Appearing on ANC with Ricky Carandang and Pinky Webb, former President Fidel V. Ramos seems to be approaching the Rubicon. Will he cross it? The signs seem there.
Ramos expressed his displeasure with the Consultative Commission for Charter Change’s report, in particular its recommendation to scrap the 2007 elections. At a time when the world is moving forward in terms of democracy, he finds it scandalous that the Philippines is considering junking elections. None of the reforms -strengthening political parties, for one- he has been pushing for, were included in the report. While he said the Commission worked hard, he feels something went wrong and came close to saying the President had set out to subvert the effort to come up with a new, and more relevant Charter.
Asked if he was withdrawing support from the President, he diplomatically said that the President has yet to officially react to the Commission’s proposals. Not that he was giving a deadline, he said, but he felt something should be said by the New Year: “not next year, but this coming January 1.” Pressed again, he continued to be non-committal but finally responded, when asked if he was losing confidence in the President, “not just confidence.”
Statements pregnant with meaning, indeed. Will FVR cross his Rubicon? How much longer will he give the President the benefit of the doubt? And how long will he continue to make veiled suggestions, such as his musing aloud that Gen. Fortunato Abat was sincere, “and is probably still up to something.”
MLQ3,
My comment: If FVR is serious, w might just witness a bit of Gotterdamerung at the Gloria’s doorsetep…
About time FVR joined the living! But am a teeny, weeny bit sceptical.
It will be a game of ping pong between those two.
Gloria will say something which should silence FVR for a while until something comes up again. Before you know it, it’s already 2010
I don’t know what’s the fuzz in skiping the 2007 elections.The last 2 elections did seem to bring us any good.Skiping it for once & concentrating on making our economy work w/c will benifit more people than just a “few” w/ an agenda to push.Imagine if we have elections on 2007.Everybody will be “playing” politics again.
Haveing one less election does not make us any less democratic.I don’t think it’s being skiped for anybody’s whim.Since we are supposed to be gearing up to another system. I think it’s wiser to have a sort of ccoling of period.
Maybe, we can look at thing also in a different way.Have we really used elections for the right resaons? Or we just like the “form” of it & we use it for other ends anyway.
so what does FVR wanna do about it?
I don’t understand what is meant by ‘using elections for the right reasons’. Elections are there to give the people the option to vote someone in or vote someone out. Can’t get any more complicated than that. Why would we give the incumbent politicians the benefit of a ‘cooling of period’? As some sort of reward i suppose?
I don’t know about you Joey but we should have a say on who should lead us. Extending the tenure of all elected officials (including those who cheated) for three long years is a crime. These leaders in the executive and legislative branch of the government are accountable to us, the people. Whatever they do in their positions will affect us, we therefore need to have a say on who shall sit in those elected positions. As for charter change, I personally think that it is not the right time to do it.
Gloria will say something which should silence FVR for a while until something comes up again. Before you know it, it’s already 2010
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I like the way you put it a de brux. Ramos is probably becoming senile he has lost his instinct di na nakahalata. GMA must be saying, aba akala mo ikaw lang marunong maglaro ha!
Government is getting more and more irrelevant by the day. The past few months have shown us we can survive without any government to speak of. Elections don’t make a difference. They only bring in a new wave of hungry wolves. It doesn’t really matter if we have elections or not.
However, if FVR thinks otherwise, GMA better listen. It’ll be waging war on too many fronts. One should choose which battles to fight.
Carl, given the track record of our political leaders, i wish what you’re saying is true. Unfortunately, government cannot be made completely irrelevant nor unaccountable, especially for those who don’t belong to the upper or middle classes. The past few elections may not have made a difference, but not having one will certainly do, and most probably not for the better.
Dodong,
I very much agree with your views on FVR. I have always had a lot of respect for him and always said it was too bad he could not have served a second term (I would always follow up it was more important to serve as an example of stepping down when required at least now).
While I believe GMA to be as capable as FVR (unlike the other two who held the office) it is quite apparent FVR has much more integrity.
Elections matter to those waiting for their votes to be bought and for the politicians to distribute their pork. Otherwise, it’s just a drain on resources and a pain for economic planners.
If only we could live day by day with out government
then everything would be alright
But in this country
our people rely on government for housing schooling doleouts including food, clothing,medicine,social welfare
disaster relief,fuel subsidies,electricity subsidies,nfa rice subsidies etc,etc
we ask so much of government
when they don’t deliver we say TO HELL WITH THEM.
On corruption
good there are lots of watchdog like Transparency And Governance and the likes
evrything comes back to us
This is not a ctach all statement
when we jay walk..we bribe
when we violate anything we bribe
when we apply for licenses,passports,etc we bribe
solution?
will interoperability of institutions thru computerization….
make one start a business in one day
make one export minus the 35 signatures
make one get license or passport or anything in an hour
expedite processes minus the hundred signatories
make us know result of elections in 2 days
make RVAT attractive
and will stop us from bribing
Then let us Go For It!
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to All!
STOP THE HATE!!!!!!
Summary of Previous comment
INDUCE Patience and Pleasure
By Eliminating Frustration
and making the wait worth it
just like lovemaking
guys,it’s hard for me to respond cuz most of the time i don’t get published.answered already yesterday.
obviously,my side is unpopular.but i have never beleaved is nesseserely right.
my point is skiping an election will in no way makes us less democratic.
We need the break seriously from the politics of destruction & intence power playing.
it’s obvious that the opposition is in desperate need of elections for them to bring forward their “agenda”.this is the very same opposition who performed miserably due to their lack of leadership & absolute individualissim.are we saying that we want to reward them for their incompitence?
While it is true that elections are our democratic rights.is it not wiser to concentrate first on modernizing our election system in a way to make it less vurnirable to human intervention.
Will skiping an election make us lose our jobs or stop goverment from funtioning? skiping an election will affect only those w/ an agenda to push.
our politics sucks.Everytime there is an election coming everything else takes a back seat.the things that will give us long term gains are sacrificed for the politics of willing & dealing.
We all have a major hang-over from the past wreaking months.surely an election will be exploited for revenge & pushing agendas.
let’s face it we can hate & curse pgma till we turn blue in the face.but to put all our energies just to get rid of her w/o a viable person to succed her not to mention if we will ever agree on anyone is not being real.
We have to put a stop to all this hate envy & greed.in reality we are just being screwed by others using our sincer reasons for change.while they use our divisivness and confussion for their own ends.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. It is well noted that we all want peace and prosperity. How to achieve it is the question, and where we diverge.
So Joey wants to have a timeout of sorts from politicking. Go in peace then.
But sometime in the future you also will realize that being absolutely non-confrontational has its downside. Let me give you an example in a form of a question. What will you do if someone you love so much, maybe a girlfriend, was stolen from you? Are you just going to stand still and let the thief get away with his crime? I believe that we Filipinos fight for our rights only when we feel strongly for something. In this case, many of us feel strongly to have somebody whom the majority voted for to lead our nation. It’s as simple as that (to me at least).
Since there is no escaping politics
as I said in one of those ramblings a few months back
even in the house there is politics
and one upmanships evn with siblings, conspiracy against the od black sheep etc.
Even in our outlet the reality shows there is the voting out portion…
even in game shows there is a weakest link…
What we can do is make the most out of it…
People hate chacha now because for many reasons it was rushed,it was a monumental error, it lacks reforms etc..
put everything in ceteris parabus where everything else is equal remove the cloud of doubtfulness in it
or maybe better you yourself propose the changes
maybe you would be in favor of change.
People hate change yet change still happens…
So change wins!
(as to what or whom to change that is the question)
Karl,
I have to disagree with you that people rely on government for housing, food or even dole outs. In fact it is the governemnt who is relying to much from us. the economy is afloat on the back of sacrificing overseas filipino workers.
It is the responsibility of the governement ot create opportunity for the people so that people can work for their own needs. If most of us have come to the point of mendecancy, it is because our governement has not done enough to inspire people with the hope of a possible decent paying jobs here.
Fencesitter,
millions of ofws do literally save us; I know thatand I never said otherwise
but don’t tell me there are not millions of squatters
and if not for the popularity measure of subsidized power
before subsidized fuel
millions of power thieves etc,the government gave so we take…..we took so much so we end up relying on them…
that was what i meant…..
I do agree that there less opportunities; if there are then why migrate to somewhere
……..
about to those who disagree with my low inflation theory
I did not say that we won’t add to the debt burden
You see the policy makers explicitly states that we control our inflation but with the low Growth not stated
and believe it or not ways to lower inflation
are smuggling.allowingdumping,controlling M3……..
inflation is like CPI the average price of basket of goods
if local goods high and foreign goods cheap
average them it is still low
inflation growth is or are the increments to previous period’s inflation…
Rejoinder GNP/GDP growth
OFWs can only remit as much
we still must have an accurate trade deficit data
with all that unrecorded smuggled goods around
with an accurate trade deficit data
Not even the dollar remittances can pull up the GNP of our dear Philippines
and mind you it is the GDP growth that matters, not that low inflation being focused upon by our policy managers
they can’t fight oil prices, why taget inflation….
They deny that they follow movement of the FED..
everybody follows the movement of the FED even in a lurking manner.
Last rejoinder:
Even the chinese will revise their policies beginning ASAP
They realize that they are no longer an export driven economy
like our electronics export pride that imports more before exporting
their number one car export believe it or not Volks Wagen
imports more from Germany before the finished products gets exported
and that is only cars, multiply that with all multinationals that set foot in China
their situation is no different than our electronic sector exports
They can’t stop the low per capita growth due to 90 million poor and counting(more than the popultaion of RP)
In India the situation is only slightly different but more of the same!
We have a long way to Go!
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