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Why doesn’t Roxas just pay fine for SOCE non-filing?

June 20, 2016June 20, 2016 Ellen

Mar Roxas concedes. Photo by Luis Liwanag.

Would it be a less stressful option for Mar Roxas, Liberal Party presidential candidate in the May 9, 2016 presidential election not to file at all a Statement of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCE)?

He didn’t win anyway so there’s no position that he would be prevented from assuming because he does not have the Certificate of Formal compliance that is issued by the Commission on Elections to those who have complied with the submission of their SOCEs.
What happened to ousted Laguna Governor Emilio Ramon “ER” Ejercito would not happen to him.

It will be recalled that Ejercito of Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino won over Edgar San Luis of the Liberal Party in the 2013 gubernatorial race in Laguna but he was removed from office in 2014 when Comelec upon the complaint of San Luis, determined that Ejercito exceeded expenditure limits in the 2013 elections. Ejercito’s TV ad expenses was one of the proofs Comelec had for his overspending.

The fine for non-filing of SOCE for presidential candidates is P30,000 for the first offense and for the second offense, P60,000. P30,000 is chicken feed for Roxas.

As of today, 12 days after the June 8 deadline (30 days after Election Day) set by Comelec for candidates in the May 9, 2016 elections, Roxas has not yet filed his SOCE.

LP filed its SOCE last June 14 even as Comelec granted its request for a 14- day extension for the filing of the SOCE. The PDP-Laban said it will question Comelec decision before the Supreme Court.

Affected by LP’s late filing are LP candidates who won in last May’s election including five LP senators led by former Senate President Frank Drilon, 115 congressmen and 39 governors.

Romulo Makalintal, lawyer of incoming vice president Leni Robredo is confident she will not be affected by the Liberal party’s late filing. Robredo filed her SOCE before the June 8 deadline. She reported having received P423 million contributions and P419 million in expenses.

Roxas’ campaign spokesman, Barry Gutierrez said the primary reason for their inability to meet the June 8 deadline was “the voluminous number of receipts that have to be scanned and attached to the document, in compliance with the rules and in the interest of complete transparency.”

Everybody knows that the spending limits set by the law is obsolete. The Omnibus Election Code imposes a spending limit of P10 per voter for presidential and vice presidential candidate, and P3 for other candidates, with political parties allowed to spend P5 per voter. In the 2016 elections, there were 54.4 million voters.

A former presidential candidate said one needs least P3 billion to wage a presidential campaign with TV ads eating some 80 percent of the expenses.

We imagine that a lot of accounting creativity were employed by all the candidates to be able to submit an Omnibus Election Code-compliant SOCE that would match and supported by what their respective parties submitted.Then the reports on contributions received should also match with what the contributors file with the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

A candidate runs the risk of perjury, which to my non-lawyer mind means making false statements under oath, if he is not careful in reconciling all the thousands and millions of pesos that he received and spent with what the law requires. Online legal blogs say the penalty for perjury is “ arresto mayor in its maximum period to prision correccional in its minimum period.”

For Roxas, why bother to file? Just pay the fine.

Sampalan match: Mar vs Duterte

December 15, 2015December 15, 2015 Ellen Leave a comment

Duterte vs Mar

Tama. Huwag na yung mga presidential debate na yan. Sampalan na lang. Mas exciting pa.

Sino kaya ang pwede mag-organisa nito. Hindi siguro mahirap maghanap ng sponsor dahil sigurado maraming manonood nito.

Sa isang korner ay ang Liberal Party presidential candidate na si Mar Roxas at sa kabilang korner naman si Rodrigo Duterte, ang kandidato ng PDP-Laban.

Pwedeng gawing so MOA Arena. Hindi pwede sa Araneta Colisuem at pag-aari yan ng pamilya ng nanay ni Roxas. Magkakaroon ng hometown decision.

Kunin na judges ay ang tatlo pang kandidato sa pagka-presidente na sina Grace Poe, Jojo Binay at Roy Señeres. Ang referee si Miriam Santiago, isa ring presidential candidate.

Paano ba napunta sa sampalan ang kampanya para sa pagka-presidente sa Election 2016?

Nagsimula yan sa sinabi ni Roxas na ang pinagyayabang ni Duterte na “safest city” ang Davao ay hindi totoo. “Myth” o kuwento lang na nalipat-lipat at akala ng marami ay totoo.

Siyempte umalma si Duterte. Binanatan niya si Mar tungkol sa palpak sa Tacloban noong bayong Yolanda. At sinabi niya ang “myth” ay ang sinabi ni Roxas na graduate siya ng Wharton School of Economics- isang sikat na eskwelahan sa Amerika.

“You did not graduate from the Wharton School of Economics, Mr. Roxas. Your name is not on the list of those who graduated from a four or five-year degree courses, ask Wharton.” Duterte said.

Pwede sigurong nag-aral siya doon gn tatlong buwan o correspondence course lang ngunit hindi yung apat na taon ay nag-graduate na naka-toga.

Sabi ni Duterte, kung magalit si Roxas sa kanyang mga sinabi, “sampalin ko siya.”

Aba, pinatulan ni Roxas si Duterte at noong Lunes nang tinanong siya ng mga reporter, ang sabi niya:
“Sampalin niya ako. Punta siya dito. Kung hindi, punta ako doon sa Davao, sampalin niya ako sa airport, tingnan natin.”

Dagdag pa ni Roxas: “Ganito, magsampalan nalang kami. Kung hindi totoo ang Wharton degree ko, sampalin mo ako. Hindi ako iiwas or iilag. Pero kung totoo yung Wharton degree ko, sasampalin kita.”

Sabi pa ni Roxas ang pa-macho-macho ni Duterte ay yabang lang at ang kinakaya-kaya niya ay yung mga taong wala sa kapangyarihan. Wala naman akong kilalang malaking tao na na sinampal niya, lahat maliliit, mga walang kalaban-laban.”

“Subukan natin, tingnan natin,” hamon ni Mar.

Sige. Umpisahan na ang pustahan.

This article came out in Abante http://www.abante.com.ph/op/columnists/prangkahan/39427/prangkahan-sampalan-blues-nina-mar-at-duterte.html

Has traffic jammed Mar Roxas’ brain?

August 19, 2015August 19, 2015 Ellen Leave a comment

Metro Manila traffic. Thanks to Canadian Inquirer.

No wonder there was no urgency for the Aquino government to find solution to the horrendous traffic that Metro Manilans have to survive daily: they continue to think it’s an affirmation of their “good work.”

Aquino always brags that under his term, the Philippines experienced economic boom.

And proof of that economic boom, he said, is the traffic gridlock. Last year, he told the Filipino community in Spain: “When you come home and you’re caught in traffic, just remember that people are running errands, not just loitering around. That is a sign of economic growth.”

Last week, his anointed, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas echoed that line at the annual national convention of the Philippine Sugar Technologists Association Inc. (Philsutech) in Cebu.

“This is a problem in a sense that arises from prosperity. Because there is money. Because there is economic activity,” Roxas said.

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas

Roxas rattled off numbers: 260,000 vehicles were added on the road in 2014, a huge increase from the 60,000 vehicles a year 12 years ago when he was trade and industry secretary in the Gloria Arroyo administration.

This year, there will be 300,000 vehicles more on the road. The increase of the number of vehicles will continue in the coming years at the rate of 10 to 15 percent, he said.

The Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania, where Roxas got his business education should be proud of him. He can cite figures effortlessly.

Except implement a solution to the problem.

Does Roxas and for that matter Aquino and members of his cabinet have an idea of the agony of commuters who have to endure hours lining up for a seat in a shuttle bus or hours standing in an overcrowded bus that doesn’t move along EDSA?

Last Saturday, the day after the “Bad Friday” when a number of air passengers missed their flights stuck in traffic along EDSA for five to eight hours, I left the house in Las Piñas at 2:30 pm for a 4:30 p.m. meeting in Greenbelt Makati. Usually, it takes about an hour with the bus taking the Skyway.

I arrived in Greenbelt 5:30 pm. The person I was meeting had left.

Last month, I met my relatives at the airport and brought them to St. Paul University in Quezon City. We left NAIA3 a little past 2 p.m. We arrived at St. Paul past 6 p.m.

I left St. Paul almost about 8:30 p.m thinking that by that time, traffic gridlock had eased up. I could not stay much later because I had to catch up with the shuttle bus going to Las Piñas that had its last trip at about 10 p.m.

I got to the shuttle bus Makati terminal before 10 p.m. and the line of waiting passengers was about a kilometer long in a snake-like formation. Very few shuttle buses were arriving because of the traffic jam.
Tired and weary, I called TAI taxi and fortunately there was one available in Makati. We plodded through the traffic but at least I was inside the vehicle. Got home past midnight.

I’m wondering,except for one occasion that Malacañang made a big deal of it, haven’t I read or heard the President and members of his cabinet caught in the traffic for hours like you and me? Isn’t there supposedly “a no wang-wang” policy?

The “No wang-wang” is plain B.S. Prior coordination between the Presidential Security Group and MMDA allows the President to breeze through the traffic. No need for wang-wang.

Traffic jam in Metro Manila, which translates into losses of P2.4 billion daily according to a study conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, is no progress at all. It’s a sign of incompetent governance.
To say that it’s a sign of “booming economy” is an insult to the suffering public.

Jeman Bunyi Villanueva commented in Facebook on Roxas’ justification of the traffic burden: “I- boom kaya mukha niya?”

Endorsing Mar, Aquino insults Grace and his mother

August 2, 2015August 2, 2015 Ellen Leave a comment

Pres. Aquino’s choice to succeed him: Interior Secretary Mar Roxas. Photo by Benhur Arcayan / Malacañang Photo Bureau)

Is President Aquino that desperate that just to boost the chances of his “Annointed”‘ he had to insult Sen. Grace Poe and his mother, former President Cory Aquino?

In his speech endorsing Interior Secretary Mar Roxas for president in the 2016 elections, Aquino said:

“Sa paghahanap nga po, kinausap natin ang mga taong maaaring magpatuloy sa Daang Matuwid at ang maraming mga sektor. Kinapanayam ko ang tatlong tao, na sa aking pananaw ay kabalikat sa Daang Matuwid. Maganda nga po sana, na ang mga kailangan pang magsanay ay talaga pong magkakaroon ng pagkakataong mahinog at maunawaan ang tunay na lalim ng pagkapinuno. Sa akin pong paniniwala, itong tatlo, kung magkakasama-sama ay talagang matinding tambalan. Doon po, sa ngayon, ay hindi pa tayo nagtatagumpay. Nagkaunawaan po kami; mukha namang iisa ang aming hangarin, pero hindi eksaktong paraan ang nasasaisip para maabot ito.”

(During my search, I spoke to those who I believe could pursue the Straight Path, as well as to many other sectors. I interviewed three people who, in my view, are allies in pursuing the Straight Path. The ideal situation is for those who still need experience to have the opportunity to have their skills and talents fully develop, and to understand all that is required of a leader. In my view, these three people could form a truly formidable team. At this point in time, success has eluded us in this endeavor. We reached an understanding; it seems like we have similar goals, but our means of achieving those goals are not exactly attuned to one another’s.)

He didn’t name Grace Poe but everybody knows how he tried to convince the lady senator in the three five to six hour meetings with Roxas and Sen. Chiz Escudero to be the running mate of the Liberal Party standard bearer.

He could not be referring to any other person but Poe with his “those who still need experience to have the opportunity to have their skills and talents fully develop, and to understand all that is required of a leader.”

Look who is talking!

Aquino himself is a shining evidence that the number of years in the House of Representatives and in the Senate does not translate to leadership competence.

It really depends on how a person carries out his or her job. In Poe’s two years in the Senate, she has shown competence and industry, which cannot be said of the person undermining her whose years as congressman and senator produced no notable legislation.

Sen. Grace Poe

Reacting to the Aquino’s statement, Poe said, “‘di maikakaila na mas mahaba sa gobyerno si Secretary Mar… Sabi nga nila hinog na raw, pero ako naman kahit yung nahihinog pa lamang minsan pinipili rin ng tindera at ng mamimili sapagka’t mas tumatagal.”

(It can’t be denied that Secretary Mar has a long experience in government service. They say he is fully ripe but as for me the vendor usually choose unripe fruits because they last longer.)

Aquino also insulted his mother, the housewife-widow turned president.

Teddyboy Locsin’s piece, “Idiot idea” on the suggestions that Poe should first gain experience and run for president in 2022 is a must read.

Locsin said: “This idea is: No. 1, stupid and No. 2, presumptuous.”

In fact, Poe not succumbing to the entreaties of the President showed firmness which is a leadership attribute.
Aquino feels he owes Roxas for what the latter did for him in 2010. But why should it be Poe who should shoulder the burden?

Aquino’s solution to his problem with Roxas’s presidential bid that refuses to take off baffles blogger Caliphman who remarked in my blog: “Someone please explain this to me. When Aquino decided to run for President, Roxas slid down to be his VP candidate because he was way behind in the presidential polls and Aquino was way ahead. Now the situation is like before with Roxas being way behind and Poe being way ahead. Can someone please explain to me why in this case, it should be Poe who should be sliding down instead of Mar?”

Aquino appealed to the people: “Mga Boss, idinudulog ko po sa inyo ngayon: Sa akin pong opinyon, ang nagpakita na ng gilas at ng integridad, ang hinog at handang-handang magpatuloy ng Daang Matuwid: walang iba kundi si Mar Roxas. “

(To my Bosses, I tell you today: In my opinion, the one who has shown exemplary work and true integrity, the one fully ready to continue the Straight Path, is none other than Mar Roxas.)

Good luck!

The assurance that Poe gave Aquino

July 22, 2015July 22, 2015 Ellen Leave a comment

Pres. Aquino and Sen. Grace Poe. File photo.

“ The President and I talked for about five hours. I could sense the very difficult position PNoy is in right now. I understand and sympathize with his predicament and situation. I consider him a true and sincere friend and he has my utmost respect. He reiterated his desire for all of us to continue working together and that he believes that, like him, we can and will do what is best for our country. In the end, we both agreed to continue, in whatever capacity, striving and working for our countrymen and for the betterment of our children’s future.”

That’s the statement of Sen. Grace Poe on her one-on-one meeting with President Aquino last Monday.

I agree with this playful remark in Facebook by Bryan E. Torculas: “Me reading between the lines: iindorso man kita o hindi, friends tayo ha pag nanalo kang Presidente. wag mo ko ipakulong, let’s break the tradition of imprisoning Phil. Presidents after their terms.. ha ha…”

With that assurance from the popular senator, it is hoped that Aquino would stop convincing Poe to be the running mate of the Liberal Party standard bearer. It’s getting tiresome.

The whole exercise is actually an insult to Poe and Roxas. When actually, it’s all about Aquino trying to spare himself the difficult task of endorsing a loser.

Aquino’s wish for Poe to run as vice president of Roxas is not really because he and the Liberal Party think that the lady senator’s popularity would rub on Roxas and win him more votes. They are political veterans; they know that a strong vice president does not lift a weak president. Recall 1998 elections: Gloria Arroyo was of no help to Jose de Venecia against Joseph Estrada. Also in 1992, Estrada was not able to boost Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco’s presidential bid against Fidel Ramos.

Sen. Grace Poe, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, and Senate Pres. Franklin Drilon during the Mamasapano tragedy hearing.

What they want Grace Poe to do is to get out of the way of Mar Roxas’ long –planned march to Malacanang. They are devious.

Having taken care of Vice President Jejomar Binay, an early frontrunner for the 2016 presidential race, with exposes on alleged massive corruption in Makati, the LP thought Roxas would only be up against fellow presidential lightweights senators Alan Cayetano, Chiz Escudero, and Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.

They didn’t reckon with the emergence of Poe as a presidential contender.

That’s the reason Aquino and the LP want Grace in their fold but as Mar’s vice president. They actually want to suppress and dim Grace’s rising political star.

A source close to the LP said the first meeting of Aquino, Poe, Escudero and Roxas was so embarrassing for Mar.

Contrary to reports that it was Poe who set as a condition Escudero joining her and Mar in going around the country, it was Aquino who proposed, “Isama nyo na si Chiz.”
One can imagine how Roxas must have felt when the President suggested that.

When it was getting clear that Grace preferred a Poe-Escudero team-up, the LP insulted her by saying “oh she is okay but that she is being controlled by Chiz.” It’s like saying she has no mind of her own.”

Proaclamation of Gloria Arroyo as winner of fraudulent 2004 elections.

The LP must have conveniently forgotten the 2004 elections when they were in partnership with Gloria Arroyo in insulting and undermining the candidacy of Grace Poe’s father, Fernando Poe Jr.

The LP was a member of the Koalisyon ng Katapatan at Karanasan sa Kinabukasan (K-4) against Fernando Poe, Jr’s Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP).
Roxas topped the senatorial race (Remember Mr. Palengke?) under Arroyo’s K-4 coalition.

During the congressional canvassing of the votes of the presidential and vice-presidential candidates the LP actively suppressed questions on questionable results raised by the opposition. Remember Sen. Francis Pangilinan’s “Noted, Noted” whenever then senators Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Tessie Aquino-Oreta brought to their attention number of votes exceeding number of registered votes in Maguindanao precincts? Remember Hello Garci?

And who raised the hand and proclaimed Gloria Arroyo the winner of the 2004 elections in the wee hours of the morning while the Filipino people were fast asleep? The LP’s Franklin Drilon as Senate President.

Now Aquino and the LP want Poe to sacrifice for their candidate?

Ano sila sinuswerete?