In my over 66 years as a journalist, having walked the corridors of power and knew all the Presidents on first-name basis, except BS Aquino, since I never stepped into Malacañang after he became President in 2010, nor welcomed, I say that BS Aquino is the worst President.
Never has a President been so incompetent, so insensitive and lacking compassion to the poor, the aggrieved and the needy, and so vindictive to his political enemies in Malacañang. And Santa Banana, no other President ever had an administration and members of his cabinet just as incompetent, lacking in sensitivity and compassion to the poor, the aggrieved and the needy. They are a pack of lapdogs always ready to do their master’s wishes.
I can write a whole column about BS Aquino as the worst president the country ever had, but I’m actually glad that he’ll step down in June 30 when the next president takes over, unless of course, the next president will just be as bad, or even much worse.
Never have I seen a President “Noynoying” and so totally unaware of the violent dispersal of hungry farmers and their families composed of women and their children gathering in a national highway at Kidapawan, North Cotabato, and begging for rice only to be shot at close range by M-15 wielding policemen. My gulay, that takes the cake for any administration.
BS Aquino’s excuse that he was sick and that he only knew about it when DILG secretary Senen Mel Sarmiento told him about it when he was on his way to Kidapawan to hand down medals for policemen responsible for the violent dispersal. That was a double insult on the hungry farmers.
Add this to the excuse of another incompetent Ninoy International Airport general manager Angel Jose Honrado, an Aquino relative, when he said that the Naia 3 blackout was because of “bad luck,” and would now have a feng shui expert trace the bad luck.
It was not bad luck at all, but utter incompetence that canceled over a hundred domestic and international flights. Just why Honrado and much more Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya have not been fired, to me, can only attest to the fact that birds of the same feather flock together. Rather, they deserve each other.
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With less than a month before Election Day, it’s still anybody’s game in the race to Malacañang. While poll surveys may show that Mrs. Llamanzares and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Du-Dirty may be leading, I still believe, and this fact can be attested by those who have been there and done it, that the next three weeks will be a fight between popularity at the polls and grassroots political machineries. That’s the reason why it is said that all elections are local because it’s the grassroots political machinery that delivers the votes, not popularity.
And, Santa Banana, don’t forget that among the five presidentiables, only Vice President Jojo Binay and administration candidate Mar Roxas have that grassroots political machinery.
These grassroots political machinery of Binay and Roxas may not be as visible as it is in Metro Manila, but go to the provinces two weeks from now and be told that all tricycles, jeepneys and buses have already been contracted to ferry voters from their homes to the precincts. My gulay, voters in the province and barrios won’t walk for seven to 10 kilometers to vote. They wait to be ferried since they know that they will be paid after voting when they show those electronic receipts which showed who they voted for.
It’s a fact that in most provinces, voters always rely on political leaders who to vote for local and national leaders, including for president. After all, the very same people always rely on their political leaders when they are in need for so many various things, knowing that national candidates won’t have time for them. They rely on local political leaders for burial expenses, trips to Manila, uniforms for basketball teams in their barangays and so on and so forth. And only a well-oiled grassroots machinery can deliver all these.
Technically speaking, Mar Roxas should have this advantage since the administration has all the LGUs or Local Government Units, and of course, the money. But, Binay also has it since his political machinery has been intact ever since he became mayor of Makati. This is what I mean by all elections are local.
Past elections where popular candidates lost to less popular presidentiables can attest to what I have been saying. The late Senator Raul Manglapus lost to incumbent President Carlos P. Garcia; Senator Miriam Santiago lost to president Fidel V. Ramos; and movie icon Fernando Poe Jr. lost to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. They were not cheated. The winner had the needed grassroots political machinery, and this will be repeated on May 9.
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The pathetic duo of Senator Alan Peter Cayetano and Senator Antonio Trillanes zeroed in on Senator Bongbong Marcos on the old and rehashed issue of Martial Law, obviously thinking their poll survey ratings will improve being at the bottom of the totem pole during the vice presidential debates last Sunday evening. Sad to say, they won’t.
By constantly repeating the same old rehashed issue of Martial Law, more people will graviate to the young Marcos since they know credentials and track record. Besides, people know that the sins of the fathers cannot be inflicted on their sons. Santa Banana, when Cayetano argued that if Bongbong were to be elected, he will steal not only $10 billion which the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos allegedly plundered, but $100 billion more.
My gulay, would you vote for somebody like Cayetano who cannot even think logically and with reason? And here comes Trillanes again accusing Binay for corruption, an old refrain. In my book, Trillanes should withdraw because he has no chance against Bongbong in the vice presidential race. Just like Cayetano, Trillanes is pathetic.
What I like about Bongbong during that vice presidential debate is that he remained calm throughout even if Cayetano and Trillanes attacked him, and he answered all the questions thrown at him the best he could. And the reason why the people gravitate to him, making him No. 1 in all poll surveys, is that he goes around without any personal attack against his rivals, but makes known his platform of uniting the country to enable it to move forward. Bongbong has the brains of his late father, and the charisma of Imelda.
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My former high school student at the Ateneo de Manila Loyola Heights, Roberto “Bobby” V. Ongpin, cannot stop. Hardly had his “Aegle Wellness Center” settled down, a P350-million wellness center both at the Alphaland Makati Place (City Club) and the island paradise of Balesin Island off Quezon province, and now he has opened another multi-million peso property development in Baguio City—the Alphaland Baguio Mountain Lodges consisting of 300 log homes, and masterplanned in a 76-hectare property just 8 km from the Pacdal Circle, Baguio City proper.
The new development of Ongpin was acquired by Alphaland Corp., and has an elevation of 5,200 feet, compared to Tagaytay Highlands where the highest point is only some 2,000 ft.
With the Tarlac Pangasinan-La Union Expressway started three years ago by Ramon Ang of San Miguel, the travel time from Metro Manila to Baguio City will be cut down to only three hours. TPELEX is scheduled to be finished within the year all up to Rosario, La Union.
Santa Banana, Alphaland Mountain Lodges will not only be secured and completely enclosed by a concrete eight-feet perimeter fence with a total of more than seven km which will provide total and absolute security, but will have high-end restaurants for the lodge owners.
It will not be a membership property development, and the price range for the first fully furnished units will be between P35 to P50 million, depending on the size of the house. Each house will not cost more than P100,000 per square meter, including the deck. Actually, more than half of the first 50 units have already been reserved by Alphaland members and friends.
That’s Bobby Ongpin for you—the Aquino administration loves to hate out of pure envy. As I have been saying all along, you just can’t pull a good man down. Despite everything, Bobby Ongpin keeps on investing in the Philippines knowing its bright future.