Thread For Our Next National Administration

[islander]

She met the third objective by acknowledging her reservations from her first sentence. “Dumating na po ang araw na sinusubukan naming mag-iina na harapin nang buong tapang” (The day I and my daughters have tried to face with full courage—that day has come). She spoke about her initial response to the news that she was being considered for the position: “Bakit ako? Sa dinami-dami ng puwedeng pagpilian, bakit ako pa?” (Why me? Of the many possible choices, why me of all people?) She addressed her daughters, whose lives will be, as Roxas said in his introduction, “put on hold,” with words of gratitude and assurance.


Leni Robredo Caught Using Backdoor Entrance to Escape SONA Red Carpet - RachFeed

And then she introduced herself: She was not merely Jesse’s devoted wife and firm supporter. With his help, she had achieved her childhood dream, of becoming a lawyer like her father, by studying at night while working during the day. And when she passed the bar, she chose the more difficult path: “Noon pong nakamit ko ang matagal ko nang minimithi, ipinangako ko po sa aking sarili na gagamitin ko sa tama ang ipinagkaloob sa akin” (When I reached my lifelong goal, I promised myself that I would use what was given to me the right way). To this end, she said, she served first in the Public Attorney’s Office, providing legal counsel to those who could not afford it. And then she joined an alternative lawyers’ group, in which capacity she was able to work with “farmers, fishermen, workers, the urban poor, women, youth, indigenous people.”

It was an introduction that made people, even those looking cynically at campaign politics, sit up and take notice. “Hindi po ako si Jesse,” she said at one point. I am not Jesse. She must have meant it as a disclaimer, but it came across as a simple, subtle affirmation: I am my own person.

opinion.inquirer.net/

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

She met the third objective by acknowledging her reservations from her first sentence. “Dumating na po ang araw na sinusubukan naming mag-iina na harapin nang buong tapang” (The day I and my daughters have tried to face with full courage—that day has come). She spoke about her initial response to the news that she was being considered for the position: “Bakit ako? Sa dinami-dami ng puwedeng pagpilian, bakit ako pa?” (Why me? Of the many possible choices, why me of all people?) She addressed her daughters, whose lives will be, as Roxas said in his introduction, “put on hold,” with words of gratitude and assurance.


Leni Robredo Caught Using Backdoor Entrance to Escape SONA Red Carpet - RachFeed

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

And then she introduced herself: She was not merely Jesse’s devoted wife and firm supporter. With his help, she had achieved her childhood dream, of becoming a lawyer like her father, by studying at night while working during the day. And when she passed the bar, she chose the more difficult path: “Noon pong nakamit ko ang matagal ko nang minimithi, ipinangako ko po sa aking sarili na gagamitin ko sa tama ang ipinagkaloob sa akin” (When I reached my lifelong goal, I promised myself that I would use what was given to me the right way). To this end, she said, she served first in the Public Attorney’s Office, providing legal counsel to those who could not afford it. And then she joined an alternative lawyers’ group, in which capacity she was able to work with “farmers, fishermen, workers, the urban poor, women, youth, indigenous people.”

It was an introduction that made people, even those looking cynically at campaign politics, sit up and take notice. “Hindi po ako si Jesse,” she said at one point. I am not Jesse. She must have meant it as a disclaimer, but it came across as a simple, subtle affirmation: I am my own person.

opinion.inquirer.net/

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[hubag bohol]

yet a BI-HON (binay-honasan) tandem now is quite a joke.  guisado, anyone?

Binay-Honasan tandem a big disappointment
Oct 5
by quierosaber
 




After so many rejections suffered by Vice President Jejomar Binay in his desperate attempt wooing politicians to become his running mate, he finally was able to convince Sen. Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan to accept the offer.

It took a second pass though because on the first proposal Honasan described the tandem of Bi-Hon or Bin-Go (for Binay-Gringo) as a painful joke, which is another phrase for a sick joke, saying, that it won’t fly.

According to Honasan, it was the pressure coming from the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) more than Binay’s jawboning that made him succumbed to run as the party’s vice presidential candidate.

Needless to say that, like Binay, UNA itself was desperate in finding an able supporter outside the realm of the party who could help excite and improve the sagging image of Binay, that it had no other recourse but to nominate an insider, Honasan.

What can Honasan really crow about his performance and accomplishments as a politician, and even as a soldier, that would make people agog and hopeful of the Bi-Hon tandem?

We are all aware that Honasan was a former renegade soldier who led a number of aborted coups against the presidency of Cory Aquino. His reasons then for launching the rebellion was that under Cory, graft and corruption had increased, political family dynasties have gained power, the communist insurgents have been allowed to expand their activities through legal front groups and the president “adopted measures that tended or were intended to widen the rift between the military and civil government.”

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[hubag bohol]

If only an older Honasan had held on to the ideals the younger Honasan had when he was in the military, it would have made an impact and a big difference in his decision now to run as Binay’s vice presidential candidate.

But look what has happened.

While the administration of Cory’s son, President Benigno Aquino (PNoy), is doing everything to run the country the way Honasan sees fit, what does the latter do?

Honasan has not only agreed to run in tandem with Binay, but he is also supporting a presidential candidate who has been accused of corrupt practices and who, to this day, has not proven himself clean and beyond doubt. What is even worse is that Honasan is embracing the despicable family dynasty of the Binays.

Now if this is not Honasan’s highest point of hypocrisy, I don’t know what is.

During the turbulent years of the Cory presidency, Honasan, sporting a long hair, was more known for his Rambo-style notoriety, after John Rambo, a troubled Vietnam War veteran and former US Army Special Forces soldier skilled in many aspects of survival, weaponry, hand-to-hand combat and guerilla warfare.

Ironically, during those same tumultuous years, the diminutive Binay, then an avid supporter of Cory, was seen clad in Army fatigues and lugging an Uzi submachine pistol ready to defend and die for PNoy’s mother from coup plotters. This attire and gallantry earned Binay the sobriquet “Rambotito” or Little Rambo.

Rambo and Rambotito on different sides during those days was a big joke.

Together today, they are a big disappointment.


https://quierosaber.wordpress.com/2015/10/05/binay-honasan-tandem-a-big-disappointment/

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

rambo:





rambotito:





Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

binay family then:



binay dynasty now:





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[Brownman]

I don't want to elect a corrupt officials, sobra na sila, baga kaayo ang mga nawung...

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

throwback 2012; wish there are more of them.


Oddball election candidates

(excerpts from http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/)

‘Why not try us?’

Brillantes and Commissioners Rene Sarmiento, Grace Padaca, Lucenito Tagle and Armando Velasco patiently posed questions to the hopefuls during the marathon hearing.

Seventeen aspirants out of a total of 43 that were scheduled to appear Thursday failed to show up. Brillantes said the aspirants would be considered nuisance candidates—and, therefore, eliminated—unless they could convincingly explain their absence.

Brillantes repeatedly asked the aspirants if they were happy with the performance of the Senate.

“Aren’t you happy with Senator (Lito) Lapid?” Brillantes asked aspirant Elizabeth Capular, a nurse.

Capular said she was satisfied with Lapid but added: “Let new ones participate. Why not try us?”

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

Apology to Portugal

Among those who showed up was Orlando Suerte, who said he was an employee of the Land Transportation Office conducting seminars for future drivers.

“We should write a letter of apology to the people of Portugal for the death of Magellan,” Suerte said—referring to the 16th-century Portuguese explorer—when asked about his platform.

He also wanted to change the date of Philippine Independence Day and change the Spanish-sounding surnames of Filipinos, which have “negative meanings.”

“Surnames like Estupido or Microbio. Generations of Filipinos shouldn’t suffer under those surnames,” said Suerte, whose name means “lucky” in Spanish.

Brillantes joked: “Maybe you also want to ban ‘Malas (unlucky)’ or change these surnames to Filipino, like Puno (tree) … or Sanga (branch), Ugat (root), or Dahon (leaf).”

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

White House link

Retiree Eduardo Fernandez all but went down on his knees to beg the Comelec to allow him to run for the Senate.

“I have an online (connection) to the White House. I’ve e-mailed President Obama to ask that we become a US state, like Hawaii or (the US territory) Puerto Rico,” Fernandez said.

Brillantes replied: “I’d pity President Obama if we become a state. We’re too many.”

But Fernandez said he wanted his grandchildren to have a better life, adding the Philippines was going nowhere because of graft and corruption.

“If I have to kneel, I would, just so I can push for our US statehood … Thank you, Your Excellency,” he said.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

Going back home

Brillantes corrected him and said Comelec commissioners preferred to be addressed “Your Honor” rather than “Your Excellency” because “the number of Presidents here might suddenly increase.”

“But that’s just right for you because your hair is so white,” Fernandez said and, eliciting laughter, added unexplainably: “Kami papunta pa lang, kayo pauwi na (We are just moving on while you are on your way back home).”

Brillantes replied in jest that he didn’t want to be going home yet.

Each candidate spoke for six minutes on average with the commissioners questioning them on their political views, background and capability to wage a senatorial campaign across the country.


white-haired comelec chairman sixto brillantes jr. ain't goin' home yet

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

‘Enrile overstaying’

While the aspirants presented different platforms, they were united in saying that the Senate badly needed new blood.

“Why have elections if we’re going to see the same old faces?” asked Daniel Magtira, the self-proclaimed husband of Kris Aquino, eliciting applause from those present.

He wore a bow tie with a pin that read: “Sen. Magtira.”



Arsenio Dimaya, a native of Cagayan who promised to supply Filipinos with vegetables if elected, said he wouldn’t mind winning the Senate presidency.

“You’re also from Cagayan, like the Senate President (Juan Ponce Enrile) … Aren’t you afraid about replacing him?” Brillantes asked.

“There has been so little change in the Senate. (Enrile) is already overstaying,” Dimaya replied.

Someone from the gallery shouted: “Give others a chance!”


Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/291646/comelec-hears-out-kris-hubby-25-other-oddballs#ixzz3oLRNiBhU
Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook

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[islander]

EDITORIAL

Instructive picture

Philippine Daily Inquirer
October 13th, 2015

THAT THE Philippines is the land of the strange and the surreal—of women who give birth to fish and lawmakers who propose laws to ban typhoons—is once again reaffirmed with that truly remarkable picture of Sen. Bongbong Marcos joined onstage by former president and now Manila Mayor Erap Estrada, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, and his mother, former first lady Imelda Marcos, as they endorse his bid for the vice presidency in the 2016 polls.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

The truly discerning would have heard some odd cosmic noises rising to the surface when that picture first began making the rounds of social media—first, the snickering of the rest of the world at the incredulous spectacle of the family that, not too long ago, ran the Philippines to the ground being allowed to make a comeback of any sort on the political stage, and apparently without having to bat a single remorseful eyelash; and, second, the mass disruption that must have occurred underground as Ninoy Aquino, Jose Diokno, Edgar Jopson and some 30,000 other victims of the Marcoses’ martial law collectively turned in their grave and gnashed their teeth at the sight.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

The sheer breadth of the plunder, corruption and official wrongdoing represented on that stage by the assembled foursome would appear to have no equal in the world’s annals. There, first of all, are the Marcos mother and son, heirs to an estimated $10 billion of illegal wealth looted from the treasury of the Philippines, which they have continued to flaunt with their high living and repeated runs for office, but for which they have, time and again, refused to apologize. Imelda herself has claimed that a raft of local business institutions from Meralco to PLDT to virtually whole industries of the economy are hers and her family’s; but she has yet to stay a day in prison for such willful, on-record admissions of unexplained wealth.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

The Marcos son, meanwhile, has invariably feigned ignorance about the excesses of his father’s rule, denying not only the documented deaths and/or disappearances of tens of thousands of people who were cut down by Marcos’ military machine—in 1999, he even called them greedy and only after the money (“Basta’t  may  pag-asang  magkapera,  nagaaway-away  na  sila,” as he put it)—but also the billions stashed in Swiss bank accounts in his parents’ names. But, as Raissa Robles had reported in the South China Morning Post in 2011, Bongbong “had a direct hand in trying to withdraw $200 million from a secret family bank account with Credit Suisse in Switzerland.”

Which means the son’s protestations of cluelessness are hogwash. He remains committed not only to perpetuating the whitewash of the dark, violent chapter his father had visited on the country, but, more sleazily, he has no compunction wallowing in the money his family had robbed from the Filipino people, whom he now thinks are dense and bovine enough to forget—so soon—the crimes associated with his surname, and thereby make him their VP.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

There’s Erap, too, raising Bongbong’s right hand—the first president impeached from office and convicted of plunder, who should have been expiating in prison for his crookedness while in Malacañang but for the Machiavellian pardon granted him by another widely perceived corrupt president.

And there was, wonder of wonders, Juan Ponce Enrile by Bongbong’s left side, the man who had instigated the rebellion leading to the People Power Revolt that would drive the Marcos family, his former bosses, out of the country. But that’s getting ahead of the story. Enrile was also the defense minister reported to have faked his own ambush to give Marcos another pretext for declaring martial law. Enrile was among the Marcos cronies seen to have amassed extensive hidden wealth, but, unlike them, he could switch sides at opportune moments to ensure that he survived.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

And so he has—even now, just recently getting eight Supreme Court justices to release him from incarceration on plunder charges because he is supposedly too old and too sick to be in prison. A joke, of course—he marched back to the Senate upon release, and is now back not only on the campaign hustings, but also in the bosom of the Marcoses.

Everything you need to know about our greatest fault as a people is in that picture—principally, our inability to be angry for long at wrongdoing and wrongdoers, and to levy justice on them so that others of the same stripe would know that crime does not pay. That picture is an indictment of Marcos et al.’s sense of impunity—and of our own hand in enabling them.

opinion.inquirer.net/

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

The sheer breadth of the plunder, corruption and official wrongdoing represented on that stage by the assembled foursome would appear to have no equal in the world’s annals.

doing the math; alleged amount of plunder:

Ferdinand Marcos - at least $10 billion by 1986, equivalent to about $21.6 billion in 2014 dollars*

Joseph Estrada - $78 million to $80 million**

Juan Ponce Enrile - P172.8 million


*ranked world's no. 2 in order of amount stolen
**ranked world's no. 10
- 2004, the German anti-corruption NGO Transparency International, 2004
wikipedia

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[islander]

Young Bongbong... out of touch?

more at RETURN THE ILL-GOTTEN WEALTH FIRST, BONGBONG (#SAANGALINGANGPERAMO)
Posted by Joe America on October 10, 2015
http://joeam.com/2015/10/10/return-the-ill-gotten-wealth-first-bongbong-saangalingangperamo/

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

Duterte and Cayetano


by Jojo Robles
October 16, 2015

The question is important: Now that Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is not running for President, who will step up and make Senator Alan Peter Cayetano a foundling by adopting him?

But before that, let’s talk about Duterte, the little engine from Davao that couldn’t make it all the way to Malacañang. And yes, I know I predicted that the mayor would run, an idea that appealed to so many people who wanted to see Duterte take his brand of hands-on, no-nonsense governance to the biggest stage of all—the presidential palace.

But as people close to the mayor have repeatedly told me (and the rest of the country, really), no one can force Duterte to do something he doesn’t want to do. And when Duterte declared yesterday that he would run for reelection instead of the presidency, he proved that he was not going to be stampeded into going for the highest office in the land, if he didn’t really want to do that.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

I’m sure Duterte truly agonized about running, never mind if he sounded like he never seriously entertained the idea when he filed his certificate for reelection to the mayorship. And I’m convinced that whatever made him finally decide not to run (whether it was his family, his age, his health, his lack of funding or whatever else) is something that only Duterte will really know for certain.

As for me, all I know for sure is that the Davao City mayor could have been a real contender and—if he had won—a true agent of change. Anyone with Duterte’s track record of effective, law-and-order governance and with his promise of refocusing economic growth to the neglected provinces will appeal to people who feel helpless against corruption and crime and left behind by the administrators of Imperial Manila.

I know that some people are still holding out the hope that Duterte will change his mind today, the last day of filing of certificates of candidacy, and declare for the presidency. But at this point, that would probably do him more harm than good, making him appear wishy-washy, something that, I’m told by his closest friends, is farthest from the truth.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

In the end, we will never know what the non-candidate Duterte, who stirred up the sort of enthusiasm that I have never seen before (and probably never will again) for someone so reluctant to run, could have accomplished if he had become President. And maybe that’s all for the best.

* * *

But what about Cayetano, the man who would be Duterte’s running mate? What’s the senator to do, now that the star he wanted so desperately to hitch his wagon to didn’t even come close to hitching distance?

Cayetano’s quest for the vice presidency is all but dead in the murky water of the Laguna Bay in his hometown of Taguig. And Cayetano’s naked attempts to convince Duterte to run, so that the mayor may be pressed into service as the senator’s stepping stone to higher office, has exposed him as the worst kind of political opportunist—a class of politician that we certainly don’t need any more representatives of.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

If the 2016 elections were a game of musical chairs, Cayetano has been eliminated, since everyone seeking the second-highest office in the land has already found a seat when the music stopped. After all, Senator Bongbong Marcos has found Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago and Senator Antonio Trillanes has latched onto Senator Grace Poe—never mind if Poe already hooked up a long time ago with Senator Chiz Escudero.

(I remain convinced that Trillanes is only running because he needs to be able to attack Vice President Jejomar Binay during the campaign period, and not because he seriously wants to be Vice President. Trillanes’ reason for being in the past year or so has been only to attack Binay, whatever his real motivation is for doing so.)

Cayetano has not filed a certificate seeking to become Vice President, of course. But perhaps Cayetano should, even now that Duterte has withdrawn from the race, just so he doesn’t embarrass himself.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

But then, I’ve always believed that Cayetano doesn’t really care if he looks like a turncoat, as long as he is able to pursue his personal political ambitions. This is a man, after all, who demanded that then-candidate Noynoy Aquino present proof that he is not, in fact, mentally incapable of seeking the presidency in 2010; and then, after Aquino won, Cayetano became one of the staunchest allies of the administration.

Early this year, after the Mamasapano massacre happened, Cayetano again became a critic of the government, as if he could find nothing good that Aquino and his people had done to save the SAF 44. And when the administration Liberal Party began looking for a running mate for Secretary Mar Roxas, Cayetano offered his services, eliciting knowing smiles from those involved in the search.

Cayetano, it should be clear by now, is only for Cayetano. And if no one will adopt him, given his record of opportunism, perhaps he should just adopt himself.

thestandard.com.ph/

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[islander]

The luck of Bongbong Marcos

By: Edilberto C. de Jesus
Philippine Daily Inquirer
October 17th, 2015

“I am the luckiest person that I know and being a Marcos is part of that and I am very happy that I was born into the Marcos family,” said Bongbong Marcos.

Obvious ba? Did Bongbong really have to rub this in?

When he was born in 1957, his father, Ferdinand Marcos, was already completing a third term in Congress. Two years later, Ferdinand won a seat in the Senate, from where he launched two successful presidential campaigns. Faced with term limits, he then imposed a martial law regime that enabled him to retain supreme power for another 14 years. There were few disadvantages for the only son of the Philippines’ most powerful politician.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

It was not Bongbong’s fault to be born to wealth and power, and it is an act of virtue to express gratitude for the benefits received from parents. But his filial piety becomes suspect when he suggests that the blessings he enjoyed also spread to the rest of the population. It becomes delusional when he asserts that Ferdinand was the best leader the country has ever had.

Bongbong is aware of the issues raised in the past against the “conjugal dictatorship” of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. He argues that “history should be left to analysts,” but believes that the Marcos “legacy” would boost his bid in the 2016 vice-presidential race. Bongbong and his family refuse to recognize that the “analysts” have already rendered a verdict on the Marcos legacy.

Take the myth of Maharlika, the guerrilla unit that Ferdinand supposedly organized and led from 1942 to 1944 in operations all over Luzon, whose exploits earned for him 32 medals for heroism. There is adequate documentation for three medals, which we should commend. But the other awards, from Alfred W. McCoy’s archival research, were figments of Ferdinand’s imagination, invented to support a scam. Investigations conducted by the Pentagon concluded that his Maharlika unit roster was a fabrication to support claims for American back-pay benefits. Its proclaimed achievements were “fraudulent,” “preposterous,” and advancing them is a “malicious, criminal act.”

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

On human rights violations during the Marcos regime, McCoy recorded a figure of 3,257 extrajudicial killings—compared to 2,115 under Pinochet in Chile and 266 under the military junta in Brazil—and over 2,500 “salvaged” victims. In September 1992, the US District Court in Honolulu found Ferdinand Marcos guilty of systematic torture and held his estate liable for damages to all 9,541 victims, later awarding nearly $2 billion in damages—the biggest personal injury verdict then in legal history.

Regarding plundered wealth, the 2004 Global Transparency Report listed Marcos second (behind Suharto of Indonesia) in its list of the World’s Most Corrupt Leaders. Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, often cited as a model authoritarian ruler that Marcos could have emulated, distanced himself from Ferdinand: “Only in the Philippines could a leader like Ferdinand Marcos, who pillaged his country for over 20 years, still be considered for a national burial. Insignificant amounts of the loot have been recovered, yet his wife and children were allowed to return and engage in politics.”

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

Bongbong would prefer to leave the past behind and to address today’s problems. He asks: “Why is the distribution of wealth not happening?” He should ask his mother. Speaking to the Inquirer in 1998, Imelda Marcos said: “We practically own everything in the Philippines—from electricity, telecommunications, airline, banking, beer and tobacco, newspaper publishing, television stations, shipping, oil and mining, hotels and beach resorts, down to coconut milling, small farms, real estate and insurance.” She was then planning to sue the cronies holding the family’s properties.

The Supreme Court estimated the total legal income of the Marcoses earned from 1965 to 1986 at over $304,000. The Presidential Commission on Good Government tasked to recover the Marcos plunder pegged what had been looted from the country at $10 billion, less than half of which has been recovered. Might kleptocracy help explain the inequitable wealth distribution that so concerns Bongbong?

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

“Why is our education sector miserable?” Bongbong asks. Recent research has shown that from the Magsaysay administration (1954-57) to the two presidential terms of Ferdinand Marcos (1965-81), education received the biggest share of the national budget, maintaining close to 28 percent. During the rest of the Marcos regime (1972-1985), education’s share dropped to an average of 11.6 percent of the budget, even while basic education enrollment was growing at about 2.4 percent a year.

During the period when Marcos could determine budget allocations, he chose to cut down support for education. An educated population, of course, poses a threat to dictators.

The judgment on the Marcos record is clear, but we have not fully plumbed the depths of the damage inflicted by the Marcos regime on the country. How do we quantify the cost of leaders killed or suppressed during martial law? Bongbong’s gratuitous celebration of the Marcos legacy challenges us to pursue the research effort.

Edilberto C. de Jesus ([email protected]) is professor emeritus at the Asian Institute of Management.


opinion.inquirer.net/

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[hubag bohol]

Enter the dragon...






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[hubag bohol]

Young Bongbong... out of touch?

more at RETURN THE ILL-GOTTEN WEALTH FIRST, BONGBONG (#SAANGALINGANGPERAMO)
Posted by Joe America on October 10, 2015
http://joeam.com/2015/10/10/return-the-ill-gotten-wealth-first-bongbong-saangalingangperamo/

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80729.0

[islander]

They must think we're stupid

'Our professional politicians think we don't keep track of their mistakes. Or even if we do, it's not our opinions that matter'


Shakira Sison
October 22, 2015

So they think we're stupid, those people in red, raising each other's arms like they have fresh faces, having the audacity to call for a "revolution" in a country they themselves raped.

So they think we're so forgetful that we'll just admire their smiles and their outfits and not think of their offenses in both the distant and immediate past. That we'll gloss over the fact that those arms are being raised by plunderers, convicted and ejected only years before, but back in power just to show that even the justice system is in the palm of their hands.

They think we don't notice the rehearsed speeches, the practiced Tagalog, the pro-poor messages. They think it covers up the fancy foreign schooling that resulted in crafted diplomas, or how they have maintained their circle of powerful friends who are only too keen to benefit from their secret bank accounts.

They think nobody is watching this theatrical performance from afar, that we don't notice that those sweaty armpits are a result of those lies, that those oily and weary faces are aware that this is all a tired old story that they repackage time after time.

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[islander]

A tradition of theft

They think we're oblivious to that surname that is supposedly the reason the central business district thrives. That we'll overlook the fact that this political dynasty is comprised of a father, mother, sister, and brother who have made corruption cases the tradition of their name. If that's not a family legacy then I don't know what it is. It must make one so proud to follow that tarnished path.

And what about the urong-sulong (back and forth) cha-cha a hopeful dictator tried to pull with his reluctant presidential candidacy? Even the lawyers among my smarter acquaintances have grown so tired of their fellow Filipinos' complacency and lack of discipline that they now believe this man who promotes summary execution has the answers. I understand that it's inspiring to listen to a man who says he'll clean up the streets and eliminate unwanted elements. Sure, until it's a relative of yours who is killed without due process. All of a sudden, we'll regret putting a lawless verdugo in Malacañang. Don't forget that we've seen that iron fist one too many times.

We sighed with relief when a big-haired longtime politician and current catchphrase and meme star decided she's in the game. Until of course she chose an unapologetic murderer's son to be her right-hand man. That was enough admission from the lifelong scholar of laws that she is not bothered by her running mate's family's offenses, but she even took it as far as explicitly stating that an apology is not needed for the deaths and debts that family has incurred with pride.

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[islander]

They think we're not watching

Those troublesome prospects, the sleepy "safe" bets, the usual administration's pets, as well as the 130 other presidential candidates that filed their certificates the other day make up this political circus that just can’t wait to begin. As if we're not already laughable. As if this party needs another clown. As if we aren't battered and weary enough from these cycles of distractions, manufactured victories, and lies.

They think we’re not watching this predictable novella, when those we elect pilfer from the nation's coffers, land themselves in jail, feign medical issues, get released, and then run again for office. It's as if impeachment, conviction, and imprisonment are prerequisites to be elected to the highest posts in the land.

Exhausted, we wait for these crooks to die off and be replaced by younger, more conscientious ones. But it seems they raise new models like their families are factories that replace old thieves with younger and more energetic ones. Where their offspring are taught that their parents are sinless and God-fearing, that they did what was right and necessary during their time.



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[islander]

Just like in the past, there is no doubt that the election will be won by the masa (lower classes), those whose opinions we won't see in our Facebook feeds, and whose voices we often don't even care to know.

It only takes a few seconds of listening to a campaign speech to know that those who seek power are aware that only the votes of the lower classes matter, that all they need are celebrities to come up on stage to endorse them and they will win. That a sob story about being the dark and short Robin Hood of the Philippines is somehow believable.

If it's the D and E classes that put our leaders in power, does that mean that those who have access to education and employment can't do anything about who is elected?

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[islander]

Can't do anything?

There's an air of resignation that it's the same old faces and the same old tricks that will comprise the game in 2016, but the truth is that we're comfortable in these performances. We're fine with a select few being able to lead the masses like a brainless flock. We have accepted the pleasure of having employees and servants who follow our orders instead of questioning the social structures that keep them bound.

We who say we are tired of political dynasties and corruption are also the ones who make money off mindless shows that keep people busy and make them settle for a happiness of seeing their love team. We write the scripts, we produce the story plots. We edit the political commentary out of story lines. We sell the ads that run in between segments and we follow advertiser's requests to keep things light - devoid of seriousness and real world issues. We don't want trouble, we just want to coast. We are complicit in keeping those who don't have the same resources from scratching the surface of what is handed to them.

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[islander]

We run the cinemas that stop showing independent films that make people think. We put up the billboards that turn our focus on physical beauty, so that money is spent on visual self-interest instead of focusing on the benefits of educating our women over keeping their skin light. We brag when we visit a public official's extravagant home. We don't have a problem when the daughter of a corrupt leader calls us her friend and asks us aboard her yacht.

Majority of middle and upper class Filipinos have employees - both household and business workers, if not workplace subordinates. Knowing that the face of the future president lies on their shoulders, have we ever asked our employees who they're voting for and why? Have we checked if they remember or have even heard of the horrors of Martial Law? Have we reminded them about the current candidates' corruption scandals? How about their past performance and policy track record? Have we reminded our employees what their president needs to do to better their lives?

Have we asked the people we might be able to influence how they feel about the political landscape? If, in the end, they are the ones who vote in numbers and decide, can we take the time to remind them that the appearance of their favorite celebrity at their campaign rally is not going to ensure that these candidates will actually ease their plight?

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[islander]

Complex lives designed to forget

But we are too busy dealing with traffic, pollution, flooding, the latest weather disturbance, and our ridiculous income tax rates. We are too busy figuring out how to get customs to not charge us for our balikbayan box. It's as if the country's problems are designed to keep us busy and distract us enough so we don't have time to complain beyond what immediately bothers us. When it is life-threatening to get to and from work each day, it is ridiculous to expect anyone else to look past themselves, much less to see what their fellow citizen is doing or what opinions they have.

Our professional politicians think we don't keep track of their mistakes. Or even if we do, it's not our opinions that matter. They believe that the people whose favor they care about are those who are swayed by a sexy dance, and that those who fill our social media feeds with their complaints cannot influence what the voters they care about will decide come election time.

We all know our politicians think we're all stupid, but have we actually asked ourselves if we actually thrive in this flawed system where those on the lowest rung never advance? Are our leaders correct in thinking we are stupid because we keep each other dumb? – Rappler.com

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