president noynoy aquino’s miscommunication on the rh billl during SONA 2012 – is he anti-children? #rhbill

yes, president aquino in his 2012 SONA did mention the rh bill but phrased it as “responsible parenthood”  (read more om this one from here: http://wp.me/pnw03-1Bm)

this was what aquino said in his SONA:

aquino:

Matibay po ang pananalig natin kay Secretary Luistro: Bago matapos ang susunod na taon, ubos na ang minana nating 66,800 na kakulangan sa silid-aralan. [Applause] Ulitin ko po, next year pa po ‘yan; 40,000 pa lang this year. Ang minana po nating 2,573,212 na backlog sa upuan, tuluyan na rin nating matutugunan bago matapos ang 2012. [Applause] Sa taon din pong ito, masisimot na rin ang 61.7 million na backlog sa textbook upang maabot na, sa wakas, ang one is to one ratio ng aklat sa mag-aaral. [Applause]

Sana nga po, ngayong paubos na ang backlog sa edukasyon, sikapin nating huwag uling magka-backlog dahil sa dami ng estudyante. Sa tingin ko po, Responsible Parenthood ang sagot dito. [Applause]

—

english:

I have great faith in Secretary Luistro: Before the next year ends, we will have built the 66,800 classrooms needed to fill up the shortage we inherited. The 2,573,212 backlog in chairs that we were bequeathed will be addressed before 2012 ends. This year, too, will see the eradication of the backlog of 61.7 million textbooks—and we will finally achieve the one-to-one ratio of books to students.

We are ending the backlogs in the education sector, but the potential for shortages remains as our student population continues to increase. Perhaps Responsible Parenthood can help address this.

aquino mentioned in his SONA within the context of the potential risk of an increasing number of the student population overwhelming or negating the education department’s efforts at filling up the backlog needs of students. the education sector has been plagued for decades of a lack of schools, classrooms, chairs and even books. aquino in this SONA said the education secretary is now on an aggressive move to erase the backlog. aquino was warning that population growth, the number of new entrants or children into the education system need to be kept at a lower growth rate, otherwise the education agency will not be able to erase the backlog.

this is population control. and one can argue it is being anti-children.

population control is not necessarily a bad thing. reducing birth rates is population control. families deciding to have less number of children or the married couple agreeing to a specific number of children is population control on a family level. we all do it, why shouldn’t the state encourage it?

population control becomes bad when the state dictates on its citizens to a certain number of children couples will have , or when citizens are forced into it like the way china does it which has a 1 child policy per family.

the rh bill has no such provision. number of children a couple will have is left to the couple’s discretion. the state in the rhbill will simply provide couples the means and information on how the couple can achieve their desired family size.

but there is the risk of interpreting aquino’s statement on the rh bill within the context he said it as being “anti-children”, that aquino does not want couples to have too many children that will have the effect of overwhelming the state’s efforts on the zero backlog on education.

the rh bill is not anti-children. in fact the rh bill is from the perspective of the parents, the married couple not children. the rh bill empowers the woman, the couple and the family into giving them the tools, education and service to enable them to successfully meet their desired number of children and age spacing of their children.

rh bill advocates knew what aquino meant. to a large extent the anti rh bill groups also knew what the president meant. they know it so well that they have reacted badly to the mention of the rh bill in the SONA. in fact CBCP has already launched an attack on aquino one day after the SONA.

malacanang apparently also knew what aquino said, actually what aquino failed to say and that is the reason why they felt compelled to clarify what aquino said during the SONA.

PNoy backing same RH Bill in Congress

By Willard Cheng, ABS-CBN News

Posted at 07/24/2012 4:07 PM | Updated as of 07/24/2012 10:48 PM

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang said President Aquino was referring to the same consolidated bill on reproductive health (RH) now pending in Congress when he made a pitch for the passage of the responsible parenthood bill in his State of the Nation Address (SONA).

Deputy Presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the draft bill submitted by the Palace has been consolidated with the version being pushed by advocates of reproductive health in Congress.

It has the title “An Act Providing for a Comprehensive Policy on Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health, and Population and Development, and for other purposes.”

The Palace, however, prefers to use the shorthand “Responsible Parenthood bill” in referring to it.

The measure was included in the list of the administration’s priority bills during the meeting of the LEDAC.

“Ang punto po ‘non, ang dulo po ‘non, na-consolidate na po ‘yung anim na pending (bills) in Congress sponsored by Representatives (Edcel) Lagman, (Janette) Garin, (Arlene) Bag-Ao, (Walden) Bello, (Rodolfo) Biazon, (Augusto) Syjuco, (Luz) Ilagan, and (Emmi) De Jesus… into House Bill 4244. Ang title po nito, ‘An Act Providing for a Comprehensive Policy on Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health, and Population and Development, and for other purposes.’ So ‘yun na po ‘yon. It has been consolidated with the pending bills,” Valte said.

“The bill submitted by the Palace took into consideration the dialogues that our officials had with members of the Church and also with members of pro-RH advocacy groups. So ‘yun na po ‘yung dulo niya. It’s House Bill 4244.” She added.

The Palace reiterated the President’s position on responsible parenthood. Valte said:

“First, the President is against abortion. This is a reiteration of the President’s position that he has, time and again, enunciated even from the campaign when he was running for president.

“Second, the President is in favor of giving couples the right to choose how best to manage their families so that in the end their welfare and that of their children are best served…

“Thirdly, the President is of the position that the state must respect each individual’s right to follow his or his conscience and religious convictions on matters and issues pertaining to the unity of the family and the sacredness of human life from conception to natural death.

“Fourth, in a situation where couples especially the poor and the disadvantaged ones are in no position to make an informed judgment, the state has the responsibility to so provide.

“And, lastly, in the range of options and information provided to couples, natural family planning and modern methods shall be presented as equally available.”

Asked if the President’s mention of the bill serves an endorsement for its passage, Valte said, “The members of Congress are free certainly to have their own interpretation of what was said by the President. But the President did mention Responsible Parenthood and that refers to the version that the Palace submitted during the LEDAC and to the one that was consolidated.”

Valte said there are no discussions yet if the Palace wants to certify the bill as “urgent.”

this incident demonstrates the importance of good communication and specificity specially on speeches of national importance by the president of the country.

 

 

president noynoy aquino’s SONA.2, july 25, 2011 – defining or redefining the presidency?

read the pilipino and english transcript of the SONA July 2011 speech here: http://bit.ly/qhL2Fm

watch the video of the SONA here :  http://bit.ly/pEzP7c

presidentiable noynoy aquyino defined his campaign through these 5 words : “kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap” . and these 5 words got presidentiable noynoy elected. the people believed him and because we have been having years of gloria macapagal arroyo and we have always suspected her of corruption. arroyo was one of the country’s most unpopular president, if not the most unpopular with back to back to back negative performance ratings through the years in performance as president.

noynoy aquino, promising no more corruption and removing it to lead us to progress got him elected.

from the presidential elections, aquino carried that through his first year in office, time and again exposing the newly discovered corruption cases committed by arroyo and government officials under her.

it may not have been intentional on his part, but that is how aquino has defined his first year in office.

on his second year of office, we could be seeing another definition of his administration or he will redefine it.

read the speech here:

read the pilipino and english transcript of the SONA July 2011 speech here: http://bit.ly/qhL2Fm

aquino in his second SONA, has redefined his administration as single mindedly pursuing those who  he said continue to have the “utak wang-wang”.

Kayo po ba gusto ninyong makulong ang lahat ng tiwali? Ako rin. Gusto ba ninyong matanggal ang wang-wang, hindi lamang sa kalsada, kundi sa kaisipang nagdulot ng baluktot na sistema na pagkatagal-tagal na nating pinagtiisan? Ako rin. Gusto po ba ninyong mabigyan ng patas na pagkakataon ang lahat na umasenso? Ako rin.

aquino believes corruption or it’s removal from the fiber of philippine culture in governance needs to be his priority and something he he should succeed in.

we see the value and importance in aquino’s obsession to remove the utak wang-wang in philippine government. the recent weeks have shown us how top government officials during the arroyo administration wantonly and blatantly stole, misused or misappropriated billions upon billions of pesos meant for the people and the service of the people.

May mga nagsasabing pinepersonal ko raw ang paghahabol sa mga tiwali. Totoo po: Personal talaga sa akin ang paggawa ng tama, at ang pagpapanagot sa mga gumagawa ng mali—sino man sila. At hindi lamang dapat ako ang namemersonal sa usaping ito. Personal dapat ito sa ating lahat, dahil bawat Pilipino ay biktima nito.

corruption to aquino is a personal thing and he says it should to be to the rest of us. we should not be forgiving and just let things go because corruption was committed in the past. it is not a matter of let by-gones be by-gones. corruption affects each of us.

aquino did not redefine his presidency. what he did was to restate what he had said during his first SONA and what he said during the presidentiables campaign. in his second SONA, aquino has confirmed with us his obsession with corruption or  its removal  from government.

that is both a good thing and a bad thing.

it is a good thing as we all know philippine history on governance is full of stories of corruption, small to multi-billion types of corruption. the recent string of revelations on corruption during the arroyo admin has shown to us how rampant it was and how much it had cost the country and taxpayers. government officials under the arroyo admin took billions of pesos from whatever source they could lay their hands on.

we have heard of allegations of corruption at the AFP, department of agriculture, the PCSO, PAGCOR, DPWH and of course the BIR and the bureau of customs. aside from officers of these government agencies stealing money, we have also heard of money being used for the election of arroyo and the children of some of the government officials.

corruption being everywhere and in big numbers, making it as a priority or even as an obsession is a good thing.

it is a bad thing as fighting corruption or even removing it is a very lofty goal and it’s impact on the daily lives of pinoys are hard to imagine.

when aquino says he wants to remove utak wang-wang, how do we measure his success at it? do we measure it in terms of the number of times he mentions it in his speeches? or the number of corruption cases revealed by officers of government to the press? or do we measure it in terms of number of cases filed with the ombudsman? what about conviction or the number of people put to jail?

of course the true measure of success in his drive to remove utak wang-wang from governance is if it actually stops and all funds meant for the people are actually spent for the people.  that sounds easy enough but if we are to use as basis arroyo’s admin, we are finding out corruption committed during her term after her term, not during.

president noynoy aquino wrong on flaws of SWS (march 2011) hunger survey results

the latest (march 2011) hunger and poverty survey of SWS got a reaction from president n0ynoy aquino –  he said the SWS  was unable to properly capture the efforts they did in visayas and mindanao where he said many of the government poverty alleviation programs were implemented.  from the point of view of statistics, he means the respondent sampling done by SWS was incorrect.

Aquino finds flaw in hunger survey

“I myself can’t reconcile that sometimes,” Mr. Aquino said, referring to the contrasting survey findings and the claimed achievements of the government’s programs to generate employment and reduce poverty.

President Aquino said the bulk of the data in the SWS survey came from Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon.

He said that 400,000 new beneficiaries of the government’s conditional cash transfer program, or CCT, were from the Visayas and Mindanao but this was not reflected in the survey.

“It so happened that the statistical sample used didn’t capture the ones helped by the CCT. If it was reversed, the result would have been skewed to show that more people experienced their hunger being alleviated,” Mr. Aquino said.

The President said the CCT was first rolled out in the Visayas and Mindanao because the poverty incidence was more serious in those areas compared with Metro Manila and Luzon.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20110408-330059/Aquino-finds-flaw-in-hunger-survey

aquino is wrong in what he said.

it is not true that the survey failed to capture the government’s poverty alleviation efforts in visayas and mindanao where the government did bulk of their efforts. the hunger ratings in fact in visayas and mindanao went down from previous with 14.7% in march in visayas from previous 18.2% and to 16.7% in mindanao from 21.1% of previous period.

self-claimed “mahirap” or poverty ratings however climbed up in visayas and mindanao. visayas went up to 61% from 53% and mindanao to 49% from 44%.

aquino’s complaint about the sampling skew towards NCR and Luzon is also baseless. bulk of the respondents come from NCR and Luzon for the simple reason that most of the population of the philippines come form these same two areas.  that is how sampling design is supposed to be done – you get more respondents from the areas where most of the population are for the sample size to be truly representative of the country. the sample size is supposed to mirror where the people are in the country.

in other words, there is nothing wrong with the sampling design of the SWS survey as aquino is saying.  there is only something wrong  with aquino’s understanding of what is a good sampling design.

also,  one can expect a difference in results between the SWS survey and aquino’s efforts at poverty alleviation for the simple reason that SWS used random sampling while  the aquino government’s efforts were not random but purposive and specific. given that, it is possible results will be different.

for the aquino government to find out how effective their efforts are , the aquino government should do a purposive sampling of the actual people they helped and see if their economic lives have changed. in simple terms they should do a before and after study on the specific people they reached.

these are the rest of results:

source: http://www.sws.org.ph/

president aquino’s drop in ratings – malacanang itself is to blame

a lot of press in the last few days on the performance satisfaction rating survey conducted by SWS (read here : http://wp.me/pnw03-1qs). the press is mostly on malacanang thinking about the ratings drop and what it means.

on one side, it’s refreshing to see that the occupants of malacanang are sensitive to the survey results. it means they are sensitive to the sentiments of the people. and that can only be good as a sensitive malacanang to the sentiments of the people can mean better action at truly serving the people’s needs.  even a marketing or political newbie will tell you that the way to improve the ratings is to serve the people better.

we did not see this kind of reaction from the previous administration of gloria macapagal arroyo. arroyo’s malacanang would have ignored the survey results or attack the results and question the results. arroyo’s administration have always thought everyone else is wrong while they are the only ones right.

the other side of the reaction of the current malacanang occupants is this never ending search for who is to blame for the drop in the ratings. the spokesperson has said previously, media was to blame as it tended to publicize only what is wrong and the bad news while ignoring what is good and the good news.

recent pronouncements puts the  blame on “shyness” of malacanang in publicizing its good deeds. with this thinking, malacanang has resolved to be “more aggressive” in putting in the good news out to the press. that means they will need to learn to be more “kapal moks” , if we are to use their thinking on them being too “shy” to publicize their good deeds.

Valte said the Palace communicators would “maximize the use of all our resources, not only government television and radio … We will be maximizing all resources available to us.”

She disagreed with suggestions that the Palace communication group was to blame for the low ratings, but she said the communicators were taking the survey “as a sign to be really more aggressive in promoting the President” and his programs.

She said this was not for the President’s spokespersons alone to do and that Cabinetsecretaries and their public information offices could also lend a hand.

“It cannot be just a job of three but everybody has to pitch in to make sure the good news [reaches] the people,” she said.

The other day, Valte also said on state radio: “We have a very Filipino trait of being too shy to boast.”

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20110404-329229/Aquino-revs-up-media-machine

who is to blame for the drop in satisfaction ratings on the president’s performance? let us get a run down.

is media to blame?  all communication practitioners should know this – media will put what they think will attract their audience, those that their audience will find interesting or those that they think their audience want.  the news being “good news” or “bad news” practically has nothing to do with it. you can have bad news but if it is not something the audience want, it will not get any exposure. same thing with good news. good news does not guarantee and audience, it can on the other hand pull in boredom. the only barometer media uses in deciding what is printed out there is its saleability or interest value to its audience.

it is this nature of media that makes it necessary for public and private figures and groups to engage communication practitioners to deal with media. their job is to make something interesting enough for media to see it’s value and put it out for the people to read and see.

we have been involved in the past with projects where the topic was seen as boring by media practitioners and the public when we started. after some careful planning and strategizing, we set out to make the topic “sexy” for media to publish and the public to take interest in. to make the topic “sexy” was the exact word used to describe what  we intended to do with the topic. after a few months,  the topic thyat was previously boring and usually out of media became a hot topic of discourse and  attention both by media and the public.

malacanang does not have 1 but 3 groups under its employ to make the topic of “president aquino’s achievement”  to be  seen as “sexy” enough to pay attention to.  that says they have no excuse  for not being able to put across the messagtes in behalf of the aquino administration.

if they blame the poor and weak message release to the public as the reason for the significant drop in aquino’s performance rating, then it is the fault of these three communication gr0ups.  in simple terms, these 3 communication groups have failed in doing  their jobs.

The EO effectively reorganizes the Office of the Press Secretary and is aimed at modernizing the Palace’s communications strategy to better deliver President Aquino’s message to the people.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/08/09/10/aquino-forms-media-communications-group

the primary task of the 3 communications group is to “better deliver president aquino’s message to the people” – the ratings drop due to shyness in delivering aquino’s message to the people means they have failed in their mandate.

aquino’s mandate reorganizing the office of the press secretary does not include “shyness” as an acceptable reason to fail in their mandate.

there is a dedicated press corp that covers malacanang.  media covers the president’s activity 24/7.  many of these media people, specially the major media outlets assign permanent reporters to the malacanang beat at all times and are exclusive to the office of the president.  these reporters are ever present in malacanang. all that malacanang needs to do is hand over to them a press release or call a press conference and the news is out.

of course that does not guarantee publication. the job of the 3 communications group is to make the news interesting enough for media to publish them. if the topic is boring and the write-up is boring, it will not be published. you can have a boring topic but if the write up is interesting, it can get published.

since malacanang seem to be blaming aquino’s drop in rating on the lack or weak message delivery, we wonder if the re-organization that they did, dividing it into 3 parts is the one that is causing the problem. is it possible that when they divided the function into 3 distinct functions, some fell through the cracks.

SWS poll (march 2011) – aquino satisfaction rating suffers a significant drop, the good news and the bad news

a 13 point drop in the satisfaction rating of  president aquino is statistically significant. on it’s value it can be a cause of concern for aquino.  malacanang or aquino’s handlers are saying it is a concern.  as a knee jerk reaction to the 13 point drop, feeling concerned is understandable but they need to look at the number within the framework of other factors and data that is available to them.

first of all, a drop in satisfaction ratings is expected. no president, even aquino can sustain a high rating through the lofe of the presidency.  aquino started at a net satisfaction of  +60, then moved up to +64. because it moved up to +64, the most recent +51 took a much larger drop of -13 points. if this was pegged at +60, the +51 would have been just a -9 pts drop only.

previous presidents’ satisfaction ratings also showed drops at different periods of their presidency. that just goes to show it is expected that it is impossible to expect that people will perpetually be happy with the president. the beginning of the term of the president always starts on a high note. the people just elected the president, there will be a halo effect on the satisfaction rating of  any president during months after the election.  it is called the honeymoon period. after the honeymoon, people see the real president with the halo effect from the recently concluded election campaign.

looking at the satisfaction ratings of past presidents,  aquino’s most recent rating of +51 and his highest of +64 may be the lowest compared to the highest ratings of past presidents aquino (+69), ramos (+69) and estrada (+67), these ratings are much higher than the highest rating than what arroyo ever got (+30).  in fact arroyo’s satisfaction rating record is the worst among all the presidents with arroyo getting minus satisfaction ratings for 25 out of 43 ratings. arroyo’s best rating is at +30 . aquino’s latest rating of +51 is a much more impressive than arroyo’s best.

what that means is that aquino’s presidency so far is serving the people much better than his predecessor, arroyo.

Ratings drop for Aquino

PUBLIC SATISFACTION with President Benigno S. C. Aquino III’s performance has fallen and controversies such as his purchase of a luxury car apparently have not helped, a new Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey found.

Most Filipinos still approve of Mr. Aquino but his latest net satisfaction rating is down 13 points to +51 (69% satisfied minus the 18% dissatisfied) from November’s +64 (74% satisfied, 10% dissatisfied), results of a March 4-7 poll made exclusive toBusinessWorld showed.

Interviewed on the issue of the president’s purchase of a Porsche late last year, nearly half or 48% said it was not a good example for the chief executive of a country like the Philippines, notwithstanding details such as the car was not brand new and that Mr. Aquino had used his own money.

A political analyst warned that results pointed to “uneasiness,” while Malacañang said a dip in Mr. Aquino’s numbers had been expected following his overwhelming election win last year.

Scores in all areas but one, socioeconomic classes and gender were down from November last year. In Luzon, urban areas, among the ABC class and among males, Mr. Aquino particularly saw his net ratings dip into “good” territory from “very good.”

read more here: http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?title=Ratings%20drop%20for%20Aquino&id=28754

aquino admin – hunger on the rise again

poverty is an endemic problem in the country and one that many previous administrations tried to fix but failed. that apparently includes the current aquino administration.

the aquino admin likes to say they are pro-poor and are dead serious in alleviating poverty. this survey results tell us the aquino admin better get their programs in place and running and hopefully effective.

but that will be asking too much. unfortunately the next quarterly survey of SWS on hunger will probably be even worst than this for the following reasons:

• toll fees are on the rise
• public transport fares (bus, jeepney, train, taxi) on the rise
• NFA rice has been increased
• bread prices on the rise
• gas prices are rising (always)
• power costs increasing
• jobs still hard to find
• US$ depreciating – remittances will get hit

the above will surely boost inflation and with not enough new jobs around, incomes will continue to be scarce and hunger will rise even more.

 

 

Hunger again rising

Yearend SWS survey estimates 3.4M families affected

HUNGER HAS GONE UP among Filipino families after declining for most of last year even as the number of households that consider themselves mahirap or poor basically stayed the same, a new Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey found.

A Nov. 27-30 SWS poll, the results of which were made exclusive to BusinessWorld, had 18.1% of the respondents — or an estimated 3.4 million families — claiming to have gone hungry in the last three months because they lacked anything to eat.

This was up from the 2010 low of 15.9% (3.0 million families) recorded last September and — given the 21.2% in March and 21.1% in June — was slightly below the 19.1% average for the year.

It was also four points over the 12-year average of 13.7%, the SWS noted, but still far from the record high of 24% hit in December 2009. The record low is 7.4%, hit in March 2004.

Some 9.2 million families or 49% of the respondents, meanwhile, considered themselves poor, barely changed from September’s 48%. Over a third — 36% or an estimated 6.7 million households — considered themselves food-poor, down from 38% previously.

Government officials blamed higher food prices in the last quarter of 2010 and noted the need to deliver on promises to reduce poverty.

The rise in overall hunger, the SWS said, was due to a two-point increase in moderate hunger — experiencing it “only once” or “a few times” in the last three months — to 15% or an estimated 2.8 million families. Those not stating their frequency of hunger are included in this category.

Severe hunger — experiencing it “often” or “always” — remained at 3.1% or 588,000 families.

Overall hunger rose in all areas except in the Visayas where it stayed at 15.3%. It increased by nearly four points in the Balance of Luzon to 18.3%, almost two points in Mindanao to 18% and a point in Metro Manila to 21.7%.

Moderate hunger was up in all geographical areas: to 16% from 13.3% in Mindanao, 14.7% from 12.3% in the Balance of Luzon, to 17.7% from 15.7% in Metro Manila and to 12.7% from 11.7% in the Visayas.

Severe hunger rose by over a point to 3.7% in the rest of Luzon but fell by an identical amount in Mindanao (2.0%) and the Visayas (2.7%). It fell by nearly a point in Metro Manila to 4.0%.

read in full here: http://www.bworld.com.ph/main/content.php?id=24243

noynoy aquino needs to learn to shut the fuck up

president noynoy aquino intends to tap the services of senator mar roxas and will probably give him the title of Secretary Of  Troubles whose primary role according to aquino is to be the “chief troubleshooter”.

we have nothing against mar roxas but we have something against president noynoy aquino on this latest development.

bottom line for us is that noynoy aquino needs to learn to shut up. not for good but for some time until everything is sorted out first, packaged properly and words chosen carefully.

this is our main beef –  in this statement of aquino, the president admits there is “trouble” in his cabinet. aquino’s words, not mine. not only that, there seem to be perpetual trouble in his cabinet that he needs to appoint someone to be   “chief troubleshooter” on a going basis.

of course no cabinet, no presidency or even any group is perfect. there will always be differences and yes, troubles.  troubles are  part of the psychology of groups but did aquino have to blurt it out to the public and did he have to say it in this way.

frankly, reading the article, we are having trouble understanding what aquino means.  it could just be an unfortunate choice of words, the word “trouble” in particular, not “chief”.  aquino gave the title “chief troubleshooter”  but in the explanation, aquino said “if something needs more intense attention,  I might task him to do that“.

while “something that needs intense attention” is not necessarily the same as “trouble”  or something troublesome, a “trouble” is always something  that needs “intense attention”. when trouble occurs in a group, intense specially, it needs immediate attention. a group or a cabinet that is troublesome  is never a good thing.

on the other hand, there can be things that need “intense attention” that are not necessarily troublesome. these things could just be of  high importance, not always high trouble.

so, what we are left here is that aquino just might have had trouble accessing a thesaurus and he made an unfortunate troublesome choice of words, the word “troubleshooter” and all he meant was “intense” or “important” projects. or it was a freudian slip unconsciously telegraphing to us that there is intense trouble in his administration?

the solution here is noynoy needs to learn to shut the fuck up.  not only does aquino talk too much, he talks too soon and he has trouble choosing the right words. aquino needs to understand the world of  country presidency is not the world of show business that his sister is involved in. in the presidency, bad press is not necessarily good press.  bad press means bad presidency.

in show business,  bad press or troublesome events in the life of the celebrity gets the celebrity press time and space. and in their world, that is a good thing.  you can dip your foot on mud but you can still remove it and clean it up over time.  your fans forget, and life goes on.

in the presidency, not only does something bad gets etched into your record of accomplishments  or record of troubles, it affects 94 million people and the next 2 million of filipinos added every year.

the other thing that bothers us is this – doesn’t aqiono have enough cabinet members  to perform the function of “troubleshooter of troubles” and “chief trouble shooter of intense sttention”?

a more telling thing – if it is trouble that needs to be fixed, shouldn’t he as president and  biggest dude in the country supposed to be the one to fix them? fixing troubles among cabinet members is one of the key components of  leadership, specially in this thing called president of a country.

if it is not him as president, isn’t that the job of his chief of staff or the executive secretary?

bottom line for us is this – there seem to be no good news on this one  no matter how you look at it. it’s all trouble from all angles. and it is intense.

mr. president. shut the fuck up!

Millions Of Pinoy Catholics (71%) Face MASS EXCOMMUNICATION by CBCP

a certain Bishop Nereo Odchimar, president of CBCP, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines said president noynoy faces the threat of excommunication if the president promotes the distribution of modern methods of contraception like the pill, IUD and condoms.

let’s assume the bishop knows what he is talking about and that he is not just bullying noynoy aquino, applying the same logic, based on an SWS survey. a high 71% of pinoy catholics will need to  be excommunicated as well as that represents the number of catholics who support RH Bill 5043.

(click here to read: https://2010presidentiables.wordpress.com/2010/09/29/noynoy-aquino-favors-free-choice-for-contraception-method-philippine-catholic-church-goes-gaga/)

a key component of RH Bill 5043 is  the government will provide support, information and promotion of all types of contraceptive methods, which includes traditional or natural methods that the catholic church exclusively supports and modern or artificial methods of contraception. this is exactly the same position of president noynoy – that pinoy couples will be given free choice on  the kind of contraception they will use.

if supporting the use of modern or artificial methods of contraception will get president noynoy excommunicated, then the rest of the 71% of catholics who support RH Bill 5043 will need to be excommunicated as well.

don’t know if  the bishop realizes this, but the bishop’s bully threat if carried out will deplete the catholic church in the philippines. there will be no catholic church to speak of.

aside from this huge number of catholics who support the RH Bill, the CBCP will need to excommunicate doctors, nurses, health workers and DOH employees and officers who also support and prescribe modern methods of contraception.

Bishop Nereo Odchimar’s action of mass excommunication of pinoy catholics will in a snap of a finger turn this country to something very different from what we used to know it to be. one of the things the philippines is known for is for being a catholic country.

let us hope Bishop Nereo Odchimar thinks about this a little bit more.

some questions we have on this mass excommunication of pinoy catholics – (a) how will the excommunication be done? a letter or memo? mass de-baptism? ; (b) what will happen to the catholic churches that are on every town?

Aquino faces threat of excommunication

Protester shouts at bishops: ‘Damaso!’

By Philip Tubeza
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:01:00 10/01/2010

MANILA, Philippines — Raising the ante in their conflict over birth control, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president Thursday said President Benigno Aquino III could be “excommunicated” if he actively promoted the distribution of artificial contraceptives to Filipino couples.

Mr. Aquino, a practising Catholic, recently signified support for couples who would want to limit the number of their children by using contraceptives. His statement has been taken to mean he would favor government distribution of contraceptives to them.

“Being the President of all, you must consider the position of the Catholic Church because we are approaching this issue from the moral aspect,” the CBCP president, Bishop Nereo Odchimar, said on Church-run Radio Veritas.

“Abortion is a grave crime. Excommunication is attached to those. That is an issue of gravity, that is a violation of God’s commandment,” he stressed.

Asked if Mr. Aquino could be excommunicated if he promoted the distribution of contraceptives, the CBCP president said: “That is a possibility.”

But Odchimar added: “Right now, it is not a proximate possibility.” He said, however, that “we will look into that.”

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20101001-295320/Aquino-faces-threat-of-excommunication

actions from the de lima report – noynoy aquino’s last chance to save himself

an 83 plus page  final report and at least four other thick booklets have been given to president noynoy aquino by leila de lima, head of the 5-man committee that investigated the lunata bus hostage rescue bloodbath.

several doors are still open, we are hoping at minimum at least a few will be closed. with the end of de lima’s investigation and the submission of the final report. one big door that we are hoping will be closed is the this gaping hole of aquino’s weak leadership.  aquino has a last chance to close that door, for him to show true leadership and save himself from a tarnished image as a leader of a nation.

santiago pascual

rodolfo magtibay

rico puno

jesse robredo

jess verzosa

aquino should show, finally good leadership by taking the final report’s conclusions and fire DILG Usec puno, PNP chief versoza, NCRPO chief santiago, ground commander magtibay, leader of the SWAT team pascual, the SWAT team members,  leaders of all the teams who were at the hostage crisis and the RMN radio anchors who interviewed the hostage taker.  they should all be fired and with some charged with crimes for bungling the rescue of the hostages.  sec robredo should be fired for not managing the situation and not saving his boss, president aquino after the hostage crisis.

if aquino does not take this decisive action as the leader fo the country, aquino’s image as a leader will be tarnished forever. henceforth, he will be indexed against this incident.

the insult noynoy aquino found in donald tsang’s letter – tsang treated aquino as his maid, his alila

in a recent news report, aquino said he found the letter sent to him by donald tsang as insulting, that it was a 2-page letter, had detailed items  and contained “demands”.

now we have this:

Tsang letter ‘said what HK wants to know‘
Ambrose Leung and Raissa Robles in Manila
Sep 11, 2010

Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen says he knows better than Philippine President Benigno Aquino what Hong Kong people want, which is justice for those killed in the Manila hostage crisis by getting to the bottom of the tragedy.

“Eight Hong Kong people died there,” Tsang said yesterday, a day after Aquino said he felt insulted by a letter from the Hong Kong government spelling out issues it wanted addressed in the inquiry into last month’s bloodbath. “I trust that my understanding of the people’s sentiments in Hong Kong is deeper than that of the Philippine president and thus was a valuable reference.”

these are the things we can draw from the above:

• what aquino said is highly consistent with what tsang said

• the “demands” aquino was referring to were those tsang described as “what hong kong people want”

• tsang must have enumerated a laundry list of what HK people wanted and that is why the letter ran into 2 pages

• tsang in enumerating what hong kong people wanted must have sounded as demands in the way it was written and most likely its contents. maybe a to-do list type or  a laundry list of deliverables. it must have been very detailed that the letter  reached 2 pages.

with that, we think :

• it is inappropriate for tsang, chief executive  of hong kong to tell aquino the head of state of a country, the philippines, to tell aquino what needs to be done

• equally important, it is wrong for tsang to tell aquino what to do for the purpose of satisfying the wants or demands of the people of hong kong.  aquino is NOT answerable to hong kong people,  aquino is answerable only to filipinos. filipinos may demand things from aquino, but hong kong people has no right to demand anything from aquino.

• hong kong people can make demands on tsang but tsang was wrong  in  telegraphing  those same demands to aquino. tsang should have translated the “demands” hong kong people made into more diplomatic terms

• tsang disrespected aquino in not treating  aquino as an equal and insensitively making demands on a leader of another country

• tsang’s statement saying  “he knew best what the hong kong people wanted than aquino does” can be true. but what does it matter to aquino? aquino is not seeking to satisfy hong kong people’s demands.

• that statement of tsang shows his arrogance and a feeling that he knew more than aquino did

• tsang was clearly wrong on this one and aquino was right on the dot to feel insulted by the letter sent by tsang

to us, it looks like tsang behaved like many hong kong residents behave towards filipinos. many hong kong residents have filipinos as their maids and drivers, tsang behaved exactly the same way many hong kong people behave towards their filipino maids – give demands, utusan ang alila.

tsang must have felt he needed to give very detailed instructions and demands to aquino like the way he probably deals with  his filipina maids in hong kong. what tsang forgot was he was dealing with the head of state of a country and there are very basic rules he needs to follow in dealing with someone who has the stature as aquino has – the head of state of a country.

footnote: if you live in hong kong even for any number of months,  one of the first things you notice is that hong kong people are very rude people.  it is one character that hong kong people are known for among foreigners who live in hong kong. this rudeness may have been shown by tsang in his letter to aquino.

google “rude hong kong people” or click here:

http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en#sclient=psy&hl=en&site=webhp&q=rude+hong+kong+people&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=ab5cdb1806fef4aa

noynoy aquino digs himself deeper into leadership hell in saving jesse robredo

we have commented  on noynoy aquino’s leadership style (read: http://wp.me/pnw03-1lG and http://wp.me/pnw03-1l7) and also called for the the firing of DILG chief jesse robredo from his job (read: http://wp.me/pnw03-1lg ) on his performance during the post hostage bloodshed at luneta park where eight  hong kong hostages were killed. robredo as DILG chief to which the PNP belongs to has been getting a lot of criticism from many and we have been reading a lot of them asking for the same thing – for robredo to be fired from his job or to resign.

this is the latest on this issue – president aquino has decided once again to be tentative in his decision making,  malacanang did not submit robredo’s name for confirmation by the commission of appointment saying robredo has only been assigned to his portfolio on an acting capacity. apparently, robredo is under probation for two months, something  nobody knew weeks before the hostage crisis when robredo’s appointment was announced.  also, we did  not know that robredo and aquino had “differences” during the presidential campaign. aquino now wants to find out within the two month period if they can sort it out.

we are totally confused by all of these!

by aquino’s own words, he had differences with robredo during the election campaign. if so, why the hell did aquino appoint  robredo  as DILG chief, in an acting capacity or not? that does not make sense – why appoint someone to such an important position if you don’t trust the person completely and someone you had differences with?

that to us says aquino’s leadership style and decision making skills by themselves are infirm.   based on that incident, it seems aquino puts less than the best people in cabinet positions and with whom he is not sure if he can work well with the person.

actually, we don’t believe this whole story on robredo being assigned on an acting capacity basis because aquino is unsure of  robredo. we think robredo was appointed DILG chief on the basis of his skills and achievements in naga city where he was mayor.  this story was just created recently after bus hostage crisis at the luneta and robredo got flack from many quarters.

we think this is like  sitting in the middle, the middle is along the lines of we might fire robredo sometime soon due to pressure but we will just wait a little longer kind of strategy.

it’s a stupid strategy. whoever thought of the strategy should be fired himself from his job.

this strategy was hatched either to buy time and/or save robredo. malacanang is feeling the heat on robredo. the committee headed by DOJ chief  lila de lima is conducting  its investigation on the hostage crisis, they want to buy time until de lima concludes her investigation. whoever thought of this strategy thinks de lima might uncover something that can save robredo and/or people’s sentiments towards robredo might change in the future and stop calling for his resignation.

the author of this strategy may be  giving robredo some time to stay as DILG chief,  but what was forgotten was that it makes aquino look less competent as a leader.

the value of this move is questionable and in doubt and it puts aquino in a bad light. this strategy has hit two birds with one stone but on the reverse.  it may tentatively help the cause of  robredo but it is hurting aquino.

MANILA, Philippines – President Benigno Aquino admitted on Tuesday that he appointed Jesse Robredo only as acting secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) as reported earlier by VERA Files and ABS-CBN News.

Aquino said he had differences with Robredo during the election campaign, which is why he appointed Robredo in an acting capacity. Robredo’s name has not been submitted to the Commission on Appointments (CA) for confirmation.

He told Malacañang reporters he first wants to make sure that he can get along with Robredo, which is why he is in an “evaluation period” as chief of the interior and local government.

“There are various reasons kung bakit acting. In the case of Jesse, we had some differences during the campaign as to style. We want to make sure we can really work with each other well. It does no good to get him through the whole process of the CA only at the end of the day to find out that there might be difficulties in our working style, among others, our core philosophy, so we did agree na acting na muna,” Aquino said.

“May evaluation period, siguro check ang working style, after two months sigurado na tayo, we still have certain things discussed,” he added. “Dadalawang buwan pa lang kami nagkakasubukan kung talaga nga bang kaya naming mag-mesh.”

http://www.philippinenews.com/9414-article.html

noynoy aquno’s ho-hum leadership style is killing his presidency and the country oh so softly

we are desperately seeking a proper term to describe president aquino’s style of leadership as we have seen it  in (in)action during and after the august 23 bus hostage bloodshed at the luneta. we first described his brand of leadership as “weak, invisible and minuscule” (read here:  http://wp.me/pnw03-1l7) ). that can be summarized as ho-hum leadership, something that might make you fall asleep if you are not a coffee drinker.

first off, we do not blame aquino for the failed rescue of the hostages and the deaths of the hostages. that goes to the leadership and leaders of the philippine national police  who were at the scene. but we blame aquino for some of what happened after the hostage bloodshed.

there are two parts to the hostage bloodshed – one is the operational part which is essentially the attempted but failed effort to save the hostages and resolve the matter peacefully.  it is a police matter, one of security and safety.  the police are responsible for such matters.

what happened is a failure in police operation and as we saw on live tv, most oof the failure was caused by poor planning, poor execution, lack of equipment and bad decisions.

for those failures, the field commander, magtibay, the SWAT team leader  and all the other team leaders who were operating during the hostage crisis are to be blamed for the errors committed during the siege. they need to be fired by the police top brass.

for command responsibility, santiago the NCRPO chieh and versoza the PNP  chief need to resign their post as well. they had leadership  roles to fulfill but they did not exercise them. both even knew errors were being committed but they did not act in their capacity as heads of the PNP.

the PNP is under the DILG. usec puno apparently is directly responsible for the PNP . puno by command responsibility should offer his resignation., he also failed to exercise his leadership role during the failure.

it’s chief, robredo,  is indirectly accountable for the failure of the PNP.during the rescue attempt. he did not have a direct operational role but it is his agency that failed.

the second part of the whole situation is post hostage crisis. for that second part, DILG robredo is directly responsible for,. for that, he needs to resign his position.

the dismal failure of the PNP resulted to lives lost during the hostage crisis and the country humiliated because of the PNP’s failure.  because his agency caused that, he should have shown leadership to manage the  situation, even for damage control.

it  also embarrassed his boss, president noynoy aquino, he should have shown leadership to  at least minimize the embarrassment  if not prevent it.  but  as it happened, he really did not do anything post-hostage crisis.

in fact it seems nobody from the philippne government showed leadership, not even presdient noynoy aquino.  everyone seemed to b e just standing there waiting for the punches to come in.  no action was done to evade the punches not to  counter punch. they all just stood there and took the punches.

robredo was the man who was supposed to do that. but he was nowhere to be found, lost and hidden from everyone. he did not even do anything to defend or protect his boss. if he did not protect his boss, then he did not protect the country as well.

he needs to resign for this failure. in fact, he should really be fired from his job.

noynoy aquino was also nowhere to be found. he did tiny things to fix matters but nothing worthy of the leadership to which he was voted for by the people.

there is universal agreement that PNP failed during the hostage crisis and yet no one seem to have taken the right step to impose accountability on the failure.

aquino’s presidency is getting hit bad and is suffering. to stop that, aquino needs to show his leadership by firing everyone who obviously made an error during  the hostage crisis. there is already universal agreement that there were failures, we just want to know who committed them and we want to be relieved of  them.

DILG chief robredo, usec puno and  PNP chief versoza are hurting aquino and his presidency by not resigning their post. the longer they stay in those positions, the more they hurt aquino.

in fact the more effective action, one that will have better effect is if aquino himself fires them and does not wait for their resignation. firing them, two being his close friends and political allies will transmit the message that aquino is serious about what happened and that he values good performance among his people by acting on bad performance.

aquino accepting responsibility does not do anything for aquino, it only confuses matters. the country did not give a collective sigh of relief when he said he was taking responsibility, it only confused them.  people want accountability, him taking responsibility begs the question why is he not resigning from the presidency. people  have a hard time to differentiate responsibility and accountability.

aquino’s brand of leadership seem to be one of a wait-and-see style. rather than action, he waits for things to happen and then takes action after the fact. it is one that will makes us fall asleep and one that is giving his presidency nightmares.

ho-hum.