Terror in Bohol

For a supposedly tough "strongman" type of leader, the enemies of the Philippines seem to be on the rise on Duterte's watch. You got the Chinese building artificial islands near the country but to be fair, there's little we can do about that. You got the NPA in the strongest position they've ever been for years and making all sorts of outrageous demands while adhering to a very loose definition of "ceasefire". You got communists infesting the cabinet ready to implement their obsolete ideas and lastly, you got the Abu Sayyaf acting up again. Remember those assholes?

The Abu Sayyaf are currently hiding out in some ditch somewhere in Bohol. Thankfully, many of them have already been killed including their waste-of-life leader although government forces sustained some casualties. The Abu Sayyaf's plan was pretty audacious - sailing all the way to Bohol with all those men and equipment and intent on kidnapping some unlucky foreigners as is their modus operandi. Worse, they managed to evade capture for quite a length of time. What gives? You'd think they'd be scared of Duterte.

For his part, Duterte has offered a one million peso bounty per head on the Abu Sayyaf, dead or alive. He's ramped up the rhetoric and gave the order to have them all killed but that's pretty much what was gonna happen anyway. I dunno. It might not be fair to say this but there seems to be a lack of zeal coming from the President. When it comes to two-bit (alleged) street druggies, he rants and raves but when it comes to actual direct threats to the state, he's pretty blase. Giving the NPA the time of day was bad enough but the Abu Sayyaf have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. They're not even making the minimum effort of at least pretending to fight for their own Islamic state or some political goal. How lazy. They're really just a bunch of bandits at this point.

The Abu Sayyaf should have just sailed to Bohol to enjoy the sights and the beaches instead of trying to kidnap people. It's summer after all. Time for vacation! Hey Omar, drop that gun and bring the banig. Find a nice white sand beach and take a load off. You know, you can just relax under the shade of a palm tree after eating some lechon halal food while sipping some cool coconut juice. Wouldn't that be the life?

Not for them, hopefully.

Ending Endo

One of the promises of El Jefe was that he would end the practice of "contractualization" and/or "endo". Contractualization and endo are two different things although they're used interchangeably.

Contractualization refers to the practice of contracting out work to independent contracting agencies. Let's say you run a department store. You could hire the sales clerks yourself or you could make a contract with an independent manpower agency for them. The purpose of availing of the latter option is that the clerks wont be considered your employees but the employees of the agency. Therefore, since they're technically not your employees, you don't have to give them the benefits an "employee" would be legally entitled to.

"Endo" on the other hand, refers to the practice of hiring people for the legal probationary period of six months as temporary employees. The purpose of the six month period is to determine whether they meet the company standards of the employer. If they do, they may become regular employees. Regular employees are entitled to the full benefits while temporary employees are not. What usually happens is that the employers don't follow through with this and just let the contract end or otherwise simply terminate it in the fifth month. The employer thus prevents the the workers from becoming regular employees. Furthermore, the employer will typically avoid  hiring the same employees for another six months or so because working for an employer for a year will make them regular employees.

What's common between both are that they're schemes to avoid having regular employees and all the legal obligations that entails.

Harsh Reality

To understand how all of this came about, know that the problem with employment in the Philippines is that the labor market heavily favors the employer. There are way more potential employees than there are employers. What this means is that labor is cheap and the employers can be picky. For every job that's open for you, some schmo who's more desperate than you will offer to work for less just to get it.  The problem that would arise is that price of labor would become so cheap as to become abusive. Smaller wages means an even smaller chance at a decent standard of living.

To remedy this issue, the government passes labor laws, specifically, labor standards laws. These laws set the minimum benefits employers must provide to their employees. The minimum wage is the best example although the law may provide other benefits such as overtime rates and leave benefits or credits. The purpose of all of this is to prevent the terms of employment from being too crippling for employee.

What labor laws do, however, is that they artificially increase the cost of labor above its real cost in a free market. Don't mistake this as an assault on labor laws. This is just what it does.

The natural inclination of employers is to maximize profit and growth. To do so, it must keep its labor costs down and so it must hire the least amount of workers it can. This is also a problem since well, you need workers! 

What contractualization and endo does is that it allows employers to hire employees for cheaper. Since they aren't "regular" employees, they're not entitled to the full benefits due to regular employees. The advantages for the employer are obvious. For employees there are both advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantage is that you will not and probably will never get the benefits of being a regular employee. The advantage is that the employer will now be able to hire more employees since it's cheaper so at least you'll have a job. Plus, you'd still be entitled to some minimum labor standards such as the minimum wage in addition to any extra benefits you may have (though unlikely) negotiated with the employer as part of the employment contract.

Consequences

Let's say we end both practices. What then? It's easy to fight for the little guy but put yourself in the shoes of an employer. No, not the obscenely wealthy tycoons of the Makati Business Club but rather one of the many small to medium businesses (SMEs) struggling in the marketplace of today. It is important to point out that most businesses in the Philippines fall under the SME category. Not all business owners are titans-of-industry fat cats on the level of Henry Sy or Ayala.

Let's say you need ten workers in your appliance store. All of them have to be regular employees so you have to give them everything they're entitled to. Of course, not all business are rolling in dough, yours certainly isn't. Labor isn't the only thing a business has to pay for. So your realistic option would be to downsize. Instead of ten, maybe seven would be enough to have enough profit and hopefully expand and make another store in some other part of town. 

You better hope that they're good employees too. Did you know that regular employees cannot be terminated without a just or authorized cause? If your employees suck, which they probably will if you know anything about Filipino work ethic, then be prepared to spend legal fees if your trouble employee wants to take you for a ride.

Simply put, most businesses simply cannot afford to have a sizable group of regular employees in addition to the regular costs of business such as rent, utilities, overhead, business permits, taxes etc. If one area of business costs had to be reduced, the easiest would be employees so they're the first to go. 

Contractualization and endo were the inevitable outcomes of the conflict between the need to find work, the need to hire workers and the need to keep the costs of labor low. Not to sympathize with either employer or employee, but it's unrealistic to think that if you were to end these two practices, everything will stay exactly the same except that employers will now begrudgingly give their workers full benefits from their hidden swimming pools of money and that there will be no costs that will bite everyone in the ass in the long run.

It's easy for politicians to come out in defense of the many votes  perpetually abused worker. The poor hardworking mule of a man and the evil greedy capitalist are favorite tropes in our neverending story. Of course, Filipinos are too stupid to think for themselves, much more execute contracts. Therefore the geniuses in Manila, who know what's best for everybody, have to pass these laws for our benefit. Law and policy has always bent towards worker's rights; from reasonable measures to leftist claptrap. Yet no amount of legislation can alter harsh economic reality. 

How exactly would the government end contractualization and endo, anyway? Like many things the government promises to do, it's all frustratingly vague. Will they make it so that all employment contracts must be for a year? It's a lot to ask employers of businesses to commit to employing people for a year, especially for ones just starting out, don't you think? What about jobs that only last for a short time? What if they make it so that all employees will be considered regular? You'd be paying a lot for someone who only works on a project for three months.

Regardless, if the government were to somehow finally kill contractualization and endo, the most likely outcome would be that businesses will employ less people and the people they do employ will be strictly screened. If labor is to become more expensive, then that extra cost must be justified by higher hiring standards. Contractualization and endo may be morally reprehensible to many, and it's easy to see why, but outlawing the practice without coming up with a new solution to address the underlying problem may be disastrous to everyone; employer and employee alike. Ironically, the ones that would suffer the most are the SMEs. The rising cost of business will  encourage them to stay small. The big shots at the top, who already have the wealth and means to absorb the occasional bouts of government idiocy, will suffer the least. As a bonus, there would be less competition rising up against them. 

But there will be consequences.

Silent Hill 2 OST - Theme of Laura

Bar Exams 2016

Yesterday was the first Sunday of the 2016 bar exams. As you probably know, the bar exam is a grind-fest that takes place over four Sundays in that fetid buffalo anus of a city called Manila. Law graduates and assorted loonies will take their shot (again for some) to hopefully become the newest shiny cogs in the obsolete rusty machine that is the Philippine justice system.

I had my chance and I blew it; not even going to make excuses. The worst part about flunking the bar is having to live with that fact. It's a curse.

There's something you have to understand about the bar. When you're in Law school, it's hyped up beyond belief. You get four years of non-stop hype over what is essentially a government administered board exam. Of course, it's silly at first but then they start talking about it almost breathless terms as if it were a life or death situation and then you begin to buy into it. Next thing you know, the bar consumes every bit of your life. It's in your thoughts and under your skin.

If you pass, then that's another story. If you flunk then you're stuck. It's a curse. "Oh, what did they ask this year?" "Are you taking it this year?" "Oh, he's not taking it this year?" Stuck. It's an anchor frustrating the sailboat of your life. The lucky ones move on and make lives for themselves; start a family maybe. For unlucky ones, it'll define them. Stuck. Stuck by the wayside endlessly running into familiar faces, asking with feigned interest if you took it again, if you plan to take it again, who else took it, who passed, who will take again, on and on forever until you finally pass it or die, whichever mercy comes first.

The lucky ones who pass will go on with their careers. The unlucky ones become Law professors; unable to truly escape the bar exams even as they overcame it. Law schools are judged by how many passers they produce. To be fair, many law teachers are great people but it eventually becomes a rat-race. The bar exam truly consumes everything. It is the end all be all of legal education. Law school will teach you everything you need to pass the bar. Everything else, you'll have to learn on your own.

Sour grapes? Probably. I decided not to take this year because frankly, it's exhausting. Imagine learning something, spending the fourth year relearning it, then another year reviewing what you relearned, then reviewing it months prior to the exam, then reviewing your review of your reviews the week before the big days. People act surprised when I tell them that I'm not interested in retaking the test at the moment. Nothing is more irritating to me than people acting as if it were so easy to drop half a year of your life to review then flying to that rat nest Manila to stay there for a month to take an exam over four Sundays.

See? I'm writing about the damned thing after a month of pretty much nothing. It can't be helped. People bring it up. It's in the papers. It's in your memories. I just want to go about my life pretending that I'm over it in peace!

Why doesn't China just invade already?

Unhappy Marriage

So we're "separating" ourselves from the United States now, whatever that means. You can never tell with Duterte. 

"Separation" is a loaded word. This joke has probably been made before but perhaps he meant it as a lawyer would. We are legally separated from the US. It wasn't an annulment or a divorce. The marriage is still on because the state has an interest in keeping Filipinos miserable together. Thank God for that! 

Does this mean the US still has visitation rights? What about support? Seems we don't want any of their aid. That's an interesting question. Can support be waived? I'm sure a child can't. But the Philippines is all grown up now and doesn't need his white papa telling him what to do. We don't need papa Sam to deal with that Chinese bully on the playground; a bully that happens to have more soldiers, tanks and planes that we can even begin to fathom. They have nukes too but our constitution forbids us from having nuclear weapons. Our moral high ground is unassailable at least.

So what did we get out of Duterte's trip to China. Well, we got some deals of questionable value. It's interesting that we respond to China's saber-rattling by indebting ourselves to them, as if China needed any more leverage. But good news! China just recently gave us permission to fish on our own territory. Isn't that kind of them? Now we're getting contracts from Chinese companies drenched in corruption. It's a perfect fit.

This deal is getting worse all the time.

Pass the Fare Money

It goes without saying that traffic in that hellhole, Manila is downright intolerable. Congress plans to grant the President "emergency powers" to solve what is now considered a national crisis. Right, because Manila's problems are also problems for the rest of us backwoods yokels. 

Autocalypse

In fairness, the traffic situation in Cebu is nearing Manila levels of awful too.

When one uses the term "emergency powers", what comes to mind is usually the image of troops deploying, collapsing buildings, flash floods, typhoons, epidemics etc. It really says a lot that the traffic situation is so horrible that it's considered on the level of a natural calamity, as if people are starving in their cars. Oh, but this is a man-made disaster, don't you forget that. So now Congress wants to undo years of poor planning and/or outright neglect and wants Duterte to cut through the bureaucracy and get things done.

While Congress probably has the ability to grant the President this power, as some legal smart ass can probably look up/cook up one,  there are some genuine concerns. What powers exactly are they giving the President? For how long? How long is this "emergency" going to be and when will it be considered over? Does it cover the entire Philippines or just that cesspit, Manila? What other agencies will be involved, if any? What is the system of accountability in case of abuses? Have you ever noticed that news articles covering this issue are terribly vague about everything?

Unless armed rebels are actually blocking the public roads, it's hard to imagine what the people are honestly expecting the President to do. Has it ever happened in the past that a President was given emergency powers to solve what is basically a municipal issue?

Ah, there it is. Enough questions. It's time to analyze.

Here's a thought: giving emergency powers to the president will not allow something to be done which cannot already be done now without having to give president emergency powers. Really, giving the president these powers will not add anything new to the mix. All it does is pass the buck from the people who are supposed to be in charge of the problem to the president and THAT'S THE POINT of this whole exercise; to pass the buck.

It's not about the traffic.

Nobody wants to admit this but enacting genuine solutions to the traffic problem is going to be painful. For example; the government wants to widen the roads or build a new highway. In a metropolis like Manila, that will require exercising eminent domain which means paying just compensation. You're gonna have to pay the landowners and in some parts of Manila, you might as well be donating your organs too. If the government wants to expand the MRT network, the government is gonna have to spend a lot of money too and government officials (if they're really serious about solving the problem) will be forced to curb their tendency for corruption. Even reclaiming land occupied by squatters to make room for new infrastructure, will be costly and not just in monetary terms if you know what that means. To add to all of this, Metro Manila is composed of many cities so that means the local politicians will have to -ugh- put aside their politicking and work together! L'horreur!

So really, the geniuses in charge don't want to have to deal with this. Decades this problem has simmered and the people and institutions that were supposed to be on top of this just wet the bed. Whether it's a lack of political will, resources or just plain laziness, they don't want to have to get their act together and would rather just let the president tell them what to do. Besides, the president is still popular and can absorb the negative repercussions of the hard decisions that will have to be made. If that doesn't work, he can put on the tough guy act and ram whatever he wants done through. Ladies and gentlemen, if you've ever wondered what's so appealing about a dictatorship, here you go. 

Isn't it ironic that in a time when people are supposedly clamoring for "federalism", they're begging for a centralized response to a problem the local governments are too impotent to fix? Pathetic.

So if anyone talks about the president needing emergency powers to solve the traffic problems, know that that person is an idiot unwittingly engaging in the government's mind games. The talk of emergency powers serves a second purpose. Instead of asking about how we're going to fix the problem, the question now is when are we giving the president emergency powers. Excuse me, powers to do what, again? Oh, see? It's the president now who has to tell us the how of the matter. Not only are they passing the problem to him but also the responsibility to come up with solutions. In the end, the government is still stalling even now!

I want off this ride.

Genius or Idiot?

There are two ways to look at Duterte.

The first way is to look at him is that he is a master politician, a real Machiavellian type. After all, he has thirty years of experience as a Mayor and practiced Law before that as well. Everything he does is tactical and with good reason. The whole lashing out against the international community, America in particular, is just red meat for his supporters. He will bring about genuine change and put the country on the right track politically, socially and economically. Duterte knows the real score and in the end, he will do what's in the best interests of the Philippines.

The second way to look at him is that he really is an idiot. He's a dirty loudmouth who believes his own hype and got elected merely by virtue of the sheer ineptness of the previous administration and the people's hunger for change. He's  a one-trick pony whose only gimmick is summary executions of criminals. He's a no-good leftist who honestly buys into the red propaganda and blames "the West" for all our problems and is putting our standing in the world at risk. It's possible he's an agent or a shill for the Chinese.

Take your pick. You know, life is full of ironies. One of my favorites is that we live in an age when so much information is at our fingertips yet people are still as uninformed as ever. So go with whatever version of reality you want, you idiot. Whatever happens, happens.

Pray reality never rears its ugly head.

Senator Pacquiao

So I saw a news segment recently about how people have "mixed reactions" to Manny Pacquiao's decision to keep boxing despite being elected a Senator of the Republic of the Philippines. People are concerned that this would split his focus and he wouldn't be able to serve the country well with him training and all. 

For me, it's the opposite. I'm very happy that he's boxing again. This means that he won't be working hard as a senator and therefore, he won't do as much damage to the country as he normally might.

The people expressing dismay over Manny's life choices operate from the mistaken premise that the Senate, and the entire legislative branch of the country for that matter, are doing good for the country. Nope. The legislature is filled with either incompetent celebrity boobs or corrupt greedy assholes. It's not an institution worthy of trust.

To put it simply, a senator that's not working is a senator that's not screwing over the Filipino people. Good on Manny. Let him box. In fact, his track record as the number one absentee back when he was in the House is something to celebrate. By not doing anything, he's doing great! Thanks for not causing damage!

Besides, Manny isn't exactly senator material. I won't say he's dumb like other people assume because he's not. He's probably more knowledgeable in the art of boxing than the average person. His intelligence lies in the sweet science but on the senate floor? Perhaps not so. But could you imagine what would happen if Manny Pacquiao devoted his entire physical and mental energies on his senatorial gig? Can you imagine the chaos that a barely comprehensible, religious nut like him can cause? We should be grateful he seems more inclined to hurt Mexicans than us Filipinos.

You be you, Manny.

Parokya ni Edgar - Boys Do Falling Love

Ideas Explained And Defended: Due Process

The noisy critics of today's administration and the one before and even the one before that and so on, love to throw around phrases and concepts so much that they have become meaningless. Stuff like "human rights" and "due process" are harped on as if the beauty and goodness of these things are already self-evident. They're not. No matter how good an idea is, one can't act as if its value is already so undeniable that he doesn't even have to defend it in front of others. These ideas have been taken for granted by its defenders and the people. Good ideas must be defended constantly for they are always under assault by those who have either forgotten their worth or are willfully ignorant of them.

This is the first of a series of writings wherein I'll attempt to defend important ideas that are worth defending in Philippine society. I'm not the smartest man in the world and I don't pretend to be smarter than anyone else in any given room, but someone has to do this job, right?

Due Process

Ask any Law student or one learned in the Law what "due process" is and he'd probably refer you to Section 1, Article III of the 1987 Constitution which states plainly that no person can be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. That's fine and dandy but it doesn't exactly explain what "due process" is. The simplest answer is best and it helps that it's biblical to boot. "Due process" means that you are heard before you are condemned. In other words, you're given a fair chance to defend yourself, often in a court, before the hammer is dropped on you.

If you look at the whole breadth of human history, you'll notice that it's always been the story of the strong oppressing the weak. There are exceptions sure, but for the most part, it's a story about absolute power and its abuse. Kings, tyrants, slavery, war, etc. Man was helpless against those who lorded over him. When you think about it, due process as a regular "must have" feature of modern constitutions and laws is only a relatively recent advancement.

The Magna Carta is perhaps the most famous example although there are probably earlier examples of checks against absolute and arbitrary exercises of power against the individual. Even before the Spanish colonized the Philippines, some indigenous communities here had justice systems. Some would have suspects go before the Datu and elders or go through trials-by-ordeal to determine their guilt. Granted, it wasn't exactly a scientific method. I doubt dunking ones hands in boiling water is a more accurate system than what we have now.

Due process is important because the state is, compared to the individual, an all powerful monster. It's especially worse in a country like the Philippines where the government is corrupt and abusive. What are you going to do when the state throws the whole government apparatus at you, plus the army, navy, air force and the BIR(gasp!)? I bet you'd be glad for Article III, wouldn't you?  

I think that Filipinos don't really have a problem with "due process" as a concept if you explain in in terms of protecting the vulnerable. People generally aren't comfortable with the idea of the police whisking them away in the dead of night to lock them in a windowless cell. The problem is that we don't have a speedy and efficient system to give proper due process. It's no secret that the justice system in the Philippines is quite terrible. "Everyone will have their day in court." is the promise. Well, here in the Philippines, we do one better - everyone gets years! Cases drag on way past the point when time makes any rational sense. There are the horror stories of detainees spending years in jail even before their case even crosses a judge's table. The prisons are horribly overcrowded too. All this isn't even mentioning the corruption which is endemic in all levels of the government service. Then you have police abuses, special treatment for the rich and powerful, etc. It's no wonder then that "due process" has become such an odious phrase to people. The image it conjures up isn't one of justice but of excruciating torture in a country where the process itself seems to be the punishment.

This is the sad thing about all this. It's not that "due process" is bad but that we're bad at it. Our leaders don't seem to even want to give it a chance. Instead of taking measures to fix the system and finding common sense solutions, it seems we're prepared to  just do away with the whole damn thing entirely. It's like burning a house to rid it of rats. "Due process", one of the greatest gifts bestowed on our society, a treasure inherited from the best traditions of liberal democracy and a cornerstone of civilization, is just done away with because we don't have the determination and will to make it work. Are we that ungrateful and lazy? Screw a trial, just kill them all. Are we really heading to the point, ladies and gentlemen, where our ancestors in the ancient barangays got better treatment than we do today in 2016?

Here's a novel idea: why don't we fix the system first before we scrap it? Why not open more courts, appoint more judges, build more prisons, modernize the bureaucracy, upgrade our technology to keep digital records, give more resources to barangay-level  mediation, pass laws improving the legal system, aggressively root out corrupt court personnel, etc? I'd just like to point out that Duterte technically isn't fixing anything by the way. After six years, will "due process" still be a dirty word? Will there still be believers?

We'll all get what's coming to us eventually. 

"The Man" Is He Who Has The Plan

Much criticism has been made against Duterte and his methods. Predictably, the cry of "Human rights!" is used by his opponents as well as the tiresome phrase of "due process". These criticisms aren't enough. If you really want to get at the President, you have to do something radical.

Allow me to explain how the present criticisms of Duterte simply won't work and how one can really make a dent on the Duterte machine.

Let us begin with the status quo or rather, what was once the status quo. The Philippines was at best, stagnant and at worst,  a car careening downhill with no brakes. The situation had become insufferable. The presidential candidates last election season, before Duterte entered the scene and mowed over them like an eighteen-wheeler, either offered more of the same crap or "change" that amounted to little toppings on a pile of cow dung. This wasn't good enough. People wanted real change; preferably of the drastic kind. Along comes a man from Davao making outlandish promises like solving crime in six months or less. The people picked Duterte because he was so unlike the others and promised to take the country to a radical direction. At that point, it didn't matter what he said but only that he was going to do something extreme. It's like that scenario where you're stuck in a really terrible place and you scream, "Anywhere but here!" The people at that point were desperate for Duterte to just take them somewhere else - anywhere but the quagmire of Pnoy's do-nothing, let-it-burn presidency.

Now this is key. The critics today fail to understand the circumstances that fueled El Jefe's rise to power. It's not enough to criticize Duterte's methods. One must also provide a vision and solution that's better than what Duterte is selling. People chose Duterte because they thought he could fix the country's problems. If you criticize Duterte but don't also step up and offer your own fixes, people won't give you the time of day.

Let me put it this way: there is a big bad problem. That's the given. Duterte comes in and offers his solution. It's not the best solution. It's not an elegant solution. It's messy and it's a slow poison to our civil society in the grand scheme of things but it's a solution. Everybody criticizes Duterte's solution but nobody offers alternatives. Duterte wins by default.

Duterte's critics lose because people want solutions and they have none. It's especially worse for critics who were toadies for the previous administration. They can't even accept the "given" in the equation. To them, the Philippines was just fine and Duterte is ruining all the imaginary gains we made. No, the Philippines wasn't "just fine". Step one is admitting there's a problem. If you don't even admit that there's a problem, you're at less than square one. Stop fighting for the status quo. Admit the situation sucks and outdo Duterte in offering actual solutions. That's the only way you can beat him. 

Everyone is sick of the same old crap and wants to move forward. Duterte is the only one who has the momentum. Notice how he controls the narrative, how he's basically setting the terms for the national conversation everytime he deigns to give the media his attention. He has framed himself as one who looks to the future. Burying Marcos? It's more symbolic than anything. Duterte is framing himself as one making actual progress. A serious critic must not allow him to do this. One must SEIZE the momentum; take the initiative from the President. The President is selling radical change and it's selling well. A competitor must also offer radical change but one that's even better. A serious critic must not allow the President to have the monopoly. Ah, but that would require a certain boldness and a willingness to swallow one's pride and admit that the past was a failure. How some people cling to the past...

Anyway, I really should write about things other than politics.

Rowdy Rody's Dirty Laundry

Dirty Laundry

This administration is a gold mine. God bless Duterte. God bless him.

Go ask the older folks if they have ever seen a President do this. Ask them if they've ever seen a President engage in brazen prime time mudslinging to such a nasty degree. De Lima always fancied herself as some kind of smart ass so why bother playing at taking the high road? You can't beat her at pompous moral posturing so a different tactic is required. Who knew that for El Jefe, that would mean accusing her of having an affair with a married man and implying that they benefit from drug money? 

You should have seen De Lima. It was unexpected. She was totally unprepared, the poor devil. It was a kidney punch.

Critics say it was dirty and uncalled for but in case you haven't noticed, we are well past that point already. It seems everything is getting pried open in the Philippines. Sure it was nasty, but in a way, it was tactically brilliant. Today was the Senate hearing on the extrajudicial killings. Thanks to Duterte, nobody can pay attention to the proceedings. All people can do is look at De Lima and think, "Wow. Somebody is actually banging this dumpy broad?", and everyone will forget what actually happened.

UN-necessary

The papers today reported that Duterte got fed up with international criticism of the extrajudicial killings so he threatened to leave the United Nations. I laugh."Threaten"? Threaten who? Let's not pretend we're a member of the security council. We're more of a dependent than anything. What about all the foreign aid? Yolanda?

But of course, it's all straightened out later that Duterte was exaggerating and so forth. You know, it's getting a little tiresome. On the one hand, we're supposed to take Duterte seriously but on the other, we're not supposed to take him seriously. He means what he says except when he doesn't? My advice: Duterte should cross his fingers and show it to us when he speaks off the cuff. It'll be our little sign; our little in-joke. If he crosses his fingers, he doesn't mean it and he's just trolling the media. Tee-hee!

Look, he's mad at the U.N. Understandable. It really is a useless organization. But he shouldn't make so much noise. If I've learnt anything from the many dictators, armed groups and genocidal maniacs in the world, it's a safe bet to just ignore the U.N. Just ignore it. I doubt the U.N. sincerely cares about brown people Filipino lives any more than we do.

I hope this man is President for life.

The Old Ways And The New

It was inevitable.

It was only a matter of time that El Jefe would clash with the Chief Justice. They represent opposite ideas that are destined to collide with each other. The President said himself that there's no "due process" as far as he's concerned and wants to solve the crime problem the fast and dirty way. The Chief Justice, on the other hand, is a symbol of the usual way we do things. She stands for the "rule of law" and other tiresome phrases like that.

One should take the time to study these current events well. All we can do is observe. There are no laboratories or experiments. There is only history and it's maddeningly circular patterns.

People are tired of the old ways. They're tired because it's painfully obvious that they didn't work. That's why a lot of things that we once thought were unquestionable are now being questioned. This spat with the judiciary is just a symptom of an underlying condition. The judiciary is fast becoming irrelevant and obsolete. A lot of things are becoming irrelevant and obsolete. There is a new wave happening and the Chief Justice just got swept away by it. Oh, I know that Duterte apologized (sort of) to the Chief Justice, but the damage was done.

To put it simply, Filipinos are now in a mood to try reversing course on the traditionally held orthodoxies of Filipino culture. The old rule of law and due process shtick isn't working so now Filipinos want to try Duterte's methods. Our centralized bureaucracy is horribly inefficient so there's a serious move to federalize. The constitution is a cumbersome and increasingly irrelevant document so there's a move to amend (or even revise) it. We have a President who has a disturbingly chummy relationship with the reds at the start although it's rocky at the moment.

Duterte just coming out and saying that we should just go ahead and bury Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani, I think, encapsulates perfectly the zeitgeist of today. People want to do away with the past, and the ways of thinking it spawned, even if it means sacrificing that which we once considered holy. Even if Marcos was a villain, and he was a villain no matter how you slice it, people are willing to commit one last injustice to the victims of his rule if doing so would finally free us from our historical baggage and let us move on with our goddamn lives.

Same thing could be said with the daily killings of suspected drug criminals. The old Philippines would huff and puff about how killing is wrong, about the "culture of violence" and about the "rule of law" and so on. Nowadays, people are asking, "Why not?". It's very unusual since Filipino mentality is timid and reluctant to question stuff that are thought to be important. I don't know the reason. Perhaps it's just the sheer exasperation and desperation of the people. Perhaps our institutions have degraded to such a phenomenal extent that people do not have any faith in it anymore and are slowly putting all their faith on a single man instead. The constant attention Duterte gets and the very aggressive and, dare I say, dictatorial way he deals with problems reminds me of certain people. But perhaps I am getting ahead of myself. Thinking of those comparisons too quickly is not good also.

How long can this movement be maintained? How far are we willing to go? Who knows what the next sacred cow of Philippine politics is going to be sent to the butcher shop. I predict that divorce may be coming in one or a few year from now. Ultimately, it doesn't matter to me though. It's simply amusing to me seeing all this unfold. It's amusing for now at least,  but maybe not so when they start rounding people up, me included.

Just enjoy the ride.

Antoine Dufour - Ashes in the Sea

Drug Dudes Done In Dirt Cheap

The Philippines is kind of like a kitchen at midnight. Turn on the lights and you'll see it's swarming with cockroaches. Try to focus on a problem and you'll see how it's even more terrible than you imagined.

I knew the Philippines had a drug problem but I never thought it was this bad. Suspected drug peddlers and users are coming out of the woodwork, out of trees and manholes it seems, to "surrender" to the government. This is a little odd to me. See, people are admitting to their crimes but they just sign a thing? Acknowledge they've been bad little boys and promise not to do it again? Some have suggested hooking these people up with jobs instead of drugs but where are you going to find jobs for thousands of people who have admitted to a history of crime or drug use and most of whom probably aren't that bright to begin with?

Those who don't surrender are simply shot. It seems people are being killed daily. Instead of crying about the end of the "rule of law", let's play the devil's advocate.

Realistically speaking, a Filipino life is fairly worthless in the grand scheme of things. Years of rampant population growth coupled with general neglect (governmental or societal) to improve our human capital have made the Philippines a country filled with disposable people. Hell, I know I'm not exempt from this calculation. Someone could kill me tomorrow and it wouldn't even matter. Sure, some of the people who know me would probably be a little bummed but that feeling will eventually pass.

What I'm saying is that the Philippines, a country of about ninety-eight million people and rising, can absorb these losses. Maybe we can stand to lose a few hundreds, thousands or even a million? If a million Filipinos disappeared, would anyone notice? I doubt it. People hardly notice each other as it is. 

Maybe the lack of outrage over the spate of killings means that the people have finally realized and come to terms with the glaring truth that was always staring them in the face like a beggar on the other side of the car window. Life is cheap in the Philippines. If you aren't being slaughtered like a pig in the name of progress, you're busy being milked like a cow for all your ungrateful dependents. People are treated like cattle, from cradle to crave, being herded through the various institutions happy to mold them into the perfect worker/consumer. Employers treat their very replaceable employees like dirt because they're dirt cheap. We even export our surplus meat to foreign markets and call it heroic.

So what's a few deaths honestly?

Squarepusher - Everyday I Love

SONA 2016

Might as well write about President Duterte's first State of the Nation speech. What else is there to talk about.

The whole SONA thing has been whittled down to a pointless exercise despite the clear significance of the President himself appearing before the people's representatives. In the past, the SONA just became a glorified showbiz party where the President preaches to the choir and toots his own horn about what a swell job he's doing and how great everything is. My expectations were low, especially considering we're barely into the President's first year in office.

As it turns out, the speech was alright. It set the agenda at least. It was a rambling speech but no surprise there since Duterte prefers speaking off the cuff. So let's go down the several things we can take away from this speech, shall we?

1. Forward, not backward

Immediately, the speech hit the right notes with me. As the handful of people who read this blog know, I've written about how the Philippines suffers from the baggage of its past, specifically, the People Power movement. This was most pronounced during the reign of Pnoy when everything he thought and did was framed in the yellow mentality. The self-righteousness was overwhelming and it led to a lot of vindictiveness and an "the pure us versus the evil them" mentality.

So we're moving forward now to new things. No more of the blame game Pnoy was so fond of. That's good. Finally. Let's move on.

2. Law and order

Well, it is his winning issue. Not a lot of people would disagree when you say that the justice system in the Philippines has gone down the toilet. However, Duterte seems to talk about justice in broad terms. He only ever goes into specifics when it's about drug crimes, speaking of which...

3. The purging will continue

If you had a problem with the extrajudicial killings of suspected drug criminals, perhaps it's time to just get used to it. El Jefe made it clear that the police and military have the backing of the office of the Presidency. He said he was going to fix our crime problem in six months. Expect the killings to continue until some measure of improvement is made somewhere.

It begs the question though; what if six months isn't enough? Whait if the killings have to go on for the whole six years Duterte is in office? Can such an effort be sustained? Is there a chance this will spiral out of control? Does anyone really care? On the last bit, probably not. We'll just have to pretend the government is really killing the bad guys and nothing underhanded is going on. No problem, I've had to live my life with even bigger delusions than that.

4. Double speak and sweet nothings

I'm convinced that Duterte is some kind of grand-master politician since nobody seemed to have picked up on these. Despite insulting the Pope and calling the Catholic Church the most hypocritical institution in the Philippines, he said that while he believes in separation of church and state, there should be no separation between God and state. That's pleasing to hear for both religious and non-religious. It means nothing but it made a good sound bite.

 Human rights must uplift human dignity but mustn't be used to destroy the country, he says. So it's good except when it's bad. There's a subtle hint that he won't let the bleeding-hearts get in his way but we know that already. Ultimately pointless.

The Philippines will address global warming but will not compromise development. Again, a crowd-pleaser for both sides of the aisle.

As for the international scene, we remain committed to dialogue and cooperation even to those who won't enter dialogue or cooperate. That's the default. We're weak We're literally incapable of any other position. If only the tough guy act worked outside the Philippines, huh? For now, we remain China's victim.

5. The only dangerous bit

Duterte wants peace talks with the Communists and Muslim separatists. In a perfect world, the Philippines would have wiped these scumbags out already. They have no legitimacy in my eyes since they are, you know, threats to our sovereignty? They're rebels? Lest we forget, these guys are no good and are hardly trustworthy with their occasional acts of barbarity.

Anyway, it's not a perfect world and the Philippines has been unable to defeat them for decades so it might as well try a new (old) tack of peace talks (again). I realize that I live in the city and not in some podunk, backwater barrio where the threat of the NPA or MILF suddenly deciding to swing by and slit your throat, is a remote possibility. I guess there's nothing to do but hope that El Jefe knows what he's doing. Forget the drug war, this thing here is actually the most dangerous play Duterte will have a part in as a bad deal would tie into another thing which he's pushing, which is...

6. Federalism at last?

He wants it done. It remains to be seen since this is all on Congress, not the President. Can Congress actually get off their good-for-nothing asses and get it done? Are they competent enough to make the right amendments and changes to the constitution without any backdoors or hidden benefits for vested interests? What standards does Duterte want so he won't veto it? 

It all remains to be seen but wow, it's surreal to hear people actually talking about it. Here I thought that serious reforms to our nearly three decade old constitution wasn't possible. I sincerely doubt that whatever Congress comes up with will be the very best possible product. Gone is the idea of Congress as an august body of the very best the Philippines has to offer. There will be a lot of hand-wringing and cries of "what about MY interests?" but maybe this President can whip them into shape.

7. Candy shower

Then we have the assorted bromides about the wonderful things the government has in store for the next few years. It's like the candy politicians throw at the proles during rallies. It's sweet but not filling and we've heard them all before.

I can't write a separate section for how Duterte will cut red tape, fix traffic, give free wi-fi and all that. Just put it under a tab labelled "promises" and be done with it. The only difference today is that we have a guy who just might actually mean what he says and that's what gets the people so excited. Personally, I think it's just red meat but if Duterte can accomplish at least half of these minor promises, people will probably be fine with that.

Summary

Duterte promises not just a strong government but an effective one; a government that can actually get things done. After years in the mire of the Pnoy brand do-nothing Presidency, this is like rain in the desert.

However, talk is cheap and politicians are rich men. As always, we shall see.

At least it won't be a boring Presidency this time.

Sunless Sea Game Review

Sunless Sea is a roguelike RPG developed by Failbetter Games. It was officially released on February 2015 after a successful Kickstarter campaign. The game takes place in the Fallen London setting although I never played that browser game on which this one is based.

I decided to write something about this game since it's a game that I enjoyed a lot. Also, an expansion named Zubmariner is going to be released some time in the future so I figured there might be some renewed interest in it and there will be people looking for reviews and honest analysis on Sunless Sea.

Premise

Long story short, London has sunk underneath the Earth. You are a zee captain of a steam ship and you sail across a vast and terrible underzee for reasons known only to you. "Zee" and the like are the game's terms by the way. The world of Sunless Sea is one of fantasy and it's full of all sorts of bizarre stories and adventures that are sometimes humorous but are more often dark and twisted. 

How it Plays

You have a sky-view (if there even is a sky in Sunless Sea) of your cute, doomed little vessel. You sail it from port to port completing missions, and acquiring money and trinkets. The zee itself is home to some dangerous beasts which you probably don't want to mess with until, at least, you earn enough to get the more sturdier vessels.

You have four resources to manage: fuel, supplies, hull points and terror. Fuel is needed to run the ship, of course. Supplies refer to food which your crew consumes from time to time. Hull points refers to the integrity of your ship. Terror is a small bar measured from zero to a hundred and is a measure of the sanity of you and your crew. 

Management of these resources is crucial on top of whatever objective the player is working toward. The player may want to uncover the mystery of his character's dead father but that won't go anywhere if his boat is stranded in the middle of the zee and the insane crew members are drawing straws to see who goes inside the stew pot first. Fail to manage fuel and you'll be stranded with no hope of rescue. Run out of food and your crew will resort to cannibalism and subsequently spike the terror meter. If hull points goes down to zero, you sink and it's game over. If terror reaches a hundred, let's just say it won't be pleasant. You get the drift.

Obviously, it's easy to die in this game. Even if you get the hang of it, death can come quickly if you get sloppy. It is a rougelike after all. However, your character can create a "legacy" in the game and leave valuable heirlooms, books and even a mansion for your next character. This eases the burden of building up your character on subsequent playthroughs. There are many different ways to win depending on the questline you choose at character creation.

There are five stats in the game; hearts, veils, pages, mirrors and irons. Completing certain tasks require checks on these stats. For example, you are presented with a scenario where you can either fight a band of pirates or attempt to flee. Fighting requires a check on your irons while fleeing requires a check on your veils. The higher your stats, the higher the chances of doing certain actions.

Money, referred to as "echos", can be acquired by doing certain missions or by trading goods (or smuggling contraband) between the different ports in the underzee. Echos isn't the only currency in the game. You can trade in all sorts of curios and items. You can even trade more abstract items such as stories and secrets.

Combat that takes place on the top layer of the game where you're controlling your ship, is fairly straight forward. You must keep the enemy vessel or beast within range of your guns to prepare a charge for your cannons. Once charged, fire away. Some creatures are more dangerous than others, not to mention enemy ships. Needless to say, don't expect to take on a living mountain or a twenty-thousand ton dreadnought on your starter ship.

To sum it up: you explore, do the things you need to do, get the things you need to get, learn the things you need to learn,  manage your supplies, try not to die, die horribly and then start again but a bit stronger than the last attempt.

The Good

What makes Sunless Sea a great game is its narrative element. Seriously, this game has some pretty awesome writing. The narrative and the setting is what really sells the game. If you're into RPGS or games with cool and interesting worlds, then you can get a lot out of this game.

The mechanical elements of it: the exploration and combat, are respectable enough. I know that doesn't sound like high praise but the game is alright at what it does for the most part. Balancing your resources requires some thought, especially when you start sailing on the bigger ships, the SUVs of the underzee if you will, that burn fuel and eat supplies like no tomorrow.

The game encourages risk. Often the most profitable options are one's where you have to make dangerous trips to the farther locations.

The music is great and fits the setting perfectly. The art style and design of the whole world is also great though artstyle is a subjective thing.

The Bad

Sunless Sea is really amazing on the first try. On the subsequent tries, less so. When you're already familiar with all the locations, stories and secrets, everything starts to become tedious. At some point, the game becomes grindy and monotonous. You'll start to hate just how slow your ship is moving. As you become familiar of the ins and outs of the map, you'll learn where all the good spots to resupply are and the game gets a bit less tense.

The game has poor replay value is what I'm saying. You can never enjoy it as much as the first time playing so the player should savor it if he gets a chance to do so.

A lot of reading is required in this game, which is a turn off for some. While I said the mechanical aspects were good, they could have been better. Combat isn't as pulse-pounding as you'd expect. It gets the job done but it's not terribly exciting.

Being a roguelike, the whole trial and error way of doing things can be frustrating, especially when many of the the decisions to make in-game may lead to irreversible consequences. There is manual saving though, if the player so chooses.

Summary

Sunless Sea is a hard game to recommend but I'll do my best to give a good assessment of it. At its best, it has great stories, a great setting and has well designed sailing gameplay. At it's worst, it's too heavy to get into, is grindy and gets old and repetitive the more times you play it.

If you're the type of player who has a lot of patience, enjoys stories and lore and can immerse himself in the universe of a game, then Sunless Sea will be a great game for you. If you enjoy games with heavy narrative and can deal with games that can become grindy, then this game deserves your consideration.

 If you're a player who really isn't into story or doesn't have the patience for slow paced and grindy games, this isn't for you. The "roguelike" label should be warning enough. You're initial interest may carry you far but it really is a game that's easy to become bored with.

Sunless Sea isn't the type of game for broad, mass appeal despite the praise it received from mainstream review sites. It's the type of game that is liked by people who already know that they'll like it. Doesn't make sense? I know you get what I'm saying. People who have some real doubts that they won't like it, probably won't like it.

It's just that type of game.

Down

Been feeling down lately. Maybe it's the weather. Dark skies, strong rains...

Yeah, it's totally the weather and not my own self-inflicted misery.

Caravan Palace - Lone Digger