Pedestrian Observer GB: 2/1/13

When detractors of Benigno Aquino III started calling him names I must admit that I was irritated but as his personality unravels it appears that he is the one validating it. Perhaps it was his staff or ghost writers but then again does he not even read and see for himself if what was contained in his spit errr speech correspond to what he wants or was that exactly his stand on the issue? Does Noynoy Aquino even realize what the heck he was saying when he says this:

Let me say to Sultan Jamalul Kiram III: I have just been made aware that a letter to me, from you, was sent through OPAPP in the very first weeks of my term, when we were organizing the government. Unfortunately, this letter was lost in the bureaucratic maze. Let me make clear that there was no intention to ignore your letter. Knowing this now, will you let your mistaken belief dictate your course of action?

Really Noynoy, you have just been made aware which is what? 3 years ago give or take, and your people just told you about it just now, in the middle of a standoff crisis? Now you tell them that they are wrongheaded in pursuing a perceived wrong that you are not interested? After 3 years and you expect or forced the issue with the Sultan that you are “really interested” and have their issue at heart? Wow, don’t you think that’s kind of overbearing or is it the feudal lord mindset in you that’s talking here?

Forcing the Sultan to believe that he is interested on what appears to be his winging it stance on the issue which really borders on indifference or worse ignorance when he orders his people to study the “validity” of the claim. Now when one who claims to be interested with the problem order his people to study its validity that surely indicates one really has no clue where he stands. Perhaps we are too demanding or expect too much from the president to know all the problems the Republic faces but the Sabah issue has been with us for centuries how can he not be aware? Don’t tell me he once lived under a rock thus he is clueless. But c’mon being a trapo este a politician you would think that he should be well aware of the nation’s problems and issues. Otherwise why did he run for the presidency when that would do more harm than good, if you knew you are incompetent?

Instead of asking to study the validity and intimidating the Sultan’s followers a very simple approach could have save him from the embarrassing clueless position he has shown as Marvin Bionat pointed out in posting a link in his FB timeline regarding the option available to him:

Instead of looking at this as Philippine leverage in the Sabah dispute, President Aquino talks like he's on the side of Malaysia ... This issue should be resolved with the Tausug people leaving with some dignity (e.g., some written concessions), not simply "ordered" to go home by a president who has not shown any interest in this issue ever since he took office….

Instead of the validity study he could have reconvened the Bipartisan Executive-Legislative Advisory Council on the Sabah Issue that then President Fidel V. Ramos created in 1993 but has lain dormant since the Arroyo administration. There is no point in reinventing the wheel but ordering a validity study not only shows his disinterest but outright ignorance of the issue and options at his disposal.

How exactly does he expect the Sultan of Sulu and his followers perceived his cluelessness? As if that is not bad enough the president follows it up with a threat of persecution este prosecution daw rambling some violation of Republic acts by the Sultan’s followers only gives the impression that our very own president seems to be brokering for Malaysia or worse bending over backwards.

It was wrong for the Arroyo administration to allow Malaysia as peace broker when they were the very ones that supported and trained the Muslim insurgents and at what price? Losing our integrity and self-respect by making the Philippines to bend over backwards while giving them Sabah in a silver platter?

As Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III said:

"Bakit namin igi-give-up eh sinabi ko na nga, the poorest Sultan in the world. Wala kaming kaano-ano tapos ibibigay mo pa yung sayo," (Why will we give it up (Sabah) as I said. We are the poorest Sultan in the world. We own almost nothing and yet you want to give up what I own.)

Got that Pnoy? Unlike the Sultan the Aquinos and Cojoangcos where you belong are not exactly poor and yet they have a hard time giving up your land that you never owned in the first place costing farmer's lives in the process and you expect the Sultan to just bend over and give up their century’s old claim that rightfully belongs to them?

And yes the Sultan and his followers never violated any law because one who returns to his land can never be called an intruder to his own homeland?

In the same manner that the Malaysians cannot deport them when they are the rightful owner of Sabah or in this case the landlord since they are paid yearly rental or lease?

If it is peaceful resolution that PNoy is seeking, so are the Sultan and his followers, and the only way this can happen is if the Philippines and Malaysia stopped the intimidation and open the door for negotiation. The Philippines can reconvene the Bipartisan Executive-Legislative Advisory Council on the Sabah Issue instead of ordering De Lima while she is brilliant is better off doing her job at the Justice Department since there are really quite a back log that needed resolution soonest.

BTW Pnoy, Sabah is not a hopeless cause, it only looks and feel hopeless because you seem to be living under a rock and showing that you are clueless. Ignorance breeds hopelessness, so many thousand of lives has been lost and here you are bending over backwards. I hope that with your ramblings on what law the Sultan followers broke you also see the folly of your winging it that makes you hopefully as just appearing to be with Malaysia and not actually capitulating and forsaking your nation's territorial integrity.

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There is a very logical and rational reason why most Philippine actors must not enter politics especially those that offers nothing relevant to the issues at hand but their sheer popularity. Of course you can’t prevent dimwits from making a fool of themselves errrr running for office as that is the essence of democrazy errr democracy where every citizen is given equal access to be at the corridor or even seat of power.

When Isko Moreno came to town just like any circus they normally leave town but not Isko Moreno, he became a mainstay and even invited more clowns to help him mismanage the city of Manila, LOL. Yes Isko, the same guy who made a fool of himself during the Luneta hostage crisis but the sad part is he never knew how dimwitted he was at the time and I suspect up to now.

Ok, before anyone accuses me of being a partisan in the Manila race which the Comelec says the campaign has not even started daw, let me state for the record that between Lim and the pardoned convicted plunderer Erap “Asiong” Estrada, I really am no big fan of both. I am not a trapo follower, never been one, never will and let me state why.

The current Mayor is better known as “Dirty Harry” and that alone scares the daylight out of me, so I am really not inclined to support him.

Asiong as we all know is a convict and thanks and no thanks to the now accused of the crime of plunder Gloria Arroyo, Erap was the beneficiary of an executive pardon. Of course, the woman probably saw what was ahead of her and might see herself in the same boat, so why not set a precedent and hopefully the next president will be a dimwit. The only problem was when Cory died, the political dynamics change and the dimwit she hope will return the favor only made it to the second spot, LOL. Oh stop it, I know you are probably thinking or saying to yourself that this guy must be nuts not to see the other dimwit, hehehe. Perhaps, the other guy is also a dimwit but that does not guarantee that Arroyo will benefit from it but on the contrary she may just get in deeper problem because even a dimwit will know enough not to contradict his main campaign promise……… prosecute Arroyo, LOL.

The circus started errrr the story begins with the arrest of Vice Mayor Isko Moreno together with his clowns’ errrr I meant Councilors Joel Chua, Ma. Asuncion “Re” Fugoso, Ernesto “Jong” Isip Jr. and Yul Servo Nieto and former Councilor Manuel Zarcal over a bingo event on Tambunting Street, Barangay 374, Zone 38 in Sta. Cruz, Manila. Granted that Bingo is a parlor game and therefore a permit is not needed according to Isko, it is a different story when you do it on the streets involving hundreds of people. Isko further alleged that they were not selling tickets but the police says they were selling it for 10 pesos each with P5,000, P10,000 and P15,000 prize in cash , so who is lying here?

As if that was not bad enough it appears that Isko is the absentee ringleader errrr the leader of the pack of councilors who went to the scene and tried to intimidate and obstruct justice by inciting the crowed to riot, taunting and daring the officers the officers to arrest him while in the act of getting the number from the “bolilyo.” Acting in defiance will of course get you arrested and now he accuses Lim to be behind his arrest, hehehe what a dimwit, he did not even know he caused his own arrest with his dimwitted actions, LOL. Now Isko Moreno says he will file a case against the arresting officer, which I quote:

We will seek justice. We will not allow tyranny to prevail in Manila. We will fight corner by corner, street by street, barangay by barangay in Manila.

Duh, hello, did you not challenge the cops to arrest you while in the act of committing a crime? LOL.

Then the circus just got more amusing and with the kind of politicians running the Manila government one wonders how they are still solvent to this day, hehehe. They have a very flawed logic and the way they interpret the law is just ridiculous and I am now even a liar este lawyer, LOL. Let me just quote Isko’s remark on why he can’t be charged with violating election laws for early campaigning:

The vice mayor has also said that he cannot be accused of violating election laws because the campaign period for local candidates has yet to start on March 29.

“If I may quote [Comelec Chairman Sixto] Brillantes, may pasumpa-sumpa pa ang kabila sa peace covenant, wala rin nama pala. Walang pananakot, walang dahas na gagamitin, pasumpa-sumpa, ito ang natamasa namin. Sabi ni Chairman Brillantes, kayong mga local official, lahat ng ginagawa ng local official, wala pa yan because you’re not yet a candidate. You’ll be a candidate on March 29.” (If I may quote Chairman Brillantes who spoke during the peace covenant signing, they even took an oath and it’s now useless. They took an oath not to intimidate, use violence, they took an oath, look what happened to us. Chairman Brilalntes said, you local officials, all that you do is not yet counted because you’re not yet a candidate.)

TANGA, hehehe, clearly a disconnect or the guy simply has a comprehension problem. Lim says on TV Patrol that the Bingo tickets had the names of the UNA candidates printed and if Isko still believes he did not violate the election laws, those simply put are called E-V-I-D-E-N-C-E, LOL. But then again the Philippines just seem to have a very strange way of enforcing their laws because Brillantes seems to have absolved Isko and his gang mates errr party mates of breaking electoral laws. They conduct a bingo in public to supposedly entice the community to avail of the medical services they are giving and that is not a form of campaigning which is illegal since local elections will start in March? And what exactly is the point of enticing people to avail of their medical service, does that mean sick people will not avail of their free medical service if there is no gambling involved?

Come to think of it, it seems we are missing the bigger issue here. Clearly these clowns are sabotaging the police and the disrespect makes it extra difficult for the police to gain respect that they are trying desperately to fish out of the toilet. If "responsible leaders" are acting like a cell block mayor instead of a city, can we really expect improvement in law and order?

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