What is happening to Manila ?

What is happening to manila ? While tax payers are paying an increase in Real property taxes of more than 50%, they have to fall in line for almost 5 days just to pay for the real property taxes. This is where we can see that Joseph Estrada is a lousy mayor. During the time of Mayor Lim in 2013, the process takes 3 hours and there is coffee and aircon where you can seat and not stand up in line as what is happening now. The current process is also very prone to corruption as you need to hire a runner so that you can have your payment process faster, what a bad service Manila city hall is now having.

Manila People power anyone ?

Villar is not poor

Yesterday, Villar tearfully shared how hurt he was by insinuations that he wasn’t really poor at or around the time of his brother Danny’s death in 1962. Numbers don’t lie, however, and he doesn’t dispute the fact that his father borrowed 16,000 pesos to buy that 560 square meter lot. Now how much do you think Villar Sr.’s monthly salary was in 1962 to have enabled him to borrow such an amount?

Assuming an interest rate of 8% and a payment period of 30 years, the elder Villar’s monthly amortization would have been 117 pesos (use the PMT function on Excel if you want to verify this). Usually, a lender would limit the monthly amortization to no more than 40% of a borrower’s take home pay (in most other times, this would have been even lower). So Villar Sr.’s take home pay would have been at least 292 pesos a month (P117/40%). The assumptions I’ve used are very liberal and Villar Sr.’s actual monthly income in 1962 was probably higher. Changing our assumptions to 9% interest rate, 25 years to pay, and 33% ratio of monthly amortization to take home pay, for example, would imply a monthly salary of 404 pesos.

Now guess how much the minimum wage was for non-agricultural workers in 1962. It was a whopping 4 pesos a day or around 88 pesos a month (see Republic Act 4180). If Villar Sr. was earning 3-4x the minimum wage, and if mommy Villar was able to provide supplemental income, I don’t see how, by any stretch of one’s imagination, Junior can claim he was dirt poor. Exaggeration is too mild a term. Bold-faced lie is more like it.

Fortunately, the illiterate masses (whom many people in this forum disdain) appear to be seeing through Junior’s charade. Unfortunately, though, they seem to be flocking to Erap.

Estrada not moved by assurances Arroyo will step down

Former President Joseph Estrada said Tuesday he was not convinced that President Macapagal-Arroyo would go quietly to pave the way for a smooth transition of power.

Estrada, whose ouster in 2001 allowed then Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to assume office, took with a grain of salt repeated assurances by Malacañang officials and spokespersons that the President will step down on June 30.

Even First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo appealed to his wife’s detractors to bear with her remaining two months in office, saying: “It’s just a few months. All they have to do is wait.”

“I just hope that he’s telling the truth,” Estrada told the Inquirer in a phone interview.

He said it was difficult to believe that Arroyo would leave office quietly, owing to her “track record” of not honoring her word. He recalled that Arroyo promised on Dec. 30, 2002 that she would no longer run for President, only to break her word when she joined the 2004 presidential race.

Arroyo allegedly manipulated the results to win against the late Fernando Poe Jr., Estrada’s close friend, based on the “Hello Garci” tapes that surfaced the following year. Ms Arroyo denied the allegations.

Estrada said he and his political advisers saw a “pattern” in recent events that could lead to the President prolonging her stay in Malacañang.

“Mukhang may balak (Seems she has a plan),” he said, citing the recent Supreme Court decision empowering Arroyo to appoint the next chief justice in spite of an explicit constitutional ban on "midnight appointments" by an outgoing President.

He also mentioned the appointment of Gen. Delfin Bangit as the new Armed Forces chief of staff and the participation of a number of party-list groups whose nominees are allies of Arroyo. Bangit belongs to the Philippine Military Academy Class 1978, which adopted Arroyo as a member.

Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel “Miguel” Arroyo is running again for Congress using the partylist route, claiming to represent a group of security guards. Earlier, he insisted on the idea that he was making a “sacrifice” by giving way to his mother to run in the congressional race in the second district in Pampanga.

In a previous interview with the Inquirer, Estrada said: "She's already the President but she's still running for Congress. The lady really has a plan."

Estrada said his camp saw a “no-proclamation” scenario, meaning it was possible that only winners of local electoral races would be proclaimed.

“If no proclamation is made in national posts, if there will be no proclaimed senator, vice president and president and she maneuvers herself to become House speaker, she can become a holdover president,” he said.

To prevent such a scenario, he said he supported the proposal for senators not running in the coming elections to elect a new Senate president from among themselves to replace Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, who is part of Estrada’s Partido ng Masang Pilipino ticket.

Estrada said he has spoken with Enrile and has been told that “he’s willing to step down.”

“But it’s not that urgent,” the former president said. “There is still plenty of time. Senators can elect a new Senate even after the elections.”

Estrada skips debate for meeting with Mindanao execs

Deposed president Joseph Estrada wanted to attend the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s presidential forum on Monday but had to meet a delegation of more than 100 political leaders from Mindanao in the morning.

Asked whether he was holding a grudge that prevented him from attending the event, Estrada said: “Wala. Gusto ko ngang mapalapit sa Inquirer, e [There’s none. In fact, I really want to be closer to the Inquirer].” (The Inquirer was among the dailies that hit hard on the Estrada administration’s corruption in year 2000. Estrada was ousted via a military-backed civilian uprising after his impeachment proceedings collapsed when his allies blocked a documentary evidence in January 2001.)

Estrada said the political leaders came from Lanao Del Sur and Cotabato.

“If I didn’t meet them, they’d stay for one more day and I’d have to spend for their hotel and food. That would have been expensive,” Estrada said with a laugh.

Moreover, Estrada said he had attended several presidential forums and wanted to concentrate on picking up his performance in the election surveys by meeting the electorate in his campaign sorties.

“I have to catch up,” Estrada said.

Estrada said that after his party’s kick-off campaign on Tuesday in Plaza Miranda, he and runningmate Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay would motor to northern Luzon for the first part of the campaign.

Estrada poser to businessmen: Are we better off today?

After being absent in some presidential fora, former President Joseph Estrada has rejoined the fray, attending the one sponsored by a group of businessmen Tuesday and asking them this question: "Are we better off today than in year 2000 when I was your President?"

Estrada's term was cut short in 2001 by a people revolt because of corruption allegations.

But speaking before the presidential forum organized by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Estrada reiterated that his ouster from office was a mistake as shown by the late president Corazon Aquino's own admission when she apologized to him in public.

"..She [Aquino] apologized in public when she said that Edsa 2 was a big mistake. Patawarin mo na lang ako lahat naman tayo nagkakamali. So marami sa inyo nagkamali, ayaw nyo lang umamin [Please forgive me. All of us make mistakes. So there are a lot of you who made mistakes, you just don’t want to admit them]," Estrada said drawing laughter from the audience.

"So before you ask me more questions, I'd like to ask the first question. Are we better off today than in year 2000 when I was your President?" he asked.

Estrada did not show up at Monday's presidential forum of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines and the Philippine Daily Inquirer's first presidential forum last February 8.

In his opening statement, the former leader described the PCCI as the only business organization that "never" imposed influence in government.

"This organization never imposes influence on government unlike other business organizations," he said.

In his speech also, Estrada reminded the audience that he was more of a doer than a talker.

"I started my career in the movies as an action star. That's why I prefer more to act and act rather than talk and talk," he said.

Besides, Estrada believed that he had done what his contenders have been promising to do now for the country.

"Others are still promising what I have done already in my experience of two and a half years before I was illegally ousted," he pointed out.

Before Estrada, former defense secretary Gilberto "Gibo" Teodoro, Senators Manny Villar and Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III also gave their respective speeches.

Senator Richard Gordon and Brother Eddie Villanueva also presented their platforms of government if ever elected president next year.