Category: rodrigo duterte

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

Ambition’s back, big-time
Manolo Quezon

Alan Peter Cayetano’s zombie speakership began, not with a bang, but with a whimper. The breakfast he threw for legislators didn’t seem to be well attended based on a tweeted photo. But his smooth election accomplished demonstrating that the President is well and truly back in the saddle. It marks the end of two years of his public standing having to claw its way back to where it stood during his first and second State of the Nation Address (Sona).  Read on….

China, Duterte, and Philippine democracy

Katrina S.S.

No, I don’t think Duterte is scared of China.

I think that he and his men entered into agreements with China, they signed on for projects and the Belt and Road Initiative, and now cannot even take a stand against whatever aggression our fishermen experience from the Chinese in West Philippines Sea. Government (i.e., the Philippines) is so deep in China deals that it has become difficult to even speak. Utang na loob is one of the more effective forms of silencing for Filipinos after all, and China — cunning as it is — doesn’t even need to invoke it; they just know someone like Duterte would feel so indebted there would be no way he would be able to take a stand.

Government propagandists call it “diplomacy.” But let’s assess this situation for what it is: Duterte put all his eggs in the China basket, and now he can’t even find his balls.

Here’s the ironic part though: China has realized that it doesn’t matter that they hold Duterte by the balls. It doesn’t matter because it doesn’t mean they can do all that they want with and in the Philippines. What it’s up against is the rest of us. And Philippine democracy — no matter how it’s been discredited and put into question by the success of Duterte propaganda — still has its balls intact.

Read on…

the 18th congress

it’s too soon to be  arguing over the senate presidency, or the speakership for that matter, is what i gathered from outgoing senator chiz escudero on headstart.   but why aren’t we surprised.  these are different times.  and pundits are keeping track.  will add to list, newest op-ed first.

A society in decay? Pinoy vs Pinoy? by Rene Saguisag
Rumble in the house Inquirer editorial
Cayetano’s zombie victory by Manolo Quezon
Isumbong mo kay Inday Sara by Manolo Quezon
Unsettled by Alex Magno
Business and politics make strange bedfellows by Ernesto Hilario
Arroyo’s successor; Sotto to succeed himself by Yen Makabenta
Passing the baton by Gary Olivar
Lightweights for Speaker by Oscar P. Lagman, Jr.
Fond send off for 6 outgoing senators by Federico Pascual
Cuckoos in Duterte’s nest by Segundo Eclar Romero
Termed-out senators threaten to form Senate majority by Yen Makabenta
In search of leaders for 18th Congress by Malou Tiquia
Disaggregating the incoming Senate by Rudy Romero

between kris and duterte . . .

. . . we are being forced to confront the dementor ways of dynasty.

duterte is a stand-up comic-tragic figure whose mission as president in midterm is to distract us from his failure to deliver on the BIG CHANGES he promised — hindi pala niya kaya, ang hirap pala, akala ay madadaan sa kamachohan, takutan, but how do you make takot the entrenched oligarchy (heavily represented in the cabinet) into changing their ways and moderating their greed for the sake of nation, what do they care about nation  —  and so deliberately he distracts us from the higher prices, harder times, under his watch, and of course he can blame the price of oil only so much, and so he resorts to his favorite pasttime, talking dirty, talking sex, best seller forever, the dirtier the more shocking the better, and boy has he amped it up, nasa bedtime pornography na, for general patronage even.  i hate to imagine what next.  such a low way to go.  meanwhile, the country continues to go to the dogs.  soon there will be nothing left.

kris aquino is only a little less disturbing.  in her latest, current war, this time vs former business manager nicko falcis who has denied her charges of “qualified theft” — woman scorned nga ba? — falcis has  accused kris of seriously threatening his life, “PAPAPATAY KA NG PAMILYA KO  … DARE TO STEP IN THIS COUNTRY, AND YOU WILL BE DEAD.”  totoo ba ito?  bakit hindi dine-deny ni kris?  dahil walang nagtatanong?  bayarán ba ng reyna ang lahat ng media?  totoo bang the queen is  “guarded & sacrificed for above & beyond all costs. No Kris Aquino, no contracts, and no millions. Do not think I won’t go in all directions.” — did she really say this in one of her final messages to falcis?

“PAPAPATAY KA NG PAMILYA KO  … DARE TO STEP IN THIS COUNTRY, AND YOU WILL BE DEAD.”  sounds like duterte.  and sounds like alice in wonderland’s queen of hearts: OFF WITH HIS HEAD!   if true, she threatened falcis, and if she spoke sincerely, what does it say of the family culture of the aquino-cojuango clan, the political dynasty she proudly belongs to?  which could be why she’s distracting us with her health woes, invoking ninoy and cory to boot, tugging at heartstrings grown brittle, bored stiff by her paawa dramatics.  what a waste of ninoy’s DNA.

kris fancies herself a queen — megalomania much?  digong is himself a kingpin, the patriarch who dares break all the rules of civilized society.  kumusta naman kaya ang ibang dynasties diyan?  nakakabaliw ba, nakaka-adik ba, ang sobrang yaman at kapangyarihan?

we should do them all, and nation, a favor by not voting for any of them, or their ilk.