Don't expect our Leaders to be Moral--their very natures prevent them from being so

“And it should be realised that taking the initiative in introducing a new form of government is very difficult and dangerous, and unlikely to succeed. The reason is that all those who profit from the old order will be opposed to the innovator, whereas all those who might benefit from the new order are, at best, tepid supporters of him. This lukewarmness arises partly from the sceptical temper of men, who do not really believe in new things unless they have been seen to work well.”

---Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, 1562

Now I know why we feel frustrated and very sad and depressed---we expect our Politicians to show decency, when the very nature of politics is actually a negation of decency. 

As what the great Niccolo Machiavelli will tell you--there's no morality in politics, only the proper upkeep of power. If we expect our leaders to be moral, we actually expect our priests to marry.

The affairs of the state are temporal, human. Morality or ethics are more of ethereal, spiritual. Politics is all about Power, not ethics. There is even no aesthetics when it comes to Power. There is only permanent PERSONAL interests.

If we expect and PRAY that Mrs. Arroyo lifts martial law out of decency or even morality, then, we will always fail. When we pray for Mrs. Arroyo to meet God when she cheated last 2004 elections, we also failed.

Mrs. Arroyo and her fellow gangsters in government do not understand where we are coming from. We are coming from a position where morality/ethics and politics should mix when they are coming from a more realistic position that these values are antipathetic.

The language which Mrs. Arroyo knows is the mathematics of Power. One cannot defeat her by using Gandhian tactics of non-violence---these methods or tactics are useless and a waste of time. Nor if we use the English language where our opponent uses a complex Parson's language, we are being stupid.  In fact, pacific methods are sure to fail against a true blue practitioner of the Machievallian arts.

And we will always be frustrated because we always subscribe to the elitist method or what I call "paradigm of pseudo-counters". There is no victory thru the use of peaceful methods. In fact, I consider now the model of EDSA as a failed experiment, even a pseudo, Faust-ian strategy that was fostered as a counter-argument against the most effective method for change---which is Revolution.

EDSA uno and dos were not revolutions--they were accommodations. The more we hope to replicate this model, the more frustration we get because this model is simply not attuned with the times.

The times call for violent means; this is an era where the fires of passions and hatred must burn the very foundations of a discrepit and violent regime, whose language we surely do not and will never understand.

When we prepare a Priest to lead the revolt, we are venturing into defeat. When we prepare a Moralist to lead us towards revolution, we are surely going to the pits.

Yet, when a True Leader emerges, when all of those posturing to be one negates their very existence by themselves or thru the efforts of their very supporters, then, expect victory. For no one succeeds in a Machiavellian war except a Niccolo. And Sun Tzu agrees.

A New Theme

Welcome to the new design of New Philippine Revolution!

I decided to change the look and feel of NPR, simply for one reason---palace web operators tried to hack and damage this site. Yep. I noticed it just this morning. It seems that following my stories about Mrs. Arroyo's alleged boob job and the revelations of this site about Oplan August Moon, there seems to be a renewed effort to destroy NPR.

Well, they can try. As I said in previous posts, this is my Sierra Madre. If they will try to stifle even my net presence, go ahead. But, I'll not going to just let them do it to me, no.

The Internet is the last bastion of democracy here in this country. It is a frontier which Filipinos are trying to conquer. Some wants to understand it; others, well they try to manipulate it for their own interests. As far as I'm concerned, I just want to blog for the heck of it. I want to analyze things that's happening around the world, and make full sense of everything. I am not doing it for personal glory, no. I'm doing this so that future generations of Filipinos would understand why many people struggle against this despotic regime and why people like me express this anger in public.

I realized now that NPR has made an impact on some of our friends, and I thank God for it. Starting today, with the new design and all, NPR will be more circumspect when it comes to sensitive matters such as governance and personal lives of certain public personalities. Expect NPR to come out with more posts that are A1 information and well researched.
NPR will remain combative particularly against people in government who cheat and steal the people's money. NPR will remain subservient only to the interests of the Filipino People.

By the way, for more indepth analysis, go visit http://daily2020.blogspot.com. There's also a very good site called http://filipinoobserver.blogspot.com. Try to visit it if you have time.

The problem of political succession in Philippines

How can we so organize political institutions that bad or incompetent
rulers can be prevented from doing so much damage?

Karl Popper, The Open Society and its Enemies Vol. 1 (New York: Harper and Row, 1962)

One of the things why we Filipinos feel uncertain about the future is our lack of a clear political succession plan. Because we rely heavily on the theory of social choice thru elections, we always think that those elected into office are the "right choices" and even think that these elections are "ordinations". Yet, we don't consider that social choice, more often than not, put the wrong people in and the right people out.

The reason why social choice always fail us everytime is the theory has a lot of loopholes, as what political scientist William Riker pointed out in his writings. Riker said that the Corducet paradox remains because social choice, as a component of a functioning democracy, is falliable. And the reason why the same results always surface is the fact that the paradox itself runs on a cyclical way. There is no way to break its course other than political and institutional modernization.

Samuel P. Huntington said that the more social mobilization happens in a society, the more systems become complexed and confused. Violence ensues if government fails to match this social mobilization with political and institutional modernization. That's always the case with us. We are in a highly confused and often violent state because government's thrust is always building the economic infrastructures up without modernizing political institutions along side with it. The speed of social modernization has overtaken political institutions.

There lies the problem. Our economy is finally recovering but our political institutions remain old and therefore, perceived to be unresponsive to social reality. This is the source of most of our social discontent.

Now, political and institutional modernization cannot happen without a solid and clear succession plan. It is a political reality that change in our country happens only when the leadership demands it. It is when the inspiration to do things right dawn on the top will the initiative flow down through laws and ordinances. Because implementors holding offices in our old, decrepit political institutions are beneficiaries of old and traditional rewards in a patron-client system of relationships, change more often than not, is relegated to the backburner.

The solution is a total overhauling of the entire political system to allow the infusion of fresh blood. There is a need to "re-imagine" our political institutions through the destruction of old elite groups.

Destroying the elite can either be through parliamentary means or thru armed struggle. I have another option---social syndicalization by re-creating the public sphere.

Through the de-commercialization of media and the integration of New Media, we can lift the level of discussion and inflitrate the public discourse in formal institutions and make it as the primary discourse. That would force the elite to put constructive ideas into action, leading to the modernization of political institutions and ultimately, lead to the dissolution of that communicative barrier that exist between political leadership and the publics. With that taken cared of, we can now directly participate in reconstructing our political system and hopefully, correctly level the playing field and allow fresh ideas to be infused into the superstructure. (for more on this, I wrote a paper entitled " Where are we headed? Challenges in Political Succession in the Philippines")

Deconstructing DJB

One of my friends and I consider to be one of the top minds in this country, just celebrated his brithday yesterday. I failed to greet him a happy birthday. Nonetheless, I deemed it wise to write this entry as an analysis of DJB or some know as Dean Jorge Bocobo.

For those in the know, DJB is not actually a dean of some law school. He just, well, was blessed by his parents by being anointed as a "dean". At first, I was one of those who thought he was truly a dean, seeing that in the academe, a dean is a honorary title.

Yet, the more I read of him, the more convinced am I that, indeed, he's a dean of the philosophical or even of the academic kind.

DJB writes with passion. He's passionate on almost everything particularly on (1) God/religion (2) Politics (3) Constitutionality and (4) idiocracy. He's a rational thinker, the kind that will debate you endlessly on logic, being versed on the rudiments of Hegelian, Kantian and in some ways, pratatorian logic.

DJB is a Nationalist. He's heart is in the right place. He defends the weak, fights the Strong and admires the Strongest. Briefly, I categorize him as a Modern Anarchist, albeit, grey hairs and all.

DJB is a Rightist. Though this category has all been erased from the modern political spectrum analysis, I believe that he's one of the nicest Rightist guy I have ever crossed swords with.

DJB is a Democrat. What he loves or probably understands so clearly is democracy. He's the promoter of the Wisdom of the Crowd, the way Nick of tingog.com thinks of it.

For all these tags, the most apt description of DJB is simply a man who loves life. He tries to deconstruct life and reality seeing that the main solution lies in fully understanding it.

Ah, cut all these crap. Happy birthday, DJB. May your tribe increase!

Analysis of the Phil. Situation 3: The Political Bigwigs

There are talks that Speaker Prospero Nograles is under extreme pressure. His political party, Kampi, is pressuring him to change his stand against term extension. Kampi even threatens to oust him as Speaker via a coup d'etat. And the one allegedly orchestrating this, is none other than his friend, Ronnie Puno.

It's well known that DILG secretary Ronnie Puno (the chief architect of Kampi's expansion) belongs to the small group of Palace secretaries who favor Gloria's 2020 overtime plan. Puno is allegedly confident that the strength of the anti charter change movement is weak, therefore, this is the time to really go for blood and push charter change down the people's throat. Obviously, a consummate politician like Nograles sees differently and that explains why he's opposing Puno's group. For all his allegedly strong personality facade, Nograles is afraid to go against his former boss, Jose de Venecia Jr. Talks are afloat within the House that JDV is getting more and more support not only from civil society but also in the political scene that there are very strong perceptions that JDV is re-invigorating his political clout. Now, aside from Nograles, Albay Congressman Edcel Lagman already called it quits and already announced his readiness not to participate in the charter change push.

Now, I think that other charter change proponents will fall one by one prior and after December 12. Luis Villafuerte will definitely accede, so do Cebu Congressman Pablo Garcia. Even La Union Congressman Victor Ortega will succumb to public pressure once this accelerates a week before December 12. If these Congressmen fall, the rest will definitely follow. Unlike the Big Yoda (Jose de Venecia Jr.), these Congressmen are not made of sterner stuff. They, surely, will enter into compromises or deals if they see that the winds are changing and blowing in the other way.

At the Senate, almost everybody there are opposed to term extensions. However, it is important to note how Enrile will maneuver to neutralize future opposition to his post as Senate President. Enrile is neither opposition nor administration. He is his own man. He may act independently on his own to solidify forces against Gloria come decision time.

Meanwhile, traditional political parties are positioning themselves away from the ruling coalition and this will definitely show come December 12. Manny Villar's Nacionalista Party has just forged a tactical alliance with the JDV-FVR faction in Lakas. Danding has also given his blessing for NPC to join JDV-FVR. Will there be a formal announcement of the breakout of this Lakas faction from the Lakas-KAMPI ruling coalition? Quite expectedly, yes. Will there be a new dominant party prior to 2010? Yes. It will be the strong political front of Lakas-NPC-Nacionalista. Will this impact on the political future of other political parties? Yes. Who is the most immediate victim? It will be Gloria's KAMPI party who will definitely be marginalized once FVR announces a tactical alliance.

Now, this announcement will definitely be timed after a strong showing against charter change in December 12. Obviously, FVR has already wrote finis his relationship with Gloria and he knows how to counter the expected backlash from Lakas-KAMPI. It would be better if FVR's faction does this after the overthrow of Gloria.

In fact, many are saying that the reason for these sudden political re-alignments is to protect the status quo once a coup succeeds in toppling Gloria. At the surface, it may appear that the December 12 interfaith rally is just your normal rally but in the backstages, things are moving very fast against Gloria. The rally is just a facade to hide the backroom negotiations being done to effect a bloodless transition of power! More on this in the summary of these posts.

The Battle in December

Two bishops have called upon the people to join the mammoth rally this Sunday, November 30, 2008. Heeding the clarion call, the Makati Business Club (MBC) and other civil society groups are also calling for people to go to the streets and protest the current efforts of this administration to extend Gloria's term.

A few days prior, detained Senator Antonio Trillianes called upon the people to support the impeachment complaint against Gloria. Saying it's the last legal option to oust the Pinay anti-Christ, Trillianes says it is still possible for the democratic soldiers to "intervene" into this political mess and rectify these errors wrought against the people by this evil administration.

Question that everybody is asking--will there be a realization of the People's dream for the ouster of Gloria? Rumours say, a big event will happen on the 28th of November, the day when Gloria comes back from her Latin American trip. Others say, the 30th of this month will signal a week-long "Revolution of Hope" and would culminate with Gloria's ouster.

Observing what's happening, I think that the thirtieth will just be the proverbial first shout that would culminate to Gloria's eventual ouster before January 2009. There are very auspicious signs which point to a weakening of Gloria's defenses by December 2008. The apex of the people's sentiments may be reached next month as Congress formalizes the killing of the impeachment, a symbolic act which could trigger widespread dissillusionment and cause the justification of a December affair.

Or, it could be prolonged to January of next year. If the forces against Gloria succeeds in ousting her in January or weaken her pro-cha-cha forces in the first quarter of 2009, kiss charter change goodbye. People behind Gloria will definitely not be able to implement their dastardly plot in summer, since there will not be sufficient time to effect charter change.

Unbeknownest to Gloria, the more anti-charter change proponents delay the hearing of the cha-cha proposals, the lesser the prospects for Gloria to extend her term. Surely, they cannot ram cha-cha in June of 2009 simply because Congressmen will be busy by then for their re-election campaign. So, the critical months begins in December and ends in March 2009 or the month where Congress adjourns. However, there is another card which Gloria's minions are contemplating and that is the emergency power card. These Malacanang hawks will try to implement black operations, will try to portray lawlessness in the Metro and in Mindanao and justify it. Like charter change, however, they are also pressed for time since they need to muster enough support from the AFP to do this. Surely, the defense secretary will not be a party to this, since Danding's party, if reports are to be believed, is aligning itself with the JDV-FVR faction in Lakas.

Shattering GMA's Myth of Invincibility

I had a pleasant conversation with Baby Yoda and one of the questions he asked is, where's the middle class? Where's the Filipino People? Where are they and what's their take on things? I saw how pained his face was. I noticed the strain in his voice. After more than a year of struggle against the evil forces of Gloria, he's now suddenly becoming pragmatic, even frustrated at how things are shaping up.

But, I tell you my friend, there is a bigger chance for change now than before! Slowly, forces are converging into one logical and rational agenda--the need to revitalize and resuscitate the ailing people's movement against Gloria.

Yes, baby Yoda, your sacrifice is not in vain. Everyday, people are slowly moving towards organizing themselves and thinking of ways on how to change society. And this, my friend, is the result of your struggle.

The forces anathema to change are cowering now in fear. They are clueless. The environment is so silent that the silence is quite deafening!

Arroyo's fears are beginning to grow that she even ordered her charter change lieutenants and generals to go slow and abandon some of the costly initiatives they're doing because this might lead to the realization of Mar Roxas' warning. And that warning is not hollow. It's a warning to those who will still trample democracy to re-think what they're doing and stop all these stupid things.

The end for all grafters is at hand! The end of this evil regime is taking concrete shape! People who are too afraid before have now regained their confidence in themselves. The need for change is upon us! We must seize it by the horns and create history!

Yes, victory for the Filipino People is at arm's length!

Gloria's invincibility is just a myth! When weak, appear strong. When strong, appear weak. People are thinking that Gloria cannot be cut down. People believe that the forces against change are strong and those change agents are weak.

But, I tell you my friends, hope is just day's away! Hope that someday we see a brighter future for our kids. Hope that the Cause of Our Misery will be meted the punishment she deserves!

We must rejoice because the forces of Gloria are doing everything in their power to coerce and lure with money all Congressmen to kill the impeachment.

Rejoice! For the death of the impeachment will bring about real change in this country.

Rejoice! Because these forces of evil are clueless and running like headless chickens, oblivious of the growing movement for their demise. You who think lowly of the Filipino, be forewarned! Your days are numbered!