When the President of the Philippines buys himself a Porsche , his spokesman needs to emphasize that "personal funds [were used] for the purchase". That's the sort of society that the Philippines is -- a society where presumption of thieving intent always trumps benefit of the doubt . It seems that even the squeaky clean image of President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III fails to break a mindset forged in the furnace of banal thievery of Philippine society.
Just saw the photo below making the rounds on Facebook. The album from which it was lifted was posted by the Animal Welfare Coalition (see also AnimalWelfare.com.ph ). The caption of the album indicated that the photos were "proudly posted" by a certain Bigleng Arcilla on "November 8" and whose friends include "Jeff Pecson, Jannella Cruz, Ar Tubaces Jr., Arian Canlas, Jhenypher Sison, Aljon Masiclat, Jerome Cabuso, Aldwin Arcilla, Darwin Delos Reyes, Emanuel Dane Sevilla, Al Mungcal, Aw Arcilla".
Quibbling on terminology. The hallmark of small minds. It's like how the Law and its letter attempts to articulate a society's ethical framework. In the process of doing that, it creates an entire industry of professionals who are schooled for years to know the Law to the letter . The question however is this: Does knowing the letter of the Law necessarily make one a proponent of its spirit ?
Politicians are quick to grandstand about their achievements and their "contributions" to the development of our wretched land, the Philippines. Whenever statistics about the economy or survey results describing public sentiment is released, politicians will go on a media blitz to ensure that an association between these and themselves are implanted in the vacuous minds of their constituents. Retrospective narrative about statistics is easy. But it takes real courage and conviction to use statistics as prospective measures of future performance.
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