Noynoy denies link to SCTEx project

In November 2009, an investigation into the SCTEx project was launched in Congress by Aquino’s political rivals. Cavite Rep. Crispin Remulla, an ally of Senator Manny Villar, accused Aquino of lobbying for the Luisita interchange of the SCTEx, saying the government paid Hacienda Luisita, Inc (HLI) an inflated amount of P83 million for the road right of way, and assumed the cost of building a P170-million interchange to connect the Central Techno Park inside his family’s hacienda to the SCTEx.


The SCTEX Issue

The 94-kilometer Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) is presently the longest highway in the Philippines. It connects the Subic Bay Freeport, the Clark Freeport, and Tarlac City.

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). Continue reading



In a November 12, 2009 report of GMANews.TV, Aquino denied he had anything to do with the project. He attributed the reports linking him to the SCTEx issue to character assassination because he was leading surveys for the presidential elections.

Loveland’s statements about Aquino and the superhighway, however, were recorded five years ago, before anyone had an inkling Aquino would run for president.

City councilor murdered

On March 3, 2005, Councilor Abel Ladera, the man who led the mourners’ procession during the wake for the massacre victims, was killed in broad daylight by a sniper bullet to the chest while buying spare parts at an auto shop.

Ladera was a former sugar mill worker who grew up in one of the barangays of Hacienda Luisita. He became an engineer, then a city councilor. Ladera was at the forefront of the fight against land conversion.

He was also scheduled to make a presentation on March 8, 2005 to an assembly of barangay captains to disprove the claim of the Philippine National Police (PNP) that the violent dispersal on November 16, 2004 occurred because shots were fired from the ranks of the strikers.

-steph dychiu

One on One : Villar VS Aquino

Whose track record is better?


The 2010 Presidential Election has proven itself as one competitive rate race between many presidential hopefuls. The top 2 in the lead are non-other than Senator Manny Villar and Senator Noynoy Aquino.

Recently I was wondering if there is an event where these 2 personalities can compare their personal achievements. Yes, no bringing of achievements of their parents, no bringing of support of fans.

On one corner stands Manny Villar, a once poor man who has risen to the top with pure hard work.
On the other corner stands Noynoy Aquino, born with a silver spoon but coming from a rich lineage widely accredited as the heroes of democracy.
Both of them might have their good and bad qualities personally but, given their years in politics, what have they achieved?

On one hand, Villar has shown tremendous leadership potential because of his track record as a congressman and a senator. Laws AUTHORED and PASSED:
SBN-934 "AN ACT ESTABLISHING THE SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES STOCKEXCHANGE"
SBN-935 "AN ACT ESTABLISHING BUSINESS ONE-STOP SHOP (BOSS) CENTERS FORSMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN ALL REGIONAL AND PROVINCIALCENTERS IN THE COUNTRY"
SBN-936 "AN ACT ESTABLISHING THE MAGNA CARTA FOR COUNTRYSIDE AND BARANGAYBUSINESS ENTERPRISES (CBBEs),


GRANTING EXEMPTIONS FROM ANYAND ALL GOVERNMENT RULES AND REGULATIONS AND PROVIDINGINCENTIVES AND BENEFITS THEREFOR, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES"
SBN-938 "AN ACT TO PROMOTE, DEVELOP AND ASSIST MICRO AND COTTAGEINDUSTRIES BY PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE AND RATIONAL SYSTEM TOADDRESS THEIR PRODUCTION AND TECHNOLOGY NEEDS"

SBN-940 "AN ACT TO ESTABLISH A JOB TRAINING PROGRAM FOR MATURE OR OLDERWORKERS"
SBN-941 "AN ACT PROVIDING FOR COMPREHENSIVE CONSERVATION, PROTECTION, UTILIZATION, DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF THE PHILIPPINEEXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE (EEZ)"
SBN-942 "AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE CONSERVATION AND PROTECTION OF WILDLIFERESOURCES AND THEIR HABITATS, APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFORAND FOR OTHER PURPOSES"
SBN-943 "AN ACT REGULATING SHIPPING VESSELS COASTING PHILIPPINE WATERS FORTHE PROTECTION OF SHORES"
SBN-944 "AN ACT MANDATING THE USE OF RECYCLABLE OR BIODEGRADABLE MATERIALSFOR THE PACKAGING OF CONSUMER PRODUCTS"
SBN-945 "AN ACT REQUIRING LOCAL GOVERNMENTS TO PLANT TREES ALONG NATIONALAND LOCAL HIGHWAYS WITHIN ITS TERRITORIAL BOUNDARIES AND FOROTHER PURPOSES" SBN-946 "AN ACT REQUIRING THE RECYCLING AND THE UTILIZATION OF RECYCLEDMATERIALS BY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS"
SBN-947 "AN ACT PROHIBITING THE MANUFACTURE, DISTRIBUTION, SALE OR USE OFAEROSOL CONTAINING CHLOROFLOUROCARBONS AND PROVIDING PENALTYFOR THE VIOLATION THEREOF"
SBN-948 "AN ACT CREATING THE OFFICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION, DEFININGITS FUNCTIONS AND APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR AND FOR OTHERPURPOSES"
SBN-949 "AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE REGULATION AND DISPOSAL OF MEDICALWASTES, DECLARING CERTAIN ACTS UNLAWFUL, PRESCRIBINGPENALTIES THERETO, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES"
SBN-950 "AN ACT TO CONSERVE AND PROTECT THE PUBLIC FORESTS, MANGROVES ANDWILDLIFE THEREIN THROUGH A PROGRAM OF RENEWAL, REFORESTATIONAND REPLANTING, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES" and 600 more laws.
While on the other, Aquino has abysmal records during his seat as a congressman and as a senator.
House Bill No. 4251 – granting annual productivity incentives to all workers in the private sector
* House Bill No. 4397 – strengthening the regulatory power of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to effectively enforce consumer laws
* House Bill No. 4252 – increasing the penalties for non-compliance of the prescribed increases and adjustments in the wage rates of workers
* House Bill No. 3616 – extending the reglementary period for the educational qualification for PNP members
* House Bill No. 1842 – providing for the codification of criminal laws

I believe that one shouldn’t run for president because his/her mother was a president or his/her dad was a democratic hero. One should run for president because he/she knows that he/she can lead a nation based on one’s own abilities and experiences. Abilities that has been honed from hard work, experiences that have been gathered through tough times.
Given these opinions, I am inclined to say that Villar should win their duel.

Villaroyo?!?

APRIL 17



Recently, news has been spreading that Presidential candidate, Manny Villar and President Gloria Arroyo has a secret alliance. It has been speculated that President Arroyo is trying to have an allegiance with Manny Villar because of the questionable winnability of LAKAS - KAMPI presidentiable, Gibo Theodoro.

This maybe an issue made up by his opponents in the upcoming presidential race. Although some may raise their eyebrows because Manny Villar clearly shows, most seen in his commercials, that he is against the current Administration.

My question is if this was true, why Manny Villar would risk his image and align himself with the president since it is widely known that President Arroyo is not very popular.

In this regard I try to look for motives if ever Manny Villar is aligning himself with President Arroyo.


Financially wise, it is highly unlikely that Manny Villar is having problems, for he is in fact, one of the richest men in the Philippines with a net worth of $ 940 million according to Forbes.

In regards with influence, I wonder if GMA will help him at all given that GMA has one of the lowest satisfaction ratings as president together with Erap.
Support of voters? Again, very unlikely, because GMA’s popularity has been declining in recent times and any affiliation with her even hurts a presidentiable’s chance of winning a seat in Malacanang (ex. Gibo).


Given this ideas, one may wonder who in the right mind would suggest Manny Villar to align himself with GMA.

Who funds Noynoy?

The phrase “Walang Corruption” is one of presidential candidate, Senator Noynoy Aquino key catch phrases that has signified his position as one of the leading presidentiables at the top together with Senator Manny Villar whose catch phrase is “Sipag at Tiyaga”. There commercials are widely shown on local TV. Now we all know that TV ads are expensive, but who pays for them?

The problem is that during his recent campaigns, one may wonder where he is getting his financial support. It is unlikely that he is spending much of his own money and instead using fund from party funds and a most specifically, donors. His primary opponent, Manny Villar on the other hand is self supporting given his vast wealth ($940 million), Villar doesn’t need a donor so he doesn’t owe anyone.

Now, if ever Noynoy wins a seat at Malacanang, how does he intend to repay his funders? It is ironic that Noynoy is asking Villar how he would manage to recoup his “investments” while he himself doesn’t declare who is funding him.

Noynoy claims that he plans on paying his donors with good governance. I for one find this amusing since I wonder if his donors would agree to that... -jg

totoo ba ito?!

Here seemed to be the grand plan, Ex DAR chiefs will be positioned in case Noynoy wins. This is to ensure that the family’s interests in Hacienda Luisita will be shielded. They are LP bigwigs ‘Butch’ Abad and ‘Popoy’ Juico who were both Agrarian Reform secretaries during the Aquino administration. While Ernesto Garilao served as Agrarian Reform chief from 1992 to 1998.

Their Mission is to make sure that the Cojuanco’s prime property, the HACIENDA LUISITA, will be spared from CARPer which rendered illegal the stock distribution option of the original CARP which allowed the Hacienda Luisita to escape land distribution and continued the Cojuanco’s reign in the blood laden Hacienda Luisita.

Habang nasa poder si Aquino patuloy nilang hahadlangan ang mga kawawang magsasaka ng Hacienda Luisita na makuha ang minimithing Lupa.

Hacienda Luisita is indeed the core of Noynoy Aquino’s presidential campaign. It is a major issue that his camp kept avoiding… yet reading between the lines, SAVING HACIENDA LUISITA SEEMS TO BE THE CORE OF HIS RUNNING.

At the start of the campaign period, in hopes of killing the issue, Noynoy mentioned that they will distribute the land among the farmers by June 2014. Oh common, why wait for 2014? Can the hunger and poverty of the farmers wait until 2014? This statement was issued just to pacify people’s ranting.

And then here comes the GAG order. Noynoy’s staff in his sortie in Catarman barred anyone from asking questions related to Hacienda Luisita and a couple more issues. Why o Why? I surmise they just wanted to suppress the issue so as not to hurt Noynoy’s candidacy more. Or they wanted the people to be blinded of the very nature of HOW THE AQUINOS AND THE COJUANCOS treat those WHO GOES AGAINST THEM?

And alas, no less than the New York Times exposed that Mr. Fernando Cojuanco, COO of the holding company clearly said that “THEY (Cojuancos) HAD NO INTENTION OF GIVING AWAY THE LAND TO THE FARMERS”. And this is the COO (Chief Operating Officer) speaking.


cc - maicalee

HOW NOT TO LAND A JOB

by: Susan Ople

Dear Job Applicant,

I just got your resume, font size 14 and triple-spaced. If it were a landscape, a desert comes to mind. Sparse, dry, and with lots of open spaces, with a photo that convinces me of your lack of knowledge about Adobe Photoshop.

So heres the thing, As the chief headhunter, I really dont care if you enjoy badminton. Of course, I am happy that you have the endurance for it, but my chief concern is if our organization can endure and be enhanced by you, and vice-versa. I also now know that you love attending seminars. Let me guess, you probably kept each and every certificate of attendance laminated and framed hanging on your wall.

I dont think you should have included that seminar on drunk driving though. It does send the wrong signals. Despite the lack of relevant information about you, I will still see you on Monday.

I hope you prepare well for your interview because you are number 46 on a list of seventy applicants. It will be a tough day for your interviewer, having to meet and listen to the pitches of so many people, competing for this single, blessed job vacancy.

What will make you stand out?

You would have to sell yourself, keeping in mind the perspective of the buyer. In short, this is not really all about you. Its about us, and the fact that we do have the money to keep you and your dreams alive. If you come late, then out you go.

If you show up with greasy hair, a tattoo on your arm, and hot Shawarma breath, then your resume goes straight to the garbage bin. You are not going on stage to audition for American Idol where you can be spectacular or stupidly outlandish, and still make it on the show.

In my room, when you come in to take your seat, there really are no second chances. As Heidi Klum of Project Runway loves to say, its either youre in or out. Bear that in mind when you decide to stroll in my office ten minutes late.

If you slouch in your seat, then that means you are too lazy to even think or care about your personal image. How then can we expect you to think about our own institutional image and integrity? If you come in for an interview and have absolutely no idea about what programs and services we offer, it shows a lack of initiative on your part.

It also gives me the impression that you dont really care about us. You are simply going through the motions of applying for a job.If you sit across me and start acting bored in the first five minutes of our talk, then maybe you are not cut out for the job.

You probably were already daydreaming about your next interview. Extending our conversation would simply be a waste of time.

Here are more tips on how not to land a job:

1. Show up in frayed denims, a halter-top, and sneakers. Ah, the audacity of youth!

2. Getting the name of your interviewer and the head of the company wrong.

3. Applying as an account executive and underscoring your units in accounting. Not the same, folks, not the same.

4. Telling the interviewer how much you liked their products and then mentioning a different brand? Not cool.

5. Asking about the starting salary, even before the interviewer mentions and describes the work involved. Atribida!

6. And when the interviewer asks you about any future plans, you really shouldnt tell him about your plan to watch a movie right after the job interview. The thing is, if you want to sell yourself then be yourself, but just a tad better. Your competitors are not just the fresh graduates from other colleges, but the ex-OFWs who have since returned with actual experience and not just seminars attended on their resumes.

You are also competing with the outsourcing of work to project-based contractuals here and around the world. The world of work has changed immensely from when you first entered college.

It takes more than just connections now to land a decent job. In short, what we have is a buyers market, where a company headhunter has access to online applications, alumni networks, and walk-in applicants, for every single job opening. To land a job, youd have to prepare yourself long before your first job interview. Because what you really are looking for, is not just any job but a career to call your own.

Your resume is just part of your arsenal of marketing tools. If your lifetime achievements can fit in one page, triple-spaced and all, then make up for it with personality, initiative, and an infectious enthusiasm that makes it hard for even the most tired interviewer to ignore you.

Good luck!

Sincerely,

YPB (Your Potential Boss)

THE POSSIBLE DREAM

I have listened intently to all the presidentiables talk in public trying to read the truth between the lines or at least catch them speak in forked tongues ,so to speak. Listening to Villar on his former speeches in schools way back 2004 and now in Forums he attended, however, I can’t detect any trace of double-talk. He look at you straight in the eye as he talk extemporaneously full of sincerity, almost passionately.

He speaks of the truth from the heart.


WHAT COMES OUT OF THE MOUTH BEGINS IN THE HEART. Mbv discourses on alleviating the poorest of the poor from the fangs of hunger and shame. A kind of governance that promote commerce and programs that directly help them. As his humble beginnings likewise suffered abject poverty, he successfully freed himself from its clutches and became super rich by sheer determination,and hard work. And now he said, he wants to share his blessings, experience and competence, to rally the people in breaking free from the bondage of poverty, a malady that plague the Filipino nation from generation to generation.

National prosperity is his ultimate goal, an obsession that he pursued to the extent of pouring all his wealth for the upliftment of his country and people. “If I can come out triumphant from my own private war against poverty, he retorted, why can’t every Filipino do the same?” Given much better opportunity, they can do more for the welfare of the people: the whole nation breaking free from the bondage of poverty and national shame, and so he said and I quote: “but all that I have achieved would be nothing if at the end of my public life I would not have been able to translate my own success into the success of all our people”.


Truly, the words of MBV struck me as a strong evidence of an intense love. No doubt MBV is passionately in-love with the Filipino people, especially the less fortunate and marginalized. His life is not only a revelation of a person destined to lead this country and people, but also serves as a beacon light of a path to follow, a godly path that leads to life of prosperity.

It suggests to us that his life involves direction, decision, and determination to propel the nation into national dignity and recognition. MBVs’ life is not only the kind of success that we ordinarily know. It means much more than making a living. It means making a life that honors god as it serves others more important than riches and power, because his kind of a success helps you build for all eternity. Yes, the Filipino people are worth dying for, but we don’t need; to commit national suicide.

What we need is to have FAITH, HOPE, and LOVE, and he believes that LOVE of his people is the greatest of them all.