That’s how you get out of trouble when you’re in a country where STUPID rules. Just appeal to the lowest sensibilities. That’s what Willie Revillame did, no doubt about it. And as before, he depicted himself again as a victim.

What Willie clearly did — probably on the advice of some crisis management expert — was to let the blame shift from himself to the father.

The sad thing is a lot of people bought this sorry excuse for an apology.

It’s clear now. Willie is God. The god of a clueless nation.

All the sloganeering on Earth by the best minds in marketing won’t make Philippine tourism magically fly off the plateau that it has been stuck on for the last ten years.

Three million tourists a year is just a fraction of what other countries in Asia get and some of these countries don’t even have half the number of natural tourist attractions that our country has.  Given such a large potential, crowing about how tourism has grown to three million from two million in 2004 to three million in 2010 is more an advertisement of indolence and mediocrity.

To those who still cling to child-like faith and believe that results can be conjured up from thin air with words and a bunch of symbols, I’d say they better stop reading Harry Potter or Lords of the Ring.  Magic spells and symbols may have won the election, but it won’t win you a bigger slice of the tourism market.

The reality is that countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Hongkong, Japan, Dubai, etcetera regard tourism as a major industry.  The chief indicator of how seriously they treat tourism is not in the billions of dollars that they spend on tourism.  But, rather it is their leadership and people’s commitment to enforcing a national policy to support the skillful formulation and masterful implementation of plans which in turn promote and guide the growth of their tourism.

People can rise to power as a result of an accident of circumstances, powerful connections, and the deft manipulation of public perception.  However, proposing that a nation’s entire industry can be made to rise to prominence by the same means is sheer folly.  In simpler words, those who plan to succeed will always have a higher batting average than those who accidentally succeed.

The sad and sorry truth about Philippine tourism is that it shares a defining characteristic with Metro Manila’s growth after World War II and that characteristic is a lack of a plan.

Now, given that President Noynoy Aquino himself recently said that tourism was a major part of his administration’s effort to provide jobs and spur the economy, one would perhaps think rightly that coming up with a national plan for tourism should have come first before the crafting of a slogan?  That’s like ordering the signboard for a shop that hasn’t been built and this is one of the reasons why tourism promotion has always had marginal results.  Philippine tourism should go beyond just advertising and promotion if it is to succeed.

At the end of the day, when you promote the country’s tourism, you’ll still have to answer a couple of basic questions, like: How do tourists get to the Philippines?  Where will they stay while they are here?  What can these tourists do while they are here in the Philippines?  How can we shape their experience so that they’ll keep coming back and bring others with them?  How do we continue drawing in foreign tourists for the next five years?
The government alone cannot and SHOULD NOT provide answers to these questions by itself.

There is a consultancy contract that is in the middle of a bidding process in relation to RA9593 mandating the Department of Tourism to prepare a  National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) “to continuously provide the framework to harness national and local initiatives for tourism development and promotions with due consideration of prevailing global, regional and local tourism market trends and issues.”
The question begged to be asked is: why did the DOT attempt to launch a new promotional campaign before concluding the bidding for the creation of a blue print for our tourism industry for the next five years?  Shouldn’t the bidding and its conclusion have come before the launching?

Sec. Lim will be providing the President and the country with the blueprint of a master tourism plan; how does he explain now that the consultancy contract for the NTDP is still in the middle of a bidding process making obvious that the new marketing campaign with it’s new logo and slogan was done prematurely?

Here’s the video in two parts:

Gordon’s straightforwardness really showed in that interview much to the discomfort of some people. Here are some of their comments:

• Grabe. Inis na inis ako sa vid na yan.
• I’ve never hated a politician interview like this before. Kay Arroyo nga, hindi ako nanggagalaiti.
• What a major turn-off! And to think i considered voting for him initially?!

The first two comments we can easily dismiss as immature ranting. Had the concerned commenters really listened to Gordon they would have realized that what he essentially said were all verifiable facts. Sure, Gordon came across as rather arrogant but that’s beside the point. Arrogance is not crime and in Gordon’s case it’s not even a character flaw. I think those who are making a big issue out of the Dick’s abrasiveness should reflect on this quote:

It ain’t bragging when you can back it up.

As for the last comment, well, all I can say is that this person probably thinks he is being clever. Notice how he made a point of emphasizing that he “considered voting for him initially” in an effort to highlight his disgust for Gordon. Mr. Commenter that style is so passé. Luma na yan.

That’s the problem with many Filipinos. They have this image of a leader that is gentle, kind, considerate etcetera, etcetera. I suspect the type of leader they want is one sprung from the same mold as Jesus or any other benevolent character. These people automatically think being aggressive, straightforward, candid, abrasive or pushy is a negative. I have a nagging feeling these people are the same ones who think Noynoy Aquino is leader material.

I really wonder how these people will feel about themselves should Noynoy, the gentle, pandering one, become president and later it becomes clear that their benevolent leader is screwing up the whole country. Will they continue to hail Noynoy as this country’s hope? Should that happen I will have only one word for them: Arrogance.

ABS-CBN’s Harapan: The Tandem Presidential Debate has been canceled. The surprising and unexpected reason: several candidates for president and vice president have either backed out or declined to participate.

This is shocking news. Who would have thought that the likes of Senators Noynoy Aquino, Manny Villar and their equally esteemed running mates would find it not worth their while to join a no holds barred debate? Well, to be fair to Villar’s running mate Senator Loren Legarda, her reluctance to participate is understandable considering the beating she got  last time.

(excerpts from a newsbreak.com.ph report)

• In a surprise result, Sen. Loren Legarda did poorly in ABS-CBN’s Harapan: The Vice-Presidential Debate, based on feedback from citizens who participated in the debate.
• Legarda failed to get 50% or more in most of feedback from the audience through the WARS.  She was asked about her experience in governance, her plans on improving the state of education, as well as on her pet themes, environment and climate change.
• Aside from doing poorly in the WARS, she also did badly in the on-line poll through abs-cbnNEWS.com chat with netizens, http://abs-cbnnews.com/harapan. The poll asked the question: Who is the most believable among the candidates in the Harapan debate?

It’s just too bad the debate scheduled for this Sunday will no longer push through. It would have given us yet another glimpse into what these people are really made of. I would have enjoyed watching Villar deflect questions about the C-5 controversy. And, of course, who would want to miss the Great Yellow Hope in action. I wonder how he would have fared against his cousin former defense secretary Gilbert Teodoro or Senator Richard Gordon.

By the way Teodoro was among those who backed out. He claims he has already saturated forums and debates. Well, at least he wasn’t being a jackass about it not like Villar who gave an excuse that can only be described as pamimilosopo.

(excerpt from an abs-cbnnews.com report)

Villar and Legarda said they already committed to visit their supporters in Bicol on the same date.

Villar added they did not back out because they never confirmed their participation.

Now, to be fair , I should also identify those who were all too willing to attend the debate. In no particular order, the Walang Pakisama (sa mga naduwag) are former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Perfecto Yasay Jr., evangelist Bro. Eddie Villanueva, former MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando and Senator Richard Gordon.

The gall of those 4 candidates for trying to re-invent the wheel. Don’t they know most Pinoy voters respond better to song and dance routines than speeches on the economy, population growth and other serious stuff? They should ask Senator Aquino. Better yet they should get lessons from him on the finer points of campaigning without really trying. After that they could also ask him to provide tips on how to cover all the bases. 

Oh, I almost forgot. Gordon is now part of that elite group of candidates who think they’re cute. He now has a music video of his own.  Before you watch it be sure to prepare yourself to be disappointed because Gordon didn’t really sing or dance on this video.

I’m sure you were also surprised the first time you watched that. I too  never imagined Moymoy Palaboy as celebrity political endorsers. But that shouldn’t really surprise anyone anymore. Ater all we’re talking about Pinoy-style elections.

The process for the renewal of business permits is as follows:

1. Compilation of business and other documents (old mayor’s permit, declaration of sales, tax documents, official receipts of payments etc.)

2. Presentation of documents for evaluation and assessment

3. Payment of official fees (city tax, garbage fee, sanitary fee etc.)

4. Claiming of Business Permit

The process stated above is the simplified and generalized version. Each local government unit follows its own system. From what I’ve been hearing from some of my businessmen friends, most LGUs here in Metro Manila have already optimized their systems for the benefit of business owners. Unfortunately a few still have dismal systems. I asked a friend of mine whose firm provides business renewal services to give me an assessment of the various LGUs. He gave me a ranking from the most to the least business-friendly. Here it is:

1. Makati
2. San Juan
3. Pasig
4. Manila
5. Muntinlupa
6. Paranaque
7. Marikina
8. Mandaluyong
9. Quezon City

I can’t really say I was surprised with the ranking he gave to Quezon City. For the past several years, I have been hearing my friend complain about how the system in Quezon City Hall has gone from bad to worse. He has two words to describe it: Red Tape.

But that’s not the worst. His biggest gripe concerns the evaluation of past income from which the amount of city tax and other business fees is computed. My friend says QC’s evaluators routinely impose their own estimates without due consideration to the veracity of the documents submitted by business owners. He cites the case of one of his clients who opened a barber shop just last month (December). He explains that since it was just a new business the barbershop naturally did not make much money yet. It just grossed P2,850 as of December he says.

Now, here’s the big shocker. The evaluator who checked the barbershop’s papers rejected the declared amount and imposed an income declaration of P200,000 from which the total amount of city tax will be derived.

My friend says this has been going on at QC City Hall for the past few years now. He says things even took a turn for the worse. Now, the imposition of arbitrary amounts is no longer dependent solely on whimsy. QC Hall’s evaluators are now actually following some kind of standard. Just go to city hall and you’ll find a memo about this posted somewhere.

The issue here is not so much that QC Hall’s evaluators refuse to accept the fact that not all businesses make money and that some actually do not make anything at all as in the case of businesses that were registered but whose operations did not actually push through. My friend explains that it’s more about the fact that the amounts imposed by the evaluators are excessive — abusive even.

Now I’m wondering how Quezon City Hall manages to curb graft and corruption within itself while such a practice is in place. Only a fool would think that no haggling and no “offers” to assist in the circumvention of this city tax scheme are ever made between the evaluators/assessors/collectors and the city’s business owners.

Perhaps, Quezon City Mayor Sonny Belmonte should look into this — if he doesn’t already know about it.

Well, as can be expected Noynoy’s followers are jumping on the opportunity to turn this into another viral crap.

Good thing there are still those who can see through the spin.

Come to think of it maybe this picture  is really about Noynoy crossing over to the Villar camp.

Just kidding.

(photo taken from this twitpic page)

Naging Mahirap

Nakaligo ka na ba sa dagat ng basura?
Nag-Pasko ka na ba sa gitna ng kalsada?
Yan ang tanong namin,
Tunay ka bang isa sa amin?

Nalaman mo na bang mapapag-aral ka nya?
Tutulungan tayo para magka-trabaho?
At kanyang plano’y magka-bahay tayo?

Si Villar ang tunay na mahirap.
si Villar ang tunay na may malasakit.
Si Villar ang may kakayahan
At gumawa ng sariling pangalan.

Si Manny Villar ang magtatapos
ng ating kahirapan.

Obviously, the message being imparted here is that Villar knows how to solve poverty because he himself was once poor. But, there’s an even bigger message here that many people probably missed. Villar and his handlers obviously think voters are so stupid they’d actually believe this crap.

Think about it. Does his being a poorboy once upon a time really make Villar the most knowledgeable and most qualified to take on the task of addressing poverty? I don’t think so. Would it even matter that he was once poor? Maybe. Is Villar really pro-poor? Your guess is as good as mine.

I appreciate Villar’s Sipag at Tiyaga slogan. It’s a good message to impart since it basically reminds us that we need to take action and persist if we want to rise above our circumstances. This is precisely why I find it odd that Villar also perpetuates victim mentality. Watch this TV ad titled Sama sa Masa. Pay attention to the line of the elderly woman identified as Araceli Pena.

Kasi pinalad sila maging anak mayaman.

Sounds to me like an excuse. Now, imagine that kind of message taking root among those who saw that ad. I’m sure not a few people said to themselves, “Oo nga. Mayaman kasi sila.” Is that the kind of thinking that would help poor people get themselves out of poverty?

Villar and anyone else who plans to run on a pro-poor agenda should be careful with the messages they impart especially the subliminal ones. They should make sure to promote a winner’s mindset because that is what the poor should strive to have. It would also be good if they refrained from depicting themselves as saviors of the poor long before it becomes fact.

The good senator should also stop reinforcing the misconception that the poor will only get out of poverty by voting formerly-poor-but-now-fantastically-wealthy people into office. That is so trapo. Of course, he should also make sure to mean it when he claims he is pro-poor. Otherwise, he’ll just prove to everyone that he really is trapo.

I like watching debates between Presidential candidates more than reading their campaign propaganda or write ups about their latest activities in newspapers which actually be crafted by public relations professionals and advertising gurus in cooperation with members of the “friendly” press.

You get to see how well the candidates themselves answer questions in real time.  You don’t see them through the wall of hype created by their political ads.

Anyway, let me just re-post in full the announcement for the Carlos P. Romulo Foundation for Peace and Development debate organized in cooperation with ANC and the Asian Institute of Management.

Presidential Policy Debate Kicks Off

Thursday, January 14 at AIM

The Carlos P. Romulo Foundation for Peace and Development is pleased to announce that the first comprehensive debate on domestic and foreign policy among presidential candidates in the May elections will take place on Thursday, January 14 at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM).

Sen. Richard Gordon, Sen. Manuel Villar and former Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro will participate in the two-hour forum. Two other candidates – former President Joseph Estrada and Sen. Benigno Aquino III – were invited to join the discussion as early as October last year, but they declined.

Organized by the Romulo Foundation in cooperation with ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) and AIM, the forum will focus on the broad theme of “Philippine Credibility and Competitiveness in the World”, and seek policy responses from the candidates on five main issues:

1.The Maguindanao massacre and the wider challenge of peace in the Philippine South – If elected President, what policies and programs will the candidate pursue to stop the problem of private armies, resolve the conflict in Mindanao and Sulu, and bring stability and development to the region?

2. Philippine foreign relations and international security – What significance does the candidate attach to Philippine relations with the world, what countries and regions are the most important, and should the nation be involved or not in the international struggle against terrorism?

3. Philippine economy and international economic relations – What policies will the candidate adopt to strengthen and grow the national economy, expand foreign trade and investments, and what importance does he attach to key economic organizations such as WTO, IMF, WB and APEC?

4. Migrant workers – What policies will the candidate adopt with respect to Filipino labor migration, the welfare of OFWs, Philippine relations with labor-receiving countries, and international conventions for the protection and rights of migrant workers?

5. Philippine competitiveness in the world – What specific policies and programs will the candidate adopt to reverse the erosion of Philippine international competitiveness in the world and address the problem of corruption?

“The primary purpose of the forum is to elicit from each candidate his specific policy ideas and solutions to major problems and challenges of national life today,” says Ambassador Roberto R. Romulo, Chairman of the CPR Foundation. “In this way, the forum will assist voters in reaching a decision on who to vote for.”

The forum will be moderated by Ricky Carandang of ANC. A question panel composed of Ambassador Rodolfo Severino, head of ASEAN Studies Center, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Philippine Star Editor/Columnist Amy Pamintuan, and CNN correspondent Jaime Floro Cruz will take turns in directing questions to the candidates.

Under the rules approved by the representatives of the candidates and the sponsoring organizations, the panel will question the candidates on the five main issues during the first hour of the forum. Each candidate will be given two minutes to state his position on each issue.

In the second segment, there will be an open forum participated in by both the question panel and the audience. Questions will be directed by them to the candidates individually.

In the final segment, the three candidates will each deliver a three-minute closing statement to sum up their policy positions and make their appeal to Filipino voters.

Organizers of the forum said the event will be attended by the business and diplomatic communities, the media and the general public. At least 20 ambassadors are expected to attend. Because of limited seats, interested parties are enjoined to reserve their seats early. Registration can be made via email: reyes@pfgc.ph or telephone 885-0921

The forum will be broadcast live by ANC on cable TV and ABS Studio 23 on terrestrial TV. “This will enable the Filipino citizenry all over the country to watch the event,” says Ambassador Romulo.

“No person shall bear, carry or transport licensed or unregistered firearms or deadly weapons in public except for the regular plantilla of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), other government law enforcement units and private security agencies duly authorized by the PNP and hired security personnel of candidates who were enlisted with Comelec.”

The Comelec is supposed to implement this from January 10 to June 9, 2010.  During this period, private individuals are prohibited from carrying firearms and each candidate will only be allowed two security personnel.

However, the Comelec’s record for enforcing a total gun ban seems to be not at all good.

During the 2007 elections, about 128 election-related killings and over 200 other incidents of violence resulting in the death of 10 people were reported to have happened from the official start of the  campaign period to election day.

It has been said that the Maguindanao Massacre is an indication of how political warlords will deal with serious competition at the polls now that it is virtually impossible to manipulate the automated election system.  There are those who say that instead of tinkering with the polls, political warlords will just either intimidate people into voting for them or prevent people opposed to their reign from voting.

Over on Inquirer dot net, a report says that a body guard of Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu shot and killed two people.  Here’s an excerpt from that report:

An alleged bodyguard of Buluan, Maguindanao, Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu has been arrested and faces charges for the fatal shooting on Monday of two law enforcers at the Subic Bay Freeport, officials of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) said Tuesday

Mohamedin Panegas Ali, 39, allegedly shot and killed Ceferino Abadia, an employee at the SBMA Law Enforcement Department (LED), and Delfin Orines, a retired policeman who was visiting the LED building.

Police said Ali fired his .45-cal. pistol during a struggle with some policemen and hit Abadia and Orines who were standing in the hallway. The two died before reaching a hospital.

The process of redirecting my traffic to Asian Correspondent (AC) messed up a lot of things.  Back when AC recruited me to be one of their bloggers, I don’t think I fully understood the implications of having my blog’s traffic redirected.  Now that I know a bit more about the implications of a traffic redirect, I would probably advise fellow bloggers against it and tell them to insist on being given a new blog to work with.

After all, a personal blog is something that you create out of passion for what you think is right and good.  It is one person reaching out to the rest of the world to say, “This is what I think, this is what I feel, this is what I stand for, this is what I am going to do.”

I think that Noynoy Aquino is going to be the worst President this country will ever have and because he is such a weak leader, he will be ousted before his time is up.  I feel awful because a lot of my countrymen are buying into the  empty hype that is propping up Noynoy Aquino’s candidacy.  I stand for the idea that we can make our country better by simply being more critical about the choices we make.  What I am going to do is to continue blogging in the hopes that enough people will start responding to the realities that are staring them in the face.

Some bloggers enjoy being referred and treated as journalists of one sort or another.  Some claim to follow certain ethical standards, being cause oriented, and make a big fuss over “credibility”.

As for me, I am really just a guy with a blog who writes about his thoughts and experiences.

There have been a number of times when I received comments branding me as an unethical journalist and I just laugh it off.  Maybe what the commenter wanted to convey to others is that I should not be believed and that’s all right.  You don’t have to believe what I write in my blog and you don’t have to agree with me either.

All that I care about is that I make some sense. Although I do make an effort to be accurate about the stuff I write about, I sometimes make errors in judgment and this is something that happens to most bloggers — even the more prominent ones who actually claim to be journalists.

I usually give this advise to those who comment that they have been disappointed that I was not conforming to journalistic standards:

If you want news, go to a news website.  If you want the opinions of professional columnists, go to the opinion pages of news websites.

At this point, let me clarify that I respect the decision of AC’s editorial board to let me go and I think it was a well thought out decision, considering that I am not a journalist and as a blogger, I tend to go in directions which do not conform to certain journalistic standards.

AC  wants to displace the Far Eastern Economic Review and it is a rather lofty goal.  I used to read the FEER a lot a number of years ago and although I really didn’t understand most of what I read, I had the impression that whatever story that FEER printed caused a lot of ripples.

Considering that I am just a blogger and considering that AC wants to become a serious online magazine, I think that going separate ways is a good decision.  I can continue writing what I want to write in the way that I want to write it and AC can go on to become a great online magazine.