I had a very early morning meeting today and I had the chance to take a rather relaxing drive around Quezon City. You know it’s election season when tarpaulins of numerous local officials are plastered all over the metro. One tarpaulin caught my eye – it was the tarp of the former Chief-of-staff of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo: Mike Defensor. The main message of his tarp was to go out to register and vote. I made a few calls to a couple of friends and asked around and apparently Mike is rumored to be gunning for the Mayorship of Quezon City. In all honesty, this guy used to be...

I helped organize a blogger event for Senator Chiz Escudero on November 7, 2009, at Annabelle’s Restaurant along Tomas Morato. There were a lot of bloggers who were eager to meet him especially since he just left his old party, the NPC. There were so many questions lingering and this event was a good venue to clear a lot of things out with Senator Chiz. We arrived at the venue around 11AM to help set up together with former NTC Commissioner Jorge Sarmiento (now part of Team Chiz). Eventually the bloggers started coming in. As usual, my favorite mom blogger, Noemi Dado, was the first to arrive....

During the first blogger event that I attended with Senator Chiz Escudero, we asked him who he would want to be President (other than him). His answer then was Senator Noynoy Aquino. Fast forward a couple of months later, I’m in another blogger event with Chiz again. This time though a lot of changes have happened. Noynoy is now actually running for President and Chiz just resigned from the NPC. I thought it would be interesting to see if what he said that would still apply. So I asked him again – if he were to not pursue his 2010 Presidential bid, would he support Noynoy Aquino? I’ve...

In a blogger session with Senator Chiz Escudero, he shared with us his planned original endorsed line-up for the Senate with his former party, the NPC. He still supports these candidates even though he’s left the party already. One of the names that came up was my auntie’s, Susan “Toots” Ople. Others that he mentioned were Tourism Secretary Ace Durano, Cong. TG Guingona, Bongbong Plaza, and General Danny Lim. Here’s the video. Sorry for the poor quality, I took this with my BlackBerry phone camera and I forgot to take out the plastic case which kinda covered the audio...

I’ve been reading up on the Romeo Jalosos case and after investigating the facts, I can’t help but feel disgusted and repulsed at how this administration has abused their power and spat at the face of justice and morality. I can’t imagine how it must have felt for the victim and her family to see someone who abused and brutalized her set free. The trauma must be unimaginable. Based on what I found out, Jalosjos was convicted of statutory rape and was sentenced in 1997 to two life terms and an additional eight to fifteen years for each of the six counts of acts of lasciviousness...

Dra. Vicky Belo, one of the controversial figures in the Hayden Kho scandal, seems to keep on running into bad luck these days. I kinda feel bad for her since I’ve met her several times and you can really see that she’s depressed when you look into her eyes. When I met her during one of my talks during Go Negosyo, she would constantly cling to her daughter, something that I interpreted as her drawing what strength she could from one of the things that remained “pure” and untainted by media and scandals. It looks like there’s no immediate respite for her at the moment....

Well this is something you don’t see everyday! BIR Chief Sixto Esquivias resigned from his post last week. In a series of interviews after he cites that the main reason why he stepped down was because he was ashamed that he wasn’t able to deliver the targets for 2009 of the BIR. Apparently there is a big shortfall in terms of collections and he decided that the honorable thing to do was to step aside and let someone else do the job. While I don’t know what this move can do to his career, I’m impressed that he was able to let go of such a powerful and influential post. If...

Ding Gagelonia reports in his blog, At Midfield, that the Villar-Legarda tandem for 2010 is already a done deal. According to his article, both parties will field a full slate from President to all 12 slots of the Senate. Ding goes on to explain that his sources say that this wasn’t something that they planned on. This was really something brought about by Senator Chiz Escudero leaving the NPC. If I may quote: My sources said “the event planners of NP standard bearer Villar wants to properly project the ticket as the alternative choice of voters against the perceived front-running tandem...

Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero announced this morning that he was resigning from the NPC. Initially I was shocked and I actually thought to myself “Is this guy insane?” I was wondering why he left the party seeing as that would be the foundation of his machinery and funding. However, after talking to some friends and reading entries of other bloggers, I realized that his decision to leave the NPC was actually a good thing and that it can pave the way for him to actually win the Presidency in 2010.

Senator Chiz Esucdero just resigned from his political party, NPC, this morning at Club Filipino. This came as a huge shocker since a lot of people were actually expecting him to announce his bid for the Presidency today. In fact, the original event was scheduled this evening at UP but was suddenly changed yesterday to Club Filipino. So many thoughts about this but I have work, haha! Will write in a while during my lunch break.