Tag: democracy

35 years of democracy has not freed Filipinos from entrenched oligarchic feudal rule

June 1, 2021 Ramon Ortoll 3 Comments

Richard Javad Heydarian has a fondness for historical context in relation to present-day situations. In his Inquirer piece “Why do we love dictators?” he laments how, “across the postcolonial world, where the pandemic has been most devastating, it seems many people can’t still shake off their collective fascination with despots, even the most tragically disastrous…

History, Society

Lack of a strong national identity makes for dog-eat-dog Philippine politics

May 29, 2021 Ramon Ortoll 8 Comments

For a political and social scientist, Professor Antonio Contreras surely is naive. But he can also be pragmatic when it comes to his own self-promotion. Borderline personality disorder? Maybe. In his Manila Times piece he rails against the “dirty politics” of these times… Popular culture has reinforced the image of politics as devoid of virtue….

History, Politics

The Philippines needs less emotional millennials who can think strategically in terms of national interests

May 24, 2021 Ramon Ortoll No Comments

Excellent read, this piece “A millennial considers the new German Problem after 30 years of peace”. Its author, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and German millennial Ulrike Franke, laments how her demographic “struggle to think in terms of interests, we struggle with the concept of geopolitical power, and we struggle…

Development, Society

The Philippine Opposition need to find a SMARTER way of using COVID-19 as an election-winning “issue”

March 22, 2021March 29, 2021 benign0 8 Comments

Following the colossal collapse of their first opening campaign salvo, the ill-fated “1Sambayan” initiative, Filipinos are still holding their breath waiting for the Philippine Opposition’s next major brainwave. So far all we get is the usual noise — the same shrill whining over how the Philippines is coping with the 12-month-old COVID-19 pandemic. That “crisis”…

Government, Politics

Twitter is now officially more powerful than the US Government

January 9, 2021 benign0 3 Comments

Hats off to Big Corporate Social Media. They first started out as little websites where people could “share” stuff and engage in “social networking”. Then they started to call themselves “platforms” and rightly so as such was to become their reach, ubiquity, and deep embedding into the fabric of society that people could be forgiven…

Government, Politics, Tech Talk

Leni Robredo’s BITTER response to her dismal Pulse Asia presidential survey ranking

January 2, 2021 benign0 7 Comments

Philippine “vice president” Leni Robredo sucks even at sourgraping. It’s either that or she really needs to fire her PR team. Following a recently-released Pulse Asia survey on potential presidential candidates that could make a bid for the 2022 national elections in which Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte emerged as the top choice, Robredo’s…

Politics

Should La Salle student Johnrey Apellido apologize for insulting “VP” Leni Robredo?

December 7, 2020 zaxx 4 Comments

Democracy is what Filipinos signed up for. Facebook (FB) and every other social media platform give every citizen the avenue to express themselves publicly with nationwide reach. The fact that several institutions and personalities are expressing alarm and rage over the comments recently issued by a La Salle (Bacolod) student against the country’s “VP” is…

Politics

All bark and no bite: Will Leni Robredo REALLY stand up to Duterte as his EQUAL?

November 24, 2020November 24, 2020 benign0 6 Comments

That remains to be seen. Then again, on second thought, hasn’t Leni Robredo always been on a campaign against Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte? From Day One, “vice president” Leni Robredo remained on campaign mode against her own government long after the elections had been concluded and well into her (disputed) term as VP. She was…

Culture, Politics, Society