Dealing with the monster

When Mayor Rodrigo Duterte admitted that city government is having a difficult time controlling the harbingers of death roaming the city’s streets on board a two-wheel contraption boasting 125 cc of horsepower, I said to myself: finally!

There’s nothing whimsical in that statement because it takes a lot of guts/humility for the mayor to concede that a.) the killings might have gotten out of control; b.) the city government has been helpless in curbing the killings.

Yes, he accepted responsibility for the killings but the heroic(?) gesture rings hollow when he exonerated the Davao City Police Office (which incidentally won the best police office in the country) of blame by claiming that killings are not unique to the city and that he was satisfied with its performance, and in the same breath, challenged his critics to produce evidence on the existence of the Davao Death Squad.

I mean, are you kidding me? For all his vaunted obstinacy, bipolar statements like that just leave everybody confused. I think he has become a victim of his own image. That’s the only explanation I could think of. Growing up, I’ve heard the rumors: of death riding on motorcycles, their scythes shooting .45 caliber of hot lead. To this day, I never heard anybody allegedly belonging to the vigilante group (if there ever was one) arrested, much less incarcerated.

Don’t get me wrong. To think there’s a single organized group out there that’s cleaning the streets of criminals would be a stretch even for a paranoid bastard like me. It would be more logical to think the killings are perpetrated on a hit basis in exchange for a monetary reward. But the paranoid in me can’t help but think the killings won’t last this long without the go signal from the police and, by extension the local government (one of the mayor’s famous words was nobody will fart in Davao City without him knowing about it) and sadly, the public itself.

Why else would the killers insist on using the same M.O. and risk arrest when each Pedro and Maria is already familiar with their methods? Unless they were meant to be a warning, a badge of immunity if you will. Back off, or else.

This tacit approval by the public can be gleaned from the comment made by a Ms. Rosie I. Tan who said:

“True the street maintenace is not something to be proud of. The infrastructure needs a little boost. But I’ll take that anytime knowing that my kids are safe when they come out of school to buy project materials in the malls. I’ll accept that as fair trade knowing that my husband will be safe on his way home from work. Maybe Vigilantism is a monster in a bottle. Maybe it has some casualties. But I’d love to hear a Davaoeno lambast the Davao Death Squad, face a kidnapper and say he forgives him for killing a loved one. Criminals harm and kill ordinary citizens. Vigilantes kill criminals. That’s justice for me.”

I’m not going to belabor her point but for a full text of here comment click here. She is right, however, I have yet to hear a massive outrage from ordinary citizens. Duterte has an explanation for it: the culture of violence that started in the late 1970s and early 1980s — when killings are a daily occurrence and as boring as watching ice melt — still pervades in the city to this day.

I don’t buy it. The killings continue because the public allowed itself to be cowed. In the words of Ms. Tan, the killings are a fair trade to knowing your husband and kids go home safe. She called it a monster in a bottle which presupposes a semblance of control but as I told her, the monster is no longer bottled up. Keeping that monster on a leash gives her a sense of security, but what’s stopping evil men from using that same monster against you and me?

Apart from desensitizing the public, the killings are breeding copycats. And yet the police and the Commission on Human Rights pointed to the lack of witnesses as the main reason why the investigations could not get off the ground. Hmm… ya think anyone likes to get involved if he/she thinks the government is the enemy? Who will protect them then, the criminals?

Let’s get it out in the open. Do I believe the city government is behind the killings? I have no proof to categorically say yes. But the funny thing is it doesn’t seem too concerned about being seen by everybody as a such, apart from the ministerial denial and directives for investigation. At the most, the local government is guilty of being phlegmatic.

The public and even the media have even stopped making the police accountable. After all, what’s the difference between one murder or two?

Now Duterte has directed the police to unmask the killers to dispel the notion that the murders are sanctioned by the state. Even to the point of asking the dying victim who was the triggerman. Knowing the tendencies and bipolar statements of City Hall, I’m going to hold my applause for this one. Let’s see how he can control this multi-headed monster.

Vengeance and mercy

Davao City is abuzz with Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s revelation that a popular parish priest, the spokesperson of Davao Archbishop Fernando Capalla, was in fact married. It was bannered by the two community newspapers here (for Sunstar’s take on the issue, click here).

Yes, Duterte all but threw the kitchen sink at Fr. Pete Lamata. And for what? Well, apparently the priest was politicking and, according to the mayor, actively blackballing him before the parishioners in his sermons. And horror of all horrors, the priest facetiously referred to Duterte’s daughter, Davao City Vice Mayor Sara Duterte, as Inday Badiday.

Now there’s nothing wrong with name-calling, he said, if used in the spirit of fun but when laced with mockery, that’s a different story altogether. And the mayor’s response? He dropped the bomb on the priest’ marriage during his public service program “Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa.”

And so here we are. Some people have been asking why our paper did not carry the story. For two days in a row, newspapers have been having a heyday writing all the angles to the story. The queries beg an explanation: was it a legitimate story?  

I say it is. On any other day, it’s a story that warrants a one-column treatment at the very least. I closed the paper on the day the story broke but I decided we wouldn’t be dragged down in the muck. Sure, a priest being actually married is a legitimate story but there’s something supercilious about the information coming from the mayor with an axe to grind. Duterte’s intentions were clear: to sully the name of the priest not at the public’s interest but to serve as a warning: he’s not beyond kicking you in the balls if you touch any of his children.

True, you wrestle with a pig and you get dirty. And the pig will like it.

I can understand his protectiveness but when you throw your children into politics, you’d expect their immaculate shirts to get dirty, wouldn’t you? Duterte is not even beyond reproach, so how can he expect his children, who are holding high positions in the local government riding on his coattails, to be untouchable? In politics, as in love, everything is fair game.  

What the story would be about instead is the reaction from priests and explanation from the archbishop.
For one, I didn’t know that you can go back to priesthood even if you’re married but apparently, based on Capalla’s statements, you can.

The archbishop admitted that indeed, Lamata as a young man “had gone through a civil marriage with a woman.”

“According to Church law this is a serious violation which brings about an automatic suspension from the priestly ministry. So Father Lamata was suspended.

“According to the same law, to be forgiven and restored to the priestly ministry, there are steps and procedures to be followed aside from humble repentance and separation,” Capalla said.

Now, that’s something I’d expect the public to be interested in rather than the information after the fact, and relayed through very suspicious intentions no less. I wonder though how the Church can accept back a priest separating from his wife in order to serve his parishioners again when it has been savagely denouncing divorce on the argument that marriage is sacred? What about the vow of celibacy then? The priest did dip his peter on somebody’s bush. Doesn’t that count for something?

Of course, my interest is purely scholarly based on the questions above. I could not care less if the parish priest is married or not. Nor am I advocating for him to be banned from practicing priesthood because that’s between him, his parishioners, and their God.

I hope he can

It’s it amazing how just barely 54 years ago Rosa Parks refused to yield her seat in a bus to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama and sparked the modern civil rights movement? With that act of defiance, her name is now forever etched in history while the driver of the bus who threatened to have her arrested will forever be relegated to small script and annotated by an asterisk. The driver’s name, by the way, was James Blake.

Nine years earlier, a lesser known act of courage was shown by Irene Morgan, who was jailed in Virginia for refusing to give up her seat to a white person on board a Greyhound bus. She was just 27 years old.

I don’t even remember what I did at that age.

And here we are. Standing behind the podium on the steps of the US capitol, a rather lean man in red silk tie. Barack Hussein Obama. The first black president of the most powerful country in the world.

The storied candidacy of Obama from a virtual unknown to the 44^th US president has been well-played by the media. Obama knows his history and the significance of his victory. For some, he has ceased to be an individual but became symbol personified. It is to his credit that rather than run away from the overwhelming expectations, he welcomed it. This is evident on his speech, which was filled to the brim with symbolisms, as he weaved from one era to another in the history of America in a preacher’s deep voice.

I was impressed by his eloquence but then again, I think part of the reason was watching George W. Bush mangle the English language for the past eight years. That doesn’t take away from Obama’s command of the language but we have to admit, any politician with an ounce of charisma and articulation will sound like Einstein standing next to Bush (I’m not looking at you Newt Gingrich). Anyway, no sense to step further on already flat shit. Moving on.

Throughout his speech (here’s the full text), Obama peddled hope, freedom and responsibility like rare gypsy’s potions. I sat in front of the tube entranced, as I watched the crowd cheer while hanging on to his every word like giddy girls over Edward Cullen pasty-white smile.

Yes, I’m even willing to suspend whatever misgivings I had before about how he dropped his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, over his controversial sermons that did not sit well with white America and choosing instead ultra-right Pastor Rick Warren (who himself made inflammatory rhetoric against homosexuals) to deliver the inaugural prayers.

I guess that’s the peril of being a president, you have to please each demographic.

At this point, I really hope he can make good on his promise to reclaim the lost faith of the rest of the world on the capacity of America to lead and erase the image of a bully that wedgies school nerds on a whim.

I wonder though, throughout his speech, did anybody notice the color of his skin other than white, red and blue?

Tatak K…

…is not vitamins I assure you. In fact, too much dosage is probably bad for your health.

Tatak K is the television (he calls it public service, but I doubt that) program of the de facto congressman of Davao City’s first district. The de facto was his father’s words, not mine. His father, by the way, is the House Speaker. The number four most important man in the country. And I ranked what, 88,999,999^th out of the estimated 89 million Filipinos? I think that’s only because I have a skewed sense of self-importance.

That means, ladies and gentlemen, 88,999,998 others are more worthy to swallow his spit.

Tatak K is the brand to sell the son. I would not even guess his political agenda but the word magnanimity was never associated with the father, maybe the son is different? What was the old maxim about the fruit never falling far from the tree or was it shit from the ass?

Tatak K is just the latest venture. There are other indications that the son has a personal agenda. How about his face emblazoned on the side of the multi-cabs donated to the communities in the first district, for example. Or could it be that he inherited his father’s penchant to put the family name on projects built “through his own initiative.”

My, my… kids do grow up so fast.

Another indication: the anointed son visited out office one day wanting to write a column. He hobnobs with the boss so no surprise there.

He was introduced to the people at the office. When the name of our chief editor was mentioned by our boss, he said: I don’t know her. Okay, how about the managing editor?

“My father doesn’t know him.”

Ah.

When my name was mentioned. Well, you could guess the answer. I generally avoid the press conferences they organize like the Black Plague.

Anyway, his request to write a political column was declined. We offered him to write a lifestyle column instead. We all shook hands, I managed a wry grin. Awkward. How about that lifestyle column?Sure, sure, he said.

We never heard from him since.

There’s a word associated with the letter K that any self-respecting kolehiyala can blurt out effortlessly.

Kainis.

New media

The week-long Kadayawan festivities in Davao City went on smoothly even as bubbles of skirmishes percolated in some areas in Mindanao. I think everybody can now breathe a collective sigh of relief knowing that we survived the festivity with not a single violent incident especially if it would have been so easy for trouble to spill over into the city.

Being the main urban center in Mindanao, Davao City is always a prime target for attacks from any rebel group or sympathizer. If Davaoenos and visitors ever felt apprehensive mingling in the crowd as they checked out the different activities, they sure did not let on. I might hate Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s guts but I give credit where credit is due. The reason why people can safely walk the streets is a testament to the management capability of the mayor. And I’m not talking about the Davao Death Squad either who have been very active weeks prior to the Kadayawan but suddenly, like clockwork, the killings stopped. I’m no psychic but I could tell right now that bodies will probably turn up in a week or so.

Like clockwork, I tell you.  

Anyway, on to more important things. During the street-dancing competition, some news photographers  complained about being excluded. Apparently, organizers introduced the green sticker this year for those who want to cover the the Indak-Indak for security reasons. Well, I’m fine with that. Organizers, however, failed to inform each newspaper organization about the new measure and so some news photographers were embarrassed when the police blocked their path. Of course, their media IDs weren’t any help.

Meanwhile, off to your right, where Bolton Street intersects with San Pedro Street, bloggers and camera club members were busy snapping away with their cameras. The green sticker emblazoned on their IDs and camera holsters. Well, apparently everybody knew about the “media briefing” where they gave out the passes except the community newspapers.  

There were many horror stories about how reporters and photographers covering the events were treated and I hate to belabor the point, but when two or more journalists are subjected to the same uncouth treatment, a disturbing pattern emerges about how people really view journalists.

I have the benefit of hindsight and so I’m looking at this objectively but I imagine it’s no fun being shooed away by police officers because they didn’t have stickers on.  Ironically enough, the role of journalists at that point was no different from the intent of Kadayawan organizers by employing bloggers and camera club members – promoting Davao City as a tourist destination.  

Now, reports are circulating that a budget of P5,500 for each photographer and blogger was alloted by the city government. While, I don’t care about the money, it would be good to audit where that fund went because somebody might have made big bucks at the expense of legitimate journalists. It’s funny to me especially when, during events, introducing journalists is always preceded by the phrase “friends from the media.” Indeed!

What’s done is done, I guess. It’s interesting to note however the influence of bloggers by virtue of their presence in this year’s Kadayawan. Of course, it’s absurd to think we might have witnessed the passing of the guards because nobody in his right mind would think that blogging have surpassed newspapers in terms of influence. Still, the new dynamics is interesting when we consider that just a year ago, they were not as widely acknowledged by the city government. In fact, it’s interesting enough for me to keep watch how they will fare in the succeeding events.  

Wait, I’m a blogger, too!  

No news is bad news

It’s been a while since I last visited here and I see that my entry about Jun Lozada struck a few nerves. It’s amazing how some people led credence to my earlier assumptions when they started to vilify the man, instead of addressing the issue.

And what’s the issue, really? It’s the allegations of corruption involving government officials and maybe all the way up to Malacañang. Didn’t the president once admitted that she knew the contract was flawed but she witnessed the signing anyway because at stake is the diplomatic relations we have with China? It’s interesting to note, however, that much later, she ordered the contract rescinded when the noise about the NBN-ZTE deal was too much.

I wonder which is better, diplomatically speaking, not going through the signing or revoking the contract on allegations of corruption while leaving ZTE officials hanging?

And stop using the argument that Lozada also profited from the systemic corruption in the government because it doesn’t lessen his credibility at all. The police know those are the best witnesses, even if they treat them like shit. In prison, they are derogatorily called snitch, rats, or worm not because their information is false but rather they disclosed what was supposed to stay as a secret in the first place.

Anyway, it doesn’t matter now. Lozada as a spectacle as lost his luster through no fault of his own. More than the machinery of the administration, he has fallen into a dangerous vortex where matter and light could not escape. Like so many others before him (Gudani, Balutan, Trillianes) he has become “yesterday’s news.”

The onset of the new media (Online news, journals, blogging, v-logs) has opened the floodgates of information that a nanosecond has been converted into a minute, a minute into a day, and four minutes a decade. One of the drawbacks of these new media is the volume of unverified information it churn out every second: from celebrities to politics (or the interchanging of the two words), from environment to economy, from neighbors to school, from ex-lovers to present squeeze.

Like this blog, for example, I haven’t written anything here and peddled it as gospel truth. That’s one of the reasons why I chose to remain anonymous because my entries, which contain my opinion, to run in conflict with my profession. In contrast, what constitute as news goes through a series of mechanisms and processes to ensure that the articles published has all the elements of accuracy, fairness, and thoroughness.  

The problem arises when people make no distinction between what’s news and what’s information. In one of the newspapers in Davao City, there’s a section which carries rumors and passing it off as more than a rumor and less than news. I don’t even know what the hell that means but the fact that it’s carried by a reputable big-name newspaper is very dangerous because it blurs the line between truth and gossip. 

Journalists should recognize their roles not only to give the public the whole and complete story so they could make informed choices, but also the right kind of story. I write that in the context of what some people are complaining about: that there’s not enough positive news in the media. I’m not saying, however, that we ignore the negative news but we make sure they are reported not at the exclusion of the other stories.

Though I draw the line when the government advises news organizations to forget politics and focus on reporting the positive economy instead. Are you kidding me? The new media is precisely the reason why journalists should be relentless in pursuing the issue to prevent the political machinery from taking advantage of the public’s shortening attention span.

Like the shortage of supply of rice, there’s no better “bad news” that came along the administration way in terms of its timing and scope because it achieved what its machinery could not: relegating Lozada into an afterthought.

I’d commend the government, however, for striking a balance between creating an atmosphere of near-panic, to assuaging the public that it’s actually doing something to address the problem.

The result is so beautiful that nobody is jumping on another issue of corruption in Quedancor, a government-financing institution under the Department of Agriculture, with 1.5 billion unaccounted funds for its swine program.

If you follow the porcine smell, where do you think it leads to?

Oink.

Luckiest Bitch

Did you just hear Joey Salceda call her boss, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, a bitch?

I believe the exact quote was: “She may be a bitch but she’s the luckiest bitch around.”

Ahahahhaha!

Remember, I called it first.

Now run Joey.

Run to the La Salle nuns who coddled Lozada. Fuck, run underneath Luli’s skirt. You could probably convince the people that you were just joking. You are the witty one, right? The funny one who often say things in jest?  

Run Joey. I don’t think your boss, a.k.a. The Bitch, found it funny. Now, let’s see how long your luck will hold out. Let’s just hope you’re as lucky as your boss.  

I was busy laughing my ass off at the television while his briefing was being replayed again and again over ANC that I vaguely heard my male co-worker retort: Just like Ann Curtis.

Huh?

“You know, her famous line in the soap Maging Sino Ka Man?”

Double huh?

“I might be a slut but I’m the best slut in town.”

Uh, okay.  

Crazy Jun

Who does Jun Lozada think he is?

After years of wading through the muck, suddenly we hear him exclaim, “Yuck?”

Was he like the Roman, Saul (five feet tall?), who persecuted and profited from Christians but got struck by lighting, blinded for bit, until he literally saw the light?

Or how about Chavit Singson, the perpetual member of Estrada’s Midnight Cabinet, who proved to be the missing link, er, linking the deposed president to the illegal numbers game, jueteng?

It’s not enough that Lozada should bring his sullied hands right to the doorsteps of Malacañang and dirty up Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s immaculate gown? It’s not enough that Lozada accuse the First Gentleman of making a commission from the NBN-ZTE deal? Can’t he see how sickly the president’s husband is?

I see a pattern here. Lozada has a very nasty habit of bringing his friends down with him. First, there was Romulo Neri. It was Neri who brought him in, taught him the ropes of the bureaucracy, the jargons that honorable men go by. It was Neri who became instrumental for him to hold the position that he once held and the opportunities and perks that come along with it.

Where else could he have gotten the now famous phrase, “moderate their greed?” He doesn’t have the imagination to conjure that. He’s just (as he admitted himself) a probinsyanong instik.

And putting words into Neri’s mouth? Jeez! As the famous phrase above signified, Neri couldn’t have said the President was “evil.” Neri’s got too much imagination on his left pinkie that will blow Lozada’s mind away.

And now this?

Now Lozada has gone too far. Now, he committed the most unholy transgression of all.

His dear, dear friend, Palace deputy executive secretary for legal affairs Manuel Gaite, is now trying to defend himself to the ruthless media before the judgmental public. That’s what he got for commiserating with Lozada.

For what, you ask?

Gaite gave Lozada’s brother, Owe, P500,000 while Lozada was in HongKong. Imagine the betrayal he must feel! Considering that Gaite only receives about P50,000 a month in salaries and allowances but he moved hell to raise that half a million pesos to help out his friend but Lozada butt-fucked him.

"It’s unfortunate that all my efforts at helping Jun Lozada have been twisted by him or made to appear as part of a scheme to prevent him from testifying in the Senate hearing on the NBN-ZTE project, " Gaite was quoted in the papers as saying.

Now Gaite must know how Julius Caesar felt when he was stabbed by his dear friend, Brutus in the name of Rome. But we all know it was more about power and ambition than it was about Rome.

I bet the rest of the 84 million Filipinos would love to have a friend like that. The money came from his own pockets, for chrissakes! That might have been the education fund for his children; or that new car he and his wife are eyeing. Can’t Lozada see the sacrifices his friend went through for him?

(Come to think of it, I’ve got lousy friends. They can’t even buy me a decent meal from Jollibee when I go hungry. Cheap-ass sons-of-bitches.)   

Why would you do that to your friend, man?

Who do you think you are?

You think your voice will be enough to bring the whole system, perfected to be milked by politicians and enterprising aides, down?

Why can’t you just heed our esteemed President’s advice and move on? Stop playing politics. What, you don’t think these investigations and grandstandings don’t have repercussions on how foreign nations look at us?

With your incessant talk and endless exposés, you’re making us all look bad before the eyes of the world.

We have a reputation, see? After all we are the Philippines. 

Home to 84 million cowards, and one bitch.

Stunk

I’ve just attended a forum where Mindanao federalists and business leaders made a big show of resuscitating the advocacy to push parliamentary-federal form of government, and normally I’m all for it but judging by the timing, I think it stunk and I had to stop myself from checking my shoes to see if I stepped on dogshit.

My suspicions were confirmed, at least to my mind, when the next day, I read in the national newspapers that charter change was revived. The timing couldn’t be better when we have Jun Lozada implicating just about anybody in the executive, except the gardener and the cook. No, wait! Could the cook be responsible for the FG’s voracious appetite? Maybe the senate investigation should also look into that.  

We have the same cast of (shady!) characters pushing for cha-cha, supposedly to push forward reforms. The script is also familiar, officials attempting to get Mindanao’s popular support by promising federalism, especially with Prosperous Nograles, a Mindanaoan himself, at the helm of the Lower House.

Wasn’t’ it just two or three years ago when cha-cha gained momentum and then speaker Jose de Venecia butt-fucked the Mindanao federalists by dropping from the agenda the crusade for federalism?

Of course, we all know that federalism was never the intention in the first place. Cha-cha was meant to catapult JDV to the position of prime minister because he could never be president and he controlled the numbers in the Lower House. At least, that was true before.

I do have a personal issue against the Mindanao federalists. There was also a debate on whether or not to effect cha-cha by way of constituent assembly (where lawmakers will decide on their own what provisions should be included in the charter), or a constitutional convention (where the delegates are voted into a body that will recommend changes to the charter).

So all the officials of the Mindanao federalists were for con-con, right? Obviously because the opportunity for patronage is limited; but in the middle of the campaign, JDV changed the rules of the game and pushed for cha-cha through con-ass, instead. And what did the federalists do? They swallowed their pride and accepted JDV’s proposal. The irony is, they were very loud in condemning the President for flip-flopping on charter change, one of the policy decisions she promised during her state of the nation address.

Who’s flip-flopping now?

Anyway, I’d be more inclined to believe that this is another diversionary tactic. When you think about it, the system itself is geared to favor enterprising officials (read: corrupt). The Senate hearings illustrated the point that corruption is systemic. Why else would politicians spend P200 million during elections – to earn the chance to serve the public?

Magicians are very good in diverting attention from the trick by spellbinding the gullible with their offhand. Like the wonderful Michael Caine said in the movie, Prestige, the process of magic could be subdivided into three parts.  The Pledge (where the magicians shows you something ordinary); The Turn (the magician takes the ordinary and makes it do something extraordinary); and The Prestige (because making something disappear isn’t enough, you have to bring it back).

Politicians would make very good magicians:

The Pledge: (where politicians promise something extraordinary) e.g. “When I get elected, you all will leave your slums to live with the rich in Insular.”

The Turn:  (the politicians make something extraordinary and raise the bar of credulity) “I will wipe out poverty and insurgency by the time I step down. We would become a first world country in 20 years.”

The Prestige: (the politicians screw Filipinos and the public keeps on coming back for more).

Now, why would the politicians who make our laws mess around with a perfect system for corruption to institute reforms?  If federal form of government is the answer to giving the local government units more autonomous to manage their own affairs and spend their own money, wouldn’t that be counterproductive for them?

But you know what? I have a bigger axe to grind. I do hope charter change will push through in order to become a witness to the biggest poetic justice of all: A parliamentary without Jose de Venecia.

Season 1 ends

Finally. Commission on Elections chair Abalos resigned yesterday and if there’s any doubt as to how the public regard him, he only needed to listen to the cheers of the crowd that gatecrashed his press conference. Well, he did listen actually, judging from the way he looked as he paused in mid-sentence everytime the crowd jeered and heckled.

It’s sad really. He could have never envisioned an end like this when he decided to go into public service. He didn’t pull his wife, Cora, aside one night and told her: “I will take the job as Comelec chair so I could mess with it and fuck the Filipino people.”

I guessed he really thought he could make a difference. I wonder what happened from THAT to what has become of him now as the second most hated man in the country, next only to First Gentleman Mike Arroyo.

But this is a good move, if only to deflect the public attention on him now (Besides the fact that he only had four months to go before his tenure ends). A few hours after his resignation, already we hear sympathies for him. Even former president Cory Aquino commiserated. Remember her during the “Hello Garci” row actively asking for Ms. Gloria to step down? The Hello Garci controversy occurred during Abalos’ watch and so did the P1.3 Mega Pacific deal.

What’s next for Abalos? I’m sure everybody wants a piece of him. The administration wants him placated for what seemed to be a betrayal, when Romulo Neri, the president’s alter-ego sided with the younger Joey de Venecia and accused the Comelec chair of giving out bribes like it’s out of stock. On the flip side, the opposition wants to sue him, hoping the pressure will push him to name names. After all, he could no longer hide under the Constitutional protection that his position afforded him, nor could he shout “executive privilege!” when he’s backed into a corner.

The equation here is simple: when Abalos is vulnerable, everybody is vulnerable.

And why shouldn’t he welcome a court trial if he says he’s as innocent as he is? That should be the proper venue for the prosecution to prove his guilt, shouldn’t it? That would be the proper venue for him to be vindicated, if not as a Comelec chair then maybe as an ordinary citizen.

In the next few days, we could expect Palace propaganda advising the public to just move on and feel sorry for a 72-year-old grandfather; Miriam Santiago pontificating; or Alan Cayetano fuming, Escudero rationalizing; and the old reliable, Ermita lying through his teeth. Where’s Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales when we really need him? He could really simplify all this confusion with a few barbs and once he speaks, he leaves little doubt to the public’s mind as to who’s guilty. Just look at who he’s defending.

Meanwhile, I have my finances to attend to, my job to go back to, and my life to pay attention to. In a few months, everybody will forget about this just like Erap would be pardoned eventually. Life does go on, doesn’t it?

Exit: Lights fade out. Curtains fall down. FG laughs.  

Would there be Season 2? Abangan! 

Tuesday

Everybody must know what's happening in Burma (Myanmar) right now. With the SPDC cracking down on dissenters, the body count just keeps on piling up. The monks won't give ground and so does the junta. Apart from a few condemnations, the ASEAN is not won't to putting more pressure on the junta. So right now, everything is bleak for the Burmese people and other nationalities in the region.

I just want to post here a picture of my Burmese friend, Zaw, a freelance journalist who I think is now going underground. You could guess what day a Burmese is born by his name. Zaw means Tuesday. This photo was taken the night he got a tattoo and up to this day, i still don't understand what it was. I asked  him right after he got his and he, too, had no freakin' idea.

He did like the design though so I guess I could live with that. 

I received an email from him a few days after Yangon, the capital, fell into chaos. And I will post here verbatim what he had to say: 

On 9/27/07, Zaw Naing Oo <oo.zawnaing@gmail.com > wrote:

 Hi…..Shooting and seven people including BBc reporter were shot…

I share my experience in shooting area in center of Yangon, Capital of Burma. It happens in angle of Anorratha and Sula Pagoda Road at 1:30. Over 100000 people are sitting tight and singing the Buddhasim wishing song by paying respect to Solidiers guarding on the Sula Road . Other people are standing and looking at the crowd around.People add more and more,near 150000,, they make wishing and sing national authum.At 1:30, The four trucks bring the solidiers and police who wear the full equipment ,, drive from the diffrerent side of Sule pagoda road..The trucks pass across the people without horning with hight speed to Sule Pagoda where over 50 soldiers  guarding sulae road facing to peace protesters facing to sulae pagoda . Soldier and poeople so close , 30 feets the trucks stop in the crowdee by waiting the wire fence to be open . So poeople around the track . At that time ,

two persons in the crowed find the stones to throw it to the track . Other people try to catch them to prevent throwing . One of them run to truck to do throwing . I follow to catch them when i get him near the track , so close in front of gun . At that time ,one remaining at the back throw a stone , at one the soldier shoot to people directly by waving the gun .We run to different direction and they follow and shot people . On the sulae road , we run to  Trader Hotel side , a university student boy running in front of me lays down on the ground because a bullet was on his waist . I hear seven people including BBC reporter , foreigner were shot and injured , arrested over 30 peace demonstrators ,

When I write this story I hear that people and soldier are fighting in the southen part of the yangon , others riot are happening and shooting also everywhere in Yangon .

I will send a lot of information about shooting ang killing…on time..

Zaw
 

When I first heard the Burmese language, the phrase "a staccato of gunfire" came to mind. Devoid of the mellifluous quality of  the Filipino language, for example. I thought the Burmese language lacked the pause, the inflection, and the tension as words string swiftly together like the sound of two fingers pounding keys of a rusty typewriter.  

But they're actually a gentle people. Then again, you could never account for man's capacity for cruelty when the choice boils down to death and self-preservation.   

Just a shout out to my brother Zaw.  Give the bastards a good fight. 

Noodle

Following the Senate investigation into the ZTE deal has been very depressing — from the way the senators comported themselves, Juan Ponce Enrile’s supercilious smirk (I’d love to punch that wry grin off his face), Miriam Santiago’s antics – but last Wednesday’s hearing did fling an extra bone my way: watching Comelec chair Benjamin Abalos squirm.  

I knew it was going to be good by the way Abalos has been running the elections like a goddamn personal playground over the years, ramming his shod on each overeager politician’s ass as they grin and bear it. Abalos managed to wrangle himself out of the “Hello Garci” and P1.3 Mega Pacific scandal hearings “in aid of legislation.”

Not this time… no siree! The tough bully was finally given his comeuppance.

Before Miriam Santiago walked out of the hearing over reasons as palpable as her Ilonggo accent, she managed to lay down the predicate: that the investigation couldn’t be possibly be made a venue to sift the truth in cases of two persons hurling accusations at each other, while hiding behind half-truths and half-lies. To illustrate, at one point during the hearings Abalos called former Socioeconomic and Planning Sec. Romulo Neri a bare-faced liar when the latter accused the Comelec chair of offering him 200; Neri’s reaction? He said he has a vivid recollection of the events that transpired at Wack-Wack golf club. The question now is who committed perjury?

To digress, could Santiago have walked out to save face? I mean, after Neri swore that Abalos offered him 200 million(?), there’s no defending the Comelec chair after that point. Not because Neri’s character is impeccable but rather on Abalos’ reputation. As far as perceptions go, the term character and the name Abalos seem a logical inconsistency; unless taken into context of the movie, where “character actors” generally refer to villains. Not to mention that the red-faced Abalos has been caught many times with his hand inside his pants.

I only have one rule when confronted with the he-said-she-said scenario: whoever has more to lose is most probably lying.

Now, I’m not trying to dissect the political and economic repercussions of the continuing investigations or even if the hearings were warranted in the first place. I leave that up to the economists, political analysts and columnists.

I’m just saying that most senators don’t exactly possess the unbiased personality of the justices, for example. All too often, the lofty collective intention to fiscalize the actions of our officials will eventually be deflated by personal motives.

Look at Nene Pimentel: Why does he have to sink so low as to name somebody as Abalos’s mistress? Couldn’t he stop to think about the effects of his accusation, based on text messages no less, on the girl? And how could that, pray tell, impact on nailing down Abalos for allegedly brokering the ZTE deal?

The only logical explanation, of course, is he felt bitter because his son Koko lost due supposedly to cheating in last May 2007 elections under Abalos’ watch. Unfair? Maybe… but he brought it upon himself.

The statement of the year however comes from Abalos’ wife who said that after a prostate problem, her husband has become, well, a limp noodle.

Unless somebody comes forward that could prove to be the smoking gun in identifying the personalities behind the pay-offs, the investigation will go nowhere. So I have a suggestion: Since the grease money has already been advanced, why doesn’t the Supreme Court, who earlier issued a temporary restraining order, just junk the ZTE deal?

Whoever floats at Pasig river, I pronounce guilty.

Melissa

In a square inch panel,
We watch her die.
The bushy man pinions her pelvis
to the crimsoned floor.
His barbed thighs
cleave at milky, supple skin,
as his insolent tongue probes,
prods, and trespasses.

Frayed between bones and concrete,
We hear her screams.
Muted by the same
technology that bestowed us 3G,
stayed the specter of AIDS,
and cloned an unsuspecting sheep.
The bushy man snickers, while he squeezes
the twine that stifles her hands.

A peppery liquid fell
From the crack.
With nothing to scratch, she cut
into her palms.
Wishing pain could subdue cruelty.
Wishing she bleeds dry.
 
Outside, the shadows descend
on the Arabian desert. The breeze hip-hops
and tangos over the soil.
Cold toes kissing blisters as it carpets
silhouetted avenues.
A spattering of laughter
awakens the night.  

The  throbbing rod
Pushes inside her.
Inexorable in its single-minded purpose.  
The ache streaks in concentric
pattern from her loins to
her skull, consuming the air around her.
Corrupted by that single thrust,
the climax of all fairy tale stories
abruptly impeded by the words
“they lived happily ever after,”
as the princess falls
to the arms of her prince.
His foul breath treaded on the promise
To the love she left behind.
Her body knew nobody,
yet callused hands now  
Sullies her neck, breasts, navel.
 
As the bushy man thrusts,
She remembers Jun-jun who has
school fees due next week.
 
As the bushy man thrusts,
An image of Mama flashes,
her drooping breasts no longer
holds the juice of life that
sustained all her seven children
even as hunger ravished her
once-lithe arms.

Of the days when they slept with the firewood
remained unlit.
As famished tears blended with the piss
and sweat on the mattress.

Of rendezvousing politicians,
the legs of their pretty mistresses
high up in the air
in homage to his manhood,
in reverence to his pockets
as Inang Filipina,
her flag-like frock
scrunched up to her waist,
get sodomized from behind.
Over and over.

The bushy man ejaculates.
Her belly contracted to deny
an unfamiliar progeny
of dunes and black gold.
She senses it
Shooting up from her vagina,
to her cervix and to
God knows where.
She hears belt being buckled
as she huddles in a
fetal position,
closing her eyes tightly
in supplication to
the diety who ditched her:
"Please,don't let me
bear his child."

From somewhere,

she hears his fading footsteps.
The paved floor creates
a different resonance
from the bamboo slits back home,
upsetting a memory.
Of her mama walking slowly
away after tucking her to bed as
the treacherous bamboo floor
always stirs up the cat.

She reaches out for
the sheets to wash herself
of him, knowing it's
pointless.
She could still smell
The bushy man's stench
from yesterday.

And tomorrow.
Tomorrow, his friends will come.

No longer will she feel
an innocent kiss.
No longer will she welcome
a fleeting touch without cringing.

P.S.

To "Melissa" who got raped by a fucking Arab in Saudi: You don't know me and I seriously doubt you will ever get to read this but I'm sorry for the nightmare that you're in and for your dreams that we trampled. Vice President Noli de Castro already instructed officials in the Philippine embassy in Saudi to come rescue you. Could you please make way for them? They need space to bend over and pull down their pants as they allow your rapist to butt-fuck them again for the chance to send more like you to their deaths. Oh, did you know your favorite government officials are investigating how you managed to get there? Seems like it's going to be your fault why you got raped.

Parteey!

When the three groups Kilosbayan Foundation, Akbayan and Bantay Katarungan Foundation filed a petition to the Supreme Court to direct the Commission on Elections to reveal the nominees of the accredited party-list groups, they were not being fractious.

When the three groups asked the Supreme Court to reverse the resolution of the Comelec last April 3 to deny their appeal for the poll body to reveal the names of party-list nominees, they were not being obstinate.

The Comelec said that revealing the names of the party-list would be contrary to law and

at first glance it might seem that way. Sec.7 of RA 7941 or the party-list law prohibits the Comelec from revealing the names of the party-list candidates but the last sentence, which states that “the names of the party-list nominees shall not be shown on the certified list,” proves crucial.

It doesn’t say the Comelec should not tell the public the names of the candidates, it just forbids the Comelec from printing the names in the certified list.  

Indeed, Sec. 2 of the same law directs that the State “shall develop and guarantee a full, free and open party system in order to attain the broadest possible representation of the party, sectoral or group interests in the House of Representatives.”

Wouldn’t concealing the name of nominees defeat the purpose of a full, free and open party system?

This is very important, especially in the light of reports that surfaced accusing Malacañang of taking advantage of the party-list system to muster more numbers in the Lower House to ensure the survival of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

We specifically refer to the alleged secret memorandum on October 16, 2006 addressed to the President informing her of the creation of the Office of External Affairs for Special Concerns Group (OEA-SCG). Apparently, the special concern of this office is to ensure the victory of its allied party-list groups this coming election.

The Garci tapes, in fact, had Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano discussing the chances of five party-list groups endorsed by Ms. Arroyo. Two of the five mentioned, the Veterans’ Freedom Party and Ang Laban ng Indiginong Filipino, won respective seats in the House of Representatives.

According to the law, the sectors that should be represented by the party-list groups shall include labor, peasant, fisherfolk, urban poor, indigenous cultural communities, elderly, handicapped, women, youth, veterans, overseas workers, and professionals.

A study of the partial list of backers and nominees of party-list groups accredited by the Comelec shows sons of powerful politicians, former police and military officials, a Department of Interior and Local Government undersecretary, Cabinet members, Pharmaceutical executives, anti-communists, a convicted child molester, a staunch advocate of Charter change and the brother of the Comelec chair Benjamin Abalos.

Makes you wonder just whose sector they represent and what interest they advocate other than their own.

Remembering

I think it's interesting how we view the world through America's own perverted glasses.  The recent  slaughter at the US university campus by a South Korean student stunned Filipinos more than the atrocities that occurred throughout the world. It even got banner treatment by the Inquirer.

Let's see…after the hail of bullets, 33 people were killed including the gunman. 

Elsewhere in the world…

1. Car bombs in Iraq killed 190 people, mostly Shiites and Kurds. The attacks came in the wake of a truck bomb in Baghdad market last February killing 130 people. Since the United States invaded (there's no other word for it) Iraq, nearly a million Iraqis have been rendered homeless and thousands killed.

2 . There's an ongoing genocide in Darfur in West Sudan and more than 200,000 have been killed since 2003 and more than two million people displaced. The political and ethnic violence has now spilled over to Chad and Central African Republic, Reuters reported. 

3. Insurgency in Muslim-dominated provinces in south Thailand has so far killed more than 2,000 people. Targetting Buddhists and Christians, most of the deaths were downright murders.  The junta, hoping to quell the attacks, hired militias and mercenaries. Bad move since it resulted to more abuses with minimum accountability. 

4. Nearly 500 people, including 135 school children, in China were hospitalized after a fertilizer plant leaked a huge amount of sulfur dioxide. The colorless gas, which can cause respiratory problems, remained in the air due to heavy fog in the area, the AFP report said.

5. According to the UN, the percentage of people aged 15 to 49 who are HIV positive is 24 percent in Botswana, 23 percent in Lesotho, 20 percent in Namibia and Zimbabwe, 19 percent in South Africa, 17 percent in Zambia and a whopping 33 percent - one person in three - in Swaziland. Okay, if that's too abstract for you, consider this: the life expectancy in Swaziland land is 31, 35 in Botswana and Lesotho, 47 in South Africa and Namibia, 38 in Zambia and 37 in Zimbabwe. 

6. Spring floods along with the melting winter snow drenched Afghanistan for about a month now. In the Afghan capital of Kabul city alone, more than 500 homes were damaged, 900 families displaced and a further 1,700 might be forced to flee. Its vice president declared 13 of the country's 34 provinces as disaster areas.

7.  In 2000-2002, the total number of hungry people worldwide had risen to 852 million: 815 in developing countries, 28 million in countries in transition and nine million in industrialized countries.Today, according to the World Food Programme, one in nearly seven people are not fed right. In the Philippines, said the Philippine Daily Inquirer report, 15 million people are living less than US$1 a day.(of course, the report used was old data, the World Bank actually praised the Philippines for curbing poverty and the number of hungry stomachs).

The Virginia Tech massacre when taken into this context pales in comparison; 33 students killed seemed tame.  

If I'm going to ask you just what single  shocking thing that occurred throughout the world that you remember over the past decade and I most guarantee you that the world trade center bombings would be on top of your list.  Do you remember Abu Ghraib? The genocide of Somalis in Mogadishu? How about Bosnia?

Exactly. 

I'm not gloating here. I know it's easy to be envious of the United States being the most powerful country in the world. It's also easy to withhold our sympathy. Who pities the richest kid on the block who bullies everybody around on account of his status? 

But nobody should have to die like that. Somebody once said that the most tragic thing to see is a parent burying his/her child and I agree.  The memories of the victims should not be left to their families alone. A single murder should raise an upheaval and a thousand anguished cries to the heavens. Empathy makes us human even if murder cuts into our humanity like hot knife on butter, the scars left are never clean-cut.  

I'm not saying that we should dismiss the university murders as trivial. Just be wary about looking at the crime through the myopic glasses that the United States, who does tend to overreact and throw its weight around, may hand to us. Sure, we commiserate but that doesn't take away our right to disagree. There are 100,000 South Koreans studying in the US right now and there could be racial backlash. We shouldn't allow that to happen.  

I'm not saying here that we shouldn't remember. I'm saying we don't forget.

Higher cause

If you're a government worker and you think about retiring anytime this year, you might lay down on that plan for a while.

It seems that bright boys in Congress dipped into the retirement payment of state workers worth P3.6 billion and realigned it for something more consequential — to nearly double their pork barrel allocation from P6.24 billion in the 2006 budget to P11.445 billion this year.

Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya was quoted by the Inquirer as saying that his office submitted P6.2 billion but it was increased by the bicameral committee (composed of both the Senate and the House of Representative).

“From an initial glance at the budget, the P3.6 billion came from the retirement pay of government workers,” he said.

Simply put, if the Department of Budget could not find another source to reimburse the retirement pay, about 8,000 government workers who are due to retire this year won't get anything.

I guess the retiring government employees would have to sacrifice this bit of inconvenience for the country. State workers already spent their whole lives in the service of the public, why not extend their service after retirement? Don't be such selfish ingrates as to deny your retirement pay from our distinguished representatives. I mean, where's our sense of patriotism?

After all, our legislators are only doing this for the benefit of their constituents. Forget that the timing is suspect since it's election season; forget reports that as much as 30 percent in commission from the projects approved by the legislators goes to their pockets; forget that project allocation by Congress is already redundant to the duty of local government units to identify and implement projects within their boundaries.

That's just talk man. And talk, just like pirated DVDs from china, is cheap.

Sleeping better at night

The long-awaited anti-terror bill, now euphemistically dubbed Human Security Act after the Senate supposedly defanged it, was finally signed into law by President Gloria. Sen. Franklin Drilon harped on how senators took extra care to ensure that civil liberties won't be trampled with the implementation of the law.

Come again? The problem with our senators and the opposition is they habitually underestimate Gloria and her minions to fiddle with a few laws to do what they want. She wouldn't have survived this long otherwise.

Sure, on paper the law seems toothless; sure, the ambivalence as to the definition of a terrorist was reduced, but look at the composition of the Anti-Terrorism Council tasked to oversee the implementation of the law:

1. Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita
2. Justice Sec. Raul Gonzales
3. Foreign Sec. Alberto Romulo
4. DILG Sec. Ronaldo Puno
5. Finance Sec. Margarito Teves
6. NSA Sec. Norberto Gonzales

Leaves you with a warm, fuzzy feeling inside, doesn't it?

Two of those members were allegedly responsible for crafting a death plan for communist insurgents and legal fronts allied with the left. Those same members also pushed for an all-out war against the NPA. A war which was savagely defended by the other Gonzales. Yes, the same one who, irony or ironies, mans our scales of justice. (When asked what to do if civilians are caught in the crossfire in the all-out war vs. communist rebels, Gonzales remarked: "You can't avoid collateral damage…sometimes there are bombings and civilians might get hurt). Still, another of the council's members engineered the greatest coup of all — wresting the presidency from FPJ, a very popular actor who would have been our president. Not the greatest perhaps, but definitely not much (much!) worse.

The next obvious question is: do you expect this body to follow the rules because the Senate said so?

Petchay

I couldn't let this one pass.

How quickly we forget. Rep. Prospero Pichay is gunning for a Senate seat when just a few months ago he filed a resolution to convene the Lower House into a constituent assembly to change the 1987 Constitution. While he toed the administration line (lie?) that the changes would revolve around economic provisions, the real intent was palpable — to eliminate the "obstructionist" Senate, which admittedly has been a thorn in the side of Malacanang.

Now, he wants us to install him into the very institution he sought to abolish? What hypocrisy!

Ang pichay hindi tinatanim sa Senado, kundi sa lupa.

The buck stops there

The title is not a misquote of US President Harry Truman's "the buck stops here" phrase which meant that the ultimate responsibility for each government policy, positive or otherwise, rests on his shoulders being the chief executive.

The title, however, aptly describes how Gloria runs things in these parts.

Apparently, our dear president sought Europe's help in investigating the string of political killings in the country as if they know how our country works. With over 700 murders of militants and nearly 50 journalists under its watch and with no suspect to show for it, how could EU help? Offer more alms?

Of course, this is nothing more than good PR, a face-saving scheme for the president to claim that she has done something. She could not anymore ignore the killings, not when the international community is breathing closely down her neck. In the hallowed halls of Malacanang, she declared: "I aim to stop this once and for all."

Tough words. But she couldn't stop this "once and for all" by running to Europe for help. What does that do, however, is offer her a way out. Hey, she's doing something, right? It's Europe's and the Melo Commission's fault they could not convince the witnesses to come out in the open.
Hell, it's the witnesses' fault they aren't coming out to testify! Anybody but hers.

It's pretty remarkable how quick our president is to own up to all the good things about this country while passing the buck to every negative news. Remember the economy? well, it's because of her economic reforms with a dash of her BEAT THE ODDS program, add in a pinch of super regions and RVAT for good measure, add salt to taste and voila! We have a recipe for a sound economy.

With the rise in body count, what does she do? Why, create the Melo Commission of course. A toothless body that would eventually bear the blame for the lack of government action. Weeks into the probe, the body then blamed the lack of willing, well , bodies who are… err… willing to testify.

When the Commission on Human Rights and progressive organizations accused Gen. Jovito "The Butcher" Palparan of a hand in the killings, when his stints in Southern Tagalog, Nueva Ecija and Mindoro always left a trail of bodies, he earned not a dressing down but a special mention from Gloria's state of the nation address (granted, the evidence is circumstantial but the coincidence should at least warrant a ministerial probe).

If she's really serious, heads would have rolled by now. Order police station commanders to solve each extra-judicial killing under their jurisdiction or it's off with their heads. She's had six years to do something about the problem. She's not some figurehead in some banana republic…. oh, wait. Fuck!

(Little Red Riding Hood asks the big wolf posing as Gloria: "Granma, why do you have such long fingers?"

"All the better to point to others, my dear," said Gloria as wolf).

Of Glass Houses

The phrase “people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones” was first traced to Geoffrey Chaucer’s in his Troilus and Criseyde in 1385. Some centuries later, Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Don’t throw stones at you neighbors’ if your own windows are glass.”

These gave birth to the figure of speech “to live in a glass house,” which essentially means vulnerability. Simply put, that means we shouldn’t criticize others if we are as flawed, or even worse as they are.

The above figure of speech comes to mind after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo urged Burmese Prime Minister Soe Win over the weekend to free opposition leader and Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and take concrete steps towards democracy.

The call to free 61-year old Suu Kyi, who has been under arrest on and off since 1989, is warranted and should be the primary agenda to every Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit for it would be pointless to discuss economic cooperation while condoning the actions of delinquent members.

But the call coming from Ms. Arroyo just leaves a bad taste in the mouth in the heels of international demands for her to clean up her own backyard littered with human rights violations and political killings.

Consider the 2006 Amnesty International (AI) report, which blasted the Arroyo administration due to a sharp increase in vigilante killings. Since 2001, according to the report, there have been 785 extra-judicial killings. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines also reported that bullets felled 48 journalists since the President assumed power.

It’s noteworthy to remember that not one suspect to the more than 800 murders served jail term. Out of the 114 political killings recorded by Task Force Usig, the body created to look into the murders, 27 cases have been filed in court while the rest are still under investigation. Of the 27 cases, the police only arrested suspects in three suspects. Up to now, no conviction has been reported.

Because of Malacañang record, or lack thereof, the Council of the European Union; the Finland, Spain, France, Canada and Japan governments; the Asian Human Rights Commission; the Human Rights Watch; and religious groups like the United Church of Christ in Canada and the United Methodist Church in the US called on Ms. Arroyo to do something about the killings.

The Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce, along with Wal-Mart, Gap, Polo Ralph Lauren, Liz Claiborne, Phillips Van Heusen, American Eagle Outfitters, also demanded a stop to the killings or risk losing investments.

In light of her dismal record, I wonder how the President got the idea that she has the moral authority to make the call? Ms. Arroyo’s insistence for Burma to clean up its act is nothing but hot air — a case of a kettle calling the pot black.

Would the Burmese Junta listen? Not from a fellow delinquent, it won’t.