The elite just can’t seem to do anything wrong. For them returning a favor is an honorable act. For us, the lesser endowed ones, it’s an illegal commerce for which we are ridiculed and condemned no end. Utang na loob!

What’s the difference between a kilo of rice and a sensitive position in government? More so if it deteriorates under your watch!

ang kakampi ng Kampi ay sila sila lang

Lakas is weak

the only “united” in United Opposition is the name

political platform? ano yan?

Ever had a huge mortgage on a termite infested house? Car repayments on a car that got total-wrecked? And a minimum wage job while living on the most expensive city on earth? Then you my friend, are a living, breathing metaphor for the Philippines.

How do you crunch a number on a thing like that? You can’t. You just have to work 20 hours a day five days a week while devoting your weekends to rebuilding your house and your car, while living in the simplest manner possible (no, absolutely no luxuries, while buying the cheapest necessities).

Oh, and as a clincher, there’s an Ondoy sized rain coming to your city in a year. You have to prepare for that too. Hopefully, politicians in this country will get in to the mindset that the Philippines is like a financially-fucked individual who has to work really, really hard for many years to get his life back on track.

Cusp, I too want to hear those priorities. But if I have the opportunity of “projecting too much of our (my) wishes” onto the candidates, my own priorities if limited to three are: 1) how they will tackle the national debt differently than it is done now; 2) what’s their plan on how to persuade our wealth holders to bring assets parked somewhere back into active in-country investment; and 3) on which side they are on the federalization debate (with Mindanao peace process as a logical corollary issue).

I’m sure you are not suggesting that the campaign should be a budget session for number crunchers. I don’t think US mature voters went for Dubya (over Al Gore) because of his skills on that department.

Anyway, you’re right that unless ours is parliamentary in form or we have an effective recall system, we really don’t have an inter-election reckoning for breach of campaign promises, not to mention that the presidential tenure is constitutionally fixed at a single six-year term without re-election. So, if the SC, for instance, interprets that breach of political platform constitutes an impeachable offense of betrayal of public trust, the only other option could be impeachment or otherwise, if the breach is grave, resort to old-fashioned direct democracy that we seem to have a better handle on.

If Noynoy/Mar tandem is given the chance, I look at the first term as being more focused on housecleaning, building the foundation for a “mature democracy,” and possibly economic takeoff, and the second term (Mar’s term) to sustain the takeoff. I’d like to see guys like you to be on board the LP team to crunch those numbers.

In mature democracies, party leaders of presidential contenders, when they propose alternate policies or programs have to show how much they will cost, how will they fund them. They have to back it up by independent verification by a Congressional Budget Office. For example, McCain and Obama presented alternate health care proposals for scrutiny in this manner.

with an estimated public debt of 14 trillion usd for 2010, I surmise they are only in the cost part.
for funding, the usual suspects:
the whole world.

They can still go around those, by not taking the bull by the horns and simply dithering and buying time. But it will be a test of their resolve and whether they can, as Abe puts it, break away from the traditional way of doing things.

But at least when they hold debates it is mature because they present budget estimates vetted by third parties. I hope we can move away from policy developed on free rider/free lunch mentality.

Even Noy’s proposed productivity bonus system would require an enforcement mechanism, meaning more manpower for DOLE. Accountants and lawyers to troll through financial statements to determine whether bonuses should be paid. The NLRC would have its dockets filled with cases to hear.

If every senator and congressman developed laws like these… er, well, actually that is kinda what’s been happening and why we have a ballooning deficit!!!! It seems Noy is no different in his policy development process than his counterparts in Congress. A ha! An epiphany if ever there was one!

Anyway, you don’t expect run-of the mill voters to weigh the scenarios you cited before casting their votes, do you?

Doesn’t the reality run like this: if I win because of the perception that I have the credibility, sincerity and ability to make things happen, I will just hire you later to make those things happen?
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Hard reality feels like a dousing of ice cold water.
So its basically a selling contest then? He or the campaign/sales/marketing team who can best sell their candidate wins? Hmmm, billboards,
tv ads, hand gestures, jingles, tag lines, puppy dog eyes, later singing/dancing (boogy) on stages…indecent amounts of money poured into campaign sorties…battling for top-of-mind? or appealing to emotion? Then there’s the precinct level low-intensity-conflicts…
…I really hope these guys have a product that delivers not just so much hype…