i will definitely vote for the 3 ang kapatiran candidates win or lose (bagay naman kasi 2 of them are ateneans): atty. sison is college batch 77 & dr. martin bautista is a graduate of AGS & AHS (di ko lang alma what year).

there is a senatoriable forum 2007 every MWF @ ANC from 6pm to 7pm. it started monday (12 march) with TU candidate angara, GO candidate escudero, & independent candidate lozano. wednesday (14 march) with TU candidate singson, GO candidate cayetano, & independent candidate pangilinan. tonight, the independent candiate is atty adrian sison.

It's difficult to make a choice this coming May elections because many say any choice won't be worth the vote. But since with or without my vote, there'll surely be a roster of twelve who'll emerge voctorious for the Senate seats, it'll be wiser to just choose the more acceptable candidates by making use of the concept of "lesser evil".

If I can vote, here's my list:
Recto
Pangilinan
Arroyo
Defensor
Angara
Zubiri
Pichay
Oreta
Bautista
Sotto
Villar
Montano

SECOND THOUGHTS:
last 3 up there^
Singson
Escudero
Kiram
Magsaysay
Gomez

BIG NO'S:
Legarda
Cayetano (both of them )
Aquino
Trillanes
Honasan
Coseteng
Roco
Lacson
Pimentel
Osmen(y)a
Lozano
Wood

I have yet to know the others, but it's fine if I don't.

This may change in the future, depending on the senatoriables' behavior during the election period.

Read this article about Loren Legarda.

May pahabol pa..

for you to know the other candidates, please go to their website - www.angkapatiran.org

I have checked on a few of the other candidates and I'm personally inspired by Mr. B's story.

i am voting this coming may 14. i still dont have a list. i dont think im going to reach 12. id leave it blank na lang siguro. but i might change my mind na lang in case, pampuno lang. sayang din naman.

i will nevervote for the ff:
ORETA
SOTTO
DEFENSOR
LEGARDA
SINGSON
COSETENG
HONASAN
TRILLANES
GOMEZ
PICHAY
OSMENA
MONTANO

please do not vote for them. why? because i am asking you not to.

updated my list..

i definitely will not vote for those who want to make the senate their personal domain (i.e., mother-son, father-son tandem, & sibling tandem). the reason given by the father - it is not found in the constitution daw - bawal mag-ama!!!!!!!! hay naku ..... dahil ba nandyan an mag-inang estradas gayahin din??????? mga WALANG HIYA !!!!!! since you cannot fight them.... you join their likes???

for those who do not have time to surf to the website or read the dailies, here is a column writtten by conrado de quiros (in fact, his 2nd article na) .... i will post his 1st article when i find it ....



THERE’S THE RUB
‘Losers’ By Conrado de Quiros Inquirer
Last updated 02:55am (Mla time) 03/08/2007

I finally met the candidates of the Kapatiran last Friday at the Quezon Elliptical. I had prepared myself for a fairly serious, or even somber, discussion, expecting a bunch of people who, like Kapatiran’s guiding light, Nandy Pacheco, are given to more sedate pleasures and riveted to lofty or grand preoccupations. A complete surprise they turned out to be, and from where I stood, or sat, not an unpleasant one.

They are as resolutely secular as the next fellow, and the night turned out to be, if not altogether raucous, a much-spirited one. They love this life well enough and like to live it as best they can, while helping others do the same -- which is the part where they soar to lofty and grand heights without trying. In the course of our banter, or merrymaking, I remembered a distinction Russell Baker once made between serious and solemn, classifying quite unexpectedly and with such profound insight Harper’s Magazine as serious and Playboy as solemn. I thought to myself: The candidates of Kapatiran are serious, the candidates of Team Unity and the Genuine Opposition are solemn.

Fueled by a good amount of beer, Martin Bautista -- a doctor in his mid-40s who attributes his physical fitness to the libation -- recalled that it taxed Nandy’s formidable powers of persuasion to convince him to run. What clinched the deal was Nandy finally saying, “’T---na, tapang lang ’yan" ["Christ, all it takes is heart”]. His companions reminded him that while Nandy was prone to saying things like those, he was not prone to saying “’t---na” or anything remotely resembling a four-letter word. Anyway, Bautista was a conversion waiting to happen.

He never had it so good than in the United States. He was one of the first batches of doctors who went there in the ’80s when a good portion of the American black communities was being ravaged by AIDS. And when American doctors were loath to expose themselves to infection by physically touching the afflicted in hospitals. Bautista acquitted himself well -- “You go through PGH [Philippine General Hospital], you can go through anything” -- and ended up living the kind of life most Filipinos could only (wet)dream about. Come to think of it, he said, he pretty much never had to buy beer, or liquor, in Oklahoma. The thing just poured in from grateful patients or people he had done a favor for, or made "pakikisama" to, at one time or another.

What Bautista could not forget, however, was the sight of the "sakada" [landless sugar workers] areas of Negros, which he got to be reminded of each time he went back to the Philippines. He made it a point to visit them, and each time he saw that the plight of the folk there had gotten worse. The birth of sugar had been their starvation, the death of sugar had been their death. The average life span there, Bautista said, was 32. Children died of hunger. You saw how they lived, he said, and the scavengers of Metro Manila's Payatas dumpsite suddenly looked like they lived in Forbes Park. For some reason, he said, he couldn’t get that image out of his mind. He never applied for a green card. He was always sure he’d come home.

I believe there’s another word for “some reason.” It is “conscience.”

Jess Paredes, who was "bitin" [had too little] with the one bottle of wine spread around, found stumping through the country to be educational, quite apart from being rejuvenating, not least because of the warm camaraderie. Jess is the quietest of the three, but one with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

The one experience that agitated him, he said, was an out-of-town sortie where a man asked him how serious he was about the things he promised to do. “We’ve heard all that before,” the guy said, “how are you any different? Why should we believe you? If you win, will you resign your post if we can show you to have broken one of your promises?”

Jess answered in some heat: “If I do not do what I said I’d do, or if I become just another 'trapo' [traditional politico], you have my permission to aim a gun at my head in the Senate and blow my brains out!”

I suggested to Jess that Kapatiran had the least problems in credibility. Actions speak louder than words, and the Kapatiran candidates have a track record to speak volumes for them. A couple of months ago, Jess himself just resigned as executive director of the presidential commission monitoring the Philippine-US Visiting Forces Agreement, in protest over the release of Cpl. Daniel Smith from a Makati City jail. A trapo is one who forsakes principle for wealth and/or power. The opposite of trapo is one who forsakes wealth and/or power for principle. Guess what Jess is.

Adrian Sison had a fairly flourishing career as a lawyer and would have liked nothing better than to sit back and reap his just rewards to the end of his days. But he, too, became a victim of Nandy’s powers of persuasion. What made him hark to his new calling was an idea that had been said before again and again but which waylaid him this time with special force. That idea was: All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. It’s a matter of personal responsibility. You do not offer an alternative when you are in a position to do so, do not blame this country for settling for the old banes.

Later Nandy would enthuse and tell me that things seemed to be moving, and he personally felt a miracle was about to happen in this country. Who knows, he said, we may yet work a quiet revolution before these elections are over. Well, the way Kapatiran is rapidly pricking media’s and the public’s attention, who knows indeed. My mind harked back to a mission someone undertook a couple of millennia ago. The mission seemed far more impossible. That was the ridiculous quest of a carpenter’s son and his 12 fishermen alalays to change the world. The spectacle they offered sent the important men of the time scoffing and laughing their heads off.

But, lo and behold, those “losers” did change the world.

i saw this article from business world ..... take time to read ....

Filipinos In Diaspora <filipinosindiaspora@...> wrote:
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 17:15:07 -0700
From: "Filipinos In Diaspora" <filipinosindiaspora@...>
To: "Diaspora Filipinos In" <filipinosindiaspora@...>
Subject: IMPOSSIBLE DREAMERS?

GREG B. MACABENTA
AD LIB/BUSINESS WORLD/03-14-07
IMPOSSIBLE DREAMERS?

Somebody I know ran for senator several elections ago and was carried in the slates of two political parties. He lost. But he won. He pocketed campaign subsidies from both parties and ended up richer than when he started.

I have no doubt that there are candidates in the current campaign who also know they will lose. But they'll win, nonetheless. Their candidacies are designed to confuse the voters, render ballots for legitimate candidates invalid and, most of all, load the dice in favor of their financiers. For that, they'll make a lot of money.

These are not nuisance candidates. These are mercenaries. A plague.

On the other hand, there are candidates, especially in the senatorial race, who are being dismissed as "comic relief" because, according to the pundits, they have absolutely no chance of winning. Worse yet, they won't even make any money for their trouble. "Quixotic," is how these candidates are described. Hopeless romantics. Big joke.

Frankly, if there's a joke, it is on the Filipino people, the media, civil society, the Church, the business community and everyone who has ever wished for an overhaul of Philippine politics but won't do anything beyond wishing.

They're saying that the candidates of Ang Kapatiran or the Alliance for the Common Good are a bunch of jokers. Frankly I see nothing funny about the credentials of Dr. Martin Bautista and lawyers Jesus Zosimo Paredes and Adrian Sison.

Bautista needs a senatorial seat like he needs a monkey on his back. But two things make this former Oklahoma medical practitioner stand out from the flock. Firstly, he turned his back on the good life in America and a successful practice in gastroenterology to serve his fellow Filipinos. Secondly, he is braving the derision of a cynical nation to prove that not everyone in this country is a coward.

Paredes was executive director of the Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement with the US. He was fired for protesting the questionable transfer of US Marine Daniel Smith, a convicted rapist, from the Makati jail to the US Embassy.

Paredes did not even have to bear the indignity being routinely suffered by the apologists of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, having to go on TV everyday to put a fictional spin on the latest shenanigans of the administration. Paredes could have simply kept his mouth shut.

But he decided that his principles were more important than his job. Another proof that not everyone in this country lacks balls.

Sison is a successful lawyer who will probably lose a lot of current and prospective clients for his Quixotic venture. After all, how can you trust your legal problems to a man who doesn't know when he's a loser?

But Sison reminds me of my two youngest sons, Jinky and Paolo when, as small children, they represented the Colegio San Agustin Tae Kwan Do team in a national tournament. Reacting to the decision of their coach to pull them out of a major bout because their opponents were older, bigger and more experienced, they protested, "Hindi baleng matalo, lumaban naman!" (It doesn't matter if we lose, at least we will have fought.)

The pundists are also saying that Theodore "Kuya Ted" Aquino, the Filipino-American candidate, whose slogan is, "Kampeon ng Overseas Filipino," is a "nuisance candidate." That slur comes from his own cousin, Noynoy Aquino.

Kuya Ted has been living a comfortable and respectable life in America. An engineer, community leader and president of the UP Alumni Association of America, there is no reason for him to jump into the snake pit of Philippine politics.

But ever since the passage of the Overseas Absentee Voting Law and the Dual Citizenship Law, Filipinos in America have been told, over and over again, that they owe it to their Motherland to serve it. Actively. Not just by sending money to relatives. Not just by keeping the economy afloat but by helping fix what's making it go under.

So Ted, like the Kapatiran senatorial candidates, is running for senator, as a representative of the millions of Filipinos working and living abroad, overseas Filipinos whose money is welcome but whose involvement in governance is not.

Are Bautista, Paredes, Sison and Kuya Ted a Big Joke? Not as far as I'm concerned.

What I see are individuals who are willing to step forward and be counted, to go where the brave dare not go, to right the unrightable wrong, to fight the unbeatable foe. What I see are individuals who are daring to dream the impossible dream.

Those who are so vocal about the need for change in our country should not so blithely dismiss these candidates who are attempting to achieve that change. At the very least, they deserve encouragement and support.

The son of Ninoy Aquino should be the last to call his cousin a nuisance candidate. Kuya Ted is simply doing what Nonoy's own father died trying to achieve.

It is said that Paredes, Sison, Bautista and Kuya Ted will surely lose in a contest where money and machinery, not qualifications or program of government, are the keys to victory.

But not if they are actively supported by those who, for their own reasons, do not dare to run. Not if those who are constantly bewailing the corruption and incompetence of politicians and public servants, but don't have the kamikaze attitude of Paredes, Sison, Bautista and Kuya Ted, will agree to harness their networks, rally their followers and muster the resources at their command.

Imagine the names of these four candidates - along with those who truly deserve to be included in the Magic 12 - emblazoned on streamers on churches and private homes across the country. Imagine handbills being distributed by church, civil society and business leaders and their followers. Imagine print ads and TV commercials being donated by civic leaders and businessmen. magine radio and TV testimonials being given by them. Imagine media allocating some time and space to explain who these candidates are and what they stand for.

Is that wishful thinking? That is being done in America. It can also happen in the Philippines if those who want change will stop dreaming and start working.

If media, civil society, the business community and the Church put their resources where their wishful thinking is, and their hearts where their balls should be, these candidates will cease to be a joke.

And whatever the result, they will leave an indelible mark on this election campaign. They will encourage others to follow their example.

To paraphrase the song from The Man of La Mancha, this country will be better for this, that some men, scorned and covered with scars, will still strive with their last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable star.

(gregmacabenta@ hotmail.com)
============ ========= =====
Feedback from a reader:
Hi Greg,

Thanks for your column. It made rethink my decision not to vote in this coming elections. I would vote for these impossible dreamers and campaign for them to as many people as I can.
If you will allow me, I will translate your column into Pilipino, reproduce 1000 copies and distribute to 1000 people and request that they reproduce copies and pass it on to others who will do the same.

Mabuhay ka Greg!

Manny Santos

The Eleksyon 2007 podcast is also one nice way of getting to know our senatoriables.. Though we may not really find out who's true and who's boo through this.

i posted this in the Daily News thread, pero mas bagay ata ito dito:

a section of an interesting article i found at the PCIJ Blog:



Nut jobs like "Kuya Pek" are recognized by the Comelec, while Ateneo professors like Danton Remoto are not? Stories like this give credence to calls of boycotting the election. They expect us to trust this Comelec with our votes?

^ is there any other way to show some disgust, aside from boycotting the election?
well we all know that there are some rigged and all that dagdag bawas, but what can we do?
elections are the only way we can "tell" them to step down and perhaps prevent families or tards from occupying various local and national postiions.

there is really something wrong with the comelec.

We have our own ‘300 Spartans’
AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR By William M. Esposo
The Philippine Star 03/25/2007

The outstanding success of the film "300" is not at all surprising. People are awed by true stories of outstanding feats of heroism especially when set against hopelessly insurmountable odds.

In the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC, Greek city states united to fight against the massive Persian army led by Emperor Xerxes. King Leonidas of Sparta and his 300 men together with 700 Thespians defended the narrow strip of road which kept Xerxes and his men from overrunning all of Greece.

The brave stand of King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans provided the Greeks precious time to amass a more formidable force that engaged the Persians under more favorable conditions at the Battle of Salamis. The valiant saga of King Leonidas and his 300 men has gone down in history as one of the most moving sagas of exceptional courage and sacrifice, where men willingly gave their lives for a battle that could not be won.

In our political Thermopylae, our 300 Spartans would be the Kapatiran 3 - Zosimo Jesus Paredes II, Martin D. Bautista and Adrian O. Sison — the senatorial candidates of the Kapatiran Party. If you do not know who they are, I suggest that you check them out and one way is to log on to the Kapatiran Party website (www.angkapatiran.org).

Paredes, Bautista and Sison are not only qualified to be senators, they provide a refreshingly real alternative to the unpalatable option of choosing between the less undesirable of two fakes: the traditional politician or the showbiz illusionist. Paredes, Bautista and Sison are seeking to achieve for our country real, functional democracy and a government that is truly of, by and for the people.

Paredes, Bautista and Sison are entering a political battle where the odds are heavily stocked against them. It is a political battle that other Don Quixotes tried to win in the past but failed. Like Leonidas and the 300, Paredes, Bautista and Sison have no illusions of victory. They are making a difference by merely fighting the good fight in order to set the stage for the final battle and ultimate victory. Despite their running without illusions of winning, they have faith that eventually the Filipino will attain his political emancipation from the oligarchy.

Paredes, Bautista and Sison have no economic empires to protect. Like you and me, they have watched our country slide under the self-serving stewardship of oligarchs whose main objective is not to promote development but to perpetuate the status quo.

Like you and me, Paredes, Bautista and Sison wonder when the time will come when we will finally have the enlightened electorate that would elect the best leaders who will put an end to all the suffering and injustice. By fighting the good fight, they have reinforced our faith that there is a Promised Land and they are showing us the way to get there.

But Paredes, Bautista and Sison do not have to meet the fatal end of Leonidas and his 300. Unlike Leonidas and his 300, Paredes, Bautista and Sison can win. Yes, they can win because what will determine victory in their struggle is how people like you and me will vote.

Their biggest adversary is not the opponents they are facing in the May elections. It is the mindset of voters who have been conditioned to choose the lesser evil instead of the very few who are true, resolute and capable. It is a mindset that ties a people to the shackles of a semi-feudal reality - a people helplessly unable to assert its collective authority as the masters in a democracy.

It is a mindset that deplores graft and corruption and yet subscribes to the patronage system that breeds and promotes graft and corruption. It is a mindset that aspires to enjoy the benefits of a democracy but kowtows to the ways of a monarchy where fealty is given the moneyed, where he who has the gold is regarded as king.

It is a mindset that cannot connect the problem with the solution. The mind accepts that the traditional politician is the problem that has to be removed and yet will still vote for the traditional politician because of the flawed reasoning that only the traditional politician can win. True enough, the traditional politician keeps winning and each time, the people keep losing.

Showbiz heroes provide imagined relief. But experience has already shown how these showbiz personalities had turned public service into a money making machine for their wanton lifestyles. Some people thought showbiztocracy would be a way out of traditional politics but only to find out that showbiztocracy is just a ticket to ride on the gravy train of traditional politics.

Paredes, Bautista and Sison are waging the fight for us and it will be up to us if they will win or lose. For them to win, those members of Philippine society who recognize the problem must not only vote for them but actively campaign for them.

But are we willing to fight for what we have been clamoring? Are we willing to plant the seeds of a democratic awakening and nurture these seeds to fruition? Are we a people who are capable of rising above ourselves?

For too long we have cursed the desolation of our political desert - how come we do not seem to have enough patriots. The reality is we can only generate patriots when there are enough of us who are willing to become patriots.

You may e-mail William M. Esposo at: macesposo@yahoo.com

The official list of senatorial candidates recommended by the Comelec Legal Department is as follows:

1. Angara, Edgardo J.
2. Aquino, Benigno Simeon III C.
3. Arroyo, Joker P.
4. Bautista, Martin D.
5. Cantal, Felix C.
6. Cayetano, Alan Peter S.
7. Cayetano, Joselito P.
8. Chavez, Melchor G.
9. Coseteng, Anna Dominique M.
10. Defensor, Michael T.
11. Enciso, Ruben C.
12. Escudero, Francis Joseph G.
13. Estrella, Antonio L.
14. Gomez, Richard I.
15. Honasan, Gregorio B.
16. Kiram, Jamalul D.
17. Lacson, Panfilo M.
18. Legarda, Loren B.
19. Lozano, Oliver O.
20. Magsaysay, Vicente P.
21. Montano, Cesar M.
22. Oreta, Teresa A.
23. Orpilla, Eduardo F.
24. Osmeña, John Henry R.
25. Pangilinan, Francis N.
26. Paredes, Zosimo Jesus II M.
27. Pichay, Prospero Jr A.
28. Pimentel, Aquilino L.
29. Recto, Ralph G.
30. Roco, Sonia M.
31. Singson, Luis S.
32. Sison, Adrian O.
33. Sotto, Vicente III C.
34. Trillanes, Antonio IV F.
35. Villar, Manuel Jr B.
36. Wood, Victor N.
37. Zubiri, Juan Miguel F.

Judgment day, less than two weeks to go.

Since I can't vote for the mean time, I'm encouraging my parents and elder relatives to vote for the following in the coming elections:

1.Angara
2.Arroyo
3.Bautista
4.Defensor
5.Escudero
6.Kiram
7.Magsaysay
8.Oreta
9.Pangilinan
10.Pichay
11.Recto
12.Zubiri

I just don't think this list would make a very strong Senate body. Parang walang chemistry..
But I think it'd be far better than letting all bigheads sit in and then they'd only raise their fists at one another.. Wala na namang patutunguhan ang Senado at ang Pilipinas..

Mind sharing yours?

^ im voting for dr martin bautista. magaling talaga siya kahit na obvious na wala siyang chance manalo.
ayaw ko si defensor. dynasty na sila. pinagpapasahan lang ang distrito namin.

si pichay? sa dami ng gastos niyan... paano kaya siya makaka-ahon? makes me think a million more times. at SURE AKO matutulog lang siya sa senado.

si oreta? hindi na.

-pichay hindi mauubusan yan ng bala. maraming backup na tsinoy at mga financiers na mga negosyante. ewan kung bakit siya bina backupan.. un na nga lang hindi natin alam kung anong kapalit ng lahat ng perang tinapon sa campaign niya..

-defensor a big NO! tuta ni arroyo.

-oreta? PANG OSCAR ang ACTING.. - WALA AKONG BALAK IBOTO SIYA

-LITO LAPID? - magiging head chief ng central business capital ng pinas? nagbibiro ka ba? hindi ko siya boboto.. SINA BINAY na NAMAN ang MAYOR namin? tanong ko lang.. WALA NA BANG IBA NA MAS CREDIBLE?

Fillers lang yung iba. Gaya nga nga aking sinabi dati, choose the lesser evil..

Defensor, tuta? If that's how you deem his actions, fine. But so what, we all have our mamas na sinusunod natin. His choice.

Haha, Pichay. Yeah, baka matulog nga lang. But to put a babbler in his place? Wag na, pareho lang walang magagawa. Ayos na yun, tahimik pa.

Oreta, haha! Iboboto raw ng tita ko kasi ayon sa kanya, marami nang nagawa para sa kababaihan. WAHAHA. Ewan lang, filler lang yan. Hindi kawalan kung hindi siya ma-elect..

^Good thing hindi lang sina Binay at Lapid ang options mo. Oo nga, wala na bang iba?

My List:

1. Bautista
2. Sison
3. Paredes
4. Noynoy Aquino
5. Joker Arroyo
6. Ed Angara
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

On the waiting list:
Allan Cayetano
Migs Zubiri
Ralph Recto

Paano kaya si Dr. Bautista? Ikampanya niyo please.

As taught by my former Philo prof - when confronted between two evils, choose none. Manindigan ka

Kaso, in the end, may 12 na uupo. With or without my "paninindigan".

It'd hurt me just the same or even worse kung may mauupong mas hindi karapat-dapat. How's that?

--
yun ay kung registered voter ka tukayo!! hehe..


yah defensor isang tuta.. ayaw pa niyang aminin.. parang ganito din ang nangyayari noong panahon ni ERAP.. kaliwat kanan ang mga pambabatikos sa kanya.. lahat ng mga malalapit sa kanya tinotodas..
sinisiraan.. pero MAS MALALA ngayon..
palagi nalang ganito ang PINAS..
REPEAT ng REPEAT..
grade one ngayon.. next year BACK TO GRADE 1 ulit.

^ PUROS BINAY, BINAY at BINAY na lang ang nasa posisyon dito sa Makati. Maski sa congress BINAY pa din. pucha.. Wala na bang iba? Kailangang matapos na ang POLITICAL DYNASTY sa TEmakats..
pero Xempre ung next option dapat KARAPAT DAPAT na IBOTO.. at HINDI YUNG..
.. PAPET na PAPEL na GAGALAW LANG SA UTOS NG KANYANG AMO..

- Alan Peter Cayetano - alam ko na ung sinasabi mo tukayo.. hmmnn.. NAPAISIP AKO BIGLA .. pero under consideration ko pa din siya sa list ko.

Kung walang maninindigan, saan tayo tutungo? Kung hindi tayo magsimulang manindigan, sino pa?

We need to better appreciate the sanctity of our votes in a democratic society and our duty to protect such.

Let us not content ourselves with "puwede na". We, as Filipinos, deserve better. Let us not doom our nation to mediocrity. Our country deserves no less than the best.

Now that the elections are over, who do you guys think will be in the 12 for senator?

While watching the Partial and Unofficial Results of the elections, I was surprised to see that Gringo Honasan was the 10th..

and Antonio Trillanes on the 9th spot... Hmmnnn.. Totoo ba ito? Pinoy? ganito ka na ba talaga ka?._______..