command responsibility

everyone’s blaming the police for incompetence and the media for oversharing.   i blame the president for not sending a representative to take charge on his behalf, like maybe the vice-president, yeah, rambotito himself, why ever not, or sige na nga the dilg secretary, but someone of national prominence, someone smart, someone with authority, because i have no doubt that it would have made a huge difference.

in a presscon today ricky carandang said that the president decided not to show himself or be part of negotiations because his fear, or that of his advisers? was that the hostage-taker’s demands might escalate kung siya mismo ang kausap.   but did it not occur to them that part of the hostage-taker’s agitation might have been brought on by the fact that no one important was talking to him?   i mean, you know, isko moreno? bakit naman niya papansinin ang isang pipitsuging vice-mayor.

and really if someone smart had been in charge, then released hostages might have been thoroughly debriefed and it would have been found out that the hostage-taker had a tv set in the bus, even if it hadn’t been turned on yet.   it would have been smart to assume that mendoza might check it out eventually,reason enough to impose a media blackout earlier in the day.   then the brother might never have staged that scene that added to the hostage-taker’s agitation.

what upsets me is that the only palace statement from sonny coloma was to the effect that the safety of the hostages was of utmost importance, and yet nothing was done to precisely ensure this safety.   i stand by my first tweet: why not just pretend to give in to mendoza’s demands, bring that document from the ombudsman reinstating him, never mind about due process and the law, just make him happy and get the hostages released FIRST, and THEN saka siya banatan, arrest him for hostage-taking atbp., i mean, you know?   why ever not?   what’s a white lie if it saves lives?

instead we had a president whose strategy was to “wait him out,” hoping the guy would just release all the hostages out of the goodness of his heart, how freakin smart was that.   no wonder the world’s thoroughly disgusted with us.

OMG WTF!!!

WHO IS RUNNING THIS COUNTRY BA!!!!! HOW CAN THIS HAVE GONE ON FOR TEN HOURS WITHOUT A SINGLE HIGH GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL TAKING CONTROL??????? FUCK!!!!

ninoy & the hacienda

sychronicity: ninoy aquino’s 27th death anniversary (the filipino is worth dying for) and the hearing of the high-profile hacienda luisita case (scheme sdo) in the supreme court.

there’s good background stuff on the internet, thanks to gmanews.tv, and there’s lynda jumilla’s report on anc, salamat naman, altho sana sa free tv and mainstream media rin, ‘no?

because it’s interesting, revealing, if not really surprising, how inextricably linked the stories of ninoy and cory are with the hacienda’s masalimuot history.

read howie severino et al’s holding on: a hacienda luisita timeline from the spanish to the noynoy eras

read leloy claudio’s ninoy networked with everyone including the reds

if ninoy had lived, would he have handled the hacienda problem differently?   it would seem so, though it would have meant a major rift split rupturewith the cojuangcos, unless he could have been really creative and come up with a compromise that both cory and the farmers could live with.

now that noynoy is president, and he seems more of a cojuangco than a ninoy aquino — read carlos conde’s aquino is being shrewd about hacienda luisita — looks like the pattern could persist, which bodes ill for the farmers and the nation but bodes good for other haciendas and big landowners who continue to defy the law, what a drag.

here’s a partial list of other families owning vast tracts of land via KMP via mon ramirez:

Hacienda Zobel in Calatagan, Batangas – 12,000 hectares
Hacienda Yulo in Nasugbu, Batangas – 8,650 hectares
Hacienda Roxas also in Nasugbu – 7,813 hectares
Hacienda Yulo in Canlubang, Calamba – 7,100 hectares
Hacienda Luisita – 6,453 hectares
Hacienda Puyat also in Nasugbu, Batangas – 2,400 hectares
Hacienda Agoncillo in Laurel, Batangas – 2,014 hectares

There are more in other provinces and regions.

To get an idea of the size of each hacienda, compare them with the land areas of these four cities:

QC – 16,000 hectares
Manila – 3,955 hectares
Makati – 2,738 hectares
Marikina – 2,150 hectares

pia hontiveros vs. admiral angue

caught strictly politics last night and was amazed at pia hontiveros’ total lack of objectivity re rear admiral feliciano angue’s complaints.   a lot of whining daw, signifying nothing?   hmm.   her husband is in the military, ‘no?   methinks she protests too much.   angue reminds me of senator trillanes back when he was griping about corruption in the military and the grievance committee wouldn’t act on his complaints.   reminds me too of fvr when he finally broke away from the marcos government on grounds that promotions in ver’s afp were not based on merit but palakasan.   where there’s smoke there’s fire?   senator now congressman once afp chief rodolfo biazon seems to think so.