If the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) had plotted it, it couldn’t have done a better job. By the time Team PNoy held its last rally in Amoranto Stadium last Friday, it was showing the cracks. Two of the senatorial candidates were frosty to each other. Or at least one was to the other, who was Loren Legarda toward Alan Peter Cayetano. Noticeably—all the reports noticed it—she refused to buss him in the cheek.
“People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war—or before an election.” Otto von Bismarck’s adage unreels with a vengeance in the homestretch of the May 13 elections.
When I put up the group Stop Corruption Philippines on Facebook, I was sick and tired of the corruption going on in the country. I invited friends from the media, local and national politics, and the police, as well as doctors, nurses, fashion designers, businessmen, students, immigrants, overseas Filipino workers, retirees, and foreigners who love our country and have decided to live here for good. I knew they shared the frustration and the intense desire to combat the social malady that has been afflicting our country for so many years.
Last Feb. 21, I was fetched by my daughter at Naia Terminal 3. While driving toward Villamor, we were flagged down by a green-uniformed traffice enforcer who claimed that my daughter made a traffic violation for taking the left lane. She explained to the traffic officer that she did not see any sign to that effect.
President Aquino’s decision to adopt the findings of a special inquiry by the National Bureau of Investigation into the Jan. 6 killing of 13 men in Atimonan, Quezon, should make a dent on the culture of impunity that has been fostered by the wider culture of violence and human rights abuse in the country. Agreeing with the report that the deaths were a result of summary execution and not a shootout, the President ordered the filing of multiple-murder charges against the police and military personnel involved.
Another election is upon us and politicians are again courting the people’s votes. Like in past elections, lots of promises are being made only to be broken. Yet, people continue to vote them into office. And, sad to say, corruption in government is so commonplace—a tragic social landscape for the bigger of the only two Christian nations in Southeast Asia. A nationwide moral force movement is needed to address this national bane which has undermined our stability and prevented our socioeconomic development.
On Aug. 22, 1885, Fr. Casimiro Lafuente, parish priest of Santa Barbara, wrote a letter of complaint to the alcalde mayor of Pangasinan regarding the abuses connected with fees and fines on horses and horse-powered (horse-pulled?) vehicles. This was a century before we had cars, expressways, skyways, tollways, and a “rush hour” that actually moves very slowly. The first automobiles were brought to the Philippines in 1901 by the Americans; thus, in those days when Filipinos compared notes regarding “horsepower,” they were doing so literally. In our time, horsepower is related to air-conditioners!
When the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution removed a dictator, it was not only the physical Ferdinand Marcos that Filipinos sought to get rid of, it was also what he represented. Much has been said of his brilliance as a lawyer, his journey to political greatness, his brand of leadership. Yet, great power in the [...]
Let me take last week’s column a bit further. We have a President who is changing society, or trying to. Political games he plays (successfully, I might add), but a trapo he is not. His “daang matuwid” has resonated in the public arena, and his honest lifestyle is setting an example for many to follow. Attacking corruption at the top is working, but it now has to be expanded. We all know who the corrupt are, so the President now has to widen his net and take them down, too.
The bishops finally came out against political dynasties. About time, or is it too late? So many members of political dynasties are running in the senatorial and local elections in May in spite of a constitutional ban on them. In fact, they have been encouraged by the silence of our alleged leaders against them. How [...]
In a reversal that astounds, the Philippines has been the focus of positive and exciting news. It used to be that the most prevalent of commentaries heaped on both Filipinos and the Philippines centered on two societal cancers – corruption and poverty. Then, stemming from that corruption and poverty would flow a myriad of horror [...]
Columnist Conrado de Quiros rebukes Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile for distributing P1.6 million in “bonus to his favorite senators and only P250,000 to his not-very-favorite ones” and calls it a form of corruption (“Corruption, too,” Inquirer, 1/15/13).
