Over the next few weeks I’ll be doing a series of posts called “Why am I voting for”. My goal is to blog about every single candidate that I’ll be voting for in the upcoming 2010 elections. This is my way of supporting their candidacies and trying to put some sense and purpose to this site as well. I pick my candidates based on their platforms and track record. Note that there is no perfect candidate. There will always be something that we can pick on. At the end of the day it all boils down to our intellectual and spiritual discernment on who we should support. I’ll be posting about my Senatorial preferences first then Vice-Presidential, and finally my Presidential bet.
We got our chance to sit down, have dinner, and talk with Quezon City Vice-Mayor Herbert Bautista last night. I took the initiative in trying to organize the meeting since I felt that it was unfair to only publish Mike Defensor‘s side especially since I’ve been a resident of QC for the longest part of my life. Before we go on, let me just thank Chuck Cabral and Tito Mike Orosa for helping me connect with Herbert. This event wouldn’t have happened without their support.
First Impressions
I literally did not notice Herbert when I went in the room. He was seated on the floor charging his cellphone while he was texting when we came in. It took me two to three glances before i realized that the Vice-Mayor of Quezon City was in the room! He quickly got up and went over and greeted us while shaking our hands. Personally I felt that he was really stressed or burdened that night. There was definitely a gloomy cloud hovering over him. Eventually all the bloggers arrived and Herbert joined us for dinner. We had a Filipino home cooked meal of tilapia, rice, kaldereta, and liempo. After the dinner, we all took our positions and got ready for the session.
Herbert answers Mike’s Allegations
The session heated up pretty quickly since the first topic for discussion was Mike Defensor’s allegations. According to Mike, 30% of QC’s budget went into food and drinks and it was not inspected because Herbert signed a waiver for non-inspection. In his defense, Herbert said that these programs really needed to be procured via emergency because it takes so long to do it the normal way. The food and drinks budget was also allocated for all the training and seminar sessions that the office of the Vice-Mayor and not just for simple feeding programs. With regards to the waiver for inspection, he shares that it’s also part of the justification.
Here’s the video interview which Blog Watch uploaded:
In the interest of fairness, I’ll leave it to you guys to figure out who to support.
With regards to his plans for Quezon City, Herbert says that he will allocate more funds to social services and development. Unlike Mike, he’s not promising anything big and says that as a politician, he can promise a lot. But as an administrator, he can’t because he knows what can be done and what can’t be done given the budget and the population of QC.
Herbert Bautista has a lot of experience, being in local government for over a decade. He’s been a councilor, a Vice-Mayor, and he practically grew up serving Quezon City. Other than his record, Herbert strikes me as a person who wears his heart on his sleeve. He’s very “human” and he’s actually one of the most approachable politicians/celebrities I’ve ever met. However, that’s both and advantage and a disadvantage.
My suggestion for Bistek is that he needs to hire really good marketing/pr professionals to help him with his campaign. They have to iron out the message that they want to communicate to the voters and they need to properly handle the case being filed against them by Mike because it’s damaging.
Thanks again to Vice-Mayor Herbert Bautista for accepting our request for a blogger session. Thank you and good luck with the upcoming elections!
I just came from a rather interesting dinner-blogger session with Quezon City Vice-Mayor Herbert “Bistek” Bautista. The session heated up quickly since we immediately dove into the major pressing issue which was Mike Defensor’s allegations of 30% of his budget being used for “food and drinks”. I’ll write a piece on Herbert either later tonight or tomorrow morning. For now, let me re-post a video of Herbert answering Mike on an ANC show hosted by Karen Davila.
I gave a talk during the recently concluded Blog World Philippines 2010. As I was getting ready for my talk, I said hellos and hi’s to the other speakers. The two guys at the far end of the table looked really nervous and anxious. Little did I know that these two guys are actually Filipino millionaire bloggers. The entire room’s attention was literally focused on them when the emcee started to introduce them. Apparently these guys are some of the best Search Engine Optimization experts in the world and they’ve made more than P15,000,000 on blogging. Yes, you read that right. FIFTEEN MILLION.
For more information on the event and some talking points of my session, please do head over to my Internet Marketing blog.
Pulse Asia released a survey last week which showed that Noynoy Aquino is pulling away from Manny Villar. However the following week two other surveys showed that the two candidates were still locked in a statistical tie. In the latest survey commissioned by BusinessWorld, both of them are still pretty much in the running on almost equal footing. The other candidates though registered gains. Not that big but still it’s a sign that the voting public is slowly realizing that it’s not just a Aquino-Villar election.
Brother Eddie is steadily moving up; albeit at a snail’s pace. Same can be said for LAKAS-KAMPI’s Gilbert Teodoro. Former President Estrada is also climbing back up mostly because of his latest media ad campaigns. What I find weird is that KBL’s Acosta has higher ratings than Nick Perlas and JC Delos Reyes. x.x
Eversince Mike Defensor raised his concerns and issues against Vice-Mayor Herbert Bautista during his blogger event, I’ve been trying to organize and set-up another event with Vice-Mayor Bistek so he can answer and clarify the allegations thrown by his rival for the Mayoralty of Quezon City. I’m very happy to let everyone know that someone from his staff and one of his personal friends have confirmed that we will be having a blogger dinner/lunch with the Vice-Mayor.
herbert’s appointment secretary is still working on his schedule. rest assured that the meeting with bloggers will push through.
thank you.
According to our discussions, it won’t be as formal like the set-up of Mike’s event. It will probably be casual talk over lunch or dinner. Doesn’t really matter to me as long as we get to hear what he has to say.
I’ve been a “corporate slave” for well over 6 years now. One of the things I hate the most is seeing the amount of money deducted from my monthly salary due to the withholding tax (around 30%). This money goes to the Philippine government and they basically decide how to spend that money to benefit the Filipino people. I wouldn’t mind seeing that money go into road development or to pay for the salaries of our police, military, and teachers. What I don’t understand is why we should be paying for condoms and pills which are being distributed right now by the Department of Health!
Yes, overpopulation is a problem. Yes, the HIV-AIDS epidemic is something we have to confront. But we won’t be able to do that by giving away condoms and pills! This is not a sustainable program. Does this mean that every year an amount of the Philippine budget will be spent on buying condoms and pills for distribution? That’s just insane and a total waste of money.
What we need is education and a more permanent and long-term solution to this issue. It can’t be solved by just throwing contraceptives to those who don’t do safe sex.
But wait… there’s more.
This is a SERIOUS challenge not just to the government but for PARENTS, the CHURCH, and SCHOOLS. It’s not just about safe sex. The core problem is the promiscuous behavior of the youth. The rate of unwanted pregnancies are going higher and higher each year. For AIDS, let’s not forget that 50% of recorded cases come from the Call Center industry. Parents, churches, and schools – don’t just throw this problem to the government. Reinforce values and be good examples to your children/flock.
A few weeks ago, an article started to circulate around e-mail and social networks. It was an article supposedly written by Winnie Monsod and it pretty much laid out a bunch of reasons why she will vote for Liberal Party standard bearer, Noynoy Aquino. I was able to read the article myself but I was a bit curious if this was really Winnie since it lacked her trademark substance and facts. This article was really more emotional – something that’s not Winnie’s style of writing.
(To whom it may concern: I am not the author of an e-mail going around titled “Why I will vote for Noynoy—Winnie Monsod.” To the real author/s: Hiding behind others is cowardly. Stand up and be counted. To everybody else: Any statement attributed to me can be very simply checked by referring to this column, or my column in BusinessWorld [Calling A Spade], or a blog under my name in GMA News.TV.)
I personally don’t believe that this is something that the Liberal Party intentionally did. This is most likely the work of one of the rabid cultist fans of Noynoy.
I read an article written by former Labor Secretary Pat Sto. Tomas at the ABS-CBN website. She explains in her article that the supply of Filipino nurses has skyrocketed while the demand has actually gone down. Not only that, it’s really hard for a nurse these days to go abroad and become an OFW because of the requirements of foreign hospitals.
2 Years Experience Requirement
The requirement of foreign hospitals is that nurses should have at least 2 years of experience. The problem is that fresh graduates of Nursing will have a very difficult time trying to find local employment because the nurses just outnumber the openings in all of the hospitals in the country. According to Sto. Tomas, 261,000+ nurses passed the examinations in the last 5 years. However the total number of nursing jobs available in the country is only 150,000. Out of that 150,000, I don’t know how many slots are actually open for hiring. Because they can’t find work locally, fresh grad nurses will end up doing either of the three things:
1. Work for FREE in certain hospitals or at insanely low pay just so they can get 2 years of experience. In some cases, nurses even have to PAY hospitals so they can get the experience.
2. They wait… and wait… and wait… in vain.
3. Give up nursing altogether and do something else.
The environment is not good for Nursing right now in the Philippines because of these conditions. If you’re in High School and you want to become a Nurse because it pays well, please think twice. If you’re not passionate about being a Nurse, then you’ll just end up doing a bad job or be mediocre at best. If that’s the case then the ones who excel will be the ones to get the jobs and you’ll end up wasting hard earned money for tuition fees and reviews. I agree 100% with Secretary Sto. Tomas. Nursing is a big risk right now.
For those who are currently enrolled in nursing or who have graduated but have no jobs yet, you can’t afford to just be resigned to your fates. Find out what your passion is and go after it. You might want to try out being an entrepreneur. There are so many businesses these days that you can get into that will even be more rewarding for you. What’s important is that you have a back-up plan and that you can act on it should your original nursing career fails.
Jovit Baldivino is a 16-year old high school student from Batangas who wowed the country with his stellar performance of “Faithfully” during the auditions for Pilipinas Got Talent. I was just able to watch him yesterday and this guy makes me think of a younger and shyer version of Arnel Pineda. He has the voice but he definitely needs to work on his showmanship and stage presence but this is something that he can improve as the months go by. Anyway, enough talk on my part. Watch him perform in the video clip below.
JOVIT BALDIVINO – PILIPINAS GOT TALENT
My only complaint is the judges. The comments they gave were really weird and boring. There was a part where Kris Aquino launched into a whole dramatic segment on how hard it is to perform when you’re troubled and she explains her trials when her mom, former President Cory Aquino, was sick. Then she says that Jovit’s dad is sick but Jovit says he’s okay already. Hahahaha. Producer should get drop kicked for that.
Jovit will definitely go a long way with his voice. He just needs to work on his star power. As for the show, my only wish for them is that they seriously review how they do judging. It’s so boring.
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
