The resolve of Hong Kong pro-democracy student protesters called Occupy Hong Kong Central have not wavered. If you studied the profile of these students, they belong to the middle class in Hong Kong, which means, they are not poor, unlike the majority of our students, many of whom belong to the poverty line.
More importantly, the Hong Kong government is one of the least corrupt bureaucracies in Asia because of Hong Kong's very strict anti-corruption laws; hence its public servants truly serve the needs of the public sector. In comparison, the Philippine bureaucracy has been tagged as one of the most corrupt in Asia. Our senators and congressmen who demand to be called "honorable" have been caught in that infamous Janet Lim Napoles scam that used fake NGO's to extract money so they could fill their private bank accounts with people's money.
So if you looked at things very carefully, our students in this country have more valid reasons to be out in the streets in protest against the corruption of the Aquino Regime. More so that Mr. PNoy Aquino has made a mockery of our democracy when he had former Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona impeached in Congress and convicted in the Senate for his alleged unexplained wealth. But how many of our congressmen and senators cannot even explain their wealth?
During his presscon purportedly to answer allegations of corruption in the Makati Parking Building, Vice Pres. Jejomar Binay gave his life story saying he had humble beginnings. All the more we questioned the vice president how he became rich so suddenly when no one knows what kind of family business he is in? Of course, we know enough that the Binay family business is politics, which is why there is a Binay dynasty in Makati.
So with Congress throwing away the impeachment complaint against Pres. PNoy Aquino and with the vice president entangled in this corruption mess and with the Office of the Ombudsman not responding to those triages against the vice president, plus the fact that the same Ombudsman have not indicted those senators and congressmen in the Napoles affidavit, what we have here is a serious lack of Justice! It brings us back to the time of the Marcos dictatorship when there was so much injustice.
As Thomas Jefferson once said, "When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes a duty." It is for this reason why the National Transformation Council has been formed and will be presented today at the Mariner's Court, ALU Compound at 1:00PM to 5:00PM because as citizens it is our duty to find ways to save our nation from falling into chaos. I dare say that if you folks out there choose not to do something about our problems, then my friends, you too have become part of the problem. In my book the greatest injustice done to the Filipino people is making them poor!
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One of the things that Pres. Benigno Aquino III did while he was in the United States of America was to offer his help to the Americans in the fight against the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq. This came about because of reports that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front the Philippine government's partner in the Mindanao peace process and the Bangsamoro Freedom Fighters were not just supporting ISIL, but also recruiting Muslim youth to fight for ISIL in Syria and Iraq.
To strengthen his offer of support, PNoy directed Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario to meet with his counterpart in the US State Department to discuss details on how the Philippines can help the US-led Coalition against those terrorist rebels. Surely it must have occurred to PNoy that the Americans, the British or the French have attacked ISIL using warplanes and tomahawk cruise missiles, but all of them have been adamant that there will be no boots on the ground. Meaning, there will be no ground war.
So what can the Philippines do? We certainly cannot help the US in the Air War because we really have no fighter aircraft to send to the Middle East. If you ask me, the least that the Philippines can do is to stop or prevent those young Muslim recruited by the MILF or the BIFF to go out of the country. I gathered that troops are being sent to Basilan to check out this story that a Basilan Mayor told the media. But will the presence of the AFP change things in Basilan? I doubt it… the Muslims there have grown accustomed to the presence of troops in their midst since time immemorial. At this point, it is time for the Philippine Government Panel to ask serious questions with their MILF partners… whether or not they denounce ISIL? Abangan