Risa, Jun enter list of 'probable winners' - Pulse

MANILA, Philippines -- Two Team PNoy senatorial candidates, Risa Hontiveros and Ramon Magsaysay Jr., made it to the list of 16 "probable winners" if elections were held from April 20 to 22.

That's according to the latest pre-election survey of Pulse Asia.

Hontiveros was previously ranked 16th to 18th while Magsaysay was ranked 13th to 18th.

The nationwide survey had 1,800 respondents with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percent.

ANC Dateline Philippines, April 30, 2013

MILF chair to candidates: “you can come and talk to our people”

By Carolyn O. Arguillas on April 29 2013 11:39 pm

DARAPANAN, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao  (MindaNews/29 April) — The chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said candidates running for elective posts on May 13 “can come and talk to our people” but  the MILF stand has not changed: “we will not participate … but we will not prevent people to participate.”

“If they want to vote, they can vote,” MILF chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim told a press conference at the launching Monday noon of the Facility for Advisory Support for Transition Capacities (FASTRAC), a three-year program in partnership with the United Nations and the World Bank.

Along the three-kilometer stretch from the highway  to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s main gate, posters of candidates lined the roadside, many of them posted on coconut trunks.

There were no posters of national candidates (for senators),  just regional  (for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao or ARMM)  and local (for Maguindanao).

Most of the posters were from the team of Datu Tucao Mastura and Ali Midtimbang, candidates of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) for governor and vice governor of Maguindanao, and Mastura’s nephew, Vice Governor Ismael Mastura who is now running for ARMM Assemblyman.

The elder Mastura is mayor of Sultan Kudarat town where the MILF camp is based, Midtimbang is former Talayan mayor

Mayor Mastura is a brother of  MILF senior peace panel member Michael Mastura, father of Ismael.

Posters of  ARMM gubernatorial bet Pax Mangudadatu and his running mate Bashier Dimalaang  Manalao were also visible.

Mangudadatu, former governor of Sultan Kudarat province, is an uncle of incumbent Maguindanao governor Esmael Mangudadatu of the Liberal Party while Manalao is former governor of Lanao del Sur.

A few posters of  the first district congressional candidates – reelectionist Bai Sandra Sema (Liberal Party) and Baisendig Dilangalen (Ind), were also seen. Russman Sinsuat, Jr. who is

Mastura-Midtimbang posters dominate on the road to the
MILF's Camp Darapanan. MindaNews photo by Carolyn O. Arguillas

running for provincial board member under the Liberal Party also had some campaign materials.

There were no posters of reelectionist governor  Mangudadatu and the ruling party’s candidate for ARMM governor, Mujiv Hataman and his running mate, Al-rashid Lucman although Hataman has reportedly been endorsed by both Mastura and Esmael Mangudadatu.

Both candidates for Maguindanao governor have repeatedly committed their support to the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro  which the government and MILF peace panels signed on October 15, 2012.

“The MILF has not changed its official policy of non-involvement in the ongoing electoral process,” Murad said, adding this has been “the policy of the MILF since the very beginning.”

“We will not participate in the electoral process but then we will not also prevent the people to participate.”

Murad clarified that ‘it is only the MILF officials who are prevented from participating (in the elections).

“Now at this point in time you’d notice that when you enter Camp Darapanan, you will notice there are so many posters of candidates (along) the route. This is not a violation of the policy. We do not see it as a violation of the policy. We do not see also as a violation of the policy for candidates to come and talk to our people because as I have said, we are not preventing them. If they want to vote, they can vote. Only some officers are prevented from voting,” Murad said.

He acknowledged that there are candidates “coming to Darapanan to talk to our people”  but did not name them. But he reiterated that the MILF’s policy on the elections has not changed. “The policy remains as is,” he said.

When a reporter asked if it is true that the MILF would hold a “proclamation rally” in Shariff Aguak town on May 5, allegedly to announce the candidates they would support, Murad replied there is no such rally.

“That is not true. There is no proclamation rally of the MILF because we are not participating in the elections. So there is no truth to the information that there will be a proclamation rally on May 5. We are not a party to that. The MILF is not a party to that,” he said .

Asked if there was an MILF activity in Shariff Aguak on May 5, Murad replied their provincial committee may have “but it is not related to the political exercise.” (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews).

PH buying 2 brand-new warships

The Philippines is getting two brand-new frigates as part of the modernization program of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Defense Undersecretary Fernando Manalo said on Monday.

He told reporters that the Department of National Defense (DND) had earmarked P18 billion for the purchase of the two vessels through a public bidding. He said a number of countries, including South Korea, Spain and Singapore, would participate in the bidding.

Manalo also disclosed that the DND had been negotiating for a government-to-government acquisition of 12 jet fighters from South Korea.

He said the DND had decided to scrap previous plans to acquire refurbished frigates since secondhand vessels would be more costly to maintain. He said the DND had allocated P9 billion for each frigate, or fast warship.

“The purchase of the frigates has been in the pipeline,” Manalo said.  “We are just waiting for the Navy to submit their ‘decision package.’ After that, we will review it and issue an acquisition decision memorandum signed by (Defense) Secretary Voltaire Gazmin,” he said.

Manalo said the process could take a week. “After that, we’ll schedule one or two prebid conferences.”

“We originally wanted to buy secondhand frigates but then we realized that it would be expensive in the long run if we are going to buy secondhand,” he added.

He noted that older ships required more maintenance repairs compared to new vessels. He said the DND had previously approved P6 billion for each refurbished frigate.

The Philippine Navy has only one battleship, the 48-year-old Hamilton-class cutter BRP Gregorio del Pilar, which the Philippines acquired from the United States in 2011.

A second warship, the BRP Ramon Alcaraz, would finally sail to the Philippines in June after undergoing repairs in Charleston, South Carolina.

The Navy earlier said the Alcaraz, a 45-year-old frigate, was expected to arrive this month.

The Hamilton-class cutter was acquired for P450 million by the AFP from the US Coast Guard on May 22, 2012, as part of the US government’s military assistance program for the Philippines.

In his State of the Nation Address last year, President Aquino announced that the Alcaraz would arrive from the United States in January 2013 as part of the much-needed AFP upgrade.

“We are not sending paper boats out to the sea. Now, our 36,000 kilometers of coastline will be patrolled by more modern ships,” the President then said, referring to the decades-old vessel, which the US Coast Guard decommissioned on March 30, 2012.

Formerly known as USCGC Dallas, the AFP’s second frigate was named after the late Commodore Ramon Alcaraz, a World War II hero who commanded the Q-boat Abra, which shot down three Japanese aircraft.

Like its sister ship, the Alcaraz was classified as a high-endurance cutter built in 1968.

Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/399539/ph-buying-2-brand-new-warships#ixzz2RzHl63YP 

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‘The Firm’ not so firm: It’s breaking up By Gil C. Cabacungan Philippine Daily Inquirer

The firm is not so firm after all.

Several sources from legal, business and political circles have claimed that the Villaraza Cruz Marcelo & Angangco, or CVC Law office, easily the country’s richest and most powerful law firm, is in turmoil and on the verge of breaking up, with senior partners Avelino “Nonong” Cruz and Simeon Marcelo threatening to leave the 33-year-old law partnership over management and financial differences.

A top government official close to the partners said that 15 partners belonging to the so-called “government bloc” of Cruz and Marcelo were planning to leave CVC Law.  This would leave the rival faction led by chair and CEO F. Arthur “Pancho” Villaraza with only eight partners.

“CVC Law or The Firm has parted ways,” declared the government source, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak in behalf of the law firm.

No comment

Asked for his reactions on the dispute, CVC Law managing partner Bienvenido I. Somera Jr. replied in a text message that he “can’t comment at the moment.”  Several attempts to reach Villaraza through an intermediary also yielded the same result. Marcelo did not return the Inquirer’s calls.

Cruz served as presidential legal counsel and defense secretary during the term of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who used to be The Firm’s most powerful client, while Marcelo served as solicitor general and ombudsman during the same administration.

A lawyer and fraternity brother of Villaraza at the University of the Philippines law school’s Sigma Rho fraternity said the partners were bickering on how to divide the profits of the company.

Bigger slice of profits

The lawyer, who requested anonymity, said the group of Cruz and Marcelo had claimed that they had brought in more government clients to the company and therefore deserved a bigger slice of the profits.

The lawyer said The Firm’s top brass held several “ill-tempered” meetings over the past few days, and that their separation was just a formality.  Cruz, he said, had even pushed for the immediate sale of the law firm’s multibillion peso headquarters, the 12-story CVC Law Center at the Fort Bonifacio Global City which was completed three years ago.

An insider from The Firm confirmed that the partners held a “tempestuous” meeting last Wednesday where the seniors partners were supposed to start the separation proceedings.

Purely business vs advocacy

Some partners, however, decided to take a few more days to rethink their stand in the hopes that the two sides would soften their stance and agree to a compromise.

But the insider said that the partners were not squabbling over money because the division of properties would only matter after the partnership had been dissolved.   For the past two years, the insider added, the government bloc had been at odds with the Villaraza group’s policy of treating the partnership as a purely business enterprise.

The government bloc had maintained that The Firm could “still do well and do good” by taking on cases primarily for advocacy rather than just for profit, the inside source said.

Another source however said that The Firm is divided into one faction led by Villaraza and Raoul Angangco, with eight partners on its side, including Somera, who acted as The Firm’s chief operating officer, and often served as a bridge to the rival faction led by Cruz and Marcelo.

‘Discontent over treatment’

“Most of the law firm’s partners who had served in government are on [the Cruz-Marcelo] side,” the source said, adding that 15 partners are in this faction.

The source said that the looming dissolution of CVC Law was caused by “discontent” in the Cruz-Marcelo camp over what some partners have described as Villaraza’s “style of treating his other partners.”

Said the source: “The split was caused by fundamental differences in the direction of The Firm and [its] manner of practicing law. The rift has little to do with money matters.”

The source said that the troubles at The Firm and its 23 partners had been brewing for the last few weeks, and that attempts were made to resolve the impasse.  So far, such efforts have failed, the source added.

PR fallout

More recently, both sides have been trying to come to an agreement on how to divide the company, including how to dispose of its headquarters at Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City, while limiting the public relations fallout of the dissolution. But such talks had also failed to break the deadlock.

“It now looks like the breakup would happen soon,” the source said. “This could be fast.”

Rumors of the breakup were fanned by the glaring absence of Cruz, Marcelo and other partners from the “Casa Artusi” series of dinners hosted by The Firm for its blue-chip clients at its ultra-exclusive Rainmakers Lounge at the CVC Law Center’s penthouse.

Guests who asked why only Villaraza and allied partners Augusto A. San Pedro Jr. and Franchette Acosta were around at the event were told that Cruz and Marcelo would be holding separate dinners for their clients.

The Firm was formed in 1980 by Villaraza, Cruz, Tommy Rossel, Romy Barza and current Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio.

Falling out with Gloria Arroyo

After its office burned down in 1982, The Firm moved to the LTA Building in Makati owned by the family of former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, and stayed there until 2010 even after a falling out with former President Macapagal-Arroyo in 2005 that forced Cruz and Marcelo to quit her administration.

Villaraza and Carpio served as legal counsel for several allies of then President Ferdinand Marcos in the 1980s, but was relatively low-key during the terms of Presidents Corazon Aquino (1986 and 1992) and Joseph Estrada (1998 to 2001).

It was during the term of President Fidel V. Ramos that CVC Law again rose to prominence when Carpio was appointed presidential legal counsel.  The Firm was largely credited with breaking up the decades-old monopoly of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. during this period. It was also during this time when CVC Law earned the monicker, The Firm, after a bestseller written by American author John Grisham.

Estrada impeachment

The Firm also took part in the impeachment trial of Estrada when Marcelo served as one of the prosecutors.

The law firm’s roster of big-ticket corporate clients include Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., several companies under the Lopez group, among them ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp., Sagittarius Mines Inc. and several high-profile individuals.

CVC Law served as the external counsel of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in its latest round of legal battles with the shuttered Banco Filipino Savings and Mortgage Bank. It was also part of the successful operation to shut down the P14-billion Legacy scam in 2009.

Last year, The Firm served as advisers during the impeachment trial of former Chief Justice Renato Corona.  With a report from Daxim L. Lucas

UNA candidate sees red over Aquino’s yellow rap

By Leila B. Salaverria

Philippine Daily Inquirer

LEGAZPI CITY—President Aquino should not begrudge other parties from sporting yellow as their campaign color and should not lose his head over such trivialities, an opposition senatorial candidate said here on Monday.

Zambales Rep. Milagros “Mitos” Magsaysay, a senatorial candidate of the opposition United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), said the colors chosen by local parties should not concern the President, as there are far more important matters that demand his attention.

Magsaysay was reacting to reports that the President chided the UNA for having local candidates in General Santos City who were using yellow as their campaign color.

Yellow is the official color of the President’s Liberal Party. It is the signature color of Aquino’s mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, who battled dictator Ferdinand Marcos in a snap presidential election in 1986 wearing yellow dresses to signify the Filipinos’ struggle for freedom.

“I think the President should stop looking at trivialities, as far as the election is concerned. What he should focus on is how to address the problems of the country, not the uniforms of local candidates,” Magsaysay told reporters here.

For instance, criticizing local candidates for wearing yellow despite not being affiliated with Team PNoy will not solve the power shortage in General Santos City, she said.

Magsaysay also said that in the first place, no group owns any color.

“Does Team PNoy have a patent for the color yellow? Have they bought the ‘rights’ to that color?” she said.

In a separate statement, UNA campaign manager Toby Tiangco said the alliance was not trying to mislead the voters.

The UNA’s national campaign color is orange, he said, but its local allies are free to choose any color for their campaign.

Tiangco pointed out that some of the local allies of Team PNoy use colors other than yellow.

Troops told to pursue talks with communist rebels

MANILA, Philippines - Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin is encouraging military field units to hold localized negotiations with rebels as the peace talks between the national government and the communists remain stalled.

Gazmin said such move could help the military officials attain peace in their respective areas.

“We encourage the military (to hold localized talks) so that there will be peace in their areas of responsibility,” the defense chief said in a press conference Monday.

“If you are going to wait (for the impasse in the national level to be resolved), it will take long before the instruction is relayed (to the ground),” he added.

Gazmin said the supposed differences between the communist leaders in Netherlands and local commanders also delay the relaying of policies in the field.

“If you are a commander and you want peace, you should talk to them (rebels),” he said.

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Gazmin believes that the communist leaders negotiating with the government do not feel the sentiments of those in the farms or those struggling in the mountains.

 

“Some of them (rebels) are tired (of fighting) and they can see the benefits of peace,” he said.

The peace talks between the government and the communists hit an impasse due to differences over jailed insurgents facing criminal cases.

The National Democratic Front (NDF), which represents the rebels in the talks, insists that its jailed leaders be freed since they are covered by immunity guarantees.

The government, however, refused to do so, saying the NDF has no means to prove that the jailed rebels are indeed peace consultants who should be immune from arrests.

Last week, government chief negotiator Alexander Padilla said they are considering a “new approach” to peacefully resolve the conflict with the communists.

Some sectors believe Padilla practically gave up on the peace talks with the NDF when he made the statement.

“We cannot wait forever for the other side if they continually refuse to go back to the negotiating table without preconditions. The government will be taking a new approach to pursue peace,” Padilla said in a statement.

“We have always been open to resume formal negotiations with them, but they keep on insisting on preconditions, such as the release of their detained consultants,” he added.

Padilla said the communists had also demanded that the government abolish its peace and development programs like the conditional cash transfer and Pamana, which aims to promote prosperity in conflict areas.

“These demands are just preposterous. We don’t want to engage in a negotiation where the other party is clearly fooling us,” Padilla said.

Despite the impasse, Gazmin said they still prefer peaceful means to resolve the conflict with the communists.

“We are all Filipinos and it’s about time we sit down and talk so that we save more lives,” he said. – Alexis Romero with C. M.

(philstar.com)

Binay 'puzzled' by dip in survey

By JC Bello Ruiz

Published: April 29, 2013

Though "puzzled" by "divergent" results of surveys on his net satisfaction ratings, the Office of the Vice President (OVP) on Monday said that Vice President Jejomar C. Binay "remains grateful for his high approval ratings and that his work will continue regardless of survey results."

In a statement, Binay's spokesman, Joey Salgado noted that while the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed that the net satisfaction ratings of the Vice President were lower than his December 2012 ratings, another survey done by Pulse Asia which covered almost the same survey period, showed different results.

"What is puzzling is that the SWS survey period overlapped with Pulse Asia but produced divergent results. While SWS showed a decline, the Pulse Asia survey showed an increase of 6 points in the Vice President’s performance and trust rating," Salgado said.

The latest SWS survey covering the March 19-22 survey period, found that the net satisfaction ratings of Binay, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., and Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno were lower than their December 2012 ratings.

Seventy-five percent of Filipinos expressed satisfaction in Binay’s work, while 13 percent said otherwise, bringing his net rating to ‘very good’ +62, down from ‘excellent’ +70 (79 percent satisfied, 9 percent dissatisfied) in December 2012.

However, SWS noted that Binay’s rating is still higher than President Benigno S. Aquino III’s +59 (74 percent satisfied, 15 percent dissatisfied).

Meanwhile, the Pulse Asia survey released early April found that Binay and Aquino received the highest trust ratings of 75 percent and 72 percent, respectively.

Likewise, the same nationwide survey conducted from March 16-20 showed that both officials enjoyed majority approval ratings for their work in the past month (76 percent and 72 percent, respectively).

Nonetheless, Salgado said Binay "remains grateful for his high approval ratings."

"Since 2012, the Vice President’s ratings ranged from very good to excellent. His work will continue regardless of survey results," he said.