Jejomar “Jojo” C. Binay (November 11, 1942) is the current mayor of the City of Makati in the Philippines. He is also the president of the United Opposition (UNO), National President of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Laban (PDP-Laban) and National President of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines.
Background
Jejomar Cabauatan Binay was born in Paco, Manila but grew up in Makati with his uncle, Ponciano, after Binay’s parents – Diego Medrano Binay of Bauan, Batangas and Lourdes Cabauatan of Cabagan, Isabela – passed away.
At a young age, Binay learned to rely on his resourcefulness and determination. He went around his neighborhood to gather slop for his uncle’s backyard piggery, looked after his uncle’s fighting cocks, and went to market daily.
Former President Joseph Estrada continues to hope for opposition unity to bring about a single standard bearer who would be a sure winner in 2010, and said he will continue with his efforts to unite the opposition and wait till the last quarter of 2009 to achieve this.
Short of this, however, Estrada may be forced to seek the presidency for himself in 2010, but said he will wait until the last quarter of the year to make that decision to run.
Manuel Leuterio de Castro, Jr. (born July 6, 1949), better known as Noli de Castro or “Kabayan”, is a politician and former broadcast journalist in the Philippines. De Castro was elected Senator in 2001 and was elected as Vice President of the Philippines in 2004. He is also the current secretary for housing and urban development. He is the first independent Senatorial topnotcher and the first elected independent Vice-President.
On January, 2008, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) directory officially listed President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s personal advisers and assistants (undersecretaries, directors and assistant secretaries) in the total of 54. These exclude those under the offices of Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye and their bureaus and agencies attached to the Office of the President. Vice President Noli de Castro’s office pays only 3 officials: a chief of staff, an assistant chief of staff and a director for administration and finance.
MANILA, Philippines – Two men claiming to be sons from a previous marriage of Arlene Sinsuat de Castro, the wife of Vice President Noli de Castro, yesterday filed several complaints against her before the National Bureau of Investigation.
Jhoveenel Ombus Olor, 34, and his brother Arjurie Omar, 33, both of Calamba, Laguna, filed complaints for bigamy, perjury and falsification of documents against Arlene.
Vice President de Castro and his wife refused to comment on the cases, saying they would just let their lawyers respond to the charges.
THE LOPEZ FACTOR
But perhaps more than the reports of unethical journalistic practices, it is De Castro’s Lopez connection that is the public’s unspoken fear. Long a fixture in Philippine politics and business, the Lopezes preside over an interlocking web of business interests that range from power generation to power distribution, telecommunications to water concessions, infrastructure, to broadcasting and publishing. Because of some of their companies’ histories, the Lopezes are perceived by many as having monopolistic tendencies and prone to ruthless business tactics.
Numerous focus-group discussions conducted by the TV industry show that the viewing public perceives the Lopezes to be using ABS-CBN to further their interests. The question many Filipinos have now is this: Would they likewise use de Castro for their own ends if and when he becomes president?
NOLI DE CASTRO has, in the past few years, portrayed himself as every corrupt government officials’ nemesis, the defender of the poor and the oppressed and the hope of the exploited and the helpless. Every morning, De Castro is heard over radio DZMM fearlessly lambasting corrupt police officials, taking to task lazy and inefficient government functionaries and exposing exploitative and oppressive private individuals and Big Business. His exposes continue on ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation’s primetime television news, TV PATROL and the once-a-week news magazine program, MAGANDANG GABI, BAYAN. In the process, De Castro has managed to cultivate an image of “MR. CLEAN.” Indeed, he has become everybody’s KABAYAN.
MANILA, Philippines – House Speaker Prospero Nograles is calling all pro-administration parties to field a common standard bearer for 2010 presidential elections, as negotiations to merge Lakas-CMD and Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) near collapse.
In her report in GMA News’ 24 Oras Thursday, Maki Pulido said the merger of Lakas and Kampi seems impossible to attain before 2010 elections. Instead, Arroyo allies are now working to have a common presidential candidate to make pro-administration coalition parties intact.
THE Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, yesterday dismissed and terminated the election protest filed by Sen. Loren Legarda against Vice President Noli de Castro for failure to sufficiently prove her claim of fraud.
In a 20-page resolution penned by Senior Associate Justice Leonardo Quisumbing, the tribunal dismissed for lack of legal and factual basis the first aspect of Legarda’s protest involving the correction of errors of the certificates of canvass and election returns.
Vice President Noli de Castro yesterday said that he has decided to decline President Gloria Macapagal Arroyos offer to name him secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Juliano Soliman will remain head of the department, he said in a statement. Read more
THOUGH many of his townmates in Pola, Oriental Mindoro, remember Sen. Manuel “Noli” de Castro with fondness and admiration, his critics scoff at him as nothing more than a bundle of discrepancies.
As the May 10 election draws nearer, allegations have been made more stridently in the media against the man the opinion surveys consistently say is most likely to win the vice-presidential race.
