Category Archive for: gobyerno

komentaryo

Duterte’s children, lust for power, and a discredited Congress

I don’t know what it is we still expect from a House of Representatives ruled by Duterte’s people — men and women who have clearly made the decision to follow this President’s every whim, who have sold their souls to this devil of a government that engages in state violence, impunity, and the murder of democracy.

But then again, we should’ve known this was going to happen. After all, we watched Congress Reps up in arms versus the better Duterte appointees, when he still had his head on straight, but had absolutely no control over even his own party-mates — oligarchs, businessmen, miners, landlords — who were threatened by the likes of Gina Lopez, Judy Taguiwalo, and Paeng Mariano in the Cabinet. Even then, for all his tapang Duterte was revealed to be nothing more but a coward: there is no one he can control other than those people he can fire or kill — and Congress Reps aren’t that.

And then there are his children — more people he cannot even control, a son and daughter who do not listen to their father, and who have their own agendas. If there’s anyone putting Duterte to shame (more than his big mouth), it is his own children.  (more…)

komentaryo

China, Duterte, and Philippine democracy

No, I don’t think Duterte is scared of China.

I think that he and his men entered into agreements with China, they signed on for projects and the Belt and Road Initiative, and now cannot even take a stand against whatever aggression our fishermen experience from the Chinese in West Philippines Sea. Government (i.e., the Philippines) is so deep in China deals that it has become difficult to even speak. Utang na loob is one of the more effective forms of silencing for Filipinos after all, and China — cunning as it is — doesn’t even need to invoke it; they just know someone like Duterte would feel so indebted there would be no way he would be able to take a stand.

Government propagandists call it “diplomacy.” But let’s assess this situation for what it is: Duterte put all his eggs in the China basket, and now he can’t even find his balls.

Here’s the ironic part though: China has realized that it doesn’t matter that they hold Duterte by the balls. It doesn’t matter because it doesn’t mean they can do all that they want with and in the Philippines. What it’s up against is the rest of us. And Philippine democracy — no matter how it’s been discredited and put into question by the success of Duterte propaganda — still has its balls intact. (more…)

komentaryo

Sitio Malipay and the Villars: a story of landgrabbing

The news has (rightfully) been taken over by the fact that a China Maritime Militia (CMM) vessel, where the CMM is “a subset of China’s national militia, an armed reserve force of civilians available for mobilization to perform basic support duties,” also “a fighting force on the front-line of China’s quest to control the seas.”

But so many things (as always) are happening across the country: activists and human rights advocates are being killed, Mangyan communities are being bombed.

And then there’s Malipay. An urban poor community in Bacoor Cavite which yesterday experienced violence in the hands of armed security and demolition personnel hired by the developers who want to destroy their homes and takeover their land.

To the Malipay community, the perpetrators are clear: the developer Vistaland and Lifescapes Inc. That’s the company OWNED by Senator and Duterte-campaign-funder Cynthia Villar, Duterte crony Manny Villar. DPWH Secretary Mark Villar. (more…)

komentaryo

How We Lost The 2019 Elections #Halalan2019

If there is a lesson to be learned from the outcome of the 2019 elections, it is this: the Duterte machine — guns, goons, gold, plus propaganda — is a success, by ALL counts, and it doesn’t even matter that chief propagandist Mocha didn’t get a seat in Congress.

It has succeeded because we were all oblivious to, decidedly ignoring, all the signs that this leadership would move hell and high water to get the Senate and Congress it needs to continue, Presidential ill-health and worsening poverty and discontent notwithstanding. To be clear: the election results are not a referendum on Duterte — there was enough irregularity, questions of fraud, massive vote buying to disabuse us of that (— it’s so bad Duterte himself has pretty much admitted to fraud.)

But the fact that they were able to get those Senators proclaimed despite all those irregularities, with nary-a-difficult-to-ignore public outcry, that is the referendum we should be looking at. It is also the “referendum” of the past three years. The truth is, beyond the count, we had let Duterte and his people get away with “rigging” this election, so to speak, ensuring a win, no matter how well the opposition(s) campaigned and how much money they put out (think Bam Aquino and Mar Roxas).

Talo na tayo sa eleksyong ito bago pa man tayo bumoto, bago pa man magsimulang magbilang ang COMELEC. We were losing long before campaign season, long before people even declared their intention to run. In fact, by the time we realized there was a slate we could all get behind, we had already lost. How? Let us count the ways.

(more…)

komentaryo

Incredible Elections #Halalan2019

Were we cheated in this elections? I don’t know. Are these elections credible? Not at all.

It’s not even just the results. It’s the irregularities we have heard and / or experienced, it’s the reports of broken down vote counting machines and faulty SD cards, and reports of voters’ receipts coming out with names they didn’t shade on their ballots, it’s the massive vote-buying on the ground that the police admitted to before election day.

But I think what makes this election incredible is not just what happened on the ground (and what was happening long before campaign period — we’ll get to that in another essay). It’s what happened when the precincts closed, and our votes were to be counted, transmitted from the vote counting machines all over the country to the COMELEC server and the transparency server in Manila. (more…)