"NO VOTE" for Most of the Reelective Senators

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Before I delve on my arguments why I will not vote for most of the reelective senators in the May 13, 2019 national election, please listen to the recent tell-all of former senatorial wannabe Harry Roque, a former congressman, to GMA Super Radyo (DZBB 594) broadcaster Mike Enriquez who asked him the following questions. 

QUESTION: Sinabi ninyo na ang kandidato sa pagka senador ay dapat gumastos ng minimum na P500 million at hindi ka pa siguradong mananalo doon?

ANSWER: Pag senador useless ma mudmod ng pera hindi mo kakayanin iyan. Hindi mo kakayanin na mag vote buy sa national scale dahil napakalaking pera. Ang gastos mo pag ikaw ang tatakbong senador ads. Kaya sino ang nanga-nga-lampag sa survey iyong maaga pa lang nag ads na iyong mga walang palya nandiyan iyong advertisement. So walang pagkakaiba sa pagbebenta ng softdrinks sa pagbenta ng sino dapat maging senators. Nakakasalalay po iyan sa ads.

(PHOTO CREDIT: CNN PHILIPPINES)

A: Ako nga po pruweba ko kulelat ako ng tumigil ako. Pero ano ang nangyari noong nag ads ako sa TV na doble ko iyong conversion votes ko in just one month. At predicted ko iyon na every month pag ganito ang gagastusin ko I will gain six points at pag na continue ko iyan over 90 days pasok pa ako pag dating ng 90^th day.

Q: Halimbawa gumastos nga kayo ng P500 milyon pero may mga negosyante na nag-aambag bilang parang tinatayaan  ang kandidato.

A: Alam mo sa totoo lang nang araw na pupunta ako sa Commission on Election para mag withdraw tatlong tycoons ang nag text sa akin na kunin mo na ang tulong  namin para sa iyo…

(That tycoons could be some of  the controlling owners of First Gen Corporation, JG Summit Holdings, Inc., Jollibee Food Corporation, Manila Electric Cooperative, Megaworld Corporation, DMCI Holding, Inc., SM Prime Holding, Inc., PLDT, Globe, Aboitiz, San Miguel Corporation, and others – Author)

Q:  Pera pera pa rin.

A: Oo pera pera  pa rin. Pero iba ang style sa Senado. Sa local vote buying, sa national ad spending.

Before I justify my arguments why we should not vote those reelective senators where I will provide their names at the bottom part of my column, the ads Roque mentioned are those political advertisement national candidates buy at  major TV stations’ GMA-7 and ABS-CBN whose reach to the voters nationwide dwarf the listeners of radio and readers of Facebook.

Here’s what former Speaker Joe de Venecia told me that I quoted in my old column when I asked him how much his son and namesake Joey spent on these giant boobtube networks when the latter ran but failed to win the senatorial poll:

 “When Senatorial bet Joey de Venecia ran in the 2010 election, former Speaker Joe de Venecia told me that Joey pays P200 to P300 thousand per 30 “seconder” advertisement at either TV giant ABS-CBN or GMA-7. If my memory serves me right, Joey for the few weeks dash, in his race to be included in the Top 12 of either Social Weather Station or Pulse Asia polls, had been airing three to four ads a day to get the attention of the voters around the country.
Hmmm? P250,000 multiplied by three times a day multiplied by 30 days equal a staggering of P22,5000, 000!”.

Yes Virginia, that’s not thousands but P22.5 million or P45 million or P270 million for the six  months propaganda before the May 13 national derby for the two mammoth networks or  for a job that gives the official more than P100 thousand a month salary for six years stint.

That advertisement price as based on the recent statement of Roque to Enrique was the same.

Let’s go, salamabit, to the jugular.

Don’t vote for the reelective  senators especially those members of the Committee on the Public Service.

These candidates have in their hands the opportunity to save the most of the  105 million Flips, er, Filipinos from the squalor of poverty but they seem to cohabit with the lobby monies of big corporations.

The corporations interest is to prolong their  oligopoly  in running their businesses in the country without a threat of rivals from other countries that can give us cheaper but better goods and services.

I cite here the slow but expensive internet service to us by Manuel Pangilinan runs Philippine Long Distance Telephone Inc. and Ayala founded Globe Telecom.

This Filipino 60 percent control of business equity versus the 40 percent for the foreigners exacerbate our unemployment and underemployment problems. 

We have  2.3 million unemployed, 7.5 million underemployed out 44.1 million laborers based on the January 2018 data of the Philippines Statistics Office,  and 2.3 million workers abroad (PSO 2017) who wanted to come back home if there are available and good paying jobs in the country.

Look what open business equity had brought  to places Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Mainland China.
 Foreign Direct Investment become a sparkplug of their dizzying growth.

If Congressmen Gloria Arroyo, Arthur Yap, Joey Sarte-Salceda, Jose Christopher Belmonte, and Manuel Monsour Del Rosario combined their four bills for this economic magic bullet in September 8, 2017 by amending for 100 percent ownership the utilities in the Public Service Act like transportation, electricity, telecommunications,  mining, oil and gas, why not the senators could not do it?

Is it because of the lobby monies, as what Harry Roque expose, that these tycoons give to these senators who sold us in favor of their selfish ambition to win the May 2019 election?  

Here are the names of these senators who probably will no longer amend the PSA till the end of their term in June 30 this year.

They are Senators Grace Poe, Cynthia Villar, Sonny Angara, Nancy Binay, Koko Pimentel, JV Ejercito, and Bam Aquino.

Their inaction will make the new 18^th Congress where the Houses of Representatives and Senate go back to step one to pass again the amendment of the PSA.

What a waste of money and saliva these congressmen had done before September 2017 where they intricately hammer and spent countless precious time to the amendment of this  archaic law that contribute to our penury.

   Here’s Harry Roque again why big corporations bribe members of the Senate and the House:

Q: Para saan ang perang ito, saan nanggagaling at gumagastos sila ng ganitong halaga sa mga kongresista?

A: Usually ang naririnig ko diyan iyong buwis na makakasira sa isang kumpanya. Usually iyong isang tax measure na gobyerno ang nagsusulong o may isang vested interest either sa itaas para mamatay iyong kalaban nila or ibaba para paburan iyong isang korporasyon sa buwis. Pangalawa, prankisa dahil siyempre….

That “prankisa” is the franchises that I cited as utilities in the Public Service Act.

They are the franchises that should be amended but the present senators will not touch because of the billions of pesos question.

READ MY OTHER ARTICLE:

What Charter Change? Just change the PSA to draw investors

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)