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Oplan August Moon still on EDITORIAL Click to enlarge 11/16/2009

Monday, November 16, 2009


Oplan August Moon still on


EDITORIAL

Click to enlarge
11/16/2009

National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales was a natural choice for Gloria as a replacement for Gilberto Teodoro as defense secretary — but only if she has something up her sleeve prior to the elections next year...perhaps, even after poll day, should a failure of elections .... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

ALTERNATE URL: http://www.classicposters.com/commentary/20091116com1.html



What’s up, Norbert? FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 11/16/2009


What’s up, Norbert?



FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares
11/16/2009

While it is true that given only six more months in the Malacañang seat of power, and with presidential elections expected to bring in a brand new leadership, it is almost impossible for Gloria to attract new Cabinet members to fill in the posts vacated and to be vacated in a few weeks by her officials who will have to resign to run for an elective.... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

ALTERNATE URL: http://www.classicposters.com/commentary/20091116com2.html


Consumer expectations in 2010 ZOOMING IN Rudy Romero 11/16/2009


Consumer expectations in 2010



ZOOMING IN

Rudy Romero
11/16/2009

Economists tell us that at this stage in the Philippine economy’s development consumption accounts for two thirds of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). That being the case, any attempt to forecast the economy’s performance in 2010 must of necessity be based on a reasonably accurate reading of consumer expectations for the 12-month period that will begin .... MORE


SourceThe Daily Tribune

ALTERNATE URL: http://www.classicposters.com/commentary/20091116com3.html



Predictable moro-moro endings DIE HARD III Herman Tiu Laurel 11/16/2009


Predictable moro-moro endings


DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel
11/16/2009

Moro-moro is a unique Filipino theater genre for the show battles between Moors and Christians. It also perfectly describes the show staged last week between Gloria Arroyo and Hillary Clinton. With them, a bevy of supporting cast provided the backdrop: From the kidnap and beheading of a high school principal in Sulu, allegedly by Abu Sayyaf bandits, giving the “evil” characters, the bad guys, another opportunity to strike fear; to the kidnap of an Irish Catholic priest by unknown elements, prompting certain quarters to ask the country to pray for the “good” old clergyman — all these have culminated with the GRP-deemed “good” MILF helping secure the priest’s release in time for Clinton’s tête-à-tête with Arroyo, with news headlines ending the show with “Clinton to gov’t on MILF talks: Strike while iron is hot.”

Last Friday, we depicted this series of MILF-related incidents as a coordinated set-up for Clinton’s visit. Her real message: More “ap-peace-ment” talks that will cede the ARMM and some more, plus the entire Sulu Sea, to the MILF’s BangsaMoro Juridical Entity (BJE), as stipulated in the junked Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MoA-AD). All the headlines about Clinton wanting to discuss “Ondoy” or clean elections are simply crap. She came to demand from Gloria the signing of the MoA-AD before the latter’s term ends. This new marching order, despite the huge backlash against it from the people and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), is intended to avoid any new administration from further hemming and hawing on the issue.

Gloria then would probably use this US impatience over Mindanao as an opportunity to stage a fait accompli for an extension of her stay in exchange for getting the MoA-AD through. Question is, will the AFP, as an institution tasked with preserving the nation’s territorial integrity, which has sacrificed literally tens of thousands of lives over the decades, yield to this? Well, in the event of a confusion in the elections run by a most incompetent and mentally dishonest Comelec, Gloria and the US might just succeed.

Meanwhile, the 2010 elections and the Comelec may be described more as a zarzuela rather than a moro-moro. The comic state-of-affairs in the Automated Elections System is as predictable as most other things that happen in our “democracy.” I am not impressed with Chairman Jose Melo because, despite the PR spin, he has absolutely no record of outstanding service. He has served the corrupt judicial system with nary a squeak of protest. Ferdinand Rafanan, too, has revealed himself a dreamer for promising a heavenly perfect automated election despite critiques from intelligent and honest skeptics. The Comelec is facing a massive debacle with the automated voting machines a month behind production schedule. All these, plus the “garbage-in-garbage-out” probabilities inherent in any computerized system, prove that I just can’t have faith in the 2010 polls.

Of course, I am still campaigning for President Joseph Estrada; but it’s more of my faith in him and his vision than in the electoral and political system that prevail. If there’s any political leader who has never tolerated moro-moro or zarzuela in governance, it is Estrada. He went out to tackle real life problems as mayor of San Juan by producing real tangible results: Resettlement and housing for squatters; computerized tax collection 20 years ahead of others; and paving roads without using excessive government funds (by tapping the people’s resourcefulness). As president, he seriously tackled the issues of food security, peace-and-order, the insurgency, as well as, other problems by brooking no hypocrisy. He moved to flush jueteng into the daylight and tried to end the “sovereign guarantees” that Big Business has long used to bleed the people dry.

Erap’s struggle is an uphill fight because the US Embassy and the domestic oligarchy are opposed to his return. The three-headed ABS-CBN-Inquirer-Ayala hydra, for sure, is out to derail his determination to protect the poor and middle class from endless power, water and other utility rate increases. Erap has no love lost for these oligarchs but there is one more thing he must add to his agenda: Fighting the “oily-gopoly” by initiating the re-nationalization of Petron or, at the minimum, setting up a new national oil company to deal with oil producing countries ready to supply cheap oil. Since Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez already offered such a deal in 1999, it’s time for us to take it up seriously.

Erap must continue campaigning — for, at any moment, something other than elections could happen. The Arroyo regime is always ready for a surprise; which is why Bono Adaza last Friday hinted as much about AFP elements preparing their own. Even Tribune columnist Tony Gat wrote that he’s still waiting for a revolution. And the mood is worldwide.

The US , in the wake of Obama’s failed “change,” is rife with talk of revolution. 2012, despite the apocalyptic themes attached to it, could be a turning point for a world hungry for a new beginning. As it opens its eyes to the lies of the prevailing world order after the Wall Street Ponzi scheme collapse, 9/11 and the Iraq-Afghan War, the Obama fraud, the MoA-AD et al., the end of the current US-Western hegemony here and around the world is now at hand. And this is no moro-moro.

(Tune in to 1098AM, Sulong Pilipinismo, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.; Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 21, Talk News TV, Tuesday, 8:15 p.m. to 9 p.m. on “The Fight Against the Oily-gopoly;” also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)


SourceThe Daily Tribune
(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Herman Tiu- Laurel) 

ALTERNATE URL: http://www.classicposters.com/commentary/20091116com4.html



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