Erap is not a joke. You know his deposition was unconstitutional and unjust. I’m not saying the guy has no flaws, but he had already been held accountable for misgovernance with his 6years of imprisonment in Tanay.

Of course Erap attracts eyeballs, it’s not his fault he remains to be popular with the masses. He was the ONLY sincere leader who cared for the poor. Erap never changed his stand on issues. He had a fierce political will, and did what he and his cabinet think what was right, even though many despise his decisions.

Realize that no one in his cabinet betrayed him even after his ouster. Also, his cabinet members were never involved in any anomaly. The elite alone hates Erap because of his stubborn take on their personal requests.

At least Erap has a clean slate when it comes to elections. He was never accused of cheating. His landslide victory in the 1998 elections was due to his own popularity as an actor and a politician.

as a person given the democratic right to vote, i believe the best manifestation of this right and ninoy’s legacy is to ensure the philippines will move past this “martial law era mentality” and embrace the future with realism and a concrete plan.

i believe a vote for noynoy will make us stuck in the past. i want a president that has a believable plans to propel us forward, not dwell in the past.

Of all the presidentiables past and present, I feel that Panfilo Lacson was the one who made most sense and had the most gall to show his stance on national issues. Whenever I read about or see on TV his positions, I tend to agree with him 80% of the time. Not unlike others who are vague and ambiguous, either because they don’t want to alienate voters and deal makers on either side of the spectrum or they really don’t have any idea on how to solve national problems.

Problem is, he is Panfilo Lacson, as untrustworthy as fuck, so there’s no way I’m voting for the guy.

All I’m saying is, in gauging the possible future performance of a candidate, I’ll always choose character over platform.

That all depends on what we fancy ourselves to be as a people — something I explore in Fixated on the past, or looking to the future?:

De Quiros’s and his ilk’s approach to thinking is the worst kind of deductive thinking — one based on incomplete data or information that is deliberately framed along narrow lines. It is the kind that routinely adds to the ballooning miseries of this world — from the assumptions made based on historic “trends” that resulted in horrific financial crashes to the it-can’t-happen-again attitude that characterises the safety strategy of the Philippines’ passenger shipping industry.

Why be content with deducing the future from a candidate’s background and past performance when we, as voters, can DEMAND that they clearly articulate their vision for us in unambiguous terms?

I think that the insider knowledge of a coup d’état is where traders can make the big gains. Nothing spooks the market more than tanks rolling in Makati.

Speaking of which, is there a market for short positions in our market, ie, is short selling a common practice?

Gloria’s kiss of death will drive away 90% if the voters. That leaves some 10% doing her bid. Gibo’s own credentials plus his exposure as DND chief can easily yield another 10%. However creaky the frankenstein coalition is it could be good for another 10%. Can any of the frontliners beat 30% of the votes?

Okay, so I jacked it up a bit to make it look scary enough. But we have yet to reckon with a machine generated dagdag-bawas. Surely juggling a million or more votes wouldn’t be enough to cause an engine malfunction or a failure of elections!

1. Buy Philippine stocks on dips between now and May. Stay focused on utilities, property and, possibly, banks. Since we’re a shallow economy, most of the money to be made is in monopolies and real estate.

2. Those with deep pockets can buy real property in Metro Manila’s more upscale areas: Trinoma, Libis, Ortigas, The Fort, Makati, Alabang. Investing in real property outside the NCR has a longer incubation period because it depends on the trickle-down effect.

3. Wait for the euphoria rally to erupt. When everyone starts thinking that everything is just great, and that the good times are here to stay, start unloading everything. If you have connections with the new government, mortgage property or hock your business to state financial institutions for multiple times their real worth.

4. Dump the Philippine peso and switch to FX. The Euro, Hong Kong dollar, Renminbi, Aussie dollar or Swiss Franc are preferable to USD in these times of massive U.S. deficit spending.

5. Wait for the euphoria to wear off and reality to set in. This should start kicking in approximately 18 months to 2 years after the 2010 elections.

6. When infighting and fingerpointing arise, wait for instability to follow. After a while, the stock market will crash, real estate will falter, and the Philippine peso will destabilize.

7. When everything is down in the dumps, and everyone thinks that the bad times are here to stay, repeat the entire process.

That’s the way true pirates profit from our boom and bust political cycle. There have been quite a number of success stories in this regard.

However the very predicate of the rational argument of a free market mechanism is simply that selfishness (wicked is it not) is rational amongst all humans and therefore must be allowed freedom.

Please note that it is for societies that have already evolved to an exchange economy premised on the natural exchange of surplus..

But in the real world the problem stems on who controls and allocates the surplus. Ninoy Aquino’s family has been living on the blood toil and tears of the tenant peasant farmers for generations. Why not? Was it moral? No? Was it legal? Yes. Was it wicked? Yes Was it evil? You betcha!!!!!

So now this son of caciques is running as the archangel Michael to slay the devil?

Weighing on the wickedness of both Villar and Noynoy. Lamang pa si Noynoy… Unless there is a clear redemptive act on the part of Noynoy he remains to be a devil… Will he clearly reverse what his Mom did? She bastardized the most important law on distributive justice in the country for personal rational self interest. Noynoy even used the same argument that slave owners used to postulate. They (serfs) can’t handle freedom…

Was that wicked or not?