i-site’s 2007 Election Files

JESSE Robredo is running for mayor for the sixth and last time this May. The reform-minded local chief executive of Naga, Bicolandia’s premier city, is acknowledged as a paragon in local governance. But he surprised everyone when he announced at the last minute that his wife is also running for mayor.

The move, he assured supporters though, was no trapo masterstroke to build a political dynasty, as it is meant only to counter efforts to disqualify him by the camp of the Villafuertes. He also says this will be the last election that he will be involved in.

The disqualification case assails Robredo’s Filipino citizenship — a recurring question almost every election. Though previous cases were dismissed, three times by the Commission on Elections, including one by the poll body en banc, Robredo fears that the Comelec would give due course to the petition this time.

In this podcast, the Naga City mayor talks in greater detail about the citizenship cases filed against him, what he thinks are his administration’s legacies, the lessons he learned from his exposure to politics and governance, the worst criticisms he has faced, and his plans once he retires from public life.

Listen to the interview:

Part 1
Language: English/Filipino
Length: 00:16:33
File size: 15.1 MB

Part 2
Language: English/Filipino
Length: 00:19:15
File size: 17.6 MB

JESSE Robredo has logged some 16 years as mayor of Naga City — enough time for most politicians to consolidate forces and become so entrenched in power that they turn into local bosses. Yet while there is no question that Robredo is a dominating figure in Naga City, the metropolitan pride of Bicolandia thrives largely because of the crucial role played by its residents in the way it is governed.

Robredo was lucky that Naga already had a strong tradition of people participation by the time he began his first stint as mayor there in 1988. But he built on that tradition and institutionalized it through a council made up of groups from civil society. Now there is even an initiative that uses information technology to make the local government more responsive to the needs of the people. Not surprisingly, Naga City is one among the only nine areas in the country cited by the United Nations Development Fund as stellar performers in the implementation of the UN Millennium Development Goals.

The changes in Naga have not gone unnoticed; the city has received more than 150 awards and citations since Robredo became mayor, while the city chief executive himself has garnered some 21 awards, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service in 2000. And while Robredo has more than 70 cases filed against him at the Office of the Ombudsman, most of his constituents continue to have faith in him.

Now that Robredo says the coming elections will be the last in which he will run for mayor, however, some have been wondering whether the reforms he has put in place will last long after he is no longer in office.

We hope this latest article in i Report’s series on Faces of Change and Changeless Places will inspire readers to vote for leaders of the people, as well as prompt them to see the value of their own participation in their communities.

Read on at pcij.org.

AS members of the 13th Congress intensify their campaign in their respective districts, the PCIJ looks at the legacy they leave behind vis-a-vis the budgetary support that we, as taxpayers, provided them.

In this special report, some lawmakers themselves admit the 13th Congress was “dismal” in performance, having passed the lowest number of bills of both national and local importance since 1987. Of the 84 bills it was able to enact into law, only 32 were of national significance.

With a budget of P12.51 billion over the past three years, each law cost taxpayer about P148.94 million. It also failed at its most basic function: that of approving the national budget on time.

The numbers provide an insight into the workings and failures of the Lower House, which for the past three years had to deal with two impeachment proceedings borne by the “Hello Garci” tapes. Lawmakers also held lengthy sessions for debates on proposals to amend the Constitution.

With this report, we hope to arm the electorate with more information about those seeking their votes in the May elections.

Read on at pcij.org.

GENUINE Opposition (GO) candidates are the “greenest” of all senatorial bets, the results of the 2007 Green Electoral Initiative (GEI) survey show.

Topping the survey is GO candidate and political neophyte Sonia Roco, followed by Loren Legarda, Aquilino Pimentel III, Manny Villar Jr. Independent candidate Gringo Honasan also made it to the top five green circle. Team Unity’s Miguel Zubiri, who describes himself as an avid environmentalist, did not rank high on the list. (View GEI overall rating.)

The month-long survey, conducted by environmental groups Greenpeace, EcoWaste Coalition, and Kaisampalad, ranked all senatorial candidates from a green to gray spectrum. (Click on image below for a larger view.)

A candidate’s “greenness” was based on one’s stand and track record on key environmental issues such as climate change, waste trade and the Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), sustainable agriculture, deforestation, and air and water pollution. (See questionnaire)

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CONFIDENTIAL documents allegedly emanating from Malacañang were divulged to the public by militant party-list groups today, depicting an apparent counter-scheme of the Arroyo administration to prevent “leftist and left-leaning party-list organizations” from gaining more seats in the House of Representatives this coming election.

The documents, presented during a joint press conference by Migrante, Gabriela Women’s Party, Anakpawis, Kabataan Party and Suara Bangsamoro, seem to bolster claims by party-list groups, including Akbayan, that some of those accredited by the Commission on Elections to vie for party-list seats in May are indeed connected with the government in terms of support, assistance, personnel and program.

The first document, a secret memorandum dated October 16, 2006, addressed to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and coursed through her special assistant, Atty. Erlyn de Leon, informs the president of the setting up of the Office of External Affairs Special Concerns Group (OEA-SCG) headed by Assistant Secretary Marcelo Fariñas II. The group, the memo said, will focus on the participation of Malacañang’s grassroots and allied NGOs and people’s organizations in the 2007 congressional elections.

Read the OEA memo and the attached party-list counter-plan.

The memo also outlined the objectives of OEA-SCG’s electoral campaign, which are as follows:

• Provide full support to several Comelec accredited party-list groups that are ascertained to be pro-administration and ensure the winning of nine (9) to twelve (12) seats in the House of Representatives;

• Form a party-list bloc that will support the plans and programs of the administration and help in countering destabilization moves by the opposition as well as left-leaning party-list groups;

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BARELY a month left in the campaign, reproductive health issues have yet to figure prominently in the platforms of candidates running for public office in the coming May elections.

Population watchdogs attribute this apparent reluctance among candidates to include population and family planning in their platforms to their fear of losing in the elections if they antagonize certain influential sectors like the Catholic Church, which has time and again opposed alternative family planning methods other than the natural one.

But the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation (PLCPD) said such indecision is baseless, citing the recent Pulse Asia Ulat ng Bayan Survey showing nearly eight out of 10 or 76 percent of Filipinos placing considerable importance on family planning as an election issue.

The March 2007 survey also revealed that one in every two Filipinos (52 percent) actually think that candidates who will support family planning will help them win in the elections. Forty-four percent of respondents likewise think that the Church must not involve itself in the issue compared to 33 percent who say otherwise.

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WHEN Bulacan Governor Josie de la Cruz asked her brother to run as barangay captain in Bocaue, people knew that Joselito ‘Jonjon’ Mendoza was being groomed to take her place in 2007.

He now sits as an ex-officio member of the Bulacan Provincial Board and is up against former governor Roberto Pagdanganan and incumbent Vice governor Rely Plamenco this May.

The images above show posters of the governor and her brother Jonjon. The New Year posters, for example, are found right in front of the Bulacan capitol. Now similar campaign posters litter the capitol’s front yard.

View image gallery.

One month before the campaign period, bright yellow calendar posters with the words, “Ang Bagong Bulakenyo, Naglilingkod at Maglilingkod pa!”, were distributed all over the province.

Also, the capitol had the bicycles under the governor’s “Bisikleta, Bilis Kita” program covered with tarpaulin bearing photos of de la Cruz and Mendoza. The program has over 3,000 beneficiaries.

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AS part of our elections coverage, we are posting the profiles of the 36 senatorial candidates, along with their party platforms, on i-site.ph/blog, the PCIJ’s official site on the 2007 May elections.

Twelve candidates are running under the administration’s Team Unity, 11 are under the Genuine Opposition, six from the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan, three from the Ang Kapatiran party, and four are independent candidates.

Their profiles show that the average age of the candidates is 54. The youngest is Magdalo leader Lt. Antonio Trillanes at 35, while senator Joker Arroyo, who turned 80 last January, is the oldest.

Most of those in the below-50 age bracket are from the Genuine Opposition (GO). Most of the 36 candidates are married.

Schooling

A look into their educational qualification shows that at least 10 are law graduates, four have degrees in commerce and business administration, while the rest have training in various fields such as public administration, communication, and liberal arts. At least two are undergraduates.

Majority of the senatoriables are graduates of the University of the Philippines. Three are graduates of the Philippine Military Academy, and the others are from top universities like De La Salle and Ateneo de Manila.

About 42 percent of the candidates, most from the GO, also pursued higher education. Sorsogon Rep. Francis Escudero, for example, has a Master of Laws from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. All three Ang Kapatiran senatoriables also have higher degrees, two of them attended universities overseas.

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SINCE Josefina “Josie” de la Cruz became governor of Bulacan in 1998, the once moribund province has been thriving. Many of its programs in health and social services have been recognized by various bodies, and its streamlined bureaucracy has become the envy of other local government units. And even if it has one of the biggest populations (2.23 million) among the Philippine provinces, Bulacan boasts of high literacy and employment rates, and is among the provinces that rank high in the human development index.

Much of these have been credited to de la Cruz, who is now acknowledged to be among the best of the country’s local chief executives. But her reformist image has been under siege in the last few years, with not a few people saying she has gone the way of traditional politicians, or trapos.

Curiously, many of the issues raised against her somehow involve her family. Cases that have led to graft charges being filed against her before the Office of the Ombudsman, for instance, involve relatives who landed lucrative contracts with the
province. Many eyebrows were raised as well when the de la Cruz made it clear she wants none other than her brother, ex-officio Provincial Board Member Joselito “Jonjon” Mendoza, to succeed her after her third and last term as governor ends in May.

Observers say de la Cruz is trying to perpetuate her family in power, just like many trapos have done and continue to do. She says she just wants to make sure what she has started will be seen through to the end. She also says that she has already given Bulacan 27 years of her life, and that “there is life after being governor.” If her brother wins in May and does well, says de la Cruz, then she will retire from politics.

But that’s still a big “if.” Like most politicians, she says she will keep her options open.

Read this latest feature in i Report’s series on Faces of Change and Changeless Places at pcij.org.

IN order to ensure that this year’s elections are clean and credible, Halalang Marangal (HALAL) or the Network of Citizens for Honest Elections and Truthful Statistics will conduct a citizens’ audit based on the precinct results of each voting station.

The results will be stored in a database that will be made available to the public through the Internet, cellphones, and data CDs.

The citizens’ audit was launched today, as HALAL’s partners signed a covenant to participate in the audit.

HALAL co-convenor Roberto Verzola says that no group has ever put the precinct results online. By doing so, HALAL will enable ordinary citizens to audit the results by comparing the information on the database with the data from their precinct. “If these are identical, then anyone can confirm if the results in their precinct were properly counted in the final tally,” Verzola said in a statement.

He added that the precinct results were the closest to the truth, as vote-tampering often occurs in the municipal level.

View Verzola’s slide presentation.

Former poll commissioner Mehol Sadain agrees that the precinct count is the most accurate. He joined HALAL as a co-convenor after he retired from the Commission on Elections.

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