LEGAZPI CITY, Albay – Corruption is a far greater sin to the country than smoking.

This was practically what presidential candidate Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III had to say to his rival, Senator Manuel Villar Jr., after the latter implied that Aquino is not fit to be president because of, among others, his smoking habit.

“In the scale of sins, the issues about C-5, C-5.5, Norzagaray are less than my smoking? Should he be attending to my smoking instead of answering whether or not the resources of the State were utilized properly in building two roads to serve one end in C5 or to have one road benefiting a subdivision in Iloilo, that turned first-class irrigated agricultural lands into a subdivision?” Aquino told reporters at a press conference here.

“I think at the very least we should question his priorities,” added Aquino.

Villar is being hounded by various corruption issues including the C-5 road extension controversy wherein he allegedly used his influence to reroute the government’s road extension project to benefit his own real estate property; the so-called “C5 and a half” controversy wherein Villar allegedly facilitated the illegal conversion of prime rice lands in an Iloilo town so he could build one of his subdivisions there and a road leading up to it; and a land-grabbing case in Norzagaray, Bulacan.

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MANILA, Philippines – A nationwide group of professional psychologists on Sunday denounced calls to force presidential candidates to undergo psychological testing.

In a statement, the Psychological Association of the Philippines (PAP) denounced the use of fake psychological reports as a tool for black propaganda in the 2010 presidential election. The PAP said the release of the fake psychiatric reports and inaccurate statements about different aspects of the practice of psychology “have dangerous long-term effects on efforts of Filipino psychologists and other mental-health professionals to address the psychological well-being of Filipinos.”

The group also denounced calls made by politicians and media practitioners to force political candidates to take psychological tests or assessment.

In its statement, the PAP said results of psychological tests or assessments cannot be released to the media or the public or to any person other than the client. It added that any reputable individual psychologist or psychological organization ensures the practice of confidentiality “and that the results of psychological tests or assessment are only shared with the client.”

The group also denounced insinuations that people who see a psychologist or any mental-health professional is “abnormal” or “permanently debilitated.” It also condemned the insinuation that depression is a permanent disability; and the use of words like abnoy, sira ang ulo and may diperensiya sa utak to label individuals.

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MANILA, Philippines (1st UPDATE) – A new version of a report on Senator Benigno Aquino III’s mental health, released on Tuesday by a supporter of Nacionalista Party (NP) presidential bet Sen. Manny Villar, is also fake.

Jesuit priest Jaime Bulatao, who supposedly signed the report, denied writing or signing such a report.

Desperate move?

Aquino also said Delgado could have verified the report before taking it to the media.

Aquino’s campaign spokesman, Edwin Lacierda, said they have evidence that would show that the two reports were fabricated by the NP camp.

“Delgado simply cannot give the unverified documents that fell out of the sky to media then expect them to verify while the story is circulating the airwaves,” he said.

“He cannot just go to town and tell the public it is their obligation to verify his accusations. Villar and Delgado are making fools out of the media and the public. From the start, they have made moral and intellectual dishonesty the crux of their campaign. Are these the kind of people we would want to run our country?” he added.

LP campaign manager Florencio “Butch” Abad said it shows the NP’s desperation. But he’s confident that it will backfire on Villar.

“They’ve been throwing everything at Senator Aquino including the kitchen sink…Now they’ve brought out another kitchen…These are baseless accusations meant to counter the surging numbers of Aquino in all the pre-election surveys.”

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The survey, conducted in April 16-19, has Aquino with 38%, leading Villar by 12 points. In the vice presidential survey, PDP-Laban’s Jejomar Binay had overtaken Villar’s running mate, Loren Legarda, for the second spot.

Cayetano said there are local and national organizations that practice block voting and had announced support for Villar, while there are those who have yet to decide which candidate to endorse.

Without identifying these groups, Cayetano said these are non-government, religious, and political groups that, according to NP’s political analysts, constitute 7% to 8% of the votes.

He said the “superior” party machinery consisting of 2% to 3%, plus the 7% to 8% block votes from groups that might support Villar, would already cover 9% to 11% of the votes.

The party’s machinery includes party members and areal and sectoral organizations nationwide that Villar organized in the last 3 years, he said.

“We would be happier if there’s a smaller lead, but our political analysts, who going around the country checking the ground force, are very confident that the 12% or 13% lead in the survey would mean a tie for Senator Villar,” he said, adding that a below-15% lead means a good fight for their standard bearer.

The NP is still hopeful of the 6% undecided votes. Cayetano said Villar has more advantage to get the undecided votes than Aquino.

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Enrile said that some PSE board members wanted any exemption from the normal rules to be scrutinized and its implications on the stock market carefully studied.

“But there were those who were clearly ready to look the other way and were apparently disposed from the beginning to railroad the approval of the request contrary to the rules of the PSE,” Enrile said.

“In particular, these were Director and President Francis Ed. Lim, Director Anabelle Chua, Director Roberto Atendido and Director Cornelio Peralta,” he added.

Enrile said the minutes of the meeting on June 29, 2007 showed that then Senate President Villar sought an audience with members of the board and himself made a presentation before the directors in connection with his company’s request to be exempted from the lock-up requirement.

The re-electionist senator said Villar secured the approval in just over an hour.

Enrile said Director Vivian Yuchengco even recommended sanctions to the underwriters who caused the issue because they knew fully well that the exchange required the lock-up.

“Because of the short cut committed by Manny Villar, many followed suit. Many more investors in the stock exchange could have been duped and suffered loses. Manny Villar and his conspirators in the PSE destroyed the integrity of the Philippine Stock Exchange,” Enrile said.

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A simplistic analysis does breed a simplistic response, thus the letting loose of Cayetano and the dredging of mud to throw against the LP standard-bearer. NP’s e-mail brigade is also busy circulating increasingly nasty claims against Noynoy, many of them rehashing the autistic claim. On TV, their pol ads now portray NP as genuine opposition.

Will the shift in strategy work? The next survey can answer.

But if you ask me, I don’t think it will. Voters’ thinking can be swayed by propaganda, true, but only to a certain extent.

That point is summed up by this Abraham Lincoln quote: “You can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.” (Now, replace “people” with “voters.”)

Villar’s success in the ratings game can be largely attributed to his spending for campaign ads like there is no tomorrow.

But he so bombarded TV viewers with his jingles and claims—for a long time now and in big doses—that the point of saturation, or should I say monotony, has been reached. The NP ads can no longer offer anything new.

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Kalimutan na ni Gilbert Remulla ang kanyang ambisyon na magiging senador.

Sa kanyang pagbisita sa mga Ampatuan sa Davao noong isang buwan, lumabas na may pagkukulang sa kanyang values o moralidad.

Sira rin dito si Nacionalista party presidential candidate Manny Villar. Dapat ipakita niya na kaya niyang magdisiplina ng kasama na nagkamali kung hindi pareho na silang babagsak.

Si Remulla kasi bayaw ni Sigfrid Fortun, abogado ng mga Ampatuan. Ngayon kasi malakas pa rin ang mga Ampatuan sa Maguin­danao. Marami nga sa mga kamag-anak nila ang tuma­takbo nitong eleksyon at malamang mananalo.

Sinabi ng aming source sa military, sandali nga lang daw ang bisita ni Remulla noong isang buwan.

“Social visit” pa ang sabi. Paano naman niya nasigurado na social visit?

Walang pinag-iba itong si Remulla kay Justice Secre­tary Alberto Agra.

Deny si Agra na mala­king pera ang rason bakit niya pinawalang sala si dating ARMM Governor Zaldy Ampatuan at ang kanyang tiyo na si Akmad. Lokohin mong lelong mo.

Walanghiyaan na talaga ngayon, dahil desperado na itong mga Ampatuan at si Gloria Arroyo. Alam nilang sobra dalawang buwan na lang sila kaya kahit na garapalan ginagawa na.

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SENATOR Manny Villar has been making the rounds of broadcast media to respond to various issues hounding his campaign, and dish out remarks against his main protagonist, who has been featured by Time Magazine on its cover.

What did Villar not do? To this day he has not come out with a report. Now he takes pride in fighting jueteng.

Who brought forth the Hello Garci scandal? Why, no less than Toting Bunye, then press secretary of La Dona Gloria. Everybody and his mother remembers the tale of the two discs. “I have two hands, the left and the right”…remember?  Currency, to commit billions of pesos in newly-designed banknotes in midnight fashion, and to quote the Malacañang press release after GMA brought home the “bacon” that was the ZTE-NBN contract, “like a thief in the night”. Bunye was then the press secretary, right?

When Hello Garci erupted into the national consciousness, Gilbert Remulla was chair of the public information committee in the lower House. Villar makes a big thing about then Congressman Noynoy Aquino’s vote not to hear the Garci tapes in public. Big deal.

But when the gory details of Garci’s caper sank in, the Liberal Party headed by Frank Drilon, Butch Abad, Mar Roxas, Kiko Pangilinan and Noynoy atoned for their coalition with GMA in 2004, publicly calling in a press conference at the Club Filipino for GMA to resign. Where was Villar and his Nacionalistas? Gilbert made noises. Cynthia voted with the impeachment crew, upon the prodding of Ronnie Zamora. But Manny Villar? As quiet as the Sphinx of Egypt, which he and his fellow Nacionalistas saw in 2007, as his blow-out after re-election, and where he intimated, with Sphinx and the mummies at Luxor as sacred witnesses, that he would be president in 2010.

While Drilon and Abad went to Hong Kong to dog Vice-President Noli de Castro into taking over the presidency from the beleaguered Gloria, where was Villar and his Nacionalistas? Tell you what:

Upon arrival at the NAIA from Hong Kong during those tense days following the “I am sorry” speech, VP Noli went straight to the Forbes Park mansion of Senador Joker Arroyo, where Manny Villar and Don Joker convinced VP Noli not to bite the Liberal offer, and stick it out with GMA. So who saved Gloria from Noli in the heyday of Hello Garci?

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MANILA, Philippines—The camp of Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III said Wednesday that the Ampatuan clan’s “endorsement” of Aquino could be the handiwork of only two possible “culprits”—Senator Manuel Villar’s Nacionalista Party or the Arroyo government.

“Is this a joke? It’s not logical. It boggles the mind,” said Leah Navarro, content head of Aquino’s New Media Bureau and executive director of Black & White Movement.

“We were shocked to find he was able to engineer a press conference within prison and he was all decked out in yellow (Aquino’s signature color). We’re wondering how (he got) permission to do that?” she said at the Fernandina Media Forum at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan City.

“We feel there can only be two culprits, or one of both: the NP or it could also be the government. Who else would allow the (Bureau of Jail Management and Penology) to hold a press con there?” she said.

“Is Andal that powerful? I don’t think you can do that unless you have some backing from government,” she said.

She also said they came across information that Anwar Ampatuan was the supposed chair of NP in Maguindanao, and asked the media to dig deeper into the alleged connection. “That would help us a lot. It would explain things,” she said.

“Just last Thursday, we saw on the news, and on Youtube, Andal Ampatuan wearing two baller IDs: one for Villar and one for (Gilbert Remulla). He said these are the candidates I’m supporting, and he fingered the baller IDs, and raised them,” she said.

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