Category: politics

bukingan na!

ronnie zamora expressed my sentiments exactly: a pox on both their houses! while it was a rare spectacle having the speaker rant and rave on nationwide tv against the arroyos – mother, father, and sons, and oh yes, jose pidal kuno – who had clearly engineered his ouster, it was just as dismaying, though not surprising, to hear him practically admit that he had been covering up for gma all through,and since, the garci-tapes scandal of 2004.

the question now is, will jdv continue with the exposes a la son joey? that would be great, for a change, except he would be digging his own grave. and what about manay gina who promises, too, to tell more in the coming days? sey niya, araw-araw silang magkasama ni gma noong 2004. hell hath no fury like a woman (whose husband has been) scorned?  you go, girl!

glorietta, media, and blogs

it was not unexpected that the philippine national police would find for a gas explosion, not for an explosive device. matagal na nilang sinasabi that evidence was pointing to a critical build-up of gases that could have been prevented if the guys in charge were doing their job.

but it was unexpected that the police would recommend charges only against the engineers, operators, and fire prevention officers who were immediately responsible for safety measures, and not against the mall owner nor city hall. unexpected because matagal na silang naghi-hint that the the pnp was not beyond charging even ayala land and mayor binay for command responsibility if warranted. kaya na nga panay ang press release ng ayala land before this, contesting findings of a gas explosion and negligence.

puno‘s excuse:

“. .. it was just that repairing the malfunctioning sewage system was not the job of the owners while those who had been charged had immediate responsibility for the repairs of the sewage system.”

pero kaya nga tinawag na “command” responsibility, di ba. kahit hindi ka directly responsible for repairs, pero kung mga tao mo ang pumalpak – june july august pa lang daw me problema na ang sewage system – ibig sabihin may pagkukulang ka rin. kasi kung on-top-of-the-situation ka, kung maayos ang palakad mo, wala sanang pumalpak, wala sanang namatay at nasugatan.

i smell a rat. maybe a backroom ex-deal (puno style) between ayala and malacanang. hmm. maybe re charter change? or maybe that is still to come, and nagpapapogi lang ang palasyo sa mga ayala.

not that i’m completely sold on the negligence charge.

i was expecting that anc, as is usual with important developments, would have some resource persons, maybe an engineer or two, to share their expert opinions, but no, not this time. later in the evening ricky carandang devoted the whole hour of the big picture to the same story, but again we had to listen to the same pnp guys rehashing what we had already heard, with ricky just clarifying the double blast, the ayala investigations, and the rdx angle.

the biggest let-down of all, not just from anc but from all media is that no one has yet asked the BIG question posed by some bloggers and, i hear, science e-groups, soon after the blast: conceding, for the sake of argument, that it was indeed not a bomb but a gas explosion. WHAT IF it was not a matter of criminal negligence but, rather, a matter of creative criminal engineering? surely it is humanly possible to orchestrate such a blast? what would it take? why is it not being considered by the police as a distinct possibility?

nakakadismaya our media. no time to read, no time to research, no time for critical thinking. paano kasi, ang he-hectic ng buhay. bread trip. one show after another, one deadline after another, no time to read read read and google and surf the internet, much less to turn on to pinoy blogs, where some of the discourse is remarkably (happily) higher than in broadsheet and broadcast media.

enough of erap!

i was all for erap’s pardon because of the questionable circumstancesof his ouster by gma, but it was always on the condition that he would not run again for public office, least of all the presidency. after all, he’s been there, been that, and he did a lousy job of it, so why should he be given another chance, pray tell?

the daily tribune’s alejandro lichauco says that erap is the only relevant presidentiable because he is the only one who is addressing the issue of poverty, and that if elections were held today erap would run away with it because poverty is the only issue that matters with the masses.

ano ba yan. poverty has always been an issue, and what did erap achieve in the two and a half years before he was kicked out? nada. so now he’s going to china to get lessons on how to lift the masses from poverty? haha. magkaintindihan kaya sila ng mga intsik? o baka naman type lang niyang pakabahin ang mga kano?

speaking of the kano, interesante ang kuwento ni manilabaywatcher anna de brux. diyata’t may kinalaman ang kano sa pagkakatalsik ni erap? hmm. siguro nga kaya siya pupunta sa china: para ma-praning si bush. ganyang ganyan ang style ni imelda nuong mid-1970s, nakipagsosyalan sa mga komunistang mao tse tung at fidel castro, sabay irap sa amerika. kuno.

but to get back to erap and his plan to run for president IF it’s the only way to unite the opposition. methinks he overestimates his popularity. fielding him as the sole oppositionist vs. gma’s annointed one is not a formula for success, rather it would be a reason to boycott elections.

the pattern has been set. erap messed up the first time, he’ll mess up again bigtime.

scandalous silence on sumilao

totoo namang nakakaiyak ang nangyari at patuloy na nangyayari sa sumilao farmers. malinaw ang karapatan nila to that agricultural land. kaya lang, talaga naman, iba kung dumiskarte ang big landowners tulad ni quisumbing. basta ayaw nilang mag-share, period. at ang ating gobyerno, ang ating mga presidente in particular, mas sympathetic to big landowners talaga, big contributors kasi sila to presidential campaigns? how else explain fvr’s overturning dar after the sumilao farmers had already been awarded certificates of land ownership? ang lakas lang talaga ni quisumbing, di ba?

and how else explain the findings of dar’s research team headed by the very credible arsenio balisacan, summarized by solita monsod for inquirer, that after almost two decades of the comprehensive agrarian reform program:

most private landowners, representing 82 percent of the lands that should have been given to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs), are still holding on to their land 19 years after the law was passed.

grabe. yan ba ang rule of law? obviously, rule of law does not apply when it does not serve the interests of the ruling elite, no?

The supreme irony is that landowners, having successfully staved off the compulsory acquisition, are demanding that CARP be terminated, since it is a failure (which means they get to keep their land). It is also clear that 72 percent of the ARBs are operating their farms with one arm tied figuratively behind their backs — since they don’t have individual titles; not only are the incentive effects of ownership not present, the farmers also have difficulty getting credit and are more prone to selling their rights or abandoning their lands.

so, wonder no more kung bakit di na umasenso ang pilipinas. talagang di tayo aasenso habang ang mayayaman ay puro tipong quisumbing at san miguel foods inc. kung dumiskarte. sa kanila, what’s good for (their) business is good for the country, which is pure hogwash, um, propaganda.

most scandalizing of course is the silence of the pork fiends in congress, particularly of the senator presidentiables and vice-presidentiables. nagkakabukingan tuloy. malamang, kabilang kasi sila o may pinoprotektahan silang campaign contributors na kabilang sa BIG landowners who just refuse to give up their land in the name of social justice. social justice? not in their vocabulary.

what say mar roxas and manny villar? what say jinggoy estrada and chiz escudero? what say loren legarda and ping lacson?

what kind of opposition party is it that remains silent on agrarian reform and the sumilao farmers? parang hindi opposition, di ba? more like the other side of a bad coin.