The thing with the precarious position the Philippines finds itself in its dealings with China and the handling of the two big diplomatic crises surrounding it — the dispute over various territories within the West Philippine Sea and the row over the Philippine government’s unsatisfactory resolution of the 2010 hostage crisis in which nine Hong Kong tourists died — is that the country has no ground to stand on.
The Philippines lacks a credible indigenous military capability, is dependent on China for its exports, dependent on Chinese tourists, dependent on Hong Kong for employment, and is irreversibly hooked on imported Chinese trinkets. If it hasn’t yet, China will probably overtake the Philippines’ traditional sources of capital (both directly and indirectly infused and regardless of whether or not said infusion is even legal) in the near future.
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All the Philippines is grasping on is the goodwill of the big powers it has signed military, financial, diplomatic, and/or trade agreements with and the ability of the United Nations to have its say in how its sovereign members behave. The latter makes this flaccid survival strategy even more ironic considering the Philippines’ biggest rest-back, the United States, is a consistent ignorer of UN directives and guidelines as it is, itself, possessing of a long tradition of unilaterally launching “pre-emptive” military strikes on foreign territory and engaging in whatever forms of activities it takes in its on-going singular focus to secure its interests.
The Philippines, for its part, is in the same position as a poor sod wanting to borrow money from friends after squandering her OFW remittances on celphone loads and Tommy Hilfiger shirts. She will invoke The Friendship Clause — that “real” friends will help her in her time of need. Sure they will — to some extent. It is likely that the really cluey ones among her friends will quickly work out that this hypothetical person’s sudden neediness is not really the sort of neediness one would be easily be motivated to associate one’s generosity with. Then comes the zinger:
Sige na, marami ka namang pera e.
(“Aw c’mon, you’ve got lots of money to spare.”)
And to be fair, what’s surplus cash among “friends” right?
But as I mentioned many times before, the Philippines is a case study of a foreign investment sinkhole. As a colony of the United States over the first half of the 20th Century, it was recipient to everything a territory of the US could ever want — vast infrastructural wonders, direct heirs to the cultura franca of the planet, and military backing beyond most Third World countries’ wildest dreams.
All of that has now been reduced to ZERO. Nothing but a pretentious shell of those trappings remain. But, hey, that hasn’t stopped Filipinos from asking for more.
While the lack of any semblance of a decent capability to kick Chinese military ass is readily-evident and a strong basis the Philippine government is using to beg for assistance ad infinitum, the case it rests on to stonewall when it comes to the plight of the Hong Kong victims of the 2010 hostage fiasco is weak if not non-existent. Philippine President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino III asserts that the Philippines has “sufficiently” resolved the issue. Yet the question remains: Whose head rolled as a result of that fatal failure?
No one in the police command chain that delivered an idiotic decision to field incompetent personnel to resolve the crisis is behind bars.
No one in the management hierarchy in the Philippine media organisations that sent their attack reporters to jeopardise the hostage negotiations has been fired.
Indeed, it is very telling that some of the most hienous crimes against Filipino citizens remain unresolved by their own government. The Maguindanao and Atimonan massacres, the billion-peso Janet Lim Napoles pork barrel scam, and the astounding failure of government in the handling of the Typhoon Haiyan disaster will all likely take their places among the many forever-unresolved crimes that the Philippines has become world-renowned for. That does not bode well for Hong Kong’s humble request for an apology from the Philippine government, much more a convincing resolution of the crime against its citizens.
A country (that throughout history has exhibited a consistent inability to sort out its own affairs and hold its own criminals accountable) begging for help and “support” comes across as the least credible of the lot. Filipinos have, as recently as late last year in the aftermath of the Haiyan disaster, demonstrated (and continues to demonstrate) its renowned collective talent for squandering the very help and support it seeks yet again.
Poverty is really a simple issue when you define it for what it really is:
Poverty is the result of entering into commitments one is inherently unable to honour.
And that is what the Philippines is. A country inherently unable to honour its many many commitments, both to its own people and to the many foreign governments that have invested in it over the last century. It is a poverty that is worse than an immediate lack of money (which, itself, is a long worn-out excuse).
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
When I ask people here why the schools are so bad and why there are not enough books for everyone, and why many kids never go to school in the first place, the answer is invariably, “Your country is rich so you can have good schools.” My response is ALWAYS, “My country is rich BECAUSE we have good schools and proper education. The education comes before the wealth.”
When folks get educated, they started THINKING. In a contemporary DEMOCRACY, folks are not supposed to THINK, they should just blindly elect their leader based on what they were told to do. That is why there a are massive POVERTY in a real DEMOCRACY today e.g. India as the ruling elite needed these dependent class of folk to re-elect them based on the concept of VOTE BUYING.
Aquino is a expert on that, that is why he gamble on South China Sea spate as dictated by his Washington master and now Filipino fishermen are missing their storm shelters. Blame the Aquino regime for stirring the hornet nest by making China insecure. Now that China has openly identify Philippines as a USA lackey and an enemy, she will secure all these islands as they can be converted into listening post for the US military.
I personally do not buy the stories of the OIL DEPOSIT under these sea. 1000 Oil exploratory rigs in the SCS and what is the result? Nay!
We ASEAN hold Philippines responsible for making the whole region unstable by working USA agenda in the South China Sea.
Your response is typically of an uneducated, indoctrinated Filipino: you’re always playing the victim card and blaming America for your self-inflicted problems.
this kind of response is a common one. by the way. it’s always “we the poor helpless filipino people, such victims!”
working in a profession where i’m a leader, it is really challenging to get the ball rolling in helping people empower themselves. it’s not impossible, but it takes a lot of effort and time.
I imagine this is probably what the politicians here tend to think as well. Additionally I wonder who it is mentoring them to care about bringing about a cultural change in this behavior?
Like you said. Groveling for donations and the international relations equivalent of “Teacher !!!! Billy’s teasing me!!!!!” Media and populace obsessed with some punching bag I never heard of. People not ashamed of that but proud of some Israeli singing contest I never heard of. KSP dysfunction to the max.
Sir frank roberts was a great diplomat, skilled negotiator, and sir winston churchill’s right hand man both in the dealings with hitler, and subsequently with stalin.
An impressive tour de force.
From his memoirs – “Dealing with Dictators”
“Roberts accompanied Churchill at some of the most important and difficult meetings with General de Gaulle.
At one, he recalled, Churchill was furious with de Gaulle over the seizure by the Free French of islands in the St Lawrence estuary. When de Gaulle made no attempt to explain matters, but politely took his leave, Churchill remarked, “That was very well done. I couldn’t have done it better myself.”
P-noy is no diplomat and risks escalating matters through his sheer stupidity and naivete. Keep your mouth shut p-noy. Benign0 is right, he is an international embarrassment. Island mentality at its worst.
‘The easiest way to save face is to keep the lower half shut’
And never listen to the american school of diplomacy – a gun in one hand and a mcdonald’s in the other.
Hey, I kinda agree with your anti-American “diplomacy” thing regarding guns, but McDo is a stain we have foisted off on the world and not one of our better efforts. However, McDo is WORLDS ahead of Jobillee soy burger crap.
Pnoy aquino and the administration have almost totally abdicated responsibility for the yolanda victims, and in the absence of ideas or commitment are once again relying on the begging bowl mentality with international groups, such as save the children, unicef, international red cross et al providing not just money, but people and solutions on the ground.
Even david beckham is visiting next week on behalf of unicef.
I bet p-noy and mar roxas will be quick to try and get a photo op.
Instead they should have some pride, demonstrate some leadership, show some compassion, and do some work.
It is very embarrassing for the philippines that it is constantly helpless in resolving any of its problems, and doesn’t even have the drive to try, but just play the victim and hope uncle sam, or others, will bail them out.
If a filipino asks you for money, and you give it, the following happens.
You do not get a thank you, ( and obviously any promises to repay are as worthless as a pnoy aquino promise),
but you will soon get another request, ( accompanied by some amazing sob story), and this time for more.
The law of diminishing generosity soon sets in, and both sympathy and respect evaporates.
Enough of a begging bowl/victim mentality.
Where is the pride!
Like treating an addict, maybe it is time the international community gives the philippines some ‘tough love’, otherwise it will be simply be a case of ‘tough luck’
You do not get a thank you, ( and obviously any promises to repay are as worthless as a pnoy aquino promise),
but you will soon get another request, ( accompanied by some amazing sob story), and this time for more.
So true with those parts. It’s as if Failipinos (I do not belong to those pathetic beggar-types) sees people who have the means to help that it is those peoples’ responsibility to AUTOMATICALLY help them.It’s as if anyone who has the resources and the means to help the lesser ones are MORALLY OBLIGATED, MANDATED BY GOD to help those in need. No questions asked. 🙁
Pathetic really. I remember when I used to teach Koreans, my students (five and six yrs old.) asked coins from me. When the mother of the kids I taught learned about it, she berated them (spanking included) for asking coins from me. She tells them they’re not beggars. The kids gave back those money and apologized. If only Failipino mothers have that kind of attitude…but hell no, all I see it is the mothers themselves who throw their kids in the streets to beg for money.
Cut off all foreign aid to them.They have blown US tax money for years.
Recently someone in my office (SG) just told me about the news he read that the Philippines was begging aid for the china situation. Never been so embarrassed about my country. Let’s at least put up a fight and lose with dignity.
There was a time when The Philippines could have become an American state. If that had happened it would now have the most congressional seats of any state because with 110 million people it would have 1/4 of the total US population. Of course the country would, as a state, not be subject to rule from Rome as it is now.
No sure that we’dhave the current population if the Philippines had become a state of the US. Level of poverty would have been much lower, education standards much improved, more women financially independant, and less influence from the church = lower population growth.
With the people’s general attitude of servitude and complacency throughout the Philippines’ history, I highly doubt the country becoming a US state would be the one way ticket to success. Somehow and someway the people in charge will screw things up just as it is now. The only difference is they’re directly pulling down the USA with it. Basically Detroit on a much larger scale.
With the people’s general attitude of servitude and complacency throughout the Philippines’ history, I highly doubt the country becoming a US state would be the one way ticket to success. Somehow and someway the people in charge will screw things up just as it is now. The only difference is they’re directly pulling down the USA with it. Basically Detroit on a much larger scale.
In smaller ways, I see this happening daily in Phili society, So I just wonder: who was first? The government or the society
The government is more guilty…it leads its people. “Where there is no vision; the people perish”…from the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The situation is aggravated by the attitude of its leaders and the desensitized people…
society begets the government. I think.
You forgot the Hacienda Luisita massacre. It is still unresolved. Poor people were murdered by the powerful owners.
Japan and Germany were devastated , after World War II. Both countries, received foreign aids for reconstructions. Both rose from the ashes. They are now rich countries.
The Philippines received foreign aids and reparations, after the war. It made the political leaders rich, which have them, establish political dynasties. However, the Filipino people remained poor. That its OFWs go to these countries for employment. Runaway inflation is the legacy of the Aquino era…
the tragedy of the current situation is that after WW 2, the Philippines had every opportunity to evolve into what Japan became but due to the Kleptocratic ways of every single leader(S) dive 1945 everything that was/is of any value has gone into the hands of the few/elitist scumbags.
The Philippines should have been a power-house of industrial exports as is Japan, but NO! now it is reduced to being the beggar of Asia, offering its people as OFW’s instead of exporting products …and it really is tiring. People get sick of the constant “hand to the mouth(literally and figuratively)” expression.
So sad.
FP Marcos started this trend for the Philippines to become a beggar country. It was him who started sending OFW’s in order for us to cope up, albeit temporarily, with our dollar reserves and to address unemployment as well as our debts from international credit agencies.
It was his time when the Philippines was second to Japan in terms of economic gains but it was also his time when the Philippines was bankrupt and debt-ridden in 1983 and so until now we are still paying those debts and interests which have gotten bigger every administration after him.
Only in Pnoy’s time that the country, first time in history, has given an investment grade from three renowned credit agencies in the world although we still have local and foreign debts. Well, i could say that these are small compared to other first world countries debts such as USA.
@Jigs:
All the Presidents were responsible for this situation. Not only Marcos, but the Aquinos. From Osmena to Roxas , Garcia to Macapagal; Marcos to the Aquinos; to the present President. They are all responsible. I will not single out any of them…Aquino era was the era of runaway inflation…and where Feudal Oligarchy was firmly established in our country…Era by which the NPA Mafia has a hand in running the government…remember those NPAs in Morong, Rizal? They were set free by Aquino…what for? And why?
Yah right, they made mistakes and you always blame Pnoy for the mess of our country. It was GMA’s time in her almost 10years of service that warlordism, oligarchs, high inflation and unemployment rate sprung up to the fullest extent and to fix these things would take a decade or so.
More blame the past administration clichés, very stereotypical indeed.
Because she’s got a lot to blame for but it’s a lesson learned. She left too much backlog in our country after her term which catapult our country to Asia’s laggard. We won’t be moving forward if we will forget history. It’s the same notion of other Asian countries like South Korea and China ’cause until now they blame Japan of the terror the latter brought to their countries during WWII. They don’t forget about it especially South Korea that’s why they have these diplomatic problems with Japan.
when filipino’s start to realize that the people who run the country are all involved, from charades in trials to massive corruption schemes to celebrity muggings ,and everything in between that makes the news….then they will understand what a farcical situation the gov’t. is in and MAYBE do something about it. Like Thailand is doing right now, but minus the billionaire running the opposition.
“Because she’s got a lot to blame for but it’s a lesson learned. She left too much backlog in our country after her term which catapult our country to Asia’s laggard.”
Lies. People blame GMA because the MEDIA highlighted her faults and made her supposedly ‘anti-masa’. Not to mention the fact that she is better compared to Noynoy when it comes to competence.
Stop being so EMO over an ex-president. Stop being so dumb.
No need to waste our time with lousy revisionist history. The Aquinos are just us corrupt(or even more so).Do some more research next time instead of jabbing in tired old clichés about the “evil dictator.”
Nah you are just speculating. I’ve done my research and those what I read from both hard-bound history books and internet.
“FP Marcos started this trend for the Philippines to become a beggar country. It was him who started sending OFW’s in order for us to cope up, albeit temporarily, with our dollar reserves and to address unemployment as well as our debts from international credit agencies. Only in Pnoy’s time that the country, first time in history, has given an investment grade from three renowned credit agencies in the world although we still have local and foreign debts. Well, i could say that these are small compared to other first world countries debts such as USA.”
I agree Jigs you are good at speculating and conjectures also.
I’m not speculating. It’s true. Do your own research based on facts and you will agree with me.
“I’m not speculating. It’s true. Do your own research based on facts and you will agree with me.”
Source for the record or what you are spouting is just EMO and HEARSAY, idiot.
@Jigs
Those “investment grades” are also perception-driven. But, whatever “grade” we get doesn’t change the fact that only the oligarchs truly benefit from it. The larger remaining population don’t feel the impact as they continue to be either jobless, underemployed, or immigrating to be second-class citizens in foreign soil working as OFWs, while crime and corruption even escalate in our homeland.
They are credible credit rating agencies. They would not give the Philippines an investment grade status without making their own quality independent research in our country.
Let’s say the oligarchs benefited this time, but it would not change the fact that the Philippines is moving forward say in macroeconomic level. Experts say we are stable amidst the US and European Crisis recently.
Just so, economic pundits argued that it would take at least a decade or so to see some progress in a country giving a relentless improvement every year. To solve the country’s problems will not be done overnight or even 6years. You can see that in China, it took them 2 decades to uplift their country’s status in the world.
@Jigs
Jeeze Jigs, that’s trickle-down economics. The oligarchs would prefer to grow richer, competing amongst themselves. They long have been rich and do you think they cared enough for the rest to desire find ways to simply share their wealth?–That would be an assumption contrary to evidence. Not that I resent the pursuit of profit as long as they operate on a true even playing field. This gov’t has demonstrated that it is prejudiced against its perceived enemies and bias towards political allies—Not very promising!
Enough of the yellow propaganda. We want to see solid results.
@Jigs
It doesn’t matter who initiated the policy of sending Filipinos overseas. The fact of the matter is, the succeeding governments including this PNoy government is still addicted to the OFW remittances to prop up the country’s economy.
The high investment grades given to the country by credit agencies do not translate to jobs and do not reduce poverty. These agencies also rely on perception they get from local media who can manipulate information to favour the incumbent.
He’s not addicted to OFW. The remittances from them do not necessarily reflect to the country’s progress as a whole. You can ask the economic experts for that matter. Last time I checked he is in favor of creating more local jobs than sending Filipinos abroad. In fact the DOLE has more available local jobs this time but some of the applicants’ expertise and know-how doesn’t fit in to those jobs while others are lazy that’s why unemployment and under-employment rates are still high in the country. As a result, Filipinos are still going out abroad. Some Filipinos should choose better what degree or technicalities they would venture in college. Those jobs that are in demand and practical nowadays they should embark so that seeking jobs thereafter would not be a problem.
“The high investment grades given to the country by credit agencies do not translate to jobs and do not reduce poverty”
Not necessarily but the fact is that it would favor us since more investors are basing their potential investment to the country as per the given status of those credit agencies. They would perceive that it would be suitable to start investing in the Philippines since those credible rating agencies approved the investment grade status of the said country.
“These agencies also rely on perception they get from local media who can manipulate information to favour the incumbent.”
They are not relying on the perception. They are not that gullible. They are the ones who are trusted by many investors. In fact, they review and research about the outputs of our economy based on their independent and quality check before coming up to the conclusion of giving the Philippines an investment status.
To quote one of the bloomberg’s report “The Philippines won a rating upgrade from Moody’s Investors Service, completing the nation’s ascent to investment rank as President Benigno Aquino leads a growth resurgence that’s outpacing the rest of Southeast Asia.
The rating on Philippine government debt was raised one level to Baa3, Moody’s said in a statement today, citing “robust economic performance,” ongoing fiscal and debt consolidation, political stability and improved governance. The outlook on the rating is positive. Stocks and the peso rose.”
Also the world bank and IMF have a high regard and remain optimistic to the future of the Philippine economy.
DOLE announce 200,000 job vacancies in UAE
“The job vacancies for Filipinos are expected by the Philippine government after Dubai successfully won the bidding as host of the 2020 World Exposition.”
Baldoz – DOLE
feb 6 2014
partial research leads to false conclusions.
The promise from pnoy aquino was for more jobs at home, and ” to bring OFW’s home”
The real policy is to not only continue the OFW dependency, but increase it, despite the social costs/implications, and clearly regard it as the central strategic solution.
Libertas
If you read again my previous comment, I didn’t say PNoy would disallow Filipino workers to get employment abroad if there’s a great opportunity for the latter out there then they can go. But of course, Pnoy government has started to improve the employment opportunities for the Filipinos in the local especially this year, which is one of his priorities.
This is what they said and I quote, 2013 report from GMA7 news “We are enhancing social protections and creating opportunities for employment by focusing on job generating sectors like manufacturing, tourism, infrastructure, and agriculture, among others,” Carandang said.
That would happen this year given the approved Php2.2 trillion budget where a big chunk of it will focus on key areas on job creation. This would not be an easy task and I believe six (6) years would not be enough to suffice the needed employment for all jobless and underemployed Filipinos given the continuous population explosion but at least there’s a significant measure provided by the administration to minimize the gap.
@Jigs
You did not notice the word “also” in my comment. I said, “These agencies also rely on perception…” I didn’t say that that’s the only thing they rely on. There is a difference in the statement.
PNoy’s government keeps inviting investors knowing that red tape and bribery in government is still rampant. It’s like inviting guests without cleaning the house. It’s useless because the investors will just leave as soon as they realise that it’s just a waste of time and money to invest in the Philippines.
I wrote about your much lauded investment grade upgrade in my previous article. Here’s what I think:
Ilda
It’s absolute that credit agencies did not rely on local perception of the economy. They have economic experts to back-up their claim with their thorough research on our economy and they’ve been doing this for a long time on several countries around the world and would not be fooled by other individuals.
There’s still red tape and bribery but the Aquino administration already taking measures to address those problems. It can’t be gone overnight or within the scope of tenure of Pnoy but surely it would be minimize as more and more investors are willing to invest in Phl especially Japan. Their businessmen are now gradually transferring their business from China to the Phl which were discouraged during GMA’s time and now they are back. You are just being negative and pessimistic that investors would back-out. It’s opposed to what the figures stated so far on our economy.
of course, we are subject to a lot of vulnerabilities since economic playing field is volatile and unpredictable because it involves people and you cannot predict the behavior of the people running the economy all the time. So these credit agencies on the status they gave to the Phl can be changed depending on the condition and situation of our economy but even them, they remain optimistic that we will continue to improve and rise in the next years.
Your views of the Philippines are too opposite compared to economic pundits both local and international, so that means you are saying this out of anger and hatred. I will still choose what those experts have said on our country.
GMA after she left her term, we were once labeled as Asia’s laggard and one of the most corrupt countries but after Aquino made several reforms, now international communities are saying that we are again a rising star in Asia. So by that, GMA was not doing any significant measures on our economy and I will just give credit to Pnoy. GMA was almost 10years of her service and she left too much backlogs on every department, bureau and office that can be vanished only after a decade or two of continuous reform for improvement.
Even the Makati Business Club has supported PNoy during the 2010 elections instead of Gibo so that’s a clear indication that GMA was not performing well so why give her too much credit for our economic prosperity, if there’s any after her term?
There’s even a report that in the first three (3) years of Pnoy, he is performing much better than GMA’s, Erap’s and Ramos’s so I find it to believe given all the economic experts and international leaders have to say to the Philippines that indeed our country is getting much better during Pnoy’s time but it would not be felt easily by the country as a whole. It would take a decade or so according to economic pundits. As evident also on China, they gained respectable world status after two (2) decades of continuous improvement on their economy. Even Stalin, in his totalitarian regime, took ten (10) years to industrialize the Soviet Union. How much more on our democratic country where oppositions and down syndrome mentalities are wandering in our country? I bet it would take 3 decades of improvement before we can see real progress.
@Jigs
We were called “Asia’s laggard” even during Cory Aquino’s time. Quit the GMA bashing because you’re just coming across as a PNoy apologist. You should read other publications aside from those that print articles favourable to PNoy. You seem to have been brainwashed into thinking he is the country’s answer to all the problems. Where are the reforms that you keep harping about?
PNoy is corrupt and no credit upgrade can change that. Even experts say he is part of the problem:
Here’s the latest survey from SWS about corruption:
Ford and Intel both left within the past 5 years because of corruption, high (and inconsistent) electric costs, poor transportation infrastructure. Intel left during the time of GMA but Ford packed their bags under Aquino.
“at least there’s a significant measure provided by the administration to minimize
the gap.”
What significant measure – you generally seem to have an aversion to facts.
Unemployment up
Underemployment up
Dependency on ofw jobs/remittances up.
Endless talk and empty promises do not bring home the bacon – or the ofw’s
Sounds the normal response/excuse – all due to the past, it will get better in the future. Trust us!!
Too late – trust has evaporated at home and from the international community – FDI proves that
Particularly the yellow media. These media are the mouthpieces of the devil. They have deceived the Filipino peoples of their rightful chosen destiny. I also agree that OFW’s remittances and tourism are the only economic viable policy for the yellow administrations. And only the rich Filipinos benefits these economy.
jigs the noytard, I see that you keep believing on that bs propaganda that keeps feeding on delusional indiots like you. Well here’s something for you that your precious BS propaganda hides it. If you don’t believe it then you’re proud to be a moron since birth: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=657202804321031&set=a.598162936891685.1073741827.100000939532732&type=1&relevant_count=1
@Benigno
I don’t know where to make a request. But please Sir, can we have an article regarding the only Filipino in the Winter Olympics?
Thank you
The question would be: what about him?
If writing an article about a Filipino in the Winter Olympics is just an excuse for us to shout “PINOY PRIDE” and become egotistical idiots once again, then benigno won’t oblige to that request.
I wanted to write something on it. The fact that there is money to bribe senators that none of you consistently complain about yet no money to train him properly. Plus I believe he would be a greater skater if he had competition from within. His mom believes he will be a contender in 2018. How can he when he has no local rival to push him? There you go. Main points what would have been my blog on it.
I would have concluded that Christian ( the 17 year old skater) deserves all the credit in the world because he overcame the Filipino sports commission as well as the Filipino people. A people that does not deserve somebody like him because none of us take his sport seriously. We won’t fund him. We won’t compete against him. Competition is good. Pinoys can not take credit for him in no way shape or form.
@Jigs
Alright you do have some good points on the matter. But we must always refine our research into history for there are many misconceptions and errors printed into books and uploaded on the web. Be aware to separate facts from personal opinions.
Thank you for affirming my position and for reminding me 🙂
Jig:
Your Philippine History is writen by the Aquinos. They made themselves: Saints and Heroes. Inspite of their GREED in acquiring Hacienda Luisita. And, they made those people in Tarlac, their slave serfs. They have an UNHOLY ALLIANCE with the NPA Mafia; who were extorting revolutionary taxes on them…some sort of protection racket…Remember the MV Karagatan incident, and the Liberal Party bombing at Plaza Miranda?
BS Aquino politics and presence will only bring disaster to Philippines.
He is a natural villain well trained in the US in the Art of Dirty Politicking.
Example: Relabeling of AID packages to the Haiyan victims by foreign donors by AIDS by Aquino regime in order to coax the people to re-electing these corrupted politicians goes well with the uneducated. That is why the Aquino regime will continue to assure that Filipino are not educated. You are right on about massive pork-barreling acquisitions.
So it is true that all the donated food/clthing/medical supplies were stolen by the gov’t.? That is total scumbaggery.
Tell the rest of the world and add to that to never send anything to the philippines as a aid/charity package…it will be stolen by the gov’t.. Total P’sOS.
it is the same way in places like Haiti and other 3rd world countries that fleece larger countries with SOB stories and then rob the goods/money sent to help their already screwed citizens. Just despicable.
Feh. It’s safe to say ANYONE running the country would do the same thing.
Irrelevant kung sino ang Pangulo; pareho ang modus operandi para pampapogi.
This issue of continually asking for foreign aid has been around probably since the days the islands were an American colony.
While it IS bad to just keep asking for handouts and loans, on another level the foreign powers that keep handing over these loans and donations do so to make sure the Philippines HAS to rely on them. Regardless of the good intentions that push the approval of said loans and donations.
The country certainly isn’t the only basket case in this situation.
oh, sure. the philippine record was dismal during the haiyan relief. definitely somewhat due to incompetence and corruption as stated by the article and many bloggers. but it’s really largely due to apathy and self-righteousness that abound in blogs like this.
where were most of the bloggers here when many filipinos were struggling to survive in the disaster areas? where were the bloggers when we were doing our best to rescue and relieve? oh. that’s not your job, is it? rather, you have every right – duty! – to stay comfortably at home and just nitpick every move we (we are not of the government) made. what you did was “just, if not more, important” for the betterment of the indio’s lot.
pweh.
Oh, you want me to go there and carry a sack of onion or maybe direct traffic or chew the Tacloban mayor’s ass?
Point is simple, people paid their taxes which includes contingencies for such natural disasters, it is the right of every taxpayer to see to it the the taxmoney they worked hard for is utilized properly, which in this case, clearly wasn’t utilized well.
What even made you conclude that the bloggers here were just there all nice and comfy in their homes while the storm ravaged is way through the country?