Palace puzzled at Ebdane's bid for president

By Christine Avendaño, TJ Burgonio - Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines--Why only now?

The ruling coalition’s choice of its presidential standard-bearer has yet to be finalized and President Macapagal-Arroyo herself has told him the post is open to everybody.

So said Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane who acknowledged on Friday that he is indeed interested in running for president in 2010.

“I have become interested,” said Ebdane, a former national police chief, speaking to reporters at a Senate hearing yesterday into the use of the road user’s tax.

“I think under the circumstances, I can join the fight,” he said.

Officials of the ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD are baffled by Ebdane’s sudden interest in running for president, saying they had no hint that the secretary was harboring any political ambitions.

“Why only now?” said Gabriel Claudio, the party secretary general and presidential political adviser. “If he can tell us formally what his plans are, then we’ll see how the party can help.”

He said Ebdane, who is not a party member, has not formally informed the Lakas-Kampi-CMD about his plans nor made any move to join the administration party.

“Party members are perplexed by his timing,” Claudio said, adding that Ebdane had not tried to sound off either Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, the Lakas-Kampi-CMD president, or himself about his plans.

Print advertisements praising Ebdane’s qualities and proclaiming him to be a good alternative to professional politicians have appeared in several broadsheets in the past few days.

The ads ask: “Di kaya si Jun Ebdane ang Tamang Daan sa 2010?” (Could Jun Ebdane be the right way in 2010?)

Last Thursday, Surigao del Sur Gov. Vicente Pimentel Jr. announced that about 15 governors from Mindanao were pushing for Ebdane’s selection as the ruling party’s presidential standard-bearer.

The governors are said to favor him because of the infrastructure and development projects that he has brought to the region which supposedly shows his concern for Mindanao.

Request rejected

It was learned from reliable source, however, that Ebdane had made a last-minute attempt to have the Sept. 16 meeting of the ruling party’s national executive committee postponed. But his request was rejected.

In that meeting, the committee members endorsed Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro as the administration presidential standard-bearer in 2010.

Asked what party he would align himself with, Ebdane said that would depend on “developments,” adding that he had other “alternatives.”

Ebdane said that even as early as a year ago, people and groups “from several sectors, in the national and barangay levels” had been asking him to enter the race for Malacañang.

The public works secretary said he told the groups urging him to seek the presidency that running for president was no walk in the park and that they should truly support him and not abandon him in the end.

Asked whether he had informed the President about his interest in the presidency, he said: “I insinuated to her that there were people convincing me to run and she said that the position was open … for everybody.”

'Presidency or nothing’

He evaded a question about being pitted against Teodoro, saying that the administration coalition has not finalized its choice of presidential standard-bearer.

Ebdane also would not say who his choice of running mate would be, repeatedly saying that many things were still bound to happen since the filing of candidacy papers was not till November.

He also refused to answer questions on whether he thought Teodoro would make a good presidential candidate.

“Let’s respect everybody. I respect Gibo. He’s a good man,” he said.

Asked whether he was optimistic about getting Ms Arroyo’s support, he said the question was too “personal” and declined to answer.

Asked to comment on the tendency of some politicians to float the idea that they are running for president when what they actually want is to seek a Senate seat, Ebdane said that for him “it (was the presidency) or nothing.” He added that he was not a politician.

But should he decide not to run for public office in 2010, Ebdane said he could always return to his Zambales home province and engage in farming as well as “help whoever may be there.”

Claudio, however, indicated it might be too late for Ebdane to seek the party’s endorsement as presidential standard-bearer.

He pointed out that the party’s endorsement of Teodoro, while it has yet to be ratified, was the consensus of the national executive committee, the party’s highest governing body.

“The committee is the highest ruling body of the party. A consensus has been reached. A clear preference has been expressed. Gibo has the formal endorsement of the national executive committee,” he said.

If Ebdane were to suddenly express a desire to join the party and seek its endorsement, this would be “tossed” to the national executive committee for deliberation, according to Claudio.

But he noted that the deadline for non-party members to join the party and submit to the selection process for standard-bearer was Sept. 15.

“The deadline did not apply only to Vice President Noli de Castro but to all aspirants who were seeking the party’s endorsement. Everyone was aware of the deadline,” he said.

‘Outstanding contributions’

Claudio doubted Ebdane’s bid, if it pushes through, would cause cracks in the party, pointing out that officials endorsing Ebdane have vowed to abide by the party’s choice of standard-bearer.

“Even those endorsing or giving recognition of his qualifications are declaring that they will abide by the final decision,” he said.

Claudio said he and Ermita would talk to Ebdane, whom he described as a “valued Cabinet member” with “outstanding contributions,” about his political plans.

A spokesperson for the Department of Public Works and Highways yesterday said Ebdane’s campaign for president was gaining ground.

More ads coming

Undersecretary Romeo Momo said Ebdane had the support of local officials who he said had paid for the advertisements that appeared in newspapers endorsing Ebdane’s candidacy. He said more ads are expected to come out in the next few days.

Momo said the ads, which appeared in several national dailies, were “voluntarily done by the local leaders because they wanted to encourage the secretary to run following the greater demand to lead the country within.”

There have also been radio commercials featuring Ebdane. Some DPWH employees have also started wearing orange shirts, with the message, “We want a new face in 2010!” With a report from Kristine L. Alave

What’s Dick been smoking?

By Jojo Robles - low down - manila standard today

‘‘Senator Gordon wants to pardon the Abu Sayyaf,” the post on the online message board reads. “Maybe he should get kidnapped in Basilan first before he makes such a [expletives deleted] offer again.”

The post reminds one of a wag’s definition of a conservative as a liberal who’s been mugged. Indeed, Senator Richard Gordon’s immodest proposal could only have come from someone so far removed from the ground that he can actually consider granting amnesty to the members of a lawless criminal syndicate even before they can be made to answer for their heinous crimes.

Even if the suggestion had come from one of those professional bleeding-heart, human-rights activist groups, it would have to be dismissed outright. And it is to the everlasting credit of these groups, in fact, that virtually none of them has even dared to propose something as outrageous as Gordon’s cockamamie amnesty plan.

But this is Gordon, the former tough guy of Olongapo who once ruled a city that grew up around Southeast Asia’s biggest US naval base with an iron hand. And wasn’t the senator’s father, the former Mayor James T. Gordon, himself gunned down at Olongapo’s city hall more than 40 years ago, something that should have convinced the son that punishment should follow crime?

There is nothing in Gordon’s previous public record that would have prepared us for his amnesty plan, except possibly for the fact that he wants to become president next year and may need some votes from Basilan and Sulu. Or maybe that picture of him holding an Aeta child in the aftermath of the Pinatubo eruption and his relatively recent conversion as head of the Philippine Red Cross has pushed him over the liberal edge, where criminals are victims and poverty is the root and justification of all crime.

But why would Gordon want to pardon the Abu Sayyaf, which has made a mockery of government’s efforts to stamp out the barbaric business of kidnapping for ransom and which has embarrassed this country throughout the world? Here’s what Gordon said: “Time has its way of mellowing the minds of people… and the likes of [Abu Sayyaf leader] Radullan Sahiron are becoming mellow in their activities and they’re the ones who could agree to entering into some peaceful program so that they will lay down their arms.”

According to Gordon, the older bandits can convince the younger ones who have inherited their gruesome livelihood to lay down their arms and stop preying on anyone who they think can give them ransom money. He added that the bandit elders would consider amnesty, “especially if there is socio-economic assistance for them.”

What has Gordon been smoking that has made him as mellow as the Abu Sayyaf gangsters that he now proposes to pardon? And isn’t the offer of “laying down their arms” (which sounds like the Abu Sayyaf is some sort of freedom-fighting movement) in exchange for amnesty and economic assistance just another form of ransom payment to these brutal criminals?

* * *

If Gordon is really serious about pardoning the Abu Sayyaf, perhaps he should talk to all those people who were victimized by the kidnap-for-ransom gangs first. And they aren’t just the foreign tourists or aid workers like Eugenio Vagni, who also proposed (right before he left the Philippines, naturally) that we should forgive the bandits.

For every Stockholm Syndrome-sick Vagni, after all, there are dozens of small local traders, professionals and even children who have been abducted for ransom by the gang in the Basilan-Sulu area—many of them abused, tortured, raped and beheaded for some cash. Gordon should ask these people if they are willing to pardon the likes of Abu Sabaya and Al-bader Parad before opening his mouth again on the matter.

Then there’s the military and the police in those two provinces, whose members have been pursuing the Abu Sayyaf for years and losing their lives and those of their comrades because Sahiron and his ilk provide protection to the violent henchmen of this criminal syndicate. How will the military and the police respond to a blanket amnesty offer to the Abu Sayyaf?

While he’s at it, Gordon can even consult the Muslim secessionists in Mindanao and see if they would accept a plan to pardon a group that has been giving the Islamic separatist movement such a bad rep. Gordon will discover that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front will have nothing to do with the kidnappers in Basilan and Sulu—and would be deeply offended if the bandits were offered amnesty while legitimate Moro rebels can’t even make any headway in their peace talks with the government.

No, amnesty isn’t the solution to the problem of the Abu Sayyaf, unless Gordon wants to incite and inflame an entire country that wants to see them brought to justice for their many crimes. If pardoning criminals stopped crime, then the Abu Sayyaf is a real terrorist organization dreaming of a separate Islamic fundamentalist state.

Because the Gordon proposal, at heart, is the logical conclusion of the belief that the Abu Sayyaf does what it does for some purpose other than to make money. Regardless of its origins as a network of terrorists funded by Al-Qaida, the Abu Sayyaf is now merely a criminal organization that funds itself by abducting anyone who looks like he or she could raise some money to pay for their “board and lodging.”

Bring the bandits to justice first. Help the impoverished communities that harbor them and who benefit from their ransom payments, so that the Abu Sayyaf will become anathema to its network of family and friends.

But don’t give them blanket pardon just because they’ve “mellowed” and now want lots of aid so they won’t kidnap people anymore. That’s just plain [expletive deleted] stupid, Dick.

JC delos Reyes - Kapatiran standard bearer

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Olongapo Councilor JC delos Reyes, Presidential standard bearer of Kapatiran Party in Hot Seat interview at ANC Dateline

Related articles on JC & Ang Kapatiran (follow links)

1. Kapatiran’s lone winner keeps party’s flame burning

2. Kapatiran taps simple man with moral duty, KAYA NATIN!

3. Ang Kapatiran website

4. Ang Kapatiran: Birth of a Political Party

5. Renewing the Filipino Political Culture

Jousting with the windmill

Andress Hagad - SunStar

“JC WHO?” might very well be the question the average Filipino voter will ask when told that JC de los Reyes will be one of the candidates for president during the 2010 national elections. The name will certainly ring no bell in the mind of most voters, and well it should not because prior to his announcement last Saturday Mr. John Carlos “JC” de los Reyes was just a city councilor in Olongapo, Pampanga.

JC is neither a practical joker nor a lunatic. A graduate of the Ateneo de Manila and of De La Salle – Zobel, he is a sober and successful businessman, a nephew of Senator Richard Gordon. By his own description a simple man with a moral duty, JC de los Reyes was nominated to run for the presidency by the Kapatiran Party which, judging from its past record, is hands-down and thumbs-up the most moral political party in the Philippines today.

Founded by Mr. Nandy Pacheco during the 2007 national and local elections, Kapatiran then fielded three senatorial candidates: Dr. Martin Bautista, Atty. Zosimo Paredes and Adrian Sison. All three were devout Roman Catholics, successful professionals and as far from the image of the legendary Don Quixote as black is from white. The Party was formed to be the model of what the ideal political party should be (with clean, law-abiding, moral party members, and with a clearly-defined set of party principles), organized to give the Filipino electorate an alternative choice to the traditional politicians that is our daily fare during elections.

In 2010, Kapatiran will attempt to field candidates in both national and local government positions, the better to make its advocacy more visible to the ordinary voter. It will not be lacking in challenges. Even in the local sphere, in the provinces, cities and municipalities, Kapatiran is relatively unknown.

Ninety-five percent of its candidates will probably be first-timers in politics as traditional politicians, the trapos, will never fit into the mold of principles that it has set for prospective members. But the political face that it will present will certainly be refreshing, candidates who can pass the test of morality, integrity and professionalism that ought to be the trademark of all politicians.

It is a testament to how far we still need to travel to reach political maturity that political parties like Kapatiran and candidates like JC de los Reyes appear like Don Quixotes jousting with the seemingly-impregnable windmill. On the other hand, change will come only if more and more people believe like JC, that the windmill is man-made and can be broken by men and women with the resolve to break it down.

From the bottom of Bottomline’s heart, kudos to KC de los Reyes and to the Kapatiran Party!

Related articles on JC

1. http://subicbaynews.blogspot.com/search/label/jc

2. http://subicbaynews.blogspot.com/search?q=jc+

3. Ang Kapatiran website