Tag Archives: noynoy

More Pork, Doleouts, Bonuses in 2013 Budget

By admin | July 10, 2012

Initial review of the 2013 budget based on the DBM presentation The Noynoy Aquino government is calling the P2.006 trillion proposed budget an ‘empowerment budget’ that will benefit the people, especially the poor. But since the budget (based on the Department of Budget and Management presentation) is loaded with more pork, doleouts, and fat bonuses, […]

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Dead End and Deadened

By admin | July 5, 2012

The obligatory canned applause to celebrate President Noynoy Aquino’s second year in office will be delivered by the crazed Yellow Gang. They are expected to highlight the visible and quantifiable – though empty and boring – so-called achievements of the government like credit rating, GDP, and investor confidence. The hypnotized herd will probably echo Pnoy’s […]

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K-12: Education reform for whom?

By admin | June 13, 2012

Part 1: Politics of education reforms Everybody agrees that big reforms are necessary to reverse the decline of Philippine education. This consensus, however, was hijacked by the government to force the implementation of the so-called K-12 program despite the absence of an authoritative study that it will raise the quality of learning in the country. […]

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Luisita Avengers

By admin | April 28, 2012

There are no heroes, only farmers, in the epic struggle for land reform in the Cojuangco-owned estate in Tarlac. For half a century, they waged a just war against a popular and powerful political clan. During that long interval, their haciendero masters became overlords of the archipelago – two became president and one was martyred […]

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Perverse Transparency

By admin | March 22, 2012

Promoting transparency is the preferred technique of politicians and their apologists today. If an official wants to be politically-correct, he must be optically-correct as well. Behold the rise of politico-techies! Before, a politician must learn how to hold a smiling baby while posing before the cameras. Today, he must instantly tweet the incident. Governance requires […]

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The Left as Alternative

By admin | February 17, 2012

First part: Philippine Politics 1969-2009 If power grab is the yardstick of political victory, then it must be concluded that the Philippine Left had failed in the past century. But it wasn’t a complete failure since it was able to achieve varying degrees of hegemony in the country especially in the peripheries of the archipelago. […]

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Youth, Good Governance, Human Development

By admin | January 15, 2012

Speech during the National Congress on Good Governance, UP NCPAG, January 15, 2012. The keywords of my presentation are youth, good governance, and sustainable human development. The thesis is easy to formulate: The youth have a significant role to perform in promoting good governance in the country to achieve sustainable human development. But how do […]

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Political Morality

By admin | January 12, 2012

What’s the proper reaction if confronted with the odious task of manipulating public resources for personal gain? The honorable thing is to immediately reject it and bravely face the consequences. But others condone corruption while some even try to justify it. Then there are bureaucrats like Romulo Neri who simply prefer to ‘moderate the greed’ […]

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Aquino’s Human Rights Problem

By admin | December 23, 2011

Please visit the special page I created about Philippine Airport Terminals. I also edited my profile page The Philippines is often recognized by global institutions for its strong commitment to human rights. Indeed, compared with other countries in the region, where government critics are given insanely long prison sentences and media reports are heavily censored […]

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Geopolitical Mathematics of Cash Transfers

By admin | December 5, 2011

Part 1: My critique of President Noynoy Aquino’s Pantawid Pamilya Program The Department of Social Welfare and Development has been bombarding us with statistical reports on the Conditional Cash Transfer program. It’s either they are obsessively transparent or they are merely trying to convince skeptics that the program’s mega funding is justified. The Liberal diehards […]

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