Inside Philippine politics & beyond

How the new technology is reshaping the way we bring news to the public

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By Raïssa Robles

 

[My speech today before the Philippine Press Institute and the National Association of Newspapers during the conference on “Watching the Watchdog: Re-examining Ourselves.” ]

PPII am honored to be part of this gathering. I think I know why I was chosen to tackle the topic: “How the new technology is reshaping the way we bring news to the Public”. I view myself as one of the most qualified, full-time journalists to expound on it – because you see, I’m very much digitally challenged.

Using information and communications technology or ICT – – from desktops to laptops to tablets and smartphones – has never been easy for me. I had to learn how to do it step-by-step, like a baby. There were many frustrating moments when I would save a file on my PC, and not know where it went and how to access it. Until I learned for myself how content management systems work.

It was my fellow journalist-husband Alan Robles who dragged me kicking and complaining into putting up my own website – raissarobles.com – from scratch.

He’s the geeky one who taught Internet and Journalism for years at the Berlin Institute for Journalism where I also once studied in. Years ago he wrote computer game reviews for the PC World magazine, as well as the Philippine Daily Inquirer. I remember that one of his most memorable moments was when he suddenly won the Manila Rotary Club Journalist of the Year Award for in-depth political reporting in the early 1990s. He remembers it with fondness because he used the prize money to buy himself a PC 386 color computer — so he could play Wing Commander.

Surprisingly, gaming was also the way I lost my fear of computers. It gave me an attitude of playfulness and honed my ability to keep trying various approaches everytime I failed.

I cannot count the number of times my website has crashed – – from a viral attack or because I did some tweaking.

As I became more at home using ICT, I made the difficult decision to drop my print subscriptions to three newspapers – the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the Philippine Star and the Daily Tribune.

But I ended up reading even more newspapers online.

It is partly due to people like me that local papers are losing circulation and wondering about surviving.

Alan and I have often discussed this and one of the things he said struck me. He said many newspapers are run and edited by the “digital homeless.” This phrase was coined by Internet visionary Nicholas Negroponte in the 1990s, to describe those who weren’t young enough to grow up surfing the Net, or who were not old enough to have the spare time to get to know it.

Alan told me Negroponte predicted that the digital homeless would “tend to be the decision makers, executives, and politicians” even if “they are not part of this digital world;(and)they don’t understand it.”

Maybe this is why Congress enacted a highly oppressive Cybercrime Law – our legislature is populated by the digital homeless.

I still consider myself a part-time member of the digital homeless community. And since I’m also a journalist, I can share with you what I’ve learned on how digital technology is reshaping the way we bring news to the public.

Because of ICT, consumer attitude to news is changing. But is the attitude of news providers changing, too?

The consumer wants his news now, not tomorrow. He wants to access it on his smartphone or tablet, not on paper.

The once-a-day cycle is gone and newspapers don’t seem to care, perhaps relying on the fact that most of their readers are also digitally homeless. But those numbers are shrinking.

News used to be a one-way street. The press told readers what stand to take through the editorial. It tightly controlled feedback through the Letters to the Editor section. Its role as a watchdog over government and business bred a sense of entitlement among many journalists.

Now, with digital technology, it’s no longer about entitlement. It’s all about people empowerment.

Dissemination of news has become multi-channel. Feedback from consumers of news is now instantaneous, uncontrolled, unedited and at times very rude. Readers have become part of the news process. Readers have become the watchdog over the press.

Alan made the observation that there has been a flattening of roles on information exchange. It’s no longer top-down – or from the newspaper to the reader. It is now collegial. The consumer has become a content provider and the provider is also a consumer.

Personally, I’ve also noticed that social networking sites encourage a different attitude toward elderly and authority figures. Philippine society is quite hierarchical – older people and those holding senior positions in government and business are accustomed to being addressed more respectfully and formally by their younger or less senior counterparts. But Facebook and Twitter has put everyone on the same footing.

There’s a third, equally important development due to ICT. The archipelagic barriers – that set Filipinos apart from Aparri to Jolo and even globally for decades – are down for the first time in history. I have used this tremendous advantage. Through Facebook and Twitter, for instance, I have managed to interview sources who would otherwise be out of reach.

Three years ago, nine people in Angeles City were murdered. The police there told me they traced the suspect through his Facebook account. I found two of the victims also on Facebook. And contrary to what local dailies insinuated about one of the slain girls being a mail order bride, her Facebook posts and those of her Briton lover showed they were mutually introduced by the Filipina wife of the Briton’s best friend.

You can find a link to my South China Morning Post story in a copy of this speech uploaded on the PPI website. [see http://www.scmp.com/article/721032/targeted-death-expat-paradise ]

Some political analysts have said that the recent elections weren’t affected much by the buzz on the internet. They’ve argued that most of Facebook’s 30 million Filipino members belong to the rich and middle class; whereas most Filipinos voters are poor without internet access.

True. The poor have no access. But analysts have not taken into account the ripple effect of ICT. What goes viral on the Net eventually ends up on radio, TV and newspapers.

This was what happened to my impeachment trial stories last year.

Another thing about Facebook. The Filipinos there have similar profiles as the readership of the largest local dailies. They are the audience the dailies would love to have.

Last year, I happened to ask Vergel Santos how many copies of the three largest Philippine papers were physically being printed daily. Around 600,000 copies, he said.

How can newspapers with a combined print run of 600,000 – the equivalent of over six percent of our total population – retain their clout in the digital age?

This is what this conference is partly about.

We don’t know if newspapers – as they are right now, printed on paper – will survive. But Alan and I believe journalists will survive, provided they are equipped with at least four skills. These are:

  • the ability to RECOGNIZE SOMETHING AS “NEWSY”;
  • the ability to get the facts as completely and accurately as possible;
  • and correct them as new information comes in;
  • the ability to get the other side or the contrary view;
  • and the ability to sense a pattern of events and make sense of it.

The last skill is the hardest to learn but it’s what will make the press survive no matter what century or what the new technology brings.

NOTE: You can read more about the day’s proceedings by going to the blog of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.

Comments

  1. Has anyone remember the book 1984 written by Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), known by his pen name as George Orwell?

    Youtube video for you to reminisce –

    1984 George Orwell celebrated his 110th BDay this month.

    • Who is George Orwell?

      Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist and journalist. His work is marked by clarity, intelligence and wit, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and commitment to democratic socialism.

      Considered perhaps the 20th century’s best chronicler of English culture,[4] Orwell wrote literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. He is best known for the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) and the allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945), which together have sold more copies than any two books by any other 20th-century author. His book Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, is widely acclaimed, as are his numerous essays on politics, literature, language and culture. In 2008, The Times ranked him second on a list of “The 50 greatest British writers since 1945”.

      Orwell’s work continues to influence popular and political culture, and the term Orwellian — descriptive of totalitarian or authoritarian social practices — has entered the language together with several of his neologisms, including Cold War, Big Brother, thought police, doublethink, and thoughtcrime.

      Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell

        • Well, blogger Naureckas falls into the category of critic who advises us not to be complacent or calm about our government’s security programs without telling us what he would do to keep the nation safe from mad bombers. I put his blog in my “cheap shot” category, along with about a ream of other waste material. The people running around yelling “the sky is falling” on our privacy are the people who would be first to criticize the government if another airplane smacked into an office building somewhere in the US.

        • “Naturally the common people don’t want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, IT IS THE LEADERS of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is TELL THEM THEY ARE BEING ATTACKED, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. IT WORKS THE SAME IN ANY COUNTRY.” – Hermann Goering

        • Alan (et al), I found this material that you might be interested to read into.

          (If you are still in the loop of this thread)

          Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars. An Introduction Programming Manual. Operations Research Technical Manual TW-SW7905.1

        • Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars

          Foreword

          This manuscript was delivered to our offices by an unknown person. We did not steal the document, nor are we involved with any theft from the United States Government, and we did not get the document by way of any dishonest methods. We feel that we are not endangering the “National Security” by reproducing this document, quite the contrary; it has been authenticated and we feel that we are not only within our rights to publish it, but morally bound to do so.

          Regarding the training manual, you may have detected that we had to block out the marginal notes made by the selectee at the C.I.A. Training Center, but I can assure you that the manual is authentic, and was printed for the purpose of introducing the selectee to the conspiracy. It has been authenticated by four different technical writers for Military Intelligence, one just recently retired who wants very much to have this manual distributed throughout the world, and one who is still employed as an Electronics Engineer by the Federal Government, and has access to the entire series of Training Manuals. One was stationed in Hawaii, and held the highest security clearance in the Naval Intelligence, and another who is now teaching at a university, and has been working with the Central Intelligence Agency for a number of years, and wants out before the axe falls on the conspirators.

          We believed that the entire world should know about this plan, so we distributed internationally one-hundred of these manuscripts, to ask individuals at top level positions their opinions. The consensus opinion was to distribute this to as many people as who wanted it, to the end that they would not only understand that “War” had been declared against them, but would be able to properly identify the true enemy to Humanity.

          Delamer Duverus

          SOURCE: http://www.lawfulpath.com/ref/sw4qw/

        • first two paragraphs lang ako, na intrigue na ka-agad aku.

          check you later or some other day for your thoughts on it.

          hopefully the others would find it interesting too.

          cheers.

        • Currently reading HENDRIK HERTZBERG’s background at –

          http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/bios/hendrik_hertzberg/search?contributorName=hendrik%20hertzberg

          And reading his other ‘Comment’ pieces.

          As for his ‘SNOOP SCOOPS’ piece, he’s too trusting of the snoops, doesn’t worry that much of the scoops the snoops mine.

          Yet in the following excerpt, he ended his piece with the following questions.

          SNOOP SCOOPS
          – BY HENDRIK HERTZBERG. JUNE 24, 2013

          Are the programs truly efficacious? Do they truly provide an extra margin of safety sufficient to justify the resources poured into them, to say nothing of the domestic and international anxieties they inevitably provoke? Is it wise to entrust so many of their activities to the employees of private companies, which are ultimately answerable not to the United States and its Constitution but to corporate stockholders? Did it make sense to construct an intelligence behemoth that apparently cannot operate without giving an enormous number of people—more than a million—top-secret security clearances? And in what ways, exactly, might an ill-intentioned yet formally law-abiding Administration use its powers for nefarious purposes? From what we know so far—well, we know far too little, still.

          My take on his ‘Comment’, he knows too little to date.

        • Hendrik Hertzberg’s other ‘Comment’ piece UNWINDING “UNWITTING” proves he knew too little if not nil.

          His work history with N.S.A for a year smacks ignorance when it was right under his nose that it was a front.

          Same thing with his opinion and observation with the popular NSA in today’s news.

          “And in what ways, exactly, might an ill-intentioned yet formally law-abiding Administration use its powers for nefarious purposes?” – Snoop Scoop by Hendrik Hertzberg

          (my previous comment link to this is still under moderation)

      • Most in the Philippines are doing the old duck and cover routine for the passing storm, or pumping up the trusty rubber boat if they live in Manila. But I’ll comment as that heavy load of water has already dumped here. The electricity was only out for about an hour.

        1984 is a very disturbing book, for sure, and Orwell was a genius. I find interesting, however, that the imagined “Big Brother” did not come to pass. Indeed, what came to pass was that the ability to “snoop” and “spy” and “reveal” ended up in the hands of the people in the form of cell phones with video cams and internet and you tube, instruments that reveal truths that were before hidden.

        For example, the Ecuadorian government is living through a bit of embarrassment because they issued a “pass” to Snowden, then revoked it, then denied they issued it. Unfortunately, there is a “metadata” tracking on the document that fell into public hands that revealed exactly where the document went and how long it was there. So Ecuador flat out lied.

        Plus we had the Marathon bombers caught by video that was blasted across the nation in a few hours. White cap, black cap.

        And we have a lot of commercial “spying” done by Google and others as they track our clicks, match them to advertisers, and deal us the most likely product for us to buy.

        It is quite amazing. Anyone who thinks they are living in a world where privacy actually exists is pretty, ummmm . . . weird. It does not.

        • It might not exist — and it’s amazing how some people are in a hurry to roll over and give it up without a fight — but it certainly doesn’t belong to unaccountable officials who have to have their activities revealed by whistleblowers.

        • “unaccountable officials” I presume you are speaking of NSA and the two programs (1) telephone data traps, and (2) foreign e-mail scans. Which is run by “unaccountable officials”? My understanding is that these were authorized programs, under supervision of appointed and/or elected officials duly accountable both for the programs and any potential failure of efforts to defend against terrorism, that mandated warrants were obtained, and that the legislators with defense oversight were briefed on the program. I’m not grasping this statement “unaccountable officials”. Nor is Snowden a whistleblower, for he did not reveal criminal acts, only acts he and others don’t like. He is an accused criminal at best and a traitor at worst.

        • your Ecuadorian example reminded me of the Taiwan – Phils.’ draft letter exchanges. lol.

          Your ‘Plus we had the Marathon …

          ‘And we have a lot of commercial “spying” …

          ‘It is quite amazing. Anyone who thinks they are living in a world where privacy actually exists is pretty, ummmm . . . weird. It does not.’

          Geez, I reckon there should be more buckets pouring down on your rooftop – Joe. The drumming sounds of ticks and tacks are doing a marvelous job. Heh he hehh.

          The opening of web links and cyber interests you’ve accumulated thus far gives the program a profile on who really is Joe America.

          What the commercial (private) advertisers/marketers can not put a handle on Joe A, the spy agency with their concocted FISA order can ID who he is. Especially IF you’ve visited a hot site under their surveillance. Bad luck, if a rogue operative is on the prowl looking for a patsy that fits your image.

          Just in case, a bit of humor from this end.

        • actually there have already been cases of abuse from the commercial end. One programmer for FB, a few years back, revealed that by typing a code that included “ChuckNorris”, any FB official could access open ANY FB account in the world (it’s since been dropped). About that time, a Google employee harassed a teenage girl by sending her stalking messages saying he knew exactly what she was doing on all her Gmail accounts and couldn’t hide from him, even if she created fake ones. He was fired, but it makes you think of what else could be happening

        • One time at fb I clicked on a ‘news video link’. The news link had a pic image of bikini clad women. Lo and behold – the fb online community saw the ‘update’ that I visited and opened the video link of bikini clad women (pageantry).

          Now this fb feature is different from the Like, Unlike or comment features. But to be trailed and spied for clicking a news fed video link (shared) was a bit too much.

          After complaints from fb users, that fb feature was taken out.

          BTW, the bikini clad women video clip was worth viewing it – Binibining Pilipinas Contestants. Heh he heeh.

        • In that sense, privacy is slowly, inevitably eroded, but if citizens don’t regularly zap the public officials in the places where the sun don’t shine, nobody will ever know what’s being done and how the data is being used and who is using it

        • Wisely written, kudos kabayan.

          I firmly believe, there are still good public servants, citizens who do the right thing. They outnumber the rogue ones. Unfortunately, sociopaths and psychopaths got through the cracks.

        • But bills being passed by the Philippine government — like the one on Cybercrime and the one on intellectual piracy — have explicit or implicit privacy intrusive and sanctionary components WITHOUT oversight and accountability

        • di ba the phils.’ cybercrime law is still under TRO by the SC?

          When it returns to Congress for amendments, or repeal.
          Improve the law or assign to include ‘oversight and accountability’ in the DOJ or Congress Committees to set rules for ‘transparency, checks, oversight and accountability’ in its enforcement.

          Pupuwedeng may ahensiya for Phils’ Police Standards Command or Integrity Command.

          —

          good Am Alan. next time uli.

        • I came to accept that the “Feds” have a job to do long long ago, and they can’t do it if they listen to the weeps and cries of people with political or ideological agendas different than their agenda to keep Americans as safe as possible in our rather gun-ridden, lunatic-ridden time. They have a thankless job, actually, and so I thank them now and then.

          I have my own file with the Los Angeles FBI office buried somewhere along with a lot of other irrelevant information they got whilst monitoring anti-Viet Nam War rallies. They had a van watching and presumably listening in on my home for a time. Big waste f time, but that is their job, y’know?

          They allow me the freedom to opine, good or bad. Indeed, that is what they are working so hard to protect. My right to opine.

          If it helps them by snooping on me to put on the “okay” list, I’m fine with that. As long as they sift out adn find the mad bombers who thrill at killing innocents.

      • Riffing on Orwell’s Big Brother, Cory Doctorow wrote an interesting novel called Little Brother, arguing that it isn’t just the government that’s a threat, but also companies and individuals with access to the technology. His novel stresses the need for an awakened and empowered citizenry

        • Agree, the citizenry has to be vigilant to exercise and enjoy their constitutional rights (incl. their Bill of Rights).

          It was fought hard, shed blood and sacrificed with many lives for these rights to be won, for present day Americans to continue to fight for and preserve for future generations. No one can win it for them.

          The problem with threats to liberty and freedom, etc. is when some parts of the gov’t conspire with private vested interests to destroy the very fabric of their constitutional rights as citizens.

          Is it still the land of the brave and of the free?

        • The correct relations between a citizenry and its government in a democracy should be suspicion. Well, government by default is suspicious of its citizens. It’s the public that isn’t suspicious or mistrustful enough. What sets a democracy apart from a dictatorship is public transparency and accountability, throw those away and you throw away democracy

        • Libertarian Party: Kill CISPA and repeal Patriot Act, NDAA

          Republican and Democratic politicians are once again attacking Internet freedom and Americans’ privacy rights. This time, it’s the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA).

          CISPA makes a mockery of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures and requires any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, CISPA “would allow companies to bypass all existing privacy law to spy on communications and pass sensitive user data to the government.”

          While news media was focused on the dramatic events of last week, the U.S. House of Representatives quietly approved CISPA, with a vote of 288 to 127.

          CISPA allows the government to snoop on private emails. It grants companies the right to disseminate individuals’ sensitive, private information — like medical records — without their knowledge or consent. And it grants those companies broad immunity from civil and criminal prosecution, making them easy targets for government arm-twisting.

          “The provisions of CISPA are abhorrent and unacceptable in a free society,” said Geoffrey J. Neale, chair of the Libertarian National Committee. “We must not only trash CISPA; we must repeal the Patriot Act, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and every other law that violates our Fourth Amendment rights.”

          The House approved a CISPA bill in 2012, as well, but it died last year before coming to a vote in the Senate. This year, Republicans and Democrats have joined forces to renew the CISPA assault on Internet privacy and liberty.

          The Libertarian Party is the only political party in America that consistently and vehemently opposes any infringement of civil liberties. The LP platform states, “Protection from unreasonable search and seizure should include records held by third parties, such as email, medical, and library records.”

          The White House has issued a statement that President Barack Obama’s advisers will recommend that he veto CISPA if it reaches his desk in its current form. The Libertarian Party urges every civil libertarian to warn federal politicians that any further advancement of CISPA will be met with dire consequences to their political influence.

          SOURCE: www lp org/blogs/staff/libertarian-party-kill-cispa-and-repeal-patriot-act-ndaa

        • Your missus asked a similar question, “Would this presuppose a national ID?”

          IMHO, it’s a must.

          However, it entirely depends on who rules the gov’t of the day (Executive). How lively or active are its representatives in Congress. How good is the Judiciary in dispensing justice equally. Questions to satisfy, such as;

          – Does the national leadership have credibility and integrity to respect the constitutional or basic rights of its citizens by upholding for instance their privacy rights (for starters) as a national policy.

          – Are gov’t bureaus and agencies apt to uphold the confidentiality of its records as to its customers or clients?

          – Are there existing laws that protect the privacy or personal information of ordinary citizens?

          – In regards to the private sector (commercial, business) who keeps records or accounts of ordinary citizens (e.g. bank customers, medical clients)? What laws would they adhere or lean to protect their business, trade (product, services, information), or commercial venture?

          – Is there a national movement for a national ID? Apart from Passports or Drivers Licence, what benefits does a National ID have, other than for security purposes?

          Decentralize the national gov’t, or adhere to regional, provincial or city (LGUs) autonomy from the national gov’t. Strengthen Provincial or Local gov’ts policies (laws) on their residents’ personal (private), work, or professional details or associations.

          SOMETHING the new batch of Congress reps and sens to study in detail though.

  2. Back on subject for a while. I happened across this concession by a fashion editor. A tale of weakness, vanity and greed.
    Dare I suggest that this sort of behavior by the media will not change with the advent of paperless news?
    The nitty gritty of the subject is the moral behavior of those responsible for reporting the news in an honest and unbiased manner.
    Funny we hear no more about gas explosions and walls blowing out of luxurious condos. The story is unfinished. Will it ever be?

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2346566/Confessions-row-fashionista-In-final-unmissable-memoirs-LIZ-JONES-looks-horror-days-glossy-editor.html

      • LIZ JONES’S diary every Sunday on YOU magazine ( on the back / last page ) – details her life from being single to married, to divorce, to having a boyfriend (again) – is a very sad story of her life, all sobbing stories, no joyous / happy stories which drag the readers to feel so low. I wonder if it’s her tactic to try the readers to connect with all her sob experiences,thus, to gain nationwide emotional support.

        Well, she is the columnist of the year awardee.

  3. “The government has allocated P3.2 billion for the construction of housing units for squatter families living in danger zones in Metro Manila, Vice President Jejomar Binay said yesterday.”

    “He said the project is part of the P50 billion allocated by President Aquino to relocate some 100,000 squatter families living in danger areas.”

    http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/06/21/956400/p3.2-b-housing-set-estero-settlers

    The government allocated 50 billion pesos to relocate squatters living in esteros and danger zones in metro Manila. And there is no guaranty that they would stay in their relocation sites as what happened again and again.

    I have a practical suggestion to get rid of ALL these river squatters and at the same time clean the rivers of their debris. And I believe the government won’t spend more than 3.2 billion pesos to do that. Maybe much less. But it needs a very strong political will from the president and the full cooperation of congress and judiciary.

    Since all the said squatters are in the danger zones and blatantly violating our laws, they should all be arrested and jailed for their own safety. But our jails could not accommodate them all. Minors would also be involved. So the government should first build a number of prison dormitories for the adults and appropriate shelters for the minor children.

    The adult offenders would be charged accordingly and jailed by DILG, while minor children would be turned over to DSWD and housed in the newly built shelters. Of course, all their food, clothings, etc would be for free. The adult offenders would be transported daily from their prison dormitory and required to clean all the esteros where they lived before and would receive payment of minimum wage.

    Their earnings, or at least most of them, would be used for the benefit, including schooling, of their minor children with DSWD. And the offenders would remain in custody of DLIG until they finished their court case, and until a permanent relocation facility became available whether provided by government or their relatives, or until they had been rehabilitated to become useful and productive. Their children would be reconciled with them soonest.

    Of course, better and more doable suggestions are always welcome.

    • This must be one of the better ideas put forward for these squatters now termed marginalized members of our society.

      I lIke the part that they will be cleaning the esteros themselves at minimum wage but then this will he partly used for the education of their children.

      Another good effect of this is on population control. Separating the male n female adult offenders would result to less children / babies.

      GO for it! Will forward this up my congressman – the incoming Speaker of the House. Perhaps we should forward this to grace poe and Nancy binary n JV eked iyo for the Senate.

      • The relocation area/ place for these estero squatters SHOULD provide them with livelihhood programs or else, these squatters will leave this relocation area after few months and install themselves in another esteros- a vicious cycle which is very destructive to the economy. Without livelihood programs, how do we expect them to live. Make them to fish for their livelihood, not just provide them with fish/ or dole money. We don’t eradicate poverty by just giving them dole money to buy their basic needs. It’s the intensive livelihood programs with training – workable and fully implemented wherein factors like sound planning and management, financial considerations, marketing ((road to market) come into fore. The trainers / mentors/ advisers stay with them until the programs lift off the ground and running soundly well. They have to be checked on the progress of their livelihood programs.

        If the government just relocate them and leave them on their own with no livelihood, the allocated money, 50 billion, will be futile. The estero problems would be back to haunt the government time and again.

        • so true, govt should build them self-contained communities with palengke, sealed roads, schools, colleges, parks, hospitals, shopping centers, cinemas, sari-sari stores, and maybe cafeterias and churches, and have cemetery for their dead too. people can work in their own communities, make them sustainable so they dont have to go to manila at rebuild the estero at makipagsapalaran uli.

        • invite investors at mga negotiante who will set up new and pioneering business in relocation sites, also priests to look after the spiritual needs of the people there, maybe law courts too to deal with those maghahari-harian kaagad, at saka police headquarters to enforce law and order. all this must be taken into considerations. neighboring towns and villages of proposed relocations sites are already voicing concern baka ma-overwhelm daw ang limited resources nila, at mapurwesyo pa sila.

        • @ moonie,

          Maganda ang suggestion mo moonie ang problema ay sila na nga ang tumira sa lugar na hindi dapat tirhan tapos sila pa bibigyan nang magandang communities. napaka unfair sa mga law abiding citizen na nagbabanat nang buto para mamuhay nang maayos… saka bibigyan na nga mga imformal settlers nang Ph. 1,500.- na tulong mula sa pamahalaan ay sila pa itong daming reklamo at angal. illegal ang ginawa nang mga imformal settlers at nilabag nila ang batas kaya dapat sila makisama kong para sa pangkalahayan kabutihan ang programa nang GOBYERNO…

        • I think law abiding citizens are charitable and would be quite happy to help others get good grip of themselves. they’re not so much into me, me, me. they have been there before, done that, and probably got helped too, and now, it’s others turn to receive help. I dont think law abiding citizens will deny this one opportunity for others to be on par with them. they might even do business together later on. law abiding citizens encourage others to do good, showing examples and leading informal settlers how to do the right things, and most of all, how to be good citizens too.

        • @ moonie,

          You are right in your own way but the problem were, the government are doing its best for the good of all but they are still complaining and want this and that? They (informal settlers) should at least think of what they can help solve the very problem of our government especially their very own problem and not demand on something that are impossible to carry on…they live illegally and did not plan their life, then that are the results and should not blame no one…

          And to make everyone becomes a law abiding citizen is implement the law honestly that exempt no one …

        • @ moonie,

          Ang pagtulong ay ginagawa nang maraming mabubuting mamamayan subalit kong minsan ay inaabuso, Tingnan mo na lamang ang mga kawawang PULUBI na ginagaya nang iilang walanghiyang grupo nang sindikato para makapera sa madaling paraan…

          At idagdag mo pa diyan ang mga walang hiyang professional squatters na ginagamit ang pansariling kasakiman…tumitira nang walang pahintulot sa hindi sariling lupa tapos aawayin pa ang may-ari nang lupa kapag pinaaalis para lang makasingil nang danyos perwisyo o bayad para sa kanilang lilipatan…

          Kaya dapat ang R.H.Bill ay ipatupad na para mabawasan ang paglaki nang populasyon dahil sa pagdami nang populasyon ay dumadami ang problema, katulad nang problema sa pagkain, problema sa tirahan, problema sa kalusugan, problema sa pag-aaral, problema sa basura at marami pa?

          At saka ipasa na ang F.O.I. para mabawasan ang CORRUPTION at gumanda ang serbisyo nang gobyerno dahil MATATAKOT ang mga corrupt na OPISYALES, ORDINARY EMPLOYEES sa lantarang makikita ang kanilang anomalyang gagawin…

      • Chit @ 28.1

        In the afternoon of June 22 I drafted my comment after reading the article covered by the link I posted above. I told my wife about it and she told me to go for it. But I decided to put it on hold until evening when my wife asked me if I posted it already.

        Admittedly, population control was out of my mind when I posted my comment. The following morning I told my wife that I already posted same comments. It was then that she told me almost exactly what you thought on the side effect on population control. That these squatters would be prevented from procreating because jailing them would mean separate detention facilities for men and women. So upon reading your (Chit’s) comment it dawned on me that women, especially mothers, are naturally more sensitive on matters with reproductive implications.

        I came to realize also that if only for purposes of effective population control, the squatters in the esteros or danger zones should be evicted and detained soonest. For their sake and that of the society.

        • I think, jailing is temporary birth control solution. you cannot jail people forever. once freed, they’ll resumed sexual activities previously denied to them, maybe with such gusto that we shall have unexpected baby boom. women can still get pregnant while in jail, babies get born in jails too. we cannot stop female inmates from having intimate relationships with jailors in exchange for favors like cartons of cigarettes and whatnot. some keep mum and will not name or identify the fathers.

          there are unfortunate female inmates that got raped by jailors, and got pregnant in prison.

        • yes, you are right…. sexual favors in exchange for some liberties, etc.
          but then it won’t be as bad as when you are living freely in your own house atop a mountain of garbage…. :)

          it will still be an effective birth control and an effective way to clean teh esteros and the canals of the garbage that they themselves dumped….

          It’s high time these members of society learn to face the consequences of their bad behavior…

        • I think its time to implement the R.H. Law para hindi dumami ang TAO at SQUATTERS and prosecute those who defies our Laws especially those illegal squatters/ informal settlers on the places that are dangerous to live…Political Well should be observed properly by those L.G.Us., D.P.W.H., M.M.D.A. et. al.

        • :) in saying so, you admit that mothers are more in-sync with the economic repercussions of anything that has to do with population… :)

          but i do totally agree with the idea of letting these squatters clean up their own mess, even if government has to pay them for doing so.

          Also, government should now fence in all areas that are freed of squatters to ensure that there will be NO WAY for the evicted squatters to go back and put up shanties again.

          The bigger prolem is that quatting is now a way of life with these people – evict them, give them money, relocate them. Then, aftyer a few months, they go back to the same place, put up another shanty until the government takes notice of them again, evict, relocate, provide money – same cycle!

          It really takes a STRONG POLITICAL WILL. Let us see if the VP will live up to his word…. He did that in the railways in Makati – wala nang squatters sa mga riles noon… (i don’t know now though)…

        • [email protected]

          Better if the government could construct roads and/or bicycle lanes initially along the esteros and rivers vacated by squatters and later along ALL such places, with or without illegal structures before.

    • They are families living with hope and dreams, you can’t just separate people like that. If Jesse Robredo done it in Naga, they should do it too. Beside this is a social problem ng Pilipinas, and it will never ends if continued doing the wrong thing.

      • [email protected]

        I think you are driving at a good point. A point that is good for further discussion. Can you please specify the “wrong thing” referred to and elaborate too how such “wrong thing” would never solve the social problem involving squatters in danger zones.

        • sisingit lang po ako rito, I’m not clear as clearpasig or stealing clearpasig’s thunder, but may I busisi a bit of ‘wrong thing’? yes? okay, here goes: it may not be good idea to imprison people determined to live in dangerous places and then expect others to risk their lives coming and saving them at flood times with their saviors getting drowned and sometimes hurt by floating debris.

          prison could be like heaven to them with free accommodation and roof over their heads, free food 3x a day plus merienda, they dont have to pay bills like electricy and water. plus they got to meet exciting new friends who may be hardened criminals and even teach them new tricks of the trade, introduce them to drugs, etc.

          I can see people becoming repeat offenders and look forward to having vacation in prison. it can be like party sometimes, they got to dance and have their dance featured in youtube. prison may be traumatic to some, but to others, it’s a welcome respite. okay, back to you, clearpasig.

    • @ Rene – lpil,

      I agree with your suggestion but l don’t think our Government will do it? Takot pa yata sa mga Law Breakers na Squatters / imformal settlers ang Gobyerno natin dahil bibigyan pa nang bahay at may Ph.1,500.-rental allowances… Samantala ang mga nagka problemang mga O.F.Ws.natin na nasa ibang bansa para magtrabaho ay hindi indi kayang bigyan nang libreng ticket at inaabuso tuloy nang mga walang hiyang embassy officials… Kong inasikaso lamang sana nang maayos mga nastranded/nagkaproblemang O.F.Ws. ay wala sanang dahilan para maabuso mga kawawang O.F.Ws. Baliktad yata ginagawa nang Pamahalaan dahil kong sino ang mabuti at nagtratrabaho nang maayos esp. O.F.Ws. ay hindi inaasikaso pero ang lumalabag sa BATAS tulad nang Squatters / imformal settlers ay kinakampihan at inaasikaso kahit gumastos pa nang BILYONES..Dagdag pa diyan ang kaso nang pilipinang nahatulan at bibitayin sa CHINA dahil nagkasala sa Kasong Drug Traffiking ay hayon pinadala ang buong pamilya sa China at si V.P. Binay para sa kong anong dahilan at malaking gastos na naman nang TAXPAYERS MONEY diba?

      KAILANGAN BANG GANITO NALANG LAGI AT LAGING MGA LUMALABAG SA BATAS ANG INAASIKASO NANG PAMAHALAAN? BAKIT ANG MGA CONVICTED CRIMINAL SA BILANGGUAN AY INAASIKASO ANG PAGKAIN, DAMIT, GAMOT,ETC. ETC. BAKIT ANG MGA NASTRANDED/NAGKAPROBLEMANG O.F.Ws. SA IBANG BANSA AY NAPABAYAAN AT INAABUSO NANG MGA WALANGHIYANG EMBASSY OFFICIALS…NAKITA KO KAGABI SA T.V.5 MGA O.F.Ws. NA WALANG MAKAIN, WALANG BAHAY NA MASISILUNGAN DAHIL PINABAYAAN NANG EMBASSY OFFICIALS? SANA MAGISING NA AT MAMULAT NA ANG MGA KINAUUKULAN AT ASIKASOHIN ANG PANGANGAILANGAN NANG MGA MABUBUTING MAMAMAYAN BAGO MAGING HULI ANG LAHAT…

  4. On Edward Snowden

    The real question is not whether this individual is a hero or traitor. The question we should be asking is whether a country like the U.S. can continue to infringe upon human rights – the right to privacy, freedom of the press, and the right to living in a land with a transparent government. What Snowden did may be illegal, but what about the acts of our government? The killing of innocent civilians in Afghanistan? The use of drones? Eavesdropping? Allowing tax evasion by huge profitable corporations and so much more?

    In a republic such as the U.S. with a constitution that protects our rights, there is no justification for spying on all the people all the time. The dangers of these NSA abuses include the fact that many people (from the relatively low levels of employment like Snowden to the top brass) have information on individuals who later may want to run for Congress, the Senate, or the Presidency. Emails, texts, and cell phone calls from their entire lives can be used to blackmail them. We now know that J. Edgar Hoover abused his position of power by collecting private intelligence files on John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and many more. Outrageous as that was it pales in comparison to this modern debacle.

    Source: U.S. Intelligence Establishment: Hero or Traitor? By John Perkins

    • Human rights are not unrestrained freedoms, but principles we agree to abide by to make sure the community lives healthy, wealthy and happy. Most Americans accept the good intentions of their government, to keep them safe from lunatic Muslims, mainly, who are willing to kill children and other innocents in the name of their God. Talk about human rights violations.

      Get rid of those murderers and the U.S. would not be so desperate to gather information about the killers in any way they can.

      To call US acts “outrageous” or a “debacle” without mentioning the real evil that is behind the information gathering makes this a political piece, not analysis. To suggest the U.S. is “spying on all the people all the time” is so horridly off the mark as to be laughable.

      Drones are a superb tool to fight those who hide and bomb from hiding.

      Mr. Perkins is out to lunch and I’d guess he has been out for a long time.

      • And ‘My reply went to moderation.’ too.

        It’s alright. Lots of web links for elucidation, Joe.

        Enjoy.

        • Say Hey, Mel, it is a most interesting discussion piece, so thanks for inspiring debate. Stop using those big words like “elucidation” though.

        • Joe, you wrote, “Well, that is a lot of information and I doubt that I will go through it all.” Now that’s for your elucidation.

          “… thanks for an inspiring debate.”? lol

          We haven’t started yet. By the looks of it, we’ll have to settle by convenience. You know, different time zones and competing reads to swallow.

        • Well, I do give credit to Snowden for forcing every nation he comes in touch with to examine their values, law versus international interests versus human rights. In that regard, his escapade is instructional. But I still hold that he is a crook and a creep. :)

          I read this morning that the percentage of Americans who believe he should not be prosecuted is shrinking, from a peak of 40% now around 33%.

        • NSA whistleblower Russell Tice’s revelations are more damaging compared with E Snowden’s.

          See, read or listen to his recent interviews.

          – http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/tag/russ-tice/

          He was also indicted on the US Espionage Act separately with T Drake. It came to naught after several years.

          —

          Your poll’s web link was? Thanks (Taa).

        • texthereNewsmax Survey, Released on Saturday June 29, 2013

          – Do you believe that former NSA employee Edward Snowden is a hero or traitor?

          Yes, he is a hero = 12,468 (66%)

          Yes, he is a traitor = 6,266 (33%)

          – Is it acceptable for the NSA to spy on Americans to stop terrorism?

          Yes, acceptable = 4,355 (21%)

          No, not acceptable = 15,638 (78%)

          – Do you trust President Barack Obama and his administration to oversee the NSA’s spying activities?

          Yes = 1,515 (7%)

          No = 18,578 (92%)

          – If you had a choice between more spying and less terrorism, or less spying but greater privacy, which would you choose?

          More spying, less terrorism = 4,038(20%)

          Less spying, more privacy = 15,924 (79%)

        • The headline to the poll at Newsmax was “Should the NSA spy on Americans?”

          Well, of course they shouldn’t. And they aren’t.

          It is a loaded question and the survey respondents consist of readers of the publication who “voted”. Basically, it is a garbage poll done for titillation and perhaps political aim. It means absolutely nothing.

    • I finally, recently, got to read Perkins’ “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”. Interesting.

    • [email protected]

      ” there is no justification for spying on all the people all the time.”

      Another example of media bias, if not corruption or absurdity. The above statement imperiously dictates on the reader that US does and is in fact capable of spying on everybody 24/7. Everybody includes Obama down to the lowliest person in the US, if not in the whole world. Does the US and all other countries combined have the resources – money, time and skill – to do that? Is it a joke in the midst of a sober and serious discussion?

      I think the above statement is not only laughable, hilarious and misleading. It comes as an insult to human intelligence. Otherwise, it comes from a sick mind.

      • BTW, Washington Post described Perkins as “a vainglorious peddler of nonsense.”

        • Washington Post is mainstream.

          During the first term Pres of G W Bush, they withheld printing incriminating news to Bush’s electoral ‘win’ by at least a year.

          I am neither a cheerleader nor apologist for Mr Perkins’ history or pre occupation, Washington Post or its staff are entitled to their own opinion.

      • Hey Rene,

        Here is an article from the –


        NEW STATESMAN

        12 August 1988
        Cover, pages 10-12 –

        American, British and Allied intelligence agencies are soon to embark on a massive, billion-dollar expansion of their global electronic surveillance system. According to information given recently in secret to the US Congress, the surveillance system will enable the agencies to monitor and analyse civilian communications into the 21st century. Identified for the moment as Project P415, the system will be run by the US National Security Agency (NSA). But the intelligence agencies of many other countries will be closely involved with the new network, including those from Britain, Australia, Germany and Japan–and, surprisingly, the People’s Republic of China.

        SOURCE: http://cryptome.org/jya/echelon-dc.htm

        The Snowden leaks (according to the Guardian) was 41 slides. Only 4 was released and printed. The rest are too detailed that it arouses serious ramifications.

        • [email protected]

          When I have the time and appetite, I am ready to discuss in a proper forum with anybody on the subject of security and intelligence. But I submit that elaborate discussions about such subject should be left to professionals in an appropriate forum because it invariably involves the safety of people, not to mention the massive property affected. And I have learned and internalized long ago the principle that, above all, safety is ALWAYS paramount. I also believe that any product of intelligence must be governed by the principle of “need to know basis”.

          Remember that OMB Morales and Director Aquino of AMLC adhered to the “need to know basis” principle in handling the transactions of Corona. When Corona called OMB Morales as his own witness, he was totally unaware about the 17 page AMLC document presented by her during the trial.

          For now the claim of Perkins about the ability of any nation to spy on All the people All the time is trash as far as I am concerned. That is all I wanted to emphasize.

          Other claims or opinions by other people or entity, including Mel, Alan and JoeAm, about Perkins should be respected also.

        • But I believe that a government can spy on SOME of the people ALL the time but not on ALL the people even SOME of the time. Maybe Perkins meant spying on ALL the people that government is interested to know about. Not on the total population.

        • Additional Read.

          Who is General Keith Alexander?

          ANSWER: He is director of the world’s largest intelligence service, the National Security Agency; chief of the Central Security Service; and commander of the US Cyber Command. As such, he has his own secret military, presiding over the Navy’s 10th Fleet, the 24th Air Force, and the Second Army.

        • Excerpt

          But there is a flip side to this equation that is rarely mentioned: The military has for years been developing offensive capabilities, giving it the power not just to defend the US but to assail its foes. Using so-called cyber-kinetic attacks, Alexander and his forces now have the capability to physically destroy an adversary’s equipment and infrastructure, and potentially even to kill. Alexander—who declined to be interviewed for this article—has concluded that such cyberweapons are as crucial to 21st-century warfare as nuclear arms were in the 20th.

          And he and his cyberwarriors have already launched their first attack. The cyberweapon that came to be known as Stuxnet was created and built by the NSA in partnership with the CIA and Israeli intelligence in the mid-2000s. The first known piece of malware designed to destroy physical equipment, Stuxnet was aimed at Iran’s nuclear facility in Natanz. By surreptitiously taking control of an industrial control link known as a Scada (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system, the sophisticated worm was able to damage about a thousand centrifuges used to enrich nuclear material.

          The success of this sabotage came to light only in June 2010, when the malware spread to outside computers. It was spotted by independent security researchers, who identified telltale signs that the worm was the work of thousands of hours of professional development. Despite headlines around the globe, officials in Washington have never openly acknowledged that the US was behind the attack. It wasn’t until 2012 that anonymous sources within the Obama administration took credit for it in interviews with The New York Times.

          Follow Stuxnet Malware on leak probe –
          James Cartwright, Retired General, Targeted In Leak Probe: Reports

        • sorry about this mel, I cannot help but noticed big men with bigger kahones brought down though their own kahones. general petreus the illustrous got brought down by the female of the species. general keith alexander I hope his kahones is made of titanium, impervious to all! damn, leona, I got influenced by her. you there, leona?

        • Kudos Alan,

          You really are smart. You can decipher ‘link’s and can connect ‘dots’ to spike relevance between poles (complements).

          Pardon it it sounds condescending, I know you are an advance thinker. I just need to acknowledge it.

          To fellow CPMers, read and digest the subject thread and the resource links provided. These are for your awareness, that you may not be caught off-guard of ignorance.

          Legitimate agencies’ mandate are good and upright. It becomes dangerous when ‘private’ or vested interests (i.e. non gov’t) have access or usurp agencies’ intelligence infrastructure for illicit activities.

          Have a read and listen carefully again at T Drake and R Tice’s interviews (video, articles). That would give you glimpses on why they came out, very much concerned as patriotic Americans.

          —

          Hirap pumasok sa blog site ni RR kanina. No idea if this entry will go in once I submitted it.

        • Mel, I happen to think the whole point of a democracy is for people to be mistrustful, suspicious and demanding of the people they give powers to (the politicians and the bureaucrats) and to hold their feet to the fire 24×7. It is, after all, THEIR powers, their rights and liberties and their money that the higher-ups are playing around with. That is why democracy is so tiring — it’s a full-time job, it’s not a wind-up toy that you just leave by itself

        • @moonie, ‘sorry about this mel’

          Sorry for what? This subject thread affects us all netizens.

          The blog post title has relevance for what I submitted.

          No one has touched on the Phils’. Cybercrime law yet.

          Questions like, what if law enforcers breaches the cybercrime law?

          Is the Cybercrime law apt for an amendment? With inclusions or protections for privacy data housed at banks, telcos, social media sites, gov’t departments/agencies and the like?

        • Alan on June 29, 2013 at 12:16 pm.

          It is entirely up to the American people if they tacitly approves their gov’t’s conduct of governance.

          Is their democracy in action? Their nation’s economic state and representatives’ (Executive & Congress) collective reciprocal action (in servitude) proves otherwise.

          IMHO.

          But Ooii, once the NSA’s Utah Data Center at Bluffdale, Utah is up and running, their AI democracy is put into action.
          Remember the idiomatic expression, “You reap what you sow”?

        • addendum

          Their automated Artificial Intelligence (AI) democracy is put into action production.

          Come to think, apart from their gov’t’s sequestration initiatives (gov’t austerity), their intelligence bureaus boasts of more funding due to building annexes and unending outsourcing to private entities.


      • WASHINGTON — A day after coming under fire from congressional critics, the National Security Agency is trying to flush a controversial surveillance “fact sheet” down the memory hole.

        That fact sheet was supposed to explain how the NSA interprets and uses section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the part of the law that underpins the agency’s PRISM data collection program. But after Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Tom Udall (D-Colo.) asserted in a letter that the NSA’s explanation contained a “significant” inaccuracy, the agency pulled the FISA fact sheet from its website on Tuesday, delivering users instead a server error.

        SOURCE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/25/nsa-fisa-fact-sheet_n_3499026.html

      • from another blog writer –

        It is something of an irony that this week Snowden had to flee to Russia (the former “evil empire” in the words of late American President Ronald Reagan) in order to avoid extradition to the US where he is charged with felonies under the Espionage Act.

        —–

        Since the US Espionage Act was instituted nearly a century ago in 1917, there have been a total of 10 prosecutions against American government employees deemed to have broken the law and compromised national security through whistleblowing. One of those was former State Department staffer Daniel Ellsberg who released the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times in 1971, revealing the spurious legal grounds for the American genocidal war on Vietnam.

        Seven out of the total 10 prosecutions against whistleblowers – 70 percent – have occurred under the Obama administrations. That figure alone tells of a growing anxiety within the American ruling class. That anxiety is related to their increasingly criminal secret powers and the ongoing subversion of democracy.

        SOURCE: http://www.4thmedia.org/2013/06/26/us-rulers-fear-american-people-americanwestern-democracy-is-for-all-intents-and-purposes-a-dead-corpse/

        • [email protected]

          It is probable that Snowden is merely a “Trojan horse” projected by CIA or NSA in collaboration with M16, MOSSAD, CSIS, ASIS, DRM, etc.

          Let’s wait until Snowden “reveals” intelligence at tactical level or the “here and now.” All that we hear from him currently are policies and plans. Let’s wait until he tells us about the sophisticated hardware and software installed by US in Asia to thwart China hegemony.

        • It’s very much possible that E Snowden is a shill or innocently acts for or in behalf of other agency(s) (US or not). Some would benefit, for propaganda or plus others (agenda).

          Some say, it is a distraction for what some warmongers (i.e. military industrial complex) would want the US to be involved in the Syrian domestic/civil war. This Snowden exposé distracts the national attention for when the US finally sets foot or flies over the Syrian territory. Or? Other surmise that this could also act ass a distraction for the pending financial chaos (US Dollar currency) that is about to happen.

          E Snowden’s Powerpoint slides were not all released/published publicly by the two mainstream outlets (NYT and Guardian). See above relevant comments or resource links. (4/5 out of 41 slides).

          I fairly have ideas how they do it. Title names or acronyms may differ to distinguish, yet fairly the same. TIP: If your device operating system is compromised, rest assured – communication mediums are secondary. Your cyber presence always leaves a digital footprint. Really? See above news web link from an ex-FBI.

          Any smart person in the ICT industry with training, knowledge and advance work experience can deduce the technology into layman’s language.

  5. let’s bundle all the pain, concern, and zipped into the manila envelope like a ricin, hoping it would open their thicker skin and look for an antidote called morality. Good journalism stayed. Wether it’s printed or digital.

    • Sino kaya itong ‘B…boy’ na opisyal sa Labor subject of this investigation? W’lang hiya!

  7. YEEKS!

    “Six months. Promise.

    In a news briefing at Malacañang on Wednesday, Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chair Francis Tolentino announced a self-imposed deadline—until December—to fix the worsening flooding and gridlock that on Monday night paralyzed the capital.

    Singson and Tolentino were the focus of criticism in the media for Monday’s miseries triggered by monsoon downpours at the outset of the rainy season—the kind that confronted President Benigno Aquino III even before he had warmed his seat in Malacañang at the start of his “daang matuwid” administration three years ago and led to the sacking of the weather bureau chief.

    Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/429755/govt-to-fix-flooding-in-metro-by-yearend#ixzz2WiUEAEwE
    Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook”

    Can the gov’t stop the rains and the GARBAGE THROWING AT ALL ESTEROS?

    YEEKS!

    • Will this happen to come true…

      “MANILA, Philippines – The government committed yesterday to relocate within the year 20,000 families living in eight esteros or waterways to mitigate flooding and traffic in Metro Manila.

      Asked why this was not done during the summer, Public Works and Highways Secretary Rogelio Singson admitted that the relocation was delayed upon the request of some local officials due to the elections.

      Similar requests for delays are again being made due to the upcoming barangay elections, but Singson said the requests would no longer be granted.

      This time, President Aquino has also agreed to impose sanctions on barangay and other local officials who allow informal settlers to go back to the esteros after their relocation, Singson said in a press briefing together with Secretary Ricky Carandang of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office.”

      Yeekay!

      • …sana…’include’ the local officials who most of the time makes ‘such requests’…yeeks!

    • mam leona, napatawa talaga ako ng malakas sa balitang ito. SA LOOB NG 6 NA BUWAN aayusin ang problema ng pagbaha? dios ko po pumuti na ang buhok ko sa pgbabaha ng maynila ilang dekada na hindi naayos ang pagbaha tapos ngayon 6 NA BUWAN? sino ang magmimilagro nyan? puro YABANG LANG YANG MGA YAN. hanggang hindi binubungkal at inaayos ang mga drainage wala mangyayari dyan. puro barado na ang drainage ng maynila tapos ang mga basura pa sa mga estero na ginagawang landfill ng mga kababayan kong mga SALAULA SA MGA DUMI NILA, WALA NANG PAGASA. 6 NA BUWAN??????????????????????????

      • siguro panahon na para lahat tayo ay tulong-tulong para sa pag-ayos ng baha sa Kamaynilaan. Tama ka, taon na ang binilang niyan at ilang bilyon na rin siguro ang naitapon para sa mga estero, eskuwater at kung ano-ano pa.

        but today, we have a President who exerts gargantuan effort to follow-up on commitments of his staff. At hindi lang naman gobyerno ang dapat managot sa baha – bawat isa sa atin na hindi sumusunod sa patakaran ng pagtapon ng basura, paggamit ng plastik, pag-papatayo ng bahay sa mga estero at kanal… dapat, ang problemang ito ay babaliukating ng bawat mamamayan at gobyerno – hindi lanang gobyerno.

        wala ngang magbabago sa bansa natin kung lahat i-aasa sa mga nanunungkulan at hindi tayo tutulong. Sabi nga ni nFM noon – sa ikauunlad ng bayan, DISIPLINA ang kailangan. And this is a UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLE that’s applied all over the world…!!! Only in the Philippines is there no discipline ….

        • yong iba nga dyan, e, ay sadyang binabara yong mga imburnal, throwing things like mga yero, bakal at iba pa. then, they let themselves be hired by local government for clean up operations. pinagkakakita-an yata nila ito as much as 5thousand pesos a day day, and many look forward to rainy season upang kikita na naman sila. sinasabotahe yata nila ang anti-flood efforts ng gobyerno. yong iba naman, ay gumagawa ng tulay-tulayan para maraanan, tapos kumikita rin sila dahil marami ang sobrang grateful at namimigay ng tip.

        • may sabwatan yata, pati yong mga istambay at mga kantoboys na paligoy-ligoy ay naging useful during rainy season. they help stranded motorists push their vehicles out of flooded street, and in doing so, got paid. kumikita rin sila.

        • kaduda-duda rin yong mga na-resettled from the estero. pinauupahan ang bagong tirahan na pinatayo ng gobyerno para sa kanila, tapos bumabalik na naman sa estoro at manirahan duon, upang makadoble na naman ng panibagong tirahan. kumikita yata sila sa mga paupahan nila, at naging landlords pa. dapat higpitan na ng gobyerno and resettlement project, at make sure na walang sabwatan talaga.

        • …yes, to all ‘sambwatans’…even some Brgy officials ‘sells’ or makes money ‘allowing’ more squatters to build along ESTEROS.

          If gov’t will ‘investigate’ this zining schemes, they’ll be surprised it is happening!

          ‘No Forgiveness’ must be applied to these zining schemers of our Brgy officials!

        • @mam cha, tama ka po dapat DISIPLINA ang kailangan. ang ipinagtataka ko lang bakit yung mga squatters sa may riles ng tren sa sta mesa, manila eh napaalis ng pamahalaan (kung sabagay dekada 50 pa lang pinaalis na pero itong 2009 lang naipatupad ang pagpapaalis sa mga taga riles) pero bakit ang mga squatters sa mga estero hindi mapaalis? marahil dahil ang mga naninirahan dun ay mga muslims lalo na sa estero sa may bandang quiapo marami ang muslims dun. bakit kaya? ano ang dahilan at hindi mapaalis ang mga ito? POLITICAL WILL siguro. eh kung gayahin kaya yung ginawang paraan sa mga taga riles para mapaalis ang mga taga estero? o hihintayin pa ulit yung ilang dekada para mapaalis sila? mas madali siguro kung tatabunan na lang ang mga esteros baka yun ang mabuting gawin. HINDI MAPAALIS ANG TAO, ANG ESTERO ANG ALISIN. YUNG MGA KINUKURAKOT NA PERA NG MGA POLITICO IBILI NG GRABA PARA ITABON SA MGA ESTERO.

        • …disiplina…WALA TAYO! Look…how the ‘many’ votes…the unworthy are voted and elected!

          Bakit ganoon? Kasi…IGNORANTE! DISCIPLINE ? …Diyos ko! Kailangan batas na bakal maha-gis!

        • “sa ikauunlad ng bayan, disciplina and kailangan.” FM wanted to discipline the people and applied martial law and applied it with kamay na bakal. yet he never applied the law to himself and to his family, their friends and their cronies. their excesses went on and on and became legendary, hangang sa napuno tayo and the rest is history.

      • ..here’s what I blogged a couple of floods ago –

        “nformal settlers’ relocation threatens politicians, study says

        by Jojo Malig, ABS-CBNNews.com
        Posted at 06/20/2013 6:36 PM | Updated as of 06/20/2013 7:15 PM
        MANILA – Politicians in the Philippines are hesitant about relocating informal settlers living in danger zones because it means they could be voted out of office, a British think-tank said.

        “A decision to relocate communities is almost certain to encounter strong opposition and protests, which can be very ‘expensive’ politically, and end in action being delayed,” said a May 2013 study published by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), a London-based independent think-tank that analyzed how Philippine local governments create disaster-risk management policies.”

        Yeeks!

    • …VP Binay says ‘not easy’… “Vice-President Jejomar Binay, a former Makati City mayor and current chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, said Thursday that relocation of informal settlers living in danger zones is not easy.”

      …but CUT ‘n CUT CLEAN…as used by Sen. Laxalt to FM…

      So, start ‘cutting’ ’cause if not, society is CUT!

      • “http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/focus/06/20/13/informal-settlers-relocation-threatens-politicians-study-says”

        …the link

      • @ Leona,

        Tama naman si vice president binay sa sinabi niya na mahirap nga ang tungkulin nang D.P.W.H. at M.M.D.A. dahil matagal din siya diyan bilang chairman nang M.M.D.A. at wala rin nangyari at nandiyan pa rin ang BAHA,BAHA,BAHA,… bakit kaya?

      • vp binay will not do it, until after the presidential election. afterall Manila theme slogan on poverty decreases if settlers removed. “erap para sa mahirap” or “pare para sa pera” if decided to build community project.

        • that’s right, binay needs the poor people around him. who else will receive his charity cakes on their birthdays and anniversaries, cakes that were free but the amount charged to the city of makati? last I heard those cakes cost the city of makiti 19millions? overpriced yata. kaya tingnan mo sobrang lago ang bakery ni binay, pati na yong florist shop niya lumalago rin, business is booming. free bunches of bouquets and flowers were also given with cakes. binay really had the people fooled. and the people were quite happy to play binay’s fools. di bale na kung binabaha sila, may cakes sila at may flowers pa.

        • @monnie,

          Sa aking mababang kaalaman hindi ba bawal yong lantarang nakikinabang ang pamilya sa mga negusyong dapat ay sa iba nalang ipamahala, parang sarili lang nila nakikinabang at napaKALAKI NANG KITA…MILLION MILLION PARA SA CAKE AT FLOWERS PARANG PROMOYIONALA OFFER NA BUNDAT BUNDAT ANG KITA… HINDI NA BA SILA NAHIHIYA FOR DELIKADISA NALANG KAYA MUKHANG WALA NA SILA HIYA PAGDATING SA PERA. ANO KAYA MASASABI NANG C.B.C.P. DITO….

        • birds of a feather, jorge, birds of a feather yata. curious lang po ako, at nagtatanong – yong hostia, the body of christ given at mass, saan kaya galing yan? who does the baking?

    • Informal settlers? Call them polluters hwag na natin pagandahin ang tawag sa kanila. Squatters will always be squatters. Most of them used plastics to dispose their feces sa esteros – flying fecals/ufo’s there you go…yikes!

      • @ Paul,

        Squatters, Informal Settlers are the same, pinagbigyan na nang Gobyerno namimihasa na at humihingi pa nang kong ano ano para sa kabutihan nila? Bakit hindi nalang sila kasohan at patawan nang parusa kong talagang may kasalanan..Bakit parang tila takot ang Pamahalaan sa kanila gayong para sa KABUTIHAN nang NAKARARAMI ang programa nang Gobyerno…Paki double check nga ninyo at maaaring mga narelocate na karamihan sa kanila at bumalik lang para makalopa at bahay na naman ulit sa madaling paraan…F.O.I. ipasa na at nang makita ang dapat makita at nang wala nang maitatago mga suwapang na NAMUMUNO….

    • VP Binay says “”(The ISFs) would not return if there is no negligence on the part of local officials, especially the barangay captains. That is why when I was still mayor I told my barangay captains they are the ones at fault if problems (involving ISFs) occur,” he said.” Interaktion news.

      Brgy Captains & other Brgy officials In-Charge must be held accountable for squatters returning after relocated, and the ‘I SHALL RETURN’ modes be strictly monitored. When repeated, punishment on these officials be imposed: NO Salary for 2 months; when no action is done, dismissals from posts should be imposed.

      There is no other effective solution to ‘I SHALL RETURNS’ by squatters than firing the officials.

  8. Ang daming DEPEKTO ang mga opisyales natin…

    “MANILA, Philippines – A lawmaker is accusing some Philippine officials abroad of pimping distressed Filipina workers in the Middle East.

    That is aside from a scheme allegedly forcing runaway workers to have sex with officials for a ticket back home.

    House Committee on Overseas Workers Chairman Walden Bello, who carried out an investigation, revealed the allegations against Philippine officials in Jordan on Tuesday.

    Bello said he discovered that some Filipino women who are runaways in Jordan end up as prostitutes.

    The alleged culprits are some Philippine officials in Jordan who are supposedly pimping the women for $1,000 or 300 dirhams per night.

    Bello identified one alleged official running the illegal operation, but ABS-CBN News will not release this official’s name without getting his side.”

    …extra kulikulir functions…BUGAO sideline earnings! The person must be dismissed and charged for the crime also.

    BUGAO!…pimp!

    • matagal nang problema yan dito sa kuwait. kahit dun pa sa lumang embassy, talamak na ang ganyan. come to think of it, sinong “biktima” ang magrereklamo? once you run to the embassy for protection, kadalasan ang damit mo lang ang dala mo. napakahirap mag demand ng plane ticket from the employer, usually kakasuhan ka pa ng kng ano-ano kagaya ng pagnanakaw ng alahas. at most of the time, wala din pera ang embassy (wala nga ba?) pang repatriate sa mga distressed OFWs. talagang kapit sa patalim. sino ba naman ang gusto makipagsiksikan sa isang maliit na building kung saan mga 200 to 300 kayo nakatira?

      it’s a lose-lose situation. the conditions are horrendous sa mga centers na to, so i’m not surprised na mas “pinili” nalang ng iba na “ibugaw” sila just to escape the hellhole from embassy at finally makauwi to close the most bitter part of their lives.

      • tapos, they bring home AIDS, naging HIV positive ang iba sa kanila at nahawaan ang pamilya.

        • dapat magnegosyo nalang sila rito sa atin, at hwag na lang mag-abroad. kahit konting sari-sari store pwedeng pagkakakitaan din yan. kawawa naman si ineng, walang sahod pa, at halos walang kita sa abroad, tapos, nabuntisan pa.

      • Tama ka praetorius, Lahat nang mga pumunta sa abroad na mga O.F.W.para magtrabaho ay mayroong return ticket bakit kasi hindi nalang magpasa nang batas na ang mga open ticket o kaya mga return ticket ay hindi ma forfiet or ma expired in favor of the airline companies? o kaya pamahalaan na mismo ang humawak nang mga return ticket nang ating mga O.F.W. para wala nang ganitong problema sa hinaharap…Lahat nang return ticket ay dapat sagot na lang nang pamahalaan para wala nang maraming problema…

        Kong ang mga masasamang loob sa lipunan na nasa piitan ay dinadamitan, pinapakain, at binibigyan nang kanilang mga pangangailangan bakit hindi masagot nang pamahalaan ang mga pangangailangan nang mga O.F.W. na kong tawagin natin ay mga “MODERN DAY HEROES” BAKIT SILA PINABABAYAAN AT GINAGAMIT NANG MGA WALANGHINYANG OPISYALES AT NAKIKINABANG SA HINDI MAGANDANG PARAAN?

        PARANG LALONG KAWAWA MGA O.F.W. NATIN NA PATULOY NA PINABABAYAAN AT GINAGAMIT? SILA AY MGA MABUTING MAMAMAYAN NA DAPAT SANA PANSININ AT IBIGAY ANG KANILANG HINIHINGING KARAPATAN….

      • Dapat ibigay nalang nang libre nang pamahalaan ang ticket para wala nang problema mga nagkaproblemang mga O.F.W. natin sa ibang bansa, kong ang mga nakapatay na O.F.W. noon ay gumastos ang pamahalaan nang million sa pamilya nang pinatay na arabo para hindi mabitay ang nasabing O.F.W. (ex. angelo de la cruz ba yon) …Saka dapat ang rountrip ticket nang bawat O.F.W. ay hindi mapapaso…

        Sana gumawa nang batas na hindi mapapaso ang return ticket nang bawat pasahero dahil airline companies lang ang nakikinabang….

  9. Who is to BLAME for the FLOODS? …blog this topic couple of floods ago!

    SINO? Lahat…more on public officials…Barangay opisyales on front line FIRST – Tulog sila!

    Sunod…in cahoots with local officials for squatters along rivers, creeks, etc. for their VOTES…so, DON’T TOUCH ‘EM muna!

    SINO?…national officials…no POLITICAL WILL…issue regulations..Arrest, charge and CONVICT garbage, etc. THROWERS.

    sino?…DILG must enforce the laws and ORDINANCES on garbage littering on rivers, creeks, etc. There’s NONE! Tulog din sila!

    All of the above are the ANSWERS to the question on this.

    “It’s that time of year again of massive flooding and traffic jams, and in the midst of it all President Aquino called an emergency meeting on Tuesday to assess yet again Metro Manila’s preparedness to deal with the monumental mess during a heavy rain.

    Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/429035/whos-to-blame-for-the-floods-aquino-calls-meetings#ixzz2WchA27uJ
    Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook”

  11. Maiba ako, Sana yong mga pulis na nahuling nangungutong/hulidap ay ipinakita ang mukha nila para pandirihan at magsilbing aral sa lahat nang mga hulidap/nangungutong sa gobyerno? saka dapat isailalim sila sa drug test kasi gawain ito nang mga drug addict…para madali silang makasuhan nang narararapat sa kanila…sana patuloy itong imonitor para malaman nang lahat kong ano na nangyari sa kaso nila dahil napakaliwanag nang kanilang kasalanan….

    • …just don’t give ’em TOWELS as these scams COVERS their faces…or

      …towels must be removed as covers on their faces!

      PNP SOP: handcuffs must be on hands behinds their backs!

      @jorge bernas…anon’g ‘say’ mo?

      • @ Leona,

        Tama ka Leona, Saka dapat nilang ipakilala nang husto kong saan nakatira at kong bakit nagkaganito ito at kong sino nasa likod nang mga mangongotong/holidap polis na ito dahil sigurado marami nasa likuran nila… katulad noong computer programmer na napanood ko sa programa nina tulpo brothersT-5 kagabi at dapat na nilang aksiyonan ito dahil napakawalanghiya namang mga pulis dahil humingi nang tulong sa pulis tapos siya pa hinuli at nakutungan, napakaliwanag na wala nang takot ang mga pulis na ito at dinala pa sa station para doon mangutong…Sana hindi na sila lubayan ni heneral Espina, Tanggalan mo na nang baril sir at imonitor mabuti dahil sobra pa sa pangungutong gagawin nang mga abusadong mga Pulis na ito…Maaring sa susunod holduper at banko na titirahin nila…

    • thanks vibora for the link/ read lots of the comments
      pros and cons.

      the children regardless of being Filipino, Indian, American, Canadian, African,
      Venezuelans, and a hundred more all over the world should not be treated
      as lower than animals, even in jokes. the question is ARE THERE NO LEGAL
      REMEDIES? what’s the UN’s UNICEF take on this?

      Can’t the Filipinos file a class suit against the BBC and KATHERYN RYAN for
      damages, so that such jokes against children of any country will be avoided in
      the future.

  13. On the current style of media reporting:
    To our media men – print and broadcast: What’s with the foot? Whenever news of a dead person is reported-particularly those shot, hacked, run over or salvaged, his foot is almost always the focus of cameramen. Are students of mass communications in ALL universities taught this peculiar fetish? And why do you show a footage of purportedly gory accident or killing when the footage is all pixelized or blurred? Why show it at all when nothing is seen? Just so you can prove you were there and have an exclusive on the incident? And what is it with the word “EXCLUSIVE”? Every news organization seem to be using it in every news report. Something is afoot and only these media men know about it.

  14. unrelated comment but highly disturbing
    ——————————————————-

    ATTN: To the good INUTIL… whatevs office of Emilio Abaya (DOTC, ATO, CAAP)

    Kelan kayo aaksyon?!? naka-dalawang strike na ang Cebu Pacific…

    dapat, immediate grounding ng lahat na CEBPAC flights until further investigation gudlak na lang sa mga suki ng piso fare… aantayin nyo pa ba ang AIR CRASH INVESTIGATION: CEBPAC EDITION strike three???

    nakakaloka kyo!!!… bweset!!!

    forget FAA category 1, EVER!!!,

    nagmamahal,

    F.A.A.

  15. unrelated comment but highly disturbing
    ——————————————————-

    ATTN: To the good INUTIL… whatevs office of Emilio Abaya (DOTC, ATO, CAAP)

    Kelan kayo aaksyon?!? naka-dalawang strike na ang Cebu Pacific…

    dapat, immediate grounding ng lahat na CEBPAC flights until further notice… aantayin nyo pa ba ang AIR CRASH INVESTIGATION: CEBPAC EDITION strike three???

    nakakaloka kyo!!!… bweset!!!

    (forget FAA category 1, EVER!!!),

    nagmamahal,

    F.A.A.