Teacher to Boycott Election?

Militant teachers on Sunday threatened to boycott their election duties on May 10 if the government fails to work out a smooth system that will allow them to vote.

The Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) appealed to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to prevent the possible disenfranchisement of thousands of teachers by allowing the reactivation of teachers who were already deactivated and the transfer of registration of those who are registered in places other than their respective work assignments.

The group also appealed to the Comelec to have a special registration for teachers who are not registered at all.

“We urge the Comelec to tackle and immediately resolve this matter, if not we may opt to call on our colleagues to refuse the poll assignments," said Benjo Basas, the TDC national chairperson.

Teachers serve as board of election inspectors (BEIs) during elections. The automation of the May 10 nationwide polls has reduced the required number of BEIs from 800,000 to only about 250,000.

According to the Comelec Resolution 8798 promulgated last March 16, teachers who will serve as BEIs have only 30 minutes to vote in their respective precincts. The resolution amended Section 12 of Comelec Resolution 8786, which states that a BEI's absence shall not be for more than 20 minutes.

The resolution said that BEIs can vote “provided that they do so when the voting in their respective places of assignment is light, and their absence shall not be for more than 30 minutes."

Basas said limited time had resulted to many teachers not being able to cast their votes in past elections, which eventually resulted to them being de-listed from the voters’ list. He said that because of this disenfranchisement, majority if not all teachers are not qualified to sit as members of the BEI.

Election laws automatically deactivate a voter who fails to cast his votes in two consecutive national elections.

Basas pointed out that several Comelec resolutions in the past had allowed teachers to cast their votes in the precincts where they are assigned, and had actually allotted three excess ballots specifically for them.

He, however, claimed that the votes were not recorded by the Comelec since the teachers voted in areas where they were not registered. This, he said, also resulted to disenfranchisement of many teachers.

“All teachers who have served the past elections have also cast their votes in the precincts where they are assigned as members of Board of Elections Inspector. The problem is, those votes are not reflected in the book of voters, but it’s not our fault, it’s the Comelec’s responsibility to record our votes," he said.
David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
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Sen. Angara wants New Senate President

The Senate would have to elect when sessions resume on May 31 a new leader whose term is not expiring on June 30 to ensure somebody will be in charge in case elections fail on May 10, Senator Edgardo J. Angara said on Sunday.

Angara, a former Senate president who still has to finish half of his six-year term until 2013, noted that the terms of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Vice President Noli de Castro, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and House Speaker Prospero Nograles would all expire on June 30.

This means nobody would be at the country’s helm after that in case of an election failure, he told dzBB radio. “It’s an imperative for the survival of the republic," Angara, an administration ally, said of the election of a new Senate president.

Section 7, Article VIII of the 1987 Constitution states that "where no President and Vice President shall have been chosen or shall have qualified, or where both shall have died or become permanently disabled, the President of the Senate or, in case of his inability, the [House Speaker], shall act as President until a President or a Vice President shall have been chosen and qualified."

"[If] we broke the succession line… there will be a vacancy, a political vacuum… There are suggestions that while the Senate is still whole, we should choose a new [Senate] president whose term does not end on June 30," Angara said.

The Omnibus Election Code provides that in case elections fail, the Commission on Elections, acting on a petition, must hold another set of polls not later than 30 days.

The senators whose terms will end this June 30 are Juan Ponce Enrile, Rodolfo Biazon, Pilar Juliana "Pia" Cayetano, Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada, Richard Gordon, Manuel "Lito" Lapid, Jamby Madrigal, Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Ramon Bong Revilla, Manuel Roxas II, and Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

Enrile, Cayetano, Estrada, Lapid, Pimentel, Revilla and Santiago are all seeking reelection, while Biazon is running for congressman. Gordon and Madrigal are running for President, while Roxas is running for Vice President.

Aside from Angara, those who still have three more years to serve are Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, Joker Arroyo, Alan Peter Cayetano, Francis Escudero, Gregorio Honasan, Panfilo Lacson, Loren Legarda, Francis Pangilinan, Antonio Trillanes IV, Manuel Villar Jr. and Miguel Zubiri.

Aquino and Villar are running for President, while Legarda is Villar’s running mate as Vice President. Trillanes has been detained while facing rebellion charges.

Last week, Malacañang floated the idea of a military takeover in case the country’s first nationwide automated polls fail. But it later backtracked amid allegations that a military junta’s purpose was to perpetuate President Arroyo in power. (See: Palace backtracks on possibility of military takeover)

Presidential Spokesman Ricardo Saludo said Mrs. Arroyo, who is running for Congress in Pampanga’s second district, would step down on June 30 and give way to her successor.

On her blog, journalist Ellen Tordesillas raised the suspicion that an election failure at the national level could benefit Mrs. Arroyo in case she wins in her district and is eventually named House Speaker — the fourth in the line of presidential succession.

Enrile vs Angara
On Sunday, Angara said he would not initiate the election of a new Senate president because he does not want to be accused of partisan politics by seeking to oust Enrile.

"My main point is that the business community, the academe, education and other religious leaders should initiate [this] because they are the ones affected. If we [senators] make the move, the public will say we are after our self-interests," Angara said.

Last January and February, talks were rife that the Senate minority bloc was attempting to oust Enrile in connection with his move to admonish Villar, whom he replaced as Senate president in 2008, over charges that the former businessman had unduly enriched himself and his realty companies over the C-5 Road extension project. The minority bloc was allegedly eyeing Angara as Enrile’s replacement.

Enrile came out with a Senate committee report seeking Villar’s censure over the road project mess, but the report did not get enough backing, with Villar’s allies boycotting the last Senate session.
David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer

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Celebrate Poetry Day

World Poetry Day is on 21 March, and was declared by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 1999. The purpose of the day is to promote the reading, writing, publishing and teaching of poetry throughout the world and, as the UNESCO session declaring the day says, to "give fresh recognition and impetus to national, regional and international poetry movements."

It was generally celebrated in October, sometimes on the 5th, but in the latter part of the 20th Century the world community celebrated it on 15 October, the birthday of Virgil, the Roman epic poet and poet laureate under Augustus. The tradition to keep an October date for national or international poetry day celebrations still holds in many countries. Alternately, a different October or even November date is celebrated.

Doubling as International Year of Biodiversity and of the Rapprochement of Cultures, 2010 celebrates two essential facets of diversity: the heritage which is key to human life on Earth.Through poetry and science, humanity has been able to capture a full range of the world’s diversity.   From their distinctive perspectives, poetry and science embody humanity’s noblest quest: that which UNESCO’s Constitution identifies as “the unrestricted pursuit of truth”.   It is in this spirit that World Poetry Day (21 March) is observed at UNESCO through an afternoon devoted to the poetic vision of nature. PROGRAMME: 2:30 - Hommage to Rabindanath Tagore, Pablo Neruda, Aimé Césaire. Readings by Christian Deudon, Catherine Jarrette, Sharmilla Roy 3:15 - The Poetic Perspective and Scientifique Knowledge. Poetry Readings by José Muchnik and Christian Deudon (photos Alejandra Borcel) 3:30 - Great Voices. Basho, Yves Bonnefoy, Seamus Heany, Garcia Lorca, Tchicaya U Tam'si, Marina Tsvetaieva. Poetry Readings by Nicole Barrière, Jean François Blavin, Catherine Jarrette, Leanne O'Sullivan 4:00 - Haïti Trembles. Poetry Readings by Jean Metellus, Jean Herold Paul, Jean-Yves Bertogal , Ferdy Ajax 4:30 - Nature in Poetry. Invited Poets : Nicole Barrière, Jean François Blavin, Daouda Ndiaye, Yadollah Royai, Leanne O'Sullivan            

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
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Cook Put Body Hair in Police Sandwich

Police said a cook put a body hair in the bagel sandwich of a police officer who had given him tickets in the past.

The cook was arrested Feb. 21 in the kitchen of Good Foods to Go in Evesham. The police officer ticketed the cook in March 2009 when he failed to pull over for a traffic violation.

The cook spent four hours in jail before his wife bailed him out, and was fired from his job.

The Courier-Post of Cherry Hill reports police asked them not to report the incident for fear of copycat crimes. The paper published the story anyway.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer

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45 Years Overdue Book Returned in UK

 It's common to return a library book late — but not by half a century.

Staff at a British library say they were surprised and puzzled when they received a book that was 45 years overdue through their mailbox.

Alison Lawrie, the principal assistant at Dinnington Library, near northern England's Sheffield, says the Penguin first edition copy of "Quartermass and the Pit" by Nigel Kneale was due back on Oct. 15, 1965.

She says the borrower remains a mystery because the library records don't go back that far, and the sender didn't attach a letter or note with the book.

Lawrie said Friday the sender need not worry about a hefty fine.

She says: "If the person who returned the book wants to come forward, we'd love to know the story behind it."
David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer

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