Coronanovella: The Season Finale / The Results Show

Predictions 

There had been much speculation as to who will vote for whom, or for a conviction or an acquittal. For a period of time, I keep hearing about 6 uncertain senators. 

I have also heard people saying that it would likely be an acquittal since only 8 was needed to acquit and 16 was needed to convict, the odds are against it they said. Someone I know, who is a top bank executive, said that everyone around (him/her) kept saying that it would be an acquittal. 

Yesterday, my brother and I were discussing how we thought each senator was going to vote. We thought 7 would likely acquit Corona: Miriam, Arroyo, Bong Bong, Bong Revilla, Lito Lapid, Villar and Loren – based on the senators court behavior and affiliation to GMA. We thought that the 6 uncertain senators were: Chiz, Sotto, Honasan, Estrada, Enrile, and Pimentel. And, the remaining senators, we thought of would be voting for a conviction – also based on their court behavior as well as their alliance to Pnoy. 

While I wasn’t as confident with my prediction, I was thinking that Corona would be impeached based on:

1. Some of the senators are reelectionists (and would likely vote based on public opinion)
2. Corona’s guilty looking behavior (walked out, hospitalization and admittance of $2.4M and P80M)
3. Farinas’ closing argument, which perfectly encapsulated the points of the prosecution, poked holes in Corona’s flimsy explanations and superbly conveyed all of it in straightforward Tagalog (none of those forced trying-to-be-deep-Tagalog diatribes from people who were never really comfortable in the language to begin with). After that closing by Farinas, I don’t know how any reelectionist could risk looking like a tool, voting to acquit when it’s so clear that Corona had all these unexplained wealth that he really could only explain through his “palusots”. 

I am glad to know that I am, after all, a better political analyst than those bank executives (or maybe, I just got lucky, who knows?). 

Surprising Landslide

I had thought that maybe the undecided senators would be divided for the prosecution and the defense or that the votes would be close, or that there would be some suspense like how it happens in your average reality TV show, but apparently, after all the ruckus, the result was a landslide for conviction. 

Monday night some analyst were saying that things could be a "19 vs. 4" scenario, with some analysts identifying Bong Revilla and Lito Lapid as swing votes.  This was the first time I’ve heard that these Lakas-Kampi boys would go against GMA’s Corona. 

Those who voted to acquit, Miriam, Bong Bong and Arroyo, are not reelectionist and have no need to heed public opinion.

All I can say for Miriam, she can be entertaining but on some occasions her exploding voice can be quite irritating. I felt like doing an Aguirre while watching her (more than) 2 minute explanation.  There is no doubt about her talent as a lawyer and as a judge. The problem lies when it’s obvious that she’s operating under an obvious bias. I don’t know how she can excuse her behavior and coat it under the guise of technicalities of the law that she says she is an expert of since she has been an ROTC judge. 

As for Bong Revilla, anytime he opens his mouth, I just feel an overwhelming sense of annoyance. He has never endeared himself to me, not when he was roasting Hayden on those leaked videos, (No, I don’t like Hayden but I also don’t think the videos merited that much senate attention. He doesn't even know how to pick a decent issue on which to grandstand on) and not on this trial. In addition, every time he opens his mouth, I am not convinced of any impressive level of intelligence. All I can sense is his ability to half-act things. He expressed his hardship today in his explaination, he says "napakahirap" with regards to his vote but that “alang alang sa pagkakaisa at paghilom ng ating bayan”, he votes to convict. What does that even mean? What a lame attempt to use Tagalog to make his decision sound substantial and deep. All he said was that he had a hard time but will vote to convict for the sake of the country’s unity and healing. So, is he saying that he wanted to vote otherwise but only voted to convict for the sake of the country’s unity and healing? Does that even make sense, really? So, you want to acquit a Supreme Court justice who didn't file $2.4M and P80M in his SALN because that's what you really wanted to do, and you are having such a hard time, but you will convict him instead just for the sake of the nation? Say, what?!

Lito Lapid, meanwhile was just hilarious. I don’t know if that was his insecurity talking or if it was some clever ploy to endear himself to the masses or maybe it was both. He emphasized his inability to understand English, his high school diploma and his inability to understand the law. Yet, he says he was to judge a man like Corona, who is more educated than him. Hmm, I don’t know about you but he just mentioned all the reasons why he was incapable of judging the case or any case for that matter. If he couldn't understand English, how could he have understood half of what was being said in the trial? And, if he didn’t know anything about the law, how could he have understood the merits of both the prosecution and the defense? For that matter, how could he even do his job as a senator, if he doesn’t understand or know anything about law? But hey, he voted to convict since he said this is because he understood the case based on Farinas’ closing argument. 

As for Villar, I would have probably respected him more (not that I do respect him, as I once had an encounter with him that left a really bad taste on my mouth), if he had voted to acquit and didn’t just vote with the majority, just because he wants to be popular? Or didn't want to be left out? Or because his wife would be running in the next senate elections? After all, isn’t he a sort of closeted GMA ally? He should have just stuck with his loyalties or perhaps, he really has none (the virtue of loyalty, that is), who knows?

As for the reelectionists, they voted based on public opinion and hey, why did we even doubt that they would have done otherwise? 

And so, that closes the chapter of the 40+ days of the Coronanovella. Will we get a second season through a rumored Supreme Court appeal? I hope not. 

The country has survived the impeachment. Let’s just let it remain intact for now. Please.

As JPE has said "We must learn from this episode". I truly hope we did.

Closing Arguments

My hats off to Fariñas’, you have sealed the deal.

My first impression of Fariñas is of doubt, that is, he didn’t look particularly intelligent, his hair was dyed brown in a way that I’ve never seen any male public official has and all I knew about him was that he had a wife who committed suicide. 

But the first time I heard him speak in an interview in ANC on why he joined the prosecution team after their impeachment complaint filing, despite his non-signing of the complaint itself, I had thought he was fairly capable. I was actually disappointed that he wasn’t utilized in the trial that is, his article (I think it was article 6) was not brought out. 

A friend of mine recently commented that she didn’t think this Fariñas character looked credible or capable while we were watching the impeachment coverage, due to the same reasons that I had. And, I told her that she would be surprised that he's actually pretty good and that I've seen him in several interviews where he did fairly well. 

And, hey, I was proven right when Fariñas did a portion of the prosecution’s closing argument last Monday. Tupas’ performance was just "so, so". Sonny Belmonte’s was honorary but was a bore. Fariñas' was really on the mark. The whole “palusot” theme was brilliant, including the accompanying data on the FX rate at the time when Corona claimed he started saving in 1968 - that was great too. Fariñas' closing argument encapsulated the prosecution’s points and poked holes in all of Corona’s statements at the same time. Add to that he communicated it to the public extremely well. 

For me it is a major plus point that he spoke in a normal sounding and very comfortable Tagalog. I told my friend that see, this is a Tagalog statement that is not awkward and not the least bit annoying because it is clear that he normally speaks in Tagalog. He is comfortable with the language. Again, I say, a really small feat to ask seeing as we are all Filipinos and we should really all be comfortable using the national language. 

Meanwhile, the defense really just sounded lack lustered and boring. Yes, they may be talking about this or that law technicality, which might have some valid points somewhere there, however they still sounded boring. They probably didn’t get any plus points from the public opinion meter there as most probably wouldn't be able to grasp or care about half of what they were saying. 

Cuevas has proven that he’s a very brilliant lawyer but I suppose he has his limits. What can he really do when faced with that much of an overwhelmingly bad situation? He really has no other way that to go with the technicalities, what else does he really have then? 

Ang Mahiwagang Investment Strategy

After his 2 days on the witness stand, one has to wonder if this Corona is the least bit intelligent, that is, he kept portraying himself like he's stupid.

First off, his Tagalog just sound somewhat crude, which doesn’t help in making him look smart.

Then, it seems he can’t understand the senators’ questions as he doesn’t answer any question posted to him in a straight forward manner. (That is, he kept talking about his grandchild or daughter, or frugality, or lack of aircon or maid or some other similar drama). 

He says he doesn’t know what debit, credit and assets means.

He doesn’t know how to file his SALN.

He thinks just because his accounts are in dollars, he doesn't need to report them (or consider them assets). 

He doesn’t even know that he should eat lunch or at the very least drink coke or chew a candy for his long standing diabetic condition.  Either that, or he believed he could just walkaway from the senate and casually runaway just like that after his opening statement, which too sounds equally dumb.

He believes that USD hoarding is great investment strategy.

This list can go on… But I’m just saying that you start to wonder, if all these things are true and he is not perjuring himself over there, then well, the alternative is that he might actually just be DUMB. 

After his whole brouhaha last Tuesday about his seriously preposterous investment strategy that involves hoarding USD since the late 60s, I already started to wonder about his intelligence. Since, I must admit I’ve never heard of Corona until he was appointed by GMA to the Supreme Court. I've never really had much interest in him (why would I?) so I actually didn’t know much about his bio. So, I looked him up, I googled him. 

Turns out, he was a consistent honor student, went to Ateneo de Manila University (given he was just on a general studies course), was the editor in chief of Guidon, went to Ateneo Law school, ranked 25^th on his bar exams, and even went to Harvard. He actually was a tax lawyer for SGV and also went to Ateneo for MBA (minus his thesis).

So, hey, his credentials don’t seem like the credentials of an utterly dumb person, not one who won’t be able to understand basic accounting terms or principles since he did MBA and practiced tax law. I even heard from some anchor that he taught banking law or something like that. So, how can this person honestly declare that he doesn’t know what debit, credit or an asset is when a normal management university student already knows what these terms are.

Corona's credentials aren't even those of a person who would think HOARDING DOLLARS in his saving account for years would seem like a good idea. I mean, really?! I can’t help but wince, every time he says it, that this is the reason why he has so much USD in his bank accounts, that he has been keeping small portions of his salary for 40 years and converting them to dollars and just putting them in his bank accounts. (See, now I still feel like wincing.)  

First, it’s a really really really bad investment strategy and second, it’s not a particularly plausible explanation for the amount of USD that he has.

I think these 2 segments from ANC's Business Nightly program are good supplements to why his so called investment strategy is not exactly feasible or sound:  

Off the top of my head, here are some of the reasons why Corona's so called dollar investment strategy claims are just preposterous: 

Even if the USD has gained multiple times since the rate has been 2:1, there was no way that a college level Corona would even be able to predict that it will become 43:1 40 years after.

The FX rates fluctuate all the time. There was the Asian financial crisis and the time when the FX rate hit 50 and everyone converted only to have it drop to the 40s range – a lot of the people I know got burned at that time. These occurrences alone would make any person wary of converting all his money to dollars. In the recent years alone, the Peso has become stronger and the current global financial crisis hasn’t made anyone confident about the US market, the US banks or the US dollars for that matter.

Why would someone that smart just keep all his cash in USD and just keep it liquid in his bank account?

Add to all this the interest rates are so low these days, peso current account don’t even give you 1% anymore, the USD interest rates are likewise very low. Why would you dump your money in a sad savings account or even in a time deposit these days? Since he has the position and the connections, certainly he would have a lot of friends and resources to point him to a better investment pool. These days the stock market is doing so well, for example. Are you telling me he would rather just let his USD sleep there in his bank account just like that? 

Which brings me to my point, the thing is: If he isn’t truly dumb, then he wasn’t being honest. And if he is actually incredibly smart, as his bio says he is, then it follows that he was perjuring himself on the witness stand this entire time. 

Which is it, do you think?

The Anti-Gaga Issue

I've often said the Church these days are trying their best to keep themselves relevant by inserting themselves on various issues such as putting their weight on being anti-RH bill or anti-divorce, even when the whole world has evolved into supporting women’s health and choices or their right to remarry when they've made a mistake (and it so frequently happens) the first time around.

I’m all for respecting everyone’s religion and beliefs. But there really are just representatives of religious organizations, such as the Christians, that give everyone else in their group a bad name. Case in point, these ridiculous Lady Gaga protests. Boy, am I not surprised that the group protesting are Christians. And, boy am I not surprised that the CBCP also made their comments on the issue, as are they not always looking for trendy issues to insert themselves in to get themselves some desperate publicity these days?

So, this Biblemode Youth Philippines group protested and performed candlelight vigils against Lady Gaga (CUE: roll eyes).

A Christian group's protest against Lady Gaga - wow, 

they even made an effort to print matching protest shirts

Some quotes (like these below) have been said:

“Her attitude seems to promote godlessness, offensive to any religion,” Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes, a member of the Permanent Council of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, told reporters.

“We believe that this concert is grossly blasphemous, immoral, lewd, obscene and carries demonic and occultic undertones that are insults to our God and are direct attacks against our Christian faith,” Fred Magbanua, one of the Christian leaders, said. “(The concert) greatly endangers the hearts and minds of our young people, as it overtly promotes satanic worship and sexual perversity.”

“This concert has to be banned,” said Manila Rep. Benny Abante, who is also a religious leader. “We will pray against it and do everything we can to oppose it on all fronts,” he said.

And so it goes… Religious leaders went as far as calling “Born this way” an encouragement to homosexuality. Really? It’s a song about accepting who you are and about being yourself, you know, cause you were born this way, and somehow these religious groups has morphed the song into being pro homosexuality? - which really isn’t a bad thing, anyway. 

Lady Gaga herself is obviously someone who loves the attention and all the controversy that surrounds her. Why else would she do all these things that she does so well?! Wear meat outfits, gyrate around the stage or play the piano while doing weird acrobatic suggestive movements? 

Well, because Lady Gaga is a great concept. It’s a fabulous persona for a pop star. This outrageous, attention seeking, Madonna-esqe approach, has worked wonders for her career so far. AND, it has made a lot of her music videos and concerts entertaining.  

I’ve always said I loved her songs but I don’t particularly love her overt attention seeking behavior. She once claimed that she loved walking around in her underwear in public (or something that sounds like that), which was obviously said to elicit some buzz, and I don't particularly like this blatant overt reach for explicit attention but I get it. I get why she needs to do it. 

AND: It’s entertainment. People know that. No one actually takes Lady Gaga THAT seriously. 

Personally, I thought the concert was just great. The set was gorgeous, what's not to love about her multi color electric lights castle?

Lady Gaga performed really well. Her costumes were really cool. I especially like that meat grinder scene - I don't really know why but I just thought it was cute. 

Throughtout the concert she reinforced her message of acceptance, of wishing the best for all her fans - the opposite of what religious groups says she's about. 

And, well, she also repeatedly said that she doesn't give a fuck (about what the establishment though), which is also kind of cool. 

In summary: it was a kick ass fun concert and everyone had a grand time, sans satanic overtures. 

So, Christian groups:  if you’re bored and are looking for something or someone to roast or look down upon, just – I don’t know, chill out – go on a prayer meeting and try to imbibe the virtues of respecting other people’s beliefs (or entertainment choices). Stop imposing - whatever it is that you want your flock to avoid – to other people. 

And, CBCP: just accept that you guys are no longer as relevant rather than trying to keep up with the youth by issuing statements on Lady Gaga and Jessica Sanchez. 

Ironically though, the way I see it, these Christian groups, the CBCP and Lady Gaga has this one thing in common: It's Attention Seeking Behavior. 

Day 40: Corona, the Dramatic Diva

Just when I was saying that it is, what it is and that Corona should just stop insulting the people by continuing to play the victim (speaking in Tagalog, with his “kodigo”, and doing his best “kawawa” look), he ups his level and walks out, then claims that he was dizzy and hypoglycemic when his move was met with a senate lock down, and suddenly his people brings out a wheelchair, GMA style!

Walkouts and Wheelchairs

To sum up the defense strategy, it's to: Deny, deny, deny to death.  Threaten. Accuse. Promise to open Corona’s accounts. Promise that Corona will explain. Delay. Deny. Threaten the government. Keep mentioning Hacienda Luisita, over and over.  Accuse everyone else.  Delay to the point of making everyone doubt if Corona would ever truly testify. Then let Corona have a 3 hour opening statement. Let Corona dramatize his life (no maids, no aircon, family feud, mother has cancer, etc.) Cry. Declare that Corona will open his accounts. Let him sign the waiver (for dramatic effect) then make it conditional – he will only open it if the other congressmen also open theirs. Call this gesture something that’s for the country...  Then, well, disappear... If this fails (well, if there is an unexpected lock down), bring out the wheelchair, claim he has some illness. Let Corona come out in said wheelchair, let him close his eyes on camera like he's in pain. AND – EVADE CROSS EXAMINATION.

What’s next, St. Lukes? This is what everyone on social media said, as a half joke earlier tonight, you know, so he may follow his best bud GMA and they can be wheelchair buddies or hospital room buddies or neck brace buddies (should he choose to sport the same props). However, it’s apparently not St. Lukes, just to add a little surprise element to the drama, he went to Medical City instead. Deja vu, anyone?

The Truth?

But seriously, truth and transparency need not be so complicated and so lengthy. If they could say it straight up, wouldn’t they have done so by now?

All I’ve heard of so far are all accusations mixed with alleged plausible explanations on why his property and his bank accounts do not match his SALN – and hey regardless of how many accounts or properties he admitted to, they still don’t match his SALN and isn’t this the point?

What do we know so far? What message has been communicated? What are these “plausible explanations”?

Based on his opening statement, the bottom line is that ALL the discrepancies on his SALN are either:

1. Not his money as it came from: 

• Basa Guidote's (a company his wife stole from her family, which includes an aging nun that basically has nothing to gain from lying about him since she lives in a convent and probably really isn’t after the money
•  his mother's (who as he highlights has cancer btw)
•  his child's (who is so industrious that she has 2 jobs in the US)
•  His 40 year monthly savings (that he has been stashing away in USD because he believes this is a great investment strategy – Really? To just keep it liquid, kept in his bank accounts, when PHP has been gaining on the USD these past years and with the interest rates so low as well).

2. Due to mysterious defects of the properties – all bought on sale or some discounted arrangements because, apparently, he just loves to buy defective properties. 

3. Because he believes that if his money is in USD, he doesn’t need to put it in his SALN because it’s protected by the foreign currency secrecy law. (So, all embezzlers should probably convert their money to dollars and this will shield them from all kinds of prosecution – you know, because they are just following the interpretation of the law of the current chief justice. HMM?)  

I don’t know about you but all these don’t sound particularly uncomplicated, just seems like a zigzag roundabout way to explain his discrepant SALN.

Just because of his interpretation

So, he is technically appointed the Chief Justice because the judiciary (him included) voted to exempt his appointment from the ban.

The TRO to disallow opening his PS bank accounts, as decided by the judiciary (which he is the head of) was issued.

And, he doesn’t put his USD accounts into his SALN because based on his own interpretation of the law, he doesn’t have to?

Is it just me or isn’t all of these called - Conflict of Interest? 

But hey, we're all still suppose to think its valid, just because...?

Day 37: some excitement begins again

I was out again and I only caught the end of the live forecast, tuned in a few minutes before the Ombudsman ended her testimony / PowerPoint presentation but I wished that I saw everything live, as it has been a while since the trial has been interesting.

82 accounts!? Seriously!?!

I don’t know about you but without knowing how much cash are actually kept in these dollar accounts, the fact that he had 82 dollar accounts is just dubious, questionable, suspicious, (insert term)…

Naysayers by now should know that whatever spin they try would probably sound (at best) unconvincing.  Well, because he had 82 dollar accounts!?! Even if he just had like $1 each or $100 each in each account, people will still wonder: Why have 82 accounts, if you’re not actually planning to do some money laundering, ill-gotten wealth stashing or something equally shady like some kiting type of activity? I mean - 82?! That’s a lot.

Without considering the brouhaha over his refusal to reveal his PS Bank dollar accounts, 82 is a lot. Back then only thousands of dollars were rumored to exist, then it was $10M, now apparently its more than that.

So that’s: 1 usd account in 2003 to 82 in 2011. Plus: lots of movements on significant dates such as the 2004 and 2007 elections, and the week of impeachment, including withdrawals and pre-terminations.  

What conclusions can we draw here?

AMLC

Cuevas established the Ombudsman as a hostile witness based on her 1 dissenting opinion over Coronas (“out of the ordinary”) appointment and subsequently was trying to cross the Ombudsman’s statements.  

From what I gathered based on the replays I saw on tv, Cuevas was about to question why these accounts were revealed when  the dollar accounts should have been protected by Foreign Currency Deposit Act and kept asking what the source of the information was.  The Ombudsman kept telling him that it was from AMLC. And Cuevas kept asking why she investigated these accounts despite the fact that this particular line of investigation is not in accordance with the impeachment articles filed.

To which, the ombudsman gave these answered:  “So you are saying these accounts exist because you are saying it is confidential?” And: “Yes, I am investigating for (possible) impeachment in December”

The thing is the anti-money laundering law has been there for years and years. It’s the reason why a normal person cannot buy all the USD one wants, there is a limit, and if you want to buy more dollars, you need to present documents to make the transaction possible and legitimate. Same goes for all dollar bank activities, if they don’t come with legitimate documents, then $5000 above transactions are flagged as suspicious transactions.

My point is I’m sure these transactions are being documented for years. Maybe people just chose to not look at them back then but they’re there, flagged. It doesn’t take an impeachment trial for AMLC to suddenly come up with these figures that the defense has to make a gas lighting accusation that these accounts are not part of the impeachment articles so why come up with them.

Suppose we look into the articles, then we can ask: If all these money and accounts are under his name, did he file it all correctly in his SALN? 

AND:"Even if the dollar deposits are confidential under banking rules, didn't the Chief Justice have a duty to report them in his SALN under the rules on public accountability?"

AND so, Corona disputes the “mathematical equation” used in the Ombudsman’s PowerPoint presentation, which he claims is a “lantern of lies”.

The highest amount he ever filed, as reported, was about P3M. So, let’s just all try to do the math based on that then. 

Super Smurftastic Roger!

While I was off being sleepless with all the paper work and gallivanting over a portion of the world, Roger has been doing pretty well (cause, well, you know, why wouldn't he?).  So, I was off going about (my) life that I wasn't able to be ecstatic about any of it.

Well, I'm quite ecstatic now! 

I usually try to get into tennis 1-2 tournament before any grand slams to prime myself for the big events so I watched the 2^nd and 3^rd game of the Madrid Open finals last night over live stream and what do you know?! Roger wins again! And, he’s now the new world number 2! (Woooohooo! Yeah!)  

So, Roger now: 

• has 20 Master titles! (now tied with Nadal as the all-time leader)
• Is the first man to have won the Madrid title 3 times (on 3 different surfaces!)
• Has 7 titles of the 10 tournaments since last year’s unfortunate US Open.
• Has been doing so well the last 8 months (and has yet to lose a final!)

If winning last night’s finals makes Roger a smurf, so be it! Take that Djokovic and Nadal (you two divas!) for saying that only smurfs can play on the blue clay! 

Must say this trophy looks like a weird baton or magic wand of sorts... (hey what do you expect from a court named magic box or the "Caja Majica" or a tournament that uses models for ball girls?!)

Well, well... Much ado about that blue clay court but at the end of the day, he who adapts and makes it work, wins! And, that's the mark of a real champion! Well done Roger!

Hiatus

The impeachment trial has been on hiatus.

I have been on hiatus. I got busy, I had to pass this 180+ paper. Then I went on a sort of long vacation.

Then I came home to do my report (that i suddenly could not quite remember - I had to reread everything!) and then I had my defense for the said 180+ page paper. After all the bruhaha, it actually ended well. Yes, I am going to graduate (with honors, for what its worth).

Then I actually met one of the lawyers from the trial, in person, which was just so utterly weird. He told me who he thought was going to win. For a while there I thought I had some cool insider information until I realized that well, of course he would say that his side would win.

Then I went on a very short vacation.

Then I had one sort of business meeting and then I met up with a relative of mine from the US. 

So, I have missed 3 days of the defense time of the trial. (AS: day 1 – I was almost stranded on an island, day 2 – I was in a meeting, and day 3 – I was shopping for bootleg designer items for/with my relative)

MEANWHILE...

• My subconscious has been filled with images of cupcakes. Watching episodes of 2 broke girls has caused the cupcake fest to seep into my subconscious so much so that I’ve dreamt of them, have ate 3 of them so far and still want to eat more… (Gosh, I have low eq)

Love the show... what's not to like? I'm a girl. I used to be broke (or might still be). Can I relate or what?

• Erap has changed his address and a friend of mine claims she now has a celebrity neighbor.

I would be more impressed with him if he actually moved to a more ghetto part of town.  He just moved to the border part of Manila (that's probably about 20-30mins away from San Juan, depending on the traffic).  

• Mon Tulfo has been caught on video (now on youtube, probably already seen by everyone we know), getting mauled by Raymart, Claudine and company, while wearing a pinkish shirt! (That is, it was a whirl of pinkish colors in the video – what’s up with that?) I’m sure no one really likes either side and would just be as happy to see all of them get mangled regardless of who started the violence. 

Let's all just blame the super moon then? Apparently, Mon Tulfo has a black belt. Bet he's quite embarassed with his performance as he kept mentioning that if he had his firearms he would have done more damaged (than kick Claudine's leg?) Oh-kay. 

• China state TV has claimed the Philippines as part of China’s territory. Seriously?! It was an embarrassing error apparently or so they say. 

I'm beginning to conclude that almost all state TV behave like Fox news. Enough said.