Philippine Politics

Well, that's not very encouraging, is it? I mean, sure, Marcos was horrible, but the thing is he could have been more than another banana republic dictator. But he was a fool. He had greatness within his grasp and he sold it for thirty pieces of silver and a ton of shoes.

That still doesn't convince me that what I proposed isn't the best way to fix my country, or that there are other ways. Ways that don't involve doing terrible things.

edited 17th Apr '13 8:15:08 AM by Icarael

"Stealing is a crime and drugs is a crime too BUT if you steal drugs the two crimes cancel out and it’s like basically doing a good."

In discussions like this, I just watch the fireworks as fellow online Filipinos curse their own country and fellowmen and wish they're citizens of some more "better-off" nation, while go off and do my own thing afterwards.

You know guys, I've learned to just not get fixated on things I can't change and focus on those that I can. But who am I to preach, since complaining is second nature to Filipinos.

edited 17th Apr '13 9:07:53 AM by ladycoffee

WARNING: This troper is a severe monomaniac. Caution is advised.

I strongly doubt many Filipinos would follow the sort of ideology you believe: it just doesn't seem to be in their character or hearts.

These days, if it isn't crime related, they'd rather live and let live or just ignore the problem all together (for better or worse), and have some odd mix of individualistic "I can do anything!" belief along with "I'm never gonna get rich, this is my lot in life". Can't think of a better example other than the beggars in Manila who use kids hired on the street to con tourists out of money. They happened to make a small fortune acting poor, same with those crippled guys in front of the San Augustin Church.

Granted, this definately doesn't apply to the provincial crime families, the MILF, or Abu Sayaff. Hell if anything you'd find a ton of support from the public if you made a campaign to take them down (good luck avoiding their hitmen though)! But aside from the corruption, you'd be hard pressed to find a group willing to use extreme nationalism or war to achieve their ends.

The state of TV programming comes to mind. Full of noontime shows and soap operas and a few cartoon, but the educational shows seem to have vanished. Whether cause or symptom, I don't know. But either way, it's not helping.

I grew up to shows like Sineskwela (whose theme song is now stuck in my head), Math-tinik, and this one show whose name I forget where two kinds are sent back in time once per episode to relive a period of Philippine history. Farther back, my parents recorded VHS copies of shows called Physics in Everyday Life, and Chemistry in Action, and this other one about biology whose name I also forget. It's like going to school without necessarily having to be in school at the time, and having a teacher I can pause and rewind if something didn't make sense.

Do these kinds of shows exist anywhere on local television anymore? I rather doubt it.

This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...

In regards to the whole "copying the Nazis" thing: You do remember that they were terribly inefficient as a government and LOST the war they started very badly? As well as generally being bigoted and killing millions of people for no good reason, which in turn has resulted in things like the UN and international laws to try and prevent that sort of thing from happening again? I mean seriously, there's better things to emulate, in nearly every way possible.

Like FDR and his New Deal, for example. He overshadowed Nazis effort to restore post-crisis economy with completely peaceful and democratic means.

My President is Funny Valentine.

Yeah, but I don't think it's gonna work when most of the politicians here would cockblock any measure to install a New Deal-esque system.

"Stealing is a crime and drugs is a crime too BUT if you steal drugs the two crimes cancel out and it’s like basically doing a good."

I'm not saying it's not going to be incredibly difficult to affect positive change. I'm just saying that there's so many better examples that a group of people known for being extremely hateful bigots and also known for failing to achieve their long term goals in the end. Like, an entire world's worth of better examples. We don't lack for people who've achieved good things in this world, and in the process most of those people have managed not to be insanely hateful bigots, or just insanely unrealistic leaders.

If your first idea is to emulate the Nazis, you're either a bigot yourself or you're just incredibly unimaginative and lazy.

Yeah. Don't go copying the Nazis because you're lazy or unimaginative. They were a special brand of awful. There will never be a hated, loathed group of tyrants in history like them in our time.

Don't think you can get your own awfulness cranny in history, Icarael and company, by being a copycat. You don't have Hitler's sheer, unbelievable evil, his loud voice, or his demogogue abilities to inspire the masses to horrible excesses and violation of human rights.

That, and this group of Pinoys don't have Hugo Boss designed uniforms. Those are required for the stylish evil dictatorship. You cannot be the Nazis without Hugo Boss.

So don't you guys even try.

But really, the truth of the matter is that while doing questionable or bad things to get where you want may get you what you want in the short term, but in the long term, it will only lead to greater hardship and greater oppression than what you know now. You may claim to want what is necessary, but how can you know that what is necessary now will always be necessary? You can't. Because things can jump out of control and become unpredictable. This, my real post, is telling you that, succeed or fail, emulating the Nazis will lead you to the path of ruin regardless of intention.

edited 18th Apr '13 1:23:36 PM by NickTheSwing

I'm not emulating the Nazis— at least not just them. I'm emulating a more local example: Rodrigo Duterte. Sure, he is incredibly ruthless when it comes to crime, with the death squads and all, but he also cares for the poor and supports gays and Muslims.

I'm mixing and matching means and inspirations here.

Yeah, that was kind of the reason I can't ever be a dictator. Also that I'm too rooted in my current moral code that says "killing/genocide is wrong".

But seriously, I'm not thinking of being like Hitler. I'm more of a Kiritsugu Emiya fan.

edited 18th Apr '13 10:08:35 PM by Icarael

"Stealing is a crime and drugs is a crime too BUT if you steal drugs the two crimes cancel out and it’s like basically doing a good."

Extrajudicial killings are not justice at all. Nor death penalty.

My President is Funny Valentine.

Sgt. Ricko, but much of what he does say actually does make sense. Things like a living wage are something an American Democrat would love. Things like cracking down on human trafficking generally are good. As a pro-lifer, I appreciate the work he does on that end. Now is Pacquiao a saint? No. He's a politician. But when you compare him to many of the other politicians, who don't stand even for that, it tells you how craven our political class is when even an uneducated meathead makes more sense than they do half the time.

The problem is that Marcos' legacy has meant that few people knew how effective democracy worked after 20 years of dictatorship (I mean Cory Aquino was a good revolutionary but a horrible administrator). I think we honestly need a generation at least to let the old political class die off. On the American end, the State Department ought to spend less time on pointless crusades to push the Pill in village schools and more time pressuring Manila to liberalize trade relations. It's a national embarrassment that two decades after India began to abandon the License Raj, we still have our own version in Manila.

Bumping this and hoping it is more relevant now.

Just recently, a scandal erupted on the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or more known as the pork barrel. Theoretically, these funds are supposed to be used by the legislators to help their local district/city. However, it seems the funds go to "ghost NG Os" or "ghost projects", not really contributing to development but ending up in the pockets of said legislators.

According to people claiming to have first-hand experience with the process, it supposedly works like this: Congressman is given 50 million for projects. The congressman does not get to hold the money. Instead, he determines to which local branch of an executive department the money will go. Say, he decides to allot 20 mil to the local branch of the Department of Health for purchasing of medicine. The local branch then begins bidding of the project on which private company/person gets to buy the medicine. The congressman then hires a contractor (they'll split the PDAF usually 70-30) who will win the bidding. This also involves paying someone within the department of health and also an auditor of the commission of audit (usually the supervisor and like with all government employees in the Philippines, usually has a low salary). The payment ranges between 50k to 1 mil. Usually, theses payments are subtracted from the contractor, so the congressman gets 14 mil while the contractor gets less than the 30% supposedly for him. But this will be insignificant since the contractor will try get hired by other congressmen for the same job so he'd still get a lot of money from doing this. As for the medicine, the contractor will just get medicine that will expire a week after delivery which are significantly cheap. The worse part is when it comes to public works like say a road. The split is a bit more even at 60-40 so the contractor can actually have a road built. But it will be of such poor quality that it will break within the year so for next year, the congressman can get PDAF for the same road project.

"If music be the food of love, PLAY ON" - William Shakespeare

It's still stirring up a hornet's nest back home since the NBI suggested homicide charges against the coastguard for lying and using excessive force since their video evidence is not suggesting that the Taiwanese fisherman were acting aggressively.

I think the issue with the West Philippine/South China Sea deserves its own thread since it involves several other nations. Now that I think about it, there seems to be common trend of disputed territories these days. Anyway, I think Taiwan overreacted to that killing a bit much.

"If music be the food of love, PLAY ON" - William Shakespeare

Update on the PDAF scandal. I personally doubt any of the high ranking legislators will get punished for this but damn it Enrile's punishment has long been overdue.

"If music be the food of love, PLAY ON" - William Shakespeare

Recently had to go to Masbate with my old man as part of Berjaya's corporate social responsibility to turn over houses to the poor. Lots of armed police and soldiers were there to protect the place. My old man's kinda skeptical on their presence and the social worker said that their deployment is mostly done to make the politicians feel good that they did something.

My suspicions were still confirmed when the vice-governor (who I personally spoke to) said that the NPA's still a problem, even with their sphere of influence reduced.

I think they can still pull something off like the time when their fighters burned mining equipment from an Australian-based mining company a few years ago.

PS - The mayor of Moco (I think that's the name) looks like Yoshiyuki Tomino, I really swear.

http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/noy-urged-to-apologize-over-2010-hostage-crisis

Anakpawis is telling Noy to suck it up and say sorry before Hong Kong revokes visa-free privileges. So far, netizens are divided.

There you go. All along, I personally maintain my stance that the President should make a sincere, honest-to-goodness, crystal-clear, as-frank-as-Frankenstein, formal apology. Three years on, and he still didn't do this simple act yet. Compounded with the many blunders made when dealing with Haiyan/Yolanda, it's a downward spiral the President can very well head to — and no amount of propaganda can cover it up, like a Band-Aid on a festering wound.

How far will your 20 pesos go?

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/11/19/why_it_took_a_super_typhoon_to_expose_the_seedy_underbelly_of_philippine_politics

Something about our politics with relations to Yolanda.

"The requested page could not be found."

"Please crush me with your heels Esdeath-sama!

Try this version (I've tiny urled it)[1]

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran

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IIRC, Foreign Policy's pay/nag wall is really easy to circumvent by right clicking on the pop-up in Google Chrome, selecting "inspect element", and deleting the offending lines of text. Try that.

edited 30th Nov '13 1:18:25 PM by Achaemenid

Schild und Schwert der Partei

Looks like the local Manila government offered to raise cash to the survivors of the 2010 hostage crisis to sue P-Noy in case they want to.