Read Alston’s report:
And a much earlier one by Amnesty International:
Listen to Dr. Martin Bautista or read the transcript: parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.
Overseas, Tom Friedman cracks a joke.
In the blogosphere, Secret Gospels, Secret Sites on Sylvia Mayuga.
Isa sa mga may katotohanan na sinabi ni Martin Bautista ay ang health care sa Pinas. Isa sa mga dahilan nang sagabal sa aking pagbabalik sa Pinas ay ang mga availability at mahal ng gamot para sa aking mga health issues.
Kagaya ng sinabi niya na diuretics para sa hypertension na P60 isang pill na maaring magawa lang at a cost of 15 cents, malaking tulong ito sa mga kababayan na may high blood pressure. Sa Pilipinas kasi, suffice to say na may high blood ako, may diabetes ako, pero wala silang iniinom para sa sakit dahil nga mahal. Hanggang mastroke na lang at a young age o kaya magkaroon ng kidney problem at magdialysis dahil sa untreated or unmanaged diabetic.
I can see why he wanted to be there in the Senate. Dahil nga ang mga pharmaceutical ay napakalakas sa Pinas na puwedeng ihinto ang mga organic alternative medicines na mgbaba ng presyo thru lobbying.
Nakita ninyo ang kaso ng pag-alis ng ampalaya sa listahan ng inindorsong gamot para sa blood sugar dahil nga nagiging karibal ng mahal na gamot para sa sakit na ito.
Ipinakilaban lang ito ng isang researcher na pinatunayan ang mabisang epekto ng ampalaya.
Naiintindihan ko rin ang ginawa niya na karaniwan na sa mga nag-emigrate sa US. I bet marami ang hindi nakakaaalam na taun-taon may mga doctors at narses na bumabalik sa Pinas at nagcoconduct ng free clinic. Hindi ito napapublish at hindi ko nababasa sa mga broadsheets natin. Hindi rin napapaublish sa diyaryo ang mga clinic at ngayon ospital sa mga lalawigan ng mga immigrants na ito.
If Cha-Cha means putting a “Can I Go Now?” clause for Gloria in the Constitution, then I’m for it.
Ang isa lang hindi ako buong sang-ayon ay ang opinion niya tungkol sa mga doctor na nag-aaral ng nursing.
Sangayon ako na wasted talent pero sa panahong ito na mahirap makarating ang doctor sa US, may justification ang kanilang pagkuha ng nursing kung saan maari silang makarating sa States at maipagpatuloy din ang kanilang pag-aaral.
Dahil sa shortage ng nursing at General practitioner na doctor dito, ma mga program kung saan ang masteral sa Nursing ay nagbibigay ng karapatan para sa mga tinatawag na Licensed Nurse Practitioner na gawin ang mga ginagawa ng doctor tulad ng pagdadiagnose at pagpiprescribe ng medicine.
Tiyak din namang magbabalik ang mga ito sa Pinas dahil ang kasabihan, maalis mo ang Pinoy sa Pinas pero hindi mo maaalis ang Pinas sa Pinoy.
Dito sa States, puwede na nilang ipagpatuloy ang kanilang
What is driving this new vocabulary in the world?
‘War on Terror’, ‘Order of Battle’, ‘Neutralize’, ‘Enemies of the State’, ‘Takedowns’. America’s war on terror has made war speak fashionable and mainstream. When spoken by the heirarchy of the military it becomes policy. Do not these people know that when generals speak of warfare and directly point out the enemy that become policy. When spoken by jihadist bloggers it is one thing but when Palparan, Esperon and Ebdane speak it out it is donwright dangerous.
The strident language coming from the military and police here in country vs the U.N. almost mirrors the contempt of the Bush government has for the U.N. Almost everyday the language of war is being used by almost all news outlets in all mediums. Whenever the police and/or military speak to the media it is the language of war in a civilian setting.
9/11 is being used in pretty much the same way as the burning of the Reichstag for what the Bush people believe to be their religious calling in shaping the world according to the white man. Our own military seems to be following suit to all groups who criticize government.
“Ever since September 2001, the President’s central operative image has been “war” — specifically, his “global war on terror” (promptly transformed into the grim acronym GWOT). With it went the fantasy that we had been plunged into the modern equivalent of World War II with — as George loved to put it — “theaters” of operation and “fronts” on a global scale. Remember how, as we occupied Baghdad in April 2003, administration pronouncements almost made it seem as though we were occupying Tokyo or Berlin, 1945? And when things went badly in Iraq, that country quickly became “the central front in the war on terror” in the President’s speeches. Well, now it may indeed be just that.â€Â
“In the framework — essentially a fundamentalist religion — of global force and “preventive” war adopted by the Bush administration, the only place for diplomats was assumedly on the sidelines, holding the pens, as the enemy surrendered to the military. (Too bad, when we hit Baghdad, there was no one around to surrender, no way to put a John Hancock on our “victory.”) Otherwise, as classically happened in Iraq, where the State Department, despite copious planning for the postwar moment, was cut out of the process and left in the Kuwaiti or Washingtonian dust by Donald Rumsfeld’s Pentagon, all issues of diplomacy were essentially relegated to Wimp World. After all, as the infamous neocon slogan once went, “Everyone wants to go to Baghdad. Real men want to go to Tehran.” And it was well known that diplomats were not “real men.”
http://www.slate.com/id/2162837?nav=tap3
http://www.slate.com/id/2161800/?nav=navoa
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=180357
“Ever since September 2001, the President’s central operative image has been “war” — specifically, his “global war on terror” (promptly transformed into the grim acronym GWOT). With it went the fantasy that we had been plunged into the modern equivalent of World War II with — as George loved to put it — “theaters” of operation and “fronts” on a global scale. Remember how, as we occupied Baghdad in April 2003, administration pronouncements almost made it seem as though we were occupying Tokyo or Berlin, 1945? And when things went badly in Iraq, that country quickly became “the central front in the war on terror” in the President’s speeches. Well, now it may indeed be just that.â€Â
“In the framework — essentially a fundamentalist religion — of global force and “preventive” war adopted by the Bush administration, the only place for diplomats was assumedly on the sidelines, holding the pens, as the enemy surrendered to the military. (Too bad, when we hit Baghdad, there was no one around to surrender, no way to put a John Hancock on our “victory.”) Otherwise, as classically happened in Iraq, where the State Department, despite copious planning for the postwar moment, was cut out of the process and left in the Kuwaiti or Washingtonian dust by Donald Rumsfeld’s Pentagon, all issues of diplomacy were essentially relegated to Wimp World. After all, as the infamous neocon slogan once went, “Everyone wants to go to Baghdad. Real men want to go to Tehran.” And it was well known that diplomats were not “real men.”
Dr. Martin was right about the “water pill”. It’s been produced generically here at cost of a penny or two for a long long time, even though our drug plans here are publicly funded for seniors, children and the social assisted families, and privately covered for most gainfully employed residents. And the same as C at mentioned in preceeding comment, much as we would like to reside longer than we like over there, the cost of medications will make us hurry back. My case of $8000 a year of maintenance medication now covered by my extended care and if I retire will be covered by Government fully is just too much to spend anywhere, that is even with lower prices.
As a follow-on to hvrds’ comment –
“In my judgment, this new paradigm [the ‘war on terrorism’] renders obsolete Geneva’s strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions.”
– USAG Alberto Gonzalez
Is torture permissible under certain circumstances?
No, Torture is not permissible in any circumstances. What happened under the U.S. War on Terrorism was the redefinition of the Torture including rendering it to a third party (outsourcing) like what the U.S. did to Maher Arar, a Canadian of Syrian descent and it cost us taxpayers more than $10 millions to compensate Mr. Arar and more for the Inquiry.
can we all at least have a “bipartisan agreement” to vote for doc martin bautista for senator?
i supported (and still like) bush. i supported the war. but i too can’t wait for 2008 to see him go. he’s too damaged politically to lead that country. i’d rather see guliani or mccain to take over. or a liberal hawk like hillary.
americans need a fresh start and new leadership.
if martin bautista beats chavit, magsaysay, montano, trillanes, osmena, lozano, tessie, and nikki in the number of votes cast (kahit na hindi siya nanalo bilang senador) then it would encourage more people like him to run in 2010.
John, i’ve just read the transcript of Martin Bautista’s interview. I agree with his position on the debt but i disagree with his stance on contraception, and nursing (just like Ca T). Nevertheless, i agree with your line of reasoning so i’ll substitute him for Kiko.
martin is a conservative, aint he, cvj?
and during the interviews, i can’t believe that the arroyo’s corruption, abuse of power and illegitimacy issues was not brought up even once. so we don’t know where he stands on that issue. 😉
but baustista managed to talk about erap, disini and imelda. lol.
he could have also said na if we’re not going to punish maam arroyo, then why punish erap too? why should we still hold erap under house arrest when arroyo (who’s corruption worse than erap and rigged the elections too) is free?
before i fully commit to his candidacy, i want to know what his stand is on the hello garci scandal. should arroyo resign, or should she finish her term anyway? for the PDI to conduct this interview without mentioning the big elephant in the room (hello garci scandal) is a headscratcher.
i guess i’ll go ask him myself in his blog. 😉
don’t you find bautista’s tempered machismo especially troubling? if i have one apprehension about Ang Kapatiran it would be their unbending conservatism when it comes to their take on women, reproductive health, sexual assaults by spouses, and all that, and this kind of clashes with his unstudied and uneasy “liberalism” when it comes to homosexuality (not homosexual unions per se). among their other moralisms, his (and atty whatsisname’s) recommendations as far as reproductive health is concerned tend to border on pernicious wishful thinking; but his Latin-Americanesque sensibilities about endemic poverty, excessive profiteering, health care and debt payments strike a chord.
Dr. Bautista proposed programs of family planning are ideal, but when he said he limit his term to only six years and his party not trying to win a government, I doubt if it will get halfway the first base.
With a country, whose Church is a quasi government, who can influence the government policy relating to social issues and considering that before you can make a law works it has to survive countless challenges to the Courts, never mind the delaying tactics of the Congress, all Dr. Bautista may be able go do is to raise awareness among the populace. Most of his programs are lifted from the progressive Governments of the North America. But it took us Years to developed and implements those programs, the Medical Care Reforms,the Drugs Reforms, the Liberation of Family Laws and even easing of once Illicit drugs use (marijuana for medicinal purposes kuno) even with continuations of Government policies undisturbed by succeeding Governments.
And if I may, the reason why he did not go to even mentioned the Administration Sins and Fallacies, they are more than covered by just everyone, including me…
I like this Dr. Martin Bautista.
“And so I felt — we felt that since we were blessed, we needed to give back to the Philippines. Now the problem with that is that when we left in ’89, the conditions were bad at that time. What’s tragic about these all is that 18 years after, the conditions are even worse. Our classmates from med school are still having to struggle to treat patients who can pay. I mean, we have a lot of patients to treat but not all of them have the capacity to pay.”
How true!
JM,
I’m also interested in what Dr. Bautista’s answer to you will be.
I haven’t read his podcast yet except that the quoted portion of his remark on the plunder trial was caught by my eyes.
I’m not familiar to the case/s filed against Imelda Marcos but there was a partiulcar case wherein she was tried with Jose Dans. It concerned the LRTA and PGH something something.
THe SC eventually acquitted her in that case. I don’t know the outcome of her other cases or if there were other cases.
Maybe it’s wise to ask Dr. Bautista if he knew of the outcomes/progress of the case/s against Imelda Marcos that were tried/being tried in our courts.
Yes John, please ask. I hope he answers wisely. I hate to break my record of not ever voting for Kiko Pangilinan.
beatrixpg, i do find his conservatism toward women’s issues troubling. that’s probably due to his religious beliefs. but that’s also the source of his integrity, which is in short supply among politicos. sometimes we have to make room for the hezbollah-types.
One of the things that I like with Dr. Bautista is his convictions to go back to the Philippines to try to help despite his comforts in the USA as a Doctor. I know that we have thousands of former Filipinos who want to see the Philippines improve in everything.
I will ask my folks to consider him. I wish him the best in a fair elections.
Meron pala leaked “order of battle” si Alston eh, san ba makakakuha nang copy nun? anyone?
Sana lahat nang Pinoy magkaroon nang pagkakataon na mabasa ang Alston report.
Malaking tulong ito sa pag pili nang kandidato sa darating na eleksyon.
I’ll vote straight opposition, this way I can assure my self that I did not give super girl more power over the Filipino people.
over at ellen’s blog i said:
dr. martin bautista (in pdi’s podcast):
yes, it’s certainly not a waste to specialize abroad…but for pete’s sake, come back as soon as you finished your training because you’re needed here…especially that you hailed (as iskolar ng bayan) from the most prestigious (of course, according to UP grads) Philippine medical school!
brain waste is a doctor-specialist becoming a politician. after his 10 years of serving the Americans and saving the means to provide for his family, i NOW think dr. martin should serve our country as a doctor first before he considers being a senator-for-one-term! why put to waste several years of gastroenterology as a lawmaker?
…come to think of it, it’s best for dr. bautista to act like a sipon to other doctors in the US of A (particularly the other iskolars) and encourage them to come back here to lend their expertise.
dr. martin bautista (in his feb 25, 2006 post at his on my way home website):
let’s see how he tackles the garci issue…if ever he’ll answer john’s queries…abangan…
One problem with going for straight Go out of protest for administration, like MLQ3 and CVJ, is voting for the likes of Nikki Coseteng and John Osmena and not voting for Dr Martin Bautista….
There you go, you may add this as just another parallel between Dubya and Gloria. The failure of accountability in Dubya’s War in Iraq as in Gloria’s War against the Left in the Philippines. Maraming salamat Mr. Alston for a report well done. Isunod mo na ang US sa next report mo.
rego, opposition only has 11 candidates. so it’s no problem at all voting straight opposition and also for martin bautista.
Voting straight GO is not a protest.
It’s giving the Executive Branch more friction in implementing unfair policies (if ever there’s one) and giving the Congress oversight committee more willingness to do their oversight thingy thing.
The opposition lawmakers IMO have shown support to the Executive branch economic programs.
I’ll vote for Dr. Bautista for senator even if only for his position on the debt problem. Nobody can be everything for everybody.
JM,
Can you post Dr. Bautista’s blog site here so we can view it also and ask him further?
Thats good Manolo!
http://mbautistamd.blogspot.com/2007/03/election-2000-podcast.html
john, i hope you won’t mind. i posted doc-martin‘s website (where your questions to dr. bautista are) in answer to JL…
here are some of the questions i posted in doc martin’s blog.
http://www.mbautistamd.blogspot.com/2007/03/election-2000-podcast.html#comment-4547558499832802665
JM, baycas,
Ty.
A neo-con desperately try’s to move to the center-left after seeing what his theoretical exposition on the ‘End of history….’ had wrought. Sounds a little bit like history has not really ended.
He does not like to use the word stages of societal (Economics,politics, culture) development as this would make him sound like an economic determinist like Marx and Smith.
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/fukuyama1
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2007/mar/31/yehey/opinion/20070331opi4.html
“Long before you have a liberal democracy, you have to have a functioning state (something that never disappeared in Germany or Japan after they were defeated in World War II). This is something that cannot be taken for granted in countries like Iraq.”
“Universality is possible in broader terms as well, because the primary force in human history and world politics is not cultural plurality, but the general progress of modernization, whose institutional expressions are liberal democracy and market-oriented economics. The current conflict is not part of a clash of civilizations in the sense that we are dealing with cultural zones of equal standing; rather, it is symptomatic of a rearguard action by those who are threatened by modernization, and thus by its moral component, respect for human rights.”
Francis Fukuyama
And on this season of Lent we have to ponder on the difference of secularity and secularism. The physical sciences are value free while the social sciences of economics, politics and society are not physics. Value judgments are moral judgments. Highly subjective in nature.
Jihadists out there should take heed. The svastika is a symbol (bent cross) and a Sanskrit word for peace and Hindus (Aryans had taken over parts of Indostan thousands of years ago) have been using the bent cross for centuries before Hitler. He took that Aryan symbol and made it a bent X. These guys are coming back into fashion. The Facists.
The Romans used the cross as a mode for execution. It has become a symbol for universal peace.
It is tragic that not one, not a single one of the mainstream candidates of Go and TU have even scratched the surface as much as Dr. Bautista has.
God, it had to be the ADB report that punctured the ballon of GMA’s economic genuis.
Grinding poverty, corruption, debased currency, unabted violent crime and the rise of Ducats, jihadists and neo-facists are symptoms of a failing state.
Emphasis on scratching the surface. Trying to correct hundreds of years of history is gonna be difficult and protracted.
“According to the natural course of things, therefore, the greater part of the capital of every growing society is, first, directed to agriculture, afterwards to manufactures, and last of all to foreign commerce. …â€Â
“But though this natural order of things must have taken place in some degree in every such society, it has, in all the modern states of Europe, been, in many respects, entirely inverted.â€Â
“The foreign commerce of some of their cities has introduced all their finer manufactures, or such as were fit for distant sale; and manufactures and foreign commerce together have given birth to the principal improvements of agriculture. The manners and customs which the nature of their original government introduced, and which remained after that government was greatly altered, necessarily forced them into this unnatural and
retrograde order………………….………….â€Â
“……………..A revolution of the greatest importance to the public happiness was in this manner brought about by two different orders of people who had not the least intention to serve the public. To gratify the most childish vanity was the sole motive of the great proprietors. The merchants and artificers, much less ridiculous, acted merely from a view to their own interest, and in pursuit of their own pedlar principle of turning a penny wherever a penny was to be got. Neither of them had either knowledge or foresight of that great revolution which the folly of the one, and the industry of the other, was gradually bringing about.â€Â
“It is thus that through the greater part of Europe the commerce and manufactures of cities, instead of being the effect, have been the cause and occasion of the improvement and cultivation of the country.â€Â
“This order, however, being contrary to the natural course of things, is necessarily both slow and uncertain. Compare the slow progress of those European countries of which the wealth depends very much upon their commerce and manufactures with the rapid advances of our North American colonies, of which the wealth is founded altogether in agriculture.†Adam Smith – The Wealth of Nations
Bautista a voice in the wilderness.
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=58052
He has not elected Filipino citizenship yet.
Cayetano is a natural born US citizen because of the mother.
somebody also asked doc about his citizenship. buti na lang hindi niya nakaaway si pidal ano? else, gagaguhin rin siya ni siraulo gonzales sa isyung ito.
PBS did a feature on Doc Martin and fellow docter Jeff Lim in their “Searching for Asian America”
article here:
http://www.pbs.org/searching/ok_main.html#
photos here:
images.google.com.ph/images?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&q=+site%3Awww.pbs.org+%22martin+bautista%22
video clip here:
http://www.pbs.org/media/searching/doctors_lo.mov
barring any major gaffes, i’ll probably be voting for doc martin.
john’s post on citizenship which The Ca t quoted above has been deleted.
citizenship is a technicality worth looking into?
…even in the case of a Robredo?
correction: Martin Bautista is not a US citizen yet.
i had it deleted because i have a similar comment (with URL link) that is still under moderation.
It was very unfortunate that I never had the chance to meet Doc Bautista during PMAO’s conferences, nor during Bedlams (Cowboys vs Sooners)nor in Bricktown festivities. Maybe he was really very dedicated to his patients in the panhandle, he rarely visited the heartland of OK. Without meeting him personally, I was hesitant to endorse his candidacy to my friends and siblings. However, after reading just a few posts in his personal blog, and read some of the articles about him, I came to realized that he really is an excellent candidate for the Senate. He came back to the Philippines with just one important reason…to help in improving the sorry state of our country.
Just like the Okie who exposed the bridge to nowhere in Alaska, this Filipino-Okie may try to expose the hundreds if not thousands of invisible bridges, roads and other infrastratures in RP. He will surely spearhead healthcare reforms, and maybe start on pro -active tort reforms. Maybe one major thing in his mind is the true abolition of pork barrel. I think he is honest, sincere and a true crusader of good government. I will vote for him, if I got the chance. I hope most Filipinos will do too.
john,
doc martin answered you na…excerpt here:
…As a Senatorial candidate, I would like to respectfully ask Mrs. Arroyo if she contacted Garcillano and if that contact resulted in Garcillano stealing even one vote. If she says she did not contact Garcillano, case closed. If she admits to having called Garcillano in 2004 and one vote was added to her tally, she must resign immediately and call for snap elections to coincide with the May 14 polls. We cannot afford to have an illegitimate President who tampered with the one sacred duty we must all perform…
Is Doc Bautista even a greencard holder? I don’t think he is (and therefore he is not even eligible to be a US citizen) because I think he entered the US on a J-1 visa. The rules for J-1 are very strict — he has to go home for at least 2 years, and it looks like he has not done this “residency requirement” yet. Even if he has 4 kids and 28 grandchildren, he can’t be greencard-holder without meeting the “residency-requirement” of returning to his home-country for at leats 2 years. “Amnesties” (like being discussed now in the US) does not even release J1 holders from the 2-year residency requirement.