Dear GRP Insiders,
Welcome the “Ber” months and those Jose Mari Chan memes beginning to pop up on our timelines and news feeds!
Regards,
benign0
In review and in prospect
The disproportionate amount of space and air time the Philippines' mainstream media organisations are giving Vice President Leni Robredo is becoming more obvious by the week. This is remarkable considering there is no evidence supporting Robredo's viability as an Opposition presidential bet in 2022. She has consistently trailed in most popularity surveys over the last several years and has put out largely unqualified — even incoherent — messaging over much of her stint as de facto leader of the traditional Opposition, all of which have been the subject of ridicule.
Clearly Robredo is being propped up by people or groups heavily-invested in an unlikely Yellowtard victory in 2022. She is a sad testament to the intellectual bankruptcy of the Philippine Opposition the foremost “thought leaders” of which have so far failed to cobble together an intelligent platform that describes some semblance of a compelling alternative to the Duterte Way. Consider that even renowned economist and Inquirer columnist Winnie Monsod, widely regarded to be among the more scholarly of Yellowtard “intellectuals”, is unable to highlight nothing of Robredo's imagined virtues other than her gender and saintly ways.
The Opposition continue to stick by their tired and utterly obsolete “good” versus “evil” narrative — as if popularity (the key critical metric that determines the winners in a democracy) necessarily distinguishes between the two. Judging by what the surveys have been showing, it is evident Filipinos do not care if a leader is a sonofabitch as long as he or she is their sonofabitch. Robredo and disente her camp have to get around to reading the writing on the wall.
Last week's blog posts
Politics
September 5, 2021 by Ramon Ortoll
"Duterte is a maverick. He lets his political enemies make fools of themselves on the national stage. This is why he confidently challenges the public 'talunin niyo mga Senador na yan,' meaning 'don’t vote for these Senators in whatever office they run for'."
September 4, 2021 by Ramon Ortoll
"You don’t see Sara Duterte traveling with a media entourage unlike Robredo who always has a cameraman in tow. The only time Sara had extended visibility was during the 2019 election campaign. She lay low again right after."
Opposition “journalist” compares Duterte to Ramos because the Opposition offer nothing
September 3, 2021 by Ramon Ortoll
"Surely Ramos has a better educational background than Duterte but his six years in office was relatively a failure. Aside from his dismantling of PLDT’s monopoly on telecommunications, there isn’t much more to crow about."
September 2, 2021 by Ramon Ortoll
"Our political immaturity is being condoned by the Opposition with their antics. This is due to their being lazy and intellectually dishonest. They prefer the shortcut method instead of actually working to present an alternative platform of government."
Opposition MISTAKEN to think winnability of Duterte camp in 2022 goes down with Bong Go
September 1, 2021 by Ramon Ortoll
"Duterte continues to be popular and isn’t even a lame duck going into his last months in office. The Opposition had to do something. This is that something. It is an old strategy which is typical for them. But they continue to believe it will work in their favor."
Could either an Isko-Leni or Isko-Pacman tandem become a reality for the Opposition in 2022?
August 31, 2021 by Ramon Ortoll
"If Grace Poe will not agree to be his running mate then it makes sense that either Leni Robredo or Manny 'Pac-Man' Pacquiao will be up for consideration."
History
The rise and fall of Afghan president Ashraf Ghani mirrors US puppetry in Philippine politics
September 4, 2021 by Ramon Ortoll
"Afghanistan at least got billions or even trillions of dollars while the Philippines has nothing to show for its subservience to the US from 1946 to 2016."
Public service
August 30, 2021 by Ramon Ortoll
"Undersecretary and Assistant Secretary positions are given out on the basis of the candidate’s 'MBA' — May Backer Ako."
Important dates
01 to 08 Oct 2021 - Filing of Certificates of Candidacy (COC)
Notebook
"There’s a high probability a new variant will arise one day that can significantly escape the protection offered by our vaccines, which are based on the original strain of the virus. We would call this an 'escape variant'. It’s hard to know if and when this would happen, but rampant community transmission of the virus increases the chances of such a variant emerging." (Full article)