Manny Villar can be our next President. And he will be a good one.

Manny Villar is the target of concerted attack and propaganda from all quarters because he has a good chance of becoming our next President.

Why? He attracts support from the middle class and the lower classes, especially the poor. The rich and upper classes prefer their old friends and allies in the traditional elite.

Manny Villar has the capacity, in the long run, to upset the status quo of mass poverty, injustice, perennial conflict, including violent conflict, and high population growth. Because he can unite our fractious society and destructive politics. Because will bring about effective and accountable leadership, governance, and the reform of our political institutions.

He is no pretender as the good against all evil.

When you come to think of it, in our kind of costly, traditional politics most professional politicians are motivated by a mix of selfish personal interest, public service, and altruism. Even nonpoliticians like most citizens are normally both virtuous and selfish. But some presidential candidates pretend to be the incarnation of ideals and virtue.

It is untrue that Manny Villar has spent billions on his campaign. He does not have that kind of money. He may have more than the others but he is not reckless, as his rivals paint him to be.

And some of his envious rivals are also spending substantial.

The propaganda is that Manny Villar is buying the presidency. But the presidency is not for sale and the great majority of our voters do not sell their votes. It is an insult to most of our people to suggest that their political support can be bought.

Manny Villar does not rely for his appeal and vision for change and reform on heroic parents, celebrity-masa appeal. Neither does he personally attack his rivals. He is and wants to remain a unifier, a coalition builder for leadership, change and reform.

He is using his own means, ideas, and persuasion in his campaign with the help of his co-leaders and supporters nationwide.

For all the unrelenting damnation Manny gets for alleged misuse of his power and office, no judgment of his alleged corruption has been made by any court of justice.

Earlier on the Senate majority freed him of the charges of irregularity in the so-called insertion of an item in the appropriations act to favor his real estate. It turned out that the item had been approved four times by the Senate. The pork barrel practice institutionalizes the insertions of legislators.

Then the Senate led by his presidential rivals, chaired by the Senate president who is a known partisan, signed a resolution condemning Villar and asking him to pay back P6 billion to the government. The Senate adjourned without approving the self-serving report of Villar’s opponents and rivals. This blatant partisanship is one of many practices that have destroyed the Senate’s legitimacy and credibility. Our nationally elected Senate and many of its members make it one of our dysfunctional institutions of governance.

Of all presidential candidates, Manny Villar has the leadership competence, personality and experience to unite likeminded and contrary groups and political factions. To seek to unite our weak and divided and demoralized nation.

When he becomes president, Manny Villar will have the understanding and the will and skill to mobilize a political majority to effect fundamental changes in our presidential and unitary political system. We need institutional and system change as much as a change in leaders and in our people’s condition and participation in governance.

No other presidential candidate can match Villar’s ability and credibility as a forceful national leader. Among his rival candidates Villar is the only one who became the Speaker of the House, and then the President of the Senate.

As Speaker he led the House in the impeachment of a sitting President, the only one ever impeached. Because the Senate impeachment trial failed, opposition Senators walked out people power was organized at EDSA and other cities. Cabinet members dispersed, and people power and the withdrawal of support from the military and police forced the president’s resignation.

Manny Villar’s leading rival is banking mainly on the heroism of his parents and his potential for honest leadership. But given the state of the nation and the weaknesses of our democracy, we need much more than the assurance of honest leadership. Our revered President Cory was indubitably honest and religious. But in her difficult circumstances she could not govern effectively.

In their own time, most of our presidents could not, did not, really reduce poverty and corruption substantially because of inherent weaknesses and disabilities in our kind of democratic institutions and practices and their limitations as leaders. Nor did they reduce injustice and inequality. But certainly they did what they could. So did many outstanding local government leaders who were quite successful; and some nongovernmental leaders and movements that also improved their communities.

Twenty-four years after EDSA, and 23 under the 1987 Constitution,  our democracy is at risk because of its failure as a whole to deliver on its exaggerated promises and the growing dissatisfaction of our people with the way it fails to deliver on its promises.

Our country is now the 12th most populous in the whole world, although it is the 71st in land area. As many as seven million Filipinos have gone abroad for a better life.

Our major media establishments are big businesses in themselves with their own vested interests and partisanship. They belabor  the weaknesses of our leaders and government while minimizing the good things being done for the people in our dysfunctional system of politics and governance. Catholic Church leaders gave us moral leadership that brought down the Marcos dictatorship. Since then bishops with their moral authority have assumed partisan roles not unlike the politicians and are campaigning for we know whom.

In addition to a change in leadership in the presidency and Congress and the local governments, we need basic changes in our political system and our policies and programs of governance. Starting with our electoral and political party systems.

Manny Villar has rebuilt and revitalized the sickly Nacionalista Party that was the party of national unity for independence from the United States, by building a national coalition of political forces, including the Left and the Marcos siblings. Mar Roxas has also revitalized the Liberal Party as one of the two pillars in our original semi-two-party system.

Already, there is so much alarmist talk of a failure of elections. And the President of the Senate is thinking aloud that, if the elections do fail, the military and the police should assume power and authority. Another group has been planning and organizing for a Transition Revolutionary Government, also in alliance with “progressive military leaders. This is what is meant by our democracy being at risk.

In these dire circumstances of our nation and democracy, we need a national leader who can organize and lead us out of our national disunity and self-destructiveness.

We face  a hotly and viciously contested presidential election on May 10. We have an opportunity to have good, effective governance and real reforms. Not just a contest in personality and win-ability.

We should not elect someone as president for on-the-job training in national leadership. Because there are others who can lead us better.

Jose V. Abueva

Political Science scholar and professor and advocate of political and constitutional reform, and a nonkilling Philippines. Member of the Citizens’ Movement for a Federal-Parliamentary Philippines.

The Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) was the government arm that oversaw the implementation of the project. According to the BCDA, 85% of the P27 billion cost to build the SCTEx was financed through funds borrowed by the government from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).

Click here to view full SCTEX map

The SCTEx has 11 exits starting from Subic in the south and ending in Tarlac City in the north.

1. Tipo Exit (Hermosa, Bataan) – connects to the Subic Bay Freeport Expressway
2. Dinalupihan Exit (Dinalupihan, Bataan) – connects to the Bataan Provincial Expressway
3. Floridablanca Exit (Floridablanca, Pampanga) – connects to Floridablanca town proper and the Basa Air Base
4. Porac Exit (Porac, Pampanga) – connects to Porac town proper
5. Clark South Exit (Clark Freeport, Angeles City, Pampanga) – connects to the Clark Freeport
6. Mabalacat Exit (Clark Freeport, Angeles City, Pampanga) – connects to the Clark Spur Road then the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX)
7. Clark North Exit (Clark Freeport, Angeles City, Pampanga) – connects to the Clark Freeport and the future passenger terminal of the Diosdado Macapagal Airport in Clark
8. Dolores Exit (Mabalacat, Pampanga) – connects to Mabalacat town proper and McArthur Highway
9. Concepcion Exit (Concepcion, Tarlac) – connects with the Concepcion Magalang Road
10. San Miguel/Luisita Exit (Tarlac City, Tarlac) – connects to the Central Techno Park of Hacienda Luisita
11. Tarlac City Exit (Tarlac City, Tarlac) – connects to the Tarlac-Santa Rosa Road (coming from the south, turning right on this road leads to La Paz town proper, while turning left leads to Tarlac City proper)

Issues regarding the Luisita Exit raised by Cavite Rep. Crispin Remulla:

1. The farm workers of Hacienda Luisita were not given their 33% share in the P83 million the government paid Hacienda Luisita, Inc (HLI) for road right-of-way to build the Luisita interchange.

In a statement emailed to GMANews.TV on February 6, 2010, the office of Senator Noynoy Aquino said the farm workers were given 3% of the amount paid, while the balance was used to pay off debts of HLI. “This decision was arrived at by the board, which consists of members who are farmer beneficiaries,” the statement said.

The 3% is based on the farm workers’ mandatory share in the hacienda’s gross production output that was included in Hacienda Luisita’s stock distribution agreement in 1989 as required by Section 32 of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
Lawyers assisting the farm workers contend that the sale of land to the government for the road right-of-way cannot be treated like a regular sugarcane production sale subject to the 3% sharing scheme, because the sale of the land was in fact a divestment of capital and should be subject to the 33% equity share of the farm workers.

2. The government assumed the cost of building the P170-million Luisita interchange for the Cojuangcos’ privately owned industrial park inside Hacienda Luisita.

The Luisita interchange directly connects the SCTEx to a private road of Hacienda Luisita’s Central Techno Park. Of all the 11 exits of the SCTEx, it is the only one that directly leads to private property.

Remulla said this was unusual, because companies that wish to have exits from the highway leading to their private properties are normally the ones who pay the government for these exits, because having them increases the value of their properties. He cited the Mamplasan, Asia Brewery, Greenfield, and Southwoods exits on the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) as examples, saying these companies paid the Philippine National Construction Corporation (PNCC) P241 million each to have interchanges directly connecting to the SLEX.

(A distinction must be made between special “private” exits and regular exits when comparing the SCTEx with the SLEX. On the SLEX, examples of special exits would be Asia Brewery, Greenfield, and Southwoods, while examples of regular exits would be Alabang, Santa Rosa, and Canlubang.)

Remulla alleged that the government’s assumption of the cost of constructing the Luisita interchange was a special favor President Gloria Arroyo extended to former President Cory Aquino when the two were still allies.

3. The payment of P83 million for the right-of-way was overpriced.

To build the Luisita interchange, the government paid the owners of Hacienda Luisita P83 million for right-of-way for 83 hectares of land, according to Remulla. This translates to about P100 per square meter, at a time when the market price of farm land in Tarlac was only P6 to P8 per square meter, Remulla said.

That the BCDA agreed to pay this price indicates that the government approved of the transaction.

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/183665/the-sctex-issue

The SWS survey, commissioned by a leading business broadsheet,  showed Villar garnering 34 percent, just two percentage points away from Aquino’s 36 percent.

With a margin of error of plus-minus 2 points, the ranking of the two presidential candidates are considered tied.

Villar lost one percentage point compared to his previous rating in the January SWS survey but Aquino shed six big percentage points.

Using the ballot format wherein respondents were made to pick out the names of the presidential candidates from a “ballot”, the question asked was:  “Kung ang eleksyon ay gaganapin ngayon, sino ang pinakamalamang ninyong iboboto bilang Presidente, Bise-Presidente, at mga Senador ng Pilipinas. Narito ang listahan ng mga kandidato. Paki-shade o itiman po ang naa-angkop na oval katabi ng pangalan ng taong pina-kamalamang ninyong iboboto (If the elections were held today, whom would you most probably vote for as President, Vice-President, and Senators of the Philippines. Here is a list of candidates. Please shade the oval beside the name of the persons you would most likely vote for).”

The results of the SWS survey contrasted sharply to the latest Pulse Asia poll conducted February 21-25 or at the height of the EDSA I anniversary, showing Aquino pulling away with 36 percent to Villar’s 29 percent.

In the Pulse survey, Villar lost big in Mindanao but this was reversed in the SWS poll showing the NP candidate dipping only by one percentage point.

The SWS survey also showed former president Joseph Estrada solidifying his third ranking with 15 percent, followed by administration bet Gilberto Teodoro with 6 percent and Bro. Eddie Villanueva with 3 percent.

The BusinessWorld-commissioned SWS survey affirms earlier survey results that the presidential race was a tight race between Villar and Aquino.

A latest survey commissioned by the Manila Standard-Today (MST) also confirmed the trend showing Villar and Aquino locked in statistical tie at 34 percent and 36 percent, respectively.

Even then, the MST survey was also conducted February 20-26, falling within the EDSA I anniversary week.

NP spokesman and senatorial candidate Gilbert Remulla said the SWS and the MST   surveys will serve as their guide in targeting areas and sectors which need to improve on in terms of message delivery and actual campaign work.

“We are confident that with the start of the local campaign late this month, our numbers will firm up as the machinery of the NP starts grinding to reach out to more grassroots centers,” he said.

Villar, for his part, said the SWS and MST surveys were proof that the NP campaign is connecting with its message of eradicating poverty and corruption through experience and leadership.

“You can’t promise wiping out hunger and corruption if you haven’t shown leadership in the past to prove that you can really do it,” Villar stressed.

The NP president nevertheless stressed they are pleased with all the survey results that have come out, whether it showed him losing seven points or one point.

The survey conducted Feb 20-26 with 2,500 respondents revealed that 34 percent chose Aquino while 32 percent chose Villar. It has a plus or minus two percent error margin on the results. Compared with the MST survey done in January, both candidates lost 2 points (Aquino, 36%; Villar, 34%).

Since December 2009, the MST survey showed that Aquino lost 12 points, while Villar improved in January when he gained 7 points.

“I’m happy that surveys have confirmed that we are responding to the hopes of the people across the country. During my campaign sorties in the provinces the people have shown that they are supporting our vision to address poverty,” Villar said in reaction to the new poll.

The MST survey used the Comelec ballot format where respondents shaded the ovals corresponding to their preferred candidate, said MST resident pollster, Pedro Laylo.

The survey showed that Villar was not affected by the C-5 road controversy as the field work was conducted when the Senate Committee of the Whole report was being discussed.

At third place is former President Joseph Estrda with 16%, three points higher than last January. Administration bet Gilberto Teodoro also gained 1 point, with 6 percent.

According to Laylo, support for Aquino remains strong in Metro Manila, Southern Luzon and the Visayas Region. Villar continues to lead in North and Central Luzon, and remains the favorite of respondents aged 25-34.

There was an 8-point spread between Aquino and Villar in the upper and middle classes in favor of Aquino; a 4-point difference between the two in favor also of Aquino among the poor classes; and a tie between them among the destitute, the report said.

###

March 8, 2010

Why? He attracts support from the middle class and the lower classes, especially the poor. The rich and upper classes prefer their old friends and allies in the trational elite.

Manny Villar has the capacity, in the longrun, to upset the status quo of mass poverty, injustice, perennial conflict, including violent conflict, high population growth. He has also the capacity to unite our fractious society and politics, and bring about effective and accountable leadership, governance, and the reform of our political institutions.

He is no pretender as the good against all evil. When you come to think of it, in our kind of costly, traditional politics most professional politicians are motivated by a mix of selfish personal interest, public service, and altruism. Even nonpoliticians are normally both virtuous and selfish. But some presidential candidates pretend to be the incarnation of ideals and virtue.

It is untrue that Manny Villar has spent billions on his campaign. He does not have that kind of money. He may have more than the others but he is not reckless, as his rivals paint him to be.

And his rivals are envious even as they also spend substantial sums; some of them do.

The propaganda is that Manny Villar is buying the presidency. But the presidency is not for sale and the great majority of our voters do not sell their votes. It is an insult to most of our people to suggest that their political support can be bought.

Manny Villar does not rely for his appeal and vision for change and reform on heroic parents, celebrity-masa appeal, nor does he personally attack his rivals. He is and wants to remain a unifyer, a coalition builder for leadership, change and reform.

He is using his own means, ideas, and persuasion in his campaign with the help of his co-leaders and supporters nationwide.

For all the unlenting damnation Manny gets for alleged misuse of his power and office, no judgment of his alledged corruption has been made by any court of justice.

Earlier on the Senate majority freed him of the charges of irregularity in the so-called insertion of an item in the appropriations act to favor his real estate. It turned out that the item had been approved four times by the Senate. The pork barrel practice institutionalizes the insertions of legislators.

Then the Senate led by his presidential rivals, chaired by the Senate president who is a known partisan, signed a resolution condemning Villar and asking him to pay back P6 billion to the government. This is one of many practices that has destroyed the Senate’s credibility. Our nationally elected Senate is one of our dysfunctional institutions of governance.

Of all presidential candidates, Manny Villar has the leadership competence, personality and experience to unite like and contrary groups and political factions. To seek to unite our weak and divided and demoralized nation. When he becomes president, Manny Villar has the understanding and the will and skill to mobilize a political majority to effect fundamental changes in our presidential and unitary politcal system. We need institutional and system change as much as a change in leaders and in our people’s condition and participation in governance.

No other presidential candidate can match Villar’s ability and credibility as an forceful national leader. Among his rival candidates Villar is the only one who became the Speaker of the House, and then the President of the Senate. As Speaker he led the House in the impeachment of a sittting President, the only one ever impeached. Because the Senate impeachment trial failed, Cabinet members dispersed, and people power and the withdrawal of support from the military and police forced the president’s resignation.

Manny Villar’s leading rival is banking mainly on the heroism of his parents and his potential for honest leadership. But given the state of the nation and the weaknesses of our democracy, we need much more than the assurance of honest leadership. Our revered President Cory was indubitably honest and religious.

In their own time, most of our presidents could not, did not, really reduce poverty and corruption substantially because of inherent weaknesses and disabilities in our kind of democratic institutions and practices and their limitations as leaders. Nor did they reduce injustice and inequality. But certainly they did what they could. So did many outstanding local government leaders who were quite successful; and some nongovernmental leaders and movements that also improved their communities.

Yet our democracy is now at risk because of its failure as a whole to deliver on its exagerrted promises and the growing dissatisfaction of our people with the way it fails to deliver on its promises. Our country is now the 12th most populous in the whole world, although it is the 71st in land area. As many as nine to ten million Filipinos have gone aboad for a better life.

Our media–that are big businesses in themselves with their own vested interests and partisanship- -belabor the weaknesses of our leaders and government while minimizing the good things being done for the people in our dysfunctional system of politics and governance. Catholic Church leaders gave us moral leadership that brought down the Marcos didtatorship. Since then bishops with their moral authority have assumed partisan roles not unlike the politicians and are campaigning for we know who.

In addition to a change in leadership, we need basic changes in our political system and our policies and programs of governance. Starting with our electoral and political party systems.

Villar has rebuilt and revitalized the Nacionalista that was the party of unity for independence from the United States partly be a coalition with other forces. Mar Roxas, not Noynoy, has also revitalized the Liberal Party one of the pillars in the original semi-two-party system we had.

Already, there is so much alarmist talk of a failure of elections. And the President of the Senate is thinking aloud that, if the elections do fail, the military and the police should assume power and authority. Another group has been planning and organizing for a Transition Revolutionary Government, also in aalliance with “progressive military leaders. This is what I mean by our democracy being at risk.

In these dire circumstances of our nation and democracy, we need a national leader who can orgnize and lead us out of our national disunity and self-destructivenes s. We face a hotly and viciously contested presidential election on May 10. An opportunity to have good, effective governnce and real reforms. Not just a contest in personality and winnability. We should not elect someone as president for on-the-job training. Because there are others who can lead us better.

Jose V. Abueva

Personal website: www.joseabueva. com

Despite relentless vilification campaign and pouring in of millions in television ads by his closest rival, Nacionalista Party (NP) standard-bearer Manny Villar continuous to hold a formidable rating compared to the freefalling numbers of Sen. Benigno Aquino III of the Liberal Party (LP).

Based on the recent survey of Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) held January 28-February 3,  Aquino led Villar by 11 percentage points, scoring 41.54 percent against Villar’s 30.63 percent.

In the newest Pulse Asia survey from February 21-25, the lead of Aquino contracted by 7 percentage points with 36 percent against Villar’s 29 percent.

Villar lost six percentage points while Aquino shed one percentage from their previous ratings of 35 percent and 37 percent, respectively, based on the Pulse Asia January 10 survey.

The latest Pulse Asia survey placed former president Joseph Estrada in third with 18 percent, Gilbert Teodoro in fourth with 7 percent and Bro. Eddie Villanueva came fifth with 2 percent.

But despite losing grounds in the latest Pulse survey, Villar’s ranking remained on upswing since this was still seven-percentage point higher than his previous Pulse December rating of 23 percent.

NP senatorial candidate and spokesman Gilbert Remulla said the latest Pulse Asia results showed that Villar maintained a considerable strong showing despite being the target of attacks by his rivals from various political camps.

Remulla said while the NP standard-bearer lost some grounds, the real story is that his closest rival, Aquino, will never be able to recover his previous high rating of 50 percent to 60 percent.

“We welcome the latest Pulse Asia results and we vow to work harder next time. It’s still two months away before elections. Our seven-point deficit is recoverable compared to the 24 percentage points lost by the closest rival,” Remulla said.

Villar, in a presidential interview with Mike Enriquez of GMA 7 and DZBB, said his rivals have continued to besmirch his reputation by painting him as a man pre-disposed to buying off opponents and even the media.

He stressed he never toiled for his wealth just to splurge it on something unprincipled and immoral.

The NP presidential candidate said the latest attack on his integrity that he allegedly tried to buy out a presidential rival from the race in exchange for funding reimbursement was part of the vilification pattern.

Remulla said the voters are more discerning now to believe the lies being spewed by the rivals of Villar, including fantastic insinuation that he is the secret candidate of the corrupt administration. END

The Campaigns and Images Group tasked a non-government organization that received financial grant from donor countries in the US and the European Economic Community to administer the questionnaire on individuals identified by sector, from services, industrial and agricultural, including occupations and age brackets. The first survey done by this group at the end of January 31, 2010 showed that former Defense Sec. Gibo Teodoro has overtaken Erap and was now 3rd behind the statistically tied Sen. Noynoy Aquino and Sen. Manny Villar.

Campaigns and Images has released its latest survey, which was conducted by volunteers from the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) between Feb.10 and 20. This new survey asked the question as to who has the better platform of government among the Presidentiables. Here are the latest results.

Confidence Rating and Error Margin Calculation

When I first published the first survey from this group, I got calls from many people why that survey wasn’t published or made public? My answer was, “This was the most unbiased of all surveys as it wasn’t collated to help any political candidate as the survey was commissioned to get into the bottom of who were really leading this Presidential race.” But the Campaigns & Images Group allowed me to publish its results.

This latest survey shows that Sen. Manny Villar has now overtaken the survey leader, Noynoy Aquino, III. Sen. Villar bagged a 32% or a 9 percentage points lead against survey leader, Noynoy Aquino who garnered 23%, while Gibo Teodoro, Jr. got 18 percentage points or a mere 6% behind Noynoy. Again let me point out that there are surveys being spread around in order to make their candidates look good. But by far, this survey is the most thorough and the most credible survey that I have ever seen because non-politicians commissioned it.
SHOOTING STRAIGHT By Bobit S. Avila (The Philippine Star) Updated March 05, 2010 12:00 AM

This is the problem with surveys done at this time; it is almost impossible to believe that there was no political slant, even in that Reader’s Digest survey. We’ve read most of the Social Weather Station (SWS) and Pulse Asia Surveys, but most people say that these two companies have a very high credibility when it comes to poverty index or the like, but when it comes to political surveys, they often sound incredible. So, whose survey can we believe? After all, most of the PR groups handling politicians have their own surveys for their own client’s benefit.

A week ago, we came up with the first survey done by the Campaigns & Images Group (Philippines) that was commissioned by United Kingdom and US based companies doing business in the Philippines. A non-government organization that received financial grant from donor countries in the US and the European Economic Community administered the questionnaire on individuals identified by sector, from services, industrial and agricultural, including occupations and age brackets. The first survey done by this group at the end of January 31. 2010 showed that former Defense Sec. Gibo Teodoro had overtaken Erap and was 3rd behind the statistically tied Aquino and Villar.

This new survey asked the question as to who has the better platform of government among the Presidentiables. Here are the latest results.

Sample Depth : 5,100 individuals

Respondents : 4,947 individuals

Methodology : Random pick, Sector-representative

Target Sections : Luzon (2,958); Visayas (5,621), Mindanao (1,581)

CandidateResponse (A) (B) (C) % Pts

SizeLuzonMindanaoVisayas(A to C)

AQUINO1,16214%6%3%23.00%

VILLAR1,61018%10%4%32.00%

TEODORO93010%5%3%18.00%

ESTRADA2473%2%0.75%5.75%

OTHERS99811%7%0.25%20.00%

Total4,94757%31%11%99.00%

Confidence Rating and Error Margin Calculation

DescriptionResponse (A) (B) (C)

SizeLuzonMindanaoVisayas

Total Response4,9472,8191,533544

Sample Depth5,1002,9581,581561

Confidence %97.00%95.30%96.96%96.96%

Error Margin3.00%4.70%3.04%3.04%

When I first published the first survey, I got calls from many people why that survey wasn’t published or made public. My answer was, “This was the most unbiased of all surveys as it wasn’t collated to help any political candidate as the survey was commissioned to get into the bottom of who were really leading this Presidential race.” But the Campaigns & Images Group allowed me to publish its results.

For this second survey, it is clear that Sen. Manny Villar has now overtaken the survey leader, Noynoy Aquino, III. Villar bagged a 32% or a 9 percentage points lead against survey leader, Noynoy Aquino, while Gibo Teodoro Jr. got 18 percentage points or a mere 6% behind Noynoy. This new or latest survey was conducted by volunteers from the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) between Feb.10 and 20th.

There are surveys being spread around in order to make their candidates look good. But by far, this is the most thorough and the most credible survey that I have ever seen.

SHOOTING STRAIGHT By Valeriano Avila (The Freeman) Updated March 02, 2010 12:00 AM

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=554239

However, the mansion depicted in these photographs is not Mugabe’s residence at all. In fact, the very same set of photographs has also circulated in protest messages decrying the opulent lifestyles of other political leaders and celebrities. One version claims that the home belongs to President Pervaiz Musharraf of Pakistan. Another claims that the mansion is the home of former Nigerian ruler Ibrahim Babangida. Yet another version suggests that the photographs show the home of former Secretary of Health Care of Azerbaijan, Russia. And, finally, many references, including a YouTube video, claim that the home belongs to Bollywood superstar, Shahrukh Khan.

In fact, all these claims are false. The mansion in the photographs is actually a home located in the wealthy community of Bell Air, Los Angeles. The mansion is available as a location for film, television and commercial shoots and is featured as such on the website of location manager, Toni Maier. Thus, there is no truth in the story that the mansion in the photographs belongs to Mugabe. And, in any case, an ariel shot of Mugabe’s partially completed mansion in Harare shows a building quite different to the one depicted in these photographs.

Some commentators have claimed that the mansion belongs to Mugabe’s cousin Philippe Chiyangwa. However, this claim is also untrue. News photographs of Chiyangwa’s mansion show a residence with a different style and aspect than that of the mansion shown in the above photographs.

Although the photographs do not show Mugabe’s residence, various news reports indicate that, for several years, he has been building himself a lavish mansion while a great many of his people live under terrible conditions. The controversial leader also has other luxurious residences. A 2003 report in The Guardian UK notes:

Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, is building a lavish palace costing £3.75m on the outskirts of the capital, Harare.

Furnishings and security are expected to send the cost to more than £6m at a time when nearly half of Zimbabwe’s population is dependent on international food aid.

Its sprawling accommodation includes 25 bedrooms with bathrooms and spas. It is three times the size of the president’s official residence, State House, and his adjacent offices.

The mansion, located in the upmarket Borrowdale Brooke area, about 15 miles north of the city centre, is nearing completion. The construction company Energoproject, based in Belgrade, is building the palace.

Mr Mugabe has built smaller mansions in Harare and Zvimba, his birthplace, as well a Chivu, the birthplace of his wife, Grace.

And newzimbabwe.com notes: THE Harare City Council has embarked on a multi-billion-dollar project to widen two roads which form a link to President Robert Mugabe’s mansion in Helensvale, a report in the Zimbabwe Independent said.

Major civil works have already started to widen Carrick Creagh and Borrowdale Brook roads which link the mansion to Crow-hill Road

This is to clarify certain points that a reader, a certain Jocelyn Gonzales, publicly raised about Sen. Manny Villar’s ads (”Money” talks, PDI opinion page, Feb 17, 2010).

1. That “the line between truth and claims gets blurred”, that claims can be turned into truth with Villar’s ads, Goebbels (Nazi propagandist) of Hitler proselytizes so. Unfortunately, even Ms. Gonzales believes in the dictum of repeating a lie to appear true.

The truth in Villar’s ads is that we can still rise above the sorry state of our country, that even in utter poverty (”nasubukan mo na bang maligo sa dagat ng basura?..,”) and, despite the miserable conditions of the poorest of the poor, there is still hope. Even Rizal offered hope to our subjugated people. In fact, great leaders distinguish themselves by moving forward despite great odds. And successful leaders are not necessarily from the creme de la creme of society inherited from rich parents. They can be with the common folk.

As to Villar’s attitude in the Senate hearings on the C-5 project, there is nothing wrong with answering the accusations with facts. No matter how much Villar’s political rivals gang-up on him, it doesn’t change the fact that: 1) there was no “double insertion” into the project; 2) land prices are based on official valuation and computation; and, 3) there is no moral and legal wrong in doing business while in public office.

The truth is the truth no matter how much you bend, twist, spin, or cover it up. Calling Manny as “Money” as Ms. Gonzales and other pundits are wont to repeat doesn’t turn him into cash.

2. That the people endorsing him are just there for money – Dolphy with his “high maintenance families”, Revillame “who only recognizes money”, and Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza, as Ms. Gonzales maliciously claims, “have sold out”.

Dolphy and Revillame have their high-paying jobs even before the ads. Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza have been steadfast with their principles at the pain of intensified repression and fraud.

Those people whom Ms. Gonzales mentioned are with Villar’s campaign because he was able to unite a really broad coalition of social, political and cultural forces. It was because of his platform for the poor, the deprived and the oppressed – a cause which even the Church recognizes. We should not reduce everything to money. Doing so cheapens human beings.

3. Finally, Ms. Gonzales warns the voting public against being swayed by the ads. She says we would truly deserve “leaders” like GMA’s immoral and stolen presidency. This would be of “our own doing.”

I think Ms. Gonzales should not blame the voting public. Twice in our recent history we removed immoral leaders. No, we don’t deserve fake leaders. Don’t blame the people, blame the government. Vox populi, vox Dei.

Thank you again for accommodating this reaction.

Miguel Ortilla

Ateneo de Manila University

Loyola Heights, Quezon City

23 February 2010

The Opinion Editor

Philippine Daily Inquirer