The Filipino vice president should also serve as Senate president, “just like in America,” said Edu Manzano, Lakas-Kampi candidate for numero dos. “This way,” said Edu in a press release, “the post of Senate president does not become the source of endless infighting among Senate members.”

We share his concern, with reservation, about the current lack of stability in the Senate, occasioned by the struggle for the chamber’s presidency caused, by the way, not by ideological differences but by a road-building scandal.

The US Constitution created the Office of the Vice President and assigned to it some legislative duties as nominal head of the Senate. The vice president is allowed to vote only to break a tie. He presides over the joint session of Congress to count the vote of the Electoral College or when the President delivers the State of the Union Address. The rules do not allow him to participate in floor debates.

While he overseas procedural matters, the vice president rarely presides over day-to-day matters. In his place, the Senate chooses a president pro-tempore, normally the longest-serving senator in the majority party, to preside in the vice president’s absence. The president pro tem has the power to appoint any senator to preside over the Senate.

Edu sighed about Filipinos invoking the US “as the model of our democratic system.” If we were to adopt the American template, Gibo Teodoro and Edu could win the popular vote but could still lose through the vote of the Electoral College. Vox Populi, vox dei? Not in America.

Under the US model, our Supreme Court would have only nine justices and a jury system that is vulnerable to Pinoy graft. Our senators would be elected by provinces. Best of all, there is no term limit.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, by the way, is coming to Manila to help speed up rehabilitation in places damaged by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng. The governor, like other naturalized Americans, is qualified to run for any elective office, except president and vice president. Here, deserving candidates with foreign-sounding names risk disqualification or ejection from office over citizenship questions. The right of naturalized citizens to public office is a cause that Edu Manzano could devote himself to. (Manila Times)

BREAKING NEWS as of 01/30/2010 1:24 AM

Schwarzenegger cancels trip to Manila
MANILA, Philippines - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will no longer push through with his scheduled visit to the Philippines, ABS-CBN learned Friday.
Philippine Consul General to San Francisco Marcial Paynor said Schwarzenegger's trip was canceled due to pressing concerns in California. The announcement was made by former San Francisco Mayor Willy Brown during a San Francisco-Manila sister city committee event Thursday.
Butch Meily, executive director of the Philippine Disaster Recovery Foundation (PDRF), earlier announced that Schwarzenegger is set to arrive in Manila on February 7 to help with reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts in areas destroyed by storms Ondoy and Pepeng last year.
Schwarzenegger, who is famous for starring in the blockbuster film franchise "Terminator" and other gun-blazing roles, has prior experience in rehabilitation efforts in New Orleans, which was battered by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Schwarzenegger has been governor of California since 2003. He is married to Kennedy scion Maria Shriver, a veteran TV journalist.

“It is worth noting that in most of the accusations thrown at Mike Defensor, his sincere concern to help others in need has been unfairly portrayed as underhanded ploys to cover for the current administration . Despite all odds, Victorina has helped the subjugated like Brian Gorrell, Gen. Boy Miranda etc. etc… Now, as the founder of Dona Victorina, let me say my piece about an article written by Louie Logarta of the Tribune!”

By: Amiel Aguilar Cabanlig

As someone who has known Mike Defensor for over three decades now, I feel the urge to speak out on his behalf, if only to parry the uncalled-for and malevolent blows Mike been subjected to over the past few years. It has been a vinegary turnaround of public perception for Mike since he allied with the administration. Gone are the days when people greeted him with thunderous cheering as an opposition congressman. All of his close-to-impossible feats in government (like the NAIA opening or the activation of the PNR) seem to dissipate with the mere mention of the three letter word G-M-A!

Anyone who has really gotten to know Mike Defensor knows that he will stand up for a friend. Not many know that in a bid to help Udong Mahusay in 2003, Mike was accused of trying to silence a witness of Senator Ping Lacson. Few know that Udong’s brother Jojo has long worked as a driver for Mike; and it was in fact Jojo who requested Mike to intercede. On several occasions, Mike Defensor has interceded in my behalf - even to the point of intervening and visiting the military rebels incarcerated in Camp Aguinaldo. I know Victorina got him in trouble for this…

Mike Defensor’s genuine desire to help others has regretfully become an easy target for those pitted against the current government, to the detriment of Mike’s reputation. It is worth noting that in most of the accusations thrown at Mike, his sincere concern to help others has been unfairly portrayed as underhanded ploys to cover for the current administration.

Now, as the founder of Dona Victorina, let me say my piece about an article written by Louie Logarta of the Tribune!

It was no less than Doris Lessing who said: “that the great secret that all old people share is that you really haven't changed in seventy or eighty years. Your body changes, but you don't change at all. And that, of course, causes great confusion.”

While sipping on a mocha latte at Starbucks one day, I was left with one of those trashy papers - The Tribune (or Philippine Tribune or the Manila Tribune???); it was the only paper left in the newspaper rack that no one bothered reading. Forced to flip through its pages, I chanced upon the column in the Tribune of the aging newspaper columnist, Louie Logarta.

In his column, “War in Q.C.,” Logarta begins with mega run on sentences that almost garroted me while I tried to savor my mocha latte. He writes; “Because who else could have had the gall, the gumption, the wherewithal and the motive to engineer such an offensive against Bautista, the perceived frontrunner in the QC mayoralty derby by virtue of his being supported by last-term Mayor Sonny Belmonte who still has all the resources of city hall at his disposal, except Defensor’s formidable demolition squad whose activities he allegedly personally oversees from his mansion on Ifugao Street in plush La Vista Subdivision?” (gasping for air...)

Logarta’s unsubstantiated accusation against Mike Defensor, using a garrulous play of words, says a lot about the ailing columnist and his morose paper.

Logarta continues; “The other day, from out of the blue, some totally unknown fellow identified as one Carlos de Leon emerged from the woodwork to file qualified theft and estafa charges against Bautista and his brother Hero for stealing from his office a one-ton tarpaulin printing machine valued at about P1.2 million last August 2009.” Logarta asserts “it is queer that Vice Mayor Bautista’s name was even included in the information lodged in the QC Prosecutor’s Office when the alleged crime was basically attributed to the brother, together with six accomplices, who was given the keys to Carlos De Leon’s office CHAM Advertising in Project 8, QC where he (Hero Bautista) was supposedly a trusted employee.”

However, Logarta, either intentionally or because of old age, failed to consider Carlos De Leon’s narration: "When I asked Hero why he took away my printer, he arrogantly said the Vice Mayor (Herbert Bautista’s) ordered him to do so." "Magdemanda ka na lang kung gusto," the younger Hero Buatista added.

He further says; “truth of the matter is that the mayoralty race is really a two-horse affair with Vice Mayor Bautista and his running mate Joy Alimurung on one hand and the group of Mike Defensor on the other…The Bautista-Alimurung tandem is considered the odds on favorite to claim city hall because of the tremendous monetary and logistic support they’re getting from Mayor Belmonte,”

Reading Logarta’s poorly constructed article left a sour taste in my mouth. I dreaded the thought of having to read more “nonsensical verbal diarrhea” as I tossed his broadsheet back on the table. Luckily, another customer was through reading “another newspaper” and quickly picked it up from his seat, leaving behind the Tribune and its nauseating print for someone else to pick apart!

"Even if he does manage to surmount this controversy and win the presidency in May, the findings of the Senate committee of the whole will continue to haunt him. His possible election victory could turn out to be a Pyrrhic one. He might not last as long as he may want to in Malacañang."

I don’t know how the Senate report on the C-5 fiasco would affect the survey standings of Sen. Manuel Villar. Frankly, I don’t care.

Even if he does manage to surmount this controversy and win the presidency in May, the findings of the Senate committee of the whole will continue to haunt him.

His possible election victory could turn out to be a Pyrrhic one. He might not last as long as he may want to in Malacañang.

Villar is trying to find cover in his current status as a presidential bet. He insists that his rivals fabricated the C-5 controversy to cut him down in the opinion polls.

But if the Senate findings of irregularities in the C-5 project were merely woven out of the proverbial whole cloth by his political foes, why doesn’t he face them like a man and shred their charges to bits?

Why has Villar opted instead to merely issue cavalier denials—and not confront his accusers at the proper forum, the Senate floor, which he has yet to do as of this writing? (photo from utakpugita)

P6.2-B reimbursement
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile has listed down several reasons why Villar should reimburse the government P6.2 billion, the amount that Villar’s real estate companies “illegally gained or obtained.”

According to Enrile, Villar’s companies directly benefited when the Department of Public Works and Highways realigned—upon Villar’s insistence—the C-5 road extension so that it would traverse his landholdings.

This explains why the road was made to follow a curved route, rather than a straight one.

The realignment to accommodate Villar’s landholdings caused the road to be lengthened by 6 kilometers. As a result, the project cost ballooned to almost P7 billion—up by about P4.3 billion from the original estimate of P2.678 billion.

“Along the route of the Las Piñas-Parañaque Link Road, [Villar] and his companies own several parcels of land there,” Enrile said. “With the construction of new roads, the value of these properties soared.”

According to the Senate president, that allowed Villar’s real estate group to raise P26 billion from investors through an initial public offering.

In addition, the government also paid right-of-way compensation for the landholdings that were expropriated for the road project.

The Senate committee also found that the government had already paid out P1.8 billion in right-of-way compensation—an expense that was “wasted” because of the project’s realignment.

As if that were not enough, the committee report noted that the landholdings of Villar and his corporations had been overpriced by P141 million in road right-of-way claims.

Reacting to the Senate findings, the Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka (Pakisama) said the P6.2 billion could have been better spent elsewhere—including projects to uplift the destitute peasantry.

Pakisama said P6.2 billion could buy 248,000 landless farmers a farm lot each measuring 5,000 square meters, “enough for them eat more regularly,” the peasant confederation said in a statement. BY DAN MARIANO