Binay asks Comelec to probe GMA’s midnight appointments

by Jerico Javier & Alex T. Silva

From Journal Online

Link: http://www.journal.com.ph/index.php/national/6287-binay-asks-comelec-to-probe-gmas-midnight-appointments.html

OPPOSITION vice-presidential bet Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay yesterday said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) should apply its diligence in counting the television airtime of candidates to investigating motu proprio President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s recent midnight appointments.

“If the poll body is so gung ho in reprimanding candidates who have exceeded their television advertisement allotment, then it should apply the same proactive stance in determining if Mrs. Arroyo had exceeded her authority in making election-period appointments,” he said.

Binay said if the Comelec can “micro count the seconds” of candidates’ TV ads then it cannot ignore a big issue like Mrs. Arroyo’s wholesale release of new appointment papers to high-government positions.

He said the Comelec had even reprimanded candidates for plastering posters in wrong places and detailed the size of the posters and the places where they should be put.

“I hope this vigilance and attention to detail should be applied on Mrs. Arroyo’s midnight appointments as well. It cannot be so finicky on posters while being insensitive on presidential appointments,” Binay said.

He insisted that the issue of midnight Cabinet and judicial appointments deserve the Comelec’s attention more than poster violations. “The ban on last-minute executive appointments is written in the Constitution,” he said.

Binay said it is within the Comelec’s powers to summon Mrs. Arroyo’s official representative and make him explain, in person or in writing, the legal basis for the recent appointments she had made.

“The Comelec need not wait for a complainant . It can initiate the scrutiny on its own. After all, its job is to monitor compliance with election laws, so if it sees a violation, then it should immediately blow the whistle,” he said.

Meanwhile, Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) standard-bearer former President Joseph Estrada accused President Arroyo of being the opposite of his father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal, for the midnight appointments she made despite the ban on them because of the coming elections.

Estrada made the accusation as a reaction to the midnight appointments made by Malacañang recently, including the appointments of a new member of the Court of Appeals and the Philippine ambassador to Germany.

“’Di niya sinusunod ang batas, mabuti pa ang tatay niya. Dapat sundin na lamang n’ya ’yun. Dapat what her father done she should follow, tatay niya ’yun ’di niya sinusunod,” Estrada said the other night during a campaign sortie in Cainta, Rizal.

Estrada recounted that GMA’s father denounced the “midnight appointments” made by his predecessor, former President Carlos P. Garcia.

Estrada added that despite the good example of her father, President Arroyo failed to follow his legacy as she violated the law by appointing government officials despite the ban.

Estrada welcomes admin local bets to PMP

by Jerico Javier
From Journal Online

Link: http://www.journal.com.ph/index.php/national/6286-estrada-welcomes-admin-local-bets-to-pmp.html

PWERSA ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) standard-bearer former President Joseph Estrada said the party welcomes local administration bets who wanted to “jump ship” from their party except those who were involved in graft and corruption.

This developed as Estrada said the transfer of some local administration bets, including his former bestfriend ex-Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis “Chavit” Singson, to the camp of presidential bet Sen. Manny Villar of the Nacionalista Party will not affect his candidacy.

“I don’t think it will matter, meron naman kaming leader du’n sa Ilocos Sur,” Estrada told reporters.

But Estrada refused to comment nor confirm the speculation being circulated that the transfer of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD bets to other political parties confirms the alleged ties of Villar to the present administration.

“Hindi natin alam, hindi ko pa confirmed. Nababalitaan lang ’yan, eh. Naririnig ko lang pero wala akong confirmation,” Estrada said.

However, he said he heard that several candidates are planning to join the PMP.

“Okay lang lumipat ’yung mga taga-administration na walang kaso, pero ’yung mga tainted with graft and corruption, hindi ko pwedeng tanggapin ’yun,” Estrada also said.

Meanwhile, Estrada and his running mate Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay were both elated with the result of the recent survey showing they both improved in their rating.

Estrada and Binay said that instead of spending too much on television ads, they will both go “direct” to the people along with their senatorial bets.

“Basta’t maging malinis at marangal ang darating na halalan, labis-labis ang galak sa pagsasama namin ni Pangulong Erap, eh, mananalo po kami sa darating na halalan,” Binay said in an interview.

PMP party hold their campaign sorties in Laguna yesterday. They motored to Siniloan, Sta. Cruz and Calamba

NO FREE PASS FOR PRE-CAMPAIGN ADS Top bets liable for breach of ethics; donors for taxes

By Malou Mangahas (Malaya) Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism
http://www.malaya.com.ph/03232010/news4.html

THEY probably thought they got a free pass to flood television with political ads beyond the airtime and spending limits set in law, having run commercials before the 90-day campaign period could start last February 9.

But the top candidates for president and vice president, as well as those who donated and bankrolled their pre-campaign ads, had better think again, according to lawyers and officials of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

By the letter and spirit of anti-graft and tax laws, say the lawyers and tax officials, their pre-campaign period airing of political ads does not free the candidates and their donors of all liabilities.

By PCIJ’s calculations, the combined actual ad spending of six presidential candidates and four vice-presidential candidates from November 1, 2009 to February 8, 2010 comes up to P1.472 billion. By most standards, the amount is huge enough to compromise these candidates, most of whom are incumbent public officials.

The figure is also huge enough to shore up the tax collection drive of the BIR amid the country’s rising fiscal deficit -- if the candidates’ donors have paid taxes.

Just last week, BIR Commissioner Joel Tan-Torres said his agency has collected only P100 million from the five-percent withholding tax slapped on all political contributions and campaign expenditures of candidates during the campaign period.

Vice presidential bets trade barbs in debate

By Aurea Calica – With Perseus Echeminada, Mike Frialde, Pia Lee-Brago (The Philippine Star) 

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=560521&publicationSubCategoryId=63

MANILA, Philippines - Six candidates for vice president traded barbs and grilled each other during a televised debate aired last Sunday night.

Leading vice presidential candidate Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas II of the Liberal Party had a face-off with Sen. Loren Legarda of the Nationalist People’s Coalition and the Nacionalista Party, who criticized her main rival over the expanded value added tax, Cheaper Medicine Law and land distribution.

Legarda was fierce in grilling Roxas, who implied that she was a hypocrite and a political butterfly for transferring to various parties.

The debate dubbed as “Harapan” was organized by ABS-CBN and held at the La Consolacion College in Manila. Members of the audience were each given a “truth meter” and were told to vote on whether the answer of the candidates was “believable” or “not believable.”

Roxas registered high scores on the believability of his answers while Legarda did poorly despite her attacks on the LP bet every chance she got. Roxas laughed off some of the issues raised by Legarda.

Legarda and Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay, the vice presidential bet of Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino, gave dramatic opening and closing remarks to the viewers while former Metro Manila Development Authority chairman Bayani Fernando of Bagumbayan even wore an engineer’s hat to call attention to his training and his qualifications to be vice president.

Ibasura na ang EVAT -- Binay

from Abante-Tonite

http://www.abante-tonite.com/issue/mar1910/news_story6.htm


Oras na para palayain ang masa mula sa tanikala ng hindi makatarungang pagbubuwis.

Ang posisyong ito ang pinanindigan ni United Opposition (UNO) vice presidential candidate Jejomar C. Binay na muling nanawagan para tuluyang ibasura ang Expanded Va­lue Added Tax (EVAT) partikular sa langis at kuryente.
Binanggit ni Binay ang mga datos mula sa Department of Energy (DOE), Family Income Expenditures Survey (FIES) at International Monetary Fund (IMF) na nagpapakita na noong 2008, ang transport sector at ordinaryong tahanan na gumagamit ng kerosene at liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) ang kumargo sa may P18 bil­yon o P30 bilyong kita sa EVAT ng gobyerno, na taliwas sa ibinabando ng gobyerno na tanging ang mga mayayaman ang dapat bumalikat ng malaking bulto ng EVAT.
Binanggit din ni Binay ang DOE estimate na nagsasaad na piso bawat unit ang increase sa diesel price ang nagpataas ng generation cost ng kuryente gaya ng sumusunod: Luzon, P0.0002; Visayas, P0.0015; Mindanao, P0.0002; at ang buong Pilipinas, P0.0004.
Ipinaliwanag ni Binay na ang P1 per unit increase sa bunker price ay nagbibigay ng mataas na generation costs tulad sa: Luzon, P0.0002; Visayas, P0.0198; Mindanao, P0.0659 at buong Pilipinas, P0.0161.
“EVAT is an unnecessary tax that needs to be reviewed and scrapped to give relief to the suffering Filipino wor­king class. Raise their wages. Give them a fighting chance against oppressive taxes,” ani Binay.
“Major oil players have raised pump prices anew, this time without notice. The latest in the series of oil price hikes has brought diesel prices to P33.25 to P35.80 per liter while gasoline is now retailed at P42.70 to P45 to a liter. Kerosene is now prices at P41.15 to P47.50,” dagdag pa ng vice presidentiable.
Aniya, ang tumataas na gastusin sa langis at ener­hiya ay nagpapataas din sa presyo ng mga bilihin at lalong nagpapahirap sa milyun-milyong magsasaka at manggagawa sa buong bansa.
Dahil dito, kailangan lamang aniyang alisin na ang EVAT. “We should scrap EVAT. Government has other means to earn revenues to plug the deficit caused by its fiscal ma­nagement. It only has to intensify its tax collection as well as anti-smuggling efforts in order to plug reve­nue lea­kages. Government should not burden the poor with taxes,” ani Binay.

Roxas, Binay, Legarda splurge millions on ads

It’s air war for vice prez bets, too
by CHE DE LOS REYES (Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism - Malaya)

http://www.malaya.com.ph/03192010/news8.html


IT’S AN air war for now for the candidates for president; it’s an air war for their running mates, too.

Just like their parties’ standard bearers, the leading candidates for vice president have poured in hundreds of millions of pesos on political advertisements on television.

The official campaign period started only last February 9, but from November 2009 to February 8, 2010, four candidates for vice president -- Liberal Party’s Manuel ‘Mar’ Roxas III, Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino’s Jejomar ‘Jojo’ Binay, Nacionalista Party’s Loren Legarda, and Bagumbayan Party’s Bayani Fernando -- had already incurred a total of P561.5 million in advertising values for television, radio, and print ads.

Minus discounts of up to 47 percent granted by media agencies at the time, the net indicative spending on these candidates’ political ads amount to P294,417,894.

In the first month of the 90-day campaign period, or when campaign finance laws also started to take effect, the four showed more tempered spending, as did their running mates.

From February 9 to March 8, 2010, the combined spending on political ads of the four candidates and Bangon Pilipinas’s Perfecto Yasay Jr. amounted to only P167,814,890, according to published rate cards of media agencies.

Minus discounts allowed by the Commission on Elections (at the rate of 30, 20, and 10 percent for TV, radio, and print, respectively), the combined indicative cost of these candidates’ political ads during the 28-day period amounted to only P144,327,68.

Some candidates, however, may now be counting on dividends from their early investments in political commercials.

Gordon, Villanueva: Why pick on us?

by Edson C. Tandoc Jr., Tina Santos (Philippine Daily Inquirer)

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100318-259328/Gordon-Villanueva-Why-pick-on-us

MANILA, Philippines—Bring it on.

Sen. Richard Gordon is not taking down his huge billboards on EDSA and on South Luzon Expressway despite an order from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for him to remove them.

“I will not dismantle it. I don’t own it. It does not belong to me,” Gordon, a presidential candidate of the Bagumbayan Party, said Wednesday when asked about the Comelec order.

Gordon, his running mate Bayani Fernando and presidential candidate Eddie Villanueva of Bangon Pilipinas have billboards that exceed the mandated size, Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said Wednesday.

The Fair Election Act specifies that the maximum size of posters should be 2 ft by 3 ft. For streamers announcing a public meeting, it’s 3 ft by 8 ft, which can be placed five days before the event and should be removed within 24 hours after the event.

Without his knowledge

Gordon said the two huge billboards that the Comelec referred to as oversized were donated by supporters and were put up without his knowledge.

Noynoy, Mar most trusted in Pulse poll

by ROMMEL C. LONTAYAO (The Manila Times)
http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/top-stories/13580-noynoy-mar-most-trusted-in-pulse-poll
 
Liberal Party standard-bearer Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd emerged as the most trusted presidential candidate, according to the latest survey conducted by Pulse Asia.

Aquino got a trust rating of 64 percent while his closest rival, Sen. Manuel “Manny” Villar Jr. of the Nacionalista Party, slid down to 59 percent, said the survey conducted by Pulse Asia from February 21 to 25.

Villar had a 70-percent trust rating a month earlier.

Aquino’s running mate, Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas 2nd, also had the highest trust rating among vice presidential candidates with 70 percent.

Only 14 percent of voters said that they had “small/no trust” for Aquino, with the rest saying that they were undecided.

Former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada of Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino came in third, with a 40-percent trust rating followed by administration bet Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro with 29 percent and Sen. Richrad “Dick” Gordon of Bagumbayan Movement with 25 percent.

Among the other vice presidential bets, Sen. Loren Legarda, Villar’s running mate, got a 58-percent trust rating, a 3-percent drop from her January rating. Following Legarda was Mayor Jejomar Binay of Makati City, Estrada’s running mate, who got 45 percent while former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chairman Bayani Fernando, Gordon’s vice presidential bet, got 22 percent.

Noynoy, Villar statistically tied in SWS poll

by Helen Flores (The Philippine Star)

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=556549&publicationSubCategoryId=63

MANILA, Philippines - If the elections were held last month, either Liberal Party’s (LP) Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III or his closest rival Nacionalista Party’s (NP) Sen. Manuel Villar would win the presidency, a latest survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) revealed yesterday.

Aquino and Villar were “statistically tied” at first place in the SWS presidential survey conducted from Feb. 24 to 28.

The survey, commissioned by BusinessWorld, showed that Aquino continued to set the pace with 36 percent, closely followed by Villar with 34 percent.

Applying the margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points, Aquino’s rating may be the same as Villar’s, the SWS said.

The survey used face-to-face interviews of 2,100 registered voters nationwide.

Aquino’s rating dropped in four geographical areas: seven points in the balance of Luzon, six in Mindanao, five in the Visayas, and three in Metro Manila.

Villar, meanwhile, lost six percentage points in Metro Manila, two in balance Luzon, and one in Mindanao, but rose by five points in the Visayas.

By area, the SWS said Aquino remained ahead in Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao, while Villar was leading in balance Luzon.

SWS said their lost votes appear to have gone to the third- and fourth-ranked candidates: former President Joseph Estrada of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP), whose score improved by two points to 15 percent, and administration bet Gilbert Teodoro of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD, who also gained two points to six percent.

Legarda trails front-running Roxas by 9%

from Manila Standard Today

http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/insideNews.htm?f=2010/march/8/news2.isx&d=2010/march/8

LIBERAL Party candidate Senator Manuel Roxas II continued to lead the vice presidential race, beating out his closest rival, Senator Loren Legarda, by 39 percent to 30 percent in the latest Manila Standard poll.

The survey, conducted between Feb. 20 and 26, asked 2,500 registered voters to cast their ballots for the positions of President, vice president and senators in a way that simulated actual voting in the coming automated elections in May.

The February results for vice president showed the same pattern as January’s, said Manila Standard resident pollster Pedro Laylo Jr.

Former Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay received 15 percent, while former Metro Manila Development Authority chairman Bayani Fernando and administration candidate Edu Manzano both had 4 percent.

Some 6 percent of the respondents were undecided.

Data by major areas somewhat reflected the same voting pattern as that of the presidential race. Roxas had big leads in Metro Manila, South Luzon and the Visayas. Roxas and Legarda were tied in North and Central Luzon.

‘It’s better late than never’ — Binay

ON ADMISSION OF GOVT’S FAILURE TO ADDRESS POVERTY

from The Daily Tribune

http://www.tribune.net.ph/nation/20100309nat1.html

United Opposition (UNO) vice presidential candidate Jejomar Binay yesterday said there was nothing new in the admission of Presidential Economic Adviser Joey Salceda that government failed to address mass poverty in the last nine years. But then again, he said it is better late than never.

“Governor Salceda only confirmed what the Filipino people have known all along. Their lives are worse off now than they were nine years ago. But still, it is a consolation that somebody from Mrs. Arroyo’s inner circle has spoken up and admitted what we have been saying and what the people have been going through under the Arroyo administration,” Binay said.

He said Malacañang’s economic policies, particularly the value added tax, may have provided revenue for the administration, but it has been a burden to ordinary Filipinos who ended up paying more for basic needs.

Based on the figures of the National Statistical Coordination Board, the number of five-member households living on P1,200 monthly rose to 27.6 million in 2006 compared to 25.47 million in 2001. The incidence of hunger also nearly doubled from 11.4 percent in 2000 to 20.3 percent in 2009.

Binay said while the administration boasts of increases in the country’s gross domestic product by 4.4 percent, reportedly the highest among all presidents since 1966, the administration failed to make taxes work for the ordinary Filipino.

'Energy crisis just artificial'

from The Philippine Star

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=556312&publicationSubCategoryId=63

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Richard Gordon said the power crisis in Mindanao is artificial and may be part of a sinister plot, and demanded an explanation from the Arroyo administration.

“They should explain why there is a power shortage. From what I have heard – and I have just been to Mindanao – the water level in Lanao lake is normal. They just opened up a power plant in Cebu and they will open up a couple more. I don’t know what they are talking about,” Gordon, Bagumbayan party presidential candidate, told editors and reporters of The STAR yesterday.

“They have a lot of explaining to do.”

Gordon said a shortage of power is a threat to national security, hence the need for the government to be transparent.

“It is artificial, I agree. That is why I want it explained. If this is not artificial, she should explain. Her administration must explain, so must her candidate,” he said, apparently referring to administration bet Gilbert Teodoro Jr., former defense secretary.

“When you have no power, it becomes a security issue eventually,” he said.

Gordon also said frequent power interruptions don’t only cause inconvenience but also drive away investors.

Erap on offensive: Noynoy, Villar sponsored GMA rule

SINCERITY NOT ADS TO WIN VOTES — ESTRADA

from The Daily Tribune

http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/20100308hed1.html

The recent Pulse Asia survey showing the United Opposition’s (UNO)-Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) ticket for the May 10 elections is starting to catch up with the frontrunners had triggered bigger support to former President Joseph Estrada and his running mate Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, including the traditional administration bailiwick of Cebu province.

Estrada said based on the recent survey, Filipinos are now seeing through the real colors of Estrada’s rivals who are supposedly opposition candidates,adding the two frontrunners — Liberal Party (LP) bet Sen. Benigno Aquino III and Nacionalista Party (NP) standard bearer Manuel Villar Jr. — played pivotal roles in imposing on the people the widely rejected administration of President Arroyo.

In the UNO-PMP sortie in Subic, Zambales, Estrada said sincerity is key to winning the trust of the people and not the quantity of television advertisements and celebrity endorsers.

Apparently taking a potshot at Aquino and Villar, Estrada said people will eventually see the real motives behind every candidate’s decision to run in the 2010 elections as they draw nearer and the campaign digs deeper.

Binay urges Boy Scout approach

by CZARINA NICOLE O. ONG (Manila Bulletin)

http://mb.com.ph/articles/246389/binay-urges-boy-scout-approach

ILOILO CITY – United Opposition (UNO) vice presidentiable candidate Jejomar C. Binay said the national government should take a cue from the Boy Scouts, whose motto is to always be prepared.

Binay observed that had the government prepared for El Niño, farmers would have been able to overcome the ill effects of El Niño, and the rotating blackouts would not have been the bane of business and residential units.

“The power crisis and the effects of El Niño are problems that could have been mitigated by foresight and planning. Ang mga nasa gobyerno, dapat laging handa. We should not be reactive and most especially we should not blame God for our predicament,” he said.

Moreover, the estimated cost for damages caused by El Niño is reported to be P3 billion. “The Arroyo administration did not embark on a long-term program that would have prepared the country for El Niño and the power crisis. As a result, farmers are losing their livelihood, small businessmen are losing their investments, and ordinary citizens are losing their cool because of the rotating brownouts,” Binay added.

“Instead of being crippled by rotating outages, the country should craft a doable and viable energy policy.

The priority is to shore up our generating capacity, rather than emergency measures that provide opportunities for corruption,” he said

Binay to poll body: Solve ‘flying voters’

by CZARINA NICOLE O. ONG (Manila Bulletin)

http://mb.com.ph/articles/246233/binay-poll-body-solve-flying-voters

United Opposition (UNO) vice presidential candidate Makati Mayor Jejomar C. Binay Thursday asked the Commission on Elections to address problems revolving around the May 2010 elections, in particular the issue on padded voters’ list.

Binay said the list “ is like telling a group of passengers on a sinking ship that everything is under control when it is clearly not. This is because the poll body admitted that they are not fully purged of double registrants.”

“It is normal to encounter glitches. But we are embarking on a new and untested system this coming election. All I ask is for the Comelec to back up its reassurances with concrete action. Genuine concerns are being raised by watchdog groups and these concerns, if left unattended, may affect the outcome of the election,” Binay said.

The Comelec earlier said that double registrants are merely voters who forgot to cancel their earlier registration, and officials affirmed that voters would not be able to vote twice because of the use of indelible ink.

But Binay was quick to point out that as proven with past elections, cheaters have found ways to erase indelible ink. “I am concerned that the Comelec has dismissed the matter casually by pointing to the use of indelible ink when we all know that cheaters have managed to remove them in previous elections. I would like to ask the poll body to provide concrete assurance on the concerns raised by various watchdog groups,” he said

PULITIKONG DRUGLORD IBILAD NA!

NINA ERALYN PRADO at REY MARFIL

http://abante.com.ph/issue/mar0410/news01.htm

Hinamon ni Makati Mayor at vice presidential candidate Jejomar Binay ang pamahalaan na maglabas ng “order of battle” na naglalaman ng listahan ng mga pangalan ng kilalang druglords at narco-politicians na suportado ng mga ebidensiyang makakatayo sa korte.

Ang hamon ay ginawa ni Binay kasunod sa naging babala ng US State Department ukol sa posibilidad na ang perang mula sa droga na makakaimpluwensiya sa resulta ng darating na halalan ay maaaring gamitin umano sa paninira sa mga personalidad lalo ngayon na umiinit na ang panahon ng halalan.

Ayon kay Binay, kung ang mga awtoridad ay may listahan ng mga most wanted kidnappers walang dahilan upang hindi rin nito magagawa ang listahan ng mga druglords at narco-politicians.

“If the authorities have a roster of the most wanted kidnappers why can’t it do the same by coming up with an order of battle for druglords and narco-politicians? We need specific targets so we can build airtight cases against them which can stand in court so the war against drugs will claim no collateral damage that destroys reputations and civil liberties especially during an election season when such accusations are easy to concoct and circulate,” ayon kay Binay.

‘Name narco-politicos’

US report on drugs sets off alarm bells

By Norman Bordadora, Cathy C. Yamsuan (Philippine Daily Inquirer)

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100304-256548/Name-narco-politicos

MANILA, Philippines—A flurry of calls for names to be named was raised Wednesday in reaction to the United States’ expressed concern about the possibility of narco-politics influencing the Philippine elections on May 10.
Sen. Francis Escudero said the US Department of State itself should name the candidates receiving drug money from traffickers for their campaign, “so that the voters would know and give time for these candidates to explain and deny” the accusation.
“It’s also important to know this so that any presidential candidate is not ... held by the neck by drug lords,” Escudero told reporters.
Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, the vice presidential candidate of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) and president of the United Opposition, urged the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) to produce a list of politicians benefiting from the multibillion-peso drug trade.

Binay wants P2.3-B ‘sin tax’ take channeled to immunization budget

from The Daily Tribune
http://www.tribune.net.ph/metro/20100303met1.html

As the number of those downed by measles in the country rose to almost 1,000 in the first 50 days of the year, Makati Mayor and United Opposition (UNO) vice presidential candidate Jejomar Binay yesterday called for an increase in the government’s annual budget for immunization by tapping revenues from so-called sin taxes.

Binay said a provision in Republic Act 9334, the 2005 law which raised tax rates on alcohol and tobacco products, earmarked a portion on annual collections for health spending but the Arroyo administration has not been complying with this provision.

“Unfortunately, health groups are complaining that the Arroyo administration has not been complying with this provision. Ironically, the administration dangled the provision on allocations for health as a sweetener in baiting Congress to okay its proposal for higher ‘sin tax’ rates,” Binay said.

In 2008, the sin tax take of the government went up to P47 billion, or by 17.92 percent, from P42.2 billion in 2007. Of the total, tax from tobacco products reached P27.35 billion while that on alcohol products amounted to P19 billion.

Unmask gov’t men among party-list nominees – Binay

from Manila Bulletin

http://mb.com.ph/articles/245578/unmask-gov-t-men-among-partylist-nominees-binay

United Opposition (UNO) vice presidential candidate Jejomar C. Binay Sunday said he is suspecting that “benchwarmers” are temporarily occupying the slots reserved for administration officials as party-list nominees, to provide the latter with the perfect cover to campaign for a higher office and use government resources at the same time.

“It appears that their game plan is to cling on to their executive positions and provide Mrs. Arroyo company until June 30, and rejoin her, as one of her hawi boys in Congress the following day,” he claimed.

In a statement from Singapore where he is presiding over the Asia-Pacific council meeting of the World Scouting Movement, Binay said Cabinet members who plan to sneak into Congress via the party-list route must also obey the recent Supreme Court (SC) ruling deeming them resigned from office and quit now.

Brown is beautiful; Binay slams cosmetics firms over whiteners

by Niña Calleja (Philippine Daily Inquirer)

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100227-255598/Brown-is-beautiful-Binay-slams-cosmetics-firms-over-whiteners

MANILA, Philippines—“Love your color,” said Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay. “Don’t use whitening products.”

Binay issued the statement on Friday, criticizing cosmetics firms for allegedly distorting the Filipino’s concept of beauty.

The statement came after the Bureau of Food and Drugs ordered the banning of China-made whitening products found to contain high levels of mercury and steroids.

RP’s Obama