Poll machines can cope with 12-hour blackouts

Amid prospects of brownouts disrupting the 2010 automated elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) reassured the public Friday its counting machines can cope with power failures - but only for about 12 hours. BROWNOUT PROOF? Smartmatic sales director Cesar Flores briefs newsmen on the functions and reliability of the Smartmatic DRE (Direct Recording Electronic) machine during a media presentation in Manila for the 2010 elections. GMANews.TV file photo Comelec law department head Ferdinand Rafanan said they have also drawn up safety nets to cope with possible problems in the polls, particularly with their Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines.

"Even if there is a brownout, all our PCOS-Optical Mark Read machines have batteries that can last some 12 hours," Rafanan said in Filipino over dwIZ radio.

Rafanan chided doomsayers for insinuating that the Comelec is not competent enough to handle these problems. He did not elaborate on these solutions, however. [Read more about automated polls here.]

"We have foreseen possible problems, and put in place backup plans for each problems. The Comelec is thinking, it has foresight and it has solutions," he said.

Rafanan added they have thought of other possible scenarios, and have worked out solutions for them. Last July, the Comelec said it would tap some 80,000 information technology (IT) people to handle the voting machines.

Anticipating the possibility that not enough public school teachers would be able to fill the required staff, the Comelec plans to tap IT personnel from various government agencies. [See: Comelec to tap 80,000 IT people for 2010 elections]

Earlier this week, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes warned the country would be plagued by widespread power interruptions noting that Visayas and Mindanao have already been experiencing brownouts.

On Thursday, Malacañang ordered the Department of Energy (DOE) to back up its assurances of a zero-brownout situation during the election period.

“I heard from Sec. Reyes that his department is making sure there will be no brownouts, and especially no blackouts. It is the DOE’s job to make sure our energy supply will be stable and sufficient. Not only that, it should remain affordable," Cabinet Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in Filipino in a separate dzXL radio interview.

Brownouts created by Malacañang

But Sen. Panfilo Lacson said Reyes’ prediction of brownouts in 2010 hints of a No-Election (No-El) scenario being cooked up by Malacañang.

Lacson told reporters that Reyes’ comment on possible brownouts was ill-advised, adding the timing of his claim was “suspect" if not tainted with “malice."

“Pwedeng sabihing kinukundisyon niya ang utak natin na magbabrownout sa eleksyon (His statements can be interpreted as an attempt to condition the public’s mind that there will be brownouts during the election) and that’s very dangerous," Lacson said.

"We will have computerized elections in 2010, the computerized counting machines will have backup power supply but I don’t think it will be enough," Lacson adedd. - GMANews.TV

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U.N. session will test whether Obama can deliver

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is about to make his first pilgrimage to the United Nations , where he'll be under scrutiny from fellow world leaders, much as he is domestically, to see whether he can deliver results as well as rhetoric.
Obama took office eight months ago and made a sharp turn in foreign policy, stretching out a proverbial hand to Iran , striking a different tone with the Muslim world and promising cooperation with other countries. Just this week, he scaled back a European missile-defense system that Russia bitterly opposed.
The shifts have won plaudits from governments and publics across much of the world. Now, however, it's crunch time, said foreign diplomats, policy analysts and others. Can Obama deliver results on the world's toughest issues?
"The president needs to convert his widespread popularity in much of the world to effectiveness in much of the world," said Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies , a centrist Washington policy institute. "Leadership is not just telling people what you want."
"Results still need to come. That's something we all know," said a senior European diplomat who requested anonymity to speak more frankly. "But it would be over-ambitious to think results would come very quickly."
The question marks hang most heavily over Obama's policy toward Iran and its suspected nuclear-weapons program.
The United States and five other nations agreed to hold direct talks with Iran beginning Oct. 1 , even though top officials in Tehran say that Iran's enrichment of uranium that could be used for nuclear weapons won't be on the agenda.
Administration officials are skeptical that the talks will produce results. U.S. lawmakers, not to mention Israel , are wary of letting Iran string out the diplomacy while it continues to enrich uranium.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned again in a speech Friday of "more isolation and economic pressure" on Iran if it fails to address questions over its nuclear ambitions.
A few Iranian officials have hinted at flexibility on the nuclear issue. The senior European official predicted that it wouldn't take long to determine whether the negotiations are going anywhere. "You can get a pretty clear idea whether they're serious or not after one or two meetings," he said.
If diplomacy fails, the United States has pledged to seek tough new international sanctions on Iran , possibly including embargoes on its oil exports and refined petroleum imports. Obama, however, may find multilateral diplomacy as frustrating as his predecessor, George W. Bush , did: Russia remains opposed to new sanctions.
Grappling with Russia and Iran is just one of the headaches that Obama will confront in New York .
Along with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad , Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi will be in attendance. His government offended many Americans with its joyous reception for a Libyan agent who'd been convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie jet bombing and was released from jail recently on medical grounds.
Obama and Gadhafi could even share seats at the horseshoe-shaped table in the U.N. Security Council chambers. Obama, who gives his inaugural U.N. address Wednesday, will chair a special Security Council session Thursday on nuclear nonproliferation. Libya is a current council member.
Rather than positive images, the week is more likely to "show the disparity (between Obama's) aspirations for the U.N. and the difficult reality up there," said former U.S. Ambassador John Bolton , who personified the Bush administration's dim view of the world body.
Indeed, other Obama initiatives also appear to have stalled.
The revival of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which Obama had hoped to announce at the United Nations , appeared unlikely Friday after U.S. special envoy George Mitchell's Middle East shuttle failed to secure a breakthrough.
Negotiations on climate change, which also will be prominent in Obama's U.N. visit, have been troubled, too.
U.N. officials warn that progress is too slow, tensions are high between the United States and Europe over how much to cut emissions and how to count those reductions and developing countries such as China have held to tough bargaining positions. They want developed nations to make deep cuts and provide generous financing to help poor nations reduce their emissions.
U.S. climate negotiator Todd Stern told a congressional panel Sept. 10 that "the tenor of negotiations . . . has been difficult," marked by the same divisive rhetoric from developed and developing countries that's been heard through 17 years of discussions.
( Renee Schoof contributed to this article.)
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Noli no longer on Lakas-Kampi radar

MANILA, Philippines - Vice President Noli de Castro, one of the frontrunners in surveys of presidential aspirants for the 2010 elections, is no longer on the “radar screen” of the ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD in its search for a standard-bearer, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita disclosed yesterday.

Ermita, president of the party, said there has been “an unexpected groundswell from local executives… unanimously supporting one of our aspirants, (Defense) Secretary (Gilbert) Teodoro.”

Ermita, however, clarified that the party is not yet discounting the bid of Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chairman Bayani Fernando to be the administration’s presidential candidate.

Lakas-Kampi-CMD has given aspirants wanting to be the administration standard-bearer until Sept. 15 to join the party’s selection process.

The deadline is apparently aimed at De Castro who has remained an independent. Fernando and Teodoro are already party members and have signified their intention to run for president.
“In our radar screen are only Secretary Teodoro and Chairman Fernando,” Ermita told radio dzRH.

When asked about De Castro, who is being pushed by some party leaders to be adopted as the standard-bearer, he said: “But Vice President Noli de Castro is not a party member.”

He said President Arroyo did not directly invite De Castro to join the party and become the Lakas-Kampi standard-bearer.

Mrs. Arroyo issued a statement last week after De Castro had told reporters that the President spoke with him on the matter, saying the Vice President would make “a good president.”

Ermita, however, clarified last night that he did not say that the party is letting go of De Castro as a possible standard-bearer.

“I did not say the Vice President was out of the running,” Ermita told The STAR in a telephone interview.

He said what he meant was that De Castro was not a party member and therefore could not be considered officially in the selection process.

Ermita said the party’s national executive committee “could still talk about it,” referring to the possibility that De Castro might join the party before the deadline lapses.

The Lakas-Kampi-CMD national executive committee led by Mrs. Arroyo will meet after the Sept. 15 deadline and announce before the end of the month the administration’s presidential candidate.

Presidential Adviser for Political Affairs Gabriel Claudio said the party could not move the deadline to accommodate other aspirants.

“In 10 days, we will announce our candidate,” Claudio said.

He said some party leaders were asking the President to make her choice so that the selection process will be faster “but she wants the decision to come from the party so that they will be the stakeholders to that decision.”

He said it was agreed that only a party member could be considered as the standard-bearer.

Quezon City Rep. Matias Defensor said Lakas-Kampi-CMD might be forced to adopt a presidential candidate from another party if its own candidates do not improve their ratings in the coming popularity surveys.

“It would be suicidal, impractical, not pragmatic, and a total waste of time to have a candidate who is not popular,” he told the Serye Café news forum in Quezon City.

Defensor, a member of the Lakas-Kampi national executive committee, said members of the panel apparently have conducted a secret straw vote among themselves two weeks ago on who they would support as the party’s presidential candidate.

He said the members were asked to list down four to five names of presidential aspirants, including those identified with the opposition.

“My choices were Senators Manny Villar and Chiz (Francis) Escudero, Vice President Noli de Castro, and Sen. Mar Roxas in that order,” he said.

Villar is the presidential aspirant of the Nacionalista Party, while Escudero is the one of the bets of the Nationalist People’s Coalition; De Castro has remained an independent, and Roxas is a former presidential bet of the Liberal Party.

Roxas withdrew from the presidential race to give way to Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, son of former President Corazon Aquino who passed away last Aug. 1.

He said although the result of the straw vote has not been revealed, based on his conversations with his colleagues, his impression was that Villar and Escudero were the dominant choices.

“That is because Sen. Villar is the top performer in the surveys, while Chiz is coming in strong. So it’s possible that if we decide to just adopt a candidate, our choice would be confined to them,” he added.

Villar, Escudero and Roxas are identified with the opposition, while De Castro regards himself as an independent.

Lakas adopted De Castro in 2004 as President Arroyo’s running mate. Lakas members have been recruiting De Castro to join the party and participate in the selection process for the administration’s standard-bearer in next year’s elections.

Some news reports said that Claudio disclosed that Lakas-Kampi gave De Castro until Sept. 15 to decide.

Defensor said Teodoro was not among his choices because at the time the straw vote was conducted the defense chief had rated poorly in the surveys.

“But all is not lost for him. Gibo (Teodoro’s nickname) is brilliant and competent. I am sure he can improve his survey performance especially now that he has won the support of 49 provincial governors. Things can change rapidly,” he said.

He said the lists of preferences made by members of the Lakas-Kampi national executive committee were given to Ermita, the party’s president.

Defensor also urged his party’s leaders to announce their choice of a presidential standard-bearer soon.

He lamented that although Lakas-Kampi is the biggest political group in the country, it is still searching for its candidate while other aspirants for the presidency have already embarked on unofficial campaigning.

“We are losing out to the other political parties,” he said.

He warned party leaders that indecision on their part could prompt members in the provinces to commit their support to other candidates.

Jamby prepares list of corrupt people

Sen. Jamby Madrigal has made a list of corrupt citizens, including some of her relatives, who will face criminal prosecution if she wins the presidency in 2010.

“I will jail corrupt people, including my relatives, if elected president,” Madrigal told reporters during the weekly Daungan ng Balita at the Danarra Hotel in Quezon City.

She said the campaign against corruption is part of her platform of government in the coming elections.

She said arresting a “big fish” would set an example and curb graft and corruption in the country.

The senator said the list included elected officials, and some of her relatives who are smugglers and tax evaders.

“We must jail big fish. Big tax evaders, smugglers, “ she said.

She claimed that a nationwide network of supporters has already committed their support to her presidential bid.

Madrigal clarified that her supporters are unpaid and idealistic volunteers and not a network of real estate agents, apparently referring to Sen. Manual Villar’s real estate business.

She said that she would come out with her own infomercial that is different from the infomercials of other presidential candidates.

Aside from corruption, Madrigal also said that her political platform will be focused on the abolition of the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and review of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement, which she said is hurting the country. – With Jess Diaz, Perseus Echeminada

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Noynoy joins 2010 race

MANILA, Philippines - After days of soul-searching, Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III finally declared yesterday that he will run for president in 2010 to “continue the fight” of his parents and unite the country against an unpopular but well-entrenched administration.

In declaring his candidacy, Aquino also acknowledged the tough fight ahead as he would have to battle it out with other opposition candidates, several of whom have long been unofficially on the campaign trail.

Aquino is the only son of the late president and democracy icon Corazon Aquino and Marcos nemesis senator Benigno Aquino Jr.

“I accept the call of the people,” Noynoy Aquino told supporters gathered at Club Filipino in Greenhills. “I accept the responsibility of continuing our fight for the people. I accept the challenge to lead this fight,” he said.

“I want to make democracy work not only for the rich and the well connected but for everyone,” Noynoy said.

Noynoy was with his sisters as well as girlfriend Valenzuela City Councilor Shalani Soledad when he made the announcement in the same hall where his mother took her oath of office shortly after the 1986 People Power revolution that ousted the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

After his announcement the crowd sang “Bayan Ko” while raising their hands in the “L” sign for laban or fight.

President Arroyo, who lost the support of the Aquinos over charges of corruption and election fraud, is scheduled to step down in June 2010 after serving more than nine years. She is not allowed to run for re-election but is widely believed to be scheming to extend her stay in office with the help of her supporters in Congress.

“Tinatanggap ko ang hamong mamuno sa labang ito. Bayang Pilipinas, tatakbo po ako sa pagka-pangulo sa darating na halalan. Itutuloy po natin ang laban. Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! Nawa’y pagpalain tayo ng Poong Maykapal (I am accepting the challenge to lead this fight. Philippines, I will run for president in the coming election. We will continue the fight. Long live the Philippines. May God bless us),” Noynoy said to wild cheers.

The declaration came on the 40th day of Mrs. Aquino’s death. The massive outpouring of sympathy for Aquino after her death from colon cancer last month prompted supporters of her son to urge him to run for president.

Noynoy and the Liberal Party where he belongs are primarily banking on his name, but the senator said he has his own track record and that he would no longer need to brag about his qualifications.

Own track record

A three-term congressman and an economist by training, he said that if elected he would ensure that government resources are utilized efficiently, criticizing Mrs. Arroyo – his former economics professor – for “forgetting what she has taught me.”

He said he witnessed during his mother’s funeral the yearning of the people for true democracy and freedom that his parents had fought for all their lives.

“Nakita natin ang pagbabalik ng pagmamahal sa bawat isa at handang magsakripisyo para sa ikabubuti ng nakararami. Maraming boses ang narinig sa mga sumunod na mga araw pagkatapos ng libing ng ating ina (We saw that love for one another and the readiness to sacrifice for the sake of others have come back. We heard a lot of calls following the death of our mother),” Noynoy said.

Noynoy said one man had egged him to run and offered one to two million signatures but he said he did not “take it seriously then.”

One prominent columnist sent him a text message about déjà vu of what transpired in 1986.

He said he also drew inspiration from fifth-graders he met during his spiritual journey.

He said it was the mounting calls for him to run that made him decide to go on a spiritual retreat in a Carmelite monastery to seek discernment and divine guidance.

“Somebody told me that once I had made the right decision, the path for you to take would already be easy,” Noynoy said.

Noynoy said the withdrawal from the race of long-time LP standard-bearer Sen. Manuel Roxas II made him reflect more on his options.

He praised Roxas for his “selfless act” and said he would like him to be his running mate.

It’s about time

The senator’s eldest sister, Maria Elena “Ballsy” Aquino-Cruz, said they already allowed Noynoy to make the announcement about his plan since he had made up his mind and had prayed over it, along with the whole family.

Ballsy said it was better for Noynoy to reveal his decision now than to keep the people waiting.

Noynoy said his opponents had started their “branding,” or image-building in their trips to the provinces to be with local leaders long before he even thought of joining the game.

“(I am late) if we run a traditional campaign. I think in this case the people will be the ones to carry the burden and as I moved around, I was able to verify there was indeed a clamor and the people would be the ones to push this forward,” Noynoy said in a press conference later at the Senate.

At Club Filipino in Greenhills, Noynoy was presented with coins as contributions for his campaign. Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, who as armed forces chief had helped the Aquino administration repulse several coup attempts, vowed to serve him with dedication and symbolically offered P100 contribution.

At the Baclaran Church in Parañaque City where a Mass was held to mark the 40th day of his mother’s death, Noynoy was mobbed by the people and he was applauded as he entered the hall. The choir sang “Bayan Ko” and a small piggy bank with a yellow ribbon tied around it was presented to him.

The priest said he was hoping that Noynoy would turn his back on corruption and serve the people with love and compassion.

LP stalwart and former Batanes Rep. Florencio Abad said they were counting on volunteers to help in Noynoy’s campaign.

Opposition unity dim

Noynoy’s entry in the presidential derby is not affecting the preparations of other parties with their own presidential candidates.

Noynoy said he is open to unity talks but said he is not sure if he has the right to call for a meeting, being the newest in the ball game.

He agreed with Sen. Loren Legarda that having one candidate for the opposition is ideal but difficult to achieve at this time.

Legarda is herself pining for her party’s endorsement of her presidential bid. Her party, the Nationalist People’s Coalition, has yet to decide if it’s she or Sen. Francis Escudero who will represent the party in 2010.

The Nacionalista Party, on the other hand, has Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. as standard-bearer.

Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino is also not giving way to Noynoy and will field former President Joseph Estrada.

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Iran raids raise pressure on opposition leaders

TEHRAN, Iran – Iranian security forces Tuesday cracked down on the opposition's campaign to highlight torture and abuse of prisoners in the country's postelection crisis, shutting down offices of pro-reform leaders and arresting five of their aides in a startling series of raids.
The raids hiked up the pressure against the top opposition leaders, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi, who hard-line clerics and commanders of the powerful Revolutionary Guards have said should also be arrested.
The arrests suggested that authorities aim to crush the campaign led by Mousavi and Karroubi to bring to light alleged torture and rapes of protesters who were detained in the heavy crackdown against the opposition that followed the disputed June presidential election.
The abuse allegations have been deeply embarrassing for the Iranian government and the clerical leadership, amid reports that several detainees were tortured to death. Karroubi in particular has been vocal in demanding an official investigation into the allegations.
On Tuesday, security forces descended on Karroubi's personal office and the office of his National Confidence Party, said party spokesman, Esmaeil Gerami Moghaddam.
In the personal office, agents pushed by Karroubi himself and arrested one of his aides, Mohammad Davari, an editor of the party Web site, and at the party office, they arrested two other party members, he said.
The security forces sealed both offices and confiscated documents and CDs connected to the party's investigation into abuse allegations, Moghaddam told The Associated Press.
In another raid, security forces arrested Morteza Alviri, a top Karroubi aide and a former vice president, from his home. "I'm being taken away by security agents right now," Alviri told AP by telephone before the call was cut off.
Alviri was a member of a committee set up by Karroubi and Mousavi to probe the abuse allegations.
Also arrested Tuesday was Mousavi's representative to the committee, Ali Reza Beheshti, the pro-reform Web site Mowjcamp reported. Beheshti is the son of Ayatollah Mohammad Hossein Beheshti, a prominent figure from the 1979 revolution and one of the architects of the Islamic Republic.
On Sunday evening, security agents raided a joint Karroubi-Mousavi office that was taking in reports of abuse from released protesters, Moghaddam said.
Karroubi and Mousavi both ran against incumbent hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 elections. The opposition says Ahmadinejad's victory in the vote was fraudulent and that Mousavi was the rightful winner.
Hundreds were arrested in the heavy crackdown crushing mass protests in support of Mousavi that erupted after the vote in the country's worst unrest since the Islamic Revolution. The opposition says at least 72 protesters were killed, while the government has confirmed 30.
Tuesday's raids suggested the leadership wants to stamp out abuse allegations that have dismayed even many conservative supporters of the government.
But they also raised fears of a move against Mousavi or Karroubi. Last week, Ahmadinejad joined calls for the arrests of the top opposition leadership. Arresting Mousavi, Karroubi or the other top reformist former President Mohammad Khatami would be a major escalation.
Iran's police chief Esmail Ahmadi Moghadam on Tuesday also warned the opposition against using an upcoming annual pro-Palestinian nationwide rally as an occasion to hold anti-government protests. The rally — known as Quds Day, referring to the Arabic word for Jerusalem — takes place on Sept. 18. It is usually an occasion for government supporters to denounce Israel and show support for the Palestinians.
"The main objective of the Quds Day should not be deviated from," Moghadam said, according to the state news agency IRNA.

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