Sons of the Revolution

I find it amusing that "Bongbong" Marcos is proving to be more intelligent that "Noynoy" Aquino. It's like the late Ferdinand Marcos' vengeance from beyond the grave. The late heroes' have messed up children while the dead dictator has a more competent one.

"Bongbong" is a silly nickname but I suppose you must do what you can to endear yourself to the unwashed masses. To be fair, "Ferdinand Marcos Jr." might not evoke the right feelings with the slower people. Nevertheless, he is not his father. I believe children should not be made to suffer for the sins of their father (or fathers if the case may be). 

I remember this one time when "Bongbong", I'll just call him Marcos Junior from now on or something, gave his speech during the trial of the former Chief Justice, I was actually impressed. He gave his reasons why he would not vote to impeach and said reasons were rooted in legal thinking, which was refreshing since the whole exercise seemed more and more an overdose of politics as usual.

Fate has a cruel sense of humor. The son of the hero is turning out to be the worst thing that's ever happened to us post-revolution. I'm not a big supporter of Junior but what if the savior of the Philippines turns out to be the son of the great villainous dictator?

I don't know whether to laugh or cry sometimes.

Killswitch Engage - My Curse

The "F" Word

I'm a Federalist. I believe that the centralized system we have now in the Philippines should be changed. Geographically, it's inefficient for a central government to impose it's will on thousands of islands scattered across an archipelago. The people who can best determine what should be done and how tax money should be spent in a province, city or barangay are the inhabitants of said political subdivisions themselves. I think it's a bad idea to collect most of the tax money the country produces, put it in a single pot and dole it out based on mere metrics such as population and land area. Such a method is grossly unresponsive to the specific needs that a political subdivision may have.

Culturally, it's difficult. The Philippines is composed of different ethnic groups, many of which have their own language and aspirations. The Muslims are in a perpetual hurry to leave it seems and there's growing resentment towards the inefficiency and callousness ofManila.

But we should avoid using the "F" word.

"Federalism" is a dangerous word. Federalism is the idea of two governments sharing power over an area and its people; specifically a national government and a local government. Immediately, we think of the United States since it is the most prominent example of this set up There's a central government and a local government of each individual state.

The key here is the idea of individual states. Should the government of the Philippines adopt a system wherein it is divided into several independent states but under a national government? Many dream it were so but if the whole Bangsamoro abomination teaches us anything, it's that there's a big danger to the whole idea and that's Secession. What's to stop people from simply leaving? Even a battered wife may eventually leave if pushed to her absolute limit. Either that or she kills her husband. So would the long-abused groups of Filipinos simply opt to leave or attempt rebellion against their government?  Anything is possible.

But we should avoid using the "F" word.

We should avoid it because of the images it may conjure up. I'm a Federalist, not a Secessionist. I don't blame people who want to secede but I believe a literal break up into many completely independent parts would be a disaster and leaves us weak and vulnerable, especially in international politics. The word "federalism" can be used to scare people into thinking that it means the final dissolution of the Philippines. Anarchy? Possible.

So to avoid fear-mongering, I propose a simple solution. We use the "D" word instead. Decentralization has a much more pleasant ring to it. The constitution itself uses this word so it has the advantage of a thin veneer of legitimacy. In fact, the Constitution commands Congress to pursue a policy of decentralization. Sadly, it seems Congress stopped with the woefully inadequate Local Government Code which does its job organizing Local Government Units but doesn't do much in the way of providing meaningful independence. Congress' idea of decentralization seems to be to decentralize more and more responsibilities and plain old bull dung onto the beleaguered LGU but none of the means or power to carry any of it out. Example: You command the Local Government Units to provide "reproductive health" stuff (whatever claptrap the RH Law decrees) but how? They still have to beg the national government for money or "request" generous projects *wink wink* from the elected crooks.

Decentralization... sounds much better, yeah? Of course we still pursue federalism but we shouldn't call it that so as not to scare the little children with the boogieman of Secession. Besides, decentralization is a broad enough term to cover everything a Federalist would want. Economic independence alone is a good start and it doesn't necessarily require a separate state.

I humbly suggest that fellow Federalists avoid using the "F" word. Our goal would be better served if we use the "D" word instead. Language is important in politics and words have powerful meanings. Decentralization is safer and more palatable for modern audiences. It sounds good. It feels good.

Soon, everyone will want the D.

Foundling

There's a joke here in the Philippines: if you ever want to learn about your family history, just run for office. Your opponents will dig all that up for you free of charge!

Philippine elections are about name recall. Binay, Binay, Binay, Binay... Grace? Grace Poe is the Filipina politician second to Binay in the polls so you know what that means. She must be destroyed and step one of that process is to examine her qualifications for a potential presidential run.

The issue is citizenship. However, I'm not interested about her citizenship in the later years of her life and today. I'm more interested in the theories swirling about, on whether or not she can be considered a natural-born Filipino citizen.

Grace Poe was a foundling left inside a church as a baby. As far as origin stories go, her life seems tailor-made for the Philippine audience but I digress. Her biological parents are unknown so there's this argument that we cannot consider her as a natural-born Filipino. The Philippines follows the principle of jus sanguinis, that is, that nationality is determined by blood. Since we have no idea who her parents are, we can't say with absolute confidence that they were Filipinos. There is a possibility, no matter how ridiculously improbable and outlandish, that both her biological parents were foreigners who just happened to be in the Philippines and were too poor to raise a child and so left the very Filipino-looking Grace Poe in a church. Accepting this possibility, Grace Poe could have no Filipino blood in her, couldn't be a Filipino by birth and is thus unqualified to run for President.

The question I find interesting is: What is the nationality of a foundling when the parents are unknown? The law seems to have a blind spot in that in all the ways to acquire Philippine citizenship, it's mum on foundlings; babies appearing out of nowhere. It would be nice to say that we should just presume the foundling is Filipino but from where will we base this presumption?

I'm sure some foreign jurisprudence has already answered this somewhere. For me, the foundling's nationality should be the place where he/she was found. It makes sense although its jus soli. I'm sure Philippine Law can be stretched to make an exception. Our laws have this obsession with children after all, always looking out for their best interests and what not. Parens patriae? The government should just grant foundlings citizenship then. It is rather cruel not to allow abandoned children in this circumstance to have a country to call home.

The "brilliant" legal minds up north sure love to split hairs.

Part 2

Reminisce

I was taking a walk this morning to get the blood flowing. The traffic along Guadalupe's one main road was unusually heavy and then I realized why. Today was the start of classes for elementary and high school students.

It was a beautiful morning too but only I seemed to be enjoying it. The streets were a swarm of motorcycles with gruff-looking fathers and visibly anxious children riding on, clutching their bags. Outside the gates of the school were anxious mothers coaxing their children in and making sure their child could still see them outside from the classroom window.

The blood was flowing but old memories too, came flooding back. I remember the first day of elementary school. It was a ridiculous sight to see such small children carry such heavy bags and pull those cumbersome old strollers. I remember the anxiety of entering a new classroom, a whole new environment with other kids you didn't know yet. I remember the fear of waiting for the first bell and hoping that the teachers were kind. They always peddle horror stories to the new meat about which teacher was the "terror".

The same story could be said for high school and college when I think about it. It's stressful at first then you lapse into depression induced by the monotony of routine. Eventually you get burned out then summer vacation comes.

The whole system was miserable yet once you get over it, you look back with a sense of longing. In retrospect, the troubles that a young me worried about were infinitesimally small compared to the troubles of today. Wasn't it great when you're biggest worry was making a presentation in front of the class or leading the class prayer instead of more adult worries like paying of debts, getting a job or supporting a family?

Calmed me a little; I felt less depressed today. Kinda puts things in perspective. Today seems terrible but there will probably come a time when looking back, now wasn't so bad after all.

I'm not used to such feelings of optimism so right now, I jabbing my thigh with a pen as hard as I can.

Witcher 2 OST - The End is Never the Same