A Resurgence of Dictatorship

“Is the President a virtual dictator?” 

In his column “To the Point” posted in The Manila Standard on Oct. 24, 2013, this is the question that reputable columnist writer Emil Jurado posts to the Filipino people.

 Jurado then proceeds to add salient points;

“President Aquino appears to be a virtual dictator, having both the Senate and the House of Representatives, and now the Judiciary, under his control. With the House of Representatives ruled by the administration majority under Speaker Sonny Belmonte, and Senate President Frank Drilon acting like an extension of Malacañang protecting the President from allegations of abuse and misuse of public funds, with the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, and with most junior anti-graft court Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang as Presiding Justice of Sandiganbayan, the President now appears to rule over the three branches of government.”

“Quo Vadis” Philippines ? - A Frightful Forethought Of The Future

As I finished reading Ricardo Saludo’s  column “The Mounting Pile of Aquinomalies” in the Manila Times issue of  Oct. 3, 2013, I was overwhelmed with ambivalent reactions, that of anxiety and exasperation. 

  

In the initial part of his article Mr Saludo stated; “Believe it or not, the Aquino administration has surpassed its predecessor in corruption. Between pork barrel trebling under President Benigno Aquino III to about P25 billion a year, his unaudited, unlegislated and unprecedented releases under the so-called Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP, P137 billion as of October 1), and smuggling hitting nearly $20 billion or some P860 billion a year, plus undiminished jueteng, these ‘Aquinomalies’ may already swell to over P200 billion a year.”

A Dysfunctional Philippine Government

For the past few weeks, the incessant and appalling anomalies in the Philippine Legislature has reached its apex after the bombshell expose’ of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam popularly known as the “pork barrel” fund. By now, the spiraling effect of the far-reaching and irreparable glitches of the people’s money rip-off had created a dysfunctional Philippine government.