Category: Crime

Three really appalling ideas being spread by prominent Filipino opinion shapers

December 12, 2011December 12, 2011 benign0 26 Comments

Consider the reality of democratic politics. Just about anyone can be President. Guys like former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada and current President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III are a testament to this truth. For that matter, any position in government that only requires that its occupant be elected by popular vote is subject to the tyranny…

Civics, Crime, Culture, Government, Politics

Noynoy Aquino is powerless against Chief Justice Corona

December 7, 2011October 30, 2013 Ilda 132 Comments

Impotent is a word that can describe someone who lacks physical strength or vigor. It can also mean someone lacking in power or someone helpless. To paraphrase a famous quote, “Power without morality is barbarous; morality without power is impotent.” On not one but a few occasions, President Noynoy Aquino (PNoy) has demonstrated his impotence….

Civics, Crime, Society

Let us ‘Occupy the Supreme Court’ according to the unoriginal mind of Conrado de Quiros

December 6, 2011December 12, 2011 benign0 23 Comments

The irony of Inquirer.net “columnist” Conrado ‘Noynoy is Aragorn‘ de Quiros’s use of the “Occupy” fad to brand his personal crusade against the Philippine Supreme Court seems to have escaped his increasingly tunnel-visioned take on Philippine politics. I don’t follow the moronic “Occupy” movement in the United States, but I hear it has since been…

Crime, Culture, Development, Media, Politics

Speech of President Noynoy Aquino at the 1st National Criminal Justice Summit (English translation)

December 6, 2011December 6, 2011 benign0 42 Comments

I provide below an English translation of the now infamous speech of Philippine President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III delivered on the occasion of the First National Criminal Justice Summit held at Centennial Hall, Manila Hotel. The speech was dominated by a personal tirade against Philippine Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona who sat just a…

Civics, Crime, Government, Politics

Focus on retribution by the Aquino Government had undermined both the economy and institutional governance

November 26, 2011 benign0 15 Comments

Why the focus and circus around retribution while more pressing and forward-looking initiatives like growing the economy, for one, languish at the bottom of media hyping priorities? It could be because Filipinos are culturally predisposed to being retrospective rather than prospective in the way we think. Back in 2009 just as the campaign of then…

Crime, Culture, Economy, Government

The only sensible Filipino take on the International Day to End Impunity

November 23, 2011November 23, 2016 benign0 25 Comments

So today is supposed to be some kind of “International Day to End Impunity”. I hear some folks are making the little factoid that this “event” coincides with the Maguindanao Massacre (no, that is not the title of a 1980’s Filipino movie) something to add credence to the Filipino’s place of honour in commemorating such…

Crime, Media, Society

Arroyo mugshots – visual opiates for a politics-crazed society

November 22, 2011 benign0 20 Comments

In my book, I recounted the words of University of the Philippines sociology professor and occasional Inquirer.net columnist Michael Tan who was cited in Diana Mendoza’s article “Between Sensationalism and Censure” published on the Philippine Journalism Review (April 2002). The article was a commentary on the bizarreness of Filipinos’ regard for sexuality as it is…

Civics, Crime, Culture, Government, Politics

Randy David’s views on Gloria Arroyo arrest seem personal

November 21, 2011 benign0 29 Comments

Indeed, as Inquirer.net columnist Randy David opined in his 19th November 2011 article, perhaps during her time, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo “deftly manipulated the legal system” to suit her agenda. He was, of course, referring to the “midnight appointment” of key justices in the Philippines’ Supreme Court who are supposedly loyal to her and, as…

Crime, Media, Politics