vonjobi: wow, congratulations! kelan ang trip? i hope i'll be around when you come. had a good time with diosa last...
Keith Bacongco: Knowing Nograles and his Big Boss...garapalan na lang talaga.
Vinia Datinguinoo Mukherjee: Congratulations, PCIJ! Mabuhay kayo!
Lead Philippines: But without credible mass media there, what is left to protect the people..?
vonjobi: it's juned sOniDo.

Latest Message 5 months ago

hopeless_race : Lets not just focus sa mga malversation of funds, sa mga overpricing..ating pagtuunan ng atensyon ang diskarte ng mga politiko na umuutang ng bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno."Small time" ang ibang pamamaraan ng pangungurakot kumpara sa pag-utang sa gobyerno ng bilyon na tunay ngang masasabing "pinaka big-time" at wala pang sabit.
hopeless_race : Mukhang tikom ang bibig ng lahat pagdating sa diskarte ng mga politiko sa pagutang ng mga bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno na tinatakbuhan. Itong pamamaraan na ito ang tunay na kumakain ng malaking porsyento ng ating national budget batay na din sa sinasabi ng world bank.
hopeless_race : Pakisilip naman po ang mga utang ni Villar sa BSP, ang mga utang nila RAMON JACINTO, RONNIE ZAMORA, JOE DE VENECIA at madami pang ibang mga pulitiko. Iilan lamang yan sa mga nababanggit sa balita na may mga malalaking utang sa gobyerno.
hopeless_race : Nagmimistulang "small time" lamang ang malversation of funds kumpara sa laki ng kinakamal ng mga umuutang sa gobyerno. At ito ay malinaw na natatakbuhan dahil hindi nga naman pwede makulong ang may-ari ng kumpanya sa pagkaka-utang lamang. Tunay na mga tuso at magagaling sa batas itong mga politiko natin. Masasabi ko na malamang lahat ng mga politiko ganito ang diskarte...wala pang kulong.
hopeless_race : PCIJ pkitingnan naman po ang mga gaya ni Villar na my malaking utang sa Gobyerno pero tinatakbuhan. Magtatayo ng kumpanya at uutang ng bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno ng walang balak bayaran. Tunay ngang walang nakukulong sa utang...ito ang prinsipyo ginagamit ng mga politiko ntin kaya nakakapagtaka kung san napupunta ang daang bilyong pera ng gobyerno.
hopeless_race : Sana itreat naman po ng media ang hacienda luisita at mendiola massacre na parang MAGUINADANAO MASSACRE. Ipublicized ang mga katotohanan at ipakita sa tao ang karumaldumal na pinaggagawa sa mga farmers dun. Untouchable po ba sila cory at danding at hindi magawang batikusin ng media about these two massacres?
hopeless_race : Kapag napaguusapan ang mendiola at hacienda luisita massacre ay parang walang nangyari at parang hindi big deal. Anu po ba ang pinagkaiba ng dalawang nabanggit na massacre sa maguindanao massacre?
hopeless_race : Its sad that we pinoys are blind to the fact of what had happened in mendiola and hacienda luisita. Ang tanong..bakit ang media ay hindi manlang matackle ang ganitong usapin? Takot ba sila kay cory at danding?
hopeless_race : Wilkins" brand, for P1.4 billion.-1999 Sugarland Multi-Food Corp. for P2.9 billion 2001- Purefoods Corp P7 billion P60 billion Coca-Cola ... See More 2002- Cosmos Bottling Corp. from RFM Corp. for P14.1 billion October 2008- GSIS' shares in Meralco worth PHP30 Billion. December 2008- country's biggest oil refiner, Petron Corporation. international company shopping spree: Australian boutique brewer J. Boag and Son for A$96 million in 2000. $97 million for Thai Amarit Brewery Ltd $35.5 mi
hopeless_race : Gud am..glad to be back.
jr_lad : rip mr. alecks pabico. you'll be greatly missed!
sevens21 : Dati input mo lng name at SSS ID makukuha mo agad STATIC INFO...
sevens21 : tawag ka sa HOTLINE nila walang ANSWER grrr we need pa namn ng static info SSS Gising!!!
sevens21 : Gawa naman po kayo ng article about SSS. Pangit ng site nila dali ma blocked ng account
guest_899 : we must check the background of each potential candidates to avoid having another big mistake like GMA
guest_899 : congratulations to PCIJ, more power and God Bless !
jazzymuver : how did Arroyo swallow that kind of things!! how come that she just spend the money our countrymen for her own sake!!
guest_3664 : i would be glad if u can include the investigation of the manner public officials announce infra projects as per COA regulation. It is frustrating to see their faces on the tarpaulin instead of the prescribed information like name of project, date of implementation,amount of contract, source/s of fund, among other things. This is very rampant here in Marikina. Thanks and more power on your noble endeavors. We need people like you to have make our country great again.
jhanz_08 : im making research on R.A 9136...with rgards to the privatization of NPC..could someone out there can let me understand more bout this matter?why was monopoly dismantled?email me..jhanycem@yahoo.com...thanks much
erika marie : P.S.:) my paper is due next week and i do hope someone could provide me these reports coming from reliable resources thank you ulit.
erika marie : P.S.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study regarding political killings in the philippines. could someone out there please send me human rights reports under Aquino and Ramos administration. you could send it at my email: erikamariet@yahoo.com your response would surely be very much appreciated. thank you everyone. god bless.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study for my paper regarding political killings in the philippines. i noted that there are no human rights reports during the Aquino and Ramos administration. could someone out there please send me reports regarding these matter? i do hope these reports came from reliable resources you could send it in my email; erikamariet@yahoo.comyour response would surely be appreciated. thanks everyone. god bless.
jayson bourne : gusto ko po maging member ng PCIJ, panu po ba? may application po ba? sana mapadalhan nyo ako ng info sa email ko... www.jboxpenshoppe@yahoo.com
jayson bourne : cory is OK, but kris & Noynoy sensationalize masyado...
guest_9891 : LABAN pa rin!
meow : boycotts worked during marcos years. how about doing it now against the businesses of the con-ass congressmen?
meow : aside from 168, what other establishments can we boycott that belong to the arroyos and their cronies?
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Burmese polls a surreal exercise

Posted by: Ed Lingao | July 20, 2010 at 12:34 pm
Filed under: Cross Border

OUR ELECTIONS are far from perfect, but recent encounters with friends from Burma remind us we still have a lot to be thankful for. The PCIJ played host to some Burmese visitors a few months ago, and just last week, we also hied off to Bangkok to conduct a workshop for Burmese journalists. Our Burmese friends have been asking us: What are elections like? How do you cover them?

And the most crucial, yet quite poignant, question: What happens when you vote?

The innocence is staggering, but the determination is breathtaking; an entire generation has grown up with no knowledge or experience in elections.

You see, in a month, maybe two, or maybe even never, the people of Burma – renamed ‘Myanmar’ by the ruling junta — will come out and vote for the first time in 20 years. And a day after that, or maybe two days, or maybe never, the people of Burma will have a new set of members for their local and national parliaments, also known as Legislative Bodies, or Pyithu Hluttaws.

Burma’s elections, if they do take place, are more than just an occasional exercise of quasi-democracy; they are also an exercise in speculation and wishful thinking.

Consider these:

-The ruling Junta announced the holding of elections for the Pyithu Hluttaws this year; exactly when this year is a gambler’s guess. It was supposed to be in May; now there is talk of having it in October. Given that the last election on Burmese soil was held in 1990, the Junta appears to treat the election as a very trivial pursuit.

-The 1990 elections weren’t encouraging anyway. The opposition won majority of the seats in Parliament in the 1990 elections, but rather than quibble with election protests, the junta simply nullified the results and threw the opposition in jail. No more arguments, problem solved.

-The other, more recent political exercise was not very encouraging either. In 2008, while Myanmar teetered on the brink of a breakdown because of Typhoon Nargis, the junta decided to hold a referendum for a new Constitution. Unsurprisingly, the new Constitution was ratified with 92.48 percent in favor of the charter. Unsurprisingly, too, voter turnout was a high of 91.8 percent, says the Burmese junta. It is enough to put our Commission on Elections to shame.

-While the political lines are clearly drawn between the junta and the opposition symbolized by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, voters are at a quandary because no one from the opposition is running. The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) has announced a boycott of the elections, fearing that the polls would just legitimize the junta’s rule. At the same time the junta has prohibited anyone who has ever been arrested or convicted from running in the elections, effectively banning the entire opposition from the polls.

There are many more reasons why elections in the magical kingdom of Myanmar would be surreal.

To begin with, the Constitution which the people of Myanmar apparently wholeheartedly ratified after staggering out of the mud and waste of Typhoon Nargis, reserved 25 percent of the seats in both houses of the national parliament for the military. As if that were not enough, the Constitution also reserves one-third of the seats in the parliaments of the 14 states and regions of the country for the exclusive use of the military. In other words, while the Burmese people are still confused as to when they will cast their votes, one out of every four parliamentarians has already been appointed by the military. People want to vote, after having been deprived of this right for 20 years. But what do you do when you don’t have anyone to vote for except the junta?

Talk to a Burmese about the referendum for the Constitution, and you are likely to get a blank stare. Despite the apparently magnificent turnout, few people really know what happened. That’s because journalists are not allowed 300 feet from the voting centers. There are no such things as observers, and watchdogs are those little mongrels with four legs that are meant to guard prisons. More than that, no one is allowed to watch or observe while the government’s election commission counts the votes. It is government’s way of saying, trust us, you have no choice. We have already won anyway.

Yet Burmese journalists intend to cover the supposedly upcoming polls, even if their government swats at them like seditious little fleas. Recently, a Burmese journalist was sentenced to 20 years in prison for violating the so-called Electronics Act. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) identified the journalist as Hla Hla Win, who was arrested for interviewing monks for the anniversary of the 2007 Saffron Revolution. The CPJ says there are at least nine Burmese journalists in prison that the group knows of, although there are probably many more.

Burmese are under no illusions that the previous referendum, or the coming elections, are going to be clean. When we told some Burmese of the phenomenon of “flying voters” in the Philippines, where people are paid to go from one voting precinct to another to vote using fake IDs, one Burmese remarked that they had “swimming voters.” Apparently, people who had drowned during Typhoon Nargis had still been able to “cast their votes” in the 2008 referendum for the Constitution. One would wish that politics could breath new life to people in a different way.

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