My column for today is The aesthetics of redemption. It’s as much a response to items such as this one, see Clarissa Ocampo vs. Jun Lozada, as anything else, but also a reiteration of a point I’ve felt strongly about for some time, see She is as they are, from March 2, 2006.
In the news, Think tank to draft 10-yr economy blueprint: it’s about time such a think tank buckles down to work. What can we see, 10 years ahead? A provocative article in The Asia Sentinel says, a peso-dollar rate of 56 to 1! See Philippine remittances could slow: The global slowdown may mean a fall in remittances, the Philippine lifeblood, and an end to the party for the peso :
That said, the trend is clear and at some point it is likely to impinge on all remittance sources to varying degrees. High and rising energy and food import costs are also likely to erode a Philippine current account which has been in a healthy surplus for an almost unprecedented time. Looking ahead, the issue will be whether remittances will stagnate because of the US (and probably very slow growth in Europe), resulting in a weaker peso and the unwinding of a cycle that has taken the usually sickly peso from 56 to 40 against the dollar over the past three years, the fastest rise of any Asian currency.
Many would argue that the strong peso has been damaging the wider economy, encouraging imports, reducing the peso value of remittances, deterring investment in industry and agriculture, helping rentiers at the expense of productive capitalists. But to politicians, not least Arroyo, it is a virility symbol.
The nation has become so dependent on the seemingly endless increase in inflows which created the strong peso that any major reversal or even slowdown will be shock to the system. Don’t be surprised if the peso is back at 56 before the decade is out.
In History Unfolding, historian David Kaiser ponders the collapse of Bear Stearns in the context of the Baby Boomer Generation to which he belongs:
The Boom generation has never believed much in restraint, least of all in the economic field. We have cut marginal tax rates from 91% in 1963 and 50% in the late 1970s to 35% now, vastly increasing the incentive for managers to increase profits as much as possible–partly by cutting the labor force–because they can keep so much more of the proceeds. We have chpped away at the Depression-era restraints, allowing commercial and investment banks to combine during the late 1990s. (The Clinton Adminstration did impose fiscal discipline–probably its one real domestic achievement–but it paved the way for the coming crash in many ways as well.) We have developed new financial instruments like bonds backed by sub-prime mortgages that have been every bit as seductive as the Mississippi bubble in the early 18th century or prime Florida land in the 1920s. And by creating new institutions not subject to regulation, such as hedge funds, we have allowed clever Boomers and Xers to avoid the regulations that their parents and grandparents so wisely put in place. Last Friday almost became the Black Friday of a new generation when Bear, Stearns melted down. Bear Stearns, the New York Times informed me, works on 96.66 margin–of every $1 million it invests, $966,000 is borrowed. Much of those investments have now collapsed along with the subprime market, undoubtedly threatning a whole range of banks, hedge funds, non-profits and pension funds as well as Bear Stearns itself (since they are presumably the ones whose money Bear Stearns was playing with.) The Federal Reserve stepped in to ward off the catastrophe, but it will not be able to continue to rescue failing firms that way without implicating the whole nation in the potential crash.
The Warrior Lawyer points out why the Bear Stearns collapse matters to us:
Why should we care then if another capitalist enterprise should go under ? Banks like Bear Stearns serve a worldwide clientele of corporations, institutional investors, governments, and wealthy individuals. Its almost a given that the Philippine government has done business with investment banks like Bear Sterns and its kind and will continue to do so in the future. In a globalized economy, the fallout from a U.S. financial crisis will impact us adversely. The resulting volatility and panic in the US stock market will send shock waves to European and Asian markets. These fears and uncertainties are driving world stock markets to their recent lows. Furthermore, the US, one of our major trading partners, is already experiencing a de facto economic recession. This will dampen our prospects for continued economic growth.
Incidentally, remember the foreign analyist I met, back in 2005? See The President’s “sweet spot,” from July 28, 2005. He was from Bear Stearns.
During an economic downturn, or worse, in times of an actual shortage in basic commodities, a government has to wield its authority and at the same time, appeal to a reservoir of good will and expect a certain amount of instinctive obedience on the part of the population. You have to wonder what reservoirs the present administration has left.
In Already we have riots, hoarding, panic: the sign of things to come? by Carl Mortishead (hat tip to Thoughtcrime), there’s this:
The President of the Philippines made an unprecedented call last week to the Vietnamese Prime Minister, requesting that he promise to supply a quantity of rice.
The personal appeal by Gloria Arroyo to Nguyen Tan Dung for a guarantee was a highly unusual intervention and highlighted the Philippines’ dependence on food imports, rice in particular.
“This is a wake-up call,” said Robert Zeigler, who heads the International Rice Research Institute. “We have a crisis brewing in rice supply.”
While Neal Cruz says Rice shortage, no; high prices, yes , prospects of a shortage or higher prices at least, is enough to inspire an impassioned plea from The Magnificent Atty. Perez:
Look at the sugarfields of Negros Occidental, where you still see to this very day, poor and uneducated laborers being paid so much less than minimum wage for backbreaking work. Look at the farms and haciendas that conveniently side-stepped coverage from CARP by allegedly growing “cattle” and having “agricultural corporations” on their land. Go to the farmlands of Capiz where in this age of tractors and the scientific method of farming you still see farmers tilling the land with the lowly carabao and drying their grain by the roadsides where it may be swept away by strong winds and rain.
You see, the problem is not that our population is too big for our food production to supply to. Our problem is that our current agricultural system for the whole country is still stuck on methodologies and farming techniques used at the turn of the 19th Century, which does not yield enough to feed our starving nation. Hence, we have to import food at a higher premium when we have the capacity to solve our own problems with the right farming science and technology.
A U.P. professor I talked to a few weeks back bluntly told me that our agricultural productivity is still at 1940’s levels while our neighbors have vastly increased theirs. And recall, as well, the observation by Dr. Michael Alba that the government isn’t keeping track of formerly agricultural lands being lost to real estate development, because of a change in methods (instead of having people actually conducting a periodic inventory of land, less precise aerial surveys, I believe, take place).
And, as usual, the problem’s compounded by another reality: that one of the many criticisms leveled against this administration is how smuggling is not only rampant, but allegedly condoned at the highest levels of government.
agriculture made civilization possible. without having to produce one’s own food, men were able to specialize, become artisans, merchants, scientists, and politicans.
that’s why farmers have a special place in every society, including the rich developed ones. there will always be agricultural subsidies.
The Philippines should consider a green belt policy to prevent urban sprawl. Drive along the M25 motorway in London and you will see that it is not really hard to control urban sprawl.
BrianB,
Huh? What an odd question. Ikaw cguro ang ghost writer ni Celine Lopez about her treatise on Jean Valjean and her lolo ano hehe? Just kidding. Por dios, if true that Celine Lopez hired a ghostwriter on this one, the damage control won’t stick. How could you reconcile the Paris Hiltonesque-coffee to cocktails column to this sudden literary turn?
Excuse me, manolo. But I guess most of your readers are spending more time in Brian Gorrell’s blog these past past weeks.
@anthony scalia
“maybe it will surprise most bloggers here that agriculture is heavily subsidized in the US and other rich western countries”
totoo yan, i often wonder why swiss farmers who plant rapeseed are doing ok…yun pala subsidies…they just have to have something token growing in their farms….
kaya na dito, medyo nakakaiinis yung mga anti-gmo crops! kung alam lang nila kung gaano kahirap kumita ang farmers sa third world. we need high yielding disease resistant crops because we don’t get subsidies or typhoon insurance.
Nash, exactly. There are two Celine styels. The spritely prose, which is good, and the copywriter’s English which is better. I read her take on Macbook users and it actually convinced me to buy Mac. Her response to Brian Gorrell’s blog titled “Book report” is actually pretty good, perfectly written.
Madonna,
I did write a short story about Celine’s family titled “A Time to Run.” It was published in the Graphic, and I believe there was a passage there about the light in the (Celinesque) female protagonist being extinguished after the grandfather died. This was written several years ago. Pretty accurate, huh?
I wonder why that didn’t win the Palanca? 🙂 I’m taking a real interest on that blog because of her. (It’s pretty well known many of this rich people do Coke. Someone even pointed out one personage mentionedafter I asked him where a guy, theoretically of course, could get pricey drugs like coke or heroin in Manila. So I’m not curious anymore.) Never heard of her before she had her column, though I knew many females from her high school and as a young person with some literary talent and from an important Ilonggo family at that, her name should’ve circulated some. I think there was even some mention in her bio before of her going to Columbia (journalism, I believe). Colubia is one of the big four, imagine what you have to be to get in.
farm subsidies,
This is often criticized to possibly cause future shortcomings in world agriculture.
@BrianB
I have a copy of her book (Coffee to Cocktales) lent to me by a Palanca winner. It’s autographed pa by Celine herself!!!
It should be used in every literature course….filed under “how not to…”
I actually feel bad that it gets printed in hardback yet there are some good Pinoy writers who can’t even get published. Kaya ayan, blog blog nalang. Sayang.
Incidentally, I’ve asked this of an Inquirer writer – and maybe Manolo will broach it to his editors: Why not have digested literary inserts in the weekend paper instead of lifestyle ek-ek? The Guardian and The Times try to outdo each other with small booklets inserted in their daily editions that tackle one great author or idea..
shortages, I mean
Guys, spam control is on so just fill up the code and your comment will be posted.
Nash,
If you take all of her writing together, yes, awful but some will surprise you, actually. The use of idiomatic is educated. I haven’t read her column in a while so maybe we’re coming from different eras here, but in the years 2002-03 (I was researching) she often wrote well.
Her response to Brian Gorrell’s blog titled “Book report†is actually pretty good, perfectly written.
— BrianB
So did she write it herself? That’s the question. If she did, then where has she been hiding her “talent” all these years? The subject to write about is not the question. It’s how she writes about them. One can write about parties and moisturisers and a reader could still gauge if the writer is writing crap or not. Heck, I like to read Vogue as much as a like reading the Economist. Well, Celine, she has been writing crap mostly.
Yes, you got that to a tee, her style is spritely. That’s allright. I saw her once and she appears just that, parang fairy, so thin and kulang na lang e pakpak. So she went to Columbia, then she has at least the credentials to be hired as a columnist.
The notional valuation of the global financial economy is approximately $500 trillion dollars. The global economy is approximately $50 trillion.
The financial markets are highly leveraged. Benign conditions have helped the Philippine economy in the last few years.
Our BSP is highly leveraged in debt. They will be simply rolling over the debt with new debt courtesy of the huge amount of liquidity. Hence the magic of creating money out of thin air continues. (All primarily based on future receipts from OFW’s)
Lower interest rates also were a result of new financial innovations – currency and credit default swaps.
Our real central bank the Federal Reserve steeped in to save investment banks creating a new precedent. The full faith and credit to the tune of $30 billion was made available to JP Morgan Chase to support Bear Stearns in their bank run.
No one wanted to see the domino effect of letting Bear Stearns going under with the sudden hard de-leveraging effect that could have become similar to an atomic chain reaction resulting in a financial atomic bomb.
In the final analysis socialism for capitalists has been the the backstop for capitalism since Keynes came into the scene. (Fiat monetary systems.)National financial systems. All based on future taxes.
The moral hazard of saving the few to benefit the common good.
Benign conditions are changing quickly for a country that is almost entirely based on entitlements. OFW’s sending their hard earned labors home being the mother of all entitlements.
Maybe the country will learn how to plant rice all over again.
“Kamote is mostly starch so it’s used as a binder. It’s the leaves which are nutritious pero yung tuber, pang-tawid gutom talaga.–nash
In the place I came from, which is a most rural part of the country facing the Pacific Ocean, most of us natives ate kamote as our daily staple because we can’t afford the price of rice. Pero tabing-dagat kaya ang ulam namin sa kamote ay lapu-lapu, most times oyster clams which is the cheapest, being very abundant clinging to mangroove’s protruding roots, at times crabs and lobsters, easily catchables. Kamote is easy to plant, very productive in terms of tubers and leaves, so abundant also, and very cheap. In the place I came from. Now I live in Caloocan City, the present price of kamote in a Caloocan market near us is P25.00/kg., almost the same as rice. In the event of a rice shortage it’s not hard to imagine that the price of kamote will follow that of rice. So, in the urban centers like Metro Manila, kamote cannot be a good alternative to rice given that, one, it’s also expensive and scarce too, two, its nutritional value is full of hot air (methane).
Kaya, pag hindi tayo pinagbilhan ng Vietnam ng bigas, kanta na lang tayo:
Goodbye, I hate to see you go
But have a good time….
@bert
P25/kilo na ang kamote?????
Incidentally, medyo natawa ako sa oyster clams, crabs and lobsters na ulam mo with kamote…sa amin sa bundok, luxury items ang mga iyan 😀
Nagutom tuloy ako.
mlq3, how could you make a factual conclusion in your article “The Aesthetics of Redemption” that zte-nbn witness lozada “had to face abduction and potential liquidation”? i know he made this claim which is now being investigated by the doj’s office, but his claims are being disputed and nothing has been proven yet. why should every utterance of lozada considered “gospel truth” just because he was able to convince some close-minded, or gullible, people with his “dramatics”?
Compared to the testimony of Col. Mascarinas who was falling over himself trying to explain miserably his situation, Jun Lozada was forthright in his testimony. And contrary to the statement that the Senate could not be a forum for discovering the truth, nothing could be further.
The Senate is the perfect venue to discover the truth. The Senators can ask any question devoid of any technicality and what is sauce for Jun is likewise sauce for the PNP. If Jun is asked leading questions, so were the other personalities.
Repeated questioning from various senators can bring out any inconsistency. So far, Jun has stood firm on his testimony. On the other hand, the PNP could hardly collect their thoughts. Razon and Mascarinas could not put their act together especially Col. Mascarinas who was really pitiful. Even Senator Enrile could hardly believe the guy.
bencard,
Dyos ko naman at naniwala ka sa sinabi ng mga kidnappers? Mahirap ka nga kumbinsihin pero ang dali mo palang bolahin.
mbuencamino, at paano mo naman naseguro na hindi ka nabola ni lozada? dahil ba sa luha, ngisi, iling-iling at pagtarak ng kanyang mata? ang sa akin lang, hintayin munang makita ang ebidensya bago maghusga ng tapos. btw, meron yatang polygraph test na gagawin. tingnan natin kung sino and madaling bolahin (lol).
dalawang tanong lang ho…ilang beses na ba nag-iiba ng statements sina razon, gaite, mascarinas at iba? si lozada nagpalit pa sya ng statements nya? inconsistencies yata ang tawag doon at isa sa mga basihan ng mga imbestigador para matukoy kung sino ang nagisinungaling o
ngasasabi ng totoo.
OUCHHHH, kalyo ko, madonna.
Re:Ghost writers
I’ve once audited a publishing company where I encountered so many ghosts errrmmmm ghost writers.
Here in the States, if you enroll in a short term course on Writing Novels, Children’s and Inspirational Books, you will meet the ghost writers of some popular authors with best selling books.
Kahit si Lolit Solis, may ghost writer. Pero siguro mas maganda sa kaniya. 🙂
DAY 18…
Incidentally, how does one feel to be a speechwriter Manolo? When you wrote GMA’s speeches in the early days (when we all thought she was a rising star), for her to claim credit for the prose? It must be a tough thankless job because when the media reports the soundbites the next day, it will be attributed entirely to the speaker. Imagine nalang the patience of Barack Obama’s speechwriter.
I can only admire those who write for The Economist – a popular weekly where the articles have no byline.
To be a ghostwriter suggests that you are a good writer…but good writers also want to be acknowledged, it’s but human nature….
Teka ha, check ko lang sa kabila kung merong bagong update on the guccigate…
😀
I saw on Bandila last night how a student was PHYSICALLY removed from an audience in an assembly being addressed by Lozada. All he did was ask Lozada some “difficult” questions like why for he is conducting this roadshow instead of channeling these “truths” through proper channels where processes exist to investigate, evaluate, and RESOLVE them.
The irony there is that this student had the opportunity to express his views on national television.
Indeed. The circus is STILL in town. 😀
Then there is Cardinal what’s-his-name copping a bit of flack after barring his flock from conducting masses in Lozada’s honour.
Ayan ang napapala ng simbahan as a result of its meddling in politics. It gets imbroiled in the whole circus as well. 😀
Of course all these so-called “priests” get into this hollow-headed rebel mentality and summarily over-rule their “vow of obedience” and go out and conduct these masses in secret for Lozada.
Talaga naman oo. Parang Gulong ng Palad talaga ang Pilipinas.
You can’t trust government officials to do their jobs. And you can’t trust priests to honour their vows.
Pinoys TRULY deserve each other.
– 😀
Another blogger once succinctly described the Filipino with one word:
Pilit.
Yes. One word to describe an entire history of not-getting-it.
That’s a credit for Pinoys though.
There may be no single Pinoy word for “efficiency”, yes.
But there is no corresponding single English word that aptly wholly expresses the uniquely-Pinoy concept of pilit.
Chalk one up for the Pinoy! 😀
“Americans enjoy the inestimable privilege of consuming much more than they produce and financing the difference with the currency they alone can lawfully print. The reports about the record-high euro or the post-1995-high yen mean that we privileged ones will soon have to start spending less and working more.” James Grant
We ape the American model but we send our human resource out to send in the dollars. The generation me and the generation unborn will pay the price in malnutrition, maleducation and be ruled by Kabayan and Ate Vi and their ilk.
Saudi Arabia sold their interest in Petron which was earning them more dollar assets which they want to avoid. They prefer to put up refineries in China and India to earn in other currencies that will gain in the future.
According to a few more hear-says I picked up (di ba Pinoys resolve things based on hear-says naman? If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em!), Lozada was also disappointed in his kid graduating from La Salle without honours because of everything that was transpiring.
Let me guess, that was Gloria’s fault too. 😀
For that matter, La Salle na lang nga, di pa nag-honours. Di ba Parking lang naman ang mahirap sa La Salle?
– 😀
Cat and Scalia,
I know rice is subsidized in first world countries.
In my uganda example,yun ang constraint na problema nila sa pagexport to its neighbors,wala silang laban sa low prices of subsidized rice of the first world economy.
Di ba yan ang inaangal tuwing me WTO, at me counterpart ang G8 na G100+ kung anumang numero pagtapos ng G,na nagrerepresent ng mga grupo ng poor countries na si Mar Roxas at Cito Lorenzo pa ang pinaka active that time.
Kung ang point nyo ay kailangan na kailangab talaga isubsidize ang agriculture ; and there is no other option, dahil pati first world ginagawa ito; then there is no arguient to that..pero dyan umaangal ang mga poor nations who intend to export their agricultural products.
They cannot subsidize,because they can’t give what they don’t have.That is competition,survival of the fittest.
CVj, no matter how you defend your thesis that it is always the oligarchs,and that they do not belong in the modern society.
That thesis only works for the authors who sold,millions of copies of their best sellers. Yung author ng Empire at ng Multitudes na you cited to me, even considers democracy a continuing experiment.
as I have said; is the only way to eliminate poverty is to kill all the poor? ganyan din ang tingin ko sa pag tanngal ng oligarchy sa picture.
“I am so disgusted with the way our farming has stagnated at its levels. I have only recently begun to travel to different parts of the country (with my wife in the travel industry) and that is my main gripe. Is there a way to massively mechanize our agricultural sector?…”
In the late seventies to the early 80’s, a company I worked with saw unprecedented levels in sales of its farm tractor line. I was part of the group that provided after-sales technical support also tasked with researching then designing a strategy to sustain the sales growth.
At the higher end of the scale, we monitored a “massive” mechanization of a huge corporate corn farm in Piat, Cagayan. On the lower end, a two-tractor rice-based cooperative in Bombon, Camarines Sur was our subject.
The Cagayan farm, funded by local and international loans, bought 15 middle and large sized tractors from our Coventry, England plant. It was a big success the bumper harvest brought down the price of corn from about P10/kg to just P0.10. Despite the giant slide, the corporation made a decent income. But the glut that emerged was devastating to the rest of the industry. Harvesting then transporting the produce was more expensive even to mid-sized farms I can’t imagine how worse it was for “mom and pop” farms. They don’t even have money to pay for dumping of the crops. A gallon of gasoline and a matchstick was the cheapest solution. Many defaulted on their agri-credit I’m sure many failed to make the next planting season/s.
The Bicol cooperative, on the other hand, made good during the first two years, the members’ annual rice yield almost doubled. The problems kicked in as soon as maintenance and repairs had to be done. Since the rental paid by members was just about that which paid for the amortization, the cost, for example, of new 38-inch tyres at P50,000 per pair would mean doubling the rental rates! The rise in income was effectively wiped out by the rental increase. Labor, which is not reflected in the cost equation, doubled without any meaningful gain in profit. The cooperative was barely surviving as repair costs started to pile up when some enterprising businessmen introduced the cheaper alternative of hand tractors.
Not long enough, the coop’s funds were running dry, when just two years earlier, I witnessed how the town mayor broke Tanduay long-necks at the rigs’ hoods, I was then personally supervising the pulling out of the near-dilapidated tractors back to our company’s scrapyard. The bankrupt coop folded up.
The first study proved how one’s success could mean disaster for another. Bigger successes could mean bigger disasters. Although the corn glut paved the way for newly-revitalized industries like feeds and starch, the greater danger was the newly-displaced corn farmers, many of whom cannot plant anything but corn.
In the second case, the management of finances, though many would blame it back on education, was the sole culprit as the feasibility study was quite comprehensive judging by the ease by which our British principals approved of the “radical” financing scheme.
Though it was in Marcos’ time, and knowing that Marcos was a big cooperatives advocate, the frontline agencies failed miserably in preparing the farmers for contingencies in the Cagayan case and again, in monitoring and supervising registered cooperatives, in the Bicol case.
On the supply side, these experiences taught us hard lessons – our success in landing one big deal cost us far more with the lost opportunities industry-wide. The other case, we dropped the cooperative financing scheme altogether since we didn’t realize the planned targets. In both cases, gov’t shortcomings had dangerously failed or worse, threatened the modernization of industries out of its focus. All government resources were in Cojuangco’s copra and absent in almost all the others.
This happened two to three decades ago. And even with a much-vaunted economist at the helm, the same conditions prevail.
About food from mindanao being more expensive than food from vietnam or even a country further….
Aboitiz is moving out of shipping because they gave up on domestic cargo and moved to power, they even submitted that airlines are the choice of passengers that is why they gave up on passenger ferries as well.
Non sequitur except for a translation:Nothing follows!
Karl, the belief that Oligarchs are the problem is nothing new. In fact, the idea was even used by Marcos as a pretext for his New Society. FVR also subscribes to this thesis and is one of the reasons he pushed for Neoliberal reforms. Neri has been saying the same thing for years and has even drawn a map for us.
(The related, but separate, belief that elitism has no place in modern society that i shared with you is something i derived from the writings of Niklas Luhman. I don’t think he’s sold millions of copies though but i find his line of reasoning sound.)
As for dealing with the oligarchs, there are a range of alternatives being proposed. Hvrds proposed ‘coddling’ them (i agree.). UPn Student suggests working with them. Abe Margallo suggests a Bayanihan Pact which involves more sacrifice on the part of the Oligarchs. I had my own suggestion in my blog focusing on the 300 wealthiest families. On the other end, you have those who propose roasting them alive.
The economically successful countries had to deal with their Oligarchs one way or the other. In the United States, there had to be a Civil War between the industrial oligarchs of the North and the landed Oligarchs of the South. In Britain, they had the inheritance tax and other socialist reforms. In China, they drove their oligarchs to Taiwan and in Taiwan the Oligarchs, fearing that the same might happen to them, instituted the reforms themselves (forcing the Taiwanese oligarchs to go along).
(BTW, i agree with the authors of Empire and Multitide that democracy is a continuing experiment. Their proposals in this area involve going beyond the liberal idea of democracy via representation.)
bencard,
http://www.newsbreak.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4155&Itemid=88889296
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryID=108381
mlq3, thanks for the links. i suppose that’s in response to my question about the basis for your conclusion that lozada was facing “abduction and potential liquidation”. however, i didn’t see anything on that regard other than lozada’s own allegations made at the senate hearing and media interview which were immediately disputed by the persons he implicated. maybe it’s just me, or it could be that we have a different understanding of the word “proof”.
bencard, i suppose we do differ on these things. first, in terms of the proper venues, of which i recognize two, and you, only one. for me, there’s the court of public opinion and then there’s the court of law. both play their own roles, and for political matters, of which the exercising of oversight by congress over the executive is one, and in probing official acts which are the public’s business, which is another, the court of public opinion is not only the proper forum but the superior one, because no non-negotiable (life, liberty, property) is at stake. the court of law is by right superior and the proper venue for determining questions that might deprive someone of life, liberty, or property (on a permanent basis). for the same reason an impeachment court refers to the rules of court in an advisory or organizational sense, but which subordinates them to the political matter at hand, which is politicians judging other politicians, while the court of law does not give any latitutde in the interpretation and use of the rules of court. evidence, etc.
the testimony at the senate, combined with the public actions and statements of the officials concerned, with regards to lozada clearly establishes, to my mind, that two things took place. first, a conspiracy to prevent his testifying before the senate, and second, an abduction. i also believe a potential liquidation was in the works but thwarted because of public attention and the quick-thinking of lozada’s relatives, who raised hell.
you will not find a memorandum establishing a state policy of liquidating lozada, or any directives, on paper, to get around a senate subpoena or warrant of arrest, and if that is the bar that needs to be met you have set it so high as to wilfully make it impossible to determine anything at all. but it was that kind of thinking that is the best prepared-for, on the part of our officials, for the same reason that hitler never issued a formal memorandum with his signature establishing the final solution. he left it to the bureaucrats.
as far as i’m concerned, the evidence is convincing, both in terms of testimony (who is best qualified to determine if one is facing potential assassination, except the person who might die, particularly in the company of strangers and after hours of being driven to dark places where others have been rubbed out?) and other things such as statements issued to the public and attempts to explain those statements.
mlq3, sorry to say, there are NO courts of public opinion in the philippines that can render verdicts that count for anything except on election time. truth is not determined by the number of people believing in a proposition. it is determined by PROOF offered by the interested party, and accepted by a competent authority, in accordance with established rules of fairness. this is the way it is until we are granted the power to see through the heart and mind of men and to know whether or not they are telling the truth.
My God, mlq3, do you actually BELIEVE these things you say?
So you mean that if I do a roadshow and proclaim to the public and the media that the Ayalas owe me 10 million pesos, that I actually have a shot at being issued a cheque for that amount sometime soon?
I don’t think so. Nothing short of a Court Order will prompt any member of the Ayala Corp to issue a cheque for that amount to moi. Hey, wait, WHO issues court orders nga ba? 😀
Testimony is the same whether it is issued to be judged by this “court of public opinion” OR the Court of Law.
But it is only the Court of Law that outlines specific processes, protocols, and rules around qualifying, substantiating, and RESOLVING any claim made by any citizen against a fellow citizen.
Right. As far as YOU are concerned, “the evidence is convincing”. So what. What are you gonna do about it? Is your being convinced gonna RESOLVE anything? What are the NEXT STEPS then?
zzzzzz (ten years later and n+1 Edsa “revolutions” later…) Results = 0; Resolutions = 0
I thought so.
Lots of people get driven into a dark alley to get their brains blown out. Sad indeed. Even sadder considering that maybe a few of these poor sods actually reported a threat to their life to the cops. Cops may investigate but without evidence, no arrests can be made. And generally people who are murdered are usually murdered by people they know.
Suffice to say, Lozada and other bozos like him didn’t exactly hang out with angels at the height of their “commissioning” days (which makes the sight of his madre-de-cacao bodyguards today a bit hilarious, don’t you think?).
And by the way conducting roadshows all over the country doesn’t seem like “convincing” behaviour for someone who is pleading for his life. 😀
also Manolo, when the court of public opinion found the accused guilty, what will be the punishment or resolution? I have this feeling that it is this court of opinion that messed up everything. It doesn’t resolve anything but more and more debates and arguments.
Explaining to bencard is like explaining to a child. If all he knows are legal procedures, he’s practically irredeemable.
Bencard, do you know how modern laws have become and how modern law courts have evolved from a past littered with bloody revenge and witch hunts? Truth is not bicameral (“PROOF offered by the interested party, and accepted by a competent authority, in accordance with established rules of fairness”) as you put it. These procedures we must accept not because they insure truthfulness, but because they insure order–or peace of mind if not order.
Ordinary people are probably better juries than your so-called “competent authorities.” Even in bencard’s terms it’s actually easy to find out the true value of Lozada’s testimony. Compare it with other testimonies that have contributed to convicting a suspect. I swear people have been put in jail for far inferior testimonies.
And it’s crazy how people sometimes nitpick on terminologies in this blog. So pinoy. Puro definition of terms.
I apologize for the temper. Just frustrated how people actually prefer to vent out and slander people on Brian Gorrell’s blog rather than do something more useful, i.e. enable the authorities to put a stop to these coke dens and the “social scene” that breeds it.
I’ve got another term for this so-called “court of public opinion”.
Lynch mob.
– 😀
CVJ,
Taking down the current elite a few notches is good, but what if the artistas and the basketbalistas took over, what then? We must also consider that confidence of the poor is low. The middle-class don’t actually desire governance and I’m afraid as a class they have not truly contemplated self-governance.
Again, this leads us to democratic education. Teaching the lower classes to fish, instead of catching the big fish for them via social reforms could lead to more permanent changes. I believe that our constitution as it is is good enough. All that is needed is for 85 million filipinos to believe in it, especially in the Bill of Rights. Already, as we have discussed before, the conglomerates and most Filipino businesses are directly dependent on OFW money and on BPO wages. The lower classes have the power now. Kulang na lang applcation.
I mean the middle class do not desire to govern.
KG,
“They cannot subsidize,because they can’t give what they don’t have.That is competition,survival of the fittest”
ang inaangal nina Roxas Lorenzo et al ay di raw level playing field dahil the rich countries subsidize their agri, the poorer ones don’t (or can’t). kaya try nila to get the rich to stop subsidizing their agri
siguro its about time agri gets as much budget as education
mlq3,
i wonder how would you react to this –
absent any proof that ZTE money got into the pockets of government people, this entire NBN-ZTE circus is just about attempts on bribery and kickbacks. the deal was cancelled, even before 1 peso of public funds was appropriated.
yes there is proof that the project is 100% overpriced. as proposed. but at best its still an attempt
if there is a crime of attempted bribery or kickback, then thats the only charge that can be filed against the culprits
the abduction of Lozada is another matter. thats ‘prosecutable’
but the NBN-ZTE deal? forget it
Another concern will be, what if the court of public opinion made a mistake? How will it correct itself?
Then how will you consider the opinion the other side? Is it possible of us to have to courts of public opinion? The anti Gloria court of public opinion and the pro Gloria court of public opinion? Who should prevail? The one with percieved larger number? Is this the reason why we need people power to declare which court of public opinion won?
It is often necessary to use the court of law to filter reality as perceived by individuals. That’s how you prevent otherwise innocent people from being unjustly punished either by the powerful or by the unthinking mob. However, there is nothing inherent within the system of courts (of law) that keeps it from being used to perpetuate an injustice.
Same applies to the system of making laws (i.e. Congress), the system of executing laws and policies (i.e. the Executive) and the system of protecting the State (i.e. the Military). Each of these subsystems need a Code of Ethics which depends largely on self-restraint. If their respective internal code of ethics fails, then that’s when morality coming from the outside Environment (which is more likely than not to be alien to the system) steps in (or threatens to step in). In our case, this alien morality is expressed in the arena of Public Opinion. In other places and at some point, maybe this alien morality will come in the form of one of the subsystems (i.e. the military) taking over the other subsystem (i.e. the Executive).
This may or may not be a good thing because outside morality may not be compatible with the system it infects and can threaten to destroy that subsystem along with the good that it can do.
the court of public opinion is where people go to try by publicity
Benigno:
“There may be no single Pinoy word for “efficiencyâ€Â, yes.”
If you do a google search:
There is no single German word for “governance.”
Does it mean that the Germans don’t know the concept of governance, or good governance?
In the same way that working hard is not always working smart, trying to sound smart is not always smart.
Benign0’s definition of efficiency could be translated to gawaing tamad.