THE DNA OF HONOR FOR THE COMELEC: Another Mar Roxas’ Legacy
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By Popoy Del R. Cartanio
Like before crossing on foot a train tracks, you look, listen and sing along . . .
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and you dear blogger will realize how a daydreamer deserves recognition more than does a dreamer, and much much later after you finished reading this piece, how DNA is really more meaningful than anybody’s genes. Only a fool will not accept that a dreamer wide awake could be in a blissful coma in the “pancitan“, snoring oblivious of the heat under the noon-day sun. While a daydreamer alive and awake like Audie Murphy went “To Hell and Back” with the Congressional Medal of Honor. Daydreaming tells us there is more to just carrying the genes of Ramon Magsaysay, the genes of Cory and Ninoy, of Marcos and Gloria, of Aga M, Richard G. And Dawn Z. THERE IS DNA, stupid. Their individual DNAs, the alpha of their souls, might be different.
Are they innocent rumor-mongers, those who say Presidential candidate Ms. Grace Poe-Lllamanzares carries the genes of the late President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos Sr. ? Let the DNAs of Grace and Apo Ferdie prove or disprove to the watching world they are truth-sayers.
Sometimes a daydreamer deserves derision when he crosses the borderline — to insanity where there are no frontiers — to know the meaning of what it feels to breach the limits of reason, like breaking the speed barrier of soaring and diving established by Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, to be sane in the sky and sea of lunacy just like John Lennon when he wrote and sang: “IMAGINE”. It is not daydreaming to imagine in DNA there could be poetry:
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Oh DNA My DNAw
O My! humans homo sapiens
DNAs and RNAs are their biology
what we saw in everybody
but cannot see what and how
the causes of their heredity.
Bad as they are expected beasts
gluttons, cheaters, thieves, killers,
rapists; good as only they’re likely to be
friendly, kind, compassionate, saintly
come from instructions of their DNA.
Go, Gooo. Search the internet.
Go read then think of analogies.
To understand taxonomy how
molecules called nucleotides
in turn composed of two groups
named phosphate and sugar and
a base of whatever called nitrogen.
DNA is like stupid, the big bang of biology.
No exact beginning only continuity,
tells whoever how ” an organism needs
to develop, live and reproduce.”
No DNA molecules means
no BIOLOGY, absolutely.
Yeah the human cells become tissues,
become organs become flesh,
muscle and bones and fluids whatever;
Like the hugeness of the universe
the smallness of the cell no one
can exactly trace its true beginnings.
Break its protoplasm and nucleus
into chromosomes into more
littlest of things, reaching just somewhere
and you are still beginning to decipher
what gives to Genome, the complete set
of your DNA from the earliest of fathers .
DNA can be rivers with uncertain beginnings
not from surface runoff into rivulets
into tributaries of creeks and streams
of its headwaters, still not ending
in chemistry’s water: H2 O.
To dismantle the totality of DNA
is to unravel the Godlike awesome mysteries
of clouds pulled down by gravity into lakes,
oceans onto mountains . . . of all nature,
and the constancy of night and day .
Deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA a longish nomenclature
is easier to remember as a fictitious noble person
FIRST NAME: Deoxyr; MIDDLE NAME: Ibonucleic;
LAST NAME: Acid .
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The wannabe poetry above is proof of inadequacy of the little of what I know of the bigness of what I will write about; of the enormity of its possible impact on poverty. Of how the tolerated immorality of law-aided thievery can result in poverty.
I will not attempt to unravel the formidable nexus between DNA and Thievery and thereby bridge the abyss, the yawning gap between DNA and shameful poverty. Suffice, I’ll just use DNA as handkerchief to wipe out what’s seen daily in the mirror, the oil and dust to my face. Just as it was done and still happening now in most relatively less poverty stricken countries (see UN’s top Ten) the Philippines’ COMELEC can do it. The Philippines’ COMELEC can do it and that’s no typo error.
DNA through the COMELEC can do it to candidates seeking power and money in the public service. DNA can even in the long term rid COMELEC of its yet unexposed scalawags whose subliminal activities perpetuate permanent conditions of poverty among the voters.
The thinking is elementary. If there are a lot of thieves in the elective public service, which institution is the catalyst that oversees and formalizes choices of who rules from the truism: “The voice of the people is the voice of God.” It is so unfair to good bureaucrats so blasphemous to venial sinners to utter this mantra of a tautology: “The voice of the COMELEC is the voice of the people is the voice of God.” Indeed, WHO DOES (read the two words again) it but the likes of Garci with a chuckle. It is the COMELEC of course. Not many dream people (comatose in the panciteria) know the significance and impact of the COMELEC on their poverty; not all but maybe only a small majority of politicians have their faith in the COMELEC as the God of continuing moolah and power over their constituencies. But the COMELEC is innocent: subtleties, subtleties the voice of the law is the voice of crooked righteousness, until proven straight.
THE BASICS of OPERATIONALIZED DNA
True quotes should preclude claims against vagueness and inaccuracies of technical statements.
“Written in human DNA is a record of each person’s individuality, a shared history of the evolution of our species, and the code that can provide insight into a person’s future health. DNA profiling, or DNA fingerprinting, is a technique that analyzes the unique attributes of a person’s DNA. The application of DNA fingerprinting has revolutionized maternity/paternity testing, forensics, and identification of disaster victims. The term “DNA fingerprinting” was coined to allude to the traditional use of fingerprints as a means of human identification. Classic fingerprinting is subject to interpretation and usable samples can be difficult to obtain. When properly conducted, DNA-based testing not only provides exclusionary evidence, it can provide positive evidence of a person’s identity without bias.”
“Genetic tests are performed on a sample of blood, hair, skin, amniotic fluid (the fluid that surrounds a fetus during pregnancy), or other tissue. For example, a procedure called a buccal smear uses a small brush or cotton swab to collect a sample of cells from the inside surface of the cheek. The sample is sent to a laboratory where technicians look for specific changes in chromosomes, DNA, or proteins, depending on the suspected disorder. The laboratory reports the test results in writing to a person’s doctor or genetic counselor, or directly to the patient if requested.”
Please Google for interesting sources.
To simpleton me, DNA is a tool unequivocal in establishing who’s it and whodunit concerning crimes, family bloodlines to royalty, notorious dynasty, noble hoodlums in robes or paupers, microscopic timeless connections to saints, beatified Christians, national and folk heroes, criminals and even the homeless. I conjecture that DNA is a powerful and accurate truth at the fingertips of St. Peter when anyone reaches the pearly gates.
It is not intended but only accidental that a woman presidential candidate will be the example to strongly suggest the need for the COMELEC to require DNA data and information for every candidate formalizing their application to run for any public office. This woman presidential candidate has an unblemished public reputation except for the fact that she has an unknown parentage and been the subject of decades long rumors about her bloodlines. Now that she is running for the highest public office in the country, the persistent clamor is for her to establish the truth of her parentage and that ONLY a DNA test can provide the TRUTH that will set her and her long bloodline of descendants FREE.
As quoted above: “When properly conducted, DNA-based testing not only provides exclusionary evidence, it can provide positive evidence of a person’s identity without bias.”
The woman presidential candidate’s quagmire, este quandary, is the persistent rumor over the years that she was sired by the country’s president dictator, given life in the womb of a young virginal movie starlet against another claimed truth that she was a foundling left in a church door, found by a priest, eventually adopted by model citizens, husband and wife, both great and noble actors in the country’s movie industry.
Only Genetic Science, not Popoy or any Nostradamus, can say that 99.99% that the woman presidential candidate is a qualified candidate REGARDLESS of the results the DNA tests to prove or disprove the rumors of her alleged parentage. Positive or negative results notwithstanding will qualify her to run UNLESS that 0.01% establishes that her father or mother were expatriates or tourists who stayed for a number of months in the country. SO WHAT if the rumors are true. That makes her 100% natural born citizen and 100% qualified presidential candidate. That will set her FREE of the lies and suspicion, regardless of dire or substantive positive consequences.
How can I, not a friend or foe, without political or self interest, without a heroic concern for the country, almost indifferent to probable results of a DNA test discuss in cold objectivity an analysis that will provide a way out of the maze of questionable parentage and citizenship of a declared presidential candidate? It doesn’t really matter who the person is. If sick or wounded, any doctor who took the Hippocratic oath is duty bound to give cure; if accused of a crime, innocent or guilty, a lawyer is duty bound to help defend the accused. It only so happened that a woman wants to be president and all wannabes should be natural born citizens as per whatever decisions of authorities of untarnished integrity.
It is presumptuous and plain braggadocio to — by logic – – claim that a lot of respectable professionals have been peeing in their pants at the way the case has been handled so far. A lot of saliva, paper and ink and internet time — and taxpayers’ money — may already have been expended debating pertinent provisions of international law, relevant constitutional provisions and legal precedents just to determine by reason and not by science that the candidate is (was) a foundling, the purported valid legal basis as NATURALIZED CITIZEN and not NATURAL BORN.
WHAT IF THE CANDIDATE IS NOT A FOUNDLING but an engineered foundling to hide shame and dishonor? The costly salivary exercise is like a crumbling deck of playing cards blown down by empty debate. One need not understand and explicate Hawking’s theory of time or Einstein’s E = MC2 . How can science accurately prove she is not a foundling but a natural born citizen whose parentage beyond any iota of doubt is also many generations over were also natural born? Fiction clever detective Sherlock Holmes will say: It’s elementary Dr. Watson. Do a DNA TEST both for paternity and maternity nucleotides in this sequence:
FIRST PATERNITY TEST = DNA test with the widely rumored or highly suspected father; A POSITIVE RESULT closes the citizenship question; after her true father being publicly named, the candidate qualifies absolutely to contest the presidency. WHAT IF THE FIRST PATERNITY TEST TURNS OUT NEGATIVE? DO THE SECOND TEST.
SECOND PATERNITY TEST = if the first test fails, do a DNA test with the legal husband (on or after the candidate’s birth) of the widely rumored or highly suspected mother. A positive result closes the citizenship controversy if the husband tested is a natural born citizen. His name becomes of public interest and should be made public. WHAT IF THE SECOND TEST IS ALSO A FAILURE? THEN DO THE THIRD PATERNITY TEST.
THIRD PATERNITY TEST = This test is highly improbable and could be viewed as far-fetched and disrespectful but nevertheless scientific. Do a DNA test with the adoptive father. And if he is a natural born citizen (even if only high court declared), a positive result, then the citizenship question is finally answered. WHAT HAPPENS THEN if the third test also fails? Only then should the first DNA maternity test be resorted to.
FIRST MATERNITY TEST = DNA test with the widely rumored or highly suspected mother. A POSITIVE RESULT will prove beyond electron microscopic doubt her being a natural born citizen. BUT will create the biggest doubt of being a FOUNDLING if the DNA proven mother is blood-related to her adoptive mother. And could also make the sagacious debate about a foundling’s citizenship a lot of foul hot air enveloping the fake foundling. What if the rumored mother refuses to undergo a DNA test? Do the second maternity test.
SECOND MATERNITY TEST = DNA test with the ADOPTIVE mother who is the sister of the widely rumored or highly suspected mother. A positive result will prove beyond reasonable doubt that the woman candidate is a natural born citizen and is not by any assertion a debatable foundling.
THE ICING IN THE CAKE = What if the woman presidential candidate refuses to undergo the tests? NO PROBLEM. Upon affirmation of accredited geneticists, the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) and the COMELEC, the eldest son or any of the candidates’ children may be so ordered by the courts to undergo all the FIVE (nil-progressive) DNA tests mentioned above.
What if all the above tests yield NEGATIVE results? Ergo the COMELEC must withhold approval of the Certificate of Candidacy until she or any candidate in the same situation had submitted result of a DNA paternity and/or maternity tests.
COMELEC MUST INSIST on the truth about paternity and maternity, not siblings, cousins, uncles, aunts or distant relatives, or cluelessly test the family of the people who found the foundling at the church door.
This piece is like schooling, that after graduating in high school or college, you are told, it is your beginning to do whatever. It is not unlike seeking publication of a novel: start with the first two chapters and the last chapter. As it has happened to me here numerous times, in Joe Am’s space — during praise or contentious occasions — the erudite bloggers wrote the detailed middle chapters. With bowed head, ergo, I put my hands together in Namaste and say “Thank You po”.
Nevertheless, I am like Ms. Llamanzares or any presidential candidate in this regard. I will only operationalize my concocted political platform when I am already president and give my cabinet the headache of doing it. It’s doing something about a promise. Never mind if we can or can’t do it. But Mar Roxas is not me. He will do better.
For the government to include DNA as part of its data base for democratic governance, DNA could be funded as a long term morals and morale transformation project with the mandated structure, functions, responsibility and accountability devolved to the Department of Health or the Department of Science and Technology. But the DNA Project must start with the COMELEC, then must cover all Government Officials, elected or appointed ENTITLED to car plate numbers from Nos. 1 to 16 and those of star ranks in the uniformed forces. Low rank and file bureaucrats impersonate these guys as their models of corruption ESTE incorruptibility.
COMELEC shall require all candidate applicants to all elective positions under its jurisdiction to submit their DNA record. To have no DNA is to be a nuisance candidate. DNA records should not be a ground for DOJ or NBI investigation.
ONLY the Sandigan Bayan should authorize declassification of a candidate’s DNA record. If SALN (statement of assets, liabilities and net worth) has been a cotton-light jack hammer-shape balloon, DNA should be a real wrecking ball that should do the job. DNA in governance could be among the undeletable legacies of Mar Roxas and he’s got a long six years to do it. And this can be a world’s first, deserving of a Nobel Prize in political genetics — the new branch of molecular biology.
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
I confess to being out of step with Popoy’s main argument here, that DNA ought to be required of candidates. I think it is impractical from the standpoint of expense (what, P20,000 to do one?) and actually reviewing them for meaning (130 presidential candidates alone). It would be an industry.
That said, I agree that COMELEC is not doing the job the nation needs. I’d rather have a medical certification than DNA, and a disqualification capability based on questionable ethical character. I don’t worry too much about Poe’s birth situation because there are more relevant reasons to exclude her from consideration, mainly a complete lack of experience that gets more and more apparent with each inane proposal she utters, plus her slow slide under Escudero’s leadership to the “crabby” kind of campaign that is mainly running by taking potshots at this or that, or this person or that person. Very negative, very small, very empty.
I would support a national ID program to give citizens a record that can be used for multiple purposes. Right now, everything from voter’s ID to driver’s license to “live birth” certificates are required. Consolidate to one authoritative number with other data backing it up. Use it for the BENEFIT of citizens to get rid of red tape, and for the benefit of the State to readily identify and find people.
This article Joeam to me is heavy I have to read it twice to get its drift. As a retort to your comment I only have superficial observations among Yanks of New England and many US elsewhere. I seldom see them in dollar stores or Latino or Asian markets which are my favorite subsistence spots.
Because I think to these Yanks, quality does NOT come cheap. Quality candidates who can afford and not parasites and pests are what the country needs and the COMELEC is its instrument. User friendly quality science and technology do not come cheap; world customers have to make billionaires out of ordinary bloke inventors like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, et. al. and some S & T entrepreneurs-innovators Japanese, Sokors, and Chinese.
But you are right Joeam, there are many ways to skin a candidate or cat just as it is to use a wrecking ball (Popoy’s) or dynamites (mine) to demolish a building of corruption. A DNA of Honor says Popoy. What is that? Should I a blogger here in the Society of Honor have my DNA voyeured ? If I may, this should lead to interesting hopefully cool discussion.
There should have been the requirement of a mental health test for Presidential Candidates, then Santiago would not have been qualified. But none for blogs please. 🙂
will not a DNA test cancels the need for mental tests or merely confirms its results?
Behavior is 50% nature and 50% nurture according to scientists. So genes that cause madness with a certain upbringing and environment may lead to genius in another…
Or even alternate – like Van Gogh, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche and many other examples.
Pnoy should also be tested for syndromes…..aspergers syndrome could be a good start
Many Silicon Valley people have some degree of Asperger’s – it is I think a spectrum going all the way to autism. In fact many children of Silicon valley nerd and nerdesses are born autistic. Aspies and autists think like computers in a way – so they can relate to them.
In fact many people who think are not always in the present reality – because they happen to be thinking. Less advanced societies like the Philippines are intolerant of people who are a bit different from the norm. But modern societies with a stronger division of labor recognize that the alertness needed to be a good special forces agent – Duterte – is not the talent needed to run a modern government apparatus. Philippines is in the process of becoming modern rapidly. Some people however still have holdover mentalities – even me.
In a relatively “primitive” culture like the Philippines is, highly intelligent people have to be very strong not to go nuts – or keep their distance from politics like Jessica Zafra does.
Cayetano just one generation before – no chance. Not even Trillanes for that matter.
Bam Aquino would have been called bakla in my days – Marcos baby – but he definitely is not a bakla. Well for some folks with the old school mentality and street folks, he could be. But the times are a-changing, and hopefully the bullshit Marcos Jr. represents dies out.
Yes, email me a strand, eh?
That point about where we Yanks shop is more psychological than biological, I think. We want to prove to ourselves that we’ve made it, and going to the low-price stores is taken as a statement that we have not made it. The healthier amongst us can overcome that trivial self-assessment.
68ers and Baby Boomers in Germany made it a point to go to “ethnic” places to show their commitment to tolerance and multiculturalism. Those in their 20s go there naturally, not for a pretentious show – and the “ethnic” folks who serve them speak the same street German.
DNA testing has been been mistakenly held out as the ”solution’ to proving Poe’s natural born citizenship status and her eligibility to run for high public office. By questionable extension, it is easy to say not only all foundling candidates but all elective candidates should be DNA tested for possible use in helping determine eligibility for elective office.
By definition, a foundling is a child who have been abandoned at birth by parents who assumedly wanted to be anonymous and whose identities cannot be legally established. As a consequence, international concern for the rights of these abandoned and many times stateless children have been expressed in the enactment of treaties and convention laws to address the fact that many countries’ constitutions and local laws are silent on the citizenship status or the rights of foundlings. The application of DNA technology only makes sense when the identities of the foundling’s parents are very strongly suspected and limited to a few possibilities otherwise the cost of testing may become extremely prohibitive.
The second major problem with DNA testing in an elective candidacy context is that it is only useful almost all the time when the identity of the suspected parent is confirmed. For example in the case of Grace Poe, if the tested subjects are determined not to be parents because the DNA are unmatched, its back to square one. One could of course try and prove the negative by DNA testing. That is to take the population of Filipino citizens who could have given birth to Poe, take DNA samples of their descendants if these citizens are deceased, and if it is completely exhaustive and free of error, reach the conclusion if there was no match that Poe was not a natural born Filipino citizen. My point is that this is all a completely absurd and ridiculous proposition, sorry to say and with all due respect, to the blog author including Justices Carpio and Panganiban who are such enthusiastic supporters of this approach in the Poe hearings and in a more general election setting.
EXACTLY, man!!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrilineality_in_Judaism
There’s a reason why they do that, and why when Moms in America have a black or Latino baby (when the parents are white), the Dad’s either the mail-man or the gardener (per common prejudice).
She’s the perfect example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kris_Jenner
If you mandate DNA testing for one, you have to mandate for all. It’s only fair.
There is also the persistent rumor on social media that Smartmatic machines were used to cheat in the 2010 elections – but the sources I have do not bear that rumor out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartmatic#2010_Automated_elections_in_the_Philippines
There are people from the Bongbong group who do not want to recognize or even protest against the use of Smartmatic machines. Do any of you have details on the controversy or the rumors to dispel them? Because the public perception that elections are honest is vital for a functioning democracy. Now are the “hocus-PCOS” rumors just that, conspiracy theories of those who lost? How was the validity of the count audited, any sources?
Because the machines from what I have understood are basically just scanners. Are the precinct counts manually audited with the paper after the machine count? Are the results for all precincts published online – it is possible after all today – to enable a public check?
In a country were there was so much cheating, trust still needs to be widely established.
The cultural DNA of fairness is not yet that spread out in the Philippines. Relative to the other parties, the LP is still the fairest of them all… and the most modern in its approach. Bam Aquino and Leni Robredo are the most modern of them, Mar too, more than Noynoy.
NP is playing catch up in terms of modern attitude with Trillanes and Cayetano in front, Santiago and Marcos Jr. representing the very wrong turn NP took with Marcos Sr. – NP normally are “my folks”, but that changed when Marcos nearly replaced NP with KBL.
Poe could be very modern but she has been politically seduced by Escudero, placing her somewhere in the twilight zone of partial modernity – more like Hong Kong politics in the 80s – a bit better than Marcos and Santiago but behind Trillanes and Cayetano.
Binay and Honasan are relics of a bygone age – a former hope of the 86 revolution and a clear opportunist of those days. Hong Kong politics in the 60s or 70s, forget about it.
OFW Presidential Candidate Roy Seneres I can’t really place yet – could be a new aspect.
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1. I understand random manual audit is SOP.
2. Machine count will always be more accurate than manual count. A variance between the counts should be expected but should be minimal and within tolerable limits.
3. That being the case, cheating can occur in any of these technical stages:
3.1. Program code – highly unlikely. The program code would be the same for all machines.
3.2. Mapping of tabulation to candidates – highly unlikely. This error would be caught by manual audits. (The map is a variable table that mirrors the ballot, which is different for each locality.)
3.3. Transmittal of precinct results to national center – highly unlikely. There are many verification techniques to assure accurate transmittal.
3.4. Vote aggregation – highly unlikely. Billboards are used and NAMFREL independently parallels COMELEC in both the transmittal and aggregation of votes.
4. I think cheating would most like occur in the non-technical stage, which is mainly the actual filling-up of the ballot. In Ampatuan-like areas, the rigging of votes can be controlled by those in power, but this would mean that everybody is in cahoots including independent observers, if any.
5. Given all of that, I do not understand how Roxas could have been cheated in the 2010 vice presidential elections. The controversy circles around the thrashing of 2.6M “null” votes.
5.1. “There could be at least 3 reasons for null votes: 1) the voters didn’t vote for the position; 2) the voters voted for more than 2 candidates for vice-president; and, 3) they under-shaded or over-shaded the oval that the machine could not recognize them.”
5.1.1. The first reason is valid. The ballot should still be counted for other positions.
5.1.2. The second reason is a null vote. It would be unfair to other candidates if a vote is attributed to the two candidates.
5.1.3. The third reason goes into the accuracy of the machine. Perhaps the machine should use fuzzy logic, but other than that the vote should be treated as null.
5.2. It cannot be asserted that all the null votes were intended for Roxas.
6. I would put greater faith in automated voting than in manual voting by a very large margin. But I would like to hear the basis for the hocus-PCOS rumors.
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Thanks Edgar… this clarifies the matter for me. The likelihood of cheating is lower.
And Smartmatic is international – it also services Latin America. So the likelihood of “kuntsaba” or connivance is very low. Scanning technology also means that the hackability of such a system – I definitely know how it could be done – is less than in Florida in 2000.
The basis for the rumors, like I wrote, is the old dysfunctional Filipino culture of assuming everybody is cheating – like in street basketball. And as for Ampatuan-like regions – the Philippines has made great progress in the last decades. Ilocos was Ampatuan-style during Crisologo’s time. Negros too during Magsaysay’s time – Moises Padilla story. Or Cebu during the infamous, dangerous Durano – who is related to the present Duterte.
heh heh, hocus-PCOS
This hocus-PCOS rumors were spread by politicians who were deprived of the chance to cheat usually done in the manual elections. Ballots pre-filled up were the norm in those days, that is the reason why Marcos and the LGU’s officials were able to stay in power, (for those voters that were not swayed by the false promises and vote buying sprees resorted to by the power hungry). Remember the confession of Enrile when he thought that he would be killed in the early days of the EDSA 1 people power, He confessed to cheating Cory in his region, so multiply that in other regions controlled by all other cronies of Marcos. BBM and his cohorts really tried to disallow this computerized voting, they presumably wanted manual voting to be back so they can utilize the massive information gathering done using their gold holdings and hidden wealth sharing for the gullible poor who readily provided their pictures and filled up forms in the hope of that wealth sharing bonanza.
@Edgar
The main issue was transmittal. The encryption on the communications of the machines were turned off, the SMARTMATIC reason was that places with poor signals will not have successful transmittal.
The second issue was because the program assumed encrypted communication according to some people the information being sent was easily replaced by the result cheaters wanted
The third issue was the incorrect time setting of some of the PCOS machines created an impression that someone was manipulating the ballots being fed to the machine.
Incomplete auditlogs as complained by then Congressman Locsin did not allow for a credible audit of the results.
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Hah! Poor transmission in the age of the Internet.
If the machine cannot directly transmit because of poor signals then alternative communication protocols must be put in place. Above all, excessive delays must not be countenanced.
If the alternative protocols have to send the data to the US before it gets to Manila — as our trace experiment showed — then why not?
Strong encryption — and secret verification codes — should deter hackers given the short time-frames. Returns from these poor-signal areas that have been identified beforehand should not be officially tabulated until there is official confirmation. Demographically, the returns from these areas should not impact nationwide and even province-wide results.
(Do the PCOS machines have something like unique IP addresses? Could not suspect transmissions from hackers be easily identified thus and be disregarded? And the hackers and the people behind them jailed forever?)
I suppose the synchronization of time settings could be another side effect of poor signals, but then again the machine should have the facility to allow for manual override.
These are technical problems, and with all the billions poured into this method COMELEC and Smartmatic should be able to address them with acceptable solutions.
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here is the committee report. Haven’t read this but this was televised and I was watching this then : http://www.namfrel.com.ph/v2/news/bulletin/Congressional%20report%20on%20the%202010%20Automated%20Elections.pdf
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gian, thank you. My impression is that the technical side of the automated process is credible. The machine and the process seem to have numerous fail-safe steps, such as restartability, keeping copies of the ballots on magnetic media for audit purposes, and write-once memory for final counts.
The main complaint seems to be the inaccuracy of the date and time stamps. Date and time are set beforehand and there should be no mis-recording of dates. But mis-recording happened, so the affected ballots should not be counted.
As to the time, it seems that ballots were pre-shaded, accepted beyond poll hours or suspiciously fed into the machine at regular intervals, and that ballot counts were in excess of expected voter counts. This would point to manipulation of the ballots and the machines at the local level. However, the accuracy of the counting is not in question.
The report also discounts the possibility of hacking of the program code, the flash cards, and the transmittal of results.
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your postings always remind me of an IBM printout… *********** at the beginning…
Thanks guys – it is very important to dispel malicious rumors with the light of reason. 🙂
The DNA of HONOR is for me more than the genetic DNA. It is the institutional DNA. It is the corporate culture of the institution. DOST is an example of an institution in the Philippines with a DNA of excellence. It wasn’t touched by the corruption of institutions – technocrats were needed.
Culture is a living organism, its genes are memes, and culture is memes put into practice. The concept of DAANG MATUWID in Filipino – and KATIWALIAN as its opposites – were not even conceived, much less born in my Marcos baby days. These two memes, the idea of right and wrong in governance, are still infant concepts but they are growing, mixing and hopefully the idea of what is right an wrong in government will become a dominant meme, and corruption recessive.
We still need memes for the sustainable doggedness, the long-term foundation-building exemplified by Mar Roxas (SMEs in his early career, fuck those who say he is not for the poor, fuck me for thinking that, judging a book by its cover, making PNP an effective force not to oppress the people like the PC did in our days, but protect the people from crime and calamity – the latter it is actively doing now, so fuck those who say Mar Roxas is a rich kid hypocrite, fuck me again for thinking he was one, mea culpa, in saeculo saecolorum, but not colorum jeepneys OK) and Bam Aquino. Giancarlo you told something in FB, please tell us your wording, I would like to give credit to you. We need concepts so that our masa can GRASP the meaning of our words.
Mar Roxas has injected a DNA of efficiency into PNP, exemplified by General Espina and how the Pope’s visit was handled. He injected the DNA of quiet work and modesty into a culture that lacks humility – General Espina may have lost his hair because of that, but he is an example of this.
Good institutional and cultural DNAs that spread within institutions and within the culture make it stronger, bad DNAs make it weaker. But may the stronger DNA make Filipino culture stronger. Decency – what is the Filipino concept for that – is exemplified by Mar Roxas, Bam Aquino, Leni Robredo, Joey Salceda and many other unknown, honest people – like those in CANA, the Citizen Network for Accountability. Enough of that DNA spread as memes by intellectual intercourse – not intellectual masturbation the wankers are not here they are over there at GRP – will heal us all.
Karl, giancarlo and me had intellectual intercourse on FB. Mary just watched, being Holy.
Since we are Filipino we are all a little bit bakla, even if we deny it. And Mama’s boys. 🙂
But that is a preview to a blog article that is conceived, but not yet scheduled or born.
“Makapananaig na pagbubuo” is Giancarlos buzzword for sustained build-up of Mar Roxas.
I would add – “makapanaig na pagbubuo ng tahanang bayan” – sustained build-up of the country, like Mar built up PNP on a logical foundation, and LGU governance as well.
The opposite of that is “Kastilyong Buhangin” – a song from the Marcos era by Basil Valdez, meaning castles on the beach, which is what Marcos left for the most part. Sorry for the innuendos – they are macho bullshit. Which is what Will’s next article will be about.
Come to think of it, the cultural DNA of secure masculinity already exists in Filipino culture.
Mar Roxas and Bam Aquino are not afraid of being called bakla – and don’t need to drive fast cars, date sexy chicks and shoot to prove to the other boys that they are men…
But the older and the poorer Filipinos are, the less they will have the DNA of secure masculinity… swaggering machismo and obscenities are a sign of lacking it, me included.. Enough of my intellectual masturbation for now, josephivo and Bert might get mad again.
Monopoly Lang ang Sinabi eh,affected ka Na.
Hehehe, karl, sensitive iyan si Noy, taga Tiwi kasi, ako taga Bacacay at sensitive ang mga tagaroon pero iyan si Noy uragon iyan. Wala akong sinabi riyan. Sisiw lang ako, si Noy Texas na panabong, kung pumalo ay taksan-taksan, :).
Medyo matampuhin lang ng konti.
a little too deep tagalog for me, “tuloy tuloy na pag-unlad” was my first idea, sustained development, a continuity….
Irineo, If I may, if there’s such a DNA Culture and DNA Culture can somehow, somewhat define a race then we can have under certain limitations, a German DNA culture, an Arabiic DNA Culture etc. and why ever not? A Filipino DNA, G.I. DNA, WASP DNA?
Cultural DNA is an analogy for the influences we get: from parents and our environment.
Thus a US GI who comes from Pagudpud, Cagayan will get an American imprint from his training, but will always be a Genuine Ilocano.
sorry slow to read this. Popoy’s article needs at least 2 rereads just for me to get the outlines of what he is saying.
Ditto for me, and as I have so much limited time (quarterly VAT reporting) and internet service, I can’t do much re-reading. I had to satisfy myself to commenting on comments.
All politicians and govt employees should no longer sign documents because they always get falsified. They should henceforth paste a strand of their DNA on the documents in lieu of signatures.
chempo, if I may, that could happen in 2050 25 years after the second coming.
Ip der is a second coming, maybe der will be a conception. And concepts will finally be grasped and applied, not just parroted. Hope springs eternal – not the Marcos-era cigarette brand is what I mean, I mean Pag-Asa, not the island, not DOST PAGASA.
How can I learn if I do not know what things mean? I do not know to DepEd. If I do not know that, how can I understand my DNA, genetic, cultural or institutional?
I first heard of this with the Hanna Barbera prints they we’re selling a when I was less than 5 years old. Didn’t know what DNA was back then
*******
SEVEN POSSIBLE USES OF COMELEC-COLLECTED DNA
1. To trace ownership of spurious bank accounts. Pre-requisite: banks must maintain DNA samples of each client.
2. To establish propensity for crookedness and stealing. Pre-requisite: science must establish recessive gene for crookedness and stealing.
3. To determine fitness for public service. Pre-requisite: science must establish dominant gene for sincerity and fulfilling promises, and recessive genes for bullshitting.
4. To authenticate ownership of real estate properties, limousines, yachts and airplanes.
5. To determine tendencies for guns, violence and coups. Prerequisite: science etcetera.
6. To be able to exclude the candidacy of those who are affiliated by blood with incumbent elected officials.
7. To determine refusal to honorably step down from office when involved in a scandal. In short, to establish whether a candidate possesses the “honor” gene. Prerequisite: science etcetera.
*****
The question is: is there such a thing as an honor gene= And do we all have it here?
Napoleon I was a dictator. Napoleon III was more democratic when he ruled France. But possibly because Napoleon II never ruled and the Bonaparte family from Corsica – Bounapartes from where the worst Mafia in France comes, had to civilize themselves.
Roxas I was a robber baron. Aquino Sr. was a collaborator. But their sons – Gerry Roxas and Aquino Jr. – had to go through the pain of being underdogs themselves during the Marcos period. So the third generation is much better than the first one.
Carnegie was a bastard but his descendants redeemed that. Just look at the difference between Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth, his daughter. But I guess she saw the bloodshed and impunity of her father and learned from it to be a great queen.
In fact the privileged may have the social capital to overcome their forefather’s evil – if they decide to do so. Some Mafia and crony kids from Eastern Europe are really good – these are the people who will bring their countries into the modern age with the stuff they studied in Switzerland, USA – or Oxford. But some are entitled brats and assholes. So neither being from the slums or being rich makes you bad or good, or your genes.
*******
I think the “honor” gene, if found, would be dominant from the mother’s side… given that we look up to more honorable women than man in public service.
*****
A former Norwegian lady prime minister who was also a high UN official once famously said: if more women were in power, there would be less wars but more poisonings.
Elizabeth I was a snake, Merkel is too. Women in the Philippines usually have the humility needed to be honorable – too much pride is not good for honor, my very own experience. Cory was an unexpected leader, while entitled President’s daughter Arroyo was awful.
I think a man trying to figure out a woman is like dog trying to figure out a cat.
It isn’t something you do logically… it is an instinctive thing and even then you don’t know.
Easier to just require a stamp on the forehead at birth, classifying the kid as worthwhile, or some lesser condition, indelible, lasting a lifetime.
Many factors to define an individual. Biological/hardware/nature: DNA, diet (and the kilos of bacteria in our guts transforming our food), environment (ease of living/hardship, pollution, …), and social/software/nurture: culture, class, parents, peers. More important yet is the interaction of all those factors, it is a long way from the DNA strings with a million defects a day, the enzymes to repair and deploy the content, the optimum unfolding of proteins, the exercise and conditioning…. and it is equally complex on the software side. We are just at the start of understanding the complexity of a brain, let alone understanding cause and effect relationships of all the above, only some weak correlations are established.
And then there is perception, even more important than the reality or the legalistic aspects of a natural born foundling, something a founding has no merit or fault. Is Grace perceived as Filipino or not.
Let us discuss the other requirements and most of all the proven leadership qualities. Let us discuss the need for stronger parties, make instant party switching impossible, subsidize party think-tanks. Let us discuss programs, not skin color and hairstyles.
Isn’t character and competence one thing we are discussing here? Part of culture – or of the social capital that people have? Also a kind of DNA. A smart kid born to a US trailer trash family may not get the social capital so succeed. Good habits, money management…
A perfect institution on paper with bad institutional habits or DNA – carried forth by bosses and older employees than train new employees – will not be successful as well. Imagine a clean-cut guy in customs – he will leave or adapt to the institutional culture after a while.
There is a joke in the Philippines that a policeman who is still thin and fit, does not yet have a fat belly like me, is not yet corrupt – has not yet been infected by the bad DNA.
DNA in its figurative meaning. Funny is that DNA modifies other molecules but other molecule can not reshape DNA, welcome to the police.
It took decades for Bavarian police to get rid of their DNA of brutality from Nazi times. 😦
That is why the Bavarian Hanns-Seidel Foundation is the best to give PNP human rights training – they have gone through this not so long ago and know how to mutate the genes.
The mutation away from corruption also took a long time over here – Prime Minister Franz-Josef Strauss was like Binay in being populist and corrupt – but at least he built the industry here and people got jobs. His successor Max Streibl was removed for corruption.
The biggest corruption scandal in this Catholic federal state was last year – the relative’s affair, were members of parliament and the cabinet were found to have given jobs to relatives. They gave back the money, of course they were not prosecuted, why? 🙂
The best thing – or worst thing – was the case of Gustl Mollath, who wrote long and strange diatribes – similar to MRPs postings in style – about money laundering in high places. A bank audit report proved him right – years after being confined to mental asylum.
But by using the science to define a person, you leave out the chance that he might break out and away from the poor social capital. That’s my problem with it. Judge people on their deeds and thinking as adults, and don’t bind them to other people, or penalize the child.
So putting it all together, if the Philippines is to work, the DNA of good attitudes must be inculcated, step by step. The revolutionary way never works – because as Rizal said, what if the slaves of today become the tyrants of tomorrow – he was right. And not liked by nationalists for it.
Quezon tried to build institutions – with American help – but the attitudes were not yet ready for the institutions he built. Mar Roxas is inculcating the right attitudes in PNP – including human rights training helped by the Hanns-Seidel foundation of Germany – Germans had that learning curve!
Institutions in the Philippines have to be rebuilt while still running – rebuilding the Philippine national house has to be done while still running – in making sure they are run the way they should. Americans only put up institutions and believed that Filipinos would run them the way Americans do, without teaching them how – Filipinos reported phony stuff (saying yes siiir, all the time) like the Greeks reported phony stuff to the European Central Bank and messed up the Euro.
Why did the American democratization of Germany work? Because their cultural DNA is similar, what the Americans meant was not lost in translation like in the Philippines, MRP is right there.
And Germany made sure the democratic DNA seeped into the consciousness of every pupil – we were taught the Constitution of the Federal Republic and what it MEANS, each of us were given pamphlets. I think around 3 Senators know what the 1987 Constitution means in its spirit – and I will not start to speculate about how many Supreme Court Judges really know spirit, not letter. Quezon knew that if press and priest get confused, things would go wrong. He was very right.
I don’t even care in what language it is done – but the divergence between theory and practice in the Philippines is the second biggest problem after the class problem.
9 postings by me, 13 total, I am an oligopoly. I shall leave for competing bids, thank you.
I’m surprised that no one has pointed out that when a child is adopted in the Philippines, he/she k becomes the absolute offspring of the adoptive parents. A new birth certificate is issued containing the names and biodata of the adoptive parents. The original birth certificate is sealed and is unavailable to the public .If you are the adoptive parents, you can’t change your mind and give the child back after the adoption is finalized. You are just like the biological parents of teenagers who sometimes wish they could give them away; you’re stuck with them for life, bound by law and by love.
It does not matter who Grace Poe’s biological parents were/are, except to nosy gossipers and rumor mongers. We already know who her real parents are and they are both Filipino..
mr murphy
In truth and in fiction in hollywood movies and in Brazil’s soap operas not to mention Filipino Teleseryes; foundlings and whatevers, like enigmas are all interested to know who their biological parents were lest they live crazy all their life. Isn’t it really worth it KNOWING? What of the beneficial consequences of DNA truths? Of the unexpected INHERITANCE from dead parents for the foundlings and her/his children? What of the all embracing humane acceptance of NEW biological relatives ? of the forgiving, understanding tribal members of the foundling’s community? After all Filipinos and other peoples are suckers for HAPPY ENDINGS. Even without becoming President Mrs. Llamanzares and her children’s children could gamble for that truth to set them free and live proud knowing the kind of biological relatives they have. Living without or away or close to them.
For leisure, See how the versatile Patrick Stewart overshadows his co actors in MATCH. In Netflicks and in this link:
http://int.search.tb.ask.com/search/video.jhtml?searchfor=patrick+stewart+movie+match+SYNOPSIS&p2=%5EAFW%5Exdm021%5EYYA%5Eca&n=781B1C9C&ss=sub&st=hp&ptb=58D656BC-5EF8-4553-86B2-DD86AE46B313&si=CJWl75Wpl8UCFQioaQodcbcAyg&tpr=sbt&ts=1445350227593
So light years away from ALDUB eh?
This is the local Filipino version of Patrick Stewart – at least the haircut:
I agree and indeed did point that out in a blog (nay, two blogs because I didn’t think people were “getting it”) over a year ago. Grace Poe should be measured on her deeds and thinking as an adult, not if she was a Marcos or any other reason outside her control. The whole “birthing” issue is political cruelty, in my opinion, levied against a child.
https://joeam.com/2014/03/07/the-poe-files-a-little-matter-of-parentage/
https://joeam.com/2014/03/08/poe-part-ii-do-filipinos-grasp-freedom/
The whole “birthing” issue will eventually prove she is a natural born Filipino citizen, hence qualified to run as President. Anyways, even without that cleared, it is clear to me at least, that she prefers to associate herself with the “rumored biological father’s” cronies (the Estrada, Zamora, Escudero, Ongpin, etc.) and their descendants who were the causes of the bottom-of-the-pit economic showing of our country compared to our Asian neighbors. That shows a low level of discernment. Even applying the nature vs nurture principle, she was raised by an ardent Marcos supporter, FPJ , who in his drunken state, is reported to be willing to shoot those who voted for Cory in the snap presidential election.
Can someone please explain to me the purpose of Poe’s DNA submission. To compare to who? She is a foundling for heaven sake.
To her alleged siblings in the area she was found. In order to prove she is a natural-born Filipino citizen and therefore Presidentiable. A foundling cannot be natural-born because the Philippine Constitution confers it only from the parents and ignores foundlings.
I believe she is trying to locate a natural parent to prove that the parent was Filipino, and she is therefore Filipino. It is all a little mysterious and behind the scenes, so I’m not sure how she is going about it.
If Grace Poe wins the 2016 presidential election, the cases for disqualifications against her not decided yet by the Supreme Court by then, and then, while sitting as the newly elected president, suddenly presented to the court a credible DNA result showing she is the daughter of a certain Filipino mother thus proving conclusively that she’s a natural born Filipino citizen, thus the the Supreme Court has no other recourse but to acquit her, my question is: What would be the repercussions might be, legal or whatever, if the mother turned out to be Rosemary Sonora?
Is that your personal take or the real stated intention?
I am asking a hypothetical question because that could be one of the possible future scenarios. If you have an answer, I would appreciate hearing it.
Sheryl is allegedly the daughter of……Baka ma 2befair nanaman ako.
Bert
caliphman can answer this, but if my understanding of the constitution is correct, if Rosemary turned out to be his real and biological mother, then she is a natural born Filipino citizen as she obviously elected to be one, am not sure if she has to do it formally at that late stage, as she is in her fifties already. More legal gobbledygook.
No other repercussions (morally) if ever Rosemary is her real mother as it is not Poe’s fault if she is born out of wedlock. Her actions now should determine whether she is to be entrusted with the highest position of the land. Most Filipinos adhere to blood being thicker than water, or “walang manggang nagbunga ng santol” thing, a cultural thing, knowing that we really care for our extended family and most if not all will defend the family against all odds.
Mary, I think that, by the nature of her legal predicament at that point in time, she has to do it, bite the bullet so to speak, or be declared by the Supreme Court unfit to sit as president for not being a natural born Filipino citizen. Just my two-centavos.
Very well said, Bert.
Can Mariano knows who his parents were? Is the parents of Mariano really Mariano’s. Is Mariano switched at Philippine Maternity at birth?
How would I know? The moment I opened my eyes suckling on my mother’s breast they were already my parents. Parents that I know. Parents I were told were my parents. Can anybody here know their parents were not really their parents? That they were switched at birth by intent because I look cuddly cute and coo like an American?
Mariano can never know. One thing for sure, my parents are nog-nog, colored dark-skinned traditional looking ugly Filipino whereas I have fair skin and has Jew Intelligence. Should I ask my parents why I look different? If my parents disclosed that I came from Jew parentage would I look at my parents differently? Pack my bag, buy one way ticket to Israel and live like a Jew? Smple as that? No emotional attachment, no hurt feelings just like a switched that is turned off? Leave the familiar faces, relatives and the country I was borned in?
Aha! ha! ha! ha! While writing the above it just crossed my mind. FILIPINOS ARE GAYA-GAYA !!! FILIPINOS ARE BAD FORGERS. Just because Americans questioned the birth certificate of Obama Filipinos also question birth certificate of Grace Poe.
Remember Bill? Before Bill, there were no impeachments in the Philippines. After Bill was impeached, there were plethoras of impeachments in the Philippines. It became a vogue that foreign wires do not believe Filipinos.
Remember Antonio? Yeah, that Antonio who was Aguinaldoed over Peninsula Hotel after he campaigned from his jail cell and became Senator. Foreign wires ignored the coup of Antonio despite UP-journalism graduate screaming to heavens. Nobody believes Filipinos. When UP-journalism graduate realized the foreign wires ignored the Coup of Antonio, the Philippine Media downgrade the COUP to ….. MISUNDERSTANDING !!!
Why treat Grace Poe differently? She speaks like a Filipino. Her English totally absolutely sucks. So what if she was borned by Marcos? Bong-Bong was the son of Marcos. What is the diff between Grace and Bong-Bong?
Aha! It is about honesty. About full disclosure. Filipinos love Bong-Bong without full disclosure. Filipinos elected Bong-Bong to the Senate. What is the diff?
If Grace Poe is not allowed to run for office because she got confused citizenship, therefore, OFWs should not be sent abroad to troll for every morsel of jobs nobody wanted because the money they earned to send back to the Philippines has confused citizenship.
What about those 1,200,000 Filipinos in the US that registered to vote in the Philippines? Should they be allowed to vote? They should not be if Filipinos are questioning Grace residential qualification.
What is weird is 5,000,000 traitor Filipinos in the U.S. are allowed to vote in Philippine election while Grace Poe is not allowed to run for President because she became a U.S.Citizen-and-became-a-Filipino again.
Just because it is written in the Philippine Constitution? Nobody cares about Philippine Constitution. Go ask those 5,000,000 REGISTERED TRAITORS IN THE U.S. Along with 12,000,000 OFW Traitors that prop the Philippine Economy.
I’m reminded of kids who make up the rules to a game as they go along, and to suit their individual purposes. In this game, a lot of the kids would like to get a strong candidate out of the election.
Like Philippine Science High School Student Alliance (Council) elections in 1981. During Martial Law all Student Council members were chosen by the school. But since Martial Law was lifted in 1981, a bit of a democracy had to be shown – and there things began.
I was on the “opposition” slate. Go for President, two VP candidates – which is why we lost to the candidates the faculty had endorsed, David for Secretary, Villanueva for Treasurer and Salazar for Public Relations officer. I had the largest win with 600+ out of 800 votes.
Jessica Zafra, school newspaper editor, fearlessly made fun of my style of trapoism which was aggressive and bold like that of Alan Cayetano. Hehe I will not tell much more yet. But what happened then, come to think of it, was a microcosm of post-Marcos democracy.
One thing I will tell though – they wanted to disqualify Go based on her grades – she had one failing grade (4, passed via removal exam) in a certain subject and it was subject to interpretation whether not having a failing grade was for an average or for all grades.
The faculty had the disqualification idea during the campaign period – and it would have left their Presidential candidate to run unopposed, since no new candidates allowed, I asked if I could move up if that happened they said no. But we made them change their mind – one of us, tipped off by me, went to the school public address system and called on everybody to storm the meeting. It was closed door, and a large group of students was hammering at the door and it scared them. Jessica’s comment to that was – that’s politics.
Opposition slate won, except for VP… We got along quite well with Fernandez though who was the “faculty” VP bid. The Seminar Room incident caused a lifelong falling-out with the Presidential candidate of the faculty – a daughter of a Albay High classmate of my dad.
Later stuff caused me to fall out with Jessica – I was her former science editor in 3rd year, she was the first to become school paper editor in 3rd year and hold it for two years.
If I look at it, I was envious of her position, did not want to play second fiddle to her. Or join with the faculty Presidential candidate who was a friend for 3 straight years. Politics that lead to betrayal – if I had not left, well it was better I did, I would have been part of it fully. But one of my supporters who fully went with my crazy stuff back then became a truly moral journalist – who died for exactly that recently. Knowing where the stuff that is now came from – and having some distance to it – gives me a certain perspective on things.
Remember Joe when I likened Philippine politics to Filipino street basketball?
Even during OFW tournaments with referees, where people tried to play by the rules, there was “gulang” – tripping somebody in such a way that the referee does not see it, edging someone with the ball so it goes out, elbowing somebody’s nose during rebound…
We tried to solve it – the Philippine associations running the tournament – by getting neutral and good German referees. Because Filipino referees were always seen as partial to one group or the other. Didn’t work because the hotheaded Pinoys, especially the Tagalog and Kapampangan teams which hated each other, two clans and their alalay, did not listen. So we had Manong Ising, an Ilocano from poor Makati, always team up with the respective German referee. They managed to calm things – even with the Pinoy GI team. But even then we had arguments between teams over “gulang” degenerating into fights. Only Manong Pinong, an Igorot from Baguio, had the authority to stop them – not me…
Excellent example number 2.
“…In this game, a lot of the kids would like to get a strong candidate out of the election.”
Yep, but ideally, it should be the constitution, the fundamental law of the land and the laws enacted by the legislature, that should determine the rules of the game. Everyone should follow, emotions or identification or empathy with foundlings should not rule above them, as it will establish a bad precedent, and the jus sanguinis doctrine will no longer be our doctrine to follow in citizenship determination.
You are right, of course. I dislike the way Poe/Escudero are handling the challenges. Playing the victim, ala Binay, rather than just taking their time, providing information, and letting due process take its course – – ala Aquino. I also don’t like the way Escudero wipes the problem onto Binay and Roxas directly when it could be any yahoo on his own asking Dick Gordon to file a case. Maybe as a joke, who knows. And Gordon is also playing it for miles. I think he’s gone a bit nuts myself, ever since his defeat in 2010. Aligning the Red Cross with UNA? Give me a break . . .
COMELEC should issue Certificate of Candidacy after COMELEC and COA have inspected the SALN … not after
COMELEC should verify Grace DNA before issuing CoC … not after
WHAT IF CANDIDATES WIN AND THEIR DNA AND SALN ARE QUESTIONED? WHO WILL RUN THE PHILIPPINES? DUTERTE? Or, BINAYS?
The Vice President. Let us hope he is without Vices.
I am now a doupoly – 16 postings, 32 total – plis teyk ober, MRP.
I’ll be darned! No wonder there is a throng of people wanting to be VICE Presidents because of the VICE of it.
We have plenty to say Irineo because Philippine Media and the U.P.-bureaucrats have no consistency in their pronouncements and decisions.
They better get their acts together. South Central Compton Hiigh school drop-outs are better off than U.P.-graduates.
When u had a flat tire Irineo took over,when you returned Irineo got suspended. just saying.
No I am not talking about super heroes.
Philippines is the only ROMAN CATHOLIC and CHRISTIAN country in Asia. The crookedest and corrupt.
FOUNDLINGS in the Philippines are not HUMAN according to dogma of ROMAN CATHOLIC inspired CONSTITUTION.
This state-sponsored religion should be struck down. It has not helepd the Filipinos for 500 years. This state-sponsored religion is a failure. FOUNDLINGS ARE NOT HUMAN. THEY DO NOT HAVE RIGHTS. FILIPINOS SHOULD BE accused of child neglect, abandonment and child abuse. nfortunately only Willie Revillame is charged of Child Abuse when the government promotes state sponsored Child Abuse.
Just look around us … From PDAF Babuyan Island to Muslim jolo …. half-naked children walking the streets dumpster diving for morsels of Jollibee.
Those who question Grace Poe’s foundling should face Jesus Christ and spit on him. Because those who question Grace is not in the tenet of the Bible that Filipinos believe in.
“FOUNDLINGS in the Philippines are not HUMAN according to dogma of ROMAN CATHOLIC inspired CONSTITUTION. ” Dogma? From what kind of dog?
“half-naked children walking the streets dumpster diving for morsels of Jollibee.” exactly! How can a state call itself modern and MAKATAO if that is the “state of affairs” – the word “constitution” means exactly that as well! A Constitution not really applied is just paper.
http://www.gov.ph/constitutions/1987-constitution/#preamble – now where are the principles of this constitution truly lived, with so many people living worse than dogs in the country:
We, the sovereign Filipino people, imploring the aid of Almighty God, in order to build a just and humane society and establish a Government that shall embody our ideals and aspirations, promote the common good, conserve and develop our patrimony, and secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of independence and democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace, do ordain and promulgate this Constitution.
And that is just the beginning of the preamble. But English to most Filipinos is like Latin of a Spanish priest, pasok sa isang tenga, labas sa kabila. Nice words but ugly reality translates into hypocrisy – also a Latin Roman Catholic legacy. Obedezco pero no cumplo.
The PhilGov promotes Child ABuse and neglect. They only get a taste of good food, air-conditioned rooms when the Pope arrives. Other than that, it is total abuse all year round no let up. Who runs DSWD? Of course, another graduate from University of the Philippines. Who control their burses? Of course, graduate from University of the Philippines.
Any cabinets touched by UP graduates turn into incompetence, inefficiency and corruption. They do not need to look at the stars all they need to do is read PhilippineStar.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/constitution
Let us look at the real meaning of Constitution, in real English:
1. the system of fundamental principles according to which a nation, state, corporation, or the like, is governed.
2. the document embodying these principles.
3. (initial capital letter) Constitution of the United States.
4. the way in which a thing is composed or made up; makeup; composition:
the chemical constitution of the cleanser.
5. the physical character of the body as to strength, health, etc.:
He has a strong constitution.
6. Medicine/Medical, Psychology. the aggregate of a person’s physical and psychological characteristics.
Now Joe will ask Pedro about his Philippine Constitution
———————————————————————————————————
No 2.: yes, the 1987 Constitution is a piece of paper, correct Pedro, very good…
Thank you siiiir
No. 1. IS governed. No Pedro. You do not apply your Constitution. It is the system according which your state IS SUPPOSED to be governed, but not HOW you govern it.
Sorry po Joe, I will improve my lesson the next time
No 3. Definitely not.
OK.
No 4. Is your state made up the way your Constitution describes it? I don’t think so.
tulala si Pedro
No 5. Is the body of your state as strong and healthy as that paper describes?
Yes Sir, I will take you to The Fort and to Forbes Park, it is clean there
No 6. Are the physical and psychological characteristics of your state really like that?
Bery helti in body and mind Sir, just like Senator Miriam Santiago
Go home, Pedro. Good we did not make you a State of the Union.
———————————————————————————————————
Pedro goes home, making kamot-kamot
I don’t care even if I am not real State, I can always buy Real Estate in Makati!
Love that closing line. Man, use the big hammer. I’d use it, but I’m trying to build a readership . . .
COMELEC MUST INSIST on the truth about paternity and maternity, not siblings, cousins, uncles, aunts or distant relatives, or cluelessly test the family of the people who found the foundling at the church door. – POPOY
Siblings, Cousins, Uncles, Aunts and Distant Relatives are witnesses. But disregard these witnesses but relevant to Binay’s persecution? What is the diff? Where is the CONSISTENCY?
Filipinos are INCONSISTENT. Why are the Filipinos have no incontinence to Witnesses?
Filipinos should not have witnesses on others, and ,evidences for Grace. Something is wrong.
MAR SHOULD FIX THIS WHEN HE BECOMES PRESIDENT. But my political axiom still rings true:
“WHAT GOOT IS A GOOT PRESIDENT IF 99.99% OF FILIPINOS ARE NOT GOOT?”
Mar is the only one. Mar has to direct the traffic along EDSA because if he were to let his minions do it, nothing happens.
Just like Benigno’s anti-wang-wang. I still see civilian vehicles wang-wanging down the street. No policeman nor PMA in his right mind would ever pull over a wang-wanger. If they did, they’d be directing Chinese Frigates at Spratleys.
You people really think those Marines guarding Ayungin Shoals in post-apocalypse BRP Siera Madre were good boys? Think again. They must have rubbed their commanders in a wrong way for them assigned in a god forsaken place on earth where they have to fish their own food. Gets a bath when it rains. No rain no bath. That stinks.
I question Mar Roxas integrity. I do not know if this is Mar’s or Korina’s. In the beginning there was Mar and there was Grace. And there was their Padrino, no less Benigno Aquino Simeon III.
Benigno wanted Poe to grace Mar as his vice. LP stalwarts questioned Poe on her residency qualification. Mar supported Poe.
… the fallinig out …
Grace decided to run independent of any UNA or LP. Benigno mad. Mar jilted. Now Mar questions Grace residency qualification.
That is how politics go. Your friend today is your emeny tomorrow.
This is Mar’s problem. He fired the first salvo after their falling out. Mar’s prestine cameo is gone. He is just another politician.
Mar should take my advice to recover from his faux pax. Do not tattack Grace Poe personally on her residency because Mar supported her before when they were friends so as to appear A PRESIDENT and a GENTLEMAN. Not some jilted vindictive President.
And to Benigno, always be true to your mother, Cory. Do not ever say that Leni is like your mother Cory. Because Leni was only an afterthought when Grace Poe decided to run on her own after public wooing on his knees with a wwedding ring.
Source of the claim that Mar is attacking Grace Poe’s residency? He says he is not, and I believe him. Dick Gordon says “LP” asked him to file a case, but unless he names the names, it is just irresponsible chatter for political gain.
Why not just take a selfie with every document you sign– And have staffers take pictures of the same event, to ensure from being photoshopped? I think DNA has a shelf life, no?
The longest (69 years in the 20th century) ruling Liberal Party of Canada just dislodged the Conservative party yesterday to be at the majority helm in the next four years. With apologies to Rob Carrick and the Globe and Mail, not having obtained their permission, here’s a copy and paste that will give our presidential candidates something to promise and debate about though Canada might be half a century ahead of the Philippines.
It should give our own Liberal Party a populist idea of a liberal ideology of governance. HOPING Joe America will allow posting of this short news.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/personal-finance/household-finances/nine-ways-your-family-finances-will-change-under-a-liberal-government/article26886456/
Nine ways your family finances will change under a Liberal government
BY Rob Carrick
The Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2015 12:17PM EDT
Last updated Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2015 12:23PM EDT
Here are nine things you need to know about how your personal finances will change under the new Liberal government. These points are based on measures the party campaigned on prior to the election Monday.
1. Middle class tax cuts: People with taxable income between $44,700 and $89,401 will save as much as $670 per year on their income taxes.
2. Tax increases for high earners: The Liberals will increase income taxes on people making more than $200,000 a year. At $300,000, the extra tax would amount to $3,330; the top combined federal and provincial marginal tax rate will be above 50 per cent in Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
3. Changes to the TFSA limit: The annual contribution limit would likely fall back to $5,500 from the current $10,000.
4. Goodbye, Family Tax Cut: This current income splitting measure allows the higher-earning spouse in a family with kids under 18 to transfer up to $50,000 of income to the lower-earning spouse so it can be taxed at a lower rate. The maximum tax break under this measure is $2,000.
5. A new Canada Child Benefit: This will replace the current Universal Child Care Benefit and provide an extra $2,500 a year or so for a typical family of four. Families with household income of $200,000 or more will not receive this benefit.
6. OAS at 65: The Liberals have said they would not go ahead with plans to gradually raise the age of eligibility for Old Age Security by 2023.
7. CPP Enhancement: The Liberals have talked about working with the provinces to bolster Canada Pension Plan benefits. This calls into question the future of the proposed Ontario Retirement Pension Plan.
8. Home buying: Relaxing the rules under which people can pull money out of a registered retirement savings plan for a house down payment. The Home Buyers’ Plan currently focuses on first-time buyers; people would additionally be able to use it multiple times when moving for work, after the death of a spouse, after a marital split or to take in an elderly relative.
9. Student loans: Grads would not have to repay student loans until they earned at least $25,000 a year, with interest paid by the federal government during that period; also, the maximum Canada Student Grant for low-income students would rise to $3,000 annually for people studying full time.
Follow Rob Carrick on Twitter: @rcarrick
It would be interesting to know what program the LP in the Philippines represents.
Persons are all clear now – even Ping Lacson for Senator I ask myself why that guy – but the platform has not yet been defined. In fact I think every Senator will have his own.
A parliamentary system would be better for the Philippines because it forces parties to have platforms, coalitions choose the Prime Minister and avoid the close calls of voting the President directly – which in the Philippines becomes a personality contest anyway.
However, parliamentary at this stage of Philippine political maturity would mean that political parties would just party and eat pork, like LCPL_X wrote about Abu Sayyaf in the jungle.
Real parliamentary means – parties have serious agendas, and forge coalitions with parties that have common denominators to their agenda, and decide on a common agenda for the entire term. But political culture of Filipino citizens and politicians is still too immature now.
The evolution of Philippine political DNA will take some more time – Bam Aquino and with some minus points Sonny Trillanes and Alan Cayetano represent the most modern politicians in the Philippines today. They have clear focuses and agendas and are fair – Aquino IV the most, Trillanes second and Alan third in terms of fairness. Coming from the grassroots you have Duterte – who has realized he is too much of a warlord to fit into the new constellation, this is my educated guess having studied him – and Leni Robredo. Joey Salceda also but he has smartly stayed in Albay, in fact the ideal national politician would be like him but with national reach plus political and economic competence – Leni lacks the latter, but she and Mar in tandem are nationally what Salceda is in his native province.
LP is the most modern political party in terms of apparatus. The Balay faction under Rep. Evardone is definitely still very trapo. Drilon as a modern cacique – just like Duterte is a modern warlord – is able to hold it together. NP could modernize but does not have the balls to throw out the Marcoses – like Filipino families do not throw out their criminals. Holdover from Spanish times were protecting bandits among your own was survival.
The moment NP manages to throw out the Marcoses and Villar stops sleeping in the pancitan – or one of the two hungry for the position from my kilatis, Trillanes or Cayetano take over the helm, Marcos also wants but if that happens NP is a new KBL forget that, it can credibly demand that LP get rid of the trapos in its midst. UNA is far behind in terms of political development. PDP-Laban was a prototype modern party but is lost somewhere in the 90s when it was founded, it could also wake up and become a challenger to the LP.
At the moment, LP is bent on keeping power, but at least it is making the country more modern in administration – because its clientele are the crowd that is more modern. Forget the rest for the moment. They have to catch up. LP will do things neoliberally that is clear, but progress is the priority for now. I do not yet believe that Leni will be more than window-dressing for the common people at the moment. Mar, surprise me once more please…
That is my preliminary analysis. 40 postings out of 87, sign-off muna ako kayo ulit… 🙂
A platform is just a platform…its one of the most basic bait to get votes and be popular for any election…how to implement it afterwards is the true gauge of a “modern” day leader…its more of a recycle than a radical change in strategy…ill just wait
Motherhood statements are not programs,programs have ways to show how to do it.No programs here only entertainment programs.
I would say that the three Senators I have mentioned – Bam Aquino, Trillanes and Alan Cayetano, have proven track record and a clear direction even by looking at the bills they have passed. I enjoin you to look at their webpages, prove me wrong if I am wrong here.
Bongbong Marcos? I think you are from that camp. Please give us a comparison of BBM vs. Aquino IV, Trillanes and Cayetano. Bills passed, IRRs, results achieved. Let us see.
There is such a thing as DNA mutation…i think your boy mar is a product(same with binay and poe)..and the system is one chromosomal abberation….
Anong ibig mong sabihin? Paliwanagin mo kaya sa amin.
Hulk will destroy Asgard, Xmen is leaving Fox to go home to Marvel,and Spidey will soon …
Mar is like Clark Kent – mild-mannered. Should we make a meme of him taking off his shirt to reveal a big “M” underneath. He did not come from Krypton, but from Mars of course.
As i say..its a good start..and the good thing about syndromes is that it has a wide array of typical facies and symptoms
Si Binay gusto Magka symptom inaadvertise Nya Na nognog at pandak sya. MadamI daw sya nagawa Tulad ng libreng tuition at paospital. Sige nga libre Nya tayong Lahat.
Oo Na Nadinig Na namin ang noytard at abnoy .
Everybody is a doctor.
A syndrome is a set of medical signs and symptoms that are correlated with each other and, often, with a specific disease. The word derives from the Greek σύνδρομον, meaning “concurrence”.[1] In some instances a syndrome is so closely correlated with a pathogenesis or etiology that the words syndrome, disease, and disorder end up being used interchangeably for them. This is especially true of genetically caused syndromes. For example, Down syndrome, Wolf–Hirschhorn syndrome, and Andersen syndrome are disorders with known pathogeneses, so each is more than just a set of signs and symptoms, despite the syndrome nomenclature. In other instances, a syndrome is not specific to only one disease. For example, toxic shock syndrome can be caused by various toxins; premotor syndrome can be caused by various brain lesions; and premenstrual syndrome is not a disease but simply a set of symptoms.
If an underlying genetic cause is suspected but not known, a condition may be referred to as an “association”. By definition, an association shows that the collection of signs and symptoms occurs in combination more frequently than would be likely by chance alone.[2]
Syndromes are often named after the physician or group of physicians that discovered them or initially described the full clinical picture. Such eponymous syndrome names are examples of medical eponyms. Recently, there has been a shift towards naming conditions descriptively by symptoms or underlying cause rather than with eponyms. However the eponymous syndrome names often persist in common usage.
If you don’t stop,collaborate and listen……before crossing the train tracks you will be crushed vanilla ice.
The sexy chick in the video for that song is a Fil-Am girl.
Cool.
Hey Walter Mitty,aka Irineo this blog is dedicated to you.
You gave me the nudge – to separate fact from fiction. I think it is pretty clear from the style of writing which aspects I am posting here are fact, and which are fiction.
So I am one step further than many propagandists who believe their own bullshit. 🙂
MRP is partly right once again – many UP historians are also propagandists. Even the best like Agoncillo who do not lie are selective about the truths they put in textbooks.
The stuff about Luna is in a college book – Malolos, the Crisis of the Republic – and not in the Agoncillo textbook. Many lies and half-truths in the Philippines are due to group or clan bias, or friends one does not want to go against. Or dirt one has they know about.
Finally, my contributions are often tangential. Since this article is about DNA of Honor, which I interpret more broadly as the DNA of Honor in Philippine Society and how it is developing before our very eyes, I am trying to show and understand how it developed.
This includes my personal role in having failed to be honorable at all times, because the history one has been part of is one’s story within the broader history – my collaboration…
Before we are just no to binay now we are no to Bbm and mds and gp.Bbm because of his DNA,MDS because we don’t know if her ancestors are lunatics,maybe her parents raised her to be one. GP’s DNA test won’t matter if we ask one who questions her 9 years stay in the Ph. According to his calculator.
I wish for changes in qualification of applicants for presidency to be as strict as the PMa or PNPa including physical….joke,but not as simple as can read and write even voters must at least be high school grads. If my opinion is an HRV then I want human rights laws to be amended.
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2855260672/tt1840309?ref_=tt_ov_i#
Have to explain the link it is a poster of divergent. We are talking of DNA
Thats good news…even better than the political circus here
Not everybody is a doctor….but everybody is an expert on comments and write ups….
They have doctorates in commenting and writeups. Recto Univesity
Tnx for the info doc….and also wikipedia for giving common laymen that shot of confidence to sound like a true doctor and sound intelligent enough however shallow that might be…
eric, I find your comments more as attacks on persons than issues, and ask that, should you wish to continue to contribute here, you actually contribute to a discussion of the issues. This is not a chat room for showing one’s quick-hit wit.
Your comment above Joeam made me remember one of F. Sionel Jose’s short story where a young student who abhors and abjures cockroaches always squashes them with his foot. ONE other thought Joeam is that Irineo et al meaning all others who contribute more than wisdom (meaning knowledge plus experience plus communication skills plus integrity plus positive whatevers) SEEMED to be cluelessly turning this your Society of Honor into a THINKTANK of Honor abreast and in step with the forward march of ethics, science and technology. Cockroaches may freely roam any Society but they should fear to tread much more spread their dirt in a THINKTANK of Honor. Limping I will be happy if allowed to march with them.
March we shall, over hill, through dale, across mighty rivers, and even occasionally down EDSA . . .
Megadeth’s Symphony of Destruction…..”just like pied piper..led rats through the streets..dance like marionettes,swayin to the symphony of destruction”nice heavy metal tune
Mar roxas dna is in full replicating mode in the aftermath of lando…pictures of him with his vp distributing relief goods shows the helpfull and compassionate side of mar and leni….
without the work of Mar Roxas in consolidating the PNP for crime prevention and disaster relief, many things would be going differently now. So there is real work being done, choose to overlook it if you like. I see Yolanda BTW as a learning curve for Mar.
Look up Project NOAH by DOST – a DAP project, and what it is doing for the country.
Dr. Mahar Lagmay is doing an excellent job, this is modern disaster mitigation.
He’s trolling. He’s gone.
Good. But he did give a chance for me to counter the typical anti-Mar arguments for all to read. And my grades for the four candidates are to be seen below. VPs will follow.
Joeam . . . .March on, march on, march on to . . . . .
In short pants, I used to singshout that in Rizal Mem Coliseum for a basketcase team
like the Maroons now.
I prefer to be like a sports reporter that comments the game.
And analyzes it during the break.
Ok ron..sorry for that
Roland McDonald? Just ate there…
It will kill me before Joe does… 🙂
Im not into Roland Mcdonald…its the Bee
we don’t have that over here, unfortunately… but at least I can buy UFC already…