Anti-graft executive resigns to support Noynoy and Mar

By Juan Escandor Jr.
Inquirer Southern Luzon

NAGA CITY, Philippines—With the formal launch of the tandem of Senators Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III and Manuel “Mar” Roxas II as standard-bearers of the Liberal Party, an executive officer of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) has resigned to support the two’s campaign for the 2010 elections.

Commissioner Jaime Jacob revealed Monday that he resigned from the PAGC so that he could freely support the campaign of the LP candidates for the top positions.

Source: Inquirer.net

The Lord of the Ring

Jim Paredes recently tweets about the analogy of our current political situation with the novel and movie Lord of the Ring:

If we were in LOTR and Noynoy is Frodo, and Mar is Sam, who is Gibo? and who are Aragorn, Smeegol, Sauron? YOur thoughts.

Here's Jim's and followers of his twitter account's take on this:

• Noynoy Aquino is Frodo Baggins, who is set to destroy The Ring to give power back to the people
• Mar Roxas is Sam Gamgee, the ever loyal friend of Frodo (hindi kami maghihiwalay ni Noynoy!)
• The Ring represents Power that corrupts people
• The main antagonist, the Dark Lord Sauron represents greed and corruption
• The current administration is Nazgul. Slaves to the promise of the Ring (power) and Servants of Sauron (corruption)
• The Filipino people represents Aragorn, the reluctant yet real "King" to whom Frodo and Sam will be ultimately loyal
• The Shire is represented by the Aquino sisters, which Noynoy leaves against his will to rid the world of The Ring
• Erap is Gollum (Smeagol), the one who had the ring, was corrupted by it, wants it again OR the one who had the ring and wont let go! Hint: Maliit din siya!
• Elrond is the memory of Ninoy and other Marcos era heroes. Linking us to the past struggles against Sauron
• Someone suggested Jim or APO to be Legolas. Naks! Chavit is Shelob. Elves are the celebrities who support Noynoy

How about you, what's your take on this?

Why I won't vote Noynoy

An interesting blog by Blogger Edge:

I won’t vote for Noynoy just because he’s the son of Cory and Ninoy Aquino... I won’t vote for him just because of his track record as a congressman and senator...

I would vote Noynoy, because... (he) has the capacity to reunite, the divided and subdivided, Filipinos.

What the country needs now is not an economist, not a journalist, not a soldier, not even a housewife, nor a dancing politician, certainly not an actor, and most certainly not a dictator, but a president...who can effortlessly rally Filipinos towards a united goal.

Read more...

The possibility of a majority president

By Manuel L. Quezon III Philippine Daily Inquirer

One defect of the present Constitution is that by abolishing the two-party system, it inadvertently deprived the country of something it has taken for granted about the presidency: that whoever wins it begins the term with a true majority vote. The best that we’ve been able to manage (in 1998 with Joseph Estrada) was a presidency that began with over 60 percent of the electorate having voted for somebody other than the winner.

Charles de Gaulle in his time, seeing a virtually ungovernable France, imposed a Constitution that established a strong presidency, which the French were inclined to favor and which fostered a multi-party system up to a point; but he also armed the presidency with the means to exercise its authority with an unquestionable majority mandate. He did this by putting in place run-off elections.

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El Shaddai in Brussels Supports Noynoy

El Shaddai leader Mike Velarde may have openly bared his plans to run for public post in 2010, but his followers in Brussels think otherwise.

Members of the El Shaddai St. Remi chapter have vocally opposed the idea of Velarde taking part of what they consider a “chaotic world of politics” in the country.

Pina Payucong, former Coordinator of El Shaddai confirmed that they have supported Velarde in so many ways but hopes he would change his mind.

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50% prefer Noynoy in vote-rich Luzon areas: SWS survey

By Ricky Carandang, ANC and Isagani de Castro Jr., abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak

MANILA - One out of every two voters in vote-rich areas of Luzon would have chosen Sen. Benigno 'Noynoy' Aquino III if presidential elections were held in early September 2009, according to a Special Survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) obtained by ANC and abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak.

Aquino was preferred by 50% of 1,200 respondents from a pre-selected list of five names that also included erstwhile survey leaders Sen. Manuel “Manny” Villar Jr., former President Joseph Estrada, Senator Francis 'Chiz' Escudero, and Vice-President Noli de Castro.

Villar, Estrada, and Escudero were statistically tied with 14%, 13%, and 12%, respectively. De Castro was preferred by 7% of respondents.

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Noynoy strong in survey

By Aurea Calica and Elisa Osorio (The Philippine Star)

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III has rated strongly in a survey of presidential contenders conducted shortly before the announcement of his intention to run in the 2010 elections under the Liberal Party.

Makati Business Club president Ramon del Rosario Jr. said the unreleased survey, conducted by a prominent polling group, showed “hopeful results” for Aquino’s presidential bid.

But another source who declined to be named said Aquino rated significantly higher than consistent survey topnotcher Sen. Manuel Villar, former president Joseph Estrada, Sen. Francis Escudero, and Vice President Noli de Castro in a Social Weather Stations survey in Metro Manila and in some vote-rich regions in Luzon. The details of the survey are yet to be released.

Read more...