Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was, as planned, the center of attention during her fifth State of the Nation Address last July 25. She was applauded 32 times by administration congressmen and senators and their wives, in most cases for no apparent reason, but exactly on cue. It was to demonstrate, of course, that she remains popular, except [...]
Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Arroyo’s ‘SONA’: Ramos at the podium
Posted in General on August 1, 2005 | 1 Comment »
Ramos returns
Posted in General on July 25, 2005 | 4 Comments »
Despite her basement-level approval and trust ratings–and calls for her resignation from the opposition, business groups, academia, her erstwhile cabinet members, former political allies, Corazon Aquino, and a broad range of militant, religious, people’s and non-governmental organizations–President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has so far defied predictions that she would be forced out of office by the hemorrhage [...]
Things Fall Apart
Posted in General on July 11, 2005 | 2 Comments »
The Pulse Asia finding that 61 percent of Filipinos think they would be better off without Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Malacanang was not surprising. Previous surveys had earlier indicated a vast erosion of public confidence in Ms. Arroyo. Malacanang claims not to be surprised at the findings either. But however much Malacanang affects indifference to the [...]
Arroyo’s gamble
Posted in General on July 4, 2005 | 1 Comment »
Her perception that the threat of a People Power uprising or of a military coup had waned seemed to have emboldened President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo into admitting last June 27 that it is her voice in the “tapes” of the allegedly wiretapped conversations between her and “a Comelec official.” Mrs. Arroyo’s confession can still backfire, [...]
Damaged and despised
Posted in General on June 11, 2005 | 3 Comments »
The next few days–or the next 72 hours, as administration sources themselves sa–may indeed decide the fate of the Macapagal Arroyo administration. Its ouster through another People Power uprising, however, seems unlikely at this point, and the political crisis may very well be resolved in its favor. Both People Power 1 and 2 succeeded in [...]
Deception
Posted in General on May 29, 2005 | 1 Comment »
Whatever the Arroyo government calls it, the identification system Executive Order 420 would put in place is the same as the system Administrative Order 308 wanted to create. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo justifies the creation of a “unified” ID system as a means of “streamlining” existing government ID systems, not for counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency. But despite [...]
Taming the military
Posted in General on May 8, 2005 | 2 Comments »
The military’s reckless tagging of legal groups as communist fronts, its probable role in the killing, abduction and harassment of political activists, and the continuing possibility of coup attempts not only recall the martial law period. These are also reminders that the military has not changed much, and is still driven by Cold War and [...]
Missing the point—again
Posted in General on April 18, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
Despite martial law in the Philippines and the defeat of the United States and its favored regime in Vietnam in 1975, is the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) still missing the point? AFP intelligence does seem to be familiar with events in Vietnam, where the communist-led National Liberation Front (or the “Viet Cong” as [...]
Damaged and damaging
Posted in General on April 2, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
Few would be surprised if a policeman appeared in the list of suspects in the Maundy Thursday killing of journalist Marlene Esperat. Policemen, after all, have their fingerprints all over the 2002 killing of Pagadian City journalist Edgar Damalerio. The alleged triggerman was an active duty policeman when Damalerio was shot dead on a busy [...]
Method in madness
Posted in General on February 19, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
The Valentine’s Day bombings in Makati, General Santos and Davao, which killed 13 people and injured 150, were certainly terrorist acts, if terrorism is defined as the indiscriminate use of violence to instill fear in furtherance of a particular goal. It doesn’t matter how noble or debased the goal is. Terrorism is a method independent [...]
