by Harvey S. Keh
Contributor

LAST August 21, a group calling itself Kambilan formally launched a movement to recall Gov. Eddie Panlilio of Pampanga. The group aims to gather at least 100,000 signatures from registered voters in Pampanga and submit it to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) as part of its petition to call for a recall election sometime next year.

When Gov. Panlilio was asked about this move to recall him, he said that this move is politically motivated and was initiated by people closely linked with Lilia Pineda, a former board member who ran and lost to Gov. Panlilio during the last election. Lilia Pineda is also the wife of alleged jueteng kingpin, Bong Pineda. Moreover, Gov. Panlilio said that this movement to recall him is a consequence of his recent filing of plunder charges against Bong Pineda for his alleged involvement in illegal gambling operations in Pampanga.

(Editor’s note: Here’s an actual video of Gov. Panlilio reacting to the recall petition taken by INQUIRER.net reporter Abigail Kwok).

As result, civil society groups in Pampanga along with Kaya Natin! recently released statements of support to Gov. Eddie Panlilio. In the statement of Kapampangan Marangal Inc., one of the largest civil society groups in Pampanga, it mentioned that they reject any moves to recall Gov. Panlilio but at the same time they also recommended that Gov. Panlilio improve his way of governing the province to ensure checks and balance especially when it comes to the concentration of responsibilities and power to the Provincial Administrator. Kaya Natin! A Movement for Genuine Change and Ethical Leadership led by Ramon Magsaysay Awardees for Government Service, Mayor Jesse Robredo of Naga City and Gov. Grace Padaca of Isabela also urged Kapampangans to allow Gov. Panlilio to finish his term and wait until the 2010 elections.

Last August 26, an online petitiion to reject the movement to recall Gov. Panlilio was launched and since then almost 1,000 online signatures have already been gathered. The online petition can be found here.

Kontribusyon ni Eric Manalang, Ang Kapatiran Party

(Isinulat sa Filipino para sa buwan ng wika)

Sa maraming lugar sa Pilipinas at sa labas na rin, dumarami ang nagsasama-samang mga grupo upang bigyan ng boses at aksyon ang nadaramang sakit sa tiyan, puso, bulsa at kung ano pa patungkol sa lalong lumalalang krisis sa ating minamahal na bayan.

Sumasama na rin ang mga nag-oorganisang mga simbahan, laiko, pulitiko, estudyante, overseas pinoys, negosyante, nakakubling opisyal ng pamahalaan, nakalantad na dating mga opisyal, pulis at sundalo at maaring maraming iba pa.

Lahat hinahangad ang PAGBABAGO…Kaya?

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By Karla Angelica Pastores
Contributor

IT’S a step towards modernizing elections in the whole Philippines.

Yes, we’re talking about automation, as the Philippines made its debut into the modern world’s election process with the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao’s (ARMM) computerized elections last Monday.

The ARMM elections will serve as a prelude to what might possibly happen in 2010, the crucial time when we elect our next president. If this pilot test proves the notion that automation reduces the chances of dishonest acts, then preparations will then have to be made for 2010. On the other hand, if the elections will be judged as a failure, then more work should be done, at the cost of a “failed election” in ARMM. This, I believe, is not acceptable. But since we have yet to evaluate the polls, this is still an issue for future blogs.

Automated elections alone do not guarantee fraud-free polls. To the really corrupt people whose opportunities for dishonesty were lessened by the power of computerization, it presents a bigger obstacle to open new doors of cheating. Perhaps not surprisingly, last Monday’s polls were marked with irregularities noted by volunteers of different groups. Aside from apparent vote-buying, machine malfunction caused a delay in the voting in some parts of Maguindanao. The former is a sad reality that we need to correct; the latter is a new problem we have to be prepared for.

But I believe that automated elections will contribute more to the solution rather than to the problem. The problems of automation are easier to fix than the problems of some corrupt people with honest elections. Machines are more obedient to their manufacturers than other people are to their Creator, who is of course all for honesty. Filipinos are brilliant; we are not inept when it comes to technology, even though we may not be at the forefront of it.
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By Niña Terol
Contributor

IN his piece on Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight for Time, Richard Corliss writes, “Nolan has a… subversive agenda. He wants viewers to stick their hands down the rat hole of evil and see if they get bitten. With little humor to break the tension, The Dark Knight is beyond dark. It’s as black — and teeming and toxic — as the mind of The Joker.”

Having watched the film twice, first on Imax and next on a regular theater, I can’t help but agree that The Joker is a better reference for the film than its real protagonist, Batman. Spawned right from the center of Limbo, with all the qualities we find loathsome, pitiful, and yet terrifying, The Joker is a reminder of everything we don’t want human beings to become. Quoting Corliss again, the late Heath Ledger’s Joker “observes no rules, pursues no grand scheme; he’s the terrorist as improv artist.”

But I’d take it a few notches further and say that The Joker is the film’s “inverted social conscience,” the dreaded, deadly disease that makes society work together to find a cure. It is he who asks the hard questions; he who challenges the taken-for-granted assumptions; he that pushes humanity to see how low they would really sink — or how far they could really rise. He is the ultimate “necessary evil” that forces us to see just what we’re really made of. A composite of everything that is wrong, perverse, and twisted in our society, it is he who nonetheless shows us our true potentials for greatness.

It just goes to show that, in the movies — as well as in politics and the rest of real life — there’s a lot we can learn from the bad guys. We cannot simply turn our eyes away from them, or pretend they’re not there, or believe that they will simply go away. They will not– for they are here to stay. But instead of ignoring them because they’re such “bad examples,” we should study them, dissect them — even if we don’t understand them — and see how we can stop the rest of the world from joining their ranks.

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