Arroyo’s wrath?

Hacienda Luisita was supposed to be a model for Cory’s Agrarian Reform program. Yet after more than 15 years di pa rin na-resolba. Mukhang ayaw talaga ibigay sa mga maralitang farmers ang lupain.

Last years violent dispersal of farm workers that killed seven people and injured hundreds is something to look into. I am saddened, Satur Ocampo used to defend these farmers. Now he sided with Cory
( Hacienda Luisita Landowner), all because of his clamor to unsit Pandakekok. Let us not forget, these farmers have all the right to fight these Hacienderos for their injustice more than what are clamoring at the moment. Kaya nga ako galit sa mga Hacienderong ganito. Sadyang mapag-api!

Let the partition of land begin!

…install the useful, remove the worthless.

this is part of gloria and the gang’s foresight. since the day she decided to run for the presidency, gloria and her minions were successful in their preemptive strikes.

i believe in the law of averages…gloria’s payback is now apparent but ours will come. we won’t let principal gloria bully us in our schoolyard for we are sick and tired of her evil ways.

My take on the “calibrated preemptive striike” is that it is GMA’s response to the complaints of Makati business establishments on the frequency of political rallies being staged in that financial district which have hampered and disrupted their business operations and convenienced their employees. In spite of being Makati’s major tax payers, their pleas to stage the rallies elsewhere in Makati were ignored by Mayor Binay who obviously prefers the financial district to get extra media mileage for his anti-GMA rallies. Binay reigns supreme in his little kingdom of Makati because the PNP rule on No Permit, No Rally does not apply. As mayor, he alone can say when and where to stage a rally.

But Binay should not be too complacent that GMA cannot play a trick on him too. He can wake up one morning with a suspension order from the Ombudsman removing him from office. Who can forget that he and his wife have a pending multi-million peso graft charges hibernating for over a year now at the desk of the Ombudsman.

Binay’s contempt for GMA and his obsession to remove her is understandable. But what makes people wonder, including his anti-Gloria allies, is why he wants a transition council to take over when GMA is removed, instead of following the constitutional take over by the VP. The transition council is a junta by another name whose members are self-appointed and self-empowered that can radically change the government, even the constitution. As a result, Binay has turned off a lot of anti-GMA sympathizers, thus, the Sept. 21 Makati rally was a big flop as he was seen alone in the company of red-flag waving leftist militants, the Erap boys, and their hakots. His erstwhile allies ex-Pres. Cory, Susan Roces, the Hyatt Ten, the B&W movement, the religious, etc., seem to have abandoned them as they were noticeably absent.

The buzz is that the junta can draw the rules of law that will save Binay
from the Ombudsman, but not if this government remains regardless of who the President is.

While GMA and her cohorts’ acts reek with vengeance, I will be the first one to call for her retention if she substantively resolves the age-old tenurial problem of Hacienda Luisita tenants.

As I am not naïve, however, I seriously doubt the capacity of GMA in putting forward a resolution to the Luisita issue—one that necessitates rescinding the escape clause known as stock-option plan. Beyond the Cojuangco clan that controls Luisita, there are other landed elites, diversified as they may be, who may be affected if and when GMA takes on the higher plane and favors to resolve the land distribution question in favor of tenants.

HAYAAN NA NGA SI GMA TO CONSOLIDATE HER FORCES. THE BETTER FOR US TO WEED OUT THE WEEDS. MAS MAKIKILALA PA ANG KAIBIGAN AT KAAWAY. SERYOSOHIN NATIN ANG CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE. SI GMA NAMAN ANG NANGUNGUNA SA PAGLABAG DI BA?

…like the ‘jeepney syndrome’ people of the extremes would howler badly the rights of people behind the wheels of a jeepney, others may count to object to this type of transport that is so obsolete and dangerous, which one are you?

Such backwardness in manner of our intellectuality fighting to advance the cause of the drivers’ rights, I would be remiss if by my sense of simplicity would rather that I fight for the return of the 30’s trambia (cable cars) or horse drawn cars than bikes, remove the jeepney and remove the toxins soiling up our environs so so bad! Ubo ubo at ubo pa…pwee!

When can we really be the intellectuals molded from Dr Jose Rizal and Ninoy Aquino to at least be simple enough to understand? Under a presidential system, we elect people to be King and Queen, kaya’t kung may reklamo kayo, sa uban na lang mo…

What ARROYO’S WRATH? , I say let us drive away this LITTLE SCHEMING
RAT from Malacanang before she could do more harm to the country!!!
What happen to the Influential Thinkers, businessmen, the church, the lawyers, professionals, etc. this RAT is fooling us all, she’s probably laughing behind our back. Will you allow this RAT to continue running the affairs of this country? This RAT is a mad woman with her ABC’s (Arroyo Mike, Bunye, Claudio, Defensor, Ermita, up to Villafuerte). The future is brighter without this cheat, liarRAT. Por Dios Por Santo mga manong, mga manang, lets do it!!! Ikulong yang RAT na yan!!!

GMA will leave no stone unturned just to find out who she’s up against and to remain in power. Even to the extent of jeopardizing the nation’s economy, and with it the 40% plus of Filipinos living under the age of 32.
Slowly but surely the country is now turning into a police state under the guise of national security.

Baka nga bilang na din ang mga araw ng mga websites tulad nitong PCIJ, not scaring you folks, but this is the new reality. It’s de ja vu all over again.

speaking of corruption…i would like to share with everybody an article by Sir Conrado de Quiros last Sep.22 on his blog. I can’t agree more when he told that GMA has corrupted us all Filipino by our inaction…

THERE is one big difference between Ferdinand Marcos and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Marcos brought out the best and worst in Filipinos, Ms Arroyo has brought out only the worst in us.

Marcos, of course, was the first one to corrupt the country over and beyond the call of venality. There was corruption before martial law, to be sure. But at least the corrupt minded it when they were exposed by the Manila Times — Chino Roces’ of course, not Dante Ang’s; from pedestal to mud, what a fall-and the Free Press. Before martial law, to be called a ‘buwaya’ [crocodile] was to be an endangered species at the polls. After martial law, to call Marcos’ cronies so was to be an endangered species on Earth.

But martial law also brought out the best in Filipinos. It drew out luminous idealism, enough for many youth to sacrifice their lives in the hills and for many opposition figures to spend time in jail rather than capitulate to tyranny. Pepe Diokno and Ninoy Aquino easily come to mind. The
revolutionaries waged open guerrilla warfare, while more priests, nuns, businessmen, workers, and even government clerks did so clandestinely on the wings.

There is nothing of that today. If Ms Arroyo has proven anything, it is the astonishing corruptibility of Filipinos in general. No sector of society has proved invulnerable. The real comparison is not between Ms Arroyo and Marcos, it is between Ms Arroyo and Hitler. The astonishing ease with which Hitler corrupted all sectors of society, including the most seemingly incorruptible ones, from the military to the aristocrats, from the civil servants to the industrialists, from the youth to the aged came from people thinking they could use the obscure soldier, who never rose beyond the rank of corporal, for their own ends. Alas, they never saw the ambition in his heart and the cunning in his brain.

The difference though is that Hitler was a skilled orator and drew people to him with an ardor. If Ms Arroyo has a magnetic personality, only she knows about it. Well, maybe the few other people she has magnetized.

Ms Arroyo has corrupted the Catholic Church by buying off its key people with money from the government casino firm Pagcor. Why should the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ top honchos want Ms Arroyo out? They’re getting gambling money to give to the poor, and they’ve always considered themselves poor.

Ms Arroyo has corrupted the military. But that is not a surprise at all, it is the most corruptible of society’s institutions, the generals being the first to fall to the call of greed.

Ms Arroyo has corrupted the businessmen, though that, too, is not particularly surprising, profit being their driving force in life. It was business that warned shrilly about the threat Fernando Poe Jr. represented.

Ms Arroyo has corrupted Namfrel, the election watchdog group that foiled the machinations of the Commission on Elections in the past, becoming, in Garci’s words, now “sympathetic na sa atin, Ma’am.”

Ms Arroyo has corrupted civil society: Until last July, Dinky Soliman was singing, “If we hold on together.”

Ms Arroyo has corrupted Edsa People Power: Until last July, too, Cory Aquino insisted on draping its mantle around Ms Arroyo’s shoulders.

Ms Arroyo has corrupted the media, two of the biggest networks now censoring criticism of her or poking fun at her in their sitcoms.

Ms Arroyo has corrupted the Left, many former activists now preferring to serve her rather than the people.

Ms Arroyo has corrupted God himself, speaking freely of being put by Him where she is, without anyone, least of all Archbishop Fernando Capalla protesting, never mind the sacrilege, just the aesthetic outrage.

Everyone also thought they could use the timid politician, who was too scared to defy Joseph Estrada, for their own ends. Alas, they never saw the ambition in her heart and the cunning in her brain.

The effects of the corruption are there for all to see. We have not just lowered standards, we have obliterated them completely. I used to think that there was something horrendously insulting about that poster I used to see along España Avenue enjoining Filipinos to become world-class by becoming caregivers. The poster showed a Filipina smiling serenely while wheeling an elderly white woman along. I used to ask: Have we lost our pride completely? But even that is preferable to what is happening today. Today, I have to ask: Have we lost our minds completely?

There are no rules, there are no morals, there are no ethics. Today, you have the national security adviser himself hiring an American firm to lobby the US Congress to directly intervene in Philippine affairs by funding an initiative to change the Constitution. You have congressmen openly being bought to kill an impeachment bid. You have public officials masquerading as journalists and journalists masquerading as public officials. There was a time when “delicadeza” [sense of propriety], if not the law, compelled people in media to stop being people in media when they became public officials, or appointees. Now, no one can even spell the word delicadeza. Or law.

Lying has become an acceptable tool to get ahead. Saying “I am sorry” has become the standard template to excuse murder.

But the biggest sector Ms Arroyo has corrupted is the public itself. The biggest thing Ms Arroyo has corrupted is the minds of the Filipinos themselves. It shows itself in the willingness of an entire people to accept a lie. No, in the willingness of an entire people to live a lie. Everybody agrees that Ms Arroyo did not win the elections. Yes, everybody, including the congressmen who voted to kill the impeachment, including the justice secretary who is determined to foment injustice and the national security adviser who is determined to sabotage this country, and including the cockroaches that infest my neighborhood. But not everybody wants to do anything about it. “Sige na lang,” let’s move on, say the bishops.

Today, there is only one thing left we are not afraid of. We are not afraid to stoop lower and lower.

GANDALF,

i agree. it is indeed a natural move. some might not like it, but that’s just the way it is. reversing the view, there are people too who do not like what the opposition did and had been doing. it just so happens that there are quite a number of people here in this blogs who seem to have an innate disliking for Arroyo.

ha? “quite a number”? aba eh bulag nga hehehe. o natutulog sa kangkungan. hoy! gasing!!!

a very angy conrado de quiro in todays inq7’s edition. my sentiments exatly…please read on
—————————
There’s The Rub : I refuse, Part 2

First posted 02:31am (Mla time) Sept 26, 2005
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer News Service

DEAR MADAM,

You will notice that I do not say, “Madam President.” That is because I do not consider you my president. As-to go by the surveys and the number of decent Filipinos who are dying or getting sick from seeing you on TV-do most citizens of this country.

I refuse to obey your order for me to desist from gathering with other citizens in Makati and elsewhere. If Jojo Binay were to defy your order and call for a rally in his favorite city to call for your ouster, I will be there.

Notwithstanding that I am hard pressed these days to meet deadlines, given the never-ending meetings that the never-ending divisiveness you have wrought upon this country compels me to attend.

Had your predecessor, Joseph Estrada, ordered this in his time, I would have refused to obey his order too. To his credit, he never did so, notwithstanding that he made noises to that effect. He drew the line at certain things, one of them being the rights of the citizens. To his credit also, he was an elected president-he left Jose de Venecia, who like you knows only how to manipulate things, biting his dust. If he had ordered a crackdown on those who were trying to oust him, he could at least have claimed to do so in the name of the people.

To your discredit, you have more than made noises to that effect, you have done it. To your bigger discredit, you are not even the president.

You say “The commuters, the pedestrians, the students and the business sectors have complained about the inconvenience and the disruption of the businesses resulting in economic losses.” How can the commuters, pedestrians, students, and businessmen complain about these rallies when they are the ones who are swelling their ranks? You tend to confuse yourself, your hangers-on in Malacañang, your Pagcor-enriched friends in the Church, and your toadies in Congress, with them. But then you’ve always been confused about a great many things, including who is the president of this country.

But that is nothing. What is astounding is that you should forget how you got to be in Malacañang to begin with, which allowed you to stay on after last year by helloing Garci. You did so because we defied Estrada and did what we had to do. I’d like to emphasize the “we” because I never saw you there. It is a testament to how saintly Pope John Paul II is that he has not importuned his Creator to send a lightning bolt your way for using his name to justify your paralysis. You got to Malacañang on our blood, sweat, and tears, not on yours. The most you can do is appreciate protest, the least you can do is not stifle it.

If we did not inconvenience the commuters, the pedestrians, the students and the businessmen then-though I never heard any complaints from them, they were busy swelling the ranks of the rallies too-you would never have slipped into the Palace by the River and been free to torment us. If you listen close enough to the complaints emanating from the commuters, pedestrians, students and businessmen, you will hear that they have nothing to do with traffic, they have everything to do with the humongous inconvenience of having you still around to disrupt not just the economy, not just the normal processes of democracy, but the natural flow of life itself.

I am glad that you decided to ban rallies against you in Jojo Binay’s city-though I have yet to hear you ban as well rallies for you in Lito Atienza’s and Sonny Belmonte’s cities-shortly after the anniversary of martial law. It is a very good reminder of it. Though as I said last week, Marcos was still the president when he declared it, having a year more to go. You are imposing a de facto martial law without ever having been voted to power.

You say you’re “tired of chasing the bully around the schoolyard.” I say you are just as confused about your metaphors as you are about your mandate. The normal course is for the bully to chase the smaller kids around the yard, not for the smaller kids to chase the bully around the yard. The normal course, too, is for the other kids to want to stop being bullied and fight back. Guess who’s who in this equation.

You say we are abusing your policy of maximum tolerance. I say you are fraying our nerves and taxing our patience more than anything in the expanded VAT. You are not tolerating us, we are tolerating you. A democracy, in case you have forgotten, is one where power resides in the will of the people, not in the will of the president, and certainly not in the whim of a putative one. A tyranny is one where the ruler rules without the consent of the governed. That consent is gotten through the vote, not through Garci.

You say the people fighting you are not good for the country. That is your opinion. But this is not a matter of who is good or bad for the country, this is a matter of who the people want to rule them. If this were just a question of who is good for the country, I’d pick Nicky Perlas or Ting Roxas over you anytime. Unlike you, they have a sound vision of the future and the integrity to realize it. But like you, they have not been voted into power, and so can’t be president.

I demand to know what moral authority you have to conscript my loyalty as a citizen. As I said a couple of months ago, I refuse to give it. I refuse to be a good citizen to a bad president. “Bad” in the sense of lame or fake-my apologies to the lame and fake. I refuse to serve, I refuse to defend, I refuse to pay my taxes. Feel free to consider me a destabilizer. I was, I am, I will always be. If I weren’t so, you would never have tasted the power you now use so wantonly.

Feel free to arrest me as well. I can always admit that anxious as I was to protect my country, I called up people who sounded like Jojo Binay. For this:

I… am…not…sorry.

Bernie,
matutuwa ka pa ba kung katulad ni Mr de Quiros, marami pang ibang mamamatay sa atake sa puso sa sobrang inis sa mga nangyayari sa bansa natin ngayon sa rehimen ni pandak?

by the way sino ba ngayon ang may balitang ooperahin sa puso? di ba kapanalig ni arroyo? that is what we call KARMA. kaya hinay hinay lang baka ikaw na susunod hehehe.

si gloria malabong ma-heart attack–SHE DOESN’T HAVE A HEART, SHE DOESN’T HAVE A CONSCIENCE AND DEFINITELY SHE DOESN’T EVEN HAVE A SOUL.. SHE HAS ALREADY SOLD THE 3 TO THE DEVIL.

i wonder–nakakatulog ka pa ba, gloria? wag na nating sabihing mahimbing–nakakatulog ka pa kaya? i don’t think so…lahat ng ginawa mong kasamaan sa taong bayan at sa ating bayan, mag-bu-boomerang sa yo. God works in mysterious ways. kapag ang Diyos ang kumilos, you will never know what hit you.

CRAP! CRAP! CRAP! I have no president, no government and no religion right now.

Damn it! Pati College of Law ng UP e isa na sa mga b*tches ni Gloria. Kakahiya!

Schumey, its the Yuchengcos, they own RCBC and a very well known gloria ally.

abusado lang talaga etong mga metro mayors na puro kakampi ni gloria. kahit alam nilang illegal yung ginagawa nilang hindi pagbibigay ng mga rally permits (BATAS PAMBANSA BLG. 880). o hindi nila alam eto? kalokohan yung pinagsasabi nila na manggugulo yung mga reallyist. napoprovoke lang naman ang mga eto kapag dinedisperse na ng mga pulis.
sa davao kahit magrally ka ng magrally pababayaan ka lang ni duterte. respetuhan ang gobyerno tsaka rallyist (usually BAYAN muna) doon. kapag meron kang sentimyento sa gobyerno okay lang kay duterte na ilabas mo. ibig sabihin ba mas magaling pa siya kesa sa mga mayors ng metro manila? the executioner pa nga tawag dito pero hindi niya kinocurtail ang freedom of expression ng mga tao. at wala namang nagrereklamo laban sa rally kahit yung mga nasa business community. it is also on record that davao is always one of the first cities to stage a rally whenever there is a nationwide protest. sana etong mga metro manila mayors matuto ring magpatupad ng tamang batas hindi lang sunod ng sunod kay gloria.

balita ko nga rin po makikipag-usap si Donald Dee kay Binay tungkol sa concern ng PCCI sa mga rally sa makati. parang may survey ata doon na ang ibang investor ay naaakit sa mas mababang buwis sa Taguig kumpara sa Makati. bukod dito, marami din daw na negosyante ang di pabor sa pagrarally sa Makati.

[…] Meanwhile, Carlota is set to appoint a new Law Center director in the person of lawyer Susan Villanueva, a lecturer at the College of Law. A partner at the Villarasa and Angcangco Law Offices (The Firm), Villanueva was the one who endorsed Carlota to the deanship race that pitted him against Pangalangan (who was bidding for an unprecedented third term), Concepcion and Prof. Marvic Leonen, the University’s vice president for legal affairs. […]

[…] Then it hit me. She’s dead serious about being the bully now, and it’s scaring the badoodles out of me. Now, I pride myself in my testicular fortitude, and despite my previous misgivings about GMA, I never really thought she’d go this far. By saying that “all heads of departments of the Executive branch of teh government shall secure the consent of the government prior to appearing before House or Congress8,” she’s basically saying that the Senate or Congress can’t question anything that she does anymore. By putting restraints on the right for peacable assembly, neither can we. […]

The Inquirer report was so inaccurate its surprising to its essence repeated here. I thought that reporters ascertained their facts before they publish thier stories. There was no straw vote taken by the faculty or any conspiracy in the selection of the new dean.

Pangalangan was not qualified to run for a third term under UP’s rules except for exceptional reasons. There were none. Why he insisted in seeking a third term is a mystery to many of us.

whatever happened to responsible journalism? or responsible journalists?

is this how you define investigative journalism nowadays?

makes me wonder how journalists get their stories. or are they concocted stories?

had PCIJ interviewed any one from the UP law community to confirm the controversy on the recent deanship appointment?

get your facts straight people

We did talk to at least three members of the U.P. law faculty.

In light of the issue, read also Dean Raul Pangalangan’s recent column. While there was no straw vote, Pangalangan’s nomination came by way of an endorsement by 46 out of 57 U.P. law professors, a fact also confirmed by our sources.

Pangalangan is not totally prohibited from seeking a third term. The rules allow it in exceptional cases. The conflict may have arisen from how the term “exceptional” was interpreted, and which resulted in dropping him from the deanship race.

According to a source, initially, Pangalangan and Prof. Marvic Leonen were the only nominees. Prof. Salvador Carlota came in only as a fourth nominee, after Prof. Danilo Concepcion, upon the endorsement of Susan Villanueva, who has acknowledged her action in an emailed open letter.

The problem with the blog report is that there was really nothing in the writer’s notes to infer that a conspiracy was at hand. Nevertheless, the notes were spun into a fairy tale of conspiracy that is not worthy of any journalist, much less one associated with the PCIJ.

Neither Prof. Concepcion nor Prof. Carlota’s nominations were late- or smuggled into the final list of nominees. When the faculty met with the Chancelor Cao, it was agreed that the nominations of Prof. Pangalangan and Prof. Leonen were deemed submitted, but other nominations could still be made. There was, therefore, nothing irregular about the additional nominations as the report suggested.

The Board of Regents thought that there were no exceptional circumstances that warranted a third term for Raul Pangalangan. Why should we infer that there was a conspiracy from that?

Arroyo has enough sins we can talk about. We do not need to add to her list of offenses for our amusement.

Say that again?

Majority ng Pinoy ayaw sa papalit kay Gloria?

Gaguhin mo ang sarili mo.

Ang sabihin mo, karamihan sa mga Pilipino, ayaw na diyan sa amo mong mukhang burat!

Kamax is obviously a supporter of Dean Carlota (maybe even his fraternity brother) who stubbornly refuses to see how GMA, through The Firm, can manipulate people for their purposes and that they can use their “fratertal” connections for their own advantage but they will not hesistate to go beyond “fraternal” connections to achieve their purpose.

Neither Drilon, being a Sigma Rhoan, nor Danicon, being an Upsilonian, has anything to do with what The Firm intends to do. Drilon does not control the Sigma Rho, Danicon does not control the Upsilon. But what is clear is that THE FIRM can do magic with its connections with the Sigma Rho and the Upsilon for ITS OWN PURPOSES.

I don’t think GMA is the evil one. Its the FIRM who concocts all the ingenous “legal” moves that should be blamed for the mess we are in.

[…] We would also like to clarify another report by Alecks Pabico posted on Sept. 24, also related to the U.P. College of Law. That report, which said that Malacañang may have had a hand in the selection of a new dean for the College of Law, created a stir both in and outside the university. That report was based on interviews with three professors at the College of Law. As these professors corroborated each other’s account, we felt that we could report what they said. […]