Dear Mae Williams and other Fil-Brits, Yes, please campaign for Gene Alcantara as an MP for the UK Parliament. He is a friend of mine, a good writer, and astute commentator on Philippine and British affairs. Although he has lived in the gray island these past many years, he retains a deep love for our country. In the end, that is the only requirement one should have for public officials. Love for a country that will not make you cheat to win an election, gag the media, destroy the judiciary, turn the military pilots into your own private pilots. I lived in the UK in the early 1990s and was vastly amused by their political satires, one of which was Mr. Prime Minister, if memory serves. They skewered the members of the Upper House and the Lower House, or as they put there, the House of Lords and the House of Commons. If these wicked and sharp satires were done here, the producer, directors, writer, crew and stars would have long been beheaded. Filipinos have a sense of humor, but we are ...

by Mon Casiple wwww.moncasiple.wordpress.com *** Mon is right. This is a mixed blessing. When Comelec refused to accredit us for a variety of reasons -- first, we did not have enough members nationwide; then, we were not under-represented and marginalized; third, a woman in the dark Comelec canteen asked us for P2 million to be accredited and I refused and I am NOT saying she is a Comelec employee -- I was approached by some of these accredited party list groups. Remember, some of these party-list groups are just fronts of Malacanang, but they were desperate for votes. So what did they tell me? "Professor Remoto, you run with us. I will be the first nominee as party-list representative and you will be the second. With the great publicity generated by Ang Ladlad and your charming personality, we are sure to win two seats." Of course I was not born yesterday. If they said I would be the first nominee, I would have said yes. And my personality is charming? You wait till the deba...

i am granting permission to phil generations to reprint my blog entry regarding erap and his senatoriable. pls cite the source, which is www.erap.ph this group of young people are more positive and constructive. they want young, dual citizens to register and vote in 2010. that is good. in this way, we elect young and good people in the congress and senate, and perhaps start journey to modernity that our political system badly needs.

clearly, the nitwits have begun their campaign against me. (see earlier blog entry) it just means that the campaign season has begun. and with it, the mudslinging, done viciously by cowards hiding in the anonymous world of the internet. A certain rosanna has said that the inquirer wants to be paid for their articles quoted or reprinted in other blogs. No. The Inquirer only wants you to send a Syndication Request, and then they will give you permission. The Inquirer is not as greedy as she wants it pictured to be. I worked as an Editor of the Saturday Special in the Inquirer from 1995-96, so I know whereof I speak. And in an insane leap of faith, she called me names and said that the enrollment in Ateneo plunged when they learned I would be teaching. So from lying about the Inquirer policy, she now says I do not have students at the Ateneo. Hahahaha. When was this? All my subjects at Ateneo, where I taught for 22 years, were fully subscribed. In fact, other teachers would ask me to ask ...

REMOTE CONTROL | DANTON REMOTO | 04/21/2009 12:16 AM www.abs-cbnnews.com Views and analysis “Heartsong and Other Poems” is only the first book of poems by Felino S. Garcia, Jr. But collected between its covers are some of the most amazing love poems I’ve read. There is no rawness, no rush, and no half-cooked efforts in this collection. We have to thank publisher John Iremil Teodoro of Imprenta Igbaong for coming out with this collection of poems. The book is divided into four sections. “Coming to fruit” deals with love’s beginnings, when the days pass in a blaze of happiness. And the nights more so, as captured in a poem called “Flood.” The poem has an epigraph from the now-iconic song of Basil Valdez: “Tuwing umuulan at kapiling ka (When it rains and I’m with you).” The poem points out the overpowering presence of love, like water that drowns everything in its wake, including the lovers. Listen: “How we drown/ in our own flooding, plunging ourselves,/ shapeless, yet with gravity, swir...

From www.erap.ph *** Six out of 12 names in Erap's list of senators will win. Jinggoy will be up there, in the top five. Manong Johnny Ponce Enrile -- the old, durable warrior -- will be down there, in the last two slots. Fate is karmic: again, he would have to contend with being in number 12, like in a previous election, or if he is luckier this time, number 11. Motormouth Miriam will still win, in the last six of the slots, along with Mr. Clean Serge Osmena. The young gun Koko Pimentel will also win, as well as the Young Turk Adel Tamano. I wish my dear friends well, and want them to win, just to add a burst of IQ and young blood in the geriatric senate. That is six names. The rest will lose. *** Showing a few of his cards, former president Joseph Estrada on Monday named a possible senatorial line-up of the opposition in the 2010 elections. At the Kapihan sa Manila Hotel, Estrada said his initial list included Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, his son and Senate Pro Tempore Jo...

Written by Carmela Fonbuena Thursday, 16 April 2009 www.newsbreak.com.ph Confident of their three million core supporters, four congressmen from leftist party list groups on Thursday announced plans to seek Senate seats in 2010. Bayan Muna representatives Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño, Gabriela Rep. Liza Maza, and Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano said they may opt to join the senatorial slate of a presidential candidate. Ocampo and Maza are on their third and last term in Congress. Former President Estrada earlier announced that Casiño may be included in the opposition's senatorial slate. Ocampo said they are talking to several possible presidential candidates and their parties for possible inclusion in their senatorial tickets. The leftist party-list groups also launched a new political coalition, Makabayang Koalisyon ng Mamamayan or MAKABAYAN. Aside from national positions, the group will also field candidates in the local elections. (abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak)

1. To Rosanna. If you have eyes to see, you would have read that after the title "Suicide," there is the source of the editorial: Philippine Daily Inquirer, along with the date and even time of posting. So it is "quasi-stupid of you", paraphrasing your quaint phrase, to accuse me of stealing it and passing it off as my own. Simple logic would dictate that if I want to do that, I would not have put the source of the editorial. It is called attribution, which I have constantly practiced in the one year I have blogged. Fair use in copyright is the use or reprint of another, written material for educational, academic, literary, or other related purposes. This blog aims to educate people in the wonderful world of politics. Including our naive Rosanna. 2. Somebody asked how I knew that Atty Adel Tamano does not like Lorelei Fajardo. Heller. Many people don't. When Adel and I were with the Young Turks in Dumaguete, he told me that he would like to have a one-on-one deb...

Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 23:33:00 04/17/2009 AFTER watching the way the police have been handling the investigation of the death of Trinidad Arteche Etong, ABS-CBN news anchor Ted Failon’s wife, Filipinos have reason to be afraid -- very afraid -- of their so-called protectors. From the time the Quezon City police began working on the case, it was clear they wanted to pin down Failon in a murder charge. With little to go on but a fertile imagination, Superintendent Frank Mabanag, chief of the Quezon City Police District’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit, theorized that Etong could have been killed in their Pajero and brought up to the bathroom where Failon claimed to have found her lying in a pool of blood. Right in his own house, Failon was made to undergo a paraffin test as police investigators gleefully posed behind him for souvenir photos. Even as Etong was undergoing emergency treatment for a bullet wound to her head, the police “invited” Failon to submit t...

By Mon Casiple | April 16, 2009 www.moncasiple.wordpress.com It is amazing to view the Quezon City Police Department, the Justice Department, and specific police officials acting like the old martial law bullies in the handling of the Trinidad Etong case. The late Ms. Etong is the wife of well-known media personality Ted Failon who died today. She died from a gunshot wound to her temple, self-inflicted in a suicide, according to her housemates. The police so far are not buying the story. So they arrested without any warrant the four housemates and also put Failon under their custody, basically accusing them (at this time) of “obstruction of justice.” In the process, they violated a whole series of human rights enshrined in the constitution. These include violating the rights of due process, the right to be informed of the charges against them, the right to presumption of innocence until proven guilty, the right to privacy, and the right to a lawyer. The behavior the police showed befor...

www.professionheckler.wordpress.com This heckler is the best and sharpest in town. He has won a national blog award for this words that skewer, cut, and behead whose heads have become too large for their tiny bodies. *** According to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, the country is facing a serious shortage of priests. Hoping to entice young Filipino men to enter the priesthood, the CBCP says the Church is giving seminarians an opportunity to free education, an opportunity to serve the Lord, and an opportunity to become a governor someday. Despite the serious shortage of Catholic priests, the CBCP has reportedly rejected the idea of accepting gay applicants in the seminary. Senior members of the clergy do not want younger competition. The CBCP says it is discouraging gays from entering the priesthood. Asked why, a CBCP official said, “Heller! Gusto mong ma-imbyerna ang Papa?!”

And you think you have seen the worst from the police in the last few months -- from cold-blooded killing of children allegedly caught in crossfire, to cold-blooded killing of so-called kidnappers shot at close range while the alleged kidnappers were resisting arrest. Now they train their guns on the poor househelp of Ted Failon, on the shocked sister of his now-dead wife. You saw on TV how violative of human rights was the arrest and detention of the househelp and the driver. No wonder they are called Pulis Patola. *** Liberal President Senator Mar Roxas today took the police to task for mishandling its investigation into the case of broadcaster Ted Failon, particularly in the manhandling of Failon’s sister-in-law and others police accused of obstruction of justice. “Nakiki-simpatiya ako kay Ted Failon at sa kanyang mga kaanak na kinailangang dumaan sa psychological torture na ito habang nagluluksa sila sila sa pagkamatay ng kanyang asawang si Trina. Nakakahiya at nakakainis na ganit...

Fel Maragay Manila Standard Today As early as the last quarter of 2008, former President Joseph Estrada announced that he had taken upon himself the task of unifying the fragmented opposition forces to boost their fighting chances in the 2010 elections. With so many shining stars in the opposition camp dreaming of ascending to the presidential throne, it was a daunting mission to persuade them to join forces and rally behind a common standard-bearer. The call for unity was being sounded out by various opposition quarters. But it was only Estrada who has pledged to take concrete steps to translate this into action. If he felt obliged to undertake this task, it’s because he is the acknowledged titular head, the patriarch of the opposition. The failure of the opposition to field a single presidential bet in the 2004 elections proved fatal to it. They became vulnerable to the administration’s attempt to manipulate the poll outcome. Incumbent President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was pitted ag...

REMOTE CONTROL | DANTON REMOTO | 04/07/2009 6:50 PM www.abs-cbnNEWS.com Views and analysis The following is a direct testimony from Rina (not her real name), an overseas Filipino worker who contracted the HIV virus while working abroad. She read her testimony during the launching of the United Nations Development Programme Report called HIV Vulnerabilities of Migrant Women: from Asia to the Arab States. The launch of the report coincided with the launch of the Philippine report on Filipino women in the Arab states. The launching of the two reports was held last March 10 at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati City. The Asian report was a collaborative effort of UNDP, UNAIDS, IOM, UNIFEM and CARAM Asia. It is based on interviews with 600 migrant workers from Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka who went to Bahrain, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. One of these women is Rina, and this is her story: I was a former domestic worker several years ago. I dreamed of working abr...

Thank you for the deluge of e-mails, text messages, and comments being sent to me about this blog and my columns that appear at www.abs-cbnnews.com (Tuesday), Philippine Star (Monday) and S [Showbiz, Stars, Scoops] Magazine every month. Some of them are belated congratulations about the nine books that I have written, published and are on sale at National Bookstore, with 130 branches nationwide! Since mine is a campaign fueled not by PhP 100 million in ill-gotten funds, all I have are words -- blazing on paper, floating in the air, spreading nanosecond-fast in the borderless world of cyberspace. As the days pass, you will see more candidates with blogs and columns and why, even books and autobiographies that they did not write. Thoroughly incapable of thought and even of stringing a decent sentence whether in English or Filipino, they have hired the best golden hands in the business to produce their works. As they say, It's a fake. Carepool, carepool. It's a blessing in the ski...

www.liberalparty.ph Former Senate President Frank Drilon urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) today to issue a circular “defining in very clear terms” what would constitute premature campaigning now that the deadline for the filing of certificates of candidacy (COC) in the 2010 polls has been moved to an earlier date. Drilon, who is also national chairman of the Liberal Party (LP), said he would like to know whether appearances in TV soap operas and other television advertisements by candidates before the official campaign period opens would constitute premature campaigning. Drilon asked for the clarification as he warned that the earlier deadline for the filing of certificates of candidacy, November 30, gives candidates a two-month period within which they might conduct premature campaigning. The official campaign period for national positions starts in mid-February. Drilon explained that under Section 13 of Republic Act 9369 or the Automated Election Law that was signed by the...