My column for today is The aesthetics of redemption. It’s as much a response to items such as this one, see Clarissa Ocampo vs. Jun Lozada, as anything else, but also a reiteration of a point I’ve felt strongly about for some time, see She is as they are, from March 2, 2006.
In the news, Think tank to draft 10-yr economy blueprint: it’s about time such a think tank buckles down to work. What can we see, 10 years ahead? A provocative article in The Asia Sentinel says, a peso-dollar rate of 56 to 1! See Philippine remittances could slow: The global slowdown may mean a fall in remittances, the Philippine lifeblood, and an end to the party for the peso :
That said, the trend is clear and at some point it is likely to impinge on all remittance sources to varying degrees. High and rising energy and food import costs are also likely to erode a Philippine current account which has been in a healthy surplus for an almost unprecedented time. Looking ahead, the issue will be whether remittances will stagnate because of the US (and probably very slow growth in Europe), resulting in a weaker peso and the unwinding of a cycle that has taken the usually sickly peso from 56 to 40 against the dollar over the past three years, the fastest rise of any Asian currency.
Many would argue that the strong peso has been damaging the wider economy, encouraging imports, reducing the peso value of remittances, deterring investment in industry and agriculture, helping rentiers at the expense of productive capitalists. But to politicians, not least Arroyo, it is a virility symbol.
The nation has become so dependent on the seemingly endless increase in inflows which created the strong peso that any major reversal or even slowdown will be shock to the system. Don’t be surprised if the peso is back at 56 before the decade is out.
In History Unfolding, historian David Kaiser ponders the collapse of Bear Stearns in the context of the Baby Boomer Generation to which he belongs:
The Boom generation has never believed much in restraint, least of all in the economic field. We have cut marginal tax rates from 91% in 1963 and 50% in the late 1970s to 35% now, vastly increasing the incentive for managers to increase profits as much as possible–partly by cutting the labor force–because they can keep so much more of the proceeds. We have chpped away at the Depression-era restraints, allowing commercial and investment banks to combine during the late 1990s. (The Clinton Adminstration did impose fiscal discipline–probably its one real domestic achievement–but it paved the way for the coming crash in many ways as well.) We have developed new financial instruments like bonds backed by sub-prime mortgages that have been every bit as seductive as the Mississippi bubble in the early 18th century or prime Florida land in the 1920s. And by creating new institutions not subject to regulation, such as hedge funds, we have allowed clever Boomers and Xers to avoid the regulations that their parents and grandparents so wisely put in place. Last Friday almost became the Black Friday of a new generation when Bear, Stearns melted down. Bear Stearns, the New York Times informed me, works on 96.66 margin–of every $1 million it invests, $966,000 is borrowed. Much of those investments have now collapsed along with the subprime market, undoubtedly threatning a whole range of banks, hedge funds, non-profits and pension funds as well as Bear Stearns itself (since they are presumably the ones whose money Bear Stearns was playing with.) The Federal Reserve stepped in to ward off the catastrophe, but it will not be able to continue to rescue failing firms that way without implicating the whole nation in the potential crash.
The Warrior Lawyer points out why the Bear Stearns collapse matters to us:
Why should we care then if another capitalist enterprise should go under ? Banks like Bear Stearns serve a worldwide clientele of corporations, institutional investors, governments, and wealthy individuals. Its almost a given that the Philippine government has done business with investment banks like Bear Sterns and its kind and will continue to do so in the future. In a globalized economy, the fallout from a U.S. financial crisis will impact us adversely. The resulting volatility and panic in the US stock market will send shock waves to European and Asian markets. These fears and uncertainties are driving world stock markets to their recent lows. Furthermore, the US, one of our major trading partners, is already experiencing a de facto economic recession. This will dampen our prospects for continued economic growth.
Incidentally, remember the foreign analyist I met, back in 2005? See The President’s “sweet spot,” from July 28, 2005. He was from Bear Stearns.
During an economic downturn, or worse, in times of an actual shortage in basic commodities, a government has to wield its authority and at the same time, appeal to a reservoir of good will and expect a certain amount of instinctive obedience on the part of the population. You have to wonder what reservoirs the present administration has left.
In Already we have riots, hoarding, panic: the sign of things to come? by Carl Mortishead (hat tip to Thoughtcrime), there’s this:
The President of the Philippines made an unprecedented call last week to the Vietnamese Prime Minister, requesting that he promise to supply a quantity of rice.
The personal appeal by Gloria Arroyo to Nguyen Tan Dung for a guarantee was a highly unusual intervention and highlighted the Philippines’ dependence on food imports, rice in particular.
“This is a wake-up call,” said Robert Zeigler, who heads the International Rice Research Institute. “We have a crisis brewing in rice supply.”
While Neal Cruz says Rice shortage, no; high prices, yes , prospects of a shortage or higher prices at least, is enough to inspire an impassioned plea from The Magnificent Atty. Perez:
Look at the sugarfields of Negros Occidental, where you still see to this very day, poor and uneducated laborers being paid so much less than minimum wage for backbreaking work. Look at the farms and haciendas that conveniently side-stepped coverage from CARP by allegedly growing “cattle” and having “agricultural corporations” on their land. Go to the farmlands of Capiz where in this age of tractors and the scientific method of farming you still see farmers tilling the land with the lowly carabao and drying their grain by the roadsides where it may be swept away by strong winds and rain.
You see, the problem is not that our population is too big for our food production to supply to. Our problem is that our current agricultural system for the whole country is still stuck on methodologies and farming techniques used at the turn of the 19th Century, which does not yield enough to feed our starving nation. Hence, we have to import food at a higher premium when we have the capacity to solve our own problems with the right farming science and technology.
A U.P. professor I talked to a few weeks back bluntly told me that our agricultural productivity is still at 1940’s levels while our neighbors have vastly increased theirs. And recall, as well, the observation by Dr. Michael Alba that the government isn’t keeping track of formerly agricultural lands being lost to real estate development, because of a change in methods (instead of having people actually conducting a periodic inventory of land, less precise aerial surveys, I believe, take place).
And, as usual, the problem’s compounded by another reality: that one of the many criticisms leveled against this administration is how smuggling is not only rampant, but allegedly condoned at the highest levels of government.
Brianb, in a level playing field, the Philippine elite are largely unable to produce anything useful themselves so they rely on government favors and loans which they then leave to the public to pay. If we are to turnaround our society, this process leading to the greater concentration of wealth needs to stop so we can channel our resources to ‘democratic education’ to benefit our Society. Otherwise, the gains achieved by the OFW (via what Sparks calls direct injection) would be wasted.
Anyway, the best form of democratic education is not the one in school but in making an example of those who hold back our Society. Do you know that even Park Chung Hee, the architect of South Korea’s economic miracle was shot when he started to outlive his usefulness? Also, that the two presidents who came after him were sentenced to death (later commuted)? Those are more powerful learning experiences for our society than anything you can teach in class.
CVJ,
Ha, making an example is subject to interpretation. You know how it is. Look at Erap. Look at the Marcoses. What’s the lesson learned in that? In school, you learn by rote. It’s practically brainwashing, and it is.
Erap and the Marcoses were not shot (or jailed).
cvj, the “internal control” of our system of government is not based on self-restraint, it is based on “check-and-balance”.
the objective of courts is justice. now you’re saying it has nothing in it to prevent injustice. how come?
mindanaoan, one form of self-restraint that used to exist among Congressmen is delicadeza. As we are seeing, check and balance alone is of no use if the Congressmen allow themselves to be influenced by bags of cash from Malacanang.
I’ve discussed this matter with lawyers (like Jaxius in his blog) and what i was told is that the objective of the courts is “Order” since Justice is too nebulous to define clearly in many occassions.
Anyway, if the Judge allows himself to be paid, or if s/he is beholden to an illegitmate and corrupt President such that it influences his/her decisions, then the cause of Justice is not served. Nothing built-into the process except for the Judges’ own sense of propriety (and our history) can prevent this.
Actually this is quite typical of the judgmental stance people from backward societies usually take when faced with a new concept.
So for example if I figure out a way to to deliver at a push of a button an outcome that previously took someone 8 hours of back-breaking work to accomplish, does that necessarily make me a lazy bastard?
If that’s the case, I’d rather be a lazy bum than be part of the toiling cretins that losers in societies like the Philippines routinely put on a “hero’s” pedestal.
– 😀
cvj, there is no internal control, even in a lowly sari-sari store, that relies on delicadeza. it’s always based on power: auditors for example can disallow; congress can impeach a supreme court justice, or the president, the president can fire his/her cabinet.
if something in a subsystem fails, the remedy is not in hoping that an alien morality comes in, or another subsystem takes over the failing subsystem. the solution is updating the system so it can handle the cause of the failure.
and the first step to providing a solution is to state exactly what is the problem, why it is a problem, and what causes it.
yeah, exactly. like banging on the screwy tv hoping the damn thing will fix itself. it will work at times, but each bang turns it inexorably to junk. there are better ways of doing things.
OUCHHHH, kalyo ko, madonna.
Cat,
Magpepenetensya ako this holy week, di ko na mag-che-check ng updates ni Brian Gorrell. OR at least I’ll try not to. hehe. Imagine he is close to having half a million hits on his site already in just two weeks. The envy of many bloggers now. Apparently the foreign press has noticed too and according to him, BBC, CNN have kept in touch already.
I can only admire those who write for The Economist – a popular weekly where the articles have no byline. — nash
Nash,
When I was younger I had a delusional dream of writing for the The Economist, kahit ba walang byline. I think it’s the best publication in the world.
but aren’t you already subsisting on australian centrelink considering how much time you effectively spend blogging–and very efficient at that?
cvj,
mindanaoan, i agree that enhancing the design of the system can help but there are limits to going this route. For dysfunctional systems, the tendency is to fix it with additional processes, additional checks and additional audits. By the time the auditor comes in, it is usually too late. We have seen the limits of this approach even in the corporate environment. Remember Enron where even external auditor Arthur Andersen was part of the scam? Peter Drucker emphasized the need for Management By Objectives and Self-control. While he is remembered for MBO, his latter prescription (‘self-control’) is often overlooked.
Even a ‘lowly’ sari-sari store also relies on the quality of storekeeper (and their help). A big business in a corporate environment relies on Corporate Culture. Society also relies on social capital built on trust and reciprocity. On the practical side, poor social capital which relies on the safeguards of the system usually increases transaction costs to the detriment of their economies.
At some point, you can decide to get a new tv or live without one.
There is nothing in the internet that prevents my computer from disconnecting.
cvj, it is very expensive to get a new government, and we cannot live without one! and is it really hard to say which part of our system is not working?
Anthony S., oo level playing field nga hanap nina lorenzo,Roxas,et al. About agri having same budget as education,notwithstanding the fertlizer scam, maganda ngang idea yan.Sorry I have to bring the fertilizer scam up,which is not yet resolved by the way.
CVJ,
I wil no longer bother you regarding your oligarchy thesis,form now on.
Cheerio.
@justice scalia
“this entire NBN-ZTE circus is just about attempts on bribery and kickbacks.”
Please educate me, if this were the minimum offense of this sordid affair, isn’t this still a crime of some sort? Attempted bribery is still a crime innit?
Threats nga lang pwede mo ng ikaso at kunan ng restraining order diba?
i have explained what prevents a mob (lynch or otherwise) from riding roughshod over people and those are the principles of people power, or active non-violence if you will.
and i have explained over and over the distinctions that separate the court of public opinion from a court of law, and they are easily understood as comprising life, liberty, and porperty -taking them away is the sphere of a court of law, because these are things people have a right to retain unless it’s proven in court that they are no longer deserving of these things.
political office is not a human right, it is a privilege. in normal circumstances, you’re entitled to a fixed term. but just as you could theoretically throw in the towel at any time, there are circumstances when your term can and should be preterminated if the public feels you have betrayed the standards that should be met by public officials.
you do not lose your life, liberty or property if you lose political office. the public is entitled to explore all means to deprive you of that office if you betray them. which is not to say the public, all the time, will succeed. but just as civil disobedience is sometimes required to compel officials to change laws or policy, so is public protest required to try to compel officials to respond to public opinion.
which is why when the court of public opinion renders its judgment, a responsible official will take his case to the people or bow to their will. the official loses nothing except office, and can appeal to the judgment of history to vindicate him; but what will not be vindicated is if an official faces a harsh judgment and resorts to harsh methods to foil that judgment.
if someone doesn’t want to risk public judgment whether fickle or fair, then don’t seek and hold political office.
the lawyers can review the laws but i’m under the impression that attempted bribery is a crime, as is lack of zeal in prosecuting or reporting attempted bribery, and there is also the question of command responsibility and allegations that downpayments were given out for the bribes.
Diesel,
“Please educate me, if this were the minimum offense of this sordid affair, isn’t this still a crime of some sort? Attempted bribery is still a crime innit?”
im not sure if there really is a crime as attempted bribe/kickbacks. maybe a bribe offer need not be accepted, in which case the bribery attempt is no longer an attempt but a crime itself
“Threats nga lang pwede mo ng ikaso at kunan ng restraining order diba?”
threats meron kasi there is such a crime. yes TRO is available
ibahin natin yung mga pwedeng ikaso ni Lozada sa mga abductors nya
Kevin Garnet,
“I will no longer bother you regarding your oligarchy thesis,form now on”
napagod ka rin no?
Dear Atty Bencard,
Help! My friend desperately needs your legal advice! He is being slandered and is the target of vicious rumors and hearsay and yet there is no evidence to prove that my friend swindled his spurned lover! My friend is DJ Montano and he has been hiding under a pile of Gucci bags. Help him! He needs to weasel out of this quickly so he can go back to his normal life.
mlq3,
But this simply begs the question:
How exactly is this public opinion’s judgment expressed and/or delivered?
If say it is delivered via a moronic street protest, via the biased Philippine Media, or via one of these profiteering survey agencies, what in these channels makes this “judgment” binding?
If for example, this official chooses not to bow to the people, what then? If force is used to remove this official from office, how exactly are we to determine beyond reasonable doubt that such force was warranted?
What authority determines if a crowd of, say 100,000 in a moronic street protest, or ten informants giving an interview to a biased reporter, or a sample size of, say 500,000 respondents in a for-profit survey, represents a sound conclusion given the information made available to these undertakings?
Lots of questions rather than answers, dude.
Hardly a convincing principle or set of principles you espouse, Mr. Quezon.
Hay naku benign-zero I have two words for you:
Romano Prodi
that man had the balls to resign after the court of public opinion said he was not being effective..he wasn’t even involved in anything remotely unethical or illegal…actually, it wasn’t even the ‘majority’ it was an obscure party in the coalition which switched sides….
And yes if a street protest is moronic. I am a proud moron. Why don’t you organise a street rally to espouse your get real ek-ek…street protests are legal in a democracy you know…i hope you get more than 10 people in your rally (excluding relatives ha.)
cheers
“On the other end, you have those who propose roasting them alive.”–cvj
What? There are extremists here?
Expensive compared to what? So far, we already have two Billion US Dollars worth of dubious loans from China and the integrity of our institutions have already been compromised. A TV set can be broken to a point beyond fixing.
cvj, are you suggesting our system of government is broken beyond fixing, or that governments are discardable? which institutions have been compromised?
if you break down a problem into a finer and finer and more specific detail, you might find a simple solution, and you might not need to throw away your tv set after all.
“you might find a simple solution, and you might not need to throw away your tv set after all.”
Na-ah, once broken, no can fix. Must replace.
Benigno says:
If that’s the case, I’d rather be a lazy bum than be part of the toiling cretins that losers in societies like the Philippines routinely put on a “hero’s†pedestal.
——————
The problem is that those toiling cretins as you call them can be far more decent humans than any of those button pushers that you idolize — or which you believe to be part of. Because everything is relative, to some people where I work, YOU are the equivalent of a toiling cretin.
MLQ attempted bribery is a crime indeed whichever Criminal Code you are referring.
But in our Case it is very explicit: “to attempt to bribe or bribe any public official or politician to influence his or her in performance of her or his duties is crime under the Criminal Code”.
PM Harper is now suing Liberal Leader Dion and the Liberal Party for Libel for the accusation published in Liberal Party website about the Attempted Bribery by former Harper Opposition Conservatives to Bribe a Terminally Ill independent MP to vote on their side to defeat the Minority Liberal Government of Paul Martin, didn’t not worked out, and the RCMP is now investigating in the attempted Bribery did really takes place…IT IS CRIME…
I think there are fellow commenters on this blog who are in one way involved in the agriculture sector.
I say this from the bottom of my heart, from one farmer to another, thank you so much to the Thai, Paki, and the Vietnamese farmers who are going to feed us this summer.
“The Philippine government has bought 335,500 tons of rice for $237.5 million to offset an expected shortfall in domestic production, the National Food Authority (NFA) said Tuesday.
The rice will be imported mainly from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan, said the NFA which is the agency tasked with importing rice, the country’s staple.
The price varied from $618 to $745 a metric ton, depending on the quality of the grain, the authority said.”
To the NFA, DENR, and Customs who are led not by competent people but by political appointees and who got us into this mess: A big F–K you for being useless!!!
I think there are fellow commenters on this blog who are in one way or another involved in the agriculture sector.
I say this from the bottom of my heart, from one farmer to another, thank you so much to the Thai, Paki, and the Vietnamese farmers who are going to feed us this summer.
“The Philippine government has bought 335,500 tons of rice for $237.5 million to offset an expected shortfall in domestic production, the National Food Authority (NFA) said Tuesday.
The rice will be imported mainly from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan, said the NFA which is the agency tasked with importing rice, the country’s staple.
The price varied from $618 to $745 a metric ton, depending on the quality of the grain, the authority said.”
To the NFA, DENR, and Customs who are led not by competent people but by political appointees and who got us into this mess: A big F–K you for being useless!!!
Damaged-culture assessments and year-zero scenarios are not the cure to the blight or maliase in our society. We Filipinos have some beliefs and values which are commendable like strong family ties, gratitude, etc. Of course, any cultural trait carried to the extreme becomes dysfunctional.
When espousing “revolutions” the messenger is as crucial as the message. Talk of Rep. Joe De Venecia calling for a moral revolution, after being ousted from power by his trapo-colleagues. The gall!
Do symbols still matter? Will it be a healing priest, Cory Aquino, or Lt. Trillanes who will be the messenger.
I don’t know the answer.
Nash:
Going beyond the immediate culprits, the problem of insufficient rice production is a function of policies that:
a) underinvested in agricultural infrastructure and support services (from roads and irrigation to crop insurance and agricultural loans)
b) distorted agricultural prices to favor urban consumers (keeping farmgate prices artificially low)
c) failed to curtail the oligolipolistic control of rice marketing and trading in several key provinces\
d) delayed land reform
The end-result was inadequate overall investment into productivity in the rice sector, thus our yields are far below Vietnam or Thailand.
To put it into a more practical context — why invest in your ricefield if a) the risks from natural calamities are high b) there is inadequate infrastructure thus making your commodities expensive to market c) the distribution system is controlled by very few people/businesses who manipulate prices.
Just think of farmers as businessmen. What if you owned a business in the province that a) didn’t have good roads going to it b) was at risk of flooding every year c) could sell only to a few individuals and d) your prices were controlled? How high would your incentive to invest into productivity and efficiency be?
Just been to emerald avenue in ortigas and there are sampaguita sellers begging for “barya.” Has the price of rice gone up already?
BENCARD,
Just asking a little advice from an astute lawyer like you,
Halimbawa, ako me nalalamang anomalya sa opisina(assume I work in government under a powerful official) at marami talaga akong nalalaman, kaso minsan naambunan din ako. Ngayon sabihin na nating nakukunsensya na ako, at naisip ko nang ibulgar ang aking nalalaman, ano ang iyong ipapayo sa akin bilang isang matinik na abugado?
Ang impresyon ko kasi kung minsan sa iyong mga komentaryo ganito: kung gusto mong magsumbong o maging whistleblower kaibigan, kumuha ka muna ng law o kaya i-hire mo ako. Kung hindi, tumahimik ka na lang dahil wala kang mapapalang maganda diyan. Iistorbohin mo lang ang kapayapaan ng bayan. Maanong tumahimik ka nat tanggapin mo na lang ang biyaya tutal dati naman tumanggap ka na. Nagmalinis ka pa.
I haven’t reached that point yet. If you look back to where our exchange started above (at 12:38pm), what i put forward was the far more moderate proposition that a system needs its own code of ethics (which depends on self-restraint), or else, an outside morality will assert itself.
For example, Neri tried to keep to the system’s home-grown code of ethics when he assigned Jun Lozada to “moderate the greed“, i.e. don’t let the players go beyond the unwritten code that allows 20% kickbacks. Neri (and Lozada) rightly saw that not adhering to such a code will invite alien morality to come in. Hostile public opinion is part of that alien morality that threatens to intrude into such a system.
I wonder why any of you still bother trying to persuade Bencard and Benigno about anything, when it’s obvious that these two are either paid hacks of malacanang who will never forever stop parroting GMA’s company line while her administration is still in power, or simply members of the Philippine oligarchy who hate the fact that they even have any brown-skinned Filipino ancestry and wish that they were some other foregin race instead, likely pure-blooded whiteys or possibly even Chinese, instead.
In addition , I am just shocked at the naivete that many of you exhibit, which if I may so, borders on sheer craveness. Seriously speaking, this country will not reform absent a violent revolution ala France or Russia, no country ever did, and no country ever will. Damn, what happened to all the so-called tapang of the pinoy? I think Conrado de Quiros was right in that we do not have real tapang, only tapang ng apog. Do you really think that the vampires and their monster servants on top of the sociopoliticoeconomic pyramid will truly ever stop drinking the blood and eating the flesh of the rest of us? Of course not! You have to drive them out of their nests by burning away their castles with the fires of vengeance and expose them to the sunlight of justice for them to actually be eliminated once and for all.
cvj, you cannot really reach anywhere if your notion of system controls is an amorphous “code of ethics”. while governments (and institutions) are soft systems, their structure, functions, workings and relationships are anything but soft. they are well defined and clearly laid out in the form of constitutions and statutes. i don’t understand why you need to introduce concepts like home-grown code of ethics or alien morality when all that is needed is point out where in the system (in what office) you think there is a problem, and why it is a problem.
as i said in another thread, if the object of “hostile public opinion” or “alien morality” or people power, or lozada, or whatever, is to force gma out using extra-system means, we don’t need to discuss about systems because it’s purely a power struggle. no justification needed.
mindanaoan, a code of ethics can and does exist side by side with formal processes. In fact, it is adherence to this unwritten code that often spells the difference between a working and a dysfunctional system. For example, in the face of revelations related to Watergate, and the threat of impeachment from his own partymates, Nixon chose to resign. You can contrast that with our own situation where Congress has turned a blind eye on Hello Garci. In the face of unethical politicians, judges and military enforcers, Constitutions and Statutes are not worth the paper they’re written on.
mlq3: “Yet she (Clarissa Ocampo) did not face what Lozada had to face: abduction and potential liquidation at the hands of his former masters…
The prudent banker faced with career death was brave, but had no cause to justify her bravery and composure by appealing to a higher purpose; but people who have faced the prospects of an untimely death can be excused for clutching at every opportunity to insist on their survival representing a higher calling, however tiresome it may sound to those who have to listen.”
mlq3, I hope you don’t mean to downplay the ordeal that that Mrs. Ocampo went through. Her career was not the only thing she risked. Why then would she have been staying at a safehouse, have eight bodyguards and fly to the U.S. after giving her testimony at the impeachment trial? I agree with you that she is certainly brave.
‘The Philippine government has bought 335,500 tons of rice for $237.5 million to offset an expected shortfall in domestic production, the National Food Authority (NFA) said Tuesday.’
The Philippines could have bought Bear Stearns with that amount and make money right away. NFA should be changed to Wala Talagang Food or WTF (what the f*k).
cvj: which public opinion is “..hostile public opinion” and which ones are not?
———–
ColdKing: Is it possible that deQuiros was referring to you (and not really to Equalizer) as one of the Pinoys who “..do not have real tapang, only tapang ng apog”?
cvj: my slant is that an idea, the very same idea (e.g. going to Beijing Olympics) can be met with hostility by a group of Tibetans and be most welcome to a group of Tsinoy travel agents.
And of course, there is only-via-impeachment versus surge-the-gates-now. Depending on the audience, one versus the other will be met with hostility.
UP n, can you give concrete examples and i’ll just answer yes or no or maybe?
Why limit it to those two options? Why not include ‘GMA for life’?
cvj, it is not that we don’t need a code of ethics, but that an unwritten code of ethics is useless as a form of system control. if clear-cut rules can be abused (like what jamby did with section 20), will unwritten code do any better? and would you have suggested to the generals to just promote themselves (and throw jamby out the building) because she was abusive?
UPn,
Here, here. More tapang nang apog at Brin Gorrell’s blog.
cvj.
It’s the unwritten laws superseding the written ones that got this country in trouble in the first place.
cvj: Do you think there are Filipinos entertaining the thought of GMA as head of government into 2011, 2012 (and maybe even into 2013-2014)? I doubt this group number more than than a thousand.
But more important, GMA-in-Malacanang as President is forbidden by the Constitution. And Filipinos, after all, do seem to believe in abiding by the Constitution (evidence: “surge-the-gate” has a miniscule following).
“cvj: Do you think there are Filipinos entertaining the thought of GMA as head of government into 2011, 2012 (and maybe even into 2013-2014)? I doubt this group number more than than a thousand.”
Disagree, UP n. Every Filipino has it in mind. The anti-GMA (include me) are paranoid about it, the anti-anti-GMA are praying for it. Can anyone tell me what the ones in-between are thinking?
From the Inquirer
They count unpaid family members who work with the employed? I don’t get this.
mindanaoan, there are ways to adhere to the formal process while circumventing the purpose of the system. That’s what happened with the bogus impeachment attempts in 2005 and 2007. That’s what unwritten codes like delicadeza are for. In other countries, those involved in the kind of election cheating and corruption scandals that GMA is involved in would have resigned.
UPn, how about GMA-in-Malacanang as as Prime Minister?