DPWH contractors own party-lists; Comelec claims helplessness
Two DPWH contractors and an official punished for misconduct are the first three nominees for small vendors’ party-list. Netizens denounce them and dynastic parties for mocking the electoral process.
Comelec says it’s helpless. The Constitution wants party-list voting for marginalized sectors. But the Supreme Court allows mere self-proclaimed pro-poor advocates as nominees – even if billionaires.
But Comelec is disqualifying nuisance senatorial candidates “who mock elections because they don’t have the means or motive to campaign.”
Marilou Laurio Lipana, Florencio Pesigan and Sheryl Sandil filed as principal nominees of Samahan ng Maninindang Pilipino. SMP is one of Comelec’s 42 newly accredited parties for Election 2025.
Parties that garner six percent of votes can seat up to three congressmen. Comelec expects 160 to join the May 2025 party-list voting: 42 newbies, plus 118 accredited in Election 2022.
Lipana advanced P800,000 for SMP’s Comelec accreditation, she told Radyo5’s Ted Failon and DJ Chacha in an interview Friday, Oct. 4. “Nakamura pa sila,” Comelec Chairman George Garcia told the top-rating broadcasters in a follow-up Monday, Oct. 7.
Actual filing fee is P10,000, plus P100 legal research fee, totaling P10,100, said Garcia, a former election lawyer. But attorney’s fees (taga-lakad), publication in two newspapers and “voluminous” documents (ten copies each) bloat the costs.
Garcia said Comelec is just following laws. But watchdog Kontra Daya convenor Prof. Danny Arao lamented that P10,100 is already too dear for the laylayan ng lipunan (underprivileged), much more P800,000.
Lipana said she vends everything, from ready-to-wear to lights to “pakong bakya” in her Pasig shop. Pressed by Ted and Chacha, she admitted to be president and general manager of:
• Olympus Mining and Builders Group – DPWH awarded Lipana in June 2024 two roadway lighting works in Meycauayan and Marilao, Bulacan, P95 million each.
• Iron Ore, Gold and Vanadium Resources – Lipana bid in September 2021 for DENR’s offshore magnetite mining in Lingayen Gulf. Area: 10,000 hectares.
Pangasinan board member Von Mark Mendoza protested in behalf of Sual, Labrador, Lingayen, Binmaley and Dagupan folk. It would have hauled off 25 million tons of black sand every year for 25 years. Equivalent to 1,633,986 dumptruck loads a year, or 40,849,650 in 25 years.
• Gembar Enterprises – Lipana bid for MMDA’s solar powered LED streetlights in seven Quezon City locations, March 2022.
SMP second nominee Pesigan was Talisay, Batangas councilor till 2022. In 2017 the ombudsman suspended him for one year without pay for oppression and misconduct in picking fights while applying for a passport. In 2018 police found an unlicensed shotgun in his house.
Third nominee Sheryl Sandil has no credentials in SMP’s website. No FB page either. A mayor’s online post congratulates her wedding to Dennis Sandil in March 2022. A Dennis C. Sandil owns D.C. Sandil Construction and Realty Development Inc., with road projects in Antipolo City and Palawan.
Fourth is online hit “magpapares” Diwata Balbuena. Fifth is SMP president Emilyn Garcia. Plus five more nominees.
Comelec’s Garcia said they’ll screen each of the 160 parties’ ten nominees for Filipinoship, age, voter eligibility, residency, criminal conviction.
Kontra Daya peruses parties’ posts findings on its website. In Election 2022 it flagged those with political dynasts, big business connections, dubious advocacies, government or police/military ties, incumbent officials and with court cases or implicated in pork barrels. “Those were 70 percent,” Arao said.
Mayors Benjie Magalong, Vico Sotto and Joseph Rañola decry politicos who, aside from extracting 40-percent kickbacks, act as contractors and suppliers for 30 percent more.
Even the Filipino partner of Comelec’s electronic voting contractor Miru is running in May 2025. His St. Timothy Construction Corp. was made to withdraw as financier.
That leaves Miru with financial shortfall, and its contract legally flawed. Alyansa ng Nagkaka-Isang Mamamayan, consisting of retired generals, clergymen, professionals and civil society, wants Comelec to scrap the deal. Shift at once to hybrid balloting, ANIM says.
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Government is importing 470,000 tons of chicken meat this year, and 480,000 tons more in 2025.
To meet the yearly shortage, San Miguel Corp. is putting up 12 mega poultries across the country. Each will produce 80 million birds a year, or 960 million total.
But that still won’t meet domestic demand, says CEO Ramon S. Ang. SMC will continue contract-growing with poultrymen.
The old way produced a kilo of chicken meat per two kilos of feeds. Average harvest size was 1.1 kilo per bird.
SMC now has better breeds and feeds. Only 1.7 kilos of feeds produce a kilo of meat. But average size is 2.2 kilos per bird. Preferred by restaurant chains for breast, leg and nuggets.
SMC encourages contract-growers to adopt its method. Ang wants chicken to be Filipinos’ cheapest protein source.
The first mega farm operates in Hagonoy, Davao del Sur. Two will soon open in Sariaya, Quezon and Orani, Bataan.
Nine will follow in Badoc, Ilocos; San Fabian, Pangasinan; San Ildefonso, Bulacan; Balayan, Batangas; Bulan, Sorsogon; Leganes, Iloilo; Malabuyoc, Cebu; Phividec, Misamis Oriental; Pagadian, Zamboanga del Sur.
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