“If New York (the United States), Sydney (Australia) and Moscow (Russia) have their own grand celebration, this is our version,” Binay said.

“This is also our way to share love and to lead Filipinos in welcoming 2009 with hope and optimism.”

In neighboring Bonifacio Global City, streaks of red, yellow and green lit up the sky above The Fort where the Taguig city government threw a New Year countdown and street party for around 5,000 people, highlighted by a spectacular 15-minute fireworks presentation by the award-winning La Mancha pyrotechnics group.

At the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City, executives and celebrities of the GMA 7 television network sponsored a grand party, to the delight of their fans and supporters.

Rained out

Some 10,000 people, under the watchful eye of 120 policemen, showed up at the Makati street party held at the corner of Ayala and Makati Avenues despite the intermittent showers.

“If not for the drizzle, more people could have come and celebrated with us,” Binay said.

The annual New Year countdown party in Makati also served as a fundraising event for the ABS-CBN Foundation’s “Sagip Kapamilya” to help indigent families.

To keep the crowd entertained, rock bands like Sandwich, Blue Ketchup, the Bloomfields and Brownman Revival performed their hit songs and revved up the crowd.

Dancing lights

Shortly before the stroke of midnight, Binay went up the makeshift stage and led the official countdown to 2009 as a splendid 10-minute fireworks display sponsored by the city government lit up the skies.

As the clock struck midnight at The Fort, organizers let loose a spectacle of light that seemed to dance to the rhythm of the music playing in the background.

As fireworks exploded in crimson and light green hues, yellow sparks formed a line of small rocket bursts, to cheers and applause from the crowd that packed the corner of 5th Avenue and 26th Street.

Lights from thousands of clicking cameras flashed incessantly as people tried to get a snapshot of the display. Others raised their beer bottles to greet the New Year, while some hugged the person next to them.

The display was excerpted from the La Mancha presentation that won third place in a fireworks competition in Hanover, Germany. La Mancha was one of the organizers of the World Pyrolympics held in the Philippines in 2005 and 2006.

“From the feedback that I heard, people loved last night’s fireworks display because it shot up really high,” said Senior Supt. Camilo Cascolan.

People started to trickle in at around 9 p.m., said Cascolan, who kept watch with a contingent of the Taguig police. After the party ended around 1 a.m., the police chief said he noticed more people arriving and the parking lots filling up with more cars.

P1-M prize money

Of those who attended the Makati event, Roque Ferfas almost went home the champion. But Ferfas narrowly missed taking home the much-coveted P1 million grand prize of the night’s raffle draw.

Ferfas only got to identify 14 Makati City logos, just two short to win the top prize, from the boxes that were flashed on the giant screen onstage, according to Fel Lim, one of the event organizers.

Lovelyn Fortaliza and Princess Saja also had the chance to pocket the P1-million prize, being among the 15 lucky partygoers who were selected by raffle draw to play the game.

Fortaliza and Saja only successfully identified eight and three Makati logos, respectively.

The three each took home P20,000 in cash, plus either a digital camera, Apple iPod and Sony Playstation Portable game console.

Participants needed only to donate any amount to the foundation to get one raffle stub.

“Although nobody won the P1 million, it was a successful night for the foundation,” Lim said.

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Binay said Makati has been signing sisterhood agreements with various local governments even before he announced his interest to join the presidential race last month.

He said Makati has forged sisterhood ties with at least 130 cities and towns in the country.

In his visit here from Tuesday to Thursday, Binay met local officials and signed sisterhood ties with the cities of Alaminos and San Carlos and the towns of Mangaldan, Manaoag and San Quintin.

Makati earlier signed similar agreements with the towns of Binmaley, Sta. Barbara, San Fabian and Rosales and Urdaneta City.

Binay said these partnerships are mutual agreements between Makati and other local governments.

“We are approached by mayors for our cities and towns to become sisters,” he said.

While Makati is the most developed and prosperous city in the country, Binay said the city could still learn lessons from small cities and towns.

“We do not have a monopoly of good governance. We will also learn from your experiences,” he said.

Binay says Pangasinan trips not for 2010 – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

More than 2,000 supporters from the city and the provinces carrying streamers like “Obama of the Philippines” and “Jojo Binay for President” gathered at 7 a.m. for a Thanksgiving Mass as they waited for the mayor to make the declaration.

In his speech, Binay, who is also the United Opposition president, criticized the Arroyo government by bringing up issues like the national broadband network scandal and the fertilizer fund scam and said there was need for another “revolution.”

“I am accepting your challenge to lead this revolution toward a progressive and respected Philippines,” said the activist and lawyer.

Binay was introduced by Makati Representative Teodoro “Teddyboy” Locsin Jr., who pointed out that the 19-year Makati mayor would like to be known for his “performance” and not his ambition.

“The city is the crowning testimony to his ability to lead the country,” Locsin said.

As to his programs, Binay said he would stamp out graft and corruption and focus on productivity and peace and order.

The mayor’s acceptance speech ended with the supporters releasing yellow and blue balloons with the print “Makati ngayon, Pilipinas bukas [Today Makati, tomorrow, the Philippines].”

INQUIRER.net,

“Si Mayor Binay din naman ay may kapasidad, may abilidad. Napakita ni Mayor Binay yung kanyang kakayahan bilang chief executive ng premier city ng Pilipinas (Mayor Binay has the capacity and the ability. He has shown this as the chief executive of the country’s premier city),” Estrada said in an interview over QTV’s Balitanghali.

Earlier in the day, Binay declared his presidential bid for the 2010 elections during the celebrations of his 66th birthday at the Makati City Hall.

Binay is included in UNO’s (United Opposition) bench of “presidentiables.” The Makati City mayor said he will accept it if UNO will not field him as their standard bearer. Binay is UNO president.

Estrada, however, said UNO has yet determine its standard bearer for the 2010 polls.

“Sa ngayon, wala pa tayong napipili. Kung sino ang nakikita nating pinakamalakas, yun ang pipiliin natin. Siguro mga one year before o less than a year before the elections malalaman na natin kung sinong nangunguna sa survey,’ Estrada said.

(As of now, we haven’t picked a standardbearer. We would probably pick the one we deem to be the strongest contender. I think that a year before or less than a year before the elections, the surveys will show who the top presidential picks are.)

Estrada added he hopes the opposition will unite to boost their chances in winning in the 2010 elections. He said the UNO can learn from the recently concluded United States elections where Democrat Senator Barack Obama emerged victorious.

“Sana magkaisa ang opposisyon para masiguro ang panalo ng opposisyon. Sa nakaraang eleksyon ay apat-apat ang kumandidato, kaya madaling nadaya. Mukhang nangyari nung 2004 eleksyon, pinaghiwahiwalay ang mga boto ni FPJ [Fernando Poe Jr] at nagdagdag-bawas pa,” Estrada said.

(I hope the opposition unites to ensure our win. We had four candidates in the last elections that’s why we were easily cheated. FPJ’s votes were reduced and I believe there was vote-padding and vote-slashing.)

Last week, UNO spokesperson Lawyer Adel Tamano said the opposition will try to field a single candidate for next elections in an effort to “emulate” the US election system where during the primaries, Democrats and Republicans vote for a single standard-bearer for the general elections.

Tamano added that President-elect Obama serves as their inspiration as his victory proves that it is possible to stand up against “the machinery and the money of the powerful.” – GMANews.TV

GMANews.TV

Binay emerged as the victor in the mayoral race by an overwhelming margin, capturing 198,814 of the votes cast from the city’s two districts against administration Senator Manuel “Lito” Lapid’s 22,462.

His other little-known opponent, Elias Dulalia, had 1,243 votes, based on the final count of all 1,834 precincts canvassed at the Makati Coliseum by the local Commission on Elections office.

“The message of Makati is clear: In a democracy, it is the people who will judge their leaders,” Binay said. “Malacañang clearly misread the pulse of the people of Makati.”

Lapid’s candidacy was widely believed as an administration strategy to rid Makati of Binay, a bitter political foe of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“More importantly, we showed the entire Philippines that we are prepared to defend our city’s freedom,” he said, referring to the national government’s efforts to evict him prior to the elections.

On May 4, Binay was served a suspension order in connection with a complaint filed in the Office of the Ombudsman by a political rival who had accused him of keeping ghost employees.

Two days earlier, the Bureau of Internal Revenue froze the city’s bank accounts in what it said was an effort to recover P1.1 billion in unpaid withholding taxes.

But the Arroyo administration backtracked after the twin moves elicited criticism. It deferred the implementation of the suspension order until after the polls and lifted the freeze order on all but one of the banks holding the city’s funds.

In the vice mayoralty contest, Binay’s running mate Ernesto Mercado got 151,431 votes and was proclaimed vice mayor. His opponent, Nemesio Yabut Jr., got 48,456 votes.

All the candidates for councilmen in Binay’s ticket, including his reelectionist son District 1 Councilor Jejomar Erwin, were also proclaimed winners.

Mayor Binay’s daughter, Marlen Abigail, was proclaimed winner in the second congressional district after garnering a total of 70,904 votes. Her opponent Erwin Genuino, son of Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. president and CEO Ephraim Genuino, got 41,191.

Anthony, Genuino’s son, also ran for district 1 councilor but did not make it to the top eight.

Reelectionist Representative Teodoro Locsin Jr. was declared winner in the first congressional district after he garnered 85,958 votes. Former councilor Oscar Ibay got 17,489 votes.

Shiela Rojas, election officer of Makati’s second district and chair of the local board of canvassers, proclaimed the winners at about 6 a.m., after a whole night devoted to canvassing, tabulating and adding up the votes.

Hours before, Lakas-Kampi Makati campaign manager Bong Ferrer said they would try to stop the proclamation on the basis of an electoral protest they had filed with the Comelec shortly after Monday’s polls.

“We have evidence that there was massive vote buying and cheating committed by the other camp, and we are prepared to present these in the proper forum,” he said.

A crowd of about 150 supporters of the Genuinos crowded the gates of the coliseum and started a program accusing Binay’s camp of robbing their candidates of victory.

But by midnight, the crowd had thinned to a few handfuls, and were all gone at dawn.

When the winning candidates were proclaimed at a little before 6 a.m., Ferrer and the lawyers for his party were also nowhere to be found.

Binay, surrounded by bodyguards and aides, entered the coliseum just moments after the canvassing in district 2 closed, eliciting scattered cheers from supporters, mostly poll watchers.

The members of his ticket, including his wife, former Mayor Elenita Binay, Abigail, Jun-Jun, and other family relatives, started streaming into the coliseum.

But they had to wait another hour for the proclamation, as the totaling of the votes for district 1 took longer than expected.

What slowed down the tabulation, Rojas said, was the commotion over the incidents of alleged vote padding, in which figures were allegedly added to the total of Anthony Genuino’s votes in three summaries of votes.

Reden Villanueva, a poll watcher for newly elected Councilor Luis Javier, was the first to notice the alleged discrepancy, in which what was supposed to be “867″ votes was changed into “1,867.”

Two other poll watchers reported similar alleged vote-padding incidents, in which “990,” was converted to “1,990,” and “1,000″ became “1,800.”

Ferrer, however, said the incidents could either be an “honest mistake,” or a “set-up,” to make it appear their camp was cheating.

To the objections of some lawyers present, Rojas did not order the complete rechecking of all summaries of votes for discrepancies, and instead, just asked the tabulators to recompute the figures.

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