famine

Who’s to blame for the looming rice shortage(and possible famine) in the Philippines?

These days the imbeciles and clowns in malacanang(that cursed palace!) are crowing about a projected shortage of Filipino’s staple food – the beloved rice. How outrageous,, this despite the very visible fact that the Philippines is an archipelago supposedly blessed with large swaths of arable, fat land which could be utilized for producing life-sustaining agricultural products such as corn and rice.

And now, they are wringing their heads in consternation at what to do come the threat of famine.

But who is mainly to blame for this dismal state of affairs?

Concerned Filipinos must remember that the government in the past years had removed rice plantations in favor of sugarcane fields and other plants which the Arroyo administration claimed will produce bio-fuel.

The hell with this bio-gas joke. Look at the mess were in now. They’ve eradicated the abundant rice fields just for the silly experiments to make alternative fuels and still we are still importing oil.

Nobody’s to blame for this problem but this flimsy excuse of a state government which we have now.

corrupt Arroyo administration

• What to do about the self-serving tenants in Malacanang palace who weild such deadly power over the hapless Filipino masses?
  
  
  Despite snowballing consensus among the vox populi to end the disastrous reign of terror of the Arroyo administration, still those beasts in glittering ternos and barong tagalogs and business suits cling to dear positions of unmitigated power and privilege like overfed leeches as if they want to suck very dry the entire blood of the dying Filipino nation.
  
  Under the present dismal conditions, there is no doubt very little, if no hope for this country. When those holding the reigns of the government clearly show no love for the people and the motherland and are only holding office mainly to seek personal advancement. Just look at how they use public funds to bribe key religious leaders and military officers who otherwise could initiate popular movements that will eventually topple President Arroyo and her greedy minions from the seat of political power.
  
  There is no need to enumerate all shortcomings of this inutile, corrupt administration. The evidence is palpable and clearly can be seen even by the simple man in the street. The very recent NBN contract with China alone should be ample cause to vent anger in the streets and shake fists against this mal-administration. As if simple theft of the public coffers is not enough, the disturbing reports of selling the country’s sovereignty over the possibly oil rich Spratlys islands goads the national physique and collective consciousness into feverish at such inroads of Philippine pride. Who are these greedy politicians who chose to kiss the ass of Chinese scoundrels who just gave away precious national territory for some paltry hundreds of millions of dollars? Even Marcos in his heydey never thought of doing this dastardly act of treason. Gloria Arroyo and her cronies must answer these charges at once and explain to the Filipino people why she must be allowed to sit in that throne in malacanang any longer…
  
  

spratlys situationer

walang ibubuga ang sandatahang lakas ng Pilipinas...?
This is the news item that I had recently read in inquirer.net. Every concerned Filipino must be aware of the current, dismal situation of the Philippines...AFP to go ‘hand-to-hand’ to defend Spratlys--EsperonBy Joel GuintoINQUIRER.netFirst Posted 16:39:00 03/17/2008CAMP JOHN HAY, Baguio City -- The military is "ready to go to war anytime" to defend the country's claim on the disputed Spratly Islands despite limited firepower, with troops ready to do "hand-to-hand" combat, Armed Forces chief General Hermogenes Esperon Jr.While the Constitution deplores war, Esperon said security forces would not hesitate to "defend our territory" when all diplomatic efforts at peaceful resolution fail."While your soldiers are ready to go to war anytime, as in other wars, there are of course efforts to settle the differences through diplomatic channels," Esperon told reporters here."We can go to war, we can still go to war. But the next question is, can we win? That's the question, do we have the capabilities?" he said.Esperon acknowledged that defending the Spratlys would require fighter aircraft, which the Philippine Air Force (PAF) does not have. The PAF decommissioned the last of its F5 jets several years back.Asked about the military's limited hardware, Esperon said: "Yun lang ang nakayanan [That's all we've got]. If it will be down to hand-to-hand combat, why not?""We may not have the chance, but that does not mean that soldiers are not willing to fight for the country," he said.Around 60 soldiers are posted on eight islands in the reportedly oil-rich Spratlys, which the Philippines calls the Kalayaan Group of Islands.The Spratlys are being claimed in part or in whole by China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan.A joint undertaking for seismic research by the Philippines, China and Malaysia drew controversy recently amid claims that the deal weakened the country's claim on the Spratlys, in favor of China, allegedly in exchange for a multi-million-dollar loan package.Last week, the vice commander of the Philippine Navy, Amable Tolentino, said that diplomacy was the way to go in the Spratlys since the Philippines could not go to war.Esperon said Tolentino was expressing a "personal opinion."And where have all the millions of pesos of Filipinos' tax money gone.. I find it hard to believe that the Armed forces of the Philippines has no sufficient war material and equipment necessary to do its job in protecting the country from foreign aggression.Now is the time that the entire nation must do something.

ibagsak ang rehimeng GMA, simulang ang ganap na pagbabago

napapanahon na ang lahat ng makabayang Pilipino ay magkaisa at magbuklod upang maisakatuparan ang ninanais na kasagaan ng inang bayan. Ilang dantao na bang naghihirap ang bayang Pilipinas? Sa nakalipas na mga dantaon ng pakikihamok sa pambobosabos ng mga dayuhang mandarambong sa ating bansa ay wala ring nakamit na tagumpay ang sambayanan sa layung mapabuti ang buhay ng mga Pilipino na naghihikahos sa isang bansang lugmok sa kapighatian.Hindi na kailangan pang ipaliwanag ang mga dahilang kung bakit hindi tamang palawigin ang pamamahala ng isang pinunong kaduda-duda ang kilos at layunin. Angkop ba na ang paghahanap ng lunas sa mga suliranin ng bansa ay ang paghihikayat ng mga dayuhang kapitalista upang maglagak ng salapi sa pag-asang makakapagbigay sila ng pangkabuhayan sa milyon-milyong nagdarahop na masa? Hindi kailan man naging tama ang ganitong balangkas ng sistema ng pamahalan. Ano ang tulong na maibibigay sa buong bayan kung ang mabibiyayan ay iilan lamang, habang ang mga dayuhang nagmamay-ari ng mga pabrikang lumalason sa kalikasan ay nakahiga sa dami ng yamang nakamit sa hindi tamang paraan.Panahon na na ang buong masa ng nagkakaisang Pilipino ay lumikha ng isang bagong pamahalan na siyang tutugon sa pangangailangan ng bansa sa tamang paraan, malakihang layunin, at mga gawaing magpapabuti sa pangkalahatang takbo ng kalakalan at kabuhayan ng bayang Pilipinas

The latest uprising

Yesterday, a November 29, the latest military uprising so far against the presidency so far ended peacefully with nary a shot being fired save for some teargas and an introduction of bullets designed to cow the rebels to give up at once.
Coups are now fast becoming a way of life here in the Philippines. Every now and then, it seems that some hotel, or shopping mall is in danger of being commenderred by some enterprising soldiers out to make some statements for the sake of the nation.
From what happened yesterday, reports indicated that senator-elect Antonio Trillanes together with a handful of associates including priests, journalists, some Magdalo soldiers and Gen Danilo Lim stormed out of the court where they are being tried for the failed Oakwook mutiny in 2003 and forced their way into the nearby Peninsula hotel.
Once quite snug in the building, they issued their statements explaining their recent actions as a protest against the excesses of the Arroyo regime which they observed is guilty of abuse of power and full of graft and corruption. In short, they summarized their actions by calling on the people to support their cause and help in toppling down Arroyo from the presidency.
Needless to say, this most recent uprising ended with the main adherents under arrest and the others on the run as the long arms of the government chase them to the ends of the earth.
Why do these rebellion keep coming and coming without a certain end. Without a question, all concerned Filipinos know the dissatisfaction against the current occupant in Malacanang. The public has been fed up with too much corruption in the highest levels of the government. The NBN deal, some public works projects to name just a few, are the reflections of the kind of leadership that Filipinos have to bear with as they struggle under one of the harshiest economic difficulties in modern history.
Yes, the economy is strong. Or is it really? If the hundreds of call center sprouting in Manila and other major cities of the Philippines are to be considered as indications of an improving economy, then by all means the country is really prosperous.
Sadly, the tens of thousands who are employed in these call centers are but an insignificant speck in the mammoth figures of crushing poverty facing the millions of Filipino masses who live under sub-human conditions. The trouble with GMA is that she decieves the public under the glittering lights of false prosperity in the urban areas. Unless the countryside feel her pretensions of a prosperous economy, expect more uprisings in the future. And she may not be so lucky to remain in power for long.

NBN or national broadband deal fiasco

The latest controversial issue being faced by some officials in the present administration of the Philippine government now concerns the much-maligned NBN or National Broadband Network. Just what is all about this furor that is roiling the corridors of power in the gilded halls of Malacanang palace and the Philippine congress? Every angle a patriotic Filipino looks at it, it utterly reekes of the pungent odor of the bane of politics-graft and corruption. But then, considering the current state of Philippine government, this kind of issue is as old as time itself. We have to face that hard, brutal fact, official corruption is prevalent and deeply-rooted in Filipino physique that combating it can be compared to Don Quixote’s antics of tilting at the windmills. This is a way of saying that this problem exists in practically all levels of government and even in the private business sector.

It is understandable that a considerable number of individuals “trusted” by their respected constituents tend to dip their hands into the public treasury or engage in anomalous transactions (read overpriced deals or contracts) which more often than not result in the massacre of the country’s coffers. This NBN project is just one of the excesses committed by some enterprising high-level officials in the current ruling party. As a general overview, the proposed National Broadband Network is a (self-profitable) state project which aims to digitally connect most if not all of the local and national government offices and agencies into one supposedly cohesive and “efficient” entity to “speed” up all public transactions with the ruling offices. As usual, the seething and simmering? Filipino masses heard about this “noble” undertaking the hard way, by being informed by way of the press regarding an expose’ of a certain official signing an atrociously overpriced contract after partying with some business managers of a foreign company whose only interest is to raid the treasury of the Filipino nation.

At this point, we can’t elaborate much about this matter since a senate investigation is currently in the works. Besides, another equally smelly issue had jumped out of the bag. This one is the Cyber education project of the Department of mis-Education which again aims at “improving” the lives of Filipinos through “high technology education. But everyone knows that the best way to improved education is by increasing the pay of those hundreds of thousands of impoverished teachers who are struggling with ever-increasing prices of basic commodities needed for daily survival.

the land of a strange and baffling people

Questions, unanswered questions that have been nagging my mind all these years finally goaded me, after personal deliberations and continuing emotional struggle, to seek a quiet corner of the web where I can pour-out my resentments, frustrations, and dissilusionment on the present state of affairs now plaguing our nation.

I live and was born here in the Philippines, officially called the Republic of the Philippines, more often than not branded as the sickest man of Asia, sometimes called the mail-oder-bride country, and of course, the doormat and laughingstock of the rest of the "civilized and enlightened world".

There was a time, and it seemed like eons ago, when our country was the economic powerhouse in Southeast Asia and our country, led by a dedicated bureaucracy, was poised to spearhead the Asian thrust for economic recovery and greatness after a devastating world war. We boasted a massive steelmaking and cement producing industries that served as the backbone of national reconstruction and infrastracture efforts to hopefully prepare the Philippines for the future.

Unfortunately, something went terribly wrong in the highest level of our government and society that ultimately will cost us lowly Filipinos the loss of collective national pride and steem that are needed badly to fuel the quest for national greatness. By some cruel twist of fate, the Filipinos were duped into electing into the highest position in the land a most cunning crook and tyrant that bled our country white and devastated our national economy by rampant graft and corruption and left the Philippines burdened with a horrific national debt .

written on nov 8, 2005
by Alex Argote