blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

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...

May 10, 2010, election day in the Philippines is historic in several ways. First of all it is the first time that the national elections are automated. Secondly, it is a chance for the electorate to get rid of the Glorious disaster of the last 9 years and thirdly it shows us that religious command votes no longer matter much. Besides the heat (and I was not that hydrated, stupid me and got a mild case of heat fatigue!) I noticed that even in precincts where the heat index would have reached 43 C, hardy anyone wants to leave the queue. It took many voters 4 hours (leading prez contender Noynoy Aquino not exempted) cast their vote. Congratulations Filipino electorate. Your vote was read by the PCOS machine. Some PCOS machines conked out apparently due to the heat. But equipment failure contrary to pessimists was estimated at less than 1% Within a minute after the polls closed, it seems that PPCRV has got a few results in its parallel count. Expect this to snowball as time passes. Electo...

The government of Her Excellency will have no choice but to read the writing on the wall. We are in a transition and our President PhD I think is smart enough to navigate what could be choppier waters for her. The 2007 Philippine midterm elections seems to show the failure of political machineries to deliver guaranteed winnings. The elections showed seems to have brought down the curtain on cinematocracy or celebritocracy, or what we can call government by illusion. Almost all of showbiz candidates lost. The most notable exception is Vilma Santos, who by the way had no longer been an actress but a politician. And as a pollie she has quite delivered to her constituents. Richard Gomez?.... He did fencing, rowing, taekwondo etc didn't win and the electorate saw through all of that. An example that you cannot govern a constituency by the illusion you can knock out foes is the sad tale of Manny Pacquiao. His electorate had tried to warn him beforehand. It does not surprise me why a Cat...