Little did it occur to Conrado "Noynoy is Aragorn" de Quiros that the very people who voted for Noynoy Aquino in 2010 now voted a bunch of "rogues" into office in the recently-concluded 2013 mid-term elections... One, Imelda Marcos, who won 88 percent of the votes in her husband’s turf in Ilocos Norte—she herself is from Leyte—retaining her seat in the House. She and her husband are well-known plunderers and oppressors. Two, Joseph Estrada, who won as mayor of Manila against Alfredo Lim. Erap was variously impeached, overthrown by People Power, tried and convicted of corruption, but later pardoned by his successor who lived in constant fear of an uprising. Of course Erap was pitted against an opponent who had earned the nickname “Dirty Harry” for ignoring such niceties as due process and human rights. Poor Manila, Nick Joaquin’s noble city. Three, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who also won 88 percent of the votes in her district in Pampanga. Obviously, it didn’t ...
Describing the Marcos' regime as the "Never Again" or the "Dark Ages" is an exaggeration and seems to be somewhat unfair and selective. By saying "Never Again" it also includes all the hundreds of schools, hospitals, roads and bridges built during that time. Not to mention that rice was only P9.00 by Masagana '99 and that PH was building a nuclear power plant, trains and missiles. Of course, we wouldn't want to ignore the victims of 9 years of Martial Law (not 20 years! '72-81) where, a lot of individuals were allegedly abducted, tortured and abused. However, lot of Filipinos don't realize that the "Cold War" is going on; that Philippines was almost turned into Communism and that the nation is in a state of anarchy. If Marcos hadn't proclaimed Martial Law he could have gone down to history as a good and coward leader or not remembered at all. There will be way more millions of Filipinos that will die if Communi...
In my hometown Silay, shabu (meth) was selling for P30 a packet. That's roughly HK$5, or 60 cents US. Tricycle drivers were using it to stay awake. Other folks used it as a substitute for coffee in menial yet laborious jobs, because, as our helpers would say to me, "'To Jam, indi ka na ya ka batyag kapoy" (you become impervious to fatigue when you use it). Our helpers live in a shanty neighborhood, and they were also telling me that many of their neighbors had gotten hooked on drugs. These are simple folk who live in houses made of flimsy material like plywood. Unlike those of us who live in well-fortified homes or gated communities, they don't have fences to keep drug-crazed thieves or worse outside of their homes. Imagine your daughters walking home through neighborhoods like that at night through dark, cramped alleys with all the drug pushers and junkies hovering around in plain sight, following them with their eyes. They did not feel safe at all, and tha...
The practice of naming people "heroes" does far more harm than good. In the Philippines, it has been used as a tool for propaganda and brainwashing. For instance, the idea of Ninoy Aquino as a "hero" who sacrificed his life for the Philippines is nothing more than a fairytale. Ninoy Aquino was a traditional politician no different from the ones we see today. His primary motive for criticizing Marcos since he was a young senator was to build up his political career through constant media coverage. When he came back from exile in 1983, it was not because he wanted to shed his blood for the Filipinos, but because he knew there was a power struggle between Imelda Marcos, Juan Ponce Enrile, and Danding Cojuangco as to who would succeed Marcos, and he did not want to be left out of the running. After Aquino was shot at the airport, the oligarchs and their foreign backers saw an opportunity to package Ninoy into a martyr so they could fire up the emotions of the pe...
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