"Able Men"

In choosing my preferred set of leaders this elections, I will use the simple criteria set forth in Ex. 18:21: They should be "able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness."

Below are the candidates I have known at close range, having interacted with them at several occasions especially whenever we meet during the Tuesday breakfast fellowship meetings of the Capitol Christian Leadership at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani in Quezon City. As such, I can personally vouch that they are able men as defined by Ex. 18:21. They have integrity, capability, and above all, passion to serve God and their countrymen.

Ruffy Biazon - Senator

Alex Lacson - Senator

Jess Paredes - Senator

Dante Liban - Congressman, District II, Quezon City

Andy Rosales - Councilor, District III, Quezon City

Association for Righteousness Advocacy in Leadership

(ARAL) - Party List

Of course, I have also my choices for President, Vice President and other positions. However, I won't mention their names here because I don't know them personally and therefore I cannot vouch for them as I can for those I specifically mentioned above.

Let's vote wisely not based on popularity or surveys.

How reliable are election surveys?

Do you accept surveys at face value? May be not anymore after reading the letter below. (Note: Abbey Canturias is the Managing Director of Campaigns & Images Group, who conducted the independent survey on our presidential elections 2010, commissioned by US and UK multinationals with business interests in the Philippines.)

From: Abbey Canturias
Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2010 2:16 PM
Subject: A Simple Gift To Set You Free

Dear Becky,

We don't share our survey to candidates. But they may subscribe, with an express request, subject to permissions of our principals.

But, in the interest of objectivity and the people's right to know, we give away copies for free to selected men and women who deserved freedom from the lie. Supposedly it's not. A subscription copy normally costs $1,240 per survey.

The content confirmation we gave on the copy featured in Ms. Celdran's Facebook account was meant for the local copy sent to a diplomat (in Manila) from whom we tracked three leaks in the last two days.

Be that as it may, far be it from our control, our surveys are not meant for publicity; they're mainly for foreign business outside the Philippines looking in and preparing for policy changes in case a strong, potential winner emerges in the campaign homestretch.

Whoever wins the campaign and by what means---that is not our business.

Our responsibility is to find out who the likely winner will be so that we can brief our clients, even this early, on the policy regimen of the Philippines weeks before GMA steps down in June and few days before a new president is sworn in.

Hope you indeed found it useful. That was not a leak. We're giving this away gratis so you will know how SWS and Pulse Asia have dealt this country a shameful disservice.

They're not polling; they're mentally preconditioning people's choices toward a bandwagon effect----in favor of those who pay: their sponsors. I find that filthy practice very nauseating and revolting!

The way we crunch data, our multi-stage statistical sampling methods, simple math, and down-to-earth analyses---they are meant to show what a true, honest, factual survey should be. Believe me, any one who has basic algebra, physics, and geometry can do a survey the way we do.

A survey is not a complicated science that SWS and Pulse Asia made us all believe. They did so to add public wonderment and sophistication to their despicable trade.

In top-grade political surveys, you don't ask a respondent whether he's masa (CD) or middle class (B) or elite (A). That's taboo in our culture, isn't it?

If that is the case, the use of the ABCD classification is supposedly suspect, shallow, and misleading. Political research is not a household income survey for an economic progress measurement. It is supposedly a yardstick of preference and the reasons behind it.

You could choose to test yourself with this: Try asking person in the street if he is A, B, C, or D and you will be taken for a fool, if not avoided.

We just wonder why every one that Pulse Asia or SWS asked about "economic class-related questions" seems to relish it all these years.

Income is a sensitive cultural topic among Pinoys; it's unmentionable. Even my wife does not know exactly how big I make on a good month and how small on a lean one. And yet our pollsters made it appear so downright easy.

Honestly, all that has to be confirmed in a political survey is the accurate voter registration of the respondent, his age, belongingness to an economic sector, and his preference.

You should at least be able to note "why" he decides so and "think" of the atmosphere across which he is making a choice (for example, corruption in Malacanang; Erap as a convicted criminal; Noynoy making PhP 1.2 billion from security contracts with GOCC and large import/export companies six years the whole time when Cory was president, among others.)

Now that you understand, the gullibles among Filipinos will be one person less tonight than it was yesterday.

Congratulations. You've just been freed from the lie! Feel free to share to others.

Best regards,
Abbey

The Guidon: "Why we need to vote for Noy"

I came across this article as titled above on the online version of The Guidon, official student body organ of the Ateneo de Manila University. What is your take?

Raymond S. Ang
rang@theguidon.com

Reader, I’m going to ask you for a favor.

Okay, correction. I’m begging you for a favor.

On May 10, when you go to your nearest voting precint and place your vote for the Philippine presidency, I need you to vote for Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Cojuangco Aquino, III.
I’m going to be honest. I have never been a big supporter of the Noynoy campaign. It troubles me that two months before the elections, his birthright is still his only defining trait. It bothers me that after years in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, he never really accomplished anything. On top of having a near inscrutable (read: essentially non-existent) platform, his stand on some key issues are questionable. And on top of all that, he isn’t even the most charismatic living member of his nuclear family (that distinction goes to his larger-than-life sister Kris, of course).

I’m not asking you to vote for Noynoy because I think he’s the best, most qualified candidate. He really isn’t, not by a long shot. In my opinion, it’s Gilbert Teodoro, with maybe Dick Gordon in second place. I have a lot of friends with a lot of opinions and while we never seem to agree on who the best candidate is, I think we all agree that objectively speaking, it’s just not Noynoy Aquino.

But the thing is, I’m voting for him anyway. Why am I asking you to vote for Noynoy? I’m asking you to vote for him because of the alternative.

At this point, it’s safe to say that Gordon, Teodoro, the always ineffable Erap Estrada, campaign spitfire Jamby Madrigal, and any other presidentiable are all essentially saling pusa candidates. 2010 has long revealed itself to be a two-man race, a race that some say pits “Good” versus “Evil,” a race between Manny Villar and Noynoy Aquino.

Wherever your non-Villar loyalties lie, you need to vote for Noynoy because a vote for Gordon, Teodoro, Madrigal, and even Estrada (if you’re inclined to do so), is a vote for Villar. If you find yourself seriously considering voting for Teodoro, if you find yourself succumbing to Madrigal’s tenacity, just remember: You are voting for Manny Villar. You are voting for the man whose big philosophical question is whether or not we’ve taken a bath in a sea of trash. You are voting for a man who repeatedly refused to show up at the Senate and face the C5 allegations. You want transparency? You want honestly? Don’t vote for Villar.

For all his weaknesses, for all his perceived incompetencies, a Noynoy victory at least affords this country some dignity. It at least gives us a man with good intentions, someone who actually seems to want this country to thrive. If his being the son of Ninoy and Cory gives us anything, it’s the assurance that he was brought up well, with morals intact.

On my penultimate column for The GUIDON, allow me some self-indulgence. May 4 is my twenty-second birthday. By May 4, I will have undergone Cha-Cha rallies, the Estrada Impeachment trials, EDSA II, EDSA III, “Hello, Garci,” GMA, GMA, and more GMA. Not once have I ever thought of leaving this country despite all this. I always rationalized them as phases our country has to go through and someday, a good leader will lead us out of the grave we’ve dug ourselves into.

If Villar wins, that just might be the final straw, the end of all hope. A Villar win says we never learn. A Villar win says we are hopeless.

So on May 10, we need to vote for our country. We need to vote for Noynoy Aquino.