What Lies Ahead

Whenever I see children playing on the street, I remember those happy days when we were kids. Never there have been a dull moment when we were playing with my playmates. As long as we were enjoying ourselves playing, we never think what will happen next, we don't even worry for ourselves though sometimes there was harm in the games we played. "Que sera sera" like what the song says.

Unlike now, now that I have my own family, I have to think of everything. From shelter, food to eat, clothes to wear etc. But for me, one of the most important thing a family man should think is the future of their kids. Every parents want to give their kids the best, so do I.

But I'm asking myself, can I still be able to give my daughter the best amidst the present economic and political situation of the country? The world knows that the present political & economic situation in the country is getting worse following the revelation of the anomalies that the president together with her family headed by her husband and their allies did for numerous government projects. It has been said that the First Family was behind every overpriced government transactions.

After the anomalous NBN-ZTE deal was exposed to the public, star witness Mr. Jun Lozada then said on a hearing that the Senate must also investigate on the previous government projects such as the South Rail project which costs roughly around 932 million US Dollars and that previous government projects must be subjected for investigation to see if there has been an irregularity happened before, during and after the project has been agreed upon by the government and the contracting party and to see if the President had her participation on the alleged overpricing on the said projects.


People from all walks of life and even students in different universities joined hands to urge the government to speak for the truth, they even staged an inter faith rally in Ayala Avenue in Makati late last month to call for the resignation of Mrs. Arroyo but the palace belittled the demonstrators act.

There had been reports that the policemen barred some militant groups from the provinces to join the said rally to lessen their numbers but they strongly deny this allegations.

Some politicians, educators and businessmen merged to build an independent commission they called The Independent Citizens' Debt Audit Commission, consisting of not more than 30 individuals of proven probity, credibility and expertise and shall be conducting a comprehensive audit of all public debt and contingent liabilities aiming for an accurate historical, contextual and comprehensive examination of the Philippine debt problem.

Milo Tanchuling, PAID (People Against Illegitimate Debt)! co-convenor and secretary general of the Freedom from Debt Coalition, said "with Rodolfo 'Jun' Lozada's revelation on the aborted $329 million ZTE-NBN deal, the Philippines' debt problem and the continued accumulation of illegitimate debts has once again been put in the spotlight".

To date, the National Government has a debt of P3.78 trillion or $81.6 billion. The total consolidated public sector debt as of percentage to the Gross Domestic Product is 81.9 percent.

Each Filipino, from the newly born baby to a dying septuagenarian, is indebted by as much as P43,487, paying P7,012 annually to service the debt, the group's statement said.

Imagine that, even before our baby born, he owe this government a debt he don't even know who benefits from it.

After all of this scandals, can we still say that we still can provide our kids a better future now that Mrs. Arroyo is facing treason charges by allegedly allowing the Chinese government to explore Spratly Island to look for an oil deposit?

Conspiracy in the Philippine Government

The Philippines and it's leaders are now facing a great scandal following the exposè about the alleged overpricing led by the First Gentleman on the deal between the NBN (National Broadband Network) project of the government and the ZTE Corporation of China.

It all started when a certain businessman named Joey De Venecia appeared on a Senate hearing a few months later and said that the First Gentleman points his finger on him and said "back off" which according to De Venecia, the First Gentleman wants him to back off as a bidder on the said government project.

Few months after this, former House Speaker Jose De Venecia, father of Mr. Joey De Venecia was thrown out of his post on the Congress amidst the fact that before this revelation came out, the Speaker and the Palace had a great political relation.

Few weeks after leaving his post, he said in an interview that when his son Joey started to reveal the anomalous acts of the First Gentleman and their allies, Mrs. Arroyo talked to him and urged him to stop his son from telling what his son knows about the said deal between the NBN and the ZTE, or else he will be thrown out of his post. He even said that Mrs. Arroyo uses her two son Datu and Mikey which are also members of the House to lead the move against him should he fail to stop his son from telling the truth about the deal.

Then another witness came out in the name of Mr. Rodolfo Noel "Jun" Lozada, an electronics and communications engineer by profession and the former president of the Philippine Forest Corporation (PFC).

Being an expert in IT, Commission on Higher Education chairman Romulo Neri, then socioeconomic planning secretary and head of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) hired Lozada as consultant for the NBN project.

Neri said former COMELEC Chairman Benjamin Abalos offered him P200 million in exchange for his endorsement of the NBN deal with ZTE Corp. but the former chairman deny the allegations of Neri.

And before Lozada's appearance in the Senate, he reportedly to have been abducted by some policemen and a member of the Presidential Security Group after his arrival on the airport from Hong Kong.

The Philippine National Police headed by Avelino Razon denies this allegations saying they know nothing about this and that the alleged kidnapping happened in the part of Lozada was just a mere drama. They said that it was Lozada who asks the help of the police for his protection following numbers of death threats he had receive even when he was in Hong Kong.

While in Hong Kong, he said he was given some Php500,000.00 by Deputy Executive Secretary Manuel Gaite as pocket money, he even told that some Palace officials advised him to go to Europe for he and his family's safety instead of going back to the Philippines but he insisted to go back to his native land and face the consequences of what he has started.

So many names came out following his revelation but no one among them admits their participation or knowledge in the controversy, they were all covering each other and pretends to be innocent.

Filipino people are sick and tired of this kind of political conspiracy, someone is hiding something over the other and the leaders who are doing bad things are always using their accomplice to hide the truth in exchange of a higher government position or a big amount of money sufficient enough to live luxuriously.

Every time a Filipino made good things over the other race, be it in sports, arts, inventions etc., many Filipino said that "I'm proud to be a Filipino", in fact Filipino's are known for almost every corner of the world in many different fields, but with this kind of political system we have right now, can we still face them bravely and say that we are proud to be a Filipino?

On my part, I still can say that I'm proud to be a Filipino. What I am not proud of is the dirty system that this government runs and the leaders that instead of being a good example to their fellow countrymen in uplifting their lives and taking the country out of the list of the most corrupt country in the world, they are adding more bad impressions to the world by doing such things

As what Lozada said, "it was the high-level corruption and bureaucratic inefficiency that made many Filipinos lose trust in the government and its institutions".

Effects of a Growing Economy

I was so amazed when i accidentally had a glance on a headline of one of the leading broadsheet last Friday, it says that the Philippine economy turned in its best performance in 31 years. The Palace also said that the high growth rate registered in 2007 was a clear manifestation that President Arroyo has taken the right economic strategies and fundamentals and steps have been taken to sustain the momentum.

Despite all of this "good news" the Palace said, majority of the Filipino people doesn't believe in them. Why? Because for almost every time they speak to public, they always said that the Philippine economy is playing very well against the other Asian country and that for now Philippines is now in the lead in terms of economic growth in Asia.

Mrs. Arroyo also said that she will end her term with “a bigger stride in economic growth, surge of more foreign investments, more jobs for our people, strong currency and better delivery of basic services that will all be benefiting the poorest sector of our society.”

But would you please take a look at this pictures and tell me if the growth they are telling are for real


Homeless Families











Toiletless Community
Scavengers













Juvenile











Children Suffering from Starvation



















Garbage Problem










Now I asked myself, is this the fruit of Mrs. Arroyo's hard work for her alleged uplifting of the lives of the Filipino people? Or this is just another tale she created on her mind?

The Filipino people are sick and tired of asking when should they feel the effect of the "good news" to their lives. Till when will they suffer from poverty, extreme starvation, justice unfairness and a lot of promises they had made before they took their posts?

Though its sad to say, we cannot deny the fact that they were all part of a broken promise.

Wrong statement(?)

21 years after the government troops sprayed bullets on militant farmers that staged rally in Mendiola Bridge in Manila which was dubbed as "Mendiola Massacre". The troops then killed farmers who was just after the promise made by then administration of former president Corazon Aquino that the land they farm would be given to them. They were demanding for the distribution of lands and zero retention of estates by landowners, though supported by organizations of churches, youth, workers and other sectors, they decided to proceed to Malacañang after they felt that a series of talks with Alvarez failed to yield results and that the government broke their promise that triggered the farmers to stage protest against the administration of Mrs. Aquino. The government then said that they never meant to do it but the farmers forced them to do so that resulted in the killing of 13 farmers and wounding 80 others.

On the 22nd of this month, the farmers will again stage demonstrations at the site of the killing to commemorate the 21st year of this event but reports said that the PNP earlier announced that 10,000 policemen have been placed on standby to allow them to attend to any eventuality following reports that an alliance between the New Peoples Army and the Magdalo Group was formed to stage another destabilization plot.

Five ex-army were caught last Tuesday while transporting high powered firearms believed to be use in preparation of the alleged plot. But the wives of these soldiers said that their husbands were forcibly picked up by military in their home to be use as evidence on the destabilization plot and they were not transporting firearms for the firearms were planted by military. But one of five dismissed soldiers arrested for alleged links to a destabilization plot was freed yesterday from the custody of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) after the Department of Justice (DOJ) cleared him of charges.

Compared to the past administration, I can say that this administration has the most numbers of destabilization attempts. Though ranked number four from 100 Most Influential Women in the World, Forbes.com earlier associated the word "scandal-plagued president" before Mrs. Arroyo's name following news of anomalies and controversies against the president from the very first day she take her post. Many people speculate that more and more uprising will come her way by the way she as a leader and her allies do their job. But amidst these rumors of destabilization, the Arroyo government said that they are very much ready to handle situations and they also warned destabilizers not to pursue their plan for they will fail... again.

“Let me be realistic, 2007 was not always smooth sailing, not least of which is the political sector. The November coup attempt fizzled but it gives a black eye to our nation” Mrs. Arroyo said in her speech which refers to the brief takeover by detained Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and several Magdalo Group members of the Peninsula Hotel in Makati City last Nov. 29.

She also added that “the reality is that we have become stronger, a more stable nation as these (acts) of political shenanigans fall flat with you and with the people” despite the fact that numbers of families suffering from extreme starvation are growing and growing.

Is this what she mean for her statement?