‘A national popular vote will force candidates to actually campaign in California and talk about our issues.’

-        Assembly member Jerry Hill

Sacramento, Calif.– Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation by Assemblymember Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) to increase the clout of California voters in presidential elections. 

Assembly Bill 459 – the National Popular Vote for President bill – will guarantee the presidential candidate with the most popular votes in all 50 states will be sworn into office.

The bill does not take effect until identical legislation is enacted by states representing a majority of the Electoral College.

Following is excerpted from Pres. Aquino’s second state of the nation address delivered July 25.

We want ARMM to experience the benefits of good governance. And so, the solution: Synchronization—candidates in ARMM will run at the same time as candidates in other parts of the country. There would be less opportunity for them to employ command votes for political patrons. The result would be fairer elections. Thank you to Congress for passing the law synchronizing ARMM with the national elections.

And why do we need to postpone the elections? Because, in their desire to return to or retain power, many are prepared to engage in corrupt practices just to win again. Imagine if we had listened to the critics, and allowed the election to proceed under these circumstances. We would have perpetuated the endless cycle of electoral fraud and official abuse that has led ARMM to become one of the poorest regions in the country.

I do not doubt that the reforms we are putting in place will yield concrete results.

Earlier this week, California State University Chancellor Charles Reed continued to prioritize executive compensation over the needs of students.  His actions prompted an urgency to pass legislation that would prohibit pay hikes for administrators during bad budget years.

At a special committee of the CSU Board of Trustees, Reed said, “In recruiting and selecting presidents…that is the single most important responsibility of this board. I don’t think there is any question about that.”

There is no question that Chancellor Reed has the wrong priorities and is completely out of touch.  The number one focus of his office and the Trustees should be on the students and their needs, not on creating a get rich factory for top executives.

“It is telling that the Chancellor does not think that the number one job of the Board of Trustees is to ensure the success of our students,” said Lillian Taiz, President of the California Faculty Association. “Furthermore, it is simply repugnant to hear the Chancellor cry poor about well-to-do executives having to sell a home at a loss and seeing their pensions capped at a mere $240,000 per year while tens of thousands of students are losing their opportunity to climb into the middle class.”

Whether her baby is a he or a she, the nickname will be.

With so many things happening here in Manila, as well as the rest of the world, I sometimes fail to realize that I am about to enter the last great stage of my life. No, I am not saying I am some great person. I’m just a working Joe like everybody else. But by early next year, I will be something else – a grandfather.

The second of my four kids, and the only one who is married thus far, broke the news to us a couple of weeks ago. She’s pregnant.

I don’t know if my reaction was normal. I was stunned. My wife and I had been waiting for exactly this little piece of news for the past several months after she got married in December, last year. But when it finally came, I was speechless. Unbelievably happy, yes, but also unable to say anything sensible.

A lot of my peers became grand dads ahead of me, and I was always amused whenever they raved about the kids of their kids. Hey, it’s normal, I wanted to tell them. But I usually gave polite comments about how awesome it must be.

Institutionalizing graft and corruption as what happened during her term is one thing, but stealing the presidency is another.

What if it is proven that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had indeed cheated her way to the presidency in the 2004 elections? What next?

She has already completed her six-year term, scandal-riddled though it was. If, as former Commission on Elections supervisor Lintang Bedol’s claim that there was massive cheating during those polls – more than enough to alter the final results – is proven correct, there is nothing more that can be done except to hold the former president accountable for her theft of the presidency from the late Fernando Poe Jr.

We will never know what an FPJ presidency would have been like. The popular actor died shortly after the elections. If he was indeed the winner, and if he had still passed away, then whoever was elected vice president would have become chief executive.

That vice president would have been either Mrs. Arroyo’s running mate, Noli de Castro, who was declared winner and who also served a full term, or Poe’s running mate, Senator Loren Legarda.

Legarda, it will be recalled, had filed an election protest, but gave it up when she later ran for reelection as senator, and then had a second, failed, bid to become vice president in 2010. In last year’s elections, she had seemingly lost her touch, landing a poor third place to eventual winner Jejomar Binay and second placer Mar Roxas.

If FPJ had won, then it stands to reason that Legarda might have won too. Although the vice presidential race is treated separately from the presidential derby in Philippine elections, the alleged massive cheating that worked against Poe would also have been detrimental to Legarda’s cause. She might have been the Philippine president following Poe’s demise.

Analysts will say this is all water under the bridge. But to let the massive cheating that supposedly occurred pass would be an enormous crime against the republic. If one person could cheat her way to the presidency, then any other future candidate can take the same route. That illegitimate president, along with his or her family and favored cronies, would again rob the country blind.

In effect, the democracy that the Philippines claims is no democracy at all. The country would be no better than some African, Arab or South American countries where leaders appoint themselves, completely disregarding the will of their people.

The Arroyo camp can resort to whatever legal arguments they want. The issue is far from being moot and academic. The fact cannot be erased that there were serious doubts about the legitimacy of her presidency.

If it seems that Mrs. Arroyo is being unfairly persecuted by the current administration for imagined sins, as her followers claim, she has no one to blame but herself. Institutionalizing graft and corruption as what happened during her term is one thing, but stealing the presidency is another. Such an unspeakable crime cannot be allowed to pass simply because her term as president has passed.

The accusations made by Bedol, as well as former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor Zaldy Ampatuan, that Mrs. Arroyo and her inner circle conspired to steal the presidency should not be taken lightly. Mrs. Arroyo must face her accusers in a court of law, and be punished to the law’s fullest extent if found guilty.