Corona Impeachment: Now it can be told…

And so we have had our close to two month’s dose of property and asset legalese also known as the Corona impeachment. A conviction is in order. But after that decision, we will look into the hang ups of the elected officials in the prosecution. Don’t worry, its decision time for the Senate sitting as an impeachment court. Juicy-ness again from the indolent congressional observer after judgment!

Congresswoman Abad: Pag oil prices ang usapin, Trabahong Tamad?

Is Congresswoman Henedina Abad naive or just plain unaffected by every spike in prices of gasoline, diesel, LPG and other oil products?

This is very disturbing about the House of Representatives of the 15th Congress when it comes to burning people’s gut issues of the day.

Congress has answered the people’s cries for relief from oil price hikes with inaction. Legislative inaction.

It comes as a real bummer when the Congressional Committee concerned with the oil industry and oil prices has yet to call for hearings on measures that aim to reform the oil industry and put oil prices in check when the country is bludgeoned almost every week by price hikes.

Abad is the Chairperson of the House Committee on Energy that has 65 Members.

Early in 2011, Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño, Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano, Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez , Abante-Mindanao Rep. Maximo Rodriguez Jr., Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo, Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez, San Juan City Rep. Jose Victor Ejercito, Antipolo City Rep. Romeo Acop and Agham Partylist Rep. Angelo Palomones have filed bills to repeal or amend the oil deregulation law.

The Energy Committee has yet to hear any of these bills.

Quite mind-boggling as Rep. Abad is number 1 in the current roster of House Members, number 1 among Liberal Party women legislators, number 1 in pork barrel releases and number 1 in the energy committee as chair.

At this point, it can be said that Cong. Abad is trabahong tamad. #

Benhur Abalos and who?

Benjamin D.C. Abalos, Jr. Current Mayor of Mandaluyong City and former Congressman (2004–2007) of the city’s lone legislative district is in hot water.

Yes he is the son of ex-Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr., who is detained at the Southern Police District (SPD) headquarters on charges of election sabotage.

Yes he is married to Ms. Carmelita Aguilar and yes they have 6 children.

But the world went agog with this pic that went viral on the net:

Yes that’s Mayor Benhur Abalos alright.

But no. That isn’t Mandaluyong City first lady Carmelita Aguilar.

According to various posts on the internet universe, that is allegedly Jeanerica Eddun Bagang, the winner of Miss Mandaluyong 2008 and former aspirant from Star Struck Batch 4 of GMA-7.

Haaaay.

Ex. Cong. Benhur is hot, este, in more hot water. #

Philippine Foreign Relations: Lost in confusion?

“A tired formula tells us that foreign policy is an extension of domestic policy.  In the Philippines, the reverse is more realistic.  On critical and vital issues, foreign policy becomes an import, an extension of policy crafted by the decision-makers of a foreign power.  And thus foreign policy is so called because it is foreign to the interest of our national community.”  – Prof. Merlin M. Magallona

 

Current Philippine foreign policy is at the very least, a historically confused one based on the posturings of the current political leadership in the complex matrix of domestic, regional and global concerns that put the Filipino people and nation at great risk on the medium and long term.

 

For the ordinary Filipino, the 1987 Constitution explicitly states in Article II Section 7 that “the State shall pursue an independent foreign policy. In its relations with other states, the paramount consideration shall be national sovereignty, territorial integrity, national interest, and the right to self-determination.”

 

But historically, our country’s foreign policy has been hinged on the interests of a foreign power that is inimical to our nation’s pride and our dignity as a people.

 

It is common to see the Philippine government to come up with decisions that taint Filipino international relations due, to put it simply, to the ties that bind the Republic of the Philippines to the United States government and its own foreign policy.

 

Who can deny the fact that the Philippine government always elected to participate in wars waged by the United States government on other countries and territories of which we as a people were not stakeholders in the first place?

 

The list includes the US wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wherein Filipinos from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) became direct or indirect participants in the conflicts under the varying interpretations of the Cold War relic US-RP Mutual Defense Treaty of 1951 and the US-RP Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

 

Our country Philippines is currently addressing diplomatic and political tiffs with various claimants in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) that include the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of China (Taiwan), Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei Darussalam.

 

But the current administration’s foreign policy bent in the dispute has been decried by some lawmakers as “mendicant” if not particularly stupid in sending mixed signals to the our own people and the international community.

 

Bayan Muna Representative Teddy Casiño has decried the “mendicant” foreign policy of the Aquino administration and insisted that the Philippines should maintain a foreign policy independent of American or Chinese interests.

 

Indeed, while China’s intrusions in our national territory should be condemned to the high heavens, the Philippine government’s tact of seeking help from the United States in the dispute will make our country a weak pushover for China or a continuing foothold of US government interests in the Southeast Asian region.

Patriotically speaking, our government must in fact stand up to China’s bullying and not invite another bully in the United States into the regional dispute. The US is in fact not a stakeholder in the West Philippine Sea territorial tiff for the simple reason that it is a geographical outsider.

 

Our past colonial and current mendicant relations with the US government has in fact not engendered a modern, well equipped AFP. Sadly, we are among the world’s weakest nations in the military field – not capable of defending our airspace, sea lanes and coastlines.

 

We have to be frank on this. Good relations with the US government has given us a slow and ill-equipped navy and coast guard, an air force of flying coffins and an army that has equipment and logistics far behind from our Asian neighbors.

 

Another case in point of our confused foreign policy is how the foreign service attends to the estimated 10 million overseas Filipinos working or residing abroad – documented or otherwise.

Many cases of abused Filipino women and men working in the factories and homes of various climes and nations outside of their own are unreported, unattended to and, if given assistance, is either too little or too late.

 

How can we justify the thousands of Filipino compatriots who come home in boxes – some in very small boxes – every year? Since the Department of Foreign Affairs has time and again asserted that the third pillar of our foreign policy is the “protection of the rights and promotion of the welfare and interest of Filipinos overseas,”

 

Why cannot we play diplomatic hardball with countries that have a continuing history of maltreatment, mistreatment and abuse versus our Filipino brothers and sisters who were forced to find greener pastures away from the homeland?

 

Protection of our own citizens over trade, cultural and economic relations must become the paramount concern of the foreign service.

 

Philippine foreign policy is not evolving fast enough to address varying and changing patterns of migration that has left our country without the best and brightest Filipino minds and the highly-skilled and resilient workforce to economies that are more advanced than ours.

 

We have being giving so little to our overseas Filipinos in foreign policy and government action while they have been giving back to the country for so much – by keeping our economy afloat with the endless stream of dollar remittances sent back to the country.

 

We are quick to establish diplomatic relations with every fellow democratic country we can find on the globe, but are quite sluggish to extend consular services to our compatriots who need them. In fact, the current administration even wants to close some of our posts abroad “to save between P100 million to P150 million from the closure of the 12 diplomatic posts.”

 

This makes me wonder if they even consulted overseas Filipino communities in Palau, Barcelona and other places that stand to lose consular services and protection with the planned closure of the 12 posts in two years.

 

Do we have an independent foreign policy? I believe not. We have a confused policy that is mis-directed by short-sighted political expediency and the changing whim of foreign powers.

Even Congress doesn’t seem to know. #

 

Sources:

 

1987 Philippine Constitution http://www.chanrobles.com/philsupremelaw2.html

 

Magallona, Merlin M. Reflections on Philippine Foreign Policy. IN: The UP Forum Volume 8,  Number 1    January-February 2007.

 

Casiño decries government’s ‘mendicant’ foreign policy. February 1, 2012 News Report.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/bacolod/local-news/2012/02/01/casino-decries-government-s-mendicant-foreign-policy-203696

 

Philippine Foreign Policy. 11 August 2009. http://dfa.gov.ph/main/index.php/about-the-dfa/philippine-foreign-policy

 

DFA to shut down 12 foreign posts. October 5th, 2011

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/14473/dfa-to-shut-down-12-foreign-posts

Mike and Gloria Should say Sorry to Iggy

Negros Occidental  Rep. Iggy Arroyo died this morning due to cardiac arrest. He was in London getting treatment for a liver ailment.

Arroyo was 60 when he passed on. He went to London last year to seek treatment for a liver ailment and was listed as one of the lawmakers with the most number of absences in the House of Representatives for 2011.

Iggy Arroyo figured in the news in 2003 after he claimed ownership of the multimillion-peso “Jose Pidal” account, allegedly owned by his brother, then First Gentleman Mike Arroyo.

He again covered up for his brother after he claimed that he leased 5 helicopters from Lionair Inc. since 2004. Two of the choppers were allegedly sold to the Philippine National Police for $700,000 in 2009.

This just in: Mike says that Iggy is “clinically dead but is still on life support.”

Duh.

Mike and Gloria Arroyo must say sorry to Iggy. He covered up for them big-time.

Iggy can find solace in the after life. Mike and Gloria should face the music in this life.  #