Soliloquy

                 The ASEAN Summit the country hosted is finally over and it is time for the postscripts and assessments on both the physical staging and the results that came out of this semi-annual meeting of heads of states in the region.  Those who had a part in the planning and implementation of physical arrangements, capitalizing on some polite praises from foreigners, have preempted all others to proclaim that the Summit here was an unprecedented success.  The usual political experts routinely sought to consume the time of TV talk shows will again exert efforts to give prolonged discourses to embellish and convey their takes on the results of the summit.  That's all part of the show and although I do not belong to any of those groups, I also have my own footnotes.                 Like most Metro-Manilans, with the exception of those who decided to get away and hied to the pro...

          To a retiree like me, with nowhere to go out to in the morning, breakfast is a pleasant ceremony of waking up to the physical world, provided there is no Duterte aggravation in the news.  From my chair at the table, through the parted curtains the promise of a sunny day is clear in the cascade of morning light spilling all over the garden lawn and somehow that wholesome feeling embraces you like the warmth of coffee spreading all over inside.  And intrusively, from somewhere you do not wish to define at the moment, comes a reminder to be thankful because you realize that despite the aches and discomforts of ageing, you are among the fortunate who may spend the afternoon of life without much of the burdens and pains that you see weighing down others around you.                                                   ...

          The newspaper this morning announced that President Duterte has appointed a new spokesman.  That kind of news ordinarily should not wake me up faster than a cup of coffee but this time it did because only a few days ago I posted here my thoughts on past presidential spokesmen in general and in particular the replaced Ernesto Abella.  I had bewailed, naively of course, how those individuals could accept and stay in a job where the main qualifications are a lack of intellectual honesty and moral principles or the weak character to be able to sell out for the perks of the position.  I particularly lamented the case of Ernesto Abella because I thought that his being a former religious pastor was anathema to the job he was doing as Duterte's spokesman where he had to be untruthful and dishonest in order to deodorize or embellish many things about his principal.                      N...

       Year in and year out as far back as we can remember, the two chambers of Congress have been holding  public hearings on assorted subject matters and concerns related to government and governance.  These hearings have become popularly known as in aid of legislation.  In theory these are done with a lofty and ideal purpose to enable our Congress to re-examine the workings and policies in agencies of government and to correct by legislative action any systemic and procedural  irregularities and shortcomings in the implementation of government functions.            This legislative power is one of many features of governing we have adopted from the U.S. system where it is obviously proving to be positive influence for the improvement of the bureaucratic functions and in exacting official discipline in the governance of that nation.  It is really something ideal to adopt.  However, given the general ...

        The position of spokesman of the President of the Philippines is decidedly a high and very visible cabinet job in the government.  For that reason, the occupant is always under the evaluation of the public in terms, principally, of the intellectual and moral  dimensions he puts into the performance of the job that is meant to clarify and convey to the public the policies and actions of the president.         The younger among us may have only Estrada's Dong Puno, Macapagal-Arroyo's Ignacio Bunye, Pinoy's Lacierda and Valte, and now Manuel Abella for Duterte as examples of the personalities that have occupied the position.  Our generation goes farther back to include others in the past but all together they are essentially of the same genes and they all contribute to and engender the absence of respect for their breed as they have invariably descended to the level of cheap propagandists instead of dependable explainers ...

            One of the luxuries of retirement is to wake up in the morning without having to dress to go to work or do a job elsewhere.  And in the congenial space of home, you can lazily savor your coffee, taking all your time to read the newspaper and finding that there is no item in the news that riles you up.  But over time, this could become essentially routine and somehow boring as it was with me and I would look for or do other things to perk up the morning in addition to coffee.               Somehow that has not been a problem since Rodrigo Duterte became president.  There are few mornings now that the newspapers do not carry an item of news or commentary on what he said or did and how he said or did it that does not agitate the better side of my human sensibilities in varying degrees and I would be induced to cogitate and contemplate on dark thoughts even.  Could be congenital or in the...

               Unless it is a day for golf  when I leave very early, the newspaper and breakfast are the first in my schedule.  This morning was no exception except that the newspaper today gave me nausea even before I could start breakfast.                In the banner headline was that the Supreme Court, voting 9 to 6, had dismissed the petition of Sen. Leila De Lima to quash the drug charges and arrest warrant against her.  While I applauded and admired many of her official actions as chairperson of the Commission on Human Right and later as secretary of justice, I have no personal bias for the detained senator, one way or the other.  But I think I have been sufficiently trained to understand the law and this decision by the Court's majority and the casual and absentminded reasoning to support it awakened my dormant disrespect over the years for the lack of integrity and common s...