After looking at the survey questions, the methodology and the purported analytical results of the July 2008 Pulse Asia Survey poll on President Arroyo's State of the National Address, I am forced to the inexorable conclusion that it was basically propaganda, not a valid scientific public opinion poll. The main numerical data are contained in Tables 1,2,3, and 4.
To begin with, the pollster admits that only 60% of the 1200 respondents to the survey were qualified to participate and be tallied because only that fraction of them claimed to have "heard or read about any previous SONA." Thus the proper random sample size is 720 and the one-sided statistical error is closer to 4% than 3%. But this is hardly its biggest or most egregious flaw.
If you look under a magnifying glass at the bottom of Table 4 you will discover that the first question asked of each respondent was whether they had heard or read about any previous SONA ("Kayo ba ay nakarinig na, or nakabasa na, sa anumang nakaraang Ulat Sa Bayan o SONA ni Pangulong Arroyo?"). To those who answered YES, two further questions were asked soliciting an opinion about the truthfulness of the 2007 and the likely truthfulness of the 2008 SONAs. There is a further microscopic notation that "truthful" means "mostly or completely truthful" while "untruthful" means "mostly or completely untruthful."
This is a badly flawed question because the 2008 SONA, for example, has over 4600 words, and 500 sentences spread out over many dozens if not hundreds of possibly truthful or untruthful individual assertions by the President. But the follow-on question forces the respondent to decide whether he or she thinks they were (in a previous SONA) or would be (in 2008) "mostly or completely true or untrue." Well, no wonder 46% of the 720 qualified respondents said they were UNDECIDED about the likelihood of the 2008 SONA's truthfulness, while 52% were UNDECIDED about the actual truthfulness of the 2007 SONA.
It is a rule of thumb, at least among scientific, professional pollsters that when a question elicits such large percentage of UNDECIDED responses, there is something badly wrong about the question itself, either its design, content or meaning for the respondents. Among physical scientists this is equivalent to having half of one's data set being corrupted, unreadable or unusable because we are measuring the wrong parameter or using the wrong proble. We usually throw away such tests and their resulting data sets as being unreliable or positively useless.
What the analysis keys on, as presented here and by Ana Marie Tabunda on ANC last evening, was the large percentage (40% of 720 respondents) opining that the 2008 SONA would likely be untruthful while only 14% of 720 respondents opined it would likely be truthful. It is of course not surprising that 46% thought the 2007 SONA was untruthful while 13% thought it was truthful.
With respect to the 2008 SONA, this is numerically gussied up ASTROLOGY and not statistical opinion polling. With respect to "any previous SONA", I doubt very much that any of the respondents could've made a fair mental evaluation of the totality of the President's assertions. Rather, human nature being reflexively suspicious and skeptical towards politicians (especially one as opaque and plastique as Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who truly deserves it, in my own opinion), there is a natural tendency to remember some unbelievable or untruthful statement and ascribe dishonesty to the entire speech, rather than to mentally maintain an inventory of a large number of possibly true statements. After all, when a person tells even one lie in such a forum, it's easy to believe such a person is telling many other lies.
Since the nature of the basic question asked of the respondents, requires of them to make a global judgment ("mostly truthful" or "mostly untruthful" but nothing in between) of some past or future SONA, and given that she has most verifiably lied on a number of very important and public occasions in her checkered political career, the results might've been predicted without all the trouble of a full blown statistical survey. After all, the respondents were qualified to answer these questions if they had merely read or heard about some SONA or other -- most likely from an habitually skeptical or even hostile media.
Nevertheless, two wrongs just don't make a right. This Pulse Asia Survey was what we call a setup or a "gimme" for anti-Arroyo forces. It is another example of the cynical use of science for propaganda purposes.
Deliciously malicious propaganda at that, since of course propaganda can itself be truthful or not, just like the SONAs themselves!
Tee-hee, but shame on you Pulse Asia! I bet if somebody did a survey on the surveys, the results would run against the pollsters with similar percentages being cynical and skeptical about them as propagandists.UPDATES: Cogent discussion of the brewing bribery brouhaha in the Court of Appeals is to be found at La Vida Lawyer.
GLORIA MACAPAGAL ARROYO attained Malacanang Palace on the backs of a coup d'etat executed by the Armed Forces Chief of Staff (Angelo Reyes) and the Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide. (Only those utterly devoted to the dubious comforts of consuelo de bobo even bother to mutter "People Power" any more as an explanation or excuse for that singularly infamous event called Edsa Dos). How she and her evil cohorts intend to preserve themselves against the day in 2010 when they shall be fully exposed to the thermonuclear pile of Justice and Retribution is slowly becoming clear to several astute observers, such as Ricky Carandang of ABSCBN News (in Gloria Forever). In this regard, I do see the rather frantic attempts currently underway to postpone the regularly scheduled elections in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao in the most sinister light--that of a dress rehearsal for yet another "constitutional" coup d'etat in 2010.
Remember that she had everything to gain in 2001, but in 2010 she has everything to lose!
Successfully postponing this election in ARMM, which hardly anyone seems to care about really, would be merely a confidence building measure that they could do it again in 2010, probably also with the eager help of would-be sultans and datus of a new Bangsamoro homeland --the ambuscading gunmen and warlord beheaders of the MILF. This cannot be too hard to accomplish considering how completely degraded the democratic Constitution has become under the tender ministrations of a Supreme Court and legal profession that, incomprehensibly adulates fascist theocrats and judicial putschists like Hilario Davide Jr. and Artemio Panganiban. As for the current Chief Justice, Reynato Puno, he is famously the architect of the current dogma on ancestral domain and that abomination called the Indigenous People's Rights Act. This amazing juridical superstructure, upon which the Bangsamoro Juridical entity will rise, is itself built entirely upon the sands of historical falsehoods and a national self-loathing for our adoption of constitutional democracy and the irreversible consequences of American colonialism, such as the Rule of Law and public sanitation. That we should now lacerate ourselves over the surrender of our ancestors to the Spanish Taliban in exchange for protection from the marauding caracolas and war-vintas of Rajas Mura and Sirongan and a century of Moro depredations, in order to deliver the Bangsamoro peoples back to the enslavers and the piratical raiders of the Maguindanao Confederacy, boggles the mind. But wait! Not only the Bangsamoro, but we all are now at risk of falling into dhimmitude and servility under the particularly abhorrent species of moral dwarves who are multiplying like rats and rabbits in the names of Palace, Church and Mosque.
I am obliged to reassure the good and gentle readers at Catholic and Enjoying It that my recent "strange reasoning" on birth control is not intended to cast doubt upon the evils of torture, murder, rape, or "death penalty clemency" just because there are no explicitly infallible Papal Bulls against the same. I am merely pointing out a possibly honorable or face-saving way out for Catholic dogmatists (such as our own Philippine Bishops) with respect to the incoherent and disunited teachings of the Roman Catholic Church on the preventative forms of artificial birth conrol. Limbo--or more precisely the fate of that particular hoary old teaching about the destination of unbaptized infants--is that way out. Indeed, Humanae Vitae and its entirely maculate conception in the irreformably disturbing disagreement between Pope Paul VI and his own expanded Papal Commission on Birth Control would surely qualify it far more to be consigned to the uhmm, limbo of discardable former articles of faith no longer requiring the full assent of the faithful, than the formerly long-running dogma on that Autonomous Region of Inferno that was indeed called Limbo. (By the way, there were two Limbos --one for said unchristened infants and one for the Old Testament's own unshriven Patriarchs supposedly rescued by the alleged Jesus of Nazareth when he descended to the Dead--both dogmae presumably now optional.
I should point out that along with Hell and Purgatory, said Limbo was the selling point of the commercial, if simoniac, enterprises of the former frailocratic rulers of the Philippine province. Not even the treasures of all the sunken galleons between Manila and Acapulco could compare to the hoard amassed by the Spanish Catholic Taliban hawking scapulars, rosaries and other holy trinkets and souvenirs of sanctimony allegedly exempting their souls, or those of their ancestors and progeny from the fires or desolation of all three.
But could there be any more wicked dogma than those of Hell, Purgatory and Limbo? These distinctly New Testament innovations which promise unimaginable suffering for infidels, even babies, after they die far exceed the cruel deaths, enslavement and rapine of their enemies vouchsafed by Yahweh to his Chosen People in the Old Covenant.
Actually, I suppose the teachings on condoms, pills and IUDs, may qualify, in a sense, for they do condemn millions to poverty, hunger, hopelessness and the horrors of unwanted, unplanned pregnancies, such as the half million abortions that occur for one reason or another.
There is a simple way out for the blind dogmatists: simply admit the fact that the Catholic Church has never declared the dogma infallible and consign it to Limbo. Y'all know how it's done! (Casuistry!)
By the way, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was playing fast and loose with statistics during her State of the Nation Address yesterday on this subject:
Rice production since 2000 increased an average of 4.07% a year, twice the population growth rate. By promoting natural planning and female education, we have curbed population growth to 2.04% during our administration, down from the 2.36 in the 1990’s, when artificial birth control was pushed. Our campaign spreads awareness of responsible parenthood regarding birth spacing. Long years of pushing contraceptives made it synonymous to family planning. Therefore informed choice should mean letting more couples, who are mostly Catholics, know about natural family planning.
Utterly dishonest and specious of her to claim credit for the downward trend in population growth rate that's been observable for almost half a century on her population policies. More telling is the fact that we are indeed the LARGEST IMPORTER of rice in the world--whilst our neighbors, like Thailand who merely copied a 1970 Philippine Population Management Plan, have made the demographic transition to a more sustainable regime. Sure, sure, overpopulation per se is not the cause of poverty. No. It's the poverty of the mind and spirit and our clinging to the infantile illusions fostered by a Church long-lost in her own inutility and helplessness. Sure, sure, it's "the System" that's to blame. Unfortunately, the Philippine Catholic Church and especially its hierarchy, has long been the biggest, oldest and I daresay, often the baddest part of "the System."
Time to give up pride and hubris. The people are suffering and they are truly fed up with reverential, but inhuman and hardly divine, dogma.
State of the Nation Address of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during the 2nd Regular Session of the 14th Congress of the Republic of the Philippines 28 July 2008
Thank you, Speaker Nograles. Senate President Villar. Senators and Representatives. Vice President de Castro, President Ramos, Chief Justice Puno, members of the diplomatic corps, ladies and gentlemen:
I address you today at a crucial moment in world history.
Just a few months ago, we ended 2007 with the strongest economic growth in a generation. Inflation was low, the peso strong and a million new jobs were created. We were all looking to a better, brighter future.
Because tough choices were made, kumikilos na ang bayan sa wakas. Malapit na sana tayo sa pagbalanse ng budget. We were retiring debts in great amounts, reducing the drag on our country’s development, habang namumuhunan sa taong bayan.
Biglang-bigla, nabaligtad ang ekonomiya ng mundo. Ang pagtalon ng presyo ng langis at pagkain ay nagbunsod ng pandaigdigan krisis, the worst since the Great Depression and the end of World War II. Some blame speculators moving billions of dollars from subprime mortgages to commodities like fuel and food. Others point of the very real surge in demand as millions of Chinese and Indians move up to the middle class.
Whatever the reasons, we are on a roller coaster ride of oil price hikes, high food prices and looming economic recession in the US and other markets. Uncertainty has moved like a terrible tsunami around the globe, wiping away gains, erasing progress.
This is a complex time that defies simple and easy solutions. For starters, it is hard to identify villains, unlike in the 1997 financial crisis. Everyone seems to be a victim, rich countries and poor, though certainly some can take more punishment than others.
To address these global challenges, we must go on building and buttressing bridges to allies around the world: to bring in the rice to feed our people, investments to create jobs; and to keep the peace and maintain stability in our country and the rest of the world. Yet even as we reach out to those who need, and who may need us, we strive for greater self-reliance.
Because tough choices were made, the global crisis did not catch us helpless and unprepared. Through foresight, grit and political will, we built a shield around our country that has slowed down and somewhat softened the worst effects of the global crisis. We have the money to care for our people and pay for food when there are shortages; for fuel despite price spikes.
Neither we nor anyone else in the world expected this day to come so soon but we prepared for it. For the guts not to flinch in the face of tough choices, I thank God. For the wisdom to recognize how needed you are, I thank, you Congress. For footing the bill, I thank the taxpayers.
The result has been, on the one hand, ito ang nakasalba sa bayan; and, on the other, more unpopularity for myself in the opinion polls. Yet, even unfriendly polls show self-rated poverty down to its 20-year low in 2007.
My responsibility as President is to take care to solve the problems we are facing now and to provide a vision and direction for how our nation should advance in the future.
Many in this great hall live privileged lives and exert great influence in public affairs. I am accessible to you, but I spend time every day with the underprivileged and under represented who cannot get a grip on their lives in the daily, all-consuming struggle to make ends meet.
Nag-aalala ako para sa naka-aawang maybahay na pasan ang pananagutan para sa buong pamilya. Nag-aalala ako para sa magsasakang nasa unang hanay ng pambansang produksyon ng pagkain ngunit nagsisikap pakanin ang pamilya. I care for hardworking students soon to graduate and wanting to see hope of good job and a career prospect here at home.
Nag-aalala ako para sa 41-year old na padre de pamilya na di araw-araw ang trabaho, at nag-aabala sa asawa at tatlong anak, at dapat bigyan ng higit pang pagkakakitaan at dangal. I care for our teachers who gave the greatest gift we ever received – a good education – still trying to pass on the same gift to succeeding generations. I care for our OFWs, famed for their skill, integrity and untiring labor, who send home their pay as the only way to touch loved ones so far away. Nagpupugay ako ngayon sa kanilang mga karaniwang Pilipino.
My critics say this is fiction, along with other facts and figures I cite today. I call it heroism though they don’t need our praise. Each is already a hero to those who matter most, their families.
I said this is a global crisis where everyone is a victim. But only few can afford to avoid, or pay to delay, the worst effects.
Many more have nothing to protect them from the immediate blunt force trauma of the global crisis. Tulad ninyo, nag-aalala ako para sa kanila. Ito ang mga taong bayan na dapat samahan natin. Not only because of their sacrifices for our country but because they are our countrymen.
How do we solve these many complex challenges?
Sa kanilang kalagayan, the answer must be special care and attention in this great hour of need.
First, we must have a targeted strategy with set of precise prescriptions to ease the price challenges we are facing.
Second, food self-sufficiency; less energy dependence; greater self-reliance in our attitude as a people and in our posture as a nation.
Third, short-term relief cannot be at the expense of long term reforms. These reforms will benefit not just the next generation of Filipinos, but the next President as well.
Napakahalaga ang Value Added Tax sa pagharap sa mga hamong ito.
Itong programa ang sagot sa mga problemang namana natin.
Una, mabawasan ang ating mga utang and shore up our fiscal independence.
Pangalawa, higit na pamumuhunan para mamamayan at imprastraktura.
Pangatlo, sapat na pondo para sa mga programang pangmasa.
Thus, the infrastructure links programmed for the our poorest provinces like Northern Samar: Lao-ang-Lapinig-Arteche, right now ay maputik, San Isidro-Lope de Vega; the rehabilitation of Maharlika in Samar.
Take VAT away and you and I abdicate our responsibility as leaders and pull the rug from under our present and future progress, which may be compromised by the global crisis.
Lalong lumakas ang tiwala ng mga investor dahil sa VAT. Mula P56.50 kada dolyar, lumakas ang piso hanggang P40.20 bago bumalik sa P44 dahil sa mga pabigat ng pangdaigdigang ekonomiya. Kung alisin ang VAT, hihina ang kumpiyansa ng negosyo, lalong tataas ang interes, lalong bababa ang piso, lalong mamahal ang bilihin.
Kapag ibinasura ang VAT sa langis at kuryente, ang mas makikinabang ay ang mga may kaya na kumukonsumo ng 84% ng langis at 90% ng kuryente habang mas masasaktan ang mahihirap na mawawalan ng P80 billion para sa mga programang pinopondohan ngayon ng VAT. Take away VAT and we strip our people of the means to ride out the world food and energy crisis.
We have come too far and made too many sacrifices to turn back now on fiscal reforms. Leadership is not about doing the first easy thing that comes to mind; it is about doing what is necessary, however hard.
The government has persevered, without flip-flops, in its much-criticized but irreplaceable policies, including oil and power VAT and oil deregulation.
Patuloy na gagamitin ng pamahalaan ang lumalago nating yaman upang tulungan ang mga pamilyang naghihirap sa taas ng bilihin at hampas ng bagyo, habang nagpupundar upang sanggahan ang bayan sa mga krisis sa hinaharap.
Para sa mga namamasada at namamasahe sa dyip, sinusugpo natin ang kotong at colorum upang mapataas ang kita ng mga tsuper. Si Federico Alvarez kumikita ng P200 a day sa kaniyang rutang Cubao-Rosario. Tinaas ito ng anti-kotong, anti-colorum ngayon P500 na ang kita niya. Iyan ang paraan kung paano napananatili ang dagdag-pasahe sa piso lamang. Halaga lang ng isang text.
Texting is a way of life. I asked the telecoms to cut the cost of messages between networks. They responded. It is now down to 50 centavos.
Noong Hunyo, nagpalabas tayo ng apat na bilyong piso mula sa VAT sa langis—dalawang bilyong pambayad ng koryente ng apat na milyong mahihirap, isang bilyon para college scholarship o pautang sa 70,000 na estudyanteng maralita; kalahating bilyong pautang upang palitan ng mas matipid na LPG, CNG o biofuel ang motor ng libu-libong jeepney; at kalahating bilyong pampalit sa fluorescent sa mga pampublikong lugar.
Kung mapapalitan ng fluorescent ang lahat ng bumbilya, makatitipid tayo ng lampas P2 billion.
Sa sunod na katas ng VAT, may P1 billion na pambayad ng kuryente ng mahihirap; kalahating bilyon para sa matatandang di sakop ng SSS o GSIS; kalahating bilyong kapital para sa pamilya ng mga namamasada; kalahating bilyon upang mapataas ang kakayahan at equipment ng mga munting ospital sa mga lalawigan. At para sa mga kalamidad, angkop na halaga.
We released P1 billion for the victims of typhoon Frank. We support a supplemental Western Visayas calamity budget from VAT proceeds, as a tribute to the likes of Rodney Berdin, age 13, of Barangay Rombang, Belison, Antique, who saved his mother, brother and sister from the raging waters of Sibalom River.
Mula sa buwang ito, wala nang income tax ang sumusweldo ng P200,000 o mas mababa sa isang taon – P12 billion na bawas-buwis para sa maralita at middle class. Maraming salamat, Congress.
Ngayong may P32 na commercial rice, natugunan na natin ang problema sa pagkain sa kasalukuyan. Nagtagumpay tayo dahil sa pagtutulungan ng buong bayan sa pagsasaka, bantay-presyo at paghihigpit sa price manipulation, sa masipag na pamumuno ni Artie Yap.
Sa mga LGU at religious groups na tumutulong dalhin ang NFA rice sa mahihirap, maraming salamat sa inyo.
Dahil sa subsidy, NFA rice is among the region’s cheapest. While we can take some comfort that our situation is better than many other nations, there is no substitute for solving the problem of rice and fuel here at home. In doing so, let us be honest and clear eyed – there has been a fundamental shift in global economics. The price of food and fuel will likely remain high. Nothing will be easy; the government cannot solve these problems over night. But, we can work to ease the near-term pain while investing in long-term solutions.
Since 2001, new irrigation systems for 146,000 hectares, including Malmar in Maguindanao and North Cotabato, Lower Agusan, Casecnan and Aulo in Nueva Ecija, Abulog-Apayao in Cagayan and Apayao, Addalam in Quirino and Isabela, among others, and the restoration of old systems on another 980,000 hectares have increased our nation’s irrigated land to a historic 1.5 million hectares.
Edwin Bandila, 48 years old, of Ugalingan, Carmen, North Cotabato, cultivated one hectare and harvested 35 cavans. Thirteen years na ginawa iyong Malmar. In my first State of the Nation Address, sabi ko kung hindi matapos iyon sa Setyembre ay kakanselahin ko ang kontrata, papapasukin ko ang engineering brigade, natapos nila. With Malamar, now he cultivates five hectares and produces 97 cavans per hectare. Mabuhay, Edwin! VAT will complete the San Roque-Agno River project.
The Land Bank has quadrupled loans for farmers and fisherfolk. That is fact not fiction. Check it. For more effective credit utilization, I instructed DA to revitalize farmers cooperatives.
We are providing seeds at subsidized prices to help our farmers.
Incremental Malampaya national revenues of P4 billion will go to our rice self-sufficiency program.
Rice production since 2000 increased an average of 4.07% a year, twice the population growth rate. By promoting natural planning and female education, we have curbed population growth to 2.04% during our administration, down from the 2.36 in the 1990’s, when artificial birth control was pushed. Our campaign spreads awareness of responsible parenthood regarding birth spacing. Long years of pushing contraceptives made it synonymous to family planning. Therefore informed choice should mean letting more couples, who are mostly Catholics, know about natural family planning.
From 1978 to 1981, nag-export tayo ng bigas. Hindi tumagal. But let’s not be too hard on ourselves. Panahon pa ng Kastila bumibili na tayo ng bigas sa labas. While we may know how to grow rice well, topography doesn’t always cooperate.
Nature did not gift us with a mighty Mekong like Thailand and Vietnam, with their vast and naturally fertile plains. Nature instead put our islands ahead of our neighbours in the path of typhoons from the Pacific. So, we import 10% of the rice we consume.
To meet the challenge of today, we will feed our people now, not later, and help them get through these hard times. To meet the challenges of tomorrow, we must become more self-reliant, self-sufficient and independent, relying on ourselves more than on the world.
Now we come to the future of agrarian reform.
There are those who say it is a failure, that our rice importations prove it. There are those who say it is a success—if only because anything is better than nothing. Indeed, people are happier owning the land they work, no matter what the difficulties.
Sa SONA noong 2001, sinabi ko, bawat taon, mamamahagi tayo ng dalawang daang libong ektarya sa reporma sa lupa: 100,000 hectares of private farmland and 100,000 of public farmland, including ancestral domains. Di hamak mahigit sa target ang naipamahagi natin sa nakaraang pitong taon: 854,000 hectares of private farmland, 797,000 of public farmland, and Certificates of Ancestral Domain for 525,000 hectares. Including, over a 100,000 hectares for Bugkalots in Quirino, Aurora, and Nueva Vizcaya. After the release of their CADT, Rosario Camma, Bugkalot chieftain, and now mayor of Nagtipunan, helped his 15,000-member tribe develop irrigation, plant vegetables and corn and achieve food sufficiency. Mabuhay, Chief!
Agrarian reform should not merely subdivide misery, it must raise living standards. Ownership raises the farmer from his but productivity will keep him on his feet.
Sinimula ng aking ama ang land reform noong 1963. Upang mabuo ito, the extension of CARP with reforms is top priority. I will continue to do all I can for the rural as well as urban poor. Ayaw natin na paglaya ng tenant sa landlord, mapapasa-ilalim naman sa usurero. Former tenants must be empowered to become agribusinessmen by allowing their land to be used as collateral.
Dapat mapalaya ng reporma sa lupa ang magsasaka sa pagiging alipin sa iba. Dapat bigyan ang magsasaka ng dangal bilang taong malaya at di hawak ninuman. We must curb the recklessness that gives land without the means to make it productive and bites off more than beneficiaries can chew.
At the same time, I want the rackets out of agrarian reform: the threats to take and therefore undervalue land, the conspiracies to overvalue it.
Be with me on this. There must be a path where justice and progress converge. Let us find it before Christmas. Dapat nating linisin ang landas para sa mga ibig magpursige sa pagsasaka, taglay ang pananalig na ang lupa ay sasagip sa atin sa huli kung gamitin natin ito nang maayos.
Along with massive rice production, we are cutting costs through more efficient transport. For our farm-to-market roads, we released P6 billion in 2007.
On our nautical highways. RORO boats carried 33 million metric tons of cargo and 31 million passengers in 2007. We have built 39 RORO ports during our administration, 12 more are slated to start within the next two years. In 2003, we inaugurated the Western Nautical Highway from Batangas through Mindoro, Panay and Negros to Mindanao. This year we launched the Central Nautical Highway from Bicol mainland, through Masbate, Cebu, Bohol and Camiguin to Mindanao mainland. These developments strengthen our competitiveness.
Leading multinational company Nestle cut transport costs and offset higher milk prices abroad. Salamat, RORO. Transport costs have become so reasonable for bakeries like Gardenia, a loaf of its bread in Iloilo is priced the same as in Laguna and Manila. Salamat muli sa RORO.
To the many LGUs who have stopped collecting fees from cargo vehicles, maraming, maraming salamat.
We are repaving airports that are useful for agriculture, like Zamboanga City Airport.
Producing rice and moving it cheaper addresses the supply side of our rice needs. On the demand side, we are boosting the people’s buying power.
Ginagawa nating labor-intensive ang paggawa at pag-ayos ng kalsada at patubig. Noong SONA ng 2001, naglunsad tayo sa NCR ng patrabaho para sa 20,000 na out of school youth, na tinawag OYSTER. Ngayon, mahigit 20,000 ang ineempleyo ng OYSTER sa buong bansa. In disaster-stricken areas, we have a cash-for-work program.
In training, 7.74 million took technical and vocational courses over the last seven years, double the number in the previous 14 years. In 2007 alone, 1.7 million graduated. Among them are Jessica Barlomento now in Hanjin as supply officer, Shenve Catana, Marie Grace Comendador, and Marlyn Tusi, lady welders, congratulations.
In microfinance, loans have reached P102 billion or 30 times more than the P3 billion we started with in 2001, with a 98% repayment record, congratulations! Major lenders include the Land Bank with P69 billion, the Peoples’ Credit and Finance Corporation P8 billion, the National Livelihood Support Fund P3 billion, DBP P1 billion and the DSWD’s SEA-K P800 million. For partnering with us to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit, thank you, Go Negosyo and Joey Concepcion.
Upland development benefits farmers through agro-forestry initiatives. Rubber is especially strong in Zamboanga Sibugay and North Cotabato. Victoria Mindoro, 56 years old, used to earn P5,000 a month as farmer and factory worker. Now she owns 10 hectares in the Goodyear Agrarian Reform Community in Kabasalan, Zamboanga Sibugay, she earns P10,000 a week. With one hectare, Pedro and Concordia Faviolas of Makilala, North Cotabato, they sent their six children to college, bought two more hectares, and earn P15,000 a month. Congratulations!
Jatropha estates are starting in 900 hectares in and around Tamlang Valley in Negros Oriental; 200 in CamSur; 300 in GenSan, 500 in Fort Magsaysay near the Cordero Dam and 700 in Samar, among others.
In our 2006 SONA, our food baskets were identified as North Luzon and Mindanao.
The sad irony of Mindanao as food basket is that it has some of the highest hunger in our nation. It has large fields of high productivity, yet also six of our ten poorest provinces.
The prime reason is the endless Mindanao conflict. A comprehensive peace has eluded us for half a century. But last night, differences on the tough issue of ancestral domain were resolved. Yes, there are political dynamics among the people of Mindanao. Let us sort them out with the utmost sobriety, patience and restraint. I ask Congress to act on the legislative and political reforms that will lead to a just and lasting peace during our term of office.
The demands of decency and compassion urge dialogue. Better talk than fight, if nothing of sovereign value is anyway lost. Dialogue has achieved more than confrontation in many parts of the world. This was the message of the recent World Conference in Madrid organized by the King of Saudi Arabia, and the universal message of the Pope in Sydney.
Pope Benedict’s encyclical Deus Caritas Est reminds us: “There will always be situations of material need where help in the form of concrete love for neighbour is indispensable.”
Pinagsasama-sama natin ang mga programa ng DSWD, DOH, GSIS, SSS at iba pang lumalaban sa kahirapan sa isang National Social Welfare Program para proteksyonan ang pinaka-mahihirap mula sa pandaigdigang krisis, and to help those whose earnings are limited by illness, disability, loss of job, age and so on—through livelihood projects, microfinance, skills and technology transfer, emergency and temporary employment, pension funds, food aid and cash subsidies, child nutrition and adult health care, medical missions, salary loans, insurance, housing programs, educational and other savings schemes, and now cheaper medicine—Thanks to Congress.
The World Bank says that in Brazil, the income of the poorest 10% has grown 9% per year versus the 3% for the higher income levels due in large part to their family stipend program linking welfare checks to school attendance. We have introduced a similar program, Pantawid Pamilya.
Employers have funded the two increases in SSS benefits since 2005. Thank you, employers for paying the premiums.
GSIS pensions have been indexed to inflation and have increased every year since 2001. Its salary loan availments have increased from two months equivalent to 10 months, the highest of any system public or private—while repayments have been stretched out.
Pag-Ibig housing loans increased from P3.82 billion in 2001 to P22.6 billion in 2007. This year it experienced an 84% increase in the first four months alone. Super heating na. Dapat dagdagan ng GSIS at buksan muli ng SSS ang pautang sa pabahay. I ask Congress to pass a bill allowing SSS to do housing loans beyond the present 10% limitation.
Bago ako naging Pangulo, isa’t kalahating milyong maralita lamang ang may health insurance. Noong 2001, sabi natin, dadagdagan pa ng kalahating milyon. Sa taong iyon, mahigit isang milyon ang nabigyan natin. Ngayon, 65 milyong Pilipino na ang may health insurance, mahigit doble ng 2000, kasama ang labinlimang milyong maralita. Philhealth has paid P100 billion for hospitalization. The indigent beneficiaries largely come from West and Central Visayas, Central Luzon, and Ilocos. Patuloy nating palalawakin itong napaka-importanted programa, lalo na sa Tawi-Tawi, Zambo Norte, Maguindanao, Apayao, Dinagat, Lanao Sur, Northern Samar, Masbate, Abra and Misamis Occidental. Lalo na sa kanilang mga magsasaka at mangingisda.
In these provinces and in Agusan Sur, Kalinga, Surigao Sur and calamity-stricken areas, we will launch a massive school feeding program at P10 per child every school day.
Bukod sa libreng edukasyon sa elementarya at high school, nadoble ang pondo para sa mga college scholarships, while private high school scholarship funds from the government have quadrupled.
I have started reforming and clustering the programs of the DepEd, CHED and TESDA.
As with fiscal and food challenges, the global energy crunch demands better and more focused resource mobilization, conservation and management.
Government agencies are reducing their energy and fuel bills by 10%, emulating Texas Instruments and Philippine Stock Exchange who did it last year. Congratulations, Justice Vitug and Francis Lim.
To reduce power system losses, we count on government regulators and also on EPIRA amendments.
We are successful in increasing energy self-sufficiency—56%, the highest in our history. We promote natural gas and biofuel; geothermal fields, among the world’s largest; windmills like those in Ilocos and Batanes; and the solar cells lighting many communities in Mindanao. The new Galoc oil field can produce 17,000-22,000 barrels per day, 1/12 of our crude consumption.
The Renewable Energy Bill has passed the House. Thank you, Congressmen.
Our costly commodity imports like oil and rice should be offset by hard commodities exports like primary products, and soft ones like tourism and cyberservices, at which only India beats us.
Our P 350 million training partnership with the private sector should qualify 60,000 for call centers, medical transcription, animation and software development, which have a projected demand of one million workers generating $13 billion by 2010.
International finance agrees with our progress. Credit rating agencies have kept their positive or stable outlook on the country. Our world competitiveness ranking rose five notches. Congratulations to us.
We are sticking to, and widening, the fiscal reforms that have earned us their respect.
To our investors, thank you for your valuable role in our development. I invite you to invest not only in factories and services, but in profitable infrastructure, following the formula for the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway.
I ask business and civil society to continue to work for a socially equitable, economically viable balance of interests. Mining companies should ensure that host communities benefit substantively from their investments, and with no environmental damage from operations.
Our administration enacted the Solid Waste Management Act, Wildlife Act, Protection of Plant Varieties, Clean Water Act, Biofuels Act and various laws declaring protected areas.
For reforestation, for next year we have budgeted P2 billion. Not only do forests enhance the beauty of the land, they mitigate climate change, a key factor in increasing the frequency and intensity of typhoons and costing the country 0.5% of the GDP.
We have set up over 100 marine and fish sanctuaries since 2001. In the whaleshark sanctuary of Donsol, Sorsogon, Alan Amanse, 40-year-old college undergraduate and father of two, was earning P100 a day from fishing and driving a tricycle. Now as whaleshark-watching officer, he is earns P1,000 a day, ten times his former income.
For clean water, so important to health, there is P500 million this year and P1.5 billion for next year.
From just one sanitary landfill in 2001, we now have 21, with another 18 in the works.
We launched the Zero Basura Olympics to clear our communities of trash. Rather than more money, all that is needed is for each citizen to keep home and workplace clean, and for garbage officials to stop squabbling.
Our investments also include essential ways to strengthen our institutions of governance in order to fight the decades-old scourge of corruption. I will continue to fight this battle every single day. While others are happy with headlines through accusation without evidence and privilege speeches without accountability, we have allocated more than P3 billion – the largest anti-graft fund in our history – for real evidence gathering and vigorous prosecution.
From its dismal past record, the Ombudsman’s conviction rate has increased 500%. Lifestyle checks, never seriously implemented before our time, have led to the dismissal and/or criminal prosecution of dozens of corrupt officials.
I recently met with the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a US agency that provides grants to countries based on governance. They have commended our gains, contributed P1 billion to our fight against graft, and declared us eligible for more grants. Thank you!
Last September, we created the Procurement Transparency Group in the DBM and linked it with business, academe, and the Church, to deter or catch anomalies in government contracts.
On my instruction, the BIR and Customs established similar government-civil society tie-ups for information gathering and tax evasion and smuggling monitoring.
More advanced corruption practices require a commensurate advances in legislative responses. Colleagues in Congress, we need a more stringent Anti-Graft Act. Sa pagmahal ng bilihin, hirap na ang mamimili – tapos, dadayain pa. Dapat itong mahinto. Hinihiling ko sa Kongreso na magpasa ng Consumer Bill of Rights laban sa price gouging, false advertising at iba pang gawain kontra sa mamimili.
I call on all our government workers at the national and local levels to be more responsive and accountable to the people. Panahon ito ng pagsubok. Kung saan kayang tumulong at dapat tumulong ang pamahalaan, we must be there with a helping hand. Where government can contribute nothing useful, stay away. Let’s be more helpful, more courteous, more quick.
Kaakibat ng ating mga adhikain ang tuloy na pagkalinga sa kapakanan ng bawat Pilipino. Iisa ang ating pangarap – maunlad at mapayapang lipunan, kung saan ang magandang kinabukasan ay hindi pangarap lamang, bagkus natutupad.
Sama-sama tayo sa tungkuling ito. May papel na gagampanan ang bawat mamamayan, negosyante, pinunong bayan at simbahan, sampu ng mga nasa lalawigan.
We are three branches but one government. We have our disagreements; we each have hopes, and ambitions that drive and divide us, be they personal, ethnic, religious and cultural. But we are one nation with one fate.
As your President, I care too much about this nation to let anyone stand in the way of our people’s wellbeing. Hindi ko papayagang humadlang ang sinuman sa pag-unlad at pagsagana ng taong bayan. I will let no one – and no one’s political plans – threaten our nation’s survival.
Our country and our people have never failed to be there for us. We must be there for them now.
I think this is an important conceptual question for many Americans because I believe that most of them, myself included, do not want to leave in defeat, as it would not only be dishonorable, but dangerous to ourselves, our country and the world, in the long run.
Indeed, a major bone of contention in the 2008 US Presidential election is what to do about Iraq. Should we go or should we stay? Surely, the answer to that question would not be a matter of controversy at all if America believed that it has already won, that it has already achieved "victory" in Iraq. Which leads back to the first question: what constitutes victory in Iraq?
While the original goal of overthrowing the brutal dictatorship of Saddam Hussein was achieved long ago, and Iraq is no longer a threat to its neighbors, several violent insurgencies against the Iraqi government are ongoing and most certainly pose a threat both to Iraq itself and the coalition forces still present there. It would seem therefore that merely overthrowing Saddam Hussein and neutralizing any malevolent intentions he had against other countries, including America, would be an insufficient quantum of victory, if upon our exit, there were not a viable, independent democratic state to replace the Baathist fascist dictatorship we overthrew with so much American blood and treasure.
And so, what constitutes victory in Iraq at this stage becomes crucial to any decision involving troop withdrawals and disengagement.
The US Army Counterinsurgency Manual [via the Federation of American Scientists], one of whose two principal authors is General David H. Petraeus, presently the commander of US forces on the ground in Iraq, contains a rather sensible definition of the long-term goal of a counterinsurgency operation which is what US and UK presence in that country presently represents.
"The long-term goal is to leave a government able to stand by itself. In the end, the host nation has to win on its own. ... Eventually all foreign armies are seen as interlopers or occupiers; the sooner the main effort can transition to Host Nation institutions, without unacceptable degradation, the better."
Both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates have had a lot to say about Iraq lately, but I must say, Democrat Barack Obama scored a lot of points in this regard in a major foreign policy address just before going on his recently concluded visits to Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Germany, France and the United Kingdom when he said:
"...true success in Iraq - victory in Iraq - will not take place in a surrender ceremony where an enemy lays down their arms. True success will take place when we leave Iraq to a government that is taking responsibility for its future - a government that prevents sectarian conflict, and ensures that the al Qaeda threat which has been beaten back by our troops does not reemerge. That is an achievable goal if we pursue a comprehensive plan to press the Iraqis stand up."
Now, I still agree with John McCain that we ought to stay in Iraq for a hundred years if that is what it takes to achieve what General Petraeus and Barack Obama call a government that can stand by itself and win on its own against threats to its own democratic constitution and future. (After all, it took them almost a half a century in the Philippines, the First Iraq!). But I hope John McCain soon gets over the notion that Iraq is "the central front in the War on Terror," because it just ain't true and even George W. Bush and US Military seem to know it!
In that struggle, victory is still a long way off, and the enemy won't be decisively defeated in the suqs and slums of Baghdad.
Here is a fact little-understood or appreciated by even devout Catholics: not everything the Catholic Church teaches is considered by it to be infallibly true. From the Code of Canon Law one may deduce the following table which shows that "non-infallible" teachings do not require the full assent of the faithful, but only "religious submission" or "obsequiium religiosum".
TEACHER
LEVEL
DEGREE OF CERTITUDE
ASSENT REQUIRED
Bishops
Ordinary
NON-INFALLIBLE
Religious Submission
Pope
Ordinary
NON-INFALLIBLE
Religious Submission
Bishops dispersed, in union with Pope
Ordinary and universal
INFALLIBLE
Full assent of faith
Bishops and Pope in General Council
Extraordinary and universal
INFALLIBLE
Full Assent of Faith
Pope ex cathedra
Extraordinary and universal
INFALLIBLE
Full Assent of the Faith
A good recent example of a fallible teaching that has in fact fallen lower and "need no longer be believed in" is the old doctrine of limbo which used to be part of Hell but is no more. There were actually two types of limbo, one for the Patriarchs of the Old Testament--folks who were never baptized but were allegedly rescued from there when Jesus "descended to the dead", and the one for infants who died before baptism but before they could be guilty of personal sin. What once was piously described by priests and nuns to terrified young charges in convent schools as limbo, can now be chucked out as fairy tales and ghost stories, though limbo was once the stuff of learned disquisitions and theological debates.
I hope that the same fate will befall the disastrous, wrong-headed and cruel teaching of the Philippine Catholic Church on modern contraception and birth control, which their surrogates and spokesmen have been dishonestly portraying as abortion, or even, as in the case of the lying fruitcake, Linda Valenzona, with straight-faced ridiculousness as "genocide"!
PAPAL INFALLIBILITY was first defined dogmatically by the First Vatican Council on July 18, 1870, under Pope Pius IX (Pio Nono) in Pastor Aeternus (the Dogmatic Constitution of the Roman Catholic Church):
We teach and define that it is a dogma Divinely revealed that the Roman pontiff when he speaks ex cathedra, that is when in discharge of the office of pastor and doctor of all Christians, by virtue of his supreme Apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals to be held by the universal Church, by the Divine assistance promised to him in Blessed Peter, is possessed of that infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer willed that his Church should be endowed in defining doctrine regarding faith or morals, and that therefore such definitions of the Roman pontiff are of themselves and not from the consent of the Church irreformable. So then, should anyone, which God forbid, have the temerity to reject this definition of ours: let him be anathema. (see Denziger §1839).
However, the incantation formula prescribed for proclaiming an infallible teachings has not been applied to birth control and contraception, certainly not in Humanae Vitae, which does not contain the witch-doctor's curse in the last line above.
The doctrine of infallibility makes the quite amazing claim that the Roman Church is not only protected by God from any actual error, but even the possibility of error, whenever it practices its "teaching magisterium". But the Catholic doctrine of infallibility is in fact a dangerous two edged sword. While it may serve to silence opposition to its dogmatic pronouncements on the part of nominally faithful and devout Catholics, it also binds the Church forever to uphold and defend its infallible pronouncements. It sets up a potentially embarrassing vulnerablity in an epoch when scientific culture that has swept human civilization teaches human beings what would seem to be a superior virtue and mental habit--to seek after the truth based on facts, evidence and reason. This poses a constant threat to any allegedly infallible teaching. Inherent to the scientific attitude and the scientific method is the notion that most truly worthwhile ideas about nature -- including human nature -- are ideas that can be tested against the facts and are therefore at least falsifiable if not in fact verifiable.
A claim to infallibility is not only a radically unscientific attitude. It is a rhetorically weak and vulnerable position to take. I think it is a special kind of mental weakness, a sign of institutional intellectual impairment, decrepitude, the sign of a deepening lack of vitality and vigor at the very roots of the Roman Catholic Church, a signal that a kind of ideological sepsis has set in.
When Pope Benedict warned the youth of the world in Australia last week against entering into a spiritual desert, he may inadvertently have put his finger on his Church's own problematic malaise, which the doctrine of papal infallibility makes so palpable. What they cannot teach by reason and clarity of logic, they would force into the hearts and minds of the sheep.
The Philippine Catholic Bishops even sponsored a "mass protest action" yesterday against Reproductive Health bills being considered in Congress on the anniversary of the promulgation in 1968 of HUMANAE VITAE POPE PAUL VI, an outline of which follows for the convenience of my readers...
I. PROBLEM AND COMPETENCY OF THE MAGISTERIUM New State of Things New Questions Interpreting the Moral Law Special Studies The Magisterium's Reply
II. DOCTRINAL PRINCIPLES God's Loving Design Married Love Responsible Parenthood Observing the Natural Law Union and Procreation Faithfulness to God's Design Unlawful Birth Control Methods Lawful Therapeutic Means Recourse to Infertile Periods Consequences of Artificial Methods Limits to Man's Power Concern of the Church
Nota bene: I have already discussed the fallacy of false distinction between "natural" and "artificial" contraception in a previous post.
III. PASTORAL DIRECTIVES Value of Self-Discipline Promotion of Chastity Appeal to Public Authorities Seeking True Solutions To Scientists To Christian Couples Recourse to God Family Apostolate To Doctors and Nurses To Priests Christian Compassion To Bishops A Great Work
Given at St. Peter's, Rome, on the 25th day of July, the feast of St. James the Apostle, in the year 1968, the sixth of Our pontificate. PAUL VI. Nota bene: After Pope John XXIII died, his successor, Pope Paul VI "confirmed and expanded" the Papal Commission on Population and Birth Control. Composed of 15 cardinals and bishops and 64 lay experts, the Commission's work is addressed by Paul VI in "Special Studies" above. But the cardinals and bishops voted 9-6, and the lay experts, 60-4, for the Catholic Church to change its position on contraception and birth control.
In the Magisterium's Reply, Paul VI ignored the Commission's recommendations, noting only that it was "divided" over the moral principles involved, and reaffirmed the Church's steadfast opposition to contraception and abortion. It is ironic of course that in countries like the Philippines, the lack of access to simple contraceptive materials such as pills, IUDs and condoms have led to an estimated 400,000 to 800,000 induced abortions annually, according to the World Health Organization and numerous independent studies.
There is a heartlessness about the Catholic Bishops that belies any of their claims to leadership, piety or even fealty to the Gospel message of love and good will.
Pope Paul VI, speaking always in the royal "WE", rejected the Papal Commission's findings on the basis of a "Minority Report" (authored by the future Pope John Paul II) which reveals the true reason for the Catholic Church's intransigent position:
Minority Report of the Papal Commission: “If it should be declared that contraception is not evil in itself, then we should have to concede frankly that the Holy Spirit had been on the side of the Protestant churches in 1930 (when the encyclical Casti Connubi was promulgated). and in 1951 (Pius XII’s address delivered before the Society of Hematologists in the year the pope died).
“It should likewise have to be admitted that for a hall a century the Spirit failed to protect Pius XI, Pius XII, and a large part of the Catholic hierarchy from a very serious error. This would mean that the leaders of the Church, acting with extreme imprudence, had condemned thousands of innocent human acts, forbidding, under pain of eternal damnation, a practice which would now be sanctioned. The fact can neither be denied nor ignored that these same acts would now he declared licit on the grounds of principles cited by the Protestants, which popes and bishops have either condemned or at least not approved” (page 170).
Catholic theologian and historian August Bernard Hasler remarked that, “Thus it became only too clear that the core of the problem was not the pill, but the authority. continuity, and infallibility of the Church’s magisterium.”
It is quite evident from the fact that a majority of the cardinals and bishops on the population commission wanted to allow non-abortion type contraception, that the Pope and the episcopacy are NOT united, universally or ordinarily in their opinions on the issue. This disagreement is also to be seen in the fact that European and South American bishops have adopted a more liberal attitude towards birth control
Only the Philippine Bishops are militantly in support of the old doctrine. It's heartless, cruel and not at all in the best interests of the Filipinos, Catholic or not. The Philippine Church must change, or it will surely perish.
I keep up with the latest in science and technology news primarily through podcasts. Here is one I really want to share with my readers...
OCEANOGRAPHER ROBERT BALLARD delivers an eye-opening presentation on the most ignored frontier in the world--the oceans--at the TED Talks Conference.
For low bandwidth readers, you may wish to listen to MP3 audio version of the above:
Some of the most juicy bits:
(1) NASA's annual budget is 1600 times larger than that of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). (2) Only about a tenth of a percent of the oceans has been explored. (3) Fifty percent of the United States is under the ocean, and we have better maps of Mars than that unexplored territory. (4) The greatest mountain range on earth is under the ocean, running around the planet like the seam of a baseball. It covers 23% of the earth's surface, but men did not actually visit the Mid-Ocean Mountain Range's rift valley until after the first man on the moon! (5) This largest planetary feature is unlike any other mountain range we know about, for it is a mountain "under tension" unlike all of the ones on dry land. In fact, oceanographers call it the "boundary of creation" since it drives the process of plate tectonics which creates those mountains that we do see on land! But the mid-ocean ridge is apparently also a source for potentially unlimited geothermal energy as well as vast stores of commercial grade ores of chromium, zinc, gold and other valuable materials. (6) Most of the ocean is in total darkness but there are tens of thousands of active volcanoes along the 42,000 mile length of the Mid-ocean ridge. There are millions of submarine hot springs full of life forms based on bacterial chemosynthesis, which mimic photosynthesis but without light!
Lots, lots more in Dr. Ballard's talk. Watch or listen to it all!
What I take away from this talk is the awareness that vast stores of energy and material resources appear to be waiting for humanity in the ocean. At the end of the Age of Oil may be dawning the Age of Water. There is even the suggestion that humanity ought to move into the oceans.
A related site to bookmark is the Inner Space Center at the University of Rhode Island where Dr. Ballard is based.
UPDATE:Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral told radio station DZMM this morning that she was supporting the reproductive health bills being opposed by Catholic Bishops. Although the proposed laws would merely provide education to citizens and make pills and condoms available to the public, bishops and priests have been dishonestly disseminating disinformation saying they legalize abortion when they clearly do NOT. Secretary Cabral could lose her job like the SSS administrator. CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS writes in the superb book, God Is Not Great (How Religion Poisons Everything)--
"There still remain four irreducible objections to religious faith: [1] that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, [2] that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum of servility with the maximum of solipsism, [3] that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and [4] that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking.
I do not think it is arrogant of me to claim that I had already discovered these four objections (as well as noticed [5] the more vulgar and obvious fact that religion is used by those in temporal charge to invest themselves with authority) before my boyish voice had broken. I am morally certain that millions of other people came to very similar conclusions in very much the same way."
I think it important to bear in mind this essential relationship between political, temporal power, and the ability of the Catholic Church to fool most of the people most of the time with its religious doctrines and allegedly infallible dogmas in the current controversy over "reproductive health" bills and the militant intransigence of the Catholic hierarchy to them.
For it is the only way to actually understand why bishops and priests can LIE with straight faces about the true content of the proposed legislation, why they can proclaim that preventing conception with sex education, pills, condoms and IUDS is equivalent to aborting babies, even as their holy noses seem visibly to lengthen. What they are protecting is NOT the "life of the unborn" or the "sanctity of marriage" -- but their own sanctimonious position of authority and the temporal power to access the vaults of the Philippine Gaming Authority (Pagcor) with conscienceless impunity and the help of a "devout" Catholic president.
They don't care anything about the greater evil of poverty and despair to which they've condemned their flock, at least the poor, ignorant majority, so long as the rich, educated minority (who certainly do secretly use artificial means of birth control contrary to and in direct violation of their own teachings) continues to support their schools, churches and archbishops' palaces and invite them to opulent parties and grant them their share of government power and authority.
They care nothing about the fact that desperate young mothers are throwing babies out of high rises and taxicabs, or that foetuses fathered by parish priests are showing up in Chiz Whiz bottles, or that, as the World Health Organization estimates, between 500,000 and 800,000 illegal abortions occur in the Philippines anyway as a result of their irrational obfuscations and rationalizations.
If, as I believe, the epidemic of abortions now occuring is the moral disease that needs a pound of curing, how in heaven's name can the Catholic Bishops oppose the ounce of prevention that non-abortive birth control methods represent?
In tens of thousands of Catholic churches throughout the land last Sunday, stentorian homilies that Padre Damaso would've been proud of, blared out the brazen lie that these proposed laws encourage or legalize abortions, when a plain reading of them clearly show that they do not, and in fact that they uphold the illegality of aborting viable pregnancies (as I do.)
How then can men of God live with themselves for spreading such lies as will indeed be loudly proclaimed in the upcoming July 25 celebration of the anniversary of Paul VI's Papal Bull, Humanae Vitae?
I believe they can do it because of a well-honed ability and predilection for self-delusion, whose roots lie in subtle but well-exposed FALSE DISTINCTION that is at the heart of the encyclical itself, between what is "artificial" and what is "natural."
John Nery, a senior editor at the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and a self-proclaimed devout Catholic trained by the Jesuits, makes a valiant attempt to expose this false distinction in his column today entitled Worrying Humanae Vitae. John detects a "mistake in its reasoning" after being prompted by the "virtual fatwa" of Archbishop Jesus Dosado last week, enjoining his priests to deny the giving of divine crackers to "anti-life politicians" who support "artificial means of birth control" or even "sex education."
Nery: "If, to quote the encyclical’s first sentence, “God has entrusted spouses with the extremely important mission [‘munus’] of transmitting human life,” and if both the unitive and procreative dimensions inhere in the conjugal act, why should spouses perform the act during infertile periods?
The absolute nature of this mission requires an absolute rule. Thus, “each and every marriage act must remain open to the transmission of life.” Why, then, engage in the act at those times when there is no possibility of transmission? Shouldn’t the Church call for abstention from sex during infertile periods?"
John is here referring to the fact that the Church does allow a thing called "natural family planning" (aka Vatican Roulette) and wonders how this is any different in its intention to prevent conception ("the transmission of life") from pills, condoms and IUDs (distinct from abortion after conception.)
All these "natural family planning methods" involve highly scientific and technical activities that might otherwise be characterized as "artificial" as they employ temperature measurements of a woman's sexual apparatus, the measurement of the viscosity and consistency of her vaginal mucus, the careful graphing and calendaring of her menstrual periods, not to mention the various mechanical refinements of the fine art of coitus interruptus, supplemented perhaps with Kama Sutric variations and permutations of oral sexuality with which many priests and bishops are anecdotally well familiarized!
But the false distinction that is involved here, "the mistake in its reasoning" as John Nery puts it after re-reading Humanae Vitae, is not sufficient to explain the Catholic Church's irrational and basically immoral stance, which has led to untold miseries for hundreds of of millions of Catholics.
A Roman Catholic historian and theologian, August Bernhard Hasler, tells the story in his 1979 book, How the Pope Became Infallible. He provided the following quotation from that minority report, which actually was the one accepted. It clearly sets forth the basis or reason for the current Catholic crusade against birth control and family planning:
“If it should be declared that contraception is not evil in itself, then we should have to concede frankly that the Holy Spirit had been on the side of the Protestant churches in 1930 (when the encyclical Casti Connubi was promulgated). and in 1951 (Pius XII’s address delivered before the Society of Hematologists in the year the pope died).
“It should likewise have to be admitted that for a hall a century the Spirit failed to protect Pius XI, Pius XII, and a large part of the Catholic hierarchy from a very serious error. This would mean that the leaders of the Church, acting with extreme imprudence, had condemned thousands of innocent human acts, forbidding, under pain of eternal damnation, a practice which would now be sanctioned. The fact can neither be denied nor ignored that these same acts would now he declared licit on the grounds of principles cited by the Protestants, which popes and bishops have either condemned or at least not approved” (page 170).
Dr. Hasler concluded: “Thus it became only too clear that the core of the problem was not the pill, but the authority. continuity, and infallibility of the Church’s magisterium.”
In conformity with this minority report, Pope Paul VI issued his 1968 encyclical, Humnae Vitae, in which he condemned every form of contraceptive birth control. Hasler wrote: “After the promulgation of the encyclical. . . the Church conducted a massive purge of its key personnel wherever it could” (page 283).
In other words, the problems associated with countries that are overpopulated and the political campaign in the United States to deny reproductive freedom to women are all due to the papal decision to protect the authority and "infallibility" of the papacy.
The Catholic Church has painted itself into a corner of Hubris and Pride. As a result there is this condemnation from the Catholic theologian, Hans Kung:
Hans Kung, arguably the world’s leading Catholic theologian, wrote: “This teaching [against contraceptive birth control] has laid a heavy burden on the conscience of innumerable people, even in industrially developed countries with declining birth rates. But for the people in many under-developed countries, especially in Latin America, it constitutes a source of incalculable harm, a crime in which the Church has implicated itself” (cited in Stephen Mumford, The Life and Death of NSSM 200, page 203).
Indeed, a lying Church is a dying church, a fact I sincerely mourn, because infallibility literally means incorrigibility--the surest mark of a Beast destined for extinction.
ANGELO REYES is a really terrible liar, though that's nothing compared to his sheer incompetence made even worse by a terminal case of arrogant conceit based entirely on the fact that it was his mutinous coup d'etat that put the most unpopular President in power in 2001 at Edsa Dos. Five cabinet positions later, we are saddled with his risibly ineffectual handling of of the now all important Energy Department. Someday, he must be brought to Justice (preferrably of the poetic kind) along with Hilario Davide, Mike Arroyo and the overstaying Moral Dwarf in Malacanang Palace.
Tonight he was really pulling the leg of Tina Monson Palma with the claim that it was his patroness' powers of moral suasion that got Petron, over which the government happens to have far more than moral control, and one of the Big Three in the country to roll back its diesel pump prices by P1.50. This after it had just raised the price by P3 last week.
SONA MORO-MORO With the Petite One's State of the Nation Address scheduled for next week, it's more likely a case of immoral coercion, or should I say, a moro-moro deception which no one is buying because word is already out that the buck and half given away will be taken back this coming weekend. Like all that talk of a no-ransom policy for kidnappers which has been exposed as a brazen lie by three successive kidnappings in as many weeks since the Abu Sayyaf terrorists got 20 million for Ces Drilon and her two cameramen and that mysterious peace advocate Prof. Dinampo, even that business of a Moro homeland and "peace talks" with the MILF, is tainted with a suspicious dhimmitude that is all about setting the stage for the President's big speech next week.
It certainly does little for the credibility of the oil company's pricing behavior for the public to wonder whether the original P3 increase last week was justified at all given that oil prices on the global market have dropped almost 15 dollars per barrel in the last two weeks. How stupid or obsequious can they afford to be? By acceding to the President's "moral suasion" the oil companies have made their price increases look capricious and arbitrary and not based on global market conditions as they have claimed. More likely, they are factoring in the recent drop in global oil prices anyway, and have probably gotten a promise of no more "moral suasion" sessions with the president in the upcoming price increases. If they aren't careful this could persuade many sectors and lawmakers to re-establish oil price regulation!
BEWARE OF MERCURY IN CFLS Talkback with Tina Palma also tackled the energy department's "Switch" program which aims to get so-called lifeline electricty users (those who use 100 kilowatt hours or less per month) to switch from standard incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescent lamps.
It's really too bad that Tina Palma didn't make the ADB representative that Angie Reyes brought along to explain the full implications of the little-discussed but significant drawback involved with CFL lighting: the presence of enough neuro-toxic mercury in even a single compact fluorescent light bulb to exceed the US Environmental Protection Agency's limit for exposure to mercury! I'm all for making this switch, but people should have been made aware by Sec. Reyes of the care that must be taken should a CFL be damaged in a residential environment and expose human beings to the mercury in it. Indeed, unless there are effective waste and disposal handling measures adopted and enforced nationwide for CFL's we could be facing major mercury pollution problem in a few years as millions of CFLs reach the end of their lifetimes, or are accidently damaged in use. By the way, the Wikipedia article linked to above suggests that new technology being developed by General Electric could soon produce incandescents that are at least as energy efficient as CFLs. In his desire to make himself and PGMA look good, Angie Reyes is being disingenuous about lots and lots of things.
DIM BULBS President Arroyo and her administration are now dealing from the bottom of the deck and running the country by deception and dissimulation because they are out of political capital with the people and are hanging onto to power by the skin of their teeth. They are lucky to have survived this long, thanks of course to a pusillanimous and equally unprincipled Opposition with even less moral leadership than them.
The country is being led into a valley of darkness by dim bulbs like Angie Reyes who should have been retired from government service years ago for being the incompetent bootlicker that he truly is.
Today's post begins with one I wrote just three weeks ago (Lincoln's Message Also Applies to Mindanao) and before the recent announcement of a so-called breakthrough in peace negotiations between the government and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front. After this introduction, I shall take up the issue of a partial plebiscite which is the addle-pated center-piece of the selling job Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will do in the forthcoming State of the Nation Address (SONA) for her desperate claim to be leaving a "peace legacy" for Mindanao. But first Abe Lincoln at the start of the American Civil War:
ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, 1861, Abraham Lincoln addressed a Special Session of the American Congress. I think his words are as fresh and insightful today in respect of our own problems in Mindanao. His demand that secession is conscionable only "for a just cause" is equally applicable to the warlords, terrorists, and politicians of our own South, who would re-enslave the Bangsamoro People to the "sanctified inequality" of theocratic Islamic sultanates that they have nonetheless successfully disguised as a glorious past and harnessed for restoration through a movement of "national liberation":
It might seem at first thought to be of little difference whether the present movement at the South be called "secession" or "rebellion." The movers, however, well understand the difference. At the beginning they knew they could never raise their treason to any respectable magnitude by any name which implies violation of law. They knew their people possessed as much of moral sense, as much of devotion to law and order, and as much pride in and reverence for the history and Government of their common country as any other civilized and patriotic people. They knew they could make no advancement directly in the teeth of these strong and noble sentiments. Accordingly, they commenced by an insidious debauching of the public mind. They invented an ingenious sophism, which, if conceded, was followed by perfectly logical steps through all the incidents to the complete destruction of the Union. The sophism itself is that any State of the Union may consistently with the National Constitution, and therefore lawfully and peacefully , withdraw from the Union without the consent of the Union or of any other State. The little disguise that the supposed right is to be exercised only for just cause, themselves to be the sole judge of its justice, is too thin to merit any notice.
Perhaps the only difference is that their disguise is not so thin and is abetted by so-called peace advocates in our own polity, and by historians who ignore and paper over the brutality and cruelty of those ancien regimes now glorified and glamorized by pundits. So before any grand ransom for a whole nation hostaged to a false history is once more paid by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, such as a homeland for the MILF/MNLF/ASG warlords and politicians, we must insist on a free, fair and internationally supervised referendum. The Constitution may not simply be cast aside so she can have her "peace legacy" in exchange for the electoral "favors" she got in Lanao (2004) and Maguindanao (2006). The utter disaster and failure of the ARMM since 1996 only proves that those with whom the government is negotiating today also do not have the full support of the people of Mindanao and are only the latest in a series of extortionists and pretenders, acceding to whom would not lead to peace but further instability and war, mostly among themselves.
These two audio recordings are my readings from Thomas McKenna, Muslim Rulers and Rebels (Everyday Politics and Armed Separatism in Southern Philippines, Chapter 3), Anvil Publishing House, Copyright 1998, Regents of the University of California.
Islamic Rule in Cotabato (read by Dean Jorge Bocobo)
European Impositions and the Myth of Morohood (read by Dean Jorge Bocobo)
Although the establishment of a so-called Bangsamoro Juridicial Entity (BJE) is not technically a secession, the effect would be the same and I vehemently oppose it for the exact same reason that the United States Civil War was fought to preserve the Union: it would be historically unjust not only to the entire Filipino people but most especially to the Bangsamoro People themselves, who would be thrown to the wolves of political Islam, a theocracy in the southern Philippines that was even more brutal and unenlightened than the rule of the Spanish Taliban.
I argue by analogy that such an establishment of Bangsamorostan, ruled by the leaders of such groups as the MNLF, MILF and the Abu Sayyaf Group, would be the moral equivalent of secession by the Southern Confederacy in the 1860s and the continuation of the institution of slavery in the antebellum South. For it can hardly escape the notice of reasonable citizens that the political system sought by the Moro insurgent separatists is not a peaceful and prosperous democratic state within a wider Republic, but the restoration of an ancien regime based upon slavery, human trafficking, piracy and the "sacred inequality" of brutal, autocratic sultanates which historically oppressed both Muslims and lumads in Mindanao and Sulu, as well as terrorized the Visayas and Luzon for centuries. In those days, political and economic power was not based on geographic domination or even land, which was plentiful and bountiful, but on the ownership and vassalage of the human beings needed to create the surpluses of food, forest products and servitude that were the foundation of twin Sultanates along the Pulangi River as well as a succession of potentates in Sulu.
The "glorious past" of the Bangsamoro people, which is adulated and glamorized by "peace advocates" and "culturally sensitive" pundits, is in truth a brutal and unjust reality that we could not in good conscience today allow to be restored because it would threaten not only peace and security within the country and in the Southeast Asian region, but would condemn the Bangsamoro people to once more suffer under the heel of modern-day datus and sultans, imams and warlords all claiming direct descent from the Prophet Muhammad via the legendary founder of Islam in the Philippines, Sharif Kabunsuan, a fugitive of the old Moluccan sultanates overthrown by the Dutch in the 15th century.
Indeed, a foretaste of such a throwback to the inglorious past of "sacred inequality" which enslaved the vast majority of Muslims to the Sultanates of Maguindanao, Buwayan and Sulu, can already be seen in the utter failure of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to lift up the Moro people. Instead, because the peace treaty signed with the Moro National Liberation Front in 1996 did not insist upon DISARMAMENT of its standing armies and full integration into the Philippine Military, the MNLF is still involved in belligerent, even terroristic activities against the citizens of the Republic, both Muslim and non-Muslim.
Now a much larger territory is about to ceded to the likes of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which had broken away from the MNLF because of disagreements with Nur Misuari by its own "leaders" like Hashim Salamat and the various "lost commands" of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group. But since neither MNLF nor the MILF actually control the situation on the ground, nor to do they command, I suspect, the loyalties and allegiance of any significant fraction of the Moro people themselves, it would not be surprising to find the MNLF, or various parties to be left out of the big new deal, to renew hostilities as soon as a "final peace treaty" with the MILF is signed! Perhaps we shall yet see the formation of the NMLF, or the "Next Moro Liberation Front" to take up the same tactic of raising an insurgent army (both uniformed and in weapons-raising formation for the Mass Media's videographers and photographers, as well as flitting in and out of Abu Sayyaf kidnap for ransom gangs) and holding the entire country hostage yet again to get their own version of a "Moro homeland."
The Imbecility of a Partial Plebiscite. I do not believe that most Filipinos consider it to be a just or equitable thing for the government to give in to the demands of the MNLF/MILF/ASG for a separate Bangsamoro homeland, which is often justified by pundits and anti-colonial ideologues as a way of redressing certain alleged historical injustices. After all, it is an accepted fact that all inhabitants came under heal of the old colonial powers, Spain and America, for over four hundred years, so why should the Moros be treated any differently under the present independent Republic and its democratic Constitution? Why should there not be a separate homelands for example for the Ilocanos, the Tagalogs, the Pampangos, the Cebuanos, the Samarnons, etc? All these northern and central Philippine ethnic groups and many, many others ("lumads") in Mindanao suffered from "glorious rule" of the slave-raiding Moro Sultanates for centuries, so why now should the alleged direct descendants of Mohammed and Sharif Kabungsuan be rewarded with a restoration of their ancient tyrannical theocracy? There is of course, very little public debate or understanding of the whole ancestral domain concept, whose political and juridical foundations I addressed in a long series of posts last year as being basically the result of a national guilt trip inspired by the anti-colonial writings of such as Renato Constantino, Jose Maria Sison, Nur Misuari and an assortment of so-called "historians" -- whose distortions and self-serving purposes obscure the true nature of the history of Islam in the Philippines.
The sheer contentiousness of the issue of a Bangsamoro homeland has forced the administration of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to suggest that the principles of self-determination and Constitutional democracy would not be violated by the establishment of Bangsamorostan if the Filipinos, the majority of whom are NOT Bangsamoro, but living in the five provinces(Lanao del Norte, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Zamboanga-Sibugay and Palawan) that would be included in the new theocratic juridical entity, would approve of the same in a plebiscite--a PARTIAL plebiscite that would not include the rest of the citizens of the Republic.
I would argue by analogy that this is just as fallacious as if the US Congress in 1861 had agreed for Southern states to secede from the Union if they held a plebiscite in those states and got "approval" to do so.
But because such an argument might not sit well with the ideological anti-Americans, let me put forward a different argument which I call the Pound of Flesh argument against Bangsamorostan, which seems to me particularly apt inasmuch as the whole proposal really has to do with the idea of repaying some kind of debt to the "oppressed" Islamic southern sultanates for having abolished their slave-raiding-and-trading empires. My argument is based on William Shakespeare's play, The Merchant of Venice (Act IV, Scene 1):
PORTIA: A pound of that same merchant's flesh is thine: The court awards it, and the law doth give it.
SHYLOCK: Most rightful judge!
PORTIA: And you must cut this flesh from off his breast: The law allows it, and the court awards it.
SHYLOCK: Most learned judge! A sentence! Come, prepare!
PORTIA: Tarry a little; there is something else. This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood; The words expressly are 'a pound of flesh:' Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh; But, in the cutting it, if thou dost shed One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate Unto the state of Venice.
How DO you cut a pound of flesh out without getting any of the blood?
How DO you cut out a Bangsamoro homeland from the body of the Philippine Republic to satisfy the demands of the insurgents and separatists, without shedding the blood of Christians, lumads and low-ranking Muslims who constitute the vast majority of any given area in Mindanao?
It is a logical and unavoidable impossibility for the simple reason that the post-colonial establishment of the Philippine Republic and the adoption of its democratic constitution, abolished theocracy by proclaiming the principle of the separation of church and state, of religious and political freedoms, of nondiscrimination on the basis of religious belief, gender, race or ethnicity.
Bangsamorostan represents the irreconcilable anti-thesis of Philippine history in the post-colonial era and would represent a grave injustice to all Filipinos. It is the giving in to the biggest kidnap for ransom crime perpetrated on the country by insurgents and separatists riding high on a national guilt trip that needs to be exposed and demolished.
Not surprisingly, the legislature of one of those provinces--North Cotabato under Gov. Manny Pinol--has already passed a resolution rejecting its inclusion in the proposed Bangsamoro homeland.
However, given the skill and expertise of the President and her political operatives to engineer miraculous elections in Mindanao (such as those of 2004 and 2007!), I have no confidence whatsoever that if the partial plebiscite idea is allowed to go forward, that the true will of the people would be reflected in it and not PGMA's desire for a peace legacy.
I woke up just now from a dark night of fitful dreams, with that post title sparkling in my field of view like the brilliant arabesque of a still subtle, but waxing crescent moon.
Gazing upon it now in the glare of the monitor's phosphors, and marveling at its scythe-like edge of simple truth and logical precision, I happily return to bed and the night's leisure, already looking forward to the sublime pleasure of fleshing it out tomorrow, and prick-popping with its sharp and pointy end, Gloria's Bangsamorostan balloon!
Update: On the ABSCBN Noontime news, Gen. Rodolfo Garcia (ret.) head of the RP govt peace panel tried to give the impression that the MILF has given up on its demand for "freedom" from the Republic, claiming this is what broke the negotiating logjam. But look at what the MILF says on its website about this:
After a thorough discussion, and with the timely intervention of Datuk Othman, the MILF agreed to be silent on the word “freedom”, but not after pointing out to the government all the documents, including the General Framework of Intent signed on August 27, 1998 and the Tripoli Agreement of 2001, that contained the word. The insistence by the MILF Panel on the inclusion of the phrase “non derogation of prior agreements” more than makes up for the silence on “freedom” because this binds both parties to all previous agreements in which freedom is cited as a major principle.
And of course, General Garcia doesn't care to demand DISARMAMENT by the rebels as an absolutely necessary condition for any peace agreement. I think he should be arrested for obstruction of justice for his role in last year's beheading of ten Marines on Basilan island, in which he prevented the service of arrest warrants against his MILF "partners in the peace process."-- not insanely rewarded and given a negotiating task for which he is neither morally nor intellectually qualified. Today's headline is like a nightmare coming true, as the government of President Arroyo announced that it had reached an agreement with the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front for the establishment of a "homeland" for the 3 million Muslims in Mindanao:
The “projected” territory referred to as the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity is the “current” Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), which may be expanded to include 712 barangays (villages) in five provinces in Central Mindanao, Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said Thursday. He said the five provinces were Lanao del Norte, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Zamboanga-Sibugay and Palawan.
Since there are only 3 million Muslims and at least 30 million non-Muslims in Mindanao, it is highly doubltful that in FREE and FAIR plebisicite, any of the above places would vote to come under the heel of the MILF warlords and politicians. The province of North Cotabato legislature already passed a resolution against being included in such a dubious Moro homeland. Palawan, with its rich natural resources and large majority Christian population may soon also pass such a resolution.
This blog has been a most vocal opponent of this idea because I believe it won't lead to peace any more than the last "final peace treaty" that was signed in 1996 with the Moro National Liberation Front of Nur Misuari (MNLF) that created the ARMM, since neither the latter, nor the present Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are actually in any position to guarantee anything they agree to. It will be recalled that the MILF split off from the MNLF after the former President Fidel Ramos reached that last deal. Instead the MILF went to war in order to now secure their own deal with Gloria Macapagal Arroyo!
Indeed, PGMA has the most reprehensible record in dealing with terrorists: she is the RANSOM QUEEN of the Terrorists, beginning way back in 2001 when she ransomed her billionaire buddy Reghis Romero (and his girl friend) from the clutches of the terrorist Abu Sayyaf bandits who made off with them and several dozen others from the Dos Palmas Beach Resort in Palawan and led the military on a merrie chase for over a year, ending in the death of missionary Martin Burnham and the rescue of Gracia Burnham. It was also PGMA who bowed down to Baghdadi terrorists and ransomed the kidnapped Angelo de la Cruz in Iraq (for a reported $6 million). More recently, in 2007, she ransomed her own "peace negotiator"--Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino--from the MNLF [sic!], paying hundreds of thousands of pesos for "board and lodging" after he was hostaged during a "peace negotiation" with the very same group that had already signed a similar peace agreement in 1996! Likewise, the release of the Italian priest Fr. Giancarlo Bossi suspiciously involved DILG Sec. Ronnie Puno telling the media that no ransom was paid, and that the priest's freedom was secured by "tricking" the Abu Sayyaf Group holding him (*wink*).
This of course is the same Ronnie Puno who has also denied a P15 million peso "second ransom" payment made for the freedom of ABSCBN News personality Ces Drilon last month--which has led to two more kidnap for ransom incidents in just the same number of weeks, first of four Basilan Electric Cooperative linemen, and at present two Globe telecomm subcontractors.
But perhaps the most despicable of Gloria Arroyo's failures has to do with those ambuscades and murders of over fifty Philippine Army and Marine troopers in Sulu and Basilan last year, including ten who were beheaded after they got close to an MILF/Abu Sayyaf lair in Basilan whilst looking for that oh-so-lucky Fr. Bossi (whom the Catholic Church and his Italian missionary group PIME) quickly spirited away after his release and clamped omerta on him. None of the perpetrators of these gruesome crimes have been brought to justice. In fact, after a Basilan Regional Trial Court judge issued over a hundred arrest warrants against the suspected ambushmen and beheaders, in comes then Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza and the present head of the peace panel, a certain Gen. Rodolfo Garcia (ret.) demanding an "independent investigation" of the matter, and a suspension of the arrest warrants because they happened to include so many of their "partners in the peace process" from the MILF! Nothing came of the "independent investigation", its report was never released, and the murdering bastards have gotten away scot free. Then of course, ABSCBN News aired institutional ads for over a year with the same Gen. Garcia intoning that "We want to know who was behind those beheadings." It was actually a massive cover-up!
In some sense, the upcoming agreement with the MILF would be the BIGGEST ransom payment of them all, a pay-off like all the rest, supposedly to free an entire nation held hostage to a forty year insurgency led by warlords and politicians mouthing a false and fake history of Mindanao, abetted by bleeding hearts who seem to think that paying ransom buys anything more than the NEXT kidnapping, as even recent experience amply shows.
After pouring over P80 billion pesos into Nur Misuari's private fiefdom called the ARMM, now comes this Bangsamorostan Juridical Entity (BJE), which is far larger, more sinister, and a really, really bad idea, folks. Even now, various homicidal maniacs like Umar Patek and Dulmatin (the Bali Bombers) and other internationally wanted terrorists, are hiding out in Mindanao (under the protection of the MILF/MNLF/Abu Sayyaf according to terrorism experts), yet they seem to be untouchable.
Wait till the Long Beards and Long Legs from Waziristan find out that Gloria has lots of nice lil tropical island paradise bases waiting for them in the southern Philippines.
Islamic Rule in Cotabato (read by Dean Jorge Bocobo)
European Impositions and the Myth of Morohood (read by Dean Jorge Bocobo) My reading of The Great River (Chapter 12, History of Jesuits in the Philippines, by Horacio de la Costa, S.J.) continues a series of readings in Mindanao history.
The Darwin Awards websiteis a real gem: A Chronicle of Enterprising Demises Honoring those who improve the species...by accidentally removing themselves from it!
The only thing lacking is a special section on enterprising MASS demises, such as we find in places like the Philippines, where a cabal of repressed homosexual infantilists in the Catholic Bishops Conference rules the mental roosts with their own tortured reasons and imposes the papal hubris of a moribund organized religion.
I have traced the historical roots of the Catholic Church's position on artificial birth control in The Union of Church and State in Breeding Hunger and Poverty where the true stroy behind the papal bull, Humanae Vitae is told, and why none of this has to do with SEX or SCIENCE but all to do with POWER and institutional hubris. For all their pious talk, the reality is they are merely defending the Roman Catholic Church's delusional claim to infallibility. It is a recalcitrant corner into which they have painted themselves, for once such a claim was made, it can NEVER be withdrawn without painting themselves in the garish colors of disdainful idiocy.
It also suggests why politicians like Gloria Macapagal Arroyo are called "pragmatists" by the Philippine Daily Innuendo, whose owners, publishers and many editors are also goddess worshippers and pious believers. All understand the workings of political power--and its stringent requirements--in a land where organized religion still reigns as its truest political activity and the Catholic Church is the one true political party.
What is studiously ignored of course are the self-evident results of such official piety and fealty to the papists: grinding poverty for tens of millions as the population multiplies uncontrollably like rats and rabbits. No matter what improvements are made to the economic arrangements, not matter what solutions are proposed for things like corruption and government insufficiency, all must be divided and reduced by that awesome population denominator.
Take the simple case of the Public School System, which both the Catholic mass medium and the Men in Skirts continually decry. With a two-million baby tsunami swamping its ramparts annually, how does anyone expect to see any improvements?
Yet there they are everyday, claiming to turn CRACKERS into Jesus and feeding the people with their false hopes and weird dogmas. Strangest of all, are those who mutter a loud "Amen!"
Like Joey Salceda, the president's favorite "economics" adviser, who propagates the myth that it is SEX that causes overpopulation ("sinfully delightful")
No Joey, it's STUPIDITY and IGNORANCE that causes overpopulation.
The Reproductive Health Bill currently being debated in the House does not of course sanction, legalize or encourage abortion. However, it is a matter to which the Church is exerting all its influence, with even the oppositionist Bishop Dominguez proclaiming that "they" will tell voters to shun Representatives who support the measure.
"They" just love the poor so much, they want them to go and multiply.
Senator Barack Obama’s New Strategy for a New World
As Prepared For Delivery Washington, D.C. July 15, 2008
Sixty-one years ago, George Marshall announced the plan that would come to bear his name. Much of Europe lay in ruins. The United States faced a powerful and ideological enemy intent on world domination. This menace was magnified by the recently discovered capability to destroy life on an unimaginable scale. The Soviet Union didn't yet have an atomic bomb, but before long it would.
The challenge facing the greatest generation of Americans - the generation that had vanquished fascism on the battlefield - was how to contain this threat while extending freedom's frontiers. Leaders like Truman and Acheson, Kennan and Marshall, knew that there was no single decisive blow that could be struck for freedom. We needed a new overarching strategy to meet the challenges of a new and dangerous world.
Such a strategy would join overwhelming military strength with sound judgment. It would shape events not just through military force, but through the force of our ideas; through economic power, intelligence and diplomacy. It would support strong allies that freely shared our ideals of liberty and democracy; open markets and the rule of law. It would foster new international institutions like the United Nations, NATO, and the World Bank, and focus on every corner of the globe. It was a strategy that saw clearly the world's dangers, while seizing its promise.
As a general, Marshall had spent years helping FDR wage war. But the Marshall Plan - which was just one part of this strategy - helped rebuild not just allies, but also the nation that Marshall had plotted to defeat. In the speech announcing his plan, he concluded not with tough talk or definitive declarations - but rather with questions and a call for perspective. "The whole world of the future," Marshall said, "hangs on a proper judgment." To make that judgment, he asked the American people to examine distant events that directly affected their security and prosperity. He closed by asking: "What is needed? What can best be done? What must be done?"
What is needed? What can best be done? What must be done?
Today's dangers are different, though no less grave. The power to destroy life on a catastrophic scale now risks falling into the hands of terrorists. The future of our security - and our planet - is held hostage to our dependence on foreign oil and gas. From the cave-spotted mountains of northwest Pakistan, to the centrifuges spinning beneath Iranian soil, we know that the American people cannot be protected by oceans or the sheer might of our military alone.
The attacks of September 11 brought this new reality into a terrible and ominous focus. On that bright and beautiful day, the world of peace and prosperity that was the legacy of our Cold War victory seemed to suddenly vanish under rubble, and twisted steel, and clouds of smoke.
But the depth of this tragedy also drew out the decency and determination of our nation. At blood banks and vigils; in schools and in the United States Congress, Americans were united - more united, even, than we were at the dawn of the Cold War. The world, too, was united against the perpetrators of this evil act, as old allies, new friends, and even long-time adversaries stood by our side. It was time - once again - for America's might and moral suasion to be harnessed; it was time to once again shape a new security strategy for an ever-changing world.
Imagine, for a moment, what we could have done in those days, and months, and years after 9/11.
We could have deployed the full force of American power to hunt down and destroy Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, the Taliban, and all of the terrorists responsible for 9/11, while supporting real security in Afghanistan.
We could have secured loose nuclear materials around the world, and updated a 20th century non-proliferation framework to meet the challenges of the 21st.
We could have invested hundreds of billions of dollars in alternative sources of energy to grow our economy, save our planet, and end the tyranny of oil.
We could have strengthened old alliances, formed new partnerships, and renewed international institutions to advance peace and prosperity.
We could have called on a new generation to step into the strong currents of history, and to serve their country as troops and teachers, Peace Corps volunteers and police officers.
We could have secured our homeland--investing in sophisticated new protection for our ports, our trains and our power plants.
We could have rebuilt our roads and bridges, laid down new rail and broadband and electricity systems, and made college affordable for every American to strengthen our ability to compete.
We could have done that.
Instead, we have lost thousands of American lives, spent nearly a trillion dollars, alienated allies and neglected emerging threats - all in the cause of fighting a war for well over five years in a country that had absolutely nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks.
Our men and women in uniform have accomplished every mission we have given them. What's missing in our debate about Iraq - what has been missing since before the war began - is a discussion of the strategic consequences of Iraq and its dominance of our foreign policy. This war distracts us from every threat that we face and so many opportunities we could seize. This war diminishes our security, our standing in the world, our military, our economy, and the resources that we need to confront the challenges of the 21st century. By any measure, our single-minded and open-ended focus on Iraq is not a sound strategy for keeping America safe.
I am running for President of the United States to lead this country in a new direction - to seize this moment's promise. Instead of being distracted from the most pressing threats that we face, I want to overcome them. Instead of pushing the entire burden of our foreign policy on to the brave men and women of our military, I want to use all elements of American power to keep us safe, and prosperous, and free. Instead of alienating ourselves from the world, I want America - once again - to lead.
As President, I will pursue a tough, smart and principled national security strategy - one that recognizes that we have interests not just in Baghdad, but in Kandahar and Karachi, in Tokyo and London, in Beijing and Berlin. I will focus this strategy on five goals essential to making America safer: ending the war in Iraq responsibly; finishing the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban; securing all nuclear weapons and materials from terrorists and rogue states; achieving true energy security; and rebuilding our alliances to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
My opponent in this campaign has served this country with honor, and we all respect his sacrifice. We both want to do what we think is best to defend the American people. But we've made different judgments, and would lead in very different directions. That starts with Iraq.
I opposed going to war in Iraq; Senator McCain was one of Washington's biggest supporters for war. I warned that the invasion of a country posing no imminent threat would fan the flames of extremism, and distract us from the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban; Senator McCain claimed that we would be greeted as liberators, and that democracy would spread across the Middle East. Those were the judgments we made on the most important strategic question since the end of the Cold War.
Now, all of us recognize that we must do more than look back - we must make a judgment about how to move forward. What is needed? What can best be done? What must be done? Senator McCain wants to talk of our tactics in Iraq; I want to focus on a new strategy for Iraq and the wider world.
It has been 18 months since President Bush announced the surge. As I have said many times, our troops have performed brilliantly in lowering the level of violence. General Petraeus has used new tactics to protect the Iraqi population. We have talked directly to Sunni tribes that used to be hostile to America, and supported their fight against al Qaeda. Shiite militias have generally respected a cease-fire. Those are the facts, and all Americans welcome them.
For weeks, now, Senator McCain has argued that the gains of the surge mean that I should change my commitment to end the war. But this argument misconstrues what is necessary to succeed in Iraq, and stubbornly ignores the facts of the broader strategic picture that we face.
In the 18 months since the surge began, the strain on our military has increased, our troops and their families have borne an enormous burden, and American taxpayers have spent another $200 billion in Iraq. That's over $10 billion each month. That is a consequence of our current strategy.
In the 18 months since the surge began, the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated. June was our highest casualty month of the war. The Taliban has been on the offensive, even launching a brazen attack on one of our bases. Al Qaeda has a growing sanctuary in Pakistan. That is a consequence of our current strategy.
In the 18 months since the surge began, as I warned at the outset - Iraq's leaders have not made the political progress that was the purpose of the surge. They have not invested tens of billions of dollars in oil revenues to rebuild their country. They have not resolved their differences or shaped a new political compact.
That's why I strongly stand by my plan to end this war. Now, Prime Minister Maliki's call for a timetable for the removal of U.S. forces presents a real opportunity. It comes at a time when the American general in charge of training Iraq's Security Forces has testified that Iraq's Army and Police will be ready to assume responsibility for Iraq's security in 2009. Now is the time for a responsible redeployment of our combat troops that pushes Iraq's leaders toward a political solution, rebuilds our military, and refocuses on Afghanistan and our broader security interests.
George Bush and John McCain don't have a strategy for success in Iraq - they have a strategy for staying in Iraq. They said we couldn't leave when violence was up, they say we can't leave when violence is down. They refuse to press the Iraqis to make tough choices, and they label any timetable to redeploy our troops "surrender," even though we would be turning Iraq over to a sovereign Iraqi government - not to a terrorist enemy. Theirs is an endless focus on tactics inside Iraq, with no consideration of our strategy to face threats beyond Iraq's borders.
At some point, a judgment must be made. Iraq is not going to be a perfect place, and we don't have unlimited resources to try to make it one. We are not going to kill every al Qaeda sympathizer, eliminate every trace of Iranian influence, or stand up a flawless democracy before we leave - General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker acknowledged this to me when they testified last April. That is why the accusation of surrender is false rhetoric used to justify a failed policy. In fact, true success in Iraq - victory in Iraq - will not take place in a surrender ceremony where an enemy lays down their arms. True success will take place when we leave Iraq to a government that is taking responsibility for its future - a government that prevents sectarian conflict, and ensures that the al Qaeda threat which has been beaten back by our troops does not reemerge. That is an achievable goal if we pursue a comprehensive plan to press the Iraqis stand up.
To achieve that success, I will give our military a new mission on my first day in office: ending this war. Let me be clear: we must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in. We can safely redeploy our combat brigades at a pace that would remove them in 16 months. That would be the summer of 2010 - one year after Iraqi Security Forces will be prepared to stand up; two years from now, and more than seven years after the war began. After this redeployment, we'll keep a residual force to perform specific missions in Iraq: targeting any remnants of al Qaeda; protecting our service members and diplomats; and training and supporting Iraq's Security Forces, so long as the Iraqis make political progress.
We will make tactical adjustments as we implement this strategy - that is what any responsible Commander-in-Chief must do. As I have consistently said, I will consult with commanders on the ground and the Iraqi government. We will redeploy from secure areas first and volatile areas later. We will commit $2 billion to a meaningful international effort to support the more than 4 million displaced Iraqis. We will forge a new coalition to support Iraq's future - one that includes all of Iraq's neighbors, and also the United Nations, the World Bank, and the European Union - because we all have a stake in stability. And we will make it clear that the United States seeks no permanent bases in Iraq.
This is the future that Iraqis want. This is the future that the American people want. And this is what our common interests demand. Both America and Iraq will be more secure when the terrorist in Anbar is taken out by the Iraqi Army, and the criminal in Baghdad fears Iraqi Police, not just coalition forces. Both America and Iraq will succeed when every Arab government has an embassy open in Baghdad, and the child in Basra benefits from services provided by Iraqi dinars, not American tax dollar
And this is the future we need for our military. We cannot tolerate this strain on our forces to fight a war that hasn't made us safer. I will restore our strength by ending this war, completing the increase of our ground forces by 65,000 soldiers and 27,000 marines, and investing in the capabilities we need to defeat conventional foes and meet the unconventional challenges of our time.
So let's be clear. Senator McCain would have our troops continue to fight tour after tour of duty, and our taxpayers keep spending $10 billion a month indefinitely; I want Iraqis to take responsibility for their own future, and to reach the political accommodation necessary for long-term stability. That's victory. That's success. That's what's best for Iraq, that's what's best for America, and that's why I will end this war as President.
In fact - as should have been apparent to President Bush and Senator McCain - the central front in the war on terror is not Iraq, and it never was. That's why the second goal of my new strategy will be taking the fight to al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
It is unacceptable that almost seven years after nearly 3,000 Americans were killed on our soil, the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 are still at large. Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahari are recording messages to their followers and plotting more terror. The Taliban controls parts of Afghanistan. Al Qaeda has an expanding base in Pakistan that is probably no farther from their old Afghan sanctuary than a train ride from Washington to Philadelphia. If another attack on our homeland comes, it will likely come from the same region where 9/11 was planned. And yet today, we have five times more troops in Iraq than Afghanistan.
Senator McCain said - just months ago - that "Afghanistan is not in trouble because of our diversion to Iraq." I could not disagree more. Our troops and our NATO allies are performing heroically in Afghanistan, but I have argued for years that we lack the resources to finish the job because of our commitment to Iraq. That's what the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said earlier this month. And that's why, as President, I will make the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban the top priority that it should be. This is a war that we have to win.
I will send at least two additional combat brigades to Afghanistan, and use this commitment to seek greater contributions - with fewer restrictions - from NATO allies. I will focus on training Afghan security forces and supporting an Afghan judiciary, with more resources and incentives for American officers who perform these missions. Just as we succeeded in the Cold War by supporting allies who could sustain their own security, we must realize that the 21st century's frontlines are not only on the field of battle - they are found in the training exercise near Kabul, in the police station in Kandahar, and in the rule of law in Herat.
Moreover, lasting security will only come if we heed Marshall's lesson, and help Afghans grow their economy from the bottom up. That's why I've proposed an additional $1 billion in non-military assistance each year, with meaningful safeguards to prevent corruption and to make sure investments are made - not just in Kabul - but out in Afghanistan's provinces. As a part of this program, we'll invest in alternative livelihoods to poppy-growing for Afghan farmers, just as we crack down on heroin trafficking. We cannot lose Afghanistan to a future of narco-terrorism. The Afghan people must know that our commitment to their future is enduring, because the security of Afghanistan and the United States is shared.
The greatest threat to that security lies in the tribal regions of Pakistan, where terrorists train and insurgents strike into Afghanistan. We cannot tolerate a terrorist sanctuary, and as President, I won't. We need a stronger and sustained partnership between Afghanistan, Pakistan and NATO to secure the border, to take out terrorist camps, and to crack down on cross-border insurgents. We need more troops, more helicopters, more satellites, more Predator drones in the Afghan border region. And we must make it clear that if Pakistan cannot or will not act, we will take out high-level terrorist targets like bin Laden if we have them in our sights.
Make no mistake: we can't succeed in Afghanistan or secure our homeland unless we change our Pakistan policy. We must expect more of the Pakistani government, but we must offer more than a blank check to a General who has lost the confidence of his people. It's time to strengthen stability by standing up for the aspirations of the Pakistani people. That's why I'm cosponsoring a bill with Joe Biden and Richard Lugar to triple non-military aid to the Pakistani people and to sustain it for a decade, while ensuring that the military assistance we do provide is used to take the fight to the Taliban and al Qaeda. We must move beyond a purely military alliance built on convenience, or face mounting popular opposition in a nuclear-armed nation at the nexus of terror and radical Islam.
Only a strong Pakistani democracy can help us move toward my third goal - securing all nuclear weapons and materials from terrorists and rogue states. One of the terrible ironies of the Iraq War is that President Bush used the threat of nuclear terrorism to invade a country that had no active nuclear program. But the fact that the President misled us into a misguided war doesn't diminish the threat of a terrorist with a weapon of mass destruction - in fact, it has only increased it.
In those years after World War II, we worried about the deadly atom falling into the hands of the Kremlin. Now, we worry about 50 tons of highly enriched uranium - some of it poorly secured - at civilian nuclear facilities in over forty countries. Now, we worry about the breakdown of a non-proliferation framework that was designed for the bipolar world of the Cold War. Now, we worry - most of all - about a rogue state or nuclear scientist transferring the world's deadliest weapons to the world's most dangerous people: terrorists who won't think twice about killing themselves and hundreds of thousands in Tel Aviv or Moscow, in London or New York.
We cannot wait any longer to protect the American people. I've made this a priority in the Senate, where I worked with Republican Senator Dick Lugar to pass a law accelerating our pursuit of loose nuclear materials. I'll lead a global effort to secure all loose nuclear materials around the world during my first term as President. And I'll develop new defenses to protect against the 21st century threat of biological weapons and cyber-terrorism - threats that I'll discuss in more detail tomorrow.
Beyond taking these immediate, urgent steps, it's time to send a clear message: America seeks a world with no nuclear weapons. As long as nuclear weapons exist, we must retain a strong deterrent. But instead of threatening to kick them out of the G-8, we need to work with Russia to take U.S. and Russian ballistic missiles off hair-trigger alert; to dramatically reduce the stockpiles of our nuclear weapons and material; to seek a global ban on the production of fissile material for weapons; and to expand the U.S.-Russian ban on intermediate-range missiles so that the agreement is global. By keeping our commitment under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, we'll be in a better position to press nations like North Korea and Iran to keep theirs. In particular, it will give us more credibility and leverage in dealing with Iran.
We cannot tolerate nuclear weapons in the hands of nations that support terror. Preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons is a vital national security interest of the United States. No tool of statecraft should be taken off the table, but Senator McCain would continue a failed policy that has seen Iran strengthen its position, advance its nuclear program, and stockpile 150 kilos of low enriched uranium. I will use all elements of American power to pressure the Iranian regime, starting with aggressive, principled and direct diplomacy - diplomacy backed with strong sanctions and without preconditions.
There will be careful preparation. I commend the work of our European allies on this important matter, and we should be full partners in that effort. Ultimately the measure of any effort is whether it leads to a change in Iranian behavior. That's why we must pursue these tough negotiations in full coordination with our allies, bringing to bear our full influence - including, if it will advance our interests, my meeting with the appropriate Iranian leader at a time and place of my choosing.
We will pursue this diplomacy with no illusions about the Iranian regime. Instead, we will present a clear choice. If you abandon your nuclear program, support for terror, and threats to Israel, there will be meaningful incentives. If you refuse, then we will ratchet up the pressure, with stronger unilateral sanctions; stronger multilateral sanctions in the Security Council, and sustained action outside the UN to isolate the Iranian regime. That's the diplomacy we need. And the Iranians should negotiate now; by waiting, they will only face mounting pressure.
The surest way to increase our leverage against Iran in the long-run is to stop bankrolling its ambitions. That will depend on achieving my fourth goal: ending the tyranny of oil in our time.
One of the most dangerous weapons in the world today is the price of oil. We ship nearly $700 million a day to unstable or hostile nations for their oil. It pays for terrorist bombs going off from Baghdad to Beirut. It funds petro-diplomacy in Caracas and radical madrasas from Karachi to Khartoum. It takes leverage away from America and shifts it to dictators.
This immediate danger is eclipsed only by the long-term threat from climate change, which will lead to devastating weather patterns, terrible storms, drought, and famine. That means people competing for food and water in the next fifty years in the very places that have known horrific violence in the last fifty: Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. Most disastrously, that could mean destructive storms on our shores, and the disappearance of our coastline.
This is not just an economic issue or an environmental concern - this is a national security crisis. For the sake of our security - and for every American family that is paying the price at the pump - we must end this dependence on foreign oil. And as President, that's exactly what I'll do. Small steps and political gimmickry just won't do. I'll invest $150 billion over the next ten years to put America on the path to true energy security. This fund will fast track investments in a new green energy business sector that will end our addiction to oil and create up to 5 million jobs over the next two decades, and help secure the future of our country and our planet. We'll invest in research and development of every form of alternative energy - solar, wind, and biofuels, as well as technologies that can make coal clean and nuclear power safe. And from the moment I take office, I will let it be known that the United States of America is ready to lead again.
Never again will we sit on the sidelines, or stand in the way of global action to tackle this global challenge. I will reach out to the leaders of the biggest carbon emitting nations and ask them to join a new Global Energy Forum that will lay the foundation for the next generation of climate protocols. We will also build an alliance of oil-importing nations and work together to reduce our demand, and to break the grip of OPEC on the global economy. We'll set a goal of an 80% reduction in global emissions by 2050. And as we develop new forms of clean energy here at home, we will share our technology and our innovations with all the nations of the world.
That is the tradition of American leadership on behalf of the global good. And that will be my fifth goal - rebuilding our alliances to meet the common challenges of the 21st century.
For all of our power, America is strongest when we act alongside strong partners. We faced down fascism with the greatest war-time alliance the world has ever known. We stood shoulder to shoulder with our NATO allies against the Soviet threat, and paid a far smaller price for the first Gulf War because we acted together with a broad coalition. We helped create the United Nations - not to constrain America's influence, but to amplify it by advancing our values.
Now is the time for a new era of international cooperation. It's time for America and Europe to renew our common commitment to face down the threats of the 21st century just as we did the challenges of the 20th. It's time to strengthen our partnerships with Japan, South Korea, Australia and the world's largest democracy - India - to create a stable and prosperous Asia. It's time to engage China on common interests like climate change, even as we continue to encourage their shift to a more open and market-based society. It's time to strengthen NATO by asking more of our allies, while always approaching them with the respect owed a partner. It's time to reform the United Nations, so that this imperfect institution can become a more perfect forum to share burdens, strengthen our leverage, and promote our values. It's time to deepen our engagement to help resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict, so that we help our ally Israel achieve true and lasting security, while helping Palestinians achieve their legitimate aspirations for statehood.
And just as we renew longstanding efforts, so must we shape new ones to meet new challenges. That's why I'll create a Shared Security Partnership Program - a new alliance of nations to strengthen cooperative efforts to take down global terrorist networks, while standing up against torture and brutality. That's why we'll work with the African Union to enhance its ability to keep the peace. That's why we'll build a new partnership to roll back the trafficking of drugs, and guns, and gangs in the Americas. That's what we can do if we are ready to engage the world.
We will have to provide meaningful resources to meet critical priorities. I know development assistance is not the most popular program, but as President, I will make the case to the American people that it can be our best investment in increasing the common security of the entire world. That was true with the Marshall Plan, and that must be true today. That's why I'll double our foreign assistance to $50 billion by 2012, and use it to support a stable future in failing states, and sustainable growth in Africa; to halve global poverty and to roll back disease. To send once more a message to those yearning faces beyond our shores that says, "You matter to us. Your future is our future. And our moment is now."
This must be the moment when we answer the call of history. For eight years, we have paid the price for a foreign policy that lectures without listening; that divides us from one another - and from the world - instead of calling us to a common purpose; that focuses on our tactics in fighting a war without end in Iraq instead of forging a new strategy to face down the true threats that we face. We cannot afford four more years of a strategy that is out of balance and out of step with this defining moment.
None of this will be easy, but we have faced great odds before. When General Marshall first spoke about the plan that would bear his name, the rubble of Berlin had not yet been built into a wall. But Marshall knew that even the fiercest of adversaries could forge bonds of friendship founded in freedom. He had the confidence to know that the purpose and pragmatism of the American people could outlast any foe. Today, the dangers and divisions that came with the dawn of the Cold War have receded. Now, the defeat of the threats of the past has been replaced by the transnational threats of today. We know what is needed. We know what can best be done. We know what must done. Now it falls to us to act with the same sense of purpose and pragmatism as an earlier generation, to join with friends and partners to lead the world anew.
Mr. Obama enunciates five major goals:
"As President, I will pursue a tough, smart and principled national security strategy - one that recognizes that we have interests not just in Baghdad, but in Kandahar and Karachi, in Tokyo and London, in Beijing and Berlin. I will focus this strategy on five goals essential to making America safer: ending the war in Iraq responsibly; finishing the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban; securing all nuclear weapons and materials from terrorists and rogue states; achieving true energy security; and rebuilding our alliances to meet the challenges of the 21st century."
Highlights I found noteworthy are these:
Obama defines victoryin Iraq as follows:
"...true success in Iraq - victory in Iraq - will not take place in a surrender ceremony where an enemy lays down their arms. True success will take place when we leave Iraq to a government that is taking responsibility for its future - a government that prevents sectarian conflict, and ensures that the al Qaeda threat which has been beaten back by our troops does not reemerge. That is an achievable goal if we pursue a comprehensive plan to press the Iraqis stand up."
Obama locates the center of the war on terror in Afghanistan and Pakistan, not Iraq. This is a point with which I happen to agree: why indeed should there be five times as many US troops in Iraq now than in Afghanistan? Why have al-Qaeda and the Taliban and Jemaah Islamiyah not yet been decisively defeated? I think it will be a key change of emphasis and venue for the US military and that of its allies.
Despite the fact that many on the Left have made a career of ridiculing the absence of an active nuclear development program in Iraq before the war (unlike for example, Iran!) Obama seems to understand the continuing threat of nuclear terrorism as well as nuclear rogue states, and this seems to inform his third goal of getting global nuclear stockpiles under control and preventing the worst case scenario that Mohammed el Baradei warned of when he received his Nobel Peace Prize in 2006--that a terrorist group like al-Qaeda would get their hands on and most certainly use the Bomb.
He sees the US dependence on foreign oil as more than economic problem, but as a national security crisis. He wants to invest $15 billion annually for years to win energy independence.
He wants to rebuild America's leadership in the world, which many believe has been eroded under the presidency of George W. Bush.
It's a long, substantive speech that I expect will be picked over and analyzed by pundits and bloggers in the next few weeks and throughout the presidential campaign.SCORP (Supreme Court of the Philippines) is in the news. First for (correctly) striking down the clearly illegal and unconstitutional creation of "Sharif Kabunsuan province" by the ARMM legislature. It is disturbing however that the decision was passed by a narrow 8-6 margin. This leaves GMA and her peace negotiators some wiggle room when it comes to her hoped for "peace legacy" for Mindanao: a 1000 barangay homeland called Bangsamorostan for all the Long Beards of Waziristan to hide in. Now it seems there is real reason to worry.
On another front, the Supreme Court's "activist" image is taking a real beating that not even Chief Justice Reynato Puno can do much about, as GMA's appointees issue an atrocious ruling on the NBN ZTE contract and are rightly accused of shirking its duty to provide check and balance.
Check outthe cover of the New Yorker Magazine (July 21, 2008 edition) which shows Barack Obama in Muslim garb and head gear, with an Afro-dooed, camo-clothed Michelle Obama slinging an AK-47, doing their famous fist-bump -- in the Oval Office with the American flag burning in the fireplace and a portrait of Osama bin Laden looking on. The New Yorker cover by Barry Blitt satirizes "the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the Presidential election to derail Barack Obama's campaign," the magazine said in a press release.
Is it incendiary or satire? Or tasteless as both the Obama and McCain camps declare it to be. Both camps want to maintain a high moral tone throughout the campaign. (I think there is a consciousness on both sides that whoever might make the mistake of a sudden or inadvertent descent to gracelessness could actually lose the race thereby!). Now, there are probably some people out there for whom the satiric humor in the New Yorker cartoon might be lost altogether, on both sides of the aisle!
I'm sure the New Yorker will get around to cartooning John McCain too.
UPDATE:
I don't know about y'all but I guess I like West Coast humour a lil better. Here's the latest monologue from Jay Leno on Barack Obama...
"It was quite a weekend, politically. Yesterday, an estimated 75,000 people attended a Barack Obama rally on the banks of the the Willamette River. ... And if you believe the media, listen to this. After the rally, Barack Obama fed them all with just five loaves of bread and two fish. Amazing!"
Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz already tried this, with little success I would say. The good Bishops ought not to needlessly expose the Deep Mysteries to the plain examination of common sense, as Damaso might counsel. They may be over-estimating the power of Public Piety.
I think the Catholic bishops have been dead wrong on the whole issue of population policy. Rather than preventing some moral evil, they have allowed problems to worsen by multiplication. Unbridled population growth worsens poverty, crime, overcongestion, lack of public services in health, education, sanitation, housing, peace and order. Solutions to social problems have become much harder because of the large numbers of people involved.
A NUMBER OF PROFESSIONAL PUNDITS have been feasting on that "most corrupt" label given to the Philippines by reporter Doris Dumlao of the Philippine Daily Innuendo. A closer look at the World Bank Study shows a more complex set of six "governance indicators" in which corruption is only one factor. But the irony of it all appears to be lost on ARTEMIO V. PANGANIBAN who joins in castigating President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, apparently forgetting how GMA's January 20, 2001 swearing in at EDSA DOS washis idea (suggested to Davide the day before!) The Big Story Art Panganiban is just dying to tell is that of Hilario G. Davide, Jr. and how the Supreme Court usurped the sole and exclusive powers of the House and Senate in the impeachment and trial of President Joseph Estrada. The swearing in of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on 20 January, 2001 (Edsa Dos) came just four short days after the Senate's Craven Eleven Vote, which however legally signalled virtual acquittal for Erap. Yet in March, 2001, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Erap had validly resigned (a finding of Fact by the High Court!) and that the regime change which occurred in January was "Constitutional throughout" (a finding of Law). A huger irony, if such hypermodern hyperpbole might be allowed, was disingenuously ignored by such decisions as Estrada v. Arroyo, which claim nothing oddly implausible or logically queer about Erap constructively resigning a mere four days after he virtually won acquittal at the Senate Impeachment Trial. I'm happy and relieved for the two pairs of brothers who were just released after being kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf two weeks ago and hostaged for one million pesos somewhere on Basilan Island. Whether or not the government and/or the families and/or other interested parties might have paid for their freedom will be debated in the weeks to come, but we can not lose sight of the human lives and loves that always hang in the balance in these events. And while the swinging door of observation is cracked open by such events we can see inside the tragic working of things, nota bene, how truly odd a proposition it is that the Abu Sayyaf are "JUST" an ordinary kidnap for ransom gang of bandits who are only interested in MONEY and Nothing Else -- certainly not Religion or Politics or Constitutions or anything deep and complicated like that.
Forgotten or unknown are at least 22 other big vessels that were lost at sea during the typhoon. So far, 44 have been confirmed dead and 89 still missing in these additional sinkings. These were the bodies washed ashore in Quezon and nearby islands who were at first thought to be passengers of Princess of the Stars but are now confirmed to have come from these other boats.
Many of these vessels were headed for or were already in supposedly safe harbor when they sank or capsized. Neal notes hat the Princess of the Stars was trying to get to shallow water herself when she was upended.
But I think the large number of vessels that went down under similar circumstances strengthens the argument that the Princess of the Stars tragedy was an Act of God. It was an accident caused primarily by Typhoon Frank (Feng Shen).
The Philippines Travel Guide lists the major maritime shipping companies providing passenger and cargo services in the country (in no particular order):
1. WG&A Philippines, Inc. is the union of three older firms (Williams, Gothong and Aboitiz). It operates ten Super Ferries which it demurely gives each the apt Roman Numeral for a name.
2. Founded in 1932, Negros Navigation is one of the oldest companies in the genre, and names its ships after religious figures, continuing in centuries of Spanish and Philippine tradition:
1. Mary Queen of Peace 2. San Lorenzo Ruiz 3. Princess of Negros 4. St Ezekiel Moreno 5. San Paolo 6. St Joseph the Worker 7. St Peter the Apostle
3.Sulpicio Lines was founded in 1973 by Don Sulpicio Go, then General Manager of Carlos A Gothong (WG&A) " decided to embark on his own adventure and founded Sulpicio Lines". The article lists seventeen shipping vessels, all princesses:
1. Cagayan Princess 2. Cebu Princess 3. Cotabato Princess 4. Dipolog Princess 5. Filipina Princess 6. Iloilo Princess 7. Manila Princess 8. Nasipit Princess 9. Palawan Princess 10. Tacloban Princess 11. Princess of the Caribbean 12. Princess of New Unity 13. Princess of the Ocean 14. Princess of the Pacific 15. Princess of the Paradise 16. Princess of the Universe 17. Princess of the World
1. Our Lady of Fatima 2. Our Lady of Good Voyage 3. Our Lady of Guadalupe 4. Our Lady of Lourdes 5. Our Lady of Manaoag 6. Our Lady of Mount Carmel 7. Our Lady of Rule 8. Our Lady of Sacred Heart
8. SuperCat Ferry Corp. names its vessels after felines with numbers.
WHAT'S IN A NAME? Perhaps the naming conventions and traditions of the maritime industry, with its decided appeal to the intercessionary powers of Mary and the saints, say something about the acceptance of many that it's a dangerous business ferrying people and cargo in the ocean waters of the Archipelago.
Press Secretary Jess Dureza, (freshly appointed to his new job after years as Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process), said in Manila today that,
Malacañang is steadfast on its no ransom policy, so we're not going to change that. But we hope that the local efforts there would succeed in order that we bring home safely these people who are being held against their will."
This is in reference to an ultimatum issued by Abu Sayyaf leader Nur Hassan Jamiri, for a one million peso ransom payment by Tuesday (tomorrow) for the release of four Basilan Electric Cooperative linemen - two pairs of brothers Alberto and Emilberto Singson, and Paul and Ian Helwig--kidnapped last June 26 near Tuburan, Basilan. This was just a few weeks after ABSCBN News anchor Ces Drilon was ransomed for an acknowledged amount of 5 million pesos near Indanan, Sulu.
Now some in the audience may think such payoffs are somehow worth it since undoubtedly the lives of the above mentioned persons were spared from the Abu Sayyaf Group, whose formal name is Al-Harrakatul al-Islamiya (The Sword of Islam), even as millions in ransom were paid with the full knowledge and complicity of persons like Dureza, Gen. Rodolfo Garcia and other "peace advocates."
But do a Google Search like this one on "Beheadings in the Philippines" which yields over a hundred thousand references to dozens of instances in which hostages have indeed lost their heads, usually AFTER one of these ransom payments have been made. You will discover that in contrast to the above high-profile personalities for whom millions are paid in ransom, euphemistically called "board and lodging", the victims of the terrorist axe are usually poor unknown persons unfortunate enough not to mean much to the Palace, the Press, the Peace Negotiators or the Priesthood!
Let's not forget those 15 Marines ambushed by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front/ASG with ten of them beheaded last year, and robbed of cell phones (used to taunt their relatives) and wedding rings, were in Basilan looking for the aforesaid Fr. Bossi, who was later miraculously rescued (not ransomed) according to DILG Sec. Ronnie Puno in a "brilliant sting operation" on his ASG captors. In this instance, the Basilan Regional Trial Court issued arrest warrants against over a hundred suspects and the police were about to serve those warrants, when into the fray steps Peace Negotiators Jess Dureza and Gen. Rodolfo Garcia, insisting on a "special independent investigation" of the incident, whence the warrants were suspended and nothing has actually come of the whole bloody incident! Their report was never released and no one knows to this day whodunit. No arrests have been made. No one has been brought to justice for that heinous and savage crime. (Why? because many of those about to be arrested were their "partners in the peace process" from the MILF!).
Nota bene: Please notice that after each of these atrocities is committed, the President usually orders an "all-out war" to "resolutely crush the terrorists", after which the peace advocates take their cue for headlines, editorials and opinion columns and "peace lectures" usually somewhere in the safety of the Republic of Diliman.
Today, the two pairs of brothers who may indeed get their heads lopped off during the next 24 hours (unless of course Colombian President Uribe magically flies in on his white helicopter) are ordinary electric coop meter-readers who happen to be working for an outstan ding electric coop, Baselco (via the Mindanao Examiner).
The Philippines is indeed the true decapitation capital of the world, not Iraq, or Afghanistan, having by far the greatest number of sawed-off, hacked-off heads. But only if you are poor and unknown, not rich, powerful, famous or an acquaintance of the peace negotiators and peace lecturers.
Section 8. The Philippines, consistent with the national interest, adopts and pursues a policy of freedom from nuclear weapons in its territory.
In an opinion piece published by ABSCBN News Online entitled, "Beyond the Tragedy, the USS Ronald Reagan" Professor Miriam Coronel Ferrer echoes a line of reasoning and propaganda that most Fipinos long ago rejected and disdained and have come to recognize from CPP-NPA-NDF websites and manifestoes as motivated primarily by that indispensable grievance of long-standing which blames the United States for our own failures and inability to clean up our own messes and make something out of this rich country and its talented people.
Prof. Ferrer refers to the generous offer of having the crew, facilities, aircraft and supplies of the USS Ronald Reagan as
"the token gesture of US President Bush to send over one of the Navy’s prime aircraft carrier, an offer made convenient by the fact that the Nimitz class, nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan was in nearby Hong Kong."
A commenter on my earlier post on this subject (Sparks) summarizes the rest of it:
prof. ferrer will faint if she reads this blog post!
i do not think the article is "decrying the generous help" of the US. having just read the article again, i think these are the main points:
1. defending the country's sovereignty (i.e. that we ultimately should have a say on what goes on in our country)
- "But the main problem is and always has been that we have had to rely on the US’s word – or silence -- on the matter."
2. And the second main point is her critique of the militarisation of 'humanitarian' aid:
- "we can’t be blind to the dangers in the militarization of humanitarian aid, a global trend where military buildup is increasingly twinned with humanitarian goals, with the end result of more resources going to defense."
- "Finally, there is a subliminal, discomfiting message being sent when warships are glorified beyond their real purpose. Military objects and symbols are deceptively juxtaposed with humanitarianism. The USS Ronald Reagan’s insignia comes with the words "Peace through strength" because Reagan believed that America won the Cold War by virtue of being strong."
manong naman eh. you shouldn't discredit people whose opinions run contrary to yours by simply calling them communists. are you getting lazy?
Another commenter (Anna de Brux) charmingly chimes in with:
Dean,
You are incorrigible -- what you are effectively saying now with your gobbledygookings is you are willing to shit on Philippine charter provisions so long as you defend US rights to shit on Phil waters. How can you frigging convince people that what you are saying is right?
OK, nuff!
Read my post you nig nog -- it was basically a reply to your question to Manuel Buecamino, you turd!
Re: "mb, what nuclear weapons, mb?"
The rest of the comment had nothing to do with legally defending your hated left.
I don't believe that any of this navel gazing has anything to do with Constitutionalism or any genuine concern for the presence of nuclear weapons in the country.
The position taken here against the presence of the USS Ronald Reagan is really not very different from the Myanmar Military Junta's strange and weird rejection of international aid after a similar natural disaster devastated that country. Just like Burma (Myanmar) the Philippines will probably now take months to recover from Typhoon Frank, in large measure because some many of our pundits are more into radical international politics than concentrating on what is good for us.
I challenge Prof. Ferrer to try and explain her intellectual Constitutionalism to those suffering relatives of the Princess of the Stars tragedy and to the hundreds of thousands of unfortunate victims of Typhoon Frank, specifically the clause in the provision that reads, "consistent with the national interest" which Constitutional experts have declared gives the President a lot of wiggle room in what to do. Unfortunately, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo doesn't know what's good for her country either and buckled to pressure from the leftist media. As a consequence, the Princess of the Stars is still capsized and all over the archipelago people are desperate for help, which of course neither she, nor the smug intellectuals so suddenly dedicated to the Constitution (that many of them actually want to destroy), can give them.
Just like in Myanmar! SUSMARYOSEP!
And if people think only the Left is infected with the Myanmar Syndrome, check out the JPE-Miriam-Joker Comedy Hour.
I agree with you that for Art to re-marry Beauty, it must re-acquire a reverence for the deep mystery of existence itself. But I think that to relocate such reverence and sense of awe of the Universe in such a things as God and Religion is now an impossible thing and a fruitless nostalgia. The air has gone out of those balloons and the vast atmosphere into which it has escaped cannot be recompressed into such tiny vessels. What has replaced them are Science and Reason, which point to an even deeper end of the pool, to a greater limitlessness than Christianity or Islam or other organized religion. I am not at all pessimistic about Art as such. What is derided as modern art has been a century long exhalation of bad vapors, to be sure. But it leads to an opening of our eyes and ears and other senses to vistas beyond the Cathedral of superstition and human vanity. Modern man is tired of looking at himself in the mirror of religion and exclaiming “God!” — for it turns out we are the Great Artificer in disguise. Accepting that is a more genuine humility.
DOUBTS are being raised about Colombia's "impeccable rescue" of Ingrid Betancourt and fifteen others including three American contractors. Claims of a secret payoff to secure the release are discussed in the Times Online article by Charles Bremner in Paris and Thomas Catan in Madrid:
Doubts emerged from reports in Europe and Latin America that the Colombian forces may not have fooled the rebels but enjoyed their complicity. Le Monde suggested that Gerardo Aguilar, the rebel in charge of the hostages, had given them up in return for a promise of amnesty. It linked this with President Sarkozy’s offers of asylum to Farc personnel. He renewed the offer on the night of Ms Betancourt's release. “Was Aguilar turned by the army, or even bought? Questions and doubts remain,” it said.
On television, as Ms Betancourt’s aircraft was landing, Dominique Moisi, former director of the French Institute of International Relations, said that money had probably been used in an operation to infiltrate the Farc leadership. “They were bought to turn them, like Mafia chiefs,” he said.
Swiss public radio cited an informed Colombian source as saying that the operation had been staged to cover up the fact that the US and Colombians had paid $20 million for their freedom. The hostages released on Wednesday “were in reality ransomed for a high price, and the whole operation afterwards was a set-up”, it said. Three of the hostages were agents of the US Drug Enforcement Agency, said to have been detached from the FBI.
French state media also raised questions about Ms Betancourt’s healthy appearance on her release, compared with the gaunt and haggard look of her last video from captivity. France Inter radio suggested that the hostages may have been given food and medicine before a planned release.
Colombian and French authorities have denied or dismissed these doubts as "completely false." I think an indication of the whole truth may yet emerge in whether FARC implodes from such a stunning defeat or explodes in renewed vigor and violence. Often that is the only way to tell.
Republican Presidential candidate John McCain wisely stayed away from the Betancourt limelight, even though it was some coincidence that he happened to be in Colombia at the time of the rescue.
I remember last year that our own DILG Secretary Ronnie Puno also claimed that the government had engineered a brilliant "sting operation" on the Abu Sayyaf Group in Basilan to miraculously secure the release of the hostaged Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi "without bloodshed or ransom". Or any arrests of the terrorist kidnappers. In the year that followed, there came in quick succession the ambush and beheading of fourteen Marines on Basilan (after peace negotiators stopped a Basilan judge from arresting MILF bigwigs suspected of involvement in the horrific incident); the ambush killings of over 56 Philippine Army troopers in Sulu at the hands of the ASG/MNLF; the beheadings of six Philippine summer students also in Sulu; and just recently the spectacular kidnapping and subsequent release of news anchor person Ces Drilon and three others. In the latter her family admits to having paid a 5 million peso ransom, though the DILG and police are now denying that an addition 15 million peso ransom payoff was also delivered from government coffers.
At this very moment, the Abu Sayyaf is holding hostage four employees of the Basilan Electric Cooperative, Alberto and Emilberto Singson, and Paul and Ian Helwig who were seized by armed men led by Abu-Sayyaf sub-leader Nur Hasan Jamiri in Sitio Batubabag, Barangay Sinulatan, Tuburan last week. Being relative "nobodies" there is hardly any press coverage of the incident in the local media to compare with the brouhaha over Ces Drilon's kidnapping--and ominously for them, no one to pay the ransom demanded or carry out a brilliant rescue.
ARIANA HUFFINGTON of the Huffington Post writes (and you can hear her chalk-grating-on-a-blackboard voice even without moving your own lips) in a Memo to Obama: Moving to the Center is for Losers. She's very unhappy and wags her long manicured finger at the presumptive Democratic Party presidential candidate for his recent positions on FISA, gun control laws, expansion of the death penalty, and NAFTA? In something as a rare as a planetary conjunction, Fox News Opinion pundits Dick Morris and Eileen Gann wholeheartedly agree and lay out a whole new winning strategy for John McCain, saying that "McCain can do much to force Obama back to the left and cast doubt on his efforts to move to the middle." So the extreme Left wants Obama to stay on the Left, and it seems, so does the extreme Right! Hmm...lucky for both the Democrat and Republican parties none of these prodigious geniuses happen to be their Candidate for President. Now if Barack Obama is Mr. Flip Flop on the above named issues, John McCain is Mr. Flop Flip and has a lot of explaining to do too on the issues of GWB's tax cuts, oil drilling and immigration.
Haha! Let the Games begin! Happy Fourth of July, y'all!
PLDT Chair Manny Pangilinan told an audience in Chicago today that "Ethics and Morality are good for business." So, I wonder when PLDT/Smart will quit paying the New People's Army extortion money not to bomb his cell phone towers, a protection racket that seems to have been imitated now by Muslim separatists down south and even the Taliban in Afghanistan. I think the 1987 Philippine Constitution speaks loudly and clearly for itself on the matter of nuclear weapons:
Section 8. The Philippines, consistent with the national interest, adopts and pursues a policy of freedom from nuclear weapons in its territory.
On the other hand, Miriam Coronel Ferrer in her opinion piece today decrying the generous help extended to thousands of Filipinos by the crew and officers of the USS Ronald Reagan, was really talking loudly and clearly for the CPP-NPA, who are high and dry in the Netherlands as their leader continues to face a murder investigation by the Dutch. But he does not lack for surrogates willing to make the silliest arguments against our national interests.
ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, 1861, Abraham Lincoln addressed a Special Session of the American Congress. I think his words are as fresh and insightful today in respect of our own problems in Mindanao. His demand that secession is conscionable only "for a just cause" is equally applicable to the warlords, terrorists, and politicians of our own South, who would re-enslave the Bangsamoro People to the "sanctified inequality" of theocratic Islamic sultanates that they have nonetheless successfully disguised as a glorious past and harnessed for restoration through a movement of "national liberation":
It might seem at first thought to be of little difference whether the present movement at the South be called "secession" or "rebellion." The movers, however, well understand the difference. At the beginning they knew they could never raise their treason to any respectable magnitude by any name which implies violation of law. They knew their people possessed as much of moral sense, as much of devotion to law and order, and as much pride in and reverence for the history and Government of their common country as any other civilized and patriotic people. They knew they could make no advancement directly in the teeth of these strong and noble sentiments. Accordingly, they commenced by an insidious debauching of the public mind. They invented an ingenious sophism, which, if conceded, was followed by perfectly logical steps through all the incidents to the complete destruction of the Union. The sophism itself is that any State of the Union may consistently with the National Constitution, and therefore lawfully and peacefully , withdraw from the Union without the consent of the Union or of any other State. The little disguise that the supposed right is to be exercised only for just cause, themselves to be the sole judge of its justice, is too thin to merit any notice.
Perhaps the only difference is that their disguise is not so thin and is abetted by so-called peace advocates in our own polity, and by historians who ignore and paper over the brutality and cruelty of those ancien regimes now glorified and glamorized by pundits. So before any grand ransom for a whole nation hostaged to a false history is once more paid by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, such as a homeland for the MILF/MNLF/ASG warlords and politicians, we must insist on a free, fair and internationally supervised referendum. The Constitution may not simply be cast aside so she can have her "peace legacy" in exchange for the electoral "favors" she got in Lanao (2004) and Maguindanao (2006). The utter disaster and failure of the ARMM since 1996 only proves that those with whom the government is negotiating today also do not have the full support of the people of Mindanao and are only the latest in a series of extortionists and pretenders, acceding to whom would not lead to peace but further instability and war, mostly among themselves.
These two audio recordings are my readings from Thomas McKenna, Muslim Rulers and Rebels (Everyday Politics and Armed Separatism in Southern Philippines, Chapter 3), Anvil Publishing House, Copyright 1998, Regents of the University of California.
Islamic Rule in Cotabato (read by Dean Jorge Bocobo)
European Impositions and the Myth of Morohood (read by Dean Jorge Bocobo)
Philippine American Commentary is taking a fresh look at the historical record in Mindanao. Too much of what passes for the history of that troubled island that in our mass media is uncritically accepted as true but is actually merely "politically correct." This first reading is from Thomas McKenna, Muslim Rulers and Rebels (Everyday Politics and Armed Separatism in Southern Philippines, Chapter 3), Anvil Publishing House, Copyright 1998, Regents of the University of California.
Islamic Rule in Cotabato (read by Dean Jorge Bocobo)
European Impositions and the Myth of Morohood (read by Dean Jorge Bocobo)
INGRID BETANCOURT'S dramatic rescue from Colombian terrorists has electrified the world. Her 2,321 days in jungle captivity certainly dwarves Ces Drilon's 10 days in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf though we must certainly be even more concerned now for those four Basilan Electric Cooperative employees still being held by the Abus and likely to be beheaded unless they are similarly rescued. But the fact that no one now even seems to care about the latter just goes to show the hypocrisy and moral inconsistency of the local media. There's hardly a peep about these latest captives now, no hand-wringing editorials or bleeding heart opinion columns, as compared to the round-the-clock coverage of Ces Drilon's kidnapping. So much for the public's right to know the dedication of Commercial journalism to it. MISSIONARY GRACIA BURNHAM, who was kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf and held with her husband and several others by the Abu Sayyaf for over a year in 2002, told her story again on Larry King Live today. Martin Burnham was killed during the rescue gunbattle, whose ineptness compares badly to Betancourt's impeccable rescue. She now lives in Kansas. LIBEL IS JOURNALISTIC MALPRACTICE: Repeated calls to decriminalize libel in the Philippines are made by the same exact people who would not support the same thing for medical malpractice. Yet the reputation and honor of a person is as unrecoverable as a life or limb irresponsibly snuffed out by a medical malpractitioner. If anything criminal sanctions against libelers in the Press ought to be increased considering how often the pen is used like a sword or blunt weapon by extortionists and blackmailers disguised as journalists. Amando Doronila of the Philippine Daily Innuendo claims that the Courts have handed the Press a major setback with decisions like that convicting Ninez Cacho Olivarez of libel, and the recent Manila Pen decision. Yet how many thousands of libel cases has the Press gotten away scot free on compared to the one or two where they don't. MILF to peace groups: "Don't bother us while we are making war!" What they really want is a 1000-barangay ransom reward for holding the whole country hostage all these years, just like the MNLF and Nur Misuari got. It's time to put the MILF and the MNLF on the US, EU and United Nations terrorist list (since the Philippines' Human Security Act is worthless piece of junk, being more like a Terrorist Bill of Rights than anything else.) The Convenors of the Black & White Movement have never quite understood why the mighty force of People Power did not long ago topple Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, even though the scandals and corruption in her administration make Joseph Estrada look like saint. But that won't keep them from rubbing the lamp ever more vigorously in hopes a Genie will come out. They cannot accept the fact that it was the Edsa Dos Coup d'etat that Davide, Reyes, GMA and they accomplished which killed the democracy restored at Edsa One (such as it was!). You can't fool the people all the time, guyz and galz! At least Erap knew what to do with Camp Abubakr...
I first saw the above Japanese cell phone company ad on CNN which said:
(CNN) — A Japanese cell phone company has pulled one of its television ads that used a monkey to portray Sen. Barack Obama.
The commercial opens with a crowd rallying behind a well-dressed monkey speaking from a podium. The supporters are cheering and waving signs that say “Change.” In the ad, the monkey was encouraging users to change providers.
Watch: Cell phone company pulls ad
The company behind the ad, eMobile Ltd., insists it had no idea of any racial undertones and says the ad was just a nod at Obama’s worldwide popularity.
Eric Gan, president of eMobile, points out that their company’s mascot is a monkey – an animal revered in Japan — and has been used in previous ads.
“When we saw the idea for the first time, it was ‘Hey, you're copying the idea from the presidential election in the U.S.’ Yes, but, you know, that's how you make a presentation. How you make an impact. We thought it quite was interesting,” he said.
Bloggers immediately voiced their disapproval of the ad and accused the company of being racist.
Gan says the company was unaware of how the ad might be interpreted, but “now, of course, we know.”
I'm not paying much attention to the statements and reactions of either supporters or opponents of the Democratic Presidential candidate in this November's US Presidential elections because I want to see how BARACK OBAMA himself reacts to it.
Will he ignore it? Be indifferent? Be defensive or outraged? Or will he laugh it off and say something witty, intelligent, stupid?
To me it is an important gauge of his character on the aspect of RACE in this historic election. It has implications too for things like "cultural sensitivity" and even, "foreign policy" and "diplomacy." A pop quiz, a calibration test. Never mind what anybody else says. Not that my one vote matters, but how he reacts will tell me a great deal about him and what I must think of him for the purpose of exercising the precious sacred right of suffrage and in what direction I ought to case my small particle of national sovereignty.
What really is Barack Obama, the Black and White Man, made of?
More on the character issue with respect to the problem of EVIL in the world, with a comparison to John McCain--over at the Volokh Conspiracy.
For those who've been following all the breath-taking developments in cosmology and string theory, dark matter and dark energy, even at the layman's level, there is some exciting news from the frontier of physics (via Richard Dawkins) from Stephen Hawking. (what a hero!) Religion hasn't produced anything quite this exciting for over 2,000 years, at least. This is NOT your grandfather's Big Bang. I'm becoming more and more comfortable with a notion that occurred to me because of something Blackshamasaid recently about how Religion gave rise to Science. I now think that Science evolved out of Religion much as Riemannian Geometry evolved out of Euclidean Geometry through the removal of an axiom or postulate. That postulate was the axiom called "God." What is delusory about modern Religion is not really its methods, such as Aristotelian logic, nor its moral conclusions at their core, but the God Postulate alone and its absurd logical consequences, theorems and lemmas. Remove that and you enter the physical universe described by Hawking and the biological universe of Darwin.
By the way, what is more neurotoxic to fisherfolk, market vendors and society's sanity: Endosulphan pesticide or the precautionary principle of panic first before anything else that Greenpeace and the inutile Government has foisted on us? Susmaryosep! Prices of fresh fish and seafood are reportedly down by up to 50% at the Navotas seafood market but people aren't buying because they've have been spooked by all the media hype over endosulphan contaminating fish half an archipelago away. Now it turns out there is only about 100 kg. of active endosulphan ingredient on board the capsized Princess of the Stars and its in tightly sealed containers. Well, that's commercial journalism for you...
Which is probably why only scant attention is being paid to those four new kidnapped hostages of the MILF/Abu Sayyaf Group compared to the round-the-clock coverage of Ces Drilon, her two camera men and a professor for peace! After all who in the media really cares about some no-name employees of a Basilan electric cooperative. So what if they get beheaded, right? Anyway the famous tv anchorwoman Ces Drilon is safe, eh?
Manuel L. Quezon III takes up the issue of the Manila Pen caper, in which the most recent development is a decision by the Makati Regional Trial Court junking a ten million peso class action law suit by journalists who got in the way of law enforcers trying to serve arrest warrants against military rebels Sonny Trillanes and Danilo Lim. He points to an editorial in Business World (most likely written by Vergel O. Santos, one of the losing plaintiffs in the case) in which the faint complaint against the decision is heard that, "No attempt whatever has been made to validate it against superior legal principles, such as laid down in the constitution, in particular freedom of the press." Such an accusation cannot however be made against this blog and it is most unfair of MLQ3 to characterize my position as trivializing the importance of the decision as a mere comeuppance for the plaintiffs as I have always proudly and loudly argued these issues from "superior legal principles". Here is a small selection of relevant posts that I urge my good friend MLQ3 to peruse and debate on their own merits:
The reader will hopefully find more than just "superior legal principles" argued in these posts, but common sense and reason as well, to guard against the creeping liberal fascism of those in the Mass Media who haven't a care for the principle that Justice is Fairness and that NO RIGHT is unlimited by the duty to uphold the Constitution. Press Freedom as organized journalism is a MERE commercial right that like a spring cannot rise higher than its source in EVERYONE'S rights and freedoms. It is the height of hubris to claim that the right to sell news, views and entertainment somehow trumps the right to life and law and order.
The full text of the Makati Regional Trial Court decision dismissing the class action suit of the Manila Pen journalists is provided by ABSCBN News Research Dept. (pdf)
