In a recent blogger event, QC Mayor candidate Mike Defensor laid out a strong challenge to Vice-Mayor Herbert Bautista. He shared with us official documents showing that Herbert spent 30% of his 750M budget on food and drinks in the last 3 years. There were also waivers attached signed by Herbert saying that no inspection was needed to physically validate the orders. 30% of 750M is roughly 230M-240M pesos and that’s no small amount. That money could have gone a long way in rehabilitating government hospitals like the one in East Avenue (where I was operated on with no anesthetics). Why does...

Detained Senator Antonio Trillanes’ Magdalo party was all set to endorse Senator Chiz Escudero as their President of choice a few months ago. Wednesday morning the Magdalo group revealed their new Presidential candidate: Senator Manny Villar of the Nacionalista Party. For Vice-President though they didn’t opt to push for Senator Loren Legarda, instead they went for Liberal Party’s Senator Mar Roxas. This made me think about a possible Villar-Roxas scenario in 2010. Those two guys hate each other’s guts. I wonder what will happen if they end up as partners in steering this...

Kapatiran Presidential bet JC Delos Reyes clashed with Liberal Party’s Senator Noynoy Aquino during a forum organized by the Businessmen from Business for Integrity and Stability of Our Nation 2020 (Bisyon 2020). Delos Reyes said that the Liberal Party should be more transparent, in which Aquino countered with his achievements in the senate. Delos Reyes did the unthinkable though by saying: “Senator Aquino, there is a big chance that you will be the next president, based on the surveys. I want you to succeed.” It looks like JC Delos Reyes is already throwing in the towel. I...

Just some thoughts I wanted to share re: the poll automation and COMELEC. In the past few months, the COMELEC has been taking a beating on the problems with poll automation. This issue has been at the spotlight of traditional and online media for the longest time and I haven’t heard anything good about it yet (Lol). Most of the issues that arise though are mostly driven by public perception and delayed deliverables on the partnership with SMARTMATIC. All of these problems, combined with their poorly made advertisements and information campaigns brings me to one solid conclusion. COMELEC needs...

If I were to name the biggest sin that the Arroyo administration has done it’s that they have singlehandedly corrupted and destroyed various institutions in the country. These are longstanding and proud institutions which used to enjoy the trust of the people. But now their credibility is in the dumps. Everything PGMA touches, it crumbles into ashes because people automatically lose trust in that department or group. This is by far PGMA’s worst crime to the Filipino people and I hope that the next President will be able to at least help bring back that trust to these institutions. COMELEC The...

I was reading an article today about how a certain organization felt “snubbed” that only one Presidential candidate was able to show up for their conference. One of the representatives of the organization then goes on to explain that their group has tremendous influence and therefore have a multiplier effect when it comes to potential votes. I think their statements and “threats” are plausible, but they are done in bad taste. Insane Schedules Having joined several political election campaigns already, I can tell you that it is really hard managing the schedule of a candidate. When it’s...

Google is launching a breakthrough telephony service called Google Voice which will offer free SMS (text messages), low-cost calls, call recording, call conferencing, and a whole deck of features. And like all Google products, they’re offering it for FREE. The service is currently on test phase (invite only) and is not available only in the US. However, this product is definitely worth the wait. For more details on this insane, awesome, and phenomenal product, please head on over to New Media Philippines.

Network Marketing and Direct Selling are huge businesses here in the Philippines. People make a lot of money here and I can’t count how many times I’ve been invited by friends and total strangers to join. I can still remember being dragged by a close buddy of mine to a supposed “gimmick” only to find myself in a seminar for one network marketing company selling skin treatments. Suffice to say that friend of mine had to treat me to Saisaki because if he didn’t I would have piledrivered him to hell and back. There’s nothing inherently wrong with Network Marketing First,...

Collezione-C2, the company that popularized the T-shirts with the Philippine map, recently announced a partnership with two big names. First is CNN Hero Efren Penaflorida and the second one is the popular notebook brand, Moleskin. In a cool event yesterday at Rockwell, they launched the new MyPilipinas Moleskin notebook which was endorsed by Efren. Each time you buy a MyPilipinas Moleskin notebook you also contribute to Efren Penaflorida’s literary project which is spearheaded by the Dynamic Teen Company Foundation. The notebooks will be available in Collezione-C2 branches as well as selected...

ABS-CBN talent Judy Ann Santos shared that she was deeply hurt by Senator Jamby Madrigal’s comments during a recent forum where she said that she made a mistake when she got a celebrity endorser to back her senatorial campaign in 2004. According to Juday, she went out of her way to really campaign for Jamby and that she seriously believed in the capabilities of Madrigal during the campaign. She goes on to say that she won’t say anything else about the matter since it will just blow things out of proportion again. Here’s a short quote from the article on ABS-CBN: During the Philippine...