http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/insideOpinion.htm?f=2010/january/29/alvincapino.isx&d=2010/january/29
There is a palpable groundswell of support for presidential candidate Gilbert Teodoro. This would probably be reflected in the next surveys of the major polling firms, even that firm derisively referred to by another candidate as “from Quiapo”.
It seems that Teodoro is following the footsteps of another former defense secretary, President Fidel Ramos, who at the earlier part of the campaign for the 1992 election was lagging behind the other, more popular candidate, which included, among others, Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, Speaker Ramon Mitra, Ambassador Danding Cojuangco, former First Lady Imelda Marcos, and former Senate President Jovito Salonga.
Teodoro, who refused to use his position as defense secretary to promote his political stock, is getting more exposure now in his visits to provinces, particularly schools, in his television and radio ads, and even those ubiquitous ads in public buses plying Edsa.
His supporters tell us that Teodoro’s advantage over his rivals is his ability to convert people who see and hear him into supporters. And as far as his supporters are concerned, the pastoral letter issued recently by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines should convince voters to look closely at Teodoro’s candidacy.
The bishops urged the faithful to look at the candidates’ qualifications for public office —not winnability or perceived winnability.
The pastoral letter said voters should resist the glamor of winnability, as suggested by popularity surveys, and vote for men and women who could improve the national life and ameliorate the lot of the masses.
The bishops also said that candidates and their political parties should campaign on principled platform, solutions and issues and not on muck raking and the use of show biz personalities.
It would be interesting for voters to compare the qualifications of the presidential candidates based on their background, experience and track record.
Surely, Teodoro will stand out with his record as a bar topnotcher, an outstanding practicing lawyer with a law degree from UP and a Master of Laws degree from Harvard, and an expert on homeland security. Teodoro also has an open record of what he did with his CDF when he was a congressman.
Teodoro’s record certainly compares well with those of other candidates, especially one whose principal claim to fame is his relatives and his achievement as being part of the team which popularized Nike in the Philippines in the 80’s.
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The militant Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (Piston) is the smallest of the transport group organization but it is certainly the noisiest and the most visible because of the warm bodies it can muster from its allied organizations like Bayan Muna and Gabriela.
Piston has taken the lead role in opposing the Radio Frequency Identification project of the Land Transportation Office and has brought the issue to the Supreme Court.
Supporting RFID, on the other hand, are all the other transport organizations who have also gone to the Supreme Court as intervenors to show that the majority of the transport sectors have a different position from the one of Piston.
The RFID project, which is an enhancement of the computerization program of the LTO, aligns the Philippines with other progressive countries using technology to modernize the transport system.
Once in place, the RFID will control the problem of illegally operating vehicles, address the problem of car napping, make impossible the issuance of smoke emission without vehicle appearance and many current challenges for the LTO.
One possible immediate benefit is that once RFID is in place, motorists will be no longer required to get those windshield stickers that vehicle owners buy for P50 to show that their vehicle has a current registration.
The agency’s chief, Arturo Lomibao, says he has already ordered a study to be made to do away with the windshield stickers once the RFID project is in place. He said with the RFID law enforcers can easily check if a vehicle’s is updated in its registration.
The P50 savings a year is in fact more than enough to offset the cost of the RFID which costs P350 and is good for 10 years.
But despite the many advantages of the RFID project, Piston and its militant allies do not want it, even if Commission on Human Rights chairman Leila de Lima has declared that there is no basis for claims that the system can be used to spy on people and could hence pose a violation of human rights.
There’s a new twist on the issue: Information has come out that Piston’s SEC registration has already been revoked since 2003 and a petition has been submitted to the Supreme Court to declare “Alleged PISTON Secretary George San Mateo and president Juanito Ranjo Jr. as both Liable for Direct Contempt for Submitting a Board Resolution of a Non-Existent Entity.”
However, Piston’s status as a non-juridical entity is a minor issue. What really is important is that the Supreme Court rules on the legality of the RFID project, and soon.
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One of the issues raised by Piston on the RFID project is that it has no approval of the National Economic and Development Authority. The response of the Department of Transportation and Communication and LTO to this contention is that a separate bidding and a Neda approval for the RFID system are not required. This is already covered by a duly approved change order request which strictly follow Neda guidelines.
The position of the DoTC and LTO is that the RFID project is part of the computerization program of the LTO which is, so far, the most successful project of the government.
It’s terrifying to imagine what the situation would be trying to get a new driver’s license or renew one or to register your vehicle if LTO was not computerized.
Before computerization, it took up to six months to get a new driver’s license. Now it only takes one hour. It used to take more than one day to register a vehicle; with computerization, the process only takes a couple of hours.
Before computerization, you can only register your car or renew your license at the LTO office where you first registered your vehicle or got your license. Now you can renew your registration and license anywhere in the country.
Without computerization, the operations of those satellite LTO offices in malls and other public places where you can renew or get a new driver’s license would have not been possible.
As recognition of the success of the LTO computerization by Stradcom Corp., LTO is the only government agency that is ISO:2001 Certified.
The implementation of the computerization of LTO was no easy sailing for Stradcom. The LTO computerization project was awarded to Stradcom on March 24, 1998 after a transparent bidding process undertaken in 1997 during the Ramos administration.
Stradcom submitted the lowest bid for the project. AMPI-Fujitsu submitted a bid of P299 for motor vehicle registration. Stradcom’s bid was less than half at P120.
When the Estrada administration took over, the implementation of the project underwent a thorough review and it was only on Nov. 9, 1998 when Estrada finally ordered its implementation.
It’s important to point out that the $80-million LTO build-operate-transfer computerization project was implemented at no cost to the national government. Even the electricity of LTO offices nationwide is being paid by Stradcom.
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