The President talked about the decreased number of poor based on the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) pegging the number of poor at 26%. According to Rep. Colmenares, this is based on a poverty threshold of P58 pesos per day.
This is to say that for matuwid na daan, a Filipino can live on P58 pesos per day.
That’s P58 pesos for food and non-food expenses, including electricity, water and housing, transport expenses, and sending one’s children to school. (more…)
Between the wrong use of the word CHAROT by the Presidential spokesperson Erwin Lacierda, and Liberal Party’s Mar Roxas and wife Korina appearing at a gay power concert; between UNA’s Jejomar Binay having one too many spokespersons (Tiangco, Remulla, Salceda, Ilagan — talbog ang three-headed monster that is PNoy’s communications offices), and the consistent inability to handle criticism and media spin better; things are getting more and more confused and confusing, two candidates into the 2016 Presidential elections. (more…)
The burden of the unexplained has fallen on Presidentiable Jejomar Binay, mostly because he declared his intention to run for President so early. This opened him up to the ongoing Senate Hearings that have villified him and evolved from the Makati City Hall Parking Building II to his alleged involvement in deals to enrich himself via the various posts he holds: from head of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines, to Housing Czar, to ex-Mayor of Makati. And so now there is nothing he might say that is not tainted by questions of graft and corruption, no matter how politically motivated these allegations are. And really, it would do the VP well to start answering these questions instead of brushing it aside and presuming that we don’t want answers. Let’s be clear about one thing: we want, and need, answers from him — and any Presidentiable — running in 2016. (more…)
Ever since this open letter from 2011 I have not found the energy to make patol Jim Paredes at length. Maybe because I just stopped following him on Twitter, and ignored his Facebook all this time. Maybe because the world is a more intelligent place if I do not have to listen to the Jim Paredeses of this world.
And yes, I was able to keep it this way even throughout this PNoy Presidency, when Paredes revealed himself to be nothing but loyal to this President, for reasons that are beyond me. No wait, it is not beyond me. It is actually quite easy to explain: when it comes to PNoy, Paredes has become irrational and unthinking, an enamoured fan, who thinks the world of this President, who cannot do any wrong. PNoy is also the best President EVER. And yes, that’s a direct quote.
Because apparently in order to run a nation, what is most important is who our parents are and how they brought us up. Apparently, the good that the parents stand for is necessarily the son’s and the daughter’s. Never mind that we are all more complex than that, and apparently for Grace Poe, never mind that so often throughout PNoy’s administration (and across Kris Aquino’s career), it has been said that his parents must be turning in their graves.
