by Sheila S. Coronel and Yvonne T. Chua
THE POOR, who make up the bulk of Filipino voters, have been blamed for the sorry state of electoral politics and the low level of election discourse. Pundits, analysts, and media commentators say that because of poverty, many voters are vulnerable to patronage, vote buying, and simplistic messages. The masa vote is popularly perceived to be dumb, unthinking, and prone to manipulation.
by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism
JUAN Ponce Enrile, a two-term senator, billionaire businessman, ex-congressman, and former defense secretary, is 80 years old. He is the oldest among the 48 contenders vying for 12 Senate seats in May.
by Yvonne T. Chua
CONGRESS formally opened on July 23, 2001, when his secretary handed him the cash equivalent of his very first paycheck as a member of the House of Representatives.
by Yvonne T. Chua
IN 2002, taxpayers spent P939,472.47 every month on each senator and P429,601.79 on each congressman, based on published reports.
Shocking as these amounts may sound, they reflect only part of what Filipinos pay for their legislators’ upkeep. Government auditors themselves say they are in the dark over how Congress spends most of its money, in part because there is hardly any paper trail to help them scrutinize how lawmakers use public funds.
by Sheila S. Coronel
EIGHTEEN years after the fall of Marcos, Congress is not becoming a more representative institution. In fact, today’s legislators are richer now than ever before. While poverty levels since 1986 have remained at roughly between 30 and 40 percent of the population, lawmakers have become wealthier.
by Alecks P. Pabico
SO MUCH for cutting-edge technology in Halalan 2004. For the more important aspects of the electoral process — from voter registration, voting, vote counting, to canvassing-touches of modernity have been as elusive as replies with substance from candidates. Yet for the most part, the problem stems not from a lack of available technological solutions.
The Campaign
by Alecks P. Pabico
FORGET receiving text jokes or sweet messages from now till the end of the canvassing of votes — at least if you’re a supporter of presidential candidate Raul Roco. And if Katropa had its way, even those outside the Roco loop would instead be receiving more messages like this right about: “Good day. Join the KATROPA ni Roco Motorcade on Sun, Feb 8 @ 7 am. Assembly @ UP Diliman Oblation, University Ave. Bring ur friends…pls pass, thanks.”
The Campaign
by Yvonne T. Chua
SENATOR John Osmeña is certain he will win again in the May elections. The numbers say so, he crowed in an evening talk show, where he whipped out the results of a poll he had commissioned the survey outfit Social Weather Stations (SWS) to do last year.
by Yvonne T. Chua
WHEN the U.S. Democratic Party primary season opened in January, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry hardly looked like someone who could be the party’s candidate in the U.S. presidential election this November. Although already a fourth-term senator, Kerry was being outshone by Vermont governor Howard Dean, who the media had all but proclaimed the Democrats’ presidential bet.
The Campaign
by Luz Rimban
ADVERTISING guru Reli German tells the story of the time he was tapped to produce commercials and jingles for then candidate Ferdinand Marcos’s 1965 presidential bid. The campaign was more of a family venture with no less than Marcos’s wife Imelda herself directing the troops. She would drop by German’s office to look over campaign materials and listen to the jingles being prepared for her husband’s campaign. “It was more of Imelda that we were dealing with directly for the campaign in 1965,” German recalls.
