Category: aquino admin

corona impeachment: let’s hear it all, prosecution AND defense!

i like it that chief justice corona is not resigning, instead will face trial in the senate.  it would be good for us all, since phnoy has seen fit to get him impeached by the house of reps, to see due process taking its course, whether toward an acquittal or convicton.  i hope corona does not change his mind over the holidays.

i still remember erap’s trial, all the dirt and rot that surfaced, and the named names, which i suspect was the underlying reason for the representatives-prosecutors’ pouncing on the second-envelope fiasco, any excuse to walk out before the defense could be heard, which may also be the reason certain quarters would prefer that corona do a merceditas na lang?

please lang, no walk-outs, let us hear it all, prosecution AND defense!

meanwhile, listening to lacierda lash back at corona after the latter’s address to the nation only makes me wonder/wander back to why phnoy has gotten so ballistic.  he got his way, after all, on holding gma in the country and getting her arrested (in another blitzkrieg process).  kinda creative naman sila pag gitgitan na.

read Hell to the Chief by Theodore Te on move.ph

corona impeachment is to save hacienda luisita?

i thought the house of reps was working on impeaching supreme court justice mariano del castillo for plagiarism.  as it turns out, that was just a distraction.  behind the scenes, the reps (188! medyo o.a.)were working pala on the impeachment of bigger, nay, the biggest, fish, chief justice renato corona.  phnoy’s valte and rep. tupas et al can deny it all they want, but clearly the prez was behind it — i just heard him gloating on anc as he addressed house allies — and it’s quite believable, as edcel lagman claims, that many reps signed to make sure they get their pork barrel next year (ay, shades of gma) and, of course, marami sa kanila ay pumoposisyon for the basbas of phnoy sa 2013 elections.

blogs carlos conde:

According to this story from @moveph and the venerable @glendamgloria … President Aquino’s recent attacks against the Supreme Court were calculated, designed to prepare the public for the possible impeachment of the “last Arroyo holdout,” Supreme Court chief justice Renato Corona, whose court the Aquino administration has accused of being obstructionist in its fight against corruption.

The strategy is brilliant: to make Corona’s impeachment in Congress easier (given that Filipino politicians respond better to the supposed public pulse than the law and the Constitution), he must first be impeached from the public mind.

and like caloy i suspect that it’s not all just about gma but also about hacienda luisita:

But before I can believe that all of this is for good governance and against corruption and all that, let me make a simple challenge, one that will remove a huge doubt on the motives of the president:

The government should first implement the Supreme Court order on Hacienda Luisita and distribute the land to farmer-beneficiaries. (Distribute it, that is, as ordered by the high court. So none of that higher land valuation and more beneficiaries gambit by Hacienda Luisita Inc.) This time, actually distribute the land. Immediately. Before any Supreme Court impeachment happens.

The next Corona-less Supreme Court should no longer have to handle the Luisita case. Changing the composition of the Supreme Court and then letting this new court decide on the Luisita case is no different from packing the jury. No different, in fact, from Arroyo packing the Supreme Court with her own appointees.

If the government cannot or will not distribute the crown jewel of Aquino’s family before of all of this Corona contretemps comes to a head, all of this is suspect.

i hear the pressure is on for corona to resign a la merceditas and save us all the trouble of a senate trial.  i’m hoping corona doesn’t cave in.  i want to hear his defense.

the question of course is, who will phnoy appoint in his place.  pinoyexchange forum‘s fearless forecast: antonio carpio: “alam na ni Carpio ang gagawin niya”.  abangan.

amazing approval ratings

MANILA, Philippines – President Benigno Aquino III has maintained his high trust and approval ratings amid issues that hounded his administration.

In its latest poll, Pulse Asia said Aquino enjoyed the 72 percent approval rating in his performance in office as chief executive, while a huge 74 percent of Filipinos trust his government.

The survey also revealed that the President has “big approval and trust ratings” in various geographical areas and socio-economic classes in the country.

The poll was conducted on Nov. 10-23 in face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adult respondents.

of course i wish it were a larger sample.  just the same nakakagulat ito, given phnoy’s performance in the last year and a half, with little really to show for it except, well, gma’s arrest, but a whole lot more negative stuff to answer for — from his whereabouts during the aug23 luneta bloodbath to his current landlord stance, demanding just compensation for hacienda luisita’s owners, never mind that they overstayed 44 years.

the only explanation i can think of is that the people who voted for him are not about to admit that cory’s and ninoy’s son has feet of clay.  rather, they are set on approving of him through the six years of his term, come hell or high water.  this is so not-good for the country.  gives him an excuse to shrug off / ignore legitimate questions and criticism as sour-graping from a noisy minority.  for sure, we will not be better off when his time is up.

An Economic Report from the Republic of Noy’s Brain

 By Ben Kritz

In the country which exists inside the mind of Dear Leader Aquino the economic situation is actually pretty good, as he explained in an interview reported by the Philstar yesterday:

The Philippine economy is now focused on “investment-led growth” and is no longer heavily dependent on the remittances of overseas Filipino workers, President Aquino said yesterday.

Say what? Up until now I’ve been saying Peenoy’s elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top floor mainly in jest, but I had no idea it might actually be true.

Read the rest here