By Manuel L. Quezon III

From the time Congress proclaims a candidate as the duly-elected president, the candidate becomes known as the President-elect.

The Constitution is clear and specific: the title of the chief executive is “President of the Philippines,” and takes his oath of office as such, although in certain cases involving formal diplomatic usage, “President of the Republic of the Philippines” is used for diplomatic documents. The honorific for the President of the Philippines is “His/Your Excellency,” but the proper form of address is “Mr. President.”

At 42.08% Aquino’s percentage of the votes is the highest plurality since the restoration of democracy, and under the 1987 Constitution. The biggest first-term landslide was Magsaysay in 1953 (68.9%), followed by Quezon in 1935. The biggest second term landslide was Quezon in 1941 (81.78%) followed by Marcos in 1969 (61.5%).

1 He is the first unmarried president in the history of the country.

He is the first president with no children.

The first deputy speaker of the House to later become president.

He is the first marksman to be come president since Ferdinand Marcos (who belonged to the U.P. rifle team).

He will be the first president since 1992 inaugurated into office without having been vice-president first.

He is the first president since Diosdado Macapagal to be elected as the candidate of the Liberal Party; also the first president since Macapagal not to have changed political parties (three presidents had no political party membership/positions: Aguinaldo, Laurel, Cory Aquino).

Aquino is the first post-Edsa president to exceed Garcia’s 1957 plurality. Majority Presidents: Quezon (68% in 1935 and 81.78% in 1941), Roxas 54% in 1946(, Quirino (51% in 1949), Magsaysay (68.9% in 1953), Macapagal (55% in 1961), Marcos (54.76% in 1965, 61.5% in 1969), Aquino (approx. 51%). Plurality Presidents: Garcia (41.3%) was the only president elected by plurality prior to 1972. The lowest plurality ever was Fidel V. Ramos in 1992 (23.6%). Estrada at 39.6% in 1998 was the first post-Edsa president to nearly match Garcia’s 1957 plurality.

He is the first to use the suffix -III (there have been no Juniors or the Thirds elected president previously).

He is the first president to have a February birthday. Two presidents were born in January: Roxas (Jan. 1), Cory Aquino (Jan. 25); three in March: Laurel (Mar. 9), Ramos (Mar. 18), Aguinaldo (Mar. 22); two in April: Arroyo (Apr. 5), Estrada (Apr. 19); two in August: Quezon (Aug. 19), Magsaysay (Aug. 31); three in September: Osmeña (Sep. 9), Marcos (Sep. 11), Macapagal (Sep. 28); two in November: Garcia (Nov. 4), Quirino (Nov. 16).

The President of the Philippines uses license plate No. 1.

2 The second child of a former president to become president in his own right (he succeeds the first presidential child to become president).

The second president from Tarlac.

He is only the second president (Aguinaldo was the only non-drinker previously) who does not drink.

He will be the second president to be sworn in by a Filipino associate justice of the Supreme Court (his mother was the first), but the fourth president sworn in by an associate justice of a Supreme Court (Quezon in 1943 for the indefinite extension of his term, and Osmeña who succeeded into office in 1944, were sworn in by U.S. Associate Justices Felix Frankfurter and Robert H. Jackson, respectively, in Washington, D.C.).

He is the second president to have studied at the Ateneo de Manila, but the first to have graduated from the Ateneo de Manila University.

Two presidents only partially resided in Malacañan Palace: Laurel, and Estrada (who stayed in the Guest House).

Two presidents were elected by the legislature and not in a national election: Aguinaldo and Laurel.

Two presidents were re-elected to second terms: Quezon and Marcos.

Two presidents were brought to power by People Power revolts: Corazon Aquino and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (our two female presidents).

3 Benigno S. Aquino III is the third president with no spouse: Quirino was a widower, Corazon Aquino, a widow. Unlike Quirino and Corazon Aquino, who had children, Aquino III has none.

Aquino at 50 will be the third-youngest elected president (Magsaysay remains the youngest ever nationally-elected to the presidency), and the fourth-youngest president after Aguinaldo, Magsaysay and Marcos.

He is the youngest of the presidents who became chief executive in their 50s (age at inauguration/succession: Aguinaldo, 29; Quezon, 57; Laurel, 51; Osmeña, 67; Roxas, 54; Quirino, 57; Magsaysay, 46; Garcia, 60; Macapagal, 51; Marcos, 48; Aquino, 53; Ramos, 64;Estrada, 61; Arroyo, 54).

The third to use his second given name as his middle initial (as Quezon and Laurel did).

The third to engage in shooting as a sport (Quezon and Marcos engaged in hunting).

He will be the third president who will only hold office in, but not be a resident of, Malacañan Palace, following Corazon Aquino and Fidel V. Ramos.

4 Four presidents were not inaugurated either on December 30 or June 30: Aguinaldo (January 23, 1899), Quezon (November 15, 1935 and November 15, 1943), Laurel (October 14,1943), Roxas (May 28, 1946).

Four vice-presidents who succeeded to the presidency also took their oaths on dates different from the traditional inaugural date: Osmeña (August 1, 1944); Quirino (April 17, 1948), Garcia (March 18, 1957), Arroyo (January, 2001).

Most number of times a president has taken the oath of office: four, for Marcos (1965, 1969, the 1981 and 1986 “inaugurals”); followed by three, for Quezon (1935 in Manila, 1941 in Corregidor, 1943 in Washington, D.C., also before three different individuals); Quirino (1948 in Malacañan, 1949); Garcia (1957, twice: upon succession in March Malacañan and election in December); Arroyo (2001 in Quezon City, 2004 in Cebu).

5 Aquino comes from a family of five siblings.

At age 50, is going to be the 15th President of the Philippines.

Officially, his fourteen predecessors will be: Emilio Aguinaldo, Manuel L. Quezon, Jose P. Laurel, Sergio Osmeña, Manuel Roxas, Elpidio Quirino, Ramon Magsaysay, Carlos P. Garcia, Diosdado Macapagal, Ferdinand E. Marcos, Corazon C. Aquino, Fidel V. Ramos, Joseph Ejercito Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

He will be the 5th President of the 5th Republic. The present republic was established with the ratification of the 1987 Constitution. The previous republics are the First (Malolos, 1899-1901); Second (The Japanese Occupation, 1943-1945); the Third (from independence in 1946 to 1972); the Fourth (the “New Republic” proclaimed in 1981).

Aguinaldo was the lone President of the First Republic; Quezon was the first President of the Commonwealth and Roxas the last; Laurel was lone President of the Second Republic; Roxas was the first President of the Third Republic and Marcos, the last; Marcos was the first President of the Fourth Republic and Corazon Aquino, briefly served under the Fourth Republic but proclaimed a revolutionary government. The Fifth Republic came into being with the ratification of the 1987 Constitution, and Corazon Aquino, Ramos, Estrada, and Arroyo have been the presidents of the Fifth Republic.

He was elected on 05/10/10.

He received over 15 million votes; his winning margin was over 5 million votes.

If he does not have his inaugural at the Quirino Grandstand, he will he will be the fifth president to have an inaugural outside Manila: Aguinaldo and Estrada at Baraosain; Quezon (1941) in Corregidor; Cory Aquino in San Juan in 1986; Arroyo in Quezon City in 2001 and Cebu in 2004.

He will be the fifth president not sworn in by a chief justice: Aguinaldo was the first. Quezon, when his term was extended in exile in 1943, renewed his oath of office before Justice Felix Frankfurter. Osmeña, who succeeded to the presidency in exile, was sworn in by Justice Hugo Jackson (thus, two presidents have been sworn in by foreign justices, both because they headed governments-in-exile). Corazon Aquino was sworn in by Associate Justice Claudio Teehankee.

Eleven presidents were sworn in by a chief justice: Quezon (1935, 1941), Laurel, Roxas, Quirino, Magsaysay, Garcia, Macapagal, Marcos, Ramos, Estrada, Arroyo.

He will be the fifth president to take his oath of office on June 30: Marcos, Ramos, Estrada and Arroyo being the others.

Starting with Quezon’s second inaugural in 1941 until Marcos’ second inaugural in 1969 (with the exception of the special election called in 1946) presidents were inaugurated on Rizal Day, June 30. Six presidents Quezon (1941), Quirino (1949), Magsaysay, Garcia (1957), Macapagal, Marcos (1965, 1969) had inaugurals on December 30.

Aquino is also the fifth public smoker to be president: Quezon, Roxas, Garcia, Estrada were/are all smokers.

6 He is the sixth president to have been elected to a single six-year term (Quezon in 1935 [term subsequently extended by constitutional amendment], Aquino in 1986, Ramos in 1992, Estrada in 1998, Arroyo in 2004).

7 Aquino will be the seventh president to be inaugurated at the Quirino Grandstand. Six presidents were inaugurated at the Quirino Grandstand: Quirino (1949), Magsaysay (1953), Garcia (1957), Macapagal (1961), Marcos (1965, etc.), Ramos (1992).

He will be the seventh to use a middle initial after Quezon, Laurel, Garcia, Marcos, Corazon Aquino (who used her maiden name as her middle initial), and Ramos. (Aguinaldo, Osmeña, Roxas, Quirino, Magsaysay, Macapagal did not use middle initials at all; Estrada uses a special name combining his real family name, Ejercito, with his screen name; Arroyo prefers to use the hyphenated Macapagal-Arroyo).

8 If you include the pipe/cigar smoking of Laurel, Ramos and Macapagal and his daughter Arroyo who were/are occasional (social) smokers, Aquino III is the eighth president who’s a smoker.

9 Juancho Dulay Barreto on Twitter also pointed out BSAIII was proclaimed president-elect on June 9, 2010. That’s exactly 9 months after his declaration of candidacy on 09/09/09.

He is the ninth to have been proclaimed president-elect by the legislature: the first was Manuel L. Quezon, followed by Manuel Roxas, Ramon Magsaysay, Diosdado Macapagal, Ferdinand E. Marcos, Fidel V. Ramos, Joseph Ejercito Estrada, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (eighth if you don’t count Arroyo’s proclamation on the basis of the Quirino and Garcia precedents). While Congress certified the election of Elpidio Quirino and Carlos P. Garcia, they had succeeded into office previously, and were already serving as president when elected to a full term: thus, were not referred to as presidents-elect. Aguinaldo and Laurel were not elected president in a national election, they were made president by a vote of the national assembly and thus never president-elect. Corazon Aquino assumed the presidency by means of the People Power Revolution and was not proclaimed by the Batasan Pambansa.

The ninth president to have served as a congressman.

Nine presidents lived in Malacañan Palace: Quezon, Osmeña, Roxas, Quirino, Magsaysay, Garcia, Macapagal, Marcos, Arroyo. Three presidents (Quirino and Garcia upon succession, Marcos in 1986) have take oaths of office there. Four presidents have had to flee because of war or revolution: Quezon, Laurel, Marcos and Estrada.

10 The tenth senator to become a president.

He will be the tenth president to be inaugurated in Manila: the nine previously who were inaugurated in Manila: Quezon in 1935, Laurel in 1943, Roxas in 1946, Quirino in 1949, Magsaysay in 1953, Garcia in 1957, Macapagal in 1961, Marcos in 1965 etc., Ramos in 1992.

Aquino III, who will likely use the Aquino family bible his mother used, will be the ninth president to swear on a bible and the second to use the same bible. Magsaysay was the first to take his oath on a bible: Garcia, Macapagal, Marcos, Aquino, Ramos, Estrada, Arroyo followed suit. Aguinaldo, Quezon, Laurel, Osmeña, Roxas and Quirino (belonging to generations closer to the revolutionary era, did not take their oaths on a bible). Magsaysay and Marcos took their oath on two bibles each in 1953 and 1965.

(The author is spokesperson of the Aquino inaugural.)

By Pepper Marcelo

Microfinance is considered one of the most viable solutions to licking poverty. Locally, it has been implemented and sustained by strong-willed individuals, including the late former President Cory Aquino.

In essence, microfinance provides much-needed funds for the poor who lack access to formal sources of funding like banks and are too poor to qualify for bank loans, to jump-start small businesses.

The key to its success is a strong repayment rate, which in turn, goes back to the members to further grow and develop their enterprises. Forbes magazine stated that microfinance has “raised the provocative notion that even philanthropy aimed at alleviating poverty can be profitable to institutional and individual investors.”

It was through the efforts of Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh that microfinance earned worldwide recognition and attention. Yunus set up the Grameen Bank in his home country, which provided loans and credit to the poor, eventually winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his visionary work.

The idea was adopted locally by Dr. Jaime Alip, who founded the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) Bank in San Pablo, Laguna, to build sustainable capital for poor and unemployed women from the rural countryside. Initially mocked for his idea, Alip persevered and in no time CARD eventually became a success, earning a total of more than $100 million in assets, at a 98% repayment rate, and helping approximately 1.2 million women.

In 2008, Alip and CARD received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for public service for “its successful adaptation of microfinance” in the Philippines. In the wake of CARD’s achievement, other non-government organizations (NGOs) have sprouted to emulate its business model and to help their own communities.

Not surprisingly, one of the biggest problems that CARD faced was securing financial backing. This is where the late beloved President Aquino came in.

Mrs. Aquino was so impressed with the story of Alip and microfinance in general, that she invited the doctor-banker to speak to her and a group of the country’s most prominent businessmen and entrepreneurs. Those in attendance included business magnates Washington Sycip, Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala and Manuel Pangilinan, former Finance Secretary Ramon del Rosario, former Ambassador Howard Dee, former Negros Occidental Governor Daniel Lacson and Vicky Garchitorena of Ayala Foundation.

In his talk, Alip narrated how he and his group developed their microfinance venture, as well as the concepts and processes of microfinance and microcredit. Afterward, Mrs. Aquino implored the businessmen to contribute funds to a foundation that could assist start-up microfinance institutions. She gently reminded them that 30% of the 90 million Filipinos were living below the poverty line.

Sycip and Pangilinan offered Php5 million each, Meralco’s Oscar Lopez gave Php2 million, and Zobel donated Php1 million. In total, Mrs. Aquino was able to raise Php20 million, paving the way for the establishment of both the PinoyME (which stands for “Filipino microenterprise”) Foundation and the PinoyME Consortium in February, 2006 during the 23rd anniversary of Edsa I.

The Foundation acts as a social investment banker for microfinance institutions (MFIs) and microentrepreneurs, while the Consortium is focused on strengthening the microfinance industry. With Mrs. Aquino’s goal of “turning around” the lives of five million families by 2011, Pinoy ME’s mission is “to contribute to nation-building by making the entrepreneurial poor self-reliant and self-sufficient.”

Mrs. Quino convinced former Land Bank President Deogracias Vistan to be Chairman, and former National Coordinator of CODE-NGO and Development Bank of the Philippines Director Danilo Songco to be President and CEO.

“PinoyME sees itself as a primary risk-taker in an area where none of the traditional financial institutions wish to invest,” Vistan said in a presentation before the Makati Business Club and the Management Association of the Philippines.

In an interview with Planet Philippines, Songco states that the former president saw microfinance as the rare model of empowering the poor to lift themselves out of poverty through their own efforts.

“She was amazed at how providing them with much needed capital, usually very small amounts, enables them to engage in livelihood activities that increase their income and helps them contribute in their small way to the economy.”

The original intention of PinoyME was to help MFIs reach five million poor people and to tap Php5 billion in new capital for MFIs in five years.

Five years later, the government reports that microfinance organizations are now serving approximately seven million families, with more than Php12 billion in combined portfolio.

According to PinoyME, microfinance is still very much an urban and retail/trading business phenomenon. Songco says it needs to reach rural areas where 70% of the poor in our country reside and where rural finance is still very much wanting. Among the areas needing microfinance services are the upland communities of Mindanao and Bicol, as well as remote places in Eastern Visayas.

“Thus, our next goal is to help MFIs reach more of the rural poor with microfinance and microenterprise development services. We would like to help MFIs become more conscious about reducing the poverty of their clients while also being more profitable,” says Songco.

Currently, PinoyME Foundation has a loan portfolio of P65 million. “We intend to grow that to P100 million in the coming years but we also hope to provide financial advisory services to MFIs to enable them to tap non-traditional funds for microfinance from the capital market,” adds Songco.

Besides going through conventional channels for funding, Songco would like Filipinos overseas to make a contribution to alleviating poverty in their home provinces. PinoyME has a social investment fund to which OFWs can donate and, in turn, it will be lent to microentrepreneurs in their home province and municipality.

The funds donated will be collected back and revolved to other poor microentrepreneurs in these areas. In addition, PinoyME is also prepared to help microentrepreneurs find markets for their products.

Songco wants to insure that Mrs. Aquino’s legacy continues with PinoyME. “Though she passed away, the leaders of PinoyME are committed to pursuing her goal of making microfinance reach the poorest families in our country. Her life and her advocacy will continue to inspire us in making her dream a reality.”

By James Putzel

London School of Economic

If President-elect Noynoy Aquino wants to demonstrate that his new government represents generational change, he should convince his family to abandon efforts to hold onto Hacienda Luisita and finally allow it to be covered by the agrarian reform law. The longer Hacienda Luisita remains exempt from the land redistribution provisions of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, the less credibility the new president’s government will have among the rural poor and the more vulnerable will be his government to charges of hypocrisy and the protection of family and elite interests and privileges by opponents of all political hues. READ FULL STORY

By Camille de Asis, Ivan Lim, Mark Tare and Angela Poe

Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

Barring last-minute surprises in the election count, the Noynoy-Nognog tandem will lead the next casting at Malacañang Palace in the next six years, according to funny-boned Filipinos.

Nognog, dark-skinned Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay in real life, will also be installed as the country’s “first black vice president,” they say.

But before he could become president, Noynoy, who goes by the full name Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III, may need to convince closest rival Joseph Estrada to concede.

Estrada can’t and won’t, supposedly because when he voted, his victory had been guaranteed. Proof of this, and so the tale is told, was that after Estrada fed his ballot into a PCOS machine, it popped this message: “Congratulations!”

In the most serious moments, trust Filipinos, acclaimed to be among the world’s happiest peoples, to joke and pun and laugh at themselves.

The last elections, a historical moment for being the country’s first national automated balloting, sparked a bumper harvest of humorous tricks and treats across media old and new. The jokes have been played most often on the candidates for national office by jokesters of all political persuasions.

It is not that poverty and politics are a laughing matter. On the contrary, these are matters so serious with implications so grave hence the resort to humor by some Filipinos.

For one, through jokes anyone could fire off sharp commentary without inflicting real or serious injury.  For another, because jokes are made to provoke laughter, the jokester is allowed to submit the most acerbic opinions with minimal accountability, or even complete anonymity.

Painless, faultless

Criticizing in a painless, faultless manner – that could well be the reason why Filipinos resort to jokes in the era of elections or other acute political debates, according to anthropologist Dr. Clemente Camposano, director of the Institute of Political Economy in the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P).

Jokes, he says, allow people to talk about real problems “in a manner that does not create tension.” In a sense, the lightness of jokes allows Filipinos, deemed to be generally non-confrontational, to engage in political debate with minimal complications.

And because hard political talk is the acclaimed domain of the intellectual, the affluent, and the elderly jokes have turned into an accessible platform for political discourse for those much younger and with less money and education. The problem emerges, however, when to the average Juan and Juana, the joke remains just a joke, a laughing matter.

Dr. Maria Rhodora Ancheta, who has studied patterns and images of humor, says, “the comic’s object… as people will remember it is really just (to elicit) laughter. Parang as soon as I laugh, okey na ’yung joke na ’yan.”

Public conversation

But political jokes in particular are an important public conversation, except that its content values are too often eclipsed by facetious form, she says.

For instance, she says comedians tend to always play on the periphery to mask the seriousness of politics, leaving to their audience a big burden: how to sift the serious messages from a comic rendering of the big issues.

Ancheta, a professor at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, also studies the cultural context of images in literature. Sometimes, she says, political jokes veer away from folk precepts well established in literature.

She says: “Sabi nila, ’pag may dwende sa bahay, swerte raw at masagana ang buhay. Eh bakit may dwende sa Malacanang pero mahirap pa rin ang ’Pinas?” [They say that a house where a gnome dwells is a lucky and blessed house. But there is a gnome at Malacañang, so why is the Philippines still so poor?]

Dwende sa Malacañang is a moniker that some Filipino comics have bestowed on outgoing President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, in reference to her Lilliputian frame.

In this instance, Ancheta notes that the joke suggests that Malacanang Palace and the home are parallel concepts, poverty is the problem, and that Arroyo is to blame for the people’s destitute state.

Yet aside from Arroyo, those who seek to succeed her have found themselves too often at the receiving end of jokes.

Bigo, C-5 at Tiyaga

Online, jokesters have christened administration candidate Gilberto ”Gibo” Teodoro Jr., who championed the campaign ”Galing at Talino,” as ”Bigo” Teodoro.

Nacionalista Party candidate Manuel B. Villar Jr. had proclaimed himself as the aspirant with ”Sipag at Tiyaga.” In the jokesters’ book, that reads as ”C-5 at Taga,”  in reference to a controversial road project that supposedly benefited Villar’s real estate project and earned a huge right-of-way payment for his family-owned company.

Liberal Party candidate Benigno C. Aquino III, thrust to national prominence by his pedigree as son of democracy icons Cory and Ninoy Aquino, did not have a personal pitch. He got this from the comics: “Mama at Papa.”

Impersonator and satirist Willie Nepomuceno likens jokes amid a heady political exercise to popping candies because “it perks you up a little, pass it on and delete and it’s just a thought.”

Nepomuceno has parodied nearly all male Philippine presidents from strongman Ferdinand E. Marcos to Fidel V. Ramos to Joseph Estrada. These days, Nepomuceno parades on television as “Noynoy Palaboy,” his comic styling of winning presidential candidate Aquino.

While candies offer a sugar fix or a virtual adrenaline shot, Nepomuceno says jokes amid the confusion and noise that mark elections are also “a way of letting off steam… of (making) you think.” This seems especially true, he notes, for two groups of citizens – the most politically aware and the most unhappy about the country’s state of affairs.

Decade of jokes

The past two decades may well be considered the halcyon years of political jokes in the Philippines, judging by the volume and speed of spread of jokes, across old and new media platforms, vented at political personalities.

And it is probably not only because Filipinos have gotten funnier. Greater assertion of freedom of speech, text messaging, as well as blogging, social networking, and a slew of freeware applications on the Internet have all allowed a downpour of comic content online.

What used to be the domain of trained professionals, online publication has become accessible to anyone with message or content to push in a jiffy, thanks to Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and blogs.

Without any firm standards of quality, the Web has allowed everyone to post or upload funny or serious commentary, and instantly, it spreads virally — exponentially, unpredictably — through networks of readers across the globe. This is also the route that has been charted by the untraceable, if virtually unstoppable, group text.

The May 2010 elections yielded jokes of varying shades of green, black, brown and dark. During the campaign period, social networking sites and popular blogs meshed caustic commentary with piping pranks.

On Facebook, fan pages poked fun at the presidential candidates. One of the most popular was the anti-Villar fan page called “Sige MANNY VILLAR ikaw na ang MAHIRAP.” It has enrolled 126,082 members.

Other popular pages include the “Sige Noynoy, Hindi ka na Magnanakaw at Anak ka na ni Ninoy at Cory,” and the “If Erap Estrada is elected president again, I’M LEAVING THE COUNTRY!”

On these fan pages, the edited images of the candidates have been uploaded beside which fans could post their own quips and status messages.

‘PCOS’ tweets

Twitter has also become a playground for political satire.

On Election Day, tweets by an anonymous twitter account named “PCOS machine” started to draw traffic. It posted tweets on the glitches and mishaps in the automation process such as, “Please don’t blame us PCOS machines. We’re doing our best. Just shade the bilog na hugis itlog and I’ll do the rest for you.” Another read: “@CF card – I’m not talking to you. You almost ruined my career.”

Three days after the vote, the authorities found 60 PCOS machines at the house of a technician in Antipolo City. The incident sparked this tweet from the “PCOS Machine”: “f I find out that they’re actually having an outing in Antipolo and I wasn’t invited, somebody gonna get a hurt real bad.”

Political humor has become a staple fare of bloggers. “The Professional Heckler,” a popular blogger, has become an even bigger name on the web for his relentless bashing of politicians. YouTube has hosted a smorgasbord of funny video clips, including spoofs of the candidates’ political advertisements. Villar’s “Dagat ng Basura” ad has morphed into various jocular versions.

But it is not only the candidates who have commanded top billing on the humor mill.

Toward the end of the campaign period, Acting Justice Secretary Alberto Agra grabbed the punters’ attention after he issued a resolution absolving two members of the Ampatuan clan from the Maguindanao Massacre. For his action, he became the “Agra-vating” or “Agra-byado” weekly special on the web.

Aquino’s youngest sister, television star Kristina Bernadette Aquino, earned her fair share of jokes as well. This happened after Kris’s younger son Baby James Yap blurted out the name of “Villar” when asked at a campaign rally about his choice of presidential bet. An abundance of online jokes has also focused on a supposed plan by Aquino to hire Kris and showbiz buddy Boy Abunda as Cabinet members.

The top TV networks that are incessantly locked in a ratings war were not spared, too. The so-called hologram technology that ABS-CBN Channel 2 and GMA7 separately claimed to be their cutting edge in the coverage of the elections triggered this comment from “Professional Heckler”:  “GMA News and Public Affairs ushered in a first on Philippine television. Howie Severino became the first Filipino to be beamed in ‘a hologram’ on live TV. But rumors say it wasn’t really Howie but his boss, Jessica Soho, who was supposed to be beamed first during the coverage. There wasn’t just enough ‘beam’ to make it possible.”

Always with zing

Truth is, according to impersonator Nepomuceno, political jokes, while meant to entertain, “always offer purposeful commentary, message or comic object.”

As a matter of course, he says he puts a light touch to important news so he could help raise awareness without alienating people.  “I’m just a facilitator… More or less okey na sa akin basta may naiwan na akong seed of thought.”

While all media platforms have been invaded by jokes during the elections just concluded, Nepomuceno says text jokes are his favorite because these are “simpler and raw, easily digestible, nothing fancy.”

“I’m not a techie, and (gets) easily bored with too much text copy. They’re too fancy for me,” he says, adding that “too much jokes in one serving gives you an overdose and makes the whole thing bland.”

They are fun and light but there is a downside to jokes, according to UP’s Ancheta. Sometimes, after a good laugh, she rues that ”nobody thinks about thinking.”

Camposano of the University of Asia and the Pacific says that as much as Filipinos love to laugh about politics, they also take politics seriously. “People die for their candidates. People kill for their candidates. People spend billions [on] their campaigns…. Why would you invest 220,000 pesos for a 50-second spot on TV?  It’s serious.”

Still and all, he sees a need to distinguish between a serious discussion of politics and the way Filipinos take politics seriously. “Elections are very much a personal enterprise,” he says. Whether it is some kind of reward, relationship, or opportunity, elections affect the future interests of individuals, she notes.

In her published studies of the hugely popular comic strip Pugad Baboy (Swines’ Nest) of cartoonist Apolonio “Pol” Medina Jr., Ancheta illustrates why the fictional Pugad Baboy community appeals to Filipinos. In the comic strip, “distant things are internalized, we share our personal struggles with the community, the micro and the macro are deeply intertwined,” she says.

Politics matters

Adds Ancheta: “Remember the parallelism within the Gloria-dwende joke?  Apparently, in the Filipino mindset, we liken any space we occupy or value to our concept of home.  Thus, politics matters to us.”

Camposano laments, however, what he calls the lack of a civic culture, hence the lack of “inclusive and serious political discourse,” in the Philippines. To candidates and voters, politics seems to be built largely on selfish interests,” and this, he says, may explain why many Filipinos end up trivializing politics rather than becoming involved.

In Ancheta’s view, it’s a chicken-and-egg situation. It is said that Filipinos should consider themselves “lucky” if they could get honest public officials elected. If luck remains the arbiter of elections, how is anyone supposed to trust the public sphere enough to do more than laugh, and finally work for change? “We have yet to see a reward for good citizenship,” she says.

“Much of the laughter that we have is really a lack of space. We laugh a great deal because we need to survive… to cope with pressure,” adds Ancheta.

“[And because] we’re not a talk-about-it people… we’re the culture that says, ‘Sorry, yeah, hayaan mo na lang, bahala na, bahala na s’ya’… given the misery of our situation, joking becomes our outlet.” (The authors are interns at PCIJ.)

Philippine politics will never be the same after the country’s first automated ballot electrified voters long used to cheating, violence and disputes over delayed results.

Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, whose parents led the struggle to restore Philippine democracy, may soon become the country’s first digitally elected president after a rapid vote count showed him winning by a landslide.

Despite daunting logistic challenges in a sprawling Southeast Asian archipelago with 50 million voters, ballot-counting machines were activated just in time for the May 10 elections for 17,000 positions.

The saying that “guns, goons and gold” lord it over Philippine elections may no longer be totally true after a new weapon, the microchip, entered the scene.

In the past, paid thugs as well as rouge soldiers and policemen working for politicians snatched ballot boxes, intimidated voters and doctored tallies. This time, Filipinos were thrilled by the chance to slip their own ballots into digital scanners and know the results were being stored electronically for delivery to a central computer server in Manila, safe from theft and tampering.

“It was really an overwhelming experience for me because I knew that at that moment, I was making history for the country,” said Franz Jonathan de la Fuente, 19, a first-time voter studying journalism at the University of the Philippines.

“I understand that other kids my age during past elections voted manually. Somehow I felt assured that through automation, there was a better chance of my vote being counted,” he told Agence France-Presse.

The United States and other countries welcomed the overhaul of the flawed election system in one of the world’s most boisterous democracies.

European Union Ambassador to Manila Alistair MacDonald said after observing the elections that “voters seemed generally comfortable with this new system” and the process seemed to work well.

But not everybody was happy— former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada, trailing Aquino by five million votes, has indicated that he will raise technical questions when Congress certifies the electronic results in a few weeks.

Violence remained a problem, highlighted by last November’s massacre of 57 civilians by gunmen loyal to a powerful Muslim politician in the southern island of Mindanao. The clan’s leaders are now in detention.

Dozens of other people were killed in election-related violence, including 10 on polling day, mostly in restive southern Mindanao where Muslim militants and communist guerrillas are a perennial threat.

Legacy problems such as inaccurate voter lists also cropped up during the vote and Commission on Elections (Comelec) officials admit further improvements are needed.

But the country appears to have bought the idea that computers can safeguard democracy.

In the old system, ballots were dropped by hand into locked metal boxes and counted by hand after sundown, when mischief was easier to commit in outlying provinces under cover of darkness.

Small disputes and transport delays in thousands of polling centers could prolong the process all the way down to the national tally.

Modern-day Philippine democracy can be said to owe its existence to dirty elections.

In 1986, then President Ferdinand Marcos was challenged in snap elections by Corazon “Cory” Aquino. She was the widow of Marcos’s bitter foe, Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., who had been assassinated three years earlier allegedly by government troops.

Amid massive cheating and protests, Marcos was proclaimed the winner of the 1986 elections but Aquino led a “people power” revolt that sent Marcos into US exile and the widow into the presidency.

Twenty four years later, her son, Noynoy, is awaiting proclamation as president on the heels of the most dramatic reform of the Philippine election system. (Agence France Presse)

Here in the Philippines, where majority of the population are glued to their TV sets for three to seven hours a day, there’s no question from whom someone seeking election into a public office should ask for help. Says Yes! Magazine editor-in-chief Jo-Ann Maglipon: “If you want instant recall, if you want immediate rapport with a large audience, there is nothing like having a celebrity endorser.”

In an ideal world, of course, celebrity endorsers don’t matter. After all, said Rolando Tolentino, dean of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communications: “What needs to be sold are the platforms of politicians, their ethical positions, where they’re coming from, where they’re planning to deliver the country in the next three or six years — that should be the basis of choice.” READ FULL STORY.

By Junie del Mundo

How should the Philippines be branded and marketed? And what makes the Philippines different from the rest of the developing world? While such countries as India and Malaysia have easily branded themselves as “Amazing India” and “Malaysia, Truly Asia,” the Philippines struggles to find its identity, its past branding efforts largely ending as expensive advertising-driven promotions.

Country branding is a process long before it can be expressed into a slogan. It is about ownership. Wide-ranging interviews with people from all walks of life, from businessmen and academicians to the ordinary men and women on the street, revealed their easy familiarity with the concept of country branding in terms of pride and confidence. Getting the world to love and respect the Philippines, its people, and its products: they embraced it passionately as a cause worth fighting for, not a mere marketing gimmick.

Country branding entails patience and consistency. Unlike consumer brands that can afford to change slogans every few years, country branding requires persistence because it takes time to gain ground in the minds and hearts of the target audiences.

Culture and diplomacy

A country brand is created by a combination of a country’s culture and public diplomacy. Culture cannot be copied because it is uniquely linked to the country. Public diplomacy also helps define a country brand. Experience has shown that our perception of a country changes for the better because of one good friend or an encounter with an outstanding individual from that country.

When it is positive, the country brand adds value to practically everything associated with the country. A country brand serves as a defining ingredient to a country’s products and services and the way its people are perceived. Branding could help earn recognition for qualified Filipino professionals and workers, and generate added value to the country’s products.

Branding encourages local and foreign investments. Having strong and well-known export brands fosters confidence among companies and countries. At the same time, branding helps retain qualified workers or attract them back home.

Branding enables developing countries to escape the commodity trap, of being mere producers of raw materials that sell at very cheap prices. Producing branded products and services enables them to sell at higher prices and increase their profitability, and not just survive on increasingly tight margins.

One does not brand the country the way one brands a product. Country branding is more of adopting a corporate brand that does not just refer to one product but a whole basket of products that are consistently perceived as having common attributes that make them unique and stand out in the market. It is a set of intangible values and impressions.

Towards a country roadmap

We need a national country roadmap. This should be a deliberate, consistent, and focused country branding that will add tremendous value to the products and services produced by the country; instill confidence, pride, and prestige among Filipinos, wherever they are; and enhance relationships that the Philippines nurtures with the world. This will be a Filipino brand that will be instantly recognized all over the world.

Branding starts in the mind of the consumer. The first step is to conduct market research, to identify a gap or vacant space in the mind of the consumer. Upon identifying this gap, the next course of action is to create a niche in the minds of the consumers, to put the Filipino flag in that vacant space.

The second step is positioning, which requires an analysis of our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Weak areas (i.e., governance, infrastructure, education) should be improved.

Step 3 entails agreement or building consensus on the roadmap. This requires validation of the roadmap with key opinion leaders. From the moment we determine our positioning, we have to test the message against the expectations of the targeted audience and users. The message must be able to stand up to key tests on relevance (Does it address the key needs of the audience/users?); credibility (Is it based on plausible and doable goals?); sustainability (Does it capture defensible real and perceptual present and future territory?); and uniqueness (Does it cover characteristics that distinguish it from its competitors?).

The last step refers to working on the national roadmap itself, which requires an integration policy, or the ability to act and speak in a coordinated and repetitive way about themes that motivate people and differentiate a country.

Our natural resources

The Philippines is a land of marvelous bounty and rejuvenating vitality. It is immensely rich. Our more than 7,107 islands offer one of the richest biodiversity in the world. We can brand and export personal care products based on natural and unique Filipino ingredients, such as the ilang-ilang, which is a Filipino flower sold in France, and the abaca or the Manila hemp, a versatile product. We can actually “own” them.

We can help enrich the image of the country brand and export products with these natural, exotic, and uniquely Filipino ingredients. We can trademark these products in the minds of global consumers. We can position the Philippines as a land of rejuvenating vitality. We can leverage on our unique environment and natural products to promote international research, medicines, and tourism.

Our products

There is also a niche for one or several Filipino brands in the food and beverage sector, given the proper investments in these brands.

We can turn our domestic brands into regional and global brands, with the deepest Filipino values embedded in their universal core. Jollibee, for instance, stands for shared fun (“ang saya”), care for consumers, accessibility, and a non-intimidating retail outlet. Other Filipino values are love of family, emphasis on personal relationships, empathy, and hiya (sense of shame). Care for stability, status, and reputation as transposable character traits are Asian values in general. These are vital to the financial services, banking, insurance, real estate, and tourism sectors.

Our people

People make the biggest difference. According to investors and various opinion makers, our people’s most credible brand attributes are in the following order: caring, adaptable, collaborative, and pleasant to work with. We deem it our responsibility to be concerned about the wellbeing of other people, not just ourselves.

Peter Drucker once identified China as the “brawn of Asia” given its manufacturing base; India as the “brains of Asia” with its high-end outsourcing and programming skills; and the Philippines as the “heart of Asia” with its strength in EQ-driven services. This view, however, does not account for Filipinos’ resilience, energy, and professionalism.

For a more complete picture of the Filipino, the brand should integrate his other features, such as his openness to new ideas, adaptability (which is a major advantage in today’s globalized world), willingness to learn, and ability to work in a team. We are service-oriented and pleasant to work with. Our collaborative quality was mentioned and validated by several stakeholders in the IT industry and blogosphere as distinctly Filipino and a reason for foreign investors to prefer the Philippines as a location rather than India, for instance. In an era where workflow software enables work to be “cut into pieces” and processed by various people located all around the world in a continuous supply chain, this quality becomes another major plus. Accounting, anime and programming are other sectors where we can fit and excel in. The financial services sector is a potential winner for the Philippines, which would have the opportunity to become a capital market center for Asia.

More than the sum of our parts

Focusing alone on the export of people and services is what we want to dispel. The soon-to-be 90 million Filipinos can only be lifted out of poverty by escaping the commodity trap, by selling agricultural and industrial products and also services at a higher price, by adding intellectual property and brand value at every level, every step of the way. Unlike heavy industrial and infrastructure investments, branding adds value instantly and at a reasonably low cost. We are now in the era of branded products with a strong country-of-origin identity. Mass production, as in the experience of Taiwan, China, and South Korea, is shifting towards mass-customized production, and this is where the Philippines has a strong chance to leapfrog and beat its competitors.

As a people, we have the “Four Cs”—competent, committed, caring, and collaborative. We are a dependable people with unique EQ skills. Our overall country brand consists of our creative industries, culture, anime, design, fashion, furniture, movies, telenovelas, music, ICT, call centers and BPOs, engineers, architects, financial experts, health and wellness industry, retirement industry, medical tourism, organic products, fruits, drinks, eco-tourism, and so much more. Our country brand is more than the sum of all our parts.

Reversing the kawawa image

It is time to reverse the kawawa image. Instead of saying that we are “poor,” we can say that our circumstances have made us resilient and hardworking. Instead of saying that our country is “politically unstable,” we are resourceful and we are proud to be survivors. Instead of using “Third World” and “underdeveloped” to describe our country, we can own up to being a youthful people who can serve as a test-bed for services and products targeting the next two billion consumers connected to the diaspora of 8 million Filipinos in 190 countries.

Instead of feeling that we are passing up on opportunities because our labor is more expensive than that of China and Vietnam, we can leverage our professionals’ unique traits of being collaborative, English-speaking, and creative. Instead of using the word “unskilled,” we can instead say fast-learning. Lastly, we can proudly say that our “traditional society” is founded on authentic human relations and Filipino values.

The time is now

Country branding is the global equivalent of the roads to market. It builds avenues into the hearts and minds of the world’s consumers for our local products. The Philippine brand is a story that just needs to be told. It flows harmoniously from its core, expanding like a perfume of ilang-ilang to the shores and the sea. It is a melody that springs in the heart of all Filipinos abroad when they think of home with melancholy. It is a secret energy that inspires the most audacious enterprises.

In defining our own national brands, we are defining ourselves. Thus, we must be true to ourselves. We must not present something that we are not. We have to live our brand values and express them accordingly. It must be confident, robust, and not fearful because it is supported by a credible messenger. Our message must be relevant with clearly defined goals. Toward this end, we need a coherent, sustainable, and long-term communication strategy. Truly, we cannot please all the people all the time. We need to be proud of what we are and attract some of them all the time and all of them some of the time. By living our country brand honestly, we can project it convincingly and with confidence.

Rebranding is not about the past, it looks to the future. As demonstrated by Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and South Korea, it is forward-looking. There is no other way to go. For the Philippines, a developing country in the heart of Asia, country branding is a unique opportunity to start writing our own history and setting the course of our future now.

(The author is managing director of EON, The Stakeholder Relations Firm. Reprinted from Philippine Business, a publication of the Makati Business Club.)

By Perla Aragon-Choudhury

The May 10 elections are crucial for a variety of reasons.

Edna Estifania Co, Ph. D., professor of public administration at the University of the Philippines and lecturer at the Ateneo de Manila University, explains why: “After a long time, after more than the usual presidential terms of six years, we will be electing a national leader, a change people have been waiting for.”

Relative to the Asian region, the 2010 polls are also crucial, she adds. “If we don’t change in, say, eight years, we’ll be very much left behind Malaysia, Singapore or Indonesia where there is movement and some headway despite problems. We should move. Otherwise super, super mapag-iiwananan tayo.”

Dr. Co heads the Philippine Democracy Audit Team of the International Democratic Assessment (IDEA) which brought together in 2005 scholars to assess democracy indicators in the country.

“It is crucial that leaders change, crucial for poverty and the way we run our institutions,” explains Co, author of the Free and Fair Elections and the Democratic Role of Political Parties, and of the IDEA Managing Corruption.

Choosing the leaders

Just what kind of leaders can, in the words of Co, unleash a new life for the Philippines?

Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz says their attributes depend on the situation in the country.

“The traits I recommend are one, integrity; two, competence and three, character,” says the now retired 75-year-old former bishop of Dagupan-Lingayen.

He elaborates: “Integrity, because there is a culture of graft and corruption from the national to the local level. After integrity, competence, because we vote for one who is an actor and rides a horse all the time but is a senator. We are still star-struck. Actors win because they are popular.

“Character, as shown by political will. I’ve been in the hearings on jueteng and am told by the witnesses that they fear for their safety. I for one would not trust the Witness Protection Program because it is run by those who know where the witnesses are hiding.”

Cruz asks: “And is there anyone who has my vote? Secret!”

Now that he is retired, the outspoken prelate says he is free to engage in socio-political work and to write.

“One tiny voice – and of course, nobody listens,” he chuckles as he chats with Planet Philippines.

Religion and politics

As has been the usual practice of politicians every election time, aspirants for various posts seek the support of every group, bloc or party. Among the most sought-after is the endorsement of religious sects, which are presumed to carry a sizable “command vote.”

History, however, shows that it is only the Iglesia Ni Cristo that is able to muster a solid vote for its preferred candidates. The other religious denominations have not been shown to deliver one single voting bloc in spite of the political posturing of their leaders. Just the same, many politicians continue to seek the blessings of religious leaders who claim they speak in His name, prompting Cruz to say that God must be having fun but is also probably confused.

“I am very happy I’m not God because if I were God, I would not know what to do,” Cruz said in a forum. “Here is the son of God endorsing this, and here is the leader endorsing this. I think God must be having fun.”

Among those being wooed are El Shaddai leader Bro. Mariano “Mike” Velarde; Davao-based Christian sect Kingdom of Jesus Christ, the Name Above Every Name Pastor Apollo Quiboloy; and the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC).

Take two for JIL

For the second straight presidential election, JIL is fielding its head, Bro. Eddie Villanueva, for president in the May 10 polls. As for the other sects, so far it is only Velarde who has insinuated his presidential candidate. Without explicitly naming his choice, Velarde merely points to his favorite color, orange, which is the campaign color of Manny Villar. The INC and the Kingdom of Jesus Christ have yet to announce their endorsements.

Cruz adds: “The head of El Shaddai put up a big church,” he says of the sect’s leader, Mike Velarde. “And the big thing is, he has built an astrodome, an amphitheater, on his land. They hold events there, especially now that it’s rainy season. He has never built a church – a simbahan – and so he can say, `God told me I have served enough’, and he can just leave. Ang galing ng mamang ito – ganyan din ang gagawin ko, I have thought to myself.”

Separation of Church & State

Some sectors do not see the political endorsements of these sects in a favorable light. But Professor Co points out that the 1987 Constitution has no explicit provision on the separation of Church and State.

“But because of the influence of the Catholic Church, its leaders can say something and it can gain importance as when Cardinal Sin called for support for the group who broke away from Marcos. Also, they issue statements when they see something that is not moral and is against Church dogma.”

She believes that in People Power II, the Church did not have a role as big in People Power I.

“But its leaders still spoke out as part of their right to express their opinion, just like any other group in national society. And this is why it is difficult to totally separate the church from the state. The situation is fluid.”

This partly explains why some sects endorse candidates who may adhere to the religious principles of these groups or who may grant these sects political favors in exchange for their endorsement.

Cruz, however, frowns on it. “What is wrong is wrong and what is right is right,” he says. This is not `Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’ and this is not transactional politics.”

CBCP position

In an ironic twist, six Catholic bishops have come out in support of presidential hopeful John Carlos de los Reyes of Ang Kapatiran party. The endorsement came as a total surprise in the face of the long-standing position Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) against non-involvement in partisan politics.

Reacting to the bishops’ endorsement, CBCP president, Bishop Nereo Ochdimar, issued a circular to his subordinates in the Diocese of Tandag (Surigao del Sur) to avoid engaging in partisan politics.

“The Church must refrain from partisan politics, avoiding especially the use of the pulpit for particular purposes, to avoid division among the flock they shepherd,” he said. “In case, a member or leader of such association decides otherwise, and be a candidate or openly campaign for a candidate or party, he or she has to resign temporarily.”

The Church has been ambivalent about its position on partisan politics. It will be recalled that the CBCP has threatened to campaign against candidates who endorse any form of family planning, forcing presidential candidates Benigno Aquino III and Gilbert Teodor to backtrack from their support to the Reproductive Health Bill pending in Congress.

By Juan T. Gatbonton

Our elite of power and wealth are extremely diverse. Their members range from the genteel remnants of the colonial hacendero families to the grossest political-warlord clans such as the Ampatuans of Maguindanao, who are accused of slaughtering 57 people in just one morning. READ FULL STORY.

IN PHOTO: Former ARMM chair Zaldy Ampatuan (left) and younger brother ex-Maguindanao Gov. Sajid Ampatuan with President Arroyo.

BERN, Switzerland – Thomas Oliver Kellenberger was an ordinary policeman here. But not to children working in the garbage dumps in Cagayan de Oro. Kellenberger, 27, quit his job to relocate to the Philippines this month, where he will work full-time in the love of his life — a foundation helping scavenger children. READ FULL STORY.