We beg to differ.
A long overdue apology for the botched handling of a hostage crisis that led to the deaths of nine Hong Kong tourists in Manila in 2010 was reportedly issued by Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada yesterday with the backing of the Manila City Council. The council resolution expresses “the sentiment of the city government of Manila…
So according to the latest Pulse Asia “survey”, “three out of five” Filipinos reportedly believe pork barrel funds are routinely misused — even under Mr Daang Matuwid himself, President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino III. This just illustrates the fundamental issue with Filipinos. Problems — and their obvious solutions — stare Filipinos in their faces year…
Read More “The Filipino Vote has failed the Filipino people” »
Back in the days when former President Ferdinand Marcos ruled the Philippines, they said there was a lot of corruption. Perhaps back then there was. But the old-timers say that this corruption was limited to Marcos’s small inner circle of cronies. At least back then, say these old timers, out of, say, 100 million pesos…
There is something about Filipino public servants and Philippine society in general that could make one lose faith in humanity. It could be the fact that a lot of public servants do not have any qualms about lying to and stealing from the Filipino public. Or it could be the fact that the majority of…
Read More “Instead of ending corruption, Noynoy Aquino encourages it” »
Japanese prime ministers resign every now and then, some of them for as little as the shame of breaking an election promise. One I remember from a couple years back won in a landslide victory but was forced to resign because of mounting criticism for his flip-flopping on the issues he promised to solve during…
Read More “Filipinos need to develop a sense of shame or guilt” »
The trouble with democracy is that it is premised on the assumption that people know what is good for them — a sad reality that people like current Philippine President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino III owe their victory at the polls to. In a democracy, majority rules as they say. As far as fundamentalist democracy…
The thing with trying to pitch purported good intentions is that once the resources and the means to deliver those intentions have been tainted in the public eye, there is little hope for redemption. Malacañang, true to form always five steps behind when it comes to justifying its position on many matters of national consequence,…
The raging controversy surrounding pork barrel thievery in Congress and Malacañang highlights just how weak a state the Philippines is. It is weak because its people rely on “strong leadership” as a proxy to what should be a grassroots bottom-up approach to applying what, by now, should be a deeply-ingrained sense of civic duty. Instead…