My favorite Fil-Aussie Benign0 subscribes to the notion that the specificities of those who occupy his former country’s positions of power do not matter. He writes: If we are not able to prove that our prospects for prosperity are a function of who is sitting in Malacanang, then why bother even wasting precious bandwidth on [...]
The Political Machinery and Infrastructure Of President Arroyo
November 13, 2008 By 14 Comments
If 6 Were 9
November 12, 2008 By 2 Comments
I didn’t know common-sense remarks could be characterized as words that “bordered on seditious utterances.” But that’s exactly how the justice secretary described a statement from Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo and four other prelates. The statement—“The time to prepare a new government is now. The time to start radical reforms is now. The time for [...]
What Now Citizen Joc Joc?
October 29, 2008 By 14 Comments
No joke, after a slew of confusing reports about his homecoming ‘architect’ Jocelyn ‘Joc Joc’ Bolante of fertilizer fund scam fame is back “to answer in the proper forum, any and all questions and baseless allegations” about the anomaly that defrauded Filipino farmer of at least PhP 728-M in aid that should have gone to [...]
Hotbeds of inbred thinking
October 29, 2008 By 12 Comments
I am quite bemused by what Archbishop Angel N. Lagdameo speaking for himself and his minions in the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) have to say about Pinoy poverty. Here are some of his gems: [...] people has felt poorer and impoverished over the past few years [...] Really now. Just the past [...]
Joc Joc Bolante Back, Sources Report
October 23, 2008 By 6 Comments
Normally reliable sources have told this writer that former agriculture secretary Jocelyn ‘Joc Joc’ Bolante has either returned to the country or may already be on a flight en route to Manila. The earlier than expected return of Bolante (reports over the weekend had said the central figure in the PhP728-M fertilizer fund scam was [...]
The elegant beauty of corruption
October 14, 2008 By 10 Comments
In a recent comment on Patricio Mangubat’s A new morning for everyone, Ishmael Ahab came up with a very insightful perspective on how investors perceive corrupt societies as business environments. I think that it is not corruption, per se, that is shooing foreign investors away. Foreign investors main goal is to generate income for their [...]
A New Morning For Everyone
October 11, 2008 By 33 Comments
Many economists are already saying that more than 250,000 Filipinos will probably lose their jobs due to the global recession. This doesn’t take into consideration the estimated 20-30,000 Pinoys abroad who’ll probably lose theirs and go back here because of the US financial meltdown. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have both [...]
Bearing Down on Corruption in The Courts
September 9, 2008 By 15 Comments
The Supreme Court has just kicked out a justice of the Court of Appeals, suspended another, and admonished or reprimanded three other members of the appellate court in connection with bribery attempts that allegedly attended the case filed over the MERALCO-GSIS war. The SC reserved it strongest action against justice Vicente Roxas, the disgraced ponente [...]
Disorder in the Court: The ‘Fairest’ Justice Money Can Buy?
July 31, 2008 By 4 Comments
It is finally breaking out in the headlines this morning: the alleged back room and conspiratorial maneuvers reaching up to the very chambers of the Court of Appeals. Such maneuvers have long been rumored to result in decisions being reversed and moneyed or politically powerful litigants having their way with the justice system in much [...]
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