GIBO HITS MILITARY DEFIANCE OF SC ORDER TO PRESENT 'MORONG 43'
MANILA, FEBRUARY 15, 2010 (MANILA TIMES) By Sammy Martin Reporter - Lakas-Kampi-CMD standard bearer Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro over the weekend claimed that if he was still the national defense secretary, he would not have waited for an order from the Supreme Court (SC) before ordering the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to present the 43 detained health workers to the courts and the media. “I will not wait for any order and I will personally ask the Armed Forces to produce the warm bodies of the arrested health workers to show to the public that they are not hiding anything,” Teodoro told the press in an ambush interview.He explained that the clamor of the relatives of the arrested health workers and their friends should have been enough to prompt the military to present the warm bodies to the public in order to prove that the detainees were merely undergoing interrogation and had not been tortured as alleged by their relatives.
The Court of Appeals (CA) had lambasted the military after it failed to present the health workers for a habeas corpus hearing supposedly scheduled on Friday.
CA Justice Normandie Pizarro stressed that “it is the duty of Col. Aurelio Baladad of the Philippine Army’s 202nd Infantry Brigade to allow the detained health workers their day in court.”
The 43 health workers were arrested by the combined forces of the military and police in Morong, Rizal on February 6 under suspicions that they were members of the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines. The detainees maintain, however, that they were merely conducting a training-seminar for community health workers.
According to Teodoro, submitting the detainees to the court and presenting them to the public would help to ease tension and rebut speculations that the arrested health workers were subjected to various forms of torture.
Meanwhile, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Victor Ibrado immediately ordered his men to obey court orders after the Court of Appeals handed down a decision.
The trial has been moved to February 15. The court also said that the family members of the arrested health workers would attend the proceedings.
Gibo scores win in mock poll
Meanwhile, Teodoro was able to secure a win over Liberal Party’s bet Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino in a mock election held at the Ateneo de Manila University, the former’s alma mater.
Teodoro’s campaign spokesman, lawyer Mike Toledo, observed that “there is now a bandwagon among youth voters for Gibo Teodoro.”
Teodoro received 598 votes to Aquino’s 589 in the poll of 1,721 voters out of the Ateneo’s roster of 7,758 students.
The GUIDON, the official student publication of the Jesuit-run university, reported that organizers were surprised over the result since many expected Aquino to beat Teodoro, who went to the rival De La Salle University and, subsequently, to the University of the Philippines College of Law.
The Ateneo poll confirmed Teodoro’s reported surge in college and university campuses nationwide, firming up a trend in which he is the presidential candidate most favored by students to lead the country in the next six years, according to Toledo. With Report From Jefferson Antiporda OF THE MANILA TIMES
GIBO TOPS ATENEO MOCK POLLS
(STAR) By Jaime Laude - Administration presidential candidate Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro has won over his cousin, Liberal Party (LP) bet Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, in mock polls at the Ateneo de Manila University.
Ateneo’s school organ, The Guidon, has bannered “Gibo triumphs in mock polls” and explained how Teodoro beat Aquino in the mock polls among Ateneans conducted by the Sanggunian and Ateneo commission on elections.
Noynoy’s father, the martyred former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., wrote in the school paper under the late Max Soliven.
In The Guidon report, Teodoro received 598 votes against Aquino’s 589 in the poll of 1,721 students out of the Ateneo’s roster of 7,758 students.
“This is consistent with mock polls conducted all over the country in various educational institutions in all economic class Gibo has consistently topped them all hands down,” Teodoro spokesman Mike Toledo said.
Toledo said the organizers of the mock polls were even surprised by the results, since they were expecting Aquino, an Atenean, to beat Teodoro.
Sanggunian secretary-general and Blue Vote overseer Kacci Morales said the results came as a surprise.
For Blue Vote co-project head and course representative Robert Lance Chua, the result was a pleasant surprise.
“Knowing Ateneans, they support Aquino because of his parents and the legacy that they brought,” he said.
Chua said he believes in Teodoro despite his association with the Arroyo administration.
“Even if I argue in my head that the winner should have been Noynoy... at the end of the day, the results would show that Gibo Teodoro won, possibly with the detail that he won by nine votes,” Morales added.
Toledo said the Ateneo poll confirmed Teodoro’s surge in college and university campuses nationwide.
Teodoro, the youngest among the frontrunners in the May polls, has been leading in some mock elections in colleges and universities.
Meanwhile, Toledo also noted the outpouring of support for Teodoro from 25,000 students of Our Lady of Fatima University (OLFU).
Teodoro made a surprise visit to OLFU celebration of its foundation day at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum. OLFU has campuses in Quezon City, Antipolo and Valenzuela City.
Lakas to field GMA as bet for Speaker By Jess Diaz (The Philippine Star) Updated February 15, 2010 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - The cat is finally out of the bag.
The ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD will field President Arroyo as its candidate for Speaker of the House of Representatives, party leaders said yesterday.
Speaking for the administration party, Isabela Rep. Rodolfo Albano III said there is a big chance that Mrs. Arroyo, who is running for representative of Pampanga’s second district, would be the next Speaker.
“There are more than 100 Lakas-Kampi congressmen who are seeking reelection in their districts. Additionally, there are several Cabinet members who are seeking House seats. An overwhelming majority of these candidates will win on May 10,” Albano said.
He said there are also administration supporters who are seeking congressional seats as party-list representatives.
“There is no doubt that President Arroyo and the party she heads will be a force to reckon with in the next Congress,” he stressed.
For his part, Agusan del Norte Rep. Jose Aquino said Lakas-Kampi and its allies would still be the biggest political group in the incoming Congress.
“PGMA (Mrs. Arroyo) will win as Speaker hands down. She continues to wield power and influence. So if her detractors think they’d seen the last of her, they are mistaken. She’ll be around longer than they think,” Aquino said.
There are speculations that Mrs. Arroyo, despite having attained the pinnacle of public office, has decided to seek a congressional seat so she could be elected Speaker and then prime minister, if she and her allies succeed in shifting the country to a parliamentary system.
Even if the envisioned shift to the parliamentary system fails, as Speaker or even an ordinary House member, Mrs. Arroyo and her allies could hold the next administration hostage with threats of impeachment.
They could delay or block the expected filing of criminal charges against her after she steps down as president, or her arrest if charges are filed in court.
In a recent television interview, Liberal Party standard-bearer Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III said he would not allow Mrs. Arroyo to become Speaker if he wins the presidency.
Aquino said even if there are only a few LP members who are seeking congressional seats and who may win, he and other party leaders would make sure that the Speaker would be an Aquino administration ally.
“We will move fast to gain a majority in the House. Having been congressman for nine years before becoming senator, I know the political dynamics (in that chamber),” he said.
Aquino did not go into specifics, but he was obviously referring to the possibility that a House run by Mrs. Arroyo and dominated by her allies could derail his legislative agenda.
Worse, the President and her supporters could impeach him.
Sen. Manuel “Manny” Villar, for his part, downplayed the possibility that Mrs. Arroyo could end up Speaker in threatening his administration should he become the next president.
“If I become President, let me assure you that I can handle the presidency and I will not be threatened by that (Mrs. Arroyo getting the speakership). I am not going to be threatened by anyone,” Villar said.
If Mrs. Arroyo poses no threat to him, Villar said the same goes with Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile if he gets reelected and retains his position as Senate President.
“Same answer will be given. I am not worried about that,” he said.
Amid speculations that Villar has struck a deal with the Arroyo administration, the Nacionalista Party presidential bet said the President does not even have the assurance that she can dictate matters in the House.
“Normally, the Speaker is elected by all members of the House of Representatives,” said Villar, who also served as Speaker during the botched administration of former President Joseph Estrada.
Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez, a staunch ally of Mrs. Arroyo, said Aquino, if he wins the presidency, could block a possible quest by the President for the position of Speaker and No. 4 official of the land.
Suarez recalled that when Fidel Ramos was elected president in 1992, most of the congressmen who won were members of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) who were not allies.
“They were loyalists of the late Speaker (Ramon) Mitra. You will remember that President Ramos bolted the LDP and formed Lakas Tao and later won the presidency with the support of the late President Cory Aquino,” he said.
But Ramos and his allies moved fast to control the House and installed Pangasinan Rep. Jose de Venecia as Speaker, Suarez said.
“The same thing happened when Erap (Joseph Estrada) was elected president in 1998. Lakas members led by Manny Villar defected to Erap’s camp and Villar became Speaker,” he said.
Less than three years later, it was Villar, as Speaker, who railroaded the transmittal of the impeachment complaint against Estrada to the Senate. Three months later, Estrada was forced from the presidency.
Asked what makes congressmen defect to the camp of the winning presidential candidates, Suarez said, “It is the President who dispenses pork barrel funds.” – With Christina Mendez
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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