GOTCHA By Jarius Bondoc (The Philippine Star)
The next logical reform, after the illegalization of the congressional and presidential pork barrels, is to slash that of the Judiciary’s too. Then, onto local governments’ “pork” – of governors and provincial board members, mayors and city councilors. Next should be once and for all to outlaw political dynasties that feed on “pork.” Lastly, free up elections, to allow the lost thinking class – 11 million overseas workers – to cast ballots and drown out the “pork”-dependent vote-sellers.
None of that is about to happen, though. Instead of pushing for change, as it had promised to get into administration, the ruling Liberal Party (LP) is doing the opposite. It is threatening to impeach the justices of the Supreme Court. Motive: make them restore Congress’ Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), and Malacanang’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP). That way the LP can parcel anew P200 million “pork” a year per senator and P70 million per congressman, and P200 billion to the President to share with Cabinet members and party mates.
Not only that. The LP is scheming too to lift constitutional term limits. The fundamental law is to be revisited no longer for liberalization, like delimiting foreign investments in the media, or restructuring, like switching from centralized to federal form. The aim is purely partisan. That is, to allow an all-powerful because single-term President to run for reelection. Too, so senators and congressmen can go beyond two six-year and three three-year terms, respectively. In the process the LP also will delete that pesky anti-political dynasty provision of the Constitution. To clinch the people’s ratification of the constitutional mangling, and consequent extended tenures, the LP naturally will use the restored congressional and presidential pork barrels. With such political and financial control, LP lawmakers and Cabinet men can then continue to plunder the people’s money without fear of audit or prosecution. For semblance of reform, it will send to jail oppositionists who have the temerity to imitate its evil ways.
LP core leaders invented the DAP, as a multiplier of the PDAF, precisely to entrench themselves in power in the name of “matuwid na daan.” Their moves are as deliberate as Marcos plotting one-party rule and plunder through martial law.
As for the Filipino thinking class, millions more of them will leave for work and permanent residence abroad. To be left behind are the vote sellers, robbed blind by the LP’s Abad, Abaya, Alcala et al.
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Three of countless reactions to the three-part reprint of Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio’s lecture, “Historical Facts, Lies, and Rights,” debunking Beijing’s ownership claim over the South China Sea:
Brian Homan, Subic Freeport, Zambales: “An Australian, I have lived in the Philippines since 1978. I have a story about the balangay. On Aug. 21, 1983 (the day Ninoy Aquino was assassinated), working with the National Museum, we discovered the first ancient shipwreck in the Philippines. There were enough mid-15th century wooden hull pieces to identify it as a balangay. It was carrying Ming Dynasty dragon jars and blue-&-white porcelain. Some artifacts are on display in my restaurant-museum, Vasco’s, on Argonaut Highway.
Avelino Zapanta, Yahoo!: “This concerns the supposed migration of Austronesian-speaking people in 2000 BC from Taiwan down to Batanes all the way to what is now Indonesia, then to Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia – giving the historical impression that we might have descended from peoples that thrived in Taiwan or China. The book of Oppenheimer, Oxford University, is about Sundaland, the Lost Eden. Through archaeological, historical, linguistic, and DNA scholars of Oxford, Oppenheimer established that as early as 15000 BC there existed the continent of Sunda, made up of what is now Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, which, after three ice ages and earth warming, submerged, leaving a very shallow continental shelf (the deepest being about 121 meters of current sea level) in much of what is now South China Sea, or West Philippine Sea. The book claims that the real Eden, the beginning of mankind, started in Sunda (now Indonesia). The Sunda people migrated in phases after the three Ice Ages, spreading to South Asia and the east coast of Africa, primarily Madagascar, northward to Taiwan, China, Siberia, and eastward to what is now Oceania. Strongest, latest, more modern evidence they put up is the DNA trails of the Sunda people. In terms of linguistics, the Indo-Malay language spread throughout those areas, and one very concrete word that thrives today is the name of the game “sungka,” which is the same “changka” (with slight variations) all the way to Madagascar, played with seashells of pebbles on a wooden plank.
“After the Sunda migrations, there were reverse migrations; e.g., the one Justice Carpio narrated, from Taiwan downwards to Oceania; the second being the Buddhists and the Muslims; and the third the European voyages of discovery.
“One of the post-Sunda reverse explorations was that of the 15th-century Chinese Admiral Zheng, who also reached Africa. But a Chinese emperor stopped such adventures and decreed the isolation of China for centuries, such that only the brigand Limahong successfully settled briefly in the Philippines until driven away by the Spaniards. The 17th-century explorers made the mistake of naming the waters of the Sunda continent ‘South China Sea,’ which is giving Beijing the temerity to claim it as a Chinese lake.”
Bert de Guzman, Manila: “I hope you can condense Justice Catpio’s lecture in your column in Pilipino Star Ngayon, for your readers in Filipino.”
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E-mail: jariusbondoc@gmail.com
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