ve Got A Friend” because he’s been told to try something new, to surprise, and this is a karaoke and sing-along staple.

He didn’t make a new song. But he made an old song sound fresh, changing notes just enough for a rare showcase of his upper registers. He also tempered the brow-raising or, at least, alternated these with furrows of pain.

Randy’s wrong to demand that Scotty hold on longer to those higher notes. The kid’s a troubadour, not a diva. He clearly has some range but is clearly no power singer. Why settle for a poor imitation of Jacob or James when he can be an evolved Scotty?
Considering the regular Scotty has already a lot going for him, the evolved version – showing some subtlety and maturity, and a very fetching light rasp that will make girls young and old cry –scores big-time. Let me put it this way; Carole’s contemporaries, who may prefer James over Scotty, will give the younger man their grudging respect tonight.

“Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" James Durbin asks.

And the answer is we’ll love you for a long time if you stay the way you are. Which is, unpredictable without losing your core musical identity; as tender as you are brash; and with a basic innocence, and truly infectious passion for music, that brings authenticity to whatever spectacle you choose for the night.

When Ryan announced “Carole King” last Friday, it sounded like a curse. The question on everyone’s mind was how the hell is Durbin going to rock Carole?

Tonight, in one of his less flashy performances, he throws down the gauntlet. Forget “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”. This is where Durbin shows he has the musical chops to transform pop into “emo rock” (as Randy famously said of David Cook) and thrill even without props and Tyler’s wardrobe discards.

Pitchy at times? After one strum for pitch, James does the entire first verse acapella and nails everything, his voice robust yet sweet.

He then breaks into rock and everything is icing, except James refuses to coast and takes us into a musical journey that is a celebration of a mix of music and talent and sheer delight in the joy of living.

Lauren and Scotty have the unfortunate lack of singing a boring duet right after James. Do not ask me what it was. The only thing I recall is an exchange during the interview with Ryan. “He’s kinda cute,” says the simpering Lauren. “Duh. We’re like brother and sister,” huffs Scotty. Okay, maybe the duh was absent but his face said it all. Not very gentlemanly, Scotty! But that probably earned you the eternal loyalty of the hopeful tweens.

"Hi-De-Ho” showcases Casey Abrams at his best, except for those grunts that are best left to perverts.

Hi de ho, hi de hi/ Gonna get me a piece of the sky/ Gotta find me some o’ that old sweet roll/ A singin’/ Hi de hi de hi de hi de ho…Once I met the devil – he was mighty slick/ Tempted me with worldly goods/ And said you could have your pick/ But when he laid the paper on me/ And he showed me where to sign/ I said, “Thank you very kindly/ but I’m in too great a need of mind.”

It’s Casey-turned-Frank and then flying into blues heaven. He can't strut to save his life but who cares? When Casey jams with the girls, you can see them wanting to throw their talented selves into his not-too-svelte arms. It is a bravura performance that could easily tip into godawful theatrics but is transformed into what real blues ought to be -- fearsome because its shows wickedness at its most delicious.

Jimmy Iovine said Casey loves living on the edge, which probably explains that nervous stomach. A less artistic (read, crazy) singer would have turned this into vaudeville. Casey, with his brilliant reading, turns in a performance that reminds me of Robbie Williams at his cheeky best. And it is the kind of song that suits Casey best because he has character for four guys that we actually forget that his voice is not exceptional. Now, that’s artistry.

Haley Reinhart is “Beautiful” but if she wants to stay on, she has to draw blood from the first note. Randy is right; the first part was good but not crazy good. Tyler is wrong and not just because God hasn’t yet decided to come back as a slim blonde with drop-dead gams.

It’s a performance in two parts. The first part is “matronic”, a chirpy matron’s breakfast ditty. There is nothing wrong with a chirpy matron; millions of men beg to have one. And Haley does get it right; this is a song written for a woman of a certain age. It’s just that chirpy matrons do not win competitions like Idol. And I doubt that Carole King was thinking of chirpy when she penned this.

JLo is right; Haley’s voice IS special. The last part was spectacular . At least, the voice was. But the facial expression and that gesture; what was this, a Disney camp for feminists? There’s time for joyful insouciance but this is a song that, unfortunately, cannot be rid of angst. That she lacks the capacity to show angst in song is Haley’s tragedy, because her quips have shown an intelligence that can meet Casey barb for sardonic barb.

The definition of odd is a duet by James and Jacob. The definition of good sport is the same guys laughing at themselves and their joint nightmare. The definition of chutzpah is taking a ridiculous task like singing duet on "I'm Into Something Good" and storming out thumbing their noses at bad luck and stupid producers. It was great farce and the long applause showed the audience got it. It will earn them more votes, especially since they have the panting horde a direct view of JLo’s gorgeous assets.

From the top: James, Scotty, Casey, Jacob, Haley and Lauren

Who should be in the bottom three: Haley, Lauren and Jacob.
Who could be in the bottom three: Haley, Lauren and Jacob. Maybe Casey, if enough prudes and musical illiterates choose to text for the country kids.
Who should go: Lauren
Who could go: Jacob or Haley. Probably Jacob.

Idol: Top 7 sing current (And James takes it fast, fast forward)

2011-04-21T20:26:00.003+08:00

Whatever made Idol’s producers think we want another peek into has-beens? Steven, I love you, cuss words and all, but no, no, I’m sure 101% of your audience is not sorry for having voted this gang of six off.

The song is a disaster, almost mocking the would-be divas and turning Mr. Ladies’ man into a caricature of himself. Rock stars, my foot. No harmonies, voices all forgettable – including the divine Pia who has the misfortune of being made to jerk beside the flying Naima.

I’m not too sure the feature (Idols talking about fellow Idols) worked for everyone. It worked for James, who not only shows he’s a good sport but also displays a good-natured, almost deadpan humor that could smooth over the unease from some of his post-performance posturing . Stephano’s fan base only have more reasons to vote for him – the image of him slooowly baring his bod by the pool is indeed delicious. Lauren is presented as a genuinely nice, if slightly madcap girl, with the gift of laughing (nervously) at herself.

Casey, as he usual, walks a fine line – showing comic flair that should light up some intelligent big screen or boob tube comedy soon. But that wit could prove too sharp for Middle America, and soccer moms probably gasped at that slap he gave James. Haley doesn’t come out too well, a bit too arch and cutting. The feature on Scotty doesn’t offer any surprise. His remarks about the others, however, show the slightest hint of mean; that could tarnish his awshucks image a bit. As for Jacob, I am just praying that “diva” doesn’t do him in.

You have to love Jimmy Iovine, gruffness and bleeped out words included. After last week’s rebellion, he comes back with the wry but proud look of a kung fu master who’s just been bested by his wards.

Tonight he combines hard-nosed industry smarts with genuine caring. It’s funny that he reserves the warmest hugs for the stubborn James and Casey. His exasperation over Stephano actually results in puppy-eyes suddenly becoming a shark. And the frustrated, almost despairing look in his eyes as he talks of young Lauren pulling back actually wants me to be proven wrong about the younger blonde’s pedestrian act.

So, for the real important stuff:

Scotty McCreery sings “Swinging” like a dirty old man. And that’s being kind.

I’ve loved Scotty since those first deep notes rolled out of the young, saner sibling of the Alfred E. Neuman. He’s done a good job giving some spin into those old country hymns. But tonight, the only things I dig are the camel jacket and boots.

Scotty morphs from quirky into slightly scary. I’m itching to do some musical research to understand why James Durbin’s tics go away when he sings while Scotty, who’s perfectly normal if somewhat dopey in real time, becomes a spastic clown. The lyrics of the LeAnn Rimes song and Scotty’s expressions collide in a chilling mix. In more innocent times we’d dismiss the notion of a 17-year old pedophile, but in a world that has turned murky, one song changes poor Scotty into your friendly local pervert.

“There’s a little boy in our neighborhood/ her name is Charlie Johnson, and she’s really looking good/ I had to go to see him, so I called her on the phone/ I walked over to her house…and we were swingin’, yeah now we were swingin/ Yeah lil Charlie she’s as pretty as the angels sing…”

Tomorrow, Charlie will be six feet under and the whodunit ain’t your village priest. That basso in the song’s second half only makes it worse. Instead of the school’s secret psychopath, we get the evil twin of Family Guy Herbert.

**
James Durbin can send the hordes into “Uprising”. And he rams home the truth – that shamans, not generals, are the force that makes the world go round.

I don’t know what James sniffs; whatever, I want some of it. Anything that can transform a neurologically-challenged kid into a post-apocalypse high priest should be bottled and sold for top dollar.

That outfit deserves a museum. It’s almost what Hitler would have worn had he decided to avenge Germany’s humiliation by straight-on hurling its armies against those of the world powers, instead of making a detour to round-up folk who wouldn’t fight. Garb and performance – it’s a spectacle worthy of Carlos Castañeda if he’d chucked the drugs and abandoned the desert for the wild Celtic glens, and then lived long to survive Big Brother and Armageddon.

“Rise up and take the power back, it's time that/ The fat cats had a heart attack, you know that/ Their time is coming to an end, we have to/ Unify and watch our flag ascend, so come on/”

It’s a wise choice because it allows James to alternate between low chants and the High Mass tenor of a renegade seer.

“They will not force us/ They will stop degrading us/ They will not control us/ We will be victorious, so come on”

The Celtic Muse group recognized a brother. They also know how to acknowledge talent. Their dare to transpose upwards paid off. When James hits the chorus, his vocals shimmer with a tempered rage that spirals into piercing yells for blood. And from all corners of the vales and badlands of America, an army of youth (and boomers who yearn for their past) is gearing up for this new pied piper.

The ovation is tremendous, sustained. And James deserves every second of it.

Haley Reinhart sinks while “Rolling in the Deep”

I am still mad at the judges’ disrespect for Haley, which is clear pandering to lowest common denominator -- Lauren’s simpering Lolita. But I frown at hearing Haley announce her choice, an Adele song, remembering how Randy once urged this on Thia, who’s to the far right of Haley in terms of voice and temperament.

Truth is, I love the happy Haley best (Bennie and the Jets). She’s more sardonic than angst-sy, which Adele very much is. (Randy’s right; Thia should have sung Adele.)

My heart sinks as Haley starts out. It’s almost… Disney, mixed with JLo’s schoolmarm mom. (The dress is a downer, too, and not even Haley’s sexy bod can salvage this Ms-Secretary-trying-to-impress outfit, complete with conservative pumps.)

“Finally, I can see you crystal clear, Go ahead and sell me out and a I'll lay your ship bare, See how I'll leave with every piece of you…”

Sorry, I am not buying this. There is no point spinning this into some witty anthem of defiance. Nor can I feel heat when she sings of fire. Also, sitting seems to deprive Haley of air more than prancing around the stage does.

She gets better when the song turns, um, aspirational. "Throw your soul through every open door,/ Count your blessings to find what you look for,/ Turn my sorrow into treasured gold,/You'll pay me back in kind and reap just what you've sown,

There’s a little hint of a sweet yodel and a very short jazzy run and plenty of her trademark growls. But the vamping seems a bit out of place because there’s nothing in the song that calls for (re)wooing some SOB back into your bed.

I liked the vocals; the interpretation is very Haley but not quite in synch with the song. I’m praying Lauren ends up sooo boring that America has no choice but to send her back to the classroom.

Jacob Lusk gets real with “Dance with My Father”. Randy Jackson is dead wrong. But then the guy who egged Pia Toscano to make a fool of herself with “uptempo” probably mistakes bombast for passion. He also underestimates the Idol audience.

After the very early wobble, there is nothing wrong, not a single note wrong, in Jacob’s take on Luther Vandross’ ode. There are a lot of things good and gorgeous with this performance: the hot suit; the choice to sit down and, thus, restrain the tendency to over emote; the sorrow that never trips over into pathos. Jacob’s talent for storytelling coming into full bloom.

"Back when I was a child/ Before life removed all the innocence/ My father would lift me high/ And dance with my mother and me and then/ Spin me around til' I fell asleep/ Then up the stairs he would carry me/ And I knew for sure I was loved/ If I could get another chance/ Another walk, another dance with him/ I'd play a song that would never ever end/ How I'd love, love, love to dance with my father again, ooh
Sometimes I'd listen outside her door/ And I'd hear how my mother cried for him/ I pray for her even more than me/ I pray for her even more than me/ I know I'm praying for much too much/ But could you send back the only man she loved?/ I know you don't do it usually/ But dear Lord she's dying to dance with my father again/ this is all I ever dream"

Jacob does justice to some of Vandross’ best lyrics. He keeps it simple while singing of father and son and wisely reserves the pain – all the more lacerating for his restraint – for the woman in their lives. So, we didn’t get more than a slice of Jacob’s mind-blowing high range. So what? “Lettin go” would have cheapened the song. We got the most important thing: proof that, yes, he IS marketable.

I’ll tell you what will land Jacob in the bottom three. “Diva” (no matter that the kids didn’t seem insulting). And diva-ish whining. You do NOT make excuses, Jacob. Bad, bad form. Once more, it’s the spoken words that do him in. (Please, America, forgive him.)

Casey Abrams and his talent “Makes it Harder Breathe”.

THAT is Maroon 5? Casey ripping into the song during rehearsal turns it into something very different (and more likable). Okay, nobody upends a song like David Cook does, but Casey shows his range very well here. Plus, he brings another instrument to the stage – and rocks the guitar.

There’s not too much hamming (and I doubt Casey will ever give it up). I love the little scat he does; it strangely works with the rock vibe. He marches like a jerky puppet around the stage. I’m not too sure I get the joke but the cult of Casey (as Steven calls it) will probably find it funny.

He has cheek, Casey does. And I like that it’s not offensive, more like high jinks. And there isn’t a man out there who won’t give him props for daring to kiss the goddess herself.

Every gal wants to get “Closer” to Stefano Langone.

Once more, Jimmy drives the wild-card survivor hard. But you see the point. More important, Stefano’s flashing eyes shows he gets it, too.

I don’t think he’ll be in the bottom three tomorrow. This was a confident, foxy, absolutely dangerous Stefano. I hardly remember the vocals. It was good, very good. But seriously, who cares. Tonight was all about the moves. The PACKAGE. That slow dance sent the entire expanded sisterhood in the Espina living room whooping. The cougars have someone to ease the sting of missing Paul. Stephano’s shortness won’t matter at all, not with those abs, shoulders and those biceps. And that unbelievable smile.

Nah, he’s not my type. I like them wild and crazy. That doesn’t mean one can’t appreciate the doggedness and charm of the Italian bantam.

Lauren Alaina must be pushed into believing she’s “Born to Fly.”

Terrible dress. So-so song. Beautiful voice. The song doesn’t even take off, though it doesn’t crash either. It’s competent, but with the magic missing. And at this point, even with her front-runner status, Lauren will need an extra dose of pixie dust to scatter across America.

Best to worse: James Durbin, Jacob Lusk, Stephano Langone, Casey Abrams, Haley Reinhart, Lauren Alana, Scotty McCreery.
Who should be in the bottom three: Haley, Lauren, Scotty.
Who could be in the bottom three: Jacob, Haley, Lauren. (Scotty, if enough tweens and cougars move over to Stephano’s camp.)
Who should go home: Scotty
Who could go home: Haley or Jacob

ELTON'S CHILDREN

2011-03-31T21:45:00.002+08:00

THREE DIVAS LEARN TO TELL THE STORY

Pia Toscano finally shows some soul. The dazzling beauty has always been hampered by an overly-controlled demeanor (reacting with nothing but some rearrangement of her hair do while the world whooped at the wrestling antics of Hulk Hogan, Durbin and Seacrest). Her voice is the best in that lot, full and powerful and soaring. The voice is hot – everything else cold, from the ‘couture’ clothes to the by-the-number hand gestures to her spiels in front of the judges and backstage. Perfection can grate. You can only appreciate heaven when you’ve had a taste of hell. And for all that she apes Mariah and Celine, Pia lacks the vulnerable core the two divas display in their power ballads.

Until tonight. Emerging from that wall of blazing sunset, she is stunning in a fitted, sequined gold dress – drop-dead sexy and classy, especially with that walk. (Which makes me suspect that she may be saving the dancing for the latter weeks; she’s got a dancer’s back.) “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” is a tough, tough song. Aside from Elton, Oleta Adams has a stunning version of this ballad. There’s no question of Pia nailing it. But for the first time, she allows a rawness to her voice. “… although I search myself, it’s always someone else I see. I'd just allow a fragment of your life to wander free. But losing everything is like the sun going down on me.” And you believe that bit of anguish is real, the price for the perfection this young princess strives for. This is where song and personality finally gels. For once, I believe she can really win.
**
Jacob sings it straight! And slays it. The other diva in the group sings another song of angst, “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word” and it’s all you can do to stop from rushing the stage and taking the wounded one in your arms.

He’s a serious student, Jacob is, and that Jimmy is one heck of a teacher. Not only does Jacob marshal his gift like the treasure is it (instead of hurling it helter skelter into the winds); he has actually inserted nuance into his song.

Now, nuance and Jacob have never been the best of friends; this is a tremendous achievement. Plus, he has even learned to tame those distracting facial expressions and the kitschy gestures best suited for a cabaret act – and that is probably an even bigger victory. Because it leads to a discovery – this young man is actually handsome and now that he’s done with mugging, you are pulled into those eyes where tears remain unshed. (Oh and I love the touch of red and that blazer’s fit. Getting there, my friend; getting there.)
**
Casey shows his tender side. And is sexier than ever. Okay, so it’s probably not easy to see a bearded, chubby guy with a nervous ulcer as a diva. But Casey has really behaved as one so far, just as enamored of his talent as Pia and Jacob are and as eager to clobber our heads with this.

The thing Casey has learned since his near-death experience is that while the funnies are a way into a lot of girls’ hearts, every romantic out there wants to see his tender side. For the long run, you do not want some Nirvana-channeling maniac or some lecher who swivels and humps. Tonight, Casey became the man you want to bring home to Mama – and not just because Mama loves Elton.

He uses only a piano for “Your Song” and the slight slouch says he’ll be slowly drawing us in. Gently, gently like a master fisher. There is that single rasp that makes you gasp and then the smile, sweet and sad and proud at the same time, as he croons, “My gift is my song and this one’s for you.” He gives us a little taste of the snarl, now as skillfully trimmed as his hair, and slides into the last line with a serenity that you totally buy. He sings that last word and softly, smoothly glides up the scale and the smile that breaks out is all about joy and nothing about pride, and it tells us Casey’s back.

LOOSE AND SEXY

Hailey Reinhart sizzles with "Bennie and the Jets". Tonight the former bottom dweller was as Casey started out weeks back – loose and sexy, using humor and impish delight rather than pouts and smoldering looks. The latter would have made a disaster of that piano-posturing-ala-fabulous-baker-boys. There is nothing pretentious about Hailey, however, and now that she knows the art of the earpiece and the even greater art of having fun, she simply sizzles.

For once, too, the costume fits the performance. A slim, lace fitted shift with lavender hues that shoot through the light framing her Boticelli hair. Its seeming demureness makes the whole thing wonderfully subversive. This is one very successful mix of contrasts. The lovely alto growls then sails blithely into rock-star levels, before dropping gently back to gal-next-door dulcet tones. It’s bad girl alright, but a mellow bad girl, gently laughing at the antics of peers -- or, in her case, most probably parents – not some rebel hell-bent on nihilism.

From the start of the rockin’ on the piano – “Say, Candy and Ronnie, have you seen them yet/ But they're so spaced out, B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets…” Hailey is all sinuous grace and laid-back jive. I'm amazed that JLo and company once called her ‘awkward’.

I can imagine Steven slobbering in his seat as many guys were around America. "You sing sexy!" It's just that GP rating that stops Tyler from rushing Hailey on stage. The best thing about Hailey’s appeal is its accessibility – that’s not to be taken as easy. Plus, Hailey’s the kind of sexy that women can like. When so many of us are hyperventilating over the guys, every sister’s vote counts.
**
James Durbin rips through Saturday Night and it’s more than alright. Now, lessee, what did James have to learn? Little pitch wobbles gone, check. He’s shown he can jive, now he gives a little grease lightning, of the 70s era. Ripped jeans, t-shirt, boots, and what seems to be a modified Mohawk minus the shaving.

Starts from the audience, swaggers down the stairs, leaps, prowls the floor, goes back up, hurls the mike stand, leaps on the piano, jumps down and then flips on his back and gyrates. Whatever disabilities he has, physical mobility and grace aren’t among these. All that, and he's as musical as ever, nary a rough patch as he pierces the stratosphere.

He somehow tamps down the after-performance hamming, so that’s probably a lesson learned. Don’t alienate people by acting too confident; though really, with James, it’s just like a kid let loose in a candy store. And bless him for his faux pax.
**
Scotty sticks with Country Comforts. It’s a big part of Scotty’s charm that he can make fun of his less-than-astronaut-level brains, though I seriously doubt that's even true, given the canny way he’s transformed challenges into so many brownie points. So, the athletic lad from the Texan mansion read “country” and cantered off with the song, coming out with the guitar, giving another masterfully-phrased performance – he instinctively knows when to speak-sing.

Shoutout to Granny can’t hurt him – and sticking with those verses despite the advice will make everyone from the suburbs onwards loving him. Plus, he’s holding those higher (yeah, it’s relative) notes better, weaving them into the song instead of treating them as levels to reach. And there is a sly, quiet humor there that says Scotty knows the act can be hokey but he’ll give it as much dignity as he can muster. Which is amazing for 17 years old. Which is why everyone from 7 to 70 loves the guy.

GOOD LUCK

Naima Adedapo is Still Standing. I loved that she had the guts to turn Elton’s song into reggae and can’t for my life understand the judges’ objections. But I’m afraid America may agree with them.
**
Lauren Alaina is no Candle in the Wind. Well, she did bring softness and left some of the brass behind. Nothing wrong with her voice. It’s just that the facial expressions didn’t quite match the song. And the simpering with Ryan… aaah, but she’s 16, for god’s sake. And they screamed for her. She’s not going.
**
Thia Megia mislays Daniel. What are we to do with Thia? Great voice; she can even get the nuance and emotions right -- much, much better in this department than Lauren. But that face and her movements are just so bland she doesn’t even get off the ground. There is no presence. It’s a pity. If she’s around next week, she should ditch that hair and get a pixie cut.
**
Stephano Langone and his not-so Tiny Dancer. He’s still beautiful. He opened his eyes tonight. He has a really cute butt. He has good high notes. He has a really cute butt. He needs to enunciate better. He has a really cute butt. He doesn’t quail under the whip. He really has a cute butt.
**
Paul McDonald wasn’t the Rocket Man. I love Paul and still want him around. But this one fell flat. These kids should listen to Jimmy. They really should.

SMALL, SMALL WORLD

2011-03-07T19:03:00.002+08:00

Wonks chugging coffee by the barrel in Washington and London all-nighters will probably welcome this news: Even geniuses revered down the ages can be taken down a peg or two.

And so they can take heart that while Libyan cities burn, and Egypt’s not-quite-there-yet democracy totters on yet another cliff, and Middle East gazillionaires throw money at their people as fast as they haul the same to jail, a demigod is undergoing a shakedown in the rarefied corridors of science.

Biologists at the University of Sidney say studies they’ve conducted indicate that Charles Darwin -- Lucifer’s son according to Creationists -- was wrong in his theory about invasive species.

That, instead of being absorbed by host communities – as marauding humans are wont to do – amphibian invaders are more likely to establish themselves.

So do, apparently, the Johnnies-come-lately of the digital world where “yesterday” is considered old.

The phrase “a battery of lawyers” may go the way of the dodo if scientists continue to pump up software and hardware.

Already, analysis that took months and millions of dollars a few decades back – we’re talking 1.5 million documents -- can now be had for less than $100,000. That’s probably not too bad a thing. Think the charming “Watson” of Jeopardy fame and you’ll see the merits of interface sans the BO and bad breath of nerds lost in the depth and breadth of libraries.

“Some programs go beyond just finding documents with relevant terms at computer speeds. They can extract relevant concepts — like documents relevant to social protest in the Middle East — even in the absence of specific terms, and deduce patterns of behavior that would have eluded lawyers examining millions of documents.”

Not sure why the article stops at lawyers. The paragraph just cited could as well make journalists an extinct species, too.

Except that, maybe, people are just so darn ornery. They live to embarrass scribes and talking heads and other seers -- even when we do the job fine, thank you, in the era of the breaking news, where forecast coverage waivers tend to last half a day.

Trouble is a relative word. Those of us troubled by clergy threatening fire and brimstone on users of condoms and other aids meant to prevent a life yet to come, should probably take heart that their brethren may be taking greater heat.

Unlike dirty little secrets of the bed, however, secrets of the purse are a little harder to hide in places where the rich and famous like to announce their works of charity.

Which is how the whole of Mexico learned that a huge popsicle-colored church in Pachuca was partly built through donations by Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, described by the New York Times describes as “the executioner” and “commander of the ruthless crime syndicate called the Zetas.”

“Long dependent on gifts, but often less than discriminating about where they come from, the church is grappling with its role as thousands die in turf wars among rich, and sometimes generous, criminals.”

Yeah? Jose Rizal could have told them that.

But the church isn’t the only entity in bed with feral dogs. And it’s not just Wikileaks that’s dragging rot into the light, though it’s a pity that Hilary Clinton forgot Julian Asange’s baby as she praised a lil brave outfit that puts “real news” out there.

Clinton: "Al Jazeera has been the leader in that are literally changing people's minds and attitudes. And like it or hate it, it is really effective. In fact viewership of al Jazeera is going up in the United States because it's real news. You may not agree with it, but you feel like you're getting real news around the clock instead of a million commercials and, you know, arguments between talking heads and the kind of stuff that we do on our news which, you know, is not particularly informative to us, let alone foreigners."

Gotcha, ma’am.

Al Jazeera airs arguments, in between very dramatic footage that more delicate Western agencies forego. ‘Leaks’ just exposes classified information that everyone can then parse till kingdom come. As opposed to controlling armies that can strafe everyone till kingdom come.

Bodies turn to dust. Words live forever, especially on Google, when “erased” posts from 2007 can come back to haunt its author. And so Charlie’s Libyan papa merits “orange” despite his jets and bombs and little germs cooked up in secret labs while Asange, who can’t even control two gals, gets a big, big red.

Al Jazeera, Leaks – and Jon Stewart. They kinda go together.

Oil-rich Muslim royalty spawned the first. The platinum blonde, who looks like a bastard of some Aryan prince, continues the Aussie tradition of churning out charming thespian rogues. And Stewart, of course, is the equal-opportunity Jewish smartass. The thing they do best is unnerve the powers-that-be though Stewart in the age of Obama is struggling to remain outside of the establishment that loves him.

The venerable NY Times, of course, has slipped a couple of times in the last decade or so, from mistakenly publishing literary fiction on its new pages to falling for tales of weapons of mass destruction,

It’s still a great read but the newspaper has fierce critics. And so its smug story on how the Mideast flare-up is hurting the Russians got an angry reply from the Angry Arab News Service.

Says The Times: “Russia will lose $4 billion because of the unrest in Libya and the subsequent United Nations embargo, Sergei V. Chemezov, the director of the Russian state company in charge of weapons exports…

Over all, unrest in the Middle East has toppled or threatens to topple several governments that are longtime customers of Russian military industries, Mr. Chemezov said, and the total losses could reach $10 billion.”

Fine; after all it’s quoting a Russian not some American redneck or a senile retiree from the Cold War.

But here’s the Angry Arab’s riposte:

“Of course, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, and Bahrain purchased far more weapons from US than from Russia. Even Libya:
"Libya also has obtained weaponry from the European defense contractor BAE Systems; the American defense company Raytheon; a branch of Saab of Sweden; and Beretta, the Italian gunsmith, according to Jane’s."

This made me whistle -- until I discovered that pressing “Jane’s” took me back to the Times. So much for blasting propaganda. Everything comes around.

OF MEN AND FLAMES

2011-03-01T13:18:00.004+08:00

The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done. -- George Carlin

FIREFIGHTERS are just the opposite. They hate fire. They live to put out fires. Every firefighter's wet dream is a world without flames. Other people flirt with fire. Firefighters go to war, sometimes zigging and zagging through inferno to save people.

Sometimes they die. Those who don't have other dangers to confront.

The Institute for Occupational Health and Safety Development (IOHSAD) cites studies that show firefighters at risk for various kinds of cancers, more so than most of the population.

IOHSAD executive director Noel Colina said the November, 2006 issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine discussed a study of 100,000 firefighters by the University of Cincinnati, which found members of the profession face "greater risk of getting cancer - including testicular, prostate, skin, brain, rectum, stomach and colon cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, multiple myeloma and malignant melanoma."

This was further affirmed in October, 2007 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as it classified occupational exposure as firefighter as Class 2B carcinogen or “possibly carcinogenic to human”. According to the IARC, firefighters are often exposed to toxic combustion products, including benzene and formaldehyde, which are released during fires.

“The study tells us that toxic compounds, aside from being released into the air, can also accumulate on the clothing and equipment of firefighters, which can cause elevated risks of of testicular cancer, prostate cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphoma,” stated Colina.

The Bureau of Fire Protection of the Philippines had 14,995 personnel nationwide in 2005, according to Colina. These do not include the thousands of volunteer firefighters. The Association of Volunteer Fire Chiefs and Firefighters of the Philippines, Inc., founded in 1987, has 35 volunteer fire brigades with around 1,500 firefighters and paramedics and a complement of around 100 firetrucks, water tankers and rescue units.

I'm actually surprised at how small the number of volunteers seems to be, because they're who we see swarming all over a fire scene while residents wait for the arrival of government units. I'm also not too sure if the Association is a unified body of volunteers. There used to be separate volunteer groups -- by the Federation and Amity; listening to elders discuss the political and philosophical differences of both groups was an interesting past time.

There is no question that cancer is a serious problem among firefighters. It is serious enough for the United States Fire Administration (USFA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to launch a study to examine the potential for increased risk of cancer among firefighters.

The announcement, released April 2010, said:

This multi-year USFA supported NIOSH study will include over 18,000 current and retired career firefighters. The project will improve upon previously published firefighter studies by significantly increasing the number of individuals for whom health data will be analyzed. A larger study provides greater statistical reliability. The study will also improve on past studies by analyzing not only deaths from cancer, but also the incidence of certain cancers that have higher survival rates than others, such as testicular and prostate cancer, as well as deaths from causes other than cancer. This will improve researchers' ability to estimate risk for various cancers and to compare risk of cancer with risks for other causes of death.

Cancers aren't just the only health risks that firefighters face. More common is cardiovascular disease. This problem is alarming enough to have prompted the publication, "Preventing Fire Fighter Fatalities Due to Heart Attacks and Other Cardiovascular Events" by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the US Department of Health and Human Services.

"Sudden cardiac death represents the most common cause of a fire fighter fatality," according to the publication. It said a study that spanned 1995 to 2004 showed that sudden cardiac death accounted for 44% (440/1006) of on-duty fire fighter fatalities.

In addition to personal factors that may predispose an individual to coronary artery disease or other cardiovascular diseases, occupational exposures can significantly increase a firefighter's risk, notes the free online encyclopaedia, Wiki.

For instance, carbon monoxide, present in nearly all fire environments, and hydrogen cyanide, formed during the combustion of paper, cotton, plastics, and other substances containing carbon and nitrogen, interfere with the transport of oxygen in the body. Hypoxia can then lead to heart injury. In addition, chronic exposure to particulate matter in smoke is associated with atherosclerosis. Noise exposures may contribute to hypertension and possibly ischemic heart disease. Other factors associated with firefighting, such as stress, heat stress, and heavy physical exertion, also increase the risk of cardiovascular events.

Colina says, "the government, through its appropriate agency, should inform and educate firefighters of the risk they face." (There was nothing though about cardiovascular health in the IOHSAD press release.)

IOHSAD backs the recommendations of the International Myeloma Foundation on cancer prevention among firefighters:

1) Firefighters should have their turnouts professionally cleaned routinely, and to avoid wearing or storing their turnouts in fire station living areas

2) Firefighters should shower as soon as they return from each fire to remove the soot and ash

3) Fire departments review and update guidelines for use of personal protective equipment (PPE)

4) It is advisable for departments to equip fire engines with exhaust removal systems; if not available, avoid idling the engines indoors without adequate ventilation

Whether the BFP can hew to these standards, given the sorry state of equipment of its crews, is anybody's guess. It's hard to imagine close attention being given these serious prescriptions when the biggest headache among firefighters these days is finding high enough ladders for multi-story buildings and/or long enough hoses to reach homes in communities where streets are nothing more than alleys.

(For reference: Institute for Occupational Health and Safety Development, 406 Ramagi Building, 1081 Pedro Gil Avenue, Paco 1007, Manila, Philippines, + 63 2 521 1216)

THE ART OF CLEANSING

2011-02-12T23:40:00.002+08:00

Malou Mangahas and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) should be congratulated. It is a singular honor, this privilege of sharing with the nation former Armed Forces chief of staff Angelo Reyes’ musings on mortality.

I must admit feeling bewildered, however, by the title, “A warrior comes clean in last battle for honor”. I am afraid it gives the late Mr. Reyes too much credit. And Mr. Reyes already does much of that, starting with the implied claim of having lived – and died – with honor.

I must have been reading dictionaries from Mars. After reading the article and transcript of what will forever stand as Reyes’ last testament, I still don’t get it.

Admitting that something stinks in the Armed Forces (despite the big number of honorable men that serve it) isn't exactly like gifting us with the Hope Diamond. Everyone knows about the stench, including and especially the men on the bloodied fields who make do without the privileges Mr. Reyes' enjoyed.

(Mr. Reyes famously said he was not rapacious, was not an extortionist. What people really wanted was a clear answer as to whether or not he accepted P50 million in pabaon and a monthly allowance of P10 million. What people will remember is Mr. Reyes saying he does not remember accepting. His last testament shows no sign of a reinvigorated memory.)

I appreciate the fact that the Mr. Reyes wanted to accept liability for something. I appreciate that he did not flinch at “giving up something” – his life, as it happens. I appreciate that he admitted not being guiltless.

Mr. Reyes mused:

“Honor, truth, but there must be justice. And justice can be served if laws are applied evenly and well – not favoring the rich and powerful. I hope my case/situation will not be used as something that would bring closure to the issue of military corruption. The fight to reform the system and the entire country must continue; the sad part is that they are selectively targeting individuals and institutions.”

That is hardly an original thought. It is, in fact, the cry heard daily in the hundreds and, sometimes, thousands of posts on Facebook and elsewhere. It is the cry that rises daily from ramshackle eateries and coffee shops, jeepney stops, factories and farmlands.

Millions of Filipinos despair of the filth that chokes off routes to development in this country. Millions wonder if we will ever cleanse the nation’s arteries of this plague. Yet the same millions, even just by speaking out, show a willingness to continue with what sometimes feels like a thankless, hopeless task.

Mr. Reyes could have done the nation a great service. He could have fought the last great fight to show genuine remorse for presuming regularity and accepting a “grossly imperfect system” – which is an understatement.

But coming clean isn’t done by sketching vague WHATs, and barely there HOWs.

Of all people, a general knows that victory must necessarily start with a map with the right information. That is never any guarantee, of course; there are too many volatile factors. But it sure would help clarify the playing field.

Instead, we are left with murky directions, other than what we already know: That the rot did not start nor end with Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. And even that he couldn’t relay in clear, concise terms.

So, forgive me for not being impressed.

It may be that we ordinary folk may have a different, erroneous definition of honor.
Maybe, as we have all been told directly or obliquely this past week, we ordinary folk have a missing gene that blocks us from understanding that suicide is a heroic act of saving so many "brave and honorable" – and stunningly wealthy --men and women and the institution they serve.

Maybe there IS something wrong in the genetic makeup of ordinary folk -- including tens of thousands of soldiers who face death daily. Why is it so hard for us to understand that it is to the troops’ interest that they are kept ignorant of how billions of pesos -- meant to sustain them in the trenches and fetid jungle trails and godforsaken hamlets -- ended up in the bank accounts and mansions of a few men and women?

So many men of stratospheric IQs, including former President Fidel V. Ramos, want us to know that truth can be a dangerous thing, that it would be cruel to let a man torn apart by bullets know that these killer ammo originally came from boxes marked “DND” of “AFP” or “PNP”

The soldiers know about conversion. We know about conversion; Fe Zamora wrote a darn good story on it a couple of years back. We know conversion is a shortcut. We know it is sometimes used to save lives and ensure battlefield victories.

Now we all know that conversion gives but crumbs to the troops. Now we know the bulk of conversion proceeds are used to purchase apartments from Donald Trump, mansions in exclusive subdivisions, dozens of shopping trips and god knows how many twirls from a DI.

Unfortunately, all we get from Mr. Reyes are crumbs of the truth. He may have set himself free, but it’s a long road to freedom for the rest of us. Mr. Rabusa has his work cut out. As do the friends who finally convinced him to come clean (though we’d like to also hear an accounting of Rabusa’s wealth).

Mr. Reyes spent a lot of time talking of EDSA 2 and the woes this has visited on him. I hope it gives him some comfort to know that the only reason Jinggoy Estrada ended up playing a prominent role is, because those who supposedly trod the straight and narrow balked from the challenge of helping an institution come clean and confront the rot from within. The coming days, hopefully, will tell us WHY.

TONE DEAF

2011-02-10T18:31:00.010+08:00

“Extraordinary rendition and irregular rendition describe the abduction and extrajudicial transfer of a person from one nation to another.”

The phrase clearly sports a different meaning from just the legal term “rendition.”

The "extraordinary" kind, much in fashion due to US pressure following 9/11, was/is a method of circumventing other nations’ sensitivities to such problematic concepts as human rights and civil liberties.

It plays this way:
• If the citizens of Nation A frown on torture, but their government will look the other way, as
• Nation B (which may or may not condone torture but doesn’t want a propaganda fallout) kidnaps a suspect (usually under custody of Nation A law enforcers) and,
• Brings him to Nation C, which is known for its enthusiastic – and official -- use of the darker arts.

Whatever information comes out of this caper is shared by all three nations but often on the discretion of Nation B, which also unofficially directs the interrogation.

Ordinary rendition, on the other hand, simply means “a surrender or handing over of persons or property, particularly from one jurisdiction to another.

Wiki adds:

For criminal suspects, extradition is the most common type of rendition. Rendition can also be seen as the act of handing over, after the request for extradition has taken place.

Some countries, especially in the Scandinavian region, will refuse to extradite suspects to countries that a) practice torture or b) impose the death penalty. Simply put, they extend to alleged criminals the same respect they confer on their citizens.

In other countries, including the United States, a suspect sought for extradition can use the host nation’s justice system to contest that same order.

Until recently, I thought the Philippines, in theory, at least, followed the more civilized practices covering aliens who find themselves in trouble – although journalist friends have joked that the worst thing an alien can do is ask Immigration agents to work for his deportation.

Under the radar

Then came the case of 14 Taiwanese nationals nabbed “for an alleged scam to swindle mainlanders out of $20 million.” The cross-border fraud involved, among other things, the use of credit cards. They and their ten Chinese mainland cohorts were arrested in December. There doesn’t seem any question about their involvement in crime – a very lucrative enterprise gauging from their posh rented homes in exclusive villages here.

Very little was known of that affair until Taiwan, frustrated by having its representations brushed off by our officials, decided to recall its representative and announce economic sanctions targeting, unfortunately, an estimated 80,000 Filipino workers.

An abs-cbnnews.com story explains the reason for Taiwan’s anger:

“All of those arrested were deported to China, despite protests from Taipei, which said they Taiwanese should have been sent back to the self-governed island to face justice.”

When the story first broke, dzMM anchors Noli de Castro and Ted Failon were having a rare interview with Executive Secretary Jojo Ocho who mentioned the Philippines’ One-China Policy (we officially recognize Beijing but, like many countries, have quasi-diplomatic relations with Taipei). He also claimed that the Taiwanese did not have travel documents and were in the company of mainland Chinese, and so the Bureau of Immigration, which is under the Justice Department, decided to deport them to China.

Someone else repeated the One-China line though this was latter dropped – presumably with officials realizing the consternation in diplomatic circles; the argument morphed into something like this:

According to Malacañang spokesman Edwin Lacierda: authorities in the Philippines will not allow the country to become a haven for international crime syndicates. "The crime was committed in China. It is in our best interest to deport them to China," he said.

Omission, commission

How deportation to Taiwan translates into allowing the Philippines to become a haven for crime syndicates isn’t clear to me. I’d normally say something was probably lost in translation, except that Lacierda was speaking in English and not Mandarin.

Besides, that’s not quite what Taiwan is saying. The Journal Online reports:

A statement issued by Taiwan said “the Philippine Government handed over 14 Taiwanese nationals, holding Taiwanese passports, to the People’s Republic of China early in the morning of February 2, 2011. During this act of deportation, the Philippine Government abandoned its own sovereign jurisdiction, violated Section 38 of the Philippine Immigration Act (CA 613) and instead based the deportation on Section 37 of the said act, ignored the due legal process, contradicted the nationality principle of jurisdiction in international law, and made a serious mistake.”

I've read the law and think you could play it both ways. Taiwan can say, he's our national. Some Philippine officials are claiming they came from China and, as Justice Secretary de Lima says, "China issued travel permits."

But what's strange is why the BI -- and the DOJ -- couldn't even be bothered to double-check the Taiwanese's claims.

“Taiwan’s representative to the Philippines said he was not given any opportunity to directly communicate with Philippine officials regarding the issue because they were not informed of the incident.”

“Furthermore, no prior notification of deportation was given to my office, and the deportation itself proceeded secretively at midnight, which shows no due respect to the Government of the Republic of China.”

Later, the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (Meco), our unofficial embassy, said it had forwarded to the Taipe Economic and Cultural Office (Teco, Taiwan’s counterpart) the visas and copies of the 14 Taiwanese’s travel documents.

This was the Teco’s effort to prove the 14 were its nationals. But the Palace, which seems to be in the habit of eyeing all other Chinese entities as little provinces of Beijing (remember the Hongkong fiasco?), brushed off Taipe’s protests and, to add insult to injury, told it to take the problem to Big Brother.

Stealth, bad faith
On the early hours of February 2, the Taiwanese were brought with their Chinese cohorts straight to the tarmac of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), in a convoy escorted by National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agenmts. They did not pass the usual immigration channels. They were flown off on a chartered plane. And the poor Taiwanese officials were inside the airport trying for a last ditch attempt to get their citizens.

I can accept the insistence on original documents. What confounds was the BI’s haste to extradite the Taiwanese to Beijing. The Palace uses the word, “deport,” but when it is used in the context of Beijing demanding this action, it is tantamount to extradition -- minus the normal channels of redress suspects can use.

And because the "extradition" was demanded by a third country, that veers off to rendition territory -- especially because, as we now know, the Taiwanese had already gone to court for a solution. Now the Court of Appeals wants the BI and the DOJ to explain why it should not be cited for contempt in its attempt to preempt judicial action.

After all, the deportation occurred after the CA's Jan 31 issuance of a writ of habeas corpus, ordering the BI “to produce the living body” of petitioners Chen Ho-Yang, Li Yuan Hsing, Tai Yao-Pin, Chen Chia Hsiang, Lee Hsiang Pin and Lin Ying Chang. The petitioners had also filed for a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the deportation order to China.

Guess when the BI was being asked to present the Taiwanese? February 2. This is what is worrisome, that the BI (and the DOJ) seemed to have gone out of their way to appease Beijing, even to the extent of ignoring and actually thwarting the appellate court. As our criminal lawyers say, it is premeditation that turns homicide into murder.

We can talk about technicalities and the legal fine print. But officials of this government that ostensibly walks the "tuwid na daan," seem to forget the basics:

Would WE want our nationals to be treated that way? Or are we so used to not caring that we’ve imposed our standards on other governments?

Secrecy. In the dead of night. Keeping supects’ governments blind. That sounds very much like extraordinary rendition.

The latest word, after blustering that there is nothing to apologize for, is a plan to send an emissary.

"Presently, MECO (Manila Econolic and Cultural Office) is handling the issue. I might be sending an emissary to discuss with them particular issues and to explain why we decided the way we decided," said President Benigno Aquino III in an interview Thursday. http://www.gmanews.tv/story/212657/phl-may-send-emissary-to-taiwan-to-settle-row

Trying for governance by oido. Unfortunately, some people are tone deaf. And now cafe circles are buzzing with awful speculation: That some guys did not want Taipei to get hold of some embarrassing stuff and so hurried to send off these guys to the mainland. Oh jeez, and you thought stories like these ended with the last President's term. It may NOT be true. It's probably NOT true. But haste and secrecy ALWAYS raise presumption of irregularity.

MISS SAYO

2011-01-28T19:21:00.002+08:00

What I remember are the legs. Best gams in town and some of the snazziest shoes, too.

She could afford the shoes and the matching leather bags, the pair always a shade lighter than her dress. Miss (she snorted at Ms) Rosario Perocho was single, from a middle class family with surplus income. I never saw her in heels shorter than three inches. And these were always tapered, mirrors of how her calves swept down gently into ankles with smooth knobs and white valleys even in areas that normally catch dirt.

Miss Sayo loved flowing georgette dresses and the occasional pencil skirt. All the feminity was from the neck down.

She tried her best to present a grim face. She often sported a bulldog's ferocious snarl, the kind you see before the bite. Other teachers screeched and yelled and, from time to time, swung books and bags at hooligans. Ms. Sayo froze even the most rambunctious high school kids with a glare atop those spread legs and the hands on her hips.

But up close, that effect was often ruined by the mischievous glint in her eyes. She also liked to chortle, and her wards, especially the girls, took that as a message: We could give the world some concessions -- and then do darn well as we please.

She taught algebra. Math was the bane of my life. But for some reason, she refused to believe that. Miss Perocho got through my addled brain; and taught me to overcome fear of math. Then again, this was the teacher who transformed my older sister, Manang Grace, from an almost-failing math student into regional math champion -- in less than a year.

She often scolded me for reading secretly from pocketbooks hidden behind the bigger math book. But then she'd tell a different class a few hours later that if students must read on the sly, she'd rather have them like Ma. Salvacion, reading Greek mythology, instead of trashy romance novels -- which I also devoured, hehehe, but she didn't know that.

She read perfect scores -- and the zeros -- after quizzes. I squirmed and cringed as she terrorized dear old boyfriend for getting zero while girlfriend aced the test.

But this is the scene I shall always remember. Ms. Perocho calling on a classmate, Francisco Catalan... Aaaah!

"Catalan!" (waving the results of a quiz)

"Catalan, stand up!" (Walks around the poor boy.)

"Tell me, Catalan, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

Catalan says, "seaman, ma'am."

Walks right into it....

"Aha! A seaman!" (Striding off and gliding back. Stands with arms akimbo.)

"A seaman? A seaman!" (Stares down at the quivering boy.)

"And when they ask you to calculate the distance between Manila and Guam, you will end up in Cotabato!!!!"

Poor Francisco. But that must have done him some good. Last I heard he was a high-ranking merchant marine officer :)

They don't make them like the old dragons anymore....

OF CARS AND MEN

2011-01-25T20:17:00.006+08:00

I miss the Love Bug. The little beetle at least chirped a happy song with psychedelic abandon. And she'd chug and chug for miles with a just a lil slick of oil. Now we've got road monsters that people kill for. And racy coupes to make up for the lack of luvin'.

Turns out, Ms. Porsche's the least of our problems. At least, the hot babe's sometime driver doesn’t off folk; some car collectors' gals end up very dead.

We got to drive off them devils. So we got to do another extravaganza. A dozen chopped heads should do the trick.

Go, call the maker of “Chicago”. Tour him around and show him our glam crime bosses who strut as gorgeous dames cling -- or imagine themselves as gorgeous dames. Designer handbags and tortured designer shoes, designer dusters. One doo-doo-wop-wop needed to complete our musical. Bekimon, go duet with that Dominguez moll on the perils of leveling up. And while at it, jive with a judge or two to the tune of Bail-Out Rock.

The Engineer’s got nothing on Raymond; he and a certain golden boy can warble a ballad on the finer points of love and leather. You want exotic? We’ve got exotic! Somalia’s got nothing on Manila!

Pretty boys go up in flames. Buses go boom. The sweet, sweet smell of dynamite. Priests firing guns, cops hiding goons. A Liberian haunts our airport; gatekeepers out-ghoul the ghouls. A man spends 24 hours perched on a bridge and another twitches in a necklace doused with gas. Cops like red, soldiers prefer white and yellow’s what you call that tub of lard conveniently scarce these days.

On the brighter side, we’re moving up; hah, the cost of murdering a journalist just zoomed from P10,000 to P150,000. Lady Progress smiling, though maybe only for Palawan with its oil and honey.

Well, I ain’t got a Porsche, ain’t got a Lexus, ain’t got no entrée to gay society. All I want is to duck and live long enough to cuddle with my pup. And now they roll out the latest ditty: Letting Sleeping Dogs Lie in Your Bed Can Kill You.

Sleep well, peeps!

Forgiveness, yes, but justice above all

2011-01-24T18:51:00.007+08:00

Paul Ouano Licuanan was still digesting the latest commentary of “Ramatak” anchor Gerry Ortega when he received a text message from his wife. (*Photo courtesy of Paul)

Just a few minutes after his radio program on RMN Puerto Princesa local affiliate, dwAR, Ortega died from a gunshot wound to the head while shopping for clothes in a second-hand store in Barangay San Pedro.

Licuanan rushed to the crime site. He managed to take photos of the slain man fondly called Doc Gerry by Palawan’s environmentalists. Doc Gerry’s body lay in a pool of blood, so fresh it was still bright red.

He was the second journalist in Palawan killed allegedly for their intense criticism of mining activities in this tourist paradise.

First, there was Dong

Doc Gerry was a good friend of the first victim, Fernando “Dong” Batul. Also among Doc Gerry’s other friends are journalists forced to leave Palawan after environmental reportage led to a barrage of death threats.

Doc Gerry had received numerous death threats, too; some of these he read during his radio program. The danger posed by his environmental advocacy had forced him to hire a personal aide.

“We already got him a bodyguard kasi mas marami na yun threats lalo na before the May elections. I thought nga na nawala na. I never thought people will actually do this. In his fight for what is right he made a lot of enemies," his daughter, Mika, told ABS-CBN.

Still, the gunman had managed to get close enough to shoot Doc Gerry at pointblank range. And he could have gotten away, too, except for the valiant chase by Doc Gerry’s aide and the timely help that came from responding fire department workers.

The alleged gunman, Marlon Dicamata or Marvin Alcaraz, is with the police. He is either from Taguig City or Pagbilao, Quezon. Such is the way of hired killers, who shed identities as easily as they throw away murder weapons.

Doc Gerry was a hard-hitting commentator. But his environmental work also had a softer side. He was project manager of ABS-CBN Foundation’s Bayanijuan in Puerto Princesa.

His project had just launched five ecotourism sites in Puerto Princesa: the Pacific Asia Travel Association Gold Awardee firefly watching in Iwahig River, Dalubkaragatan Bacungan river cruise in Sitio San Carlos, Pambato Reef snorkeling, dolphin and whale watching in Honda Bay, and Ugong Rock spelunking and zipline.

“Gerry's death comes as a total shock and only serves to increase my determination that his dreams come true,” ABS-CBN Foundation managing director Gina Lopez said in a statement.

“He loved Palawan, and his greatest passion was to protect its natural resources. He could feel the pain of the communities that we’re adversely affected by mining. He loved from his heart the communities we were helping. I personally commit to make sure his dreams come true.”

Under siege

Palawan’s pristine environment is perpetually under siege from economic activities, ranging from the small-scale subsistence kaingin to multi-million peso mining concessions. Recently, environmentalists in Puerto Princesa have reported that quarrying, which has been banned, has resumed on the city’s outskirts.

Ortega would have met tomorrow in Manila with other anti-mining advocates under the Global Legal Action for Climate Change (GLACC) network.

Doc Gerry was no flash-in-the-pan, no mouthpiece for whatever flavor-of-the-month issue attracts nongovernment organizations (NGOs). He and Batul were already hard at it in 2006, the year two gunmen hit Batul with 12 bullets, including one that him right between the eyes.

On May 22, 2010 a short poem appeared in a blog.
Many have died before you.
And after you.
Some more gruesome.
Only a few got justice.

It was Batul’s 4th death anniversary, and the first time for poet-blogger Ely Valendez to tackle “sensitive stuff.” Now Valendez will have two anniversaries to commemorate.

Political strategist Peter Sing remembers Ortega this way: "There are two things i can fault him with - his uncompromising st...and against corruption and his inexhaustible drive to protect and enhance the environment. Rest in peace Doc, but please guide those you have touched in Palawan to remain strong and pursue the dreams you share with them."

Ortega may have been a fiery commentator, but his oldest daughter, Mika, says Doc Gerry had publicly forgiven the murderer of his father.

“It’s not conventional but even when in deepest pain, my father would still choose to do the right thing,” she notes.

‘”And as his family, we follow suit. We will seek justice but we will forgive. My father would’ve wanted that,” Mika adds.

Mad, mad world

2011-01-21T13:51:00.010+08:00

Is it the book? (Dune, after Frank Herbert's death, still with no-ships falling through fold-space and landing on strange worlds, much like "Inception" with a more interesting cast of characters.)

Or is it just the pull of the fool moon, the jester chortling from his safe orb? Such an array of off-kilter news about off-kilter lives and minds skedaddling down the rabbit hole.

The odds for "bowel cancer" appearing in tandem with "red musical tie" -- and, natch, taking a bow in London's august Parliament -- would probably be up there with one person winning a P300-million Grand Lotto prize.

Husbands are for the taking at $17/hour in Georgia. They're probably hirsute and gruff, and secret grandchildren of Stalin with cellars full of arms, but they can pound hard and harder;that's all that counts when you got a couple of loose screws. Plus, in an area where jobs are hard to come by, you probably can get them to agree on some more punting and panting after hours.

Cubao's urchins are exercising their nascent capitalism skills as Donald the Chump proclaims the death of the same, unless the US of A decimates the enemy called China. I'm praying the enemy doesn't sic Rosie on him because the Donald could just hire Joan to dump on Rosie, who'd then scream for Gervais, and then we'd have a year's worth of baaaad stand-up routines.

In some courtroom, a man who calls himself a lawyer posits: It's not murder if you unleash bullets a second or two after someone succumbs from a heart attack or asthma, which presumably is what happens when dozens of armed men herd folk to the edge of a hillside crater in Maguindanao.

It's not murder; it's called a helping hand. Maguindanao is a special place, where people commit suicide by hacking their heads off. And you don't even have to believe that because in that swathe of land ruled by people called Ampatuan the only capital allowed are bullets and bolos. I don't know what the Ampatuans snort in the comforts of their mansions, but some Florida burglars, high before the deed, mistook the ashes of a man and his best friend for cocaine. Depending of what mighty medicine Andal and siblings are taking, they can probably plead for mercy by claiming lousy timing.

As car thieves and murderers thumbed their noses at our cops, pimps and killers and hit men were being roused from their homes across America and Italy. Eight hundred law enforcers took in 127 men who probably have very serious sexuality issues -- you would, too, if given the name Junior Lollipops. By the looks of them, very serious weight problems, too, from wolfing down all that pasta and beef shanks smothered in sauce while debating when Junior gets to off Senior.

The East Coast may have its rough spots but that apparently didn't stop two precious-looking guys from their Big Apple winter rendezvous. I'm hoping they're not like the Brokeback boys or, if they are, live in some decadent, scandalous devil's hole where Chris Colfer can sashay down Main Street in peace. Because you never know which passionate patriot reads Sarah Palin's many tweets and decides to act on behalf of We the People.

There are all kinds of champions, of course, and an ailing "investment guru", which is more than a bearded man with a piggy bank the size of Alaska, has decided to mark the end of his life with a 66-page book on, well, investment advice... although you and I do not need to spend precious dollars to realize that, "Wall Street brokers and active money managers use your relative lack of investment expertise to their benefit, not yours..."

It's a digital world so the day's not complete without a giant or two brawling on the world wide Web. Mozilla blocks Skype toolbar, claiming crashes and slowdowns. Twitter Gets Sued For Creating "Virtual Community of Famous People". If they provide enough incentive, I'll take the stand and earnestly prove my fame and wave around a canceled visa as proof :)

Maybe if I get those 15 minutes Anna, mistress of José Saramago, the dog not the writer, will probably add me to the list of endangered species once she gets tired of the Ibex and decides to use her bootcamp Pinyin to start an Asian empire.

By that time, Jose would have mastered programming,each little paw with its own PC, the better to rule the world. Anna and Lillipop III would be playing Bocce in a Shanghai bar as Georgian hunks challenge Andal, the tittering Sarah wannabe, to take aim, fire and blow the brains of folk too stubborn to believe in the gospel of Ampatuan.

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING? (Miriam's bill expands the umbrella of media)

2011-01-19T15:53:00.006+08:00

"Journalism is a profession. I am just an opinionated BUM."

For years, journalist organizations have struggled to trim of their ranks of those who want the label but not quite the job. Now, blogger Dean Jorge Bocobo -- who's also often invited as an analyst by current affairs television hosts -- says thanks, but no thanks.

"I don't want 'Govt protection for bloggers'," says Bacobo on Twitter. "Before you know it we'll get Official Guidelines and become LURKERS."

Bloggers will probably not thank Bacobo for his generosity. But then the irascible teacher/pundit does not claim to represent them or other digital communicators.

Senate Bill No. 455, authored by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, amends the Penal Code so that the killing of broadcast and print journalists immediately qualify as murder punishable under Article 248 of the same code.

Santiago wants to expand coverage of the bill. A release from her office notes: “There is no reason why only members of the broadcast and print media should be included in the proposed law. Due regard must also be given to practitioners of the ‘digital media,’ or those whose mode of communication is the internet and mobile phones.”

Santiago points out that many media practitioners use digital media to relay information, citing the country's major newspapers and broadcast stations that have websites and multi-media ventures. More from her release:

“Further, with the popularity of blogs and video-sharing websites such as YouTube, there are now a lot of people who regularly post sensitive political commentaries online, with content similar to those traditionally published in newspapers or broadcasted over the television. Even though they are not traditionally referred to as members of the media, they may actually be exposed to the same dangers encountered by institutional media practitioners,” Santiago explained.

Santiago cited as an example the case of Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, who was reportedly subjected to harassment and threats after his website published sensitive and confidential information, including hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic cables.

The senator also cited the 2009 case of an online journalist in Russia who was forced to go into hiding after receiving threats for an article critical of the Russian government, which he published on his website.

Many print journalists, reporters included, transform into bloggers online.

There IS a distinction, despite what angry bloggers claimed the last time I ventured to say that on TV.

That distinction is not just due to rearguard action by haughty professionals who (supposedly) fear for their livelihoods in the face of a swarm of Young Turks. Nor is it in any way a reflection of one's gift of gab.

The difference is mostly rooted in economics.

A journalist's output is almost always the product of more than one person. Even a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter or photojournalist, for example, will be working with at least one of these folks: a) researcher; b) desk person; c) senior editor; d) proofreader. At the least, a major American newspaper will have a layer of fact-checkers -- though, admittedly, that has not stopped sociopaths from smearing hard-earned reputations with lyrical, funny, even brilliant but totally made-up stories.

Most Philippine-based newspapers will have a lean team of guardians at the gate. Most broadcast stations here have producers of various levels and skills, writers, editors, camera people and sound technicians, engineers and other technical staff who work so that the audience can laugh, fume, weep or retch as they eat breakfast or dinner or midnight snacks.

Numbers do not necessarily reflect the quality of output. I have chortled (or raged) over glaring errors of fact and grammar on the front pages of some newspapers or major news websites. We've all furrowed our brows, at one time or another, as some broadcast reporter with a gorgeous voice and even more gorgeous face chatters "live" with no rhyme or reason. Indeed, the comfort of a crowd can make us lax, lazy or arrogant.

At the other end, there are very skillful lone rangers. We all probably have favorite bloggers, ranging from the "I_amHolo" with his gentle-funny wit, the professorial Danilo Arao, Ellen Tordesillas and other investigative journalists, outrageous Reyna Elena, and the very angry bunch over at anti-pinoy.com

Sometimes they're brilliant, sometimes they're juvenile; even the best will have their bad days.

I am a journalist. I am also a blogger. THIS is a difference: As a journalist, I submit my work to peer review (and/or have peers to help me prepare a report). As a blogger, I am answerable to no one.

Whether writing for a newspaper, a magazine, a broadcast script or a dotcom analysis, I try my best to abide by the ethics of journalism and all those other hard lessons. That does not change the fact that as a blogger I am accountable only to myself.

Having said that, I recognize the need to protect people's right to expression. That protection starts way before the act of expression -- whether on print, on stage or the digital page. (Part 2, 'We Are the World')

IMPUNITY HAS MANY FRIENDS

2010-11-23T17:04:00.007+08:00

By Inday Espina-Varona, Bayan Mo iPatrol Mo
(A version posted at 11/23/2010 1:42 PM on abs-cbnnews.com)

Filipinos blanched as newscasts and newspapers displayed the bloated, mutilated bodies unearthed from a hillside in Ampatuan town, Maguinanao. The November 23, 2009 massacre was the most dramatic display of naked power in more than a decade. Fifty eight people murdered; the remains of one victim have not been recovered.

It was a spear thrust into the country’s democratic heart, a symbol of how powerful political clans hold hostage many areas in the Philippine archipelago. Filipinos had steeled themselves against the mounting murders of activists and journalists under the administration of President Gloria Maapagal-Arroyo. The Ampatuan town massacre shook the nation, showed that it was not immune from the kind of barbarity oft seen only in failed states.

It wasn’t just the numbers of persons killed. It wasn’t even the breaching of a Maguindanao taboo on targeting women. It wasn’t just the arrogance that decreed 33 journalists, three lawyers and six hapless commuters be collateral damage in the Ampatuan clan’s feud with the Mangudadatu family.

What was chilling about Nov. 23 was that the alleged perpetrators included the entire local security apparatus: senior police officials, ordinary cops and para-military forces euphemistically called “civilian volunteers.”

The Ampatuan massacre trial features 195 suspects, including 16 police officers and 29 members of the political clan. Over half of the suspects remain at large. Although a Mangudadatu now sits as governor of Maguindanao province, very few residents dare speak out of the massacre or other atrocities that marked the decades-long Ampatuan rule.

Witnesses killed

Impunity carries a very long and very heavy stick in this country.

The Human Rights Watch report,“They Own The People,” opens with a quote from militia member Suwaib Upahm: “In Maguindanao, the word of the Ampatuans was the law. It was either you said “yes” to [them], or you got yourself killed for daring to say “no.”

The group interviewed Upahm in March this year. He claimed to have used a grenade launcher to kill a witness to the massacre. On June 14, 2010, Upahm himself was killed while awaiting world of his enrollment in the government witness protection program.

Reports by rights watchdogs estimate that at least 50 other persons were killed allegedly on the behest of the powerful clan. These included rival local officials, a judge, women and children -- and a friendly weapons supplier, the better to get his wares for free.

The Maguindanao carnage was unique for the number of victims and the boldness of its perpetrators. But as HRW stressed, the November 2009killings were "an atrocity waiting to happen.”

Long before Mrs. Arroyo institutionalized their private army, the Ampatuans were entrenched in politics. They loaned their 2,000 to 5,000 men and provided logistics to give the military a “multiplier force” against Moro secessionist rebels.

This cushy ties increased their political clout. By the time the clan engineered the 2007 shutout of opposition senatorial candidates, 27 sons, grandsons and relatives of its patriarch, Andal, Sr., had already occupied mayoral positions. The old man himself served as governor from 2000 to 2009.

Firepower, in turn, helped consolidate and expand their political power. Troops raided Ampatuan strongholds days following the massacre, and found enough arms and ammunition to equip a brigade.

A report obtained by dzMM and TV Patrol anchor Ted Failon includes half a million rounds of M-16 ammunition.

The 601st Infantry Brigade, then commanded by Col. Leo Cresente Ferrer, also found in just one compound two 81mm mortars, a 60mm mortar, two 90mm and one 57mm recoilless rifles, 4 M-60 machine guns, a caliber .50 Barrett sniper rifle, an Ultimaz light machine gun, an AK-47, a Heckler and Kock light support machine gun and 200 high-powered guns. Ferrer estimated the armaments to be worth P1.4 million.

Gov’t patronage

Most of that arsenal came from the Department of National Defense (DND).A year after discovery of what military officials acknowledged was proof of pilferage of Armed Forces property, none of the suspects -- three soldiers, one officer and two civilian personnel have been charged.

The HRW noted that Mrs. Arroyo had a signed an executive order allowing local government officials “to legally buy an unlimited number of weapons without any obligation to report the type or number purchased.”

While Mrs. Arroyo may have coddled the Ampatuans,she wasn’t the only leader to do so. They have been untouchable for decades. Nor do the Ampatuans have a monopoly on warlordism.

In March 1987, the Washington Post reported that military officials estimated there were 260 private armies, including “communist and Moslem groups, private security forces, religious fanatics and mercenaries loyal to political kingpins.”

That figure excluded the dreaded Marcos-era Civilian Home Defense Force (CHDF), estimated to be 45,000-strong.

Nearly a quarter of a century hence, in May 2010, a commission probing the Ampatuan massacre said there were 107 private armed groups. The commission claimed a crackdown had led to the seizure of 127 firearms, the arrest of 130 members and the whittling down of the number of groups to 35.

The independent Verafiles media group also quotes police as saying there are still 68 private armed groups, 25 of these operation in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). “These private armies are said to carry about 800,000 unaccounted firearms,” the report said.

The militant Bayan Muna notes that most of the 30 murders reported during the last elections were also the handiwork of private armies. The Amnesty International claims the number of private armies increased from 68 in December to 117 in February 2010.

‘Word play?’

President Benigno Simeon Aquino III made a campaign pledged to abolish private armies. But there is a big caveat that comes with this pledge.

“The Aquino administration has been repeatedly called upon to issue an executive order banning all paramilitary and militia forces in the country. But no such directive has been issued to date,” the AI stressed.

The HRW won’t be surprised by the inaction on this issue. In April, according to an abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak report, the rights group bewailed Mr. Aquino’s “narrow” definition of private armies.

"He waxed eloquently about his desire to rid the country of private army. He repeated this a number of times.... Unfortunately, he was playing word games," the news report quoted HRW executive director Kenneth Roth after his dialogue with different presidential candidates.

"When we asked him whether he vows to rid the country of private armies meant that he was going to end reliance on special CAFGUs, the civilian volunteer organizations (CVOs), and police auxiliary units--in other words, the real paramilitary forces that are used as private armies. He said no. Those were all force multipliers in his view," Roth added.

Aquino, he added, singled out "forces that are completely autonomous from government authorized forces." His report was slammed by the Aquino campaign.

But aside from rebel groups – and even then, not always – there are no forces completely independent from state security forces. The Ampatuans are a classic case. Many of the suspects in the killings of journalists are either active or retired cops or soldiers, or CVO members.

In 2005, the situation in Abra, a perennial northern Luzon hotspot, was so bad that then Interior and Local Government Secretary Angelo Reyes had all 529 cops in the province, including the police commander, relieved. Four years after, politicians were still ambushing their rivals.

The official line is that, CVOs are necessary to fight communist and Moro secessionist rebels.

While the country does have some nagging insurgency problems, even United Nation bodies expressed alarm as more than a thousand legal activists were felled by suspected cops and soldiers during the Macapagal-Arroyo administration.

Things were not helped when Mrs. Arroyo described as her “hero” a military officer widely called the “butcher” for leaving a trail of slain activists in his wake.

The Armed Forces insisted that activists were fair game, attributing their killings to encounters with rebels – even when the murders occurred just outside factory gates or in residential neighborhoods. Military officials even claimed at one point – as if to justify the extra-judicial killings – that a party-list group was actually commanding the New People’s Army (NPA). It was seen by many sectors as a joke – but one that exacted bloody instead of laughter.

In the first five months of President Benigno Aquino III's government, 22 activists have been murdered, according to the human rights group Karapatan.

Nobody is calling President Aquino a fascist or a dictator. But there is clear worry, even among centrist forces, that a Chief Executive known for his love of guns could fail --despite his pledge to be the opposite of his much-maligned predecessor -- to wrest control from the lords of fear.

EVERY WHICH WAY BUT STRAIGHT

2010-11-18T18:54:00.011+08:00

*Image courtesy by Spanky Enriquez

Sorry, Mr. President. It just had to be said.

I’m not saying you’re crooked. But for one reason or another, your “daang tuwid” is zigging and zagging all over town. This is not simply because some of your people are young and rash and prone to being indiscreet over Twitter. This is not even about your best friend raiding Malacañang’s wine cellars or traipsing round town with singers and models.

Personal foibles can be forgiven. The Filipino people can even tolerate some amount of stupidity. But in the administration of a man pledged to uphold his parents’ heroic legacy, a man who promised to be the opposite of his venal, shifty predecessor, there have been too many ethical lapses. There’s no sugar-coating that piece of bad news, Sir.

Cocky friend

First, there was Undersecretary Rico Puno airily dismissing Secretary Jesse Robredo’s directive to explain charges linking the powerful subordinate and then Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Jesus Versoza to jueteng lords. This same bosom buddy volunteered that he’d been approached by jueteng emissaries, only to put on a show of amnesia during a Senate hearing.

Help me understand, Mr. President. How could someone who grimly chucked out Prisco Nilo for sins real and imagined, shrug off these ethical implications?

• That a senior official approached with bribe offers could not even be bothered to write a report or even just jot down the names of those criminals. (Last I looked bribery remained a crime in this country.)

• That a senior official could give his superior the equivalent of a dirty finger and tell the world an order is nothing more than trash paper --because he decides it is so.

This is an official who boasts that you won’t even consider canning him – even as your open, honest face shows nothing but disdain for Robredo, a man acknowledged by peers, civic groups and international organizations for both his integrity and efficiency.

Poaching

Second, there’s Secretary Sonny Coloma and his non-answers to the puzzle of a Web page with 2 million fans disappearing from Facebook and then having 1.5 million of these names appearing overnight on the official Palace Facebook page.

I know you’ll spot the serious ethical flaws here :
• IT-savvy supporters, Ben Totanes and Betty Abrantes, are requested to transform the BSAIII fan page into your official Facebook campaign page.
• Later, Totanes is ordered like some peon to shut it down.
• When the page lives on in the same spirit of noisy activism that marked its early days, your government contacts Facebook to shut down the former campaign site;
• And then some of your men shanghai over a million souls.

Under any other circumstance outside of the sometimes surreal terrain of Facebook (and Malacanang), that event would be called grand theft. Most of those 2 million folk still like you and admire you, but also valued the BSAIII original page because it upheld freedom of expression.

“Batay sa aking mga narinig galing sa ibang kaibigan na naging kasama namin sa kampanya at may alam sa nangyayari sa Malacañang, ang BSAIII ay iniutos ipasara ng Communications team ni P-Noy, at karamihan ng member nito, ini-request sa Facebook na ipalipat sa “Official” Facebook Page nang wala nilang pahintulot. Hindi possible na mag-gain ng 1.4 million members ang “Official” page ni PNoy in 6 days kung walang intervention ang Facebook. Ipinalipat ito,” Totanes told ABS-CBNnews.com

Mr. Coloma has a talent for spouting a lot of hot air while saying nothing at all. Certainly, he’s a master at dodging questions.

"It is clear... that Facebook Management seeks to minimize confusion that may arise from the existence of more than one Official Facebook Fan Page for a public official —in this case, for President Aquino."

"We recognize and honor the contribution of Ben Totanes, Betty Abrantes and all the volunteers who painstakingly established and grew the BSAIII Facebook Fan Page during the last campaign. We will communicate with Facebook Management on how their concerns may be addressed appropriately. We want to continue working with Ben, Betty and all the volunteers in pursuing our common objective to support President Aquino’s good governance and anti-corruption programs and to strengthen the feedback mechanism of the government.”

Did anybody hear an answer? The questions were simple:
• Did you ask Facebook to take down the BSAIII fan page?
• And how did 1.5 million names from the disappeared fan page migrate overnight into Malacanang’s Johnny-come-lately creation?

Last we heard about this fracas was Mae Paner’s announcement that three members of the Communications group would help redress the injustice.

“In their official capacity, Ricky Carandang, Edwin lacierda and Manolo Quezon will help find a way to resolve issue of BSAIII closure and migration."

How this can be done without starting a brawl with the Samar boys of Coloma, I don't know. Though Paner says: “I will believe for now that they are not doing this because they are Balay and the pipol involved are Samar! Addressing this issue i hope leads to a restructuring of the communications team! Sana ang Balay at Samar ay maging iSAMBAHAY!”

Re-invented wheel clunks

And now, the latest tempest, which you will probably also blame on media.

It starts with a shebang on Nov. 15. Journalists, various movers and shakers, including foreign diplomats and business executives are invited to what media reports have called the “launch” of the new website of the Department of Tourism.

The event’s master of ceremony, Undersecretary Vicente Romano of the Black and White movement, is no stranger to new media. He was the one who contacted the creators of the original BSAIII Facebook fan page. He also has an advertising background.

Media, now that the new venture has soured, has been slapped for mistakenly calling it a “launch” when it was just a “preview”. Yet on Nov. 14, the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), which Mr. Coloma also oversees, reported:

Tacloban City -- President Benigno S. Aquino III is scheduled to launch on November 15, "Pilipinas Kay Ganda" as the country's new tourism campaign slogan.

The new slogan will replace the existing slogan "WOW Philippines" in a bid to reinvigorate the country's tourism campaign.

The slogan aims to "reinvigorate our country's tourism campaign and double tourist arrivals within the next three years," said a Malacanang press statement reads.

President Aquino who is now in Japan for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, said the DOT will retire the WOW Philippines slogan and introduce a new ad featuring a new logo, which will hopefully generate renewed interest of foreign visitors to the country.”

The first grumblings involved the change in slogan. Many wondered if foreigners would appreciate the use of Filipino. Others thought it lacked the punch of the old slogan, “WOW Philippines!”

Turns out that was least of the new venture’s woes. Not only was the website riddled with grammatical errors – “Feast your plate”! -- it was also full of factual boo-boos.

Cebu, for instance, was somehow given a write-up worthy of a coastal jungle outpost, complete with tattooed tribesmen.

“Ifugao or Banaue rice terraces” are suddenly sprawled all over the provinces of Kalinga-Apayao, Abra, Benguet and Ifugao.

And the Philippines, by virtue of a miracle cooked up by Romano and company, has turned into one huge bunch of kakanin – “7,107 different flavors that you will want to take home with you."

How can one launch a new slogan on serve this on a plate smeared with unmentionables?

There is a serious lack of work ethic here. How can the Tourism Department launch a “preview” without even a cursory look-see? Never mind professional pride. Where is pride for the Motherland? Did they really invite that crowd to take potshots at their baby?

Cheating

This penchant for re-inventing the wheel is getting us nowhere, Sir. Everyone knows that gov.ph was created to distinguish OFFICIAL information amid the clangor made by denizens of the Web. Instead of just redesigning the DOT website, your guys had the bright idea of jumping ship and heading off to the unknown dangers of beautifulpilipinas.com.

Now, your government (via some officials you’ve appointed) is not just being pictured as incompetent; it is also being heckled for cheating. After all the flak thrown the Supreme Court’s way, Romano and company learned nothing from that case.

There was a perfectly decent website for years; they couldn’t even be bothered to read that? Because as he tells Ellen Tordesillas, in the rush to deadline, the creators of beutifulpilipinas.com had no choice but to (indiscriminately) LIFT entire paragraphs, bloopers included, from an array of other websites.

This doesn’t just smack of intellectual dishonesty; this also displays poor logic and an amazing contempt for their jobs – and their Bosses, meaning you, Sir, and the millions of taxpayers.

And for the last straw, we see that four months’ worth of work by Campaigns and Grey birthed a copy of Poland’s tourism logo. Those images up there say it all. So okay, your good friend Yoly Ong did not get a centavo for her efforts. So? Friends do not gift you with stink bombs.

Leadership

All these horrors lead to your doorstep. Sir, I applaud your aptitude for numbers and angles and trajectories. But leaders are not accountants; unless in a dictatorship, they’re not hotshot soldiers.

You are President of 90 million souls, of which ten percent are scattered to the winds in the cause of filial duty. Can we have a little empathy, please? Not too long ago, I sighed with relief at the exit of a woman with the EQ of a hound from hades. I know you listen, as you did in the sorry mess that was the Child House affair. So, please, hear this appeal:

You are the envy of other heads of state because you still have very high popularity and trust ratings. Do not waste those gifts. If you must have friends in government, so be it. But strike some fear in their hearts. Demand that they walk the line and not reel and swivel and crash along like punch-drunk juveniles. That, Sir, was of another era, another discredited president.

You are PNOY, holder of that flaming torch handed down by your parents. In the race to progress, we do not expect you to hold that torch all by your lonesome. That torch is to be passed, from one hand to another. That torch is there to give light to those who cheer, that they may bring some of that back to home.

The last thing you want, Sir, is to have some irresponsible, uncaring apostles drop that torch into the muck of oblivion,.

PURE IMAGINATION

2010-11-16T23:34:00.005+08:00

First the good news: The Department of Tourism has a new website! Yehey!

Then, more good news: The Department of Tourism is bringing nationalism to a whole new level! Using Filipino! And providing a translation and pronunciation guide!

And even more good news: The domain name is going to make every lonely heart (or dirty mind) crawl out of the woodwork and make a beeline for the first plane headed for the land of beautifulpilipinas.com!

Did you say alarm bells rang in the Interpol’s porn division or some such unit? No problem. We have a President ready to take potshots at allied governments who dare tar the country’s image. Hah, they won't dare tangle with a guy whose face lights up like the moon when he talks of things that go bang in the night (or day).

What's with all the ranting and raving on Facebook? Come on, lighten up. Otherwise, we’re going to have to listen and quote you. Then that’s going to earn us another lecture from the Prez, who’s not going to be too happy with yet another crisis eating up into his, um, private time.

Guys, aren’t you proud of how fast the DOT got into its digital stride? Why, it’s barely a month since Secretary Bertie Lim announced a P100 million budget for a new media blitz! Now we won’t have to weep with envy every time we hear “Malaysia, Truly Asia” on CNN or BBC, nor will we need to grouch about how Vietnam and even Laos are beating us in the marketing of the true, the good and the beautiful.

Think excitement! Think innovation! Think “new brand” with new website. And think public-private partnership ☺

For all of you muttering about grammar, think Melanie Marquez. On the world stage, it’s long-legged that matters, not the p’s and q’s.

Besides, with the world’s foremost English speakers battered by rough economic seas, it’s not like we need to demand that our DOT website creators have language skills to pass the high school SATs. Koreans come here to study English, for god’s sake; they’re not going to grumble because some DOT writer forgot to align subjects and verbs. And the guys now rolling in money come from the cold, cold side of Europe and need only the promise of Tanduay rhum and lambanog – and beautifulpilipinas haha – and friendly generals -- to start chartering private jets to the Philippines.

You really should be kind to the hard-working, long-suffering idealists in government. So they’re geographically challenged. So what?

Be glad they’ve got enough imagination to transform a Central Visayan island --so bereft of natural resources that it has to import white sand to make fake beaches – into something exotic enough to host the sequel of Apocalypse Now.

Darn, I’d give an arm and a leg to get the guys of beautifulpilipinas.com to wax ecstatic over my home province's “cliffs that tower above crashing surfs, virgin forests, clear rivers, mossy jungles, and cool mountain ridges."

And I’d give a year’s worth of Novenas if they throw in “tattooed tribesmen” living “as they have for centuries”.

And you thought they were dunces, huh? No, this here is the renaissance of Philippine culture.

We shall soon see the godmother of the Tasaday once more declaiming about innocence and noble savages. And if there aren’t any, enough rice wine and the good heart of a certain stylist could rustle up half a dozen of them from Malacanang’s corridors.

Hey, now here’s an idea… let’s have Bertie Lim and Enteng Romano order their bright boys to design a new video game and then let’s have the country’s most famous bachelor play digital hide and seek with long-haired belles and guys in g-strings. That’s going to be some party.

Okay, okay you spoil sports, what’s that about irate tourists demanding their money back?

If Donald Tsang can’t get through the trunkline, some drunken guy with lobster skin isn’t going to succeed. Besides, what are aides for? They can always raid new cellars to humor testy visitors. Or else borrow some weapons from those warehouses and invite play at liberating the Kremlin from Chechen rebels. Might as well put those expensive toys to good use.

See, the good thing about these guys is they sure know how to go the extra mile. That makes it easier, as Lim says, to create a brand that "reflects the hope and optimism being represented by the new administration."

Supreme Court justices borrow boring legal text. At least the creators of beautifulpilipinas.com range wider in their pillage.

Treasure hunters; fancy that. Got to shake my head in admiration. I can see Yamashita rising from the grave. Who can resist showbiz?

Now if we can just get the magicians to come out into the light and take their bows.

Who they? Aaaah, that’s the million-peso question. (*Many thanks to Stella Arnaldo and Reyna Elena and Ka Bibo of Cebu, all Facebook sages, for diverting me from massacres and foresters felled by crossfire.)

SAVING ALLANA

2010-11-12T13:37:00.007+08:00

“Dear Mr. Jesus, they say that she may die.
Oh I hope the doctors stop the pain.
I know that you could save her
And take her up to the sky where
She will never have to hurt again.”

Allana Blanche Nolan was not a child of mean streets or war zones. She lived in an area known for spacious, old-fashioned apartment homes. The residential compound that carried her family name stands across the street from a Catholic college, beside the city’s most modern hospital. It is surrounded by artists’ hangouts, restaurants and live music joints.

Days are lazy in Bacolod. Folks live at the maximum 30 minutes away from each other. The speaking syle, that drawl, partly stems from a milieu where you can take coffee breaks from work and gather round shady trees in friends’ homes and then go back to work, refreshed. It’s a city where friends call each other to ask what’s up for lunch, because everything is 10 minutes away and a fine dining place comes with the price of some fast-food turo-turo in Manila.

In the past, Bacolod winced whenever its pride – sugar – got linked to blood and sweat and tears. When Joel Abong hit the covers of magazines, and Kahirup Ball references turned into Batang Negros, it was a wake up call, and it took years to recover from the blow.

Allana was not a waif from the farm or the city slums. She was from an upscale family, went to a good school. Her parents hobnobbed with other chic young adults of the city.

But not all was well in Allana’s world. And nobody knew about it. Not her teachers, not her friends, not the neighbors in their compound. If anybody knew, he or she kept mum.

Because by the time the world knew of Allana, it was too late.

She was six; it was Oct. 27.

The cold words on the page of medical reports tell only part of the story: Damaged kidneys, injuries all over her body, a vein in the head that burst. The report folder on her case includes a picture of a belt and a flat iron. The medico legal officer says her genitals showed three old lacerations.

Her parents were 26, 27.I doubt they had ever felt hunger, unless of a type due to deliberate self-neglect or the byproduct of abuse of certain chemicals.

Rachel Esguerra, 26, and Bernard Nolan, 27, brought Allana to the hospital. They have waived their right to further investigation. They have kept mum on the matter. Nor have they tried – so far – to shift blame for the crime.

Allana was laid to rest in a Negros Oriental cemetery. Grieving grandparents placed her in a pink coffin.

Looking at the photo by Aksyon Radyo dyEZHer, I have to : Did they ask themselves, Where did things go wrong? It is a question raised the world over by perfectly decent folk whose children turn out to be monsters.

But that is a peripheral question. The ones that really matter can not be answered: Did she plead for mercy? Did she try to tell anyone?

When she saw classmates hugged by parents, what did she think of?

Did her parents pretend the same loving relationship to the outside world?

How did she feel when kin and neighbors smiled and told her parents how lucky they were to have her?

I cannot shake the image of this lovely child huddling in pain and fear as nights closed in on her. I cannot stop asking: What were her last thoughts as she fell into oblivion?

I do not know. I will never now. I can only take comfort in this song, shared by dyEZ. Sort of take comfort.

Dear Mr. Jesus, it was too late for doctors
To stop Allyana’s pain
A part of me wants to rage,
Didn’t you hear her cries?

But maybe you did; save her, that is
Took her up to the sky
Where she will never have to hurt again.

Maybe you want to save her parents to, by freeing them from the prisons of their souls, that they may talk of what pain they gave their child, and what drove them to this.

Maybe some lessons learned from this could save some child, so he or she doesn’t need the rescue of death. (All photos by Aksyon Radyo dyEZ)

CHALLENGING ILLEGAL VOTERS -- Part 4 ng Tips para sa Halalan

2010-10-23T15:50:00.002+08:00

Sec. 38. Challenge against illegal voters. –

Ang sino mang botante o watcher ay maaring tumawag ng attention ng BET sa mga diumanong illegal voters, under the following grounds:

(a) hindi registered ang tao; (b) gumagamit ng ibang pangalan; (c) naka-register ng mahigit sa isang beses; o nakapasok sa mga kategorya ng disqualified persons

Hindi required mag-present ng ID ang isang botente hanggat walang challenge sa capacity nya to vote.

Kahit walang ID, pwede syang payagan kung ang mukha nya at signature nya ay katulad ng nasa register of voters; kung kilala sya ng BET; o may magsasabi na kapitbahay under oath na sya nga ang tao sa list of registered voters.

Pwedeng mag-reklamo sa kapwa botante on the following grounds:
a) Nakatanggap o humihinta na tumanggap ng suhol para sa boto nya (hindi lang pera ang pinaguusapan dito – mamahaling regalo, mga groceries etc) [*Pero dahil sa pagsalanta ng Bagyong Juan, di na pinagbawalan ang mga kandidato na magbahagi ng relief goods BASTA WALANG KASAMANG KAMPANYA AT CAMPAIGN MATERIALS}
(b) Kung ang kapwa botante ay sumusubok na ma-impluwensyahan ang boto kahit na nagsara na ang campaign period;

Kung ikaw naman ang na-accuse, kailangan kang magsumpa sa harap ng BET na di mo ginawa ang mga pinaparatang sayo. Maari ka nang bumoto pagkatapos.
Lahat ng reklamo ay dapat nakalagay sa Part E of the Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes.

Sec. 41. Disposition of unused ballots at end of voting hours. –
Bibilangin ng Chair at itatala sa Part A ng Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes ang dami ng unused ballots, kasama ang kanilang serial number. Pagkatapos, sa harap ng publiko, pupunitin nya ang mga ito na pahaba. Ang kalahati ilalagay sa “Envelope for Other Half of Torn Unused Ballots” na dapat selyohan agad at ipatago sa Election Officer.

Ang natirang parte ng balota ay ilalagay sa “Envelope for Excess/Half of Torn Unused Ballots” na ilalagay sa ballot box para sa spoined ballots.

Hangga’t di natatapos ang pagboto, wala sinumang miyembro ng BET na pwedeng announce kung sino ang nakaboto o di pa nakaboto pa na mga botante, o magsabi kung ilan na ang naka-boto o anumang salitang makakapagbigay ng sitwasyon ng pag-boto.

Alamin kung paano bumoto sa Oct. 25 (Part 3)

2010-10-23T15:25:00.001+08:00

Sec. 32. Manner of obtaining the ballots. –

Lumapit sa BET Chair, ibigay ang pangalan at address mo at iba pang mahalagang impormasyon. Katungkulan ng miyembro ng BET na suriin ang identity mo – KAYA MAS MAIGING MAGDALA NG MGA MAY PICTURE NA IDENTIFICATION CARDS, LALO NA GALING SA GOBYERNO.

Pag-ok na sa BET, titingnan ng Chair kung malinis ang daliri mo, tapos bibigyan ka ng balota. ANG CHAIR NG BET LAMANG ANG MAKAKAPAGBIGAY NG BALOTA, AT ISA-ISA LANG.
Dapat sabihin ng Chair ang serial number ng balota mo at ilagay ito sa ilalim ng pangalan mo sa kanilang listahan.

Dapat ding pirmahan ng Chair ang likod ng balota mo. Check this, kasi kung walang pirma ng Chair, pwedeng ma-invalidate ang balota.

Dapat ka ding pumirma sa listahan ng BET (ang mga illiterate ay maglalagay ng thumb mark)

Dapat nakatupi ang ballot para nakatago ang mukha maliban na lang sa serial number.
Maaring samahan ng isang tao ang disabled of illiterate na botante. Dapat naka-indicate na ito in advance sa registration record nyo. Pero kung nangyari ang disability pagkatapos ng rehistro, magpakita na lamang ng medical certificate. Dapat ma-lista ito sa Minutes of Voting.

Kung ikaw ay kasama ng disabled o illiterate, di pwede lumampas sa tatlong katao ang maaring tulungan. Dapat ding tanungin ng poll clerk ang disabled o diumanong illiterate na botante kung ikaw nga ba ang pinili nyang tumulong

Maglalagda ang aid, under oath, na sinulat nya ang kagustuhan ng botante.

May mga lugar na nililipat ang mga presinto ng disabled at senior citizens. Magtanong!

Kung nadumihan mo ang balota at natatakot na di ito bilangin, ibalik na naka-ayos tulad ng pagkuka mo. Hintayin na sulatan ng BET Chair “spoiled” ang espasyo sa taas ng serial number. Hintayin na bigyan ka ng pangalawang balota. Hanggang pangalawang balota lang ang maaring ibigay.

Sec. 37. Procedure after voting. –
Pagkapuno ng balota, fold it tulad ng pagtanggap mo

Sa harap ng BET, ilagay ang thumbmark sa nakatakdang espasyo at ibalik na sa Chair ang balota.

Titingnan lang ng Chair ang serial number na hindi natatakpan at i-match sa nakalista sa BET logbook. Dapat mahulog agad ng chair ang balota sa ballot box ng di tinitingnan ang laman.

Hindi pwedeng tanggapin ang balota na may ibang serial number kaysa nakatala sa log.

Lalagyan ng indelible ink sa kanan hintuturo. Ang di pagpayag malagyan ng ink ay magiging cause para markahan na “spoiled” ang balota mo.
Pag-tinanggap na ng Chair ang balota mo, yung folded part ay ilalagay sa ballot box at ang detached coupon naman sa compartment para sa spoiled ballots. Ang anumang balota na bumalik na wala nang coupon ay mamarkahan agad ng “spoiled”

BARANGAY ELECTIONS: DAPAT ALAMIN

2010-10-23T14:22:00.001+08:00

Resolution 9030

Sec. 23. Voting hours. – Magsisimula ang botohan mula 7 am hanggang 3 pm sa Oct. 25.
Pag-umabot ng 3 pm., at may mga botante di pa nakapagboto within 30 meters ng polling place, gagawa agad ng listaHAN ang poll clerk at bigyan numero ang bawat isa para sa maayos na pagtapos ng botohan. Ibibigay ang listahan sa Election Officer. Maging alerto: 3 beses lang tatawagin ang pangalan mo; pag di ka pa lumapit, disqualified ka na.

Ang bawat presinto ay dapat may kopya ng listahan ng botante at listagan ng mga –de-activated voters (yung mga napag-alaman na peke o di talaga nakatira sa address na binigay, o mga di nakaboto ng 3 sunod-sunod na halalan) Dapat ilagay ang mga listahan sa tabi ng numero ng presinto, na dapat nakapaskil malapit sa pintuan ng polling place

Ang bawat upuan o desk na gagamitin ay dapat na may ballot secrecy folders

Bantayan bago magsimula ang botohan na nagawa ang mga sumusunod:
• Buksan ng Board of Election Teller Chair ang ballot box, siguraduhing walang laman at ipakita ito sa publiko. Tapos, i-padlock ang interior cover; ibigay sa poll clerk ang susi ng padlock
• Ipakita sa publiko na naka selyo ang pakete ng official ballots at book of voters. Sirain ang selyo sa harap ng publiko. Ipasok sa Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes ang bilang ng mga pads ng balota at ang mga serial numbers ng mga balota sa bawat pad. Magcertify na nakita ng publiko na sealed na dumating ang mga kagamitan sa halalan.
• Ang interior cover ng ballot box ay dapat locked hanggang matapos ang botohan. Kung nagging masikip na at din a makalaglag ng mga balota ang mga botante, pwede itong buksan sa harap ng mga watchers at ang Chair ay magdidiin sa mga balota – PERO DI PWEDENG ILABAS ANG MGA BALOTA. Isara ulit ng padlock ang interior cover.

DAPAT SIGURADUHIN NG BET NA FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED ANG BOTOHAN. Ang magugulo ay dapat i-report agad sa Chief election office at mga law enforcers na deputized ng Comelec.

BAWAL ANG WATCHER SA LUGAR NA RESERVED SA MGA BOTANTE AT BET. BAWAL SILANG MAKISALAMUHA AT MAKIPAGUSAP SA MGA BOTANTE
WALANG MAARING PUMASOK NA ARMADONG TAO SA POLLING PLACE, MALIBAN KUNG DEPUTIZED NG COMELEC

Mga DO’s and DON’T’s sa mga members ng Board of Election Tellers (minsan tinatawag ding Board of Election Inspectors) at mga Watchers:

2010-10-23T14:01:00.002+08:00

Ang Sec. 11. Prohibition on partisan political activity. – Walang miyembro ng BET ang pwedeng lumahok, direkta man o hindi, sa anuman partisan political activity (mag-kampanya o tumulong sa sino mang kanidato).

Sec. 12. Proceedings of the BET. – Kailangan bukas sa publiko ang meeting ng BET at dun lamang sa assigned na polling place.

Ang bawat kandidato ay may karapatang pangalagaan ang kanyang boto. Ang bawat kandidato ay pwedeng mag-assign ng dalawang watchers na mag-bantay in alternate shifts sa polling and canvassing centers. (*Sa mga magugulong lugar ay nililipat ang canvassing sa ibang sentro. Tulad ng sa Payatas na nilipat ang canvassing sa Albert Hall ng QC City Hall. Alamin kung saan ang canvassing ng mga boto sa barangay ninyo.)

Ang mga duly accredited citizens arms ng Comelec ay pwede ding maglagay ng tig-isang watcher.

Ang ibang mga civic, religious, professional, business, service at youth groups na may pahintulot sa Comelec ay maaring mag-appoint COLLECTIVELY ng isang watcher bawat polling place. (*Isa lang para sa kanilang lahat, kaya dapat makapagusap ang mga grupong ito nang di makadagdag sa gulo.)

Hindi ka pwede maging watcher kung may kamaganak ka sa BET sa lugar ng assignment mo.

Hindi pwede maging watcher ang mga incumbent barangay at SK officials kahit di sila tumatakbo sa eleksyon.

Hindi din pwede maging watcher ang mga barangay tanod.

Sec. 16. Rights and duties of a watcher. –
Pagpasok sa polling place, ipakita sa BET Chair ang inyong sinumpaang appointment na dapat may signature ng nag-appoint na kandidato. Dapat ma-lista agad ng poll clerk ang pangalan ng watcher sa Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes

Pwedeng gawin ng watcher:
a) Mag-observe sa proceedings ng BET,
b) Gumawa ng notes tungkol sa nakikita nya
c) Kumuha ng mga litrato ng mga nangyayari, pati na sa pag-bilang ng boto, election returns, tally board at ballot boxes;
d) Magsampa ng protesta kung may nakitang iregularidad of di pagsunod sa batas; huwag kalimutang kumuha sa BET ng certificate ng pag-protesta.
e) Malayang timingin ng balotang binabasa ngBET Chair, election returns at tally board. PERO HINDI PWEDENG HAWAKAN NG WATCHER ANG MGA ELECTION DOCUMENTS.
f) Kumuha ng certificate of votes ng kandidato. MAKE SURE NA ITO AY NALAGDA-AN AT MAY THUMB MARK NG LAHAT NG MIYEMBRO NG BET

BAWAL MANGGULO ANG mga WATCHER SA MGA VOTERS O SA BET. DAPAT SILA MAGING MAGALANG AT DI MASYADONG MAINGAY. DI DAPAT PAKALAT-KALAT ANG MGA WATCHERS. DAPAT TUMIGIL SA ASSIGNED PLACE.

**Source: RESOLUTION No. 9030 (GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE BOARD OF ELECTION TELLERS (BET) AND BARANGAY BOARD OF CANVASSERS (BBOC)IN CONNECTION WITH THE CONDUCT OF THE OCTOBER 25, 2010, SYNCHRONIZED BARANGAY AND SANGGUNIANG KABATAAN ELECTIONS. )

COMELEC'S GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR OCT. 25 ELECTIONS

2010-10-23T01:24:00.003+08:00

RESOLUTION No. 9030

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE BOARD OF ELECTION TELLERS (BET)
AND BARANGAY BOARD OF CANVASSERS (BBOC)
IN CONNECTION WITH THE CONDUCT OF THE OCTOBER 25, 2010,
SYNCHRONIZED BARANGAY AND SANGGUNIANG KABATAAN ELECTIONS.
Promulgation: 21 September 2010

Pursuant to the powers vested in it by the Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines, the Omnibus Election Code (BP Blg. 881), Republic Acts No. 9164, 9340 and other election laws, the Commission on Elections hereby promulgates the following General Instructions in the conduct of the October 25, 2010 Synchronized Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections.
ARTICLE I
GENERAL PROVISIONS

Section I. Nature of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections. – The Barangay and SK elections shall be non-partisan and conducted in expeditious and inexpensive manner.
Sec. 2. Supervision and control of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections. – The Commission shall have supervision and control over the conduct of the Barangay and SK elections.
ARTICLE II
BOARD OF ELECTION TELLERS

Sec. 3. Board of Election Tellers, DepEd Supervising Official and Support Staff. - The Commission, through the Election Officers shall, based on the list submitted by the highest Department of Education (DepEd) official in the city/municipality, constitute the Board of Election Tellers hereinafter referred to as BET and appoint its members in writing in the form prescribed by the Commission (CE Form No. 5).

The BET shall be composed of a Chairman and two members, all of whom shall be public school teachers, giving preference to those with permanent appointments and those who served in the May 10, 2010 Synchronized National and Local Elections as members of the BEI, unless otherwise disqualified to serve under Sec. 4 hereof.

In case there are not enough public school teachers, teachers in private schools, employees in the civil service, or other citizens of known probity and competence who are registered voters of the city or municipality may be appointed for election duty.

There shall be one (1) DepEd Supervising Official and one (1) Support Staff for every ten (10) clustered precincts.

Sec. 4. Qualifications of members of the BET. - The members or substitute member of the BET shall:
1) Be of good moral character and irreproachable reputation;
2) Be a registered voter of the city/municipality;
3) Be able to speak and write English or the local dialect ;
4) Have never been convicted of any election offense or any other crime punishable by more than six (6) months of imprisonment;
5) Have not been charged in court for any election offense; and
6) Not be related within the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity to any member of the same BET or to any candidate to be voted for in the barangay where they are assigned.

Sec. 5. Per diem of the BET, DepEd Supervising Official and Support Staff. The members of the BET shall each receive a per diem of One Thousand Pesos (P1,000.00) but not to exceed Two Thousand Pesos (P2,000.00) for two days of service. The members of the BET also handling SK precinct/s shall receive additional honoraria of Five Hundred Pesos (P500.00) each.

In addition, the DepEd Supervising Official and Support Staff shall each receive a per diem of One Thousand Pesos (P1,000.00) and Five Hundred Pesos (P500.00), respectively.

Sec. 6. Oath of members of the BET. - Before assuming office, the members of the BET shall take and sign an oath in the form (CEF No. 5A) prescribed by the Commission before any officer authorized to administer oath, or, before any other member of the BET. Copies of the oath shall be submitted to the Election Officer.

Sec. 7. Powers and functions of the BET. - The BET shall have the following powers and functions:
1) Conduct the voting and counting of votes in their respective polling places;

2) Act as deputies of the Commission in the supervision and control of the election in the polling place;

3) Maintain order within the polling place and its premises, to keep access thereto open and unobstructed, and to enforce obedience to its lawful orders. If any person refuses to obey the lawful orders of the BET or conducts himself in a disorderly manner in its presence or within its hearing and thereby interrupts or disturbs its proceedings, the BET may issue an order in writing directing any peace officer to take such person into custody until the adjournment of the meeting, but such order shall not be executed as to prevent such person from voting. In the absence of any peace officer, such order may be executed by any other competent and able person deputized by the BET in writing; and

4) Perform such other functions prescribed by law or by the rules and regulations promulgated by the Commission.

Sec. 8. Relief and substitution of members of the BET. – The members of the BET shall not be relieved unless disqualified in accordance with Sec.4 hereof. If any member of the BET suffers disqualification, he shall voluntarily inhibit himself by submitting an affidavit stating the fact of disqualification to the Election Officer.

Within three (3) days after their constitution and appointment, the Election Officer shall post a list of the members of the BET in the bulletin boards of his Office and of the city/municipal hall. Within the same period, the Election Officer shall verify, whether there are members of the BET who are related with any candidate in the barangay where they are assigned within the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity. Any member of the BET found to be disqualified by reason of relationship shall be informed by the Election Officer and cause his substitution.

Any interested party may, until September 28, 2010, file an opposition in writing before the Election Officer, on the appointment of any member of the Board on the ground that he/she is disqualified in accordance with Sec. 4 hereof. Within forty eight (48) hours upon receipt, such opposition shall be resolved by the Election Officer. If he resolves for the disqualification, he shall appoint a substitute who shall possess the qualifications as herein provided.

Sec. 9. Vacancy in the BET. – If at the meeting of the BET any member is absent, the member or members present shall appoint any non-partisan registered voter of the precinct to fill temporarily such vacancy until the absent member appears. In case there are two (2) members present, they shall act jointly.

Sec. 10. Arrest of absent member. – The member or members of the BET present may order the arrest of any other member who has absented himself with the intention of obstructing the performance of its duties.

Sec. 11. Prohibition on partisan political activity. – No member of the BET shall engage, directly or indirectly, in any partisan political activity or take part in the election except to discharge his duties and to vote.

Sec. 12. Proceedings of the BET. – The meeting of the BET shall be public and held only in its assigned polling place.

The BET shall act through its Chairman and shall decide, without delay, by majority vote, all questions which may arise in the performance of its duties.

Sec. 13. Voting privilege of the members of the BET. – Members of the BET or their substitutes may vote in the polling place where they are assigned on election day as long as:
1) They are registered voters of the barangay where they are assigned;
2) Their voting in the precinct where they are not registered should be noted in the Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes; and
3) They shall add in the EDCVL their names and precinct numbers where they are actually registered.

Any member of the BET who is not registered in the barangay where he is assigned, may vote in the precinct where he is registered when the voting in his place of assignment is light and his absence shall not be for more than twenty (20) minutes. For this purpose, the members of the BET shall schedule the voting so that only one (1) member shall leave at any given time.

ARTICLE III
WATCHERS

Sec. 14. Official watchers of candidates and other groups. - Each candidate for the Barangay and SK elections may appoint two (2) watchers to serve alternately in every polling place or canvassing center.

Duly accredited citizens arms of the Commission shall be entitled to appoint a watcher in every polling place or canvassing center. Other civic, religious, professional, business, service, youth, and any other similar organization, with prior authority of the Commission, shall be entitled collectively to appoint one watcher in every polling place.

Sec . 15. Qualifications of watchers. - The watcher must:

(a) be a registered voter of the barangay or a member of the Katipunan ng Kabataan, as the case maybe, in the barangay where he is assigned;
(b) be of good reputation:
(c) have not been convicted by final judgment of any election offense or of any other crime;
(d) know how to read and write Filipino, English, or any of the prevailing local dialects; and
(e) not be related within the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity to the Chairman or any member of the BET in the polling place where he seeks appointment as watcher.

Incumbent Barangay/SK Officials including Barangay Tanods shall not be appointed as watchers of any candidate or Citizen’s Arm.

Sec. 16. Rights and duties of a watcher. - Upon entering the polling place, the watcher shall present to the Chairman of the BET his sworn written appointment. The appointment shall bear the personal signature of the candidate who appointed him with a statement that he possesses all the qualifications and none of the disqualifications as watcher. The poll clerk shall record the name of the watcher in the Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes with a notation under the watcher’s signature that he is not disqualified to serve as such.
The watcher shall have the right to:
(a) witness the proceedings of the BET;
(b) take note of what he may see or hear;
(c) take photographs of the proceedings and incidents, if any, during the counting of votes, as well as of the election returns, tally board and ballot boxes;
(d) file a protest against any irregularity or violation of law which he believes may have been committed by the BET or by any of its members or by any person;
(e) obtain from the BET a certificate as to the filing of such protest and/or of the resolution thereon;
(f) have an unimpeded view of the ballot being read by the Chairman, of the election return and the tally board being simultaneously accomplished by the, poll clerk and the third member respectively, without touching any of these election documents; and
(g) be furnished, upon request, with a certificate of votes casts for the candidates, duly signed and thumb-marked by the Chairman all members of the BET.
Watchers shall not speak to any member of the BET, or to any voter, or among themselves, in such a manner as would disturb the proceedings of the board of election tellers, and shall stay in the space reserved for them inside the polling place.

ARTICLE IV
FORMS AND SUPPLIES

Sec. 17. Forms and supplies. - The BET shall be provided with the documents, forms and supplies for use on election day, listed as Annex “A” hereof.
The BET shall check the completeness of the documents and the quantities of the forms and supplies received and immediately call the attention of the Election Officer or City/Municipal Treasurer, as the case may be, on any deficiency or shortage thereof.
The BET shall sign a Certificate of Receipt (CEF Form No. 14) in three copies, one copy of which shall be retained by the BET. The two other copies shall be returned to the City/Municipal Treasurer who, after elections, shall immediately transmit one copy to the Election Officer concerned. The latter shall then forward the same to the Records and Statistics Division, ERSD, Manila.

Sec. 18. Forms to be prepared when needed. - The following forms may be reproduced when the need arises:
1) Temporary Appointment of Chairman, Poll Clerk/Member (Annex “B”);
2) Certificate of Challenge or Protest and Decision of the BET (Annex “C”);
3) Oath of Voter Challenged for Illegal Acts (Annex “D”); and
4) Oath of Identification of Challenged Voter (Annex “E”)

Sec. 19. Book of voters and computerized voters’ list. - Each precinct shall have the following documents duly certified by the Election Registration Board (ERB):
(a) Book of Voters for SK voters;
(b) One (1) copy of the Election Day Computerized Voters’ List (EDCVL) for barangay voters;
(c) One (1) copy of the Election Day Computerized Voters’ List (EDCVL) for SK voters;
(d) Two (2) copies of the Posted Computerized Voters’ List (PCVL) for barangay voters;
(e) Two (2) copies of the Posted Computerized Voters’ List (PCVL) for SK voters;
(f) List of deactivated voters; and
(g) List of double/multiple voters.

The Chairman of the BET shall have custody of the EDCVL and one (1) copy of the PCVL. The other copy of the PCVL shall be posted at the door of the polling place.
The poll clerk shall have custody of the Book/s of Voters and the List of Double/Multiple Voters.
The third member shall have custody of one (1) copy of the list of deactivated voters.

Sec. 20. Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes. - The BET shall accomplish in two (2) copies, the Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes, (CE Form No. 11) entering therein all the data and acts required as they become available or as they occur. Copies of the Minutes of Voting and Counting (CE Form No. 11) shall be signed and sealed in separate envelopes (CEF Nos. 18 and 18A) for distribution as follows:
(a) The copy intended for the Commission shall be delivered to the Election Officer who shall forward the same to the Records and Statistics Division, ERSD, Manila;
(b) The copy intended for the ballot box shall be deposited inside the ballot box compartment for valid ballots.

ARTICLE V
CASTING OF VOTES

Sec. 21. Date of election. - The election of Barangay and SK officials shall be held on October 25, 2010.

Sec. 22. Who are allowed to vote. - Registered voters of the precinct:
(a) Whose registration records are found in the Book of Voters (for SK voters); or
(b) Whose names appear in the EDCVL unless marked as double/multiple registrants; or
(c) Members of the BET entitled to avail of voting privilege under Section 13 hereof.
Sec. 23. Voting hours. - The casting of votes shall start promptly at seven o’clock in the morning and end at three o’clock in the afternoon of election day. If at three o’clock in the afternoon, there are still voters within thirty meters in front of the polling place, who have not yet cast their votes, the voting shall continue but only to allow said voters to cast their voters without interruption. The poll clerk shall, without delay, list the names of said voters consecutively numbered. The voters listed shall be called to vote by the poll clerk by announcing each name three times in the order in which they are listed. Any voter in the list who is not present when called shall not be permitted to vote at any later time. The said list shall be submitted to the Election Officer.

Sec. 24. Place of Voting. - Voters shall cast their votes in their designated polling places.

Sec. 25. Preliminaries to the voting. - (a) The BET shall meet at the polling place at six o’clock in the morning of election day and do the following:
1) See to it that it has all the election forms, documents and supplies needed;
2) Post one copy of the PCVL and the list of deactivated voters, and the PCVL of the SK voters, for BETs handling both Barangay and SK precincts;
3) Post the poster indicating the precinct number and location of the polling place (CE Form No. 3) near or at the door of the polling place;
4) Staple or paste the certified lists of candidates for the Barangay and SK positions in the ballot secrecy folder or desk/chair; and
5) Place the ballot secrecy folders on top of the desk/chair.
(b) Before the start of voting, the Chairman of the BET shall:
1) Open the ballot box, empty both of its compartments, show to all present that it is empty. Then, lock its interior cover with one (1) padlock. The poll clerk shall retain the key to the padlock during the voting; and
2) Show to the public and to the watchers present, the package of official ballots and the book of voters, both duly sealed, and thereafter, break the seals. Enter in the Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes the number of pads and the serial numbers of the ballots in each pad, and the fact that the package of ballots and the book of voters were shown to the public with the seals intact shall be entered.
The interior cover of the ballot box shall remain locked until the voting is finished and the counting begins. However, if it becomes necessary to make room for more ballots, the Chairman, may, in the presence of its members and watchers, open the box, press down with his hands the ballots contained therein without removing any of them, after which the BET shall again close the interior cover of the ballot box and lock it with the padlock as provided.

Sec. 26. Rules to be observed during the voting. - During the voting, the BET shall see to it that:
(a) Voters shall vote in the order of their arrival in the polling place;
(b) No watcher enters the places reserved for the voters and the BET, nor mingle and talk with the voters;
(c) No person carrying any firearm or any other deadly weapon, except those expressly authorized by the Commission, enters the polling place;
(d) No crowding of voters and disorderly behavior inside the polling place; and
(e) The interior cover of the ballot box remains locked until the voting is finished and the counting begins, except as provided in the preceding section.

Sec. 27. Prohibition on Voting. - It shall be unlawful to:
(a) Bring the ballot or the ballot secrecy folder outside the polling place;
(b) Speak with anyone while inside the polling place as herein provided;
(c) Prepare the ballot without using a ballot secrecy folder or exhibit its contents to any person, except in the case of assistor to the assisted voter;
(d) Erase any printing from the ballot or place any distinguishing mark;
(e) Use carbon paper, paraffin paper or other means of making a copy of the contents of the ballot, or otherwise make use of any other scheme to identify his vote, including the use of digital cameras, cellular phones with camera or similar gadgets;
(f) Intentionally tear or deface the ballot; and
(g) Disrupt or attempt to disrupt the proceedings of the BET.

Sec. 28. Persons allowed in and around the polling place. - Only the following shall be allowed inside the polling place.
(a) Members of the BET;
(b) Watchers who shall stay only in the space reserved for them;
(c) Voters casting their votes;
(d) Voters waiting for their turn to vote;
(e) Voters waiting for their turn to get their ballots; and
(f) Others that are specifically authorized by the Commission.

Sec. 29. Persons not allowed in and around the polling place. - Unless specifically authorized by the Commission, it is unlawful for the following to enter any polling place or stay within a radius fifty (50) meters thereof, except to vote:
(a) Any officer or member of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) or the Philippine National Police (PNP);
(b) Any peace officer or armed person belonging to any extra-legal police agency, special forces, reaction forces, strike forces, civilian Armed Force Geographical Units (CAFGUs), barangay tanods, or other similar forces or paramilitary forces, including special forces, security guards, special policemen;
(c) All other kinds of armed or unarmed extra legal police forces; and
(d) Any barangay or SK official, whether elected or appointed.
However, the BET, by majority vote, if it deems necessary, may order in writing the detail of a policeman or any peace officer for its protection or for the protection of the election documents and paraphernalia. Such order shall be entered in the Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes. Said policeman or peace officer shall stay outside the polling place within a radius of thirty (30) meters near enough to be easily called by the BET at any time, but never at the door, and in no case shall the said policeman or peace officer hold any conversation with any voter or disturb or prevent or in any manner obstruct the free access of the voters to the polling place.
Finally, however, the PNP or AFP officials/personnel may enter the polling place even without the written order of the BET when there is an actual disturbance or disruption of peace and order.

Sec. 30. Authentication of the ballot. - In every case, the Chairman of the BET shall, in the presence of the voter and before giving the ballot to the voter, authenticate the same by affixing his signature at the back thereof. Failure to authenticate shall be noted in the Minutes of Voting and Counting and shall constitute an election offense. Further, in no case the Chairman pre-sign at the back of the ballot prior to its actual issuance to the voters.

Sec. 31. Order of voting. - The voters shall fall in line in the order of their arrival in the polling place and cast their votes in the same order. They shall not crowd around the table of the BET and shall immediately depart after having voted.

Sec. 32. Manner of obtaining the ballots. - The following shall be the procedure in obtaining a ballot.
(a) The voter shall approach the Chairman, inform the latter whether he is voting for barangay or SK officials, as the case may be, and give his name and address, together with other data concerning his person. In every case, the Chairman shall ensure that the person before him is the same person he professes or claims to be. If any member of the BET doubts the identity of the voter, he shall require the voter to present any authentic document which may establish his identity;
(b) If the BET is satisfied with his identity, the Chairman shall announce the voter’s name distinctly in a tone loud enough to be heard throughout the polling place;
(c) If such voter has not been challenged, or having been challenged, the question has been decided in his favor, the voter shall be given the corresponding ballot for barangay elections or SK elections, as the case may be.
No person other than the Chairman shall issue official ballots and not more than one (1) ballot shall be given at any one time.
(d) Before giving the ballot to the voter, the Chairman shall check if any of the fingernails, is stained with indelible ink. If stained, the voter shall not be given a ballot. Such fact shall be entered In the Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes.
(e) If the voter’s right index fingernail is not stained with indelible ink, the Chairman shall:
1. Announce the serial number of the ballot to be issued to the voter;

2. Enter the same in the corresponding space labeled “Ballot SN” below the first name of the voter on the EDCVL;

3. Authenticate the ballot by affixing his signature at the back thereof;

4. Fold the ballot in such a manner that its face, except the portion where the serial number appears, is covered; and

5. Give the ballot to the voter.
The voter shall, upon receipt of the ballot, forthwith affix his signature or in the case of illiterate or disabled voter, his thumbmark, in the proper space of the EDCVL.
Sec. 33. Manner of voting. - The voter shall, using a ballot secrecy folder, fill up his ballot by writing in the corresponding spaces the names of the individual candidates he is voting for as appearing in the Certified List of Candidates.

Sec. 34. Preparation of ballots for illiterate and persons with disability. -
(a) No voter shall be allowed to vote as illiterate or person with disability unless such fact is so indicated in his registration record. However, if the physical disability is not stated or indicated in the registration record but is visible in the naked eyes or obvious, said voter shall be allowed to vote as person with disability. The fact of voting with assistor shall be noted in the Minutes of Voting and Counting.
(b) A voter who is illiterate or person with disability who cannot prepare the ballot by himself may be assisted by a relative within the fourth civil degree of consanguinity of affinity, or if he has none, by any person of his confidence who belongs to the same household, or by any member of the BET;
(c) No person may assist an illiterate or person with disability more than three (3) times except the members of the BET. The third member shall enter in the Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes the names of voters each member assisted. At the end of voting, the third member shall indicate in the Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes the total number of times each member of the BET assisted an illiterate or person with disability;
(d) In all cases, the poll clerk shall first verify from the illiterate or person with disability whether the latter had authorized the assistor to prepare the ballot for him;
(e) The assistor shall prepare the ballot for the illiterate or person with disability using the ballot secrecy folder in the presence of the latter; and
(f) The assistor shall bind himself in writing and under oath to fill out the ballot strictly in accordance with the instructions of the voter and not reveal the contents of the ballot, by affixing his signature in the appropriate space in the Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes.

Sec. 35. Accessibility of polling places to voters with disability and senior citizens. - The Election Officer, in coordination with the proper school or building officials, shall see to it that the designated polling places of precincts where there are registered voters with disability and senior citizens, as shown in their Voter Registration Records, are located in the ground floor of the polling centers for their easy access.

Sec. 36. Spoiled ballots. - If a voter accidentally spoils or defaces a ballot in such a way that it cannot lawfully be used, he shall surrender it folded in the same way when it was issued, to the Chairman of the BET. The Chairman shall write the word “spoiled” in the corresponding space above the ballot serial number preciously recorded in the EDCVL. The Chairman shall then give the voter a second authenticated ballot after announcing its serial number and recording the same in the EDCVL above the word “spoiled”. However, in cases of spoiled ballots under paragraphs c, e and g of the immediately succeeding Section, the voter shall not be issued another ballot.
If the second ballot is again spoiled or defaced in such a way that it can no longer be lawfully used, the same shall be surrendered to the Chairman in the same manner as the first spoiled or defaced ballot. No voter shall be allowed to change his spoiled/defaced ballot more than once.

The spoiled ballot shall, without being unfolded and without removing the detachable coupon, be distinctly marked with the word “spoiled”, signed by the Chairman at the back thereof and deposit it in the compartment for spoiled ballots of the ballot box.

Sec. 37. Procedure after voting. –
(a) After the voter has filled his ballot, he shall fold it in the same manner as he received it;
(b) The voter shall then, in the presence of all the members of the BET, affix his thumbmark in the corresponding space in the ballot coupon, and return the folded ballot to the Chairman;
(c) The Chairman shall, within the view of the voter and all the members of the BET, without unfolding the ballot or seeing its contents, verify its serial number against the number previously entered in the EDCVL to determine whether it is the same ballot given to the voter.
If the serial number does not tally with the serial number as entered in the EDCVL, the ballot shall be considered “spoiled” and shall be so marked and signed by the Chairman, and placed inside the compartment for spoiled ballots. Such fact shall be indicated in Part C of the Minutes of Voting and Counting.
(d) If the serial number of the ballot returned by the voter is the same as that recorded in the EDCVL, the voter shall affix his thumbmark in the corresponding space in the EDCVL;
(e) The Chairman shall then apply indelible ink at the base and extending to the cuticle of the right forefinger nail of the voter, or at the base of any other fingernail if there be no right forefinger. If a voter refuses to have his fingernail stained with indelible ink, he shall be informed that such refusal shall render his ballot spoiled.
If the voter still refuses despite being informed thereof, the Chairman shall, without unfolding the ballot and without removing the detachable coupon, distinctly mark the ballot with the word “spoiled” sign the same at the back thereof and immediately place said ballot in the compartment for spoiled ballots. The voter shall then be requested to depart. Such fact shall be recorded in Part C of the Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes.
(f) The Chairman shall sign in the proper space in the EDCVL;
(g) The Chairman shall detach the ballot coupon in the presence of the voter and other members of the BET and deposit the folded ballot in the compartment of the ballot box for valid ballots and the detached coupon in the compartment for spoiled ballots.
Any ballot returned to the Chairman, the detachable coupon of which has been removed not in the presence of the other members of the BET and of the voter, shall be considered “spoiled”, accordingly marked, signed by the Chairman and placed inside the compartment for spoiled ballots. Such fact shall be noted in the Part C of the Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes.
(h) The voter shall then depart.

Sec. 38. Challenge against illegal voters. - Any voter or watcher may challenge any person offering to vote for: (a) not being registered; (b) using the name of another; (c) suffering from existing disqualification; or (d) being a double/multiple registrant. In such case, the BET shall satisfy itself as to whether or not the ground for the challenge is true by requiring proof of registration, identity or qualification.
No voter shall be required to present his voter’s identification card or any other valid identification cards, unless his identity is challenged. However, the failure or inability of a voter to present an identification card upon being challenged shall not preclude the voter from voting if (a) his identity can be established from the photograph or specimen signature, if any, in his registration record or in any other valid identification document which bears his photograph or specimen signature; (b) he is identified under oath by any member of the BET; or (c) by another registered voter of the same barangay. Barangay voter can only be identified by another barangay voter; likewise, SK voter can only be identified by another SK voter.
Such identification shall be recorded in Part E of the Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes.

Sec. 39. Challenge based on certain illegal acts. - Any voter or watcher may challenge any voter offering to vote on the ground that the challenged person has;
(a) Received or expect to receive, paid, offered or promised to pay, contributed, offered or promised to contribute money or anything of value in consideration for his vote or for the vote of another;
(b) Made or received a promise to influence the giving or withholding of any such vote; or
(c) Made a bet or is interested directly or indirectly in a bet which depends upon the results of the election.
The challenged person shall take an oath before the BET that he has not committed any of the acts alleged in the challenge. Upon the taking of such oath, the challenge shall be dismissed and the voter shall be allowed to vote. In case the voter refuses to take such oath, the challenge shall be sustained and the voter shall not be allowed to vote.

Sec. 40. Record of challenges, oaths and resolutions. - The poll clerk shall record in Part E of the Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes, all challenges and oaths taken in connection therewith and the resolution of the BET in each case. Copies of the challenges, oaths and resolutions shall be attached to the copy of the Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes. Upon the termination of the voting, the poll clerk shall certify that the Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes contain all challenges, oaths and resolutions made.

Sec. 41. Disposition of unused ballots at end of voting hours. - The Chairman shall count and record in Part A of the Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes the quantity of unused ballots and their serial numbers, if any. Thereafter, he shall, in the presence of other members of the BET and watchers, if any, tear the unused ballots in half lengthwise without removing the stubs and detachable coupon.
The first half of the torn ballots shall be placed in the “Envelope for Other Half of Torn Unused Ballots” which envelope shall be sealed with the paper seal to be submitted to the Election Officer for safekeeping. It shall remain sealed unless the Commission orders otherwise. The second half of the torn ballots shall be placed in the “Envelope for Excess/Half of Torn Unused Ballots” which shall be sealed and then deposited inside the compartment of the ballot box for spoiled ballots. Such fact shall be entered in Part C of the Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes.

Sec. 42. Prohibition against premature announcement of voting. - Before the termination of the voting, no member of the BET shall make any announcement as to whether a certain registered voter has already voted or not, as to how many have already voted or how many so far have failed to vote or any other fact tending to show or showing the state of the polls, nor shall he make any statement at any time, except as a witness before a court or body.

ARTICLE VI
COUNTING OF VOTES

Sec. 43. Counting of votes to be public and without interruption. - As soon as the voting is finished, the BET shall publicly count in the polling place the votes cast and ascertain the results. The BET may rearrange the physical set-up of the polling place for counting or perform any other activity with respect to the transition from voting to counting. However, it may do so only in the presence of the watchers and within close view of the public. At all times, the ballot box and all election documents and paraphernalia shall be within close view of the watchers and the public.
The BET shall not adjourn or postpone or delay the count until it has been fully completed or ordered otherwise by the Commission.
Any violation of this Section, or its pertinent portion, shall constitute an election offense and shall be penalized in accordance with BP Blg. 881, as amended.

Sec. 44. Transfer of counting of votes. - The Commission through the Election Officers, in the interest of free, orderly, and honest elections, may authorize the BET to count the votes and accomplish the election returns and other forms in any other place within a public building in the same municipality or city on account of imminent danger of widespread violence, terrorism, disorder or similar causes of comparable magnitude; Provided, That the transfer shall have been recommended in writing by the BET by unanimous vote and endorsed in writing by the majority of watchers present: Provided, further, that the transfer is to the nearest safe barangay or school building within the municipality or city and that it shall not be located within the perimeter or inside a military or police camp, reservation, headquarters, detachment or field office nor within the premises of a prison or detention bureau of any law enforcement or investigation agency. This fact shall be recorded in the Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes.

Sec. 45. Preliminaries to the counting of votes. - The following activities shall be undertaken by the BETs before counting the ballots cast:
(a) Unlock the padlocks, open the ballot box and take out the ballots from the compartment for valid ballots.
(b) For BETs handling clustered Barangay and SK precincts, segregate the ballots cast for barangay elections from those cast for the SK elections.
For BETs handling barangay clustered precincts only, proceed to the examination of ballots according to the immediately succeeding paragraph.
(c) Examine the ballots to determine whether there are:
1. Excess ballots – The BET shall, without unfolding the ballots or exposing their contents, count the number of ballots in the compartment for valid ballots, and compare the number of ballots inside the ballot box with the number of voters who actually voted as reflected in the EDCVL. If there are more ballots than there are voters who actually voted, all the ballots shall be returned to the compartment for valid ballots and thoroughly mixed therein. The poll clerk, without seeing the ballots and with his back to the ballot box, shall publicly draw out as many ballots as may be equal to the excess and, without unfolding them, place them in the Envelope for Excess Ballots.

If in the course of the examination, ballots are found folded together before they were deposited inside the ballot box, they shall be considered excess ballots and placed in the corresponding envelope.
2. Ballots with detachable coupons – In case a ballot with undetached coupon is found in the ballot box, the coupon shall be removed and deposited in the compartment for spoiled ballots. The ballot shall be included in the pile of valid ballots.

3. Ballots with the word “spoiled” – If a ballot with the word “spoiled” should be found in the compartment for valid ballots, is shall be placed in the compartment for valid ballots.

4. Marked ballots – The BET shall then unfold the ballots and determine whether there are any marked ballots. If any should be found, they shall be placed in the corresponding envelope.

Excess, spoiled and marked ballots shall not be read during the counting of votes. The envelope containing the excess and marked ballots shall be signed and sealed by the members of the BET and deposited in the compartment for valid ballots.
(d) After completion of the preliminary activities, the BET, which handled the barangay and SK clustered precincts, shall place the SK ballots inside the ballot box, lock the ballot box with two (2) padlocks, then proceed to count the ballots cast for the barangay elections. After the ballots for the barangay elections have been counted, the BET shall proceed to count the SK ballots. The BET handling barangay precincts only shall immediately proceed with the counting of ballots.

Sec. 46 Ballots deposited in the compartment for spoiled ballots. - Ballots deposited in the compartment for spoiled ballots shall be presumed to be spoiled, whether or not they contain such notation. However, if during the voting, any valid ballot was erroneously deposited in this compartment, the BET shall open such compartment after voting and before counting of votes for the sole purpose of drawing out the ballot erroneously deposited therein. The valid ballot so withdrawn shall be mixed with other valid ballots. Such fact shall be recorded in Part C of the Minutes for Voting and Counting of Votes.

Sec. 47. Manner of counting of votes. - The BET shall unfold the ballots and form separate piles of one hundred (100) ballots each, which shall be held together with rubber band. The Chairman shall take the ballots of the first pile one by one and read the names of the candidates voted for.
In reading the official ballots during the counting, the Chairman, the poll clerk and the third member shall assume such positions as to provide the watchers and the members of the public as may be conveniently accommodated in the polling place, an unimpeded view of the ballot being read by the Chairman, of the election return and the tally board being simultaneously accomplished by the, poll clerk and the third member respectively, without touching any of these election documents. The table shall be cleared of all unnecessary writing paraphernalia. Any violation of this requirement shall constitute an election offense punishable under Sections 263 and 264 of the Omnibus Election Code.

The poll clerk and third member shall record each vote on the election returns and tally sheet as the name of the candidate voted for is read. Each vote for a candidate shall be recorded by a vertical line, except every fifth vote for the same candidate, which shall be recorded by a diagonal line crossing the previous four vertical lines.
The same procedure shall be followed with the succeeding piles of ballots.
After all the ballots have been read, the BET shall record in words and figures, the total votes obtained by each candidate both in the election returns and in the tally board. The counted ballots shall be placed in an envelope provided for the purpose, which shall be sealed, signed and deposited in the compartment for valid ballots. The tally board as accomplished and certified by the BET shall not be changed or destroyed, instead, it shall be deposited in the compartment for valid ballots.

After completion of the counting of the votes cast for the barangay elections, the BET shall announce the result of the elections of barangay officials in the precinct, then proceed to unlock the padlock, open the ballot box, take out the ballots for the SK elections, place the accomplished barangay election returns and barangay tally sheet inside the ballot box, lock the same, and proceed with the counting of the votes cast for the SK elections, announcement of results and safekeeping of election returns and tally board, using the same procedure above stated.

Sec. 48. Appreciation of ballots. - In the appreciation of the ballots, every ballot shall be presumed valid unless there is clear and good reason to justify its rejection.
Any question on the appreciation of ballots shall be decided by a majority of the members of the BET.
No watcher, candidate, or any other person inside the polling place shall be allowed to participate in the appreciation of ballots, except that any watcher may file a protest which shall be recorded in the Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes.
The BET shall observe the following rules, bearing in mind that the object of the election is to obtain expression of the voters’ will:
(a) Where only the first name or surname of a candidate is written, the vote for such candidate is valid, if there is no other candidate with the same first name or surname for the same office;
(b) Where only the first name of a candidate is written on the ballot which when read has a sound similar to the surname of another candidate, the vote shall be counted in favor of the candidate with such surname. If there are two (2) or more candidates with the same full name, first name or surname and one of them is the incumbent, and on the ballot is written only such full name, first name or surname, the voter shall be counted in favor of the incumbent;
(c) In case the candidate is a woman who uses her maiden or married surname or both and there is another candidate with the same surname, a ballot bearing only such surname shall be counted in favor of the candidate who is an incumbent;
(d) When two (2) or more words are written on the same line on the ballot, all of which are the surnames of two (2) or more candidates, the same shall not be counted for any of the them unless one is a surname of an incumbent who has served for at least one (1) year, in which case it shall be counted in favor of the latter;
When two (2) or more words are written on different lines on the ballot, all of which are surnames of two (2) or more candidates bearing the same surname for an office for which the law authorizes the election of more than one and there are the same number of such surnames written as there are candidates with that surname, the vote shall be counted in favor of all the candidates bearing the surname;
(e) When on the ballot is written a single word which is the first name of a candidate and which is at the same time the surname of his opponent, the vote shall be counted in favor of the latter;
(f) When two (2) words are written on the ballot, one of which is the first name of a candidate and the other is the surname of his opponent, the vote shall not be counted for either one;
(g) A name or surname incorrectly written which, when read, has a sound similar to the name or surname of a candidate when correctly written shall be counted in favor of such candidate;
(h) When a name of a candidate appears in a space of the ballot for an office for which he is a candidate and in another space for which he is not a candidate, it shall be counted in his favor for the office for which he is a candidate and the vote for the office for which he is not a candidate shall be considered as stray, except when it is used as a means to identify the voter, in which case, the whole ballot shall be void;
(i) When in a space in the ballot there appears a name of a candidate that is erased and another clearly written, the vote is valid for the latter;
(j) The erroneous initial of the first name which accompanies the correct surname of a candidate, the erroneous initial of the surname accompanying the correct first name of a candidate, or the erroneous middle initial of the candidate shall not annul the vote in favor of the latter;
(k) The fact that there exists another person who is not a candidate with the first name or surname of a candidate shall not prevent the adjudication of the vote of the latter;
(l) Ballots which contain prefixes such as “Sir”, “Mr.”, “Datu”, “Don”, “Ginoo”, “Hon.”, “Gob”. Or suffixes like “Hijo”, “Jr.”, “Segundo”, are valid;
(m) The use of nicknames and appellations of affection and friendship, if accompanied by the first name or surname of the candidate, does not annul such vote, except when they were used as a means to identify the voter, in which case the whole ballot is invalid. Provided, That if the nickname used is unaccompanied by the name or surname of a candidate and it is the one by which he is generally or popularly known in the locality, the name shall be counted in favor of the said candidate for the same office with the same nickname;
(n) Any vote containing initials only or which is illegible or which does not sufficiently identify the candidate for whom it is intended shall be considered as a stray vote but shall not invalidate the whole ballot;
(o) If on the ballot is correctly written the first name of a candidate but with a different surname, or the surname of the candidate is correctly written but with a different first name, the vote shall not be counted in favor of any candidate having such first name and/or surname, but the ballot shall be considered valid for other candidates;
(p) Any ballot written with crayon, lead pencil, or ink, wholly or in part, shall be valid;
(q) Where there are two (2) or more candidates voted for in an office for which the law authorizes the election of only one, the vote shall not be counted in favor of any of them, but this shall not affect the validity of the other votes therein;
(r) If the candidates voted for exceed the number of those to be elected, the ballot is valid, but the votes shall be counted only in favor of the candidates whose names were firstly written by the voter within the spaces provided for said office in the ballot until the authorized number is covered;
(s) Any vote in favor of a person who has not filed a certificate of candidacy or in favor of a candidate for an office for which he did not present himself shall be considered as a stray vote, but it shall not invalidate the whole ballot;
(t) A ballot containing the name of a candidate printed and pasted on a blank space of the ballot or affixed thereto through any mechanical process is totally null and void;
(u) Circles, crosses, or lines put on the spaces on which the voter has not voted shall be considered as signs to indicate his desistance from voting and shall not invalidate the ballot;
(v) Unless it should clearly appear that they have been deliberately put by the voter to serve as identification marks, commas, dots, lines, or hyphens between the first name and surname of a candidate, or in other parts of the ballots, traces of the letter “T”, “J”, and other similar ones, the first letters or syllables of names which the voter does not continue, the use of two (2) or more kinds of writing and unintentional on accidental flourishes, strokes, or strains, shall not invalidate the ballot;
(w) Any ballot which clearly appears to have been filled by two (2) distinct persons before it was deposited in the ballot box during the voting is totally null and void;
(x) Any vote cast in favor of a candidate who has been disqualified by final judgment shall be considered as stray and shall not be counted, but it shall not invalidate the ballot;
(y) Ballots wholly written in Arabic in localities where it is of general use are valid. To read them, the board of election tellers may employ an interpreter who shall take an oath that he shall read the votes correctly;
(z) The accidental tearing or perforation of a ballot does not annul it;
(aa) Failure to remove the detachable coupon from a ballot does not annul such ballot.

ARTICLE VII
PREPARATION AND SAFEKEEPING OF ELECTION RETURNS
AND OTHER ELECTION FORMS AND PARAPHERNALIA

Sec. 49. Preparation and distribution of election returns. - There shall be separate election returns for the Barangay and SK elections. The election returns for the barangay elections shall be accomplished in four (4) copies while the election returns for the SK election shall be accomplished in three (3) copies. Each copy of the election returns shall be signed and thumbmarked by the BET and watchers, if available, sealed with a paper seal, placed in the envelope provided for the purpose, which envelope shall likewise be sealed with a paper seal, and distributed under proper receipt as follows:
For the barangay elections-
1) Original, to the Chairman of the barangay board of canvassers;
2) Second copy, to the Election Officer;
3) Third copy, to be deposited inside the ballot box; and
4) Fourth copy, to the Secretary of the Sangguniang Barangay.
For the sangguniang kabataan elections-
1) Original, to the Chairman of the barangay board of canvassers;
2) Second copy, to the Election Officer; and
3) Third copy, to be deposited inside the ballot box.
All data required in the election returns shall be accomplished in handwriting in such a manner that the entries on the first copy are clearly impressed in all other copies. The total number of votes for each candidate shall be closed with the signatures and the clear imprints of the right thumb of all the members, affixed in full view of the public immediately after the last vote recorded or immediately after the name of the candidate receiving no vote.
The BET and the watchers available shall accomplish the certification portion of the election returns, thereafter, the Chairman shall publicly announce the votes obtained by each candidate.

Sec. 50. Certificate of votes. - After the counting of votes and announcement of the results of the election in the precinct, and before leaving the polling place, the BET shall issue Certificate of Votes (CEF No. 13) upon request of the candidates or their watchers. The Certificate of Votes shall contain the total number of votes received by each candidate, written in words and figures, the precinct number, the name of the barangay, city or municipality and province, the total number of voters who voted in the precinct and the date of its issuance. The Certificate of Votes shall be signed and thumbmarked by all members of the BET.
The BET shall require the requesting party to acknowledge receipt thereof.
The refusal of the BET to furnish the Certificate of Votes shall constitute on election offense.

Sec. 51. Alterations and corrections in the election returns. - Any correction or alteration made on the election returns by the BET before the announcement of the results of the elections in the precinct shall be duly initialed by all the members thereof.
After the announcement of the results of the elections in the precinct, the BET shall not make any alteration or amendment in any copy of the election returns, unless so ordered by the Commission.

Sec. 52. Disposition of ballot boxes, keys, election returns and other documents. - Upon the termination of the counting of votes and the announcement of the results of the election in the precinct, the BET shall:
(a) Place the following documents inside the compartment of the ballot box for valid ballots:
1. Envelopes containing:

(i) Counted official ballots;
(ii) Excess/marked/spoiled ballots and one-half of the torn unused official ballots;
(iii) Election returns (copy for the ballot box); and
(iv) Minutes of Voting and Counting of votes (copy for the ballot box);
2. Tally sheet; and
3. Stubs of used official ballots.
(b) Close the inner compartments of the ballot box, and lock them with one (1) self-locking metal seal. Lock the outer cover of the ballot box with two (2) padlocks and one (1) self-locking metal seal. The serial numbers of both self-locking metal seals must be recorded in the Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes before the same shall be deposited inside the ballot box. The keys to the padlocks shall be placed in separate envelopes, which shall be sealed and signed by all members of the BET. The envelopes shall be submitted to the Election Officer;
(c) Deliver to the City/Treasurer the ballot box locked and sealed as well as all documents and supplies, accompanied by the watchers present, if any. For this purpose, the City/Municipal Treasurer shall, if necessary, keep his office open all night on the day of election, and provide the necessary facilities for said delivery at the expense of the city/municipality;
In case the ballot box delivered by the BET is not locked and/or sealed, the City/Municipal Treasurer shall lock and/or seal the ballot box. He shall include such fact and the serial number of the self-locking metal seal used in his report to the Commission.
(d) Deliver to the Election Officer the following:
1. Envelope containing the copy of the election returns intended for the election officer;
2. Books of Voters (barangay and SK);
3. Envelopes containing the keys to the padlocks of the ballot box;
4. Envelope containing a copy of the Minutes of Voting and Counting of Votes;
5. EDCVL (barangay and SK);
6. PCVL (barangay);
7. Unused thumbprint takers; and
8. Envelope containing the other half of torn unused ballots.
(e). Deliver to the barangay Secretary the copy of the PCVL for the SK elections (CE for 2-A) and election returns intended for the barangay Secretary.
On the day after the election, the Election Officer or the City/Municipal Treasurer as the case may be, shall require any BET that failed to deliver the election records or paraphernalia mentioned herein to deliver the same immediately.
Sec. 53. Preservation of the list of voters. - The Election Officer shall keep the EDCVL and PCVL (barangay) used in the election in a safe place until such time the Commission gives instructions on their disposition.

Sec. 54. Omission or erroneous inclusion of documents in ballot box. - If after locking the ballot box, the BET discovers that some election documents required to be placed in the ballot box were not placed therein, the BET instead of opening the ballot box in order to place therein said documents or articles, shall deliver the same to the Election Officer. In no instance shall the ballot box be reopened to place therein or take out therefrom any election document except in proper cases and with prior authority of the Commission, or its duly authorized official to retrieve copies of the election returns which will be needed in any canvass.
In case the BET fails to place the envelope containing the counted ballots inside the ballot box, the Election Officer shall, with notice to candidates, deposit said envelope/s in a separate ballot box which shall be properly sealed, padlocked and stored in a safe place in his office. Said ballot box shall remain sealed unless otherwise ordered by the Commission.

ARTICLE VIII
DELIVERY AND TRANSMITTAL OF ELECTION RETURNS

Sec. 55. Manner of delivery and transmittal of election returns. - The copy of the election returns intended for the Barangay Board of Canvassers (BBOC), place inside a sealed envelope shall be personally delivered by the BET to the BBOC under proper receipt, unless the BET is itself the BBOC.
It shall be unlawful for any person to delay, obstruct, impede, or prevent through force, violence, coercion, intimidation or by any means which vitiates consent, the transmittal of the election returns; or to take away, abscond with, destroy, deface, mutilate, or substitute the election returns or the envelope or the ballot box containing the election returns.
It shall also be unlawful to violate the right of the watchers to accompany the BET in delivering the election returns to the BBOC.

ARTICLE IX
CANVASS AND PROCLAMATION

Sec. 56. Board of canvassers. - There shall be one (1) BBOC in each barangay to canvass the election returns for both the barangay and SK elections and thereafter proclaim the winning candidates.
The Commission through the Election Officer shall constitute the BBOC to be composed of a Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Member-Secretary. For this purpose, the Election Officer shall choose from among the different chairmen of the BETs in the barangay who shall constitute the BBOC, and appoint who will be the Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Member-Secretary.
In case there are not enough chairmen of the BET to constitute the BBOC, the Election Officer shall appoint a member of the BET as Member-Secretary of the BBOC.
In a barangay with only one (1) BET, said BET shall convert itself as the BBOC.
The members of the BBOC shall each receive a per diem equivalent to fifteen (15%) percent of their basic monthly salary.
Sec. 57. Supervision and control over the BBOC. - The Commission shall have direct supervision and control over the BBOC.
Any member of the BBOC may, at any time, be relieved for cause and substituted motu proprio by the Commission through the Election Officer.

Sec. 58. Relationship with candidates and other members. - The members of the BBOC shall not be related within the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity to any barangay candidate or sangguniang kabataan candidate or to any member of the same BBOC.

Sec. 59. Prohibition against leaving official station. - Beginning on election day until the proclamation of the winning candidates, no member of the BBOC shall be transferred, assigned, or detailed outside of his official station, nor shall he leave said station without prior authority from the Commission.

Sec. 60. Feigned illness. - Any member of the BBOC feigning illness in order to be substituted shall be guilty of an election offense.

Sec. 61. Notice of meeting of the BBOC. - At least five (5) days before the meeting of the BBOC, the Chairman shall give notice of the date, time and place of its meeting to all members thereof and to each candidate.

Sec. 62. Vote required. - A majority vote of all the members of the BBOC shall be necessary to render a decision.

Sec. 63. Persons not allowed inside the canvassing room. - It shall be unlawful for any officer or member of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, including the Philippine National Police; peace officer; armed or unarmed person belonging to any extra-legal police agency, special/reaction/strike/home defense force, barangay self-defense units; barangay tanod; member of the security or police organizations of government departments, commission, councils, bureaus, offices, instrumentalities, or government-owned or controlled corporations or their subsidiaries; or any member of a private-owned or operated security, investigative, protective or intelligence agency performing identical or similar functions, to enter the room where the canvassing of the election returns is being held, or to stay within a radius of fifty (50) meters from such room: Provided, however, That the BBOC may, by majority vote in writing, order the detail of policemen or any peace officer for its protection of that of the election documents and paraphernalia in its possession, or for the maintenance of peace and order, in which case said policemen or peace officers, who shall be in proper uniform, shall stay outside the room within a radius of thirty (30) meters near enough to be easily called by the BBOC at any time.

Sec. 64. Canvass by the BBOC. - (a) The BBOC for barangays with more than one (1) BET shall meet at six o’clock in the afternoon of election day in the voting center of the barangay and shall forthwith canvass the election returns of the precincts within the barangay. If the barangay has several voting centers, the canvassing shall be held in the voting center that is most accessible as determined by the Election Officer.
(b) In canvassing the election returns, the BBOC shall comply with the following procedures:
1) The Member-Secretary shall receive the envelope containing the election returns intended for the BBOC, and record in its Minutes of Canvass the conditions and serial numbers of the envelope and paper seal; and the precinct number(s) comprising the cluster;
2) Before opening, the Chairman shall exhibit the envelope to those who are present;
3) Open the envelope and retrieve the election returns;
4) Segregate the election returns for the barangay and SK elections, and proceed to canvass first all the SK election returns in accordance with the following procedures;
(a) Examine the condition of the inner paper seal of the election returns; while the secretary records in the Minutes of Canvass the condition and serial number of said paper seal;
(b) Break the inner seal, unfold the election returns and exhibit the same; while the Member-Secretary records in the Minutes of Canvass the condition and serial number of the election returns;
(c) If there is no objection to the election returns, the BBOC shall proceed to canvass by reading the votes of the candidate and entering the same in the Statement of Votes.
For purposes of accomplishing the Statement of Votes, the BBOC shall:
i. divide the three (3) copies between the Vice-Chairman (2 copies) and the secretary (1 copy);

ii. fill up the statistical data portion;

iii. accomplish the Statement of Votes simultaneously as the Chairman reads the votes.
(d) If there is an objection to the election returns, the secretary shall note the objection in the Minutes of Canvass and proceed to canvass the election returns;
(e) Immediately after an election returns has been canvassed, the Chairman shall write on the upper right hand corner the word “CANVASSED” and affix below it his signature and the date of the canvass. Thereafter, the canvassed election returns shall be returned to its envelope;
(f) When all the election returns have been canvassed:
i. The Vice-Chairman and secretary shall compare the entries in their respective copies of the statement of votes. If there are discrepancies in the entries, they shall refer to the corresponding election returns and make the necessary corrections on the statement of votes. All corrections shall be initialed by the members of the BBOC;

ii. If there are no discrepancies, the members of the BBOC shall affix their signatures above their printed names and imprint their thumbmarks on the certification portion of the statement of votes.
(g) After the statement of votes has been completed, the BBOC shall prepare the certificate of canvass and proclaim the winning candidates;
5) Proceed with the canvass of all election returns for the barangay elections following the same procedures in paragraphs 4 (a) to (g).
6) In barangays with only one (1) clustered precinct, the BBOC shall immediately accomplish in triplicate the statement of votes and certificate of canvass and proclamation and proclaim the winning candidates.
Sec. 65. When the election returns are delayed, lost or destroyed. - In case the copy of the election returns for the BBOC is missing, the BBOC shall, by messenger or other means, obtain such missing election returns from the BET concerned, or, if said copy has been lost or destroyed, the BBOC may, upon prior authority of the Commission, use any of the authentic copies of the said election returns and forthwith direct its representative to investigate the case and immediately report the matter to the Commission.
Even if the BBOC has not received all of the election returns, it may terminate the canvass and proclaim the candidates elected on the basis of the available election returns provided that the missing election returns will no longer affect the results of the elections.

Sec. 66. Material defects in the election returns. - If it should clearly appear that some requisites in form or data had been omitted in the election returns, the BBOC shall call for all the members of the BET concerned by the most expeditious means, for the same BET to effect the correction: Provided, That in case of the omission in the election returns of the name of the any candidate and/or his corresponding votes, the BBOC shall require the BET to complete the necessary data in the election returns and affix therein their initials: Provided, further, That if the votes omitted in the returns cannot be ascertained by other means except by recounting the ballots, the commission shall, after satisfying itself that the identity and integrity of the ballot box and the ballots therein have not been violated, order the BET to open the ballot box and count the votes for the candidates whose votes have been omitted, with notice thereof to all candidates or the position involved, and thereafter complete the returns.
The right of a candidate to avail of this provision shall not be lost or affected by the fact that an election protest is subsequently filed by any of the candidates.

Sec. 67. When election returns appear to be tampered with or falsified. - If the election returns submitted to the BBOC appear to be tampered with, altered, or falsified after they have left the hands of the BET, or are otherwise not authentic, or were prepared by persons other than the members of the BET or by such BET but under duress, force, intimidation, the BBOC shall use other copies of the said election returns and, if necessary, the copy inside the ballot box, which upon previous authority given by the Commission, , may be retrieved in accordance with Section 220 of the Omnibus Election Code. If the other copies of the returns is likewise tampered with, altered, falsified, not authentic, prepared by persons other than the BET or by such BET but under duress, force, intimidation, the BBOC shall bring the matter to the attention of the Commission. The Commission shall then, after giving notice to all the candidates concerned and satisfying itself that nothing in the ballot box indicates that its identity and integrity have been violated, order the opening of the ballots therein has been duly preserved, it shall order the recount of the votes of the candidates affected and prepare a new return, which shall then be used by BBOC as basis for the canvass.

Sec. 68. Discrepancies in election returns. - In case it appears to the BBOC that there exist discrepancies in the votes of any candidate in words and figures in the same returns, and in either case the difference affects the results of the elections the Commission shall, upon motion of the BBOC or any candidate affected and after due notice to all candidates concerned, proceed summarily to determine whether the integrity of the ballot box had been preserved.
Once the Commission is satisfied that the integrity of the ballot box had been preserved, it shall order the opening of the ballot box to recount the votes cast in the polling place solely for the purpose of determining the true result of the count of votes of the candidates concerned.
If upon opening the ballot box as ordered by the Commission, it should appear that there are signs of replacement, tampering, or violation of the integrity of the ballots, the Commission shall not recount the ballots but forthwith seal the ballot box and order its safekeeping.

Sec. 69. Manifest error. - (a) Where it is clearly shown before proclamation that manifest errors were committed in the tabulation or tallying election returns during the canvassing, the BBOC may motu proprio, or upon verified petition by any candidate, after due notice and hearing, correct the errors committed.
There is manifest error in the tabulation or tallying of the result during the canvassing when:
1) A copy of the election returns was tabulated more than once;
2) Two or more copies of the election returns for one precinct were tabulated;
3) There was a mistake in the copying of the figures from the election returns to the statement of votes;
4) Election returns from non-existent precincts were included in the canvass;
5) Election returns from precinct of one barangay were included in the canvass for another barangay; and
6) There was a mistake in the addition of the votes of any candidate.
(b) If the manifest error is discovered before proclamation, the BBOC shall promulgate an order in writing for the correction of the manifest error. Then effect the necessary correction in the statement of votes/certificate of canvass and proclamation by crossing out the erroneous figures/entries to be initialed by the members of the BBOC and entering the correct figures/entries. The correction of manifest error made by the BBOC shall be recorded in the minutes of canvass.
Any candidate aggrieved by the said order may appeal the same to the Commission within twenty-four (24) hours from promulgation. The appeal must implead as respondents the board of canvassers concerned and all candidates that may be adversely affected.
Once an appeal is made, the board of canvassers shall not proclaim the winning candidate, unless the votes are not affected by the appeal.
Upon receipt of the appeal, the Clerk of Court concerned shall forthwith summons together with a copy of the appeal of the respondent. The Clerk of Court concerned shall immediately set the appeal for hearing. The appeal shall be heard and immediately decided by the Commission en banc.
(c) Manifest errors discovered after proclamation the same shall be filed by the board or any aggrieved party with the Commission.

Sec. 70. Questions affecting the election returns; finality of decision thereon. - All questions affecting the election returns shall be raised during the canvass and decided immediately by a majority vote of all members of the BBOC. The decision shall be reduced in writing and form part of the Minutes of the proceedings and shall be final and immediately executory.
After all questions on the election returns shall have been resolved, the BBOC shall forthwith proceed with the proclamation of the winning candidates, without prejudice to the right of an aggrieved party to file and election protest.

Sec. 71. Elections resulting in a tie. - In cases where two (2) or more candidates for Punong Barangay or SK Chairman received an equal and highest number of votes, or where two (2) or more candidates for Sangguniang Barangay Kagawad or SK Kagawad received the same number of votes for the first or last place, the BBOC, after recording this fact in its Minutes, shall, by resolution, and upon five (5) days notice to all the candidates concerned, hold a special public meeting in which the BBOC shall proceed to the drawing of lots between the candidates who have tied and proclaim as election the candidates who may be favored by luck.
The other candidates who lost in the draw for the first place, if there are only two (2) who tied, shall automatically be the second placer. If, however, more than two (2) candidates tied for first place, rolled pieces of paper duly marked by the numbers “1”, “2”, “3”, and so on shall be made and the contesting candidates shall draw any one thereof, one after the other, and thereafter publicly open the same.
The number of the rolled paper drawn by each shall decide their ranking. The same procedure shall apply if the tie occurs among the second placers and so on.
If the tie is for the position of Punong Barangay or SK Chairman or for the seventh place for Sangguniang Barangay Kagawad or SK Kagawad, the one favored by luck and proclaimed as elected shall have the right to assume office in the same manner as if he had been elected by plurality vote. The BBOC shall forthwith issue a certificate stating the name of the candidate who had been favored by luck and his proclamation on the basis thereof.
Nothing in this Section shall be construed as depriving the candidate of his right to contest the election.

Sec. 72. Certificate of canvass and proclamation. - The BBOC shall prepare in quadruplicate the certificate of canvass and proclamation duly signed and thumbmarked by each member, supported by a statement of votes received by each candidate in each precinct, and, on the basis thereof, proclaim as elected the Punong Barangay and seven (7) Kagawads and the SK Chairman and seven (7) SK Kagawads who obtained the highest number of votes.
Subject to reasonable exceptions, the BBOC shall complete the canvass within twenty-four (24) hours from the time the first election returns is canvassed.
Sec. 73. Distribution of certificate of canvass and proclamation. - Copies of the certificate of canvass and proclamation shall be distributed as follows:
1) Original, to the election officer;
2) Second copy, to the winning candidate for Chairman of the barangay or SK elections;
3) Third copy, to the Secretary of the sangguniang bayan/panlungsod, as the case may be; and
4) Fourth copy, to the Secretary of the sangguniang barangay.
The winning candidate for Punong Barangay or SK Chairman shall reproduce the copies of the certificate of canvass and proclamation and distribute the same to each of the winning kagawads.
It shall be the duty of the election officer to submit on or before November 10, 2010, to the Election Records and Statistics Department, COMELEC, Manila, a certified list of the votes obtained by each candidate ranked from highest to lowest for the barangay and SK elections in each barangay.

Sec. 74. Proclamation of results. - After affixing their signatures and thumbmarks on the certification portion of both the statement of votes and certificate of canvass and proclamation, the BBOC shall then officially proclaim as elected the candidates for winning SK Chairman and seven (7) Kagawads. Thereafter, canvass the results the election returns for the barangay elections and follow the same procedure for the proclamation of the winning Punong Barangay and seven (7) Barangay Kagawads.
A copy of the statement of votes shall be attached to each copy of the certificate of canvass and proclamation. In case of a tie, Section 71 herein shall apply.

Sec. 75. Safekeeping of canvassed election returns. - After the canvass, the BBOC shall return the election returns for the barangay and SK in their proper envelopes, place these envelopes in the envelope for canvassed election returns, close and seal the same with a paper seal. The serial number of the paper seal shall be noted in the Minutes of Canvass. The Chairman and members thereof shall affix their signatures on the paper seal.
Thereafter, the BBOC shall deliver the envelope containing the canvassed election returns to the City/Municipal treasurer who shall place the same in a ballot box, together with the envelopes containing the canvassed election returns from other barangays, in the presence of the election officer. The ballot box shall be padlocked, with the election officer keeping the key thereto. It shall also be locked with a self-locking metal seal, the serial number of which shall be reported to the election officer and the Election Records and Statistics Department, COMELEC, Manila. The ballot box shall be kept in a safe and secure room in the office of the city/municipal treasurer.

ARTICLE X
MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS

Sec. 76. Grant of leave credits to personnel of the Department of Education who are assigned election duty. - Subject to confirmation by the Department of Education, the Chairmen and Members of the BET and other Department of Education personnel who are assigned election duty, shall be entitled to a five-day leave credit.
Sec. 77. Authority of election officers to administer oath. - The election officers are authorized to administer oath, for free, on all matters related to the conduct of the barangay and SK elections.

Sec. 78. Pre-proclamation cases. - Pre-proclamation cases are not allowed in barangay or SK elections.

Sec. 79. Election offenses. - Except to the extent modified and/or repealed by Republic Acts No. 6679, 7166, 9164, 9340 and by other laws, Sections 261, 262, 263, and 264 of Article XXII of the Omnibus Election Code shall be applicable to the election of barangay and SK officials.

Sec. 80. Applicability of the Omnibus Election Code. - The Omnibus Election Code and other pertinent laws shall, as far as practicable, apply to the barangay and SK elections.

Sec. 81. Effectivity. - This Resolution shall take effect on the seventh (7th) day after its publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation in the Philippines.

Sec. 82. Dissemination. - The Education and Information Department of this Commission is directed to cause the publication of this Resolution and its widest dissemination, and to furnish copies hereof to the Secretary of the Department of Education, the Secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Secretary of the Department of Finance, the Regional Election Directors, the Provincial Election Supervisors and the Election Officers of the Commission.

S0 ORDERED.
(Sgd.) JOSE A.R. MELO
Chairman
(Sgd.) RENE V. SARMIENTO
Commissioner (Sgd.) NICODEMO T. FERRER
Commissioner
(Sgd.) LUCENITO N. TAGLE
Commissioner (Sgd.) ARMANDO C. VELASCO
Commissioner
(Sgd.) ELIAS R. YUSOPH
Commissioner (Sgd.) GREGORIO Y. LARRAZABAL
Commissioner

TIPS FOR VOTERS

2010-10-23T01:11:00.002+08:00

Dalawang tulog na lang, halalan na sa barangay at Sangguniang Kabataan!

Binabahagi ng Bayan Mo, iPatrol Mo ang mga ilang tips para sa mga botante. Nanggaling ito sa Namfrel (National Movement for Free Elections) at sa Kontra Daya. Basahin ang mga reminders para makatulong sa pagsulong ng malinis at makabuluhang eleksyon

1) Alamin na kung saan ang inyong polling precinct bago pa man ng araw ng halalan.

2)Kailangan isulat ng isa-isa sa balota ang mga pangalan ng mga kandidato pinili mo. Gumawa na ng listahan bago umalis ng bahay.

3) Bomoto ng maaga. Bukas na ang presinto mula 7 am hanggang 3 pm. Inaasahan madami ang mga botante dahil magkasama ang eleksyon para sa barangay at sa Sangguniang Kabataan.

4) Pumila ng maayos.

5) Siguraduhin na galing sa Board of Election Inspectors ang iyong balota. Ang mga myembro lamang Board of Election Inspectors ang pwedeng mamahagi ng mga balota.

6) Para di manakaw o ma-duplicate ng iba ang boto mo, maglagay ng signature sa tabi ng pangalan mo sa Voters List

7) Isulat ng maayos ang tunay na pangalan ng mga kandidato. Mag-practice sa pagpuno ng balota nang maiwasan ang pagdumi sa balota dahil erasures. (Ang mga mahigit 18 years old ay pwedeng pumili ng isang barangay captain at pitong kagawad. Ang mas bata ay pipili ng isang SK chairman at 7 kagawad.)
8) Sagrado ang balota mo. Ikaw ang pumuno nito. Huwag mong ipakita sa iba. Gamitin ang mga folder para walang makakita ng boto mo.

9) Pag may nagtatangkang makialam sa pagpuno mo ng balota, o pag may nakikita kang nakikialam sa ibang botante, itawag agad ang pansin ng mga election inspectors.=

10)
Siguraduhing maglagay ng thumbmark sa ballot at ibigay ito sa chair ng BEI,

11) Magpalagay ng indelible ink sa daliri. Huwag tumangkang burahin ang indelible ink.

12) Bantayan din ang pagbilang ng mga boto. Kung maari, mag-volunteer na maging eleksyon watcher or escort sa mga titser na nagdadala ng mga balota at ballot boxes.

13) Magdala ng flashlight o kandila dahil maaring magkaroon ng brownout.

14) Dapat nyong malaman na ang mga armadong pulis, military, civilian auxiliaries, mga tanod, security guard, barangay officials or sino mang taong may armas ay hindi maaring lumapit sa polling precinct.

PRESIDENT AQUINO’S PALS ROCK HIS MORAL HIGH GROUND

2010-09-21T20:41:00.003+08:00

Without additional and concrete evidence against Interior and Local Governments Undersecretary Rico Puno, I won’t tag him as a protector of jueteng lords. However, the Senate investigation into illegal gambling – and Malacañang’s response to the controversy — raises many questions not only on the integrity of Puno, but also on President Benigno Simeon Aquino III’s pledge to be the opposite of his unpopular predecessor.

I’m willing to grant Puno the benefit of the doubt when he denies receiving funds from the lords of jueteng. On other matters, however, he has been far from transparent, and I can understand Senator TJ Guingona’s complaint about the DILG official having a selective memory and penchant for evasive answers.

It is hard to accept Puno’s claim of not remembering the identities of the persons who approached him to cut a deal with the Aquino government – the regular modus of turning a blind eye on jueteng activities.

His amnesia seems fantastic given these details he bared to the Inquirer:

Operators of “jueteng,” an illegal numbers racket, used his friends and even relatives to approach him about payoffs, but Interior Undersecretary Rico E. Puno said he turned them all down.

“Some of them are retired policemen. Some of them are politicians. Some of them are even friends. Some of them are even relatives who approached me,” Puno said. “They were used as conduits.”

Snubbing Robredo

Puno disclosed the offers of payola after retired Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said on Saturday that two trusted officials of President Benigno Aquino III in charge of overseeing security matters were accepting at least P2 million a month from jueteng operators.

If he was sharp enough to share these details just a few weeks back, can we blame Guingona for doubting the memory lapse story? What does it say of the DILG executive that he was approached by jueteng emissaries and never even bothered to file a written report?

This sin of omission becomes even more glaring when put in the context of an August 10, 2010 letter by his boss, DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo, asking about persistent reports that he and (just retired) national police chief Jesus Versoza – now vacationing abroad – were on a jueteng payroll.

At the Senate hearing, Puno said he knew upon assumption of office on July 5 that “these things would come up.” His late father, he said, would have advised him not to accept the job because of the controversies surrounding the office. “I would have told him this is the only time as a citizen, this is the only chance we would be able to help our country,” the undersecretary added.

Puno claims his woes were hatched when he decided to reassign members of the 176-strong DILG internal security unit, retaining only 52 officers. “Five days after we removed them, we began to have, to see our names in the tabloids as people who have been collecting,” the undersecretary said. He accused the writers as those “getting some payola during the previous administration.”

In an interview with TV Patrol’s Julius Babao, Robredo said he was bothered by a series of tabloid reports. “Had we been more prompt and more visible in our response, palagay ko hindi kami pagdududahan.” (They would not be doubting us.)

“It’s the sad truth,” Robredo acknowledged. “Kulang talaga ang aming kasagutan dyan.” (We have not given it the proper response.)

The President’s man

Babao talked with Puno, too. He admitted receipt of the letter. He also said he did not give it the time of day, seeing it as part of a plot by detractors.

“Hindi ko pinansin, eh. Dahil hindi naman ako involved, eh. Sigurado naman akong black ops yan. Eh hindi ko sila kailangan kausapin. Malinis ang kunsensya ko. Hindi ko kailangan na habulin pa yan o imbestigahan dahil alam ko na ang kulay nila.” (I didn’t give it my attention since I am not involved. It’s a black operation. I do not need to talk to them. My conscience is clear. I don’t need to hear their side because I know their color.)

This is breathtaking in its illogic and irresponsibility. Critics will always be around. In refusing to even acknowledge a letter and order by his superior, just because he believes it is part of some vague, obscure plot, Puno sounds more like a Cabinet official of the former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo than a very dear friend and trusted aide of the man who told the nation, “Kung walang kurap, walang mahirap!” (Without corruption, there will be no poverty.)

By Puno’s own account, the President once told him, “If we fail, 95 Filipinos will suffer.” Given that President Aquino practically ignored the law by splitting powers at the DILG, giving Puno the run of the Philippine National Police (PNP) – the frontline and weakest link in the fight against illegal gambling –cavalier and insensitive are the least of the adjectives you could use for the undersecretary’s response to Robredo’s directive.

Does Mr. Puno realize what his statements say of Mr. Aquino? Does he even care?

It is even harder to accept Puno’s insistence that there was nothing wrong in his failure to expose these retired cops, politicians, friends and kin who interceded on behalf of the jueteng lords. Last I looked bribery remained a crime in this country. If that incident, as reported by Puno himself, does not count as an attempt at bribery, I don’t know what does.

PRE-HARAPAN THOUGHTS

2010-09-09T12:04:00.001+08:00

First off, I’m not sure the President should be speaking on the hostage crisis since the panel he assigned to probe the tragedy has yet to wrap up its job. The last thing Mr. Aquino wants at this point is fuel public suspicion that he is preempting the possible assignment of blame on his favorite aides.

That’s a valid concern, given the President’s penchant for being vocal about his personal relationships with government officials. He is quick to defend his closest friends or show disdain for people he doesn’t like. My sources say he has shown anger over calls for the resignation of a particular dear friend, which probably explains his effort to accept full responsibility for the Aug. 23 disaster.

There’s another thing that disturbs me: It’s getting to be a habit among the President’s aides to use their Chief Executive as a lightning rod whenever they screw up. This is something that should be laid at the awkward feet of that three-headed monster called the communications group.

If we are charitable and concede that the bloated bureaucracy is not due to IOUs but to real needs, then these errors – tortuous displays of one body being pulled three different ways – are really deplorable because they are preventable. Instead of doing the simple, logical thing – communicating among themselves – we have people racing to plug their spin first and then spending precious time and energy a) correcting, b) undermining, c) or backtracking.

The President is clearly his own best spokesman. But that doesn’t mean he should be used like some mascot trotted out to turn grumblings into praise. At the very least, that strategy could grow old – FAST – especially if actions do not keep pace with the Palace spinning wheel.

Still, since there is no stopping the 1:30 Harapan with ABS-CBN, GMA7 and TV5, I might as well also throw in some questions:

1) Your Excellency, do you really still feel that you need three communications secretaries? (Including Spokesman Edwin Lacierda who, amazingly, is beginning to look as the best of the three com-men).

2) Did you or anyone in the Cabinet turn down DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo’s offer of help on Aug. 23.?If this is a lie, please tell us straight.

3) Considering the Cabinet is like a family, why didn’t anyone consult DFA Secretary Romulo on how to handle a crisis involving foreign nationals? I’d also like to know if Romulo (or any of his aides) volunteered any information or offered to help?

4) How closely will you follow the recommendations of the hostage crisis probe panel?

5) What security concerns made you insist on controlling powers over the police instead of handing these over to the DILG secretary?

6) Do you think it is kosher to have someone who had (and could have again) commercial relations with the PNP oversee the same agency?

7) Your Excellency, why was Mayor Lim’s very important role in the hostage tragedy initially kept under wraps?

8) What are we to do if the NBI actually finds that some of those hostages were felled by friendly fire?

I’m sure others have their own questions.

*ANC is showing Harapan live and there will be live streaming at abs-cbn.com. And I, hehe, will liveblog on Facebook.

2010-09-07T19:18:00.002+08:00

PNOY’S EX-CAMPAIGN VOLUNTEERS
LAUNCH SAVE ROBREDO CAMPAIGN

Seven hundred signatures in a day is hardly record-breaking stuff at a time when messages go viral within hours. Still, the Facebook supporters of Interior and Local Governments Secretary Jesse Robredo believe they can 1) persuade President Benigno Simeon Aquino III to submit the Ramon Magsaysay awardee’s name to the Commission on Appointments (CA) and 2) pressure “trapos” into confirming the former mayor of Naga City.

“TAO at hindi TRAPO ang magdadala ng tunay na Pagbabago!” (The people, not the traditional politicians are the real harbingers of change), writes Harvey Keh, founder of the volunteer group, Kaya Natin (“We Can” in Filipino). On Facebook and in his column for the tabloid, Abante, Keh blames anti-reform politicians for Robredo’s political woes.

“I’m supporting Sec. Robredo because I believe he is the most qualified and most competent public servant for the position of DILG Secretary,”.Keh said in response to email queries. “He is also an effective, ethical and empowering leader.”

Days after a dismissed cop commandeered a tourist bus and killed eight Hong Kong Chinese visitors, Malacanang confirmed reports that Robredo’s name was not in the list submitted for confirmation by the powerful CA.

Journalist Ellen Tordesillas, chief author of the Vera files report, said the non-inclusion of Robredo predated the Aug. 23 hostage-taking tragedy.

Keh said Robredo always knew he was appointed in an acting capacity. Robredo is also a member ofKeh’s group, together with fellow Ramon Magsaysay awardee for public service and former Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca.

“Yes, we knew from the very moment that he was appointed that it would only be in an acting capacity. So, the hostage crisis had nothing to do with it,” Keh said.

“Out of the loop”

Robredo surprised Filipinos in the aftermath of the hostage crisis by saying the President had given Undersecretary Rico Puno control over the Philippine National Police (PNP). Though Robredo joined Mr. Aquino in a midnight inspection of the bullet-riddled tourist bus at the Quirino Grandstand, he later plaintively described his status as “out of the loop.”

Mr. Aquino explained that he preferred to take personal responsibility for the PNP because of security issues had asked Robredo to take charge of local governments reforms and informal settlers. The fact that Robredo was among the last to be appointed to the Cabinet reinforces fears of the President being cool towards him.

The President confirmed today that he and Robredo has some misunderstanding during the campaign and said he still wants to make sure that they can work well together.

ABS-CBN.com said Mr. Aquino confirmed to Malacañang reporters a Vera Files report that he had differences with Robredo during the election campaign. The President said Robredo is undergoing “evaluation,” adding that he wants to make sure he can get along with the DILG secretary.

“There are various reasons kung bakit acting. In the case of Jesse, we had some differences during the campaign as to style. We want to make sure we can really work with each other well. It does no good to get him through the whole process of the CA only at the end of the day to find out that there might be difficulties in our working style, among others, our core philosophy, so we did agree na acting na muna,” ABS-CBN.com quoted Aquino as saying.

“May evaluation period, siguro check ang working style, after two months sigurado na tayo, we still have certain things discussed,” he added. “Dadalawang buwan pa lang kami nagkakasubukan kung talaga nga bang kaya naming mag-mesh.”

Public knowledge of the unorthodox arrangement heightened speculation that a power struggle between two major groups of supporters was hampering effective governance in the Aquino administration.

The struggle is not new. It was noticed even early in Mr. Aquino’s campaign – thus the monikers Balay (referring to the Cubao residence of vice presidential candidate and Liberal Party leader Mar Roxas) and Samar (the Quezon City street that hosts the headquarters of Aquino supporters that backed Vice President Jejomar Binay instead of Roxas.) to represent the feuding groups. The Palace says the issue has been blown out of proportion.

Puno is an old friend of the President, a fellow gun enthusiast. Puno was known as an important finance-group keg in Mr. Aquino’s presidential campaign. Secretary Sonny Coloma, the Samar clique's representative in the President’s Communications Group, said Puno served as “overall ground commander” in Mr. Aquino’s 2007 senatorial run.

Robredo’s deputy also served as the former senator’s consultant in the chamber’s Committee on Public Order and Safety and Dangerous Drugs and the Special Oversight on Economic Affairs body. As president of Far East Ballistics Corp from 1992 to 1995, Puno had ample opportunity to become friendly with the police officer corps. He was also a member of the board of the National Range Officers Institute at Philippine Practical Shooting Association.

Questions

Keh said he wants the President to review the division of powers between Robredo and Puno. “I feel that he (Robredo) should be given total control over the PNP,” he said. “This may cause some more trouble in the future especially since it is clearly in the constitution that the PNP will fall under the supervision of the NAPOLCOM whose chairman is the DILG Secretary.”

Keh is no ordinary kibitzer. He has always been an outspoken supporter of Mr. Aquino and an influential blogger during the campaign because he reached out to the masses sidelined by the candidate’s more high-profile backers. Majority of the 600 plus persons who signed the pro-Robredo petition campaigned for Mr. Aquino, believing his personal integrity and principles handed down by his martyred parents trumped a lackluster service record.

Writer and feminist Aida Santos, like most of the public, did not know of Robredo’s status, which she described as “stupid and crazy,” and “so illogical of PNoy (what the President of this nickname-mad nation wants to be called) Santos says Robredo should speak out on the “crazy decision” and explain why he accepted it.

The writer is representative of the vast number of Mr. Aquino’s non-partisan volunteers who “voted with eyes wide open” and take seriously their role as the President’s “Boss.” They have little ties to the Liberal Party or the network of kin, classmates and family friends – or even if they do, act independently of these forces.

US-based Edwin Jamora, the author of the popular Barrio Siete blog, campaigned hard for Mr. Aquino and got plenty of grief from backers of his candidate’s rivals. But he is also quick to criticize blunders of the Aquino administration. He is outraged by the “joke” played on Robredo.

“From day 1, I really believed that he was a good fit with Noynoy’s ‘kung walang kurap, walang mahirap’” philosophy, Jamora said.

“DILG is a powerful position, and I know that the 2016 Election is well underway. Go figure who’s manning the boat! This is way too obvious. They’re using the hostage crisis to clear the path both for the 2016 elections, (fearing) that the transparency and the kind of governance Robredo had shown in Naga, will rob them of their butter,” the blogger added.

Arthur de Guzman, a government employee known on Facebook as “Kuya Toots” suspects the President may be trying “to appease some factions.” De Guzman was among the first signatories to the petition.

Unlike other Robredo supporters, he accepts Mr. Aquino’s wish to have greater control of the PNP. “There’s such a thing as ‘delegation’ of powers. I think PNoy wants a focused and uncompromising stand on corruption in local governance. With such a gargantuan task, I think PNoy doesn’t want his man to be saddled with more than a man could take.”

De Guzman, Santos, Jamora and Keh all believe Robredo’s detractors want to stop reforms, including the DILG chief’s proposal to have all local government units disclose their budgets and expenses in government websites. This was the basis of Naga City’s turnaround during Robredo’s watch and a major factor in the conferment of the RM award.

‘Smokescreen’?

Journalist-blogger Norman Sison (La Nueva Liga Filipina) brushed off criticism of Mr. Aquino and chided the public and media for having very short memories. If journalists paid more attention to good deeds, people like Robredo –not known for dramatics – would stand a better chance in government, Sison asserted.

“Robredo recently ordered local officials to desist from putting their names on public infrastructure and other expenditures funded by us, the taxpayers. These are efforts, like Noynoy’s wangwang policy, that are meant to put the sovereign Filipino people back in charge. Tayo ang boss, hindi ba? But did we give a damn? The media only gave matter-of-factly attention to it. Minsan hindi ko na alam kung ano ang priority ng media natin.”

In his blog, the acerbic Sison questioned Filipino’s sense of perspective: “People are so hard on Robredo. Are they giving the same outrage over Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, who is in charge of keeping our government honest but is currently facing impeachment?” He charged that Robredo’s detractors are using the crisis as “a smokescreen” while waging a rearguard battle for a corrupt status quo.

“They want to keep the sovereign Filipino people in the dark on how they spend the money we pay for taxes. And they want to keep their names, initials, their family names, standards and a coat-of-arms on infrastructure and other projects funded with our tax money.”

Other Aquino supporters told this writer they want to bat for Robredo but in a quiet manner, noting the President’s prickly attitude towards dissenters. Still others chafe that the issue is being used by Mr. Aquino’s enemies.

Robredo has supporters even among those who are not exactly fans of his principal. Paulyn Sicam, former journalist and a member of the peace panel under former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said it was “unfair to Jesse” to be appointed and then have his hands tied on police matters. She also said Puno “does not inspire trust at all.” She expresses pain at seeing Robredo going through the wringer “for something that is clearly not under his jurisdiction.”

“It was big of P Noy to take all the blame because dividing the DILG powers like he did was entirely his fault,” Sicam said

Maria Jovita Zarate met Robredo in 2005 while doing a documentary on good governance and pronounced him and his staff as “bright, competent and unassuming.”

“The guy is a gem. I keep pondering on why he accepted a power sharing mechanism with Puno who now turns out to be a good buddy of PNoy. Perhaps, Robredo thought ‘Well, I would still be able to do something good and innovative in local governance…” Now, we have Pandora’s box… “ Sison warned Aquino believers that silence would benefit groups out to undermine the President. “Who’s going to benefit most if Robredo is out? What are you going to do about it? Get angry but remain silent? No one is going to hear you if you keep quiet.”

Sison boils it down to homespun wisdom: “If you hire a yaya who will look after your home and your children, do you place competence ahead of trustworthiness as a criterion? In this case, trustworthiness is part of competence. We can teach yayas how to care for home and children. But no one can just train people how to be trustworthy.” #30

CODE NGO RIDES AGAIN

2010-08-31T18:23:00.000+08:00

A lot of folk hyperventilated when it seemed that the Department of Interior portfolio would go to Vice President Jejomar Binay. Many gulped at the thought of Binay at the DILG – a surefire way of cementing an already strong nationwide network, which made him the dark horse of the last elections.

We screamed for Naga City’s Jesse Robredo, he of the lily-white reputation, the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the rep for transparency and integrity. We chafed at how it was taking President Benigno Aquino III too long to appoint official. We heard talks of disagreements in policy, of tense meetings. But in the end, he did appoint dear Jesse.

Of course, it wasn’t quite as ideal as it sounded. Robredo may be DILG chief but Mr. Aquino’s election campaign official bagman, Rico Puno (not the singer) was given powers over the Philippine National Police (PNP), headed by Director-General Jesus Versoza.

I don’t know why Rebredo’s patience has snapped. But in the past two days, he has told select journalists that he shouldn’t be blamed for the August 23 hostage-taking fiasco because the PNP answers to Puno. Today, he demanded a probe into why Versoza flew to Cagayan de Oro in the afternoon of Aug. 23.

Now, why the DILG secretary needs to ask for a probe is curious in itself and once more a dead giveaway of the intramurals between the two main Aquino support camps.

There will always be feuds over the spoils of political victory. But what is particularly galling over the Aquino brawls is that, they have often made their principal look not only wrong-footed but also bereft of leadership.

Details of those fights have to wait for another post. This one will deal with a stunning development on the transparency and accountability front. It’s one story that doesn’t need independent verification – because it comes from the DILG.

Before I give you the press release, just this question: So does this mean that President Aquino and the DILG Secretary don’t care about past allegations of wrong-doing, don’t care that it may have cost taxpayers a couple of billion pesos?

Here goes (all itals mine):

DILG, TAN, CODE-NGO FORGE AGREEMENT

TO INSTITUTIONALIZE DILG-LGU-CSO PARTNERSHIPS

In a move to strengthen the foundation of responsible and accountable governance, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) today formally opened its doors for civil society participation in governance with the signing of a memorandum of agreement with two multi-sectoral networks of national government organizations (NGOs) that seeks to institutionalize partnerships with NGOs at the local level.

DILG Secretary Jesse M Robredo, Executive Director Vicente Lazatin of Transparency and Accountability Network Inc. (TAN), and Anna Marie Karnos representing Executive Director Sixto Donato of Caucus of Development Non-Governmental Organization Networks (CODE) signed the memorandum of agreement today at the DILG Central Office in Quezon City.

Robredo said that the MOA will effectively mobilize and engage CSOs as partners of the DILG and local government units to promote accountability, transparency, inclusivity and performance in local administration and development as well as in the internal operations of the Department.

“We believe in the huge potentials and advantages of collaborative partnerships with NGOs, CSOs, and the private sector in undertaking development projects and in improving government systems and procedures,” said Robredo, during the MOA signing.

Under the MOA, the DILG Secretary said the Department shall hold a monthly Local Governance Forum that will address issues that continue to challenge the norms of performance and accountability.

The DILG is also tasked to establish a communication link with TAN, CODE-NGO and other partners to ensure complementarity of decisions of actions in furtherance of the objectives of the partnerships at the national and local levels. It shall also enjoin DILG regional offices to support the aims of the DILG-CSO and DILG-LGU-CSO partnerships.

On the other hand, TAN and CODE-NGO shall launch, in collaboration with the DILG, a Social Accountability Initiative to promote civic consciousness and action to provide a balancing perspective on the performance and development conditions of a locality.

They shall also take the lead in convening the Regional Partnership workshops, and regularize the assessment of DILG-CSO and DILG-LGU-CSO partnerships and link information to concerned central and local government authorities for decision and action.

Moreover, they shall assist the Department in crafting new, or enhancing existing, programs or policies to promote transparency, accountability and performance, as well as in conducting performance tracking and development outcome-audit.

TAN is a coalition of multi-sectoral organizations which seeks to contribute significantly to the reduction of corruption in the country, while CODE-NGO is a national civil society organization. ###

WHAT, NO MENTION OF HOW CODE-NGO RAKED IN A 'COMMISSION' OF P1-BILLION FOR PACKAGING A FOREIGN LOAN? Aaaaah, but then, as the old guard use to say, what are they in power for

STATEMENT FROM THE HK JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION

2010-08-27T00:41:00.002+08:00

Anger and Concern over President Benigno Aquino's words

對於菲律賓總統阿基諾三世諉過傳媒直播馬尼拉挾持人質事件，讓槍手洞悉警方的部署，為菲警的突擊行動失敗作開脫，更揚言日後會考慮對傳媒作出限制。記協對有關指責深感憤怒。

針對菲總統的言論，記協義務秘書曾錦雯及執行秘書鄭偉強代表記協，於今天下午三時半前往菲律賓駐港總領事館遞交聲明，表達不滿。

菲駐港副領事Ms. Lorena Joy P. Banagodos 親自接信，她表示，對挾持人質事件有港人死亡感到悲傷，並向港人致意慰問。她亦向本會承諾，稍後會將有關聲明轉交至菲律賓總統府。

有關聲明內容如下：(只提供英文版本)

Dear President Aquino,

The Hong Kong Journalists Association expresses its deepest condolences to the families of those who died in Manila’s hostage tragedy. We also want to express our appreciation and respect to those who acted bravely and astutely during the long standoff, thus allowing some of the hostages to survive. We are, however, filled with anger and concern over the blame being heaped on the media for allegedly contributing to the tragedy.

The HKJA notes with concern that President Benigno Aquino of the Philippines made the media the scapegoat when he said: “Media coverage of his brother being taken into custody further agitated the hostage-taker…” Using this flimsy excuse, Mr. Aquino said he would consider imposing new restrictions on media coverage should a similar crisis occur.

We have no idea what further restrictions are under consideration but what we are sure of is that President Benigno Aquino’s words were uttered hastily and without careful consideration. Without a thorough investigation such conclusions cannot be taken seriously and the HKJA views the president’s hasty conclusions with grave misgivings.

The role of the media is to tell the world what is happening and what has happened. This is the essence of what the democratic world has come to know and to accept as freedom of the press and freedom of expression. The media’s presence is vital to the preservation of human rights of minorities in any conflict. As in the case of Manila’s killings, nobody can tell if the same tragedy would not have taken place without the presence of the media. What we can be sure of is that without the presence of the media no knowledge of this horrific tragedy would have been known to the outside world.

Moreover, the police force of the Philippines should have known that negotiations were going on between the gunman and his brother, and that this was being telecast. The act of arresting the brother would, clearly, irritate the gunman. Yet the police forcibly wrestled the brother down and handcuffed him, all directly in front of the media.

The police, clearly, had neither strategy nor the necessary know-how to deal with such a situation. With the development of the new media, it is unrealistic to ask the media not to broadcast live in a matter of huge public interest not only to the Filipinos themselves, but also to people in Hong Kong and elsewhere. Proper media arrangements, including a safe area for the media at the scene, in accordance with internationally accepted standards, are of paramount importance. None were forthcoming.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association calls on the Philippines government to refrain from using this incident to introduce harsh measures against the media in order to cover up their incompetence. We will closely monitor the incident and any further deterioration of press freedom in Philippines arising from this tragedy.

With Kind Regards,
Hong Kong Journalists Association

26th August 2010

ABS-CBN STATEMENT ON AUG. 23 HOSTAGE TRAGEDY

2010-08-26T15:12:00.001+08:00

Media's job is to tell the story, but no story is worth even one life.

We will always cooperate with authorities in trying to resolve complex situations like the Aug 23 hostage crisis.

If the government had called for a news blackout, ABS-CBN would have supported it.

We are done with an initial assessment of our coverage and continue to review our policies.

We exercised self-restraint on Monday:
1. We refused to air the hostage taker's threats live about a 3 pm deadline to avoid fuelling public fear.
2. We refused to air the hostage taker's interview until after negotiations were finished.
3. We refused to be part of hostage negotiations.
4. All throughout the day and until the first shots were aired, we kept our cameras 400 meters away from the bus, giving us shaky video that viewers complained about. Our teams never crossed the police line.
5. Although we had access to members of the police reaction team, we held back interviews which could compromise their plans and/or location.
6. After the police tried to arrest the hostage taker's brother, our team physically stepped back to comply with police request.
7. After the assault began, we tried to limit our shots to avoid showing police movements. We stayed with extreme close-ups or wide shots.
8. We immediately complied when police asked us to turn off our lights explaining the grainy shots viewers complained about.
9. We avoided tampering with evidence at crime scene. Instead, we asked Soco to shoot the video instead of entering the bus ourselves.

This wasn't enough.

We acknowledge airing a report that detailed the position of the police during the assault.

During the arrest of Gregorio Mendoza, we considered pulling away from the coverage but a man was crying for help.

In other countries around the world, governments set the ground rules for situations like this. One network cannot unilaterally declare a news blackout. Press freedom issues take a back seat during situations like this - where the government already has the power to define the terms to media.

We are taking the public's views to heart. Monday's tragic events triggered intense soul-searching for us. Such is the irony of a profession that wields so much power but relies entirely on self-doubt to gain --- and keep --- its credibility.

We ask our broadcast colleagues to join us in an industry review. Let us unite and work together to put in place measures to collectively decide when we stop live coverage in the absence of government presence of mind.

ABS-CBN STATEMENT ON AUG. 23 HOSTAGE TRAGEDY

2010-08-26T15:12:00.000+08:00

Media's job is to tell the story, but no story is worth even one life.

We will always cooperate with authorities in trying to resolve complex situations like the Aug 23 hostage crisis.

If the government had called for a news blackout, ABS-CBN would have supported it.

We are done with an initial assessment of our coverage and continue to review our policies.

We exercised self-restraint on Monday:
1. We refused to air the hostage taker's threats live about a 3 pm deadline to avoid fuelling public fear.
2. We refused to air the hostage taker's interview until after negotiations were finished.
3. We refused to be part of hostage negotiations.
4. All throughout the day and until the first shots were aired, we kept our cameras 400 meters away from the bus, giving us shaky video that viewers complained about. Our teams never crossed the police line.
5. Although we had access to members of the police reaction team, we held back interviews which could compromise their plans and/or location.
6. After the police tried to arrest the hostage taker's brother, our team physically stepped back to comply with police request. As was seen on video, that space was quickly filled in by other journalists.
7. After the assault began, we tried to limit our shots to avoid showing police movements. We stayed with extreme close-ups or wide shots.
8. We immediately complied when police asked us to turn off our lights explaining the grainy shots viewers complained about.
9. We avoided tampering with evidence at crime scene. Instead, we asked Soco to shoot the video instead of entering the bus ourselves.

This wasn't enough.

We acknowledge airing a report that detailed the position of the police during the assault.

During the arrest of Gregorio Mendoza, we considered pulling away from the coverage but a man was crying for help.

In other countries around the world, governments set the ground rules for situations like this. One network cannot unilaterally declare a news blackout. Press freedom issues take a back seat during situations like this - where the government already has the power to define the terms to media.

We are taking the public's views to heart. Monday's tragic events triggered intense soul-searching for us. Such is the irony of a profession that wields so much power but relies entirely on self-doubt to gain --- and keep --- its credibility.

We ask our broadcast colleagues to join us in an industry review. Let us unite and work together to put in place measures to collectively decide when we stop live coverage in the absence of government presence of mind.

A CALL FOR SELF-EXAMINATION (NUJP)

2010-08-25T16:26:00.000+08:00

National Union of Journalists of the Philippines
August 25, 2010

A call for self-examination

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) grieves for the loss of so many lives in the hostage-taking at the Quirino Grandstand on Monday.

We condole with families of all the victims of this tragedy and we join the calls for a thorough and swift investigation on why and how the bloodbath happened.

The Philippine government and the Philippine National Police have already acknowledged errors and shortcoming in responding to and addressing the incident. We believe that they were primarily responsible for supposedly controlling the situation, ending the crisis and ensuring the safety of the hostages.

But even as we grieve, we call on colleagues in the media to seriously and comprehensively examine how we covered the crisis and if our coverage in any way contributed to the tragic end of the hostage-taking.

It is media’s responsibility to cover events and report these as comprehensively and truthfully as possible.

But some colleagues clearly violated ethical standards and established procedures and guidelines in covering crisis situations including hostage-taking incidents.

Various media institutions and journalism scholars have laid down guidelines in covering crisis situations including hostage-taking. We urge news organizations to abide by these guidelines and to ensure that those it assigns to cover these crisis situations are adequately trained and informed.

We also encourage media owners, leaders and organizations to meet and agree on a set of protocols for the industry to guide us during similar situations.

The hostage-taking incident has once again highlighted the need for more trainings and education on our ranks to make sure that we do more good than harm in the performance of our work.

But even as we examine our actions and admit mistakes and shortcomings, we stand firm against abrogating our right to cover important events of public interest.

We oppose House Bill 2737 filed by Cebu Rep. Luis Quisumbing and similar measures aimed at imposing a media blackout during crisis situations. Legislated restrictions on media coverage are more dangerous and could pave the way for abuses and excesses by authorities in responding to crisis situations.

Reference

Nestor P. Burgos Jr.
Chairperson
+639177256333

*The blog owner is a member and former chair of the NUJP
********************************************************************************************************************************
NATIONAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS OF THE PHILIPPINES
4/L FSS Bldg. # 89 Sct. Castor corner
Sct. Tuason Street (near T. Morato Ave),
Bgry. Laging Handa,
Quezon City, Philippines
Tel.: (+632) 3767330
Email: nujphil@gmail.com
Web: www.nujp.org (under construction)
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Are you a journalist under threat?
Report it to NUJP’s Threat Hotlines:
*(+632) 3767330
* Email: nujphil@gmail.com
* Twitter:http://twitter.com/nujp
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“There can be no press freedom if journalists
exist in conditions of corruption, poverty or fear”
– IFJ
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YES, THEY TRIED. AND HOW

2010-08-25T08:51:00.000+08:00

Media is not perfect. (You should hear journalists b_tch!) Our natural tendency is to go for the great shot, the great line, the ’scoop’ — and that is across all platforms. We spend lots of hours and lots of breath — and yeah, lots of tears — trying to come up with safeguards against the possibility of being desensitized of all other considerations. That’s an all-media reality.

It would be self-serving to cite all those foreign reports (bbc, cnn, hk papers) as proof that we, media, are the good guys and that the cops were the bad guys. In the first place, Monday’s event wasn’t a game of cops and robbers.

This was a long day with many groups of people — Hongkong residents and officials not the least — running around trying their darn best to make some sense of an unraveling horror. You do not need to be a blame seeker to understand what “authority” means or what “leadership” is (or to feel sad at the glaring absence of the latter).

The other night was my first time on the other end of a monitor. Without dismissing viewers’ concerns and criticism, and standing by an earlier blog, here’s a tidbit from the new kid on the block:

This is what I said that night as everyone went home, and said very humbly… Now I know just how hard folks in broadcast work and how complex the choices at hand — when a dozen screens are lit up with possibles and 30 people before you, around you and across the metropolis are all trying to get heard all at the same time.

Maybe I’m just a new fan, enjoying a brand new world (yes, that’s a cliche!) — but also not a blind fan. What I saw and heard was a hall of people (and another set of folks on the other side of the monitors) trying to do their darn best to do right and — yes, those in the newsroom and on the ground — to self regulate and adjust accordingly every second of that long, bitter day. There was no movement that didn’t cOme with a cautionary word, a word of warning, yells to shift or stop even as DO became DID.

But yes, we will always need (and will always be grateful) to have the public as our conscience.

CHRONICLERS OF MAYHEM

2010-08-24T17:31:00.005+08:00

“Mulling over all reactions... I will say this: there is little talk (nor thought) of ratings when lives hang on the balance. And however flawed coverage may be -- and there will always be flaws -- journalists do care about the lives they cover. But like the authorities and the comfortable we are professionally bound to afflict, media will have to listen with grace to criticism.”

I’ve had one good friend pooh-pooh the above statement, written mid-morning after a mostly sleepless night (as most journalists hereabouts must have experienced). After a couple more hours of gazing at the ceiling and reviewing Internet clips of yesterday’s Quirino Grandstand tragedy (all stations) and what radio stations reported (all stations), I am standing by that statement.

At the Manila Pen, at the Bicutan siege, at other incidents, I evoked media’s duty to cover events as they unfold. I know that is not the core issue now being raised by critics of our profession. Last night and today, the angry reactions focused on a couple of things:

• Live coverage of the hostage-taking incident;

• Erroneous or premature reports (of the number of dead, for example)

• Pandering to dismissed cop Fernando Mendoza’s “grandstanding”;

• Letting SPO2 Gregorio Mendoza, brother of the hostage-taker, go primetime with his drama – and in the process provoking the dismissed cop into acts of violence; and

• Doing step-by-step accounts of the assault on Mendoza.

(This post does not aim to critique the cops’ performance or the national government’s response (or non-response) to the hostage crisis. Let’s leave that for another post.)

In its “Guidelines for Covering Hostage-Taking Crises, Prison Uprisings, Terrorist Actions,” Poynter.org states:

“Challenge any gut reaction to "go live" from the scene of a hostage-taking crisis, unless there are strong journalistic reasons for a live, on-the-scene report. Things can go wrong very quickly in a live report, endangering lives or damaging negotiations. Furthermore, ask if the value of a live, on-the-scene report is really justifiable compared to the harm that could occur.”

I have always had one simple rule of thumb. Journalists cover events. Newspaper, radio, television and Internet teams will always try to present an unfolding story from varied vantage points. When authorities tell us to desist from live coverage, we consider that (notice the caveat in the above cited rule).

When media does live coverage, then it must consider what to air and not to air. It is true that live coverage is dangerous: It is harder to do the usual gate-keeping work like double-checking facts and choosing one’s words, especially when reporters themselves are in the line of fire.

There are reasons that media go live and not everything has to do with ratings.

Yes, ratings are a given in television and radio, and hits for web-based media enterprises. The race can lead to sensationalized reporting and dog-eat-dog scenarios where the focus is on the competition and not on the story or its repercussions. But that should not blind us to other facets of our national reality.

There are reasons why desperate people in this country -- whether they are contemplating suicide, fleeing for their lives or holding people hostage -- run to media. These reasons have also a lot to do with the murders of journalists in this country. However problematic some journalists are; however shaky their ethics, in many areas of this nation they are sometimes the only people standing between powerful groups and individuals and the communities they seek to cow.

Quirino grandstand, of course, is not in the boondocks. It looms over Luneta, in the heart of Manila, the center of power in this archipelago. Manila is also where, not too long ago, a naked man flipped and flopped on cold tiles as his prick and balls were jerked here and there by another man we’d all been taught to respect as our protector.

Manila is where Mendoza was once accused of entrapping and extorting from a young man (though there are friends and colleagues who insist Mendoza was the good guy framed by rich and powerful malefactors). Manila is also where soldiers seeking redress are silenced by edict, by arrest or by other means. Manila, let us not forget, is also where men grabbed Jonas Burgos, who remains missing to this day. (Yes, we have failed to cover other victims and yes, sometimes it is because a story is not 'sexy'.)

I do not know if Gregorio was indeed an accessory to a crime (there is no acceptable excuse for hostage-taking). He wasn’t a gatecrasher. Rightly or wrongly, he was asked to help. He identified too well with the suspect; not surprising as they were brothers.

I do know this. If a man before me cries that he is being persecuted and on the verge of being disappeared (temporarily or permanently), I will not turn my back on him. I will not interfere when cops wrestle him into submission, but neither will I pretend to be blind.

Should there have been an instant decision to impose a news blackout so as not to provoke the hostage-taker?

The entire day’s coverage was live. Cops and officials agreed to interviews knowing the incident was being covered live. They ordered the arrest and grabbed Gregorio knowing coverage was live. No journalist or cop has noted any request – anywhere, any time, to anyone –that live coverage stop.

Having said that, I must stress the following points:

Media should try to resist talking to a hostage-taker (certainly, not interview him live). The hostage-taker may suddenly decide to transform an interview into a negotiation. And journalists have no business being negotiators. Period.

If we get an unsolicited call from a hostage-taker, we should just take down whatever is said but not get involved in any bargaining ploy;

Nor are we psychologists, so let’s not jeer at the hostage-taker; certainly not in his hearing;

We are not negotiators so we shouldn’t even debate on the pros or cons of a hostage-taker’s conditions. Nor should we listen to those who want that debate;

There should be no step-by-step accounts of assault operations. That is a different call from live reporting. Even when the authorities fail to request for such, journalists should try to keep it in mind. If reporters (who in the ‘heat of battle’ may not be able to pull back from the fray) start giving away information, superiors should find a way close the gates – or head off reporters to safer realms.

Of course, in an age where mobile phones can take sharp still and video images, when kids can afford to buy Flip cameras, one could argue that the rest of the world could put one over media. (Certainly, a friend of a hostage-taker could give him those sensitive images and in the crush – a teenager got hit in the crossfire! -- the effort would have been missed.)

These developments add pressure to media work. But the world is already a terribly complicated place, where roles of lawmen and lawbreakers merge in an unholy mess and the law itself acts like shifting sand. We journalists would serve this world better by trying to record these changes without getting trapped in the muck. We must thus learn better to sidestep the dangers.

It is hard keeping pace with a world where today is already on the verge of being passé. Especially when, at the same time, modern technology sometimes fails us: Audio can fail and desks and reporters, whether from the print, broadcast or digital media, could get cut off from each other. But we just have to try. And we are.

We cannot always agree with our audience. But we will always agree that they, too, share our best intentions – even when they call ours to question.

THE BIG CHILL

2010-08-18T11:23:00.005+08:00

There are times when words are superfluous.

A man writhing on the floor, limbs jerking, his torso twisting with every pull of a string; this classic of a Pavlovian experiment on pain hardly needs annotation. A group of uniformed men impassively watching this hardcore performance art; what words could possibly explain that obscenity?

Tears at the Commission on Human Rights; a flinch, nay, several, from its acting head Coco Quisumbing (a former journalist who must have seen her share of atrocities). A newsroom falling silent, a cry oR two punctuating every televised twitch of pain. Drivers huddled around the roadside cafeteria’s radio, imagining what they cannot see. Mothers and wives and children and lovers across the nation wondering: what if he was my husband, lover, brother, son?

There are places our minds can hardly bear to tread. The man pulling at that string; what psyche pulses within?

We know violence; we know rage. This is something else. The deliberate, methodical pacing of the lasso and the lash; the almost crooning “lessons” imparted with every jerk; the rapt attention on the face of the giving end of that rope.

Under other circumstances, that man would be in a straitjacket. In a world where might is often presented as proof of righteousness, that man is an officer of the law.

As was Himmler and every Nazi torturer. As was the man who left a bloody trail across Luzon and the Visayas – sometimes they are even called heroes. It is not surprising to hear Quisumbing say that the CHR has an investigation caseload of more than a hundred cases of torture.

There are crimes so heinous they sweep away every comfortable rationale we’ve ever used to explain why it is “okay” some of the time to violate civil liberties, or why a word like “basic” (as in rights) comes with exemptions. The Ampatuan massacre is one crime, the torture of this still unknown man is another.

Let us rage, yes. And demand justice, yes.

But let us not forget that we are complicit in this crime – marginal accessories to be sure, but accessories all the same.

How many times have we shrugged off a murder of a journalist whose reputation was less than white as snow? How many times have we ranted (even silently), “kaya kayo pinapatay!” (that’s why they murder your ilk). When we think ignorance, uncouthness or even corruption is a good enough excuse for murder or any other form of violence, that’s a slippery slope we’re on.

When we accept, however, grudgingly that it is okay to kill an activist because he or she is probably playing footsie with communist guerrillas, we open the gates to all kinds of justification for murder.

When we cheer, however quietly, when old comrades are gunned down in the name of “people’s justice” we make work harder for defender of human rights.

When we praise berdugos for ridding our cities and towns of those pesky addicts, snatchers, holdup artists, we are saying, it’s okay for people in authority to violate the law if the result provides us a greater degree of comfort.

When we in media show footage of snatchers getting beaten up, or police precinct scenes of ordinary folk slapping and scratching at a suspect, and do not provide the all-important context – that this is a violation of a basic human rights -- we, too, are complicit in this.

So, too, when our race for ratings and circulation makes us drop the ball after a sensational week or two, as we go on to other stories that are breaking and, thus sexier, stories.

It is a heavy burden to impose on our sector, I know, but reality shows time and again that impunity is also partly due to short attention spans. There is no shortcut: conviction is what ultimately defeats a culture of impunity.

Democracy is messy, yes. We can understand why cops feel frustrated: they are overworked, underpaid, lacking of equipment and often at the mercy of imperious local government officials and their patrons in national government. You walk the tough streets of Tondo for a decade or so, you see criminals walk in and out of jail and hear your kids complain about not getting the education the children of other government officials enjoy – you’ll begin to ask if it’s worth it.

But there can be no other answer. There should be no other answer. Many years ago, a fine young police officer told me, in rather angry tones, while discussing a rubout he had personal knowledge of: “then why is it okay for rebels to kill?!” He went on to serve officials with a long list of massacres and murders to their names, and are now waging rearguard action against Lady Justice.

It is easy to weep for Cory, for Ninoy, for our heroes and our saints. The real test of our adherence to democracy and its principles is when the least lovable of our citizens face the gun and the blade and the whip as they are sacrificed at the altar of law and order.

THE FISHERMAN'S SONS

2010-08-09T21:50:00.004+08:00

This isn't so much an essay as a remembrance of some passages that stand me in good stead when my faith in the servants of God wavers.

There are a couple of books that are sources of strength for those days when fear, despondence and cynicism raise their ugly heads. "To Kill A Mockingbird" is a favorite. Another is from a later era though it tackles themes dating back of the days when warm bodies flitted to and fro the catacombs.

The film never did match the depth of Morris L. West’s novel “The Shoes of the Fisherman”.

Science, rebellion, crime and salvation, power and compassion, rage and redemption -- the story of life, the history of human kind distilled in a work of such integrity it refuses to give us a pat ending.

Our parents taught us about a loving God who understood the difficult choices faced by his children. They introduced us to flawed but compassionate priests. It is to their credit and God's grace that the horrid, tawdry and evil things perpetrated by shepherds of His flock have failed to jar us into letting go of that radiant strip leading up into the promised land.

It is a destination, that land. As old-time Pilgrims know, WHEN isn't as important as HOW.

When shepherds become wolves, when the road to salvation becomes a nightmare, when too many of God's children are sacrificed to the exigencies of power, there is West, with his wry humor and dogged belief in the tenacity of goodness, to prop up wavering faith.

When one begins to wonder, West shines a light on what can be.

And so this passage, from the time of Conclave, when two of the Church's most powerful princes -- the Camerlengo Cardinal Valerio Rinaldi, and the bulldog of the Sacred College, Cardinal Leone -- muse about what-ifs should they be given a chance to live their lives over.

Cardinal Leone:

“I’ve thought about it often... If I didn’t marry- and I’, not sure but that’s what I needed to make me halfway human- I’d be a country priest with just enough theology to hear confession, and just enough Latin to get through Mass and the sacramental formulae. But with heart enough to know what griped in the guts of other men and made them cry into their pillows at night. I’d sit in front of my church on a summer evening and read my office and talk about the weather and the crops, and learn to be gentle to the poor and humble with the unhappy ones…

"You know what I am now? A walking encyclopaedia of dogma and theological controversy. I can smell out an error faster than a Dominican. And what does it mean? Nothing. Who cares about theology except the theologians? We are necessary, but less important than we think. The Church is Christ- Christ and the people. And all the people want to know is whether or not there is a God, and what is His relation with them, and how they can get back to Him when they stray.”

Rinaldi:“Large questions, not to be answered by small minds or gross ones.”

Tonight, I go to bed praying for priests with hearts that understand those who cower in the dark.

A QUESTION OF INTEGRITY

2010-08-06T15:45:00.009+08:00

Journalist Ding Gagelonia re-posted this morning a press release sent to his inbox.

“MCC Board Approves $434 Million Philippines Compact,” says the release from the Millenium Challenge Corporation of the United States of America, which has graphics as American as anything can be without Uncle Sam himself.

The release says non-government organizations, private sector firms and the Philippine government and people worked to come up with a “homegrown program.” MCC Chief Executive Officer Daniel Yohannes praises the stakeholders “for tackling difficult challenges to create tangible opportunities for growth and prosperity.”

“The Filipinos have articulated a clear vision to improve the quality of their lives through a technically, environmentally, and socially sound plan,” Yohannes adds. “I am confident that the country’s ongoing commitment to positive reforms, accountability and transparency, and the timely implementation of the compact will deliver tangible results.”

Aid
It’s understandable, President Benigno Aquino III, sir, that your very high trust rating should attract offers of help and all kinds of partnerships, whether of a bilateral or multilateral nature.

After the heavy baggage of corruption that saddled the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, it must be a great relief for government and private sector leaders to be hailed as advocates of hope instead of co-conspirators in crime.

For example, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Philippines, the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), GTZ, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), have expressed their willingness to help the government come up with a National Action Plan against Climate Change (NAPCC), which must be put in place by April 2011, based on the Climate Change Act or Republic Act 9729.

In the case of the MCC, $54.3 million of the total aid package will go to computerize and streamline business processes in the Bureau of Internal Revenue, to improve revenue collection and reduce opportunities for corruption.

Some $214 million will allow the construction and repair of 200 kilometers of Samar Road, which passes through 15 municipalities.

Anybody who has been to Samar will not begrudge residents of that beautiful but impoverished island this badly-needed help. It will be interesting to see how the engineering works will go. Samar is one of the few places in this country with a still significant New People’s Army (NPA) presence. I can imagine American troops coming in for some medical and disaster relief missions. The USAID, which has a Filipino-American director (Maryknoll-educated Gloria Steele) for the Philippines, should also be shepherding a number of projects in Samar, especially those aimed at ensuring “availability of high-quality medicines to treat life-threatening diseases including HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.” Samar, one of poorest areas in the country, suffers high incidence of the last two diseases.

Conduit
The portion of the MCC release that intrigued me was this:

“… the compact includes $120 million to expand Kalahi-CIDSS, a community-based, rural development program. This innovative approach to development strengthens local accountability and empowers poor communities to design and drive the projects they need to increase their incomes and improve their lives.”

That’s big money and, unlike the Samar road project, will be dispersed throughout the countryside of this archipelago. I initially imagined an NGO and asked what umbrella it belonged to. After all, the term NGO no longer has the purer-than-Caesar’s-wife cache that it enjoyed before Agile consultants and women urban poor leaders with mansions, not to mention Peace Bond “commissioners” – all self-proclaimed activists for good governance -- had sectors wondering about the need to police the police.

But a cursory skimming of a notebook confirmed that Kalahi is the critical conduit of government's cash aid.

Its website http://kalahi.dswd.gov.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=1 states:

“KALAHI-CIDSS is the Philippine government’s flagship poverty-alleviation project implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development through the financial support of the World Bank. It stands for Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan- Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services.

KALAHI CIDSS entrusts the poor with greater powers, supports poor LGUs in local development, and invests heavily on people, not just projects.

KALAHI-CIDSS believes the poor know who need help the most and that their skills and potentials could be harnessed to undertake development.

Funds are released directly to the villager’s KALAHI-CIDSS bank accounts. Villagers also manage, monitor and supervise the implementation of sub-projects. These sub-projects were implemented faster and cheaper compared to traditional implementation of projects in the Philippines (Mid-term Review, 2006).

KALAHI-CIDSS’ built-in transparency mechanisms have nearly attained for the Project a nil record in graft and corruption. Through a complaints and grievance system, issues pertaining to the project are addressed expeditiously."

Questions
The DSWD Secretary (currently Corazon “Dinky” Soliman) is the national project director of Kalahi. Her short message on the website notes:

“With 5,236 community sub-projects, KALAHI-CIDSS has been able reach 4,583 barangays in the poorest 200 municipalities in 42 provinces and benefited 1.1 million households and an estimated 6.6 million poor Filipinos nationwide.”

Now, let me be clear. Covering Dinky when she was DSWD secretary, I thought her efficient, effective and certainly capable of motivating her “troops” to march to hell and back.

That’s not just a figure of speech. In Mindanao you will hear plenty of people speak in awe of the social workers who brave the battle lines between government troops and rebels to get civilians out of harm’s way.

It is no picnic. There have been a number of times social workers and their wards have been literally caught in the crossfire just minutes after wresting a ceasefire pledge from both sides.

Dinky can be hokey and corny and her aggressive good cheer can actually make grouchy seem attractive, but she has been effective in the DSWD.

She has also faced charges of benefiting from the scandalous issuance in 2001 of the P10-billion Poverty Eradication and Alleviation Certificate (PEACe) bonds.

The government will soon have to pay P38 billion for the P10 billion issued. I don't know about you, Mr. President. You're said to be, um, careful with money. If you think paying three times the original amount of debt in less than ten years doesn't stink, consider that the Caucus of Development NGO Networks (Code NGO), brokers of the deal, took in a P1.4-billion commission. That should get your ranting and raving!

It was Marissa Camacho-Reyes, the sister of former Finance Minister Jose Isidro Camacho, who engineered the deal. But Dinky’s Peace Equity Access for Community Empowerment (PEACe) Foundation received part of that commission.

The DSWD secretary says she was no longer part of Code NGO when it negotiated the PEACe Bonds but expresses willingness to face the Truth Commission on the matter. Columnist Alvin Capino notes that Dinky was very close to Mrs. Arroyo (as, by all accounts, she is close to Mr. Aquino).

Close ties
In his column, Capino points out:

“Just to highlight the influence of Code-NGO at that time, just a month after the issuance of the controversial Peace Bonds in October 2001, Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was the guest in the Code-NGO 3rd National Congress held at the UP Diliman where Mrs. Arroyo acknowledged the key role of Soliman, Deles and Songco in EDSA 2 and in her administration.”

It does pay to have the guts to warble saccharine anthems like “If We Hold On” (to a beleaguered Mrs. Arroyo, just days before ditching her) or ask questions like, “what will you sing?” (to you, Sir, after you bared plans to join the post-inaugural sing-a-long).

Sometimes, Dinky’s penchant for theatrics does get the better of her, leading to verbal somersaults that insult the intelligence of her audience. For example, take the following paragraphs from a November 17, 2005 article by Luz Rimban for the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ):

“FORMER social welfare secretary Dinky Soliman has confessed to being part of a government group that used public funds for President Arroyo’s 2004 presidential campaign.

“Appearing as witness at the resumption of the Citizens’ Congress for Truth and Accountability, Soliman apologized for helping distribute free insurance cards from the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth) to voters in areas considered strongholds of Arroyo’s rivals, among them movie actor Fernando Poe Jr, during the 2004 campaign.

“The CCTA heard testimony yesterday which said that money coming from the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA) was diverted to pay for the Philhealth cards. Philhealth card holders are supposed to pay insurance premiums of around P1,000, but during the campaign, voters got them for free.

“In areas where the opponents are strong, especially FPJ, we decided to increase government assistance by way of Philhealth cards distribution…. I personally went to Pangasinan to distribute Philhealth cards as part of the campaign,” said Soliman, who resigned from the Arroyo cabinet in July. Pangasinan was Poe’s home province.

“Saying she had “decided to speak my truth here today and publicly apologize for the betrayal of trust when I was secretary of the DSWD,” Soliman said she did not realize then that what she was doing was electioneering.”

(itals and boldface mine)

Pledge
The President seems to consider every criticism is a sign of a conspiracy to drag him down. Actually, it’s an indication that he is taken seriously.

It would be easy to dismiss his pledge to institute a transparent, honest and morally and ethically upright regime as just another burst of hot air. I won’t. So I’m going to repeat an earlier plea:

Mr. President, you cannot toy with accountability. You cannot orate about new dawns and a Truth Commission, yet refuse to even acknowledge perfectly legitimate concerns involving your hand-picked men and women.

We don’t expect you to kick out Dinky and other aides facing the same challenges. But we do expect you to order Dinky and the rest – and that includes the head of your Truth Commission – to face the people and, without smoke and mirrors, confront accusations of unethical conduct.

You promised us a rundown of the nation’s problems after an “inventory.” You even made us journalists look unreasonable for asking a man who’d asked a nation to stake their hopes on him, to give his roadmap to progress.

What you’ve given us so far are charges against your predecessors, including some that have had to be tweaked because certain folk played fast and loose with figures and processes.

“Modified” has become your administration’s favorite term.

I’ll take the misses; Filipinos didn’t elect you for efficiency or for any track record of achievement. What’s disturbing is when your administration starts modifying its stress on core values bannered by your campaign.

You cannot demand full trust from the people just on your say-so, Mr. President. Rather, you owe them daily proof of adherence to the compact you'd sold them in the campaign

TRUE GRIT IN SATCHMO'S MUSE

2010-08-04T21:55:00.006+08:00

*Inspired by the New Yorker essay on Winston Marsalis’ tribute to Louie Armstrong, I’m sharing this edited version of a Southpaw (The Manila Times) column on the musician.

It still sticks in the mind, that opening scene from “Good Morning, Vietnam!” Americans bringing home their dead and wounded; strapping lads missing limbs, eyes and, in some cases, missing souls. Youth wondering what they’d done to deserve the hell they’d just gone through. Wondering, too, what the little, yellow gooks had done to deserve burning rain and hurtling rockets, and the loss of the land tilled by generations of ancestors.

The gore and filth of war, the misery of men forced to kill in order to survive; the psychic scream as one puzzled over the meaning of such choices. Local folk, from a chopper vantage point looking like so many ants, except that they weren’t chasing after food but fleeing for their lives. And meandering across this grim landscape, laughter wrapped in a gravel voice, the lilting strains of “What A Wonderful World.”

Can’t count the number of times I’ve badgered jazz-bar DJ's to show the video from the movie, ignoring the frowns of neck-tied yuppies who preferred Kenny G. Poor souls, tired and frazzled, never quite catching up in the race for mammon; the last thing they needed were cadavers leaving scarlet trails in their tequilas.

It’s not masochism that draws me to the video. It’s just this yearning to make some sense of a crazy world. Louie Armstrong’s song may not offer answers, but it sure gives comfort, a reassurance that even if men and women succeed in their deeds of mayhem today, tomorrow may be a different story.

Armstrong’s chuckle doesn’t represent oblivion or escapism. Its power comes from a lifetime of braving storms. It is the belly laugh of a man who has clawed and crawled through the muck and discovered pearls under the swill.

Satchmo. Father of jazz, the music of contradiction and discordance. Black genius whose songs flowed across the plains and boondocks, and touched both eastern cosmopolites and rednecks, though so many places were closed to him and his integrated band.

Satchmo of the puffed cheecks. Satchmo of swing, a rhythm that never fails to send feet tapping, fingers snapping, and ass and tits bouncing.

The world celebrates his birthday on July 4, that quintessential American holiday where millions broil hotdogs and corn on the cob beneath the rockets’ red glare.

Actually, Armstrong was never sure about his birthday. Records show two separate dates. But for years, he was America’s unofficial ambassador of goodwill, spreading the young country’s magic dust across ennui-filled Europe.

An old AP compilation of anecdotes on Satchmo’s travel notes that he may have been the lone person to go back and forth through Checkpoint Charlie at the height of the Cold War. East German guards and American troops would melt at the sight of his black, joyous face.

His was not an easy life. The illegitimate son of a poor New Orleans woman, he was left with his grandma. Then he got his ma back but had to drop out of elementary school to support her and a younger sister. He wasn’t always a ball of cherubic glee. The young Armstrong roamed the streets selling rags and coal. He stayed briefly at a home for delinquent boys. But he had talent, a lust for life and an internal compass that kept him away from them cliffs of no return.

He wasn’t an activist in the usual sense. Armstrong preferred blowing the blues away to marching on the streets. But he fought fiercely for his people and once canceled a foreign tour to protest the insults hurled at the young students of Little Rock, Arkansas.

Night after night, Satchmo rolled across America, across the world, blanketing the earth with dulcet notes that celebrated life even in its bleakest moments.

His was a wry voice but never bitter. He had that husky, conspiratorial tone down pat, a friend sharing slightly wicked secrets with you. Satchmo always seemed to be urging: go, push, just one more step, just one more jump, just a little more tilt to those hips.Because it was Armstrong, the man deemed more trusted than one’s own kin, you took that leap. And when you landed unscathed, you, too, would flash that giant grin.

If I think of Satchmo these days, if I go back nightly to my old lullaby, it is because events seem to drag back old, haunting memories.

Too many bags returning from the field. Too many officials lying through their teeth. Too many people too ready to slash and flail for the slightest cause. Too many getting pulled, inexorably, into the rushing currents of hell.

Coming out weary from a day’s grind of bad news, happiness is pulling your head back and closing your eyes to listen to an old friend saying, hey, kid, lighten up. It’s still a wonderful world.

ADVOCACY AND JOURNALISM

2010-08-03T18:58:00.009+08:00

The abs-cbnnews.com website recently carried excerpts from journalist Maritess Vitug’s July 30 Genaro Ong lecture.

Vitug is an award-winning journalist and author of “Shadow of Doubt”, the book on the Supreme Court that qualifies as a non-fiction blockbuster in this country. She is editor in chief of Newsbreak. (While no longer published regularly as a magazine, Newsbreak remains involved in investigative or, at least, in-depth journalism.)

Her speech, “Advocacy and Its Place in Journalism” tackles issues that have not only split journalist into opposing camps, but have also led to many a brawl between journalists and their audience.

Vitug describes the Freedom of Information bill, which died in the last few hours of the last Congress, as “a big boost to our hunger for transparency.” The bill has been re-filed. President Benigno Aquino III, who plucked from the media three well-known personalities to man his communications group, earlier said he supports the bill, but has since been silent on it.

Hopefully, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte (a former reporter), encourages his colleagues in the new majority to swiftly pass this measure. Hopefully, too, media groups and other advocates of transparency in government wage a more sustained, systematic lobby.

During his first State of the Nation Address (Sona), Mr. Aquino challenged journalists:

“May you give new meaning to the principles of your vocation: to provide clarity to pressing issues; to be fair and truthful in your reporting, and to raise the level of public discourse.”

Vitug welcomes the challenge. There certainly is nothing wrong with wanting to improve journalism standards. No media organization would dismiss this call.

But as the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) notes, to raise the challenge while ignoring the back story –140 journalists murdered, 103 of these during President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s nine-year rule – seems to be adding insult to injury.

The country's largest organization of journalists says the media needs to remain "uncompromising" in reporting the truth to the public.

Vitug also notes that the task of scrutinizing government actions and policies should be independent of a leader's popularity rating.

Certainly, the relationship can't be one way. As the NUJP notes:

"While we heed the President’s call, his government must also ensure a more secure environment for journalists so they do not lose their jobs if not their lives in the performance of their work.

If the Aquino administration will be true to its promises of reforms, it should ensure unhampered access of information to the public so that journalists can do their jobs better."

In the days leading to Mr. Aquino’s inaugural, journalists were asked about a “honeymoon.” The tenor of the question suggested a temporary suspension of criticism in favour of giving a very popular new leader the benefit of the doubt. I remember saying that media is not obliged to give anyone a honeymoon. What is expected of us is fairness, which should be a given on any day and for everyone.

Vitug believes the press can’t be complacent just because Mr. Aquino’s ratings are stratospheric. Nor, she adds, should journalists cede "the tenets of journalism and the standards of accuracy, fairness and honesty that cover our work.”

“Without these tenets, we will lose our credibility. We will lose our reason for being,” Vitug points out.

Perspective

What could provoke debate is Vitug’s view on advocacy.

“Some propose that journalists should be advocates. Advocacy doesn’t necessarily jibe with journalism. Reporters, those who write the news, should not engage in advocacy.

But opinion writers, those who write editorials and columns, are free to advocate, to take positions on issues and personalities. Magazines which interpret and analyze the news also usually take positions.” (itals mine)

Many people confuse advocacy journalism with "bias." The latter is a loaded and very subjective term.

Merriam Webster On-line defines advocacy journalism as "journalism that advocates a cause or expresses a viewpoint." That's a neutral definition.

Compare that with its definition of "bias":

"...bent, tendency b : an inclination of temperament or outlook; especially : a personal and sometimes unreasoned judgment : prejudice c : an instance of such prejudice"

Bias is usually what the beholder makes it out to be. The criterion can shift like sand. Google "media bias" and you'll be dropped into the middle of a melee between "conservatives" and "liberals," with a distinct who-is-not-our-friend-is-our-enemy mindset.

The "Fairness in Accuracy and Reporting" website says that among the questions a critical reader/listener/viewer should raise is "Who are the sources?"

"Be aware of the political perspective of the sources used in a story. Media over-rely on "official" (government, corporate and establishment think tank) sources. For instance, FAIR found that in 40 months of Nightline programming, the most frequent guests were Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig, Elliott Abrams and Jerry Falwell. Progressive and public interest voices were grossly underrepresented.

To portray issues fairly and accurately, media must broaden their spectrum of sources. Otherwise, they serve merely as megaphones for those in power."

The group gives this advice:

"Count the number of corporate and government sources versus the number of progressive, public interest, female and minority voices. Demand mass media expand their rolodexes; better yet, give them lists of progressive and public interest experts in the community."

Labels

It's pretty clear that FAIR regards itself as progressive. On the other hand, the conservative Media Research Center, which sends out a daily Cyber Alert report to 40,000 subscribers, says of the need for "balance" in journalism:

"Leaders of America's conservative movement have long believed that within the national news media a strident liberal bias existed that influenced the public's understanding of critical issues. On October 1, 1987, a group of young determined conservatives set out to not only prove — through sound scientific research — that liberal bias in the media does exist and undermines traditional American values, but also to neutralize its impact on the American political scene."

Some people admire advocacy journalism. Others see it as a corruption of media's traditional role. Some even call it by a different name: citizen journalism, public journalism.

American journalist and sociologist, Ernesto Aguilar, notes that the debate over perspective was already raging in 1947, when Hutchins Commission addressed "a broad array of questions dealing with the future of a free press in a society dramatically changed from the society out of which the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution grew."

Aguilar points out:

"According to the commission, by 1947, we lived in a time where there are so many competing opinions and viewpoints and so many things being published in so many different media that no one person can study and review ALL matter relevant to many of the important decisions today. Given the changed circumstances of society, the Hutchins Commission grappled with the question of what the role of a free press — or for that matter the First Amendment — is or should be today."

More than six decades after the report's publication, we're still wrestling with the issue. And on this point, unity built on other causes (press freedom, an end to violence against journalists) shows signs of fraying.

There are those who believe advocacy journalism is needed to give voices and faces to society's margins. In April 2000, Canadian journalist Sue Careless explained to colleagues that,

"...when the mainstream media ignores, trivializes or seriously distorts your cause or your community, then your cause or community needs its own media. If your people are never quoted or they are quoted inaccurately, if they are stereotyped or misinformation is spread about them, then they need their own face and voice. Every significant social movement has had its own media."

The fact that advocacy journalists openly disclose their leanings and affiliations is often compared favorably to traditional media's alleged penchant of masking its bias for the benefit of a) advertisers, b) the interests of owners and their friends, and c) friends in the elite corridors of power.

Platforms

Three decades ago, "advocacy" was "alternative". The positioning was clear. It was coverage for the people by the people.

If "people" seemed to cover only those of a certain political bent, that was because alternative journalism was geared to break through barricades put up by an elitist media serving the powers-that-be. This was the era of national liberation movements rising against various strongmen and dictatorships (often propped up by world powers even as the latter declaimed about democratic ideals). Supporters of alternative and advocacy journalism staked their claim on the hundred year-old legacy of Chicago Post editorial writer Finley Peter Dunne, who is often credited for this line: "The job of the newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."

It's a great line but Dunne's fans didn't quite get it. Dunne, true to the spirit of Chicago and the times' robust, muck-raking journalism, penned that famous line in wry, sardonic Irish-brogue style:

"Th' newspaper does ivrything f'r us. It runs th' polis foorce an' th' banks, commands th' milishy, controls th'ligislachure, baptizes th' young, marries th' foolish, comforts th' afflicted, afflicts th' comfortable, buries th' dead an' roasts thim aftherward.

(Just an aside: Dunne gained prominence in 1898, after his literary character, Mr. Dooley, celebrated the victory of Commodore George Dewey over the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay.)

Limits

Back in Dunne's time, both op-ed writers and reporterss gleefully waved the flags of their causes. Over time, media organizations have come up with thick tomes on ethics. And still we argue. The din and clangor actually indicate the importance accorded media, whether the audience is the President or Mang Juan.

So, can reporters can "advocate" without being biased?

Yes, they can. For example, just ensuring that neglected issues -- say, domestic violence – see the light of day is an advocacy. Reporters can push to increase coverage on a serious (if sometimes, non-sexy) issue – like child’s rights or gay rights. Reporters can also play a major role in seeing that such issues are not trivialized. This is reasonable, even laudable.

Reporters are not stenographers and should go beyond he-said-she-said output. Sometimes, all that is needed to push an advocacy is context. Jon Stewart is not a journalist, but his Daily Show can teach us a thing or two about context. Some of his most effective clips involve nothing more than showing a public figure’s most recent statement and then following this with a contrasting message from an earlier period.

What a reporter should not do is climb the soapbox. A news report, a feature story is not a declamation or oratorical piece.

Getting the facts -- and getting them straight -- is also only half the battle. Advocacy journalists have to resist the temptation to censor the other side and shove out data that seemingly undermines one's position.

They also have to scale down the "telling" in favor of "showing." A reporter has no business calling a government official a liar. Citing conflicting statements and actions, or data that doesn’t add up, would present more graphic – and believable – proof of missteps or other more deliberate wrong-doings.

But this needs homework. If you do not review notes or other literature, chances are you won’t be able to ask a public figure to explain the seeming contradiction in statements and policies.

Advocacy journalism is not a license to throw out standards and ethical behavior. Advocacy is not an excuse to junk fairness as a requisite for any report. This holds for opinion writers, too.

The best way journalist-advocates can serve their cause is via good journalism. It is easier to convince readers and audience when a report is comprehensive, accurate and fair. Playing fast and loose with facts does your cause a disservice. You don’t have to be a journalist to understand this.

CHASING HEALTH

2010-08-02T18:43:00.003+08:00

News of a study upending the conventional wisdom of calcium as lifesaver (or quality of life crutch) for post-menopausal women (and older men) brought yet another reminder that medicine is very much an inexact science.

University of Auckland medical researchers discovered a 30% increase risk for heart attack among people older than 40 who take calcium supplements. Dr. Ian Reid, lead researcher, said the study reviewed results of already published studies involving almost 12,000 people. He told BusinessWeek:

"The extent of that increased risk is enough to completely counterbalance the small beneficial effect that calcium tablets have on numbers of fractures."

A similar report by the LA Times noted:

“…recent studies have shown that the pills provide little benefit: Even though they may increase bone density, they do not reduce the risk of fractures or of death. Now, some researchers are becoming convinced that the supplements not only provide no benefit, but that they can even be harmful, increasing the risk of heart attacks by nearly a third.”

The news raised a small frisson of anger in me – and some relief at not having yet plunked down hard-earned money for imported “extra-strength” calcium supplements.

I am a breast cancer survivor, having undergone modified radical mastectomy of the left breast and a complete chemotherapy course. While no cancer has since been detected in regular tests, I am taking daily anti-cancer medication for five years. This drug, which I chose over a cheaper medicine that increases (slightly) the risk of uterine cancer, hikes the risk for osteoporosis – which runs in our family. To stave this off, you get bone density tests and then get an injection if results show brittleness indicating a degenerative state. Everybody else recommends calcium supplements, especially since my stomach cannot stand milk in its pure form.

Nasty shocks

It can be maddening, this regular debunking of conventional wisdom. One day you’re thinking about five, maybe ten, more years to live hale and well; the next you’re being told that an erstwhile miracle drug has turned out to be yet another Trojan horse bearing deadly gifts.

Take estrogen. The naturally occurring hormone, which plays a major role in the reproductive cycle, is also what gives the oomph in women. The onset of menopause, which is caused partly because the body’s supply of estrogen dwindles, can lead to a host of symptoms: hot flashes, a sudden drop in libido, severe mood swings, increase in body and facial hair and a propensity for brittle bones.

The danger to bones was especially troubling. Other medical breakthroughs and higher living standards in developed nations meant longer life expectancy. Brittle bones significantly lessen the quality of that “bonus time”.

Hormone replacement therapy was seen as a major boon for women. It was touted to increase bone density, lower the incidence heart disease and stroke, and delay the onset of dementia. It was marketed as the perfect “cure” for “female problems” at a time women were being told that menopause was no reason to retreat from life’s pleasures, sex included.

Then in 2002, the Journal of the American Medical Association said women who take estrogen for many years may be at increased risk for ovarian cancer.

“In a study known as the Women's Health Initiative, researchers at the National Cancer Institute used patient interviews and medical records to track the history of hormone use and cancer among 44,241 women. Overall, women who took only estrogen were 60 percent more likely to develop ovarian cancer than women who didn't take any hormones. Among women who took estrogen for 20 years or more, the risk of the disease was roughly three times higher than average.”

This was followed by the National Institutes of Health 2004 report that cited estrogen-only therapy as increasing the risk of stroke and deep vein thrombosis in women. That finding prompted the Women’s Health Initiative to call a premature halt to a study with 16,000 subjects – by 2007 a new study by the group said the risk of stroke was around 32% across all age groups.

Anger was still bubbling among the millions of women who’d received estrogen-replacement therapy when news broke out of clear links between the procedure and increased risk of breast cancer. Worse, the study found that HRT provided no benefit against heart disease and stroke.

Nature is best

Moderation is often junked in the chase for health. Vitamin E, for example, has once hailed as effective against the effects of aging, cataracts, and helpful in preventing cancer and heart disease.

The UC Berkeley wellness guide to dietary supplements describes the fat-soluble vitamin, discovered at the famous university more than 80 years ago, as a star among nutrients for at least 25 years.

“Vitamin E is an important antioxidant that exists in several forms, the most potent of which is alpha tocopherol, the form usually found in Vitamin E supplements. Like other antioxidants, Vitamin E protects cells against the effects of free radicals, which are potentially damaging by-products of life processes. Free radicals can damage cells and may contribute to the development of heart disease and cancer. Vitamin E may play a role in immune function. The RDA for vitamin E is just 15 milligrams (about 23 IU) a day. The upper limit is 1,000 milligrams (about 1,500 IU) a day.”

But the wellness letter admits that, “after reviewing subsequent clinical trials that had yielded disappointing or conflicting results, we softened our endorsement of vitamin E supplements.”

It cited the 2004 meta-analysis from Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, which concluded that “high doses of vitamin E (more than 400 IU a day) taken long term may slightly increase the overall risk of dying—by about 4%. Lower doses of vitamin E (200 IU or less) did not increase the risk.” It also acknowledged the absence of clinical research showing that vitamin E supplements are beneficial.

The confession ends:

“Nearly all the clinical trials on vitamin E from the past few years have yielded negative, inconclusive, or neutral results. Get vitamin E from foods—nuts, seeds, vegetable oils, whole grains, and leafy greens. There is no reason to take vitamin E supplements.”

Indeed, in 2007 the Journal of the American Medical Association published the results of a University of Copenhagen meta-study on 67 placebo-controlled trials that covered around 232,000 test subjects.

Their conclusion:

“Vitamin supplements taken by millions of people every day for their health could be increasing their risk of death.”

That doesn’t mean vitamins are dangerous to our health. It means we’re better off getting these from food rather than gulping down handfuls of pills.

STORMY WEATHER

2010-07-25T20:26:00.002+08:00

When tweets started rushing in about floods across the metropolis, I asked people not to blame Pag-Asa, the country’s besieged weather agency.

The floods are, indeed, not Pag-Asa’s fault. Monsoon season always brings heavy rains. We got a sustained torrent today (or at least, Quezon City did) but hardly on the level of Ondoy. Poor urban planning worsens our flood woes. Citizens also bear part of the blame. We throw garbage anywhere, even in canals and other waterways. Businesses build over esteros and block natural drains. Illegal logging continues in the Sierra Madre foothills that border the national capital region, worsening silt build-up in lowland rivers.

So, yes, Pag-Asa shouldn’t be blamed for the floods. But it can be criticized – and fairly – for failing to warn us about the possibility of floods.

Unlike most folk, I’ve learned to automatically interpret “scattered rainshowers and thunderstorms” as B A A A A A D news.

Admit it, we don’t need more than an hour of a serious downpour to create a monster traffic jam. Metro Manila has a naturally low threshold because of its narrow streets and haphazard parking policies.

Most people, however, interpret scattered literally: “occurring or distributed over widely spaced and irregular intervals in time or space.” (The Google Dictionary)

Disconnect

A 30-minute thunderstorm that moves off to the next suburban district qualifies for “scattered.” To use that term for a full day of a deluge so heavy it limited visibility to two cars ahead is beyond understatement.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer website (www.inquirer.net ) said Pagasa’s 2 pm bulletin reported rain levels six times the normal for the metropolis. But I’d been regularly checking its website http://www.pagasa.dost.gov.ph/ ,which showed its 5 am “scattered rainshowers” forecast until 5 pm, when the synopsis changed to: “At 2:00 p.m. today, a Low Pressure Area (LPA) was estimated based on satellite and surface data at 170 km Northeast of Aurora (17.5°N 123.6°E). Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) affecting the country.”

That was a couple of hours too late for stranded commuters and those who were gripped, for some time, with terror over the possibility of another “Ondoy,” which forced a million people to abandon their homes to raging waters.

The disconnect between Pag-Asa’s alerts and on-the-ground reality may be gauged by this 3 pm advisory sent by Police National Operation Center (NOC):

• Along Agora Brgy NBBS, Navotas City (flooded but passable to all types of vehicles);
• Luna St., Brgy Balon Bato, San Juan, Maysilo Circle; Boni Ave. going to Kalentong, Mandaluyong City (not passable to light vehicles);
• Along NAIA Ave. in front of Pagcor, Pasay City, not passable to all types of vehicles;
• Along Arayat cor Zambales, V. Luna, Mother Ignacia Ave., Mayorn corner Dapitan, Panay cor Esguerra. Banawe cor Retiro, Calamaba (not passable to light vehicles);
• Araneta and Waling-Waling St., not passable to all types of vehicles.

Challenges
I understand the difficulties faced by Pag-Asa, which is only this year getting a new Doppler Radar System that could help plot rainfall before it hits land. The one in Baras town, more than three times as expensive but also supposed more accurate and low maintenance than the one already in Subic, comes courtesy of P1.6 billion grant from Japan’s aid agency. Two others are set to go up in Aparri, Cagayan and Guian, Eastern Samar in the next two years.

The Doppler system will buy precious lead-time for disaster agencies.

But here’s what’s happening in the here and now: It doesn’t take a typhoon to spawn a disaster in the metropolis and surrounding provinces – Laguna de Bay routinely overflows these days.

If it’s not the loss of lives, it’s the loss of valuable man-hours (families stranded on the roads or kids in schools, business distribution lines screwed up, shipments failing to get to the docks on time, passengers missing their flights or planes unable to take off or land). Imagine the chaos of today’s rain levels fell mid-week.

It’s okay to discuss garbage and denuded slopes and homes clogging waterways. They are real problems needing real solutions. But to focus on them alone is much like insisting our poverty problem will disappear when the corrupt are harried from the face of this earth.

There are other, more short-term approaches for dealing with poverty. There must be other, short-term approaches that could help spare residents of Metro Manila and nearby provinces from the worst effects of floods.

Just offhand (and feel free to add):

Pag-Asa to give advisories AT LEAST EVERY TWO HOURS. Don’t just do the usual fax releases. Flood the air lanes with your warnings. It’s great to have a new (italics theirs) 24-hour hotline (ditto boldface) at 433-ULAN (433-8526).

But given our power outage problems, and the long distances people commute to workplaces and schools, radio and the social network sites are the best ways of reaching the most number of people. (I’m sure the Pag-Asa staff and/or its interns are relative techies familiar with Facebook and Twitter, which now reach people’s mobile phones.)

The National Disaster Coordinating Council should probably not limit its activities to typhoons, earthquakes and the like – and by the way, that’s a really strange name, worthy of the baddest of bad guys! – because we already know that monsoon tantrums are enough to immobilize the metropolis.

For citizens who try to help provide flood and other disaster updates, please be specific. I am sure three-dozen friends will know what you mean by “our village” but the rest of us don’t, and we would be greatly helped by that information. Specify street if possible, village, barangay, or district of a town. Saying Quezon City is under water is not the least helpful.

Schools will probably help create a more systematic disaster-response milieu in the medium and long-term by
a) incorporating in science classes lessons on how to interpret weather websites; and
b) freeing up some hours in those subjects that replaced CAT and CMT for disaster volunteer work– giving preparation and prevention as much stress as rescue and relief – ensuring that students are fielded to their own communities.

These are all the bright ideas I have. If you add to these, we may clobber a meaningful package of doable, not terribly expensive changes – and soon.

OVERLOOKED FILMS, UNDERRATED FILMMAKERS

2010-07-24T10:31:00.002+08:00

All ye film buffs, here's something to look forward to!

From the mail: The Society of Filipino Archivists for Film (SOFIA), in cooperation with the Cultural Center of the Philippines, presents: OVERLOOKED FILMS, UNDERRATED FILMMAKERS, to be held at the Tanghalang Manuel Conde, Cultural Center of the Philippines, at 2-5pm with the following line-up:

August 14, 2010
Krimen: Kayo Ang Humatol (1974) Directed Jun Raquiza

September 11, 2010
Masquerade (1967) Directed by Danny Zialcita

October 9, 2010
Kasal o Sakal (1964) Directed by Efren Reyes & Johnny Reyes

November 13, 2010
Ito Ang Pilipino (1966) Directed by Cesar Gallardo

December 11, 2010
Gaano Kita Kamahal (1993) Directed by Butch Perez

January 15, 2011
Waray-Waray (1954) Directed by F.H. Constantino

For more information, feel free to send an email to sofiaphils@gmail.com or contact 0920 2836393

FELLOWSHIP FOR JOURNALISTS

2010-07-23T15:10:00.001+08:00

(SPREADING THE WORD...)

In collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, our partners at UNF/BWC are hosting a three day fellowship for journalists from September 7 – 9 in NYC. They are currently accepting applications for this and would appreciate you sharing it with all of your journalism contacts. Deadline is Monday, 9 August.

Please address any questions to Heather Wong (hwong@unfoundation.org).

UN Foundation and Better World Campaign Announce Journalism Fellowship: The MDGs in 2010

Washington – (July 6, 2010) – The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will dominate public discussion later this year when world leaders gather at the United Nations in New York for a historic summit to monitor progress on combating global poverty. In an effort to educate Washington, D.C.-based journalists and offer unprecedented access to policymakers in this arena, the United Nations Foundation and Better World Campaign announced today a special fellowship for journalists on the MDGs.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that all 192 United Nations member states have agreed to advance in a shared effort to end poverty and its root causes. The United Nations will host the 2010 MDG Review Summit in September to mark the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the MDGs. President Barack Obama, and other world leaders, will deliver their plan to advance progress to achieving the MDGs at this summit.

The United Nations Foundation and the Better World Campaign are offering a three-day fellowship for journalists from September 7-9, 2010 in New York City, in advance of the UN MDG Review Summit in mid-September. Fellows will be given direct access to officials from the UN and a behind-the-scenes look at agencies and organizations including the Millennium Campaign.

With support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, this fellowship is designed to foster participants’ understanding of the issues surrounding the MDGs, and will provide the exclusive opportunity for fellows to participate in on- and off-the-record issue briefings, luncheons and roundtables with issue experts and high-level officials. Briefings scheduled include: the Secretary General’s office, UNICEF, the United Nations Population Fund, UN Aids, and UN Development Program, amongst others.

This fellowship is geared towards Washington, DC reporters who do not have regular access to key UN experts, but are interested in foreign policy, international development and the United Nations. Special consideration will be given to journalists whose portfolios include international relations issues. Fellowship applicants working outside of Washington, DC, will be considered as space becomes available.

For more information about how to apply for UN Foundation/Better World Campaign MDG Fellowship Program, please click here. To download and complete the application, please click here.

###

About the United Nations Foundation
The United Nations Foundation, a public charity was created in 1998 with entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner’s historic $1 billion gift to support UN causes and activities. We build and implement public/private partnerships to address the world’s most pressing problems, and work to broaden support for the UN through advocacy and public outreach. Through our campaigns and partnerships, we connect people, ideas, and resources to help the UN solve global problems. The campaigns we conduct reduce child mortality, empower women and girls, create a new energy future, secure peace and human rights, and promote technology innovation to improve health outcomes. For more information, visit www.unfoundation.org.

About the Better World Campaign
The Better World Campaign (BWC) works to foster a strong, effective relationship between the United States and the United Nations (UN) through outreach, communications, and advocacy. We encourage U.S. leadership to work constructively through the United Nations and to strengthen the United Nations’ ability to carry out its invaluable operations around the world. And we engage policy makers, the media, and the American public to increase awareness of and support for the United Nations. For more information, visit www.betterworldcampaign.org.

Media Contact:
Heather Wong
Public Affairs
United Nations Foundation
Hwong@unfoundation.org
202-862-6310

GOOD INTENTIONS

2010-07-22T22:43:00.002+08:00

“A good intention clothes itself with power.” -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Yes, but sometimes, the Emperor wears no clothes.

That’s not to call President Benigno Aquino III a fraud. You cannot say that of a man who won by a landslide. The son of martyred senator Benigno Aquino Jr. and the late President Corazon C. Aquino managed the feat by repeating what has become the nation’s mantra of hope: “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.” (Without corruption, there would be no poverty.)

It may sound simplistic but that line contains a lot of truth.

Governance watchdogs say that much as 30% of the national budget is lost to corruption. Thirty percent of the 2010 national budget of P1.54 trillion is P462 billion. Here is what that amount of money can buy:

• Core shelters, if each costs just P300,000, for 1.54 million families (or 6.16 million Filipinos if all families only have four members);

• At P30,000 tuition a semester in the tertiary level – and this is a very low estimate -- the complete four-year course of 1.925 million students;

• The cost of a complete anti-TB protocol (at the high private pharma rate of P17,600 instead of P550 under the Global Drug Facility) for 26.25 million patients.

So I applaud Mr. Aquino’s vow to restore integrity and transparency to Philippine governance. And I agree that, “there can be no reconciliation without justice.”

But just how serious is the President about his vow?

The war against corruption largely hinges on a system of checks and balances. Even at its most cynical form, say that of an obdurate Senate hassling an executive branch with probe after probe, oversight plays an important role in bringing to light crooked deals.

But the real point of reforms is to prevent conditions from reaching a stage requiring legislators’ intervention. That means putting up natural barriers to collusion.

The opposite is what you achieve by appointing three members from the same family to key executive department positions (chief of the budget department, chief of the Presidential Management Staff handling Mr. Aquino’s discretionary fund, and chief of staff of the finance secretary) -- especially if their lone elected representative also becomes vice chair of the House appropriations committee.

Even if all the Abads are saints, it does not detract from the potential for abuse. And the potential is what Mr. Aquino should ultimately kill.

The other development is even more problematic.

To head the Truth Commission, the body tasked to lead the charge against perpetrators of corrupt deals and other abuses of the last decade, Mr. Aquino has chosen former chief justice and envoy to the United Nations, Hilario Davide Jr.

The problem is, ousted president Joseph Estrada, has accused Davide of actively lobbying for the CJ post, with no less than controversial taipan Lucio Tan as his chief patron.

Mr. Estrada claimed Tan summoned him to a meeting in the taipan’s penthouse and that Davide was present in that event. This story, of course, casts as much light on Estrada’s Presidency as it does on Davide’s very huge feet of clay. And that is why the former leader’s tale has the ring of truth.

Considering that Tan faced a billion-peso tax-fraud case at the time he sponsored Davide’s appointment, Mr. Estrada’s claim is highly disturbing. But not as disturbing as Mr. Aquino's cavalier dismissal of Estrada’s allegations – which neither Davide nor Tan have denied.

In the President's world view, if he chooses a person then there can be no question of that person's integrity. But last I checked, Filipinos had elected him President, not God Almighty.

I have praised Mr. Aquino for some actions in the past weeks. But there has been a consistent and troubling display of hubris on his part, even from when he was just one of the candidates for the land's highest post.

Mr. Aquino, sir, you cannot impose one standard for the enemy and another for your people. That is precisely why this nation has lurched from one crisis to another in half a century.

You certainly cannot defeat corruption by letting crooks conduct that war. And if you do not understand why Davide does not deserve to head a commission, much less one devoted to the unearthing of truth, then you, sir, give lie to very lynchpin of your campaign.

2010-02-08T11:54:00.003+08:00

Noy asked on IRA: Says share of local Good behavior, reward. Bad behavior, punishment. Cites ARMM budget which hasn't been used well.

JC: We must break the paradigm of the trained, exportable Filipino. Orient education sector to make our graduates serve our country. Asked where will he get funds for education reforms as other agencies need funds, too. He fumbles.

Gordon asked what would his development policies for Mindanao. Says moral infrastructure -- get the corrupt out; those guvs who don't account for money. Legal infrastructure: make sure planning is central. Mindanao is not a war zone. We should correct image so teachers and other professionals won't be scared. Place Navy hospital ships so they know we give them importance.

Jamby asked if she is allergic to pork barrel. She calls it a source of corruption. Says she will reserve it only for a few poor places and with very strict audit. She goes back to attacking Villar, citing insertions and saying legislators who enrich themselves this way should be charged with plunder.

Perlas asked if he favors liberalized mining industry. He says current situation has displaced so many people I want transformation of mining law to make sure we don't trample on rights if IPs, that distribution of wealth, safeguard resources and environment. We cannot destroy the source of our life. If we destroy our environment, our economy will collapse

Gibo asked about the rich getting richer and poor getting poorer? He says it's a lament heard around the world. Asked how he would change it How do you change. An open economy with clear standards, you want equal access and opportunity for all.
get from those who have and transfer to poor or move as many people beyond poverty line....
Built in advantage for rich? Capital is needed and there are other ways you can help

Bro Eddie asked about stimulus package, replies with answer about global trade, that the principle of equality and reciprocity should apply. Reminded the question is about stimulus package, he talks about need to root out corruption.

Villar first address the deficit, increase revenues very quickly. Important for first person to manage this nation from day one. No single aspect is paramount, all at once. He has program for foreign investment, for infrastructure and importance given to agriculture. Improve revenue collection -- FVR time tax revenue took up 70% of GDP, now just 30 plus percent. (Hey, let's bring FVR back! hehe)

Gibo asked what opportunities missed due to corruption: Says he can't site specific opportunity. He says corruption takes direct and indirect toll, investments wise, aid wise and competitive situation of the country. And he cites also the corruption of no long-term continuity of policies.

JC asked what his econ policy towards Mindanao: We see Mindanao as just a source of wealth for us outside. We should see Mindanao folk as our brothers. The problem there is also corruption. The challenge is locate leaders.

Villar asked if he wants Concon or Con-Ass and what econ policies he wants, specifically if he backs land for foreigners, 40-60% equity in select industries. He says it is not that important. Will give it to people to decide via referendum. Asked if he wants to open up more to foreigners, he says we are open enough.

Perlas asked on social insurance. Tackles corruption in GSIS. He says people should be given options so they do not get stuck with corrupt agencies. He says social insurance can be strengthened by ridding all agencies of corruption.

Bro Eddie asked if he will consider a halt to debt payment. He says that after establishing regime of righteousness and getting confidence of foreign investors, then he can study possible repeal of automatic debt appropriations act or renegotiate with creditors.

Jamby asked how much galunggong and itlog na pula. Is at a loss. Jeers. Says she is an acceptable living standard means a person earning minimum of P15,000 per month. P30,000 bare minimum to survive because WTO has destroyed agriculture so food prices are high.

Noy asked how he will balance budget: No increase in taxes, he says, just better collection. Gives nod to Villar's earlier
statement.

JC, citing talks with Bernie Villegas, says maybe foreigners can be allowed limited land but then takes it back and says maybe not, Filipinos need their land. How about selling the land to rich foreigners? He says they did it in Honolulu and now the Japanese own it. He wants to be a nationalist on the land issue.

Perlas asked about increased salaries for teachers. Says yes, but must be pegged on performance and plenty of re-training.

Gordon on raising taxes: No president wants that, it is anathema. But look at budget. We will be lying to you if we tell you there will be no higher taxes. I want teachers to get P40,000 a month; I want kindergarten in public school. Everything has its price.

Jamby asked why she thinks big businessman should vote for her. She says they shouldn't because she plans to oppose cartels. I am not courting the vote of big businessman. I am courting the people who want change. She says she is a nationalist.

Bro Eddie: What is the single economic program you want to be your flagship. Massive development of small and medium enterprises, putting up growth centers. This will be funded by savings from erasing corruption. Democratization of economy.

Villar: Other than Mrs. Villar, which generous friends paid for your television commercials. Pera ko yan. It is important to ask, who is giving them money because they might become the rulers. Is it so hard to believe that a (once) poor man could become President.

Gibo asked for centerpiece sector. He says agriculture. Food security and amelioration of the farmers, to allow them to re-invest in micro industries. Also tourism and infrastructure.

WANNABE BOSSES5: Philippine Daily Inquirer 1st Edition The Presidential Debate

2010-02-08T11:13:00.003+08:00

Noy asked how we would advice young people on sexuality. Says talk to parents, don't be blind.

JC asked on RH. The RH code is indeed dangerous. I invite everyone to study it well. Many provisions that would almost allow abortion. Between a crook and RH advocate -- the worst thing is have crook in govt. But equally dangerous is RH bill. Many of our modern family planning methods are abortifacients.

Gordon asked how he would protect environment: We must balance jobs and environment. We have to protect environment to save jobs in the future.

Jamby asked on nutrition, junk foods and softdrinks. Would you support strict controls on these that Europe has passed? Says she will back even more stringent laws. Blames the Villar minority for failure to pass Milk Code that would have saved lives of infants, from 0 to 2 years old, saying this worsens diarrhea woes affecting 20% of child mortality below 5.
"My administration would limit junk food, tax softdrinks and make sure big conglomerates don't sell poison."

Perlas says if he backs out he will back an independent candidate, says he is all for the "bottom dwellers."

Gibo asked on restive troops: Build culture of competence and discipline. You cannot have discipline if you do not have competence. We need to address material needs, cites that modernization funds not enough. There needs to be a balance.

Bro Eddie asked if he will back expanded benefits for elderly and how will fund it. Yes, all ways and means, and have them exempt from E-VAT. Where will funds come from? Good governance will provide through savings.

Villar asked about GMA's expensive dinners. He says it's wrong, no public official should do that. He is twitted for making Las Pinas one big subdivision and will he duplicate this nationwide? He says he is proud of Las Pinas; it is very progressive. He is asked about conflicts between his being a businessman and public servant. He says he is no longer a businessman, that he was the industry leader before entering politics. In Tagalog, he asks: Why is so hard for you to believe that a poor person can become rich without having to become a criminal.

Gordon turns an anti-Erap question to a slam against Villar: If your leader does not face up to accountability, do not vote for that person.

JC asked on freedom on informed choice. If there are choices that are dangerous, we shouldn't support it. I am all for what the RH bill advocates but to copy it from development agencies that impose it on us, I will not agree, too. Instead of sex education for children and youth, have adults go to barangay health centers.

Villar cites need for cohesive urban planning, says many mayors not trained and giving permits without studying well. Also says dismantling of congested communities should not be done without clear relocation sites.

Perlas asked who he would appoint as DENR secretary. He says Tony Oposa, RM awardee and who won landmark SC decision that obligates government to protect the rights of future generations. He really likes Tony. (I do, too.)

Bro Eddie asked how he can help stop Manila centrism: He says true, genuine autonomy for Mindanao. Federalism. And that income from the big companies there shouldn't be sent to Manila (via taxes) but used to develop Mindanao. Ang mula sa Mindanao, gamitin para sa Mindanao.

Jamby asked for views on divorce. The fact that only the rich can get marriages annulled in this country, makes the lack of divorce law anti-poor. Says it must be put to people through referendum -- uh but she doesn't really address the question because she talks about the poor cohabiting and thus siring illegitimate kids.

Noy asked how to ensure separation of church and state. Says getting consensus will help. Guy Claudio asks what doesn't he like with the RH bill: . What's lack in RH -- budget for artificial means; baka maloko ang clients

Do you influence Kris: I speak my mind but open to opinions opposite of my mind. But at the end of the day, I make my own decisions. Kris influence? "My clothes." A democracy means you respect voices different from yours.

JC asked why he has sent kids to public school when he was sent to good Catholic schools. He says to be one with the poor but adds that he and his wife try to compensate for weaknesses in public school system.

Perlas asked on consultation: The new balance of power should be larger, to include civil society and business. You should empower. Not just consult, but massive effort to have government agency have civil society representation.

Gordon asked on call to bring back criminal charges for kids. He says he was wrong to back the law that lifts criminal accountability from kids because criminal groups are now using children. He said rights must be balanced with duties and obligations.

Jamby asked if she has anything good to say about Villar. She compliments his dyed hair. She is asked re migrants -- says OFW problem is a result of GMA administration, accused the President of practising slavery with her policies toward work in Middle East.

Bro Eddie: Asked about a husband forcing himself on his wife on days she says are unsafe and she gets an abortion. human rights of women are primordial. Any form of abortion hindi papayag si Brother Eddie. Abortion is murder. But I am for sound family planning without violating our moral foundation.

Villar asked about high rents in malls and public markets that burdens small entrepreneurs. He gives a long-winded answer that says nothing.

Gibo asked how to stop corruption in Bureau of Customs: Combine prevention (more legitimate incentives) and punishment. Too much temptation, too little incentives. Crime prevention? Increase police visibility and invest more on scene-of-the-crime equipment and other crime-solving facilities.

2010-02-08T11:02:00.002+08:00

JC slams "empty" and expensive ads, says they destroy idealism of the youth. Hmmm, now we know Villar is getting there when everyone gangs up on him -- the way they ganged up on Noynoy before.

Perlas asked if he will agree when people vote on something his environmental principles might dislike. He says environment policies should respect culture and aspirations on communities.

Jamby asked what role her husband will have in her administration. I will cut his head and thumb and quarter him if he acts like the present FG.

Bro. Eddie asked whether religious belief would hamper his style of governance, especially in talking peace with Muslim rebels. He cites Muslims in his lineup. He says it's all about righteousness, not religion. Why does Bro Eddie use the third person to refer to himself?

Villar on district representation: He says it should ideally be based on population. But that you cannot cast aside small provinces. Dapat one time re-districting. Now inefficient. Dapat pantay.

Gibo: three names rank how impt on your life and how will you save them from prison if they are accused of crimes. He says the mother in law is most important because without her, no daughter and no wife. But as for prison, that's their lookout. Asked who is most impt, he repeats mother in law... and the rest are equal.