Philippine President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino III has long maintained that the Philippines is impoverished because of corruption. He also maintains that said corruption was what described the last ten years stretching from 2001 up to 2010 — the period within which ruled former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA). We can then infer on the back of the logic of President BS Aquino that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was the cause of Philippine poverty, having been the ruling President over that period. This dubious conclusion ties in squarely with President BS Aquino’s campaign slogan back in 2009 — Kung walang kurap, walang mahirap (“If there is no corruption there will be no poverty”). Taking it to its ultimate conclusion, President BS Aquino will have us believe that if GMA is put away, Philippine poverty will be solved.
[Photo courtesy Australia Network News.]
Indeed, as AFP reports…
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The granting of bail appeared a major setback for her successor, Benigno Aquino, who has said that bringing Arroyo to justice for crimes she allegedly committed while in power is crucial to his high-profile anti-graft campaign.
Aquino won the 2010 presidential elections in a landslide after campaigning to wipe out corruption that he said crippled Philippine society during the nearly 10 years Arroyo was in power.
Arroyo was arrested on charges of “electoral sabotage” following a travel ban imposed by Department of Justice Secretary Leila De Lima in defiance of a Supreme Court ruling allowing GMA to seek medical treatment abroad.
Wednesday, the 25th July 2012, eight months after her arrest and detention, GMA was released on bail…
Court spokeswoman Felda Domingo said Arroyo was released after posting bail of 1 million pesos ($23,250). She said Arroyo, who won a seat in Congress in 2010 after stepping down from the presidency, cannot leave the country and needs court permission to visit her district in the northern province of Pampanga.
Judge Jesus Mupas ruled that the evidence presented by prosecutors was not strong enough to deny bail. Election sabotage is normally a non-bailable offense, but bail can be granted if defendants show that the evidence against them is weak.
Looks like President BS Aquino’s plan to fulfill his campaign promises have been put in jeopardy. In the mind of the President, GMA is the singular cause of pretty much everything that ails the Philippines and, as such, he sees her continued incarceration as the good luck charm from which emanates his power to slay the country’s demons. This thinking is consistent with what has so far been the standout priority activities that has so far marked the Second Aquino Administration from Day One — to mount a purge of anything, anyone, everything, and everyone associated with the government of GMA.
But is an entire program of reform pivoted upon one person’s existence evidence of an intelligent agenda? I illustrated the flaw in this kind of thinking a while back in the form of the question Who cares if Gloria is president after 2010? the intricacies of which I featured in a previous article. The full-length form of this question is spelt out as follows, forged at the height of the ocho-ocho political circuses that were erupting back in 2008; thus,
Is there some kind of evidence or at least some kind of logical construct that convincingly describes some kind of causal relationship between (A) the character or even identity of the President of the Philippines and (B) the prospects of the Philippines achieving some semblance of sustainable prosperity?
Back then the political activist’s tagline of choice was simple enough for morons to internalise (as with most successful slogans)…
A Gloria Arroyo presidency beyond 2010 will spell disaster for the Philippines.
… and therefore …
Patalsikin na, NOW na! (“Oust her right now!”)
But, see, the premise of the above “call to action” of the politically passionate folks of 2008 would ideally have been underpinned by thinking around the following conceptual framework that is an expansion of the question I posed above:
Can we, infer from a value of A [who the President is], what the probability distribution for a set of values of B [how the economy performs] might be?
For example, what many people claim to be a certainty can be expressed like this (using the conventions I loosely spelled out above):
IF A = GMA and Year > 2010,
THEN B = Disaster for the Philippinesor, for that matter;
IF A is NOT equal to GMA and Year > 2010,
THEN B = Prosperity for the PhilippinesMy question is this: Is there an A=>B relationship?
Despite the above question remaining unanswered, many Filipinos ate up the “activist” tagline hook line and sinker. And so here we are now under the leadership of the Second Aquino Administration — well past the Year 2010, the Patalsikin Na Now Na crowd victorious.
Yet the question of whether or not we have a better economy much less a better Philippines today remains debatable. And the debate will rage on, perhaps coming out of the Year 2016 (the end of Aquino’s term as President) utterly unresolved. In fact, as I pointed out above, it is unresolvable. In short, “debate” on this matter is a waste of time.
Suffice to say, not too many people were really impressed by the State of the Nation Address delivered last Monday (the 23rd July 2012) by President BS Aquino to joint sessions of Congress. In fact, much of the economic “achievements” the President grandstanded about trace their roots to initiatives hatched during the supposedly eeevvviillll watch of GMA.
GMA is out on bail now. If we are to subscribe to the logic of President BS Aquino, a dark cloud has once again descended upon our wretched nation. As such, perhaps then, the President may as well give up.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
About the only thing that improved the Philippine economy is GMA’s absence per se, given that the Filipino business community hated her (or is it her husband?) for dipping fingers too much into their dealings.
May susunod pa siyang plunder case na malakas na kaso laban sa kanya. Hindi pa tapos ang laban kontra korupsyon. Tuloy ang laban!
@Fishball
Kung malakas ang kaso, bakit mahina ang ebidensya?
Malakas ang kaso? Well, why should I believe from a sycophant like you? Why am I not surprised. 😛
Kung malakas talaga ang kaso, I should ask: is there a strong evidence? If there is, then deliver the punishment, not the pussyfooting that is the trial by media.
This only proves that the yellow zombie retards are getting desperate to jail GMA even if the evidences against her are very very very very WEAK.
If we are to believe demagogue BS Aquino, I wonder why up to now none among Malacanang people has lifted a finger to shoot and kill the mother (PGMA)of all misfortunes that plagued the Philippines since 2002 so that our country will be magically transformed into a prosperous nation as what it once was.
That’s probably because a lot of people in Malacanan know in their gut that she really IS innocent of a lot of the charges lined up against her.
It’s a cycle, actually; the first Aquino couldn’t bring Marcos up to the courts because she probably knows that he’s innocent of some charges against him.
Fishshit must be crying a lot right now since his precious president’s presidency is now in jeopardy since PGMA has been released.
The clock is ticking for PNoy…..
that is what he wants to believe, or everybody to believe so they don’t blame his ineptitude. As if there was no corruption during his mother’s term. This guy is an idiot not to know that corruption was perfected during Marcos’ time.
that is what he wants to believe, or everybody to believe so they don’t blame his ineptitude. As if there was no corruption during his mother’s term. This guy is an idiot if he does not know that corruption was perfected during Marcos’ time, it was already festering during his mother’s watch.
Firstly, I don’t see corruption as the cause of Philippine poverty, though it does put a wrench in the works of some anti-poverty measures.
Next, the effort to jail GMA is something like this: You know you have a lot of thieves in your town. Because they’re hard to catch, you decide to catch one who is only a suspect, not proven to be a thief, but you publicly torture and execute him just the same. So you declare that thievery has ended in your town… even if all the other thieves in the town are still roaming free.
Wonder what the anti-Glorianists are so worried about? She’s only on bail and isn’t even allowed to leave the country, as a Hold Departure Order has been issued, I believe.
What do you expect ChinoF? Noynoy has never had a challenge in his life. His mother’s death gift wrapped his election win. he claims he can eliminate corruption and poverty. Of course he will go after the fish in the barrell. He can’t even control his own friends who have their own E Pass in the ‘Daang Matuwid’ . The guy before the election was never a leader, never accomplished , never a doer, never a hardworker. He had no track record. Only complete morons believe that he is any different now.
Even his own fans keep repeating the same mantra for lack of any substance “GMA, Gloria , GMA , Gloria” The same way Noynoy believed making the “L” sign was campaigning.
GMA was used by Noynoy Aquino to blame everything, that are not working in the Philippines. This is to hide, Noynoy Aquino’s incompetence, and laziness…It is political inquistion in our century. The Aquinos did it on Marcos. Now , they are doing it on GMA.
One does not have to be a lawyer , much less a John Grisham or a Perry Mason to see that that the charge on PGMA was based on pure hearsay. Yet it took the RTC judge 8 long months to grant her the right to bail. If that is not dark ages for Philippine justice I don’t know what is.
Hi! new here, I have been reading articles and comments here for several weeks now and I’m glad there are still lots of people having the same way of thinking as mine. In our place I’m branded as “Wierdo” for watching “Mega Factories” instead of the daily telenovelas at “walang pakisama” for not being like them believing and agreeing with current admin, playing tong -it all day and busy finding ways to fake or falsify old medical documents to claim/ask money from public officials saying they need financial support.I’m not really a big fan of GMA but I did vote for her. Why? simply because for me she was the logical choice. I will certainly vote for her again if she will once again run for the presidency. I don’t want to be rude but President Noynoy BS Aquino is my exact definition of a useless country leader. I have to grudge against him personally or to any member of his family but what he is doing(is he doing anything?) is very obvious, like RF Gracia said I don’t need to be a lawyer to see what noynoy is doing but then again this is the Philippines, it’s more fun here. NO rules, No Law, No Punishment, well that applies only to those yellow paytard zombie and otcho -otcho hakot raliyista and the KKK of Mr. noynoy. Oh! and also those trolls that appear in this site every now and then.
Being an outsider is never a bad thing. In fact, if you feel you have become an “insider”, then that should be a signal for you to start thinking about whether you are becoming too comfy with the status quo. This is why consultants make a thriving trade. They provide an outsider’s perspective on problems that insiders are aware of but are too encumbered by relationships and agendas within their clique or organisation to act upon or even express an opinion on.
Hi! Cebuano from Melbourne, Aus here. I have been trolling this site for some time now.
Big thumbs up for the comment posted. I’m also the type of person that enjoys watching documentaries and educational programs on nat geo and the discovery channel. I remember being on a bus in Seattle, WA one time with some pinoys, and the topic shifted to TV programs. They asked me which shows I enjoy watching, I said the news. I could see that their eyebrows raised and they looked at me like I was an alien.
It’s again gonna be more Telenovela events coming soon from BF Aquino and cohorts.
Bondying, grow up!
Corruption exist in every countries rich and poor alike. Even here in the U.S. it exist in many forms so if the president thinks this is the only problem of why the Philippines is poor. He must be out of his mind. Panahon pa ng mga Kastila may kurapsyon na kahit pa noong panahon ng mga amerikano. Perhaps what he meant was to minimize corruption but even so poverty will still exist b/c corruption is only part of the problem. What about population control?
Corruption exist in every countries rich and poor alike. Even here in the U.S.and in Europe it exist in many forms so if the president thinks this is the only problem of why the Philippines is poor. He must be out of his mind. Panahon pa ng mga Kastila may kurapsyon na kahit pa noong panahon ng mga amerikano. Perhaps what he mean is to minimize corruption but even so poverty will still exist b/c corruption is only part of the problems. Why don’t he include in his agenda to reform the govt.kaya maraming kurap dahil maraming butas sa sistama ng gobyerno. We need to reform the current system of government and control the population in order to bring about change in the country.
Exactly, that is why it is so annoying to know most Filipinos still believe BS Aquino’s “pag walang corrupt…yada yada….”
I bet my life if after 6 years of Pnoy’s presidency that he can eradicate poverty among us – “walang mahirap”. Oh common Mr. President! You’re fooling us. The worst thing is that he uses personality as scapegoats – GMA, RC,etc. It’s the system of governance that create the systemic problem of poverty and unequity, not personality.