GRPundit

As usual, NGO and volunteer resources and funds stepped in and stood out in this crisis, which is all admirable of course. However, a situation where that becomes routine (1) highlights the overall systemic inadequacy of our society and state in dealing with disasters and (2) is a sub-optimal response to crises because a disjoint kanya kanya operation lacks scale and efficiency and is prone to waste. Ideally, government should be in full control of a crisis response, and the private sector, where they respond, subordinate to government management. As Ina (and Randy David back in the Ondoy days) already pointed out, we cannot routinely rely on private sector resources to stopgap what government should have been keeping systemically sound to begin with. Illegal logging and inappropriate human settlement by the very nature of the terms already highlight where we as a society fail and where the lessons should be coming from. [ Above is a response to a Twitter conversation here . ]

I have come under attack recently from corrupted people close to GMA about being at a party last Friday night during the Sendong Typhoon among other things. Therefore I would like to set the record straight on several issues. Firstly let’s not forget that before GMA was elected as president there were no Typhoons, Mud slides, Corruption, Crime, Murders and Journalists Killed. Any isolated cases that happened prior to GMA becoming president were only during the time of the dictator Marcos. Since the introduction of my Wang Wang law corruption in this country has declined by 50% and as you will see below I have plans to eliminate corruption completely. For those of you who keep criticizing me all I can say is that you are just jealous because I was the first person in this country to get the IPhone 4. This new phone will help me stop any future Typhoons, Mud slides, Corruption, Crime, Murders and to fight the chinese. Some of you have also complained about my smile. It is not my fault th...

Pinoys are ultimately headed towards their destined fate with their little 25-year experiment with democracy and taste of "freedom" coming to a close. After all, they had all that and didn't do much with it. So it can be argued that perhaps Pinoys do deserve to be ruled with whips and kicks in their asses by the oligarchs they pretend to despise.

And this is the real challenge. By bringing the "laban" to the political arena where mobs rule, and out of the judicial arena where brains and procedure rule, Noynoy hopes to bring to bear the vacuous loyalty of the ignorant masses and more effectively wield the power of the media over them.

It's a sign... Souce: PinoyExchange.com

Ironies of ironies. PhilStar columnist Valeria Avila observes Philippine President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III is on his way towards becoming "the most powerful President" of the country -- as powerful as the late former President Ferdinand Marcos who at the height of his power had full control over the Supreme Court and the Legislature. For the sake of discussion, when they successfully remove the Chief Justice (mind you, impeachment is not a criminal trial, rather it is a political exercise) who then would appoint the next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court? Yup! You answered correctly, it is Pres. PNoy who will now appoint the new Chief Justice and consequently, that man or woman would now be biased for President Aquino. With this, the dismantling of democracy has begun! When that situation takes place, you can be sure that when the case vs. former Pres. Arroyo would reach the Supreme Court, she would literally hang… after all, these Justices would no longer be...

What with the family jewels at stake and a horde of family and cronies hounding the Cojuangco clan for money owed to them by the insolvent Hacienda Luisita estate, fair to say the whole political circus going on is ultimately about money. Will President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III come out of this drama laughing all the way to the bank? Abangan ang susunod na kabanata...

This is the sort of relationship President Noynoy Aquino would like to have with anything to do with a Corona

Politicians particularly those who go by slogans that are relics of 1980's popular movements presume to defer to what they consider to be the "source" of their mandate -- the "people". But democracy is a system composed of measures to systematically channel power. As such, the "power" of said "people" is channeled via institutionalised processes. These processes allow direct expression of this power (through elections, plebiscites, referendums, etc.) or through indirect representative expression (through the actions of people who are elected through the earlier type of process to represent them). The good constitutionalist Fr Joaquin Bernas SJ makes this point clear ... Government officials have only so much authority as is given to them by law and the Constitution, and not what they might assume to be given to them by popular rallies. In short, a lynch mob or an "occupational" movement (to use the current fad terms) does not...

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte was recently reported to have been awarded by the Philippine Government's Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP). The award "recognizes individuals from various sectors who are known to help informal settlers". The award presumably recognises Duterte's infamous "heroic" assault on an officer of a Philippine court back in July 2011. Apparently what it means to "help informal settlers" in this case involves the use of violence against an officer of a Philippine court of Law... An imminent riot at a squatter demolition site and TV cameras on the scene. It seemed to be a perfect opportunity for a publicity stunt. Perhaps this was the motivation behind Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte's assault on court sheriff Abe Andres who was acting on orders from his superiors to proceed with a demolition of illegally-built structures that were home to 500 families in Barangay Kapitan Tomas Monteverde Sr. Suliman, Agdao. ...

Suddenly the notion of rule of law detestable. Reporter Raissa Robles quotes it in all caps and in bold all over a recent article and says that she "grimaces" whenever she now comes across that term. Not coincidentally, the notion of rule of law lately hasn't really been working in favour of the lynch mob to which Robles belongs to. What they are doing now is plain demagoguery. Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is right at least on this one. People may say "demagoguery daw " with sarcasm (the way juveniles do at a schoolyard). But that's exactly what it is. For lack of a solid foundation to build a sound argument upon it has now become a circus of stirring up emotional fanaticism and clouding logic using persuasion devices not too different from the sort used by cult leaders on their ignorant flock. The Crusades along with its close cousin The Inquisition as well as various crimes against humanity perpetrated in the name of various gods over our h...

Conrado " Noynoy is Aragorn " de Quiros is obviously not a sportsman at heart. He keeps score of the rulings of what he describes as a Philippine Supreme Court made up of "Arroyo's Justices" and notes the current score is 19-0 in favour of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. De Quiros is shittin' bricks as he regards this score. He then goes around stomping his feet in a tantrum spitting rubber bullets about how things must be this or things should be that. Here is a example of some items in his quaint wishlist of things that ought to be in the la-la world of his little mind from his latest piece on the Inquirer.net : " reason is more powerful than the Court " " historical experience is more powerful than the Court " " common sense is more powerful than the Court " He then goes to the "point" he wanted to make -- that current SC Chief Justice Renato Corona ought to "resign from the Court as a matter of ...

Since some people have a hard time figuring out why they hate GMA, I have come up with a list of the most probable reasons why they do: 1. Most Filipinos think that blaming the late former President, Ferdinand Marcos is so passé so they have moved on to GMA. A quarter of a century after Edsa, the Aquinos and their supporters cannot keep blaming the original “bad guy” because blaming Marcos after all these years will highlight the fact that there was nothing significant about the so-called “people power” revolution that happened in 1986 to begin with. It becomes funnier when you hear them say, “ GMA is worse than Marcos ” because they don’t realise that this is the same as saying, “ We were better off during the Marcos years ”. 2. Most Filipinos need to blame someone for the lack of progress in their own personal lives. They might still be stuck doing the same dead-end job or in the case of some, still stuck waiting for government handouts. 3. Most Filipinos are actually angry with them...

I posted the following message across Facebook in the last 24 hours and the discussion taking place is rather interesting. I'd like to share this here and see what, if anything, transpires. I don't understand why people are having a hissy fit over a Filipino being executed in China over drug trafficking. You break the rules, you pay the penalty baby. That's how the system works. Just because your home country's government is adept at widespread lawlessness and lack of enforcement doesn't mean it works the same way abroad. I'd love to flip the bird to BI and quit paying for visa extensions, not to mention half a dozen other rules foreigners have to follow (because the chips are stacked against us), but I understand and follow the motto "when in Rome"...IN SHORT, QUIT WHINING .

The chattering classes think it is ridiculous. And yet they are giving it the time of day. An alleged plot to assassinate former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was bared recently by her spokesperson Ma. Elena Bautista-Horn in a press briefing ... In a hurriedly called press briefing at St. Luke's Wednesday night, Arroyo's spokesperson Ma. Elena Bautista-Horn said that a "very reliable source" from the Aquino administration warned the Arroyo camp that there was a plot to kill the Pampanga representative under the so-called "Operation Put the Little Girl To Sleep." " May mga nagsumbong po sa amin na mga nasa administrasyon ngayon na meron po silang masamang balakin. Meron sila ngayong 'Operation Put the Little Girl to Sleep.' Ni-report na po sa amin 'yan ," said Horn. [Some people from the administration have told us that they have evil designs. They have what they call "Operation Put the Little Girl to Sleep." This has been ...