Crooks and scam artists and Ducky Paredes!
The saga continues on the issue of Koko and Migz with Ducky Paredes responding to Gil Ramos Open Letter through his article titled: The Comelec is just doing its job.
DUCKY PAREDES wrote:
I have a letter from the Movement for a Free Philippines that tells me, among other things, "as a former colleague in the Movement for a Free Philippines which fought the Marcos dictatorship I was expecting you to see the side of the Pimentels here – a family who played a significant part in that episode of our nation's history and not the side of the elitist dynasty like the Zubiris who were in bed with the Marcoses at that time."
I can only wonder if by having joined a movement, at one time in my life, I signed up for a permanent obligation to support everyone that the movement admires. Sorry. The world has changed and, anyway, as I remember, the Movement for a Free Philippines never really succeeded in bringing down Marcos or making the
As I recall, not a few of Marcos' friends and relatives did this for all of us! As for the card-carrying members of the movement, didn't several of them, after all, turn out to be crooks and scam artists? I met several of them at the time that I was in the cabinet.
Herewith is Gil Ramos response to Paredes titled; Crooks and scam artists and Ducky Paredes! You can also check out Fidel Umaga’s comment in this blog titled Cheating not Delicadeza to appreciate the ongoing discussion in hopefully helping us appreciate the underlying issues surrounding this fraudulent electoral contest.
Crooks and scam artist and Ducky Paredes!
It is unfortunate to see a respected columnist resort to ad hominem arguments just because he could not find an adequate rejoinder to the issue being discussed. What the Ducky cavalierly dismissed as 'among other things' was the meat of the issue. There is a concerted effort right now in tri-media to prepare the Filipino people to accept the emergence of a Migs Zubiri as a COMELECTED senator. and huge amounts of money are flowing freely for those who would tow a beautifully crafted story line that since Nene Pimentel is already a senator to put another senator in who is his son is just too much. Nevermind that the people knew of this father and son relationship before hand and still chose Koko over Migs. Never mind that we have two topnotchers in those doubly counted manufactured Maguindanao votes substituting Migs for Chavit Singson just to get Migs in. Never mind that the COMELEC violated its own procedures to be able to re-canvass the sole copy of the only supposedly surviving copy of the seven copy municipal ceritificates of canvass. The Ducky had no answers to all these - so he avoids them and dismiss them 'as among other things'.
Ducky's most recent column talks about elections in general as the problem. In so doing he beautifully and, to be considerate, maybe unwittingly paraphrased a woman who said earlier that we have a fractured political culture anyway where everybody cheats. So it is the system that is wrong --- so let us chacha! She said she was sorry but she really meant that she was sorry she got caught. Again the issue is CHEATING - not delicadeza or political dynasties.
As I have already stated in the first letter sent to the Ducky - political dynasties cannot be legislated out of existence. Like the economic law of supply and demand it cannot be repealed by Congress and much more so by a toothless constitutional provision against political dynasties ( anecdotically Ramon Magsaysay supposedly ordered congress to do away with the law of supply and demand so that the price of galungong remains within the reach of the poor) .
The Bush'es and the Kennedy's are political dynasties in the
The way to do away with the evil effects of political dynasties is to build strong political institutions and parties that will supply the nation with alternative leaders to choose from - who have credibility as well as the capability to win even if they are not born to dynastic privileges because strong political parties could support them. One such person who is attempting to build such party institutions is Nene Pimentel. And he was doing this even in the blighted years of martial law and he suffered greatly for it. To see Ducky foisting a cheap 'delicadeza' swindle on the valid CHEATING issues raised by Nene is quite disconcerting. And i have to remind the Ducky that while we were out safe and secure in
Ducky talks about the world having changed. And in his revisionist view of Philippine history he gives a lot of credit to the 'friends' and relatives of Marcos for the dictator’s downfall. He also derides the contribution of groups like the MFP in bringing down the dictatorship. There are many things that change in this world but there are certain things that are constant. To change your perception of events just because their true significance has become a current inconvenience is to live an existential lie. The act of using historical blinders to satisfy the exigencies of the moment has always been proven to be a bad choice.
But coming from nowhere like a 'deux ex machina' was the Ducky's revelation that in his brief stint as OIC of the malacanang press office he met several MFP people who turned out to be "crooks and scam artist". I will not deny your bragging rights as a Cabinet member and I will admit to you that MFP membership is not a guarantee of saintly behavior. Just like any slice of humanity we had all kinds. But to imply that the MFP coddles and approves of such bad eggs is again a cheap resort to ad-hominem arguments. You have to fall back on your Ateneo training for sapientia and eloquentia and I would suggest that you focus on the sapientia part. Raul Manglapus the founder of the MFP will have difficulty giving you passing marks in logic 101.
The issue as in the time of Marcos is election CHEATING. And if you could not live with that ask your friend Reli German how to deal with it since you know that this former head of ATOM is now the damage control chief of almost everything that has been perceived as damaged in our society. Look at your peers in the Press and your friends in the Public Relations Industry. I would dare say that in this imperfect world the MFP does not have a monopoly of having several potential CROOKS and SCAM ARTIST among its members.
Enjoy your day!
Gil R. Ramos Ph d
Executive Director
Movement for a Free
Let's hear it from you, speak out and say your piece here or go to Ducky's blog and give him an earful errrr your comment.
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