GRPundit

Camp John Hay (Baguio) is a perfect example of this. Back when the US bases were still existing it was touted as the best R&R facility for US military personnel in the Pacific. Unfortunately, much of Camp John Hay now, despite its purported "corporate care," is mired in stacks of intricate court cases. Hotels which are supposed to bring in cash to Baguio are still closed due to litigation. Around a dozen old bunk houses have been bulldozed for faux-log cabins nobody uses anyway. The corporations which supposedly take care of Camp John Hay's well-being refuse to pay taxes to the government because they think they have some sort of "special privilege." At the center of this all is a lawyer-politician under the Liberal Party banner who has plans to become Baguio's mayor. Furthermore, his SJW wife turns her back and keeps silent over John Hay's wanton environmental degradation, and rather be more vocal against the earthballing of trees at SM Baguio...

It is obvious that PNoy, in distancing himself from the circus involving Binay is not in favor of his ouster and may have something to gain from Binay becoming president, i.e. Binay may have some dirt on the President, enough to totally discredit daang matuwid in the eyes of his "bosses". The attack on Binay is obviously perpetrated by the incompetent DILG secretary who still wants to become President and from the Mutineer-turned-senaTONG who thinks he is just paying his pardoner a favor. This is a President who no longer has any control over his agents–a Lame DAP president. ----------------- This is a GRP Featured Comment. Join the discussion! http://getrealphilippines.com/blog/2014/10/jail-jejomar-binay-now/comment-page-1/#comment-879762

Being half-Japanese, I agree that to a certain extent, we Filipinos have much to learn from the Japanese. The only observation I can make, though, is that this article failed to focus on what ails this country. The root cause of the Filipino Problem is not discipline, not the happy-go-lucky attitude, it's the lack of patriotism. Everything flows from there. If you love your country, you'll respect your neighbors, your community, your environment, everything else around you. Sadly, Filipinos don't have this patriotic attitude, unlike Korea, Japan, and to a certain extent, the US. We are not proud to be Filipino. We may say it, but we don't show it. It's as simple as that. ----------------- This is a GRP Featured Comment. Join the discussion! http://getrealphilippines.com/blog/2011/03/filipinos-cannot-progress-if-they-cannot-follow-even-simple-guidelines/comment-page-15/#comment-879646

I'll tell you a very inspiring story. I was walking down my neighborhood one day and then this tricycle full of elementary school students passed by. One of the youths threw a candy wrapper on the street and you know what? The driver stopped, told the kid to pick it up and scolded him: "kaya nababaha ang Manila kasi nagtatapon lang tayo ng basura kung saan-saan." True story and my faith in the Filipino is restored. Sad to say this is the only thing that I have witnessed in this country that restores any semblance of hope in my people. --------------------- This is a GRP Featured Comment. Join the discussion! http://getrealphilippines.com/blog/2014/10/rubbish-littered-manila-naia-terminal-3-airport-lounge-tells-the-real-story/comment-page-2/#comment-876882

A US serviceman is involved, so again the rant, the high-pitched noise, the kerfuffle among bloggers and pundits. We all want to have a say on the issue. What I don't know is if this is reflective of a national inferiority complex. What is the conversation really about? Do we want to feel that we are free of a colonial past and simply like rubbing-in our independence vis-a-vis our former colonizer? (Is this the irritating "pinoy pride" we see in comboxes of sites featuring Filipina singing sensations in international competitions? How does this pinoy pride thing add to a sustainable growth for the country?) Or, are we that obtuse as to think we are in parity with the US if we are able to lock up Pemberton in one of our typically squalid cells? Or, do we have a mentality we cannot shed, a servile mentality, that knows nothing except whine about a terrible master, and are thus clueless as to what to do with independence even with decades gone by? Maybe, all of the abo...

Apparently stunned by the youth of US Marine Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton, Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang agrees to a recommendation that another US soldier accompany Pemberton in detention "because the kid might consider suicide." Pemberton, 19, is accused of killing Filipino transgender Jeffrey Laude, 26, who, on the basis of witness testimony, may have misrepresented himself as a woman on the night of the alleged crime. Said the witness, Mark Clarence "Barbie" Gelviro, testified before the Philippine Senate Foreign Relations Committee saying that "Pemberton thought we were real women." Referencing Inquirer.net report: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/113266/pemberton-thought-we-were-real-women/

Ang issue dito ay kung bakit siya pinatay at sino ang pumatay. Isa itong krimen so inaalam natin kung ano talaga ang nangyari para mahuli ang gumawa ito at maparusahan ng naayon sa batas. Nataon lamang na sensitibo ang kaso na ito dahil sa mga taong involved. Kung ano man talaga ang nangyari ay hindi natin alam so inaasam lang natin na sana yung totoo ang lumabas sa imbestigasyon. Walang katuturan ang artikulong ito kung ang ibig lang nitong pag-usapan ay kung anong pangalan ang dapat na itawag sa namatay. Kung may pagkakamali man siya para humantong sa ganito isa ito sa importanteng malaman pero higit sa lahat dapat mabigyang linaw kung bakit humantong sa pagkitil ng buhay para mabigay ng korte ang karampatang hatol/hustisya. ---------------------- Ito ay isang Featured Comment ng GRP. Sali na sa diskusyon! http://getrealphilippines.com/blog/2014/10/no-his-name-is-not-jennifer-its-jeffrey/comment-page-2/#comment-864576

Even way back in college i couldn't stand this group called GABRIELA. Even if something is a non issue, they put much meaning into it. They say women's rights are trampled upon in school activities and such, even if there really is no issue at all. That's why they fail to get sympathy from the general student population in UP, unlike other militant groups in the campus. How seemingly intelligent female students are convinced to join this wacko group is beyond my comprehension. Gabriela is composed of nothing but extremely paranoid attention seeking morons. ------------------- This is a GRP Featured Comment. Join the discussion! http://getrealphilippines.com/blog/2014/10/preliminary-hearing-on-jeffrey-laude-death-snubbed-by-pemberton-filipino-activists-furious/comment-page-1/#comment-864276

Soo tired of the "POOR ME" attitude here. Today on Channel 9 News, your senators saying how bad is the U.S. That the U.S. only sends our junk weapons and help to the Philippines!?. If the U.S. is sooo bad, stop reaching for our so called, junk hand outs! Take back all 200,000+ illegal Phil "Aliens", now hiding in the U.S., that your government is begging us to keep, because they say they cant afford to take back their own citizens!!! The average American taxpayer will "Thank You". Tired of seeing the U.S., being used as the ATM Machine for every lazy corrupt country in the world! Our Tax Dollars need to go for our own Citizens—NOT TO COUNTRIES THAT ACT LIKE THEY HATE US!!! DISGUSTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ------------------- This is a GRP Featured Comment. Join the discussion! http://getrealphilippines.com/blog/2013/12/get-real-do-filipino-illegal-aliens-residing-in-the-us-really-need-temporary-protected-status/comment-page-1/#comment-863824

Olongapo and Angeles are in reality nothing but municipal whore houses. Always have been and, sadly, always will be. And now Boracay. Yes, Boracay is starting to get polluted with whores of all varieties. It used to be the ideal spot for a family vacation, but now is little more than an X-rated freak show. It's not a question of "if" another incident happens; it will happen. There is no doubt about it. We are now the number two sex-tour destination in Asia and, unlike Thailand, we have police that are little more than bumbling ass-wipe retards. It probably will never change. If those chimps jumping up and down about tranny Laude wanted to do something productive, they could find real issues that would improve the Philippines to protest about. Why don't they protest about the Philippines having one of the highest percentages of unwed mothers on the planet? Why not protest about the very significant percentage of children who have no idea even who their father i...

I don't speak for GRP, but I think it's because they see the LGBT community as a whole right now as being too camp and lewd. It's quite ironic that LGBT rights advocates march down the streets and call for "equal" rights, and at the same time oversee the things that may hinder their acceptance as "equals" with heterosexuals. Just look at how gay men are portrayed in media. It's usually an effeminate, camp, gossipy, sometimes flirty man, and he usually is a sidekick with the female protagonist/antagonist. You rarely see anything more than that. It's actually counter-productive to the LGBT since it perpetuates the stereotype of gay men. Don't get me started on gay-themed indie films, most of them are almost pornography. Self-serving fantasies rather than eye-opening realities in my opinion. Even worse I think, there's the lack of representation of lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders and anyone who doesn't conform to male-female dich...

Because we are impotent to handle our own fucked-up country and society, we overreact to a perceived loss of face when a foreigner murders one of our own losers. Jesus, we are not really that different from the Chinese, are we? The tranny contributed to his own demise. Contributory negligence. We already have the fact that the tranny tried pulling a sex scam. It's virtually certain there was an attempt at a financial scam, too. When you play with fire, you get burned. Shit got out of hand and now we've got a dead Pinoytranny. Depending on what exactly happened, the Marine is also culpable. Will he get reclusion perpetua? Highly unlikely. And neither should he. Will he get handed over to Philippines authorities, per the VFA only after all appeals have been exhausted. That's the agreement. Like it or lump it. Then we have the rewards who bitch about the VFA. Who really gives a rat's ass about those retarded turds? The bottom line is that the Philipppines negotiated ...

The Japanese have US military bases on their soil in Okinawa to this day. The Japanese are rich and see no need to get rid of these bases even though the japanese are more than capable of defending themselves. The Japanese also made american GI rapists from Okinawa see the inside of a Japanese jail. To ask the obvious, what makes us different from the Japanese? why can't we deal or at least pretend to deal with the US on equal terms? Are we just a nation destined to be pathetic and servile? Then we have the US military. They are aggressive and for them it's a matter of exploiting real and perceived weaknesses. Must be like a walk in the park to commit atrocities and get away with them in a passive, corrupt country like the Philippines. It's when we deal with other countries and compare ourselves with other countries that all of the Philippines' defects come to the foreground — a corrupt system, ball-gagging poverty, a damaged culture still dependent on the US….....

I am certainly not homophobic, but it really seems to me, that homosexuality is such a celebrated, or even promoted thing in this (coincidently very Christian) Country.. First Observation was: I have never seen so many (openly) homosexuals anywhere else in the world.. even Thailand seems to have far less. As a foreigner, it also seems to me that even straight guys, on average, are more feminine than the typical image of a man, which I am accustomed to after being raised in a different culture (in the west). Second Observation: In the West, most homosexuals are still guys.. While most of them are clearly noticeable, through there behaviour, movements and sometimes soft voices, they are still basically normal guys.. Sometimes you would never guess they where homosexuals! Here it seems that most homsexuals are immediately turning into wannabe females (either partially, through the way they dress, move, talk, or some silly hair, or all the way through surgery) Third Observation, wh...

I have mat many women online and I guess I am an expert on that by now. Filipinas are a curious breed. They can be good girls on Monday and take money for sex on Tueday and they do not consider themvelves a Pro. Why? Because they just need the money they tell themselves. I can not believe what the profiles say for the Filipina…Her first words are she wants honesty…really? I swear to God I have dated and even gone to bed on the first date alot with so called good girls and to this day one sweet good girl I met I still only know her by her profile name as StrawberryshortCakes! Damn you Tanduay! But on a last note I will say that the comfort level you feel around Filipinos is unlike anywhere in the world. At least until they get to know you more and the gossip begins. And if you are a private person and keep low profile do not worry what a Filipino does not know about they will just make it up! And it will not be complimentary. I have no idea why Filipinos have to put someone down i...

U.S. District Judge Martin L.C. Feldman in his decision upholding Louisiana's same-sex marriage ban: Feldman noted that Louisiana's marriage law furthers two important interests: "linking children to an intact family formed by their biological parents, as specifically underscored by Justice Kennedy in Windsor" and "safeguarding that fundamental social change…is better cultivated through democratic consensus." That is, Feldman noted the two central issues in this debate—the policy question: What is marriage, and the legal question: Who gets to define marriage. Feldman ruled that, consistent with the U.S. Constitution, citizens and their elected officials should get to define marriage, and they can define it as the union of man and woman if they choose to. In response to those who argue that there is no rational basis for such marriage laws, Feldman writes: "The Court is persuaded that a meaning of what is marriage that has endured in history for thou...

Learn from Hong Kong. The fielding of candidates is just as important as electing the "right" one into office. As it stands now, the pool of "winnables" are predetermined for us by the power brokers, vested interests and political elites. The game is rigged from the start. All the candidates are basically interchangeable and malleable; willing to sell their souls to the highest bidder. The great mass of Philippine civil society is ignorant and incapable of producing candidates with integrity and competence. Hence, the powerful dominate the weak by making sure only their kind has a chance to win. The poor fools are pleased with this illusion of choice and are content to merely legitimize the choices that were made for them long ago. What must happen is for the people to have a political awakening of sorts. They must organize into groups capable of producing candidates based on a set of ideals and principles and which they will support all the way to office. Cha...

Hopefully this makes sense (also this is not legal advice)... There are several grounds for annulment under Philippine law (fraud, mentally insane, impotence). Most of these are common contract defenses (they negate the existence of a contract of marriage). Almost all these grounds (and this is key) have to exist the moment the partners marry. Only then can you annul a marriage. So it becomes hard to prove as you have show that a person defrauded you or was mentally unstable on the day of the marriage. Another favorite ground is psychological incapacity to contract marriage. Again you have to show that this incapacity existed at the time of the marriage. After being married for more than a couple of years, this is hard to do. The standard of proof is very high. Annulment is a run around on all this….a run around that exists only because the Philippine justice system is, let's say, engages in the monetizing of justice. The parties who want to have their marriage annul go thr...

The reason why divorce will never be allowed in the Philippines is because both the landed and financial elite will not allow it. They happen to make up most of the members of our congress and executive. To a lesser degree this has happened because of our fascist philippine catholic church. Divorce necessarily splits property between the ex-couple. Alimony and child support payments may also be required. These elite a-holes are so afraid that allowing legalized divorce will result in the dilution of their property holdings. I know you can have a lawyer draft up a pre-nup agreement but these elite are lazy and baka nga naman ma-in love sila (leading to not signing a pre-nup). Note also that the default property regime under Philippine law is absolute community of property which means essentially "what is mine is yours". Imaging there being legalized divorce, lets say gretchen was the legal wife of tonyboy and their marriage is governed by the absolute community of proper...

Divorce is a more complicated issue than gay marriage, it would involve custody battles involving poverty stricken Filipino's that could NEVER be counted on to pay 'court ordered' child support, and so warrants of arrest would be in the 100's of thousands. It would literally choke the legal system to a standstill, thus adding millions of peso's more debt to the already over-burdened/broke as a bad joke legal system. It would also create a nation of fugitives. But that is never spoken of, it's always said that the Filipino's 'family values' (that keeps families together) that is always heard as the argument AGAINST divorce, but it's not really why there is no divorce in this backwards ass country. Gay marriage, on the other hand, only creates court fees and administration costs that will add to the public coffers. The coffers that can be in turn raided by the mayor's and various other public officials close enough to get in on the action. ...

This lack of disaster preparedeness in a country that is the most disaster prone in the world highlights just how fucked up/utterly insane/inhumanely insensitive/ terminally stupid (pick one) generations of our leaders have been. That we allow them to grandstand after every disaster and bullshit us with the "Filipino is resilient" line instead of coming at them with fire. guns and pitchforks is equally a disaster makes us insane. I don't think the Philippines has had a year where no one has died due to a disaster. Our leaders lack of a clear disaster preparedness program is contributing to literally killing us. I don't know about you but one of the reasons why people agreed to be governed and go into a social contract is so that the government can protect the people, here lead disaster preparedness efforts. But yeah the Philippines is a society where it is a war of a person against every other person. In short, bahala na kayo dyan….kkb….ang mamatay ng dahil sayo...

The Marcos Administration destroyed the very democratic checks and balances that would have saved us, ensuring that crooks and scumbags would take over after Marcos is gone. Anyone looks good spending all that money being an autocrat and dictator who is unopposed by its own government in fear of being prosecuted. Then you realize that it's coming out of your wallet and future generation's wallets. And of course nobody was going to go against Marcos legally (and live to tell about it). Try suing a top politician for anything today (preferably if they did actual wrong to you), see how far you can go with it without getting thrown out or receive death threats. The police won't help you, and with the heavy restrictions placed on journalists in the Philippines, they can't help you either. All this infatuation with the past that only seemed great from the surface is a waste of time. Do something about the future instead, and it starts with yourself. Likewise, there ar...

Both the [public utility vehicle] operators and commuters are at fault in our sorry traffic condition. What we have here is a deeper problem that festers within the Filipino consciousness. A typical thought process for any Filipino motorist in committing a traffic offense would be :"If I can get away with it, then screw the rules! No cop's or MMDA's watching me anyways. I don't care about the guy behind me while I load or unload my passengers in the middle of the intersection." Contrast that thought to some other motorist in our more developed counterparts… Which goes like this: "I won't violate the rules since my actions may impact other motorists negatively." Rules laws and regulations here in our country are only for show. Laws are poorly written and much less poorly, if not even implemented at all for that matter. Some moron cuts your line while you wait for your MRT ride and no one bats an eye. Actually penalize a violator for an offen...

I wish that we will have the patience and perseverance to endure many more miseries until 'real progress' come about. As it is, we are in a rut. Mismanagemnt after mismanagement; one cohorts of oligarchs and cronies, after another set of cronies,while the poor multiplies in hordes, and the rich gets most of the goodies aided by mercenary politicians who sell their to souls to evil rulers for 30 pieces of silver. We do not have a respectable democracy, in fact it is an oligarchy, and plutocracy who will let the people "eat cake". We are in a rut because we remain infantile as a people. We refuse to mature. We are a soft people that always remain vulnerable to predatory rulers nd businessmen complemented by a bureacracy that is lazy to think, and to assert what is right for survival's sake. I guess the real heroes are indeed the OFWs who refuse to be broken by the lousy sytem of government tht cannot even provide decent jobs to its people, and yet these OFWs h...

From an economic standpoint, it would be incredibly shortsighted and altogether stupid for Filipinos in Hong Kong to participate in an action against Beijing in anticipation of some nebulous 'reward' that they might maybe receive sometime in an unspecified future. In the first place, the protesters are hardly in a position to confer any kind of 'reward.' They are composed of students and workers. Should Beijing acquiesce, the citizens of Hong Kong get to exercise autonomy over their affairs in the manner the protesters interpret the Basic Law. In contrast, Filipinos STILL retain their status as 'foreign guest workers.' They will NOT have any status to equal citizens. Whatever the outcome, any Filipinos identified by Hong Kong's government as participating in the protests could be designated as an undesirable for disrupting public order and expelled. That means lost opportunity, lost remittances and another extended family the Philippines has to worry a...

The romanticism of the Marcos rule is not really a phenomenon but rather the logical outcome of two rivals. When two opposing super powers/rivals are pitted against each other, each side would struggle to distinguish how different they are from each other, thus resulting in a stronger sense of identity. Case in point, ADMU and DLSU. Every so often you can hear a Lasallian boast of their accomplishments and characteristics in contrast to an Atenean. The duality is rather natural. The Philippines can't be just this dystopian society we are living in. Naturally, people would look to the other side of the fence, the Marcos Dictatorship. I was not alive when Marcos ruled over the Philippines, I only hear stories of what was and what could have been. But from where I am standing right now, it feels like we are in a gridlock. It seems rather hopeless. It's like the people just gave up and are trying their best to get by with what the government throws them. (an image of an obese...

If the people would just look at the good side of Marcos, he was a dictator indeed but also he was a strong and wise leader, it was him that gave the country a sense of direction toward progress no other president could have done, in fact he was so good at his job that Philippines still remember what he did for 30 years, that when somebody mentions martial law, they'll automatically think of Marcos, he may be bad as the media says but as a leader i think he was the best. And also the real problem lies on the "parasitic leeches" on the government not on the president, those greedy, opportunistic bastards with their minds fixated only on how to gain profit, using the Media in controlling the people like a puppet and the Government as a sort of straw to suck the funds of the country empty. Actually it might be because they could not control and profit from Pres. Marcos back in the day (because he monopolizes it) , that caused these "leeches" to overthrow him ...

I think the nostalgia for the Marcos years should not be confused with a nostalgia for the return of Marcos-type authoritarian rule (trust me you don't want curfews, state-sanctioned torture and summary executions). The nostalgia for Marcos is a cry for better governance and vision from our leaders. It is also a realization that after 30 years the EDSA revolution has been for the most part a colossal failure. I hate how leaders who benefitted from EDSA hold it up as some type of accomplishment when those leaders have shit all over the meaning of EDSA. EDSA was a cry from the people for democracy, progress, fairness and reason as opposed to dictatorship, poverty, cronyism and caprice. Yet everywhere you turn the leaders of the EDSA generation have made a mockery of its spirit. We are poorer and more subject to their caprice today. Worse, I think those leaders who benefited from EDSA possess less vision and less intellect. Di lang corrupt, bobo pa. You can say many bad things a...

Reporting on the ground in Hong Kong covering the protest movement there, GMA Network top journalist Howie Severino reports: "...Filipino residents of Hong Kong who have watched the events there unfold also credit how the present generation was raised – many by Filipina yayas (Tagalog for 'nannies').    " 'We have a culture of kapwa (fellowship) and tender loving care,' says Azon Cañete, a former NGO worker in Hong Kong who now covers the city for GMA News. 'It's hard to generalize because there are no studies, but I think OFWs have shown those values to their wards.'   " 'Hindi sila racist, mababait sila sa ibang lahi,' ('They are not racist, they are kind to ethnic minorities') says one long-time domestic helper in Hong Kong who, like many others here, didn't want to be named. 'Mga Pilipina kasing nagpalaki'." Last sentence translated: "It is because Filipinas raised them." ---------...

The chaos and lawlessness of filipino society is not caused by poverty and low wages, alone. There is something historical and cultural which is the root cause of the lack of empathy and community pride; which is the glue that usually holds groups of people that live in the same area together. The feeling that "we are all in this together" seems to be largely missing in this country. Instead, there is an attitude that I describe as "childish"; in that the person only thinks of what they want at this particular moment and to hell with the consequences. Until the reasons for this attitude are addressed; no progress in this country is possible. The reason I used the analogy of child rearing is because we all know what happens when there is no accountability to hold our appetites and whims in check. The strong trample the weak, the greedy hog the resources meant for all and life becomes a "tooth and claw" affair. --------------------- This is a GRP F...

Thais, Cambodians and all other SE. Asians are the same way. The mistake many foreigners make is they talk to a Filipino as they would talk to an American or a Hispanic. Because many Pinoys want to appear Western when they talk with Westerners. When Westerners start speaking to Filipinos as they would to another Westerner (Germanic or Latin)– frankly, and speaking the truth, Filipinos react strangely- they get offended, and animosity results. It's important to remember that an average Filipino is first and foremost a SE Asian and should be approached as one. Smile, don't contradict, say only good things. -------------------- This is a GRP Featured Comment. Join the discussion! http://getrealphilippines.com/blog/2014/07/common-irritating-ways-filipinos-react-to-criticism/comment-page-2/#comment-814146

EDSA along SM Megamall area and along Ortigas flooded! Photo source @HecklerForever https://twitter.com/HecklerForever/status/517247163164684289