benign0's blog

Congratulations Mr. President. A few commentors on AntiPinoy.com take issue with what they perceive to be a relentless "attack" on President-Elect Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III one of whom likened it to the "lunacy of the Salem Witch Hunt". But consider these things first...

More promising reflectiveness is being exhibited by staunch Aquinoists in the Philippine Media nowadays. Credit given to where credit is due, to be fair. In his column today on the Inquirer.net , Fr Joaquin Bernas SJ finally weighs in on President Elect Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III's shooting himself on the foot with regard to his short-sighted tantrum against the Philippine Supreme Court (boldface added for emphasis)...

Jose Montelibano in his recent article published on the Aquino Family Newsletter sums up the hollowness ringing increasingly louder in the aftermath of a frenziedly zealous crusade to propel Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III to the top office of the land...

The following is an excerpt from an article written by columnist Conrado de Quiros of Aquino family publicist Inquirer.net back in 2004: The past comes back to haunt. As indeed do Cory's own words, when she promised during the "snap elections" that the first thing she would do was subject Hacienda Luisita to land reform. What a difference a month makes, which was all the time it took from the "snap elections" to Cory replacing Marcos, which turned out to be a sea change not just in the political landscape of the nation but in the moral outlook of the new governors. That was all the time it took for Cory to forget her vow.

A certain Fr Roberto P Reyes of a certain "Kubol Pagasa" (presumably some kind of organisation or "movement") composed a "prayer for Noynoy" which was published on the "Letters" section of the Inquirer.net . I thought I'd provide some thoughts on the matter...

Time to give a bit of credit to beleaguered President-Elect Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III . By pompously declaring a policy of "frugality" that will see him "delegating" much of the required foreign travel of his government to his underlings, the man exhibited the "foresight" to play down any expectations of him having to meet face-to-face with stalwarts of global statesmanship early in his campaign. Imagine him standing side-by-side with the likes of the current Chancellor of Germany who is described by commentor Hyden Toro as such:

No one government or president can be associated to economic performance (good or bad) within a given period. I argued this a while back : there is no evidence of a causal relationship between who is president (or the character of the president) and economic prosperity, perhaps not even a strong correlation.

The Inquirer.net Editor, true to form, sheds rose-coloured light on the token frugality President-Elect Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III applies to the conduct of his inauguration at the end of June. This is "virtue" is made stark by using the "evil" extravagance of out-going President Gloria Arroyo as a backdrop to heighten the contrast. This is the overall theme of today's (22nd June) Op-Ed and references to Noynoy's goodness and Gloria's badness peppers the piece. But this passage is particularly revealing:

Remember the names of these senators: - Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada - Manuel "Lito" Lapid - Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr. These are senators who have so far been reported to have taken up what is reported by the Manila Bulletin as offers of "perks" from Kris Aquino-Yap in exchange for support for Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan's bid for President of the Senate...

Check out what Albay Gov. Joey Salceda said in the recent ABS-CBN News report 'Aquino name to boost RP economy' : "It's a trust in governance. It is not Noynoy you are voting for but what you feel what will happen to the country if he is president. I expect investment to shoot up to about 8% of GDP, or about P632 million so that's 632 million jobs being created without him doing anything but just be president ," he said. (Boldface added by author for emphasis) How about that? Now people are claiming that results will simply magically happen without the new President even lifting a finger.

Below is the content of a comment I posted on AntiPinoy.com in response to some feedback on my article What it means to fulfill a promise to "eradicate corruption" . In it I go into further detail to show that "corruption" is a beast that has its roots in a more entrenched property of Philippine society -- lack of trust . Filipino-style corruption also has the unfortunate characteristic of being chaotic and, as such, defies any possible effort to incorporate it as a manageable risk in one's business. Thus a thesis that it is Filipino-style corruption being chaotic and not its mere existence that hinders progress -- invalidating the premise of corruption being directly tied to poverty in the simplistic manner that it is pitched in most two-bit campaigns.

Are we really serious about "eradicating" corruption? If so, then we should start with some key performance metrics to help us track results . That's right. Measures and results. Those are two words that people who make promises tend to shy away from when push comes to shove.

The following are among the people listed in the Statement of Contributions submitted by President-Elect Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III to the Commission on Elections: Antonio "Tonyboy" Cojuangco (P100m) Martin Ignacio Lorenzo of Del Monte Philippines (P20m), Bu Hong Chiong from Ozamis City (P20m), Leonardo Javier Jr. of Andoks (P14m), David Lim and Elena Lim of the Solid Group of Companies (P10m each), Felix Ang of Cats Motors (P10m), Abeto Uy of Philsteel Group of Companies (P10m), Gerardo Esquivel, a businessman-friend of Aquino (P10m), Alex Tanwangco (P10m), Jose Ramon Aliling (P10m). Fulgencio Factoran Jr., P20m, Cesar Purisima, P10m. The Noynoy Aquino Kamaganak Inc Mapping Project has been updated accordingly.

Conrado de Quiros is on the defensive again, this time against no less than U.S. President Barrack Obama. The esteemed Aquinoist mouthpiece now puts a spin on the shallow vindictiveness so far exhibited by new President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III. Here are Obama's offending words...

The Roman Catholic Church remains consistent to its 2000-year primitivist form continuing to hinder enlightenment by blocking the dissemination of knowledge from people who need it the most : Sex education has been integrated in subjects like Biology but, this time the Catholic Church is protesting a specific United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) project to offer it as a separate subject initially in 80 public elementary schools and 79 high schools. Education officials insist that the Church has nothing to worry about because DepEd is open to deleting portions of the teaching modules that it finds offensive.

Conrado de Quiros is taking great pains to justify Noynoy Aquino's snub of the 12th June 2010 "Independence" Day commemoration. This guy's certainly doing his bit in expediting the transformation of the Second Aquino Administration into the certified Emo Government it seems destined to become...

Decent sex education in Philippine public schools. Long overdue. But then how can this become a reality with the Philippine Taliban making sure that "offensive" material is being kept off public school textbooks ... Education officials insist that the bishops have nothing to worry about because the DepEd is open to deleting portions of the teaching modules that the Church finds offensive. Excuse me, but since when does a state institution such as the Department of Education answer to the Roman Catholic Church? Perhaps we should now start considering the Pope and his Cardinals as the new overlords of the Filipino people.

Is it just me or is Conrado de Quiros starting to sound like some kind of religious nut ? He seems to be, and his god is "Edsa": It was as though a not very minor miracle had just taken place, also not unlike the way the Biblical epistlers described the rock at the tomb of Lazarus rolling away to reveal the return of life. Or not unlike the not very minor miracle the people themselves saw not very long ago, which was the end of a long night and the dawning of a new day, the miracle now called Edsa. The event last Wednesday in fact did not just send echoes of Edsa, it was an Edsa. It was the culmination of what I have always described as an Edsa masquerading as an election. And he raves on like he is speaking in tongues...

Ok, so what's up with the painting in the background of this photo on the right (courtesy KansasCity.com )? Doesn't it come across as a bit presumptuous? The trouble I've always had about things like this comes to light when I mull over the question of what exactly entitles one person to be "blessed" over other human beings as to warrant such a depiction?

Noynoy is so 20th Century. He gives currency to the saying "found under a rock" here ... I have to give her the courtesies. She’s the current President. She’s older than me. She's a woman. I would be doing injustice to my parents if I did not treat her properly. Perhaps the significance of how President Noynoy makes something of the outgoing President being a woman and her being "older" than him may be lost to the average Pinoy, but what is really consistently revealing about what sort of man he is, is his continued reference to his parents.

Somewhere in the book The Age of Absurdity , author Michael Foley writes about the "Crank" principle. The principle basically describes how anyone who steps back from conforming to popular, but flawed , sentiment to present a contrarian idea is almost always dismissed as a crank. But if one persistently gives a consistent and logical presentation of said idea over a prolonged timeframe, such people eventually prevail. Blind conformity to the popular represents an abdication of personal responsibility . It is only when one tempers the instinct to conform by applying a critical mind to evaluating options that one becomes truly free .

According to this , Tony Boy Cojuangco donated P100 million to Noynoy's campaign. Note that T.B. Cojuangco is Chairman of Pulse Asia, one of the survey firms that provided extensive "analysis" of how each candidate fared in popularity during the 2010 Presidential Election campaign. This is a piece of information seemingly ommitted from his published biodata .