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Here are the also-rans for the 2007 Philippine Twerp of the Year (see previous post to get the full story). In other words, here are those who might have garnered the title.

* Antonio Trillanes IV
He could have used his stature as a senator to effect change in the governance of the country. Yet, he squandered this opportunity and trashed the millions of votes that made him a senator when he chose to try to lead an uprising against the government. Many believe in his cause to discredit the Arroyo regime, but not his methods which always carry the specter of violence. Now, he may spend his time, not on the Senate floor, but mopping a prison floor.

* Teofisto Guingona
He showed his mettle when he was a Senator. He was highly respected during the impeachment of former President Joseph Estrada. He was widely cheered when he bravely withstood water cannons trying to stop a peace rally he was leading that was passing through Mendiola. Yet, when he joined Trillanes at the ill-fated stand-off at the Manila Peninsula hotel, people merely shook their heads. Many felt that Guingona should have long retired from politics, remained a statesman and done something more meaningful to uplift the plight of Filipinos. His misadventure with Trillanes was seen as an ambitious albeit subtle move to be President of the country should Trillanes’ coup succeed.

* Benjamin Abalos
Former Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman, found himself smack at the center of two controversies. One, elections fraud in Mindanao; the other, a bribery scandal which also involved stories of romps with Chinese maidens. Because of the latter, he was forced to give up his Comelec Chair. Yet, he loudly vowed to fight for his innocence no matter where it took him. However, to this day he remains deafly silent. Better to just fade away spending those millions and having memories of Chinese virgins.

* Joseph Estrada
He remained defiant about his innocence even if he was found guilty of plunder which meted him life imprisonment. He at first refused a Presidential pardon because he professed that the Arroyo government was illegitimate. To accept a pardon would thus admit to its legitimacy. Later, however, faced with the reality of spending the rest of his life in a stinky, overcrowded, prison cell, he changed his mind and accepted the pardon. Perhaps someone along the way whispered to him that he would be able to do more to try to topple the government if he’s free.

And our all-time favorite,
* Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
Should we really explain why?

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If you’re pro-Erap and believe that Joseph "Erap" Estrada is innocent, there’s nothing else you can do but pray for him. He himself got into this mess. Move on and help build this benighted country of ours.

If you’re anti-Erap, don’t gloat. This episode is an embarrassment to our country. We’ve convicted a former President. Move on and help build this benighted country of ours.

No need to say more. Too many of our politicians are falling over themselves in trying to say something erudite about the conviction of Estrada.

It’s sickening.

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James Yrastorza is a former aide of Congressman Tony Cuenco. When news of a million-peso anomaly at a government hospital in Cebu broke out, Yrastorza hinted that Cuenco had something to do with it, or at least had knowledge of it.

A few days ago, Yrastorza cleared Cuenco by stating that Cuenco had called him up and “explained certain things.”

Yeah, right!

Sun-Star Daily unearthed an affidavit executed by Yrastorza in 2005 swearing to the fact that Cuenco’s son, James, siphoned off close to P3M by making ghost purchases and that Congressman Cuenco may have known about it but did nothing.

The affidavit was signed before COA lawyers. Yrastorza was then a part of a special unit of Congressman Cuenco that oversaw the operation of a P30-million free medicines project.

Did Yrastorza know what was going on? Of course! So, it’s incredulous that he would now claim that certain things were explained by Cuenco after a mere telephone conversation.

Alas, power can either make one talk or shut up.

Power will also get one off the hook. Watch as Cuenco will be able to wiggle himself out of this situation and even be able to drag his son along with him. All he has to do is call on his fellow-congressmen to help him and they, having pork barrels themselves they wouldn’t want audited, would do so. It’s called the “Old Boys’ Club.”

It’s led by that wheeling-dealing master weasel himself, Joe De Venecia.

You’d think that the tragic death of a daughter would cause JDV to mellow down, be more circumspect and noble. Not a chance! Power corrupts and it begins by first corrupting the soul.

Just look how he again acquired the speakership. He just railroaded everybody. Guess who nominated him?

Tony Cuenco.

Technorati Tags: philippine politics, tony cuenco, philippine congress, congressmen, speaker of the house, joe de venecia, pork barrel

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Senator Antonio Trillanes IV is noted as the only senator who was elected while detained awaiting trial. Is this something to be proud or ashamed of?

I didn’t vote for him. I believe he was merely a pawn in that botched coup attempt dubbed as the Oakwood Mutiny. If was so willingly allowed to be used in a stupid conspiracy, you think he’d make a good senator? He’ll just be waiting for the next financier to fund his next atrocity.

Look at that other coup meister, Gringo. His stint so far as a senator has been described as "mediocre.&quot Why? This is because he can’t do any thinking of his own. In the past, his thinking was done by yet another current senator, named … well, we all know who he is.

It’s easy to spot the coup boilers. Find a young officer who’s loudly disgruntled; feed him with patriotism, honor and messianic righteousness; and then throw him millions of pesos worth of sophisticated weaponry. Voila!, you have a coup!

However, for the sake of argument, let’s say Trillanes wasn’t a pawn and was truly a leader of the Oakwood fiasco. Would I have voted for him?

Not a chance!

For a man who was willing to risk the lives of his fellow Filipinos to advance his “cause” (they planted bombs all over the place, remember?), can we say that he has the Filipino truly at heart?

Violence begets violence. If men use violence to wrest power, they’ll most certainly use violence to keep it, no matter who gets blasted away. The fact that Trillanes and his lackeys surrendered peacefully is no comfort.

The primary objective of a coup d’etat is to wrest power; and violence will always be a necessary by-product. This is the reason for the state-of-the-art weaponry. Would the Magdalo soldiers have been able to start a coup if they were holding popsickle sticks?

I’m glad Trillanes managed only 11th place in the senatorial roster. This means that a good percentage of Filipinos don’t trust him. They may sympathize with his cause, but not the way he
pursued it.

Still, I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt. He may still rise up as a Filipino senator in the likes of Claro M. Recto. This is his shining moment, that is if he’ll able to stay out of jail.

If he fails, there will now be two ex-coup plotters masquerading as mediocre senators.

Technorati Tags: antonio trillanes, philippine senate, coup d’etat, gringo honasan, oakwood mutiny, magdalo, philippine politics

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Filipinos are generally peaceful. We don’t read news about a Filipino suddenly waking up hating the world and then shooting up a school or climbing a building to snipe people on the streets at random with a rifle.

Yet, what we’re known for is violence when elections come around. This is the best proof that power corrupts. Why have a rival politician killed? To serve the people?

Imagine a mayor calling on his hired thugs and saying, “I want Mr. Rival killed for the good of the people!” Incredulous. Rather, it’s “I want Mr. Rival killed because I want to keep power.”

The barrel of a gun replaces the will of the people.

The US ambassador tactfully described our political violence as “sad.” That is a gross understatement. Our political violence is utterly embarrassing. It completes the picture that the Philippines is corrupt.

Yet, the good ambassador is not totally off the mark. Our political violence is sad because we don’t do anything about it. We keep on electing people who desire political office out of sheer lust for power.

Take a look at our Congress. Has it made significant moves to do away with pork barrel? Has it legislated to prevent political dynasties? When a congressman can’t run anymore, he’ll let a family member run for his seat. For the good of the people? If you believe that, then you’ll believe anything.

When you believe in anything, power-hungry politicos will always be elected.

Technorati Tags: philippine politics, political crime, violence, congress

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Many people I talk to express their unwillingnes to vote this coming election. Their common sentiment: there are no credible candidates. Same old trapos, same old sound bytes, same old unexciting personalities, same old agenda and that is to win the election and milk the country as quick and thorough as possible.

For sure there may be a handful who are truly concerned about the plight of the country, but they will be merely overwhelmed by the selfish majority. Just take a look at the House of Representatives. Can you actually say you can trust in that institution?

This is why senatoriables who are coming from Congress are already suspect. So are the candidates who are jumping from the administration to the opposition and vice versa. Loyalties change according to where the political wind is blowing, leaving the Filipino with nothing but a kite to play with (matayog ang lipad ng saranggola ni Pepe…).

Then they spew out sound bytes of youth, environment and the poor, but have done nothing about corruption nor do they speak about it. Indeed, the Genuine Opposition (GO) has corruption as its sounding board, but it’s more of an attempt to discredit the administration so they can wrest power rather than a real agenda to do away with it.

The common perception among Filipinos is that a new administration will be just as corrupt as the old one. Politicians have only themselves to blame for this perception. Why? Because they’re seen as performers. And the influx of actors and TV personalities into the political arena certainly doesn’t help assuage this.

It’s like getting glossy pictures of huge, tasty hamburgers but, when we get the real thing, we become like that grandmother in the commercial asking, “Where’s the beef?”

In the Philippines, only the politicians get the beef. The people go fly a kite.

Technorati Tags: philippine politics, trapos, philippine politicians, philippine elections, genuine opposition, philippine congress, philippine senate, senatoriables

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If you’re taking notice of the political scene in the US, you’ve probably already come across the name, Barack Obama. If not, you might ask, who is he?

Barack Obama is the junior United States senator from Illinois. He recently announced his intention to run for the US presidency and is currently number 2 in the polls –after Hillary Clinton– in the run for the Democratic party nomination. He’s exciting, articulate, witty, highly intelligent and invites awe wherever he speaks

Four months into his senate career, Time magazine named him one of “the world’s most influential people,” calling him “one of the most admired politicians in America.”

Addressing a meeting of the Democratic National Committee one week before announcing his candidacy, Obama called on Democrats to steer clear of negative campaigning (Philippine politicos, listen up!):

"This is not a game. This can’t be about who digs up more skeletons on who, who makes the fewest slip-ups on the campaign trail. We owe it to the American people to do more than that. We owe them an election where voters are inspired–where they believe that we might be able to do things that we haven’t done before. We don’t want another election where voters are simply holding their noses and feel like they’re choosing the lesser of two evils. So we’ve got to rise up out of the cynicism that’s become so pervasive and ask the people all across America to start believing again."

So why am I writing about an American persona in a Philippine blog? It’s because I wish that someone exciting would also emerge in our political arena. What we have, however, is the same stale (dare I say, rotten?) trapos who seem to be running more for the best stylized image, rather than on the strength of character and vision. Even maverick senator Joker Arroyo jumped into the bandwagon with his “Pipol’s Dragon” ad. Susmaryosep!

Thus it’s no wonder Filipinos are approaching the elections with the same ho-hum, what’s new mentality with neither hope nor excitement for the future. I guess this is why we can be so easily enthralled by Wowowee, Korean soaps, the highly unimaginative Pinoy Big Brother and the other trashy fare we get from TV and movies (”Cute ang Ina Mo” rests my case).

We don’t see vision; we don’t see mission-based platforms; we don’t see character. What we see instead is a parade of fools.

Quick, someone make me an American so I can vote for Barack Obama!

Technorati Tags: political scene, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Democratic party, nomination, Time magazine, Joker Arroyo, Wowowee, Korean soaps, Pinoy Big Brother

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I don’t mean to be judgemental, but Tessie Aquino-Oreta’s public apology comes out as one of those slick political ads. In other words, the apology appears as fake as GMA’s when she apologized about the ‘Hello Garci’ conversation.

The question also begs to be asked: Why only now?

Only one answer comes to mind: Because she wants to win the election!

Filipino politicians will do anything to get that vote. For Oreta it’s an apology with a bit of bad acting.

She claims, of course, there was nothing political about it, but that ad keeps on being shown like a bad commercial. The best way to have done it was call a press conference, apologize and move on.

Even if she was sincere, the ad comes too late and definitely smacks of politics. So, if she has not thought about that, at the very least this only means Oreta acts on impulse and doesn’t think about the consequences of her action, just like that day she danced on national TV.

Do you want a senator like that?

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It’s comedy hour!

I get a good laugh watching those political ads on TV. They are so unreal.

Take the one of Mike Defensor, for example. He’s bandied about as “Walking ‘Tol,” apparently in reference to the American sheriff whose real life was made into a movie twice, entitled, “Walking Tall.”. In reality, Mike Defensor is more like a sitting dummy, the kind that sits on the lap of a ventriloquist, the ventriloquist being Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, because he seems to exactly mouth whatever his master says. And was that Boy Abunda doing the voice-over? So what do we have? A gossip-monger endorsing a ventriloquist’s dummy. Har, har, har!

Then there’s Tessie Oreta-Aquino. She who obscenely danced on national TV in support of an immoral president, is now in the senatorial slate under the dummy’s ventriloquist, the person who ousted the immoral president. Har, har, har.

And who can ignore the Accidental Hero, Chavit Singson? Singson, the “jueteng” (illegal numbers game) King of the North, became a hero accidentally when, fearing for his life, “ratted” on the immoral president –who’s the “jueteng” King of Kings– that began his downfall. So now there is a possibility of having a “jueteng” king as senator. Har, har, har.

And who cannot notice Richard Gomez? Let’s not!

Or Cesar Montano? Let’s not either!

How about Tito Sotto? This one I’ll vote for simply because we need comic relief in the Senate. A failed comedian, he becomes an accomplished one in the Senate. Har, har, har.

How about Manny Villar? This one was one of those responsible in impeaching the immoral President, but is now campaigning under his party. He’s seen dancing in his ad. Perhaps he wants to mimic Tessie Aquino. Har. har, har.

Indeed, many of the present crop of Santoriables are laughable, pitiably so. Vote for them and the Philippines becomes the laughing stock of the world!

Har, har, har!

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Get all the fools on your side and you can be elected to anything. - Frank Dane

If there’s any one thing common in all the political ads appearing on TV, they’re all slick. Being so, this means they cost a lot of money, because they’re made by professional image makers. Then they’re aired over prime time in at least the 2 major networks. If a politico has more than one kind of ad and they’re run several times in one night, 7 days a week, it’s not difficult to imagine that these ads can cost a million pesos upwards!

Perhaps you may be jaded enough to say, “so what?” Well, for starters, there’s the real possibility these politicos will spend most of their time in office trying to get back what they paid for to get elected. Even if other people spent for their election campaign, won’t thay have to pay these people back with political favors and such? So, why the desire to get elected even if it’s going to cost millions? Simple answer: POWER!

It’s really not about helping their fellow man in spite of what the ads try to perpetuate. It’s simply about power.

So here’s how an elected official will make use of his time: one-third will be spent trying to get back his election expenses; another third will be spent currying political favors; and the final third will be spent kowtowing to his master, whether he be of the administration or opposition. This, in a nutshell, is the life and times of a trapo.

So, going back to the quote above, the political ads are there to collect fools. If you so believe in any of those ads, you know what you are.

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