Normally giving stuff to poor people and taking the opportunity to adorn these “gifts” with logos or representations of your organisation is not necessarily bad. So, on one hand, I do agree with communications expert JP Fenix “tak[ing] exception to the negative comments on [ABS-CBN broadcast journalist Korina Sanchez’s] advocacy of giving away new rubber slippers to poor school kids all over the country”. Corporations do it, non-profit organisations do it, even the Roman Catholic Church does it. There is nothing wrong with it within the context of normal circumstances.
The trouble is, on the other hand, the Philippines is not a normal country. A vast corruption scandal that had recently erupted after the crooked activities that precipitated it festered under the radar for more than two decades was the final straw that broke the camel’s back. The Philippines has, for the longest time, been beset by macro-level trust issues that go way back and profoundly underlie the character of its society. Back in 2003, I wrote the article Corruption: Root cause or mere symptom? where I observed…
Trust is progressively eroded in a society afflicted by endemic corruption. When trust among a people is reduced, more control measures are applied. And as more control measures are applied, the more the atmosphere of mistrust thickens. More control measures mean slower processes and more human intervention in these processes breeding more opportunity for corruption. The grotesquely convoluted systems and procedures that paralyse our nation’s bureaucratic processes are a legacy of this runaway positive feedback loop — corruption breeding mistrust, mistrust breeding controls, controls breeding more corruption.
Jaime Licauco in an Inquirer article dated 22 May 2001 went as far as saying that: “A nation whose policies and rules are based on the assumption that everybody is a cheat and liar unless proven otherwise cannot long endure. Take a close look at our bureaucracy and its rules. It is burdened by elaborate and often unnecessary checks and balances so that nothing ever gets done in the process.” So even before anti-pork “activism” became a national fashion statement, the Philippines has already been suffering from a crisis of mutual trust. In short, even way back, Filipinos, as a matter of personal policy, do not trust one another.
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What does this have to do with Korina Sanchez? Everything. What would normally be construed to be a benign act of printing one’s name on a pair of slippers given out for charity purposes became darkly suspect in the eyes of a Filipino public made irreversibly cynical by decades of institutionalised thievery and grotesquely perverse feudal politics. It also did not help Sanchez that her husband is erstwhile Disaster Management Posterboy Mar Roxas, Interior and Local Government Secretary Extraordinaire, and that she proved a bit witless when she failed to realise that that marriage turned her position as one of the country’s most revered broadcast “journalists” into a sad conflict-of-interest waiting to happen. Trouble is, Sanchez just had to open her big entitled mouth. And so the worms in that canned conflict-of-interest were sprung.
No matter how you look at analysing this circus, all causal roads lead to the daftness of the Roxas-Sanchez celebrity couple. You’d think a Harvard grad and an experienced broadcast personality would have worked out what the future holds for a marriage between a politician and a media mannequin.
Tough luck. At least this lack of foresight only resulted in a bruised mega-ego and a toasted media career. For some less fortunate souls, lack of foresight can prove to be fatal. So let’s get over feeling sorry for Mar and Korina.
They’ll live to epal another day.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
I still feel sorry for both of them having the misfortune to have not inherited any functioning brain matter or sense of self worth. I would not give either of them a drink of water, even from my toilet, if they were dying of thirst.
It is so hateful that major media outlets, (including internet sites) are too involved in this crisis of mutual trust, whoring themselves instead of being the guiding light for all the filipinos.
Does anyone feels sorry for Korina? I don’t have a single oz of sympathy for pinoy politicians.
Korina Sanchez is an evil, self center, self promoting piece of shit, opportunist dirty cunt whore. This slut has no soul and no one should defend this tramp. This bitch has used her BJ skills to get where she is at. If her face and her fake boobs were on fire, I would not piss on her, that may turn off the fire, but I would probably take a shit on her. Shit deserves shit! Korina, Roxas and Aquino are the biggest pieces of shit and one day will get what they deserve!
I don’t care for her either but this is offensive, you sound like a serious piece yourself
Mr/Ms. Proud American….take it easy.
Who do you think you are to say such things. Garbage….
Korina, unless you publicly apologize and humble yourself, you will be the scrutiny of the Filipino people. You say, “HOW DARE YOU CNN”, I say, how dare you, Korina, take advantage of the Filipino people in the midst of the chaos my poor Filipino brothers and sisters have to endure in this horrible, horrible experience of loss! You better make up for your arrogance or you can burn in HELL.
Giving those slippers, with Corina Sanchez Roxas name on it. It means, there is an ulterior motive, on her part to do this “charitable act”. Mar Roxas name is not there. But people know, she is the wife of Mar Roxas. She gave these slippers, not of charity; but hoping that her husband, Mar Roxas, will be remembered, during election. It’ s like those Yellow shirts, printed with the candidates’ names. People are outraged, because, it is done during time of calamity.
Shut up, Filipinos, and open your wallets.
Give. Putting names of donors is inmaterial.
Just give. Folipinos, tragically, waste their time washing dirty linens in public. That’s why their islands and islets find it hard to recover.
@ Anatole Pushkin
I will not give, unless, I know where my money will end up…I paid my taxes. It should be enough. However, these leaders had squandered my tax money; or had stolen it.
Hyden Toro…I’m considering you a piece of shit Filipino and you don’t deserved to be called Filipino. You don’t have to give donation…you can participate in any relief operation just like what im doing. Been in the relief operation for 7 days now and happy to serve our people. So just keep your money and enjoy a bit of it. I just hope and pray that you will not suffer the same tragedy as our brothers and sisters are experiencing now.
You idiot. What HT wrote above is supposed to be the way how each and every filipino thinks. The people gave them resources, and now it is their responsibility to the people to utilize it properly and efficiently. We have the right to know where our tax money is being spent amidst the aftermath of Haiyan.
So you were in relief operations, well and good. How far does that take you, only up until maybe next week, and then what? Next typhoon you will be doing the same. HTs sentiment if heard right will go way longer mileage than relief operations, because if the government will listen, then you wouldn’t need to do relief operations at all come the next calamity.
Isip isip din minsan pag may time, huwag lang react ng react kasi uso.
for real yeah relief ops help but another point which is also valid is if the government just does something fishy to the donations you think that would help? HT is just being realistic imo
Work on you reading comprehension Ako To.
@ Ako To:
I live in California, U.S.A. I have to earn a living here. I have to take care of my family. I married a British girl, two years ago.
I have contributed money, to charitable organizations, like my church. If they are willing to receive relief goods. I will give them.
I may not be a Filipino now, as you said it. Because my wife is a British subject. We can help in many ways, in the relief efforts…I hope you enjoy picking up those rotting corpses, and burying them…you are more than a shit and an asshole…
self promotion in times of tragedy is the height of hypocricy and bad taste.
kris aquino and korina sanchez lead the pack.
no compassion, but an eye for commercial benefit, political exposure, which usually does not even involve putting their hand in their own pocket.
real philanthropists do not need a pat on the back or media exposure.
If Korina’s conflict of interest shows in her commenting on behalf of her husband, what about God’s gift to Journalism, Maria Ressa who threads the thin line between endorser, advertiser and journalist?
http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/44216-whipit-women-who-beat-the-odds
The name of the game is “how low can you go”. Sad thing is a lot of filipinos believe that she really is a gift to journalism.
She’s just protecting her husband. If you’re in her position you will do the same thing or an almost the same thing.
*This article needs to be simplified. There are too many deep English words. An average reader like me can not comprehend everything with just one read.
TROLL. 😀
She’s a journalist. She should do her job and not covering-up. Such a shame. Pfft.
if you are a media person… you should be transparent ..you should not take sides… If korina wants to protect her husband..then she should resign….
Yeah, by being protective you mean she’s oblivious to the fact that her husband seems to be too defensive regarding the aftermath of the storm?
Oh by the way, I’m sure you can access an online dictionary if you encounter an English word that you cannot comprehend.
Idiot.
Filipinos have trust issues because they, for me, are closet imperialists. They actually want to rule each other. When a local Filipino’s business becomes a successful monopoly even in a small town, he does not want competition. If some competition comes up, he’ll have someone sabotage or kill them. He wants everyone to be subject to him in some way. This is my impression of barriotic Pinoys when they gain power of some sort. I bet it happens on the barangay level.
very true ChinoF
They are from planet Mars, not from planet Earth.
No…they are Jerks and Lunitoons, nakawala sa mental Assylum…pinawalaaan ni Mr. Aquino dito sa website…
korina was just misinterpreted…misjudged..she remained a high caliber journalist..
Oh please, if she is a high-caliber journalist…then how come she denies Anderson Cooper’s report when in fact he was actually there from one of the sites that was hit hard by the typhoon?
http://getrealphilippines.com/2013/11/korina-sanchez-and-how-to-avoid-pr-disasters-during-natural-disasters-like-typhoon-yolanda/
I still remember how she lambasted a police officer in front of ABS CBN cameras for incompetence during the early 90’s. Well it turned out her husband is another incompetent officer himself and now she’s the first to defend these incompetent government officials. I may say this evil woman is the MOTHER OF ALL HYPOCRITES.
Korina Sanchez the xxx-wife of ex-presidential candidate Mar Roxas who got a mean throw of slippers is back in the limelight. She grabbed the headline again for attacking fans of K-Pop. As usual Filipinos do not hear her apologize like her target-practice houseslave.
Why should Korina Sanchez apologize when she can never commit wrong !!! If ever she did she is well protected. When this Hong-Kong citizen Korina Sanchez married to ex-AVP Mar Roxas (AVP means in America as mere coffeeboy), oh by the way, did Korina renounced her HK citizenship? please let me know, all the glitters and powerful came to attend her wedding along with SC justices and bishops, PMAyers Queens & Kings. A houseslave ACLU lawyers cannot withstand that onslaught of concentration of power.
Same again with K-Pop Bakya Dowdy Filipino crowds.
(if you haven’t heard of her K-Pop Fans bashing please Google it)