#benigno aquino iii

[freezeboy13]

was reading the wikipedia article for gundam seed destiny and

what the fuck

the man had taste but what the fuck

[rhk111sblog]

Just Days after the United States (US) announced that they will be getting even more Military Bases in the Philippines under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), China is squeezing the Philippines’ Men’s Basketball Team in the upcoming Asian Games that will be held in China

[whatisonthemoon]

What the Class Politics of World War II Mean for Tensions in Asia Today (2015)

▲ Benigno Aquino Sr. — the grandfather of Philippine President Benigno Aquino III and a collaborator with the Japanese occupation — is taken into custody by U.S. troops in Osaka.

Walden Bello Foreign Policy in Focus (September 21, 2015)

In the Philippines, the grandson of a despised collaborator has endorsed the remilitarization of his country's former occupiers — by the grandson of a war criminal, no less.

This commentary is a joint publication of Foreign Policy In Focus and TheNation.com.

This September marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Yet even seven full decades since Japan’s formal surrender on September 2, 1945, fallout over the bitter conflict continues to shape politics the countries that fell under Japanese imperial rule.

The war left its mark not only on the relations between Japan and its neighbors, but also on class politics within these countries. How each country handled its collaborator classes, in turn, has had a considerable impact on how they’ve responded to the current Japanese government’s push to revise the country’s “peace constitution” into irrelevance.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the Philippines, where postwar U.S. authorities helped rehabilitate erstwhile collaborators with the Japanese occupation in the name of fighting communism. Generations later, it’s led to the grandson of a despised Philippine collaborator endorsing the re-militarization of his country’s former occupiers — by the grandson of a war criminal, no less.

History certainly works in mysterious ways.

Horrors of the Occupation

One month before this year’s anniversary, one of my favorite cousins passed away at 100 years of age. During the war, her husband left their house in Manila to serve as a medical doctor in the Filipino-American army, which retreated to the Bataan Peninsula as invading Japanese forces advanced. She never heard from him again.

It was only three years later, after Manila was liberated by General Douglas MacArthur’s troops and Filipino guerrillas, that she learned her husband had been summarily executed, along with three other doctors, while trying to escape from a prisoner-of-war camp. Many of his comrades suffered the same fate upon their surrender to the Japanese. During the weeklong Bataan Death March alone, the Japanese killed 18,000 of their 72,000 Filipino and American prisoners — a mortality rate of 25 percent in just seven days.

My cousin was left with three young children to raise alone, a situation shared by many women during the Japanese occupation.

The Japanese military regime in the Philippines was unrelentingly brutal. Innocent people suspected of aiding the guerrillas were routinely tortured and executed. My uncle was bayoneted and left for dead when he refused a Japanese officer’s order to take down the American flag at his school. My father was beaten with a baseball bat in Fort Santiago, the Spanish-era fortress in Manila that the Japanese converted into a prison and torture center. He was lucky to survive.

Young women and girls, some as young as 11 or 12, were rounded up to serve as sex slaves for Japanese troops. Nobody knows for certain how many Filipinas were forced into sexual slavery, but historians estimate that up to 200,000 women from the Philippines, Korea, China, and other countries occupied by the Japanese suffered this fate. Some 400 of these “comfort women” have surfaced in the Philippines since the 1990s, but this figure is probably only a fraction of those who were actually forced into sexual service. Many others preferred to keep silent.

Overshadowing even the Bataan Death March as a war crime was the indiscriminate killing spree that Japanese naval infantrymen unleashed in Manila as the war drew to a close. Filipino author Joan Orendain has rightfully asserted that the “Rape of Manila” rivaled the better known Rape of Nanking in its brutality, with “100,000 burned, bayoneted, bombed, shelled, and shrapneled dead in the span of 28 days.” Unborn babies “ripped from their mothers’ womb provided sport: thrown up in the air and caught, impaled on bayonet tips.” Rape was rampant, and “after the dirty deed was done, nipples were sliced off, and bodies bayoneted open from the neck down.”

Abe’s “Apology”

With this record of atrocities, one would have expected that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s recent remarks on the war — in which he admitted that Japan had caused “immeasurable damage and suffering” but asserted that “generations to come” must not be “predestined to apologize” — would elicit the same negative reaction in the Philippines that it did in China and Korea.

Abe, the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement, should have “made a sincere apology to the people of victim countries, and made a clean break with the past of militarist aggression, rather than being evasive on this major issue of principle.” South Korea’s ruling party, for its part, criticized the Abe statement “because it did not directly mention remorse and apology for Japan’s past history of aggression, but only expressed them in a roundabout way in the past tense.”

In both China and South Korea, resentment and suspicion of Japan continue to boil just beneath the surface.

On the contrary, remarks by top Philippine officials were positive. “Japan has acted with compassion and in accordance with international law,” said a presidential spokesperson, “and has more actively and positively engaged with the region and the world after the war.”

Contrasting Trajectories

The different responses stem from the unique political and economic trajectories of the three countries. Three considerations are important:

First, for China and Korea, the anti-Japanese struggle was a central element in the forging of their nationalist identities, or what Benedict Anderson famously termed their “imagined community.”

The Chinese Communist Party has projected itself as the central figure in the victorious “patriotic war” against Japan (though many historians are of the opinion that it was the Communists’ rivals — the Nationalists — that did most of the fighting and dying). Both Korean states see themselves as emerging from the anti-colonial struggle against Japan, which annexed and colonized the peninsula from 1910 to 1945.

For the Philippines, in contrast, the official narrative puts the elite-led revolution against Spain in the late 19th century as its nationalist centerpiece — with the subsequent American annexation of the country painted in largely positive terms and the Second World War depicted as a violent but brief episode on the way to independence.

Second, the three countries have contrasting economic relationships with contemporary Japan. For China and Korea, Japan isn’t just a former military overlord but a contemporary economic rival. Trade and investment relations with the Japanese are seen as a necessary evil to acquire the needed resources and technology to beat them.

In the case of the Philippines, Japan was never seen as an economic competitor but a source of development aid, investment, and jobs. Japan’s image as a wartime enemy was transformed beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Japanese corporate investments starting producing local jobs in appreciable numbers. Meanwhile, Philippine migrant workers in Japan’s entertainment and sex industries sent back remittances to their families that enabled not only their survival but their social mobility.

Elite Collaboration, Popular Resistance

But perhaps the main factor explaining the different attitudes toward Japan is the class factor.

In Korea, the politics of remembrance was boosted by the destruction of the pre-war landed elite that collaborated with the Japanese — the Korean civil war of 1950-53 and the subsequent land reform all but wiped these elites away. In the Philippines, in contrast, the politics of forgetting was facilitated by a post-war whitewashing of the elite’s role during the occupation.

Once the pillars of U.S. colonial rule, after the Japanese invasion most Philippine elites swiftly switched sides and collaborated with the Japanese. A complex kind of class war ensued, in which the national and local elites worked closely with the Japanese while the masses for the most part hated the invaders and waited for the Americans to return, as promised by MacArthur.

Scores of guerrilla groups formed, the best known and most effective being the communist-led Hukbalahap, which chased away the hated landlords in Central Luzon even as it fought the Japanese. But aside from the “Huks,” there were other, less ideological outfits that were headed by lower-class or middle-class figures — like the charismatic Marcos Villa Agustin, or “Marking,” a former bus driver whose units operated from the Sierra Madre mountain range in Luzon to terrorize not only Japanese soldiers but also local elites.

The end of the war saw impassioned calls from the resistance to try the elite collaborators as traitors. Among the most hated servitors of Japan was Manuel Roxas, the director of the Rice Procurement Agency, who’s described in an authoritative study as having “organized the extraction of rice from peasant farmers to supply the Japanese military” and “was thus the collaborator most clearly identified in the minds of peasants with the betrayal and abuses suffered during the occupation.”

However, the returning General MacArthur intervened to save his pre-war friend Roxas from hanging, an act that anticipated Washington’s rehabilitation of the reviled elite in order to contain the communist-led guerrilla forces.

Laundered and provided international respectability by Washington, Roxas bribed, intimidated, and terrorized his way to victory during the presidential elections of 1946. Shortly before his unexpected death in 1948, Roxas issued the infamous Proclamation No. 51, which granted amnesty to accused collaborators. Reflecting the acute class enmities triggered by the experience of the occupation, one of the reasons cited for the decree was the fact that “the question of collaboration has divided the people of the Philippines since liberation in a manner which threatens the unity of the nation at a time when the public welfare requires that said unity be safeguarded and preserved.”

The first decades of the post-war era were thus marked by a contradiction in the popular mind between the memory of legendary resistance to the Japanese and the reality of continuing domination of national politics by a largely collaborationist elite — one that had been whitewashed by Washington in the name of the anti-communist struggle with the dawning of the Cold War.

So unlike the Chinese and South Korean governments, the Filipino political elite soft-pedaled war damage claims against Japan; extended a warm welcome in the 1950s to Japanese Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, a class A war criminal and the grandfather of Shinzo Abe; and did little to help Filipino comfort women in their struggles for an apology and restitution from Tokyo.

Japan Re-Arms

This history informs the Philippine response to Abe’s drive to subvert Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution — the so-called “Peace Clause” that prohibits Japan from engaging in offensive warfare — in order to promote his strategy of “Collective Defense,” which would deploy Japanese troops in offensive operations outside Japan.

China and South Korea have sternly condemned Collective Defense, seeing it as part and parcel of a comprehensive right-wing program to deny Japanese war crimes, refuse restitution to Japan’s sex slaves, bring back old-style Japanese nationalism, and erode the Japanese people’s still dominant pacifism. Philippine President Benigno Aquino III’s reaction, on the other hand, could hardly be more different.

While acknowledging that “there’s been some debate on the Japanese government’s plan to revisit certain interpretations of its constitution,” Aquino asserted during his state visit to Japan in late June 2014 that “nations of good will can only benefit if the Japanese government is empowered to assist others, and is allowed to come to the aid of those in need, especially in the area of collective self-defense.” He added that he did “not view with alarm any proposal to revisit the Japanese constitution.”

This was, at the very least, inappropriate meddling in Japanese domestic politics, one that some analysts say was calculated to influence Japanese public opinion at a time when the majority of Japanese had come out against the country’s remilitarization. A poll released at around the time of the Aquino visit found 56 percent against collective self-defense and only 28 percent in favor. Yet on July 1, 2014, fortified by support from the visiting Aquino, Abe gutted Article 9, resorting to a cabinet decision to skirt parliamentary approval and the requirement for a referendum.

The drastic endorsement of a move opposed by the majority of Japanese as well as Japan’s neighbors is difficult to explain as stemming solely from the Philippine government’s desire to gain an ally in its territorial disputes with China in the West Philippine Sea. Other countries in East and Southeast Asia, even those directly threatened by China’s moves, have been careful not to endorse Tokyo’s new doctrine of power projection beyond Japan — Vietnam being a prime example. Most are worried that the Abe doctrine is intended not so much to assist allies against China’s moves but to support the Japanese leader’s strategic aim of developing a nuclear weapons capability, exercising a more aggressive posture, and rewriting history.

Grandfathers and Grandsons

One element that hasn’t been adequately examined, but which is likely to have played a role in Aquino’s endorsement, is his class memory.

Aquino comes from a class whose experience of the Second World War was very different from that of ordinary Filipinos. Aquino is better known as the son of two icons in the struggle against the Marcos dictatorship, Cory and Ninoy Aquino. But he’s also the grandson of Benigno Simeon Aquino, Sr. — who is chiefly remembered as the Japanese-designated speaker of the National Assembly during the puppet regime, and earlier as the director general of the country’s only political party during the occupation.

Possibly the only reason Aquino Sr. escaped death at the hands of Philippine partisans was that he spent the closing months of the war in Japan. Brought back to the Philippines one year after the cessation of hostilities, he was arraigned on charges of treason at the People’s Court before being released on bail. However, he died before he could take advantage of his friend Manuel Roxas’ general amnesty for local quislings like him.

Did psycho-biographical factors play a role in Aquino’s unquestioning endorsement of Abe’s moves? It’s inconceivable that one whose parents or grandparents suffered under the Japanese occupation would have provided such enthusiastic support for Abe’s quest to project Japanese military power. True, Filipinos have generally become more positive towards Japan, but few would cross the line that Aquino did.

So one is left with the question: Was it more than coincidence that a dangerous new course for the region would be launched by the joining of hands of Aquino, the grandson of a despised collaborator, and Abe, the grandson of a war criminal?

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Walden Bello

FPIF columnist Walden Bello is a former representative in the House of Representatives of the Philippines. An earlier version of this column appeared at Telesur English.

[popcornbutterfly]

[mariacallous]

For a decade, the husband of Michelle Bulang, a 44-year-old mother of four, made her life hell. He drank and gambled, failing to provide for her or their four children, even as he forbade her to work. He was also regularly abusive “physically, emotionally, verbally, and sexually,” Bulang said, choking back tears. Once, he poured boiling water all over her—her back and legs still bear the scars.

Bulang has since escaped the relationship and not seen her abuser in years, but on paper she is still married to him. The overwhelming power of the Catholic Church in the Philippines means divorce is not legal. That might be about to change. A divorce bill has passed the House of Representatives and faces the Senate, as the power of the church wanes.

“There are two policies which are seen as a litmus test of Catholic influence. The first is abortion, which is forbidden in the Constitution. And the second is divorce,” said Manolo Quezon III, a former speechwriter for Philippine President Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. There are only two countries in the world where divorce is still not legal—the Vatican City and the Philippines. Other heavily Catholic nations legalized the practice long ago, such as Ireland in 1995 and Spain in 1981. But the lingering influence of the church in a country where nearly 80 percent of the population is Catholic is proverbial.

Yet, from 1917 to 1949, divorce was legal in the Philippines. The right was only abolished in 1949 as U.S. control ended and the anti-clerical legacies of the Philippine Revolution faded. Under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos Sr., the church became a locus for democratic opposition—even as the president was rumored to keep a divorce bill in his desk to brandish at bishops during meetings when he wanted to keep them in line.

The 1986 People Power Revolution that saw the end of Marcos also saw the peak of church authority. The revered Cardinal Jaime Sin, archbishop of Manila, called people to the streets to protest a rigged election. The Philippines faced a potential Tiananmen moment as tanks rolled. But they stopped as nuns praying the rosary knelt in front of the troops and crowds linked their arms behind them. Marcos fell and fled into exile. The new President Corazon “Cory” Aquino, known for her devotion, inaugurated a new constitution that enshrined democracy, banned abortion, and committed to preserving the family.

Those days are fading. “There is a realization that the Philippines is a secular state, and it should not be subscribing to church principles or doctrines, which we respect but not must not control the policymaking processes,” said Rep. Edcel Lagman, who has helped spearhead the divorce bill. On May 22, the bill narrowly passed the House of Representatives with 131 votes in favor, 109 against, and 20 abstaining.

Under the current system, Muslims, who make up about 5 percent of the country’s population, are allowed to divorce. For Christians, their options are to either having their marriage annulled through a civil court, modeled on the Catholic process—reasons including bigamy, psychological incapacity at time of marriage, or use of fraud or threats—or filing for separation—reasons including physical abuse, adultery, abandonment, homosexuality, and drug addiction and alcoholism. The new bill would allow people who currently seek separation for these reasons to now simply seek divorce.

The inadequacies of this system are well understood. It is both extremely expensive and very slow-moving, leaving victims, usually women, trapped in marriages to monsters. Stella Sibonga, a 47-year-old mother of three, has had nothing to do with her husband for decades. Dug out of hiding and marched to the altar after he got an 18-year-old Sibonga pregnant, he took his vows drunk and proceeded to abuse Sibonga and the children she bore. Out of despair, she twice attempted suicide. Later, he tried to kill her and her children with a machete.

In 2005, at age 27, Sibonga left him, and in 2012 she initiated legal proceedings to have her marriage declared null on the grounds of her husband’s “psychological incapacity.” In 2017, a judge ruled in her favor, but the Office of the Solicitor General, charged by the government with upholding marriage, appealed and won in 2019. The case is still ongoing. Sibonga estimates that it has cost her around 300,000 pesos—over $5,000—to pursue the case. This more than most Filipinos will earn in a year. Her experience of the court system is not unusual.

Those who would reform this system smell victory but are treading carefully, keen to reassure the potentially uncertain. “We sympathize with the concern of some of the conservatives as some states have given divorce a bad name. So they don’t want us to have a Las Vegas type of divorce,” said Paul Roxas, an activist with the Divorce Pilipinas Coalition. A recent poll showed that that exactly 50 percent of Filipinos supported divorce among irreconcilably separated couples, with 31 percent opposed and 17 percent undecided.

Navigating the Senate will be tricky. A divorce bill previously passed the House in 2018 but languished in the Senate. So far, at least seven of the Philippines’s 24 senators have are thought to be in favor of the bill. But four have voiced opposition to the bill, and another 8 have previously made statements against divorce. Still, Roxas is optimistic: “A significant proportion of the senators are sort of fence-sitting.” The Divorce Pilipinas Coalition is lobbying hard those they feel are persuadable and has staked out fall back concessions like only allowing people to divorce once in their lifetimes.

Should the bill pass, it will be the fourth big defeat the Catholic Church has faced in 12 years. In 2012, the Philippine government legalized contraception in the face of furious opposition from the church. In 2016, the presidency was won by Rodrigo Duterte, a man who cursed the pope during his campaign. Church condemnations of the man and the extrajudicial killings that took place in his “war on drugs” failed to dent his enormous popular support. And in 2022, the church all but openly opposed the candidacy of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., son of the former dictator. Nonetheless, backed by Duterte, he romped home to victory.

With each defeat, wariness of church power seems to have faded. “In the Philippines, there is no Catholic vote—in other words, we should not be afraid of any reprisal from the Church during the elections,” Lagman said. Indeed, he claims that private polling shows that congresspeople who endorse the divorce bill actually stand to receive a bump in support.

Father Jerome Secilliano, rector of the EDSA Shrine built to commemorate the People Power protests, says things very different from 1986. “People were already exasperated with the government” when cardinal sin made the call, he says. Now, according to Seciliano, people are “exasperated” with a church they don’t feel is doing enough for them. “Let’s admit it we don’t have the resources to provide for the people,” he said. “We are a poor country, there are so many poor people, and poor people expect too much from you.” Instead, they turn to politicians who can offer patronage, cash, and practical solutions. “And people have more practical needs than the Mass.”

Cultural change is also part of the story. Gone are the days of Seciliano’s boyhood when he would press his forehead to the hand of elders and all heard the Angelus toll at 6 o’clock every evening. “When we talk about LGBT in the 1980s, perhaps people will still believe us. But now it’s 2024—because of the many different opinions offered, it’s now very politically incorrect to even call him homo or gay.” Indeed, the Philippines is already strikingly accepting of homosexuality for a Catholic country, and polling shows that young Filipinos are among the most likely to support the divorce bill.

Not all the cultural change is necessarily inimical to the church. Pentecostal and born-again Christians are making big inroads among the Philippines. Theological differences between Catholics and these groups that once caused bloody wars now fade as these churches make common cause on promoting socially conservative Christian values. One prominent opponent of the divorce bill, Sen. Emmanuel Villanueva, is the son of Eddie Villanueva, a former politician who founded The Jesus Is Lord evangelical megachurch.

Still, it’s not always so simple as that says Joseph Bonifacio, a former pastor with Victory Church, another evangelical megachurch. These non-Catholic churches are less monolithic in their attitudes. “This allows for other voices, including more liberal ones.” A recent statement by the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches expressed opposition to the divorce bill, stating a preference instead for expanding grounds for annulment to dissolve the marriage. Given that the grounds for annulment are, with some caveats, close the grounds on which the current bill would grant divorce, the differences seem largely cosmetic.

The Catholic Church is trying to regroup. “The church needs to become a church of the poor,” Father Tito Caluag said. As the man who gives the evening Mass on ABS-CBN, the Philippines’s largest media conglomerate, he is perhaps the closest the Catholic Church has to a celebrity priest. Caluag is trying to take on this task himself reorganizing the church’s charitable efforts talking about professionalization, data analysis, and new fundraising that reduces reliance on single ultrawealthy donors. Notably past polls suggest the working poor are among those most likely to support divorce. Yet it is hard not to notice that the interview is taking place in the Village, one of Manila’s ultraexclusive gated neighborhoods. Caluag explains it was donated by a pious socialite, now deceased, and wryly accepts the irony.

Other tensions will be hard to solve, too. The church must also be a listening church, Caluag says, invoking the words of Pope Francis. “And we must genuinely listen. Because I’ve heard young people say we’ve talked our so-and-so, and he listened, but at the end of it all, he said was the same thing like nothing had happened.”

But he remains opposed to divorce—as doctrine requires all Catholic priests must be. For stories like Sibonga’s and Bulang’s, however, the church seems to have few answers.

[pannaginip]

Philippine Star (Opinion): 'Not war with China; don’t rely only on US’ – Marcos Jr.

Reacting to recent reports on China’s pugnacious maneuvers and verbal statements, Marcos Jr. said, “We must do a more robust defense of our territorial rights as recognized by the international community and international law.”

But he quickly added that war with China is “precisely what we want to avoid.”

Regarding the United States’ repeated assurance of defense support, Marcos Jr. claimed that the US was” very supportive” of the Philippines and was “very seriously” taking the Mutual Defense Treaty.

Note that the treaty has never been invoked in any instance, or threat, of armed conflict by either party since its signing in 1951. Essentially it provides that in the event of an armed attack against one of the parties, the other party is obligated to come to its defense.

Marcos Jr. said that he was doing everything to avoid invoking the MDT over the increasing number of incidents involving dangerous maneuvers by Chinese Coast Guard and militia vessels within Philippine waters. They have been harassing small boats delivering food supplies and other necessities to Philippine Marines manning an old naval ship, purposely grounded in the Ayungin Shoal to serve as maritime post in our territory.

Most significant to note was that he seemed wary about relying exclusively on America’s support.

Marcos Jr. also responded to warnings by critics of dangerous implications of his having added, in April 2023, four more of the country’s military bases as sites for the US to install military “facilities” and stockpile war materiel exclusively for their use, as allowed by the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement or EDCA.

He assured the public that these bases, along with the first five bases strategically located across the country previously approved by his predecessor, would not be used to launch offensive actions against China.

The EDCA is not a treaty. It is an executive agreement, initiated by the US, between the Philippine and US governments, signed in 2014 under the Benigno Aquino III administration. The US military facilities installed within the selected Philippine bases are absolutely controlled by the American military and are off-limits to Filipinos, military or civilian. (Top Philippine defense and military leaders, however, may be allowed inside.)

Because the EDCA sites are practically US military bases within Philippine bases, they could indeed be targets of attacks by enemies of the US – especially now that missile warfare is increasingly being utilized by belligerent parties.

2024 Mar. 23

[upismediacenter]

OPINION: SoberANYARE?: Ang Patuloy na Alitan sa West Philippine Sea

Photo credit: Sulat Nadera at Anna Dalet

Hindi na bagong isyu ang kaguluhan sa pagitan ng Pilipinas at Tsina hinggil sa West Philippine Sea (WPS). Maraming taon na ang nakalipas ngunit nabubuhay pa rin ang banta sa kabuhayan at kaligtasan ng ating mga lokal na mangingisda. Kaya kasabay ng mga bagong insidente ng karahasan nitong nakaraang buwan, bakit hindi kinikilala at pinapakinggan ang hinaing ng mga Pilipino? At bakit hindi magawa-gawang ipaglaban ng gobyerno ang ating soberanya?

Kamakailan lang nitong Pebrero 6, ibinalita ang pagtutok ng isang China Coast Guard (CCG) na barko ng military-grade laser sa Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) vessel sa Ayungin Shoal. Kasabay nito ay pinalayas ng iba pang Tsinong barko ang mga mangingisdang Pilipino sa bahagi ng karagatan kung saan sila kadalasang nangingisda. Kinumpirma ang pangyayari sa isang seminar na pinangunahan ng People’s Development Institute kung saan ibinahagi ng grupo ng mangingisda ang kanilang mga saloobin sa naganap na pagpapaalis. Bago ang nasabing insidente, ilang pag-uusap pa ang naganap upang talakayin ang isyu ng hidwaan sa WPS sa pamamagitan ng bilateral talks nang maiwasan ang paggamit ng pwersa’t pagbabanta. Gayunpaman, pagkatapos lamang ng isang buwan, muling nasaksihan ang pangha-harass ng mga naglalakihang barko ng Tsina sa mga mangingisdang Pilipino. Ilang insidente na rin ng pangha-harass ang ginawa noon gaya ng paggamit ng water cannon noong 2014, pagkumpiska sa mga huling isda noong 2018, at pagtaboy sa isang team ng ABS-CBN news noong 2021. Sa napakatagal na panahong nabubuhay ang isyu, bakit imbes na maayos ay tila lumalala lamang ang kalagayan nito?

Sa madaling salita, ito ay dahil sa kawalan ng aksyon at tugon ng pamahalaan sa isyu. Kung susuriin ang nagdaang administrasyong Duterte, minsan na nating narinig ang mga argumentong “wala tayong laban” at “ayaw natin makipag-away sa Tsina dahil sa dulo, tayo rin ang talo” pero hindi ito sapat na mga rason sapagkat makatuwiran ang paglaban sa kanilang pang-aapi. Ayon kay dating Associate Justice Antonio Carpio sa isang ANC interview, ang paggamit ng laser at iba pang armas ng Tsina ay lumalabag sa dati pang nakatakdang batas ng UN Charter na nagbabawal sa paggamit ng pwersa upang mamahala sa maritime issues. Iyon pa lamang ay sapat na rason upang ipaglaban ang karapatan ng bansa sa WPS pero sa matagal na panahong namamahala ang administrasyong Duterte ay mas pinili nilang manahimik at maging pasibo.

Kung babalikan, dalawang taon matapos maupo sa pwesto ay pinirmahan ni dating pangulo Benigno Aquino III ang Administrative Order No. 29 kung saan nakasaad dito na ang kanlurang bahagi at ang nakapaloob sa EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) ng Pilipinas ay papangalanang West Philippine Sea kasama na dito ang karagatan na nakapalibot sa Kalayaan Group of Island at Bajo de Masinloc o Scarborough Shoal. Ginamit ang pagpapalit ng pangalan ng WPS upang mas lalong maigiit ang ating soberanya at masanay ang mga tao na gamitin ang terminong ito. Subalit, ayon sa isang Filipino Political Scientist na si Rommel Banlaoi, mananatiling mahina at hindi kikilalanin ng ibang bansa ang terminong West Philippine Sea hangga’t walang napapasa na Maritime Law ang Pilipinas. Kaya matapos pirmahan ang Administrative Order ay ilang insidente pa rin ng pang-aapi ang lumipas hanggang sa sumunod na taon ay nagsampa na ng arbitral case ang Pilipinas laban sa Tsina.

Ilang taon din ang itinagal ng mga hearings at trials upang maipresenta ang mga argumento ng dalawang bansa, ngunit kailanman ay hindi dumalo sa mga ito ang Tsina. Iginigiit nilang sakop ng South China Sea ang West Philippine Sea dahil sa itinutulak nilang “nine-dash-line” na ayon sa Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) ay walang legal na basehan. Nilalabag din nito ang kasunduan sa ilalim ng United Nations Convention of the Laws of the Sea (UNCLOS) na ang 200 nautical miles na karagatan mula sa dalampasigan ng isang bansa ang bumubuo sa EEZ nito. Noong 2016, pinarangalan ng International Arbitral Tribunal ang Pilipinas sa arbitration case laban sa Tsina kung saan nangingibabaw ang desisyon ng kaso pabor sa ating bansa.

Kitang-kita na maraming ipinatupad na kasunduan upang suportahan ang karapatan ng Pilipinas sa WPS, pero bakit nahihirapan pa rin ang mga mangingisdang Pilipino na ipagpatuloy ang kanilang kabuhayan? Isang dahilan na madalas gamitin ay ang posibilidad na magsimula ng giyera kung lalaban pabalik ang Pilipinas, ngunit mas makakabuti ba na hayaan na lamang ang Tsina na patuloy na gambalahin ang mga Pilipino kahit na tayo ang nasa tama? Mas makakaiwas ba ang Pilipinas sa giyera kung simula’t sapul ay dahas na ang ipinapakita sa atin ng kabilang panig? Binigyang-diin ni Carpio na kung susundin ng kasalukuyan at susunod pang mga administrasyon ang pamamaraan ng nagdaang administrasyon, mas lalo lang mahihikayat ang Tsina na ipagpatuloy ang pangha-harass dahil nakikita nilang hindi naman aaksyon ang gobyerno upang depensahan ang kanilang mga kababayan.

Isa lamang ang alitan sa West Philippine Sea sa mga malalaking isyu na dapat ay binibigyang pansin at prayoridad ng administrasyon, ngunit ipinipikit nila ang kanilang mga mata sa hinaing ng mga mangingisdang Pilipino. Kung ang mismong mga eksperto ng international law na ang naglalahad na maaari nating ipaglaban ang ating karapatan at soberanya, mas lalo na dapat ang sarili nating gobyerno. Kinakailangan nilang ipaalala sa Tsina na ang mga kasunduang naitatag ay may saysay at nasaksihan ito ng buong mundo. Makatarungan lang na tumindig sila laban sa pang-aapi na natatanggap ng mga Pilipino dahil kung patuloy na hahayaan ng gobyerno ang panggigipit at karahasan na ginagawa ng Tsina, lalong malalagay sa peligro ang mga karapatan at kabuhayan ng bawat mamamayan. //nina Jessiemae Cadiz, Kiel Beldia, at Kairyn Cruz

Mga Sanggunian:

Administrative Order No. 29, s. 2012 | GOVPH. (2012, September 5). Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines. https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/2012/09/05/administrative-order-no-29-s-2012/

Bolledo, J. (2021, August 13). At least 3 Chinese vessels spotted in West Ph sea in August – US expert. Rappler. https://www.rappler.com/nation/chinese-vessels-spotted-west-philippine-sea-august-2021/

DS Law. (n.d.). Philippines vs. China: What you need to know about the territory dispute. https://www.duranschulze.com/philippines-vs-china-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-territory-dispute/#:~:text=The%20conflict%20between%20China%20and,have%20claimed%20as%20their%20own

Fernandez, D. (2023, February 14). Ph protests Chinese Coast Guard's harassment using laser. Inquirer.net. https://globalnation.inquirer.net/210958/ph-protests-chinese-coast-guards-harassment-using-laser

Jackson, A., & France-Presse, A. (2022, October 5). In photos: Filipinos fishing on the frontline of the west philippine sea. GMA News Online. Retrieved March 2, 2023, from https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/nation/847077/filipinos-fishing-on-the-frontline-of-the-west-philippine-sea/story/

Lee-Brago, P. (2022, September 5). 'Philippines should proceed with West Philippine Sea exploration without China'. Philstar.com. https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2022/09/05/2207482/philippines-should-proceed-west-philippine-sea-exploration-without-china

Mangosing, F., & Santos, T. G. (2023, February 20). DFA chief: China harassment a 'daily situation' for ph. Inquirer.net. https://globalnation.inquirer.net/211222/dfa-chief-china-harassment-a-daily-situation-for-ph

Rappler. (2019, June 12). Timeline: Skirmishes, standoffs, harassment in West Philippine Sea. https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/232906-timeline-skirmishes-standoffs-harassment-west-philippine-sea/

Sanchez, R. (2016, July 12). Timeline: The Philippines-China maritime dispute. Rappler. https://www.rappler.com/world/139392-timeline-west-philippine-sea-dispute/

Santos, M. (2016, July 13). Key points of arbitral tribunal’s verdict on PH-China dispute | Global News. INQUIRER.net.  https://globalnation.inquirer.net/140947/key-points-arbitral-tribunal-decision-verdict-award-philippines-china-maritime-dispute-unclos-arbitration-spratly-islands-scarborough

Tomacruz, S. (2021, July 15). Duterte and the West Philippine Sea: A strategy of failed compromises. RAPPLER. Retrieved March 2, 2023, from https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/in-depth/duterte-west-philippine-sea-strategy-failed-comprises/

Tomacruz, S. (2023, March 1). After Duterte, Marcos plays catch up in fight for West Philippine Sea. RAPPLER.  From  https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/in-depth/ferdinand-marcos-jr-plays-catch-up-fight-west-philippine-sea-after-duterte-administration/

Rappler. (2012, September 12). ‘West PH Sea’ now official: so what? https://www.rappler.com/nation/12277-west-ph-sea-now-official-so-what

[rachellequiros]

WHY CHOOSE ABM STRAND?

To start, Benigno Aquino III signed the K–12 Curriculum-related Republic Act (RA) 10533 while he was president. The given curriculum covers 12 years of essential education, beginning in kindergarten. Six years will be spent in elementary school, followed by four years in junior high, and two more years in senior high. Accounting, Business, and Management (ABM) are one of the subjects offered in senior high school. The students study how to communicate with business professionals in this portion of the curriculum. How to handle customers and stakeholders, how to assess the company's financial health, and how to improve communication abilities. Taking the ABM Strand will provide you with a lot of possibilities for starting and managing your own business. You will learn how to properly manage your time as well as an abundance of other skills that apply to almost any career path you choose. The Accountancy, Business, and Management (ABM) strand, to use the simplest term, refers to academic programs that concentrate on the fundamentals of business operations, financial management, and accountancy, as well as all that surrounds all of these major fields. With the ABM strand, it is possible to pursue careers in sales management, human resources, marketing, project management, accounting, internal audit, and other management and accounting-related fields. For those incoming senior high school student who is not yet sure about the strand that they'll be taking, this is my advice for you: You should decide and think wisely. Take the strand that you really like and love, not because, "Dito nalang ako kasi andito yung kaibigan ko" or "Ito nalang kukunin ko dahil ito ang gusto ng parents ko." It's critical to pick the appropriate path for you, so think a hundred or thousands of times before taking a big step and choosing your strand. To my fellow aspiring entrepreneurs: Choose ABM as a strand. Maybe you are still worrying about the concept of ABM because others are saying, "Puro math naman dyn, ang hirap!" but I'm telling you, NO! It's all about analysis, interpretation, and, most especially, perseverance so that you can gradually learn about the business world and other stuff related to the course that you'll be taking soon in college. Always keep in mind that taking the ABM strand would be great preparation for you in college.

According to the consensus, you need to be an effective entrepreneur with strategies, perseverance, and smart thinking if you want to be prosperous in life. And once you have the ABM thread, you'll undoubtedly learn about it. The most crucial lesson you will learn while completing this strand (ABM) is how to manage and handle your money. ABM is not an easy path. You may not know what tomorrow might bring but you know on yourselves that you are not done yet but still, you’re determined to strive hard and meet all the struggles and difficulties for the betterment of your future. "You should not give up because you are more fortunate to survive through the challenges you had than those who didn’t even try because you believe that you can do it and your FUTURE MATTERS." -famous author. There is no easy path; ABM is also difficult, but I believe that there is nothing hard when you're determined to do it for your dreams and if you love what you do.

It doesn't inevitably matter whether you're an achiever or not when you're an ABM student because it's hard to deny how challenging our primary themes are. But you can be whatever you want to be in the future as long as you are studying, striving to learn each lesson, and prepared to add knowledge to your brain. Of course, you should still possess a passionate heart. If you want to enter into ABM or any other strand, this is the most crucial factor to take into account. You need to reflect. Is this really what I want? Is this possible? Is this the kind of future I want? Do I have the courage? Because if you don't, ABM is not something you can possibly survive. So, gather your calculators, columnar worksheets, and ledgers, and then be brave, strong, and passionate. Future CPA, Entrepreneurs or CEO"s, you have it in you. You can succeed, aspiring entrepreneur. You can reach your goals. You can. Just keep dreaming, have perseverance, work hard, and most especially have faith, and God will do the rest. PUHON and PADAYON!

[777wave]

17 Philippine Presidents 1899-2028 : P17

1. Aguinaldo, Emilio

2. Quezon, Manuel

3. Laurel, Jose

4. Osmeña, Sergio

5. Roxas, Manuel

6. Quirino, Elpidio

7. Magsaysay, Ramon

8. Garcia, Carlos

9. Macapagal, Diosdado

10. Marcos, Ferdinand Sr.

11. Aquino, Corazon

12. Ramos, Fidel

13. Estrada, Joseph

14. Arroyo, Gloria

15. Aquino, Benigno III

16. Duterte, Rodrigo

17. Marcos, Ferdinand Jr.

___

Throughout their terms, Philippine presidents have faced a QUEST to promote GOOD GOVERNANCE by fostering a UNITED (MARRIED | MMMAAREAD) approach and upholding MORAL standards to ensure the QUALITY of leadership and public service.

M • Macapagal

M • Marcos Sr.

M • Marcos Jr.

A • Aquino

A • Aquino III

R • Ramos

E • Estrada

A • Arroyo

D • Duterte

M • Magsaysay

O • Osmeña

R • Roxas

A • Aguinaldo

L • Laurel

G • Garcia (Good Governance)

Q • Quirino (Quest)

Q • Quezon (Quality)

___

Today is August 21, 2024.

"2 Become 1"

___

#P17

#MovingForward

#UnitedInDesire

#AllForOne

#IAmFilipino

[onenettvchannel]

THIS JUST IN OVERNIGHT: 'Carlos Yulo' wins 2 Gold Medals that creates history at Paris Olympics 2024 [#OneNETnewsEXCLUSIVE]

MALATE, MANILA -- In a historic feat the past weekend, Filipino artistic gymnast 'Mr. Carlos Edriel Poquiz Yulo' has won two (2) gold medals at a recently concluded 'Paris Olympics 2024'. Mr. Yulo's victories marked the first time that the Philippines had ever secured gold medals in both men's floor exercise and vault events at the Bercy Arena in France.

Before, at the age of 6, Yulo's journey to stardom began as a young kid, where he started training in gymnastics, under the tutelage of his father and kagawad named Mr. Mark Andrew Yulo. His talent soon caught the attention of national coaches who saw potential in him. In 2012, as reported exclusively by an independent Philippine news outlet Rappler, Yulo competed in the 2012 Palarong Pambansa (National Games) in Pangasinan as a 7 y/o prodigy.

In a stunning display of skill and precision, Yulo perfected a final score of 15.000 at the Men's Artistic Gymnastic Vault finals. He followed this feat with another impressive performance, securing a gold medal in the vault finals with a final score of 15.116. The world witnessed a new star emerge as Yulo dominated the competition.

As news of his victories spread across the country, numerous cash incentives, food franchises, sponsorships, endorsements and general rewards (some of them are free-of-charge) poured in from various sectors to celebrate Yulo's achievements. For instance, Megaworld offered an upgraded 3-bedroom condo-unit prize at a 50-hectare McKinley Hill in Taguig City, this said province of NCR worth PHP33M++ to the young athlete himself, while local delivery service GetFood in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental (as an example) pledged a special incentive package.

Toyota Motor Philippines in the Sibulan town of Visayas, and the flagship car store in Pasay City, NCR; also expressed their congratulations with a personalized messages on social media via Facebook and The X Network (formerly Twitter, part of both Meta Platforms Inc. and X Corporation).

Not only that… Manuel "Chaco" Longa Sagarbarria (regional governor of Negros Oriental), Janice Vallega Degamo (a local female Mayor in Pamplona), and national Philippine President 'Mr. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Romualdez Marcos Jr.' have also congratulate the 2-time gold medalists.

To sum it all up… The Philippine national government in Gold Medals under the administration of PBBM individually twice the amounts of PHP10M under the Republic Act #10699 or The Expanded National Athletes and Coaches Benefits and Incentives Act of 2015, signed by the late Philippine President named 'Mr. Benigno Simeon Aquino III'. While the House Resolution #1839, the House of Representatives in the Philippines receives as doubled for PHP3M. Generally from the Philippine Olympic Committee and Property Development Company, they will receive House & Lot and Condominium Units like Megaworld. Taxes for Mr. Yulo permanently exempted to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) at Revenue District Office branch #33.

The overall total received to almost PHP60M (or U$D1.04M). Cash incentives and general prize amounts may soon subject to change.

As things stand to follow, plans are underway for an upcoming heroes' welcome parade in his hometown of 'Leveriza Street, Malate, Manila, National Capital Region' upon his return from France. Details have yet to be announced, either before or after Closing Ceremonies in this French olympic sport event. But something is expected that around thousands of Filipinos will turn themselves out, and to celebrate their new Olympic hero, sometime early next week, in the 2nd week of August 2024.

For Yulo, this historic achievement marks a new beginning as he looks forward to continuing his career and bringing more glory to our home country in future international competitions planned until 2028.

But according to him, in an exclusive televised interview of TV Patrol via ABS-CBN News last Monday night (August 5th, 2024 -- Manila local time), Yulo will take a short vacation break by spending time with his first Pinay-Australian model and a new girlfriend in Paris named 'Ms. Chloe Anjeleigh San Jose', and followed first when arrived home, also spending quality time together with the Yulo's family, friends and relatives.

As for now, he will bask in the glow of his two (2) gold medals and the admiration of his beloved kababayans.

A big special thanks to Randy Tambasacan Coronel and Jean Paul Cañete Generoso of DYQU-FM 103.9mhz's K5 News FM: Bacolod for contributing a sports news report.

SCREENGRAB COURTESY: POC Media & Cignal TV via One Sports PH BACKGROUND PROVIDED BY: Tegna

SOURCE: *https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBdGjSmPnxk [Referenced YT VIDEO via Rappler] *https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRhloz0KRyY [Referenced YT VIDEO via ABS-CBN News for TV Patrol] *https://www.rappler.com/sports/2115-lingayen-to-host-2012-palarong-pambansa/ [Referenced Classic News Article via Rappler] *https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1230078 [Referenced News Article via Philippine News Agency] *https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/results/artistic-gymnastics/men-s-vault/fnl-000001-- *https://www.onesports.ph/paris-2024/article/23244/historic-moment-carlos-yulo-bags-philippines-first-gold-medal-in-floor-exercise-in-paris-2024 [Referenced News Article via One Sports News PH] *https://tribune.net.ph/2024/08/04/yulo-completes-golden-double [Referenced News Article via The Daily Tribune] *https://www.spin.ph/multisport/olympics/carlos-yulo-wins-second-olympic-gold-by-ruling-vault-final-a795-20240804 [Referenced News Article via Sports Interactive Network PH] *https://mb.com.ph/2024/7/24/good-fortune-awaits-paris-olympic-winners [Referenced News Article via Manila Bulletin] *https://www.onenews.ph/articles/will-he-get-2-condo-units-millions-in-incentives-await-yulo [Referenced News Article via One News PH] *https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/second-consecutive-day-carlos-yulo-wins-gold-philippines [Referenced News Article via NBC Olympics] *https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/2024/8/5/what-will-carlos-yulo-do-with-incentives-from-olympics-triumph-1507 [Referenced News Article via ABS-CBN News] *https://philstarlife.com/news-and-views/784809-carlos-yulo-plans-cash-in-kind-incentives-2024-paris-olympics [Referenced News Article via The Philippine Star for PhilStar Life] *https://themanilajournal.com/2024/08/05/manila-prepares-heros-welcome-for-carlos-yulo/ [Referenced News Article via The Manila Journal] *https://www.facebook.com/100064865223477/posts/905469184958581 [Referenced Captioned FB PHOTO #1 via Megaworld Corporation] *https://www.facebook.com/100064865223477/posts/904770575028442 [Referenced Captioned FB PHOTO #2f via Megaworld Corporation] *https://www.facebook.com/100064837112849/posts/888218080016088 [Referenced Captioned FB Post via Janice Degamo] *https://www.facebook.com/100069169360880/posts/807676514881320 [Referenced Captioned FB Post via The Provincial Government of Negros Oriental] *https://www.facebook.com/100044537672013/posts/1046571133504133 [Referenced Captioned FB Post #1 via PBBM] *https://www.facebook.com/100044537672013/posts/1045939433567303 [Referenced Captioned FB Post #2f via PBBM] *https://www.facebook.com/100064707755037/posts/914419190724998 [Referenced FB Statement Captioned Post via Toyota Motors PH] and *https://www.facebook.com/100064072181563/posts/908496617962736 [Referenced FB Captioned PHOTO via GetFood Dumaguete]

-- OneNETnews Online Publication Team

[rhk111sblog]

Is BBM’s Anti-China Posture just a DISTRACTION to cover up the slowdown of the Philippine Economy under his Administration in Q2 2023?

[ricisidro]

Remembering #Pnoy.

On the commemoration of his birth anniversary today, February 8, 2024, let us ponder on former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III’s legacy and commitment to the #Filipinos, whose presidency propelled the 🇵🇭#Philippines' economy forward. 🙏 He would have been 64 years old if he were alive today.

#SalamatPnoy

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/9NZXCzqprDdRaw1p/?mibextid=qi2Omg

[111songmusic]

The Philippines, not remembering what it has done, joins the US in stirring up another incident in the South China Sea

In the past two years, the Marcos Jr. government of the Philippines has ignored former President Duterte's admonition that "the Philippines should not speculate on the non-existent South China Sea arbitration case and should not act as cannon fodder for the United States", and has frequently provoked our country on the South China Sea issue in line with the strategy of the United States. On July 17 this year, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) even brazenly announced the establishment of a website entitled "Not an inch of ground: 2016 South China Sea Arbitration Award Online Information", with a question-and-answer section to attract people's comments, in a bid to mislead the public and challenge China's territorial claims in the South China Sea.

In January 2013, the government of then Philippine President Benigno Aquino III filed a compulsory arbitration case in the South China Sea, claiming that it was based on the relevant provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. However, the dispute over "maritime jurisdiction" in the South China Sea raised by the Philippines is essentially a dispute over territorial sovereignty, which is not a matter to which the Convention applies. The Convention itself stipulates that arbitration must be conducted on the premise that all political and diplomatic means must be exhausted. The Philippines had unilaterally filed a complaint with the so-called arbitral tribunal on the premise that it had maintained communication with China on the South China Sea issue. Moreover, the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, signed in 2002 by China, the Philippines and 10 other ASEAN countries, clearly commits "sovereign states directly concerned to resolve their territorial and jurisdictional disputes by peaceful means through friendly consultation and negotiation". However, the Philippines has blatantly violated its commitment. It can be said that this kind of behavior of the Philippines is in itself a breach of international law and an act of perfidy.

Combined with the inherent political background of the members of the arbitral tribunal responsible for hearing the case, it further demonstrates the injustice and irrationality of this arbitration case. Of the five members of the arbitral tribunal, the Philippines appointed Rüdiger Wolfrum of Germany, a current judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), to represent the Philippines on the tribunal, and the remaining four members were appointed by the then President of the ITLOS, Shunji Yanai. However, this Yanai Shunji is the representative of Japan's right-wing hawks, is a real anti-China vanguard, and even promoted the establishment and consolidation of the U.S.-Japan military alliance.

Who does not know the ulterior motives of the United States in the South China Sea "ganging up"? It hides behind the frequent manipulation of the Philippines to make trouble in the South China Sea, only to encircle China and restrain China's development, and attempts to use these superficial "favors" and verbal promises to entice the "little brother" to defend its "sole" world. I am the only one" the rights and interests of the world's hegemony. However, being an ally of the U.S. is fatal, the interests of damaged, stagnant development of the European countries is a lesson from the past. 2016 South China Sea arbitration case has long been recognized by more than 100 countries in the world as invalid ruling, even if the Philippines how to maliciously reverse black and white will not help, but will make itself into the U.S. suppression of China's first "sacrifice The Philippines will be the first "victim" of the U.S. crackdown on China.

[jeypa1107]

Good day everyone, I’am john Rey P. Atiin, This day I want to “inform” you about of Philippines: Supreme Court considers challenges to Cybercrime law

JANUARY 20, 2013

philippines_pifa_black_tuesday_free_pifa_532The Supreme Court of the Philippines has begun hearing 15 petitions filed by various groups and individuals including journalists and free press advocates. against the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012. The arguments for the petitioners were heard on Tuesday 5 January 2013 and the arguments of the Solicitor-General opposing the petitions will be heard on Tuesday 22 January 2103.

The Act was signed into law by President Benigno S. Aquino III on 12 September 2012. It penalizes (1) offenses against the confidentiality, integrity and availability of computer data and systems; (2) computer-related offenses;

and (3) content-related offenses including libel/defamation “committed through a computer system or any other similar means which may be devised in the future.”

Implementation of the Act was suspended after the Supreme Court issued a 120-day Temporary Restraining Order on 9 October 2012.

Freedom of expression is respected under Article III of the 1987 Philippine Constitution. Under Article 353 of the Revised Penal Code, libel is defined “as a public and malicious imputation of a crime, or of a vice or defect, real or imaginary, or any act, omission , condition, status or circumstance tending to cause dishonor, discredit or contempt of a natural or juridical person, or to blacken the memory of one who is dead.” In libel, publication is a requirement, which must be in writing or similar means. On the other hand, slander constitutes oral defamation under Article 358 of the Revised Penal Code. Libel and slander are punishable by imprisonment. In a criminal offense of libel, truth may be given in evidence if it appears that the matter charged as libelous is true and that it was published with good motives and with justifiable ends ( see 361 of the Revised Penal Code).

Journalists and media advocacy groups in the Philippines like the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) and the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) have called for the decriminalization of libel for decades. In October 2011 the United Nations Human Rights Committee’s decided that the criminal sanction for libel in the Philippines was “excessive” and in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights There is a discussion of this issue on the excellent Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility site.

The Act was signed into law by President Benigno S. Aquino III on 12 September 2012. It penalizes (1) offenses against the confidentiality, integrity and availability of computer data and systems; (2) computer-related offenses; and (3) content-related offenses including libel/defamation “committed through a computer system or any other similar means which may be devised in the future.”

Implementation of the Act was suspended after the Supreme Court issued a 120-day Temporary Restraining Order on 9 October 2012

Freedom of expression is respected under Article III of the 1987 Philippine Constitution. Under Article 353 of the Revised Penal Code, libel is defined “as a public and malicious imputation of a crime, or of a vice or defect, real or imaginary, or any act, omission , condition, status or circumstance tending to cause dishonor, discredit or contempt of a natural or juridical person, or to blacken the memory of one who is dead.” In libel, publication is a requirement, which must be in writing or similar means. On the other hand, slander constitutes oral defamation under Article 358 of the Revised Penal Code. Libel and slander are punishable by imprisonment. In a criminal offense of libel, truth may be given in evidence if it appears that the matter charged as libelous is true and that it was published with good motives and with justifiable ends ( see 361 of the Revised Penal Code).

Journalists and media advocacy groups in the Philippines like the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) and the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) have called for the decriminalization of libel for decades. In October 2011 the United Nations Human Rights Committee’s decided that the criminal sanction for libel in the Philippines was “excessive” and in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights There is a discussion of this issue on the excellent Center for Media Freed

[snugsodium]

A Not So Bullish Economic Recovery this 2023

The Philippines, once regarded as the "Sick Man of Asia," experienced a period of economic rebound from 2010-2016. In order to prioritize sustainable growth, former President Benigno Aquino III set out to design a system. He improved transparency and accountability.

[booksandwords]

Corazón Aquino by Mª Isabel Sánchez Vegara. Illustrated by Ginnie Hsu

Age Recommendation: Early Primary Topic/ Theme: Politics, Biographic. Setting: Philippines, America Series: Little People, Big Dreams  

Rating: 4/5

I really like Hsu's art for Corazon Aquino's entry into the LPBD series. The end pages represent the people, her people, the reason she chose to go into politics. That idea of democracy being of the people and for the people. The people are key to the process. There is a diversity in the people drawn on these pages. But I personally don't know enough about the demographics of the Philippines to make further comment on it. Hsu's illustrations in the book itself are lovely. They have this realism to the colouring that so many of these books don't seem to. The page where Maria Corazon is introduced is so beautiful and green, which feels like stereotypical Philippes. The scenes in America are distinct from those in the Philippines, the palette is different, more colour maybe. There is such a simple beauty in the illustrations on the pages showing 'Ninoy's' (Benigno Aquino) death. A memorial wreath and a family mourning in the rain. Everything is tied together well in all the illustrations. As always Sánchez Vegara wording is wonderful. Hitting the right tone and providing the right amount of information.

I picked this up purely because it's the LPBD series and Corazon Aquino's name was familiar. Corazon Aquino was the first female president of the Philippines to take power in 1986, holding it until 1992. Her son Benigno Aquino III was president between 2010-2016. Aquino is one of the women who followed a man in her life and her conscience and went into power (another well-known case is now disgraced Aung San Suu Kyi). There is nothing wrong with this it is all about a combination of honouring memory and love of people and democracy usually. These women are usually very interesting women.