Ban "Unli-Children", Not "Unli-Rice"

In an effort to get the Philippines healthy and on a fast track to rice independence Senator Cynthia Villar has proposed that restaurants stop offering unlimited rice.

http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/06/14/17/villar-urges-ban-on-unli-rice

Sen. Cynthia Villar on Wednesday called for a ban on the offering of unlimited rice servings or “unli-rice” in restaurants amid government efforts towards rice self-sufficiency.  

Villar, chair of the Senate committee on agriculture and food, made the call in a committee hearing as she urged food establishments to encourage people to eat more vegetables instead. 

How misguided is this lady?

Not to mention the micro-managing of restaurants of which the government has no business doing Senator Villar ignores the real problem facing the Philippines and their quest to provide enough rice to the people:

THE POPULATION!

What is the priority of our government? What is the priority of our Congress and the Senate? We have many problems and issues in this country but the most vital and pressing one has just been ignored – population. 

The root of our problems in this country stems from overpopulation. Isn’t it logical for government to address it first before anything else? Our population is expected to increase to 104 million this year from 102.4 million in 2015. 

We must understand that a rising population results in increasing congestion, pollution and environmental degradation. 

Everyday we complain about traffic, crowded streets, malls, and markets, crowded airports, crowded hospitals, crowded classrooms, poverty, squatters in big cities, etc. What about the more pressing concerns directly affecting the people like food scarcity, energy crisis and water shortages?

http://www.philstar.com/opinion/2016/01/11/1541322/population-explosion

We all know the lady down the street who has five children, no job, no husband or a husband with no job, and who struggles to feed her children.  Why is this allowed?  Where is the education system to tell Filipinos get a job, get married, THEN have children.

More children means more rice is needed to feed these children.  More land is needed to house these children, land that could be used to grow rice.  

How about stopping the high teen pregnancy rate?

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/07/08/1600761/phl-teen-pregnancy-rate-highest-asia-study

The UN Population Fund says the Philippines is the only country in the Asia-Pacific region where the rate of teen pregnancies rose over the last two decades. 

A study says teen pregnancies, high youth unemployment and the slow decline of the overall fertility rate in the Philippines may deprive the country of the faster economic growth that usually comes from having more working-age people than younger and older dependents. 

UNFPA country representative Klaus Beck said Tuesday that Filipino girls aged 15 to 19 make up 10 percent of the population of 100 million, and one out of 10 of them have already given birth.

There are just too many mouths to feed.  Over 100 million of them.  Restaurants cook a lot of rice everyday and if someone doesn't eat it then it will go into the garbage.  Stopping restaurants from offering unlimited rice will not solve the rice problem.

Thankfully she realised that such a proposal is not tenable at all.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/905776/no-ban-on-unli-rice-villar

Senator Cynthia Villar quashed fears on Thursday that she would be proposing a ban on the serving of unlimited rice or unli-rice in restaurants and food outlets. 

“I am not planning to make a law banning ‘unli-rice.’ Not at all,” Senator Cynthia Villar said in a statement.

Why didn't Duterte Declare Martial Law in November 2016?

In November 2016 the Maute group occupied the city of Butig even going so far as to raise the flag of ISIS over the town hall.  

http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/11/27/16/army-presses-offensive-in-maute-held-lanao-town

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) pushed into Butig, Lanao Del Sur on Sunday, a day after the Maute Group, a terror organization behind the September bombing in Davao City, occupied Butig's town centre. 

The AFP estimated that from 200 terrorists on Saturday, around 300 men armed with grenade launchers are now occupying the town. 

Though no direct link has yet been established with ISIS, the Maute group’s alleged leaders, brothers Omar and Abdullah Maute, have already pledged allegiance to the terrorist group and even use their name and symbol.

This coming five months after clashes between the AFP and Maute group in the same city, Butig.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/787973/govt-troops-kill-22-terror-group-members-in-lanao-del-sur

At least 22 members of a local terror group based in Butig, Lanao del Sur, had been killed in a series of clashes with government troops there since May 26, the military said on Saturday. 

Two soldiers were also slain and nine other government troopers had been injured in the clashes, according to Maj. Filemon Tan, the spokesperson of the military’s Western Mindanao Command based in Zamboanga City. 

Tan, whose unit has jurisdiction over Lanao del Sur and other areas of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said government forces launched a massive military operation in Butig against the Maute group. 

The group had allegedly professed allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or Isis.

This is the same thing that happened in Marawi City albeit on a smaller scale.  A city was occupied and the AFP was sent in to liberate the city.  But instead of following a scorched earth policy and ridding the Philippines of this group, the AFP ceased operations and a few months later the same scenario repeated itself.

So why didn't Duterte call declare martial law back in November?

Because he didn't feel like it.

Martial law: Duterte Had Prior Knowledge

Week three of marital law started off with another pep talk by Commander-in-Chief Duterte encouraging the AFP to not be afraid to do its job.

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/06/06/1707466/dont-be-afraid-do-your-jobs-troops-told-amid-challenges-martial-law

And what an inspiring talk it must have been because first the AFP found the money:

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/903002/p79-m-worth-of-checks-cash-found-by-ph-marines-in-maute-lair

 Then they found the patriarch:

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/903350/arrest-of-maute-patriarch-significant-to-suppress-future-terror-acts-palace

Then they found the matriarch:

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/904117/mother-of-maute-brothers-arrested-in-lanao-del-sur

So the AFP has the Matue group on the run.  But who gave them 79 million pesos in checks and cash?  Who armed them? Justice Secretary Aguirre thinks there is a vast conspiracy headed by the likes of Senators Bam Aquino and Antonio Trillanes along with other opposition leaders to destabilise the government. The theory goes that the Yellow party is arming and funding the Muslim terrorists and using them to throw the country into chaos and discredit Duterte.

http://www.philstar.com:8080/headlines/2017/06/09/1708329/after-photo-blunder-aguirre-orders-probe-destabilization-plot

Duterte assured the nation once again that declaring martial law was not meant to prolong his stay in power.

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/06/09/1708484/duterte-critics-martial-law-not-meant-prolong-my-stay

Is anybody reassured by his reassurances?  He said he would declare martial law.  Then he said he wouldn't do it. Then he did it.  Surely he won't prematurely end the declaration of martial law before Marawi has been reclaimed. But when will the AFP finally retake Marawi?

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/06/09/1708325/end-marawi-siege-eyed-independence-day-maute-further-weaken

A bit premature. How about the AFP just focus on the fight and forget about arbitrary deadlines? The enemy is deadly and they do not have a timetable for victory.  They will fight to the last man. It's what they have been ordered to do by the leader of ISIS himself, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/06/12/1709209/leader-ordered-marawi-siege-rody

“We had known all along the buildup here in Marawi. That is why if you were tracking my statements in public, (what I said) was, ‘Do not force my hand into it.’ Because there were already terroristic acts… the victims were innocent men and women and children,” Duterte said. 

Duterte claimed that the drug problem was used to divert the government’s attention away from the terrorists. 

“Sabi ko, nilululong mga tao natin sa droga. Dito sa Mindanao, ’yung Maute, simpleng pangkaraniwang negosyante. ’Yun pala, sige sila produce ng shabu para magkaroon ng problema ang gobyerno at ma-divert ating attention (They are trying to make drug addicts out of our people. In Mindanao, we thought that the Mautes were just simple businessmen. It turned out, they were producing shabu, so the government can have a problem and be distracted),” he said. 

“So, habulin natin ang drugs, pero ’di natin alam na what was fueling, ang nagbibigay ng gasolina sa terrorism ay ang droga (So, let us chase drugs but we did not know, what was fueling terrorism is drugs).”

So the government knew about the terrorist problem in Marawi but it turns out that ISIS was manufacturing shabu to addict the people so the government would wage a war on drugs and get distracted from the ISIS problem which the government knew was already there but repeatedly did nothing about??

Are we really supposed to believe such patent nonsense??  Especially when the government now claims to have known that a siege on Marawi was being planned at least a week before it happened!!??

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/904802/solgen-govt-had-advance-info-on-marawi-siege

As early as May 18, the government already received information that the local terrorist group Maute is planning to raze Marawi City, hoist the ISIS flag and declare Marawi as an Islamic territory.

What else is the government lying about?  What else are they hiding from the public?

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/06/10/us-special-forces-assist-in-ending-siege-in-philippines.html

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/157871/duterte-not-know-us-help-marawi-conflict-beforehand

Are we really supposed to believe that Duterte did not know the USA is helping out in the fight against terrorism?  He said back in April that the USA should help fight terrorism!  http://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2017/04/duterte-says-hello-america.html

What is going on in Mindanao and what is happening in the halls of Malacañang Palace?  Statecraft and stagecraft on an unprecedented level that Filipinos are not used to and which has easily led them to believe anything Duterte tells them.

NY Times Is Wrong. Duterte Knew About ISIS and Let the Problem Grow

The New York Times, perennial thorn in Duterete's side, has given him another prick.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/10/world/asia/duterte-philippines-isis-marawi.html?_r=0

A president who has focused on a deadly antidrug campaign that has claimed the lives of thousands of Filipinos seems to have been caught unprepared for a militant threat that has been festering in the south for years. 

“The government has largely been in denial about the growth of ISIS and affiliated groups,” said Zachary M. Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington who specializes in Southeast Asian security issues. “Duterte has been preoccupied with his campaign of gutting the rule of law by using police and other security forces for the extrajudicial killing of drug pushers.”

This is a half-truth.  While it's true the AFP has been caught with its pants down even though they have been battling Muslims terrorist groups for the the past few decades, Duterte was fully aware of the growing threat of ISIS.

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/150199/duterte-isis-creeping-ph-maute-group

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-security-idUSKBN1390U4

Duterte knew full well the threat of ISIS.  The man is from Mindanao.  He is no fool.  But tucked deep in that New York Times article is the key to the whole matter.

Historic grievances among the Muslim Moro people there, widespread poverty and large lawless areas have helped create an opportunity for the Islamic State. A peace process pursued by Mr. Duterte’s predecessor, President Benigno S. Aquino III, faltered in 2015 and has remained deadlocked under Mr. Duterte. 

“It was not the spread of ISIS in Iraq and Syria that fueled ISIS cells in the Philippines, but the collapse of the peace process,” said Mr. Abuza of the National War College.

EXACTLY!  

The peace process has failed. And it has failed on purpose.  Duterte was never going give the Muslims Mindanao.  The BBL would destroy Philippine sovereignty in the region.  Besides that the Muslims have killed too many innocents over the years for any sane man to give them the large island of Mindanao. The Day of Reckoning must come for the Muslims who have spilled rivers of blood over the years.

Duterte said in 2015 before he entered the presidential race that he would run a a dictatorship.

http://www.rappler.com/nation/politics/elections/2016/110679-duterte-contradictions-dictatorship

He said in January 2017 that he would declare marital law if he wanted too.

http://www.rappler.com/nation/158376-duterte-declare-martial-law-want-to

And this is EXACTLY what he did in May.  

http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2017/05/31/duterte-no-one-recommended-martial-law-declaration.html

It's not such a convoluted plan. Duterte initiated a phoney peace process with the communists and the Muslims and let the ISIS problem grow until the inevitable turning point came when it all descended into chaos and he would have moral authority to declare martial law.  It's what he said he would do before he even entered the presidential race.  It's what he said he would do in January 2017. And now that martial law is in Mindanao it is not going anywhere anytime soon.

http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/05/31/17/mindanao-needs-martial-law-even-if-military-can-contain-maute-lorenzana

I have written a longer and more detailed history of this plan that can be read here:  http://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2017/06/martial-law-was-always-dutertes-plan.html

Please read through that article and realise that for Duterte, marital law was always the plan.

Fake Honey

A few years back I bought a bottle of honey at the grocery store.  It was delicious.  It made my coffee taste sweet.  But then I was told that it was probably fake. Just sugar syrup. Not honey. I couldn't believe it but I couldn't shake the idea either so I ended up testing the honey by pouring a spoonful into a glass of water. The water test says if the honey dissolves then its not real honey.  

The honey dissolved and I was very disappointed.

But I really wanted honey so the search began. At one point I even bought a bottle from a guy on the street who had a bucket full of sweet sticky honey. There was even a honeycomb with a bee on it in the bucket.  He filled a bottle, I took it back home, and it turned out to be fake. Eventually I did find real honey from local sellers and direct from bee farms but it's usually expensive and so few and far between. A special treat.

A few months ago I found honey being sold at SM Bacolod at a store called "Sabor Illonggo."  It looked good.  It was fairly inexpensive. It was in a store selling local delicacies. So I bought it.  Great taste.  Just like honey.  And then, a few months later, it happened.

"That's probably not real honey."

What? After all this time I have been buying this stuff and now you tell me? But the bottle says real honey. From the island of Mindanao. And it tastes like honey. How can it be fake? Why would  specialty store selling regional delicacies be selling fake honey?

Today a few bottles of real honey from a bee farm in Dolores, Quezon in Luzon arrived. So it was time to put the honey to the test.

The bottle labeled Camiguin Honey is the honey I buy from the mall. The other bottle is raw honey recently arrived from Luzon.

Two glasses of cold water for the test.

Already it's not looking good for the Camiguin honey.  See how light the colour is and how it slides around the spoon?  The other honey is dark and forms an almost perfect circle while staying in place.

The results of the test:  the Camiguin honey completely dissolves in the water while the honey from Luzon sinks to the bottom of the glass.  The Camiguin honey is not honey. Not pure honey anyway.

The taste is different too. The Camiguin honey is sweet and mild while the Laguna raw honey is sharp and tangy. 

It's hard to believe that Camiguin Honey is fake honey but that appears to be the case.  I do not want to sweeten my coffee with sugar syrup so I won't be buying anymore bottles.

Fake honey seems to be a real problem in the Philippines. You can read all about it here: http://beephilippines.info/honey-fraud/.

Aside from companies manufacturing and selling fake honey it must be wondered how the large supermarkets allow this fake honey to be sold in their stores.  Don't they do any sort of quality control and inspection of the companies they deal with? Aren't they aware of FDA warnings and regulations? CEM is the king of fake honey and yet can be found in stores throughout the Philippines.  Why?

Because nobody cares.  The supermarkets and the suppliers only want the money.  They think their customers are too stupid to realise they are buying fake honey. With enforcement of the law being lax at every level of society it is not too far-fetched to say the FDA doesn't care either. And Filipinos do not complain. You sell a Filipino fake honey and they will try to find a way to make apples out of oranges rather than demand the store give a refund and discontinue selling the fake honey.

If you live in Iloilo or Bacolod do not shop at "Sabor Illonggo."  And definitely do not buy the fake honey they are selling.

Manila is The Worst Place in South East Asia

Manila tops a survey once again!

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/lifestyle/travel/613535/manila-tops-worst-place-in-south-east-asia-survey/story/

That's got to be a slap in the face. 

Manila is the worst place they’ve ever been to, according to travelers polled by travel guide South East Asia Backpacker. 

Pollution, deficient infrastructure, lack of safety, and being overcrowded are among the many factors that helped us land at number 1 on the list that no country ever wants to top, obviously. 

While Manila got pogi points for its “friendly” and “lovely humans,” it’s hard to argue with 17 votes that included terrible tales of getting robbed by a taxi and getting grabbed while walking down a street. 

Cebu also made the unfortunate list, landing at number 10 with six votes. Travelers described the Queen City of the South as “dirty,” “noisy,” “polluted,” and “all shopping malls and no culture.”

Congratulations Manila!  

This is not the first time Manila or the Philippines has been number one at being the worst.  Did you know Manila has the worst traffic, the Philippines is the global epicentre of on-line child pronography, or that the Philippines tops Asia for the number of teen pregnancies?

To read more about what the Philippines and Manila are number one at follow the link below!

http://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-philippines-is-number-one.html

Is ISIS in the Philippines or Not?

There are conflicting reports of whether or not ISIS is in the Philippines.  Let's take look at the timeline of ISIS in the Philippines.

October 02, 2014

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2014/10/02/1375654/islamic-state-popularity-growing-philippines

December 21, 2015

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

January 14, 2016

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/135083/analysts-isis-a-real-threat-to-ph

February 04, 2016

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/02/04/1549519/us-closely-monitoring-isis-threat-philippines-southeast-asia

February 17, 2016

http://www.rappler.com/nation/122649-jihadist-groups-allegiance-isis

April 14, 2016

http://time.com/4293395/isis-zamboanga-mindanao-moro-islamist-terrorist-asia-philippines-abu-sayyaf/

The caption of this photo reads:

Philippine army soldiers stage a counterterrorism operation against Maute terrorists, who are allegedly linked with ISIS, in Butig, the Philippine province of Lanao Del Sur, in Mindanao Island, on March 1, 2016

So the AFP knew that Maute was linked with ISIS back in March 2016 and likely even before that!

April 15, 2016

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/04/15/1573113/there-isis-presence-philippines-experts-disagree

June 22, 2016

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/06/22/1595580/isis-releases-first-propaganda-video-philippines

July 7, 2016

http://www.philstar.com/nation/2016/07/07/1600470/police-says-no-isis-presence-davao-city

Here we have the first official denial of ISIS being in the Philippines despite all the evidence to the contrary as seen in the headlines above.

November 28, 2016

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/150199/duterte-isis-creeping-ph-maute-group

February 27, 2017

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/02/27/philippine-militants-release-video-germans-beheading.html

April 06, 2017

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/154434/2-suspected-isis-members-arrested-ph

May 24, 2017

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/611906/no-isis-presence-in-phl-afp-pnp/story/

Given everything above how can the AFP and PNP make such an asinine and ludicrous statement as "We don't have ISIS in the Philippines?"  These people are either stupid or treacherous.  It is patently obvious to outside and inside observers that ISIS has been a growing threat in the Philippines for some time. Duterte explicitly linked Maute to ISIS in November 2016 based on intelligence reports he had received. DID the AFP not get these reports?

Did the AFP forget that Maute raised the black flag of ISIS in November 2016 when they took over the town of Butig?

http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/11/27/16/army-presses-offensive-in-maute-held-lanao-town

May 25, 2017

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/612140/mindanao-terrorist-groups-forged-unity-under-isis-security-analyst/story

May 29, 2017

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/05/29/1704755/duterte-bestows-isis-status-maute-group

This article is very misleading. Maute group was known to have ISIS links long before Duterte "bestowed ISIS status on Maute group." Duterte said this explicitly in November 2016.

June 05, 2017

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/902660/1200-is-operatives-in-ph-says-indonesia

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/local-news/2017/06/05/afp-surprised-reported-presence-1200-isis-operatives-philippines-545751

How much more proof does one need?  These people say they are ISIS, they adhere to ISIS ideology, they fly the flag of ISIS, and ISIS has encouraged jihadis to flock to the Philippines. 

The conclusion is that ISIS is indeed in the Philippines and has been in the Philippines for a few years now silently growing in strength while the AFP has ignored them as not being really ISIS but only wannabes.

How can the public believe anything the AFP says regarding the presence of ISIS when they are either lying about or ignoring the threat?

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/882639/afp-no-reported-presence-of-maute-group-in-metro-manila