Category: aquino admin

anti-ARMM tactics

on strictly politics with gigi grande, interior and local govt secretary jesse robredo said ARMM elections should be postponed because as history shows, elections have not helped improve the extreme poverty in the autonomous region of muslim mindanao.  asked if the elections had ever been postponed before, he happily said yes, eight times in fact, LOL 

according to ARMM History by the Institute of Autonomy and Governance, circa 2006:

Aside from having negligible powers, the ARMM was also hostage to the power-brokers in Malacanang. Since it was created, t he ARMM has been led by local politicians who had been “anointed” by whoever sits in the presidential palace. The first regional governor was the local stalwart of Pres. Aquino’s Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP). The second one was a Maranaw protégé of Pres. Fidel V. Ramos. During the third ARMM elections, the FPA with the MNLF has just been signed. MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari was persuaded by Pres. Ramos to run for ARMM governor. Misuari ran virtually unopposed in the 1998 ARMM elections. By that time, a new president had replaced Ramos – Joseph Estrada. Estrada’s term was cut short by another “People Power” mass action at EDSA in 2001 because of a popular perception of his alleged plunder and other crimes against the Filipino nation. The Vice President then, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took oath as the new president. Like her predecessors, Arroyo lost no time in directing who will become the new ARMM governor. Along with her power-brokers, she made possible the (in)famous break-up of the MNLF Central Committee, easing out Misuari as its chairman. A so-called “Council of 15” was organized, with Dr. Parouk Hussin as its leader. Eventually, Malacanang also anointed Hussin to be the new ARMM governor. In last year’s elections, a new face in regional politics surfaced as the winner in the contest for the ARMM governor’s post – Gov. Datu Zaldy “Puti” Ampatuan. Despite the declaration of the ARMM as a “free zone” in terms of the most likely to be elected regional governor, there are persistent views that the new ARMM governor is also Malacanang’s bet – he is the son of Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan, widely known as Pres. GMA’s favorite local political ally.

eh baka naman kaya walang mangyari sa ARMM, dahil kahit kailan ay hindi naman kinilala ang autonomy nito, ‘no?

in over his head

after a year of hardly any change, as opposed to the CHANGE! that the candidate aquino promised, i am actually looking forward to having mar roxas in the palace, not necessarily for policy changes (imposible na yata) but at least for a sense of things moving.  no matter what the president and his cabinet and his communications people say, there is just too much talk, from different sources,  about the short work hours the prez keeps, and the impatience with paper work, and the lack of vision.  looks like he bit off more than he can chew.  (this should teach us voters a lesson.  pag sinabi ng kandidato na kaya niya, wag tayo maniwala agad.)  so now he needs a troubleshooter, and why not.  at least umaamin siya na parating may trouble na kailangang i-shoot.  as for the troubles everyone is predicting will arise between mar and executive secretary ochoa, well, kung magaling talaga si mar, kaya rin niya dapat yon i-shoot.

noisy na, malicious pa

first time i heard “noisy minority” it was ballsy aquino talking and she was referring to leftists making kulit (if memory serves) about hacienda luisita.   so natawa naman ako when i heard that president aquino had used the same in a vin d’honneur toast to the new year in reference to the challenges ahead:

… from an uncertain outlook for the global economy, to a noisy minority who want to rekindle the malicious practices of the past.

bong austero was offended for the opposition in congress:

PNoy’s remark struck a raw nerve because of the lack of a suitable context. Taking potshots at one’s perceived enemies at a formal occasion one is hosting smacks of illegitimate political behavior, particularly if the people being targeted comprised majority of those who graciously lent their presence at the occasion and who were there apparently in the spirit of cooperation.

ninez cacho olivares was more candid as always:

But just who compose the noisy minority, and just who does he refer to as those who want to rekindle the malicious practices of the past — some of which, incidentally,have been rekindling, such as lump sum appropriations, to name just one.

Of course, Noynoy does not say, and won’t say who the noisy minority is either, because he is using the “noisy minority” to blame for his failureand zero achievement in his six months in the presidential office.

Yet the noisy minority that he speaks of can hardly be called a threat to his claimed reform program. The political opposition in the House of Representatives can hardly be seen as a stumbling block to his reforms, mainly because it is in the minority and therefore does not have the numbers with which to block Noynoy’s plans — if he even had one. Nor, for that matter, does the political opposition have the numbers to override the presidential veto. How then can the minority be a stumbling block?

His critics? But they have no power to stop any of his alleged reform plans or even stop the change he claims he wants to bring about but hasn’t.

The Supreme Court (SC)? But it is hardly noisy and if its majority members strike down Noynoy’s executive orders and memorandum circulars if it mainly because his fiats are constitutionally infirm. But just what does Noynoy want? A subservient SC, along with his already subservient Congress? Is this the change, as well as reforms he speaks of that he wants to bring about?

lol.  biglang magka-level na ang kaliwa, ang gma-opposition, at ang supreme court?   ay, teka, mali.   the left has been called a lot of things, but never “malicious.”

new year wish 2011

clinton’s campaign strategist carville was right, “it’s the economy, stupid” that won clinton the presidency in 1992, trumping bush senior’s foreign policy high from the “successful” gulf war.

here at home it would seem that the president and his men know it too, that it’s the economy that truly and urgently needs working on.

“We are conscious of the fact that we are in a debt hole. We can only begin to climb out if we strictly implement austerity measures and cut down on unnecessary spending,” said Malacañang aide Paquito Ochoa.

but is there a plan? asks business world‘s amelia h.c. ylagan:

The national budget in 1986 was P250 billion and 70% of that went to servicing the US$26-billion debt that Cory’s predecessor, Ferdinand Marcos, grew from the $465-million 1965 level, in his 20-year reign. The 50 million Filipinos (in Cory’s time) had to live on the remaining 30% of budget. And then there were the many military coups d’état from the misguided military who wanted to take advantage of the weakness of the country at that time. Cory could not have worked a miracle in six years, many now allow in judgment of her. Some may also say that in comparison, her successor, President Fidel Ramos, probably benefitted from the six-year cycle of painful adjustment and realignment before him, and he successfully augmented what would have been economic deficits with significant one-time proceeds of the privatization of some big government-owned and -controlled corporations.

Survival and growth might be more difficult in Noynoy’s presidency. There are 92.2 million Filipinos (84% more than 1986 population), owing about P47,000 per head for about P4.3-trillion debt (US$ 95 billion approx.) The Asian Development Bank (ADB) warns of extreme debt stress as the country holds the highest debt-to-GDP ratio at 56.5%, the highest among Asian countries. This key measure shows how a country can manage its obligations from its annual economic output, with a declining ratio viewed favorable as this means the country would allot a smaller amount to pay off its debt. But based on the ADB’s projections, the Philippines’ debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio may rise by 15% by 2015 in a scenario of higher primary deficit to GDP; by 5.1% amid lower nominal GDP growth rate; by 3% on higher nominal interest rates on public debt; and by 12.7% on a combination of the three negative scenarios.

So, is there a plan to address these scenarios of where we, as a country might be going, how we are going to get there, and when we will get there.

grabe, we are deeply in debt to the tune of Php 4.3 trillion, that’s $ 95 billion.   ylagan rightly asks if there’s a plan, what’s the plan, considering that the president vetoed the debt cap provision inserted by senator joker arroyo in the P1.645-trillion 2011 national budget, which would have limited government’s borrowing to 55 % of gross domestic product.

Malacanang has defended President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III’s decision to veto the debt cap in the 2011 General Appropriations Act.

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said this is a good time to borrow given the favorable market conditions like the strong peso and the appetite for peso bonds.

so that’s the plan?   since creditors are willing to lend, we will just borrow and borrow, ganoon, bahala na si batman.   but, as senator joker points out:

The US is, in many ways, our model. There is a debt ceiling in the US President’s power to borrow money, but the US Congress would invariably increase the ceiling whenever it is justified by necessity,” he said.

“For the cause of fiscal prudence and transparency, why can’t we adopt the same?” he asked.x

why not indeed?   i wonder if it has anything to do with what former senator orly mercado said, when he was the new president erap’s secretary of national defense, that when you’re in the driver’s seat na pala, the view, the perspective, changes and campaign promises prove unrealistic.   or something to that effect.

could it be the same for president aquino?   but who exactly is holding him hostage to the old rotten system, making real CHANGE impossible?   what exactly are these forces beyond his control?   i wish he’d tell us so we can all grow up and face the unpleasant consequences of our past actions and/or inactions.

and then, again, the president could just be in over his head?   sana hindi.   and that’s my happy new year wish for us all ;))