Digong, The President

[ClaNker]

Sana Malususyunan ito ni Presidente Duterte at mabuwag ang sindikato. Kawawa ang mga kababayan natin. Hindi ko alam kung paano nakakatulog sa gabi ang mga kawatan at paano nila napapakain ng walang bigat ng loob ang asawa at mga anak nila.

3 months for a passport appointment? Here’s why

Read more: 3 months for a passport appointment? Here’s why | Inquirer Global Nation
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MALVAR, BATANGAS—Ever wonder why it takes two to three months to schedule a passport application appointment online?

APO Production Unit Inc., the government-owned printing facility, has foiled a lucrative scam of fixers who has reserved up to 450 slots for passport applicants which they sell at P5,000 each for those in desperate need of travel documents.

APO Production sales manager Dominic Tajon said these fixers, who are believed to be backed by syndicates, earn as much as P2.5 million by blocking passport application slots.

The rates for the reserved online passport schedule start at P5,000 and can go higher depending on the applicants’ preferred date of application or renewal of their passports, he said.

“The days of fixers are numbered because the Department of Foreign Affairs has allowed APO Production to handle the end-to-end passport processing in the next two months,” said Tajon in an interview with the diplomatic press corps on Thursday.

He said the public can expect ease in getting online appointment by September, when applicants under the old system would have been accommodated.

Tajon said the scam has been uncovered by information technology experts while installing the new security feature in the DFA’s online passport application on June 17.



Off topic ito. Tigilan na sana ng mga troll ang atake sa mga kapwa poster. Hindi ko obligasyon sagutin lahat ng katanungan dito.

Before you call someone a troll.

Properly quote the content of the link you posted, di ikaw ang nag sulat nyan. Nabansagan ka nang copy paste dito.

[Flipo]

Shoot now, ask questions later | Inquirer Opinion

Shoot now, ask questions later
By: Solita Collas-Monsod
Philippine Daily Inquirer 01:35 AM July 30th, 2016

PDu30’s State of the Nation Address, all 90 minutes of it, may be classified into 38 minutes of prepared speech and 52 minutes of straight-from-the-heart talk. He should change his speech writers because they failed to make his speech sound like it came from him.

I actually pitied him, stumbling along during the scripted moments, even as he was so effective in connecting with us, his audience, with the unscripted ones. We live and learn. Hopefully, by his next Sona, things will have worked out, and he actually will sound like himself, and we will save time.

I was asked on TV to grade his Sona—on content (substance) and on delivery (style). My top-of-the-head answer was 75 percent for the first, and 90 percent for the second. That was too generous for content. My modified score is 50 percent.

Why a poor grade for the substance? Wasn’t he prioritizing the poor? Wasn’t he talking about making their lives less miserable? His statement that he didn’t want to see the people lining up and waiting under the hot sun resonated with me. Also: faster turnaround times for government frontline services. Longer times between renewals. Better transport services, including rail. More infrastructure. Laguna Lake to be used by the poor than by the rich. Rice subsidies for the poor. Accessible healthcare. Jobs.

He wasn’t leaving out the rich either: reduction of income taxes for individuals and corporations, which drew enthusiastic applause. Continuation of economic and social policies of previous administrations. True, he said he would ease the bank secrecy law, but he seemed almost apologetic about it.

So where did he go wrong? Isn’t it obvious? You can’t increase government expenditures and at the same time decrease government revenues. That’s like a rock meeting a hard place. How will those increased expenditures be financed? In other words, beautiful plans. But not workable due to resource constraints.

How to characterize his administration at this point? It seems he has adopted a shoot-now-ask-questions-later operating technique. One hopes he will rethink this. It may arguably have succeeded in Davao, a city of about 1.6 million people. Mistakes made are more easily rectified or reversed. But in a country of 102 million people, mistakes are magnified, and not easily corrected.

We already see it happening in the war on drugs. There were the death squads in Davao, which Du30 appeared to have controlled. Magnify the problem by 50 times and you magnify the mistakes even more. How many of the dead are really drug pushers, or users? Who made the judgement? In Davao, it is estimated that about 10 percent of those killed were not involved in any crime, just cases of mistaken identity or being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or worse, malice aforethought. In Thailand, where a drug war was conducted sometime in 2003, the estimate is that at least half of the 3,000 killings were not drug-related. Ten percent vs. fifty percent.

Further, how does this jibe with PDu30’s Sona statement that “no amount of case assistance can compensate for the loss of human life”? Will the real Du30 please stand up?

Another illustration of the shoot-now-ask-questions-later mentality is the federalism issue. In yesterday’s news, PDu30 said a constituent assembly (Con-ass), not a constitutional convention (Con-con), would be the mechanism for a change to a federal-parliamentary system.

This, reportedly after he was told that a Con-con would cost P6-7 billion. By whom? By Senate President Koko Pimentel, Budget Secretary Ben Diokno, and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.

Understand, Reader, that previously, PDu30’s view was to put the question of federalism under study by a commission, with Moros, Christians and lumad as members, as well as experts on the federal form of government (“Duterte: Polls on federalism in 2 yrs,” News, 5/20/16). Only after they have performed the task of detailing how the country could effect the shift to a federal form of government would PDu30 call for a Con-con. He thought this could be done in two years. Notice that he never used the term “parliamentary.” He was thinking about a federal-presidential system a la the United States.

At Monday’s Sona, he talked about the French system, “which is a federal-parliamentary, but with a president.” He preferred that system, he said. I hope he studied it. Because the French 5th Republic with this system replaced the 4th Republic’s purely parliamentary system, the French having decided that they wanted to have a president also with great power.

But, Reader, the French system is NOT a federal system.

How this system is better than ours, I would not care to guess. But it is not federal, so what is PDu30 talking about? Good grief! Talk about shoot first and ask questions later!

To top it all, the latest version is to have the Con-ass make the decisions. Because a Con-con would cost P6-7 billion. But have they figured out how much a Con-ass would cost? In terms of the amount of time lost, from needing to rationalize our current laws and creating new ones? Be reminded, also, that the Con-ass is dominated by dynasties, landowners, mine-owners. The elite, in other words. What do you think they will do when it comes to changing the Constitution? Where will our poor be?

Please. Let us not shoot first and ask questions later. Therein lies the path to tragedy.

[Ry_Tower]

Shoot now, ask questions later | Inquirer Opinion

Shoot now, ask questions later
By: Solita Collas-Monsod
Philippine Daily Inquirer 01:35 AM July 30th, 2016

PDu30’s State of the Nation Address, all 90 minutes of it, may be classified into 38 minutes of prepared speech and 52 minutes of straight-from-the-heart talk. He should change his speech writers because they failed to make his speech sound like it came from him.

I actually pitied him, stumbling along during the scripted moments, even as he was so effective in connecting with us, his audience, with the unscripted ones. We live and learn. Hopefully, by his next Sona, things will have worked out, and he actually will sound like himself, and we will save time.

I was asked on TV to grade his Sona—on content (substance) and on delivery (style). My top-of-the-head answer was 75 percent for the first, and 90 percent for the second. That was too generous for content. My modified score is 50 percent.

Why a poor grade for the substance? Wasn’t he prioritizing the poor? Wasn’t he talking about making their lives less miserable? His statement that he didn’t want to see the people lining up and waiting under the hot sun resonated with me. Also: faster turnaround times for government frontline services. Longer times between renewals. Better transport services, including rail. More infrastructure. Laguna Lake to be used by the poor than by the rich. Rice subsidies for the poor. Accessible healthcare. Jobs.

He wasn’t leaving out the rich either: reduction of income taxes for individuals and corporations, which drew enthusiastic applause. Continuation of economic and social policies of previous administrations. True, he said he would ease the bank secrecy law, but he seemed almost apologetic about it.

So where did he go wrong? Isn’t it obvious? You can’t increase government expenditures and at the same time decrease government revenues. That’s like a rock meeting a hard place. How will those increased expenditures be financed? In other words, beautiful plans. But not workable due to resource constraints.

How to characterize his administration at this point? It seems he has adopted a shoot-now-ask-questions-later operating technique. One hopes he will rethink this. It may arguably have succeeded in Davao, a city of about 1.6 million people. Mistakes made are more easily rectified or reversed. But in a country of 102 million people, mistakes are magnified, and not easily corrected.

We already see it happening in the war on drugs. There were the death squads in Davao, which Du30 appeared to have controlled. Magnify the problem by 50 times and you magnify the mistakes even more. How many of the dead are really drug pushers, or users? Who made the judgement? In Davao, it is estimated that about 10 percent of those killed were not involved in any crime, just cases of mistaken identity or being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or worse, malice aforethought. In Thailand, where a drug war was conducted sometime in 2003, the estimate is that at least half of the 3,000 killings were not drug-related. Ten percent vs. fifty percent.

Further, how does this jibe with PDu30’s Sona statement that “no amount of case assistance can compensate for the loss of human life”? Will the real Du30 please stand up?

Another illustration of the shoot-now-ask-questions-later mentality is the federalism issue. In yesterday’s news, PDu30 said a constituent assembly (Con-ass), not a constitutional convention (Con-con), would be the mechanism for a change to a federal-parliamentary system.

This, reportedly after he was told that a Con-con would cost P6-7 billion. By whom? By Senate President Koko Pimentel, Budget Secretary Ben Diokno, and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.

Understand, Reader, that previously, PDu30’s view was to put the question of federalism under study by a commission, with Moros, Christians and lumad as members, as well as experts on the federal form of government (“Duterte: Polls on federalism in 2 yrs,” News, 5/20/16). Only after they have performed the task of detailing how the country could effect the shift to a federal form of government would PDu30 call for a Con-con. He thought this could be done in two years. Notice that he never used the term “parliamentary.” He was thinking about a federal-presidential system a la the United States.

At Monday’s Sona, he talked about the French system, “which is a federal-parliamentary, but with a president.” He preferred that system, he said. I hope he studied it. Because the French 5th Republic with this system replaced the 4th Republic’s purely parliamentary system, the French having decided that they wanted to have a president also with great power.

But, Reader, the French system is NOT a federal system.

How this system is better than ours, I would not care to guess. But it is not federal, so what is PDu30 talking about? Good grief! Talk about shoot first and ask questions later!

To top it all, the latest version is to have the Con-ass make the decisions. Because a Con-con would cost P6-7 billion. But have they figured out how much a Con-ass would cost? In terms of the amount of time lost, from needing to rationalize our current laws and creating new ones? Be reminded, also, that the Con-ass is dominated by dynasties, landowners, mine-owners. The elite, in other words. What do you think they will do when it comes to changing the Constitution? Where will our poor be?

Please. Let us not shoot first and ask questions later. Therein lies the path to tragedy.

Hindi kasi apologist at may ego talaga.

Do this my way and if it backfires, then bago lang re-think. Really shoot first before asking question later talaga. Bad move if you're decision affects the country. Buti sana kung sarili niya lang madadamay.

[badkuk]

Re federalism: i hope they put in an "opt-out" clause in case this big experiment fails.

i'm not as concerned with the shift to federalism as i am concerned about the quality of our politicians.

Federalism *may* work, but imho, it assumes that the politicians involved have the best interests of the people at heart. Given the history of PH politics, that is a very, very risky -- some may say, naive and stupid -- assumption to make.

[dr. d]

Re federalism: i hope they put in an "opt-out" clause in case this big experiment fails.

i'm not as concerned with the shift to federalism as i am concerned about the quality of our politicians.

Federalism *may* work, but imho, it assumes that the politicians involved have the best interests of the people at heart. Given the history of PH politics, that is a very, very risky -- some may say, naive and stupid -- assumption to make.

it has been said many times before..
it is not so much the form of government, as it is the people running that form of government.

[dreamur]

Reduce personal and corporate income tax yet removing the tax incentives currently enjoyed by big time investors who are providing the jobs to the employees in the first place. How stupid could that be? What is there to collect tax from once the investors pull out their business and transfer it to Vietnam and India? Corporations and employment are gone. Good luck! Monsod is right, shoot first ask questions later.

I would be very happy to see the pro-duts losing their jobs without any severance payment.

Sent from my SM-N910C using Tapatalk

[kinyo]

pwede pala tumanggi magpa-drug test ang isang drug suspect?

peter-lim-rejects-drug-test-request-by-nbi

[zoomzoom]

pwede pala tumanggi magpa-drug test ang isang drug suspect?

peter-lim-rejects-drug-test-request-by-nbi

Big Time eh, kaya pwede. This zarzuela with Peter Lim is so obvious.

[dreamur]

Big Time eh, kaya pwede. This zarzuela with Peter Lim is so obvious.

Let us wait for justifications (read: excuses) from the apologists. Hinihintay pa ung post ng yellow media para ma cut-and-paste dito.

Disclaimer: This is not trolling. I am just stating a trend and a fact.

Sent from my SM-N910C using Tapatalk

[safeorigin]

Re federalism: i hope they put in an "opt-out" clause in case this big experiment fails.

i'm not as concerned with the shift to federalism as i am concerned about the quality of our politicians.

Federalism *may* work, but imho, it assumes that the politicians involved have the best interests of the people at heart. Given the history of PH politics, that is a very, very risky -- some may say, naive and stupid -- assumption to make.

having the opt out option is the entire point of federalism - you can even go one step further as a confederate and divorce a region from the country through referendum.

[badkuk]

having the opt out option is the entire point of federalism - you can even go one step further as a confederate and divorce a region from the country through referendum.

Sorry, what i was trying to say was if we can "roll back" to the current system in case federalism doesn't work for us.

Yan ang conspiracy theory ko, why some people want federalism -- one day Mindanao may become a separate country instead of a region.

[ClaNker]

Federalism, con-ass...

Mag lalaway ang mga politico at kani-kanilang pamilya.

[yebo]

korek, kanya-kanya ng teritoryo yan. the marcoses can declare the "republic of ilocos" and binay the "state of makati".

[Ry_Tower]

Ang saya-say nang mga dynasties niyan na sa totoo lang eh bawal even in the constitution. Imagine that. Gawa muna sila anti-dynasty bill bago sila mag fed or con-co or cha-cha whatever.

Tor, I really like this.

Good luck, His Excellency.

Duterte wants to scrap party-list system

Agree 100%, it's an insult to the honest men and women in the military service. Partylist my ass. Ang dami dyan communist dogs lang naman talaga.

[jack_husain]

Tor, please explain this. No less than the Commander-in-Chief has declared the ceasefire but the rebels are not buying it. Is this not an affront to our President?

NPA: No ‘veritable’ unilateral ceasefire exercised by AFP, PNP

July 30, 2016 06:23pm

DAVAO CITY -- Amid President Rodrigo Duterte's warning to lift the unilateral ceasefire he had declared should communist rebels failed to reciprocate it by 5 p.m. Saturday, there was little indication the New People's Army was declaring one.

READ: Duterte gives CPP-NPA ultimatum to reciprocate ceasefire

Instead, a rebel spokesperson said the unilateral ceasefire that Mr. Duterte has declared was not being enforced in Mindanao.

Rigoberto Sanchez, spokesman of the New People's Army-Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command, said that "there is no conspicuous and veritable unilateral ceasefire exercised by (the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police) and paramilitary troops in Southern Mindanao" after Duterte had declared a truce.

"The NPA and the people's militia are ready to defend itself from enemy troops who are actively present in almost all villages in Southern Mindanao. These are not troops implementing innocuous 'civil-military operations' but are implementing combat operations, surveillance, reconnaissance, intelligence, and psychological warfare in civilian communities," Sanchez said.

"These are troops who use communities as garrisons, conduct counter-revolutionary operations, harass and threaten civilians and ensure that their protected illegal activities such as drug trade and logging and mining pay-offs continue unhindered," he added.

Sanchez said in Magpet, North Cotabato for example, soldiers continued their military operations.

"On July 27, platoons of the 84th IB were deployed in far-flung communities of Toril, Davao City. In Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur, troops of the 2nd Scout Rangers Battalion conducted combat operations on July 29," Sanchez said.

He claimed that one of the alleged proofs of continuing operations is the recent firefight in Kapalong, Davao del Norte that resulted in the death of a militiaman and the wounding of four others.



Sanchez said "anti-peace process" military officials were spinning lies to derail the negotiations.

"Worse still, the fabricated lies they spin to their commander-in-chief and the media to smokescreen their palpable violation demonstrate their outright disdain for the peace process," Sanchez said.

He said it will be difficult for the NPA to reciprocate a ceasefire when there are military officials who do not wish to follow Duterte's order.

READ: Joma Sison asks Duterte: Don't rush us into ceasefire

"While the NPA-SMROC is ready, willing and able to reciprocate the unilateral ceasefire in accordance to the parameters, guidelines and rules to be set by the national leadership of the NPA, CPP, and NDFP, it cannot be harangued to reciprocate a unilateral ceasefire order that is overtly mocked by the AFP hierarchy and its ground troops and paramilitary forces," Sanchez said.

"The NPA-SMROC urges the current GPH Commander-In-Chief to subject its own troops to a scrutiny of its own operations, deployment, and conduct nationwide to enable the aforesaid unilateral ceasefire order to become effective. Otherwise, it cannot burden the NPA to reciprocate what is turning out to be a spurious unilateral ceasefire," he added. JE

[anonemus]

Today mark's the President's 1st month in office.

5 more months to go before we see suppression of illegal drugs and zero corruption and criminality in the history of the country.

Yehey!!!

[ClaNker]

^ Ubos yang droga na yan basta di sasabit si kumpare.



WATCH: Bandila: PDEA chief: Maaring nakakatulong ang vigilante killings - YouTube

[ClaNker]

I know this is 2 day old.

Recording shows Yasay didn't want ASEAN to cite Hague ruling

Reporter: Sir nung ginagawa 'yung joint communiqué, 'di ba, pinitch natin na makasama 'yung PCA?

Yasay: Hindi, hindi. Never, never did.

Reporter: Sir, sa draft, sa draft po ng ano?

Yasay: Please, okay, don't put words into my mouth. I'd like you to understand this. We are obligated under the Constitution to make sure that we resolve our disputes peacefully. We renounce war as an instrument of policy, and we would like to promote amity with all nations. 'Yan ang ating mandate. It’s okay, okay, go ahead, please. So this is the point I’d like to emphasize. Maliwanag na 'yung sinasabi natin. Hindi naman kasama 'yung ibang nasyon doon sa pag-file natin ng kaso sa arbitral tribunal, so bakit tayo mamimilit na ilalagay 'yan sa ASEAN statement? Hindi naman kasama. May claims nga 'yung other ASEAN countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines, pero hindi sila kasama sa kaso na ito.

Reporter: Hi, Sir, Paterno Esmaquel from Rappler. Sir, you were quoted by Agence France-Presse as saying, in Laos, “The other countries are not part of our filing of the case before the arbitral tribunal, so why would we insist that it be put in the ASEAN statement?” And well, many people are saying, our neighbors are coastal states – Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia – and the ruling affects them. So how can we say that it doesn’t—, ASEAN has nothing to do with this case filed by the Philippines against China? How would you respond to this?

Yasay: To begin with, I dispute your contention that I said that in my interview with Rappler.

Reporter: With Agence France-Presse.

Yasay: With Agence Francois… With Agence Presse… AFP.

Reporter: Actually they said it’s an interview with reporters who covered you in Laos.

Yasay: No, I did not have any interview with reporters in Laos. I had, only yesterday, an interview with the Philippine press, explaining to them that we have arrived at a joint communiqué. Never mentioned that. And this is precisely the point I want to say now. Whether you would raise that as true or not, is water under the bridge. And I am denying that I have said this. The important thing is, ASEAN came up with a unified statement, and it came up with that joint communique report.

Reporter: Sir, sorry, I think the reporters who interviewed you were Filipinos, but they work for international agencies.

Yasay: Yes, yes. I hope you will not belabor that point because as I’ve said, I’ve never said those things, all right? And please don’t put words into my mouth.

Next time dapat reporter na lang ng PTV4 ang pwedeng mag interview sa DFA Secretary.

[Devastator]

That's it.

Duterte lifts ceasefire with Reds as ultimatum lapses | Inquirer News

Duterte lifts ceasefire with Reds as ultimatum lapses

Two hours past his deadline, President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday evening ordered the immediate lifting of the unilateral ceasefire with communist rebels that he declared less than a week ago, as the 5 p.m. ultimatum he gave lapsed without reciprocation.

“Let me now announce that I am hereby ordering for the immediate lifting of the unilateral ceasefire that I ordered last July 25 against the communist rebels,” Duterte said in a statement coursed through Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza.

The President issued the ultimatum after members of the New People’s Army attacked government troops in Davao del Norte on Wednesday, killing one of them.

He also ordered the government’s security forces to be on heightened alert and continue performing their functions to “neutralize all threats to national security.”

“Correspondingly, I am ordering the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police to also withdraw the operational guidelines they issued in pursuance to that ceasefire declaration,” he said.

“I am ordering all security forces to be on heightened alert and continue to discharge their normal functions and mandate to neutralize all threats to national security, protect the citizenry, enforce the laws and maintain peace in the land.”

The President declared the ceasefire during his first State of the Nation Address on July 25.

Earlier, Dureza said peace talks with communist groups would continue in August as scheduled, even if the President lifts the ceasefire.

Meanwhile, the Communist Party of the Philippines has not issued any truce declaration as of yet.

Rigoberto Sanchez, spokesperson of the New People’s Army-Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command, earlier on Saturday said the truce that Duterte had declared was not being enforced by the AFP and paramilitary troops in Mindanao.

The Communist Party of the Philippines said it would issue a statement 8 p.m. Saturday. With Leila Salaverria, Philippine Daily Inquirer; Karlos Manlupig, Inquirer Mindanao

[badkuk]

Sison kay Duterte: “Masyado kang butangero…”