Thinners, spoilers and money-makers

When used in a good way, “Thinners” can be very useful and have positive effects. If your blood is a bit syrupy and threatens you with potential aneurism or cardiac arrest, your doctor will prescribe you a blood thinner. Ice, water or certain ingredients help improve the taste and sensation of certain drinks but for alcohol, it also helps thin out or reduce the alcohol content per shot.

In an election, a thinner is a morally and politically corrupt candidate who misrepresents himself, fools voters and his supporters to vote for him or her when the only goal is to be a vote thinner or to spread out the number of votes so that no one candidate gets a serious majority. In the worst form he or she is a habitual candidate interested in nothing else but to pocket a large part of the campaign contributions they manage to fleece or steal from ignorant supporters. An election thinner is a devious, egotistical political manipulator, who has no respect for the ballot, the voter or democracy. They are disruptive and destructive.

From the looks of it, there will be at least 6 if not 7 Vice Presidential candidates in 2016. You can bet that 3 of them will be nothing more than thinners, a couple will be money-makers as in making money from all the campaign contributions which they will surely use to buy more property or pad their bank accounts which they have protected by passing the Bank Secrecy law. At least 4 will be sitting Senators who literally have nothing to lose when they lose because they are allowed to go back to their day-jobs as elected Senators. You can’t even call them “Losers” because their predecessors gave them such a golden parachute to use in their defeat.

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In spite of my dislike for elections, I have to say that there has been some good news in terms of choices and candidates for Senators. Last week two individuals formally declared their intention to run for the position of Senator namely Attorney Lorna Kapunan and Congressman Neri Colmenares. Both candidates have been very productive, pro-people, and highly competent individuals in their fields.

I only learned about “Tita Lorna” Kapunan’s decision to run for the Senate last Saturday when she invited me to her launch event Tuesday night this week.

I’ve known “Tita Lorna” for decades and the last thing I could ever imagine her getting into is politics. She never talked about it, never seemed interested in it. But as a very experienced lawyer who has had to defend or prosecute cases standing on imperfect, defective or non-existing legislation, I can imagine that Atty. Lorna Kapunan must have been the equivalent of a long simmering pot of frustration. Just watching verbose members of Congress give out a monologue before asking their one question must have pricked Tita Lorna’s disdain for double talk and pushed her into the ring.

Lorna Kapunan has fought for many “underdogs” particularly women, artists and performers who have been cheated in their work, their contracts and in their intellectual properties. Personally, she stood by us to sort estate and family problems and showed grace and patience during difficult times.  While she has a very soft heart, Lorna Kapunan is one tough Momma who won’t back down on principles, won’t back out of a fight and as a long practicing lawyer certainly understands the law, and has so much experience in terms of the effects and injustice of defective or non-existent laws. This I believe is what makes Lorna Kapunan an ideal candidate as Senator.

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Congressman Neri Colmenares has long had my vote even before he really thought about running for Senator. Colmenares is a refreshing and inspiring “activist” who is actually more of a Consumer activist rather than a leftist. He has single-handedly improved the image of activists, and made other legislators realize that aside from laws and investigations, people are looking to members of Congress to help improve their quality of life, economic security, and insure that as citizens their rights are protected not just by the constitution and the courts but by Congress as well.

Neri Colmenares deserves all our support because he is pro-consumer, pro-Filipino and a nationalist with common sense, who attacks and addresses our day to day concerns from electricity rates, gasoline prices, Internet speed, traffic, anti-agriculture smuggling, water supply and costs, as well as political misconduct such as the handling of the Mamasapano massacre, the PDAF and DAP malversation of funds etc.

So for now, I can say we have at least 2 credible and competent candidates for the Senate. If you know of a few more who are actually running and not just sounding off, please feel free to tip me off so we can show our support on this space.

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Last Saturday while doing my regular one hour stroll around Barrio Kapitolyo in Pasig, I noticed that the almost non-existent side walk at our main intersection where the Barangay Tanods had their temporary command post had been screened off by “Rockwell Primaries” who had bought the old Pepsi warehouse. I expressed surprise at this and the Tanod across the street replied: “Sir, nabili na kasi nila yung lugar.” (Sir, They already bought the property) My immediate reply was: NABIBILI NA PALA ang SIDEWALK NGAYON! (So sidewalks can now be bought?)

After fighting off the illogical and impractical plan of DPWH to build an elevated bridge over Barrio Kapitolyo, it seems we are now being invaded by the Rockwell group and DMCI who are building a combined 2,000 units of condominium units that will surely add about 2,000 to 3,000 cars into an already congested village. All these, happening without public consultation! But what really got my goat last Saturday was the temerity of Rockwell primaries to also place steel barriers in front of their acquired property that occupied half a lane thus preventing cars from parking and forcing pedestrians to literally walk in the middle of the road.

Sadly our Barangay Chairman and the barangay council are oblivious or turn a blind eye to the commercial invasion and abuse of outsiders. Can the new Secretary of the DILG and the Office of the Ombudsman investigate on how and why there are no public consultations and why zoning violations are ignored by the Barangay and the Pasig City Hall officials?

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