Category: aquino admin

EDSA myths 2014

“Ang nag-udyok sa atin sa Edsa, ang nag-uudyok sa tuwing may sakunang tumulong sa isa’t isa, hindi dahil gusto nating lumamang o may pakinabang tayo dito…Sa nakakaraming Pilipino po, and pinakamalakas na naguudyok sa ating kumilos ay pagmamahal,” Aquino said in his nationwide televised speech.

(What led us to Edsa, what prompts us to help each other during times of disaster, is not because we want to get ahead or because it will benefit us…For many Filipinos, they were prompted to act because of love.)

The President, ditching his original speech, recalled how Filipinos united and succeeded in staging a peaceful Edsa People Power.

He also explained why it is appropriate to celebrate the restoration of democracy in Cebu.

“Kung ang huling yugto o huling kabanata sa Edsa, pwede nating masabi ang unang yugto nagsimula sa Cebu,” he said.

i beg to disagree.  what moved the people to EDSA 28 years ago was not the spirit of bayanihan or love-thy-neighbor in a season of natural disaster.  what moved the people to EDSA was the spirit of non-violent change in a season of political awareness and political change.

it was just 8 days since the batasan pambansa declared marcos the winner (despite serious and widespread allegations of cheating) in the snap election, 7 days since cory declared herself the rightful winner, mounted a giant protest, and called for the boycott of crony goods and services that by the 6th day, friday 21 feb, was seeing the economy reeling and the cronies freaking out.  cory was in cebu to spread the word, marcos’s days were numbered, next stop davao.

when ramos and enrile defected, the people were already in the throes of non-violent revolution, changing consumption habits, changing banks, changing newspapers, to bring down the crony economy and force marcos to step down.  what moved the people to go to EDSA, wearing and waving cory’s colors, was the prospect of furthering the split in the marcos military, perhaps winning the rebel military over to cory’s camp, and together pushing for an end to dictatorship and corruption and censorship.

i get it naman, the notion of taking EDSA celebrations to the visayas and mindanao.  what i don’t get is why it meant no celebrations in metromanila.  puwede namang ipagdiwang dito kahit wala ang presidente.

and yes, i get it, too, the nation is restive enough, things are in such a mess, everywhere you look there’s something terribly wrong that’s taking forever to make right, wiser to veer away from people power and revolution talk.

pero napakalungkot for nation that the president himself, whose family was, is, the biggest beneficiary of EDSA, has only added to the misinformation floating around for the last 28 years.  and, of course, certain opinion columnists have been quick to pounce, na okay lang naman if only these columnists were pushing facts and not myths.

Amando Doronila : … It was only after the bulk of the military establishment had defected to join the rebel forces in Camp Crame that Cory returned to Manila to reestablish her presence while the Marcos regime was crumbling swiftly. At this stage, Cory declared support for the Enrile-Ramos mutiny.

cory returned to manila the very next day after the enrile-ramos defection.  she was back by the time the people stopped the tanks in ortigas on EDSA sunday. [EDSA UNO…page 130]  defections started pouring into the rebel camps only on EDSA monday. [210]  cory declared support for the enrile-ramos mutiny even while she was in cebu, at a presscon in magellan hotel late sunday morning before she left for manila.

Bobit Avila : … We later learned over Radyo Bandido that it was the time when the Comelec computer programmers walked out of the PICC and Butz Aquino echoed the call of Jaime Cardinal Sin to march to EDSA to protect then Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile and Lt. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos who were holed out in Camp Crame.

the walkout of the computer programmers took place on the 9th of february [40], a whole week before cory launched her non-violent civil disobedience and crony boycott campaign.  also, it was jaime cardinal sin who echoed the call of butz aquino, not the other way around.  butz issued his first call from camp aguinaldo at around 10:20 saturday night, asking the people to join him “to try and prevent bloodshed.” [86]  the cardinal made his first call at 10:40, ten minutes into the marcos presscon where the dictator accused the rebels of an aborted coup plot; the cardinal only said that it was all right to help the rebels with food and support IF the people wished, and asked them to pray with him that not a drop of blood be shed. [88-89]  it was at midnight, when butz and the tens of thousands of coryistas who had responded to his call were already marching from isetann toward the camps, that the cardinal went on the air again and categorically asked the people to go to the camps and support the rebels: “let us help them with our presence.” [101]  also, saturday night enrile and RAM were holed up in camp aguinaldo, ramos in camp crame, until they joined forces in crame sunday afternoon.

Kit Tatad : … the military mutiny, which drew entire families to Edsa following Cardinal Jaime Sin’s call for citizen support, had nothing to do with the results of the Feb. 7, 1986 snap presidential election, which Cory lost to Marcos. She had no part in the Edsa “revolt” and had in fact gone to Cebu to stay with some religious sisters and avoid getting sucked into the event.

Tony Lopez :… Corazon Cojuangco Aquino didn’t win the snap election of February 1986. It was won by strongman Ferdinand Marcos by a margin of 800,000 votes. In the Comelec-sanctioned official count, the legal and official winner was Marcos, by a margin of 1.7 million votes.

ah so, 800,000 votes lang ang winning margin ni marcos over cory.  minus the 350,000 that enrile said was the extent of the cheating in cagayan [74] leaves 450,000.  surely cagayan was not the only place where massive cheating took place, apart from the countless reports of vote-buying, terrorism, snatching of ballot boxes, inaccuracies in counting and tabulation, and the thousands of disenfranchised metro manila voters. [39]  in an honest and clean election, cory would no doubt have won.

Tony Lopez: … Initially, Cory Aquino didn’t have any participation in the four-day People Power revolt of Feb. 22-25, 1986 or EDSA I. She hid in a Cebu convent the first night. Enrile wanted to take over as President. But the RAM wanted a more acceptable political figure, Cory.

Emil Jurado : … For the record, Mrs. Aquino was never seen on Edsa even as she later became its beneficiary. Fidel Ramos, Juan Ponce Enrile and Gregorio Honasan simply decided to hand over power to her.

Kit Tatad : … when GTV-4 asked Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile whether he and his military associates would take the power after Marcos, he hastily (and imprudently, some believe) said no, they would give it to Cory.

for the record, u.s.t. history professor evelyn a. songco, whom i met at an EDSA symposium last feb 21, said she saw cory in EDSA on the afternoon of day 3, monday, confirming news reports of business day and manila bulletin back in feb 1986.  but even if cory had not gone to EDSA, i daresay it didn’t matter to the coryistas.  cory had done her part, EDSA was all about the people doing theirs, i.e., wooing the rebel military to cory’s side.

and yes, enrile wanted to take over as president — that’s what the aborted coup plot was all about (and the post-EDSA coup attempts) – but no, he didn’t give up the ambition easily or “simply,” and neither did RAM, thinking that the people would accept enrile as replacement to marcos yet not daring to go public with the offer.  until day 3, monday, they were pushing for a civilian-military junta that enrile would head along with cory.  but cory would not hear of it, and by monday night the enrile-RAM faction was reduced to demanding that the inauguration be held in camp crame for security reasons.  it got so bad that cory was not even expecting them to attend the club filipino affair, and seats had to be added to the presidential table when they arrived.

Kit Tatad : … Did Marcos fall and Cory Aquino take over, solely because of “people power” or because of Washington? Is it conceivable for a Filipino president to fall without US participation or consent?

u.s. president ronald reagan’s troubleshooter philip habib was in manila feb 15 to noon of the 22nd, and he could tell that something was about to break but wasn’t sure what.  the ramos-enrile defection caught the americans napping, people power knocked them out.  it was already day 3, the people had stopped tanks the day before, sotelo had defected that morning, and defections were finally pouring into the rebel camp, when the americans intervened in earnest, and only in the matter of marcos’s escape.  intelligence reports from the CIA re movements in and out of malacanang palace may have helped the rebel camp during the four days, but if the americans had stayed out of it, EDSA would have happened anyway, and it could have ended more decisively.

Efren Danao : … I believe that February 22 has a stronger claim to be named EDSA Day despite Cory’s absence. It was on February 22, 1986 that JPE, FVR and a small group of reformist groups withdrew their support for Marcos and made Camp Aguinaldo their base. They were all ready to die in the face of superior forces of the dictatorship. They refused to cower in fright in a safe sanctuary. It was also the first day that Jaime Cardinal Sin called on all freedom-loving Filipinos to go to Camp Aguinaldo. Definitely, danger was greatest and greater strength of conviction was needed on the very first day, February 22.

i believe that february 23 has the strongest claim to EDSA Day despite cory’s absence.  it was on feb 23 EDSA sunday, that the people marched to EDSA in huge numbers and discovered their awesome power to effect non-violent change when united by a common goal.  if not for the people’s courage and that awesome demonstration in ortigas sunday afternoon, cory and enrile would not have been compelled to rise above their differences and bow to the people’s will, even if only for those crucial days when the dictator was still around.

Ninez Cacho Olivares : … Edsa was started, not in Cebu, but in Edsa, the day before Enrile resigned as Marcos’ defense minister. The records prove it. Malaya, the then opposition newspaper, carried the story of Enrile’s resignation on the day Enrile and his RAMboys closeted themselves in Camp Crame and began the revolt agaisnt Marcos and his dictatorship.

ano daw?  EDSA started when the news came out in malaya that enrile had resigned and he and RAM closeted themselves in camp crame???  that’s camp aguinaldo ha.  and, really, who cared, who knew, if enrile resigned friday.  the people were already in revolt, it was the 7th day of the crony boycott.  people only started caring about enrile during the evening presscon when he admitted that they cheated cory in cagayan and that the 1972 ambush was staged.

Charlie Manalo :… the people’s discontent was already at boiling point then, the Marcos dictatorship was ready to be toppled anytime, the ruling class had to maneuver everything to bring the situation to its advantage. It had to hijack the people’s movement to ensure they would still be in control of the situation. And that resulted in the failed coup by Enrile. … Hence, Enrile’s failed act is an action totally separate from the growing people’s movement. In fact, had the coup succeeded, it was not meant to benefit Cory. But as the Church and other organization started to extend support to Enrile’s beleaguered forces, a compromise has to be made and Enrile had to relinquish any plan to grab power and offer the presidency to someone who wasn’t even there.

how convoluted and obfuscatory naman.  in fact, the ruling class maneuvering to hijack the people’s movement was exactly what enrile and RAM were up to when they planned the coup, and failing that, when they defected and tried to win the support of the people.  if the RAM coup had pushed through and succeeded in deposing marcos, enrile would have been in a position to publicly challenge cory for the presidency.  but i imagine that cory would have been unfazed, gone on to davao from cebu, continued adding to the list of crony companies to boycott, and the people would have been happy to oblige.  in the end, enrile would have had to step aside anyway.

Conrado de Quiros : .. Maybe the relocation of Edsa to Fuente Osmeña reinterpreted Edsa, rewrote Edsa, revised Edsa—but what of it? Maybe it wasn’t just time that Edsa was relocated elsewhere, maybe it was time Edsa itself was retold. Because what we’ve had over the last 28 years was really pretty much a reinterpreted Edsa, a rewritten Edsa, a revised Edsa. Maybe it was time we reinterpreted the reinterpretation, rewrote what had already been rewritten, revised the revised version. To correct it, to rectify it, to stand it on its feet and not on its head.

what of it ?!?!?

if the politicos with the help of the media had not reinterpreted, rewrote, revised EDSA…  if they had not dignified false claims that it was the handiwork of the americans, of the rebel military, even of the virgin mary, effectively diminishing the role of the people …  if the people had had a better sense of what happpened behind the scenes and how it was their non-violent actions on EDSA that compelled, nay, forced, cory and enrile to join forces against the dictator…  then the people might have remained vigilant post-EDSA rather than de-activating, rather than trusting that cory and her cabinet would right all wrongs and we could live happily ever after…  then that could have been a truly revolutionary government and we would now be in a different space and time.

from luneta to china

In his first public response to the sanctions, Mr. Aquino said he had no plans to apologize, saying that doing so could create a legal liability and noting that China had not paid compensation to the families of Filipinos who have died in episodes there.

“legal liability…” googled it and, yes, it would seem that apologizing would / could mean admission of guilt, which could be used against the apologizer should the hostaged hongkong survivors and victims’ families take the ph government to court for redress.

hmm.  kaya pala ayaw mag-apologize ng presidente.  in a court of law, baka maobligang magbayad ng just compensation at maparusahan ang mga nagkasala.  but in the court of public opinion, lusot na lusot, especially now, given filipino disgust at china’s aggressive moves on philippine terrritory.  in comment threads on mainstream news and social media sites, parang mas maraming aprub kaysa di-aprub sa pagmamatigas ni aquino, kesyo, tama, wag magpa-bully sa hong kong/china, kesyo it’s a matter of national pride, apologizing would be a sign of weakness.

but, really, it doesn’t mean that we, who believe the president should apologize, are wrong.  what’s wrong is to think that the two occasions in beijing when filipino tourists were killed are comparable to the almost 10 hours hostaging and eventual killing of 8 and wounding of 7 hong kong tourists in luneta.  alex magno is right:

The first incident involved an accidental death caused by a wayward vehicle. The second incident involved the killing of two Filipinos by a seriously deranged man (subsequently executed for the crimes).

Neither involved acts of official neglect or incompetence. They cannot be compared to the official failings during the Luneta incident, which our own fact-finding committee established. That committee’s recommendation for charges to be filed against former Manila mayor Alfredo Lim and others have been blissfully ignored by Malacanang.

as far as the aquino admin is concerned, it has already done daw its utmost best to address the issue.  this was the official reaction of the DFA sec to news that govt officials will now have to obtain visas to travel to hong kong:

“The sanction is unfortunate because a substantive closure on the Quirino Grandstand incident has been arrived at three years ago with the previous Hong Kong SAR government and the victims as well as their families,” DFA spokesperson and Assistant Secretary Raul Hernandez said in a statement he read to reporters.

Hernandez said that a renewed appeal for compassion was made to the government in October 2013 and it responded by offering “additional tokens of solidarity” that were pledged by Filipinos “at the behest of the Philippine government.”

“These amounts that are being offered are substantially more than those that have been previously accepted by the victims and their families. We have been made to understand that the victims and their families have agreed to this offer,” he said.

But Hernandez said the Hong Kong SAR government responded by opening a “total renegotiation’ to seek a demand for an apology over the deaths of its citizens. He said the Philippines, as a sovereign nation, “is not prepared to consider” this demand.

“Our nation has already expressed its deepest regret and condolences over the incident and we are preparing to reiterate this,” Hernandez said.

He said the government “remains committed to manifest compassion for the victims and their families and is ready to turn over the additional tokens of solidarity from the Filipino people … as soon as possible.”

“We would like to assure the Filipino people that the Philippine government has done its utmost best to address the Quirino Grandstand issue,” Hernandez said.

what intrigues me is that i can’t find any source specifying exactly how much the hong kong victims are asking for and exactly how much the philippine government and/or its supporters have paid or offer to pay.  the only figure i get from googling is the 120M that erap was offering to raise, and i have no idea if that’s anywhere close to what is just compensation.

surely we can find the money for this.  if we can find the money to keep the patronage system alive by awarding senators and congressmen millions (billions?) in pork barrel funds and in generous salaries and allowances and bonuses every year, surely we can find the money to do right by the victims.  it is the honorable thing to do.

or is it that the bigger problem is that the prez cannot abide the idea of disgracing his incompetent subordinates because kabarkada, or political ally since cory times?  or basta, hindi lang sanay mag-sorry pag nagkamali?  o hindi lang sanay umamin pag nagkamali?

whatever, i can’t help wondering, what if the president had apologized right away?  would china be a little less offensive over in the west philippine sea?  maybe not.  china seems to be preparing to just take it over, “china sea” or bust, and seems to be testing limits all around.

interestingly, aquino’s hitler jibe could not have come at a better time, almost synchronous with america finally speaking out and criticizing china’s maritime claims, while talks on “temporary” facilities promise to continue, and u.s. warships arrive in manila and cebu ports, and who knows where else, soon after.

parang coordinated.  and i suppose it makes sense.  the hitler analogy may be flawed, but like peter beinart of the atlantic says,  it at least recognizes the magnitude of the stakes. 

php 4.15 power rate hike – outrageous and obscene

and yet the palace’s first reaction was to defend it — not arbitrary, not unreasonable, it is based on the law.  ah, yes, the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001, the infamous EPIRA that the senate of the eleventh congress passed in the last minutes of the gloria arroyo regime, with the promise that privatization of NAPOCOR would bring down the cost of power to the consumer.

yeah right.  according to a bill filed by senator gringo last year re mindanao’s power problems, when EPIRA became law in june 2001, the retail price per kilowatt hour was php 5.32. in march 2011 it was php 9.84. last month, says boo chanco, it was php 11.06.  the php 4.15 hike would make it php 15.21.  check your last meralco bill and weep.

i’m aghast that the palace made that mistake at all, defending that obscene price hike as though we were talking in centavos rather than pesos in today’s foreign exchange, and as though the department of energy were not remiss in its duties to the public.

mabuti at natauhan sila.  konting damage control, better late than never — coloma pleading that private power companies practice corporate social responsibility, voluntarily desist from passing on costs to consumers, esp in the wake of yolanda, and energy sec jericho petilla promising to investigate and to fearlessly call out the unscrupulous ones, if any, no matter how powerful or powerfully connected. (dec 7 teleradyo with henry omaga diaz)

petilla won many many pogi points when he promised to restore electricity to yolanda-ravaged regions by christmas eve, or he would resign.  on twitter he has been praised to high heavens and a rosy 2016 run-for-whatever-position predicted.  hmm, too soon to tell, even if he’s smooth and simpatiko and all that.  i heard him saying that he does not know how much the restoration will cost, but he will do it, whatever the cost, bahala na.  which is truly nakaka-tense for the visayas.

surely petilla knows that the problem,whether in luzon, visayas, or mindanao, is the EPIRA.  here’s what freedom from debt coalition’s leonor briones said in an open letter to the president in april 2012 when mindanao was gripped by brownouts and higher costs.

Mr. President, the highly flawed policy framework of EPIRA or Electric Power Industry Reform Act is the problem behind the Mindanao power supply issue. This law is designed for big business interests, not for public service. Before EPIRA was passed, the former National Power Corporation was responsible for generating electricity as well as developing power transmission lines. But EPIRA in effect removed this fundamental role of the State. What EPIRA did was to pave the way for private investors to come in and chart the course of generating electric power in our country. This law also gave the control and management of a major pillar of the industry – our national power transmission lines to a foreign State corporation – State Grid of China with Henry Sy’s SM Holdings Corporations as its partner.

In short, the matter of developing electric power supply and management has been left at the mercy of the private sector, an oligopoly of a few big, long-entrenched family/corporate interests.

kung talagang magaling si petilla, and his heart is in the right place, he would champion the repeal of the evil EPIRA and come up with an alternative reform program that would put the public interest on equal footing with business interests.  there has to be a way, an ethical way.  maybe a price ceiling, a profit ceiling, for this essential expense?  how naive of me?  meralco made a net profit of 17B in 2012, a third higher than the previous year, and surely it’s doing even better in 2013.  how about meralco shouldering the costs instead, for a change?  pay back, pay forward.

but wait, meralco says it’s not to blame, it’s only a distributor (really? no power plants?).  what’s gone up in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, meralco says, is the generation charge of the power plants producing the electricity.  hmm.  but WESM was devised to encourage competition and keep prices down.  so what is going on?  speculation by the big players?  capitalist greed as usual?  who runs WESM?  who owns the power plants making hay while malampaya is away?  mga tao ba ito?  mga pilipino ba ito?  sino-sino ba itong mga ito na ang titindi kumabig, in billions upon bllions of pesos, wringing hard-earned thousands upon thousands from consumers.  sila mismo, along with meralco, and the rest of the power industry that have been enriching themselves at our expense, ang may kaya at nararapat na magbayad niyang 4.15 na yan.  hindi naman puwede, hindi naman tama, na pass-on na lang sila nang pass-on, lahat na lang ay sa atin sinisingil, to protect, nay, enhance, their profits.

now senator serge is saying that the malampaya fund should be used to subsidize the rate hike.  WHAT? that’s like saying the rate hike is okay, we just need to find the money to pay the power oligarchs.  senator serge should explain instead why they voted yes to the EPIRA in the first place.  he was part of the senate of the 11th congress that gave the final seal of approval in june 2001, along with robert barbers, rodolfo biazon, rene cayetano, anna dominique coseteng, franklin drilon, juan flavier, gregorio honasan, robert jaworski, loren legarda, ramon magsaysay jr., blas ople, tessie aquino oreta, sonny osmena, aquilino pimentel, ramon revilla, miriam santiago, vicente sotto iii, and francisco tatad.  oh and let’s not forget former president gma who pushed for the EPIRA, complete with bribery, it is said.  you wonder what was in it for arroyo.  is she or her family a power industry player too?

ironically, given how unpopular he is these days, enrile was the only senator who said no to the EPIRA in 2001.  and in june 2008 – power rates had risen to php 8.3/kwh in april from php 7.43/kwh in dec 2007 – upon his initiative the senate (14th congress 2007-2010) introduced amendments to the EPIRA to address the perceived weaknesses and clarify the ambiguous provisions in the law.

Juan Ponce Enrile: Seven (7) years ago, Congress passed Republic Act No. 9136 or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) with the end goal of providing affordable and reliable electricity to consumers in the Philippines. To achieve this goal, the law provided for the restructuring and deregulation of the power industry, however, there were not enough safeguards to prevent power industry players from manipulating the rates and the unabated transfer of the burden of what are properly costs of doing business on to the consumers. [bold mine]

It is in this light that I pushed for the amendments of the EPIRA in order to correct the flaws of the law and to set additional safeguards that will allow the end-users of electricity to enjoy an efficient, reliable, and inexpensive electric power system. (Posted on Facebook)

read More Senators join Enrile in pushing for EPIRA amendments … Miriam to foreign traders: Explain pro-EPIRA lobby … Epira amendment bill might not pass – Villar … Senators scold foreign traders at Epira hearing.  yes, there was, is, a foreign lobby to stop amendments to the EPIRA.  obviously the lobby was successful.

here’s calling out the senators of the 14th congress: villar the husband, enrile, estrada the son, kiko pangilinan, migs zubiri, pimentel the father, angara the father, joker arroyo, rodolfo biazon, the cayetano kids, miriam santiago, chiz escudero, dick gordon, gringo honasan, ping lacson, lito lapid, loren legarda, jamby madrigal, revilla the son, mar roxas, sonny trillanes, and last but certainly not the least, benigno aquino the son, now the president.  you all owe us an explanation for buckling to foreign pressure.  and you all owe us big time for abandoning us to the mercies of a merciless oligarchy.

it’s not as if life is good, the living easy, for the low- and middle-income masses of luzon that depend on meralco for electricity.  if anything, living conditions have gone from bad to worse, with wages remaining low while prices of essential commodities are forever spiralling.  except for the rich and relatively rich, life is harsh, the living a struggle to make ends meet for millions, esp the ones with families, children, to feed, clothe, shelter, and send to school.

life is harsh, the living a struggle, and electricity is the one essential commodity that makes life, the daily grind, bearable.  imagine what life would be like for the masses without electricity.  walang ilaw, walang electric fan, radyo, tv, walang pang-charge ng celfone, (and for the middle class) walang fridge, computer, internet, oven, toaster, plancha, washing machine.  ang dilim.  ang lungkot.  ang bigat.

we won’t die without electricity the way we would die without food and water, but it would be a kind of death, it would be the pits, and many already beg, steal, or borrow, ‘wag lang maputulan ng koryente.  no wonder at all that the news of a php 4.15 (!) price hike, no matter if temporary (malaking IF), no matter if utay-utay ang singil, is driving the masses to tearful, and fearful, desperation.  paano na.  tipid na tipid na nga.  wala nang ihihigpit ang sinturon.

unless the president and the lawmakers get their act together on the EPIRA and bring down the power rate to truly reasonable levels, millions of poor pinoys in the very near future would have to do with even less food and less utilities, maybe no radio, no tv – no entertainment, no escape! – just to keep up payments for a little light, shore up what little dignity they have left, as they struggle, kahig-tuka, to keep body and soul together.

beware the social volcano.
http://getrealphilippines.com/legacy/agr-disagr/8-2-volcano.html
http://business.inquirer.net/8377/philippines-leads-in-income-inequality-in-asean-says-study
http://www.tribune.net.ph/nation/most-pinoys-have-trouble-buying-basic-needs-ibon

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10 years of EPIRA: what went wrong?
The curious case of NAPOCOR debts
Power lords
ADB : Anti-Development Bank

 

anne curtis and the president

Posted by Boo Chanco on Facebook
3 Dec around 2:30 pm

showbiz must really be a tough dog eat dog world so that putting down a star gives hope to rivals they have a chance to take her place.  based on what i see on my FB newsfeed and on my twitter feed, they are still bashing anne curtis for her drunken behavior.  i think she deserves a break.  many of us have been drunk before and acted in ways we regretted in the light of day.  but how many have apologized the way ms curtis did?  as someone who has professional experience handling crisis situations for corporates, i think her instincts are right.  rather than being in denial and letting her own band of apologists fight it out, she apologized and said she did wrong.  that was more than we got from some people we know who clearly bungled the first few days after yolanda in leyte.  both p-noy and mar roxas were defensive and it took 8 days for the administration to somehow apologize and promise to do better courtesy of sonny coloma.  but we haven’t heard the president say sorry even once for the many blunders under his watch for which he must take responsibility.  just imagine how different things would have been for the administration if p-noy wasn’t too defensive on the number of dead and didn’t give that sarcastic remark to the local businessman complaining about the breakdown of peace and order.  how different things would have been if mar roxas didn’t argue with andrew stevens of cnn about the cadavers scattered in the streets as different cadavers every day rather than the same ones stevens claimed he had seen.  perhaps stardom has gotten into the head of anne curtis that led to that drunken behavior but when push came to shove she apologized.  that takes a lot of humility for someone who is up there as a celebrity.  can anyone imagine if the top guns in this government had an ounce of anne’s humility?