“PGMA (Mrs. Arroyo) will win as Speaker hands down. She continues to wield power and influence. So if her detractors think they’ve seen the last of her, they are mistaken. She’ll be around longer than they think,” Agusan del Norte Rep. Jose Aquino. Aquino, obviously and hopefully not related to Senator Noynoy Aquino made this prediction yesterday. [...]

If we expect things to normalize after the May 10, 2010 elections, let me give you a very straight forward answer–it will not. The next six years of the new administration will be about re-building our damaged democratic institutions. It will be about restoration and modernization of old institutions. If we expect to eradicate poverty, as [...]

Why is it very important for the Arroyo power bloc to give Lilia Pineda a win over Panlilio, when the very palace resident herself supported Panlilio’s run against the Pinedas? What does this mean anyway? Pineda’s win shows a strategic shift of policy by the Arroyos, from enacting a policy of political tolerance and encouraging new [...]

And so the ending turned out to be just a numbers game. And what was betted upon was no petty sum. They actually gambled the very essence of democracy and what it really means when we say “clean elections”. The Comelec second division yesterday declared Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda, winner by a breath against Priest-turned-politician Ed [...]