SC affirms voiding of Arroyo midnight appointments

THE Supreme Court on Tuesday affirmed the Executive Order issued by President Benigno Aquino III against the “midnight appointments” made by his predecessor, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo..

“In the matter of Cheloy Velicaria-Garafil vs Office of the President, Dindo Venturanza vs the Office of the President, Irma Villanueva and Francisca Rosqueta vs Court of Appeals and Office of the President and Edie Tamondong vs Court of Appeals and Executive Secretary, the Court voting 8-6 dismissed the petition and declared as null and void the appointments of petitioners to the post they occupied,” high court’s Information Chief Atty. Theodore Te said at a press conference.

The high court said Executive Order No. 2 issued by Aquino “is constitutional in its entirety, especially as to its definition of midnight appointments and its recall, revocation and withdrawal of midnight appointments.”

EO No. 2, which was issued on Aug. 4, 2011, recalled, withdrew and revoked about 800 appointments made by Arroyo two months before the 2010 elections.

Among these appointments are of that of the petitioners.

Velicaria-Garafil was appointed State Solicitor II at the Office of the Solicitor General while Venturanza was appointed as city prosecutor of Quezon City. On the other hand, Villanueva was appointed as Administrator for Visayas of the Board of Administrators of the Cooperative Development Authority while Rosqueta was named Commissioner of the National Commission of Indigenous Peoples. Tamondong was appointed member of the Board of Directors of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.

Under Section 15, Article VII of the 1987 Constitution, “two months immediately before the next presidential elections and up to the end of his term, a President or acting President shall not make appointments, except temporary appointments to executive positions when continued vacancies therein will prejudice public service or endanger public safety.”

For purposes of the 2010 polls, the high court said the cut-off date for valid appointments was March 10, 2010 while March 11, 2010 was the reference date for midnight appointments.

About the petitioners, the high court said they failed to provide proof showing that their appointments were made prior to March 11, 2010.

“The petitioners have failed to show their compliance with all four elements of a valid appointment. They cannot prove with certainty that their appointment papers have indeed been issued before the period covered by the appointment ban,” the high court said.

The high court also took note of the fact that petitioners themselves admitted that they took their oaths of office during the period of the appointment ban.

source:  Philippine Daily Inquirer

The biggest threat to the economy is...

...THE SUDDEN end of the US Fed’s quantitative easing and rapid reversal of capital flows? A war with China over disputed territories in the West Philippine Sea? Thousands of OFWs in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and the UAE, which have been hit by sinking oil prices being terminated and heading home?

No, no, and again no.

The biggest threat to the economy is not external and is not any of the above, but internal: the possible lack of fair and credible elections in 2016.

This will cause national political disunity and foster institutional and policy instability. If elected under a cloud, the next government will focus on fighting for political survival instead of addressing urgent economic issues.

When people ask me what is the source of the current economic boom, I tell them that it’s not Daang Matuwid, or fiscal prudence, or socioeconomic reform measures, or the It’s More Fun in the Philippines tourism campaign. The current above average growth rates the country is experiencing now are due to only one factor: the 2010 elections in which Benigno Aquino III got a clear and unmistakable mandate to govern as President.

That undisputed mandate -- and it’s undisputed because of his large margin over his next rival and because computerized elections for the first time enabled a winner to be proclaimed quickly -- enabled him to unite the country and tackle issues like corruption and malfeasance in office. Without that undisputed mandate, he wouldn’t have the political wherewithal to impeach a Supreme Court justice or pass a controversial Reproductive Health Law.

Contrast 2010 with the disputed election of 2004 and even further back, to the controversial assumption to the presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on the back of Edsa People Power 2 and the dubious Supreme Court decision declaring that former President Estrada had effectively resigned.

Former President Arroyo never had a clear political mandate and she spent much of her extended term corrupting institutions, such as the Church, the bureaucracy, Congress and the judiciary, and fending off threats to her rule -- from attempted coups to the Hyatt 10 mass Cabinet resignation -- to ensure her political survival. The country’s economic potential could not be achieved because politics got in the way. It’s therefore politics, and not economics, which is a strong predictor of economic performance.

Should we be concerned about 2016?

Certainly, the current controversy about the Commission on Elections’ (COMELEC) seeming favoritism for Smartmatic to handle the computerized elections in 2016 is a big cause for concern. Smartmatic got an easy pass the last time around because it was the country’s first nationwide computerized elections, and the margin between the winner and the runner-up was too large. Smartmatic’s less than exemplary performance could be ignored. However, doubts about Smartmatic’s technology, efficiency, and transparency never went away.

Therefore, COMELEC’s bulldozing over reasonable objections to the redeployment of Smartmatic’s technology could handicap the 2016 elections with a large cloud of doubt. That cloud of doubt may not matter in uncontested elections, but they do matter, especially if elections are close.

COMELEC could be seeding a time bomb in the belly of the economy if its choice of technology does not produce fair, orderly and credible elections in 2016.

Compounding this concern over COMELEC’s actuations is the current predicament of the governing Liberal Party. The LP doesn’t have a clear winnable candidate for 2016. Its “sentimental candidate,” Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, is a hard sell. Pre-election surveys put him in single-digit category.

Despite all the speculations, it’s unlikely that the Liberal Party will adopt Senator Grace Poe as its candidate, or that Senator Poe will embrace the Liberal Party. Many observers forget that it was the Liberal Party which conspired with former President Arroyo to rob Senator Poe’s father, Fernando Poe Jr., of the presidency (look up the “noted” legalisms of the LP leaders to swipe away attempts to reveal massive cheating). Can the Liberal party bigwigs really trust Senator Poe to protect them, or vice versa?

The Liberal Party, therefore, has few options, except perhaps to eliminate the opposition (Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, Bong Revilla, and Arroyo already jailed), and if he can’t be impeached or jailed, thrash Vice-President Jejomar Binay enough as to narrow his lead, and have a Liberal Party-controlled COMELEC make a difference. It’s a plausible scenario and this is the reason there must be vigilance in safeguarding the electoral process, for the sake of the economy.

However, there’s another element of possible political instability: the failure of President Aquino to apply Daang Matuwid to his own allies and friends.

Ousted Laguna Governor ER Ejercito was quoted as saying: “Masyado nang malalim ang atraso ng mga Aquino sa mga Ejercito. Tinanggal na ni Cory (Aquino, former president and Benigno’s mother) si Erap bilang mayor at presidente. Ngayon naman, tinanggal ako saka si Sen. Jinggoy. Selective justice. Bakit ang mga taga-Liberal Party, hindi nila ginagalaw? Bakit puro taga-oposisyon?”

Ejercito added that he wants to see President Aquino go to jail.

A little bit of history will help us understand why the failure of President Aquino to apply Daang Matuwid to his own allies and friends is such a destabilizing political factor.

In the pre-martial law era, the unwritten rule was that the two factions in the political elite (Nacionalista and Liberal) had alternate and equal chances at power. However, former President Marcos broke that rule when he became the first president to get reelected in 1969 by using “guns, goons and gold.” The consequent economic crisis and student protests gave then-President Marcos the pretext to declare martial law and essentially eliminate the opposition.

After the People’s Power Revolution, Cory Aquino restored the system of pre-martial law politics but even she recognized that the stability of traditional elite politics rests on giving the principal factions of the elite fair chances at power. She, therefore, allowed former First Lady Imelda Marcos and businessman Eduardo Cojuangco to return from exile and run for the presidential elections in 1992.

However, President Aquino may be breaking this unwritten rule by essentially eliminating the opposition, not through martial law as former President Marcos did, but by using Daang Matuwid applied one-sidedly.

The 2016 elections will therefore prove crucial to political stability and sustainability of economic growth. If all factions are given fair chances at power, and if the elected President has a clear and uncontested mandate, we will have political unity and an economic boom, irrespective of who is elected.

Calixto V. Chikiamco is a board director of the Institute for Development and Econometric Analysis.

idea.introspectiv@gmail.com

www.idea.org.ph

source:  Businessworld

EDITORIAL: Comelec Chair either has lost it or is a determined liar

WE watched Comelec Chairman Sixto Brilliantes yesterday morning talk to ABS-CBN News people, including broadcast icon Ted Failon, and saw how the Comelec Boss has either lost it and now has an addled brain or is a determined liar.

He biggest lie he said yesterday is that Smartmatic is the manufacturer of the PCOS machines. He said with aplomb that since this Venezuelan marketing company is the manufacturer of the Precinct Count Optical Scan machine then it is logical that it should be hired to repair them.

He seems to have forgotten or to have been brainwashed by Smartmatic’s wizard salesmen. The PCOS machines were first being manufactured in Taiwan by a company that could not continue the project. So Smartmatic had to find another manufacturer and had them made in China.

This has been the muddled and mendacious manner Chairman Brillantes has been conducting his discussions about Smartmatic, the PCOS machines, the defective way the ballots were read by the machines in the 2010 and 2013 elections, the defective way very many of the machines transmitted the defective and unverified count to the canvassing centers — in violation of our country’s laws.

He has also lied about the patriotic and courageous former Comelec Commissioner Gus Lagman. He said untruthfully that Mr. Lagman did not fight against Smartmatic and the Comelec decisions when Mr. Lagman was a commissioner.

Now we have confirmation–from the lips of Communications Secretary Coloma no less — that what we suspected is true. This is that–contrary to our Constitution’s warrant on independent constitutional institutions– Malacañang is in collusion with the Comelec in preparing to manage the 2016 election. This was something that Chairman Brillantes also admitted in his appearance on Ted Failon’s TV show yesterday morning.

Ted asked Mr. Brillantes if the President talks to, or consults him. He replied, Yes, I get consulted, but only once. Ted found that reply funny so, he sardonically asked, and switched on the laughter background, “Kinukonsulta kayo pero minsan lang, paano ba yan?” [The President habitually consults you, but only once–what kind of nonsense could that be?] Chairman Brillantes then explained that most of the time it is Justice Secretary Leila de Lima who talks to him for the president.

Secretary Coloma admitted on Monday in a lengthy press briefing that President Aquino’s Malacañang is behind the move to award Smartmatic the P1.2-billion contract to repair and refurbish the PCOS machines so they can be used in the 2016 elections. We Filipinos own the machines. Comelec bought them from Smartmatic for billions of pesos.

Chairman Brillantes clarified that the contract that Smartmatic has recently won is only to diagnose the existing machines. Smartmatic will be paid some P300 million for deciding if a machine should be scrapped or can still be repaired and what repairs must be done. He said if Smartmatic wins the contract to actually repair those machines needing reconditioning, the expense could go up to more than a billion pesos.

But former Comelec official Mel Magdamo, who has disclosed shenanigans committed by Comelec and Smartmatic, said that with the poll body’s P1.8 billion budget for the repairs the government should just buy a new set of machines.

To us, all these discussions about Smartmatic are nothing in the end but carabao dung. Because of the crimes and misrepresentation it has committed with Comelec blessings, this Venezuelan company does not deserve to have anything to do with our elections forever. The Philippine government should in fact be suing it.

But the combined power of the Palace, the Congress and Comelec will allow the poll body to repeat the anti-democratic manner the 2010 and 2013 elections were conducted.

We must pray hard that the Supreme Court justices continue to be patriots and declare illegal the automated election system implemented with PCOS machines by Smartmatic in 2010 and 2013 — and declare as well that the results are invalid because the safeguards were disabled and other requirements expressly stated by our laws were violated.

Yes, the sitting officials, the President included, can continue in office as de facto but illegal and illicit occupants of their offices.

The 2016 elections must be held without the farcical AES of Smartmatic and its PCOS machines

Otherwise, the people must rise and revolt against this criminal imposition on our electoral democracy.

source:  Manila Times

Comelec OKs recall vs Princesa Mayor

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has affirmed the sufficiency of the recall petition against Puerto Princesa Mayor Lucilo Bayron.

A reliable source said the Comelec en banc voted 6-0 to deny for lack of merit a motion to reconsider its earlier decision upholding the petition to recall the election of Bayron as mayor of Puerto Princesa, a gateway to the Palawan tourist destinations.

The Comelec though has yet to promulgate the decision and have it published for three weeks before a recall election can actually be held in the city.

A total of 40,409 registered voters signed the recall petition even when only 19,335 are needed for a recall election to push through. Bayron may remain as mayor if, in the recall election, he still remains as the person with the highest number of votes, which, in effect, affirms confidence in leadership.

In deciding on the case, the Comelec said that Bayron failed to offer sufficient basis for his allegations of fraud (in the gathering of signatures).

“He cannot solely rely on the fact that he won in the 2013 national and local elections to conclude that it was unlikely for the petitioners to obtain the number of signatories, as the majority of the voters have chosen him. The intervening period from the conduct of elections up to the time the signatures were gathered could have changed the perception of the people on their leader,” a portion of the un-promulgated decision reads.

It added that “Mayor Bayron simply cannot conclude fraud on the basis of his victory in the last election. On the contrary, it is presumed that the supporting petitioners affixed their signatures after reading the contents of the recall petition.”

Alroben Goh, who initiated the recall petition against Bayron, said that “the recall elections against Bayron will happen soon and won’t be stopped anymore.” Goh has charged Bayron in his petition of graft and corruption, nepotism, and worsening economy and peace and order, among others.

source:  Businessworld

Did Coloma accidentally tell the truth?

Since we are often lied to, we the media and the public should be glad and thankful when a public official or a politician tells the truth, even if only accidentally.

When this happens, bells peal and presses stop, so much so that US political pundit, Michael Kinsley, sought to register it as the Kinsley Law of gaffes — “A gaffe is when a politician (accidentally) tells the truth.” He said it first in the UK Guardian on January 14,1992.

Whoever owns the patent, gratitude is due Communications Secretary Sonny Coloma for accidentally (inadvertently, carelessly, mistakenly) revealing the truth that Malacañang is behind the scheme to award to Smartmatic the P1.2-billion contract to repair and augment the PCOS machines of the poll body for the 2016 elections. And what is more alarming, the Office of the President is meddling in the work of the constitutionally independent Commission on Elections (Comelec), and trying to influence the preparations for the 2016 elections.

Like stepping on quicksand
Coloma said it all at a press briefing last Monday. Had he been concise, certain journalists (women perhaps) could be forgiven if they hallucinated that it was all just a “Freudian slip” on his part. But the way the briefing developed, it was more like stepping on quicksand. With every point Coloma made and every elaboration he offered, the administration sank deeper into unconstitutional depths.

Coloma’s truth-telling is all the more astonishing because it was totally gratuitous. The Comelec can speak for itself, it has access to its own press corps, and it has an equally verbose spokesman in James Jimenez.

Until the Press Secretary let this cat out of the bag, no one knew that the administration was actively lobbying the Comelec to award the contract to Smartmatic. Everything was behind the scenes.

The Tribune report
Let us now turn to the substance of what the Press Secretary said, warts and all. I was not present at the news briefing; hence my information comes mainly from the detailed accounts of various Palace beat reporters, who quoted Coloma’s words like they were Shakespeare’s jewels.

Especially helpful for this column was the report in the Tribune of Joshua Labonera, which was most revealing.

Labonera reported the following:

1. Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said that Malacañang continues to lodge its trust in the Comelec on the use of the PCOS machines for the 2016 polls despite issues being raised on the contract to refurbish these machines.

2. Coloma went further, saying the reliability of the PCOS machines has been proven the 2010 and 2013 elections.

3. Coloma says “We have gone through two national elections in 2010 and 2013. There were no massive protests or uprising from the people against the results of the two elections.”

4. In fact, there were a lot of anomalies noted in 2010 and 2013. All safety features were not in place at all, thus making it easier to commit automated fraud.

5. A former commissioner, Gus Lagman, whose appointment was not renewed by President Aquino after he started to question the integrity and reliability of the PCOS machines, called the controversial new contract “a midnight deal with Smartmatic.”

Comelec awards, Palace justifies
The link between Malacañang and Comelec is shown in the glaring irregularity of Comelec’s failure to hold a public bidding on the contract.

In a statement, Comelec has contended that the decision to award the contract of refurbishing PCOS machines is in accordance with Executive Order 423 series of 2005 or the law prescribing the rules and procedures on the review and approval of all government contracts to conform with Republic Act no. 9184, otherwise known as the Government Procurement Reform Act.

Posing as a lawyer, Coloma says there should be a presumption that Comelec acted in accordance with the law. This presumption argument is a favorite ruse of Palace spokesmen to explain away wrongdoing in the Aquino administration. But serious lawyers say that this line of reasoning is absurd; no lawyer would raise it before the Supreme Court, sitting en banc.

Coloma’s accidental truth-telling exposes a violation of the constitutional provision on the Constitutional commissions in Article IX of the Constitution.

In Section 1, it reads “the constitutional commissions, which shall be independent, are the Civil Service Commission, the Commission on Elections and the Commission on Audit.”

The Aquino administration appears to believe that simply because the President has the power to appoint the chairman and members of these commissions, these bodies are mere extensions of the Office of the President. They are most emphatically not.

Appointed members may feel forever grateful to President Aquino for being appointed, and they may not care one whit about their independence. But the people care. This is a prerogative they are not at liberty to surrender.

When this reprehensible Smartmatic contract is finally heard and deliberated by the Supreme Court, we shall know what this independence means. I’m curious to see who will stand up to argue the position of the executive.

As things stand therefore, Coloma’s accidental truth-telling could be the nail that will send Smartmatic home to Venezuela. There will be no pabaon (parting gift) for Comelec chair Sixto Brillantes, when he retires next month.

Perhaps then we can attend to the necessary mending and overhaul of the Commission on Elections, before the nation holds the 2016 elections

yenmakabenta@yahoo.com

source:  Manila Times' Column of Yen Makabenta

SC to Comelec: Carry out Puerto Princesa recall elections

The High Court cites the Commission on Elections' fiscal autonomy and the chairman's power to augment items in its budget from savings to fund the exercise

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – The Supreme Court has ordered the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to conduct recall elections against Puerto Princesa City Mayor Lucilo Bayron.

Voting 12-0 on Tuesday, November 25, the Supreme Court en banc ruled in favor of petitioner Alroben Goh and set aside two Comelec resolutions that suspended all proceedings on pending recall petitions, including that in Puerto Princesa, due to lack of funds.

"We hold that the Comelec committed grave abuse of discretion in issuing Resolution Nos. 9864 and 9882," the SC decision said.

The Court cited the Comelec's fiscal autonomy, and the Comelec chairman's power to augment items in its budget from its savings. There is no need, therefore, to secure a supplemental budget from Congress to conduct recall elections in 2014, it said.

It also pointed to an existing line item appropriation in the 2014 national budget – in the "Programs" category of the poll body's budget – for the conduct of recall polls, which is among Comelec's constitutional mandates.

"Should the funds in the 2014 budget be deemed insufficient, the Comelec chairman "may exercise his authority to augment such line item appropriation from the Comelec's existing savings, as this augmentation is expressly authorized in the 2014 [General Appropriations Act]," the SC ruling said.

The Comelec has yet to receive a copy of the Court's decision as of posting time.

Goh, former Puerto Princesa City administrator, filed the recall petition against Bayron before the Comelec early this year, citing the "loss of trust and confidence" in him as city mayor. (Fast Facts: The recall process)

In April, through Comelec Resolution No. 9864, the Comelec certified the sufficiency of the petition, but suspended any proceeding in furtherance thereof – including the verification of signatures on the petition and the conduct of the recall election itself – due to lack of funds.

The following month, the Comelec issued Resolution No. 9882, suspending all proceedings on recall petitions until the funding issue is resolved.

On November 21, the poll body resumed taking up recall petitions by partially lifting its suspension order. In the case of the Puerto Princesa petition, the Comelec allowed Goh's request to publish the petition for 3 weeks. – Rappler.com

ER Ejercito ousted as Laguna governor

The Supreme Court has ruled to oust Laguna governor Emilio Ramon “ER” Ejercito.

The ruling affirmed the Commission on Elections (Comelec) order removing him from his post for overspending during the May 2013 polls.

During Tuesday’s regular deliberation of the SC en banc, with a unanimous vote of 12 Justices, it finally closed the door on the Laguna governor.

“The court, voting 12-0, [has] denied the petition filed by petitioner Emilio Ramon ‘ER’ Ejercito It thus upheld the May 1, 2014 resolution of public respondent Comelec en banc in SPA No. 13-306, which in turn upheld the September 26, 2013 resolution of the Comelec First Division which granted the petition for disqualification filed by private respondent Edgar San Luis,” the SC ruled.

Associate Justices Arturo Brion and Estela Perlas-Bernabe were on leave while Associate Justice Francis Jardeleza took no part for he entered the case when he was still the Solicitor General.

In its resolution, the Comelec ruled that Ejercito should be ousted from office for going beyond the campaign spending limit of P4.5 million.

He spent P23.56 million during the May 2013 gubernatorial race.

Ejercito said the mode of complaint filed by San Luis is erroneous since what was filed was for prosecution of election offenses, not a disqualification case.

He added that a disqualification case is a different proceeding and as such he is entitled to due process.

Ejercito also questioned the evidence presented against him—an advertising contract between ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. And Scenema Concept Intl. Inc.—which was not formally offered as evidence before the election court.

Also, he said he cannot be made liable for acts of a third party.

But all of these arguments were not bitten by the High Court.

source:  Manila Times