What?? Good-versus-evil again?? Is this the only way Filipinos will ever regard their elections?
It’s no wonder then that the Philippines never gets anywhere. There is no roadmap forward. It’s always just a “fight” of some sort where the “winner” is seen to be continuing a struggle against an imaginary “tyrant” still lurking in the shadows ready to pounce on the Philippines’ hapless “democracy”. In a sense there are no “winners” in Philippine politics of the sort that Filipinos can look to for a plan on how to tackle the future.
The Philippines’ political “debate” remains the same tired old lump of noise consisting of the shrill chatter of girly indignation over politicians’ bad behaviour and the same old melodramatic appeal to populist sentimentality. There are no real platforms that articulate a structured and systematic approach to transforming the Philippines from a society forever chasing its tail to one squarely on a trajectory to enlightenment and progress.
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No, not now in particular. Whereas there used to at least be some pretense of looking out prospectively to the horizon in previous elections, today the notion of what happens from 2016 to 2022 under the watch of whoever wins in the coming elections is notably absent from the conversation.
It is a vast failure of imagination on a national scale.
Filipinos seem to have lost the ability to imagine the future. It is easy to blame this sad condition on the quality of the politicians vying for that lucrative seat in Malacanang in 2016. The bar for what it means to be a good Philippine president has been set so low that it is now a contest between an alleged crook and an inept administrator. Any hope of a fine statesman and leader to whom ordinary folk could look up to and feel inspired and motivated has dried up.
But, really, Filipino politicians merely reflect the character of the people that created them. The discussion around the appalling political cast of characters today is so devoid of inspiring ideas about a better Philippines tomorrow that it is easy to compare Philippine politics with the decline of Philippine cinema and television. It is one thing to be fed the same plot year in and year out. But it is another to behold a people who are happy to lap up progressively inferior productions.
Is the answer to curing Philippine politics of its abject retardation a simple matter of getting the nation’s thought leaders to “focus more on platforms than on personalities”? Of course it is. It’s so easy — easy said than done, that is. We tried that back in the 2009 to 2010 campaign. Platform plez. The idea there was that if we took stock of the ideas that each of the presidential candidates stood for and laid these out in such a way that one can easily compare the substance of each candidate, we’d be armed with a great tool to apply intelligence to deciding who to vote for.
Alas, the lesson coming out of that exercise is quite clear. Filipinos will not change the way they think simply because someone tells them to do so. Indeed, they will not think at all even when they are served ample opportunity and material to do so. Despite the ubiquity of 21st Century social media technology permeating Philippine society today, the quality and substance of the political debate has not improved. It is still the same trash talk, the same focus on irrelevancies and championing of all the wrong arguments.
If only Filipinos can step back from the fray and outside of the tiny square that frames their thinking and appreciate the utter perversion that is today’s “democracy” in their country. Nakakahiya sa mga kano.
Happy Independence Day, the real one: 4th of July 1946.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
The Philippine Political System is like the “Dog” chasing its own tail. Or the proverbial “Burudian Donkey” that starved between two Bales of Hays.
The Media, owned by the Politicians’ affiliates/cahoots; are the ones promoting this “Democrazy or Bobocrazy”…
It has been going on for a long time now. The People has remained used to them. Or, are Apathetic of what is going on…
It is like during, Hitler’s Nazi Germany. When the German people, were not even aware of those “Stinking Corpses” in those Nazi Death Camps, during the Jewish Holocaust in World War II…
AH, another GRP commenter who actually thinks the German people (and everyone else) were unaware of what Hitler’s 3rd Reich was up to.
SO,After the Jews were forced to wear arms bands with ‘Stars of David’ to ID them as ‘The Judan’. After the ‘Kristalnacht'(night of broken cyrstals/windows) wave of terror on Jewish business’s across Germany. After confiscation of Jews apartments/bank accounts ,and the publicizing of all of this: You still can really think that the vast majority of the German people did not know?
The fact that the Jews just started disappearing from the neighborhoods they lived in for generations,after being humiliated and robbed was somehow unnoticed by the German citizenry ? and ,after a few months of this, and not-to-mention the creation of the Warsaw/Krakow ghetto’s that all of these happenings were somehow anything but common knowledge ? OMG, PLEASE.
after the war, what did you think the Germans were going to say? (That they were all aware of it? LOL ! but if they spoke up they would have joined the ‘guests’ at the Birkenau prison?). Wait, I see now, Oscar Schindler was the only guy smart enough to figure it out. UH-HUH, right.
The German people may had known ;but, the World War I Armistice terms forced Germany to live in hard economic times.
Hitler came,and he blamed the Jews…and his “Final Solution” was enacted. The Jewish Holocaust may had taken place or not.
I am just citing these events as an example , to illustrate that Apathy can lead to this situation. The German people may had known , or may had not known, does not matter…if it is hypothetical…then so be it..
@ HT, IDK what you are trying to say,I do not. BUT it was the ‘Holocaust’ not a ‘Jewish’ Holocaust, they were not the only ones targeted for extinction, sometimes I think they were the ones who screamed about it the most afterward. It may have led many to believe it was just a ‘Jewish’ holocaust, but it was not.
Ever since that “it’s a free country” narrative came out, everybody lost their minds and further plunged themselves into the abyss of idiocracy.
Very well said.
The ‘Republica de Pilipinas’ appears to be a ‘Feudal Oligarchic Kleptocracy’ masquerading as a ‘Demorcacy’. A country run by outright thieves and ‘hoodlums in robes’ it is referred to as the ‘biggest criminal syndicate’ in S.E.Asia by certain magazines with excellent reputations.
‘A Free Country’? LOL, that seems doubtful.
‘focusing on platforms’ is as nonsensical as ‘politcal debates’ are. they are the hallmarks of idiocracies.
the candidate’s can have the most agreeable platforms, to garner mass appeal and win an election based on that platform, and yet as soon as the elected representative is sent to implement that platform it can be simply thrown in the garbage. How many times has that happened? BAH,IDK?
Mechanism’s for holding elected officials/representatives to account for doing what they say they are going to do, and when they do not do it, throwing their asses out of office is more important than any ‘political debate’ or ‘party platform’ will ever be.
I agree. Politicians the world over are crooks and idiots; the Pinoy Pride crowd are correct in that regard (“don’t point at us, it’s the same everywhere”).
When it comes right down to it, this is about the people, not the politicians. Certainly the rulers can decide whether or not to make foolish laws, or whether to enforce law and order; but even in the absence of an effective ruling class, the people can decide (or not) to work together for the common good. The Filipino has no interest in that. It’s ME ME ME all the way up to the top.
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July 4, 2015 at 4:07 am
“Nakakahiya sa mga kano. Happy Independence Day, the real one: 4th of July 1946.”
Is it real? Or is it just a YO-YO Independence From the Kano With Strings Attached? From U.S. Colony to U.S. Neo-Colony!
The Bell Trade Act of 1946, also known as the Philippine Trade Act, was passed by the United States Congress specifying the economic conditions governing the independence of the Philippines from the United States. The United States Congress offered $800 million for post World War II rebuilding funds if the Bell Trade Act was ratified by Philippine legislature, which duly approved the measure on July 2, two days before independence from the United States of America.
Authored by Missouri Congressman C. Jasper Bell, the Bell Trade Act linked the Philippine economy to the United States economy in several ways:
– A system of preferential tariffs was established, undermining control over imports and exports by the Philippine government;
– The Philippine currency, the peso, was pegged to the US dollar;
– The Philippine government was obligated not to place restrictions on currency transfers from the Philippines to the United States;
– a “parity” clause granted U.S. citizens and corporations equal access with Philippine citizens to Philippine minerals, forests and other natural resources, despite provisions in the Philippine constitution (1935) to the contrary which the act required to be amended.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Trade_Act
Then the Laurel-Langley Agreement of 1955 extended these preferential arrangements. This agreement grants U.S. citizens, business corporations, and investors access to 100 percent ownership in all areas of the economy.
This served foreign interests while exacerbating poverty within the Philippines, and it also explains why U.S. corporations at present control most foreign investments in the Philippines.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurel%E2%80%93Langley_Agreement
The root of Philippine Poverty is not only entirely cultural but also of the hegemony of Imerialism!
The imaginary “tyrant” is very real, and if some filipinos think of themselves as “JUST A BUNCH OF ANIMALS!!!”, this imaginary “tyrant” is a GREEDY MERCILESS MONSTER!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37Dvt2EqXF4
We really need a true filipino leader with a wider perspective who can see things even beyond our shores!
Filipinos have lost the ability to imagine a future for themselves. This is very sad because the ability to imagine a future and remember the past is precisely what distinguishes a human “soul” from the material souls of animal. FILIPINOS ARE JUST A BUNCH OF ANIMALS!!! – There, I said it.
Failipinos never realize, that their most private thoughts and emotions are not actually their own. For Failipinos think in terms of languages and images which they did not invent, but which were given to them by their own frail Neolithic incompetent society.
I don’t know what will exactly happen in order for this country to change itself, both in ways in thinking and in actions made.
What I DO know is that something BAD will have to happen for change to start. I don’t know what this ‘bad’ thing will be, who will be the people involved, and what effect it would exactly have, but let me repeat this: something bad will HAVE to happen. Someday.
😉
A War, probably. There’s a saying, “War brings out the best in humanity.”, so maybe this country needs to be put into a dangerous situation for its people to finally bring out it’s best and jumpstart the much needed change.
Hi Benign0. Have you seen this article of Atty Jemy Gatdula of UA&P and BusinessWorld.>>> http://goo.gl/MiPwFv He mentioned GRP in it.
Yeah… I like this part:
the character assassination is the tool of those with no other means to attack the target.BUT, on the other hand the laws in the Fail-ippines have been written so it is difficult to prosecute people like Binay. Even worse, the Judicial process is soooo slow, that almost 7 years after the ‘Maguidinao Massacre’ not a single Amputuan has been put on trial.
The ‘Fail-ippines’ foot fits the shoe of a: ‘FAILED STATE’.
The Dacer-Corbito murder case has been unsolved, for more than fifteen (15) years. The Primary suspect is even serving in high government position. Even elected as Senator. The others are now living in the U.S.
And the one who ordered the murder, is elected as a Mayor in a prime city.
Justice in the Philippines, is for political purposes, to prosecute your political opponents. Like the impeachment of the former Supreme Court Justice, Renato Corona…
@ HT, yes, to save the ‘Hacienda’ but look at what was really going on during Corona’s trial? The DAP, or whatever it was called, was busy looting the treasury while Corona lost a job that paid $1500/month=peanuts. Corona lost nothing, the whole trial was a charade for a robbery that was taking place and the one part of the complaint that could have LANDED CORONA’s ASS IN JAIL (where it belongs), the PAL employee decision pay-off, was dropped from the complaint on purpose so he could not have been indicted on criminal charges.So the PAL employee’s got fucked out of their jobs/pension’s/medical benefits after Corona took a $100,000.00 bribe to reverse the decision. Corona deserved to be sent to a real prison for that and instead he pulled that ‘Mr Jose Bossa persecuted my Momma’ horse-shit, and they all let him get away with it.
What a scam the whole fuckin country is,OMG !
It does not matter, if Corona is a crook. What matter is: they use the Justice system for political prosecution.
Corona trial was put on the forefront, while those : Maguindanao massacre, Hacienda Luisita massacre, Dacer-Corbito murder case, etc…remained shelved, even today
hahaha, this articles will make the cry babies whine
YES, VIRGINIA, FILIPINOS DID NOT AND NEVER WON THEIR INDEPENDENCE. IT WAS GIVEN TO THEM …
… because Filipinos never won a war …
@TROLLatio
What war?! Technically, The Philippines NEVER went to war, she was DRAGGED into it by YOUR OWN WAR …
It’s just that the battle occurred in her grounds and that’s one sad reason of her importance (as a pawn in their game) among warring hegemonistic imperialistic states.
And that’s putting it in it’s true perspective.
In spite of that, many of those who fought and died for your cause were never even recognized nor compensated!
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/thousands-filipino-american-wwii-vets-make-appeals-over-equity-pay-n460151
I forgive you. Not understanding is not your fault. It is genetically inherited for being a Filipino. When you people were colonized by Spain and by Japanese you resisted. You fought. AND YOU LOST BIG TIME.
We did not colonize you. We came to PROTECT YOU AND YOUR PEOPLE AGAINST YOURSELVES !!!
Please … do not accuse us of colonizing you people. WE HELPED YOU FROM SELF-INFLICTED POGROM.
BLEAH !!!!
“We did not colonize you. We came to PROTECT YOU…
“Please … do not accuse us of colonizing you people.” – Oratio I. (“I” could probably stand for Idiot!)
I personally recognizes the fact that there are two sides to what is America, one being the sublime and the other one being the asshole. Mr. Oratio typifies that american asshole!
(We have more than enough of the local scumbag-types here so may the Good Lord send him back where he came from!)
It’s nice to know that GRP webmaster benign0 also shares that sentiment. But, what’s interesting is what he had to say about, what the american asshole wants to impress upon us with his idiotic statements above, in an old article “Down with the Colonial Apologists and Imperialists!”:
“The world must not be duped again by those western powers in their war on terror; their message of liberation and their concept of freedom.
“I have always been critical of the West, all my conscious life, specifically of America. The reason behind my hate, mistrust and disgust with them is by virtue of their world-wide arrogance, their imperialism (whether economic or military) and their unjust act of hegemonizing the entire globe to bow-down to their financial control, economic dictates and cultural brain-washing.
“I condemn to the utmost the American government for being the number one terrorist state in the entire world…”
Mr. benign0 is spot on with his recognition of the american implementing tactic done with Pakistan (which was similarly implemented in The Philippines!):
“Pakistan did not bring this war to its territory, it did not offer its bases to the US this war was forced upon it…”
And, as if with the full conviction of an activist, he ended the article with his battle cries… in screaming large fonts!
“DOWN WITH ALL FORMS OF TERRORISM!!!
“DOWN WITH FUNDAMENTALISM!!!
“DOWN WITH ALL FORMS, KINDS AND TYPES OF COLONIALISM AND IMPERIALISM!!!
“FOR HUMANITY AND FOR ALL MANKIND!!!”
BLEAH !!!!
I share this with all Filipinos interested about themselves:
The ‘Politics of US Occupation,’ correcting a historical misrepresentation
http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/06/09/the-politics-of-us-occupation-correcting-a-historical-misrepresentation/
https://archive.org/details/rconcep11
Patton … it is us or the Chinese or the Russian … the devil and the deep blue states. Despite what you wrote there are people all over the world including yours would want to surrender voluntarily and apply for re-“colonization”.
Right now there are Central Americans: Children, toddlers, old, weak, poor and Ameerican-haters walking for days and months to the border of my country without food and water just to be in my country. We do not want them. They wanted to force themselves to force us to want them.
AMERICA IS GREAT … not again … WE WERE ALWAYS GREAT … if it were not for us you’d be under tutelage of Japan NOW YOU ARE UNDER TUTELAGE OF FILIPINOS … were it not for us YOU’D BE UNDER MARCOS CRIME FAMILY.
We saved you.
… we saved you from yourselves … and from your fellow countrymen who would want to escape this huge prison called Philippines.
Right. And the way you comment doesn’t suggest you’re invested in further degrading a human race you perceive to be inferior. Wouldn’t it be self-contradicting for somebody to harp on another’s “inferiority” while going all out on the bullying, as if the other is (after all) worth all that time and effort ? It could be saying something else instead.