I believe it was a quote by the late George Carlin that articulates it best:
“I think Americans really show their ignorance when they say they want their politicians to be honest. What are these fuckin’ cretins talking about? If honesty were suddenly introduced into American life, the whole system would collapse!”
He might as well have been talking about the Philippines. If there’s an over-abundance of lies and two-faced manipulations on Earth, you can bet the country would probably be in the Top 10 destinations of that list. And it’s no fantastic coincidence that the style of law we adopted came from the United States. So if we are to take Carlin’s declarations seriously, it’s a system designed to preserve and maintain lying to people with relative ease.
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It’s enough to make the term ‘honest politician’ into an oxymoron. That is why the so-called ‘straight path’ aka Daang Matuwid of the Aquino administration—that promised uprightness, integrity and transparency—is nothing more than a big pile of bull manure. No less than the head of state himself is sporting the derogatory abbreviation (BS) conferred unto him by smart-alecky political analysts who saw past the charade and bad acting of someone not fit to be in a position of authority. From the early days of the ‘Noynoying’-trend to the astounding failure and absence of leadership DAYS after the Haiyan (Yolanda) and SAF 44 tragedies respectively, all the palace can do is issue one pathetic excuse after the next.
And still we keep getting that Tuwid Na Daan soundbite every now and again as if we owe the clowns behind its inception the whole world. A sick slogan that is now being co-opted by an equally inutile chump in his ambitious bid for the highest post in the land. Fortunately this new entry to the jaundiced brand of dysfunctional governance can’t make the average sensible person like him—or even take his moronic media hypes and photo shoots seriously. In fact the opposite effect seem to happen every time his name pops up in the radars of the media. Instead of the hoped-for warming up and acceptance of the people he and his PR group are hoping to woo, vicious insults and jokes via memes and social network heckling were the outcome.
As this yellow administration is about to end, disgruntled commuters, pensioners, typhoon victims, slain cops’ families, and the rest of the country can finally shut down and get even with this sham of a presidency by not electing anything remotely allied to its yellow cabal and the oligarchs that control them. Never again to the yellow cult perpetuated by the Aquinos.
Six years of bullshit is more than enough lesson to be more discerning of the jokers we put in position this time around.
Worker in a private sector hive.
Straight Path of who ordered the scapegoat assassination of yellow oligarchs Ninoy Aquino plot of the Economic Hitmen of Marcos Destruction of the Philippines, as narrated by John Perkins book(EH), the real truth of an Honest thirty two years of MADpnoy hacienda luisita self interest yellow oligarchs deception of a Pilipino, whose unworthy cause is not worth dying for.
What ??? Dang Matuwid ! ! ! Ano ka Pnoy !!!
Hilo !!! Tuwid Na Daan … Paliwanag mo!!!
Hacienda Luisita Massacre… Mendiola Massacre…
Lupao Massacre… Haiyan o Yolanda victims…
SAF 44 Massacre Justice… Malampaya Funds…
Yolanda Funds… DAP … PDAP…Purchases of inferior and defective/ second hand Military Arms /Equipments…BBL …Malaysian Funded BBL…
SSS Executives millions Salaries…and yet your Vetoing of SSS Pensioners meager 2000 Php increase … Plus the unliquidated Billions of Cash Advances
Of your Minions in the Government… LRT/MRT mismanagement …
Car Plates anomalies…
Is that DAANG MATUWID ??? Pnoy, NO WAY…
Again, these two top morons of the yellow cabal are completely separated from reality. They are living in a make-believe world where stupidity is intelligence and a plate full of crap is a motherfuckin’ cake, with icing and all.
Never again to these stupid oligarchs.
Btw, nice article Surtidaaaaa! Lol
People are celebrating now that the era of the most despised siblings in recent Philippine history is about to come to a close.
One can really feel the people’s fervor in anticipation of a DU30 leadership, or MDS, or Binay, or BBM. A kind of fervor that has not been felt again since we “liberated” the nation from a “dictator”.
On point…very true and good job on the article ???? same sentiments for 30 years and some idiots still believe and praise the “tuwid na daan”. And they call themselves intelligent!
It’s almost over! 6 years of this shite and I can’t wait! It’s time to install competent people in the Executive and Legislature.
6 YEARS ? What about the last 50+ years? You are proving how numb between the ears you are DICK.
Filipino’s simply refuse to realize that they are governed by thieves. Thieves that are told what to do. The entire system is rigged.
A decent example (and only one of many) is the Corona SHAM-TRIAL. Corona was put on a fake trial (losing nothing but a job he could not care less about, he kept all of his ill-gotten a$$et$ as well.) which was a smoke screen for what was going on at the same exact time,the DAP scam….and yet all Filipino’s were enraged/delighted (depending on their like/dislike of Corona…the fuckin traitorious weasel) and transfixed to their TV’s to see the daily proceedings that ended up doing NOTHING !!!!
I’m a fan of George Carlin, too.
Filipinos think that freedom is free, you simply can’t divide zero by simply electing a president who can magically transform a country that is infested with political machinery that runs on Guns, Goons, and Gold,
The greatest task of the next presidente is how to abolish the congress it should be his number one priorty since it is the iceberg that is sinking the titanic.
“Kung walang kurap, walang mahirap”…it is out of this world slogan. There will always be poor in us. In truth, many of them. Just look at the Squatters sprouting in Metro Manila; and other urban cities.
Since there are too many poor; then, we can conclude there are many “kurap”. With DAP, PDAF, Pork Barrel thievery,Typhoon Yolanda Relief funds missing,…I do not doubt that, there is a widespread of corruption…in the Aquino government.
If not THE most corrupt regime ever. Of course, diehard Noytards can’t accept that.
They maintain and subsidize squatter colonies as their voting majority. No dumb politician, even PNOY would dare eradicate them as they are essential every election. Their fake slogans and promises would surely work on them.
The quote you had at the beginning of your article is something that should be rubbed on all idiot voters faces.
Goodness, people should stop voting on based on who they think is “honest” or “with a heart”, it is so dumb. No one uses their heart to think nor their honesty to plan for the future. But as long their are greedy people above and stupid people below, we will always be on the path down.
I think we should take our education seriously, heck we should even have an education course for parenting as well. Maybe that is a way to solve idiocy in our country. But not all though, their are people like Pnoy and Roxas who are hard-wired to be dipshit idiots.
Unfortunately, our people lack the IQ, EQ, and critical thinking to decipher the truths, lies and conspiracies behind our history. Majority of our people would readily believe the person who holds the microphone and shout honesty as a cause, without raising the right questions on capability of governance. We are just gullible and incapable to see through this fog of political lies. If only we can set aside the surnames, and understand what’s not being said on media, then we would understand who’s really working for our country and who’s working for self-preservation.
In the spirit of discussion, I am asking anyone, and anyone on this page, if they can list down what the administration has not achieved, and what it has achieved.
I would want to see objective answers, rather than the typical “he has failed to do _________” and “he has accomplished nothing”. The first category has always been heard; I’ve been exposed to much mockery about the outgoing administration. The second category would be more interesting — what has the administration indeed achieved, even in the smallest of achievements? There has to be some, at the least. To say that there is absolutely none, is ridiculous — was it not the current administration that had some vigor in procuring new military equipment? Have they not acquired some, and are still acquiring more? Yes, or no? No moving goalposts please.
If we are to be “real”, then we have to judge the administration in an objective manner. We must judge according to its failures and victories, to its local and foreign policies, and compare the Philippines today with the Philippines of the past administrations. Has Mr.Aquino been worse compared to Arroyo? How about Estrada? Ramos? Cory Aquino? Marcos? Macapagal?
I’d like to hear some answers.
Just type the name of all the presidents you mentioned in the search bar of this page and you’ll get the articles you’re looking for.
As for the so-called “achievements” of this administration, well tough luck. If you can’t even come up with one why expect the writers to that for you?
“As for the so-called “achievements” of this administration, well tough luck. If you can’t even come up with one why expect the writers to that for you?”
I hope that is not an assumption that I will not find anything at all. Are not the deals with KAI for the LIFT planes and the ongoing modernization program (which is indeed providing results — not outstanding results, but not the lack of results either) achievements? How about the successful military operations during the Zamboanga siege? The appeal for Mary Jane Veloso?
*in regards to the jets, some people may say it was a Marcos plan. I ask “really now? have the KAI Golden Eagles existed during Marcos’ time?” And even if it was, which is very unlikely, it was the Aquino government that took them — not Marcos’.
Now, do not misunderstand me. The present government has had many failings. But this is not a reason to think that the administration has been a complete “bullwash”. Clearly it is not. It is a government that failed to live up to its talk, but this is not exclusive to this government. The other past administrations have also failed to live up to their promises; I clearly remember the difficult times during Arroyo’s presidency. There was a lot of political unrest, in which we have the two mutinies by now Senator Trillanes and included then General Lim, the mishap that was the rescue of the Burnhams that took over 1 year and led to the death of Martin Burnham, and the uncertainty of whether we were facing another dictator in Arroyo.
But is Arroyo a complete “bullwash”? Has she not made efforts in bringing foreign investors here? Is everything in her administration a negative attribute? It is hard to reasonably believe so. Unless we are facing the Devil, almost everything human and mortal has both good and bad attributes. Some have goodness in abundance, and some have an abundance of bad. This outgoing administration clearly has failings, but it is not the Devil incarnate to speak of it as such.
If we are as intelligent as we claim, then we must judge the administration according to its positives and negatives. There are a lot of negatives, but there are some positives as well. Our refusal to simply yield to foreign aggression is a positive attribute. We fought smart — we brought it to the Tribunal in Hague for an International Ruling. The outgoing government also played by its rules, and not by the others; in the refusal to bite, we did not give them the chance to militarily escalate the situation — the fisherman cannot hook the fish that does not bite.
I will give a good allegory of what the Aquino administration has achieved. During the Aquino administration, the APEC summit was held in Manila. Now, some here may say that APEC was something of a violation against Philippine sovereignty (or something that sounds like that) by some Left-like nationalista rally man. Now the APEC is indeed good for us. It improves our standing among the nations and even includes talks about issues for the Philippines. The representation of the Aquino administration are the barricades and short-term cleaning operations that were done JUST FOR APEC. What that tells me (and can tell us all) is that the administration meant well, thought well, but failed to live up to its promises and committed half-hearted actions and plans for our country. It wasn’t bad, neither was it good enough. Its just a bit above mediocre, or even mediocre. But I rather have this administration that Arroyo’s administration, which was filled with political tension, unrest, and greater lack of integrity.
To sum it up, let us look objectively. The current and outgoing administration could have been better; not bad but not really good. It was just above or even barely mediocre. Is mediocrity good? Definitely not. But is mediocrity that bad? Neither was well. Although filled with failings, I would rather trust Aquino than Arroyo or even Estrada.
Well that’s the thing isn’t it? Because I’d much rather have Arroyo’s administration which ,incidentally, started a lot of the programs these current admin grabbed credit for. No, you have to do harder to convince people PNoy is not the devil. The MRT mess under his watch alone deserves all the humiliation that can be thrown at him. And that’s just public transport alone.
And lastly, why the hell should we be concerned about his “achievements” in the first place? That’s part of his job. It comes with the office. He has the option to resign if he cant handle it. It’s just unfortunate that not only he bungled at that big time, he was arrogant about them too. So no, go to Rappler, PDI or The Philippine Star for any feelgood sentiment about that loser.
Not achieved:
unite the country (BBL anyone)
generate more local jobs (real jobs)
FOI bill
maintain, improve transport services
control graft and corruption
improve standard of living, for the common filipino
rehab of typhoon Haiyan affected areas
more….(please feel free to add)
You mentioned about modernization of the military, common, don’t kid yourself. Other than buy firearms (which is not in any way a form of modernization) and accept donated decommissioned US warships.
The BBL was formed from a rash decision, and I do not applaud it. What I applaud, in a objective viewpoint, was the failure of it. I say this without any hostility to Muslim Filipinos. The articles of the BBL gave the MILF too much favor, and the constitutionality of it — I heard it was questionable.
Generate more jobs — most of my generation is employed. There were more jobs today than jobs in the previous administration.
FOI bill — unless I’m mistaken, in which I could be — has been an issue even before the Aquino Administration. Its not even just about the bill — transparency of politicians and government processes have been issue long before today.
For the improvement of transport services — I’ve seen the completion of Cavitex and the addition of MCTEX. But, I do not and will definitely say that this is a remarkable improvement (Cavitex was really an Arroyo Project) and MCTEX is ill with Imperial Manila syndrome.
With regards to control, graft and corruption, how about the former CJ Corona, and the prosecution and imprisonment of Estrada, Revilla, and Enrile? I am saddened however by the SC’s approval of Enrile’s bail, but that is the judiciary — not Aquino.
With improving the standard for the common Filipino — can I hear any other battlecries? During the Arroyo time life was much MUCH harder. This I put on your table now — show me if life for the common Filipino was better during Arroyo’s time than Aquino’s time.
Haiyan could definitely have been better handled than it was. I give little to Aquino for this. The evacuations were good — PAF did what they can. What was primarily wrong was their lack of responses and lack of prepared responses. But either way, I didn’t think we could have really prepared for that — Haiyan is considered one of the strongest if not the strongest storms that ever hit a country.
Now, it is my turn to take give:
Sokol Helicopters (which was badly managed, I admit)
FA-50 LIFT jets
Attack Helicopters for the Philippine navy
Transport Helicopters for the Phillipine Airforce
SSV for the Philippine Navy
… in addition to your claims about firearms and decommissioned US warships.
I am not kidding myself. I ask you — are you kidding me?
Are the FA-50’s US donations?
Are the Sokol’s US donations?
How about the new helicopters of the Philippine Air Force?
The SSV which is ninety percent complete — is that a US donation?
The APC’s with Remote Weapon Systems?
The new firearms?
The new RPG’s, which is much better than the current recoiless rifles we had — are they US donations?
The new harris radios that improve communications — are those US donations?
“You mentioned about modernization of the military, common, don’t kid yourself. Other than buy firearms (which is not in any way a form of modernization) and accept donated decommissioned US warships.”
Really now? It would be shameful to believe such.
Despite your misunderstanding of all your president’s “achievement”….
You fail to see that becoming the head of state, he signed up for more than this. The military needs constant upgrading not only in his term, but annually. For me upgrading the military is when we have in place our own R & D, and can sufficiently say, independent of purchasing foreign arms and technology. All you have are rah-rahs.
Im talking about rehab, and you are talking about response immediately after the typhoon(which is an utter failure, btw). Matatapos na termino niya, could you honestly say that the affected areas are already normalized?
Bottom line, it is his job, gusto mo may utang na loob pa ako sa kaniya? That is plain idiotic.
FYI, hindi lang po so Corona or GMA ang corrupt. If at all, it only shows how vindictive and selfish he is.
You do realize that the annual budget of BS Aquino is the all time high despite minimal spending. What does that tell you?
“Well that’s the thing isn’t it? Because I’d much rather have Arroyo’s administration which ,incidentally, started a lot of the programs these current admin grabbed credit for. No, you have to do harder to convince people PNoy is not the devil. The MRT mess under his watch alone deserves all the humiliation that can be thrown at him. And that’s just public transport alone.”
I don’t know much about the MRT mess, so I’m not going to talk about it. Its just foolish. However, if he did have something to do with it — if it could have been better handled and it was not, then thumbs down for him. That is coming from me.
Also, I am not here to be the yellow monkey target for the anti-yellow murder parade. Let me repeat that I meant to judge his administration objectively.
“And lastly, why the hell should we be concerned about his “achievements” in the first place? That’s part of his job. It comes with the office. He has the option to resign if he cant handle it. It’s just unfortunate that not only he bungled at that big time, he was arrogant about them too. So no, go to Rappler, PDI or The Philippine Star for any feelgood sentiment about that loser.”
His achievements forms part of objective judgements. If we judge the administration based solely on his failings, then we have the intellectual obligation to judge other administration based on their failings too. Why should Aquino’s government be exclusively judged in a negative light? This exclusion erodes trustworthy judgement — if we are to be negative with one, how come we won’t be negative with others? Why the exclusion? That would only mean that our judgement is intended to cast negativity on an exclusive target, without any intention to be fairly negative towards others. There is no intellectual virtue in that, so we must also be negative with others as well. If that is our basis, then all administrations have failed. Then nothing is good, so why complain and cry for something better unless there is a basis and possibility of improvement? If we are to be open to such possibilities, then we must acknowledge that there is indeed something good. Following that, we must now look into the administrations and look what what was good, so that we may learn from the past and use what was good in the past to form a basis of judgement. That way we can be justified in crying out for improvements, because such was possible, and such was indeed done. To be faithful to this virtue, we must apply it to all administrations. This includes the Aquino government. When we include the Aquino government, we must then look at what it has done and what it has failed to do, in order to form an objective judgement.
If you mind looking into what I have just wrote, I am making it clear that I am not for or against Aquino in such discussions. And I don’t think I will fit in with Rappler or PhilStar — I find it harder to have objective discussions with positive people than negative people. Negative people will discuss with you for a while, but positive people demand that you drop objectivity almost entirely.
“Despite your misunderstanding of all your president’s “achievement”….”
Are you making a truth statement, or are you trying to get my head into thinking that I am misunderstanding something? Unless you can present an etymological case that achievement cannot be used in the way that I use it, then there is no reason for me to believe what you say pertaining to my understanding of “achievement”.
“You fail to see that becoming the head of state, he signed up for more than this. The military needs constant upgrading not only in his term, but annually. For me upgrading the military is when we have in place our own R & D, and can sufficiently say, independent of purchasing foreign arms and technology. All you have are rah-rahs.”
Besides the evidence that you started and ended this paragraph with attempts to psyche me out, you stated earlier:
“You mentioned about modernization of the military, common, don’t kid yourself. Other than buy firearms (which is not in any way a form of modernization) and accept donated decommissioned US warships.”
I answered this statement, yet you change the conditions about answering the statement. Basically, I failed to provide any answers for you because I was supposed to answer question B, but I really couldn’t answer question B because you presented statement A and you presented question B only after I answered statement A.
Regardless of that maneuver, I have answered the earlier statement with evidence. And also, is modernization limited to indigenous weapons development? Singapore could not develop their own F-15’s, and they are only about to purchase the F-35; does that mean that they are not a modern and modernizing military? I don’t think so.
“Im talking about rehab, and you are talking about response immediately after the typhoon(which is an utter failure, btw). Matatapos na termino niya, could you honestly say that the affected areas are already normalized?”
Apologies — this fault is on me. You were talking about rehab and I answered according to the response. With regards to the response, it was not an utter failure — it was mediocre. But I want to ask everyone here — how would anyone of you prepare for a storm that you never knew would be that powerful, would be that devastating, having no earlier academic or experiential knowledge about anything that you have never known before? We will include the possibility of having to realize that there was a newspaper hidden away in an obscure library that details that a similar event occurred about a hundred years ago. If there are any psychologists, philosophers, or mathematicians in here, I’d like them to present information of how likely someone would have known about the power of the storm before they even came to the point in time when it was even possible to know about anything about the storm.
With regards to the rehabilitation of Tacloban (which is what I know to be the most devastated area), check out NatGeo online and Time online. They have pictures and articles about the recovery of Tacloban. But I concede that I have yet to know about the other areas. We may speculate, but we cannot outright assume with finality.
“Bottom line, it is his job, gusto mo may utang na loob pa ako sa kaniya? That is plain idiotic.”
It is not about utang na loob — it is about objective judgement. We must form objective judgement if we are to be any use intellectually.
“FYI, hindi lang po so Corona or GMA ang corrupt. If at all, it only shows how vindictive and selfish he is.”
I agree he should really do more about this. If there is indeed some evidence or proof that he is being biased in prosecuting corrupt officials then this is a thumbs down for him. He really should not add to his mistakes. It does no one any good as he is the president of the country.
“You do realize that the annual budget of BS Aquino is the all time high despite minimal spending. What does that tell you?”
Here is a valid point. Where does does all that money go? I don’t think the executive department is constitutionally obligated to spend the budget empty, but the freedom of information concept is the threshold here. If Aquino is in any way against or acting against the FOI or its philosophical concepts, then that indicts him and it casts negatives on his credibility. But if there is nothing that is linking Aquino into any position against the FOI or its concepts, then the battle is in the legislative department which Aquino does not directly control.
But we’re in the dark there — any assumption can either be true, close to the truth, erroneous or just plain wrong.
Please do enlighten us about the achievements he did. This is a serious query. Kindly enumerate them. Thank you.
I had them posted in the earlier posts/discussion/(arguments) I had with joeld and tomas. Its up there — just look for the posts from njcelles. It’s a bit much to keep re-typing the same messages over and over again.
I’ll get back to you soon — i’m doing some comparison between government claims and international press. I chose international press in order to minimized political biases (at least).
Here’s an article from Huffington Post about Aquino’s Presidency:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/edsel-tupaz/aquinos-legacy-in-the-phi_b_7922082.html
Economics wise, he definitely had clout, and the economic keep happening WAY AFTER Arroyo has left office. It can be said and it is indeed so that OFW remittances has a lot to do with it, but we have to remember that Aquino also had direct deals with other nations as well. Actually, before the 2012 (2013?) Panatag Shoal standoff, we had investments from China, and these investments were one of the fruits of Aquino’s visit to China.
Here is an article from CNN Philippines(at the least, CNN):
http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2015/07/27/Benigno-Noynoy-Aquino-iii-legacy-final-SONA.html
Here is something from the Jakarta Post:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/11/19/noynoy-aquino-and-philippines-the-great-turnaround.html
Here is an international article about Aquino’s legacy:
http://globalriskinsights.com/2015/08/the-legacy-of-philippines-president-benigno-aquino/
From The Economist:
http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21603025-surprisingly-successful-president-philippines-impossible-dream
This is an article from Bloomberg:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-12-03/philippines-aquino-races-the-world-s-fastest-economies
This time I will be posting articles that criticize Aquino.
Not all articles are international.
From BusinessWorld:
http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Opinion&title=don&8217t-forget-to-paint-the-big-picture&id=112283
From Kyoto Review:
http://kyotoreview.org/issue-14/the-decline-of-a-presidency/
— There are articles on http://www.foreignaffairs.com about Mr.Aquino that both praise and criticize him. However, to completely read these articles require subscription — I am not about to be the guerrilla advertiser of Foreign Affairs so check them out at your choice. —
From Asian Journal:
http://asianjournal.com/editorial/aquino-has-failed-the-test-of-leadership/
Here’s an article from Business Mirror:
http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/coordination-failures-in-daang-matuwid/
The Failippines politicians don’t pray to God for money. They simply ask for His grace to solve problems. By solving problems, the money comes.