New York/New Jersey -- September 18 -- 24, 2015

A september 18-24, 2015 • NeW YOrK AND NeW JerseY AsIAN JOUrNAL

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Election season AS early as now, Filipinos are encouraged to exercise their right to vote and do so prudently in next year’s elections. With a number of high profile politicians involved in controversies recently, political reform in the Philippines is hounded by higher a public expectation, making next year’s polls even more crucial. Filipinos must realize the power that belongs to them, which is to choose the leaders they think will represent their interests. They must do so by exercise the right of suffrage with tenacity and good cheer.

Because of such pressure, every vote (from the estimated 54 million registered Filipino voters) has become more precious than ever. The Commission on Elections (Comelec) attempts to capture two million more qualified voters into the system until the deadline of December 15 this year.

However, with less than eight months before the 2016 national and local elections, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey revealed that only three in four Filipinos are eligible to vote.

As much as 46.6 million Filipino voters are at risk of disenfranchisement after the recent SWS poll showed that only 76 percent of 1,200 respondents are registered voters and have had their biometrics digitally recorded.

It was also revealed in the June survey that 16 percent of the respondents—equivalent to 9.7 million—are registered voters but have not yet submit-

ted their biometric data.Meanwhile, eight percent of the respondents, or 4.7 million Filipinos, are not yet registered voters.

The Comelec refuted these figures from SWS and clarified that based on its own records, voters who do not have biometrics data have gone down to 3.1 million. It added that regardless of SWS’ questionable results, the Comelec records are the official data that would used for next year’s polls. The voter registration is set to end on Oct. 31, and there are still 3,130,377 votes to be accounted for.

Meanwhile, to up the ante for next year’s polls, the Comelec is also pushing for the the conduct of debates for all candidates in the 2016 polls. Sen. Loren Legarda, chairman of the Senate committee on finance, said the voters deserve to know the candidates’ stand on various issues and that holding debates is one of the best ways to bring the platforms of candidates to the electorate.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, chairman the Senate committee on electoral reforms, supported the initiative and said there are already proposed laws to make debates among candidates mandatory.

The Comelec also aims to get Filipino citizens abroad interested to vote in 2016 by presidential candidates for their specific plans for overseas Filipino workers and disseminate copies of these plans to embassies abroad. There are eight million potential voters abroad, but only but only 1.2 million have reg-

Editorial

Philstar.com photo

istered so far.

The election fever brings a feeling of obligation towards the citizens and those who aspire for positions in the government. Future leaders depend heir success to the citizens of the nation and may serve as their motivation to work for the people and the common good.

To weed out the traditional politicians (trapos) from actual leaders, the Filipino electorate must use this opportunity to educate themselves and create sensible demands for greater social or economic equality. This will force politicians to campaign toward some of their requests to make their votes count. (AJPress)

Again, the making of a myth: Erap’s last hurrah proof of voters’ supSENATOr Grace P. port for FPJ when Llamanzares’ speech Commentary Grace Poe topped the other day “offering” the 2013 senatorial herself as our next Preselections. After the ident was unexpectedly public noticed her quite impressive. Her fearless probe into oratory would be the anomalies in the final nail on Manuel RigobeRto tiglao management of the roxas II political coffin, Metro rail Transit and for Vice President and the Philippine National Police, Poe Jejomar Binay a loud wake-up call.

As the myth of Benigno Aquino 3rd started topping presidential preference as the prince of the Yellow righteous surveys.”

The myth’s first false pillar: “She will Path has unraveled, comes another myth-making episode in our county’s pursue the mission of her late father to political history—although the more help the poor.”

Llamanzares’ adoptive father, Ferprecise term would be hoaxes-fornando Poe Jr. was by all accounts, even some-purported-noble-purpose.

A myth is a myth because the false by my source who was very close to pillars making it up aren’t easy to spot. him, “a nice man”, a regular guy who But we are fortunate that the gullible was good to his friends.

But he just minded his own busieditors of an internet-only news outfit, rappler.com, wrote an introduc- ness, and his hobbies were to escape tion to the text of Llamanzares’ speech to his farm to work-out before movie that conveniently allows us to uncover shooting, and drinking cases of beer the elements of this new myth of the with friends in some Class B Chinese Avenging Daughter. The rappler.com restaurant, as he loved Chinese food as introduction went as follows (emphasis his pulutan.

Like another celebrity Dolphy, he mine): “Senator Grace Poe declared on was never interested in politics, as his Wednesday night her presidential bid, bosom friend Joseph Estrada was, and promising to pursue the mission of her he never cared about social causes. To claim he had a “life’s mission” to help late father to help the poor.

“I wanted to continue what my father the poor is to claim that Derek ramsey FPJ had started,” said Poe. Actor Fer- is a Marxist revolutionary.

What did FPJ start? nando Poe J. ran for president in 2004, Second fallacy of the myth: “I wanted but he was widely believed to have been to continue what my father started, “ cheated by President Gloria Arroyo.

Political observers considered it Llamanzares said, referring to FPJ’s

bid for the presidency in the 2004 elections.

Did FPJ in one of his beer-guzzling sessions in 2004 suddenly have a St. Paul-like revelation from the God Almighty, to repent and help the poor?

Did he suddenly see his riches and fame as empty vanities of this world, and decided to lead the Philippines to prosperity?

I don’t think even the rappler.com editors would even believe that.

By 2003, the trial for plunder of FPJ’s closest friend, Joseph Estrada, was unexpectedly proceeding fast, with witnesses standing by their ground, documents presented, and the prosecution – manned by the best private trial lawyers – was pinning Estrada down in every hearing. He would be the very first person to be tried and convicted for plunder, and nobody doubted he would be convicted the penalty for which is lifetime imprisonment.

Undaunted by the mass attack on Malacanang, the so-called EDSA Tres, the INC’s requests for Estrada to be freed, and the coup attempts by megalomaniacs like now-senator Antonio Trillanes IV, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo stood her ground, and made clear she would not interfere with the trial, although she did give Estrada the proper courtesy he deserved as a former President of the republic.

Estrada had become despondent and desperate. He was becoming almost psychotic after the several episodes of a noisy helicopter landing by his stock-

Bridging the gap

A Law Each Day Jose C. sison THErE is no more doubt that the present administration under Aquino III is the No. 1 enemy of the masses. It is a government against the Filipino people instead of being for the people. It has no concern at all in uplifting the living and working conditions of the common tao.

Its oft repeated catchphrase telling us that “kayo ang boss ko” is exactly the opposite of what it is doing or has failed to do after almost six years in power. And this is very obvious in two areas of governance and public service.

The first is in providing an efficient and adequate mass transportation system and ensuring the speedy and punctual flow of public and private vehicles in major thoroughfares to avoid waste of valuable time. Very noticeable in this connection are the long queues of commuters every morning and late evenings as they try to get rides in the trains or buses going to and from their places of work. While this has been the situ-

ation even in past administrations, it has turned for the worst during this regime.

Seeing all those people suffering under the heat of the sun or amidst pouring rains very early in the morning or late at night should have already prompted this government to sit up, take notice and do something to ease their plight.

Instead however, it has remained oblivious and unconcerned and simply passed the blame on others, or admit its helplessness and ineptness. Its Secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) even went to the extent of disdainfully telling the commuting and riding public to just “grin and bear it” as it is not “fatal” after all. Such callousness is indeed so sickening and disgusting.

But more disgusting and repellent is the recent move of Aquino III himself thumbing down proposals lowering the income tax of fixed income earners and the lowly working class. These are proposals coming from Administration lawmakers themselves who realize that the tax bracket systems in the country have been stuck at the 1997 levels yet. Aquino however believes that lowering their in-

ade in the middle of the night to whisk him off to some secure secret place.

This was the SOP of the security forces whenever there was a coup attempt or even just rumors of a coup, according to them, to prevent Estrada from being some kind of rallying figure.

I was told at that time by several sources that Estrada begged FPJ: “rani, kung manalo biling presidente si Gloria, mabubulok ako dito sa kulungan habang buhay. Kilala mo ako, mamamatay ako dito.” Estrada with misty eyes stared at FPJ and asked him, “Ikaw lang ang pwedeng tumalo kay Gloria. Wala kang gagastusin. Ako ang bahala. Tutal buhay ko ang nakasalalay dito.” (rani, if Gloria [President Arroyo] wins [in the 2004 elections], I will rot in jail my whole life. You know me, I will die here. It is only you who can defeat Arroyo. You will not spend anything, I’ll take care of all the expenses. After all, my life is at stake here.”)

Despite his wife Susan’s and all of his friends’ objections (with some kind of prescience one of his friends even warned him he could die in the pressures of the campaign), FPJ gave in to Estrada’s pleadings. One source however said it wasn’t entirely out of friendship: FPJ had been telling friends that he was sad his box-office appeal seemed to be fading, as young Filipinos were tired of Filipino action movies and had come to prefer romance drama.

Mission: Free Estrada FPJ’s mission was to free his bosom friend Estrada. That it was to

Commentary

come tax at his time is “not beneficial since there is no government surplus.” It would just “increase the budget deficit which would be a negative factor from the standpoint of credit rating agencies,” he said.

Quite striking and even perplexing here is the alleged lack of government surplus. Coming to mind right away is the “fund” surreptitiously concocted by this administration since 2011 supposedly for disbursement acceleration program (DAP) of the government.

This DAP funds were eventually discovered as being used to dispense favors and convince (bribe?) legislators to toe the line in passing its controversial pet bills like the rH law and in impeaching high government officials who have incurred its ire, like ex- Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez and ex Chief Justice Corona. This DAP which has already been declared as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, seem to be contrary to the very idea of “lack of government surplus.”

Another striking aspect of Aquino’s reason for thumbing down the proposal to lower the income tax is that he seems to be more

Bill imada

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EArLIEr this year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted along party lines to reclassify Internet Service Providers (ISPs) as public utilities and to regulate the Internet under outdated Title II regulations. The negative effects of these burdensome regulations are quickly materializing. There are now clear indications that Title II harms broadband investment and innovation, which in turn harms many diverse communities and small businesses across the country.

Our country’s largest ISPs just issued their second quarter S.E.C filings, and these filings made it clear that the FCC’s Open Internet Order has already had a detrimental effect on investment, with some ISPs showing a decline of as much as 29 percent, compared to this time last year.

Typically, these companies spend billions every year to

help the poor is hogwash.

The Third fallacy in the myth: “FP was widely believed to have been cheated by President Gloria Arroyo.”

This is a lie rappler.com has been repeating in every single news report on Llamanzares.

How could FPJ win when he refused to participate in the presidential debate everyone was calling for? How could he win when he didn’t want to be interviewed that editors and reporters started to hate him, and especially after he lost his temper when he scolded a TV broadcaster before a camera with him (FPJ) speaking as a background?

How could FPJ win, when the entire EDSA II forces – that is, nearly all of the elite – threw their resources against FPJ’s elections, knowing that if he won, Estrada would be released, and come back to power with a vengeance?

Several businessmen and leaders of EDSA II, aware of the killing during Estrada’s regime of such personalities as publicist Bubby Dacer and the Pagcor employee robert Bentain, who had leaked the CCTV tapes of Estrada playing poker in the casino and even told me they feared for their lives if he came back to power.

That “Hello, Garci” thing? If Garcellano did the 2004 cheating, wouldn’t that have been proven in the last five years by a president so obsessed in keeping Arroyo in jail and demonizing her. The truth is that Garcellano was already a has-been at that time and already had PAGE A7

Title II threatens minority populations, small businesses expand and enhance network infrastructure, in order to meet consumer demand, deliver new innovations, and remain competitive. Those billions constitute economic growth, and they create jobs and bring important benefits to consumers and businesses. This decline means that both those who depend on the Internet the most and those who struggle to get access will be negatively affected as broadband providers and tech companies continue to react to heavy regulation.

These falling investment numbers offer a warning about this new regulatory environment, and that’s a warning we cannot afford to ignore. There is much at stake, including economic growth, jobs, and opportunity for minority populations – particularly the Asian American community. recent Pew research shows that Asian Americans are enthusiastic users of the Internet and rely on broadband more so than other groups. When it comes to broadband adoption,

97 percent of English-speaking Asian Americans use the Internet compared to 78 percent of blacks, 81 percent of Hispanics, and 85 percent of Whites.

Embracing policies like Title II will only lead to the deterioration of a resource that has become indispensable to so many people.

The Internet is an essential tool especially for those who live in remote areas where educational and professional opportunities may not be as widely available as in other parts of the country.

Broadband is an important resource for people in rural areas to excel through online education and career development programs.

When overbearing regulations threaten access to Internet innovations, those who rely on that access the most also stand to lose the most.

Having the latest broadband technology is also necessary for small businesses to connect with new markets and offer modern customer services.

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