The Four-eyed Journal » Government

RH Bill opposition should take their fight to court

jhay — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 03:37:17 +0000

With a fearless forecast that the Reproductive Health bill becoming law, constitutional expert Fr. Joaquin Bernas, SJ has practically given advice to the CBCP and their anti-RH bill supporters on what to do about it.

The best approach he says, is by challenging the RH law in court and not in the streets.

In challenging the RH law in court, oppositors must really do their legal homework and attack the law piece by piece. The CBCP better take heed of Fr. Bernas’ advice real quick because as of now, their approach in opposing the RH bill lacks finesse and precision.

Noemi L. Dado has aptly described such effort by the CBCP in her tweet:

Goodness, my husband went to church but homily had no pastoral letter at all. Just one sentence. RH Bill is the deception of the devil.

February 13, 2011 8:03 pm via TweetDeck ReplyRetweetFavorite

@momblogger

Noemi L. Dado

I don’t know if you can sue the devil in court but it hits right back at some RH bill supporters and bishops themselves who have called for an intelligent debate about the RH bill.

And things will not be helped by the CBCP’s alleged calls for civil disobedience and rallies against the RH bill.

In closing Fr. Bernas, gives a good piece of advice:

What this all comes down to is that a shot-gun approach to the RH Bill will not succeed. You don’t burn an entire house to make lechon. Nor will a Tahrir Square type of demonstration stop it. Such an approach can be a manifestation of intellectual bankruptcy. One must challenge each specific objectionable part and argue it out. After all, this is not a fight against a Hosni Mubarak.

The truth can no longer wait for a Truth Commission

jhay — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 04:23:27 +0000

When the Supreme Court struck down the EO No 1 which created the Truth Commission of 2010 as unconstitutional, it wasn’t hard to imagine incumbent and former officials under the the Arroyo administration and its loyal allies to have had a moment of jubilation.

So then it was thought that the chances of making them account for their corrupt ways and acts would take a lot longer until P-Noy and his lawyers get their acts together and create a Truth Commission that will stand on solid legal foundations.

However, in the absence of P-Noy’s Truth Commission, we would just have to do with the next best thing: brave individuals coming out to share their knowledge of the truth.

Prime examples we have today are retired AFP budget officer George Rabusa and former government auditor Heidi Mendoza who revelations have shook the public with their exposes on the corrupt and rotten ways inside the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

In particular, it has revealed the corrupt practices and traditions in the military top brass – former chiefs of staff that served during Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s term as President.

Then again, having GMA as their Commander-in-Chief it’s no longer surprising that such corruption is existing in the military.

It is no longer a mystery why Sen Antonio Trillanes, IV led the 2003 Oakwood Mutiny and instigated the standoff at the Peninsula Manila hotel in 2007 – the Arroyo administration was corrupt and so is the military.

The process today maybe clumsy and interrupted by distractions from members of the House justice committee going about the hearings driven by their own agenda as spelled out by today’s Inquirer Editorial.

But it still serves one of our greatest public desires, that those who use their government position to enrich themselves be put in their proper places, in jail. Well that’s what the public expects at the end of these investigations, hearings and trials.

And that is the task of P-Noy now, make sure that government resources are deployed to meet this goal, otherwise, everything would be nothing but a charade to make someone else look good in the coming elections.

He may have fumbled in delivering a Truth Commission as he promised during the campaign, but he cannot fail in his solemn duty of executing the laws and doing justice to every man.

Adolf Hitler Reacts to “Pilipinas Kay Ganda!”

jhay — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 04:22:25 +0000

What if Adolf Hitler was still in power, he won World War II. The United States was defeated and so the Philippines was once more ceded over to the Third Reich.

All of the past presidents of the Philippines instead became Governors or administrators and the last one was Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo then finally, Hitler decided to take charge personally. He was then presented with the new tourism department’s plan of re-branding Philippine tourism:

It’s fiction alright? Just like what “Pilipinas Kay Ganda!” is right now. A thing of the not-so-distant past, another project of the Aquino Administration that fell on its ass.

Lucky for Usec Romano, Hitler has been long dead and was not his boss. Lucky for us Filipinos, we no longer have to live with that f*cked up tourism campaign.

On Pilipinas Kay Ganda! – The tarsier is not a marsupial - DOT seriously needs to double-check its facts

jhay — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 03:14:50 +0000

Tarsier Tarsius syrichta

When I heard of the news that the Department of Tourism has allocated Php100M to overhauling their website I couldn’t help but gawk with disbelief. Php100 million for a website?!

The said website which would be used for the online marketing of the new branding for Philippine tourism: ‘Pilipinas Kay Ganda!‘, had just been recently launched: www.beautifulpilipinas.com

According to the DOT, included in the Php100 M cost of over-hauling their website included other promotional materials and support activities like ’360-degree photography, digital marketing, and linkages to partner agencies, up-to-date information on events, hotels, airlines, resorts and the likes.’

Well it better be. Because there’s no way in hell you can justify spending Php100M just on a website. It’s just absurd. So stupid. So ‘Imeldific’!

The website is now up and running, though half-finished and littered with dead links and empty pages.

Correct facts = Better impressions

If this is the website the DOT has allocated 100 freakin’ million pesos for, then the Filipino tax payer deserves a refund. They could have at the very least spent part of that fund to hire scientists to double-check scientific facts in the website’s copy.

For there is a bit of false information about the tarsier. Which they used as a mascot for the new campaign. The copy which explains what ‘Pilipinas Kay Ganda!’ is had the following statement about the Tarsier:

A cute tarsier, a marsupial endemic to the country, highlights our unique and playful character.

Whoever wrote that copy seriously needs to double-check that information. The tarsier is not a marsupial, it is a primate. The late Ernie Baron who taught us that the Tarsier is one of, if not, the smallest primates in the world¹ would turn in his grave.

To illustrate the point, an expanded classification of the tarsier, (Tarsius syrichta or Carlito syrichta):

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Family: Tarsiidae
Genus: Tarsius
Species: T. syrichta

Marsupials² on the other hand are the group of mammals with pouches where their young, which are born very early, are nursed until they are more mature to survive on their own. Most commonly-known specimens are kangaroos and koalas.

If this website would be the portal for tourists to visit online and see what the Philippines has to offer, then it’s important that we set the impression that we know the facts about what we offer, especially our wildlife.

Seriously, the tarsier to represent us Filipinos?

Another point I’d like raise, is that the usage of the Tarsier as a symbol of our ‘unique and playful character’ doesn’t quite work for me.

Sure the tarsier is a cute animal, but it could hardly represent us Filipinos as a playful character because it is very shy, timid and is active only at night! No wonder some bloggers have expressed concern that foreigners may misconstrue the domain name: beautifulpilipinas.com as a site for Filipina entertainers.

Promoting something not only involves flashy websites, fancy slogans, and well-written copy. However, such content must be double-checked for factual errors.

When the web portal is completed, I do hope the Php 100 M spent on it would be worth it. Next time around though, the DOT better find ways to keep costs down, as the government has to attend to more important things than tourism; like education, health and other social services.

Going back to the new tourism slogan, it would take a while to get used to ‘Pilipinas Kay Ganda!’ as compared to ‘Wow! Philippines.’

Image by yeowatzup

Footnotes:

Philippine Tarsier on WikiPedia
Marsupial Mammals. UCMP

Why I “Unlike” the Official P-Noy Facebook Fan Page - Communications Group does a Hello, Garci in Facebook

jhay — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 08:15:50 +0000

Update: There is now an online Petition for resignation of Sec. Coloma, and the renewal of honesty and decency in the Presidential Communication Team. You can sign the petition using this link, share it to your friends and network. Let us help President Aquino in keeping his government clean and worthy of our support.

The Communications Group does have a point¹ based on Facebook’s Terms of Use that governs Facebook Pages or Fan Pages which says that:

Only the official representative of an organization, business, celebrity, or band may create a Facebook Page².

Since Ben Totanes, is not an official representative of President Noynoy Aquino, he was then in violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use. True enough, the fan page Benigno “Noynoy” S. Aquino III Facebook Page he created in support of Aquino’s campaign for the presidency was deleted by Facebook sometime last November 9, 2010.

By his own account of what has transpired³, the Communications Group wanted to create a new and separate Facebook Page for Noynoy Aquino the President, instead of taking over the page created by Ben Totanes, which he generously offered on one condition, that the “openness” of the page – positive and negative comments about P-Noy and his administration were admitted – be maintained. After all, it was the right thing to do if P-Noy really wanted to have a democratic feedback mechanism.

However, the manner in which the Communications Group went about in sorting this out is what has drawn flak and the ire of others especially Ben Totanes and other volunteers like my self.

In a matter of just days, the official Facebook Fan Page for P-Noy’s “Likes” sky-rocketed to the level of the original Fan page. From 100,000 to roughly 1.5 million in just six days!

Transparency means honesty

My bone of contention is this: granted that the BSAIII Fan Page was in violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use with regards to Fan Pages, its creators should have been notified of the Communications Groups’ true intentions: they wanted to create an official Fan Page for P-Noy from scratch and they wanted to do it alone.

And by starting from scratch, it means that the number of its fans or “Likes” will start from nothing and must grow organically over time. But that was not what had happened. The official P-Noy Fan page was created Aug 16, 2010. From then up until the BSAIII Fan page was deleted, it had roughly over 100,000 “Likes”. Now, it has 1.5 million fans or “Likes”.

Something fishy went on. Ben Totanes found out that the Communications Group had something to do with it:

Batay sa aking mga narinig galing sa ibang kaibigan na naging kasama namin sa kampanya at may alam sa nangyayari sa Malacanang, ang BSAIII ay ini-utos ipasara ng Communications team ni P-Noy, at karamihan ng member nito, ini request sa Facebook na ipa-lipat sa “Official” Facebook Page ng wala nilang pahintulot.

So that’s why the BSAIII Facebook page was deleted and 1.4 million of its fans magically transferred to the new “official” P-Noy Facebook page.

Doesn’t it remind you of ‘Hello, Garci‘? Recall that GMA won over FPJ by just over a million votes through the vote padding and shaving (dagdag-bawas) orchestrated by former Comelec Commissioner Garcillano during the 2004 national elections.

This time around, the Communications Group with the help of the Facebook team, stole 1.4 million “Likes” from the BSAIII Fan page.

What happened to freedom of choice?

The 1.4 million fans should not have been transferred from the BSAIII Fan Page to the newly created Official P-Noy Facebook Fan Page without the consent of not Ben Totanes et al, but of the 1.4 million fans themselves. My self included.

It is for the simple reason that they were the ones who “liked” the original BSAIII Fan Page because during that time, they were in support of Noynoy Aquino and his campaign for the Presidency. However, there are those who may have lost their willingness to support him ever since he took office and became P-Noy, in other words they now “unlike” him or what he has been doing since becoming President.

“Liking” the BSAIII Fan page then and the new Official PNoy Fan Page now are two different things. The whole point is about about free choice. With what the Communications Team has done, though they are denying it⁴, is they have robbed the supporters of their free choice.

With the new Official P-Noy Fan Page now amongst the pages that I “like” they have forced upon me something that I do not. The move was tactless, disrespectful and coming from a government agency, it is a brazen display and abuse of power no matter how light this issue is.

I was a volunteer during the campaign, so I understand how Ben Totanes feels; betrayed, taken advantage of and now being sidelined by those who surround the President.

Ayaw ko nang maging boluntir para kay P-Noy, bastusan lang pala ang mangyayari.

Footnotes:

Statement on the Official Facebook Fan Page of President Benigno S. Aquino III. Source.
Facebook FAQ on Fan Pages. Source
PNoy, you just lost one die-hard supporter by Ben Totanes. Source.
Second Statement on the Official Facebook Fan Page of President Benigno S. Aquino III. Source.