Scuttlebutt update 4:51 PM:
Easing out of Executive Secretary Ermita moved forward to March but timeframe is still up to May. Ermita angling to be PAGCOR Chairman but remains to be seen if the President would risk easing out Genuino in exchange. More likely scenario is a face-saving but politically non-threatening ambassadorship for Ermita.
Winston Garcia said to be slated to be the next Chairman of the Commission on Audit.
The Speaker supposedly threatened a one-hour privilege speech that would get the President in hot water if he’s toppled from the Speakership. President backed off if JDV3 backs off; leaks about this apparently sourced from the Ermita and Bunye camps in the Palace. Congressmen (whether true or not or to drive up their market value) speaking of 1 billion Peso topple-the-Speaker fund at 2 million Pesos per congressman’s signature. But another view is that the President’s sons are just making noise about continuing the toppling efforts to save face.
The President is said to have to intimated that the time has come to put in place the system that ought to have been instituted in the Marcos years: a French style parliamentary system.
***
A likely story! I’m not hiding, says Neri who turns 58 on Friday. Of course the law-and-order types are silent in the face of Neri’s dodging a lawful warrant of arrest.
Other news: ) Corruption concerns block more US aid to Philippines. The transcript of the press briefing is available online at the US Department of Sate website. Here are the relevant portions on the Philippines:
QUESTION: My name is Jennie Ilustre from Malaya, Philippines Daily. My question is — I was reading this report — the Philippines is still under a threshold program.
AMBASSADOR DANILOVICH: Yes.
QUESTION: Is there any good news when it will qualify?
AMBASSADOR DANILOVICH: We have an excellent threshold program with the Philippines. As you know, it’s a $20 million program. Frankly, it’s all the more robust because the Philippine Government upon receiving the $20 million of our MCC threshold activity, pledged and participated with an equal amount of money — $20 million — to support this program. It’s working well. It’s been successful. It’s going forward. We want to see further results. We’re continuing to look at the Philippines as a positive example of cooperation with the MCC.
I had the pleasure of meeting with President Arroyo and her cabinet in New York in September to discuss the ongoing —
QUESTION: What year, sir?
AMBASSADOR DANILOVICH: This — 2007.
QUESTION: Okay.
AMBASSADOR DANILOVICH: At the United Nations General Assembly when she was there for those meetings. We met for about half an hour and discussed the MCC threshold program and the continuing efforts of her government to perform well on the indicators. We will be meeting the delegation from the Philippine Government next week here in Washington. I believe it’s Mr. Teves who is coming, who we’re going to be meeting with. He and his team and the MCC team will meet together to discuss further continuation of the program. And we hope eventually that the compact eligibility will continue and that they will be rewarded a compact in due course.
QUESTION: Who will be on the U.S. side when you meet?
AMBASSADOR DANILOVICH: It will be our MCC team here in Washington.
Thank you. Yes.
And-
QUESTION: Good morning, Mr. Ambassador. Bing Branigan from Manila Mail newspaper. When exactly next week Philippine Finance Secretary Teves is coming?
AMBASSADOR DANILOVICH: Secretary Teves — I think the meeting is scheduled for Tuesday.
QUESTION: Tuesday.
AMBASSADOR DANILOVICH: Yeah. I’m not sure about that but I think it’s Tuesday.
QUESTION: What’s keeping the Philippines from getting the – into the full MCC — what’s the requirements they have not passed yet.
AMBASSADOR DANILOVICH: Sure. We discussed this with President Arroyo and with her ministers when we were together in New York in September. And although the Philippines technically is eligible for a compact, there has been in the last assessment, indicator assessment some serious declines with regards to corruption and some other matters with their performance on the indicators. This causes us some concern because the drop in performance in fact was very dramatic. And we want to understand more clearly why that dramatic drop has occurred, understand what circumstances caused that to happen, so we can have some clarity as to whether or not this precipitous drop is going to continue or if there was some indicator irregularity or if there are further strong reforms which the Philippine Government needs to take in this regard to make sure that at the next period of assessment this summer, the indicator shows an upward trend. The drop was from the 70th percentile down to the 50th percentile. I think the figure – don’t hold me on this, but it was something like a drop from 76 down to 54 or something of that nature. So it was fairly significant. Even though they were still above the median. So that is, in fact, the very reason for the meetings next week. We’re going to discuss this and see. We are going forward. We’re continuing our dialogue. We’re open to discussion with the Philippines.
QUESTION: Mr. Ambassador, (inaudible) corruption (inaudible) is this part of it?
AMBASSADOR DANILOVICH: Well, part of it to the extent that, yes, it’s part of the democratic and – political and democratic assessments that we do in our country – do with our countries.
QUESTION: Thank you.
AMBASSADOR DANILOVICH: Yeah. Thank you.
Yesterday, the buzz in political circles mainly concerned whether the Speaker of the House would still be Jose de Venecia, Jr. by Monday or not. Basically, the President’s husband from overseas, and his two sons as the rallying symbols of the faithful, were relentless in pursuing the destruction of the Speaker: Kampi, Arroyo sons vote to oust De Venecia. Each new news item, for example 134 sign ‘no confidence’ paper vs Speaker–Villafuerte– would create a spike in the chatter. The message was, JDV urged to step down to save face but of course, Bluffing on numbers is House game. Everyone got in on the act: De Venecia-Nograles showdown inevitable–NPC. In the end, it became a question of who could shout they had the Mandate of Heaven: De Venecia: ‘I have Arroyo’s all-out support’.
Scuttlebutt was that the Palace’s preferred “win-win” solution was to appoint de Venecia ambassador to Washington this weekend, which would remove the need for a potentially messy showdown in the House. The problem with that proposal was that it was too insulting to be accepted by de Venecia -from No. 4 in the national hierarchy to a mere presidential appointee?- and would have put Lakas-CMD in too obviously a subordinate position vis-a-vis Kampi much too soon. In the end, the President apparently told her sons to back off on condition the Speaker did the same thing with his son: De Venecia buys time: Son’s silence for Arroyo support.
Also yesterday, during the investiture ceremony for Adel Abbas Tamano as President of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, I had the opportunity to talk to Liling Briones, former Treasurer of the Philippines. She said that the unwritten story (picked up, as far as I can see, only by the Business Mirror where she writes a column) is how Congress has spent two years coming to grips with the budget process and allowing greater participation by the citizenry in its formulation. She said that Rep. Edcel Lagman in the House and Sen. Allan Peter Cayetano went above and beyond the call of duty in bringing the public into the budgeting process. After last year’s efforts to bring legislators and the public together foundered, for the present budget, members of the public got their act together as early as May, when the first call for submissions came. In that manner, they were in synch with the legislators who discovered that the public was willing to follow their process, and had done their homework.
The 1.2 trillion stated by the President remained the grand total for the budget, but members of Congress were able to realign different appropriations under the framework of the millenium development goals: for example spending on public health was increased by something like 50%. The problem now is that the President has taken a dim view when it comes to some of these realignments and has apparently threatened a veto. She also argued that the power of the president to veto is a limited one, subject to stringent criteria, but personally I tend to disagree with that assertion, in the past, anyway, presidential vetoes have been based on constitutionality and legality questions but also in the basis of presidential policy. For more on this point, see Budget ‘warriors’ warn against veto.
A further complication is the proposed stimulus package.
I asked for her views on the proposed stimulus package. She replied that the institutional stimulus package is the national budget and for that reason, she opposed a special stimulus package. A national budget mandates spending, she said, and not only that, because it specifies what is to be spent where, it assists transparency in the spending of public monies. In contrast a stimulus package still has to be debated and then won’t be channeled with as much oversight as takes place with the budget: apparently, for example, the various government departments would have to craft the systems to track such spending if approved, unlike the budget.
She also pointed out that the stimulus package and the national budget will be competing for the same resources: the government assets to be sold to fund the stimulus package, she said, are those already identified as the sources to fund the government budget. This seems to have been addressed: Stimulus plan sourced from 2008 budget.
Also, she said greater public scrutiny is required, whether of existing budgetary items or proposed stimulus programs. A case in point is the proposed 6 billion peso feeding program for school kids. She said that government policy at present is hand sacks of rice to kids, which leads to a whole set of problems: kids staggering home with big sacks of rice, or kids being told they’re receiving 5 kilos, say, but actually being sent home with less, and then of families that sell the rice gift or who then divvy it up among elder members so the kids don’t benefit from the rice. An entirely different situation is that there are appropriations for feeding school kids, but the rice is handed out during the summertime, when the kids and the teacher’s aren’t in school! The point being that enough research and practical experience exists, she says, to prove that effective feeding programs for kids involve feeding kids in school, during class hours.
Concerning Gov’t bares 7.3% 2007 GDP growth With robust 7.4% recorded in fourth quarter: Gov’t bares 7.3% 2007 GDP growth, strongest since 1976, a minor caveat.
You will see on the chart above, which comes from a presentation of Dr. Michael Alba, that the line showing the country’s GDP is broken at one point. I asked him what that meant. He said, it represents a change made in the manner GDP is computed, which makes all previous data and all subsequent data not precisely comparable to each other.
In the blogosphere, the NYT blog The Caucus liveblogs the Democratic debate.
Writer’s Block compares the Philippines to Czarist Russia.
Technorati Tags: Blogging, constitution, economy, House of Representatives, ideas, liveblogging, philippines, politics, president, Senate, society
I will forget that I like his picture as a POW. He looked like my favorite CSI character Nick Stokes when he was fresh from Vietnam prison.
He did not get his eyes from his mother who was more visible in the campaign than the wife Cindy who was formerly addicted to drugs and now is suffering from short memory lapses at age 53.
Must have acquired that “look” when the family tried to hide from public the scandal that his wife was involved in when she was addicted to painkillers that she resorted to theft.
She made that public only when there were attempts of blackmail.
HedgeFunder,
“REALLY?????? Where??????????”
EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!
By the way, best wishes in your search for the most profitable hedge fund in the US now
I made a mistake when I said “purchase by Filipinos of new homes”. Doesn’t matter who buys, as long as the new home purchased is in the Philippines. So someone in Boston buying real estate in the Philippines increases the GDP (but only a portion of the purchase is “wages/salaries” and the rest (cost-of-material + other-cost-of-doing-business + profit) goes to GDP. The profit does not go to “wages/income” of business-owner because wages is already a line-item in the Profit-and-loss worksheet. So a Benign0 can get wealthier (and adding to GDP) without changing his declared income (which affects FIES and GINI).
supremo,
“Tanong para sa mga nasa Pilipinas.
Naramdaman niyo ba ang 7.3% growth ng GDP?”
Yes. Pero ramdam na ramdam yan pag na-sustain yang figure for at least a decade. Sa first year, di marami ang makakaramdam nito. Hopefully, it will create a momentum that can sustain an increase the following year, the year after next, and so on and so forth…
hedgeFund : go short… and short Europe or China. Or maybe you shouldn’t since practically everyone now knows.
UP n student,
“The business-owners felt the GDP-growth a whole more than
the farmers and the suwelduhan.”
True. Hopefully that motivates them to expand, hire more employees, resulting in a further decrease in unemployment
i claim no expertise on economic principles beyond that which directly affect my own household and business. that’s why i refrain from commenting on the merits or demerits of the competing views expressed in here regarding gdp/gnp or feis/fnes. i can relate to anthony scalia’s lament concerning certain people’s penchant for looking at the glass half-empty rather than half-full, and derive personal satisfaction from it. i think i can see where those people are coming from – anything to undercut the administration, including shooting themselves on the foot.
one thing amiss in the discussion of economy here, i think, is the frightening growth of the philippine population that is now between 80 – 90 million level. this about doubles the 45 million or so that i left behind in the halcyon days of early 70’s (before the harsh effect of the marcos’ reign was felt).
maintaining a state of survival, let alone pursuit of prosperity for all, under the circumstances, is like chasing rainbow, a trip to the horizon that is constantly receding. the national production of wealth and income, and the distribution thereof, cannot cope with the burgeoning number of poor, unproductive and uneducated citizens that produce more and more of their kind. there must be a way to address this problem before its too late for everyone in this land.
The business-owners (at least those who are Filipino) also belong to households so are subject to the FIES which indicates that their incomes from their businesses (excluding capital gains as per hvrds) did not keep up with inflation. It still does not add up.
i hope the word “justice” is never mentioned in every news item on Neri’s warrant.
he is being summoned to an inquiry supposedly in aid of legislation. a legislative, not judicial, proceeding.
if its not a judicial proceeding, then Neri cannot obstruct “justice” in not showing up at the scheduled Senate hearing
@anthony : Your question, in fact, points to where GDP-growth affects “general welfare”. The increase in business-activity ( domestic production ) results in hiring of workers from new households being created.
Government-spending on a new flyover or a new highway means expenditures for sand-and-gravel as well as for worker-wages. New flyovers get counted in GDP.
@ Justice Anthony Scalia
“Yes. Pero ramdam na ramdam yan pag na-sustain yang figure for at least a decade.”
I DON’T think so.
We have the highest population growth rate in SEA, so pag-nasustain rin yang population growth rate with GDP na yan, wa rin.
So tama nga si Manong Bencard, let us not forget that we Filipinos make love a lot.
cvj: A sand-and-gravel business-owner whose business-profits quadrupled because of a government contract may choose to quadruple his salary (which then gets tracked by FIES). OR… he does not because he wants to retain the profits in order to further grow the business.
Exxon-Mobile total sales for the past year was $400 Billion plus. Net profit at $ 40 billion. +
This corporation is an integrated oil company. Their value added starts from exploration-extraction-refining to wholesaling and retailing.
Their total economic activity is almost four times the entire economic activity of the Philippine economy counting the labor value added of the OFW’s.
The per capita GDP vs. FIES discussion is not a matter of ‘half-empty/half-full’. It’s whether we are inadvertently looking through a magnifying glass. Even former NEDA Chiefs Habito and Medalla have voiced concerns on the discrepancies between the two.
It depends on the form of ownership. As per your previous comment (at February 1st, 2008 2:06 pm), household income includes income from entreprenurial activities which is defined as:
So if the sand-and-gravel business-owner is a sole proprietor, then his/her profits will be part of FIES whether or not it is withdrawn.
@cvj: You present a reasonable hypothesis. But I have no idea which portion of business owners were true to your hypothesis. FIES is voluntary-reporting. I have no numbers to discern whether the business-owners (who responded to the survey) were motivated by playfulness, pettiness, larceny, or desire to report accurately (because the survey is for the greater good).
Anthony Scalia:
“didnt it occur to you, that the past GDP computations could be the less-than-accurate ones? just because one PhD observed that bases are changed, doesnt immediately mean that the latest figure is just a spin.”
Yes, I’m fully aware that ALL measurements are imperfect, not just GDP. But aren’t we talking here of GDP under Gloria’s regime? That it’s being compared with past performance? About the 7.3% rise that everyone in Malacanang is so ecstatic and celebratory about it?
Spin? Well it’s you who said it. It could or couldn’t be a spin, but the ball is in the govt side to explain, not Alba or anyone who isn’t privy to the way GDP (FIES, or whatever) is conceptualized, measured and implemented. Like you and me, we are only end-users of these data.
The GDP rise is good news indeed, but its peaking up doesn’t speak for everybody’s progress. Just listen to the litany of complaints among the poor and ordinary folks. Surely, it is for the govt, because it’s a material asset. It can borrow more money, attract more foreign investors, let outsiders mine our resources, etc.
“In showing that the Philippines is a laggard, the figures of other countries are resorted to, no mention of a ‘trickle down effect.’ Yet when it comes to evaluating the Philippines, the “trickle down effect†criterion is raised.â€Â
Frankly, I don’t know how to answer that. I didn’t bring that up here. What I did was tackle GDP and FIES, as others did. But then, they are two different measures of economic health. Am not sure if FIES is what you mean by “trickle down effect?”
Bencard: “one thing amiss in the discussion of economy here, i think, is the frightening growth of the philippine population that is now between 80 – 90 million level.”
I like that statement. I wish you had the power to influence the decision makers (esp. the “ek-ekonomists,” term I borrow from Anthony Scalia) to configure a viable population policy, put it in the equation of growth, and make it work.
Definitely, population is a factor that weighs down most gains in the economic scene. Even if RP outpaces her neighbors economically (no matter how measured), it will remain a laggard as long as its population growth is almost steady.
It’s like running so fast down the road, but staying in about the same position as before.
Nash: “We have the highest population growth rate in SEA, so pag-nasustain rin yang population growth rate with GDP na yan, wa rin. “
Siguro tama si Malthus sa Pilipinas.
Aloha
Speaking of Malthus, perhaps our population will drop if, because of the poor sanitation that characterizes our very dense slums, we get an epidemic that sweeps across the nation….or Assumptionistas/Atenistas/Thomasians continue having unprotected sex in line with Roman Catholic Teaching and HIV sterilises our population….
But these scenarios are far fetched (Atenistas not being sexually appealing), I think we will quickly rise to 140M and then starve to death because we won’t have enough resources…
Supremo:”“Tanong para sa mga nasa Pilipinas.
Naramdaman niyo ba ang 7.3% growth ng GDP?â€Â
Ilang sagot lang ito, taong 2007:
1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uw4sINdHyA&feature=related
2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyd2cIZzKn8&feature=related
3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2prN5fA7sgo&feature=related
4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8dB6l8yPv8&feature=related
At tone-tonelada pa.
At ang isang ito ay para kay Manong Bencard. Nakakaintindi pa naman pala ng Tagalog, eh.
Population control ang isang magandang topic dito.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpkVRgZGqFI&feature=related
accused being cia? arrgh, has resume building gone to the extreme here? what a spin!
LMAO!
Supremo:â€Â“Tanong para sa mga nasa Pilipinas.
Naramdaman niyo ba ang 7.3% growth ng GDP?â€Â
Try mo ito. Marami pang iba (moderated kasi ang naunang post ko)-
1)www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uw4sINdHyA&feature=related
2)www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kGmBcRIvUE
hawaiianguy,
I appreciate the youtube videos. Maybe they should be addressed to those people who think 7.3% growth is good enough.
Supremo, copy.
nash,
“I DON’T think so.”
you don’t think so because you put up another factor – population growth.
i think for the last decade, the population growth rate is less than 4%. for the last few years, GDP growth rate is slightly bigger than the population growth rate
as long as the GDP growth rate is sustainable (for at least a decade) and faster than the population growth rate, as what is happening for the past few years, then mararamdaman na yan in the long run.
It is a good thing you mentioned population growth rate, because that factor is surprisingly absent in all discussions of poverty and economic development.
If the Philippine population growth rate (for the past 3-4 decades) is slower than Japan’s, our economy could sustain endless people power, repeated Manila Pen circuses, countless rallies, media pontificating, multiple term Erap presidencies, Mayor Binay for life, etc.
hawaiianguy,
“Yes, I’m fully aware that ALL measurements are imperfect, not just GDP. But aren’t we talking here of GDP under Gloria’s regime? That it’s being compared with past performance? About the 7.3% rise that everyone in Malacanang is so ecstatic and celebratory about it?”
look, if it will make you feel better, i don’t (and we all should not) give the credit for the 7.3 growth to gloria. hats off to the ordinary Pinoys who worked to produce that figure. After a few seconds of celebration, its back to work for them (us), to ensure that the 7.3 is sustainable
“It could or couldn’t be a spin, but the ball is in the govt side to explain, not Alba or anyone who isn’t privy to the way GDP (FIES, or whatever) is conceptualized, measured and implemented. Like you and me, we are only end-users of these data.”
as per inidoro ni emilie, the government has, in fact, given an explanation:
“here’s a url worth visiting from nscb explaining the breaks in gdp links:
http://www.nscb.gov.ph/sna/2007/1stQ2007/2007tnq_1.asp
also worth reading, in the vein of the reactions above:
http://www.nscb.gov.ph/announce/ForTheRecord/20july07_reliability.asp
it makes me wonder – if the other countries report their GDP growth, do their governments still apologize for the figures?
“The GDP rise is good news indeed, but its peaking up doesn’t speak for everybody’s progress. Just listen to the litany of complaints among the poor and ordinary folks. Surely, it is for the govt, because it’s a material asset. It can borrow more money, attract more foreign investors, let outsiders mine our resources, etc.”
my friend, did i ever mention that the 7.3 is the ultimate destination?
the attraction of foreign investors is for job creation. so is mining, which promises to be much bigger than the outsourcing industry (with safeguards in place)
“Frankly, I don’t know how to answer that. I didn’t bring that up here. What I did was tackle GDP and FIES, as others did. But then, they are two different measures of economic health. Am not sure if FIES is what you mean by “trickle down effect?—
I am not familiar with FIES. I am just borrowing “trickle down effect” from the opposition who use figures to put down the country, but when the country produces the same figures, the opposition uses a new metric – “trickle down effect”.
FACT: The top economies of the world have the widest gaps between the Rich and the Poor, because they also have the highest average levels of income and wealth.
It’s not the Gap, stupid. It’s the Mean.
The reason for the wide Gap in the most progressive economies is their markets strongly and extravagantly reward their most innovative and productive investors, “the Rich” — who are actually responsible for pushing up the mean!
Dig this: in the US, the Gap is now ten times wider than a hundred years ago, but the Mean is also seven times higher, so that the “poor” today are better off than Middle Class back then, not in comparative, but absolute income and wealth.
But they hardly ever teach this stuff about the the Bell Curve (Mean and Standard Deviation) to the class struggle crowd.
uncontrolled population growth?
we can thank our religious hypocrites for that.
scrimping on social services yet look how they spend that war chest attacking population control policies.
Biazon was right when he was quoted by Pat as saying that any attempts to introduce population control would be fruitless, adding that opposition against it is well organized and well-funded.
well-funded indeed. that’s the church for you! preferential treatment for the poor!
why don’t you dig the archives.
sheesh.
@Devi-8: So did you see the latest from the CBCP? Here is a cut-and-paste from CBCPnews:
MANILA, 24 January 2008 In Pampanga, the case was an 18-year-old boy who married his 22-year-old pregnant girlfriend. In Cavite, it was a 20-year-old girl who married her brother’s 23-year old friend and then bore his child.
Sadly, however, both couples eventually ended in separation.
These stories spurred a Catholic bishop to urge legislators to change the country’s marriage laws to prevent teens from marrying so young.
Archbishop Oscar Cruz, head of the CBCP National Appellate Matrimonial Tribunal, sought the modification of the law during the 3rd Bishops’-Legislators’ Caucus at a hotel in Pasay City Thursday.
Cruz asked the lawmakers from the Senate and the Congress to raise the minimum legal marrying of 18 years to remedy “broken marriages.â€Â
The age requirement for marriage needs to be adjusted, he said, because most people aged 18 are still “psychologically unprepared and emotionally unstable.â€Â
“Getting married at 18 could be disadvantageous since a person at such an age is still unripe or incapable of raising a family,†said the Lingayen-Dagupan archbishop.
Teenagers are getting fellow-teenagers pregnant, and Bishop Cruz says “..raise the marriage age.” The solution is “..stop teen-age pregnancy!!” Condoms now!!!!
you mean in this thread: https://www.quezon.ph/?p=1418 ?
point to me where the ‘you-are-one-cia-agent’ allusion is made, other than a caveat issued not to rely heavily(especially if one purports to be an academician) on cia generated report because it makes for a bias reference (despite and inspite of the factbook’s accuracy, go figure out why). however, just because one uses the cia factbook should not delude the person to suspect that s/he has been suspected of working for the cia. paranoia sinking in?
sheesh^1
———
^1 sheesh: a term regularly used by a self-absorbed resume builder.
DJB, for purposes of sustained economic growth, it is the standard deviation (aka inequality) at the point of economic takeoff that matters. That point has been made by neoclassical economists, like Amsden, Rodrik and Alesina among others. They differ on what kind of inequality matters (e.g. land inequality or income inequality), but they all acknowledge that it is a factor. No need to look to the ‘class struggle’ crowd for this line of inquiry.
Anthony (at 11:00am), the explanation in those links assert [the obvious fact] that GDP and FIES measure different things. That is not an explanation at all especially since the ones who noticed the discrepancy are themselves former heads of NEDA themselves (Monsod, Habito and Medalla). They would have been aware of such differences before voicing out such suspicions.
On the speculation by NEDA Secretary General Romulo Virola that discrepancies are accounted for by the survey respondents lying, that is at best a cop out on his part.
UPn, our bishops live in an unreal world where they view the outside world illogically. they cannot bridge the gap between faith and reason. the church’s most famous thinker (St. Thomas Aquinas) was able to do so, and yet these relics of the inquisition continue to insist on some policies by incorrectly reading the teachings of Christ. these are the same kind of people who prosecuted Copernicus (for his heliocentric model of the solar system). these are the kind of people who use God’s name yet fail to see that their acts run counter to God’s design. a century from now, we’ll hear this same church (if it is still around) apologizing for delaying humanity’s route to the golden age. just as it apologized (a hundred years too late) for prosecuting Copernicus.
i’ll never understand why these illogical priests obstruct a policy designed to uplift the poor from poverty. maybe they want everyone to be poor. after all, i keep hearing these same demagouges utter how suffering is the only way to know God.
what a bunch of fucks. if you want to help people, then do it in the real world and not on some metaphysical plane. God is not dead. God is real, God is physical not just spiritual. and for pete’s sakes, let’s not wait for the afterlife to enjoy God’s kingdom!
erratum: it was Galileo who was actually prosecuted by the church, for espousing the copernican view of the world. he was charged with heresy and put under house arrest for the rest of his life.
he got off lightly. another copernican, Giordano Bruno, was also prosecuted, burned at the stake as a heretic.
on education, here’s to those English-is-the-key-to-success believers
this is the first part
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20080202-116321/The-first-language-bridge-to-Filipino-and-English
Commentary
The ‘first language’ bridge to Filipino and English
By Greg and Diane Dekker
Devils, i agree and from what i’ve observed, opposition to the Catholic Church’s policy towards popoulation control and public health (aka anti-HIV measures) is one thing that there is an emerging consensus in this otherwise divided blog.
As for the Inquisition, i think the ‘Left’ are the new ‘Copernicans’ thanks to Fr. Intengan.
taena sa katangahan talaga. raising marrying age will not stop teenage pregnancy. it’ll only result to an increased in unmarried pregnant teens. that’s rational thinking for Bishop Cruz. booo!
raise awareness, not marrying age you fool! contrary to your jurassic thinking, teaching sex education does not raise promiscuity but rather stunts it. as studies have shown, it is those who are better educated who marry later, get pregnant later, and have less kids. what does that tell you? awareness of the consequences of sex does not invite kids to experiment with it but rather becomes a deterring factor in premarital sex (which you religious freaks are so rabid abt). so how’s that for your opposition to sex education? you’re the ones allowing these youngsters to wallow in their ignorance resulting in their practicing pre-marital sex.
logical lang naman eh. most who engage in pre-marital sex are those never educated abt it. so where do they turn to learn? thru experience! amfufu.
yes! go on serving the Lord in helping the poor that way. make more mouths to feed, increase poverty, and glorify in the gloriousness of a God who exalts suffering.
IMO, you’re the blasphemers and heretics. God is a loving God, and He DOES NOT want His children suffering.
@Justice Anthony Scalia;.
Napakataas po na population growth rate ang “the population growth rate is less than 4%.” Plus factor in the ~10% unemployment. That 7.5% GDP will never catch up. (Especially since we also have the most honest bureaucracy in the world).
Dapat siguro si Healing Priest Suarez should sterilise all those people during his so called healing eklat.
And we should start taxing the Church, once and for all for the cost of social services.
ang pinakamagandang idea narinig ko in a long while! that should stop all those other pretenders who set-up ministries just to avoid taxes.
God! using God’s name to enrich oneself…
yes. pharisees are hypocrites, just as Christ said.
Nash, seriously, I don’t think forced sterilization is humane, especially the kind that Get Real-er Manuel Gallego III advocates. However, if we must go down that path, then the most efficient route would be to start with the politicians. That way, the problem of political dynasties will also be solved, and there would be higher probability that stolen funds (assuming it’s not lost in some Swiss bank) will eventually find its way back to the general public.
Nash,
I do understand you to a point. But I read somewhere that Muslims don’t like to pay realty tax in Mindanao since they view their land as a sort of gift from Allah.
If tax is to be levied on the Church, it should at least be on all “Churches”.
Cvj,
Regarding forced sterilization; Margaret Sanger was quite a proponent of that. She is either a heroine or a villainess depending on one’s stance.
@cvj
Oo naman. Hopefully, we can severe the iron hand of the Church that strangles our population control plans – better education, and freedom of choice.
Having read the CBCP thingy posted above, I can’t help but say those bishops are idiots. I can’t believe we are reverting to the middle ages. Well, I guess that is not surprising given that Pope Benedict is probably up their among the ranks of really bad popes. Kahit i-excommunicate na niya ako, I think he is more alter-devil than alter-christ…
@justice league
but of course. ALL churches, no exemptions. Nagkataon lang na ang kulto ng Romano Katoliko is the most meddlesome.
nash, jl
roman catholic church most meddlesome? yes. and islamic fundamentalists most homicidally insane. imagine if we attempt to tax them too.
they’ll blame it on the christians oppressing them some more.
though i agree. we cannot tax one religious order and exempt another one. it should be all or none at all.
one good thing abt this tax idea? it’ll raise gov’t revenues by cosmic bounds! at sana naman mabawasan na ang mga katulad ni Soriano na nagpapayaman lang sa relihiyon at wala naman bahid ng pagka makadiyos.
expect stiff opposition form the church. haha, baka finally yung mga bishops na sumuporta ke arroyo e biglang magbago ng posisyon.
hahaha. pera-pera nga naman. walang Diyos pag pera pinag-uusapan. konti lang ang kilala kong pari na tunay talagang isinasabuhay ang pangaral ni Kristo.
hindi ko nilalahat. tintira ko lang yung masasamang bunga. di naman masama ang Katolisismo. ang mga nagpapalakad lang nito.
“islamic fundamentalists” – are just as bad as christian fundamentalists. Fundamentalism, bad in any shape/form/denomination.
Sigh, yan ang problema sa religion. Anyone can hi-jack it.
Kaya dapat, we should eliminate religion in government.
Can someone please tell me why I’m reading on Forbes list that Villar is worth $900M, and yet his SAL says he’s worth PHP900M???
I understand that he might have quoted 1970 prices of his properties to come up with his net worth, but surely there is some form of tax evasion going on here…
Why are Senators and Congressmen allowed to quote non-current prices for their properties?
puzzled,