ROBREDO: IF ELECTED VICE PRESIDENT OF DUTERTE, I WILL IMMEDIATELY RESIGN MY POST

MAY 1, 2016 ADOBOCHRON 192 COMMENTS

Robredo (JOHN JEROME GANZON)

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Vice presidential candidate and Camarines Sur 3rd district Representative Leni Robredo said that it would be difficult to work with presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte, the current survey front-runner for president, if he should win.

“I accepted the Liberal Party’s vice presidential nomination because I was assured by President Aquino that Mar Roxas and myself will win as a tandem — as president and vice president, respectively.”

“Duterte and I are the exact opposites and I don’t see working with him even remotely possible.”

With those words, Robredo said that if Duterte becomes president and she is elected vice president, she would resign from her post on the first day in office.

What happens if the office of the vice president is vacant?

According to the 1987 constitution, the next in line to the vice president is the president of the Senate, followed by the speaker of the House of Representatives.

The only way Senator Bongbong Marcos or any of the vice presidential losers can succeed Robredo is for them to become Senate president.

All the vice presidential contenders, except Robredo, are incumbent senators.

https://adobochronicles.com/2016/05/01/robredo-if-elected-vice-president-of-duterte-i-will-immediately-resign-my-post/

Leni Robredo tries to appeal to emotion instead of responding to BBM’s electoral protest

August 4, 2016

by Ilda

The more I listen to current Vice President Leni Robredo speak, the more I am convinced that she is not fit for higher office. Take her recent press conference for instance, held a day after Supreme Court summoned her to answer former Senator Bongbong Marcos’s electoral protest. She told reporters that she is not worried about responding to what she thinks are “baseless” allegations that her win was a result of cheating. She said she is more worried about where she will get the money to pay for a lawyer.

“Hindi naman ako nagwo-worry sa pageexplain ng sarili kasi baseless naman. Mas worried ako sa costs…”

It’s funny how a simple statement from Robredo already shows her inconsistency. Since she claims to be not worried about explaining herself, then she should have no problem responding to the petition herself. As political analyst and De La Salle University Professor Antonio Contreras pointed out on his Facebook post, Robredo is a lawyer and can represent herself. Contreras also advised that it would be easy for her to do her own research as he had done it himself when he filed a case against Senator Grace Poe:

Wala daw pera si Mrs. Robredo na pambayad ng abugado niya para dumipensa sa kanya sa PET.

Aba. The last time I checked lawyer siya di ba. Bakit hindi na lang siya ang magsilbing own counsel niya.

Ako nga. Hindi abugado. Pero dahil wala akong pera subalit gusto kong idepensa ang saligang batas, ako mismo ang nag-research, nagsulat at tumayo para sa kasong isinampa ko sa COMELEC laban kay Senadora Grace Poe na nakarating pa sa Korte Suprema.

Kung ako na hindi abugado kinaya ko. E siya pa na abugado at nakataya ang kanyang pag-upo sa posisyon niya ngayon.

Leni Robredo: Why is she addressing the media rather than responding directly to the Electoral Tribunal?

One can be forgiven for thinking Robredo was trying to appeal to the public’s emotions when she mentioned she doesn’t know where she will get the funds to pay for a lawyer. Some people have noted that she was wearing her yellow “Cory” dress during the press conference. She came across as someone soliciting funds to pay for a lawyer to represent her against Marcos’s electoral protest. Her critics find it ironic that she is worried about funds now considering she blew 400 million pesos during the campaign. Her lack of foresight is evident once again. She didn’t realise that running for a coveted post like the vice presidency has its risks. She should never have allowed herself to be bullied by her Liberal Party mates into running to begin with.

It seems the Liberal Party has abandoned Robredo. It’s actually disappointing to think that the men from her own party left her to fend for herself. Those who forced her to run for VP, Mar Roxas and BS Aquino, are now enjoying their lives, away from political bickering as private citizens. That’s proof that the Liberal Party was not running on principles all along. After Mar’s defeat, the party disintegrated leaving Robredo alone to answer the cheating allegations.

It is very convenient for Roxas and BS Aquino to hide from the fiasco. They probably want to stay as far away from any cheating allegations as they can lest they be compelled to answer the protest charge. After all, the whistle-blowers alleged that votes were also shaved from other candidates and were given to Roxas. Meaning, Roxas may have benefited from the electoral fraud as well.

It’s not surprising that Roxas is now missing from the picture. Some of us already predicted that he was just using Robredo’s popularity to pull his flagging popularity up. Unfortunately for Roxas, it did not work. The two running mates may have appeared united during their campaign sorties but the truth is, they were just forced to run together by bizarre circumstances. It was like a marriage of convenience for them. Since they did not have anything in common, it was easy to part ways after the elections.

Another thing that the people found outrageous about Robredo’s statement during her press conference is her belief that Marcos Jr’s electoral protest is baseless. According to a news report, the former senator’s petition “includes 20,000 pages of annexes consisting of affidavits and other files. The main petition comprises 1,000 pages.” It would be impossible for Robredo to have read or even just peruse all those pages in such a short time. Therefore, it is her statement saying the electoral protest is baseless that is baseless.

As usual, Robredo is not making any sense. Prior to Marcos Jr’s filing with the Philippine Electoral Tribunal (PET), she kept implying that he was just making things up and using mind conditioning to make the public believe she cheated. But now that Marcos Jr has formalised his complaint and is following procedure, Robredo is still quick to dismiss it as baseless. She should just comply and respond to the petition if she’s not guilty.

A lot of people have observed that Robredo can be irrational at times. It is really scary to think that she is just a heartbeat away from the Presidency. It’s hard to imagine her taking over the helm if something bad happens to President Rodrigo Duterte. She herself said so many times that she doesn’t want to be President. That can only mean she wouldn’t know what to do if she is forced to be in a situation she doesn’t want to be in. Someone who is reluctant to be Vice President and President is someone who does not have a vision for the country. Not only will the Philippines have for a president a puppet who answers to the oligarchy, we’ll have a president who won’t get the respect of the members of the police and military.

Why am I worried that Robredo could take over the Presidency? Because a lot of Liberal Party supporters still can’t accept that the voters chose Duterte and could be cooking up another people power revolt. One thing the incumbent President and his supporters should avoid is be tempted to underestimate the Opposition. They have a lot of money and resources to mount a campaign against anyone they don’t like and it will take a while for an outsider like Duterte to warm up to them.

E-Cigarettes Found To Have 10 Times More Cancer Causing Ingredients Than Regular Cigarettes

According to a new research, e-cigarettes have 10 times more cancer-causing ingredients than regular cigarettes.

Unfortunately, these kinds of cigarettes are meant to be a healthy replacement for the typical tobacco cigarettes.

But why there wasn’t any research conducted to prove their safety and viability? And who should be held responsible for that?

Credit: huffingtonpost.co.uk

Here, we are showing you an excerpt from FDA official website:

FDA: E-cigarettes: Questions and answers

Q: What are electronic cigarettes?

A: Electronic cigarettes are products designed to deliver nicotine or other substances to a user in the form of a vapor. Typically, they are composed of a rechargeable, battery-operated heating element, a replaceable cartridge that may contain nicotine or other chemicals, and an atomizer that, when heated, converts the contents of the cartridge into a vapor. This vapor can then be inhaled by the user. These products are often made to look like such products as cigarettes, cigars, and pipes. They are also sometimes made to look like everyday items such as pens and USB memory sticks, for people who wish to use the product without others noticing.

Q: What concerns does FDA have regarding electronic cigarettes?

A: FDA has not evaluated any e-cigarettes for safety or effectiveness.

There it is. Now you’re asking yourself the question “Why the FDA hasn’t done any research on this?”. Well, it looks like the FDA is just a huge waste of taxpayers’ money.

E-cigarettes are being used by hundreds of thousands underage children and adults with the ultimate goal to ditch the life-threatening habit of tobacco cigarettes. However, that is not true.

Thankfully, a research was conducted by an institute in Japan.

E-cigarettes have 10 times more cancer-causing chemicals than typical cigarettes.

Until recently, people believed that e-cigarettes were the answer to smoking without any health issues. But when the Japanese Health Ministry conducted their study, they found that electronic cigarettes contained formaldehydeand acetaldehyde, both of which are dangerous carcinogens. The study also found that these chemicals can fuel potential drug-resistant pathogens.

The discovery came from a lab that tested the vapor of e-cigs on live methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and human cells.

One of the researchers, Naoki Kugunita, has said: “In one brand of e-cigarette the team found more than 10 times the level of carcinogens contained in one regular cigarette. Especially when the wire (which vaporizes the liquid) gets overheated, higher amounts of those harmful substances seemed to be produced,”

The Japanese Health Ministry also stated: “You call them e-cigarettes, but they are products totally different from regular tobacco. The government is now studying the possible risks associated with them, with view to looking at how they should be regulated,”

The WHO, in 2015, asked the governments to ban the sale of e-cigs, especially to underage people because of the potential negative effect on one’s health. Moreover, the UN Health Agency stated that although there wasn’t enough evidence and research about e-cigs, there was still enough to caution children, pregnant women or women of reproductive age.

The US CDC stated: “More than a quarter of a million youth who had never smoked a cigarette used electronic cigarettes in 2013, according to a CDC study published in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research. This number reflects a three-fold increase, from about 79,000 in 2011, to more than 263,000 in 2013.”

Don’t forget to share this with your friends and family, as you might help someone in need!

Source: healthylifehappiness.com

Does President Rodrigo Duterte command an ‘Internet army’?

August 2, 2016

by benign0

According to some pundits, President Rodrigo Duterte is waging not just a “war on drugs” in the streets of major Philippine cities. He is, they insist, also waging a war on social media, commanding an “Internet army” that disseminates content supposedly meant to discredit his enemies.

Are these assertions based on fact?

For one thing, that other lament of the Opposition, the eruption of a spate of “extrajudicial killings” perpetrated by forces supposedly inspired by Duterte’s “encouraging words” against “drug personalities” has also gained limited popularity but remains starved of factual bases. Reporting homicides on the morning paper is one thing. Proving these are state-sanctioned or “extrajudicial” in nature is another. So far, the Opposition has been unable to prove the latter beyond reasonable doubt. A murder prosecution (much more a conviction), after all, demands stringent standards of quality in the evidence presented by the accuser.

That track record of issuing shrieky assertions seems to have extended to the fantasy of this “Internet army” Duterte supposedly commands. From my vantage point, to be fair, clever memes and cutting-edge blogs have been churned out clarifying some matters in a manner not particularly flattering to Duterte’s detractors. And I’ve seen Duterte’s detractors and other prominent members of the Opposition reduced to calling for those who publish that content to just shut the f–k up. That call of last resort likely describes the profound frustration of an Opposition in disarray — whose most prominent thought leaders find themselves overwhelmed by the edge, sharp wit, and unmatched prolificacy of this imagined “internet army”.

Unfortunately for the Opposition, the administration of former President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III still casts a long shadow of dysfunction across Philippine society with much of the legacies of his mismanagement still felt by a struggling general public. As such, the irony of how the Opposition camp continues to make it easy for such content to be produced and disseminated to willing consumers seems to escape those who can do no more than gnash their teeth in frustration.

More importantly, none in the Opposition have put up any credible and broadly-organised challenge to this fantastic “Internet army”. It is like China’s annexation of South China Sea territory all over again. Rather than put up a good fight, the Opposition have been reduced to pathetic and incessant whining about the “unfairness” of it all. Rather than respond with an equal and opposite force, the Opposition, instead, choose to withdraw into their cloistered communities of like-minded mutual-highfivin’ amigas to assure themselves that they continue to be the prayerful “good guys” while all the rest are the “bad guys”.

The Opposition needs to man up, take stock, and get a grip. Put up a real fightrather than continue delivering that long drawn-out whine we’ve been seeing and hearing for months.

This is, after all, the Internet age and, more specifically, the age of social media. This is the landscape that once-credible “social media experts” trumpeted as the age of the “free market of ideas” — where a free flow and exchange of ideas and concepts are subject to the corrective forces of a level battlefield with each side applying critical thinking faculties to evaluate what is valuable and what is rubbish. This is an age that was supposed to have heralded the rise of a more informed citizenry and, out of that, a smarter electorate.

Then again, maybe it did just that and what we are seeing today may, in fact, be that smarter choice now in power and at work. Who’s to say, after all, that Duterte was the wrong choice? For that matter, who’s to say that there even is such an “Internet army”? By what authority do those who say so say so?

There is no evidence.

Evidently, some of these erstwhile prophets of free-market information brokering seem to now be backpedalling on their earlier pronouncements — that social media is now being used as a tool to misinform rather than inform. That is quite a presumptuous assertion to make. The big assumption underlying all that whining about this supposedly “misinformed” public is the idea that the Internet is being co-opted by Duterte’s sinister forces to bend people’s minds to their nefarious will. Perhaps. But the simpler explanation is likely to be more confronting — that the Opposition, quite simply, failed to step up to the occasion and put up a credible and organised challenge.

http://www.getrealphilippines.com/blog/2016/08/president-rodrigo-duterte-command-internet-army/

Leila’s Dilemma: To Lie or To Hide

July 31, 2016

by zaxx

Bilibid or not! The national penitentiary (the “New” Bilibid Prison) at the heart of Imperial Manila, the supposedly most secure (i.e., MAXIMUM security) facility on the face of the republic for incarcerating the worst criminals in this corner of the planet and thereby ensuring the public these scumbags CAN NEVER EVER cause any more trouble in Philippine society again, had become the Command Center of the top drug lords of the country under the watch of then Justice Secretary and Noynoy’s trusted appointee… newly elected senator Leila De Lima.

The series of videos below shows damning evidence proving the culpability of this woman, which eats at the very foundations of her integrity and competence for public service.  Sit down, relax and enjoy the show – as usual totally appalling comedy that can only be made possible in a country overrun by dysfunctional idiots.

It can only take a President like Rody Duterte who has the political will, valor and basic common sense to go up against these dark forces (such as this woman), in order to dismantle the complex drug network in the country, which had only flourished practically unhampered by the previous administration’s incompetent lineup of Noynoy-hand-picked bozos.

The videos speak for themselves, so I will no longer reiterate the details. The point is to make the woman behind this unbelievable fiasco answer for all this mess. At this point, Leila De Lima has two choices: To continue to LIE andsing LALA to cover her naked exposed ass and assume all is well, or to start hiding like the rest of the generals, congressmen and mayors who have been bribery-bought protectors of these drug syndicates all these years.

My advise to Leila De Lima: tama na panloloko mo ng taong bayan, magtago ka na sa DILIM.

1. DE LIMA nahuling NAGSISINUNGALING tungol sa droga sa Bilibid

2. Leila de Lima, bagsak ang grado sa pagsupil ng droga sa Bilibid!

3. Drug Lord Herbert Colangco inaming nagbabayad sila ng 7 million pesos for protection sa mga generals!

Note: Herbert Colanco who you see going “elbow-to-elbow” with De Lima in the formal gathering in video #1 is one of the top 3 drug lords (video #3) that had been operating their command center and enjoying first-class accommodations in the national penitentiary. Credit goes to all the video posters and network news agencies for the above exposés.

http://www.getrealphilippines.com/blog/2016/07/leilas-dilemma-lie-hide/

The trouble with Raffy Lerma’s “Pieta” photo

August 2, 2016

by benign0

Below is an image of the July 24, 2016 front page of the Philippine Sunday Inquirer. Some statements have been issued asserting the authenticity of the photo splashed in full width on the masthead of this edition. These statements follow two articles we published highlighting disturbing aspects of this spread: Hector Gamboa’s On Deceptive Media and Photojournalism and my own Sensationalised photo of ‘extrajudicial killing’ victim splashed on Inquirer front page.

The photo used in the above spread was taken by noted photojournalist Raffy Lerma who, in an article published on the Inquirer with the title A NIGHT OF ANGUISH AND TORMENT: The story behind the viral photo wrote an account of the steps he went through to take this and other photos of the same subject and scene from various angles. The point he was making, it seems, was primarily around how his work supposedly faithfully captures the event and the essence of the circumstances surrounding it in order to tell an important story.

In a post published on his Instagram account, Lerma shared what is supposedly a statement issued by Joe Torres, chairman of the Photojournalists’ Center of the Philippines (PCP) backing the “authenticity” of his work…

After looking into the photographs in question and after holding conversations with some of the journalists who have been covering the night shift, we assure the public that there is no reason to doubt the truthfulness and the integrity of the photographs.

We are convinced that the photojournalists, especially those covering the police beat in Metro Manila, have been relentless in doing their job to bring out the right information that will benefit the public.

There is no truth to insinuations of manipulation of photos or staging or setting up of the scene of the crime. Those who think they know better than those who are on the scene – including the police, the first responders, and the bystanders – are only deceiving themselves.

We stand by our photojournalists.

Unfortunately for Lerma and the PCP, in focusing on defending the authenticity of these photos using a definition of “authenticity” that is both narrow and taken outside of the context of the bigger messaging approach taken by theInquirer in the manner it laid out its July 24 Sunday front page, the point Gamboa and myself were making in our articles was missed by a mile.

Filipino Netizens were quick to liken Lerma’s photo to Michelangelo’s Pieta which depicts the body of Jesus Christ being held by his grieving mother after his crucifixion.

While one can understand Lerma’s position when discussing the photo on its own, the fact is his work was made part of a bigger frame or context consisting of the other elements that accompanied it on the front cover of thatInquirer 24th July edition.

It is the overall authenticity of the message encompassing not just the photo itself but the whole context behind and surrounding it that we are bringing to question on the basis of the overall circumstances of its production.

This is why the circumstances around how this scene came to be set up for this photo shoot is relevant and, within that sphere of relevance, falls the contribution of possible police impropriety in the management of the crime scene.

In short, whether deliberate or not, there is evidence of inadvertent (to give Lerma the benefit of the doubt) collusion between the police and the “photojournalists” at the scene. Lerma and the editors of the Inquirer may plead “not my responsibility” as far as police conduct is concerned, but in the overall scheme of things, the authenticity of the work and the intent of theInquirer is suspect as a result of this collective play.

http://www.getrealphilippines.com/blog/2016/08/trouble-raffly-lermas-pieta-photo/

Lopez to order dismantling of fish pens, revoke permits of big firms operating at Laguna Lake

In view of President Rodrigo Duterte’s promise to prioritize poor fishermen in the use of the Laguna de Bay or Laguna Lake, Environment and Natural Resources Sec. Regina Lopez on Wednesday said she will issue a directive for the dismantling of big fish pens and revoke permits given to big corporations operating at the lake.

image: http://www.mb.com.ph/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Gina-Lopez1.jpg

DENR Sec. Gina Lopez/mb.com.ph

The move is to develop and manage huge portions of the Laguna Lake to give out new entitlements, with farmers having the priority.

“Itong Laguna Lake, naubos na nga… wala na ang (para sa mga maliliit na) fishermen. ‘Yun na lang the difference between one big fishpen to the other… Makikita mo sa plane, every time I go to Davao and I pass by that place there, nakita ko talagang wala nang ano (para sa maliliit na mangingisda). And the fishermen are complaining about the loss. Talagang wala na sila. Kasi ang maliit na lugar, iyon lang ang kanila (Small fishermen making a living out of the Laguna Lake are left with very little area to ply their trade, with most areas allocated for private fish pens owned by big corporations. I can see it from the plane every time I go to Davao. Every time I can see that there’s really nothing left, and the fishermen are complaining about their loss, because they have very little left for them),” the President said in his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday.

“This is what I’m telling you, the poor fishermen will have priority in its entitlements,” he stressed.

As of June 30, 2016, there are 357 registered and unregistered fishpen owners operating at the Laguna de Bay, according to the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA).

Former LLDA Chairman Edgardo Manda earlier said the entitlements currently held by big corporations may range from 50 to 1,000 hectares of the lake surface.

He said some corporations now have big entitlements by merging those entitlements granted to their dummies.

Manda noted that some 20 percent of the 90,000-hectare lake surface of the Laguna Lake is now covered by entitlements granted to private corporations or individuals to manage and develop fish pens.

The Laguna Lake is the largest lake in the Philippines and one of the largest in Southeast Asia.

In view of its multiplicity of uses and benefits, its basin is the most important, dynamic and among the fastest-growing economic bases in the country. It has become the catch basin to Metro Manila’s population and urbanization/ industrialization overspill.

As the region has developed, the lake has suffered increasing levels of agricultural, industrial and domestic wastewater pollution.

The possible consequences of the rapid swelling of population include food and water shortage, worsening traffic congestion and environmental degradation, thus significantly affecting Laguna de Bay and its environs.

Problems such as pollution and waste primarily from domestic and agricultural sources; multiple and often conflicting water uses; vulnerability of lake shore settlements and developments to flood hazards and related health and economic risks, and indecision over resettlement; poorly regulated developments on the shore land, and critical watersheds inclusive of tenurial constraints, database management and monitoring; and fragmented utility infrastructure developments, including silting and development regulations of these investments contribute to the degradation of the lake.

In its draft medium-term development plan, the LLDA has recommended to intensify waste and pollution control through adaptive waste management systems primarily for domestic and agricultural sources; rationalize water use zoning to harmonize all uses within the lake including navigation and water-related waste management infrastructure; promote security of lake shore communities from flooding, health risks and minimize economic displacement through effective flood control programs and appropriate resettlement plans; rationalize watershed — and shore land — specific management policies based on validated threshold and vulnerability to sustain their ecological functions focused on incentive-based regulations and adaptive co-management systems; rationalize service and infrastructure-based network support for environmental management and sustainable economic uses of lake basin resources; rationalize ecotourism potential as development driver and promote lake-sensitive ecotourism developments; and adopt innovative financing schemes beyond regulatory fee collection, among others.

President Duterte vowed the Laguna Lake “shall be transformed into a vibrant economic zone showcasing ecotourism by addressing the negative impact of a watershed destruction, land conversion and pollution.”

Read more at http://www.mb.com.ph/lopez-to-order-dismantling-of-fish-pens-revoke-permits-of-big-firms-operating-at-laguna-lake/#S6C85SKQqPTP3vib.99