Set up for disappointment?

In a passage from F. Sionil José’s celebrated novel Mass, the protagonist Pepe Samson finds himself at what used to be called a teach-in where so-called reformers of the “burgis” class discuss strategies for building a bigger support base and pontificate about the masses needing “political education.” Challenged for his challenges to their highfaluting rhetoric, Pepe thinks, “what did they know about living in Tondo?”, and hurls back this wonderfully pointed riposte, “I am the masses.”

Villar concedes to Aquino

It was a fight well fought.

Mga kababayan,

Nagpasya na ang mamamayang Pilipino. Malinaw na sa kabila ng ating pagpupunyagi, hindi tayo nabiyayaan ng tagumpay sa halalan noong Lunes.

Humaharap ako sa inyo ngayon upang tanggapin ang pasyang ito. Upang igalang ang boses ng sambayanang Pilipino.

I congratulate Sen. Noynoy Aquino on his victory. The challenges he and our country faces are enormous and we should all work together.

PASG uncovers int’l drug base on island off Quezon

QUEZON – The Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG) stumbled over a drug transshipment and manufacturing base last Thursday night on Icolong Island in this province.

The PASG said Saturday that their teams spent 14 hours along the western coast of Southern Luzon Thursday to trace the nautical route of misdeclared import shipments in violation of the Tariff Code.

PASG Director for Region 13 Philip A. Placer said his agents followed a suspicious shipment that ended in a safehouse in Sitio Sabang, Barangay Judith in Burdeos on Icolong Island and immediately conducted a raid.

SPEECH: MITING DE AVANCE (Senator Manny Villar, May 07, 2010)

Mga minamahal kong kababayan:

Halos tatlong buwan na ang nakakaraan, dito rin sa Tondo, sinimulan natin ang ating himagsikan laban sa kahirapan.

Sa loob ng tatlong buwan, naikot ko halos ang buong bansa, nakakwentuhan ko ang ating mga kababayan na patuloy nagsusumikap upang mabigyan ng disenteng buhay ang kanilang mga pamilya, nakasalamuha ko ang ating mga kababayan na patuloy pa ring umaasa na uunlad ang ating bansa.

Maraming datos na ang inilabas upang isalarawan ang kahirapan ng buhay sa ating bansa.

Ayon sa isang pag-aaral, 24% ng mga pamilyang Pilipino (katumbas ng 4.4 milyon na kabahayan) ang nakaranas ng gutom sa nakaraang 3 buwan.

My column that was not allowed to be printed today, by Carmen Pedrosa

The machines that will fail; letters from Boston

It is not as if it is being said for the first time. I repeat what others have said that failure of election will not come from the PCOS but from two other machines – FV (Filipino voter) and FC (Filipino candidates).

The machines are so out of date, they cannot function properly for the selection of leaders for our country. The FV is out of sync and performs as if it has nothing to do with why he is voting a particular FC. The FC operates within this flaw and produces results with nothing to do with FV.

Carmen Pedrosa talks about NoyNoy

Opposition slams Aquino’s power-share arrangement

DEPOSED President Joseph Estrada attacked presidential frontrunner Benigno Aquino III on Thursday, saying his plan to share up to 80 percent of his powers with his vice president if he won showed a lack of preparation for the presidency.

Estrada said Aquino’s statement, made in a press conference Wednesday, made it appear he would be overdependent on his vice president in running the affairs of government, which was not a sign of good leadership.

“As President, you alone exercise the powers of the executive, although you can delegate your functions to your Cabinet members. You have to take responsibility for all your decisions, major or minor.

Does the nation owe the Aquinos?

I now believe in luck. Senator Benigno Simeon Cojuangco “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd all his life has led the easy life of a hacen-dera’s son. He wakes up in the morning with one problem, “Ano ang ulam ko?” (“What’s my viand?”). Most kids from a poor family wake up with one problem, “May pagkain ba ako? (“Do I have food to eat?”).

By the way, Hacienda Luisita’s 6,443 hectares is worth potentially, P190 billion—P3,000 per square meter multiplied by 64.43 million square meters. The P3,000 per sqm is usually the price of an idle farm land in provinces immediately north and south of Manila, once a highway or a major development is injected into it.

Reason or Wishful Thinking?

Voters who choose presidential candidate Noynoy Aquino are discarding reason for wishful thinking. I certainly empathize with their wishes for better governance, but I think that placing their bets on a candidate who has achieved essentially nothing in his public career, who has shown no interest whatsoever in any reform issue, and who is funded by big business and other vested interests is the height of foolishness. Such an unthinking vote can only end in collective frustration and dashed hopes.

Moral Theology and its Impact on Noynoy’s Medical Report

Here is the opinion of Fr. Mark Reburiano, a professor of Moral Theology who teaches at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, California. Fr. Mark is considered as an authority on Moral Theology. Fr. Mark studied for 10 years in Rome and was a student of Pope Benedict. He was the protege of Cardinal Leveda, who has served as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Roman Curia (“the defender of the faith”). He speaks 5 languages.

These are the conclusions from his opinion: