A slippery slope

By Dean Tony La Vina

Let me begin this column on the Arroyo travel ban controversy with two assertions. First, I like President Aquino and support most of his policies and initiatives, including his peace policy, the economic and anti-poverty measures his administration has taken, and yes, his unrelenting, aggressive pursuit to hold accountable former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for alleged corrupt acts and political misdeeds (like the electoral sabotage of 2007). I certainly do not believe that the President is motivated by personal vendetta against Arroyo, nor is he being hard-hearted as shown by the offer to pay for bringing in international medical experts of her choice to Manila. Second, I hold and continue to hold in high esteem Secretary of Justice Leila De Lima. I have been a big admirer of her since she was chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights. I consider Secretary De Lima as one of the most competent and committed public servants in the current administration.

But on this issue of disallowing Arroyo to travel abroad for medical reasons, both President Aquino and Secretary De Lima are wrong.  Read on

spaced out phnoy

asked at the APEC ceo summit what the aquino admin is doing to address the high cost of electricity in the philippines, the prez waxed euphoric about alternative sources:

There are substantial gas deposits—so enormous that they “dwarf” the Malampaya oil fields off Palawan—in disputed territories in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), President Benigno Aquino III said at the business leaders conference of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum. And by next year, the President said, a US firm would start operations in the gas-rich territory. 

which should tell us that he’s really doing nothing about the high cost of electricity hereabouts, except dreaming that china would stand aside while the u.s. starts operations in the spratlys that would give us indigenous sources of power.  fat chance.

ninez cacho olivares’ take on it, Spaced out at Apec,  makes me wonder what the prez might be smoking these days.  or maybe it’s just the erehwon vibes of the “house of dreams”.

let gma go

of course i want to see gma paying for her crimes, but i want her hale and hearty and up to the ordeal when she faces the sandiganbayan, not weak and ailing, braced and harnessed, which would remind of a thin and pale ninoy aquino being forced to attend military court hearings during his hunger strike. i don’t know that that would help the case against her any, might even turn her into a martyr, how smart is that.

so maybe she won’t come back right away, but she will eventually (they all do), maybe to a friendly new admin in 2016.  meanwhile, it’s up to the aquino admin to build a case that will stand, when the time comes.

roby’s romance with “freedom”

last october katrina was in the audience of tedxdiliman, the first in manila that was open to the public, sort of (one had to ask to be invited).  having watched ted videos before via joel, i had high expectations and was grateful to tv 5 for the livestream.  but out of the 8 (of 11) speakers i caught, only one’s talk measured up, boogie tence ruiz‘s.  unfortunately he was last, and he was rushed, pressed for time, ang labo.

one who wasn’t rushed, and went overtime, was roby alampay, former executive director of the Southeast Asia Press Alliance, a regional NGO dedicated to the promotion of journalist rights, who spoke of himself as “an economy of one.”  and i remember being struck, and dismayed, by his spin on freedom in the philippines: that in southeast asia we do freedom better than anybody else, it is our competitive edge, so why aren’t we using it to sell the country?  i wasnt sure i heard right, and hoped for an upload somewhere, so i could listen to him again.

and so it’s finally on youtube and i’ve watched and listened again, and i’m sorry to say i heard right.  a sorry example of flighty, ungrounded discourse.  i completely agree with katrina:

…academic freedom, artistic freedom, freedom of expression are all highly questionable when you come from here and know | feel | see that freedom is also overrated when it cannot will not put food on people’s tables and more and more people are falling below the poverty line.

alampay also glorifies philippine NGOs, and i can’t help but wonder if he’s in denial or simply doesn’t get it that NGOs and civil society hereabouts have lost a lot of credibility since dinky soliman and her ilk conspired with gma to unseat erap, and soon after, CODE-NGO made a killing of 1.8 billion php out of thin air by exploiting its ties with the arroyo government.

i wonder too if alampay’s thinking is truly shared by his NGO-civil society colleagues in the region.  certainly, if you’re coming from malaysia or singapore or vietnam where there is no freedom of expression, our freedom of expression is enviable.  but that is not to say that it is worth bragging about when what is expressed in media, besides showbiz gossip, is mostly spin and quite removed from the true state of the nation.

well, but he’s been away.  let’s give him a chance to catch up.  meanwhile, better to hold his tongue until he’s ready to talk economy-of-all.