Maniolas

Vice President Jejomar Binay speaks to senior citizens in Amapola St., Barangay Pembo, Makati, Thursday. The city government of Makati has been under public scrutiny amid new allegations of having “ghost” senior citizens who reportedly receive benefits. (MNS photo) MANILA, Mar 14 (Mabuhay) – The camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay vowed to double his efforts in campaigning following his five-point drop in the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS). In a statement on Monday, Binay’s spokesperson Atty. Rico Quicho said the survey results were versatile. He said the Binay camp hoped that the survey results would reflect the warm response from people on the ground during Binay’s campaign sorties. “The results of the survey go up and down but the Vice President will double his efforts to cover as many areas and talk to as many people as possible,” Quicho said. “We wish that hopefully the results of the survey would truly reflect what is happening on the ground and what can be seen in the media coverage of our sorties and rallies,” he added. According to the survey conducted March 4 to 7 first published in BusinessWorld, Binay got in at second place while his political nemesis Liberal Party standard bearer Mar Roxas landed at third. Binay shed five percentage points from the last survey in February to get 24 percent, while Roxas got the biggest gain of four percentage points rising to 22 percent. Leading the survey is independent presidential bet Sen. Grace Poe, who got 27 percent Read More …

MANILA, May 14 (Mabuhay) – The provincial government of Sarangani has declared a state of calamity due to the effects of the El Niño phenomenon. The province’s agricultural office said that almost 8,000 hectares of rice and corn farms have been affected by the drought caused by El Niño. Local disaster officials have pegged the El Niño’s damage to agriculture in the province at P2 million. The disaster officials said part of the calamity fund will be used to build water pumps to provide irrigation to the affected farms. They are also planning to provide sustenance to the affected farmers. Last week, the local government of Koronadal City also declared a state of calamity due to the El Niño phenomenon. The city government said more than 10,000 farmers have been affected by El Niño. It also said that the phenomenon’s damaged to agriculture has reached P45 million. The city government, meanwhile, can already use its P10-million quick response fund following the calamity declaration. It said that it will use part of the fund to provide support the affected farmers and their families. (MNS)

I was shocked and disappointed about the recent Supreme Court’s ruling junking the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) decision to disqualify neophyte Senator Grace “Poequino” Llamanzares to run in the May election. I was hoping that these “respectable” and “incorruptible” justices of the Supreme Court will rise above partisan politics and give a verdict based on the rule of law and in the Philippine Constitution. Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno and eight other justices who voted in favor of Senator “Poequino” Llamanzares, clearly based their decision not on the Constitution, but on what their benefactors want. Many political pundits and prominent lawyers are saying that the “Sereno kangaroo court” ruling clearly violated the Constitution and destroyed the rule of law. There have been rumors that President Benigno Aquino influenced the outcome of the Supreme Court decision by calling up the justices he appointed to support the presidential bid of Senator “Poequino” Llamanzares. The name of a prominent billionaire businessman engaged in food and beverage business also came up as one of the major players who influenced the high court in coming with a favorable ruling for Llamanzares. The same businessman is also the one bankrolling the candidacy of “Poequino” Llamanzares. As a matter of fact, Llamanzares’ huband, an American citizen, is a consultant in the country’s biggest beverage company. In the Philippines , if you have the money and influence, nothing is impossible. *** Last year, Senator Antonio Trillanes made a startling revelation about pervasive corruption in the Philippine Judicial system. In Read More …

Vice President Jejomar Binay (left) huddles with Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada (center) and United Nationalist Alliance spokesperson Toby Tiangco during a visit to the Manila City Hall on Wednesday. Binay and Estrada were mum on the agenda of the meeting. (MNS Photo) MANILA  (Mabuhay) – Former President Joseph Estrada on Thursday said he will reveal by the end of March who he will endorse for president in the May elections. In an ambush interview at the Manila Hotel, Estrada also said he will even consider the recent Supreme Court decision favoring Sen. Grace Poe when deciding who to endorse. “I am not decided yet because it involves the future of the 100 million Filipinos. We really have to study who among them can serve most,” Estrada said. Estrada welcomed the SC decision overturning the Commission on Elections’ disqualification of Poe, allowing the lawmaker to run in the presidential elections. “Of course (I will consider the SC decision). That’s better. The people are given to choose. The more candidates, the better for the people,” he said. Estrada said he does not even have a shortlist of candidates he is considering to endorse. “It would take me maybe about the end of March,” he added. Asked what qualification he is looking for in the candidate he would be endorsing, Estrada said: “Who among them can save… for the greater good of the greatest number of the Filipino which is the greater number? The masa.” Estrada also assured the public that his personal Read More …

President Benigno S. Aquino III along with former DILG Secretary Manuel Roxas, Camarines Sur Representative Leni Robredo and DILG Secretary Senen Sarmiento are prayed over by Bishop Francisco Santos and Bishop Jonel MIlan during the Thanksgiving Celebration and National Transformation Assembly of the Tarlac First Baptist Church. (MNS photo) MANILA  (Mabuhay) – Administration standard bearer Manuel “Mar” Roxas II on Tuesday denied a newspaper report linking him to supposed attempts to bribe justices of the Supreme Court (SC) to disqualify one of his opponents in the presidential race, Senator Grace Poe. “Walang katotohanan. Siyento por siyento, kasinungalingan ito. Unang-una, hindi namin gawain ‘yan. Pangalawa ay wala sa track record namin ang ganoong gawain, ang ganoong pag-iisip, ang ganoong pagtatangka,” Roxas told reporters in a chance interview. Roxas, who was in Davao Region Tuesday, said he would rather focus on his campaign than pay attention to such baseless reports. “Hindi ito parang pingpong na may mga wala namang basehan o wala namang tinuturo na ebidensiya, pero bigla na lang ay may paratang na ibabato o itatapon. So bakit namin papansinin ‘yan eh wala namang katotohanan ‘yan,” he said. Roxas also pointed out that several appointed justices of President Benigno Aquino III appear to side in favor of Poe during the oral arguments. “Sa question and answer … yung mga appointee ni Pangulong Aquino ang isa sa mga napaka-aktibo sa paglilitis na ginaganap ngayon sa Supreme Court. So walang katotohanan ito,” he said. Earlier in the day, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. Read More …