Will Philippines' Cycle Of Corruption Ever End?

[Travis]

will the new president ever go against the elitist class of which he is one? don't the rich have feelings for all those starving poor? I see so much poverty here in Cebu & I have heard that it is much worse in other areas that I cannot understand how the rich Filipinos can ignore their own people? it hurts me to see the many poor so how can it not hurt them cuz they had to grow up & see much more than I have. I read that the rich stay in the mansions but how can that be? I would go crazy staying home all the time & they must have staff who are poor that live with them so are they so unfeeling? I guess cuz I just cannot understand that line of thoughtAny Americans who hold out the faint hope that our onetime colony the Philippines might yet drag itself out of an unending cycle of poverty, corruption and violence must now bet on the long odds that newly elected President Benigno Aquino III will act against the best interests of his elitist class.The son of the late president Corazon "Cory" Aquino and her murdered husband, Benigno "Ninoy" Jr., the understated "Noynoy," as nickname-obsessed Filipinos know him, is but the latest of the super-rich, land-owning, fair-skinned mestizos to rule the 92 million people of the archipelago since the United States granted them independence in the wake of World War II.These elites exercise their political will and control the Philippines' economy through domination of massive agricultural, industrial and commercial empires. "The mestizo ruling class feels no obligation to the peons down the line," Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of neighboring, middle-class, meritocratic Singapore, told me.The mestizos are the descendants of Spanish friars and soldiers, who colonized the islands from 1564 to 1898, and some of the islands' 100 or so different indigenous peoples. These relationships gave rise to an upper crust, upon whom the Spanish colonists and then the Americans relied and through whom they operated for centuries. Indeed, the U.S. government continues to depend on personal relations with the Filipino elites in order to influence sensitive political and military power in this critical corner of Southeast Asia.Bitter laughter Our reliance on individuals who largely are tainted by scandal, corruption and — certainly for two decades under President Ferdinand E. Marcos— brutality, explains the hostile part of the love-hate relationship many ordinary Filipinos have with Americans. When then-Vice President George H.W. Bush publicly told the reviled Marcos in 1981, "We love you for your adherence to democratic principles and the democratic process," millions laughed bitterly.The elites emerge from luxurious seclusion in their walled-in mansions and vast estates to mix with the masses only at election time, when they make outrageous promises they have neither the intention nor the ability to deliver.In his successful campaign, the new President Aquino vowed to subdivide Hacienda Luisita, his family's vast sugar plantation in Tarlac province, among some 10,000 tenant-farmer families. Each family is entitled to at least 25 acres of the 16,000-acre property under a land-reform program instituted by none other than President Corazon Aquino in 1989.Other members of the family, however, have steadfastly opposed the idea. In 2004, the family summoned armed government militia to the plantation to put down a tenant demonstration. The troops killed seven protesters and hung the body of one, a youth leader, from the gate of the plantation.The congressman representing the farmers of Hacienda Luisita at the time was Noynoy Aquino. Now president, the unmarried 50-year-old says he has asked his relatives, who are co-owners of the plantation, to find ways to distribute the land. "We are concerned with the welfare of the farmers there, and we want to distribute the assets to the farmers," he said during the campaign. "The only problem is how we will transfer the assets without passing the debts that have been incurred."The tenants are skeptical. Still, as they demonstrated in this week's election — most notable, perhaps, for being the first computerized national voting in Southeast Asia — Filipinos are possessed of a strong sentimental streak. Many of those who supported Aquino against a field of eight other candidates acknowledged that they did so because of fond memories of his martyred father — murdered under Marcos' orders — and his sainted mother.Reasons for hope Cory Aquino was swept into office in 1986 on the wings of a "people's power" revolution in the streets of central Manila. Cory Aquino advertised herself as a "plain housewife" who took the audacious step to run for president only to win justice for Ninoy. Her dramatic victory forced the 20-year-Marcos kleptocracy into exile in Hawaii and thrilled people around the world. When the moment of glory faded, though, she proved an ineffectual and uninspiring leader. Her six years in office were marked by ceaseless dissent and nine coup attempts.Cory Aquino died of cancer last August and her long-tarnished halo reappeared, as though miraculously, newly gleaming, over the balding head of her son. Unsettlingly, Noynoy, who told a reporter recently that he "wasn't clamoring to be the person responsible for solving all the problems" of the Philippines, is sweeping into the riverfront Spanish colonial-era Malacanang Palace with much the same romanticized hope that accompanied his late mother.Perhaps this unassuming, pool-shooting, jazz-loving bachelor will justify at least some of that hope. Perhaps he will mean what he said immediately after the election: "I will not only not steal, but I'll have the corrupt arrested."Perhaps his campaign promise to investigate his predecessor, outgoing President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, on allegations of corruption will not backfire, setting off yet more political strife in a country that cannot afford such distraction. Perhaps his promise to crack down on the nation's blatant tax evaders will not bring these powerful clans and families down on his neck. Perhaps the new president will stand up for those who elected him and against those who spawned him.Perhaps.http://www.usatoday....mons12_st_N.htm

[Art2ro]

In one simple word, "NO"! In one simple phrase, "Not in my lifetime!"Why? Because I'm already 61 1/2 years old now and still, I haven't seen any improvements in the Philippines, except for more foreigners to boost the economy to put more money into the palms of greedy corrupted government officials, more luxury homes, fancy vehicles on the freeways, faster internet, better working ATM machines, lots of fast food chains, modern gas stations, more toll booths and that's about all! Oh, one other thing, the rich are richer!The poor are still poor and there are now 36 million living in poverty! So, has the previous Filipino Presidents in the last 75 years improve anything in the Philippines?

Edited May 14, 2010 by Pinoy Art

[Singers]

 NO...UK Tom :photo-109: :agree:

[jamesmusslewhite]

Not when you can still be treated as royalty on the 14 billion dollars in gold stolen, by you President husband and father, directly out of your treasury. When a President is tried, convected, and sentenced to prison for the crime of "Plunder" and not only be allowed to rerun for President receives a second place finish? No this will go on until China finally invades and instills their One Party Rule.

[Singers]

Not when you can still be treated as royalty on the 14 billion dollars in gold stolen, by you President husband and father, directly out of your treasury. When a President is tried, convected, and sentenced to prison for the crime of "Plunder" and not only be allowed to rerun for President receives a second place finish? No this will go on until China finally invades and instills their One Party Rule.

If only --- A Chinese "invasion" WOULD improve the lot of the poor. Not likely to happen though...BUT if it did who would be the first to FLEE ?? :photo-109:!!!UK Tom Edited May 15, 2010 by Singers

[Call me bubba]

perhaps when" PIGS WILL FLY":th_closed:

[gapotwo]

will corruption ever end? NO it will never happen in the PH. we will always be mislead by the controlling powers at the time.after all in the pinas, its just another day of doing business. we as individuals can not change history, so ill just get used to it. and watch them come and go. sad but true :SugarwareZ-034: tanks ej.

[Art2ro]

Well, if Philippine government corruption will never end, at least the government has been improving a lot of infrastructures and highways somewhat! I just wish they would get rid of all the freak'n highway tollbooths all along the SLEX and NLEX here in Northern Central Luzon and all of these huge billboard signs along the freeways! And something really has to be done about the smog from all these smoke belching old vehicles, jeepneys and passenger tricycles! So, at least we can all see where some of the money went in to or not from corruption! Laki ako sa gatas ng Nanay ko!

Edited March 7, 2011 by Art2ro

[No name]

Has the cycle of corruption ended in the USA?Will there be a time when we don't go to war in order to fill the pockets of politicians connected the the military industrial complex?Not as bad in the USA? It is different and maybe not as bad. But how as the USA doing in its first 100 years in that regard?Maybe we should expect more from our own lands before we point the finger at others?Will it ever end in the world? I think it will but that is a religious issue and I'm not going there. :SugarwareZ-034: