The Fourth Perspective

Figuratively, the Philippines is teething when it comes to conventional weapons and equipments, and it may take a long time coming to achieve its goal of a credible external defense posture principally due to budgetary contraint brought about among others by ineptitude in geopolitical affairs. On the desperate side of urgency however, there is a means to achieve parity in case of conventional attack by a stronger and powerful opponent, and that is to adapt a cost effective and relevant doctrine of asymmetric warfare at sea. Geographically, the Philippines is strategically situated. It has 7107 islands whereupon more than 5000 of which are uninhabited. It has 36,289 kilometers of external and internal coastline, and given its proximity, the Philippines on its own can deny ingress or egress at the South China Sea by selectively and discreetly transforming any of the uninhabited islands and pertinent coastlines into missile carrier and utilize them as launching platform for medium and l

Cebu and Bohol Islands are among the foremost tourist and expatriates destination in Central Visayas. The tranquility and serenity in this island provinces were recently shaken by an earthquake that registered at 7.2 magnitude on the Richter scale. Scores of lives were lost while hundreds of properties and infrastructures were destroyed including the decimation of numerous churches that said to have been 100 years to three centuries old. Apart from rescue, reconstruction and retrieval activities, efforts are said to have been underway to restore those churches with the National Historical Commission taking the lead. The urgent enthusiasm and the undaunted desire to put those old churches to what it is, before it crumbled is laudable,  and even more are welcomed by most Filipinos. The unanimous and compelling desire to resuscitate, at least aesthetically, those old churches exudes the Filipino’s love for history and the romanticism that surrounds it. Surely, most tourists that

Deals and concessions were made with armed groups in Mindanao in the interest of lasting peace, at least during the period of presidential incumbency. The pact with Nur Misuari and his Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) that granted autonomy to certain regions in Mindanao had resulted to peace. That was until a new armed group called the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a breakaway group from the MNLF, with the same separatist agenda became notoriously prominent. Current and ongoing negotiations with the MILF by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) is believed to  be heading positively towards another peace, but even before the framework agreement is forged, a new breakaway armed group from the MILF emerges and become known as the Bangsa Moro Freedom Fighters (BIFF). The latter demands independence from GRP which is more radical and directly challenges the GRP’s existing laws. Analyzing the mutations and evolution of the separatist rebels, one may realize

Calm down. War has not reached Manila yet, at least not the one that initially crosses your mind. The battle zone that we will talk about is the battle for space in the roads of Metro-Manila among hundreds of thousands of vehicles, millions upon millions of humanity, thousands of hawkers, legalized structures by government default and hell knows what else. Jones Bridge - NOW Jones Bridge Manila- 1930's The roads of Metro-Manila, like a volcano had passed various stages of evolution in terms of utilization. From dormancy in the early 1900’s, roads came to active use in the mid’s to super active in the late’s and steadily increased in intensity at the advent of the new millennium. Now it reached the level of saturation and like a volcano is about to explode, not in the real sense of the word, but rather, as a cause towards the effect that it has become one of the major STRESSOR that threatens the physical well being of the people that uses those roads... or whatever i

One of the United States abominable legacies to the Philippine political system is the pork barrel system. It is a system that was conceived inside the budget system but dwells along its border in the sense that members of the legislative bodies were given a free hand to identify/ select projects and endorsed disbursement for a specific item of expenditures for their respective districts subject to a relatively lenient parameters. Well, that is the cover story, the substance and discreet part is that it was being utilized as leverage thereby creating a sinister system of check and balance through mutual coercion. The executive branch has in its power the constructive release (or not to release) of the funds under the pork barrel system for the lawmakers disposition. But it will depend on the degree of cooperation the legislature is giving to the incumbent administration's programs and priorities. Similarly, members of the legislature may not act on a particular bill desperately

It is no secret, and history will tell us that the Philippines since the Spanish era has yet to cross the verge from poverty principally due to manipulation and monopoly by foreign and local power of its resources.  Old phrases such as tobacco monopoly, the mining monopoly, the parity rights, the levies and so on had brought undue misery and hardships. The inequality and the disparaging utilization of the Philippine natural resources in favor of foreign power and the elite had precluded genuine progress. And here now comes the present, with the dwindling wealth and resources in the west the powers of the east and west is racing back towards Africa and South-East Asia to renew and introduce a new brand of colonization using the same old but time proven and effective gun boat diplomacy. The Philippines is again stunned, bewildered by the display of might and military power. In the same way their native ancestors had been awed before them. It was because the Philippine’s has failed to

I do not know! I’m neither a patriot nor a hero ... but just a fellow .. with a Barong blade under my pillow; do you know... I have been hearing a cry since ... sometime ago; calling a name that says ...  “Filipino” ; the cry was frail but "claro" by  the lady in white, red, and blue; she said my son where are you? … do you still love me like you used to? why is it that I cannot hear you? …as if you’d been away for more than a few; I said I’m ashamed I have forgotten you … I was too busy feeding all the blues; I am the lady in white, red, and blue …whose heart is bleeding out for you; will you see me through... at this time, that I truly long for you? and I remember ... this lady from long ago, who cuddled me since I was two; I was a lost son and not just a beau to the lady in white, red and blue; and so I came to the call of the lady in white, red and blue... withou

The U.S. debt runs to about $16.7 trillion as of February 2013 and China , which owns an estimated $1.22 trillion in U.S. Treasury bonds, is the number-one investor among foreign governments, according to the February 2013 figures released by the U.S. Treasury. This amounts to over 21% of the U.S. debt held overseas and more than 7% of the United States ’ total debt load. Apart from that, the following excerpt from various online business reports recapitulates some of the chinese significant direct investments in the United States , to wit: “Investment and capacity data is available for about 50 projects, according to which China  has invested $10 billion in 16 projects and $27.5 billion in 38 solar power projects, which represent a cumulative generation capacity of 6,000 MW. Interestingly, the majority of the investments have been made in developed countries, led by the United States , Germany , and Italy . While most of the investments were made in implementing the power ge