President Aquino’s Dry Humor

This photo of President Noynoy Aquino is "awful but genuine" according to Raissa Robles (raissarobles.com). Photo from Raissa Robles' blog.

I hope President Noynoy Aquino refrain from cracking his dry, boring, uninteresting jokes about beautiful women and his love life. I am not interested to know his love life; and many of us – Filipinos – don’t care about it. I would like to hear him talking about the affairs of the state than his personal affairs.

Since President Noynoy was not very visible talking about serious matters when he was in Congress when he was in the Senate, I try to understand why he loves to talk his personal affairs more than the concerns of this nation.

I can forgive the President if he sometimes sour grape the previous administration. That could be his best excuse (perhaps for doing little things) but talking much about getting stressed, about seeing beautiful women, and about not being married are almost unforgivable.

I suspect deep within him the presidency is not a serious matter.

President Aquino has appealed to us to spare his love life and yet he keeps on talking about it. I wonder why the President is acting this way. I don’t know if his reputation makers have noticed that the President appears childish when he talks about beautiful women, about his love, about not being married. If he was just kidding or just wanted to make things light, then it doesn’t make sense at all.

The President talks about his personal affairs everywhere. When he visited Singapore, I could remember a story in entertainment section that the President exchanged SMS with a beautiful reporter based in Singapore. Why media pick up this kind of stories is very obvious! And the reason I pick this up is my disappointment.

Recently in City of Naga (Cebu), the President cracked another boring line that made him land in the entertainment section of newspapers. During the inauguration of the KEPCO-SPC Cebu Power Plant he told in his speech (as quoted by Willard Cheng in ABS-CBN News):

Sa kada bisita nako dinhi sa Cebu, mas daghan gwapa, apil si Governor Gwen (Mas dumarami ang magaganda dito sa Cebu, kasama na si Governor Gwen)

The President reportedly admired a Korean media personality who hosted the event. We’ll the President almost admire any young and beautiful women he encountered.

The President is no longer 14 years old to sweetly talk in public his admiration to women. Besides, he is the President and he should show some dignity to his office by not acting like a teen who always got a crush at school campus.

He should keep his feeling to himself unless his intention as President is to meet many beautiful women and to get married – not to serve this nation. But I doubt. I think, he just enjoy talking about it as his alibi. Maybe, he knows he has no interesting accomplishment to share.

Let’s go back to Cebu incident. In the same ABS-CBN report Willard Cheng wrote: President Aquino is considering using Malacañan sa Sugbo in Cebu if only to meet a partner in life.

Was the President serious on this? Was the President just tried to make us laugh? It was not funny. It was very senseless!

I hope the President don’t talk too much the way he talk now. If he has nothing to talk then he better shut up. Being the President, he should act the way the people expect him to be. President Noynoy Aquino should act like President!

I hope his men would advise him not to ad lib his state of the nation (SONA) address with his dry, boring, uninteresting personal affairs.

The Davao Mayor, the Sheriff, and the Rule of Law

No one is above the law – not even the Davao’s mayor!  The rule of law is better than that of any individual, declared Aristotle, the teacher of Alexander the Great.

The July 1st evening news became so disturbing because of the video clips that show how Davao Mayor Sarah Duterte was beating up a sheriff who enforced a demolition order. It looked very inhuman, very demeaning. I could feel the shame.

The following day, newspapers (such as this story in Philippine Daily Inquirer) and broadcast networks carry the news with the reactions from government agencies and various groups.

Theodore Te, a law profession in the University of the Philippines (UP) as quoted in Philippine Daily Inquirer report said, what she (Duterte) did was not justifiable, not acceptable. In the same report, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Davao City told that there seem to be traces of human rights violations.

Instead of hearing apologies from the Mayor Duterte, I hear the sheriff’s apologies instead.

Now, it saddened me because many people put high regard on what the mayor did than what is right in a democratic society. Lately, some people and leaders in Davao City show support the action of their mayor in a rally.

Meanwhile, the Sheriffs Confederation of the Philippines (Scophil) condemn Duterte’s attack on a Davao sheriff.

We are now living dangerously in a society with the culture of impunity.

I am afraid what happened in Davao City will also happen in Cebu City. I am afraid that it happened in our town in Mindanao. I am afraid we will soon be ruled by men and not by law.

I am afraid that I wake up one day when everyone forgets the rule of law.

Mayor Sara Duterte should be held liable to what she did. We should not asked her to apologize now expect her and her father to think and believe the way we do but let us let them feel that we are and they are in a society ruled by law.

Night Kids in Cebu’s Fuente and Mango Avenue Aren’t Safe

For several times, Cebu Fuente Police Station has become the refuge of adults who were victims of small boys and girls.

Yes, you can be become victims of children who at night time make the vicinity of Fuente Osmena circle down to Mango Avenue (Gen. Maxilom Avenue) as their playing grounds.

These kids are not just playing but also looking for their potential victims. Most victims are foreign nationals and unaccompanied women.

Kiddy Modus in Mango

In the November 12, 2010 editorial of Freeman Cebu, the ways of these children were described.

These boys and girls, aged anywhere from seven to 10, operate by ganging up and swarming around their victims, pretending to ask for alms. They grab the victims’ arms to immobilize and stall them. Then amid all the commotion, one will pick the victims’s pockets or bags.

These children should not be underestimated. They are as dangerous as the jeepney pickpocketers and main street holdupper in Cebu.

The same editorial described how these children counter attack!

In the few occasions that victims did try to grab or hit the kids, they would find themselves in far worse trouble because the kids would then launch a counterattack by stoning the victims with whatever stone or projectile they can lay their hands on.

Lately, we got a relief because news stories would say that victims got back their stolen wallet. Apparently, our Police know so well where to find these children once a victim reported.

Of course, because they are children, no case were filed. The next evening, these children would attack again.

In a society where we are very protective to our children, let us also give attention this uniquely Cebu kiddy modus. Even adults need protection.

Rep. Ronald Singson: Just a Drug User, Not Drug Trafficker

It seems that Gov. Luis “Chavit” Singson was the last person to know that his son, Rep. Ronald Singson, was using drugs. Or, like many other fathers, Chavit was in denial stage?

No matter what, a father always finds ways to defend his erring son. As the move in Congress to take disciplinary action to Rep. Singson was progressing, Gov. Singson immediately came out and told the nation: My son is not a drug user!

Recently, as Singson family desperately finds ways to get out from the drug mess in HongKong, Ronald Singson admits that he is using drugs.

Just a user, not a trafficker

Now, the wind has changed direction! Gov. Singson seems buying out the assumption that a cocaine user is less evil that a cocaine courier (or trafficker). And of course with the hope that the will be able to convince the Hongkong authorities that the drugs possessed by the Filipino congressman was for personal consumption and not for sale!

Now, the problem of Gov. Singson is how to convince HK court that son is a drug user.

High Profile Drug Users

The Philippines once again get a dose of high profile drug abuse news.

Alabang Boys might not be fresh in your minds but when the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) apprehended young and affluent drug suspects, we got the impression that the moneyed are not afraid.

I concluded that time that the depth of drug problem in the country is too deep for our authorities to penetrate.

The reason is that high profile drug cases often quickly slipped through Philippine’s public eyes. Easily forgotten!

In the case of Rep. Singson, the issue is not just legal but also moral and social. Let us not take the merit of his case in Hongkong. Instead, let’s have this case as springboard for a national discussion on how big our problem in drug is.

Can you imagine how a congressman get the nerve to bring drugs outside the country? Does this imply that while in the Philippines, he might have even brought drugs inside Philippine government offices?

Now,  I believe the news about policemen caught in the act of sniffing drugs. Isn’t this already very alarming?

Politics and Drugs: The Narco-Politics

There is a clear intermarriage of politics and drugs. Narco-politics has become a big un-tackled issue in the country.

Early in 2008, I brought out how Narco-politics could be an important issue in the the 2010 Elections. I wrote, Narco-politics and the 2010 Elections which was regarded by Manuel L. Quezon III as the first to bring up the issue of Narcopolitics with regards to the 2010 polls.

Whether or not our elected or national leaders are using drugs – we don’t know. We can’t also be sure how politicians benefited with drug money in the 2010 elections.

However, from things we see – it seems clear to us. I hope we begin to see even just one side of the big problems of drugs in this country.

Just think of it. We hear news about movie personalities, policemen, politicians are into drug abuse which add to our long list (composed of students, young professionals, poor man, jobless men …)

What’s next if we continue to let this slipped through cracks?

President Noynoy’s Habitual Defense to his Officials

The President has developed the (undesirable) habit of defending his erring staff.

On his sweet and sour inaugural speech, we were reading President Noynoy as someone who would do what it takes to ferret out corruption and wrongdoings. But recently, we see him as the President who do what it takes to defend his officials who are close to his heart.

Well, he also consistently and publicly criticize those who are not member of a big domain called “kaibigan, inc.”

Recently, we hear the President once again spoiled us with his sugar-coated defense to Assistant Secretary Mai Mislang. The girl whose tweets made her appear as tactless and irresponsible government servant, was well defended by President Noynoy.

In GMANews.TV reports, the President was quoted saying:

Ipinaliwanag niya sa isang sulat at pinaalala ko lang sa kanya, well, bata si Mai baka yung akala niyang gawain na simple ay hindi niya narealize ang implications. I’m more or less convinced that she realizes what was done.

Please see: Aquino won’t fire aide […]

Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary Rico Puno is a sure President’s pet. Puno was allegedly received jueting payola, according to an expose of retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz. When alleged-jueting man of Aquino government voiced to media that he would resign, Aquino was ready to broadcast his rhetoric chant – that Puno is entitled to undergo a due process.

Upon hearing the sugar coated words of the President, the former PAG-ASA chief flashed to my mind. Was there any due process when he [Aquino] relieved Prisco Nilo?

Please note that Nilo was not a member nor follower of new “kaibigan, inc” while Puno is the President’s close friend. Their friendship was born in the firing range according to Global Balita report that also outline why the President cannot let go the name Rico Puno.

We also remember how the President find ways to defend his “kaibigan, inc.” officials on the wake of controversial hostage crisis in Manila that involved Chinese nationals. We noticed how the President standing up to defend even to his erring officials. While it is not bad for a leader to defend his officials, Noynoy Aquino must get reminded that too much of it is undesirable.

Does the President raise his officials to become spoiled brats? Or the President simply repay those people who helped him get into office? Did he forget his sweetened battlecry, “kayo ang boss ko”? The voters brought him to office, not just his friends and supporters. That’s why I want him to allow Undersecretary Rico Puno to go out from government service because that man was dragged into jueting controversy.

Now I want to believe that the President was (aware or not) got jueting money support in the last presidential elections. I hope I am wrong.