“Foul whisperings are abroad. Unnatural deeds Do breed unnatural troubles.” —William Shakespeare, Macbeth At around the time that the hardworking and prayerful Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was due to deliver her ninth—and presumably last—State of the Nation Address, as well as for several days after, the phrase “lame duck” was predictably bandied about to refer to her. [...]
To the Comelec: Shut down The Manila Times
February 13, 2010 By 16 Comments
Promulgated last February 4, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Resolution No. 8758, which sets down the implementing rules and regulations of the long-dormant Republic Act No. 9006, also known as the Fair Election Act, has triggered a veritable firestorm of protests, primarily because of Section 36, which is quoted in full below: Any mass media columnist, [...]
Proceedings of Youth 2010: Bumoto Para sa Pagbabago
January 29, 2010 By 10 Comments
Note (Added 02 February 2010): It has come to my attention that portions of this post are being cited as though they were verbatim statements from the candidates. Let me emphasize that this is a live blog, not a transcript. The contents of this post only reflect my understanding of the candidates’ statements while they [...]
Parsing Villar, self-proclaimed trapo
January 23, 2010 By 14 Comments
Doubtless I am fighting a moot, not to mention lonely, semantic battle, but, to my mind, there are few examples that better illustrate the unwieldiness of political bywords than “trapo”. A contraction of “tradpol”, which itself is a contraction of “traditional politician”, it has found its way into popular vocabulary as a term of unequivocal [...]
Truth and lice
January 8, 2010 By 11 Comments
Whatever else can be said about the adoption of Makabayang Koalisyon ng Mamamayan (Makabayan) senatorial candidates Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza by the Nacionalista Party (NP), it is definitely nothing less than an event for the history books. After all, Ocampo and Maza are militant leftists, while the NP is a party headed by real [...]
Retrospective or prospective?
September 15, 2009 By 52 Comments
Caffeine Sparks makes an insightful critique on another one of Conrado de Quiros‘s lame attempts to prop up his manok. Tragic for Noynoy Aquino‘s campaign as I think de Quiros is doing more damage than good as he goes about his ironic crusade. I echo Nick’s call in a comment he made there: Framing the [...]
Missing the Point On the Road to 2010: Election Automation and Mobilizing Young People to Vote
June 30, 2009 By 95 Comments
I had a timely discussion with Norman Sison on twitter regarding automation. Let me say right now: that I am not against automation, at all. I’m just saying, automation and organizing young people to register and vote for 2010 is missing the point of what’s wrong with our politics. The problem of Philippine democracy isn’t [...]
Iran’s Summer of Discontent: A Preview of the Philippines 2010 Elections?
June 18, 2009 By 76 Comments
I have been closely watching Iran’s summer of discontent and rage on digital cable TV since last weekend. The scenes are reminiscent of the cries of Liberte’ as the French laid siege to the Bastille in 1789, the prelude to the fall of the Iron Curtain, and more recently the seeming regularity of despots being [...]
An Exercise in Modeling Philippine Elections and Governance
May 20, 2009 By 34 Comments
Was slightly stuck in traffic as cars cautiously plodded through the water drenched freeway. I went with the flow, got to my exit, and waited for my turn to get on the lane. Funny how FV can get into my awareness while waiting for the traffic light to go green. As I looked at the [...]
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