blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

The conviction of Carlos Celdran on the Philippines Revised Penal Code article 133 “Crimes against religious worship” for "offending religious feelings” has led to some asking if there is such a thing as “offending secular feelings” . The answer is both a “yes” and a “no” depending on what angle you look at it. It is a qualified “yes” if the secularists (and the Freethinkers) say their position is based on faith and therefore is under the constitutional provisions on religious liberty. The answer is a qualified “no” if the secularists insist theirs is not a religious position and so they should have a thicker skin with respect to offensive ideas since much of the perceived offence is in the secular sphere , considered as protected speech (unless it incites to violence) and the laws on defamation and libel should offer enough redress of grievance and protection. Like in Roman Catholicism or any other religious tradition for that matter, there are adherents with a di...

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Noynoy Aquino continue to inflict their insidious kind of karma on the Filipino nation. In what can be described as a tragicomedy in the making we read that Mrs Arroyo wants to be given the go ahead to seek medical treatment abroad. Since she is a member of the House (and an employee of the civil service like yours truly), she had to apply for the requisite travel authority (TA) from the administrator of that government agency, no other than the Speaker, Sonny Belmonte. This was given and like in any travel authority, it spells out the itinerary and the reason of travel. The TA is a public document and has to been by the immigration officer at the airport. A government officer may demand to see it and one must present it. Mrs Arroyo unlike most government employees on  official business travel, faces suits that haven't been lodged in court (whatever that means, since without them being lodged, they aren't suits but possibly malicious accusation...

I do not know James Soriano but those netizens who know him say he is an Ateneo de Manila senior. The essay he wrote for the Manila Bulletin is honest on his experience in the use of English and Filipino in Filipino society. The mass of Filipino society especially on the net will label him as conyo , but we cannot fault him for that. The class stratification in Philippine society is sharply demarcated by language use as this blogger writes . This cuts across regional and cultural boundaries. Since in almost all political jurisdictions, those who are elected to public office belong to the elite, we can observe that signs in public buildings are in English or may be bilingual but the sign in a Philippine language is less conspicuous than the one in English. I have seen and stared at these while peeing  in countless toilets in the Visayas and Mindanao, where a warning (pahibalo) in not flushing the toilet will result in a fine. The warning is in large font English and the one in ...

St Nicholas of Myra (a.k.a. Santa Claus) saves an innocent man from execution On March 30 three Filipinos will be executed in China for drug trafficking offences for which they have been convicted under Chinese law. They were convicted of trafficking more than 50 gms of heroin into China. The Noynoy Aquino government has done the little too late effort of pleading clemency and sent the Vice President Jojo Binay to speak with the Chinese. However he was reminded that under Chinese law, there is no one who can grant executive clemency not even the President of China. The authority to issue death warrants or take them lies only with China's Supreme Court. In most countries, the Head of State has the power to pardon or commute sentences. This power derives from the Divine Right of Kings . While the whole idea of a King being above the law has been largely abandoned, the power to pardon, commute or reprieve penalties is the last remaining vestige of this right in a republic and the P...

Latest to be infected with the Twitter and Facebook vectored democracy "virus" is absolutist Saudi Arabia . This Islamic Kingdom supplies the world with much of the oil, earns over 90% of its revenue from oil sales, and over the years had to "walk the talk" with the USA. Thus the Kingdom had to back the USA in its wars and interventions in the region short of sending the Kingdom's army to these trouble spots. The Kingdom also hosts the largest contingent of Filipino workers who have no rights of permanent residency. The USA hosts the biggest group of overseas Filipinos but many have rights of residency or have been granted American citizenship. The Kingdom's monarchs are also the Guardians of the Islamic Holy Places of Medina and Mecca. The state according to its constitution is governed according to the Quran and Islamic law. It is one of two sovereign states where a religious constitution is absolute, the other one is the Vatican. However like in Christi...

Here are some reasons why the Philippines under any president be that may be The Great Apo Ferdie, Santa Corazon de Aquino, General "Daimos" Tabako, Asiong "Erap" Salonga,  the Gloria in Excelsis Arroyo and the Noynoy the PNoy, will never be another Singapore as long as we don't get out of our delusions. We have to remind Senator Bongbong Marcos that in Singapore They send people to jail or the gallows if convicted and the appeals process has run out. There is true Rule of Law in Singapore. In Flor Contemplacion's case there was no "consideration for a friend". Walang kai-kaibigan sa Singapore! And that is why Singapore is less corrupt than China! A "pasaway" American teen gets caned for vandalism and so does a Brit! And so Americans respect Singapore laws. If an American GI did a Corporal Smith there, he would have been detained not at the American Embassy but in the new Changi prison. They fine people who deserve to be fined, bubb...

None of the Marcoses have seen the view through the window of a jail cell but can look at the view from the Batasan and Senate office windows! The Cojuangcos still own a hacienda! There are still VALID reasons for Joma Sison to pontificate even after Communism has been thrown into the trash bin everywhere! Media, power and industry oligarchies are back. And they dupe their workers. Workers not getting their due. They also bleed the people in power rates! The 1987 Constitution Gloria Macapagal Arroyo takes the Presidency from Erap at the EDSA Shrine. The 1987 Constitution is thus stabbed fatally. Corrupt generals having "pabaon" while the AFP doesn't have decent air, naval and land forces assets. Congress Vietnam outpacing us economically. Remember they got pounded by the US of A.  Noynoy Aquino was elected on mom and dad's platform. And the government becomes like a badly run student council! BUT WAIT, WE STILL HAVE HOPE.

The unfortunate death of ex AFP Chief of Staff, Angelo Reyes has sparked a discussion of suicide in Pinoy society. I think the discussion is good since Pinoy society has to face up to the problem of suicide aside from the religious aspects of this. In a sense suicide is a taboo topic in Pinoy society and this is a reflection of the  generally conservative Roman Catholic culture of the country. But economic and social pressures have driven many to take their own lives. Just last December, a couple hanged themselves on the MRT pylon at EDSA Mandaluyong, snarling traffic for hours. We read about financially desperate breadwinners committing suicide, but aside from the reports, this isn't really news! When a student of Ateneo tried to commit suicide, this became news. What drives people to suicide are many but medical science considers this as a mental health concern. Suicides are considered as "cries for help" or attention and is linked with lack of coping mechanisms for...

The now famous  Porsche spiel had me laughing and wincing at the same time. But that was before former UP Law dean Raul Pangalangan dissected the whole issue in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. I agree with many of the points raised by Dean Pangalangan especially that the Noynoy presidency for all intents and purposes is a "symbol presidency". The Porsche spiel is a cruise missile that is targeted with smart accuracy at the center of the Noynoy symbol. And I have no one to blame but the bachelor president himself. The fact is that there are several nations that are headed by symbols. For example, Queen Elizabeth II reigns as a symbol of unity over Great Britain. And like Noynoy, she has lots of untainted money and can afford to buy what her heart desires. But to the surprise of non-Britons, in the 1970s she was reported to have gone around Buckingham Palace, switching off the lights. She wanted to save on electric bills. And her kids spent their babyhood days in nurseries...

For the first time, Congress (Senate and House), Civil Society and the Church have agreed that it is now opportune to amend the 1987 Constitution now. This I call the EDSA Constitutional system for it was born of a revolt on a highway and its creation announced on a military parade ground a stone's throw from that highway.  I was witness to both events.  The main reason why all agree to amend it is that the incumbent Chief Executive is simply not interested in prolonging his stay in the Palace. But the President is nor thrilled about the whole enterprise which is puzzling since his problems in reforming governance is really stymied by how the Constitution is interpreted and applied. Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno in his address to the University of the Philippines upon his receiving the Dr of Laws degree says that Philippine democracy is in a "stretcher". I don't think it is in a stretcher yet but I think Philippine democracy has an autoimmune di...

Outgoing University of the Philippines (UP) President Professor Emerlinda Roman writes in the UP Forum on the need to revisit the university system's Revitalized General Education Program (RGEP).  Prof Roman's essay is based on a 2010 series of surveys and focus grouped discussions (FGD) on the problems and successes of the RGEP. For those old (and not so old) and "loyal to thee" alums and those who didn't attend UP, the RGEP was conceived under the presidency of Dodong Nemenzo. Nemenzo is probably the only Marxist to occupy Quezon Hall. One chapter of R Kwan Laurel's iconoclastic and larrikinous book "Philippine Cultural Disasters"   is all about Nemenzo, Randy David's motorcycle and the RGEP recipe with a dash (or is it deadly dose?) of Ayala Corporation!  The larrikin , academic heretic and "loose cannon" that I am, I would recommend readers to grab a copy at your friendly reputable and credible bookshop. I'm not plugging, but ...

I am a staunch supporter of the disestablishment of the Catholic Church in the Philippines. By disestablishment, I mean the Church will relinquish all pretensions to political power and by doing so, she becomes closer to the will of her founder, Jesus Christ. Well it seems that She is headed that way even if her bishops don't think it that way. By calling for civil disobedience on the RH (Reproductive Health) Bill, the bishops enjoin Catholics to "obey God first rather than the Government". If we were in Tudor England, such a statement is treasonous. I don't think a majority of Catholics will follow the bishops. After all, hardly anyone believes using artificial contraception is a matter of proscribing the faith.  In short people will think it is daft to go into civil disobedience over a condom!  This whole call for civil disobedience will be a guaranteed flop.  Unfortunately the whole idea of contraception according to Catholic teaching offends morals. The Chur...

The Philippine Daily Inquirer should be commended for reprinting Senator Benigno Aquino's essay "What's Wrong with the Philippines" for Ninoy Aquino's martyrdom anniversary today. Aquino must be tossin an turnin' in his Manila Memorial Park tomb. For the Presidency of his wife, Corazon is also one answer to his question. The barest summary of Ninoy's question is this. There is an acute need for redistribution and access to education is the major peaceful way this can happen. The Americans may have wanted to mold the Filipinos in their own image and thus their institution of public education which is now remotely being seen as a liberating force, having fallen for crass profiteering. This is also extremely true for the Roman Catholic Church and the schools it operates. Holy Mother Church cannot escape blame here. She must be put in the dock too for the ills of Philippine society and not hide forever from the separation of church and state curtain for which ...

President Benigno Aquino III plans to tell the truth about the corruption of the previous administration. He expects the electorate to be shocked. But I believe they won't be. The truth shall set you free, the Gospels tell us. This is true but the truth isn't enough. The success and failure of the Noynoy presidency lies on one thing. And this is sending Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her cabal behind bars. The people will not like a pardon, so he better forget entertaining that possibility. Mr Aquino can use the vast powers and persuasive or otherwise of his office to see justice is done. And perhaps this is the last chance for the Rule of Law to eliminate corruption. The other options have been tried and initially found successful until a new crop of corrupt politicians take over. History calls this the executioner's block. But that never does any good!

On Monday, Philippine President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III will give his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) to Congress as what the Constitution requires him to do. Wags are now having a field day on predicting what that shocking revelation could be. The blurbs say it is about the top 5 corruption allegations of the administration of ex Prez now Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, which left the nation's coffers having only 100 M left. If this is true then the government is functionally bankrupt. While Noynoy won the presidency on an anti-corruption platform, I hate to say this but the wags are right. Filipinos are so inured to corruption that any revelation wouldn't be a shocker at all. What are the things that can really shock the Filipino people? The wags say 1) Mr Aquino gives a SOMS (state of my sexuality) rather than a SONA speech! 2) Mr Aquino arrests Mrs Arroyo after he gives the "shocker" speech. But of course none of that would happen!...

The Chairdestroyer ooops wrecker Mac Esposo asks a similar question in the Philippine Star on why the Left never seized power. He enumerates the long term effects of Spanish colonization and Christianization of the islands and the people and the American branding of our nationalists as "bandoleros" as factors why Filipinos never accepted the Left. The Left has been in the electoral political arena for several years now. They are now moving out of the partylist sphere into the wider field by being guest candidates of the Nationalista Party. With this attempt at coalition building, it shows a bit of pragmatism. But this pragmatism was criticized Left, Center to Right. Why? The Left went to Bed with characters that to put it simply, tried to kill them. But I dispute Esposo's "damaged culture" argument. Filipinos still go for nationalist types. But they won't go for Communist "Nationalists" for one simple reason. And this reason has been well discussed...

The outgoing President of the Philippines, Mrs Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo delivered her swan song of a speech to the public. "Look around you" she said referring to the economic gains of her 9 year watch. When I was in London many years ago, I joined a walking tour of the City and the tour guide brought us to St Paul's Cathedral. The Baroque wonder is architect Christopher Wren's magnificent opus. Aside from the giant baldachin one of the tourist draws of the cathedral is Wren's resting place and its famous epitaph LECTOR, SI MONUMENTUM REQUIRIS CIRCUMSPICE Translated into English it means Reader, if you need to see his monument, look around you. Wren's tomb is plain but his cathedral ain't! Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is not about to join Wren in the afterlife but she sure will be joining him in history. She obviously wants to ensure her place in Philippine presidential history is secure. And indeed it is. Her ascent into power is a historically significant. How...

The title of this post is exactly what the tooktook driver told me when I returned from a meeting in Central Bangkok to my well appointed but still super budget hotel near Bangkok’s version of Banawe Street, Quezon City. I couldn’t take a cab and getting to the MRT was out of the question as Red Shirt protesters and Thaksin fans were marching on the streets. I will not dwell on the usual CNN and BBC commentaries that the Thai political crisis will affect Thailand’s economy. That is patently obvious. The Thais have made the whole biz of people power more savvy. The main aim to shut down not the TV stations (it was the government who did that) or the stock market, but the biggest shopping malls. If we had that kind of people power now, then the government will have a struggle to be in power. I have had an interest in Thailand since I have many scientist colleagues from that country. Also my parents have so many close friends from the Kingdom and they have become like fami...

The discussion thread in the Philippine Association of Marine Science Yahoo group has become interesting. It first started when Professor Flor Lacanilao started about a few years back on what ails Philippine Science. While we may think that it is largely the lack of resources, Prof Lacanilao says it's more than that. It is political. The politics is from the university committee level (like the one the decides who gets academic tenure or not), to the department level (which allocates scarce resources and recommends promotions), the college (which confirms the recommendations), the university administration (which approves the promotion), to the Department of Science and Technology (which gives the grants), the National Academy of Science and Technology or NAST (which advises the President in conferring national awards) and ultimately ends on the President (who approves the awards). Professor Lacanilao contends that "non-scientists" get recognized in this he means the sc...

This is probably the most idiotic political proposal ever dished out in this whole talk of constitutional amendments. Norberto Gonzalez, a key Arroyo adviser suggests that his employer establish a revolutionary government in the likes of what Mrs Aquino did post EDSA. This government then shall have all powers to revise the constitution. Well we have news for Mr Gonzalez. If we do have a revolutionary government, we want it to be a genuine one and we are serious about it. We want a razor sharp guillotine with matching basket to catch a few Malacanang talking heads like what he has on his shoulder. But we being civilised in this 21st century, can be satisfied with Mrs Arroyo sacking him for such idiocy.