Emil Jurado nails the Dagger in the clutch

This Article of Emil Jurado says it ALL about the Yellow Leader:

Why I Won't for Noy

If we were watching a basketball game, we would now be in the last two minutes. The May 10 elections is only less than two weeks away, and anything can still happen.

Despite what the poll surveys say, I still believe that it is a four-cornered fight among Liberal Party standard bearer Senator Benigno Aquino III, Nacionalista Party standard bearer Senator Manuel Villar, former President Joseph Estrada of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino and even administration candidate former Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro.

I have been a journalist for over half a century and I have covered elections since as early as the Laurel-Quirino fight. I know for a fact that there are so many imponderable factors in Philippine elections.

These imponderable factors are vote buying (especially in the provinces), cheating in spite of an automated election, command votes, violence, failure of the Precinct Count Optical Scan machines, disenfranchisement of voters, power outages and even the weather. Hence, I would prefer not to predict a winner at this point.

Santa Banana, despite avowals by the Commission on Elections and sectors guarding our ballots, and while I’m hoping for the best, I also know for a fact that old habits die hard. We should also not forget the Golden Rule in Philippine elections—he who has the gold rules!

* * *

The only thing I’m sure of is that I will not vote for Aquino. I’ve cited my reasons so many times before. I will say them again.

First and foremost are perceptions (or rumors) that Noynoy is mentally unstable, having been autistic at an earlier age. He has repeatedly refused to undergo a psychiatric exam if only to prove his critics wrong.

And then, at the age of 26, he reportedly violated the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act by putting up a security agency (bearing his initials, BSA) with his uncle-in-law Len Oreta. The company cornered contracts with sequestered companies during the incumbency of his late mother President Cory Aquino. If this is not conflict of interest, I don’t know what is.

My gulay, Noynoy even had the gall to list the presidential residence on Arlegui Street as the company’s official address!

And then there are the Hacienca Luisita massacres and the Kamaganak Inc. I was among the latter’s victims. I was co-founder of Erectors Inc. (with the late Transportation Minister Totoy Dans). My investment of P200,000 disappeared into thin air.

The same group which comprised Noynoy’s security agency reportedly grabbed an insurance company owned by a Chinese-Filipino who was accused by the Marcos dictators of something. The group then went on to corner, together with the Government Service Insurance System, all insurance contracts of government firms.

Santa Banana, some people really laughed all the way to the bank. The big scam at the time was the GSIS’ striking an insurance deal with Lloyds of London. Can you imagine the kickbacks that some people must have had?

This is why I can’t stomach voting for the son of Ninoy and Cory.

* * *

The only thing that’s getting clear to me is the race for the vice presidency with Senator Mar Roxas surging ahead of rival Loren Legarda, although this doesn’t guarantee Mar’s victory yet.

I have always believed that Mar should not have given way to Noynoy. Roxas’ advocacies and programs of government are clearer than Aquino’s.

Sadly, the Yellow Fanatics and everybody else around Noynoy believes that he is the better candidate. They were overwhelmed by the outpouring of grief and support upon Cory’s death.

Filipinos are truly sentimental, sometimes letting their emotions cloud good judgment. Unfortunately, that sentimentalism is still showing in poll surveys. This is why Noynoy is still leading.

As for Loren, I’m not giving up on her, either, because of her advocacy for the environment. I also cannot believe that Loren has lost her constituency that made her No. 1 senator during the 2001 and 2007 senatorial elections.

* * *

As I’ve said so many times before, all elections are local. People in the provinces, and even in many areas of the National Capital region, don’t really care who will make it as president, vice president and even senators.

This is why national candidates rely on local politicians to carry them.

I have to say it, but the Philippines is still very much a feudalistic state. People in the provinces rely much on local leaders to provide food on the table, livelihood, education and health care.

That’s why the campaign line of local candidates is: “If you are in trouble and you go to me for help, I also want your help to vote for somebody I am endorsing.”

And that means money for local politicians. In fact, the rivalry is so heated in some areas that there is bloodshed. To local politicians, funding is survival —it spells the difference between victory and defeat.

My gulay, why do you think movie icon Fernando Poe Jr. lost? The usual talk is that he was cheated but in reality, his funding dried up!

* * *

Commission on Elections Chairman Jose Melo should not be pressured by business sectors identified with the Yellow Brigade of Noynoy and other segments of society to have a manual count of the May 10 polls.

If Melo and his fellow commissioners relent and submit to this pressure, they in effect would be admitting that automation will not work, and that would be a reflection on the credibility and integrity of the Comelec after it paid P7.1 billion to Smartmatic to give us an automated election.

The only reason I see why Noynoy’s fanatics are insisting on manual count and audit is that they don’t trust Comelec to give us a credible election.

They are also trying to make a connection between the possible results of the automated count and what happened in the 1986 snap elections. This was one of the triggers of the Edsa Revolution.

* * *

For the May 10 polls, it will be difficult to contemplate the mechanics of a parallel independent count and a manual audit of results. Such move will open the floodgates of results that can be different from the automated count. And right there and then, a candidate can claim he was cheated. In this case, it could be Noynoy, who now thinks he is a sure winner.

Obviously, some of the faces around Noynoy who are salivating for a return to power are dreaming of a repeat of the walkout of the Comelec computer people during the vote counting in 1986. And for a People Power Revolution. Santa Banana, Noynoy is truly his mother’s son!

* * *

In the 1986 snap elections, all that was needed to put to question the entire electoral process was the walkout of 30 Comelec computer technicians to protest the manipulation of the official results to favor Marcos. It was a tipping point. That walkout was re-enacted at the Batasan Pambansa when 50 members of the Parliament then also walked out after Comelec proclaimed Marcos the winner.

It was at this point that then Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and then PC/INP chief Fidel Ramos broke away from the Marcos regime and led a mutiny leading to the ouster of the dictator. The rest, as they say, is history.

Recall that Noynoy talked of revolt following a failure of elections, leading to non-proclamation. Could this actually be “Plan B” for his victory?