Cayetano Support for new Senate Head

Re-electionist Senator Pia Cayetano said on Tuesday she would support moves to elect a new Senate president before the May 10 elections, stating that the country had nothing to lose by having someone ready to take the job as the country's interim President should there be a general failure of elections.
“I don't mind if there's one (election of a new Senate president) before May 10.... Strictly speaking there is enough time but because of all this talk of uncertainties that even Malacañang [has said] 'Let's be prepared,' I don't think it would hurt. And I mean no disrespect to the sitting (Senate) president,” Cayetano said at a round-table discussion with Inquirer editors and reporters.
Cayetano agreed to the Senate special session proposed by Senator Rodolfo Biazon in order to elect a new Senate president to replace Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who is seeking re-election.
“If we talk about special sessions for all these... issues, why not have a special session for such a grave situation?” Cayetano said, adding: “Consistent with my statement that if we're looking at certainty and continuity, why not before [the May 10 elections]? Why not? To be honest, I haven't thought long and hard about this. But if you think about it, what do you lose? If we have the election (for Senate president), you only gain. You gain by having it, you don't lose anything by having it sooner.”
Senator Edgardo Angara had earlier called for the election of a new Senate president, preferably before the May 10 elections, so there would be someone to act as president in case the country's first automated elections fail.
Angara had pointed out that the line of succession would be broken at midnight of June 30 because the terms of office of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Vice President Noli de Castro, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and House Speaker Prospero Nograles will expire then.
Angara had proposed that all 23 senators elect a new Senate president from among the 12 senators who will be serving until 2013.
Biazon, who has said he had prepared a bill that provides for the election of an acting or caretaker Senate president among the 12, has proposed the exclusion of three senators—Manuel Villar, Jr., Benigno Aquino, III, and Loren Legarda—because they are running for election in May.
The choice, then, would be narrowed to the nine remaining senators—Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, Joker Arroyo, Edgardo Angara, Francis Escudero, Panfilo Lacson, Gregorio Honasan, Francis Pangilinan, Alan Peter Cayetano, and Antonio Trillanes IV.
When asked who her choice would be for the next Senate president, Cayetano named Senator Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel.
“Of course I am in the opposition so let's limit our choices there. I'd say Nene Pimentel because he's the minority floor leader. He has always shown his leadership when it comes to shepherding the minority,” Cayetano said.
However, Pimentel would be wrapping up his Senate term this year.
In a follow-up statement, Cayetano said that whoever is chosen as the next Senate president should be an incumbent or one whose term will end in 2013; is not running for any position in the May 10 elections; and is not supporting any presidential candidate.
Of the 12 senators with terms up to 2013, Cayetano said that “it appears that the names who fit the bill are Angara, Arroyo, and Escudero.”
Her own brother, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, is one of the spokespersons of Villar and has been openly campaigning for the billionaire-politician's presidential bid.

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40,000 Ghost Voter removed

Some 40,000 voters were removed from the Maguindanao voters’ list for failure to validate their records through the biometrics system or failure to vote during the two previous elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec), said Wednesday.

Estelita Orbase, Maguindanao election supervisor, said the 40,000 would not be allowed to vote in the May 10 elections.
“Only the Comelec central office can resolve the problem of voters, whose names have been removed from the new Comelec list of registered voters,” she said.
Among the 14,152 voters de-listed for failure to validate their records was re-electionist city councilor Florante Formento.
Formento, a former journalist, said he was unsure if the Comelec could reconsider his case, with the campaign period for local polls fast approaching.
Formento said city election officer Badelles Macaan had flown to Manila to bring their case before the Comelec.
“We were told he will try to argue my case and those of over 14,000 other voters with the central office, but up to now (Wednesday) there is no word yet and we are running out of time,” he said.
Under the law, only registered voters can run in any elective post.
Meanwhile, Orbase said the de-listing of the 34,142 voters who were removed for failure to vote in 2004 and 2007 and register during the allotted time before the election period, was final.

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Speedy Trial for Maguindanao Massacre

 Media groups on Wednesday bewailed the slow resolution of the Maguindanao massacre and the alleged “lack of transparency” of the courts at the ongoing trial against those implicated in the killings.

In their visit to the national police headquarters in Camp Crame, representatives from International Federation of Journalists, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, and Southeast Asian Press Alliance met with members of Task Group Maguindanao charged to investigate the killings.

IFJ Consultant Mike Dobbie said that more than four months after the brutal killing of 57 people, they have yet to see justice served to the victims.

“We’d like to see the justice system speed up,” Dobbie said in an interview after their meeting with the police task group.

Dobbie also called on the Department of Justice to make the trial public to ensure transparency.

“We would like the DOJ to ensure us that the trial be made public or a website be put up where all the transcripts of hearings will be uploaded,” Dobbie added.

Dobbie, in his meeting with Task Group Maguindanao spokesman Superintendent Joaquin Alva together with six more members from various media organizations, expressed alarm over the handling of the Philippine National Police of the 63 policemen implicated in the killings.

These policemen were not under arrest but under “restrictive custody.” They were reassigned to the PNP Headquarters Support Service and were allowed to roam freely inside the police camp.

Alva said they cannot act yet on the 63 policemen pending the issuance of warrants of arrest.

“We are waiting for their arrest warrants but all those involved have been reassigned at the HSS. In fact, they are already subjected to administrative cases,” Alva told the group.

“We have no legal basis to put them under arrest,” he added.

But Dobbie said that the possibility that these 63 policemen tagged in the massacre of escaping was “alarming.”

“This is an enormous concern that should be addressed [by the PNP],” Dobbie added.

Dobbie also said that the handling of the police and the courts on the Maguindanao massacre was “reflective of the long culture of impunity” of the country against journalists.

He said that foreign media organizations are set to visit the families of the victims of the massacre in General Santos City.
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Lakas to Kick Members to Support another Presidential bet -Teodoro

Lakas-Kampi standard-bearer Gilbert Teodoro Jr. said party members who back other presidential aspirants run the risk of enduring strict disciplinary actions or outright expulsion.
But he said the Lakas campaign had already forecast the eventual party-switching among its ranks before it launched his presidential bid.
"We have factored [into the campaign strategy] a certain amount of defection [that would take place]. That happens. You can't stop it. Rather than not accept [defections] as a reality, you have to be ready [if you want to proceed with an efficient campaign]," he said.
Teodoro toured this town on Wednesday, part of a Pangasinan sortie that coincided with the two-day provincial tour of his cousin, Senator Benigno Aquino III, standard-bearer of the Liberal Party.
On Sunday in Baguio City, Florencio Abad Jr., LP campaign manager, said his party had been documenting the activities of Lakas provincial candidates, who have openly campaigned for Senator Manuel Villar Jr., the Nacionalista Party standard-bearer.

Abad said LP has concluded that Villar may soon receive full backing from the Lakas-Kampi leadership, which would place Teodoro in an awkward position.
When asked here, Teodoro said Lakas would not conduct any loyalty check to preempt more members from abandoning the administration campaign.
"It's a party matter, so it will be the party which will act on the erring party members," Teodoro told reporters here.
"Asal na ng ibang Filipino 'yan, di maiiwasan (That's how some Filipinos behave. We can't avoid that)," he said.
He said there was no evidence that a Lakas member from Pangasinan had turned his or her back on Teodoro's candidacy.
He said Pangasinan will be significant if he wants to win the presidency because of its huge number of voters. But he said he has not contacted Pangasinan Representative Jose de Venecia Jr., a Lakas co-founder who was expelled last year after he broke ties with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Teodoro and his teammates held motorcades in eastern Pangasinan but Aquino had been barnstorming the province since Tuesday. The cousins never met.
Asked what he will do in case they meet, Teodoro said: "Kakamayan ko siya (I would shake his hands). But I won't kiss him. That will be too much."

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Another Quake

A 5.1-magnitude earthquake shook the eastern Turkish province of Elazig on Wednesday, some two weeks after a powerful tremor killed dozens there, officials said.
The quake struck at 4:12 p.m. (1412 GMT) at a depth of five kilometers (three miles), with an epicenter between the village of Gokdere and the town of Palu, the Istanbul-based Kandilli observatory said on its web site.
The quake follows a pre-dawn 6.0-magnitude earthquake on March 8 which killed 41 people in remote mountain villages of Elazig.

David Mikael Taclino
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