Today's Exactly100: Noted

Senator Francis Pangilinan and his defenders invoke practical politics in justifying the decision to join the majority bloc in the Senate.

The senator even urged his critics to look at his track record, and sure enough his reputation as “Mr. Noted” keeps popping up. A quick refresher: Pangilinan was a member of the national board of canvassers in the 2004 presidential elections where then president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo defeated opposition bet Fernando Poe Jr. amid charges of fraud. His reply to the opposition’s insistence to scrutinize election returns to check for fraud was the word “noted.” He was an Arroyo ally. /Joey Salgado