"In societies where Robbing Hoods are treated like a celebrity it is but natural to expect political parties to act like a Mafia syndicate" Political Jaywalker "In a nation where corruption is endemic people tend to confuse due process with aiding and abetting criminals" Political Jaywalker "War doesn't determine who is right, war determines who is left" Bertrand Russell "You have just one flash flood of money, you keep your people poor. It's like a time bomb and it's scary" Philippine Lawmaker

Political Dynasty In The Philippines: Why It Should Stop

All throughout middle school and high school history lessons, you learned about various dynasties throughout the world. The way that they were presented was objective in many cases, but you are starting to look at some of the negative components associated with dynasties. What are some of the reasons why dynasties should stop in the Philippines?

No Breathing Room

With a dynasty, the power is just inherited from one person to the next, and barely any room for improvement exists. With these types of familial relationships, one ruler is unlikely to depart too far away from the policies of his or her relative. Change and progress are practically stamped out before they can even start to breathe. Even if they do have a chance of coming into fruition, the change is likely to take quite a long time to implement.

No Credentials

Okay, so maybe some of the rulers do have necessary credentials to be a leader, but not much has to be done to be part of a dynasty. Instead of earning the power and working one's way up to the top, individuals are simply provided with the position. Are they trained to hold all of this power, and do they know what is best for the country? These questions are scary ones to have to ask when it comes to the future of a land.

No Voices Heard

Individuals also are really not represented in the government since the power is resting in the hands of the ruling family. As a result, the individuals do not get very much say in what is happening in their own country, and this problem can be a major one. Sometimes, the citizens of a particular country have a much better perspective than the ruling party does. However, when they do not get a chance to participate in the decision-making process, they are effectively removed from having any power. Just imagine that changes that could be made if they had more of a voice.

The Traditional Component

Yes, tradition is very important, and many people would agree with that sentiment. However, it is also important to notice when a tradition has run its course, and it's time for a new tradition or routine to come into play. Countries that realize this are often quite successful in making positive changes for the people, and the Philippines could start to follow suit. They might want to incorporate some of the old governmental roles, but they can still bring in a fresh spin to help keep the people happy. Eliminating tradition entirely could be too abrupt, but at least they can work to modify it.

Dynasties, no matter where they are, tend to create a number of problems for the people, and no one wants to see that happen. Unfortunately, it can be hard for individuals to get their voices heard and for the government to start listening to them. Hopefully, in due time, the Philippines will start to move toward this important and powerful journey.

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Author Jason Harter is an international sociologist who specializes in studying the impact of politics on cultures. He obtained his degree from one of the Best Sociology Degree Programs..

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The Revenge of the Machines

By Ado Paglinawan

I am endlessly amazed at the audacity of armchair analysts who has taken the cudgels to defend the 60-30-10 distribution of the votes of the Liberal Party Coalition, UNA and others.

So far I have encountered three analyses that appear serious at first, but eventually become fallacious upon closer scrutiny. The first that of Dr. Pablo Manalastas of the Center for People-Empowered Governance started it all. The second that of Mike Beduya of Asian Institute of Management has remained in the confines of social media but the third, of Dr. Michael Purugganan a dean of science at the New York University, has made it to the mainstream.

Like Dr. Purugganan, I am also based in the United States, specifically Washington DC. I don’t know his status but I have not renounced my Philippine citizenship and continue to come to the Philippines as often as I could so as not to lose my brown footing. In fact, this indio voted in the last elections at Antipolo City.

When AESWatcher Dr. Pablo Manalastas of the Ateneo drops the Law of Large Numbers (LLN) line, it could be enough to push TJDimacali of GMA News to doubt if this is “Conspiracy or Just Math?”

Being a strategic consultant, however, I approach the numbers and computer insights of the 2013 elections, just as I did the 2010 elections - not just from the perspective of a geek, but more appropriately from the socio-political aspect.. Afterall, numbers can be manipulated but not sociographics indicative of blood trails of a 60-30-10 pattern.

For being the best analyst of elections from 2004 to date, I would rather follow the logic of Hermenegildo Estrella, both a geek and a political animal. This is what he emailed to me yesterday:

“The Law of Large Numbers applies only for trials from the same population, which should mean that these trials [group of votes that are counted] are, or should have come from areas, really representative of the country as a whole. Same parameters, same characteristics, same almost every way of life.”

He compared this with what SWS and Pulse Asia do in the use of 1200 respondents as samples to predict the entire country's preferences in areas where they have initially identified as leaning to their desired outcome.

Estrella said we are not robots: “A region, any region for that matter, does not really represent the Philippines.  There are different dialects, cultures, preferences, income brackets, etc.  For provinces, some neighboring ones share similarities, but not anyone of these represent the entire neighborhood.  Much more political interests and leanings.  Even more so down to districts, and may even be down to precinct clusters.”

In fact for his part, Beduya analyzed the increments between each canvass and charted the peaks and valleys of shares relative to each of the canvass as it progressed from the first to the sixteenth. His objective was obviously to dispel aired suspicions that the votes followed a fixed linear pattern. Eventually, Beduya invoked the law of large numbers illustrating its application around the 10th canvass as the votes when the 60-30-10 achieved seemingly irreversible momentum.

Purugganan on the other hand said “Each time they released a canvass, it represents millions of votes from around the country… So what does mathematics tell us? Each canvass would give a result that would be very, very close to the 60-30-10 national average.”

Beduya echoed Purugganan’s  conclusion, “It is a mathematical law – it is called the Law of Large Numbers, which says that the larger your sample size is for an event, the closer your result from that sample will reflect the entire population.”

But both Beduya and Purugganan ground their syllogism on the premise that representative votes from “all over the country” were randomly and automatically being transmitted to and received by the Transparency Server maintained by PPCRV.

I cannot blame them really because that was what has been announced to the public by the showbiz Comelec -  that from the precincts after the closing of voting, precinct tallies will be transmitted to an automatic bypass has been enabled for the precincts to transmit directly to the Transparency Server maintained by the PPCRV. This is an “unofficial” track but allows  a ”first look” of the national count, or what was before known as the “quick count”.

Of course the “official” track of Election Returns, go from the precincts to the municipalities, from the municipalities onto the provinces, and from the provinces to the nation.

The Transparency Server is faster but since its data is sourced from the precincts, its canvass ought to mirror the official count.

But what Purugganan and Beduya were not aware of is that the Comelec, for the first time in the history of Philippine elections, “batched” provinces and cities into respective canvass clusters.

What was designed to receive inputs on a first-in/first out basis became a funnel scenario. Imagine a funnel full of precinct outputs at the bigger end trying to get ahead of one another towards its small end. The entering data is random but the exit is ruled by groupings by provinces and chartered cities.

Specifically, the first canvass covered votes from Antique, Batanes, Dinagat Islands, Guimaras, Mountain Province, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, Romblon, Southern Leyte, and the following cities: Baguio, Iligan, Mandaluyong, Navotas and Paranaque. That canvass does not represent a random national count.

I am attaching herewith the schedule of the provinces released from the 1st to the 16th canvass. Again, each canvass does not represent a random national count. In fact, to reduce this matter to outright absurdity, the 14th canvass shows it was only for Davao del Norte, North Cotabato and Tawi-Tawi, all from atypical areas that are rural, not national. The 15th canvass was only from Marinduque and Samar, and the 16th was only from only one province Lanao del Norte.

So this demolishes their basic premise leading to consideration of “large numbers”. In fact, the New York-based dean himself unwittingly acknowledged the opposite should have happened.Purugganan said “Now if you look at specific precincts, or maybe even specific regions, you will definitely find that each precinct or region will show more differences between each other. Each will have a different number that is further away from the 60-30-10 pattern. That is because they reflect local voting results.”

Albeit this caveat, 60-30-10 still ruled the exercise.

The peaks and valleys that Beduya pointed out, failed to observe that despite those sharp fluctuations, the individual share of all the senatorial candidates enabled them to maintain almost constant shares respective to any of the 16 canvasses. In fact he should be asking why despite those sharp fluctuations, the numbers were defaulting to a 60-30-10 template?

In short the template pattern applies to individual rankings. Here is a contrast in sampling - Grace Poe typecast at around 11%, while Risa Hontiveros pegged to around 6%.  My goodness, it is almost a “flatline”.  The individual shares of the senatorial candidates also established an almost constant ratio not just the top twelve rankings from Grace Poe to Gringo Honasan but of Samson Alcantara (Candidate #1) all the way to Migz Zubiri (Candidate #33).

My hypothesis on what caused this flatline, I will give at the conclusion of this article.

Allow me however to point out that batching or clustering the provincial inputs is by itself already a humungous anomaly.

It presupposes two things. First, that a filtering mechanism to, the very least to group the incoming tally into clusters, existed. In layman’s tongue using baseball lingo, after the ball was released by the pitcher, it did not go straight to the catcher but passed through a short-stop.

 This “short stop” did not only expose the data to possible manipulation, it also violated the law.

This becomes relevant because as Mr. Beduya correctly observed the numbers making critical hits around the 10th canvass. Of course the “flatlining” misled him to thinking the law of large numbers had taken over.

 From the political perspective what was actually happening was that Albay, Catanduanes and Leyte defaulted Bulacan in the 8th canvass. Bohol and Lanao del Sur defaulted Batangas in the 9th canvass. Cebu and Camarines Sur defaulted Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan and Zambales in the 10th  canvass.  Iloilo and Quezon City defaulted Laguna, in the 11th canvass.

Now to borrow an adjective from the New York dean but in reverse application: That’s definitely “fishy”.

Of those that I cited, my favorites are Bohol and Tacloban City. In Bohol, where Arthur Yap ran unopposed, all municipalities posted 60-30-10. Curiously, Tacloban City, the bailiwick of Imelda Marcos, also registered 60-30-10.

Rappler.com also exposed that more than 2,000 clustered precincts, significantly from Cebu and ARMM, where Bam Aquino showed magnificent “votes”, registered perfect or near perfect turnout beating the national average of 70 to 75%. Hello?

Given this, I no longer find it mysterious that the Comelec again in violation of the law, started proclaiming the first six winners in the Senatorial race with only 20% of results posted. This was followed by three with yet partial results and the last three with only 77% of the people’s votes accounted for.

It was quite obvious that like Pontius Pilate, Comelec Chairman Sixto Brilliantes, this election’s Smartmatic lawyer and Malacanang stooge, merely wanted to wash his hands away from what AESWatch correctly pointed out as a “technological and political disaster”. He wanted the onus of protests not to land on his feet but to the Electoral Tribunals.

Note that the balance of 23% is still missing two weeks after the elections. But I, despite being an IT undergraduate, again have a fairly good hypothesis on what happened.

My first hypothesis resembles a deliberate conspiracy theory. The 60-30-10 is much more than an outputed pattern that resulted from innocent inputs of election returns. It is a premeditated goal preprogrammed to be delivered by strategically inserted default mechanisms against opposition bailiwicks using the combined numbers of administration bailiwicks and strategically designated electronic dagdag-bawas centers like Bohol and Tacloban City.

Not only did those defaults go for nine administration coalition senators and three from the simulated opposition, it ran a linear formula for all 33 senatorial candidates locked in their pre-determined rankings from the first to the 16th canvass.

Only three were conceded by conspirators Malacanang and Comelec to the so-called three kings - Nancy Binay to Vice President Jejomar Binay, JV Ejercito to former President Joseph Estrada, and badly enough for Jack Enrile, it was Gregorio Honasan for Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile. Given this scenario, who will rock the boat?   

My second hypothesis is less of a conspiracy, but what I will call “the revenge of the machines” maybe even divine intervention. The insertion of default mechanisms involving the preloading of the quantum manipulated results just overheated the system. This could have happened as the PCOS precincts were sending transmissions to the Transparency Server, or while a “short stop” bypass was trying to catch them in order to be grouped and “massaged”, or while they were queued and lumped at large numbers waiting for their turn at being consolidated into the main canvass.

Imagine how many variables existed in around 76,000 precincts. Imagine the variants caused by candidates from councilors to senators making deals with so-called Comelec operators for some of these precincts nationwide.

Imagine tens of millions of precinct outputs trying to input into the Transparency Server but being made to wait by a short-stop malware that was batching votes by provinces not to mention key areas where electronic dagdag-bawas was weighing on actual count.

The PCOS was just meant to scan and read the ballot, count the returns and transmit its tally. Brought about by Comelec’s endless improvisations and collapsing of the minimum required safeguards in the AES law, it has virtually opened the system to hacking and fraud confusing the idiot box.

The PCOS system, so prostituted, just fucked up and scrambled on its own to default into a 60-30-10 template on the national level and lay-away 12 million votes  equivalent to 23% of the people’s voice, so that the end canvass can serve by its mere self – the prima facie evidence of a human manipulation and election failure and proof-positive that Daang Matuwid is actually an expressway for corruption! #

Posted May 27, 2013

Note: Batched or botched Canvass Clusters attached (Source rappler.com). The chart must be overlaid to the Summary of the 1st to the 16th group canvass report also from rappler.com.

***************************************************************
Ado Paglinawan was appointed by the Corazon Aquino administration as a Philippine diplomat in 1986. He served as Press Officer of the Philippine Embassy in Washington DC from 1986 to 1993, and concurrently of the Philippine permanent representative to the United Nations in New York from 1989 to 1992. After his government tenure, he served as a Consultant for Strategic Studies and Public Relations to various clients in the United States and the Philippines. He presently publishes an eMagazine called "The Soberano".



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We Voted Wisely & Political Dynasty Won Again!

So another election has come and gone, and while some things remain the same this one seems to be less violent than before. Perhaps this calls for a celebration that should make us kind of teary eyed like what convicted pedophile Romeo Jalosjos is feeling right now over ex-convict plunderer Joseph “Erap” Estrada’s win against Alfredo “Dirty Harry” Lim in Manila’s mayoralty contest. Imagine the boost and hope an ex-convict gives fellow convicted criminals who now see the need to get a presidential pardon. The best is yet to come if you ask the trapos because this is another expensive commodity in the family enterprise profit center in the business of politics that can be peddled by backdoor operators.
What an achievement and an “honor” for Manila to have elected Erap the 10th most corrupt leaders in recent history. I could not imagine the joy and pride of the people in the city having a former president although ousted and jailed at that for plunder happily going down as a cell block mayor errr Mayor of the city. A last hurrah he says while having the illusion errrr feeling like he is Batman in Gotham City but some says he should have compared himself with the Penguin since he walks like his (Lo)long lost twin brother.

If there are plans to celebrate Erap’s victory on the account of being the 10th most corrupt leader in recent history, they should hold it off because the family of the 2nd most corrupt also won hands down in the solid north. Should Ilocos Norte proudly celebrate their stupidity errr voting for Imee Marcos as governor and Imelda Marcos the other half of the conjugal dictatorship with the prestigious honor as the 2nd most corrupt leader in recent history or maybe hold it off until Gloria Arroyo’s conviction?

We do not know yet if Gloria Arroyo will also rank in the most corrupt in the world and that remains to be seen or until the outcome of her plunder case is known. But for someone responsible for the conviction of Erap as a plunderer and now faces the same charges is really ironic but nothing surprises the people anymore in this trapo dominated nation. So which city or province deserves the honor of being crowned having the “best” corrupt leader, is it Manila, Ilocos Norte, or Pampanga. Pampanga has an edge because aside from accused plunderer Gloria Arroyo the province that holds the honor of being the Jueteng capital of the Philippines is now under the hands of Jueteng Dynasty errrr the Pineda mother and son team. Inang Jueteng at anak ng jueteng plus an incarcerated accused plunderer, what more can they ask for?


There are other provinces that should be in the "Honorable" special mention short list like Dinagat Island courtesy of fugitive convicted parricidal maniac Ruben Ecleo, Jr. There are also those ruled by war lords like Johaira Midtimbang Ampatuan wife of Zaldy Ampatuan winning 98% of the votes cast unbelievable as it is retaining her mayoral post in Datu Foffer Ampatuan town.  Although Ilocos Norte hands down can’t be dislodged by Ilocos Sur what with arsonist Bingbong Crisologo opting to represent a district in Quezon City  they have Hong Kong ex-convict Ronald Singson regaining his old post he got expelled from when he was sentenced to a jail term in Hong Kong. If that is not ridiculous I don’t know what is anymore and just because he was convicted outside the country does that mean he was allowed to vie for electoral post again? Oh I get it, since we celebrate criminal OFWs once we get them out of jail in the country where they were convicted, are we supposed to also see Singson as a returning “hero?”  On the other hand it is worth mentioning that Zamboanga may soon lose out on the "Honorable" list because only one Jalojos won out of 10(?).

Funny but every time there is an election we always see, hear, read about voting wisely to a saturation point enough to make one really examine their choice of candidates. But is there really a choice when local and national candidates came from the same families to which they fool the people into believing that they are just like a brand and not political dynasties. There are good and bad political dynasty so they say, really? The mere fact that they disrespect the constitutional prohibition of political dynasty due to the absence of an enabling law to which they are solely responsible in killing any bill even before the first reading tells a lot about their criminal hypocrisy. Under this trapo dominated election wherein our choice are limited to political families or dynasties can we honestly say we did our duty to the country by voting wisely or did we just become part of the problem for allowing the travesty and mockery of the democratic process?

Some people say we have to respect the outcome of the election because the people have spoken, really? If there were no vote buying and the trapos actually passed enabling laws on the prohibition of political dynasty and reform the electoral system wherein one does not have to spend a fortune, then we can honestly say that the people has spoken. As it is right now demanding respect is akin to forcing people to go to a seminar on honesty and integrity conducted by a congenital liar, a crook, and a scam artist, LOL. One thing really stands out here, in the old days our criminals used to mimic the Mafias but now it’s the other way around. The Mafias has a lot to learn from our trapos and political dynasties or La Famiglia on how to dominate and control a whole nation instead of just a seedy corner or a strip of territory in a city.
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Marjorie Baretto & the Ridikulas Anti-CyberBOSO Law

Talk about ridikulas (ridiculous male)and ridikulasa (ridiculous female) in the pathetic Kalokohan errr Caloocan politics of the absurd and sex scandals that they get themselves entangled. If these are the characters that trapo politics has to offer the BOBOtante of Caloocan City better known as the Kalokohan City it is doomed to fail right before it starts.

What’s up with that city anyway that seems to have a long history of politicians getting involved in criminality? The latest of which was the arrest of former Representative Oca Malapitan’s chief of staff and his men for stealing voters list. As if that is not bad enough the son Dale Malapitan is the subject of a pedophile rape accusation a former Barangay Chairman now running to take over his dad’s old post in Tongress.
Now we have Marjorie Baretto a member of the city council of Kalokohan wanting to accuse bloggers of voyeurism over a photo she claims was faked, to quote:
No, that’s not me. I would never do something like that. That’s not my nature.
I just don’t know if she realized her lies errrr denial might not fly if she tries to go after bloggers downloading and uploading her pictures on their blog for voyeurism?  So now her lawyer Lorna Kapunan alleges that she did not see her picture at the time she denied it and only realized it was her when it went viral. Really, most people don’t just blurt out denials without first checking, especially if it was a picture of her, LOL.

It is amazing how this dumb porno errrr anti-photo and video voyeurism made it into a law unlike the Cyber Libel Bill that met stiff opposition from netizens. But then again since we hired time and again nincompoop legislators mostly coming from political dynasties, can we really expect them to come up with sensible legislation? Trapos with criminal Mafiosi mindset handed a couple of unaudited hundred millions of pesos at their disposal for the duration of their term surely is a distraction to get the job done right.

The keyword here is offensive and as soon as I saw the picture I must admit I was truly offended. No I am not offended by the blogger but the picture of Marjorie, hehehe. While it probably will pass Philippine Playboy Magazine’s one nipple initial offering, it definitely not get published. It will be rejected for her matronly appearance that is on the fatty side in a trying hard lewd pose that is really offensive to the eye skewing my sense of aesthetic appreciation of the body form. It seems that Marjorie Baretto’s lawyer Lorna Kapunan is really serious in running after bloggers based on this warning I picked up on FB over a video parody of her client:
Dear Mr. Blogger,

We write on behalf of our client, Ms. Marjorie Barretto. You posted the very private photos of our client, and maliciously disseminated it to the public. Please note that your act of posting the photos of our client is a clear violation of our client's Constitutional right to privacy and a blatant defiance of Republic Act No. 9995 also known as the "Anti-Photo and Video Voyeurism Act of 2009." You committed a criminal offense and should be held liable. Be informed that RA 9995 clearly and categorically punishes the act of publishing or broadcasting, or causing to be published or broadcasted, whether in print or broadcast media or through the internet, the photo of a person showing her private areas.
  
To emphasize, the subject photos were intended not to be made public and your dissemination of this photos was without our client's consent. NBI is already investigating this matter. We ask that you immediately remove the photos of our clients. Otherwise, we will also be constrained to file the necessary actions against you. 

KAPUNAN GARCIA & CASTILLO LAW OFFICES. 
LORNA PATAJO-KAPUNAN 
8466247 to 51. 
lpkapunan@kapunanlaw.com
The comment by Marjorie's lawyer led me to the disgusting picture in question, so does that mean I am a "voyeur" because I saw it and she is culpable in aiding and abetting a "voyeur?" LOL. Seriously, if there is anyone that is really culpable here it is no other than the one who took the picture and who has possession of the amateurish lame attempt at Boudoir. Asking the help of the NBI for something as silly as this is just as pathetic as it can get. Who does Marjorie think she is, Paris Hilton? No I take that back, even Paris Hilton (remember the sex tape bought at storage auction?) does not make demands like what Marjorie does and even Katrina Halili if we have this law back then I doubt if she will demand that the NBI launch a “major investigation,” LOL. No wonder the NBI has not solve any major or high profile crime lately, they are busy attending to the whims and caprice of the offended feeling entitled trapos like Baretto. If the NBI really goes after bloggers, I wonder if the next thing she will ask is for the NBI to investigate who is telling the truth in their family rift that’s gone so public in what is supposed to be a private family affair.

Marjorie Baretto’s lawyer Lorna Kapunan says she has a right to privacy, I agree but when one chose to become a celebrity and a politician personal privacy as we know it goes out the window. Talk about privacy when this is a family that provides a signed letter as if it was an affidavit to the tabloids and gossip columnist supposedly intended only to family members accusing each other of all sort of things. So it is alright to wash their dirty linen in public but voyeurism when scandalous pictures go viral? 

Well if the liemakers can shove in our throats a shotgun type law like anti-voyeurism perhaps we should also demand a law that punishes exhibitionist for being offensive, LOL. So offensive that I felt I will go blind looking at that picture of a fatty matron, hehehe. Make no mistake about it the way this law was written makes anyone vulnerable from harassment or worse extortion, to quote a lawyer’s interpretation
The prohibition under paragraphs (b), (c) and (d) shall apply notwithstanding that consent to record or take photo or video coverage of the same was given by such person/s. Any person who violates this provision shall be liable for photo or video voyeurism as defined herein. (Section 4)
I doubt they will succeed in convicting any blogger but this is the Philippines where court of justice looks more like an auction house so I will be really threading carefully. So vague is the Anti-Photo and Video Voyeurism that even Janarah's calendar may get you in trouble. What is ironic here is if you are a blogger that uploaded Marjorie Baretto’s offensive to the eye picture and got in trouble for it. Can you imagine spending 3 to 7 years in prison or a fine of P100K to P500K, or heaven forbid both? All that for a lousy matron on the fatty heavy side looking picture and you get to be labeled as a convicted voyeur? Ouch…….. but blogging is all about sharing and with CyberBOSO Law in place, that’s what I call RIDIKULAS and if you are a female blogger RIDIKULASA, LOL.
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Kalokohan errr Caloocan Congressional Candidate Dale Agoncillo Malapitan

If we go by the folly of Grace Poe’s illusory take on political dynasty with her delicadeza panacea to dissuade clan members of political family from running, this one trumps her solution making her appear neither here nor there, LOL.

Dale “Along” Malapitan is the son of Oca Malapitan former lower house of Lolong este Congress representative now running for mayor while Along the son former councilor and Bagong Barrio Barangay Chairman takes over his position. There is a reason why there is a constitutional provision imposing term limits on elective position but just the same they skirt the term limits by playing a game of political musical chair within the family. They do this knowing fully well that said practice is shameless with utter disregard for propriety or delicadeza. The term limit is very specific and yet trapos deliberately skirts this by going around it, gaming the system like a Mafiosi. If the trapos are disrespecting and criminally neglecting passage of the enabling law on the constitutional prohibition of political dynasty how exactly will the trapos police themselves thru delicadeza as Grace Poe proposed is beyond me.

Barangay being the smallest unit of government an ancient relic of the past feudal age resurrected by the conjugal Marcos dictatorship and retained by Cory Aquino is the most useless government unit that is nothing but an added burden to the taxpayers. Hit hard are property owners where local Barangays get a percentage of the revenue collected from the property tax whose main function is really to act as the politician’s grassroots machinery. We the people shoulder the election expense so these idle people with plenty of time in their hands are given government authority when they are really useless in terms of curbing criminality because at times some are even involve not in preventing crimes but actually committing heinous criminal acts themselves like the proverbial fox guarding the chicken coop.

The problem with pea brained people when given police like power and authority to apprehend minors for vagrancy is that some of these Barangay Chairmen think that they have the authority and power to release their sexual perversion and sick predatory pedophilia upon their apprehended hapless victims. Back in April 12, 2008, “Mila” who was then a 16 year old minor together with her then 14 year old cousin on their way home in Bagong Barrio was apprehended for violating the curfew for minors by Barangay tanods Joselito Lim, Roderick Antonio and Danilo Bautista, and barangay councilman Pedro Tolentino, “Larry,” “Michael” and several John Does headed by then Barangay Chairman Dale “Along” Malapitan. Mila narrated that instead of being castigated and given a sermon for being out late they were forced to drink alcohol and ordered to obey whatever Along Malapitan tells them to do. This is a serious allegation and if true have they not heard of corruption of minors especially coming from one with the power and authority of a government cloak at that forcing minor to drink alcohol? Forcing minors to drink alcohol is already a serious offense because alcohol has a tendency to makes even mature women lose control and vulnerable to rape, what more with minors in the hands of pedophiles? Mila further narrated that she was brought to the toilet and raped by Along Malapitan and the uncle of the Barangay Chairman allegedly the brother of Along’s father then took her and her cousin to a motel where they were again raped.

This case highlights what is wrong with our government institutions because of ignorant people and power tripping criminal minded elected officials gaming the system. So “Mila” being a minor at the time became a ward of the DSWD, she is the victim here and not the juvenile in conflict with the law so what gives. The sad part is after spending three and a half year with DSWD she learned that the case was dismissed not having a clue how her case was “dismissed.” She felt like she was imprisoned and rightly so because in her 3 ½ years stay at DSWD no one even thought of continuing her education of which she has only reached 2nd grade? So how come juveniles in conflict with the law are sent back home immediately after they are arrested and yet held “Mila” for the longest time until her case was dismissed, does it smell something fishy here or what?

Without the support of the Women’s Advocacy for Gender Equality (WAGE) and my Facebook friend IBP spokeswoman Trixie Cruz-Angeles taking her case pro-bono, we would not have learned about “Mila’s” ordeal. Something like that you would have expected a happy ending but not in a society where endemic corruption seems hopelessly rampant and out of control. In order for Trixie to help “Mila” with her case she needs to get hold of the court case documents to study and review what legal options are available for “Mila.” But lo and behold DSWD refused to hand over the legal documents to Trixie or the victim (she being 21 years old now) on the grounds that it was confidential because at the time of the incident the victim was a minor. True the victim was a minor back then but when she turns 21 everything changes and what law were they citing if I may ask that prohibits releasing court documents pertaining to the victim itself even if she was a minor requesting of a copy of her own court case? As if that is not dumb enough the response Trixie was getting was that the lawyers of DSWD are studying if they can release the documents to the victim or her lawyers is just the height of stupidity. Either that or they are hiding something from the victim now that she was able to get a lawyer representing her?

So skeptics are asking why only now when Along Malapitan is running for a congressional seat, is this not tainted with politics so they ask. Really now, well if these political families stop running for office which is like every 3 year cycle we will not have a problem with timing is it not? Instead of questioning the timing as if it will just help their opponents should we not welcome this so that we are able to know the kind of people we are voting in office who really don’t deserve even a Metro Aide position since they can’t be trusted for their predatory pedophilia? But then again if convicted pedophile like Romeo Jalosjos can shamelessly go out in public campaigning and even endorsing candidates as if they are the exemplary leaders of the nation and dumb BOBOtantes keep on voting for them where are we really headed?

The problem is how can we blame the BOBOtante when they are really left with no choice but the same rotten names they see like a recurring nightmare haunting them? Perhaps we should really seriously consider lobbying for an anabling law defining political dynasty and for once make a concerted and conscious no not unconscious, hehehe effort at following the rules and laws without trying to always look for exceptions as in they don't apply to me or us but just them.

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Grace Poe & Her Brand of Delicadeza

Some people and members of Team Pinoy campaign believes that Grace Poe deserves a senate seat but what exactly qualifies her to a seat in the upper house of TONGress errr legislative is a million dollar question. This begs us to question if having a famous action star actor father who lost a presidential bid qualifies the daughter to an elective post?

Perhaps it is how the article was written and if it is the writer did her a disservice because she really sounded like she was winging it and don’t really know squat what she was talking about in attacking the “Anti-Political Dynasty Bill” daw, LOL. I wonder what bill she is yapping about because technically speaking there is no bill to speak of when those that were introduced did not even reach first reading, hehehe.

The idiocy never stops there and just like a poker player with a losing hand shoving all her chips in the middle against an opponent holding the nuts she just keeps on going with her arguments that political dynasties exist even in advance democracies like Europe and the US. What she forgot or perhaps did not know is that unlike those advance democracies with political dynasties they don’t have a constitutional provision prohibiting political dynasty. Determined to lose all her chips and even the shirt on her back she offers her unrealistic “genius” like solution to stop the few ruling elite families from forming a political dynasty by delicadeza. Delicadeza she says and when if I may ask has delicadeza been observed by shameless trapos in the Philippines, is she on some strong stuff or something? Is she going to author and introduce a “Delicadeza Bill” if she gets elected?

This early she seems to be catching on with the trapo degenerate thinking and like the shameless greedy members of political dynasties that sees the constitutional prohibition to be exclusionary she brings the arguments up a notch that the “bill” is anti-democratic. Obviously this woman is running solely on the basis of her father’s popularity and has no clue why there is a constitutional prohibition on political dynasty.

While there are political dynasties in Europe and the US they were there because of their exemplary public service. Unlike in the Philippines where political and economic power has a tendency to concentrate in the hands of the few ruling Trapo families because we live in a semi-feudal society mired in poverty in a political system that is anchored on patronage and personality. When politics becomes a family entrepreneurial business profit center how exactly does Grace think that they will withdraw out of delicadeza? We have not heard anyone do that since her dad the late FPJ was a young struggling actor and if there are classy people acting with delicadeza they are more of an exception than the rule.

This is not a question of some are good and some are bad. Also don’t believe what your future kulig este colleague Nancy Binay says that it’s all about branding or family brand because a katuray by any other name is still a katuray, it is still ugly and smells nauseous, LOL. In advance democracies there is really no need to prohibit political dynasties because there is a sense of propriety but just because it works there it does not mean it will work in the Philippines even if you legislate “delicadeza.”

She obviously was not paying attention or she is really clueless on what kind of society we are living in and why the prohibition on political dynasty was included in the constitution. While some will argue that we need to change our constitution, it is so far well written in terms of leveling the political playing field. In order to ensure equal access to governance and give the marginalized a shot at the legislative process, the party list system was adopted to allow the poor marginalized sector (now even the political marginalized as reinterpreted by the auction house este Supreme Court are allowed) access to the legislative process otherwise unreachable even in a multi-party system. In order to level the playing field even more we have switched from the exclusionary 2 party system to a multi-party system thus allowing more leaders to win elective positions. In order to ensure that deserving genuine leaders of the people are given a fighting chance the constitution prohibits political dynasty but left it hanging when they leave it for congress to pass an enabling law. Now more than 2 decades and a half of passing the constitution our lawmakers has deliberately ignored passing an enabling law defining political dynasty that will once and for all settle the legal question of the degree of consanguinity and affinity, and Grace Poe expects delicadeza to stop the proliferation of political dynasties? But then again hearing delicadeza from one who is running based on the popularity of her late father who had never held even a lowly public office but a legacy of action flicks is not exactly kosher. She says that voters should be given the choice, this choice is actually very limiting when the voters see the same names every election. If that is how she sees voters choice then we have a problem because that is not exactly giving the voters a choice if we go by what the framers of our constitution envisioned……
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