Making It Fun in the Philippines

Is it me or is Bum Aquino always credit grabbing? Sure, he's had an outstanding record of achievements prior to politics but that won't save him from whatever blunders he has committed as of recent. I've noticed he's probably been trying to take all the credit for the free education bill and now for Boracay -- never mind that Noynoy Aquino may have had ignored proposed  preservation measures of said island . Now I'd like to throw the joke of whether or not he will grab credit for the recent peace talks between North Korea and South Korea . Nothing has suggested that he has but the question is (and I jokingly ask) is that will he grab credit for it? He seems to act like everything good happens under his watch so would he dare to grab credit for the North Korea and South Korea peace talks? I can't be too sure but I'd like to throw the joke that he may actually take credit for such a magnificent feat. What do you think? Will this joke be a reality?

I just overheard the OFW rescue operation in Kuwait a few days ago. I remembered hearing of an OFW maid whose body was found in a freezer a few months ago. It reminded me of how I wrote a couple of posts concerning OFWS -- one was about the idea where some Filipinos think that they are taking over the world  and the other is about some OFWs who think that they have immunity abroad . Do you even know what the term OFW means? It means Overseas Filipino WORKER not Overseas Filipino WARRIOR. It's really sad how the OFW program is doing more harm to the Filipino than good -- especially if you send them to Middle Eastern countries like Kuwait or how families are torn apart no thanks to economic protectionism. OFWs aren't going around the world and conquering it. No, they are going around the world seeking for jobs because the Philippines has very restrictive job provisions such as the lousy 60/40 policy. Also, I'd like to quote from Get Real Philippines' post concernin...

Image taken from IT Business.CA There's the controversy of people who actually stick and defend the super defective 1987 Constitution to no end. They insist that the problem isn't on the system but the people in charge themselves. What they don't realize is that frameworks really do matter. Some of them say that nothing has to be changed while others merely want to make amends such as uplifting foreign restrictions or having a more decentralized form of unitarian government.  It can be understood that replacing people in power is part of the solution. But changing people while adhering to a defective system is stupid for this reason. Sometimes, it ends up where people are simply changing people based on popularity and randomness rather than credibility -- especially when you are stuck in the popularity-based presidential system . How can you expect a better cycle of incompetence getting replaced by competent people if the presidential system is ran on a popularit...

As much as I believe that Leila De Lima still needs to answer for the awful crime statistics under her watch  but there's one thing that interests me -- it's the fact she actually once approved of a proposal that wouldn't allow non-resident foreigners from participating in rallies. Here's a copy as taken from GRPundit : It should be very interesting that De Lima as justice secretary did sign the order after two foreigners were deported for participating in an anti-Aquino rally (which happened last 2013). This would be very interesting that the members of #TindigPilipinas are now breaking a rule that De Lima once approved with this course of action... Do the members of #TindigPilipinas be reminded that they are even breaking the rules that they themselves made? So why are Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel and Akbayad Representive Tom Villarin hiring foreigners to rally with them? How funny that they are now even breaking their own rules but not too surprising either.

I was reading through Get Real Philippines and one of the latest issues raised is Leni Loud Robredo. So it may turn out that she's a Fake Vice President or a Bootleg Vice President for this reason -- her votes aren't really real. One of the issues that GRP Shorts has launched is on the below the 50% threshold of shades done in voting for Leni Loud. I remembered taking a couple of exams where test papers were scanned. It didn't just require a black ballpen. It also required completely shading the circles. The same applies for electronic elections. The choices has to be shaded properly . The problem with Leni Loud's credibility of her position is now that there's hastily-filled ballots voting for her -- while voters have to shade it completely. While Leni Loud did have real voters but there are also hastily filled votes that shouldn't have been readable by the vote-counting machine -- so how did she get the votes? It could be through simple editing and hackin...

Did Etta Rosales forget about the incident where two foreigners -- namely a Dutch Communist activist named Thomas Van Beersum and Canadian woman Kim Chatillon-Meunier were both arrested for participating in an anti-Aquino rally? So I guess in her logic that it's okay to deport foreigners who meddle in the affairs of the Dilawans while it's not okay to do so when they attack President Duterte? Hmmm... I would like to commend the Aquino administration for actually having some brain in locking up, deporting and blacklisting those two who were helping those idiotic activists. Foreigners have their freedom to speech to give their opinions and criticism concerning other countries but not to act like they're experts of the world. China has the right to criticize the Philippines for not going after drug dealers (and they have a strong anti-drug policy) while Filipinos have the right to criticize the incumbent Chinese government for bullying its neighboring countries. I have my ...

I remembered writing an article some time ago where I blasted the ridiculous idea of rejecting something just because the Philippines had 100 or more years experience in one and zero experience in another . No, that's not a good excuse to do so and worse some people who adhere to the fallacy that arguing based on a hundred years experience is not a fallacy -- use it to defend the 1987 Constitution (even to the point of saying it should still be used even 1,000 years from now) while ignoring these historical facts of the Philippines: Prior to the colonization, the Philippines was not even united as one nation until the Spaniards from Imperial Spain came and claimed it as their territory.  There was the 1899 Malolos Constitution after the Philippines was freed from Imperial Spain. There was the 1935 Constitution which was before the Philippines truly gained its sovereignty on July 4, 1946 and not June 12, 1898.  The 1973 Constitution preceded the 1987 Constitution. ...

Etta Rosales' latest comments make no surprise and I found this one from ABiaS-CBN , here's what it says about her latest activity and yes, the network is most likely in her favor rather than hear the other side to why the deportation happened: Speaking to ANC, Rosales stressed this move by the Bureau of Immigration is an act of cowardice and paranoia. She reminded the agency that it is mandated to respect human rights. "It's an act of cowardice. It smacks of paranoia. They're criminalizing criticism," she said. Last Sunday, European Socialist Party official Giacomo Filibeck who was supposed to attend the Anakbayan Party-list Congress in Cebu was deported. The bureau said Filibeck showed "disrespect" when he denounced the killings linked to President Rodrigo Duterte's drug war in his 2017 Manila visit. This is the problem with Rosales herself. She's already making a lot of delusional stories. I'd like to ask her if criticism has ...

I still accept the fact that almost everything I enjoy today has foreign influence. The problem that Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra is pointing out is this simple fact -- foreigners are welcome to visit and invest in the country provided that they follow rules. Both visitors and foreign investors are required to act like any visitor is required to act -- to respect territorial rights.  The problem isn't about foreigners in general but foreigners who act like they are experts of the Philippines (or worse, the world). There are  Americans who act like that they are experts of the Philippines  -- they simply had a short vacation and they think they already know everything they have to know about the Philippines. Organizations like the International Criminal Court and the European Union are constantly meddling in Philippine affairs. The big question that Filipinos need to ask is whether or not these foreign organizations even know the real situation rather than jus...

Guess what Leni Loud Robredo did in Germany? She wasn't only attending an economic forum but she has also showed one characteristic of her that Filipinos should NEVER have in a vice-president or a deputy prime minister -- someone who can't even follow simple guidelines . She took a smiling pictorial in the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin which isn't appropriate. What she's doing is further encouraging a culture of impunity .  There's nothing wrong if Leni Loud wanted to take a jolly pictorial somewhere but the Holocaust Memorial is not the right place. She could have taken pictures where it's appropriate. Instead, she decided to break the rules and take a picture to where she shouldn't be allowed. What she did shows she has little or no sense of accountability to lead any position if she can't even follow simple guidelines.

It's a shame really how many Filipinos tend to think of only the win-lose scenario than when there may also be a win-win scenario . True, we can't always have a win-win scenario but we can't always have a win-lose scenario all the time either. Now it's time to do a bit of a discussion of how the parliamentary actually looks at both win-win and win-lose scenarios on a case-to-case basis. This is what we consider in a parliamentary setting. We have the majority bloc vs. the minority bloc. The problem of the popularity-based positions  or saying that democracy should be based on popularity is stupid. Some stupid people say that the Philippines should just change the system or framework all because the country itself has more than a hundred years experience  in the lousy presidential system than the more competent parliamentary system -- saying it doesn't matter which framework we get. Yet, it's popularity-based elections that turn democracies into democrazie...

I'm already already getting tired of how some economic neanderthals with backwards thinking  give all their reasons to reject easing restrictions regarding Foreign Direct Investors or FDI. You can talk about Filipino activist groups that have their absurdity of supposedly hating the oligarchy and wanting to stop the labor export policy -- all the while they have their anti-elite mentality (while enjoying stuff made by the elite such as i-Phones and MACs) and they refuse to open up the economy which would significantly weaken the oligarchy. Now it's time to discuss about how economic liberalization is actually a win--win situation.  Ever heard of the ideas that only foreigners will get rich if you allow them to invest in the Philippines  and the ridiculous idea that foreign investors are foreign invaders ? Those are just a few of the many ways that some Filipinos tend to think of the "win-lose" scenario. Is it me or has it been the norm in the Philippines to onl...

It's the summer months and you know what that means -- it's time for tourism in the Philippines to bloom again. I thought of the slogans we've had such as those above though I'd probably remove "more" from David Guerrero's slogan. Now it's time to consider why good tourism matters and what we can do to maintain it. What would attract people more in the long run? Would it be a good experience or a catchy slogan ? True, catchy slogans do matter -- you have to tell people your product is good. The problem comes in when you use all the good marketing to market an otherwise failed product . Do you remember the Mar Roxas campaign? They did all the marketing with celebrities, had a lot of political ads left unaired in ABiaS-CBN (but I could be wrong) but we have to consider how Roxas lost the campaign. The same could be the situation of the Philippines if you don't do anything. Part of maintaining good tourism is to have good airports. I'm glad to h...

This is one of the latest tweets of ABiaS-CBN reporter Karen Davila. Fortunately, it's written in English so non-Filipino speakers can at least understand it without the need for me (or anyone) to translate it for them. I wrote about why shutting down Boracay for the moment (and maybe six months isn't enough) would be a good long-term decision . Her latest tweet is a microcosm of one thing -- the prevalence of short-term thinking and hardly having other alternatives. Why is it short-term thinking? She refuses to see the long-term of what could happen if Boracay isn't rehabilitated then how much revenues will be lost in the future. Heck, Boracay may have to be nuked if that's the case. Spending for necessary compliance is part of business. It sickens me to think how people care more about money than the environment. I understand money is needed but if you don't spend money on proper waste disposal (and innovate to find new ways of proper waste disposal) then consi...

In the midst of all the commotion of the Leni Loud vs. Bongbong protest -- I found this meme made by the Dilawans themselves. Seriously? First, they want to discredit Bongbong for whatever achievements he had in Congress. Now they want everyone to believe that Leni Loud is a super congresswoman -- that she passed 14 laws in just three years. WTF! Is that even possible? I may not be a politician or political analyst but you don't need to be one to know that it's stupid. Drafting a law is not an easy job. It takes lots of revisions and examinations before any law can be passed in Congress. So how could the Dilawans even claim that Leni Loud herself passed 14 laws in three years when drafting itself isn't even easy. This is really proof the Dilawans are desperate to hang to whatever power they have by making preposterous claims. It's childish and stupid at best for this reason. How old do they think are the voters anyway? Children who still have much to learn? Besi...

After reading the updates of the electoral protests -- there's more more evidence suggesting that Leni Loud Robredo was indeed Plan B. Since Plan A -- which was to make Marbobo Roxas the president didn't work (and it'd be obvious cheating BECAUSE he can't beat President Duterte's popularity that time) then Plan B was needed with Leni Loud. Looks like, I was wrong about Leni Loud winning fair and square (and so is Alan Peter Cayetano who's a critic of Bongbong) and here's what's going on. Here's Atty. Romulo Macalintal (or better rename him as Abogago Romulo Makalinlang) and they say that the wet ballot boxes don't count as a real evidence for cheating. Really? Those boxes were supposedly waterproof so how did water just get into them? Leni Loud may have a lot to explain if you ask me. The building was so well-built that water couldn't just easily get into it either.  The COMELEC too has to explain how in the world did Chiz Escuder...

I'm already hearing Boracay-natics whine about, "Kapag isara ang Boracay, paano ang tourism?" which means "If we close down Boracay, what about tourism?" or stuff like that. Well here's a bit of a businessman's view to at least ask, "If we're not innovating to save the environment then what's the use of innovating if all you destroy is what innovation could have saved?" In short, business shouldn't only be focused on earning money and innovating to keep it running in the short run. In fact, what's the use of having money if the whole island is drop dead polluted? You can surely still earn money but later -- the tourist sport would be good as dead that it may have to be nuked. That's something I wish wouldn't happen. Innovative thinking should be long term and sustainable -- not short-term and just thinking about getting easy money.  Here's what GMA-News has to say about President Duterte's decision to clo...

I could remember how often the Yellowtards or Dilawans have said, "Once again another widow beats a Marcos." But this time, how legitimate is the claim anyway that Leni Loud Robredo is the official vice president? This starts to get things suspicious especially with the TWO YEAR DELAY before any recount can start. That alone should get you suspicious about the legitimacy of Leni Loud as the incumbent vice president.  This is an example of a red herring. Rather than focus on the issue of Bongbong vs. Leni Loud -- here we have Chairman and CEO of the Baraan (better renamed as Bayaran) Group with a badly unnecessary comment. It's a shame really how so many Filipinos develop the logical fallacy of, "You can tell who he will be based on who his father is." In short, bring up paternity to strike a point. Why do you think people voted for Noynoy Aquino? It was because of his father Ninoy. Why do you think Yellowtards hate Bongbong? It's simply because he...