Miriam to start campaign for ICC at The Hague

This is a news report that I’ve taken in toto relating to the Ilonggo Senator's bid to the ICC.

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, the Philippines’ candidate as judge to the International Criminal Court (ICC) that prosecutes war crimes and gross human rights violations, had sought support for her candidacy at the tribunal’s headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands.

Santiago began her week-long visit with a courtesy call on ICC president Sang-hyun Song last Sept. 26, followed by meetings with ICC Registrar Silvana Arbia and Judge Kuniko Ozaki.

She also held one-on-one meetings with the ambassadors of ICC state parties and spent the next two days meeting with civil society groups.

The Hague is home to the ICC, an independent international body, separate from the United Nations system, and the first permanent international court that deals specifically with the gravest crimes facing humanity.

Elections for the six vacant seats for judges of the ICC will be held on December 12-21, during the Tenth Session of the Assembly of States Parties in New York.

In her meetings, Santiago shared her views on some challenges facing the ICC such as state cooperation and increasing the budget of the court to enable it to fulfill its mandate.

“The court must continue with what it is doing: building itself as an efficient and professional international organization, functioning as a credible international court and holding itself as a purely judicial, objective, non-political and neutral institution,” Santiago said.

The ICC has been active since 2002 and most of the cases referred to the court have been from the African countries of the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Uganda.

Any state leader, member of national legislature, or government official at a similarly high level could be investigated and prosecuted by the ICC if he/she commits core crimes under the tribunal’s jurisdiction like war crimes or genocide.

Roxas eyeing 2013 house speakership

Mar Roxas and Jejomar Binay

Sore loser Mar Roxas was reportedly eyeing the 2013 house speakership to start his bid for the 2016 presidential elections. Roxas will fight against the incumbent Feliciano Belmonte who will run for a fresh mandate in 2013. Sabi nga nila, hindi masamang mangarap. Well, Roxas can dream all he wants but it doesn’t mean that he’ll win. The reality is he still lost to Jejomar Binay to the VP race. He will again lose Jejomar Binay in the 2016 presidential election, mark my word.

Toto, a family friend of mine from Capiz said that nobody really voted for Roxas in Capiz. In fact, it was Jejomar Binay who won in the Province of Capiz. Roxas just claimed that he hails from Capiz yet he really is absent all the time. He is based in Manila and even look down on the Capizeños. Why won’t he, his mother is from the aristocratic Araneta family. I don’t think they’ll like being associated with the people from Capiz whom they considered bariotic.

One of the reasons why Roxas lost in the 2010 elections was because he’s BASTOS. Remember the cursing incident at a rally in Makati where he cursed at PGMA? People have not forgiven him because of that. People’s expectations from him were shattered. They thought that as a US educated man, coming from a pedigree family, he won’t be capable of cursing. And guess what? He can curse and swear like hell. That disappointed many people and that kept them from voting for him. That’s a good thing. We don’t need politicians who are not just matapobre but bastos pa!

As for Roxas’ plans in running for the speakership of the house, well he can dream on. He has to make sure though that he’ll first win the congressional seat in Capiz. Capizeños are not so fond of him so, Good luck to him.

Typhoon Damage at Php. 7 Billion

Shamcey's 'Tsunami Walk'

There’s a joke that says that Shamcey Supsup’s ‘Tsunami Walk’ really brought the typhoon Pedring and Quiel to the Philippine area of responsibility. I say, we shouldn’t blame it on the Shamcey’s ‘Tsunami Walk’. She made us all proud and I know that won’t mean any harm.

Reports says that the extensive damaged caused by the two typhoons that hit our country could reach up to the whooping Php. 7 Billion. The severely affected are the rice production, crops and the fishery sector. The Abnoy administration should revise its 2012 budget which was hastily passed at the lower house.

I suggest that the 29 Billion cash dole out for the CCT project of the Abnoy Administration be rechanneled to support farmers and build the damaged infrastructures. Our government should spend on the rebuilding and rehabilitation. This way, people will have way to earn a living. Unlike dole outs, people will earn money with dignity. Dole outs will only make them lazy and mendicant. We’ve launched CCT program last year and even the corrupt peace bond scam lady, DSWD secretary Dinky Soliman could not properly account.

US Embassy Drowned

The saddest part was that during the devastation, President Abnoy was nowhere to be found. The lady gaga in Malacañang said that the president doesn’t want to be the center of attention during the calamity. That’s wrong since people expect him to be there. If he can’t provide immediate assistance, he can inspire people. I think that Abnoy’s alipores in Malacañang are just making excuses. The then PGMA was always there when calamity strikes to supervise relief and emergency operations. She’s always on top of the game and people expect her to. We’re still a centralized government and people look up to the presidency in times of calamity. President Abnoy will not leave the comfort of Malacañang palace, playing online games with his special nephew Joshua.

The flooding caused by Pedring and Quiel has started the blame game. We blame ourselves, everyone and the government. Unfortunately, we haven’t learned our lessons from the past. It still boils down to the abuses that we made to our environment. We throw garbage everywhere clogging the waterways. We also cut down trees without replanting. We need to change people. If we don’t we’ll be doomed.

Typhoon damage estimated at Php. 100 M

The cost of devastation by both typhoons Pedring and Quiel was estimated to be close to Php. 100 M. If you can remember, President Abnoy donated USD. 1 M to a rich country, Japan. USD. 1 M is equivalent to Php. 50 M. If only he is capable of thinking, which he is not, he would have realized that the USD. 1 M is better spent with his constituents.

We are a third world country and we should not pretend to be somebody that we are not. Everyone knows our status. We should admit that we’re poor. The Japanese knows that we’re poor but they’re just too nice to refuse our donation. There’s no use bragging by donating a huge amount of money from the tax payer’s pockets. It would have been better if the money comes from President Abnoy’s own pocket. Unfortunately, it comes from the Filipino people.

There are ways to express our sympathy to the victims of the Japanese tsunami. We could send health care workers such as doctors and nurses. We could also send one unit of our Armed Forces to help the cleanup. But our President is incapable of thinking out of the box. And may I remind President Abnoy that we should help first ourselves before we help others. There’s nothing wrong with being generous but we should always ask ourselves if we can afford to be generous.

The flooding and heavy rains destroyed the livelihoods of the farmers. The Ministry of Agriculture says that they could not reach their target rice production for this year because of the calamity. This is one of the reasons why our farmers could not go out from the cycle of poverty. Scientists believed that the unpredictability of the weather is caused by the global warming. President Abnoy should make disaster preparedness and climate change initiatives a priority in his administration.