Villar slams ‘rich, landed’ rivals with no track record

Nacionalista Party standard bearer and Senator Manuel Villar warned voters here against candidates for president who came from rich families and have had no track record of leadership.
Villar did not name names but obviously referred to his closest rival, LP standard bearer and Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, and the latter's running mate, Sen. Manuel Roxas II, whom he referred to as “hacienderos” in his brief speech on Saturday.
“Ang kalaban ko ngayon, dalawa pong haciendero, [may]malalaking hacienda. Pero sabi ko, hindi nyo naranasan kasi ang kahirapan kaya ganyan magsalita, kung ano-ano ang inyong sinasabi (My rivals are two landowners, they have vast estates. But I say to them, ‘You never experienced hardship and that’s why it’s easy for you to say things against me’,” Villar said at a jam-packed gym after presiding over the oath-taking of members of a local women's organization here in Villasin.
“Humaharap kayo sa tao na wala kayo karanasan, na wala naman kayong pinakitang kakayahang mamahala, wala naman pa kayong pinapakitang liderato. Humaharap kayo sa bansa na para lamang kayong naglalaro. Sinasabi ko na seryoso ang pagkapangulo (You are presenting yourselves to the people, without any experience, without proven capabilities in leadership. You are facing the nation as if you’re just playing. I say to you that the presidency is a serious business),” Villar said, referring to his rivals.
“Hindi yan puede na sino na lamang ang magsasabi na 'Gusto ko maging pangulo o ako ay dapat maging pangulo dahil ang nanay ko ay pangulo (Nobody can just say, ‘I want to be president or I should be president because my mother was president),’” Villar added, referring to Aquino, the only son of the late former president Corazon Aquino.
"Sapagkat pag nagkamali po tayo ng pili, tuloy tuloy na naman po ang kahirapan, (If we make the wrong choice, poverty will continue," Villar said, this time directly addressing the crowd.
Villar has been capitalizing on his own rags-to-riches tale in the presidential campaign, always identifying himself with the poor by injecting in his speeches sob stories of his growing up years in Tondo.
Earlier in the day, Villar, his running mate Sen. Loren Legarda and a handful of the NP senatorial candidates met with the residents of the tent city in Barangay (Village) San Pedro in Rosales town.
Some 350 families had been living in tents and makeshift homes for the last four months after their houses were washed away by floods brought by typhoon “Pepeng” in late 2009.
On a rundown stage, Villar's staff gathered some 40 children and urged them to sing the presidential candidate's hugely popular “Naging Mahirap” (I was once poor) campaign jingle.
Villar, Legarda and the senatorial bets distributed “taho” and “ice candy” to the children.
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2 dead, 1 hurt in C5 road accident—report

2 people were killed and one was injured when their car

smashed into an electric post along the C5 Ortigas flyover early Saturday, according to a radio report.

Quoting police, radio dzMM identified the fatalities as Ramon Garcia, 28, and the driver of the Audi with plate number PM222; and John Paul Uy, who was at the passenger’s seat.

John Michael Ong, who was seated at the back of the vehicle, survived and was taken to Medical City. All were residing at Valle Verde in Barangay (village) Ugong in Pasig City, the report said.

The report said the accident occurred at 5:20 a.m. Quoting witnesses, the report said the car overtook another vehicle before slamming into the post.

Photos taken by the dzMM reporter on the scene showed Uy’s grief-stricken parents who was said to have rushed to the accident site after having been informed of their son’s death. The bodies of Uy and Garcia were taken to the Quiogue Funeral Homes, the report said.

Police were quoted as saying that the impact was so strong that the engine flew out of the vehicle and landed on a passing taxi. Other parts of the car also littered the highway as shown by the other photos taken by the dzMM reporter.

The accident caused a traffic jam along C5 as police closed the Ortigas flyover to allow authorities to clean up the debris.
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Yellow ballot boxes out; black plastic in.

Say goodbye to the iconic yellow ballot boxes.
The steel ballot boxes, which witnessed much of the Philippines’ bloody election history, will be decommissioned when Filipinos vote for their new batch of leaders on May 10.
The Commission on Elections on Tuesday unveiled the ballot boxes that will be used in the automated national elections in May, saying it will be harder to steal than the yellow metal boxes used in the past.
Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said the new ballot box measures 36 inches in length and 20 inches in width.
The box, made of hard plastic, is 34 inches high to better accommodate the long ballots and the large number of voters. (The size of the old ballot box is 12 x 12 x 12 inches.)
“This will fit a thousand ballots, the main reason for the composition of the ballot box,” Larrazabal said.
On top of the plastic box is a cavity for the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machine, which can be locked in place. The box has three hooks for padlocks on the lid.
The ballot box has “unbreakable” translucent windows on the sides so that “the voter can see the paper dropping inside the box,” Larrazabal said.
He also noted that the plastic box could withstand the elements and the rigors of Election Day activities.
Because of the boxes’ size, poll cheaters and local warlords out to manipulate the results will not be able to just grab it from the precinct centers, Larrazabal said.
In past elections, teachers used to guard the yellow boxes with their own lives from election operatives.
In May 2007, a school in Batangas was burned down when teachers manning the voting place refused to give up the ballot boxes. Three people were killed in the fire, which was allegedly ordered by a local politician.
The Comelec initially wanted to use a transparent election box. The poll body ruled it out because light could affect the ultraviolent ink marks on the ballots.
“When you have the markings exposed to sunlight for an extended period of time, they might fade,” Larrazabal said.
“If a recount has to be carried out, then suddenly your ballots may not have UV marks. So, what were original ballots in the beginning might suddenly look like fake ballots,” he added.
Although the Comelec will not be using the yellow metal boxes for this elections, it will not yet throw away the equipment, which was designed for manual polls.
The poll body said the yellow ballot boxes would still be used for barangay elections and referendums.
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3 Presidential bets to waive rights to bank secrecy

Senators Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III and Ma. Ana Consuelo “Jamby” Madrigal and Olongapo city councilor JC De Los Reyes pledged Tuesday to waive their rights under the Bank Secrecy Law to open their accounts to the public if elected president.
Appearing at the Second Integrity and Human Rights Conference at Hotel Intercontinental Manila, Aquino said he would do so to prove his sincerity in fighting corruption.
But he said he would not presume that members of his Cabinet would do the same, as bank accounts were in the realm of individuals' privacy, protected by the Bill of Rights.
De Los Reyes said he would extend this waiver to his wife. "They won't find anything (in our accounts) anyway," he said.
Madrigal said she would also oblige her Cabinet to waive their bank secrecy rights. She said she was not beholden to anybody except to her dead relatives, who had served the country with integrity.
The event was organized by the Commission on Human Rights, in partnership with Bisyon 2020, Transparency International Philippines, the United Nations Development Programme, Civil Service Commission, among others, with the aim of formulating a covenant to usher in “a new paradigm on integrity and human rights for the new government.”
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Aquino gripes over ‘biases’of forum moderator

Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III protested what he described as unfair treatment of a journalist, who acted as moderator of a presidential forum sponsored by a group of businessmen in Pasay City on Tuesday.

During the forum by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Aquino took a subtle dig at how Tony Lopez of BizNewsAsia showed his supposed biases for his closest rival in the presidential race, Senator Manny Villar.

Lopez introduced Villar as former House speaker, former Senate president and “former future president,” while he described Aquino as someone who came from a good “pedigree of heroes.”

Interviewed by reporters after the forum, Aquino did not mince words to hit Lopez, who had been writing negative articles about him.

In fact, Aquino said the perceived bias of Lopez was one reason he opted to attend the event.

“Kaya ako nagpunta dito dahil alam kong may bias. Tinitingnan ko yung mga article ng moderator. Sana may parity lang (I went here because I know there’s bias. I’ve been reading the articles of the moderator. I just hope there is parity),” Aquino lamented.

The senator pointed out, for instance, how he was always chosen to be the first to answer questions in the forum.

“On other fora, it’s alternating. Obviously, the last to answer will have plenty of time to think about his response,” he said.

Asked if Lopez could be favoring any candidate, Aquino said: “Favoring Villar. He has already several articles on that.”
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Madrigal to make amends with Judy Ann

Calling herself and popular actress Judy Ann Santos "victims of politics and politicians," Sen. Maria Ana Consuelo "Jamby" Madrigal said on Tuesday she did not mean to offend the actress when she said she regretted tapping a celebrity as an endorser when she first run for the Senate in 2004.
Santos was Madrigal’s top celebrity endorser in 2004.
Madrigal blamed the camp of Sen. Manuel "Manny" Villar for pitting her against her celebrity endorser during the 2004 senatorial polls.
Madrigal assailed the Nacionalista Party standard-bearer's public relations group for allegedly twisting what she said about celebrity endorsers during a recent Philippine Daily Inquirer presidential debate at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City.
In a forum at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila in Intramuros, Manila, the independent presidential candidate said she was "sad.”
“I’m sad that my response in the debate (about celebrity endorsers) was used and twisted by my enemies in politics). I'm sad that Juday (Santos' nickname) got hurt...I'm sad the issue was used by them just to hurt Juday," said Madrigal.
In the Inquirer debate, questions turned to big ad spending by presidential candidates and the use of celebrity endorsers to boost their campaign. When Madrigal was asked about her take on the issue, the senator said she had "realized the folly of my ways" in tapping a movie actress to create a connection with the voting masses in 2004. She did not mention Judy Ann Santos but the actress was her chief endorser in 2004.
Madrigal told students of the Manila city-run university she had "no conflict" with Santos, whom she described as "one of my favorite actresses" during an earlier interview with this paper.

Madrigal said she would go out of her way to be able to explain her side to Santos, whom she called "one of my favorite actresses" during an earlier interview with this reporter.
"I hope we’ll get to understand each other. And wherever she is, I will talk to her. Everything can be resolved if the person is sincere and she knows I’m sincere. I will never say anything bad about Juday," she said.
Madrigal noted she had "repeatedly acknowledged and thanked Juday for her help" in boosting her popularity in the 2004 elections.
"When I announced my presidential bid (on July 31), she was one of the people I thanked," along with members of her family and the late presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr. and his wife, actress Susan Roces, she recalled.
Santos said in a recent TV interview she was not happy about Madrigal's recent pronouncements belittling celebrity endorsers of politicians as an insult to the intelligence of voters.
Madrigal earlier said she was "not considering" asking for Santos' endorsement again.
Apparently referring to Villar, Madrigal blamed her "biggest political rival who is a billionaire, and who has a (political) machinery" for allegedly blowing the issue out of proportion.
"Magaling maglihis 'yon ng story (He knows how to deflect and distract people from issues)," she said.
During the same forum, Madrigal slammed Villar for allegedly making a "circus" out of the recent El Shaddai gathering in Hong Kong where Bro. Mike Velarde, leader of the religious group, indicated he was backing Villar's presidential bid.
"Although I welcome the endorsement of religious groups, let us not cheapen their worth by having a circus in publicizing the endorsement. It should be a serious endorsement based in principles, not on sheer vested interests," said Madrigal.
She pointed out "it's a free country and (Velarde) can endorse who he wants."
"If we look at the background of the two, it appears that Villar and Bro. Mike are longtime business partners," the senator noted.
According to Madrigal, if a religious group decides to endorse her both parties should have had good discussions at not a circus, like what happened in Hong Kong.
Still referring to Villar, she said the NP candidate was "just using the religious group as endorser."
Madrigal wondered why Villar, whom she said had a "100 percent awareness" among the public, still needed endorsements from religious group and celebrities.
"He already has because he was a Senate president, so there's no need to introduce himself. All he needs is to introduce his platform...Di ba siya mahal ng taong-bayan (Isn’t he loved by the masses)?" she said.
So far, Villar got actor-comedians Dolphy and Michael V, singer Sarah Geronimo, and controversial TV host Willie Revillame as his campaign endorsers.
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