The 1987 Constitution of The Philippines Punishes Duterte’s Success And Rewards The Failure of His Hysterical Opponents

Written by Adam Garrie on 2019-06-29

Unlike other successful world leaders, Rodrigo Duterte is going to be punished for his success due to the obscurantist practice of term limits. In July of 2022, Duterte will be forced from power not because of a democratic decision but because of the artificial imposition of arbitrary term limits. Inversely and indeed perversely, unsuccessful Filipino leaders benefit from the same draconian laws that will limit Duterte’s ability to govern beyond 2022. This is the case because whilst an unsuccessful leader can be peacefully removed from power in modern and functional political systems, in The Philippines there is no mechanism available to remove an unsuccessful president from power due to his or her incompetence.

By contrast, in a parliamentary system, political parties and their leaders are allowed to remain in power for lengthy periods of time, so long as they retain the confidence of their party, parliament as a whole and the electorate. In a parliamentary system, each party votes for their political leader and each party has a mechanism by which the leader can be removed due to under-performance at any time. This process can occur whether a party is in government or in opposition.

For a party leader to become the head of government (typically called the prime minister), the party needs to win a majority of seats during a general election in which the public vote for the party of their choice. If no single party wins a majority of parliamentary seats, a coalition is typically formed between two or more parties.

During the lifetime of any given government in a parliamentary system, the government as a whole can be removed if parliament collectively loses confidence in the government and its leader. Simple votes of no-confidence votes can be held at any time and inversely, new elections can be called whenever the government believes that it can increase its number of seats due to recent successes.

Because of this, parliamentary systems tend to imbue foreign investors with confidence because such investors know that a successful government can continue to rule for lengthy periods of time whilst failed leaders and ruling parties can be easily removed due to incompetence. Because of this, foreign investors benefit from parliamentary systems for the same reason that locals do. Such systems reward success and punish failure in real time in the same way that important decisions in the business world are made in real time rather than in accordance with arbitrary terms of reevaluation.

By contrast, in presidential systems the opposite is true. Because of this The Philippines is experiencing a paradox where under the rule of a pro-foreign direct investment (FDI) President like Duterte, FDI actually fell for the first time in three years. The reasons behind the fall are twofold. First of all, as Duterte’s period in power grows shorter by the day due to term limits, there is a natural fear among investors that Duterte’s successor might be an opponent of FDI and therefore, potential investors will reach the conclusion that there is no use in investing in a country that may become hostile to foreign investors in as little as three years time. The fact that unlike in the US, The Philippines does not have an electoral college to bring some measure of stability between presidential elections makes the possibility for radical political change all the more worrisome to foreign investors.

Beyond this, the severe restrictions on FDI that are inscribed in the 1987 Constitution of The Philippines make it so that attracting healthy FDI to The Philippines is far more of a strain than it would be if the country had more modern FDI regulations on the Singapore model.

In monetary policy, Gresham’s law states that “bad money drives out good”. In respect of grotesque restrictions on FDI, the 1987 Constitution’s 60/40 rule prohibits foreign investors from from owning a controlling interest in their own investment. Because of this, some of the best potential investors are automatically frightened away and as a consequence, this clears the path for less desirable investors who happen to be willing to sacrifice control over their own investment. While some decent investors would be willing to take the hit that the 60/40 rule forces them to take, many more will simply invest in a country that gives them freedom to control a majority interest in their own investment. As a result, the 60/40 drives out the best and most honest investors and clears the way for the worst.

Thus, in spite of international financial trends, The Philippines automatically has two major factors working against it when it comes to welcoming more FDI. First of all, as the leadership of a successful president gradually nears its end, foreign investors often worry that the next president may rapidly switch to a less business friendly atmosphere and because of this very real worry, such people are not willing to risk investing in a country with a political system that lacks both stability and accountability.

Secondly, constitutional prohibitions on flexible and transparent FDI make it so that some of the best and most otherwise enthusiastic foreign investors will simply turn away and invest somewhere else, thus resulting in the phenomenon of bad FDI chasing out good.

Until The Philippines switches to a parliamentary system of governance whilst simultaneity eliminating constitutional prohibitions on FDI, people should not be surprised at sudden downturns in respect of new FDI.

https://eurasiafuture.com/2019/06/29/the-1987-constitution-of-the-philippines-punishes-dutertes-success-and-rewards-the-failure-of-his-hysterical-opponents/?fbclid=IwAR0rlZ3kiV-HDFD62A_ilSF9gLdH1FJ-iK8ixUtV7NzdckUzi2qoOVe1Rck

Fake VP Robredo, viral sa pagiging BOBBA

Duterte is wrong to call Carpio buang… or maybe not

BY RIGOBERTO D. TIGLAO         JUNE 28, 2019

PRESIDENT Duterte is wrong to call Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio buang, for criticizing his statement to allow Chinese fishermen access to “Philippine waters.” Buang means stupid — certainly a description that applies to the Yellow senators who claim Duterte would be violating the Constitution to allow that.

But Carpio isn’t stupid. He’s worse. He is so ignorant about an issue he blabbers on about but doesn’t understand that he should be ashamed to be in the Supreme Court, an institution dedicated to arriving at the truth based on facts.

But I don’t think Carpio is ignorant. He is diabolically devious, and his criticism of Duterte is just another instance of his incessant propaganda to stoke anti-Chinese xenophobia using our territorial disputes with China, exploiting the respected pulpit of a Supreme Court justice.

First, let’s be clear about what Duterte said. He was asked on Monday night whether government would bar Chinese fishermen from Philippine waters after a Filipino fishing boat was allegedly sunk in the Reed Bank by a Chinese vessel. He answered, in a roundabout way: “I don’t think China would do that. Why? Because we’re friends. They are of the same view that that should not result in any bloody confrontation.”

Duterte obviously meant that if we ban Chinese fishermen from the area, the Chinese will retaliate by banning our fishermen. The two countries won’t do that because they respect each other now.

Constitution

Probably reading the news over coffee that day, Carpio got so excited he could throw more dirt at Duterte, and pounced on the President’s comment, as reported by media. Taking advantage of his image as an expert on law since he is a Supreme Court justice, he announced that this was a violation of the Constitution, which says our exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is for the “exclusive use” of Filipinos.

Carpio, however, showed his ignorance of the issues, since the “intrusion” is in a way more serious as we have a higher level, as it were, of sovereignty claim to Reed Bank (Recto to us) than sovereign rights accorded to an area within our EEZ.

Recto Bank is within what we call our Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) which we annexed as Philippine territory, thanks to the strongman Marcos when he ordered his troops to occupy it a few years after he declared martial law, and then formalized this territorial expansion through Presidential Decree 1596 of 1978. He declared the area was “vital to the security and economic survival of the Philippines.”

Marcos justified his land-and-water grab by claiming the area does not “legally belong to any state” and that anyway, the Philippines established occupation and control of it, internationally a recognized means of establishing sovereignty over an area.

Of course, the three countries (and Taiwan) — China (which calls it Nánshā Qúndǎo), Vietnam (Quần đảo Trường Sa), and Malaysia (Keulauan Spratly) — which claimed that it was their territory protested loudly and issued all the diplomatic protests they could.

Archipelago

China had been declaring it as theirs not just because of “ancient history”, and not just because it falls within the infamous “nine-dash line” which the communists’ arch enemy, the Kuomintang, first drew. The Chinese had classified the area as an “archipelago,” actually the template for Marcos to declare a polygon as the Kalayaan Group of Islands, which in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) terminology was “regime of islands.” Several official declarations and communications starting in the 1930s, the latest in 1992, were made by the Chinese state, which no government, even the superpowers, protested against.

We have our map (2016 edition), the Chinese (2001 map) have theirs.

Vietnam, other than also claiming it as part of its ancient kingdom, claimed that France annexed it in 1887 as part of French Indochina. France then turned it over to Vietnam when it achieved independence. Japan grabbed the area, as well as most of South China islands in 1939, in order to build bases for its invasions in the region during World War 2. Tokyo then relinquished its claims when it unconditionally surrendered to the Allies in 1945.

But then the Philippines under Marcos, or during what the Yellows call the “Dark Age,” had a strong military, which the dictator demonstrated by building the first military airstrip on the biggest island in the KIG, Pag-asa island, in a few months’ time. Neither China nor Vietnam could forcibly evict the Filipinos from the KIG, which after all the United Nations declaration had banned as a means of gaining territory.

China could do nothing as it was at that time a nation devastated by Mao’s Great Cultural Revolution. North Vietnam defeated the United States and its puppets only in 1975. It was still crawling out of the horrendous destruction of its nation.

However, Marcos’ KIG annexation — which gave us control of 11 islands, rocks and reefs — prompted the other claimant countries to rush to occupy and fortify the other features in the area. Thus, Taiwan now occupies the biggest island in the area, which it calls Taiping and one reef. Vietnam occupies eight islands, rocks and reefs, and Malaysia, six.

Late

China was late to the party because of the chaos of its Cultural Revolution from which it recovered only in the 1980s, that it was left with the morsels: five reefs and atolls, with not an island. Especially after we sued it, China had been on a spree of building artificial islands on these.

Those who think that the US military will assist as in case of a military confrontation over the KIG with other countries because of our Mutual Defense Treaty should note: The US does not recognize our KIG claim, and therefore as our territory. The MDT categorically involves only what the treaty terms as our “metropolitan territory.” The US is officially neutral to claims of other countries.

Yes, because of the Unclos, which we ratified in 1997, and thanks to President Arroyo, who got Congress to pass Republic Act 9522 in March 2009, while she had to defend her very regime against the onslaught of the Yellow forces, our “baselines” were defined, the KIG and Scarborough were declared as “regimes of islands” and we have our 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone over which we have sovereign rights.

But no way can we impose our view of what is our territory or what is our EEZ on nations which claim it as their territory, which is a higher-level sovereign claim than an “EEZ right.”

In a crude way of putting it, we have our own map of the South China Sea that says the KIG is part of our territory. China and the Vietnamese have their own maps that claim it is theirs (2001).

Falklands

And we aren’t the US or Great Britain that we can tell the world, respect our map or we’ll kick your ass — as the latter did the Argentinians in 1982 over the Falkland Islands, an island 400 kilometers from Argentina and halfway across the globe from England.

If China and Vietnam — and their peoples — believe as much as we do that the Spratlys is theirs, is it a correct foreign policy to insist that it is ours, ban their fishermen from the area, and mobilize our coast guard to enforce that ban?

To mislead the public that this policy is correct, del Rosario, Carpio and the Yellows — helped by the US — have been on a massive disinformation campaign over the arbitral panel’s decision versus China.

Yes, the panel ruled that our EEZ covers Recto Bank. But it was totally silent on the territorial claims of China (and Vietnam) over the Spratlys which it claims is its territory. It can’t because Unclos on which the arbitral panel based its ruling categorically cannot rule over and cannot talk about, sovereignty disputes over territory. It can only rule on maritime claims such as to what extent does a country’s EEZ covers.

Haven’t we learned from the Yellow regime’s Scarborough Shoal fiasco? For decades, fishermen from Zambales, China and Vietnam had been fishing in the area. China claims it as their Huangyan Island, and we as Bajo de Masinloc. But both countries had a joint de facto control of the shoal.

President Aquino 3rd broke that tranquility in 2012 when he ordered a Navy warship to arrest Chinese fishermen, blustered that it was our territory, and declared in so many words that the US would help us to assert our sovereignty.

China of course defended its claims on the island. And we ended up losing Bajo de Masinloc, as I have explained in so many previous columns, and in my book Debunked.*

Wouldn’t it better if rather than a ban which we can’t enforce, and which would likely result in a Scarborough kind of confrontation, we simply agree with China and Vietnam to let our fishermen and theirs fish in the area, and work for an agreement to regulate fishing in the area as to maintain its ecosystem, and to jointly police poachers capturing endangered species?

Scarborough

Do we want a repeat of Aquino’s loss of Scarborough? But this time we will be losing not just a shoal, but the entire KIG, and we will be saying goodbye to the third biggest island there, Pag-asa.

Or maybe this is the outcome Carpio wants, through his effort to frighten Duterte if he allows foreign fishermen to fish in the Spratlys. I don’t think Carpio is ignorant of the facts I have presented, as he has even written a book on the South China territorial disputes.

Maybe Duterte is right in calling Carpio buang if that term is used in its more precise meaning, which is “someone deranged, and possibly dangerous.”

Carpio is deranged in his anti-China xenophobia, which I think he got from his ideological guru Jose Almonte, around whom so many rumors have been swirling for years over his deep connections with the US CIA.

And Carpio is dangerous, for his skill in spreading disinformation that even two of my colleagues have fallen for hook, line and sinker.

Email: tiglao.manilatimes@gmail.com

Facebook: Rigoberto Tiglao

Twitter: @bobitiglao

*Book orders: www.rigobertotiglao.com/debunked

https://www.manilatimes.net/duterte-is-wrong-to-call-carpio-buang-or-maybe-not/576138/

Pangulong Duterte di takot sa bantang impeachment

Regular exercise changes the brain to improve memory, thinking skills

POSTED APRIL 09, 2014, 5:00 PM , UPDATED APRIL 05, 2018, 4:38 PM

Heidi Godman
Executive Editor, Harvard Health Letter

There are plenty of good reasons to be physically active. Big ones include reducing the odds of developing heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Maybe you want to lose weight, lower your blood pressure, prevent depression, or just look better. Here’s another one, which especially applies to those of us (including me) experiencing the brain fog that comes with age: exercise changes the brain in ways that protect memory and thinking skills.

In a study done at the University of British Columbia, researchers found that regular aerobic exercise, the kind that gets your heart and your sweat glands pumping, appears to boost the size of the hippocampus, the brain area involved in verbal memory and learning. Resistance training, balance and muscle toning exercises did not have the same results.

The finding comes at a critical time. Researchers say one new case of dementia is detected every four seconds globally. They estimate that by the year 2050, more than 115 million people will have dementia worldwide.

Exercise and the brain

Exercise helps memory and thinking through both direct and indirect means. The benefits of exercise come directly from its ability to reduce insulin resistance, reduce inflammation, and stimulate the release of growth factors—chemicals in the brain that affect the health of brain cells, the growth of new blood vessels in the brain, and even the abundance and survival of new brain cells.

Indirectly, exercise improves mood and sleep, and reduces stress and anxiety. Problems in these areas frequently cause or contribute to cognitive impairment.

Many studies have suggested that the parts of the brain that control thinking and memory (the prefrontal cortex and medial temporal cortex) have greater volume in people who exercise versus people who don’t. “Even more exciting is the finding that engaging in a program of regular exercise of moderate intensity over six months or a year is associated with an increase in the volume of selected brain regions,” says Dr. Scott McGinnis, a neurologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an instructor in neurology at Harvard Medical School.

Put it to the test

So what should you do? Start exercising! We don’t know exactly which exercise is best. Almost all of the research has looked at walking, including the latest study. “It’s likely that other forms of aerobic exercise that get your heart pumping might yield similar benefits,” says Dr. McGinnis.

How much exercise is required to improve memory? These study participants walked briskly for one hour, twice a week. That’s 120 minutes of moderate intensity exercise a week. Standard recommendations advise half an hour of moderate physical activity most days of the week, or 150 minutes a week. If that seems daunting, start with a few minutes a day, and increase the amount you exercise by five or 10 minutes every week until you reach your goal.

If you don’t want to walk, consider other moderate-intensity exercises, such as swimming, stair climbing, tennis, squash, or dancing. Don’t forget that household activities can count as well, such as intense floor mopping, raking leaves, or anything that gets your heart pumping so much that you break out in a light sweat.

Don’t have the discipline to do it on your own? Try any or all of these ideas:

• Join a class or work out with a friend who’ll hold you accountable.
• Track your progress, which encourages you to reach a goal.
• If you’re able, hire a personal trainer. (Paying an expert is good motivation.)

Whatever exercise and motivators you choose, commit to establishing exercise as a habit, almost like taking a prescription medication. After all, they say that exercise is medicine, and that can go on the top of anyone’s list of reasons to work out.

Related Information: Improving Memory: Understanding age-related memory loss

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/regular-exercise-changes-brain-improve-memory-thinking-skills-201404097110?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork&fbclid=IwAR0DfMYry_GXYnfz8njAAa3R2FWulsHKmyisf6Ox-PosYiRBewwvJyrjOGQ

Morbidly obese woman who was bedridden for three years reveals the results of her 596lbs weight loss on My 600lb Life - making her the show's most successful patient ever

• Mother-of-five Milla Clark, from Fayetteville, Tennessee, used to weigh 751lbs 
• Widow used to rely on kids to wash and care for her and couldn't walk unaided 
• Milla, 51, has slimmed down to 155lbs and learned to walk again over three years
• Determined Milla is the most successful patient ever on TLC's My 600lb Life

By HAYLEY RICHARDSON FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 11:58 BST, 27 June 2019 | UPDATED: 14:37 BST, 27 June 2019

A morbidly obese woman who was bedridden for three years, and had to rely on her children to wash and care for her, has shed 596lbs (42.5 stone) and learned how to walk again.

Mother-of-five Milla Clark, 51, from Fayetteville, Tennessee, became the most successful patient ever on TLC's My 600lb Life after slimming down to just 155lbs (11 stone).

She originally weighed in at a hefty 751lbs (53.6 stone) when she first consulted weight loss expert Dr Younan Nowzaradan over three years ago. 

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Mother-of-five Milla Clark, 51, from Fayetteville, Tennessee, became the most successful patient ever on TLC's My 600lb Life after slimming down to 155lbs (11 stone)

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She originally weighed in at a hefty 751lbs (53.6 stone) when she first consulted weight loss expert Dr Younan Nowzaradan over three years ago

Milla was completely immobile, having been completely unable to get out of bed for three years, which was due, in large part, to a 43lb lymphedema on her leg - painful swelling that left her in agony when she tried to stand.  

As a result, Milla had not walked on her own in over 13 years when she first sought help with her weight - and she admitted on the show that her life had been made 'miserable' because of her condition. 

'Every single day of my life is miserable,' she said at the time. 'I have been trapped in these four walls for more than two years. During that time, I have not stood one time. All I can do is eat and sleep.' 

Because she was unable to move from her bed, Milla had to rely heavily on her children, four of whom are adopted, to take care of her, with the siblings having to bathe their mother every morning to make sure she didn't develop an infection.  

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Prior to her incredible weight loss, Milla was bedridden for three years and relied on her children to wash and care for her

Milla said her life before her weight loss was miserable every single day because she was trapped in bed and unable to stand

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The mother-of-five, pictured before her weight loss journey began, admitted that the only thing she could do on her own was eat and sleep 

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Her teenage children had to bathe their mother every day in order to prevent infections; her daughter Hannah would wash Milla's 'private parts' while Jacob help the lymphedema

Three of Milla's teenage kids, Jacob, now 19, Hannah, 18, and Caleb, 18, would wake up every morning before sunrise to go into her room and wash her because she couldn't do it herself. 

While Hannah washed her mother's 'private parts', Jacob held the lymphedema because it was so heavy that her daughter couldn't lift it and clean her at the same time.

'It is such a humiliating thing,' Milla said in 2017, lamenting: 'Children their age shouldn't have to take care of their parents.'

Milla had struggled with her weight her entire life, and when she was only three years old, other kids started calling her fat, making her realize just how big she was.

However, because she was so young, she didn't associate her unhealthy eating habits with her ongoing weight gain, and she explained that her relationship with food was made even more difficult because her mother would feed her and her sister because it was the only way she knew how to show them love. 

Milla, who is pictured when she was younger (left and right), said kids started calling her fat when she was only three years old 

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Milla, who is pictured on her wedding day, met her husband Elroy shortly after she graduated from high school, and she said she 'forgot she was fat' because she was so in love with him 

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After their wedding, Milla got pregnant with the couple's first child, but after her weight reached nearly 500lbs, it became too risky for to try and have another baby 

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Because they couldn't have anymore biological children, Milla and Elroy decided to adopt four kids who were growing up in homes with drug addicted parents 

After her high school graduation, she met Elroy and they got married, and while she weighed over 400lbs at the time, he didn't see her weight as a problem.

'I was so in love with Elroy. I forgot I was fat for a minute,' Milla said.

Soon after they said 'I do', Milla gave birth to her first child, and while they wanted to have more children, her weight was close to 500lbs making it far too risky for her to try and conceive again.

Instead, the couple adopted four children from homes with drug-addicted parents. And while, she vowed to take care of them, they ended up being the ones tending to her needs.

In the hopes of saving her life, Milla and her family made the decision to move to Houston, Texas, so she could consult with weight loss surgeon Dr. Nowzaradan. 

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Before she started her journey, Milla had been bedridden for two years, and relied on her five children and her now-late husband Elroy to take care of her 

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Milla was inconsolable because she was unable to leave her bed to visit Elroy in the hospital before she died, but she remained motivated to stick to her weight loss plan

A matter of life and death: Milla's story on My 600-lb Life

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As well as working with Milla, Dr Nowzaradan also made sure her children met with a dietitian so they could learn about their mother's diet, because he wanted to be sure they would no longer enable her addiction to eating before he sent her home. 

The weight loss expert explained that he wanted to operate on Milla to remove her lymphedema, but she needed to lose weight first in order to make it safe for her to undergo a surgical procedure.  

So the mother-of-five dedicated herself to her weight loss program, and lost an impressive 100lbs on her own, making her eligible for surgery; Dr Nowzaradan removed the large lymphedema - swelling caused by a build-up of lymph fluid under your skin - and she continued trying to get healthy.

Then, once she was able to finally stand on her own, Milla underwent weightloss surgery. 

Throughout her weight loss journey, she remained incredibly focused and dedicated, only faltering briefly when her beloved husband Elroy passed away from a heart attack two months into filming the show.

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Milla, pictured in 2017, chronicled her weight loss journey on the TLC special, My 600lb Life: Where Are They Now?, going from 751lbs to 477lbs (pictured) in two years

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Once Milla got under 200lbs she had both knees replaced which allowed her to finally stand completely upright and walk on her own without a cane or walker 

Milla underwent several skin removal surgeries after shedding the pounds, leaving her with significant scarring

Dr Nowzaradan removed the large lymphedema - swelling caused by a build-up of lymph fluid under your skin - on her leg and Milla later underwent weightloss surgery

She was inconsolable because she was unable to leave her bed to visit him in the hospital before she died.

But it was her children who ultimately motivated her to stick to her weight loss plan and she became more determined then ever to lose the weight so she could be a 'proper mom' to her kids.

She also underwent several skin removal surgeries, and once she got under 200lbs she had both knees replaced, which allowed her to finally stand completely upright and walk on her own without a cane or walker. 

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At the end of an episode of My 600lb Life in 2017, Milla had shed a total of 153lbs and stood for the first time in two years 

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Milla pointed out she still had a lot of excess skin around her body, which was later removed

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On the latest episode of the show Milla was seen celebrating her 51st birthday surrounded by family and friends including her kids

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During the celebrations for her birthday, Milla's children said they were 'very proud' of her journey

On the latest episode of the show, Milla was seen celebrating her 51st birthday surrounded by family and friends including her kids, who also said they were 'very proud' of her journey. 

She was also seen doing activities with her children for the first time in years, including canoeing - and she even took three of the kids on a date with her!

By the end of the three years she was down to her goal weight of 155lbs, earning her a well deserved hug from Dr Nowzaradan.

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By the end of the three years Milla was down to her goal weight of 155lbs, making her the most successful patient on the show of all time

Milla was also seen doing activities with her children for the first time in years, including canoeing

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With her newfound confidence, Milla even took three of her children out on a date with her

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Morbidly obese woman who was bedridden for three years sheds 596lbs and learns how to walk again

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