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"From Manila Bay to San Francisco Bay"
FEATURED
By Perry Diaz
Underfinanced and overly maligned for his brand of leadership, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte jumped into the presidential derby two months after the official campaign period had started. And with no national political machinery, and who hardly traveled outside his city for two decades as mayor, Duterte was hesitant to enter the race. But it must have been destiny that pushed him into the fray.
With no previous national government experience, Digong knew too well that to beat his nationally well-known rivals, he has to win the hearts of the people and seal a “sacred” covenant with them. To do this, he has to go down to the level of the “common tao” and impress upon them a sincere message of hope, which is “Para sa tunay na pagbabago” – for a real change.
Impunity of lawlessness
Before becoming mayor of Davao City, the city was known as the “Murder Capital of the Philippines.” It was the country’s Dodge City where lawlessness ruled. And this brings to mind the legendary Wyatt Earp, the crime-fighter in the epic movie “Gunfight at O.K. Corral,” which was followed by “Tombstone” decades later.
Together with his three brothers and the feared gunfighter and killer, John Henry “Doc” Holliday, Earp clashed with a group of outlaws called “cowboys” in the 1870s, chasing them from Dodge City, Kansas to Tombstone, Arizona where the Earps and Holliday figured in gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Wyatt Earp was credited with fighting lawlessness in Dodge City and Tombstone [...]
Read the full story >>
ALSO IN THE NEWS
By Perry Diaz
Up
until a few weeks ago, vice presidential candidate Congresswoman Maria
Leonor “Leni” Robredo was behind in the polls. Way ahead of her then
were Senators Francis “Chiz” Escudero and Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos
Jr. who were at a statistical dead heat. But the latest polls surprised a
lot of the power brokers who have shrugged her off as a “spoiler.” Not
anymore. Indeed, if the elections were held today, she’d win over
Bongbong and Chiz, which makes one wonder: Why the sudden voters’
interest in Leni?
This is a complicated situation because first of all, Leni is paired with Liberal Party (LP) standard bearer Manuel “Mar” Roxas II who is perceived as a weak leader. And secondly, she’s up against two formidable vice presidential candidates, Marcos and Escudero, whose campaigns are being bankrolled by some of the wealthiest families and oligarchs. While Bongbong is presumed to have unrestricted access to the Marcos family wealth, Chiz is supported by a group of mega-billionaires led by Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr. and Ramon Ang. Cojuangco is the Chairman of San Miguel Corporation (SMC), the largest food and beverage corporation in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; and Ang is SMC Vice-Chairman and Chief Operating Officer. By comparison, Leni doesn’t have rich and powerful groups that can match her rivals’ financiers. That’s a double whammy – nay, triple whammy! — that she had to overcome to win the vice presidency. As it stood then, Leni couldn’t win, not even in her dreams. Yes, it was that bad [...]
Read the full story >>
**************************
ON DISTANT SHORE
By Val G. Abelgas
It
should be a time of hope for millions of Filipinos as they prepare to
go to the polls on Monday, May 9, to elect the new set of leaders who
will govern the country in the next six years.
The last six years had not turned out as we had hoped when we elected the son of a recently deceased revered democratic icon. After six years of hypocrisy and ineptitude, the hope has turned to despair, and the promise of deliverance from corruption and poverty under President Benigno S. Aquino III’s “daang matuwid” has remained just that, a promise.
The coming presidential election should offer us hope, as all electoral processes should, but looking at the line-up of contenders for the presidency, it seems the people are left to choosing the one with the least baggage, or the one who will bring us to the least doom, or the one who just might be able to bring the radical change that many think the nation needs, at whatever cost.
The utter frustration of the people on the ills that have kept the country from attaining real, sustainable and inclusive growth has made them too defeatist to think that all politicians are corrupt anyway so why worry about corruption allegations against some of the candidates, or too desperate to risk giving up freedom and democracy in exchange for radical change, or too naïve to allow another candidate to pursue the broken promises of his benefactor or to put a totally inexperienced aspirant holding the reins of government [...]
Read the full story >>
**************************
By Val G. Abelgas
Last Thursday, I performed my duty as a dual Filipino citizen by
voting as an overseas voter in the Philippine Consulate General in Los
Angeles. I had planned to wait for my absentee ballot in the mail, but I
decided to see first hand how the new automated election system worked.
It was so easy and so efficient that it took just a few minutes to pick the candidates for president, vice president and 12 senators plus one party-list, have the ballot scanned by a machine, verify the votes from a printed voter receipt, and put back the receipt in a designated box. It seemed easier than the voting in US elections, where I have been casting my vote since the 2008 presidential elections as an American citizen.
If you live within driving distance to the Philippine embassy or a consulate, I suggest you don’t vote by mail but in person so that you would understand the process better and personally feel the joy of being able to have a voice in charting the future of our beloved homeland.
**************************
“Duterte Wins!” will be the title of my column on May 10, the day after the elections.
Yes, that is my fearless forecast which I first made in my piece of February15.
My apprehension was further heightened when two young computer engineers managed to hack Comelec’s official website and successfully download its 340-gigabyte data file and upload it to a public Facebook account.
The report that Comelec chairman Andres Bautista was allegedly once an adviser and campaign manager of Liberal Party presidential candidate Mar Roxas also didn’t help assuage my fear.
Bautista, of course, has vowed the elections will be clean and above board.
Those who may be hatching or have already hatched an evil plan to alter the results of the May 9 elections must be warned that the Filipino people will no longer allow their will to be thwarted once again without retribution.
******
She lied again!
Presidential candidate Grace Poe Llamanzares said her husband has already renounced his US citizenship… before a barangay captain?!
On renunciation of citizenship, the US Immigration and Nationality Act states [...]
Read the full story >>
**************************
Fr. Shay Cullen
PREDA Foundation
It
is election time and some say nothing ever changes in the Philippines.
The candidates change but the social inequality remains. Candidates for
the presidency this time range from two representing the rich elite, the
daughter of a deceased movie star and a foul-mouthed mayor vowing to
kill all suspected criminals and a senator who is fronting for the
family of the former dictator.
The frustration of the educated middle class is the absence of a visionary leader of integrity with a genuine love of the poor, immense popularity and with a reform agenda to bring equality and justice. The election is not about agenda or policy platforms, it’s about popular controllable personalities, pliable puppets able to dance and sing or who are bombastic and crude. They must be controversial and media magnetic.
Read the full story >>
**************************
By Patricia Evangelista and Nicole Curato
Rappler
There is a farm south of Makati, a sprawl of greenery half the size of San Juan City. The locals call it Hacienda Binay.
Out front, across the mansion, a carefully maintained maze of hedges surrounds urns filled with creeping purple flowers. A blue fountain gleams to one side, an intricate pergola at the other. The entire arrangement – meant to resemble the Queen’s Garden in Kew – is an odd patch of fancy at the center of an agricultural municipality. There is a resort pool, a 40-car garage, an orchid greenhouse, a cock-fighting farm, a horse ranch, and the dozen enclosed buildings where pigs wallow in air-conditioned splendor, the hogs kept in seclusion “because the doktora doesn’t like the stench.”
Years of independent investigation along with recent revelations trace a morass of private deals and dummy corporations. They have led straight to the feet of the vice president of the republic. It is an accusation the Vice President denies [...]
Read the full story >>
**************************
In
the two-day meeting of the G7 (US, Britain, Canada, France, Germany,
Italy and Japan) recently in the Japanese city of Hiroshima, the group
issued a joint statement saying: “We are concerned about the situation
in the East and South China Seas, and emphasise the fundamental
importance of peaceful management and settlement of disputes. We express
our strong opposition to any intimidating, coercive or provocative
unilateral actions that could alter the status quo and increase
tensions.”
The G7 also urged “all states to refrain from such actions as land reclamations” and “building of outposts… for military purposes”. (AFP)
He urged the foreign ministers to “stop making irresponsible remarks and all irresponsible actions, and truly play a constructive role for regional peace and stability” [...]
Read the full story >>
Visit www.GlobalBalita.com for more news and updates
"From Manila Bay to San Francisco Bay"
FEATURED
Duterte: A phenomenal phenomenon
PerryScopeBy Perry Diaz
Underfinanced and overly maligned for his brand of leadership, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte jumped into the presidential derby two months after the official campaign period had started. And with no national political machinery, and who hardly traveled outside his city for two decades as mayor, Duterte was hesitant to enter the race. But it must have been destiny that pushed him into the fray.
With no previous national government experience, Digong knew too well that to beat his nationally well-known rivals, he has to win the hearts of the people and seal a “sacred” covenant with them. To do this, he has to go down to the level of the “common tao” and impress upon them a sincere message of hope, which is “Para sa tunay na pagbabago” – for a real change.
Impunity of lawlessness
Before becoming mayor of Davao City, the city was known as the “Murder Capital of the Philippines.” It was the country’s Dodge City where lawlessness ruled. And this brings to mind the legendary Wyatt Earp, the crime-fighter in the epic movie “Gunfight at O.K. Corral,” which was followed by “Tombstone” decades later.
Together with his three brothers and the feared gunfighter and killer, John Henry “Doc” Holliday, Earp clashed with a group of outlaws called “cowboys” in the 1870s, chasing them from Dodge City, Kansas to Tombstone, Arizona where the Earps and Holliday figured in gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Wyatt Earp was credited with fighting lawlessness in Dodge City and Tombstone [...]
Read the full story >>
Duterte: A phenomenal phenomenon
ALSO IN THE NEWS
Leni Robredo: “May the best woman win”
PerryScopeBy Perry Diaz
This is a complicated situation because first of all, Leni is paired with Liberal Party (LP) standard bearer Manuel “Mar” Roxas II who is perceived as a weak leader. And secondly, she’s up against two formidable vice presidential candidates, Marcos and Escudero, whose campaigns are being bankrolled by some of the wealthiest families and oligarchs. While Bongbong is presumed to have unrestricted access to the Marcos family wealth, Chiz is supported by a group of mega-billionaires led by Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr. and Ramon Ang. Cojuangco is the Chairman of San Miguel Corporation (SMC), the largest food and beverage corporation in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; and Ang is SMC Vice-Chairman and Chief Operating Officer. By comparison, Leni doesn’t have rich and powerful groups that can match her rivals’ financiers. That’s a double whammy – nay, triple whammy! — that she had to overcome to win the vice presidency. As it stood then, Leni couldn’t win, not even in her dreams. Yes, it was that bad [...]
Read the full story >>
Leni Robredo: “May the best woman win”
**************************
A change not to be relished
May 2, 2016 | Opinion
ON DISTANT SHORE
By Val G. Abelgas
The last six years had not turned out as we had hoped when we elected the son of a recently deceased revered democratic icon. After six years of hypocrisy and ineptitude, the hope has turned to despair, and the promise of deliverance from corruption and poverty under President Benigno S. Aquino III’s “daang matuwid” has remained just that, a promise.
The coming presidential election should offer us hope, as all electoral processes should, but looking at the line-up of contenders for the presidency, it seems the people are left to choosing the one with the least baggage, or the one who will bring us to the least doom, or the one who just might be able to bring the radical change that many think the nation needs, at whatever cost.
The utter frustration of the people on the ills that have kept the country from attaining real, sustainable and inclusive growth has made them too defeatist to think that all politicians are corrupt anyway so why worry about corruption allegations against some of the candidates, or too desperate to risk giving up freedom and democracy in exchange for radical change, or too naïve to allow another candidate to pursue the broken promises of his benefactor or to put a totally inexperienced aspirant holding the reins of government [...]
Read the full story >>
A change not to be relished
**************************
Let us heed the call to vote
May 2, 2016 | Opinion
ON DISTANT SHOREBy Val G. Abelgas
It was so easy and so efficient that it took just a few minutes to pick the candidates for president, vice president and 12 senators plus one party-list, have the ballot scanned by a machine, verify the votes from a printed voter receipt, and put back the receipt in a designated box. It seemed easier than the voting in US elections, where I have been casting my vote since the 2008 presidential elections as an American citizen.
If you live within driving distance to the Philippine embassy or a consulate, I suggest you don’t vote by mail but in person so that you would understand the process better and personally feel the joy of being able to have a voice in charting the future of our beloved homeland.
I have to congratulate the staff of the Philippine Consulate General
in Los Angeles, headed by Consul General Leo Herrera-Lim, consul Mary
Joy Ramirez, the Comelec-designated election officer, and Cultural
Officer Wilma Bautista for their efforts to inform the community about
the new automated process, to encourage registered Filipino voters to go
out and vote, and to make the voting process as comfortable and
enjoyable as possible [...]
Read the full story >> Let us heed the call to vote
**************************
SHE LIED AGAIN!
May 2, 2016 | Featured
By Rey O. Arcilla
MALAYA
(Grace Poe Llamanzares said her husband has already renounced his US citizenship… before a barangay captain?!)MALAYA
“Duterte Wins!” will be the title of my column on May 10, the day after the elections.
Yes, that is my fearless forecast which I first made in my piece of February15.
However, I will qualify that by saying, as I have been saying, “unless he is cheated”!
Based on the views of some computer experts, I have serious
reservations about the claim of the “very favored” Smartmatic that it
would be like “mission impossible” to tamper with their PCOS system. As
the Smartmatic people must know, the TV and movie series always ended
with the mission proving not to be impossible.My apprehension was further heightened when two young computer engineers managed to hack Comelec’s official website and successfully download its 340-gigabyte data file and upload it to a public Facebook account.
The report that Comelec chairman Andres Bautista was allegedly once an adviser and campaign manager of Liberal Party presidential candidate Mar Roxas also didn’t help assuage my fear.
Bautista, of course, has vowed the elections will be clean and above board.
Those who may be hatching or have already hatched an evil plan to alter the results of the May 9 elections must be warned that the Filipino people will no longer allow their will to be thwarted once again without retribution.
******
She lied again!
Presidential candidate Grace Poe Llamanzares said her husband has already renounced his US citizenship… before a barangay captain?!
On renunciation of citizenship, the US Immigration and Nationality Act states [...]
Read the full story >>
SHE LIED AGAIN!
**************************
A Primer for Philippine Politics
May 2, 2016 | Opinion
ReflectionsFr. Shay Cullen
PREDA Foundation
The frustration of the educated middle class is the absence of a visionary leader of integrity with a genuine love of the poor, immense popularity and with a reform agenda to bring equality and justice. The election is not about agenda or policy platforms, it’s about popular controllable personalities, pliable puppets able to dance and sing or who are bombastic and crude. They must be controversial and media magnetic.
They must be submit to the interests of their financiers and accept
that they have “debts of honor” to pay when and if they win the
presidency. They are under the control of the media manipulators and the
masters of the puppet show, and what a bewildering spectacle it is.
They have to play to the gallery and capitulate to the interests of
super rich.
The ruling oligarchy would never allow the rise of an independent
candidate with a pro-poor agenda and a popular following. Besides, no
financial bloc would fund a candidate like that. There is no political
messiah on the far horizon [...]Read the full story >>
A Primer for Philippine Politics
**************************
The Tragedy of Jejomar Binay
May 2, 2016 | Politics & Government
His name is a betrayal, Jesus and Joseph and Mary
blistering the tongue. Watch your back, check your pockets – and mourn
the man who could have been.By Patricia Evangelista and Nicole Curato
Rappler
Our series of presidential profiles, The Imagined President, began
with The Idealized candidate, introducing the candidates as imagined by
themselves and their supporters. (READ: Cinderella Man) The second
installment, The Demonized, examined the candidates as imagined by their
critics. (READ: Bandit King). In this final installation, we give you
The Candidate, a synthesis of both narratives as seen through the lens
of journalism and sociology. The positions we take here are ours alone
and do not represent the views of Rappler.com.
We invite conversation and discussion, and promise, if nothing else, to tell you a story.There is a farm south of Makati, a sprawl of greenery half the size of San Juan City. The locals call it Hacienda Binay.
Out front, across the mansion, a carefully maintained maze of hedges surrounds urns filled with creeping purple flowers. A blue fountain gleams to one side, an intricate pergola at the other. The entire arrangement – meant to resemble the Queen’s Garden in Kew – is an odd patch of fancy at the center of an agricultural municipality. There is a resort pool, a 40-car garage, an orchid greenhouse, a cock-fighting farm, a horse ranch, and the dozen enclosed buildings where pigs wallow in air-conditioned splendor, the hogs kept in seclusion “because the doktora doesn’t like the stench.”
Years of independent investigation along with recent revelations trace a morass of private deals and dummy corporations. They have led straight to the feet of the vice president of the republic. It is an accusation the Vice President denies [...]
Read the full story >>
The Tragedy of Jejomar Binay
**************************
There is no stopping the word war
May 2, 2016 | Opinion
By Erick San Juan
The G7 also urged “all states to refrain from such actions as land reclamations” and “building of outposts… for military purposes”. (AFP)
Obviously the statement of the G7 was directed on China even without
directly saying it. And such comments angered China in the process,
according to reports.
Beijing indicated that it felt targeted by the comments. In his
response, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang reiterated China’s
belief it has a legitimate claim to the territory.He urged the foreign ministers to “stop making irresponsible remarks and all irresponsible actions, and truly play a constructive role for regional peace and stability” [...]
Read the full story >>
There is no stopping the word war
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