Merry Christmas!

Dahil gusto ko happy ka!

almost BUT not QUITE

December 23, 2011

In Front of my Computer
Near the Window,
Philippines

Dear SantaKlaws:

I was advised that I made it to you "nice" list. Thank you very much. I am looking forward to the day the DHL person would hand me your gift (presumably from the North Pole). I was just surprised that you are not utilizing the reindeers, why, what happened? Flu?

P.S.:

Could you please be extra nice, and send some more to our brothers down south (redundant, i know). They've had a bad week prior to Christmas day. It pains us, that we get to enjoy these gifts (for being nice)  while they mourn their losses. Santa, please - make them happy - especially the kids.

Repost: Perilous times

Editorial: Manila Standard Today

http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/sectionOpinion.htm?f=2011/december/14/editorial.isx&d=2011/december/14

HIS administration's decision to ram the impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Renato Corona through the House of Representatives this week is so fraught with danger that we are almost at a loss where to begin.

Certainly, the one-day sensation confirmed the complete subservience of the House to the wishes of President Benigno Aquino III.

The one, overarching mental image of the Speaker of the House punching out a text message on his cell phone to dutifully and promptly report to the President the success of his signature campaign against the Chief Justice speaks more eloquently than words could ever do of the extent to which Congress has surrendered its prerogatives to the Palace. The celebratory lunch that followed the next day at a five-star hotel became yet another venue for the President to publicly attack the Chief Justice and the Supreme Court with his folksy, self-righteous rhetoric

Another clear and present danger is the death of judicial independence.

If the brown shirts in the President's Liberal Party can impeach the Chief Justice at will because they dislike the way he has passed judgment, will other justices of the Court and judges of the lower courts dare to rule against the administration again, right or wrong? Already, there are rumbling about the next targets for impeachment. True or not, these rumors would certainly have a chilling effect on the Judiciary, which has already had to contend with this administration's selective adherence to court rulings, and its open defiance of the Supreme Court.

It is easy to dismiss as hyperbole Judge Antonio Eugenio's warning comparing Mr. Aquino to the German dictator Adolf Hitler, but the words of the incumbent president of the Manila Judges Association ring true.

“They act by sheer numbers. They act on the basis of popularity,” Eugenio said of the President and his allies in the House.

“But remember history. When Hitler assumed power in Germany, he was the most popular figure and trampled upon the rights of everyone because he was popular. We all know what happened to Adolf Hitler,” Eugenio said.

The warning tells of the third major danger in the latest impeachment drama—public apathy. In an environment that demonizes any person associated with the previous administration, it is difficult to raise the alarm over the loss of our rights and the diminution of our democratic institutions without being smeared by broad, yellow brush strokes. Yet these are already happening under our noses, thanks to a President who has cynically used his popularity to subvert the institutions he has sworn to defend and uphold.

PPP: Pnoys (xmas) Party Presentation

Harry Fatter

After telling Pnoy, that attacking the Judiciary is wrong because:

So while we completely sympathize with PNoy in his current confrontation with the Court, the reality is that he himself invited into his house the Devil that now haunts him. What is regrettable now is that having failed at first instance to do what is right, he is now destroying the very institution that that is indispensable in achieving public order in society. With his repeated attacks against the Court, he has achieved much in destroying the people’s faith in the Court as an institution. If he thinks he is doing the country a service by doing this, he better think again. For when people lose faith in the courts, they will have no further recourse but to take the law into their own hands.

Then he went into his old self again and concluded his piece with:

But all is not lost. Justices Corona and Del Castillo are both guilty of betrayal of public trust. The constitutional remedy is to remove them through the constitutional process of impeachment. PNoy does not only command the loyalty of both Houses of Congress. He also has the overwhelming support of the people. He can certainly cause the successful impeachment of these justices. Meanwhile, let’s spare the institution. You do not rebuild an already damaged institution by laying bombs at its foundations.

you are the 1%

When Malacanang (via Lacierda) invoked the fact that Pnoy only has 1% of Hacienda Luisita, what does that mean?

Katrina Stuart Santiago
http://www.radikalchick.com/on-pnoys-1-of-hacienda-luisita/

1% of 6443 hectares = 64.43 hectares of land.

what is 64.43 hectares of land?

Intramuros is 64 hectares.
SM Mall of Asia is only 42 hectares
The La Mesa Eco Park is 33 hectares (extraneous to the watershed and forest)
The Heritage Park in Taguig (we’re talking the cemetery) is 76 hectares
Ateneo de Manila University is 83 hectares

1%? STOP USING IT TO EXPLAIN AWAY FEUDALISM.

PS: according to the Supreme Court decision, the Cojuangcos earned a total amount of PhP 1,330,511,500 from selling land.

1% of that is 13,305,115. that’s 13 MILLION, 305 THOUSAND, 115 PESOS. let us not kid ourselves about that 1%.

Drugged and Muled

I say, go execute them. Harsh, yes! These are adults who know fully well the illegality of their act.

** This presupposes that they were accorded due process; Of course, it is different when someone would be executed by mere suspicion.

Maginhawang Buhay

OFWs who decide to work abroad do so not because there are not enough jobs here. There are jobs here. In the farms, in the factories, in the SM malls, in the call centers, etcetera etcetera. There are jobs. It's just that local industries cannot absorb so many skilled workers, leaving so many to be underpaid. But many, if not all, Pinoys love their families so much that they are willing to work abroad to earn more, double or fourfold of what they can earn here. All for the sake of MAGINHAWANG buhay for their families.  Some get lucky, some are not and would fall victims in these foreign land. These are the risks many OFWs take so that their parents, their wives, their children would have more in life. 

This COKE video offers a glimpse of that (tears).