Category: marcos

Polvoron highs

If you’re paying attention to the DDS campaign to oust PBBM that’s happening on social media, you would be coming to the conclusion that the DDS camp is seriously thinking People Power: Kung nagawa natin sa ama noong 1986, kaya nating gawin sa anak ngayong 2024. And you just know that the DDS dream is for VP Sara to take over — she should never have slid down to veep, she could would have beaten BBM.

These days ang isyung nangingibabaw na naman vs BBM is that he was known to be a cocaine user — may bagong witness pa na taga-Davao na dating kerida ng isang kabarkada etc. etc. when BBM was in the Senate — and the DDS say that the people are asking for proof that he’s not using any longer, and that long-term use has not negatively affected his mental faculties and decision-making capacities so important in running the country, atbp.

The same sort of questions we asked of PRRD back in the days when he looked sick and stumbling or just plain slow and barely understandable, and he admitted to being on Fentanyl — a potent and highly addictive prescription drug — for severe pains. If memory serves, we also asked for an official medical report to assure us that  he was still up to the demands of running a government, and the Duterte admin completely ignored such questions.

Maybe the DDS peeps and vloggers have forgotten, or maybe they hope we’ve forgotten.

And what if, even if, a credible witness steps up with indubitable proof that the prez continues to use in private, would not the president enjoy immunity from suit?

ANTONIO T. CARPIO : Under Philippine law the President enjoys immunity from suit and cannot be investigated or prosecuted for any criminal offense while he remains in office. https://opinion.inquirer.net/137151/presidential-immunity-from-suit

I imagine that this would be when “People Power” could come in. The question is, would the DDS be able to rouse and mobilize a critical mass to oust the prez nonviolently as in EDSA?

Hard to tell, actually. Magugulat ako, either way.

SONAkakaduda 2024 #FactsFirst

PBBM: Mahigit limanglibo at limang daang flood control projects ang natapos na at marami pang iba ang kasalukuyang ginagawa sa buong bansa. [Applause]

The following night bumuhos ang katakutakot na ulan at bumaha nang bonggang bongga across Luzon, even in places that never used to flood, so reminiscent of Ondoy2009, The following day a state of calamity was declared in all of Metro Manila, Bataan, Bulacan, Batangas, and Cavite. [Ambilis ng balik]

DJ Chacha https://x.com/_djchacha/status/1816275607157874692 
Last year, 147.5 Billion Pesos ang total budget for flood control projects for Metro Manila only. Sa lake ng halaga na yan paulit ulit pa rin ang problema natin sa baha. Anyare? 

PING LACSON
It is because most of the budget for the flood control projects flood the pockets of the proponents in Congress in connivance with the implementing agencies and their favorite contractors.

So, were there really 5,500 finished flood control projects?  If yes, what difference did they make? Totoo ba na walang-epek sapagkat substandard ang materyales at trabaho sapagkat kung minsan halos kalahati na lang ang pondo dahil sa mga komisyon ng kongresista, DPWH, LGU, at contractor? [Guys, mahiya naman kayo]

So now I’m wondering, too, about other stuff BBM said at the SONA that were met with great joy by nation: the ban on POGOs and the unequivocal stand on the West Philippine Sea, in particular. 

Already nakikiusap ang PAGCOR that “12 of the 43 POGO companies” be spared kasi masyadong marami ang mawawalan ng trabaho. Yan na rin ang concern ni Senator Tolentino sa isang interview with Karen Davila back in June that I blogged on: #BagongPilipinasWalangPOGO.

G. Senador, lumang tugtugin na ang ganyang justification: na may mga Pinoy na mawawalan ng trabaho. Iyan na rin ang daíng ng mga taga-Zambales at Pampanga nung isasara na ang US bases. But the good Senators of the 8th Congress agreed that the welfare of the whole, the common good, is more important than the welfare of the few.

Besides, the US bases and POGOs were bad ideas to begin with.

And yeah, great that he took such an unequivocal stand on the West Philippine Sea and had the grace to thank our fishermen, coast guards, and soldiers for their vigilance and sacrifice. I was hoping he would say, too, that the repairs of BSP Sierra Madre are to proceed apace whether China likes it or not ’cause #AtinAngAyungin! Alas, bitin. [Unless I missed it lang]

There’s a lot more na kaduda-duda especially re the grand promises of infra and ayuda. Saan kaya kukuha ng pera na panggastos? Lubog na tayo sa utang.  Bugbog na tayo sa taxes. Paano na ba. 

Looking for kakampi, post-SONA, it was good to hear some credible pundits airing similar concerns on social media.

Check out Christian Esguerra’s political podcast Facts and Fiction in President Marcos Jr.’s 2024 SONA  with guests Pulse Asia president and political science Prof Ronnie Holmes, RJ activist and PNoy’s political adviser ex-Sec Ronald Llamas, UP econ prof. and ex-Finance USec Cielo Magno, and PR strategist Alan German na anak ni PR OG Reli whom I sort of knew back in the days.

Holmes, Llamas, and Magno are better informed than most, with a sense of the true state of affairs, past to present, and who clearly care about nation. German is a glib PR political tactician who always seems to know more than he’s telling and teases with tips on how-to-sell politicians, among other powertrippers. Host Esguerra, once of ANC, steers the talk with a GenZ’s take on national concerns that tends to provoke discussion, though only up to a point. 

Unlike public affairs TV talkshows of yore, there’s a lot of banter, chortling, private jokes, whatever, between Esguerra and German, Esguerra and Llamas, apparently to keep the talk from getting too serious,  or maybe his regulars like his GenZ sense of humor, I’m not sure. Whatever, it’s medyo nakaka-put-off, but the serious exchanges were | are worth staying for. 

The same goes for Magno’s Chikahan podcast that premiered the Friday before the SONA with Llamas as senatoriable Edu Mansanas. It was the best conversation I’d heard yet on the state of the nation 2024, though you’d have to sit through some  patawa and pababaw moments that interrupt trains of thought. And parang the sax and sing-along numbers are for another kind of podcast altogether. 

If senior-short-memory serves, Magno and Llamas had a brief exchange about the pink movement, recalling what that campaign was like, how huge the crowds, how magical, parang EDSA, or something to that effect [sorry ang hirap hanapin ng exact words]. That was a pretty solid base of 14M – 15M voters, as it turns out — some 14.4M voted her in as VP in 2016, and some 15M voted her for president in 2022. 

And if my social media algo is any gauge, buhay na buhay pa ang kakampinks  — a third force neither pro-Marcos nor pro-Sara — naghihintay lang ng timon at direksyon. Which brings me back to Esguerra’s and Magno’s podcasts, the likes of which can be the perfect vehicles for thinking Filipinos with a bias for the Common Good to discuss current issues frankly and in depth, hopefully towards a consensus to organize around certain advocacies — like flood control, land use, anti-dynasty, proper wage hike, divorce law, atbp. — that sina Bam and Chel et al. could campaign on and carry into Congress in 2025.  Hope springs.

***

SONA blogs across three admins 2008 – 2019

SONA 2019 message: he ain’t no lame duck, not yet anyway

ChaCha: Duterte’s endgame #SONA2018 #NoToChaCha

SONAkakasindak 2017

sona, tsona, torre de manila #takeitdown (2015)

SONAkakaiyak (2014)

SONA’s deafening silence on coco levy loot atbp. (2013)

SONA as farce (2013)

the spin that is SONA(kakasuya) (2011)

SONAkakadismaya (2010)

kontra-SONA (2008)

70 years of Imelda

That is, 70 years since she became a public figure in 1954, when she married Ilocos Rep. Ferdinand Marcos; she was 25. In her birthday speech@95 Imelda was superhappy to be back in Malacañang with her son the President and she thanked God for such a rich life, or something like that. Meanwhile, PBBM’s historical revisionism continues apace. Sharing here Philstar columnist Ana Marie Pamintuan’s reaction to the president’s “Mama Meldy” six-minute vlog tribute that I just can’t bear to watch. 

History lessons
By Ana Marie Pamintuan

The only son of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos is busy rewriting the story of their family, and the TikTok generation may be unable or unwilling to determine the truth.

Ferdinand Junior’s latest effort to whitewash his parents’ criminal record (of large-scale corruption and gross human rights violations) can be seen in his seemingly innocuous birthday greeting to his mommie dearest, Imeldific.

After treating her to yet another birthday party at Malacañang, where her infamous shoe collection was moved out many years ago, BBM paid tribute to “Mama Meldy” in a six-minute vlog, in which he lauded her “profound impact” on the country and for turning Filipinos’ “countless dreams into reality.”

BBM correctly cited Imeldific’s pet projects when she was the all-powerful first lady of Ferdinand Senior: the National Kidney and Transplant Institute, the Philippine Heart Center, Philippine Children’s Medical Center, Cultural Center of the Philippines and Folk Arts Theater.

Left out of this gushing tribute were the corruption scandals when they were built, about the massive kickbacks that gave rise to the term “edifice complex” and the jokes about Imeldific’s penchant for “mining” – all this is mine, mine, mine.

During the Marcoses’ encounters with Japanese officials at the time, the standard joke was that the conjugal dictators “robbed the Philippines very much.”

“My mother doesn’t get angry. She doesn’t pick a fight with anyone,” BBM posted in his vlog.

You won’t get angry, either, and won’t feel the need to pick a fight if you manage to get away with everything.

***

Imelda (after) Marcos #Halalan2022

Dovie Beams and Philippine Politics: A President’s Scandalous Affair and First Lady Power on the Eve of Martial Law 

 

Belated Independence, Say Chiz

So the high point of the day-after was the viral vin d’honneur video clip of the First Lady in white terno taking the Senate Prez’s wine from his hand, gulping some of it down, then handing back the glass with nary a glance at Chiz, sabay turn away to be served her own glass by a waiter who enters frame from behind just then.

My first reaction was: OMG why didn’t she have her own glass?!  And then: Hmm, close ba sila ni Chiz, and Liza wants us all to know? O hindi sila close pero uhaw na uhaw na si Ma’am and she was sure Chiz wouldn’t mind?

But wait, parang this all took place pala BEFORE the President’s speech after which he asked some 80 attendees headed by the diplomatic corps to join him in ceremonial toast “to stronger bilateral relations, the good health and prosperity of all present, and the continued progress of the Philippines’ —  kung kailan, at saka lang, the drinking officially was to begin.

Kumbaga, korek me if I’m wrong, the First Lady broke protocol by imbibing, on cam yet, from someone else’s glass yet, before it was time.

What’s the harm? Well, an occultist might say the good vibes of the toast may have been somewhat diminished, as in, nausog, napangunahan kasi, knock on wood.

At the very least, it tells the world that this Mrs. Marcos is not a stickler for protocol, whatever the consequences. Whether that rubs off on the Prez or not is, of course, up to him.

Naturally the anti-Marcos trolls are having a field day, kesyo Liza helping herself to Chiz’s drink without a by-your-leave sent the message that she “owns” him (or something like that) and, even, that it was the Palace that got him elected Senate president (or something like that), and siyempre nauungkat din na he is close talaga to the Marcoses because his father was an original Marcos crony (agri sector).

Thing is, Chiz’s dad did his part for the Marcoses naman. In 2011 Sorsogon Rep. Salvador “Sonny” Escudero spearheaded the campaign to bury Marcos in Libingan ng mga Bayani and got 204 (of 284) members of Congress to sign the Resolution, which no doubt was a factor (among others) in Duterte’s decision to order the hero’s burial for Marcos soon after he was elected president in 2016.  https://globalnation.inquirer.net/148397/148397

Kumbaga, may leverage din si Chiz. And baka naman puwedeng quits-quits na, as in, bayád na, clean slate na. Because Chiz needs all the leeway he can get to make the Senate even more independent and brave than it was back in the days of SP Salonga. We want him to succeed in shepherding his colleagues toward a consensus on, and heartfelt support of, what constitutes the “common good” … “common” referring to the masses, the majority, the people, and not the Senate, or Congress, or Judiciary, or the oligarchs or plutocrats, and certainly not the Palace.

Here’s a candid comment to Rod Kapunan’s Jun15 column “Escudero fixing Senate subservience, sanity” where Chiz is hailed for, among other things, suspending construction of the new senate building in BGC.

Maximillian80: That “waiter” incident in Malacanang did not make him look good and most certainly FL who unwittingly may have forgotten that she’s in a formal event with the eyes of media and voyeurs in attendance. Excuses and damage control made matters even more ridiculous. The body language showed who’s Boss ? Can Chiz prove otherwise? For FL, just do what GMA did by saying: I AM SORRY.  https://disqus.com/by/disqus_uELSsmv3Lx/?

Kung tutuusin nga, it’s Liza who owes Chiz now, and he can be the gentleman who calls it quits just so he can truly move on and show us what the second generation is made of.

I’m not sure though about a GMA kind of I-AM-SORRY. Liza isn’t an elected official and maybe doesn’t owe us all an apology. Unless of course the diplomatic corps and our protocol officers at the Department of Foreign Affairs think she should, and dare say so.