Korek si Bam… Ayos si Chiz…

It doesn’t surprise that Bam Aquino is being hit by both anti-DDS and anti-BBM peeps for saying he’s an Independent rather than Opposition, and that he doesn’t think the VP’s impeachment is an election issue. But I must say he makes a lot of sense.

BAM AQUINO. Galing akong Zamboanga, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac. Hindi siya issue nung mga kababayan natin. Ang issue ng mga kababayan natin yung pagkain, yung kakulangan ng tulong sa edukasyon, yung pagkalimitado ng mga trabaho, yung puwedeng makakuha ng ayuda na hindi binibigay nang patas….  Pag umiikot kami, yan yung binabanggit ng mga tao.

So palagay ko yang impeachment, mahalaga siya sa mga partido, mahalaga siya sa mga pulitiko.  Pero pagdating sa taongbayan, ang hinahanap pa rin nila, yung mga taong magtratrabaho para sa kanila, [on] issues na mahalaga sa kanilang pamilya at mahalaga sa kanilang pang araw-araw na buhay.

Pag umabot na tayo sa senate, we will be a judge, at siguro yung nararapat na gawin ay maging fair. Tingnan yung ebidensiya. Huwag kumiling sa kahit anong partido. At siguro nga maganda na may mga independent sa senado, ‘no? Kasi ang nangyayari, kapag may partido ka na, parang nag-judge ka na e, di ba. Pero yung independent, kaya talaga tingnan yung ebidensiya, kaya tingnan kung anong ipe-present ng prosecution at saka ng defense, at gagawa ng desisyon base lang sa ebidensiya, hindi base lang sa politika, o base lang sa kaibigan.

At aprub rin si James Matthew Miraflor, strategic information consultant at The Task Force for Global Health Inc. who sees it as a “smarting up”.

MIRAFLOR. Bam-Kiko as independent rather than opposition. Quimbos doing the Q thing. These liberal politicians (not necessarily from the Liberal Party) are only doing what it needs to survive in an electoral system that operates under patronage principles. It cannot be helped. They need resources from above to sustain their coalitions and machinery; else they lose to someone doing the exact same thing. Hence, they have to make sure that the incumbent coalition is not hostile to them while still keeping their base.

For me, it is a fresh sight to see these liberal politicians finally smarting up and doing what needs to be done to contest political power. This is unlike in the last decade when they were weighed down by a false sense of righteousness; as if they were no longer mere politicians but “statesmen” of some sort, unsullied by the grease of the machine.

Yes, smart to draw a line without being pa-righteous. Smart to eschew talk of impeachment when one might end up one of 24 judges. There are honestly creative ways for a third force to navigate a highly polarized political arena.

Gets ko naman where Sonny Trillanes is coming from, but no one is belittling the issue of impeachment. In fact, we all (except for some DDS) wish the Senate would hurry up — let the chips fall where they may — and it’s a relief to hear from Senate Prez Chiz Escudero, who’s not sleeping on the job naman pala: pre-trial concerns and requirements are being attended to with due diligence (the better to forestall future complaints), the Senate will convene as impeachment court once the 12 new senators have taken their oaths.

At least that’s what I gathered from his presscon this morning. Smart of him to speak and explain directly to the people via media, rather than engage in endless debates with legal luminaries who say the trial should start now na even if the Senate is on recess. Anyway, na sa Supreme Court na pati.

Although say rin ni Chiz, it will be the Solicitor General’s office that will respond to the Supremes’ request for comment to petitions, whether to compel the Senate to move ASAP or to direct the Senate to cease and desist.

Not that the Senate, if truly independent, can be compelled to do anything against its wishes. Especially not by a Supreme Court whose CJ and 12 Associate Justices are Duterte-appointed.  https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/incumbent-justices/

 

 

Kampanya 2025 kicks off

I find that I don’t have the patience to sit through senatoriables’ rallies and debates just because I’ve heard all these promises before, all unfulfillable except in nominal dabs and spurts as long as the System holds sway, a problem media does not care to address.

But I did check out PBBM‘s speech at his party’s campaign kick-off after being told na super-palabán, panay ang patamà sa mga Duterte re tokhang, Pharmally, atbp., and I can’t wait to hear from the Dutertes, who we know can give as good as they get. Surely they have as much on the Marcoses as the Marcoses have on them. Pa-anghang-an na lang ng banat. Let the voters decide.

Which reminds me of a Facebook post going around, tumawid na sa Viber, at pinadala sa akin ng kapatid via text. Bilib na bilib ang nag-post sa Marcos-Romualdez “lightning-fast, coordinated takedown” of Sara Duterte “that leaves no room for counterattacks.” Tipong political blitzkrieg daw at its finest. As though the battle were already won, the VP is done for. Tanong ng kapatid ko, totoo ba? Is it over for Sara?

Premature the hallelujah, methinks. Nothing is settled. Magaling din ang kampong Duterte, huwag maliitin o balewalain. Ang dami pang puwedeng mangyari. The Digongs aren’t going down without a fight, in and out of the impeachment court, whenever.

Kamakalawa lang, sinamapahan ng kasong graft ni dating Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez et al. si Speaker Martin Romualdez atbp. over alleged insertions in the 2025 budget. And VP Sara’s unequivocal denial that she threatened to assassinate BBM, the First Lady, and the Speaker tells me that her lawyers might stick to the “conditional” argument, as in, maybe share with the public what condition/s led her to give the kill order — when was that exactly? — that she told us about, that she now denies. What exactly was going on then behind the scenes?

Meanwhile, that Bam Aquino (#5) and Kiko Pangilinan (#51) are Independent and not Opposition makes sense. Opposition would mean vs. the incumbent only. Independent means vs. both Marcos & Duterte camps. Good of former VP Leni to endorse the two. Kailangan natin ng kakampi, other than Senator Risa, sa senado.

On the ground, we could start sounding out the voters around us — we all have our networks, small and large, private and public, whichever side they’re on — and we could start pushing for Bam and Kiko: bawasan ang mga artista, at tama na ang isang Tulfo isang Cayetano isang Villar! Kung may puwang pa, itulak rin natin sina | kina Ka Leody de Guzman (#21), Luke Espiritu (#25), at Heidi Mendoza (#45). Pakisingit, paki-insert. Baka sakaling makalusot. #LetsMakeSingit

Impeach bulaga, MacArthur Park

Sinadya kaya ng Lower House reps na literally last-minute nila isinampa ang Articles of Impeachment sa Senado, knowing very well that it was too late, the Senate had adjourned, but, well, the media mileage is worth it? Besides there seems to be much glee in putting Senate Prez Chiz on the spot — just about every other lawyer and pundit and rep is weighing in now on the meaning of “shall forthwith proceed” and insisting that the Senate must get moving, now na! Bumigay kaya si Chiz, o manindigan? Ano ba talaga ang rules?

Samantala, cool na cool si VP Sara, matagal na daw nilang pinaghahandaan ito, okey lang siya, “mas masakit pa maiwan ng boyfriend o girlfriend kaysa ma-impeach ka ng House of Representatives.” Hmm. I’m sure not, as in, not true. Unless it’s a measure of how little she thinks of country, and ipinapa-sa-diyos na lang niya ang kapalaran ng ‘Pinas, as in, “God save the Philippines”? Really?

Upon messaging her father daw that “Everything will be all right”, former President Duterte sent her daw a video of him singing “MacArthur’s Park”, a sixties song, boomer times, about the end of a love affair. Na medyo appropriate nga naman if we look back on the BBM-Sara hook-up. When did it start going wrong? Was it doomed from the start?

The Duterte-Marcos alliance was already there when Duterte won the presidency in 2016 (BBM lost as VP to Leni). That he immediately allowed the burial of FEM in the Libingan ng mga Bayani told us all we needed to know, that it was a bayad-utang for the Marcos-loyalist vote. Maybe he needn’t have. Maybe he would have won anyway. And maybe if he hadn’t allowed the burial, and the dictator Marcos’s right to be buried as hero continues to be questioned, maybe we wouldn’t have a Marcos back in the palace? I can imagine Dutz singing this part with gusto, and regret.

Someone left the cake out in the rain 
I don’t think that I can take it
‘Cause it took so long to bake it 
And I’ll never have that recipe again
Oh nooooo

Black Hawk, Diversity, Trump

That long night after the 9 p.m. collision and explosion of the American Airlines jet and the Black Hawk helicopter over the dark and freezing Potomac River was a very sad and long wait not just for the families of the 67 victims but for all of America and the world glued to cable TV and YouTube who waited along, praying for survivors, then for the recovery of bodies, and of the black boxes, wanting needing to know what went wrong, what brought on that horrible collision.  Impossible not to feel for, care about, the dead and the bereaved, even from far away.

The three soldiers killed in the collision were part of the 12th Aviation Battalion at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, whose responsibilities in a national crisis include evacuating Pentagon officials….

“Some of their mission is to support the Department of Defense if something really bad happens in this area, and we need to move our senior leaders,” said Jonathan Koziol, the chief of staff of the Army’s Aviation Directorate. https://www.reuters.com/world/

President Donald Trump was quick to weigh in via social media.

Taking to Truth Social, President Trump questioned how such an incident could have occurred, posting: “The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing. Why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn? Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane? This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD.” https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/

“The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200 foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???” Trump said in a Truth Social post.  https://www.reuters.com/

At the Thursday morning presscon, he asserted that the pilots had failed.

“You had a pilot problem from the standpoint of the helicopter,” he said. “I mean, because it was visual. It was a very clear night.” The helicopter, he said, “had the ability to stop. I have helicopters. You can stop a helicopter very quickly. It had the ability to go up or down. It had the ability to turn. And the turn it made was not the correct turn, obviously.” https://www.nytimes.com/

Everything’s still under investigation, of course, but Trump’s also sure it has to do with DiversityEquityInclusion policies that may have led to the hiring of not-white and therefore not-too-bright personnel, or something to that effect, which had me wondering if the Hawk’s pilot and/or co-pilot and/or crew-of-one was black or brown or other hyphenated American or female or queer or differently-abled.

Another day later we learn that all three were white — one woman (co-pilot https://edition.cnn.com/ and two men (pilot and crew) — and quite able. But also, that both the Hawk and air traffic control were understaffed.

Speaking to MSNBC, retired Army Lt. Col. Darin Gaub said video of the collision appeared to show that the helicopter did not appear to change course, speed or altitude before the crash, indicating the crew may not have known the passenger jet was in its path.

He added that the training mission had fewer crew chiefs than normal to scan the sky for potential dangers. While such missions typically have three, he said, Wednesday’s had one.

“That’s a fact,” he said. “It may have bearing in the future. It may not. But it does reduce ability of crew to identify an aircraft in flight at night.” https://www.nbcnews.com/

There was reportedly only one air traffic controller responsible for coordinating helicopter and plane traffic, The Associated Press and others reported Thursday. The work at Reagan National airport, which was coordinating the flights, is usually assigned to two people and the configuration was “not normal.” https://news3lv.com/news/

Moving on from Trump’s DEI spin, America’s back to the question of why the Hawk was flying higher than protocols allowed. Human error? Mechanical failure? https://www.yahoo.com/news/

I got to thinking that maybe we should could just be glad that there’s no hint of terrorism, or there’s no first rush to rule it out — unintentional, though deadly, violence is much easier for hearts and minds to deal with. But then a little more browsing led me to this:  “Was American Airlines plane crash a terrorist act? Trump fuels conspiracy frenzy with ‘CLEAR NIGHT’ remark”. 

Conspiracy Theories Take Flight

Trump’s comments helped ignite a storm of speculation online. Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman contributed to the theories, writing in a now-deleted post on X (formerly Twitter), “How does an incredibly manoeuvrable military helicopter fly into a regional aircraft by accident with all of the sensors and warning devices designed to prevent an accident like this one? It sounds more like terrorism than an accident.”

Ackman later deleted the comment but left up a repost of an air traffic control video that allegedly showed a collision alert warning for over 30 seconds before the crash.

Meanwhile, Reddit users questioned whether the helicopter had been transporting a VIP passenger, pointing out that it had a gold top—a marker often associated with aircraft used for high-ranking officials. However, a U.S. Department of Defense official confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that no senior U.S. officials were on board.

Similarly, ex-soccer player Taylor Twellman attempted to dissect the crash scene on Instagram. Uploading a clip of the tragedy, he captioned the post: “You can’t tell me this isn’t suspicious. My heart aches for those on that plane. Literally everyone’s worst nightmare.” He, too, ultimately was left with no choice but to delete the post as other social media users criticised him for fuelling conspiracy theories at a fragile time. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/

A fragile time, indeed. On all fronts.