Stockholm Syndrome – a Filipino malaise
By Chempo
The Stockholm Syndrome is a term used to describe a psychological reaction of victims of a hostage-taking or captive situation where the victims eventually bonded with their tormentors.
Whilst psychologists have known this phenomenon for a long time, it took its name from an incident in 1974 in Stockholm, Sweden. A bank robber held 4 employees hostage in the vault for 131 hours before they were finally rescued by police. The victims had bonded emotionally with the robber and they in fact thought the police were the bad guys. The victims later pooled their resources to fund the robber’s legal battle, and one woman victim got engaged to the robber.
One famous case happened a year later. In 1974, Patty Hearst, an heiress of a publishing empire, was kidnapped by left-wing terrorist group known as the Symbionese Liberation Army. She ended up sympathetic to their cause and joined them in all sorts of violent activities, including bank robberies. She was caught, served a very long term prison sentence, and was eventually pardoned by Bill Clinton.
The Philippine electoral conundrum
Why is it that election after election plunderers, cheaters, do-nothingers, plagiarist, womanizers, even some under suspicion of murders, goons and other scumbags, get the peoples’ votes? Commenter Irineo has presented great historical perspectives to try to explain this conundrum pointing out tribalism as its basal cause. Whilst persuasive, it does not explain the fact that all other civilizations have been tribal evolutions too and most do not share this Filipino ‘disease’.
Commenter Bill of Oz and myself made reference to the term Stockholm Syndrome in our comments in some back issues. It dawned on me that this term perhaps offer some explanation for the Filipinos’ twisted logic in selecting the political leadership the way they do.
Control and abuse
Although the term Stockholm Syndrome was coined in the specific case of hostage taking, the captive-captor emotional bonding psychology is also seen in many other abusive situations. In hostage taking, the victims are subject to a crisis situation of terrifying proportion for a short period of time. In other situations, the victims are subject to prolonged abuse. Cases abound such as :
– battered wives
– abused children
– members of cult groups
– prisoners of war
– economic dependents (Muslim wives)
– girlfriends of gangsters
– minions of warlords
– servile employees
– etc, etc
The governed and those that govern
The Philippines is a country lorded over by monopolistic political dynasties for decades. The political leadership is a deeply entrenched rent-collecting class and the relationship with the populace is one of control, not in the physical sense of a masochistic abuser, but in subtle insidious ways like laws and legal processes skewed in favour of those with connections, denials to freedom of choices by acute poverty, guns and goons, private armies, etc. Power lies with those having political and financial clout, and the populace have been subject to the abuse of this power ever since they can remember.
Stockholm Syndrome is not a disease, it is a survival instinct, make no mistake of it. The victim adapts to his situation subconsciously. It is a tactic of placating the abuser, at least initially. And so the victim tells himself it’s OK, the abuser is not such a bad guy, his actions are understandable, what he is saying is reasonable. The victim needs to justify himself as he internalises his rationale. Over time, the lies become ingrained truth. See how supporters process these mis-steps:
- Duterte womanizes — It’s OK, that’s a man’s thing. Besides, he is divorced (But it also happened when he was married NO?)
- Duterte curses the pope — He was actually cursing the traffic. It’s OK the pope forgives him and prays for him.
- Duterte utters obscenities, vulgarities and profanities – That’s who he is, it’s the real Mccoy. It’s just street talk.
- Duterte dis-respects women — No, he supports women’s rights.
- Binay plunders — Everybody in the government is corrupt.
- Bongbong represents a dictatorial past — The sins of the father should not be passed on to the son.
- Sotto plagiarizes — what’s the big deal, who is Caroline Kennedy anyway?
Conditions that trigger Stockholm Syndrome
- A threat exists (perceived or real) and the abuser can carry out the threat.
- Escape is not possible, whether real or perceived
- Victim is isolated with the abuser
- Abuser occasionally offers small gestures of kindness to victims
Super-impose it over the election scene and it looks like this :
- Threat: It could be a real fear of physical harm in view of private armies or guns and goons. It could be a perception of how their lives will be impacted. Thus we see this constant switching of loyalties and allegiances when people see a possible winner.
- Escape: The electorate feels there is nothing they can do. It has been like this for decades. How often do we hear people saying in resignation “This is the Philippines.” They see the hopelessness of their situation.
- Isolated: The electorate’s lack of education and access to information make them susceptible to mis-information and they accept the perspectives of the candidates.
- Kindness: This is a critical condition. Victims may be terribly mis-treated, but abuser extends small acts of kindness, like a cigarette to a POW. Notice the power of Binay’s cakes? It’s not the value aspect of the gift, it’s not that Makati residents can be bought for the price of a cake. It’s the perceived act of kindness.
Symptom of Stockholm Syndrome
- The victims have positive feeling towards the abuser
- They believe the abusers’ actions and explanation of things
- They are negative towards those trying to help them – the police, counselors, family and friends.
Super-impose this over the election, what do you get? More than 50% of the electorate are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. Between Binay and Duterte, they hold 50% of the polls. To these 50%, nothing negative, bad or vulgar that these 2 candidates say or do has any impact on their standing. Their supporters put them on a high pedestal in their unshakeable esteem of them. I did a google search for “abuses images” and out popped BBM’s face. Clicking on that picture opens up a page titled “Dictator’s son says Filipinos care less about Marcos abuses”. Get what I mean? See die-hard supporters of BBM and Duterte react to attempts to reason and explanation. The venom in their attacks on non-believers in social media is cause for concern. There is fair resemblance to the hate language of Hitler Youths in the early days of the Third Reich.
Reality is a bitter pill
For the individuals, treatment is mainly many sessions on the couch and regaining self-worth and confidence in the warmth, care and love of family and friends. A definite pre-requisite for a full recovery is to put space between the abused and his tormentor.
The electorate needs many 6-years free of the same entitled class of political players. Unfortunately, this is not going to happen any time soon. A “damaged culture ” with the Stockholm Syndrome is a double whammy making the electorate an Augean Stable impossible to clean. The Philippine electorate needs to wake up from this stupor to see the reality.
Angry Filipinos want change and they want a man whom they think can make grand changes in 3-6 months time-frame. The reality is that a change for the better can only come when the country hits the “break through” barrier or the “economic take-off point”. What it requires for the Philippines to take off :
- To arrive there takes time, perhaps within one generation if lucky.
- It takes lots of sacrifices as people need to adapt to many structural changes (such as K12, family planning)
- It requires people to accept delayed gratification (suffer now and enjoy the fruits later — such as more traffic jams as overhead roads are being constructed or reduce vehicle ownership by imposing higher duties)
- It requires non-corrupt and strong political leadership to get us there. And please, strength is not measured by the biceps or boasts of guts to kill, it’s the guts to make tough decisions in the interest of the nation, not succumbing to populist demands (such as rejecting the call for increased pension payouts when it is not fiscally possible).
- It requires a leadership with good economic visions and proper pain-staking complex plans (derided as paralysis-by-analysis by those who have no plans), not half-baked hotchpotch potpurri ideas flashed in one-liners.
- It requires calm and clear-thinking leadership to help the nation navigate through very troubled times in the world (not a fiery foul-mouthed demagogue who is quick to make threats against another country on a knee-jerk reaction to a personal slant).
Four succeeding presidents after the disaster of Marcos haven’t brought much change to the country other than the re-instatement of democracy. The 5th administration under Pnoy has brought much change for the better that the world applauds, but 70% of Filipinos say it’s hogwash. The reality is that whilst the country has improved, they personally have not benefited, yet. More importantly, the current admin has laid strong foundations for the nation going forward (in terms of [1] improvements in institutionalised processes in govt, [2] professionalised work ethics in govt bodies, and [3] some blue-prints for national development and infrastructure works) most of which stand at risk of being jettisoned by a wrong president-elect.
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction
Current polls suggest a strong possibility of a Duterte/Bongbong eventuality. Well, the will of the electorate has to be accepted, that’s democracy. But people need to understand that there are consequences to their decisions.
Everytime a country goes through an election, it concerns not just the citizens, but foreign investors and governments as well. Foreign investors assess political and country risks in the light of a new administration and what they will, or will not do, impact the country. Every foreign embassy in Manila has dossiers on the coming political changes under various scenarios that they dutifully report back home. There is no doubt whatsoever that a Duterte/Bongbong win is the worse case outcome of the election for every foreign embassy except China. These reports form the basis of the foreign countries’ future relationships with the Philippines in various ways such as economic co-operation, aid or assistance, various partnership programmes, etc. The Philippine GDP and credit ratings will deteriorate but those suffering from Stockholm Syndrome predictably will take the view that these are irrelevant and just a yellow bogeyman.
What would the reverberations of a Duterte/Bonbgbong win be? There will be much re-alignment of the importance of the Philippines in the thinking of a lot of countries. It would not be far fetched to say jittery would best describe relationships. How else is one expected to relate to a man with Duterte’s alledged human rights background, temperament, or a dictator’s son? The esteem of the ordinary Filipino in a foreign land would be lowered a few notches as the Philippines change from the “Sick man of Asia” to the “Joker of Asia”.
The moral of the story
I’m wondering whether in the Philippines, when families sit down for diner, do the tatays and tatoys explain to their children the hot topic of the day of plunder and explain to them that it’s wrong? Or do teachers bring up for class discussion regarding some TV report on trivializing of rapes and explain to students why it’s so wrong? Or do church leaders implore the flock to obey Ceasar’s laws?
In the words of The Guardian, the Philippines is an event rich country. If the 3 pillars of the society do not take the opportunity of each morally questionable incident to discuss and impart moral values, then I’m sure God will eventually leave the Philippines, if He has not already done so. For was it not said “God helps those who help themselves”? Has the significance of EDSA 1 been properly explained to the younger generation? Apparently not as I see it has been hijacked by certain groups who say it was an American intervention to oust Marcos. Do students know what plagiarism means and why it’s wrong and why we have RA 8293 – Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines? Apparently not as we see Tito Sotto still riding high on the poll charts. These, and many more burning moral indiscretions by political leaders and those in office, need to be explained to the Filipino youths, the real assets of the Philippines.
Tis the season for comics, so here’s my vain attempt at political cartoons.
Stupidity is a talent for misconception
Poe…. Edgar Allan Poe
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
Very good, chempo. An accurate and very graphic descriptions of Duterte and his supporters.
I’m not worried though. Duterte will not win the election.
As what I read in /r/Philippines, someone said that he’ll have a hard fall from the high pedestal if he fails on his promises.
Actually I too share your optimism. It’s in the stars, not to worry. We have only seen the angry ones, and these people are vociferous. The calm ones are the silent majority, and these group will come out in full force for Mar-Leni.
No holds barred and hard hitting article. A ‘this is going to hurt but you’ll thank me later” bullseye. Thank you, chempo, for the tough love.
Thanks Juliana. That’s just hope Duterte/Bongbong is only what it is, a nightmare. On May 10 we awaken to find the nightmare is gone after a good sleep.
Them cartoons — sock it to ’em! And if it should happen — Du3 and Bong! (still, God forbid!) — why, the good fight ain’t over!
Your optimism is contagious.
You’ve done it again Chempo. I just love this. Are we really that gullible? Praying hard for the Philippines.
Thks Arlene. Yes prayers do help, never to underestimate that.
Better than drinking… sometimes I think of San Miguel gin in this times I admit.
But I think it might do more good against Duterte to pray to San Miguel himself…
Well written and well thought through Chempo……
At the psychological level Stocholm syndrome behaviour is a way of surviving or keeping a job or a home or family. But at the political level it is the likes of brutal & evil men like Duterte who benefit.
Thanks Bill.
At this stage I would not go to the extent of using “evil”, I would just say his methodologies are worisome. But I would say that if elevated to the presidency, his psychological make-up do portend great challenges for the country. At that level, he will find lots of barriers to his executive actions, he won’t have it as easy as in Davao. That’s the time when his make-up will explode, and people are gonna get hurt.
@Chempo Tito Sotto is the one running for senator, not Vic. Otherwise though, it is a well-thought out post. Nice work!
Thanks for the catch, uht. I made the correction.
oops…I’m often confused between the 2. Difficult to distinguish if both apples are rotten…. a plagiarist and a rapist … sigh
he-he-he! sinabi mo iyan, ha chempo? Wow! who doesn’t know Caroline Kennedy? I’ve known her since grade one. (LOL!) Sa Iskol Bukol Elementary School lang kasi siya nag-aral kaya mga artista lang ang kanyang kilala. Paano nga ba iyan naging Senator? I hope he doesn’t win again. and ever!
My heart aches for my countrymen and for my country, as many are blind to the truth that they are sacrificing their morals and values for empty promises of a brighter future. Is it the younger populace that is being victimized here? After all, they would be the one who would want ‘any’ change ‘now’ and then whatever else needs fixing after that can be dealt with later. If I were poor, yes, I too would want change, But, have Filipinos already forgotten the oppression of martial law and its decades of residual effects? As I connect the ‘dots’ in my self-conversation, it also crosses my mind that we are already, now, the laughing stock of the world! Congratulations to the 33% of the 1800 voters who have a voter preference to the current mayor of Davao for making the headlines of Times News, it says: “A Presidential Candidate in the Philippines Made a Rape Joke – and Soared in the Polls.” How can we redeem ourselves now?
If change can be quick and furious, and have results overnight, we need to talk openly about the past as it is about to repeat itself and be our immediate future if the wrong president is voted in. God help us.
This, I find incomprehensible : UP educated folks barracking for dudedirty !!! Have they lost their senses ??? MRP where you be ???? 😥
Let’s just hope that it’s only a nightmare, we will wake up and it’s gone. I’m hoping there is a silent majority supportive of Ro-Ro that’s not reflected in the polls and social media.
Tayo’y magsayaw irog ko ng tinikling
Tulad ng sayaw ng lolo’t lola natin
Ang mga hakbang na kung di pagbubutihin
Dalawang kawayan tayo’y iipitin
The tinikling song. We have to step over the bamboo poles quickly, adroitly, gracefully, otherwise we fall prey to wrong survey readings. The last survey was conducted a day after news of the rape joke came out. It hadn’t registered yet as the slur of all slurs in the minds of sample voting population. Not yet. Let’s wait for the next survey, perhaps it’ll be more comprehensive because dutertifications come in quick succession. He will be defeated. The yellow army is awake. The enemy is pinpointed, triangulated. And the Stockholm syndrome? If Filipinos are subject to it, its antidote is a strong savior, one that speaks our language, smiles our smile, mother and father to us all, kind son, kind daughter. Mar-Leni fit the bill to a tee. There is a lot of tinikling going on right now, and we have to catch every fall and slide of the poles with the right timing or we just give up and let the bad people hold sway. Thanks, Chempo for the thoughts. You are probably right, but we have to present the antidote to the syndrome to expunge foreboding. Without hope, Filipinos amount to nothing.
I think wishful thinking is different from action, and I know the Roxas sorties and ground game represent the most forceful action among all four candidates. The huge crowds get absolutely no coverage in the media. It would be a mistake to read chempo’s article as just another criticism. The yellow army should be force-feeding chempo’s insights to Duterte and Binay fans. “Read this, then come back and talk to me.” Because what has to happen is a broad-based emotional enlightenment mighty quick. Some people have to rethink their gross illogic. Their sins. Their emotionalism. The nation needs reason and maturity. Not neediness.
It took many decades for the Philippines to win investment grade status. That could vanish in 3 months of Duterte. If the credit agencies are diligent, they should be sounding an alarm.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-10-03/philippines-completes-investment-grade-ascent-as-moody-s-raises
True.
Actually, financial people are already starting to vote by withdrawing from the Philippines. I expect my large US dollar pension fund to get fatter than a fiesta pig as the peso weakens.
http://news.abs-cbn.com/halalan2016/business/04/26/16/foreign-fund-outflows-show-poll-jitters-bdo
Thanks for the link Joe. This is usually the first sign. You are right, the peso will weaken, and the cruellest twist of all is OFWs will be sending back home more in peso terms! So OFWs and their families who voted Du30 will have the last laugh — they heck care that with peso down, cost of imported goods go up. As long as I benefit, to borrow from the mayor….screw the country.
They won’t care until inflation kicks in, and until the jobs of their family members in the Philippines evaporate. But that won’t happen overnight.
Absolutely spot-on post, Chempo. But bleak.
Many thing happening in May. Arbitration case before UN will finish. Will Duterte toss it as he has said and move for bilateral negotiations ? US will go into disputed territories with more aggressive posture, with strong possibility of a clash (per New York Times). How can Duterte stay neutral ? He will have to chose between his silent Sino-backers and loyalty from the military. Dangerous times for the Philippines.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-27/philippine-vote-doubts-sink-peso-as-mayor-likened-to-trump-leads
A controversial city mayor’s tightening grip on the Philippine presidential race has made the nation’s currency Asia’s worst performer this month.
The peso slumped 1.6 percent in April as opinion polls showed Rodrigo Duterte, the crime-busting leader of Davao city — who made inflammatory comments about rape and extra-judicial killing — extended his lead before the May 9 vote. He spent 22 years running the city of 1.5 million people and trailed his two closest rivals in a Bloomberg survey of economists on which candidate would best steer economic policy.
This guy better do his homework carefully because it’s not as it seems in Davao.
http://blogs.barrons.com/asiastocks/2016/04/27/so-what-if-trump-of-the-philippines-becomes-mr-president/
Why are you showing us a graph Irineo,Are you selling snake oil? Or still living in the times of Miguel Cuaderno Sr.? God ! took me minutes to figure that one out,I thought he was talking about a notebook or something.
Wow all of a sudden everyone has become as expert on macro-economic policies most especially on what influences forex rates.
Now Duterte has more influence of forex rates than the FED.
Will wonders never cease??
In 2014 the country suffered from a negative Balance of Payments. Are we now also headed for another negative BOP?
RHiro ….”Everybody “????????? Hav e you left your brain in neutral this morning ?
Nobody has claimed to be a macro-economic exopert.But the the chief investment officer of the country’s largest bank has noted that there is a net flow of money out of the Philippines because of election jitters..Now that is someone who should be listened to.he is an expert..
Or maybe not if you want to mislead people..Because you have another agenda ?.
You cast aspersions on someone who is pointing out serious flaws in ones presentation.
Apart from the reserves held by the local banks hold about $25+ in FCDU accounts.
You see I research data that counts.
You see PI go in and out based on many factors…SOP for these guys are hedging tools….
http://www.bsp.gov.ph/publications/media.asp?id=4040
Foreign portfolio investments post net inflows in March 2016
04.14.2016
Foreign portfolio investment transactions for March 2016 yielded overall net inflows of US$482 million, a significant improvement from the US$58 million level in February, and a reversal from the US$22 million net outflows a year ago.
Foreign portfolio investments registered during the month rose to US$1.7 billion or by 58.1 percent from last month’s figure due to renewed investor interest in government securities, coupled with positive sentiment arising from: i) the decision of the United States Federal Reserve to reduce the number of interest rate hikes in 2016 from four (4) to two (2); ii) the BSP’s decision to keep policy rates steady at 4.0 percent for overnight borrowings and 6.0 percent for overnight lending; and iii) favorable reports on corporate earnings. Registered investments last year were higher at US$2.1 billion due to major stock rights offerings of certain financial enterprises.
In late 1990s-early 2000s Straits tension between PRC and Taiwan escalated to new heights. There were serious thoughts that hostilities may take place. Taiwan suffered serious capital flight, un-imaginable sums of money went into Singapore (our property market sky-rocketted), London, Canada, and other financial centres. Taiwanese currency took a beating.
No experts here RHiro, just pointing out logical thought process of investors and the well-heeled (includes lots of politicians), and historical outcomes of forex rates consequential to capital flight of high magnitudes.
And for sure, I will redirect my savings to US accounts rather than PH. If I had big money, I’d also join the flight to security. Risk is a real thing, and the probabilities of stability in the Philippines are on the edge of a cliff which may be slip sliding away. R Hiro will not be doing my investing for me, for sure.
Three ways to vote this May, with a ballot, with one’s feet like Poe and Paredes, or with ones wallet by investing outside the cointry. However, there are credit rating agencies and investment advice firms who just recently decided to maintain unchanged risk raitings and remain bullish on the country.It all depends on the quality of experts and administrators thr next president can recruit But a lot of uncertainty is never good for the economy or its currency.
As for Hiro, he must have a very high opinion of his own economic and currency expertise. One of these days, he may even say something here that manifests some indication that his opinion is justifiable.
Firstly the semi-feudal/semi-colonial character of Philippine society has been long ago frequently discussed by political observers for so long. So now you have characterized it as stockholm syndrome.
Now on to the matter at hand…
Foreign Direct Investments More than Double in January 2016
04.11.2016
Foreign direct investments (FDI) reached US$587 million in January 2016, more than double its year-ago level of US$263 million.1, 2 This developed as all FDI components recorded increases, signaling investor optimism in the growth potential of various local industries, as well as confidence in the country’s sound macroeconomic fundamentals.
http://www.bsp.gov.ph/publications/media.asp?id=4039
I believe that Joe had his finger up someplace where the sun does not shine when he referred to an “expert ” who said that portfolio investors would pull out to wait and see…
Perfectly normal insights. However the bigger picture also points to this weeks Fed meeting to decide to raise rates or not or wait till June.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/fed-statement-could-offer-clues-toward-june-rate-decision-1461576605
Threat of warfare is totally different from change in President. Comparing war to Duterte is crying wolf….
So far there is no perceptible volatility in the exchange rate. Corporations and individuals are free to save in both pesos or U.S. Dollars. (FCDU)
So please point to evidence of capital flight apart from portfolio fund managers pre-positioning themselves for a change in fundamentals. Interest rates that is
You see one thing we do have today is a somewhat clear idea of volumes that are coming in or out.
The volume of dollars within the system give the BSP ample ammunition to stem volatilities as is its mandate to maintain price stability…
Joe Am’s description of the Philippines being on the edge of the cliff is belied by FDI expenditures which are for the long term.
Extremely low interest rates in EU and Japan will continue to offset the possible increase in the U.S.
Joe would be smart to invest in EU and Japan and get negative rates for his efforts. If one wants to cry fire in a theater make sure the theater is filled up first.
“Joe had his finger up someplace where the sun does not shine”
You are a real class act, R. Hiro.
OOOPS I forgot that is there was real volatility the NDF activity would be jumping with activity….A lot of you guys are living during the times of Cuaderno….Joe I doubt if your needs would be met by hedging your bets…
Click to access Managing%20Forex%20de%20Guzman.pdf
@ RHiro
“… the semi-feudal/semi-colonial character of Philippine society…… So now you have characterized it as stockholm syndrome.”
It’s called opinion, RHiro. It is’nt me saying shut up you guys, I’m have the right answers. It’s different ways of looking at things, inviting intelligent challenges from anyone. Like Irineo’s well thought historical dimensions. It’s just food for thought. If you think it’s nonsense, not worthy of comment, as I’m sure there are many who has read it think too, hey it’s OK.
“Foreign Direct Investments More than Double in January 2016”
You forget 2 things — (1) FDI did not come in Jan at the snap of a finger. It is part of a long planning process started long ago and timed or budged to come in Jan. (2) There is a world of difference between Jan and Apr. The prospect of Duterte’s ascendency became more pronounced Mar/Apr. People in capital markets and equity markets are already experiencing hot money outflows.
Not opinion but semantics….Look even Ninoy Aquino used his relationship with the late President Magsaysay to work out the loan for the purchase of Luisita exclusively for the benefit
of Cory’s Father.That caused the rift between the Danding side and Peping side of the clan.
The rule of families still reign till today. Danding had his time with Marcos.
FDI’s take along term view but they also take into account the coming change in government for better or worse.
As for out flows please point it out to the extent that it affects the forex rate drastically. Inflows and outflows are doing what they do reacting to fundamentals of the market itself.
http://business.inquirer.net/209853/investors-turn-bullish-ph-market
HSBC is “overweight” on the Philippines along with Indonesia, Singapore and China while it is “underweight” on India, Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Overweight is a recommendation to load up on equities in excess of the benchmark, typically the MSCI index, while “underweight” is the opposite.
In March, HSBC estimated that FIIs had purchased Asian equities worth $12.3 billion, the highest monthly inflow seen since September 2013. Most of the inflow went to Taiwan ($4.9 billion), India ($3.4 billion) and Korea ($2.9 billion). Southeast Asia also received a fair share of the equity flows. As a result, HSBC noted that for the first time this 2016, year-to-date flows into Asian markets were positive, with the region receiving $6.6 billion.
In the case of the Philippines, HSBC estimated that FIIs had sold $1.2 billion worth of stocks for the whole of 2015. By January and February 2016, there was still a net outflow from this segment amounting to $40 million and $80 million, respectively, but by March, the segment posted a net inflow of $200 million, resulting in a positive inflow of $80 million for the first quarter.
Corporate earnings
HSBC said its proprietary data on mutual funds’ positioning showed that amid heightened volatility in February, funds preferred markets with internal drivers like Indonesia and the Philippines and those with exposure to the US recovery like Taiwan and Korea. “Overall, Taiwan remains the most preferred market in Asia and Malaysia the least preferred one. In the current environment, Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines look better placed for high er fund inflows, in our view,” it said.
http://business.inquirer.net/209878/asia-markets-down-ahead-of-fed-apple-earnings-hit-suppliers
“More importantly, the current admin has laid strong foundations for the nation going forward (in terms of [1] improvements in institutionalised processes in govt, [2] professionalised work ethics in govt bodies, and [3] some blue-prints for national development and infrastructure works) most of which stand at risk of being jettisoned by a wrong president-elect.”
Kindly point out in straight prose instead of poetry what you said about the executive department under Aquino for past five years. You have made grandiose claims…Show the world
Diokno has put forward relevant facts about the inaction….So far Karl has not yet got Senator Trillanes to investigate the BW for its bias…
http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Opinion&title=aquino-gov&8217t-caught-in-the-inaction-zone&id=126605
Aquino Gov’t Caught in the Inaction Zone
Benjamin E. Diokno
The Philippine economy could have grown much faster, more decent jobs could have been created, and traffic congestion in Metropolitan Manila and other urban areas could have been reduced hence improving the welfare of the riding public: these are some of the missed opportunities owing to the Aquino III administration’s conservative fiscal policy.
On the eve of Mr. Aquino’s exit from Malacañang, it can now be told: the contribution of government to the economic expansion in the last 5 years is nil if not negative. Both government final consumption expenditures (GFCE) and government construction were low and erratic.
It’s interesting that when you pull up Diokno in Google, you get a raft of articles critical of the Aquino administration, and nothing about his academic writings or non-political expertise. The articles remind me of the idealisms of Micha and others who can pundit away from the armchair, but don’t have to actually go out and raise taxes or keep debt in line or get debt ratings up. Diokno was Sec of Budget and Management under Estrada:
Wiki: The growing budget deficit was of large concern during Diokno’s tenure, with the National Economic and Development Authority director citing it as the government’s biggest problem.[8] The government ended 1999 with a budget deficit of P114 billion, overshooting its target of P101 billion which had previously been increased from an original target of P68.4 billion.[9] The government missed its target by a far wider margin the next year, set an original deficit target of P62.5 billion for 2000, yet occurring a full-year deficit of P130 billion.[9][10] This is higher than the P126.5 billion “worst-case scenario” figure from the International Monetary Fund.
I’d feel better about his advice if he recognized the Aquino successes (tax collections) rather than harp about the gap between what was achieved and perfection. It is sooooo easy to pundit from a distance. I find the guy rather irritating, but maybe that’s just because it seems to me that every economist I know seems to have a huge, overblown impression of himself.
Ben Diokno is the father of the VAT during the Cory government and the tax reform of 1986 and helped in the formulation of the local government code. He was USEC in the DBM during Cory’s government. Due to GMA’s mismanagement he once again with some other economists pushed GMA to move for the EVAT in the year 2004
He joined the Estrada government just after the Asian Financial Crisis struck in 1997. Please note:::The peso went from Php 26. to Php 42. to 1 in six months. It went even lower at over P 50 to 1. To prevent high inflation the BSP increased interest rates to cut the money supply and the economy contracted. That was our last forex crisis….
How quickly memories fade.
http://pre.econ.upd.edu.ph/index.php/pre/article/viewFile/166/585
As far as tax revenue as % of GDP, Aquino’s government is still below the threshold established in 2008. W hiskey T ango F oxtrot is everyone talking about…..It is obvious most of you guys are either ignorant or do not understand how tax collections increase without effort simply by the growth of nominal GDP.
Taxes are calculated at the everyday monetary values of economic activity that includes inflation…However the share of that revenue as % of the ever rising GDP does not rise at the same level…Example–Lower oil and gas prices lower collection of duties and taxes at Customs. The same goes for all duties, excise and VAT taxes. Higher sales and/or higher prices higher taxes.
However the total tax revenue as % of total GDP takes efforts at widening the tax base. Hence direct or sales taxes are easier to collect rather than creating higher income jobs which create higher taxes… Please note link below…
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/philippines/tax-revenue-percent-of-gdp-wb-data.html
Ben Diokno pointed out repeatedly and lo and behold even one of the paid credit watchers. It is a fact that the Aquino government under spent for the last fire years….The total could come to almost 1 Trillion pesos….
MANILA, JUNE 29, 2015 (PHILSTAR) By Kathleen A. Martin (The Philippine Star) | Updated June 24, 2015 – Fitch Ratings has warned government underspending may continue to weigh down Philippine economic growth this year as the country lacks a more efficient way in disbursing public funds.
“In its latest Asia Pacific Sovereign Overview, the debt watcher kept its 6.3-percent forecast for the country’s gross domestic product growth this year. The figure is short of the government’s seven- to eight-percent growth assumption for the year.”{
“The economy grew by a dismal 5.2 percent in the first quarter, blamed on weak exports and public underspending.”
“Fitch does not expect a significant pick-up in public investment as bottlenecks remain with respect to disbursement of public funds. Furthermore, a narrow revenue base is likely to prevent a material increase in public spending,” Fitch said.
“Expenditures in the first quarter increased by four percent to P504 billion but this was still 13 percent below the government’s program. With government revenues climbing 18 percent to P470.5 billion during the period, deficit amounted to P33.5 billion, far below the P98.1-billion target.”
READ MORE…
“Budget Secretary Florencio Abad earlier this month said spending should accelerate in the second half of the year following President Aquino’s order to fast-track spending.”
“Abad admitted that technical deficits such as revision in project plans have pulled down spending during the first quarter but stressed his department is also working on reviewing and ironing out kinks in the disbursement process.”
“The Philippines enjoys an investment-grade “BBB-“ rating from Fitch with a “stable” outlook.”
“Fitch said this rating was awarded amid expected high growth rates for the Philippines, a strong external position, and stable inflation.”
“These factors have balanced out the low per-capita incomes and “structural weaknesses” of the Philippines especially with its business climate and narrow government revenue base.”
“The credit rater said that an upgrade in the Philippines’ credit rating may be given if it sustains the strong momentum of growth, widens fiscal revenue base, and further strengthens governance standards.”
“However, a reversal in reforms following the national elections in 2016 and a prolonged period of overheating in the economy may prompt a downgrade.”
I spot checked one year, from 2013 to 2014, and BIR revenue increased 9.7%, well above GDP growth. The commitment President Aquino made was to increase tax collections without adding any new taxes. BIR has, it seems to me, worked hard to accomplish the task, and it has funded a broad range of improved government services (provincial roads, increase in CCT enrollees, school classrooms, jets and boats, increased salaries for government workers, and more). I find it strange that you impugn those of us who appreciate both the policy and the efforts of earnest workers to implement a sound revenue/expense program as being “ignorant”. You just can’t help being smug, can you?
Frankly, I’m done with these drippy insults leveled at those of us who do not have your background or insights. 30 day suspension from the blog.
Remember the finger and the sun shining…Joe you cannot simply revise history of the last 25 years….Your selective history about Diokno shows your finger stuck again in the wrong place. You deliberately posted parts of a wiki report about budget deficits during the start of Estrada’s reign…
You completely disregarded the effects of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis on the incoming Estrada government.
http://pre.econ.upd.edu.ph/index.php/pre/article/viewFile/166/585
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/philippines/tax-revenue-percent-of-gdp-wb-data.html
Benjamin Diokno was Secretary of Budget and Management of the Philippines in the administration of President Joseph Estrada, from July 1998 until Estrada’s ouster in January 2001.
I’ll take Diokno’s assessment with double dose of salt coming from a guy from an administration that performed so horribly.
Will wonders never cease?
When will we have that ever so elusive Eighth Wonder of the World?
What is worse a syndrome or a complex? As in Superiority Complex.
http://www.exchange-rates.org/history/PHP/USD/T
Karl maybe you could honor us with your analysis as to why the peso almost hit 48 to 1 during the period starting November 2015.
As you are well aware there is a mood now ongoing that there is an ongoing flt to safety to the dollar ongoing because of Digong’s supposed impending ascendancy to the Presidency…
What caused the past depreciation you think. Why no uproar then….
For myself a 60 to 1 rate would be a boon in the long term…
Maybe someone should come up with a charge that Digong is a child molestor…That might work….
Just thinking aloud….
http://www.exchange-rates.org/history/PHP/USD/T
Karl during the last six months the peso had almost depreciated to 48 to 1.Why no uproar then? Based on your acquired wisdom from West Rembo are the present movements of the peso dollar rate a deviation from the last six months….
I would personally prefer a 60 to 1 rate but that is wishful thinking which is good for the country in the long term.
I wonder how many guys took position’s of 48 to 1 and now have to sweat it out….
Based on your experiences what movement would be termed volatile? P 1 to P 2 a day maybe….
A lot of the posts remind me of some NGO’s threatening to withdraw OFW remittances from entering the country.
What else do you think can be sued to scare the people from voting for Digong?
http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Finance&title=peso-strengthens-ahead-of-fed-decision&id=126587
Maybe you could get Trillanes to investigate the BW for the obviously biased reporting of the Peso rise yesterday…If Barangay Dilaw says there is massive capital flt then it must be true…No ifs and buts….
It should be dropping like a rock according to some expert that Joe is betting on…
“Betting” is an overstatement. I am not a money player, but a guy with limited resources who likes stability and steady returns over high risk and the “bets” people such as yourself might make to try to catch the market napping. I confess, I have never figured the market directions out well enough to make a lot of money, although I did buy Ford when it got down to $4 or thereabouts. I don’t invest in Philippines stocks, and don’t play the currency gambles.
You constantly amaze me with your approach to those of us with lesser knowledge and experience in the field of economics. In all my years in elementary school, high school, undergraduate college, and post-graduate, I have never had an instructor who ridiculed those he has the knowledge to teach. You, on the other hand, persist at earthy, Duterte-style ridicule and put-downs, as if that would somehow elevate our thinking of you. Trust me, it does not.
That said, I do recall our history teacher in 7th grade, who also happened to be the football coach, dragged one smart-mouthed gangster out of the classroom and slammed him against the steel lockers about 6 or 7 times. That was the good old days. Teachers in our enlightened times can’t do that any more. And in the third grade, a teacher whacked another thug on the top of the head with a ruler. He stood up, punched her in the face, and that was the last we saw of him.
You are a blast from the “good old days”, I think. Crass in the class. he he
for US and d rest
11 year record low oil prices drived US economy growth, savings maybe high,but consumer demand was also high. ECB And BOJ wants negative interest rates probably because no one is interested in borrowing.(Thinking aloud).
for pinas
60:1 yahoo ,what a boon for the new consumers who also(no longer solely) rely on remmitances, boon for the exporter? Semicons still rely on imported components…cars we do not manufacture cars…Ships….we are number four builder but we build for others..so good or bad? Garments..Bangladesh will always be one step ahead..Rice let us give up on rice and let Thailand and vietnam handle it.
How is it a good thing? Do you see a manufacturing and export rennaissance?
That is nice ,kindly show us the money.
Electronic equipment: US$26 billion (44.3% of total exports)
Machines, engines, pumps: $8.2 billion (14%)
Wood: $2.9 billion (5%)
Medical, technical equipment: $2.4 billion (4.1%)
Ores, slag, ash: $1.6 billion (2.8%)
Ships, boats: $1.5 billion (2.6%)
Vehicles: $1.4 billion (2.4%)
Animal/vegetable fats and oils: $1.2 billion (2%)
Knit or crochet clothing: $872.4 million (1.5%)
Copper: $860.2 million (1.5%)
Medical and technical equipment was the fastest-growing among the top 10 export categories, up 276.5% for the 5-year period starting in 2011.
In second place for improving export sales were Philippines-made ships and boats which rose in value by 139.5% led by cargo vessels.
Filipino electronic equipment posted the third-fastest gain in value at 118.8%.
Leading the decliners among the top 10 Filipino exports were copper shipments declining by -36.8% and vehicles’ -35.8% slowdown in international sales.
——-
I have this idea of maximizing our e waste recycling.
Also landfill mining.
If we have robots to do the recycling for us, our electronic imports would lessen.
We can extract metals from ewaste.
landfill mining can also give us diesel from plastic.
Waitaminit
Wood is number 3?
What is DENR doing? What happened to all the reforestation programs.
Philippine forestry follows the plant and harvest model, with trees planted liberally and mowed down as fast as they get big enough for lumber. I think my neighbor has forestry skills, for that is the way he does it. There is nothing more amazing to me than the old “chain saw lumber mill” technique practiced here, where two guys with a chain saw make lumber out of trees, right there on the ground. Those guys are good. Maybe Duterte will hire them to instill discipline.
Discipline by fear of a chain saw massacre.
RHiro you have Mentong Tiu Laurel in speed dial,why don’t you ask him to ask Trillanes to investigate Business World.Tiu Laurel is an adviser of Trillanes.
another song that shows the darker side… the reference to old peasant clothing shows that the culture of rape jokes and rudeness is far older than Duterte:
bastos ka walang galang bakit ka nanggagapang
di naman nanggagapang nangingibabaw po lamang
bakit mo hinihipo ang aking dalawang suso
akala ko’y mga niyog, ako sana’y magkukudkod
bakit mo nililislis ang aking saya’t tapis
akala ko’y isang banig, ako sana’y magliligpit
Feminist author Ninotchka Rosca told me she once heard construction workers singing it…
OT: new Pulse Asia numbers are out.
Survey is from 16-20… does this include the rape comments already?
VP: http://www.twitter.com/cesdrilon/status/724824383399800832
Strongest with the ABC group, the ‘educated’. This man is a fascist even in his support base.
That might be unfair to fascists. They had something approaching a coherent ideology – twisted, evil, and self-contradictory as it may be. But Duterte doesn’t even have that. He’s just a thug writ large.
Chempo, once again an excellent article. My comments:
1) yes, the Philippines came from a tribal culture. But the chieftains were co-opted by the Spanish as slave overseers. The principalia had the role of extracting forced labor. The datus who used to be “harsh but just” leaders (harshness necessary in a simpler society, but if they were not just it was easy to remove them and put in a new one, this was documented) became simply harsh, those who sold their people out were rewarded, those who resisted were killed or exiled.
2) yes, other countries evolved from tribal cultures. But as I have mentioned in the article http://filipinogerman.blogsport.eu/subsidiarity-solidarity-humanity/ which is based on a comment by Manong Sonny, other countries were luckier. They evolved their modern cultures organically out of a tribal culture, while Philippine tribal culture came under the yoke of a more advanced culture that Filipinos NEVER REALLY UNDERSTOOD. Most of them did not as we can see today.
3) A series of articles by Karl http://filipinogerman.blogsport.eu/more-on-community-police-doctors-schools/ shows that the way out of this is to rebuild at community level. Parekoy precedes Karl’s articles by saying change must come with each person first – don’t throw garbage, follow rules. Self-discipline not discipline from outside. Comments from Karl show that this was tried in the American and in the postwar period – one reason why these times seem to have been better.
4) Leni Robredo and her late husband managed to rebuild communities in a gentle way. Duterte managed to rebuild a completely war-torn community in a mix of harshness and caring – not really civilized but effective down there. Why are both Leni and Duterte leading? Because they have each in their own way understood where to start. But there is more to leading a country which is the legacy of a colonial state, still seen as a foreign body by many – including Rodrigo Duterte.
5) Will has commented that the Philippines needs a father and a mother. The orphan nation. Now Duterte and Leni winning will represent the reality for many Filipinos. A father with many vices and a mother who is caring and strong. Many Duterte fans hope for a Filipino Putin, but the reality is more like Yeltsin, a clown. Besides cultures that look for strongmen are covering up their own weakness at the given historical moment. Which is why Mar is seen as “weak” – just projection.
The Stockholm syndrome explains many things about the Philippines. A bastard child of Spain, a foundling of America, raped by Japan, out on her own after the war, controlled by Marcos, freed by Cory, disciplined by Ramos, ran off with Estrada, ran to Gloria, then to a balding bachelor.
Will the country now seek a strong gangster type to protect her, go with a foundling like herself, trust a decent man like Roxas? It is unlikely she will go for the dark thief, he is way too obvious, the dying old teacher not even a short-term prospect for most. Things are not going to be easy.
Putin has squandered his country’s dollar reserves and Russia has a per annum GDP of -5%.
Irineo — once again your indepth views are priceless.
Sorry guys, for the last minute inclusion of final 2 cartoons. Joe jumped the gun for publication by one and a half hours……
Actually, by 7 hours. My bad.
people forgive and forget that was during the pre twitter bash age.
Now they bash and get angry for three days,then they forget.
Stockholm syndrome is like a lady marrying a good for nothing sob scumbag douchebag and answers just because to the question what do you see in him.
Stockholm syndrom is Marcos-era exile Carmen Navarro-Pedrosa supporting Duterte.
“Congratulations to the 33% of the 1800 voters who have a voter preference to the current mayor of Davao for making the headlines of Times News, it says: “A Presidential Candidate in the Philippines Made a Rape Joke – and Soared in the Polls.””—copy-pasted from commenter Sieva above at 11:31 am
I miss my friend Edgar Lores. That headline quoted by Sieva gave me a headache. I think I’m going into depression. Please come back Edgar and comfort a friend with your wisdom.
We are Albayanos. I think all you can do is do what we all do when storms are coming or when Mayon is about to erupt. And we must remember one thing – the rage that Duterte has unleashed can also hit him one day, if and when he does not deliver heaven on earth.
And therein lies the greater danger…. when you hit him, he will explode and all hell breaks loose.
@Irineo, @Chempo- That scenario is my worst fear. If anyone is familiar with probability trees, the routes to dictatorship has one branch where Duterte arrogates power to himself in the belief that the country has given an absolute mandate to do what must be done to make changes and get things done. This is what his soaring popularity indicates inspite of the outrageous statements and extralegal threats he has made. The second branch is his presidency self destructs as has been his penchant during his campaign where his impulsiveness and lack of self control combined with his incompetence in managing national affairs lead to two subbranches
.One subbranch is the country careens into a death spiral which triggers a coup engineered by “concerned” oligarchs and exmilitary which can be as bloody as all hell as counter coups and attempts to stay in power lead to violent clashes. Remember, violent and brutish force is the Duterte camp signature.
The second subbranch is actually less violent and bloody at least in its transition and involves a recreation of the past. The country’s untenable situation leads the ABC segment to erupt into another EDSA, removes Duterte, and a Vice President Marcos assumes power in the second coming of his dynasty. My belief is that Marcos part deux may be a family affair where Imee ,who inherited much of Papa’s mental horsepower and willpower , will be a star performer on stage or behind the scenes. Junior of course will not lack for advisors as the old guard is still around, waiting in the wings. Some of them are not only very good, they are great strategic thinkers such as the architects responsible for the staged and almost stealthy comeback of the family into the pinnacles of political power. Expect these subbranch, if it transpires, to be prolonged if not as brutal and violent as the first subbranch or even Marcos I as this family and their advisors have had great success in manipulating the millenials perception of what was and is best for the country.
Not a very pretty diagram, this tree. I have long pondered about this and the Binay scenarios, and as much as I hate to say it, a kleptocrat may actually be the lesser evil. Who knows, maybe the surveys are all wrong and in these final two weeks, Poe or Roxas may still perform a miracle and we can all wake up from this nightmare.
I strongly suspect you will be proven correct. Whichever way your tree grows, it’s not going to turn out well for the country. The unknown quantity I think is how well has Pnoy institutionalised the PNP and AFP. The key to watch is how Duterte reshuffles the commanders when he assumes office, if ever.
It’s not Duterte.
It’s the people, my people, Irineo…going out of their minds.
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/2137-in-individuals-insanity-is-rare-but-in-groups-parties-nations “In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.” 😦
Right on the nose, PiE!!
Flight or fight? Wanted: a third option. always needed.
Konrad Adenauer, mayor of Cologne was deposed by the Nazis when they grabbed power. We have talked about him in my blog – his principles were very Benedictine. What he did was to spend 12 years in internal exile in his home near Bonn – after the war he was the Christian Democratic Chancellor of West Germany in it’s difficult postwar period. The other great Chancellor (Social Democratic) was Willy Brandt, originally Herbert Frahm, the name under which he became Chancellor was originally his underground alias which he kept when he fled to Norway, where he even was captured by the Germans but was wearing a Norwegian uniform and was not discovered, then fled to Sweden. As mayor of Berlin, he defended the city together with Kennedy. Both men, shaped by their respective way of dealing with collective madness around them, built modern Germany. History will tell whether the current Chancellor Merkel, who managed to survive in Communist East Germany (which is why she can deal with people like Putin and Erdogan) will be in the same category as Adenauer and Brandt. So far she has managed to secure the survival of the European Union and modern Germany. The refugee crisis and the potential exit of the UK (referendum in June) threaten her legacy. Next election is in 2017.
How did Filipinos from 1942-1945 deal with the calamity that came? The diaries I have posted in my blog give a picture. They may give valuable lessons for what could come.
As usual, chempo: clear analysis, elegant form! Solution of the girl with the dragon tattoo is not for the faint-hearted.
Thanks Sonny. I declare I’m faint-hearted so I’ll stay away from tatoos of all sorts.
Slightly OT: videos of Ground Zero Chernobyl 30 years after. Sometimes I think that catastrophe was the beginning of the end of Eastern European socialism. First video shows the nuclear power plant – they are now building a steel mantle to replace the concrete “sarcophagus” which surrounds the meltdown, to shield most of Europe from radiation for at least 100 years. Second video shows the city of Pripyat which used to have 50 thousand inhabitants and was evacuated – but only 3 days after the catastrophe without having informed anybody. It is an eerie look back at the strange world of Big Brother Socialism, with the propaganda still preserved on rooftops… the greatest insanity would be to activate Bataan Nuclear Power Plant… Fukushima was somehow managed by Japanese efficiency and kamikaze engineers who made sure things were contained.
Irineo, are you serious in regard to your statement.
“Japanese efficiency and kamikaze engineers who made sure things were contained”
The reactor continues to leak radiation into the ocean and that it could take 40 to 100 years to clean up the Fukushima disaster.
Radiation level is too high in the plant so it isn’t fixed yet. They still need to dump hundreds of thousands tons of radioactive waste water.
According to a French study what we are seeing on the west coast is the first three months of the radiation water leak. The water has been leaking for five years now. If stopped tomorrow, these levels will still continue to increase for the next 10 years with the strongest concentrations off the coast of Alaska occurring in 2026. Plankton rich Alaskan waters support sea life for the whole west coast of the US, Canada and Mexico.
This is the consequence of building a nuclear reactor on top of a fault line. A total of 166 children in Fukushima Prefecture had been either diagnosed with thyroid cancer or with suspected cases of cancer by the end of 2015, Most experts of epidemiology agree on the view that the number of thyroid cancer cases is high among over 300,000 targets in health checkups that started six months after the nuclear meltdowns.
Every weather system that comes in from California will now have radiation in the rain water. Think about that.
Not to mention that there is a MYSTERY outbreak of higher levels of Thyroid Cancers in California.
http://www.kcra.com/news/thyroid-cancer-cases-rising-in-northern-california-communities/37902808
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2015/oct/11/radioactive-wreckage-inside-fukushimas-nuclear-exclusion-zone-in-pictures
Should we bury nuclear waste?
More than one suggested to send it to outer space.
Where is super man? We need one.
http://www.debate.org/opinions/should-we-bury-nuclear-waste-in-the-ground
Superman is dead. Hindi ka na ba nanonood ng sine? 😀
Have you seen the ending,the earth shaked.
Waiting for a good time to watch Civil War.
After May 9 or before you might even have it on the streets.
No need to go to the movies anymore. 😦
Captain America: Civil Wars.
A nuclear plant disaster is absolutely scarry stuff as what Ire pointed out.
Bataan scares the shit out of me, even though my country is thousands of km away. That’s why in my article on Marcos revisionism I took pains to dwell on Bataan a bit in detail.
A blooper in a script of the die hard movie made people calling this the Helsinski syndrome.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/781831/trillanes-duterte-didnt-declare-p211m-in-saln
Payday for the Dutertes but for doing what and for whom?
His defenders never run out. They must have been to Stockholm lately.
Trillanes: Duterte told me,he shot somebody while on their knees.
Duterte: Don’t believe this fool,I only met him twice.
—-
one meeting is enough to boast of your arrogance and criminal behavior.
Oh my God, comment by Ire just jolted me to nuclear plant horrors again. Does a BBM return means re-activating Bataan? Many BBM loyalists were clamouring for it.
If you will be doing a BBM article,maybe His SALN of 500 million should be examined.
I’m shocked. It makes sense why he’s bent on winning.
The Marcoses insist that the plant is still functional, complete and ready to be used, despite multitudes of defects and decades have passed that some parts of it may no longer be working or non-existent, and uses obsolete technology.
Technological society in the Philippines is not even able to maintain an MRT properly, much less run a nuclear power plant. I have seen the differences in working accurately even within Europe, those that have been industrial longer, have more accuracy.
Our seamen do it a lot better being able to keep huge oil tankers sailing, though. 🙂
Much of the reactor has been dismantled, and there’s no fuel for it on-site. It was sold to Siemens in 1997.
I see. So it’s effectively inert. Good.
http://techxplore.com/news/2016-04-china-aims-nuclear-power.html
Guess where China wants its floating Nuclear power plant?
we escaped the will of the wind during the Fukushima disaster,if China pushes through with their plans a disaster maybe disastrous for us.
If anything, the SCS is one of the safest places to site nuclear reactors. The seas are extremely sparsely inhabited, tectonically stable, and have relatively shallow waters and a surrounding ring of land so weather isn’t very extreme. This isn’t a bad idea technically.
Fukushima and Chernobyl are examples of what happens when you’re idiotic about how you build things.
1.worried about meltdowns?? Good, we have designed reactors that are meltdown proof in the form of molten salt reactors that cant melt down because they are already in a natural meltown state and can cool themselves without human intervention if built correctly.
2. Worried about nuclear waste?? Good, we’ve had designs for years for reactors called breeders that can work off of spent fuel rods to make insane levels of power, and what comes out has its half life reduced so much that it will naturally decay in a dozen years instead of a thousand…if you don’t want to just keep feeding those old fuel rods back into them…which you can.
3. Worried about uranium and Plutonium being used by rogue states for nuclear weapons? Good, we can use Thorium, another fissionable element that is MUCH more common of an element to find AND is so hard to make I to a nuclear bomb that it can’t be, only the most advanced counties can make them into bombs, but they also suck as nuclear bombs compared to uranium and plutonium as they are much less efficient. So that worry goes away too.
Yeah….but we wont build them because we are idiots in the west on nuclear power.
China and India are the only ones who are planning on building these designs (even sadder is that the US built and ran test reactors for Breeder Reactors and Thorium reactors safely for years but were shut down by politics). In fact China is building test thorium and molten salt reactors now….with cooperation from the US Department of Energy…because even they know only China will advance the tech, so we handed over a lot of the old research we had to help them improve the field.
Ire, my fear is not the technology itself. My fear is certain countries should never go into nuclear technology. countries like Indonesia and Philippines. My fear is corruption. Any donwnline supplier sneak in some small under spec material or parts and we’ll be doomed. See my article on Marcos revisionism on the great job done by Disini’s firm at Bataan — some small part of the construction screwed the whole project.
Fun fact: The US Army had an operational floating nuclear reactor that powered the canal locks on the Panama canal in the 1960s, the USS Sturgis This is possible with 1960s technology people.
Float nuclear power is not a bad idea, and if they are using it to test new generation designs, then I’m all for it, because the US and Europe wont do it because of naive anti nuclear fears pushed by morons. Someone has to advance the technology.
The oceans have eaten their share of nuclear reactors (9 nuclear submarines have been lost) without major impacts.
There is no news yet about what kind of Nuclear power plant the Chinese intend to put on a ship and send down 1000 ks to their new man made island..But it could be a Thorium type reactor which are hugely, hugely safer..Thorium nuclear power plants were developed by the USA in the 1950’s for their submarine fleet….Perhaps a small room for some hope…
.”worried about meltdowns?? Good, we have designed reactors that are meltdown proof in the form of molten salt reactors that cant melt down because they are already in a natural meltown state and can cool themselves without human intervention if built correctly.”
Who is we?
Superb question.
Based on all the Duterte quotes from this Makati Business Club forum he’s at now, it almost looks like someone who thinks he’s on a victory lap.
http://www.visayandailystar.com/2016/April/27/tightrope.htm – Visayan Daily Star
Let me repeat the quotation from Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kamf that I cited yesterday: “The great masses of the people… will easily fall victims to a big lie than a small one.”
From the beginning of this campaign, Rodrigo Duterte had peddled great lies to the masses and they accepted his lies without pause to find out whether indeed his claims have basis in fact. They just swallowed the lies as a joke, although false, at their face.
http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Opinion&title=the-consequences-of-a-duterte-presidency&id=126604
Some Duterte fanatics have argued that the US and Australia need the Philippines as much as we need them and that they would never abandon our country, whatever the aggravation. These simpletons fail to see that turning the screws on our hapless country does not necessarily mean letting go of their strategic position here. They’ll just make life more miserable for the Filipino people, with greatest impact on the masses.
And talk about the masses, it appears that there is a growing wave of support for Duterte among them because of the fantastic belief that he will rid the country of criminality and corruption in three to six months. And not just the masa — even supposedly intelligent individuals from the so-called Class ABC have been taken in by the double-talk. Apparently spurred by extreme frustration over the incompetence of the current administration and the endemic corruption in Philippine society, these people are willing to believe anything.
The frustration over incompetence was mostly avoidable – it was hideously bad politics on the part of the administration that let it build.
Last sentence: “perceived incompetence”, I think would be more accurate.
@R. Hiro “You cast aspersions on someone who is pointing out serious flaws in ones presentation. ”
Well I was not the ‘preseneter’ But, that’s right I do – because I think you’re comments betray incompetence on your part. Political instability of any kind in the Philippines ( and any other country ) will generate financial & then economic instability. Should you be open to actual current evidence check out the Malaysian Ringit…Or the Russian rouble or the Argentine peso during 2009-15……
Stop citing evidence from November 2015 or January 2016, etc.It’s out of date & irrelevant now…
I’ve got no money to move out of the Philippines.But given the liklihood that an admitted murderer and sexual sadist being elected president, if I had any here, I would be considering moving it elsewhere..And others with serious amounts of money have done so before me.
Context…
What political instability are you talking about????
The issue is simple… A financial analyst said that money was moving out of the Philippines due to uncertainty about elections and Duterte’s rise.
So we looked at the track of the PESO/DOLLAR rate for the last six months. …You know what a seismograph is? The needle would move violently if there was a quake…The large swings would be a telltale sign….
Was there any perceived volatility in the day today tracking…Large swings in the value of the peso downward…Are people hoarding goods? Please point to the volatility in the daily fluctuations of the forex rates….I do not see people lining up to fill their gas tanks in expectation of a serious drop in the peso. BSP job is to prevent that from happening…It does have a deep arsenal to fight with…
Have you ever personally experienced being in a country with a serious financial crisis.
Everyday i check both the formal and informal markets for remitting money out of the country…
No wild swings to be seen….
Why will I look at Malaysia or Argentina…What is the connection apart from your motherhood statement about political crisis causing financial capital to flee.
http://business.inquirer.net/209853/investors-turn-bullish-ph-market
Overweight
“Just a month ago, Asian equities were in all sorts of ‘trouble.’ The risk of a Chinese hard landing, a steeper US Fed (US Federal Reserve) rate hike trajectory and a further downside in commodities kept EM (emerging market) Asian markets at elevated volatility and pushed out foreign investments. Now, with some of these fears behind us, even if temporarily, we see renewed confidence building up among FIIs (foreign institutional inflows,” British banking giant HSBC said in an April 4 report written by the team led by Herald van der Linde, HSBC head of equity strategy for Asia Pacific, and Devendra Joshi, HSBC strategist at Asia Pacific.
HSBC is “overweight” on the Philippines along with Indonesia, Singapore and China while it is “underweight” on India, Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Overweight is a recommendation to load up on equities in excess of the benchmark, typically the MSCI index, while “underweight” is the opposite.
In March, HSBC estimated that FIIs had purchased Asian equities worth $12.3 billion, the highest monthly inflow seen since September 2013. Most of the inflow went to Taiwan ($4.9 billion), India ($3.4 billion) and Korea ($2.9 billion). Southeast Asia also received a fair share of the equity flows. As a result, HSBC noted that for the first time this 2016, year-to-date flows into Asian markets were positive, with the region receiving $6.6 billion.
In the case of the Philippines, HSBC estimated that FIIs had sold $1.2 billion worth of stocks for the whole of 2015. By January and February 2016, there was still a net outflow from this segment amounting to $40 million and $80 million, respectively, but by March, the segment posted a net inflow of $200 million, resulting in a positive inflow of $80 million for the first quarter.
@R.Hiro
I would have to agree with you. My observation on past week, any small change in something these days seems all to be immediately connected to Duterte.
I would start with a different question. Rather than, “are funds leaving or stocks falling because of Duterte?, I would ask “Does a President add to or subtract from the assessment of risk that investors make?” I’m one of those investors, in both monetary and non-monetary ways (family safety, child’s future), and I can testify that, for me, the Duterty presidency represents high risk. Much higher than it would be for any other presidential candidate, even Binay.
The question could be, did this type of governance resulted in: new, none or run off business for Davao.
Hmmmm. I suppose that would be an indicator. The difficulty seems to be that one cannot trust what is coming from Duterte himself. He will rid the nation of crime but Davao is hardly crime free. My own personal assessment is that it would take more than six months to decide if I wanted to . . . say . . . invest in a business in the Philippines. Of if I thought the US would be a better place for my son to live up to his potential. Or it might take a year. I suspect others share this wariness, and so I project a sluggish start to a Duterte Presidency, economically speeaking, and a drop in the PH’s robust GDP growth.
But, as R. Hiro points out, I have no idea what I am talking about, economically speaking, and merely sit around with my fingers in places that are awkward, to say the least.
It won’t get that far. Lacson is no one’s favorite here most likely, but he said this is heading for civil war. No reason to doubt that, especially with the possibility of a major state actor behind Duterte.
Here seems an answer on it:
I let you guys decide if it’s truth or not, i am neutral.
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/davao/business/2015/07/31/davao-fastest-growing-422136
http://themaharlikan.info/news/duterte-davao-city-improved-under-the-aquino-administration/
“Davao City has economically improved under the administration of Pres. Aquino”, Duterte said.
Duterte made the statement during his regular TV program ‘Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa’ on Sunday, July 27, 2014, a day before the 4th State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Aquino.
Those are impressive numbers, and a skeptic is inclined to ask if that is a product of civic policy or private investment and an economy that flourished because it was a major trade center feeding the rest of the nation, and its significant growth. I wish this had been placed on the table as a platform piece rather than the Mayor telling raunchy jokes. Then people would have had time to probe to see what exactly is driving the performance.
@Irineo
It doesn’t matter who takes the honors of it. It just seems to prove that an gun swinging sheriff doesn’t contribute to lesser business.
In the Wild South it might be good if his town is the only one somewhat orderly.
At national level, he may cause enormous instability because it is not his ballgame. Besides his approach to crime may work locally, but run totally out of control nationally.
@Irineo
Let me just ask you a question, are you willing to give him a chance ?
as
may cause ….. (is an assumption)
may work locally, but run totally out of control nationally (how can you know how far he will go in executing it ?) (seems to be an assumption)
Irineo can answer for himself. For me, the risks are too high and the values he projects, leveraged across a nation that is trying to find its way to integrity and civility, are horribly wrong.
@Ire, I also see the risks as very high. He may yet adjust to the Presidential role.
If he is duly elected that will have to respected, but he will have to face the scrutiny of both the Legislative and possibly even the Judiciary, as well as savage Filipino public opinion.:-)
@Joe
I have no benefits or loss with the next President, as said i stay neutral.
However i will not condemn someone without: facts, on assumptions and Tabloid talks.
Looking at Davao performance and the correlation with his style of governance.
Personally i don’t see any problem with it.
Will he be good or bad, looking at the performance i would say, why not giving him a chance. I don’t pretend that he would be my favorite (but it could be).
You are of course entitled to your view. I’d guess you don’t have kids. His presentation today at the Makati Business Club was a huge fail. He has no economic plan. He just did his macho strut.
@Irineo
He seems to be a men from compromises (and this isn’t bad).
My guess, he will swim between the sharks.
A knot from a guy with sometimes velour gloves.
@Joe,
“the risks are too high”
Fine.
Let me ask you,
What is the degree that it will occur from every risk ? Small / Medium / High ?
Based on …… .
You belabor the point. The risk that the current rise of the Philippines will stop or stall is very high under Duterte. Furthermore, I don”t accept your point of neutrality as you seem unable to accept my non-neutrality. Media are rich with evidence of bad values, distortions, threats and lack of platform that addresses the whole of the Nation’s needs. To deny them is the greatest distortion of all.
Example
Risk:
Business leaves due to Duterte sheriff style
The risk that it occur:
negligible (small Nation wide)
Based on:
Davao performance exceed expectations in some fields and had an overall good performance
Action: not needed as there seems not to be an issue due to his style
@ Ire
“Will u give him a chance”
If he is elected, of cos we need to respect that…respect the Presidency, not in his personal capacity. Of cos we are not going to be the 70% that will pro-actively spend the next 6 years trying to pull him down. But if the predicted nightmare materialises, what is one gonna do? Endure as we did in Marcos time? Question is what would you do?
But if the question you mean is would we give him a chance and elect him? The answer is a flat and loud NO NO NO. I think most people here would rather a Binay presidency than a Duterte’s.
@chempo
“predicted nightmare”
Fine, but it’s a bit vague what you say.
Who predict and what nightmare ?
@ Ire
Nightmares… please don’t take my word for it. Google meadia rpots, lots of it out there.
As a Filipino I wonder if you feel proud sitting next to foreign dignatories and listening to your possible future president speaking at a business forum talking about his penis. I note Filipino audience laughed at his joke. If I were a Filipino there, I don’t know where I would hide my face. Well his penis may not be a nightmare for now.
@Chempo. Duterte does not have to go that far to embarrass himself and unfortunately the Filipinis like me. He joked about his “thing” at his recently attended Makati Business Club forum.
Was he trying to break the ice or was he trying to overcome his nervousness because he is not used to speaking about things like economy and other serious stuff? There was not even a Q & A portion. Was it deliberately avoided?
Aha-ha, sorry my bad should be Filipinos not Filipinis. If Duterte would not be stopped maybe in the future we would be called that way.
Filipenis Rodrego Duterte
@Joe,
I respect your thoughts however i don’t deny any risk (i just took one example as it seemed that his style influenced business).
I only analyze:
– what is the risk
– the risk that it would occur
– and categorize it.
If the outcome of it didn’t suit you, sorry. But i don’t see any problem with his style and business.
Another risk could have turned whole against him.
Well, at least you finally dropped the deceit of neutrality. I have no problem with you supporting Duterte. I have a problem with people trying to game the conversation by pretending neutrality because they know, bottom line, their position is so filled with weakness that they can’t claim it. Glad you claimed it. And I’ll hold to my assessment of risk and vote with my dollars. Which will stay in the US for now.
Joe,
Your assumption(s) is/are wrong.
1) i do have kids, 3
2) i have no right to vote
3) that the best may win for the country
4) my assessments are based on risk analyze and past performance
5) I also wasn’t aware of Davao’s performance
6) if i would have to vote it would be based on my risk / performance assessments
7) yes, I’m still neutral
Well, I don’t understand you or what you seek to accomplish, but that’s okay, I don’t need to. Thanks for stopping by the blog.
“Will u give him a chance”
Ire,
Let me state some facts about Duterte:
-On his foreign policy, he said: “I will ride a jetski and plant it myself on Pag-asa Island, blah, blah…..”
-To protect women against rapists, he said, “I killed the 16 rapists but she’s so beautiful I ought to be the one first to do it to that beautiful girl.”
-On fiscal policy, stated before Makati business people, he said, “What do you want me to do, just hang my penis down there? I have to use it you know…..”
-On his daughter’s admission that she was a victim of rape, he said, “She’s lying, she can’t be raped because she has a gun and she’s a drama queen.”
-On solving the traffic problem in Metro Manila, he said, “Tang-ina Pope na iyan, haharang-harang sa daanan ko, na-traffic tuloy ako….”.
-On accusation that he has millions of pesos deposit in BPI Bank, he said, “That’s not true, but I will not sign a waiver, because it’s true that I have deposits in BPI…”
Ire, those are not the accurate words spoken by Duterte but the sense of his meanings are the same. So, to answer your question, here’s my answer:
NONONONONONONONONONONO!
@ Bert and Ire
And on Economy he said : I have no problems with copying the proposals from the other candidates after all they are intelligent people.
“I only analyze:
– what is the risk”—Ire
Ire, please let me give you a hint:
“I will ride a jetski and plant it myself on Pag-asa Island (to ward off the Chinese invasion)”.
Now, Ire, it’s up to you if you can get the hint and be able to see the great risk the Philippines is facing under the presidency of such a brilliant and so brave man.
Ire & R.Hiro..Look at the Enquirer today ( page B1 )” PH Faces Risks from Return of Strong Man” Rule”
Hey Joe, these 2 are running flak on behalf of Duterte..
Yes, entirely possible. It is interesting that the techniques are the same, deceptions and challenge. A waste of good brain power if you ask me. It would be more productive if they could articulate Duterte’s platform. All the rest is just smoke in the wind.
I posted this elsewhere 2 days ago and had not a single comment…maybe it got lost in thgeneral flurry of comments …But I am still curious..Any thoughts on Poe’s campaign anyone ?
“The odd thing is that Poe seems to be ‘running dead’ at the moment..There is hardly anything about her in the English language papers..I saw just one item on a far back Enquirer page today..And no advertisng on GMA that I have noticed.. By my understanding of election campaigns this is the ‘hot time’ for publicity..So what is Poe up to ?
By contrast I just saw a Duterte 30 -45 second ad in Tagalog & English ( at 8.00 PM Prime time ) .It concluded with the slogan “Let’s Fix this Nation”
Poe’s campaign has just been flat. I haven’t seen any energy behind it at all. Both the Duterte and Roxas camps seem to have well energized supporters, and I’m not seeing that for Poe at all.
I saw your comment, but don’t know what is going on. It wouldn’t surprise me if her moneyed backers have moved to Duterte, I don’t know. They seem to be an opportunistic lot, a little soft of character, to be kind about it.
There are recent pictures of Duterte talking to your Ozzie “friend” Wallace.
On the twitter feed of Mara Magutlapig from Mindanao.
They were probably discussing the field of applied economics, you know, “I’ll apply some cash to your bank account if you apply some favors to my friends”. Can that bit of satire get me sued for libel? Or shot under the new disciplined approach to things? The mind is inclined to wonder about such things.
The UP version of applied economics as per MRP? 😀
I wonder if the joke argument applies for ordinary mortals.
🙂
Via a circuitous loop I had news of Wallace opinion of Duterte’s rape remark about murdered fellow Australian Jacquie Hamil..He is not happy and has said so . He was not listened to ….
Does Wallace retain his Australian citizenship now that he is, by act of Congress, a certified Filipino, do you know? Or did he have to give up that allegiance?
By Australian law he can be a dual citizen. And his children inherit his citizenship as well….But I am ignorant of the Philippines law on this …
A dual allegiance conflict under Philippine law arises when a person is elected of appointed to high public office. Wallace is not a natural born citizen so he cannot even aspire for those positions and does not get to deal with that conflict.
Bill, I’m going to let you in on a secret, shhhhh, just between the two of us, pls. don’t tell anyone: Grace and Mar they’re inside the kitchen, cooking something something deliciously good for the Filipino people….shhhhhhh.
Ahhhhh let’s pray that there’s lot’s of good hope & nourishment in that something for the Filipino people
I, (name), solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines and obey the laws and legal orders promulgated by the duly constituted authorities of the Philippines; and I hereby declare that I recognize and accept the supreme authority of the Philippines and will maintain true faith and allegiance thereto; and that I imposed this obligation upon myself voluntarily without mental reservation or purpose of evasion. So help me God.
It seems that it depends on whether the individual citing the oath is doing so honorably, or recites a silent asterisk “*unless I change my mind.”
About 3 million Filipinos are 65 years old and above, and have some recollection of WWII. That means less than 3% of the population knows what war is about, on a national scale. During times of war, sensitivities about the oath and allegiances rise, and we are already seeing wariness about Chinese Filipinos from some sectors, in anticipation of an actual fighting confrontation with China. I’m of military background, so I place a high value on the oath and one meaning what one testifies to. I think in the Philippines, there is no such brand of “fighting allegiance” today. The allegiance is rather to one’s cause or locality. So I’m rather a duck out of water hereabouts.
My guess is that practical aspects are dominant in this context..It i a whole lot easier to get a visa to travel anywhere in the world with an Australian passport that a Filipino one….
And so in Australia most migrants seek Australian citizenship as soon as they can do so..-after 3 years living in Australia on a permanent residence visa ..There is a ceremony to go through but I do not think there is any long detailed oath such as the one you cited..From memory it is a fairly low key welcoming party type thing
From this time forward, (under God),
I pledge my loyalty to Australia and its people,
whose democratic beliefs I share,
whose rights and liberties I respect, and
whose laws I will uphold and obey.
Stanley Karnow wrote Vietnam: A History He also wrote and published in 1989 In Our Image. He won a Pulitzer prize for this work.
It is about America’s Empire in the Philippines.
He writes that the difference between the leaders of Vietnam in the fight against the French and Americans had the support of the peasantry. However in the Philippines the Illustrados never sought to gain the support of the masses in the fight. They, the elite then, used their positions then to widen their holdings at the expense of the peasantry.
The Indio /Illustrado divide was set in stone. Master/semi-slave relationship.
I believe that had Rizal not been executed by the Spaniards he would have been killed by his own people the ruling class. He had warned about the new tyrants to be.
Interesting thing about Poe, don’t know if you guys have read this.
http://www.opensourceinvestigations.com/philippines/neil-llamanzares-biggest-secret-grace-poes-husband-former-nsa-cia-contractor/
I did read it, and also that his renouncing of US citizenship was not done before proper authority.
@Joe… Thanks for finding the Australian pledge of loyalty..It never ocured to me to look for it online..But yep, that’s it..It has the right feel of being simple, to the point and direct..The kind of heavy duty oaths like the USA one and the Filipino one above feel very heavy psychologically – at least to me….But to each her/his own….
I wonder what Cha or Edgar think about the Aussie citizenship ceremony ? They probably have a more accurate view than I having been through it themselves..
Bill, stringent laws allowing dual allegiance or citizenship typically are associated with whether a country has grown or wants to grow its population from inmigration. Here in the US, Canada and Australia the laws are relatively lenient or not strictly enforced except for very sensitive or important public occupations.
It is an interesting issue Caliphman : The total population of Australia in now 24 million.I read somewhere that approximately 40% have migrant origins. That is, they are either migrants or the children of migrants and so dual citizens.
Julia Gillard the Prime Minister from 2010 to 2013 was born in Australia. But her parents in Adelaide were born in Wales, in Britain. her dual nationality as never a political issue.
@Joe & R.Hiro : Re this link
http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Opinion&title=aquino-gov&8217t-caught-in-the-inaction-zone&id=126605
Diokno’s remarks miss one important question completely…What did the Aquino government do with the ‘surplus’ each year…?
It’s an important question…Was it just credited to the Central bank and forgotten about ? Was it used to pay off borrowings made by the previous GMA, Estrada & Ramos governments ? And what about inflation ? Was it used as a tool to lower inflation in the Philippines ? High peso inflation hits the poor far more than the rich who can move into dollars or Yen etc.
I am new here but maybe Chemo can fill us in on these items…Before we accept Diokno as a fount of all wisdom..Especially given the huge maco financial stuff up that happened when he was in charge under Estrada with consequent high inflation
I’m looking for the platform of achievement that Diokno stands upon to give credence to his critical judgments. I can’t seem to find it, but maybe R. Hiro knows where it is located.
Diokno belongs to that 70% of the population that Joe described who tries to pull down the govt for the next 6 years. It’s sour grapes.
You get good insight from a speech that Mar made at a business forum at Makati Business Club, the one where he talked about the leakages that the Pnoy admin stopped from which they improved govt revenue tremendously and which helped to fund lots of economic initiatives.
I don’t know if this is the one
Just been watching the video of Roxas below. ( thanks Irineo ! )
Revenue collection by elimination of corruption has been increased by 260 Billion pesos annually.
In 2010 repayments of foreign debt were 25% of the total annual budget.In 2015 they are 13% of the budget
Government tax collection was improved significantly an the annual budget surpluses were used to repay money borrowed by previous governments.And this process freed up revenue for the CTP and the P12 education program and improved infrastructure program. Sorry NHiro.. Your ‘expert ‘ Diokno is still incompetent in his pronoucements.
Ummmm ! Sorry Chempo, it was you not Irineo,put me onto this video at the MBC..
You inquired about why Grace Poe seems to have faded from the political dialogue. I was reading yesterday that she and VP Binay are reaching the limits of their campaign advertising allowance. That may be one reason. Here is info on ad spendings. And I know Duterte has been spending lavishly during April.
RHiro, I just read the Bworld article. Economic data has lags. It was reported that US had high consumer demand yet that BW report cited low housng sales whch supposedly caused the decline of the dollar rates.
Maybe they were willing to buy just about everything except houses.
The article had a caveat the FED is anticipated to make its move soon.
Here is another source that you think is beneath you,Forbes Magazine.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2016/01/06/a-u-s-economy-snap-shot-part-1-the-growth-story-in-2015/#51070cea72a8
What is your point… Am at a loss. U.S. gdp FIGURES WERE RELEASED FIRST QUARTER 2016 – O.O5%
SO INTEREST RATE HIKE FOR JUNE THE ODDS JUST WENT DOWN…
I am lost.
United States Consumer Spending
Consumer Spending in the United States increased to 11330.70 USD Billion in the fourth quarter of 2015 from 11262.40 USD Billion in the third quarter of 2015. Consumer Spending in the United States averaged 5175.20 USD Billion from 1950 until 2015, reaching an all time high of 11330.70 USD Billion in the fourth quarter of 2015 and a record low of 1320.40 USD Billion in the first quarter of 1950. Consumer Spending in the United States is reported by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The bw article said that the peso gained due to poor housing sales.
But consumer spending was at an all time high.
Got confused .
Still there is the high borrowing costs to consider in purchasing a house.
Are housing sales,included in the consumer spending data?
With hgh borrowing costs,how come consumer spending was at a record high?
Paralysis by analysis.
I won’t hold my breath.Can’t hold for thirty days.(just realized)
There will always be economists with outlying…pun intended…views on how any administration performed from a financial and economic perspective. Diokno is a case in point. There should be very little doubt that the vast majority of established of established economists in the Philippines and elsewhere that the Aquino administration made signicant strides during its tenure. Does the Philippines still have a poverty problem? Yes. Are there many other economic problems that can still be improved? Yes. Is Duterte leading the presidential race because his supporters believe he is best qualified to fix these problems? No. Does he believe so? Probably not.
Duterte had no economic team with him.RHiro you can apply.
Heh heh. Snort chuckle. Peso is 46.95 (7:30 am) to the dollar today. Yesterday it started at around 4.70 and eroded during the course of the day. Just bookmarking that for reference. BSP must be gaming the rate again, I suppose. Said with my hands in front of my face where I can see all the fingers.
hehe
Here this morning waiting for me to read was this headline on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation news website. This is Never the kind of news story that the Philippines needs overseas. Bugger, Bugger Bugger !!
“Philippine presidential frontrunner vows to pardon himself for murder Philippine presidential frontrunner Rodrigo Duterte jokes about his penis and vows to pardon himself for mass murder, as he takes his profanity-laced campaign to the nation’s business elite.”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-28/philippine-candidate-rodrigo-duterte-vows-murder-pardon/7365436
Duterte has also achieved a headline story the Sydney Morning Herald Newspaper with this feature article by Lindsay Murdoch.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/filipino-firebrand-rodrigo-duterte-jokes-about-penis-lashes-australia-again-20160428-gogydy.html
Bill, in reading those Ozzie stories I am revulsed with the horror at the thought of having a laughinng stock for a president which pales in comparison to my feeling of shame and disgust at the global ridicule and derision for a country that would elect this pathetic thuggish buffoon as its most eminent and powerful leader.As an OFW in America, it makes me want to hide the Philippine flag on the bumper of my car and on the cuff links I sometimes wear on my business suit.
Caliphman, your description is too colourful for me. I say you’ll simply be derided as the joker of Asia,, with great sympathies of course.
Caliphman, there are bullies and thugs in every nation. The Philippines has no monopoly on them…But the prospect of an amitted muderer, philanderer and wanabee gang rapist, being elected as president is a bit jolt the mind more than a bit….
There is a real need for legal & constitutional change in the Philippines to prevent sucha situation repeating itself in the future..
Actually the constitution has such a provision. The Comelec can reject someone as a nuisance candidate !
At the time COMELEC was toooooo busy fighting off the candidacy of an alien foundling to deal with an admitted murderer and wannabee gang rapist..( Oh and someone who had stolen a huge amount via fake Davao employees….
Ummm…you might want to leave space for thief and plunderer as well. Senator Trillanes just publicly unloaded documents showing Duterte bank accounts had almost 3 billion pesos in transactions over the past nine years. His salary as mayor is less than 100k pesos per month. In the Philippines, undeclared wealth by a public official is a crime and is presumed illegally acquired if he is unable to explain it. When the unexplained wealth reaches over 50 million pesos, then it is considered plunder and subject to life imprisonment. If Duterte is elected president, he is immune from prosecution until he leaves office. At the Makati business meeting, he bragged that he can grant an executive pardon before he leaves office for any murders he may be guilty of. Just another joke like that one about that poor countrywoman of yours? Whats the big deal about a plunder pardon..sorry if I grimacing and not laughing.
I am not laughing Caliphman….This is a plot worthy of Shakespeare’s attention..he could not have imagined it for himself..
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/782182/duterte-accounts-had-p2-4b-in-transactions
Sorry I lied…it is just a mere 2.4 billion Duterte has to account for according to the news report.