Friday, January 18, 2013

Pera, pulitika, at eleksyon: Comelec lays down rules

BY MALOU MANGAHAS
Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism  
January 16, 2013

THE ELECTION campaign period is on and in the nick of time, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has spelled out in no uncertain terms the rules of the game on election spending and donations for all candidates, political parties, service contractors, election personnel, and voters.

Campaign finance has always been a muddled issue in these parts, the laws observed largely in the breach. Except for a few thousand pesos of finest hat had been imposed on a handful, not a single candidate, party leader or voter had been jailed for the most gross and the most willful violations.

On Jan. 16, 2013, the Comelec en banc issued Resolution No. 9616, or the General Instructions for the Implementation of Campaign Finance Laws, as well as the relevant provisions of the Omnibus Election Code and The Fair Elections Act.


 

Model politician: An austere life for Uruguay’s president

Here is a politician who walks the talk.

Excerpted from early January's The New York Times...

BY SIMON ROMERO
The New York Times
January 4, 2013

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Some world leaders live in palaces. Some enjoy perks like having a discreet butler, a fleet of yachts or a wine cellar with vintage Champagnes.

Then there is José Mujica, the former guerrilla who is Uruguay’s president. He lives in a run-down house on Montevideo’s outskirts with no servants at all. His security detail: two plainclothes officers parked on a dirt road. In a deliberate statement to this cattle-exporting nation of 3.3 million people,

Mr. Mujica, 77, shunned the opulent Suárez y Reyes presidential mansion, with its staff of 42, remaining instead in the home where he and his wife have lived for years, on a plot of land where they grow chrysanthemums for sale in local markets.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/05/world/americas/after-years-in-solitary-an-austere-life-as-uruguays-president.html?smid=fb-share