NOYNOY NANGDADAYA SA MGA DEBATE

Marahil marami sa mga kababayan natin na sumubaybay sa isang presidential forum noong Disyembre 2 ang nakapansin kung kaya’t laman ngayon ng lumalakas na “hate campaign” ang bagitong senador na si Noynoy Aquino. Mahahalata na tila may binabasa si Noynoy sa mga unang sagot nito sa naganap na “Harapan: The ANC Presidential Forum” na dinaos sa auditorium ng University of Sto Tomas sa Maynila. Ito ay live na napanood ng milyon-milyong tao sa bansa. Kabilang sa forum ay ang anim pang presidentiables tulad nila dating Pangulong Joseph Estrada, Senador Richard Gordon, dating Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, lider ng JIL na si Bro. Eddie Villanueva, dating Angeles City Councilor JC De Los Reyes at ang environmentalist na si Nicanor Perlas.

Sa nasabing debate ay kapansin-pansin ang pagbabago kay Senador Noynoy. Kung dati halatang nangangapa sa mga sasabihin tuwing natatanong sa kaniyang plataporma at tungkol sa mga kontrobersyal na isyu tulad ng ating nasaksihan sa “Isang Tanong, Isang Sagot” ng GMA7, sa forum ng ABS-CBN ay mistulang walang magagawang kamalian ang senador. Lahat ng tanong ay nasasagot niya ng maayos sa loob ng dalawang minuto na inilaan para sa bawat kandidato. Ilang araw lamang ang pagitan ng dalawang forums ngunit kapansin-pansin ang pagbabago ni Noynoy kung kaya’t marami ang nagsabi na ito ay binigyan ng talaan ng mga tanong ilang araw bago maganap ang forum kaya’t siya ay nakapaghanda ng mga sagot.

Usap-usapan na kung ang resulta ng survey ay naluluto nila para sa kanilang bentahe, sa pamamagitan ng kaniyang kamag-anak na si Rapa Lopa na may mataas na posisyon sa Pulse Asia, ay hindi malayong mangyari na naluto din ang forum dahil nabigyan din si Noynoy ng mga questions sa pamamagitan naman ng kaniyang kapatid na kilalang personalidad sa kumpanya ng ABS-CBN. Alam din ng taong bayan na masugid na taga-suporta ni Senador Noynoy ang mga liderato ng naturang network kung kaya’t mas nabibigyan ito ng mas malawak na coverage sa mga pag-iikot na ginagawa nito.

Hindi lamang sa forum ng GMA7 nagkalat si Noynoy. Minsan na niyang napatunayan na ginagamit lamang niya ang iniwan ng kaniyang mga magulang na legacy upang makuha ang simpatiya at boto ng tao sa inilunsad na forum ng Institute of Popular Democracy na tinawag na “Face to Face: 100 Local Government Champions vs. 4 Presidential Contenders”. Sa nasabing debate, paligoy-ligoy lamang ang kaniyang mga sagot sa mga katanungang binabato sa kaniya ngunit hindi nito direktang nasasagot ang mga isyu. Para sa lahat ng presidentiables lalo na kay Noynoy, ito ang mensahe ng bayan: bukod sa tinatawag na compassion para sa pagbabago ay dapat patunayan ng mga kandidato na sila ay may intelektwal na kakayahan upang mamuno sa bansa. Hindi madadala ang lahat sa karunungan sa english bagkus ay dapat malawak ang kaniyang kaalaman sa mga problemang bumabalot sa ating lipunan at kung paano ito mabibigyang solusyon. Kailangan ang taong marunong umaksyon at hindi nakasandal sa kakayahan ng ibang tao.

HATI NA BA ANG BOTO MO? “Hala I-Patrol Mo”

Hindi mo minsan masikmura ang lantarang panloloko hindi lang ng mga kung sinu-sinong TRAPO, kundi na rin ng dapat sana’y malaya at mapanuring pamamahayag. Simula kasi nang mag-igting ang iringan sa mga sensitibong posisyon tulad ng pang-panguluhan sa darating ng 2010 election, halos nagpapang-abot narin ang kalokohan ng mga estasyon at gimik ng mga di magkahumayaw na pulitiko. Isa na nga riyan ang matunog na kampanyang “Boto Mo I-Patrol Mo” na aniya tumutulong na mabigyan ng sapat na kaalaman ang mga botante sa susunod na taon. Litanya nga ng mga ”patrollers” nito ang samut-saring kawalanghiyaan ng mga taong nailuklok sa gobyerno ngunit sa isang banda naman ay patuloy na pinagkakaperahan ng estasyon ang mga dapat sana’y banned ads ng mga “presidentiables”.

Premature campaigning o ang mahigpit na ipinagbabawal na “electioneering” ang bumubungad sa manunood ng estasyon tuwing pinalalabas nito ang mga papogi ads ng kung sinu-sinong pontso pilato. Nahahalintulad ito sa mga naglalakihang poster o banderitas ng mga opisyal sa nakakalat ngayon sa mga eskinita at makikipot na pader ng lungsod. Nakapagtataka lang, nagagawang pansinin ng estasyon ang mga nakahilerang mga “posters” na ito habang pinahihintulutan naman nilang mag ere ng mahigit sa 3 hanggang 5 minutong campaign ad ang mga “presidentiables”. Kung susumahin daan-daang milyung piso ang kinikita ng estasyon sa mga pagpapalabas ng mga political ads na ito. Kaya naman hindi mahirap sabihin na nagkukunwang maka-tao ang estasyon lalo na’t isinusulong nito ang dapat ay clean and fair elections”.

Pera-pera nga lang naman ang tahasang dahilan ng mga tila pangguguyong ito ng mga kilalang estasyon sa bansa. At ang masakit nito, may malaking bilang na din ng mga botante ang nauuto nila. Kasi naman, habang nagkukunwaring “watchdog” ang estasyon sali’t-salitan naman nilang pinagkakaperahan ang mga pulitikong pilit na nambabaluktot ng batas kontra sa maagang pamumulitika o electioneering. Mantakin mong may isang taon pa man bago ipahintulot ang pangangapanya, nagsisimula nang ibandera ng mga pulitiko ang kani-kanilang mga mukha sa tv gamit na din ng “bayarang” media.

Kung susumahin, panakip butas lang ng estasyon ang kampanya nitong “Boto Mo I-Patrol Mo” para naman hindi gaanong mapuna ang walang humpay nilang pangnenegosyo tuwing eleksiyon.

Ngunit maliban pa sa bulok na pangangatwiran ng estasyon sa kanilang malugod na pangangampanya ng kung sinu-sinong “presidentiable”, dahan-dahan ding hinihikayat ng estasyon na i-boycott ang eleksyion. Patunay diyan ang maya-mayang pagpapalabas ng estasyon ng anila “butas” ng darating na automated election. Minamakina ng estasyon ang publiko na maging negatibo sa eleksiyon na nag-uudyok naman upang paigtingin pa ng mga kandidato ang kanilang mga jingle ads na pinagkakwartahan naman ng estasyon.

Kaya naman, madaling sabihin na ginigisa ng kapitalistang estasyon ang mga botante at mga pulitiko sa kani-kanilang mantika.

MEDIA ON POPULAR VOTE FOR NO-EL

“Oversight of Election Watchdogs”

Vote watching is nothing less than a crude excuse to actually heighten the possibility of a publicly preferred “no election”. The “Boto Mo I-Patrol Mo” for one that was intended to arouse voters to be vigilantly looking over the course of the nearing election was unfortunately swaying the public to amass skepticism. The truckload of “appalling” reports that these “patrollers” address on nationwide television should be a matter of concern since it generates more of pessimism other than an interest to participate on the coming election. Thus, this has been a regrettable oversight.

Unfortunately as “Boto Mo I-Patrol Mo” continues to “flag” in one of the country’s leading stations, “electioneering” such as premature campaign ads of various presidentiables undercuts it. The very station claiming clean and fear ballot casting is in fact condoning “electioneering” in exchange of multi-million worth of tv ads that they continually air in between their shows. Obviously, the tv station is simply making “Boto Mo I-Patrol Mo” a fitting façade to hide its money-making agenda. As such, the saying “pera-pera lang yan” proves true even among 2010 “reformist”.

If defined, the movement pushed by the station is nothing less than a refigured mind conditioning ingredient that generate public unease on the sought-after presidential race. It focuses more on actually making a wet blanket view on the outcome of the first ever automated elections in the country. That is, despite the stations nonstop show of support to various candidates by lending its airwaves to “premature” campaign propaganda materials.

Permitting electioneering in exchange of millions of peso is what capitalists do to make a huge profit out of the election. Undesirably, capitalist partisanship is going to haunt the viable selection of presidency by next year and a huge crowd of misled “patrollers” are going to make it possible. Worst case scenario in this media fiasco is having a handful of voters turn down the election out of riddling lack of trust. This runs appositively to what the movement “Boto Mo I-Patrol Mo” is trying to impart in its partakers. Instead of giving people hope and making them believe on the equal lengths of the law through exercising their rights of suffrage, the contrasting “pressure group” of the station and its outlined business ventures with supposedly “unlawful” political ads are both perplexing able voters.

Other than gathering unison perspectives on the elections, the campaign propelled by the tv station is more of “divisive” in nature. It ideally alienates the voters from the government which would be handling the smooth course of the 2010 presidential selection. Hence, majority of voters are actually prejudging the course of the elections. On one end this come close to provoking the crowd on boycotting 2010 and support a potential vote for No-Election. Moreover, what else does “Boto Mo I-Patrol Mo” promoters expect from their demoralized crowd?

COJUANGCO PHANTOMS HUNT THE PRESIDENCY

The Cojuangco owned Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac costs more than a huge sum of money. It actually bartered poor farmers’ lives and a truckload of “elitist” injustice. The 6,400 hectare land that the Cojuangco’s hold on to with fangs and claws simply represent the adversity of servitude and the rich’s monopoly of influence. And this unlikely Juan dela Cruz tragic drama will persist just as another Cojuangco heir is eyeing the presidency.

No one is absolutely clean of partisanship and misuse of authority in the Philippine political arena. Unfortunately, the long list of presidents we have had to deal with their own horrors and Achilles’ heel. For one, Martial law had nailed former Pres. Ferdinand Marcos’ administration despite the grandness of the Philippine economy in the 1970s. His dictatorship and iron-fist rule lingered more on Filipinos’ consciousness other than his build-up fiscal progress. Most say, Juan preferred the “doughnut hole” other than Marcos’ offered “progress”. On the other hand, the phantoms of Hacienda Luisita haunted Pres. Corazon Aquino’s rise to power. The heroine of EDSA-1 have had her fair share of public’s disfavor when the celebrated government case against the despotic “landlordship” of the Cojuangco’s took a dubious turn in favor of the then Pres. Aquino’s kin.

In an interview of Former MAR or Ministry of Agrarian Reform (now Department of Agrarian Reform) official, Jose Santos in the alternative paper-Bulatlat, he affirmed that Don Jose Cojuangco’s deal with the government about half a decade ago binds the “azucarera” to a supposedly irrevocable deal among its tenants. In particular, the GSIS approved 5.9 million peso loan of Don Jose that was used to purchase Hacienda Luisita incorporated a condition that the estate would then be subdivided among its tenants. Around 4,000 hectares should have been legally apportioned to the Luisita’s farmers. But just as the MAR’s case take a winning toll against the Cojuangco’s, Pres. Cory ascended in Malacañang and actually had a revamp of MAR officials to include the appointment of Sedfrey Ordoñez as Solicitor General. Ordoñez served as the Cojuangco’s legal counsel in the controversial Hacienda Luisita legal thug. And as expected, when he assumed into MAR (DAR) the winnable case of the government against the Cojuangco’s littered.

Most admires Pres. Aquino’s descent to power. The widow of another Martial Law hero- Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino was elemental in putting an end to the 20-year totalitarian rule of Marcos. Sad to say, the victory of EDSA People Power was boxed on the Pres. Cory and that this was further exploited by the Cojuangco to undermine the biddings of the law. The creation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program or (CARP) was the ironic tool used by the Cojuangco’s to trash out Luisita farmer’s rights. This is one cruel truth of “omnipotent power” manhandling the weak but paid much interest.

And just as CARP faces its end after a twin decade of prostituting the poor Luisita tenants’ rights, another Cojuangco claims the presidential throne. Expectedly, another injustice is cooked-up. Maybe, a resurrected CARP would again haunt the victims of Luisita. And if I may say, we are partly to blame for the discrete crimes of Cojuangcos.

Hacienda Luisita Belongs to Cojuangco Tenants, Ex-DAR Exec Says

Hacienda Luisita workers
in a mass action for land,
just wages, and rights

Photo by Dabet Castañeda

Hacienda Luisita Belongs to Cojuangco Tenants, Ex-DAR Exec Says
In a deal with government funders 46 years ago, Don Jose Cojuangco pledged to distribute the land now occupied by Hacienda Luisita to tenant farmers. A former director of the Department of Agrarian Reform says a court order binds the Cojuangcos to do so.

By Dabet Castañeda
Bulatlat

http://www.bulatlat.com/news/4-42/4-42-tenants.html

The Cojuangco family, owners of the embattled Hacienda Luisita, Inc. (HLI) and the Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT), is legally bound to distribute the 4,000-hectare land to the sugar farm workers of the plantation, a former Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) director said. The 4,000 hectares are what is left of the 6,400-hectare plantation estate whose 2,400-ha portion is said to have been earmarked as “homelots” for the HLI’s “shareholders.”
 

The former DAR official, Jose Santos, is one of government lawyers who on April 18, 1980 assisted Solicitor General Estelito Mendoza in filing Civil Case No. 131654 at the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Manila, Branch XLIII against the Tarlac Development Corporation (Tadeco), the former company name of HLI and CAT.

Santos, who is now retired, is known to his colleagues to be an expert in handling big land disputes during his tenure at the government’s agrarian agency then known as the Ministry of Agrarian Reform (MAR). He worked there as director of the Bureau of Agrarian Legal Assistance (BALA).

In an exclusive interview with Bulatlat last week, Santos said he is breaking his silence to shed light on what actually transpired since 1958 when the late Cojuangco patriarch, Don Jose, acquired the hacienda. He also recalled the conditions on why Don Jose Cojuangco was able to do so, and the court case which government won over the family that legally binds them to distribute land to the hacienda’s tillers. 

Acquisition
Court records from the Manila RTC show that Don Jose was able to purchase Tadeco on March 31, 1958 using government funds from two agencies, the Central Bank of the Philippines (CBP) and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). The CBP, under Monetary Board Resolution No. 1240, granted a loan of US $2,128,480 to Don Jose on the condition that the latter would also buy the Hacienda Luisita sugar plantation. The patriarch’s original plan was to only purchase the sugar mill. As part of the condition, the hacienda is to be distributed to small farmers in line with the administration’s social justice program, Santos recalls.

But since the dollar loan was not enough to purchase both the sugar mill and the plantation, Don Jose again applied for a loan with the GSIS, court records show. The GSIS Board of Trustees, through Resolution No. 3202 approved the sum of P5.9 million in loan for the purchase of the 6,400-hectare Hacienda Luisita on the condition, among others, that the estate should be subdivided among tenants who shall pay the cost under “reasonable terms and conditions.“

Inquiry
In 1967, Conrado Estrella of the now defunct Land Authority inquired in writing with the Tadeco owner whether he has complied with the conditions set by the CBP and GSIS, citing in particular the distribution of the land among its tillers. Don Jose answered that when his group took over the hacienda, they found no tenants and that they had to begin operating the hacienda by hiring farm workers.

Ten years later, the CBP made a similar inquiry with the heirs of Don Jose, who by then had died. In March 1978, the Evening Post daily reported that about 100,000 residents of the 10 barrios comprising the hacienda filed a petition demanding the expropriation of the hacienda and its distribution to small farmers. 

Consequently in May of the same year, MAR officials made their own inquiry into the case. Tadeco vice-president Demetria Cojuangco replied that the condition with regards the land distribution could not be enforced.

Case
In 1980, Santos recalls, he assisted Solicitor General Mendoza in filing a case against the owners of Tadeco before the Manila RTC.  Mendoza and Santos asked the RTC to compel Tadeco to honor its pledge in the 1958 loan deal with the CBP and GSIS and transfer the 6,400-hectare hacienda to the MAR who shall then subdivide, distribute and resell the land at cost to small farmers. 

Again, Tadeco insisted the CBP and GSIS conditions could not be enforced first, because there were no tenants in the hacienda and, second, sugarcane plantations were not part of the scope of the government’s land reform program. To do so, Tadeco lawyers said, would be giving in to what could be seen as a “disguised confiscation of private property.” 

The case dragged on for five years until Dec. 2, 1985 when Judge Bernardo Pardo of the Manila RTC Branch XLIII decided in favor of government.  The Cojuangcos immediately appealed the decision before the Court of Appeals (CA). 

Dismissal
Santos recalls that the RTC decision vindicated the sugar farm workers’ cause. Before the appeal could be heard at the CA, however, one of the Cojuangco’s heirs, Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino (widow of Marcos’ arch-rival Benigno Aquino), became president of the country on the crest of a popular uprising that toppled the Marcos dictatorship in February 1986.

But since the new president was one of the owners of the hacienda, Santos said he began to lose faith that the court decision would bear fruit. His fears were proven right when in 1986, President Cojuangco-Aquino appointed Sedfrey Ordoñez, the Cojuangco family’s own legal counsel in the Hacienda Luisita case, as solicitor general. As solicitor general, Santos added, Ordoñez was also to represent government that in the first place, originally filed the case for expropriation.

As expected, the case at the CA did not move and out of frustration, Santos resigned on the same year from MAR, which had been renamed as Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

In 1988, the appellate court issued a dismissal resolution mainly due to the fact that President Cojuangco-Aquino had guaranteed that sugar farms would be included in her agrarian reform program known as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Francisco Chavez, who replaced Ordoñez as solicitor general, asked through the CA whether the CBP, DAR and the GSIS, as parties to the case, were still interested in following up the appeal, Santos said. The three parties, based on court records, answered in the negative but pointed out that Hacienda Luisita should be part of the CARP with the land distributed to small farmers. On May 18, 1988, the CA dismissed the appeal. 

Santos clarifies, however, that in dismissing the appeal the CA did not actually say that it was nullifying the RTC Manila decision of 1985 which orders that Hacienda Luisita should be subdivided, distributed and resold to the hacienda’s small farmers at cost.

In fact, the CA dismissal-resolution emphasized “it is not only conditional but also without prejudice to the reopening/revival of the case if the conditions of the DAR are not met,” Santos says.

SDO
Saying that agrarian reform was the centerpiece of her administration, Mrs. Aquino instituted the CARP stating that land reform can be achieved by either actual land distribution or through a stock distribution scheme through the Stock Distribution Option (SDO). Subsequently, the Cojuangcos turned Hacienda Luisita into a corporation and is now known as Hacienda Luisita, Inc. (HLI), with the sugar farm workers classified from farm laborers to “stockholders” or “co-owners” of the said hacienda.

Ed Tadem, associate professor of Asian Studies at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, in a statement emailed to Bulatlat said that the SDO was implemented by the former president, who is part of a landlord clan, to “evade land reform.” 
This scheme was inserted into the so-called CARP (R.A. 6657) by pro-landlord legislators during the term of President Aquino, he said, to allow landowners who run their farms as corporations to distribute shares of stocks to farm workers in lieu of outright land transfer.

Tadem added that serious observers and scholars of agrarian reform contend that stock distribution can never be a substitute for land transfer which is the heart and soul of any genuine land reform.
Santos, on the other hand, said that the SDO deprives the farmers’ right to the land they till which, first and foremost, is a legitimate issue.
Solution

In a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) signed by Tadeco, the HLI, DAR and a handful of farm beneficiaries stated that they have entered into this agreement “in the spirit of the CARP with the end view of improving the lot of farm beneficiaries of the stock distribution plan and obtaining for them greater benefits.’
“The question is: Is the purpose of the SDO achieved? Has it become successful?” Santos asks. 

This question also rings in the mind of the sugar farm workers who have staged a work stoppage since Nov. 6 to, among their demands, force the DAR to review the implementation and effects of the SDO on their daily lives. 

Sugar farm workers say that since the incorporation of the hacienda, they have experienced greater hardships due to, among others, diminishing mandays caused by mechanization of sugar cane production and the land use conversion.

In Tadem’s statement, the Luisita stock option plan had been denounced as "unconstitutional" by the University of the Philippines Law Center in a position paper submitted in June 1990 to the Senate Agrarian Reform Committee. The memorandum stated that the "scheme is violative not only of the social justice provisions but even more so of the specific provisions of the Constitution on agrarian reform" since it "allows the original owners to remain the controlling interest at the expense of the supposedly farmer beneficiaries."

If the SDO does not actually benefit the sugar farm workers of the HLI, Santos, said it is imperative for the DAR to nullify the implementation of the SDO at HLI and pursue the lower court decision against the Cojuangcos.

Under these circumstance, the former DAR official said, that makes the Cojuangcos legally bound to distribute the hacienda to small farmers.

Santos also scored the DAR and the administrations after President Aquino for having no political will to settle the agrarian unrest in the hacienda.  It is sad that it had to take the lives of the fighting farm beneficiaries to put this issue into the government’s attention once more, he said. Bulatlat

ATTACK ON NERI ANOTHER HOAX

A couple of weeks ago, the Quezon City house of Social Security System (SSS) Secretary Romulo Neri was peppered with bullets by fourteen armed men clad in fatigue uniforms. Ironically, the controversial personality who became embroiled in the multi-million dollar broadband network deal in 2007 brushed off the incident and has not even made any attempt to help the authorities in identifying the culprits. His questionable approach to the incident has then led political observers to believe that he was actually expecting the violent and daring act to be staged on his residence.

A very keen observer would even believe Neri was staging his own kidnapping. Was this what Neri was up with all the speculation that he knew and was expecting the attack? An unimpeachable source clarified that the SSS Secretary was supposed to attend a meeting at eight o’clock that very morning but unexpectedly deferred his attendance for no apparent reason. He even reduced his security detail from ten to three, only last month, leading one to believe that he was indeed preparing the stage for his so-called abduction much like what Jun Lozada also attempted and failed to do last year upon his controversial return to the country.

However, much like Lozada, Neri underestimated his security aide and did not expect himself to be defended from his attackers. The gullible secretary must have thought that the sheer number of armed men would lead his security aides to back down and allow entry of the attackers to his house, thereby succeeding in acting out his abduction. As sourced out, the armed men were equipped with a sledgehammer and were supposed to force down the main gate to “get” to Neri. However, shots from inside which the attackers apparently did not anticipate made them abandon their plan.

The source further revealed that the attackers were known experts in their so-called trade of attack being long-time paid kidnappers, proven by their move in commandeering two vans and subsequently abandoning these for two other get-away vehicles near the area of their target, all backed up by a well-off padrino as proven by the lease made on a warehouse for P105,000.00 which was paid in full and in cold cash, a full a day prior to the attack.

Information obtained from another reliable source revealed that Neri was supposed to be held “incommunicado” a few days after his abduction. He was also scheduled to do an exposé, via live feed, against the Arroyo family to intentionally re-ignite the ZTE-NBN scandal and thereby create the much-needed critical mass to finally force out President Arroyo from Malacañang, which would then be supplemented by a military takeover. As the planned alternative, a call to install a transitional revolutionary government, a plan grounded by and being peddled by Senator Ping Lacson, will also be made. Obviously with this plan SSS Secretary Romulo Neri would definitely have served as Ping Lacson’s new witness and will be paraded under Lacson’s already long drawn out exposés in Senate.

RIGODON SA KAMPO NI NOYNOY AT MAR INAABANGAN

Hindi pa pala plantsado ang lahat tulad ng inaakala ng nakakarami. Malakas ang ugong-ugong na ang kampo ni Senador Noynoy Aquino at Senador Mar Roxas ay humaharap ngayon sa isang malaking intriga patungkol sa aktwal na pagpapatupad ng kanilang plano na “Noynoy-Mar” tandem para sa dadating na eleksyon sa 2010. Ayon sa isang tagapagmasid sa kampo ng Liberal Party ay posibleng magkaroon ng isang rigodon at magkapalit ng pwesto sila Noynoy at Mar kung saan si Mr Palengke ay babalik bilang standard bearer ng LP at si Noynoy ay babagsak para maging kandidato ng partido sa pagkabise presidente, ito diumano ay mangyayari bago matapos ang kasalukuyang taon.

Ang pagdeklara kay Noynoy sa labanan ng pagkapangulo at ang pagtanggap naman ni Mar bilang ka-partner nito ay hindi nangangahulugan na sila ay opisyal nang mga kandidato. Ito ay isang plano pa lamang na maaaring mapalitan lalo pa’t hindi pa nakapaghain ang dalawa ng kanila-kanilang opisyal na candidacy sa COMELEC. Hindi diumano papayagan ng grupong tinatawag na “The Firm” na maging pangalawa lamang si Mar. Ang grupong “The Firm” ang siyang nasa likod ng kandidatura ni Mr Palengke at tumutulak dito upang tumakbo sa pagkapangulo.

Ito ang isa sa mga pinanghahawakan ng grupong “The Firm” kasama na ang umiinit na intriga sa pagitan ng mga ibat-ibang grupong maka-Noynoy na ating namang natuklasan na pare-parehas palang naghihinanakit dahil sa sobrang pagkiling ng unico iho ni dating Pangulong Cory sa kanyang mga kapatid at ibang miyembro ng kaniyang pamilya sa tuwing may gagawing hakbang o di kaya ay bubuuing mga plano para sa 2010. Dahil dito ay nakakaramdam ng pagiging “out of place” ang mga kilalang miyembro ng Hyatt 10, ilang LP members at iba pang civil society groups na masugid na ipinalutang ang “Noynoy for President” sa kasagsagan ng pagluluksa kay President Cory Aquino.

Ang ganitong klaseng pagtatampo o ang pakiramdam ng pagtraydor ay pwedeng mag-udyok sa mga grupong ito na tuluyang talikuran si Noynoy at iakyat ng muli si Mar Roxas bilang kanilang kandidato sa pagkapangulo. Hindi ba’t kung sa ngayon pa lamang ay hindi na nila lubusang nahahawakan sa leeg si Noynoy ay posibleng sila naman ang ilaglag nito sa panahong ito ay magtagumpay sa 2010 at siya namang ika-uunsyami ng kani-kanilang mga personal na plano?

Ang posibleng pagririgodon ni Senador Noynoy at Senador Mar Roxas ay isang kaabang-abang na kaganapan sa bakod ng Liberal Party na una nang nag-akalang may malaking bentahe dahil sa mistulang mainit na pagtanggap ng mga tao sa Noynoy-Mar tandem. Ngunit ang ningning ng kahit ano mang bagay o tao ay lilipas din kung siya ay napapalibutan ng mga tao o grupong sisira dito.