blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

Satire as genre in visual art, performing arts and in literature is used to ridicule society's shortcomings, vices, mores and conventions. While it HAS to be FUNNY, it's main goal is constructive, to give chance to the satirized to REFORM themselves. Satire in the Western Canon is from the Romans like Horace and Juvenal whose styles set the standard for satire throughout history. My favourite satirical work is Petronius Arbiters' The Satyricon which I first read while attending the University of the Philippines. It is a major work of literature for the single reason that it satirizes Roman society of the first century AD as well as giving linguists a clue on how colloquial Latin was spoken. The chapters on Trimalchio's Dinner Party are hilarious to the extent that F Scott Fitzgerald once considered "Trimalchio" as a possible title to his novel which eventually became "The Great Gatsby" Satire ridicules the pompous and the holier than thous and i...

The ongoing territorial claims spat between China and the Philippines is historically significant since for the first time in millennia, China gets a firm "no way" from what it has traditionally considered as vassal states. This is what the social and "classical" media have missed out in their analysis is in the Scarborough shoal standoff. China has had threatening territorial problems from its eastern and northeastern neighbours but not from the south. Only Korea can be considered as a vassal state here. Japan has been the traditional nemesis and the Mongols have conquered China in the last 1000 years. Beijing is the clear loser and has more to lose than what some op ed columnists opine . Why do I say this? And it was completely unprepared for dealing with a Tsinoy President, Noynoy Co Juang Co Aquino! First of all it is economic. Traditionally Beijing has used its economic clout to "teach" ASEAN countries not to diss it out. But these ASEAN nation...

One of the major national security issues that face the Philippines and neighbouring countries is massive environmental changes that can cause the displacement of hundreds of thousands if not millions of citizens. As of this writing, metropolitan Bangkok is now being innundated by massive monsoon floods and the engineering interventions made by the Thai government in the last 20 years of rapid economic development are proving of very little use. The Prime Minister of Thailand  Ms Yingluck Shinawatra, has to call on the Thai armed forces to offer relief and rescue. Like the Philippines, the massive evacuation of thousands of citizens is a logistical challenge that will tax the capacity of the government of Thailand. However the Kingdom of Thailand is in a much better position to respond. Why? The Armed forces of the ASEAN countries have seen improvements in training, equipment and recruitment. These countries armed forces have enough strength to call in times of national environmen...

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...

A still from "Amigo" by John Sayles The late William Henry "Scotty" Scott, esteemed American historian and lay minister of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines wrote in "Ilocano Responses to American Aggression 1900-1901" that a few years after the Philippines was finally recognized as independent, the nationalist trend of the 1950s led the Department of Education in 1951 to interview the few surviving veterans of the Filipino War against American Imperialism a.k.a "Philippine-American War" and the then present generation of Filipinos about the war. So thorough was the American colonial education system and its historical cleansing of that period in history that Filipinos knew more of the revolt against "backward" Spain and friar abuses than the American atrocities of the anti-imperialist war. This historical amnesia poisons US-Philippine relations to this day. No amount of dancing to the beat of "Papaya" by former US ...

IT WILL KNOCK THE NOGGINS OF THE BISHOPS AND THE CELDRANITES ON  WHY THERE IS A NEED TO THINK ABOUT DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITIONS AND FATES At the rate things are going, Noynoy Aquino cannot afford the accelerating downward trend in his approval ratings so he cannot afford to lose his liberal constituency. Except for the most doctrinaire everyone from the Catholics to the non-believers agree that we need to manage our population. The question is what method to use? The Philippines is probably between the late stages 2 and the very early of 3 of the demographic transition but it appears that this transition is rather slow. The country is not closed to the outside world and exchange of ideas and commodities, so the question is why this is slow? The Roman Catholic Church opposes the use of artificial methods of fertility regulation on moral grounds. The idea of natural law is central to Catholic theological understanding. I will not dwell on this issue but it is testament to the  c...

The 1970s may be what some 40yish-50yish Pinoys would consider as their "Wonder Years". In a Marcosian age, where things were politically hushed up (and there was practically no entertainment whatsoever), Holy Week for us kids meant going to church (more accurately churches) in our sturdy, tank-like Vauxhall (you see we had a Brit car then). This also meant doing the Stations of the Cross.  Our grandparents who remembered the 13 Churches of Old Manila would regale us with tales of how they spent their Holy Week. On Good Friday, we all went to Pasig (which was a town then) and watch the Roman Catholic procession. If it were not proper Roman Catholic catechism from my mom, I would think those Catholic icons were straight out from a Dracula movie! Nonetheless, I always, until now, think parading those giant nails by which Jesus was pinned to the cross is too much for me. But that is Roman Catholic piety! My family is not 100% Catholic since some family members were Anglicans, ...

A hero is always a genuine hero to his/her fans. Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Hitler and Marcos are heroes. It is a fact that the following people just named were dictators who dreamed that their countries will be the number one of them all. Unfortunately they all became redundant in one way another. Lenin's Soviet state is history and deserves to be in the dustbin. Stalin inspires no one save for the party in North Korea and the Filipino cabal in Utrecht. Mao's portrait still hangs in Tiananmen but presides over a hypercapitalist wonderland. Hitler is fodder for hundreds of best selling books still mostly printed in England, but only the insane would think the English are big fans of der Fuhrer! The English are fascinated by the Nazis because they want to know how their democracy was able to defeat totalitarianism. With the sole of exception of China, all the countries of once led by these dictators are all democracies. Russia is a democracy but is on the way to becoming a functionin...

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.

All set to bravely defend the Republic against its enemies! My father who was with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and retired as a general officer had a son and once he could walk did not put him into a Gucci but into a Philippine Army uniform! The only "pabaon" General Vallejo ever had upon retirement after 30 years of service was a pistol and a high powered automatic rifle (which he was entitled to after serving the Republic in its wars against enemies sworn to destroy it). However after the 1986 EDSA revolution, he donated these weapons to the Philippine Army museum so that young soldiers will have an idea of what it means to defend the Republic. Dad also spent countless hours training me to be a marksman and that began as soon as I first opened my eyes as a baby. By the time I was in high school, I was already trained to shoot and be deadly accurate at it! But I never had that weapons fetish. I never got the wind about using guns as a way to project one...

The Philippine Daily Inquirer writes an op ed Sodden welcome about the La Nina enhanced Easterlies that have been wrecking havoc on the eastern seaboards of the region even into Australia. Queensland, Australia is now experiencing floods which its non-believer Prime Minister Julia Gillard described as of "biblical proportions" Gillard has personally seen the disaster which now has shut down Brisbane. While the Sydneysiders and Melburnians are hundreds of kilometres from the flood zone, all my mates from those cities don't think they won't get flooded. They are concerned. The PDI complains that the Manila-centric Noynoy administration has not shown the requisite urgency in dealing with the matter. Mr Noynoy Aquino has yet to set foot or fly over flood stricken Southern Leyte or even in nearer Albay. If he had, the press didn't get wind of it and neither have we seen the press photos. Mrs Arroyo steps into a disaster zone, I think it is Malacanang P...

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 ...

 No amount of CBCP spin doctoring can repair the damaged credibility of the Philippine Catholic Church with the rest of the Universal Church after CBCP president Bishop Nereo Odchimar unleashed the "e" word (excommunication) in an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer. The Philippine Church is now the laughingstock of the whole Catholic world!   This will not amuse His Holiness at all! Odchimar speculated on the grounds that the President of the Philippines could be excommunicated for doing his Constitutional duties. For that irresponsible statement,  he should resign his position. Pinoy Catholics should  ask the Holy Father Benedict XVI to translate him to a titular see. He deserves to be the Archbishop of Leptis Magna and he can excommunicate Muammar Kadaffy for all we care.

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 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...

Buendia during Ondoy? No Orchard Road last June 16! Photo credits from http://www.about-knowledge.com/orchard-road-flood/ Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) will be memorable for me since it flooded my house and sending my techie gadgets to the computer in the sky. Also I was trapped in Quezon City, at a charismatic church where I helped evacuees get some assistance with three medical students from UERM medical school who were to report for duty in the hospital, but couldn't. By then UERM hospital was up to its second floor in flood. The polluted San Juan River burst its banks.  I could not forget the long line of schoolchildren with drums and bugles as they were in school for a show when the flood struck and sank their school. But many people lost more in terms of property and worse in lives.  While damaged houses can be repaired, IPods, flat screen TVs and Digicams can be replaced by "cooler" models, a human life lost to the floods cannot be replaced. The blurbs today mark th...