The Best Laid Plans...

In the rest of the world a man's home may be his castle but in the Philippines a man's home is his prison. No Filipino feels safe unless they are behind a wall of concrete topped with metal spikes topped with barbwire.

In a normal world one would think this lady's house is already fortified and secured. But this is the Philippines where you can trust no one. Every effort at safety must be taken.

Look at those guys working hard to secure this lady's home. Keep up the good work, boys!

All that barbwire isn't going to do a bit of good if her husband keeps forgetting to shut the front door at night!

Night Trash!

It's night trash! Trash at night! In the dark of night is when the strays come out to feed on dirty diapers and food scraps left behind. What these pictures reveal is the aftermath of many a hearty feast.

This is one of my favourite pictures. Just look at that dog. After digging through the trash for a delicious meal of dirty diapers and filthy food wrappers he curls up for a nap. This content dog reminds us that it's the simple pleasures in life which matter most of all.

The only way to see night trash is to rise up early and take a look around your neighbourhood. So rise and shine.  The early dog gets the dirty diaper!

Duterte and the Women

This is an image I pieced together from the video on this page: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-duterte-female-rebels-20180212-story.html. 

I arranged it like a storyboard. The facial expressions they chose to place with the text are rather funny. Especially the bottom left. A few days ago I posted this on the Philippinefails Facebook page. Come take a look if you haven't already. http://facebook.com/philippinefails/

Martial Law: Committed to Peace

Usually these weekly martial law updates write themselves. The headlines blare through the week about so many of this and that group killed or groups clamouring for passage of the BBL or assistance given and sought by the AFP.  But this week has been relatively all quiet on the Mindanao front. Certainly there is much more happening behind the scenes than the newspapers indicate. Abu Sayyaf, BIFF, Maute, stories of mass recruitment would have one to believe they are likely deep in the jungle training day and night for the next major battle. The AFP is surely doing its own training and prepping for the battle of X City.

The AFP also has its hands busy with surrendering and captured rebels.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/davao/local-news/2018/02/16/3-more-npa-members-yield-sarangani-589341

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/zamboanga/local-news/2018/02/15/another-abu-sayyaf-member-nabbed-basilan-589147

The PNP also has its hands full of capture criminals in Mindanao.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/969350/central-mindanao-cops-arrest-218-in-34-days

Of the 218 persons arrested, 58 were listed as most wanted. At least 160 of the arrested suspects faced less serious offenses. 

Those on the most wanted list had been charged with murder, drug offenses, robbery, homicide and qualified theft. 

Data from the regional police office showed that the most arrests were made by the South Cotabato provincial police which took in 17 of the wanted persons. Police in Sultan Kudarat and North Cotabato arrested 10.

While not directly related to martial law and antiterrorism operations the PNP's work in capturing all these criminals goes a long way in aiding that fight. Cotabato is a dangerous area full of Islamic terrorists, drug dealers, and no-good riff-raff in general and all these arrests only prove that fact.

The PNP also lost 6 members of the SAF from an NPA ambush in Antipolo.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/969638/saf-pnp-wounded-npa-rebels-gunmen-injured

Ambushing the PNP rather than fighting face to face is the modus operandi of the NPA. Will there be any retaliation on the government's part?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-duterte-female-rebels-20180212-story.html

Shooting them in the head would be much more effective than shooting them anywhere else except maybe the stomach. This statement set off a firestorm of controversy but all these ladies missed the point by making it about all women and not only the NPA terrorists. How would anyone be able to tell who is female if they are all in combat gear? Duterte would probably be fine if they shot the men in their genitals too. It is strange that he would be so specific about where to shoot the female rebels when he fumed over the NPA cutting off the genitals of one of their captives even likening them to ISIS.

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/641852/duterte-on-cafgu-beheading-what-makes-npa-different-from-isis-now/story/

"They beheaded Bocales who already surrendered. He went to the fields from his home to look for something to eat. So what's the—what makes them different from the ISIS and kidnappers? That's their kind of justice," Duterte said in Visayan. 

"When did the government and the soldiers cut off your hands and your penis?" he added.

If the AFP starts shooting them in the vagina does that mean they will now be like ISIS? Duterte has also double down on his bounty for dead communists.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/local-news/2018/02/18/palace-duterte-serious-kill-bounty-communist-rebels-589249

The President's offer was raised from the previous P20,000 he dangled to the indigenous people for each communist guerilla they kill. 

"They (communists) said, 'Kill one soldier a day.' Me? Kill one NPA today and I will pay you P25,000," Duterte said during his meeting with local chief executives from the Visayas and Mindanao held at Raddison Blu Hotel in Cebu City.

Where will this money come from? Does this now mean any commie killed in normal combat operations will be worth 25,000 pesos?  If they can't determine who's bullet killed the rebel what then? There are two interpretations of this proposal.

The first is that it encourages war crimes.

 http://old.philstar.com/headlines/2018/02/15/1788108/hrw-dutertes-bounty-offer-killing-rebels-encourages-war-crimes

The second is that it decreases war costs.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/local-news/2018/02/15/duterte-offers-kill-bounty-rebels-save-war-costs-589058

"I was computing that if this drags on for four years, ... it'll be very expensive because it's war. If I'll just pay 25,000 for a life, I can save about 47 percent," he said to laughter from the crowd.

I propose a third interpretation. Duterte is turning the communist's philosophy back on them and mocking them. From the Communist Manifesto:

The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honoured and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage labourers. 

The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation. 

In proportion as the bourgeoisie, i.e., capital, is developed, in the same proportion is the proletariat, the modern working class, developed – a class of labourers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labour increases capital. These labourers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity, like every other article of commerce, and are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market. 

The communists decry the commodification of labourers and the transformation of the family relation into a "mere money relation." By offering a bounty on the head of each communist rebel Duterte turns these rebels into commodities to be consumed by the bounty hunter. The rebel becomes identified with the bounty thus stripping him of his humanity and reducing his relation to others "to a mere money relation" so that when confronted by a fellow man he is seen not as a person but as a means of wealth.

Who else would think to mock the communists in such a brilliant way? Duterte is a genius!

For all his violent rhetoric Duterte is still, at heart, a man of peace.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/969369/ph-still-committed-to-peace-says-duterte

“The President stressed that the Philippines is committed to peace,” Roque said in a statement. 

But in a separate interview with reporters, Roque said the peace talks with the communist insurgents were not about to resume anytime soon, and the war against the NPA would continue. 

Duterte is committed to peace and by now he knows, and even before he engaged in these worthless talks he knew, the only path to peace is total destruction of the NPA. After all the group's stated goal is the overthrow of the government.

How is it Mao Zedong overthrew the Chinese nationalist government and set up the People's Republic of China in only 3 years (1946-1949) and yet the CPP and NPA have failed after 30+ years of armed conflict to establish a communist or socialist state? Russia, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam all these countries quickly fell to the communist menace but in the Philippines it's been like a slow growing cancer with no success on either the government's side to stop it or the communist's side to overthrow the government.  The communist rebellion in the Philippines is a total failure and yet these people cannot let it go. How much longer can this rebellion possibly last? A communist rebellion is so 20th century.

SM Supermarket Follies

Why is it that every time I go shopping to buy dish soap SM is either out of stock or all the bottles have cracked caps?

What is the problem exactly? This must be a factory issue. Are they screwing the caps on too tight? And why are they put on the shelves in a damaged condition? Why does the management allow this? Are they aware of the problem? Have they alerted their suppliers to this problem? When the stockers refill the shelves do they not notice that the bottles are all cracked? Or do they think this is not a problem at all?

I do my best to keep these bottles upright but on the way home they always spill and cause a mess.   Sometimes the bottle has already leaked and when you pick it up your hand gets all slimy with soap.

It's always a relief to find bottles that aren't cracked.

Look at this girl checkout girl:

The reason the line is so slow is because she has no bagger to bag the groceries! She has to do everything herself. Why is this almost always the case?  Why is it SM has 20 lines and 5 cashiers with only 2 baggers to spare?  Some shoppers will just stand and watch her but I am too impatient for that so I always start bagging my own items if need be.

Oh man what now!  Better hope the manager 100 feet away in her little booth is paying attention or else she won't see the cashier is in trouble. What is this? High school? Why does she have to raise her hand holding a tiny little ping pong paddle in order to get help? Why not have a little button she can  push and lights start flashing? That would get their attention much faster.

This cashier is either out of change or needs to void an item she scanned. In the Philippines cashiers always run out of change and can never void an item without the manager assisting them.

It's always best to shop at opening time. No lines. No waiting. No nonsense.

Jeepney Art Special Edition: Erotic Jeepney Art

This jeepney has two of the same stickers on its rear windows and you won't believe what they are.

Zoom in closer.

Closer....

There we go. Now you can see it all in full. The driver or owner of this public utility vehicle has thought it a good idea to broadcast his love for kilawin which means seafood. Get it? (wink, wink, nudge, nudge!). How lovely for all to see.

The absence of any art on the side of the jeepeny and the presence of two of these stickers on the rear windows indicates a total lack of thoughtfulness and decency on the part of the owner.

What were they thinking? They weren't!

A Respectable Businessman

I think this guy is Chinese. Right behind his shoulder is a Chinese idol. He is most certainly the proprietor of a store selling fake name-brand shoes. I don't have a problem with fake brand shoes except that they usually only last a few months.  After 20 miles the sole starts wearing away and soon after there is a hole in the bottom. I was going to buy a pair of fake Nike's which looked as if they had a sturdy, thick sole but not all the eye holes for the string were cut out so I said forget it and went somewhere else.

But not before I snapped the owner's picture. 

Nothing says respectable businessman like a t-shirt with a sexually suggestive double entendre writ large across the front. Is he even aware of what he is wearing?

While I was buying fake brand shoes my helper bought himself a few pairs of Calvin Klein Underwear.

Did I say Calvin Klein?  I meant Cellvin Klain!