Can Iron-fisted Leadership Turn the Philippines into a Major World Power?

November 8, 2015

by zaxx

Flipping through the pages of world history, we can in fascination observe how the great empires of the past have in their heydays taken turns standing on the world’s pedestal, with the fall of one succeeded by the rise of another: from the ancient times with Egypt, Babylon (Iraq), Persia (Iran), Greece, & Rome, and through the centuries to our more recent UK, Germany/Japan (WW2-AXIS), USA/USSR-Russia (Cold war), and now emerging China and India.

A major global power is a nation/empire that any neighboring country will think twice before pushing around or provoking. At the top of the food chain, they convene like vultures (such as G-7) to manage and chart the course of the world.

One may wonder: Where is the Philippines in all the power play among economic, military, and technological titans? How does this seemingly insignificant third-world country fit in the grand scheme of things?

Well, I like to kid around with the national-pride-tickling “prophetic” idea that the three greatest superpowers of all time will be three English-speaking countries that so markedly stand out above the rest that the article “The” is placed before their country names. And these three are

1. The United Kingdom
2. The United States
3. The Philippines

Yes, I know. What a joke! But let’s pause for a moment and think: Looking back at the humble beginnings of visionary companies, didn’t they mock Walt Disney, Steve Jobs (Apple), and Elon Musk (Paypal, Tesla, SpaceX) for having unrealistically ridiculous audacious dreams as well?

Now what if by some fateful “aligning of the planets”, we can actually get our act together, unite, and become something beyond what we can even imagine possible. Is aiming to be a global power mere delusional daydreaming? Is it too much to ask or expect for a 100M strong nation blessed rich with natural resources and teeming with talent to become one?

Well if you ask me the question “Can the Philippines become a major world power?”, my simple answer is “Why not?”

To come to think of it, with the great Philippine diaspora, Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are now in every corner of the globe, and even taking on management and key positions where they have settled? In effect, the “the sun never sets on the Filipino people”. What does that sound like? Exactly – the British Empire in her glory days. I am even inclined to think that if we recalled all our exported OFWs, entire economies/industries could stall or collapse.

Our national product (the OFW) is better than any other type of product in the world. When Japan exports a Toyota car, they only get paid once. But when the Philippines exports an OFW, that person remits back money again and again and again. With all the wealth/cash constantly pouring in, the Philippines is now becoming one formidable and resilient economic force to reckon with.

There is one crucial element that I believe this country needs though if we are to be propelled in such a grand and glorious trajectory.

Iron-fisted Leadership

What brought Russia, Japan, and Germany into accelerated advancement from being countries of lowly peasants into technological and economic powers of their age was strong military-caliber discipline-instilling leadership. They had leaders who had a flint-hard resolve to make their nations truly great.

The only major issue with the leaders of their times of transformation was that they ran over a lot of lives along the way (which I think was a big no no and totally unnecessary). But it is a testament to their past iron-fisted leadership that their nations are still the technological powerhouses they are to this day, way far advanced in the areas of military, aerospace, automotive, railway, and electronic/semiconductor technologies.

If we are seeking to take a fast-track approach towards becoming a major power, this nation needs a new breed of leader, one characterized by incorruptible and competent iron-fisted leadership that can handle and transform undisciplined dysfunctional zombies.

Let’s face it: time and again for 3 decades now, Filipinos have proven that American-style democracy does not work on zombies. Filipinos have simply perverted their liberties into a license to do anything as long as one is not caught. They have lost sight of the common good, living in a vain almost-unbridled pursuit of “freedom to…” instead of “freedom from…”.

As the idiom goes… “When the cat’s away, the mice will play.” Well, the cat’s been away for too long now. And we don’t need just a cat, we need a TIGER! We need someone who can make people fall back in line, relentlessly uphold law and order, rally and unify them with a common vision, equip them with nation-building tools (e.g. English books) rather than leaving them to feed on junk, and turn this country into one lightning-fast effective machine with every part contributing to the goal.

Leadership Style Matters

As voters, we need to observe closely the type of leadership a presidential aspirant displays. As the population has grown weary of the never-ending circus of corrupt and incompetent officials that plague the political arena, many Filipinos have now become more open to welcoming tough iron-willed leaders, those who command respect and obedience and who can serve as an inspiration and role model to all.

Like a gazelle panting for water after breaking free from its pursuing prey, the Filipino people are seeking change and see hope in the tough and fearless “iron-lady/iron-man” brand of leadership in the likes of Miriam Defensor Santiago and Rodrigo Duterte, which is in stark contrast to the low-quality “hay, wood, and stubble” politics offered by those who have little to show but

1. Empty “poe”-gi points borrowed from a late showbiz personality
2. Gross incompetence justified by a perverted concept of “mar”-tyrdom and sacrifice
3. The waning support of paid voters (mga “binay”-aran na botante).

Unless we have surrendered to a despondent regression into a nation state where the only thing organized is crime, we need a leader who can arrest the downward spiral in our society. We need a super cop, a glorified law enforcer, as chief executive – someone who will live out and execute the full force of the law, one who is unafraid to “hang” plunderers/corrupters and fire incompetent officials regardless of affinity, making a public spectacle of them to announce to the whole world that in the Philippines, no one is above the law.

As one high-school teacher of mine used to say: “Discipline makes a man.” If Filipinos cannot attain self-discipline as individuals making up a society, we need a leader who can instill and model it in the same way a teacher trains a bunch of unruly ill-mannered grade school pupils afflicted with a chronic contagious form of attention deficiency disorder to such a degree that discipline becomes a habit second-nature to them and transforms them into responsible, orderly, and productive citizens.

So is thinking we can someday stand on the world’s center stage as a major global power too big a dream? Maybe, but we don’t lose anything trying to reach it anyway. As it is said, “It is better to aim at the moon and hit a bird, than aim at a bird and hit a rock.”

It’s time to wake up from our current dysfunctional reality of corruption and incompetence! It’s time to dream big, think big, and press hard towards the goal! It’s time Filipinos choose a strong iron-fisted leader that can catapult this nation to its grand destiny!

zaxx

Zealous revolutionary advocate of bringing back common sense for the common good in a land of dysfunctional and delusional zombies.

Taboo Topics In the Philippines (And Why We Need To Discuss Them)

November 5, 2015

by Grimwald

“Taboo” a word that can be best amount to “abominable subject matter”. A taboo can encompass a lot of things. From things you would never do to things that you don’t even want to talk about. In our culture, I cannot help but notice that there are just too many taboo topics. Now, I know that some of these topics are indeed more than a little awkward when brought up but, we all have to remember, problems can only be solved when we discuss them and most certainly not when we sweep it under the rug and pretend they don’t exist.

And no, before you get the wrong idea, this article is not about incest. Well, at least not most of it. Oh well, just read on to understand what I’m talking about.

Anyway, one of the biggest reasons problems like poverty, corruption, traffic and crime plague us to this very day not because we lack the faculties to address them but simply because we refuse to address them at all. It becomes hilarious when people even disguise their denial and delusion as “positive thinking” even though it is anything but positive. For instance, I do not think that thinking rabid dogs don’t exist will somehow miraculously make them cease to exist. Ladies and gentlemen, what I am saying here is that “positivity” isn’t just about “positive thinking” but also about “positive action”. This means that we need to acknowledge the negativity in our society first before we can turn them into something positive. Ignoring the negative aspects of the Philippines does nothing to actually address them and only sets them up into something much, much worse. Indeed, as an example, you can always deny that you have body odor but, when the air turns foul in your presence, how else can you explain it.

Anyway, here are three big taboo topics in the Philippines that I think we should discuss more:

Sex

Okay, nobody panic, I know what you’re probably thinking. Well yes, I can admit to actually being a pervert. I’m not going to be a hypocrite and pretend that I’m sort of saint. However, I am also aware of the fact that even perversion should have its limits. Unfortunately, because of our “pakipot” nature, we often sweep the topic of sex under the rug and pretend it doesn’t exist until it’s too late. Next thing you know, your son’s either a father or your daughter’s a mother.

Look, I know a lot of you will once again resort to the notion that our culture is different from that of western countries. However, that doesn’t really make what we do right either. Among many forward-thinking families in the United States, there is the “talk” that all parents have to go through with their children. Now it can be very awkward as some of my American friends have gone on to note, but they all know its necessity. It’s better, after all, to have a few hours of awkwardness than deal with a lifetime of regret because of an unplanned pregnancy.

Now, I want to make it clear that sex can be a very uncomfortable topic to discuss. However, it becomes hilarious when we actually demonize it even though it’s actually a part of who we are. By refusing to even acknowledge it, you get very awkward and often disastrous situations such as teen pregnancies or unfulfilled marriages because the couple never even took their sex life into account before they got married.

Death

Here’s another topic that often causes a considerable amount of awkward silences in Pinoy society. Much like sex mentioned above, death is another uncomfortable but unfortunately inevitable part of life. Sooner or later we will all have to face the inevitability of the grave but so many of us even refuse to acknowledge it.

I’m not saying that we should simply give up on life. All I’m trying to say is that we should remember that life is limited and that we should make the best of it. Just because life is short doesn’t mean it’s worthless. While I think that it is never too late for anyone to discover their purpose in life, I also think that the earlier it is discovered, the better.

As T.S. Elliot once said: “Life you may evade, death you shall not.”

More often than not, by refusing to accept the inevitability of death, we often forget to live our lives the way we should. As we lose ourselves in our effort to drown out death’s call, we neglect our purpose in life and live unfulfilled and unappreciated lives.

Crime

Here’s probably the worst of the bunch. And no, I’m not just talking about petty crimes that are committed regularly by Filipinos against their own countrymen but also the crimes committed by politicians against their own people as well as acts of terrorism. Why is it that so many of us know nothing of the our society’s ails even though we are all likely to be affected by it in some way?

As mentioned in one of my previous articles quite a while back, I once had a clinical instructor who could only gawk at me and shake her head dismissively when I asked her opinion about the poisoned goods China seems to be shipping our way. I can account that many of my American friends are well aware of the problem and that their government and other authorities are working on a solution to prevent any further incidents caused by products with toxic properties that come from China. If every other Filipino sees the world like my clinical instructor (you know: “If it has nothing to do with me, I don’t care“), then we really are doomed because majority of us won’t actually care about the problem until we’re all dying of super-rabies or something similar.

When asked serious questions about the state of the nation, majority of us (yes, even politicians), don’t even bother to think about the question itself as they find it stressful. But then again, don’t any of them realize that, unless we acknowledge the problem, we will never find the solution for it. You cannot stop a crime by just gawking or ignoring it; you stop it by actually doing something!

Grimwald

I AM THE HAMMER. THE SWORD IN HIS HAND, THE GAUNTLET ABOUT HIS FIST. I AM THE BANE OF HIS FOES AND THE WOES OF THE TREACHEROUS. I AM THE END.

Travellers passing through NAIA have a 0.005% chance of falling victim to ‘bullet planting’ – DOTC

November 4, 2015

by benign0

Why is it that Filipinos are struggling to convince the world — and even themselves — that the bullet planting scam in their premiere airport, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), is just a relatively small problem that affects an almost negligible percentage of travellers?

According to Department of Transport and Communications (DOTC) Secretary Jun Abaya, of the 34 million people who went through the NAIA in 2014, only 1,813 were caught in possession of ammunition in their luggage. On the basis of those numbers, the average traveller arriving or departing via the NAIA will have a 0.005 percent chance of falling victim to the laglag bala (bullet planting) scam. It means you have a greater chance of being killed while crossing a street in Manila than falling victim to bullet planting at the NAIA.

Of course the figures quoted by Abaya only represent documented cases. We don’t really know how many of these cases go unreported and undocumented. According to anecdotal reports, the modus operandi of crooked airport officials is to take their victims directly to an ATM machine to withdraw their negotiated“fine”. Official walks away happy, passenger gets to board her flight. Everyone “wins”. By Pinoy standards, that is.

Even if, say, the total number of undocumented bullet planting incidents is a hundred times the number quoted by the DOTC, that takes the percentage of incidents up to just 0.5 percent. Still a small number, probably smaller than the probability of having your handbag snatched or your wallet stolen while shopping at one of Manila’s crowded malls.

If so, then the more interesting question therefore is: Why are Filipinos so quick to be whipped into a frenzy? And more importantly: Why is the stigma so hard to shake off?

This points to an even more disturbing aspect of the emergent psyche of the Filipino. Philippine society is one where social trust is extremely low. That is,

Filipinos do not trust one another.

This is not a good sign. Many notable intellectuals have cited this gaping hole in our cultural fabric that points to a serious disease that threatens the overall health of our society.

According to the late Teddy Benigno in one of his Star articles cited “A recent survey conducted by Prof. Jose Abueva, formerly UP president, show[ing] that beyond the family, Filipinos hardly trusted anybody.”

However, according to noted American political analyst Francis Fukuyama, “One of the most important lessons we can learn from an examination of economic life is that a nation’s well-being, as well as its ability to compete, is conditioned by a single, pervasive cultural characteristic: the level of trust inherent in the society.”

Teddy Benigno then goes on to say that “The most economically advanced, politically sturdy countries are the high-trust ones like Japan, Germany, the US and China. Occupying the cellar are low-trust countries like the Philippines, Cambodia, Burma, Laos, many in Latin America, a multitude in Africa.” Of course the fact that the malady afflicts other countries does not diminish the impact of this critical reality in the Philippines and that it is something that needs to be addressed in absolute terms.

Jaime Licauco in an Inquirer article dated 22 May 2001 went as far as saying that: “A nation whose policies and rules are based on the assumption that everybody is a cheat and liar unless proven otherwise cannot long endure. Take a close look at our bureaucracy and its rules. It is burdened by elaborate and often unnecessary checks and balances so that nothing ever gets done in the process.”

Indeed, a fatal culture of crime has all but taken hold of Philippine society. No less than the President of the Philippines himself is seen to be a person that cannot be trusted thanks to the opacity with which he was known to manage the national budget and the underhanded way with which he’s coddled his buddies in the Cabinet and attempted to bargain away chunks of Mindanao to Islamic terrorists.

It is, thus, hardly surprising that Filipinos are increasingly lashing out at their government. There is very little evidence that anyone ever gets seriously investigated for alleged acts of corruption and plunder much more thrown in prison for reasons other than political vendetta. In short, justice in Philippine society is selectively applied. In the case of this most recent bullet planting craze, Filipinos are skeptical that anything will be done stem this scandal on account of the family ties enjoyed by the top officials otherwise accountable for the quality and integrity of services delivered by the NAIA to the public.

November 5, 2015

by ChinoF

I recently learned more about how the Filipinos chocolate product fracas in 1999 started. The story is that then-senator Heherson Alvarez accused the chocolate maker of being racist, because the ad line “brown outside, white inside” (which described a certain bar product) was thought to originate from a derogatory description of the Filipino. So he filed a diplomatic protest. But I soon learned that he was fooled by someone, quoting American writer and historian Bob Couttie on Facebook:

“The fake controversy was started by a Philippine Star journalist who wanted her husband to be appointed be the Philippine ambassador in London so she invented lots of fake stories, like this, and the fake tale of the Oxford English Dictionary defining Filipina as ‘maid’. All were false. But the hoaxes continue circulating. No, her husband wasn’t appointed to London, he did get a minor ambassadorship.”

Then Couttie mentioned the real reason why the bar was called Filipinos:

“They were called Filipinos because the Philippines was regarded as producing the very best chocolate and the biscuits were covered in chocolate. What the problem with being named after excellence? Not as daft as fake nationalism.”

If this is the truth, then why does a Filipino have to make a fake story that will make the Filipinos irate? For stupid publicity?

Perhaps this shows yet another one of the notorious habits of erring Filipinos – lying to get ahead.

While it can be argued that most Filipinos don’t lie, or that lying to get ahead can be found in every culture, there remain many enough cases that give the impression that it may be part of the cultural psyche. “Don’t generalize” is difficult to apply here. A lot of Filipinos lie, perhaps because it is part of a corrupted psyche that seeks to have a sense of self-worth through gaining favorable attention from others.

For example, the hoaxes on Filipino inventions. Cases:

Fluorescent light bulb invented by a Filipino – Agapito Flores was said to have invented the fluorescent bulb and the patent was bought from him. This was revealed to be a hoax, as the invention of fluorescent technology predated Flores. More information here and in MidwayHaven’s article. I read somewhere that he did build a fluorescent lamp of his own, but it was probably more like a kit-build or a development of something that already existed.

The Lunar Rover invented by a Filipino – A complete hoax. Perhaps a Filipino engineer was on the team that created the rover, but the team invented it, not just the Filipino.

Yo-yo invented by a Filipino – There is no hard evidence of this. Yoyos existed since ancient times, as far back as ancient China and even Greece.

M-16 invented by a Filipino – The M-16 was not invented by a Filipino. It was invented by Eugene Stoner, who works for the Armalite company in the U.S. Armalite does not stand for someone named Armando Lite, who probably never existed.

Some historical hoaxes that need to be exposed:

Code of Kalantiaw – One of the greatest hoaxes in Philippine history, the Code of Kalantiaw was once taught in schools as historical fact. Scholar William Henry Scott then disproved that the Code of Kalantiaw was real. In fact, it was part of a fictional work – “actually written in 1913 by Jose E. Marco as a part of his historical fiction Las antiguas leyendas de la Isla de Negros (Spanish, “The Ancient Legends of the Island of Negros”), which he attributed to a priest named Jose Maria Pavon.” It even led to the revocation of the related shrine’s status in Aklan. It is sad that despite its being a hoax was definitely proven, some “historians” still hold on to it.

The .45 1911 round and gun being developed to stop Filipinos – This is yet another exaggerated account to beef up the reputation of Filipinos being strong fighters. As some corrective articles have it, the Americans during the Philippine-American War did make a request for a stronger gun, but the answer was an already-existing .45 revolver. The war was long over when the 1911 pistol was finally issued.

Sa Aking Mga Kabata – It’s becoming more increasingly accepted that Jose Rizal never wrote this. Many modern-day Filipinos use the line “Ang hindi magmahal sa kanyang salita mahigit sa hayop at malansang isda,” as proof-text for insisting that all Filipinos use Tagalog and eschew English. But Tagalog was not a “national language” that time in the Philippines, and the “national language” that time anyway was Spanish. Thus, it further invalidates Rizal being the author of this poem.

Deuterium in the Philippines – There is an article debunking this from the 1980s (still looking for the scanned clipping online). It had recently made its rounds again a couple of years ago, and was again debunked.

Tallano-Tageam family “owns the Philippines” – Being spread around in the Internet is the claim that a single family owns the Philippines (This is akin to the hoax that the Rothschild family purportedly owning all the banks in the world and manipulating world events). There are so many holes in this story. First, the amount of gold claimed is more than listed in the world gold registry. Next, there are supposedly documents that affirm this ownership, but such documents could be forged. This was so elaborate that it even got a certain known lawyer, Homobono Adaza, to support this. No, sorry, this is a hoax debunked since 2005.

“Mysterious” Flesh-eating disease in Pangasinan – covered by our own bloggers, this was revealed to be more of an alarmist scam by media.

Why do these myths persist? Perhaps some Filipinos, maybe journalists, are so eager for fame or glory that they lie to try and get it. Thus, it reinforces the idea that Filipinos can be habitual liars. Think of the concept of bola or flattery. Bola is obviously lying, and is not meant to be taken seriously. But some Filipinos do. They believe they deserve flattery. And when they do not receive this bola, for example, they want to be told they are beautiful even if they are not, they blow their stack. But when you blow your stack because you simply did not hear what you want, that tells a lot about your rotten character.

Move this up to government. The Aquino administration has consistently lied and even denied problems almost every time. The latest is the laglag-bala scheme, and it’s so obvious that our “leader” is defending its perpetrators.

Not only that. I have also read and heard before that Filipino parents often tell their children that it is all right to lie to get ahead. The word they use is “white lies.” That also comes from parents who teach their children that it’s OK to litter on the streets. Really, just look around, you’ll see that.

Perhaps another reason for fake stories to generate sympathy – and hand-outs – for Filipinos. For example, Filipinos will falsely claim to have been “oppressed” by someone, and so will run to someone else, like Uncle Sam, for support or protection. Then they’ll ask for money or something in payment from the “oppressor” party. In the case of the Filipinos chocolate product, while perhaps a diplomatic protest would not have led to hand-outs, it certainly didn’t generate sympathy for me. Instead, it generated embarrassment.

But yet another group that, sadly, resorts to lies is advocates. I have known such a one who says, when you have an idea or cause you want to throw out, it gains more ground when more people agree with your idea. But it’s hard to get people to do that, especially when your idea tends to be unpopular. So why don’t you make fake accounts online and make it look like many people are liking your idea. If someone disagrees, then have your sock puppets humiliate the disagreer until they finally agree with you. Yes, the classic sock puppet approach. This dismayed me. If you are going to advocate for a good cause, can’t you at least be truthful?

If many Filipinos continue to show habitual lying, and such Filipinos continue to be found among the “educated” classes, then we know one reason we remain backward as a nation.

ChinoF

Making "basag" the trip of erring Filipinos one myth at a time.

A Mar Roxas presidency will be a ‘Mini Me’ presidency

November 4, 2015

by benign0

Mar Roxas is a worse sort of politician than his boss, President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III. It was bad enough that BS Aquino ran for and won the presidency on the back of a pedigree platform. His being the son of Filipino “martyrs” Ninoy Aquino and Cory Aquino was his only pitch to Filipino voters. He neither had a platform nor the statesmanship qualities to unify Filipinos behind him and lead them to a common goal.

But Roxas, on the other hand, is a mere puppet. He fully takes his cue from President BS Aquino’s Daang Matuwid (“straight path”). But he offers nothing original, nothing fresh, and nothing specifically his own.

The trouble with Filipinos is that they don’t expect much of their politicians — only that they be “honest”. While that sort of low-bar approach to evaluating their political options may seem to be safe, it has proven to be ineffectual. Proof of how idiotic “honesty platforms” are is in the way BS Aquino — who was elected on the basis of his prayerfulness and supposed lack of criminal record — all but proved to be otherwise. BS Aquino worked with his henchman Budget Secretary Butch Abad to illegally appropriate “unspent” budget to his pet Disbursement Acceleration Program, colluded with Kuala Lumpur to sell off a resource-rich chunk of Mindanao to Islamic terrorists, and coddled crooked cabinet secretaries and government agency heads even whilst they were found to have applied criminal neglect to the way they managed government resources and facilities.

A habit of voting for “honest” politicians is symptomatic of a society utterly bankrupt of imagination. In a sense, Mar Roxas epitomises that abject lack of imagination on a national scale. He is nothing more than BS Aquino’s “Mini Me” — like the midget minion of Doctor Evil (played by Mike Myers) in the hit cinematic franchise Austin Powers. He is politically identical to Aquino — but proportionally small and stunted in stature.

A vote for Mar Roxas will simply be a vote for the same tired old Yellow rhetoric of the Aquino-Cojuangco clan-controlled Liberal Party of the Philippines. Worse, the Roxas term will be nothing more than a direct analogue of the Aquino regime. Whilst BS Aquino spent the last six years trying to put — and keep — former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in jail, Roxas will likely spend his term as president trying to keep BS Aquino out of prison for the crimes of plunder and treason committed in his day.

Is there nothing more Filipinos can aspire for than to vote on the basis of a spurious claim to “honesty”? Surely there’s more to being a president than being “honest”. Honesty should be a presumed given, and not put forth as a virtue that differentiates candidates. All candidates should be honest. It’s supposed to be part of fundamental character.

Indeed, the reason Filipinos are suckers for Honesty Platforms is because theirs is a society where honesty is a bonus rather than a given. That’s sad. We realise that ours is a society where everyone is presumed a cheat and a crook and that the onus to prove otherwise is always top of mind in every Filipino when relating with one another.

Look no further than the premiere international airport — the ironically-named Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). Passengers now have to resort to shrinkwrapping their luggage and having their lawyers on speed dial lest they find themselves a victim of the laglag-bala (“bullet planting”) standard operating procedure there.

A vote for Mar Roxas will be a vote for another six years of this dreadful status quo — one where a culture of crime makes “honesty platforms” so ridiculously seductive to crime- and corruption-weary voters.

President Aquino’s 3 Traits That Have Led The Philippines To Ruin

November 3, 2015

by Grimwald

Ilda has said her pieces about President Aquino and they are certainly more than a little harsh. As if on cue, President Aquino’s supporters are quick to jump to his defense like pagan clerics protecting their grotesque satanic idol. However, despite the adamant and vehement defense being put up around President Aquino, there’s no denying the many disasters that have utterly devastated the Philippines and the very poor responses that are being made to address them. What’s even sadder is that it’s not just the big things he has screwed up in but also the little things such as the hullabaloo happening in NAIA as well as his statement regarding traffic as a sign of a booming economy according to Fallen Angel here.

However, just like the country he’s supposed to be running, many of President Aquino’s failures are more or less symptoms of a much deeper problem. What’s painful is that I’m sure that his defenders will once again rush to defend him like a swarm of flies and will spit out ad hominems and what not like spitting cobras. Well, unfortunately for them, I’m more than prepared to face them and I’ve gotten more than a little resistant to the type of attacks they regularly use.

So, without further ado…

His Lack of Empathy

As anyone will tell you, empathy is one of the things that make “good” people what they are. Empathy is about putting oneself in another’s shoes. It’s thinking something along the lines of: “How would I feel if I was that person?” Indeed, empathy is very important if you want to socialize with others and form a deep personal relationship with them.

Unfortunately for the Filipino people, it seems that President Aquino lacks any kind of empathy. This can be clearly seen in the way he simply blames the people for the Yolanda crisis, his unwillingness to apologize to the Chinese for the Luneta massacre to his refusal to even acknowledge the heroism of the SAF 44. What’s worse is that in the face of many of these tragedies, he has often seen smiling with what may seem like a psychotic grin. Now, while I myself am occasionally guilty of smiling or grinning in inappropriate situations, it’s more than a little rude to be smirking at such tragedies. Considering his wealthy background, I was hoping that he had at least been taught proper etiquette during solemn gatherings. Apparently, he can’t even be bothered to control himself in such situations and provide the proper respect for the departed.

For reference, just observe how he treated the families of the SAF 44. Instead of treating them with respect and sympathy, he spoke to them the way a pompous teenager talks to a younger kid they’re annoyed with. While he could’ve spoken kindly of their lost sons, brothers, husbands and fathers, he acted like an impatient brat who was too preoccupied with his video game to care about the tragedies other people have suffered. For a man who had also lost loved ones, I actually expected at least a sincere show of sympathy instead of a hollow sense of camaraderie and a statement that simply amounts to: “We’re even.”

Now that I think about it, is it really any surprise that President Aquino remains unmarried to this day? Of course, I’m no expert on women but I don’t think any woman in her right mind will ever marry a grinning idiot who can’t even respect others and their emotions. It’s more than a little egregious that President Aquino likes to say that the Filipino people are his “boss” when he can’t even respect how they feel about the tragedies that have befallen them.

His Immaturity

Well, it’s all been said before but I cannot emphasize it enough. President Aquino has certainly proven himself unable to act his age. Time and time again, from his speeches, his daily activities to his rampant disregard for his own people, President Aquino has certainly proven himself less than mature about his responsibilities as the leader of his country. Well, while I’m sure all of us have a childish side, the problem with the current president is that it seems to be his default mode of thinking.

Take for instance his reactions to criticism against his regime. Instead of presenting people with satisfying answers and explanations, he has only defected the blame to his predecessors. While he could’ve taken the time to actually address the many problems the Philippines faces such as the survivors of Yolanda, the hellish traffic in Edsa or the trials faced by the Lumad peoples of Mindanao, he instead tries desperately to sweep the issues under the rug by refusing to acknowledge them or pointing fingers at other people.

Throughout the many crises the country has suffered from the massacre of the SAF 44, the fate of the Yolanda survivors to the Luneta hostage situation, he has acted more like a spoiled boy who’d rather be playing Clash of Clans rather than the right and proper leader of a country. In fact, most of his speeches can be summed up as simply: “Don’t blame me because it’s not my fault, you should blame these other people.”

His Denial and Delusion

What’s worse is that despite everything I’ve written so far, I’m pretty sure that President Aquino and his followers will just resort to denial and delusion again. Instead of acknowledging the problems that besiege the Philippines such as rampant poverty and corruption, our vulnerability to various natural disasters and the possibility of war with the rebels in Mindanao or China, he has instead to cover them up with groundless lies and insubstantial illusions.

Take for instance all his talk of economic improvement even though the poverty rate has only increased and the poor of the country has only become dumber and even more dependent on dole-outs. There’s his constant talk of improving the military and yet the Philippine military has ranked 6th among the worst militaries of the world under his watch. He claims that a “peace agreement” with the rebels of Mindanao will prevent yet more deaths even though his blunders have caused more casualties than majority of regimes save perhaps for Jose P. Laurel’s. Then there’s his constant insistence that his “Tuwid na Daan” will lead the Philippines to progress even though, so far, it has only lead to more misery for his people.

***

Ladies and gentlemen, I need to ask you, do we dare allow President Aquino’s straight road to Hell continue to lead us into a downward spiral of misery and stupidity?

As a side note, when I first saw the film The Hangover, I thought a character like Alan Garner was just a purely fictional character. I thought perhaps that if there really existed a character like him, he would be quickly institutionalized and subjected to various forms of psychotherapy to correct his attitude. Unfortunately, much to my horror, it turns out that we actually elected a similar character as our very own president.

Major bummer, eh?

Grimwald

I AM THE HAMMER. THE SWORD IN HIS HAND, THE GAUNTLET ABOUT HIS FIST. I AM THE BANE OF HIS FOES AND THE WOES OF THE TREACHEROUS. I AM THE END.

Will President Noynoy Aquino go down in history as a good president?

November 2, 2015

by benign0

Probably not. For the essential and even critical problems that have beset the Philippines for decades, there was hardly any change that came out over the last six years under his watch. Why? The answer is quite simple:

President BS Aquino did not try hard enough.

Consider the manner with which BS Aquino’s fans lauded him when he did what was regarded as an impossibility back in 2012: impeach a currently-seated Supreme Court Chief Justice. The fact that he did the “impossible” in that instance proves that where there is political will, there is a way. Indeed, President BS Aquino moved heaven and earth — including lots of the nation’s “unspent budget” — to get the job done. He made like a bulldozer to flatten Constitutional impediments to this will and put rockets up congressmen’s arses to ensure they voted “favourably” for his pet “impeachment complaint” against then Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Using that astounding display of political will as the benchmark for outstanding achievement, it is easy to see now that the stuff where BS Aquino fails lies squarely within the domains where his care factor is zero. He did not have the political will to resolve the murder of his own father. Did not have the political will to fix up the police even after their incompetence cost the lives of nine Hong Kong tourists back in 2010. Did not have the political will to fix the public transport mess. Did not have the political will to sufficiently prepare for deadly typhoons.

What he did have political will for was to sell off a chunk of Mindanao to terrorists and a belligerent ASEAN “ally” even at the needless cost of 44 Special Action Force troopers’ lives. He had the political will to insulate his feudal clan’s family jewels at the Hacienda Luisita from agrarian reform. Had the political will to protect his buddies in the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), the Department of Transport and Communications (DOTC), and the Chief of the Philippine National Police from accountability for their idiocies. True enough, today, because of his familial and friendly ties with the line of accountability traceable to all the crooked activities going on at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), it is also likely that the bullet-planting scandal that is gripping the nation will go unresolved as well.

President BS Aquino, quite simply, over-promised and under-delivered.

BS Aquino promised Daang Matuwid and, instead, Filipinos got Daang MatuwAd. Thanks to this reversal of slogans, the Philippines did, indeed, get it repeatedly from behind over the last 6 years — from Mother Nature, from Islamic Terrorists, from Kuala Lumpur, and from Beijing among many others queued up for a shot to get so far up da Pinas’s behind, they could see the sunshine coming through the gaping nganga of its no-results president.

Perhaps it is fitting that Philippine President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III served the full six-year term of his presidency and was not impeached for his crimes nor driven to resign on account of his personal lack of tolerance for criticism. That way, he will serve as a lesson to generations of Filipinos to come — that when you opt to elect the most incompetent and most reluctant amongst a line-up of highly-qualified candidates, you reap what you sow.

Then again I wouldn’t be too hopeful. Filipinos simply lack an ability to learn. The evidence is all over the Philippines. The country is a vast 7107-island monument to a people who like doing the same things over and over again while praying for different results year in and year out.