HERE’S a video clip from iVDO (INQUIRER.net VDO), the new online video service that INQUIRER.net has launched in partnership with Yahoo!

Got a video you’ve made that you’d like to share with a global audience? E-mail it to inquirerdotnetvideos@yahoo.com.ph and include a brief description of 100 words or less.

All submissions will be subject to editorial discretion. Videos should run for no more than 10 minutes and be less than 100MB. They must be in WMV, ASF, QT, MOD, MOV, MPG, 3GP, 3GP2 or AVI format, and have audio.

I PRAISE Chairman [Banjamin] Abalos and the rest of the Comelec [Commission on Elections] for doing a good job last May election/

If massive cheating occured, then why are a majority of the GO candidates marching their way to the Senate? Why did Mike Defensor, the most loyal Cabinet member of this administration, not make it to the Final 12? Why did Lilia Pineda, a known close friend of the President, fail to sit in the Capitol of Pampanga?

Let us give where credit is due. We are all tired of loudmouths and baseless accusations that never cease to pull the country down. By the way, I like the way Chairman Abalos pronounced “senator” in proclaiming the newly elected lawmakers.

TRILLANES would not even win as barangay chairman before Oakwood.

Yes, the Philippine electorate rewarded Lt. Senior Grade Antonio Trillanes IV for causing untold suffering to the people by bringing down the economy and wreaking havoc on the business community in co-masterminding the infamous Oakwood mutiny.

He used this popularity to shortcut his way to the political arena. Why can’t he do a Lacson and a Biazon who took the long road and got out of service and ran for public office on the merits of their accomplishments? Is he too ambitious and could not wait for his turn? Let’s see if he will turn out to be like the gentlemen I mentioned or will he be like Gringo who was rewarded again after warming his seat in a forgettable stint in the Senate.

– Buddy Jose, Las Vegas, Nevada (via e-mail)

HERE’S Amando Doronila’s take on the results of the May polls.

Excerpt from his column piece “Acting as if nothing happened“:

MANILA, Philippines — The first thing the opposition did after it appeared certain that the Genuine Opposition (GO) candidates had won 8-2-2 in the Senate election was to talk with deposed president Joseph Estrada, at his detention home in Tanay, Rizal, about the division of spoils. Up for grabs are the Senate presidency and chairmanship of key committees. From newspaper reports, there was nothing to indicate that the victors, in the flush of triumph, thought of overhauling the national policy agenda beyond just carving up the booty.

The celebration with Estrada was symbolic and symptomatic of the opposition’s view of the mandate it received from the people on May 14. When the opposition leaders met at Estrada’s rest house, they offered the GO capture of the Senate as a trophy to Estrada and as an acknowledgment of Estrada’s view that the election was a referendum on the illegitimacy of his overthrow by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in January 2001 and a vindication of his innocence of plunder charges.

The opposition cannot be more wrong than crediting Estrada for the GO victory in the Senate election. Some of them may like to think the GO team was handpicked by Estrada. But this was not exactly the case: most of the GO candidates were not identified as dyed-in-the-wool Estrada partisans, and presented themselves as independent-minded persons. The only thread shared by members of the team was that all were anti-Arroyo.

The May election was anything but a rerun of the Estrada-Arroyo political vendetta. That feud was not the central election issue. The voters decided on a number of issues that have emerged to define the character of the Arroyo administration since 2001. The nation has traveled a long distance for the past six years. Consequently, Estrada cannot claim credit for influencing the 8-2-2 Senate election result. Much less is he in a position to call the shots in the allocation of power in the next Senate.

[PANFILO] LACSON wants to head the Senate blue-ribbon committee.

“I want to advance my advocacy of accountability among public officials. If only for it, I want to chair the blue-ribbon committee. But I won’t beg for it nor exchange my vote to get that committee,” he said, referring to his vote for Senate president.

Since majority of the Senate is now GO [Genuine Opposition] and they are serious about their anti-corruption drive and putting corrupt public officials in jail, will they prosecute Erap? Or will they go only for administration candidates and their allies?