Drug war deaths can fill up the Big Dome
“The Big Dome”, Smart Araneta Coliseum, photo by Bruce Casanova
By Andrew Lim
Picture the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City. The Dome – site of so many conventions, concerts, games. We’ve all seen it or been there. It has a seating capacity of 16,035 of which 13,581 are permanent. It can be reconfigured to fit various events- basketball, boxing, ice shows, even cockfighting.
But today, I want to rent it conceptually, so that we can have a mental picture of the current state of the nation with respect to the war on drugs and the territorial dispute with China.
The current drug war death toll stands at around 13,000 deaths since the start of the Duterte administration – all Filipinos by the way – and this figure will include murders, homicides, and deaths from actual combat situations. (We will not use “extra-judicial” because the former President is correct – there is no judicial killing.)
Put all those bodies upright and sit them inside Araneta Coliseum. Fill up the General Admission and the Upper Boxes. There will only be a little over 3,000 seats left, and we will discuss later who gets to use them. Now stand in the middle of the basketball court at the center and swivel your head around. That is how many Filipinos have died courtesy of the drug war. Picture all those souls staring at you.
Amongst the dead would be 17 year old Kian delos Santos, whose last few minutes before his gruesome fate were captured on video. There are also children, considered collateral damage because they happened to be there. How would their faces look, I wonder. What was the last toy they held or the last game they played?
What would be their expressions and feelings right now, specially if they had nothing to do with drugs? And even if they did, and wanted to turn a new leaf, and followed instructions to surrender and sign up for rehab but it still got them two shots to the head, I really want to know what would they say.
What if you were unfortunate enough to have enemies in the police force for other reasons – say he was an unpaying tenant in your property, or an unethical business partner, or if you were chasing the same girl? With a sense of unlimited power inspired by the President, was this abused as well?
I want to see their eyes and feel how they felt in their last few days, hours. I want to see their hands – what would their gestures be? Will it be cries for mercy, surrender or in Kian’s case, a plea because he still had exams the following day? I want to know if the teens among the dead bodies would smile at an Ariana Grande concert which the children of top government officials were able to enjoy.
Next, let’s stack all the shabu that has entered the country in the same time frame into that picture. In sacks, on center court as well. Most of this came from China, authorities confirm. Dropped from ships anchored at sea, with GPS trackers attached and recovered from the infinite coastlines of this country. Made in mainland China. Some were made here by Chinese nationals, but most of them have been rolled up.
It would be quite a haul, all that crystal.
Finally, let’s have a tally of how much land, air and water of our territory has been occupied/controlled by China, and for which we don’t have access or have difficulty in accessing today. Put that on a huge map on center court as well.
Get the whole picture? All the dead bodies in the seats, all the shabu from China in sacks and that map of territory lost to China at center court. Got it? Now we correlate.
If a reader cares to compile the data on all three variables – on a monthly basis, since the start of the Duterte administration in June 2016, and plot it on a scatter graph (with the volume of Chinese shabu on the vertical axis) , I bet you we will have a rightward, upward scatter through which a line going northeast can be drawn and where the correlation would be strong and positive.
What does it mean?
It means that the current tack of stomping lives of Filipinos involved in the drug trade as if they were cockroaches and the continued loss of Philippine territory to China will not abate if there is no stoppage or containment of the entry of Chinese made shabu.
How is the loss of Philippine territory related to the volume of Chinese shabu that get here? Refer back to our previous article on how it is very plausible that the Duterte government has been checkmated into this no-win situation by China using a combination of diplomatic pressure, intimidation through display of military assets, dangling of foreign aid and loans, and the covert support of illegal drug manufacturers.
The use of illegal drug trafficking as an instrument of foreign policy by superpowers in recent history is well documented.
I almost forgot, we still have around 3,000 seats to fill up. We reserved the Lower Box and Patron (VIP) sections for them! How about putting the core of our government officials there – from the President, Vice President, to the Senate to the House of Representatives, the Supreme Court, the leadership of the Philippine National Police plus the Cabinet? Oh, there’s still room for the fabulists and fictionists of the Presidential Communications Operations Office.
It would be a tough situation putting live people alongside dead bodies but if it drives home the point, it would be worth it.
Because what they have to answer to the dead is this: can you still call yourselves a decent, moral people after all this?
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[…] can’t help myself but to think of Andrew Lim’s grim supposition in “Drug War Deaths Can Fill Up the Big Dome” where China’s flooding of the Philippines with shabu is seen as a foreign policy instrument. […]
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
Great balls of fire Andrew! Another blog article after my own heart. Nothing like “optics” to bring home the message. Well done!
I would appreciate it if you could:
1. expand on the mathematics of it, as you are a numbers guy. (correlation)
2. create graphics that would incorporate the images described in the article.
Will try — along Item 1. I will leave the fancy graphics, Item 2, to others. Besides on the latter, my geriatric day or weeks may be ruined with the associated gore.
I AM BACK SO HERE GOES
First, there is the matter of mathematical correlation of, say, two variables A and B and the question of one variable causing the other or none at all.
Illustration: I have measured the height growth of a tree plant (HT) and the height growth of my son (HS) over a period of 60 months. I thus have 60 data points and found that HS positively correlate linearly with HT with little scatter, such as may be shown as
HS = a + b*HT, where a, b are correlation constants.
May I conclude, then, that the height growth of my son, HS, is caused by the height growth of my tree, HT or vice-versa? Certainly not. So we have to be careful about concluding that one variable “drives” or causes the other.
Now to go to our topic. Define:
D = Number of shabu-related deaths
S = Volume of shabu manufacture in the country mainly by Chinese or through their Filipino proxies, or smuggling of shabu from Mainland China
R = Value of Philippine territories and volume of other resources grabbed by China
A = Administration, or if one prefers it, as a proxy of the President
We may in fact have the data showing the following variables to mathematically correlate with little “scatter” like:
D = a*S + b*R +c, (Equation 1)
where a, b, and c are correlation coefficients (constants) found from the mathematical correlation process.
We may not, however, conclude that S and R are the cause of D.
But let me present an imaginative schema, which has some taint of conspiracy and or corruption in it.
A > S + R. In words A turns a blind eye to S and R; worse allow them because
S > PROFIT to some in A. At the same time, unfortunately,
S > DA. In words, S causes increase in drug addiction.
Now DA, drug addiction, is a scourge which has to be reduced or eliminated. Comes now, A with a preference on the method to do this, hence, we may write
A > D through ill-advised or ill-trained policemen.
How does R figure in D? A conspiracy theory may suggest that R is allowed to sweeten the PROFIT Pot; but so the public is not made easily aware, D and the consequent “fear factor” is intensified as a convenient mask to distract from the progress of this R factor.
So I have beg off not being able to make a neat correlation between the 3 variables — D, S, R — as shown in Equation 1 above, much like I would like to. One has to embed other items of a conspiratorial nature with profit and fear factors thrown in to make some cause and effect plausibility or persuasiveness, even when the data correlates mathematically with little scatter.
Splendid. As noted, correlation is not causation. But it leads us to tantalizing possibilities when other factors are brought in.
*******
I understood some words.
*****
Rid of the pseudo-math symbols which on re-reading my post I cannot quite understand myself — hahaha — try this:
Although we may have data to show — that the increase in drug related deaths, D, occurs with increase in shabu volume from China or Chinese manufacturing it here, S, and the increase of value of Philippine territories and resources grabbed by China, R; and thus found to correlate — causation is not shown (Andrew agrees).
Profit — in a generalized sense — motivates the Admin, turning a blind eye to S and R. Unfortunately with S, drug addiction increases and need to be eliminated through the preferred method of A via PNP, that is through the mechanism of D. The intensified D and the associated fear that comes in its wake, I venture to say, runs parallel with the progress in R — such progress being effectively masked by the D and the fear factor.
Ending note: so the effective correlation of D with S and R — meaning S and R driving or causing D — is made plausible or persuasive through the embedded mechanism I described or whatever alternative mechanism explains the correlation — leading, in Andrew’s words, to tantalizing possibilities when other factors are brought in.
So there.
But I dread to re-read this latter post, for fear I will ask what the heck NH is really trying to say. 🙂
*******
Thank you.
*****
Me NH is just anecdotal.
Pray let me throw my esoteric dice (hopefully, to be deep fried by TSOH) into the wok of discussion.
For school year 1951-52 AdeM (Ateneo de Manila) in Padre Faura moved to Loyola Heights in Q.C. to later become AdeMU. In 1951, I first saw a basketball game in the new Gym proudly hailed to have the first hanging (without posts) hoops. Many decades later, I heard or read from JTL? (Jaime T. Licauco) that a “portal” widely used by departeds exist inside the gym. I understand a “portal” is like an invisible door, a gate out of the spirit world for whatever purpose any earthbound soul would like to commune with the living.
So what is the POINT? Who knows how many of those who fell by the drug war had been in and out of that door este “portal” in Ateneo’s Loyola Gym, crying for justice? Why not ask JTL?
The Real Point, without negativizing Andrew Lim’s excellent piece is that an alternative metaphoric place for drug war casualties might be ADMU’s Loyola Gym, in addition to the Araneta Coliseum.
If I may add, it is otra cosa but may be interesting, this portal in the movie used to BEING JOHN MALKOVICH. If I may add furthermore, Hemingway criticized: readers of Robert Frost need dictionary to understand him. Not my writing, there’s Google at the click of a finger.
NH, I’ll try to use the model of Kinetic Theory of Gases (pressure, volume, temperature) as paradigm for prediction. Puro first order equations lang ginagamit. I can’t comprehend quadratic order & beyond. To show causation, one must also use an ontological mathematical system.
Haaay my ‘pageantry’ is taking over. I’m fading away, too. Lagot na ‘ko! 🙂
@ Popoy
Messr Licauco must have consulted Fr Jaime Bulatao, SJ regarding the existence of portals to the Netherworld located at the Ateneo Gym, Loyola Hts. String Theory talks of alternate universes.
Andrew, I am just trying to expand on (and depict the numbers of) your article here. Do you (or anyone else reading this) know by chance where to get the data about the amount of Chinese shabu smuggled into the country? I was hoping for a database that collects these numbers. Going through all the reports myself to produce such a database will be too time-consuming. As for the numbers of drug-war victims, there doesn’t seem to exist any reliable data anyway, as this great article points out: https://www.dw.com/en/investigating-dutertes-drug-war-in-philippines-facts-and-fiction/a-43695383
Master piece by Andrew Lim…
Salamat.
What a scary scenario but it’s real.
Winter has come, as far as Phil foreign policy goes.
Interesting thought, though a sick one. The British Empire controlled China via opium. Is China now manipulating the Philippines with crystal meths (shabu)?
I’m not sure the formula is to create a nation of drug-addled citizens, but more to control the strings of government and commerce by ensuring that compliant Filipinos capture the drug trade and all the wealth that flows through the “sick road” of Asia.
If you red-team Duterte (take the position of his counterpart in China) you will realize Duterte is now unable to speak not even an ounce of pro-Phil sovereignty policy because he has been boxed in from all angles – economic, military, drugs.
If you take this tack, it will also explain the bizarre events in recent past:
1. the publication of the Xinhua position on the Hague ruling in OUR OWN Phillippine News Agency website,
2. the admission of PCOO head Andanar in that Rogue interview that he is looking forward to working with Beijing post Duterte,
3. the plan of PDP Laban to study ideology and governance under the Communist Party of China
4. the fantasy based statements of Phil Foreign Affairs Sec Cayetano that China had stopped reclaiming
I’m not dismissing the possibility that by now, Malacañang Palace and other important sites have been bugged and tapped.
DFA Sec Cayetano put them in all by himself.
It’s certainly very plausible, if you ask me, but remember we are dealing here with a whole range of options available for China as instruments of foreign policy. It is never isolated; whatever works in the world of pragmatic politics.
Plus considering how amoral/immoral Beijing is (think Tiananmen Square, suppression in HK politics, treatment of dissidents and minorities, etc) it would be naive to assume that it is in our best interests that anything China does comes from the goodness of its heart.
Put two and two and basically they’re all the ingredients in creating more pliable tributary states. I’m sure that in the Art of War, it’s better to use indirect means of undermining the enemy’s morale and internal stability than direct warfare (which would be tantamount to starting the next World War).
> The PH has gone from the sick man of Asia, to rising star, to morally broken down sick man of Asia, steppin’-fetchit to China.
A wag wrote that the “Sick Man of Asia” monicker is meant for the Marcoses, and to describe this government now is “Sick Brain of Asia”.
True. As Deng Xiaoping once said, ” It does not matter if the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice”. He was referring to China’s adoption of capitalism after years of communism, but it could very well apply today.
You can use any instrument of foreign policy- covert support of illegal drug trafficking included, as long at it helps attain objectives.
Yes, the end justifies the means.
*******
1. In Buddhism, there is the concept of bardo, an intermediate state between death and rebirth into the next life.
2. The concept is similar to the notion of limbo in that it is a holding place between intermediate states. In Catholic theology, limbo is at the edge of Hell. There are two limbos, the “Limbo of the Infants” and the “Limbo of the Patriarchs.” The former is the residence of unbaptized infants and may not be a transitional station. The latter is the residence of those who died in friendship with God before the descent of Christ. The Patriarchs may attain heaven through the Son’s offering of redemption.
3. In the bardo, there is a “sequence of degeneration” through which intermediate existence is subject to various experiences. As it is on earth, the experiences start with a clear view of reality and descend into “terrifying hallucinations.” How one reacts can lead to a spiritual liberation or to a “less than desirable rebirth.”
4. You imagine the Araneta Coliseum filled with the souls of the victims and you stare at them, study their gestures, and hear their pleas.
5. I imagine them as souls trapped in the bardo, at the edge of Hell. And having their lives stolen from them, the not-so-bright light of their existence snuffed out just like that, I imagine them wanting to come back to the gift of life, no matter how wretched their circumstances. Because, even so, there are moments of unconfined joy. Yes.
6. But as I imagine and think of what could have been, if I had not taken a wrong turn and if I had not elected the psychopath into office, and as I sit here before my computer in Brisbane, the thought strikes me that we – we, the living – are the ones in bardo residing at the edge of Hell.
6.1. We have a hazy view of reality and the terrifying aspects of reality are no hallucinations.
6.2. And I scream.
*****
3-Exception is JoeAm since he is an Alien according to Buro Immigration 13A visa….
🙂
*******
Ahaha! So he can escape from the bardo that is the Philippines.
*****
Ice cream too! What flavor?
*******
I love French Vanilla ice cream and Rocky Road.
*****
I’m partial to Coconut & Walnuts ice cream and Mango Sorbet. yummmy …
“2. … In Catholic theology, limbo is at the edge of Hell. There are two limbos, the “Limbo of the Infants” and the “Limbo of the Patriarchs.”
As far as I know the Limbo of Infants like a Hell occupied only by devils, not humans are theologoumena. The Limbo of Patriarchs on the other hand is referred to in the Nicene Creed.
This is a diversion, a distraction. DELUSION eh? But who REALLY ARE delusionaries?
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/chelsea-clinton-subtly-shades-ivanka-trump-amid-reports-her-old-friend-visited-putins-private-office/ar-AAqW51M?ocid=spartandhp
The clueless totugarnatsa snoozers in the noodle house are snoring like sawmills. Can’t they wake up to think of the seemingly impossible when God removes the SHALLOW divide between the Free and Shackled worlds and make them live in peace and Harmony. The SNOOZERS just DON’T GET IT. There is no EDEN, NO PARADISE. There is no more EAST and WEST GERMANY, no more NORTH and SOUTH VIETNAM. Soon MAY BE, no more NOKOR and SOKOR at the costs of world peace and billions of lives. Unthinkable perhaps, not in this millennium, no more NINE billion people but a few million cavemen for a NEW EARTH.
Using IVANKA and CHELSEA as mannequins; how petty, narrow, shallow, and criminal to make this two young persons as incendiaries for world conflict; to dumb down hundreds of millions. There exist criminal minds purveyors of divisiveness, conflict and stupidity. Will it not be good for Earth if the so-called FIRST and SECOND WORLD will fuse as ONE to gobble up and write finish to the THIRD WORLD? That question could be the oversimplification of the millennium, of course.
I did not finish reading the article. I can’t believe American voters (natural born and naturalized) could be so dumb as to play puppets to the machinations of Russians; that Russians could be so stupid to believe they can choose who will lead America, nor can I think Russians are imbeciles to think they can gobble America and the rest of the Free World with it. Porno and journo are two words of world dissimilarities. The words conjoin only in excitement and orgasmic satiation.
Some Journos may see only what’s written on the wall, not the appearing etchings on stone. China and Russia are emergent mutations of failed absolute human subjugation. Soon (even if measured in centuries) such empires will be no more and will wisely join peaceful little neighbors, big and little countries of the free world. Me hallucinating? May be but that’s better than snoozing totugarnatsa in the noodle house. Even the mighty, benevolent empire where the sun never sets, the much admired British Empire is no more, broken down into pieces of commonwealth.
Off topic but vital to the Philippines
https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2017/07/global-order-still-needs-america-asia/
Either them … or them, the upright law-abiding citizens.
Blackstone said: “It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer”
” … the Islamic tradition, quotes Muhammad as saying, … to have stated that “it is better that ten innocent men suffer than one guilty man escape”.”
Let us put the saying in logical numerical perspective: IF 13,000 drug addicts were to escape, how many x number of upright law-abiding Filipinos will suffer? Family suffers. Each drug addict has a family an average of 5 (Mother, Father, 3 siblings). 65,000 Filipinos would suffer including drug addict. The suffering lingers until death drug addict son do they part. That is more than super big bowl dome to build.
IF Duterte allows justice system to roll, how many x number of Filipinos will suffer? x number of Filipinos that suffer will have exponential ripple effect that calcifies negative idea of Filipino Justice system which they already have. One drug addict has a family of 5. Each drug addict has kapamilya of 5 of which each has kapamilya of 5 and the kapmilya of 5 would also have a kapamilya of 5 …. on and on and on ….. JUST IMAGINE THE NEGATIVE IMPACT PLANTED IN THE HEAD OF FILIPINOS.
No wonder when Duterte kills his popularity go rising.
The anti-drug kill is about philosophy and DESCARTE (descarte is also a tagalog word). It is about knowledge of law. Not solution to the problem. It is like the debate of Martial Law in Mindanao. Without or without martial law it is clear as cloudy day that military has to go in and pluck these problem-of-society. It is obvious the people has to be evac’ed. It is strategically important to have the military have total command of Marawi. Debate about Martial Law is Marcosian history, law debate and philosophy just like drug kills.
Here is the problem in the Philippines: TOO MANY LAWYERS !!!
“For a population of 100 million, 40,000 doesn’t seem like a large number. Gatdula mentions that there is one lawyer for every 2,500 Filipinos, but even then people still complain that there are too many lawyers in the Philippines. The claim isn’t new — heck, people have been saying that since 1916 (back when there was one lawyer for every 8,000+ Filipinos)!”
Lawyers can quote verbatim every article in Latin and English like Religious Filipinos can quote John Matthew Luke James Peter Paul and Mary BUT DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH IT. HOW TO APPLY WHAT THEY HAVE MEMORIZED.
See, Filipinos can snatch the bored exams but in application they are just wide eyed scratching their head.
A frightening picture you paint, Andrew. One should make a short movie of this and broadcast it at prime time into every Filipino household.
Of course, the comrades in Beijing are not stupid. For certain, they are much smarter than the current administration on the other side of the great pond, where the head of the administration turned the whole executive into a publicly sponsored version of “The Apprentice”.
Let’s always remember, the CPC plans long-term. What years are for western planners are decades for Chinese planners. The CPC has time, it does not have to rush. The modern CPC is not built around persons, as it was during Mao’s time. Xi Jinping? Of course he’s powerful, but he knows that his term will inevitably end in 2023. Xi knows that he can’t adjust China’s grand strategy to his personal benefit. There are already younger, ambitious want-to-be-leaders at the starting blocks to the highest positions. Pupils of Jiang and Hu, and of Xi himself. They will be subject to the same restraint by the party as Jiang and Hu. As the heiress of the middle kingdom’s emperors, governing one of the oldest civilizations on earth, the CPC knows that fast advancements should never be prioritized over reaching a goal. The CPC does not have to adjust the timing of (foreign) policy decisions according to elections, as democracies do. Hence, there is also no “political business cycle” as observed in many democracies.
In the CPC’s plan (as suspected by this article) Duterte is just a first stepping stone, to higher, more ambitious goals. This is also why I liked Edgar’s proposition that “the objective of China in this operation is to discredit the Dutertes in preparation for a post-Duterte world”.
Think of the drug problem and it’s associated phenomena. Think of the “drug rehab centers” which are graciously donated by Chinese. These drug rehab centers, ought to rehabilitate Filipino drug addicts, may they be build and may they help thousands of drug addicts to break free from their addiction. But I have a sense, as outrageous as it may sound, that these centers could serve a pretty different purpose as well. They have similar centers in China as well. They called them (until 2013) “laojiao”/ “Re-education through labor” camps. It’s easy to guess what’s going on in these camps. Everyone can end in such a camp: drug addicts (may they be treated), political dissidents (may they be enlightened to realize that the CPC is the only solution to govern China). Anyone deemed as a potential threat to the party’s rule can end up there. I do hope these newly built camps will never accommodate people sharing thoughts expressed in this blog. Let’s hope these camps will never preach the ideology of PDP Laban, after it has “realigned with the CPC’s ideological flow” (Duterte’s statement during his visit in China, October 2016).
I know PRC. Is CPC = Communist Party of China?
Opo sonny, by CPC i meant Communist Party of China, I should have made that clear above.
Thank you, distant observer. Much appreciate your insight on post-dynastic China, gives good perspective to our political responses to them.
“They called them (until 2013) “laojiao”/ “Re-education through labor” camps. It’s easy to guess what’s going on in these camps. Everyone can end in such a camp: drug addicts (may they be treated), political dissidents … ”
Maybe the Philippine version of the Gulag Archipelago of Solzhenitsyn.
If I may, China’s own reformation, renaissance or FACELIFT after WWII (late in the past millennium) was triggered by the Long March and strengthened by the 1968 Cultural Revolution. What happened afterwards is no longer Alizarin China but a pinkish one towards a darker tone of capitalism. It is a new creature descriptive of manipulation of a progressive ideology with better cosmetics for human rights.
Agreed, Andrew’s blog should me made into a movie or a teleserye titled “13,000”. For me reading it gave me the chills as like watching a horror movie and those in in the administration are being haunted by the 13,000.
My takeaway: There is no high road to EJK.
“Justice at any cost” Law Abiding Citizen (2009)
SYNOPSIS: “A frustrated man decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets one of his family’s killers free. He targets not only the killer but also the district attorney and others involved in the deal.”
MY TAKE: Both sides are right. Both sides are wrong. The Law is the Law. Dura Lex Sed Lex (Latin: most quoted by Filipino Lawyers). A great dilemma. Until it happens to someone Law goes out the window.
STARRING: Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler
MY STOLEN QUOTEs OF THE DAY:
Where there are too many policemen, there is no liberty. Where there are too many soldiers, there is no peace. Where there are too many lawyers, there is no justice – Lyn Yutang
The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that, when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong – Winston Churchill
”Dura Lex Sed Lex” in short ”Durex”…as flexible as a condom 🙂
Off topic
On a slow day before the new blog article by Wil featuring Sen. Trillanes, here is an interesting Rappler Report on the Senate “skirmish” between Sen. Gordon, Blue Ribbon Committee Chair and Sen. Trillanes at the hearing on the shabu smuggling past BOC. (I am giving an advance ad on Wil’s show tomorrow. 🙂 )
The Rappler report is titled, ‘Committee de absuwelto’? Gordon, Trillanes face off in smuggling probe
Rappler is one of those considered by TSH as generally reporting news straight. Rather than highlight excerpts of the report, I leave the reader to check the link if interested.
https://www.rappler.com/nation/180720-gordon-trillanes-fight-senate-hearing-paolo-duterte-mans-carpio
The Rappler reporting does not stand up to the standard of American Senate investigation on Donald Trump election team’s collusion with Russia. American Senate is presenting evidence. Rappler is reporting Senate presenting blah-blah-blah from “resource” person. No hard incontrovertible evidence. When can these people ever learn? Even Rappler fall for it. Are they ignorant or are they colluding to destroy Filipino brains into ignorance instead of educating them?
I’ve removed three postings that have the same theme, how poorly journalistic and government investigations are done. This is not discussion, but you flooding the blog with spam-like opinions. I’d rather have no comments than this repetitive nagging in the guise of intelligent discussion.
Offtopic: Okay, in terms of epic insanity, this government just outdid itself in this Betrayal of the Week.
https://www.rappler.com/nation/180703-imee-marcos-wealth-duterte?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nation
More shockers next week? Next month? I bet they’re going to time all this to September 21 or 23, when these damn lunatics decide to set everything back to Year Zero.
Joe, you should really look at this http://www.philippine-underground.com/2017/08/tatay-digong-banas-na-sa-palapk-at.html
I’m not sure why a gov.ph mail address would be sending in this spam-link to a pro-duterte publication that pretends to fight the ‘bad guys’. Are we supposed to figure that, because it takes a few whacks at Andanar, it is legitimate? I hate this kind of trash web site and trash kind of flame-throwing promotion. I only leave the post in the discussion so readers will be able to understand how trashy discussion has become under the current Administration.
And how manipulative, considering that this posting is from a gov.ph source.
1. popoy says:
August 30, 2017 at 6:02 pm
. . . . There is no EDEN, NO PARADISE. There is no more EAST and WEST GERMANY, no more NORTH and SOUTH VIETNAM. Soon MAY BE, no more NOKOR and SOKOR at the costs of world peace and billions of lives. Unthinkable perhaps, not in this millennium, no more NINE billion people but a few million cavemen for a NEW EARTH. . . .
Kita, Kitang-kita ko na, I saw it already but not yet may be any time, just a probability to be part of history.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-north-korea-war-could-be-deadliest-ever-germany/ar-AAr352P?li=AA4Zpp&ocid=spartandhp
Read on if you like.
One of the things I came to realize just recently is that, too much, we expect tomorrow to be like today, and next year to be like this year. It won’t be. It will be different. A new storm, a new war, a new disease. So I touch on this in the blog scheduled for next Monday. In a way, this helps me realize that, okay, even if China rules a dictatorial Philippines, there is life to be had until someone or something snuffs it, and, in the meantime, there is a lot we can do to make it a good one.
Makes me feel good already early this morning with the sun shining outside. Evolution of things, including the way our brain assess events and surroundings continues to change. Normal is the new normal. And we all have a part to play in the scheme of things. Looking forward to your Monday’s piece.
Well, great! That’s the idea, to look forward to making life good, though things cannot be the same. The new normal may be like a new suit or new car, requiring a bit of adjustment.
An analyst, Tony Cordesman assesses North Korea’s current capability as follows: “Firing an unproven missile with an unproven warhead in an unproven re-entry vehicle with unproved accuracy and reliability at these ranges against a major nuclear power goes from stupidity to insanity.”
There is, however, precious little time since the North Korean scientific and technical staff — given the right comfortable, not lavish, living for the staff and families; and the scientific and technical problems to solve — work like technical people the world over to solve technical problems, not the oftentimes unsolvable political problems. And their quantum jump in capabilities as their accelerating tests indicate must be giving them confidence to forge ahead.
Cordesman urges, given the time element, a coherent policy response not rhetorical bluster and threats.
Lot’s of luck getting Trump to avoid bluster. Mattis seems able to walk a controlled line, so good on that.
Waking up from a short snooze: I thought NOKOR isn’t really an enigma. When the problem is not the solution but something else. Amplify, magnify so goes a religious hymn.
God. This law has been specifically made in favor of the state.
http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/09/01/1734685/spreading-fake-news-now-crime
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“MANILA, Philippines – President Duterte signed into law this week Republic Act 10951, which includes a provision imposing penalties on a person found guilty of spreading fake news that might affect public order.
Amid the prevalence of false news in the country and elsewhere, Duterte signed the law that amended the 87-year-old Revised Penal Code and also placed penalties on unlawful use of publication and unlawful utterances.
Article 154, Section 18 of the act provides a penalty of arresto mayor and fine ranging from P40,000 to P200,000.
The punishment might be slapped against any person who by means of printing, lithography or any other means of publication shall publish or cause to be published as news any false report that might endanger public order or damage the interest or credit of the state.
RA 10951 penalizes any person who by the same means or by words, utterances or speeches shall encourage disobedience to the law or to the constituted authorities or praise, justify and extol any act punished by law.
It also covers any person who shall maliciously publish, or cause to be published any official resolution or document without proper authority or before they have been published officially.
Any person who shall print, distribute or cause to be printed, published or distributed books, pamphlets, periodicals or leaflets which do not bear the real printer’s name, or which are classified as anonymous.
The measure will take effect 15 days after its publication in at least two major newspapers. It will be applicable to pending cases before the courts where trial has started.
The act shall also have a retroactive effect “to the extent that it is favorable to the accused or person serving sentence by final judgement.”
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Note the words: “news any false report that might endanger public order or damage the interest or credit of the state.”
This means that state propagandists, including the loudest demagogues, are not covered by the law.
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Thanks for the info. This is very relevant to something I am writing.
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Yes, it is ominous, and I hope someone runs it up to the Supreme Court for its “chilling” effect on public discourse. There are no standards as to what is dangerous or damaging to the state, and the totalitarians in the President’s employ are likely to wrap it around any criticism. They seem to be a rather sensitive lot not wholly compassionate to the ideals of free speech.
I trust that it is not damaging to the state for a farm boy from Colorado to make a personal observation such as the above. I trust that the State is a lot more dignified and stronger than that.
By the way, this law cuts two ways. If the Vice President is demeaned by Mocha Uson or other trolls, Uson can be held liable. Which may explain why she is apparently scurrying through her postings to delete material. That retroactive clause. Likewise, senators are protected from demeaning or erroneous materials.
Whaddayaknow? Some smart alecky lawyer might sue media outlets or journos for :
“The punishment might be slapped against any person who by means of printing, lithography or any other means of publication shall publish or cause to be published as news any false report that might endanger public order or damage the interest or credit of the state.”
RA 10951 penalizes any person who by the same means or by words, utterances or speeches shall encourage disobedience to the law or to the constituted authorities or praise, justify and extol any act punished by law.
It also covers any person who shall maliciously publish, or cause to be published any official resolution or document without proper authority or before they have been published officially.”
WhaddayaWHAT? JUST EXAMINE the legality of the utterances of a President, his Cabinet members, and Communications officials. The President himself after his term of office might be hailed to court for some of statements to the press. The law might be harsh but it is the law no matter wrong or shallow.
Precisely. All sides have lawyers.