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| From Malacanan |
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave,
Awaits alike th’ inevitable hour:-
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
-Thomas Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard.”
Thanks to Arnold Clavio and Vicky Morales, I was able to watch their network’s coverage of President-elect Aquino leaving his Time Street residence, dressed in a long-sleeved camisa chino. By the time his convoy (which stopped at red lights) reached the Palace, he was already dressed in a baro. The trip from Times St. to the Palace took something like 15 minutes instead of the close to an hour originally allocated according to the Official Program.
The President-elect alighted from his vehicle at Bonifacio Hall (usually referred to by its old name, the Premier Guesthouse), where President Corazon Aquino held office and where her son will also hold office. Meanwhile, over at the Palace, the outgoing cabinet hung around the “Pacto de Sangre” of Luna near the main stairs, waiting for President Arroyo. President Arroyo, dressed in an ecru terno, then shook hands with her departing official family and undertook descending the main stairs for the last time as President of the Philippines.
President Arroyo and President-elect Aquino then shook hands and departed for the Quirino Grandstand. In the coming days, people will be asking them what (if anything) they said to each other during their brief car ride to Rizal Park.
A cheerful roar came from the crowd when the presidential convoy arrived, and upon alighting from Car No. 1, the two went to their respective daises, for the military rendering its last honors to President Arroyo.
The “President’s March” was played, a 21 gun salut boomed out, and President Arroyo proceeded to review the troops as the band played “Atin Cu Pung Singsing.”
As the military honors were being given, the Vice President-elect’s special electric jeep arrived, and there’s been some undue controversy over this. Some people took it to mean the Vice President-elect barged in on the scene to steal the show.
At the time, I thought it was bungling of the protocol; the Vice President-elect is supposed to arrive ahead of the President-elect (as has been the tradition since the 1949 Quirino Inaugural; at the Quezon inaugural in 1935 the President-elect arrived ahead of the Vice President-elect).
What seems to have happened was this. The Presidential Party arrived about twenty minutes ahead of schedule -and it was the Vice President-elect who actually arrived on cue.
I noticed that what the Vice President-elect chose to do was the correct thing: he waited in his vehicle for the military honors to conclude, and with it, President Arroyo shaking hands with President-elect Aquino, and then getting into her private vehicle: at which point the President-elect went up to the ceremonial platform. Because of the circumstances surrounding the early arrival of the Presidential Party and the arrival of the Vice President-elect, it would have been unseemly for him to sprint up ahead of the President-elect; so he went up after the President-elect.
All in all, it was a courteous solution to an unintended snafu.
An interesting note was the reaction of the crowd -the official set crowding the bleachers of the Grandstand, and the public gathered across the Grandstand- to President Arroyo’s arrival and throughout the Military Honors portion.
I can’t say people jeered, or booed (at least from my vantage point) but there was a kind of highly enthusiastic applause that became particularly cheerful first, when she arrived, second, when the final honors began, then when she trooped the line and finally, when she shook hands with the President-elect and when her convoy departed. I did hear many people lustily saying “goodbye!”
Another interesting note is that some reporters told me President Arroyo twice refused to shake hands with President-elect Aquino at the Quirino Grandstand; I haven’t seen the footage and couldn’t see their interaction from my vantage point.
The Inaugural Program then commenced with an extremely moving rendition of the national anthem featuring Charice Pempengco and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Ryan Cayabyab. This was followed by the invocation.
The Madrigal Singers sang “Bayan Ko,” and then the Apo Hiking Society performed a song, and then Ogie Alcasid and friends performed the Inaugural Song.
At this point, the Senate President rose to read (with great vigor) the dispositive portions of the Proclamation of Congress announcing the results of the election. This was supposed to be followed by the oath-taking of the Vice President-elect, then the President-elect’s oath taking, followed by the military giving a salute and then the Inaugural Address.
Originally, the ceremonial to be followed conformed to tradition: no musical number was supposed to follow the Senate President; then a musical medley was inserted, then, upon the reiteration of the protocol to be followed, the song numbers were moved so that they would precede the Senate President’s reading.
However, since the whole thing started ahead of time, there would have been something like a 45 minute gap between the reading of the proclamation and the administration of the oaths of office, since as much as possible the President-elect is supposed to take his oath or conclude it, at high noon.
So the organizers improvised (this also happened during the Ramos Inaugural), to stretch things out for the purposes of the time specified by the Constitution. Personally, I think all the singing added a festive element to the proceedings and the public generally enjoyed themselves.
The Vice President-elect then took his oath, followed by the President-elect. A bystander told me the President finished taking his oath a few minutes before noon (this has happened in previous inaugurals). At this point, the military band kicked in, with its four ruffles and flourishes followed by “Mabuhay,” as a 21 gun salute boomed out; two choppers thundered overhead and scattered yellow flower petals over the crowd, which was a pretty sight indeed.
Then the President delivered his Inaugural Address. With introduction, applause, pauses, the speech ended up 21 minutes long.
After volunteers read their “Panata sa Pagbabago,” President Aquino was then given honors by the armed forces, and inspected the honor guard. He then proceeded to the Palace.
Then things started running behind schedule; he inducted his cabinet into office at around 3:20 PM. He then began his first cabinet meeting.
Tonight, there will be an Inaugural Reception for foreign delegations and the diplomatic corps and other officials who will pay their respects to the new chief executive. First comes the sole visiting head of state, the President of East Timor, followed by foreign delegations, the diplomatic corps, and other officials and guests. The President receives the visitors in the Music Room, where they are presented to the President individually. After extending their congratulations to the President, guests proceed to Rizal Hall where cocktails are served.
When all guests have had a chance to be presented to the President, he proceeds to Rizal Hall, where he will deliver a short speech and offer a toast to the delegations, diplomats, and dignitaries.
After that, he will go to attend the Inaugural Concert at the Quezon Memorial Circle.
If not, then I’m afraid we’ll have more of the same same.
I wouldn’t be whining about the same-same if it were not for the promises made during the campaign and the inauguration speech, “walang mahirap kung walang kurap” and all that. Noynoy set the bar too high for himself.
And for his fanboys to defend and apologize on his behalf with these whimperish schemes like wang-wang on the outset of his presidency and telling me that I’m unrealistic is just not fair.
When Ramos promised us that the Philippine will industrialize by 2000 I didn’t give him the benefit of the doubt. When Erap promised walang kumpa-kumpare I was skeptical. When GMA said she’ll never run again I doubted. Forgive me fanboys for treating Noynoy the same.
Remember, Ramos was inaugurated on 30th of June but was able to convince congress to pass laws and grant him emergency powers on July/August of the same year to resolve the power crisis, so the first month is not unrealistic. Three months is enough. Six months should be the maximum.
Anything beyond that, tangina, bat ka pa humabol ng pagkapresidente?
ellen tordesillas’ comment re: nonfunctional op[dot]gov[dot]ph:
so what’s the real score???
Nick you are stil at it. When are you going to let go of Gloria out of your life? When are you gping to stop her from ruling your lives? You allowed her to be the intergral part of your life for more 6 years. I though atat na ata kayo maaalis si Gloria sa Malcanang. Ngayong wala na sya. Sige ka pa rin ng sige and all your posting still hinges on her.
Ah, SoP, so you think GMA and Marcos are smart? I thought so. And you want Noynoy to be as smart as them? I hope not.
Alden, it’s SoP’s fault. I was not thinking of her until SoP mentioned about her. And when I think of GMA I can’t help thinking of you. It’s SoP’s fault really.
to alden40: Remember that “Truth Commission” is all about GMA, so Noynoy-people may not mind if folks don’t ask “.. oh, nasaan na ang pagbabago???” while they entertain themselves with the “GMA-Talsik-Diyan!!!” battlecry. This can be all the way into 2012. Merceditas Gutierrez remains until 2012, unless, of course, there is a coup-d’etat surge-the-gates against the Office of the Ombudsman.
Smart as them yes. Evil as them no.
You can use your smarts for good or evil. But if you’re gonna be good with no smarts to back it up, magresign ka na lang.
If we’re lucky, Noynoy might turn out to be smarter than he looks. But from all indications, I’m not seeing it.
If he made it a priority to increase the ranks of the DOJ, Ombudsman, and Sanidganbayan like he promised to increase the # of policemen and soldiers then yes, I would be the less skeptical.
But…
-how can you cut down graft and corruption in half or even by a quarter if you have these 3 agencies working overtime, underpaid, and having a conviction rate of 20% without doubling, tripling, or quadrupling their personnel?
And…
-how can you increase the # of personnel without increasing their budgets?
Consequently…
-how can you increase their budget without an enabling law and where will you get the money when you promised not to increase taxes?
Which we can cap off with two conundrums..
-how can you pass an enabling law through a legislature of which you don’t have a majority # and will be the subject of the investigation by the same agencies the enabling law will be funding?
-how can force a corrupt tax bureau to increase their collection, which will fund the enabling law, without the 3 agencies having the resources to investigate the tax bureau, who are dependent on the tax bureau to provide them with the money to increase their ranks?
My only question to Noynoy is…
-what’s your real plan to decrease corruption?
“Collections to rise by P150b with no new taxes—BIR chief”
Not the first time I’ve heard such bravado. Good luck! Looks like BIR will be going into a witch hunt soon. How long will it be before businessmen start grumbling because they’re getting squeezed to the bone? As usual, the real tax evaders will slip through, while the ordinary hardworking folk get harassed.
And I don’t believe the “no new taxes” spiel either. 🙂
A little detail that people may have missed. If you know of BIR employees who were on the take or who were “expediters”, then bother to report it to anybody of Noynoy administration.
———–
Asked how she would deal with errant employees in Internal Revenue, Kim Henares, new BIR Chief said: “I’m giving everyone a clean sheet of paper. They will be evaluated on their performance today. I will be giving them a chance to turn over a new leaf.”
Source: Manila Standard : Collections to rise by P150b with no new taxes—BIR chief
by Elaine R. Alanguilan
don’t bother… don’t bother to report. noynoyAdministration has forgiven any and all BIR personnel who were “expediters”.
Nick,
Thats your problem. not mine!
We spent billions of pesos for our 2010 dose of dope yet this early, we seem bent on fighting the euphoria it caused, as though we don’t know it will wear off soon enough by itself. Why don’t we just give our leaders and ourselves the chance to try to shrug those load off our shoulders, as Atlas did or should, before we are once more weakened by mounting frustrations?
One load on our shoulders which should be addressed immediately is the issue of cha-cha. I hope Manolo opens up a new blog exclusively on the how the porposed amendments should be made.
Curiously, no mention is made of a con-ass in the 1987 Constitution. How did it appear as an option in his survey questionaire? Is Manolo trying to do a lackey nine, i. e., amending the Charter all by himself?
Here is another difference between GMA and Noynoy.
————-
LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE — message of __fill__in–the–blanks_____.
——
On the 4th day, Aquino takes day off
By TJ Burgonio Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:36:00 07/04/2010
AFTER ONLY THREE DAYS IN MALACANANG, President Aquino, who declared that he would be a servant to all Filipinos, decided to take a breather Saturday.
“Kayo ang boss ko (You’re the boss,)” he said in his inaugural speech. But on his fourth day in office, Mr. Aquino did not have any scheduled official function or appointment in Malacañang or elsewhere. Otherwise, the press would have been advised about it. 😕
Even presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda couldn’t say if Mr. Aquino had taken the day off. And if he had, Lacierda said he had no idea know where the President would spend it. “I don’t know his schedule for the weekend so I cannot make any conclusions,” the presidential spokesperson said in a text message. Lacierda himself had taken the day off and was out of town.
disappointed ako sa buong cabinet ni Aquino! si de Lima lang ang natatanging ilaw sa lahat. si Robredo na syang inaasahan kong magbibigay ng kaunting pag-asa sa cabinet nya, hinold-over pa! dinadaga pa yata ng iba. gumising ka naman Noy2! di lahat ng nakapalibot sayo kaibigan mo. at di lahat ng naging tapat sa LP o naging bokal na oposisyon kay Gloria e makabubuti sa bayan bilang Cabinet member. sapat na kwalipikasyon na ba ang maging member ng Hyatt 10 o ng B&W para i-appoint mo sila? oo na, i realize of utmost important sa cabinet members na dapat ay mapagkatiwalaan mo sila, pero sus ginoo naman. a bit of competency naman sana! ang ibang appointees na inappoint, directly opposed or pushing agendas na makasasama pa sa mga departamento nila. si Luistro lang, clear conflict of interest na kaagad. nagbitiw na ba sya as president of La Salle? si Romulo na tumulong pang i hand over si Smith sa US embassy, na-retain. si Paje, mining advocate, nilagay sa DENR. amp! kagaguhan. si Purisima, mejo understandable para lng wag masyado ma disjoint ang financial stability ng bansa, pero dapat pa rin palitan. ay ewan! akala ko ba pagbabago, pero same old tired faces.
Same old tired faces, and the same old tired backers. Rene Almendras sa Dept. of Energy – bata ng mga Ayala at ng mga Aboitiz. Was last President of Manila Water ng mga Ayala and formerly Treasurer of Aboitiz Equity Ventures. Aboitiz have been in the energy business for decades. Ayalas have formed ventures to enter the highly lucrative energy business as well. It’s like the fox watching over the chicken coop!
And what about Rogelio Singson at DPWH? Tao ni Manny Pangilinan ito. Was last in Pangilinan and Consunji-owned Maynilad Water as president. Aren’t Consunji and Pangilinan in the construction business. Isn’t Pangilinan involved in the expressways and tollways business? More foxes to watch the chicken coops.
nakalimutan ko. meron rin naman palang ok sa cabinet nya aside from de Lima. si Lacierda, ok. maganda un unang press con nya. he was tested under fire but he came out ok. kahit tarantado un press corp na gustong ipagduldulan na “palpak” daw un memo circ 1. ano ba yan. a reporter trying to put words into the mouth of his subject. kahiya brad sa station/newspaper na pinanggalingan mo. you’re there to be a journalist, not to be adversarial or be friendly. unbiased, remember? wag ka naman pahalata kung san ka. akala siguro ng ibang reporters e porke’t mabait at very accomodating si Noy2 sa press eh pwede na nilang bastusin at di igalang sa pagtanong-tanong nila. mga walang modo kung makatanong eh. akala mo di nag aral ng good manners. animo’y parang mga presong nakawala (well, considering how they were treated under GMA, i can understand a bit)
Noynoy administration should manage the news that gets printed about the president, the Cabinet secretaries and undersecretaries, etcetera. Noynoy should insist that the news has to be reviewed first to prevent cases where the reporter or editor puts unacceptable slant to their articles.
Manage news? What a brilliant idea! Rose colored eyeglasses for everybody. Baka i-adopt ito ni Noynoy para anuman ang gawin niya magiging maganda sa tingin ng mga tao.
Try managing these: Hell! Hell! The oligarchs are here. Weren’t they the big contributors to the campaign? Noynoy of course, will not forget the piso-piso contributors. In fact they already got their barya’s worth – at the Quezon Memorial Park.
Bigay bawi si Lacierda sa G01. Sign of incompetence. Kung hindi naman gaanong kasamaan, sana itinuloy na lang. Amending it later wouldn’t be anything like a cha-cha. About his snub of the press. It’s something learned at kinder. Cowboy and indian games, you know.
Pnoy got praises for apologizing for the 2 stoogies. I’m afraid they’ll be encouraged to give us more of the same. As though they need any encouragement! But what about his own part of the trilogy?
The framers of the law wisely gave exemptions to the law on Wangwang. Unfortunately, he is foolish enough not to accept it. He is showing disrecpect for a law and is being praised for it. Quo Vadis Philippines? The usual route of course.
Heheh, negative-minded commenters in mlq3’s blog…hoping for the worse for their own country. Interesting…very interesting.
In defense of us hopers for disasters.
I resent this attitude that just because some here have premonition of the economic and political stagnation forthcoming makes them somehow hope for it.
If in 2001 someone forwarned that GMA will be the ultimate trapo, sure people would’ve called the person a hoper for disaster.
Might have been difficult to foresee GMA as a trapo then, but with Noynoy, all signs point to a would be inept president.
I, we, hopers for disaster, have given evidence why Noynoy will be an inept president.
It’s not hoping for disaster. It’s realists calling out irrationally exuberant voters ushering into victory a mediocre leader.
Maybe the optimists among you can give evidence to us negative commenters and hopers for disaster why Noynoy would be such a fucking great president? Would love to hear it.
Coz all I here from the kumbaya-sentimental-yellow-people-power-fever-crowd is that Noynoy will be the hope for the future, wWithout actually giving evidence why this would be.
At ellen’s blog, even the most cynical of the commenters there, and we know those guys to be the most ascerbic of commenters in Philippine blogs, have the decency to at least cross their fingers for the moment to hope for positive results first, giving the new president the benefit of doubts inspite some very conspicuous birth pains displayed by some amateur and new cabinet members before firing their volleys.
In America, the American bloggers and commenters waited over one and a half years observing Obama’s bloopers unfolding before their very eyes before frying him in their blogs.
In mlq3’s blog, the doom-sayers and the prophets are up a wee bit too early.
It would have been very welcome if Noynoy’s inauguration speech mentioned a science/engineering project. The Science area — hydraulics cum civil engineering. The twist — how to do a complex civil engineering project with thousands of manual laborers (in the category of “Cory Aquino” emergency employment program to create jobs).
The Project — the Paranaque flood spillway, the very one which, because previous administrations decided to exclude it to cut down on construction costs, resulted in additional hundreds of deaths from Ondoy floods. And yes, “no wangWang” when the construction trucks go attend to the project.
Obama’s critics were all over him from day one. Heck, even before Obama was elected, he was already branded as the “kumbaya, feel good candidate”. By those in his own Democratic Party! And, it turns out, not without reason. Instead of bringing Americans together, Obama has been the most polarizing American President in modern times.
Now we have brown brothers urging their fellow Filipinos to do the kumbaya, feel-good thing about Noynoy. How unoriginal! And stupid! Noynoy shouldn’t be afraid of criticism, unless he has something to hide. 🙂
SoP,
If you yourself showed any evidence that you have any competence at all even to run a sari sari store, we’d take you seriously, but so far you only showed competence in making an a hole of yourself…
Criticism is not at all bad…but imagine criticizing your spouse everyday…
…thats SoP, probably some unhappy old coot or a dried up hag…as for us, we know how to enjoy life…well, we can afford anyway… 🙂
SoP’s sounds like the type of person who gets fired all the time as he/she has this “bad mouth the boss” syndrome…might be that a sari sari store is the only place for him/her…or a barbershop
…and why compare with Obama? Obama is a pansy, like all most americans are, and that goes to people who go there and offer their behinds…
After Lacierda and Luistro got into heated arguments with media, they are now being urged by Noynoy to attend seminars. In anger management? Luistro apparently lost his cool when questioned about sex education.
And the head of PSG is advising Noynoy that his self-imposed ‘wang wang’ ban won’t hold up in the face of security threats. Ang babaw kasi ng mga “pronouncements” ng bagong administrasyon. There are so many big fishes to fry. So many more relevant problems to solve. ‘Wang wang’ lang ang sagot.
In the meantime, in an attempt to preempt tax increases, the BIR threatens to conduct a witch-hunt. The middle class will bear the brunt of this assault, which will surely hasten its disaffection with the new administration.
As for comparisons with Obama, I agree. Noynoy cannot compare with the personality, the depth and the intelligence of Obama. The problem is that Noynoy’s handlers are trying to make overreaching comparisons with Obama. Even copying Obama’s campaign strategies and comparing Noynoy critics to Obama critics. Eh, kung ganun, poor version ni Obama si Noynoy. 🙂
I was mouthing Nick’s line until those stoogies came up with their unfunny antics. Now those harsh words I said of SoP seem unjustified. Suddenly I remembered what Christ taught us. Love your enemies, they tell you your faults. Although I guess we need to be more specicic.
The other stoogies I failed to mention is the arrogant and insensitive Secretary of Education. It’s not so much his rashness that peeved me but his apparent low regard for media.
I wonder what a seminar on dealing with media will teach that hasn’t been taught at kinder. Other than GMRC, what else would media expect of a government official? Anybody who hasn’t learn these lessons early enough has no business to be in government, much less a cabinet rank. In fact he has no business at all for being.
Pnoy should be sensible enough to understand the rationale behind the exemptions on Wangwang. At least Cory was quick enough to realize said folly. However, I think he does not mean to be disrespectful of the law. He just doesn’t know what he is doing.
It now appears that the original GO1 was correct and sensible. After what Lacierda called fine tuning, it was so mangled that hell broke lose. It unjustly rewarded the kapit-tuko, and laughingstock of those who did their jobs well and were able to go home without a hitch as ordered.
Wait till Juana Change hear of this. Remember that he has that stinging episode on how those guilty of heinous crimes were released while the whistle blowers etc. were imprisoned instead?
Some say, give them a chance. Why, of course. They have all of six years to make monkeys out of themselves. And there’s nothing we can do about it.
“As for comparisons with Obama, I agree. Noynoy cannot compare with the personality, the depth and the intelligence of Obama. The problem is that Noynoy’s handlers are trying to make overreaching comparisons with Obama. Even copying Obama’s campaign strategies and comparing Noynoy critics to Obama critics. Eh, kung ganun, poor version ni Obama si Noynoy.”-Carl Cid Inting
Disagree. Carl, you should try reading more of American blogs and see how the vast majority of Americans now hate their president. I’m sure they’ll disagree with you too. I can almost feel some anachronism here with Carl praising a foreign president hated by his people while criticizing his own president who is love by the people. There is no sense in comparing and equating Noynoy to an unpopular president if the purpose is to make him look good.
God enough with this wangwang issue. There are bigger and more important issues we could discuss. Take heed from Chomsky:
“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum – even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.”
-Noam Chomsky
Here’s my simple critique of Noynoy I would like you people to debunk:
– the era of easy money is over and austerity will be the new reality
– tight money markets will make borrowing more expensive for the Philippine government for the duration of Noynoy’s admin
– our debt servicing and deficits were covered by GMA with more debts and aggressive collection
– Noynoy won’t have that benefit of borrowing money from international markets cheaply
– there’s a limit to what BIR can aggressively collect given their corruption
– there’s a limit to what BIR can tax given Noynoy promised no new taxes
– DOJ, Ombudsman, and Sandiganbayan don’t have the resources and personnel to watch over BIR
– DOJ, Ombudsman, and Sandiganbayan are dependent on BIR to increase their budgets
– without increased budgets, DOJ, Ombudsman, and Sandiganbayan can’t hire more personnel
– the debate of whether the NEW agency heads and secretaries will be effective is part on Chomsky’s “limited spectrum of debate”. whether the DOJ, Ombudsman, and Sandiganbayan can structurally be changed is more important, but less debated.
– Noynoy promised kung walang kurap, walang mahirap
– there’s no evidence of Noynoy being able to decrease corruption in the forseeable future.
To be clear, it’s Noynoy’s handlers who have mimicked Obama’s campaign and tried to raise parallels between the two. They even tried to imitate all that “change we can believe in” gobbledygook. So it’s only fair to raise the issue that Noynoy is a very poor copy of Obama. It’s not comparing the Philippine president with that of another country. It’s ridiculing the attempts by Noynoy’s people to copy Obama.
It’s equally pathetic to portray Noynoy critics as unpatriotic or as nay-sayers. That’s what Obama has said about his critics, calling Republicans the party of “No”. It’s not only narrow-minded and silly, it’s downright unoriginal.
Another indication of how uncreative this administration can be, they are parroting the now-fashionable agenda of austerity. Just because everyone seems to be doing it, doesn’t mean it’s a step in the right direction. As Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman recently warned:
“We are now, I fear, in the early stages of a third depression. It will probably look more like the Long Depression than the much more severe Great Depression. But the cost — to the world economy and, above all, to the millions of lives blighted by the absence of jobs — will nonetheless be immense.
And this third depression will be primarily a failure of policy. Around the world — most recently at last weekend’s deeply discouraging G-20 meeting — governments are obsessing about inflation when the real threat is deflation, preaching the need for belt-tightening when the real problem is inadequate spending.
In the face of this grim picture, you might have expected policy makers to realize that they haven’t yet done enough to promote recovery. But no: over the last few months there has been a stunning resurgence of hard-money and balanced-budget orthodoxy.”
This orthodoxy, Krugman adds, “has little to do with rational analysis, whose main tenet is that imposing suffering on other people is how you show leadership in tough times”.
In conclusion, Krugman issues this prediction:
“And who will pay the price for this triumph of orthodoxy? The answer is, tens of millions of unemployed workers, many of whom will go jobless for years, and some of whom will never work again.”
There may be an unintentional benefit to Noynoy and Co. imitating the austerity mantra.
In western economies, the balanced-budget orthodoxy may negatively affect aggregate demand, which needs to be propped up to stabilize growth.
In our country, there’s little sense in running deficits as most of our spending goes to debt repayments or are lost to corruption. Deficits and debt repayments don’t create aggregate demand, and so don’t create jobs.
The driver for job creation in our country remains to be foreign investments and overseas jobs.
Our present and potential OFWs will be hit hard with the impending depression (predicted to be next month) true, but I don’t see much fault in balancing our budget and reforming our politics to attract foreign investments.
Although I have to say, corruption has its way of propping of aggregate demand is some ways.
Those politicos, contractors, and bureaucrats getting slipped those envelopes full of cash do spend that money in our economy.
But it will bite us in the ass years down the line when our deficit will be too much to service.
I prefer that the budget be balanced, corruption be decreased, and social welfare be expanded in lieu of propping up aggregate demand by corruption.
But as I ranted, there’s no evidence of Noynoy doing structural changes to our institutions to decrease corruption.
SoP, the point in Wangwang is this: If the penoy people can’t understand a simple law… if they still have to undergo lessons on GMRC… if they can be pressured by cling-ons to revise a sensible Order, how may they be expected to logically address more complex matters such as the ones you presented?
nick, consider the early post election scenarios of both settings. Would you still say that Pnoy is more popular than Obama? Imagine a view a year from now, do you think you could still say with certainty that Obama is more hated than Pnoy?
Before you answer, please consider this: Obama carved a name for himself practically out of nothing. Pnoy simply rode on the popularity of ma and pa from day one of his political career. Consider also that both are heirs to a mountan of debt and are faced with spectre of failed expectations.
We have a saying in Tagalog: Ang bungbong ay makikita sa labong. If at the first candling you see a penoy, you could already be sure that the egg won’t hatch.
taxj,
You’re playing speculation here. My crystal ball is not up to it’s usual lumens now so can’t answer your questions with certainty as to what’s going to happen a year from now, post election scenarios, Noynoy’s parents, debt and failed expectations, etc. notwithstanding. Can’t believe Obama ever carved a name for himself in winning the election basing from his past political history/records, it was primarily the color of his skin it seemed to me. Your analogy of the egg can be applied only as far as Noynoy’s top is concern and nothing else, but baldness has nothing to do with good/bad governance, has it? Agree with you that there’s a way of telling whether an egg will hatch or not, but what has that to do with Noynoy? Hindi naman siya bugok. Unless up to now you are still harping on the veracity of that bogus Ateneo psychiatric report. Are you?
Oooops, apparently my enthusiasm for Paranaque Spillway Project is misguided. The project will save lives, but the Manila Tribune has warned that the Noynoy administration may not look kindly at the flood control project. Reason – Marcos.
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[maybe Imelda can make it one of her priority-bills for the 15th Congress.]
taxj, because resolving the “complex” problem of strengthening the Ombudsman, DOJ, and Sandiganbayan will have a flow on effect to simple problems like wangwang.
As it is, if someone complains of a simple wangwang violation, it will just be swept aside by the DOJ, Ombudsman, and Sandiganbayan because they have bigger fish to fry with their limited resources.
But if you can increase the resources of the aforementioned 3, they will have more time to go after the big and little fish.
This should be priority number 1 in my humble opinion: increase the resources and personnel of the DOJ, Ombudsman, and Sandiganbayan by ten fold and give them law powers with teeth (like abolishing bank privacy).
I’ll keep hammering it: legalize jueteng and you can use the money to increase the resources of those three by five to ten fold.
There are many simple laws that can’t implemented because of limited resources by our law enforcement and graft and corruption bodies.
It’s not a matter of the Filipino people or politicians having less logical deduction abilities. It’s limited resources and personnel.
This is a debate that I hoped would’ve been raised during the elections and would like to be discussed more. It’s so simple to me: if corruption is 100 times worse in our country than in western democracies, then we should increase the resources and personnel of the anti-corruption bodies by a hundred fold. Has any politician, pundit, blogger, anybody ever thought of this?
Quite comprehensive!
As usual, that is….
Salamat po for allowing me to understand better what I was not aware of
in the first place. The intricacies and all those ceremonies and meanings
behind each step.
I hope and pray that as simple as P Noy may seem, he surely connects
with the sentiments of the Common Tao…which is the prime duty of
a public official.
Twas a good read and Cheers!
“It’s so simple to me: if corruption is 100 times worse in our country than in western democracies, then we should increase the resources and personnel of the anti-corruption bodies by a hundred fold. Has any politician, pundit, blogger, anybody ever thought of this?”-SoP
Agree with that. Still, with a corrupt and ineffective president, and you increase the resources and personnel of the anti-corruption bodies by a hundred fold, you increase corruption by a hundred fold, that’s for sure. That’s why it’s important that Noynoy must stay clean up to the end of his term and should deliver on his promise to stamp out graft and corruption in the government by choosing the right people in the bureaucracy to help him with this herculean task. I am hoping he succeed that’s why I am not thumbing him down.
Nick, I may have to agree with thecusponline’s mantra that pervasive corruption is worse than high level corruption.
Meaning, it’s better to have little or no corruption among local leaders (mayors, governors) and bureaucrats and have a corrupt Noynoy than the other way around.
This is so because foreign investors prefer the former.
Also, the president is beyond the reach of Ombudsman, DOJ, and Sandiganbayan anyway while in office.
So it doesn’t really matter to me if Noynoy will be corrupt or not. I just want him to multiply the resources of the DOJ, Ombudsman, and Sandiganbayan to decrease pervasive, low-level, institutional and bureaucratic corruption.
But of course, if we can have both that would be best.
It will be better for the Philippines if Filipinos will give Noynoy a break until the midterm elections in 2013. Trying to look for flaws now in the new administration or indulging in speculations is counter productive.