“We are here to stay.”

that’s U.S. president barack obama telling asia  that the U.S. military would expand its role in the Asia-Pacific region, despite budget cuts, declaring America was “here to stay” as a Pacific power which would help shape the region’s future.

he said it in australia, in a pre-ASEAN summit visit, but he might as well have said it here, where U.S. forces continue to be based (“visiting” kuno) and where hillary clinton happened to be celebrating the mutual (so-called) defense treaty with the prez and shrugging off anti-America demonstrations by the militant left.

not that it needed saying.  alam naman natin, the history is indisputable, they never meant to leave.

A slippery slope

By Dean Tony La Vina

Let me begin this column on the Arroyo travel ban controversy with two assertions. First, I like President Aquino and support most of his policies and initiatives, including his peace policy, the economic and anti-poverty measures his administration has taken, and yes, his unrelenting, aggressive pursuit to hold accountable former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for alleged corrupt acts and political misdeeds (like the electoral sabotage of 2007). I certainly do not believe that the President is motivated by personal vendetta against Arroyo, nor is he being hard-hearted as shown by the offer to pay for bringing in international medical experts of her choice to Manila. Second, I hold and continue to hold in high esteem Secretary of Justice Leila De Lima. I have been a big admirer of her since she was chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights. I consider Secretary De Lima as one of the most competent and committed public servants in the current administration.

But on this issue of disallowing Arroyo to travel abroad for medical reasons, both President Aquino and Secretary De Lima are wrong.  Read on

spaced out phnoy

asked at the APEC ceo summit what the aquino admin is doing to address the high cost of electricity in the philippines, the prez waxed euphoric about alternative sources:

There are substantial gas deposits—so enormous that they “dwarf” the Malampaya oil fields off Palawan—in disputed territories in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), President Benigno Aquino III said at the business leaders conference of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum. And by next year, the President said, a US firm would start operations in the gas-rich territory. 

which should tell us that he’s really doing nothing about the high cost of electricity hereabouts, except dreaming that china would stand aside while the u.s. starts operations in the spratlys that would give us indigenous sources of power.  fat chance.

ninez cacho olivares’ take on it, Spaced out at Apec,  makes me wonder what the prez might be smoking these days.  or maybe it’s just the erehwon vibes of the “house of dreams”.

let gma go

of course i want to see gma paying for her crimes, but i want her hale and hearty and up to the ordeal when she faces the sandiganbayan, not weak and ailing, braced and harnessed, which would remind of a thin and pale ninoy aquino being forced to attend military court hearings during his hunger strike. i don’t know that that would help the case against her any, might even turn her into a martyr, how smart is that.

so maybe she won’t come back right away, but she will eventually (they all do), maybe to a friendly new admin in 2016.  meanwhile, it’s up to the aquino admin to build a case that will stand, when the time comes.