Editorial of Southern Leyte Times

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What happens if LP wins Antonio M. Reyes
By ANTONIO M. REYES

Several months ago I mentioned that nothing important would be accomplished if Robert, Dundeet and Rosette won in the May 13, 2013 election.

This is so because all three would immediately be irrelevant and isolated because they have no credible candidates for the legislative seats at the provincial, city and municipal levels. For it is these officials who would sponsor and approve the policies and programs of the local government they represent.

For example; if Rosette is elected city mayor she would have 10 hostile National Unity Party (NUP) councilors to deal with. And although she could exercise her veto power this would then be put to a vote before the same city councilors who oppose her.

This exercise in futility would be replicated at the provincial level where Engineer Robert Castanares would also have to deal with 8 hostile NUP Board Members.

As for Dundeet she would be too shell-shocked upon learning that the main job of a congressman is not to pass landmark legislation, since all relevant laws have already been enacted and all that’s needed is to implement them. Their main occupation now is merely to beg department secretaries to release funds for projects in their districts.

Effective local governance is a serious matter and cannot be accomplished by simply being elected. It has to be addressed comprehensively - or nothing significant can be accomplished. In the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) where I served as planning officer for the Philippines and the South Pacific territories,

Filipinos were considered exceptionally great planners - but lousy implementers. I’m afraid this is still the case today because we still consider a plan completed once it is conceived. This means we are either naïve, or just plain lazy.

Let's visit the city zoo

If you haven’t visited the City Zoo yet, I suggest that you do so. The concrete road leading to the Danao Forest Park where it’s located is almost finished, and the ZOO personnel, particularly the tourist guides who escort you through the facility were amazing.

Mostly graduates of the Maasin City College they were recruited from nearby barangays. They speak fluent English and Filipino. The Acasia Mangiume trees planted there by public servants headed by Congressman Roger Mercado are now tall enough to shade the entire facility.

I’ve have visited ZOOs in Manila, India and the US where maneaters like Tigers, Lions, giant Pythons and crocodiles are kept at a safer distance from the people. But here you can actually reach out and touch them - although the ZOO guides will advise you against it.

During my recent visit there I was accompanied by EV Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Lalaine Marcos Jimenea and her husband Sanro who were all praises for the facility. And would you believe, we were the only clients there that morning?
The Jimenea’s paid P250 each to enter the facility and as a senior citizen I paid P200. This includes your guide, who you can tip or not.

The main complaints against the ZOO managers, who are private businessmen, are that it’s too expensive and difficult to reach.

You either have to use your own vehicle or hire a Habal-habal. I don’t recommended the latter because these drivers are speed demons and will only take you as far as the Danao Park gate and you have to walk the 2 kilometers to reach the ZOO from there. If you have your whole family with you and didn’t have the foresight to bring water or food – you could be in plenty of trouble.

According to Engineer Robert Castanares, the president of the Southern Leyte Chamber of Commerce and Industry (who was last seen there during the ZOO’s opening) there only role is to market the facility through the mass media.

But let’s face it, very few Southern Leytenos have visited the City ZOO, or even know it exists.

We are therefore requesting the wonder boy from Pintuyan, who now actually lives in Macrohon, to please - do your job!

Antonio M. Reyes is the publisher and editor of the Southern Leyte Times the largest circulating newspaper & website in Southern Leyte.

GUEST COMMENTARY by Fr. Carmelo Diola

Bad role model

Conflicting signals are coming from the Comelec with regards vote buying. While its media campaign against vote buying is very welcome, its top man seems to be saying something else.

We reject Chairman Brillantes’s recent pronouncement that we should “Accept anything that is given to you, but don’t vote for the one who gave the money. Maybe that should be the rule.”

By encouraging such behaviour, the chairman actually seriously compromises sec. 261a of the Omnibus Election Code which prohibited vote-buying and vote-selling.

This promotes tolerance for and condoning of bribery by encouraging voters to be bribed in exercising their constitutional right to vote, regardless of the intention of the pronouncement.

What is alarming is that this may encourage poll officials like canvassers, election inspectors, and COMELEC deputized law enforcers, who are targets of bribe money, to accept bribes from candidates as long as they do their duties. But under the influence of money, how can one properly perform his obligations?

We would like to think the Comelec leader is well-meaning and probably thinks that by encouraging voters to act this way, those who buy votes will eventually be discouraged due to opposite results.

But this view has serious flaws.

For most, “getting the money but voting according to one’s conscience” means giving in to the highest bidder. “Utang na loob” is what they mean by “conscience.”

Furthermore, this idea has been around for several elections now. But has vote buying decreased or increased?

As head of the constitutionally mandated institution to enforce election laws, the Chairman should lead the charge – and the last to surrender – in its mission to ensure fair, honest and clean elections.

How can this happen when such pronouncement encourages voters to be corrupted and the candidates to corrupt the electorate?

How can one make the “right choice” after committing a “wrongful and unlawful act?” This is twisting and distorting our people’s values.

Elections are a battle between good and evil, as a ranking PNP official describes it. Vote buying is evil for it destroys the value of honesty and numbs our consciences.

We cannot and will never allow evil to reign. Corrupting voters and condoning corruption is evil.

The tree is known by its fruit. A dishonest and corrupted electorate produces dishonest and corrupted government and leaders.

If we wish to have an honest government, let us start by ensuring a fair and honest electoral process and electorate. Dilaab and its partners – in its I Vote Good campaign - strongly urge Chairman Brillantes not to surrender but to face the challenge with hope and courage that change can happen and evil can be overcome.

Deferred hope stirring
By Juan L. Mercado

“When I vote on Election Day, I’ll not fill up the entire 12 slots for senators, “emailed a former United Nations colleague. “I’ll vote for seven. My conscience will not allow me to vote for any of the others.

Persistent corruption influences my pick. Nearly $2 billion dollars is lost to corruption in the country each year, according UNDP estimates.”

“I am voting for these (seven), not because they are the most competent or the most experienced,” he added. “(Instead) I perceive them to be the least corrupt and selfless among the candidates. As such their decisions in Congress will not altogether lean towards predatory vested interests.”

His list overlapped with five candidates that the wife and I decided to vote for earlier. They are: Ramon Magsaysay, Jr, Risa Hontiveros, Aquilino ”Koko Pimentel, Grace Poe and, perhaps just perhaps---Bam Aquino. Ramon Magsaysay Jr is credited for integrity and a plodding but solid legislative record. And Risa Hontiveros has a solid track record as student, community leader and legislator.

We’ ll decide whether Bam’s record is solid enough. (It seems so). Or is this just wish?

In a country with a surfeit of humbugs can one help hoping for another Ninoy Aquino Jr. “Several of my friends implored me to write on the elections because they were worried.”

Inquirer’s Peter Wallace wrote. “In a conversation on who they’d vote for the Senate, they had great difficulty naming 12.

Once they got to six, they had to start compromising to get to nine. And 12 was a hard sell. What a sad reflection on the Senate — 33 nominees and less than 12 are considered worthy.”

Wallace gave thumbs up for Dick Gordon, who lags in the surveys.

Dick Gordon is a doer. “He talks like a machine gun, but he gets things done” Wallace pointed out.

He overhauled Subic and made it work ”His leadership of the Red Cross turned it into a highly effective operation”. The wife and I agree.

Among the candidates, only former Palawan governor Edward Hagedorn spells out water policies.

Only 43 percent of Philippine households have piped water. The rest make do with open easily contaminated wells. That’s an open invitation to disease and death.

So, when did this trend to swap names before the polls open start? Co-workers at the parish charity clinic where the wife helps out asked: Can you tell us your election choices? She did.

Internet has smudged once sacrosanct borders. In the not so recent past. Most held election choices close to the chest then.

Among older journalists there was an unspoken diktat: maintain an “impartial façade”. Organization also shied away from open endorsements.

This time around, Iglesia Ni Kristo, El Shaddai, even Davao’s Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, raced to post their anointed names. Inglesia Ni Cristo (INC) released their ”official (sic) endorsed senatorial candidates” in the form of sample ballots as early as May 6.

INC makes up three percent of the population. But its pick is tracked because members park free choice at church doors and vote as herded by church leaders. This can tilt odds for candidates teetering with thin majorities.

So, which one “did the fountain bless?” The 2013 INC list has few surprises. The Estradas — pere in Manila and fil in the Senate —- are in. INC endorsed Jack Enrile who can not shake off the accusation he didn’t bother to attend hearings on charges he gunned down the son of a former Philippine Navy chief in 1975, US diplomatic cables noted.

As in the past, the “El Shaddai” movement backed candidates that had a likely chance of winning. Led by Bro. Mike Velarde, “El Shaddai” decided at quarter of midnight to endorse two more candidates,namely: Senator Ramon “Jun” Magsaysay Jr. and Bam Aquino.

Velarde said El Shaddai’s bets were selected based on three “Cs– conscience, competence and commitment” El Shaddai alone can deliver 1.5 million votes for the candidates it supports, he bragged.

Can It, really? Despite Velarde’s backing, Francisco Tatad, then seeking the vice presidency ended up a tailender’s fifth with only 748,830 votes.

Velarde’s endorsement did virtually nothing for Tatad, Inquirer’s John Nery wrote. “Velarde acts as a political player himself, with his own party-list groups and political interests to look after.

Hence the pragmatic anointing of five almost-sure winners, whose aura of victory he can be certain to share in a Brother Mike endorsement is the Dutch treat of Philippine politics’.

Then, there are Cyrano de Bergerac candidates we’ll vote for — despite the likelihood they’ll be trashed: Rizalito David, Marwil Llasos, and Juan Carlos “JC” de los Reyes.

They are Ang Kapatiran candidates for senator. They form the only group that has a definite platform: pushing back the bane of dynasties, scrapping the pork barrel, etc.

“They’re serious voices that can help our Congress along toward some kind of pluralism.” Columnist Conrad de Quiros writes. They do not flit from one party to the other like prostitutes but give a face to what a real political party can be.”

Will they make it? “What’s that you say? Hopeless?” Cyrano tells approaching death. Why, very well!

But a man does not fight merely to win! No, no. Better to know one fights in vain!

Whether the Ang Kapatian candidates win or not. “They will at least have made their mark for trying to blaze new trails, for trying to clear new paths”. Those are the ones our grandchildren will trend on.

Juan L. Mercado is the Founder of the Press Foundation of Asia and is best known as one of the Visayas Region's most prolific and multi-awarded writers.

The Devil is in the details
By Atty. Jess G. Dureza

I was in Vancouver, British Columbia on my way to Los Angeles when I got word that a Peace Framework Agreement was scheduled to be signed in Malacañang Palace between the government and the MILF.

Great news! This is a great relief! We congratulate the MILF and the governments for making this happen.

Let’s make this clear at the outset. This is NOT the Final Peace Agreement yet. This is just a “framework” that will guide the Panels hereon in the further negotiations. It’s a roadmap that both sides will use as reference as they travel the not-so-easy road towards its final destination:

A comprehensive peace pact.

Of course, there are so many blanks to fill yet. And many dots to connect. There are phrases, words, provisions - even commas - that have meanings that outsiders like us cannot immediately decipher. Motherhood statements spread liberally and generously in the agreement can be interpreted in many different ways. Others are not immediately understandable to those who are not privy to the nitty-gritty of the closed door meetings.

I am sure that after the initial euphoria of the breakthrough, many sectors will start scrutinizing the peace framework agreement word for word, comma for comma. Others will start giving their own interpretations and their own read. There will be others who will zero in on the negatives. Several will view it through the prism of their own self-interest and ignore the “big picture”.

Yes, it’s not a walk in the park hereon. The public scrutiny will start. Expectedly, the two sides with their panels will play to their own gallery.The GPH will give meanings and explanations that will make sure that the sacrosanct constitution and the laws are not breached. On theother hand, the MILF will assuage its Bangsamoro constituency that they have not betrayed, nor abandoned or squandered on their generations-old aspiration for self-determination. This is the hard part, I tell you. One side has to give and both sides have to accommodate. Can’t think how this can be easily reconciled with both sides holding sacred their own position in this issue. This was the crux before. This was the “breakaway” issue before.

This is where we should all gingerly and carefully tread to avoid another pitfall of the past. Be prepared to hear some sectors accusing the negotiators of both sides of a “sell out” or a betrayal.

I say it again. The difficult part has just started. The road will still be bumpy.

So let me caution those who think it’s a done deal already. Let me remind the talking heads not to gush over it. The best tack now is to view it with guarded optimism. Let’s all stay the course whatever it takes. The “devil is in the detail”. And take it from me. I was there myself before.

Attorney Jess Dureza was Press Secretary during the Gloria Macapagal administration and is presently a Trustee of the Philippine Press Institute.