Liberal Party shifts gears to ride on “yellow tidal wave”

There is no question that majority of Filipinos have reached a decision on who will be the next President and Vice President of the Republic , and about the only thing left to be done is make sure voters are able to manifest their will in the May 2010 elections, former Senate President Franklin M. Drilon, LP chairperson, said today, Nov. 5.

Speaking before over 80 delegates to the LP Visayas General Assembly at the Westown Hotel, Drilon said at no other time in his entire political career has he witnessed an overwhelming display of support for Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to become the next President and Senator Mar Roxas as Vice President.

“Survey after survey have shown that Noynoy Aquino is consistently hitting the 50% mark, a commanding lead no other presidential contender ever achieved in the past,” Drilon said as he urged Liberal Party leaders in Regions 6,7 and 8 to organize and put in place an “effective delivery system.”

As a tandem, Senators Aquino and Roxas notched a higher 60% in a nationwide survey, a clear indication that the LP team has already clinched the elections.

Drilon said not even Aquino’s mother, the late President Cory Aquino, came close to the level of popularity that the Liberal Party standard bearer is enjoying right now, notwithstanding the fact that he is a newcomer to the presidential race and has not yet actively promoted his platform.

“We have the grassroots support, and it is incumbent upon us to translate this support into votes,” he said.

Drilon revealed a survey conducted by the Random Access Consultants, Inc. (RACI) that placed Aquino at 38.4% in the whole province, followed by Senator Manny Villar at 23.4% and Chiz Escudero at 4.8% as an example of this massive outpouring of support for the Liberal Party standard bearer.

For vice president, Roxas garnered 52.8% while incumbent vice president Noli de Castro got 12.1%, Loren Legarda at 8.3% and 24% were still undecided.

The survey was conducted during the period Oct. 14-20 among 1,200 respondents, with a margin of error of plus/minus 3%.

The Visayas assembly picked the delegates for the three regions to attend the LP National Convention in Manila on Nov. 16.

The assembly adopted a resolution expressing its full support for Senator Noynoy Aquino as Liberal Party presidential candidate and Senator Mar Roxas as vice presidential bet.

In his message, Drilon said he can only describe the public’s support and acceptance of Aquino as “phenomenal”.

He narrated how, during the installation of Archbishop Soc Villegas in Dapugan, the entire Cathedral “exploded into a thunderous applause” when Aquino came up to the altar to greet the new prelate.

“Senator Manny Villar and I had gone up before him, and the crowd didn’t even stir a bit,” he said. “But when Noynoy rose and climbed up the altar, the crowd literally cheered him,” he added.

Drilon reminded the LP leaders in the Visayas that organizational support is needed to consolidate the gains and ensure the victory of its candidates for national and local positions.



A party in disarray

In politics, as in warfare, you can easily tell when a party is headed for defeat early in the game. This happens when confusion sets in, and its members are thrown into disarray. The result is predictable — you can safely bet that it will lose an election.

This is why in warfare, generals take pains to plot strategy that would sow confusion in the enemy camp. Winning will become a matter of course when unity and coherence vanish from the enemy ranks. This is also true in sports, and business and many other fields.

Such a situation is now apparent in the Lakas-Kampi administration party in the Province of Iloilo. The party is fielding Defense Secretary Gibo Teodoro as its presidential candidate. But even before Teodoro’s name was formally proclaimed as the party standard bearer, its key leaders in Iloilo province had already maintained dangerous liaisons with Nacionalista Party bet Senator Manny Villar. These leaders — Cong. Arthur Defensor, Cong. Ferjenel Biron, Cong. Janette Garin — had struck deals with Villar, for which they received fabulous gifts, and promises of campaign expenses to come. Defensor, Biron and Garin had forged an alliance with vice governor Rolex T. Suplico, the NP provincial chairman, for them to abandon Teodoro at a critical hour.

However, secrecy is never a strong point for politicians, and these treacherous liaisons reached the ears of Teodoro after a while. After all, the military’s intelligence service is at his beck and call. And he has his own friends in Iloilo who sensed that trouble was brewing for this Harvard-educated lawyer. Teodoro knew he had to counter this internal threat. He understood that Defensor et all were unprincipled politicians who placed their personal profit above everything else. He had to protect himself from wolves inside his own party.

Teodoro hastily convened a series of meetings with his friends in Iloilo politics, notable among them former Leganes municipal mayor Josil Jaen, in Manila. It didn’t take long for Teodoro to make a decision — he tasked Jaen to be his gubernatorial candidate for the Province. Even if Jaen is a weaker candidate than Defensor, at least Teodoro figured he can count on the former not to betray him. With the entry of Jaen, the gubernatorial race is now three-cornered.

This move is a surprise for Defensor et al. None of them had anticipated Teodoro to make such a bold move. They had thought that Teodoro was their hostage. And this development brings problems for Defensor, Biron and Garin. At Teodoro’s prodding, the triumvirate will find themselves being scrutinized under a microscope by Malacanang. There are rumors that their pork barrel for the last quarter of the year has been stopped. These congressmen had looked forward to getting several millions of pesos in projects more before jumping ship. They have been pre-empted.

We can expect the situation to turn murkier in the days ahead. Defensor and company will now have to rethink about where their allegiance should go —- Villar or Teodoro? This will deepen the fissures within the party, and confusion will reign longer before the water starts to turn clear. By the time these Iloilo Lakas-Kampi leaders can sort things out, the campaign season will have started, and they will have lost plenty of territory.  It’s not easy to pick up the pieces and mount a serious battle. The momentum has been seized by the Liberal Party, and there’s little doubt victory is at hand as the Lakas-Kampi struggles with this problem.

Statement of the Iloilo chapter of the NUJP on the incident involving photojournalist Tara Yap

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By the Executive Committee, NUJP-Iloilo October 20, 2009

The recent incident involving Iloilo photojournalist Tara Yap of The Daily Guardian has raised issues about press freedom and ethics which the Iloilo chapter of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) would like to address and respond to through this statement —-

Exercising the freedom of the Press and the right to information of the public is a constant balancing act between the right to gather information and to report this to the public, on the one hand, and the right of privacy of the subjects of news reports, on the other.

While the right to press freedom is a constitutionally guaranteed right, it has limitations the same way that the right to privacy of an individual or individuals can be subsumed if public interest warrants.

Iloilo Governor Niel Tupas Sr. and his family are public figures by virtue of their being politicians and as part of a political clan. Naturally, they are subjects of news coverage and reports.

Taking photographs or video footage of the governor’s residence by the media is part of the information gathering/documentation of journalists. No permission is required unless the photojournalist enters the private property of the governor’s family.

Normally, journalists need to clearly identify themselves as members of the media and their purpose in news gathering, taking pictures and interviewing. This is to afford fairness to the news subjects that the information being gathered will be used for journalism purposes.

But the use of clandestine techniques and devices like not divulging the identities of journalists and the use of hidden cameras to gather information are not necessarily unethical and in fact have been used by news organizations and some journalists in pursuit of certain kind of stories, especially investigative reports, or when the information sought is difficult to obtain through the usual means.

The taking of photographs or videos of the governor’s house or the attempt to do this by Ms Yap or any other journalist is, therefore, acceptable even without permission.

We, however, do not encourage these techniques and devices because these might intrude on the privacy of news subjects and at the same time put unnecessary risks on the journalist. As a general rule, journalists should gather information without using these techniques and devices and only resort to these means if there is no other way to get the information and if this is warranted by the significance of the story.

But if Ms Yap trespassed on private property while taking or attempting to take photos or video shots, then the Tupas family has every right to seek redress in the appropriate forum and manner.

There are, however, conflicting claims on whether Ms Yap entered the compound and trespassed on privately owned property or not.

If her claim that she did not enter the compound is true, then there was no need for her to identify herself.

If she was accosted outside the compound and brought in by the caretakers against her will, then that placed her in very serious risk and was a clear violation of her rights.

If Ms Yap entered the compound without permission, we understand the actions of the employees of the Tupas family in making her wait inside the compound while verifying her identity after they saw her inside the taxi with a camera, unaware of her identity and purpose.

But this should not be to the point of intimidating her.

We believe that the confiscation of Ms Yap’s two cellphones and camera (even if these were returned to her later) and the search conducted on her bag were uncalled for especially since she had already identified herself as a photojournalist.

Even law enforcers cannot do this except with the necessary search warrants or when they have enough proof to investigate or apprehend a person.

The allegations that Ms Yap’s actions and motivations are other than journalism purposes are allegations that we will not dwell on and is left to the parties involved to prove or disprove. But even if this is true, this does not justify the violation of her rights.

In the aftermath of this incident, we call on our colleagues to uphold the highest ethical standards possible especially with the coming election period and to remain independent, fair and balance.

We should uphold these basic ethical principles to be worthy to be called journalists.

The media and journalists should not allow themselves to be used as means of politicians to further their political agenda or to malign political opponents.

We particularly deplore the wanton abuse of the airwaves by block-timers paid by politicians whose sole purpose is to promote their clients or demolish the adversaries of their patrons.

We are alarmed that this early and months before the election season, programs specializing on personal attacks or praise for or against politicians already proliferate.

This is a slap on journalism and legitimate journalists and this kind of block-timers should harbor no illusion that we consider them as journalists. They are nothing but paid hacks.