During the meeting, Enrile said, Villar expressed his request “for my help because he was concerned about the investigation.”
“He asserted that he had done nothing wrong and that Senator [Jamby] Madrigal's charges had no basis,” he said.
“I explained to him that since the complaint of Senator Madrigal has been referred to the Committee of the Whole and that the Supreme Court had not issued the temporary restraining order they sought, the hearing must proceed,” he further said.
Enrile said he then “very clearly” and “repeatedly advised” Villar to participate in the proceedings so he could present his case.
“Several times during that meeting, Senator Villar interjected: “Manong, baka naman may maitutulong ako sa inyo. Makakatulong naman ako kung may kailangan kayo [Manong, there might be something I can do to help you. I can help if there’s anything that you need],” Enrile said, recalling their conversation during the meeting.
“I chose to ignore these statements, feeling very uncomfortable. But I told him, Manny, gusto kitang tulungan [I want to help you]. What I can promise you is that I will be fair to you. I will not allow the hearings to go beyond the issues referred to the committee nor for it to be turned into a fishing expedition,” the Senate leader said.
When he repeated his offer, Enrile said he told Villar, “Manny, if I help you, don't worry walang kapalit yun [I ask for nothing in return].”
Enrile sponsored the Committee of the Whole report censuring Villar for allegedly making sure that his real estate company benefit from the right-of-way deals in the C-5 road project. The report has been signed by 12 senators, including Enrile.
via Villar tried to buy me off – Enrile – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos.
rePost::The True Secret of Female MBA’s? – Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com
“This is a strange twist. Many of the best and brightest women in the U.S. get an MBA so they can earn high wages, but they end up marrying the best and brightest men, who also earn high wages — which affords these women the luxury of not having to work so much. … Perhaps they never would have met such husbands if they hadn’t gone to business school.”
Would you cut us some slack? I think we are smarter than you give us credit for! Especially for two guys who are willing to go back 20-plus years to understand that the drop in crime in the 1990’s was due to the outcome of Roe v. Wade! You need a similarly long perspective on this issue because you are missing the boat.
Many of us — here’s the surprise — got our MBAs precisely because we wanted to have children and work, and we knew we wouldn’t be able to recover from the economic hit nearly as well unless we had an MBA to accelerate us back up the speed ramp when we re-entered the workforce post-child-raising! In fact, one could argue that having an MBA helps on the pregnancy end too, with presumably higher skills and therefore occasionally higher leverage to negotiate a better childcare leave than we might have otherwise.
via The True Secret of Female MBA’s? – Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com.
rePost::Google, land of the spoiled brats?
Perhaps the strongest business argument against perk mania is that if you’re going to spend that much money on perks, at least make them performance-based. I can buy that. But why should that principle apply only to the rank and file?
Last September The Street published an interesting article by Eric Jackson [4] about Whitman’s tenure at eBay. He writes that “something happened in Whitman's last four years on the job in which her pay became dramatically disconnected with eBay's stock price and her perks started to go through the roof.” From 2005 to 2008 eBay’s stock declined 59 percent, while at the same time, Jackson alleges, “Whitman’s interest had drifted away from increasing the stock price of eBay to increasing her cash compensation and perks.” According to Jackson, in her last two years, this included nearly $1 million per year in expenses incurred by flying around on the corporate jet for personal business.
Yet in Whitman’s diatribe about frugality, she has the gall to write this about her reign at eBay: “We had Bagel Wednesday, and we had to plead for those.”
via Google, land of the spoiled brats?.
Better Class of Politicians Please::Roxas: Villar acting like GMA | ABS-CBN News Online Beta
I should have started an online betting pool of when the mud slinging will begin, but when come to think of it when did it even stop? A Philippines for Filipinos and not Politicians!!!!
Roxas: Villar acting like GMA
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 01/26/2010 4:29 PM
MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Manuel Roxas II on Tuesday likened Sen. Manny Villar to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for using the usual line of “politicking” to dodge allegations of corruption.
“Ito ang linya ni GMA (Gloria Macapagal Arroyo) 'di ba? Lahat ng mga accusation ng anomalya kay GMA, ano ang sagot ni GMA? Politika lang. Hindi sinasagot ang issue (This is GMA's famous line. All accusations of corruption against GMA, what's her answer? It's all politics. She does not answer the issue directly),” Roxas said in an interview over radio dzMM.
He urged Villar to appear before the plenary session on Tuesday to personally refute the charges.
Roxas said that instead of facing the issue of “corruption” head on, Villar and his allies have been trying to divert the issue by hurling allegations against other presidential candidates.
The senator was referring to the claim of Villar's camp that allies of Liberal Party presidential candidate Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III leaked the report of the Senate Committee of the Whole penned by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.
Roxas insisted that the presidential race has nothing to do with Villar's ethics case.
“The issue here is Senator Villar, as [then] Senate president and chairman of the finance committee pushed the [C-5 road] project and the road passed through his property,” he said.
via Roxas: Villar acting like GMA | ABS-CBN News Online Beta.
QOTD::Please Don't Be Cynical…
All I ask of you is one thing: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard, and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.
—Conan O’Brien
Quote::The Law of Jante « Paulo Coelho’s Blog
Let us start the day right!!! Down with cynicism.
So in order to prevent things from growing any worse, maybe this is the right moment to write the anti-Law of Jante:
“You are worth far more than you think. Your work and presence on this Earth are important, even though you may not think so. Of course, thinking in this way, you might have many problems because you are breaking the Law of Jante – but don’t feel intimidated by them, go on living without fear and in the end you will win.”
via The Law of Jante « Paulo Coelho’s Blog.
Learned Today::The rise of the irreligious Left : Gene Expression
This was a very interesting post, half of which won’t interest people who doesn’t care for scatter-plots /voter preferences etc.
The possibility is just wow. Imagine when or if Vermont becomes the first minority non-Christian state. What happens to the extra rights religious organizations enjoy whence a majority no longer believe in organized religion. Imagine the research papers one could write about how Vermont is so much better or worse compare to other more religious states. This is wow. To say the possibilities are interesting is a grave understatement.
The rise of the irreligious Left
Posted on: January 24, 2010 6:36 PM, by Razib Khan
Barry Kosmin at CUNY has published the results of three surveys of American religion since 1990. These “American Religious Identification Surveys” (ARIS) were done in 1990, another in 2001, and finally in 2008. One of the major findings of the ARIS has been the rise of those who avow “No Religion”. Looking through the data it is also clear that aggregating nationally understates some of the local changes. In 1990 47% Vermonters were non-Catholic Christians (i.e., Protestants). In 2008 29% were. In 1990 13% of Vermonters had No Religion. In 2008 34% of Vermonters had No Religion! In fact, No Religion has a plural majority in Vermont, with 26% of the population being Catholic. This is a much bigger shift than nationally. In Kosmin’s book One Nation Under God, which drew upon the 1990 survey results, he noted that though the Northeast has a reputation for being relatively secular, it is in fact highly confessionalized in comparison to other regions, such as the Pacific Northwest. This isn’t true anymore; much of New England has experienced a wave of rapid secularization and disaffiliation. If current rates of secularization continue Vermont may become the first minority non-Christian state. It was only 55% Christian in 2008.
via The rise of the irreligious Left : Gene Expression.
rePost::CoCo's Last Dance: "Hardest Thing I Have Ever Had to Do" – Conan O'brien – Gawker.TV
Nice classy farewell show. See you soon (3 months I think) CoCo!!!!!!!!
CoCo’s Last Dance: “Hardest Thing I Have Ever Had to Do”
Conan O’Brien just closed out his final episode as host of The Tonight Show, and what a show it was: hilarious shenanigans, Steve Carell, Tom Hanks, Neil Young, a tearful statement of gratitude, and Will Ferrell with a mothereffing cowbell.
As per usual, all of the noteworthy clips from tonight’s broadcasts are grouped below by show and labeled accordingly.
via CoCo’s Last Dance: “Hardest Thing I Have Ever Had to Do” – Conan O’brien – Gawker.TV.
Research::The Dutch Disease Gets a Brazilian
I believe we can do the same study for the natural gas in malampaya (I think I’m not sure but the one that pays taxes to the Provincial Government of Batangas). I feel that the results would be similar. I hope they are not.
The Dutch Disease Gets a Brazilian
By Paul Kedrosky · Saturday, January 23, 2010 · ShareThis
The Dutch disease – the economic hollowing-out and corruption effects of domestic resource exploitation – has an interesting twist when it happens in Brazil:
Oil windfalls and living standards: New evidence from Brazil
Francesco Caselli, Guy Michaels, 20 January 2010
Does the “resource curse” exist? This column presents new evidence from Brazil. Municipalities that receive oil windfalls report significant increases in spending on infrastructure, education, health, and transfers to households. However, the windfalls do not trickle down and much of the money goes missing. Indeed, oil revenues increase the size of municipal workers’ houses but not the size of other residents’ houses. [Emphasis mine]
via The Dutch Disease Gets a Brazilian.
rePost:: Lodestar : Manuel L. Quezon III: The Daily Dose
The loyalty of the people who serve PGMA always astounds me.
The very first time I set foot on the premises of the Batasang Pambansa was when then-Executive Secretary Joker Arroyo went before the House of Representatives during its “Question Hour,” and almost as much time separates that event from the time Joker finally disgraced himself utterly during the NBN-ZTE hearings, as has passed from the time Cory left office to the time she died. Within that period, the Joker who’d embraced accountability and scrutiny by submitting, as executive secretary, to the House’s questions, became the Congressman Joker who combated President Estrada, only to surrender to impunity by being a cranky sword and shield for President Arroyo and Senate President Villar.
The difference in fundamental attitudes have less to do with the individual choices of one man, and more to do with the approach of those at the top to power. The Joker Arroyo of today cannot possibly be really different from the Joker of yesterday; but it would seem his disgrace and those of the institutions in which he once served and in which he now sits, could only have been made possible by the realization of how powerfully personal example can influence behavior up and down the line. Cory, as the antithesis of Marcos, left people no choice but to try to live up to her example. Arroyo, on the other hand, liberated Joker to be himself.
And this is why Cory will forever be missed.
via The Long View: Lodestar : Manuel L. Quezon III: The Daily Dose.