Category: politics

scary

suddenly, after more than a decade on the shelf, the Freedom of Information Act is up for debate and approval in the house of representatives.

i remember catching senator drilon and representative locsin on an anc sometime last year and they were talking about how FOIA bills have been pending in both houses for the longest time, thanks to majorities who donot want the public to know about the appropriation of funds, i.e., how our taxes are spent, i suppose, for bayad-utang and, let’s not forget, the pork barrel.

so what has changed? bakit biglang eager na eager si speaker nograles na ma-aprub na ang FOIA? can it be really because it is an anti-corruption measure that will “promote transparency and confidence in government?”

or is it because, in the wake of the public outcry against the latest supreme court decision upholding executive privilege even on matters like the corrupt nbn deal, nograles and gma’s other minions in the lower house want to enact an FOIA that will uphold the supreme court ruling? gloria gloria hallelujah?

scary.

in defense of gossip

the supreme court has ruled that romulo neri is right to invoke gma’s executive privilege and to refuse to answer questions that might could would implicate his president and her fg in the nbn-zte bribery scandal.

as a result, there is no way now that we can get to the truth of the matter. so biglang all the talk about gma and her fg’s involvement in the corrupt deal is reduced to the category of gossip, as in tsismis lang, because it is unproven or unconfirmed, and never natin mapu-prove o maco-confirm. unless of course the court reconsiders and reverses itself, which seems quite unlikely.

well. let’s look at the bright side. at least all the anti-gma nbn-zte tsismis is an improvement on showbiz tsismis that’s mostly petty and personal. how great that we’re swapping stories not only about gretchen & tonyboy, piolo & sam, sharon & kc, but also about political figures gloria and mike, luli and joey, jun and cory, the bishops and romy, on matters of national importance.

the thinking about gossip is right:

. . . gossip can be a form of political resistance to undermine entrenched systems of power and domination. Getting the scuttlebutt about salary discrepancies, executive perks, kickbacks, nepotism, conflicts of interest and the like ”benefits those excluded from power more than it helps those who exercise power since the former have less to hide.”

sometimes, gossip is our only revenge. just as it might be brian gorrell’s only revenge on the sosi peeps who he says lied to him and cheated him and stole from him.

brian’s blog

there’s this theory that brian gorrell is in cahoots with the gma administration and that his infamous blog is meant to distract us all from the nbn-zte scandal that’s been giving ate glue sleepless nights.

i doubt it. sa totoo lang, i would think that the oligarchs are far from happy about the spotlight that’s been thrown on the wickedly decadent lifestyles of their rich and famous brats (and their climber friends ). i would think that the oligarchs are getting kinda nervous given the hundreds of thousands of visits brian’s blog gets every week and the hundreds of commenters joining the fray, adding fuel to a fire that could spread and devour them all.

terribly karmic the timing, i’d say, considering that nbn-zte whistleblower jun lozada has been going around the country giving lectures a la romulo neri on the yawning gap between rich and poor in this third world country where the oligarchy rules. in fact i wouldn’t be at all surprised if pressure is put to bearon the gucci gang’s families to raise the money and pay up, the sooner to shut the blog down. they would be crazy not to, though i wouldn’t mind if they don’t. there’s something terrifically poetic, and epic, about the (in)justice of it all.

the malu-gma connect

malu-bigfoot-in-her-mouth-fernandez strikes again, this time dissing bloggers (slacker’s job daw, unless you get paid for it, how mercenary) who crucified her once for dissing ofws, and all in a sophomoric kind of bad writing that’s full of herself and her perfumed hot-air existence. to top it all, she has the gall to call herself a journalist. omg, i swear, professional pinoy journalists should raise a stink. there ought to be a law barring the likes of this woman from thinking herself in the pro league, and naming herself to the pro league. she gives philippine journalism a bad name.

and of course, being the aunt of the gma cohort (supposedly senator) migs zubiri (whose mom is her sister), the tacky bitch just had to weigh in on a bloggers’ campaign to unseat the lucky bitch:

It’s just like all this hullabaloo about ousting GMA. You deposed ERAP in Edsa Dos. Now you’re unhappy with his replacement. Make up your minds. (For the record I’m not pro anybody I’m pro whatever lesser evil is out there). You can’t overthrow one president then decide you made a mistake with your second choice. I’s not like buying a green Hermes bag and suddenly deciding, oops I should have gotten the black one instead. Unfortunately that’s the kind of nation we have become, a bunch of wishy-washy whiners who whine about everything under the sun and found the blog sphere to be the new medium for whining. Yes we do what we have to do as a nation to get things done and stop corruption and evil (I’m all for that) but we never seem to be happy with what we have, hence the complaining and whining. It just never stops.”

grabe. if i were the supposed senator zubiri, i would cringe in shame at being associated with such drivel.