Tag: bong revilla

Whether called a bribe or an incentive pork barrel funds MOTIVATE Filipino politicians

October 1, 2013 benign0 25 Comments

Bribe or incentive? Why does this question even matter? For many weeks now, Filipinos have been left to sift through mounds of information pouring out of traditional media and the Net to make sense of what’s going on as more “revelations”, “confessions”, and “testimonials” emerge about who got how much. Indeed, whether it is a…

Crime, Government, Politics

The legend of Sharon Cuneta’s P10 million Kiko challenge!

September 27, 2013 benign0 4 Comments

Without a doubt, a lot of people would gladly do it for free. But ten million pesos to prove Senator Francisco “Kiko” Pangilinan stole from his pork barrel fund? It’s an offer that can hardly be refused. Across two tweets Pangilinan’s wife and Pinoy “megastar” Sharon Cuneta issued the following challenge sometime this week: If…

Crime, Glitz and Glamour, Politics

Enrile former aide Gigi Reyes hung out to dry!

September 23, 2013 benign0 14 Comments

What are we to learn from former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile’s “betrayal” of his former chief-of-staff and right-hand-person Gigi Reyes? The lesson, for me, is perhaps one that escapes most Filipinos’ common sensibilities: that in any line of work one should be loyal not to any one person but to the job and the…

Crime, Politics

Stay tuned for the next big tele-trial starring Napoles, and Senators Enrile, Estrada, and Revilla!

September 16, 2013 benign0 21 Comments

What goes around comes around. Who gets the laugh for the day really depends on which side is throwing the boomerang. Back in the first half of 2012, the national hysteria of the day swirled around the kangaroo court impeachment trial of then Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona following months of systematic demonisation by…

Crime, Media, Politics

The Philippines: An inherently unjust society where criminals big and small get away

September 12, 2013 benign0 17 Comments

Injustice pervades Filipino society from head to toe. Most recent is the exceedingly tragic fate that befell 25-year-old Kae Davantes whose hog-tied remains were found last Saturday after she went missing on Friday last week. The words “a parent’s worst nightmare” in no way comes close to describing the sort of grief that one can…

Crime, Culture, Government

Pork outrage vs viral videos: Filipinos get angry with the wrong head

September 6, 2013 Kate Natividad 29 Comments

Another week another viral video. I saw Ms Ilda’s earlier tweet where she expressed what seems to be exasperation over the attention “leaked” intimate videos routinely get… Sigh…accdng to the site stats, most Pinoys would rather read about Chito, Neri, Wally & Yosh’s s*x video than about #porkbarrelscam That kinda makes me angry. There is…

Crime, Culture, Media

Lani Mercado, the pork barrel, and Filipinos’ squatter mentality

August 16, 2013 benign0 171 Comments

This is what ‘actress-politician’ Lani Mercado, wife of actor-turned-senator Bong Revilla had to say about the idea of scrapping altogether the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel: “Basta huwag lang manghihingi sa amin ang mga tao!” Source of quote: PEP.ph. And we wonder why the Philippines is renowned for its beggar culture. To…

Glitz and Glamour, Lifestyle, Politics

Mediocrity in Filipino films evident yet again in 2012 Manila fest

June 18, 2012June 18, 2012 benign0 24 Comments

Default custodians of the already renownedly atrophied imagination of the Filipino; that’s Big Media. In the coming major film event of the year organised by the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) 2012, these corporate behemoths have once again edged out the small players proving yet again that factories and…

Culture, Glitz and Glamour, Society