blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

The Roman Catholic Church has found it the hard way on the RH bill. Mass prayer rallies do not work on the Aquino administration! The politcally astute, potential papabile , and de facto Primate of all the Philippines, Archbishop of Manila, the Most Rev Dr Chito Tagle has said that the only option for the most numerous Church is the negotiating table. Tomorrow the Iglesia ni Cristo will find it the hard way too if Rappler.com is right . If Catholic liturgies won't work on Noynoy, neither will Grand Evangelical Missions (GEMs) will. For one thing in some political matters, Aquino is beyond evangelizing! This is a result of the increasing secular nature of Philippine society. Aquino doesn't find any value on debts of gratitude to any religious organization . This means that for the Aquino administration, religion has been largely disestablished.  Aquino doesn't care for de facto religious establishment which the INCs doctrine of command votes tries to secure.  Aquino'...

2012 marks the centennial of citizen's military training in the Philippines which began at the University of the Philippines on 17 March 1912. While Filipinos have throughout history responded to calls to defend their land (Filipinos resisted British occupation in 1762), the Spanish Army having earlier established a militia at the University of Santo Tomas (General Antonio Luna learned his basic military tactics here), it was only in 1912 when the citizen's army was really meant to defend the Philippines and not just the imperialist power which had sovereignty over the islands then. This is the essence of a citizen's armed forces to defend the home and hearth. The idea wasn't new. The British Army established militias in their colonies and it eventually became the nucleus of the revolutionary army that forced the British out of the American Colonies. In other British colonies which had a peaceful transition to independence and sovereignty, the militias became the nu...

In what appears to be a result of excesses of the past administration, some civil servants are up in arms about the revised Statement of Assets and Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN)  form which they are  required to submit to the Civil Service Commission. They believe it is an invasion of privacy as well as plain silly! Anyway, especially for the benefit of those not in the civil service, I am posting what a typical SALN form of a civil servant really looks like! Enjoy. Judge for yourself. As the Roman adage goes "The more corrupt the Republic the more are the forms..." ooops I meant the laws! STATEMENT OF ASSETS, LIABILITIES AND NET WORTH  AND DISCLOSURE OF BUSINESS INTERESTS, FINANCIAL CONNECTIONS AND RELATIVE/S IN THE GOVERNMENT SERVICE As of December 31, 2011 (Required by R.A. Nos. 3019 and 6713)                ( Note: Husband and Wife who are both public officials or employees may  ...