Chiz gets better with age

The last time I wrote about Chiz Escudero was in the 2010 election season, his first attempt in getting a Presidential bid off the ground which never got past Ambassador Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco, chieftain of his party the Nationalist People’s Coalition.

While I branded his efforts then as “stinky”, a play with words with his lactose-inspired nickname, it seems like the Senator from Bicol has mellowed with age, just like good wine and cheese.

 

A more mellow Chiz? Seems so.

It seems that the arrogance of youth that caused so much discord between Chiz and the party has left, and a more circumspect and politically sensitive Senator has developed in these past five years.

Move over #aldub, Pnoy going gaga over #marlen

If I were to go all conspiracy theory over recent political events, I’d definitely believe that Pnoy coldheartedly engineered events that led to Jesse Robredo’s 2012 plane crash to make room for Mar Roxas’ own presidential bid in 2016.

But that would be too nasty even for this little tiyanak.

So let’s just say Pnoy was calculating enough to seize the opportunity presented to him by the circumstance of Jesse’s untimely demise.

Philippines’ corruption riddled property sector

The deals are just too big – from the hundreds of millions to billions of pesos – that the major players cannot help but have a full measure of control over the ventures. And why not? It makes good business sense to make sure all bases are covered. But in almost all these property development megadeals some questions have been raised over extraordinary steps taken to ensure success.

And since they involve such high-caliber brands like Ayala, SM, Megaworld, Filinvest, Rockwell, DMCI and Vista, they are frequently talked about everywhere: in coffee shop guffaws and cocktail whispers of polite society; in election campaign mudslinging and Senate investigations; in online petitions and social media campaigns; in mainstream media and anonymous blogs.

So much property to choose from... chances are, it's already taken. (Photo from propertyfinder.ph)

Yet through the years nothing has gone to court, nobody has gone to jail. All these talks of corruption in big time property development fall in the realm of “know but cannot prove.”

The confluence of interests: Malou Tiquia’s agenda

Is it conflict or confluence of interests? This is the question that pops up when you encounter Malou Tiquia.

Her latest role is host of the television talk show “Agenda” on CNN Philippines. Here she tackles issues and topics on her area of expertise which is politics. And we guess she’s just right for the job because of her extensive exposure to that world, hobnobbing with various congressmen, senators, government officials, advocates, businessmen and anybody else who has had anything to do with engaging the country’s political system.

Tiquia on TV: always an expert

Through all this Tiquia uses her political know-it-all to pontificate about the morality and propriety of politicians’ practices and politically motivated activities, like the final arbiter of what should and shouldn’t be in this politics and showbiz enamored citizenry.

Elections incoming! Launch the racketship!

Time was when “racket” in election season meant lots of noise with TV and radio ads, candidate shows and speeches, parades, motorcades and events with dancing girls and loud music. And that all started with the official start of the campaign period, usually 90 or 60 days before election day depending on the position.

But nowadays, not just months but years before elections the racket starts… not just with noise but rackets with a more nefarious reason: filling up the war chest with much needed finds and beyond – win or lose, they come out on top of piles of moolah.

Sure, there’s putting the squeeze on potential campaign funders, usually a nervous Taipan or two. But as late as last elections – in 2013 – we saw something really nasty: the use of government agencies and contracts to get fat commissions for their campaign kitties.

Somebody in SMC giving Ramon Ang a bad name.

I pity Ramon S. Ang, head honcho of San Miguel Corporation (SMC). He has brought the company to the heights and diversity it’s in today, but it seems some people under him are undermining his successes that they are doing things that are giving RSA a bad name.

Take this whole brouhaha over the EPASS and RFID at the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX). While it has been made very clear from its moves and statements, SMC is serious in ensuring its toll road projects become real jewels in its infrastructure portfolio. But someone in RSA’s employ keeps screwing around with the business that it just keeps moving them one step forward and two steps back. The worst thing about it? This person isn’t even organic in the organization but a mere consultant for the toll roads project.

We’re talking about Alec Cruz, sibling to Eldon Cruz who is married to Ballsy Aquino Cruz, sister of President Benigno S. Aquino III. Recall that Eldon and Ballsy recently were implicated in a major scandal with Inekon, that Turkish company that was being shaken down for the supply contract of MRT coaches. Well, nothing has been done about the MRT – they’re now running with less trains – and the complaint was lodged by no less than the Turkish Ambassador. But that’s another story.

BSP, MONETARY BOARD RUSHING THE PRINTING OF NEW CURRENCY

 What many of us -- in the media and the private sector -- have been warning about is furtively coming to pass.

Despite the many calls for full disclosure and transparency in their “New Generation Currency Program”, the BSP and the Monetary board are proceeding and rushing the Implementation of the program, with grave consequences with respect to costs and to national sovereignty and secufrity in the printing of the the nation’s money.

Stinky

Why is Senator Chiz Escudero spending so much time and money – ours to be specific – going after ghost issues in election automation when, as head of the senate’s oversight committee he should be doing everything to help it along?

Simple: it keeps him in the limelight and – more importantly – keeps him RELEVANT. And, as the Senate starts moving into the elections canvassing mode, he wants to be relevant enough to become a leading voice in the electoral tribunal. After the Comelec does its job, that is the next seat of power. Who knows, if failure of elections as he has been preaching does come true, he may then be in a very “credible” position to take over the country via being in highest slot in the order of succession should there be a power vacuum.

Dumb, dumber

In an effort to redeem herself of her stupidity, Karen Davila has made Election Automation as her subject in her “Correspondents” edition on ABS-CBN last night (16 February 2010). Here she deftly interviewed various personalities on their experience on voting, inspecting, heckling and anything and everything to do with the coming automated polls.

And again she showed that she just another pretty face.

She just laps up the script, obviously put together or her. It shows so many flaws of her understanding of the voting, counting and canvassing system and processes.

Ganito kami sa Makati

Jojo Binay struts around the country declaring his Makati City leadership has led to fantastic services for his constituents and would like to replicate it for the rest of the country should the people vote for him as Vice President in the elections this May.

If Jojo is given the office to do what he claims he will do, then Filipinos will also give him the personal money making rackets he has run in his city the past 20 years, this time on a national scale. WOW!

Check this out: just one of the benefits Jojo’s Makati gives to its residents is birthday cakes for senior citizens. The city’s Lolos and Lolas just love it, and so does the Binay household which actually supplies the cakes. So the city government supplies the cakes – simple cakes, the price of which is set by the cake-giving program to the tune of P60 million per year!

Giba

Mark Salanga of ABS-CBN News Bacolod today reports: “The wife of business tycoon Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr. said they are dismayed with their nephew, Lakas-Kampi-CMD standard bearer Gilberto ‘Gibo’ Teodoro Jr..

“Gretchen Cojuangco said that her husband Danding, who is chairman emeritus of the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC), would support a candidate, but not Teodoro.
“Teodoro was formerly a member of the NPC, but switched to the administration party where he became its standard bearer.
“Mrs. Cojuangco made the statement in an interview during a visit to the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod City on Saturday.
“ ‘Anybody but Gibo. Anybody,’ she told reporters, after being asked who her husband would support between Teodoro and their other nephew, Liberal Party standard bearer Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III.

Bridging The Gap

Manny Villar projects himself as a poor boy who, with hard work and industriousness, became one of the richest men in the country. What he has not touched is how he filled the capital gap between his poor start and his dreams. That’s where his missus, Las Pinas congresswoman Cynthia Villar comes in.

It’s known all over that she is the moneyed one (her side of the family, anyway). And this is what provided the much needed moolah to make those dreams come true. (But I wouldn’t go to the extent that others suggest – that marrying her took a lot of Sipag at Tiyaga)

And at a certain point in the building up of wealth, it becomes important that you have a measure of political power. The formula: money begets power and power begets money.

Pedigree

It’s a good thing Noynoy Aquino’s handlers have rewritten his biography in his official website. The original one claimed that the Philippine presidency was in his bloodline, being the son of Ninoy and Cory Aquino. It made him like a horse or a dog, carrying a presidential pedigree, a thoroughbred for the highest office. Ugh!

Not even Bongbong Marcos would dare make such a claim. Yet Nonynoy’s handlers stood pat and even defended this claim, until someone had enough sense to see through the stupidity.

This time they’ve spun it as his commitment to live up to the legacy of his parents. Pwede na rin. But as hard as they try they haven’t been able to convincingly address issues against him, like his lack of performance in his political career and the continued existence of Hacienda Luisita.

How do you solve a problem like Karen Davila?

Years ago President Cory’s spokesman Rene Saguisag said that the media was plural for mediocre. Of course, media practitioners just pounced on him. But he responded that it was actually a sympathetic quip – that he sympathized with the daily demands of looking for stories, angles and deadlines reporters, columnists and editors are subjected to that they are often forced to manufacture mediocre reports or columns just to submit something.

But as the years of the wayward media pressed on, the media that now descends upon us is not just mediocre. Today, in the 21^st century, from the ranks of the men and women who hold the sacred public trust comes one that is just plain stupid.

Take, for example, Karen Davila. Today she represents everything that is bad in media. Sure she has the pretty face, the heart of gold and perhaps even has an adequate amount of gray matter between her ears. But she is so engrossed with her celebrity that she has forgotten why she has her microphone by her lips and cameras trained at her to start with.