Enamored

One of the most amusing remarks made of me recently, so amusing that it hasn't left me, is that made by a friend, that I was "enamored" of Trillanes.  Senator Trillanes, who has been in the news recently--was he ever out of it, actually?--has earned the ire of pro-administration people for being the only Senator standing up to Paolo Duterte, Manases Carpio in the matter of the 6.4B shabu that slipped through the Bureau of Customs.  (Nothing new, except that the sheer volume and cost of the said shipment was too mind-boggling to ignore.  Also, it was Chinese authorities themselves who alerted the Bureau of Customs as to this shipment.  Quite likely, without this alert, everything would have been Business As Usual, and some people would now be enjoying the ill-gotten fruits of their labor in peace and quiet.)

Naturally, the Senator has earned the admiration of right-thinking people, of which, I'd like to believe that I'm one.  I've shared posts with glowing remembrance of Sen. Trillanes' exploits since way back when, starting with his occupation of the Manila Peninsula to the present.  Some have even gone farther back.  And with good pictures of him to boot. 

So...I might appear to be "enamored".  Enamoured, Innamorata. 

I do confess to a weakness for heroes and the heroic.  Not recently, but memorably so, I watched "Les Miserables" the movie 13 times in the cinema, often back-to-back, just to see that portion with Enjolras, who was masterfully played by Aaron Tveit.  I gushed over him with a female friend, who also liked it, and that became the topic of our FB messages and phone calls.  I searched the internet for articles on Aaron Tveit/Enjolras and even shared articles from a female fanpage.  I never thought that I would eventually get over that phase.  But I did. 

Back to the present.  Sen. Trillanes is a David battling the mighty Goliath, Duterte and his son, as well as his son-in-law.  The fight isn't over yet.  Recently, Duterte's trolls and minions have published purported copies of the Senator's bank accounts, and Sen. Trillanes has countered that he's willing to sign several waivers, will accompany the Ombudsman to these banks personally, and, having proven that he has no ill-gotten wealth, will slap Duterte in the face with these waivers.  Could anything be more thrilling?  More heroic?  And more scary, for his "enamoured" fans?  The appearance and testimony of Edgar Matobato and Arturo Lascanas, complete with gruesome details, have proven the existence of the Davao Death Squads.  Recently, even minors have not been spared from EJKs by the police, of all people, whose duties are to protect them and the people of this Republic.  So the Davao Death Squad is no longer confined to Davao but has spread to Metro Manila.  The bloodlust is infectious, it seems, no different from those zombie movies like "Train to Busan", that Brad Pitt movie whose title I forget, and so many others of that genre. 

Point is, Sen. Trillanes is laying his life on the line, waging a lonely battle in the face of masked and sometimes outright hostility from fellow Senators Gordon, Sotto, Pacquiao.  We can only admire his chutzpah, his courage, and we can only wish for his safety in the face of all these. 

Enamoured?  Yes, perhaps, but in the sense of the Greek agape. 

Copyright Ethel P David 2017  

It was with a terrorist organisation represented by a man using a fake name that the fate of a big chunk of Mindanao was deliberated by the Philippine government. Philippine President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III had virtually promised handing over rule of an “autonomous” Bangsamoro “state” in Mindanao to the Moro islamic Liberation Front. Negotiating in their behalf was a man who went by the name “Mohagher Iqbal” who, as it turned out, used no such name on his own passport.

Interestingly, the the government of Malaysia through its prime minister Najib Razak played a major role in brokering the deal. It is interesting because the Philippines has a long-standing claim to the resource-rich Malaysian state of Sabah. So one might wonder why the Philippine government would choose to involve a foreign government with which it has a standing dispute with over territory so geographically (and also culturally and historically) close to western Mindanao (where much of the proposed Bangsamoro autonomous region would be carved out) as a partner in such a sensitive undertaking.

Yellow-clad protestors fill Kuala Lumpur’s streets in protest against PM Najib Razak.
(Photo source: KB Chua on Facebook)

So now the plot thickens. Prime Minister Najib is in the midst of a corruption scandal following revelations that hundreds of millions of dollars had been deposited in personal bank accounts belonging to him by certain foreign entities. According to aWall Street Journalreport, “the original source of the money was unclear and that the government investigation hadn’t detailed what happened to the money that allegedly went into Mr. Najib’s personal accounts.”

But Malaysian blogs are busy filling the gaps left by mainstream media reporting. The Malaysian Insiderquoting another prominent Malaysian political blog, Malaysiakini, reported that an official of the ruling United Malay National Organisation (UMNO) claimed that a $700 million deposit to Najib’s personal account came from a Saudi donor in appreciation for Malaysia’s “championing Islam and for practising Sunni Islam” as well as “fighting militant group Isis”.

The Malaysian people don’t seem to be buying it. Demonstrations organised last weekend by Bersih, a coalition formed in 2006 consisting of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which seeks to reform the current electoral system in Malaysia to ensure free, clean and fair elections reportedly attracted several hundred thousand protestors (clad in yellow shirts) who congregated in Kuala Lumpur. The Straits Times reported a “sea of yellow” that brought parts of the Malaysian capital to “a standstill” last Saturday.

“People are not afraid anymore. We want our right to be heard,” a local university lecturer, who declined to be named, told The Straits Times. “We feel that as time goes by, things are getting worse. Everyone knows about the corruption in our country. Until now we don’t have clear answers on (state investor) 1MDB and the 2.6 billion ringgit that PM consider to be a donation,” said the lecturer who was outside Sogo.

It was one thing the way the government of President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III had negotiated with terrorists in the course of progressing its Bangsamoro “peace” project. That an allegedly corrupt government in Kuala Lumpur played a “facilitating” role in that shady deal adds yet another layer of craziness to this circus. Indeed, a circus of ironies it is seeing the Yellow motif now sported by Malaysia’s anti-government protestors now wielding the same “people power” style of activism that garnered world-fame for the camp of President BS Aquino.

It just keeps getting more and more entertaining.

http://getrealphilippines.com/blog/2015/09/malaysian-people-power-aquino-govt-in-bed-with-the-corrupt-regime-of-najib-razak/

http://www.manilatimes.net/president-aquino-committed-treason/126054/

http://www.manilatimes.net/president-aquino-committed-treason/126054/

this was written a year ago.  but it is still relevant.

treason is not a charge one makes lightly, esp. when one is talking about the President of the Republic.  but the potential dismemberment of the Republic is not a commitment one makes lightly, either, and not for any...amount.  the recent news about corruption committed by the Malaysian Prime Minister which is being linked to the BBL and to President Aquino is, in a way, connecting the dots.  and the picture that emerges isn't...pretty.

TGIF

Friday night--a time to catch one's breath after a hectic week. When a school girl is allowed to be on the computer far later, since there will be no classes on the morrow. When young ones let down their hair in places where the young ones congregate. Where do they congregate nowadays anyway? They used to dance away in discos, until that disco place burned down, along with its customers.

For the old ones, staying at home unencumbered by thoughts of any form of work is simply enough. Once upon a time, home is the last place they wanted to be. But aging and slowing down have taken their toll: nowadays they leave enjoyment and backbreaking work to younger ones who can still enjoy and work.

It's been 13 days since September 26, when Metro Manilans were in for the rudest shock of their lives--floods unseen since Noah, took over their homes, their cars, their very existence. Metro Manilans, though, were spared by the later typhoon Pepeng. But not people in Pangasinan, La Union, Baguio City, who got a taste of what Metro Manilans underwent during those infamous days. This is the essence of equitable distribution of punishment, if punishment it is for abusing nature, for cutting trees relentlessly, building houses and malls in places where they shouldn't, throwing their wastes where they shouldn't, practicing irresponsible parenthood. These are the sins, and they were paid for. They are not sins in the religious sense, they are sins of commission and omission; not crimes in the legal sense, they are crimes against nature and ecology. Apart from the sympathy one feels for the innocent ones, there is a certain satisfaction that one gets when a malefactor gets his just desserts.

But we're sounding too much like the Anthony Comstocks and the Kenneth Starkes.

Let's just hope--vainly, we know--that we have learned our lessons. In fact, we should be more assertive, and demand more of the officials who have done everything but the very jobs they are paid for. It's an uphill and Sisyphean task to extract from them performance. I fear that like Cassandra, those who see only too clearly the end of life as we know it, will be ignored in favor of the facile and falsely soothing promises made by people who don't care for nature, for people, or posterity.

Relocate settlers, clear waterways - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Relocate settlers, clear waterways - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

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On Chavit and his common-law wife

The world has truly turned upside down. A guy has five children and so many years with his common-law wife, and because he philanders, according to his common-law wife, she turns around and does the same thing herself. When the guy catches the wife's boyfriend in the condo/townhome that he provides for her, he beats her up and his bodyguards take care of the boyfriend. Does the media sympathize with him, or condemn his wife? On the contrary, they condemn him and sympathize with the wife.

Of course, so many factors come into play here, some of which we aren't even aware of. But of the factors that the media has chosen to openly disclose, we know that the guy, who's a cabinet member of the present government, has beat up his wife, the wife has filed a formal complaint in court, and some are asking whether the guy has used government resources in having the wife followed secretly. The last is probably the reason why media has stepped into what is basically a domestic dispute, or an LQ, a lovers' quarrel, in the words of younger ones.

Domestic disputes are usually left to the will and disposition of the involved parties. The reason for this is that, as everyone knows, these disputes don't last very long, not unless one of the parties, usually the woman, is on the throes of death. When she is not, these disputes usually end in reconciliation. Thus, anyone who makes the mistake of siding with either the male or the female, is usually left holding the sympathy bag while the lovers walk off into the sunset--certainly not a very pleasant prospect for anyone who doesn't really care who was at fault but who was cornered into sympathizing.

The law steps in only when, as in this case, one of the parties brings in the court, by filing a case; or when, unfortunately, the quarrel ends in extreme violence, even death. So the Chavit-Tiongson case came to the attention of the public at large only because Ms Tiongson chose to make it so. And because of that, people have been taking sides, which is the natural reaction when anything becomes publicized.

Ms Tiongson has Gabriela and outspoken feminists like Dr. Minguita Padilla, prominent ophthalmologist who, if I recall correctly, was Loren Legarda's classmate in grade school/high school.

On Chavit's side: some military and policemen who agreed with his reaction. Some are even saying it's good he didn't kill her. Not even Senator Manny Villar, obviously a male, agreed. He was even quoted as saying that one doesn't do that to women.

Gabriela, Liza Maza and Dra. Padilla are quite articulate, which is why Ms Tiongson has been getting a sympathetic treatment from the press. One may contrast this with the one-liners and, I imagine, guttural reactions from the military and police.

(To be continued)