Category: senate

eat bulaga! vs. RH?

Sotto stakes post in anti-RH fight.   hmm.

Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III Wednesday said he was willing to risk his position in the chamber if his colleagues would insist on passing the reproductive health (RH) bill, which is said to be on the Aquino administration’s list of priority measures.

… “I cannot guarantee that it will be in the order of business,” he told the Inquirer by phone. “They rather replace me as the majority leader. They might as well find someone else.”

As the majority leader and chairman of the committee on rules, Sotto is instrumental in the preparation of the chamber’s order of business, in consultation with Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.

ah so.   akala ko his post as senator.   yun pala his post as majority floorleader and chairman of the committee on rules lang.   tipong he’s saying na it’s up to him whether, if at all, the RH bill is ever included in the senate’s order of business.   and, reading between the lines, tipong the RH bill gets tabled over-his-dead-body, that is, he would have to be replaced first.   aba, naghahamon, ang lakas ng loob, bakit kaya.

“There are many issues and questions to hurdle before the RH bill is even placed in the actual priority list of the Senate,” Sotto said.

Sotto, for instance, rejected the idea that proponents of the measure wanted a national policy that would impose their position on the use of contraceptives even among people not amenable to them.

“Why do they impose their choice on us? Suppose I file a bill banning all contraceptives in the country, would they like that?” he said.

hmm again.  who’s talking ba about imposing anything on anyone?   the idea is to make all these contraceptive measures available.   it’s up to individuals, couples, given adequate information, to decide what kind of contraception they want to use, IF ANY.   maybe he doesn’t understand english?

At present, he pointed out that contraceptives were available around the country to anyone who wished to purchase one. A national RH policy would require the use of taxpayers’ money to buy contraceptives and make them available to all, he added.

naku, sounds just like roilo golez of the lower house.   so contraceptives are only for those who can afford them?   paano na the 80 percent poor, let them multiply and multiply, the better to keep augmenting a cheap labor force?

and what’s wrong with using taxpayers’ money to help out couples who want to plan their families, the better to feed clothe and shelter them?   taxpayers’ money is used for obscene pork barrels that build basketball courts and waiting sheds and sub-standard roads, not to speak of the commissions that line their pockets for every government contract they approve, or how else do these public servants get so rich?

what really intrigues me is, who’s behind sotto?   who has tasked him to kill the RH bill in the upper house?   and in exchange for what?    who, what makes him so uncaring of the wishes of 7 out of 10 pinoys who want an RH law?   bosslady gma?   the bishops?   is he katoliko sarado pala?   kailan pa?

what about his fellow commedians vic & joey kaya?   anti-RH din ba sila?   the better for eat bulaga!?   ika nga, habang may bata, may eat bulaga!?

media & national interest

in the senate inquiry into media’s role in the aug. 23 hostage-taking, senate president juan ponce enrile was critical of maria ressa’s wall street journal article, Noynoy Flunks His First Test.

What prompted you to write such a critique … put on the line the quality of leadership of the newly elected president of the country? (and) At bottom issue is the collision of two interests: there’s the obligation to your audience and faithfulness to your calling, at the same time we are Filipinos with a country to serve.  What if national interests are damaged by the performance of your duties?  Where do you draw the line between serving your country’s national interest and serving your ethical and professional obligations as journalists? … need a certain amount of caution in the manner of disseminating information …  in carefully calibrated language… (or something to this effect)

ressa’s response:

Freedom of speech is universal.  There is no conflict of interest for journalists in or out of the Philippines.  We do not write with intent of bringing anything down…  hoping for better action from government…. (and) I merely laid out the facts … the way events played out … there really was failure of the chain of command… intention was to constructively criticize … facts unassailable… rescue attempt botched… levels of incompetence… political factionalism… negative light? …  the farthest thing on my mind… (and) We have to make a distinction between the job of a public relations person vs the job of a journalist… (or something to this effect)

but but but even if it were true that ressa merely laid out facts, still she was selective about the facts she laid out — she said nothing on how media flunked, too, bakit nagmamalinis.   and in fact, she went beyond laying out facts when she issued that judgment, the opinion, that the president flunked his first test, AND used it as TITLE, setting the unmistakably negative tone of the article. kasi pala, the solicited article was not for the news but for the opinion page.   mary kissel, editorial board member of the wall street journal, said in a phone interview tuesday:

… what Ressa wrote “wasn’t a news story,” but was an article for the paper’s opinion pages where “you’re expected to have an opinion.”

and even if ressa were right, that noynoy flunked his first test, why why why rub it in for all the world to read and to recall, and, of all places, in the world’s most prestigious business paper where the trustworthiness of a country is assessed, ika nga ni enrile, starting with the quality of the leadership.   why why why further shake global confidence in our country when that confidence is so badly shaken na.   like c_at commented in ressa, media, flunk test:

Wallstreet Journal, the newspaper read by investment and hedge fund managers, pension administrators, venture capitalists and mutual funds managers.

And these are the people Aquino would like to invite for investments in the Philippines during his US visit one week from now. Very timely indeed.

i’m not saying ressa shouldn’t have written an article for the wall street journal when she did.   i’m just saying she was selective and one-sided; she could have critiqued everyone involved, including the media that she’s part of.   also, she could have gone for a less judgmental and sensational title and so helped mitigate rather than exacerbate the damage.   puwede naman to give the president the benefit of the doubt muna, kahit pa grudgingly.   nothing “PR” about that.

i liked abc 5’s luchi cruz valdez‘ response to: where do you draw the line (between national interests and media interests) :

We draw the line where human lives are at stake, number 1. Number 2 we draw the line where the life of a legitimate government is at stake.

neat sideswipe, that ;))   as for the question i raised earlier, as to whether ressa’s judgment is a reflection of that of her bosses the lopezes, say ni  armida siguion-reyna in her tribune column “Honeymoon is over?”

The chismis is Ressa’s boss Gabby Lopez isn’t happy about it, but this stays scuttlebutt until confirmed.

cocktales’ vic agustin confirms:

ABS-CBN chairman Eugenio “Gabby” Lopez III is already in the United States, a de-facto advance party of the business delegation that was invited to accompany P.Noy in his first foreign trip.

His dilemma: Damage control ensuing from the Wall Street Journal opinion piece written by Maria Ressa, his own network’s news and current affairs chief.

oh well.   maybe we shouldn’t be counting on foreigners too much anyway?   instead, tap rich filipinos with secret bank accounts abroad to invest in their own country for a change?   heh.   fat chance.

at least there’s still leila de lima’s report, and the prospect of heads rolling, to look forward to.   that should help, kahit paano.

supreme court should let trillanes go

… to the inaugural session of the senate of which he is a member, elected into office by more than 11 mllion voters in 2007.   i mean, you know, if he was not going to be allowedpala to BE a senator and take part in the legislative process, why was he allowed to run in the first place?   and kung hindi pala siya pauupuin, when he won, why was he proclaimed at all?   i don’t get it.

and i don’t buy the argument that he’s a security risk.   if in the past he was able to walk out of a court hearing unimpeded, that must have been because his guards allowed him to, perhaps they were sympathizers, perhaps they thought his anti-corruption-in-the-military anti-gma cause a valid one.   and even if it will cost to secure him more tightly should he be allowed to attend senate sessions, i say, hey, sa ibang bagay kaya magtipid.   o kaya kunin sa pork barrel ni trillanes mismo ang panggastos, whatever.   but let him go.

as for the supreme court ruling that has already denied trillanes permission to attend senate sessions, well, the supremes have been known to reverse their own decisions, even, to break their own rules, even, to defy the constitution.    and anyway this particular appeal is just for the inaugural session na nga lang, ano ba.   if it means kiko pangilinan gets to bag the senate presidency, why not.   if he can swing it, he deserves it, maiba naman.

besides why is it taking so long to resolve his case?   seven years na siya in jail, susmaryosep.   are the powers behind-the-supremes, i mean, behind-the-scenes, waiting till his term as senator is up so he never gets to sit?   in my book that’s a crime against the more than 11 million citizens who voted for him.