benign0's blog

Poor Manuel Buencamino. The title of his latest article on ProPinoy.net alone already sufficiently describes the sort of attitude that apologists of Philippine President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III tend to take. In " A clear message. Period ", Buencamino makes his appeal to the public on how they should regard Noynoy's recently concluded State of the Nation Address (SONA) delivered to joint sessions of Congress -- the message is clear, basta it is! End of conversation, right gramps?

Famous last words: "It seemed like a good idea at the time." How many times have we heard those words? We recall harbouring ideas and notions in our minds and expressing these in words that go on to sound ridiculous in hindsight . Tragic that for many of us, wisdom usually comes when it is most useless -- when it is too late .

A noted blog commentator once made an assertion that the Philippines will never be a great nation unless Filipinos learn to live by the principle of the "rule of law". Indeed, some people even insist that none of the calls by certain sectors of Philippine society for a system change like a shift from a Presidential to a Parliamentary system or even constitutional amendments will work to uplift the status of the nation because Filipinos simply cannot follow the "rule of law."

Why not bury former President Ferdinand E. Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Filipino Heroes' Cemetery)? That is the question that came to light recently in the wake of the burial there of former Secretary and retired General Angelo Reyes, who was in the middle of being implicated in a big-time corruption scandal at the time of his death on the 8th of February this year. Marcos's son, Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr today "reiterated his call for the burial of his father, the late former President Ferdinand Marcos, in the Libingan ng mga Bayani". Television personality Karen Davila was quoted by ANC 24/7 as having quoted Bongbong saying that "if Angelo Reyes was buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, my late father should also be buried there".

I believe in a human being's "inalienable right" to freedom. Every human deserves to be free -- that is, as an initial state . As the song goes, we are all born free . But from then on the evaluation begins. Indeed, one needs to be free to be be subject to this "evaluation", otherwise there is no basis for it.

The Inquirer today crowned President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III " our Filipino of the Year ". This honour was bestowed on the incumbent Philippine president supposedly for being "the living Filipino who made the most positive impact in 2010". And, it seems, on the basis of a November 2010 Social Weather Station survey that showed "seven out of 10 Filipinos were satisfied with President Aquino’s administration" and on a Pulse Asia "trust rating" of 80 percent.

The last several weeks had seen many high profile crimes make headline news, tweeted and re-tweeted on Twitter. From thence the characteristic teeth gnashing and talking-out-loud public introspection that modern "social media" had all but commoditised today pervades the national chatter. Much of the perception that we are now leading dangerous lives in a crime-gripped society runs counter to statistical data pointing to an actual reduction in the country's crime rate . However, as the Inquirer.net Editor himself observed , it's not facts, but perceptions that drive action...

What's it going to take for the current administration to stop blaming the previous administration for everything bad that has happened and even the ones that keep happening after former President Gloria Arroyo (GMA) left Malacanang? It has become some sort of a tradition for President Noynoy Aquino (PNoy) and his minions to blame GMA for all the ills in the land.

It is now quite generally established that the administration of President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III is being held up by the Philippine Media as one that is "trusted" by the people. The question is: Does the Noynoy administration deserve the trust of the Filipino?

As the famous saying goes. the winners get to write history . That, indeed, is what is happening as President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III launches The Inaugural -- a book about, what else, him and his family . Everything about the book has Kamaganak Inc written all over it. The book is published by Maria Montelibano, a cousin (surprised?) of Noynoy.

Reading the address of President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III to the Filipino people on the Supreme Court Decision junking Executive Order Number One was really painful. It was a painful read because it was in Tagalog. But I managed to capture a few salient points that stood out (indicated in italics after translation into English)... Is it wrong to seek the truth? Who said it is? Isn't it my duty to punish people who broke the law? Who says it isn't? Then again there's the matter of this "amnesty" you granted to "Senator" Antonio Trillanes and Danilo Lim...

No heads have rolled yet in the aftermath of a botched hostage rescue that left eight Hong Kong tourists dead and we are already seeing a bunch of bandits led by "rebel" leaders Antonio Trillanes and Danilo Lim who needlessly endangered civilian lives in a misguided "mutiny" all set to be set loose back into society. Already the Hong Kong government had initiated its own public inquest into the handling of the hostage drama that left eight of their citizens dead.

In the on-going debate around whether a shift in form of government will yield any significant change in our ability to prosper as a society over the foreseeable future (if there is such a thing), we have established that there is some validity in the assumption that quality of leadership has a strong causal relationship with system of governance. However, the second component that links prosperity to system of governance remains suspect; i.e. that Quality of elected leaders determines ability of a society to prosper .

Perhaps the whole discussion about bandwidth availability should be clarified and made more specific : i.e. more bandwidth for business and, say, just "enough" (state a number in MB/s) for consumers. That again boils down to the difference between adults and juveniles. The adults (on a macro-level business ) are bringing home the bacon and therefore are entitled to the tools (such as high-speed internet, for example). Juveniles (on a macro-level consumers ) merely consume and therefore should see said tools (which they most likely will use as toys ) more as priviliges access to which should be closely supervised and controlled .

Eminent Inquirer.net columnist John Nery today published a quaint attempt to diffuse some of the flames burning through the blogosphere over the latest gaffe of a member of the Yellow Horde . This of course, has to do with the venerable speech writer and erstwhile rocker Carmen Mislang who, upon sampling some of the local wines of the excellent Socialist Republic of Vietnam (officially Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam ), promptly posted on Twitter: "Wine sucks", and went further to criticise the facial qualities of Vietnamese malehood. Here are some of his "arguments"...

President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III is fast becoming the leader of a no-consequences administration. One can drop the ball and cause unspeakable tragedies and gaffes that turn the entire nation into a laughing stock and still get away scott free . The latest gaffe that turns up the laughs on the already butt-of-jokes nation that is the Philippines is a Twitter post from Aquino speech writer Carmen Mislang who described in her post how the wine served to her at a dinner hosted by Vietnam officials "sucks". And yet the pa-cool culprit in an otherwise fireable offense gets a free pass ...

The successful rescue of the 33 miners after being trapped for 69 days in a Chile mine was indeed a moving and inspiring story. But I'd stop short of going as far as gushing about how "God's graces" were at play in this brilliant display of human achievement at one of its best. Whenever I see a grandstanding of "evidence" of "divine intervention" coming from an after-the-fact reflection upon a story with a happy ending I too reflect. And this reflection on my part is around this simple question. How does "God" decide which people are to be showered with his "graces" and which people are to be left to perish in the hands of the "evils" of nature and men?

The venerable Sassy Lawyer Connie Veneracion finally weighs in on all the moronic happenings that have been transpiring in recent weeks. Great insight and clear positions articulated coming from a truly insightful mind (unlike some lawyers ). Here are my key takeaways from that great piece...

It is a cause for celebration for the mistress of Jolog Central as she breaks the news that "Senator" Antonio Trillianes has been granted "amnesty" by President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III . Just to give everyone a bit of perspective on how this ties back to our renowned culture of impunity , let me cite an article I wrote about Trillianes a while back where I highlighted this point...

Pictures speak louder than words. That rings true particularly in an industry that profited immensely from this truism. So perhaps this picture provides of overdue karmic dividends to those who have for so long called out the decades-long dumbing down of the Filipino by their own Media.