A response from an astute observer on social media site Twitter made me realize how mind numbing the political discussions in the Philippines have become. My original tweet was about Senator Grace Poe’s message during a recent press conference about her plans to run for President in 2016. According to Poe, “sincerity trumps competence”. To which I tweeted, if she was truly “sincere”, she would use her married name “Llamanzares” in campaigning instead of her maiden name Poe.
Senator Grace Poe: The source of her popularity is her father’s surname.
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Obviously, Senator Poe is relying on name-recall to win the Presidential Election. This doesn’t seem to bother anyone in the Philippines. Hardly anyone finds her use of her maiden name instead of her married name, odd. They probably think it’s an accepted fact that politicians do take advantage of the Filipino people’s gullibility.
Going back to my Twitter post, David Barua Yap II responded with “Is it too much to ask for both sincerity AND competence? Why should voters choose between one or the other?”
I just had to laugh out loud after reading it. I laughed not because it was a dumb response. I laughed because it was so obvious, yet a lot of people missed it, myself included. And I almost kicked myself on my backside for it. I can be hard on myself sometimes, you know. To explain my lapse in analysis using the local vernacular: nakakabobo na talaga.
Of course people need to choose a candidate who is both “sincere” and “competent”. The trouble is, candidates like Poe who are so confident about winning the election infect people with their irrational rhetoric. She is reducing the argument to whatever favors her situation. Because her critics highlight the fact that she lacks experience – having only been a senator for less than three years with no significant accomplishment to boost of so far – she tries to convince everyone that experience or competence is not important even when you are aiming for the Presidency. She dismisses competence as if it is a bad thing.
Unfortunately, because she is so popular right now and also has the advantage of being telegenic compared to the other candidates, most Filipinos, including journalists, do not question her “wisdom”. They just lap up everything she says.
As Manila Times columnist Rigoberto Tiglao said, the Philippines doesn’t have an aggressive press who could pounce on candidates like Poe who spew moronic drivel. If the country did have a competent press or a thinking press at least, candidates would be scrutinized well and their deceit exposed eventually. Instead, we have journalists who are too soft and act like space cadets during press conferences because they are star-struck themselves at public servants who were former celebrities or are related to celebrities like Poe.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer leads in producing the mind-numbing “news” and inducing the vacuous debate with their daily headlines dedicated to speculating about who Philippine President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino will endorse in the coming election. It’s amazing there are still people who subscribe to them. It’s a shame one can’t physically throw the paper in the bin in the digital age. You can almost see the stupidity of their news infecting people through the wires of the computer.
With a weak press, celebrity candidates and combined with a gullible crowd, it’s almost a guarantee Poe will win the Presidency. The only thing that can stop her is a successful disqualification suit against her questionable citizenship and residency status. Let’s all hope the people working in the courts aren’t too star-struck to decide objectively.
In life, things are not always what they seem.
Nothing smacks of insincerity more than believing in a blatantly twisted & flawed logic of a false dichotomy between ‘competence’ and ‘sincerity’. In fact, competence itself is attained through sincerity. They tend to go together and not against each other.
Politicians like Poe are so blinded by their own conceit and narcissism, they end-up as clueless puppets who’ll believe the flatteries their leeches whisper to their ears.
Incompetence has brought us the Hostage Crisis, the DAP/PDAP, the BBL, the KKK, the Yolanda response situation, and so on, as well as the lies with which their overzealous media group try to convince the rest of the country that all these are acceptable. Haven’t we learned anything yet?
Hi Felipe
Long time no read. Glad you dropped by.
Can you believe what’s happening?! It’s like déjà vu. It’s like we are back in 2009 debating about Noynoy’s inexperience. It’s too effing ridiculous!
Some people’s defense for Grace is similar to the ones they used for Noynoy – that she is the lesser evil compared to Binay. We’re back to settling for the “pwede na yan” candidate!
A popular name will not solve our country’s problem. Much more, a Presidential candidate with no track record and managerial experience.
Grace Poe may have the “charisma/name”; but have no plan; no platform; no solution that she can present to people, to solve our country’s problems.
The Media is a paid hack of powerful politicians. The Media does not inform people; but misinform people…
Aquino endorsing candidates?
Who is this guy? A wise man? He has a Failed Presidency.
Well, her charisma doesn’t work on me.
Apparently, the deuterium hoax is making its round among the Filipino communities in the East Coast. I got this news from a Fil-Am friend from Connecticut who this month is on vacation in the Philippines. The way he was talking about it you could see how excited he was. Imagine, he said, Philippines will be the next Saudi Arabia. He added: “You know, there is an R&D going on …. and in….” I was not listening. When he was finished talking, I told him that experts in UP of the likes of Roger Posadas PhD and Claro Llaguno PhD already said it is a hoax. Gosh, he didn’t like it at all that I pricked his excitement. But, I got the impression from our conversation that it is the buzz these days among Pinoys in NJ, NY and CT.
Reading above article and said conversation still in my mind, I thought let us assume, as a thought experiment, that the deuterium deposit in the Philippine Deep is true. So, with oil in the ME drying up in 50yrs, Philippines will be the next major source of fuel, and the world focus will be on PHL. That means Obama, Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders (whoever gets elected), Francois Hollande, Angela Merkel, David Cameroon, Angela Merkel, Xi Ji Ping, Tony Abbott, Putin, Abe, etc will in their individual capacities be visiting for a hard negotiation on various occasions. How will Grace Poe, Mar Roxas, Binay, Duterte protect the interest of PHL in an ardous negotiation?. Thinking as well of the attitude of PHL voters, I think I have just come to conclusion that I won’t vote in 2016. With that line-up of presidentiables, and if deuterium is true, PHL will not be Saudi Arabia, but in a very short order be like Nigeria, or Venezuela, who have oil but continually beset by internal strifes, probably instigated from the outside. I am glad deuterium is not true for it will prove to be a curse rather than a blessing. (You see why PHL is poor.)
Yup, I ain’t voting in 2016 — the hell with these freaking candidates.
Those into get rich quick schemes normally fall for a hoax like that, unfortunately.
They are the same people who fall for scams and scammers. Philippine elections are scams and the candidates are scammers.
Good grief, guys, is the Philippine education system THAT bad?
Deuterium is an isotope of hydrogen. It’s a naturally-occurring part of seawater. Any seawater. You can use it in nuclear fusion reactors because it has a larger nuclear cross-section than plain old hydrogen. However, since nuclear fusion reactors don’t exist, all that deuterium is of no value whatsoever.
Nigeria has oil, so is Yemen…but those countries have civil war going on. Sierra Leone had a lot of Diamonds, but the country was the site of a vicious civil war.
Deuterium deposit is nothing, unless, you have the technology to process it into fuel.
If you sell it, in an unprocessed condition. The price will be low.
Chile, I think , has a huge Lithium deposit. The one they use in Lithium batteries. However, the country is not jumping with joy.
It is like the oil. The one getting rich in the oil business; and manipulating the price of oil, are the companies processing the oil into: gasoline, diesel fuel, aviation fuel, etc…
@Hayden, check these two sites:
https://goo.gl/ogdHIq (Vast deposits of Deuterium makes the Philippines the richest country in the world)
http://goo.gl/OQ1CO6 (Deuterium: the Philippine project)
I believe that is what I was referring to. I noticed that, when I Googled deuterium, Ben Kritz and other journalists already wrote articles that such are hoax. I can only suppose that there must be again some SOBs trying to separate Pinoys from their money. It is election time, so some m*th’rf+ck$r must be busy in fund raising (some of criminal nature) in places where there are high concentrations of Pinoys with money like US, Canada, and Saudi.
@Add:
It is an “investment scheme” to separate you from your money…done by the:”mga manananso”. It’s like the scam in Quiapo; where you are told that a Boy had “picked up” a valuable “diamond ring. Then, the Scammer, proposes to exchange your watch to this “diamond ring”.
After the exchange, you go to a jeweler, to make him examine the “diamond ring”. You found out: it is just a piece of glass (“puwit ng baso”). “Natanso na naman tayo”…I call this: “The Great Deuterium Tanso”…”kung kumagat ka, kasalanan mo!!!”
Sen. Grace Poe: “sincerity trumps competence”.
Oh, really! Sen. Poe, you had been lying since your first entry into PHL government service. First, you accepted the job as chairperson of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board as an American citizen; this job by law is only for Filipino citizen. Second, you were still a U.S. citizen and holder of its passport when you run for the Senate. At that time you didn’t even met the residency requirements. And now, you would like to run for the Presidency when apparently you don’t even met the constitutional requirement. How about settling first the constitutional issue of your citizenship! Spare this nation from going further into chaos (which we already are) if by the grace of Pinoy bobotante you become elected as the next President.
It does not matter if you are the most popular, most qualified, or the most accomplished among the lot (which you are not), but above all, the PHL Constitution trumps everything else. Did you know this?
Her rivals including Binay are probably just waiting for her to file her certificate of candidacy before filing a complaint against her residency and citizenship status.
She is taking you all for a ride. She already manipulated the system and managed to get elected to the Senate. She was not even qualified because here is the proof from the US Government Publishing Office. Why can’t people see this.Would you like her to reside in Malacanang together with her US born husband and children? How ironic! Does her husband have allegiance to the Philippine govt.if in case she holds a classified info and their relationship sours? Please read on!
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77 FR 44310 – Quarterly Publication of Individuals, Who Have Chosen To Expatriate, as Required by Section 6039G [PDF 83 KB]
Federal Register. Notices. Notice. Friday, July 27, 2012.
…JEE-WOO DEAN LEE TONY KWOK CHEN LEE VICTORIA KATIE LEE WENDY WAI SHUM LEUNG KING ANSELM LI ADRIENNE MAY LI JEREMY YUEN LIM LLAMANZARES MARY GRACE POE LO TINA YI-CHUN LOMAX BRITANNIA ROSE LU LUCY KAI YEE LUI ANDREA MAALOUF RACHID FAUZI MAK ARTHUR TAK… More Information
Popularity isn’t everything. In fact, it isn’t anything when you get right down to it. The majority is rarely right.
So true especially in the Philippines where the majority just follow what the media is saying.
Politicians (even if they were sincere) cannot solve all our problem because they have no technical capabilities, poor problem solving skills and lacks observations/imagination (no vision) and bad organization skills.
And just because someone is popular (name recognition & charisma to capture votes and manipulate our mass with looks, smooth talk, act, sing or dance and box around important issues) doesn’t make him a good President.
Grace Poe’s overconfidence will be her undoing. She may end up following PNoy’s footsteps. She may not be too open to criticism and become arrogant.
I don’t have a problem with her not using her married surname because I don’t too but what are her passport and bank accounts names? Mine are consistently my own name.
If she really used Poe for politics, then it’s blatantly fooling the people by capitalizing her father’s name. And making fun of the laws of the country by continuing her farce of a campaign when she’s not qualified. Why not wait till the next elections – get more experience and really serve the people? Maybe it’s all about ego now…
Poe should listen to her seniors. She’s too young to gun for the presidency. She’ll just end up like Noynoy. Or worse.
Anyways, anybody here who heard about the alleged Marcos-Duterte tandem campaign?
This seems to be the buzz behind everybody’s ears. You hear it, you know it’s there but you don’t know where it’s coming from. Maybe in some deep part of every Filipinos, they are looking for true credentials that will silence the noise.
If she was smart and humble, she would simply support Miriam Santiago’s bid for the presidency. Not that I am endorsing Santiago but I just read that she is still interested in running. So between Santiago and Poe, the former has more experience and knowledge in Philippine politics.
Peaceful protest needed for change in this country, also good for people to let out their distress.
I do not disagree. The people need to let their voices be heard.
Corruption (dishonesty) and incompetence (lack of skill/experience) are the two biggest holes in this ship called the PH. If it’s a question of choosing Poe or Binay, we should reflect on where PH stands to lose more money. Should we bleed billions of pesos by corruption with Binay, or millions of pesos by mismanagement with Poe? Billions or millions – it’s your choice; so vote wisely.
But why does it have to be between the two? There are other people who want to run but are not getting exposure from the media. Do not limit your choices between the two. Do not let the popularity surveys get to you.
Grace Poe can still add Llmanzares, her married name anytime and that will NOT change anything. I don’t subscribe to her thinking but do you guys honestly believe that HONESTY with EXPERIENCE is enough to solve the problems of the Philippines? The fault is within us. One fault, is that we still believe a President can solve the country’s problems. On the other hand, we associate Presidential Selection as the better of two evils. Both are extreme positions that we have more or less subscribed to since 1986. And yet now, after thirty years, we are NOT any better. ITS THE PEOPLE STUPID.
@ Orlando Gomez
No, I didn’t say that. Just because I wrote an article dedicated to debunking Grace Poe’s statement doesn’t mean that I believe the country’s problems can be solved by one person.
You need to read our previous articles discussing our dysfunctional culture and how it contributes to the backwardness of our society. We have voluminous collection in the archives discussing just that.
500,00 mad-as-fuck Filipino’s could change the entire country within a week, but they are too stupid to realize it.
Another un-qualified non-talent is going to dupe the silly Filipino’s into getting elected. and it is sooo easy too. No wonder the country is an International laughingstock. I mean,really…..the one ‘alleged’ genius politician in the entire congressional bodies is the orangutang looking, crazy acting woman that was rejected by the ICC, after careful observation, Miriam Santiago. Hello? WTF? If that is a good as it gets intellectually in that Congress, no wonder the country is an International laughingstock, I mean,really.
Since she received an official salary and other emoluments for her illegal appointment, she and the appointing power violated the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. A year later, after renouncing her US citizenship, Grace Poe ran for the Senate and “won” in the infamous “60-30-10” across-the-board arrangement in favor of PNoy’s senatorial candidates.