Philippine society is a real class act. Its top “thought leaders” are, yet again, buzzing around yet another flypaper “issue” around — get this — institutionalised corruption at such scale as to result in massive public suffering and tragedy.
What an outrage, right? But then this is, what, the Nth such outrage fad over the last several Philippine presidencies since that “revolution” in 1986 that “restored” Philippine “democracy”. Even a cheap street poll will reveal what many Filipinos already know about circuses like these. Nothing of consequence will come out of it.
Even this early, one can easily see that the roadmap ahead is already locked into the standard traditional pathway Filipino-style “justice” normally takes. A made-up trial (by publicity) followed by a fair pwede-na-yan resolution that ensures all the top crooks and oligarchs across the political spectrum that are likely members of the same tony golf and country clubs across the country continue to enjoy the status quo.
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Indeed, in a democracy, the government, its politicians, and its bureaucrats all reflect the character and quality of the people who participate in it. How do Filipinos participate in their “democracy”? By being “voters” is the prevailing thinking. And not much more than that. In short, Filipinos miss the important point of democratic governance — holding leaders and one’s self to account.
Down to the micro level, Filipinos are a profoundly corrupt people. At an early age, Filipino children are taught by their parents to be cheats and liars. Small surprise then that, at the macro level that our chi chi “thought leaders” engage in political “debate”, lots of shrill indignation is expressed over cheating and lying at the executive levels of Philippine society.
As any IT pro would recommend, try turning the contraption off, count to ten, then turn it on again. How does one reset such a deeply messed-up society such as that of the Philippines’ following that tried-and-tested approach? As this most recent “anti-corruption” circus is showing, the boot disk needs to be changed from Windows to Linux. A convoluted operating system cannot be repaired. Things need to be simplified and bloat removed for true reform to take root.
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Right!!! The main issue is and about accountability. Something that goes against normal practice in the Philippines. Since most Filipinos can never accept being wrong or held accountable for anything. So sad!!!
So benign0 who is gonna do the reboot if you think all Filipinos are corrupt here? Are you suggesting a revolutionary government is what the Philippines need today? Maybe you get out from Australia and go home to the Philippines, and lead the way for the change you think the Philippines needs.
Rather than just sitting there in Australia and comfortably typing in your computer your theoritical ideas, come here in the Philippines and implement them in actual. Walk the talk. And let’s see if you have the guts and grit to do so.
As someone who is also living overseas, I get why you say the system back home is broken and a lot of it is true. Sometimes it really does feel like emptying the ocean with a spoon. But I think the tone of this site could shift a little. The criticism is valid, but if it came with more balance or more concrete ideas, it might reach more people instead of leaving them feeling hopeless. We’ve seen how other countries handle things better, so we can share those lessons too. Even a small sense of direction helps. I know you may disagree, and that’s fine, this is just how it looks from where I stand.
of course it has to be inserted at bicam level , so someone like zaldy bacoco will be left holding the bag.
works , but too simplistic bobby m.
you should have done double , triple blinds…and the end, pin all the blame on the provincial inday sara, or someone close to death , like enrile ( just died)
fantastic heist, billions in the bank!
good acting job from imee too..
but this will not end well for bobby m at all.
It’s kinda hilarious how the fugitive INC cadre ex-Congressman Zaldy Co, with his mere words, has suddenly become a credible hero whistle-blower to the DDS camp aka the New Yellowtards.
They would rather believe now Mr. Co-RRUPT than those people who testified under oath and who submitted themselves for proper interrogation in an official investigation.
Shifting corruption allegation to someone else wont erase what these corrupt individuals committed as actual crimes.
bobby m gotta do something, get things done.
he could have looked for the zaldy bacoco and kidnap him like he did duterte, but he’s not doing anything.zilch. painted himself into a corner.
he’s got nothing left, no direction, no real vision, just a tired slogan and a recycled campaign tune – bagoong pilipinas.
right now, bobby m is dead in the water.
hey bobby m, why even be president if youre not gonna serve the people?
millions of filipinos , rather foolishly, pining their hopes and dreams on the government, and youre just playing rich fukker games.
get the fukk outta here.
we”re at the level of bangladesh (no offense to bangladesh) and here comes bobby m , having the gall to shake hands with xi jin ping, uninvited, as though he were the leader of a high income, nuclear club country (and not a banana republic) .
what was he thinking ?
the things “la cocaina” does to your brain.
Fentanyl is stronger!
fentanyl is just a pain killer in approved doses, dont get so hyped
Many years ago in the states, talking amongst a group of Filipinos a generation older, this same topic was raised. These older gentlemen, though living in the states still held a love and concern for their home country and were likely more abreast of the news happening there. Surprisingly, the solution raised by one of the prominent businessman was to totally eliminate generations — anyone above eight years old, then train that age group and implant a new set of ideologies. Even 18 years old was already corrupt. Of course, this idea was unacceptable, but he was serious in positing that solution, which is similar to reformatting of a hard drive if viewed from an IT standpoint.
Similarly, in the story of the Israelites entering the promised land, there were several generations who were disqualified. These were the ones who doubted and were disobedient. It’s as if those with the wrongful thinking and value system, i.e. the corrupted ones, were prohibited from bringing their “poison” into the new life and land, and only those who were young enough to be innocent or influenced may enter. In essence, the solution that the gentlemen proposed is similar to God’s criteria of who would enter the promise land, barring the annihilation of previous generations: disqualifying those who were already or easily corrupt.
A “reboot” of a society interpreted a certain way is usually seen to suggest some sort of “final solution” involving bloody revolution or even mass extermination.
Indeed, totally unacceptable, of course. However, that does not take away from the implied intent — to detonate an intractable order in order to rebuild a more effective one.
What then is the way forward for an irrevocably dysfunctional society? That is the challenge Filipinos’ “thought leaders” need to be focusing on rather than quibbling over personalities and petty partisan loyalties.
yet the foreign invaders(viruses, really) did just that to native philippine society – reformat an entire culture.
the roman catholic is still alive and well, collecting money, making people eat those wafers every sunday.
it is doable without (much) killing , just kill off the undesirables ( tokhang) and brainwash young children , start the indoctrination from kindergarten to college.
problem solved in one generation.
hey bobby M, heres an idea:
we dont really need to “overhaul” pur education system.
the masses are dumb, we cant change dumb.
what we can do, however, is develop our best and brightest – hire chinese teachers, send our best minds to the best foreign schools.
then bring them back to develop pur agriculture, traffic management, urban planning, space, nuclear energy programs, with high salaries.
this can work, we already have the science high system, just needs a little tweaking.
bobby m, just get it done!
A corrupt design corrupts its users. Just watch young influencers today with a significant following and you’ll see how they treat and objectify another living being mirroring their own sense of worth. There is another side to the younger generation that can recognize how corrupt old sytems really are. They’re still just probably trying to find a way out, not to escape but to rewrite the thing.