In this day and age of internet and cellphones!
Lacierda said Wednesday: “You know, the problem in Zamboanga is that no planes are flying there. They’re not getting news there. No newspapers are being flown there.”
Lacierda thinks we will believe that? I’d rather think he was not in the mood to think up of excuses why the President has not made a statement on the filing of charges against three senators and 34 other persons in connection with the pork barrel scam operated by Janet Lim Napoles who surrendered to him last Aug. 28. He even brought her to Camp Crame to make sure she is safe and well taken care of, remember?
There were other issues like the Sangguniang Kabataan elections scheduled Oct. 28. Last Monday the Senate approved a bill postponing it until the SK is restructured. The House also approved a similar bill last week. It’s awaiting the President’s certification as “urgent.”
There are hundreds of journalists sending their stories complete with pictures and video from Zamboanga. That simply means that nobody can be out of touch.
I’d like to think that Lacierda was just acting stupid when he gave that “no newspapers” excuse because if he were not, kawawa naman ang taumbayan.
The President has been in Zamboanga since Friday last week. It’s good that he held a press conference in Zamboanga yesterday because his absence in public functions is fuel all sorts of rumors.
Here’s excerpts from his press conference:
Reporter: How involved are you in the decision making dito and in order to solve this crisis here in Zamboanga?
Aquino: I am both Commander-in-Chief and the President, therefore, at the end of the day, everything is my responsibility, so I am very involved—‘yung from everything to getting briefed and putting some of my inputs into the security operations.
Meron din ‘yung others to make parang the effects of the crisis less, ano, that means ‘yung DSWD. I get briefed; I get—I ask them what is needed, et cetera; authorize the releases of funds; to talking to Bangko Sentral to ensure that the cash supply, ano, ‘yung physical cash supply is present; to talking to DTI, DOTC, and DA to ensure that basic food stuffs are available from the time before I left Manila to the present—to include not just Zamboanga City but BASULTA (Basilan-Sulu-Tawi-tawi).
Reporter:. Sir, kumusta po ‘yung war room? Balita kasi namin parang madaling araw daw kayo nagigising. Talagang nagko-command kayo sa mga different heads in order to resolve this crisis.
Aquino: Mahirap naman sigurong bigyan ng image na nagma-micromanage ako. Hindi, ano. In-assign natin ang bawat tao sa kanilang pwesto dahil may paniniwala tayong may kakayahan sila na tugunan ‘yung kanilang responsibilidad.
So, kung minsan, meron tayong katanungan, hinihingan natin ng clarification at sinisigurado rin natin, kaya nagpunta ako dito… Alam mo, ‘nung bago ako umabot dito—‘di ba, Friday—nag-uusap kami: telepono, may video conferencing na kailangang i-improve, medyo ‘yung layo nagka… Baka magkaroon ng hindi klaro na pag-unawa doon sa ating mga kautusan.
So nagpunta tayo dito para mas mabilis ‘yung pagbigay ng impormasyon, at pagbigay din ng desisyon, at i-klaro kung ano man ang kailangang klaruhin—either doon sa mga konsepto or doon sa desisyon na ating pinairal.
Reporter: Sir, parang napansin ko lahat na ho ng opisyales ay nandirito sa Zamboanga. Hanggang kailan niyo po sasamahan ang mga taga-Zamaboanga?
Aquino: Well, pipilitin ko hanggang matapos itong immediate na crisis, ano. Palagay ko babalik ako ‘pag natapos ‘yung plano para maipaliwanag nang naka-detalye: ano ang gagawin ng gobyerno, para kanino, saan, at kailan. At I don’t expect that to take too long, ano.
Pero balikan ko lang nga, ‘yung siguro, gusto ko lang iwan sa mga nakikinig po sa atin sa kasalukuyan, na handa ang gobyernong tumugon sa lahat ng suliranin. Ito palagay ko’y, in a sense, unique, ano. Nailipat mo or nailikas mo ang daang libo at hindi kami humingi ng—o hindi kami gumawa ng excuses kung hindi mapakain, kung hindi matugunan ang panggagamot. Siguro, patunay ‘yon na ready sila.
So I’d like to… ‘Yung ‘pag may nagsasabi sa akin, “parang ang ‘cool’ mo.” Sabi ko, ‘pag ito mga kasamahan mo, na lahat ay ginagampanan ‘yung kailangan nilang gawin na hindi mo na kailangang utusang gampanan, at kung ano mang pagsubok na palaki nang palaki ay natutugunan pa rin, ay talaga namang, ‘di ba, napapahanga ako sa kanila at doon nagmumula ‘yung kumpiyansa na malalampasan natin kung ano man ang pagsubok dito.
Siguro, baka as a last thing na lang, ano, hindi pa huli ang lahat. Doon sa mga natitira na puwersa ng kalaban, sa akin mahalaga ang buhay, baka naman gusto niyong tingnan kung mahalaga rin ‘yung buhay niyo? At hindi pa huli ang lahat para tapusin ito nang mabawasan ‘yung namamatay or nasusugatan—nasa inyong kamay ‘yon.
Ellen, maiba naman tayo focus naman tayo sa SK.
Very bad, very bad idea to down play the role of the youth through SK. Congress perceived SK trending bad direction, but with whom the youth got their bad influence? Is it from our lawmaker’s status quo? Yes, partly. Look how our lawmakers project themselves in the limelight. They acted the worst ever in the history in lawmaking in the Philippines. That is, in fact, very bad influence to our youth. How about their parents influence? Yes, it is a big part to account for the bad influence of SK, reason, many parents are irresponsible and negligent to discipline their children specially the youth. Parents of SK I talked tried to justify winning SK election, not by intelligent choice but by rampant corrupt election practices, e.g., bribe, family influence despite obvious incompetent performance of candidate, etc. Very bad, who else shall we trust to be the hope of our nation, if we do not help these youth? We have nothing to turn to, everyone these youth hoping to be their model were giving then bad influence and now the very entry points of the SK to empower them which is our Congress, apparently is the the worst influence to them in the current landscape of our lawmakers performance. There seem to be no one among members of the Congress now can anymore uphold human dignity and reputation, patriotism and love barely exist on their lips, but not in their bodies and souls. Are all these government officials, stupid? They cannot anymore live by the book on what they learned in class on political science subject, which is always good politics where all these politicians earned their top grades? President Pnoy is not exempted to this. Please rise up for those who do not belong to the flock and defend yourselves, but please be reminded, lip service is not a defense.
Just asking.
@ 1 the intents of the SK are quite forward looking but it was a failed experiment that orient the youth into the wrong start..there must be a better way..we have this programs called Cadet programs open to all youth between 13 to 18. It is not a military training but more of leadership and fun and very many of its trainee grow up to adulthood to become very productive Citizens in field if Science (just about every one of our astronauts are former Cadets ) business and politics. The training instill discipline to the youth, while enjoying friendship, diversity, travel and a little of Military experience. It is under the sponsorship of he dept of Defense..The kids are provided with uniforms and they raised their own funding through many initiatives, including standing the whole day by the malls and courteously soliciting fund from the adoring Public…yes the air, Land and Sea Cadets, forming our youths to be tomorrow’s Leaders..it is Voluntary…
not only lacierda possesses a stupid.
imagine estimating the cost of burned and destroyed houses in several barangays to only PhP20m then allotting PhP3.6b for bunkhouses only?
tstk. tsk. tsk.
when shall this kind of level of corruption stops?
letseng ginagawang tanga palagi at hindi marunong magkuwenta ang mga tao, eh.
dinky soliman, pobre na nga kami gusto n’yo pa kaming gawing tanga?
huwag naman kayong ganyan. KUNG tutulungan n’yo kami upang muling makabangon, aba’y huwag na kayong mangumisyon!
mas malaki pa ang mapupunta sa bulsa ninyo, ah.
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/video/nation/09/21/13/govt-allots-p36-b-bunkhouses-zamboanga
not only lacierda possesses a stupid HEAD.
@2 Yes vic, may be its too early. I think it needs to ask the original wisdom of SK proponent of the law. If we found to be not workable, what else shall we do, but to delete it in the law books. The cadet program seem to be a good one for our youth, but may not be workable here because the priority in most families are foods and self sufficiency of food can be gleaned from sufficient budget allocation in agriculture projects, especially farming. In US we have many grants to avail as government assistance.
To me to view these myriads of problems, population, informal settlers, housing, etc. is firstly, the recognition and affirmation that Philippines, is in fact, an agriculture country. This concept should be truly be the target in planning and budgeting, because we cannot change that fact. We discourage our youth to embrace wide areas of countrysides living, because our lawmakers are selective and short sighted, so they necessarily become self-centered to prove accomplishments to be awarded with money their illusion of as God. The lawmakers are good in argumentation, but not in experience going out barefooted to the rice fields, palay our major products.
how much support we are getting, now with poor rice production for all production needs out of reach by farmers. So they recourse to financing 5-6. The problem of farm pest control, expected to be the concern of our government, but there’s nothing. Poor individual farmers can’t do it. No, No, no, very , very wrong budgeting concept, manifested in almost half going to presidential untouchable allocation. What justifies this in view of our country’s considered to be an agricultural country, the truth that cannot be change.
Lacierda is a Tsinoy, a product of St. Jude Catholic School. He speaks fluent Fujian and Mandarin. Just FYI.
I had high respect for this guy when he was the counsel of Jun Lozada. During the hearings, I could see Lacierda sitting behind Lozada with teary eyes. He has gone a long way now up to the inner circle of Pnoy in Malacanang.
Same with Ricky Carandang who was among my favorite newscaster. I admired his decent look in awesome business suit and his mild manner. His English is excellent comparable to American newscasters. But what’s this rumor now that he has enriched himself so much with mansion and luxury vehicles. He has a mistress after being separated from a Chinese mestiza wife.
SK or Kabataan Barangay during the Marcos years was not as corrupt. Imee Marcos, then Chairperson of the Kabataan Barangay nationwide, did a very good job.
Mennie, that is good. Can you share us further your knowledge about SK, since I had not lost faith in them. You can also send via email: josesamilin181@yahoo.com
It’s true that our youths are the hope of the future. Let us teach them in the right way.
#8…First of all, my name is Mannie not Mennie 🙂
My understanding of SK is that it was patterned under the old KB of Marcos years. Even the “Matuwid na Daan” slogan by Pnoy is another version of “Bagong Lipunan” or New Society.
SK is the junior counterpart of Barangay wherein the youth are being trained to be future leaders of the community. During the KB years, the youth then had to seek for sponsors to fund their projects. And those were real projects beneficial to the youth in every Barangay. Today, the bulk of the Pork Barrel SK receives is spent on buying basketball uniforms for basketball competition. Parties, dancing, drinking and believe it or not (drugs) among these young local barangay officials. The SK officials use the money to shop and other personal use. Comes election if their parents are running for public offices, the parents sometimes get the funds from children who are SK Chairmen or officials. The kids are being trained to be corrupt at so young the age. How could a 16 years old be able to handle the budget? Of course it’s the parents who handle the money. It’s for this reason that the minimum age for a SK official must be raised to something like 18 or 19 not less than that.
Taking Mannie’s account a notch backward, the KB was an offshoot of several Barangay Youth Clubs that was doing voluntary socio-civic work in many barangays in the country. This became the pattern for which Imee Marcos was “endorsed” by these teen leaders to head a national organization decreed by Marcos as a vehicle to rally the grassroots youth over to their side.
I was one of the original members of the 13-18 y.o. kids with our City being the “pilot” city for launching most of Imee’s youth-targeted projects.
Sports, environment, drug control, arts and recreation, skills and livelihood are some of the aspects of our projects that ultimately aimed to 1) take the kids off the streets and into schools 2) train them for future jobs and leadership positions, 3) fight the drug menace.
We were successful in many aspects. For example, our Pasay City Chorale was champion for so many years in international competitions. Our Dulaang KB produced prolific stage actors the most popular one being the late comedian Rene Requiestas from Taguig. My barangay specifically produced KB’s first marathoner to join the RP Olympic training pool. More importantly, our group produced the first Youth Sector Rep in the Marcos Parliament, Pasay’s President of KB Secretariat, Makairog Ogie Aznar was appointed to Batasang Pambansa by Marcos himself. Other KB presidents of Metro Manila, like Ram Antonio of Mandaluyong and Herbert Bautista of QC envied the very coveted position.
To top it all, KB was founded on volunteerism, mostly kids doing their patriotic duty to serve their fellow teenagers without benefit of funds nor allowances/wages. Compared to the present where SK leaders get to spend millions while they are still banned from signing contracts due to their age, our group then had to solicit donations from sponsors, sell tickets to concerts, dances and cultural shows even personal and family savings to fund our activities.
While we inculcated the right values in the KB as volunteers, preparing them for a lot of sacrifice when their time to truly serve the country comes, this SK is widely notorious for producing corrupt future politicians trained in overpriced projects, mastering fixed bidding, and finessing ghost deliveries. The early headstart for the influential families’ grip on corrupt local politics via their dynasties can be traced back to the SK Chairmen of the past few decades.
Its a pity that such a noble group with noble intentions as the KB was bastardized by this same set of Pork-Adoring trapos they even use their children to perpetuate their greed.
I’m not for destroying the legit youth organizations but this SK as it is in its present form and substance, has to see its ugly end soon and be replaced with the original spirit of genuine volunteerism at its center.
#10 Nice to hear that from you, Tongue. I forgot one guy whose last name was Villalon who was very active too. But critics called him “nut”.
Imee Marcos for all her family’s sins, did a very good job as KB Chairperson. Even then, she already showed an independent mind not afraid to go against her powerful parents’ dictates. Even when it came to love life, she went against Imelda for relationship with Tommy Manotoc who was kidnapped and almost got killed had it not for Imee.