Bomb explodes in North Cotobato. Another bomb found. Security tightened. Hope for the Anti-Terrorism bill after all? You bet. With an official CPP appeal against it, expect a stampede to approve it. Forget sober debate, the president needs political momentum for her Cebu shindig.
The nurses’ exam brouhaha continues with perhaps the most pea brained scheme yet:
The government will start a shame campaign against nursing schools that have fared poorly in the last three licensing exams to dissuade students from enrolling in these institutions, officials said yesterday.
But even as President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo approved the plan in yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, her officials bickered over whether the nursing graduates who passed last June’s leak-tainted licensing exams would have to take a new test.
Shame campaign!? Good grief -and because the courts have imposed a temporary ban on closing down substandard schools? Actually, the idea -to provide a list of schools based on performance so students can evaluate them- is a good one. It’s the “shame campaign” part that’s nuts.
Meanwhile, nursing graduates are in limbo as officials snarl at each other. No retake, and that’s it.
Palace reverses itself on cheap loans. Armed Forces reverses itself on requiring citizens to produce residence certificates on demand. Strategic retreats. Anyway, the Ombudsman has announced: hold the line.
Businessmen want constitutional amendments focused on economic provisions and not the political ones -and they aren’t in favor of how it’s being done now.
Government’s next big business: bargain basement sale of large parcels of military lands?
Race to be the next chief justice is on.
Good news, if it happens: billboards to be dismantled includes those of politicians.
Thai King sacrifices his land to save Bangkok.
In the punditocracy, overseas, commentary on North Korea continues, from The Australian (be very, very afraid), Thailand’s The Nation (thank goodness the Japanese and Chinese decided to be friendlier), the Korea Herald (don’t panic! don’t panic!), and the Inquirer editorial (everyone, stay calm!).
My Arab News column for this week recalls a visit I paid to the DMZ in Korea: Neither North Nor South Is Closer to Reunification.
Jojo Robles pens quite a curious column:
In particular, the various anti-change groups said that the signatures in five congressional districts would fail to meet the minimum 3 percent of all registered voters required for the petition – three in Davao, one in Makati and in the lone district of General Santos City. What the inspectors found, however, were 195 boxes containing signatures verified by local Comelec registrars, whose authentication of the signatures can’t be questioned, unless the opposition is willing to say that the poll body’s people at the local level cannot be trusted at all.
The problem is, the certifying was done by the Comelec, but the verifications by barangay officials. Look at the forms yourself. And so, much room for mischief- discrepancies between the numbers certified (in quite a few cases, with reservations or other cautionary comments by the Comelec officials) by the Comelec and the barangay officials’ verifications (and how? to verify you needed forms that only the Comelec’s supposed to have).
Robles also says that former Cebu governor Garcia says if Comelec officials’ right to certify is challenged, it will affect all future elections -but this was before anyone could take a look at what was being put together (again, indicating the lack of transparency of the process): as noted above, one major problem is that the Comelec certified verifications done by people other than themselves.
And I don’t know where he got the idea anyone’s being quiet, at all.
Manuel Buencamino takes a government propaganda piece and shreds it: he wonders, as a taxpayer, why the government’s media is only used to pitch the messages of one side.
Mike Tan is against free market principles being applied to higher education. See also a Newsbreak article on how the vouchers system for schools is unraveling.
In the blogosphere, Hillblogger takes a combined strategic and tactical look at North Korea and its options. baratillo@cubao points out how alone in the world, the Communist Party of the Philippines has issued a statement praising North Korea’s nuclear test (quote is from the news article quoted in turn by the blogger):
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), in a statement, hailed North Korea’s tests as a “militant assertion of national sovereignty and the right of an independent country to develop its own powerful self-reliant defense capability.”
It said North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons would deter any US attack on the Stalinist state and would be “a positive factor in our common striving for genuine peace in the world.”
Security sources have previously said that there were still ties between Pyongyang and the CPP, which has been waging a Maoist guerrilla campaign in the Philippines for over three decades, making it one of the world’s longest-running communist insurgencies.
Achieving Happiness validates the thinking of the party faithful:
But then again, North Korea has all the right to develop its defense capability. North Korea and its people are under siege by the likes of the United States, continually threatened by sanctions and even actual, all out war of aggression.
Larry Johnson in TPM Cafe chronicles what he says is America’s defeat. Pajamas Media focuses on suitcase nuclear bombs. History Unfolding (hat tip, ZenPundit) looks at Henry Kissinger -and uses him as a take-off point for looking at how media is weak on analysis. Also, see his analysis of Kissinger’s weakness as a policy maker and thinker:
But neither then nor now, apparently, was Kissinger willing to draw a reality-based conclusion. Since South Vietnam was almost certain to fall eventually anyway, we might have given the North Vietnamese the coalition government in the South that they demanded and at least spared the Indochinese people six more years of heavy fighting and millions of tons of American bombs. (Peace in 1969 might also have preserved Prince Sihanouk in power in Cambodia, and we would never have heard of the Khmer Rouge.) That, however, was politically unacceptable, both domestically and, in Nixon and Kissinger’s eyes, internationally. In the same way, facing reality – that Iraq will never turn out as we had hoped and that continued insurgency and civil war are further strengthening extremism – is not an option, apparently, in the Bush Administration.
As I mentioned yesterday, Kissinger’s real betrayal came in 1975, when he decided to blame the American people for the loss of South Vietnam. (While US aid to the South had been reduced – not cut off – in 1973-4, it has been shown by scholarship and even by a contemporary Pentagon report that the South Vietnamese had not even received all the equipment they had been promised. They collapsed from political weakness, not from lack of supplies.) And as I pointed out yesterday, the only purpose I can see to holding the course in Iraq for two more years is to blame President Bush’s successor for whatever happens afterwards, rather than accept that we have made one of the worst strategic miscalculations in American history. Meanwhile the violence in Iraq will get worse.
The blog is a delight to discover, since I just recently bought a copy of one of his books, “American Tragedy: Kennedy, Johnson, and the Origins of the Vietnam War” (David Kaiser)
Philippine Commentary advocates an anti-terror law. I have my misgivings and still wonder why we can’t enact laws of limited duration (which require the law to be revisited and re-passed annually, for example).
Iloilo City Boy says the nursing exam controversy is the middle class’ “Wowowee.”
mongster’s nest wryly notes teachers were recently ignored in favor of dogs.
Newsstand chronicles a fleeting but memorable scene. To the Tale, and Other Such Concerns, on dice and moon cakes. stepping on poop compares and contrasts two sports idols.
Oliphant (my title for it: “the parliament of the future”)
Technorati Tags: history, journalism, korea, media, military, One Voice, people’s initiative, philippines, politics, president, Thailand
manuelbuencamino’s piece is spot on.
We can save a lot of taxpayer money if we just shut down the government stations. They can buy time from the commercial stations instead for their propa– I mean, information dissemination campaigns. Plus they still have the option of taking over a station in case of emergencies, so we really dont need a government station. We can have an equivalent of C-SPAN instead. Non-profit and privately funded.
Henry Kissinger according to Woodward’s latest book is advising Bush and Cheney.
Now wasn’t Kissinger the one who advised Nixon to secretly bomb Cambodia and Laos in order to win in Vietnam? Doesn’t that piece of shit thinking remind you of bombing Iraq in order to catch Bin Laden who is hiding in Afghanistan?
Just as I suspected, Lambino insists that they’re funding the PI. And he says this with a straight face. He’s caught lying again. Talagang PI mo Gloria. You’re trying to pull a fast one again on the Filipino people. She’s caught with her hands in the cookie jar again. Just like their master, SnB is full of crap.
MB, nice piece “Sinigawan ng Bayan.” ate glo never plays fair. That’s why she’s winning.
Mabuhay si ate glo.
hohonga. and what if the schools have done well because of the leaks?
Thanks makaglo.
In the matter of beating Gloria, I am guided by Bob Dylan’s immortal advice,
We may never defeat those pigs but we don’t have to like them or be like them”
How about:
“The People will start a shame campaign against government officials that have fared poorly in their last three years in the office to dissuade the masses from voting these politicians.”
live these schools alone. good politicians good policies.
I’m rooting for Carpio.
Erap’s CHA CHA focusing on economic reforms failed because they don’t trust the one pushing for it. So, will it succeed this time under arroyo?
then i guess mami-miss ko na ang pagmumukha nina Miles Roces, Lito Atienza at Ali Atienza (kontra Influenza!).
oldmanilawalks.blogspot.com/2002/02/feburuary-28-2006-miles-of-misery-face.html
good article, Manuel B.
Hi mlq3,
Thank you for linking my post.
Just read Manuel Buencamino’s article!
Agree with mlq3, he tore Bunye’s press statement to pieces.
Quiet, soft-spoken Bunye in person, is indeed extraordinary the persona’s turnaround is worthy of a Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde persona – he has an uncanny way of twisting and re-formulating what should have been honest to goodness democratic formulaes into wretched Goebbels-like propaganda!
MAYBE YOU KNOW SOMETHING….
DOJ Secretary Raul Gonzales said in an interview, “We want to hold Dulmatin’s wife longer but because there is no Anti-Terrorism Law, we cannot do that.†Raul Gonzales further said she was carrying messages for her husband.
So, in order to detain her, why don’t they charge her with Dulmatin’s crimes, like multiple murders, multiple arsons, multiple kidnappings (Dulmatin in conspiracy with other JI members), all of which are capital offenses and non-bailable crimes except where the evidence is not strong. Even just one count of one of those charges. Charge her. Even just one murder charge or one arson charge or one kidnapping charge. So why don’t they charge her with those crimes and detain her till kingdom come?
Because they don’t have any evidence. Why don’t they have any evidence linking her to the overt acts of Dulmatin? Because she was never cased, never followed around; nobody talked to her friends, her neighbors, her favorite fishmonger, seamstress, nanny, etc., nobody gathered evidence.
Why was no one gathering evidence on the associates and relatives of Dulmatin?
Nothing.
If they charge her with those crimes (multiple murders, multiple arsons, multiple kidnappings), or even with just one count of any of those, and if they don’t have evidence, what will happen? She’ll be out in one and a half days.
So you need an anti-terrorism law so you can detain any person in any small jail no communication with family, friends, lawyers in the custody of unnamed strangers armed with electricity without evidence without charges for three to 15 days depending on the version that’s approved.
If you like the prospect of that, go ahead surrender yourself to Secretary Raul Gonzales because they cannot catch Dulmatin.
But what if they absolutely have nothing on the person on murder, arson, kidnapping, does that mean that even under the anti-terror bill, she’s off? No, wait…. Raul Gonzales said she was carrying messages for the husband. Maybe she knows something. Maybe you know something. Maybe I know something. So, is that enough to stick for murder, arson, kidnapping? Maybe not but does that mean that under the anti-terrorism law, she’s off? No, wait… isn’t this cool — the anti-terrorism bill creates new crimes: 1.establishing contact with a person known to be a terrorist; 2.maintaing such contact; 3.serving as contact; 4.harboring a person known to be a terrorist; 5. not disclosing to the government as soon as possible any information on any person known to be a terrorist.
He’s right. You need an anti-terror law in the present version it is in and under this government so that you can detain the wife, brother, sister, children, parents, nannies, maids, friends, classmates (in the U.S., even the lawyers of one terror suspect was charged and detained under the U.S. Patriot Act for the crime “providing skill or expertiseâ€Â; the case is on certiorari in the Supreme Court, one judge struck down the specific provision as unconstitutional but that’s a long paper), interviewers, those with contacts with them, like if the terror suspects’ names are in your cellphone, addressbook, phone book, if you’re a reporter texting a terror suspect for an interview and you don’t tell the police, or if you arrange a meeting or serve as contact etc…you’re included. Maybe you know something. Maybe I know something. If they cannot catch the terror suspect, they will catch you. You need an anti-terror law to go after all those people because they cannot catch the real terrorist.
As even the more moderate Senator Ralph Recto said: “Not under this government…â€Â
There can be no real security where you are required to surrender yourself to Secretary Raul Gonzales because they cannot catch Dulmatin and other members of JI and the Abu Sayyaf. Maybe you know something.
Korea Herald is right – not to panic, not to panic!
NY Times reports that Rice Asserts U.S. Plans No Attack on North Korea…
Whew!
Here this “mababaw government” goes again. While there is a pending TRO againts the closure of some alleged substandard schools this government suddenly announced to issue the list of these schools. Ito daw ay dahil sa “zero passing average”. I do not meant to offend anyone but it really grates my ear hearing this because this was aired repeatedly. If indeed there are schools with zero passing, one does not add an average anymore. An average can only be appended if the numbers to be averaged are greater than one.
Re: “Government’s next big business: bargain basement sale of large parcels of military lands?”
Bargain basement sale mlq3? Technically perhaps, but I don’t believe they will do that – shady deals in the offing is what I imagine.
Where will they set up military bases and personnel to replace their lost property? To Guimaras island?
According to The Times, the North Korea’s Foreign Ministry announced that “”If the US keeps pestering us and increases pressure, we will regard as a declaration of war and will take a series of physical corresponding measures.”
What those “physical” measures are we don’t exactly know but we have an idea more or less – that they will attack South Korea and engage both South Korean and American forces in a dangerous, bloody combat which is bound to leave massive collateral damages on both sides of the Korean peninsula.
However, if we want to believe that the North Koreans are not all madmen, we must trust some of what they are saying, “Even though we conducted the nuclear test because of the US, we still remain committed to realizing the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and negotiations.”
They are saying that in reality, they want to sit down with the US and conduct a constructive dialogue!
President Richard Nixon a rabid anti-Communist, a Mao “hater”, became an American icon and hero, well at least till the Watergate Scandal broke, when he broke into hermit China through diplomatic doors to meet with Mao Tse Tung dubbed by Nixon himself as “The week that changed the world.”
Perhaps, Dubya, generally known today as the mad man in the White House, can replicate the act… Then the Republicans in Washington will cut a monument to his “greatness” if he manages to see what really makes Kim Jong II tick.
Don’t laugh because I mean it and I don’t care whether they erect monuments in Dubya’s honor by the dozen in America if it would help limit the number of madmen who could press that nuclear trigger!
For all we know, Kim probably just wants food and medicine for his people whom he’s starved to be able to build his bomb! Anyway, I reckon, the little man in Pyongyang is really frightened of being attacked and so is poised to attakc too – As we all know, even very frightened dogs tend to be mad and bite back when cornered.
For all we know, Kim probably just wants food and medicine for his people whom he’s starved to be able to build his bomb! Anyway, I reckon, the little man in Pyongyang is really frightened of being attacked and so is poised to attakc too – As we all know, even very frightened dogs tend to be mad and bite back when cornered.
What is the basis of Michael Tan’s conclusion that the Philippines is following the American education model? Michael Tan does not understand that the United Stares Federal government funds public and private universities via research grants. College students are being help financially via student aid guaranteed by Sallie Mae or by scholarship grants.
Local officials would never admit that they procured signatures as Governor Ortega proclaims but they were previously unabashed in admitting that they released local public funds to push the signature gathering for the “People’s Initiativeâ€Â. Governor Petilla previously admitted before the Philippine Daily Inquirer that he ordered local funds released for the signature process. Even columnist Carmen Pedrosa would want us to accept a so called “people’s initiative†funded by government money (local or otherwise) They obviously see nothing wrong in using public funds to support an “Initiative†that they claim would benefit the people.
If a group of citizens were however to propose an amendment to the Charter through the People’s Initiative (supposing an adequate law was in place) that could prove disadvantageous to local officials; would public funds rain on that parade? Let’s say that an amendment to prevent local officials from running immediately for any elective local position once they have been elected to 3 consecutive terms in 1 local post was proposed via People’s Initiative; would local officials willingly donate their public funds? Very unlikely.
Could local officials be forced to support monetarily any Initiative with their local funds? Very unlikely too. Besides, RA 6735 doesn’t say anything on that.
To support one Initiative with public funds and be able to deny it on another based on the whims of our politicians is definitely unfair. It does not seem to be along the spirit of the law that such practice would be allowed or even tolerated and it definitely goes against the intent of the framers of our Constitution who enshrined justice in our preamble.
In January 2006, Secretary Raul Gonzales (some people would love to put another “O†somewhere in his surname) issued a legal opinion wherein he stated
“Hence, officers and employees in the career Civil Service can actively participate in the discussion of plebiscite, initiative or referendum, issues without violating Civil Service rules and regulations (Phil. Constitutional Law Principles and Cases, Vol. 2, by Hector de Leon, 1991 Edition, page 442).â€Â
That opinion was however silent on the use of government resources and government money.
I will support a SHAME CAMPAIGN that will lead to dismantling of illegitimate Gloria Arroyo regime. This bogus regime is tainted with scams after scam. The latest GMA scam is ghost deliveries of imported rice in school-feeding program and over P1 billion worth of which had already been wasted by the National Food Authority (NFA) based on senate findings and possible P2.6 billion DECS textbooks scam. These vultures in the government have exploited all opportunities to pocket taxpayers’ money. This plunder must stop. Bloggers can help in the shame campaign. Puny rodent Gloria Arroyo must be thrown out where it belongs.
Thrown out, kept out, and locked out. One problem though: how would you run a campaign for shame against people with no shame if not totally insane. pachyderms..
Help me out here. Why would Bunye admit to spending the “people’s” money on their cha-cha campaign now before The SC’s ruling on sigaw’s PI petition?
Because he can’t deny it.
Isn’t it that the ConCom and the ADCOM executive commissions were created by the president and to be spent for by government money?
And if that should prove to be a blunder; well it won’t exactly be Bunye’s first.
Well JL, Bunye had made mistakes before, the Garci takes for intance. I still have a picture of him with his pre-mature declaration of glorias tapped conversation with garci holding CDs claiming one to be genuine and the other one fake.
Bunye has twisted and lied about issues before. He could have squirmed his way out of this one as well. The thing that amazes me is that after all the denials of gloria about involement with cha-cha or PI, espoused by Bunye himself, out he comes now and declares they indeed funded the initiative.
Of course, as you say, it could be another blunder.
Realist,
I think People’s Initiative is a diversionary movement and Bunye really doesn’t care if it is eventually scuttled by the Supreme Court for its many obvious defects and infirmities. The real delivery vehicle for chacha, IMHO, will be CON-ASS. Realize that the 27 amendments to the US Constitution have all been accomplished by CON-ASS.
CON-ASS too will surely reach the Supreme Court. However it eventually rules, whether to accept the plain and literal meaning of the Constitutions Art. XVII Sec. 1(1), or somehow construe the phrase “…of all the members of the Congress…” to actually mean “…of both Houses of Congress…” the Supreme Court will then open the way to a whole series of NECESSARY amendments to the 1987 Charter.
For P.I. to be approved now is gonna take a stretch, since the previous decision has to be more or less reversed.
CON-ASS is gonna be much easier to decide. Either way, I wish they’d hurry up.
mlq3, i remember a trip I took with my dad to Sokor which included the DMZ. the proximity is a mere dividing line with both military camps staring each other down. If the Sokor side raises its flag pole by a few inches, the Nokor side will do the same. parang crispa-toyota of yore except they keep guarding each other over missiles and armaments. plus, one team has the Harlem globe-trotters on their side. I also remember a short visit to North Korea. Every morning we woke up to patriotic music being played all over the city through hidden speakers. It was eerie. Our hosts brought us to a grade school where children sang for us with every performance ending with a mantra of praise for their country’s leader. there is nothing rational about Kim Jong-il’s policies — except his bullheaded desire to induce America to speak to him, one-on-one, so that he can show his people that Nokor, armed with nuclear capability supervised by an irrational/unpredictable rule, can never be ignored by the great powers on earth.
oops … rule should read as ruler … 🙂
DJB, thanks for your point of view. So you think that the scenario you laid out has been the administrations plan all along, and not plan 2, expecting the SC to junk PI?
Trying to understand the importance of law and institutions of State. Why it is a matter of life and death.
On the Con-Ass. Is there case precedent wherein the term Congress alone refers to both Houses voting separately? Yes, according to Justice I. Cruz. So there is existing jurisprudence defining the word Congress as two branches voting separately.
The existing Constitutional Law for Congress means bicameral. How can the House operate independently as they cannot even hold sessions unilaterally unless the Senate also holds sessions. This was decided by case law. Under present Constitutional law they are joined at the hip and get to vote separately.
The flaw is the mandate and proportionate representation. The size of the U.S. made it a necessity.
The Senate is supposed to be the more mature institution that will balance regional or a federated structure. That is the primordial difference between our system of a reverse engineered colonial unitary (centralized) constitutional government with an executive, a bicam legislative, “independent judiciary”, and an “independent monetary authority” vs. an evolving federal constituional government with an executive, bicam legislative, independent judiciary, and an independent monetary authority.
The U.S. Federal Reserve was created by Congress in 1913 as it outgrew the Constitutional mandate for a metals based monetary system. However since it is a government created special entity owned by private capital, this established the quasi-public nature of private banks. This effectively monetized credit to facilitate trade. This effectively made all money substitutes (credit) public debt. The currency became simply the fiat authority of the state to create debt. An abstract with three basic functions – a medium of exchange, store of value and a unit of account. Unfortunately it is this power that makes seizing state power the biggest business enterprise in the world.
example in the United States they have printed only about $700-$800 billion in actual cash. Yet little bit of money can produce an $11 trillion economy, a national debt of $9 trillion, consumer indebtedness that is over $30 trillion, $80 trillion in accrued federal government liabilities, $450 trillion in derivatives, a $600 billion annual federal budget deficit, and an $800 billion trade/current account deficit.
The Philippines did the same thing when it privatized the BSP under the same framework as the Federal Reserve System of the U.S. It created a powerful fourth branch of government. Under U.S. statute though the federal reserve is mandated to protect purchasing power to insure full employment. The Chairman is subject ot the oversight of the Congress of the U.S. Here in the Philippines our BSP is subject to the oversight of the IMF/WB. Our reserve system is based primarily on the currency of the U.S.Hence the only job of the BSP is price stability and they have abandoned the old legal mandate of full employment.
The magic of fiat money and the fractional reserve banking system. Yet it is not even a physical object. Simply anticipation built around another abstract the -Nation State. Isn’t the human brain amazing. Banks make money simply out of nothing. But when they fuck up guess who suffers.
this blog really rocks, thanks to you manolo. i hope more and more people like hvrds will join the discussion. very very informative. medyo nahihilo lang ako idecipher lahat ang lman ng comments nya but I really enjoy learning from it. Keep it up, hvrds!
THE QUEEN OF CHEAT is in the HIGHEST POSITION … Do we need to ASK WHY ? Part of the PROBLEM is also with us … Do we still have MORAL VALUES … – “Doesn’t matter if the FOOD is STOLEN as long as we EAT …” – Sa taong GUTOM, wala ng paklalam kung ang TINAPAY ay BIGAY ng MAGNANAKAW at MANDARFAYA
SHAME on you GLORIA !!! You STINK !!! you’re the WORST THING that happen to the COUNTRY .. YOUR LEGACY – PROSTITUTING THE CONSTITUTION … SCAM, CHEATING, CORRUPTION — TRADITIONAL POLITICS !!!
Do a Pangalinan filibustero, not here.
Be brave. Let’s see what happens.
GLORIA CHEATS and that’s a FACT … If we can’t do NOTHING to CORRECT the CHEATING in the Highest Position of the Land. What could prevent CHEATERS in doing it in PRC, Testing, Exam. Bottomline – GMA is a GREAT MODEL on HOW TO CHEAT …
No new Korean War!
The Bush administration’s policies are now threatening a new war on the Korean peninsula. While we join with people everywhere in seeking to end the scourge of nuclear weapons once and for all, we recognize that North Korea is not a “threat.” This is an example of U.S. war propaganda. It is the U.S. government that has detonated 1,232 nuclear bombs since 1945. Two whole cities — Hiroshima and Nagasaki — were incinerated by U.S. atomic weapons. The U.S. possesses 16,000 nuclear weapons today and is endlessly carrying out mock invasions and mock bombing campaigns of North Korea. Having been cast as part of the “Axis of Evil,” North Korea has felt compelled to resume a nuclear program that it had earlier frozen.
– http://www.internationalanswer.org