Category: state of the nation

sooo not worth it

from A tradition not worth it, cito beltran’s column yesterday, in anticipation of the afternoon SONA — a ritual borrowed from the U.S. that Filipino politicians have reinvented and trivialized.

Our local version of SONA has turned into a made for Reality TV event that looks more like a Hollywood Red carpet event where guests dress and behave like they were at a party instead of a serious political event intended to draw the true picture of country’s condition. Even media coverage of the event draws from the styles of US entertainment programs focusing on fashion, looks and social intrigue rather than “Who’s Who” in terms of being responsible for our current state of affairs.

yeah, it’s become so showbiz… all show and tight security…

The House of Representatives always spends extra to dress up the Batasan Pambansa complex. The last time Congress did this, I think they spent over several millions to spruce things up. Then the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines have to deploy their respective army of security personnel to secure the President and the VIP guests. This takes months of preparation, with cops and soldiers being deployed days ahead, which requires lots of logistics such as vehicles, equipment, not to mention food and utilities, which again costs millions.

From the Palace side, an equal amount of time, work and money is poured into preparing the SONA speech with the help of “consultants”, a lot of work and fine tuning goes into preparing the agenda, guest lists, as well as the media coverage of the event, not to mention expenses for hair, make-up, and outfits of government officials and their spouses.

… and no substance.

On the average we get a 30 to 45 minute sanitized and politicized recap of events and realities that millions of Filipinos have been living in. Rich or poor, most of us don’t want to be reminded of our sorry state of affairs in terms of crimes, under employment, corruption and poverty. Even the so-called good news doesn’t matter much because most of the economic benefits remain limited to the rich and well connected who control business monopolies in the country.

Is it worth several millions of pesos just to hear a few quotable quotes that are read from the teleprompter and not from the heart? Do we need to spend millions of pesos to watch political turncoats serve out 17 to 21 blasts of applause as if they were watching a tennis match? Regardless of who delivers the speech, the sorry fact is, we the Filipino people are paying too much money for a tradition that does not change our state of affairs.

In comparison, the US model has always been crucial to Americans because US Presidents traditionally uses their State Of the Nation Address as a springboard or opportunity to make a major policy decision or announce vital information, which in turn affects investment decisions, political directions or global relations.

this time it was twice longer than average, punctuated by some 100 more blasts of sipsip applause, the longest one when he called for responsible parenthood, perceived as an endorsement of the RH bill, which was nothing of the sort.  the speech itself, if it can be called that, was self-congratulatory (parang he believes his own propaganda), and packed with trivia.  and promises.  even some defensiveness.  but nothing about palparan and human rights, or EPIRA, or FOI, or RH really.  nothing new, nothing surprising, nothing inspiring.  and that’s the state of the nation.

Philippines wouldn’t mind some Chinese shell shocks

By W. Scott Thompson

OVER the years I recall cartoonists — who always understand best — showing a globe with a bear behind it, his claws grasping more and more of the territory at the edge of his fingers. The Soviets used it about American moves to “encircle” it in the 1950s, just as the French used it about British imperialist moves in the 19th century. Now, which is more apposite, the cartoons about China extending its reach in Asia, as (for example) its patrol boats protect Chinese fishermen in plainly Filipino waters? Or the ones about the new American moves to reassert itself in Asia as Marines begin establishing a multiplier base in Darwin, Australia?

Of course, it’s always partly the same. As countries’ economies expand, and their navies go with it, the navies have to find things to do — things they can do with new capabilities. Well, what’s better than protecting some Chinese fishermen? It’s not as if the Standing Committee of the Politburo said, “Let’s make a move and show who has power”, but it amounts to the same thing, throughout history. When you’ve asserted your domain over the “South China Sea”, then it follows that your orders go out to your navy to protect it. It’s like when the British, having established valuable trade in India 300 years ago, needed “coaling” stations along the way. Guess where the British African Empire began. It was the same with America, though of course we said it wasn’t an empire.

Now some of the smartest Filipinos are saying that the best thing the Chinese could do for the Philippines is to blast its coast from its vastly superior navy. The country is already showing a rare unanimity and nationhood over the confrontation at the Scarborough Shoal in what Manila calls the West Philippine Sea. If Beijing not only bared its fangs but let loose the cannon, the whole world would react — on Manila’s side. The “work in progress” of building a really coherent Filipino nation would benefit enormously. Already Manila has said that its balikbayan exercises with the United States Navy would proceed, even as Beijing blames them anew for causing the rumpus.

My own feeling is that the Chinese miscalculated. For nine years, the president, the unlamented Gloria Arroyo, let the Chinese have whatever they wanted, in return for personal favours — like the incredible broadband project, which allegedly carried with it a 50 per cent cut to the first family (or more) and blew up in their faces. Yet the Chinese ambassador who presided over all this in Manila, instead of getting the reward of a high position in the Foreign Ministry in Beijing, as he no doubt expected, was sent to Jakarta instead. Maybe the wise men of Beijing knew he’d missed the point. The Philippines doesn’t want vassalage.

Now meantime, Washington has a president whose view of the world didn’t start with Europe, like every predecessor of his. Europe’s shine was dimming anyway. He started in Asia, having spent his boyhood in Jakarta and Hawaii. It gives that global map a different perspective. And interestingly, that perspective corresponded with the real trend in world politics, everything shifting perceptibly to Asia. It was going to happen anyway, but Barack Obama has speeded up the shift in American priorities.

We have three tiers regarding China. There’s the inner circle, Japan, South Korea and in effect Taiwan. There’s a second rung, which Obama is beefing up. Basing in Singapore, Australia — and long talks with Filipinos about how best to “protect” them. And there are long talks with some surprising folks not so far from where you readers are sitting. Some are speculating even long talks about the very bases in Vietnam that we withdrew from in defeat a long generation ago. Just look at the map and imagine the rest. The fact is, China is utterly dependent on free passage through the Strait of Malacca; it would be crippled in months if cut off.

Of course, the third tier is the Seventh Fleet, Pearl Harbor, and the American mainland.

So, when a senior Filipino adviser said that he hoped Beijing “bombs the hell out of us, because then the Philippines becomes a united nation”, he meant it. And of course he knows the consequences. Asean tightens up, solidarity all around, and Obama doubles the base in Darwin and Manila renews long dormant but never dead ties (and tons of military assistance to the Philippines).

That’s why smarter people in Beijing are having second thoughts; if for nothing else, for timing. It’s too soon for them to start baring the claws.

rizal, tagalog, nation

it’s really too bad that we haven’t tried hard enough as a people to develop tagalog into a national language.   then maybe we would have a better sense of national interests as opposed to foreign interests, and we could be making decisions among ourselves first before outsiders with vested interests start weighing in.

read Rizal’s open secrets by john nery.   rizal and del pilar in their correspondence 1889 to 1890 turned from spanish to tagalog for a “layer of privacy”, “to wrap something in (or bind themselves to) secrecy”, and “to forge a unity of purpose” at a time when “the question of language was becoming more and more central to their attempt to found a nation.”

read too dr. pablo s. trillana III‘s Rizal and leadership.

third world automation, way to go :(

kaya ba talaga ng comelec / smartmatic na i-replace ang flash cards ng bawat PCOS machine nationwide in the next two days, for testing and sealing immediately?   that’s a big job, and with mercury still retrograde — paatras pa rin ang takbo ng maraming bagay-bagay — sobrang nakakaduda, lalo na’t, according to a tweet by mlq3 today:

From Bacolod friend as of 11:48AM PCOS machines not yet distributed to precincts. No testing done yet.

hay naku.   how third world lang, ‘no.   our best efforts just aren’t good enough, i fear.   daryll delgado‘s fb status 5 hours ago says it all:

These errors, machine failures, inaccuracies have been the subject of reports by third-party observers months ago. That they’re only being paid attention to now, just days before the elections, may be a means of, is certainly effective at, creating a collective sense of doom and dread, and worse, resignation.

ngayon, kung flash cards lang talaga ang problema, here’s a suggestion from my brother louie:

if (!) it is true that PCOS works well enough for national positions on ballot front, and problem is limited to local posts behind: logical best move is to continue national polls on may 10 and postpone local polls alone for however many days it takes to correct the glitch, whatever additional cost may be.

sounds good to me.    though i really wish we were holding a parallel manual count nationwide, just because it’s the first time we’re automating, and we need to see for ourselves that it works better and faster and no cheating can/will happen.    the only way we can be sure of this is if we had manual counting to compare results with.   but no, say ng isa (di ko na maalala kung sino), kung merong sabay na manual and automated counting of votes, at nagkaroon ng discrepancies sa results, lalo daw magkakagulo!    oo, ganyan sila magisip.   insteadof, kung may discrepancies hanapin natin kung saan, sino, ano ang nagkamali at ating iwasto immediately and for the longterm.   hindi kailangang magkagulo, basta malinaw sa electorate kung bakit natatagalan ang proseso, and that we need to go through something like that to develop confidence in the comelec, and in voting/counting machines.

likewise, if the may 10 elections push through, hindi kailangang magkagulo.   not if we all practise patience.   there are going to be all kinds of glitches, nothing will go smoothly, patience is a virtue.   who knows, we might end up doing manual counts in many places, and that’s going to take time.   so, let’s all be vigilant pa rin, but reeeaally patient, lalo na the presidential candidates, winning and losing, and their avid supporters.   hindi magkakagulo, basta walang tawagan ng people power, please lang, hangga’t maaari.