In these past few weeks I can't help but feel terrible for Janet Lim Napoles.
Here she is, a woman doing her best to earn money for her family, and literally everybody wants her behind bars. They hear about all of her assets - her many homes, her many vehicles, her three yachts, even - and they just foam at the mouth, as if being filthy rich is a major problem in society that needs to be eradicated pronto. Why don't they do that to the Ayalas?
But of course, Napoles isn't just a filthy rich woman. Here's a woman accused of getting rich not off mining, or of meat, but off scamming government of up to ten billion pesos, of conniving with legislators to funnel discretionary funds to their pockets via bogus projects. Every honest (as if they have a choice) taxpayer would hear of this story and foam in the mouth. So that's where my hard-earned taxes go! is the collective response.
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8/29/2013
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8/26/2013
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So you went to the Million People March today, huh?
Yeah, I saw your Instagram selfies. I saw that photo of you at home wearing a white shirt with a pig's face drawn on it. I saw that photo of you in the car going... I'm not quite sure where you were exactly, but I assume it's at SLEX. That photo of you walking along Luneta. And then you stopped tweeting because, apparently, it's hard to tweet there. Everybody was trying to tweet.
I wasn't there, of course. I'm not really the kind of guy who sets out to have my voice with my feet, never mind that it's anatomically wrong. I write, that's my best arsenal, that's what I do. Also, yes, I know I'm sounding defensive.
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Yeah, I saw your Instagram selfies. I saw that photo of you at home wearing a white shirt with a pig's face drawn on it. I saw that photo of you in the car going... I'm not quite sure where you were exactly, but I assume it's at SLEX. That photo of you walking along Luneta. And then you stopped tweeting because, apparently, it's hard to tweet there. Everybody was trying to tweet.
I wasn't there, of course. I'm not really the kind of guy who sets out to have my voice with my feet, never mind that it's anatomically wrong. I write, that's my best arsenal, that's what I do. Also, yes, I know I'm sounding defensive.
Read more »
8/25/2013
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At the risk of sounding like a glutton, I decided to make a quick list of all the things I bought over the past eight days, and specifically count how much tax I paid on those eight days.
Sunday. This was the day of the Lindsey Stirling concert. I ended up going there at eleven in the morning, only to wait seven hours for the concert to start. (The things you do to get a relatively good seat, knowing you have a very crappy camera.)
I ended up buying a book, partly to while the time. Another David Sedaris book. P512, since there was a sale going on that day. As we are a signatory of some international convention (I forgot which) that blocks the imposition of taxes on books, among others, there was no tax paid on it.
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Sunday. This was the day of the Lindsey Stirling concert. I ended up going there at eleven in the morning, only to wait seven hours for the concert to start. (The things you do to get a relatively good seat, knowing you have a very crappy camera.)
I ended up buying a book, partly to while the time. Another David Sedaris book. P512, since there was a sale going on that day. As we are a signatory of some international convention (I forgot which) that blocks the imposition of taxes on books, among others, there was no tax paid on it.
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8/23/2013
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Earlier today, for nine televised minutes, Noynoy Aquino called for the scrapping of the Priority Development Assistance Fund, or what we all call "pork barrel".
In nine minutes, he explained that the PDAF was formulated with good intentions - to allow legislators to identify and fund projects that local government units cannot implement on their own - but was marred by abusive politicians who, in his words, "treat [the] PDAF as their own private fund, to use as they please."
In nine minutes, he illustrated how he has always been against this irresponsible use of the PDAF, by voting against the 2007 budget - a budget that was delayed by political bickering, to the extent that 2007 rolled in and the government had to work with the previous year's budget. Why, he argued, would he allow a budget that's good for twelve months be used for only eight?
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In nine minutes, he explained that the PDAF was formulated with good intentions - to allow legislators to identify and fund projects that local government units cannot implement on their own - but was marred by abusive politicians who, in his words, "treat [the] PDAF as their own private fund, to use as they please."
In nine minutes, he illustrated how he has always been against this irresponsible use of the PDAF, by voting against the 2007 budget - a budget that was delayed by political bickering, to the extent that 2007 rolled in and the government had to work with the previous year's budget. Why, he argued, would he allow a budget that's good for twelve months be used for only eight?
Read more »
8/17/2013
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What are the implications of the government asking Filipinos to apprehend Janet Lim-Napoles under the principles of citizens' arrest?
Can common citizens be well-equipped to arrest Napoles in this case?
Can Napoles be assured that common citizens will not try to put the law in their hands if they arrest her?
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Can common citizens be well-equipped to arrest Napoles in this case?
Can Napoles be assured that common citizens will not try to put the law in their hands if they arrest her?
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8/11/2013
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The numbers coming out of the news in recent weeks, about a scam supposedly pulled off by businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles, are appalling, to say the least.
She supposedly mooched ten billion pesos off the government coffers and enriched herself and her family. We're now hearing of her 22-year-old daughter having, in her name, a flat in a posh high-rise in Los Angeles, amounting to 80 million dollars. There's the ill-informed posts on Instagram flaunting her family's possessions. And that's apart from her kin holding other properties in California amounting to 400 million pesos.
And then there are the more sordid details of the scam. She supposedly set up dummy NGOs, who would approach legislators and ask them to support their projects, mostly set in rural areas, to help farmers improve their yield. The legislators - some from the Senate, some from the House of Representatives - would approve, and fund the projects from their Priority Development Assistance Fund, a portion of a legislator's budget dedicated to funding projects in their respective locales.
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She supposedly mooched ten billion pesos off the government coffers and enriched herself and her family. We're now hearing of her 22-year-old daughter having, in her name, a flat in a posh high-rise in Los Angeles, amounting to 80 million dollars. There's the ill-informed posts on Instagram flaunting her family's possessions. And that's apart from her kin holding other properties in California amounting to 400 million pesos.
And then there are the more sordid details of the scam. She supposedly set up dummy NGOs, who would approach legislators and ask them to support their projects, mostly set in rural areas, to help farmers improve their yield. The legislators - some from the Senate, some from the House of Representatives - would approve, and fund the projects from their Priority Development Assistance Fund, a portion of a legislator's budget dedicated to funding projects in their respective locales.
Read more »
8/09/2013
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Let's start with a premise that's most likely to be mentioned in thick, scholarly books or articles in supposedly upscale magazines: the democratization of art.
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8/04/2013
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My sister and I passed by the TGI Fridays branch at Alabang Town Center yesterday.
There's a girl with her back turned to the window. She was at the bar. All I know is, she has long hair, and is wearing a dress with a lacey element on top.
On the stool next to her is a guy. He's wearing a polo. He looks nice. He looks animated, perhaps because he's the one talking at that particular moment.
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There's a girl with her back turned to the window. She was at the bar. All I know is, she has long hair, and is wearing a dress with a lacey element on top.
On the stool next to her is a guy. He's wearing a polo. He looks nice. He looks animated, perhaps because he's the one talking at that particular moment.
Read more »
Niko Batallones writes The Upper Blog.
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