The central issue
The article that you will be reading appeared on Business World Online, under Yellow Pad — By Filomeno S. Sta. Ana III. I’ve been meaning to write something like this, naunahan nya lang ako pramis hehehe. And he read my mind. At dahil mas magaling syang sumulat, I thought I’d share you na lang what he wrote, especially to my newest wacko best friend Benigno err Benjamin Kritz for deep inside them, they are actually rooting for Noynoy Aquino. But truly, wa biro, he captured pretty much what I have been writing here in the Barrio about Noynoy’s candidacy.
I love his take on the ubiquitous campaign crap on anything about “mahirap” and laughed at Macapagal’s blunder on the 2nd run, precisely because yumaman ang Macapagal instead of the “mahirap” that he campaigned for in the first place. Now, do you still have any questions why Mikey made millions of dollars on a mere P50,000 peso? Wizard huh?
On Gibo? I personally like his credentials. But I do not like his association with Gloria and the article was right on target. He said, “Gibo betrays the kind of intelligence he possesses”. It’s a great article. I’m sorry, I kinda stole a bit of thunder from what he has written, but here goes…
Wait! Pahabol! Have we just been visited by our dear Senator Kiko Pangilinan?! Lookie! Lookie! Say “Hi” to Sharon, Senator! Hahaha!
Posted on 08:56 PM, December 20, 2009
Yellow Pad — By Filomeno S. Sta. Ana III
The central issue
The central issue for the 2010 elections is governance. The wide lead that Noynoy Aquino enjoys in poll surveys stems from the people’s desire for good government. Good government is the exact opposite of Gloria Arroyo’s administration. The people will vote to repudiate Gloria’s corrupt, egregious rule. The people will choose Noynoy, for he embodies honesty, integrity, and trust — the necessary attributes to clean up government and institute the hard reforms. As I will discuss later, a program that revolves around good governance, institutions, and accountability is a pro-poor program. Other candidates try to polish their image as pro-poor. Manny Villar, Noynoy’s main challenger, waves his poor origins. It is of course absurd reasoning to claim that one is pro-poor because he comes from the poor. That was the line of Gloria’s father Diosdado, the poor boy from Lubao. Politics made Disosdado wealthy; he was able to acquire a home at Forbes Park and was able to send his children to elite schools. But the Filipino poor rejected Disodado when he sought reelection for president. He failed to uplift the welfare of all, despite his pro-poor rhetoric. His bungled presidency led to his humiliating defeat in the 1965 election. He thus paved the way for the rise of Ferdinand Marcos, another rabble-rousing politician who claimed he was not born rich. So Manny Villar is merely rehashing a tired slogan of discredited leaders — “galing sa mahirap.” The fact is Villar is so rich, helped along the way by the use of his political power, the C-5 controversy just being the tip of the iceberg. Beside Villar, Noynoy Aquino is reduced to middle-class status. Indeed, some call him the middle-class Cojuangco. But of course the rich can also be pro-poor. Jose Maria Sison, whose class origin is that of a big landlord, has ideologically remolded himself and has become a proletarian vanguard. He and his party are supporting Villar, because the party platform of the Nacionalista Party, they say, approximates the program of the national democrats. My colleague Manuel Buencamino no longer calls the NDF the National Democratic Front. In light of the Left’s united front with Villar, he now calls the NDF the Nacionalista Democratic Front. And all the while, I thought that the national democrats viewed the Nacionalista Party and the Liberal Party as no different from each other. That one is Pepsi Cola and the other is Coca Cola. But Villar was caught on TV, when interviewed by Ricky Carandang, saying that platforms are easy to copy and are therefore non-essential. And so, the Nacionalista program to fight poverty is a hodgepodge of Marcos’s vision of Bagong Lipunan, the NDF’s revolutionary program, and the trapo promise of a better world for everyone. And let’s not forget Miriam Defensor Santiago’s contribution to the platform. It’s turning out to be a mad platform. The Nacionalista program does not specifically spell out how to combat poverty and create jobs for the poor. At least Gibo Teodoro has a more transparent program — continue the program initiated by Arroyo, which is trumpeted to have brought forth high growth, only to be negated by the global recession. Indeed, the growth rate was above the average for some years. It was growth fueled by consumption, thanks to the foreign exchange remittances of Pinoy overseas workers. The volume of remittances has been as big as the foreign direct investments that have flowed to high-growth Vietnam. But unlike Vietnam’s economic performance, Philippine growth is unsustainable and hollow, unable to spur productive investments and create sufficient quality jobs. The fact is, the Philippine economy would have registered the same growth rate, even without Arroyo. Some highly educated people are attracted to Gibo because he projects an image of firmness and intelligence. But Gibo’s program is Gloria’s program. His firmness thus shows — as he does not let go of Gloria’s economics and politics. But by being with Gloria,, Gibo betrays the kind of intelligence he possesses. Of all the main candidates for president, Noynoy is the only one who has identified the country’s main challenge at this juncture — repudiating the bad governance that has harmed Philippine economic and political life. Noynoy has time and again articulated that he will restore people’s trust in government by being the exact opposite of Gloria. Bad government — expressed in terms of the massive corruption, the erosion of the rule of the law, the damage to political and economic institutions, the flip-flopping of policies — is the central problem. Studies done by economists and other social scientists as well as by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have identified bad governance as a main binding constraint on growth and investments. Noynoy’s program to put in place governance and institutional reforms, including exacting accountability from officials who committed high crime, addresses two critical concerns: Rebuilding Philippine politics and creating the conditions for sustained long-term growth. To illustrate, the new administration will be facing a serious revenue problem as a consequence of the Arroyo administration’s fiscal recklessness and its lack of interest in pursuing tax reforms. The implication is that the new administration must raise substantial revenues not only to avert a fiscal crisis but also to finance pro-poor, pro-jobs programs. Only a credible leader, one who can command the people’s trust mainly because he embodies clean and honest government, can ask citizens to rally around key reforms.
Mr. Sta. Ana coordinates Action for Economic Reforms (www.aer.ph).
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reynz is one Uragon and a Filipino-American, has many years of public accounting & auditing, broadcast investments, housing tax credits and equity investments as his background. Based in the US, he maintains his personal and humor blog at reyna elena dot com. A graduate of Aquinas U, he went to GWU and Temple U in the United States.
Diosdado was never never a good president who only bring shame,at least i thought that gloria as an illigitimate child este as intelligent child (read:tuso),will lift the name of macapagal when she sits in office,but she bring 10x shame more than his father.
hi Kiko, paki hi mo na rin ako kay Cesar este kay Sha, anu ba yan,nagiging mali mali tuloy ako kanina pa nyahahah
AYYY! CHIKA TO! DI KO ALAM TOOO!!!
ngeeek?nagbibiro ka ba kamahalan?
kabet ni diosdado ang nanay nya na syang isinampa sa malacaniang at ipinakilala sa buong bansa,ang nanay ni gloria maliit din pero mas panget kesa kanya nyahaha.
hindi! hindi ko talaga alam to hahaha! basta ang alam ko, puro kurakot ang mga yan hahaha!
like father like dawter ba hahahaha.
hahahaha kala ko ang itatanong mo e yung kay kiko at cesar hahaha
trulalu ba ito, illegimate si gloribee??? akala ko, biyudo si diosdado macapagal nung napangasawa si doktora eva. gosh, i need to study the philippine history once more…hehehe…
by the way, hello kay senator kiko. paki-beso na lang ako kay ate shawie at sa kanyang gorgeous daughter na si kc. ~_~
happy holidays to all! ~_~
this is madness, masyado ng nagiging senseysyon si noynoy, at
masyado na ang kanyang atensyong nakukuha (for free) litsi, pag si noynoy ang nanalo, uhaaaaaaaaa sa kankungan kami pupulutin nyahaha.
Gordooooon, litsi ka lumabas ka dyan, free kang mag post dito sa barrio,walang bayad to, free dito promise jejeje
HAHAHAHA!!!
kung my power lang ako ng pangkukulam kukulamin ko tong si Dibk eh,
susundutin ko ng karayon ang pwet ng kumilos at gumawa ng ingay,at magpadala ng magpo post dito,litsi,kung bakit naman kasi ako pinanganak na bobo yan tuloy di ako makagawa ng matinong post nyahahahaha.
typo, Dick**
akoy walang kabilib bilib dyan sa mga pro poor ek ek na yan eh,mas nakakatakot at nagiinit ang ulo ko yang kandidato pag pinangalandakang pro poor,mangampanya nalang minus pro poor ek ek nakakaasar,si villar e business man at walang business man na yumaman dahil pro poor sya,yumaman sa katusuhan at
paggamit sa dugo at pawis ng mahihirap,ganyan din naman ang mga cojuangco family,ninakaw nung mga ninuno nila yung lupa,
pinalayas yung mga taga hacienda nung araw ay
itinaboy, minasaker yung mga farmers ng hacienda,asan ang pro poor dyan?
magsitigil.
ok lang Gordon,kahit walang bag na hermes ok lang,kahit isang post lang dito masaya nako bwahahahaha.
parang sa Amerika yan. puro kalechehan ang impaktong campaign crap na mga pro-poor shit. dito sa Amerika, puro anti-drug chorva. pero kwidaw ka, once na naka-upo na wala na. and they don’t want to solve it really, gaya nang poverty, otherwise, ano pa ang platform nang mga mokong na yan? sino pa ang boboto sa kanila?
kaya nga e,dapat yung alam mong makatotohanang platapuroporma,
kasi yung iba alam mo namang maglalaho sa hangin pag naupo na sila e,ang hinahanap kong platapuroporma e yung mas kapanipaniwala na walang sinasabing lalabanan ang kahirapan ek ek, lalabanan ang drugs ok ok, mga bulok na style…
ah basta, basta si Gordon ang dapat manalo waaaaa Dick Dick dick (dikdikin ko to eh) isang post lang dito sa barrio Dick, on da haus sagot ko lahat ng drinks sa next eb ng barrio, pramis yan ahahahaha.
hays ansaya nman basahin nito kaso lang nosebleed wala bang pang highschool na inglisan dyan heheheheh
nakaka over heat ng utak e. heheh
Hirap mag-type sa keyboard;-). Belated sa lahat: Merry Christmas Ryenz, and the Barrio Siete folks! Ibang klase ang pasko kahit mag-isa ka! hahaha! Cheers!
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