Piercing Pens

composite triple beat

Priest-turned-governor Among Ed Panlilio of Pampanga is now considering running for president in 2010 with Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca as his running mate, says an Inquirer report.

Both Panlilio and Padaca are non-trapos who defeated powerful politicians in their respective provinces.

Panlilio and Padaca, with other reform-oriented public servants, have been practicing and preaching good governance.

Are they the change that the Philippines needs?

“I am not a traditional politician who likes to give promises and deadlines…”
- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, March 8, 2001

коли под наеммебели
“President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Tuesday gave the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) 15 days to complete its investigation report on the capsizing of MV Princess of the Stars off Romblon at the height of typhoon ‘Frank.’”
- GMANews.TV report, July 1, 2008

See more of Gloria’s deadlines here and check out the bloggers’ blogswarm against Sulpicio Lines.

Ignacio Bunye ended his term as press secretary last June 16 with a rendition of his favorite song, “My Way.” But he left an unfinished business.

In June 2005, Bunye “revealed” a supposed plot of the opposition to “destabilize” the Arroyo government. Here’s INQUIRER.net’s account:

Preempting the political opposition, Bunye on June 6, 2005 played two CDs of supposed telephone conversations between Arroyo and then election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, about an alleged attempt to rig the May 2004 elections, which came to be known as the “Hello Garci” tapes.

Bunye told the nation then that he had evidence that the President’s alleged wiretapped conversation[s] with Garcillano were a fabrication, because the conversation was actually between Arroyo and a certain political aide named “Gary.”

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The kidnappers of Ces Drilon and her colleagues want to collect “board and lodging fee” from the victims’ families. The Arroyo regime has so popularized Orwellian Doublespeak in the Philippines that even kidnappers are now using it.

In 2005, Arroyo said she just wanted to “protect [her] votes” when she cheated with Virgilio “Hello Garci” Garcillano.

In her 2006 SONA, Arroyo condemned political killings “in the harshest possible terms” by recognizing the efforts of Jovito Palparan.

And of course, Raul Gonzalez has just been confirmed as “justice” secretary.

Sorry for the lack of updates and for being offline the past days. We’re really swamped with work — office stuff and personal things to attend to. We also had to fix a malware issue that placed us on Google’s restricted sites.

We were unable to write about a number of events including the death of Rep. Crispin Beltran, Comelec Commissioner Romeo Brawner, and actor Rudy Fernandez, the dismissal of Joc-joc Bolante’s appeal for asylum in the US, and the kidnapping of Ces Drilon and her crew. We’ll be back to “regular programming” soon.

From Pinoy Weekly:

Ka Bay passes away

Bayani Abadilla, writer, professor and journalist, passed away last May 14 after a long battle with lymphoma.

Son of pioneering Filipino modernist poet Alejandro G. Abadilla, Bayani was a veteran of the First Quarter Storm. He was one of the founders of the progressive writers group Paksa or Panulat Para sa Kaunlaran ng Sambayanan and wrote for various underground and opposition newspapers and publications during Martial Law.

After the fall of the Marcos dictatorship, Bayani taught at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines upon PUP Pres. Nemesio Prudente’s return to the university in 1986.

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Earlier this month, Paulino Emano, mayor of Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, claimed in a television interview with GMA-7 that the South Korean firm Hanjin Heavy Industries Construction Company, Ltd. offered him $400 worth of contract in exchange for the diversion of a part of river in his town where Hanjin is constructing a shipyard.

Emano had ordered Hanjin to stop the construction for lack of required documents such as environmental compliance certificate and municipal building permit. When Mrs. Arroyo visited his province, Emano said he told Arroyo about the offer, but she said nothing about it. She even reportedly scolded him for stopping the project.

On the night that Emano’s interview was shown on TV, Malacanang — in an apparent attempt to prevent another ZTE bribery scandal — issued a statement saying that Arroyo would never violate any law. The next day, the secretary of interior appeared on TV, saying the Palace has received reports that Emano attempted to extort money from Hanjin, and he will face investigation.

Emano, an Arroyo ally, has since recanted his claim.