blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

Add caption The Bill of Rights in the Constitution of the Philippines remains as the most relevant part of the charter for the citizen. In the latest book "Our Rights, Our Victories" (Cleverheads Publishing, 2011), authors Marites Danguilan Vitug and Criselda Yabes tackles landmark cases in the Supreme Court of the Philippines which deal with the rights and protections afforded by the Bill for the citizen. Ms Vitug and Ms Yabes both respected investigative journalists have to be lauded for coming out with this book that deals with civil rights in the whole tumult of our history as an independent nation. This is indeed a first in Pinoy publishing history. The book is written without much of the legalese that accompanies ponencias by the Pinoy Supremes. This would make it more intelligible for the educated Pinoy reader who knows English. Even among the educated, civics was hardly ever taught and thought about unlike in the days of my parents and grandparents during the Im...

The blurbs have it wrong. The Philippine Flag has no right side up or up side down. The flag's designers envisioned equality in the flag. So whichever side you fly it, it should not matter. However the Flag is unique in that it is the only National Flag which by flying the red side up, becomes a War Standard. Of course we Filipinos want the nation to be at peace. So we would want the blue side up. But the red side up was first hoisted during the Revolutionary War against the Imperialist United States of America (to show that a Sovereign Nation was at war)   which eventually crushed the Philippine Republic.  The American occupiers banned flying the National Flag blue or red side up for 12 years from 1907-1919 on pain of stiff jail terms, fines or even death. This is the time when the flag could be displayed either covertly or as part of Zarzuela costumes. The red side was also up when the Philippine Commonwealth was invaded by the Japanese in 1941 and the Field Marshal...

President Barack Hussein Obama was reported by the US media to support the establishment of a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero in lower Manhattan, New York City. He cites the religious liberty rights of Americans. The construction of a mosque near Ground Zero [not ON Ground Zero as thought by some] has generated much heated debate. Some Christians have likened this to a conquering Islamic army establishing Mosques as a sign of victory. Surely such imagery does not help a dispassionate discussion of the matter. While the 9/11 attacks were instigated by Islamic militants, this should not be made to disparage the rest of the world's Muslims who sincerely follow the call of their faith to peace. The problem with tacking any denominational religious meaning to the Ground Zero site is that not only Christians were killed there. There were Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, non-believers, believers of smaller faith traditions and Muslims too. No religious tradition can appropriate the site which...

Thanks to Karate Kid 2010 , starring Will Smith's chip off the old block Jaden Smith and Kung Fu Artist and Hollywood Star Jackie Chan, everyone in America [most especially in Hollywood] and on Planet Earth knows that China is THE SUPERPOWER. It's obvious from the plot. Motortown USA is now a dump and an African American single mother has to move to China to work for a car plant [probably that famous European brand bought by the Mainland Taipans last year]. She says to son Dre Parker "There is nothing left for us in Detroit. This [Beijing] is home!" [Filipinos should read that as "There is no future left in America. This [Asia a.k.a. China] is the FUTURE!] The movie promotes Air China and shows China's Olympic status symbols, the Bird's Nest, tall office towers, busy streets, fast cars and of course the touristic staples of the Forbidden City, Great Wall, Guilin's Karst Landscape and a real Shaolin temple. Unlike in the original 1984 Karate Kid starr...

EWTN has noted that President-elect Barack Obama no longer goes to the Church of the Lord, but to the Church of the Gym. The same global Catholic network also noted that US presidents have regular churchgoing habits whether they are Episcopal, Catholics, Methodist etc. Americans while holding steadfastly to the separation of church and state doctrine, still expect their presidents to go to church. Americans tolerate religion in public life as long as no religion is given preferential treatment. Obama may herald a European type of secularism that completely separates the religious from public life.

Watching the concession speech of Senator McCain and Barack Obama's victory speech, it amazes me that despite the tensions in American society, the 238 year old way of American democracy still works. Barack Obama now enters the stage where all his actions count. He got 338 electoral votes.Only 270 are needed to win. Now the post-mortems have begun. There are the party pooper pundits, who throw cold water by emphasizing the difficulties that Obama will face and very little will be resolved in his first term. Obama to his credit realizes that. He knows that some of his fans will be disappointed. Also the soon to be First Family is being sized up. Obama's kids know that their lives won't be the same again. For the first time in US history, gays were mentioned in a presidential speech. This shows the inclusive direction Obama is going to take. How the Bush-Obama transition period will work out is of interest now. There is growing impatience with Bush. For a Pinoy like me, the c...

Americans are expected to deluge the polling booths on Nov 4. In a society where no one is required to vote (and not voting may be considered a political statement) , the electoral system may not be able to handle the record number of voters. The blurbs report that for some senior citizens,this will be their first time to cast a vote! The rest of the planet is "voting" too. Even in Russia's Siberia people are either for John McCain or Barack Obama. However aside Georgians who are for McCain, many people interviewed are for Obama. Indians are for Obama. Residents of Obama, Japan are for Obama, subarashii! It isn't just Obama's skin colour that matters but for many it is the disaster that George W Bush's leaves as a legacy. As of this moment, Bush has entered history with no victory against the terrorists and a destroyed financial sector. Bush is the president that destroyed the United States of America. For us Pinoys we can't cast a ballot (though wansapana...

Mao Zedong had an idea where the capitalist roaders in the Party would bring Chinese society. But in the end, Mao couldn't prevent the trip down the capitalist road. So we had the Bird's Nest stadium and now have the melamine in the baby formula scandal! The phrase was coined just before the Cultural Revolution and has been a staple in Mao Zedong thought. But US treasury secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve chief, Ben Bernanke have been labelled as "socialists" by the American intellectual establishment. If they convince Congress about the necessity of their 700 billion dollar bailout of sinking banks, then the US government would have nationalized a big chunk of the US financial system. But what scares the American public and their senators is neither Paulson and Bernanke can't say where all this would lead to! President George W Bush has gone public almost pleading to pass the bailout plan. The plan can be called the Paulson-Bernanke Thought. Thus the US h...

Dean Jorge Bocobo in his blog says that America has taken on socialism and a planned market. The Federal Reserve's 85 billion dollar or more intervention to save the underwriters is unprecendented in history. Welcome to the USSA or the United Socialist States of America! Remember Croissant Commie and bridge player Deng Xiao Ping? His most famous line is "It doesn't matter if the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice!" With that he launched China's "socialism with Chinese characteristics". And the crowning glory of all that market reform is the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing. Of course the reform has its dark side. Capitalistic greed is the likely reason why there is melamine in Chinese made baby formula! With the Federal Reserve intervention, I would like to restate Deng and I really intend the pun,especially in this US Presidential derby season. My apologies to the Paramount Leader! "It doesn't matter if the candidate is black o...

The Chairwrecker Mac Esposo reflects on the coming Philippine-American Friendship Day on July 4 with this op ed piece in the Philippine Star. Mac writes "At best, Philippine-US relations can be considered a mixed blessing. The US introduced public education here as well as the US brand of democracy which we follow to this day. But if we are to weigh what they gave versus what they took — we will find that they took more than what we could afford to give." Well for our younger readers that's what colonialism is exactly all about whether it was for the Christianization of the islands by Spain, making the islands in their own image by the Americans, the Japanese idea of "Asian for Asiatics" etc. Our colonial history is unfortunately a part of where we came from. It is in our best interest and sanity to remember its legacy, which is at best mixed. That's why I think that it is of childish "nationalistic" spite that the Philippines removed from its cale...