2nd disqualification case vs Arroyo filed

MANILA - Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel on Monday filed a petition before the Commission on Elections seeking to disqualify President Arroyo from running for Congress next year.

In a four-page petition, Hontiveros-Baraquel said Mrs. Arroyo should be barred from running in next year's polls because the Constitution bars the president and vice-president from running for re-election.

"If people in the two highest elective positions are barred for re-election, how much more a lower position? Mrs. Arroyo isn't even qualified to run for barangay tanod," she said.

She added that Mrs. Arroyo's congressional bid also violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution since she could tap government resources for her campaign.

Lawyer Oliver Lozano earlier filed a similar petition to disqualify Arroyo from running in next year's polls. He noted that the 1987 Constitution provides that "the president shall not be eligible for any re-election."

He said the word "any" refers to any elective post, and this includes Arroyo's bid to represent the 2nd district of Pampanga in the House of Representatives.

Randy David dreads 2010 no-proclamation scenario

MANILA – University of the Philippines (UP) Professor Randy David is not giving up the fight against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Interviewed on ANC's Strictly Politics on Tuesday, David said he has just transferred the battle to another arena.

“This is the arena of public opinion which involves the entire Filipino nation and not just voters in the second district of Pampanga. I really believe President Arroyo crossed the line of public decency and trust which govern all public officials when she filed her Certificate of Candidacy,” David told ANC's Pia Hontiveros.

“I'm now pressuring all our countrymen to ask her to relinquish all powers of the president, to resign if she doesn't want to be impeached or driven from office,” David added.

He is also calling on presidential candidates to ensure fair elections next year.

He said they should sign a collective letter urging the President to step down now “in order to ensure non-partisan electoral exercise in 2010.”

No match

David was widely expected to challenge Arroyo's congressional bid.

“I'm not an electoral animal myself. I think there's a way of fighting in which the battle is not so unjust. The President has been engaged in premature campaigning since 5 months ago after almost 50 visits to the province. You can't possibly match that,” David said, explaining his decision not to run.

“She's using as means to patronage, public funds that are at her disposal as president. I would have lost in an election where the entire game has been rigged from the start,” he added.

The UP professor also said he refused to give credence to Arroyo's political plans.

“Running against her, presenting a serious candidate against her - somebody who has no qualms about using the power of the president - would have been an acceptance, it would be conferring legitimacy on exercise that's false from the start. What she's doing is totally unprecedented. It's a breach of public trust which is ground for impeachment" he stated.

Dreaded scenario

Arroyo's congressional bid is suspected to have something to do with plans to change the country's system of government from presidential to parliamentary, with herself as Speaker of the House.

According to David, the President and her allies could be plotting another scenario entirely.

“There is another scenario which I really dread as a Filipino. It will continue political destabilization in the country... a no-proclamation scenario of all candidates of all offices - senator, vice-president and president,” he said.

“Only local officials will be proclaimed and that includes congressmen. You might possibly have a House Speaker, but no president, no vice-president, no Senate president. You'll only have an acting president,” ended David.

Arroyo reveals 2nd reason for nationwide state of calamity

Aside from allowing local governments to access their calamity funds, President Arroyo bared a second reason Saturday for placing the entire country under a state of calamity: to go after profiteers.

Fears have been raised that the government was taking advantage of the crisis caused by tropical storm “Ondoy" to raise funds for next year’s general election.

Critics wondered why other provinces not affected by Ondoy were also being allowed to tap emergency funds when they are not really suffering from a state of calamity.

But Mrs. Arroyo explained that the nationwide state of calamity will allow government to run after traders who will go to areas not under a state of calamity to sell their products at higher prices.

“What was observed was that when there was price control imposed in a given area some supplies were diverted. So (this was also) for purposes of price control," she said at a meeting of the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC).

On the other hand, she said one of the shortcomings of the present Price Law is that the local government can use the calamity funds in an actual state of calamity and not for risk reduction.

Earlier, Favila admitted the decision stemmed from the executive session of the NDCC in Cainta, Rizal, where they discussed the matter.

“There are unscrupulous traders who go to nearby areas not under a state of calamity, then sell at higher prices. We discussed it in the NDCC meeting’s executive session," he said in an interview on dzBB radio.

He said the nationwide state of calamity was a recommendation of the National Price Coordinating Council. -

Arroyo govt shopping for jet worth P1.2B

The Arroyo administration is shopping around for a used “presidential fixed-wing executive jet" worth at least P1.2 billion.

The prospective aircraft must be “factory new, twin-engine (turbo-fan engines), pressurized, fitted with auxiliary power unit, and with VIP cabin configuration," said an advertisement placed in the Philippine Star on Thursday.

“The type of aircraft to be offered should have been used as a VIP/Executive aircraft by the country of origin and by at least two countries," the advertisement continued.

As of this posting, Malacanang has not responded to requests for comment about the ad. But despite whatever justification it will make, news of the planned purchase will likely fuel the public outcry over official extravagance.

The President and her US entourage are being criticized for spending $20,000 and $15,000 respectively for expensive dinners in New York and Washington, DC. The uproar has come in the wake of the national mourning for the late former president Cory Aquino, who was known for her simplicity of lifestyle and personal modesty.

The newspaper ad for the new presidential jet invited interested bidders and suppliers to participate as long as they have a repair shop within the Southeast Asian region with the necessary tools, equipment, and skilled personnel.

These “should be ready and available before the delivery of the aircraft," the ad said.

Funds for the jet’s acquisition are expected to come from the Philippines’ 2009 national budget.

Interested bidders are required to pay a non-refundable fee of P100,000 until August 26, 2009.

The pre-bid conference is scheduled for the next day at the Mabini Hall in Malacañang while the bid submission deadline will be on September 10, 2009. The winning bidder will be chosen on the same day.

Under the Arroyo administration, the government acquired at least two brand-new choppers, one of which crashed in Ifugao province last April, killing Palace personnel, including Press Undersecretary Jose Capadocia.

Majority of Filipinos think govt not doing enough against corruption

MANILA, Philippines - Nearly eight out of 10 Filipinos believed that the government's effort in reducing corruption in the Philippines was ineffective. The business sector warned that the current global economic crisis would further exacerbate the adverse impact of corruption in the country. The 2009 Global Corruption Barometer Report from Berlin-based Transparency International showed that 77 percent out of 1,000 Filipino respondents graded the government's effort in its fight against corruption as lacking. Only 21 percent said Manila's effort was effective and one percent said the campaign against corruption was neither effective or ineffective. Compared with other nations in the Asia-Pacific region, the Philippines had the second-highest number of respondents which perceived that government's fight against corruption was barely making a dent, following South Korea's 81 percent. The number was even higher than the 56-percent average of respondents in the region saying their government's effort to stop corruption was lacking. Citizens of countries from Sub-Saharan Africa, perhaps the poorest region in the world, had given a better grade to their government's campaign against graft, with only 72 percent of respondents from Senegal marking the fight against corruption as ineffective. "...The perception of government effectiveness appears to have decreased in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Malaysia, Panama, the Philippines, Senegal, Spain, Thailand, Turkey and Venezuela," TI said. Governments were considered to be ineffective in the fight against corruption – a view that has remained worryingly consistent in most countries over time Perceived as most corrupt in the Philippines were public officials or civil servants, with 40 percent of Filipinos tagging them as most likely to have participated in anomalous transactions. This was followed by political parties, 28 percent; and parliament and legislature with 26 percent. Seven percent of the respondents said the Judiciary was the most corrupt, with three percent pointing to the business or the private sector as the most graft-ridden in the society. Media were perceived to be the least corrupt with only one percent of respondents saying they engaged in corrupt practices. Political parties and public officials were given a score of 4.0 by respondents from the Philippines in the level of corruption. Under the score card, 1.0 meant an agency was not corrupt and 5.0 as extremely corrupt. Parliament and legislature got a score of 3.9 followed by Judiciary's 3.4; businessmen and private sector, 3.0 and media with 2.0. In the past 12 months, about 11 percent of Filipinos said they paid a bribe, above the 10-percent average for the region and slightly lower than the 13 percent for the worldwide average. "Results indicate that respondents from low-income households are more likely to pay bribes than those from high-income households when dealing with the police, the judiciary, land services or even the education system," TI added. Despite the prevalence of corruption worldwide, TI said most of the respondents did nothing to report of the misdeed. “The general public does not use formal channels to lodge bribery-related complaints: three quarters of people who reported paying bribes did not file a formal complaint. About half of bribery victims interviewed did not see existing complaint mechanisms as effective. This view was consistent regardless of gender, education, or age," the group said. Alberto Lim, Makati Business Club executive director, said the Arroyo administration is ranked the second-most corrupt administration in the Philippines, following Marcos' regime. “This administration is worse, although Marcos' is really major (in terms of corruption. Compared to this, (the administration of deposed President Joseph Estrada) Erap's is petty," said Lim in an interview. “The list of (anomalies) goes on. The NBN-ZTE deal, bribery during the impeachment hearing against President Arroyo, the fertilizer scam and others. He noted that governance was one of the more important issues among businessmen in their decision to invest in a country or not. “At the economy's peak in 2007, we had $3 billion in foreign direct investments. That was way lower than Vietnam's about $11-billion FDIs. Last year, our FDIs dropped to $1.5 billion, and this year, it is seen to be halved again to $750 million," Lim added. Meager government resources, needed to boost the domestic economy and provide protection for the vulnerable sector of the society, Lim said, would further be reduced because they were wasted on corrupt practices. Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ralph Recto conceded that the government must redouble its efforts in its fight against corruption. “Clearly, the government can do much more in terms of reducing wastage and inefficiency. You have to look at it both ways. the survey is based on perception and individual experiences. it may be partly true but i believe we're not the worst among our neighbors. but, clearly, we can improve," he said. The Philippine study was made between November 3 and November 3 last year. The Global study took place between October last year and February this year.