I was compelled to start blogging in 2009 about Philippine politics and culture after I read a report that former President Benigno Simeon Aquino III who was then still a Senator announced that he will be running for President in 2010. I found it extremely ridiculous that the reason why he decided to run was because of the clamour from both his Liberal Party mates and rabid Aquino supporters who were in mourning after the death of his revered mother, former President Cory Aquino. I thought then that I had to help knock some sense into people who were letting their emotion rule instead of reason.
Alas, I and a few others who tried to warn people that BS Aquino would be a dud failed to stop the madness that would follow over the next six years. I was even prepared to be wrong about my perception of BS Aquino. But, I thought that since BS Aquino who didn’t have any plans of running until his mother died, only meant that he didn’t have any vision that would translate into new policy changes for the country. What he had was hubris. A lot of it.
For six years, I monitored BS Aquino’s Daang Matuwid. It’s probably the same as what some of the critics of current President Rodrigo Duterte are doing now – monitoring and criticising his every move. I must admit I showed no mercy. I thought a public servant deserves public scrutiny. For six years, BS Aquino’s supporters labelled me too negative and full of hate for BS Aquino. Those are harsh words for someone merely pointing out the obvious that his most rabid supporters are refusing to acknowledge. They were either too gullible to believe what BS Aquino was claiming — that things are under control — or they were too proud to admit to their mistake in supporting him. Either way, they were part of the problem. Because they did not help BS Aquino stay grounded in reality, he continued to believe his own lies – that much has improved under his government.
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Fast forward to 2016, the Duterte government is giving everyone a reality check. The new President is not congratulating himself for a job well done after less than 6 months on the job. At least not yet. That is a stark contrast to BS Aquino who kept bragging about economic gains even when he was still using the economic policies of the Arroyo government.
Duterte is honest about the fact that there is still so much to do and admits that he didn’t realise the enormity of the problem, especially the country’s drug problem, until he was already at the helm. To be fair, I don’t think majority of the public was aware of the problems the BS Aquino government tried to hide. With the help of mainstream media allied with the Aquinos, he glossed over issues plaguing the nation and entertained the public with his supposed love life and reminiscing about his mother and father.
BS Aquino was on campaign mode for his entire term. He continued to blame the previous government until his last days in office. While this tactic was effective before he was elected since the public was still angry over a lack of progress, it just became too annoying and not to mention unproductive hearing BS Aquino blame Arroyo for everything, even his own incompetence. He and his most rabid supporters were the only ones enjoying blaming Arroyo. He had six years to reverse the mistakes of the past administration, but he chose to waste it on crucifying his enemies. The economic gains he kept trumping about were also a result of policy changes during the Arroyo years and not just his alone.
Why am I writing about BS Aquino when I should be writing about Duterte? Well, I just can’t accept that his rabid supporters are too impatient for “progress” under the Duterte government when he is only less than six months on the job. BS Aquino supporters were so patient with him for six years, but now they can’t wait for Duterte to solve the very problems BS Aquino left behind. They even call for his resignation and label him incompetent. I just had to laugh. Duterte has probably accomplished more in less than six months what BS Aquino couldn’t accomplish in six years.
Indeed, BS Aquino’s supporters are so arrogant they can’t even admit their idol was a big part of the reason Duterte’s government has to work harder fixing the country.
Senator Leila De Lima should desist from attacking her detractors in order for the retaliations against her to stop.
While I don’t condone personal attacks against De Lima, she is not helping herself. She is also guilty of spewing personal attacks against her detractors. Just recently she made fun of the new Department of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre’s hairdo and implied that he is wearing a wig. De Lima continues to hold press conferences attacking Duterte and pleading with the international community to help her. I think her ego is preventing her from realising that she just needs to stop attacking for her enemies to stop retaliating. She should take a leaf from Michelle Obama and go high when her critics are going low.
It is not so much De Lima’s lifestyle in the past of sleeping with different men that I have a problem with; it is the seeming abuse of her position and having sexual relations with a staff and being such a hypocrite by acting like she is so clean.
Unfortunately, De Lima’s behaviour is a product of BS Aquino’s padrino style of governance. She got used to getting away with being a bully because BS Aquino tolerated it. Too bad for her the tables have now turned. She has to deal with a much bigger bully who is out to get her no matter what. The best thing for her to do is to just stop talking and act with more dignity. It might earn her the sympathy she’s been trying so hard to get. Otherwise, she’s just giving her critics and bloggers like me something to write about.
[Photo courtesy Inquirer.net.]
In life, things are not always what they seem.
the war on drugs and crimes will never end ‘cuz these crimes are all armed. the duterte government should armed the citizens, i mean law abiding ctizens for their own/family protection and might work to scare away criminals, armed criminals. let them have a permit to carry wherever they go especially with their family.
….at least a low powered firearm from a .22 caliber down to .177 pellet airgun.
There is no sympathy for De Lima, Aquino, Mar Roxas,etc…who were involved in making our country a Narco Republic.
They must be prosecuted, hanged or jailed. What they did to our country is outrageous !
I, myself is being attacked by YellowTards, from the Pro Pinoy Website of Aquino, that is now closed…
It is part of being blogger/crusader to be attacked by these YellowTard Idiots. It is my badge of honor !
Our country is now controlled by the Chinese Triad Drug Mafia syndicate…they are building clandestine Drug Factory , everywhere.
De Lima is the Queen of the Drug Lords. She profited tremendously on the Shabu Drug Trade. She used Sex to control people; and to get what she want. She has no shame…she was the Department of Justice Secretary, and she behaved badly !
Their Drug cartel cahoots are even in this GRP website, trying to pose as legitimate bloggers !
i think pilipinos already realized why these LP’s yellows especially in the senate defending/protecting a confessed killer matobato? he should be arrested right away for the crimes he did no questions at all he already admits the killings himself.
nice article, ma’m ilda, i salute you!!!more of this kind…
What did Dutrete accomplish? Killing or arresting people involved in drugs. Let’s be honest here before Duterte made drugs his mission were there actually people in social media that highlighted the drug problem?
Let’s be honest here none of us saw Drugs as a priority. We spent more time complaining about license plates, traffic, flooding, slow internet, our airports, the economy, China, infrastructure among others but I don’t recall anyone complaining on the drug problem.
I am not saying isn’t drugs is something that shouldn’t be addressed but it shouldn’t be nowhere near the priority.
I don’t care how many drug pushers, lords, or addicts are killed or arrested if it still means I still get stuck 2 hours in traffic and if my purchasing power goes down because of a devalued currency.
@Shooters. “Killing or arresting people involved in drugs” only shows to the public that Duterte is making some progress on his War on Drugs, it looks good for presidential publicity, and it makes the masses feel “warm and fuzzy” inside that their president is actually doing something to turn the country around. That’s all.
Now, whether Duterte has really hurt the illegal drugs trade remains to be a question that will never be answered. It’s not like the masterminds behind this illegal industry are going to turn in an annual report on how the War on Drugs has affected their business. As complicit and lucrative the illegal drugs industry is, with its vast network of alliances in the country and abroad, it’s doubtful Duterte will see his War on Drugs come to fruition.
The problem of drugs, corruption, and poverty are deep in the heart and soul of the Philippines and its people. These problems are deeply-embedded in the cultural makeup of this society. One man (even if he is a president with penchant for “fighting fire with fire”) will not change the arrogant and selfish ways Filipinos live their lives if they, themselves, are unwilling to change from thinking and behaving as individuals instead of as one nation.
If I remember right, there is an office called Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA). As the lead agency in the fight against illegal drugs, it is responsible for efficient law enforcement of all provisions on any dangerous drug. ????
Pro Pinoy’ G. Nuguid A.K.A. “gnogid:
You are just wasting your time here at GRP website.
Go back to Aquino and his cahoots, ask them, to open the now closed : Pro Pinoy Website. There , you can admire each other, as “wise people”…nobody believes you here in GRP website !
Drug Lords are now stabbing each other in Bilibid Prison. Soon, they will stab you too…we will hear news : “a certain Shabu Drug Trafficker named: G. Nuguid was stabbed by his Drug supplier…”
@ Shhoter, THATS RIGHT, Duterte is throwing the Philippine Constitution under-the-bus by murdering the street-level dealers and addicts AKA the people on the lowest rugs of societies ladder.By doing this he is setting the stage for even worse state intrusions into the daily lives of Failipino’s. What these intrusions will be remains to be seen, but MARK THESE WORDS…they are coming….
AND IN THE MEANTIME, not a single fucking thing will be done to the oligarchs making billions of USDollars front-running the stock-market OR the energy speculator’s driving up the price of electricity to the highest electricity prices in the world(IN THE FUCKIN WORLD!),and making billion of USDollars doing it and crushing aspiring business’s into dust. 35% of the country lives on less than $3/per day and the rampant unemployment and lack of manufacturing jobs has the majority of Filipino’s living in squalor. NO, nothing is being done about that,NOTHING !!!!
AND YET, The idiotic Filipino’s cheer wildly for this Neanderthalic THUG who is nothing more than a crude mouthed moron with a blood lust and a sub 100 I.Q..
That’s what I’m talking about, THE RETURN OF GERRY.
@ David, the Failipino’s are living in squalor, have no fuckin jobs worth having, are watching the people who really run the country for the last 55+ years run everything into the ground, stealing everything the country has in the process,yes? And yet they cheer wildly as their elected ‘leader’ murders their fellow Failipino’s without ‘due process’ which is supposed to be their ‘inalienable right’. Duterte is doing nothing to curb governemnt/oligarchic corruption,sky-high electricity prices (the highest in the world)rampant poverty and chronic lack of decent paying jobs. AND YET FAILIPINO’s cheer for this fuckin Neanderthalis thug who has done nothing but take away their ‘due process’ CIVIL RIGHTS. It is really un-fuckin-believable and quite a tradgedy at the same time.
Selfishness
The desire of Failipinos is manifest. They know too well that their invincible, invisible, nameless, faceless, yet omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent Aquinos and the Yellowtard minions are condemned to serve them for life!
“I don’t condone personal attacks against De Lima”
Ilda, is not any attack against her a personal attack?
Anything that happened is a result of her flawed and corrupted personality.
I see nothing wrong with people attacking her “verbally”. She brought it on herself. She can’t stand it if people call her names? That disgusting woman should have known what is coming her way once she is losing her yellow umbrella. Of course there will be shit raining all over her.
the title of this essay is just such horse shit. The Failippines is sooo far fucked it will take 50 years to get the country back into something resembling an ASPIRING 3RD World country. In six years Duterte may be gone, he may not be, but one thing is for sure….the problems the country faces RIGHT NOW, will still be there just as big and maybe even bigger.
STOP BLAMING ONE MAN/FAMILY/POLITICAL PARTY and put the blame where it belongs: ON THE FILIPINO’s THEMSELVES. AND THAT IS BECAUSE THEY HAVE ALLOWED THE BIGGEST CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE IN S E ASIA TO FLOURISH SINCE 1965.
FAILIPINO’s still FAIL to realize they could be rid of these thieving scumbags in less than a week…BUT THEY JUST DON’T HAVE THE BALLS TO DO WHAT IS NECESSARY. They think because they have a big mouthed leader who picks on scapegoats that can not fight back that somehow thier shitty lot in life is going to change, GOOD LUCK WITH THIS MORON.
“STOP BLAMING ONE MAN/FAMILY/POLITICAL PARTY and put the blame where it belongs: ON THE FILIPINO’s THEMSELVES.”
This has to be the most profound comment on this article. There should be a whole article devoted to this title alone if the GRP writers weren’t so biased for only one party over another.
@ David, Filipino’s can not figure out that these poilticians are all the same.Filipino’s can not see that there are no separate parties and that these thieves are all in on the scams they run on the people.They take turns ‘shaming’ each other in the press and create one meaningless ‘Senate’ ‘Blue-Ribbon’ panel/commission after another that never accomplishes anything. the accussed NEVER go to jail and no ill-gotten wealth is ever returned to the people.
FILIPINO’s are to blame for not realizing this, and doing something to get rid of what is already well known as ‘The BIGGEST CRIMINAL SYNDICATE IN S.E. ASIA’. IT IS REALLY OBVIOUS TOO. BUT SOMEHOW THEY ALL CAN’T FIGURE IT OUT. HOLY SHIT, or should I say……DUH !!!
@THE RETURN OF GERRY. You know why these Filipinos cannot figure it out? It’s because they’ve been deluded by the oligarchs and politicians to think they’re some sort of special breed of people destined for something great in the future.
All their hardships and miseries are only temporary, and there is a savior over the horizon who will lift them up from all their sufferings. All they have to do is continue to work and pray hard–and kill each other if they have to—to make it happen.
Well, how long did you say it has been? Fifty-five plus years of having the same bullshit served, reheated, and shoved down these Filipinos’ throats; and all they can do is say, “More!”
If the Get Real Philippines writers were smart, they would have figured out by now that the whole country has been taken for a ride by all these political parties and candidates for a very long time. But they’re not that smart, are they, because they want to continue to believe that’s it’s the Marcoses against the Aquinos, the good versus evil, and the right against the wrong?
Well, if that’s the case, then these Filipinos are not fooling anybody but themselves, and their future generations to continue buying into the bullshits, while the oligarchs and politicians are laughing in the background on their way to the bank.
David: couldn’t agree more. I get quite tired of all the articles screaming about how Politician X is holding the country back or Politician Y was the best thing since sliced bread.
They’re all crooks. The reason they’re all crooks is that they’re elected from Filipinos at large, most of whom have a very flexible view on crookery: it’s tolerated not just because the masses are brainless, but because politician office is seen as some sort of jackpot, and next time, hey, it might be me shoveling funds earmarked for roadbuilding into my pockets. God be praised! Thank you Lord! Amen!
Meanwhile, the big-time crooks are (as you said) laughing all the way to the bank, because the small-time crooks are all busy scrambling over each other to steal 20 pesos.
It’s fascinating to observe how well this works. You have to hand it to the oligarchs: they must be genuinely clever people (if astoundingly evil) to have this sewn up so watertight. It’s the exact same thing in North Korea, where they’re brainwashed into believing they’re some sort of master race with a lifestyle far superior to the rest of the world.
Being a Filipino myself it is painful to hear. But what you said there is right. It’s always the savior mentality that the people here believe in. I agree that it should start with every Filipino doing their part. And from the poster above who said it will take 50 years, I wish that would be reality! But honestly, I really don’t think that will ever happen. I know that I sound that I hate my own kind but I guess I am one of those people who just got fed up with the system. It’s just history repeating itself.
i love you, Ilda! you’re the best!
@cats. Based on what criteria?
That sounds to me the usual alibi of an incoming administration. Anyway, I hope that is not what the present administration is saying because it would be counterproductive. Any administration that blames the previous one for having a hard time to fix a problem don’t deserve a minute to be in the office. ????
Pre Martial Law: PH was controlled by 80 powerful families, i.e. Lopezes, Osmenas, Ortigases, Sorianos,etc…
Upon ML declaration: Biz empires of these families were dismantled except … Danding Cojuangcos, Benedictos, Ayalas, and businesses were given to Chinese taipans
Post Martial Law: These powerful families were back with vengeance: (from 1986-2016)
1. Oil deregularization (oil subsidy was removed)
2. Privatizations of gov’t corps
3. Contractualization
4. Selling of gov’t assets
5. 10 % cap per year tuition fee hike was removed
6. Corruption in gov’t
7. Media controlled by oligarchs
8. Telecom industry controlled by foreigners
9. Illegal drugs
10. MRT/LRT gov’t subsidies lessen
11. SLEx/NLEX toll fees increased
Hi Ilda, my opinion on Leila de Lima long time ago came to light ! I know she was up to no good. With those colorful bandanas, blingblings while doing service to the Govt. department of justice was outrageous ! confusing and bakya ! Why was she like that ? Was she hiding something behind those blingblings…she should see a professional shrink to shake off those scarfs…
The TITLE of this essay could/might be correct. BUT, to go along with that statement is to pratically present the thought that somehow GMA or E-CRAP were on the path to ‘FIXING’ what was wrong with the country, BUT THAT IS NOT THE CASE.
Since living in the Philippines I have seen three Presidents come into office, each was heralded as the ‘GAME CHANGER’ or the ‘FIX-ALL’, but neither GMA nor E-CRAP did anything that has improved the country one IOTA.
From where I stand, The Aquino’s Administration just carried on the charade that was rolling happily along during the Presidencies preceeding Aquino…and that is about it. E-CRAP was not in office all that long but he was facing the Firing Squad and today he is the MAYOR OF MANILA(MANURE?), GMA ? same thing. After stealing evrything GMA could get her hands on, GMA was facing terrible consequnces, BUT ULTIMATELY? NOTHING, I REPEAT NOTHING HAPPENED TO GMA. GMA retained her seat in Congress, never gave any ill-gotten wealth back and ,despite what some here at GRP often-times state, GMA was NEVER imprisoned, spent not one second in jail…..and I would bet, spent little to NO TIME in the hospital room she was supposedly ‘held’ in.
SO, with these aknowledged facts in place, KNOWN to anyone with a brain…..WHY WOULD ANYONE THINK THAT THEIR IS A POLITICIAN IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY THAT IS NOT A CRIMINAL, A FUCKIN LYING WEASEL THIEF?
There exists no such species of politician in the Philippines as a ‘Politician’ that is not corrupt/criminal.
AND HERE IS THE CATCH: The Filipino people out number these thieves by many 100’s of thousand’s of tens of million’s…and it begs the question….
WHY DO YOU ALL PUT UP WITH THESE BLATANT LYING THIEVING WEASELS? AND: What, I SAY WHAT, are you all waiting for?
Oh and don’t forget our dear Pork barrel queen and her daughter. The evidence is already there. In their faces and yet they can’t seem to put that person behind bars. Well even if they did, The jail in our country for the rich is just another hotel. Heck there are even red light districts and comfy rooms inside. I could ask the same questions over and over again.
For their turn at the trough, Gerry.
I have an anecdote that may be instructive. I’m amazed at the number of pyramid scams that proliferate in the Philippines. Hmm, I think, Pinoys are dumb, but surely they’re not THAT dumb? They must be able to see that these “businesses” have no income with which to pay commissions, and that no genuine business could make that much profit?
I asked around. After a while I got an honest answer from someone who joined up. I was right. They’re only a little bit dumb. They know exactly how it works. And they don’t care. They’re happily ripping off their fellow citizens … confident in the knowledge that it won’t be them left hanging when the music stops, probably because they prayed to God for good fortune.
all you need to know is that even noynoy’s socks sports the yellow ribbon logo..
google it
yeah right hail hydra