Erap to GMA: Allow next leader to pick Supreme Court chief

By Jose Rodel Clapano (The Philippine Star) Updated February 28, 2010 12:00 AM
 

Former President Joseph Estrada displays his fighting form before facing the STAR interview panel last Friday night. FERNAN NEBRES

MANILA, Philippines - Former President Joseph Estrada advised President Arroyo against appointing the next chief justice of the Supreme Court (SC) and allow the next president to appoint the chief magistrate.

Estrada also advised Mrs. Arroyo to follow the example set by her father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal, in dismissing the midnight appointments made by his predecessor.

“Out of respect for her father, (Mrs. Arroyo) should not appoint the next chief justice. She should allow the next president to do that,” Estrada told The STAR.

Estrada said Macapagal did not honor the appointment made by former President Carlos Garcia of Dominador Aytona as governor of the then Central Bank of the Philippines (now Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas).

He said Macapagal instead appointed Andres Castillo as the new CB governor.


Estrada said the SC ruled in favor of Macapagal and nullified the midnight appointment of Aytona as ad interim CB governor.

Estrada said if Macapagal did not recognize the legality of the appointment of Aytona, there is more reason for his daughter to do the same in the case of the next chief justice.

“In my opinion, once the election is held, automatically the incumbent president will be a caretaker president. She cannot appoint or dismiss anyone,” Estrada said.

Estrada said he prevented influence peddling in the appointment of members of the judiciary during his presidency by ignoring even the sentiments of his supporters and campaign contributors.

According to Estrada, a big-time campaign fund contributor and a business tycoon he did not identify got angry with him for turning down his requests to help him in a pending case before the high court.

Estrada said the Filipino trait of utang na loob (paying a debt of gratitude) should not compromise the interest of the greater majority.

Estrada joined the increasing public clamor against Mrs. Arroyo appointing the next chief justice during the remaining months of her term of office.

The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), for its part, has opted to wait for the SC to rule on the proposals to appoint the replacement of Chief Justice Reynato Puno before submitting the shortlist of nominees to Malacañang.

The JBC said it would push through with the ongoing selection process pending resolution by the high court of the consolidated petitions of the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa) and lawyers Jaime Soriano, Arturo de Castro and former solicitor general Estelito Mendoza that sought answers to the issue of whether Mrs. Arroyo can appoint the next chief justice.

Under the Constitution, the incumbent President is banned from making appointments two months before the elections until the end of her term. Puno retires on May 17, which falls within the period of the ban.

But some sectors claim that Mrs. Arroyo could still name the next chief justice since the constitutional ban applies to appointments made in the executive department.

Threatened by Erap’s hold over the masses?

FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

02/28/2010
In all the so-called commissioned and non-commissioned surveys, whether they be the Social Weather Stations or the Pulse Asia survey — both of which incidentally appear to have lost their credibility --- Erap Estrada, seeking the presidency for the second time, is always ranked at third place — with his numbers remaining static for months, which is an impossibility, given that the numbers just don’t jibe with what is on the ground.

But media lap up these survey findings and have taken them as an electoral fight between just two contenders: Manny Villar and Noynoy Aquino who are now media-billed as the frontrunners in the election.

It has even come to a point where a Noynoy-commissioned survey by the TNS, released to the Yellow media, was quickly publicized, despite the fact that no data were made public — just the numbers showing Noynoy up by 11 or 12 percent over Villar. No survey question was produced, no demographics — just the survey figures on a claimed 3,000 respondents nationwide.

Gee, if such is what surveys are made of, why, anyone can come up with an unsubstantiated survey and release this to the media. Of what use would this be?

What is surprising in all this is that both, or at least their backers, want Estrada to withdraw from the race and endorse their candidacies.

But whatever for, if as claimed, Estrada ranks a poor third in the surveys, and the survey numbers for Villar and Noynoy are enough to make either one win, or so their surveys claim?

Apparently, they don’t believe in their survey numbers, or their electoral strength, and still see Estrada as a threat to their victory at the polls.

A newspaper report bared that Mike Velarde, the leader of the Catholic Charismatic Group El Shaddai, known to his flock as “Bro. Mike,” had asked Estrada to withdraw from the presidential race.

It will be recalled that last week, Estrada had bared that there have been emissaries from unnamed political camps who have asked him to withdraw from the race and that he had rejected their offers, stressing that he is not going to withdraw from the race, as he would never leave his candidates, from vice president, senators, down to the mayors supporting him, without a presidential candidate.

Estrada’s campaign manager, Ambassador Ernesto Maceda was reported to have identified one of the emissaries as Bro. Mike Velarde, who has already made his presidential choice much too public. It was he who has asked Estrada to withdraw in favor of his presidential anointed.

Velarde’s spokesman, Mel Robles, denied this, but the denial is hardly credible, given the fact that the Villar camp — as well as the Noynoy camp — has been spreading the rumor of Estrada withdrawing from the presidential race for some time.

There was even a time when, in front of some Metro Manila mayors, Villar had claimed that Estrada was willing to withdraw from the race, but that the former president was asking for too high a price for his withdrawal — which was a barefaced lie.

Velarde knows that among his El Shaddai flock, there are many who are still for Estrada, and his anointed does not have the same charismatic appeal Erap has over the masses. And Velarde also knows that the El Shaddai flock is not a command vote.

So why are these two frontrunners threatened by the continued stay in the race of Estrada?

Is it possible they know for certain that the survey figures are being massaged in their favor, and more to the point, these same survey outfits, that don’t want to see Estrada in Malacañang again, are making sure that his numbers are deliberately being brought down?

There have already been many instances where these same survey outfits have been found to have massaged the numbers, apart from the fact that the methodology used has already been junked by the western world, as too much bias creeps in on such face to face survey, not to mention the existence of a field workers’ syndicate that charges half a million pesos per one percentage point increase for the candidate. This may even explain why Estrada’s numbers are down. The percentages are subtracted from him and added up to whoever pays for that increase.

Despite their massaged survey numbers, they still want Estrada out or the race.

They must know something we don’t.

ABS-CBN nixes Erap ad airing

Network says ad claim on economy not substantiated 


For a television network that claims to be credible and fair, the giant network ABS-CBN again showed its bias as it disproved its claims at fairness, impartiality and credibility, with its refusal to broadcast an advertisement of presidential candidate former President Joseph Estrada, focusing on his his achievements as president during his two year’s stay in Malacañang.

This is not the first time ABS-CBN has refused to air advertisements being placed by Estrada and his camp.
Earlier, the giant TV network had refused to air the infomercial of Estrada that had a video of the late President Cory Aquino apologizing to him for her participation in the Edsa ll coup d’etat, saying she had made mistake in helping the coup plotters in ousting Estrada.

Despite the fact that this incident was aired by the network itself, and that the video footage came from the ABS-CBN cameras and news programs, ABS-CBN network still refused to air the infomercial. It was clear then that the network refused to air Estrada’s informercial as it was behind the candidacy of Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino.

GMA network, which according to a survey, is deemed by respondents as the most credible network, and whose slogan is impartiality and crediblity, lived up to its name when it aired the Estrada infomercial without any conditions, finding nothing wrong with the ad.

Similarly, GMA-TV also accepted for airing the ad on the economic gains and priorities under the Estrada administration without conditions, which ABS-CBN refused to air.

Much earlier, when Estrada was in detention in Tanay, Rizal, he also had a couple of advertisements for ABS-CBN airing, where he put out the survey findings showing that the majority of the Filipinos did not believe he was guilty of plunder, among other ads that were based on facts. They were turned down by ABS-CBN.

ABS-CBN has also shown its bias against Estrada even in its newsprograms.
In one instance, with the program Media in Focus, the spokesmen of Aquino and other presidential candidates were invited — except for the spokesmen of Estrada.

Even during his declaration to run for the presidency at the Plaza Moriones in Tondo, while the news program carried it, the anchor however, ensured that her panel guests were all anti-Estrada guests, who all said he would be disqualified and that he no longer had the people to vote for him.

Thus, while Estrada’s declaration was in a small window box, the anchor and her guests were attacking Estrada.

The same was done during the filing of the presidential candidates’ filing of certificates of candidacies. While all other candidates, Aquino and Villar’s filing was uninterrupted by commentaries from the TV anchors.
When it came to Estrada’s turn, there went again the anchor, having yet another anti-Erap analyst commenting on his being disqualified.

This time around, ABS-CBN claimed it had disapproved the ad of Estrada which says that the Estrada administration had the highest budget for health care and social services and education, as this claim has not been substantiated.

The network stated that the “information does not appear to be sufficient. The claims referred to budget, whereas the information does not indicate that the Estrada Administration had the largest budget in Education and Health Care and Social Services among all administrations.”

Sources in the Estrada camp told the Tribune yesterday that which ABS-CBN wanted the Estrada camp to do is to have a comparative table of all administrations — from the start of the American colonial period to the Arroyo presidency.

The Estrada figures were taken from official data, budget and the National Statistics Board, starting with the Marcos administration all the way to the Arroyo administration in comparison to his, during his brief two year term.

The Estrada camp provided ABS-CBN with official budget data from former budget secretary Benjamin Diokno, which showed that Estrada spent the most in economic services, social services and the lowest in debt service interests.

A source from the Estrada camp told the Tribune that the network is really showing its bias against Estrada, in now demanding the Estrada camp to provide an official certification from the Arroyo government to state that the figures given by Estrada are true and can be substantiated, knowing that this certification would not be given by Arroyo.

The sources laughed off this excuse of the network, saying that it has been airing the “legacy” claims of Arroyo, which can hardly be substantiated. Yet this has been aired.

The network has also aired Nacionalista presidential bet, Sen. Manuel “Manny” Villar’s many unsubstantiated claims in his ads, including his song that insinuates that he has swam in a pile of garbage, or that his house in Tondo was such and that he was born poor, which can be challenged and can not be substantiated.
In the same manner, Liberal Party bet Noynoy Aquino’s ad has a lot of claims that have not been asked by the network to substantiate.

Meanwhile Business consultant Peter Wallace, who was among the first to support Arroyo in 2001 after a military-backed uprising that ousted Estrada, has questioned in a recent report the supposed legacy economic achievements of Arroyo that appeared in two-page advertisements in major newspapers.

“Some truly magical numbers from a fairyland I didn’t know existed,” Wallace said of Arroyo’s trumpeted indicators.
The most recent Wallace Report titled Fairyland said Arroyo’s claim of a 4.86 percent average growth during her nine-year term must be deflated for the statistical discrepancy in the 2007 number when a drop in imports created a double negative that artificially inflated gross domestic product (GDP) growth.

He posed the argument that “nothing dramatically different occurred in 2007 that could have justified (a) 7.1 percent growth.”

“Our best estimate is around 4.8 percent if imports had grown at their historically normal rate.” he said of the 2007 economic expansion figure.

With that adjustment, average growth under GMA has been 4.7 percent. Estrada matches it. “Are we to assume from this that Estrada was as good an economic manager as Arroyo?,” he said.

The report also conceded that Estrada has a far better record than Arroyo in providing low cost shelter.
“Isn’t it a little unfair to compare the number of houses the government built in the two and a half years of Estrada with the nine years of Arroyo? On an annualized basis, Ramos built 33,982 per year, Estrada 39,306, and Arroyo 32,777 — who did better?,” the report said.

The government said the growth provided more income to the people, therefore more money to buy food but the percentage of households that experienced hunger at least once in the past three months recently hit a record-high of 24 percent or about 4.4 million households, Wallace said.

The poor definitely have gotten no benefit from the “highest average GDP growth recorded since 1966” or the “highest quarterly growth posted in 30 years” proclaimed in the government ad.
He said prices of commodities are periodically artificially low because of Arroyo’s intervention.
“Inflation, I’ll agree, is far lower and that is in part because of good management, but good management by the Central Bank, which is part of its role.

“GMA’s involvement has been to artificially control prices and create an economy where people can’t afford fair market value, so firms are forced to sell at lower margins. This is in the free market she espouses, but then doesn’t follow,” he said.

He added the Philippines attracted the least foreign direct investments (FDI) among the Asean—6 member countries during the past eight years.

The country got $12.1 billion; next lowest was Indonesia at $29.7 billion; little old Singapore did best at $133 billion, 11 times the Philippine level; while Malaysia and Thailand got about the same at a little over $40 billion each, he said.

On the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) boom that Arroyo claimed credit for, Wallace questioned what specific actions did this government do that were different to justify credit for this.

“The talent of the Filipino for this role did it. What policies or actions did GMA take to improve this sector? Creating a Department of ICT that this sector so urgently needs just hasn’t happened despite that I raised the subject to her three months into her presidency. The high-level, focused attention can’t be there without it,” he said.

“I could go on, but you get the message. There’s hardly an honest number in the whole two pages.
As Ben Diokno says, itfs a disgraceful waste of money. And a deliberate deception to the public that doesnft have the access to the real data like we do,” he said.

BPO started by Erap administration, not GMA

Reacting to the crowing of President Arroyo on her claimed legacy of the reported P7-billion business process outsourcing

(BPO) industry which she said she had “built from scratch” and which is the major key for the Philippines to finally join the ranks of developed countries, former President Joseph Estrada’s spokesman, Margaux Salcedo yesterday, pointed out that the Arroyo administration did not build the BPO industry

from scratch. The Estrada administration, she stressed, started this industry sector.

“The Arroyo administration did not build the BPO industry from scratch. The BPO industry was started by the Erap administration,” Salcedo said yesterday in reaction the Arroyo claim.

“The BPO Industry had its beginnings when former President Joseph Estrada directed the Department of Trade and Industry in 1999 to expand the existing Economic Zones to include IT or Information Technology related businesses,” Salcedo clarified. 

“The Department of Trade and Industry got a directive from President Estrada to position the Philippines as an IT center. They even commissioned a special study to research prospects and then-DTI Secretary Jose ‘Titoy’ Pardo was even sent to India and Silicon Valley in the United States to explore opportunities.”

The Philippines, under the Estrada administration, was then able to partner with India and thus received the necessary training in the conduct of BPO.

Clarifying the history of the Business Processing Outsourcing industry in the Philippines, former Trade and Industry Jose “Titoy” Pardo said, “The BPO industry may have matured during the GMA administration but it cannot ignore that its origins are from the Estrada administration.” 

“It was during President Estrada’s administration that the Northgate Cyberzone in Filinvest City in Alabang, the Eastwood City Cyberpark, and the RCBC Plaza IT centers were inaugurated in 1999,” Pardo recalled. Pardo was Secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry and Chairman of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority or Peza at the time. 

Pardo also revealed that it was during the Estrada administration that the interpretation of the Peza Law was expanded to include the Information Technology industry. The tax exemptions were designed to work as incentives for BPOs. This was instrumental in changing the industry climate to encourage BPO businesses to invest in the country.

Arroyo, touring the so-called “cyber corridor,” bragged that she would be turning over to her successor the call center industry which she said has become the second biggest global earner which would leave to the Philippines obtaining Frist World status.

A newspaper report quoted her as saying that “much work remains to be done but I am determined to turn over to the new government a new Philippines ready for the new challenge of bringing the nation on the verge of (becoming) First World in 20 years,” she said.

“Two hundred years ago there was the agriculture revolution, then there was the Industrial Revolution, and now we have the knowledge revolution -- and that’s the way to bring us to the First World,” she said.

She claimed full credit for having started “from scratch” the BPO industry, as she passes this claim off as part of her “legacy” to the Filipino people.