MikeLigalig.com

It was into this pathetic history that Duterte, first as a candidate and then as President, finally stepped in to say: "Let's just do this and move on."

So we know how we got here. Duterte was not alone in leading.

But he was still misguided.

Where his avowed goal is national healing, his action in fact only reopened very deep, painful wounds. Where Duterte joins Bongbong Marcos in urging people to move on, they have only succeeded to rouse the marchers. Where they insist this is a petty fight among political families of the past, they have only woken the youth who evidently somehow learned - as Duterte's own mother railed - that Marcos' rule is about tens of thousands of human rights victims, a nation stunted and still handicapped by decades of unparalleled kleptocracy, about values and direction of a whole nation.

There is no mention of Marcos in the Constitution not because he was out of mind. Search not the Constitution for his name, but scour instead the minutes of every committee of the Commission that drafted the charter. There reminders of Marcos' atrocities will have been intoned with such frequency and degree as to make it obvious: the omission is the actual recognition of the evil by which that name is officially denounced.

As Lady Sansa said to Ramsay Bolton: "Your words will disappear. Your house will disappear. Your name will disappear. All memory of you will disappear."

Except that Sansa  - raped, tortured, mocked, her home pillaged, but ultimately the survivor and victor - then made sure she fed her tormentor to the dogs. In stark contrast, our government - our governments - struck deals for the Marcos clan to come home before any apology, without acknowledging any sins, much less returning any loot and doing justice by their human rights victims. We let Imelda run for President. Elected her children to Congress. Leaders, legislators, politicians signed resolutions endorsing Marcos to the LNMB long before Digong came into the picture. Then the Supreme Court voted to keep itself out of it.

EDITORIAL | Make them regret it

By: InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
November 23, 2016



On the burial of Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, President Duterte is responsible and he will ultimately be proven wrong. But that is not to say that his allowing it was impeachable. It is not. It was political prerogative - a gamble, a gambit, maybe even a deal - exercised on legal footing.

The Supreme Court assures him so. The President had the right. Which is not to say that either of them was right. Indeed, worse than risking being wrong, nine justices voted to merely make the High Court irrelevant. Marcos is not only NOT a hero, in 1987 his despotism became the very basis for an entire new Constitution, a wholly rebooted republic reconsecrated not to national independence or republican trends, but to human rights, democracy, and good government. The arguably paranoid Constitution under which we now strive was hammered out not only with those ideals in mind, but with bloodied survivors doodling on the margins: #NeverAgain.

The Supreme Court says there is no law (and Duterte says there is no movie) that calls out Marcos as a criminal unworthy of anything. The government has written out checks to thousands in reparation for human rights victims, specifically human rights victims of the Marcos regime. Our Bill of Rights was reformulated and strengthened so that only courts can issue warrants. Just between and among us Filipinos, the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus is now nearly impossible to suspend, Duterte's blithe musings notwithstanding. And the PCGG was created specifically to recover billions of dollars in Marcos' ill-gotten wealth.

GETTY IMAGES

But the whole country was rattled, with the impact seen over a 7,000 sq km area. Roads and dozens of buildings in Wellington, the capital, sustained considerable damage.

TONKIN AND TAYLOR

Prof Andy Nicol of New Zealand's University of Canterbury told the BBC the Kaikoura earthquake started in the south and travelled north. The largest seismic energies were released about 70km (44 miles) north of the epicentre at Culverden.

GEONET

Most earthquakes are the result of rupture on a single fault plane. But the twin quakes led to the rupture of at least six faults, including a newly identified one at Waipapa Bay.

AFP

Scientists studying it have said the initial tremor was actually two separate powerful quakes, which together lasted for two minutes. It was one of the most complex quakes ever recorded on land, said Geonet, the national quake-monitoring body.

New Zealand quake: The geological impact of a 'complex' tremor

18 November 2016
BBC

The powerful earthquakes which hit New Zealand were some of the most complex ever recorded, say scientists.


GETTY IMAGES

The earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.8, hit shortly after midnight on Monday close to Christchurch. Two people were killed.

ANDY LUKE

Climber Andy Luke took his image on Sunday near the summit of Cairn Lochan.

He said: "It was quite amazing."

more at http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-38063662

MELVIN NICHOLSON PHOTOGRAPHY

A stunning shot of a white "fog bow" has been captured by a photographer over Rannoch Moor in the west of Scotland.

Melvin Nicholson was out on the moor, south of Glen Coe, on Sunday when the "unbelievably beautiful" white rainbow appeared.

Mr Nicholson said: "It is a colourless rainbow that is made up of tiny water droplets that cause fog.

"It's an amazing thing to witness and can generally only be seen if the sun is behind you when you are looking at it."

more at http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-38063662

Another tub had fish, pork and beef balls cooked in tomato and soy sauce, alongside rice and a large stir-fry of kangkong, a cheap herbaceous vine similar to water spinach, cooked with chilli and ground spices.

Marjorie and her cousins are from Quezon Province, southeast of Manila. Previously two of them were working in Malaysia where they worked seven days a week for two years without a single day off. As a result, being able to meet up on a Sunday still feels like the rarest of luxuries.

“We look forward to Sunday because we can all hang as an extended family. It’s one day of rest because Monday to Saturday is all ‘work, work, work’,” Marjorie said, before singing a couple of bars of Rihanna’s recent hit of the same name, then collapsing in laughter.

Laughter is another constant, the shrill notes and excited screams cutting through the humid, heavy air. Tourists mostly look on bemused, while Hong Kong residents walk on by, but these extraordinary, hard-working and resilient women are more than able to amuse themselves on their most cherished day of the week, when food is the ultimate reminder of home.


More than 300,000 domestic helpers congregate in urban areas like these (Credit: Radharc Images/Alamy)

http://www.bbc.com/

Across the city, friends from the same region tend to stick together. One group may be talking Cebuana from the southern Philippine island of Cebu; another may be extended family; while a third could consist of a prayer group gathering for choral practice. The groups tend to be small, from a couple of friends to two dozen if they’ve been lucky enough to reserve one of the public barbecue sites that dot the city.

One thing all these women have in common is that they invariably try to save every dollar to send back home. This means that for most, their day off is spent sitting outside at the mercy of Hong Kong’s notoriously volatile weather on cardboard and tarpaulins, under umbrellas offering scant protection from the beating sun or pouring rain.

Central, just a couple of minutes away by foot from the three friends from Mindoro, is home to some of the world’s most expensive real estate. Luxury fashion brands vie with five-star hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants, while the sleek offices of billion-dollar finance and legal giants are empty, save for bored looking security guards. Outside a window selling US$12,000 handbags, a group of cousins were sitting on a blue plastic sheet sharing another homemade meal. It was adobo again â€" this time chicken and pork â€" along with hardboiled eggs. Just like the food itself, the recipe was happily shared.

“I add sugar and sometimes a bit of ketchup. It’s my secret!” said Marjorie, who had only been in the city for three months.


Sometimes, meeting spots are in front of luxury stores, such as Cartier (Credit: Chris Dwyer)

Rachel told me she works on average 80 hours over six days, including her least favourite chore of washing the family’s car. Her contribution to today’s feast is laing, a creamy, spicy and funky stew made from the stems and leaves of the taro plant, cooked in coconut milk with small red labuyo chillies, aligue (crab fat) and tiny fish called dilis. Originally from Bicol, the southern tip of The Philippines’ main island of Luzon, it’s absolutely delicious and has become known across the country thanks to a wave of umami from the fat and the sweet hit of coconut over the gentle hum of chilli.

Her favourite ingredient is pungent bagoong, or shrimp paste, but she explained that “cooking Filipino food in the kitchens of our employers is awkward â€" they may not like the smell. I have to be clever with when I time it and only cook when they are out.”

Most Filipina domestic helpers arrive mid-morning after church to take up spaces in walkways and parks across the heart of the central business district. Thousands of the city’s Indonesian domestic helpers congregate around Victoria Park in Causeway Bay, sharing food that is distinctly spicier than the Filipino dishes. The Indonesian word for sauce is kecap â€" from where the English word “ketchup” derives â€" but here it’s a fiery concoction of fish sauce, shrimp paste, vinegar, ginger, garlic and of course serious amounts of chilli. It accompanies every dish â€" even those already containing eye-watering amounts of hot peppers.


Food takes on a symbolic importance for these women as they gather (Credit: Chris Dwyer)

The women are allowed one statutory rest day per week, with the vast majority taking it on Sunday. For most, it’s their only opportunity to catch up with friends, giving one another haircuts or manicures, praying, singing or even trying out dance moves. They seize the chance to Skype with their own children, husbands and extended families back home. With just seven days holiday a year for the first two years of service, and up to a maximum of 14 days a year once they have been working for more than nine years, it’s rare that they get a chance to return to their home countries.

But it’s their food, eaten from plastic tubs and tinfoil parcels, that takes on the most symbolic importance every Sunday. The rest of the week, most eat the food they prepare for the families with whom they live â€" so this day serves as a reminder of where they come from, a taste of a country they only return to infrequently.

Everything the women eat is shared, even with strangers: a bowl and spoon were proffered almost before I introduced myself. Adobo, a slow-cooked stew traditionally made of pork or chicken marinated in vinegar, peppercorns and soy sauce, is the unofficial national dish of the Philippines. Ida explained that chicken feet are the cheapest cut she can buy at her local market. Every Filipina will tell you that each household has their own adobo recipe and, true to form, Ida had added slivers of ginger to her version, a delicious reminder of a family and culture far away.

Ida proudly showed me a photo of her daughter on her cracked phone screen and explained that the 16-year-old is just two years away from college, where she’ll train in accountancy, “An opportunity I never had,” she said.


Across the city, friends from the same region tend to stick together as a means of forming community (Credit: rungtip chatadee/Alamy)

A Sunday ritual for 300,000 women

Their plastic tubs and foil trays full of food reveal much about their background, stories and struggles living in one of the world’s richest and most expensive cities.

By Chris Dwyer
16 November 2016

It was just after 11am on a Sunday morning in Hong Kong and already 32C in the shade. The dazzling sun reflected off the steel-and-glass skyscrapers in the city’s central business district, while opposite the Bank of America Tower down below, Rachel untied the knot on a small plastic bag containing chicken-feet adobo. Her friends Ida and Grace were alongside her, the three women sitting on a flattened cardboard box.

Originally from the Philippine island of Mindoro, these three women are part of the city’s more than 300,000 domestic helpers â€" mostly Filipina and Indonesian women who work up to 18-hour days, six days a week, for just HK$4,310 a month.

In common with families in a number of cities across Southeast Asia and the Middle East, many Hong Kong households rely on these helpers to do everything from cooking and cleaning to childcare and laundry. The work is tough and all domestic helpers live in their employers’ apartments, often in very cramped spaces in an already densely populated and incredibly expensive city.


These women often congregate on Sunday, their day off (Credit: Chris Dwyer)

15. Embryonic development of a human face.



http://www.wimp.com/

14. Dogs drink water by making a tiny "bowl" from their tongue.

13. The physics of Slinkies.

12. Wow, the power that crocodiles use to propel themselves up is incredible!

11. Popping corn.

10. How a zipper works.

9. Check out how the continents shift over the course of millennia.

8. It's hard to believe a violin string vibrates this much until you see it in slow-motion.

7. So THAT'S how sewing machines work!

6. Here's how braces work to correct our teeth over time.

5. A dandelion spreads its seeds.

4. Here's what happens when you unlock your front door.

3. Here's how ants keep from tripping over their own legs

2. Vines probe out from the plant to seek support.

15 Incredible GIFs That Show How Things Really Work

By Archit Tripathi

The world around us is an amazing place. There's so much interesting stuff that we don't always get a chance to fully appreciate, but thankfully Relatively Interesting compiled a list of GIFs that show how various things actually work, from man-made inventions to mathematical principles and natural phenomena. Here are a few of our absolute favorites.

1. This brilliant visual explanation shows exactly how the Pythagorean Theorem works.

you mean, that alleged up-and-coming empire will bring the whole world down with it?

...which made me wonder why i asked if this was available in the philippines when the thread says so, hahaha! my apologies.

thanks. i can hardly wait to try this.

This is how abuses of power are normalized, by fudging them as “error.” Marcos’ errors include dozens of fabricated medals,  over 3,000 people killed, tens of thousands tortured, over 100,000 casualties in the Moro war he started, $25 billion in crushing debtâ€"and, oh, the death of democracy. No, he certainly wasn’t like us. Most Filipinos do not wield absolute power or become absolutely corrupt. Whether as “hero” or as ex-soldier, he does not deserve to be honored.

So to the streets then, and yet again. Take all necessary precautions; learn to spot disinformation; do not treat the security services as monolithic (many good people who believe in democracy and are genuinely proud of our history continue to serve); encourage individual examples, but at the same time build communities of participation through institutions like schools and parishes and unions. The times call for it.

http://opinion.inquirer.net/

We should protest the indecent haste, the characteristically Marcosian deception, with which the burial was conducted: in secrecy, using select units of the security services, before the Court decision became final. Burial in the Libingan is a public honor, not a scam or a scheme.

Not least, we should protest the fact of the burial itself. How, one may ask, can an ex-soldier’s burial at a military cemetery be a threat to democracy? Peralta’s intellectually dishonest argument tries to depict Marcos as less than the corrupt dictator he was. “Marcos should be viewed and judged in his totality as a person. While he was not all good, he was not pure evil either. Certainly, just a human who erred like us.”

We should also protest President Duterte’s blithe attempt to revise history. At the Apec summit in Peru, where he spent millions of taxpayer pesos for the privilege of being absent from key events, he explained his support for the burial as merely legalisticâ€"he had no choice, he saidâ€"but then also tried to wipe history’s slate clean. “Whether or not [Marcos] performed worse or better, there’s no study, no movie about it, just the challenges and allegations of the other side,” the first lawyer-president since Marcos himself said. This is patently untrue, not only because of the 20 or so Supreme Court decisions or the Republic Acts recognizing Marcos’ perfidy, but also because in fact academic research and dozens of movies have shown or proven the Marcos regime as deeply antidemocratic.

“When all is said and done, when the cortege led by pallbearers has reached the plot in the LNMB dedicated to the newest ‘hero’ of the land and the coffin containing what is claimed to be the remains of former President Marcos has been finally buried in the ground or entombed above ground, this DISSENT, along with the dissents of the Chief Justice and Justices Carpio and Leonen, will be a fitting eulogy to the slaying of the might of judicial power envisioned in the 1987 Freedom Constitution by the unbridled exercise of presidential prerogative using vox populi as the convenient excuse.”

We should protest the miscarriage of justice that is the Supreme Court decision in the Marcos burial cases. It is an abhorrent outcome not because it favors the Marcoses but because it is manifestly unjust; it disregards settled jurisprudence, minimizes the import of history, bends over backward to accommodate the incumbent President, and above all self-emasculates the judiciary, in order to favor the Marcoses. I have criticized the careless thinking and cowardly positions of Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta’s unfortunate majority opinion, but you don’t have to take my word for it. Associate Justice Benjamin Caguioa’s comprehensive rebuttal (every point of Peralta’s is dealt with, decisively) ends with the following deeply moving reflection.

NEWSSTAND

Why we MUST protest

John Nery
Philippine Daily Inquirer
November 22, 2016

We should join the mass actions to protest the Marcos burialâ€"especially the ones called for Nov. 25 and Nov. 30â€"because the times call for it. Our dignity as free Filipinos has been challenged, our sense of heroism, of honor even, has been gravely insulted; the democratic project itself is under threat. Allowing the dictator’s remains to be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani, a national shrine, undermines the constitutional order.

We must show up in force in protest sites across the country.

Yes, accountability matters. The profession also demands that reporters name their sources, as much as possible, if only to give readers the chance to evaluate the value of this information from these sources. That is why the real quest of the journalist, I believe, is balance. No one quite knows what the “truth” is, especially with a breaking story. But the reporter and the media outlet have the responsibility to provide the whole picture, to provide both or all sides of the story.

Technology now allows us to cherry-pick from among a very wide array of news and opinion sources, from all around the globe. But while this allows one to tailor-fit one’s media choices according to one’s personal preferences, politics and inclinations, it also makes for a narrower, more restrictive world and world view. Is the day of the broad, mass-appeal media over? If so, then the ideal of “a nation talking to itself” will likewise be gone. Instead, we will end up as little island-republics insulated from each other, listening only to those we agree with, forming opinions and taking action based only on a point of view we already have. We will have stopped learning, stopped growing, and, in the truest sense of the word, stopped communicating.

http://opinion.inquirer.net/

Here are some reasons the traditional media still matter:

First, the traditional hierarchical setup of the newsroomâ€"reporters answering to desk editors who direct the coverage and edit the copy, with everybody in turn answerable to a chief editor and a publisherâ€"turns out to have inherent value. The gate-keeping function of older, more experienced journalists protects readers from false or erroneous news, providing guidance to young journalists and protecting them from the pitfalls of libel suits and succumbing to temptations like corruption, overfamiliarity with sources, cooptation and cronyism. Older journalists are also thereâ€"though less so because personal interaction in the newsroom is becoming rareâ€"to provide teaching moments on journalistic values like accountability, fact-checking, attribution, balance and discernment.

Newspapers are said to be exemplars of “a nation talking to itself.” The op-ed pages are supposed to be an open market of ideas, where differing, if not opposing, views are given equal time and space, the better to afford the reader a choice among many opinions to adopt, agree with, vehemently oppose, or simply ignore. Yes, that is possible, too, with the so-called new media, but the anonymity allowed by Facebook, say, or tweets, can often serve as license to serve up the most outrageous opinions without taking personal responsibility for them.

The death of print had long been predicted, starting when I was a college student. Well, reports of the death of print have long been, as Mark Twain put it, greatly exaggerated. Print still lives!

Traditional media have in fact not just survived but actually thrived in their effort to adjust to the new environment, new technologies and a new audience. But while traditional media are doing a great job of adapting to and adopting the new communications technology, aren’t they in a way simply seeking to replicate the new media, and thereby hastening their doom?

AT LARGE

Why ‘old’ media still matter

By: Rina Jimenez-David
Philippine Daily Inquirer
November 22, 2016

(Excerpts from a talk delivered at the National Family Planning Conference on “The Power of the Media,” Nov. 21-22, at the Hotel Novotel Manila)

I work in the oldest of the old media. It’s difficult to wrap my mind around the idea that when moveable type was invented, it actually sparked a revolution in communications. But technology always heralded progress for the profession of communication: the birth of printing presses, the complementation of print by photography, the enhancement of print by broadcasting first via radio and film, and then by television. And now digital technology threatens the dominance, if not the very existence, of the so-called traditional media. Greater accessibility allows even nonjournalists to take on the role of news gathering and shaping opinion, with no need for intervening editors or gatekeepers. Indeed, these days, anyone with a smartphone can be and is a journalist.

is our president that sick? he wasn't the only one with jet lag, surely.
or is this a case of having one's tail between the legs?

Ramos said if he was the APEC host, he would have been insulted. He said the host Peru President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and US President Barack Obama must have been disappointed citing that Duterte and Obama could have had a dialogue.

Duterte was instead represented by Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay. Ramos said Yasay could have represented the country well by standing proud.

“He's in the back. Almost overshadowed by taller people at the back but he must be very happy,” Ramos said.

This was the second gala night that Duterte has shun. He also skipped the ASEAN gala dinner in Laos last September.

http://www.philstar.com/

Duterte skipped the APEC gala dinner and photo session last Sunday saying he is not feeling well due to jet lag.

Ramos, however, did not buy the excuse saying not feeling well cannot prevent him from “even just having group photos with the leaders.”

“Anyway, ano ba ‘yung pakiramdam na masama ng presidente? Masakit ang ulo? Mayroong doctor na kasama sa delegasyon palagi. SOP iyan. Mayroong ding doctor doon sa Lima,” he said citing solutions to each possible sickness the president may have.

Ramos hits Duterte for skipping APEC gala dinner, family photo

By Rosette Adel (philstar.com)
November 21, 2016


President Rodrigo Duterte arrives at the Lima Convention Center for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders' Summit in Peru on November 19. KING RODRIGUEZ/Presidential Photo

MANILA, Philippines â€" Former President Fidel Ramos on Monday criticized President Rodrigo Duterte’s move to skip the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s (APEC) gala dinner and photo session in Lima, Peru.

For Ramos, in so far as Duterte and his Cabinet members are concerned, the president was negligible for missing the gala dinner and the group photo session of APEC leaders.

“As president, it is his duty to be there at all times kahit na masama ang pakiramdam,” he said in a press conference.

is this available in our country now, in tagbilaran or anywhere else?

Philippines 2015

Philippines 1996

Malaysia 1998

Australia 2007

South Korea 2005

Brunei 2000

China 2014

Vietnam 2006

Peru 2008

China 2001

New Zealand 1999

Canada 1997

Indonesia 1994

Mexico 2002

Peru 2016

LOOK: No Duterte in traditional APEC leaders' photo


Leaders and representatives of 21 APEC economies gather for a photo opportunity in Lima, Peru for the 24th APEC Summit.  Agence France-Presse

http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/11/20/16/look-no-duterte-in-traditional-apec-leaders-photo

Chile 2004

you won't hear them complain...


Singapore 2009

wow!

A brief history of post-truth

The compound word post-truth exemplifies an expansion in the meaning of the prefix post- that has become increasingly prominent in recent years. Rather than simply referring to the time after a specified situation or event â€" as in post-war or post-match â€" the prefix  in post-truth has a meaning more like ‘belonging to a time in which the specified concept has become unimportant or irrelevant’. This nuance seems to have originated in the mid-20th century, in formations such as post-national (1945) and post-racial (1971).

Post-truth seems to have been first used in this meaning in a 1992 essay by the late Serbian-American playwright Steve Tesich in The Nation magazine. Reflecting on the Iran-Contra scandal and the Persian Gulf War, Tesich lamented that ‘we, as a free people, have freely decided that we want to live in some post-truth world’. There is evidence of the phrase ‘post-truth’ being used before Tesich’s article, but apparently with the transparent meaning ‘after the truth was known’, and not with the new implication that truth itself has become irrelevant.

A book, The Post-truth Era, by Ralph Keyes appeared in 2004, and in 2005 American comedian Stephen Colbert popularized an informal word relating to the same concept: truthiness, defined by Oxford Dictionaries as ‘the quality of seeming or being felt to be true, even if not necessarily true’. Post-truth extends that notion from an isolated quality of particular assertions to a general characteristic of our age.

for the shortlist of word choices of the year, the link: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/word-of-the-year/word-of-the-year-2016

The term has moved from being relatively new to being widely understood in the course of a year - demonstrating its impact on the national and international consciousness. The concept of post-truth has been simmering for the past decade, but Oxford shows the word spiking in frequency this year in the context of the Brexit referendum in the UK and the presidential election in the US, and becoming associated overwhelmingly with a particular noun, in the phrase post-truth politics.

The Independent âœ" @Independent

'We've entered a post-truth world and there's no going back' http://ind.pn/2fPyZ3v
9:10 PM - 8 Nov 2016

independent.co.uk

Post-truth in 2016

Post-truth has gone from being a peripheral term to being a mainstay in political commentary, now often being used by major publications without the need for clarification or definition in their headlines.


The Economist âœ" @TheEconomist

Obama founded ISIS. George Bush was behind 9/11. Welcome to post-truth politics http://econ.st/2eCASwE
5:28 PM - 1 Nov 2016

Art of the lie
Politicians have always lied. Does it matter if they leave the truth behind entirely?
economist.com

Why was this chosen?

The concept of post-truth has been in existence for the past decade, but Oxford Dictionaries has seen a spike in frequency this year in the context of the EU referendum in the United Kingdom and the presidential election in the United States. It has also become associated with a particular noun, in the phrase post-truth politics.

Word of the Year 2016 is...

After much discussion, debate, and research, the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2016 is post-truth â€" an adjective defined as ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief’.

No, the refusal to allow Marcos’ burial among the nation’s heroes is not just about the past. This battle is as much a vital part of the struggle to prevent another dictatorship from destroying this country again.  “We are here to remember what happened,” Eco writes in reference to the fascist nightmare in Europe, “and to declare solemnly that ‘they’ must never do it again.”

The struggle against forgetting is not an easy one. While events may remain vivid in memory, the emotions felt during those events fade over time. But, last Friday, upon learning that the Marcos family had pulled a fast one by burying the dictator’s remains in the LNMB, I felt a deep anger in my guts. Then, I heard that students were massing in protest. Rage is back, I told myself. Perhaps nothing revives the emotions more forcefully than a jolt in the present.

http://opinion.inquirer.net/

Umberto Eco, the Italian writer and semiotics professor, wrote: “Linguistic habits are often important symptoms of unspoken sentiments” (“Five Moral Pieces,” 2001). The unspoken is indeed everywhere in the Supreme Court’s Nov. 8 ruling. In cliché after cliché, the Court tells the nation to forget.

“Finding closure” is one overused phrase: “In law, as much as in life, there is need to find closure.”   â€œMoving on” is another: “To move on is not to forget the past.  It is to focus on the present and the future, leaving behind what is better left for history to ultimately decide.”  And there’s the other one: “Let history be the judge.”

In fact, Justice Peralta’s recitation of the facts of the case belies his woefully myopic understanding of the Court’s function. “In the campaign period for the 2016 Presidential Election, then candidate Rodrigo R. Duterte (Duterte) publicly announced that he would allow the burial of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos (Marcos) at the Libingan Ng Mga Bayani (LNMB). He won the May 9, 2016 election, garnering 16,601,997 votes.”  My translation: Duterte made known his intention to give Marcos an honorable burial during the campaign. He has won the presidency. Ergo, the people’s votes gave him the mandate to proceed. If that’s not interpreting electoral outcomes, I don’t know what it is.

The pretense at legal detachment is palpable throughout this shabbily written ponencia. But, the bias stands out.  Example: “For his alleged human rights abuses and corrupt practices, we may disregard Marcos as a President and Commander-in-Chief, but we cannot deny him the right to be acknowledged based on other positions he held or the awards he received.” The word “alleged” is misplaced if the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, which has questioned the authenticity of the Marcos war medals, is to be believed. It should come before “awards” rather than before “human rights abuses and corrupt practices.”

Let’s go over this revisionist thesis once more: “So-called Edsa Revolution…. should not be automatically given a particular legal meaning other than its obvious consequenceâ€"that of ousting him as president…. It is not the function of the Court … to divine the exact implications or significance of the number of votes obtained in elections, or the message from the number of participants in public assemblies.”

Does Justice Peralta even remember that the 1987 Constitution that he is sworn to preserve is a product of that momentous event he now demeans as the “so-called Edsa Revolution.”  Though I am not a lawyer, I know that judicial rulings must be formulated separately from the imperatives of politics. But, this is not the same as saying that the Court can be oblivious of history or of what is happening outside of its echo chambers.

The Court’s decision avoids this fatuous allusion to a family feud. Indeed, it notes: “Interestingly, even if they were empowered to do so, former Presidents Corazon C. Aquino and Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III, who were themselves aggrieved at the Martial Law, did not revise the rules by expressly prohibiting the burial of Marcos at the LNMB.”  But the Court majority is no less guilty of belittling the struggle against the Marcos dictatorship.

Toward the end of this self-indulgent treatise, the author of the decision, Justice Diosdado Peralta, solemnly declares: “It is undeniable that former President Marcos was forced out of office by the people through the so-called EDSA Revolution. Said political act of the people should not be automatically given a particular legal meaning other than its obvious consequenceâ€"that of ousting him as president. To do otherwise would lead the Court to the treacherous and perilous path of having to make choices from multifarious inferences or theories arising from the various acts of the people. It is not the function of the Court, for instance, to divine the exact implications or significance of the number of votes obtained in elections, or the message from the number of participants in public assemblies.” Wow!

PUBLIC LIVES

The struggle against forgetting

By: Randy David
Philippine Daily Inquirer
November 20, 2016

I don’t know which is worse: President Duterte’s statement that the opposition to the burial of Ferdinand Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani is merely a continuation of the personal war between the Marcoses and the Aquinos, or the wording of the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the President’s right to order the dictator’s burial at the national military cemetery.

Mr. Duterte’s view is not only an ill-informed reduction of the complex events that led the country back to democracy after an almost-14-year fatal flirtation with authoritarianism; it is also an unwarranted disparagement of the sacrifices of those who gave their lives resisting oppression and exposing the corruption during the brutal years of the Marcos dictatorship.

Martial Law victim Princess Nemenzo, 78, said the late strongman has no right to be laid to rest beside former presidents, national artists and heroes of war.

“We’re crying in anger. Because we Martial Law victims continue to feel the sufferings we had experienced,” she said during a protest in Quezon City. “That period of our history is a dark chapter and we don’t want it forgotten.”

http://www.manilatimes.net/

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla was quick to clarify that the Marcoses would foot the bill for all expenses incurred beyond the standard funeral service for military men.

And it was not a state funeral, as there was no official state representative.

For Casiple, however, Imee’s Facebook videos showed otherwise.

“It was more than a soldier’s burial, less than a state funeral,” he stated. “Use of helicopters, 5,000 troops, 21-gun salute and elaborate protocols means no ordinary soldier’s burial.”

But while they were able to pull off the burial that had been denied them by Marcos’ successors â€" with the help of a family friend, President Rodrigo Duterte who sent flowers to the Libingan â€" it angered human rights groups, opposition politicians and even millennials who did not witness Marcos’ one-man rule.

On Friday, hundreds of protesters converged at the monument on EDSA erected to commemorate Marcos’ overthrow by the “People Power” revolt in 1986.

“It was a Pyrrhic victory [for the Marcoses]. It only reopened old wounds, restarted the anti-Marcos movement, and transferred this to the millennial generation,” political analyst Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reforms, said in an interview.

“We have waited 27 years to fulfill that wish that he left us with. But we are here today and we are able to grant him that wish.”

The Marcos family, led by former first lady Imelda Marcos, looked liked they were the first family again. Imelda, clutching a rosary, was the only one who wore formal black, while the Marcos children and grandchildren wore resplendent white barongs and gowns.



To drive home the message, they left an “eternal flame” near the tomb, like the one at the gravesite of US President John F. Kennedy in Arlington National Cemetery.

Behind the generals was the caisson bearing the pine casket that contained Marcos’ remains, pulled by the “white carabao” or military jeep used by presidents for trooping the line.

The former president was given the volley of fire and a flower drop, and the bugler sounded the last taps as the casket was slowly lowered to a crypt.



“It was my father’s fervent wish that when he came to the end of his days, that he be buried in a simple soldier’s ceremony. This was in keeping with his idea that he was but a soldier doing his duty, a citizen serving his country,” said Marcos’ son and namesake, former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., in a message to the mourners.

The Marcoses also scored another coup with Friday’s media ban â€" by posting videos and photos of the event exclusively on their Facebook pages, they were somewhat able to control their public image and send the message that they are back on the reins of power.



In one video posted on the Facebook page of Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos, the late strongman’s eldest daughter, the opening shot showed a military helicopter bringing Marcos’ remains to the national shrine for heroes in Taguig.

On social media (and not on television), netizens witnessed a half-kilometer funeral procession, with military generals leading a brigade of soldiers to the Libingan’s rotunda, where the Philippine flag flew half-mast for the veteran of the Bataan Death March during World War 2.

Surprise burial a ‘Pyrrhic victory’ for Marcoses 

BY FELIPE F. SALVOSA II AND MICHAEL JOE T. DELIZO
NOVEMBER 20, 2016
   
THERE was no state funeral, but Friday’s surprise interment of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, whose Martial Law regime continues to divide the nation, had all the trappings of it.


SOLDIER’S BURIAL Members of the Marcos family follow the horseless carriage bearing the casket of former president Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani on Friday. FACEBOOK PAGE OF GOV. IMEE MARCOS

In public, the Marcoses said it would only be a soldier’s funeral, but on Saturday, media people who were let in to the Libingan ng mga Bayani â€" after being barred from covering the burial the day before â€" saw the Marcos-era presidential seal emblazoned on the black marble tomb.

Imelda Marcos with her art collection. File photo by Romeo Gacad/Agence France-Presse

6. After the 1986 EDSA uprising, the Presidential Commission on Good Government unearthed evidence that the Marcoses, from 1972 to 1985, had amassed a vast collection of paintings and artwork worth $24 million, which was 25 times the combined income of Ferdinand and Imelda for 20 years as declared in their ITRs

7. Wait, didn't Imelda say that her husband was already rich even before he became president and that he earned much of his riches from gold trading?

more at http://interaksyon.com/article/134304/kinita-o-kinamkam--facts-minus-feelings-about-marcos-wealth-and-income

The Marcos couple days before their ouster in February 1986. File photo by Agence France-Presse

5. The estimated $8.26 million worth of personal items, peso and dollar bills, and time deposit certificates that the Marcos entourage brought with them when they fled to Hawaii on February 25, 1986 amid the EDSA uprising was nine times bigger than what the Marcos couple declared in their ITRs as their total income for 20 years and 27 times bigger than Ferdinand and Imelda’s total combined salaries as public officials

Here’s the summary of what the Marcoses brought with them to Hawaii estimated to cost $8.26 million based on the US Customs inventory, which was part of the book of late senator Jovito Salonga titled Presidential Plunder: The Quest for the Marcos Ill-gotten Wealth:

-397 pieces and/or sets of jewelry estimated to cost $4.54 million

-Some 362,000 pieces of Philippine peso bills in 100, 50, 20, 10, 5, and 2 denominations worth P27.9 million or about $1.4 million at an exchange rate of P20 to a dollar in 1986. This does not include 69 pieces of US dollar bills in 100, 50, 20, 5, and 1 denominations worth $1,570.

-Eight certificates of time deposits issued in January and February 1986 with due dates of January and February 1988 worth P46.44 million or about $2.32 million at an exchange rate of P20 to a dollar in 1986

-Other items such as clothes, pen, guns, and clock

Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos at the height of their power. Photo from the Presidential Museum and Library.

3.  The Supreme Court doubted the Marcoses’ declaration in their ITRs that almost 70 percent of their P16-million total income in 20 years was earned by Ferdinand through lawyering

4. Ferdinand’s total income as president in 1967 was just P60,000, but he and Imelda in 1968 were able to open bank accounts with deposits over 60 times bigger than FM’s salary

(excerpts)

KINITA O KINAMKAM? | Facts minus feelings about Marcos' wealth and income

By: Annie Ruth C. Sabangan and Camille A. Aguinaldo
InterAksyon.com
November 14, 2016


The young Bongbong and his father and namesake, President Ferdinand Marcos. File photo from malacanang.gov.ph

1. While in power, Ferdinand and Imelda’s total salaries were P115,000 yearly or P9,600 monthly equivalent to P2 million ($304,000) in 20 years

2. But in their income tax returns and balance sheets, Ferdinand and Imelda declared that their total income was P16 million ($957,000) in 20 years, from 1965 to 1984

oh, pleeeaaase.

1) buried as a simple soldier? were all those other simple soldiers buried with such pompous simplicity? sounds like an oxymoron.

2) apropos the last sentence of the speech; did they really expect the burial as they wanted it all these years to unite the filipinos and bring the nation to greatness? were we small, pre-burial?

give me a break!   

It's fair to say the kittens have followed in their mother's footsteps.

The police station has no plan of relocating the cats. They have become more than just mascots, they are family.


BusanPolice / Facebook

http://www.lifebuzz.com/

The cat police family is now ready to fight some serious crime.

They may not seem very menacing but the cat squad is ready for the call of duty.


BusanPolice / Facebook

Not to be upstaged by their momma, the kittens also got their own uniforms.

The tiny kittens are the new hires in the department.


BusanPolice / Facebook

The officers have to do their daily duties and take care of a family of five cats.

The station proudly shares Molang's life on Facebook. She was gifted a police uniform made to her exact measurements. She seems to be moving up the ranks.


BusanPolice / Facebook

Turned out Molang was pregnant when she made the police station her home.

By the time the officers realized their cat was pregnant they had already fallen in love with her. They decided to let her have her kittens at the station.


BusanPolice / Facebook

The cat family has their own living space. The police officers were present during the birth and cut the kittens' umbilical cords.

Molang gave birth to two male and two female kitties. It wasn't long before she was showing her offsprings the ropes of the job.


BusanPolice / Facebook

Molang is a homeless cat who started to hang out with the officers while on duty.

She also happens to live at the station.


BusanPolice / Facebook

She takes her job very seriously keeping guard with her fellow officers.

Molang has become the mascot at the station. When the officers fell in love with Molang they had no idea she was not alone.


BusanPolice / Facebook

Homeless Cat Walks Up To A Cop, The Reason Why Went VIRAL Overnight.

By Sheyla
LifeBuzz Staff

Humans have used animals to work alongside them for centuries. Whether it’s a mule carrying heavy loads, horses used as transportation, pigeons carrying military messages during WWI and WWII, or canines working in law enforcement, and search and rescue.

Folks have been able to tap into an animal’s skill and exploit it. Cats on the other hand may not be the most reliable employees from the animal kingdom. Aside from refusing to take commands from anyone, they love to lounge around too much to ever do any hard labour.

Cats love nothing more than take naps throughout the day. Still, a police station in South Korea is willing to give this fur ball species a chance at doing decent work for the common good. Cats may not be the most fierce and strong animal but their cuteness factor is intimidating enough to take down hard-core criminals.

The Gang-seo Police Station in Busan have a new recruit in their hands.

Her name is Molang and she has yet to make any arrests but that is not stopping the force from keeping her on.

BusanPolice / Facebook

Not to be outdone, Panelo came out and said that she should resign from the Senate because of her immorality, and that she could even be disbarred, or words to that effect. Come again? Using that standard, maybe 50 percent of officials should resign, including his boss.

Of course, we know that these are just repetitions of what their boss says. Even if he has been proven wrong time and again. Picking on her. Three against one, and maybe more. Without a whit of evidence, except for the testimonies of convicts. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

http://opinion.inquirer.net/

-underscoring mine

The thief-in-the-night allusion may have pushed other issues aside, but it cannot be allowed.  Another picture is too strong, however, to be overcome: that of three powerful men, maybe more, ganging up on one woman. It is not a pretty sight: President Duterte and two of his henchmen, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre and Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo, all taking punches at Sen. Leila de Lima.

In my TV show, De Lima spoke for the first time about her private life, which she had jealously guarded, as was her right. No problem.

But the next day, Aguirre crowed that she had practically signed her own death warrant (my words) because her admission of a relationship with Ronnie Dayan was tantamount to admitting that she was in the drug business, because of course Dayan was in the drug business. Huh?

-underscoring mine

And, of course, related to this was the fact that he stole from us an estimated $10 billionâ€"about P500 billion at current exchange rates, or roughly P5,000 from each and every one of us.

Yet, the Supreme Court, or nine of the injustices, considered these venial sins, and of course, President Du30 says that there is no law that prohibits the burial of Marcos in the Libingan. They must be blind, deaf and dumb. Or rather, they are playing blind, deaf and dumb, which may be even worse.