You Know Kids Hate Sociopolitical Issues When …
Sunday
Mar 16, 2008
Judging from the ton of comments on my post about the ZTE Broadband Deal I can say that students around the Philippines are not really into political and social issues. Why? Well, their schools ask them to make all sorts of projects, writeups and research papers on the topics that they’re probably sick of it.
And my post wasn’t even about the “ZTE Broadband deal” issue itself! Take a look and you’ll know what I mean.
Sure, I know a few things about the inner dealings of government. Romulo Neri had been my boss for a couple of years, after all, albeit not directly. And the department of NEDA I worked for before was tasked with reviewing projects and facilitating financing from foreign governments, China included. I can say the accusations of alleged corrupt practices are probable.
But that is not to say I know anything about the “ZTE Broadband deal” myself outside of what I hear or read from the news).
If you are interested in learning more about the “ZTE Broadband deal” as it is publicized in the media coverages of the ongoing Philippine Senate inquiry, you can refer to this post about the NBN ZTE Project on Yugatech.
To put it shortly, the project was for a concessional loan by the Chinese government for the procurement and setup of a broadband network by the Philippine government. And as Chinese loans usually go, one condition is that the Chinese government choose the supplier (which is counter to the Government Procurement Reform Act, which says such should be bid out by the Philippine government, but is legal under the ODA Law, as amended).
Now the issue here is not the legality of the method of procurement. As is usual with government procurement, the main issue is the accusations of the padding of the project cost to accommodate commissions and kickbacks, and the supposed involvement of people who are in power who have allegedly used their influence to benefit from the project.
There is a difference between what is moral and what is legal.
Now when they say “Moderate their greed,” It usually means “reduce the project cost to more rational or reasonable levels.” But then in Philippine governance, it may usually mean something else. And this very phrase has helped spark controversy the more.
Happy researching!
It’s Election Year And I Have A Crazy Idea
Sunday
Feb 11, 2007
2007 is mid-term election season here in the Philippines. Every three years, we get to elect local officials from lowest (barangay, or town) level up to national Senate level (senators have alternating six-year terms). And this is one of those years.
I wasn’t able to register as a voter—I have never done so in my entire life. Those who know me would probably recall that I prefer to be apolitical. I prefer to effect change through other means, and this is mostly because I’ve lost hope in the local political system. I’ve been part of government before, and I can say I had grown further disillusioned and disappointed with how things are run here.
But then again somehow I feel it’s time to make a change, especially with regard to helping our country’s political system grow. I’ve been observing politics in other countries—particularly in the West—and one thing I notice is that their political systems are mostly platform-based. They have strong party systems. In contrast, here in the Philippines politics is mostly personality-based. And we have a weak party system.
If in the US, Democrats stand for one thing and Republicans for another, here in the Philippines, most parties seem to give empty promises of poverty alleviation, job security and economic improvement, but there really is no solid, observable and viable platform. Or at least once people get elected, no one is sure if they ever follow through on their promises/platforms.
Sometimes I’m not sure whom to blame: the politicians or the electorate ourselves. After all, it’s the citizenry that elects people into positions of power.
So here’s my crazy idea
Political blogging is very popular in the west. In fact, a lot of blogs and bloggeres have grown to A-list status in election seasons by outing irregularities or helping out candidates.
As a blogger, I would like to do the same. But given that I do not identify myself with any party or candidate, I would like to invite candidates for this year’s elections (local or national) to collaborate with me on this endeavor.
The concept is simple. I (probably along with a handful of other bloggers) will be writing about candidates, their lives, their political parties, and their platforms during this campaign season. I still have to decide whether it will be on my personal blogs (which have better coverage and readership), or a new site altogether. Now this wouldn’t be the standard press-release like postings. We’ll do it as bloggers do—with honesty, candidness and straightforwardness (with a dash of our own insights, of course). This makes for good new media coverage, no?
But it doesn’t end there. If and once that candidate wins the election, I will continue blogging about his/her activities as an incumbent, and through this we will see if that candidate has indeed followed through on election platforms/promises.
So for instance, he’s a Senatorial candidate who has campaigned on the platform of job creation, the people will know if the committees he’s become part of, the bills he’s authored, and other decisions and activities, are part of improving the employment situation in the country. Or if a candidate for City Mayor runs on the platform of cleaning up the city government of corruption, we will see if his activities once elected would, indeed, reflect that platform.
I’m aware that several local organizations are already focusing on blogging about politics, such as PCIJ, but they’re approaching it from journalists’ perspectives (particularly investigative journalism), and of course there is a difference. I would rather approach it as a citizen. Okay, let me be the devil’s advocate here. Let’s assume that all people are good and that political candidates have their prospective constituents’ best interests in mind.
I’m all ears!
If you’re running for office, let me blog about you, and with you. You can get in touch with me directly here. And I’m hoping communication lines keep open, so I can continue to help with the transparency. After all, elected officials should be accountable to their constituents.
Is anyone willing to be part of this?
U.S. bomb strike in Iraq kills civilians
Friday
Jan 6, 2006
The world’s remaining military superpower, with all the technology in the world to accurately plan and execute air strikes, manages to screw up.
Sad thing is that civilians get caught in the crossfire, and are treated as collateral damage.
From CNN.com: U.S. says bomb hit wrong house in Iraq
A bomb that killed six civilians Monday near Baiji, Iraq, missed its target by 65 feet (20 meters) and hit the wrong home, military officials said.
…
The strike flattened a family’s home, killing six of the family members and wounding three others, said a spokesman for the Salaheddin provincial governor’s office. A father and daughter survived with only minor injuries, he said.
The bomb had “successful effects against the insurgents,” the statement added
…
[The White House] emphasized the U.S. position that its military “goes out of the way to avoid civilian casualties.”
Somehow I’m not convinced.
Search Engine Optimizers attack the Philippine Gov’t. The Administration strikes back!
Thursday
Nov 24, 2005
Activists are now bringing their fight to the Internet. Young Radicals,
a blog featuring “radical youth’s views, activities, debate, ideas,
reviews and literary works” called for a Google Bomb featuring the
profiles of some of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s cabinet officials as sinungaling
(liar), sira ulo (crazy), and bugaw (pimp). This is pretty much similar to the Google Bombing of U.S. President George Bush as “miserable failure.”
The group has likwise succeeded in directing queries for “pekeng pangulo” (or fake president) to President Arroyo’s personal website.
You can try it yourself. Key in “sinungaling” on Google, and the first result is Office of the President Website – The Cabinet – Ignacio “Toting” Bunye. Key in “miserable failure” (even without the quotes), and you get Biography of President George W. Bush. And of course, there’s the query for “pekeng pangulo” which directs users to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Website.
The Administration has found a way to make it seem that the Google
bombing backfired by redirecting readers referred by Google to the
Young radicals blog. So a user who clicks on the first Google
result (or clicks “I’m feeling lucky” instead of “search”) will think
that the top result for sinungaling or liar is actually the Young Radicals page. Inq7.net even reported about this in an article entitled “Google Bombing on Arroyo Officials backfire”. Check out Migs Paraz’s post about the incident on Pinoy.tech.blog.
When the user clicks, he is sent to the Young Radicals page, apparently
by Google. But is actually the Office of the President’s web server
that was set up to do it. It checks if the user was sent by Google
using the Referrer header. (Mispelled as “Referer”).
But the Young Radicals site claims that the battle hasn’t been actually won by the Arroyo Camp.
Apparently, the government’s set of computer experts and
its rich resources were no match to the overwhelming anti-Arroyo
sentiment now engulfing the country and the internet.
True, the Google bombing incident is now talk of the Pinoy blogosphere
and techie and political e-groups (at least those I’m part of).
And when the blogosphere talks, there’s no stopping what can be said or
done. The best way for the Administration to combat these attacks
is not to resort to their own cyber warfare tactics.
IMHO, it’s best to be part of the discussion themselves.
There is a pseudo-President Arroyo blog over at kgma.wordpress.com. I think it’s high time for President Arroyo to set up a real blog of her own.
Keep your traffic violation tickets: LTO could scam you!
Tuesday
Oct 25, 2005
Got this via email. Apparently, some employees of the Philippine Land Transportation Office, with all its computerization projects, have found a way to perpetrate yet another corrupt practice–this time in the light of having ICT facilities to aid their work.
The scheme basically involves the LTO personnel not deleting your violation from their databases after you pay the fine. You end up paying for your violation twice!
So keep your receipts!
And we thought computerization projects were designed to curb such practices!
If ever you get caught for traffic
violation, please keep the receipts for the penalty you paid until such time
that you renew your license again. With the 3-year renewal period of licenses
and the LTO’s computerization system, their personnel
may have developed a new racket.
This morning, I renewed my driver’s license. The LTO office in
Binan refused to renew it because they said I have an
outstanding traffic violation. They told me that I got caught for reckless
speeding in February 12,
2004 and I failed to settle it. They
showed me a computer printout to this effect. I infomed them that I already settled it, otherwise, I would
not have my license back since, it was confiscated.
They said I might have dealt with fixers
in taking it back. I told them that I never deal with fixers. I also
told them that if they acknowledged that I might have dealt with fixers then,
someone inside the LTO must also be involved since I was able to get my license
back. They said if I really settled it, then I should show them the
receipt and they would delete the entry in the computer — they said maybe they
just missed to delete it.
Of course, I have no receipt to show
them. That was almost two years ago.
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