July 21 ‘09 Bullets

MLQ3 doesn’t think much of Among Ed’s bid for either the Presidency or Congress, and outlines a plan that puts the presidential son, Mikey Arroyo, in the Gubernatorial seat, and GMA in Congress. → “If the President ran for the House, it would displace her son; he would have to seek another post; that post, it seems, would be the governorship; but if Panlilio challenged the President by contesting her run for the House, not only would Panlilio lose to her, but he’d also relinquish the governorship to -who else- the President\’s son, who would run as the unifying candidate for the Pineda-Lapid factions in the province.”
Cocoy makes as strong a case as any (one made before) as to why Chiz Escudero shouldn’t be the next President → “This isn’t about defending the current state of education in the Philippines, which has been discussed time and time again by The Jester-in-Exile and blackshama (update: must read, btw those two articles, which show insight into education). This is about building and designing the future and Mr. Escudero seemingly, in spite of his youth, doesn’t have the understanding, imagination nor courage to do it. “
John Marzan, political junkie, on why the automated voting system isn’t the cure for all our electoral ills → “Sure, automated counts votes faster, but it is also easier/faster to fix elections from the inside. And AFAIK, chairman melo has not done anything to investigate or remove the 2004 operators who worked for garci inside the Comelec. He did not clean house. Doing the automated system without credible election officials in charge is like building a swanky new henhouse while retaining the services of the fox to guard it.”
Mar Roxas presses the issue against pharmaceutical firm Pfizer, demanding that the multinational to open its books to a congressional oversight committee. → “To my mind, the actuations of Pfizer are motivated by no other reason than to impede and obstruct the full implementation of Republic Act No. 9502. The persistence with which Pfizer has been blocking and fighting Philippine government’s efforts to bring down the prices of medicines and make essential medicines accessible to Filipinos is extremely alarming. In fact, I believe that their acts are unethical and violate not only Philippine Anti-Corruption Laws, but also the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,” Roxas said.” I suppose running for president does allow you to grow some balls — or approximate possession thereof.
Somewhat related, Herbert Vego of Iloilo Views laments at Roxas’ blunderous idea of letting the President set the maximum retail prices of the drugs covered by the Cheaper Medicines Law → “How could we agree to Pfizer reducing the price of the anti-hypertension Norvasc 5 to P22.50 from P44 (still overpriced) when — according to Cong. Ferj Biron — it costs the equivalent of only three pesos in India and Pakistan?”
GMA’s legacy will ultimately include, among other things, being the most untrusted President ever. Seeing as she’s already lied about it once, I can understand why several sectors aren’t taking her assurances (that she won’t try to stay in power) at face value. → “If the Palace isn’t interested in Charter change then why is it debunking the SWS poll results on the matter? Nahuhuli ang isda sa bibig (A fish is caught by its mouth). Malacañang’s slip is showing as it questions the SWS poll results. We should all take this to mean that Cha-cha isn’t dead and that we must guard against an illegal con-ass,” Sen. Francis Pangilinan said. The SWS survey said the majority of Filipinos were opposed to Cha-cha.”