The RH bill, 12/12/12, the Rocket, and the Askals

RH Bill finally passes 2nd Voting! 

Wow!

Just when you think it will never come…

So many delays and suddenly just before Christmas... It’s finally here!

I got home and (strangely) felt so sleepy that I passed out while downloading apps for my new android phone with the Congress “debates” in the background (if you can call it that). I woke up a couple of times in a daze and heard random religious babbling and other twisted family stories on why so and so congress person wanted to vote against the RH bill, most of their reasons though can categorically be described as ridiculous, silly, and utterly hilarious.

I mean, it is unbelievable that we’ve voted in such clowns in congress. Or, actually, it’s very believable but it’s quite sad nonetheless.  These oddball statements and arguments that come out of their mouths, come on!?! Case in point: Manny Paquiao even using his knockout loss as a reason to value life more and therefore be more against the RH bill - Did you connect that?!

I woke up at around 2am and to my surprise the congress session still wasn’t over. Suddenly it was time to tally the votes and for a while there I heard so many no votes (in between my dreams) that I actually thought that the RH bill wouldn't pass. Well, I wouldn’t be that surprised as the bill has been deliberately delayed and have been rejected before.

But, alas… it was the "yes" side that won! Historic.

I am a Catholic and I believe in my faith but I definitely do not like the Church’s incessant grappling for power and control these days (or since time and memorial, actually). We are no longer in the dark ages or the Spanish colonial times. Let’s please move with the times and actually pretend to care about the people, women’s rights, women’s health, the sad plight of teenage mothers, Filipino's quality of family life, the growing rate STD statistics, growing rate of abortion stats, etc.

Twitter is abuzz about defeating the prayles and about how Rizal and his gang are probably dancing on their graves right now. I was quite good with Noli and Fili when I was in high school. So, yes, in the spirit of Rizal, I want to say: Take that, you prayles!

12-12-12

What is up with people buzzing about this date and the so called end of the world or time.
The Mayans said Dec. 21, 2012.

And, as expected, I saw some people over facebook who got married on this fated day. What is up with this? There’s no more 13/13/13 to look forward to though. Wonder what the next brilliant number dates scheme people can think of next for their wedding dates.

Oh, hey, I actually have a wedding to go to this 1/13/13. Hmm, close enough.

North Korean Rocket Launch

WTF?! A rocket lands near us?!

I opened the news on TV and saw a press briefing on Pablo survivors where they were talking about looking for fishermen who were lost at sea. Then I saw a lead in about this rocket that landed in the Pacific ocean that landed near us.

For a while there, I got confused and thought that the rocket landed somewhere near the lost fishermen.

North Koreans, I don't care if you want to isolate yourselves, starve your people, play weird things on your state TV, do in sync dancing steps during your government celebrations... But please, launch your rockets towards some other projectile direction. Why aim at us? What did we ever do to you?!

The Askals

To be honest, I find soccer a slow game. I mean, I know they run around fast and energetically but kicking the ball towards the goal multiply times only to have the ball blocked most of the time just frustrates me.

With basketball or tennis or the other usual sports, most of your moves are scored. Your efforts are counted with points and you accumulate them.This makes the game more competitive and more dynamic, at least for me, that is.

This being said, I do have some country spirit in me. I will definitely root for our soccer team in any game. Just as I will root for Manny Pacquiao in his matches even if I am skeptical about his new found religious Bible touting ways, his politics or the friends he keeps (Chavit, et al). The way I see it, I can respect his sports ability as an athlete. I just block out the other aspects of him from the equation from I root for him in his matches.

And so, Philippine soccer has definitely made the leap. Wasn't it just a few years ago that nobody here really cared about the sport? Our team never won anything. (Or did we?! Did we have a team then?!)

And, look at us now...

The Askals as semi-finalist in this Suzuki cup, well, why not?!

We’ll take it. And, we will be quite happy about it.

The RUNDOWN or Not + the Holidays

I still do have some more things to say about the recent happens of life, only I have been off for like so long, so many things have happened and I don’t think I even have the energy to be angst, analytic and rational about all of it.

But in the spirit of catching up, I will lamely do this:

The whole Sotto – Kennedy debacle: Oh please Sotto, if you followed my first advice and just shut up, now where would you be? Forgotten, which is like so much better than being you right now.

Quite impressed by Michael Syjuco being able to urge Kennedy’s daughter to write about Sotto and still unbelievably shocked that Sotto had the audacity to blotch his apology / non-apology to Kennedy’s daughter.

AND as for Enrile: Mocking plagiarism, siding with Sotto (come on!?!) and then turning his statement around. Writing an autobiography with some creative embellishments - senile, crafty, or just unbelievably thick skinned? Stating that he is against the RH bill because the OFWs are our biggest export like the country should just be a manufacturing mill for humans, come on?!? Shame!

Then again, it’s as if any of them are actually capable of an ounce of shame.

To Sotto and Enrile, I say to you guys: A Big Fat WHATEVER!

On early campaign ads: Roll My Eyes. But hey, I'm sure there will be people who will be convinced by these ads. The are not called the masses for nothing. They matter in campaign times and pander them every politician will.

AND, oh please... on the lame endorsements of lame unknown brands just so these policians can put their faces on billboards and the back of taxis. I should maybe tap a politician or two for some products I sell, maybe I'll hit it big via their willing endorsements. Maybe, I can get some of them for free. Hmm?

Party Lists: It's just a given, the system has been abused. Willie Revillame attempts to headline for a partylist, enough said.

Get a catchy acronym y'all, that's all it takes to get voted in, unfortunately.

Israel and Palestine – at war again, and then they were not, and then Palestine gets UN statehood. AND, the Philippines voted for this decision. Interesting.

Egypt – I truly pity the revolutionary people of Egypt. It’s been a year. I distinctly remember that day when they thought they've won and have truly overthrown Mubarak from power. Mubarak might not be the president of Egypt right now but the country’s current state is far from the idealistic democracy they people had aimed to achieve. The country under Morsi right now is shady at best and all this maneuvering for more control, smells and feels as shady as our very own cybercrime bill. Poor people of Egypt, its either Morsi’s people or the old regime’s loyalists, and it seems neither option is actually an acceptable one.

The other day the Supreme Court judges put their judgment on the whole constitution issue on hold. Now Morsi’s advisers have just resigned (just saw this on tv).

So let’s see: The Arab Spring experiment in theory is a victory for idealistic freedom. In actuality, it has left the people in tatters and in chaos as various factions with competing interests dive in to struggle for control in the midst of the power vacuum.  The US is once again in this “fiscal cliff”. The EU is still in financial chaos as more and more countries struggle, as people rally against austerity measures, as Germany hangs on, and the Greeks demand for debt write offs. The Euro is declared a failed experiment. The USD exchange rate against the Peso plunges further.

Wonder what’s going to happen next?

Meanwhile: The PH’s GDP goes up higher than predicted (7.1%) and the stock market is still predicted to trend upwards (6000s by end of the year). Hmm?

The Maguindanao massacre victims are still not given due justice. The FOI bill and the RH bill still haven’t been passed. The cybercrime bill is currently under TRO.

And, another end of the year massive typhoon hits Mindanao killing hundreds. So, the world’s climate is indeed going further into chaos as well.

So Christmas: Am I feeling it? I must admit, I am not.

This being said, I am basking in the inevitable lack of productiveness of the season and the inevitable overload of social gatherings. And, hey, I will roll with it.

So, 2012: I've read a couple of books on it. I am hoping that all the cleansing happens already and we start 2013 all on our way up, please!

Damn the Man or the Old Man?!

Well, actually, damn them both!

The Old Man

When you think about it these law makers are literally OLD and with the passing of the cybercrime law, it seems to me that they don’t have a decent grasp of the internet, technology and the changing modern world.
As we now know, 4 senators filed an almost identical cybercrime bill: Enrile, Angara, Revilla, and Marcos.
Angara says that they “are just importing the law of libel for print and broadcast into the Internet. Otherwise there would be a zone of impunity. I can begin attacking maliciously the people I hate.”

Enrile previously claimed to not know what a powerpoint is. Marcos says that he has been a netizen since the 90s. Revilla is a negligible variable. But whatever, the law has been passed.

Collage Photos from the net

Lawmakers and supporters of the cybercrime law keep mumbling arguments that they merely extending the already existing revised penal code to include a platform which is has previously not covered, the internet or “a computer system or any other similar means which may be devised in the future”.

They argue that if a regular journalist can be sued for libel, why can’t a blogger? Or a person who tweets?
If any of these people actually understood the internet, they would know that all this is not a case of simply just applying the law into another medium.

The internet is a totally different animal all together. It is not TV, radio or print media. It is not composed of just media stations and publishers.

Among the many other things that live in cyberspace, the internet is also composed of individual citizens who also have the right to freedom of speech and privacy along with a host of other rights that the cyber crime law seeks to violate.

The internet is composed differently and runs differently and it takes a coherent understanding of the medium before any regulation can be crafted fairly.

Old men, if you do not understand the internet, then you are not qualified to craft such laws and insert such clauses as the cyber crime bill and the cyber libel clause.

Then again, are you really just oldies who don’t get it? Did you really miss the point?

Or was regulation and freedom oppression really the point?

So, Damn the Man

In the end, it is still THE MAN who is just looking to extend his powers over a new medium that it currently does not have control over. They obviously seek to regulate and control the internet now.

Old lawmakers might be alarmed by what has happened all over the world as they looked to the recent Arab Spring. Decades of strong men and dictators have been brought down by social media. To an old guy who doesn’t fully get it the internet and social media now becomes this big threat to his position, his political tricks, his power, and his other tyrannical ways.

Again, we look to Sotto. With the internet, his plagiarism did not go unpunished. Netizens caught up with his tricks over and over again, and they protested. This placed a major dent on his camp’s plans and a gigantic dent on his public image.

Clearly, the internet with all its so called advantages is seen as a wild card by people in power because it can topple them just like that. This probably scares them to death, doesn’t it?

I see why the internet will logically freak them out. Gone are the days when being a trapo was so much easier. Control PR over tri media, pander to your constituents, look for allies and cohorts, buy votes, rig elections, bribe some people, etc.

But now they have to police the internet and social media too? Because you’ll never know when some random citizen who will post pictures of your epal campaign online or google translate your speech to figure out that you’ve actually copied it off US Senator Kennedy’s speech.

Oh, but wait… Old Man, you can’t even police the internet because in addition to your shady grasp of how it all works, there are also no laws in place to do this.

So, what’s a Trapo to do?!

Well, why not make a law to regulate the internet, then? 

Brilliant! So, let’s go do that. 

While we’re at it, let’s make it sort of vague (provision for future situations) and let’s also put a higher sanction on it. Then let's also regulate sites, shut them down if we don’t like what they’re saying, and while we’re at it lets also collect user data.

Pretty clever isn't it? 

The next thing you know, our government suddenly has the power to regulate cyberspace as if we are all in China.

Is it not that there is a worldwide criticism on why China is inhibiting its citizen’s rights to free expression? Why does are our lawmakers find it necessary to suddenly implement the same type of censorship on us?
According to Slate Editor William Dobson modern strong men have evolved and are now fluent in democracy and human rights. He says these days “laws are written in vague terms and then applied capriciously against those who question the regime's ways”

Countries like Russia are said to have all sorts of laws to squash all sort of activists and anarchy at its root. Just recently, the punk rock band Pussy Riot’s members were charged with “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred”. What does that even mean?

Could it be that our own lawmakers created the cyber crime bill with the very same purpose?

Having said this, why don’t we ask them the same thing that they kept on asking us, the people who are enraged by the cyber crime law?

So, politicians and law makers, if you don’t plan on doing anything wrong, why are you so afraid of the internet?

The difference between these law makers and the people who are against the cyber crime law is that we are fighting for our freedom to speak and our right to have decent and competent politicians serve us. These pro cyber crime law figures however are simply looking for a way to control the internet and though this keep their own skeletons securely locked up in their own closets.

There is nothing wrong with creating a law to apprehend those who engage in child pornography,  sexual harassment, financial scams, illegal gambling and other similar crimes committed online. This was supposed to be the main purpose of the cyber crime law.

BUT it is every bit WRONG to use this purpose as a front to pass regulations that’s meant to seriously control the internet and crack down on the citizen’s right to freedom of speech and privacy.

From the movie Empire Records

So, the anarchistic spirit in me would like to say DAMN THE MAN, let's please save our country from this censorship.  

Yes to the TRO on the cyber crime law. May it truly lead to something fruitful and let it not be some lame pacifying move to simply keep the citizen protest at bay.

No to Online Libel! No to the Cybercrime law!

This might be a tad late but I would just like to join the online bandwagon of protest against the cyber libel clause in the recently passed cyber crime law (RA 10175).

V picture lifted from the V for Vendetta movie poster

Anonymous Attacks 

I used to be mildly annoyed when those worldwide “anonymous” attacks happened some time ago (the apathetic in me was all - why disrupt the "peace"?) and to be honest, I really don’t have a conclusive opinion on Julian Assange. That is, I’m all for transparency and I want to trust the world with a free fall of information but I really don't think it should be done because I really don't think we could trust the world with a free fall of information.

That being said, I still want to give these hackers my salute. Even if sensibility and morality would still tell us that we shouldn’t agree with illegal acts of protest. 

Hacking all these sites just to make a point might border on illegality, but when people feel screwed and they are left feeling hopeless, I suppose, one cannot really be shocked if they resort to a bit of anarchy.

The government representatives have said on air that the hackers should come out and air their protests in the proper format. Yes, they probably should as, technically, this is the right thing to do. That is, IF this is possible and IF this will actually yield some real action.

As it is, a senator of the country blatantly plagiarized a whole lot of US bloggers and a US senator’s speech. People have protested in various platforms and nothing really happened. Said Senator never apologized, denied everything, and kept threatening everyone. Now said senator has (as reported by multiple media outlets) apparently inserted this online libel clause in this now controversial cyber crime bill. Where is the sense, the logic and the justice here?

Again, it is not surprising if the people have resorted to a bit of anarchy.

How can a bill meant primarily to bring justice to victims of more heinous online crimes, like child pornography, identity theft and other online scams, be deceitfully used as a vehicle to curb the people’s freedom of speech?!

I would say "SHAME!" but somehow this word feels so blunt. 

It seems Tito Sotto keeps getting it wrong, doesn’t he? Unfortunately, everyone else who went with this cyber crime online libel inclusion also got it all wrong.

On this note, I am quite proud and delighted  that pirate bay is commiserating with our cause.

Screen grab from pirate bay's site

I am hoping something comes out of the people's clamor. Whether it be through a government official who truly believes in the cause or through someone who just wants to use the issue for a 2013 political bid, I will still take it.

I just think that this cyber libel clause came out of no where to punch us all in the face. It's not right. It's not fair.

Other components such as the government's increased power to regulate the internet, gather data on user activities, track social media accounts and block certain sites (similar to China) truly drags us back to the dark ages (or the martial law era). These are definite assaults on our right to the freedom of speech.

The bill has been passed. The error has been done, but the government now owes it to the people to ratify this wrong and make it right.

Please amend it.

Midweek Snippets

That Anti Islam Movie

I haven’t seen the controversial movie, even via youtube, but I’ve read that it was a low budget film, poorly produced and accomplished by duping the most of the film's participants. Actors and the movie staff people were told that it was some Arabic desert action film by this film maker who used a fake name. If that is not dubious, I don't know what is? 

Obviously, it's not going to be an award winning film or one that would be raved about as having some level of quality. 

But is the movie offensive to the Muslim faith? Yes. But should the work of one lunatic represent the entire country of America? No. 

Somehow this reminds me of the Filipinos' insecure behavior of just reacting to everything everyone else says about the Philippines. The show Desperate Housewives says something negative about Filipino doctors, Filipinos got mad. Claire Danes once said something about the Philippines and cockroaches, Filipinos got mad.  And it goes on and on. We get mad about everything negative that's said about the Philippines, whether the statement is true or not, petty or truly offensive. 

It is only the person who reacts to things that should be beneath them that is really dragged down further. Is revolting against this small film actually helping the Muslim world?! Not particularly. 

Does rallying outside US embassies and burning Obama effigies actually accomplish anything? Does being rowdy and does continuously freaking out all over the world actually help the Muslim religion’s image? Not really. 

They should just ignore this minuscule film because that’s all it’s really worth. 

I’m sure the objective of that filmmaker was just to incite chaos and the more the Muslims react, the more his objective is being met. 

Enrile vs. Trillanes / Miriam vs. Puno vs. Roxas

What is this? Just when you think that political reality TV is dwindling post-impeachment and post-Sotto's plagiarism, we get a revival in the Enrile vs. Trillanes row. What’s this, Camsur is splitting up? GMA pushed Enrille to support the split? Trillanes is quitting the majority? Trillanes is talking with China behind our backs? Behind the DFA’s back? But the palace knows about it? And Enrile is calling Trillanes a fraud? Trillanes then walked out? And Roxas is now going to China too? What again has happened?! 

disclaimer: photos in collage not taken by me

That’s a lot of plotlines to have happened in a day. (And, mind you, I was out so I only followed all this through Twitter, which just confused me even more.)

I almost didn’t even have time to consider that this Villafuerte guy (the uncle of Roberdo, the guy who didn’t want to confirm him as DILG secretary) is mixed up right in the middle of the Camsur issue as well. This reminds me of his son, you know the one that bitterly tweeted about what the fuss was about Jesse Roberdo, the one who later apologized and claimed that he was just wondering what Robredo has done, innocently wondering, or so he says. Just saying, this family is iffy. 

And here I thought it would have been Santiago’s snub of Roxas’ appointment that would have made the day’s news. But apparently it was not, as apparently, she went along with the confirmation citing that since Roxas came from the Visayas region, she’s now ok with it. Well, ok…?

Miriam, the older you get the more I believe that the system has truly eaten you up whole. At this point your presence in the Senate, at least for me, is more about entertainment value. 

And, what has happened to that Puno guy? Have we forgotten about him already? Are we now moving on? I suppose we are… 

Post Reaction: Sotto and the Cybercrime Law

On Tito Sotto

I was actually quite flabbergasted and dumbfounded when Sotto once again plagiarized and Google-translated Kennedy’s speech. I mean, seriously?! In what world could this even be possible, in what universe could a speech writer even conjure up such an idiotic idea?! 

It is one thing this if Sotto’s (and his staff’s) plagiarizing ways have never been revealed to the public and another thing that it had exploded all over the news and the internet, it's reach extending to the New York Times no less. 

Seriously, what lazy, senseless, and arrogant idiot would cognitively do it again?! And, what idiot would actually believe that translating it into Tagalog would let them get away with it?! 

Well, apparently Sotto and his people thought so. Nako, nako, joke time na lang ba ito?!

I wonder if he fired them all by now or if he really thought that what they did was truly immaterial, as can be deduced from his twisted media statements (saying that if it was in Tagalog that it doesn’t constitute as plagiarism) and he still kept them on. 

It annoys the hell out of me that Sotto is still going about his so called Majority floor leader role, narrating proceedings, featuring himself in pictures as Mar Roxas and Jun Abaya were confirmed to their positions yesterday.

disclaimer: photo not taken by me

This man and his thick skin, he behaved like the past few weeks never happened. Such is the behavior of a typical trapo, isn’t it not?

Cybercrime law:

I cannot believe that suddenly this cybercrime law is in place. WTF really happened?! Our country that has been so lenient with piracy and other copyright things suddenly comes up with a cybercrime law?!

Such a speedy approval... (compared to say, the FOI bill or the RH bill)

Are we suddenly on our way to becoming China with its internet censorship and whatnot?!

Libel via the internet?! Seriously!?! 

Suddenly, politicians are just so afraid of the internet and social media? Shame!

Bet you, Sotto feels a whole lot of smug right now.

It has been said that Sotto added the libel clause last minute to the cybercrime bill (this libel clause version was never made public and wasn't in the initial House / Senate versions).

Somehow I feel that something should be done about this unreasonable clause. Again, I ask, are we China now? Should we police every Facebook and Twitter account now? Or just the ones who criticize those who are pikon and in power? Slipping this libel clause behind the public's back is simply an injustice in itself.

It truly is unbelievable that this has been made into law. Especially just a few weeks after Sotto, the laughable plagiarist,  threatened to do so.

Apparently, a clown like him can make this happen. How unfortunate for us Filipinos.

More Evidence of Sotto Trolls

While reading random articles and blog posts about the plagiarism issues, everyone has probably noticed that there was a lot of weird vaguely fluent type of comments defending Sotto, the Church/CBCP/God, or the anti-RH bill camp. 

Most of the comments aren’t really particularly intelligent; most were just attacking comments and most with a theme that borders on mindless fanaticism to Sotto (if such a thing is possible to exist). Personally, I cannot imagine a few people going this genuinely passionate about Sotto, what more this many online personas. It’s just unrealistic and unbelievable. 

As I read the comments of possible astroturfers and read the succeeding replies of others who mock them, calling them trolls and paid commenters, and ask them to explain their stance (wherein they couldn’t give decent and logical non-fanatic answers), I don’t know if I should laugh because the exchanges are funny or be bothered that so many of these nonsense online comments just muddle the intelligent debate that people should be having.  

Screen grabs of comments from the Professional Heckler Blog and Raissarobles.com

Still, I’m glad that the real people who are outraged by Sotto’s behavior clearly outnumber these possibly paid trolls. At least the real pulses of the people are reflected. 

Hilariously, my blog was visited by a suspected troll, see here:  

Spotted: Heart Mercado in this blog!

Incidentally, I just clicked on Heart Mercado's profile and her first publicly visible post started only on Aug 17, 2012. There's barely anything on her page. And, this Maria Tiu, there's absolutely nothing on her page as well.

Well, well… Wouldn’t it then be ironic (and truly vile) for Sotto to keeping on accusing the pro-RH camp of paying off bloggers and social media netizens to do a “hatchet job” on him?

He objects to being called a clown but how can we not, when he keeps on acting like one?!

Sotto Strikes Again

Just when you think this bad episode of senate speeches gone wild is over, Sotto makes yet another statement that enrages the public.   

You’d ask, what’s the point of all this? Is he just KSP or what? Does he just want more publicity? (Even if it’s negative and has nothing to do with the actual issue that he is allegedly fighting for) Or is it just because he can’t let it go? (Pikon lang ba siya?)

When I saw the headlines of his statements such as “Senator Sotto backs blogging bill” and “Sotto claims cyber bullying”, for a few seconds I was lost for words, all I could think of was – SERIOUSLY?!?

Just like the many twisted arguments against the RH bill, there goes Sotto’s camp again with their very many hilarious to ridiculous (failed) PR machinations.

Disclaimer: photo not mine (why would I even take his photo?!)

Kawawa Effect: Claims of being a Cyberbullying Victm

Sotto: “Ako yata ang kauna-unahang senador ng Pilipinas na naging biktima ng cyber-bullying. Mula sa blogs, Facebook, at Twitter, ginawa akong sentro ng mga mapanira at malisyosong atake ng iba't ibang tao, lalo pa ng mga sumusuporta sa RH Bill. Bahagi siguro ito ng kanilang istratehiya, lalo pa't may milyun-milyon silang pondo. 

While it is true that there is such a thing as cyber bullying, Sotto is hardly a victim of one. For one, a bully is defined as “a blustering, quarrelsome, overbearing person who habitually badgers and intimidates smaller or weaker people” (dictionary.com).

Truly, can Senator Sotto be categorized under the “smaller or weaker people” label?

Senator vs. people of social media – who’s the big man and who’s the little people here?

According to Sotto, the Internet and social media is being paid off by the pro RH bill side since they have millions. Well, I don’t know about you but maybe it’s time he realizes that these are actual comments of real people. They are not paid, just as this post isn't a paid post. It's simple: people are just angry at what he did.  

Tunay bang hindi niyo matangap na ganyan kadami ang nagalit sa ginawa ninyo na ipinipilit niyo na bayaran sila? Denial ba yan? Ganito kasi yan, yun ginawa po ninyo medyo lang nakakainis, kaya natural lang na madami ang mainis sa inyo. Simple lang.

Isa pa, ang mga tao’y hindi nagagalit sa inyo dahil iba ang pananaw nila sa RH bill. Nagagalit po sila sa inyo kasi nangopya kayo, pagkatapos hindi pa kayo umaamin o humihingi ng paumanhin ng maayos at nangangawiran pa kayo ng kung ano ano. Yan ang dahilan kung bakit gusto nilang barilin ang taga dala ng mensahe. 

Plagiarism, Not a Crime

Sotto: “Nais ko ring banggitin para sa kaalaman ng mga tagapakinig, lalo na ng mga taga-pintas kong nais akong makasuhan dahil sa pangyayaring ito, na walang krimen [na] plagiarism sa Pilipinas. Kahit hanapin ninyo pa sa Revised Penal Code, sa Intellectual Property Code, at maging sa Special Penal Laws, wala kayong makikitang krimen [na] plagiarism.”

Let’s just say no one can sue him of plagiarism, does it make it right? Students get kicked out of school for this, I wonder why? Oh, could it be because it is wrong and punishable? 

Let’s just say that plagiarism isn't a crime here, it is still embarrassing. It shouldn’t have to be said that plagiarizing his televised senate speech was behavior unbecoming of a senator. 

Uulitin ko lang, kasi yan ginawa niyo na pinipilit niyo na hindi krimen eh nakahiya pa rin. Dapat ho  eh nahihiya kayo. Dapat humihingi kayo ng pamumanhin ng maayos at diretso. Kaso wala naman kayong ginawa kung hindi magpalusot, magdahilan at mangatwiran na balubaluktok. 

Mukhang hindi naman kayo tunay na nahihiya sa ginawa ninyo, ibigsabihin po ba nito eh wala kayong hiya? 

Just Delete It 

Sotto: “Mr. President, with the permission of this body, I move that the paragraph containing reference with the study of Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride which can be found in Journal No. 8 page 162 dated August 13, 2012 be stricken off the record in order to lay this matter to rest.”

Erasing the plagiarized lines from the official record won’t erase it from everyone’s memories. You did it. It happened.

But let’s say this deletion helps your case, you delete Pope’s lines but what about the (FIVE) other writers and bloggers that you also plagiarized? 

Enrile to the defense

So, Enrile has treaded carefully and sort of defended Sotto. He also declared that he doesn’t know what a blog is. 

I don’t know, Manong Johnny, you disappoint me. After your great performance in the impeachment trial, you could have chosen to concentrate on the legacy that you've claimed to care about.  

Joey the poet 

I don’t know how much more ridiculous this can get. So, a Philippine senator chooses to close his public statement with a poem that was written by his former co-host, a comedian known for his toilet humor movies and gag shows (not to mention is an admitted rapist), who Sotto bizarrely declares is a “mahusay na makata”.  

WOW MALI?!?!
(picture from the show's official site) 

Even more ridiculous is the content of this poem:

“Eh di wala nang titingin sa katalogo
Ipagbawal mga sumusunod sa uso, mga impressionists ipakulong na ninyo, pati na rin si Willie Nepomuceno.
Ang masama lang pagdating sa gayahan ay iyong masasamang asal ang tularan.
At kopyahin ang pera at lagda ninuman.
At gayahin ang pilay at may kapansanan.”

Seriously?! It must be asked: Ginagago na ba tayo ni Tito Sotto dito?!

Just because Joey de Leon writes a poem, doesn’t really mean that this actual helps his friend’s argument or that this poem actually makes sense. It really doesn't.

Oh, Tito Sotto…

The more he speaks, the more his team makes their moves, the more Sotto's true colors shine through.

What we find after his weeks of delusional defensiveness about the plagiarism that actually was is the image of such a despicable, unethical, and (scary) narcissistic character who unbelievably has been voted into the senate time and time again. 

His behavior over this plagiarism brouhaha reveals a man so out of touch with the new world, still believing and insisting on using his old school hooligan ways to ironically bully the people into accepting his plagiarized anti-RH arguments, his dramatics, his lame excuses and justifications.

What we see here is the epitome of a trapo. 

Nalulungkot talaga ako para sa Pilipinas, taon taon naghahalal ng mga taong tulad ni Tito Sotto na sagad sa buto ang pagkatrapo. 

Ano na ba ang mangyayari satin kung parati na lang ganito?  

Business and Politics

These past few weeks I’ve been mulling over my opinions on business and politics. Some could say I’ve been somewhat biased for business. Were there some double standards there? 

I’ve criticize the lawyers who defended Corona more because he is a lawyer, one of their own, than because of his innocent. I’ve expressed opinions against politicians whom I frown upon and there were/are a lot of them. But I’ve also laughed at the occupy Wall Street people and thought most of their picket signs were just ridiculous. 

Do I have a general beef against the establishment? I don’t think I do. But if you ask me, do I think the corporations, the bankers and the 1% were greedy? I suppose, I do. 

As everything else now blows up and the world economy further plunges (think of the recent Barclay and Libor scandals etc.), the more it is revealed that the financials systems have been rigged and manufactured all this time. In a way, the system fed on itself as financial institutions and instruments, insurance companies, the stock market, etc. were allowed to go about their (greedy) business ways until shit hit the fan. 

In my defense, I really did not respect the occupy people because in my opinion most of them were just angst. The movement became a mob mentality slash cool thing to do for people who had nothing better to do and after all the rallies and sit-ins nothing really happened since these people really had no concrete collective demand to speak of. It was like a tantrum of sorts, they were angst and they just wanted the establishment to know.

Perhaps it’s because I was once a banker and a business student. I am a business owner and I am not a lawyer, a government employee or a politician. 

I remember a friend of mine once told me that it’s part of the game. It’s a simple statement that everyone acknowledges, corruption and politics is part of the game, especially here in this country. That is, if you want to be successful in business, you have to climb, cheat and bribe your way in one way or the other, you cannot be clean. My friend’s reasoning was along those lines. 

My friend from time to time has also expressed this hatred for the current admiration. The motivation of which, I’m not entirely sure of. My friend has mentioned about this current government’s laziness and a whole lot of other random reasons for said hatred. 

I’m still not sure exactly why my friend prefers a different administration. I want to believe it’s something shallow like being straight is just so uncool but I suspect it’s because personal interests are better served with a corrupt government, with corruptible officials and systems.   

In effect, my friend was saying that business and politics are the same this way. You can’t make it either way if you chose to be clean. Maybe that’s true but I suppose it also depends on what your definition is of success is (another topic that could be discuss some other day).   

But I guess my point is this: The very existence of business is that it’s meant to make money while the very existence of government, at least in our democratic republic, is that it should serve the people.  Businessmen are out for profit. Politicians are supposed to be out for the common good. 

If a business offered me a product and I decide to purchase it, I know they are making some profit off me. That’s ok, I already know that. 

But if a politician promises me something, whatever it is, and I vote for this politician, the technical premise is that the politician should follow through because that’s the politician's duty. And, if said politician doesn’t make good on the promise, as is often the case, then I (and the people) have been cheated.  

So, here lays my beef with the cynics and the trapos. It is because while I expect a business to serve the business, I also expect a government to serve the constituent it governs. 

So the good die young...

This post would have been entitled “Where in Masbate is Jesse Robredo?” had I finished writing it last night. 

After more than a day of not finding anything but a wing, a flight plan, and a windshield, the prospect of finding them alive seemed quite dim. 

I was going to talk about how nice it was that people were united in prayer and in the search efforts. It was nice to see diver volunteers step up while other volunteers from all over just flocked to help out. 

But as it is, the body has been found and has been brought to Naga. 

To be honest, the moment I heard about the plane crash my first thoughts were:  sabotage? 

I actually said this out loud to a number of people before I realized I sounded like a conspiracy theorist. 

I just thought it was so sudden and so random. And, I suppose, I’ve always thought that people who fought corruption and blocked corrupt elements are at high risk of being taken out sooner or later. 

I could tell you that this line of thinking makes me a cynic but I suppose it really does not.  It, unfortunately, just makes me a realist.  

But putting thoughts of conspiracies aside, all I can say is that the crash simply made me sad. 

A sudden plane crash. Relatives and friends in tears.  A man with a very good public service reputation, rare and almost extinct in our time, dies. It's just sad. 

They said he was very real. They said he was very sincere. They said he was the real deal. His constituents loved him. He was voted in for 6 terms in Naga. His employees loved him and were inspired by him. So many good words have been said. 

Today I heard a candid interview of his speech writer on the radio. She said so many good things about the DILG secretary, she mentioned a conversation she had with Robredo in which she asked if good governance was really possible. She said that Robredo said that there will always be politics involved but that as long as they put the measures in place, like his full disclosure policy that aims to promote transparency, that the citizens will eventually demand for good governance and everything else will follow. The speechwriter said that he never lost hope in the Philippines. She was in tears, which also brought Winnie Cordero, the radio interviewer at that time, in tears. 

Perhaps Winnie Cordero really felt her sincerity. After, she said on air, still in tears, “Bakit ang good kinukuha, bakit ang bad hindi kinukuha”.  

It’s been said that the good die young. And with everything that Jesse Robredo stood for and with every anecdote and story that’s revealed about him, his untimely death all the more becomes sadder. 

Roger: Wimbledon, Olympics and Cincinnati

Wimbledon

Might be too late of a reaction but let it be known that I was beyond ecstatic when Roger won Wimbledon, regained the #1 spot and finally broke the records of weeks in #1.

I won’t even be bother to be annoyed with the naysayers and anti-Federers. I could comment on Murray’s less than winning sulky attitude, Djokovic’s up and down form, or Nadal’s injury but I won’t.

I am just going to dwell and be utterly elated, jubilant and overjoyed about Roger’s summer season.  And, what a fantastic summer it truly was. 

The Olympics

Ok, I got greedy and wanted Roger to get gold in the Olympics as I know that he really wanted it and looking to 2016 just seemed farfetched. So, I was a little bit sad for a while. But hey, a silver medal in the Olympics is still quite a prize. He had that super tiring semifinals against Del Potro and I understand that really zapped his energy.

And really, if after the Australian Open this year someone told me that Roger would win Wimbledon and regain #1 again, I would be all - yes, please!

I would be so happy and content, even if the same person tells me that he won't be doing much after that.

The silver Olympic medal and 3 Master titles he won this year truly are more than any Roger fan could hope for. We all wanted him to make a grand come back but we weren't sure if he was going to pull through for us (though we would have loved him anyway). So, it's all good. A silver medal? We will take it and cherish it. 

Cincinnati

Roger with his Cincinnati Masters Trophy
(from online image search, edited by phone apps)

5 Cincinnati trophies (a record), 21 Master titles (also a record, tied with Nadal), not losing a serve the entire tournament (a record too in Masters and Grand Slams) and winning the first set of the finals 6-0! (against Djokovic at that)

I was smiling from ear to ear and I’m very excited for the US Open! Allez Roger!

Sotto, Don’t Speak

Tito is from Eat Bulaga, a long running noontime show. He hosted it with Vic and Joey, both are aging comedians. The noontime show featured: beauty pageants (for men, women and kids), gags and jokes that range from mindless to toilet humor, frivolous games, scantily clad women dancing... And, the point is, it’s not a show that inspires smart discussions, intellectual stimulation, public service or anything that would be considered decent roots for a senator. 

That is, really, Tito Sotto never had much credibility, at least to me. I don’t remember anything about him politically. Perhaps, I was too young to notice then when he first got elected. And after his foray into politics, he just went back to hosting Eat Bulaga (I do think that it’s weird when politicians go back to their old jobs when their old jobs are things like: hosting noontime shows or hosting shows that criticize the government, i.e. Noli).

Tito Sotto didn’t do anything remarkable or nationalistic during his time off and then he suddenly becomes a senator again. 

Tito Sotto, SAY WHAT?!?!

(Disclaimer: image from Google search)

To me, Tito Sotto is just a blank spot, similar to Lito Lapid and Bong Revilla. They’re just there waiting to be told what to do by whoever wins the bid to push their buttons. They are mouth pieces, just as Tito Sotto’s only job was to be the narrator during the recent impeachment trial. Even if he is the majority floor leader, he didn’t have anything decent to say.  

So, I was actually surprised that he was standing up and playing a role in the RH bill issue. I didn't really listen all that much, as I don’t really listen to the anti RH people anymore lest I’d just die of annoyance, and all I know is that he cried, claimed contraceptives killed his child and spewed the expected twisted arguments. 

I really wasn't playing too much attention to him until this plagiarism issue came up. Even then, I find Tito Sotto so dull, dumb and uninspiring that I still didn’t give it the time of day. 

Only after a friend of mine told me more about the whole blogger fiasco did I browse some articles on his speech. All I can say is that what happened actually exceeded my expectations. 

That is, I never expected Tito Sotto to be the sharpest tool in the shed but perhaps because he had some years of experience, I’d thought he would at least be an expert in maneuvering his way around the political arena, well, apparently, that’s not the case. 

I don’t know what his chief of staff looks like but an image of an aging pencil pusher who’s out of touch with reality, technology and a normal sense of decency comes to mind. He does not even know the definition of plagiarism, makes me wonder if he’s really a lawyer. 

Well, Tito, just continue to do what you’ve been doing so far this term, just be a mouth piece or don’t be. Stop giving speeches and interviews. Stop saying you believe that the RH bill is not applicable to Filipinos like it is to other countries and stop quoting an American (a non-Filipino) blogger in your arguments. Just don’t speak.  

Funny about this plagiarism business, so many have been burned and yet lessons have not been learned. A certain MVP and his speech writers come to mind. 

Could we attribute this to generation gap?

I had this horrible (older) MBA groupmate who always cut and pasted his contributions from the internet, paragraphs of them, without even crediting the source. I always ended up editing his parts out or (embarrassingly) typing sources for his multiple plagiarized paragraphs when I had no time to replace his sections. 

Old folks, let me remind you that these days everything can be googled. 

The RH Bill vs. The Church

It’s been a while. I have been caught up in a whirl of events and things, amidst all the important and not so important random things in my life. At some point, my emotions had been up and down that whenever I found some downtime, I just wanted to lie down or do some escapist activity like read mindless romantic novels or catch up with various TV series.

But hey, the world has been turning. And, issues have come and gone. Maybe, it’s time for me to get some of my thoughts out into the universe.  

So let’s talk about the RH bill. First off, I am pro the divorce bill and I am pro the RH bill. Strip off all the politics and religious brouhaha and, to me, it’s just about access to information and freedom of choice for the women of the Philippines.

In its somewhat weak form, the current proposed RH bill somehow just becomes a point of principle. The bill aims to become a means of educating Filipinos to hopefully pave the way to empower them with informed choices. 

The Church, as I’ve said time and time again, is just looking for ways to insert itself and to insist on projecting its relevance. The Church, via the CBCP, is just hanging on and refusing to let go, resorting to all these pathetic shenanigans (case in point: remember when they spoke against Lady Gaga?) at the expense of the betterment of the people.

Never mind that the people remain ignorant as long as they remain blindly obedient to the CBCP, hasn't this been the game plan ever since the colonial days?

Let me say that I am a Catholic and I will probably be one forever but I’m not mindless or blind.  

I am amazed by these illogical things that come out from these anti-RH bill people. No matter how you look at it there really is no logic in going against educating people and giving them the right to an informed choice.

All I’ve ever heard from these anti-RH people, regardless of position or station are statements with convoluted backwards logic or otherwise known as “pilosopo” reasoning.  

I remember Lito Atienza’s witless reasoning at an interview I once saw on TV, when the bill was first discussed, he spewed a bunch of ridiculous lines such as saying that since contraceptives are already in the market, then that means that freedom of choice already exist and so there is no need to pass a bill. If I remember correctly, he also kept on insisting that the RH bill is anti-life when the bill doesn’t even touch the topic of abortion.  I recall that I was so upset with him after that interview as he just kept on giving one senseless argument after another. Watching him was exasperating. 

In any other universe (or country), the bill would have passed a long time ago based on the principle alone. 

But hey, we are in a country where the Church is still allowed to desperately strong-arm its way into feigning its dying relevance at the expense of Filipina mothers, who based on statistics die at a rate of 11 per day because of childbirth.  

Searching for Zen

As I've mentioned, I’ve suddenly lost my way on my path to Zen, the funny thing is (or unfortunate thing), I was too busy and preoccupied to notice it until Io and behold, I was on this 3 day sad fest and I couldn't figure out exactly why. 

So, in the spirit of Zen, I've decided to post these quotes that I got from my friend’s twitter account, which she also got from pinterest, that is... I hope that putting them in my subconscious will help ground me. 

AMEN :)

Roger, let’s party like its 2009!

I've been busy, again, or out of the country, or occupied doing lots of random things that I can’t seem to organize. As I've been saying these past few days, I want to be Zen again! I don’t know what has happened, I’m not quite sure, maybe it’s all these little things that I have to do and all these little comments from everyone else that has seemed to have piled up for some reason.

But in my suddenly chaotic mind, there is a moment of reprieved, as last night Roger beat Djokovic at the Wimbledon semi-finals! And it was truly a great performance!

The match was on of a very high quality of tennis. Djokovic can say all he wants that he was subpar and that he wasn’t feeling well but his game wasn’t that bad at all. It was a matter of the game being played at Roger’s pace. Roger just had some rhythm going on there. Meanwhile, Djokovic at some point just seemed to be trying too hard to take riskier shots, just to be more aggressive, and the shots just did not pan out.

Must say, I truly love it when you’re playing like that, Roger! I have seriously missed that.

After that medical time out drama during the Malisse match, I was just so worried that he’s not going to be able to get a fighting chance but what do you know, it’s like last year’s French Open again where he came out and annihilated Djokovic off the court like it was 2009 again! (or the years before that, except 2008, that is).

So hurray! Even if I’m not feeling as Zen and have found myself somewhat at a loss as to how to go back there again... I’ve been gifted with Roger’s win over Djokovic!

Seriously though, I think Roger has a great chance against a less than stellar and very much sulky Murray in the finals but I’m not going to fully say it as I don’t want to jinx it.

Murray, ironically, reached the finals of Wimbledon at a point in his career when he’s actually playing just sub par. He has been complaining of injuries and at the start of this particular tournament, he even mentioned that he didn't think he was going to win this tournament. How's that for his confidence about this standing. He's in the finals due to Nadal's absence, but hey, Murray will still take it. Looking at his face after he won against a full of errors Tsonga play, you’d think he won the entire thing already. He looked like he was about to cry.

But anyway, after Roger’s win last night, for me, it just felt like he won the tournament already. I'm quite satisfied as a fan and anything more (like another Wimbledon title and regained #1 rank) is truly an extra. Well, super great extras, but still, I'm quite happy about last night's turn of events.

As someone who commented on an article of Roger’s win had nicely recapped it for me:

16 Grand Slam Single Titles.
6 ATP Tour Finals Titles.
20 ATP Masters 1000 Titels.
237 Continous Weeks at n.1 of ATP rankings.
285 Total Weeks at n.1 ATP rankings.
1 of 7 players to hold Career Grand Slam title.
5 or more times Finalist in each Grand Slam Tournament.
24 total Grand Slam Finals.
10 Grand Slam finals in a row.
23 Consecutive Grand Slam Semi-Finals.
Olympic Gold Medal.
8 Years consecutively in top 2 rankings.
Best Player of the year for 9 consecutive years.
Stephan Edberg Sportmanship Award for 7 consecutive years.
Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for 4 consecutive years.
N.1 on list of 100 greatest Tennis Players of All Times.
Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year Award.
2nd Most Trusted and Respected person in the world behind Nelson Mandela

Roger is the Greatest Player of All Time! :)

The true winner of the impeachment trial is JPE

With great power comes great responsibility, says the Spiderman movie. 

The true winner of the impeachment trial may just be Enrile and I am hoping he decides to use this new found political capital to good use, that is, for the genuine good of the country and not, once again, to fuel  new political machinations that he can now participate in, now that he has this new lease on life c/o stem cells. 

There is no doubt that he has the intelligence, the skills, the talents, and the capabilities to strategically turn it all around. Hey, at 88, he is still here. He was a bastard from the province and, now in his old age, he is still the senate president. He has gone through all these regimes, from Marcos’ martial law to Edsa 1 to the coups to Ramos’ time to Erap to GMA and to, the current, Pnoy term. There is no doubt that he has the ability, the guts and the will to stick around. 

Enrile has had a very colorful public life and I remain skeptical of what he will do next. All his past behavior, at least for me, will not be erased just because he performed very well and was so entertaining in the  impeachment trial.

Maybe he is just one of the winners but he is someone up there in the list of the top winners of the trial.  

The way he pandered the masses with his ridiculous (but sadly effective) “gusto ko happy ka” ads still makes me worry a lot about his character, even in his old age. 

Let's hope that he really is thinking of his historical legacy and does well by the country.     

My Answers and Arguments to it all

It surprises me how I've become this person, who believes in thing thing called ethics and these weird morals.  How is it that I have become this person who actually wants to give the very small doses of hope that the recent changes in the government has brought about the benefit of the doubt? 

Maybe I've elevated myself to some new ethical level? Or maybe, most of the people I know have become more cynical. Hey, I used to be the jaded one. I used to be the cynic in most relationships that I know of. What has happened to me? 

Throughout the Corona trial various arguments from various people with opposing views have come up and I would just like to put my answers out there, whether or not they will ever see my point or agree with me.

So, here are some of the arguments I've heard and what I think about them: 

Carpio vs. Corona, and the idea of replacing a bad man with a worse man

As I told a friend of mine, I’ve taken Carpio out of the equation with regards to the trial. 

Maybe if Carpio became GMA’s appointed one, and not Corona, he would have done more of her dirty work and he would have been the one in this situation, I acknowledge that. 

But that’s the thing, he ended up not getting chosen, and he ended up probably getting bitter and mad about it like everyone says, but then, if he becomes the next justice, then he ended getting lucky, he would be given a chance to play the hero. 

If he is given this chance, I would assume that he would actually be committed to the cause for a while, and really, why would he pass up the chance to look good like this? If given a chance to turn his image around, wouldn't he at least try he play his role well? 

Well, who knows, after all, didn't this happen before, to GMA? She was handed a chance to play the role of a hero after Edsa 2, after the people turned on Erap, but she fell so short and she was actually worse than Erap. 

That’s the thing, we replace a bad person with another person, hoping that the replacement would do better. We hope that this new person would do things right and we try to have faith that this new person would uplift the situation. As isn’t it at the core of the desire for change is the desire for things to improve. Otherwise, why do we even bother? 

But, hey, nothing is for certain. We do our best and hope for the best. Sometimes they turn out right, sometimes they turn out wrong. 

But if we don’t make a change, just because we say that the alternative could be worse, such as the case for insisting to keep Corona because Carpio might be worse, then it is also equivalent to saying that we are willing to accept the status quo and accept no change. Worse, we’ve let the abstract possibility of a worse situation to hold us back and to just accept an ongoing concretely bad situation. 

Everybody is doing it – part of the Miriam argument

If you get caught doing something wrong and you use this as an excuse, well it’s not an excuse. 

As the saying goes: just because everyone is doing it, doesn't make it right. It just makes you the unfortunate fellow who got caught in the act with his hand in the cookie jar or some crumbs trailing you around (as the case may be here). 

And, if the people who prosecuted you or turned you in have some skeletons in their closet too, well, then they are hypocrites but that still doesn’t make you a saint. You are still guilty. 

Politics, Not the Law

“Napupulitika lang”. This is just politics and not just about the law or so they say. So what then? Do we really expect that politics won’t be involved? This is the impeachment of a chief justice who’s a notable ally of GMA, it’s televised for the whole country to see – What?! You think there’s no politics? 

But even if it’s about politics as well as about the law, what does it really change? This person should still be held accountable and not be let off just because it involves politics.  

It is a witch-hunt, it's bullying (Corona)

Everyone knew that he was an ally of GMA and that he was doing her work. The prosecution knew he had things to hide, even if they were not as prepared. 

As mentioned, the goal was to hold the GMA administration and Corona, a GMA appointee, was blocking this goal. 

Even if there was a witch hunt, if nothing could be found, then nothing will be found. And, Corona as a grown man, complete with his crude language and threats, and his top position of a branch of a government branch, does he look like someone who can actually be bullied? His “kawawa” looks doesn't fool me. I can’t say that it fooled a lot of people either.   

Improper filing SALN, a minor fault not worthy of being impeached 

It’s just the wrong declaration - BUT he is the Chief Justice, but it is no small amount. 

Some said that by virtue of lawyering technicalities, they side with the defense since the process was haphazardly done and the prosecution was very sloppy. 

Never mind that anonymous or not, what the “sources” revealed proved to be more right than wrong. The bank account numbers were correct, USD accounts existed, undeclared properties existed, etc. – he had admitted to having $2.4M and P80M vs. his P3M+ declaration. And, this is the truth (or part of the truth, who knows if he has more hidden wealth -it’s probable). 

I remember from Pia Cayatano’s explanation of her vote that she said that while the issue was just an improper filing of the SALN, we are not talking of a minor error. It’s not a case of a few pesos or say, just a parking lot space of a condo unit that was inadvertently forgotten.  It was a case of only filing about 2% of his entire revealed cash levels and that's not minor at all. 

To acquit him based on lame reasoning like – hey, it’s good faith because his interpretation of the SALN is that he doesn’t need to report his USD because of the secrecy law and hey, his other funds are co-mingled – simply isn’t be acceptable. 

Got curious, so looked for a screenshot of that famous PowerPoint from the ombudsman 

Even if it was simply an improper filing of SALN, it is impossible to look at it as simply that. 

In the end, the public had seen a glimpse of the discrepancy and how glaring it really was and more significantly, the public had witnessed the behavior, strategy and character of Corona and his camp.  

Truly, more than the technicalities, it was how he performed and how he put himself out there that made it impossible for him to win. 

It was how he tried to cover up his sins, how he accused and threatened everyone, how he used crude language, how he behaved, how he walked out, how he pretended to be hospitalized and how he defended himself with the infamous “palusots” that made him lose the game. 

Prosecution was so sloppy and so weak

Yes, they were very sloppy. I wished they performed better. I hoped they were more prepared. But they didn't give a stellar performance and they weren't really that prepared. 

But this doesn’t change the fact that Corona is GMA’s man and if he remains in position the goal of making her liable will never happen. Their incompetence also doesn’t change the fact that Corona did not file his SALN correctly and only reported about 2% of his total revealed funds.

At the end of the day, despite the prosecution’s incompetence and despite the defense’s top quality team that included the infamous Cuevas, Corona’s true colors still shown through.  The defense team’s brilliance was not enough to win it for him. And, in spite of the prosecution’s poor performance, they won. 

In the end, the defense put the ombudsman and Corona on the stand. Both moves just won the case for the prosecution. And, Corona was his own worse witness. 

So, in spite of the prosecution’s poor performance, they inevitably won. All in all, the win should not be attributed to the prosecution's prowess (because they had almost none). The situation was just a testament to how very little the Corona side had to work on after all. Ultimately, Corona's top notch team could only come up with palusot reasons and had been reduced to pulling various stunts and maneuvers to shift the attention from the real issues so hey, their case was also somewhat weak as well. 

Constitutional Crisis 

Constitutional Crisis – the catch phrase that the judiciary lets out every time it thinks it’s being conquered by the executive branch.  If the judicial branch were playing nice to begin with and at the very least was being mildly cooperative, there wouldn't have been a need to deal with them in the first place. 

They are saying with this phrase that they will not back off, so you (executive) back off, otherwise there will be a constitutional crisis. But it goes both ways, if the judiciary “backs off” – i.e. cooperates, then there wouldn't be a need for any of it, there wouldn’t be a threat called constitutional crisis. 

The point is, it is not just the executive branch that’s triggering a constitutional crisis if there was to be such as thing, the judiciary is equally responsible for it. So, this whole thing about the judiciary accusing the executive of this thing and threatening everyone that there will be this constitutional crisis is part gaslight-ing and part thug-gery as well. 

And hey, good thing JPE finally said it in this interview that I saw on ANC, that if the judiciary insists on not abiding by the Senate’s impeachment of Corona then they will stand up and fight them. Great.   

This is a dictatorship, is this martial law?

Dictatorship, martial law – words that have been uttered in an accusatory manner by Corona, his wife and I think, was it Mike Arroyo? Or was it Iggy? (It was one of them)  

Well, to call Pnoy’s term akin to a martial law is largely ridiculous. First off, he was voted legitimately by the people. 

Next, the platform of his campaign is anti-corruption and is about holding GMA liable for her sins, her corruption.  

As everyone one already knows, before GMA left office she strategically situated her people in various government positions, including the controversial SC chief justice position (during the ban) to ensure that when she is out of office it will take the next president a tremendous amount of effort to hold her accountable for anything. And, just to seal the deal, she ran for congress as well. Never mind that it is unconventional and just desperate to go from president to congresswoman. 

So, you know, Pnoy’s quest to get her people out and get his people in has more to do with cleaning house than any plans for a dictatorial rule.

Add to this, any quest for change would need the involvement of all the branches of government. If all branches of government are at odds with each other, then nothing will move forward. All is well and good if GMA controlled segments would miraculously cooperate with the current administration but this will obviously not happen. There is no other choice but to get her people out and get his people in for any changes to happen. 

We don’t really want a government that has been made impotent by the last regime’s clever schemes. So, here’s to hoping that the current government’s good intentions will soon be enforceable after they've done enough cleaning. 

Moreover, other factions, not only GMA’s, are likewise threatened of the growing control of Pnoy over the government. To accuse the current government of a dictatorship because of this reason is rooted in politics and self-interest as well. 

As I always say, in group projects and in most anything else, I don’t mind following a leader and having this person in control of the situation if this leader is doing things right (and in this case, is standing for and is trying to clean up the government).  

I am thinking here as a mere citizen and, perhaps, this is my self-interest. 

I am not a politician who has to think about my shrinking place in the political scene so I do not mind this alleged control, if at the end of the day, it will lead us all to a better place. 

I want to be hopeful. I am, of course, still very skeptical but I welcome this shred of hope over having no sign of it at all, which was the case in GMA's time. 

I am not expecting anything miraculous, just a slight move forward.