I was invited to go to a blogger coffee session with Joey De Venecia by Ricky Rivera and Ding Gagelonia. The event was held in Annabelle’s restaurant along Tomas Morato (same place as where Mar Roxas had his first blogger event). It was initially a bit dragging since we barely got to discuss any issue at length with Joey because there was a lengthy debate about Poll Automation. I actually found myself zoning out and was contemplating on how I could butt in to ask my questions. Anyway, I got my chance and I was able to fire off a few queries.

Here are bullet points of what we discussed:

- Joey is running for the Senate in 2010. He’s not yet sure what party he’ll be joining but it will definitely be opposition.

- His father, JDV, promised support to Senator Manny Villar prior to former President Aquino’s death. I wonder if he’ll still push for Villar with Noynoy coming into the picture? I’ll definitely monitor developments on this one. No mention of FVR during the talk.

- He shared with us that there were people in the opposition talking about a PEOPLE POWER COALITION. This is an alliance of several opposition parties which will probably back up Senator Noynoy Aquino of the Liberal Party. This move reminds me a lot of his JDV who used his diplomacy skills to form the RAINBOW COALITION in the House of Representatives when he was the Speaker.

- If he’s elected, the first thing he’ll do the morning right after he takes his oath is to file criminal cases against President Arroyo and the first gentleman. I think just by saying this in forums he’ll be able to get a lot of votes, haha.

- In terms of legislative priorities, he’ll file bills that will strengthen the local government. He wants LGU’s to have more control over their budgets.

- He’ll also look into how we do debt servicing. Apparently there’s a way we can nullify some debts so we can free up budget to do other things. According to him, 30% of the annual budget automatically goes to paying off our debts.

Will I vote for him? I’m not yet 100%. However, he did strike me as a person hell bent on making the current administration pay for their crimes. I wish I had more time to talk to him about other topics so I could get to know him some more. 95% of the discussion during the evening really revolved around poll automation.

Looking forward to another blogger event with this guy.

Related posts:

1. Joey De Venecia will run for Senator in 2010
2. Coffee Session with Rep. Ruffy Biazon
3. Upcoming Coffee Session with Cong. Ruffy Biazon

I just came from a blogger coffee session with NBN-ZTE whistle blower Joey De Venecia. I’ll write about the coffee session and what we discussed in detail in a separate post. For now, let me just share with everyone that he told us that he’s planning on running for the Senate in 2010 but he’s yet to make a decision on what party he’ll be joining. It will definitely be the opposition but no word yet on which particular party.

I’ll try to post what we discussed during the blogger session in a while.

Related posts:

1. Coffee Session with NBN-ZTE Whistle Blower Joey De Venecia
2. Wille Revillame for Senator in 2010?
3. Senator Panfilo Lacson Hints Running for VP in 2010