Remember Miguel Estrada?

Sonia Sotomayor will become the first Hispanic nominee appointed to the US Supreme Court.

But Miguel Estrada could have been there "first".

Sen. Bong Revilla wants to smash Alec Baldwin's face

for making a joke about Filipina mail-order brides.

I saw that letterman clip when it first came out. i did not think much of it but i predicted somebody will make a big deal out of this.

Roger Ebert skewers Brillante Mendoza's "Kinatay"

The Philippine film representative for this year is called the worst film in the history of cannes by ebert.

There are few prospects more alarming than a director seized by an Idea. I don't mean an idea for a film, a story, a theme, a tone, any of those ideas. I'm thinking of a director whose Idea takes control of his film and pounds it into the ground and leaves the audience alienated and resentful. Such a director is Brillante Mendoza of the Philippines, and the victim of his Idea is his Official Selection at Cannes 2009, "Kinatay." Here is a film that forces me to apologize to Vincent Gallo for calling "The Brown Bunny" the worst film in the history of the Cannes Film Festival.

After extensive recutting, the Gallo film was redeemed. I don't think editing is going to do the trick for "Kinatay." If Mendoza wants to please any viewer except for the most tortured theorist (one of those careerists who thinks movies are about arcane academic debates and not people) he's going to have to remake his entire second half.

read the whole thing. i report, you decide.

Mike D'Angelo offers some nice words for Kinatay:

I admire Kinatay for its uncompromising rigor—the lengthy van ride, which constitutes nearly half the film, is a tour de force

yes, read the whole thing rin.

Wesley Morris wrote that unlike Lars Von Trier's "Antichrist," "Kinatay" had a lot of the viewers walking out.

UPDATE: Inquirer: ‘Kinatay’ draws raves, rants in Cannes

And roundups re the film.

Video excerpts of Kinatay.

Hmmm... a 45-minute car ride in the film... parang ayaw ko na.

UPDATE: Brillante mendoza wins Cannes best director award.

Jeremy Tyler foregoes finishing highschool to play ball in Europe

if this becomes a trend, and europe starts producing nba ready U-19 american players (maturity-wise and skills wise), then there is a possibility that the nba board of governors might consider lowering the age restrictions on rookies to avail themselves of those young american talents ASAP.

in the past, it was tough for nba scouts to judge many of the young american talent because they're playing against inferior competition. if more guys like jeremy tyler go to europe earlier and play against 30 yr old pros in europe and ex college stars from america, scouts and observers will have an easier time assessing players--which means for nba teams, the risks of drafting a young player based on potential will significantly be lowered.

and if that risk of drafting a bust is lowered, then the nba may want to compete with europe for that young talent by lowering the age limit.

UPDATE: and the destination of these young players should not be limited to europe only. Asia can be a destination too--like China. he can be a trailblazer there.

Or if the young kid is an otaku, japan isn't that bad. he may not learn much basketball, but the pay is good, and his quality of living will improve over there.

"In dealing with the subject, take care to leave no blood on the face, no wounds on the body, and no people in the vicinity."

from the Chinese police manual on how to beat up street protestors.

Not Shocked

inabuso ng pulis si ted failon, and falsely accused him of killing his wife.

I'm not surprised by the kind of treatment ABS-CBN and it's people are getting from Malacanang and their minions.

MLQ3 sheds more details on the matter.

The 54 most beautiful politicians in the world revealed

Internet survey from Spain's 20 Minutos newspaper:

The most beautiful female politicians are:

1. Luciana Leon, Peru
2. Mercedes Aráoz, Peru
3. Mara Carfagna, Italy
4. Yuri Fujikawa, Japan
5. Sara Latife Ruiz Chavez, Mexico
6. Anna-Maria Galojan, Estonia
7. Toireasa Ferris, Ireland
8. Yuliya Tymoshenko, Ukraine
9. Eunice Olsen, Singapore
10. Alina Kabaeva, Russia
11. Orly Levy, Israel
12. Cayetana Álvarez, Spain
13. Vera Lischka, Austria
14. Tsepeli Nikoleta, Greece
15. Gabriela Cuevas, Mexico
16. Marianne Thieme, The Netherlands
17. Carme Chacón, Spain
18. Julia Anastasia Bonk, 23, Germany
19. Bibiana Aído, Spain
20. Cristina Diaz, Mexico
21. Pnina Rosenblum, srael
22. Tanja Karpel, Finland
23. Angelina Sondak, Indonesia
24. Stefania Prestigiacomo, Italy
25. Ruhama Avraham, Israel
26. Sarah Palin, United States
27. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentina
28. Freya Van den Bossche, Belgium
29. Anastasia Michael, Israel
30. Sofia Larsen, Sweden
31. Mónica Lorente Ramón, Spain
32. Katrín Gunnarsdótti, Iceland
33. Soraya Sáenz, Spain
34. Stephanie Herseth, United States
35. Melissa Park, Australia
36. Nebahat Albayrak, The Netherlands
37. Hillary Clinton, United States
38. Ségolène Royal, France
39. Delsa Solórzano, Venezuela
40. Isabel dos Santos, Angola
41. Jiang Yu, China
42. Kirsten Gillibrand, United States
43. Sabine Bätzin, Germany
44. Eva Glawischnig, Austria
45. Sabine Herold, France
46. Piia-Noora Kauppi, Finland
47. Hillevi Larsson, Sweden
48. Siv Frioleifsdottir, Iceland
49. Marcela Guerra Castillo, Mexico
50. Kate Ellis, Australia
51. Penny Wong, Australia
52. Melissa Lee, New Zealand
53. Natalie Rickli, Switzerland
54. Malalai Joya, Afghanistan
55. Sethrida Geagea, Lebanon
56. Ruby Dhalla, Canada
57. Malou Aamund, Denmark
58. Sophie Lohde, Denmark
59. Kirsten Brosbol, Denmark
60. Caroline Flint, United Kingdom

Their Photos.

Google Preferences won't save? One possible solution

if you found out that your google preferences won't save--like in my experience or this guy, here's what i did: Because I assigned Google.com.ph as a Trusted Site, I experimented by adjusting it back to normal internet setting.

I went to IE6's Tools>Internet Options>Security>Trusted Sites>Sites and removed google from the "Trusted Zone "list. Then I clicked "Internet Zone" and reset custom settings to default High security level.

Try changing your google preferences again, it might work again. Mine did.

Bruce Willis marries hot underwear model

Take that, Demi!

Omissions by ABS-CBN on the Alex Diloy/Jimmy Lopez "eyewitness" angle

From the ABS-CBN timeline of the Dacer/Corbito case.

26-Nov-00 Two farmers, Alex Diloy and Jimmy Lopez, come out as eyewitnesses to the Dacer-Corbito murder case. Both tell reporters that Dacer and his driver were strangled by policemen using electric cords before their corpses were set on fire.

Diloy and Lopez identify four Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) members to be among more than 10 individuals who took part in the killing. Lopez is also reportedly a civilian agent of PAOCTF.

Both "eyewitnesses" are arrested by the NBI. Diloy was wearing Dacer’s white shoes when he was presented to the NBI. Lopez admits to helping build a pyre of wood and tires to set the victims on fire. Viña, head of PAOCTF Visayas, signed the permit of the seized .45 caliber pistol Lopez is carrying when seen by the NBI.

The "dacer shoes" were't white anymore nung nahuli yung mga "witnesses" ng NBI. Painted brown na siya. But That shoe angle is interesting. Ginamit ito ni Diloy para patunayan na nandoon raw siya sa "scene of the crime". Na ibinigay raw ito ng mga killers sa kanya. To give his story credibility.

The case of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer is a strange one indeed.

First, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) announces to the public that the case has been solved, as its officials presented before the media, two eyewitnesses and a bag of charred bones plus dentures that they claimed were Dacer's and his driver Emmanuel Corbito's but which still had to undergo DNA testing for positive verification.

Then one witness showed the media a pair of brown loafers which he claimed belonged to Dacer and which the killers gave him for his own use. He even went to the extent of claiming that the pair of shoes used to be white, but that they were brown today because he had dyed the pair brown.

Based on the eyewitness account, certain cops identified with former Philippine National Police chief Panfilo Lacson, were implicated in the "murder" of Dacer and Corbito.

It was later discovered that the pair of shoes shown by the witness could not have belonged to Dacer or Corbito. And forensics still had not determined whether the charred bones were human bones.

I'm pretty sure these two so-called "witnesses" were already busted in the past for making shit up.

Now comes Ampy Dacer Henson saying his father never wore Topsider type shoes. Diloy shifted to say it belonged to driver Corbito to which Corbito's wife retorted: "no, its too big, it's not my husband's shoes." This is just one of the holes pointed out in Diloy's story.

More here.

Lacson pointed out that the NBI had earlier announced that they found the shoes of Dacer in the house of one of the suspects, only to be told that the shoes were not Dacer's. The BI then tried to pass the shoes as those of Corbito but his wife, in a television interview, also denied that the shoes were Corbito's. "This only shows that in their haste to solve the case, several lapses were being committed which in the final analysis do not help solve the case.

UPDATE: Dan Mariano in 2001:

Are Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and Manuel Corbito really dead? Have they really been reduced to the armful of bones and teeth that agents of the National Bureau of Investigation claim to have recovered from the boondocks of Indang, Cavite? Were the two yokels the NBI presented to the media really part of the liquidation squad that strangled the PR executive and his driver, then set fire to their bodies?

Despite the readiness of many quarters to believe that the NBI has finally cracked the case, many disturbing questions linger. One of them was raised by a respected clergyman who writes a weekly column for this paper. In his April 5 column, Bishop Teodoro Bacani quoted Fr. Gabriel Baldostamon, curate of the Parañaque parish where the Dacers live, expressing grave doubts about the official version of the fate that befell the controversial PR man and his hapless chauffeur.

Soon after the November 24, 2000, abduction of Dacer and Corbito, Father Baldostamon overheard former national security adviser Jose Almonte tell the PR man’s family that in case the kidnappers return Dacer to Almonte’s group, “they would try to sneak him out to the USA.” In any case, Almonte reportedly said on December 3, Dacer’s family should continue to mourn for him in public “until the opportune time.” Why would anyone make such a proposal unless he had some way of influencing the victims’ abductors?

In a radio interview after the bishop’s column saw print, Father Baldostamon said more doubt surfaced when the NBI presented a white shoe, which was allegedly recovered from the crime scene and which probers said belonged to Dacer, who took to wearing all-white outfits after his wife died several years ago.

When the shoe was presented to Dacer’s children, however, they said it was not their father’s, the priest recalled. They even noted that the footwear had merely been painted white, perhaps by parties desperate to produce evidence no matter how shoddily fabricated to reinforce their case against the presumed perpetrators. Given the unconvincing proof the authorities have dug up, Father Baldostamon said during the interview that he and his parishioners were not yet ready to give up on Dacer. “Which is why up to now, we have not held a Mass for the dead for Bubby Dacer,” the priest told his radio interviewer in the vernacular.

Reading between the lines, it shouldn’t take too much cerebral effort to imagine where the Dacer investigation is being made to go. Meanwhile, the Dacer children are still at a loss as to what has actually become of their paterfamilias.

UPDATED: Glad to be of service, HTL

UPDATE: at the bottom of the post

a Herman Tiu Laurel article digs deep into the Philippine Politics 2010 archives to shed more light into the now relevant (again!) Dacer Corbito case.

UPDATE: Isingit ko lang ito (from apr 2001)

A Ping on the political radar
By Herman Tiu Laurel

Senatorial candidate and KFR-buster (Kidnap-for-Ransom) Ping Lacson was in the crosshairs of the GMA-Ramos propaganda gun. Last week, two events pulled him out and moved him into the radar screen of unbeatable candidates. First was the open declaration of support by the group of kidnap victims led by Robina Gokongwei and, secondly, the explosive revelations from Fr. Gabriel Baldostamon, C.P., parish priest of the Dacer family. The tormentors of Ping have the tables turned on them. GMA, Ramos and Almonte should now be running scared.

The Dacer children, Ampy and Carina, have also come out to deny the alleged violent altercation between Estrada and Dacer at the latters visit to Malacañang. This demolishes the premise anti-Estrada propaganda and Ramos Dear Eddie letter from Dacer tried to establish. Dacer and Estrada reconciled in that Malacañang meeting, the Dacer children Ampy (who was at that meeting) and Carina insist. All these buttress my theory that Ramos knows more than he is saying about Dacer's abduction.

For those who have not read Fr. Baldostamon's revelations, here's a brief summary: Soon after the disappearance of Dacer, Fr. Baldostamon heard Ramos henchman Joe Almonte broach an idea to Dacer's children. Almonte proposed that Dacer's abductors could be negotiated with to return the PR man alive but would demand that he be spirited out to the U.S. The family would continue to mourn for him as if he had never been found. Fr. Baldostamon has no self-serving motive for coming out with this, an angle that sends a chill up our spine.

Bishop Teodora Bacani, one of the few trustworthy Catholic priests around, who helped Fr. Baldostamon break the story asks: why was Almonte interested in helping hush up a Dacer return. It would have made the opposition to Estrada quite heroic if they had shown Dacer was kidnapped by Estrada or Ping, as the GMA-Ramos propaganda machine wanted us to believe. We can only conclude from Fr. Baldostamon's story that Almonte wanted to protect some people not identified with Estrada and, most likely, identified with the anti-Estrada forces.

Hundreds of thousands of Inquirer and TV news watchers, Edsa II fans mostly, have been led to swallow the black lies dished out by the GMA-Ramos propaganda machine. There have been a few e-mails from bimpo journalists castigating me as an Estrada paid hack because I questioned the official Dacer story and propaganda against Ping Lacson. These bimpo journalists are the most pitiable of the ignoramuses in Manilas intelligentia, waging militant crusades for a free press but incapable of freeing their minds from propaganda.

Fr. Baldostamon's story implicates Almonte, and where Almonte is, Ramos cannot be far behind. This supports the theory we were first to bring out at the height of the controversy over Dacer's disappearance. My contention was that the January 20 Coup plotters had the most motive to shut up Dacer. Dacer was working with the coup plotters, but after the Estrada reconciliation and P 30 million paid (according to eye witness accounts) for changing sides, he became a hot potato for the plotters. He knew too much and had to be put in the freezer. Then, the disappearance would be blamed on Estrada.

GMA-Ramos had to keep distracting the public thereafter, holding up red herrings to throw off the scent. The People Power mob, led by the likes of Etta Rosales, Teddy Casiño and Bill Luz, like stupid bloodhounds that they are, just kept tracking the odor of the red herrings and not the real tracks of the culprits. But truth will out, as the saying goes. Truth cannot forever be smoke-screened out of the broader public vision. Not all are as stupid or deliberately self-blinded as the Edsa II mob. Fr. Baldostamon, Robina Gokongweis, Ampy and Carinas stories all finally came out.

More related dacer stuff from Ellen Tordesillas.

UPDATE on March 25, 2009: Bishop Ted Bacani's 2001 article revealing Almonte's statements to the dacer children.

4/5/01

BISHOP’S MOVE Teodoro Bacani Jr., DD

I WANT to share what two people have told me regarding the Bubby Dacer case in the hope that they may be of help toward its solution.

Fr. Gabriel Baldostamon, C.P., parish priest of Holy Rosary Parish in Parañaque City, where Bubby lived, shared the following with me on Tuesday. He said that soon after the kidnapping of Dacer, he heard Joe Almonte tell Dacer’s family that in case the kidnappers should return him to Almonte’s group, they would try to sneak him out to the USA. In such an eventuality, he told Dacer’s family to keep on mourning for him in public (as though he had not been found. Father Gabriel explained) until the opportune time.

Obama's teleprompter started a new blog

it's here. The Prompter also has a twitter account.

My Wishlist for the Cine Europa 2009 at the Shang

UPDATE: Here's the official schedule of Cine Europa 12

I hope the EU will screen these movies for their 12th Cine Europa at the Shangri-la Plaza:

France: Entre Les Murs (The Class)

Sweden: Let the Right One In (2008) OR Fyra nyanser av brunt (2004) both films by Tomas Alfredson

Germany: The Edge of Heaven

Austria: Revanche (trailer)

Belgium: Ben X (trailer)

Denmark: The Art of Crying

Italy: Gomorra or La sconosciuta

Netherlands: Dunya and Desi

Norway: O'Horten

Portugal: Aquele Querido Mês de Agosto

Czech Republic: I Served the King of England (trailer)

Finland: A Man's Work (trailer) (images)

Iceland: Jar City

Hungary: Taxidermia

Romania: 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days

Spain: The Orphanage

Ross Douthat is the new columnist for the NYT

He replaces Bill Kristol. He's in his late twenties, just a kid. Is he the youngest to ever become a New York Times columnist?

Kaus: First Time The MSM Has Ever Ignored Warren Buffett

Mickey Kaus: The press accounts I've read have wildly underplayed Obama supporter Warren Buffet's criticism of the President on CNBC today. It's fairly pointed, and Buffett comes back to it, suggesting he has a message he's trying to deliver. [E.A.]:

BUFFETT: ...And, Joe, it--if you're in a war, and we really are on an economic war, there's a obligation to the majority to behave in ways that don't go around inflaming the minority. If on December 8th when--maybe it's December 7th, when Roosevelt convened Congress to have a vote on the war, he didn't say, `I'm throwing in about 10 of my pet projects ... [snip] ...

JOE: Yeah, but you might--might not have fixed...

BUFFETT: But I say...

JOE: You might not--you might not have fixed global warming the day after--the day after D-Day, Warren.

BUFFETT: Absolutely. And I think that the--I think that the Republicans have an obligation to regard this as an economic war and to realize you need one leader and, in general, support of that. But I think that the--I think that the Democrats--and I voted for Obama and I strongly support him, and I think he's the right guy--but I think they should not use this--when they're calling for unity on a question this important, they should not use it to roll the Republicans all.

JOE: Hm.

BUFFETT: I think--I think a lot of things should be--job one is to win the war, job--the economic war, job two is to win the economic war, and job three. And you can't expect people to unite behind you if you're trying to jam a whole bunch of things down their throat. So I would--I would absolutely say for the--for the interim, till we get this one solved, I would not be pushing a lot of things that are--you know are contentious, and I also--I also would do no finger-pointing whatsoever. I would--you know, I would not say, you know, `George'--`the previous administration got us into this.' Forget it. I mean, you know, the Navy made a mistake at Pearl Harbor and had too many ships there. But the idea that we'd spend our time after that, you know, pointing fingers at the Navy, we needed the Navy. So I would--I would--I would--no finger-pointing, no vengeance, none of that stuff. Just look forward. ..[snip] ...

BUFFETT: Well, I was going to mention to Joe that you've heard this comment recently from some Democrats recently that a `crisis is a terrible thing to waste.'

BECKY: Yeah.

BUFFETT: Now, just rephrase that and since it's, in my view, it's an economic war, and--I don't think anybody on December 7th would have said a `war is a terrible thing to waste, and therefore we're going to try and ram through a whole bunch of things and--but we expect to--expect the other party to unite behind us on the--on the big problem.' It's just a mistake, I think, when you've got one overriding objective, to try and muddle it up with a bunch of other things.

P.S.: He's against "card check." ("I think the secret ballot's pretty important in the country.") ... 7:19 P.M.

New Website

ni Ping Lacson.

A box of Dibidis for you, Prime Minister

Obama's gift to Gordon Brown.

RP Kidnapping in the 90s

I was reading Lito Banayo at naalala ko yung malalang kidnappings of Chinese-Filipinos noong 1990s under the Ramos administration.

Let's give credit for Ping Lacson (under the Erap admin) and Angelo Reyes (under the Arroyo administration) for cracking down on this criminal "growth industry" after kidnappings spiked during FVRs time and for a short period after Edsa Dos under Larry Mendoza's time.

Pero wala talagang masyadong nagawa si Ramos ano?

DEMOCRACY?

*Posted by Enteng Romano at eLagda – 06 March 2009*

This year’s EDSA anniversaries (both I and II) will best be remembered for
its non-celebration. Thanks to GMA who not only downplayed it, but
trivialized it.

I agree with FVR, who was visibly irked with the non-appearance of GMA and
vanishing trick of VP Noli, when he said, “What appointment could be more
important on this day (February 25) than the commemoration of the
restoration of democracy?”

But then, you have to ask, “What democracy?”

Is there any Filipino who still doubts that GMA spoke to Garci? Even GMA
herself tacitly admitted it when she said, “I am sorry.” The Garci tapes
contained damning pieces of wiretapped phone conversations. In one, GMA
asked Garci to guarantee a 1 million winning margin. In another, they talked
about the abduction of a teacher to silence her. The most natural thing to
resolve this was for Congress to go through impeachment to either clear or
find GMA culpable. But they found the complaint insufficient in substance
and dismissed it. They have reduced the issue to a numbers game. In
succeeding years, a Malacanang stooge would file a bogus impeachment
complaint to immunize her for at least a year. *They have prostituted the
process and reduced it to power play.*

* *

Is there any Filipino who still doubts that COMELEC officials colluded with
suppliers to defraud the government of billions of pesos in the election
automation project? The Supreme Court itself declared so and directed the
Ombudsman to run after the culprits. But the Ombudsman exonerated them
leading to a situation where you have a crime without criminals. *They
defied the Supreme Court and got away with it.*

Is there any Filipino who still doubts that Abalos, FG, and GMA are involved
in the NBN-ZTE scandal? A picture is worth a thousand words, and a picture
with the three of them golfing at the ZTE headquarters in China says a lot,
especially since the ZTE project was quickly changed from a BOT to a
government-to- government contract soon after the game. Besides, how do you
explain GMA’s trip to China, “coming and going like a thief in the night”
(Malacanang Press Office’s own words) to seal the ZTE contract as witness,
doing the signing at the airport, breaking all diplomatic protocols? And
yet, no charges have been filed against any of the principal players, even
after GMA admitted that she belatedly knew of the irregularity. In contrast,
Jun Lozada and his wife Violet have 10 live court cases against them. *They
have perverted the justice system, using the agencies of justice to
persecute anyone who dare go against them.* **

Is there any Filipino who still doubts that GMA distributed money to
congressmen, mayors and governors at Malacanang in November 2007 to buy
their support? Among Ed Panlilio himself showed the money and an ABS-CBN
news footage showed Congressmen leaving the meeting with loot bags similar
to the one given to Among Ed. If it is true that GMA was truly unaware of
the dole-outs, then you would expect that the Taray Queen would unleash her
wrath on whoever was behind it for doing it right under her nose and making
her look like a fool. Nothing of that sort happened. KAMPI – the president’s
own party, owned up to the cash bonanza, and no one was ever charged,
reprimanded, or even slapped in the wrist. *They think all Filipinos are
dumb to accept such a tall tale.*

Is there any Filipino who still doubts that Jocjoc Bolante architected the
fertilizer scam, with the blessings of his patrons? Two independent Senate
investigations concluded so and recommended the filing of plunder against
him. But the Ombudsman is taking its sweet time in filing the charges. Under
public pressure to catch a big fish, the Ombudsman hurriedly filed graft
charges against Neric Acosta of Bukidnon – a known critic of GMA. Ooooppps.
Wrong aquarium. What the public wanted was a big fish from the Palace
aquarium where there are plenty of sharks. *They must think plunder is a
joke. That explains why they pardoned Erap so soon.*

* *

Is there any Filipino who still doubts that FG is involved in the rigging of
road projects? The World Bank Department of Institutional Integrity
concluded so, and they had two witnesses who attested to it. But FG could
not attend the Senate hearings. He has a heart condition and to testify
would be too stressful. (And a round of golf with millions of pesos at stake
is not?) They have just set a precedent in jurisprudence. Henceforth, all
accused with heart conditions cannot be compelled to testify. They can
either check in or get a certificate of exemption from St. Luke’s Hospital.
*They must think they’re above the law.*

* *

Of course, they invoke due process and rule of law as their refuge. For such
are the ways of democracy. Well... they have succeeded in perverting
democracy to a point where you can hardly recognize it.

I think this nation is long overdue for a change. Even the administration
agrees. But the kind of change they espouse – charter change, is really just
a ruse to extend their terms and perpetuate themselves in power.

No, more than change, this nation is long overdue for a revolution. And I
think it will happen soon, through the ballot or by the bullet.

The signs are clear.

The judiciary was designed to play a passive role in governance, acting only
on pleadings presented before it. But when you see a Chief Justice
proactively initiating reforms on human rights and leading a Moral Force
movement, you know something is wrong with the system.

When you have the two chambers of Congress competing with each other in
leading investigations of never-ending scandals – the lower chamber to
insulate its patron at the palace, and the upper chamber to provide a stage
for its presidential aspirants… you know that they will come to a head
sooner or later.

When you read a full page ad by associations of retired and active officers
declaring that they are united behind an incarcerated comrade, you know that
something more than just a senatorial bid is brewing.

When you view all of these against a backdrop of hundreds of thousands of
Filipinos losing their jobs, and hundreds of thousands of families moving
below the poverty line… the old palace line that they are working hard on
the economy supported with their fudged numbers simply will no longer cut.

And when you factor in the people’s sentiment about their president – 46%
disapproval and 45% distrust ratings, you know you have a powder keg just
waiting for the fuse to be lit.

The political equilibrium is precariously unstable brought about mostly by
the abuses and excesses of the ruling class. The inviolable law of physics
is finally catching up with them… for every action, there is an equal and
opposite reaction.

The Americans bought into Obama’s promise of “change we can believe in.” I
think the Filipinos will buy into anybody’s promise of “change we can live
with.” I still remember how people rushed to the side of government to
defend democracy during the Oakwood mutiny. Is there any Filipino who still
doubts which side people will rush to, this time around?

Are there Filipinos who still care about democracy? Many. But not the farce
that we see today. We all yearn for the one that is *of the people, by the
people, and for the people*.

*Panahon na para sa pagbabago. Now na!*

Imagine if Erap was adept at the teleprompter

Imagine if he was as good as O.

UPDATE: nah... probably wouldn't have helped in the end.