We've always believed that the Inquirer and other newspapers were considered part and parcel of the yellow propaganda machinery that continues to prop up the image of Pres. Benigno "PNoy" Aquino, III much in the same way that the Social Weather Station (SWS) and Pulse Asia continue to conduct surveys that give the President very high marks as if he was the greatest president that this country was so damn lucky to have.
But last Sunday, the social networking sites came up with something unexpected in an article from the Inquirer dubbed Biz Buzz written by their own staff Doris Dumlao and I'm glad it came out in that paper. This was one report that could have easily come out of the Manila Standard or the Daily Tribune, so it was a big surprise for me to read this article that talked about "scripted applause." Scripted applause? What in heavens is that?
Since he came to power in 2010, we've heard all the four State of the Nation Addresses (SONA) of the President and yes, as we've said before, no President in this country ever made a bad SONA. What matters to us is in putting into action the words that the President outlines in his SONA. So when we heard the people in the joint session of the House applauding the President's speech, it was an accepted fact that people do appreciate what the President had said… until we read this piece in the Inquirer. Let me reprint some excerpts of that article written by Doris Dumlao.
"It was reported that the audience at the Batasang Pambansa had applauded 88 times during the speech (less than 120 times in 2012) but some of this may not be as spontaneous as it seemed. If you happened to be seated at the second gallery of the session hall, equivalent to the lower box or the section after the ringside, there were key persons issuing command via radio. The guests could actually hear commands like "applause," "standby for applause," and "Ok applause" to the designated "cheer leaders" similar to the cue given to the audience of a variety show."
The article apparently pointed out that there were many eyewitnesses to what was going on while the President was making his SONA and it revealed that certain personalities were "planted" to give a hearty applause when they heard the command over the "walkie talkie" to applaud the speech of the President. This in my book is the highest form of deception coming from the propagandists of PNoy.
As we learned from this article, the President's SONA was applauded 88 times, but less than 120 times in the previous SONA. This only shows that PNoy's propagandists are running scared that the audience will not be as appreciative when he made his mid-term report because they know too well that there was nothing much to shout about anyway. So the Malacañang communications team went overboard to plant those people to trigger those rounds of applause! What a mockery! The President should not allow this to happen!
Call it a desperate move if you will. But even in the heydays of the Thousand Year Reich, where Josef Goebbels headed the propaganda machinery of Nazi Fuehrer Adolf Hitler, they never went this far to rally the German people to applaud their leader. That's because, thanks to their propaganda machinery, the Germans idolized Hitler. But PNoy's propaganda machinery is failing fast that they had to resort to planting people in strategic places at the Batasan to applaud his SONA. What a shame!
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We're still looking for solutions on how to stop the flooding along Colon St. and I got another letter from Mr. Alvin Santillana of the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (DDRMC) on their proposals on how to solve this problem on a short term and long term basis. Here's his letter in full;
"Sir Bobit, Likewise sir, we also have the same observation that sea water intrusion will occur if we dig deep into the bed of Estero Pari-an. A temporary solution which we are considering is to install high volume pumps to transfer water from Estero Pari-an to the direction of the sea using elevated pipes. The pump will only activate when water flowing along the estero reaches to a certain level.
The exit point of the estero will be installed with floodgate to prevent seawater intrusion during high tides but will not prevent water from the estero to go out. Our long-term solution as per our research, the width of Estero Pari-an was originally wider than it is now. One option is if data is still available is to restore the original width of the waterway. The above-mentioned solutions are among those commonly discussed but if you have another idea to share, on how to solve the issue along Estero Pari-an we would gladly consider the proposal for evaluation. Thank you very much. At your service Alvin Santillana." I hope this Risk Reduction Council would implement this plan for our sakes.
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Email: vsbobita@gmail.com