To Martial Law, or Not to Martial Law -- Why is That Even a Question?

A spectre is haunting the Philippines - the spectre of martial law. The history of all recent Philippine history is the history of dictatorship.  

http://www.gov.ph/featured/declaration-of-martial-law/

Fast forward to 2015 and witness the ascendancy of Rodrigo Duterte.  As mayor of Davao he had already built a reputation as a strongman, a take-no-prisoners kind of guy who would tolerate not the slightest infraction of the law. Davao, they said, was the safest city in the Philippines. This reputation would thrust him into the national spotlight and eventually win him the Presidency. He has not been silent on his opinions of how the country should be run and what it will take to get it back into shape. The spectre of martial law haunts even him.

http://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/in-depth/158810-understanding-duterte-martial-law-remarks

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/03/10/1679682/duterte-warns-martial-law

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/883051/duterte-says-martial-law-could-end-drug-terror-problem

The President disdains to conceal his views and aims. He openly declares that his ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing political conditions. Yet something is holding him back from going all the way. 

President Duterte is a man at war with himself.  Deep inside of him is a desire to save his beloved Philippines from drugs and terrorists and foreign influence and everything else he sees as a threat to the divine right of Philippines to exist and sovereignly determine it's destiny. Pitted against that desire is the strong temptation to declare martial law as the one surefire way to accomplish these goals and save the nation.

So will he or won't he?

Listen to the voice inside his head striving to break down that barrier. It says:

"Let the drug pushers and terrorists tremble at a declaration of martial law.  The Philippines and Filipinos have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.                                        Filipinos of all provinces, unite!"

Terrorism Tramples Tourism

Last week the Department of Tourism Chief pleaded with the media to tone down reports on EJKs (extrajudicial killings) because it's bad news for tourism.

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/03/22/1683558/dot-chief-media-tone-down-reports-killings-boost-tourism

Is the DOT chief even remotely aware of how rife with crime and how dangerous the whole country is for tourists in general? The reputation the Philippines has for being unsafe did not start with the advent of the drug war. This website has an extensive list of names of foreigners who have been murdered in the Philippines: http://factsanddetails.com/southeast-asia/Philippines/sub5_6f/entry-3910.html 

Needles to say the response to her suggestion was not positive.

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/03/23/1683890/UN-rapporteur-callamard-DOT-EJKs

An EJK is defined as:

An extrajudicial killing (also known as extrajudicial execution) is the killing of a person by governmental authorities without the sanction of any judicial proceeding or legal process.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extrajudicial_killing 

In the midst of the war on drugs the President of the Philippines has been accused of giving the police free reign to kill whomever they suspect is an addict or a pusher.  Many have died since President Duterte took office.  However, the number of people dead from actual EKJs is disputed and none of the statistics on either side of the aisle are particularly reliable.  Here is a rebuttal from journalist Robert Tigalo regarding the inflating of these numbers.

http://www.rigobertotiglao.com/2017/03/20/how-rappler-misled-eu-human-rights-watch-cnn-time-bbc-the-world/

In regards to EJKs and tourism let's ask a completely different question: "What's worse for tourism: a criminal getting killed or tourists actually being kidnapped and beheaded by Muslim terrorists?"

Since the war on drugs began only one foreigner has been a direct casualty.

http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/2020683/how-british-barons-daughter-became-statistic-phitourlippines

Wow a British national known for dealing drugs is killed in the drug war.  Big shocker.  The police knew she was a dealer and so did her killers.

Now let's look at how many tourists have been kidnapped and beheaded by Muslims.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-26/philippines-militants-behead-canadian-tourist/7356888

http://www.smh.com.au/world/canadian-robert-hall-beheaded-by-islinked-group-after-kidnapping-in-philippines-20160613-gpi8tv.html

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11808789

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2015/11/17/bernard-then-beheading-ransom-not-met/

The last guy, Bernard Then, was not even a tourist.

After being kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf militants from a restaurant in neighbouring Sandakan, Sabah on 15 May 2015, he was brought to Parang, Sulu before beheaded in Jolo after ransom demands was not met

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Sayyaf_beheading_incidents

Abu Sayyaf is so dangerous that not only are tourists not safe but no country in the region is safe.  

It's clear that the greater threat to tourists and tourism in the Philippines is Abu Sayyaf and other Muslim terrorist groups and not EJKs.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3368646/ISIS-unveil-Philippines-new-breeding-ground-jihadis-latest-propaganda-video-featuring-secret-Filipino-jungle-training-camp.html

What madness is this that the Philippines is tolerating becoming a training ground for ISIS? It's time to put an end to Islamic terrorism in the Philippines once and for all.  

The Best of Duterte...So Far!

March 28th is the birthday of President Rodrigo Duterte. Happy Birthday to the wildest President in all of South East Asia and the world.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-duterte-helicopter-idUSKBN14I0DH

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/783152/philippines-president-rodrigo-duterte-threatens-EU-politicians-drugs-war

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3774435/President-Duterte-warns-son-bitch-visiting-Obama-not-question-war-drugs-killed-2-400-three-months-Philippines.html

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/783152/philippines-president-rodrigo-duterte-threatens-EU-politicians-drugs-war

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/15/philippines-president-elect-rodrigo-duterte-refuses-to-apologise/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/duterte-calls-us-ambassador-son-of-a-whore_us_57ab38e1e4b0ba7ed23e537b

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/604305/news/nation/duterte-when-i-go-to-hell-i-d-tell-satan-that-de-lima-should-be-queen-there

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/30/rodrigo-duterte-vows-to-kill-3-million-drug-addicts-and-likens-himself-to-hitler

http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/11/12/16/duterte-i-may-be-forced-to-suspend-writ-of-habeas-corpus

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/05/31/the-new-president-of-the-philippines-says-many-slain-journalists-deserved-it/

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/698102/duterte-says-he-cant-imagine-living-without-viagra

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/743793/duterte-i-have-2-wives-and-2-girlfriends

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Duterte:-UN-useless-and-stupid,-we-are-ready-to-leave-38358.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38337746

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/04/18/leading-philippines-presidential-contender-gang-rape-victim-so-beautiful-he-wishes-he-had-been-first/

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/01/duterte-stop-declaring-martial-law-170115034431700.html

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/883051/duterte-says-martial-law-could-end-drug-terror-problems

Happy Birthday, President Duterte. May your birthday wish come true.

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/03/23/1683887/what-duterte-wants-his-birthday

The Difference between Leni and Duterte

The difference between Vice President Robredo and President Duterte is quite simple.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/783152/philippines-president-rodrigo-duterte-threatens-EU-politicians-drugs-war

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-drugs-robredo-idUSKBN16M0WM

Get the picture?  

The difference lies in strength of will both politically and morally. 

Duterte sees the Philippines as a sovereign nation of which he is the head. As the head he sees it as his bounden duty and right to direct the nation in a way that is conducive to the good of the people according to the principles of the constitution which was voted on by the people.

Robredo sees the Philippines as a weak nation not capable of handling its own affairs but in need of foreign intervention. She fails to realise that, as the bearer of the second highest office in the land, she is part of the political system and she has both the power and the duty to work within that system for the change she sees fit for the good of the nation.

EJK's or not. Drug war or not. The fact is the Philippines is a sovereign nation that should be able to handle its own affairs without any need for foreign intervention.

Duterte knows this.

The people know this.

Leni Robredo does not.

http://www.getrealphilippines.com/blog/2017/03/leni-robredo-epitomises-deep-impoverishment-philippine-society/

Apocalypse Now and Forever

Apocalypse Now is one of the greatest films to emerge from the New Hollywood movement which gave the world Spielberg, Scorsese, Lucas, and Coppola. Filmed entirely on location in the Philippines the film charts a journey into madness and concludes with a violently nihilistic spectacle.

And it would not have been possible without the hundreds of Filipino extras Coppola hired to play the Montanagard Indians loyal to Colonel Kurtz.

In the script, Kurtz's band of renegade soldiers has trained a tribe of local Montagnard Indians to be a fighting team. They live in huts by the temple. Rather than dress up Filipino extras everyday, Francis asked Eva, a production assistant, to go to a northern province where the rice terraces are and recruit a real tribe of primitive people to come live on the set and be in the scenes. I hear she is trying to make a contract with a group of 250 Ifugao Indians.

Being on strict budget, and in fact running notoriously way over budget, this cost saving measure to hire an entire tribe of local Indians ended up having an unexpected and astonishing influence on the final scenes and on shaping the ending with which Coppla was having so much trouble.

Coppola and his entire crew were indeed bent on making Apocalypse Now appear as close to "authentic" as possible. Dead bodies strewn on the set were cadavers, purchased from hospitals and medical schools. Much time and effort went into preparing sets, explosions, and even training of the extras. The first week they were in Pagsanjan, the Ifugao were given an orientation. They were shown the costumes and how to wear them, how to handle the guns. They were given an overview of their part in the story. Jerry recalls that they were told, "You are the people of Marlon Brando. He is like your god in the mountains. Sheen is your enemy."

The first month they were there, Benjamin participated in training the people "to play the military." They were taught how to handle M14s and armalites, and some carbine pistols. They used camouflage uniforms. "It was more than full time work because we issue the guns early in the morning, then training all day, then we have to account for all the guns and parts in the night. Because there were NPA in the area before and they were worried that some guns and parts might get stolen."

This simulated village also took on Ifugao ritual life. The 'extras' village' was given sacrificial animals that would have normally cost the Ifugao a lot; this was part of their agreement with the production company. In one instance, they asked for a carabao for ritual slaughter. In Eleanor Coppola's Hearts of Darkness, the documentary film on the making of Apocalypse Now, it is this Ifugao request for a carabao for the ritual slaughter that provides Coppola his creative solution for the final scene.  

Up to this point, Coppola, the genius filmmaker, arrives as it were up the river into his own hour of darkness. Ill and beset by cost overruns on his production budget, he had also run out of creative juice—having no idea what to do for the final scene. As he plotted on how to stage the death of Kurtz, his wife called him to see the Ifugao ritual slaughter and he became inspired. His genius as filmmaker lies in the images he incorporates—images that he actually took straight out of Ifugao ritual. 

So, on screen, the Ifugao hack apart a carabao. All the Ifugao we interviewed insist that this scene wasn't in the script. "That came from us!" Many audiences flinch. Maybe they don't want to think about the origins of meat? Or is it the apparent savagery of the ritual? These are superficial readings and westernized audiences don't see that there is much more to this than meets the eye!

After Coppola first witnessed the carabao ritual slaughter, he tried to shoot every ritual that the Ifugao performed. 

http://www.oovrag.com/essays/essay2004a-3.shtml

The ending of Apocalypse Now incorporated the rituals of the Ifuago people which in turn infused the production with the requisite sense of primitivism, magic, and ritual confluent with two of the primary influences of the film, The Golden Bough and the apocalyptic and mystical poetry of T.S. Eliot.

Many hours of footage were shot but the final product only ran 2.5 hours.  The Redux version runs an hour longer.  But there is a third version of the film that runs for 5 hours, the workprint.  It is difficult to obtain but rewarding to watch and it contains many of the scenes of Ifuago rituals which ended up on the cutting room floor. 

The video below is a clip from the workprint.  The video is bad, the audio horrible, but its sill very watchable.  Just remember what you see in this clip is not necessarily acting.  It is part of a real ritual incorporated into the film.  This is the Philippines as it was before the arrival of the Spanish and as it is even now deep in the mountains of Luzon.

The ASEAN delegates are coming! Quick, hide the garbage!

ASEAN is hosting one of it's meetings in town.  I had no idea but I should have known something was up what with crews posting flags around town and there being a larger than normal police presence. Closer to the event location I saw a large PNP group with riot shields.  What for?  Do they really think someone is going to disturb the ASEAN meeting? And who would do such a thing?  I think they better stamp out the terrorists and quickly.

I was walking to the mall when I saw all those cops with riot shields and then I saw this:

They put up a new banner on the bridge.  They did this previously when the president visited.  I was dying laughing because it's such an obvious way to simply hide the garbage while the delegates are in town.  

Let's take a look behind the banner:

Mhmm....

Just awful.  Look at all that garbage.  And the stink!  That area always smells rotten. How can anyone live there? Why don't the residents stop tossing their trash in the river?  Why don't they try and clean it up?  Why doesn't the city clean it up?  

They also covered up the market across the street from the mall:

Dressing up a squalid area with Globe advertisements is not going to solve a thing.  Perhaps the city should invest in the area and clean it up?

Security at the mall was tighter than usual.  Both inside and out.  Besides the normal frisk and metal detector scan at the entrance they added a second one inside at the hallways that connect each side of the mall:

Wow looks like they are pretty serious about security, right? But at the end of the other hallway across the mall the metal detectors were unmanned!

Now look and see how they beefed up security outside:

Now that's real security!  That's real safety measures!  Instead of using a stick with a mirror to search the undercarriage of cars for bombs they place a camera on the road and now the PNP can watch the monitor as the car passes over it and make sure there really are no bombs. 

But it's all going to go back to normal when the conference is over.  The security guards will go back to the mirror stick and the same tired body frisk at the mall entrance and the whole security charade will continue unabated.  Meanwhile the banner blocking the view of garbage creek will come down bit by bit as the weather wears it away only to become a part of and reveal all that trash once again.

And what's the point of that?

Driving with the hood open

This is one of the most bizarre driving habits I have seen anywhere.  And not just bizarre but plain dumb, if the reasoning behind it is what I suspect it is.

All of these taxis are driving with the hood open. 

Why?  What possible reason could there be to drive with the hood ajar? I can only think of one: to cool the engine!

Seriously can there be any other explanation? They have the hood just slightly ajar. Just popped open so air can breeze through the engine and cool it. 

Are they having that much trouble overheating?  Then there is a radiator problem that needs to be fixed immediately. Do they think it's preventative? Well that's what the radiator is for, to prevent overheating. 

Of course it could be that the hood is just broken. If so that's a problem which needs to be repaired. But it's also highly unlikely because I have seen so many taxis driving like this. The odds that all of them are afflicted with the same hood problem are not very high.

So we have jeepnies driving with Christmas lights rather than using their headlights and taxis driving with the hood open to keep the engine cool.

What's next? Stay tuned!

P.S.  I wrote the above post on March 16th.  Today, March 20th, I was riding in a taxi and I asked the driver if he ever drove with the hood just slightly open.  He said yes he did to prevent the engine from overheating.